Why We Should Be Taxing Churches

A piece in Slate makes a good case for why we should be taxing churches - all of them.  To the list of taxed organizations should be added in my opinion all of the quasi-religious organizations such as NOM, FRC, AFA, etc. , which are nothing more than propaganda organizations for extreme religious beliefs and which actively work against the rights and well being of other citizens.  Some might say that churches provide charitable relief to the poor and so forth.  If they can document these efforts, give them an exemption for funds actually spent on these endeavors but not on lavish church buildings and activities that do nothing to further the general welfare.  Here are highlights from the piece:

Amelia Thomson-Deveaux has a great piece about religious groups that are trying to remove restrictions on church-based electioneering. She suggests that rather than gutting the rules, there's a simple fix, "Religious leaders who want the liberty to endorse candidates can give up their churches’ tax deduction."

I would go one further. Let's tax churches! All of them, in a non-discriminatory way that doesn't consider faith or creed or level of political engagement. There's simply no good reason to be giving large tax subsidies to the Church of Scientology or the Diocese of San Diego or Temple Rodef Shalom in Virginia or the John Wesley African Methodist Episcopal Zion church around the corner from me. Whichever faith you think is the one true faith, it's undeniable that the majority of this church-spending is going to support false doctrines. Under the circumstances, tax subsidies for religion are highly inefficient.

What's more, even insofar as tax subsidies do target the true faith they're still a pretty bad idea. The basic problem with subsidized religion is that there's no reason to believe that religion-related expenditures enhance productivity.
Upgrading a church's physical plant doesn't enhance the soul-saving capacity of its clergy. You just get a nicer building or a grander Christmas pageant. There's nothing wrong with that. When I was young I always enjoyed the Grace Church Christmas pageant. But this is just a kind of private entertainment (comparable to spending money on snacks for your book club—and indeed what are Bible study groups but the original book clubs?) that doesn't need an implicit subsidiy.

Meanwhile, nobody thinks churches and other religious institutions should silence themselves on the important issues of the day. On the contrary, discussing moral action is at the heart of many religious enterprises. And much moral action plays itself out in the arena of politics. So trying to say that churches should get subsidy when they don't endorse candidates is de facto a kind of subsidy to religious doctrines whose views happen to lack strong partisan implications. So if your faith says "abortion should be illegal and spending on the poor should be increased and it's too bad neither candidate supports that" you're golden, but if your faith says "abortion should be legal and spending on the poor should be increased so good for Barack Obama" suddenly you're in trouble. That's perverse. Just make everyone pay taxes.

Yes, taxing churches would put some parishes and congregations out of business.   But why should I be indirectly subsidizing a religion that hates me or teaches in my opinion false views and lies?  Put churches out in the market place and let them compete like every other business - religion is, in truth big business, just look at Pat Robertson and the many sleazy televangelists who fleece people via cable TV on a weekly basis. If their "product" sells, they will survive.  If not, then they can end up on the trash heap of history.

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"Call to Disobedience" - An Effort to Change Catholicism

I often make the case that the only way to bring change to the Roman Catholic Church is to have large numbers of Catholics walk away and, most importantly, cease funding the Church hierarchy (a portion of every dollar given at the parish level goes to the local bishop and another portion goes to Rome under the Church's feudal power structure).  Throughout the Church's history, the loss of membership and money has been the only guaranteed means to fore change.  Nonetheless, there are some valiant individuals who are seeking to change the Church from within.  One such individual is Fr. Helmut Schüller who has just finished an American tour titled "Catholic Tipping Point."  One has to how soon before the Vatican tries to silence him.  Here are highlights from the National Catholic Reporter:

Fr. Helmut Schüller's "Catholic Tipping Point" tour of the United States ended where it began: in New York. He gave an address Wednesday evening in Manhasset and on Thursday, he visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, where he delivered thousands of red ribbons and signatures he collected in 15 cities across the nation.

In the last three weeks, Schüller traveled from the East Coast to the West, spreading a message of "disobedience" and church reform. In each city, Schüller preached the values of the "Call to Disobedience," a 2011 document published by the Austrian Priests' Initiative. His message includes opening the priesthood to women and married people. He also advocates for a stronger relationship between the church and Catholic gay couples.

Even before Schüller stepped foot in the United States, U.S. bishops tried to block him, he said, confirming that Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley and Dolan contacted Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, his bishop in Vienna, to prevent the tour.



