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https://youtu.be/DPaK9Ih2jOQ
There's a hole in your heart, begging for adventure.
Play yourself a new track, set traps for the future.
On your own.
Can you do it?
The unknown.
Can you face it?
Shifting desire, shifting desire, shifting desire
Rules of conformity, heavy clouds of reason.
They're hiding the beauty of your free distortions.
On your own.
Can you do it?
The unknown.
Can you face it?
With your soul, now you see it.
The landscape is infinite.
Shifting desire, shifting desire, shifting desire
[Updated on: Tue, 14 January 2020 01:20] |
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In case anyone thinks religious intolerance isn't a problem, a recent turn of events in Portland, Oregon illustrates how far we have to go, and just how deep the opposition and bigotry runs. Concordia University, a 115-year old Lutheran college in Portland announced this week it was closing after some years of financial problems caused mainly be declining student registration. The University's financial problems could have been ameliorated by assistance from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, except the Synod tied financial assistance to the school addressing its campus resource center that supports LGBTQ students.
Here's the operant part of the story: the synod's board of directors in Houston, passed a resolution stating they were determined to withhold further financial assistance "until the university has substantively addressed the issues regarding the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center and brought its articles and bylaws back into conformity with the requirements of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod."
The synod is vehemently anti-gay rights, arguing "homosexuality is a sinful distortion of His desire that one man and one woman live together in marriage as husband and wife."
"God," the synod states on its website, "categorically prohibits homosexuality."
The article appeared in The Oregonian
So, not only is this church's position on homosexuality antideluvian and hateful, the bigotry is so embedded in the values system of this church that they are willing to allow a university to fail and deny over 5,000 students the ability to graduate, in order to have their position prevail. The religious push back to LGBTQ rights is operating on a very wide front.
Bensiamin
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"Bensiamin wrote on Fri, 14 February 2020 08:21"In case anyone thinks religious intolerance isn't a problem, a recent turn of events in Portland, Oregon illustrates how far we have to go, and just how deep the opposition and bigotry runs. Concordia University, a 115-year old Lutheran college in Portland announced this week it was closing after some years of financial problems caused mainly be declining student registration. The University's financial problems could have been ameliorated by assistance from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, except the Synod tied financial assistance to the school addressing its campus resource center that supports LGBTQ students.
--
I had wondered about this one. I read that story on a couple of the local PDX TV news pages but neither of them gave a reason beyond financial issues. I was relatively certain there had to be more to the story than what the TV Stations were telling us.
It figures that religious bigotry was the driving factor in Concordia's ultimate demise. Sad and discouraging, but hardly a surprise. A good friend told me following the Overgefellv. Hodges decision by the US Supreme Court in 2015 that legalized same sex marriage here in the US that we would see across the board pushback from the Christian right unlike any pushback we've seen in our lifetimes and that things would get very, very ugly before they get better again. It seems as if he may have been correct.
“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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Let The Turmoil Begin!
The New York Times today broke a story about support for same-sex unions by Pope Francis. The statements appear in a film about the pope that release Oct. 21 in Rome, but are at odds with the Church's formal position.
That position is found in the Church's catechism where homosexuality is defined as intrinsically disordered (specifically, an intrinsic moral disorder that is the Protestant equivalent to depraved sin), and further fortified by Pope Benedict's 2003 proclamation that: "The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions."
Read the New York Times piece here.
This news is certain to unleash a period of turmoil and infighting between the Pope what has become known for personal compassion and empathy, and the conservative hierarchy--especially conservative Bishops in the United States and Africa. It should be remembered that until/unless the Catechism of the Church changes, the formal teaching and position of the church remains the same.
Read more in our LGBTQ and Faith section here.
[Updated on: Wed, 21 October 2020 15:25]
Bensiamin
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INTERESTING! Here's the view of another Good Catholic Boy on the Pope's statement about civil unions!
Bensiamin
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It's hard to post this without it sounding self-satisfied or thinking about "chickens comin home to roost," but not only did Trump's Amy Coney Barrett super-spreader event infect a number of attendees, it also infected one of the most vocal opponents of same-sex marriage...who just died!
Perhaps there is divine justice!
[Updated on: Tue, 10 November 2020 18:57]
Bensiamin
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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What a shame there is no deity
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Why some Black Christians, Africans, Afro-Americans, are anti-gay, lays in the roots of White colonialism. As with a lot of situations, you need to study history to see how we got to where we are today, and this topic is rather large.
