I’m kind of a Grinch (Pebbles, nominate meeeeee!), but this never fails to touch me.
Tori Amos is my favorite.
Love and blessings to all our readers, those who love us and those who oppose us.* May your season be filled with peace, love and joy.
*We’ve never tried to take anything away from you, for the record, and we will never wish you ill will. So celebrate with your families, and maybe, just maybe, take a moment to remember those families you have broken apart with your lies, your dogma, your insipid hatred. Don’t believe me? Well, guess where I’m not tonight, and guess where that came from. So again, peace, blessings, and joy, but if you’re an opposer, shape up, own it, love it, or ship the hell out. Merry effing Christmas!
When I was 11 years old and entering Middle School my family moved from Miami to Alief, a suburb of Houston. Only days before my first Christmas in Texas, a large high school student wearing cowboy boots and chewing tobacco confronted me.
“You a Jew?” he angrily inquired. “How could you people not believe in Jesus after you murdered him? Did you know it’s Jesus’ birthday? If Jesus Christ ain’t the son of God, who the hell is?”
This is the type of pressure often faced by non-Christians in conservative school districts. There can sometimes be an enormous amount of coercion to conform to the majority view, particualrly around Christmas, when the “Jesus is the reason for the season” crowd, wants to let non-Christians know they are an alien species in a “Christian Nation. While I am certain things have improved since I was 11, in 1981, there are still pockets of bigotry and religious intolerance in America.
As recognition that religious majorities often make religious minorities feel left out, as well as to follow that pesky “separation of church and state” rule that keeps our country free, we don’t use public schools to shove religion down the throats of pupils. Not only would doing so be illegal, but it is also rude and obnoxious behavior – violating the spirit of Christmas.
Unfortunately, not everyone is smart enough to understand the wisdom of ensuring that our public schools are not turned into private fundamentalist church services. A terribly misguided substitute teacher in Redding, Calif., Merry Hyatt, is sponsoring a ballot initiative that would require all public schools in California to give children the opportunity to sing or listen to religious Christmas carols.
“For years and years, maybe one person has been able to ruin it for an entire school,” Hyatt said. “It’s not right. I think it’s the majority’s turn.”
Hyatt is mindlessly promoting a myopic and shortsighted idea designed to make non-Christians uncomfortable in the hope they will convert to Christianity in order to feel accepted and fit in. Portraying religious minorities as the Grinch who stole Christmas is also exploitative, because students are a captive audience who would have no choice but to endure unwanted proselytizing – sometimes at the hands of older, larger tobacco spitting students in cowboy boots.
Of course, the unspoken subtext is that such bullying is precisely what people like Hyatt are truly after. They want consequences to be paid for anyone who is not a fundamentalist or for GLBT students, who would also face increased persecution in a more religious public school atmosphere, given that faiths practiced in conservative areas are largely anti-gay.
People like Hyatt worship mob rule as long as they are in the majority, where they can force their sectarian views onto others. I’m not sure how tolerant people of her ilk would be if, for example, a majority Muslim public school in Dearborn, Michigan, forced Christians to celebrate Ramadan. Or, a majority Catholic public school made a picture of the Pope mandatory in classrooms. How about a majority Jewish school jettisoning Christmas songs in favor of Hanukkah ditties? What about a New Age Winter celebration in liberal public schools at the expense of Christmas altogether?
“It’s sad and it’s wrong to have a Christmas party and not mention Jesus,” said Hyatt. “It’s his birthday.”
The undeniable fact is, Hyatt can sing religious songs at any moment of her choosing, when she is off the clock. She can attend church every day of the week if she wants to. So, clearly, this is not about religious freedom, nor is it about Hyatt being denied her ability to practice her faith.
No, this is about her not being content to practice her faith privately, and having a predatory desire to inflict her beliefs on others without their consent. This is about her wanting to use public money to peddle her religious ideas on public property – which is paid for by all of us.
Prior to her stint as a substitute teacher, Hyatt taught at a Christian school for a year. This, of course, was the proper venue for her cloying need to indoctrinate children and hammer home her narrow worldview. Instead, she wants to obliterate parents’ rights, by subjecting children to religious dogma and a conservative worldview that violates the beliefs of many mothers and fathers.
Under her proposed measure, students who don’t want to participate, or whose parents don’t want them to participate, could be excused.
“They can have a holiday party in the other room,” she said. “Or if they don’t want a party, they can have social studies or some other learning experience.”
Yes, of course they could, and be heckled and treated like heathen freaks by their peers…just the way intolerant zealots like Hyatt want it to be.
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s has charged that the White House engaged in “seedy Chicago politics” to get its health reform bill passed.
“It was definitely a cheap shot and completely unwarranted,” Valerie Jarrett, one of several Chicagoans who came to Washington with President Obama, said of the South Carolina Republican’s recent remark on CNN.
