Box Turtle Bulletin

NOM’s rally in wackadoodle St. Cloud church proves uneventful

Today the National Organization for Marriage held a rally at Granite City Baptist Church in St. Cloud. This is the same church which paid for an ad in a local paper claiming that The Moslems were a threat to America and were trying to “take control” by “supporting the gay agenda.”

According to the Trial Tracker (thanks guys for being the most reliable source of info about NOM’s Tour of Mostly-Empty City Plazas (and church lawns)):

Today, 73 NOM supporters gathered on a lawn in front of Granite City Church.

There is no report as to whether The Moslems tried to infiltrate the rally, but one NOM supporter made an unintentional statement when they brought their rainbow umbrella.

A handful of protesters stayed on the sidewalk about 250 feet away to maintain a presence, but the main equality event was across town in a park by the university where 89 folks showed up to support marriage for all.

Phyllis told me a community organizer, Justin Michael, spoke to the crowd largely composed of students from St. Cloud State University, the second largest in the state (the rally is being held in Barden Park, next to the University). There’s a lesson here: St. Cloud is part of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s district, a virulent opponent of equality (and many other progressive issues). But this goes to show again that even in the reddest bastions of homophobia, we can find the future in younger supporters of equality like the students from St. Cloud State. We cannot write off areas of the country that may seem more conservative by their representation or character.

The “reddest bastions” comment refers to the fact that St. Cloud is represented by Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman obsessed with opposing civil equality for gay people (on religious grounds). Here are just a couple of her doozies:

If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.

and

It’s part of Satan I think to say that this is “gay.” It’s anything but gay.

The speakers today seemed to be the same formula: Brian Brown, Catholic Priest, local “family” activist, Baptist Pastor, black person. However Michele Bachmann was not among the speakers on the church lawn. I’m not sure about Satan.

UPDATE: NOM’s Louis Marinelli has blogged about the St. Cloud event. The man is truly delusional.

Like I mentioned, we had at least two hundred attendees today and the best part is that they were an active crowd. You could sense that they were engaged and excited to be there and I know that when they left our rally today they were going to go home and spread the word.

At least two hundred? I guess that doubling the crowd hasn’t been impressive so now NOM is just taking the actual turnout and multiplying by three. Here’s the accompanying photo that Louis provides of the audience.
There are 61 people in this photo, including children.

As for the protesters, there were enough to count on one hand and they stayed closer to the street, held and few signs and kept to themselves. They weren’t an issue.

Yup, because the bulk of theme (outnumbering NOM’s crowd) were across town, in my opinion a wise move.

Although Bachmann didn’t make an appearance, State Representative Steve Gottwalt (District 15A) did show up. Still no word on either Bishop Battle or Satan.

Anne Rice: “I Quit Being A Christian”

Anne Rice, the New Orleans novelist who single-handedly made vampires cool again, was raised as a Roman Catholic. But like most cultural Catholics, the church wasn’t something that she took seriously. That changed in 2004 following surgery for a life-threatening intestinal blockage, when she announced that she would henceforth “write only for the Lord.” She embraced her Catholic roots and published her next novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which was intended to be the start of a series chronicling the life of Jesus. Her next novel, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, came out in 2008.

But her embrace of Catholicism was of a personal and spiritual nature, and as is not unusual among Catholics, didn’t extend to social issues:

Her views will not please all of the devout. Rice favors gay marriage. She believes the church position regarding birth control is a grievous error that is not supported by Scripture. She repudiates what she sees as intolerant, “sex-obsessed” church leaders, and says she does not find support in the message of Jesus for their focus on sexual orientation or abortion. She argues for a more inclusive church.

“Think of how the church bells would ring and the pews would fill if women could become priests and priests could marry. It would be the great resurgence of the Catholic Church in this country.”

But Rice was ultimately unable to reconcile her belief in Christ on the one hand, with the actions of fellow Christians and how those actions have stained the Christian “brand” on the other. She appears to have hinted at this with this post on her facebook page which appeared on Tuesday:

Gandhi famously said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” When does a word (Christian)become unusable? When does it become so burdened with history and horror that it cannot be evoked without destructive controversy?

She answered her question yesterday morning, when she posted this to her facebook page:

For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

She then followed that a couple minutes later with this:

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

She followed those posts with two more quotations from the Book of Matthew posted on her facebook page as part of an ongoing set of discussions. So it appears that she hasn’t quit Jesus, just his followers on earth.

