Bobby Jindal Is Predictably Partnering With Anti-Gay Radicals For His Prayer Rally | Right Wing Watch

Bobby Jindal Is Predictably Partnering With Anti-Gay Radicals For His Prayer Rally | Right Wing Watch

Note: The AFA (Radical Anti-Gay American Family Association aka The "Dark Side" of Tupelo, MS is now promoting Gov. Jindal's Response Event.) 

Last July, Religious Right leaders gathered in Texas to push Perry into the presidential race, hoping the Texas Governor would be the more conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. One month later Perry hosted a prayer rally, The Response, which featured Religious Right leaders like James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Jim Garlow, [Don Wildmon,creator of the "Dark Side" of Tupelo, MS], Penny Nance, David Barton, and John Hagee, along with New Apostolic Reformation figures such as Mike Bickle, Alice Patterson, Doug Stringer, Cindy Jacobs, and John Benefiel.--excerpt posted by Al Bratton, Liberal Tupelo MS Blog, 12-17-2014.

   

Ohio Just Defeated an Extreme Abortion Ban, but Don't Get Too Comfortable | Jennifer Dalven

Ohio Just Defeated an Extreme Abortion Ban, but Don't Get Too Comfortable | Jennifer Dalven


Last week, the Ohio House voted on legislation that was breathtaking in its extremism: It would have banned all abortions after six weeks -- before many women even know they're pregnant.

First the good news: Legislators voted down the bill. That's a real and important victory for women in Ohio, and it does represent some progress. After all, the same legislation passed the House in 2011 before failing in the Senate.

But I'm just not able to get too excited about this. Yes, they defeated the ban, but celebrating the defeat of such an obviously terrible proposal is a hollow victory. While it's certainly good for the women of Ohio that the bill didn't advance, make no mistake about it: Extreme politicians remain fully committed to doing whatever they can to make sure that a woman can't get an abortion when she needs one.

 After their failure in Ohio, and the crushing defeat of similar measures suffered on election night, they might change their approach.

But one thing you can be sure of: They haven't changed their goal.

Mississippi Says It Will Appeal Marriage Ruling As AFA Calls for Governor To Defy It| Gay News | Towleroad

Mississippi Says It Will Appeal Marriage Ruling As AFA Calls for Governor To Defy It| Gay News | Towleroad


http://www.towleroad.com/2014/11/mississippi-says-it-will-appeal-marriage-ruling-as-afa-calls-for-governor-to-defy-it-video.html



   Bryan Fischer is openly calling for the governor of Mississippi to violate the highest law of the land (the US Constitution). Federal courts are tasked with the delicate and thankless job of determining whether or not state statutes (and state constitutional amendments) and federal statutes comply with the US Constitution's requirements of due process and equal protection.

Hearts & Minds In MS

http://djournal.com/lifestyle/human-rights-campaign-seeks-change-hearts-minds-mississippi/

“Good luck with that,” said Tim Wildmon, president of the Tupelo-based American Family Association. “If they’re here trying to change people’s fundamental religious views, views they judge as wrong, I know people aren’t apt to change their conventional beliefs based on TV ads. Why target the South? The problems they’re claiming aren’t any more real in Mississippi than anywhere else.”

**********************************************************************************

By Riley Manning

Daily Journal

There’s a new effort gaining momentum in Mississippi aimed at changing the conversation about homosexuality.

Earlier this year, the Human Rights Campaign, a nationwide advocacy group for LGBT rights, compiled a massive survey to assess the experiences and priorities of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Mississippi.

Among their findings, they determined 57 percent of respondents have called Mississippi home for over 20 years. Around 10 percent are serving or have served in the armed forces. More than half claim they volunteer in their communities.

Perhaps even more notably, half of those surveyed said they are people of faith.

In the most religious state in the country, the HRC’s newest initiative precisely aims to soften the conversation around homosexuality among Mississippi’s church-goers.

