SANTA MUERTE: Part of the global economy worship a goddess of death and treasure

Santa Muerte

¨Goddess of those who smuggle drugs and people, and goddess of the whole international economy. She doesn't care what's traded, shares, shoes, oil, real estate, guns, grain, drugs, plutonium, or people, just so long as there's a profit. Our demand for smoke, blow, cheap labor, big profit margins, and easy wins creates a lot of brutality and suffering around the world. Such a global economy worships a goddess of death and treasure.¨

Thanks to Counterlights Peculiars, sidebar
Thanks to Doug, HERE

MY HERO! Vice President Joe Biden´s Grand Slam!

Joe Biden, Vice President of The United States of America

Last night I watched the Vice Presidential debate on CNN International. Last night I clearly recognized that Congressman Paul Ryan is playing a game of political pretend.   He pretends he's a knowledgeable leader and friend of the middle class.  Unfortunately, for Mr. Ryan, he can no longer be considered a serious contender for Vice President of the United States because of his inability to be truthful, although the man seemed well prepared, he wasn't honorable, as he twisted and turned real facts into weapons constructed to support self-serving lies.  The man is a disgrace to his Nation and Political Party.  Thankfully, the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, captured the debate opportunity and exposed the bigtalking opportunist for what he is:  A selfish, grandstanding, instrument of big business (medical industry and oil) and pridefilled shallow hot-shot on the run...as I read this morning elsewhere, ¨Sarah Palin with no lipstick¨...simply another candidate as a Fox News loose cannon talk-show-filler for hire. 

Thank you Joe Biden.  Today  I will vote for you and President Obama by eballot from Central America and mail in my confirmation of doing so.  Four more years of wisdom is coming my way and you have continued to earn my trust and loyalty.  Thank you for all that you do (and sometimes for what you don't do).  Leonardo Ricardo

TRUTH and DECENCY:  Thank you Vice President Biden

VP Debate: Paul Ryan Lied 24 Times
HERE

THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF UGANDA: Lies, demonizing of Christians and ignorant, dangerous and loathsome pastoral behavior for the deceased continues!

¨No funerals for unserious Christians at the Anglican Church of Uganda¨

Archbishop-elect Stanley Ntagali

¨A Church in Gulu town has announced that it will no longer conduct funeral services for uncommitted Christians and those who are not known by the churches in their respective areas.

The Vicar for Christ Church, Godfrey Luwum, made the announcement during the service on Sunday. He said the decision was arrived at during a meeting of the top management of the Church of Uganda.

“Top leaders of the Church of Uganda have come to a decision that the Church will no longer hold funerals or send-off prayers for unserious Christians. These are people who never attend church services and do not generally participate in church-related activities,” Luwum said.

However, the Archbishop- elect of the Church of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali said: “That is not true, it is not the position of the Church. Maybe, it is a statement from an individual.” (click here for an example of the ongoing lies of the Anglican Church of Uganda HERE)
Luwum said the decision follows several disturbing incidences where funeral services have been conducted believing the deceased were followers of Jesus Christ, only to discover they practised witchcraft.
 
He added that in future, before a funeral service is conducted, the family will have to prove that the person was a committed Christian attached to a particular Anglican Church.

Luwum said that families of those who lived outside the region or abroad would be asked to produce a letter of introduction from their churches...¨ there is more, HERE

Thanks to Three Rivers Epsicopal, sidebar
Thanks to New Vision, Uganda

Stop the promoting of ignorance, fear and hate at The Anglican Church of Uganda

A PASTORS CHALLENGE: ¨I assumed my attraction to men was only physical and that periodic encounters with men had been a kind of addiction, but not related to who I really was.¨

¨It was 1983 and I was about to graduate from a Christian college. I was terrified of the future because of my big, scary, dark secret. Finally, with a mixture of fear and shame, I scheduled an appointment with the school’s director of counseling. I told him my secret: I was attracted to other guys. I also told him that more than anything, I wanted to be free from those desires and live a normal life. He assured me that such change was possible, but would probably take about a year of therapy. Since I was due to graduate, I was referred to a Christian counselor in the city where I would soon begin seminary.

