What will the Canadian bible beaters do?

Missing article

I stop by their website once in awhile and I notice that they have a missing article.  The article stated that gays really didn't want to get married because only 3,000 or so gays ended up getting married in Canada.  The article seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke....

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by: Herb @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 15:12:16 PM CDT

A puff of bright pink smoke

with lavender accents.

Should gays and lesbians be forced to attend church? Well, hmm, church attendance didn't seem to do a damned bit of good for Ted Haggard -- or, for that matter, for a significant minority of Catholic priests.

Blogwhoring @ http://indigestible.nightwares.com/

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by: Warren @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 15:17:15 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Church doesn't do anyone much good.

People attend church to be assuaged that Jesus's lap is plumped and waiting.  But then they get sick and do ANYTHING to delay meeting Jesus.

People attend church to be told that God wants them to give, give, give.  But they give 20 bucks and save the thousands for the stainless steel appliances.

People attend church to be told to love all and forgive all, but in many churches, they're told to hate the homos and support war.

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by: Holly Capote @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 15:20:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It depends

It depends vary much on the church.  Through my life I have met very few misserable Congregationalists, Universalist, or Buddists.  I have met many tight assed Southern Baptists and other Evangelicals however.

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by: Herb @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 15:24:38 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Depends

Wouldn't it also depend on the person, who they were, what they needed or wanted, etc?

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 20:16:04 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes.

Strong authoritarians typically agitate strongly to compel others to live precisely the same way that they do -- while objecting strenuously to even a perceived suggestion that they might want to change their own ways.

Without wanting to veer too closely to Godwin, these are the types most likely, IMO, to put on jackboots and march in lockstep in the streets -- such as the demonstrators in Chapel Hill, who seem perfectly comfortable with their thuggery, so comfortable, in fact, that they cannot recognize just how vastly they overstep.

So yeah, what you want from church dictates, to a large degree, what you will get from it; but when the congregation is of a verifiably strong-authoritarian model, there's no great chance of a large number of people wanting to fit the mold forced on them.

At least, not yet; but if you heat up a pan of water with a frog in it, the amphibian will let itself be cooked by slow degrees. Insisting on church attendance is edging the heat up another notch.

 

Blogwhoring @ http://indigestible.nightwares.com/

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by: Warren @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 20:29:28 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

i think this is the article, or similar, from their site:

http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/family/marriage/never-about-marriage.htm

The gays stole my lunch money

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by: matt in mpls @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 16:40:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And if you don't go?

I love the idea of forcing homos to go to church because then they'll also have to force straights to go, too, and create a Church Police that will monitor your attendance and fine you, as you would have been five hundred years ago in Shakespeare's England, or the one he grew up in, anyway.

Just what Canada needs: a whole new layer of bureacracy.  The Handmaid's Tale, here we come! 

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 16:04:36 PM CDT

Yes, and let's figger a way to monitor thoughts of those in church.

Those whose minds wander can be beaten by those who's attention is focused soley on the all-loving and all-forgiving Christ.

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by: Holly Capote @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 16:11:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

They can make you attend, but there's ways to get kicked out.

When I was 13, my grandmother insisted that I attend catechism classes and mass in the local catholic church.  My parents were lukwarm on the idea (in my mom's case) or hostile to the idea (in my dad's case).  I didn't want anything to do with any of it, so I followed dad's wishes:  refused to do anything more than take up space in the catechmism class (CCD as it was known).  When confronted by the priest about this, I told him to go f*** himself.

When asked why I didn't attend mass more regularly, I pointed out that I usually needed to have a bowel movement at this time each day.  The religious education guy told me that was a poor excuse.  I told him I'd do it right on the floor while in line for communion and that for good measure, I'd take a laxative beforehand!  Since it was nearly "that time of day," I let a few farts loose just for good measure.  He asked me to leave immediately and not return (oh happy day!)

My folks got a letter a few days later explaining why the church thought I was not ready for religious education.

If they try it again, I'll repeat my performance from when I was 13.  I never regretted it!

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by: Phil @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 20:11:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Canuckistan stats

More Canadian LG couples feel safe living together openly.

More Canadian LG couples feel safe identifying themselves to Statistics Canada.

Fewer Canadians are getting married: the majority of Canadians are not married. That used to be true in Quebec. Now it's true across the country.

Canadians don't divorce as often as Amercians.

In total, Canadians like to be partnered whether straight or LG, married or common law.

Seems pretty good, eh?

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by: akinto @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 16:49:27 PM CDT

6% ...

I love the main numbers, but I think we should be pushing that 6% stat, too. "This will hurt the institution of marriage" and all that crap--look, straight marriages are UP, by a full 6%. That's actually a pretty big jump, considering it started with full rights and, presumably, full saturation (OK, OK, maybe a few people refused to get married until gays could, too, but not that many); the gay numbers started at 0, so of course the rise is dramatic.

