The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
Given the gravity of this scandal, with revelations of rampant sexual abuse of children in many countries that was methodically and purposefully covered up by the Catholic Church hierarchy, the highly anticipated letter from Pope Benedict XVI only addresses the scandal going on in Ireland.
"I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them," the Pope told abuse survivors.
"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry."
There is an apology, and a call for an investigation, but what is noteworthy is that an abuse victims' group rejects the Papal letter.
A group representing victims of clerical abuse has said it is "deeply disappointed" by the Pope's letter to Irish Catholics about the issue.
The Pope's letter accused Irish bishops of having made "serious mistakes".
However, Maeve Lewis, One in Four, said that victims were disappointed the Pope did not call for the resignation of the head of the Irish church.
Cardinal Sean Brady has been under pressure for allegedly covering up an abuse case.
He was present at two meetings in 1975 when alleged victims of serial paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth were sworn to secrecy about what had happened.
Mr Madden has spoken publicly about the abuse he suffered as a child in the Dublin Archdiocese.
In a statement this morning, he said there had been no acknowledgement of the Catholic Church's part in causing the sexual abuse of so many children by protecting paedophile priests.
The pontiff admitted there had been "a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person".
He said decisive action was needed to restore Irish people's respect and goodwill towards the Church and called for the clergy's continued co-operation with civil authorities in addressing child abuse.
Some things are so distasteful and grotesque that the baristas have to commisserate to decide whether some stories we come across are just too much to bear. Sadly, this story is fell into that category, but it is newsworthy given the continuing child molesting priest scandal overrunning the Vatican.
Brazil is the latest country to be engulfed in the sickness. Only this time we're dealing with a country where the age of consent is 14. However, a video has emerged and is circulating of an 82-year-old Brazilian priest, Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa, having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy.
Time and again, I have to remind myself that the people hurt most, aside from the children, who can never fully heal after being abused by their priest, are the good priests who do good works for their communities in the most selfless ways possible. Also hurt are the many frustrated and pained faithful who have watched their church descend into madness under this Pope.
More below the fold, or please bypass this post at this point.
This is some royal shite. The Catholic League's Bill Donohue, always ready belch out bigotry at the drop of a hat. The man who said gay adoption is "against nature" and that the Catholic Church has a homosexual, not a pedophilia problem is trying in vain to build some sympathy for Pope Benedict by painting the NYT as a mean, Jew-loving (!), publication out to get his pedophile-priest-protecting Holiness.
Once upon a time there was a homosexual priest who was accused of molesting boys in Germany. That was 30 years ago. At the approval of Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger (now the pope), he was sent away for therapy and was later reinstated; years later, under a new archbishop, there was another incident and more therapy.
We know this because the New York Times (which does not like to report on molesting rabbis in 2010), told us about this on Saturday in a front-page article. Today, it ran a front-page article on the same story. Was there any difference? Yes. On Saturday, the Times was only able to identify the priest as bearing the initial "H." Today, it has real news: his name is Hullermann. And now "H" has been suspended.
Was it wrong to send abusers to therapy? Is it wrong today? The Times does not say. While it is painfully obvious that psychologists and psychiatrists have oversold their competency in treating abusers, it has long been considered to be both scientifically and ethically sound. It still is. Perhaps that view is unwarranted, but it is flatly unfair to cherry pick Catholic decision-makers for indictment when therapy fails.
Holy smoke. Cherry picking? Old Bill must have a pantload of cherries aboard for every time he's picked 'em about the gays. Back in 2006, he decided that the entire white race had been won over by the godless homosexuals who are responsible for the moral slide of America. Check this out:
Americans are a tolerant people. That's good, just so long as tolerance doesn't slide into amorality. For example, it is one thing to put up with immoral behavior, quite another to say we no longer object. Not only is there nothing wrong with registering moral outrage at morally outrageous behavior, there is something immoral about remaining silent. And no segment of society fails this test more than white people; in particular, well-educated white people.
So while he can pick and choose what he considers self-evident "facts" for his convenience, in Donohue's eyes, the Pope needs to be handled like a delicate, kindly grandfather, above criticism (or a subpoena), not to be questioned about his judgment regarding the handling of child-raping priests because, you know, he meant well.
I'm sure the Pope meant well when he whisked Cardinal "Shift the Pedos Around" Law out of Boston in the dead of night to a new "appointment" beyond the reach of law enforcement.
I'm sure Benedict just hasn't gotten around to calling for unrepentant Irish Cardinal Sean Brady's head because the Pope is sure Brady meant well when he witnessed teenage abuse victims take vows of silence rather than tell what they knew during a Church inquiry against multiple child molester Father Brendan Smyth.
Oh man, it's getting ugly now. How do you like the gauntlet that Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic Church's Irish flock, has thrown down at Pope Benedict. Why? It's because Brady is under his own cloud of abuse scandal, and smells blood in the water now that Papa Ratzi is hanging on for dear life when it comes to responsibility for child-raping priests on his watch.
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has said he will only resign if asked by the Pope amid allegations he witnessed teenage abuse victims take vows of silence over a paedophile.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, admitted that he attended meetings in 1975 when two teenage boys signed oaths of silence while testifying in a Church inquiry against Father Brendan Smyth.
The priest was later uncovered as the most notorious child abuser in the Irish Catholic Church, carrying out more than 90 sexual assaults against 40 youngsters in a 20-year period. Survivors' groups say the revelations show the cardinal colluded in the cover up of Smyth's crimes - which, they say, allowed the cleric to continue offending - and say he must quit immediately.
