What Wouldn't Jesus Do?

We must attack homophobic hate speech whenever and wherever we see it — globally, nationally or locally. Recently, a letter to the editor showed up in my hometown newspaper (circulation 25,000). I reprint my response here and give anyone else the permission to use the same arguments to combat similar assertions where you live. I will have more to say about what the Bible really says about homosexuality in future posts.

To the Editor:

Despite how the Bible warns against arrogance and pride, those are exactly the attributes that come from [name withheld] when she says, "I am willing to be called names for the sake of this nation and its children."

In her letter to the editor last week, she says homosexuality is an abomination and only Jesus can save us from it. In doing so, she actually says more on the topic than Jesus himself ever did.

That's right. Jesus said absolutely nothing at all about homosexuality. There is no mention of it in the four Gospels of the New Testament. The moral lessons and teachings of Jesus are simply never concerned with the subject.

Furthermore, the evidence that homosexuality is condemned in the Old Testament has been re-examined as well. Yale historian John Boswell's book, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, makes an in-depth study of the likelihood that supposed condemnations of homosexuality do not exist in the original texts at all, but are actually the result of later translators imposing the prejudices of their times on to the translations.

Boswell writes: "In spite of misleading English translations, which may imply the contrary, the word 'homosexual' does not occur in the Bible; no extant text or manuscript, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, or Aramaic, contains such a word."

One would think if homosexuality is the threat [name withheld] clamors it to be ("America is headed for oblivion, committing suicide by tolerance," she says), Jesus would have gone on record about it.

Instead, Jesus' moral teachings encompassed greater topics, such as brotherly love, forgiveness, meekness, mercy, redemption and peace. It seems as though these are topics [name withheld] is failing to embrace.

When you read the Bible as a whole, instead of picking and choosing random quotations to support your hateful world view, you can't help but believe that God wants us to use his Holy Word to combat our prejudices — not justify them.

Dick's Missus Knows How to Please

Even more fun than making Lynne Cheney eat her words is scanning the hilarious reviews of her tedious lesbian novel at amazon.com, where a first edition copy went up for auction this week. Here's one submitted by Texan "Pulp Friction Reader," "Karen Zipdrive":

Dick's Missus Knows How to Please, August 2, 2004
In an age of loose cannons such as Teresa Heinz Kerry, it's refreshing to see a potential first lady such as Lynne Cheney create a novel sure to please everyone from fun loving fundamentalist Christians to plaid flannel dykes, from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. Sure, Lynne is married to handsome, virile and dashing Dick Cheney, but even wonderful Dick can get tedious at times. Lynne proves that even the cutest red dress wearing Republican lady craves a little gal on gal action at times — and as long as the gals don't want to get married — who's to mind? Lynne's book was said to inspire her daughter Mary to sing a favorite childhood song: "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad." I look forward to Lynne's new book she plans to write once her husband retires in November. I heard the working title is, "Ellen: Do To Me What Your Hubby Told Leahy To Do To Himself."

Read them all here -->

It's OK When We Talk About It

We all thought Lynne Cheney was criticizing John Kerry for pointing out in the third Presidential debate that she raised a lesbian daughter. Actually, perhaps she's just miffed he was so brief and non-descriptive in his kind words about the love that dare not speak its name.

Kerry simply asserted that he doesn't think homosexuality is a choice. Cheney, on the other hand, went on ad naseum (and I do mean "naseum") in her 1981 ground-breaking masterpiece, "Sisters," whose cover proclaims: "The novel of a strong and beautiful woman who broke all the rules of the American frontier." Cheney wrote out her belief that lesbo sex was called for in "a world where women were treated either as decorative figurines or as abject sexual vassals...where wives were led to despise the marriage act and prostitutes pandered to husbands' hungers...where the relationship between women and men became a kind of guerrilla warfare in which women were forced to band together for the strength they needed and at times for the love they wanted."

One particularly inspiring passage:

"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage — no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave."

Want to see more? Visit (and, yes, this is the correct address): http://www.whitehouse.org/administration/sisters.asp

Highly Recommended

The scuttlebutt is that Lynne Cheney is against re-releasing her lesbian novel and has even omitted it in her list of works in subsequent books. I can't imagine why. No worries — someone with the moniker "Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel" has taken to posting it online. (Warning: This is a work in progress — the latest chapter posted so far is Chapter 6: "We Get to the Naughty Bits.")

Don't miss this great American novel, about which one amazon.com reviewer said: "I highly recommend this book, on so many levels. Multiple, you might say."

Read it here -->

Cheney Family Picnic T-Shirt

Gotta love this tee-shirt -- one artist's effort to envision what a Cheney Family Reunion must be like. It reads: CHENEY FAMILY PICNIC -- 2004 (Election Year) -- "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

You can get one, too, at --> http://www.cafepress.com/gaymafioso

Kerry Lesbian Remark Angers Cheneys

Apparently, for some people, having someone acknowledge they have a gay daughter is an insult. Never mind the fact that they don't shy away from mentioning it when it is politically advantageous to them. And never mind that the daughter herself has worked as a gay and lesbian liason at a major company, where her position as an "out and proud" lesbian was a condition of her employment. What must it be like at family gatherings of the Cheney family? I suppose it's the only family in America where the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is in full force.

See article -->

Welcome & Mission Statement

In a country that doesn't recognize state-sponsored religion, whose constitution says "all men are created equal," where bigotry and bias are abhorred — why do otherwise intelligent and sensitive people feel they can engage in hate speech against gay people?

Despite tenets such as "love your neighbor" and "we were all created in God's image," why do usually well-meaning religious people feel it's warranted to attack gay people, even when religious leaders denouce such behavior, even when their arguments are proven invalid?

Even though fair-minded Americans concur that everyone should have the same opportunities and rights, why do some balk at extending civil rights to people who are gay?

Why do homophobic rants persist? Because they often go unchallenged.

Some people have astutely pointed out that gay people seem to be the last minority group in America that it is still okay to discriminate against.

No longer.

GAY MAFIOSO is an organized attack on hateful speech, unenlightened thinking and homophobic rants — wherever and whenever it occurs.