The Gaytheist Agenda

From Chris Rodda at The Huffington Post: (All images from Huffington Post, more available at link)

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10. Have top U.S. military officers, Defense Department officials, and politicians say we’re in a religious war

As many will remember, we couldn’t have gotten off to a better start on winning hearts and minds when Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, on his speaking tour of churches back in 2003, publicly and in uniform proclaimed that the so-called war on terror was really a fight between Satan and Christians, making comments like, “We in the Army of God, in the House of God, the Kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this,” saying that George Bush, who himself had ignorantly called the war a crusade, was “in the White House because God put him there,” and, referring to the capture of Somali warlord Osman Atto, “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
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8. Plant crosses in Muslim lands and make sure they’re big enough to be visible from really far away
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But now, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gen. Schwarzkopf’s common sense policies and priority of keeping the troops safe have been replaced by a flaunting of Christianity in these Muslim lands by Christian troops and chaplains who feel that nothing comes before their right to exercise their religion, even if it means putting the safety of their fellow troops at risk. Numerous reports and photos received by MRFF, like the one below, as well as photos posted on official military websites, show conspicuously displayed Christian symbols, such as large crosses, being erected on and around our military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These large Christian murals were painted on the outside of the T-barriers surrounding the chapel on FOB Warhorse in Iraq. In addition to being a highly visible display of Christianity to Iraqis on the base, these photos were posted on an official military website. It is even more important that the Army regulation prohibiting displays of any particular religion on the grounds of an Army chapel, a regulation that protects the religious freedom of our soldiers by keeping chapels neutral and open to soldiers of all faiths, be strictly enforced on our bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, as these and other photos collected by MRFF clearly show, violations of this regulation that probably wouldn’t even be tolerated on bases in the U.S. are not only tolerated but promoted on our bases in Muslim countries.

7. Paint crosses and Christian messages on military vehicles and drive them through Iraq

For those Iraqis who may not see the overt displays of Christianity on and near our military bases in their country, there have been plenty of mobile Christian messages, painted on our tanks and other vehicles that patrol their streets.
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6. Make sure that our Christian soldiers and chaplains see the war as a way to fulfill the Great Commission

Iraq is crawling with missionaries and evangelists, both civilian and military, who show little or no regard for laws or military regulations. Why? Because, in their opinion, the “Great Commission” from Matthew 28:19 — “Go and make disciples of all nations” — trumps all man-made laws. It’s hard to find a military ministry whose mission statement doesn’t, in one way or another, include fulfilling the Great Commission.

Campus Crusade for Christ’s (CCC) Military Ministry, for example, whose goal is to transform our enlisted trainees and future officers into “government-paid missionaries for Christ,” is present at all of our military’s largest basic training facilities, as well as the military service academies and ROTC campuses. The “Vision” of another organization, Military Missions Network, is “An expanding global network of kingdom-minded movements of evangelism and discipleship reaching the world through the military of the world.”
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2. Make sure Bibles and evangelizing materials sent to Muslim lands have official U.S. military emblems on them

What better way to say to Muslims that the U.S. military is not officially Christian than to have official U.S. military emblems stamped on hundreds of thousands of Bibles floating around Iraq and Afghanistan?

Over the past few years, MRFF has amassed quite a collection of military Bibles — some produced by private organizations and others officially authorized by the military — prominently sporting the seals of the various branches of the military and other official military emblems. The latest addition to the collection is a photo from an officer serving in Iraq, who emailed this photo of a Bible being distributed in Iraq with both the Multi-National Corps - Iraq and I Corps seals imprinted on its cover.
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The poster boy for promoting these Bibles is Navy chaplain LCDR Brian K. Waite, who has appeared in uniform at three of the annual campmeetings of Revival Fires founder Cecil Todd, and endorses the ministry, also in uniform, on the websites of both Cecil Todd and his son, evangelist Tim Todd. Just prior to becoming a Navy chaplain, LCDR Waite wrote a virulently anti-Muslim book, in which he held the religion of Islam itself responsible for terrorism, and compared Islam, which he doesn’t even consider a real religion, to Nazism. Not long after his book came out, it was revealed that he had plagiarized much of the book and fabricated some of the endorsements on its cover. Not only does Cecil Todd clearly hold the same anti-Muslim views expressed by Waite in his book, but so does his son Tim Todd. In fact, Waite’s photo and endorsement of those Pentagon endorsed military Bibles appeared right next to the following statement on the younger Todd’s website:

“We must let the Muslims, the Hare Krishna’s, the Hindu’s, the Buddhist’s and all other cults and false religions know, ‘You are welcome to live in America…but this is a Christian nation…this is God’s country! If you don’t like our emphasis on Christ, prayer and the Holy Bible, you are free to leave anytime!’”