Dr Brady claimed that wider society handled child abuse cases differently in the 1970s. 'There was a culture of silence about this, a culture of secrecy, that's the way society dealt with it.'
Wow. What a defense that is -- "everybody was doing it," as priest after priest was shuffled from one diocese to another to victimize hundreds of children. I don't know what culture of silence he's talking about, but he, in a position of power, and as an adult with great power over the lives of innocent children, surely knew what he was doing was immoral and criminal activity. Does he feel any guilt? Hell, no.
Abuse campaigner Colm O'Gorman said Cardinal Brady 'is now deeply personally implicated in the gross failures of the Catholic Church in the management of Smyth and his rampant sexual offending against children.'
...Cardinal Brady said yesterday that he would not be resigning because he had done nothing wrong. 'I did act, and act effectively, in that inquiry to produce the grounds for removing Father Smyth from ministry and specifically it was underlined that he was not to hear confessions and that was very important.'
A shout-out to Cranmer, who compiled a list of shame in the post "Is Pope Benedict XVI about to resign?" (Doubt it, they'd have to pry the Pradas off of his cold dead feet). It's below the fold.
Pope Benedict has said ZERO in response to the growing anger in the flock over his alleged involvement in the cover up of a sexual and physical abuse scandal that occured in Munich while he was Archbishop. All there has been are Vatican spokesbots putting out the "He's been set up" line of denials.
The fact that this is all over the mainstream media now is putting extreme pressure for Papa Ratzi to either come clean or issue a blanket denial. Of course if he does the latter, that will open the floodgates to additional investigations to dig and find out if there's a Holy Prevaricator in the Vatican. After all, the official Vatican Exorcist, Father Gabriel Amorth, has said that:
"The Devil lives in the Vatican. Naturally it's difficult to find proof but the true consequences are visible..."We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms of the Vatican."
* One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers was among those implicated in a gay prostitution ring - after being caught on a police wiretap.
* Catholic authorities in Germany on Wednesday announced a probe into allegations the Regensburger Domspatzen Boys Choir - once led by the Pope's older brother.
* Major pedophilia cases involving priests have also surfaced in Ireland and the United States.
The Vatican spokesman, speaking to Vatican Radio and Associated Press Television News, defended Benedict.
"It's rather clear that in the last days, there have been those who have tried, with a certain aggressive persistence, in Regensburg and Munich, to look for elements to personally involve the Holy Father in the matter of abuses," the Rev. Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio.
"For any objective observer, it's clear that these efforts have failed," Lombardi said, reiterating his statement a day earlier noting the Munich diocese has insisted that Benedict wasn't involved in the decision while archbishop there to transfer the suspected child abuser.
Lombardi told The AP that "there hasn't been in the least bit any policy of silence."
"The pope is a person whose stand on clarity, on transparency and whose decision to face these problems is above discussion," Lombardi said, citing the comments by Scicluna, who works in the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which was long headed by Benedict before his election as pontiff.
"To accuse the current pope of hiding (cases) is false and defamatory," Scicluna said. As Vatican cardinal in charge of the policy on sex abuse, the future pope "showed wisdom and firmness in handling these cases," Scicluna said.
Wow. Do they think we've all forgotten how Cardinal Law was shipped out of Boston as he was about to face charges for abuse cover up, all the secret settlements? Amazing.
It is already clear that Catholic Church was covering up abuse cases as a matter of policy, thus the secrecy and the payouts. If the defense is going to be that poor Cardinal Ratzinger was forced to facilitate the coverup of child rape by priests because "everyone is doing it" or worse, that he never knew about it, will simply not fly. (NYT):
When a sex abuse scandal broke in Boston church in 2002, Pope Benedict - then Cardinal Ratzinger - was among the Vatican officials who made statements that minimized the problem and accused the news media of blowing it out of proportion.
As far as the Munich abuse cases and the decision to send a pedophile priest back out to work with children, something that the archdiocese claims Ratzinger knew nothing about, out comes the fall guy defense. That's not flying either.
The former vicar general took full responsibility for the decision to reinstate the priest to pastoral work. "I deeply regret that this decision resulted in offenses against youths and apologize to all who were harmed by it," he said, according to a statement posted on the archdiocese's Web site.
There was immediate skepticism that Benedict, as archbishop, would not have known of the details of the case.
The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, who once worked at the Vatican Embassy in Washington and became an early and well-known whistle-blower on sexual abuse in the church, said the vicar general's claim was not credible.
"Nonsense," said Father Doyle, who has served as an expert witness in sexual abuse lawsuits. "Pope Benedict is a micromanager. He's the old style. Anything like that would necessarily have been brought to his attention. Tell the vicar general to find a better line. What he's trying to do, obviously, is protect the pope."
This is really sad for those sick about what this is doing to the faithful, to see the hierarchy neck-deep in scandal.
At one time you might have thought what you're about to read was an extreme looney-toon statement, but given the vortex of evil coming to light -- the criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise sitting at Benedict's door of responsibility, the pimping out of undocumented immigrants, members of the Vatican choir, Papal Gentlemen and seminarians...it's like a bad novel come to life.
Well, this story is like a novel, The Exorcist. The Vatican's exorcist-in-chief, who was the basis for the priest in the film, thinks there's evil inside those walls and he's not shy about saying it.
In the last few months, the Catholic Church have been rocked by a series of sex scandals in Ireland, Holland and, most recently, Germany.
