Vatican: Nearly 400 priests defrocked in two years
Daniel Burke January 17th, 2014 04:29 PM ET
(CNN) The Vatican acknowledged on Friday that close to 400 priests left the priesthood in 2011 and 2012 because of accusations that they had sexually abused children.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy, said 384 priests left the priesthood – either voluntarily or not - in 2011 and 2012, the last two years of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
In 2011, 125 priests were dismissed from ministry by the Vatican because of accusations they had sexually abused children, Scicluna told CNN on Friday, citing the "Activity of the Holy See," a kind of Vatican yearbook. The same year, 135 priests were "dispensed," meaning they voluntarily resigned, Scicluna said.
In 2012, 57 priests were removed from the priesthood and 67 resigned, Scicluna said. Scicluna, who is now an auxiliary bishop in Malta, was the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy for a decade.
Scicluna said he did not know why the number of defrocked priests spiked in 2011. "2011 was exceptionally high for dismissals," he said. "We don't really know why."
The AP reported on Friday that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked in 2011 and 2012, citing a document the Vatican prepared to defend its record on sexual abuse before a United Nations committee this week in Geneva.
The Vatican had rebutted that report, a denial previously reported by CNN. However, later on Friday, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told CNN the AP report was correct.
U.N. Panel Questions Vatican on Handling of Clergy Sexual Abuse
Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, left, spoke to Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican's former chief sex crimes prosecutor, in Geneva on Thursday. Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN JAN. 16, 2014
GENEVA — The Vatican faced a barrage of pointed questions from a United Nations panel on Thursday about how it had handled decades of reports of clergy sexual abuse, the first such prolonged interrogation by an international body and a moment long awaited by abuse victims in many countries.
Vatican representatives insisted that abuse cases were not primarily the responsibility of the Vatican, but of local dioceses and law enforcement officials with the authority to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators. But in their remarks, the Vatican officials said that the church could and should do better to prevent these crimes.
Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012, told the panel: “The Holy See gets it. Let’s not say too late or not, but there are certain things that need to be done differently.”
The hearing in Geneva happened on the same day that Pope Francis celebrated morning Mass alongside an American cardinal who was widely disgraced last year in the abuse scandal. At the Mass, Francis delivered a homily about scandal in the church, never mentioning sexual abuse, but speaking of “those failings of priests, bishops, laity.”
The United Nations committee in Geneva was looking into the Vatican’s failure to adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [ http://www.unicef.org/crc/ ], which calls on signers to protect children from harm, including sexual and physical abuse. The committee will issue final observations and recommendations on Feb. 5, but it has no authority to issue sanctions, and its recommendations are nonbinding.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York and representing victims of abuse, submitted reams of documents and victims’ testimony as evidence that the Vatican had allowed abusers to remain in ministry and shuttled them to different locations without informing law enforcement officials or local parishes.
The committee questioned the Vatican officials about their ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who is being investigated by Dominican prosecutors about accusations that he sexually abused children. The ambassador, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, was recalled to the Vatican in August, and last week the Vatican denied a request to extradite him to the Dominican Republic.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told the panel that the ambassador’s case would be handled by a Vatican tribunal because he is a citizen of the Vatican, and that the case would get “the severity it deserves.”
Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro, the United Nations committee’s vice president, asked the Vatican representatives why, if the church had a policy of “zero tolerance” of abusers, there were “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?”
Bishop Scicluna said: “It is not the policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups. This is against the truth.”
The panel questioned Bishop Scicluna persistently about why the Holy See does not make it mandatory for local dioceses to report abuse to civil authorities. Many countries do not require such reporting. “Our guidelines have always said the domestic law of the country needs to be followed,” he said.
Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, in Geneva for the hearing, said in a telephone news conference during a break that survivors were grateful to the United Nations committee. “Even if one child is kept safe, all of this will be worth it,” she said. But at the end of the day she said it was “insulting and disingenuous” for Vatican officials to say local courts were responsible for bringing about justice “when it’s church officials who are obstructing justice.”
Cardinal Mahony was relieved of his public duties early last year by his successor after the court-ordered release of documents chronicling decades of mishandling people accused of being sexual predators in the Los Angeles archdiocese.
On Wednesday, Cardinal Mahony took to Twitter and his blog to broadcast his delight about his time with the pope. The cardinal wrote that most of their private conversation was about the plight of immigrants and refugees, and what the church could do to help them. But he noted that Francis’ homily during the Mass was about scandal.
Francis preached, “Scandals in the church happen because there is no living relationship with God and his word.”
Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
By AMY FORLITI ST. PAUL, Minn. January 29, 2014 (AP)
Minnesota prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the way they handled allegations of sexual abuse by a priest, saying there was not enough evidence to prove anyone — including another priest who learned during a confession of the molestation — violated the law.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said his office can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone failed to immediately report allegations of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two brothers.
But, Choi said, the overall investigation into allegations of clergy sexual misconduct, and the archdiocese's response, is far from over.
"We will only allow facts to lead the way, and we will pursue justice without fear or favor while doing our best to leave no stone unturned," Choi said, later adding: "I continue to be troubled by some of the church's reporting practices."
In a separate case, Washington County prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge another archdiocesan priest, the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, who had been accused of possessing child pornography. Prosecutors said authorities concluded none of the images on Shelley's old computer were illegal.
In a statement Wednesday, the archdiocese said it is grateful for the investigations, and it continues to cooperate with authorities. The archdiocese also said it teaches employees and volunteers that any suspected abuse should be reported to law enforcement for investigation.
The Wehmeyer and Shelley cases were among several that raised questions about the way the archdiocese handled abuse cases after a church insider went public with her concerns last year.
Internal documents showed church leaders knew Wehmeyer had issues with sexual misconduct, including at least two solicitations of men for sex, before he was promoted to lead The Church of the Blessed Sacrament in 2009.
According to the criminal charges, Wehmeyer went on to molest two brothers in 2010. The allegations were brought to church officials in 2012, and Wehmeyer was charged and pleaded guilty.
Choi said he asked St. Paul police to investigate after questions were raised about when the Wehmeyer case was reported to authorities.
Under the law, clergy would be required to report suspected sexual abuse to authorities within 24 hours. However, if the abuse is revealed during confession or when someone is seeking spiritual advice, the information is exempt.
In a document released Wednesday, prosecutors said the mother of the two victims went to a priest on two occasions, both during confession, about possible abuse by Wehmeyer. Police were notified after the mother went to a church victim's advocate on June 19 or June 20.
The prosecutors' decision to decline charges angered Jeff Anderson, an attorney for many church abuse victims. Anderson said the case should be reopened because a deacon and a top archdiocesan official warned Wehmeyer of his impending arrest, giving him a chance to destroy evidence.
"This is a very disturbing day," Anderson said.
But Choi said church officials' actions didn't impede the criminal prosecution of Wehmeyer, and the case is considered complete unless new information comes forward.
As the scandal around the archdiocese grew last fall, Archbishop John Nienstedt appointed a task force to examine church policies on abuse allegations, and he ordered a review of all priest files. He has also apologized to the archdiocese's more than 800,000 Catholics.
Nienstedt himself has been accused of improperly touching a boy while posing for a photo during a confirmation ceremony, a claim he vehemently denies. Nienstedt has removed himself from public ministry while the case is being investigated.
Despite those moves, St. Paul police earlier complained that church officials were not forthcoming with information. Police Chief Thomas Smith said Wednesday cooperation has improved, but he expects the archdiocese to be transparent.
"Have we had more access? Yes we have," Smith said. "Can more be done? Yes it can."
In the Washington County case, head prosecutor Pete Orput said investigators concluded there was no evidence of child pornography on computer files that once belonged to Shelley. The case against him — which was reopened last year after new information was brought to police — is considered closed.
Shelley's attorney, Paul Engh, said his client is relieved.
"Father Shelley is pleased that the matter has ended," Engh said. "He looks forward to a life now free of unfair suspicion."
Shelley, who has been on leave, would like to return to active ministry, Engh said, adding he didn't know when or if that would happen.
Prosecutors, police and the archdiocese encouraged other victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward. Choi extended that request to victims who have already settled lawsuits against the archdiocese, no matter how long ago, saying the decision in the Wehmeyer case is just the beginning.
"There will be more decisions to come as this investigation unfolds," Choi said
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers, resulting in a proposed deal to resolve the abuse claims, diocese officials said.
Bishop George Leo Thomas expressed "his profound sorrow" and apologized to the victims in a news conference.
"I know the pain is real, the pain is in the present tense, and in the name of the church, I want to say I'm sorry and we're sorry as a church," Thomas said.
The $15 million "will at least be a beginning point for people who are seeking resolution in their lives and in their hearts," he added.
In addition to the money, the diocese must publicly apologize, publish the names of clergy members who have been credibly accused of abuse, offer to meet with abuse survivors, provide victim counseling and reinforce its policies and procedures to prevent abuse, plaintiffs' attorneys said.
The diocese already has set up abuse-prevention programs, including worker screenings, a claims-review board and a hotline to report abuse.
The settlement details are being worked out, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15 million to compensate the 362 victims identified in the two lawsuits.
In addition, at least $2.5 million will be set aside for victims who come forward later, according to the diocese.
The church anticipates paying that $2.5 million, with the rest paid by insurers.
The victims and creditors will have the chance to vote on the proposed settlement, diocese officials said.
Church officials are planning to pay the diocese's share of the settlement with cash, though they may have to sell some property in the future, Thomas said.
The diocese was in a precarious financial position before the lawsuits were filed, and a reorganization was already likely, he said.
Court documents filed Friday show the diocese has estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, and estimated liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said she believes the bankruptcy process will resolve the case more quickly than years of litigation and trials with uncertain outcomes.
"Given the age and ill health of many of the victims, this is in their best interest," Howard said.
The Helena diocese is the 11th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sex-abuse claims.
David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese for seeking bankruptcy protection, saying it will allow church officials to keep records closed that might have come out in a trial.
He also said the settlement falls short because it does not publicly name the church officials who shielded and protected predator clergy members.
"Those individuals have to be exposed and punished," Clohessy said.
Thomas said in response that church officials will comb their records to see if there were "intentional failures of leadership." But the records from the time of the abuse are incomplete, he said.
The two lawsuits filed in 2011 claim clergy members groomed and then abused the children from the 1940s to the 1970s. They claim the diocese shielded the offenders and knew or should have known the threat they posed to children.
The plaintiffs, the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, another defendant, began mediation talks in 2012, but the talks faltered with legal challenges by the church's insurers over the claims they are obligated to cover.
A court hearing was scheduled for Friday ahead of the first civil trials, which were to begin in March. Howard said she expects the court proceedings will be suspended.
The diocese's territory covers all or part of 23 counties in western Montana and employs about 200 people in its parishes, schools and social-service programs. It was created in 1884, five years before Montana became a state, and covered the entire state until the Diocese of Great Falls was formed in 1904, according to the Helena diocese's website.
The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings now covers the eastern half of Montana.
Most clergy members who were accused in the lawsuits have died, and none remains in active ministry, diocese officials said.
In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly raped, fondled or forced to perform sex acts while at school, on the playground, on camping trips or at the victims' homes.
The second lawsuit, filed a week after the first in 2011, includes 95 of the 362 plaintiffs and contains similar allegations against priests, but also alleged that nuns at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children.
The Ursulines are not part of the proposed settlement, the diocese said.
