The Frightened and the Insane: Looking at the Latest In Right-Wing Intolerance

If for reasons of indolence or cowardice this fight is not fought to a finish we may imagine what conditions will be like 500 years hence. Little of God’s image will be left in human nature, except to mock the Creator.

- Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf

These last several weeks have brought out the worst and most unreasonable attitudes in people. It must have been the eclipse. Or the full moon. Or Gay Pride parades. 

Let's see, there was: Lou Engle spewing as much hatred as possible behind closed doors; not one, but TWO strikes against DOMA that inflames Tony Perkins' sense of the melodramatic; a HuffPost columnist trying to link Darwin to Hitler; the Call 2 Fall movement on 4th of July causing a lot of bruised knees and egos; the Texas GOP going completely draconian; Sharron Angle hoisting herself by her own petard; and the Phelps clan going to the Supreme Court armed with self-righteous stupidity.

We've covered Lou Engle's attempts to eradicate homosexuality (by eradicating homosexuals) and, quite frankly, if people haven't gotten the message that this is a very, very dangerous man, then no amount of additional, honest but unrestrained rhetoric will seep in. 

"Your honor, we believe the protesters were within their rights because they were nuts."

Before arguing a case before the Supreme Court, it is wise to submit a brief stating your client's case. It is not wise, however, to state that your client (also being your own family) was "hysterical" while exercising their right of free speech. The brief for the defendant in the case of Snyder v. Westboro Baptist Church is a case in point:

Phelps also argued that the church was engaging in public speech on a matter of public concern; that the funeral was a public event; and that the church did not assert provable facts but instead expressed “hyperbolic, figurative, loose, hysterical opinion.”

This is a case that will receive national attention simply because it is so emotional: do dimwitted right wingnuts have any right to spew insanely vile hatred anywhere near something as emotionally charged as a funeral? Remember, these were the same people (stretch of the imagination here) about whom The Laramie Project was based and who have a website featuring Matthew Shepherd engulfed in the flames of hell. The basic rule of humanity - that you NEVER insult widows or orphans or anyone connected to someone who has just died - is breached by people screaming how glad they are that the deceased are dead and rotting in hell! 

If the Phelps clan wins, then every hate-filled group on the planet will be marching with misspelled signs (oops, the Teabaggers already do that). At the very least, their victory will encourage some people to be more uncouth and vile in their protests. But if they lose, the Christian Right will have a very real conundrum on their hands: someone they hate (Phelps is bad PR) will have gotten the heave-ho using their only real defence - free speech. Tony Perkins will have a hard time choosing puns for that article.

It may also be the first time "hate speech" has ever gone to trial on a national scale. Will the "man addicted to hate," the man banned from entering other countries, the man who bred a family of haters, the man who invented passages of the Bible for his own purposes of argument, will that man win?

I shudder at the thought.

Well, Ducky for DOMA!

Sorry, but whenever I see headlines by Tony Perkins, my prose starts to whack to the right. His bon mots, puns and witticisms are as toxic as the BP oil spill and I should be pitied for having to slog through them every day. When district court judge Joseph Tauro decided two cases against DOMA, Perkins had this to say:

Yesterday, a U.S. District Court did its best to preserve Massachusetts's reputation as the most liberal state in America on marriage. In Boston, a federal judge used his gavel to shatter the one law preventing a complete capitulation to same-sex "marriage" at the federal level: DOMA. 

"... gavel to shatter." There's drama (which I like) and then there's melodrama. The characters in Perkins' plays all seem to have a large appetite for scenery. 

In his decision, judge Tauro ...

...stated that he could not find “any identifiable legitimate purpose or discrete objective” for DOMA to treat same-sex couples differently.

Lisa Keen pointed out:

That finding was important because, in 1996 decision, in Romer v. Evans, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that animus cannot be used to justify a law.

Hmmm. Perhaps the same can be said for the Phelps v Snyder case. 

On The Origin of Species Was REALLY Mein Kampf!

 

Columnist David Klinghoffer wrote a piece last week titled The Dark Side Of Darwin. And readers of the Huffington Post commented accordingly: 

Humans have been killing each other for millenia, we didn't need Darwin to tell us to do it. To claim such is intellectual dishonesty to the extreme.

Lauri Lebo at Religion Dispatches:

In his piece, Klinghoffer recites the tired lie that Hitler was inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution to force the sterilization of 400,000 people he judged inferior in the quest for racial purity. Klinghoffer, by the way, is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute, an organization which has been trying to insert religion into public school science classrooms under the guise of intelligent design and anti-evolution lesson plans.

