Et tu Melissa?

After being confused by the recent comments by Melissa Etheridge, calling for a truce in the Rick Warren fiasco, I read her piece in the Huffington Post. Melissa's credentials as an activist are bona fide and her writing takes the high ground, something I respect her for.

She tells the story of how she came to meet Rick Warren at a fundraiser for Muslim Americans and how they found common bonds, in both her battle with breast cancer and that of Warren's wife. Etheridge espouses the same hope which caused so many LGBT people to work so very hard to elect Barrack Obama when she says, "Maybe if they get to know us, they wont fear us." and "I know, call me a dreamer, but I feel a new era is upon us.".

I admire your faith Melissa, but I have to disagree. For you see by Warren's own admission he does know us, he has gay friends and has broken bread at our tables. This is not simply a preference red wine over white, rock over jazz, this is a painful reminder of the apologetic politics of pre civil rights America. The time when good Negroes were the ones who knew their place and didn't get uppity. Does this sound familiar, does this remind you of another revolutionary change that occurred recently?

Let's revisit history, while it was the non-violent protests of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King that we remember it was the fearless action of Rosa Parks by taking her rightful seat on that bus that created change. While we know that the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education ruled the unconstitutionally of 'separate but equal" it was the actions of 7 fearless young people; Carlotta Walls, Jefferson Thomas, Gloria Ray, Ernest Green, Elizabeth Eckford, Thelma Mothershed, Terrence Roberts, Minnijean Brown, and Melba Pattillo who bravely walked into Central High School escorted by US Army troops on September 25, 1957.

It was not just kind words and good deeds that gave us Civil Rights; it was human lives, blood, sweat and tears. It was our outrage at being illegally beaten and harassed that lead to the Stonewall Riots, the tragic murder of Harvey Milk that lead to the White Night Riots. And personally, watching my own friends and loved ones so courageously battle and ultimately succumb to AIDS while our nations religious leaders called it God’s wrath and fought our attempts for treatment, education and care at every turn has left a permanent acrid taste in my mouth for preachers who use pulpit as a forum to oppress the rights of others in the name of God. No good has, or ever will come of the insane practice.

And it is now our righteous indignation at seeing our fellow Americans have their rights rescinded which has fueled our anger at President-Elect Obama for legitimizing Rick Warren’s homophobic actions.

We are angry, we are disenfranchised and we want justice.
What I am trying to say is that real change does not just happen; it takes hard work and sacrifice. The people who created and passed Prop 8 know this and it is a lesson we all have bitterly been reminded of. What we do now is up to us.

Old Nazi in dress cries wolf.

Just when you thought thing couldn't get any stranger, Pope Benedict XVI said today that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction, according to the story on the BBC.

The Catholic News had a different take on the story,
"self-destruction," the pope said he meant "contempt for the Creator," and he said examples could be found in so-called "gender" issues today. He offered a case in point: Marriage as a permanent union between a man and a woman was something instituted by God as "the sacrament of creation."

Although the pope didn't specifically talk about same-sex marriage, the meaning was clear enough to prompt some unusual headlines about rain forests and homosexuals".

Oh and like the Rev Rick, the Catholic Church opposes gay marriage and was part of the cabal that funded and Proposition 8. Our Roman friends want to remind us that while they teach that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. Someone should have reminded the priests of that one when they were abusing children in their care. Isn't it funny after all those expensive lawsuits, settlements and bankruptcies that they still have any money left?

Hate the sin, hate the sinner more.

Rick Warren and his crew are revising their history, too bad we live in the age of Google. As reported by John Aravosis on his site, Americablog, Saddleback Church has removed the original language from the Small Group Questions About Saddleback Church section of their site.

Under question number 48,' What does the Bible say about homosexuality?' We find the usual quotes;

"Homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin." (Lev. 18:22 TLB)

the lies,

"Isn't being homosexual something that a person is physically born with?" First of all, there are absolutely no facts to support this claim.

and the slander,
"We know that some people can develop a stronger physical addiction to alcohol than others, but that's obviously no excuse for living an alcoholic lifestyle.".

But the best line in the text is this part (italics added by me),
Because membership in a church is an outgrowth of accepting the Lordship and leadership of Jesus in one’s life, someone unwilling to repent of their homosexual lifestyle would not be accepted at a member at Saddleback Church.

Nice the see that Christian compassion at work, especially at this time of year. Rev. Rick, I have news for you, even though you've eaten in our homes, and have done your Christian duty to assist those less fortunate than you with your money, and you get to pray for us at the Inauguration doesn't negate the fact that you, your church and your fellow religious leaders have actively worked to remove the civil rights from your fellow Californians, your fellow Americans. You can spin it any way you want, but we're pissed off and are not going to sit idly by while our rights are removed. Judgement day is coming alright, but not the one you think.