Blaine Tamaki, the plaintiffs' attorney in that lawsuit, said the case against the Ursulines will proceed to its July date.
Tom Johnson, an attorney for the Ursulines, acknowledged the sides were still far apart in negotiations, but that the order intends to either settle or file for bankruptcy on its own.
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena has taken a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.
On Friday, January 31, 2014, the Diocese will be filing a chapter 11 reorganization case before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana to complete pre-bankruptcy mediated negotiations with known abuse survivors and the Diocese’s liability insurance carriers.
The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process. The mediation resulted in the general parameters of proposed settlements with the victims and the insurance carriers. The details of written agreements are still being worked on by the parties. Under the supervision and ultimate approval of the Bankruptcy Court, $15 million would be available to compensate the currently identified victims with additional settlement funds for other and unknown victims. The process of obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval included the opportunity for victims and creditors to vote on the proposed settlement. The Diocese expects that its reorganization will be expedited by the pre-bankruptcy negotiations with all of the affected parties.
“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” said Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas. “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”
The diocese has abuse prevention programs in place, including screening and training for employees, volunteers, priests and seminarians. The diocese has a board to review claims of abuse, whose members include a mother, a pastor, a deputy prosecutor, a retired law enforcement officer, social workers, and a counselor. Anyone wishing to report sexual abuse of a minor may contact the Victim’s Advocate for the diocese at 406-459-0513.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “I want to assure you that none of those who have been credibly accused remain active in ministry at this time. In fact, the majority of those accused have died.” The bishop also noted that the Diocese has taken responsibility in this matter for claims involving members of religious communities who have served here. Efforts to include the Ursuline Sisters in the proposed settlements were inconclusive and they are not participating in the proposed resolution of this litigation.
The majority of the proposed settlement for known and unknown victims will be funded by diocesan insurance carriers. It is anticipated that the diocese will need to provide at least $2.5 million to fund claims and the costs associated with the Court proceedings. Additionally, the diocese has been experiencing a tenuous financial condition which existed prior to, and is not related to the litigation. This condition has resulted in reduction in staff and services provided by the diocese as well as curtailing many parish building projects.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “While we may be a poorer Church, we remain unwaveringly committed to promoting the Good News of Jesus Christ. Once the reorganization proceedings conclude, we will be able to plan confidently for future ministry for the people of the Church of the Diocese of Helena.”
Archdiocese of Chicago Statement Re: the Jeff Anderson Document Release Relating to 30 Archdiocesan Priests Accused of Abusing Minors
21 Jan 2014 10:56
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—January 21, 2014. The documents made public by Jeffrey Anderson relate to 30 Archdiocesan priests accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases, decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time. In the past 40 years, society has evolved in dealing with matters related to abuse. Our understanding of and response to domestic violence, sexual harassment, date rape, and clerical sexual abuse have undergone significant change and so has the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.
We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be. The Archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse. Our hope is through this release of documents and the work we are doing through our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth we can help further promote healing among all those affected by these crimes.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. We refer all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with the healing of abuse victims and has maintained a victim assistance ministry for more than 25 years. In addition, the Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, charged with assisting victims and their families and preventing abuse, has trained and processed background checks on more than 160,000 priests, deacons, religious, lay employees and volunteers; conducted more than 3,000 training sessions; and trained more than 200,000 children to protect themselves from sexual predators. For more information about the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, please visit http://www.protectandhealchicago.org .
The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at http://www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm .
Jesse Ryan Loskarn, former Lamar Alexander aide, dead in suicide
By Ed O'Keefe January 24 at 12:34 pm - Updated 1:34 p.m.
Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who faced charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, hanged himself and died Thursday in a Maryland home, his family and police officials said Friday.
Loskarn was found dead around noon Thursday in the basement of his parents' house in Sykesville, Md., according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Department. Loskarn died after hanging himself, according to Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman with Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland.
Known as a fast-rising GOP operative, the 35-year old began his career working for House lawmakers, moved next to the Senate Republican messaging shop and finally served as chief of staff to Alexander.
As with many longtime congressional staffers who ascend to top jobs in the Senate, Loskarn began his career as an aide to former Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and the House Rules Committee. In 2007, he became a spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference – the messaging shop for Republican senators. Colleagues in both parties and the reporters he worked with considered him a kind and deft communications staffer with easy access to top aides and senators.
He became staff director of the Republican Conference in 2009 when Alexander assumed control of the office. Alexander later asked Loskarn to run his personal office after the senator stepped down from his leadership role.
A judge later released Loskarn to his parents in Sykesville, and ordered him not to access the Internet while awaiting a future court date. A grand jury indictment of Loskarn was originally scheduled to be released this month, but a judge approved a 30-day delay after prosecutors said it would take more time to compile evidence because of the holiday season.
In a statement Friday, his parents Chuck and Gay Loskarn said, “We loved our son very much, and we’re devastated by his death. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time and let us grieve in peace. Pray for him, his family and friends.”
News of Loskarn's arrest had stunned the close-knit Capitol Hill community and was revealed only after Alexander announced it in a statement. That day the senator quickly "removed" Loskarn from his duties and fired him after the arrest.
On Friday, Alexander said in a statement that “For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end."
Former U.S. Senate aide facing child porn charges found dead: police
Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:31pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top U.S. Senate aide awaiting trial on child pornography charges was found dead after what may have been a suicide, a Maryland sheriff's department said on Friday.
The body of Jesse Loskarn, 35, a former chief of staff to Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, was discovered in the basement of his family's home in Sykesville, Maryland, on Thursday, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. A preliminary investigation indicates he may have taken his own life, the statement said.
Loskarn was arrested last month by U.S. postal agents on suspicion of possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.
Alexander, who is seeking a third term this year, fired Loskarn following his arrest.
"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Alexander said in a statement.
A judge released Loskarn last month into the custody of his parents, who live in Sykesville, and ordered him to have no access to the Internet while under house arrest.
A criminal complaint said a hard drive seized at Loskarn's home in Washington, D.C., contained footage of a prepubescent girl being molested, along with hundreds of videos of underage boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The arrest stemmed from an investigation launched in 2010 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Toronto police into a movie production company that made films featuring naked young boys, according to the criminal complaint. One of the company's customers was Loskarn, the complaint said.
Loskarn had faced a total maximum of 30 years in prison for the two charges.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Chris Reese and Alden Bentley)
Students at a Catholic school near Seattle protested a vice principal’s ouster after he wed a man. David Ryder/Reuters
By MICHAEL PAULSON JAN. 22, 2014
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Eastside Catholic [ http://www.eastsidecatholic.org/aboutec ] prides itself on teaching acceptance. At the end of Crusader Way, by the school’s entrance, banners hang celebrating “relationships” and exhorting passers-by to “remember to take care of each other.” Students use a sign-language gesture to remind one another of the school’s emphasis on unconditional love.
But now the school is unexpectedly grappling with how it defines both love and acceptance. Last month, a well-regarded vice principal was forced to leave his job as soon as administrators became aware that he had married a man; in the weeks since, the suburban Seattle school has been roiled, first by protests in support of the vice principal, and then by the resignations of those who sought his departure. The chairman of the school’s board resigned last month, and on Tuesday, Eastside, a middle and high school with about 900 students, announced the resignation of its president.
The ouster of Mr. Z, as the former vice principal, Mark Zmuda, is known, comes amid a wave of firings and forced resignations of gay men and lesbians from Roman Catholic institutions across the country, in most cases prompted not directly by the employees’ sexuality, but by their decisions to marry as same-sex marriage becomes legal in an increasing number of states.
For Catholic school and church leaders across the country, the issue is clear. The Roman Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage, and school officials, including Mr. Zmuda, generally sign contracts saying they will abide by church teachings so that their lives can be models for their students.
But for some young Catholics, the firings are mystifying, particularly given the new tone set by Pope Francis. At Eastside Catholic, some students have taken to crafting banners with the quotation “Who am I to judge?,” words uttered by the pope when asked about gay priests; others have been trying to reach the pope via Twitter, hoping he will somehow intercede.
“He made it safe for people to raise issues and questions that, in the past, they were shut down for,” said Nancy Walton-House, whose son attended Eastside. “There’s a lot of hope, and maybe some naïveté, about how fast things can happen.”
Eastside’s senior-class president, Bradley Strode, a 17-year-old wrestler and lacrosse player, is seeking a meeting with the archbishop of Seattle, arguing that even if the church’s doctrine does not change, its employment practices should.
“It was just shocking that the Catholic Church would turn its back on a teacher for something that didn’t affect his work performance,” he said. “Gay marriage was something I never really thought about before, but everyone can agree that employment discrimination is wrong.”
A sign backed Mark Zmuda, the former vice principal and swimming coach at Eastside Catholic. David Ryder/Reuters
Last week, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle issued a statement [ http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Assets/News/4386_ECS.pdf ] defending the school and rejecting the notion that the firing ran contrary to the direction of the new pope.
“Pope Francis has often reminded us of the limitless mercy of God, for Jesus came to bring his father’s mercy,” Archbishop Sartain said. “At the same time, Pope Francis has also reminded us of our responsibility as Catholics to live the timeless truth of church teaching on a wide variety of topics, including the sacredness of traditional marriage.”
Some students have quietly expressed support for the decision to remove Mr. Zmuda, but the prevailing sentiment at the school has been upset, reflecting, in part, the shifting attitudes toward same-sex marriage among young people.
“A lot of it is just generational,” said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at Notre Dame who studies the religious lives of teenagers. “It’s a distinct minority who thinks there’s something wrong with same-sex relationships, and that’s a big change from older generations.”
Eastside Catholic, faced with intense blowback and sustained publicity over the removal of Mr. Zmuda, has defended its decision but is clearly concerned about the impact on applicants and donors as some students, parents and alumni ask what the ouster means about the school they have chosen and cheered.
This month, in a step many in the school community have found confusing, administrators gave a short-term contract to a choreographer who, in a show of support for Mr. Zmuda, had announced on talk radio that she was engaged to her girlfriend.
The students Julia Troy, Julia Burns and Ian Edwards have protested Mr. Zmuda’s ouster. Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“It’s great that they’re keeping me, but it’s a little confusing,” said the choreographer, Stephanie Merrow, 41, who taught the school’s students to dance in a 2012 production of “Footloose,” and is now doing the same for this year’s production of “Guys and Dolls.”
“I feel for them,” she said. “I think maybe a mistake was made, and now what do they do?”
The school’s president, Sister Mary E. Tracy, had also sent mixed signals. She initially suggested to Mr. Zmuda that he might be able to keep his job if he got divorced, and then oversaw his ouster. After weeks of protest, she asked Julia Burns, an 18-year-old senior, to share with the public this comment: “I look forward to the day when no individual loses their job because they are married to a person of the same sex.” Sister Mary did not respond to requests for an interview.
On Tuesday, when the board announced Sister Mary’s resignation, it called the step “a difficult, but necessary decision so that a new leader can be brought in to ensure the entire Eastside Catholic community is moving forward on a positive path.”
Mr. Zmuda had not been at the school long, but he was liked by students, especially on the swim team, which he coached. He married in July, seven months after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State, and he was ousted in December, shortly after the school’s administration received a complaint from a teacher about his marital status.
As students began to hear about his dismissal, they sprang into action.