Even the Pope's brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, has admitted he hit choir boys.
Italian priest Fr Amorth said: "His Holiness fully believes in casting out evil.
"The Devil lives in the Vatican. Naturally it's difficult to find proof but the true consequences are visible.
"We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms of the Vatican."
I was chatting with Mike Signorile about this hot mess. Can you imagine what is going on in the Vatican's PR shop right now? From what I can tell, not a lot is going on because people are leaking like a wood-rotted boat, magnifying the scandal. Since the Pope is considered infallible, it's not like anyone is going to effectively call for his resignation, no? The only one who's going to make the UnHoly Father step aside is...Benedict himself.
So what's the answer? I think the public relations staff have such a nightmare on their hands -- who knows when a coerced rent boy's going to emerge to tell tales of priests in all sorts of compromising positions, or more papers implicating Cardinal Ratzinger emerge that show he repeatedly allowed children to be raped and pedophile priests to remain free to victimize more?
I personally don't think the Pope would step aside; he's not shown to be even a tad self-aware of his image around the globe. All I can think of is we may see some sort of cloak-and-dagger end to this thing; it's all that's left to make the bad novel ready to hit the press.
Does this mean the Devil really does wear Prada!?
UPDATE: This story is traveling like wildfire. It's in the New York Daily News with a photo of the exorcist that is truly frightening, as in "the power of Christ compels you" creepy.
Amorth, who told the paper, that he knows a thing or two about exorcisms having handled 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said the Holy See was infested with "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the demon."
Amorth's accusations come at a time when the Vatican is facing scrutiny on a number of fronts:
* One of Pope Benedict's ceremonial ushers was among those implicated in a gay prostitution ring - after being caught on a police wiretap.
* Catholic authorities in Germany on Wednesday announced a probe into allegations the Regensburger Domspatzen Boys Choir - once led by the Pope's older brother.
* Major pedophilia cases involving priests have also surfaced in Ireland and the United States.
It was probably only a matter of time before this happened, given that Benedict, aka Cardinal Ratzinger, was the author of the Vatican instruction to bishops to hush up the cases. Now scores of abuse charges have surfaced Germany and Austria, including the diocese where he used to preside as archbishop--while he was in charge there.
A senior church official acknowledged that a German archdiocese made "serious mistakes" in reassigning an abusive priest during the pope's tenure as its archbishop in the 1980s.
It makes for very juicy reading. Do check out the full story. Evidently there is no Latin for "It happened on my watch, and I take full responsibility." I'm guessing it's only a matter of time before Benedict tries to defend himself with "I was only following orders."
The story notes that this could undermine the pope's "moral authority" (as if he had any) and undo his program for the "re-Christianization of Europe" (make your own joke). It should all be heaps of fun to watch as it develops over the next few months. There have to be smoking guns, and we can count on the European tabloids, if not the MSM there, to find them.
***
NOTE FROM PAM:
(Huff Post): The pontiff is also under increasing fire for a 2001 Vatican document he later penned instructing bishops to keep such cases secret.
The revelations have put the spotlight on Benedict's handling of abuse claims both when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977-1982 and then the prefect of the Vatican office that deals with such crimes - a position he held until his 2005 election as pope.
And they may lead to further questions about what the pontiff knew about the scope of abuse in his native Germany, when he knew it and what he did about it during his tenure in Munich and quarter-century term at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
the Munich archdiocese admitted that it had allowed a priest suspected of having abused a child to return to pastoral work in the 1980s, while Benedict was archbishop. It stressed that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger didn't know about the transfer and that it had been decided by a lower-ranking official.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, issued a statement late Friday noting that the Munich vicar-general who approved the priest's transfer had taken "full responsibility" for the decision, seeking to remove any question about the pontiff's potential responsibility as archbishop at the time.
Victims' advocates weren't persuaded.
"We find it extraordinarily hard to believe that Ratzinger didn't reassign the predator, or know about the reassignment," said Barbara Blaine, president and founder of SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Over at Newser, the coverage is even more blunt -- "Is the Pope Toast?"
Trouble, trouble. Not-going-away trouble. Run-out-of-office trouble. It's a potentially transformative moment in matters of religion and of power, wherein even the infallible turns out to be vulnerable. Some of us live for such moments.
So far, it's been an American thing which the Vatican has been remote and rather haughty about: vulgar American media. But now the story is everywhere in Europe and it includes the Pope's brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger.
It's got all the elements: boarding schools, choirs, boys, yum. Msgr. Ratzinger was the choir master, of course. At the school in question, in Bavaria, where Pope Benedict was the Archbishop and his brother the choir master, there was, according to one of the accusers, an "elaborate system of sadistic punishments combined with sexual lust." Indeed. While Msgr. Ratzinger, now 86, professes to have no knowledge of the lust, he is now apologizing for slapping students: "I, too, slapped people in the face, but I always had a bad conscience about it."
...The truth will out. What is buried comes up. Even the Pope, quite possibly, is accountable. A development which may be bigger than we know.
So will Papa Ratzi turn a blind eye to one of his boyz pimping and man ho' ing around? Is there any other less-than-holy behavior this criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise hasn't engaged in as it piously hatemongers against LGBTs? (Gay News Watch):
Police wiretaps are expected to result in charges against Angelo Balducci, 63, a Papal Gentleman, as lay attendant are called, and the former chairman of the Holy See's Public Works Department, which is itself caught up in a corruption investigation.
