A couple in their mid 60′s was recently denied the right to adopt children by a High Court in England because of their anti-homosexuality views.

…Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation “should take precedence” over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds.

The truth is, because of the risk that they might foster a gay son or daughter, the court decided that the well being of the child was more important that the dogmatic, nonsensical belief that same-sex attraction is considered a bad thing by sky-daddy. The couple, oblivious to the fact that society has stopped accepting bigotry outright, is confused that society is still making a big deal about “all them homos”:

“We are prepared to love and accept any child. All we were not willing to do was to tell a small child that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing.”

Is there a small tinge of irony that these people are of African decent, and that only a few decades ago their skin pigmentation would have made them subject to similar discrimination? Perhaps. It makes me sad that an otherwise nice couple seems to be completely unaware of just how poisonous their views actually are. You can thank the power of religion for that, folks!

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You hear it over and over again: Christians are complaining that as gays gain rights (the same rights as everyone else, in fact), they begin to lose theirs. More particularly, their “right” to openly discriminate is being challenged, and as people get sacked or lose career opportunities because of their bigotry, they’re crying foul.

Recently, a Christian doctor, Hans-Christian Raabe, who had been foolishly appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in the UK was sacked after it was discovered that he had co-authored a bigoted study linking gays with pedophilia:

He co-authored a study called “Gay Marriage And Homosexuality: Some Medical Comments in February 2005.” The article said that, while the majority of homosexuals are not engaged in pedophilia, there is a disproportionately greater number of homosexuals among pedophiles.

“My appointment has merely been revoked as a result of my views on matters completely unrelated to drug policy,” Raabe complained in comments published the same day by the Daily Mail newspaper.

It turns out that his appointment had already drawn a great deal of criticism (stemming from his “abstinence” stand on all drugs), and when the board found out that he had co-authored the study, several members threatened to quit if he wasn’t removed.

His fellow co-religionists are crying foul, saying that this is discrimination and that the board is anti-Christian. So far, they seem unable to grasp the concept that bigotry is not something society is feeling altogether tolerant about. Had Raabe written a study linking lower IQ with race or gender, he would have been a pariah just the same.

No society can be tolerant of all views and ideas. It’s impossible. You cannot hope to have a free society and allow the systematic discrimination of a group based on their sexual orientation, color, or gender. The perception of Christians that their right to “practice their religion” is being infringed upon is a shield to mask their refusal to accept that homosexuality is not a choice, and certainly not a sin.

Society is taking a stand for the equal treatment of all individuals, and the xenophobic practices and beliefs of many religions will be marginalized as a result. It’s no great loss.

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Catholics have taken a page from Evangelical Christians and are actively trying to recruit people back to the faith. After the shellacking they’ve received amidst all the sex scandals, they’re looking for a little PR work, and they’ve found it in “Catholics Come Home“.

The site promises to convert you to, or back to Catholicism by answering a few pathetic questions, and glossing over any fact that looks to be embarrassing. It tries to present the faith as though for the past 2000 years it’s been a model organizations. There doesn’t seem to be any information on Inquisitions, Crusades, or the persecution of Jews. Guess they forgot about those historical “oopsies”

Some of their quotes are hilariously out of touch:

the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “There are not even 100 people in this country who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they think the Catholic Church to be.”

I’m pretty fucking sure that the Church’s history of protecting child rapists from prosecution has probably made more than 100 people hate the Catholic Church, man. Of course, Sheen died in 1979, just about the time that some of his coworkers were busy in Boston fondling kids left and right. Hear no evil see no evil, right?

Also, if you’re unsure whether or not your own faith will continue to vilify homosexuality, rest assured that Catholicism promises never to stop their campaign of false information and bigotry:

From our web site you will learn about homosexuality and chastity. By developing an interior life of chastity, which is the universal call to all Christians, one can move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete one in Christ…

In other words, if your gay, you too can be accepted into the Catholic Church if you forever deny your sexual being and love Jesus instead. Sure, he might not cuddle you at night, and he certainly won’t tickle your balls, you can rest easy knowing your invisible friend has made it impossible for you to live a fulfilled and full life. Hurray!

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Oh Ted, when will you stop living an atrocious lie. The former pastor, disgraced after he was caught doing meth with a gay prostitute (who made a killing selling a book about the affair), now claims that he’s really just bisexual in an interview with GQ magazine. Although he might be telling the truth, I find it far more likely that poor Ted is busy trying to reconcile his latent homosexuality with the fact that he’s married, has children, and devoted his entire life to a book that condemns his sexual orientation.

He also claimed that the Bible says that homosexuality “is not God’s best plan for people”. That’s just a more diplomatic way of again making gays and lesbians feel as though their sexual orientation is a choice rather than something they are born with.

I’ve got a piece of advice for you Ted, but you’re not going to like it. Abandon your shitty religion. You’ll feel a hell of a lot better once you stop trying to reconcile your beliefs with your need to masturbate other men for pleasure. You’ll stop torturing yourself for being born with a craving for muscle instead of fatty mammary glands. Don’t forget Teddy, the same book that says homosexuality is a sin also says you should stone people who work on Sunday and kids who talk back. Is that really the best guide for modern living?