Eastside has kept Stephanie Merrow, who is gay, as a choreographer. “It’s a little confusing,” she said. Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“I found out about it and just texted 15 or 16 people,” said Ian Edwards, 17, a senior. Word spread quickly, and students staged an impromptu sit-in, skipping classes and gathering in a commons to talk, and, in some cases, to cry. “We just shouldn’t allow this discrimination to happen.”
Over the next weeks, the students took to social media to rally support, gathering signatures on an online petition and communicating via Twitter and texts. They protested outside Sammamish City Hall, at a Seahawks game and outside the archdiocese of Seattle, where they were joined by Ed Murray, then the city’s mayor-elect, who is Catholic and gay. Also this month, many students wore orange — the more attention-getting of the school’s two colors — to class one day to express their concern; and on Jan. 31, the students are hoping that other Catholic schools across the nation will join them in a similar act.
Alumni and parents are organizing online as they seek to force change at the school.
“If I had read the school handbook and it said, ‘We will hire you, but if we find out you are gay and you are married, we will fire you,’ I would not have put my kids there,” said Florence Colburn, who has two children at the school.
And Corey Sinser, 26, said he was an enthusiastic alumnus (class of 2006), but that now, “I worry that this will have a negative effect on the type of students who want to come, or the type of teachers who want to work there.”
Some are hoping Mr. Zmuda will get his job back; others are seeking a change in the school’s employment practices.
Julia Troy, 17, a senior, said she believed that speaking up was an outcome itself.
“I have gay friends, and I care about them,” she said. “Even if all that happens is they know that I support them, that’s enough for me.”
Rev. Thomas Ogletree, Another Methodist Pastor, To Be Tried For Presiding At Same Sex Wedding Of Son
A wedding cake with a male couple is seen at The Abbey restaurant at a celebration of the over100 same-sex marriages performed today in West Hollywood, California, July 1 2013.. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted California's ban on same-sex marriages just three days after the Supreme Court ruled that supporters of the ban, Proposition 8, could not defend it before the high court. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Posted: 01/17/2014 12:12 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
NEW YORK (AP) — The United Methodist Church has formally charged another clergyman for presiding at the same-sex wedding of his son.
The Rev. Thomas Ogletree will be tried March 10 for violating church law against officiating at gay unions, his spokeswoman, Dorothee Benz, announced Friday. It's the second high-profile United Methodist trial in recent months over same-sex relationships. In December, pastor Frank Schaefer of central Pennsylvania was defrocked after he officiated at his son's gay wedding. The church considers homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."
Ogletree is a theologian, a former Yale Divinity School dean and a retired elder in the church's New York district, or Annual Conference. Some clergy had filed a complaint after his son's 2012 wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times.
Ogletree, 80, said he could not refuse his son's request to preside at the wedding, which was held in New York, where gay marriage is legally recognized.
"It is a shame that the church is choosing to prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my ordination vows to 'seek peace, justice, and freedom for all people' and with Methodism's historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in its slogan 'open hearts, open minds, open doors,'" Ogletree said in a statement.
Bishop Martin McLee, who leads the New York Annual Conference, could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.
The Rev. Randall Paige of Christ Church UMC in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., led the group of clergy who had filed the complaint against Ogletree, according to United Methodist News Service. An administrator at Christ Church said Paige was off Friday and could not immediately be reached for comment. Theologically conservative Methodists have said they file formal complaints reluctantly, hoping to find another resolution for their disagreements, but feel clergy must be held accountable when they violate church policy.
Like other mainline Protestant groups, Methodists have been debating for decades over whether the Bible condemns or condones same-gender relationships. However, other mainline groups, such as the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have in recent years taken key steps toward accepting same-sex couples. The top Methodist policy-making body, General Conference, has repeatedly rejected changing church law on homosexuality, including in their most recent vote at a 2012 meeting.
In the last few years, as gay marriage has gained legal recognition by U.S. states, Methodists advocating for gays and lesbians have intensified their protests, hosting gay weddings in Methodist churches or officiating the ceremonies elsewhere.
Two other similar cases are pending within the Methodist church. The Rev. Stephen Heiss of the Upper New York Annual Conference is expected to face a church trial for presiding at same-sex marriages, including officiating at his daughter's 2002 wedding. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, of the New York Annual Conference, is facing a formal complaint that she is a "self-avowed practicing" lesbian, or lives openly with a same-sex partner, which is barred by church law.
Ogletree's trial will be held at First United Methodist Church in Stamford, Conn.
The United Methodist Church is the second-largest Protestant group in the U.S. and claims 12.5 million members worldwide.
“I don’t think my dad’s offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive," Chao stated in an interview with the South China Morning Post [ http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1411617/billion-dollars-man-who-marries-my-lesbian-daughter-gigi-chao-upset ]. “I would be happy to befriend any man willing to donate huge amounts of money to my charity Faith in Love, provided they don't mind that I already have a wife. Third and lastly, thank you Daddy, I love you too.”
Anyone up for a challenge?
Editor's note: The use of the word "lesbian" in this story and headline is meant to refer to Gigi's current relationship with another woman. It is unclear if she identifies as a lesbian, bisexual, queer or some other orientation.
HRC President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
“Judge Kern has come to the conclusion that so many have before him – that the fundamental equality of lesbian and gay couples is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. With last year’s historic victories at the Supreme Court [ http://www.hrc.org/SCOTUS ] guiding the way, it is clear that we are on a path to full and equal citizenship for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Equality is not just for the coasts anymore, and today’s news from Oklahoma shows that time has come for fairness and dignity to reach every American in all 50 states.”
Two plaintiff couples, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin and Gay Phillips and Susan Barton, filed their case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in November 2004. Lead counsel in the case are Don Holladay and James Warner of the Oklahoma City law firm Holladay & Chilton PLLC.
ACLU Sues Scott Walker, Challenges Wisconsin's Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By Shadee Ashtari Posted: 02/03/2014 3:08 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 3:59 pm EST
Four same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union sued Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and other state top administration officials on Monday, challenging Wisconsin’s seven-year-old ban on gay marriage.
“Wisconsin is unique in that sense, and so we think that argument particularly exemplifies the harm or the animus toward same-sex couples in some parts of the country,” John Knight, director of ACLU's LGBT and AIDS Project, told the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/02/03/wisconsin-lawsuit/ ] on Monday.
The couples in the lawsuit are Roy Badger and Garth Wangemann; Charvonne Kemp and Marie Carlson; Judith Trampf and Katharina Heyning; and Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher, the lead plaintiffs in the case.
Virginia Wolf et al. v. Scott Walker et al., which was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Mayer Brown LLP, argues that Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban violates the couples’ due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
“Wisconsin, a historic leader in marriage equality, maintains one of the most restrictive bans on marriage for same-sex couples in the nation,” the lawsuit reads [ http://media.jrn.com/documents/aclulawsuit.pdf ]. “The State deprives same-sex couples of these rights and freedoms for no other reason than their sexual orientation and their sex.”
“We’re completely in love, and we’d like to be married in the state that we live in,” Kemp, one of the plaintiffs, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “I’m willing to go to the Supreme Court to fight for the right for everyone to be able to get married if that’s what they choose to do. It’s about marriage equality for all, not marriage equality for some, or for just us.”
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says performing gay marriages during the Grammys was an "abomination" because same-sex parenting is child abuse.
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says that the "Sasha Fierce" persona that Beyonce once used is really a demonic spirit.
Polish Catholic Church declares war on 'gender theory'
Agence France-Presse January 21, 2014 11:30pm
Poland's powerful Catholic Church has declared war on "gender theory", saying it undermines the traditional family -- but critics say that is a tactic to shift attention away from a paedophile priest scandal.
The theory explores sexual orientation and the roles assigned by society to individuals based on their gender, but the Polish Church has borrowed the English word "gender" to refer to a range of issues including contraception, abortion and homosexuality.
While many say gender theory promotes tolerance and understanding towards gender equality and homosexuality, the Polish Church has branded it a mortal danger to families, child sexual orientation and humanity.
Polish bishops wrote a letter on the topic that was read out in every parish across the country over the Christmas holidays.
"This is a preventative offensive," sociologist Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski told AFP.
"The Church fears social change and it especially opposes gay marriage, something that's happening in other countries like France or certain states in the US."
Inspired by then pope Benedict XVI's remarks in late 2012 about the "falseness" of gender theory, the Polish campaign has taken on epic proportions and sparked a fierce, high-profile national debate.
Critics argue it is designed to shift focus from a recent string of paedophile priest scandals that rocked Poland, one of Europe's most Roman Catholic countries but whose loyalty to the Church is waning.
"Someone advised the Church to find a topic that would make people forget about the paedophile scandals that Polish media was fixated on these last few months," leading Polish religious affairs commentator Adam Szostkiewicz told AFP.
"Now not a day goes by that a bishop doesn't warn against gender," he said.
Allegations surfaced last year that two high-profile Polish priests had engaged in sex with boys.
Prosecutors began probes in September against 65-year-old archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who served as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo, and 36-year-old Wojciech Gil, who also served on the Caribbean island.
Poland's top cleric meanwhile provoked outrage when he suggested that parents shared the blame for paedophilia.
Archbishop Jozef Michalik later apologised for saying that paedophilia "manifests itself when a child is looking for love" and could be avoided "given a healthy relationship between parents".
According to feminist activist Kazimiera Szczuka, the war against gender is just the latest attempt by the Church to shift blame.
"By claiming that gender theory skews child sexual orientation, the Church wants people to think that it is indeed this theory that's responsible for sexual abuse, and not priests," she told AFP.
Gender ideology 'worse than Nazism'
The Church letter to parishioners alleges that gender theory has "for the last several months been introduced without Poles' consent within various social institutions: education, health care, non-governmental organisations and cultural institutions".
The bishops cite Marxism, feminist movements and the sexual revolution as having inspired the theory, which they say is "contrary to the traditional view of man".
They warn that gender theory allows an individual to "freely define himself as a man or woman and choose his sexual orientation".
In certain parishes, an extreme version of the letter claimed that school sex education -- not yet a part of the Polish curriculum -- leads to "severe youth depravity".
The Church views the traditional definition of family headed by a man and a woman as the basis of society, according to Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Poland's KAI Catholic news agency.
He regrets the "unfortunate choice of words" of some Church members that "clouds the main message".
"The Church cannot agree to the idea of the interchangeability of the sexes. Sexual identity is accorded by nature, by God," he told AFP.
But some say the Church is misguided in demonising gender theory, since it is mainly a scientific concept and not tied to any particular ideology, according to expert Agnieszka Rajewicz-Kozlowska.
"In most official documents, the term 'gender' is linked to the idea of equality between men and women," said Rajewicz-Kozlowska, the government's deputy minister in charge of gender equality.
Yet, according to Szostkiewicz, the Church has turned "gender" into a grab bag and tossed everything into it: civil unions, gay marriage, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation, gender equality and sexual education.
He says the strategy has helped convince a portion of the population, thanks in large part to those who "only a couple months ago knew nothing about the term 'gender' and had no idea that it has been studied in Polish universities for 20 years".
Among the more extreme examples of the scorn heaped on gender theory, priest Dariusz Oko said: "Gender ideology is in some ways worse than Nazism and communism."
"It leads to the destruction of the nation" because it "destroys the family," he said.
This view has been echoed by Poland's political right, with a minor opposition party recently launching a committee against gender theory in parliament.
Committee members have assigned themselves the task of "protecting nursery school children against a sexualisation (introduced) under the guise of classes on gender equality" that were co-funded by the European Union and other international organisations.
