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4:24 am EST 32°F (0°C) in South Rockwood, MI
Calendar of Updates | You may remember back to the summer of 2005, when I devoted at least three updates here to the imprisonment of then-16-year-old Tennessee teenager Zach Stark in a so-called “ex-gay” residential facility in Memphis. Sadly, I don’t have further news of the now 18-year-old Zach, as he has kept his MySpace page in “friends only” mode ever since his ordeal; no, this story is about the man who led Zach’s Guantánamo experience, John Smid. Before I share the story, let me tip my hat to the story’s source, Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin. Burroway attended the annual Exodus International conference in Irvine, CA, in June 2007, and recently posted this self-made video to YouTube. The video includes a recording of a lecture Smid gave at the conference, in which he spouted pretty much all the usual “fundamentalist ‘Christian’” anti-sex nonsense. However, at roughly 2:17 into the video, Smid unleashes this exceedingly creepy statement that actually shows just what hypocrites “Christians” are: (emphasis mine) I’m sorry, but my wife’s vagina is enough! I’m gonna be honest — it’s enough. It is enough for me. If it’s not enough for me, that’s my problem. I have to be honest about that. God created her for my … for my fit — he created that, and I need to honor and respect my wife. Very nice. We can see what John Smid really thinks of women — they are simply created to fit around a man’s penis, and as such, lack brains, the capability for independent thought, and rationality. That much is sickening enough, quite frankly, but what is perhaps even worse is the attitude that Smid is encouraging in boys with the “her vagina … is made for my fit” statement — I mean, that’s just the message we need to be sending to teenage boys. The last thing we need to do as a society is give teenage boys any more encouragement, explicit or implicit, to have sex when they’re really not ready to handle the consequences. In fact, what Smid is doing here is showing one of the highest levels of hypocrisy I have ever seen. Most “fundamentalist ‘Christians’” at least purport to oppose teenage sex and the things that can come about as consequences thereof, such as teenage pregnancy or abortion. There is, at minimum, some logical consistency to that part of their message, even though they have fabricated whole-cloth the notion that those things are part of “Christian” morality (as nothing was said about them by Christ). On the other hand, Smid doesn’t care — a ton of teenage pregnancies and abortions, spurred on by the notion that “the vagina is made for my fit,” are all fine and lovely if it means bashing the homos. It should be quite easy to see the extreme danger to society and the hypocrisy of such a belief. Then again, what are we to expect from a known Christofascist terrorist, and one of the said terrorist movement’s leaders at that? Sticking with Burroway’s Box Turtle Bulletin as a source, let’s examine what another Christofascist leader, the obviously gender-confused Matt Barber of Concerned Women for America, is shitting himself about: (with a few edits made to remove Christofascist code words) The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute is teaming up with [gay] groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the Stonewall Democrats, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for an initiative called the “Presidential Appointments Project.” It is being billed as a “talent bank” for openly [gay] professionals who want to “set or influence” policies of a potential Obama, McCain, or Clinton administration. … Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America, says the project puts to rest the notion that there is no “gay agenda.”