I suppose Graham would prefer seedy South Carolina politics – such as a family values governor, Mark Sanford, claiming he walked the Appalachian trail, while he was flying to South America to shack up with his mistress. And, who can forget Rep. Joe Wilson who screamed “you lie” at President Obama during his State of the Union address. Such decorum and southern hospitality.
Or, how about when John McCain lost to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican South Carolina primary, after the Bush campaign insinuated that McCain had an out-of-wedlock black baby?
Let’s not forget that for decades, Republican presidential candidates were forced to pander to racist Bob Jones University if they hoped to get the nomination. It is sad to say, but the absurd Confederate Flag issue is still a big deal politically in this state.
Of course, the most corrupt, sleazy political operative of all, Lee Atwater, perfected his craft in South Carolina. And, let’s not even get into the career of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.
Sen. Graham, please spare us the disingenuous, sanctimonious lecture on the morals of South Carolina politics. This type of opportunistic regionalism is obnoxious and divisive.
For the record, I’m not picking on South Carolina. I am from Miami, not exactly a hotbed of political ethics. But, Graham just looks plain foolish insulting Chicago, when political corruption and immorality in his state is at least as bad, if not worse. The last thing we need is this windbag insulting the Windy City.
Latest News: BTB has also learned through exclusive video provided by a BTB reader that the Secretary General of Uganda’ main opposition party has announced that the party would oppose the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is now before Parliament.
Here, it’s more evidence that the Religious Right has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the financial interests which control the Republican Party:
Oy.
Tony Perkins and pals don’t have any expertise to speak of on macroeconomics or anything else that involves book larnin’, but they’ve perfected “Dance, monkeys, dance!”
Also, this is the closest Tony will get to being on “Glee,” so you have to factor that into his decision-making.
Earlier in the week, we reported on the harm done by “fondle therapy” and a renegade Exodus ministry in Michigan (at least until this week) that practiced the bizarre technique.
Today, TWO’s Michael Airhart wrote about another strain of “ex-gay” ideology, “death therapy” that is being prompted by British anti-gay activist Stehpen Green. The theory is that if you kill homosexuals, there will be no more homosexuality. Although macabre, it actually works if your not squeamish about mass murder, squashing freedom and state sponsored persecution.
The latest form of ex-gay ideology to emerge is “hooker therapy.”
The Advocate reports today that an Australian father who is accused of forcing his teenage son to have sex with a prostitute — out of fear that he was gay — may face rape charges.
As the rest of the family celebrated Christmas 2007, the father allegedly took his son to a motel in North Rockhampton, where he paid the ho to have sex with his son, according to The Morning Bulletin, a newspaper in Rockhampton. He left the room, demanding that the boy show him a used condom as proof he finished with the prostitute.
A magistrate decided on Tuesday that there was enough evidence to bring the father to trial.
“First [he] didn’t want to say anything to me,” the boy’s mother testified. “Then he told me his father took him to a motel room and there was a prostitute there. He wouldn’t talk, he just started crying.”
Detective sergeant Christine Knapp said police first became aware of the situation when the father tried to report his son to authorities six months later, in May 2008, saying the boy was abusing his younger brother. The father said he “tried to sort it out himself by taking his son to a prostitute” to no avail.
Of course, the official “ex-gay” groups will deny any connection with this incident – and technically they would be correct. However, the discredited idea that one can change from gay-to-straight, if they just try hard enough, keeps mutating into perverse progeny. We saw this insanity with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda and now we see it with “ho therapy”.
Attempts to convert gay people rarely have a happy ending – unless one counts those on the payroll of so-called “ex-gay” organizations. However, it is difficult to deny that the noxious notion of “ex-gay” has led to distress, dysfunction and disaster in manifold forms.
Hooker therapy appears is the latest incarnation of the insanity that has blossomed under the rubric of “ex-gay”.
A Pew Forum study asked respondents whether religion is important in their lives, and 82% percent of Mississipians said yes. Following Mississippi were Alabama and Arkansas (both at 74%), Louisiana (72%), Tennessee (71%), and South Carolina (70%). The New England states of Vermont and New Hampshire (each at 36%) were the least religious; both states allow same-sex marriage.
While the Pacific Northwest has usually been found to be the least religious area in the nation, New England seems to pulling ahead. Another state that is lacking in religious citizens is Sarah Palin’s home state of Alaska, with only 37% claiming to be religious.
Interestingly, the states where people claimed to be most religious had the highest divorce rates. Those that were least religious tended to have superior family values.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church says that, although the church views homosexuality as a sin, homosexuality is a personal choice.
Patriarch Kirill says gays and lesbians must not be persecuted or discriminated against in any way, though the church still opposes same-sex marriages.
But it’s a positive step, nonetheless. Russia has major problems with vile, violent homophobia*, so for the Patriarch of the largest and most important church in the nation to call for an end to persecution and discrimination (sort of) is a good message.
I take issue with the headline, though: “Russian Orthodox Church embraces gays.” Uhhhhh, no. That is not “embrace.” That’s the Church trying to split the difference between condemnation and outright hatred and violence.
