So What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Think About McCain and Obama?

Jehovah's Witnesses' Stanley Theater

During This Values Voters
and Creepy Christofascist Presidential Campaign...
Just Where do Jehovah's Witnesses Fit In?

Nowhere, it seems.

From Wikipedia:

Jehovah's Witnesses believe their allegiance belongs to God's Kingdom, which is viewed as an actual government. Thus they refrain from saluting the flag of any country or singing nationalistic songs.They believe that these acts are tantamount to worship. The political neutrality of Jehovah's Witnesses is also expressed by their refusal to participate in military service – even when it is compulsory – and by their detachment from secular politics. Voting in political elections is considered a compromise of their Christian neutrality.

How unpatriotic!! How Cult-like! But to a certain extent...

How reasonable. Witnesses seem to realize that convergence of politics and religion does not make for a healthy nation. Since they consider secular government inconsequential to their religion, they are not hypocritical in forcing government to bend to their values. They don't run for office. How sane. They do not hold Values Voters Summits. How perfectly humble. While others are holding picket signs and screaming during Gay Pride Parades, Jehovah's Witnesses are quietly standing on the sidelines holding copies of Watchtower and Awake! If they are Christians - they are DIGNIFIED Christians.

I get an rss feed from a king of "blog" called ChristiaNet.com a which there has been an argument as to whether or not Jehovah's Witnesses are a "cult" with all the pejorative meanings of the word. Religious intolerance abounds during these free-for-alls. Needless to say, they are never dignified.

Example:

A destructive cult of false teachings, that frequently result in spiritual and psychological abuse, as well as needless deaths (bogus blood transfusion ban).Yes,you can 'check out anytime you want but you can never leave',because they can and will hold your family hostage.

The world has the Internet now,and there are tens of thousands of pages up from disgruntled ex-Jehovah's Witnesses like myself who have been abused by the Watchtower cult.Jehovah's Witnesses are often a mouth that prays a hand that kills.The Watchtower is a truly Orwellian world.

I've heard that said about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints as well.

Religions hating other religions. Who to believe? What to believe?

Bush Catholic?

Might make sense - If You're George Bush

Boy did I miss this one! I must have been ruminating on something pretty hard not to see the rumors coming. I reported that George Bush was dumb enough to call the Pope "Your Eminence." I probably assumed no one that stupid would convert to Catholicism.

(From The Drudge Retort)

President George Bush was given such a splendid welcome by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday that rumors started flying that the President, like Tony Blair before him, was on the verge of converting to Catholicism, according to The Independent. It was a Vatican visit such as no other head of state has ever enjoyed.

Of course, if Bush is as power-hungry AND as stupid as people think, he might become Catholic to see if he can become pope. An obscure ecclesiastical rule that has never been erased: one does not necessarily have to be a priest to become Pope. There is the problem, however, of Laura Bush: if he tries to annul their marriage, then the twins would be technically illegitimate.

Bush's brother, Jeb, converted to Catholicism several years ago. Has it changed him? Who knows. He's off the political radar screen these days.

Thank God.




Of course,
George might be possessed in which case he'd have to undergo an exorcism!

The Politics of In-Your-Face Pride ...OOOH! Half-Naked Men and...

Completely Naked Truths, Compassion, and Humanity!

I'm blogging here while fireworks are going off in the night sky. It's Pink Saturday in San Francisco and a time for revelry, but not for me. I don't mind, because I'm here with whoever is reading this.

I remember one Gay Pride Parade - I was in it, on a float with about 10 hunky(er) men. We were the last float (the last float was always the one with the loudest/best music to dance to all the way down to the Civic Center) and we passed by what looked to me like a group of Stepford Wives. They were shouting that we were so very sinful and going to hell. That was when I realized that the vehemence of their shouts were meant not at our gayness ...but at our maleness. They were, in a word, jealous. The testosterone from the float would have made anyone swoon, but these guys weren't attracted to them. Their femaleness was being openly offended.

There's a certain kind of glee to be gotten from in-your-face pride. I'll admit that. But there's a certain amount of political posturing going on as well. I'll admit that too. To strut with a sign that says, "I'm Here. I'm Queer. Get Used To It." means that you are willing to take a bold stance against something. Unfortunately, that "something" is (these days) a segment of Christianity. The dark portion, if you will. You know, when gays started coming out of their closets in the 70s, many of them thought, "If they can just see us for the good human beings we are, then everything will be O.K." WRONG!! The more we started coming out of the closet, the more we were vilified by "Christians". Then the Age of AIDS came along and gave some people more ammunition for hatred. Sad: what could have been Christianity's shining hour turned out to be it's darkest years. People died in the streets. People danced in the streets. People were thrown out of their homes while they were sick and dying and Christian mentors were shouting approval. The first faith-based AIDS agency outside of San Francisco was the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles - 6 years after the outbreak. 65,000 people had already died. And it took real courage for the LA diocese to help AIDS victims. The churches of the Southern Baptist Convention still do not sponsor any AIDS agencies (outside of Africa, of course). Twenty-five years later, and some people still think you can get AIDS from a toilet seat. Uninformed? Sadly, no. They're just that stupid. They trusted people like Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms. I'm sure that some people of Orlando, FLA are still waiting for a meteor to strike them because Disney World sponsored a Gay Day - Pat Robertson said so!!

