(Hat tip to Andrew Brown at the Guardian)

A gay witch hunt in Uganda

Why are the English archbishops silent over Uganda’s grotesque anti-homosexuality bill?

A bill currently before the Ugandan parliament (pdf) proposes seven year prison sentences for discussing homosexuality; life imprisonment for homosexual acts; and death for a second offence. Sober observers believe it will be passed. The Anglican church in Uganda appears to support it, and the Church of England in this country is absolutely silent. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester solemnly denounce violence in the Congo, where they have no influence at all, but on Uganda they maintain a resolute post-colonial silence.

The position of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is more complicated, and his silence more eloquent. He is himself Ugandan by birth. One of his younger half-brothers, pastor Robert Kayanja, is a highly successful pentecostal preacher in Kampala, running a church called the Rubaga Miracle Centre. Such people are highly rewarded, and the business is extremely competitive. A rival preacher, the gloriously named Solomon Male of the The Arising Church was accused this spring of kidnapping Kayanga’s assistant and torturing him for five days to get him to confess that his boss was gay and partial to young men.

So…churches are big business in Uganda? Somehow this is no surprise. That these backwards assholes are discriminating based on sexual preference? It takes religion to do that. So, just who started this nonsense in the first place? Why, surprise! It was a Christian Fundamentalist group:

A United States fundamentalist group is at the heart of Uganda’s anti-gay law. Originally known as The Fellowship, an international organization founded in 1935, today it is known as ‘The Family’, described by Jeff Sharlet in his book The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, who investigates the political power of ‘The Family’, a secretive fundamentalist Christian association. ‘The Family’, under the reclusive leadership of Douglas Coe, is described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most, politically well-connected fundamentalist organizations in the United States.

Ugandan lawmaker and alleged member of the ‘The Family’, David Bahati sponsored Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, also known as the "Bahati Bill".

That these maniacs have in-roads to our government is scary enough. But that they can prevail on foreign governments to discriminate against their own citizenry? That’s just bugfuck crazy.

And America’s favorite ferret minister, the inestimable Rick Warren, while not at the heart of this, is still a voice in the chaos (but not one of reason):

The Ugandan parliament is currently considering an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” under which any person “convicted of gay sex is liable to life imprisonment.” If that person is HIV positive or has sex with a minor or a person with a disability, he or she would be guilty of “aggravated homosexuality” and face the death penalty. The bill also proposes up to three years of imprisonment for anyone who “fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are.” The bill would even “apply to Ugandans who commit homosexual offences, but who live overseas.” There are approximately 500,000 gay men and women living in Uganda.

Half a million? Get ready for the next big genocide, folks.

Pastor Rick Warren — whom President Obama controversially chose to deliver the invocation at his inauguration — is now refusing to condemn Bahati’s bill, which has been endorsed by Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa. Ssempa has been welcomed by Warren’s family and made appearances at his church. Newsweek reports that although Warren has distanced himself from Ssempa’s views, he won’t come out against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:

The fundamental dignity of every person, our right to be free, and the freedom to make moral choices are gifts endowed by God, our creator. However, it is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations in anybody else’s business.

There, fixed that one for you, you weasel.

Really, the politicians of this country need to realize that civil rights are more important than the votes of some crazy ass fairy-begging fuck who can’t get a normal job and hears non-verbal instructions from the ether.

Till the next post, then.

This is an update to an ongoing story about 1-year-old Javon Thompson who was starved to death by his mother after she was told by an older woman she lived with that it was “God’s will” to withhold food because the child “didn’t say ‘Amen’ during a mealtime prayer” when he had before. What is really crazy is that this mother believes, despite her son suffering in front of her and dying, that he is going to come back to life again.

Mother of starved child believes he’ll live again

Ramkissoon told the tale of her son’s excruciating death from the witness stand Wednesday, at the trial of the woman she says told her not to feed the boy. Queen Antoinette was the leader of a small religious cult, according to police and prosecutors, and she faces murder charges alongside her daughter, Trevia Williams, and another follower, Marcus A. Cobbs.

*snip*

Javon died in either December 2006 or January 2007; Ramkissoon isn’t sure of the exact date. His body was hidden in a suitcase for more than a year and has since been buried. But even now, she maintains her faith in his resurrection.

