Bringing Hate To Paradise: Will Bali Suffer From The Wrath of NOM?

Scott Lively, move over, there's a new international homophobia-spreader in town: the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has attempted to go international with its DumpStarbucks campaign by targeting countries where homophobia is already established, but need a little push in the form of anti-Western sentiments. 

"...today we go international, expanding DumpStarbucks.com campaigns into Mandarin, Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, and Bahala (one of the chief languages of Indonesia) DumpStarbucks.com online ads will also start running in Egypt, Beijing, Hong Kong, the Yunnan region of China, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait."

The campaign may be an easy sell in countries where homosexuality is criminalized, but think of this: the "overspill" into countries that are gay friendly, like Bali. As part of the campaign to boycott Starbucks in Indonesia, NOM will be affecting what some people consider the closest thing we on earth have to "paradise."

And Bali is, by all accounts, very gay friendly.

Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God) is rightfully indignant at the thought of NOM's campaign targeting homophobic countries:

In what may be their single-most outrageous and repulsive move yet, NOM is attempting to whip up anti-gay fervor by expanding their Starbucks boycott into nations that put homosexuals to death or have other legal punishments for merely being gay.

The tactic certainly compliments their "drive-a-wedge" strategy. But it's necessary to look beyond the skulduggery of using already anti-gay societies and see what effects it might have on the peripheral societies such as Bali. Like it or not, Bali is intrinsically tied to Indonesia. And Indonesia is intrinsically tied to Bali's tourism and finances. Starbucks has dozens of franchises on the tiny island.

One glitch in a push by NOM in Bali:  92% of its religious community follows Balinese Hinduism with only about 5% following Islam and 2% following Christianity. NOM, of course, wishes that it was 92% Right Wing Christian or 92% Muslim.*

Sorry, NOM, But Bali Ain't Uganda

Scott Lively and Lou Engle had success in exporting homophobia to Africa: third world countries with little education were easily led by evangelicals who regaled them with stories and false statistics of the "evil homosexual lifestyle." It is common knowledge that both had a great deal of influence with the formation of Uganda's infamous "kill the gays" bill.** The First Lady of Uganda, Madam Mouseveni, a born-again Christian, welcomed them as well as other evangelicals in order to bolster the country's emerging Right Wing Christianity. Of course, calling for a boycott of Starbucks is not the same as pushing for capital punishment for gays. 

But it's a start. 

NOM's problem with Bali, however,  lies not only in a different religion, but a different mindset - and more advanced education. As the richest province in Indonesia's archipelago, it has a level of sophistication in art, literature and sciences that cannot be matched, even in Jakarta. In other words, it's "world class," not "third world class." Paradise has standards to uphold. 

So the DumpStarbucks campaign will tank in Paradise. But that is not to say that we should think it will not be successful in any of the other supremely homophobic countries on NOM's list, the irony being that most of the countries are Muslim.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

* Same thing - at least in terms of homophobia

**As did Rick Warren before the awarding Uganda the sobriquet of "Purpose Driven Nation." Warren's BBF in Uganda was Martin Ssempe, the "eat da poo poo" pastor (so called because he has claimed that homosexuals ingest feces on a regular basis). 

Is Christianity Worth Saving?

Crucial question. Crucial answer.


It's the day after Easter. The chocolate Easter bunnies have given up their retail space to Mother's Day cards and purple vestments are tucked away in church closets. Easter lilies and cymbidium corsages* may see another week of life but most of the trappings of Easter must wait resurrection in the coming year. Easter, the very soul of Christianity, its raison d'etre, will be stored away like Christmas ornaments.


Today's Christianity, the one we see on television, the one posted relentlessly on YouTube, the one touted endlessly in GOP campaign speeches, however, will not be tucked away for future use. Its vehement chest-pounding was seen in Pastor Dennis Terry's introduction of the "Jesus Candidate" Rick Santorum.** It's hypocrisy was seen in Pastor Terry's back-peddling response to criticism in the ubiquitous "...but we LOVE everyone!"


Andrew Sullivan's recent views on today's Christianity certainly brought home the fact that Christianity has been ruined by the last 50years' worth of televangelists, moralizers, priests, politicians... and people like Terry. 