According to police, Balducci regularly contacted Chinedu Ehiem Thomas, a Nigerian man who sings in St. Peter's Cappella Giulia, to engage the sexual services of young male members of the choir, along with seminarians and undocumented immigrants seeking residency status.
The scandal now envelops Balducci, a well-known and powerful local figure who is married with two children, who despite all this is said to have taken remarkable risks in setting up sexual liaisons even in Chigi Palace, home of the Italian prime minister, or immediately after a private audience with a cardinal.
In 72 pages of transcribed wiretaps, Ehiem tells Balducci about one possible candidate: "Angelo ... I'll say no more. Two meters (6-foot-7), 97 kilos (250 lbs.), 33 years-old and completely active (top)."
In one wiretap from last December, Renzi is heard explaining the rules of engagement: "You'll get up to 2,000 euros ... Do not touch his balls. You need the money. Put on some music, take out the [inaudible], swallow the Viagra, and adelante!"
And how about the treatment of immigrants? Wonder what promises Baldacci sold them about residency so he could turn them out. Wow. Just. Wow.
In light of Catholic Charities' recent shenanigans in D.C., I'm reminded of one of the smears so commonly used when our civil rights are put up for a popular vote. We've all heard it; that old canard of "once those gays are able to get married religious organizations will have to stop discriminating against them! It's an attack on our religious freedom!" This particular flake of toilet bowl crust has its origins in the Boston Catholic Charities decision in 2006 to stop placing children with gay couples as part of its adoption services. Time and again this choice has been painted as being the fault of the LGBT community, and thrown at us over and over every time we are gay-bashed at the ballot box.
What we all need to know is exactly how and why Catholic Charities shut down their adoption services in Boston, so we can be ready to counter this disgusting smear with the cold, hard facts.
The rest of this is below the fold because it is LONG.
WTF?! This comes out of the mouth of Belgium's new Archbishop, André-Joseph Léonard, during an address on television.
"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite," the Archbishop said, showing both an immature understanding of human sexuality and of the biology behind eating disorders like anorexia.
The comparison has drawn fire from a number of civil rights groups, including the Belgium Centre for Equal Opportunities, a government organization that has the power to start legal proceedings if they think something crosses the line toward hate speech. None of these groups are calling the Archbishop's comments hateful just yet. But stupid? Yeah, they're all over that.
"When a comparison is made between homosexuality and anorexia, this suggests that homosexuality is a disease," the groups said. And they're right. The statement shows a pretty weak sense of compassion, and certainly isn't kind to LGBT people, or to folks suffering from anorexia.
Well Papa Ratzi himself has called LGBTs disordered, so this is only an extension of the official Vatican line. The view is also shared by Deacon Keith Fournier, who wrote an unbelievable self-loathing screed @ Catholic Online.
Some maintain that same sex attraction is a genetic predisposition. This is disputed. Even if it were the case, that does not give homosexual activity any more of a claim to being given a special civil rights status. Should we really give disordered appetites civil rights status under the law? Let's consider an absurd example. I have struggled most of my life with fighting obesity. I am on the "winning end" lately, but just give me another Holiday! A very good argument can be made that obesity also has a genetic predisposition. However, I will fight it my whole life because it is unhealthy. It is a disordered appetite. Should we as a Nation decide that fat people have a civil right to be fat? Should those who insist that they resist that "genetic predisposition" to overeat be called Fata-phobic?
Disordered appetites - and the actions engaged in by those who give into them - simply should not be called civil rights.
It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
Well, a tough week, for sure. My friend Brenda's little Pomeranian -- Onyx -- had to be put to sleep this past week. Onyx...well, she was beloved by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community here in San Diego. The reason is because Brenda was a frequent community volunteer and she most often took Onyx to community events. Onyx also is the only dog in the San Diego Imperial Court chapter to ever have been awarded an honorary title -- Onyx was well loved.
Brenda is currently is on the national board for Scouting For All, and on the local San Diego chapter's board for the Imperial Court. She is one of four people I can look back to in my life and say "You directly influenced me to become an activist." I am so sorry for my friend Brenda's loss...for my broader community's loss.
*Sigh* So anywho, this is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob since the last This & That diary.
A $26,000 contribution to the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California appears to have cost a 96-year-old former Mormon temple president his seat on the board that oversees Oakland's historic Paramount Theatre.
Amid rising criticism from the gay community, Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that he was putting on hold the reappointment of Lorenzo Hoopes, most likely signaling an end to Hoopes' 30-plus years on the Paramount board.
"The community is asking us to reconsider, and that is what we are going to do," mayoral spokesman Paul Rose said.
Hoopes, a past president of the Mormon temple in Oakland as well as a former Safeway executive, has been on the Paramount board since before the downtown theater was restored in the early 1970s...
There are costs to pay for those opposing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights. This is just one. To quote Cesar Chavez:
"We are confident. We have ourselves. We know how to sacrifice. We know how to work. We know how to combat the forces that oppose us. But even more than that, we are true believers in the whole idea of justice. Justice is so much on our side, that that is going to see us through."
I was reading FWD/Forward today when I came across this post about anti-alcoholism medication which reviewed this article of the same topic. From the FWD/Forward piece:
"Is life really worth living if you're sober all the time?" - while the original author clearly intends this as a joke, I find it similar to arguments I've heard that "messing with someone's emotions" through pharmaceutical intervention will inherently result in significant changes to that person's personality and identity. This seems similar, in that it questions whether life will be the same if such a fundamental component of their self is being affected by pharmaceutical treatments.
