Here we go again. Evil secularists threaten the end of the world.
Christian Today tells us, “The future of freedom and equality of expression have come under threat from the dominance of ‘the religion of secularism’ in the public sphere, a new report from the Jubilee Centre warns.”
The report is called “Sustaining Democracy”, and in it the Christian think tank warns that secularism is jeopardising civil liberties and human rights, and claiming the privileges of religious judgement for itself to the exclusion of other religions.
“Democracies cannot shake off their Christian past without shaking off the liberties which flowed from it,” warns the report’s author Dr Philip Sampson.
Who’s asking you to shake off your Christian past? This secularist isn’t. History is history. All we ask is that Christians and Muzzies and others of the Deluded Herd stop having special privileges.
Christian Today continues, “He criticised the tendency of some secularists to disregard religious views as ‘ill-considered’ and ‘prejudiced’. ‘Where would this have left the abolitionists or the civil rights movement?’ he said.”
But we’re not talking about historical events – and, anyway, as these people never seem to realise, good people will do good things. If they do it as a band and call that band A, then A did it. Were all abolitionists Christians? I doubt it. People wanted to abolish the obscenity of slavery because it was just that – an obscenity.
And you’ll notice, old chap, that the civil-rights movement you speak of is often at loggerheads with pushy religionists.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Assisting dignified death
Could a change in the law on assisted suicides come a step closer tomorrow when the UK’s highest court delivers its judgment in the case of Debbie Purdy, whose long legal fight has put her at the centre of the controversy?
“Purdy,” says the Guardian, linked to above, “who has multiple sclerosis, claims that uncertainty as to whether her husband – the Cuban violinist Omar Puente – would face prosecution for assisting her suicide abroad breaches her human rights. She will learn tomorrow whether the Law Lords agree with her and demand a clarification of the law.”
Only religious dinosaurs could possibly disagree with a law that allows someone to help someone else to die a dignified and painless death, because the only objections to it – once all possible safeguards against bumping off Granny because we need her dosh/bedroom/classic dildo collection are in place – are irrational. Religion is irrational.
“Purdy,” says the Guardian, linked to above, “who has multiple sclerosis, claims that uncertainty as to whether her husband – the Cuban violinist Omar Puente – would face prosecution for assisting her suicide abroad breaches her human rights. She will learn tomorrow whether the Law Lords agree with her and demand a clarification of the law.”
Only religious dinosaurs could possibly disagree with a law that allows someone to help someone else to die a dignified and painless death, because the only objections to it – once all possible safeguards against bumping off Granny because we need her dosh/bedroom/classic dildo collection are in place – are irrational. Religion is irrational.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Crap journalism – again
It’s just amazing how the scum Daily Mail works, isn’t it? It does a story about Camp Quest, a summer camp (summer? what’s that?) in the UK that’s meant to encourage young people to think for themselves.
Any other camp that had this as one of its aims would be OK. If, one assumes, it had a religious element, or didn’t specifically say it didn’t. But this doesn’t have a religious element, and it does say that it doesn’t. When it says think for themselves it means think for themselves.
Given that, have a look at this Daily Mail article and see how it sets the camp up just to knock it down. You’d think that atheists were spawn of the Devil, sent here to destroy Earth and then repopulate it with their evil seed.
But, then, the Daily Mail is a scum paper.
Any other camp that had this as one of its aims would be OK. If, one assumes, it had a religious element, or didn’t specifically say it didn’t. But this doesn’t have a religious element, and it does say that it doesn’t. When it says think for themselves it means think for themselves.
Given that, have a look at this Daily Mail article and see how it sets the camp up just to knock it down. You’d think that atheists were spawn of the Devil, sent here to destroy Earth and then repopulate it with their evil seed.
But, then, the Daily Mail is a scum paper.
Humanist bus ads
Bus ads are still getting them going.
The latest person, and one who should know better, is McGill University professor Charles Taylor. He calls them “pathetic” in an interview published on Monday by the British-based magazine Philosophy Now.
“A bus slogan! It’s not likely to trigger something very fundamental in anybody,” scoffed Taylor, a defender of religious faith and the recent winner of philosophy’s two most prestigious international prizes following the 2007 publication of A Secular Age, his latest acclaimed critique of modern life.
Charles Taylor was awarded the $2million Templeton Prize in 2007 for his “exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension” through decades of philosophical writings, highlighted by what the Templeton judges deemed his “definitive examination of secularization and the modern world” in A Secular Age.
The latest person, and one who should know better, is McGill University professor Charles Taylor. He calls them “pathetic” in an interview published on Monday by the British-based magazine Philosophy Now.
“A bus slogan! It’s not likely to trigger something very fundamental in anybody,” scoffed Taylor, a defender of religious faith and the recent winner of philosophy’s two most prestigious international prizes following the 2007 publication of A Secular Age, his latest acclaimed critique of modern life.
Charles Taylor was awarded the $2million Templeton Prize in 2007 for his “exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension” through decades of philosophical writings, highlighted by what the Templeton judges deemed his “definitive examination of secularization and the modern world” in A Secular Age.
Cries for help
The number of boys calling the charity ChildLine with worries about their sexuality has more than trebled in the last five years, with many concerned about coming out, Pink News reports.
