Tag Archives: Christianism

Frank Wolf blows the anti-gay dog whistle

Frank Wolf is stirring up the anti-gay base. On June 5, he and Democrat Tony Hall co-authored a letter to pastors that appeared on the Manhattan Declaration blog. The letter is a response to the President’s announcement that after listening to his children and consulting the Bible, he now supports marriage for all people. Wolf and Hall asked some pastors to construct a cultural anti-marriage narrative and to agitate their congregations to “act”. I’ve quoted portions of the letter, and added emphasis.

Talking heads and strategists in Washington are busy analyzing what constituencies have been mobilized, energized, secured or alienated by the timing of the president’s announcement.  But the implications of this shift are more far-reaching than November’s electoral outcome.   We believe that the president’s position, which he sought to justify by citing Scripture, necessitates a response.  Not only a political response – but a reasoned, winsome, faithful interpretation of what Scripture actually has to say about God’s intent for the sacred institution of marriage.  As is befitting those who identify themselves as followers of Jesus, this apologetic for marriage must be seasoned with grace, kindness and love while also being grounded in truth.

where are the Christian apologists who will sound the clarion call for Biblical orthodoxy on the institution of marriage?  Where are the William Wilberforce’s and the Mother Theresa’s and the C. S. Lewis’ for our day?  Who will stand in the gap?

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call. who will get ready for battle?”  We fear that the trumpet’s call is muffled – that there is uncertainty and confusion among people of faith in part because many of our religious leaders have not yet stepped into the void.

We write to you not as a Republican and a Democrat, which we are, but as men of faith who take seriously the teaching of Scripture – as do you.  German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, “Not to speak is to speak.  Not to act is to act.” In that spirit, we implore you, with an urgency that the situation demands, to boldly lend your voice to the public square on this defining issue – for such a time as this.

The underlying message to the pastors is “train the dog to bite when the master says ‘stay!’.” “Clarion call,” “stand in the gap,” “get ready for battle,” “Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” seriously, does Congressman Wolf not know Godwin’s law? Do historians need to remind him that Nazi Germany was a “Christian Nation”; 65% protestant, 30% Catholic, and that Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler youth? Hitler quoted Martin Luther’s most anti-Semitic writings and he attended his Catholic church throughout the war. Hitler was a master propagandist who constructed a new racist Jew-hating narrative, but that narrative wouldn’t have taken root if it weren’t for Europe’s fertile soil of cultural, Christian, anti-semitism.

How can Wolf call for “grace, kindness and love” and then invoke Bonhoeffer to “stand in the gap” against “this defining issue – for such a time as this?” What time is it, a time when same-sex couples are living their marriages openly, and people honoring them in spite of 29 state constitutional amendments? That *is* what time it is, and our congressman, who supposedly represents all of us, equally, is comparing our marriages to cold, calculated mass-murder. Marriage and mass-murder, they are sooo-much-the-same-thing.

The letter is “monstrous“, and Frank Wolf is unhinged, and dangerous.

How to bully a girl into having an abortion, by Keith Deltano

Keith Deltano, a self described “Christian comedian” is back.  On October 3, 2011, he’ll appear at Smarts Mill Middle School in Leesburg for anti-bullying assemblies and a parent meeting.  According to his secular anti-bullying web site,  “no workshop is complete without teaching parents how to protect their children form online porn and gambling as well as bullying.”  Why he discusses porn and gambling in an anti-bullying program is a puzzle.  He may not have any real bullying expertise, like this, or he may believe that these things;  bullying, gambling and porn are somehow related.  I hope somebody asks.

Deltano first visited in 2007 and caused a controversy when he humiliated students and provided inaccurate information and horrible parenting advice.  He told parents not to trust their kids.  He said that kids will lie to parents, so parents have to spy on them.  If I recall, he said “you know that cute Nemo toy?  Your kid will hide an SDRAM full of porn in there“.  He also instructed parents to humiliate their kids.  “If your daughter is listening to raunchy music, make her repeat all the words back to you.” Authoritarian instruction is a Deltano theme.  His methods don’t help parents open communication channels.  They close them down.

On his Christian Comedian web site, Deltano explains a bit more about himself (emphasis mine).

