Reason why Christianity is getting a bad reputation

A recent poll claims that young Americans are beginning to lose faith in God:

The poll, conducted in April by the Pew Research Center, showed that 31 percent of respondents under the age of 30 have doubts about the existence of God, compared to 9 percent of those polled who were 65 or older.

When asked to evaluate the statement, "I never doubted the existence of god," 18 percent of all respondents said that they mostly or completely disagreed.

Now some folks may chalk it up to the "last days before Jesus returns." Others may call it a minor blip.

Personally I think the following has a lot to do with it:








Finger-pointing and lies never does any good, does it? What would Jesus do, indeed?

Minnesota group lying about anti-gay protest attendance

Apparently spinning stories about hacking isn't the only talent Minnesota for Marriage's Andy Parrish possesses.

He can also be counted on to spin stories about a pitiful protest, as this tweet demonstrates:

According to Jeremy Hooper (thanks Jeremy for the picture by the way), Parrish's claim (at the bottom of the tweet - enlarge it to read)  that General Mill's VP and Head of Security is intimidating those protesting the company's support of marriage equality simply isn't true:

In truth, General Mills has greeted these laughably failing protests with both open arms and refreshments. But then again, I guess desperately disastrous PR stunts call for desperate, face-saving spin.  

Parrish's false claim comes days after Minnesota for Marriage blatantly lied about the number of protestors at its last protest:

Does the following look like hundreds to you?




Hat tip to Jeremy Hooper for this graphics as well.

'School board stymies ex-gay group' and other Thursday midday news briefs

I think it's safe to say that gay news today is taking a backseat but I will attempt to entertain you with items happening having nothing to do with the SUPREME COURT UPHOLDING ACA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School Board votes to curtail policy that allowed ''ex-gay'' organization to send home anti-gay literature - Good. We don't need mess like that in public schools.

Christian group backs away from ex-gay therapy - What took them so long?

Conservative Hate Group Uses Gay Couple's Wedding Picture In Attack Ad - Haters just can't help themselves.

New Bill Would Recognize Military Same-Sex Spouses - I don't see why not.

Federal Judge: Counseling Student Has No Right To Impose Anti-Gay Beliefs On Clients - Religious liberty my ass!

Anti-gay group's hacking claim smells fishy

Yesterday, the group Minnesota for Marriage (an organization pushing hard for the state referendum which would ban marriage equality in the state) claimed that its facebook page was hacked.

The organization made this claim after a message was posted on its wall which said the following:

According to Talking Points Memo, the post was placed on the wall late Tuesday night and remained there until mid-afternoon Wednesday:

Minnesota for Marriage Communications Director Chuck Darrell told TPM that the Facebook page was hacked. “There’s always somebody in this game that wants to inflict or inject a hateful, divisive message, and that’s what happened here,” he said. “We’ve been running our message for over a year now, and it’s been a very pro-family, pro-children, pro-marriage message, and promoting respectful discussion. We’ll be searching for the person who committed this act and we’re prosecuting them to the full extent of the law.”

In addition,  Andy Parrish, the group’s deputy campaign manager, claimed that all of his online accounts (twitter, facebook, and others) were hacked.

Now it could be that Parrish and the group is telling the truth. Of course very few in the gay community believe that they were hacked.

Many of us simply don't believe that an organization (Minnesota for Marriage) which includes a group (the Minnesota Family Council) which accuses gays of bestiality, pedophilia, and the consuming of human waste would suddenly balk at publicly citing Biblical verses calling for the death of gays.

For me, it's a bit more simple.

With all of that hacking supposedly going on, how odd is it that only one message was left? Parrish claims that all of his accounts were hacked, yet the havoc done was supposedly on the Minnesota for Marriage facebook page.

I mean if someone takes the time to hack one person's facebook page, twitter account, and other accounts, then why would they leave one seemingly innocuous message on a facebook page?

Just a question.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters celebrates one million hits!!!!

 

I'm proud of this day, the day when my blog has officially breached one million hits in the span of a little over five years.

What can I say but how thankful I am for those who have supported me, helped me, advised me, especially given me kind words, and most of all read my posts.

Initially the Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters blog began as an advertising tool for a self-published book I wrote of the same name. I wrote the book because I felt that the lgbtq community was not getting what it needed in terms of information to refute the lies of the religious right.

The book was published in 2007 and it was a very, very minor success. To be honest, it didn't come off like I wanted it to. One day I will go revisit it and maybe work on another edition.

But for now, it's all about this blog. So much has happened in the years I've been posting.

Marriage equality is now seen as an inevitability rather than an impossible dream.

We have an African-American president

Gays and lesbians can serve openly in the military

And most of all, our community has become more powerful. We have taken advantage of the internet age in terms of sending out information and reaching those in our community which we never have before. And we have become more sophisticated in exposing the right.

Years ago, a study like that awful one which was published recently about gay parenting would have devastated us. We wouldn't have been able to combat the junk science in it. But now we can and we have. We have become more intelligent, more consistent, and more direct in calling out the religious right when they lie on us.

I like to think that I play a part in that.

That's not to say there haven't been problems.