Family Research Council: Military at Greater Risk of HIV if DADT is Repealed

The Family Research Council released a podcast featuring the American Family Association’s Dr. Robert LaButta, a retired U.S. Army Col., who warned that repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would lead to rampant HIV, STDs, and psychological disorders in the military:

Homosexuals are identified by the U.S. government as a cohort at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS. At the National HIV Prevention Conference in August 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that AIDS is 50 times more common in men who have sex with men (homosexuals and bisexuals) than in other populations. HIV is already a threat to military readiness–although HIV-positive recruits are excluded from the military, those who become HIV-positive while serving cannot be discharged, but they also cannot be deployed overseas. However, this is far from the only health risk to homosexuals.

One of the nation’s leading AIDS researchers, Ronald Stall, has declared, “It may be a fallacy to say that HIV is the dominant, most dangerous and most damaging epidemic among gay men in the United States today. There are at least four other epidemics occurring among gay men that are intertwining and making each other worse. This is called a syndemic.” The “four other epidemics” are “substance abuse, partner violence, depression and childhood sexual abuse.”

According to our estimates, the prevalence of HIV is probably below 10% of the total LGBT population. (Those estimates however are fought with unknowable variables, so caution is advised whenever anyone attempts to estimate HIV prevelance in the LGBT population.) All people entering the military are tested for HIV, and all military personnel are retested at periodic intervals.

[Hat tip: Karen Ocamb at LGBT POV]

Scott Lively on the Daily Show

Jason Jones caught up with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively on last night’s The Daily Show. Believe me, you so have to watch this:

 
 
I loved watching Lively’s facial expressions as he understood how completely crazy he sounded at times. I wonder at what point did he realized that this was not your typical deferential documentary?

Scott Lively is co-author of The Pink Swastika, now in its fourth edition, in which he claims that Nazism and fascism were, at its core, a gay movement, and that in any country where LGBT equality becomes a reality, violent and murderous fascism would be the inevitable result. Last June, Lively warned that if “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were repealed, the U.S. military would be taken over by modern-day Nazis. In March of 2009, Lively was one of three American anti-gay activists who put on a conference in Kampala, Uganda, which laid the groundwork for the introduction of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He told that audience that murderous gay men were likely responsible for the 1994 Rwandan massacre.

Choi and GetEqual protest something again

Lt. Choi and other GetEqual activist were arrested for photographed protesting in the Capitol Rotunda. (SDGLN)

A group of GetEqual protesters have closed down the Capitol Rotunda, specifically targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the lack of progress on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

The didn’t meet with Pelosi. They didn’t get any mainstream media. They didn’t accomplish anything discernible.

But someone paid attention to them and took pictures. Choi even tweeted about himself.

Success!!

NOM’s driver Louis is back with another blog

Louis Marinelli is back with a new blogsite, and it’s as bizarre as the first. This time he’s making a big deal over someone who wrote “bullsh!t” on the ground with chalk (foul language!) and absolutely obsessed about how the Trial Trackers didn’t want him taking pictures of their press passes.

You know, from reading his stuff earlier, I pictured Marinelli as being a crotchety senior – the kind that rants about “kids these days.” But he’s actually a young guy.

Weird!

It’s like he’s in some strange time bubble where people don’t use “foul language” or show the middle finger. I’ll admit to thinking “kids these days” some times, but even I know that we don’t live in Leave it to Beaver world.

Va-va-va-va-Victims! (send money)

Brian Brown has struck up the orchestra and started in on his song and dance routine. You know the one.

(hands on chest) Oh woe is me, I’m so bullied, so abused.
(arms outstreched) Oh can’t you see how badly I’ve been used?
(hands up to God) I treat those vile maggots with love and with care.
(hands clutched) And just cuz I want to take away their rights, they say that I’m not fair.
Really. Me!! It’s truuuuuue.

(all together on the chorus)
Send money.
Send money.
You know that they’re evil, so full of sin
and if you don’t send me cash, then they’re gunna win!
So send money, more mu-uh-ney.
Cuz if you send money I can keep my job.

