https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcYQSX6bUi0&feature=player_embedded
You know what bothers Evangelist Damon Thompson about television? All the queers. You know what bothers Paul Constant at the Seattle Stranger? When Christians don’t stand up to people like Thompson to let him know “he is misrepresenting their religion and using Jesus to promote intolerance and hate.”
Thompson is mad that the queers are always the funniest, smartest, and friendliest characters on TV. He’s also tired of anti-bullying programs. He says bullied gays kids kill themselves not because of bullying but because they hate themselves for their demonic sexuality. Hmmm… the crazed rantings of bear preachers don’t contribute to that self-hatred… do they?
So what are religious folks doing to combat religious-based homophobia? Let’s have a look!
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Groups like NoLongerSilent.org say, “Conservative political and Christian rhetoric condemning homosexuals has monopolized public perception of the stance of religious persons on this issue.” They’re currently protesting alongside Get Equal, Truth Wins Out and Faith In America at the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix where another collection of queer religious groups just presented a petition asking the SBC to apologize for its virulent antigay positions.
So how did that go? Well, let us put it this way. Remember when Home Depot told the American Family Association that it didn’t care about their anti-gay petition? It was like the flip-side of that:
Sixteen years ago to the day, Jack McKinney said Southern Baptists passed a resolution apologizing for past racism. [Jack McKinney is a married, heterosexual spokesperson for Faith in America and a former Southern Baptist minister]
“We feel like the convention is making the same mistake in the way it has demonized LGBT people,” said McKinney, who handed Wright a packet of 10,000 signatures. “We come today to ask for an apology for that and for a pledge that those kinds of teachings would come to an end.”…
“Obviously, we don’t feel that there can be an apology for teaching sexual purity,” said Bryan Wright, pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and president of the Southern Baptist Convention. “As followers of Christ, our only authority for practicing our faith is Scripture, is the Word of God…. As followers of Christ it would be very difficult for us to betray our faith by ignoring what God says about sexual purity.”
Aha. Well, that didn’t go as well as planned. But it doesn’t mean the attempt or the conversation aren’t worth having, especially on networks like CNN that continue to feature hate-group leaders like the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins as “experts” on religious morality.
Pedro J. Del Campo
Sounds like Damon Thompson is drowning in Cocaine and self hate.
christopher di spirito
Damon Thompson is a closet queen. My gaydar immediately went off. You just know he’s in the local adult bookstore sucking cock through a gloryhole.
so,,,
Bah. The phobes love to be railed against, that’s how a provocateur knows he’s succeeded.
If a gay blogger needs an arch-enemy to boo at, the way Joe My God uses … that one guy he is always giving press too, well and good.
But it’s a mutual self-promotion game — and it only reinforces the perceived opposition between rationalism and Christianity.
Abel
Damon Thompson is definitely wrestling with demons, and I’ll bet one of them is his doubt about his own sexuality. What about it, Damon, are you feeling those unnatural urges stirring in your loins? Come out, come out, wherever you are…
Jeffree
Even the so-called “LGBT-affirming” churches can do little better than include us in their congregations (but not always their ministry, go figure). The mainstream denominations get their members on TV, in Congress & to the voting booths.
Until those affirming people of faith step up & work to out-number, out-vote , out-shout & out-smart the fundamentalists, it’s just a bandaid on a severed artery.
Heidi
Gee, I wonder why smart, funny gay TV characters would have more friends than raving homophobe TV characters? /sarcasm
The crustybastard
I couldn’t have a lower regard for christains.
Thanks for trying.
WillBFair
There are a few issues you didn’t address.
First, the media give unlimited face time to fundamnetlalists because their selfish and cruel values are very useful to commercial interests.
Second, it’s hard to work on gay people’s behalf wnen most of them hate all religion and don’t mind spitting venom at their freinds in the liberal church. See crusty above.
Third, these same gay atheists have probably never lifted a finger on anyone else’s behalf, and would never bother trying to reform the atheist plutocracy and their unrivaled brutality.