“Christian comedy is rarely used for its entertainment value alone. Event organizers have used Christian comedy as a tool for outreach, fundraisers, gospel presentations, youth events and to deal with specific issues that are important to the body of Christ. A short list of these issues would include sexual abstinence, overcoming drug and alcohol abuse, strengthening marriage, singles issues, and scriptural inerrancy and apologetics. The list is as long as the topics that challenge us all….

Or, one could look at the fruit of Christian Comedy to determine if it is a valid and God honoring evangelistic tool. I have witnessed, as have many others, thousands come forward at the end of a comedic presentation. (The presenting comedian is more serious during the conclusion of a gospel presentation.)  Am I a comedian or a funny Christian youth speaker?  Can I be both? Many Christian comedians have used their abilities to raise funds for Crises Pregnancy Centers throughout the country.”

This time around, Deltano will address bullying.  He’s well aquainted with the topic.  In his abstinence gig, he shames and humiliates students.  At one point he holds a cinder block over a prone male student’s crotch.  The Smarts Mill PTA and administration seem to think he’s a good investment.  Maybe we should trust them give him a second chance.  His bullying routine has some good content.  In Mean Girls, he describes bullying by exclusion.

“how do you decide who’s in and who’s out…that’s bullying…my value comes from who I am…I’m a Wal-Mart shopper and i’m proud…You cannot judge people by clothing and appearance you should never pick on people for their clothing and appearance”

He’s on to something.  Exclusion – making a person an outcast – is a form of bullying.  If I had one question for Keith Deltano, it would be:

If a student is told that she doesn’t or shouldn’t exists, is that bullying?”

Ask yourself that question as you watch Deltano’s Pregnant In The USA: Sex Sells video.  The featured photo shows Deltano imitating a girl’s unintended pregnancy.  “Sex sells” he says but the “result of sex“; pregnancy and disease, doesn’t.  His message is that a pregnant girl isn’t sexy.  She’s rather ugly.  Nobody wants her.  She has nothing to be proud of.  She’s not like a “Wal-Mart shopper”.  She’s an outcast.  She’s in a shameful state.  She shouldn’t exist, at least not in his secular context.

If he switched to his “Christian” context, she would no longer exist as an independent person.  She’d be a ward of the state, a vessel for the “most vulnerable member of society“.  But this is his secular show, so she’s just fat, ugly and shameful.

What message is Deltano sending to a real-world pregnant girl?  She’s a person who shouldn’t exist.  She’s going to get fat and ugly.

What option does she have to avoid the shame?  What’s the path of least resistance?

Abortion?

Thanks Keith!

Gov McDonnell’s “Strengthening Families Initiative” funds the revolutionary church

[Promoted by Epluribusunum, because this story has become even more disturbing. Apparently, this so-called “pro-family” initiative is diverting funds from programs serving the victims of domestic violence. According to a more recent Pilot article, some victim advocates were told by state officials “that shelters weren’t ‘a good fit’.” In other words, the ideology driving McDonnell says that marriage counseling is more important than saving lives.]

AAHMI 2010 conference banner

The Virginia Pilot reports on Virginia’s latest social engineering initiative; “Governor’s plan aims to solidify families, cut poverty“, but let’s call it what it is, a rather large allocation of taxpayer dollars to infuse right-wing think tanks and faith-based organizations with cash to help them build their revolutionary base.  Revolutionary is not my term.  I attended the DoingTheRightThingEvent on Saturday September, 24 and Chuck Colson explained that “we are living in revolutionary times“.  He also said that government can’t solve the problems of culture.  “Family” and “church” have to do that.

Continue reading

disembodied fetus

[promoted by Liz]

In “Single-Issue Voter”, Roberto Rivera describes growing up in a Democratic Catholic blue-collar household.  He’s progressive on all the issues but, he’s “strongly pro-life” and finds himself politically aligned with people who “if, by some (please God!) miracle, abortion disappeared tomorrow, many of them would probably vote in much the same way they do now”.

Rivera wouldn’t.  He’d return to being a progressive, if “abortion disappeared”.

Roberto doesn’t know how abortion disappears.  Remarkably, his article makes no mention of “woman” or “pregnancy”. Abortion is something that “happens” to a disembodied fetus.

Disembodied 12-week fetus - National Library of Medicine

The illustration was produced with your tax dollars.  Isn’t he cute?  His name is Adam.  God created Adam from dust without the help of a woman.  The Adam above looks like he’s going to wake up and practice Mozart piano sonatas before he goes back to being a fetus.