I do not act, I do not sing. I am not a celebrity. I do not live in a metropolitan area. I am an unconventional gay man - older, African-American, not twinkish at all, and from the South. No one is going to put me on camera as representative of the gay community no matter how much intelligence or finesse I possess and very rarely do I get the play I would like from some of the national groups or the attention I would like my blog to receive from some of the scoops I break.

And there are times in which I get depressed when I take into account the enormity of the fight for equality or when I wonder if my words are having an effect.

But those moments come and go like rain. They never stay. What does stay is my need to educate my lgbtq brothers and sisters on the basic fact that just about every negative thing said about us are lies.

We are not sinners, we are not filthy and evil, we are not sick, and we don't need prayer to change ourselves.

The lgbtq community is as God made us and as such, we are marvelous in His eyes.

Our sexual orientations are not things that we can take on or off nor are they "conditions" which we should be ashamed of or allow the ignorant to strip us of.

I am a gay man. That part of me as a crucial to my personhood as my ethnic heritage and my very humanity. No one can take that away from me. And no one will.

And as long as you keep reading, I will keep posting. To the right corner of this blog are some of what I consider the best posts I have done in these five and a half years. If you haven't yet, feel free to indulge yourselves.

One more thing:

Dear Peter LaBarbera, Peter Sprigg, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Matt Barber, National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council and the rest of you nuts,

Thank you for being so transparently full of lies that you have given me more than enough material to work with in these five and a half years.

No doubt, you will continue to shuck and jive and lie in the name of God as you do those things that you think we are not hip to.

Please be aware that as long as you do them, I will be there to shine a light on your hypocrisy, laugh in your face, and expose your distortions in front of God and Man alike.

Also be aware that no matter how much money you have or influence you think you may have, the one thing you do not have and you will never have is truth.

You are going to lose this fight. Count on it.

'Minnesota anti-gay marriage group says 'gays should be put to death' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Minnesota for Marriage: Gays should be 'put to death' - There is it on the facebook page. This is not an exaggeration:

In other news:

Meet The “Social Scientists” Defending The Flawed New Same-Sex Parenting Study - It turns out that the flawed study on gay parenting has flawed defenders. Surprising? No. 

Chuck Norris Asks: 'Is Obama Creating a Pro-Gay Boy Scouts of America?' - Is Chuck Norris less and less like his character in 'Walker, Texas Ranger' and more and more like the bad guys his character fights? Yep. 

Related post - Chuck Norris - the fraud who won't stand up to real injustice 

 Maryland's Marriage Foes Are Broke - And it is also the reason why they have been able to get signatures for the referendum so easily. They have been paying a company to get them and now owe the company a huge amount of money.

  U.S. May Cut Aid To Uganda Because Of Anti-Gay Crackdown - One wonders if this is one cut that Boehner and company may object to. Just asking.

Religious right calls out Dick Cheney, Laura Bush for supporting marriage equality

Cheney

According to a fundraising letter sent out by the Family Research Council, several interesting names are listed as supposedly having gone on to the "dark side" of supporting marriage equality:

This week, most eyes are looking toward the Supreme Court and their decision on Obama Care, a decision that is expected most likely on Thursday.

I say most eyes, because what some national Republicans are doing on the issue of traditional marriage is worrisome, and someone has to keep an eye on them.

That's where the staff at FRC Action comes in.

The Republican National Convention is August 27 -30. The real fight however, is the week before when the Republican platform is decided.

FRC Action will be there to make sure the document that guides the Party of Lincoln for the next four years will be pro-life and pro-marriage.

Can I count on you to support our efforts?

It's important to note that Family Research Council Action is neither Democrat nor Republican. And while we certainly have plans to attend the Democrat convention in Charlotte North Carolina, the Republican Convention is the only one we have been invited to actively participate in.

We take that invitation very seriously.

Despite a majority of Americans who are pro-life and 30 states that have marriage protection in their state constitutions, we won't take it for granted that Republican Leadership will always respect that it's the social issues that have been at the heart of the party.

In conventions past, there has been controversy surrounding the pro-life plank in the party platform. This year, it appears that controversy has shifted to traditional marriage.

Strong voices within the Republican Party would like nothing more than to change the official stance in regards to marriage between one man and one woman:

Dick Cheney, former U.S. Vice President

Laura Bush, former U.S. First Lady

Ken Mehlman, former Chairman of the Republican National Convention

Former Governors Christine Todd Whitman (NJ), Gary Johnson (NM), Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA), Tom Kean (NJ), Dan Evans (WA), and William Weld (MA). 

I wonder how former President Bush would feel about his wife being used so precipitously in a fundraising letter.

Forget him. How about Cheney. How convenient is it that FRC comes out with this fundraising appeal days after his daughter, Mary Cheney, married her partner.

Both Laura Bush and Dick Cheney have come out in favor of marriage equality in their own way, which makes FRC's usage of them in a fundraising letter probably appropriate, if not uncomfortably odd seeing that opposition to marriage equality was the wedge issue which got Bush re-elected.

I would practically give my eyeteeth (whatever those are) to hear the reactions should he and Vice President Cheney find out about this fundraising appeal.