Jimmy Fury
Perhaps I’m alone in this but I hope he gets the help he appears to need. The pacing, arm waving, slurred speech, inability to properly express himself, unchecked rage, and paranoia are all strong indicators of serious mental illness.
TMikel
Most people who call themselves Christians are not followers of Christ but of St. Paul who was a misogynistic hater of women, minorities and anyone else with whom he did not agree. These fundamentalists should refer to themselves at Paulians not Christians. That said, I agree that it is high time everyone who does not ascribe to the hate of these people stands up to them and corrects their hateful natures and hate-mongering. That is what I do. Like any other bullies, they back down. We may not get them to change their narrow self-loathing beliefs but we will get them to SHUT UP!
Ogre Magi
@WillBFair: What atheist plutocracy and their unrivaled brutality are you talking about???
the crustybastard
@WillBFair:
Wow. Are you ever a douchebag. I’m still sore from digging people out of Jopin, you piece of shit.
There is no “atheist plutocracy” either. As for atheists’ “unrivaled brutality,” do you have some evidence that atheists have spent a couple of millennia aggressively torturing nonbelievers and nonconformists?
WillBFair
@Ogre Magi: That would be the one documented in countless upper class novels. The one found in ruling class private schools, where anyone with a social conscious is labeled a ‘christer.’ The one that pushes low culture through the media, until the public have been turned into selfish, ignorant rubes. And, as I already mentioned, the one that in the media presents fundamentalism as the face of christianity.
This last is divide and conquer, the oldest trick in the book. And it’s embarrasing that so many queers have been so easily played by Sam Harris and company.
WillBFair
@the crustybastard: Thanks for the name calling. It nicely shows who you are.
But I won’t bother showing facts. The new, militant atheists go beyond fundamentalist cherry picking, and are expert at ignoring mountains of evidence.
This is nothing new. I’ve watched self hating queers sabotage our movement for thirty years. I learned twenty years ago that internalized homophobia can’t be cured with reasonable argument.
unclemike
“I hold in my hands a mountain of evidence, but you, little name caller, are not worthy of my brilliance.” –WillBFair
Ogre Magi
@WillBFair: You’re just joking right?
WillBFair
@unclemike: I don’t like to sound the way I’m sounding. But I’ve tried to show evidence to this crowd before. They respond with a ton of rhetorical tricks: false equivalency; irrelevance; generalizations; name calling; swift topic, subject, and object swapping; cherry picking; and many others. These are the same tricks I saw the master, Christopher Hitchens, use for years at The Nation. And you can’t argue with people who mistake logic for Hitchens’ bull—t.
B
No. 10 · TMikel wrote, “Most people who call themselves Christians are not followers of Christ but of St. Paul who was a misogynistic hater of women, minorities and anyone else with whom he did not agree. These fundamentalists should refer to themselves at Paulians not Christians.”
For background try http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/html/saintpaul.html ,
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa74 , and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle . If anyone can find more in the way
of purely secular accounts, please post some links.
You can possibly describe Paul better as a politician with personal sexual hangups and “true believer” tendencies, which caused him to go a bit overboard, first in persecuting Christians and then after his conversion in proselytizing Christianity. A lot of what he wrote can only be understood in context – his letters were political documents designed to have a particular effect. Early Christianity was an scraggy bush with beliefs going in all sorts of directions. Paul was trying to unify these separate groups to create a religious movement. The letters he sent to various groups had to be self-contained and Paul would have had to show support for each group’s hot-button issues before trying to move them in his direction – with travel times, it could take months to respond to a question or objection, so he would really have wanted to avoid anything like that.
In a case of life imitating art or vice versa, Paul had his own arguments regarding circumcision: Paul didn’t think it was necessary whereas Christians with a Jewish background thought it was. We now have a “circumcision initiative” going on the ballot in San Francisco, proof that some arguments go on for thousands of years.
Michael Fitzpatrick
It’s nice to hear that we’re all in agreement that Christians are Nazis. If you hate Christians as much as I do, you’ll love my blog: http://twogaybullies.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/cisco-systems-inc-fires-anti-gay-bigot/
Jeffree
All that atheists have in common is a lack of belief in god(s). Religion is organized, has its holy books & priests/rabbis & commandmants. Atheism does not.
