Jesus Camp :D
This is a copy of a post on the IMDB boards for "Jesus Camp" posted by a gay guy - it talks about conservative christians and their great history of helping to better our country - me likey~~~ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/board/nest/58828264)
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As a gay man, I wish Jesus would come down here right now and take these people away....to wherever they want to go.
First off, I am not against Christians. I myself was raised as a Christian and although I no longer fully ascribe to the religion (and because I was gay, I didn't feel accepted anyway), I still have many Christian values. In fact, I have several friends whom I believe to be "true" Christians who attend church on a regular basis, and I think their spirituality is a good thing if it helps them to feel better about themselves and it brings them some sort of comfort.
The problem for me is that when I hear the words "conservative Christians," because I automatically (rightly or wrongly) think of born-again, evangelical, right-wing people who tend to be racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic and intolerant of other religions in their dated and backward view of the world, not "true" Christians. I think these are the same kind of people.....
Who justified slavery using the bible.
Who started the KKK (a once religious organization).
Who created the Jim Crow laws and separate drinking fountains for people of color.
Who created laws banning interracial dating and marriage.
Who created sodomy laws (that resulted in gay people being sent to prisons and often being handed over to "doctors" who performed forced shock treatments).
note: Here in my state of Arizona, until just a few years ago, Arizona still had a sodomy law on it's books referring to gay people as "sexual deviants".....and when the then acting governor decided to let that law elapse, there was an outcry from "conservative Christians."
Who opposed the civil rights movement and integration of our schools.
Who wouldn't vote for President Kennedy because he was a "Catholic."
Who opposed the early Woman's Rights Movement (because a woman's place is in the home).
Who caused an outcry in the early 1970's when the American Medical Association of Mental Health declared that homosexuality was not an illness.
Who opposed a woman's right to choose in the 1970's (and have been trying to make it illegal ever since).
Who supported Anita Bryant back in the mid-1970's in her trying to have all the gay teachers in California and Florida fired from their jobs (she did not succeed).
Who opposed sex education in our schools.
Who organized petitions and passed laws allowing discrimination against gay people in housing and the workplace in the 1980's.....Remember the furor that Streisand caused when she said that she was no longer gonna vacation in Colorado after they passed such a law?
Who claimed that AIDS was a direct punishment from God (tell that to all the heterosexuals who are dying from this tragic disease right now in Africa).
Who petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 to not allow gay people the right to privacy within their own homes (ya know, if a cop looked thru someone's window and saw two people of the same sex engaging in a sex act, he could arrest them).....and the Supreme Court did rule that gay people do not have a right to privacy within their own homes!
Who have insisted that young gay people not be allowed to join the Boy Scouts.
Who caused a furor when President Clinton said he was gonna sign an executive order allowing gay people to serve openly in the military (as do countries such Canada, Israel and Australia), a furor so big that Clinton backed down and created his horrible "Don't ask, don't tell, just stay in the closet and live in fear" policy.
Who have pushed endlessly for Christian prayer in schools.
Who have tried endlessly to have creationism taught in schools in place of evolution.
Who caused a furor when Ellen came out as a lesbian on her TV show, and loudly protested a same-sex-kiss being shown on the Roseanne TV show (the same people who protested "Brokeback Mountain" because it was too sympathetic to gay people, and because gay cowboys couldn't possibly exist).
Who organized a boycott of Disney products in the 1990's when the Disney corporation decided to give domestic partnership rights to their employees (a boycott that did not succeed).
Who agreed with kooks such as Pat Robertson that 9/11 was a direct result of our tolerance of gay people and feminists.
Who have been pushing the Republicans to pass a federal amendment to the U.S. constitution to forever ban gay marriage in order to "protect" heterosexual marriage. BTW, the highest divorce rate in our country is in the so-called Bilble Belt.
Who have organized and petitioned Republicans to create so-called "faith-based initiatives," while at the same time being very intolerant of other religions.
Who create bizarre church camps for young people (such as featured in the movie "Jesus Camp") that preach intolerance of others and the merits of war.
Who believe the world is in it's last days and who seem to want everything to go up in flames....so Jesus can return and take them (and only them) up to heaven. People who seem to support wars more than they do peace.
Who have started up petition drives to enact the banning of gay marriage in various state constitutions (in this recent election, seven out of eight states enacted such bans, several enacting mean-spirited bans on domestic partnership rights as well, with my state of Arizona being the only state that rejected such a ban).
