You Can't Compromise With A Fanatic

Juicy Ecumenism, the Institute on Religion & Democracy's blog, tells a story that first appeared in the September 3, 2013 Telegraph:

Several weeks ago, a lesbian couple in Gosport, England, took their son to St. Mary’s Anglican Church to be baptized. The retired Rev. Gebaur was officiating services while the parish looked for a new priest and expressed a willingness to perform the baptism. All seemed well until the Rev. asked the couple who “the mother” was for the purposes of the baptism certificate.

The couple responded that they both wished to be listed as the mother. The Rev., obviously not an enlightened modern, pointed out that this was a biological impossibility, and suggested that for purposes of the certificate the natural mother be listed under the line reserved for “the mother.” The couple apparently could not stomach being confronted with this truth, and later reported that they were appalled and stormed out.

As Juicy Ecumenism points out, Rev. Gebaur was not making an issue about this being a lesbian couple, he just needed to fill in the forms correctly. As much as infant baptism makes me wants to screech, "Popery!  Popery!" (well, not really, but watching too much Monty Python causes strange reactions), if you consider infant baptism necessary for the salvation of the soul of the child, then that is going to definitely take precedence over whatever the sins of the parents are.  But the "parents" insisted that both of them are the mother -- a biological impossibility.

But not to worry, a troublemaker like Rev. Gebaur who were trying to fill in the forms right has been overruled in a fit of Humpty-Dumptyism:

However, Ven Gavin Collins, Archdeacon of the Meon, said today he was happy for the christening to go ahead as planned - with both named as the mother.

He said: “Having spoken to Aimi Leggett today, I’m pleased to report that the baptism of Alfie will go ahead on the date planned at St Mary’s Church, Warsash.

“We have addressed the legal issue. As I understand it, her partner Victoria has full legal co-parental responsibility for Alfie. We can therefore enter their details onto the baptism register as ‘mother’ and ‘mother’, as they would like.

“I’m pleased that this issue has been resolved, and we look forward to welcoming Aimi, Victoria, Alfie and their friends and family. I’m sure it will be a great occasion as we welcome him into the Christian family.”

Muslims were at the beginning quite insistent that no living thing could be represented in art; this was part of their fierce hostility towards idol worship.  Within the Greek Orthodox Church, there was a bit of a struggle as to whether the worship of icons was a problem.  Certain pieces of religious art at some churches were being given a reverence suggesting that praying to these particular icons would be more efficacious than simply praying to God, no matter where you were.

Others within the Greek Orthodox Church disagreed, and considered this a form of idolatry.  Those who believed that the icons should be destroyed to discourage this idolatry were iconoclasts -- "icon breakers" -- from which comes our word iconoclast.

As Muslim armies started to overrun parts of the Byzantine Empire, iconoclasts became increasingly insistent that the worship of icons within the Greek Orthodox Church was part of the reason that the Muslims were winning.  This was not the actual cause; it was that the Sasanid Empire and the Byzantine Empire had exhausted each other in war, and neither was strong enough to resist the Islamic armies marching out of Arabia. The Sasanids fell immediately; the Byzantine Empire took centuries to collapse.

I do find myself wondering if in another fifty years, as Islam slowly takes over what used to be the West, if a similar argument is going to be persuasive: that by abandoning Christianity's core values on what constitutes sin (of which homosexuality is only one small part, and no worse than the others), we made the Muslim success inevitable.

At Least The Bakery Owner Doesn't Have To Go To A Re-Education Camp

Tragic quote from a September 9, 2013 Weekly Standard article about the increasing use of antidiscrimination laws by gay activists to force businesses to cater to them:

State governments also have a lot of tools at their disposal to fine and otherwise make life difficult for businesses, and they’re not shy about using them. In response to the investigation of the bakery in Gresham, Oregon, labor commissioner Brad Avakian told the Oregonian, “The goal is never to shut down a business. The goal is to rehabilitate.” 

California's law prohibiting licensed therapists from performing any efforts “to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex” on minors seems to be an attempt to prohibit "rehabilitation."  Or perhaps it is just a reminder that the difference between rehabilitation and oppression is who is in charge.

