Sunday, November 18, 2012 9:49:10 PM
Victory for strangers, heathens, wastrels!
Rush Limbaugh
(Credit: AP/Ron Edmonds)
Republicans counted on tried-and-true class warfare like never before. This time, "outsiders" were the majority
By Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 11:00 AM CST
Before we get to the persistence of class warfare in our politics, let’s talk about Skinch Painter. In 1900, when the San Francisco Examiner tracked him down, he was 78, “hale, hearty, and contented.” He hadn’t inherited a penny, but neither had he worked a day in his life. “He has never borrowed a dollar, nor stolen one,” the column read. “He has never been a tramp nor a beggar. He has never done a day’s work in exchange for money … Yet he has lived.”
One day, when he was in his teens, he said to himself, “Look here, Skinch Painter, this old world owes you a living, and all you’ve got to do is collect it.” Wandering the Ozarks of Missouri, he inhabited a cave and relied on nature for his food and clothing. He hunted, fished and gathered nuts and berries, wearing only animal skins and going barefoot.
“Labor is a useless sin,” said Skinch. “The time a man spends working is just so much time lost from living.”
We can just about see Fox News sending a camera crew out to interview Skinch, and one of its handsomely paid straight men wrapping up the piece with an offhand, “See, you don’t need government handouts. If you don’t want to work, you can do what this guy does. At least he’s not a taker. The rest of us in this country, we’ll continue to work for a living.”
Today, with the election well past, a late remark from Mitt Romney was revealed. According to the New York Times, he said (bitterly, one can only suppose) that he and Paul Ryan lost because of “gifts” generously bestowed by President Obama on blacks, Latinos and young people, especially women. They’re the new “privileged” class if you’re a Republican (and only if you’re a Republican). Republican state legislators are overheard saying that the right side would have won if only the urban vote had been suppressed through a strong voter ID law — an outcome averted because individual judges had stepped in to block it from happening. And somehow voter suppression would have been OK.
Even before the 2012 campaign began, Fox News and Republican tele-pundits were charging Democrats with the crime of class warfare. In truth, though, Republicans were always the ones playing the class card — and they’ve ramped it up since Nov. 6. With Romney’s defeat, the Republican media machine has decided to blame the voters. Ann Coulter was the first to pronounce, “Game over,” because the new electoral majority now contains “more takers than makers.” Bill O’Reilly upped the collective whine with his post-game analysis: President Obama won by appealing to all those people who “want things.” And then he clarified: “People feel they are entitled to things.” Things? Doesn’t he mean rights? Doesn’t he mean government protections? Isn’t he complaining because the non-rich people in our republic expect to be treated with a basic level of human decency?
The flip side of an obviously stupid argument is the complainers’ crude inference that only Republicans don’t want “things.” Oh, so they’re driven by altruism, are they? Class-based anger started, not with the Dems, but with the Tea Party, in 2009, when it sought to explain the collapse of the housing market by dismissing the unworthy Americans who never deserved to be homeowners. Tea Partyers had no intention of paying for others’ failure. Speaker John Boehner was on-board with this principle, because his was the party of self-reliance. So instead of directing their venom against Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, they went after the Americans who had dared to buy a home beyond their means. There was a certain logic to this argument, but not to the underlying sentiment: They were mocking the idea of social mobility.
The Tea Party went after healthcare reform next, dismissing the uninsured as deadbeats. Romney rejected the government bailout of the auto industry on similar grounds: let the chips fall where they may. While corporations are people, my friend, when it comes to campaign donations, the people whose livelihoods depend on GM, Chrysler and Ford are expendable. At least that’s how it is in Romneyville.
Again and again, Republicans drew upon the same rhetoric, saying that the country was divided between independent Americans and worthless dependents. Dependent Americans needed big government, and the wealthiest Americans deserved tax breaks. Why? Because they were the wealth creators; they were valuable Americans; they had earned the privilege of lower taxes. For Tea Party Republicans, increasing taxes on the rich was nothing but a massive transfer of wealth from the deserving to the undeserving.
The “two Americas” that Republicans bought into was reinforced by a second line of attack. There were legitimate Americans (white and native-born) and there were outsiders, who were to be feared. They were “strangers” (immigrants); heathens (secret Muslims, secularists, gays); and wastrels (debtors, the unemployed, and the professional beggars who scammed the government into giving them “things”). These groups, representing, oh, say 47 percent of the population, demanded government intervention and rights and privileges they shouldn’t have – they somehow threatened a long-established social order. For the Tea Party, it was a zero sum game: recognizing the rights of strangers, heathens and wastrels somehow diminished the American “makers.” To put it in the words of former Texas congressman Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks, Republicans alone “understand the miracle of America.”
Their compassion-free argument is not only not new, it’s not exactly American. It can be traced to an earlier British idea of vagrants, the wandering poor and worthless people who cannibalized the English economy at the time America was still a loose collection of colonies. The able-bodied poor who, in the English imagination, refused to work, the beggars who pretended to be disabled, were an early version of those whom Newt Gingrich infamously targeted when he proposed putting poor black children to work cleaning their own schools in order to learn discipline and earn their way into the workforce at an early age. For Republicans, only the “makers” sign on to the social contract. Only children with parents who are self-sufficient and self-reliant deserve good schools.
Single women don’t belong in the Republicans’ shrinking tent either. To serial husband Rush Limbaugh they are the vaginas, lusty doxies and virtual whores who want birth control so they can tramp around and avoid the consequences of pregnancy. Single women are not doing their job: reproducing the next generation of Americans. An “ad” appeared in New England newspapers during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency – it was “A Coquette’s Account of Herself,” trumpeting her “wholesome flesh,” her independent qualities, as she went languidly about searching for a husband: “I have a natural taste for extravagance and pleasure and am passionately fond of running into debt. I am, in a strict sense of the word, a bewitching girl, and very happily calculated to break a husband’s heart.” It’s the sort of joke only a Republican in 2012 would find funny. Because their level of respect for women and sensitivity on issues of gender inequality is pretty much in line with the mind-set of the white male citizens of 200 years ago. Beggars as takers, single women as takers.
The facts tell a different story. They prove that the real takers are the “red states,” all those states that are subsidized by the wealthier blue states. While the Tea Party folk insist they made it on their own, they at least have a Rick Santorum standing up for them. His father became a doctor because of the G.I. Bill, and worked in a veterans hospital. Rick Santorum went to Penn State University, a state-funded institution. His subsequent career in Congress was funded by taxpayers, and after his defeat at the polls, he was funded by think tanks and private backers. In sum, Santorum never earned an honest dollar, he never “made” anything. What exactly did he do “on his own”? A bit less than Skinch Painter, if you don’t count his procreative activity.
It seems that for the Republicans, “makers” are those who make money, and the real makers, such as autoworkers, are prospective takers. “Small business” includes corporations in Republican doublespeak, in which faceless entities are essentially the same as a mom and pop shop on Main Street (which is what Democrats think of when they aim to promote small business). The featured speakers at the Republican Convention embody the Republican mythos: Ann Romney, Chris Christie and the rest were all the proud inheritors of the gift of social mobility. They didn’t earn it. Their parents did.
Donald Trump’s inane campaign against the president was fueled by the same twisted logic. His Obama had been handed a free ride to Harvard. He didn’t earn his grades -– they were granted, and he was given a pass, because of his race. In fact, though, the undeserving students are legacies like Trump, who get into colleges on their parents’ coattails.
Republicans of 2012 kept shouting that America had been stolen from them, stolen from true Americans. They imagine that America is being invaded by strangers crossing our borders, abetted by a secret Muslim Manchurian president, and hordes of beggars running to government for “stuff” that the overtaxed Republicans will have to pay for. For how much longer will they be sticking to this illogic?
