Apr 30, 2014

ATTN ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN WELBY, DESPOTIC POLITICAL LEADERS and THOSE WHO DEMONIZE OTHERS AT CHURCH: ¨The common enemy today, defined as the ‘Western corruption' are LGBTQ people and ‘gay rights’



'Homophobia is part of a wider xenophobia which is cultivated by these ‘governments’. Most of these countries are ruled by despots. Xenophobia is essential to the maintenance of the status quo. Isolationism facilitates the need to keep the populace ignorant and resistant to outside influences. With knowledge comes power, and people power is inversely proportional to dictator power. So, certain people and ideas are deemed to be alien to the culture; indeed, to be a threat to the culture. Lies, fear, suspicion are fostered. No one questions what exactly the ‘culture’ of the country is that is under threat. It is sufficient for a common enemy to be identified.

Primarily that enemy is defined as ‘Western corruption’. This is appealing because the richer countries of the West do indeed have a sorry history of exploiting the developing world and riding roughshod over traditions and rights. Thus, even the more educated sections of the population can quite readily be attuned to categorising everything Western as somehow corrupt and threatening their welfare. It is essential to the despotic government that the population reject any advancement of their knowledge and understanding of the world. So, the Western threat is condemned as absolutely corrupt, to be resisted at all costs. It is a calculated move to prevent change, progress, awareness and everything that threatens the leaders’ hold on power. In countries where there are ingrained frictions, tribal, sects, class, historical disputes, past genocides, pogroms, etc it is important for dictators to identify a common enemy to unite the factions. This is true of countries on the African continent, North Korea, Putin’s Russia.


The common enemy today, defined as the ‘Western corruption' are LGBTQ people and ‘gay rights’. They fulfil the criteria perfectly: individuals that can be identified and discriminated against with impunity. They do not belong to any particular group or party, they are have no legal protections, and the general population is encouraged to unite against this insidious common foe. An easy target. So we are witnessing the same forces at work that produced the holocaust in Germany. Except this century, on the African continent, Russia and elsewhere, the victims are LGBTQ people. This is not primarily a religious problem, but it is exacerbated by the fact that religious groups especially Christian ones, could actually make a positive difference for good if they stood up for the teachings they claim to hold sacrosanct. Christians are condemned by both their active complicity in the new Holocaust and by their silence in the face of such gross cruelty and inhumanity.'


THANKS TO ERIKA BAKER
THANKS TO THINKING ANGLICANS
THANKS TO ANONYMOUS AUTHOR OF THE ABOVE

Apr 27, 2014

JAPANESE FIRST LADY AKIE ABE JOINS GAY PRIDE 2014 PARADE IN TOKYO



TOKYO — Thousands gathered in Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya business and shopping district for LGBT“I want to help build a society where anyone can conduct happy, enriched lives without facing discrimination,” she wrote. “I had the pleasure of spending fun time filled with smiles. Thank you.”Akie Abe, 51, known for her liberal inclinations, wrote on herFacebook page later that she has been involved in the issue since joining a commission set up by UNAIDS and the Lancet medical journal last year, reports AFP.
Unlike traditional Japanese first ladies, Akie Abe has projected a cheerful confidence, freely speaking her mind and making remarks that often resonate with the modern public.
The Prime Minister did not join her at the event, and instead spent the day visiting victims of the 2011 tsunami.
Check out more photos of Tokyo Pride, courtesy of Getty Images:

Apr 25, 2014

ATTENTION JUSTIN WELBY, ACCOMPLICE to POGROMS in AFRICA and ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Get thy grandstanding butt to UGANDA and help RESCUE LGBTI ANGLICANS/others from bloody murder!