Following warnings from Polish bishops and right-wing politicians, parents in many schools across the country have demanded that such classes be banned.
A pastoral letter of the Polish Episcopal Conference for pastoral usage on Sunday of the Holy Family 2013
Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers!
Every year in the Octave of Lord’s Birth, we celebrate Sunday of the Holy Family. We direct our thought towards our families and we undertake reflection on the situation of the contemporary family. Today’s Gospel says that the Family from Nazareth was trying to understand and fulfil God’s will in difficult and unclear situations, thanks to which it came out renewed of these situations. This behaviour is an important tip for us and also today obedience to God and His sometimes incomprehensible will, is a guarantee for happiness in the family.
Blessed John Paul II, for whose canonization we are getting prepared, reminds that the truth about the institution of marriage is ‘beyond the will of individuals, whim of particular married couples, decisions of social and governmental organisms’ (23 II 1980). We should look for this truth in God, because ‘it is God who is a creator of marriage’ (GS 48). It is God who created the human being a man and a woman, whereas he made the existence – in the body and the soul – a man ‘for’ a woman and a woman ‘for’ a man a great and irreplaceable gift and a task in the marriage life. He based the family on the fundament of marriage joined with inseparable and exclusive love for the whole life. He decided that just this kind of the family will be a suitable environment for children’s development whom it will give life and provide them with material and spiritual development.
This Christian vision is not a kind of arbitrarily imposed norm, but it results from understanding the nature of the human being, the nature of marriage and the family. Rejecting this vision leads inevitably to the collapse of families and to the defeat of the man. As the history of humankind shows, neglecting the Creator is always dangerous and is a danger for the happy future of the man and the world. So, any attempts of redefining the terms of marriage and the family which are imposed by some media at present, surely raise a lot of anxiety. Facing the growing attacks of this ideology directed at various areas of the family and social life, on the one hand, we feel obliged to express our definite and explicit opinion in the defence of the Christian family, fundamental values which defend it, but, on the other hand, we feel obliged to warn the family against dangers coming from promoting the new type of the family life.
The gender ideology is an effect of ideological-cultural changes lasting for decades, strongly rooted in Marxism and neo-Marxism, promoted by some feministic movements and sexual revolution. Gender ideology promotes rules which are completely contradictory with the reality and an integral understanding of the human nature. It states that the biological sex does not have a social meaning and, first of all, the cultural sex counts, which the human being can freely model and define regardless of biological conditions. According to this ideology the human being can define himself or herself freely: whether he or she is a woman or a man, he or she can also freely choose his/her own sexual orientation. It is a free self-definition which does not have to be something temporary, and leads to a situation in which the society would accept the right to set up a new type of families, for example, the ones built on relationships of homosexual character.
The danger of the gender ideology results basically from its deeply destructive character both towards the person and inter-human relationships, that is, the whole social life. The man of an uncertain sexual identity is not able to discover fully and fulfil the tasks he is facing both in the marital and family life and the social-professional life. The attempt of equalization of this kind of relations is in fact, a serious weakness of marriage as a community of a man and a woman and the family, built on the marriage.
We see various attitudes towards the actions undertaken by supporters of the gender ideology. The definite majority of people do not know what this ideology is, so they do not feel any danger. A small group of people – especially teachers and educators, including catechists and pastors – are trying to look for constructive ways of counteracting it on their own. Finally, there are those who, seeing the absurdity of this ideology, think that Poles will reject the utopian visions themselves, which are suggested to them. Whereas, the gender ideology, without the knowledge of the society or the consent of Poles, has been being implemented for many months into various structures of the social life: education, health service, activity of cultural and educational institutions and non-governmental organizations. The ideology is shown in some media in a positive way: as counteracting violence and aiming at equal rights.
The community of the Church is looking at the human being and his/her sex in an integral way, perceiving the corporal and biological dimension in it, as well as psychical and cultural and spiritual dimension. It is not unsuitable to do studies on the influence of culture on the sex. But it is dangerous to make an ideological statement that the biological sex is not essential for the social life. The Church expresses its explicit opinion against discrimination because of the sexes, but it also notices a danger of diminishing the value of sexes. It is not a fact of existence of two sexes which is the source of discrimination but the lack of spiritual reference, human egoism and pride, which we must still fight against. The Church does not agree in any way to humiliating people of homosexual tendencies, but it also strongly emphasizes that homosexual activity is deeply in chaos and that we mustn’t equate the marriage, being the community of a man and a woman, with a homosexual relationship.
On the Day of the Holy Family, we address a fervent appeal to Christian families, representatives of religious movements and church associations and all people of good will, to undertake actions courageously which will serve to spreading the truth about the marriage and the family. Today we need more than ever education of educational communities.
We also address an appeal to the institutions which are responsible for the Polish education, not to succumb to pressures of few but very loud environments having a lot of financial means, and which in the name of modern upbringing do experiments on children and the youth. We call educational institutions to get engaged into promoting the integral vision of the human being.
We ask all believers for a fervent prayer in the intentions of married couples, families and children brought up by them. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us the light of understanding and seeing the truth in what is the danger not only for the family but also for our Homeland and the whole humankind. Let’s also pray for courage of being people of faith and courage defenders of the Truth. Let the Holy Family from Nazareth, in which God’s Son – Jesus Christ was brought up, be the spiritual help and an example to follow in undertaking this effort.
In this spirit we give everybody pastoral blessing.
Signed by: Pastors of the Catholic Church in Poland.
THE NAME OF THE CONTEMPORARY HEROD IS: GENDER IDEOLOGY
A PASTORAL LETTER ABOUT FAMILY BISHOP KAZIMIERZ RYCZAN
In the pastoral letter about family bishop of Kielce calls for defence of family against the contemporary Herod, whose name is: gender ideology. The letter is addressed to believers of the Kielce diocese on the occasion of Sunday of the Holy Family celebrated on 29 December 2013
The whole letter has been printed below
Beloved in Lord Christ,
In the octave of December, on the Feast of the Holy Family, I am kneeling on the threshold of the Bethlehem cave and adoring God who gifted us with the family.
My friend Janek did not see his mother because she dies after his birth. He did not see his father - partisan because he was killed in a forest by Germans. He was shown a photo: here your father with his crashed face was buried. Brother Janek – and you all, who were deprived of your fathers and mothers by the fate, kneel in front of the cave in Bethlehem. Here Mary and Joseph are looking at Jesus. Think that they are looking at you in this way. Dear brother, who were saying farewell to your parents in a graveyard, kneel in front of the Bethlehem family. You are not an orphan.
Family as a gift from God our Father
In poor Bethlehem, little Jesus confirmed the eternal gift from God the Father, that there is not a better community of maturation in love, than family.
In family devoting oneself is not a sacrifice, but a gift of oneself.
In family a child is not a burden but blessing.
In family material difficulties are mortification and do not touch honesty.
In family, difficulties are testing love, make it resistant, but do not destroy it.
In family a prayer builds love and arouses relations of the community. Are you speaking about all families, where mother and father are bending over their child, who is looking at every reaction of their heart. I am speaking about families from thousand years ago and the contemporary families. About families of Europe, Africa and Asia, about families of people who are believers and non-believers. The gift of family given us by God becomes lively in every woman and a man. It is a great and important gift, therefore God protects it with the three commandments: ‘Respect your father and your mother’, ‘Do not do adultery’ ‘Do not desire wife or husband of your neighbour’. These commandments were up-to-date yesterday and will always be up-to-date. They will stand on the guard of family.
Jesus and family
What does Jesus bring into the life of marriage and family? Jesus raises the marriage contracted between a woman and a man to the rank of sacrament. When two baptized single people, a woman and a man, are contracting marriage and are vowing love, loyalty and marital honesty to each other, lasting irreversibly till death, Christ is giving them a sacramental grace for their whole life. Christian believers come to the altar and ask for blessing, for grace.
- Bless our love, our devotion.
- Bless our fertility because life depends on You.
- Bless our home, so that nobody or any sin would destroy it.
- Bless everybody who will visit our home.
- Bless our joy and our cry today, as well as our life at old age, as it will come. Rule our home.
Catechism of the Catholic Church says that in the sacrament of marriage ‘spouses receive the Holy Spirit (…). He is a seal of their alliance, always a lively source of their love, power thanks to which their faithfulness will be renewed’(CCC 1624)
Preparation for marriage is the paramount matter
This Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage so that marital ‘yes’ would be a free and responsible act and the marital alliance would have proper and solid human and Christian basis’ (CCC 1632). Dear believers, do not have any pretense to a parish priest that he demands preparation for the Christian marriage. Today nobody will be employed without a suitable preparation for it. An ordinary certificate is not enough. Suitable professional preparation must be proved.
Doesn’t the decision for the whole life require serious preparation, talks, formation, discussions or a prayer? After all, marriage life will not be taught by serials where divorce and betrayal are an ordinary adventure. Love will not be taught by websites showing intimate matters. It is pathological pornography. Love and life will not be taught by flyers about art of love. Sex does not cover marriage vocation. We cannot justify children and grandchildren with a lack of time for preparation for marriage.
- Grandma, do not be upset with the parish priest, do not settle a matter according to your grandson’s intention, who phoned to ask for birth certificate because he does not have time and also to ask for reservation of the wedding day because he will come for a few days to get married. – He is so busy – said a loving grandmother….Let’s leave this case without any comment. The Catechism of the Catholic Church still says that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage’.
Family in danger
Today the Gospel shows dangers lurking against the Holy Family. Who would think that after the visit of the significant rich guests from far East Józef had to run away with Jesus to Egypt. Józef as a shadow of a father is saving Jesus from death which Herod is bringing.
- Saint Józef what do you want to tell us, taking Jesus and Mary for a long journey?
- Today I want to tell families that they have a duty of defending their children and wives. Who will defend life, when women unite together in feminist organizations in order to get free of marriage and be free to have abortion? Who will defend life when armies of contemporary Herods and Heriorads, also in Poland, despise of a child’s life? You, fathers, have this duty.
Saint Józef says: - Fathers! Stand in one army to defend family. Fathers of your sacramental and non-sacramental families! Stand together in defence of family against contemporary Herod, whose name is the gender ideology.
Newspapers write, journalists argue on TV that people of the Church are oversensitive. Archbishop Michalik is not an expert. Archbishop Hoser from Warsaw cannot govern his diocese. And, generally, bishops and priests are pedophiles and undereducated. After all, the gender ideology is study on sexes, on equality between men and women.
We must not tell lies to the society. The Church has a duty to unveil a lie, hypocrisy, bad intentions of a theory contradictory with the common sense and which destroys values lying at the base of the culture of Europe, an intention to build a new order on the fundament of sexes and sex.
Bishops of Slovakia in a letter for Advent write: ‘They want to persuade us to think that nobody of us is a woman or a man by nature, they want to deprive a man of a right for his identity as a man, and a woman of a right to her identity as a woman and family of its right to identity as family (…). They want to impose a relationship of two men or two women on the equal level with marriage. Using noble slogans, in the society they are destroying family life, which is holy’. One would like to say that a cow and a dog are happy because none of sexologists imposes any sexes on them.
We should not think that it is a theory on paper. Our educational authorities are beginning to implement this theory. In Silesia, three children were removed from a kindergarten, whose parents did not agree on equal sexual education in the kindergarten, on dressing up boys as girls and girls as boys.