UPDATE: The gay activists were successful; the business has closed.

Chelsea nee Bradley Manning

I was going to post something snarky about Bradley Manning's desire to now be Chelsea Manning, but I couldn't do any better than what The Diplomad had to say:

The real issue, however, is not the mental state of this little weasel. The question is how did he get through the recruitment and clearance processes? Nobody, nobody, nobody during his background check, or during his time on duty noticed that he--may I use that word?--was just a few degrees off level? Nobody? His commanding officers? His colleagues? Bueller? Bueller?

He apparently spent a lot of time in some weird internet chat rooms using government computers for that. The NSA, the same folks collecting on my wife's Vonage calls to her mother in Spain, did not catch Manning's odd surfing activities?

Yes, These Categories Do Overlap

One of the recurring statements of faith in the mainstream media is that child sexual abusers are never or almost never homosexuals.  If they are, they are almost always deeply closeted, trying very hard to pretend to be straight.  But this is simply not true.  I have found quite a number of examples over the years of very loud and proud homosexuals who were also child molesters.  Here's yet another, a USC professor who was recently arrested by Mexican police and deported to the U.S. after making the FBI's Top Ten list on allegations of sexual abuse of children and making child pornography.  From the June 20, 2013 New York Post:

A federal indictment accused him of traveling to the Philippines in January 2011 to engage in sex acts with two 14-year-old boys he met online in 2010. A federal arrest warrant was issued for the former Palm Springs, Calif., resident in April.

Authorities say he produced sexually explicit photos of one of the boys, which he brought back to Los Angeles County.

FBI agents are also investigating how he had access to money while in Mexico and whether he was being helped, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

The investigation started in 2011 after a student at USC notified authorities that Williams may have targeted young boys for sex. Soon the FBI was involved and learned that Williams was returning from a two-week trip to the Philippines; a search warrant was obtained.

Williams was questioned at the airport and two computers and a camera were confiscated by authorities who later allegedly found child pornography and evidence he was engaged in sex acts with young boys, said LAPD Assistant Chief Michel Moore.

Williams is described in the article as someone who "taught history, anthropology and gender studies" at USC.  His publication history is extensive, and leaves no question about his public identification:

"Being Gay and Doing Fieldwork" in Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (1996)

"Being gay and doing research on homosexuality in non‐western cultures" in Journal of Sex Research (1993)

"Two-spirit persons: Gender nonconformity among Native American and Native Hawaiian youths" in The Lives of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: Children to Adults (1996)

Ah, perhaps he was just doing "field work" with those 14 year old Filipino boys.

Most homosexuals are not child molesters, but the continuing pretense that homosexual child molesters do not exist, or are incredibly rare, or are always closeted, is false.

UPDATE: Even the gay community has some things to say about this guy:

Full disclosure: I knew Walter Williams when he got USC to accept ONE Gay & Lesbian Archives in the mid-1990s. He seemed creepy and an egotistical bore, but I had no idea he might have exploited children, as the indictment alleges. I did know that Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay—who was my neighbor and friend—hated Walter with a passion. Harry told me that Walters’ most famous book, The Sprit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture, was full of lies and that the Native Americans Walters claimed to have lived with and studied also hated him and at one point ran him off their territory (a point later brought up by an independent source). When I asked Walter about this, he dismissed everything Harry had to say as the mutterings of an old, embittered man who was losing his faculties. After all, Walter implied, "Who are you going to believe? An old codger whose day was long gone, or him, a Ph.d who was a tenured professor at USC?" For every question I had, Walter had an explanation that made sense, and he seemed to be getting USC on-board to preserve LGBT history.

What I did not know about until today was that Walter was rumored to have slept with the young androgynous Native American men who were his sources for The Spirit and The Flesh, according to one very knowledgeable source who said Walter left a string of broken hearts as he moved on from one group to another. There was a lot of “buzz” among gay and lesbian anthropologists that what Walter had done and the way he collected information was “unethical” and he might have even “crossed a line,” the source said. But no one ever really wrote about it or challenged him because he had a way of ruining reputations and winning arguments.

