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Apparently (according to Towleroad) Anne Rice has quit being a Christian for many of the same reasons that I frequently cite when criticizing Christians. I always thought her dramatic shift from vampire author to staunch Christian was a little bit…ironic but this is pretty interesting.

Anne Rice announced on Facebook yesterday that she’s quitting Christianity as a matter of conscience.

Wrote the author:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

She followed that up with another message:

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

Although it is always sad to me to see people lose their faith and get hurt by something they devoted so much time to, I still find it admirable that Anne Rice is able to stand up for what is right.

This video really creeped me out…but it’s true of religious dogma.

Today I was reading an article on Change.org about a church in Michigan who outed one of their gay parishioners and socially isolated him. Having been through similar treatment at a church I went to in high school, I found this article infuriating. Like a lot of Christians, I was very unhappy being gay. In fact, I was self-hating from about 13 years old until late high school. It took me until I was 20 to come out. When I went to this church, I got very involved and became a youth leader. I spent most of my summer volunteering at the church and working hard for – not what I believed in – but for a feeling of belonging, a purpose.

I don’t know that I ever actually drank the Judeo-Christian kool aid. I think it was more of a socio-cultural thing for me. I was born and raised as a Christian and went to church a lot, so I thought that’s just what you do. I never much cared for the church I grew up in, but was very enthusiastic about a church I found in high school. As I said above, I got involved quickly. Like most Christians, I had perpetual feelings of guilt. I never felt like I was good enough for God (read: conservative Christian far right culture) so I was went up for alter calls almost every week at church, trying to make myself worthy in the eyes of God. Talking to friends and family, I’m not the only one who felt like this. But it made me feel very guilty to be gay; I wanted to be cured. So I talked to my “mentors” at church about praying with me, etc.

Like most Christians, they subscribed to the belief that homosexuality is a “choice” and that the “gay lifestyle” is a very negative thing. They prayed with me for some kind of divine intervention to cure me. When no divine intervention came from their fictitious God, they removed me from every program I was involved in and socially isolated me to the point of excommunication. Since it is a big church in a big town, they couldn’t go as far as publicly excommunicating me but they made it uncomfortable to the point of forcing me to (voluntarily?) leave.

In the end I’m just thankful I live in California or I may have been sent to one of those horrible deprogramming camps that permanently damage people for the rest of their lives.

Here is the article in question, entitled: Michigan Church Outs, Then Expels Gay Man:

A man from Williamston Michigan is battling her church over his sexuality.

The man, who wishes not to have his name used, says that by discussing her sexuality with the pastor of Lighthouse Community Church in Williamston, a small bedroom community east of Lansing, he has been targeted for excommunication from the church.

In a June 28 email to the man, Pastor Thurm Payton wrote, “I want to make one more appeal to you to turn from the lifestyle you’ve chosen to deal with the feelings you have wrestled with for many years. I can’t escape the truth that you’ve taken a severe detour in God’s plan for how your life is to be lived.”

He further states,”I would deeply regret it if the effect of my trusting friendship with you was to slowly enable you to accept a lifestyle that is against God’s Word.”

But the man was not interested in denouncing his homosexuality, as Payton plead with him to do.

So when the man declined, Payton, evidently worried with accidentally “enabling” his homosexuality, decided in conjunction with pastoral leaders Jimmy Gretzinger, John Newman, Mark Harbison and Tom Blaylock that it was necessary to excommunicate the man.

Sounds like a story that happens to hundreds of thousands of LGBT people everyday. Except the “leadership team” decided that excommunication was not enough. The sent a four page letter to the congregation announcing the man, as well as a person accused of adultery, would be subjected to a public excommunication.

The letter outed the man to the church.

“This is literally a scarlet letter, designed to isolate and humiliate the members accused of impropriety,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “It is absurd that the church claims that its intent is not to injure the alleged sinners. They are clearly engaging in a vindictive game of mean-spirited psychological attacks causing grave harm to the individuals singled out and targeted.”

“This church has the right to hold self-righteous and backwards ideas on sexuality,” said Besen. “However, what they are doing is immoral and their actions should be brought to light. With such a medieval mindset, it should be no surprise that many Americans are turning away from such barbaric churches in droves.”

And the kicker to all this? The Williamston Public Schools are renting the middle school cafeteria to the church, thus supporting the group with tax payer funded locations.

Editor’s note: The gender of the person involved in this case was accidentally identified as female, when in fact the victim of the church’s excommunication is a male. We apologize for this error.

