The Dippy Doctrine of The Mormon Menace

Not To Be Confused With The "National Menace" (Gays)

(from 365Gay.com)

(Hastings, Nebraska) For more than 20 years, Andrew Callahan has been a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints. But now the Hastings, Nebraska man is being hauled up before a disciplinary hearing that could result in his excommunication from the Mormon faith.

His crime: opposing a call by Mormon leaders to support a proposed constitutional amendment in California to ban same-sex marriage.

It is estimated that as much as 40 percent of the money raised to support the California amendment has come from Mormons.

Notice that it the article doesn't say that Callahan is gay, but that he will be disciplined because he won't support a Mormon point of view. In Catholic terms, it would be the same stuff we heard four years ago: "If You Vote for Kerry, You Can't Take Communion."

Gee, somewhere in my old Catechism days, I remember that no priest could refuse anyone communion because they did not know if, beforehand, the communicant made "and act of contrition" He could, however, withhold it if he knew the person had been excommunicated.

Doctrines can be tricky: telling people what to think and how to think always begs the question: Why? With the Mormon Church, however (as with most Christofascist sect/congregations), you have no right to question. Like the Creation Museum's dictum, "Don't Think! Believe!" the Mormon doctrine wants to control your mind, hence your whole being (and your wallet).

Just a thought.

Letterman - 10, McCain - 0

The Way The Media Sees It

Sorry, John!
You Just Don't Treat David Letterman Like That!

Only one day after Vice-Presidential Republican nominee Sarah Palin attempts to snub the press BIG TIME, McCain does this to Dave Letterman (our thanks to Think Progress):

As part of his plan to suspend his campaign activities, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) today decided to cancel his appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. McCain’s campaign reportedly told Letterman that the senator was “racing back to Washington.” That, however, didn’t happen. In his show to air tonight, Letterman shows footage of McCain sitting down with CBS’s Katie Couric for an interview at the same time he was supposed to be on his show. You can watch Letterman's response below. Someone called it "an hour of ridicule boiled down to nine minutes."

I was in broadcasting for about 5 years (my own radio show). I had "no-shows" by some famous people (Peter Fonda was one). They knew that they would NEVER be asked to be on the show again. The McCain Campaign manager, Rick Davis (of Fannie-Freddie fame) knows how serious this situation is. It's something YOU JUST DON'T DO! Dave Letterman stated that "you know, there's something that's not right in that campaign. This isn't the John McCain I know."

McCain will obviously come up with some sort of excuse and Letterman, as a gentleman, will accept it and have him on later.

Letterman tried not to show how livid he was, but when he stated his views on McCain's decision to suspend the campaign, he repeatedly said "You don't quit! You just don't quit!"

The entire McCain-Palin campaign is now anathema to the press and media, except Fox... maybe. If they lose Fox and Rupert Murdoch, you won't see or hear from McCain or Palin until it's all over!

Dave Letterman, at the last minute (literally) was able to have Keith Olberman on the program. They both watched the Couric segment together. Yeah!

Clergy Behind Bars! Oh My! Do Tell! Pass The Milk And Cookies!

The Place for Hate Speech?

Tony Perkins is hysterical and panicking: he thinks that same-sex marriage and legislation on hate-crimes will take away his freedom of religion.

Perkins' latest shriek:

I want you to hear something a California pastor said to me recently:
"If we lose, we go to jail."
It's just that simple, says Pastor Jim Garlow-if marriage loses in California, religious liberties everywhere will be next.
The stakes are enormous. We face a national menace to religious liberty!

WTF!?

I can think of some pastors who would look great behind bars. Some are frauds called televangelists. Some are outright Christofascists. And some are just plain crazy/homicidal. Three of today's Presidential-Vice Presidential candidates have crazy pastors (McCain has two and Palin has one-and-a-half - her Assemblies of God pastor and the guest preacher -Thomas Muthee - who cast out spells, hunted witches, and laid hands on Palin who - poof! - became a governor!). So what's keeping Joe Biden?

Now Tony Perkins himself has finally gone completely insane! In his latest effort at "Fear-mongering For Freedom" (FFF), he goes on to cite various instances where discrimination against gays has been questioned or banned. He equates discrimination with religious freedom. Gays are labeled a "national menace."

