Equal rights

“Gays have the same right as anyone else—the right to marry someone of the opposite sex.”

“You know, I hadn’t really thought about that before, but that might actually be a great idea.”

“What?”

“In other words, all the gay men will go out and find a straight wife, and all the lesbians will go out and find a straight husband. Then they’ll all raise families, and all those kids will have one gay parent. The social impact could be enormous!”

“Um, well—”

“Just think about it: gays won’t be faceless strangers any more. They’ll be getting together with families for the holidays, and getting to know the in-laws, and getting into the PTA and Sunday schools and coaching and all the things that parents do. Of course, they probably all have to find Christian spouses.”

“What? Why Christian?”

[Read more…]

Tolerance = “overstepping your bounds”

The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is reporting that the Raleigh city council has passed a resolution opposing a ban on gay marriage.

In a 6-2 vote Tuesday, the city council opposed a statewide amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

The vote follows earlier comments from Raleigh’s outgoing mayor who described the ban as “discriminatory.”

Got to love those scare quotes. Just imagine, suggesting that it’s discriminatory to tell millions of people that they’re not allowed to marry the one they love just because they happen to fall in love differently than a lot of other people. How biased can you get?

Never fear, though. The holy men and women of the CBN are right there to remind us all about the proper limitations of government.

Traditional marriage supporters say the city is overstepping its bounds.

Right. You can always tell an overly-intrusive government by the way it advocates keeping the state out of people’s private business. A properly bounded government will pick your spouse for you.

[Read more…]

Secondary terrorism

This has been bugging me for a while, so let me just put it down in a post. We all know who the terrorists are: Al Qaeda, right? But are they the only terrorists? No, I’m not talking about other underground movements, or right-wing militias, though there are terrorists there as well. I’m talking about primary terrorism vs. secondary terrorism.

[Read more…]

Colson on how gays persecute the church

[Originally published July 5, 2008]

The Christian Post brings us this column by Chuck Colson on how the gay rights movement is really just a front for a blatant attempt to persecute Christians for their faith. No, seriously, he’s really saying that.

It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else.

That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church.

And therefore the oppression of gays must be allowed to continue unopposed.

[Read more…]

Christian bigots unhappy over bad publicity

Writing for The New American, Dave Bohon seems unhappy about the negative publicity a certain Baptist university has been receiving lately.

A Baptist university in Georgia is receiving abundant media attention for a “Personal Lifestyle Statement“ it recently updated, that requires faculty and staff to adhere to a set of biblical standards that include shunning homosexual behavior. Employees have been told that they must either sign the statement as a pledge, or face termination.

It’s a private school and receives no federal funding, so there’s no legal issue here. If Christians want to say, “We’re bigots and you have to be a bigot to work here,” then they have that right. What Bohon seems to be unhappy about is the fact that so many people seem to see anti-gay discrimination as bad even when Christians do it.

On its “Gay Voices” page, the Huffington Post highlighted “happily out and proud gay” Rome, Georgia, native Jeffery Self, who recalled the joyful days he spent helping out in the theater department of the college around the corner from his boyhood home. While claiming to understand that, because Shorter is a Baptist college, “certain ‘lifestyle choices’ might not be within their ideas and beliefs,” the aptly named Self nonetheless took the liberty of referring to the school’s pledge as “outlandishly backward, despicable, disgusting, and in no way Christ-like….”

Ooo, “the aptly named Self”—bet that one hurt. But what Bohon fails to understand is that there’s no contradiction here. It’s entirely possible that Baptist doctrines might not allow homosexual “lifestyles,” AND that this anti-gay attitude might be outlandishly backward, despicable, and disgusting. Bigotry doesn’t magically become OK just because Christians do it, any more than raping altar boys becomes ok just because the perp is a priest.

[Read more…]

Christian Nation: A Hindu perspective

Here’s a point of view that doesn’t get much press.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) sought clarification and an apology from Kentucky Senator David Williams (R-KY) in a telephone conversation yesterday, after his latest remarks about Governor Beshear’s “participation” in a Hindu ground-breaking ceremony. Williams, the GOP Nominee for Governor, initially made waves on Tuesday for criticizing Beshear and expressing his hope that Hindus accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. His comments were met with disappointment and shock from the Hindu American community and were strongly condemned by HAF.

It’s not just atheists who see major problems with fundamentalists in government. And the problem isn’t just people being religious. It’s people in power using their religion to marginalize and exclude minorities.

[Read more…]

Florida committee takes aim at First Amendment

Looks like some “concerned Christians” in Florida are setting themselves up for a fairly blatant violation of the First Amendment. This time, however, it’s not going to be a local school board. It’s the state itself.

School prayer is one step closer to being legalized in Florida after a proposal was passed in a state Senate committee Wednesday despite strong opposition to the measure.

The bill, if signed into law, would allow school boards to adopt rules that allow “inspirational messages” at school events, according to reports.

The vague language leaves room for schools to allow prayers at events hosted at the school, including sporting games and graduations.

[Read more…]

Defending the defenders

Contrary to the famous myth, there are atheists in foxholes–and in helicopters, and in supply depots and in mess halls, and on and on. Unbelievers are willing to dedicate their lives (and sometimes, to risk them) in order to defend our freedoms. Now you can help defend theirs as well. Go to whitehouse.gov and sign the petition to end the military’s discrimination against non religious service members.

It’s not only the least you can do to thank them, it’s also vital to preserving our own religious liberty.

That’s gotta hurt

Saw this a few days ago on Twitter and thought it was interesting.

When the Tea Party movement broke out, there was a big hullabaloo. Everybody was talking about it. It was all over Fox News. But strangely, there was no real substantive resistance to it. People said some uncomplimentary things about it, but the only real attention it got from “the powers that be” was when major media sent reporters to publicize (and hype) their gatherings. Even when people started bringing guns to Tea Party rallies, it only raised eyebrows and sparked a few discussions about the Second Amendment.

Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, shows up with tents (and in some cases with brooms and shovels to clean up the “occupation” site)—and the police are all over them, tear gas is being used in Oakland, leading politicians are uniting to denounce them and major media outlets seem either to ignore them or to paint them as some kind of irrational rabble.

Who’s the real threat here? More importantly, who do the powers-that-be see as being a real challenge to the status quo? If I were a Tea Party member, I’d be feeling pretty used right now.

 

Those poor persecuted Christians

One Ann Gentry, in a letter to the editor, knows just what unbelievers should do about local officials injecting religion into government: the unbelievers should just go away and let Christians run things without interference.

If Jane Doe, who regularly attends Board of Supervisors meetings in Chatham is so deeply offended just because the Christians there pray in Jesus’ name, then why does she go there so often? Could it be because she is there to mainly cause trouble by splitting political hairs over religion?

Right, because anybody who suggests that Christians ought to obey the law is clearly a troublemaker.
[Read more…]