ATTN ARCHBISHOP DREXEL GOMEZ: ¨It is time the citizens of Jamaica clean up their act before getting on their moral high horse¨

Last year while activists were BOYCOTTING JAMAICA because of the chronic abusing and murdering of LGBT citizens, the Anglican Consultative Council knowingly ignored the BOYCOTT and met at Kingston. The ACC then attempted to get approved a draft Anglican Covenant which included the planned punishing/excluding of LGBT INCLUSIVE ANGLICAN PROVINCES at the Anglican Communion! They failed in this two faced religious hypocrisy that was enthusiastically driven by Bishop Drexel Gomez...not a word mentioned/preached or compassionately ¨listened to¨ in regard to the real life ¨Gay¨HATE CRIMES in JAMAICA that rank number one in the Western Hemisphere. ¨Troubled Island¨ HERE

The ACC delegates showed no recognition, no mercy, nor any basic interest/concern, for the abused, damned and murdered LGBT victims in Jamaica or anywhere else. Unthinkable acts of hate and bigotry were IGNORED by the many Bishops, Clergy and Laity. Ugly ¨plots¨for outcasting and demonization were ¨covered¨ with purposefilled holylike amnesia/pretend and desperate DENIAL. Delegates such as Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop John Sentamu, Lord of York had come to Jamaica from amongst the 30+ Provinces of worldwide Anglican Communion. One half of the visitors gathered had the intention of excluding LGBT Christians from full participation at all levels of Churchlife at The Body of Christ. These are some of the religious folks who would/do harm LGBT Anglicans at Church, in Politics and everyday life...some openly, some secretly, some for $$$, some ignorantly, some pompously but many with blind rage and personal resentments hidden deep down in fearfilled/selfrighteous hearts.

JAMAICAN FAMILY VALUES ON FULL DISPLAY


¨Last year, Truth Wins Out joined a small coalition of activists to boycott Jamaica because of the island’s rampant homophobia. During the campaign, I appeared on Jamaican talk radio shows where people called in and berated me for promoting immorality. The callers insisted that Jamaica a purified Christian nation with bedrock values and pristine morals. The indignant citizens claimed that it was gay rights activists, such as myself, who were corrupting the good citizens of Jamaica.¨

¨Family Values¨ super-enthusiast and anti-LGBT Anglican campaigner, Bishop Drexel Gomez, chair of the Anglican Covenant Design Group

¨This wonderful culture condemns homosexuality, yet its political leaders protect drug dealing gang leaders. Not just any gang leader, but one in charge of a lethal cartel, the Shower Posse, that American prosecutors say is accused of hundreds of drug-related killings in the United States in the 1980s.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Jamaica

My question is: Where are all those moralistic gay-hating Christians now? Like cowardly bullies, they attack defenseless LGBT people, often in mobs, to supposedly protect family values. But, they are MIA when it comes to standing up to drug gang violence – which truly affects their families. They elect a Prime Minister tied directly to this illegal operation, yet they want to preach against gay people? They want to portray themselves as a Christian nation?


While our official boycott has ended, I personally would not go to Jamaica and I still boycott their products. Not only is Jamaica a homophobic island, it is also filled with phony hypocrites who slander gays but tolerate — even celebrate — violent criminal behavior at the highest levels of government.¨ HERE

LGBT RIGHTS IN JAMAICA

¨Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Jamaica are dominated by the prohibition of sexual acts between men. Sexual acts between women are legal, by virtue of the absence of any reference to them in law. Sexual acts between men are punishable with up to ten years jail. Jamaica has been called by human-rights groups as the most homophobic place on earth.¨

Christian values were summed up by Christ in Matthew 22: 37-39,

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

¨Social leaders in Jamaica accuse international groups of meddling in domestic affairs. They defend laws against homosexuality as upholding Christian values.¨

POLITICAL PARTIES OF JAMAICA

¨...the Sunday Herald ran a front page headline "No homos!" in which then opposition leader and current Prime Minister of Jamaica Bruce Golding vowed that "homosexuals would find no solace in any cabinet formed by him". The statement was supported by several clergymen and a trade union leader. During the 2001 elections Golding's party used as its theme song "Chi Chi Man" by T.O.K., which celebrates the burning and killing of gay men.¨

VIOLENCE AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS

"Gay men and lesbian women have been beaten, cut, burned, raped and shot on account of their sexuality";and gays and lesbians constitute one of the "most marginalized and persecuted communities in Jamaica". Amnesty gave an example of a recent incident reported in a national newspaper, where a father encouraged a mob to beat up his son, who he suspected was gay, while he looked on smiling. No charges were laid.

