A Catholic priest, facing criminal charges and a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy, is now charged with attempting to hire someone to kill the youth, authorities said Tuesday.
The Rev. John M. Fiala was in the Dallas County, Texas, jail on Tuesday, charged with one count of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the jail’s website. He also is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. His bail totals $700,000.
Fiala, 52, of Dallas, was out on bond on other sexual assault charges involving the youth, now 18, when he allegedly attempted to negotiate the boy’s murder, said Tom Rhodes, the teen’s attorney.
Not only that, but he’s accused of raping the teen at gunpoint! Moreover, the lawsuits state that the archdioceses and religious orders Fiala was under ALL covered up his sexual abuse.
It’s not often that the Catholic Church can shock me these days, since child rape and Catholicism are so inextricably linked in the public mind, but this one…
I know the place where this video comes from, and well.
We’re getting a lot of reminders today that, even in the 21st century, with the internet and education and research, there are still places in the United States where backwoods ignorance survives and thrives. In this clip, the Tyler, Texas NBC affiliate invites its viewers to hate gays on the air.
The Dallas Independent School District in the 1990s enacted a non-discrimination policy which encouraged the discrimination that is now occurring against transgender staff and students.
Dallas social conservatives are taking the next logical step — proposing an anti-bullying policy that, while citing a few general examples of bullying, deliberately excludes the specific forms of bullying that Dallas faculty and students routinely commit against sexual minorities.
October 13, 2010
Contact: Rafael McDonnell, (214) 528-0144 office
Resource Center Dallas calls on Dallas Independent School District to revise proposed
new anti-bullying policy Board to discuss policy October 14 at 11:30 a.m.
Dallas—The following statement is from Resource Center Dallas, on Dallas Independent School District (DISD)’s plans to revise
its anti-bullying policy:
“We are pleased that DISD is revisiting its approach to bullying. Unfortunately, the proposed policy does not define which students are to be protected by it. As a result, it does not provide specific protections for LGBT students. It is vital for this board to specifically articulate who this policy is designed to protect, rather than simply stating a broad definition of bullying. Absent any specific protections, it could be inferred that it would be okay to bully students based on their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Given the rash of LGBT bullying-related suicides in recent weeks—including one in the greater Houston area—specifically articulated protections are not formalities; they are essential.
“Resource Center Dallas encourages the North Texas LGBT community to contact the nine members of the DISD board. Encourage them to modify the proposed anti-bullying policy to specifically include LGBT students. Board members still have time to improve the protections for the youngest members of our community. Contact information, including phone numbers and e-mail, can be found at http://www.dallasisd.org/about/boardcontact.htm. Additionally, if you are able to attend the DISD board meeting Thursday, October 14 at 11:30 a.m. at 3700 Ross Avenue in Dallas, please do so. A representative of the Center will address the board on these issues.”
A recent USA Today feature showed a striking similarity to the Religious Right’s ongoing wars on beers and queers.
In the case of alcohol, America’s busybodies organized at the turn of the last century, which led to Prohibition in 1920. The teetotalers claimed drinking was a terrible sin and that they had the right to impose their beliefs on the entire country. The result was an unmitigated disaster that is best remembered for unintended consequences – such as dangerous moonshine and the rise of bootlegging mobsters.
In terms of LGBT people, religious fanatics banned together in the late 1970’s to pass or uphold laws that forced their sexual hang-ups and moralizing mores onto people they considered sinful. The unintended consequences included a high suicide rate among gay people and countless divorces that occurred after spouses came out of the closet.
The fight against beers and queers is most similar in that they both encompass pitched, ongoing battles and both issues are subject to a maddening patchwork of anachronistic laws at the state, county and local levels.
For example, 1 in 9 counties in the United States are still dry. Similarly, for LGBT people, laws on employment protection, marriage and adoption fluctuate wildly from place-to-place. Indeed a gay person’s family can be fully recognized by law in one state, but as soon as the state line is crossed, the family ceases to exist as a legal entity. It really is the metaphorical equivalent of traveling from dry to wet counties with a bottle of whisky in the car.
To ensure that gay people are second-class citizens, the Religious Right regularly lies about LGBT life, yet does so with soothing language about “protecting” marriage. In modern anti-gay campaigns, slick, high-priced consultants go out of their way to appear as if their campaigns are not about hate. This is part of an effort to entice mainstream voters who are turned off by fire and brimstone messages.
Similarly, today’s teetotalers are using chicanery to disguise their true intentions and avoid upsetting political moderates. For instance, in a Mount Pleasant, Texas campaign to keep alcohol illegal, a soft and misleading slogan, “Mount Pleasant Cares”, was intentionally created to deceive voters.
“We never mentioned beer or wine,” Vatra Solomon, a local resident and political consultant who advised the drys told USA Today. “We talked about children and safety and a healthy environment — those buzzwords. A lot of people like a glass of wine at dinner or a beer watching the Cowboys. We couldn’t afford to offend them.”
Isn’t this eerily similar to how some campaigns use code words like, “family values”, to conceal that passing anti-gay marriage laws cruelly strip away hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples? When it comes to the Religious Right, a belief in End Times often justifies the mean-spirited means.
Fortunately, the religious zealots are losing both battles, as grudging tolerance is finally giving way to acceptance by the wider culture. In terms of alcohol, “drys are losing ground on all levels, from the state — since 2002, 14 states have ended bans on Sunday alcohol sales,” according to USA Today.
The number of Tennessee communities that allow sales of liquor by the drink (in bars and restaurants) has increased 56% since 2003. In the same period, 22 of Texas’ 254 counties and more than 235 of its municipalities have gone wet (or “moist,” a category in which beer and wine might be legal, but not liquor).
Of course, the same can now be said for homosexuality, with a majority of Americans now finding gay relations acceptable and an overwhelming number in favor of allowing gay soldiers to be able to serve openly in the military. Five states allow LGBT couples to marry. It often seems that victories, large and small, are happening on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
Economic factors are a common denominator for recent momentum in efforts to end bans on spirits and LGBT rights. Locales are beginning to understand that being perceived as rigid and judgmental backwaters is not conducive to attracting new businesses. After all, few people want to relocate to a place that is lorded over by a narrow-minded fundamentalist elite.
One lesson to be learned from the alcohol fight is that fundamentalists don’t give up very easily. These fanatics have been railing against alcohol distribution, sales and consumption since Prohibition ended in 1933. They have fought tooth and nail to impose their values on entire communities. So, even though we may have reached a tipping point on LGBT equality, don’t expect our foes to fold the tent anytime soon.
Still, this battle is instructive because alcohol was once the Religious Right’s sin du jour. Now, most national right wing organizations don’t waste time or political capital lobbying to ban booze. The once Biblical absolute against alcohol is disappearing as quickly as a shot of Absolut Vodka.
Would anybody bet a six pack that the same won’t be true for the alleged “sin” of homosexuality?
Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks.
One proposal:
One guideline requires publishers to include a section on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association
What Texas will possibly teach on civil rights and minorities:
There have also been efforts among conservatives on the board to tweak the history of the civil rights movement. One amendment states that the movement created “unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes” among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.
And the rest of the proposed brainwashing curriculum:
** The amendments are also intended to emphasize the unalloyed superiority of the “free-enterprise system” over others and the desirability of limited government.
** One says publishers should “describe the effects of increasing government regulation and taxation on economic development and business planning.” (I bet there will be no mention of Enron or the affects of deregulation on the current market crash)
** Throughout the standards, the conservatives have pushed to drop references to American “imperialism,” preferring to call it expansionism.
** “Country and western music” has been added to the list of cultural movements to be studied.
** References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln‘ speeches. (Somehow we knew that whole obsession with losing the Civil War would pop up)
** The board made it clear they would offer still more planks to highlight what they see as the Christian roots of the Constitution and other founding documents.