His latest letter out to his supporters is, frankly, disgusting. But if follows the pattern that the National Organization for Marriage has used since Brian became its face:

* Claim to be a victim
* Use offensive language to demonize gay folk
* Claim gay folk are intolerant
* Lie about his support (double the crowd)
* Use more demeaning and offensive language to demean gay folk
* Suggest that gay folk are all in a conspiracy
* Beg for money
(disclaimer – the money you send to support this event will be used for other purposes)

Brown’s best over-the-top – and least honest – paragraphs are:

I thought I had heard and seen it all, but the radicals reached a new low yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin. NOM and its supporters gathered peacefully in Madison to pray for marriage and to stand in support of marriage remaining a sacred union between men and women.

We were honored to have Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison address the crowd. Bishop Morlino spoke of the need to love one another even as we disagree on the issue of same-sex marriage. Yet when he led the crowd in the Lord’s Prayer, the gay marriage radicals screamed and booed him.

I’ve now watched two videos of that segment of the rally – both the unedited and NOM’s edited version – and the truth is that the counter protesters closest to the rally didn’t scream and those who were further away and couldn’t hear what was going on chanted “hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia’s got to go.”

Personally, as readers know, I prefer the silent treatment. It is effective in making our presence known without giving them video. And most know that I consider myself a Christian. But guess what: I am not obligated to honor or respect the prayers of those who are calling out on God to miraculouosly take away my rights. Those are not holy prayers or worthy of respect.

Entire fundraising letter after the break

Read the rest of this entry »

NOM supports Fiorina campaign to Latinos

American Principles in Action, a obscure far-right organization that seems obsessed with opposing civil equality for gay people, has created a project they’ve called Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. They can be best described as hard-core conservative on all issues except immigration – sort of the Latino GOProud, if you will.

Their goal is to convince Latino Californians to vote Republican, focusing solely on (non-immigration related) social issues and, in particular, to drum up votes for Carly Fiorina. (From their press release)

The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, a national organization of conservative Hispanics, today launched a $1 million campaign in support of California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles. Fiorina is running against Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer.

why?

“Carly Fiorina, like the majority of Latinos, believes in the right-to-life, traditional marriage and in hard work and entrepreneurship,” stated Aguilar.

And who is a part?

The Latino Partnership for Conservative principles “Tus Valores” campaign is supported by the Susan B. Anthony List, a network of 280,000 Americans in all fifty states dedicated to mobilizing, advancing and representing pro-life women in politics, and by the National Organization for Marriage, a non-profit organization with a mission to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.

I assume “supported by” includes financial support, but that isn’t clear.

UPDATE:

GoodAsYou is reporting that this group is even more closely tied to NOM:

This Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles coalition is an outreach of the American Principles Project, and this Fiorina effort is the work of APP’s action arm, American Principles in Action. Robert George is the founder of APP/APIA. The same Robert George who — wait for it, wait for it — CO-FOUNDED NOM! So essentially we have NOM signing on as one of two sponsors (the Susan B. Anthony List being the other) of a pro-Fiorina effort that was setup by their own founding chairman and current prominent spokesperson!

NOM gets best turnout in St. Paul, larger crowd counterprotests

Today the National Organization for Marriage got the largest turnout to date for their Tour of Mostly-Empty City Plazas. Yes the plaza in St. Paul, Minnesota, was still mostly empty, and counter-protesters outnumbered them, but the crowd was not as embarrassingly small as it has been at most stops.

From Trial Tracker

In the largest NOM turnout to date, I hand-counted 163 NOM supporters before I stopped to file this blog post.

Despite this, NOM supporters were still outnumbered by supporters of equality. A hand-count total of 217 equality supporters showed up to outnumber NOM supporters. The largest contingent of equality supporters stood behind the NOM rally before marching up the steps and inside the State House for a rally. 33 equality supporters have stayed behind, silently holding signs and rainbow flags.

In St. Paul the marriage supports did not chant or otherwise disrupt NOM’s message.

UPDATE: More in from Courage Campaign:

At the conclusion of the equality event, activists went back outside, lined the NOM rally in a semi-circle and turned their backs to the speakers in a silent counter-protest.

Outside, Brian Brown was giddy and despite his insistence otherwise, even his speakers are becoming more fringe.

“America is becoming a nation of bastards,” one NOM speaker stated from the podium to applause from the crowd. “You can dress a pig in a tuxedo, but it’s still a pig,” he continued.

NOM in St. Paul: a disturbing perversion of Christianity

The National Organization for Marriage presented its usual speakers in St. Cloud, Minnesota today. But it also presented someone who made the most peculiar and disturbing speech we’ve yet observed on their tour.

