The argument they are pushing is: “allowing same sex couples to marry is exactly the same as prohibiting interracial couples to marry.” If you don’t read that closely, it sounds like they’re finally agreeing with one of our arguments, but look again (and go look at the confusing graphic that accompanies the meme they’re trying to get their people to post everywhere).
Because interracial marriage bans prevented people from marrying who they wanted to merely because the color of one half of the couple’s skin didn’t match the other was bad. Most everyone agrees the interracial marriage ban was bad. And the Ruth Institute agrees. But, they say, allowing same-sex couples to marry is just as bad because it prevents straight women from marrying gay men if they want to. And so forth.
That’s literally their argument.
Which is wrong on so, so many levels. Allowing my husband and I to legally marry does not prevent any gay person (closeted or not) from entering into a marriage with a straight person if they want. It doesn’t. If they want to do that, they can. I don’t know why they would want to, but they can.
Allowing someone to do something doesn’t prevent other people for doing it.
The closest you can get to any “logic” in this argument is that if marriage equality is not available anywhere, it increases the odds that people will be closeted, and it makes it slightly more likely that unsuspecting straight people will get married to closeted gay people, and probably suffer a lot of heartache later on.
I think Jeremy is right: desperation is making them lose their minds.
Everybody has at least a few habits and routines. Some of them are so minor we don’t even think of them as a routine. For instance, at the end of most work days I fill in my timesheet, check in all my documents and code, shut down the computer, make one last run to the kitchen (rinse coffee mug, throw out trash), put away my headphones, put away my badge, pack things up in my backpack, and leave.
Their new sign says that individuals and churches that support “homos” will be cursed with cancer, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), syphilis, stroke, madness, and itch, then references I Corinthians 6:9: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind…” Interestingly they don’t reference the next verse, which is a continuation of the sentence, “nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
That’s important because Pastor Manning spent time in prison in both New York and Florida for burglary, robbery, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other things. So verse 10 would seem to say that Pastor Manning may not be so welcome in the kingdom of God.
But less snarkily, look at another word there: “revilers.” A reviler is someone who insults or verbally abuses someone else, someone who criticizes abusively. Such as someone who calls people devils, or calls for whole classes of people to be stoned to death. That sort of thing.
I know that Pastor Manning is using one of the more hateful translations of the Bible. Since 1946 certain people have decided that the scriptures weren’t anti-gay enough, and they went through changing verses where it isn’t entirely clear what they are referring to to explicitly says “homosexual.” But the two words that used to be translated into english as “effeminate” and “abuses of themselves with mankind” are not so clearcut.
Scholars argue a lot about what the Apostle Paul meant there. Paul wrote in greek, which had a word for men who have sex with other men already, but Paul didn’t use that word. Greek also had a word for male temple prostitutes, and Paul didn’t use that word. Instead, he made up a word, arsenokoitai. That words has never appeared in any other Greek text at all. It appears to be a compound of the words “man” and “beds.” If Paul was condemning homosexual behavior, why would he make up a new word when words already existed for it? And also, it is important to note that he uses specifically male-gendered nouns, so if Paul was condemning homosexual behavior, it was only gay male homosexual behavior: so apparently lesbians are fine, as far as Paul is concerned.
My own guess, based on how much of a misogynist Paul appeared to be, and how much he despised sex of all kinds (the fundamentalists all ignore Paul’s other admonishments where he condemns marriage and having children as an anti-Christian waste of time that would better be spent preparing for Jesus’ return; yes, Paul was against people marrying and raising families), is that Paul was making a general condemnation of all kinds of sexual and romantic behavior, here. And he aimed it at men because Paul didn’t really believe that women mattered, or at the very least he didn’t believe that women made choices of their own, but rather simply did what men told them to do.
And there is nothing in 1 Corinthians at all about cancer, or the virus that causes AIDS, or itching.
But Manning sees lots of things that aren’t actually in the text. It’s very convenient for a man with as big an ego as his, and as long a history of abusing and using others as him.
James Garner, Witty, Handsome Leading Man, Dies at 86. While I am old enough to have seen and loved him as Brett Maverick, he’ll always be James Scott “Jimmy” Rockford to me… except when he’s being King Marchand.
Really bad and inaccurate headline. Most progressives I know do completely understand this. What we continue to not get is why folks like the author keep apologizing for the irrational bigotry of the fundamentalists, and why he and others keep referring to the fundamentalist evangelicals as merely traditional. What progressives fundamentally don’t get about traditional Christians.