That’s the image that Rivera wants you to maintain as he alludes to – if not women – to original sin.

A society that enshrines (the word fits particularly well in this context) the right to use private lethal violence against its weakest and most vulnerable members isn’t only unjust in this regard, it’s likely to be unjust pretty much across the board. The right to an abortion is based on a jurisprudence and an underlying worldview that denies the existence of a common good and holds personal autonomy and self-fulfillment as the highest goods.

Mark Earley wrote a similar piece, “No Life, No Justice” for Prison Fellowship Ministries that referenced Rivera’s article.  Earley does mention women, and Planned Parenthood, of course.

Since the passage of Roe vs. Wade in 1973, more than 48 million unborn children have perished—and only 7 percent of the women who had those abortions cited medical concerns, rape, or incest as their reasons. And those who promote abortions—they are flexing their muscle as never before. In Fiscal Year 2006-2007, Planned Parenthood…

According to Earley and Rivera, 93% of the time, women are choosing “personal autonomy and self-fulfillment” over their duty to dear Adam.

The fetus is fertile ground for conspiracy.  Rand Paul ratchet’s up the rhetoric in a very Delgaudioesque fundraising letter (emphasis mine).

 

Dear Concerned American,

It’s a horrifying modern day genocide happening in our own backyards.

Last year alone, Planned Parenthood was responsible for ending the lives of over 320,000 innocent babies….

I believe there is something deeply wrong with an organization that kills babies, and even more so when they are funded through the taxpayer dollars….

Planned Parenthood’s progaganda calls the pro-life movement a war on women.

And believe me, they have their supporters riled up like never before.

Daily emails from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and Emily’s List are being sent smearing pro-life Americans like you and me as villains.

Maybe the fetus should should be sitting on a slippery slope.  Too bad there is no slope.  Roberto is no liberal.  If he was operating in the reality-based world he’d put down his moral smugness and ask, “what’s the root cause of abortion, unwanted pregnancy, maybe”?  Wouldn’t Rivera sound more rational if he said “if, by some (please God!) miracle, unwanted pregnancy disappeared tomorrow“?  But then he wouldn’t have a straw enemy.  He wouldn’t be able to blame women for using “private violence“.  He would have to take responsibility as a man.  He’d be forced to ask if that 7% (3.5 million) pregnancies terminated for reasons of medical concern, rape or incest “disappeared”, if that would require some degree of violence against societies weak and vulnerable.  He’d have to acknowledge that women actually embody those fetuses and that he’s advocating a Handmaid’s Tale world.

Suzanne Moore wrote personal piece in the Guardian, “It’s the same old game.  Get your rosaries off my ovaries, as we used to say“.  When she was 11, Moore and her mum were booted from a tupperware party.  When talk turned to ‘getting “rid” of things’, Moore’s mum blurted

Christ, you really don’t know what you are talking about. If it wasn’t for abortion I’d have a football team by now.”

Moore’s was writing about British “independent counseling” legislation.  It failed.  The British controversy is like the new clinic rules that are pushing Virginia to the forefront of the abortion debate reported in the Loudoun Times Mirror.  Both regulations intend to make it harder to obtain abortion services.  Moore’s analysis is relevant to Virginia.

We are repeatedly told this is an “emotive” issue. The new vocabulary of the anti-abortion lobby is full of vaguely feminist platitudes – not feminist enough to counsel the men who walk away from pregnancies but still. Underneath, we are fallen women, damaged goods and so terribly stupid that we can be persuaded to have a quick abortion by wicked charities. When we could be what? Wombs to provide babies for “proper couples” or go it alone as the root of all evil: single mothers?

This is nauseating. A vote of conscience? If MPs had one they would say it is not the business of the legislature to control women’s reproduction. They would stop telling us what is “emotive” and ask what actually is. I didn’t want counselling in order to have an abortion. I certainly did after a miscarriage – again an awfully common experience – but none was offered. No, instead let’s bring on an army of “independent” zealots who can tell us that abortion leads to cancer, mental health issues and infertility, and sod the evidence that having a baby is more risky than having an abortion. Anyone who talks about how easy it is and how the reality is glossed over is ignorant. You have a scan. You know and see what you are doing. It’s not a walk in the park but it is a huge relief. The emotive part is the enforced waiting.