First, let me say that it is appropriate that religious moral teaching – along with other codes of ethics – deal with appropriate sexuality. Violation, abuse of trust, maturity, fidelity and even abstinence are all issues about which people of faith may and should determine ideals and personal goals.

It is not peculiar or inappropriate for Christianity – or any other belief system – to establish rules of self-comportment which preclude using others sexually and which encourage abstinence before commitment and fidelity afterword. But lately I’ve seen faith leaders who go far beyond ethical sexuality and who have gone so far as to spiritualize and even deify heterosexuality.

Take, for example, this report by NOM’s blogsite (perhaps Maggie Gallagher) of a speech by Father Mike Becker, the rector of St. John Vianney Semi­nary in St. Paul:

Father Mike Becker, from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told supporters today that from a spiritual perspective, “Marital intimacy is a prayer,” relaying the account of a woman who told him that she believed there were angels in the room rejoicing when her child was conceived.

That is, to me, shocking coming from a Christian minister.

The idea of “intimacy” as an offering to a deity is not a new one. Fertility cults, wherein deities are honored by sacred acts of f*cking, were at one time a dominant religious experience on the planet. Sexuality is a powerful force and linked as it is with procreation and rebirth and the cycles of the seasons, it was almost inevitable that it would become a focal point of worship.

But not for Christians. The Protestant long Judeo-Christian heritage is one of rejection of “sacred sex.” Indeed, most scholars agree that the Levitical sexual restrictions exist in a part due to the sex worship of neighboring Canaanites. And New Testament Christians set themselves apart from the collection of Roman deities with their temple prostitutes.

To say that “marital intimacy is a prayer” is not only heretical, but a very disturbing perversion of Christianity, as I know it to be. And to conjure up images of invisible demi-gods hovering about watching you have sex is not only exhibitionistic, but hearkens back to Samhain fires and Astarte temples. While these may have an appropriate place in the religious lore of others, they are certainly not a part of Protestant Christianity.

I am troubled that many of those who oppose civil equality for gay people do so not limit themselves to matters of sexual ethics. Rather, for a while some have been demonstrating an obsession with sex that borders on the deification of heterosexuality. But this is by far the most extreme that I’ve seen.

UPDATE: More from Courage Campaign:

We also met with Father Michael Becker, a Catholic priest whose main argument against homosexuality was centered around the practice of anal and oral sex. According to Father Becker, anal and oral sex lack dignity because they abuse their partners as instrumentalities of pleasure for non-procreative potential.

He said it, not me.

NJ Library Removes LGBT Book, Calling It “Child Pornography”

The public library system for Burlington County, New Jersey, has ordered that all copies of Amy Sonnie’s Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology, which the library director labeled as “child pornography,” be removed from library shelves.

Library director Gail Sweet ordered the book’s removal without having followed a formal book challenge process. Instead, she acted on an informal complaint from a member of the local chapter of Fox News commentator Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project. Emails (PDF: 11 pages/296 KB) obtained by American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey show that the complaint was made by Project member Beverly Marinelli, who is also credited with persuading Rancocas Valley Regional High School to ban the same book in May.

The book, which Marinelli describes as “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate,” is a collection of essays by LGBT youth describing their struggles with coming out to themselves and their families. According to a description on Amazon.com:

While the work is wildly diverse (one of my favorites involves a mother who bakes a cake to help her queer daughter celebrate Ellen DeGeneres’s coming-out), all of it speaks to the isolation and fear of being queer and young. A boy lies awake at night practicing to be more masculine. An intersexed gay boy comes out to his high school. A butch girl tells of years of daily bashing. Fear, though, is not the overriding emotional tone to this collection. The contributors exhibit a belief in themselves, a well-placed youthful confidence that speaks as loudly as the most poignant writing. Their determination to survive and thrive despite a homophobic society comes through loud and clear. It’s the perfect antidote to adult cynicism about youth.

The School Library Journal reports that the Burlington County Library System has a formal process for removing books from the library:

BCLS’s formal process for handling controversial materials, as found in documents obtained by the ACLU, states that patrons must fill out a Request for Reconsideration form, and then a “committee of staff selectors as designated by the Library Director will review the material in question.”