There are, of course, intelligent people in the evolution debate, but an irony lies in the fact that they don't seem to be on the side of intelligent design.

"Spoiled" Nevada Unemployed Have Sharron Angle Coming To Their Rescue!

Nevada U.S. Senatorial GOP candidate, Sharron Angle, the one who promised Harry Reid physical violence via the Second Amendment, has a new attack ad featuring Nevada's high unemployment rate. It would be good strategy if Angle herself hadn't herself said that people receiving unemployment benefits were "spoiled" and that she would have voted against any extension of those benefits. Sort of like saying "you don't deserve jobs, but I'm going to get them for you anyway!" 

Prayers For Fear And Loathing

Sometimes it takes a foreign voice to give us a better perspective of how things really are: Matthew Harwood's article in Britain's Guardian, America's Paranoid Religious Right, gave a fairly good picture of Tony Perkins' Call 2 Fall nationwide 4th of July event. Harwood and his wife attended a Call 2 Fall service in a suburban DC church:

The experience was an insight into the cultural insecurities at work within the religious right and its Christian nationalism – the belief that the United States was, is, and for ever shall be a "Christian nation", utterly dependent on God for its success.

What Harwood experienced was what we, as Americans, have been experiencing on a constant basis: the "Christian nationalism" of which he writes has endeavored to put a strangle-hold on government and our daily lives. And in the process of strangulation, America has had to scream out the injustice:

What originally began as songs of love and sacrifice quickly rot into gay-bashing and the dangerous, yet indistinct talk of enemies everywhere. The room began to take on the darkness of Arthur Miller's Crucible more than the enlightenment of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

This article also begs the question: Just how many degrees of separation are these people from Fred Phelps? Certainly not six. 

No People Evolving or Marrying Queers In Our State! 

And last but certainly not least, America was treated to the latest GOP aberration: the Texas GOP platform, proving that since they don't believe in evolution, Texas GOPers haven't bothered to evolve. 

From Huffington Post's David A. Love:

To round out an astonishing set of policy positions, the Texas Republicans are against any regulations on gun ownership. Oh yeah, and they declare that this is a Judeo-Christian nation. And there should be capital punishment for rape convictions (like the good old days). Deep water oil drilling should resume in the Gulf of Mexico, employers should be able to discriminate, and the minimum wage law should be repealed, they say. No more birthright citizenship -- citizenship by birth would be limited to those born to a U.S. citizen. Finally, the Texas GOP assert that the U.S. should get out of the United Nations.

                 

Of course, tthe Texas GOP may have simply stated which direction other extreme right-wingers in this country really want to move: not right, not left, certainly no forward, but - you guessed it - backwards.

An emotional vandalism case hits the big time. A Senate candidate runs a clueless attack ad. A repudiation of DOMA creates some serious melodrama. The 4th of July incites prayers of paranoia. An egregious link between Darwin and Hitler surfaces. yet again. A party platform takes its clues from the Dark Ages. Whatever brought all this on? 

I dunno. But as surely as you can say "rabid right" we'll have more of the same. 

Pass the hemlock.

Breaking: Priest Arrested For Embezzling $1.3 From Parish for Luxury Vacations And RENTBOYS!!

The HYPOCRISY gets juicier every day!

Police have arrested a well-known Roman Catholic priest in connection with the theft of $1.3 million from the Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon parish over a seven-year period. Rev. Kevin J. Gray, 64, was charged today with first-degree larceny. Police said he used church funds to pay for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and male escorts.

 

Maybe they were "luggage boys"!!!

 

 

BREAKING: Uganda Gay Activist Beheaded

Is this the result of Lou Engle's Rhetoric?

I couldn't find the proper color for the above title: Jungle Red was not available.

From 365Gay.com

Ugandan LGBT activist Pasikali Kashusbe was discovered murdered when Ugandan police found his severed head, which had been thrown down a latrine.

Kashube was a volunteer with Integrity Uganda, a gay rights group. He went missing in June, but Ugandan officials only found him when they were searching for another missing gay activist, Rev. Henry Kayizzi Nsubuga.

Nsubuga has been missing for three weeks, ever since he delivered a sermon in support of gay rights in Uganda.

 For further thoughts on Lou Engle and Uganda, please read the post below.

