Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Wow! One of my editors got mail from a reader condemning them for running technical articles written by a dyke. No, really. And threatening to boycott on that basis. Yay, economic freeze-out hitting home! (For those who don't know, one of the things the theoconservative movement does is attack companies that deal with GBLT-owned companies, join the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, or similar things. They call it "being neutral in the culture wars" by, um, not dealing with queers. Yeah, that's neutral.) Don't worry, he's the type to tell them to DIAF. But - OMG I'M, um, famous? Yeah! Famous! Or something.

Y'know what this calls for? A musical interlude. With anime. CLICKIE! Then come back and read the rest of this:

Maggie Gallagher: young Americans must be convinced that marriage rights for GBLT people is really bad, noting that only a bare plurality of "young adults" oppose marriage rights (48% to 46%);

I don't have a hard date for this and I'd love to; Bill O'Reilly had a segment on June 21 of an unknown year claiming that hundreds of lesbian gangs were raping children and killing men across the country. Looking at the news crawl, one of the headlines was Chief Executive Bush touring a nuclear power plant in Browns Ferry, Alabama; that happened June 21 of this year. So I think we have a reasonable date for this particularly bizarre O'Reilly hit-piece. Found by Andrew Sullivan;

Also courtesy Sully, we have an LA Times article demonstrating pretty conclusively that new theocon favourite Fred Thompson lobbied for an abortion-rights group during the first Bush administration; he had denied it explicitly and in no uncertain terms, but, um, they have the papers;

More of the New Sectarian Politics: Catholics Against Rudy, campaigning against him because he's not Catholic enough for their tastes, and they want him to condemn GBLT marriage rights and abortion rights; they've got a visitor poll up on their website asking whether US bishops should "speak out against Mayor Giuliani's candidacy" which at this moment is running 2-1 in favour;

Catholics Against Rudy links to a story on Fidelis, notable mostly for its extensive quoting of Bishop Michael Tobin's condemnation of Mr. Giuliani;

Seen on Andrew Sullivan; New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson (D) called somebody a faggot in Spanish while on Don Imus's show; he says he's sorry for the remark; I have to admit this is pretty low-grade for this update, but hey, I saw it;

Focus on the Family/James Dobson water-carrier Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) joins the long list of "family advocates" caught in affairs, with prostitutes, on drugs, whatever - in his case, it's prostitution. An interesting quote from his campaign was, "We need a U.S. senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts values." It is worth noting that the Massachusetts divorce rate is lower than that of Louisiana, so apparently, he's sticking to his word;

What's gotten up his robes? Pope Benedict XVI rejects other Christian sects and other religions as either "defective or not true churches"; this is perfectly consistent with Catholic teaching, but it's sure to upset the fundamentalist movement, so I wonder what's gotten that going;

Vox Nova asks why Catholics Against Rudy isn't including torture, which is as explicitly and firmly against the Catholic faith as is abortion and, um, me - but by the time I'm going to press with this, "Torture" has been added to the list. Still, not much content there, and it's mostly about t3h gay and abortion rights;

Cal Thomas: Democrats talking about their religion just shows their religious beliefs are fake and just a ploy and "part of a campaign plan to win the election"; he's also getting real explicit about what "is" and "is not" actual Christianity, and, of course, the Democrats aren't it;

Concerned Women for America's Matt Barber really whips it out against t3h gay this week, condemning "disordered sexual behaviors" that are high-risk, unnatural and fruitless" and "scientifically and objectively proven to be destructive;" it's all part of a rant saying that queers don't actually want marriage except to destroy it and, of course, all of American society, and all that kind of noise;

WorldNetDaily showcases the newly fundamentalist Michael Glatze, who us the "ex-gay" poster child of the week; he's the author, he mentions how he had a nervous breakdown and found "God" and how God and Concerned Women for America and NARTH (a "conversion therapy" group) showed him the "Truth about homosexuality" and how it's "natural" and "common sense" to be "repulsed" by queers, and so on; and now he's dedicating his life to fighting "homosexuality," which is to say GBLT rights. They'll be parading this guy around for a while, probably until his next nervous breakdown;

Former Concerned Women for America wonk and still sometimes-writer Peter LaBarbera writes gleefully about Michael Glatze's conversion to fundamentalism and his subsequent "conversion" to heterosexuality;

CWA's Wendy Wright condemns New Hampshire repeal of a parental notification law already ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court;

Christianity Today commends Laura Bush's promotion of "faith-based HIV prevention" in Africa;

Christian Post also trumpets Michael Glatze, and describing the nervous breakdown as a "near-death experience," so now I've got even more ooooooooo going on;

National Review Online's Kathryn Lopez condemns Amnesty International as "a force for evil" after they issued a press release supporting "the rights of women and girls to be free from threat, force, or coercion as they exercise their sexual and reproductive rights"; it's the abortion thing, of course; also calls its founder a "Communist and Roman Catholic convert";

Canada Family Action Coalition runs a WorldNetDaily article saying allowing queers to marry puts marriage on the "endangered species list," ties GBLT marriage rights to paedophilia, condemns legendary sex research Alfred Kinsey as a fraud, which is a regular activity of the fundamentalist movement;

Focus on the Family's Institute of Marriage and Family Canada runs an article, "Dismantling Canada—one institution at a time," attacking GBLT marriage;

Institute of Marriage and Family Canada gets a Calgary Herald op-ed, proceeds to self-quote as an external source; part of the "must look big" strategy;

American Family Association's One News Now runs article condemning Senate opening prayer being delivered by a Hindu chaplain; they specifically condemn the polythestic nature of Hinduism, saying it is "flying in the face of the American motto "One Nation Under God";

American Family Association's One News Now promotes the AFA boycott of Ford, taking credit for Ford's sales issues; one wonders how they explain GMC's even-worse sales issues;

AFA's One News Now guest columnist claims "liberals" want... oh, just go read it, it's an anti-sex-ed screed;

Family Research Council (another Focus on the Family spinoff) article on the new "ex-gay" fundamentalist star Michael Glatze; he doesn't mention the nervous breakdown or the "near-death experience," or whatever it was;

Family Research Council insists same-sex parents can never raise children successfully, demands Democrats "endorse and act to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman," referring both to attempts to weaken the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the Federal government from recognising state same-sex marriages and allows states to ignore same-sex marriages from other states, and to the anti-marriage/anti-gay Federal Constitutional amendment banning GBLT marriage in all states;

FRC condemns Republican polling showing majority Republican support for gays in the military and "special rights for homosexuals," which usually means including sexual orientation in civil rights law;

USA Today's short story on the poll, and a link to the poll itself; it was sponsoured in part by the "Republican Leadership Council, Republican Main Street Partnership, Republican Majority for Choice and the Log Cabin Republicans," which cuts to the core of why the Family Research Council condemns it. There's interesting data in this poll, including a 52%-40% support for "Public policy should not contradict God’s Law" that's maintained over most segments of the GOP - only the tiny Free Market (8%) and similarly small Fortress America (8%) segments disagree; 50% describe themselves as born-again Christians, 51% attend church once to several times per week; a similar 51% are "Social/Cultural" conservatives primarily;

FRC condemns "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as not anti-gay enough, want active investigation of possible queers in the military; also condemns DC's domestic partner registry and wants a ban on Federal funding for DC going to it;

Christian Post reports on rally calling for "Moral Revolution;" Sen. Sam Brownback appeared at it; it was a big political/religious revival in Nashville, Tennessee; they seem to be dipping into numerology, as it was held on 7/7/07 and various ties were made to the Bible based on that.

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