It is not only a theory. A journalist of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ Mrs. Ewa Siedlecka writes that parents do not have ‘legal and moral monopole to form the worldview of a child’ (Catholic Informative Agency, 14 December 2013). It was commented by Mr. Terlikowski: ‘Supporters of the sex-depravation are liberals only superficially. They do not care about freedom but about promoting their extremely leftist worldview, and allegedly promoting freedom, they want to deprive parents of their right to bring up their children’(Catholic Informative Agency, 16 December 2013). All this is for EU money.
It is not only a theory. It is the beginning of a fight. On 5 December at the Economics University in Poznan, during a lecture entitled ‘Gender – devastation of the man and family’, supporters of feminists and gender ideologists entered an auditorium in order to disrupt the lecture. A young man wearing a golden dress jumped onto a desk, shouting: ‘We invite everybody for the collapse of family’.
Saint Józef and Mary defend Jesus against insane Herod. – Parents! Defend your children against cruel contemporary Herod. You have a right for it! Who gives food to your children? A political party? A political coalition? Who buys them clothes? The Ministry? Who buys them books and educational materials? Journalists, lobbyists? Who pays taxes in Poland? Atheist citizens? Who is an employer at primary schools, junior high schools and secondary schools? Aren’t they voivods, mayors, city presidents? Aren’t they fathers or mothers? Follow Saint Józef. When you are defending family – you are defending the Homeland, your are defending Bethlehem, where God-Man was born.
- It is easier for you to write about it. We feel helpless towards the power of television!
- Be followers of Józef. Be witnesses. He entered a church with Jesus and Mary. Go to church with your children. There you will get stronger with God. You will teach your son and daughter, where to find the truth of life. It is not all. During elections, take an election card and vote for people who love children, family, Homeland, God. Do not look at a political party. Vote for people. You have still got this right. We will not lose the fight for family with the help of Józef. Amen.
A panel of Polish academics has named 'gender' as 2013's 'Word of the Year' after a top bishop blamed liberal academics for alleged child sex abuse in the church.
07.01.2014 13:07
“In 2013, the word gender shot into the lexical repertoire of many Poles of various ages, backgrounds, milieus and regions,” commented panellist Professor Halina Zgolkowa of Poznan's Adam Mickiewicz University.
“It's surely here to stay.”
Last October, Gender Studies were hotly discussed in the media after Archbishop Jozef Michalik, head of the Polish Episcopate, criticised the “new ideology of gender” at universities, in the wake of a paedophilia scandal in the Church.
“You have heard of adults abusing children and this kind of evil is not to be tolerated, but no one asks about the causes of this,” he said.
Besides gender studies, he also blamed pornography, divorce and “the most aggressive Polish feminists who scoff at the Church and years of traditional ethics, who promote abortion and struggle against the traditional model of the family and marital fidelity.”
Academics from the Polish Language Foundation and the Institute of Language from Warsaw University analyse buzzwords in the media on a continuous basis, with competitions for Word of the Day, Word of the Week and Word of the Month.
Members of the public can submit nominations, and according to the regulations, “the Word of the Year does not have to be the most common word, or one that only appeared this year, although both factors are very important.”
Chicago GOP hopeful: Autism and dementia are God’s punishments for LGBT rights
[Image credit: Daily Herald / Bob Chwedyk]
By David Ferguson Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:54 EST
One of the Republicans lining up to challenge Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) for her seat representing the 9th District of Illinois told the Chicago Daily Herald [ http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140121/news/701219738/ ] that God is “angry” with the United States and has sent scourges to punish the American people.
Candidate Susanne Atanus believes that autism and forms of dementia are punishments sent by God because of the growing support for marriage equality in the country and the prevalence of abortion.
“I am a conservative Republican and I believe in God first,” Atanus said at an endorsement session with the Daily Herald on Monday.
God controls the weather, she said, and tornadoes are evidence of his wrath.
“God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions,” she said. “Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”
Her primary opponent, David Earl Williams III, 30, is decidedly more moderate in his views, but comes with his own liabilities as a candidate. A former girlfriend filed a domestic violence protection order against the Navy veteran.
He is currently fighting a judge’s ruling that he attend anger management classes and undergo a mental health assessment. The charges that he tried to get his former partner fired from her job and kicked out of school by impersonating her online, Williams said, are all a big misunderstanding.
Rae Ann McNeilly, Williams’ campaign manager, dismissed the court’s findings and the woman’s complaints against the candidate, calling it a “frivolous, unfounded claim” by a spurned ex who is “lashing out” because she thought Williams was more serious about their relationship than he actually was.
Atanus ran in the 9th District’s Republican primaries in 2010 and 2012. She lost both times.
Watch Daily Herald video of the two candidates, embedded below:
British Floods Blamed On Gay Marriage Law By UKIP Councillor David Silvester
CHERTSEY, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 08: Swans explore the Abbey Fields caravan park after the River Thames flooded on January 8, 2014 in Chersey, England. Parts of the United Kingdon are entering a third week of flooding and stormy conditions. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Agence France Presse Posted: 01/18/2014 8:16 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
A local councillor for the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) has blamed recent storms and floods across Britain on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage, it emerged on Saturday.
David Silvester, who defected from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in protest at the move to allow same-sex couples to marry, made the claim in a letter to his local newspaper.
"I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill," wrote Silvester, an elected member of the town council in Henley-on-Thames, west of London.
He added: "It is his (Cameron's) fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
"He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain 'great' and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it, for everything a nation does is weighed on the scale of divine approval or disapproval."
The Conservative member of parliament for Henley, John Howell, said the comments were "not the sort of thing that he should have written in today's age" and said Silvester needed to "consider his position".
A UKIP spokeswoman said Silvester's views were "not the party's belief" but said he was entitled to state his opinions.
Cameron pushed through the gay marriage law last year against fierce opposition within his Conservative party, and the first weddings are expected to take place in March.
In a concession to opposition from the established Churches of England and Wales, however, those institutions are banned from conducting ceremonies.
UKIP prides itself on not bowing to what it terms "political correctness" on social issues and is steadily building support with its anti-immigration and anti-EU message.
It has no MPs but is the third largest party in the opinion polls, with about 12 percent of support, and is expected to do well in May's European Parliament elections.
By Amanda Terkel Posted: 02/03/2014 2:14 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is facing heat from a gay rights group for reportedly making homophobic comments during a recent speech before hundreds of realtors.
In the speech, delivered Jan. 23 during the Alabama Association of Realtors' board of directors meeting, Rogers allegedly made derogatory comments about gay people and criticized the atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
"You allegedly joked about how nice it was to be called 'Honey' and 'Sweetie' by a woman at an Alabama restaurant rather than a D.C. men's room," Ben Cooper, chair of Equality Alabama, wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to Rogers [ http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/02/gay_rights_advocacy_group_accu.html ]. "And you went on to mock our nation's capitol as a 'cross between Detroit and San Francisco' -- an obvious reference to Detroit's racial makeup and San Francisco's vibrant gay culture."
"Comments like these are racist, homophobic, and hurtful, and they will not be tolerated," added Cooper.
Michael Hansen, Equality Alabama's communications director, told The Huffington Post his group heard about the remarks from several AAR members who attended Rogers' speech. One member was so offended that he and his colleagues walked out. Another member confronted the congressman after the event, Hansen said, to which Rogers reportedly replied, "Bring it on."
Rogers' office did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
The AAR issued a statement in response to Rogers' remarks, according to AL.com, which first reported the controversy.
"At the Board of Directors meeting this morning one of our speakers made some remarks that were inappropriate [id.] and offensive to some of our members," the statement said. "Those remarks are not reflective of AAR or our policies. Moving forward we will endeavor to prevent such inappropriate remarks at our events or meetings."
Hansen said he emailed the letter to Rogers' chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and press secretary on Friday but has yet to hear back. The group, however, hopes the congressman or one of his staffers will be attending the Feb. 16 Vigil for Victims of Hate and Violence in Montgomery, which will remember LGBT victims of hate crimes.
"I would like to point out that we are approaching the 15th anniversary of the death of Billy Jack Gaither, who was brutally beaten with an ax handle, thrown onto a pile of tires and set on fire," Cooper wrote in the letter. "Billy Jack was murdered because he was gay. He was from your district."
"When you, an elected leader and lawmaker, make comments in public that belittle and demean the very core of LGBT people's being," added Cooper, "you endorse a culture that says it's OK to bully people for who they are or whom they love. It is not."
Randy Gener, 46, was reportedly found unconscious in a pool of his own blood near 54th Street and Seventh Avenue in the wee hours of Jan. 17, according to ABC News. Gener, who is of Filipino descent, is currently listed in serious but stable condition at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, where he is recovering from brain surgery [ http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9407433 ] as a result of the alleged attack.
Unfortunately, details of the incident are scarce, sister Jessica Blair Driessler told ABC, partly because Gener "can't answer the questions of what happened that night."
"He doesn't really exactly know who we are or where he's at sometimes, and it's really painful to see him here the way that he is because he's the most articulate person," she is quoted as saying.
"We, as New Yorkers, demand an end to hate violence in our city," organizers wrote on Facebook. "We as LGBTQ folks, Filipino Americans, people of color, and allies want to feel safe on our streets again."
Sochi Mayor Says There Are No Gay People In His City
In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 photo Sohi's Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov poses with count-down clock in Sochi. Associated Press
By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 01/27/2014 9:37 am EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 1:59 pm EST
The mayor of Sochi is under the impression that there are no gay people in his city.
Anatoly Pakhomov spoke with the BBC ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics and discussed how gay people would be treated in the Russian region with the country's "homosexual propaganda" law [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/russia-gay-propaganda ] in place. Pakhomov said gays are welcome at the Games [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25675957#TWEET1024869 ] in spite of this, so long as they "respect the laws of the Russian Federation and [don't] impose their habits on others."
He claimed gay people do not have to hide their sexuality in Sochi.
"No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city," he said. He later admitted that he isn't absolutely certain there are no gay people in Sochi [ http://abcnews.go.com/WN/gay-people-sochi-mayor-claims/story?id=22166765 ]. "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."
There are at least two gay clubs [ http://rt.com/politics/sochi-gays-mayor-claim-240/ ] in the city, Russia's RT noted. Russian social networks also point to multiple lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in the area.
Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, compared Pakhomov's comments to those of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once reportedly said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-homosexuality-gay-rights_n_1909548.html ]." Alekseyev said, per RT, gay people are present “in any city, any country, any culture and any historical epoch."
IOC's Mario Pescante Rips U.S. For Including Openly Gay Athletes In Official Delegation To Sochi 01/15/14 ROME (AP) — A senior Italian IOC member criticized the United States on Wednesday for including openly gay athletes in its official delegation for next month's Sochi Olympics. [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/ioc-italy-mario-pescante-us-gay-delegation_n_4604568.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Steven Seagal Praises Putin And FSB Ahead Of Sochi
American actor Steven Seagal (right) chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in August 2012.
Tom Balmforth January 28, 2014
A suicide bomber on the loose. Western governments warned of an imminent terrorist attack. Nearby American warships on stand-by.
That was the grim security scenario laid out for next month's Sochi Winter Olympics by former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on his Fox News talk show on January 26.
But martial arts expert Steven Seagal knows better, apparently.
Speaking as Huckabee's guest on the conservative U.S. TV news station, the action-movie hero assessed the danger of an attack in Sochi as "extremely remote," citing his acquaintances in the Russian security forces.
