Maybe I Didn't Do Enough

So I'll Arm Myself Better For The Next Time

This is something I must write. I must say this, no matter how irrational it sounds. It reads almost as unreasonable as what they write.

I know I won't stop fighting them. I can't. I saw what they did to people during the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Make no mistake: they are the same people. They pass off hatred as faith and love of God. They live lives of massive hypocrisy. They will do whatever they can to achieve total submission to their ideals. They don't care that they have been exposed countless times for being hypocrites and hate mongers.

"They" are the 21st century's Christofascists. Yes, they've dominated every post I've written these past two years. You might say I'm obsessed. I am. So shoot me.

People kill. Guns kill. Rhetoric kills. Mark Twain said (Chronicles of Young Satan) that Christians were the most efficient killing machines the world has ever known. He was right. He also said that the most effective weapon in the world is humor:

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand"

If you want to make a Christofascist REALLY mad, just make fun of him. NEVER poke fun at Christianity itself. It is, after all, a basically good religion with some good universal rules to live by and to survive with others. The WAY some "Christians" go about practicing their religion, however, is, as the title of Bill Maher's movie, "religulous." And quite stupid. The origins of that stupidity were in the Apostles themselves: Christ kept asking them, "Don't you get it?". And after 2000 years, 30,000 denominations, countless wars, people hunted as witches, "heretics" tortured and murdered, whole civilizations wiped out, meaningless "crusades", after 140 million deaths "in the name of God" THEY STILL DON'T GET IT. The message was simply "love thy neighbor" and, more importantly, "love thine enemy." God wanted his creation to SURVIVE in the best possible way.

That's it. That's all. It's simply "why can't you all just get along?".

Doctrines, churches, relics that weep tears of blood, rituals and holidays are mere entertainment for the people Christofascists have never really allowed within striking distance of rationality. If the people need bread, give them a baroque church they can build to keep them busy and to keep them from asking too many questions. If they experience sickness, blame it on another group of people who are "outcasts". Blame it irrationally on the displeasure of God. Manipulate them by making them hate certain groups or societies or even the rest of the world. If not sheer hatred, at least blind contempt for those whose spirituality is different. The power Proposition 8 gives the Christofascists is immense. They can now feel free to forge ahead with more state constitutional amendments. They will then try for a U.S. Constitution amendment. God forbid, if that happens, they will be rolling out attempts at other restrictions and eliminations of rights based not just on sexual orientation, but on religion. Are certain religions "anti-American?" as the McCarthyite Michele Bachmann wants to know? Muslims will be first, of course. And anyone of Arab or Iranian descent will be targeted for discrimination.

Fiction, you say? Remember that there is no intolerance like religious intolerance. Rod Parsley will have his wish to destroy Islam and all its people (who haven't converted, of course - the converted will be sent to concentration...ah..."holiness camps"). John Hagee will have his Armeggedon even if he has to bomb Israel himself and somehow blame it on Iran. After all, Pat Robertson predicted something like that would happen. God "told" him.

The Post I Would Have Published

This is a copy of the post I would have published if Proposition Hate had been defeated.

What Do We Do Now?

The test of Proposition 8 did not represent the end of an era. It signaled the beginning of a new stage of freedom. However, beginnings, no matter how felicitous, are always based on old feelings, old scores and things left behind. And what the defeat of Proposition 8 leaves behind, if left unchecked, can become very, very dangerous. The Christofascist Right loves, worships and sanctifies money. Look how much they were willing to spend to take away people's rights. Look at all the out-of-state aid they received. Look at how they were willing to forge an unholy alliance with Mormons. Look at their bold risk of looking unChristian and the way they even embraced the tactic of extortion.

I know how pessimistic I must sound in the face of victory. I'm not going to rain on everyone's parade, I promise. Let's celebrate! Let's dance in the streets! But later, be judicious and cautious.

Please.

We underestimated the Christofascists once. We can't afford to do that again. If we do not conform to their definitions of righteousness, they consider us the enemy. To them, we are Satan. And they have proven that they will stop at nothing to defeat us in this culture war. Nothing.

They've preyed on people's fears through Judgment Houses and Hell Houses this last Halloween. They've spread lies about the "gay agenda" (was there ever a gay agenda? I don't remember one). For every sermon preached with its subject of "Love the sinner, hate the sin" there are thousands of sermons telling people to save their own souls by shunning the "heathen" the "outcast", the "pagan", the "feminist", the "homosexual". And the most sinister of them parrot how people can "change" if they really want to and have faith in God.

Hypocrisy is their stock and trade. Never forget (or forgive) Ted Haggard. Never forget Jimmy Swaggart. Never forget Senator Ted Stevens. Never forget Fred Phelps.

And NEVER forget Matthew Shepard. His real killers were in pulpits.

NOTE: The victory of Proposition 8 will only make Christofascists bolder and more overtly vicious in their attacks on homosexuals. Please people, be on your guard as never before.