…In the case of BCLS’s removal of Revolutionary Voices, an informal, rather than formal written request appears to have been made. In addition, Sweet’s email indicates that the committee was made up of her and one other person. Assistant director Margaret Delaney confirmed that she is the “Marge” mentioned in Sweet’s email as also recommending the book’s removal, but she’s not allowed to talk about the situation.

A key player in circumventing the formal process appears to be Patrick Delany, a member of the library commission. He has also been identified by the National Coalition Against Censorship as being a member of the same local 9.12 group as Beverly Marinelli, the woman who lodged the informal complaint.

That informal complaint from Marinelli apparently went first to Delany. According to a letter dated March 16 (PDF: 480 KB/5 pages) from library Director Sweet to Marinelli, Sweet wrote that “Library Commissioner Patrick Delany indicated at our meeting this morning that you have contacted him with concerns about several books we have in the library system.” Sweet also provided Marinelli with a copy of the Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials form and information on the formal process for requesting the removal of library material.

But it appears that the formal process was never followed. According to the emails obtained by the ACLU, Sweet wrote to Marinelli on April 27 that:

The Library Commissioners supported our staff recommendation to remove “Revolutionary Voices” from our shelves. As the copies that are checked out return, we will take them out of circulation.

On May 3, Sweet ordered that the the remaining copies should “totally disappear”:

We need to pull “Revolutionary Voices” by Amy Sonnie from our shelves. There are still two requests. How can we grab the books so that they never, ever get back into ccirculation. [sic] Copies need to totally disappear (as in not a good idea to send copies to the book sale) .

A later email dated May 24 from Sweet to a branch librarian clarified that the commission “supported our decision,” but “[t]here was no official challenge, no actual vote by the commissioners.” When the same branch librarian asked why the book was being removed, Sweet responded on May 25 with a two-word email: “Child pornography.”

Delany is also a committee member of the Lumberton Township Council in Burlington County. In the May 4 minutes (PDF: 4 pages/32 KB), Delany and another official planned to meet with officials from Rancocas Valley Regional High School that same evening. The purpose of Delany’s attendance at that meeting isn’t stated, but May 4 also happens to coincide with the school board’s decision (PDF: 160 KB/19 pages) to remove Revolutionary Voices from the school library by a unanimous vote (with one abstention).  Two weeks later, the Township government approved an appropriation for the high school’s 2010-2011 budget (PDF: 36KB/5 pages). All of this was concurrent with the public library’s removal of Revolutionary Voices. Messages obtained by the ACLU from the school district (PDF: 164 KB/3 pages) indicate that “the 9-12 group will eventually visit every HS in [the] county.”

Beverly Marinelli, it turns out, had also served as a Lumberton Township Committeewoman from 2005 to 2008, while Delany was the township’s mayor. Delany endorsed Marinelli during the 2005 election. Marinelli has also been active in the tea party movement.

UPDATE:

[Timothy:] An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer provides the motivation for Marinelli’s request:

The path to the book’s ban at Rancocas Valley began last year when Beverly Marinelli, a widely known activist in Lumberton who joined 9.12 last year, was poking around online and found a list of books recommended by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

“We decided to see if these books were here, and, lo and behold, they were,” Marinelli said. “There’s stuff that’s appropriate for children and stuff that’s not. People wish to distract from the real issue by going into the 9.12 thing.”

It would appear that Marinelli’s objections lie entirely in her anti-gay prejudice.

Servicemembers ignore DADT survey

Those opposed to lifting the ban on gay men and women serving in the military like to couch their objections in terms of protecting the servicemembers. We must listen to them and hear their concerns!

Well, it looks like not very many of them have any concerns that they want to share. In fact, nearly three weeks after the Military requested the opinions of 400,000 active and reserve troops, 90% of them haven’t gotten around to responding. (US Army)

A total of 200,000 active servicemembers and another 200,000 in the Reserve and National Guard were e-mailed July 7 with a link to an online questionnaire about possible impacts of repealing the law that bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

So far, only about 40,000 of those randomly selected have completed the survey instrument, Smith said. Respondents have until Aug. 15 to complete the questionnaire.

The Department of Defense is encouraging the officers soldiers to go ahead and take 30 minutes and answer the survey.

“It’s important for them to return the survey so we understand possible impacts associated by repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law,” said DoD spokesperson Cynthia Smith. She added that officials need to know how the repeal would impact unit cohesion, military readiness, recruiting, retention and family readiness.

It seems to me that they already have an answer from the vast majority of military personnel, and that answer is “not much at all.”

