Lessons Learned - Or Not

The yearly Sexpo in Cape Town has once again drawn the ire of fundamentalist Christians in the city, notably one little group calling itself the "Christian Action Network" (CAN), whose spokesman Taryn Hodgson, once again laid into the organizers and those supporting the Sexpo with all the might and thunder she could muster.

Some may remember this group as the one whose leader (Peter Hammond) along with another member of this group, co-authored a hate-filled book called 'the Pink Agenda' - which was no more than a piece of homophobic propaganda filled with hysterical fearmongering and junk-science not worth the paper it was printed on, intended to incite hatred against the pink community in SA. 

 

Back in 2001 this made national headlines - but more recently this group has been reduced to taking on other issues vital to the South African Christian extremist, issues of such import as abortion, and "blasphemy" in the media, and people watching (boring) soft porn on late night TV in the privacy of their own homes - and who can forget their main grudge, that their god has been left out of the Constitution and consequently, the government. 

Boo hoo.

Some rather odd and insubstantial claims were made in the media by this group that the content of the show was detrimental to women and encouraged abusive behavior and rape and so on. 

 

Of course, the fine-print is that Sexpo is really about people expressing their sexuality in a healthy and wholesome way rather than hiding it in shame, or blushing, or saying ten 'hail Mary's' every time they think of a member of the opposite sex without clothes on - but of course, this is considered 'sinful', 'immoral' and (cough) 'depraved' by the grouchy people who wear their underwear far too tight, namely Christian Action Network - whose reason for objecting to this event seems curiously yet unsurprisingly tainted with religious posturing and smoke blowing. 

 

Interesting, don't you think? That they focused on the needs of women only? No mention of the negative aspects of the sex industry which may affect men? Or of the overwhelmingly positive aspects such as many of the products or services featured at the Sexpo are aimed at people with healthy sex lives and relationships - and aimed at keeping them so.  And of course, the thought would never occur to them that women actually enjoy sex - or that they should be free to do so. But then, these folks are generally the type who frown on sex as a hole - um, whole (blush) - other than for purposes of procreation, probably while thinking of Jesus - and it is most certainly not something people should talk about outside the bedroom - 'skuus, dominee.

Seems to me the fundamentalist nutters are keen on crying "wolf" every time some opportunity comes along to pretend their religion is "under attack". "Christians find this offensive." "Christians find that offensive." Oddly enough, they never seem to find religion being forced down children's throats in public schools on the tax-payer's dime offensive - but then, it's generally their religion being pressed through the funnel, isn't it? 

They never seem to find it offensive when someone is gay-bashed, or some pompous twit at Home Affairs declines to do their job and register a gay couple's marriage certificate for "religious reasons".

Is it just me, or is their sense of scale or priorities skewed? Disproportionately?

 

The sexpo they complained so vehemently about wasn't televised live, nor was anyone forced to go and look at the dildos on display, or to sample any lubricant or flavored edible condoms. And yet I am sure these nice, perfectly rational folks would be surprised to find many Christians among those attending the Sexpo. Well, Christians have sex too, don't they? Otherwise they would all have died out long ago *wink* surely? Otherwise how do Christians reproduce? Do they recruit - say, like in schools?

Seriously though, this tiny group seizes every chance it can to speak for ALL Christians while freely attacking other people and groups which in fact have NOTHING to do with them or their narrow view of their own religion at all. And funnily enough, despite their vocal campaigning in this one issue, the vast majority of Christians - even the fanatics (to their credit) - ignored them flat.

The religious fundamentalist right wing in SA (like it is in it's motherland, the USA) is curiously obsessed with sex, defending the so-called 'traditional family', declaring war on gay people while focused on taking over the government - and deciding what other people can or can't do in the privacy of their own homes. Frankly I am surprised I didn't see a poster there proclaiming "Parents - DO your children KNOW you are having SEX?". Haai sies!

In the end, after all this posturing, talking of doom and gloom, wailing and gnashing of teeth, only 12 supposedly "Christian" protesters turned up to demonstrate at the entrance for about half an hour - and all that their negative publicity achieved was to attract even more visitors to the Sexpo than last year. (15000 on that day!) Hmm. 

 

There is a lesson in there somewhere - for those without blinkers on, of course.

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