Love Thy Neighbour: January 2004 Archives

Iraq: Being badgered by a particular loony fundie whilst at Uni gave Rene Gonzalez a distaste for their kind, especially their dodgy convert the heathens mantra being disguised as humanitarian aid.

It is not a morally right policy. It is racist, arrogant, ignorance, and paternalistic, and the U.S. government should not be collaborating or looking the other way to it. These are the things that later give credence to arguments of chickens coming home to roost. Christian Evangelicals in Iraq are a time-bomb waiting to explode, and you might just be the person near it!

Christian Evangelicals in Iraq: A Time-Bomb Waiting to Explode - Information Clearing House, 25th January 2004.

United States: George Soros offers an insight into the fundies that run the US.

...At present the country is in the process of committing such mistakes because it is in the hands of a group of extremists whose strong sense of mission is matched only by their false sense of certitude.

This distorted view postulates that because we are stronger than others, we must know better and we must have right on our side. That is where religious fundamentalism comes together with market fundamentalism to form the ideology of American supremacy.

The US is now in the hands of a group of extremists - The Guardian, 26th January 2004.

Scotland: In one of the lamest excuses to get out of a commitment, the Catholic Church is threatening to cut and run on a school scheme unless they're allowed to build in segregation.

Senior Catholic Church officials have said they will to call a halt on the project to use seven primary school sites in Lanarkshire unless they get written assurances that there will be separate entrances, staff lavatories and nurseries for the different faiths.

Catholic Church may pull out of school-share deal in Scotland - The Independent, 27th January 2004.

Italy: Almost 20 years after the last murder blamed on the Monster of Florence, investigators have reopened the case because they suspect a Satanic cult ordered the killings and kept body parts as prizes — as you do.

The villa was rented by a doctor, thought to have drowned in a Tuscan lake in 1985. But when authorities recently discovered he was a suspected Satanist and had actually been murdered, they reopened their files... Investigators now suspect the doctor was part of a clan that ordered the Monster to kill eight couples.

Storing body parts for 20 years has got to take up some freezer space.

Satanic cult probed in Monster of Florence murders - Reuters, 23rd January 2004.

Bisexual, Pagan Livejournal user princesswitch received a tract in the post. Instead of throwing it away immediately, she read it.

I also got a long tract--maybe I should call it a brochure--called When a Loved One Says, 'I'm Gay'. It痴 meant to tell conservative Christians how to deal with gay children, friends, and spouses. Bob Davies, an ex-gay man who was once an Exodus leader, wrote it. Mike Haley and John Paulk were part of the editing. I finally looked at it two days ago. Some of the advice is actually pretty good. But a lot of it, especially the stuff that relates to kids, shocked me! I shouldn't be shocked, but I was anyhow. They ask people to treat their kid's coming out practically like the kid is dead!

And then she went on to comment on it, at length, and concludes:

And praying that queer loved ones will experience the consequences of sin! Words fail me, but I'll try. What consequences does Davies have in mind? AIDS? STDs? A broken heart? Why does he wish any kind of pain on unrepentant gays and lesbians? (You'll be sorry you didn't listen to me!) Is one supposed to wish terrible things onto other sinners, too? And with prayers like that, why is it that we Witches and Vodouisants are the ones who are accused of dishing out the curses right and left?!

Say what you will, but no P-FLAG brochure or coming-out manual urges that you pray for your unrepentantly homophobic parents to experience the consequences of their homophobia.

Why can't I get a nice letter bomb or death threat in the mail? - Jayelle's Front Porch, 24th January 2004 (via Ex-gay Watch). See also Love Wins Some, Love Loses Some, the article referred to in the original post.

United States: Looks like another pair of fundies will be pleading the cast out the devil for your own good defence.

A husband and wife have been charged with murdering a 6-year-old girl whose back was broken in what police said may have been an exorcism gone wrong...

United States: Did you know that many of Hitler's victims were actually Mormons? Neither did he (or any of them for that matter), but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is making sure of it.

Israel: The evangelical fundies, having found the pleasures gained in fleecing the gullible are waning, have started flexing their muscles in the arena of foreign policy. They seem hell-bent on rewriting history to serve their fairy tale belief in the end times, by bringing in about in their own lifetime.

United States: With a long history of prudish behaviour and a culture that glorifies violence and fears sex, Bill Martin may be living in land of wishful thinking with his plans to convert 240 acres of rubbish strewn land about 30 miles outside Tampa into a nudist playground for Christians.

United States: A recent poll in Minnesota shows that most respondents believe religion, except Christianity, has a role in world conflicts.

Uganda: An investigation by the National Fellowship of Born Again Christian Churches into a leading pastor has found no evidence that he was a devil-worshipping witch who sacrificed babies. An American woman had made the allegations against Pastor Simeon Kayiwa. He puts her actions down to jealousy, personal disagreements and competition. A police investigation continues. Committee Clears Kayiwa of Murder - The monitor (via allAfrica.com, 3rd January 2004; See also Leading pastor accused of witchcraft - Pagan Prattle, 21st April 2003.

United States: Rumour has it that officials of the Nation of Islam, a separatist African-American Muslim group, have shacked up with the singer.

Efforts to reach Jackson through his spokesman were not successful, but his lawyer, Mark Geragos, and The Final Call, the Nation of Islam's newspaper denied the claim. Initially invited to the Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara several weeks ago to provide security for Jackson, members of the Nation of Islam are now restricting access to him and have begun making decisions for him related to the news media, his business affairs and even his legal strategy, Jackson's friends and associates said.

I would have thought that Michael Jackson is more than capable of behaving like a wingnut of his own accord without the aid of yet another bunch of religious loonies.

Dispute in Michael Jackson Camp Over Role of the Nation of Islam - New York Times, 31st December 2003.