Are Good Christians 'Too Forgiving'?

Are good Christians "too forgiving"?

That's quite an interesting question, especially if you look at the "inerrant' scriptures which set the precedent for "turning the other cheek". 

 

Why do I think "good" Christians might be too forgiving? For that matter, why do I think there might be Christians who are not good, but bad? Why indeed?

'The homosexuals are coming! The homosexuals are coming!'

Yesterday I received an incredibly long-winded and frantic response from Errol Naidoo - a man who sits at the head of a one-man show called "the Family Policy Institute" based in Cape Town, with offices apparently right across the road from Parliament. This is to keep his eyes on them, of course - both of them, just in case those sneaky homosexual activists and their liberal allies try to sneak (or is that "rail-road") some pro-gay legislation into Parly.

 

Chuff...chuff...woo...wooo.

 

Er, sorry.  

 

Coming back to the email from Mr. Naidoo, it seems the email campaign to demonstrate our objection to his attack on Cape Town Tourism for supporting the city as a gay and gay-friendly tourist destination must have struck a nerve somewhere. For one thing, in the space of just two A4 pages, he used the word "homosexual" no less than 22 times! 

 

My, my - his feathers must really have been ruffled.

Doublethink

I recently learned of the South African government’s pandering to religious fundamentalist groups, and began warning of this threat to civil rights and freedoms as protected by the Constitution. Just this week, I saw a news article announcing further confirmation of this collusion between the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in particular, and the religious right wing - in the form of the "Justice Alliance of South Africa" (JASA).

It reminds me of the old National-Party government and the Apartheid regime, for people to work to introduce censorship - particularly censorship based on the shaky ground of religious objection - into a modern constitutional secular democracy. In fact, to me it bears the same stink of the totalitarianism of Nazi Germany and the old Soviet Union - and in places like Zimbabwe, where it is illegal to even criticize the president.

The Justice Alliance of SA is a small fringe group of religious fundamentalists masquerading as a bona fide legal interest group - but with clear ulterior motives to further a conservative and theocratic agenda which will deprive the broader public of freedoms and liberties they now take for granted.

Churches, Always Keep It Real - Remember, I'm Watching You

Have you seen this? Billboards and media coverage all over Johannesburg. Go have a look now - this is what you will see:

"Men be men. Women be women.

Real men are in short supply. Children are missing them. Women are missing them. The city is missing them. And what is a real man anyway? Boozing with the boys, posing at the gym, looking slick in a suit, or sipping herbal tea during a facial? Will the real man please step forward! Drawing from the book of Proverbs, this series will help men be men, women be women."

The participating churches as listed are:

"GODFIRST

KEYSTONE CHURCH

URBAN LIFE

SANDTON CITY CHURCH

JUNCTION CHURCH

CITY LIFE CHURCH

EASTSIDE CHURCH"

Wow, that's really arrogant.

Fear & Loathing In Uganda

On Friday, news came to me that I didn’t like to see. What was it, you may wonder? It seems that a year after Uganda passed a new law to make criminals out of gay people, they are debating an upgrade to this law that will give them far greater power over the private lives of their own people, including the authority to murder people simply for who they are.

The Anti Homosexuality Bill ensures virtual complete authority of the Ugandan government over what people are, think, say, feel or do, where or why they do it, or who they do it with - or who knows about it and doesn't tell. It goes further to make people who do not act against gay people in a hostile fashion, criminals as well. It in effect makes being born gay, or not thinking the same way bigots do, a very, very dangerous fate indeed.

This obscene and outrageously inhuman law gives flesh to the bones of the meaning behind the saying: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their governments – governments should be afraid of their people.” Reading the wording of the proposed Bill, I cannot stress the irony behind this strongly enough.

Let’s take a look inside this monstrous device:

White Noise

I saw an article yesterday about our friend Julius Malema - yes, him - the same genius who as President of the ANC Youth League, made the statement that because there is no such equivalent word in Sepedi, hermaphrodites do not exist and that the "concept" is being forced on African culture by "imperialists".

The originator of this gem of idiocy has just found out the cost of rushing into making ignorant statements like a bull in a china shop - adding fuel to an already roaring fire.