If this insanity just affected Texas it would be troubling. But, the size of this state’s market influences what appears in textbooks across the entire nation. Worse, once the history materials are printed, they remain in classrooms for a decade, essentially poisoning the minds of an entire generation.
In my view, the major publishers ought to refuse to print textbooks that are pure, unadulterated right wing propaganda. Unlike other books, which people can choose to read, students are forced to read these materials. No publisher is obligated to print religious dogma in the guise of history and they ought to stand on principle and decline participating in this religious brainwashing exercise.
Certainly, the Jewish, Muslim, moderate Christian, atheist etc., employees at such publishing houses ought to opt out of taking part in this dangerous process. While there may be money to be made up front, to print this garbage is to profit by selling the future. The question these employees should ask is this: Will teaching that America is a fundamentalist Christian nation make life better or worse for their children and grandchildren?
The answer to this is quite clear. We’ve worked hard as a nation to limit overt bigotry based on race, religion, sex and sexual orientation. Publishers should make the wise decision – for the good of the country – not to print propaganda, religious dogma and historical revisionism.
It is generally understood that today’ youth are more supportive of equality for gay and lesbian people. Faced with losing the next generation, fundamentalists are ferociously scrambling to capture the minds of youth through homeschooling and the subversion of public education. By sequestering students at home or creating public schools where the only drink served in the cafeteria is Kool-Aid, they hope to reprogram tomorrow’ leaders.
It appears America’ religious fanatics are modeling their efforts on the success of radical Islamists in the Middle East, who reversed the trend of secularization in the region by hijacking education. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this phenomenon:
Beginning in the 1970s, the trend in Yemen, Morocco, Egypt and the Persian Gulf “was to Islamicize education as a way to fight the left…”
…Then, in 1979, after the Saudi ruling family was shaken by an attack in Mecca from its own Wahabi fundamentalists, the Saudi regime, to fend off the anger of its Wahabis, gave them free rein to Islamicize education and social life in Saudi Arabia and neighboring states.
The rest is a very sad and tragic history.
In America, according to the Aug. 7, 2009 edition of The Economist magazine, the number of children who are home-schooled—1.5 million—has doubled in the past decade, and 83 percent of home-schooling families do so for religious or moral reasons.
It is important to realize that the goal of many in the homeschooling movement is to create an army of zealot zombies who are committed to transforming America into a fundamentalist “Christian Nation.”
“We are not home-schooling our kids just so they can read,” said Michael Farris, the founder of the Home School Legal Defense. “The most common thing I hear is parents telling me they want their kids to be on the Supreme Court. And if we put enough kids in the farm system, some may get to the major leagues.”
Many of the cult-kiddies are coming of age and have already infiltrated Washington. Homeschoolers are well represented on Capitol Hill, and they played a disproportionate role in George W. Bush’ administration.
While many of these students are educated in terms of test scores, they may lack critical thinking skills. In a sense, they are like computers with large hard drives that have been programmed with faulty software. No matter how fast they compute they always arrive at same flawed conclusions based on the Biblical bugs planted early in their memory chips.
For example, Children’ Conferences International hosts events across the nation for homeschoolers. Their “2010 theme” is science fiction, except to keep the minds of the children pure there will be no extraterrestrials allowed.
“Parents won’t have to worry about their children learning about aliens or some mysterious force in this fun filled futuristic space age theme,” according to their website. “Children WILL learn important life lessons about trusting God, faith over atheism, and the dangers of being enamored by the world.”
Instead of E.T. and space, these poor children have to endure crazy, spaced out adults determined to strip-mine their minds and corrupt their imaginations. In my view, this is a form of child abuse and deprives these students of real childhood experiences, while making them closed-minded.
Of course, funneling children into homeschooling is not enough for these predators. In order to succeed, the extreme right must hijack the curriculum of public schools. They are already making serious inroads in Texas, with zealots on the state school board rewriting history textbooks. This is vitally important because Texas is such a large consumer of textbooks, that they essentially have the ability to set the standards for much of the nation. So, if history is rewritten in Austin, the revisions will likely appear in your state as well.
