U.S. Denies Letting Military Troops Proselytizing Afghans

I have written before about the problem of Christianists infiltrating the U.S. military, particularly the Air Force Academy. Now the efforts to convert others by religious zealots in the military has spread overseas and are creating controversy and resentment in Afghanistan, not to mention helping to foster the image that the USA is an a contest against Islam, not just terrorist regimes. Sadly, too many in the senior command positions in the military lack the guts to crack down on the Christian extremists or worse yet, agree with the efforts to convert Muslims. All of this shows how crucial it is that secular government and a secular military be reestablished to protect not only civil and religious liberties for US citizens, but also to avoid religious controversies overseas. One cannot depend on the Christian fanatics to discipline themselves, so others must do so. Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

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KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military denied Monday it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, after a television network showed pictures of soldiers with bibles translated into local languages. General Order Number 1 from the U.S. military's Central Command forbids active duty troops -- including all those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to their religion, considered a crime in many Muslim countries.

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Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed footage of a church service at Bagram, the main U.S. base north of the Afghan capital Kabul, in which soldiers had a stack of bibles in the local languages, Pashtu and Dari. A military chaplain was shown delivering a sermon to other soldiers, saying: "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."
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But a U.S. military spokeswoman, Major Jennifer Willis, said the comments from the sermon were taken out of context and chaplains were told to make clear to soldiers that they could not proselytize while serving. . . . . Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.

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Perhaps I am too cynical as a result of living in an area with a large military presence, but I seriously doubt the military would confess even if active proselytizing had been occurring on a widespread basis.

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Bob McDonnell Flip Flops on Unemployment Relief

Recently, the GOP controlled Virginia House of Delegates in an "let the eat cake" like action rejected federal bail out funds that would have helped the Commonwealth of Virginia to extend additional unemployment benefits to more Virginians. Heavens forbid that they had complained about drunken sailor style spending under the Chimperator who these cretins mindlessly applauded. Now, after first supporting this cold, heartless move, Taliban Bob McDonnell is apparently having second thoughts and trying to find some cover to deflect the wrath from outraged voters. I suspect most Virginians do not subscribe to the extreme anti-tax mantra of the Kool-Aid drinkers some of whom would de-fund public education if given the opportunity. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot on McDonnell's about face:
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Members of Congress have their hands full right now with crises in the financial, housing and automotive industries. They don't have time to bail out Bob McDonnell from a political mess of his own making. But that's what the Republican gubernatorial candidate asked Virginia's congressional representatives to do in a letter last week. McDonnell made a strategic blunder last month when he inserted himself into a partisan fight over whether the state should accept $125 million in federal stimulus aid. In order to collect the money, the state must make two modest adjustments in its eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits.

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McDonnell didn't have a vote in the matter, but he plunged in to defend his recalcitrant Republican colleagues. Now he's sweating alongside the rest of the GOP as public outcry builds, encouraged by gleeful Democrats. Rather than admit their mistake and work with Gov. Tim Kaine to resolve the mess, Republicans are now trying to save face. Toward that end, McDonnell penned a letter asking Congress to rewrite the rules for the stimulus package to make it perfectly, 150 percent, crystal clear that the eligibility changes can be rolled back in future years.

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McDonnell and Republican legislators still won't take yes for an answer. They want the rules to be changed so that Virginia can put an expiration date on legislation enacting the eligibility revisions. It makes no sense to demand an automatic cutoff when Republicans can't agree among themselves on the merits of the proposed eligibility changes.

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The truth is, they're hoping to provoke federal authorities into disqualifying Virginia so someone else can take the blame. But the blame rests squarely on the right people already. McDonnell and Republican legislators have the power to solve this problem now. They should do so immediately and stop asking Congress to save them from their own self-inflicted injuries.

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Voters should get used to this type of behavior from McDonnell. Should he be elected as Governor come November, he will vote and manage the State as dictated by the extreme anti-tax elements in the GOP and the Christianists like Pat Robertson and The Family Foundation. Virginia cannot afford to have McDonnell as Governor.

Randy Forbes Rants Against Hate Crimes Bill

I have known Congressman Randy Forbes for almost 35 years dating all the way back to our days as law school students at UVA Law. Like a number of Republican elected officials that I came to know over the years and during my former GOP activist days, Randy started out as relatively normal and has seemingly shifted further and further to the right to the point that it seems he checks to receive approval from Pat Robertson and/or James Dobson's Virginia affiliate, The Family Foundation, before he speaks. Indeed, it's as if a "Stepford Wife" like change has over come him. He was a bright and personable guy in law school and even during his days in the Virginia General Assembly. What happened to him? Here is a clip of his rant against the Matthew Shepard Act last week:
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Tuesday Male Beauty

The Reality and Worth of Same Sex Love

If one follows the words of the hate merchants among the Christian Right when it comes to gay relationships it soon becomes apparent that our relationships are reduced to physical sex acts, usually with emphasis on whatever aspects these false Christians believe will be the most repellant to their sheep like followers who prefer to avoid any meaningful thought process on their own. Nowhere do our enemies acknowledge that just as heterosexual couples know and experience romantic love, so do we. It is part and parcel of their effort to dehumanize us and make us "other" to their followers so that the deprivation of civil rights and other recognitios of our relationships becomes acceptable. Of course, it's a lie - like so much of what these vicious groups put out about same-sex couples.

