Journal Entries
Belgium promotes national cowardice
Posted May 11, 2007
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Latest reply: May 11, 2007
IKEA 'promotes' homosexual theme
Posted Feb 14, 2007
Just when I thought that the American evangelical movement couldn't get more daft (and scary) when this little tidbit appears:
http://www.usareligiousnews.com/get-article.php?ID=2780
To summarise for those to lazy to follow the link:
Evangelicals are complaining about a U.S. advertising campaign for IKEA, which features an allegedly homosexual family theme in its commercial. The TV ad has caused a 'pro-family' spokesman to accuse the company of trying to force a liberal, homosexuality-affirming worldview on Americans.
Now I've seen the British version of this advert and yes there are two men sitting on a sofa smiling while a child plays on the carpet in front of them. They are not holding hands, hugging each other or rogering each other senseless. They are dressed in European clothes which seem quite straight to me. In other words they could be just about anybody - there is no gay sub-text.
People often accuse me of being a nutter about the threat I feel evangelical christianity poses to personal freedom. This week alone we have had a Florida Theatre forced to change the name of 'The Vagina Monologues' (Mods' and Aces please see footnote) to 'The Hoo-ha Monologues' because an evangelical's 10 year old daughter asked her what the v-word meant. 10 years old and doesn't know the correct medical term for her own genitalia...? Cringing is OK at this point.
There is also the case of the evangelical group who are claiming they have decoded the book of Revelations and discovered that deceased John Paul II will return from the grave as the Anti-Christ.
And now IKEA is accused of forcing gay propaganda upon the poor, innocent American family.
For those of you feeling pretty comfortable about this, as that's mad old America, and we live in the sensible old UK - don't. We are considered the prime target for American and Nigerian Evangelical missionary activity, and have been for quite some time.
What happens there today will be here tomorrow. Especially as the evangelical's British poster boy - Tony B.Liar - has now made it a crime to rail against the madness of organised abrahamic religion.
Be prepared,
Blessings,
Matholwch .
Footnote for Mod's & Ace's.
Note that I have used the proper name of a play that has been performed and broadcast across the world. If the word 'Vagina' is on the list of newly banned words and my posting is pulled I will fight this, beginning with the Board of Trustees and the Secretary of State for Culture.
Discuss this Journal entry [6]
Latest reply: Feb 14, 2007
Evangelicals claim exclusive rights!
Posted Jan 5, 2007
Here we go again...
I wonder if any of you regulars have come across this news story:
Christian students in legal fight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6232869.stm
Here we have a case of an Evangelical Christian Union group 'banned' from student facilities taking legal action under the Human Rights Act. The Student's Union 'banning' them did so after it became apparent that the group asked members to sign a statement of religious belief. This clearly contravenes the equal opportunities regulations of the Student's Union. Please note that a SU cannot ban a society from meeting on college grounds, it can just refuse to fund them - another example of partial reporting.
Having been the SU president at two colleges in my youth I can tell you that this is not a new issue. In my day (the early 80's) our non-discrimination policies did not have the weight of law behind them, but we took a stance that exclusivity was bad for free speech and expression. People who wanted to run exclusivist societies would have to look elsewhere for their funding and support.
What these evangelicals are doing is clearly trying to exclude people from their activities by making them sign a covenant with their society. It should be pointed out that these christian societies do not just meet to pray and proselytise, they also generally run (in my experience) a wide range of social and educational activities, for which they ask for SU funding. Obviously if you do not wish to sign their covenant then you are excluded. So if they subsidise a trip to say Canterbury Cathedral or Iona, as a non-member you cannot take part, despite it being 'your' funds being used.
Again from my experience such societies also discriminate on who they will invite into membership. Unlike a basketball society where the only qualification is a love of the game, or a debating society where the qualification is a firmly held opinion, to join this christian group you'll have to sign up to their entire belief system. I cannot see an
evangelical society inviting you if you are say, gay, or openly catholic, hindu, moslem or pagan.
This is a prime example of:
1. Christians trying to maintain their exclusivity and prejudice against people whose beliefs or behavious do not exactly mirror their own doctrine.
2. Christians trying to show they are being persecuted (a requirement from their scripture).
If their faith and doctrine is firm and reasonable then they should be open and allow any student to join their society, regardless of their background or beliefs. Their own Saviour told them to spread the Word. not hide it away for the chosen few (though there are some passages that would indicate that Jesus thought his path was only for Jews).