“In 2007/08, 3,510 calls from boys (six per cent) were about their sexuality, compared with only one per cent of calls from girls,” the online news source says, adding, “Although the total number of boys calling the line has doubled, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) says calls about sexuality have still risen proportionately to more than three times the amount five years ago.”
Now why should anyone – assuming they are – be surprised that jibes about sexuality are causing young people to be worried about their sexuality?
While there are adults, who ought to know better, bleating about how evil it is to be gay – adults in organisations such as the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, mosques and what have you – is there any wonder that boys are going to be made to feel like shit?
But that’s religion for you.
“In 2007/08, 3,510 calls from boys (six per cent) were about their sexuality, compared with only one per cent of calls from girls,” the online news source says, adding, “Although the total number of boys calling the line has doubled, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) says calls about sexuality have still risen proportionately to more than three times the amount five years ago.”
Now why should anyone – assuming they are – be surprised that jibes about sexuality are causing young people to be worried about their sexuality?
While there are adults, who ought to know better, bleating about how evil it is to be gay – adults in organisations such as the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, mosques and what have you – is there any wonder that boys are going to be made to feel like shit?
But that’s religion for you.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Two-track church
The Archwizard of Cant reckons there’ll have to be a two-track church now that homosexuality is something that’s here to stay. Well, he doesn’t say here to stay, but there’s resignation in his tone: we’re not going to get rid of gays in the church, so we might as well make the best of a bad job.
Rowan Williams has issued a lengthy response to decision of the he Episcopal Church in the USA to open its ordination process to all individuals, including gay people.
He’s acknowledged the possibility that the global body will have to adopt a “two-track” model in which there would be “two styles of being Anglican”.
He writes:
In other words, gays exist, and we’re going to have to learn to rub along together; the 77 million-member body will have to try to work together while holding different theological convictions over such issues as homosexuality.
Big of him. But you’re not going to please the real nasty buggers such as the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, who’s the leading light in a rabidly gay-detesting breakaway group called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.
I can’t imagine that those bigoted bastards will just learn to rub along, somehow.
Rowan Williams has issued a lengthy response to decision of the he Episcopal Church in the USA to open its ordination process to all individuals, including gay people.
He’s acknowledged the possibility that the global body will have to adopt a “two-track” model in which there would be “two styles of being Anglican”.
He writes:
It helps to be clear about these possible futures, however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are – two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out but which would not exclude co-operation in mission and service of the kind now shared in the Communion.
In other words, gays exist, and we’re going to have to learn to rub along together; the 77 million-member body will have to try to work together while holding different theological convictions over such issues as homosexuality.
Big of him. But you’re not going to please the real nasty buggers such as the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, who’s the leading light in a rabidly gay-detesting breakaway group called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.
I can’t imagine that those bigoted bastards will just learn to rub along, somehow.
My tweet lord, Part II
Nobody can be bothered to get off their arse and onto their knees to pray any more, that’s for sure.
We have prayers sent via Twitter for insertion (by someone else) into the Wailing Wall, and “A Note to God”, some geek’s idea of using an iPhone to send a prayer into cyberspace.
I thought communicating with the Almighty required you to do something to indicate your obeisance. Kneeling, with or without a hassock, has been the traditional way in the West; head-butting the floor and sticking your arse in the air if you’re Muslim is another way; there are no doubt more.
While people are doing it in churches, at least they’re keeping the floors of these often historic buildings polished; now they’re just clogging cyberspace and boosting the demand for more bandwidth and connection speeds or whatever technical stuff is required, and making it harder for the rest of us to tweet about whatever scintillating stuff we’ve got up to today.
Perhaps priests, though, could take a lesson in brevity from the Twitter generation. Imagine keeping a sermon to however many words a mere 140 characters would take up.
__________
Related link:
My tweet lord
We have prayers sent via Twitter for insertion (by someone else) into the Wailing Wall, and “A Note to God”, some geek’s idea of using an iPhone to send a prayer into cyberspace.
I thought communicating with the Almighty required you to do something to indicate your obeisance. Kneeling, with or without a hassock, has been the traditional way in the West; head-butting the floor and sticking your arse in the air if you’re Muslim is another way; there are no doubt more.
While people are doing it in churches, at least they’re keeping the floors of these often historic buildings polished; now they’re just clogging cyberspace and boosting the demand for more bandwidth and connection speeds or whatever technical stuff is required, and making it harder for the rest of us to tweet about whatever scintillating stuff we’ve got up to today.
Perhaps priests, though, could take a lesson in brevity from the Twitter generation. Imagine keeping a sermon to however many words a mere 140 characters would take up.
__________
Related link:
My tweet lord
Monday, 27 July 2009
Gays not good enough to adopt, it seems
A paediatrician has been allowed to resume work on an adoption panel after getting the push for refusing to recommend same-sex couples as adoptive parents for children.
“Dr Sheila Matthews had been removed from Northamptonshire [UK] County Council’s adoption panel because she was not willing to recommend gay couples as suitable candidates to become adoptive parents,” says the Sunday Telegraph.
However, the council has now decided that “she can continue with the central part of her role – conducting medical examinations of would-be adoptive parents and children waiting to be adopted. She will not be allowed to take part in the adoption panel’s votes on whether candidates would make suitable parents.”