The reaction by U.S. bishops is nothing new for the Austrian priest. "I was not surprised. It's familiar. I had heard it in Germany from the bishops there," Schüller said.

Schüller was formally banned from speaking on Catholic property in Boston, Detroit and Chicago, and the archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, said Schüller could not speak on archdiocesan property in the city. But the Sisters of St. Joseph welcomed Schüller to the Catholic venue of Chestnut Hill College, a move Chaput later said was "regrettable."

In his final speaking event Wednesday in Manhasset, Schüller used his experience in the United States to make his case for reform. In the United States, he said, "priests are totally reliant on the bishops for their livelihood. These are the methods of a dictatorship." Making his point, he said in Detroit, priests were forbidden to meet with him in their own homes.

This "top-to-bottom obedience" is evident even in the sacraments, Schüller said. Because "official sinners" are turned away from Communion, he said, "the Eucharist has become a symbol of exclusion." To erase this "symbol," divorced and remarried Catholics should be allowed to receive the Eucharist, he said.

Furthermore, the church's stance on gay relationships presents another challenge for parishes across the world, Schüller said, saying the church should be welcoming on this issue rather than exclusionary. The church should "concentrate on the quality of this partnership: fidelity, respect," he said, rather than focus on whether it is a homosexual or heterosexual relationship.

 Would that there were more voices like Schüller in the Church.

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Vatican Hypocrisy: Condemning Gays While Hoarding Gay Artist Masterpieces

While debate continues as to whether or not Pope Francis was signalling a new more accepting approach towards gays - I for one, unlike many breathless individuals who are deluding themselves, think that nothing has changed - many remain apparently oblivious to the abject hypocrisy of the Vatican.  Vatican City and churches across Rome are filled with remarkable art works done by, you guessed it, "inherently disordered" gays.  A piece in The Guardian looks at this disconnect on the part of both Pope Francis and the bitter old queens in dresses in Rome.  Here are some excerpts:

If Pope Francis wants to think more about this issue, he could do worse than take a tour of churches and galleries in Rome and the Vatican where, for centuries, gay artists have created the glories of the church.

In the Vatican museum he should contemplate Leonardo da Vinci's St Jerome in the Desert. An ascetic sits in anguished thought in a rocky wilderness in this unfinished masterpiece. It is a great, introspectively spiritual work of religious art whose creator was well known for his love of young men. Leonardo surrounded himself with good-looking assistants and painted a subversively gay icon of male beauty, his bronzed Saint John the Baptist. When da Vinci was in his 20s, he was formally accused of sodomy.

Brooding on these facts, the Pope might walk into the Pauline Chapel, to look upon Michelangelo's frescoes there. This chapel is in a private part of the Apostolic Palace not open to the public, but I don't think the Pope would find entry difficult. There, looking at the suffering of the saints, he might consider how Michelangelo courageously expressed his love for men, even as he created some of the most eloquent art of the church.

Is there no escape from this issue? Remembering that some art historians deny the so-called "calumny" that Caravaggio and his clerical patrons were gay, perhaps the Pope might visit the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi to look on this master's paintings of St Matthew. But the demons of desire cannot be suppressed. The naked male flesh in Caravaggio's paintings tells its own story. By the time Caravaggio came to Rome in the 1590s, Leonardo and Michaelangelo – not to mention the aptly named Italian painter Il Sodoma – had already blazed a gay trail through the art of the Holy City. Caravaggio made art dangerous and exciting again by taking that homosexual impulse to new extremes.

The Catholic church in its golden age knew this, and it commissioned the boldest and best, whatever the artist's personal lives.

Perhaps the honesty of Pope Francis will renew art history, for pious timidity blunts understanding of great art. In particular, the myth that gay sex did not exist in the past, or was too risky, or could not be imagined, is nonsense. By the 18th century, gay clubs existed across Europe. The gay scene in Georgian London was intense. Is it really plausible that all this was going on in 1700 but unimaginable in Caravaggio's Rome in 1600?

It is daft to deny the obvious homoeroticism of Leonardo or Caravaggio, and sophistry to claim that it's irrelevant to their art. The British Museum is leading the way by drawing attention to the gay content of its collections. The Pope should urge the Vatican to do the same. Let the church take pride in its gay artists.

A lot of these artworks are definitely homoerotic and give great attention to male bodies (the image below is an Italian painting of the Caravaggio style that hangs in our home).  Will what the columnist suggests the Vatican do to high light the works of gay artists happen?  Don't hold your breath. 