"There's so much bad religion right now in this country that I felt it was important as a Christian to say, 'This is not what I believe. This is not what many of my fellow Catholics believe. We want to return to the message of Jesus and the gospels, not these obsessive battles over contraception or gay marriage or these other, I think, political issues, where Jesus really, really avoided politics at all costs," Sullivan said.


And the "Bad Religion" Sullivan speaks of is reeking havoc on everyone: last Friday, Lou Engle rewrote Scripture in calling upon women to emulate Queen Esther in fasting and prayer, demanding that they humiliate themselves for all the abortions they had. And Pastor DL ("Down Low") Foster insinuated that gays are worthy of death while advertising his "retreat" for men fighting same-sex attractions.

POLICING THEIR OWN


It's all well and good for some conservative and progressive Christians to say "They're not one of us! They don't speak for us!" but such response is ...lame. And while we realize that freedom of religion restrains the "other" Christians from pummeling their righteously arrogant brothers, stronger means of chastisement  are called for. But what? Excommunication?  Hardly. Take, for example, the situation with today's Southern Baptist Convention and its steadfast 14th century views about women, gays and sex. Then look at its stranglehold on Tennessee. In order to bring Tennessee back into the 21st century, we would have to virtually eradicate the Southern Baptist denomination in that state altogether. True, Southern Baptist churches claim autonomy, but autonomy is a mythical beast trotted out once in a while to cover up the fact that churches who stray from the SBC agenda are severely chastised - financially as well as socially. 


So if they can't chastise the Christian Right, can't curtail the charlatans, the Fundamentalists, the Religio-political Establishment, what is the rest of Christianity to do? Can Christianity be saved? 


More to the point, is Christianity worth saving? This is where qualifiers come in: Christianity may be worth saving, but today's Christianity may not be worth the effort. 


Maybe it's time to scrap everything and start all over again.




* My mother loved cymbidium orchid corsages because she could put them in the refrigerator and they'd last until the next Sunday. I loved them too because they were easier on my allowance.
**Terry's now infamous speech framed the Christian Right's hatred of dissenters with two words heard over the internet: "Get Out!!"

Writing About the Twisted World of DL Foster

When passion is involved, it can take a long time to write about something, especially something newsworthy. That's the frustration a journalist/reporter/blogger can face: immediacy can fall to the wayside. The Christian Right's obsessions with sex and homosexuality seemed to peak last week, with the National Organization for Marriage leading the way for bigotry with its "wedge memo." 

It didn't.


I will be busy this weekend writing about the twisted world of "ex-gay", rabidly anti-gay Pastor DL Foster. 
Wish me luck.

Holy State-Of-The-Ark Politics! $50 Million In Tax Dollars Go To Replicate Noah's Compulsive Hoarding!

Gopher Wood is EXPEN$IVE! 

Uh, what the hell IS gopher wood?

"Make thee an ark of gopher wood;rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breath of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt be set into the side thereof; with lower, second and third stories shalt thou make it."

That's it folks. Everything else is pure imagination and speculation. The ark was a friggin' box 450' long, 75' wide and 45' tall made out of wood that's never mentioned again in the Bible and certainly doesn't exist today. It had one lousy window about 45" square and one side door (size? who knows?). 

So the chubby boat with the house on top is really pure fiction, based upon drawings and etchings like that of Gustave Dore' (see below)

Americans United for Separation of Church and State are protesting the plan to provide $11M in Kentucky state road improvements to support the Christian theme park where the centerpiece attraction is an alleged replica of Noah's Ark.

Added to that $11M are $40M in sales rebates!

The rationale behind all of this is that the Ark Park will bring in a great deal of traffic ... and revenue to the area. Makes you wonder, though, if the same consideration would be given to a Buddhist Theme Park with a 200 foot statue of Buddha. 

The Creation Museum

All rationales aside, the Creation Museum from which the Ark Park is a spin-off has had a healthy one million visitors since its construction in May, 2007. The $27 million enterprise was immediately blasted as "a monument to scientific illiteracy" by scientists, and the sight of dinosaurs romping with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden gave vent to the term, "Yabba Dabba science." Case Western Reserve's eminent astro-physicist, Lawrence Krauss formed a protest of some 600 scientists (see below). Of course Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, the Museum's parent organization came back with the zinger "Lawrence Krauss Blasphemes Our Lord."