The new counselor, a sincere man with an MSW degree, also affirmed that change was possible. We began a counseling relationship lasting one year. “I’ve never met a homosexually-attracted man who had a good relationship with his father,” he told me. “Hmmm,” I thought, “my Dad and I have always been pretty close.” I told him so, and the counselor began a process of deconstructing my relationship with my father. He explained that my inability to bond with my father resulted in a quest to repair that relationship through bonding with other men. He was the expert and I was desperate, so I believed him. Thus began a journey toward becoming ‘normal’ that lasted nearly twenty years.

My story is similar to many others I've heard. A childhood centered in church and family. A growing awareness that I was attracted to guys, not girls, coupled with systems of massive denial. My identity was centered in being a good boy, an obedient son, a committed Christian. Inner nudges toward ministry set me on a path that included a Christian college and seminary - places where being gay was just not an option. I couldn't imagine a life that didn't include a wife, children, and the respect of others for being a Christian role model.

Being a pastor and practicing spiritual disciplines did nothing to diminish the power of my innate sexuality. I eventually got married to a remarkable woman, hoping the Christian counselors were correct that it would be a sign of my 'healing.' No doubt a very bad decision, though I'm deeply grateful for the two wonderful children who came out of our marriage.

In 2001 the unthinkable happened. On the day after my 40th birthday, I met a man with whom I experienced an overpowering emotional connection. Until then I assumed my attraction to men was only physical and that periodic encounters with men had been a kind of addiction, but not related to who I really was. A very brief 'fling' with this man ended when he challenged me to be completely honest with myself. A gay, Jewish agnostic man demonstrated greater integrity than this married Christian pastor, and his words began what ultimately resulted in my coming out...¨  please read Ricks story, HERE

Thanks to Ex-Gay Narratives, sidebar
Thanks to ¨Rick¨

CONSEQUENCES/DISCIPLINARY ACTION: Employee of a bus company in Singapore used gay slur on a female passenger!

Singapore: Bus driver to face disciplinary action for gay slur

by Sylvia Tan

In a first of its kind case to be reported, an employee of a bus company in Singapore will face disciplinary action after using a gay slur on a female passenger in public.

SBS Transit has confirmed that it will take disciplinary action against its driver for verbally abusing a passenger.
 

Leona Lo, a public relations consultant and transgender woman, reported being called an “ah kua” by a SBS Transit bus driver at the Bedok Temporary Interchange on Tuesday morning. The derogatory term in the Hokkien dialect is commonly used to taunt effeminate men or transgender women...more, HERE

 Thanks to Fridae Asia, sidebar
 Thanks to Sylvia Tan

EQUALITY:  Erasing hate from our lives.

 

14 YEARS LATER - REMEMBERING MATTHEW SHEPARD: The young college student had been viciously attacked and bludgeoned, and then tied to a fence and left to die. Matthew was targeted because he was gay¨

Matthew Shepard, member of The Episcopal Church

On October 7, 1998

¨Aaron Kreifels was riding his bike through a field in Wyoming.
He wasn’t expecting that day to be different from any other beautiful sunny afternoon in the vast plains surrounding Laramie, but that day would change many lives.
Aaron spotted what he initially thought was a scarecrow next to a fence. Then he noticed a glisten of blood. The sun sparkled on what he barely recognized as a face.
Aaron had discovered 22 year-old Matthew Shepard, clinging to life.

The young college student had been viciously attacked and bludgeoned, and then tied to a fence and left to die. Matthew was targeted because he was gay.
Most of you know what happened next. Matthew held on for five more days and as his parents held his hand and prayed — Matthew slipped away quietly on October 12th, leaving in his wake a new movement for equality.

The outcries for justice and for greater protections were immediate and resonating.
Since then, Matthew’s mother Judy has made it her personal mission to protect all young LGBT people from Matthew’s horrific fate. In founding the Matthew Shepard Foundation, she has created safe spaces in and outside of schools for kids, and worked with parents to ensure their children learn to erase hate from their lives...¨  please read it all, HERE

Thanks to LGBTQ Nation, sidebar
Thanks to President Barack Obama

Equality:  Erasing hate from our lives

DON'T SUBJECT YOURSELF TO A WARPED VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY!