In spite of his father’s dreams for him, Mitt Romney was the mouthpiece of the Tea Party coalition. He was the friend of Trump and the servant of Limbaugh. He was a commodity purchased by Sheldon Adelson, who hated him until the superior hate-monger Newt Gingrich imploded. This is the biggest irony of all. Romney himself is not and never was his own man. As a politician, he is not a symbol of self-reliance. He’s the opposite.
Here’s what the election proved: You can’t win by hating a large portion of the electorate. Those accused of being beggars and dependents actually have a voice. And ears and eyes. They could not ignore the insults and slurs delivered by each and every Republican primary contender. A majority now believes that the richest Americans should pay their fair share of taxes, because the super-rich are the real takers. Romney’s refusal to disclose more than a sliver of his tax returns was indicative of his party’s problem. The Republican candidate was a private businessman who exhibited zero interest in putting the public good before private interest, no matter how much money he was making.
As a political chameleon, Romney was so constituted that he could never represent himself as a man of the people, and not only because voters were unable to detect what policies he represented. His party didn’t even want him to be a “man of the people.” He was, at best, a pugilist — as he showed in the first head-to-head debate. He was on that night — and ever since he won the nomination, in fact — the last of the “Great White Hopes,” in a line that extended back to heavyweight champ James Jeffries.
It was the fight of the century all over again. Romney would beat Obama in the ring and keep the hordes of beggars at bay. Millions rooting for him refused to imagine any other outcome. Guess what, folks, when the black boxer Jack Johnson beat Jeffries on July 4, 1910, civilization did not end. The world will go on now, too, because the gloom-and-doom commentators at Fox are wrong. White Americans will not become irrelevant, even if a certain breed of angry white man loses his monopoly on political succession. It’s beyond demographics. It’s democracy.
Skinch Painter didn’t vote because it was too onerous a responsibility. But in all likelihood he would have gone with the Republicans in 2012.
Close
Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg are professors of History at LSU and coauthors of "Madison and Jefferson [ http://www.amazon.com/Madison-Jefferson-Andrew-Burstein/dp/1400067286 ]" (Random House).
Copyright © 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/18/victory_for_strangers_heathens_wastrels/ [with comments]
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Roman Catholic Church Leadership Poured $2 Million Into Fight Against Marriage Equality: REPORT
Pope Benedict XVI leads a private audience to the participants of Interpol's 10th general assembly on November 9, 2012 at the Paul VI hall at The Vatican.
(GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
By Sara Gates
Posted: 11/15/2012 6:09 pm EST Updated: 11/15/2012 6:09 pm EST
While the results of this election represented a monumental victory in the fight for marriage equality [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gay-marriage-victory_n_2085900.html ], it turned out to be quite a costly one for the Catholic Church [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1199881/catholic-church-spent-2-million-fighting-equality-in-2012/ ].
During the election cycle, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church directed nearly $2 million [ http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2012/11/15/catholic-church-directed-2-million-fight-marriage-initiatives ] toward campaigns against gay marriage in four states, according to a recent report from the Human Rights Campaign [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ]. Many of the contributions, derived from dioceses across the country, likely came from parishioners who had no knowledge [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/roman-catholic-church-pours-2-million-into-discrimination-against-lgbt-amer ] of what the money would be used for, the HRC noted in a press release.
The $2 million represents a significant share of the contributions used to fund anti-gay marriage campaigns in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. However, including contributions from the National Organization for Marriage and the Knights of Columbus, an affiliate of the Catholic Church, the three groups were responsible for funding about $11.3 million or 65 percent of campaign efforts against marriage equality [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ] in the four states.
Despite these substantial contributions, voters chose to legalize gay marriage [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gay-marriage-victory_n_2085900.html ] in Maine, Maryland and Washington, while Minnesota voters struck down Amendment 1, which would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
“The Church and NOM can continue pouring money into discriminating against LGBT people, but the writing is on the wall for their anti-equality agenda," HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/roman-catholic-church-pours-2-million-into-discrimination-against-lgbt-amer ]. "The Roman Catholic hierarchy should be focusing on taking actions that actually improve people’s lives, not spending precious resources on spreading malicious lies aimed at tearing down an entire community of people."
The HRC analyzed the publicly reported donations, finding the Catholic Church and its affiliates spent nearly $1.3 million on campaigns in Minnesota, which accounted for 25 percent of anti-gay marriage efforts. In Maryland, the church contributed to a majority of Maryland's $1.7 million anti-gay war chest (final figures will be available at the month's end).
The overall contributions in Washington were significantly smaller, with the Catholic Church contributing $307,000 to campaigns against marriage equality. Opponents in Maine raised $1.4 million for the fight against gay marriage, 85 percent of which was funded by the Catholic Church and the National Organization for Marriage.
According to a Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year, Catholics who support gay marriage [ http://www.pewforum.org/Gay-Marriage-and-Homosexuality/Religion-and-Attitudes-Toward-Same-Sex-Marriage.aspx ] outnumber those who oppose it at 52 percent to 37 percent.
Click over to the Human Rights Campaign's website [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ] to see the full analysis of the Catholic Church's contributions.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/catholic-church-2-million-defeat-marriage-equality_n_2140255.html [with comments]
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Catholic League Compares Marriage Equality To ‘Slavery, Racism, Or Genocide’
By Zack Ford on Nov 14, 2012 at 2:05 pm
This weekend, the Vatican made it clear that it would never back down [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/13/1179351/vatican-vows-to-defend-the-privileged-recognition-of-opposite-sex-marriage/ ] from its opposition to marriage equality because straight couples deserve “privileged legal recognition.” Responding to this announcement, the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue told Focus on the Family [ http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/11/14/catholic-church-vows-to-support-man-woman-marriage/ ] that the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage is as moral as its positions on slavery, racism, or genocide:
DONAHUE: The Catholic Church is not going to change its position on marriage any more than it’s going to change its position on slavery or racism or genocide. These are fixed principles that are there, and those people who are in the Catholic ranks who keep thinking that the Catholic Church may want to change now because the country seems toward gay marriage — really, they’re in the wrong religion. And I think it’s time that our society has to reset its moral compass and think these things through.
Listen to it (via Jeremy Hooper [ http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2012/11/audio-bill-donohue-equates-catholic-view-on-marriage-with-stance-on-slavery-racism-or-genocide.html ]):
[audio embedded]
The comparison is obviously offensive. A distinction needs to be made between “morality” that can be explained by the social justice impact on real people’s lives and “morality” as simply decreed by the Church. Refusing to grant some families the same protections and security as others can hardly be justified as a “fixed principle.”
© 2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/14/1190921/catholic-league-compares-marriage-equality-to-slavery-racism-or-genocide/ [with comments]
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Anti-Gay Pastor Busted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YtCXF1tfM
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Focus On The Family Claims Marriage Equality Passed Because Voters Are ‘Unchurched’
Joseph Backholm carrying one of the boxes of petitions that challenged Washington's marriage equality law.
By Zack Ford on Nov 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm
Focus on the Family has posted a wound-licking round-up of its losses in last week’s election, highlighting the marriage equality fights in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. While regurgitating the National Organization for Marriage’s claim that they were simply outspent, Focus also claims that conservatives lost because liberal voters are “unchurched” [ http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/11/15/the-road-ahead/ ] and thus a threat to children:
In addition to the financial mismatch, those states are also among the most unchurched in the nation—reflecting a discrepancy in the way voters there regard marriage compared to other areas of the country.
“This debate does not end here, but it’s unfortunate that a majority of our state has concluded that the institution of marriage exists solely to ratify the emotional connection of adults,” said Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. “As is always the case when adults decide they’re the most important people in the world, it’s the kids that will lose.”
It’s true that the number of Americans who don’t identify with a religious affiliation is growing [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/losing-our-religion-one-in-five-americans-are-now-nones/2012/10/09/60dfc2e4-1218-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html ], and the narrow view of “churching” that conservative Christians dictate may just be one of the reasons why. The so-called “moral majority” is no longer the majority [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/07/10/513512/marriage-equality-now-a-mainstream-value/ ], and is hardly moral. What’s in the best interest of kids is ensuring that their families have the proper legal securities, not spreading fears that their gay parents are inherently abusive.