Who would never dream of voting for a (god forbid) black, Jewish or woman president.
Who believe that President George Bush is a wise and caring man and a great world leader (instead of an overgrown idiot frat boy who comes from a filthy rich, greedy family). BTW, how come his children aren't serving proudly in our military in the war that their own father started?
Another BTW, am I the only one who thinks that it is sick that Vice President Cheney is right back out there on his little hunting excursions (slaughtering hundreds of tame animals in "canned" hunts) after "accidentally" shooting another man in the face, killing defenseless animals with a gun "for fun" when over a 100 young American soldiers were killed in Iraq just last month?....And meanwhile his wife is out their promoting her "children's" book......What about all those parents out there who just lost their child in this war? What is wrong with this picture?
And now two stories:
I remember back in the early 1970's when my partner and I (we've been a couple for 35 years as of this year) attended a gay rights march in L.A., and there was this large group of "Christians" there holding signs that said things like - JESUS WILL LOVE YOU IF YOU REPENT....and as my partner and I passed by them on the sidewalk, one of the young men leaned over and whispered to me - "I hope you rot in f__kin' hell, you filthy c__ksucker." How very Christian.
When my best friend lay dying of AIDS in the hospital, his mother brought in a church group of so-called Christians and these people began praying over him (really it was more like chanting) and they kept saying to him - "Give us a sign and tell God that you reject your homosexuality," and when he began moaning in pain, they all began to cheer and hug each other, saying that he had rejected his homosexual ways. My god, he weighted less that 80 pounds and about one-third of his once beautiful face had been eaten away by lesions and he was in a semi-coma (totally unaware where he was or what was happening to him).....and it seemed to me, these "well meaning" Christian people humiliated him even as he lay dying....and he died the following morning.
Lastly, I'm sure this post is going to elicit lots of mean-spirited, anti-gay responses from "conservative Christians," but it will be nothing I haven't heard hundreds of times before, and your mean-spirited (and /or condescending)remarks will only prove my point.
As the singer Patti Smith once said - "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. My sins, I own. They belong to me."
Michael
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Anybody know if this is gonna be in any theatres around here? -- if not im gonna have to find a place to DL it :D~
-----
As a gay man, I wish Jesus would come down here right now and take these people away....to wherever they want to go.
First off, I am not against Christians. I myself was raised as a Christian and although I no longer fully ascribe to the religion (and because I was gay, I didn't feel accepted anyway), I still have many Christian values. In fact, I have several friends whom I believe to be "true" Christians who attend church on a regular basis, and I think their spirituality is a good thing if it helps them to feel better about themselves and it brings them some sort of comfort.
The problem for me is that when I hear the words "conservative Christians," because I automatically (rightly or wrongly) think of born-again, evangelical, right-wing people who tend to be racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, homophobic and intolerant of other religions in their dated and backward view of the world, not "true" Christians. I think these are the same kind of people.....
Who justified slavery using the bible.
Who started the KKK (a once religious organization).
Who created the Jim Crow laws and separate drinking fountains for people of color.
Who created laws banning interracial dating and marriage.
Who created sodomy laws (that resulted in gay people being sent to prisons and often being handed over to "doctors" who performed forced shock treatments).
note: Here in my state of Arizona, until just a few years ago, Arizona still had a sodomy law on it's books referring to gay people as "sexual deviants".....and when the then acting governor decided to let that law elapse, there was an outcry from "conservative Christians."
Who opposed the civil rights movement and integration of our schools.
Who wouldn't vote for President Kennedy because he was a "Catholic."
Who opposed the early Woman's Rights Movement (because a woman's place is in the home).
Who caused an outcry in the early 1970's when the American Medical Association of Mental Health declared that homosexuality was not an illness.
Who opposed a woman's right to choose in the 1970's (and have been trying to make it illegal ever since).
Who supported Anita Bryant back in the mid-1970's in her trying to have all the gay teachers in California and Florida fired from their jobs (she did not succeed).
Who opposed sex education in our schools.
Who organized petitions and passed laws allowing discrimination against gay people in housing and the workplace in the 1980's.....Remember the furor that Streisand caused when she said that she was no longer gonna vacation in Colorado after they passed such a law?