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Some years back I sent an e-mail to a Lutheran seminary professor who was going to a conference where he was going to be speaking in opposition to Warren Throckmorton who had been hired as a speaker by a reactionary Lutheran Synod. The e-mail was about gay love and later I shared it with students in a religion class where I had been invited to speak as a "gay Christian" by an adjuct professor that I knew. The college professor subsequently told me that in subsequent class sessions that my message had prompted more discussion than he had previously seen in 20 years of teaching. Here are some highlights that folks are free to use as they wish:

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I wanted to respond further to one remark you made at lunch: the claim that gays do not experience deep romantic love with each other. Pardon my French, but that is such bull shit and obviously, it is aimed at demeaning gay relationships. My own experience has shown that to be such a lie.

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As I indicated, I had a long distance boy friend for over a year - he and I met when I was on a trip to Chicago for a legal seminar. For me it was love at first sight, but it developed into an amazing love that transcended anything merely physical. I just finished a short novel based on the screen play for a gay love story movie currently playing in some cities in the USA called "Latter Days" (see: http://www.latterdaysmovie.com). Hopefully, the movie will come to Norfolk at some point. In the book, there is a passage that describes somewhat what I experienced with him (the words in brackets were added by me based on my own experiences):

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"And then their eyes locked. And Christian knew that no matter what the circumstances were, Aaron did not, and would not want him to ever go. He slowly reached up to caress Aaron's cheekbone with his thumbs. Their faces moved closer. Their noses, then their lips touched. The world stopped,and Christian again experienced the sense of being floated in a prism, a prism filled only with their breath, and their racing hearts, and their kiss. It was like the room was circling them, as if the entire universe had broken apart and heaven had been laid wide open . . . [and God's love surrounded them and transformed them into one - a perfect oneness, soul to soul and body to body, enveloped in God's love]."

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If what I experienced with my boyfriend isn't love, I do not know what is. Part of me will deeply love him and yearn for his happiness and well being until the day I die. We experienced, however briefly, a communion of our souls (holding each other in our arms was of no account compared to the soul to soul connect we felt) and I wanted time to stop and for the moment to never end. The miracle of our emotional connection and love for each other rates up there with seeing my children born and, to me, was a near religious experience. In my oneness with him, I truly felt God's love. It's so hard to convey into words the experience. . . . . It outrages me that some would say that my relationship with him was of no meaning or value. Those who would say such a thing either (1) have never known true love themselves, or (2) are just plain vicious and cruel. If you ever need a testimony on gay to gay love to counter the cruel allegations of gay-haters, please feel free to use this e-mail. I view the love I experienced with him as nothing less than an incredible gift from God.

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It has taken time, but I am happy to report that I have rediscovered that sense of wonder and sense of being blessed by God in my current relationship with the boyfriend and I defy the Christianists to try to minimize our relationship to merely something physical. Love is love whether between a gay couple or a straight couple. As is always the case, the Christianists seek to work a form of spiritual murder on members of the LGBT community in their push for theocracy.

More Monday Male Beauty

North Dakota Lutheran Synod Votes No on Gay Clergy

I and many other gay ELCA Lutherans will be watching to see the out come of the Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis in August, 2009, when the ELCA will vote on giving parishes the option to roster partnered gay clergy. Sadly, the reactionary forces prevailed in a vote in the Eastern North Dakota Synod. I intend to write to each of the voting delegates from the Virginia Synod who will be attending the Churchwide Assembly in the hope of conveying to them the message that a "no" vote sends to gay Lutherans, not to mention the younger generations that favor the recognition of gay unions. A denomination can say all it wants about treating gays with dignity, etc., but if it will not recognize our committed relationships, the true message is that we are not welcome and/or that we are less than full members. The Advocate as a story on the unfortunate vote in the East North Dakota synod. Here are some highlights:

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Delegates at the annual assembly of the Eastern North Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted 187 to 167 on Sunday to reject a proposal to allow gay clergy members to be in same-sex relationships, reports the Associated Press. Congregations in the 4.7 million–member ELCA currently are voting on whether to allow openly gay clergy members to be in monogamous same-sex relationships. The present policy allows clergy members to be openly gay, but requires them to be celibate. Input from the 65 individual synods will be considered when the national ELCA votes on the issue at its Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis in August.

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In February, a task force of the ELCA recommended that the church allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. The task force also asked that the church respect congregations that disagree. It proposed a social statement, “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” that recognizes marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman, but also acknowledges same-sex couples.

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I sincerely hope that a majority of the voting attendees at the Churchwide Assembly will vote yes and save the denomination from being viewed in the future as akin to denominations that voted in the past to support slavery and other deprivations of civil rights to their fellow man.

Guess Where Sexually Transmitted Disease Occurs the Most

UPDATED: I checked out the full story ay the link below and all of the rleated maps of the seven deadly sins and for the most part the highest incidence for each is concentrated in the Bible Belt.

Kudos to Bob Felton for this terrific find. As Bob notes:

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When Kansas State geographers decided to map the rate of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States at county level they discovered — What do you know? — that they occur with the greatest frequency throughout the Bible Belt. Nobody should be surprised. The Christian denigration of sex (see Calvin and marriage) doesn’t suppress sex, it merely sends it into unwholesome underground channels. And so much, once again, for the ‘family values’ schtick.

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The hypocrisy and damage done by those who seek to police the morals of everyone else is stunning.

Monday Male Beauty