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I want to make something clear from the onset: yes, it’s true that if you’re an evangelical Christian, it does not necessarily follow that you personally support the maltreatment of gays around the world. However, and this is my main point, you are part of an institution whose views and opinions regarding homosexuality shape a culture of hatred and murder. You cannot escape this reality; any money, time and effort spent spreading the “good word” directly influence events that happen in other countries, specifically because your church leaders have become obsessed with fighting the “sin” of homosexuality.

A few days ago, David Kato, a Ugandan gay activist, was beaten and killed in his own home. While the police maintain that it was simply a robbery, the truth is that they have done little to investigate this crime, and the reason is simple: the country has decided that gays are the enemy. The drafting of the “Kill the Gays” bill had its inspiration from a very familiar source:

The bill was drawn up after a visit to a conference in Uganda by Christian missionaries from the US who believed that some homosexuals could change their sexual orientation through prayer.

“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by US evangelicals in 2009,” according to a statement from Sexual Minorities Uganda, for whom Mr Kato worked as an advocacy officer. “The Ugandan government and the so-called US Evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood.”

It matters very little now how many Evangelical leaders condemn this action. The damage has been done, and its unlikely to influence the hearts and mind of the very people they enraged in the first place. It’s like trying to put out a forest fire you lit with a bucket of water. It’s way too little, way too late. In any case, there are powerful individuals that work tirelessly in secret to ensure that gays and lesbians remain “enemy #1″ in the US and around the world.

“The Family”–also known as “the Fellowhship”– is a powerful and covert sect of American Christian evangelical politicians and ministers who seek a decidedly anti-gay extreme Christian agenda both at home and abroad, and through its words put this hammer in the hands of all potentially intolerant Ugandans.

The tabloid “Rolling Stone”, who a few months ago released a list of “known homosexuals” with the words “hang them” on it, has tried to defend its hateful rhetoric. The result is shocking to say the least:

After Wednesday’s killing, Giles Muhame, the editor of Rolling Stone, condemned the murder and said the paper had not wanted gays to be attacked. “If he has been murdered, that’s bad and we pray for his soul,” Muhame told Reuters. “There has been a lot of crime, it may not be because he is gay. We want the government to hang people who promote homosexuality, not for the public to attack them. We said they should be hanged, not stoned or attacked.”

Oh right, thanks for clarifying how they should die, Giles. I mean, a beating is so barbaric and uncivilized…it’s far better simply to hang them, am I right? After all, we wouldn’t want you to be portrayed as a dangerously homophobic lunatic that directly enticed the population of Uganda to engage in vigilante style justice…

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Britain is starting to drop the hammer on homophobic counselor and psychotherapists. For starters, there was the a counselor Gary McFarlane who was sacked after he refused to service a gay couple, and now it looks like another mental help professional is getting the boot:

A psychotherapist faces being struck off after trying to ‘convert’ a homosexual man.

Lesley Pilkington, 60, a therapist for 20 years, is accused of ‘praying to God’ to ‘heal’ the patient .

Mrs Pilkington, will appear at a landmark disciplinary hearing this week where she faces being stripped of her accreditation to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

One of her clients recorded her therapy session, which included her suggesting that homosexuality was a mental illness and a “anti-religious phenomenon”.

Of course, she’s trying to argue that the whole thing is entrapment, and that she had made it clear to her client that she used a “biblical framework” for her therapy. That’s simple Christian-speak for “I use select passages of the Bible to accuse gay men of being abominations”. Luckily, the Royal College of Psychiatrists says this kind of “therapy” is complete shit, and it’s very likely that she’ll be sacked.

What’s really sad is Pilkington’s own son is gay, and she refuses to acknowledge that it’s anything but a “lifestyle choice”. Man, can you imagine having this close-minded bitch for a mother?

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Do you remember all those thousands of birds that dropped dead a little while ago? Scientists are still trying to figure out what happened (I’m willing to bet money it has something to do with Climate Change, but I’m no expert). While serious folks with brains are busy solving this mystery, religious nutjobs are jumping on this story as proof that “God” is mad about something, and sending us a message by annihilating a bunch of innocent birds.

The craziest so far in a woman by the name of Cindy Jacobs (of the friendly sounding “Ministry of Generals“). As your typical crazy evangelical, she thinks that this tragedy is because of -wait for it- teh gays!

According to biblical principles, marriage is between a man and a woman , so we have to say “what happens when a nation makes a decision that’s against God’s principles?” Well, often what happens is that nature itself will begin to talk to us – for instance, violent storms, flooding. And you know there are actually some patterns that you can see where a nation will make a decision that is contrary to the principles of God and after that there is some kind of answer that God gives, being the God of creation, the God who created nature, but we don’t always understand what He’s saying.

Well, there’s something interesting we have been watching – let’s talk about this Arkansas pattern and say, could it be a pattern? We’re going to watch and see. But the blackbirds fell to the ground in Beebe, Arkansas, well the Governor of Arkansas’ name is Beebe. And also, there was something put out of Arkansas called Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by a former Governor, this was proposed, Bill Clinton. As so, could there be a connection between this passage [Hosea 4] and now that we’ve had the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell where people now legally in the United States have broken restraints with the Scripture because the Scripture says in Romans 1 that homosexuality is not allowed.

