[Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update (mini edition)

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

This is a lame update, sorry. I SWEAR I will do a better one this  
weekend. Srsly. But right now I need to go get a new backpack, as my  
current backpack ripped halfway open yesterday and that _just won't do_.

Remember that condemnation by TVC of the Christian group  
"Soujourners"? Here's the Soujourner statement on the "Religious Right";

I typically prefer primary material, but in this case, I'm posting a  
blogger's reaction to the recent CWA comment that former NBA star Tim  
Hardaway's anti-gay comments are "unfortunate and inappropriate" -  
but only because they "foment misperceptions of widespread homosexual  
‘victimhood,'" not because there's anything wrong being "repelled by  
disordered sexual behaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral";

Concerned Women for America's Matt Barber and the original CWA press  
release, full text;

One of the infuriating things about the entire "culture war" of the  
theocons is the whole idea that it's _perfectly reasonable_ to talk  
about making queers illegal - that making people _illegal_ is _okay_.  
Andrew Sullivan ( http://www.andrewsullivan.com ) recently posted to  
a pretty good blogpost about how one older gay man feels about this;

Christian and union groups attacking Wal-Mart for violating child  
labour laws; "Would Jesus Stop at Wal-Mart";

Army chaplain attempts to register as Wiccan, which would make him  
the first such; then "his superiors not only denied his request but  
also withdrew him from Iraq and removed him from the chaplain corps,  
despite an unblemished service record." Chief Executive Mr. Bush, by  
the way, was on record as governor of Texas saying that the Wiccan  
faith shouldn't be allowed 'in the military.'


----- 1 -----
The Religious Right's Era is Over
Friday, Feb. 16, 2007
TIME
By Jim Wallis

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1590782,00.html

As I have traveled around the country, one line in my speeches always  
draws cheers: "The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a  
new dialogue has now begun." We have now entered the post-Religious  
Right era. Though religion has had a negative image in the last few  
decades, the years ahead may be shaped by a dynamic and more  
progressive faith that will make needed social change more possible.

In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better  
theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the  
partisan politics of the Religious Right. In politics, we are  
beginning to see a leveling of the playing field between the two  
parties on religion and "moral values," and the media are finally  
beginning to cover the many and diverse voices of faith. These are  
all big changes in American life, and the rest of the world is taking  
notice.

[More at URL]


----- 2 -----
Why's He Gotta Go Making Life Hard for Bigots?
February 16, 2007
Notes from the Lounge

http://juliansanchez.com/notes/archives/2007/02/ 
whys_he_gotta_go_making_life_h.php

By now, you've probably heard about the flap over former Miami Heat  
baller Tim Hardaway's repugnant radio interview, in which he reacted  
to news that fellow NBA alum John Amachi is gay by proclaiming his  
hatred of gay people and declaring that homosexuality "shouldn't be  
in the world or in the United States." This morning, my inbox  
contained a press release from none other than uberconservative group  
Concerned Women for America blasting Hardaway:

A former NBA star has made disturbing and harmful comments about his  
feelings toward people trapped in the homosexual lifestyle.  
Interviewing with a Florida sports radio show, former Miami Heat  
player Tim Hardaway said that he “hates gay people” and that he  
distances himself from them because he is “homophobic.” Concerned  
Women for America (CWA) is disappointed that a man who is respected  
by many sports fans would make such inflammatory remarks.

Can it be, CWA? Is that... is that a glimmer of basic human decency I  
detect? Oh, wait, no:

"Hardaway’s comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate,” said  
Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues. “They provide  
political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition to the  
homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in ‘hate.’ [....] It’s perfectly  
natural for people to be repelled by disordered sexual behaviors that  
are both unnatural, and immoral [....] Hardaway’s comments only serve  
to foment misperceptions of widespread homosexual ‘victimhood’ which  
the homosexual lobby has craftily manufactured.”

[More at URL]


----- 3 -----
CWA Calls Former NBA Star’s Comments Harmful
Concerned Women for America
2/16/2007

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12357/MEDIA/misc/index.htm

Washington, D.C. — A former NBA star has made disturbing and harmful  
comments about his feelings toward people trapped in the homosexual  
lifestyle. Interviewing with a Florida sports radio show, former  
Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway said that he “hates gay people” and  
that he distances himself from them because he is “homophobic.”  
Concerned Women for America (CWA) is disappointed that a man who is  
respected by many sports fans would make such inflammatory remarks.

