Scouts' gay ban offensive to some religions

We keep hearing that the "religious right" is offended by the idea of the Boy Scouts removing their ban on gay members and leaders. Today, Frank Bruni tells the other side of the story in a column at the NYT.

“From my faith perspective, singling people out for exclusion from the life of the church or the life of the community cannot possibly be part of God’s plan,” Ward [a Scout leader and elder in his Presbyterian church] told me on the phone recently.

He added, “If you look at the people Jesus tended to be most suspicious of, they were people who sat in positions of authority to say that they had the unique ability to judge others.” 

It's an interesting take on the situation. And it's a viewpoint we never read about in the news. Short version of Bruni's column: some religions are not obsessively focused on hating gay people. And since the Scouts’ bylaws "require equal treatment of every religion’s teachings", something is very wrong here.

GOP wingnuts adopt the pope's words

As readers of this blog surely know, the popeyguy emeritus, when he was pope, referred to gays as "intrinsically disordered". Surprise, surprise. American wingnuts have taken up the phrase. We are officially "disordered".

Good to know. But then, there is no real distinction between the Vatican and the GOP. They are one.

Interesting choice

There's an interesting AP article this morning about the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Go read it. He's a strange mix of things. I'll give one small excerpt:

In 2007 he was appointed dean of Liverpool Cathedral, Britain's largest church. He caused a bit of controversy there by allowing the tune of John Lennon's "Imagine" to be played on the cathedral bells. 

He also approves the ordination of women and says his notions about gays are "evolving". (I think he cribbed that line.)

Good news on the election front

I'm glad Obama was re-elected. But only because he was the lesser of two evils. The drone-killer incumbent beat the onrushing emperor of greed. Whoopee, sorta.

But of course the other election results were uplifting. Women, gays, pot and health were all winners. I'm very happy for Elizabeth Warren. Beating her male-model opponent was huge. Tammy Baldwin is another major win. And dog bless Claire McCaskill. I won't list all the uplifting wins. It's enough to say that the good guys won and the bad guys lost (with the exception of that damned idiot, Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of ugliness). Back to the good stuff: Gay marriage won a popular vote! First time ever. And hey, pot is legal in Washington state. That's going to help to turn the tide nationally. The time for viewing marijuana through a clouded rightwing lens is over.

And let's admit there's great joy when pondering some of the losses. Linda McMahon can suit up and hit the wrestling mats this morning. She's a free woman (with a lot less money). It's also gratifying to see Allen West lose his election. Sanity won out! And in a way, it's fun that Michelle Bachmann was re-elected. She's comedy gold and after all, it's only the House of Representatives. Everyone sees the House as a freak show these days. It's where she belongs.

I went to bed at 11 last night, figuring the results would still be there when I woke up. When I got up this morning, I reached for my iPad and asked Siri who won the election. She had no clue. She can tell me the score in the Giants game in a split second, but this question threw her. She asked me if I wanted her to look for an answer to that question on Google. I said no, I want you to answer it. She then asked if I wanted to look up "I want you to answer it" on the web. Oy.

But my computer revealed the truth and it was a sight to behold. As I say, Obama? Meh. But everything else was fabulous. Even the Macaca guy, George Allen, lost his election. There is a god. (Just kidding.) So how are the rest of you feeling about the election this morning? Are you watching Fox News to suck up the Schadenfreude? Mmmmmm. Smells good.

PS: And a huge middle finger to the Roman Catholic church, the greatest loser in this election. How'd all those illegal political entreaties from the pulpit go for ya? Not too good, huh? You and your evil minions, like NOM, look like cesspools this morning. How's that feel? Oh, and is the pope a little dyspeptic this morning? Good!

Popey guy spouts more nonsense

Vatican (oops) GOP panel.

You learn something new every day. Here's the lede for a popey guy story in the Times:

Vatican City (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI has called on infertile couples to shun artificial procreation, saying such methods are a form of arrogance.

Are you roaring with laughter yet? Arrogance? This, from the prime agent of human arrogance. They really have no sense of irony. The story goes on:

Benedict spoke Saturday at the end of a 3-day Vatican conference on diagnosing and treating infertility. Reiterating Vatican teaching, he called marriage the only permissible place to conceive children.

Two things here are funny. First, the very fact that the all-male vatican loons held a conference on infertility. It's just like the recent Republican panel on contraceptives: a bunch of pinhead men focusing on matters that concern women. It's rich.

The other thing is this idea of referring to marriage as "the only permissible place" to conceive children. Now, I had no idea marriage was a place. I really didn't. Now everything makes perfect sense! They don't want gays to marry and have children in this place that is marriage. On account of, you know, it'll get crowded there. I really, really didn't know that marriage was like a city or a country club. Silly me. I thought it was a simple, straightforward arrangement between two like-minded people.

Thank dog we have the popey guy to clear stuff like this up for us. Thanks, popey guy!

Lordy, would you look at this

I posted the other day about an insane column that appeared in the Archdiocese of Boston's official newspaper, The Pilot. In it, David Avila said Satan was responsible for the existence of gay people. It was an attempt to push the idea that god didn't create gays, because, you know, that'd be a mistake. So naturally, the devil did it.

It was so embarrassingly off the wall that they're gonna take it back! Here's an excerpt from the linked article: