Leaders of the Christianist Right are make fools of themselves, on multiple fronts. It’s like watching the picture of Dorian Gray expose the rot beneath the smiling face.
Consider the political maneuvering of self-appointed spokesman for God and Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson.
First he damned Rudy Guilani, then John McCain. Then he proclaimed he was considering going third party or even sitting out the 2008 presidential election. But old Jimmy D. couldn’t stand the thought of not wielding political power, so he organized his “Values Voters” campaign and pledge:
The Pledge states:
As a concerned citizen, I am signing this Values Voter
Pledge for 2008 indicating my commitment to stand for the values of
life, faith and family during this election year. I am pledging to
support candidates who uphold these bedrock values of:
Life — I will only vote for candidates who have committed to defend the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.
Family — I will only vote for candidates who stand for one-man, one-woman marriage and oppose efforts to undermine the nuclear family.
Faith — I will only vote for candidates who support the public acknowledgement of God and affirm the religious liberties of all Americans.
I also oppose any and all efforts by the media, organizations or candidates to diminish the role that Values Voters are playing in this year’s election. I authorize Focus on the Family Action to represent my Values Voter Pledge before the media, political candidates or other suitable forums as a demonstration of the strength and seriousness of Values Voters in this election cycle.
Forget the poor. Forget the homeless. Forget the hungry. Forget the economy. Forget the debacles in Iran and Afghanistan. Forget your brain. Forget your conscience. Just follow ditzy Dobson down the rabbit hole of self-aggrandizement… and don’t forget to send in your tax-deductible donation!
Congratulations, Dr. Dobson, you’ve won the
I’m-Full-of-Myself Award for your career of self-promotion.
The
Make-a-Fool-of-Yourself Award
Despite considerable competition from fellow Christianists, the Make-a-Fool-of-Yourself Award goes to Don Wildmon,
founder and chairman of the American Family
Association. Rev. Wildmon recently had his
knickers in a twist about the name of a new TV Land series:
TV LAND flippantly disrespects God and
Christians
Send an email to TV Land president Larry
Jones, letting him know you are offended that TV Land so easily disrespects
Christians by belittling their faith.
The TV Land
network has a new feature starting this Saturday (Feb. 16) called “OHMIGOD,
That’s so 80’s weekend.” The series features movies from the 1980’s. “OHMIGOD”
is an irreverent exclamation for “Oh, my God!”
The
promotional ad is playing on the television broadcast and on their website at www.tvland.com.
(WARNING: If you visit their website, the ad plays automatically.)
I can’t tell
you in words how offensive it is to listen to the advertisement for this new
show as they must say “OHMIGOD” five times in 30 seconds.
Disrespect
for Christians and God have gone on for some time with this phrase, but now we
have a network that feels it appropriate to name an entire program series with
this phrase.
TAKE ACTION
Send an email to TV Land president Larry Jones, letting him know you
are offended that TV Land so easily disrespects Christians by belittling their
faith. Ask TV Land to immediately stop
using God’s name irreverently.
Please forward this to family
and friends.
Thank
you for caring enough to get involved. If you feel our efforts are worthy of
support, would you consider making a small tax-deductible contribution? Click
here to make a donation.
Taking a closer look at Wildmon’s rant exposes not only his ignorance – theologically and otherwise – but the
intentional dissemination of misinformation ad majorem gloriam Wildmon: “Click here to make a donation.”
“Flippantly
disrespects God and Christians.” Notice how Wildmon puts God and Christian on the same footing, suggesting only Christian know
and/or respect Divinity. The concept of Divinity is more “disrespected” by flippant fanatics like Wildmon who are doing nothing more than protecting and defending their twisted,
self-serving version of “God.” And don’t forget, “Click here to make a
donation.”
Could Divinity be offended? Or is “being offended” a human
frailty inappropriately ascribed to Divinity?
Does/Would Divinity need to be protected or defended? Or are
those the means some use to advance all too human socio-political agendas?
If you type “OMG” in your e-mails or text messages, are you
“disrespecting God”? And how on earth does OMG “belittle” anyone’s faith,
unless, of course, that faith is of the superficial, vacuous type. That seems
to be the case with Mr. Wildmon, who apparently
believes “God” is a proper name: “Ask
TV Land to immediately stop using God’s name irreverently.”
“God” is a rather generic term for a Supreme Being. Other,
more specific “names” includeיְהֹוָה, Jehovah, and אֱלוֹהִים, Elohim, and الله, Allah who, according to the Our’an, has many names: “To Him belong the most Beautiful
Names” (20.8). But all of these are man-made labels, not names in the same sense you and I have a name. Is “human” the same as your proper name? If
your paycheck were made out to “Human” would you be able to cash it? Wildmon’s claiming that OMG is “using God’s name irreverently” makes little
sense, but suggesting “God” is God’s name fits with Wildmon’s pseudo-theology in which he and he alone knows “God’s” will, when “He” is
offended and when “He” needs protection: “Click here to make a donation.”
