Soon (April 17), the Day of Silence will be observed around the country and some conservative groups are not happy about it. A coalition featuring the American Family Association and the Concerned Women for America is suggesting students walkout of school to protest the disruption of silence by same-sex attracted students. Not a hint irony there, I tell you.
Again this year, I suggest an alternative to a walkout. Go on over to the Golden Rule Pledge and check out the plan there.
If you are on Facebook, you can join the initiative there as well. I will have more through the next several days, but I wanted to get the word out here today…
Year: 2009
Scott Lively spoke to 10,000 people in Uganda; fights off hate group charge
Scott Lively is not slowing down. He spoke recently to the Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly about his book, the Pink Swastika. This meeting was a slated for one venue but was moved due to worries about a possible protest from gay groups – in particular PFLAG.
The whole speech is now on YouTube via the account of the GOP group, Bob Kowell.
In this installment, Lively says he spoke to 10,000 people in Uganda. He also describes his battle with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Because of his advocacy of the thesis that homosexuals were behind the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, two groups he is involved with (Abiding Truth Ministries and Watchmen on the Walls) are on the SPLC list of hate groups.
In his speech, Mr. Lively has answered back his critics at SPLC. He also recently launched a new blog called HateWatch Watch. He claims his groups are unfairly placed on the list.
I asked Grove City College colleague and history prof, JonDavid Wyneken, to evaluate Lively’s thesis. Dr. Wyneken pointed me to a couple of resources which help refute the idea that a homosexual cult was the organized, driving force behind Nazism. One is in a book by esteemed historian Richard Evans, titled, The Third Reich in Power. On pages 529-535, Evans provides information which gives necessary perspective. Specifically, Evans indicates that the Nazis toughened laws against homosexual contact and stepped up their arrests of homosexuals between 1936 to 1938. Evans notes,
“The raids and arrests were co-ordinated from 1 October 1936 by a new Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homsexuality and Abortion, building on the Gestapo department created to deal with the same area in the wake of the Roehm purge, which gave fresh impetus to the wave of persecutions.” (p. 533, 2005).
Dr. Wyneken also provided a link to a document published by the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., by historian Geoffrey J. Giles. Note this brief excerpt describing the views of Himmler about homosexuals. Himmler was not gay. In his young adult years, Himmler read a book by an author – Hartner – and approved of the perspective.
Hartner’s thesis was that an unchecked expansion of the phenomenon of homosexuality would lead quite literally to the “destruction of mankind” (Untergang der Menschheit). He lost himself in speculation about a giant conspiracy, inspired of course by Jews, among whom there was “contrary to Hirschfeld’s assertion, a greater [proportion of homosexuals] by far than in the German population” as a whole. What was the aim of these Jewish homosexuals? They were trying to push Germany down the slippery slope of “increasing infertility” that the French had been sliding down for ages.
You may well wonder whether, if more homosexuals meant fewer babies, that would not have an equally or even more damaging effect on the “heavily homosexual” Jewish people. No, because they, and especially the hated Ostjuden, were still positively infused with a
Zionism that provided an unquenchable fuel for an “unbroken will to fertility” (ungebrochener Fruchtbarkeitswille). The heterosexual Jews would simply produce more babies. Germans lacked this sense of nationalistic mission. Hartner declared in a closing flourish to his chapter that this spread of homosexuality would “surely dig our
graves.” One can almost sense young Himmler (still only twenty-seven years old) shuddering in agreement with these sentiments.
I warn you this paper is not for the squeamish but it gives a perspective regarding homosexuality and the Nazis in contrast to that of Scott Lively. Giles makes it clear that homosexuals were not behind the Nazi movement but rather the victims of it.
Free Chinese civil rights attorney Gao Zhisheng
I have been writing a lot about Uganda lately but sadly, that is only one of too many places in the world where one’s beliefs and speech can cost you freedom and much, much more.
According to advocacy group ChinaAid, the Chinese authorities have detained Gao Zhisheng. Here is a letter to the Chinese government that you can sign at the FreeGao website.
To the Attention of: Chinese Ambassador Mr. Zhou Wenzhong
Dear Sir:
We are aware that Chinese authorities have detained Christian attorney Gao Zhisheng since February 4, 2009. He was at the home of relatives in his hometown in Shaanxi province when more than a dozen Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers forcibly took him away. He is being held at an undisclosed location.
Gao Zhisheng is a 2008 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Chinese army veteran and prominent Christian attorney. He cares deeply for the nation of China, and is a loyal citizen. Since 2005, Gao has been repeatedly kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities for his work defending those persecuted for their faith. He, his wife and two children have been monitored and tormented by authorities for more than two years.
We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about Gao Zhisheng’s welfare and why he is being detained. This act of arbitrary detention itself is in violation of Chinese law.
We are praying for the leaders of China and formally request that you release Gao Zhisheng immediately. Thank you for your kind attention to this matter.
There is a Facebook group with more information about Gao here.
I signed the petition, and I urge you do as well.
Iowa Supreme Court rules same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional
Same-sex marriage in the heart land.
Note the attorney quoted at the end of the article: Richard Socarides. Charles Socarides son. English majors, help me, is that irony?
It seems even clearer to me that this issue will eventually come before the Supreme Court. Can the nation long sustain a patchwork quilt of laws regulating marriage?
Here is the ruling summarized with a link to the full court documents.
Situation worsens in Uganda
Yesterday, a prominent Catholic priest, Anthony Musaala fought off allegations he is gay.
Today the same news service, New Vision reports the following:
MPs want gay group’s activities regulated
Thursday, 2nd April, 2009
MPs want government to regulate the activities of homosexuals who have come out publicly to defend their rights.
Kawempe North MP Latif Sebaggala says Government should not allow homosexuals to hold press conferences to iron out their issues because the vice is illegal.
However, Government Chief Whip Daudi Migereko says there are No laws that prohibit homosexuals from holding press conferences.
Migereko says that the ministry of Internal affairs will track homosexuals and take action against them.
UPDATE: Perhaps in China to learn more about oppressing people for their beliefs, Ugandan official Buturo said his government is planning more laws, especially one which would criminalize the promotion of homosexuality.