Another  feckless coward at the Anglican Communion:  Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

THE POGROM IS REAL: Persecution of Uganda’s Gays Intensifies as Rights Groups Go Underground


KAMPALA, Apr 23 2014 (IPS) - As she sits in a Kampala hotel holding a mobile phone that rings frequently, Sandra Ntebi tells IPS: “I’m really exhausted. I don’t know where to start. We have many cases pending.” Ntebi manages a hotline and is helping Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community find alternative, safe accommodation after they have faced harassment.
“Right now, some people have been thrown out of their homes, some are in jail. Every day there are cases.”
It’s nearly 4.30pm on Tuesday, Apr. 22, just over two months since Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed a draconian anti-gay bill that further criminalises homosexuality in this East African nation...¨  

read it all, read about the real consequences of the persecution of LGBT citizens in Uganda, thanks to the ANGLICAN CHURCH in Uganda and other religiouslike THUGS in robes and mitres:

Thanks to Erika Baker
Thanks to Inter Press Service, Africa
Thanks to Amy Fallon
Thanks to Sandra Ntebi


ARCHBISHOP Stanley Ntagali, Anglican Church of Uganda, Opportunist, bigot and demonizer of lgbti human beings!
NO THANKS TO THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN UGANDA
NO THANKS TO ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN WELBY
NO THANKS TO GAFCON and GLOBAL SOUTH BIGOTS
NO THANKS TO PERSECUTION AND LEGALIZED/ENDORSED OUTCASTING and MURDER OF GAY PEOPLE, OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS!

More on ¨His Grace¨ the Archbishop of Canterbury:
http://leonardoricardosanto.blogspot.com/2014/04/attention-justin-welby-arcchbishop-of.html

Apr 18, 2014

NYC ARTIST DOUG BLANCHARD: ¨Doug Blanchard's haunting contemporary paintings of the Passion of Christ are an emotional reminder of the courage it takes to resist the powers that be...


¨Artist Doug Blanchard's series of 24 paintings depicting Jesus as a contemporary gay man in a modern city add a realistic backdrop to the emotional drama of the story. His work reimagines the dramatic events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.

A book to be released later this year, The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision, includes Blanchard's paintings and text by Kittredge Cherry. The complete set of paintings will be exhibited as they are released daily to celebrate Holy Week on the blogJesusInLove.blogspot.com. You can also learn more about the author and the painter there, as well as find information on purchasing prints and other products.
Below and on the following pages are a selection of Blanchard's retelling of the Easter story.
Thanks to the Advocate, sidebar
Thanks to Christopher Harrity
Thanks to Doug Blanchard, sidebar

Apr 13, 2014

PRAYERS ASCENDING: Three people were shot and killed after a gunman opened-fire at the Jewish Community Center and Village Shalom

El Maleh Rachamim is the actual Jewish prayer for the dead, although less well known than the Mourner's Kaddish.

God, filled with mercy, dwelling in the heavens' heights, bring proper rest beneath the wings of your Shechinah, amid the ranks of the holy and the pure, illuminating like the brilliance of the skies the souls of our beloved and our blameless who went to their eternal place of rest. May You who are the source of mercy shelter them beneath Your wings eternally, and bind their souls among the living, that they may rest in peace. And let us say: Amen.

Apr 10, 2014

ATTENTION JUSTIN WELBY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Being loathed and made into an outcast is NOT addictive!


The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, just gave another one of his shallow/beige speeches. This one in  Oklahoma City. I watched the ¨live streaming¨ from here in Central America...he thinks violence is addictive...cute, apparently he hasn't been on the receiving end enough (unless he is a masochist and likes that sort of thing).



Being loathed  and made to be an outcast is NOT addictive. Being misled, at church/beyond is not addictive. Being LGBTI Anglican/Episcopalian ignored, like a pest or insect not yet dead, is not addictive. HOWEVER, being the authentic person that God created one to be IS addictive. Addictive in the way that God wants me, and I think people like me, to be.  Honest. true and front-and-forward and building in/on life.


Being RESPONSIBLE, personally responsible, includes being real, telling the truth and not indulging in a glib world of PRETENDING *things* are different than they are (and apparently NOT worth mentioning during the current anti-gay, legal social purge/massacres in Africa/beyond). 



