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.

Survival Of The Oldest

What came first? Gay and trans people or religion? Far from setting off another "chicken or the egg" debate, I'm being quite serious. What is the answer? Well, since we are a part of the human species, it is fairly obvious to me that we did, long before some bright, inspired person invented gods and a need to believe in something - or to make up stories to threaten the kids to eat their yak-butter or the Great Glarp would come and steal them away in the darkness.

These days, there are many enemies of human rights, equality and the right of everyone to walk freely as equals together. Of these, there are Pride, Envy, Hatred - but to me, the worst at the present time, is religion - specifically in our case in the West and South - the Christian Church, a sprawling body of mis-matched groups that can often not agree on a single thing - except on who to hate, persecute and oppress.

Us.

Broken Glass

Recently I was asked to write a review of a movie, something which turned out to be far more of a pleasure than a chore. It is something I really enjoyed doing, and I thank Anna from the studio and the director, Gustavo Camelot for the opportunity. With that, here is my review:

Broken Glass, a film by The Seventh Bottle Films, 2009.

It's Our Turn Now

If I can accept into church a straight person who may be a gambler, a closet alcoholic - or a tattoo artist or shellfish salesman, why do some take issues with us for being gay, bi, transgender or intersex?

Did we make ourselves? They believe God made everyone - except us. Somehow, we were supposedly responsible for making ourselves. We are in their eyes, illegitimate - while they see themselves as blessed, righteous and perfect.

Hypocrisy.

I will say it again: HYPOCRISY.

Because they think we will not stand up for ourselves. Because they think nobody else will take our part. Because they have forgotten the church is God's house - and they are NOT God.

Revival of the Fittest

Its not that God isn't a God of love, patience, kindness etc... it's just that some people who claim to follow God aren't - and see fit to single others out - but not themselves.

While I have been a Christian and now consider myself an agnostic and spiritual, I differ personally in my views of the value of the bible as any form of authority as it has been shown to have been manipulated and edited to suit those who use it as an instrument of control. This is of course, a point which is actively disputed by those who happen to agree with points of view which are bolstered and encouraged by these manipulations, mistranslations and other errors in a document which many would use as a rule-book by which to live, run society, judge others, and even condemn people to death.

Let me make it clear in no uncertain terms that that document, while having value as a set of rough guidelines and inspirational verse, is not infallible, inerrant or even an authority.

Shout Louder

In 2008 a journalist working for the Sunday Sun wrote an article which insulted gay people and women, encouraged conservatives to remove the rights of gay people from the SA Constitution, and also thumbed his nose at the Human Rights Commission by saying that he would never be made to apologize. More than two years later, it seems Jon Qwelane has been proved right.

Not only has it taken two years for this man to be charged for his offensive publications, but now that the Human Rights Commission has finally managed to get the process to the point where it can go to court, Mr Qwelane suddenly 'cannot be traced' to be served with notice that he should appear in court - effectively holding up the whole process.

Where, I wonder, is Mr Qwelane? Perhaps the tracers diligently searching for him have been asking in the wrong places. Have they asked the Government?

Lead, Follow Or Get Out Of The Way

Herewith an exclusive special offer - Full Membership of the Methodist Church of South Africa - if you are straight, perfect and sinless - and 2nd Class Membership if you happen to be gay and desperate enough to put up with our hypocritical bullshit to enter the House of God (cough, cough) - but that's just because we can't actually ban you (on account of that annoying Constitution), so we'll just let you in and annoy you, exclude you while seeming to include everybody, keep you at a distance and shame you into eventually going away when you get sick of bashing your head on that well-placed glass ceiling. 

 

Welcome to the Methodist Church of South Africa, where we take the Christ out of Christianity for the sake of our convenience.

The Judas Church

In a shameful turn of events, the Methodist Church of South Africa has today betrayed the trust of all its non heterosexual members and supporters - and its foundational message of inclusive worship - by upholding the guilty verdict handed down at an earlier internal hearing which discontinued the services of Methodist minister Ecclesia de Lange - a Methodist minister who is also a gay woman for daring to marry her partner albeit in another church.

The Methodist Church of South Africa has thus fumbled a perfect opportunity to right past wrongs, to truly show a meaningful welcome to the pink community in its ranks - and has instead chosen to compound them by affirming instead rejection and bigotry.

Now all GLBTI people know that the leadership of the Methodist Church of South Africa is not welcoming and affirming - but is merely tolerant - and only tolerant up to a point of law.

Bonfire Of The Diversities

A few very interesting things have grabbed my attention in the international news this week and I thought I would mention them here.

Right at the top of the list, possibly because I am transgender myself, I want to mention that "France has become the first country in the world to declassify transgenderism as a mental illness. A health minister signaled the change would be made last May and this was confirmed last week by a government decree." And about bloody time too! I can't wait to see which countries will follow this sterling example.

Local Is Lekker

"Where is the other sock?", "how much string is in a sweater?" and "how many homophobes does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Ah, the philosophical questions in life...

The maddening questions are as cryptic as the answers themselves, being: "not with the one you are holding", "all there is" and as for the homophobes, the answer is "two - it is difficult for one to screw by itself - even for a gifted homophobe".

Now that this little matter is all but cleared up, let's look at another. This weekend, our newly crowned Mr Gay South Africa (TM) was crowned Worldwide Mr Gay 2010. That's right, Charl van den Berg is now effectively Mr Gay World.