March 23rd, 2007
And Now For Something Completely Different…
And I mean, completely different. Leper colonies for Sodomites anyone…?
You get the distinct impression he is only marginally less offended by Catholics then by sodomites. I think he’d probably fill in the chunnel too if he could. And it sounds like there was at least one other person in there, possibly more, while he was venting for the camera. I wonder if they’d all just been drinking or something.
Oh…and he used to be a policeman. Good thing for British gays that’s in his past isn’t it?
March 24th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Fortunately for British Gays, that kind of attitude is one we more normally associate with Americans.
The irony of the whole piece is, of course, that the sin of Sodom & Gomorrah wasn’t gay sex – the cities had been condemned by God before the rape took place. The sin was lack of hospitality, the unwillingness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to open their homes to travellers, breaking laws which, at the time, were held to be sacred. Not a particularly hospitable person himself is he? Something of a Sodomite, in fact.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Fortunately for British Gays, that kind of attitude is one we more normally associate with Americans.
Oh I’m sure most British folk would regard this guy as an oddball. The difference between your oddballs and ours that always strikes me, apart from us having way, way too many of them, is how…literate…yours usually are. Usually, ours can barely pronounce the word sodomite” let alone make a sentence with it. In fact, you can usually tell which Americans are true paranoid bigots and which are just opportunistic cynical demagogues: the demagogues are generally the articulate ones.
Not a particularly hospitable person himself is he? Something of a Sodomite, in fact.
Great point. Yes.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Whoa! Dude! Don’t be darned coy; tell us what you really think. Yeow! I’m surprised that Pat Robertson hasn’t booked him for the 700 Club.
I never think of the British as being historically ignorant as Americans, but apparently I’m wrong. Once upon a time, all Britons were “filthy, disgusting Catholics.” (Save for a few very circumspect Jews, those that survived Richard I’s expulsion.) I’d love to see this guy pontificate [sic] on the Great Harry. As he used only 10 of his 15 minutes of fame, he’s got some time left…
The “leper colony” idea is not new. Back during the days of St. Ronnie, Tim LaHaye (if memory serves) advocated much the same thing. Only LaHaye used the original German.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Hate is like a devil’s curse on humanity. All the peoples of the world are capable of it, rich and poor, well educated and not.
Yeah…we heard a lot of scary stuff here in the U.S. during Reagan’s time didn’t we? Bill Buckley was advocating tattoos for people with AIDS. One on the arm and one on the buttocks. He later withdrew the suggestion due to it’s “unfortunate associations” with the Holocaust. Right wingers who wanted the U.S. to invade Cuba and kill Castro were suddenly praising him for cracking down on homosexuality and putting all the AIDs patients in camps where they couldn’t have any contact with the outside world. Paul Cameron was quoted at the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference as saying “Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.”
March 26th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I’d forgotten the tattoo thing. Someone (either lost to ancient memory, or just self-defensive blocking) recommended that “AIDS” should be tattoed on people’s foreheads.
For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in gods or devils. We humans are sufficient to accomplish both transcendent good and transcendent evil.
March 26th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in gods or devils.
I don’t either. It was just a manner of speaking. Actually, I have a long post coming up about that…but I’m still thinking it out. There was a link I saw today to an article titled, “Losing Faith: How Scholarship Affects Scholars”, that finally provoked me into putting down some thoughts about where I am now, spiritually. I…think I’ve become an atheist. Or at least, an ambivalent disbeliever. I’m actually kinda surprised to find myself here.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Again, for what it’s worth, I became a atheist 38 years ago. I actually did some serious reading, as widely as I could. A fundamentalist Bible correspondence course. The Book of Mormon. The Douay Bible (focusing especially on the books left out of King James). Zen Buddhism. Others. In the end, I could believe none of it. All had good rules intermixed with appalling atrocities “in the name of ____.”
Though I consider all things (including beliefs) subject to reexamination in the light of new evidence, I’ve seen no even comedically credible challenges I could take seriously. Case in point the current Idiotic Intelligent Design folks. The Leviticus/Old Testament stuff, I think you know. (If all of those “laws” had been taken seriously, the world’s population would be about a tenth of what it is.)
Over the years, I’ve been very nonmilitant. Family and friends believe; I don’t and they know I don’t. When prayers are offered, I simply sit quietly; but I do not bow my head. I extend that courtesy to my fellow citizens. In truth, I think the various theisms will be one day regarded the same as we do Ptolemaic astronomy.
What gets my back up higher than a Halloween cat (more and more often these days) is any attempt to dictate the contents of my mind, conscience, or soul (for lack a better word). What gets it up higher (invoking again that cat image) is any attack on the Enlightenment. I resent the fact that the talibans — ours, theirs, everybody’s — use the fruits of the Enlightenment, up through and including the internet, to try to return us to the cave.
I know you loved Jacob Bronowski. Should we consider ourselves as members of the Bronowski Brigade?