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The Catholic Church: RUN! Do Not Walk, to the Nearest Exit!

Father Geoff Farrow - who ran afoul of the Catholic Church hierarchy because of his support for gay rights and marriage equality - has a timely post on his blog that looks at the recent remarks by Pope Francis which some are foolishly trying to claim mark a new era for the Church's treatment of gays.  Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other Church documents, Farrow concludes that NOTHING HAS CHANGED.  Thus, if one is a gay Catholic, the best thing to do is head for the door.  As I tell those who contact me about coming out and finding self-acceptance, only a masochist would remain in a Church that teaches that one is inherently disordered.  Here are highlights from Farrow's post:

Yesterday my phone rang, it was a reporter from a news station in Fresno asking for an interview on the pope Francis’ statement on gay priests. Later, Telemundo called asking to arrange for a camera crew to interview me at home. I sighed as I poured myself a cup of coffee and then read through the statement.

Bottom line: It is a way of appearing to change everything without changing anything.

Substitute the word “straight” for “gay” and you begin to see the problem; in fact, whenever an issue arises regarding gender orientation, simply do that: Substitute the word “straight” for “gay.” Does the statement still make sense?

It only makes sense if you believe that being gay is somehow disordered or defective. The official teaching of the Catholic church is precisely just that. The Official Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2357 states:

Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Here is the translation of what the pope is saying in plain English, taken directly from the Catholic Catechism:

2359   Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

Bottom line:  "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." Under no circumstances can they be approved. Homosexual persons are called to chastity.

Forget whatever your sexual orientation is, could you live this way? Could you spend your entire life without intimately loving someone else? Could YOU?

Catholic moral theology isolates sex as “an act” and in doing this, it thereby effectively de-humanizes sex by removing it from its natural context, i.e. a relationship. 

At best, Francis is signaling a gentle course correction for Catholic bishops on this issue. When you’re an infallible institution, you can’t admit you made a mistake, you can’t admit that you have been wrong. Individual lives that are ruined or destroyed are unfortunate “collateral damage” that are sacrificed for the reputation of the institution.

But make no mistake, this pope’s congenial words offer ZERO relief for LGBT Catholics. They make no attempt to repair past evils inflicted on innocent people and so my advice is: leave! If you are LGBT leave the Catholic church, you can do better. If you are the parent or a family member of an LGBT person: leave! Your loved ones deserve better. If you are the parent of a child, leave! Your children absolutely deserve a healthier development. To raise an LGBT child in the Catholic church today constitutes de facto child abuse. 

I totally agree with his view that raising a gay child in the Catholic Church is de facto child abuse.  The same, of course, holds for the Southern Baptist Convention and other anti-gay denominations.  

 

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Cardinal: Pope Francis Did Not Signal A New Tone On Gays

I noted yesterday how some are either in tears or nearly wetting themselves over remarks made by Pope Francis which these wishful thinkers are interpreting to be a signal that the Roman Catholic Church is going to cease its anti-gay jihad.  Today, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York City, threw cold water on these wishful fantasies by saying that nothing has changed and that Francis only repeated official Church positions on gays - namely, that we need to repent and be alone and celibate for the rest of our lives.  Think Progress has details.  Here are highlights:

Tuesday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is also the archbishop of New York, sought to downplay the Pope’s comments. During an appearance on CBS’ This Morning, Dolan insisted that the Church has long embraced gay people and that Francis’ answer did not represent a new tone or establish a more liberal precedent.

“Homosexual acts,” he said, are still a sin. “Homosexuality is not a sin, right? Homosexual acts are,” Dolan said, “just like heterosexuality is not a sin outside of marriage, that would be sinful.” “While certain acts may be wrong, [the Pope] would always love and respect the person and treat the person with dignity and not judge them,” Dolan continued. 

But the Cardinal hasn’t always followed his own advice and has repeatedly condemned the rights of same-sex couples under the guise of love and support for the gay community.

After lobbying against New York’s marriage equality law, Dolan prohibited by decree any Church personnel or property from being utilized for same-sex marriage ceremonies under penalty of “canonical sanctions,” calling the state’s law “irreconcilable with the nature and the definition of marriage as established by Divine law.” He has also compared the “threat” posed to marriage by gays and lesbians to that of polygamy, adultery, forced marriage, communist dictatorships, and incest.
Despite his rhetoric, a majority of New York Catholics supported the marriage equality bill months before it came to a vote and still do. 

