Remind me again ... why is gay marriage is so bad?

Share it, spread it. It speaks for itself.

Catholics Persecuted over Gay Adoption in Illinois? Not Even Close.

Once again, the Roman Catholic Church is giving out misinformation instead of facing the truth.

Catholic Charities, an Illinois adoption agency, had to close its doors because it lost funding from the state. According to attorney Peter Breen, the state is breaking the plain language of the law and violating the will of the citizens:

"The Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act only passed after specific assurances that the law would not impact the work of religious social service agencies. Specific protections for these agencies were written into the law, but unfortunately, Illinois officials refused to abide by those protections. This stands as a stark lesson to the rest of the nation that legislators promising 'religious protection' in same sex marriage and civil union laws may not be able to deliver on those promises."

Gosh, that sounds awful, doesn't it?

But this is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the real truth. They lost on Constitutional principles that had nothing to do with the Illinois Civil Union Act.

The simple fact is that the Catholic Charities can continue to provide

Should Gay-Bashing Teacher Lose Job?

Do teachers have to give up their First-Amendment right to free speech when they take their first job? In a strange twist on free speech, the ACLU is defending an ultra-conservative evangelical right-wing Christian's right to gay-bashing hate speech. The case of high-school teacher Viki Knox, the self-described "Jesus freak," reminds us that free speech is a complex issue.

Ms. Knox's school posted a display on a bulletin board recognizing LGBT history month. Ms. Knox was offended and not afraid to say so ... on Facebook. She wrote (emphasis in original):

"Homosexuality is a perverted spirit ... Why parade your unnatural immoral behaviors before the rest of us? AND YOU ARE WRONG! I/WE DO NOT HAVE TO ACCEPT ANYTHING, ANYONE. ANY BEHAVIOR OR ANY CHOICES! I DO NOT HAVE TO TOLERATE ANYTHING OTHERS WISH TO DO."

I'm sure all of my readers will agree that Ms. Knox's comments are despicable, hateful, and should be an embarrassment to all civilized Americans. But ... what about free speech? Is Ms. Knox's hateful gay-bashing grounds for firing her? Don't teachers have a right to free speech?

Ed Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, says Ms. Knox shouldn't be fired: "The ACLU believes that the response to offensive speech is not the restriction of speech, but more speech." In other words, the ACLU says Ms. Knox's hate speech should not disqualify her from teaching.

I rarely disagree with the ACLU, but in this case I do. I can't see how

Gay Student Ousted from Christian Choir

In an article subtitled "Standing Firm," a Christian "Good News" site tells the rather sad story of a young gay man who was ousted from Psalms 100, a Christian Choir at the University of North Carolina whose mission is "to spread the joy of the Lord through song." You can probably tell that the article was a bit slanted by the subtitle "Standing Firm."

Most of the students and faculty are properly outraged at this Christian group that professes God's love but rejects one of their own because God chose (or so they believe) to make the man gay. It's discriminatory and appears to violate the University's anti-discrimination policy.

But they're missing the point.

The real problem is religion itself. As long as we have religions that teach mythology as fact, morality is absolute and only from God, and feelings and faith are more important than rational thinking, then we're going to have this sort of bigotry. It's not that they're misinterpreting the Bible: their whole way of thinking is wrong.

Christians, Jews and Muslims are taught from an early age to accept authority without question, to ignore obvious contradictions and hypocrisy, and to value faith over rational thought. They're taught that their holy books, which contain thousands of contradictions, errors of fact, and clearly immoral lessons, are actually

Dating Site Statistics: Gay Sex is Surprisingly ... Uninteresting

There are two fascinating items in the news today that once again illustrate how silly and misguided the religious right's anti-gay agenda really is. First, we find that gay dating is remarkably unremarkable, and second, we learn that in the Netherlands, the legalization of gay marriage had virtually no effect on the country.

The first news comes from OKCupid.com, the new "high tech" dating site that appeals to the young tech-savvy crowd. In addition to connecting people with their soul mates, OKCupid has published a fascinating series of articles about the statistics of dating. For example, they're the ones who discovered that Atheists get more first dates, and that Atheists score higher on writing skills.