1. Send lots of Arabic, Dari, and Pashtu language Bibles to convert the Muslims

Worse than any English language Bibles, even those stamped with official U.S. military emblems, are the countless thousands of Arabic, Dari, and Pashtu Bibles making their way into Iraq and Afghanistan, often with the help of U.S. military personnel.
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My questions are;
Why would anybody want to do that?
What possible good could come of it?
If anybody could explain it to me I’d be much obliged.

 

While this is my first post on the current events in Iran I have been following the situation. There’s so much happening there and so many stories to tell but this one, in particular, struck me. Her name is believed to have been Neda, which translates into “the call” in Farsi, and she was brutally murdered in the streets during a protest in Tehran. ***Warning: Stories and videos contain graphic content (descriptions and depictions of real-life violence). ***

Huffington Post: Iran Updates : Live-Blogging The Uprising

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2:23 PM ET — Neda before she was shot. A reader forwards this video showing Neda (in the black shirt and blue jeans) and her father (blue striped shirt) during the rally. Another reader sends an unconfirmed report of a memorial service for Neda planned for tomorrow at 5PM at Niloufar mosque at Abas Abad, Tehran.

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10:27 AM ET — What Neda’s father said. The image of Neda, a young Iranian woman, being shot and killed in the streets yesterday has become a rallying cry for Iranian reformists and their allies internationally. If you haven’t seen the video, I’m reposting it below, but please be warned, it is very very graphic.

A reader who couldn’t quite make out what her father was saying in the video understood after learning that her name is Neda. He sent in the transcript: “Neda, don’t be afraid. Neda, don’t be afraid. (There is yelling and screaming.) Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!”

Time: In Iran, One Woman’s Death May Have Many Consequences

Iran’s revolution has now run through a full cycle. A gruesomely captivating video of a young woman — laid out on a Tehran street after apparently being shot, blood pouring from her mouth and then across her face — swept Twitter, Facebook and other websites this weekend. The woman rapidly became a symbol of Iran’s escalating crisis, from a political confrontation to far more ominous physical clashes. Some sites refer to her as “Neda,” Farsi for the voice or the call. Tributes that incorporate startlingly upclose footage of her dying have started to spring up on YouTube.

Although it is not yet clear who shot “Neda” (a soldier? pro-government militant? an accidental misfiring?), her death may have changed everything. For the cycles of mourning in Shiite Islam actually provide a schedule for political combat — a way to generate or revive momentum. Shiite Muslims mourn their dead on the third, seventh and 40th days after a death, and these commemorations are a pivotal part of Iran’s rich history. During the revolution, the pattern of confrontations between the shah’s security forces and the revolutionaries often played out in 40-day cycles.
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“Neda” is already being hailed as a martyr, a second important concept in Shiism. With the reported deaths of 19 people Saturday, martyrdom also provides a potent force that could further deepen public anger at Iran’s regime.
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Because of Hussein, revolt against tyranny became part of Shiite tradition. Indeed, protest and martyrdom are widely considered duties to God. And nowhere is the practice more honored than in Iran, the world’s largest Shiite country.

The revolutionaries exploited the deep passion about martyrdom as well as the timetable of Shiite mourning in whipping up greater opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. With the deaths of “Neda” and others, they may now find the same phenomena used against them.

 
Regrettably it’s likely Neda is among the first of many to lose their lives in this revolution.

 

Message to Carrie Prejean, Maggie Gallagher, Stephen Baldwin and all of the other Christians who insist they’re being “persecuted” because LGBT people and their allies have the audacity to object to their anti-gay bigotry; this is actual persecution.

BAGHDAD – Widespread violence is down across Baghdad, but not for one minority group.

Iraq’s gay population is being targeted by militia groups in a wave of killings that has claimed the lives of up to 25 young men and boys in the past month.

“They know I am gay. I don’t know if I am going to be killed, this is up to God,” said Moyad, a 38-year-old Baghdad resident who would not give his last name out of fear for his safety.