The there's the juicy problem the Creation Museum had with Adam:

The evangelicals behind the just-opened Creation Museum are up-in-arms upon discovering that they hired a Sirfuxalot Model (Eric Linden) to portray Adam in one of the videos they've been showing to children. Additionally, the AP reports that Linden also owns the domain Bedroom Acrobat, a sexually suggestive site where he has appeared posing with a transvestite.

And science  has not let up on the simple fact that the Creation Museum plays fast and lose with it (science). One glaring point: the museum posits that all dinosaurs were vegetarians and some turned to being meat eaters after "The Fall." What about T-Rex and his huge teeth? Simple: all the better to eat coconuts with. PZ Meyers had this to say about the handling of dissent at the museum:

At the Creation "Museum", one of the jobs of the guards is to suppress criticism. They hover about in rather conspicuous uniforms, armed with tasers, and some use police dogs to check out the visitors. They don't want dissent expressed in their building, and they admit it themselves.

Cuts to Education But $43 million to Noah's Ark

While Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear handed in a state budget that cut 6% from education, he steadfastly included a $43 million tax rebate to the Ark.  Beshear, a Democrat (!) sees the venue as a money-maker for Kentucky, while it's creator Ken Ham (of AiG) is unabashedly Evangelical:

“When people say the money donated for the full-size Noah’s Ark should be spent instead on feeding the poor or giving to another cause, they are essentially arguing that no money should be given to building the Ark Encounter. Yet consider the words of the Great Commission given by Jesus Christ.” The “Great Commission” refers to Jesus’ calling of his disciples to spread their beliefs throughout the world.

So the Ark Encounter IS FOR PROSELYTIZING. And woe betide anyone who thinks differently:

PZ Meyers:At the Creation "Museum", one of the jobs of the guards is to suppress criticism. They hover about in rather conspicuous uniforms, armed with tasers, and some use police dogs to check out the visitors. They don't want dissent expressed in their building, and they admit it themselves.
A Big Joke

It never ceases to amaze the rest of the world how American, Right-wing Christianity continues to embarrass the rest of us. True, it has made its forays of bigotry and stupidity into parts of the world yearning to join the 21st century (think Uganda)* but the clowns of God (leaders) keep pummeling us with a maniacal ferocity of all things unreasonable and inane. Speculation about the Ark Park should produce some very outlandish, very comic questions, e.g. will the Ark feature all the animals? Will it have room for waste (or was Noah the world's grand scale polluter)? What languages will be confounded at the Tower Of Babel? Yiddish? 

Perhaps the Kentucky legislature is playing an enormous joke on its taxpayers by sanctioning another enormous joke: the Ark Park will ultimately cost $172 million and Ken Ham will continue to thumb his nose at the poor.

*Pat Robertson is still fighting to get a Christian theme park in the Holy Land.

A Lewisia Sort Of Day

Lewisia is a small but intense flower, a succulent that takes forever (it seems) to bloom. But when it does...

So far, it's been a "lewisia" kind of day:

I still have "afterglow" from some intense nookie last night.

I woke up to find that two of my last articles are in the top ten at OpEdNews.

A long-time online friend (WOOOOF!) is coming for a visit in late May, just weeks before my 65th.

Christian Right hate-mongers (NOM) are being pummeled in the news (with a little help from guess who).

I called up my Jewish mother, Gladys and immediately made a date for lunch tomorrow (she's a strong 90!). 

Laundry and work out don't seem too much of a chore.

Work on Sacred Cows will be fruitful (I hope).

Yep, it's a Lewisia kind of day, blooming beautifully after a long time of the blahs.

PLEASE BOYCOTT US!!!

Sorry for the bad gif.


That beautiful blue line is Starbucks rise during the so-called boycott by NOM and its supporters (AFA and FRC). Makes so many other corporations screaming "PLEASE Boycott Us!"

The Language Of Haters: NOM's Viral Memo Exposes Reprehensible Tactics And Comtempt

Unfortunately, this is NOT as bad as it gets.


