Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Christian bigots don't get arrested

Washington Post reports on attempts by anti-gay Christians to get arrested in DC:
Conservative Christian ministers from across the land, determined to test the bounds of a new law punishing anti-gay hate crimes, assembled outside the Justice Department on Monday to denounce the sin of homosexuality and see whether they would be charged with lawbreaking.

Anything other than sex "between a male and his wedded wife," announced the Rev. Paul Blair, "is a perversion, and the Bible says that homosexuality is in fact an abomination."

No arrest was made.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, quoting Scripture, listed "homosexual offenders" along with thieves, drunkards, swindlers and idolators as those unwelcome in the kingdom of God. "To fail to call homosexuals to repent of their sin and come to Jesus is the highest form of cowardice and sin," he said.

No charges were filed.

"Had people listened to our plea, there would be tens of thousands of people who had not died of a dreaded disease," contributed the Rev. Jim Garlow. "This breaks our heart to see people die of AIDS."

No hands were cuffed. In fact, the few cops in attendance were paying no attention to the speakers, instead talking among themselves and checking their BlackBerrys.
...

4 comments:

Brother David said...

This post flies in the face of the lame series of posts that Melanie has put up at Viagraville over the past 5 or 6 days regarding intolerant homosexualists and their reaction/retaliation for Prop H8.

All of these posts point to events of a year ago, but many of the commenters do not read close enough to catch this and respond as if it is todays news!

IT said...

Indeed, and even then, as reported by wakingupnow.com:
Remember 2008? When gays in CA allegedly persecuted Christian supporters of Prop 8 before the November election? And allegedly went on a rampage against Christians afterward?

The 2008 California hate crime statistics have been released.

Hate crimes against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals? Up from 2007 ( from 346 to 442 offenses).

Hate crimes against Catholics and Protestants? Down from 2007 (from 23 to 21 offenses).

No stats on the sexual orientation or religion of the perpetrators. But it’s clear which community faces more violence.

dr.primrose said...

OT (as usual). Today there was an interesting development in the case of Brad Levenson, who is an employee of the Office of the Federal Public Defender in southern California.

During the window that marriage for same-sex couples was permitted in California, Levenson got married to his long-time partner. He then applied for the federal benefits for his spouse that are granted to other married couples. The government denied the application on the grounds that the federal "Defense" of Marriage Act barred the recognition of any same-sex marriage.

Because of the applicable administrative rules, the matter is being decided by Stephen Reinhardt, who is probably the most liberal judge on the Ninth Circuit.

Today he issued a published decision finding that the denial of benefits under DOMA was unconstitutional and that Levenson is entitled to a continuing award of money from the federal government that would permit him to purchase comparable coverage for his spouse.

The full opinion can be read at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/11/18/Levensonorder.pdf .

I'm sure this is not over yet. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

JCF said...

Thanks, Dr. Primrose.

[Those DC phobic protestors: the very definition of "jag-offs"! >:-X]