Hey, Liz, You Didn't Sell Those White Diamonds Fast Enough!!

Huckabee. Hucka. Huck. Rhymes with…

Definitely the man of the hour (well, at least the political 15 minutes), Mike Huckabee has, in a matter of several sentences from his past, lost the support of a small block of voters – Log Cabin Republicans. Whether or not he’s lost more (or gained more) votes with others remains to be seen.

He had this to say about AIDS Research in an AP poll in 1991:

"In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified," Huckabee wrote. [in 1991] An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor (,) Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research."

Interesting. Does this mean that when I was volunteering at the time at San Francisco’s AIDS Emergency Fund, people who were in the process of dying came from all over the country to become clients simply because Elizabeth Taylor didn’t sell her jewelry fast enough?

I guess.

He also advocated isolating AIDS patients. His biggest partners-in-crime at the time, must have been Jesse Helms and Jerry Falwell.

When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact. In late 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 195,718 AIDS patients in the country and that 126,159 people had died from the syndrome.

At a news conference in Asheville, N.C., on Saturday, Huckabee said he wanted at the time to follow traditional medical practices used for dealing with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. "Medical protocol typically says that if you have a disease for which there is no cure, and you are uncertain about the transmission of it, then the first thing you do is that you quarantine or isolate carriers," Huckabee said.

Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee said, "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk." Read more here:

“If I were making those same comments today, I might make them a little differently."

Ya wanna bet?

Please remember, people, that Huckabee is a Southern Baptist minister. Yes, the very same ministers who advocated slavery (vehemently) then joined the KKK. O.K., my prejudice is showing, but you have to admit that a religious sect that takes over 150 years to apologize for their inhumane stance (the SBC announced its regrets for slavery in 1996) is a bit suspect when it comes to any kind of civil rights.

So now that AIDS is the biggest problem in Africa: hey, Angelina, sell those trinkets, Brad sell that Rolex. Time's awastin'. You don't think that Afrian governments are going to do anything, do ya? Hell, they're just following their leader, the good 'ole Christian Right of America!

Was It a Set-up?

Look at this video from YouTube and decide for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5S38LpMgu0

Try to Google the name James Stabile. Nothing.

I received an email from the Dallas Voice. The event happened on September 7th. Very curious. Why did The 700 Club decide to air this “news” piece almost three months later? What was a 19 year-old twink (sorry) doing hopping drunkenly from club to club in pursuit of his "fiance" then getting zapped by the Holy Spirit?

The Dallas Voice reported a different scene to be sure:

...On both Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, a Christian group has chosen a sidewalk on the northeast corner of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street as a venue for prayer demonstrations. With their numbers approaching 100, the Christians’ presence has raised the ire of clubgoers and others, and on Sept. 7, police reportedly asked the group to leave after a beer bottle was launched in their direction from the balcony of J.R.’s.

... Lauren Palmer is a psychic who’s been operating a table in front of Crossroads Market — directly behind the site of the demonstrations — on Friday and Saturday nights for nearly a decade. “I’m a very religious person, I really am, and this is like a nuisance,” Palmer said. “Who are they helping? Why are they not helping some of the homeless people around here?”Palmer said the demonstrators were hurting her business by blocking her sign and infringing on customers’ privacy. “It’s not that I don’t like what they’re doing, but I don’t understand why here on this corner,” she said. “I think the people around here are beginning to get hostile toward them.”

Read more here.

And a “purity siege”?? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of a siege:

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition, often accompanied by an assault. The term derives from the Latin word for "seat" or "sitting."[1] A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that refuses to surrender and cannot be easily taken by a frontal assault. Sieges involve surrounding the target and blocking the reinforcement or escape of troops or provision of supplies (a tactic known as "investment"[2]), typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, artillery bombardment, mining (also known as mining), or the use of deception or treachery to bypass defenses. Failing a military outcome, sieges can often be decided by starvation, thirst or disease, which can afflict both the attacker or defender.

Again with the military moralizing. Does The 700 Club approve of trapping people and laying siege to them, FORCING them to become saved? Of course they do. Is it ethical to lay in wait and attack someone when they are coming out of an establishment? Of course it isn’t.

Should people be armed when they come out of a bar and are confronted by CINOs (Christians in Name Only) trying to lay hands on them?

Probably. But cream pies are expensive.

What Did GOD Whisper in Pat's Ear?

Did Guiliani and Robertson cut a deal?

Pat Robertson has now definitely crossed that fine line he has been walking on the last 20 years. His sanity is no longer in question. He has taken the plunge into the lake of lunacy. Calling down meteors against gays, saying that feminists practice witchcraft and calling for assasinations – no proclamation comes close to the news that he has endorsed Rudy Guiliani for President. Guiliani is pro-choice and soft on gays. Does Pat know that Rudy stayed with to queens while his divorce was going through? Tsk tsk Rudy. Does Pat have something more on you than you want the public to know?

What was Pat thinking? Did leg-pressing all that weight put pressure somewhere other than his posterior? Did God suddenly tell Pat that those 40 million abort fetuses were just a mistake? And that Roe vs. Wade wasn't that bad after all?