Lou Engle's Goal: Demonize Gays To Extinction

My tolerance of a religion ENDS when said religion wants to kill me.

- Reality Bong:

Abomination

The word "abomination"* is considered by some to be the king of buzz words. It's the word that triggers the most disgust in Fundamentalists. It has been used to describe horrors against God and nature. It has been used to distinguish whole segments of society as sinful and unfit for any consideration. It has been used to fashion a weapon out of the Bible. It has been printed in letters three feet tall on placards used in vehement protest during Gay Pride festivals. It is not, however, a word used to describe self-styled prophets such as Lou Engle.

It should be.

Another name/attribute that could be given to Lou Engle: The Demonizer, for Lou Engle's sole purpose in life seems to be to demonize homosexuals out of existence. And quickly. When you hear Lou Engle's raspy voice, there is, above all else, an immediacy to contend with: homosexuality has done so much  to demoralize America that only strong punishments will stem the evil's tide. Punishments like imprisonment and execution.

Do I sound extreme? Am I simply being hypocritical by actually "demonizing" Engle myself? Like many progressive souls, I try to research items of injustice. Occasionally I come up with some salient points amongst a myriad of negative comments. Unfortunately, I've given up trying to find something, anything, of value in a Engle's rhetoric, for after experiencing it even at its mildest, I feel my humanity violated.The highest level of passion always reeks of the sinister, to say the very least.

Until recently, The Demonizer has always tried to sheath his sword  of hatred for homosexuals within the thin scabbard of "love." It's time to be coarse and say "bulls**t!" What he and other anti-gay "men of God" know about the love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin dictum is that very few people attempt it because it's totally against human nature.  Some few actually site it hoping their flock will take it to heart, while most simply use it as good PR spin. It's notable that beyond the love-the-sinner meme,  Engle never attempts to soften the soul of his flock. On the contrary, his use of militaristic phrases, buzz words and images of violence harden people to the possibility that homosexuals might be human. Homosexuals are possessed by demons. Period. The "gay agenda" is evil incarnate.

Referring to his son Jesse's call to minister in San Francisco:

"... to go to San Francisco to launch a house of prayer, one block from the Castro District - where the homosexuals boast the dominion of darkness."  

His followers hissed and booed at the mere mention of San Francisco. Are we to believe that they will turn around 180 degrees and love those who "boast the dominion of darkness?" Delusion has its purpose I suspect, but few, if anyone, are quite that delusional - or clueless.

And lest someone think that Engle is completely clueless, his purposes are quite clear: eradicate homosexuality by eradicating homosexuals. His son's ministry and his teen followers' witnessing in San Francisco's Castro district were dismal failures. The district's population feel rightly insulted whenever a self-righteous group starts singing hymns to pray away their gayness because they know that the meek exteriors of the choir house feelings of disgust. Abomination. Hypocrisy fairly glows from Engle's young followers.

The Darkest Raison d'etre Exposed

Five days ago, Engle's purposes were exposed by TWO (Truth Wins Out) reporter Evan Hurst. He attended one of Engle's smaller revivals in St. Louis (June 19 to July 12) and was able to tape Engle's tirade, this time aimed at a more select (and apparently more discreet) group of followers. Hurst's professionalism is evident in his restraint, even while giving the reader his thoughts on Engle's extreme rhetoric. And extreme it is:

“If we’re struggling with a homosexual, same-sex desire, LET THE BIBLE KILL YOU, rather than make it easier for you, and say well, there must be a better scriptural answer to this … Brothers and sisters, let the Bible kill you rather than you twist the scriptures!"

Hurst went "underground" to capture a speech/sermon given to a group much smaller than Engle's more public rants. He openly admits that his words are too violent for larger groups and that he will be "vilified" if a tape of it ever surfaces. He peppers his speech with anxious asides of "Are we taping?" 

Engle calls his followers "Yahweh Separatists." And in the midst of relating the story of Jezebel and Ahab - paralleling to our own government - he says:

“The Yahweh separatist prophets gotta kill those guys!”

Reporter Hurst tries to maintain an objective, even keel, but finally notes:

But this is the kind of eliminationist rhetoric that, when it goes into the ears of certain kinds of crazies, can be deadly.