Those who know me are aware of how critical I am regarding psychoactive pharmaceuticals. I'm critical of how psychiatric drugs are used as chemical restraints, how they are used without proper informed consent, how they are often used in leu of a situational understanding of the patient's life. There are a lot of things I am critical of in regards to psychiatric drugs. It might surprise many, then, how okay I am with the potential for medication to alter, even fundamentally, an individual's personality.
... this all comes down to informed consent. Are the people who are taking the drugs which impact their personalities fully engaged in the decision to take their medication? Are they knowledgeable regarding the personal impact their drugs will have on their personhood, are they willing to accept these changes, and are the changes which these drugs affect something which they accept as positive?
Forcing individuals to take drugs which fundamentally change who they are is wrong, but that shouldn't extend to voluntary, fully informed drug use.
The writer is a early twenty-something year-old with Tourette's Syndrome. Her thoughts on disability have always interested me, so I encouraged her to start her relatively new blog.
Since I encouraged her to start blogging, I thought I'd give it a plug.
On January 16th, James Hartline warned San Diego and America about the radicalized homosexual group CAPI which has ties to an anti-semitic globalist homosexual group. CAPI is holding a gay pride conference in San Diego on January 21-24, 2010. The homosexual event is sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
God responds five days later by bringing a catastrophic storm and flooding to the area during the wicked pro-abortion, homosexual activist event.
Mr. Hartline then goes on to quote Matthew 24:35-39 about the "days of Noah" and sin.
Seriously, it couldn't just be El Niño?
Pat Robertson and James Hartline sure do give a lot of credit to God hating some people so much that God wreaks havok and violence on broad swaths of people.
It's an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread...
Because we're avid readers of articles, lemme share what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob since the last This & That post, which was last Thursday. ("We" missed the weekend This & That diary posting because of my attendance at Christine Daniel's memorial service, and delayed yesterday's This & That diary posting until today because of the election in Massachusetts.)
The Obama administration has intervened on behalf of an openly homosexual teenager in a bullying lawsuit against his high school - and the Justice Department is claiming a law meant to ban sex discrimination also protects homosexual students from intolerance based on sexual orientation.
Jacob, 14, former student of Gregory B. Jarvis Junior/Senior High School in the Mohawk Central School District in New York, claims he was teased and endured threats and name-calling by classmates because he dyed his hair blue and pink and wears make-up and nail polish. According to the Justice Department's Jan. 14 motion to intervene, Jacob "engages in physical expressions that are stereotypically female, e.g., swinging his hips and singing in a high pitched voice."
The original lawsuit, filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union, or NYCLU, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in August 2009, states that students told Jacob to "get a sex-change operation because he was so 'girly.'" The teen claims students destroyed his belongings, threw his clothes in a trash can, tripped him and pushed him down stairs. According to the documents, the school principal promised to look into the harassment, but never told the boy or his father whether he had taken steps to investigate and respond to the incidents.
..."They are making up a legal violation where there hasn't been one," [Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity (formerly of the Civil Rights Division under President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush)] said. "If the Civil Rights Division and the Obama administration want to propose that Title IX be amended to include sexual orientation, that's something they can do and that can be debated in Congress. But Congress has not passed a law that deals with discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation." ...
It began innocuously enough when the incoming priest at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Student Center at Drake University noticed a piece of paper on a copy machine in the parish office.
On it was a counselor's authorization of hormone therapy for a transgendered person about to undergo a sex change. On a letterhead that included the center's name and address.
...The intervention of the bishop, worried about liability for the Diocese of Des Moines. The firing of the transgendered woman who worked part time as parish housekeeper and who, as an independent social worker, used parish offices to provide counseling for transgendered clients. Nearly 100 parishioners organizing separate prayer services instead of going to Mass because they said they sought a welcoming place for all. And angst in a once-tight faith community about how the church should minister to those whose lifestyles aren't condoned by the church.
Some in the parish believe the Catholic Church must adhere to 2,000 years of teaching because, even in a changing world, what kind of religion is permissive of everything? Others believe the church should welcome everyone because, after all, isn't that what Jesus did? ...
That article above then goes on to speak about how the trans woman (Susan McIntyre) who wrote that surgery letter was hired as a housekeeper, and assumed upon herself the role as a counselor. The broader question -- beyond the obviously ethical question of a housekeeper passing herself off as an official, Catholic counselor -- leads to this one Joanne Herman's article:
...What is confusing for me is that most interpretations of the Bible understand Jesus as having been welcoming of all, especially the downtrodden. This was apparently true of the "nearly 100 parishioners [in Des Moines] who organized separate prayer services instead of going to Mass," in response to Susan's firing. How is it that His teachings can be used to reject anyone?
Furthermore, we know from the Bible that transgender people existed in history, too. Biologist Joan Roughgarden, in her book Evolution and Christian Faith, points out that Jesus describes three types of eunuchs in Matthew 19:12 who are the people we today call transgender. And she asserts that the apostle Philip's baptism of the eunuch in Acts 9:27-38 serves as an "explicit instruction to include eunuchs within the church."
Yet, in spite of the Catholic Church's pronouncements, there are transgender Catholics like Susan McIntyre in the Des Moines Register story. A few others posted comments to the online article about her. And then there's my friend Sarah (not her real name). Sarah has two children and is devoutly Catholic. As such, she is very conflicted. If she accepts the Church's teachings, she is a man, not a woman. And if she's a man, the fact that she is attracted to men in her new life makes her gay, another status the Catholic Church does not accept. Yet, to my amazement, she remains staunchly Catholic.
