Dr. James Dobson Weighs In On An Obama Administration

In an interesting article from queerty.com, there is Dr. Dobson's vision of what the country will look like if there is an Obama Presidency. Dr. Dobson foresees the following:

Their description of America in another four years, contained in a “letter from the future,” is not a pretty sight. Here are a few highlights:

— By 2012, Obama has remade the U.S. Supreme Court into an activist, pro-gay institution, and as a result “the Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.”

— “Tens of thousands of Christian (public school) teachers either quit or were fired, and there are hardly any evangelical teachers in public school any more… In addition, many private Christian schools decided to shut down after the Supreme Court ruled that anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation extended to private institutions such as schools.”

— “There are no more Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestant adoption agencies,” and Christian parents are being refused the right to adopt by secular adoption agencies because they have “”narrow’ or dangerous views on religion or homosexuality.”

— “The Bible can no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such ‘offensive’ doctrines as criticizing homosexual behavior.” In addition, “churches have no freedom to refuse to allow their buildings to be used for wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.” and “homosexuals are now given special bonuses for enlisting in military service.”

— Christian nurses, physicians, family counselors, lawyers and other professionals are being stripped of their right to work in those fields, and because homeschooling is now all but outlawed, thousands of homeschooling parents are moving their families to Australia or New Zealand.

— The U.S. Supreme Court has “nullified all Federal Communications Commission restrictions on obscene speech or visual content in radio and television broadcasts. As a result, television programs at all hours of the day contain explicit portrayals of sexual acts.”

— After President Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq, “Al Qaida operatives from Syria and Iran poured into Iraq and completely overwhelmed the Iraqi security forces,” followed by mass executions. “The number put to death may soon reach the millions.”

— Four U.S. cities have been hit by terror attacks, and “in mid-2010, Iran launched a nuclear bomb that exploded in the middle of Tel Aviv… President Obama said he abhorred what Iran had done, and he hoped the U.N. would unanimously condemn this crime against humanity.”

— Russia has invaded and captured Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria “with no military response from the U.S. or the U.N.” Instead, President Obama moved to strengthen US ties with communist regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

— Health care has been nationalized, and “the waiting list for prostate cancer surgery is 3 years.” In fact, “people older than 80 have essentially no access to hospitals or surgical procedures. Their ‘duty’ is increasingly thought to be to go home to die….”

— “Conservative talk radio, for all intents and purposes, was shut down by the end of 2010,” and evangelical Christian book publishers have been barred from selling their products through Amazon, Borders and Barnes and Noble. And dozens of Bush officials, from the Cabinet level on down, are in jail.

I myself look forward to a country in which discrimination against a person simply because of his or her sexual orientation is a crime.

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

Banksy Art

When I was in Israel, especially in the West Bank area of Bethlehem, I had a chance to see a lot of work by the muralist Banksy. I am smitten by Banksy eruptive, disturbing, eye-catching, provocative, evocative art.

On this Friday, amid all the clamor around No Against Prop. 8 in CA, barring gay marriages in FL, and all the other harmful bills, amendments, etc. that people wish would slow down the inevitable march toward full inclusion of LGBTQ people, I leave you this Friday with art by Banksy (see above).

Pace!

B

p.s., in the end, love wins all.

Mamas and Papas...and the Kids in CA

AP report in Raleigh's News and Observer: "An estimated 52,000 children are being raised by two mothers or two fathers in California, which is one of 12 states with comprehensive anti-bullying laws that apply to gay students and children with unconventional families" (Oct. 23, 2008).

52,000 kids in CA alone! And those would be the ones who reported that they are two moms or two dads with kids. This is the tip of the iceberg, me thinks! Knowing that a lot of folks don't divulge their status, there is probably another 52,000 more with kids in CA who didn't report "I'm gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender." Then what about all those other states in the Union?

Reality check: there are more kids growing up with single LGBT parents, or parents in LGBTQ relationships that are--for all sakes and purposes married--as well as other arrangements, e.g., a bisexual mom or dad living with a opposite sex partner.

In other words: we're here, we're queer...let's get in our mini-vans and wake up America!

Pace, B

Meanwhile, On the Other Side of the Country: FL!

You've got to love Florida. First it was Anita Bryant and her campaign against LGBT folks. Next, it was the legislature that made it impossible for us to adopt children.

Now there is a move in the state to forbid, ban, stop, prevent, but an end to something that hasn't begun: gay marriages! The amendment reads as follows: The proposed amendment says, “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”

Read 365gay.com here for more.

Now, herein lies the problem lately: no one wants it to be known that they are supporting this arcane amendment. Unlike CA, in which we know the Mormons are funding a large part of the pro-Prop. 8 amendment, FL folks want their names hidden. Why? Why not be public about your bigotry?

Pace!

B

The African American Church, Gays (LGBTQ), and Prop. 8 in CA

There is support among many in the African American community for Prop. 8 in CA (see this article from salon.com, click here). Leonce Gaiter reports the following:

According to a SurveyUSA poll, 58% of black voters support Proposition 8, which would enshrine irrational fear and rank bigotry into the California Constitution in order to deny gays the right to marry. Black support is 10% higher than support of any other ethnic group. This is ironic, considering that in striking down the law banning same sex marriage, the California Supreme Court cited the landmark 1967 civil rights case Loving vs. Virginia that struck down the prohibition of interracial marriage.

A majority of California’s voting African-Americans seem blind to that irony, however. They see no kinship to their own past as a reviled minority whose sexual touch toward a single white man or woman would sully the entire “race” of American whites—just as legally sanctioning the sexual touch of same sex partners would so sully heterosexuals’ unions that they will… what? Seek immediate divorce? Abandon their children to the streets? Suffer mass orgasmic dysfunction?

Gaiter continues in the article by citing these two issues pertinent to the African American community:

1. the Bible says gays should not be tolerated, and that Jesus hates "fags." Gaiter rightly argues that no, the Bible does not say this;

2. Gaiter reminds the reader that it wasn't too long ago that the bias against those of African descent with black skin was based upon the erroneous conclusion that the color of one's skin was a result of Ham's sin or Noah's sin.

This bias is not only true in CA among the African American church community, but would probably be even worse in my state of NC.

It is time to change!

Pace, B

That's It!

My political "bent" is all over this website, but this makes me want to be explicit: I am not voting Republican for the presidential election. John McCain did not support a federal amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but Sarah Palin does, as she explained today to CBN:

Palin: I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage and that's casting my votes and speaking up for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that.

Enough is enough.

Politics matter.

Pace, B

No On Proposition 8

www.noonprop8.com.

That's the email address that we can use to send money for donating money, time, and talent. Even on the cusp of Stewardship Month, in the US, money is power, as is knowledge. I heard Armistead Maupin on Wed. night at the Carolina Theater in Durham, NC. A native born Carolinian who is living in CA, married to his partner (who runs and operates www.daddyhunt.com), Armistead made a pitch for "no on prop. 8." Steve Petrow, another writer, has cited a statistic from the Sacramento Bee, in which one man donated $35,000 who is pro-prop. 8. And the Mormon Church has donated a huge sum for prop. 8.

If this effort to stop prop. 8 in CA fails, other state legislatures will see this as the will of the people not to advance LGBT marriage in their states.

Time to donate!

Pace, B