Bash Back!, a radical gay-rights group (“radical” meaning that they’ve crashed the RNC and the HRC dinner and distributed barf bags with “Corportate Pride Makes Me Sick” at gay pride events) has completely freaked out the Catholic League after they interrupted a church service in Mount Hope, MI. The Mount Hope, an Assembly of God place of worship found their morning service interrupted after members of the group pulled a fire alarm, handed out pamphlets and yelled at parishioners. The Lansing City Pulse reports:
“The “action” began early Sunday morning at the Northstar Center on Lathrop Street in Lansing where a group of around 20 protesters gathered. Pink bandanas, signs, a rainbow-colored “Bash Back!” flag and a pink, wooden cross were distributed among about half the group – the “outside team.” The rest – “inside team” – were dressed in conservative clothes and carried Bibles and stacks of fliers, intending to blend in to the church‘s 11:30 a.m. “contemporary-laid back service.”
City Pulse was alerted to the Bash Back event through a press release and had no prior knowledge of where the “action” would take place or what it would entail.
“We’re having an action today,” one of the organizers told this reporter at the Northstar Center. “You’re in for a treat.”
Bash Back began picketing outside the church doors soon after the 11:30 service began. The group also handed out fliers, which were much calmer in tone and targeted more at the curious than the angry.”
No arrests were made, but that hasn’t stopped Catholic League president Bill Donohue from issuing a press release about the incident under the headline “Gay Fascists Storm Church”:
“The real story here is the refusal of the mainstream media to cover what is surely one of the most disturbing events of 2008. If an organized group of gay bashers stormed a gay church, there is not a single sentient person in the United States who wouldn’t know about it…This is urban fascism come to America’s heartland. It must be quickly stopped before it gets out of control. We are contacting Mike Cox, the Attorney General of Michigan, calling for an investigation.”
There’s an entertaining/hilarious/crazy account of the event on Wikipedia’s Bash Back! page in a section called “2008 Cowardly attack on Christian Church” that we can only assume was written by one of the terrified church people:
“Bash Back! being the hate filled cowards that they are viciously attacked a innocent christian church in Lansing Michigan. True to there sex perversion ways, these sub-humans terrorists used condoms & gross sexual desplays [sic] to abuse the chuildren [sic] in the church – because as we all know, the loony liberal left doesn’t care about children or anyone but themselves.
Prayer had just finished when men and women stood up in pockets across the congregation, on the main floor and in the balcony. “Jesus was gay,” they shouted among other profanities and blasphemies as they rushed the stage. Some forced their way through rows of women and kids to try to hang a profane banner from the balcony while others began tossing fliers into the air. Two women made their way to the pulpit and began to kiss.”
And I thought I’d have trouble finding things to write about.
How about we take this to the next level?
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fredo777
lol
This kind of action, while interesting, probably isn’t doing our community much favors.
On a side-note, Mike Cox is aptly named. Complete dick-head who went out of his way (all the way from here in MI) to butt in + try to get Cali Supreme Court to reverse their decision to allow gay marriages with the cockamamie excuse that it would affect Michigan if its citizens went there, got married, + came back (even though Michigan already outlawed gay marriage years ago).
D-bag alert.
fredo777
* many favors
JT
No matter how silly or stupid the church, its leaders, or its beliefs, protests need to happen outside. Let them rule their own deluded idiots with iron fists; it’s when the churches reach beyond their walls that they affect our lives. And that’s where the protests need to happen.
This does nothing to help anyone, no matter how entertaining it is.
Othniel
“And I thought I’d have trouble finding things to write about.”
Remember, we are America’s creative class, and never despair on this point. You are really doing a great job, and I for one enjoy this blog more than any I follow.
Darrell6tt
What is missing from this account is why they did this. What did the members of this congregation do to make them the target? I don’t know. (And “afraid” is misspelled in your headline.)
Whateva
Look like terrorists to me. Is it so impossible to show some class? Come on.
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Xn_O-mM2sFk/SRmorRFyZiI/AAAAAAAAB9o/LswCSeyc1XE/s400/BackBash.jpg[/img]
Japhy Grant
@Darrell6tt: Thanks for pointing out the typo. For their motivations, check the linked article– though basically the answer is “We don’t know”.
audiored
Religion is insanity.
Eugene
It is shocking that these people would intervene in and interrupt the lives of innocent civilians. I mean, most Catholics would never interfere in the lives of GLBT people to deny them their human rights, would they?
I know I would never target any specific group and I have no malice towards Catholics or Mormons. Therefore, they should not take it the wrong way that I am proposing an amendment to the US constitution. The amendment will ban people from marrying their cats and dogs. I mean, if people are allowed to do that, then the next thing that will happen is that Catholics and Mormons will also get married.
Note: To those Catholics and Mormons who did the decent thing in terms of your scriptures and in secular terms, thank you.
Wolf
Perhaps we should just nail a thesis to the door and all wander into the wilderness.
The Assemblies of God Mega-Churches SUPPORTED PROP 8. Weather they be in CA or UT.