The newest study from OKCupid is even more fascinating. They compared gay-versus-straight dating habits, and found that contrary

Christian Foster Parents Nailed for Teaching Homophobia

Those poor Christians in England. They're a persecuted minority! It seems the British courts (which must be overloaded with atheists and pagans) seem to have a "special animosity" towards Christians.

Or so you'd think if you trusted the uber-conservative WorldNetDaily "News" site. WND has a story about a Christian couple who wants nothing more than to be good foster parents and help little children. Alas, they've become the target of a vicious persecution campaign by the United Kingdom's anti-Christian legal system!

"... Christians who want to provide foster care for needy children must promote homosexuality to them, and that there is only a "qualified" right to exercise their Christian beliefs." [emphasis added]

Got that? They're required by the court to promote homosexuality, in violation of their Christian beliefs!

Nothing could be further from the truth. Like just about everything the nutcase WorldNetDaily.com "news" organization reports, it's a distortion of the facts. They're deliberately hiding the truth. These foster parents were breaking both the law and their commitment to the children under their care.

The real truth is that when you become a foster parent, one of your most important duties

Bible Prohibits Homosexuality? WHO CARES?

Once again the Bible is proving how it wastes careers, holds back our culture and should be abandoned as a source of morality.

Professor Jennifer Wright Knust's new book, Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire, and her recent blog on CNN both purport to show that the Bible does not actually prohibit homosexuality. She claims that the message is ambiguous at best, and that there are many passages that actually condone same-sex relationships.

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that her book and blog have provoked many responses from conservative Christians. Perhaps the most scholarly reply is this one by Professor Robert A. J. Gagnon. The good professor has written not one, but two books that prove that the Bible condemns homosexuality.

And you know what? We don't care!

This debate is just another illustration of why the Bible shouldn't be anyone's

Nice Sunday Story: Churches Welcome Gays

Here is a nice story for a beautiful Sunday morning, about Christian churches that accept gays and lesbians.

It's about a growing number of churches that welcome the LGBT community, especially young teens who are discovering their true sexuality. Rather than condemning LGBT Christians, they take the truly Christian path and welcome them without reservation.

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of religion, but at the same time, I know it's very important to many of my friends and family. Our societal discrimination against gays and lesbians makes the self-discovery process for many gay and lesbian teens a very traumatic time. And that tragedy is doubled when their own churches reject them and tell them they're sinners just because they want love.

That's why it's so nice to read that things are changing.

Back in the mid-1900s homosexuality was almost 100% "in the closet" and churches

Second Most Famous Catholic: Gayness Denied

Did you know that the second-most famous Christian in history was gay? Probably not. And you're not alone. Almost nobody knows this, and it's no accident.

So first of all, who is this #2 Christian? I'd give the #1 spot to St. Paul, author of so many of the Biblical letters. But the #2 spot has to go to Leonardo da Vinci. There's hardly a Catholic alive, or any western Christian for that matter, who hasn't seen The Last Supper. And his painting of the Mona Lisa is called the "most famous painting in the world."

Everyone knows the name da Vinci. But very few people know that he was gay!

If you were writing a biography of someone famous man – say your history teacher wanted to know about Albert Einstein – wouldn't you include a bit about his life and family, his personal life? You'd write about his two marriages, and you'd surely want to mention Einstein's ten mistresses.

Any good historian would do this. Right?

Wrong. If the historian is working for the Roman Catholic Church

Which Soldiers Hate Gays the Most? The Chaplains!

Which military group is most vehemently opposed to repealing the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell law? Maybe you heard that it's the Marines, the "manly men." Or maybe you thought it was the Army, the men in the trenches. Wrong!

It's the chaplains. The men of God.