As deadly as the kind of "imprecatory prayer" Rev. Wiley Drake called upon to kill President Obama? Hardly. Drake's call for a curse on Obama was summarily laughed at by the public, both secular and religious. The Demonizer doesn't pray for a curse, but instead let's his followers decide whether or not to act:

“Our president two days ago came out and said ‘We bless the fathers of families that have two fathers’! This is a decree, a blessing, called this month, LGBT pride month. When decrees come from high places, it actually opens doors! It is a key! It unlocks the spiritual realm for the fueling of the demonization of culture! Is this being taped?” (voice from bouncer/heavy off to the side interjects “We can erase it.") 

It is rather ironic that it is Lou Engle who considers acceptance of gays as demonization of culture. Then again, it's not clear as to which culture he's referring to, his own culture or the humanist culture** of Western Civilization.

There are more than several ways of  analyzing Engle's mind when confronted with the possible effects of his own rhetoric: a. he simply doesn't care because "God's word" trumps all consequences, b. he honestly doesn't think it's toxic enough to warrant concern, c. he means it and hopes that someone will act on it without implicating him directly. In the final analysis, however, all we have to go on is his actual rhetoric:

“Saint means HOLY and Louis means WARRIOR. Holy war! I like that!”

I think "c" may be the only reasonable answer, unless we are to relegate Engle to the role of crazy cult leader. And even if he is, we can't negate the fact that he is a growing force in today's Christofascist movement. James Dobson, Tony Perkins, U.S. senators and congressmen have already paid him obeisance and African leaders and legislators are eager to give The Call their stamp of approval.

The Infamous Lie:

Before his May 2nd appearance in Uganda for TheCall Ministries, Engle released this statement:

TheCall has been wrongfully marked and vilified as an organization promoting hatred and violence against homosexuals and as one that supports the Uganda bill as currently written...

But apparently, The Demonizer didn't think that anybody outside Uganda would pay attention to what he would say inside Uganda: he warned the youth in the crowd that when America allowed homosexuals freedom it was the end of their nation. 

Waymon Hudson, The Huffington Post:

He [Engle] called upon the government of Uganda to be firm and hold on its righteous stand against the evil. He mentioned that homosexuals have penetrated the educational system and Ugandans must be aware of the evil.

The Engle-Warren Connection

Every public luminary has a mentor, so it is interesting to note that Lou Engle's mentor and Rick Warren's doctoral dissertation advisor are one and the same: C. Peter Wagner, founder of New Apostolic Reformation which holds as one of its immutable dictums that homosexuality is a sin. It is also notable that Rick Warren openly lied about his association with Wagner. Wagner, along with Engle, have both been credited with assisting Uganda in structuring the "Kill the Gays" bill.


The Demonizer never sites a Biblical scholar. That's no surprise, since scholarship of the Bible encourages people to think about all of its contradictions and historical/anthropological inconsistencies. A following of questioning minds tends to be not much of a following. Inerrantists need total control of their flock. And total control can only be achieved by convincing an uneducated group that every word is absolutely true. And supreme. 

Engle skirts scholarship by telling people that he is a prophet. Or moreover, Engle trumps scholarship by relating his "visions" and dreams which, of course, have been sent to him directly by God. What Engle has experienced, scholars can only make "educated" guesses at.

The quick and easy denunciation of progressive Christians is that they are false prophets:

“When men leading this nation as Christian leaders speak of gay Christians, they are actually false prophets! There are Christians struggling with same-sex desires, but those who are gay Christians, who say, “This is my lifestyle, and God is pleased with it!”, this is false prophets! I’d like to just shout it in the news, but they’ll vilify me."

People For The American Way has a "hit parade" list of Lou Engle's rants. Not all of them can be viewed because most have been removed. While The Demonizer's public demeanor is horrendous enough, it is noticeably softer than his smaller gatherings. Evan Hurst's TWO post (and tape) should be examined closely.

On the latest SCOTUS ruling that Christian groups must allow gay membership:

“This is the first time in U.S. history where the Supreme Court has actually ruled that gender rights now trump religious rights, which means this is the beginning of the possible coming harassment and persecution of the church because it’s going to be clear that the true church will take a stand only on the Word of God,”

The Demonizer echoes the likes of Tony Perkins and Pat Robertson with the subject of "Christian Persecution" while mangling the English Language ("...beginning of the possible coming?")