The Rapport newspaper yesterday ran an article which featured enlightening comments from some learned individuals who would dare to dispute this all-knowing oracle. According to one, who is a senior lecturer at the Wits School of Languages in Johannesburg - Ms. Thelma Tshebane, told The Star that the Sepedi word for hermaphrodite is - “setabane”.

Apparently this word is considered insulting or offensive and is "kept away from children".

Storm Clouds Gather

One of my main arguments over the past few years has been that the pink community should involve itself in government, politics, religion etc so that those who act against our equality and human rights cannot make a move without it getting past us first. Few groups could embody or give form to my fears for South Africa than the ubiquitous ACDP.

Another strange (yet unrelated) thing I have noticed is the number of representatives of certain bigot religious groups who seem to want to "meet me for coffee" lately. I suppose they have figured out that threatening letters and hate mail don't work on me.

Herd Instinct

I was invited to join a Facebook group touting a nationalistic Afrikaner line about independence of the "boerevolk". Offhand though, I honestly couldn't think why. I mean, isn't that a bit like being invited to join a fan group set up to adore the most infamous "little corporal" in history?

 

It was very kind of them to think of me, but I simply had to decline - which I did by leaving a short message which would be my first and last post there.

"Come on guys, quit trying to divide SA even more than it is already - the Boer War ended a hundred years ago - catch a wake up!" I typed.

 

Nevertheless, this baffling and outlandish event served to prompt some deeper thought on the subject.

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.

Divide And Conquer

All arguments aside about whether being gay is a sin or not - what about those Christians who take it upon themselves to persecute gay people?

We could debate another year, and for another year people who call themselves Christians and who yet hate gay and trans people could reject all evidence to show gay and trans people are as natural as heterosexual people, as well as rejecting all reasonable religious alternatives to the choice some make to hate or to love us in the name of the same God we also love and who also loves us. But let us put that aside for a moment, and narrow it down to response.

How do you as Christians respond to other people?

The Shuffling Of Feet

Is being gay or trans a sin? After all it is how we are born and if you believe God made everything, including humans then you have to believe that He made us as well. How is being born gay a sin any more than being born straight? Either way, sex still comes into the equation because of our innate human nature, but that is another matter for another day.

Needless to say, if it is a sin, well then - most good things in life are and have been called "sinful" - so what?

Bang, Bang - My Pastor Shot Me Down...!

I used to call myself a Christian all of my life, having being born into a loving Christian family and been "born again" when I was 12. I spent all my adult life believing in a loving god - until I saw people say and do things I could not believe came from a heart supposedly changed by the living god - especially against people like me - in the name of this same god. 

 

While I do not believe that this God feels the way they do about GLBT people, this inexcusable HATE has most certainly set me against this contradictory fundamentalist sector of Christianity - and any religion - that chooses to persecute.

The Road To Heaven Is Paved With Hell

Taking on the immense hate there is out there for gay and transgender people is a very, very difficult thing to do. You open yourself up to all sorts of attack, both verbally and physically - in the online world and also in the real world.

In the past few years I have built up a small collection of what I call "fan mail" from "admirers" who have threatened - even from half the world away - to hurt me and even to kill me. Some of the lesser creative ones have even threatened legal action without any solid basis whatever for daring to tackle their unadulterated bigotry. Some of them would make pretty good one-liners, except they have no actual punchline. Just to cheer me up, I have also committed to memory the verbal threats and bullying I have been faced with in real life.

How The ANC 'COPEs' With Christian Fascism

What interesting developments in politics take place these days!

Yesterday Mr. Zuma, president of the ANC and also the man grooming himself to be president of South Africa after next month's election, addressed upon invitation, the Rhema Bible Church - known also for its blatantly homophobic stance.

In an article in the Burger today, Zuma claimed that the ANC received its "strong moral vision" from the church and that after the 2009 elections, the ANC would continue its partnership with religious groups.

He also invited churches to enter into dialogue with the government over matters such as same gender marriage and legalized abortion. So now it seems the ANC is siding with the fundamentalists and has invited this dialogue to address their views on same gender marriage and legal abortions, presumably to romance them for their vote.

What, I wonder, would be the purpose of dialogue on matters which are already written into law, except of course if there was a clear possibility that these matters may be written OUT of law?