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Getbig Misc Discussion Boards => Religious Debates & Threads => Topic started by: Dos Equis on April 27, 2012, 11:05:32 PM
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Pretty ironic that he was the keynote speaker on the subject of anti-bullying.
Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses Christian Teens
Apr 27, 2012
By Todd Starnes
As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy asses.”
The speaker was Dan Savage, founder of the “It Gets Better” project, an anti-bullying campaign that has reached more than 40 million viewers with contributors ranging from President Obama to Hollywood stars. Savage also writes a sex advice column called “Savage Love.”
Savage, and his husband, were also guests at the White House for President Obama’s 2011 LGBT Pride Month reception. He was also invited to a White House anti-bullying conference.
Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing.
Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else.
“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”
Tuttle said a number of his students were offended by Savage’s remarks – and some decided to leave the auditorium.
“It became hostile,” he said. “It felt hostile as we were sitting in the audience – especially towards Christians who espouse beliefs that he was literally taking on.”
Tuttle said the speech was laced with vulgarities and “sexual innuendo not appropriate for this age group.” At one point, he said Savage told the teenagers about how good his partner looked in a speedo.
The conservative website CitizenLink was the first to report about the controversy. They interviewed a 17-year-old girl who was one of students who walked out of the auditorium.
“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control,’” she told CitizenLink. “he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.”
As the teenagers were walking out, Tuttle said that Savage heckled them and called them “pansy asses.”
The executive director of the National Scholastic Press Association provided Fox News with joint statement from the Journalism Education Association that was sent to members – after a number of people complained about Savage’s remarks.
“We appreciate the level of thoughtfulness and deliberation regarding Dan Savage’s keynote address,” the NSPA wrote. “some audience members who felt hurt by his words and tone decided to leave in the middle of his speech, and to this, we want to make our point very clear: While as a journalist it’s important to be able to listen to speech that offends you, these students and advisers had simply reached their tolerance level for what they were willing to hear.”
The NSPA said they did not have a prior transcript of Savage’s speech and that wish “he had stayed more on target for the audience of teen journalists.” They also said it provided a “teachable moment” for students.
As for Savage’s attack on people of faith?
“While some of his earlier comments were so strongly worded that they shook some of our audience members, it is never the intent of JEA or NSPA to let students get hurt during their time at our conventions,” they wrote.
However, not once did the NSPA or the JEA offer any apologies to the students or faculty advisors or anyone else in attendance.
Candi Cushman, who writes a blog on CitizenLink, noted the irony.
“Using profanity to deride the bible – and then mocking the Christian students after they left the room — is obviously a form of bullying and name-calling,” she wrote. “This illustrates perfectly what we’ve been saying all along: Too many times in the name of ‘tolerance,’ Christian students find their faith being openly mocked and belittled in educational environments.”
Tuttle said that he “felt duped” by the event. “There were Christian schools who went to the conference. To have this happen was disappointing and shocking.”
And for some of his students – they felt like the anti-bullying activist was in fact – the bully.
The NSPA said they should have done a better job preparing schools for what to expect.
Here’s the full statement provided by the NSPA and JEA:
“We appreciate the level of thoughtfulness and deliberation regarding Dan Savage’s keynote address at the JEA/NSPA spring convention in Seattle. Logan and I have had the opportunity, both in Seattle and by email, to hear from advisers who are passionately against and passionately supportive of the choice to invite him to speak.
Many who expressed concern said they were surprised by the content of the speech, and they wished JEA and NSPA had done a better job of preparing them for what was to be expected. This is a fair critique. When we invited Savage to speak, we asked that he discuss his “It Gets Better” project, which has been an unprecedented social media campaign that relates quite directly to high school students. He agreed and turned over details to his speaker’s bureau contact.
We did not have a prior transcript or outline of Savage’s speech (nor did we for any other speakers), and of course the question-and-answer portions of our keynotes can become unpredictable. Yet Savage has appeared regularly in the news media, so we were familiar with his general background and the broad range of viewpoints he has made publicly. That said, we wish he had stayed more on target for the audience of teen journalists.
Which brings us to the second chief concern some attendees have made, which is the fact that some actually felt hurt by Savage’s comments, especially those aimed at religious beliefs. While some of his earlier comments were so strongly worded that they shook some of our audience members, it is never the intent of JEA or NSPA to let students get hurt during their time at our conventions.
Some audience members who felt hurt by his words and tone decided to leave in the middle of his speech, and to this we want to make our point very clear: While as journalists it’s important to be able to listen to speech that offends you, these students and advisers had simply reached their tolerance level for what they were willing to hear. They left quietly, peacefully, without trying to draw attention to themselves. They did not try to interrupt the speaker or loudly protest his remarks.
We have already heard from some advisers who have turned this into a teachable moment for their students. Dan Savage and his “It Gets Better” project are legitimate newsmakers, and we encourage you to reflect on this topic in your newsrooms. Some student newspapers have already written stories for their publication regarding his speech, and others are sure to write columns or editorials regarding his viewpoints. What are the coverage opportunities for your students?
As a whole, we were very pleased with all of the educational opportunities at the Seattle convention and we hope our attendees feel the same. As always, we love to hear both the darts and laurels regarding all of our convention programming, including the keynotes.”
