…right on schedule.
Whoever is in charge of the pro-Marshall/Newman talking points is not having a good week.
After months of carefully constructed, monotonously repeated denials that the motivation behind Ballot Question #1 is animus toward the GLBT community, it’s over. Every argument in favor of the amendment has been refuted, the Some Families Foundation has been reduced to transparent attempts to change the subject, amendment patron Bob Marshall has gone off the deep end, and voters are quite understandably suspicious
when they are handed “vote yes” propaganda that doesn’t include the text of the amendment they’re being told to vote for (even if it does come with candy). “You know, I thought there must be more to this,” voters told us at Sterlingfest.
The result? Amendment proponents have nothing left but to display their true anti-gay colors. At the October 5 GMU rally, the small band of protesters with their “vote yes 4 marriage” signs actually heckled faith leaders during a prayer vigil by shrieking about “sodomy.” After they were hushed by security, and not permitted to approach the stage, they could only stand belligerently in a line across the walkways, refusing to get out of the way of the crowd leaving the rally.
These people are angry.
The mask has come off in the wake of another revelation that “religious conservatives,” as sincere as they are misinformed about matters of sexual orientation, are being used. To cover up the cynicism and amorality of the anti-gay right, the explanations for the Foley scandal have descended in a downward spiral from the humorous (the suggestion that House leadership feared accusations of gay-bashing), to the alarming, to the outright dangerous.
Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson, supposedly a professional, a person with training and education in mental health issues, supposedly an advocate for children and families, supposedly someone with a working understanding of how power in relationships can be used to exploit the most vulnerable among us – is repeating the internet-fabricated rumor that the victims here were actually…Mark Foley and his hapless former colleagues.
As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a — sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages.
That’s right folks, it was just a prank. Boys will be boys. No one was harmed, nothing to see here, please move along. This rumor was spread by bloggers claiming that the teenage page “goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments.”
Silly, ignorant bloggers who know nothing about sexual harassment or predatory behavior patterns might be able to get away with this, but what’s Dr. Dobson’s excuse? Parents who have previously looked to this man for guidance should see this as their shocking wake up call – his loyalty isn’t to the truth, and it sure isn’t to family values or the protection of vulnerable young people. It’s to the protection of his political allies.
Even worse is the McCarthyist language fueling paranoid fantasies of a shadowy “network” of gay staffers and members of the legislature, not to mention what can only be called an ugly blood libel – the attempted association of predatory, abusive behavior with a gay orientation. More breathless prose from the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins:
This raises yet another plausible question for values voters: has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and or staffers? When we look over events of this Congress, we have to wonder.
Wonder no longer, Tony. It’s well known that there is a deep split in the GOP between social issues ideologues like you and business interest conservatives, with a pronounced tendency for the latter to ridicule and ignore the former. While it might be more satisfying for your personal demons to dream up a vast gay conspiracy, that’s not the source of your troubles.
A note to those who will complain that the term “anti-gay” constitutes name-calling: Your feeling that this descriptor is an epithet demonstrates that you know it’s morally wrong. Congratulations. The first step on your road to recovery is recognizing that you have a problem.
Hello David and all,
Here’s some more red hot ink for your pen. Now help me vanquish the sword!
This Foley fiasco has given people the chance to change the make-up of this government, which will ultimately lead to the end of the Bush-Cheney reign. It may not be pretty, but it is a gift, nonetheless. Don’t waste this advantage. Use it wisely to end the more pressing problems that face us all.
Want to better understand some of the desperation among top Christian politicos? Want to know what else they are pretending not to know about? Follow the links and read about who I am and what I have to say. Notice that my last name is Page? Think this “page” scandal is a mere coincidence? The timing and ramifications are much worse than most realize yet.
If Christian political leaders are going to go around attacking others for not living up to their professed values, it’s a damn good idea to be truthful and actually walk the walk. Logs and motes in the eye, camels through the eye of a needle, glass houses, kettles and pots, and what goes around comes around, et al. Karma’s a bitch when She finally decides enough is enough! This wouldn’t have been so bad on Republicans if they hadn’t been such arrogant hypocrites in order to corner the so-called values voters! Now the “Two Candlesticks” and “Two Witnesses” (Truth and Justice) are “breathing fire” and “raining hailstones!”
Christian Political Leadership, Hypocrisy, Duplicity, and Purposeful Evil
The current scandal involving Congressman Foley is merely the latest in an amazingly long list of blatant deception and duplicity by Republicans and the Christian Right in recent years. While bedeviling us all with their holier-than-thou pretenses, they consistently support and/or perform blatant greed and abominable evil. Never forget the extent of their arrogance over the last two decades and especially the last 6 years. It is beyond amazing that Christians continue to blindly support such obviously blatant scoundrels, even as they are repeatedly exposed going against the most basic of human values. The level of hypocrisy and duplicity boggles the mind. There is no longer any doubt, whatsoever, that Christianity is little more than a purposeful deception used by political and religious leaders to dupe, manipulate, and coerce entire populations into giving them wealth and power, which they always use for greed, injustice, and abominable evils.
The actions of Foley and those who covered up for him directly parallel the actions of scores of priests that have raped innocent children, preyed upon others for centuries, and had their actions hidden and abetted by the Vatican. Now, in eerie repetition of Vatican history, we have a power hungry Christian Emperor (GW) working closely with the Vatican and Judeo-Christian aristocrats to lead crusades in the so-called Holy Land. Furthermore, to leave little doubt about the reality of this assessment, the USA, as the new Holy Roman Empire, is about to legalize the torture it has perpetrated in recent years while steadily reversing many of the democratic and civil freedoms that people gained when the Vatican and royalty lost control of their European empire at the turn of the nineteenth century. Now we see them following the same old path of evil as they strive to cement the status of the USA as the latest proxy Vatican empire. Make no mistake about it, the new dark ages are looming on the horizon unless we do something proactive to prevent it.
Remember that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it!
Read More:
Here is Wisdom !!
Peace…
To be fair, there are many Republicans who are appalled at what has happened to their party because of its association with Christian Nationalism.
Not to mention the Christians who are appalled at what has happened to the good name of Christianity. As a pastor in Austin said last year when the KKK was holding a rally to drum up support for the Texas version of Ballot Question #1, “If you can’t tell the difference between your Christianity and the beliefs of the KKK, then you should reevaluate your Christianity.”
Thanks for your comments.