Lou "The Demonizer" Engle calls for martyrs to his cause. But while some of his martyrs will be "persecuted" for singing hymns in the Castro, some others may go down with guns blazing.  Just the way Engle wants it. And if some of his followers question Engle, asking if there are some good gays worth saving from imprisonment and death, his response might be similar to that of Arnaud Amaury, abbot of Citeaux and military leader besieging the town of Beziers, France and before the massacre of its ten thousand inhabitants:

*The word "abomination" was the keystone of Judaism. From Religion Dispatches:

The term toevah (and its plural, toevot) occurs 103 times in the Hebrew Bible, and almost always has the connotation of a non-Israelite cultic practice. In the Torah, the primary toevah is avodah zara, foreign forms of worship, and most other toevot flow from it. The Israelites are instructed not to commit toevah because other nations do so. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 makes this quite clear..."

** The Demonizer thinks that every person outside of his ring of adherents has no relevance whatsoever to God's world whether spiritual or physical. To most people, humanism simply means a system of secular ethics, but to Fundamentalists and people of Engle's ilk, humanists are ungodly and therefore, worthless until being "saved."

The Outbreeders: Mandating A Baby Boom For The Culture War

             

Flooding The Nation With  

Christian Rightwingers

Imagine a country full of home-schooled children who are taught that people who do not believe what they believe, act the way they act, live the way they live deserve to be discriminated against, deported, incarcerated, or worse... Sounds like a B movie filled with tykes whose eyes emit laser beams, vaporizing people they feel threatened by, doesn't it? 

Well, that B movie is just the thing envisioned by Bryan Fischer's D-class intellect.  The reasoning goes like this: the left has so many pro-choice people, feminists and homosexuals that the right will outbreed them and (insert maniacal laughter) take over the world!  

Bryan Fischer of the AFA:

What this means quite simply is that liberals are breeding themselves out of existence ... All this represents a marvelous opportunity for conservatives. We can regain political control of this country by simply following the biblical mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”

Of course, the thought never occured to Fischer that  some gays, feminists and pro-choice peopler might be bred in the process, because true Christians NEVER have gay,  pro-choice or feminist children. Note to Fischer: breeding to outnumber doesn't guarantee complete extinction, unless you couple overbreeding wityh conscious genocide - the kind that your friends want in Uganda (and Zimbabwe and Texas).

And those conservatives he speaks to, none of them are "on the dole" are they? Popping out kids for the sake of a political population explosion means that the parents better have the means to support them. Fischer is a typical pro-lifer who confuses being "pro-birth" with "pro-life." After the infant gets slapped on the butt and cries, Fischer doesn't care what happens to the kid. Pay for those kids? Their homes, their food, their clothes, their education? Don't be ridiculous! Once that kid is born, the parents have to make do.  Let them shell out for Fischer's beliefs. After all, that's the American way! And if the kid winds up becoming a criminal on death row, well, Fischer will never attempt to stay his execution. So it's pop kids out as fast as possible, imbue them with as much hatred for liberals as you possibly can, hope they survive to voting age, then sick them on an unsuspecting Congress (OK, the last may not be very hard to do). Pretty cool idea, huh?

QUIVERFULL

The Quiverfull movement espouses having as many children as possible, faithfully following the dictum "Be friutful and multiply." If every child is a "gift from God" then the movement's followers can be viewed as somewhat greedy. But according to some, Quiverfull people are more than greedy for "gifts from God", they are "culture warriors":

wikipedia:

On July 25, 2005, ABC Good Morning America segment, "Is eight really enough?" Deborah Roberts interviews Rachel Scott, author of "Birthing God's Mighty Warriors". Rachel Scott discusses the trend toward larger families, managing finances with more mouths to feed and she states, "when good people stop having kids, society fails."

If this militaristic stance seems familiar, look back to  evangelical leaders like Rod Parsley and Lou Engle. Their sermons are filled with militaristic jargon that would make a general proud. The unfortunate thing about religious militarism is that too many congregants react emotionally and physically to it. 

Fundamentalists aren't very good with metaphors.

And the militarism is most effectively used on children from day one. Breeding little armies is very "fruitful". One of the most blatant examples of "breeding for God" has been cable TV's Duggar family. The family's promoting over-population to such an extent that one wonders about the parents' motives: are they supporting the kids or are the kids supporting them? 

A century and a half ago P.T. Barnum would have figured out a way to make the Duggars a sideshow in his circus. Or at least Michelle Duggar: "Meet the amazing woman who just can't stop bearing children!!" But in essence, they've already done that to their family and in this day and age, being a sideshow, ahem, I mean a celebrated family, can be very lucrative. They can afford to propagate.