So where does my pride come from? It comes from all of those truly compassionate people who gave their time, their efforts, their money and their very lives to helping all of the AIDS victims while few others would. I'm proud of being gay because of them. I'm especially proud of San Francisco, the city that sprouted about 60 different AIDS agencies within a meager two years!

I'm Proud. I'm Loud. Get Over It!

I culled some pictures from several past Pride Parades. Yes, I love the gratuitous naked men, but I hope you'll find something else besides sex: the joy of loving everyone while loving yourself.







I think the best part of the SF Gay Pride parade is the Christofascist protesters: they look so silly with their badly spelled (or just bad grammar) makeshift signs, wondering if they're going to get killed by almost one million people. The joke is soooo on them: even for bigots, this is probably the safest place to be. If there's violence, honey, don't blame us!

Here are some Christofascists and The One...The Only...Fred Phelps!

Separated at Birth?

Oh, the inhumanity of it all.
What a waste.

Really OK? Or Just Tolerated?

Originally uploaded by deborah lattimore

There are too many people in the country who would look upon this as the most offensive of all the pictures I'm posting today. Even one is one too many, but you know there are perhaps millions (if the Christofascist numbers are correct). Tolerance schmolerance. Frankly, I'm sick of it. It's arrogant - how many people do you know who say the word "tolerance" while they're looking down their noses? It's righteous f*cking arrogance (sorry, but I'm riled up today). Tolerance is NOT full acceptance! And full acceptance is what is needed. And equal rights are based on full acceptance. That's why same-sex marriage is so important to so many of us.

JAMES DOBSON'S WAR: Who Is Going To End It?

PLEASE, GOD! LET IT BE ME!

But no such luck. The only way I could get any attention from Dobson would be to immolate myself in front of the Focus on the Family building, giving Dobson a great excuse to hold a barbeque. Today is definitely a day of ironies: While it encourages celebration of gay pride, being the 39th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, it is also Ted Haggard's birthday! And while it commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending WWI, it is also the date on which Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie were assassinated, causing WWI.

Have you ever noticed that the people who start wars are not necessarily the ones who END them? Germany started a war in 1939, but almost everyone agrees that America and England ended it. George Bush started a war, but another president will have to end it. And if all goes as George wants, he'll start a war with Iran before January 20, 2009, making it TWO wars someone else will have to finish.

James Dobson, him of the many honorary doctorates from Bible-Thumper colleges, the former child psychologist (how many decades ago?), Supreme Prelate of Colorado Springs, Founder of Focus on the Family and puppet master of Family Research Council (read: Tony Perkins) has declared war on presidential candidate Barack Obama. Why? He must have realized that the family value of homophobia was not enough to sway Christian voters in this year's elections. Attacking the Democratic nominee for president is, of course, the same as attacking the entire Democratic Party and liberals everywhere. Dobson has enjoyed the obeisance of many Republicans in the past and really does look on himself as a king-maker. His views on the Iraq war certainly helped George W. Bush in 2004. And he never, ever deviates from his original state of mind. Read this response to a disgruntled Focus fan about Dobson's view of the war:

Where the Iraqi conflict itself is concerned, Dr. Dobson wants it known that his feelings on the subject are intense and deeply held. He realizes that there are many American Christians who do not share his point of view. Nevertheless, his own position is absolutely non-negotiable. As an adherent of the classic Augustinian "just war" theory*, he is convinced that this is a case where the biblical and theological justifications for the use of force are fairly obvious. You may be right in asserting that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was not "defensive" in the strictest and most narrowly defined sense of the term. However, viewed within the larger context of the global War on Terrorism, the defensive nature of America’s pre-emptive strike against Hussein seems indisputable. Please don’t misunderstand. Dr. Dobson doesn’t like war and killing any better than you do, but he believes that this may be one of those moments in history when we are forced to settle for a trade-off: the lives of the few in exchange for the lives of the many.** This is always tragic in the extreme; and yet we must face the fact that even more deaths and greater sufferings would probably have ensued if Saddam had been allowed to pursue his mad course of oppression, aggression, and self-aggrandizement.**

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, leader of the largest Methodist congregation in the country, launched a website yesterday titled James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me. This from a formerly staunch Bush supporter (and officiator at Jenna Bush's wedding) who points out that Obama is just as "family oriented" as Bush is/was and that maybe it is Dobson who is twisting Holy Scripture.

TIME has put out an article about the whole mess entitled Is Dobson's Obama Hit Backfiring?

I hope and pray it is.

But remember, Obama's hit may only be a slight skirmish to Dobson who, in reality, is waging war against many people: like me and you.



* These words have a peculiar ring to them since they seem to echo Dobson's course. ( The "classic Augustinian 'just war'" theory is more classic Dobson: Augustine never really said anything about pre-emptive strikes. Dobson likes to refer to Augustine because he was the inventor of the world's greatest guilt trip: original sin. Dobson loves original sin).

** This is, of course, the time-honored argument of warring for peace, but as one wag put it: "Going to war for peace is like f*cking for virginity!" *

** Sounds more like Dobson himself. Ask anyone who has sparred with Dobson on the subject of homosexuality: oppression, aggression and self-aggrandizement become light artillary when Dobson wants to play war.