“I still believe that my son is coming back,” Ramkissoon said. “I have no problem saying what really happened because I believe he’s coming back.

“Queen said God told her he would come back. I believe it. I choose to believe it,” she said. “Even now, despite everything, I choose to believe it for my reasons.”

Later, she acknowledged that her faith makes her sound crazy. “I don’t have a problem sounding crazy in court,” she said.

It doesn’t just make you “sound” crazy, it only proves to the rational world that you ARE crazy! Deadly crazy.

Sneaky bastards! A video from ABC News explains the latest indirect fundie proselytizing tactics:
ABC News – Secret Jesus Bible Codes on U.S. Military Weapons

and this

Michigan defense contractor is putting Bible codes on their weapons which Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says, “could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.”

WASHINGTON – Combat rifle sights used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops.

Military officials said the citations don’t violate the ban and they won’t stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.

The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., said the U.S. military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.

Because not many know about it, you fucker!

“We don’t publicize this,” Tom Munson, Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’”

Because if you did “make a big deal out of” it, many tax-paying citizens and secular organizations DO have a problem with it. And soldiers who know about it and disagree are afraid to speak up:

Weinstein said he has received complaints about the Scripture citations from active-duty and retired members of the military. He said he couldn’t identify them because they fear retaliation.

Damn, Hitchens is really dead-on is this clip (his part ends at around 5:10). Good form, Hitch.

(Granted, I’m not exactly a fan of the times when he’s drunk off his ass — but, to be fair, I’m guessing that daily death threats to one and one’s family might cause one to be slightly anxious.)

[LINK]

(Chuck, I hope you don’t mind me using the title of your email for my blog post.)

Chuck A emailed this to me this morning. The links he provides are about: “certain extreme wackos’ whose intentions are to work toward gaining enough power to rewrite the US Constitution.”

Chuck’s companion made the comment below at Austin Cline’s website in response to an article Cline has posted about this subject. And check out the link that she has provided in her comment.

Sojourner says: Here’s a group of fundies that have an opposite viewpoint. They think the constitution is a satanic document and want to rescind anything and everything in it that they have decided is not based in the commandments or the bible, period.

This group of nutcases is really frightening and truly deranged and delusional. They feel they are doing “God’s” work if they somehow manage to gain control.

Here’s an excerpt of one of my own comments that might be interesting to some here:

These people would stop at nothing if they could get away with it. They are seriously demented and frightening.

It’s very difficult to even read the page, but struggle through it, these people are the enemy within.

That is why we must prevail against those who want to destroy our country for their good and for their god.

These people are not some exotic citizens of a strange country. These are American Christians, whose very rights came from the same constitution they would destroy. I keep hoping this site is actually the rule of Poe’s law, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s all too real and disturbing. I suggest you read and make up your own mind.

This is the link:http://www.tencommandments.org/tysk.html

A quote taken from Society for the Practical Establishment and Perpetuation of the TEN COMMANDMENTS
(Robert T. Lee)

Better is a dictator who rules every aspect of the lives of the people with true justice and righteousness, than a democracy wherein the people indulge in the evil and idolatrous freedom they desire.

As Chuck’s friend suggests, struggle through this asshat’s page. I have experienced others like him on Facebook and several other sites on the internet and wonder just how many there are like Robert T.Lee. Are they a real threat?

Now I have to go take a shower after reading this fucktard’s wall of religious idiocy.

Abortion foe urges ‘Burn in Hell’ effigies of Pelosi, Reid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is calling on people to burn effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this Halloween, as part of a “Burn in Hell” video contest to protest the health care legislation in Congress. Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, said Tuesday that the contest serves as a political and spiritual statement that “gives people a chance to peacefully vent their rage.” “If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this,” Terry said in a telephone interview. [...] A YouTube video of the contest instructions shows how to print a poster of Reid and Pelosi and construct a stand for it. The clip shows a person dousing the Democratic leaders’ images with flammable liquid. The next scene shows their picture going up in flames. People are then encouraged to take pictures, record and submit online the footage of their Oct. 31 protests. “No, this is not a threat to their body,” an unidentified man says in the instructional video, “but it is a threat to their soul.”

