Pride Week!!! Hate-crime hypocrisy

A strong city doesn't accept intolerance;

neither, then, should a strong and free press...

alas...

In response to Pula Davis' July 13, 2011 OUR VIEW:

Mayor should make a strong statement against hate
'Strong city' doesn't accept intolerance



spydra wrote at 2:02 AM on July 14, 2011
_________________________________

Pula sure comes across as a lopsided hypocrite; case in point:

"I have allowed several users and ‘pastor’ to bicker back and forth
for several months now. Recently it has gotten to the point that
those conversations are dominating the comments area. Take this
offline or your users will be blocked from participation. I have
had several complaints from other users." -Pula

"Why was I the only one mention in your comment and the only one
that is being blocked?" -Pastor

"You are NOT the only one. There are others. I noticed no change
from any of the users so I have taken the appropriate action. These
personal conversations have got to cease. That is not the purpose
of the comments area." -Pula

"Well then what must I do to get reinstated?" -Pastor

"There is no process to get reinstated. When a user is blocked for
violation of our standards, they are simply blocked from
participating. Please stop peppering me with emails." -Pula

* * * * * * * *

Pastor's Christian perception & commentary content often cause many
a feeling of unease, who then vindictively highlight and needlessly
correct his spelling errors. But whether or not you agree with him,
has not Pastor been a rule-abiding, enduring, active participant and  
noteworthy contributor to these comment pages?

Pula asserts that "ours is an inclusive community that will not
tolerate despicable crimes against any group or individual."

Well, then, I ask the following questions, not just of Pula, but of
us all: is Pastor's banishment justified? If so, how and why? Why is
Pula - a representative of our nation's free press - denying Pastor
his right to free speech?

I don't care if I'm the only one to advocate for him publicly, or
if my words here lead to my own banishment; Pula's decision is
entirely unwarranted..a humiliating and public muzzling meant to
punish Pastor for his offensive strength of conviction..and I pray
for its reversal.

Censored

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:17:25 -0600 Mark Barna wrote:


>Hi Spydra,
>
>I appreciate your interest in The Pulpit, but in recent weeks you
>have been making personal attacks on other Pulpit bloggers. I have
>received complaints about you from other posters and felt action
>had to be taken.
>
>You mention Richard B. as a colleague of yours. As you many know,
>Richard B. has the same email address as ManitouMon and
>TruthForce, both of whom were banned by our comments editor. He
>cannot post on Gazette.com, so he's chosen to post on The Pulpit
>blog.
>
>If you can refrain from attacking others and remember the Golden
>Rule, you will be allowed to post on The Pulpit.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Mark Barna
>Gazette Religion Reporter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: spydra@hush.com
To: wayne.laugesen@gazette.com, jeff.thomas@gazette.com, mark.barna@gazette.com
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:14:36 -0600

Mark,

I already wrote you once personally in response to the Chagoya
article you posted, expressing my sadness and outright grief with
regard to the anti-Christian sentiments you persistently foment and
encourage on your blog; your only response was to begin deleting my
comments in retaliation. With all due respect, please show me what
I wrote prior to your Chagoya article that you perceived as an
impermissable attack.

I did not indicate Richard B. as a "colleague"; I did, however,
notice that his complaints about the number of gay stories you post
were similarly taken down. His sentiments echoed mine, and were
not inflammatory in any way - certainly not nearly as inflammatory
as those you permit against Christianity. As such, I felt and
expressed a sense of kinship with him. I do not follow the soap
operas of the people who comment on your blog, and know nothing
else about Richard B., the others you mentioned below, or any of
the others who comment on your blog.

Mark, I recognized you at the demonstration James Tucker
coordinated in protest of "Journey", the boat made out of black
people that sat in front of the county courthouse for a year; I was
standing right beside him as you interviewed him. I'd always
wanted to meet you, believing that if only I could share a word
with you in person, it might help bridge the enormous divide that
exists between you and I...and so when you were finished, I
approached you.

"Aren't you Mark Barna," I asked. "Yes," you said with a smirk
before walking away dismissively...and I will never forget the
amused lack of empathy that was evident in your entire demeanor.
When the Gazette finally ran its equally unsympathetic story about
the sculpture's eventual removal, the vitriolic anti-black comments
were so toxic they made me weep.

When this newspaper was still called the Gazette Telegraph, it was
my teacher; I learned to read and write while gazing at the words
printed thereon. This paper taught me about freedom of speech and
freedom of the press; forty years later, I cannot believe what the
Gazette permits when it comes to insulting blacks and Christians
and Doug Bruce and conservatives, and what it protects and censors
when it comes to liberals and homosexuality.

Believe me when I tell you that I have refrained, tempered my
words, and held myself back; if anyone complained about something
I've said, it's because they couldn't think of a clever enough
retort. It would seem that some people can dish it out, but can't
take it, and I've been unfairly silenced for nothing more than
speaking my mind.

Certainly, Mark, I'll follow the Golden Rule - that's the one where
people are to do unto others as they would have others do unto
them, right? But will you do the same?

- spydra

Gay Suicide and God

I have occasionally shared with you some intensely personal, private and intimate details of my life...but out of love -- not merely to be shocking.  I have written in detail about my struggles with depression and suicidal thinking, as well as about how I came to find God.  My faith helped me recover from alcoholism, depression and being a woman of loose morals...and my life, my marriage and my family have only benefitted. 

This recent rash of suicides by young gay people is a tragedy of epic proportions...one made even sadder with the blame that's been placed upon Christianity for these deaths.  There is NO evidence that religion of any kind had anything to do with the deaths of those young people. 

