A Little Note On Freedom Of Religion From Your Friendly Neighborhood Witch

Here's a little note on freedom of religion, tolerance for diversity and equality for all in South Africa:

This little notice appeared in a local SA Newspaper in Afrikaans, although I am still waiting for someone to tell me which paper it appeared in.

 

Very charming - and I suppose were an occult group to post a similar ad about a course covering 'the evils of Christianity' (and I might be tempted to list a few), then it would be reported as hate speech (and the complaint would be taken in a very serious light - not dismissed by the Press Ombudsman or SA HRC as all complaints on such articles have been), or the ad wouldn't be posted by the paper in the first place because it might offend the 'mighty Christians'.

Ignorance Prompts Stereotypical Knee-jerk Reactions

[20141004 - 180 with Bob on KAYA FM - "Satanic groups have approached the MEC of Education in Gauteng to suggest that satinism should be offered as a religious subject in schools. Do you think it's a fair request or are we taking our democratic rights too far?"

The Department of Justice Pamphlet 'Harmful Religious Practice Is A Crime' - An Analysis

The Department of Justice Pamphlet "Harmful Religious Practice Is A Crime" - An Analysis.

Servamus Sides With SAPS Fraudulent 'Experts' In The Face Of The Obvious

Servamus Magazine, while catering to law enforcement in South Africa, has again advertised their "special community edition" of "Drugs and Occult Related Crime". As expected, it again contains the entirely fraudulent "satanic calendar" and Dracula Sherbet and Heavy Metal is listed as being "Satanic". Seriously, if police officers are still learning this outdated bogus rubbish, the public needs to be concerned.

RE: 'Harmful religious practice and occult on the rise in SA' by Jerome Cornelius

RE: "Harmful religious practice and occult on the rise in SA" by Jerome Cornelius

The article by Jerome Cornelius on 7 June (http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2014/06/07/harmful-religious-practice-and-occult-on-the-rise-in-sa) is a prime example of hysterical drum-beating propaganda, repeating known falsehoods and baseless accusations against religious minorities and alternative identity groups as though they were true. 

According To The SAPS I Engage In Harmful Occult Practices

...And probably, you too.

I wear a pentagram. I wear it proudly on my necklace for all to see. I do so as a practising Witch. According to this article by the SAPS on their website, wearing a pentagram is a "warning sign of engaging in harmful occult practices". This and similar hare-brained lunatic ideas can be seen in the list of wildly inaccurate claims from their website where these *snerk* "occult experts" list "warning signs" about Satanist religion.

SRA Propaganda IS A Harmful Religious Practice!

Dear IOL, I just read this article by you today: "Sin, sedition and Satanism in South Africa".

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sin-sedition-and-satanism-in-south-africa-1.417775#.UXqvBqLTxbq 

(Yes, I know the article is from 2008, but I was just made aware of it. LOL. Also, the policeman interviewed is the present head of the reformed SAPS Occult Related Crimes unit - so his views should provide a VERY clear picture of what sort of prejudice and bias this man has. The journalist first points out that there are different forms of Satanism, and makes references to the Church of Satan – but the lengthy quotes from Lamprecht and an evangelicalist drug rehabilitation “expert” speaking out of his field of expertise, tends to off-set this suggestion, making up the bulk of the article, and turning it from an objective piece into a Christian evangelizing soap-box.)

I am sorry to say, this whole article is a perfect example of biased, hysterical SRA propaganda. If is so full of sheer and utter rubbish attributed to Lamprecht and Krige and put out by your paper, that I am beside myself with anger. In fact, there is so much tripe in there about a religion and its adherents who are STILL  (clearly only in theory) protected by law in this country from lies and misrepresentations such as this, being presented as "fact" that I'm not even sure where to begin.

Bridging The Great Divide

The Constitution forms the supreme law of South Africa. It is a secular law which stands to prevent the persecution of people on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation - and also religious freedom. 

Of course, most of the time you need to belong to a minority group of some kind to confirm that the law and the letter are being carried out in real life as they are on paper. In South Africa I can attest to the fact that the gap between the paper law and the real life application of these laws - which once seemed to be narrowing, is now just as wide - if not wider than ever.

As Good As It Gets

Some like to claim that marriage equality for gay people will "increase the divorce rate" because "everybody knows" that gay people "cannot commit" and are promiscuous. Ironically, this claim often comes from people who have been divorced themselves, or are themselves in unhappy marriages. That is for them as good as it gets - and so they judge others by their own limited knowledge or jaded standards.

The fun part is where I get to point out the old gay couple living in my area who have been together for 40 years, and although they have not married, I have to wonder how many heterosexual marriages their relationship has outlasted?

Rubber Room With A View

Despite clear and easily understood press releases, explanations and statements released by eminent scientists to explain that diverse sexual orientation and gender identity is perfectly natural, and despite their attempts to simplify the explanations - some people, typically narrow minded religious fundamentalists, refuse to accept that gay people are born gay and transgender people, transgender.

"No, that's not it - it has to be a sin! These perverts like it - they're choose to be gay."

Put Up Or Shut Up

December.