Whilst primitive Black Africa was never homosexual positive, it was tolerant. The situation altered dramatically when the continent was conquered by Whites who brought their Christain bible. Interesting reading, - The Hidden Power of the Whites. The Secret Religion Withheld from the Primal Peoples / Le Pouvoir caché des Blancs. La religion secrète dissimulée aux peuples primitifs. - goes some way to explaining how the White religion was interpreted by those African societies upon whom it was imposed.
Two thirds of African nations with extremely repressive anti-gay laws are Commonwealth countries whose laws derive from British anti-sodomy laws which were only reprieved in 1967, compared to only one third of ex-French colonies, which country reprieved its anti-sodomy law with the French Revolution in 1750.
That we end up today with Black Christians more Christian than most Whites and Black Africans anti-gay, is an amalgam of circumstances rooted in world history. Given the broader picture, whilst it is easy to blame the vehement and hateful preaching of the so called (Black) Evangelists, you have to see how this arose. When you understand culture and history you may more easily see how opposing such people head on will not achieve the desired goal, but illuminating their road to prejudice might? Like completing the circle we started and are responsible for, ourselves!
https://www.persee.fr/doc/assr_0335-5985_1978_num_46_1_2156
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/african-sexuality -and-legacy-imported-homophobia
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I agree, Talo. We are a product of our respective histories.
The idea of illuminating ttheir road to prejudice is good but doomed to failure, at least in the short term. Illuminating it in the long term can be partially successful but for a people or cultue to make much progress on that front, I submit that the change must come from within the cultue itself rather than from someone, who by the very natue of what they are attempting to do, is at least partially antithetical to that culture. The true dawning of realization and thus of change must come from the culture itself or from someone who is a charismatic enough leader within the culture showing a different way forward.
“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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And this just in from one of America's more authoritative cultural and religious spokesmen:
[Updated on: Wed, 03 March 2021 18:02]
Bensiamin
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Geron Kees
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: February 2016
Messages: 151
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A friend shared this one with me.
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Bisexual_Guy
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Likes it here |
Location: USA Midwest
Registered: September 2015
Messages: 156
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So very true. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, actually said something sensible recently -- that people should get vaccinated against Covid as quickly as possible -- and more than 20 percent of the "evangelical" responders accused him of various "evil" things, such as selling out to science, and various other things.
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"Bisexual_Guy wrote on Tue, 06 April 2021 19:54"So very true. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, actually said something sensible recently -- that people should get vaccinated against Covid as quickly as possible -- and more than 20 percent of the "evangelical" responders accused him of various "evil" things, such as selling out to science, and various other things.
--My only question is who paid that morphodite jackass to say that...? And how much did they pay him?
[Updated on: Thu, 08 April 2021 23:19]
“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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This week's late breaking news on this forum subject is actually a head scratcher.
Regular reader's will recall in the forum string "Assault on LGBTQ Rights" that most of said assault comes from institutional religion. Two specific posts in that string are about the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit (USA) and their effective ban on LGBTQ people.
Now comes this:
The headscratcher is two fold. First, how can the Pope say this with a straight face when he knows full well that LGBTQ children of Catholic parents are regularly kicked out of their homes and their lives made miserable by intolerant parents.
Second, he's an intelligent person, so how can he not connect the fact that as long as the Church's doctrinal stance condemns homosexuals as "depraved sinners," that theological position encourages the intolerance by Catholic parishes, priests, bishops and dioceses?
All this sweet-sounding tolerant language sounds nice, but that's all it is: pleasant sounding noise!
"Hey, Frank! How about a real fix?"
Bensiamin
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Mark
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Likes it here |
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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"Bensiamin wrote on Wed, 03 March 2021 11:02"And this just in from one of America's more authoritative cultural and religious spokesmen:
--
I've posted this before elsewhere, but it bears repeating:
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Mark;
Totally classic and says it all. Sorry I missed it when you posted it a few days ago.
Rock on!
Bensiamin
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Mark
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Likes it here |
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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Yes, a part of the irony of this whole thing is that the very churches who launch into the "God hates fags" tirade are the very same churches who also tend to go after the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses for making adjustments to the Bible when they are guilty of that very accusation themselves (since the Bible never once said anything to the effect of God hating homosexuals - or anyone else, for that matter!).
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Mark
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Likes it here |
Location: Earth
Registered: April 2013
Messages: 279
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A little something for Timmy:
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13772
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"Mark wrote on Sun, 17 April 2022 20:30"A little something for Timmy:
--
Exactly.
What a weird religion
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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