Although he acknowledged that absolute security is impossible ("You could walk out to go buy a bag of sugar and get hit by a car" was how he put it), Seagal used the Fox News appearance to lavish praise on Russia's President Vladimir Putin and its Federal Security Service (FSB).
Seagal also urged U.S. President Barack Obama to pursue closer relations with Russia.
"They are a very powerful country with spectacular natural resources and a wonderful leadership," he said. "And, I believe that they are our friends and I think one of the only ways we are going to survive without getting swallowed by other superpowers or adversely affected is to be best friends with Russia. I think they should be our great allies."
On Sochi, Seagal reasoned that the colossal security presence in the region would prevail during the games.
"The chances of any of these suicide bombers actually being able to pull it off are extremely remote by virtue of the fact that Sochi is on such high alert," he said. "They've got amazing assets in place with great liaison over the world. President Putin is doing the very, very best he can. And, like I said, the FSB and [their elite counterterrorism taskforce] Alfa Spetsnaz are really some of the best on Earth, so it's going to be pretty tough for anybody to pull it off."
Huckabee introduced Seagal as "the unofficial ambassador who’s developed a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something our president has not been able to do."
The comment appeared to be a jibe aimed at the cool relationship between Putin and Obama, who is one of several Western leaders skipping the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Seagal does indeed enjoy good relations with Russia. He has been photographed with Putin, and he was asked in March last year by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to lobby in the United States for opening up the American market to Russian rifles.
The actor was also scheduled to lobby for Kalashnikov rifle sales [ http://http//rostec.ru/en/news/3603 ] at an arms exposition in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Seagal was less voluble, however, when asked about U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia.
Without knowing the actual content of the material Snowden leaked, Seagal said, "it's not easy for me to comment [on the matter]."
By Garret Ellison January 12, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated January 14, 2014 at 8:49 AM
GRANDVILLE, MI — Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law is “common sense” according to a Facebook posting by Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema.
Agema, known for making inflammatory statements about gay people, reportedly endorsed the Russian law that makes it illegal to discuss LGBT issues in front of children.
According to the Blade, Agema posted a link to an Illinois Family Institute blog post by Laurie Higgins titled “Russia’s Anti-Propaganda Law Riles Pro-Homosexuality Crowd.”
Above the article, Agema added the words “Read their law. Common sense in Russia!”
The law imposes fines for "propaganda" about "nontraditional sexual relations" as a way to protect minors.
Higgins of the IFI writes [ http://illinoisfamily.org/homosexuality/russias-anti-propaganda-law-riles-pro-homosexuality-crowd/ ] that it “hardly sounds unreasonable to fine adults $150 for trying to inculcate other people’s children with their subjective beliefs about sexual morality, but nothing angers homosexual activists quite like being denied access to the hearts and minds of other people’s minor children.”
'Homosexual And Stealth Jihad Agenda' Has Apparently Taken Over The Michigan GOP
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz Posted: 01/30/2014 2:55 pm EST | Updated: 01/31/2014 10:59 am EST
For some Michigan Republicans, their biggest enemies are members of their own party.
In a Facebook post Sunday [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582641005147729 ], the Delta County Republican Party published a list condemning "the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda." The 18 listed individuals include Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak, the state attorney general, several U.S. Reps., the state Senate majority leader, party officials, Republican candidates and even one gay Democrat mayor.
The last one might have been a mistake, but all won their spots for perceived condemnation of Dave Agema, the Michigan Republican National Committee member who has received continued criticism for his anti-gay comments, but is apparently still supported by the Delta County Republican Party.
"If you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values," the Facebook post said, "you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do."
The Michigan Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment.
Priebus and Schostak called on the RNC member to resign last week [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/reince-priebus-dave-agema-resignation_n_4660373.html ], following a Facebook post from Agema earlier this month that seemed to support Russia's anti-gay, anti-human rights law. He also posted a message that included the line, "Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?"
In previous months, he's compared homosexuality to alcoholism and accused LGBT individuals of supporting health care reform because they die earlier in life.
Agema has refused to resign, and while he said he regretted some of his statements [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140124/POLITICS03/301240083 ] in an interview with the Detroit News, he said the grassroots conservatives who elected him are counting on him.
“The easiest thing for me would be to just bail out, but the harder decision was to say, ‘OK, I’m going to stay in because of the people who are depending on me to stay in and fight the fight,’ ” Agema told the paper.
Delta County is in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Republican candidate Mitt Romney won the county by a small majority in the 2012 presidential elections.
In Case You Are Not Keeping Record: The Following Are the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda (By Virtue of their attacks on Dave Agema) Republican National Chair Reince Priebus
Michigan Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostak
Michigan Attorney General. Bill Schuette
Terri Lynn Land, GOP Senatorial Candidate
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland
U.S. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, R-Brighton
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monore
State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw
State Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth Township
David Trott, Republican candidate for Michigan's Eleventh Congressional District
Brian Ellis, Republican candidate for Michigan's Third Congressional District
Ferndale Mayor David Coulter
David Worthams, Kalamazoo County GOP Chair
Note: What you must remember is that, if you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values, you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do.
'Gay Cat' Named Bull Allegedly Disowned By Owner In Nigeria 01/25/2014 A Nigerian woman is making some eyebrow-raising headlines after reportedly disowning her cat for "an unnatural sexual behavior [ http://leadership.ng/news/339272/woman-disowns-cat-for-being-gay ]" -- allegedly, same-sex attraction. As the Nigerian newspaper Leadership notes, the woman (identified simply as being middle-aged) rid herself of Bull, whom she owned for seven years, after the cat was deemed to "be in the habit of making sexual advances" only to other male cats in the household. "By this, the cat has made a record as the first cat to be so publicly declared gay and disowned by its owner," writer Donatus Nadi notes in the article. As for the cat's disgruntled owner, she would only add, "Anybody interested in this gay cat can have it because I have no further use of it.” The news comes just days after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nigeria-anti-gay-bill-law-_n_4589227.html ] signed a controversial bill banning same-sex marriage, gay "amorous relationships" and participation in LGBT rights groups. [...] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/nigeria-gay-cat-_n_4661477.html [with comments]
SWAT team arrests martial arts fighter Silva after threats Thiago Silva, 31, who was arrested late Thursday night after threatening to shoot a packed South Florida martial arts gym, is shown in this Broward County Sheriff's Office photo released on February 7, 2014. Feb 7, 2014 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/07/us-usa-florida-silva-idUSBREA161S620140207 [no comments yet]
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Thiago Silva police report details Silva sticking gun in wife's mouth, threats to shoot everyone in gym The official police report details some very disturbing incidents in the history of Thiago Silva and his wife that led to his police standoff and arrest. Feb 7 2014 http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/2/7/5390310/thiago-silva-police-report-gun-ufc [with comments]
your 3rd down .. good one, 'Jesus and Mo', yeah!, Maajid Nawaz, who now has extremes from even right, left (Galloway), even a centrist i think i read suggested someplace .. from extremists in the religious community .. all anti his reasonable and perfectly good simple cartoon message tweet .. the cartoon tweets .. it's cool .. :) ---
I tweeted a cartoon of Jesus and Mo. My aim was to carve out a space where Muslims can be heard without fearing the blasphemy charge
Maajid Nawaz The Guardian, Wednesday 29 January 2014 03.15 AEST Jump to comments (772)
Maajid Nawaz with Tommy Robinson, former leader of the EDL who quit the rightwing group after meetings with Nawaz. Photograph: David Levene for The Guardian
Muslims are not one homogenous tribe requiring representation through a Citizen Khan .. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c8nd8 -like community leader. Neither are we still colonial subjects who must speak through our Brown Sahibs .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Sahib . We Muslims are free. Our prophet left no heir. We have never had a pope or a clergy. We are commanded to worship God alone, and for our sins we are answerable to no one but Him.
The doors of Muslim ijtihad (religious reasoning) have always remained open, and modern Islamist attempts to impose theocratic orthodoxy on us will therefore be resisted. Unity in faith is theocracy; unity in politics is fascism.
On 12 January I participated in a BBC debate ..
.. on human rights and religious rights. Two students were wearing T-shirts .. http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/petition-to-deselect-libdem-candidate.html .. depicting a stick figure of Jesus saying "Hi" to a stick figure called Mo, who replied: "How you doin'?" Some Muslims, having just argued for their own right to veil, took issue with the students. I argued that just as Muslim women have the right to veil, atheists have the right to wear these T-shirts.
I am acutely aware of the populist sentiment in Britain that derides Muslims who seek special treatment for their sensibilities, so I tweeted the bland image and stated that, as a Muslim, I did not feel threatened by it. My God is greater than that.
My intention was not to speak for any Muslim but myself – rather, it was to defend my religion from those who have hijacked it just because they shout the loudest. My intention was to carve out a space to be heard without constantly fearing the blasphemy charge, on pain of death. I did it for Salmaan Taseer .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmaan_Taseer , the governor of Punjab who was assassinated by his bodyguard for calling for a review of Pakistan's colonial-era blasphemy laws; for Malala Yusafzai .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai , the schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for wanting an education; and for Muhammad Asghar .. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25874580 , a mentally ill British man sentenced to death for "blasphemy" last week in Pakistan.
My intention was to demonstrate that Muslims are able to see things we don't like, yet remain calm and pluralist, and to demonstrate that there are Muslims who care more about the thousands of deaths in Iraq, Pakistan and Syria than we do about what a student is wearing. My intention was to highlight that Muslims can engage in politics without insisting that our own religious values must trump all others' concerns, and to stand before the mob so that other liberal Muslim voices that are seldom heard, women's and men's, could come to the fore. And many such Muslim voices .. http://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2014/01/from-mohammed_amin-maajidnawaz-and-cartoon-politics.html .. have been heard this last week.
However, in the final analysis, my intentions are irrelevant. What matters is this simple truth: I am free not to be offended by a cartoon I did not draw. If my prospective constituents do not like me not being offended, they are free not to vote for me. Other Muslims are free to be offended, and the rest of the country is free to ignore them. I will choose my policies based on my conscience. As such, I will continue to defend my prophet from those on the far right and Muslim extremes who present only a rigid, angry and irrational interpretation of my faith. I will stand for fairness, as Amnesty International once stood for me when I was a prisoner in Hosni Mubarak .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/hosni-mubarak 's Egypt. Because I believe that the difference between fairness and tribalism is the difference between choosing principles and choosing sides.
Inside the Less-Than-Christian Practices at Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Trigger warning for discussion of abortion.
Right before Christmas 2007, I bought a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant. I wasn’t scared as much as I felt a bookmark was placed in my life, and the next exciting chapter was about to start.
I called my adoptive mother and told her the news. She didn’t yell at me, but told me she was concerned because I wasn’t married, and that it wasn’t god’s will for unwed mothers to keep their children.
A week later, she called me back and told me my older sister and her husband wanted to adopt my baby. My sister has three children, all of whom have birth defects, and my mom said that they wanted a “normal child.” I was upset. One, I never said I was considering giving up my child. Two, she had this plan all lined up within a week! Three, she tried to explain to me using the Bible that it would be a sin for me to keep my child because I wasn’t married. Later on during my pregnancy, my boyfriend’s mother wanted to have a baby shower and asked me to tell my family since she had never met them. I called my mom, and she told me that none of the family would come since I was unwed and keeping the baby. She also told me she couldn’t come to the hospital when I was giving birth.
You would be shocked to find out that my parents run a faith-based women’s center that offers free pregnancy tests, counseling, and concern for “crisis pregnancies.”