There is no atheist plutocracy, except in the imagination of paranoid-esque religionists who wish to dominate the political sphere with their so-called values.
Freedom of religion? Yes! Freedom to enshrine Christian commandmants & ruleas & teachings into US laws? H€LL no.
Want a theocracy? Move to Iran.
DryBonesLive
All you homosexuals are going to hell! God loves you friend. But he hates your sins. As do i, and Damon. Before you let some hateful homosexual’s bias agenda blur your opinion. Research the person yourself.
TheRealAdam
@DryBonesLive: Unless “hell” is a new couture boutique on Rodeo Drive, I’m afraid that expedition won’t fit into my schedule.
Shannon1981
@TheRealAdam: LOL You tell ’em!
@DryBonesLive: Why are you here? I will never understand religious nutjobs trolling gay blogs. Don’t you have a buybull to be reading? You’re one to call someone hateful. You’re the one coming into the space of people you hate to spread hate. Pot, meet kettle.
Southern Baptists being raging homophobes is nothing new. This is hardly news. Loving Christians doing the lord’s work, yet again, spreading hate. Ah, yes. How loving they all are. Loving kids right into conversion therapy and suicide since who knows when. It’s their M.O. It won’t change. Working to bring gays and religious people together is a waste of time, though I do applaud the efforts of the few tolerant religious folks out there, I feel their efforts could be better directed. Bigots don’t change. I stay as far away from religious zealots as possible for this reason.
Jeffree
@Shannon1981: Give’m heck! Like I said way upthread, my experience with even the “affirming” religious is that they just.don’t.get.it: they’re sweet people but they have no sense of what we deal with from the fundies. They think that prayer is a decent substitute for activism. “Uh, no it’s really not, Reverend Too-Smiley!”
@TheRealAdam: Talk about great answer! But dood, I never actually see you on Rodeo Drive. I’ll have my chauffeur drive more slowly so we can spot you there “boutiquing.”
Adman
“everything we do you are”. That’s the Christian credo in 2011. My little brother used to hold his finger a fraction of an inch from my face, saying “I’m not touching You! I’m not touching you!”, until he got his two front teeth knocked out. I was already in trouble, and finally realized I could just take the initiative, I had been patient for so long, why not get my reply across once and for all, in a way only I could demonstrate? It’s instructive how mild my punishment was, my parents understood they couldn’t make him listen either, so they sort of just shrugged.
Christians are like he was..since the whole world is about them, and them only, they can’t understand that other individuals don’t exist for them, it’s too adult in character and perspective for them to resist playing games with their notions of persuasion. They just don’t see the reward in thinking past fantasy notions of the way humans are, including themselves.
Shannon1981
@Jeffree: The thing is, I grew up with these people. I know, first hand, exactly what they are. I live in a house full of them right now. While the fact that we have agreed to never discuss anything religious or gay again, because we obviously will not agree, their views have not changed. I can tell you, I love them as my family, but, other than my younger, more tolerant little sisters, they are some of the most hypocritical, judgmental, hateful people you will ever encounter.It will not change. Anyone promoting the idea that this gap can be bridged is deluded, and wasting precious time and resources on a lost cause.
Jeffree
@Shannon1981: You’re amazing to have come through all that indoctrination intact. I hope your next living situation won’t involve having to co-hab with the xters. I was very fortunate that my parents were & 1 under no religous spell, they just think that religion is an unhelpful superstition.
My bf was raised pseudo-catholic, the family attended church on Christmas only & so he missed out on the Catholic guilt & all that. I could not EVER date someone who was still part of the brigade!
p.s. I’m so glad you’re (still) here. I’m impressed that Qty, espec. DanielV., is trying to keep this place from just being a paleboýs clùb, lol: we need more women writers & commenters here. I’ll keep my fingers crisscrossed for you ! That’s as close as i get to praying….