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Related
Gay Voters Were Essential To Obama Winning The Popular Vote
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/13/1185271/gay-voters-were-essential-to-obama-winning-the-popular-vote/
Uganda May Take Up ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill Next Week As ‘Christmas Gift’ To People
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/16/1206491/uganda-may-take-up-kill-the-gays-bill-next-week-as-christmas-gift-to-people/
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© 2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1200641/focus-on-the-family-claims-marriage-equality-passed-because-voters-are-unchurched/ [with comments]
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Grant Storms, Anti-Gay Louisiana Pastor, Convicted Of Obscenity For Masturbating In Public
A prominent Louisiana-based Christian pastor known for his anti-gay stance was convicted of obscenity yesterday after being caught masturbating at a public park near a children's playground [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/grant-storms-arrested-masturbating_n_830000.html ] last year.
As NOLA.com reports [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/08/rev_grant_storms_critic_of_sou.html ], Rev. Grant Storms was sentenced to three years' probation after the incident in Lafreniere Park. Storms is quoted as calling public masturbation "a thrill" in his confession. However, despite an eyewitness account cited by the New Orleans Times-Picayune [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/02/man_booked_with_masturbating_a.html ] which stated that 55-year-old pastor had been "looking at the playground area that contained children playing, with his zipper down" at the time of his arrest, authorities denied any suspicions that he was a pedophile.
"Lafreniere Park is a public place," Judge Ross LaDart is quoted as saying when he announced the verdict, according to the publication. "Lafreniere Park is a place that was chosen by this defendant to engage in a history of masturbation."
At the time of his arrest, Storms told officers on the scene he was attempting to urinate in a bottle inside van. He later admitted to concocting the story. "I'm confessing to having my hand in my pants," Storms is quoted by Best Of New Orleans as saying at the time [ http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/03/01/rev-grant-storms-apologizes-to-family-gay-community-following-his-obscenity-arrest ]. "That's all I'm going to say."
Deeming himself a "Christian patriot," Storms is notorious in New Orleans' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community for his vocal opposition to the annual Southern Decadence festival, one of the largest gay-themed events in the world, in the French Quarter.
"We want them out of town," he told ABC [ http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131924 ], before condemning city officials as "legalized prostitutes."
He later told the news channel he hoped to take his anti-gay fight nationwide, including Las Vegas. "We want to take it to every city in the United States, wherever stuff goes on," he said.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/grant-storms-anti-gay-louisiana-pastor-obscenity_n_1825132.html [the included video, as embedded, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHsYQA67IJ8 ; with comments]
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Anti-gay pastor arrested for public masturbation asks gay community for forgiveness
(Photo: Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office/AP)
By Brett Michael Dykes | The Lookout – Tue, Mar 1, 2011
For years, New Orleans area residents have known self-proclaimed "Christian patriot" Grant Storms as a religious crusader who has tirelessly tried to rid the city's French Quarter of homosexual influence--specifically its "Southern Decadence" festival. The celebration, often called the "gay Mardi Gras," draws homosexuals from around the country each Labor Day weekend.
But the 53 year-old Storms has joined the ever-growing fraternity of evangelical moralists whose hypocrisy is exposed through an embarrassing sex scandal. And today he offered an olive branch to the gay community.
Storms -- who would frequently arm his followers with bullhorns, protest signs and Bibles to take to the streets of the French Quarter--was arrested recently for masturbating in public at a children's playground [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/02/man_booked_with_masturbating_a.html ]. Storms held a tearful press conference [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/03/grant_storms_apologizes_but_de.html ] in which he confessed that he was "ashamed" to have stuck his hand in his pants at the local playground. However, he stopped short of using any variation of the word "masturbate" in describing what he did, but admitted that he was randy from having viewed pornography just prior to driving his Ford Windstar van to the park. He also emphatically denied being attracted to children: "I am not a pedophile. I am not a child molester."
Rather, Storms explained that he's battling sex addiction and is now estranged from his wife and four children because of it. In addition to apologizing to his friends and family for his behavior, Storms requested the forgiveness of the gay men and women [ http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/03/01/rev-grant-storms-apologizes-to-family-gay-community-following-his-obscenity-arrest ] he's spent years tormenting. "I was very proudful, arrogant," he said. "I have been vicious at times in my condemnation of others."
Copyright 2011 The Lookout
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/anti-gay-pastor-arrested-public-masturbation-asks-gay-20110301-134942-651.html [with comments]
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"Hands In The Pants" Pastor
Cenk Uygur breaks down the story of an anti-gay fundamentalist Christian pastor who was arrested for watching children play with his zipper down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNMXaVaYS6I
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VIDEO: Pastor Chris Okays Masturbation
Pastor Chris
Date: 29-Feb-2012
Persons who hide to use their hands to stimulate their genitals for sexual pleasure in an act known as masturbation or solo-sex may now have to stop hiding and rather be proud of what they do because leader of the Christ Embassy Church, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, says masturbation is a normal habit that is not a sin against God.
In what may become the wildest controversy within the contemporary Christian community, Pastor Chris insists that God is not worried at all about persons who masturbate because it has got nothing to do with Him (God).
Interestingly, Pastor Chris did not hide to release this ‘bombshell’ but allowed himself to be videoed and since the recording hit youtube [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP0CDsvu8DM (next below)],
In response to Kweku’s question, Pastor Chris explained: “The reason you want to stop this is because of what you think it is.
If you were in the habit of playing football, you probably would not ask ‘how can I stop playing football? But because you think there is something wrong with this, that is where your problem is coming from. But no matter how wrong it is in your mind, get this straight: (masturbation) in itself, it is not a sin against God.
There are many Christians who think it is a sin against God and Satan uses this against them, oppressing their minds and making them feel ineffective and inefficient in the things of God. “But when you get to understand that it has nothing to do with God and that is all about you and your own body, then Satan loses his power to use it to accuse you. So if you don’t like it, stop it but God has got nothing to do with it. It is your own body, masturbation is about your body and God is not offended by it.
He is only offended by any habit that takes a hold of your mind and if this takes a hold of your mind and dominates you then, God is offended by the fact that it takes a hold of your mind,” Pastor Chris added. Masturbation has remained a rather sensitive topic with a divided opinion on whether it is good or bad. Generally, most Christians and Muslims consider masturbation to be a sacrilege and therefore frown on it.
Statistics say masturbation is mostly common among teenagers and though around 90% of the total male population and 65% of the total female population have tried masturbation, most people do not admit it. The Christ Embassy Church has several branches in almost all the continents of the world and has millions of members under the mentorship of Pastor Chris who has been in ministry for some 25 years. He is married to the love his life, Anita and they have two daughters, Sharon and Charyn Oyakhilome.
Source: News one
© Peace FM Online 2012
http://showbiz.peacefmonline.com/news/201202/97490.php [with comments]
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Pastor Chris blasted over masturbation in christanity
The Editor
Tuesday, 28 February 2012 06:32
AS many Nigerians had predicted, Nigerian Pastors have begun lambasting Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy over his comment that masturbation is not a sin against God but a mere habit that God is not angry about.
Since the controversial Chris Oyakhilome recently made the comments on masturbation, angry reactions have been pouring in from Christendom over what they called heresy, being preached by the pastor, which negates the words of God.
Pastor Chris was answering a question about how to overcome masturbation. He replied that:
“The reason you are thinking of stopping it (masturbation) is because you think it has become a habit for you… masturbation is not more than a habit than any other habit.
“So once you make up your mind that you want to break a particular habit, you just do it, you make up your mind… in fact the best way to break a habit is to replace it with another habit.
“There is one thing I would like to bring to your mind that may be of help to you because the reason you are thinking of stopping this is because of what you think it is.”
