Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 23rd, 2009
Recently the Guam legislature introduced legislation that would create same-sex domestic partnerships. That move prompted this response from the Archdiocese of Agana (Guam) (PDF: 261KB/3 pages):
The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self·sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they repress such behavior by death. Their culture is anything but one of self-absorption. It may be brutal at times, but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers (women as well as men) is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice. Terrorism as a way to oppose the degeneration of the culture is to be rejected completely since such violence is itself another form of degeneracy. One, however. does not have to agree with the gruesome ways that the fundamentalists use to curb the forces that undermine their culture to admit that the Islamic fundamentalist charge that Western Civilization in general and the U.S.A. in particular is the “Great Satan” is not without an element of truth. It makes no sense for the U. S. Government to send our boys to fight AI Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, while at the same time it embraces the social policies embodied in Bill1SS (as President Obama has done). Such policies only furnish further arguments for the fundamentalists in their efforts to gain more recruits for the war against the “Great Satan.”
[Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan]
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Thomas
October 23rd, 2009
Just goes to show how much hatred there is in organized religion. The Archbishop’s comments are vile. VILE.
Richard W. Fitch
October 23rd, 2009
It also goes to show how out of touch conservatives/fundamentalists are with the science and sociology of the 21st century.
Ben in Oakland
October 23rd, 2009
“The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self·sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture.”
So many things wrong with this.
I guess wiping my late partner’s ass as he lay dying does not constitute self-sacrifice.
Speaking of damage, what about that of an organization that claims it is the path to salvation, that its officiants are called by G to serve, and yet those same officiants molest children and are shielded by the said organization. I wonder what kind of damage THAT behavior inflicts on a culture.
This screed csounds so familiar. Let us quote the Repugnican Party of Texas: “The practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society.”
Unlike protracted culture wars, a culture of denying the truth, of hypocrisy, of greed, of attack thy neighbor with baseless, horrific lies, of scare the bejesus out of people in order to persuade them to assist you in your pogroms, er, programs…
…oh my, I’m on a roll…
Unlike encouraging people to have babies they can’t afford, don’t want, and cannot feed or educate to have becaase, and I quote JPII, “the church needs priests”…
Unlike 300 years of unprovoked warfare against Islam, resulting in culture clashes and gasoline prices still being experienced today…
Unlike having whole generations disappear in Africa because the Church doesn’t think the condoms help prevent the spread of AIDS…
Unlike… oh… these people just wear me out.
Lindoro Almaviva
October 23rd, 2009
and it is official, the religious right have embraced the ideas of the taliban
Burr
October 23rd, 2009
Ah yes, the ol’ “can’t treat gays like human beings because it pisses off the terrorists” argument.
I guess we’ll have our rights after we win the War or Terror?
In that case, shouldn’t we be stripping Jews of all their rights, too?
Oh and making Islam the state religion..
Who knew an Archbishop could be such a surrender monkey?
Candace
October 23rd, 2009
Yes, it’s better to blow up women and children in terrorist acts than to do The Gay.
Do you think Jesus throws up a little in his mouth when he hears this kind of crap?
Christopher Waldrop
October 23rd, 2009
Burr, you beat me to it. I’ve always been baffled by the “providing equal rights to homosexuals just encourages Muslim terrorists” argument because it’s used exclusively by people who hold on to the simplistic notion that there is a “war on terror”. I find this remark particularly enlightening, though:
So the Archdiocese refuses to condone the method even if he agrees with the principles. I still have trouble finding any comfort in that.
Eric N
October 23rd, 2009
“The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the CULTURE OF DEATH. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they REPRESS SUCH BEHAVIOR BY DEATH.”
So domestic partnerships between two people who desire to make a commitment to one another is representative of “self absorption” and a “culture of death” while actual “death” (ie execution of innocent people for simply being different) is neither? Wow.
Lynn David
October 23rd, 2009
It’s somewhat less LaBarbera of the Archdiocese of Agana (Guam) and more Westboro Baptist.
On another note, how could one – even other American Christian – convince Ugandan Christians of the error of their ways as concerns the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, when a Roman Catholic Diocese produces such a vile, evil document as this.
And it is evil. The church has for too long defined homosexuality as a psychological problem, as narcissistic and only associated with sexual gratification for the one. They don’t get it, don’t attempt to understand, and they never will choose to do so.
KZ
October 23rd, 2009
This is one of the DUMBEST and most insulting things that I’ve ever read. Would someone please do the Arch-idiot a favor and advise him not to issue any more statements… …EVER?
EDDIE JR.
October 24th, 2009
It was 9-11 that drove me from religion,and it’s comments like those of the arch-bishop, that make me believe I did the right thing.
Timothy (TRiG)
October 30th, 2009
Someone tell Peter Tatchell he doesn’t value self-sacrifice.
TRiG.
ravenbiker
November 3rd, 2009
This is the most outrageous thing I ever had to read and know about! To think a man of Christ is saying that fundementalists who kill are actually preserving life! I am in total outrage!!
Leave A Comment