What is it that could attract transgender people to stay or to become Catholic? That article says Susan saw so much good in her new faith and felt at home in it, believing the Church's view of transgender people would improve over time. For her sake, and for the sake of all transgender Catholics, I hope she is right.
I think the assertions found within the third paragraph of this excerpt provides a better answer to the question posed in the fourth paragraph's first sentence than McIntyre's answer of believing "the Church's view of transgender people [will] improve over time."
It's easy for me to see how people can identify as themselves transsexual and/or transgender and Christian because there are many open and affirming churches. However, I'm a little clear on how people who identify as transsexual and/or transgender can also identify as Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, or Pentecostal becasue of those churches' specific belief systems about Christian faith and trans people.
If a independent church or a denomination identifying with Christian faith doesn't believe in their dogma that folk with your identity exist -- or if in their dogma they do believe that people with your identity exist, but also claim your existence is sinful -- then I don't see how you then embrace membership in that independent church or denomination.
And please, let's not go deriding all people of faith in the thread comments. We respect identity communities at Pam's House Blend, including welcoming and affirming identity communities of faith.
I am writing to apologize for my actions, which led to the inexcusable publication of a "Mobile Party" comic strip on Jan. 13. This strip was offensive and inappropriate beyond measure, and printing it perpetuated a message of intolerance, discrimination and hate.
A miscommunication between another editor and myself led to the comic running without me first reading and approving the material. Regardless, no excuse can justify the comic even being considered for publication, and the duty to censor it fell to me. I failed to do so, and am solely responsible for providing a forum for this message of hate. I was the final one to check the paper that night, and am accountable for all of its content. I regret nothing more than the oversight that led to it and apologize for disgracing the paper with its printing. The comic does not reflect my views or those of The Observer in any way, and I cannot begin to quantify the humiliation in knowing that it is, ultimately, my fault.
To those whom my actions have offended, I'm sorry. I failed as both an editor and member of the Notre Dame community by allowing this strip to print. I cannot take my inaction back, but I can hope that some good will come from this. More than ever, we as a University need to fight against stereotypes and for the equal rights of all who consider our campus and community home. If nothing else, the administration needs to use this instance to acknowledge that discrimination against the LGBT community is a very real problem, and one that should not be tolerated. Adding sexuality to the non-discrimination clause and recognizing student groups who fight for these equal rights is overdue, and excuses for not doing so have been used for too long. This is not a problem that can be solved overnight, but the University can join The Observer in taking the first steps towards remedying it...
You can read the rest of the apology and resignation letter at The Observer on the link above.
In resigning, and apologizing unequivocally, Kara King no doubt saved her chances for a further career -- perhaps even in journalism.
Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell, passed away on Saturday, January 16. He was 86 years old.
Bell, a fan of Mexican-style food, created the taco and popularized it in America. Taco Bell, the company he is most famous for, is now part of Yum! Brands. Yum! is also the parent company of A&W, KFC, Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut and Wing Street. Yum! Brands itself was spun off from PepsiCo in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc.
Glen was born in 1923 in Lynwood, California. He had a hardscrabble childhood and youth during the Depression years. He joined the Marines in 1943 and was sent to Guadacanal and Guam during WWII and was stationed in China shortly after the War ended. All were locations, where, at the time, the world turned, and history was being made. Glen was a waiter serving top military brass.
...In 1948, he opened his first restaurant, Bell's Drive-In in San Bernardino, California, beginning by selling hot dogs and hamburgers. To people who know their franchise history even cursorily, the town will likely immediately ring a bell. The McDonald brothers had a hamburger stand there, and Glen and his San Bernardino High School chum, Neal Baker, had closely studied their operation. Neal went on to found his own restaurant, Baker's...
Can we go just one flipping week without an ignorant bigot eruption from one of Papa Ratzi's boyz?
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican cardinal and emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health (1996-2009), has said in an interview with Pontifex, that homosexuals and transvestites "will never enter into the reign of God," appealing to St. Paul. "[T]rans e omosessuali non entreranno mai nel Regno dei Cieli, e non lo dico io, ma San Paolo." Later in the interview he says that he believes homosexuals are not born that way but become that.
As Andrew Sullivan observes, this cleric's BS isn't even in alignment with Catholic doctrine. The Prada-loving Pope, btw, has yet to say anything about the eliminationist legislation in Uganda.
In direct violation of Catholic doctrine, a leading cardinal has insisted that being gay is a choice and that those who choose to be gay are thereby excluded from God's kingdom. Benedict's church is slowly reversing the reforms of the 1970s that saw gay persons as made in the image of God and inherently not sinful, as long as they remained celibate and lived alone their entire lives.
It began with Benedict's own policy of insisting that even celibate gays cannot become priests because they are mentally or psychologically "disordered." The creation of a class of sub-human humans - the early medieval Catholic approach to Jews and sodomites - is making a comeback.
One also notes that the new Ugandan bill that would begin to treat gays as sub-human threats to be identified, informed on, jailed and executed has met no resistance from Pope Benedict XVI. Since the largest religious group in Uganda is Catholic, one has to take Benedict's silence in the face of this proposed Nazi-style law against homosexuals to be consent.
Since Cardinal Barragan is so certain about our fate, has he given any thought to the destiny of the child-raping priests and the criminal enterprise of bishops and cardinals that shuttled them around to new environs to continue their pedophile activity?
