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Paranoid anti-religious extremists strike again.
Pentagon admits Christian ministry not a 'hate group,' says label does not reflect official doctrine
By Todd StarnesTodd's American Dispatch
Published October 15, 2013
FoxNews.com
The Pentagon has admitted that information used in an Army briefing that labeled the American Family Association (AFA) as a domestic hate group was not acquired from official sources and does not reflect Army doctrine.
Meanwhile, the president of the well-respected Christian ministry says his organization may file a defamation lawsuit against the military.
“We are probably going to be taking legal action,” said Tim Wildmon, president of one of the nation’s most prominent Christian ministries. “The Army has smeared us. They’ve defamed the American Family Association.”
The president of the well-respected Christian ministry says his organization may file a defamation lawsuit against the military.
The AFA was listed alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam during a briefing last week at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.
A soldier who attended the briefing recently sent me a photograph of a slideshow presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group because of their support of traditional family values and their opposition to homosexuality.
George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, tells me the slide was not produced by the Army and it does not reflect their policy or doctrine.
“It was produced by a soldier conducting a briefing which included info acquired from an Internet search,” Wright said. “Info was not pulled from official Army sources, nor was it approved by senior Army leaders, senior equal opportunity counselors or judge-advocate personnel.”
Wright said the briefing has been updated and any references to American Family Association have been removed.
“The soldier, after being challenged on the information, recognized that the information was incorrect,” he said. “Soldiers who attended the briefing will be notified that the information regarding AFA was incorrect.”
Wildmon said he doesn’t believe the Army’s excuse.
“We’re hearing from too many people across the country who’ve witnessed these training sessions,” he said. “We know this is going on in the Army and the Air Force.”
Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, is representing the AFA. He said it’s a case of “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“The Army is going to have to fess up,” he said. “For them to keep saying there are just a bunch of rogue instructors out there is either evidence they have a massive disciplinary problem or they are full of baloney.”
It’s not the first time the Army has accused conservative Christian groups of being domestic hate groups.
Earlier this year, I exposed Army briefings that classified evangelical Christians and Catholics as examples of religious extremism.
“Here you have a Christian ministry trying to do good work and you have the Department of Defense going around smearing your name and trying to turn people against you – spreading false statements about you,” Sasser told me. “It’s just awful what’s going on.”
The soldier who contacted me said he was “completely taken back by this blatant attack not only on the AFA but Christians and our beliefs.”
During the briefing soldiers were reportedly told that they could face punishment for participating in organizations that are considered hate groups.
The soldier said he became alarmed because he is a financial contributor to the AFA ministry.
“I donate to AFA as often as I can,” he said. “Am I going to be punished? I listen to American Family Radio all day. If they hear it on my radio, will I be faced with a Uniformed Code of Military Justice charge?”
It turned out his fears of retribution and reprisals were not unfounded. I received word that the military launched an investigation after my column was published. Officers are in the process of trying to identify the soldier who spoke to me.
“There’s one thing I can guarantee,” Sasser said. “If you speak out about this administration’s push against religious liberty and against people of faith, you will suffer retaliation.”
Wildmon said they’ve tried to reach out to the military – but so far their telephone calls have been ignored.
“We’ve had no chance to defend ourselves or get an explanation from the military on how they came up with the criteria,” he said.
The AFA suspects the military is using material supplied by the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center – an organization with a dubious past.
“For a taxpayer-funded organization like the military to use a politically-motivated group’s hate group list is problematic,” Wildmon said. “One way or another, we’re going to get this changed.”
And he strongly rejects accusations that AFA is a hate group.
“We are a mainstream, evangelical, pro-family group,” he said. “We don’t hate anybody. We have strong feelings on moral values. We oppose the gay and lesbian social and political agenda. We always have. We always will, but that doesn’t mean we hate anyone.”
Sasser said he hopes the investigation answers a pressing question.
“Is this a widespread policy to smear groups like the American Family Association or does the Army have a massive discipline problem with a bunch of rogue commanders doing what they want?” he asked.
Would anybody at the Pentagon care to answer that question?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/15/pentagon-admits-christian-ministry-not-hate-group-says-label-does-not-reflect/?intcmp=latestnews
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yeah, no hate here, just good old family values
The AFA has declared that "homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler ... the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews," suggested that gay sex be punished like heroin use, and said that the "homosexual agenda" endangers "every fundamental right" in the Constitution, including religious freedom. Both [the AFA and the Family Research Council] have enthusiastically promoted "reparative therapy," which claims against the bulk of the evidence that it can "cure" gay men and lesbians and make them heterosexual, but in fact has left a string of people behind who were badly hurt by the process.
Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association's unofficial spokesman and the group's director of issues analysis, has previously called on the government to prohibit mosques from being built anywhere in the United States, suggested "the most compassionate thing" America can do is deport all Muslims, and wrote that "gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism."
The American Family Association has also enthusiastically endorsed Russian President Vladimir Putin's draconian anti-gay laws, with Fischer stating that the country isn't being homophobic but "homorealistic.
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Paranoid anti-religious extremists strike again.
Pentagon admits Christian ministry not a 'hate group,' says label does not reflect official doctrine
By Todd StarnesTodd's American Dispatch
Published October 15, 2013
FoxNews.com
The Pentagon has admitted that information used in an Army briefing that labeled the American Family Association (AFA) as a domestic hate group was not acquired from official sources and does not reflect Army doctrine.
Meanwhile, the president of the well-respected Christian ministry says his organization may file a defamation lawsuit against the military.
“We are probably going to be taking legal action,” said Tim Wildmon, president of one of the nation’s most prominent Christian ministries. “The Army has smeared us. They’ve defamed the American Family Association.”
The president of the well-respected Christian ministry says his organization may file a defamation lawsuit against the military.
The AFA was listed alongside domestic hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis, the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam during a briefing last week at Camp Shelby in Mississippi.
A soldier who attended the briefing recently sent me a photograph of a slideshow presentation that listed AFA as a domestic hate group because of their support of traditional family values and their opposition to homosexuality.
George Wright, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, tells me the slide was not produced by the Army and it does not reflect their policy or doctrine.
“It was produced by a soldier conducting a briefing which included info acquired from an Internet search,” Wright said. “Info was not pulled from official Army sources, nor was it approved by senior Army leaders, senior equal opportunity counselors or judge-advocate personnel.”
Wright said the briefing has been updated and any references to American Family Association have been removed.
“The soldier, after being challenged on the information, recognized that the information was incorrect,” he said. “Soldiers who attended the briefing will be notified that the information regarding AFA was incorrect.”
Wildmon said he doesn’t believe the Army’s excuse.
“We’re hearing from too many people across the country who’ve witnessed these training sessions,” he said. “We know this is going on in the Army and the Air Force.”
Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, is representing the AFA. He said it’s a case of “fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
“The Army is going to have to fess up,” he said. “For them to keep saying there are just a bunch of rogue instructors out there is either evidence they have a massive disciplinary problem or they are full of baloney.”
It’s not the first time the Army has accused conservative Christian groups of being domestic hate groups.
Earlier this year, I exposed Army briefings that classified evangelical Christians and Catholics as examples of religious extremism.
“Here you have a Christian ministry trying to do good work and you have the Department of Defense going around smearing your name and trying to turn people against you – spreading false statements about you,” Sasser told me. “It’s just awful what’s going on.”
The soldier who contacted me said he was “completely taken back by this blatant attack not only on the AFA but Christians and our beliefs.”
During the briefing soldiers were reportedly told that they could face punishment for participating in organizations that are considered hate groups.
The soldier said he became alarmed because he is a financial contributor to the AFA ministry.
“I donate to AFA as often as I can,” he said. “Am I going to be punished? I listen to American Family Radio all day. If they hear it on my radio, will I be faced with a Uniformed Code of Military Justice charge?”
It turned out his fears of retribution and reprisals were not unfounded. I received word that the military launched an investigation after my column was published. Officers are in the process of trying to identify the soldier who spoke to me.
“There’s one thing I can guarantee,” Sasser said. “If you speak out about this administration’s push against religious liberty and against people of faith, you will suffer retaliation.”
Wildmon said they’ve tried to reach out to the military – but so far their telephone calls have been ignored.
“We’ve had no chance to defend ourselves or get an explanation from the military on how they came up with the criteria,” he said.
The AFA suspects the military is using material supplied by the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center – an organization with a dubious past.
“For a taxpayer-funded organization like the military to use a politically-motivated group’s hate group list is problematic,” Wildmon said. “One way or another, we’re going to get this changed.”
And he strongly rejects accusations that AFA is a hate group.