He further added that:
“No matter how wrong you think this is in your mind, get this straight, in itself, it is not a sin against God,”
He said that as a result of this belief that it is a sin, Satan used it to oppress people of God “making them feel ineffective and inefficient in the things of God.”
Reacting to Oyakhilome’s comment, the Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Ola Makinde said there was only one way of having sex permitted by God in the Bible, which is only through marriage.
“There is only one way of having sex in the Bible which is natural. Masturbation is unnatural and unethical. Whatever is unnatural and unethical is abomination. I leave him to his own opinion,” he said.
According to Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, every believer must be able to subject his body to control because it could lead to something else.
Popular Evangelist, Pastor Akin Fasawe said Masturbation is a sin as stipulated in the Bible, saying that death was even recommended in the Bible for those who practiced such things.
“Masturbation is a sin because when you masturbate, you will release. If the minister of God said masturbation is not a sin, he can easily tell his church that fornication is not a sin. The Bible recommends death in the Old Testament,” he stated.
According to Primate Elijah Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Church, it is stated clearly in the Bible that masturbation is a sin against God.
“That is his own view. Where did he see it in the Bible that masturbation is not a sin? Maybe he has his own Bible. It is a bad thing. Maybe it is in his Bible,” he laughed.
Pastor Akin Akande of the Men of Purpose Ministry stated that masturbation is a sin.
“It is like abusing the gift of God. It is heresy. The Bible says it is a sin to derive pleasure outside the content of marriage,” he added.
Pastor Leke Akinola of the Upper Room Baptist, said self-induced masturbation is a sin against God and that it is heresy for any minister of God to say it is not a sin.
According to Rev. Sam Ogedengbe, “masturbation is a sin and it is unbiblical. It is demonic and anyone engaging in it should know that it has spiritual connection.”
Reacting to the issue, majority of InformationNigeria [ http://http/www.informationnigeria.org/ ] readers indicated that they did not support Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s view on masturbation through their comments on an earlier article [ http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/02/masturbation-not-a-sin-pastor-chris.html ] on the Oyakihilome’s statements.
Copyright © 2012 Zim Diaspora (emphasis in original)
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7877:pastor-chris-blasted-over-masturbation [has the same video as the item above embedded; with comments]
===
Pastor Orders Christian Men to Only Think About Jesus While Masturbating
Freehold, Iowa - The Landover Conference of Deacons last week passed one of the most controversial resolutions of the church's 200-year history. The organization has once again lessened restrictions on self-gratification. All church members know that the controversy on this issue reached a new height last year when Landover lowered the allowable age of masturbation to 65 for recent widowers. The church has revised that policy yet again. "We really had no choice," noted a tired and distraught Pastor Deacon Fred during a news conference held shortly after the decision was reached. "Last month, several middle-aged divorced men challenged the church policy. They claimed that because they can never remarry (since to do so would constitute adultery-Matthew 5:32), and because they cannot have non-marital sex (since fornication ensures eternity in Hell-1 Corinthians 6:9-10), they should at least be allowed to defile their bodies as a consolation. Needless to say, we put very little stock in the words of men who would put their wives away. But they challenged us to find any Bible verse prohibiting masturbation. After 72 hours of searching the Lord's Word, we came up empty-handed, if you'll pardon the expression. We even consulted 17th century Bible scholar, Brother Harry Hardwick, but he, too, could find nothing prohibiting flesh-pulling. Everyone knows that all Landover rules come straight from the Bible. We don't ignore the parts we don't like, as the John 3:16 pseudo-Christians do, nor do we add to the Bible, like those Pope-loving Catholics."
The new policy is not without its limitations, however. "While the Bible does not outlaw masturbation, it severely restricts the circumstances under which it may occur," noted Pastor Deacon Fred. The first restriction is that no Landover gentleman will be permitted to reach the stage of ejaculation. "The Bible is very clear that a man's seed is for copulation only," noted Pastor. "In fact, the Bible says that when Onan chose not to copulate and instead released his seed on the ground, God was so angry that he struck Onan dead (Genesis 38:9-10). The last thing we need is some media scandal as reporters click photos of colored janitors removing corpses from Landover restrooms." Recognizing that a few men may err and sin by not stopping in time, the new policy requires all who decide to participate in the act to register with Pastor Deacon Fred. Specially made Tupperware seed-containers will be signed out of his office by Mrs. Watkins who will be keeping a record to guard against overuse. The sinner must catch his mistake in his numbered container before it reaches the ground. All containers are to be returned to Mrs. Watkins within one hour of check-out. The contents will be collected each week in a larger vat and provided to Mary Lou's Christian Salon where it will be used to treat dry, scaly skin.
The second restriction is that no man will be permitted to have any sexual thoughts during the process. "The apostles told us repeatedly that Jesus forbids lust, since sex is for baby-making, not anxiety release," continued Pastor. "We are to 'abstain from fleshly lusts' (1 Peter 2:11) and 'flee also youthful lusts' (2 Timothy 2:22), for lust 'bringeth forth death' (James 1:15). And more to the point for those debauched divorcees, Matthew told us that 'whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart' (Matthew 5:28). This means that masturbation of an erect organ can occur only if the erection is naturally-induced, such as by the morning sun or an overfilled bladder." Pastor Deacon Fred then concluded, "The only way to masturbate without lust is to keep your mind on Christ at all times."
The new policy instantly drew the ire of countless Landover members. Longstanding church member, Mrs. Judy O'Christian, was incensed. Despite being a woman, Mrs. O'Christian was allowed to speak since the press conference was held outside the chapel. "As co-chairs of the Ladies of Landover Welcoming Committee, Sister Taffy and I have to greet all new church members," she pleaded. "This policy means we will have to destroy our silk gloves every time we shake hands with a male member . . . ah, church member, that is. Halston doesn't sell accessories in six-packs, you know."
Pastor Deacon Fred attempted to assuage the ladies' concerns. "This policy will in no way open the floodgates, so to speak. Punishment for violations of the new restrictions will be swift and certain. The Bible says that if a part of our body offends us, we must cut it off (Matthew 5:29-30). Any man found to have engaged in sexual thoughts during the process, or to have reached full fruition without capturing the full emission, will have his organ severed and his preferred hand amputated. And every man will know that when that happens, his destiny is Hell, for as God told us: "He that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 23:1). Rest assured, God takes no stock in the Satanic adage: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.".
Copyright Americhrist Ltd.
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1100/masturbation.html
===
Public Masturbator To Seattle Cops: Wait Until I'm Finished
Posted: 11/16/2012 1:18 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 1:18 pm EST
Luckily, the cops came first.
A repeat public masturbator in Seattle was arrested Wednesday while pleasuring himself in an alley [ http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2012/11/15/public-masturbator-to-cops-wait-til-im-finished/ ], the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
The unidentified 35-year-old suspect was sitting on a staircase with his pants down and "in the throes of self-flagellation," a Columbia City neighborhood police spokesman told the publication. But he wouldn't stop, telling cops that he was "almost finished."
Authorities arrested and jailed the man for indecent exposure. Earlier in the day, police were notified that the man had been walking around the neighborhood yelling at and grabbing people.
Public masturbation seems to be coming to every town these days.
In September, a man masturbating on women in three separate subway attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/darnell-hardware-subway-masturbated-on-women-no-jail_n_1892980.html ] in New York City got off on probation and avoided jail time. In Louisiana in August, a prominent Christian pastor [Pastor Storms, above] was convicted of obscenity after he masturbated at a public park near a children's playground last year.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/public-masturbator-to-seattle-cops-almost-done_n_2145499.html [with comments]
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Rush Limbaugh
(Credit: AP/Ron Edmonds)
Republicans counted on tried-and-true class warfare like never before. This time, "outsiders" were the majority
By Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg
Sunday, Nov 18, 2012 11:00 AM CST
Before we get to the persistence of class warfare in our politics, let’s talk about Skinch Painter. In 1900, when the San Francisco Examiner tracked him down, he was 78, “hale, hearty, and contented.” He hadn’t inherited a penny, but neither had he worked a day in his life. “He has never borrowed a dollar, nor stolen one,” the column read. “He has never been a tramp nor a beggar. He has never done a day’s work in exchange for money … Yet he has lived.”