Wow. You know, when you look back to that Rev. Dipshit who was praying to God to strike Obama down with a heart attack (or something, I can’t remember), xianity really comes into focus…

Praise Be! Glory!

For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.  – Ezra 9:2

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever: – Deuteronomy 23-3

Of the myriad metaphorical monsters spewed forth from the womb of that old whore Christianity, there are few that are quite as odious or repugnant as the concept of the ‘holy race’. There can be no viler concept than that of race trumping rights, no greater kindling for the flames of xenophobia, no more irrational excuse for bloodletting and the horrific crime of subjugating one’s fellow man (or woman) than that worst of crimes, racism.

A major dominionist sect named Christian Identity are a group of mental pygmies who envision themselves (representing the white race) as a ‘holy race’:

The term "Christian Identity" has two distinct meanings:

Anglo-Israelism (a.k.a. British-Israelism): A theological belief that the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic and associated cultures are the racial descendents of the tribes of Israel. Thus, by extension, Americans and Canadians, are composed of the descendents of the ancient Israelites of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament).

Racist, Christian-based faith groups: A number of small, extremely conservative Fundamentalist Christian denominations which have accepted Anglo-Israelism, and grafted it to racist, sexist, anti-communist and homophobic beliefs. They view the Jewish people as descendants of Satan. Followers tend to be involved in political movements opposing gun control, equal rights to gays and lesbians, and militia movements.

It is this sort of madness that makes me so virulently anti-bibble.

History:

The Christian Identity movement is a movement of many extremely conservative Christian churches and religious organizations, extreme right wing political groups and survival groups. Some are independent; others are loosely interconnected. According to Professor Michael Barkun, one of the leading experts in the Christian Identity movement, "This virulent racist and anti-Semitic theology, which is practiced by over 50,000 people in the United States alone, is prevalent among many right wing extremist groups and has been called the ‘glue’ of the racist right."

What is truly brain-dead, is the fact that they owe their ‘theology’ to actual ancient Semites, specifically the Israelites.

The largest Christian Identity movement has traditionally been the Ku Klux Klan which was reorganized in 1915 by William Simmons, a Christian pastor. He had been inspired by the film The Birth of a Nation which portrayed the KKK as a champion of white civilization. The KKK slid into obscurity by the second World War, but was revitalized in the mid 1950’s as a reaction to enforced racial integration in the southern US.

That the CI is connected to the genetic rubbish of the pinheads of KKK is of no surprise.

And yes, the FBI has files on these people. A simple scan is enough to curdle the blood:

Quoting the FBI’s Megiddo Report on domestic terrorism:

"Wesley Swift is considered the single most significant figure in the early years of the Christian Identity movement in the United States. He popularized it in the right-wing by ‘combining British-Israelism, a demonic anti-Semitism, and political extremism.’  He founded his own church in California in the mid 1940s where he could preach this ideology. In addition, he had a daily radio broadcast in California during the 1950s and 60s, through which he was able to proclaim his ideology to a large audience. With Swift’s efforts, the message of his church spread, leading to the creation of similar churches throughout the country. In 1957, the name of his church was changed to The Church of Jesus Christ Christian, which is used today by Aryan Nations (AN) churches."

Such is the price of free speech – it does not guarantee lucidity of mind.

"One of Swift’s associates, William Potter Gale, was far more militant than Swift and brought a new element to Christian Identity churches. He became a leading figure in the anti-tax and paramilitary movements of the 1970s and 80s. There are numerous Christian Identity churches that preach similar messages and some espouse more violent rhetoric than others, but all hold fast to the belief that Aryans are God’s chosen race."

Other current organizations which follow Christian Identity beliefs are: American Nazi Party; Aryan Nations; Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Aryan Nations; Confederate Hammerskins; Jubilee, National Association for the Advancement of White People; The Order; radical modern offshoots of the original Posse Comitatus; Scriptures for America, White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and White Separatist Banner. Many small groups fade in and out of existence frequently.

There is no doubt that these folks would gladly espouse dominionism. And of course, like all crazed cultists, they too embrace an ‘Armageddon’:

"Christian Identity also believes in the inevitability of the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. It is believed that these events are part of a cleansing process that is needed before Christ’s kingdom can be established on earth. During this time, Jews and their allies will attempt to destroy the white race using any means available. The result will be a violent and bloody struggle — a war, in effect — between God’s forces, the white race, and the forces of evil, the Jews and nonwhites. Significantly, many adherents believe that this will be tied into the coming of the new millennium."