FLEE TOXIC CHURCHES AND CLERGY

The following article was written a couple of years ago, and I'd like to reprint it here:

¨As I've often written, many clergy within the institutional Church preach and teach the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion and thereby do immeasurable harm to the emotional and spiritual lives of those who allow themselves to be exposed to that kind of toxic religion.
The only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor); faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances); love; peace; reconciliation; inclusiveness. Any other gospel is a false gospel!

If you allow yourself to be subjected to preaching and/or teaching other than the Gospel of Christ (the "Good News" that all of our sins have been forgiven by the Sacrifice of Christ), flee those churches, or other such venues, as fast as your legs can carry you!

Moreover, if you take seriously the rhetoric of those who claim to speak for God and for the Bible, and who teach and preach a false gospel, you are not only being subjected to a warped version of Christianity that is really not "Christianity," but you are making decisions about your spiritual and emotional life that are based on lies and perversions of: the grace of God; the teachings, ministry, and Sacrifice of Jesus; the Bible; Christianity itself...there is more http://christianglbtrights.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Getty Images
Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker 

ROMNEY IS BEING FITTED: ¨I SWEAR TO TELL THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH¨ (for the next debate)

When Holy Mormon Underwear is not enough protection from telling naked lies.

Hello, human diary. It is I again, Mitt Romney, your better.

¨These commoners continue to confound me. Of all the things my campaign has focused on over the last few months, now it is firing a large television bird that is gaining the most attention? I have already clearly explained to them that we will need to fire that bird in order to pay for the required tax cuts for job creators, by which I mean myself. If we do not fire large swaths of people, we will not be able to create jobs, and the number of people who will need jobs will be much greater after we have fired them all so it make sense to fire as many of them as possible in order to create those jobs.

Wealthy Americans have no use for improperly tall television birds. I have watched that show before, and found it boring, pedantic and entirely implausible. Why do these obviously lower class residents not simply eat the large bird? Why are unidentifiable creatures allowed to live in garbage cans—is there no law enforcement at all, in America? And C should not be for Cookie. C should be for Capitalism, or perhaps for Credit Default Swaps. At the least we ought to be teaching these irritatingly perky little urchins about proper wealth management techniques.

My apologies, Mr. Diary, I am just reminded of how misguided these commoner units are. In better news, my post-debate experiment in forgoing all sleep continues. So far everything seems to be going smoothly.¨ HERE

· Thanks to The Dialy Kos, sidebar
· Thanks to Superficial, photo

DISHEARTENING, DISGUSTING, GRANDSTANDING and SLICK DRIVEL: The Mitt Romney’s Circus of First Debate Lies

“Mitt Romney’s Circus of Lies,” and a fact-check page .

Leonardo Ricardo says: I think the polls will narrow and Romney (with his slick drivel) will advance slightly because of his speedy *shell-game* showmanship. 

The first debate illustrated clearly, at least to me, the difference between our responsible/thinking, steady-as-he-goes President Obama and a socio-pathiclike opportunist candidate Romney on the run. 

Romney turned my stomach with lies, grandstanding and simpering attempts to portray good-will and ¨godliness¨ by repeatedly mentioning *our creator* as if he knew God´s will personally (implying Obama didn´t). Mitt is seriously damaged goods and illustrates a very scary prospect for any elected official requiring personal, public and national accountablity. 

Mitt Romney *portrays* a good character, but it´s clear by his actions and thoughts that he doesn´t *have* good character. Mitt Romney is not presidential material and not representative of our best and basic nature and our wholesome attempts to ¨love thy neighbor¨ as United States citizens...all of our neighbors with equality.


American Bridge says: “consider these a resource to help make sure that Mitt Romney doesn’t get away with saying things that aren’t true” HERE

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE and HASTE MAKES WASTE: ¨Anglican church deadlocked over new leader¨

¨A Church of England panel meeting in secret to choose the next Archbishop of Canterbury has failed to reach agreement on who should be the new leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, a newspaper reported on Sunday...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Three Rivers Episcopal, sidebar
·  Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar
·  Thanks to Preludium, sidebar
·  Thanks to Reuters