Exclusionary tactics like this smack of fear and ignorance.
Dr Rowan Williams said the refusal by some student unions to recognise evangelical Christian groups looked like a "fear of open argument". So what is excluding non-Christians or those unwilling to commit to a covenant such as this then? Generally I am a fan of Rowan, but he seems to have got his argument back to front this time.
He also is reported to have said that while the views of evangelicals on the issue of homosexual sex may be "embarrassing" to liberal Christians, traditional values should not be compared to holocaust denial or racial bigotry.
That as fine a theologian as Rowan Williams should say this is frankly confounding. The traditional values espoused by these evangelicals include the exclusion and even murder of homosexuals, adulterers, people who don't do as their parents tell them and a host of other, no doubt embarrassing, biblical pronouncements.
The evangelical christian union in question said "Going to court is the last thing we want to do, but we really feel that our fundamental freedoms of belief, association and expression are being threatened here".
Let's get this straight shall we? No-one is stopping them from meeting, associating and expressing themselves. No SU has that sort of power (and heaven forbid that they ever should). It can, however, refuse to support such a society's actions. And this merits taking up the valuable time of the High Court? Don't make me laugh. It's a crude publicity stunt and that's all.
The evangelical christian union went on to say that action by the SU was a "blatant infringement of our rights".
Rights? What bl**dy rights?
And this is the nub of my rant. Bl**dy Human Rights! No-one on this planet has any real rights. Only in the affluent west do we concern ourselves with such self-serving hogwash. Human Rights legislation was created by lawyers to enrich lawyers. Overall it has not had an iota of effect on the two thirds of the human population that live in fear of hunger, disease and violence.
All it has spawned is a whining compensation culture where everyone waits for someone else's shadow to fall over their fence so they can claim money in recompense.
What we need is a Charter of Human Responsibilities. A document that lays down clearly what you are expected to do for your fellow man, and all the other inhabitants of our wretched little planet.
These whining evangelicals would do better to look at their sacred scriptures and re-examine the teachings of their saviour. He was reported to have been quite hot on people's responsibility to one another. Perhaps then they will become christians and open their hearts and their society to anyone who would come to it.
Enough said...
Blessings,
Matholwch .
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Jan 5, 2007
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite!
Posted Nov 8, 2006
So the week turns and one bunch of conservative Americans are replaced by another. Both sides wrapping themselves in the flag and claiming that God has blessed them and their country.
Will it make any difference whatsoever, overall I doubt it. The damage in the Middle East is done, and it will be a generation before another chance to solve that sad region's problems comes around again. America has secured its oil supply for the next twenty years by setting off a cycle of civil wars that will keep the arabs from having a common cause.
Cynical? Maybe, but tell me I was wrong when I said five years ago that 911 was allowed to happen to create a cause for war and the limitation of civil liberties in the countries that supported it.
Fear is a tool of government as old as time. The Sun Tzu promoted it, so did Macchiavelli in The Prince. More recently George Orwell mapped out the method in graphic detail in 1984, and methinks our leaders have learnt at his feet, though missed his point completely.
Since fear of the Soviet has faded a new fear had to be found, an enemy created, trained, armed and provoked. The men who threaten us now were trained by the CIA in Afghanistan. The arab dictatorships that the West put in place in the post-war years, and have propped up ever since, were their breeding ground. Oppression is such a good incubator for the fanatic, the man with nothing left to lose.
I live in the mother of democracy. A state with the highest level of surveillance of the public in the world. A state with the highest number of innocent people whose personal details, including DNA, are held by the government. We are promoted as a model of the 'Western Ideal', and wonder how less able states get it so wrong.
So where do we go from here? Any ideas?
Matholwch .
Discuss this Journal entry [6]
Latest reply: Nov 8, 2006
The Bastard is back
Posted Oct 29, 2006
Like a certain editor of a certain guide I've been for an intergalactic cruise in my office - a mental pilgrimage if you like.
But now I am back, refreshed and ready to rumble.
See you all in the hot tubs - I means fora... 
Blessings,
Matholwch .
Discuss this Journal entry [18]
Latest reply: Oct 29, 2006
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