“You can’t really have a conversation about mostly anything without also talking about faith,” said Rob Hill, director of the HRC’s Mississippi efforts. “Especially here, you cannot divorce faith from this conversation.”

‘All God’s Children’

Earlier this month, the HRC rolled out the first in a series of television ads to promote education about the experiences of LGBT Mississippians. The first commercial in the “All God’s Children” series features Southern Baptist mother Mary Jane Kennedy, who speaks on her son coming out as gay.

HILL

“[Kennedy] is a person of deep faith,” Hill said. “Because of her religious beliefs, her journey to acceptance was difficult, and that’s what people should hear. We want to offer hope.”

The next commercial appeared this week, and features state Rep. Alyce Clark, D-Jackson, the first black woman to serve in the Mississippi Legislature. She speaks about her own gay son.

Born in Greenwood and raised in Jackson, Blossom Brown is a transexual woman living in Columbus. She will also be the subject of an ad by the HRC.

“I think what a lot of people don’t understand is that the LGBT community really wants to be a part of the church community,” she said. “As a transgender woman, it’s hard to find a place where I can get that peace time with the Lord without being criticized, often to my face.”

The HRC has booted up similar campaigns in Arkansas and Alabama, but some are skeptical about their efforts.

[...] Tim  Wildmon comment moved to top of page. --ABratt

Hill differed with Wildmon. He said one-third of people from the HRC’s survey said they had been personally harassed by a person of authority, say an employer, or a police officer. In addition, members of the LGBT community can be fired and evicted for their sexual orientation.

“Even Mississippi’s hate crime laws don’t cover LGBT people, but in a poll we conducted last month, we found the majority of mainstream citizens thought these protections were actually in place,” he said.

What’s a church to do?

Bishop Clarence Parks, pastor of the Temple of Compassion and Deliverance in Tupelo, admitted the church in general has been afraid to talk about homosexuality in the past, and often when it was, it was in a vicious way.

“Because we weren’t used to it, we felt the need to be really harsh on it and put it out of our sight,” he said. “But it wasn’t out of our mind. As we go forth, we’re learning how to deal with the issue better, but at the end of the day, a sin is a sin.”

Bishop Kelvin Ransey, who pastors Spirit of Excellence Church in Oxford, agreed.

“People think the church hates gays, but that’s far from the truth. We love them, but acting in that way is not compatible with what we believe,” Ransey said.

The Rev. Jeffery Daniel, pastor of White Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Tupelo, said the church itself is being pulled in two extreme directions.

“As a minister, you should be able to stand on your convictions without being accused of preaching hate,” Daniel said. “At the same time, you can’t beat people over the head with scripture. I preach against homosexuality just like I do against gambling and fornication, but I do so while still being aware of the person.”

In general, though, he sees a growing cultural acceptance of the LGBT community from the younger generation simply from being exposed to it from a young age. While many churches may have handled the issue poorly, many who have handled it responsibly have still been vilified one way or another.

“More people are coming out as gay who are connected to people against it. That forces these people to change their stance,” Daniel said. “It’s wrong to belittle a person either way, but from our perspective, we want to love you out of it.”

The Rev. Warren Black, a United Methodist minister who pastored Oxford University United Methodist Church for 18 years before retiring this year, says he hopes the church doesn’t land on the wrong side of history or the gospel. In his eyes, the more time the church wastes not accepting the LGBT community, the more young lives are at risk.

“The reality is people need help. Confusion over sexual orientation is one of the leading causes of teen suicide. These kids have nowhere to turn, and to me, that should be a ministry of the church,” Black said. “Meanwhile, more and more of the younger generation are leaving the church.”

Middle ground

Parks, Ransey, Black, and Hill did all agree that LGBT Mississippians should be protected under the law.

“Nobody should be fired for no reason, and I definitely don’t think it should be OK to go out and beat someone up or anything like that,” Parks said. “But there are civil rights and kingdom rights. I’m all for the LGBT community having civil rights. But marriage in the church is a kingdom right.”