The ABC is silly, casual and shallow regarding VIOLENCE.  Especially careless when not mentioning those who daily generate hate with NEWLY legalized, African Anglican Church endorsed, pogroms against LGBTI Anglicans in Africa. Those in African/beyond taking pot/gun shots, exploitating, slandering, demeaning, violating=violence/marginalizing others are clearly addicted  to hate...for those religiouslike grandstanders now have nowhere to hide from their very own fear/hate that they initiate at Church. This spiritualy ILL behavior toward our fellows must be addressed..Justin Welby, are you there?   

The LET'S BLAME and slander the gay game is UP! You know what you do...and it is YOU  who refuses to address the reality of  anti-LGBTI violence, OF TODAY, at The Anglican Communion...codependency is lethal at church or anywhere else (for everyone, eventually).

Justin Welby, ABC, may have stood next to piles of rape/other vicitms with his wife as  he reported today. BUT I believe he needs to spend the rest of his term as ABC visiting hospitals, attack sites, hate-crime-victim-graves, helpcenters, answer suicide hotlines, raise funds for the Trever Project.  ++Justin can live with the rehab programs of LGBTI Christians/others and/or simply OPEN a LGBTI counseling/center/office/half-way house  (you can intern with Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo), in downtown Kampala, Uganda. 

++Justin, please STAY in Nigeria and Uganda until you fully understand the depth of the grave atrocities being committed against ALL of humanity and at the ANGLICAN COMMUNION!!  You, ++Justin, speak withouth knowing the REAL, and lifetimes worth/History of Horrors http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2005/10/history-of-horrors.html  and depth of injury that violence has caused against LGBTI Anglicans.  You ought learn much much more before speaking out against violence and addictive hating. You are part of the problem, speak up like a man instead of one of the Global South  big shot criminals you encourage at Church.

You, Justin Welby, are dangerous to the physical well-being and general spiritual/emotional wellness of Gay people, our families, our best friends and everyday work associates.  You make OUR lives more difficult and dangerous with your lofty and empty pontificating about reconciliation.  I believe you to be a pretentious religiouslike overly insulated coward, prove me wrong (or resign).

Leonardo Ricardo
Leonard Clark Beardsley
Sacatepequez, Guatemala

Thanks to the Episcopal Church diocese of Oklahoma, live streaming
Thanks to Stop the World, archive
Thanks to Father Jake, History of Horrors

Apr 5, 2014

RESIGN! LAMENTABLE NAIVETE, HOMOPHOBIA and COLONIAL THINKING - ¨Archbishop of Canterbury chooses pathetic over prophetic¨

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury
¨Archbishop of Canterbury chooses pathetic over prophetic¨
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-susan-russell/archbishop-of-canterbury-_b_5093293.html
 