"There is very clearly a concern out there by chaplains, that they would somehow be treated adversely if they held or espoused religious views that were contrary to the government's view if the law is repealed."
–General Carter Ham, Director of Operations, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Big surprise. According to this CNN report, we once again find that the religious leaders, the ones who are supposed to be spreading God's word of infinite love, tolerance and acceptance, and spreading Jesus' message of forgiveness, are instead leading the charge in the battle against gay rights. They're at the forefront of intolerance and discrimination.

McCain's True Colors: A Homophobic Jerk

There was a time some years ago when I admired Senator McCain of Arizona. His military service was above and beyond the call of duty and he seemed like an intelligent, thoughtful man. I've never been fond of Republican politics, but McCain seemed like an honest Republican, a man with principles.

But l can't find any respect left in my heart for John McCain. McCain claims that he supports gay rights. He promised that when the military told him it was ready for the repeal of the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell (DADT) law, he would support the repeal. But he simply lied! The majority of military leaders, as well as the overwhelming majority of servicemen and servicewomen in all branches, have spoken clearly: they support gay rights in the military, and they support the repeal of DADT.

So what does McCain do? He calls for more studies, committees and reports. When they arrive, he claims they didn't address the right question. He stalls.

And finally today, when the most definitive study was released by the military which concluded it is time to repeal DADT, what did McCain do? Did he take it to heart like he promised? No. He simply claimed that the report is "flawed" and that the senior military officers who put it together didn't do it right.

He's proving to be nothing more than a homophobic jerk. What's more, his actions today opposing the repeal of DADT are just the last in a long string of heartless, harsh conservative dogma that he's been reciting.

I respect people who care more than I respect people who merely happen to agree with me. I'd rather have friends who have thought about their morals and politics than friends who are knee-jerk liberals or conservatives. Well, I thought John McCain was someone I could respect, but either I misjudged him to begin with, or else McCain decided to become dishonest to his own principles for reasons I can't fathom.

Either way, I finally lost the last vestiges of respect I had left for Senator John McCain.

Pope Reaffirms It: All you Gays are Immoral

Sadly, but not surprisingly, Pope Benedict XVI has just reconfirmed that homosexuality can never be "morally just."

All of you gays and lesbians, sorry, but your sexuality is "against the nature that God originally willed." It's still an abomination.

But wait, there's good news! Your God-given sexual preference is "a great trial." God has singled you out, sort of like Job. The Pope himself said so!

Remember Job? Job was your basic good guy: pious, kind and loyal. But God took a bet with Satan as to whether Job was just a fair-weather friend. To test Job's mettle, God let Satan kill all of Job's children, and when that didn't turn Job away from God, Satan tortured Job with boils all over his body that were so horrible that Job tried to scrape them with broken pottery. And after all that, Job still didn't turn away from God.

So don't think of yourselves as getting some sort of raw deal. God has given you a test! You get to go through life longing for love, but God demands that you deny yourself the consummation of your love, to never join body and soul and experience the wonders and beauty of human sexuality. Just think what an opportunity this is to show what a good Catholic you are!

Why, the rest of us should be jealous. We've got it easy. We get to fall in love, get married and have happy, healthy sex lives. What's the challenge in that? How are we supposed to show God that we're worthy?

Alan Turing: Gay Man who Saved the World yet Died in Disgrace

What do you do to a homosexual mathematician whose code-breaking genius saved the world during World War II? Not figuratively, but actually saved the world from Nazi domination? You put him on trial, of course! You convict him of gross indecency. You force him to choose prison or chemical castration. You strip him of all dignity and hound him until in shame and despair he swallows a cyanide pill and dies.

The story of Alan Turing is one of the most disgraceful episodes of modern civilization. A man who should have been a hero of the free world and idolized next to Einstein and Newton in the history books was instead hounded to death because of religion-inspired homophobia.

In World War II, Alan Turing's genius at breaking Nazi secret codes was so successful that the Allies could have sunk almost every single U-boat and convoy that left Germany. Turing's work was so good it was like cheating at cards: if you win every hand, the other players will quickly figure out that the game is rigged. The Allies had to employ all sorts of tricks to hide their success; if you want a fascinating account, I highly recommend Neal Stephenson's semi-fictional Cryptonomicon, the story of the rise of modern cryptography.