The porcine Dolan is a nasty piece of work and a prime example of why I left Catholicism after the sex abuse scandal exploded in 2002.

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Gay Tourists in Russia Could Now Face Two Weeks in Jail

Throughout the recent severe worldwide recession one of the most reliable tourism market segments has been the LGBT travel niche.  Many cities and countries have actively sought to boost their desirability as a destination for LGBT travelers.  Not Russia.   With the recently enacted anti-gay law signed into law by Vladimir Putin - in an apparent attempt to bolster his support from the reactionary elements in the Russian Orthodox Church - LGBT tourist should think twice above traveling to Russia.  Personally, I find it most unfortunate that the International Olympic Committee has not canceled plans for the 2014 Olympics to be held in Russia.  Shift Travel IQ looks at the risk of jail time now faced by LGBT tourists in Russia.  Here are highlights:

This is a warning for visitors and tourists wanting to travel to Russia. Anything considered pro-gay, from gay-affirmative speech, to gays holding hands in public, to even wearing rainbow suspenders is now illegal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law yesterday one of the most draconian anti-gay laws on the planet.

The new law, coming only seven months before Russia is to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi expecting visitors and tourists from around the world.

The law also contains a provision permitting the government to arrest and detain gay, or pro-gay, foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from the country. That provision ought to send chills to anyone gay, lesbians, bisexual or transgender who is planning to attend or participate in the Winter Olympics.

It is now literally illegal in Russia to say that you are gay. It is illegal to kiss your partner in public – say, after you win a gold medal. It is illegal for a gay athlete to wear the rainbow flag. Or even to acknowledge during an interview that they are gay – or for the foreign press to acknowledge it – unless they mention that gay sexual orientation in a negative way.

Then there’s the seemingly officially-sanctioned violence against gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Russia. It’s been made clear for years now that Russian government will turn a blind eye towards anti-gay violence, and many have alleged that the Russian government is actually behind such violence. Will gay Olympic athletes and gay Olympic fans be targeted for violence while in Russia? No one knows.

What we do know is that the International Olympic Committee’s response to the growing threat of violence against gay athletes and gay Olympics fans has been rather anemic to date.
More importantly, anyone thinking of attending the Olympics in Russia, a country that appears to be sinking fast into its old authoritarian ways, should stay home.

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Pope Francis' First Encyclical Continues Anti-Gay Jihad

Some people - who might be described as either overly optimistic or delusional depending on one's perspective (I opt for delusional) - had hoped that Pope Francis would usher in a new era in the Roman Catholic Church's protracted anti-gay jihad.   Those misplaced hopes were dashed when Pope Francis released his first encyclical entitled “Lumen fidei” or “The Light of Faith” which makes it clear that the pathological anti-gay animus of John Paul II and Benedict XVI will continue.  Again I ask gay Catholics why the remain involved in a Church which seeks to dehumanize them and depict them as "inherently disordered" and "evil?" Masochism is about the only  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this development.  Here are excerpts:

Pope Francis I just issued his first encyclical, chose former Pope Benedict XVI as his co-author, and chose to continue Benedict’s unhinged international holy war against same-sex marriage.

Benedict, as Pope, many times attacked same-sex marriage. Some thought Francis would focus more on less controversial issues and take the church back to its traditional home of caring for the poor, the sick, and the needy. Apparently, Francis has a different view than those who saw his elevation as a new time of unity for the Church.

What makes the encyclical all the more ridiculous is the fact that it argues that faith should be viewed as a "common good."  Apparently, Francis prefers to ignores the horrors done in the name of faith by his predecessors and the countless lives lost or destroyed thanks to people of faith.  Blind faith is a pernicious evil and provides the intellectually lazy and mentally disturbed with an all too easy justification for the harm they do to others.

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40 Years Later Catholic Church Apologizes for Lack of Compassion for Anti-Gay Arson Victims

Personally, I believe that when the scales are balanced, religion, particularly Christianity, has done more harm and ruined and destroyed countless more lives than it has saved or aided.  Put another way, Christianity and religion in general have proved to be a pestilence to mankind.  Hate, bigotry, discrimination and the out right murder of those of other faiths have sadly been the norm rather than the exception.  Even within the last decade an Anglican Archbishop i Africa is suspected of having ordered the massacre of over 600 men, women and children.  Making matters even worse, break away Episcopal parishes in America have aligned themselves with such hate-filled and murderous clerics.  A piece in the UK's Daily Mail looks at the Catholic Church's belated apology for its behavior following the Upstairs Loungearson attack that claimed 32 lives.  Here are article highlights:

New Orleans marked the 40th anniversary on Saturday of one of the saddest days of its history and a tragic event which is regarded as the largest mass murder of gay people in U.S. history.