The Rt. Reverend  Marc Andrus, the Episcopal bishop of California 
A word on the Archbishop of Canterbury's statements
¨ The Archbishop of Canterbury has made public statements that reveal at best a lamentable naiveté and at worst both homophobia and colonial thinking. Archbishop Justin Welby has claimed that the Church of England, if it marries gay and lesbian people there is responsible for the deaths of homosexuals in Africa.
The archbishop was shown the mass grave of Christians from a village in Africa, killed, he was told because their neighbors did not want to become gay by association with people whose religion supported rights for LGBT people. It is clear that the archbishop was shocked by the brutality behind this mass murder, and the very scale of the killing. I too am overwhelmed by it. In the face of tragedies larger than a human can take in, I think we often go to answers and solutions that we know, that are familiar. Here, I think the archbishop fell back on a solution that was already unjust, but familiar to him: retrench around marriage as only between a woman and a man. Don’t inflame violent people further.
Welby’s argument is parallel to saying that the segregation laws in the United States that obtained until the mid-60s and the disenfranchisement of women in the United States until the 20th Century should have both been continued if someone claimed that blacks and women in other countries would be endangered by moves towards greater justice here.
In a very simple world, with very few variables perhaps we could credit Archbishop Welby’s reasoning. If the only factor in the safety of African LGBT people was the maintenance of unjust laws in England and the United States, I hope we would all pause to absorb this and see what could be done about it. But our world is an exceedingly complex place and this simplistic logic of the Archbishop’s only privileges the colonial power position Great Britain once held with respect to her now-vanished empire – the Africans pay close attention to everything the center of the empire thinks and does.
Instead, Africa is a continent of countries, each with its own history apart from and intertwined with former European empire masters. Surely there are at least as many factors at work within Africa itself influencing the safety of LGBT people (and Christians in general, as Welby argues) that counterbalance whatever focus Africans may have on England.
The Archbishop could be helpfully involved in Africa on behalf of the safety of vulnerable LGBT people if he wished to be, in ways that did not continue the oppression of LGBT people in the United Kingdom. He could support the ministry of the retired bishop, Christopher Senyonjo in Uganda, a courageous and nearly lone voice in the religious leadership of that country. Archbishop Welby could speak clearly to the Churches in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria among others about their open support of legislation that criminalizes even the very being of LGBT people.
If I am right and empire thinking underlies the archbishop’s remarks, his proposed way forward – continue to oppress LGBT people in the UK – will fail to keep African’s safe for this reason: if Africa is watching the UK as closely as the Archbishop would have us all believe then they will not miss that the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion is on the side of continued second-class citizenship for LGBT people.
Twice in the hour-long phone-in program in which the archbishop made his remarks, Archbishop Welby used the modifier, incredibly to describe how the Church must attend to the witness of the LGBT community – listen incredibly carefully and be incredibly conscious. To remember a great line from The Princess Bride, I’m not sure the archbishop knows what incredible attentiveness means.
We should remember that the archbishop has made his views on same-gender marriage clear. In an address to the House of Lords he reiterated, as he did in the radio interview most recently that marriage is a sacred institution reserved for heterosexuals. In fact, in this most recent interview the Guardian wrote that the archbishop did not want LGBT people to be treated with any greater severity than adulterous heterosexuals are treated. The core idea here if anyone cares to look closely is that same-gender relationships are sinful.
Today, local media in the diocese I serve showed one of my priests, a partnered, gay man being led away by law enforcement officers for an act of civil disobedience on behalf of immigrants in danger of deportation. Such acts on the side of justice are, I’m happy to say, commonplace in this diocese, done all the time by gay and straight folks. Faithful, rather than sinful seems a better word to describe this priest and the many like him here.
Archbishop Welby asserts that marriage should be only between a man and a woman, and says that scripture supports his position. I would hope for a better reader of scripture in the spiritual head of our Church. Let me point to this coming Sunday’s Gospel, the Raising of Lazarus from the Dead, in the Gospel of John as a good place to look for guidance on the issue of the safety of Christians, both straight and LGBT in Africa and elsewhere.
Jesus is so deeply moved – by the death of his friend, by the oppression of his people, by the suffering of the world – that he risks everything to go to the cave where Lazarus is buried to raise him back to life. This courage and compassion should be my guide, and I suggest our guide as we identify with Christ, as Christians. There are other scripture passages that might point us to how to view the question of same-gender marriage; the Raising of Lazarus from the Dead gives us guidance on how we should act when we confront injustice, evil and sin.¨ 
+MHA
Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar
Thanks to The Episcopal diocese of California
Thanks to The Rt. Reverend Marc Andrus
Thanks to The Huffington Post, sidebar
Thanks to Susan Russell, All Saints, Pasadena

UPDATED:

¨When you encounter violence, you condemn it, Archbishop. When you encounter murder, you condemn it, Archbishop. When you encounter homophobia, you condemn it, Archbishop.

You don’t appease it, Justin Welby. You condemn it.¨

http://thurible.net/2014/04/05/condemn-archbishop/

JUSTIN WELBY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, RESIGN!