“We are a mainstream, evangelical, pro-family group,” he said. “We don’t hate anybody. We have strong feelings on moral values. We oppose the gay and lesbian social and political agenda. We always have. We always will, but that doesn’t mean we hate anyone.”
Sasser said he hopes the investigation answers a pressing question.
“Is this a widespread policy to smear groups like the American Family Association or does the Army have a massive discipline problem with a bunch of rogue commanders doing what they want?” he asked.
Would anybody at the Pentagon care to answer that question?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/15/pentagon-admits-christian-ministry-not-hate-group-says-label-does-not-reflect/?intcmp=latestnews
The American Family Association is a hate group.
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The American Family Association is a hate group.
No it isn't.
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No it isn't.
They hate gays dont they?
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They hate gays dont they?
No.
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No.
Ok.
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No.
LOL
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The AFA has declared that "homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler ... the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews," suggested that gay sex be punished like heroin use, and said that the "homosexual agenda" endangers "every fundamental right" in the Constitution, including religious freedom. Both [the AFA and the Family Research Council] have enthusiastically promoted "reparative therapy," which claims against the bulk of the evidence that it can "cure" gay men and lesbians and make them heterosexual, but in fact has left a string of people behind who were badly hurt by the process.
Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association's unofficial spokesman and the group's director of issues analysis, has previously called on the government to prohibit mosques from being built anywhere in the United States, suggested "the most compassionate thing" America can do is deport all Muslims, and wrote that "gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism."
The American Family Association has also enthusiastically endorsed Russian President Vladimir Putin's draconian anti-gay laws, with Fischer stating that the country isn't being homophobic but "homorealistic.
Sounds pretty hateful to me.
Link?
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The AFA has declared that "homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler ... the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews," suggested that gay sex be punished like heroin use, and said that the "homosexual agenda" endangers "every fundamental right" in the Constitution, including religious freedom. Both [the AFA and the Family Research Council] have enthusiastically promoted "reparative therapy," which claims against the bulk of the evidence that it can "cure" gay men and lesbians and make them heterosexual, but in fact has left a string of people behind who were badly hurt by the process.
Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association's unofficial spokesman and the group's director of issues analysis, has previously called on the government to prohibit mosques from being built anywhere in the United States, suggested "the most compassionate thing" America can do is deport all Muslims, and wrote that "gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism."
The American Family Association has also enthusiastically endorsed Russian President Vladimir Putin's draconian anti-gay laws, with Fischer stating that the country isn't being homophobic but "homorealistic.
Sounds pretty hateful to me.
Link?
And that's what makes them a hate group....among a number of members and staff having ties to the Neo-Nazi and other white supremicist groups
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Here is some more "non-hate" straight for the horses ass
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Fear leads to hate. Geez this guy is bent.
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Irinic the pentagon deciding what a hate group is lol
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Irinic the pentagon deciding what a hate group is lol
Pentagon didn't decide that
a soldier was giving a presentation and included in that was a mention of this group which has been called a "hate group" by others
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Fear leads to hate. Geez this guy is bent.
Typical Paranoid anti-religious extremists
Can't you see that this guy is filled with the holy spirit and the compassion of jesus
He just loves jesus so much that it comes out sounding like hate to paranoid anti-religious extremists such as yourself
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Irinic the pentagon deciding what a hate group is lol
The Pentagon did the right thing. Some poor sap pulled garbage he got off the internet and put in a Power Point slide. Actually placed the AFA next to comments by those nuts from the Westboro Baptist "Church."
How the heck did we get our information before the internet??
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The Pentagon did the right thing. Some poor sap pulled garbage he got off the internet and put in a Power Point slide. Actually placed the AFA next to comments by those nuts from the Westboro Baptist "Church."
How the heck did we get our information before the internet??
LOL the only difference is that the AFA is not out protesting funerals of dead soldiers
Instead they are doing shit like this:
from Wiki:
On April 16, 2007, following the Virginia Tech Massacre, the AFA released a video titled The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools, in which God tells a student that students were killed in schools because God isn't allowed in schools anymore. The video claims that the shootings at Virginia Tech and Columbine, among others, are in part the result of: decreased discipline in schools; no prayer in schools; sex out of wedlock; rampant violence in TV, movies, and music; or abortions.