Alan Turing literally saved the world from Nazi domination. Without his work, WWII would have ended very differently. The Nazi regime might have remained undefeated,

A Truly Moral Preacher? Gay Megachurch Bishop Comes Out ... for a Good Reason

Now here's a story I like. Jim Swilley is gay, but few people knew it. He kept his sexuality a secret for decades because he was founder and bishop of Conyers’ Church in the Now, a "megachurch" in Rockdale County, Georgia.

Last week Bishop Swilley decided it was time to stop living a lie and come out as gay. But it wasn't because of a scandal, or because someone was threatening to "out" him. Bishop Swilley came out as openly gay to support the gay youth of America.

"I know a lot of straight people think it is a choice. It is not. ... As a father, thinking about your 16, 17 year old killing themselves, I thought somebody needed to say something.

What a wonderful, generous man.

Those of us in the atheist/agnostic/secular/humanist blogosphere are quick to point out the flaws of church leaders who are caught in scandals. We're fast to report on a megachurch leader caught with a prostitute,

Helping Christians Push Back Against the Gay Agenda in the Classroom

Wow, it seems that Christians, who vastly outnumber all other faiths and atheists combined, are a persecuted minority in America! Those darned gay activists are managing to kick Christians around the block and force their gayness on everyone.

Today's underdog is Focus on Family. In this amazing video, we learn just how sinister the homosexual agenda is!

We've got some back-to-school tools that will help you identify and push back against the gay agenda in the classroom.

If there's one characteristic trait of the gay agenda in the public school system it's this: it's sneaky! ... It's designed to look like something else to make it hard for parents to realize what's going on. ... Homosexual activists have become very adept ... at sneaking in these homosexuality lessons into things with innocent sounding titles. ... We've seen teachers give books to students in the name of 'diversity lessons,' and let me just mention that the gay activists have become very adept at using ... cute little pictures of furry animals ... to familiarize [children] with the whole idea of same-sex parenting and gay marriage.

That's the key to this whole thing. We need to be accepting and embracing and tolerant, but there's not a lot of tolerance and embracing and accepting of Christian values and the families that want their children raised with Christian values.

Do I have this right? They're facing discrimination and intolerance ... because they're not allowed to discriminate against gays? Yes, that's what they're saying: its anti-Christian discrimination when Christians aren't allowed to discriminate.

What's really scary about this video is how they've completely twisted their hatred of homosexuality into a paranoid delusion. Nobody, nobody, is pushing homosexuality on anyone.

Wikileaks Classified Documents: Christians Blame Homosexuality

In a stunning show of hypocrisy, a right-wing Christian group called Family Security Matters (FSM) is blaming homosexuality for the 90,000 classified military documents that were leaked to Wikileaks.org.

Here are the facts that are available. Private First Class Bradley Manning is the U.S. Army Intelligence analyst accused of leaking the classified information to the WikiLeaks.org website. Manning is gay, and appears to be somewhat of an activist who objected strenuously to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. There is speculation that the Wikileaks incident was Private Manning's revenge on the military for his displeasure with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and for discrimination he had personally experienced.

But from these facts and guesses, the Christian FSM editors have concluded that it was homosexuality, rather than the terrible discrimination that gays face, that made Private Manning break the law. And who is behind this discrimination and bigotry? Why, it's Christian conservatives like FSM!

According to FSM,

The revelations of Manning’s openly pro-homosexual conduct suggest that a more liberal Department of Defense policy, in deference to the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief, had already been in effect and has now backfired in a big way. The result could be not only the loss of the lives of U.S. soldiers, as a result of the enemy understanding U.S. intelligence sources and methods, but damaged relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan and a possible U.S. military defeat in the region as a whole.

In other words, if we hadn't let these queers into the military in the first place, this wouldn't have happened.