Also it appears thet The Assembly of God Churches in MI are not very well liked by others also.
http://onthuhlist.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/assemblies-of-god-michigan-vs-christianity-part-2/
RESEARCH IS A WONDERFUL THING
Darth Paul
@Whateva: Wow, who knew religious blowhards were so sensitive that they think gatecrashing is “terrorism.” Way to cheapen and trivialize the real victims of real terrorism, you queef. You’re a disgrace to your country.
Dubwise
When you have taken a sacred right, be prepared to have the fight brought to those areas you find sacred.
I’m not saying it’s probably the best way to go about it….but they shouldn’t be surprised at the anger.
michael
I completely understand the anger and outrage that people feel after what happened last Tuesday. I was very angry as well, but knowing myself, I am very careful at what I say and do when I am angry. I know that my words and actions are much more intelligent and heartfelt when I simmer down. I do not condone the actions that these people took. None of them are doing the gay rights movement any favors. They are making us look the same as those people who bomb abortion clinics.
It is without a doubt that we LGBT folks need to continue to fight. But the way we fight is important. I also believe that as gay people we cannot allow ourselves to be made unhappy and miserable because of this. If we do we may be facing a very unhappy life.
Just because there is still so much ignorance and hate in the world does not mean that we cannot lead as happy, productive lives as we can. Just because they refuse to record our commitments to each other does not mean that it cheapens our commitments in anyway. Still get married, go to New England, go to Canada and get married and somewhere in this world it will be recorded. If you live in a state you cannot completely bare to live in and seem hopeless, like Mississippi or Tennessee,
then try to go somewhere better. If you want children, leave Arkansas. We as gay people need to pull together in love. We need to honor and celebrate each other and not allow the hatred expressed toward us to permeate our consciousness. We need to embrace more people in our communities, including our transgendered brothers and sisters. We can love ourselves and each other through this, and out of this. A very wise person told me that there are only 3 things we need in order to be happy, optimism, hope and something to love. So let us have all 3 and let the something to love be our community. Because if we love
our community then nothing will stop us. And love is the thing that is most enviable by all those who hate us. If they had it then they would not persecute us.
So I applaud those who want to do something about our rights and are willing to become involved. But please consider how you
select to go about it. Becoming like them does not make us who we truly are, its just ignorance and hate fighting ignorance and hate and I believe that we as gay people are better than that.
Othniel
@ Michael
“If you want children, leave Arkansas.”
This truly is thoughtless and in fact hurtful. First, there is the simple realtity that there are not enough foster parents in Arkansas to meet the needs of the children, who really ought to come first, don’t you think?
Second a few people around here, like me, are gay adoptive dads whose children were just disowned by some of their Arkansas relatives. Now I agree with you to extent that I am not going to my Mom’s for Thanksgiving, but why should I be forced to say I will never ever move back to what was once home, or deprive my kids of those of their relatives who still love them?
And you come and tell my sons to just be patient. Right now they hurt, and I love them enough not to do that.
But then what would I know, I went to high school in Memphis, where the people of our ilk seem to be of less value to you than egg laying hens.
Sorry to yelp, but contrary to what America believes gay dads are as protective of their kids as anybody – sometimes due to “queer” circumstances more so.
Next time you feel impelled to preach to the community, “please consider how you
select to go about it.”
jarvisbearcub
“If an organized group of gay bashers stormed a gay church, there is not a single sentient person in the United States who wouldn’t know about it…”
Bill Donohue is really right on this. Who can forget how the 27+ instances of crimes between 1973 and 1997 against gay churchees, including murder and arson, were splashed across the front pages of newspapers all across the country and covered every night on the national evening news and CNN.
These instances listed here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Report_to_the_President_for_the_White_House_Conference_On_Hate_Crimes are all common knowledge as having been recorded by the radically liberal media. Oh wait, no one knows about these because the gay church is so ghettoized by the mainstream church that nobody cares? The same mainstream church that convinces people that gays are taking over through the lies spread by the liberal media? Oh ok…
Mark
As long as religious people insist on using Bronze Age mythology as the basis of their world view, I’m all for fighting back as hard as possible.
If a few religious dickwads get upset during our actions, well, too bad. You don’t live in the 21st century with the rest of us. You’re as primitive in thought and belief as jungle tribal cultures. You need a little jolt of reality. I’m glad queer people are providing a little bit of it for them.
ChristopherJ
I live in Lansing near that church. They fund an ex-gay program and every year around Halloween they host a “haunted house” where instead of ghosts and goblins, they have people dressed as pastors marrying same gender couples with horns and women having bloody abortions. It’s pretty despicable.