One day, when he was in his teens, he said to himself, “Look here, Skinch Painter, this old world owes you a living, and all you’ve got to do is collect it.” Wandering the Ozarks of Missouri, he inhabited a cave and relied on nature for his food and clothing. He hunted, fished and gathered nuts and berries, wearing only animal skins and going barefoot.
“Labor is a useless sin,” said Skinch. “The time a man spends working is just so much time lost from living.”
We can just about see Fox News sending a camera crew out to interview Skinch, and one of its handsomely paid straight men wrapping up the piece with an offhand, “See, you don’t need government handouts. If you don’t want to work, you can do what this guy does. At least he’s not a taker. The rest of us in this country, we’ll continue to work for a living.”
Today, with the election well past, a late remark from Mitt Romney was revealed. According to the New York Times, he said (bitterly, one can only suppose) that he and Paul Ryan lost because of “gifts” generously bestowed by President Obama on blacks, Latinos and young people, especially women. They’re the new “privileged” class if you’re a Republican (and only if you’re a Republican). Republican state legislators are overheard saying that the right side would have won if only the urban vote had been suppressed through a strong voter ID law — an outcome averted because individual judges had stepped in to block it from happening. And somehow voter suppression would have been OK.
Even before the 2012 campaign began, Fox News and Republican tele-pundits were charging Democrats with the crime of class warfare. In truth, though, Republicans were always the ones playing the class card — and they’ve ramped it up since Nov. 6. With Romney’s defeat, the Republican media machine has decided to blame the voters. Ann Coulter was the first to pronounce, “Game over,” because the new electoral majority now contains “more takers than makers.” Bill O’Reilly upped the collective whine with his post-game analysis: President Obama won by appealing to all those people who “want things.” And then he clarified: “People feel they are entitled to things.” Things? Doesn’t he mean rights? Doesn’t he mean government protections? Isn’t he complaining because the non-rich people in our republic expect to be treated with a basic level of human decency?
The flip side of an obviously stupid argument is the complainers’ crude inference that only Republicans don’t want “things.” Oh, so they’re driven by altruism, are they? Class-based anger started, not with the Dems, but with the Tea Party, in 2009, when it sought to explain the collapse of the housing market by dismissing the unworthy Americans who never deserved to be homeowners. Tea Partyers had no intention of paying for others’ failure. Speaker John Boehner was on-board with this principle, because his was the party of self-reliance. So instead of directing their venom against Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, they went after the Americans who had dared to buy a home beyond their means. There was a certain logic to this argument, but not to the underlying sentiment: They were mocking the idea of social mobility.
The Tea Party went after healthcare reform next, dismissing the uninsured as deadbeats. Romney rejected the government bailout of the auto industry on similar grounds: let the chips fall where they may. While corporations are people, my friend, when it comes to campaign donations, the people whose livelihoods depend on GM, Chrysler and Ford are expendable. At least that’s how it is in Romneyville.
Again and again, Republicans drew upon the same rhetoric, saying that the country was divided between independent Americans and worthless dependents. Dependent Americans needed big government, and the wealthiest Americans deserved tax breaks. Why? Because they were the wealth creators; they were valuable Americans; they had earned the privilege of lower taxes. For Tea Party Republicans, increasing taxes on the rich was nothing but a massive transfer of wealth from the deserving to the undeserving.
The “two Americas” that Republicans bought into was reinforced by a second line of attack. There were legitimate Americans (white and native-born) and there were outsiders, who were to be feared. They were “strangers” (immigrants); heathens (secret Muslims, secularists, gays); and wastrels (debtors, the unemployed, and the professional beggars who scammed the government into giving them “things”). These groups, representing, oh, say 47 percent of the population, demanded government intervention and rights and privileges they shouldn’t have – they somehow threatened a long-established social order. For the Tea Party, it was a zero sum game: recognizing the rights of strangers, heathens and wastrels somehow diminished the American “makers.” To put it in the words of former Texas congressman Dick Armey, chairman of FreedomWorks, Republicans alone “understand the miracle of America.”
Their compassion-free argument is not only not new, it’s not exactly American. It can be traced to an earlier British idea of vagrants, the wandering poor and worthless people who cannibalized the English economy at the time America was still a loose collection of colonies. The able-bodied poor who, in the English imagination, refused to work, the beggars who pretended to be disabled, were an early version of those whom Newt Gingrich infamously targeted when he proposed putting poor black children to work cleaning their own schools in order to learn discipline and earn their way into the workforce at an early age. For Republicans, only the “makers” sign on to the social contract. Only children with parents who are self-sufficient and self-reliant deserve good schools.
Single women don’t belong in the Republicans’ shrinking tent either. To serial husband Rush Limbaugh they are the vaginas, lusty doxies and virtual whores who want birth control so they can tramp around and avoid the consequences of pregnancy. Single women are not doing their job: reproducing the next generation of Americans. An “ad” appeared in New England newspapers during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency – it was “A Coquette’s Account of Herself,” trumpeting her “wholesome flesh,” her independent qualities, as she went languidly about searching for a husband: “I have a natural taste for extravagance and pleasure and am passionately fond of running into debt. I am, in a strict sense of the word, a bewitching girl, and very happily calculated to break a husband’s heart.” It’s the sort of joke only a Republican in 2012 would find funny. Because their level of respect for women and sensitivity on issues of gender inequality is pretty much in line with the mind-set of the white male citizens of 200 years ago. Beggars as takers, single women as takers.
The facts tell a different story. They prove that the real takers are the “red states,” all those states that are subsidized by the wealthier blue states. While the Tea Party folk insist they made it on their own, they at least have a Rick Santorum standing up for them. His father became a doctor because of the G.I. Bill, and worked in a veterans hospital. Rick Santorum went to Penn State University, a state-funded institution. His subsequent career in Congress was funded by taxpayers, and after his defeat at the polls, he was funded by think tanks and private backers. In sum, Santorum never earned an honest dollar, he never “made” anything. What exactly did he do “on his own”? A bit less than Skinch Painter, if you don’t count his procreative activity.
It seems that for the Republicans, “makers” are those who make money, and the real makers, such as autoworkers, are prospective takers. “Small business” includes corporations in Republican doublespeak, in which faceless entities are essentially the same as a mom and pop shop on Main Street (which is what Democrats think of when they aim to promote small business). The featured speakers at the Republican Convention embody the Republican mythos: Ann Romney, Chris Christie and the rest were all the proud inheritors of the gift of social mobility. They didn’t earn it. Their parents did.
Donald Trump’s inane campaign against the president was fueled by the same twisted logic. His Obama had been handed a free ride to Harvard. He didn’t earn his grades -– they were granted, and he was given a pass, because of his race. In fact, though, the undeserving students are legacies like Trump, who get into colleges on their parents’ coattails.
Republicans of 2012 kept shouting that America had been stolen from them, stolen from true Americans. They imagine that America is being invaded by strangers crossing our borders, abetted by a secret Muslim Manchurian president, and hordes of beggars running to government for “stuff” that the overtaxed Republicans will have to pay for. For how much longer will they be sticking to this illogic?
In spite of his father’s dreams for him, Mitt Romney was the mouthpiece of the Tea Party coalition. He was the friend of Trump and the servant of Limbaugh. He was a commodity purchased by Sheldon Adelson, who hated him until the superior hate-monger Newt Gingrich imploded. This is the biggest irony of all. Romney himself is not and never was his own man. As a politician, he is not a symbol of self-reliance. He’s the opposite.