Now the tactics are to further that wait. This is nothing short of cruelty dressed up in the language of concern.

Chris Freund of the Virginia Family Foundation explains the rationale for the regulations. “The threat that a health department inspector could visit the clinics at any time also will ensure that clinics operate safely”. When discussing medical procedures, it’s no longer polite to refer to “private lethal violence”.  “Safety” is a much better talking point.

Moore knows where Freund is coming from.

All fundamentalisms seek to control female sexuality. It’s the same old game. Get your rosaries off my ovaries, as we used to say. You trust me with a child but not with a choice? If MPs want to help women then they can make access to abortion and contraception more efficient. Who has the authority over my body – some geezer in the House of Commons? Or me and my doctor? Like my mother, I feel no shame and I refute this language of “care”. You want a definition of a nanny state? How about one that thinks it’s OK to poke around in your uterus?

 

Rick Perry’s ties to PHC

An interesting article in the August 27, Huffington Post describes the relationship between Rick Perry and “conservative Christian” businessman and financier Dr. James Leininger.  The entire article is worth a read.  I’ll quote the section on Leininger’s largess to Patrick Henry College.  Readers may also want to note that Dimitri Kesari, Eugene Delgaudio, and his former aide Donny Furgeson all have Texas ties, as does Prison Fellowship Ministries.  The head of the Texas State Board of Education is a PFM “Centurion” (an activist who has completed a program of ideological training to implement the PFM/Chuck Colson “worldview”).

Leininger has also bankrolled a number of anti-abortion groups, including Texas Right to Life, Heidi Group and the Christian Pro Life Foundation. His charity, The Covenant Foundation, Inc., contributed at least $450,000 from 1997 to 2005 to the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, an abstinence-only advocate. In 2005, he gave $100,000 in support of an amendment banning gay marriage.

The Covenant Foundation, Inc., charity has also been another way for Leininger to project his money into Christian conservative causes. The biggest benefactor of the charity’s largesse in the past few years has been the conservative Patrick Henry College, which received $9.3 million in contributions from 2008 to 2009. Leininger sits on the Board of Trustees of the school.

Doing the wrong thing

Carl Jung coined the phrase synchronicity to explain the odd coincidences that feel like answered prayers, messages from God, or prophesies.  I had such an experience today.  Chuck Colson invited me to a “Doing the Right Thing” showing at the Christian Fellowship Church of Ashburn.

Here’s the invite, front

and back

Thirty minutes after reading the invitation, I received a note from my friend Stephen Johnson alerting me to Laura Peters’ article in the Loudoun Times Mirror; Potomac Falls woman removed from son’s Boy Scout troop.

Coincidentally, Christian Fellowship was responsible for the removal of dedicated Boy Scout troop leader Denise Steele because her life partner is female.  Here’s the response from the church:

Phil Holliday, the executive pastor at Christian Fellowship Church and Esther Schaeffer, the charter organization representative, say they are simply following the rules.
When a chartered partner agrees to sponsor a scouting unit, an annual charter agreement is signed, they explained.

The controversy started when assistant scout master Skip Inabinett decided to “help” Steele by trying to break up her family.

In an email that Inabinett sent to a close personal friend of Steele’s and whose son was also in the troop, he stated, “If what you said about Denise Steele being an active sexual is true, do you feel comfortable talking with her about stepping down/resigning as an ASM … as her friend, this may be an opportunity for you to share with her about Christ’s love and the need to believe that as sinners we cannot get to heaven on our own and that we need a savior.”

Apparently, “God’s” work doesn’t involve rules of protocol or common courtesy.

To bring up an issue, there are certain steps of going about it starting with the scout master, then up to the committee and committee chair then to the charter organization. But, according to Steele and Funk, Inabinett went straight to the Boy Scouts of America with his complaint to get her removed as an assistant scout master – and it worked.
“He didn’t go through those steps. He skipped over the scout master, he skipped over the committee, he skipped over the district. He went straight to the highest level because that’s where he would get his answer. He went to the highest point to get me removed,” Steele said.

So this is the legalistic bullying behavior Chuck Colson teaches as “Doing the Right Thing“.  Good to know.  When do we pull his tax exemption?  He doesn’t need our tax dollars to pay for this behavior.