How did I miss this?

LIVE FULLY:PERSONAL ESSAYS ON HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR LIFEbyWALTER L. WILLIAMS, Ph.D.Professor of Anthropology, History, and Gender StudiesUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles CA 90089-4352
ESSAYS:

• How to Achieve Happiness and Fulfillment

• How to Deal with Illness and Death

• How to Live in Harmony with the Environment

• A Model of a Complete Life: Memorial for Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland

• Why Dogs and Humans Are So Close

• How to Enjoy Sex Safely in the Age of AIDS

 I am almost afraid to look at the first essay -- does it involve airline tickets to desperately poor countries?

If Only All Progressives Were This Stupid...

June 18, 2013 Fox News reports on a professor at a Tennessee community college:

A Tennessee community college professor ordered her students to wear ribbons supporting gay rights and said those who believed in the traditional definition of marriage are just “uneducated bigots” who “attack homosexuals with hate,” according to a legal firm representing several of the students in the class....

A Columbia State spokesperson released a statement to Fox News acknowledging they are aware of the allegations.

“When the allegations were brought to the attention of college officials, Columbia State Community College began an investigation, which is currently ongoing and congruent with Board policy and applicable laws,” the statement read....

According to her faculty page, Brunton is a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Educators Network and lists diversity issues among her professional interests.

 It is, unfortunately, what I have come to expect from some academics who do not understand that class is not a substitute for therapy to deal with their own insecurities and emotional defects.  Let me emphasize some academics, because most professors who I have had as instructors or peers have demonstrated that they know what their function is: to educate, not propagandize.

"I Was Born This Way"

June 9, 2013 American Thinker.  I tried very hard to get more mainstream conservative publications to take this...

Freedom of Conscience. Gay Marriage. Pick One.

From the April 19, 2013 Daily Mail:

A Washington state florist who refused to sell flowers to a gay couple for their wedding has been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union, in the second legal action accusing the vendor of discrimination.

Florist Barronelle Stutzman maintained in court papers that her Christian beliefs prevented her from selling the flowers for the same-sex wedding.

Ms Stutzman, who owns Arlene's Flowers in Richmond, already faced a consumer protection lawsuit over the incident filed against her last week by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2311713/Florist-refused-sell-flowers-gay-couples-wedding-sued-SECOND-time-discrimination-claims.html#ixzz2QviOLl3g
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

I Know Why Studios Wouldn't Touch This Film

No, I don't read wretched trash like Entertainment Weekly, but someone brought this March 6, 2013 issue with its article about the upcoming HBO movie about Liberace to my attention (this isn't in the online edition, for some reason):

Based on Thorson's 1988 memoir of the same name, Candelabra begins in 1977, when Liberace (or "Lee," as his friends called him) is reigning in Vegas as the world's favorite pianist-comedian-showman.  After a chance encounter, he seduces Thorson, a naive 18-year-old foster kid, into his more-is-more world of private jets and be-thonged houseboys.  The story ends in 1987, the Liberace dies of AIDS, finally confirmed the rumors of his secret life and leaving Thorson--whom he'd dumped five years earlier--with practically nothing but a drug addiction and a surgically altered face remodeled in Lee's own image.

The article goes on to quote the producer that

his movie was dismissed by every major studio as "too gay" before HBO eventually snapped it up.  "None of us could understand [the rejection].  It just seemed baffling to me."

Too gay?  Can a movie be "too gay" today?  Or was it just too honest?  A foster kid.  He's 18.  And he gets dumped at 23 (which means he is starting to look like an adult).  Perhaps if Liberace had been a closeted Republican there would have been interest.

I don't mean that every homosexual is like Liberace.  But Liberace played a stereotype on stage and in private life that used to be widely regarded as just fabulous.  Stereotypes like this don't just get invented.

NPR And How Same-Sex Marriage Opens The Door For Polygamy

From March 28, 2013:

SIEGEL: Polygamy is still practiced in Africa and the Middle East, and there are immigrants here from societies that accept it. If Washington were to defer to the states in defining marriage, could legalized polygamy make a comeback? Well, Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University. Welcome to the program.