This is truly sad, that in this day and time, middle Americans are still so ignorant about LGBTQ issues. The worst part is that they don’t care about LGBTQ issues; most of them do not WANT to become educated on LGBTQ issues. In general, Christians pick and choose the parts of the bible that they want and ignore the parts that inconvenience them. I still fail to understand why Christians make such a big deal out of homosexuality but eat unclean meat, wear clothes of mixed fabric, work on Sundays, tolerate divorce and allow their wives to leave the house. If you read Leviticus all of these things are mentioned, but on these issues they take a liberal approach to Leviticus and decide that the things they dislike are no longer relevant. Maybe homosexuality is irrelevant today too?

Jesus was a loving man who never mentioned homosexuality once, on the contrary he blessed and loved Mary Magdalene – a prostitute. So why the witch hunt on “fags”? Shouldn’t Christians be focused on preserving marriage within their own church and preventing divorce? If marriage is such a sacred institution that they want to deny it to homosexual couples, then why not focus on making marriage more successful?

Here are some comments that were follow ups to this article, these two I found especially profound

The first one is by Dave Hershey:

Dear Pastor Thurm Payton,

I just read on a website about a gay man that you and your church excommunicated. I understand that you wish for him to change his sexual orientation. However, according to the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and nearly all other various medical, psychological and psychiatric organizations have stated that it is dangerous to alienate people based on their sexual orientation.

There are two things that your treatment of this man leads me to believe, you are not only going against what Jesus taught, which is love and acceptance (remember the prostitute Jesus saved from stoning?) and that by outing him to the entire congregation you are also a very vindictive person and untrustworthy person. (The shame should be ALL on you!)

I’m sure you have wondered why so many LGBT citizens have turned away from the church, it is this VERY reason! Because of the hatred shown toward them, and the lack of love and acceptance.

You and the pastoral leaders of your business (I refuse to refer to your business as a church because it is far from being a place of solace and peace as it should be) ought to be ashamed of your actions, but somehow I know you are likely not.

I would like to recommend a piece I read months ago that I think explains why so many LGBT citizens have left the church. And I also think it may help you understand more about the LGBT community as a whole and why we have rejected your “hate the sin, love the sinner” meme that you like to use. It can be found here: http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2010/04/02/21575

It is my hope that you will read this piece and open your eyes to the truth, and that is we are very loving and caring people. That we come from all walks of life. And no matter how much you want us to conform to YOUR worldview, that will never happen until you start accepting us for who and what we are, your fellow human beings, your neighbors, and members of your earthly family.

By the way, I would like one question answered for me, when did you make a conscious decision to be heterosexual? My guess is that you never had to make a conscious decision to be heterosexual, just as we never made a conscious decision to be LGBT.

Best Regards and may YOUR God have mercy on your soul!

The second one is by William Stoddart:

Right on, Dave.!!  I am in total agreement with your post comments.  There is absolutely no such thing as a, ‘GAY LIFESTYLE” anymore than there is a. “STRAIGHT LIFESTYLE.”   Homophobes delight in constantly using the word “lifestyle” as a part of their demagoguery.  To them “lifestyle” revolves entirely around whom a person is sexually attracted to.  I am positive that if you were to ask any straight male, “What kind of a lifestyle do you lead?”–that their solitaryanswer would not be, “I like to have sex with women.”  Any person’s sexual orientation is just one very small part of the tapestry which defines their life.  The homophobic use of the word “lifestyle” when referencing gays and lesbians is offensive and demeaning.  In a way it conveys the warped idea that all we think about, or do, 24 hours a day is to have sex.

Then, the equally offensive word constantly used by these homophobic evangelists is, “CHOICE..”   Scientific, medical, and biological studies have consistently concluded that being gay or lesbian is not a ‘CHOICE”—no more being born black, or being born with blue eyes is a ‘CHOICE”   Unfortunately, hard core homophobes, will never have the capacity to understand that sexual orientation IS NOT A CHOICE! It is the way are born.  Note that I did not use the phrase sexual ‘PREFERENCE”.   By sometimes using the word PREFERENCE instead of ORIENTATION, they intentionally confer the idea that we CHOSE to be the way we are.   When a homophobe engages me in their demented “choice” philosophy, I always ask them how they went about “choosing” to be straight?  I ask if they perhaps “flipped a coin.”   Or I may ask if they tried both types, and then decided that being intimate with a female felt the best. (kind of like trying on a pair of shoes)  Invariably, they are not able to explain why they are either going with, or married to a person of the opposite sex.  They will usually simply end the discussion with, “That’s just the way I am.”   So, if it’s so very easy for them to understand that “it’s just the way they are” why then is it so difficult for them to understand that our sexual orientation is, “just the way we are.”   If being gay or lesbian was truly a choice–there most likely would be none.   If it was simply a matter of choice, who would consciously choose to be gay—knowing in advance that they would face a life of constant ridicule and rejection?

Hopefully these articles are eye opening to you. Hopefully it helps you to see that homosexuality is something, although maybe not natural, isn’t a choice. Where do people get off thinking they can tell us to reject our innate urges and live a lie?

I read three great political editorials this morning:

An editorial in the New York Times – Addicted to Bush

An editorial in The Daily Kos – Why Liberals Should Love the 2nd Amendment

For those of you in San Diego, CA – Southwestern College’s Proper Snack Bar (addressing the corruption at Southwestern College)

As usual, politics in this country baffle me. President Obama has been getting it from every side lately. The liberals are after him, the gays are after him, the conservatives are REALLY after him. The guy just can’t win. Rather than accepting that America was already fucked up under Clinton and especially under Bush Jr., Americans decide to blame literally everything on President Obama.

Yes, Obama deregulated oil, the financial industry, mortgages and single handedly ruined the economy. Umm…no. The economy was already a mess, unemployment was already exponentially increasing, the war situation was already a mess and everyone was already unhappy. Obama cannot snap his fingers and fix things; he has been working hard and rather than getting support everyone is just ragging on him. Even the bailout that everyone attributes to Obama was in the works when Bush left office; Obama just signed it.

That said, President Obama worked hard to get comprehensive medical coverage for all Americans. I think he still ultimately sold out to the special interests of private insurance rather than passing socialized health like Europe, but he IS a politician still, we can’t have our cake and eat it too.

Tonight I was talking to one of my acquaintances and Obamacare came up. As usual, most of the general public is misinformed about it. He made the absurd assertion that “if you don’t have medical insurance, you get fined and go to jail”. That is not true. If you don’t have medical insurance, you do get taxed higher because the government (and ultimately the tax payers) have to pay the bill if you get injured and don’t pay for it. So in essence, you’re going to pay for medical insurance regardless, so why not save yourself the trouble and just make sure you’re covered?

I think of it like auto insurance. Most people wouldn’t dream of not having auto insurance. They want to be protected if something goes wrong, both for their sake and the sake of others. The same applies to health insurance. Under Obamacare, you can’t be denied and you can’t be charged hire rates for preexisting conditions. Every American from the healthy ones to the morbidly obese ones will pay around the same rate. So why not cover yourself?

This acquaintance says he refuses to get insurance and he refuses to pay a fine. He also refuses to go to jail. He also doesn’t believe in auto insurance and car registration. All I can do is shake my head. I don’t even think a headshake is appropriate, more like a facepalm.

I don’t understand where people get off thinking they can get in a car crash, chalk up $500,000+ in medical bills and then not pay them. Who do they think they are to expect the American public to pay their medical bills for them?

Here is an interesting excerpt from an interview with a CNN reporter and President Obama concerning Obamacare:

This is an excerpt from NewsBusters:

STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?

…. OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.

People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase. Any…

…. STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…

…. STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that.

Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?

OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.

President Obama says it best. It is not a tax. It is your duty as an American. I know people don’t like change, but sometimes change is good and medical insurance is something that all Americans should have.

So my Mom is on her soapbox about drinking and smoking on the beach. Apparently there was some kind of floatopia event today in Mission Valley where consenting adults drank off shore to avoid the beach alcohol ban.

Apparently they are thumbing their nose at authority and being rowdy and rude. Whatever. Yawn. America has an alcohol problem from binge drinking to underage drinking because the culture makes such a big deal about it.

We went from prohibition (which didn’t work) to alcohol advertisements everywhere you look. But then there’s zero tolerance till you’re 21. Wake up people. Europe is way more laid back about alcohol and they don’t have near the problems we do. Maybe they have the right idea.

I can say that I’m a pretty big fan of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The movie was rubbish, but the books are good. Again this one had some of the same childish names and themes, but it was very entertaining. It has the fun and adventure of Harry Potter but without any of Rowling’s depth. Again Percy and his friends go on a quest to save the world. Again they are successful. Riordian starts each book with a problem and seems to resolve it each book. I look forward to reading the rest of these books.

With Pride season among us, I was feeling festive and decided to read a book with LGBTQ themes. I was very impressed with Alex Sanchez. He wrote a book that was geared at high school kids but it had enough depth for adult readers as well. I found myself really relating to the characters in this book, especially Kyle, in ways I never have in other books. This is a true coming-of-age classic that should be required reading in high school. It is clear that Sanchez writes to show the world that LGBTQ Americans are just like anyone else. They have the same problems, the same falling in love and heartbreak, the same blood and bones and skin.

