After an attack on a Michigan church by gay activists, questions arise about what tactics are too extreme in a good cause.
Where do we draw the line between activism and terrorism? Events this past Sunday in Lansing, Michigan brought this question to mind, as gay activists from the group BashBack! staged a protest at a church service which was deliberately designed to look and feel a lot like a terrorist attack.…
Article comments
76 - Doug Hunter
Donn,
Are you tired of being dominated by gays and their sponsors? Perhaps you've spent too much time fantasizing about gays shoving their sexuality down your throat. The internet has indeed opened new avenues for release, perhaps a bit more google searches on gays + domination is in order.
77 - Jet
Damn, now what did I do with my leather?
(:^p~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
78 - Al Barger
Blah, blah, blah. The Bible pretty clearly says that homosexuality is bad. Zing just substituting my name into the quote about setting arbitrary premises simply isn't true.
And Jet, the "judgment" here seems to be largely coming from YOU, other than my perfectly reasonable point that crashers defiling someone's peaceable church services need an ass kicking. I'm trying hard not to express disrespect to you, but frankly you're totally asking for it.
I saw nothing "noble" in the ACT UP nonsense, and I doubt that they actually had benefit. The government spends LOTS of money on all kinds of diseases, and started spending it on AIDS as it became a big problem. More likely, their childish tactics and stupid rhetoric ie blaming Reagan for AIDS most likely made the public LESS rather than more sympathetic to the problem for some time.
Besides the general fact that we'd spend money on such stuff anyway, the public sentiment was probably swayed FAR more by a few individuals like Ryan White who was an actual child - but acted like a well behaved young man, not an overgrown childish adult acting up.
And you can all quit with the clawing after accusations that anyone who doesn't just 100% buy your crap is ignorant and doesn't know the facts. I don't know a lot about this Bash Back group, except this story and the tactics described. They're acting up here in a manner similar to the ACT UP fools. That's all I'm saying there.
79 - zingzing
al, you've not really read that bible of yours have you? it may mention same sex relations, but what is it really condemning in those passages--if it condemns anything at all? i'm surprised people would put so much faith in a book without having actually studied the thing. does blind faith include just neglecting to read the thing? (and i didn't just substitute your name--did you forget to actually read that which you are commenting on again?)
all of this is really beside the point. it's not your place, al, to say who can fuck whom. you just keep your little nose out of it. it's also not your place to say who can have rights and who can't.
these people are justifiably angered by christianity's continuous bigotry towards them, so... which do you think is worse? making light of a church service, or continually denying rights to a group of people? bash back made a loud, ugly example. but if christianity is going to screw with homosexuals like this for this long, they might have expected someone to get angry. they can't be stupid enough to believe that it wasn't going to happen one day.
80 - Jet
There's the difference Al, you keep presenting your opinions as facts-and they're not no matter how much you've deluded yourself into thinking they were.
As for blaming Reagan, look how long he went before he'd even mention the word AIDS in public because he was afraid of offending his religious-right friends who called AIDS god's judgment on gays.
How many straight and gay people died because of that time lapse before Ronnie got off of his ass and made a half-assed effort to control it before it was too late?
81 - Jet
Zing, don't bother him while he's sacrificing an ox for his fifth wife's health. How rude
82 - get real
They didn't "attack" with guns and bombs or even flashbangs, they made a spectacle with glitter and words. There was nothing violent and can not be compared to terrorism. Non violent demonstration that religious folk have been doing for centuries as well I might add. Sometimes confrontation is the only way to get through to people that, though they can believe whatever they want, not everyone in the world agrees with them, nor should they. Gay marriage isn't about forcing churches to marry GLBT people in their halls, which is the fear the churches capitalize on and wrongly propogate. Hell, churches should worry more about the government forcing them to start paying taxes than offering same sex couples what amounts to a contract that includes the right to inherit their partner's property after death and make medical decisions and visitation in hospitals. I can go and get married in a dozen churches recognized by the gov't right now anyway, what does it matter to the goverment or the straight people down the street who I spend my time with?
All this "sanctity of marriage" crap sounds a little like special rights to me. If I said I want my own special little government institution just for me and other lesbians the GOP would have a field day.
The literal bible mentions something like gay men only four times (certainly not a loving relationship and nowhere does it mention woman and woman), but is lousy with whole sections condoning slavery and the subjugation of women and children. I know, how about if we put it up for a popular vote and if a majority agrees, we de-integrate the schools, disallow black and white folk from intermarrying, bring back slavery and let's take away women's votes too while we're at it. Is that a return to the "morality" of old so many are teary eyed for?
Or rather, what if we upheld the promise in the Declaration of Independence that set us apart and ahead of the rest of the world at the time:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
GLBT people have the same creator everyone else does, these churches just seem to think god was wrong when s/he made me. Well either god was wrong or the church is, because I am who I am...which is it?