Visibly frightened, he said that he has many friends who have been sadistically tortured, some even murdered. “They are sticking glue up their anuses; some hospitals refuse to treat them. Is it a war waged against homosexuals?” he asked.

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Posters and leaflets have been distributed in the Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Shola, al-Hurya and Sadr City with orders to, “Cleanse Iraq from the crime of homosexuality.”
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Moyad described a recent crusade by vigilantes in which young men were tortured with hoses and shot.”For some time I never went out of my house,” he said. “I also had the feeling that they would break in and get me.”
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Moyad believes that many have been killed by their own families in an effort to preserve their honor. “My friend Ahmed, from the neighborhood of Zafaraniya, was killed by his family for looking like a female. Those commandos tell the families to kill them or else they will kill them. I expect that my own brother might lead those guys to kill me.”
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Moyad said that unfortunately things have actually gotten worse than it was during Saddam’s reign things. “I was imprisoned because I was gay, but there was a court, a trial, and the judge let me loose at the time; now they kill people like us.”

There are, of course, people right here in the US who would very much like to see LGBT people put to death for the “crime” of being who we are. NOM’s newest board member Orson Scott Card, for example, wants homosexuality to be re-criminalized. Were it that they had their way it would be difficult to discern the difference between Iraq and the US but for the god worshiped by “the majority”.

 

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I could comment on this at length. But the details are so horrifying they speak for themselves. From Wayne Besen:

The Globalization of Gay Bashing

The latest anti-gay terrorism in Iraq — is gluing shut the anuses of homosexuals, while forcing the victims to ingest a form of Ex-Lax. The special glue can only be removed by surgery — thus often leading to a painful death.

It is challenging to know if such information is accurate. But, confirming the latest form of torture is beside the point, really. What we do know is that the news from overseas is rarely encouraging.

For example, in March “tens of thousands” of people from Burundi demonstrated to outlaw homosexuality. This destitute nation is the kind of place that you may have seen in late night infomercials where flies buzz around the lips of starving children. Eighty percent of Burundi’s population lives in poverty. Famines and food shortages have occurred and the World Food Program reports that 56.8-percent of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Yet, the good citizens of Burundi have time to chant and hold signs demanding the imprisonment of homosexuals.
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In Nigeria, lawmakers are debating a bill that would imprison gay people who live together and jail anyone who doesn’t rat out the gay couples. In July 2008, London’s Independent wrote a story about a 26-year-old gay man in Turkey, Ahmet Yildiz, saying that his own family may have killed him. “They wanted him to see a doctor who could cure him, and get married,” a friend explained.
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What we are seeing in front of our eyes is the globalization of gay bashing. The United States has exported marketing techniques and church structures to culturally homophobic countries. The sexual minorities caught in these nations’ do not have the same freedoms that we enjoy in the west, so they can’t fight back. They are essentially voiceless and fearful — allowing insidious myths and stereotypes to go unchallenged. With gay people effectively demonized and hatred promoted by civic and religious leaders, hysteria on gay issues ensues.

“U.S. religious right sponsored programs blossomed under the Bush administration,” explained Christina Engela of the GLBT group SAGLAAD in South Africa, noting the rise of such groups in her country. “Suddenly these people are using us as scapegoats to unite and build their power bases.”
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Even more disturbing, they sometimes serve as apologists in the name of cultural and religious sensitivity. Exhibit A is Scott Long, director of the GLBT program at Human Rights Watch. In the publication “Contemporary Politics” he lashed out at some of the world’s top gay activists and chided them for demanding that Muslims actually respect the right of GLBT people to exist.

“The incessant insistence that Muslim communities accede to the political agenda of LGBT identities actually forecloses politics altogether,” Long wrote. “It fences off the arena of shared interests…”

So, in other words, GLBT people should put their human rights on the backburner to assuage the grievances of religious people. We should also not act on our own behalf until all of the world’s problems are solved.
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That’s how long we have been fighting the illegal, immoral war in Iraq. As many as 88,976 civilians and3,970 US soldiers have died to date. The body count will only continue to rise for as long we remain there, to say nothing of the number of those physically and psychologically traumatized.

Ava Lowry has created another amazing anti-war video that is an absolute must-see. After you watch it stop by 5 Years Too Many.org for information on war protest actions across the nation on March 19th. See if there’s one near you to join. If not, maybe you’d consider starting one.

Kudos to Ava, and to everyone involved in bringing this war to an end. Indeed, it has been 5 Years Too Many.