Passion, Perception And Prejudice

Today is another day I find myself facing accusations that I 'hate Christians'. The source of this accusation, undoubtedly, is some of the posts I circulate on Facebook - posts which unmask Christian hatred for the 'other' - that is, for non-Christians and LGBT people, also atheists, Pagans and people who worship other gods.

Manic Street Preacher With Huge Appetite 'Eats Witches For Breakfast'!

Let me tell you about my morning. 

 

Two things have absolutely pissed me off and ruined my mood for the day. One was more just a case of inconvenience. The other... well, the other was more of a literal slap in the face from both the other people I was surrounded by - and from the officials of SARS itself.

Let me start at the beginning.

 

I went to SARS (the 'tax man' for my non-local friends) at 6:45 am, thinking I'd be near the front of the queue. I was number 6, which is not bad, considering I was number 13 yesterday - but then today we waited and waited and waited and waited ...and waited and waited - watching SARS people to-ing and fro-ing and not actually doing anything much - until 815 am, when a chap eventually turned up to give us our numbers. 

 

That's 2 hours of standing, with no benches, no shelter against inclement weather (which there wasn't, fortunately) and no toilet facilities - and if you leave the queue, you lose your place. Unless you're the sort who just pitches up out of the blue and claims you "were here" two hours ago.

 

Oh, right. You were the invisible man?

My Public Appeal To Christians Worldwide

Good morning, Christian. I want to talk to YOU about YOUR role in the modern world. As we speak, millions of lives are in the balance, the world over. They have been for quite some time, but right now, this article isn't so much about them as it is about YOU.

...And That's A Wrap!

My pet gripe for today is religious bullies: 

Today I went and had some gifts wrapped at a little stall at a local shopping mall. I ignored the overtly Christian material draped all over the table the lady who was wrapping the gifts was sitting at, smiled and asked her to wrap my gifts. She agreed. I asked her how much it would cost. She told me she would take a donation for her non-profit organization that puts together food parcels for the poor and sickly including cancer patients in Port Elizabeth. 

I thought that his would work out rather well as an act of charity, and agreed.

Only YOU Can Save The World (If Not You, Who Else?)

I was most fortunate to have two friends who were Methodist ministers, both very open-minded and very loving people. 

They frequently took heavy fire for being welcoming of gay folks, and even people of other faiths, and for standing up against haters in their own ranks. 

The fact that I left Christianity to follow a Pagan path never meant that they weren't my friends any more, or that they suddenly would try to change me. Instead, they continued to be good friends. It's always a pleasure to count Christians like that among my friends. But what about the others?

SAPS 'Occult Related Crimes Unit': A Christo-fascist Threat To Religious Minorities In South Africa

Over the past week a serious issue has come to light over the reformation of the SA Police's "Occult Related Crime" units. In a press release last week, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance, representing the Pagan community of South Africa, revealed that the SAPS is forming these units to address so-called "occult related crimes", based on information obtained from a SAPS internal memo. 

The Right Fundamentals?

The question often arises in my mind, when dealing with biblical literalists and fundamentalists, exactly WHAT their fundamentals are? What is it that makes them stand at the head of a crowd and whip them into a frenzy, spitting hatred for others - and doing so in the name of a god they claim is a god of love, and who is the personification of this all too cheap, commercialized emotion?

Self-Hatred Is Not Therapy

My good friend Tanya and I were having a chat yesterday. She's a straight Christian friend to a pan-romantic transsexual dark Pagan - me. Our chat took the direction of discussing Christian gay people who believe they are condemned to Hell because of their inborn sexuality. I thought I would add my two cents using some information I have been collecting over a number of years, pretty much because I have been fighting a war of words with people who seek to condemn gays, lesbians, bi's and transgender people to "Hell" from a "Christian" perspective.

The Burning Question

A general look at similarities between some persecuted minority groups in SA, based upon differences in  race, sexual orientation, and religion or spiritual beliefs - and the similarities in the methodology of their persecution.

In this article I will broadly discuss my perception of the current situation in South Africa, in conjunction with general reference to "the Stanton Report", a model which assesses the make-up of a genocide, and to which the UN also refers. Broadly, the Stanton Report, developed and presented to the UN in 1996, demonstrates the different stages of the development of social discrimination into a full-blown genocide. There are 8 of these stages in the model, and these show how the removal of civil rights and legal protections of a social minority group is usually followed by vilification and persecution of that group, and that the persecution of the group is the real intended goal of removing such legal protections in the first place. 

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

WARNING - contains honest opinion of the author about ChristianISM (i.e. Christian terrorism), righteous indignation, and some good, down to earth home truths. 

The willfully ignorant may be offended.

Sun Stroke

Everybody have a nice Christmas? Ever think about the tradition and where it comes from? I did, and decided to find out. I must say, what I found reinforced my misgivings about organized religion, after all, Christmas is a good time to point out Christian hypocrisy - "peace on Earth and goodwill to all 'men'" soon turns to "take all you can" and "hang 'em high!" and "it's God's will".

Cult Of The Poison Tongue

While I am not afraid to take on religion in my articles - it is on issues of persecution, prejudice and bigotry - and especially ignorance and hypocrisy that I usually write. While I am often critical of some religious groups, and evaluate the value and worth of religious doctrine and analyze the potential accuracy and truth and application of religious scriptures - and the conduct of those who claim to live by them - I do not attack ALL people or ALL Christians - just the hypocrites, the liars and the bigots. Prime recent examples of these are the people in Uganda getting ready to commit genocide in the name of religion, or is that the other way round?