(FSM isn't the only Christian or right-wing organization doing this. Just google for "private manning wikileaks homosexual" and you'll discover that the Christian right are jumping all over this.)

FSM is trying to blame the victim,

State Department Angers Baptists by Recognizing Transgendered Choice

Our friends over at Liberty Council ("Restoring the Culture by Advancing Religious Freedom...", or so they say) are severely annoyed. It seems the U.S. State Department has decided to recognize transgendered individuals by changing their passport to reflect the reality of their gender change.

It makes sense to me. A guy walks up to some customs inspector in a third-world country, and his passport says he's a woman? Or vice versa? That makes no sense, and only invites problems, discrimination and persecution.

But Matt Barber at Liberty Council feels the passport change reflects support for a 'gay' agenda! Not only that, Matt has the right solution: cure these homosexuals of their gender confusion.

"What these people need is to be steered to counseling where they can be counseled in such a way that their false gender identity comes into line with their gender reality."

In other words, these people are sick and need to be cured, brought back to the gender that God gave them. Of course, if one follows that argument,

Icelandic Volcano: It's the Gays Fault!

I'm sorry to say I have it on good authority that the Icelandic volcano's eruption was caused by gays. OK, it wasn't all their fault, the neopaganists share the blame. According to the Association of Orthodox Experts in Moscow,

Is it possible that Europe further abandoning its Christian heritage does not to see that eruption of the Iceland volcano with its ash cloud that paralyzed life of the "most progressive" society is a menacing sign of God? ... [Iceland] has recently become a center of European neo-paganism ... European deputies propose that all states of the Council of Europe should introduce a subject on peculiarities of homosexual behavior in the school curriculum."

Gosh, why can't all the gays and pagans just straighten out and become good, heterosexual Christians? Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, the Icelandic volcano ... why, I wouldn't be surprised if the BP oil spill was somehow their fault too!

Pope: Abortion, Gay Marriage are "Most Insidious" Problems Facing the World

What worries the Pope the most?

Could it be the AIDS crisis in Africa, for which he is partly to blame, that will kill tens of millions of people? Nah, that doesn't bother the Pope much.

Maybe he's worried about global warming, which threatens hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people with starvation, flooding and disease? No, that's not it either.

What about the fact that North Korea and Iran are developing nuclear weapons, and so many other countries like Israel, Pakistan and India already have them? No, wrong again.

Or maybe the Pope is concerned about terrorism? Does the Pope worry that terrorists could kill thousands, and maybe trigger another war like Iraq in which another 150,000 innocent civilians will be killed? No, that doesn't seem to worry the Pope.

Then it must be the pedophilia crisis, where the Pope's own priests and bishops molested tens of thousands of little kids? Surely that's top on the Popes list of horrible things. Right? Wrong!

The biggest crisis in the world is homosexual marriage and abortion! Got that?? According to Pope Benedict XVI, gay marriage and abortion are among the most "insidious and dangerous" threats in the world today.

The Pope worries that terminating a pregnancy when the fetus has no brain, not even any nerve cells, is a crime equivalent to terrorism. Can he truly believe that a young, desperate unmarried woman who has made a terrible mistake and seeks an abortion to prevent an even greater tragedy is a "more insidious" danger to the world than Osama bin Laden?

If two men or two women love each other and want to make a life together as a committed couple, the Pope says that their love is a threat to society.

Mike Huckabee: Gay Marriage is like Incest, Drugs and Polygamy

Is 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee deliberately torpedoing his own campaign? Can he really be this stupid?

Huckabee is now comparing gay marriage to incest, drug use and polygamy, according to the transcript of an interview he gave this week. Got that? Incest, raping your own child or sibling.

Disgusting.

But now I'm confused. I thought politicians were a bunch of clever, political animals. They're supposed to get up there and pander to the crowds. Some good ol' boy from the South who's still racist knows he'd better keep it to himself. A young Democrat from New York who thinks his constituents are too dumb for democracy and that they need a socialist government to take care of them, well he'd better not say it out loud.

So what's with Huckabee?