JONATHAN TURLEY: Thank you.

SIEGEL: And let's set out first, you are representing clients who are seeking to overturn a Utah law that effectively, bans polygamy.

TURLEY: That's correct. What the Brown family is doing is, they're challenging a law that criminalizes cohabitation, which is the law that governs plural families, including polygamists. And it is that law that says that even if you don't have multiple marriage licenses, if you simply live with someone - or multiple partners, you can be criminally charged....

SIEGEL: Is there anything germane in either of the arguments, either of the day's cases and same-sex marriage that relates to your case?

TURLEY: Really, what this case reflects is where the gay and lesbian community was almost exactly 10 years ago, before the ruling in Lawrence v. Texas. That was the ruling where the Supreme Court said you could not criminalize homosexuality. The polygamists are a decade behind that. And when we talk about polygamists, you have to remember that cohabitation statutes really apply to a vast array of plural families that are often ignored.

 Two problems: if they "defer to the states" then same-sex marriage bans (such as Prop. 8) stay in effect.  But NPR doesn't have the sharpest knives in the drawer.  And remember when Senator Santorum said something similar several years back, and was castigated for the suggestion of where this would lead?

Here's an article from March 30, 2013 USA Today which is clearly making fun on the same-sex marriage argument, but he makes a valid point: why is "one-man, one-woman" bigotry, while "one-man, three women" remains unlawful?

Those arguing for "marriage equality" at the U.S. Supreme Court this week should be ashamed of themselves.

They're just as guilty of discrimination as those dastardly conservatives still bitterly clinging to their guns and their religion. Why no argument for polygamy, polyamory and other forms of diversity? Why are they only defending their exclusive definition of diversity?

How dare those seeking to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act signed by President Clinton, or Proposition 8 ratified by the people of California, stop at just redefining marriage to include two consenting adults of the same gender. Why do these people believe they have the authority to draw a moralistic line against any consenting adults, and thus force their moral standard upon the rest of us?

More Data on the Relationship Between Child Sexual Abuse & Adult Sexual Orientation

Eskin M, Kaynak-Demir H, Demir S., "Same-sex sexual orientation, childhood sexual abuse, and suicidal behavior in university students in Turkey," Archives of Sexual Behavior 2005 Apr;34(2):185-95

Self-reported childhood sexual abuse was associated with same-sex sexual behavior.... Being sexually abused by someone of one's own sex was related to same-sex sexual orientation in male participants but not in female participants. Childhood sexual abuse was found to be an independent predictor of both suicidal ideation and attempts during the past 12 months. Only identifying oneself as homosexual or bisexual was associated with an increased risk for suicidal ideation during the past 12 months. 

Here's a paper that rather studiously avoids answering the obvious question until nearly the end: Helen A. Smith, Ph.D.,¹ Nina Markovic, Ph.D.,¹ Michelle E. Danielson, Ph.D.,¹ Alicia Matthews, Ph.D.,² Ada Youk, Ph.D.,¹ Evelyn O. Talbott, Dr.Ph.,¹ Cynthia Larkby, Ph.D.,³ and Tonda Hughes, Ph.D.^{2, "}Sexual Abuse, Sexual Orientation, and Obesity in Women," J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2010 August; 19(8): 1525–1532

Among adult women an association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and obesity has been observed. Research with lesbian women has consistently identified high rates of obesity as well as frequent reports of CSA, but associations between sexual abuse and obesity have not been fully explored.

The obvious question: does CSA have some connection to sexual orientation?  

Compared with heterosexuals, significantly more lesbians were in a committed relationship (74.1% vs. 66.8%, p=0.012), and had a previous mental health diagnosis (51.7% vs. 38.6%, p=0.0001). Also lesbians had completed significantly more years of education than heterosexuals (p=0.022). Although heterosexuals had a higher rate of being overweight (32.4% vs. 26.7%), lesbians had a significantly higher rate of obesity (40.2% and 30.4%, p=0.003). Lesbians also reported higher rates of SA compared with heterosexual women: lifetime SA (58.8% vs. 39.7%, p<0.0001), intrafamilial CSA (29.6% vs. 16.2%, p<0.0001), extrafamilial CSA (30.7% vs. 14.3%, p<0.0001), and ASA (40.1% and 27.3%, p=0.0001).