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/anti-bullying-speaker-curses-mocks-christian-teens.html
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Is this the same Dan Savage as the repulsive Sodomite I keep seeing on TV and who made up the whole "Google Santorum" thing?
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Click the link for the video. Pretty twisted. Good to see the kids having the stones to walk out.
Gay Conservatives Condemn Dan Savage’s Christian-Bullying
Apr 28, 2012
BY TODD STARNES
The head of a national gay conservative group condemned what they called anti-bullying activist Dan Savage’s “anti-Christian tirade” at a national high school journalism conference.
Savage, the founder of the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying project is facing criticism for delivering a Bible-bashing, profanity-laced speech to high school students attending a journalism conference sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Assocation.
At one point Savage called Christian teenagers who walked out of the speech “pansy-assed.”
“We can learn to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about gay people — the same way we have learned to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about shellfish, about slavery, about dinner, about farming, about menstration about virginity about masturbation,” he told the young students. “We ignore bullshit in the Bible about all sorts of things.”
A video of the speech shows a number of teenagers walking out of the auditorium as he continued his attack on the Bible, calling it a “radically pro-slavery document.”
“You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I’m done beating up the Bible,” he said. “It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.’
Jimmy LaSalvia, executive director of GOProud, called those statements “outrageous” and demanded an apology.
“Dan Savage should apologize for his comments and should apologize to the high school students in attendance whom he called ‘pansy-asses,’” continued LaSalvia. “It is ironic that someone whose claim to fame is fighting bullying would resort to bullying tactics in attacking high school students who were offended by his outrageous remarks.”
LaSalvia said people of faith should be treated with respect.
“Dan Savage’s outrageous anti-Christian tirade hurts – not helps – the fight for gay rights in this country,” LaSalvia said in a statement. “There is nothing incompatible between being a Christian and believing that all people should be treated equally, and Dan Savage’s attacks on Christianity only fuel those on the extremist fringe who oppose gay rights.”
Savage also attacked the Republican Party — and specifically Callista Gingrich, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.
“The Bible says if a woman is not a virgin on her wedding night, she shall be dragged to her father’s doorstep and stoned to death,” he said. “Callista Gingrich still lives.”
His speech was interrupted by students cheering and howling.
“There is no effort to amend state constitutions to make it legal to stone women to death on their wedding nights if they’re not virgins — at least not yet,” Savage said. “We don’t know where the GOP is going these days.”
“People are dying because people can’t clear this one last hurdle,” he said. “They can’t get past this one last thing in the Bible — about homosexuality.
Watch the entire video posted below:
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/gay-conservatives-condemn-dan-savages-christian-bullying.html
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there is a video of the talk, it did not go anything like what that article is suggesting. Lol, it's funny because as he started to rip apart the fallacy laden bible people just started leaving, i guess that's what the religious are taught, leave if someone has a different viewpoint. Everything he said was correct, religion is anti-gay, it is pro slavery, it says to stone your children if they disobey, it orders the same for those who work on the sabbath. Taking advice from a book written by simpletons is a sure way to remain in the stone age.
it is bullshit, the whole thing. He is right and proves his point and your best arguments are to get offended, to bad. Fuck off and leave others alone you bigots. why are so many animals gay? if it's a choice? why would so many species show this trait if it wasn't natural.
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there is a video of the talk, it did not go anything like what that article is suggesting. Lol, it's funny because as he started to rip apart the fallacy laden bible people just started leaving, i guess that's what the religious are taught, leave if someone has a different viewpoint. Everything he said was correct, religion is anti-gay, it is pro slavery, it says to stone your children if they disobey, it orders the same for those who work on the sabbath. Taking advice from a book written by simpletons is a sure way to remain in the stone age.
it is bullshit, the whole thing. He is right and proves his point and your best arguments are to get offended, to bad. Fuck off and leave others alone you bigots. why are so many animals gay? if it's a choice? why would so many species show this trait if it wasn't natural.
Is God A Moral Monster? by Paul Copan
Great read, I suggest it to believers and nonbelievers alike.
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Is God A Moral Monster? by Paul Copan
Great read, I suggest it to believers and nonbelievers alike.
i don't read apologetics, the starting point is one of irrationality such that nothing that comes after could be. The whole premise is flawed, god is a failed hypothesis and the more intelligent we become the less we will hear of religion.
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i don't read apologetics, the starting point is one of irrationality such that nothing that comes after could be. The whole premise is flawed, god is a failed hypothesis and the more intelligent we become the less we will hear of religion.
You're correct that the world will continue to move away from God more and more and more.
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You're correct that the world will continue to move away from God more and more and more.
right and as the facts show it is only a good thing. The most religious areas of the earth are the most violent and poor. Think about history, pretty sure as we have grown as a species religion has become less and less prevalent. I would cringe if we were as holy as the middle ages, those god fearing peaceful people. How do you reconcile these facts? they are facts you know, ie not debatable. Sure it's correlations and epidemiology, but hey you believe in even more fantastic things without any evidence at all. Tell me why moving away from god is a bad thing, give me examples because all i see are examples of the exact opposite.