From CHUD, Now that Michael Moore has gone after the nation’s health with his excellent (and bi-partisanally acclaimed) Sicko, he’s going after our nation’s mental health: his next film might be about crazy gay-hating Christians.“I think it’s a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about. Simply because we are not there yet and it remains one of the last open wounds on our soul that we are not willing to fix yet,” Moore told The Advocate.
“There is nowhere in the four Gospels where Jesus uses the word homosexual. The right wing has appropriated this guy … and they have used him to attack gays and lesbians, when he never said a single word against people who are homosexual. Anyone who professes to be a Christian and does that is certainly not following the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
There’s nothing so frustrating as hearing someone who supposedly espouses the peaceful and loving teachings of Christ going off on how horrible gays are, and I love that Michael Moore is going to be going directly at this issue – too often on news and talk shows there’s this unwillingness to confront the hypocrisy and evilness of anti-gay hysteria, all in the name of ‘respecting’ someone’s religion. But if that religion isn’t respecting other people, why should it be respected? We don’t respect the Muslims who blow up children in the name of their religion. I'm not about to respect a religion that traumatizes gay children in the name of their beliefs, or that denies loving gay couples equal rights because of their own prejudices. This is some Dark Ages bullshit, and it needs to be squashed... hard.
15 comments:
I saw a great bumper sticker the other day, it said:
If the fetus you save is gay,
will you still fight for its rights?
Except they'd say that people choose to be gay; all those fetuses are heterosexual, didn't you know that?
Yeah - unfortunately I thought the same thing. Still liked the zing though.
"I'm not about to respect a religion that traumatizes gay children."
What an idiotic statement. Children are not gay. In the same way children are not "Christian" or "Muslim". (My hero) Richard Dawkins argues that labeling a child as such should be considered child abuse. The parents of the kids in that picture should be arrested.
I'm a little scared about Michael Moore taking on the subject though. Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens have made enormous strides in the atheist movement with a focused, intelligent attack on religion based on reason. The last thing the movement needs is some slip up or misstep that they can use as a sound bite to say "this is what godlessness leads to".
By the way, if you ever want to stand up and cheer, YouTube "Christopher Hitchens Falwell CNN" and then sit back and enjoy.
I've seen that clip you refer to and, yes, I cheered, with a tear in my eye!
I dig Dawkins and Harris, too. Actually, I have a bit of a crush on Sam Harris.
But isn't there evidence that homosexuality is somewhat genetic? So then kids can be gay, right? But not Muslim.
Nah, kids only go gay if you make them watch musicals and hang out with liberals.
I'm certainly not an expert on the subject but I don't think homosexuality (or ANY sexuality) can be identified before puberty and raising a child as "gay" would be a terrible, dangerous thing to do.
Sam Harris looks like a more handsome Ben Stiller. I think he's the best debater of the 3. He always comes across as extremely passionate and eloquent.
I agree! I don't know Hitchens. But as much as I like Dawkins, Sam Harris is more appealing.
And he's hot. I admit to doing the wedding ring search on that guy. (Yeah, he's wearing one.)
Have you heard Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God"?
And by the way, of course you wouldn't raise a kid as gay. But I believe the recent evidence is in favor of a genetic predisposition toward homosexuality. (Studies with twins or something--I'm not an expert, either.)
But even if I wouldn't raise a kid gay, I'd be so psyched to have a gay kid. Mabye they'll figure out the gay gene so I can adopt one. Maybe gay babies will be the new Chinese girls--I bet a lot of folks wouldn't want them and I could take the leftovers.
***USATODAY.com Breaking News***
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Monday approved a $660 million settlement between the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and more than 500 alleged victims of clergy abuse, the largest payout yet in a nationwide sex abuse scandal.
For more on this story, go to http://www.usatoday.com.
"Maybe gay babies will be the new Chinese girls" I burst out laughing when I read that.
I am seriously considering flying to DC in September for the Atheist Alliance International Convention. The whole gang is there - Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Julie Sweeney among others. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the building was blown to smithereens...
Christopher Hitchens is the vitriolic one. His book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is a delightful read and it was a #1 best seller! He is always seen with a glass of scotch in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He gets a lot of shit because he supports the war in Iraq but his arguments are not so easy to dismiss. In addition to taking on god, he's also given verbal thrashings to Mother Teresa, Ghandi and Michael Moore.
I've been trying and failing to find my favorite quote of his for the past 2 hours. Aaaargh!
You're going to get the magic man in the sky mad at you!
Here's one great Hitchens quote: "Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous to women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience."
Pretty good.
I think I grew up in an Atheist Alliance. The idea of going somewhere with thousands of atheists just makes me think it will be all clones of my dad or something.
The nature/nurture debate on this topic is one I think may never find a solid answer. The range of human sexuality and pyschology is so vast, if you go case-by -case I bet you can always find opposing examples. I've certainly heard gay folks who say they knew as far back as they could remember, i.e. pre-puberty, but I'd never declare that it's like that for everyone.
More to the point, fine-tune the focus on "traumatizes gay children" a bit and you could be talking about teen suicide, which according to this hastily-grabbed article is more than 13 times more likely to happen to a gay teen than a straight one. Organized religion has a great deal on its conscience, indeed.
Moore's description "last open wound on our soul" is pretty accurate. Racism is still a colossal problem in this country, but even the most cynical people would likely agree that in general your average citizen knows better than to loudly and publicly express it. Organizations that tout racism are considered fringe groups to be largely publicly shunned. (I'm not saying racism has been cured in people's hearts, that's a completely different thing.)
But homophobia is backed up by the freakin' church, one of THE biggest organizations there is. We're the ones in the fringe group for not belonging. JSP's misgivings about Moore tackling this are pretty on the nose, but given the opposition I'll invite a loud, thought-provoking voice on this issue even with a certain amount of imperfection.
One of the things the liberal/atheist platform constantly struggles with is our concern for being right and accurate, something the other side often doesn't give a rat's ass about. That's why Al Franken's books are so welcome, they finally possess the appropriate amount of vitriol while still getting it right.
The people who'll point at Moore's film and screech like one of the Body Snatchers aren't the people whose minds would've been changed by Hitchens, Dawkins & co anyway. It's the people who have the chance to see the institutionalized hatred through another's eyes and feel a light go on inside them, those are the people to reach for. Even a clumsy message could change more of the right hearts than Sicko.
Here's hoping.
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