A small victory for common sense, then. But get this: “There is research which supports my position that a same-sex partnership is not the best family setting to bring up children. As a Christian and a paediatrician I believe that children do best with a mother and father in a committed, long-term relationship. Therefore, I cannot recommend a same-sex household to be in the best interest of a child, despite what politicians may have legislated for.”
“As a Christian and a paediatrician” she has come to these conclusions. However, she’s paid to be a paediatrician, not a Christian. If the county council were paying her to be a Christian, too, it could deliberate on how well she’s doing in that role (very well, I would imagine, most Christians of that particular stripe being nutters).
But she’s paid as a paediatrician, and should do her job with that hat on and no other. As far as we know, the only drawback in placing kids with two mums or two dads is that they could get the piss taken out of them by peers. And why is that? It’s because there are Christians like this one who put it about that gays aren’t suitable for bringing up kids.
“Dr Sheila Matthews had been removed from Northamptonshire [UK] County Council’s adoption panel because she was not willing to recommend gay couples as suitable candidates to become adoptive parents,” says the Sunday Telegraph.
However, the council has now decided that “she can continue with the central part of her role – conducting medical examinations of would-be adoptive parents and children waiting to be adopted. She will not be allowed to take part in the adoption panel’s votes on whether candidates would make suitable parents.”
A small victory for common sense, then. But get this: “There is research which supports my position that a same-sex partnership is not the best family setting to bring up children. As a Christian and a paediatrician I believe that children do best with a mother and father in a committed, long-term relationship. Therefore, I cannot recommend a same-sex household to be in the best interest of a child, despite what politicians may have legislated for.”
“As a Christian and a paediatrician” she has come to these conclusions. However, she’s paid to be a paediatrician, not a Christian. If the county council were paying her to be a Christian, too, it could deliberate on how well she’s doing in that role (very well, I would imagine, most Christians of that particular stripe being nutters).
But she’s paid as a paediatrician, and should do her job with that hat on and no other. As far as we know, the only drawback in placing kids with two mums or two dads is that they could get the piss taken out of them by peers. And why is that? It’s because there are Christians like this one who put it about that gays aren’t suitable for bringing up kids.
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Quakers and queerdom
British Quakers, about sixteen hundred of them, gather in York today for what they call the Yearly Meeting Gathering – their week-long annual conference. And they’ll be discussing gay sex.
Seems religionists have gay sex on the mind, but the Quakers have traditionally been among the gay-friendliest.
“The event is likely to be dominated by a decision on whether to carry out same-sex commitment ceremonies on the same basis as heterosexual weddings,” says the Christian think tank Ekklesia.
And, of course, depending on which Holy Spirit is on duty today – the one believed in by Catholics, the one the C of E folk pray to, the evangelists’ favourite or the one the Quakers prefer – we’ll get an answer, no doubt, as to whether gay sex is a Bad Thing or OK.
We know what the first three Holy Spirits think. Poofs are evil. What will the Quakers pull out of their hats?
Seems religionists have gay sex on the mind, but the Quakers have traditionally been among the gay-friendliest.
“The event is likely to be dominated by a decision on whether to carry out same-sex commitment ceremonies on the same basis as heterosexual weddings,” says the Christian think tank Ekklesia.
The change is thought to have the support of a majority of British Quakers, but it is vigorously opposed by a vocal number of people who insist that marriage can only involve individuals of opposite sexes. Rather than voting, Quakers will seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead them into unity.
And, of course, depending on which Holy Spirit is on duty today – the one believed in by Catholics, the one the C of E folk pray to, the evangelists’ favourite or the one the Quakers prefer – we’ll get an answer, no doubt, as to whether gay sex is a Bad Thing or OK.
We know what the first three Holy Spirits think. Poofs are evil. What will the Quakers pull out of their hats?
Friday, 24 July 2009
Casting out demons
They’re here. They are on our shores. You thought this could happen only in America? Well you were wrong!
Exorcists – the type who think homosexuality is demonic – are alive and well and living in Blighty. Praise the Lord and get ready to dodge the green vomit.
The human-rights activist Peter Tatchell is organising protests against hardline Christian churches in Britain that perform these bizarre and dangerous practices on lesbian and gay people in an effort to purge them of their homosexuality.
“The exorcism rituals involve the casting out of alleged demons and witches that supposedly possess a gay person’s soul and turn them away from heterosexuality,” says Peter Tatchell, quoted in an Ekklesia bulletin.
You can see two videos on so-called gay exorcism, which Pink Triangle carried in late June. I’ve embedded the one featuring the actual disgusting ceremony beneath this post, too.
The Ekklesia story continues:
Enjoy the video. Yeah, right.
__________
Related link:
PTT condemns exorcisms
Exorcism storm
Exorcists – the type who think homosexuality is demonic – are alive and well and living in Blighty. Praise the Lord and get ready to dodge the green vomit.
The human-rights activist Peter Tatchell is organising protests against hardline Christian churches in Britain that perform these bizarre and dangerous practices on lesbian and gay people in an effort to purge them of their homosexuality.
“The exorcism rituals involve the casting out of alleged demons and witches that supposedly possess a gay person’s soul and turn them away from heterosexuality,” says Peter Tatchell, quoted in an Ekklesia bulletin.
You can see two videos on so-called gay exorcism, which Pink Triangle carried in late June. I’ve embedded the one featuring the actual disgusting ceremony beneath this post, too.
The Ekklesia story continues:
He is urging people to write letters containing “calm, compassionate, rational arguments” to one pastor involved – but also says that he should be reported to the police and his MP.
“There are claims that gay teenagers and young adults are being subjected to exorcisms at the insistence of their parents and pastors, in an attempt to rid them of same-sex attraction,” says Mr Tatchell.
“The exorcisms can include traumatic emotional scenes where the victims are surrounded by a group of church elders who scream at them to drive out the evil spirits and who sometimes shake their bodies.
“When this is done to youngsters under 18, it is a form of child abuse and the police should intervene to stop it.
“Some gay adults have been pressured into exorcisms by their family members or faith communities. Other victims are people with learning difficulties or mental health problems. They have been preyed upon when they are in a vulnerable state and are not capable of giving fully informed consent.
“There needs to be a thorough police investigation of all the churches that are doing these exorcisms,” added the human rights campaigner.
One London church admits it does exorcisms on four or five gay people every year. This church, United Pentecostal Ministry in Harrow north London, was exposed by the Metro newspaper late last month.
The church’s pastor, the Rev. John Ogbe-Ogbeide, said he did the ritual to cast out the demons and evil spirits that he believes are responsible for homosexuality. Sometimes people were calm during the process but sometimes their body convulsed, he conceded.
Exorcisms can be performed on gay children or on those who are suspected to be gay. There is no minimum age for the exorcism ceremony because a demon could possess a person at any age in life and could incline them to “wrong” sexual thoughts and behaviour, said Rev. Ogbe-Ogbeide.
Mr Tatchell commented: “United Pentecostal Ministry says it performs four or five exorcisms on gay people each year. It is just one of hundreds of fundamentalist churches in Britain. Gay exorcisms are likely to be performed in many of them. It is possible that dozens or even hundreds of LGBT people could be subjected to exorcism abuse in the UK. Because it takes place behind closed church doors and is kept secret, it is impossible to give an accurate assessment of the numbers involved.”
Enjoy the video. Yeah, right.
__________
Related link:
PTT condemns exorcisms
Exorcism storm
PTT condemns exorcisms
Further to our earlier blog entry about dangerous Christians in Connecticut, USA, trying to cast out “homosexual demons” from their gay children, we now learn from Peter Tatchell that these crazy practices are apparently being carried out in the UK!
In my capacity as secretary of the gay Humanist charity the the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT), I've issued a press release roundly condemning these exorcisms. Here it is in full:
If you can stomach it, here, again, is the video from Connecticut:
In my capacity as secretary of the gay Humanist charity the the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT), I've issued a press release roundly condemning these exorcisms. Here it is in full:
The gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has roundly condemned the exorcisms being performed on lesbian and gay people in a bid to purge them of their homosexuality.
PTT secretary George Broadhead said: “The revelation that these exorcisms are being carried out in a London Pentecostal Church and elsewhere is appalling. However, it comes as no surprise as this crackpot church, which originated in the US and goes in for speaking in tongues, is ultra homophobic. Such actions are much more dangerous than the so-called conversion therapy since they can cause physical as well as mental harm.
“It is worrying is that this could be much more widespread than it appears since there are almost 1 million Pentecostals in the UK.
“The sooner the authorities put a stop to these bizarre and dangerous practices, the better.”
If you can stomach it, here, again, is the video from Connecticut:
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Hatch, match, dispatch and the odd goat
“Morning, Vicar. We’d like to get married. Oh, can you sprinkle the sprog with some of that holy water while you’re at it. Oh, and Grandma’s dropped dead. Perhaps you can fit in a few words over the box.
“Then we’ll have had hatch, match and dispatch all in one, ha, ha.
“Oh, while you’re at it, can you bless the nanny goat?”
OK, bit of hyperbole. But it’s true that the Church of England is now going to allow people to get married (heterosexual couples, that is – but of course) and have their baby done at the same time.
Which just shows up the hypocrisy. On the one hand, same-sex partners should not have sex, because sex is for the married. They can’t get married in the UK (they can have a civil partnership, but that doesn’t count as marriage, you see), so they shouldn’t have nookie. It’s a sin.
Yet the unmarried can have sex if they’re opposite-sex couples, and that’s OK. All right, strictly, it’s not, but it is, if you follow me. Some traditionalists don’t think so, of course, and for once I agree with them. If the church stands for what it believes are biblical standards, then it should stick to them. Then we’ll all know where we stand. (Preferably, outside the bloody church!)
However, as you would expect, the church denies that all this goes against its teachings on the “sinfulness” of sex outside marriage. Well, in that it wouldn’t shy away from baptising a baby born a bastard these days, yes. It would, of course, baptise that sprog whether it had been born within or without wedlock. But by making it a family affair, where little Petunia or Justin can attend Mum and Dad’s wedding, the church is recognising (not merely noting) that people actually shag when they’re not married.
By association, it’s condoning it. There’s no getting away from it.
Of course, it’s dressing it up to make it sound all very jolly. The BBC story linked to above says, “They hope that by combining the two sacraments, the Church will be meeting the needs of real families who might have been discouraged from having a church wedding.”
Yes, get them into the church at all costs. Bugger the Bible. Let’s have more shows, lovely costumes, music, big white dress specially cut to accommodate the bump for the next one, which is on the way.
The church has got to do something to keep the interest up.
“But of course I’ll bless your nanny goat, my son. If you want to bring the billy in, we can do a wedding. Do you keep hamsters?”
“Then we’ll have had hatch, match and dispatch all in one, ha, ha.
“Oh, while you’re at it, can you bless the nanny goat?”
OK, bit of hyperbole. But it’s true that the Church of England is now going to allow people to get married (heterosexual couples, that is – but of course) and have their baby done at the same time.
Which just shows up the hypocrisy. On the one hand, same-sex partners should not have sex, because sex is for the married. They can’t get married in the UK (they can have a civil partnership, but that doesn’t count as marriage, you see), so they shouldn’t have nookie. It’s a sin.
Yet the unmarried can have sex if they’re opposite-sex couples, and that’s OK. All right, strictly, it’s not, but it is, if you follow me. Some traditionalists don’t think so, of course, and for once I agree with them. If the church stands for what it believes are biblical standards, then it should stick to them. Then we’ll all know where we stand. (Preferably, outside the bloody church!)
However, as you would expect, the church denies that all this goes against its teachings on the “sinfulness” of sex outside marriage. Well, in that it wouldn’t shy away from baptising a baby born a bastard these days, yes. It would, of course, baptise that sprog whether it had been born within or without wedlock. But by making it a family affair, where little Petunia or Justin can attend Mum and Dad’s wedding, the church is recognising (not merely noting) that people actually shag when they’re not married.
By association, it’s condoning it. There’s no getting away from it.
Of course, it’s dressing it up to make it sound all very jolly. The BBC story linked to above says, “They hope that by combining the two sacraments, the Church will be meeting the needs of real families who might have been discouraged from having a church wedding.”
Yes, get them into the church at all costs. Bugger the Bible. Let’s have more shows, lovely costumes, music, big white dress specially cut to accommodate the bump for the next one, which is on the way.
The church has got to do something to keep the interest up.
“But of course I’ll bless your nanny goat, my son. If you want to bring the billy in, we can do a wedding. Do you keep hamsters?”
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Good Christian parenting
If the story we discuss below is true, then so is what Philip Larkin says when, in the opening line of his poem, “This Be the Verse”, he declares, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.”
We hear that the parents of a US student, Bryce Faulkner (23), who is thought to be in “ex-gay” therapy, have threatened legal action over a website set up to find him.
This is according to Faulker’s boyfriend, who has said Faulkner is believed to be at an Exodus International ministry in Florida after his parents discovered he was gay.
“His friends have said he had no choice as his parents took away his phone, his car and his money,” we’re told in a story in Pink News.
God’s love, eh? Loving parents, eh? Loving Christians, eh?
Oh, by the way, the first line of the second stanza of Larkin’s poem, still referring to parents, is, “But they were fucked up in their turn”.
Make what you like of that. Meanwhile, enjoy the video we've embedded below, and check out the website in "Related links" below that.
__________
Related links:
Save Bryce website
Therapists in need of therapy – or are they laughing all the way to the bank?
Ex-gay? Can't be done, say shrinks
We hear that the parents of a US student, Bryce Faulkner (23), who is thought to be in “ex-gay” therapy, have threatened legal action over a website set up to find him.
This is according to Faulker’s boyfriend, who has said Faulkner is believed to be at an Exodus International ministry in Florida after his parents discovered he was gay.
“His friends have said he had no choice as his parents took away his phone, his car and his money,” we’re told in a story in Pink News.
His boyfriend Travis Swanson, 24, and gay rights activist Reverend Brett Harris have set up a website urging people to help find him.
Swanson told PinkNews.co.uk: “Bryce’s parents both called me and left messages threatening lawsuits and have contacted Rev. Harris saying the same thing. They said they want [the website] removed immediately.
“They have been informed that the only way that will happen is if Bryce tells me face to face alone that he wants it down. Mrs Faulkner assures us that will never happen. We told her in that case the site and movement will continue forward stronger than ever.
“She keeps telling us Bryce has known about the site for weeks and has talked to reporters about how silly it is but she refuses to say which publications they belong to. He has not talked to any that I have talked to, which is many from around the world.”
Last week, Swanson said he had spoken Faulkner briefly as he was being taken to the ministry.
In the tearful phone call, Faulkner described the “hateful” things he had been told about his homosexuality and described being made to read Bible passages.
Swanson said a friend of the family had heard Faulkner would be in Mississippi for three weeks and then in Florida for 14 months.
Exodus International has six ministries and 16 churches in Florida. Swanson believes Faulkner may be at one in Pensacola.
The church movement promises “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”.
Gay rights activists have said the controversial therapy does not work and can be deeply damaging.
It typically involves repeating Bible passages, periods of silence and no contact with the outside world.
God’s love, eh? Loving parents, eh? Loving Christians, eh?
Oh, by the way, the first line of the second stanza of Larkin’s poem, still referring to parents, is, “But they were fucked up in their turn”.
Make what you like of that. Meanwhile, enjoy the video we've embedded below, and check out the website in "Related links" below that.
__________
Related links:
Save Bryce website
Therapists in need of therapy – or are they laughing all the way to the bank?
Ex-gay? Can't be done, say shrinks
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Ooh-la-la! Not PC?