Here’s what the election proved: You can’t win by hating a large portion of the electorate. Those accused of being beggars and dependents actually have a voice. And ears and eyes. They could not ignore the insults and slurs delivered by each and every Republican primary contender. A majority now believes that the richest Americans should pay their fair share of taxes, because the super-rich are the real takers. Romney’s refusal to disclose more than a sliver of his tax returns was indicative of his party’s problem. The Republican candidate was a private businessman who exhibited zero interest in putting the public good before private interest, no matter how much money he was making.
As a political chameleon, Romney was so constituted that he could never represent himself as a man of the people, and not only because voters were unable to detect what policies he represented. His party didn’t even want him to be a “man of the people.” He was, at best, a pugilist — as he showed in the first head-to-head debate. He was on that night — and ever since he won the nomination, in fact — the last of the “Great White Hopes,” in a line that extended back to heavyweight champ James Jeffries.
It was the fight of the century all over again. Romney would beat Obama in the ring and keep the hordes of beggars at bay. Millions rooting for him refused to imagine any other outcome. Guess what, folks, when the black boxer Jack Johnson beat Jeffries on July 4, 1910, civilization did not end. The world will go on now, too, because the gloom-and-doom commentators at Fox are wrong. White Americans will not become irrelevant, even if a certain breed of angry white man loses his monopoly on political succession. It’s beyond demographics. It’s democracy.
Skinch Painter didn’t vote because it was too onerous a responsibility. But in all likelihood he would have gone with the Republicans in 2012.
Close
Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg are professors of History at LSU and coauthors of "Madison and Jefferson [ http://www.amazon.com/Madison-Jefferson-Andrew-Burstein/dp/1400067286 ]" (Random House).
Copyright © 2012 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/18/victory_for_strangers_heathens_wastrels/ [with comments]
===
Roman Catholic Church Leadership Poured $2 Million Into Fight Against Marriage Equality: REPORT
Pope Benedict XVI leads a private audience to the participants of Interpol's 10th general assembly on November 9, 2012 at the Paul VI hall at The Vatican.
(GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
By Sara Gates
Posted: 11/15/2012 6:09 pm EST Updated: 11/15/2012 6:09 pm EST
While the results of this election represented a monumental victory in the fight for marriage equality [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gay-marriage-victory_n_2085900.html ], it turned out to be quite a costly one for the Catholic Church [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1199881/catholic-church-spent-2-million-fighting-equality-in-2012/ ].
During the election cycle, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church directed nearly $2 million [ http://www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2012/11/15/catholic-church-directed-2-million-fight-marriage-initiatives ] toward campaigns against gay marriage in four states, according to a recent report from the Human Rights Campaign [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ]. Many of the contributions, derived from dioceses across the country, likely came from parishioners who had no knowledge [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/roman-catholic-church-pours-2-million-into-discrimination-against-lgbt-amer ] of what the money would be used for, the HRC noted in a press release.
The $2 million represents a significant share of the contributions used to fund anti-gay marriage campaigns in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. However, including contributions from the National Organization for Marriage and the Knights of Columbus, an affiliate of the Catholic Church, the three groups were responsible for funding about $11.3 million or 65 percent of campaign efforts against marriage equality [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ] in the four states.
Despite these substantial contributions, voters chose to legalize gay marriage [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/gay-marriage-victory_n_2085900.html ] in Maine, Maryland and Washington, while Minnesota voters struck down Amendment 1, which would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
“The Church and NOM can continue pouring money into discriminating against LGBT people, but the writing is on the wall for their anti-equality agenda," HRC President Chad Griffin said in a statement [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/roman-catholic-church-pours-2-million-into-discrimination-against-lgbt-amer ]. "The Roman Catholic hierarchy should be focusing on taking actions that actually improve people’s lives, not spending precious resources on spreading malicious lies aimed at tearing down an entire community of people."
The HRC analyzed the publicly reported donations, finding the Catholic Church and its affiliates spent nearly $1.3 million on campaigns in Minnesota, which accounted for 25 percent of anti-gay marriage efforts. In Maryland, the church contributed to a majority of Maryland's $1.7 million anti-gay war chest (final figures will be available at the month's end).
The overall contributions in Washington were significantly smaller, with the Catholic Church contributing $307,000 to campaigns against marriage equality. Opponents in Maine raised $1.4 million for the fight against gay marriage, 85 percent of which was funded by the Catholic Church and the National Organization for Marriage.
According to a Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year, Catholics who support gay marriage [ http://www.pewforum.org/Gay-Marriage-and-Homosexuality/Religion-and-Attitudes-Toward-Same-Sex-Marriage.aspx ] outnumber those who oppose it at 52 percent to 37 percent.
Click over to the Human Rights Campaign's website [ http://hrc.org/nomexposed/section/the-catholic-hierarchys-devotion-to-fighting-marriage-equality ] to see the full analysis of the Catholic Church's contributions.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/catholic-church-2-million-defeat-marriage-equality_n_2140255.html [with comments]
===
Catholic League Compares Marriage Equality To ‘Slavery, Racism, Or Genocide’
By Zack Ford on Nov 14, 2012 at 2:05 pm
This weekend, the Vatican made it clear that it would never back down [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/13/1179351/vatican-vows-to-defend-the-privileged-recognition-of-opposite-sex-marriage/ ] from its opposition to marriage equality because straight couples deserve “privileged legal recognition.” Responding to this announcement, the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue told Focus on the Family [ http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/11/14/catholic-church-vows-to-support-man-woman-marriage/ ] that the Church’s stance on same-sex marriage is as moral as its positions on slavery, racism, or genocide:
DONAHUE: The Catholic Church is not going to change its position on marriage any more than it’s going to change its position on slavery or racism or genocide. These are fixed principles that are there, and those people who are in the Catholic ranks who keep thinking that the Catholic Church may want to change now because the country seems toward gay marriage — really, they’re in the wrong religion. And I think it’s time that our society has to reset its moral compass and think these things through.
Listen to it (via Jeremy Hooper [ http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2012/11/audio-bill-donohue-equates-catholic-view-on-marriage-with-stance-on-slavery-racism-or-genocide.html ]):
[audio embedded]
The comparison is obviously offensive. A distinction needs to be made between “morality” that can be explained by the social justice impact on real people’s lives and “morality” as simply decreed by the Church. Refusing to grant some families the same protections and security as others can hardly be justified as a “fixed principle.”
© 2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/14/1190921/catholic-league-compares-marriage-equality-to-slavery-racism-or-genocide/ [with comments]
===
Anti-Gay Pastor Busted
Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Jun 24, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YtCXF1tfM
===
Focus On The Family Claims Marriage Equality Passed Because Voters Are ‘Unchurched’
Joseph Backholm carrying one of the boxes of petitions that challenged Washington's marriage equality law.
By Zack Ford on Nov 15, 2012 at 4:20 pm
Focus on the Family has posted a wound-licking round-up of its losses in last week’s election, highlighting the marriage equality fights in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. While regurgitating the National Organization for Marriage’s claim that they were simply outspent, Focus also claims that conservatives lost because liberal voters are “unchurched” [ http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/11/15/the-road-ahead/ ] and thus a threat to children:
In addition to the financial mismatch, those states are also among the most unchurched in the nation—reflecting a discrepancy in the way voters there regard marriage compared to other areas of the country.
“This debate does not end here, but it’s unfortunate that a majority of our state has concluded that the institution of marriage exists solely to ratify the emotional connection of adults,” said Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. “As is always the case when adults decide they’re the most important people in the world, it’s the kids that will lose.”
It’s true that the number of Americans who don’t identify with a religious affiliation is growing [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/losing-our-religion-one-in-five-americans-are-now-nones/2012/10/09/60dfc2e4-1218-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html ], and the narrow view of “churching” that conservative Christians dictate may just be one of the reasons why. The so-called “moral majority” is no longer the majority [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/07/10/513512/marriage-equality-now-a-mainstream-value/ ], and is hardly moral. What’s in the best interest of kids is ensuring that their families have the proper legal securities, not spreading fears that their gay parents are inherently abusive.