Just what kind of DEAL did these two come up with? Robertson wouldn't be so stupid as to become moderate all of a sudden - his ratings/donor base would plummet. And is Guiliani going to flip/flop? Something's missing. Something very secret.

Stay tuned. There's a very shadey story brewing.

The Absolute Certainty of a Southern Baptist

From the Huffington Post:

A few weeks ago, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas (considered The Vatican of the Southern Baptist Convention) stood in the pulpit and told the congregation that Mitt Romney was not a Christian and that "Mormonism is a cult!"

(Should Salt Lake City be attacked by the Bureau of Firearms and Tobacco?)

Upon hearing the news, presidential candidate and ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee got to Texas as fast as he could!

(Well, Duh!)

This past weekend he preached at a couple of Baptist churches in the Dallas area, even delivering the 11:00 a.m. Sunday sermon at the 28,000 member megachurch Prestonwood Baptist. Unlike recently, when he refused to acknowledge that Mormonism is a legitimate form of Christianity, Huck steered clear of that subject, focusing instead on Armageddon and how only those who share his particular faith really matter:

"If you lose everything but you still have Jesus, you have what you need," he said to rousing applause at Prestonwood Baptist."If you're with Jesus Christ, we know how it turns out in the final moment. I've read the last chapter in the book, and we do end up winning."

How revealing!

Got Tube?

I’m really slow when it comes to picking up some religious right news, so it came as a surprise to me to learn that a sight called GodTube started last August. It boasts 500,000 hits per month and clips of it are available at GodTube’s sight.

As I’ve always said, America has made a religion out of entertainment …and an entertainment out of religion. You can take away our food, shelter, and clothing, but don’t even think about touching our entertainment. Entertainment has now become our largest export. And it brings the tourists in.

There is certainly nothing askew about promoting tourism. I live in San Francisco where people wander off the cable car tour buses and I’ve become protective of the naïve little darlings. But now, imagine a group of Japanese tourists disembarking from a plane asking where they can see the Salem Witchcraft Trials performed live (of course) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!.

Something’s wrong here.

Should I be selling my glow-in-the-dark Jesus for big bucks on eBay?

CAN BENNY HINN HEAL THIS ONE?

This just in:

CBS News has learned Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is investigating six prominent televangelist ministries for possible financial misconduct.

The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.

Everyone: send a thank you! to Sen. Grassley with the postscript: What about Paul Crouch? (Trinity Broadcasting Network)

Good thing Pat Robertson doesn’t call himself a televangelist.

I’ll be updating this post today whenever I can.

Stay Tuned…

A Media Celebrity's Price of Fame

Found in the classifieds today:

Supposedly God-fearing Bible thumper seeks media coverage. Has experience in picketing for God and has trained subordinates (family) in art of picketing as well as litigating when necessary. No ideology too sacred or ridiculous to oppose. Loves to hate. Loves being hated. Will work diligently for newsprint, radio, TV and online articles. Even youngest in group will work in 24-hour shifts, trample flags and hurl epithets. No impeding morals whatsoever. Incredible resume highlighting freedom of speech and freedom to hate anyone/anything. Reply Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas.

A long time ago, Fred Phelps fell in love…with his own snake oil. That snake oil does not consist entirely of hate as most people would be led to believe, but instead, it’s a persona that embodies hate. Every time Fred receives media attention, he’s dazzled by his own image. And by extension, his family’s image.

You see, Fred Phelps fell under the spell of his own celebrity over thirty years ago: his legal career rose and fell during the seventies (he was disbarred in the State of Kansas), but then Phelps had an epiphany: the combination of entertainment and religion was tailor-made for him. A star was born.

He and his family latched on to the most incendiary topic of the time: homosexuality. He figured that taking his protests to extremes never even dreamt of by the Religious Right he could gain the fame (if not the fortune) he craved. He picketed EVERYONE and EVERYTHING (except, possibly, babies in strollers). He fumed against disaster victims and enlarged his fame with signs like “Thank God for 9/11.”*

When last Thursday’s $11 million decision for the plaintiff (in a veteran funeral picketing case) was announced, people across the country jubilantly chanted: “There is a God!”

But will Phelps and his Westboro Baptist clan ever wind up paying out any of it? Probably not, since the entire clan is a veritable den of lawyers who can file enough appeals to tie the case up well past Fred’s demise (unless he lives to the age of 110). Until the day when Phelps and his family go screaming into oblivion, however, America (especially American Evangelicals and Fundamentalists) will have to bear the “Mark of Fred”: an indelible tatoo that says: “God hates _______(please fill in the blank).”



*Interesting note: it took the Southern Baptist Convention 20 years to disavow Phelps’ “Baptist” standing. Another indication that when respect for human dignity goes up against respect for a title of “Rev.,” human dignity suffers. But tardiness in apologies or corrections is traditional within the bastions of the Religious Right: it took the Vatican 400 years to apologize to Galileo and the Southern Baptist Convention over 150 years to apologize for slavey.