Fear and Loathing in Alaska.

Nazis, Japs, Charlie, niggers, towel heads, Hadji's, chinks, wetbacks, etc., etc., etc..

The list of people we are given permission to hate and the reasons that it is, or at least was, acceptable could fill thousands of pages.

"We are at war, so go ahead and hate them."

"They do not look like us, so go ahead and hate them."

"They do not speak our language, so go ahead and hate them."

"They do not believe in our God, so go ahead and hate them."

"They do not love like we do, so go ahead and hate them."

It seems that for many people in this world they are just looking for permission to go ahead and hate somebody. "I feel the need to hate, or discriminate against, or revile somebody today. Who am I allowed to victimize?"

But sadly for many of these hate filled people we have moved forward as a society.

You can no longer openly discriminate against African-Americans. Or women. Or the mentally challenged. Or Asians. Or Hispanics. Or even Muslims.

So what is a hate filled person to do? Who is left to discriminate against?

Fags!

Oh yeah you can still revile, and discriminate against, and hate, fags!

And it is totally fine because permission to hate the gays comes from GOD himself! Wow! Nobody can argue with that, now can they?

Just look it up for yourself. It is right there in......um....what chapter and verse was that again?

Well there is Genesis 19:1-2, in which Lot offered an angry crowd the sexual use of his two virgin daughters to keep the two angels in his home from being raped.

But anybody who has done time in prison can tell you that rape is not about homosexuality, it is about domination. (And by the way, what kind of bastard would sacrifice his own two daughters to be ravaged by a crowd of angry men to protect ANYBODY? I would have volunteered myself rather than have somebody touch one hair on my daughters head.)

Then there is Judges 19:22-30, which contained this uplifting passage:

22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."

23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing."

25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go.

26At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

27 When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, "Get up; let's go." But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

29 When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.

So once again the virgin daughter is offered up to keep men from giving his house guest a good "rogering", but instead they take the concubine, rape her, and leave her immobilized on his doorstep. He then rewards her sacrifice by cutting her up into pieces and scattering her across the dunes. So in this instance, according to the bible, homosexual sex is much worse than rape, murder, and disembowelment. Very interesting priorities here.

There are a few less brutal passages in the bible that address homosexuality as well. Like Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13 (This one even gives permission to kill teh gay), Romans 1:24-28, Corinthians 6:9-10, Timothy 1:8-11,and Peter 2:6-10. There may be a few more (I am not a biblical scholar), but you get the drift. If you want to believe that homosexuality is bad, and that it is okay to hate them, the bible will give you permission. But not everybody is sure that these passages have been interpreted correctly.

However I would be negligent if I did not point out that ALL of these examples come from the Old Testament.

Today's Christians have ignored many of the more ignorant and punitive rules from the Old Testament. When was the last time anybody was stoned for adultery for instance, or killed for conducting business on the Sabbath, or expect to be killed by God for masturbating?

Nobody seems to care if you wear wool and linen together, or if a woman wears pants instead of a dress, but the rules against this were clearly defined by the Old Testament.

So why pray tell do the Christians, who have clearly shown they are capable of disregarding ignorant rules from thousands of years ago, still cling to this hatred and fear of homosexuality?

I mean why does a church like Westboro even exist in this day and age?

How is it possible for local homophobe Jerry Prevo to put a website like this on the internet using donations from his congregation and suffer hardly any backlash at all? How is that possible in 2009?

Because people fear what they do not understand. That is why.

When there were few blacks in this country that were not slaves, white people feared them. When women wanted to take part in democracy and choices that affected them, men feared them. Now that gays are asking to be treated like everybody else, ignorant people fear them.

And that fear is being fanned by people who stand behind a pulpit and make up falsehoods that their dumb downed congregation gobble up like "truth berries". Never doubting that this "man of God" is telling them the truth. After all he speaks for God.

No he doesn't!

Nor does he speak for Jesus Christ, who said absolutely NOTHING about homosexuality. Not one single word!

Let's face it, the reason that there is so much hate directed at the gay community is because of the permission given by so called "Christian" ministers and priests, to vilify and discriminate against them. They have used their position of trust to inflict their own hate filled agenda on the people who look to them for salvation.

And that is a sin written down on the stone tablets of Moses himself. Perhaps you remember it? 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' You see "using the Lord's name in vain" is not about saying a simple swear word. It is about misrepresenting the word of God and pursuing your own agenda while using him as cover. THAT is what is meant by using his name in vain.

So the next time you sit in your church and the man standing before you tells you that your God wants you to hate or discriminate against anybody, you stand up and tell him that he does not speak for YOUR God and that YOUR God is a god of love and compassion, and storm out.

If enough people were to do this, than maybe the REAL Christians can wrest control of their church back from these people who have hijacked it for their own hateful purposes.

And if you are living in Anchorage you can tell our assembly members for yourself on June 9th how you feel about this segment of our population continuing to be discriminated against. You can bet I and my fellow progressive bloggers will be there and we invite you to join us.

It is time to wrest control of our city from the hate-mongers and work to protect ALL of our precious citizens.