It could be because we have said it’s okay for people who commit these kinds of acts to be recognized in our military for the first time in our history, there is a potential that there is something that actually happened in the land where a hundred thousand drum fish died and also where these birds just fell out of the air.

Mystery solved, everyone! Yes, God wants the US military not to encourage gays and lesbians to serve openly, and as revenge, he slaughtered a bunch of blackbirds to teach us a lesson. If we’re not careful, other natural disasters could continue to happen.

The good news is that as soon as we stop letting men fudge-pack one another, there will be no more disasters and we’ll all be living in a perfect world where everyone has the common courtesy to be miserable and hate themselves for having same sex attractions. The future looks bright, people!

(via)

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Evangelical chaplains in the military are suffering! They’re worried that the eventual repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” will jeopardize their ability to openly discriminate against gays and lesbians that might come to them seeking spiritual help. Now while I generally feel that homosexuality and religion mix about as well as oil and water, you can’t deny the fact that statistically, gays are actually more religious than their straight counterparts. I blame this on their tendency for self-hatred.

A group of about 60 chaplains sent a letter to President Obama asking him not to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell”, framing this as a huge contentious issue of them:

Put most simply, if the government normalizes homosexual behavior in the armed forces, many (if not most) chaplains will confront a profoundly difficult moral choice: whether they are to obey God or to obey men. This forced choice must be faced, since orthodox Christianity—which represents a significant percentage of religious belief in the armed forces—does not affirm homosexual behavior. Imposing this conflict by normalizing homosexual behavior within the armed forces seems to have two likely—and equally undesirable—results.

In other words, they are claiming that they wouldn’t be able to preach hatred for homosexuality from their pulpits anymore. Since this kind of activity is quite common for evangelicals to engage in (here’s a random example), it must feel like this “right” is being threatened! Rather than face the posibility of evolving and getting over their fear and loathing of gays, they want homosexuals to stay in the closet and stay ashamed of who they are, just like the Bible says they should!

Daniel Blomberg, an attorney for the conservative legal group Alliance Defense Fund, wonders: What if a soldier confides to a chaplain that he’s gay?
“What happens when the chaplain responds according to the dictates of his faith and says that type of behavior — like other types of sexual sins — is not in accordance with God’s will?” he says.

That’s kind of a funny question, Danny. I think I can answer it in a way that might make some sense to you: If a chaplain argued that he couldn’t serve his religious duties because he couldn’t, in good conscience, work with a Jew (since they killed the messiah) or blacks (who are the cursed sons of Ham), he’d get the same pinkslip these bigotted douchebags will get. Pretty fucking simple, eh?

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Every once in a while, I manage to find articles written by religious leaders that I find refreshingly honest. It doesn’t happen very often, mind you, but when it does, it gives me hope that these deluded fools will eventually realize that their religion is on a serious death spiral.

The latest bastion of honesty comes courtesy of a retired Baptist Minister, Rev. Howard Bess who confesses that the reasons young people are leaving churches has a lot to do with how poorly religious institutions are doing when it comes to attracting young folks.

He’s outlined 3 main reasons for this, and I can’t say I seriously disagree with any of them:

• Churches are no longer intellectually challenging. More and more of our young people are college-educated and in the future even more must and will accept the challenge of post-high school education. They are thinking people who are expanding the limits of their curiosity and knowledge.
• Churches are no longer leaders in moral and ethical discussions. Young people have grown weary of churches that cannot get past issues such as homosexuality and abortion.
• Churches are no longer visionary. They have remained focused on saving souls for the next life and offering rituals tied to perpetuating theologies that no longer seem relevant to many young people. Churches are no longer significant players in shaping the life of our communities.

He offers a few solutions to these problems, but it’s likely to fall of deaf ears. How can churches resolve issues of intellectual difficiency, moral bankrupcy and outdated ritualism when these are the very foundations of religion? Let’s grow out of this childish religious phase in our history, shall we?

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Seems like every other day, the UN proves just how much it’s willing to cater to the demands of irrational and prejudiced nations. The latest scandal involves 79 countries that have taken upon that have taken upon themselves the task of “eradicating” homosexuality. The step backwards in human rights was the amendment of a resolution against unlawful executions that removed gays from this prohibition.

…this year, the new version was passed minus the reference to gay rights. This was because a group of mostly African and Asian countries, voted to remove it. 79 countries that voted to remove the reference to sexual orientation from the resolution, including Uganda, Afghanistan, China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Most Western countries, including the US, voted in favor of keeping the reference to sexual orientation in place. The US abstained from the final vote to approve the resolution, with American diplomats telling the UN that the US was “dismayed” at the decision.

I feel like the world is currently experiencing a slide when it comes to gay rights, and I place the blame squarely on religion. Is it a coincidence that the majority of the countries who voted for this bullshit resolution happen to be extremely religious? Not in the slightest.

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