Carsen T.
hehehehe
Man I bet those parents wished their kids were locked away in the sunday school. LOLz, that is the reason they have sunday schools at church so as to protect the kids from the loonies until they are old enough to think otherwise. But then again I come from a Catholic parish that can’t afford to pay for their sunday school teachers so it is basically me and my friends teaching sunday school and the summer camp. The parents called for it after our crazy Opus Dei priest managed to say not only that all the people who have sex not for procreation are all going to hell no matter if you are gay or straight, but that kids from divorces all grow up to be shameful members of society, and to top it off a full discription of a method of abortion. I am pretty sure that is more harmful for the little children then a bunch of LGBT people rushing a church. So yeah I am laughing hard. But yeah my sunday school lessons are basically “treat each other as you like to be treated, be excellant to each other, color and talk in an orderly matter that will not get the deacon to come in here and discover that I am not really teaching you about psalms and we all win.”
Dave
Doesn’t matter what the church support or does. Unless they have physically invaded an LGBT gathering then there is absolutely no justification for this idiotic action by Bash Back. It’s disgusting but we need to win these people over if we ever expect to get their votes on our issues. To Bash Back – thanks for setting us back 10 years. Grow up!!!
kalamazoo
Do I need to remind people about how many parents kill their children, how many children kill themselves, how many youth are homeless after being abused and/or threatened because of homophobia?
Homophobia and Transphobia aren’t little concepts that some people randomly get stuck in their heads. They aren’t isolated incidents. They are parts of a system of heteronormative patriarchy that attacks us all. Folks like us, whether L or G or B or T or I or Q, are not immune to this, but there are a great many institutions that create the environment where violence against sons, daughters, and other children is welcome. Actually, they create the violence.
Personally, I believe class struggle is central to struggles against injustices, and I agree with those that think consciousness raising is important. But remember, a great many LGBTQ peeps aren’t to be found in gay neighborhoods. A great many are the children (and of course grown-ups) who are taught that who they are is wrong and damnable. Churches like this need a rude awakening. They don’t have to be among those that try to intercept our Pride Parades, because they’re hurting our people in ways that are so less visible but so much more pervasive.
And that talk about ‘Civil Rights’ on the part of the church. Just plain laughable.
anonymous
Do the bash back people really think that methods such as this will win anyone over to the cause? Why would actions such as those seen draw anyone? Some of the comments reveal that the hate is not just on one side of the aisle as some might suppose or pretend.
Just because people believe that homosexuality is sin does not make them filled with ‘hate’. to make a statement such as this shows complete ignorance and an intolerance that straights are accused of…
Remove the log from your own eye before you tell your neighbor about the splinter in his eye.
Joel
Actually, I think people believing we are sinful for just being who we are, and wanting to therefore take our fundamental rights away, would be defined as hateful.
However, responding to hate with hate doesn’t solve the problem. If we think the church is being abusive toward children, we should work to shut the church down through legal methods. Informational protests can be held to inform or demonstrate our ire. We can’t go and confirm their beliefs that we are crazy, out-of-control, hateful, and dangerous.
conrad
does anyone remember the “stop the church” actions in nyc done by ACT UP. The debate here is so similar and so tired…
BB! thanks for fucking shit up! next time lets burn that fucking church down!
xoxo
conrad
fredo777
@conrad:
Keeping in mind that we already have evidence that blogs like ours are being trolled by righties for juicy bits of damaging commentary, it is somewhat reckless to advise burning their churches down in a public forum.
nuevaluz
As a gay man who came out 34 years ago, I’m excited about all these protests. The one in Lansing kind of reminds me of some of the media zaps of the early 70s gay liberation era. Big difference though. We didn’t have a lot of the laws on the books that we have today. In the 21st Century, where do we draw the line between freedom of expression and hate crimes?
John T
@JT: Bash Back is a ridiculous ‘organization’. Stay out of churches with your idiotic ‘protests’ and ‘demonstrations’.
You are WAAAAAY outside rational limits and showing your ass big time! Someone will end up doing something to your group that will shut you down and possibly much worse. Knock it off.
Johnny
@Eugene:
Please, don’t try to stomp on my rights. I am into bestiality, and I plan to marry my animals too someday (depending on how gay marriage goes.) I’m not gay, but I will fight the good fight with you guys so as to secure my civil liberties.
I’m starting a group called BLACK LAB And we intend to kidnap people and children and dissect them for medical studies. Just the other day I was considering storming a church and having sex with a goat at the pulpit. But it appears I will have to do something more creative now that these people stole my ideas…
Kay Lynn
Thank you for your article. Too bad not many people will read it. If the group Bash Back want real recognition why don’t or didn’t they leak the story to a bigger name in the media? Honestly, wouldn’t this story be ALLLLL over the national news EVERYWHERE if a group of Catholics pulled a fire alarm at a gay and lesbian building… rushed a stage? How is this NOT a hate crime? Why weren’t there arrests? Yeah, I get people are angry, how in the world though is that OK to do illegal things and not be held accountable?? Really now.
sally
Wow are we ever in the LAST DAYS!! We are calling wrong right and right wrong.. omg…
Wake up America..The Lord is coming back. We have been called to LOVE not hate..There is no excuse for outrageous behavior.. With FREEDOM comes responsibility.. We are a diversified nation, we can be different but we must be respect our fellow