Many Fundamentalist Christians hold the view that an unwed mother should have no legal rights to their child, and that by remaining unmarried they are abusing the child. Two other women who have gotten media attention for being asked by church leaders to give up a child for adoption are Peggie Hayes and Tina Anderson .. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/alleged-rape-victim-accuses-trinity-baptist-church-deacon/story?id=10806348 . Hayes experienced an ultimatum to give up her child or give up her god in 1983 from Mitt Romney .. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/02/mitt-romney-201202 , who was a bishop in the Mormon Church at the time. Tina Anderson was a teenager who was raped by a married man in her church and became pregnant. Tina was shipped across the country to be homeschooled, give birth, and place the child up for adoption. The pastor orchestrated the sending away of Tina, after he made her apologize to the wife of her rapist and the congregation for becoming pregnant in the first place. Currently, her rapist is appealing his 15 to 30-year prison conviction on the grounds that information about the pregnancy and rape should not have been admissible in court because he told that to his pastor.
You may wonder how people could sit in a pew and see a teenager apologizing at the pastor’s behest for being with child and not stand up and demand that the pastor be fired. But I can. I was raised Independent Fundamental Baptist, the same denomination as Tina’s church, and this type of mentality is common. Fundamental Baptist churches all over America have started pregnancy counseling centers or women’s resource centers with a two-fold purpose: scaring women away from abortion, and getting them into church.
It wasn’t me who said, “Scare women away from having abortions.” It was my adoptive father, a well-known Reverend, who is the head of Baptist For Life in my state.
When I have been late for a period, I have been driven temporarily insane wondering if I was pregnant. It’s a very vulnerable time in life. For most of my adult life, I have qualified for full welfare benefits, so just being able to run out to get a pregnancy test wasn’t feasible. Many women who consider abortion do so because they are low income. Even more women use birth control to prevent pregnancy because they are low income. That’s the appeal of the free pregnancy test at a crisis pregnancy center. Yet here is a man who presents a caring and helpful image to women in need, but in the comfort of church, home, and like-minded people, says his goal is to “scare.” If that doesn’t give you pause, I don’t know what would. But there’s more.
When a woman who thinks she is pregnant walks into a Baptist run center, she gets more than just a test to allay her worries and some pamphlets on what to do next. She is trafficked into an “Earn While You Learn Program.” This program gives women a chance to earn diapers, clothing, and other baby needs such as strollers, cribs and car seats by attending church, reciting Bible verses, and attending Bible studies. At one point I know that making a profession of faith was part of that program, but it’s no longer on the website as part of the opportunities to earn provisions. What this really does for needy women is make them perform religious acts and learn dogma in order to meet the needs of her child. It’s spiritual prostitution. The website for Agape Pregnancy Center .. http://www.lacrossepregnancy.com/ .. in LaCrosse, Wisconsin (my hometown, and Agape was started when I was a teenager, so I was there when most of the planning was done), makes this Learn and Earn seem like parenting classes. From the beginning, it was all about getting women to accept Christ as their savior, getting them to get into church, and pressuring the father to get saved.
Not only do Baptist centers have the underlying motive of deterring abortion and sexual activity, they also have undertrained staff members. The requirements for working at the center are being a Christian, Baptist, and in good standing at the local church. There is a one day seminar for training. That’s it. Sad, isn’t it? Basically, if you go in, you are going to be helped by a bored homemaker who is so upset by abortion she probably cries at the thought of it. Remember how my own mother tried to tie up the loose ends on my pregnancy? She works at Agape Pregnancy Resource Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. One thing I can tell you about my adoptive mother: she is an iceberg. Love and kindness is just what’s above the surface, and judgment, jealousy, guilt, and fear are what lie beneath.
Every year, there is a banquet for the pregnancy centers where they honor the volunteer who spent the most hours there and led the most women to God. It’s just a numbers game.
The stance my father and many of his Christian friends have about the HPV vaccine, Gardasil .. http://feminspire.com/the-gardasil-misinformation-how-gendered-marketing-is-putting-us-at-risk/ , is that it cheats god out of punishing sexually active women (even though it’s for men, too) with STIs. Also, the information given at faith-based centers incorrectly uses “STD.’’ The reason for this is because “disease” sounds worse. Trained medical professionals use STI, sexually transmitted infection, because many can be cured.
Growing up, I was told birth control only prevents pregnancy. Then it was a big joke that women would claim they were on the pill for their skin but really so they could be whores. The other reasons that women have for using birth control are downplayed. The very same people who are starting up these centers have told these misogynistic jokes and taught me these negative and inaccurate mindsets. I was also taught that the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, did so to prevent “blacks” from reproducing.
There have been quite a lot of politicians making many abhorrent statements about rape and the use of birth control in the past year, and the same people who got these fools elected support and volunteer at these types of centers. One of the deciding factors for whom to vote for is their stance on abortion. That’s all most care about: getting people into office that will obstruct access to birth control and sexual education while cutting the funding for Planned Parenthood and other providers that can perform abortions. It’s overwhelmingly selfish to believe that just because they personally wouldn’t have an abortion or premarital sex or use birth control, no one should be allowed to either. Unbiased reproductive health clinics have prevented more abortions than passionate preaching.
I suppose my last insight would be about my own abortion. One of the main things that anti-choice advocates will tell you is an overwhelming amount of women who have abortions regret it. That’s a half-truth and very vague. There are many reasons why women have abortions; mine were low income and my mental health. After my first child was born, I lost it. I couldn’t sleep or eat anything but steamed broccoli. I eventually started to hallucinate that people were coming to steal my baby. I went to the emergency room and wound up in behavioral health, where I was given sleeping medication and got very much needed rest, and then was placed on Citalopram, which is a generic anti-depressant. Since then, I have been in regular counseling and had a wonderful home care worker who came to visit to see how I was coping with depression and motherhood. I am very fortunate. Too many children have been killed because their mothers didn’t get the support I have.
I became pregnant the second time while I was using Mirena, an intrauterine device, as birth control. I became septic and was in a lot of pain. My only humane option was to abort. The other was to let the fetus fester in my womb with a foreign object and bacteria until my body expelled it all, while I would have been in agony and unable to care for my child. I would have probably died as well, so my son would have been without a mother. I am upset that I got pregnant while on Mirena, but I knew that was a slim chance before I had it put in. Reality is hard sometimes, because the strange and unlikely can happen, and they don’t have to have a reason. But I don’t regret my abortion. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t done it.
The snap reaction of many people is to tell a woman not to abort because life is sacred, yet this new life might be born into poverty, abuse, and also might not be born at all because the mother might die trying to carry it. If each of us could show more public support for women who choose to plan their pregnancies and terminations, the real number of women who regret abortion would drop.
.. hear ye hear ye .. all you men and women who unfortunately suffer from STI don't not take a drug for cure, as IF you do you are cheating God from punishing you .. can't you see? .. it's not fair to God ..
Teen girls gang-raped and hanged from a tree - police
Veiled mothers of the two teenage girls, who were raped and hanged from a tree, speak to the media at Budaun district in Uttar Pradesh May 31, 2014. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
Policemen show two men (L and 2nd R), who are accused of gang raping and hanging two girls, to the media at Budaun district in Uttar Pradesh May 30, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
By Nita Bhalla Thu May 29, 2014 6:29pm IST
NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Police have arrested one man and are looking for four other suspects after two teenage girls were gang-raped and then hanged from a tree in a village in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday.
The two cousins, who were from a low-caste Dalit community and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their village home in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district when they went out to go to the toilet on Tuesday evening.
The following morning, villagers found the bodies of the two teenagers hanging from a mango tree in a nearby orchard.
"We have registered a case under various sections, including that of rape, and one of the accused has been taken into custody. There were five people involved, one has been arrested and we are looking for the others," Budaun's Superintendent of Police Man Singh Chouhan told reporters.
Chouhan said a post-mortem confirmed the two minors were raped and died from the hanging. DNA samples have been also been taken to help identity the perpetrators, he added.
The victim's families say the girls were gang-raped and then hanged by five men from the village. They allege that local police were shielding the attackers as they refused to take action when the girls were first reported missing.
It was only after angry villagers found the hanging corpses and took the bodies to a nearby highway and blocked it in protest, say the families, that police registered a case of rape and murder.
A case of conspiracy has also been registered against two constables, said Chouhan, adding that they had also been suspended.
Sex crimes against young girls and women are widespread in India, say activists, adding that females from poor, marginalized, low-caste communities are often the victims.
A report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights in April last year said 48,338 child rape cases were recorded in India from 2001 to 2011, and the annual number of reported cases had risen more than fourfold - 336 percent - over that period.
Women's rights experts and lawyers say rape victims also have to endure harsh treatment from an archaic, poorly funded and insensitive criminal justice system.
Police often try to dissuade victims from complaining and suggest a "compromise" between the victim and the perpetrator, largely because of their insensitivity to sex crimes, but also because police officials are rarely held accountable.
Public outrage over the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi in December 2012 pushed the government into passing a tougher new law to punish sex crimes. This includes sentences of up to two years’ jail for police and hospital authorities if they fail to register a complaint or treat a victim.
(Editing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Ron Popeski)
New Delhi seeks report on grisly rape, hanging of teens
By Sharat Pradhan LUCKNOW, India Fri May 30, 2014 5:10pm IST
May 30 (Reuters) - India's new home minister weighed in on Friday in a grisly case in which two teenage girls were raped and hanged from a tree this week, as public anger and political controversy over the attack gain momentum.
The case is one of the first challenges for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his four-day-old government. It highlights the ongoing struggle to stem sexual violence in India, where a string of high-profile rapes has sparked nationwide protests and international criticism.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked the state government of Uttar Pradesh to submit a report on the attack, a ministry spokesman said.
Modi, a prolific Twitter user, has not yet commented on the killings in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state and a key political battleground. Modi's Hindu nationalist party swept 73 of the state's 80 parliamentary seats in its landslide general election victory.
The two cousins, from a low-caste community and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their home in a village in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district on Tuesday evening when they went out to go to the toilet. The next morning, villagers found their bodies hanging from a mango tree in a nearby orchard.
Local police said a post-mortem confirmed that the girls, from the Dalit community, had been raped and died from the hanging. Three men - one a policeman - have been arrested over the attack and a search is under way for two other suspects.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has ordered that the case be handled by a fast-track court "to ensure that the guilty are brought to book without the usual procedural delay", his spokesman Navneet Sehgal said.
Another Dalit teenage girl was gang-raped and strangled in the constituency of Yadav's father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the leader of the regional Samajwadi party, on Thursday night, police said.
Mulayam Singh Yadav provoked outrage during the election campaign by saying about the death penalty for some rape cases: "Boys commit mistakes. Will they be hanged for rape?"
Mayawati, an opposition leader in Uttar Pradesh whose party enjoys widespread Dalit support, slammed the rape and hangings as evidence of the "jungle raj" that ran the state and failed to impose law and order.
A small crowd staged a protest against the killings outside the Uttar Pradesh state government's office in Delhi on Friday afternoon.
The poor state of women's safety in India has been under the spotlight since the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in the capital Delhi in 2012, which led to the introduction of tougher rape laws.
This week's case underlined how women from lower castes were particularly vulnerable, human rights activists said.
"Members of dominant castes are known to use sexual violence against Dalit women and girls as a political tool for punishment, humiliation and assertion of power," Divya Iyer, at Amnesty International India, said in a statement.