A lawyer has confirmed that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland made a $200,000 settlement on Nov. 5 with his client, who said she was molested by a priest in 1976 in the rectory of St. Michael's Church in South Berwick.
The priest was the Rev. James Vallely, said attorney Mitchell Garabedian, of Boston. The victim, who lives outside of New England, was 11 years old at the time and one of the first female altar servers in the state.
...Garabedian said that Vallely, who is deceased, served in parishes in Sheridan, Waterville, Machias, Limestone, Portland, South Portland and South Berwick. He added that secrecy was a common thread in clergy abuse cases, from supervisors of priests to any disciplinary action.
From National Catholic Reporter's Chuck Colbert comes an utterly damning breakdown of Portland Roman Catholic Diocese Bishop Richard J. Malone's activities this year, as well as the increasingly visible political proclivities of the Catholic Church in the United States:
Gathering money from 50 U.S. dioceses, the Portland, Maine, diocese contributed more than $550,000 to the campaign to rejected Maine's law extending civil marriage to gay and lesbian couples, according to financial records filed with the state agency that tracks political contributions.
Supporters and opponents of the law spent more than $7 million, according to the Portland Press Herald.
During the summer, Bishop Richard J. Malone of Portland sent an appeal to other Catholic bishops seeking contributions to defeat the law that the state legislature passed and the governor signed in May.
According to financial records filed with Maine's campaign finance watchdog, the Portland diocese donated nearly $286,000 to Stand For Marriage Maine, which was seeking to repeal the same-sex law.
The Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up decades of child abuse committed by priests because bishops wanted to protect the church's reputation at the expense of victims, an expert commission reported Thursday after a three-year probe into previously secret church records.
Abuse victims said they welcomed publication of the probe into the mishandling of 1975-2004 child-abuse cases in the Dublin Archdiocese, home to a quarter of Ireland's 4 million Catholics. But they said government and church leaders still had far to go to compensate for past wrongs.
The government said the investigation "shows clearly that a systemic, calculated perversion of power and trust was visited on helpless and innocent children in the archdiocese." ...
...Thursday's 720-page report -- delivered to the government in July -- analyzes the cases of 46 priests against whom 320 complaints were filed. The 46 were selected from more than 150 Dublin priests implicated in molesting or raping boys and girls since 1940...
Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Ireland -- these are among the locations where the Catholic Priests have been documented to have committed pedophilia...and where the Catholic Church has had a history of its hierarchy protecting its pedophile priests at the expense of these priests' victims.
I think it's safe to say the Catholic Church has nuzzled and snuggled its Godly Perverts in it's very recent history, never bothering to remove the logs from its own eyes as it rightiously seeks to remove the specks it perceives to be in the eyes of others.
Merely holding the position that a woman has the right to an abortion puts you in the dog house now -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) -- he clearly cannot commit the sin of having an abortion himself -- was told in a confidential email that he will be denied Communion for his position as an elected official.
So what's next? Given its involvement in rolling back equality in Maine, Papa Ratzi's boys may be ready to refuse Communion to supporters of marriage equality. (Change.org):
It was a narrowing of Catholic theology to strip issues like poverty and social justice from the forefront of the Church, and replace them with opposing abortion, gay marriage, and stem cell research. It was also a call to Catholic politicians: oppose abortion and gay marriage at all costs, or risk the threat of the Church denying you Communion and publicly tarring and feathering you as a sinner.
Bishop Tobin's action toward Rep. Patrick Kennedy doesn't have anything to do with gay marriage on its surface (Rhode Island doesn't allow gay marriage, and Rep. Kennedy has kept a relatively low profile on the issue). Rather, Rep. Kennedy's sin in the eyes of the church was voting against the Stupak amendment to the U.S. House's health care bill, and siding with reproductive rights activists.
But the question is that if the Church is now ready to do this on the issue of abortion, are they also ready to do this on the issue of gay marriage, an issue the Church says that they view with as much disgust? Do Massachusetts politicians who support gay marriage or abortion rights now have to wonder whether they'll be denied Communion at weekly mass? What about Catholics in Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut or New Hampshire?
Time will tell. But we've already seen bishops with the Catholic Church threaten to stop caring for the poor in Washington, D.C. over the issue of gay marriage. There's no reason to think that Church leaders won't head to even deeper depths, politicizing one of their oldest traditions in Communion to simply toe a line on gay marriage that is increasingly out of step with public opinion.
For those of you well versed in Catholic theology, isn't refusing Communion reserved for those who have personally committed mortal sins, like, um, murder, adultery, etc.? More below the fold.
Now this is interesting...when the church gets wind of this, there will probably be an eruption.
For Immediate Release Wednesday, November 17, 2009 Contact:Phil Attey Phone: 202.445.4794 Email: churchoutings@gmail.com
ChurchOuting.org Launched to Expose Hypocrisy in the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington
WASHINGTON, DC -- A new local Internet and social media campaign was launched today in response to increasing anti-gay attacks by Archbishop Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington and to a 57 page Pastoral Letter, which was passed today by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) affirming the national church leadership’s opposition to recognition of civil marriage between same sex couples.
ChurchOuting.org is a clearinghouse for reports of priests who are openly gay men in social settings yet professionally closeted in their parishes.The campaign will also accept reports of heterosexual priests who are involved in romantic or sexual relationships, yet support the Archbishop's efforts to harm lesbian and gay families.