*
Related
Gay Voters Were Essential To Obama Winning The Popular Vote
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/13/1185271/gay-voters-were-essential-to-obama-winning-the-popular-vote/
Uganda May Take Up ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill Next Week As ‘Christmas Gift’ To People
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/16/1206491/uganda-may-take-up-kill-the-gays-bill-next-week-as-christmas-gift-to-people/
*
© 2012 Center for American Progress Action Fund (emphasis in original)
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1200641/focus-on-the-family-claims-marriage-equality-passed-because-voters-are-unchurched/ [with comments]
===
Grant Storms, Anti-Gay Louisiana Pastor, Convicted Of Obscenity For Masturbating In Public
Posted: 08/23/2012 12:41 pm Updated: 08/24/2012 1:14 am
A prominent Louisiana-based Christian pastor known for his anti-gay stance was convicted of obscenity yesterday after being caught masturbating at a public park near a children's playground [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/grant-storms-arrested-masturbating_n_830000.html ] last year.
As NOLA.com reports [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/08/rev_grant_storms_critic_of_sou.html ], Rev. Grant Storms was sentenced to three years' probation after the incident in Lafreniere Park. Storms is quoted as calling public masturbation "a thrill" in his confession. However, despite an eyewitness account cited by the New Orleans Times-Picayune [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/02/man_booked_with_masturbating_a.html ] which stated that 55-year-old pastor had been "looking at the playground area that contained children playing, with his zipper down" at the time of his arrest, authorities denied any suspicions that he was a pedophile.
"Lafreniere Park is a public place," Judge Ross LaDart is quoted as saying when he announced the verdict, according to the publication. "Lafreniere Park is a place that was chosen by this defendant to engage in a history of masturbation."
At the time of his arrest, Storms told officers on the scene he was attempting to urinate in a bottle inside van. He later admitted to concocting the story. "I'm confessing to having my hand in my pants," Storms is quoted by Best Of New Orleans as saying at the time [ http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/03/01/rev-grant-storms-apologizes-to-family-gay-community-following-his-obscenity-arrest ]. "That's all I'm going to say."
Deeming himself a "Christian patriot," Storms is notorious in New Orleans' lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community for his vocal opposition to the annual Southern Decadence festival, one of the largest gay-themed events in the world, in the French Quarter.
"We want them out of town," he told ABC [ http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131924 ], before condemning city officials as "legalized prostitutes."
He later told the news channel he hoped to take his anti-gay fight nationwide, including Las Vegas. "We want to take it to every city in the United States, wherever stuff goes on," he said.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/grant-storms-anti-gay-louisiana-pastor-obscenity_n_1825132.html [the included video, as embedded, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHsYQA67IJ8 ; with comments]
--
Anti-gay pastor arrested for public masturbation asks gay community for forgiveness
(Photo: Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office/AP)
By Brett Michael Dykes | The Lookout – Tue, Mar 1, 2011
For years, New Orleans area residents have known self-proclaimed "Christian patriot" Grant Storms as a religious crusader who has tirelessly tried to rid the city's French Quarter of homosexual influence--specifically its "Southern Decadence" festival. The celebration, often called the "gay Mardi Gras," draws homosexuals from around the country each Labor Day weekend.
But the 53 year-old Storms has joined the ever-growing fraternity of evangelical moralists whose hypocrisy is exposed through an embarrassing sex scandal. And today he offered an olive branch to the gay community.
Storms -- who would frequently arm his followers with bullhorns, protest signs and Bibles to take to the streets of the French Quarter--was arrested recently for masturbating in public at a children's playground [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/02/man_booked_with_masturbating_a.html ]. Storms held a tearful press conference [ http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/03/grant_storms_apologizes_but_de.html ] in which he confessed that he was "ashamed" to have stuck his hand in his pants at the local playground. However, he stopped short of using any variation of the word "masturbate" in describing what he did, but admitted that he was randy from having viewed pornography just prior to driving his Ford Windstar van to the park. He also emphatically denied being attracted to children: "I am not a pedophile. I am not a child molester."
Rather, Storms explained that he's battling sex addiction and is now estranged from his wife and four children because of it. In addition to apologizing to his friends and family for his behavior, Storms requested the forgiveness of the gay men and women [ http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2011/03/01/rev-grant-storms-apologizes-to-family-gay-community-following-his-obscenity-arrest ] he's spent years tormenting. "I was very proudful, arrogant," he said. "I have been vicious at times in my condemnation of others."
Copyright 2011 The Lookout
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/anti-gay-pastor-arrested-public-masturbation-asks-gay-20110301-134942-651.html [with comments]
--
"Hands In The Pants" Pastor
Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Mar 2, 2011
Cenk Uygur breaks down the story of an anti-gay fundamentalist Christian pastor who was arrested for watching children play with his zipper down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNMXaVaYS6I
===
VIDEO: Pastor Chris Okays Masturbation
Pastor Chris
Date: 29-Feb-2012
Persons who hide to use their hands to stimulate their genitals for sexual pleasure in an act known as masturbation or solo-sex may now have to stop hiding and rather be proud of what they do because leader of the Christ Embassy Church, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, says masturbation is a normal habit that is not a sin against God.
In what may become the wildest controversy within the contemporary Christian community, Pastor Chris insists that God is not worried at all about persons who masturbate because it has got nothing to do with Him (God).
Interestingly, Pastor Chris did not hide to release this ‘bombshell’ but allowed himself to be videoed and since the recording hit youtube [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP0CDsvu8DM (next below)],
it has received some 83,335 plus hits within days. Pastor Chris made the masturbation justification when, during his ‘Pastor Chris Live Show’, a certain Kweku from Ghana called into the programme to ask how to overcome the habit of masturbation.
In response to Kweku’s question, Pastor Chris explained: “The reason you want to stop this is because of what you think it is.
If you were in the habit of playing football, you probably would not ask ‘how can I stop playing football? But because you think there is something wrong with this, that is where your problem is coming from. But no matter how wrong it is in your mind, get this straight: (masturbation) in itself, it is not a sin against God.
There are many Christians who think it is a sin against God and Satan uses this against them, oppressing their minds and making them feel ineffective and inefficient in the things of God. “But when you get to understand that it has nothing to do with God and that is all about you and your own body, then Satan loses his power to use it to accuse you. So if you don’t like it, stop it but God has got nothing to do with it. It is your own body, masturbation is about your body and God is not offended by it.
He is only offended by any habit that takes a hold of your mind and if this takes a hold of your mind and dominates you then, God is offended by the fact that it takes a hold of your mind,” Pastor Chris added. Masturbation has remained a rather sensitive topic with a divided opinion on whether it is good or bad. Generally, most Christians and Muslims consider masturbation to be a sacrilege and therefore frown on it.
Statistics say masturbation is mostly common among teenagers and though around 90% of the total male population and 65% of the total female population have tried masturbation, most people do not admit it. The Christ Embassy Church has several branches in almost all the continents of the world and has millions of members under the mentorship of Pastor Chris who has been in ministry for some 25 years. He is married to the love his life, Anita and they have two daughters, Sharon and Charyn Oyakhilome.
Source: News one
© Peace FM Online 2012
http://showbiz.peacefmonline.com/news/201202/97490.php [with comments]
--
Pastor Chris blasted over masturbation in christanity
The Editor
Tuesday, 28 February 2012 06:32
AS many Nigerians had predicted, Nigerian Pastors have begun lambasting Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy over his comment that masturbation is not a sin against God but a mere habit that God is not angry about.
Since the controversial Chris Oyakhilome recently made the comments on masturbation, angry reactions have been pouring in from Christendom over what they called heresy, being preached by the pastor, which negates the words of God.
Pastor Chris was answering a question about how to overcome masturbation. He replied that:
“The reason you are thinking of stopping it (masturbation) is because you think it has become a habit for you… masturbation is not more than a habit than any other habit.