O’Reilly says Obama should just sign an executive order to end DADT

With Jay Leno on the Tonight Show:

“Look, it’s just not fair.”

NOM’s Tour of Mostly-Empty City Plazas finds one in Madison WI that is overflowing… with counter-protesters

Madison, the state capital of Wisconsin and a college town, has a long tradition of progressive activism. A very liberal island within a slightly more conservative state, in 2006 when Wisconsin voted in a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, 76% of Madison voters voted against. So surely the National Organization for Marriage had to know that Madison would not lend itself to media images of a strong show of support for their cause.

But I doubt that they predicted this (Tour Tracker):

That’s a hand-counted crowd of 466 pro-equality supporters, my friends. Four hundred and sixty-six. Easily the biggest crowd yet!

NOM’s side? Arisha counts 54.

That isn’t going to look encouraging for NOM’s “traditional marriage” supporters on the evening news.

Unlike at previous stops, NOM has not yet posted any pictures from today’s event. The pictures coming in from the equality side appear to be upbeat and positive.

UPDATE: This was what NOM dreamed to see coming up the street… they just assumed it would be supporters.

UPDATE TWO: The Courage Campaign has a video up of the counter protest coming down the street. If you had any question about the validity of the count, you have to check out this video. It takes nearly four minutes for the crowd to walk by.

In a pathetic attempt to spin their comparatively minuscule turn-out, Maggie Gallagher has a new theory as to why they were outnumbered eight to one (a little fact they fail to mention in their “recap”).

A number of people came up after the rally, telling us that the Madison cops (God bless ’em), in their zeal to keep the counter-protestors out, were preventing them from joining NOM’s rally.

Meanwhile NOM’s pictures are the usual pics of the speakers, but not the crowd, accompanied by their oh-so-impressive zingers.

UPDATE THREE:

In reviewing a tape of the rally, I heard Bishop Morlino clarify NOM’s definition of marriage: “One husband, one wife, one lifetime, with openness to children.” Translation: ban divorce and contraception. You don’t always see these visible in their propaganda, but if you look closely you see a pattern appear.

Let’s never forget that those who lead the charge to take away our civil freedoms don’t see us as the end game. We are but one step in their desire to impose the doctrines of their faith on all people.

On Thursday, NOM will be touring Crazyville

On Thursday, the National Organization for Marriage will be holding a Summer for Marriage rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. However, unlike most stops, this time they will be at a church, the Granite City Baptist Church. (Chicago Tribune)

Granite City Baptist Church Pastor Dennis Campbell tells WJON radio that the organization contacted him about bringing the rally to St. Cloud and he agreed to host because it has a message he supports.

Campbell is an interesting fellow. And the messages that he supports are unique. For example, back in March, probably about the time that NOM was putting together their tour, Campbell took out an ad in the St. Cloud Times to answer the question, Does the Islamic Religion Represent a Threat to America?

Christians are being driven from their homes, murdered, and enslaved in Islamic nations according to William J. Murray, Chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition. Islam is extending its influence over Europe and the United States. Statistics claim there are 9 million, but with illegal immigrants, it is probably closer to 15 million, according to a missionary that grew up in Central Asia. He said Uzbekistan, where he grew up, was 88% Islam. It is projected that in 30 years there will be 50 million Moslems in the USA.

How do Moslems seek to take control of a nation? Moslems seek to influence a nation by immigration, reproduction, education, the government, illegal drugs, and by supporting the gay agenda.

Oh yes, folks, gays are tools of the “Moslems” who seek to overthrow America and force everyone to be Moslems. And when NOM’s Big Bus of Animus pulls up at Granite City Baptist, not only will it be protecting America from gay people, but from Moslems as well.

And Campbell not only knows these amazing things, but he is passing them on to the next generation. At the Granite City Baptist Academy, they teach that secular “students are being brainwashed into a contemporary blend of all religions through classroom myths, rituals, symbols, and multicultural experiences” and that

Secular textbooks are inappropriate for Christian children. Secular publishers are more concerned about being politically correct than historically and scientifically accurate. Publishers are pressured to portray feminists, homosexuals, and Muslims in a positive light.

What a bunch of wackadoodles; NOM should feel right at home. Though, perhaps Maggie Gallagher shouldn’t mention her Hindu husband while she’s in St. Cloud. I doubt Pastor Dennis is all that fond of Hindus either.