I've held myself back from writing too much about my faith because my faith is my business; I've held myself back from writing too much about my sexuality because it's my business...and frankly, a little extreme.  I've held myself back from writing too much about homosexuality because I REALLY DON'T CARE TO KNOW ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S SEXUALITY; indeed, PLEASE KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.   

I absolutely resent the blame that has been placed upon Christianity for these tragedies, as well as the Gazette's Mark Barna's revolting and relentless muckraking on this topic.  His column "The Pulpit"  -- which purports to be about religious and spiritual matters in Colorado Springs -- would be more accurately titled "The Gay Pagan." His daily diatribe in support of homosexuality and against Christianity is nothing more than inflammatory and offensive indoctrination.  And while he allows like-minded readers to spew vitriol against religion and Christianity unrestrained, he deletes comments from defenders of the faith...claiming he's being "attacked."  What a wimp; one would think that his strident, militant pro-homosexual stance would have helped him grow a thicker skin by now.

The gay community spreads plenty of hate and inspires plenty of confusion.  I posted the article below once before, and dedicate it to Mark, in hopes he might learn a thing or two; hateful though it may be, it was composed by a top writer...whereas Barna is most assuredly at the bottom.

* * * * * * * *

Michael Swift: "Gay Revolutionary"
from Gay Community News, Feb. 15-21, 1987
(reprinted from The Congressional Record, with preface restored)

---

In 1987, Michael Swift was asked to contribute an editorial piece to GCN, an important gay community magazine, although well to the left of most American gay and lesbian opinion. A decade later this text, printed in the Congressional Record is repeatedly cited, apparently verbatim, by the religious right as evidence of the "Gay Agenda". The video Gay Rights, Special Rights, put out by Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition cites it with ominous music and picture of children. But when the religious rights cites this text, they always omit, as does the Congressional record, the vital first line, which sets the context for the piece. In other words, every other version of this found on the net is part of the radical right's great lie about gay people. For a discussion of the whole "Gay vs. Religious Right" phenomenon see Chris Bull and John Gallagher: Perfect Enemies: The Religious Right, the Gay Movement, and the Politics of the 1990s, (New York: Crown, 1996)
________________

This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor.

We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.

Women, you cry for freedom. You say you are no longer satisfied with men; they make you unhappy. We, connoisseurs of the masculine face, the masculine physique, shall take your men from you then. We will amuse them; we will instruct them; we will embrace them when they weep. Women, you say you wish to live with each other instead of with men. Then go and be with each other. We shall give your men pleasures they have never known because we are foremost men too, and only one man knows how to truly please another man; only one man can understand the depth and feeling, the mind and body of another man.

All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. Instead, legislation shall be passed which engenders love between men.

All homosexuals must stand together as brothers; we must be united artistically, philosophically, socially, politically and financially. We will triumph only when we present a common face to the vicious heterosexual enemy.

If you dare to cry faggot, fairy, queer, at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts and defile your dead, puny bodies.

We shall write poems of the love between men; we shall stage plays in which man openly caresses man; we shall make films about the love between heroic men which will replace the cheap, superficial, sentimental, insipid, juvenile, heterosexual infatuations presently dominating your cinema screens. We shall sculpt statues of beautiful young men, of bold athletes which will be placed in your parks, your squares, your plazas. The museums of the world will be filled only with paintings of graceful, naked lads.

Our writers and artists will make love between men fashionable and de rigueur, and we will succeed because we are adept at setting styles. We will eliminate heterosexual liaisons through usage of the devices of wit and ridicule, devices which we are skilled in employing.

We will unmask the powerful homosexuals who masquerade as heterosexuals. You will be shocked and frightened when you find that your presidents and their sons, your industrialists, your senators,your mayors, your generals, your athletes, your film stars, your television personalities, your civic leaders, your priests are not the safe, familiar, bourgeois, heterosexual figures you assumed them to be. We are everywhere; we have infiltrated your ranks. Be careful when you speak of homosexuals because we are always among you; we may be sitting across the desk from you; we may be sleeping in the same bed with you.

There will be no compromises. We are not middle-class weaklings. Highly intelligent, we are the natural aristocrats of the human race, and steely-minded aristocrats never settle for less. Those who oppose us will be exiled.

We shall raise vast private armies, as Mishima did, to defeat you. We shall conquer the world because warriors inspired by and banded together by homosexual love and honor are invincible as were the ancient Greek soldiers.

The family unit-spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence--will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated. Perfect boys will be conceived and grown in the genetic laboratory. They will be bonded together in communal setting, under the control and instruction of homosexual savants.

All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men. We adhere to a cult of beauty, moral and esthetic. All that is ugly and vulgar and banal will be annihilated. Since we are alienated from middle-class heterosexual conventions, we are free to live our lives according to the dictates of the pure imagination. For us too much is not enough.

The exquisite society to emerge will be governed by an elite comprised of gay poets. One of the major requirements for a position of power in the new society of homoeroticism will be indulgence in the Greek passion. Any man contaminated with heterosexual lust will be automatically barred from a position of influence. All males who insist on remaining stupidly heterosexual will be tried in homosexual courts of justice and will become invisible men.

"We shall rewrite history, history filled and debased with your heterosexual lies and distortions. We shall portray the homosexuality of the great leaders and thinkers who have shaped the world. We will demonstrate that homosexuality and intelligence and imagination are inextricably linked, and that homosexuality is a requirement for true nobility, true beauty in a man.

"We shall be victorious because we are fueled with the ferocious bitterness of the oppressed who have been forced to play seemingly bit parts in your dumb, heterosexual shows throughout the ages. We too are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of the ultimate revolution.

Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks.