No, it’s not the Montana GOP- yet.
It’s Uganda.
From my friend Kathy Baldock:
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the “Kill the Gays Bill” is in the final stages of review in the Ugandan Parliament. There is one final chance to stop this bill from coming to the vote–applying pressure on Hon. Stephen Tashobya, the Chair of the Legal & Parliamentary Affairs. Behind the scene maneuvering has been revealed by a brave insider. It is critical to give input to Tashobya NOW.
First, listen to this podcast.
Second, listen to this:
This fundamentalist, smug and patronizing interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Romans by Mr Laszloffy is used to villify and degrade other human beings- and in particular, a human being I consider to be a friend.
Jamee Greer is not part of the radical homosexual agenda or a latter-day Gomorran. He is a man who simply wants identical freedom for all Montanans. This irresponsible podcast advocates harsh judgment, not God’s love and forgiveness.
I’m terrified that some fundamentalist is going to start picking off liberal lobbyists.
Third: If something happens to Jamee Greer because of this, Mr Laszloffy, the cries to heaven will be deafening. So will my words. And they will be these: You are personally responsible for spreading hate and destruction. And I will speak them until you repent.
I asked My friend Kathy to do a bit more work with this. As a straight woman, a Christian, a non-Montanan and a friend, she’s got more objectivity than I do right now.
RESPONSE TO MONTANA FAMILY FOUNDATION’S JEFF LASZLOFFY
by Kathy Baldock, Canyonwalkerconnections.com
The Word of God is a Holy Text. Abuse of the Word of God, unfortunately is rampant in the church. Theology is a compilation of the interpretation that we read (re-written from the original Greek and Hebrew), with our personal translation of what those words mean as understood in our context, our language and our own personal filters. Added to all this, is the personal revelation and relationship we individually have with Jesus.
So, is there room for one person to view Scripture differently than another person? Of course.
One of the most flagrant mis-uses and abuses of verses of the Bible is the section quoted by Jeff Lazloffy on the Legislative Update on the Montana Family Foundation Radio podcast.
Mr. Lazloffy bases his assessment of a group of people at the legislative session in Montana on some verses from the Book of Romans. Verses originally spoken to a group of people left behind in Rome in about 60 AD after all the converted Jewish Christians, the Jews and Gentile “acting like Christians” were forced to leave Rome. Theses groups were infighting over who was right, who got to use the temple space (kind of like today), so the Caesar kicked all the trouble makers out of Rome in the Edict of 54 AD. They were excommunicated for five years. So, after five years, the baby Christians left behind, the ones that were once polytheists and idol worshippers (from generations and culture of both) had fallen back into their old ways of worship in the temples. Duh! They were doing what they knew to do and, they had no mentors around to help stop the falling back.
Priscilla carried a letter from Paul to these Romans (hence the Book) and the letter told the once-gentiles-then-believers-now gentiles-again to please recall commitment once made. Having once known Jesus as Lord, they had turned from Him. THAT was the grave sin. Turning back to idol worship. Not same sex behaviors! Not homosexuality. Idol worship. Putting others things before the commitment to God.
But, misreading and abusing this text from Romans give more fuel to the anti gay crowd, so, we keep on repeating the scenario. “If you are gay and will not stop being gay, God will cut you loose and you will be a reprobate.” Noooooo. If you once had the knowledge of God and turn from Him, He will let you go your own way. Back to your old stuff.
For a full treatment of these verses go to “Romans 1:18-32. . .To Whom Was This Directed?”
It is dreadful when Christians misuse Holy Words to subjugate, threaten and demonize any other group of people . I read the Gospel as Good News. How did a Book of love get to become a weapon of fear and destruction? This is how: you put it in the hands of a people who indeed have an agenda of fear and exclusion, two messages completely contrary to the message of the Gospel.
I speak the same language as you Mr. Lazloffy, so this is for you. I do not believe for one minute that God showed you a vision of Mr. Greer in the way you depicted it. If those were God’s eyes, you would have seen someone you are called to love and serve, not judge and oppress. You were looking at one of God’s children, equal to you in His eyes. If you need a verse, stop camping on the misuse of Romans 1: 28 and drop on back to Isaiah 58:6-12. Cut the cords of oppression, fight for justice. Stop laying more oppression onto the backs of others.
I am assuming many of the objects of your version or “God love” have left churches. Yet, you want them to follow the club rules and, not only have they never bought into the rules, you won’t even let them in the club. (My assumption here, but I do assume you are not welcoming of gay/trans people in your home church, unless they change that is.)
The church has gotten to looking very much unlike Jesus. Rather than look at this group of others as “steeped in sin”, do what God really did ask of you: look at your own sin and, back to this again, love and serve.
Christians like you are keeping the youth away from churches, denying 5% of the population access to a God that somehow was able to handle my sorry self and yours. If He wants to make someone not gay, or not liberal, or not whatever the thing they are that makes you uncomfortable, then let Him do it. This stinky stuff called self-righteousness that we wear out in public is a stench to a Holy God. And it is stinky to others too.
Go love and serve, fight for justice and against oppression and then, you might actually smell sweet enough, like Jesus, to draw people to Him instead of repulsing them away.
I am a straight Evangelical Christian who is finally understanding the message of Jesus that is not embodied in Romans 1:28. The overarching message of the Bible is not power packed into six anti gay verses, it is this : love your neighbor (told once) and love your enemy/the stranger (told twenty six times). I do not need a vision to confirm that you are failing at that calling. I only needed to listen to your three minute legislative summary.
Go apologize and serve the others, then, you will begin to look like the Lord I love and serve
Kathy at CanyonWalker Connections does a great job of exposing Focus On The Family‘s lies. Excerpt:
My team is looking stupid. I’d like to think I live my life with genuine concern and grace towards others. Then, some person or group wears the same team jersey comes along and treats people badly, messing up all the traction. Christians can be amongst the kindest, most loving, giving and forgiving people and then, well, you know. We can also be the meanest, most hateful people when we think that you have it wrong and we have it right.
Fabulous!
This is a great piece- especially if you’re unsure how to respond to the Christianist Agenda. Read it all here.
The Day of Dialogue for hate group Focus on the Family just released their Facebook page last week. From Canyonwalker Connections:
“Day of Dialogue” from Focus on the Family is not What Jesus Would Do. This is a call to action for Christian youth to target GLBT youth with a “God has a better plan for you” message. I’m all for a God loves you conversation, but not a conversation that directly targets the most vulnerable of the vulnerable in our society–the GLBT youth.
…and Kathy’s not amused.
Read her excellent take (backed up with scripture quotes!) here.
Yesterday, the Montana House of Representatives voted to nullify any local anti-discrimination ordinances (Missoula and Bozeman), forcing cities and towns to rely on state law which doesn’t protect LGBT persons from discrimination. 60 Republicans voted for the bill, all 32 House Democrats joined by seven enlightened Republicans voted against. From The Missoulian
It was the second bill that passed Tuesday to nullify a locally adopted policy in Missoula. Earlier, the House banned enactment of local initiatives such as the one Missoula County voters approved in 2006 to make marijuana crimes the lowest priority of law enforcement.
“It is ironic that the first bill of the day and the last bill of the day both intend to override the expressed will of Missoulians to govern ourselves as we see fit,” said Rep. Diane Sands, D-Missoula.
It’s time to call a spade a spade.
There is only one way to describe the faction of the Montana Republican party which is voting to legislate their own arrogant morality, usurping the clear will of persons in municipalities to govern themselves in favor of theological, idealogical and biblical precepts while blatantly ignoring science, reason and due diligence: Religious extremism.
Like The Taliban.
And there is not much they won’t do to erode the rights of other human beings- including ignoring valid democratic processes. I almost believe that they won’t be happy until the statue of the Goddess of Liberty is torn from the top of the Capitol Building and replaced with a cross….
In my opinion, term limits have simply contributed to this process, giving people no chance to cultivate relationships and actually govern. Instead, people are focused on issues and positions, not long-term goals and objectives.
Montana’s Taliban needs to be called to accountability. I refuse to believe that the will of the people is to strip other human beings of protections which were carefully put into place by those who know them best. I refuse to believe that the majority of Montanans approve of the ignorant, dirty dancing these legislators are doing in the name of God their constituents. I refuse to believe that most Montanans want LGBT persons discriminated against, maimed- perhaps dead, because of a lack of protection.
Prove me right. Please.
I know. Provocative question.
But I can’t help asking it when I see stories of deliberate arson evicting LGBT’s from the safety of their homes. I also ask the question (appropriately modified) when I see ant-queer graffiti, read about harassment and beatings involving people who are too much like me to make me feel beyond it.
This house, owned by a gay couple in Clayton, North Carolina was destroyed early Friday morning. The story is here.
There was a history of anti-gay messages, graffiti, harassment and vandalism before the blaze. The couple is not identified for “fear of their safety”. The neighbor who talked to the reporter also did so only anonymously. We are afraid.
And the Christianists call us a threat- among other nasty things.
So for the purposes of argument I will ask the following questions to those who believe equality only applies to white, heterosexual, cis-gendered, procreating, (&etc) Christians:
But the reverse? Happens all the time. And we take it. Mostly, we do.
Fucked, ain’t it?
And I can’t help but feeling if we don’t get our act together and start acting like a community instead of picking little fights all over the place, squabbling over minutiae that, in the final analysis makes little difference (check the comments section of any LGBT blog), it’s going to continue to get worse.
I am not advocating that we become terrorists, or engage in any similar behavior, only that we be radically truthful. Self-defensive, if you will.
I know. Go ahead. That’s what the comments section is for.
Remember the kid whose mom let him dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo for Halloween?
Her Pastor’s thrown her out. I couldn’t believe it either. Read it here.
Pastor(?) Scott Lively’s self-loathing-fueled rants against LGBT persons continues with him minimizing the role of hate in the murder of David Kato in Uganda and, more incredibly still, inflating the fears of God-fearing people with histrionic inducing rhetoric. To wit:
There is indeed evil in Uganda today, but it is not the reaction of Christian and Moslem citizens to the rape of their culture. It is the pink-gloved hand of western powers that are cutting the throat of Africa’s most God-fearing country, and one of the world‘s most promising Christian democracies.
…The murderers are the lavender Marxists, the now-global network of sexual revolutionaries bent on remaking the entire world in their own perverted image, whose juggernaut has toppled even once mighty Britain, crushing under their lavender boots after eight centuries the symbol of its Christian power: the Magna Charta, whose first principle had proclaimed “The English church must be free!” These revolutionists of Sodom, who march triumphantly through all the major cities of the western world to flaunt their defeat of moral law, and who hold both Hollywood and the heart of America’s president in their iron grip: These very same zealots have fixed their malevolent gaze on Christian Uganda.
Disgusting. He is a terrorist, plain and simple.
He is promoting terror and fear- and through it, violence in the name of the Gospel- and most of us know that the Jesus of scripture would never countenance this.
Hold your nose and read the rest here.
And then tell everyone you know about this ignorant bigot- who in my opinion is no different than any other radical fundamentalist advocating violence….
Oh, and Mr Lively- if you’re reading this, I have one thing to say to you: You have blood on your hands.
Update: Kathy Baldock’s response here.
“Opposite-sex relationships are the only type capable of producing children through natural intercourse and the only ones assured of providing children with both a mother and a father. Affirming only opposite-sex relationships as ‘marriage’ thus makes perfect sense. But affirming same-sex relationships as ‘marriages’ makes no sense. These relationships are incapable of producing children through their sexual union.
And while some homosexual couples do raise children (most of whom were conceived in previous heterosexual relationships), such arrangements by definition deprive a child of his or her birthright to be raised by both a biological mother and father. Maryland may choose to tolerate and even protect such unconventional childrearing by allowing adoption by homosexual partners or couples. But it has no obligation to actively affirm and celebrate (through ‘marriage’) the deliberate creation of permanently motherless or fatherless families.”
These are the same arguments that have been trotted out by the proponents of Proposition 8. It fails to account for centuries of family law that accord rights and responsibilities to siblings, grandparents, adopted parents, and many many many other people who have nothing to do with the actual procreation of the child, and, yes, even to same-sex parents of children. And if marriage were purely for procreation, why would childless couples allowed to married, or at least why a marriage certificate isn’t merely a “learner’s permit”, and no rights or responsibilities conferred until a child is produced?And also failing is to show how any mechanism barring same sex couples from marrying achieves this goal.
Is he really proposing that if homosexual couples were allowed to marry, that it heterosexuals would somehow fail to produce children? It’s akin to say that by allowing interracial couples to marry, that that would somehow hurt white couples? There is no mechanism which would cause either, and both are just grounded in irrational discrimination.
After discussing his belief that marriage is about “responsible procreation,” state Rep. Rich Anderson (R-Clarinda) asked what could come next if the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage is allowed to stand. He concluded that it would lead to legalized polygamy and incest.
I could also cite the example of Dean Cannon, the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, who wants to return the ban on adoption by Gay & Lesbian couples.
Cannon discussed his views in an interview with the Florida Baptist Witness news outlet, where he said that the Republican-controlled legislature would be prepared to attempt to resurrect the adoption ban depending on how the issue plays out in more court districts or the administration of Governor Rick Scott.
“Until we know how the governor and DCF secretary are going to apply it, it’s not a foregone conclusion that the Legislature should step in,” said Cannon. “If we think we should, we’re certainly prepared and willing to do so.”
McCarthyism n. The practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence.
Harvey Milk once said that Gay people need to come out. Why? Simply because this is how the perceptions of evil and sick and any other twisted definition the Reich-wing comes up with targeting gays, lesbians, bis, trans, persons can be stripped away and exposed for the outright bigotry and lies they are. When people can relate to one another as human beings and not some form of vague ideological vitriol, then the humanity shines not the bigotry.
A couple of posts from the blogosphere seem ready to ask just that.
Kathy Baldock from Canyonwalker Connections continues to chronicle Scott Lively’s hate filled ravings- antics that have led to the murder of gentle-spirited David Kato in Uganda. 
Excerpt:
There has been much focus on Scott Lively again in the past day as well. For his involvement in the “Kill the Gays” Bill, read the following post. I wrote to Mr. Lively about a year ago and we have maintained a mostly respectful exchange over the months. I will not directly quote him; that is my part of the bargain for keeping this communication open.
Michael Hamar posted a provocative article on Bilerico this morning entitled “65 Years After Auschwitz And The Christianists Have Learned Nothing.” Excerpt:
The hatred and malicious denigration of others can lead to shocking horrors, yet conservative Christians in the USA and their minions and hangers overseas (such as in Uganda) have apparently learned nothing from the nightmare of the Nazi regime and its deadly propaganda campaign against Jews. We hear much about supposedly “protecting marriage” from the Christian right, but their true agenda is denigrating LGBT citizens and keeping us a hated class of individuals.
Read it here. And I mean read it. Then add your voice to the conversation.
From Eternity To Here 