Like I said, it’s progress of a sort, but I’d like to see more than a general perfunctory statement along the lines of “We believe ‘x’ is bad, so if you could possibly consider thinking about cutting it out, that would be helpful, but if that’s not amenable to you, I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Ex-gay” activist Debbie Thurman provided an update tonight, via Facebook support group, regarding fellow ex-gay activist Lisa Miller‘s five-year bid to flout federal and state laws which protect children from exploitation and kidnapping by deadbeat and non-custodial parents.
Thurman said:
We have news to report from both Vermont and Virginia. First, Judge Cohen did not grant the requested stay of the Jan. 1 transfer of custody. Second, the Virginia Court of Appeals has asked for Liberty Counsel to file a supplemental brief by Jan. 4. The court will respond to the brief by Jan. 18. There will be no ruling on the latest appeal until after that.
As things stand, Miller — who for five years has violated Vermont family-court rulings that she must share visitation rights over her daughter — is required on Jan. 1 to turn over daughter Isabella to former partner Janet Jenkins, due to Miller’s refusal to obey previous court rulings.
Miller’s attorneys at the Christian Right’s Liberty Counsel view the case as an opportunity to turn U.S. states’ family courts against one another, allowing culturally fundamentalist states such as Virginia to disregard the rightful jurisdiction of other states (as well as the religious freedom of co-parents and children) and harbor people who claim that Jesus gives them special permission to be deadbeat parents.
Since Miller remains unwilling to comply with the courts of either Virginia or Vermont, we can expect more unfortunate drama in this case in mid-January.
Meantime, Thurman tonight offered a sickening dose of false piety: Sympathetic “Christmas” prayers for those who exploit Isabella, and cold silence to those who value child welfare and the rule of law.
Jeremy at Good As You highlights an interesting piece in Mother Jones about Esther Fleece, the new hire at Focus on the Family tasked with bringing young people into the fold, and with tailoring a younger, hipper message to reach these folks. What’s strange, though, as Jeremy points out, is that Esther acknowledges and understands the reasons that FotF-style religion repels younger people (e.g. the gay hate just doesn’t fly with the younger set), and her superiors seem to understand this, but yet they refuse to correct the problem!
You see, the younger generation has grown up, for the most part, knowing gay people, and when you know us, it’s a lot harder to accept the parallel-universe lies propagated by the Religious Right against the LGBT community. So when Gary Schneeberger says something like this…
As for revising the positions that are alienating youth, though, that’s not really in the cards. “The things we stand for, especially in the policy realm, are things that are rooted in our understanding of the Scripture,” says Schneeberger. “So when we say we think we believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, that’s not going to change.”
it becomes abundantly obvious that Focus on the Family, and by extension, the entire Religious Right, simply doesn’t get it. Their “ideas” about the supposed threats posed to society by the Ever Present Gay Menace are laughable to a generation which has grown up with out [of the closet] gay parents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, teachers, etc. Focus and Pals simply aren’t going to win that argument, ever.
So the choice for Focus et al. seems to be either A. Change or B. Become resigned to the gradual onset of irrelevance. For the moment, it seems, they’re sticking with B.
UPDATE: Now, this is interesting. A reader pointed me to Esther’s “fan page” on Facebook (it’s public, obviously), so I decided to check it out, and saw an update from last month that caught my eye, in light of Esther’s acknowledgement that the demonization of gays is part of the problem faced by Focus on the Family in recruiting new, younger followers. Consider first, this passage from the above referenced MoJo piece:
But Fleece hopes that at some point, gay people will feel welcome at Focus. “I have biological family that are gay. I mean, let’s be honest–who doesn’t?” she says. While she doesn’t endorse their lifestyle, Fleece thinks there is no reason to single out gays for more moral censure than, say, men who cheat on their wives. “We’re all sinners.”
Okay, aside from the fact that she’s wrong, that statement does reflect the conflict experienced by many Evangelicals between actual reality and the reality they’ve been taught. She seems to be striving to move forward, in some way. Ready for the status message that caught my eye?
How interesting! Would that be the same Manhattan Declaration written by self-important hack “philosopher” Robert George, he of the circular logic and “because-I-said-so” definition of “natural law”? The one signed by all the greatest luminaries of bigotry, bias and discrimination, wherein they pledge to defy any law that recognizes equality in the United States and abroad?
It would seem that this self-styled modern-day Queen Esther is talking out of both sides of her mouth.
Hyatt is mindlessly promoting a myopic and shortsighted idea designed to make non-Christians uncomfortable in the hope they will convert to Christianity in order to feel accepted and fit in. Portraying religious minorities as the Grinch who stole Christmas is also exploitative, because students are a captive audience who would have no choice but to endure unwanted proselytizing – sometimes at the hands of older, larger tobacco spitting students in cowboy boots.
“Ex-gay” activist Debbie Thurman provided an update tonight, via Facebook support group, regarding fellow ex-gay activist 