(Points finger to head, rotating index finger, whistling.)

"The view of what Armageddon will be varies among Christian Identity believers. Some contend there will be a race war in which millions will die; others believe that the United Nations, backed by Jewish representatives of the anti-Christ, will take over the country and promote a New World Order. One Christian Identity interpretation is that white Christians have been chosen to watch for signs of the impending war in order to warn others. They are to then physically struggle with the forces of evil against sin and other violations of God’s law (i.e., race-mixing and internationalism); many will perish, and some of God’s chosen will be forced to wear the Mark of the Beast to participate in business and commerce. After the final battle is ended and God’s kingdom is established on earth, only then will the Aryan people be recognized as the one and true Israel."

As this will never happen, it’s easy to see how this sort of group dynamic becomes a powder-keg.

"Christian Identity adherents believe that God will use his chosen race as his weapons to battle the forces of evil. Christian Identity followers believe they are among those chosen by God to wage this battle during Armageddon and they will be the last line of defense for the white race and Christian America. To prepare for these events, they engage in survivalist and paramilitary training, storing foodstuffs and supplies, and caching weapons and ammunition. They often reside on compounds located in remote areas."

What is even more frightening, is that like-minded zealots have been forming ties – the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that. For some more eye-popping rhetoric:

"We are going to build the Kingdom of our God on this continent if we have to turn it into a Bosnia first! Death may find you in front of your one-eyed church of Satan or in the filthy bingo parlors where you worship your devil god, but be sure that you will not escape the consuming fire that is the real baptism of the Holy Ghost, The God of Racial Israel.

‘One-eyed church’? Or more to the stupidity – BINGO PARLORS?!? Are you kidding me?

That an evolutionary by-product, perceiving the different as dangerous, has become so twisted into xenophobic hatred, is heart-breaking.

And that this sort of mental rabidity still flourishes, is a sad testament to what little progress we as a species has made. It enrages the hearts of those of us cursed with empathy, it belittles the dignity of Man, it smears the monuments of progress with offal, it threatens to benight us with the ignorance of mental rubbish.

It is to weep.

Till the next post, then.

Fundamentalist Christians whatever their denomination do not fail to keep us supplied with a steady stream of material to post about. Here is a story about a crazy fundie teacher at a public school in Arizona who is telling kids things creepy things that the devil tries to do. He also uses his platform for proseltyzing and encouraging the kids to pray, etc.

Teacher accused of telling devil tales could be fired

“Could be fired”? How about should be fired!

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.15.2009

A teacher accused of telling his second-grade students frightening tales about the devil is facing dismissal from Miller Elementary School.

Michael P. Corkery came under scrutiny last month when a parent sent a letter to the south-side school saying her child was being taught about Jesus, God and the devil.

The child said Corkery taught the students that the devil rapes little boys and “touches them where they don’t want to be touched,” according to the parent’s letter.

The student went on to say that the class was told not to tell the principal what they were learning because he could get fired and then he would miss them.

That is a tactic an abusive teacher used when I was in the fifth grade, but he didn’t play on our sympathies. He told us if we told the principal or our parents that he would “get us.” Unfortunately, despite complaints from the students and a few parents, this same monster went on to become co-principal of the school! Good thing times have changed and most parents listen to what their children are telling them.

The article goes on to tell more about this lunatic:

Miller Principal Mary Anderson placed Corkery on administrative leave and conducted individual interviews with 22 of the 25 students in the class.

Ten of the students interviewed made statements that were consistent with the allegations in the letter, said a complaint filed with the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board.

One student told Anderson that Corkery discussed the crucifixion of Jesus. Another said Corkery told the students to pray to God before they went to bed for protection of their families, the report said.

One student reported that Corkery told the children that if they lied, the devil would pull their feet while they slept, causing their feet to turn red.

Another said Corkery taught them to “never go on the devil’s side, never be the devil.”
Several students mentioned a devil doll that was kept in the classroom and utilized by Corkery, according to the report.

I hope that this insane man will never be allowed near children again.