Christianity - The Fundamentals

Quite a long time ago, in fact more than a thousand years ago, the Christian church was very different. 

 

In some ways, it really was a bit persecuted and outnumbered by other older religions - not at all in the elevated and privileged and powerful position it holds worldwide today. Before it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, it had little power and sway over those who followed it and gathered in their own small independent little community churches. 

 

It was young and still learning the ways of control and mass manipulation. It was not yet in full agreement with itself on the dogma and scriptures it used in those days, in fact, every little church had its own particular favorite gospel - some even used the 'Gospel of Mary Magdalene', who was even viewed as one Christs Apostles - and many of these gospels were not the ones in today's bible. It was not centrally controlled and neither was the book today called the bible. In fact, back then, there was no bible. It was a loose assortment of books - and there were many more of them than those contained in the present bible used today.

In fact, even as recently as one century ago, there were stark differences in the bible and the number and names of books contained in it.

The Dogs Of War

When the new SA Constitution became fact and law back in the early 90's, discrimination in South Africa against gay and transgender people instantly passed into history and lore.

No?

You don't agree?

Why not?

If you are one of the folks who think I have been smoking my underwear and you insist that "of course we have equality now" - let me point out the following:

Bigot Speak With Forked Tongue

One of the biggest tragedies and obstacles facing gay and transgender people today is feeling too insecure or threatened to come out when we are young - and this is the best time to do so. This is one of the things that will change when education bears fruit one day, but for now the fight for acceptance and equality still rages. That is why we must continue the battle for our civil rights, equality and acceptance - so that others who come after us do not have to live a lie in order to survive - or to face the obstacles which we who are walking this path now have faced.

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!"

Paranoia, Guns, & Christian Fundamentalist Groups In SA

Recently while looking over the postings on the links page of a group affiliated to a larger local anti-gay hate group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianview/links), I found the following items:

"! A great site about Survival Survivalism Homesteading plus Firearms A website with a huge amount of info about wilderness survival, survival Training, survival skills, homesteading, preparedness, survival Navigation, survival First aid, self defense, survival books, survival guides, survivalism, firearms, handguns, rifles, shotguns, ammunition, military manuals, us army manuals, navy manuals, marine manuals, survival books, survival manuals, survivalist, survival Navigation, survival First aid, Army Survival Manual, survival Shelter, survival retreat, Survival priorities, Other survival skills, desert survival, Natural disaster survival, tornadoe survival, Hunting, Bushcraft, underground shelters, Survival knife, storing food, fallout shelters, survivalists, Civil Defense, nuclear war survival, nuclear survival, terrorist attacks survival, Bug Out Bag, BOB, survival Training, sere, patriots, sere manual, military guides, backpacking, camping, combat, disaster, emergency, emergency kits, http://www.survivalebooks.com/

! A very nice Survival plus gun forum called survivalismforum.com They have neat info about how to get concealed weapons licenses permits CCW survival gun info survival retreats how to's wilderness survival wilderness skills survivalist info survivalism info homesteading info gold mining gold prospecting military manuals gun manuals survival manuals and army field manuals army technical manuals."

Surprisingly both items were posted by a woman - and a straight (presumably) Christian fundamentalist! Now I have to ask myself: Is somebody expecting a war?

 

Should we?

Cross This Line

On several occasions supporters of the ACDP, a right wing SA political party which can only be described as religious fundamentalist (if not actually outright totally bonkers) have claimed that the party bears no ill will to gay or trans people (in their words, "homosexuals") in the country - and that we have nothing to fear should they ever come to power.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

I wish I could believe them - but there is far too much openly visible hatred and intolerance in the ACDP - which I have seen first hand - and the rest of the world has been able to see even in their press releases addressing the GLBT community or our issues for anyone with two eyes and half a brain to even take that statement seriously!

The facts say otherwise.

What Do We Really Want?

Often there is dissent among people loosely grouped together in the GLBTI community who feel the interests of the whole do not serve their particular needs. In fact some have been downright negative and acerbic in their criticism of the whole community and even gone so far as to vent hatred against fellow members of the community. It is possible they do this because they feel they have been hard done by, but it is also likely that they are just a bunch of sour old farts who see a pink community that is today far more cohesive than it was in the past - and have some sour grapes about it.

Put Your Tranny Wheels On!

Let me start today's post by saying as a passable post-op male to female transsexual that in the war for acceptance, tolerance and civil rights for transgender people, it is our obvious, stereotyped and non-passing transgender sisters out there who are the bravest of us all.

Lead, Fight Or Get Out Of The Way - Pick One!

Please excuse me, but today I am going to rant a little.

Okay, a lot.

A Matter Of Perpective

Can anyone give me a satisfactory explanation why the media calls a man convicted of raping a 4 year old girl a "child rapist" - and a man convicted of raping a 4 year old boy gets labelled a "pedophile", when pedophilia knows no gender, whether referring to either victim or perpetrator? 

 

Is this not either journalistic ignorance - or a blatant attempt to reinforce the right wing image of gay people as "pedophiles"?