Almost twice the rate of intrafamilial CSA, and more than twice the rate of extrafamilial CSA.  Yet another reason that child sexual abuse needs to be treated as the very serious matter that it is.

An interesting review of existing studies of CSA of boys published by JAMA includes this assertion:

Studies of children and young adolescents reported that more than 90% of perpetrators were male.[38,46,82,121,143,151,154] Studies of older adolescents and young adults reported lower rates of male perpetrator abuse (22% to 73%), and rates of female perpetrator abuse from 27% to 78%.[53,84,106,140,159] Studies of adult samples reported intermediate male perpetrator rates of 63% to 90%.[24,72- 73,77,113- 114,132] These findings may suggest that males revise their perceptions as they age such that abusive sexual experiences with females become defined, retrospectively, as normative rather than abusive.

And yet the same would appear to be true of abusive sexual experiences with males -- which may explain why I have sometimes had conversations with gay men who were absolutely insistent that their first sexual experiences with much older men were not abusive -- but they were the aggressors.  (One said that he was 13 when he insisted that he seduced a man in his 30s who was the pool maintenance guy.)

One of the interesting aspects of the story that no one wants to examine is that there is a very strong association between CSA and later problems that are also commonly associated with growing up in a "homophobic" society, including suicide attempts and substance abuse.  Even though some of the CSA victims reported experiencing pleasure from it:

Studies of actual clinical outcomes (rather than perceptions), however, indicated that sexually abused males were at increased risk for negative clinical sequelae. These sequelae included increased rates of posttraumatic stress disorder, major depression, anxiety disorders, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, paranoia, dissociation, somatization, bulimia, anger, aggressive behavior, poor self-image, poor school performance, running away from home, and legal trouble....  The rates among sexually abused compared with nonabused males were 4-fold for major depression (P<.001); 3-fold for bulimia (P<.05); and at least 2-fold for antisocial personality disorder (P = .002), behavior problems (P = .03), low self-image (P = .04), runaway behavior (P<.001), and legal problems (P = .001)....  Rates of posttraumatic stress disorder and major depression among victims were 25% to 30% and 65%, respectively....   Paris et al116 noted that sexual abuse was a significant, independent risk factor for the development of borderline personality disorder.

The rate of attempted suicide was 1.5 to 14 times higher among sexually abused compared with nonabused males....

Substance abuse problems are again something that is common to both CSA victims and homosexuals:

A strong association between sexual abuse and subsequent substance use also was reported. Harrison et al63 found that sexually abused boys compared with nonabused boys in an inpatient chemical addiction center were more likely to report use of alcohol before age 10 years, marijuana use before age 12 years, and current drug use. Nagy et al110 noted that sexually abused compared with nonabused high school boys were 2 times more likely to use alcohol currently and 5 times more likely to use drugs currently (P<.05).

Similarly, this paragraph should make people ask questions about overlap:

Sexually abused males compared with nonabused males were up to 5 times more likely to report sexually related problems (including sexual dysfunction).63,71,73,83- 84,132,147 Abused males indicated greater difficulty controlling sexual feelings, were hypersexual, and were more likely to perpetrate coercive sexual acts against others.10,22,49,55,68,75,81,91,100,129,140,143,153 Those abused at an early age and the chronically abused were more likely to exhibit these behavior problems.100 Lodico et al95 reported that sexually abused males compared with nonabused males were 4.4 times more likely (95% confidence interval, 2.6-7.4) to have forced someone into sexual contact, and other studies reported that these forced acts typically were with boys.159,167 Becker et al9 measured the erectile responses of abused and nonabused men while they listened to descriptions of coercive and noncoercive sexual activities with children of both sexes. Abused men responded more to descriptions involving boys, while there was no difference in the responses to descriptions involving girls.