The Upstairs Lounge arson attack occurred on June 24, 1973 when a flash fire tore through a gay bar in New Orleans’ French Quarter.   In less than 20 minutes, 32 people were killed, dozens more critically injured and those who managed to escape watched helplessly as friends and lovers burned to death before their eyes. 

At the time local politicians and religious leaders wanted nothing to do with it and little effort was made to bring whoever started the suspected arson to justice.  The powerful Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans at the time, Phillip Hannan, did not offer his support or sympathy to victims.

Now 40 years on, the event is gaining greater recognition for its significant role in the fight for greater rights for gay people.  This year’s milestone anniversary was marked with a special mass in New Orleans, while the current Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans has apologized for the church's silence over the tragic event.

'In retrospect, if we did not release a statement we should have to be in solidarity with the victims and their families,' Archbishop Gregory Aymond recently wrote in an email to TIME.   'The church does not condone violence and hatred. If we did not extend our care and condolences, I deeply apologize.'

New Orleans in the early 1970s was an extremely homophobic place as typified by the response of authorities following the fire.  Neither Mayor Moon Landrieu or any other government official made a public statement about the tragedy. 

The UpStairs Lounge fire was a seminal moment in the history of gay New Orleans and significant advancements have been made in the years since and now the city leads the South in extending civil rights to gay city employees. 

Other events being held to mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy include a lecture at the Historic New Orleans Collection, a jazz funeral procession from there to the site of the fire and even a musical. 

The city recognizes domestic partnerships for gay and straight couples, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu - son of Moon Landrieu - has issued an official certificate commemorating the anniversary of the fire, something that would have been unthinkable for his father to do at the time of the fire.

Better late than never is how the saying goes, but sadly, the Catholic Church is still preaching and disseminating the same anti-gay vitriol that helped create the mindset that caused 32 individuals to lose their lives with little or no response for government officials.  Religion is a form of poison that yields death and damaged lives as its principal fruits.

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Russian Winter Olympics To Embrace Gay Athletes Despite Anti-Gat Gag Law

Fanning the flames of homophobia may be a good way for Vladimir Putin's government to distract the Russian public from all of the things wrong under his rule and a way to curry favor with the gay-hating modern day Pharisees in the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church who long for a return to the 19th century, but the passage of insane anti-gay laws may be about to bit Russia in the ass big time as preparations continue for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  Already, Russia is facing blow back from the International Olympic Committee not to mention calls for a boycott of the Games due to the Russian Government's anti-gay policies.  The further irony, of course, is that the Olympics originated in Classical Greece when homosexuality was wide spread and aristocratic youths who did not have male lovers were considered abnormal.  Gay Star News looks at the rumblings coming from the International Olympic Committee.  Here are some highlights:

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will embrace openly gay athletes when it travels to Russia in 2014.
After the State Duma passed the ‘non-traditional relationships propaganda’ law by a unanimous vote yesterday (11 June), there are fears of repercussions when it comes to the Sochi Olympics.
While the legislation is not law yet, it is expected to easily pass in the Russian Senate and be legal by the end of the month.
Under the new ‘homosexual propaganda’ law, tourists deemed to be ‘promoting homosexuality’ could be arrested and deported.
Speaking to Gay Star News, an IOC spokesman said they were ‘concerned’ about the bill becoming law.
‘The IOC would like to reiterate our long commitment to non-discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games,’ they said.
‘The IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games.’
- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/russian-winter-olympics-embraces-gay-athletes-face-gay-gag-law120613#sthash.FC0esNTB.dpuf