Shannon1981
@Jeffree: The only reason I am even up at this hour is because a girl I grew up with is “struggling with her faith.” I have FB messages going to my phone. It’s sad, that such a lovely person is going through such hell because of an imaginary being. Let it suffice to say that my beliefs quickly went from agnostic to full on atheism after one of the most disturbing conversations I have had in a very long time. I am reading Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion as we speak. Hopefully I can get her to read it and help her find the peace I have.
And thank you. I graduate in December, and I have several job prospects that will take me 3,000 miles from this place, to San Francisco, if I get my way. Never again will I reside with fundies, rest assured.
Shannon1981
You have divkid to thank! He came to my own blog, in my RIP Queerty post, and told me it was back! I am glad you’re here too. Yes, the race trolling and misogyny here is disheartening at times, but it won’t make me leave. I like Matt and Daniel, and the overall vibe of Queerty, and quite a few commenters, so I am not going anywhere! 🙂
TheRealAdam
@Jeffree: I take shifts as a mannequin from time to time, so I’m not that noticeable ;). A boy’s gotta eat.
But I thought you were a Midwestern mo. Since when have you been in these here parts?
TheRealAdam
@Shannon1981: Yay!
Shannon1981
@TheRealAdam: Even if I don’t get any of those jobs, I’ll get one here, and leave eventually.Either way, I’ll leave this house LOL. Looking at web design for gay non profits, and one small organization that wants to get bigger looks very promising indeed.
Shannon1981
@Jeffree: I also put on my FB and dating profiles, explicitly, no one with huge ties to organized religion. I make it clear that they are free to believe whatever BS they like, but it isn’t something I am comfortable with. You wouldn’t BELIEVE the number of people who try to convert me though. Un fucking believable.
TheRealAdam
@Shannon1981: Well, of course, I wish you the best. It sounds like you’re a hot commodity. I’ve lived in the South before so I understand you’re probably very anxious for a change of scenery.
Jeffree
@Shannon1981;. @TheMannequinAdam:
I’m at work: can you tell? 3 more hrs.
I hope Shannon finds a great gig. & that TRA can find a better one too. (You can’t fit into those 31″x34″ pants in the boutique window much longer, man.)
The Dawkins book is well worth the read. He has vids all over the U-tube too. Coming out as an atheist can be as tough as coming out as a L/G person, for some folks. I
Oh: I have traveled out to CA to perform & on vaca several times, but lately I’ve been mostly “punching up” other peoples’ writing* so it’s all done via email& phone. The coin is better with the words but I’m happiest on stage — I’m stuck with open mic nights & some MC work in the Midwest until I go to Ottawa in August & maybe Denver the same month.
*that means I make humor-impaired people sound witty. Don’t try that at home w/o supervision & buckets of tequila.
–o–o–
Back to my aide duties. Catch y’all on the upside.
Daniel Villarreal
@Shannon1981: Thanks a lot. We aims to prease.
Shannon1981
@TheRealAdam: I’ve lived all over, but realized that without a college education, I’d be broke forever, and that isn’t my bag.Once I figured out performing arts doesn’t pay well unless you hit it big, I came home. I’ve lived in Buffalo, NYC, LA, and hung out for a minute in SF…long story LOL. But I really wanna go back to SF and experience all it has to offer. I am not a hot commodity haha. I’m just pushy, and I want an actual JOB doing something to promote gay culture, equality, and awareness of oppression. I especially want to try to represent the gender variant community, be you genderqueer, FTM or MTF, as the attacks on that variety of our spectrum are still rather alarming for any number of really disturbing reasons.
@Jeffree:LOL third shift must SUCK. I am a bit of an insomniac. And NGL, the convo with my buddy has me concerned for her sanity, so I keep trying to sleep, but with one ear open for the phone…
@Daniel Villarreal: You guys rock, and Queerty is better than ever under your reign. Even if I don’t get a guest editing/writing spot, forever a fan!
SteveC
Christianity is by definition hateful and bigotted.
Tolerant, accepting christians are the exception rather than the rule.
I regard religious belief as a mental illness.
The USA is a very ill country.
Sebastian
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful — Seneca
@SteveC Ditto
Shannon1981
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unplesant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
–Richard Dawkins The God Delusion
Truer words were never written.