“Hardaway’s comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate,” said  
Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues. “They provide  
political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition to the  
homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in ‘hate.’ It’s important to  
note that Hardaway’s words represent the feelings of Hardaway. His  
words do not represent the feelings of the vast majority of people  
opposed to the homosexual agenda.

“It’s perfectly natural for people to be repelled by disordered  
sexual behaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral,” said Barber.  
“All too often those behaviors are accompanied by serious physical,  
emotional, and spiritual pitfalls. However, the appropriate reaction  
is to respond with words and acts of love, not words of hate. Jesus  
Christ offers forgiveness and freedom for all sinners, and that is  
the heart of the Gospel message.

“Thousands of former homosexuals have been freed from the homosexual  
lifestyle through acts of love. Hardaway’s comments only serve to  
foment misperceptions of widespread homosexual ‘victimhood’ which the  
homosexual lobby has craftily manufactured.”

For Information Contact:
Stacey Holliday
(202) 488-7000
media.cwfa.org


----- 4 -----
We Are Not Freaks
Once Upon a Time
February 17, 2007

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/02/we-are-not-freaks.html

I fear that many, if not most, of you who read this, will not fully  
understand what I'm about to discuss. Very tragically, this is  
unavoidable, for we live in a culture that suffers from severe  
emotional repression. Those issues that matter the most, that are  
genuinely sacred in the most profound sense of that word, are kept at  
a distance. To the extent we contemplate them at all, we forbid them  
to achieve their full reality.

[...]

My emailers agreed with my outrage, and they understood, at least in  
general terms, the source of my anger. Still, they wondered: "But,  
Arthur, why are you so angry? Do you think expressing that kind of  
anger will help to change anyone's mind, or encourage others to try  
to look at these issues from a different perspective?" To explain my  
answer in part, I reposted yesterday an essay from two years ago:  
Living on the Inside...and Living on the Outside. In that piece, I  
detailed how and why it is undeniably true that those who enjoy the  
most privileged position in our culture -- those who are white,  
heterosexual and male -- cannot possibly understand, not completely,  
what it is like to be one of those who is shut out in different ways,  
and to varying degrees.

But even that essay is written from a perspective of some distance.  
It doesn't fully capture the emotional reality of being marginalized,  
being excluded, and very often being ridiculed, and even demonized.  
This realization hit me once again with great force as I read a  
comment recently added to that lengthy thread at TAPPED. Here it is:

[More at URL]


----- 5 -----
Search Your Heart
Christmas 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2dk8f21TIo


----- 6 -----
For Gods and Country
The Army Chaplain Who Wanted to Switch to Wicca? Transfer Denied.
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 19, 2007; Page C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/18/ 
AR2007021801396.html?sub=AR

SCHERTZ, Tex.

[...]

Of the 16 self-described witches who have gathered on this Texas  
plain to celebrate a late-winter pagan festival with dancing,  
chanting, chili and beer, all but two are current or former military  
personnel. Each has a story. None can compete with Larsen's.

A year ago, he was a Pentecostal Christian minister at Camp Anaconda,  
the largest U.S. support base in Iraq. He sent home reports on the  
number of "decisions" -- soldiers committing their lives to Christ --  
that he inspired in the base's Freedom Chapel.

But inwardly, he says, he was torn between Christianity's exclusive  
claims about salvation and a "universalist streak" in his thinking.  
The Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, which  
collapsed the dome of a 1,200-year-old holy site and triggered a  
widening spiral of revenge attacks between Shiite and Sunni  
militants, prompted a decision of his own.

[...]

Larsen's private crisis of faith might have remained just that, but  
for one other fateful choice. He decided the religion that best  
matched his universalist vision was Wicca, a blend of witchcraft,  
feminism and nature worship that has ancient pagan roots.

On July 6, he applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S.  
armed forces, setting off an extraordinary chain of events. By year's  
end, his superiors not only denied his request but also withdrew him  
from Iraq and removed him from the chaplain corps, despite an  
unblemished service record.

[More at URL]