I just want to listen to what I want to listen to.I have just shy of 80 gigabytes of music in my desktop’s iTunes library. I only have 54 gigabytes of music on my laptop’s iTunes library. Managing the two has become just a little bit exasperating, lately. Continue reading Managing music→
I make typos. A lot. It is amazing the number of people who believe there is a strong correlation between intelligence and typing accuracy. And that’s what we’re talking about, here; it often isn’t spelling that is at issue. There is no such connection.
Now, it’s not that I don’t think correct spelling is important, I do. No one gets more irritated at me that I get at myself when I make a typo, trust me. As much as it may amuse or exasperate you, I am ten times as angry at myself when I find them or have them pointed out. Plus humiliated. I want to spell things correctly.
And most of the time I do. And sometimes it is not spelling correctly that’s the problem…
Usually my Sunday Funnies post is all about web comics, but this week is going to branch out. Weird Al Yankovich has released a new album this week, Mandatory Fun. And to promote the album, he has made eight music videos of songs from the album, and is releasing one video a day for the first week the album is available.
As Weird Al himself has explained in several interviews this week, he first became famous during the MTV era, when music videos on that network were the way to promote a new album. Now viral videos on the internet has replaced all that. His thinking is that a video that becomes famous on the internet enough to “go viral” is only really famous for a day or two, so the only way to promote something like an album is to release several videos over the course of several days.
The other thing he explains is that this album finally concludes the deal he signed with Sony 30-some years ago. So now he will be free to produce music the way you need to in the internet era: singles for digital download. “My songs are often topical. By the time I have made enough songs to release an album, most of the songs aren’t topical any more.”
Back in those MTV days, Weird Al’s songs were sometimes hit or miss, but the music videos for even his misses were comedic gems. I bought the album this week, and have listened to it, and I have to say that Weird Al is at the top of his game on this one. There were a few of the songs that I rated less than five stars… and the video for one of those came out after I listened to the song, and I have to say the video is fantastically funny.
So, I definitely recommend the album, and if you need some convincing, here are the videos he’s released thus far this week:
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Tacky
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Word Crimes
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Foil
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Handy
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Sports Song
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First World Problem
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And if you haven’t already, please check out these previously recommended comic strips:
I’ve long been a fan of: “Mr. Cow,” by Chuck Melville… and not just because the artist is a friend! A clueless cow with Walter Cronkite dreams presides over a barnyard of a newsroom.
I’m also a big fan of “Deer Me,” by Sheryl Schopfer. This artist is also a friend. I have previously described this strip as: “Three roommates who couldn’t be more dissimilar while being surprisingly compatible.” Except in a recent story line Thomas has moved out! Eeek!
And I love this impish girl thief with a tail and her reluctant undead sorcerer/bodyguard: “Unsounded,” by Ashley Cope.
The Young Protectors begins when a young, closeted teen-age superhero who has just snuck into a gay bar for the first time is seen exiting said bar by a not-so-young, very experienced, very powerful, super-villain. Trouble, of course, ensues.
After a much longer than expected (or desired) hiatus, the Cóyotl Awards are back, and we’re hitting the ground running to get caught up. Voting for the 2013 awards and nominations for the 2014 awards are now officially open. Full information here:
In the forums, we also have a thread for recommendations for the 2014 awards — something members can use to jog their memories about what was published in 2013 and might deserve to be nominated.
All FWG members (writers and associates) may nominate and vote in the Cóyotls. Remember, though — both the 2013 voting and 2014 nominations end on Friday, August 8, so don’t wait too long to make your choices!
National treasure “Weird Al” Yankovic is releasing a new video each doy this week of a parody of a hit song. This was Tuesday’s, which is my second favorite thus far, Weird Al’s parody of Blurred Lines, Word Crimes:
I like to think that I’m not superstitious. I’m a science geek who majored in mathematics and has studied (both formally and on my own) physics, astronomy, relativity, logic, rhetorical theory, chemistry, biology, and a wide variety of related topics. Mr. Spock has long been one of my favorite characters in fiction. My real-life heroes have included famous skeptics such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, Billy Nye, and James Randi.
But every now and then things happen that make me believe. Lately, it’s been the coffee pot at work.
Font Folly 