Hill took heart in this attitude. The most he hopes for at this point, he said, is for the church community to hear the LGBT community out.

“We don’t want to fight. We want to be able to sit down and talk,” Hill said. “We hope that if we change people’s hearts and minds, that can lead to policy change.”

Black was optimistic, too.

“I greatly admire the HRC. I think things are really starting to move down here,” he said.

The HRC will make an appearance in Oxford at the Egg Bowl next weekend. Hill said they will have an information booth set up outside of Lamar Hall.

riley.manning@journalinc.com

 

Republican [Joni Ernst] Admits Why Republicans Hate Obama Care

Republican Admits Why Republicans Hate Obamacare -- NYMag

Jonathan Chait:
"Conservatives have made a series of specific predictions about the effects of Obama Care — overall costs would rise, insurers would flee the exchanges, premiums would go up, the ranks of the uninsured would not even fall. All these predictions have failed. And yet conservative opposition to the law has not diminished. If you want to know why this is, listen to these secretly recorded comments from Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst, via Radio Iowa and Greg Sargent. Here Ernst, speaking candidly to supporters, gets to the root of conservative opposition":
     http://abrattsliberaltupeloms.blogspot.com/2014/11/republican-joni-ernst-admits-why.html
Ernst:

“We’re looking at Obama care right now. Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those? It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they have already been on those programs…we rely on government for absolutely everything.  And in the years since I was a small girl up until now into my adulthood with children of my own, we have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do. They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it. But we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything.”

That’s the fundamental belief that motivates most, if not all, the conservative opposition: Health care should be a privilege rather than a right. If you can’t afford health insurance on your own, that is not the government’s problem.

I happen to find this belief morally bizarre. People who cannot afford their own insurance either don’t earn much money, or have health risks, or family members with health risks, too expensive to bear.

All of us non-socialists would agree that there ought to be some things rich people get to enjoy that poor people are deprived of. Access to health care is a strange choice of things to deprive the losers of — not least because one of the things you do to “earn” the ability to afford it is not just the normal market value of earning or inheriting a good income, but the usually random value of avoiding serious illness or accident.

Indeed, very few Republicans have the confidence to make the case openly that the inability of some people to afford the cost of their own medical care is their own problem. But that is the belief that sets them apart from major conservative parties across the world, and it is the belief that explains why they have opposed national health insurance every time Democrats have held power, and why they have neglected to create national health insurance every time they have." 

Because of this published revelation from newly elected (Nov. 2014) Republican) Joni Ernst, I'm so proud to be a Liberal Democrat! Let's Take Our Country, America's Country, back starting in 2016.  --A.B. Tupelo MS Liberal.

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/republican-admits-why-republicans-hate-obamacare.html 

(490 w)

Tupelo's AFA (Dark Side) Clueless Or Dishonest About Net-Neutrality

"Religious Right Activists Either Clueless Or Dishonest  About Net Neutrality"
Brian Tashman, Right Wing Watch,11-12-14.             

RWW: "This week, spokesmen for the American Family Association and National Religious Broadcasters, two of the country’s top Religious Right groups, came out strongly against net neutrality, while simultaneously demonstrating that they have no idea what net neutrality actually is. Yesterday, both groups weighed in again, as NRB’s Craig Parshall spoke with Dan Celia of the AFA, both of them completely misrepresenting net neutrality as a threat to freedom."--Article from Right Wing Watch re-posted by Al Bratton to ABratts Liberal Tupelo MS Blog
Link to ABratts Liberal Blog

Read Complete article here: Link:RWW

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/religious-right-activists-either-totally-clueless-or-utterly-dishonest-about-net-neutrality    

Letters to the Editor: Nov. 9, 2014 - Daily Journal

Letters to the Editor: Nov. 9, 2014 - Daily Journal