Every June Albany's Pride parade turns the corner of Lark and Madison streets, a couple of minutes' walk from my house. The southwest corner where a gas station stands is the parade's "free speech zone," where a small group of Christian protesters show up every year to denounce the marchers. These protesters aren't quite on the "God Hates Fags" level, but they come pretty close in their uncompromising condemnation of homosexuality. Their free speech zone is actually pretty close to the action, and puts them within yelling range of the majority of gay and pro-gay spectators across the street, who often cross over to taunt the Christianists in a form of counting coup. I've seen the same scenes for years, but now that I've belatedly joined the 21st century I can record what I saw today and share it with you.
My normal approach to Lark and Madison takes me to the corner where the protesters were, so the first clip shows them from behind, already engaged with counter-hecklers.
Here's another representative outburst of fire and brimstone.
Finally, here's a montage of scenes from the actual parade as one of the protesters chats with a traffic cop and the occasional Pridester crosses the street for a ritual challenge.
Scenes like these help explain why so many people still regard Christianists as the main enemy of our time. They're the ones who get in people's face, albeit at a judicious distance, with threats of damnation. It's worth remembering, however, that however hateful these threats sound, they are only threats -- if only because those making the threats are vastly outnumbered on days like these. Annoying as it may look or sound, this is what democracy of a sort looks like.
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9 comments:
The bible may condemn homosexuality, but it also condemns gluttony. I see at least a couple of real sinners in that "christian" group. I put quotes around the word because the founder of the religion made it clear that none of his followers have any right/privilege/authority to judge other people. Which means none of those hecklers are, in truth, followers of Jesus or his teachings.
Bear in mind, too, Sammy, that not all Christians are fire & brimstone types. Jesus taught us to show respect & love to our fellow man. Take for example the one fellow who has "Jesus Saves Sinners!" emblazoned on the back of his shirt, paraphrasing a passage from the Apostle Paul's 1st letter to Timothy. If we approach our LGBT brothers & sisters with kindness and not hatred, they may be more receptive to a Christian message than you can imagine.
Hobby, that's why I try to make a habit of using the word "Christianist" to distinguish people like the Albany hecklers who feel entitled to judge others and presumably would like to see the state enforce their judgments. As for your own advice, the question is how receptive LGBTs ever can be if the Christian message, however kind, is "stop being what you are."
Considering that, currently, it seems that the LGBTLKSJHENDIRKDH!#$*#*%^ movement seems to be full of hate themselves - towards men, towards 'straights', towards whites; not to mention they insist (as they did in Canada) into attempting to force through legislation that would make thought crime a real thing. As I've turned my back on the left, so too have I turned my back on all subgroups of the left who feel free to demonize me for being 1) male, 2) white, 3) intelligent and 4) atheist. Makes me want to ship them all over to a muslim country and let them receive a first hand education on how muslims feel about homosexuals and other 'gender confused' idiots.
And I guess all those hateful people got up in the morning, got together and said, "Hey, those straight white males look harmless enough, they never bother anybody, so let's pick on them!" I admit, though, that there's more than enough demonization of individuals superficially identified with groups to go around. Who doesn't do it?
Depends on whether the group being demonized acts in a reprehensible manner towards the rest of us. As an example, since 9/11/01, over 32,000 people have been slaughtered by muslims claiming a religious justification for their acts of barbarism. In the first 19 days of Ramadan this year alone, over 1,000 people have died at the hands of muslims. So whether you choose to demonize muslims, you can't help but demonize their religion. After all, if there were no muslims in the West, there would be no muslim terrorists killing Westerners. And if liberalism hadn't politically castrated most of Europe, they'd be fighting back against the hordes.
Of course, lots of people find the stereotypical straight white male and the western civ he supposedly embodies reprehensible for any number of reasons. So is your complaint that it's unfair for people to hold you, a straight white male, responsible for a perceived history of straight white male oppression, or is it that you think they have nothing to complain about?
"Of course, lots of people find the stereotypical straight white male and the western civ he supposedly embodies..." Of course, they have no problem, whatsoever, in enjoying the modern technology created by the people they hate so much.
In answer to your question, no fucking country/culture/people on this planet can claim any innocence from committing foul deeds against others; of exploiting others; of enslaving others. So for them to demonize Western culture and white males in particular is, at best, hypocrisy. There are things being done in Somalia, by BLACK men who are also MUSLIMS that makes anything done by 'whitey' look like a game of charades. Perhaps these idiots should be rounded up and dropped off there.
Make no mistake, there is a war brewing in this country and there will be allowed no fence straddlers. Everyone will be 'assigned' a side, whether they like it or not. The hatred that has been allowed to fester here between the left and right is about equal to that between the north and the south of 160 years ago. This time it won't merely be about secession, but for which culture, ultimately, will dominate this country and the West in general.
I see nothing at all, these days, to be gained by siding with people who dislike me for merely being born white and male - especially since, if I were to show those same leanings, but replace 'white' with any other 'color', I'd be labeled a racist and if I were to show those same leanings, but replace 'male' with 'feminist' or 'gender confused', I'd be labeled a 'misogynist' and/or 'homophobe'.
Hobby:
I won't sit here and quote bible verse at you, but the fact is, in the four gospels - the words actually attributed to the founder of christianity - there is NOTHING about homosexuality. Apparently, Jesus didn't give a damn. He does, however, personally preach against greed and, particularly, against the wealthy. Add to that that, ensconced within the bible, there are far more sins mentioned than homosexuality, such as gluttony, lust, etc. And given the physical condition of every 'christian' in that video, every single one of them is guilty of many of those sins. Considering that Jesus himself told his disciples that not a single one of them had any authority or was in no position to judge another human being, and that makes every 'christian' in that video a hypocrite. I will leave you with this quote from Matthew 7:5: "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. "
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