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by: LittleMousling @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 16:50:11 PM CDT

I find it interesting

that when they suggest forced attendence in a house of worship, they only mention the three main Western faiths (the ones that so devoutly hate gay people) as possible choices.

I always figured it would come to this, but if forced to attend, I would prefer one of the pagan or Wiccan faiths that don't hate me. Or...just to spite the Christofascists, I could join the Church of Satan perhaps (even though I don't believe in him either).

A society without religion is like a maniac without a chainsaw.

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by: Jen @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 17:59:14 PM CDT

Limited choices

If they limited the choice to one of the big 3 western religions, I would probably choose Judaism. Unlike the others, they know how to evolve and reinvent themselves and adapt over the millennia to remain relevant to contemporary life. I have way more respect for that religion than any other.

Also, 3 out of the 4 main Judaic sects embrace or at least accept gay people.

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by: Stephanie, in Victoria @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 21:00:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Heh, well...

Also, 3 out of the 4 main Judaic sects embrace or at least accept gay people. 

Just guess which sect the hard-righters would approve for compelled attendance. 

Blogwhoring @ http://indigestible.nightwares.com/

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by: Warren @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 21:07:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Crap on the floor there too

Nothing like a good floor-crapping to scare religious nuts away!  No one wants to clean it up.

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by: Phil @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 21:36:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

You're a poopyhead!

Though I have to say I find your escatology compelling.

 

Blogwhoring @ http://indigestible.nightwares.com/

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by: Warren @ Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 23:56:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Forced into a church, that would be the day,

  But lets say they get me in there,  I would locate my seat, look for the waitress to take my drink order.  Then I would open a pack of Capri 120s, and reguest a light.

  I am sure I will get none of the service I have asked for, and be instructed to read from the bible, which I brought my own.  the sheeple will be instructed to recite James 2:7.  I open my bible to the closest thing I can find, Jack 0;7.  now everyone starts reading out load, and I am preaching upside-down boiler makers.

  I have retained the intrest of a few that are giggling, and a few wanting to take my bible from me.  As the one man approaches me, I ask him for some holy water, and tell him I need it bad.  So I get a pint of holy water, pour it into my bong.  and ask to go up to the manger.  While walking to the manger, the gentleman asks me,"what do I need from the manger?"  I'd rather show him, as I reach out, and take a pinch of the dry grass, and pack my bowl.  The gentleman asks me to sit down right in front, so I do, and the church service begins.  The minister asks for volunteers to light the candles, and of course I jump up and go light my cigarette, and than take a hit off of my bong, and start coughing very wickedly.  I am escorted out a back door, but I was told if I wanted to come back in and repent, I was welcome.  So I walked to my truck, finished my drink, had another smoke, and burned another bowl. After 15 minutes of watching cars and vans colliding while parked, I decided to go back in and REPEAT,

  I walked back in, and as the shepple were quite, I said in a loud voice, "All the cars and vans in the parking lot are running into each other."  And every one went out side to see.  While I was the ony person in the church, I looked around the empty building, and I noticed that being in a church is a powerful thing. 

  Those people go in there and hear a man talking for god, and gets the sheeple to empty their wallts and purses all on the hallucinations of one man. And this hallucinating person emptied the church.

  The moral of the story, people are so stupid to believe a hallucinating person.standing infront of the church, and behind the podium, especially when one is on LSD, THC, and alcohal, and the other has no drugs in his system.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 01:29:45 AM CDT

MCC welcomes you, naturally

And eventually the Canadian Anglicans will get over their oh-so-slow ponderings and approve gay marriage - like the Episcopals in the US, there is a split.

 Doesn't United Church of Canada already do gay marriages - they are more or less the amalgamation of a bunch of Canadian denominations, similar to the UCC in the USA.

Plenty of Reconstructionist, Reform, and Conservative synagogues in Canada.

Last but not least, invent your own church - Attend St. Arbuck's every Sunday morning!

In Missouri and other retrograde states, "male homosexuals" would be happy to "foster or adopt girls only", since that is more than what is happening now, with resistant state placement officials refusing partnered gay folks.

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by: NancyP @ Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 12:13:39 PM CDT

Also Quakers

Since you are listing accepting churches, I'd like to put in a word for the Quakers with whom I have had very positive experiences as a transitioning transgender. Most of the "Unprogrammed" (silent service) Meetings are LGBT affirming. The one here in Victoria was doing gay commitment ceremonies as early as the 1970s.

Avoid the ones that have Sunday sermons ("Programmed" Meetings), mostly found in the eastern US. They are a hybrid of Quaker and Evangelical churches and are as unaccepting as the regular evangelicals.

Every individual Quaker Meeting sets its own policies and there is no umbrella organization dictating what they are suppose to believe or who to accept. Also, you don't have to be Christian to be a Quaker. One Friend at the local Meeting has been a faithful member for over 30 years and never misses a service, unless she just hosted one of her Wiccan rituals the night before (sometimes held in the Quaker Meetinghouse.)

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by: Stephanie, in Victoria @ Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 15:28:42 PM CDT