“So once you make up your mind that you want to break a particular habit, you just do it, you make up your mind… in fact the best way to break a habit is to replace it with another habit.
“There is one thing I would like to bring to your mind that may be of help to you because the reason you are thinking of stopping this is because of what you think it is.”
He further added that:
“No matter how wrong you think this is in your mind, get this straight, in itself, it is not a sin against God,”
He said that as a result of this belief that it is a sin, Satan used it to oppress people of God “making them feel ineffective and inefficient in the things of God.”
Reacting to Oyakhilome’s comment, the Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Ola Makinde said there was only one way of having sex permitted by God in the Bible, which is only through marriage.
“There is only one way of having sex in the Bible which is natural. Masturbation is unnatural and unethical. Whatever is unnatural and unethical is abomination. I leave him to his own opinion,” he said.
According to Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly, every believer must be able to subject his body to control because it could lead to something else.
Popular Evangelist, Pastor Akin Fasawe said Masturbation is a sin as stipulated in the Bible, saying that death was even recommended in the Bible for those who practiced such things.
“Masturbation is a sin because when you masturbate, you will release. If the minister of God said masturbation is not a sin, he can easily tell his church that fornication is not a sin. The Bible recommends death in the Old Testament,” he stated.
According to Primate Elijah Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Church, it is stated clearly in the Bible that masturbation is a sin against God.
“That is his own view. Where did he see it in the Bible that masturbation is not a sin? Maybe he has his own Bible. It is a bad thing. Maybe it is in his Bible,” he laughed.
Pastor Akin Akande of the Men of Purpose Ministry stated that masturbation is a sin.
“It is like abusing the gift of God. It is heresy. The Bible says it is a sin to derive pleasure outside the content of marriage,” he added.
Pastor Leke Akinola of the Upper Room Baptist, said self-induced masturbation is a sin against God and that it is heresy for any minister of God to say it is not a sin.
According to Rev. Sam Ogedengbe, “masturbation is a sin and it is unbiblical. It is demonic and anyone engaging in it should know that it has spiritual connection.”
Reacting to the issue, majority of InformationNigeria [ http://http/www.informationnigeria.org/ ] readers indicated that they did not support Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s view on masturbation through their comments on an earlier article [ http://www.informationnigeria.org/2012/02/masturbation-not-a-sin-pastor-chris.html ] on the Oyakihilome’s statements.
Copyright © 2012 Zim Diaspora (emphasis in original)
http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7877:pastor-chris-blasted-over-masturbation [has the same video as the item above embedded; with comments]
===
Pastor Orders Christian Men to Only Think About Jesus While Masturbating
Freehold, Iowa - The Landover Conference of Deacons last week passed one of the most controversial resolutions of the church's 200-year history. The organization has once again lessened restrictions on self-gratification. All church members know that the controversy on this issue reached a new height last year when Landover lowered the allowable age of masturbation to 65 for recent widowers. The church has revised that policy yet again. "We really had no choice," noted a tired and distraught Pastor Deacon Fred during a news conference held shortly after the decision was reached. "Last month, several middle-aged divorced men challenged the church policy. They claimed that because they can never remarry (since to do so would constitute adultery-Matthew 5:32), and because they cannot have non-marital sex (since fornication ensures eternity in Hell-1 Corinthians 6:9-10), they should at least be allowed to defile their bodies as a consolation. Needless to say, we put very little stock in the words of men who would put their wives away. But they challenged us to find any Bible verse prohibiting masturbation. After 72 hours of searching the Lord's Word, we came up empty-handed, if you'll pardon the expression. We even consulted 17th century Bible scholar, Brother Harry Hardwick, but he, too, could find nothing prohibiting flesh-pulling. Everyone knows that all Landover rules come straight from the Bible. We don't ignore the parts we don't like, as the John 3:16 pseudo-Christians do, nor do we add to the Bible, like those Pope-loving Catholics."
The new policy is not without its limitations, however. "While the Bible does not outlaw masturbation, it severely restricts the circumstances under which it may occur," noted Pastor Deacon Fred. The first restriction is that no Landover gentleman will be permitted to reach the stage of ejaculation. "The Bible is very clear that a man's seed is for copulation only," noted Pastor. "In fact, the Bible says that when Onan chose not to copulate and instead released his seed on the ground, God was so angry that he struck Onan dead (Genesis 38:9-10). The last thing we need is some media scandal as reporters click photos of colored janitors removing corpses from Landover restrooms." Recognizing that a few men may err and sin by not stopping in time, the new policy requires all who decide to participate in the act to register with Pastor Deacon Fred. Specially made Tupperware seed-containers will be signed out of his office by Mrs. Watkins who will be keeping a record to guard against overuse. The sinner must catch his mistake in his numbered container before it reaches the ground. All containers are to be returned to Mrs. Watkins within one hour of check-out. The contents will be collected each week in a larger vat and provided to Mary Lou's Christian Salon where it will be used to treat dry, scaly skin.
The second restriction is that no man will be permitted to have any sexual thoughts during the process. "The apostles told us repeatedly that Jesus forbids lust, since sex is for baby-making, not anxiety release," continued Pastor. "We are to 'abstain from fleshly lusts' (1 Peter 2:11) and 'flee also youthful lusts' (2 Timothy 2:22), for lust 'bringeth forth death' (James 1:15). And more to the point for those debauched divorcees, Matthew told us that 'whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart' (Matthew 5:28). This means that masturbation of an erect organ can occur only if the erection is naturally-induced, such as by the morning sun or an overfilled bladder." Pastor Deacon Fred then concluded, "The only way to masturbate without lust is to keep your mind on Christ at all times."
The new policy instantly drew the ire of countless Landover members. Longstanding church member, Mrs. Judy O'Christian, was incensed. Despite being a woman, Mrs. O'Christian was allowed to speak since the press conference was held outside the chapel. "As co-chairs of the Ladies of Landover Welcoming Committee, Sister Taffy and I have to greet all new church members," she pleaded. "This policy means we will have to destroy our silk gloves every time we shake hands with a male member . . . ah, church member, that is. Halston doesn't sell accessories in six-packs, you know."
Pastor Deacon Fred attempted to assuage the ladies' concerns. "This policy will in no way open the floodgates, so to speak. Punishment for violations of the new restrictions will be swift and certain. The Bible says that if a part of our body offends us, we must cut it off (Matthew 5:29-30). Any man found to have engaged in sexual thoughts during the process, or to have reached full fruition without capturing the full emission, will have his organ severed and his preferred hand amputated. And every man will know that when that happens, his destiny is Hell, for as God told us: "He that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 23:1). Rest assured, God takes no stock in the Satanic adage: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.".
Copyright Americhrist Ltd.
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news1100/masturbation.html
===
Public Masturbator To Seattle Cops: Wait Until I'm Finished
Posted: 11/16/2012 1:18 pm EST Updated: 11/16/2012 1:18 pm EST
Luckily, the cops came first.
A repeat public masturbator in Seattle was arrested Wednesday while pleasuring himself in an alley [ http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2012/11/15/public-masturbator-to-cops-wait-til-im-finished/ ], the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.
The unidentified 35-year-old suspect was sitting on a staircase with his pants down and "in the throes of self-flagellation," a Columbia City neighborhood police spokesman told the publication. But he wouldn't stop, telling cops that he was "almost finished."
Authorities arrested and jailed the man for indecent exposure. Earlier in the day, police were notified that the man had been walking around the neighborhood yelling at and grabbing people.
Public masturbation seems to be coming to every town these days.
In September, a man masturbating on women in three separate subway attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/darnell-hardware-subway-masturbated-on-women-no-jail_n_1892980.html ] in New York City got off on probation and avoided jail time. In Louisiana in August, a prominent Christian pastor [Pastor Storms, above] was convicted of obscenity after he masturbated at a public park near a children's playground last year.
Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/public-masturbator-to-seattle-cops-almost-done_n_2145499.html [with comments]
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