But it's close.

"Gay marriage is the tip of the spear, the weapon that will be and is being used to marginalize and repress Christianity and the Church."

Just days after announcing an effort to spearhead a global boycott of Starbucks due to its stance on marriage equality, the National Organization for Marriage has been hit with a controversy of its own making: internal "strategy" memos that clearly outline its hatred for gays and its intent to "drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies." It also proposed to " interrupt this process of assimilation [in the Hispanic community] by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity" and targeted President Obama to be painted as a "radical" opposing traditional values.




It also boasted about the support of Rick Santorum:

"Senator Rick Santorum has recently agreed to use his voice in a nationwide automated call effort to solicit activists and donations."

"The current state of despair over the future of marriage is manufactured, a weapon in our opponents’ hand"

With militaristic rhetoric of warfare ("behind enemy lines) and "weapons" the abysmal memo lays out plans for the years to come with headings like “Not A Civil Right” Project and The Catholic Clergy Project. It also lauded its efforts in states such as Maine and California, especially its involvement in Prop 8. The memo was ostensibly intended for staff and major donors only. 

The MAIN Strategies

NOM has always contended that its primary goal is the "protection" of marriage. But "protection" does not  insinuate force. "Defense" does not insinuate attack, or even divide and conquer:

“The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks—two key Democratic constituencies. Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots…”

…but we will be helped by an emerging new set of black leaders who are upset their voices and values have been ignored by the culturally liberal white elites.

The Latino vote in America is a key swing vote, and will be even more so in the future because of demographic growth. Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values? We can interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity.

The use of two minorities in opposing another minority.  Cool.

The MAINE Downfall

For a period spanning almost three years, the Maine Ethics Commission (along with its Attorney General's office) had been battling NOM concerning its disclosure of finances and donors. Ironically, the fatal memo points out how NOM valiantly tried to suppress such disclosure. In the end, NOM battled disclosure - through three civil courts - and lost. The Supreme Court recently refused to hear its appeal. The memo is a result of that decision in its disclosures. What NOM considered a victory in Maine,  ultimately wound up biting it in the posterior.

The Ruth Institute ("Making Marriage Cool")

Has NOM ever been truly powerful? The money it has discharged certainly denotes some moneyed interests. Its involvement in Prop 8 and various anti- marriage equality measures was a fact, but underneath all the bluster, there were failed campaigns and empty venues. It's own tangled web of "institutes" and think tanks compounds the perception that NOM is indeed built on sand: its own "Ruth Institute" has apparently only one primary member, a certain Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse who speaks at college campuses concerning traditional marriage. Prof. Morse is a former teacher of economics. Who the "Ruth" of Ruth Institute is is anybody's guess. Prof. Morse is also affiliated with the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a supposed think tank promoting the marriage of economics and religion. Both the Ruth and Acton Institutes share a common goal: dragging the concept of marriage back to the good 'ole 14th century.* 

Well, They've Got Kirk Cameron and Anita Bryant ... 

Here’s the bottom line: Hollywood with its cultural biases is far bigger than we could hope to be. We recognize this. But we also recognize the opportunity – the disproportionate potential impact of proactively seeking to gather and connect a community of artist, athletes, writers, beauty queens and other glamorous noncognitive elites across national boundaries

Going after the "Hollywood elite" has been a tradition of Christian Right activists ever since movies came into existence as a cultural religion. NOM's failure in getting any real celebrities and cultural icons to back them up have always made them defensive and feeling weak. 

NOM's End

After the divulged strategies of NOM, whither will it fly? Who will support it? Who will denounce it? More importantly: who will remain silent on the issue altogether? Will today's posts and tweets will be a dizzying array of post-mortems? Or will they be a chorus of "they never represented us!" Whatever the shouting match, it will be an entertaining end to a house of hate built on sand. 

NOTE: View NOM's 2009 video below and compare it with the disclosed strategies of the memo. The contempt for gays came through even then. 

*One of the Ruth Institue's basic tenets: Lifelong spousal cooperation as a solution to women’s aspirations for career and family. Apparently "spousal cooperation" is a metaphor for indentured servitude.