Hmmm … isn’t that EXACTLY what the Christofascists have been doing with free rein during the Chimpy mis-administration? Have the people appointed by this If the Christ-condemned (see chapter 23 of Matthew) hypocrisy of Smid and Barber hasn’t been enough to make you puke, here’s even more from Chris Korzen of the group Catholics United. Recently, evangelical preacher John Hagee endorsed John McCain in the Rethuglican presidential primary; Hagee is known for past statements that the Catholic Church is “a whore” and that it cooperated with Hitler in the Holocaust. Naturally, this set Korzen, among others, off: (emphasis again mine) By receiving the endorsement of an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church, McCain once again demonstrates that he is willing to sell out his principles for a chance to win the Presidency. We hope Senator McCain will take the principled position of publicly and unequivocally distancing himself from Pastor Hagee’s anti-Catholic comments. Intolerance and bigotry do not belong in American politics. This from the very same Catholic Church in America that staunchly supported bigotry amendments now in place in 27 state constitutions? Does this mean that Catholics will now support the repeal of these amendments that make fourth-class citizens of their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender brothers and sisters in Christ? If “intolerance and bigotry do not belong in American politics,” they have to — or they are condemned to Hell. No, what this really is, in this situation, is Catholics not liking it when they get a dose of their own medicine. It was fine and dandy to do it to those faggots, but it’s “intolerant and bigoted” when done to them. Again, I might suggest that Catholics actually open the Bible, and see what Jesus had to say about hypocrisy and hypocrites in Matthew 23. Finally, I intend to show one more way in which so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christianity’” is actually leading America down the path of destruction. As you no doubt know if you’re not a CEO or otherwise somehow among the top 1% of wage earners, our economy is teetering on the brink of a major recession and possibly worse. This economic despair has been fueled largely by a crisis in the credit markets, mostly because banks have been giving out huge amounts of credit to people who can’t handle the debt loads. Home foreclosures have skyrocketed as adjustable mortgage rates have increased beyond the ability of the homeowners to pay, and skyrocketing credit-card interest rates are almost designed to keep people trapped in debt. “Fundamentalist ‘Christianity’” didn’t start the credit and foreclosure crisis, but it will contribute to making it worse. As I have pointed out here before, one thing “fundamentalist” leaders do quite well is demand money from their flocks, with the threat that they are headed for hell if they don’t open their wallets. Many such “fundamentalist” churches demand tithing, or the giving of 10% of one’s income (i.e., gross revenue) to the church; some mega-churches actually make it a condition of membership. Let me use my own average monthly income and expense figures, which I won’t actually disclose, to make a point here. Ten percent of my gross revenue per month comes out to 44% of my net profits after all of life’s necessities are paid. Were I to be a “fundamentalist ‘Christian’” with a weak enough mind to actually believe all the hell-for-lack-of-donations threats, that would be nearly half of the disposable income I have each month! We all know how shit comes up every month to eat into that disposable income. One of the kids just destroyed their winter coat on the playground at school; the car has to go in for work; or the carpet needs to be cleaned. With half of one’s disposable income being demanded by one’s church, under penalty of going to hell for eternity, things like that are probably going to have to be financed on credit. One will never be able to do anything with that debt, though, as long as one is giving half of his/her disposable income to the church. Eventually, this leads to out-of-control spiraling of debt, and foreclosures, defaults, and bankruptcies. This real-world consideration doesn’t enter the thought processes of the so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christian’” church leader, though. His greed sees to that. He needs the money to continue financing a lavish lifestyle for himself, or to carry on un-Godly pursuits like so-called “‘ex-gay’ ministries,” and the easiest way to get it is to convince his weak-minded flock that they’re all going to hell unless they pony up. In turn, the members of the congregation, burdened with this requirement, will turn to credit cards, home equity lines of credit, and second mortgages — none of which they can afford — to carry on their real-world lives, and when they default, so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christianity’” will have helped to wreck America’s economy for the rest of us normal people. Again, I hope that all those of you in mainstream American society will begin to see “fundamentalist ‘Christians’” as the liars and hypocrites the vast majority of them are. If Americans would start coming to gay and lesbian individuals and groups for truthful definitions of gay and lesbian people and homosexuality, rather than listening to the blatant lies told by “Christians” with an agenda, the country would be a far better place. If churches would ask for donations from those members most able to donate, instead of requiring 10% of everybody’s gross revenue, our economy would be greatly helped. If we would stop just blindly accepting it as fact that people and things are somehow good or “moral” just because they’re associated with religion, we would take the largest strides ever taken toward peace and harmony on earth. That’s it for tonight. I doubt I’ll do much between now and returning to work tomorrow afternoon, what with tonight’s weather forecasted to turn very nasty — we’re looking at possibly ½” (1 cm) of ice and then 3-6” (8-15 cm) of snow on top of that. |