This should get them going. It’s French, but I’m sure there’ll be those who’ll say that using gay cops to advertise condoms is just not – well, PC.
The scene with the cops doesn’t come till 48 seconds into the 58-second ad, but some of the rest of it is quite amusing, so stick with it.
The ad closes with, “Les préservatifs qui donnent envie”, or “Condoms that give you desire”, hence the way the couples show signs of getting horny as the floating johnny drifts past.
Here’s the video. Enjoy!
The scene with the cops doesn’t come till 48 seconds into the 58-second ad, but some of the rest of it is quite amusing, so stick with it.
The ad closes with, “Les préservatifs qui donnent envie”, or “Condoms that give you desire”, hence the way the couples show signs of getting horny as the floating johnny drifts past.
Here’s the video. Enjoy!
Who's an atheist?
It’s begun. The filming of Series 5 of Doctor Who started in Cardiff yesterday, giving us the first view of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor in action.
The Doctor’s changed and so has the man in overall charge, but, hopefully, an air of atheism will remain. Executive producers Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat are both atheists, and both have incorporated nonreligious elements in their writings for the show since its return in 2005, culminating, in 2008, when Richard Dawkins played himself in The Stolen Earth.
That’s not to say that there aren’t religious elements, too. In Father’s Day, in 2005, it’s writer, Paul Cornell, had Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor seeking sanctuary from the Reapers in a church. Presumably, this was borne out of Cornell’s own Christian beliefs.
In Davies’s own scripts, the Doctor has often been portrayed as a Messiah-like character; notably in the 2007 Christmas Day special – Voyage of the Damned – complete with murdering angels, the Host, and, controversially, earlier in 2007, when David Tennant’s Gotham-like Tenth Doctor was “reborn” in Last of the Time Lords.
And it’s not confined to 21st-century Doctor Who. In the 1970s, in The Face of Evil, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor was worshipped by the Sevateem tribe as their god in a story that, apparently, was originally called The Day God Went Mad.
However, in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, in 2008, Moffat resurrected the Doctor’s wife, River Song, in a computer programme, and, according to a piece on Noise to Signal, “[Moffat] was untroubled by the issue of her earlier death. The concept of a soul is simply not part of this worldview, and so was not present in the story.”
There’s an article – Doctor Who, Atheism, and God – on the blog, The Christian Scribbler, which discusses faith and the lack of it in the show. It’s an interesting read, although completely misses the point of why nonbelievers create Godlike figures to “fill the gap”, as it puts it. It’s not because there’s a God; the only reason God (and other gods) exist in the first place is because religionists create them!
Some Christians often complain of an “atheist agenda” in Doctor Who, much the same as others complain of the “gay agenda” in the show (for more on that, see my earlier blog entry Who’s gay?). In reality, however, there’s no more an atheist agenda under Davies or Moffat than there would be a religious one under Cornell. Just as there has been no more a gay agenda under Davies than there will be a straight one under Moffat. Simply put, a writer’s beliefs (or lack of them) will inform their writing in the same way as any of their other experiences in life.
The Doctor’s changed and so has the man in overall charge, but, hopefully, an air of atheism will remain. Executive producers Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat are both atheists, and both have incorporated nonreligious elements in their writings for the show since its return in 2005, culminating, in 2008, when Richard Dawkins played himself in The Stolen Earth.
That’s not to say that there aren’t religious elements, too. In Father’s Day, in 2005, it’s writer, Paul Cornell, had Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor seeking sanctuary from the Reapers in a church. Presumably, this was borne out of Cornell’s own Christian beliefs.
In Davies’s own scripts, the Doctor has often been portrayed as a Messiah-like character; notably in the 2007 Christmas Day special – Voyage of the Damned – complete with murdering angels, the Host, and, controversially, earlier in 2007, when David Tennant’s Gotham-like Tenth Doctor was “reborn” in Last of the Time Lords.
And it’s not confined to 21st-century Doctor Who. In the 1970s, in The Face of Evil, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor was worshipped by the Sevateem tribe as their god in a story that, apparently, was originally called The Day God Went Mad.
However, in Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, in 2008, Moffat resurrected the Doctor’s wife, River Song, in a computer programme, and, according to a piece on Noise to Signal, “[Moffat] was untroubled by the issue of her earlier death. The concept of a soul is simply not part of this worldview, and so was not present in the story.”
There’s an article – Doctor Who, Atheism, and God – on the blog, The Christian Scribbler, which discusses faith and the lack of it in the show. It’s an interesting read, although completely misses the point of why nonbelievers create Godlike figures to “fill the gap”, as it puts it. It’s not because there’s a God; the only reason God (and other gods) exist in the first place is because religionists create them!
Some Christians often complain of an “atheist agenda” in Doctor Who, much the same as others complain of the “gay agenda” in the show (for more on that, see my earlier blog entry Who’s gay?). In reality, however, there’s no more an atheist agenda under Davies or Moffat than there would be a religious one under Cornell. Just as there has been no more a gay agenda under Davies than there will be a straight one under Moffat. Simply put, a writer’s beliefs (or lack of them) will inform their writing in the same way as any of their other experiences in life.
Monday, 20 July 2009
Ray Gosling OAP
Last night (Sunday), BBC Four broadcast the first in Ray Gosling’s highly acclaimed three-part documentary series, Ray Gosling Reports.
Gosling is a journalist, author, broadcaster and gay-rights activist, who was an early pioneer of the British gay-rights movement. In the 1960s, he worked with Allan Horsfall (pictured with Gosling) – also a long-time gay-rights activist – in the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee, which later became the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).
Both men are still involved with CHE today, as well as, for many years, running Gay Monitor, which, according to its website, watches “court cases that involve male gay sex. Often we’ve befriended. Some cases have been very distressing. Of course there have been a lot of different kinds of cases … But one theme has cropped up again and again – this is historical abuse.”
Gosling was a prolific programme maker, becoming one of the best-known faces on television in the 1960s and 70s.
In 2005, Nottingham Trent University stepped in to save Gosling’s archive of work, described as “an amazing treasure trove of groundbreaking TV and radio work which was in danger of being lost forever”. The archive, which includes films, tapes, scripts, cuttings and background notes providing a fascinating perspective on 40 years of social history, is now safely preserved within the university’s School of Arts, Communication and Culture.
In 2007, at Grierson, his BBC Four documentary Ray Gosling OAP beat off tough competition from Alan Sugar’s The Apprentice to collect the Jonathan Gili Award For Most Entertaining Documentary.
The three documentaries are Ray Gosling Reports: Bankrupt, Ray Gosling Reports: Pension Crisis and Ray Gosling Reports: OAP. The second and third episodes can be seen on BBC Four tonight (11.30 p.m.) and Tuesday (11.30 p.m.), respectively.
__________
Related Pink Triangle link:
Liberty?
Pink religion, anyone?
There’s been talk lately about a special part of the police in the UK set up to accommodate yet another religion – this time pagans.
An interesting editorial in Pink News asks why gays shouldn’t set up their own religion, and get special holidays. Seems like a good idea.
What sticks in the craw, though, about this amusing article is that for some reason best known to themselves Pink News have put a disclaimer under it:
Is it not up to us, the readers, to decide whether the article is a joke or not? And what if the author were mocking religion? Would that mean Pink News would go all politically correct and refuse to use the article? This disclaimer suggests that it would.
An interesting editorial in Pink News asks why gays shouldn’t set up their own religion, and get special holidays. Seems like a good idea.
What sticks in the craw, though, about this amusing article is that for some reason best known to themselves Pink News have put a disclaimer under it:
Just to be clear, this article is obviously a joke. It provides soome [sic] light relief to PinkNews.co.uk readers ahead of the weekend. The author is not mocking religion. It doesn't represent the views of PinkNews.co.uk.
Is it not up to us, the readers, to decide whether the article is a joke or not? And what if the author were mocking religion? Would that mean Pink News would go all politically correct and refuse to use the article? This disclaimer suggests that it would.
Failing to bring home the bacon
Another instance of how religion gets in the way of people’s work and the service they owe to others comes to us from the UK’s Mail.
Muslim care home owner “bans pensioners from eating bacon sandwiches”, says the headline.
The story tells us:
Bacon sarnies are a favourite at the home, and this chap, according to the Mail, didn’t even consult the residents.
Now he may have an objection to having dead pig on his plate, and no one’s asking him to eat it. But, if his job involves handling it and he wishes not to, he’s in the wrong job. However, he says the residents are now able to have whatever meat they want.
If he did refuse to serve them the meat they wanted, then he is a disgrace.
One unnamed member of staff said it was quite wrong for him to impose his cultural and religious beliefs on others. Not only is it a question of not allowing pork, it seems, but insisting that other meats be halal only – in other words, killed cruelly to satisfy religious whims, and allowed to be so by our supine government, which makes exceptions for Muslims in its rules on animal slaughter.
If this chap has changed his ways, then fine. But it’s time this sort of behaviour was stamped on.
__________
Related links:
In favour of animal suffering
Animals suffer to appease Muslim prisoners
Whingeing Muslim loses employment case
Muslim care home owner “bans pensioners from eating bacon sandwiches”, says the headline.
The story tells us:
A Muslim care home owner has been branded “a disgrace” after banning his pensioner residents from eating bacon.
The 40 pensioners – none of them Muslim – were shocked when all pork products were cut off the menu by owner Dr Zulfikar Ali Khan.
He stopped deliveries from the butcher who supplied the home for years and instead ordered halal-meat only from another firm.
Bacon sarnies are a favourite at the home, and this chap, according to the Mail, didn’t even consult the residents.
Now he may have an objection to having dead pig on his plate, and no one’s asking him to eat it. But, if his job involves handling it and he wishes not to, he’s in the wrong job. However, he says the residents are now able to have whatever meat they want.
If he did refuse to serve them the meat they wanted, then he is a disgrace.
One unnamed member of staff said it was quite wrong for him to impose his cultural and religious beliefs on others. Not only is it a question of not allowing pork, it seems, but insisting that other meats be halal only – in other words, killed cruelly to satisfy religious whims, and allowed to be so by our supine government, which makes exceptions for Muslims in its rules on animal slaughter.
If this chap has changed his ways, then fine. But it’s time this sort of behaviour was stamped on.
__________
Related links:
In favour of animal suffering
Animals suffer to appease Muslim prisoners
Whingeing Muslim loses employment case
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Liberty?