While police do not compile statistics on attacks against homosexuals, J-FLAG, the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, report that they know of 30 gay men who have been murdered in Jamaica between 1997 and 2004.

The violence has prompted hundreds of LGBT Jamaicans to seek asylum in nations such as Great Britain, Canada and the United States, and several have been successful. In 2005, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Jamaica to repeal their sodomy laws and to actively combat widespread homophobia.¨ HERE

BISHOP DREXEL GOMEZ: FAITHFULLY IRRESPONSIBLE

Archbishop Drexel Gomez, not-retired-enough, of The Anglican Church of Jamaica/West Indies Province. Countries that make up the ¨West Indies¨ Anglican Province are the ONLY Nations in Latin America/Western Hemisphere where it is against the law to be a LGBT citizen. Currently Bishop Gomez is chairperson of ´The Anglican Covenant´ design group which he viciously helped author in order to castigate individual, self-governing, Anglican Provinces that allow LGBT Anglicans/Christians to participate at all levels of Churchlife...Gomez and his accomplices display ¨ignorance and mendacity¨ and cause ¨untold suffering.¨ HERE

BIGOTRY OR DEATH?

¨Perhaps the most striking thing about the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Jamaica is the deliberate fear mongering engaged in by men like Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Gregory Cameron, the deputy general secretary of the Anglican Communion. At one news conference after another they suggest that the Communion will rupture if the anti-gay measures embedded in the proposed Anglican Covenant and the report of the Windsor Continuation Group are not embraced and enforced. While they might dispute the characterization, the choice these religious leaders are putting before the Communion is a simple one: bigotry or death. Either the Communion embraces open-ended moratoria on the blessing of same-sex relationships and the consecration of gay bishops and a set of disciplinary procedures to punish wayward provinces and individual bishops or the sky falls..¨ HERE

ANGLICAN ARCHBISHOP DREXEL GOMEZ AND FELLOW ACCOMPLICES AND DEMONIZERS OF OTHER HUMAN BEINGS: GET OFF YOUR MORAL HIGH HORSE AND CLEAN UP YOUR OWN FILTHY THOUGHTS AND LESS-THAN-MORAL BEHAVIOR!

· Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar
· Thanks to Wayne Besen
· Thanks to Wikipedia
· Thanks to Flickr Photo Sharing
· Thanks to Jamaican Holy Safe House
· Thanks to The Sunshine Cathedral, Jamaica
· Thanks to Episcopal Cafe, sidebar
· Thanks to John B. Chilton
· Thanks to Box Turtle Bulletin, Blooddrenched Flag
· Thanks to The Guardian, U.K.
· Thanks to Gary Younge

TAKE ACTION AGAINST BIGOTRY, IGNORANCE, SPIRITUAL and SOCIAL ISOLATION: The ANGLICAN UN, United Nations, HUMAN RIGHTS Observer, Mrs Hellen Grace Wangusa from Uganda, has an office and staff provided by the Episcopal Church (USA) at the Church Center 815 Second Avenue, New York, 10017. The direct office line is (001) 212-716- 6263 and the email address unoffice@episcopalchurch.org


Lionel Deimel, Anglican HERO, click HERE,¨No Anglican Covenant¨

UPDATE: Dr Tony Fitchett - a member of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion - has told New Zealand's General Synod that Section 4.2 of the Covenant:

“ ... contains provisions that are punitive, controlling, and completely un-Anglican, and reflect the movement towards centralized, Curia-like control that was rejected by the Lambeth conference… over a century ago…” HERE