I look forward to reading more of his work and I would really love to see him write some adult novels as well. Alex Sanchez is changing the world and making it a better place by writing his books. Here’s to hoping that in my lifetime we’ll have a world that has full equality under the law.

So we rented this movie for no other reason then it had Robert Pattinson. It doesn’t hurt that he gets naked and has a few steamy sex scenes either. Watching the movie, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really understand the big picture. The movie is about two broken families, broken for different reasons and two young college students who connect as a result of their broken families. Superficially, it seems like any other romantic drama, but it really comes together in the end. The ending is both happy and sad. But the closure is nice. I don’t want to give away spoilers, so I’m not going to say more, but if you want to see a great movie check out “Remember Me”.

Rotten Tomatoes gives is 8/10. Google Reviews give it 4/5.

I hesitate when quoting Bill O’Reilly or any Fox News personality, but O’Reilly really does has some profound views in his books. In his Cultural Warrior book, he mentioned a lot of what is going on now. I guess I’m one of the “Secular-Progressives” (SPs) that he coined as well, but that doesn’t mean I can’t agree with SOME parts of his narrative.

Anyway, I think we are in a culture war right now. The main part that bothers me is all of our immigration, both legal and illegal. The new groups and cultures that come to America do not assimilate, they do not become a “melting pot”, they become a “tossed salad” – where they are all mixed with others but they maintain their own cultural identity.

Especially in California, probably the State with the most exploitable labor to fuel our agricultural economy, we have a lot of migrants. They come here, enjoy the benefits of being a resident (or occasionally a citizen) but they curse America, send all of their money back home to Mexico and the “Pil-uh-peens”, maintain their own cultural identity and resent the mainstream. Whenever something doesn’t go their way, they claim they are an exploited minority and somehow the majority is oppressing them.

I live in Southern California where I am both an ethnic and cultural minority, I was CERTAINLY oppressed by the cultural majority in high school, but I don’t sit around whining about it, I’ve still become successful. My message here: if you want to immigrate to a country, assimilate to it’s culture.

Sure, keep a little of your own cultural identity, but in general you should be speaking English and working to be an “American”.

Our country is certainly flawed, but a “tossed salad” is not analogous of national cohesion. This is an e-mail I received which brought out of this to my mind:

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington , DC , filled to capacity by many of America ‘s finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, ‘Mexifornia,’ explaining how immigration – both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California . He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America.

The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States . He said, ‘If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let’s destroy America . It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that ‘An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.”

‘Here is how they do it,’ Lamm said:

‘First, to destroy America , turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country. History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: ‘The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.’ Canada , Belgium , Malaysia , and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, Corsicans and Muslims.’

Lamm went on:

‘Second, to destroy America , invent ‘multiculturalism’ and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal; that there are no cultural differences. Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

‘Third, we could make the United States an ‘Hispanic Quebec ‘ without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: ‘The apparent success of our own multi-ethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentriy and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.’ Lamm said, ‘I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.’

‘Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.’

‘My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of ‘Victimology.’ I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority.’

‘My sixth plan for America ‘s downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unit y it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia , threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. ‘E. Pluribus Unum’ — From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the ‘pluribus’ instead of the ‘Unum,’ we will ‘Balkanize’ America as surely as Kosovo.’

‘Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits. Make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of ‘diversity.’ I would find a word similar to ‘heretic’ in the 16th century – that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like ‘racist’ or ‘xenophobe’ halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of ‘Victimology,’ I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America , it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.’

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, ‘Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis’ book ‘Mexifornia.’ His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America . If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don’t read that book.’

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate ‘diversity.’ American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America Take note of California and other states. To date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book ’1984.’ In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: ‘War is peace,’ ‘Freedom is slavery,’ and ‘Ignorance is strength.’

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don’t get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.

If you care for and love our country as I do, take the time to pass this on just as I did for you.

NOTHING will happen to change things if you don’t!

Parts of this article are profound and interesting. However, it doesn’t make any suggestions of HOW to remedy this problem. Cutting off immigration is not a solution. Deporting all illegal immigrants is not a solution. I think we need something to unify all Americans (legal and illegal) together under a common goal. And no, not a war. It needs to be something desirable, something that people WANT to believe in.

In the past it was the American Dream, but we saw as early as the 1920s that the American Dream is a lie, so we need a new American Dream – one that is more realistic and less vain than 2 kids, a car and a white picket fence in the suburbs.