(Writing by Shyamantha Asokan; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Nick Macfie)
Children raped, forced to eat faeces in Maharashtra school - police
By Nita Bhalla Fri May 30, 2014 11:20am IST
NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The owner and manager of a children's boarding school in Maharashtra have been arrested after five minors said they were raped, forced to watch pornographic films and act them out with one another, police and charity workers said.
The children were made to eat faeces as a punishment if they did not comply.
The 52-year-old owner of the Chandraprabha Charitable Trust and his 30-year-old female manager were arrested on Monday after a police raid on the school in Karjat city.
"We received a police complaint from the Childline charity saying that one child had gone home for the holidays and confessed to his mother that abuses were happening," Karjat's Police Inspector R.R. Patil told the Thomson Reuters Foundation late on Thursday.
"Five children in total have now come forward and we have booked the two suspects under various offences," he said, adding that these included unnatural sex (sodomy), wrongful confinement and sexual assault.
The school accommodated 28 underprivileged children, aged between 4 and 14, for 10 months of the year, said Patil, but most were on holiday at home at the time of the raid.
Police were trying to find out whether other children were abused and if there were any other suspects.
Anuradha Sahasrabudhe of Childline, a charity supported by the government, said the children had spoken about all kinds of sexual and physical abuse.
"It's a horrific case. The children have been telling us about the sexual abuse going on there. There has been oral sex, there has been forced sex... These things have been photographed," Saharasabudhe told the NDTV news channel.
"Children have been punished by making them eat dog excreta and when they vomited, they were made to eat vomit," she added.
Police say the residential school had been running since 2002, but was not registered and had therefore escaped government inspections by child welfare officials.
Child sexual abuse is disturbingly common in homes, schools, and residential care facilities in India.
Inspection mechanisms for children's homes, shelters and schools are inadequate and many privately run facilities are not even registered, a February 2013 report by Human Rights Watch said.
In May 2012, serious sexual abuse was uncovered at a well-established residential care home for orphans called Apna Ghar (Our Home) in Rohtak on the outskirts of Delhi.
Girls said they were forced to have sex with strangers for money and that they had been abused.
By Trinna Leong KUALA LUMPUR Fri May 30, 2014 6:01pm IST
(Reuters) - Malaysian police have detained 13 men and are looking for other suspects following allegations that a 15-year-old girl was raped by 38 men in an abandoned hut, media said on Friday.
Astro Awani television and and The Star daily reported that the assault took place in the northern state of Kelantan on May 20 when the girl met a girlfriend and was lured to an empty hut reported to be a local drug haunt.
The men took turns to rape her for hours. Police were also investigating whether her 17-year-old friend was also raped.
The alleged attack, one of several brutal caes this week underscoring the violence to which women are being subjected across Asia, sparked outrage among women's groups. Politicians from a Muslim party running the region said their proposal to introduce Islamic hudud law, with harsh penalties, would deter offenders.
State and federal police officers either declined comment or could not be immediately reached.
Media accounts, quoting information from district police chief Azham Otham, said 38 men were involved.
Several of those detained had tested positive for amphetamine, the reports said. The New Straits Times said a man and his two teenage sons were among those detained.
Police said action could have been taken had villagers reported the addicts’ presence.
"It is very disturbing to me that no one in the village was even suspicious when the closest neighbour was a mere 20 metres away," police chief Azham told The Star.
Almost 3,000 rapes were reported to the police in 2012, of which 52 percent involved girls aged 16 and below, according to police statistics.
Convicted rapists face up to 30 years in prison and whipping, but many on Internet sites wanted stricter punishment.
"We are seeing a prevalence in rape cases because boys are raised in an environment where they think it is okay to use violence," Suri Kempe of Sisters in Islam told Reuters.
Awareness of rape in Asia was heightened by the fatal gang rape of a physiotherapy student on an Indian bus in 2012.
Several grisly attacks on women took place this week.
In the Pakistan city of Lahore, a pregnant woman was bludgeoned to death by her family in front of a top court for marrying against the wishes of her parents.
And in India's Uttar Pradesh state, two teenage cousins from a low caste were gang-raped and then hanged from a tree.
--- I over the last 48 hours or so, I have been in deep thought about the future of MFCR and of the Republican Party. I have come to the conclusion that I no longer want to be the leader of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans. I refuse to simply let people break the rules and think they don't have to answer for their actions, admit they were wrong, or even apologize. When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College "Tea Partiers". Also, I believe that the Republican Party has allowed these groups of extremist to have too much of a voice and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion. For example, the drastic cuts on needed federal funding that these groups of Republican extremists support would leave society weak and crippled.
Secondly, their far right stance on immigration is not only ignorant, but it is cruel. After all our country is a nation of immigrants and should welcome immigrants from every country. My father was an immigrant from Cuba and came to America in 1959 because of the freedom that this nation offers. This freedom should be available to each and every individual that wants to come work hard and pursue his or her goals in America.
Finally, I believe the Republican Party has not done enough to put a stop to the hatred and cruel words and actions of the far right extremist in the party. The Republican Party consistently says they are trying to appeal to minorities, but this will never happen when we allow members of party to say cruel and ignorant things about Women, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities in our country. I simply cannot be apart of organization that have members who support these far right extremist views, much less be the Chairman of the organization. So in conclusion, I, Evan Alvarez, am hereby resigning my position as Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans, as well as my membership at the Mississippi State Chapter of MFCR. This change is effective immediately! ---
Spoken like a true Democrat. Now my questions are:
--- 1. How many more college students will follow the lead of Alvarez?
2. How many Republicans out there secretly agree with Alvarez but are afraid to speak out?
.. bit of .. the best opinion i could find on conservative Australia's Nick Adams of your first "Elisabeth Hasselbeck Really Asked This About Feminism" .. the guy who Rick Perry has made an honorary Texan ..
just one more darling of the 'fearing, oh no what is happening to us!' macho men mob .. i've never heard of him, but that doesn't mean anything, and only dear old rooster maybe, would give any notice to him here .. elsewhere he is described as an Australian conservative cultural warrior .. gawd, he wouldn't last long in the pub up the road .. lol .. anyway, down to 16. .. ---
16. Learned that while some Australians are annoying in their hatred of America, some take their love for it a bit too far. One of my Facebook friends sent me an invitation to hear an Australian motivational speaker named Nick Adams .. http://nickadamsinamerica.com/bio.html. The Australian thing attracted me a bit. The motivational speaker part did not. I really don't like motivational speakers that much. I think they spout out a lot of crap....most of the time. Or they say stuff that SOUNDS good in theory, but it doesn't work well in practice.
The invitation said the speech was going to deal with American exceptionalism. I never heard of that term, but I had an idea of what it meant. And I was right.
I know people who believe in this stuff. What stuff? The idea that America is SPECIAL....very special. Like Harry Potter special. We are the chosen ones. We are better than every other country out there.
That attitude makes me want to puke, but I refrain from doing so because I have a strong phobia of vomiting.
Just to set the record straight though (because I don't want there to be any misunderstandings), I DO believe that Harry Potter was the chosen one. I'm fine with that belief, and it doesn't make me sick.
Anyway, Nick Adams loves America. Is it like the way I love Australia? I don't think so. I don't believe Australia is the best country in the world. I don't think it's particularly special. It's just my PERSONAL favorite. Just like James loves Sweden .. http://jamesobrien.id.au/tag/sweden-2010/. And I have a friend who loves Mexico. There's a difference between loving something, and believing it's the best/perfect.
17. Read right-wing blog post .. http://www.redcounty.com/content/nick-adams-what-good-america-good-world .. about Nick Adams. John Rogitz likes Nick Adams because Adams blabs on and on about how wonderful America is. Oh, but he doesn't just stop there. He's also bold enough to say politically incorrect stuff about Muslims. Rogitz provides us with an example. Adams says, It is unambiguously evident that their only strengths are making babies and hating the West. They are unproductive, regressive, and stagnant in terms of innovation.
Personally, I think there's a difference between being brave enough to be politically incorrect, and being blatantly hateful and racist. Starting a debate over whether Muslim women should wear the Burka....that's politically incorrect. Saying Muslims don't have any strengths outside baby-making and west-hating? That's just complete crap.
18. Saw that although Lord Wiki doesn't have a whole entry on Nick Adams, he does talk about him in his entry on the Municipality of Ashfield. It's a government area in Sydney, west of the CBD. Adams is one of 12 councillors. BUT Lord Wiki says he's been suspended. Maybe that's why he's roaming around America making speeches.
Lord Wiki has a list of controversies surrounding Ashfield. They ALL involve Nick Adams.
He racked up a bunch of phone call and cab fare expenses. That made his coworkers a bit angry.
He wanted to ban pigeons from his area. Another Councillor named Marc Rerceretnam responded. The mind boggles when I think of Ashfield pigeons flying to the border of Ashfield and stopping directly at the border, saying "oh no, that's Canterbury, I can't go into there" and flying back in again. I mean this, this is, what exactly is this motion trying to do?
That's pretty funny.
Why does Adams hate pigeons? What? Are they good for only baby-making and hating the west?
Oh, and Adams also hates power tools. He wanted them banned from his area. I guess he wants a world without Muslims, power tools, and pigeons. But he loves Americans.
You know I wouldn't mind finding an Australian who loves America as much as I love Australia. But I'd prefer them not to be so hateful against other groups. I do know a couple of Australians who are very fond of America. Their love is not as zealous as my love, but they think America is cool. I've met one zealous Australian American-Lover. He was very right-wing. I can't remember if he was bigoted/racist. I shouldn't assume he was just because he was right-wing. Then I'm being the bigot. Right?
I do get the feeling that any Australian zealously loving America is going to be right-wing. I think the left is more weary of us....or at least weary of our government. Then again, there can be left-wing Australians who zealously love American culture (like our brilliant Modern Family) but don't like some of our history and government. I guess they'd be similar to us left-wing Americans who love America.
Yet another GOP dick raises a destructive, hateful head.
GOP Lawmaker Dick Black: Hillary Clinton's Immigration Policy Is 'Ethnic Cleansing'
Submitted by Nabi Dressler on Monday, 7/25/2016 6:00 pm
On Friday’s episode of “The John Fredericks Show ..
,” Virginia state Sen. Dick Black, a far-right extremist who served as Ted Cruz’s Virginia campaign co-chair .. http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ted-cruz-picks-right-wing-extremist-lead-virginia-campaign , said that the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton are using immigration to commit “ethnic cleansing,” accusing Democrats of bringing only Middle Eastern Muslims into the country so that “nobody can organize against them.”
“The Democrats have a laser focus,” Black said. “Everybody they put on that [Supreme] Court is a wicked SOB and they never change. They could care less what the law says. They’re there as politicians and they’re there to do the bidding of their party. And so anybody who thinks that we can count on having fair elections in four years and redoing things, that’s a pipe dream, it’s not going to happen because Hillary Clinton is going to keep the borders open, we’re undergoing this immense immigration, which really amounts to ethnic cleansing. That’s what they’re trying to do.
“They’re trying to shatter the cohesion of the American people, not only in terms of ethnicity but also in terms of religion,” he continued. “They’re bringing in people from the Middle East, zero, zero Christians. They will not allow Christians to come in. All of them have to be Muslim. What they’re trying to do is just shatter any cohesion so that nobody can organize against them.”
If Republicans lose this election, Black said, “our children, our grandchildren, they may never face another free and fair election in the United States after this, if Hillary wins.”
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