Update 20110831:

There has been some question as to who is responsible for the decision to remove Denise Steele. At 7:31PM on Aug 31, 2011, Denise posted a comment on the Loudoun Times Mirror article where she confirmed that Phil Holliday coached Skip Inabinett and served as his proxy.

Skip has not said one word because he believes in what he did (no one can change that and I know he will not apologize). He has been “coached” and supported by the Executive Pastor, who also believes Skip has done nothing wrong…to the point Phil spoke on Skip’s behalf about Skip’s “intentions” when he met with us.

Yes, I do realize this is a snarky post.

Dedicated to the defense of civil liberties and human rights

In light of recent comments here and here about the threat of “sharia law,” here’s a corrective from Barton Hinkle. Those who prey on the perpetually outraged are like “the woman in Kansas who recited a special chant to keep the Bengal tigers away. Informed that there were no Bengal tigers, she replied that the chant must be working.”

In fact, this is who is embarrassing Virginia and threatening everyone’s individual liberties. The story, as reported earlier this month: Laura George, formerly a Leesburg attorney, planned to build an interfaith retreat center near her home in the southwest Virginia town of Independence. The Grayson County Planning Commission unanimously approved her project, which included a public library, interfaith education center, and ten cabins. There was a public hearing.

Continue reading

Neo-nazi group names PHC “next best choice”

(Promoted by Epluribusunum)

The neo-nazi group Stormfront.org has honored Patrick Henry College. “Since there are no more pro-white colleges, the next best choice are conservative colleges.”  Stormfront has moved on from pure unadulterated racism to the kinder gentler worship of Kinder, Küche, Kirche, or in their their own words “If you are going to spend money on your kid’s college at least pick a place that does not have Feminist Studies.”  FYI, the phrase Kinder, Küche, Kirche, was invented in the U.S.A.  Hitler never used it.  He did argue that a woman’s “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home,”.

Stormfront found a photo of armed and booted state troopers, lined up against a small Soulforce prayer group to their liking.  The caption reads “Protest against Patrick Henry College for “bigotry.” The college permits nonwhite students, I do not know what they are complaining about.

It’s good to know that modern day bigots no longer need to be pro-white.  As long as they are anti-woman and anti-gay, they are ok.  Good to know.  It’s also good to know that even in the most conservative of “Christian colleges”, they have to use force against their own student body to keep them from talking to people outside the cocoon.

Speaking of sexism

Ok, the title may be slightly misleading, because what we’re speaking of is really just an extreme form of self-centered blindness. Which is what sexism is a form of, I suppose.

This gem arrived from the outbox of Chuck Colson (search the name both here and at Equality Loudoun for the full Monty):

A group of mostly female students is suing Yale University for allowing a “sexually hostile environment” to exist on campus.

The women, of course, have a point. After all, when frat boys are allowed to parade around the old campus chanting “No Means Yes,” or to hold up signs that read “We Love Yale Sluts,” I guess you could say that’s a sexually hostile environment.

But may I ask a question? What did you expect?

Continue reading

Bob Marshall chooses personal prejudice over children. Is anyone surprised?

Crossposted at Equality Loudoun.

Bob Marshall, not getting his way

It’s not enough for Bob Marshall that same sex couples have to move outside the state temporarily in order for both to be adoptive parents – in Virginia, second parent adoption or adoption by unmarried couples is illegal, so we have families in which one parent is literally a legal stranger to their own child. Think about what that means for a child’s security, if something were to happen to his or her legally recognized parent.

In 2005, Bob Marshall shared the embarrassment with Dick Black of having “Adoption: Prohibited if Homosexual” basically laughed out of the Senate after Black flew the disgraced Paul Cameron in as an “expert witness.” That wouldn’t have been enough, either – and the truth is that nothing will ever be enough for this obsessive oddball, short of our complete elimination. As he let slip to the Leesburg Today back in 2006, “This is a springboard. If they get this [defeat of the Marshall-Newman anti-marriage amendment], they are getting other things.” By “other things,” he refers to the freedom to live our lives with the same safety and security as everyone else. That amendment never had anything to do with marriage. Its purpose, as I explained here, was simply to create more danger for gay and lesbian couples, to discourage us from living openly and visibly – because it’s exactly that visibility that is driving the rapid shifts in public opinion toward support for equality.

It’s that same purpose that leads Mr. Marshall to have a hissy fit about this revision to the Virginia Department of Social Services regulations: Continue reading