More kids! More kids! Don't Abort! Seriously, Bryan Fischer and Tony Perkins (to name a few) are getting frightfully demented with their hypocrisy. Can you imagine how the Duggars would be treated if they were black and on food stamps? Perkins would have  advocated forcibly tying Michelle's tubes at least 10 kids ago as well as questioning the "morality" of the parents for introducing the children to welfare and poverty.


Quiverfull is also promoting sterilization reversal surgery. As yet it hasn't purchased fertility drugs en masse, but give it time. 


Critics of Quiverfull add one more flaw in the crank 'em out movement: 


wikipedia:

Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, a former ardent Quiverfull adherent, birth-mother of eleven children, and former editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, argues that the Quiverfull movement is one "in which women and children are routinely and systematically subordinated and subjugated by the men in their lives - fathers, husbands, older sons,. . .pastors, elders, leaders - as a matter of biblical principle." Seelhoff charges that Quiverful adherents "never talk about the victims of the movement, other than to distance themselves, to explain how it is that the victims are aberrations."

The most famous victim of Quiverfull's proselytizing has been Andrea Yates, the Houston housewife who drowned her five children in a bathtub on June 20, 2001. 

Her first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, warned Yates and her husband against having more children, stating in Yates's medical record two days later, '"Apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow! This will surely guarantee future psychotic depression."

From the Dionne Quintuplets to Octomom, extreme fertility will always be a headliner, but the topic has never really had political implications. Until now.

The Duggars are slated to headline Tony Perkins' Values Voter Summit

IT FIGURES: Ten-Year-Old And His Family Attacked by the AFA and Primitive Remnants of the Bible Belt!

 Demonizing Has Hit New Lows

"Freedom of speech. The freedom to disagree. That’s what I think pretty much being an American represents." 

- Will Phillips

The AFA has been trying valiantly to paint everyone within a mile of a homosexual as being a supporter of abject perversion. And when the person in question is actually supportive of gay rights, then they're doomed, brainwashed, gay, or just plain evil. Take your pick.

In young Will Phillips' case, it's definitely  "brainwashed," while his parents are probably "doomed" and the gay community of northwest Arkansas is "evil." 

AFA President Tim Wildmon says,

 “It’s shameful that adults would abuse a brain-washed child in this way. He’s obviously just parroting the nonsense he’s been told by manipulative adults. For gay activists to trot out this child and make him the poster child for promoting unnatural sexual expression is a form of child abuse."

Of course, the AFA's Bryan Fischer also chimed in with threats:

The AFA, according to Fischer, has sent an “action alert” to its members in Arkansas, and he says they have deluged the mayor’s and city council’s office with e-mails “asking him to stop this charade.” Though there are no plans to actively protest at the parade, Fischer said, “as of noon Thursday our records show that the mayor and city council had received 12,300 e-mails asking them to stop the parade.”

To suggest that Will has been "brainwashed" might stand against an ordinary 10-year-old (or any child in a Christian Right family), but Will Phillips is no "ordinary child" Watch his acceptance speech at the GLAAD Awards last March. His parents insist that he wrote it himself and I don't think anyone would lie about a kid like this: he's obviously got a career as a public speaker ahead of him.  

He's also as gutsy as his parents (who have attended Gay Pride parades for years): when his substitute teacher sternly reprimanded him (about not standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance) and mentioned his relatives in her harangue, he very calmly said, "With all due respect, mam, you can jump off a bridge."

Will's Parents:

We will NOT be cowed by National Bully groups or anyone else! Our family has attended this parade for nearly 5 years and we would be doing so even if Will WASN'T Grand Marshall.

What I love about Will's acceptance speech at the GLAAD Awards: he is intentionally droll. His sense of humor really comes out at the ___ mark when he refers to 10-year-olds being as intelligent as "most" people. When it's obvious to someone of Will's caliber that people on the Right are essentially stupid when it comes to their intolerance, then you know that feelings against the Right and fighting for what's right are exceptionally strong. And you also know that there are a lot of people out there like Will and his parents who won't be cowed by empty demonstrations of righteousness. 

Will has not been brainwashed. He has been enlightened about humanity and he has already learned how to cope with the mindlessly vicious that exemplifies the far Right. 

As he leads the parade, let's view some of the comments from his neighbors in Fayetteville. Some are supportive, but most are not. Some veer on the side of righteous violence.