Doing The 'I Told You So' Two-Step

There are people out there, who while being born with the same needs and feelings as everybody else, are not treated the same as everyone else. These are people who always have to fight bigotry and prejudice in order to get ahead and compete with other people on the world stage - just to have the same standing in life as others. There are people out there who want to do what everybody else out there takes for granted - they would like to marry the people they love.

While there are those who are quite happy to take their wedding vows in the dilapidated facilities at the local Home Affairs department, whose tiny wedding chapel (at least in my home town) has only one entrance - which is in the crowded and noisy foyer filled with bored and frustrated people standing in long queues all day (but I have to admit I am not one of them). A wedding is an occasion of personal significance and import, deserving of at least some dignity and respectability. Churches generally ask fees and monies for services rendered, there is no getting away from that - but it seems that no matter how much money you may have available to spend on your wedding - at some churches, if you are gay and want to get married, your money isn't good enough - and it seems, neither are you.

This often causes me to wonder how "Christian", or should I say "Christ-like" some churches really are?

Suffering In The Darkness Of Ignorance

Over the past weekend I received another taste of the hatred and intolerance which people hold against their fellow human beings. That this person sent their hate mail to me via an email address of the organization I represent in my home town, indicates to me that this person must live in the same place - and the timing of this, for various reasons which I will not go into here, even more so. It saddened me that much more, especially at a time while I have already been saddened by the loss of a particularly inspiring mentor and minister, who gave selflessly and worked for the inclusion of all people into the family of God. 

I am also sad to say that I was unsurprised that this hatred came from a person professing Christianity - a faith which holds a loving father-figure God as its tradition and core belief, as well as loving each other selflessly after the pattern set by Christ. This message seems all too rare in modern Christianity, doesn't it? Especially when you face hatred and intimidation such as this on a regular basis.

March Hares And April Fools

Since the April 22 Election in which it got its chronometers soundly cleaned, the right wing Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) has been quiet - dare I say "silent as a tomb"? No press statements since April. No more boisterous squawking in nauseating radio ads about gay people being "enemies of Christianity" and a "threat to the family" or rabid press releases aimed at the government for the folly of including human rights of gay people in the Constitution and "dethroning almighty God" in favor of the rule of mere human law. 

 

In fact, short of one or two blog posts by one of its fearless leaders, Colin Fibiger - obviously on the inseparable issues of religion and politics, and suggestions on training the youth to "know better” next time, there has been no visible activity on their part. I'm thinking they ran out of a lot more than cash at the end of the elections - they ran out of supporters, interest - and credibility as well.

Flexible Morality

Ever notice how often human rights come under the attack of groups like Christian Action Network and Family Policy Institute lately? 

 

They have a unique name for human rights advocacy, and the notion that all human beings deserve to be treated equally, or with compassion, or justice, these fundamentalist radicals - they call it "secular humanism" and they call it a religion - just as they claim that atheism is also a religion, in spite of an absence of BELIEF or FAITH. How an absence of apples still counts as apples to these cretins is unclear to me, but be that as it may, by their contributions to the rat-infested storehouse of radical fundamentalist barely-literary material, you will see they are certainly not overly fond of the concept.

Indecent Exposure

It is quite cute how some people can glory in being ignorant. Have you ever noticed how they seize upon junk-science they find on the Internet, put there by their equally ignorant compatriots - and claim "I win!" when it is as fake as their faith and their claim to worship and follow a loving God who is supposed to have created - and to therefore love - all of us?

A Change Of Heart

Christianity - the lifestyle choice that elevates one to a position from where you can look down on everyone else, and point out their mistakes - and everyone who disagrees is automatically "evil", "anti-God" and a "heretic", a "deviant" - or a threat to "the family", and somehow less of a human being for it.

This is how a friend of mine put it: "Very true - even of "good" Christians who claim to hate the sin but love the "sinner". "No, you're not evil, but your acts are evil." Evil. Good. Evil. Good. When will people just be able to accept reality as it truly is?"

When people stop fearing the dark as some representation of evil and see it as a shadow, an absence of light, and also a consequence of it.

Going Mental

I know this guy, see? He's a local, claims he's a Christian - belongs to all the "right" clubs and parties - supports the CDA, ACDP, CP, UCDP - in fact any political party in South Africa with a "c" in it - okay, except possibly for THAT one. 

 

This bloke hates gay people and loves to point out all the usual verses in his holy book that support his misogyny. On his more lucid days he claims he doesn't, though you can see it right through the beatific smile on his face. On his worst days he admits to his hate and promotes the death penalty for gay people and then shifts the blame by claiming "it's not my fault - the bible tells me so". 

 

This man is proud of - and even brags about - being a Christian fundamentalist.

Oh... Fundamentalists!

Satan's Package

A Facebook friend left the following comment on my wall the other day:

"My girlfriend is an 'ex-miracle'. Her step family used to parade her around to their circle of churches and proclaimed to anyone that would listen that she was "HEALED" of being a lesbian. I have since been called (by these same family members) "SATANS PACKAGE".  

 

I have to wonder at their arrogance - they proclaim an all powerful God, and yet don't trust him enough to create people as He sees fit. They feel that they need to spend their lives trying to 'fix' what He created so that we all fit into perfect Christian-shaped blocks to make THEM feel acceptable. If God wanted robots he would have created robots... a whole world full of happy-clappy, heterosexual, hymn singing, judgmental pharisees."

Very true, very fitting and very well said.