Who claimed that AIDS was a direct punishment from God (tell that to all the heterosexuals who are dying from this tragic disease right now in Africa).
Who petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 to not allow gay people the right to privacy within their own homes (ya know, if a cop looked thru someone's window and saw two people of the same sex engaging in a sex act, he could arrest them).....and the Supreme Court did rule that gay people do not have a right to privacy within their own homes!
Who have insisted that young gay people not be allowed to join the Boy Scouts.
Who caused a furor when President Clinton said he was gonna sign an executive order allowing gay people to serve openly in the military (as do countries such Canada, Israel and Australia), a furor so big that Clinton backed down and created his horrible "Don't ask, don't tell, just stay in the closet and live in fear" policy.
Who have pushed endlessly for Christian prayer in schools.
Who have tried endlessly to have creationism taught in schools in place of evolution.
Who caused a furor when Ellen came out as a lesbian on her TV show, and loudly protested a same-sex-kiss being shown on the Roseanne TV show (the same people who protested "Brokeback Mountain" because it was too sympathetic to gay people, and because gay cowboys couldn't possibly exist).
Who organized a boycott of Disney products in the 1990's when the Disney corporation decided to give domestic partnership rights to their employees (a boycott that did not succeed).
Who agreed with kooks such as Pat Robertson that 9/11 was a direct result of our tolerance of gay people and feminists.
Who have been pushing the Republicans to pass a federal amendment to the U.S. constitution to forever ban gay marriage in order to "protect" heterosexual marriage. BTW, the highest divorce rate in our country is in the so-called Bilble Belt.
Who have organized and petitioned Republicans to create so-called "faith-based initiatives," while at the same time being very intolerant of other religions.
Who create bizarre church camps for young people (such as featured in the movie "Jesus Camp") that preach intolerance of others and the merits of war.
Who believe the world is in it's last days and who seem to want everything to go up in flames....so Jesus can return and take them (and only them) up to heaven. People who seem to support wars more than they do peace.
Who have started up petition drives to enact the banning of gay marriage in various state constitutions (in this recent election, seven out of eight states enacted such bans, several enacting mean-spirited bans on domestic partnership rights as well, with my state of Arizona being the only state that rejected such a ban).
Who would never dream of voting for a (god forbid) black, Jewish or woman president.
Who believe that President George Bush is a wise and caring man and a great world leader (instead of an overgrown idiot frat boy who comes from a filthy rich, greedy family). BTW, how come his children aren't serving proudly in our military in the war that their own father started?
Another BTW, am I the only one who thinks that it is sick that Vice President Cheney is right back out there on his little hunting excursions (slaughtering hundreds of tame animals in "canned" hunts) after "accidentally" shooting another man in the face, killing defenseless animals with a gun "for fun" when over a 100 young American soldiers were killed in Iraq just last month?....And meanwhile his wife is out their promoting her "children's" book......What about all those parents out there who just lost their child in this war? What is wrong with this picture?
And now two stories:
I remember back in the early 1970's when my partner and I (we've been a couple for 35 years as of this year) attended a gay rights march in L.A., and there was this large group of "Christians" there holding signs that said things like - JESUS WILL LOVE YOU IF YOU REPENT....and as my partner and I passed by them on the sidewalk, one of the young men leaned over and whispered to me - "I hope you rot in f__kin' hell, you filthy c__ksucker." How very Christian.
When my best friend lay dying of AIDS in the hospital, his mother brought in a church group of so-called Christians and these people began praying over him (really it was more like chanting) and they kept saying to him - "Give us a sign and tell God that you reject your homosexuality," and when he began moaning in pain, they all began to cheer and hug each other, saying that he had rejected his homosexual ways. My god, he weighted less that 80 pounds and about one-third of his once beautiful face had been eaten away by lesions and he was in a semi-coma (totally unaware where he was or what was happening to him).....and it seemed to me, these "well meaning" Christian people humiliated him even as he lay dying....and he died the following morning.
Lastly, I'm sure this post is going to elicit lots of mean-spirited, anti-gay responses from "conservative Christians," but it will be nothing I haven't heard hundreds of times before, and your mean-spirited (and /or condescending)remarks will only prove my point.
As the singer Patti Smith once said - "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine. My sins, I own. They belong to me."
Michael
-----
Anybody know if this is gonna be in any theatres around here? -- if not im gonna have to find a place to DL it :D~