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Fear leads to hate. Geez this guy is bent.
you can also say that stupidity/ignorance leads to fear which leads to hate
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If disapproving of homosexuals makes a hate group then most Christian churches and every mosque in the United States is considered a hate group.
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If disapproving of homosexuals makes a hate group then most Christian churches and every mosque in the United States is considered a hate group.
you'd be correct if every mosque in the country were making videos like the one posted above
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If disapproving of homosexuals makes a hate group then most Christian churches and every mosque in the United States is considered a hate group.
There are different degrees of disapproving.
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you'd be correct if every mosque in the country were making videos like the one posted above
They don't have to make videos becauses it's written in their holy books for all to see.
There are different degrees of disapproving.
Advocating for violence is one thing and stating your belief is another. The former infringes on another persons rights while the latter does not. I'm an atheist anyway.
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There are different degrees of disapproving.
yep, muslim countries often execute homosexuals where our religious nuts just wish they could execute homosexuals
The nutbags at AFA don't represent christians as a whole just like those idiots at Westborough Church don't represent christians
They all only represent themselves and it's pretty easy to see why the views of the AFA can be considered by some to be a "hate group"
I have heard recently that many American evangelical groups are heavily involved in the violent anti-gay movement among their fellow christians in Uganda
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If disapproving of homosexuals makes a hate group then most Christian churches and every mosque in the United States is considered a hate group.
Exactly. But that is precisely where we are headed. In fact, we're probably already there.
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They don't have to make videos becauses it's written in their holy books for all to see.
Advocating for violence is one thing and stating your belief is another. The former infringes on another persons rights while the latter does not. I'm an atheist anyway.
as I'm sure you well know, not every Muslim interprets the Koran the same way just like not every christian interprets the bible the same way
a particular lazy beach loving person will tell you that anyone who doesn't interpret the bible the way that he does are not "real" christians
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yep, muslim countries often execute homosexuals where our religious nuts just wish they could execute homosexuals
The nutbags at AFA don't represent christians as a whole just like those idiots at Westborough Church don't represent christians
They all only represent themselves and it's pretty easy to see why the views of the AFA can be considered by some to be a "hate group"
I have heard recently that many American evangelical groups are heavily involved in the violent anti-gay movement among their fellow christians in Uganda
I would argue that person of faith who publicly condemns homosexuals is being more true to his religion than those who do not speak out against it or accept homosexuals. I may disagree with Christians and Muslims about their condemnation of homosexuals but I also respect them for being honest and standing by their convictions. It's the ones who stay quiet and pretend who are the cowards.
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as I'm sure you well know, not every Muslim interprets the Koran the same way just like not every christian interprets the bible the same way
a particular lazy beach loving person will tell you that anyone who doesn't interpret the bible the way that he does are not "real" christians
They are rationalizing away the nastier elements of their religion. It's a common practice of the faithful. Ignore or deny what they don't like.
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I would argue that person of faith who publicly condemns homosexuals is being more true to his religion than those who do not speak out against it or accept homosexuals. I may disagree with Christians and Muslims about their condemnation of homosexuals but I also respect them for being honest and standing by their convictions. It's the ones who stay quiet and pretend who are the cowards.
so you're saying that you understand "true christianity" better than the pope
I guess that also means Westborough Church is kind of of the right path too
how about we let any person who choose to practice any religion make their own interpretations about that religion
I'm sure you know the Bible also condemns to death people who work on the Sabbath
Here's a short list of the nuttyness.
Are you suggesting that current christians should be "more true" and follow all of these rules and their bible prescribed punishment for breaking them?
Here’s chapter and verse on a more-or-less comprehensive list of things banned in the Leviticus book of the bible. A decent number of them are punishable by death.
Unless you’ve never done any of them (and 54 to 56 are particularly tricky), perhaps it’s time to lay off quoting 18:22 for a while?