Comments posted on Fayetteville's TV station, THV:

>> I say this punk needs his ass whooped !

 

>>At 10 years old he doesn't know enough to "stand up" for anything! I agree with you, lindajune! Give his parents a lick or two also for allowing him to do this!

 

>>Being gay is WRONG! This childs parents will answer.

 

>>It's SAD that a mayor would use a child to promote disgrace to our state.

 

>>To all the people who might label me a religious nutbag, go ahead. I believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, God breathed and inspired.
My father is a sexual devient who calls himself a homosexual. I grew up around the homosexual community in Little Rock and at best, the homosexuals were barely functional in society, much less than a positive contribution to society.

>>They can be all they can be out there on the street. When they step in my yard then I deal with them equal. I'll ask anyone to leave just one time. After that it's skull busting time. On the street I give them respect. I get out of their way and let them do their thing. Everyone should be treated with respect.

 

>>The little boy doesn't know about sexual preference yet and there is a real good chance he don't understand the Gospel yet. The way I understand the Bible he is safe in God's hands until he does understand the Gospel. Hopefully he will hear it somewhere before he is grown, understand and be maracliously born again.

  

>>One other thing...

The United States of America is a nation composed of many different cultures. It is NOT the United Christian States of America. WE THE PEOPLE are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and a host of other beliefs, including agnostics and atheists. As such, the law of one set of beliefs, such as Christianity, should not be used to restrict the rights of others who do not share those beliefs. We have laws that WE THE PEOPLE have determined that were needed.

One of those laws is that our nation can not dictate religious beliefs upon the citizens, something that I feel many here would like to change.

>>Hell I guess he'll be President one day since he is so good at giving speeches. I wonder if he has a birth certificate. I wonder is the protestors in Kansas are going to be in the parade or will they protest it? No think all military are gay. Wonder what side of the fence they are on? I bet the parents are some real winners too. 

 

>>I think a child should stay in a childs place and that is not being grand marshal at a gay parade. As far as refusing to say the pledge of alledgance, I think maybe he should research a child friendly place .....like Russia.

  

>>[the family is] not worried about any backlash. Jay says, "I don't think anyone would say mean things about a 10-year-old."

And look how quickly y'all rushed to prove him wrong.

SHAMEFUL. 

 

>>There is a thin line between beliefs and just rude little kid's, I believe he need's yanked from any speaking engagements till he grows at least 10,000 hairs other than his head. He knows nothing about life or the pursuit of it. Get him back in a classroom with a book in hand and tape over his mouth.

>>Someone needs to call CPS! VERY SAD! 

 

A Conspiracy Waiting To Happen: Erik Prince, The CIA, Tony Perkins, The ACLJ and ... Africa

Blackwater's "Indiana Jones" May Soldier For 

Right-Wing Christianity In Africa 

When I was a kid, my father tried to translate the family name  - Vojir - to me (from Czech): "It means a kind of paid soldier. A Hessian. A soldier of fortune." Ah, "soldier of fortune" was great way to put it, I thought. I didn't press any further. I was satisfied. Glamorous. Mysterious. Sophisticated. It was only when I was in college that I realized that the meaning was closely related to the term "mercenary." Somehow, "mercenary" isn't as glamorous.

So I sit here a "mercenary," writing about Erik Prince, today's undisputed king of mercenaries. Of Blackwater infamy. A man whose "soldiers" are feared more in Iraq and Afghanistan than any U.S. military force. A man with extremely close ties to Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. OK, I'll stop channeling Rachel Maddow, but you get my drift.

And the makings for a conspiracy just might be in this bit of news:

Jeremy Scahill, The Nation:

Sources close to Blackwater and its secretive owner Erik Prince claim that the embattled head of the world's most infamous mercenary firm is planning to move to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Middle Eastern nation, a major hub for the US war industry, has no extradition treaty with the United States. In April, five of Prince's top deputies were hit with a fifteen-count indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy, weapons and obstruction of justice charges. Among those indicted were Prince's longtime number-two man, former Blackwater president Gary Jackson, former vice presidents William Matthews and Ana Bundy and Prince's former legal counsel Andrew Howell. 

Prince's move is like a Midwest tornado watch: the conditions are ripe for something to happen. Could it be a conscious conspiracy or just a re-grouping?

Most of the media have translated the move as a protection against prosecution for crimes, including the alleged murder of an informant inside Blackwater. This could very well be. But is it the only reason? Let's look at Erik's closest relations, friends and allies: 

For starters, Erik Prince's father, Edgar Prince, used a great deal of his auto parts fortune to fund both Focus on the Family and The Family Research Council.