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will embrace openly gay athletes when it travels to Russia in 2014.
After the State Duma passed the ‘non-traditional relationships propaganda’ law by a unanimous vote yesterday (11 June), there are fears of repercussions when it comes to the Sochi Olympics.
While the legislation is not law yet, it is expected to easily pass in the Russian Senate and be legal by the end of the month.
Under the new ‘homosexual propaganda’ law, tourists deemed to be ‘promoting homosexuality’ could be arrested and deported.
Speaking to Gay Star News, an IOC spokesman said they were ‘concerned’ about the bill becoming law.
‘The IOC would like to reiterate our long commitment to non-discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games,’ they said.
‘The IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games.’
- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/russian-winter-olympics-embraces-gay-athletes-face-gay-gag-law120613#sthash.FC0esNTB.dpuf

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will embrace openly gay athletes when it travels to Russia in 2014.
After the State Duma passed the ‘non-traditional relationships propaganda’ law by a unanimous vote yesterday (11 June), there are fears of repercussions when it comes to the Sochi Olympics.
While the legislation is not law yet, it is expected to easily pass in the Russian Senate and be legal by the end of the month.
Under the new ‘homosexual propaganda’ law, tourists deemed to be ‘promoting homosexuality’ could be arrested and deported.
Speaking to Gay Star News, an IOC spokesman said they were ‘concerned’ about the bill becoming law.
‘The IOC would like to reiterate our long commitment to non-discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games,’ they said.
‘The IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games.’
- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/russian-winter-olympics-embraces-gay-athletes-face-gay-gag-law120613#sthash.FC0esNTB.dpuf

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will embrace openly gay athletes when it travels to Russia in 2014.
After the State Duma passed the ‘non-traditional relationships propaganda’ law by a unanimous vote yesterday (11 June), there are fears of repercussions when it comes to the Sochi Olympics.
While the legislation is not law yet, it is expected to easily pass in the Russian Senate and be legal by the end of the month.
Under the new ‘homosexual propaganda’ law, tourists deemed to be ‘promoting homosexuality’ could be arrested and deported.
Speaking to Gay Star News, an IOC spokesman said they were ‘concerned’ about the bill becoming law.
‘The IOC would like to reiterate our long commitment to non-discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games,’ they said.
‘The IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games.’
- See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/russian-winter-olympics-embraces-gay-athletes-face-gay-gag-law120613#sthash.FC0esNTB.dpuf

The International Olympics Committee (IOC) has said it will embrace openly gay athletes when it travels to Russia in 2014.

After the State Duma passed the ‘non-traditional relationships propaganda’ law by a unanimous vote yesterday (11 June), there are fears of repercussions when it comes to the Sochi Olympics.   While the legislation is not law yet, it is expected to easily pass in the Russian Senate and be legal by the end of the month.

Under the new ‘homosexual propaganda’ law, tourists deemed to be ‘promoting homosexuality’ could be arrested and deported.  

Speaking to Gay Star News, an IOC spokesman said they were ‘concerned’ about the bill becoming law.  ‘The IOC would like to reiterate our long commitment to non-discrimination against those taking part in the Olympic Games,’ they said.  ‘The IOC is an open organization and athletes of all orientations will be welcome at the Games.’

 

Obviously, I would like to see the games relocated to a different venue.  This would send Putin and the raging homophobes in the Russian Orthodox Church a strong message:  get on board with modernity and equality for all or be relegated to a the status of a boorish backwater.  I don't know if the IOC has the balls to make such a move, but it would hit Putin and Russia where it counts, in the pocket book.  Plus, it would constitute a major humiliation to Russia.  Russia needs to get the message that if it wants to act like a bigoted backwater, then the cost will be that it doesn't get to host the Olympics and other world class events.   Then the blow back could be directed at the homophobes and religious extremists who were ultimately responsible for the heinous legislation.  Bigotry needs to be made to carry a high price.

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Changing Religious Denominational Attitudes on Gay Marriage

Click image to enlarge

A new Pew Research Center survey confirms what most of us already knew: White evangelical denominations and black churches - often lead by black pastors in my opinion duped into doing the bidding of white racist in "family values" organizations like The Family Foundation here in Virginia - continue to be the main founts of anti-gay bigotry and opposition to same sex marriage.  In these two groups, the embrace of ignorance and modern day Pharisee like selective application of Biblical inerrancy remain the norm.  Among the non-affiliated, support for gay marriage is at 74%.  The Catholic laity and mainline denominations are at well over 50% in support as shown in the chart above.  Here are highlights from Pew:

Among people who are religiously unaffiliated, a solid majority have supported same-sex marriage since 2001... and among Catholics and white mainline Protestants, roughly half now express support for same-sex marriage.  Support among white evangelical and black Protestants remains lower than among other groups.

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