Yet another festive season filled with things sweet and nice - friendship, family and good memories. A time often laced, for some - with a bitter undertone of loneliness, sorrow and loss. Some people find the "silly season" significant in terms of religious meaning. I find it laced with hypocrisy, shallow commercialism, false piety and genuine arrogance. What am I referring to? I will tell you:

Sin Tax Error

GAY

=

PORN

As I said last week in an article about a gay pageant in South Africa and the lack of mainstream (straight) media coverage for the event, "gay + controversy = mainstream media coverage". Now it seems somebody else has gone one better to publicly redefine the nature gay people. But then, it is an old accusation, one which has been made many times, and this certainly will not be the last. Just a pity it comes from "one of our own".

Quack Attack!

Quack Attack! Sounds like an old arcade game, doesn't it? Perhaps one of those old ones you used to play at the shop while waiting for your school bus in the mornings? You know the type, the multi-level adventure with stunningly lifelike cartoon characters and annoyingly simple sound effects, presented in the latest hi-tech 2-d format of the time. Yes, it sure does conjure up memories.

But no, I am not talking about arcade games, but the games people - specifically medical professionals, are playing with the lives of other people - their patients. There are a few of these in this spectrum, from the shrinks out there referring gay people to the fallacious "ex-gay" movement which falsely claims to turn gay people straight, to the quack surgeons who perform long-outdated gender reassignment surgery using bits of the victim's colon to form a vagina instead of the modern penile inversion technique - to the quacks sitting at the head of the DSM-V revision committee and doing their level best to screw it all up for everybody depending on it.

The keystone of this gripe for me is the revision to the classification of transsexuals from transsexuals to "HBS" - or "Harry Benjamin Syndrome".

Bringing Up Bigots

Yesterday I came across a blog detailing much of the same prejudiced and skewed thinking as resides in the pages of James Dobson's "Bringing Up Boys", in which the writer laid out different ways to prevent her children from being "turned gay" by exposure to "gay TV programming" - which she referred to, most originally - as "furthering the homosexual agenda".

She clearly hates gay people and her hate simmers quite clearly on her blog. Well, she can say and think what she likes - after all, it is her blog. I wouldn't stop her from making herself look stupid, it's her right to do so and she does deserve it.

This woman proudly listed some items of questionable authenticity and even relevance in her lead article such as the following:

Does Equality Of One = Oppression Of Another?

Groups such as Focus on the Family are not "family" organizations, even though they certainly claim to be.

 

Without a doubt, they would dispute my statement, but you see, their claim can be proved false simply by analyzing their approach to family life. 

 

Are groups such as these intent on preserving family life as it is - or are they intent on enforcing an unrealistic ideal which happens to suit their personal religious "world view"? Were their claim true, would they not be nurturing the families that happen to exist out there, supporting them, instead of cracking down on family types they happen to dislike, refuse to recognize as families, and drive wedges between family members?

A Very Gay Agenda Indeed

Who in the pink community hasn't heard stories of the "homosexual agenda"? I know the first time I heard about it, my first thought was "WTF?" - but seriously now, there are some people and groups of people out there who really think it exists. We all know the type, the maniacal wing-nuts who can't even bring themselves to use the word "gay" and use the insulting alternative "homosexual" instead. The whack-jobs and nut-cases that claim gay people are 'sinners' who could just 'choose' to be straight on a whim and stop sinning, that they are 'anti-god' and after "special rights" and that we "recruit" through pedophilia and so on... because as they say "everybody" knows that the real "gay agenda" is that we are after their children. Who among us hasn't heard all the hateful, nasty and paranoid things they say about us?

Let's look at what they say the "homosexual agenda" is:

Broken Logic

Over the last week an "ex-gay" champion engaged me in an email debate over my "leading gay people to destruction" by taking them "further away from the light of God" and "into the ways of the world".

LOL.

I brushed aside images of being a transgender "Moses" (or "Moselina") leading the downtrodden masses across a candy-floss desert in my bright pink cape, imagining various forms of burning bush and grinning annoyingly from behind my false beard. Achoo.

Sex, Drugs And Diversity

"Gay activists are outraged after Xavier High School, a Catholic school in Albury, Australia published an anti-gay piece by a former student in its alumni newsletter. "Writing in a letter to the editor in the newsletter, former Xavier student Matt Price entreated “a world free from homosexuals”, who he said lived lives devoted to drugs and sex.

His letter called for businesses not to employ homosexuals, with Price revealing that he lobbies CEOs with his message." http://queersunited.blogspot.com/2009/07/australian-high-school-publishes-piece.html

Interesting.

To The Victors...

Recently some people have very publicly claimed that "There is certainly a logical link between homosexuality, pedophilia, incest and beastiality and other deviant behaviour".

Excuse me?

Where on earth do these people get their "facts" from which they proclaim with such absolute certainty?

Breaking News - Brought To You Freshly Broken

The other night East London zoo's famous gay penguins were on the Afrikaans news, having hatched an egg and begun nursing the chick as their own. 

 

I cannot help to wonder what the viewing majority was thinking or saying, but I can guess that in some conservative homes it was probably something like "Gay penguins! The end is nigh!"