One leader of the public school putsch, according to a recent cover story in The New York Times Magazine, is Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Texas Board of Education. In 2008, she published a book called, “One Nation Under God” where she wrote: “Hence, the only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the Founding Fathers is from a biblical worldview.” She also stated, “this battle for our nation’ children and who will control their education and training is crucial to our success for reclaiming our nation.”
For all of her passion, Dunbar is opposed to public education, writing of, “The inappropriateness of a state-created taxpayer-supported school system,” and says that sending children to public schools is akin to, “throwing them into the enemy’ flames, even as the children of Israel threw their children to Molech.”
Clearly, Dunbar’ real agenda is infiltrating the school system in order to destroy it.
When it comes to support, the next generation was supposed to be a wash. However, this successful trajectory is threatened if we allow today’ youth to be brainwashed. While paying attention to school boards is boring, it must become a priority for all Americans who want schools to be about education instead of indoctrination.
The fortieth anniversary of Stonewall, the 1969 bar riot that kicked off the modern gay rights movement, was supposed to be a time of reflection. Judging from the gushing media coverage and flowery political speeches, it momentarily seemed that the struggle for equality had ended in victory. Out with marches and in with museums, where gay and straight people could walk the marble corridors and gasp in astonishment, “The police actually used to raid gay bars?”
When the Fort Worth police stormed the gay Rainbow Lounge at 1AM on Sunday, June 28, the patrons could be forgiven for thinking it was a quaint cabaret show in memory of Stonewall — very much like the Civil War reenactments so popular in the south. But, no, this was the real deal — a gang of gun-wielding thugs using their badges to badger helpless patrons who committed the crime of drinking beer while gay.
It was the third such raid of the night by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Fort Worth police. They were allegedly harassing bar customers to crack down on public intoxication, which is as ridiculous as raiding the mall for public displays of shopping. While they claim they were carrying out their duty, it sure seems to me like a band of good ole boys with too much time on their hands. Instead of fighting real crime, becoming the criminals must have provided a greater adrenaline rush.
By the time these taxpayer supported public servants reached the gay bar, they unleashed a viciousness and violence not seen at the other establishments. According to the Dallas Voice, seven bar patrons were arrested on charges of public intoxication. One customer, Chad Gibson, suffered brain injuries during the raid and is still hospitalized, reportedly suffering from bleeding on his brain, which may require surgery.
The armed hooligans tried to excuse their thuggish behavior by reviving the stereotype of gay men as sexual predators. Incredibly, they claimed that as they stormed the bar, patrons made sexual advances.
Yeah, right.
They actually want people to believe that their magnetic, sexual appeal triggered the insatiable sexual appetites of the drunken gays, who thought they were being rushed by the Village People. That’ odd, because the patrons describe the invasion as more terrifying than titillating. (Read More)
The stepson of antigay megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes was arrested by Dallas police on Jan. 3.
According to KTVT-TV, police accuse 29-year-old Jermaine Jakes of exposing himself to undercover vice detectives at Keist Park. Here’s the arrest warrant, which says Jakes was one among several men observed in a wooded area of the park.
We live in an age when same-sex-attracted men in tolerant communities can date and become intimate in much the same normal fashion as heterosexual men — through work, community organizations, religious groups, local bars, or the Internet.
What drives men — particularly in less tolerant communities — to seek sexual interaction in less safe or illegal locations?
Is it the thrill of a risk?
Is it a product of antigay indoctrination which dictates to gay men from an early age that unsafe or illegal sex is their only option?
Or is it, as ex-gay activists will no doubt assert, the inevitable “lifestyle” of anyone who practices honesty regarding their sexual orientation?
(Weekly Column)
Isn’t this eerily similar to how some campaigns use code words like, “family values”, to conceal that passing anti-gay marriage laws cruelly strip away hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples? When it comes to the Religious Right, a belief in End Times often justifies the mean-spirited means.
Weekly Column