Else Prince Broekhuizen  - Erik's mother - gave a whopping $450,000 to California's Prop 8 campaign. After the death of Edgar Prince, she married her pastor, Ren Broehuizen. She was also a member of the secretive Council on National Policy.* The CNP was founded by author Tim LaHaye (the Left Behind series). Elsa Prince is also a major contributor and board member of The Family Research Council. Of course, because of major contributions, the FRC runs its mass printing facility out of Holland, MI. (Prince's home).

Betsy DeVos - sister of Erik -  was chairman of the Republican Party for the State of Michigan. Her husband, Jim DeVos is heir to the Amway fortune and attempted a run for Governor of Michigan. Betsy is also chairman of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The Institute's mission is to "promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles." Some of its members are, like Marvin Orlasky, dedicated to demonizing the beliefs of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Joseph E. Schmitz was special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese, then Inspector General of the Department of Defense under George H.W. Bush. Before his resignation, he recused himself from the investigation of Blackwater Worldwide in order to take a position for the Prince Group (holding company of Blackwater). Non-related tidbit: Schmitz's sister is the (in)famous Mary Kay Letourneau who was convicted of having sexual relations with a minor (then a 12-year-old boy whom she later married). 

As head of the Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation, Prince has funded The Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Christian Freedom International, the Republican Party, The Alliance Defense Fund, Calvin College, the Haggai Institute (India), the Michigan Family Forum, the Free Congress Foundation, Gospel Communications International, and The Education Freedom Fund, and the Knights of Columbus (now considered a prime funder of anti-gay initiatives).

Add to this powerful group Jack Abramoff, the CIA, Chuck Colson, Gary Bauer, Holland Coors, Tim LaHaye, Ollie North, Dick Chaney, Ralph Reed and a bevy of Reconstructionists all paying homage to R.J. Rushdooney.**

For a more in-depth (and head-spinning) treatment of Erik Prince's associations, go to the interactive graphic at Muckety. The reader will be amazed at the political-religious-corporate web in which Prince negotiates liaisons and subterfuge. 

Then there's Prince's undoubtedly nefarious relationship with the CIA:

From the National Post:

WASHINGTON -- The CIA in 2004 hired contractors from the private security firm Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to track and assassinate senior al-Qaeda figures, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Blackwater helped with planning, training and surveillance in a program on which the Central Intelligence Agency spent several million dollars without capturing or killing any militants, the newspaper reported, quoting former and current U.S. officials.

Anchored with the CIA, extreme Religious Right institutions and a continent ripe for theocracy, Prince's residence in Dubai  may be both convenient and prescient: armed support for conflicts within "emerging Christian nations" would bolster Reconstructionist evangelism, support ideologies such as criminalizing homosexuality,*** and counter any threats posed  by Islam.Watch the second clip below to discern if Erik Prince is not eager to go to Africa. It was recorded on Oct. 16, 2007 during the preliminary investigations of Blackwater. Prince chooses words very carefully, so look at his demeanor and ask yourself if he really wants to be a peacekeeper as Rose tries to suggest, or a Soldier for Christ, enabling the extreme Religious Right gain a very strong foothold in Africa.

After announcing the sale of Blackwater, Erik Prince was asked what he would do for a living:

(Think Progress)

Prince said he is instead “going to teach high school.” “History and economics,” he said. “I may even coach wrestling. Hey, Indiana Jones taught school, too.”

But not in Dubai. 

UPDATE:

News has arrived pertaining to the presence of the ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice - a legal defense team formed by Pat Robertson) in Zimbabwe. The ACLJ has been instrumental in Zimbabwe's efforts to draft a new constitution. Zimbabwe is now the new Uganda.

Footnotes:

* The Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University considers the Council for National Policy a leading force in the Dominionist movement. TheocracyWatch, a CRESP project, describes it as "an umbrella organization of right-wing leaders who gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the theocratic agenda."

**Rousas John Rushdoony (April 25, 1916 – February 8, 2001) was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as the father of Christian Reconstructionism and an inspiration for the modern Christian homeschool movement. His prolific writings have exerted considerable influence on the Christian right.

***Already the Republican Party 2010 Platform for the State of Texas promotes the criminalization of gays and the felony conviction of anyone who marries same-sex couples.