The Hate-Hiding-Behind-Religion Award
The undisputed winner of the Hate-Hiding-Behind-Religion
Award is Peter LaBarbera. While Wildmon and the AFA have targets other than gays, LaBarbera’s whole life, his whole “professional” career is devoted to propagating hate,
fear, and discrimination. He and his organization, “Americans for Truth,” exist solely to demean, denigrate, dehumanize
and hurt as much as possible gay and lesbian Americans, their children and their
families.
On February 27, 2008 Wildmon’s OneNewsNow propaganda organ featured this headline: “Million$
to pro-homosexual groups bad news for Christians, says activist.” The
“activist” was none other than Peter LaBarbera:
Pro-family [sic] activist Peter LaBarbera warns that
a $65 million endowment given to several groups that promote the homosexual
lifestyle will be used in their efforts to “criminalize” Christian opposition
to their agenda.
The Pride Foundation of Seattle
announced on Sunday that Ric Weiland ‐ one of the first five people to work at software giant Microsoft ‐ has left
$19 million of his estate to the homosexual activist group, and an additional
$46 million for the Foundation to distribute to ten other pro-homosexuality
groups, including the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Network, the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
(PFLAG). — …
The article asserted “Weiland, who
retired in 1988, committed suicide in 2006 at age 53 after a long struggle with
depression and homosexuality.” There is absolutely
no evidence that Mr. Weiland struggled with or
was depressed about his homosexuality. But AFA and OneNewsNow,
like LaBarbera’s Americans for Truth, never miss an
opportunity to demean gays, even if it means lying. Even AFA’s OneNewsNow readers were disgusted with the article, as well
as LaBarbera and his claims:
Comments
on this article:
“This article is yet another piece of
one-sided trash from Peter LaBarbera, the guy who
attends gay events ‘undercover.’ Obviously Weiland wasn’t depressed about being gay, or he surely would not have donated millions
of dollars to gay rights groups. Oh, and for the record, I’m not a volunteer or
paid staffer. I’m simply an American citizen that reads news from many sources
in order to get a balanced picture.”
“Peter is so good at making statements
with nothing to back them up besides his thinking. The sad part is there are
people who believe what he says. Also, to think that ‘they want us to allow
them to teach our children how to be homosexuals’ is the most absurd statement
I have ever read. People are not taught to be homosexual.” …
“Criminalize? Where exactly did you get that
considering that there is zero follow up to it, just a statement with nothing
supporting it. Christians will always be able to speak out against
homosexuality just like the Klan can still talk about black people.
Fear-mongering is deceitful and unworthy of one who calls themselves
Christian.” …
"Couple of
points. They don’t want to ‘criminalize’ Christian opposition (unless
that opposition includes beating them with a baseball bat), although it’s pretty clear LaBarbera wishes to
"criminalize” homosexuality. Also he wasn't struggling with his homosexuality, he was by all accounts happy with it. Happy
enough to leave all that money to the ‘cause’ he suffered from depression, a
medical condition that inflicts heterosexual devout Christians as well.” …
“We have a lesbian foster daughter
whose goal is to become an Episcopal Priest. She has already received a great
scholarship from The Point Foundation and there will be more to come. It is
certainly a blessing since her biological family of conservative Christians
abused her and abandoned her.”
“There is no indication Weiland ‘struggled’ with homosexuality. No one is ‘pushing’
the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ or teaching kids ‘homosexuality’ to train them to be
homosexual. This is ridiculous propaganda. It’s ironic LaBarbera's group is called Americans for
Truth...since the foundation of it is stereotypes, distorted truth and some
downright lies. By the way, no one pays me to come here. …”
“Goes to show you how brainwashed some
people are ‐ to believe that those who comment in opposition to this ‘news’
are paid members of ‘pro-homosexual’ organizations or volunteers. Of course
rational human beings are not capable of looking at both sides of the issue to
be more informed about how ALL people think. THERE HAS TO BE
AN AGENDA right? It’s this culture of fear that gives fundamentalist
Christians a bad rep.”
“Oh Pete, what really is sad is that
you consider equality a bad thing. Are you implying that this money will be
given to young folks to convince them to come out? Bizarre
theory, man. I'm sure it will be used to provide resources to help young
people with their struggles and to fight for their safety. Such
an awful thing that is.”
Those who supported LaBarbera’s call to hate mouthed the
usual sanctimonious “We speak for God” platitudes:
“Homosexuality is an abomination to the
Lord. Love the person - hate the sin. Since when is speaking the truth
"fear-monering" [sic] and deceitful? We did not make the rules, God did!”