While the Constitution of the United States guarantees Freedom of Religion, it does not exactly guarantee Freedom FROM Religion. I wish it would. Perkins loves that aspect of the Constitution. With it, he can send out millions of fundraising emails and mailers with inflammatory rhetoric like the above. Perkins' arguments foster fear in "Christian" communities. He wants people to be so afraid of gay rights that they will donate to Family Research Council and ban same-sex marriage in California.

Perkins is too hysterical to realize the consequences of his rhetoric other than receiving money: it's not only the rhetoric of hate speech, but the rhetoric of gay bashing. Words like "national menace" only infuse people (especially teenagers) with empowerment to harm other people physically. Perkins knows it and doesn't care. He's panhandling from CINOs (Christians In Name Only) and using fear to ask for "donations." His Family Research Council has put forth faulty "research" against gays, the ACLU, feminists and Planned Parenthood. He bases his research on the "gay lifestyle" on people like Paul Cameron (whose "Love Won Out" programs are the talk of all ten "ex-gays" in the country).


And beware: if California's Proposition 8 is defeated, Tony Perkins will be leading a large group of cornered animals. Fear will overcome any semblance of rationality.

And some clergy will charge people to "kill a queer for Christ." Of course, they'll do it in an oh-so-Christian way: insisting that gays must "pray away the gay" while hoping that the ones who aren't successful will just go away, or better yet...kill themselves.

Sneaky.

Just a thought.

McCain's (Anti-Gay) Campaign + Gay Chief of Staff Mark Buse= Award-winning Hypocrisy

HYPOCRISY At Its Highest and Finest!

(Michael Rogers, Huffington Post, Sept.222, 2008)

Mark Buse is not just a Chief of Staff for a homophobic United States Senator, but he is helping that Senator get elected to the White House...he (McCain) supports amending state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman... he knows that DADT is wrong, yet he swings to the right on repealing it.

Worst of all, and a demonstration of his inability to act rationally and with the country's best interests at heart, he picked someone who, if she becomes president (very likely), will be the most homophobic in American history.

Michael Rogers attempted to present Buse with "the Roy Cohn Award for working against the interests of the lesbian and gay community while living as a gay man." Wonderful! The video of Rogers entering Buse's office and trying to present the award is, to put it bluntly, awful. But it does make one want TO BE THERE and be more aggressive about presenting the award. After all, it's not often a personage like Buse gets such a distinguished honor.

Roy Cohn shall ever go down in history as the world's slimiest hypocrite: first as one of the prosecutors who helped convict Ethel Rosenberg, then as the henchman of Senator Joe McCarthy, he ruined lives for the feeling of power he had over them. The description of his character in Tony Kushner's play, Angels in America:

Probably the most famous is his role in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, in which Cohn is portrayed as a self-hating, power-hungry hypocrite who is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg as he lies dying of AIDS.

Back to Buse: What will the Family Research Council say about this latest development? Tony Perkins hasn't uttered a word yet. And...how will Sarah Palin respond to the news (if it ever gets to her)? Will she utter a forlorn "I don't know, I don't know" and tell the interviewer that she is just not one to judge? The Christofacist Right will be sooo diappointed if she does. They want her to say that Buse will go to hell if he doesn't repent!

This also doesn't bode well for the California Proposition 8 people: McCain supports the measure banning same-sex marriage. So now, McCain looks like a supreme hypocrite on BOTH sides. Franklin Graham wanted a sign that McCain was on the same wavelength as the other Christofascists. McCain presented him with Sarah Palin. Now he has to explain why he has kept Buse IN HIS OFFICE FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS!

The Republican Party sure is in a fine mess: during the last several years, Republicans and their Christofascist counterparts (ala Ted Haggard) have been the scandal treat not even Rupert Murdoch's printing presses can resist. What next? Will McCain become public with an affair with Phyllis Shlafley? (Good God! Plenty of wrinkles in that relationship!) Will Sarah Palin admit she has the hots for Condoleeza Rice?

Stayed tuned... This campaign is getting steamier (and sillier) by the minute!

Looking Into The Eyes of Hypocrisy

Avenue PA
Originally uploaded by BayerNYC

Look deep into his eyes. He is innocent. He is innocent. He is innocent. NOT. If Mark Foley was the heart of Republican hypocrisy, Larry Craig was the soul.

Although Mark Buse, John McCain's chief of staff, got the Roy Cohn Award, it was stolen from Craig! His performance was a magnificent picture of denial. It had pathos and guts and...well, a more than generous portion of stupidity. Did he study under George Bush?

Could be.