Marvin
Progressive people of faith in the Dallas/Fort Worth area are organizing an on-site protest against the American Family Association‘s co-sponsoring of Gov. Perry‘s “prayer assembly“ in Houston on August 6th at the Reliant Stadium. We are intent on holding a respectful, loving, nonviolent and well-publicized protest that makes it clear that what the AFA preaches is not the gospel. A number of prominent progressive church leaders from the Dallas/Fort Worth area have signed on, though the protest will be led by lay people. We hope we will be joined by folks from throughout the state and beyond. Our first organizational meeting will be at 2PM on Saturday, June 18, at Fort Worth First Congregational Church UCC, 4201 Trail Lake Drive, Fort Worth. For more information, visit our Facebook event page: Hate Speech Is Not The Gospel Rally and/or join our Facebook Group: Hate Speech Is Not the Gospel.
Wayne Besen
Queerty asks: So how did that go? Well, let us put it this way. Remember when Home Depot told the American Family Association that it didn’t care about their anti-gay petition? It was like the flip-side of that:
Reply: I think it went remarkably well. For the record, we are not stupid nor delusional and never thought we would get an immediate apology from the SBC. However, we did:
1) Redirect the conversation to focus on the SBC’s religion-based bigotry
2) Spell out precisely how the SBC is harming young people and that an apology was expected.
3) Spoke to several SBC people outside that actually agreed with us, including young people. How does Queerty or anyone know that in 20 years one of the younger people we spoke with won’t become the SBC President and change the policy?
4) Likely helped closeted gay people within the SBC membership and leadership. We provided gay role models who have accepted themselves and also heterosexual former SBC ministers who were on our side.
Many of the campaigns of Truth Wins Out look for quick results. Last week we broke the Tracy Morgan story and an apology took place. When we went after the “ex-gay” Apple iPhone app — we won within a week.
However, not all activism campaigns can be judged by the speed in which a conclusion is reached. Our work with the SBC was never intended to change things overnight — nonetheless it is every bit as important as the work we did on Morgan or Apple.
It took the SBC 150 years to apologize to African Americans. If we reduce the number of years for an apology for LGBT people to 20 or 30 or even 50 years — we have succeeded.
I would suggest that some people take Ritalin and try something called patience. Success can be measured in many ways and it doesn’t always happen at the blink of an eye.
The success of this event can’t be measured today and was never intended to be.
Shannon1981
@Wayne Besen: I grew up Southern Baptist and I went to Conversion Therapy. They are harmful, hateful people, and, despite the fact that they have African- American members, the organization is inherently racist to boot. I certainly LOVE TWO, support you wholeheartedly, have even emailed (to no avail, but still) asking how I can help you. But you are fighting a losing battle here. I have my family as proof of that, as well as countless hateful people right in my hometown. Those people are poisoned, mind, heart, and soul, and so evil I cannot begin to articulate it. I can only hope you do not hurt yourselves in an attempt to change the unchangeable.
Rustywheeler
@so,,,: “perceived opposition between rationalism and Christianity.” Perceived? PERCEIVED? I’m afraid the opposition is quite real, my friend.
Rustywheeler
@WillBFair: I don’t like to sound the way I’m sounding, but I’m going to sound this way anyway, because… oh wait, I guess I DO kind of like it!”
BlogShag
This guy looks like one of the biggest closet cases ever. Look at the way he moves
redball
Funny, because I’m sure this is the internal monologue he repeats to himself like so many beads on his rosary every time he notices a hot man on the street and feels his loins quiver.
Poor asshole.
Brian
This guy is dangerous and his followers are stupid. However, I can’t help but notice that there is a lack of racists comments from members of the LGBT commentors. If this were a black preacher his comments would be used to indict the whole black community by racist gays. I guess I should just be happy that the queerty posters have defied their own norm today.
ewe
@DryBonesLive: As if anyone should even take what you say as the least bit serious. QUACK. Your deluional fantasy about your gODD and how you know everything for everyone is childish ego.
ewe
@Brian:FYI: Notice you are the first one.
Ogre Magi
@Brian: If people did that, it would be mighty shitty of them.