“Their silence is criminal,” said Phil Attey, founder of ChurchOuting.org. “The increasing anti-gay attacks by the Archbishop and the USCCB not only harm gay and lesbian families seeking civil marriage recognition, but perpetuate the cycle of spiritual and emotional abuse that has harmed countless LGBT Catholic youth for generations.“
ChurchOuting.org provides an easy to use form to privately report priests in the Archdiocese who engage in romantic or sexual relationships, including detailed stories if available.Reports, once verified, will be used to pressure reported priests to vocally oppose the leadership’s anti-gay efforts, and ultimately to pressure the Archbishop to stop his anti-gay efforts here in Washington.
The ChurchOuting.org campaign was greatly inspired by the work of the Survivors Network of those Sexually Abused by Priests (SNAP), which emerged to stop the cycle of sexual abuse in Catholic parishes across the country.ChurchOuting.org plans to use similar strategies, while taking full advantage of new social media tools like Facebook and Twitter.
“I expect community response to this campaign to be overwhelming,” says Attey, who hopes once successful in Washington, DC, ChurchOuting.org will inspire similar campaigns in every archdiocese across the country.“The Church hierarchy has crossed the line in diverting the mission of the church from helping the poor and caring for the sick to waging political campaigns to strip LGBT citizens of civil rights protections.We can no longer remain silent while this happens.Nor can our parish priests.”
"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse,'' said Margaret Smith of John Jay College, in a speech to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and the increased likelihood of subsequent abuse from the data that we have right now.''
The question has been raised repeatedly within and outside the church because the overwhelming majority of known victims were boys. As part of the church's response to the crisis, the Vatican ordered a review of all US seminaries that, among other issues, looked for any "evidence of homosexuality'' in the schools.
Yet, many specialists on sex offenders reject any link between sexual orientation and committing abuse. Karen Terry, a John Jay researcher, said it was important to distinguish between sexual identity and behavior, and to look at who the offender had access to when seeking victims.
The bishops commissioned the $2 million study as part of widespread reforms they enacted at the height of the abuse crisis.
Hear that over at the Vatican? NO TIE. The bishops spent $2 million of churchgoers' scratch in the basket to find out what everyone with a brain free of homobigotry already knew.
The problem with the child-raping priests that each diocese had to hide, transfer and pay off the families of victims - with the approval of The Vatican - is that they are men with serious psychosexual problems attracted to the priesthood that were enabled by their employer even after the criminal carnage continued over and over.
To think that purging the ranks of moral, law-abiding priests that happen to be gay is going to solve the ethical, legal or moral problems the church is drowning in is a ludicrous farce that is driving away American Catholics in droves.
ETN asked the Bishop [Janusz Kaleta of Holy See, the Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau] if the Vatican's stand was clearly against [gay] tourism, and the Bishop answered: "The church teachings are from the Bible. If we change this teaching, we will not be the Catholic Church. Don't expect the Catholic church to change these issues, because it is our identity." When asked if the Vatican is open to dialogue about welcoming such homosexual groups of tourists in the future, Bishop Kaleta responded that "such demonstrations are just not ethical."
Publisher Steinmetz clarified that what was meant by gay travel was traveling for the purpose of a visit, not as a demonstration. To this the Bishop replied, "I consider if someone is homosexual, it is a provocation and an abuse of this place. Try to go to a mosque if you are not Muslim. It is abuse of our buildings and our religion because the church interprets our religion that it is not ethical. We expect respect of our church as we expect to respect that a person does not have to belong to the Catholic Church. If you have different ideas, go to a different location."
Oh man, it's getting ugly now. How do you like the gauntlet that Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of the Catholic Church's Irish flock, has thrown down at Pope Benedict. Why? It's because Brady 
The fact that this is all over the mainstream media now is putting extreme pressure for Papa Ratzi to either come clean or issue a blanket denial. Of course if he does the latter, that will open the floodgates to additional investigations to dig and find out if there's a Holy Prevaricator in the Vatican. After all, 
At one time you might have thought what you're about to read was an extreme looney-toon statement, but given the vortex of evil coming to light -- the criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise sitting at Benedict's door of responsibility, the pimping out of undocumented immigrants, members of the Vatican choir, Papal Gentlemen and seminarians...it's like a bad novel come to life.
NOTE FROM PAM:
Well Papa Ratzi himself has called LGBTs disordered, so this is only an extension of the official Vatican line. The view is also shared by Deacon Keith Fournier, who wrote 
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican cardinal and emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Health (1996-2009), has said in an interview with Pontifex, that homosexuals and transvestites "will never enter into the reign of God," appealing to St. Paul. "[T]rans e omosessuali non entreranno mai nel Regno dei Cieli, e non lo dico io, ma San Paolo." Later in the interview he says that he believes homosexuals are not born that way but become that.
It began with Benedict's own policy of insisting that even celibate gays cannot become priests because they are mentally or psychologically "disordered." The creation of a class of sub-human humans - the early medieval Catholic approach to Jews and sodomites - is making a comeback.
ETN asked the Bishop [Janusz Kaleta of Holy See, the Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau] if the Vatican's stand was clearly against [gay] tourism, and the Bishop answered: "The church teachings are from the Bible. If we change this teaching, we will not be the Catholic Church. Don't expect the Catholic church to change these issues, because it is our identity." When asked if the Vatican is open to dialogue about welcoming such homosexual groups of tourists in the future, Bishop Kaleta responded that "such demonstrations are just not ethical."