1. Burning any yeast or honey in offerings to God (2:11)
2. Failing to include salt in offerings to God (2:13)
3. Eating fat (3:17)
4. Eating blood (3:17)
5. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1)
6. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1)
7. Touching an unclean animal (5:2)
8. Carelessly making an oath (5:4)
9. Deceiving a neighbour about something trusted to them (6:2)
10. Finding lost property and lying about it (6:3)
11. Bringing unauthorised fire before God (10:1)
12. Letting your hair become unkempt (10:6)
13. Tearing your clothes (10:6)
14. Drinking alcohol in holy places (bit of a problem for Catholics, this ‘un) (10:9)
15. Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7)
16. Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby) (11:8)
17. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12)
18. Eating – or touching the carcass of - eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19)
19. Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22)
20. Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27)
21. Eating – or touching the carcass of – the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon (11:29)
22. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42)
23. Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4)
24. Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5)
25. Having sex with your mother (18:7)
26. Having sex with your father’s wife (18:8)
27. Having sex with your sister (18:9)
28. Having sex with your granddaughter (18:10)
29. Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)
30. Having sex with your biological aunt (18:12-13)
31. Having sex with your uncle’s wife (18:14)
32. Having sex with your daughter-in-law (18:15)
33. Having sex with your sister-in-law (18:16)
34. Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (bad news for Alan Clark) (18:17)
35. Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)
36. Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19)
37. Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20)
38. Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21)
39. Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22)
40. Having sex with an animal (18:23)
41. Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4)
42. Reaping to the very edges of a field (19:9)
43. Picking up grapes that have fallen in your vineyard (19:10)
44. Stealing (19:11)
45. Lying (19:11)
46. Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12)
47. Defrauding your neighbour (19:13)
48. Holding back the wages of an employee overnight (not well observed these days) (19:13)
49. Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14)
50. Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15)
51. Spreading slander (19:16)
52. Doing anything to endanger a neighbour’s life (19:16)
53. Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18)
54. Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19)
55. Cross-breeding animals (19:19)
56. Planting different seeds in the same field (19:19)
57. Sleeping with another man’s slave (19:20)
58. Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23)
59. Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut astrology) (19:26)
60. Trimming your beard (19:27)
61. Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27)
62. Getting tattoos (19:28)
63. Making your daughter prostitute herself (19:29)
64. Turning to mediums or spiritualists (19:31)
65. Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32)
66. Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34)
67. Using dishonest weights and scales (19:35-36)
68. Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9)
69. Marrying a prostitute, divorcee or widow if you are a priest (21:7,13)
70. Entering a place where there’s a dead body as a priest (21:11)
71. Slaughtering a cow/sheep and its young on the same day (22:28)
72. Working on the Sabbath (23:3)
73. Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14)
74. Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22)
75. Selling land permanently (25:23)
76. Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42)
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I'm saying that if you present yourself as a member of a particular faith and you believe the holy scripture of your faith is the inerrant divine word of god, you should have the courage to claim all of it, even the most abhorrent elements.
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I would argue that person of faith who publicly condemns homosexuals is being more true to his religion than those who do not speak out against it or accept homosexuals. I may disagree with Christians and Muslims about their condemnation of homosexuals but I also respect them for being honest and standing by their convictions. It's the ones who stay quiet and pretend who are the cowards.
Standing by or voicing your convictions is one thing.
Saying things that are untrue thus demonizing a group of people is hateful along with the other wacked out stuff that guy said on the video is another.
However that's just one guys opinion. Is it the opinion of every member and the group as a whole? I don't know.
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I'm saying that if you present yourself as a member of a particular faith and you believe the holy scripture of your faith is the inerrant divine word of god, you should have the courage to claim all of it, even the most abhorrent elements.
and yet you know fully well that absolutely no one does that
even our crazy religious nutbags still pick and choose the shit they want to follow and the stuff they want to ingore
even our lazy beach resident does that
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Standing by or voicing your convictions is one thing.
Saying things that are untrue thus demonizing a group of people is hateful along with the other wacked out stuff that guy said on the video is another.
However that's just one guys opinion. Is it the opinion of every member and the group as a whole? I don't know.
I'd say if you're a member of that group and you're aware of the public opinions of it's leaders then your membership is tacit approval of those beliefs
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and yet you know fully well that absolutely no one does that
even our crazy religious nutbags still pick and choose the shit they want to follow and the stuff they want to ingore
even our lazy beach resident does that
There are those who do follow their religious mandates to the letter. Muslims for example, at least those that don't dismiss or willfully ignore the innate violence of their religious texts, do.
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There are those who do follow their religious mandates to the letter. Muslims for example, at least those that don't dismiss or willfully ignore the innate violence of their religious texts, do.
I don't know or know of any christian who follows the bible "to the letter" and the same goes for any Muslim that I know
Isn't it strange how you only hear fundie christians ranting about homosexuality and not ranting about working on the sabbath or making idols or “metal gods” or failing to include salt in offerings to god