The venerable Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) – one of Britain’s oldest gay campaigning groups – has been given the heave-ho from the civil-liberties campaigning group Liberty.
Pink News tells us it was “allegedly over a motion which called for a time limit on reporting child sex abuse”. Its story goes on:
CHE – of whose executive committee your humble blogger was once a member, back in the day – says that, in cases of historic abuse, evidence or acknowledgment of an accused man’s being gay can damage his chances of acquittal due to homophobia and confusion between homosexuality and paedophilia.
The organisation’s life president, Allan Horsfall, wrote in its latest annual report, “It is now beyond dispute that a proportion of historical abuse cases result from false allegations that are driven by the prospect of handsome compensation awards.”
Perhaps this is something Liberty is afraid of acknowledging. After all, the slightest suggestion of underage sex will get them twitching and thinking of old pervs abusing small children. Perhaps they believe that someone who is accused of having had consensual sexual contact, years ago, with someone just below the age of consent at the time ought to be pursued to the grave, never forgiven, never understood, never be considered to have maybe been innocent of the charge.
Horsfall told Pink News, “If Liberty didn’t like [the motion], they should have let it go forward to debate. It’s almost impossible to discuss.
“They just said, ‘We’re going to cancel your affiliation.’ They haven’t said the reason but we’re sure this is the reason.”
For years now, Horsfall and a CHE vice-president, the broadcaster Ray Gosling, have been running something called Gay Monitor, which, according to its website, has for 10 years been “watching court cases that involve male gay sex. Often we’ve befriended. Some cases have been very distressing. Of course there have been a lot of different kinds of cases.
“But one theme has cropped up again and again – this is historical abuse.”
I think Gosling and Horsfall are two men who know what they’re talking about. Gosling – in his idiosyncratic style – cites a recent case here. I recommend it.
Liberty wouldn’t talk to Pink News, incidentally. It would be interesting to know what they think. It would be interesting to question them and put them on the spot.
Pink News tells us it was “allegedly over a motion which called for a time limit on reporting child sex abuse”. Its story goes on:
The gay rights group, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, was informed in April that its affiliation with Liberty would be terminated.
A letter from Liberty director of operations Raj Chandarana said that “significant” concerns had been raised about CHE and the “appropriateness of continued affiliation to Liberty”.
The letter cited issues around “the nature and size of the CHE membership, governance structures, constitution, electoral process, policy-making process, financial transparency, recent issues and commitment to the objectives of Liberty”.
It added: “In particular, your motion on child sex abuse is also clearly contrary to the objectives of Liberty, as listed in Article 2 of Liberty’s constitution.”
The contentious motion read: “We urge the government to introduce a Statute of Limitation which would debar any criminal prosecution in respect of alleged child abuse unless the matter was brought to the attention of the police within five years of the complainant reaching the age of majority.”
CHE – of whose executive committee your humble blogger was once a member, back in the day – says that, in cases of historic abuse, evidence or acknowledgment of an accused man’s being gay can damage his chances of acquittal due to homophobia and confusion between homosexuality and paedophilia.
The organisation’s life president, Allan Horsfall, wrote in its latest annual report, “It is now beyond dispute that a proportion of historical abuse cases result from false allegations that are driven by the prospect of handsome compensation awards.”
Perhaps this is something Liberty is afraid of acknowledging. After all, the slightest suggestion of underage sex will get them twitching and thinking of old pervs abusing small children. Perhaps they believe that someone who is accused of having had consensual sexual contact, years ago, with someone just below the age of consent at the time ought to be pursued to the grave, never forgiven, never understood, never be considered to have maybe been innocent of the charge.
Horsfall told Pink News, “If Liberty didn’t like [the motion], they should have let it go forward to debate. It’s almost impossible to discuss.
“They just said, ‘We’re going to cancel your affiliation.’ They haven’t said the reason but we’re sure this is the reason.”
For years now, Horsfall and a CHE vice-president, the broadcaster Ray Gosling, have been running something called Gay Monitor, which, according to its website, has for 10 years been “watching court cases that involve male gay sex. Often we’ve befriended. Some cases have been very distressing. Of course there have been a lot of different kinds of cases.
“But one theme has cropped up again and again – this is historical abuse.”
I think Gosling and Horsfall are two men who know what they’re talking about. Gosling – in his idiosyncratic style – cites a recent case here. I recommend it.
Liberty wouldn’t talk to Pink News, incidentally. It would be interesting to know what they think. It would be interesting to question them and put them on the spot.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Do you torture people? Oh, good! Come in and have a cup of tea!
Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan and Colombia are among the abusers of human rights the British government is inviting to a jolly little gathering at which it hopes they'll buy weapons.
The Christian think tank Ekklesia pulls no punches with its headline, UK Government invites human rights abusers to arms fair.
It’s amazing how the great and the good can speak of upholding human rights while working with the abusers of those human rights to abuse human rights even further.
“The list of invited countries was released after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), the government body responsible for inviting delegates,” says an Ekklesia bulletin.
Read it all here.
The Christian think tank Ekklesia pulls no punches with its headline, UK Government invites human rights abusers to arms fair.
It’s amazing how the great and the good can speak of upholding human rights while working with the abusers of those human rights to abuse human rights even further.
“The list of invited countries was released after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), the government body responsible for inviting delegates,” says an Ekklesia bulletin.
Read it all here.
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