“The homosexual agenda is not to make
us accept them, but they want to make us allow them to teach our children to be
homosexuals, and will stop at nothing to accomplish this. It is satan [sic] attempting to pollute God’s creation, just as in the days of
Noah. The line is drawn, and we know who wins.”
“The homosexual community may get a
temporary win, but I read the end of the book and we win. It is true that all
people don't always act as they should, but a real Christian when they sin goes
to God and asks forgiveness and receives it if they are willing to turn from
that sin and that is what the homosexual needs to do. His lifestyle is sin
based on God's standards and it is God who makes the rules and God who will do
the judging. The heathen can put down Christians all they want, it will not change the outcome.”
These holier-than-thou folks think they know “God’s” will
and what “God” thinks. Doesn’t claiming to know “God’s” will and what “God” thinks define blasphemy?
A few days later, LaBarbera vomited forth yet again in his AFT article “In Britain, the Christians Are Criminals: Second UK Couple Rejected as Foster
Parents Due to Religious Beliefs”:
The once-great nation of Britain is
being reduced to a bastion of politically correct silliness. Is America next?
So now British couples aren’t qualified to raise children unless they can
recite pro-“gay” shibboleths? … behold the
deterioration of Western civilization before our very eyes – one sad story like
this at a time. Meanwhile, smug, agnostic pundits and religious leftists like
Jim Wallis castigate the “Religious Right,” which is made up of people who are
merely trying their best to hold back the march of evil (masquerading as
progress).
The only “silliness,” fear-mongering and arrogant bigotry
are Mr. LaBarbera’s. How’d you like to have your
adoptive parents tell you – with sanctimonious righteousness – that you were
evil, tainted, and an abomination to God. Would such a
“family” situation be in the child’s best interests?
“Christians are Criminalized” and “behold
the deterioration of Western civilization before our very eyes”: Does Mr. LaBarbera have any grasp of reality? Or is he just taking a cue from James Dobson who, in his 2004
book Marriage Under Fire, stated that if gays were allowed to marry, “God” would destroy the
world?
Mr. LaBarbera apparently thinks
that social progress is “the march of evil.” Shall we go back to those good old Biblical times when selling a daughter into slavery was righteous? When women were seen and to be treated as nothing more than
property? When stoning to death people who wore clothing made of two different
threads was demanded by “God”?
Do you eat shellfish, Mr. LaBarbera?
If so, you might want to check your Bible. Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. You give
credence only to those parts of the Bible you can use to propagate hate and
discrimination… and fill AFT’s coffers, of course.
Social progress is inevitable. It’s need if the human race
is to evolve. It’s also common sense. Alas, that’s something Mr. LaBarbera and his ilk seem to lack. But they do have a lot
of hate and are more than willing to share it. Ultimately, their dehumanizing
anti-gay rhetoric is responsible for incidents such
as this:
When
children die because they’re bullied as gay
Naomi Lakritz,
Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, February 24, 2008
Walk past any schoolyard at recess time
and what do you hear? Kids as young as five calling each
other “gay” and “fag.”
At junior and senior high school, the
word “gay” has become a universally pejorative term: “You’re gay,” kids sneer
at each other, or “That is so gay!” I’ve even heard “Gay it all!” as an
expression of annoyance over some triviality.
Whoever made up the rhyme about sticks
and stones, and concluded that “words can never hurt me,” never met Shaquille,
a 13-year-old boy from Ajax, Ont. Now it’s too late for anyone to meet him.
Words did more than hurt him. They drove him to kill himself. In November,
Shaquille committed suicide. He had been bullied by his classmates after
admitting to a friend that he was gay. The friend told everyone else. He was
subsequently tormented when he went to school and harassed online on websites
set up solely for the purpose of bullying. A few days before he hanged himself,
some kids stuffed him into a garbage can.
Do you feel good about yourself, Mr. LaBarbera?
Are you proud of your campaign to demean, denigrate and dehumanize gay people and
their families?
– Nearly a quarter of students felt
unsafe around other students at school due to others’ negative attitudes toward
people with LGBT parents.
– 42% of students said they had been
verbally harassed at school in the past year because their parents were LGBT.
– More than half of parents described
various forms of exclusion from their school communities: being excluded or
prevented from fully participating in school activities and events, being
excluded by school policies and procedures, and being ignored and feeling
invisible.
– Parents whose child’s school had a
comprehensive safe school policy that protected students from bullying and
harassment based on actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender
expression/identity reported the lowest level of mistreatment and that there
were no differences between the no-policy and generic-policy groups.
In its new guidelines to help physicians identify potential
signs of suicide among teenagers, the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that
“Schoolyard homophobic bullying is one of the leading causes of teen suicide.”
Is homophobic bullying discouraged or encouraged by the
anti-gay ranting of people like Peter LaBarbera,
James Dobson, and Don Wildmon?
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