Thursday, April 4, 2013

Islam, Christianity, Gays, and Politically Correct Speech Codes at Salon.com

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The Politically Correct Thought Police at Salon.com have been busily reminding us that up is down, black is white, and hate is love.

On April 2, 2013, Salon.com published an article entitled "Stop Trying to Split Gays and Muslims." The article's author is Chris Stedman. He is the Assistant Humanist Chaplain and the Values in Action Coordinator for the Humanist Community at Harvard. He is an atheist. An atheist chaplain. At Harvard.

Pause.

Wouldn't you LOVE that job?

You get all the perqs of being a chaplain – you get to be the wise person in the room, worthy of respect, white collar work, no strained muscles or dirt under fingernails – without the heavy lifting – no need to believe in, or sacrifice for, a living God. Or a system of ethics. Or anything.

Just wet your finger, stick it in the wind, and see which way the prevailing winds are blowing, and spout some inanity.

In his Salon.com article, Stedman says that blogger Pamela Geller is trying to "split Muslims and Gays."

Now that's a whopper. It would be funny were it not so cruel.

"Gays should be killed in the worst way possible," declared his Eminence, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the supreme religious authority for Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq and worldwide

Human rights activists claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran has executed thousands of homosexuals.

Several Muslim nations prescribe and practice the death penalty for homosexuals.

In short, Chris Stedman and Salon.com's statement that blogger Pam Geller is responsible for any rift between Islam and homosexuals is doublespeak of grotesque proportions. Harvard employs this guy? Speaks volumes.

My beautiful facebook friend Patti inspired me to respond to Stedman's piece. My response is below:

Michelle Goldberg wrote one of the most hateful and false books I have ever read, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism." Goldberg's book is a hate mongering screed against American Christians.

Michelle Goldberg is a former Salon writer.

Salon embraces hates against religion, as long as it is hate against the right religion: Christianity.

Pamela Geller is not a hater. She is a critic of Islam. She has her facts correct. Her opponents do not criticize Geller on the facts; rather, they criticize her hair, her makeup, and even her faith -- Geller is a Jew. In the context of Politically Correct protection of Islam from any critique, Anti-Semitism is okay.

Fact-based criticism of Islam, though, is demonized.

Intelligent people see this double standard. They see that Christianity and the Judeo-Christian tradition are denigrated by the Politically Correct, while Islam is inoculated against criticism.

Child marriage, clitoredectomy, honor killing, enforced hijab, acid attacks -- the whole horrific business of gender apartheid -- The Politically Correct forbid us to see these things, to speak of these things, or to hear others when they speak of these things.

Pamela Geller has spoken out against honor killing. She is a defender of human life and human rights.

Politically Correct, 1984-style speech codes insist that we must label Geller as a hater.

"Gays should be killed in the worst way possible." Google that phrase. It was not a Christian leader who stated, who advocates, or who carries out that course of action. It was a Muslim leader, and his statement is representational.

I do not have the honor of being Gay, but I have worked long and hard for Gay rights and women's rights.

Anyone who cares about Gay rights and women's rights and who has a brain and an ounce of personal integrity will find much to criticize, vocally, in Islamic writ, doctrine, and practice.

Anyone who cares about Gay rights and women's rights will jettison Politically Correct smokescreens and lies.

Anyone who cares about Gay rights and women's rights will find much to admire in Pamela Geller.

***

My Amazon review of Salon.com author Michelle Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism" is here.

4 comments:

  1. Salon has a lot of good writers and good articles, but when it comes to Islam it seems to have been coopted for stealth jihad. A fearless investigator is needed to dig into their finances and see if they can find any Saudi grease money, which would not be surprising.

    When will Salon flop and join Pamela Geller (Jews), Robert Spencer (Catholics), Pat Condell (atheists) et al. so that the entire West can unite to repudiate and fight against everything Islam stands for, like it did with Nazism?

    http://tinyurl.com/islamwatchblog

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  2. Salon no longer has any credibility. I stopped reading it years ago.

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  3. Reposted with permission from the author:

    Rafa Delfin:

    So I was just checking the Harvard chaplains and I noticed that there are numerous Protestant chaplains, three Jewish rabbis, one each for these groups (Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Baha'i), two Muslim clerics, but only one Catholic chaplain.

    Then there are two humanists: Gregg Epstein (a Humanist Rabbi) and Chris Stedman whose "areas of interest include atheism, Humanism, agnosticism, skepticism, interfaith cooperation, LGBTQ identity, Islam in America / Islamophobia, community service, and social justice."

    With Stedman's infatuation with Islam, he might as well be the third Muslim cleric at Harvard! Geesh.

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  4. I am very grateful to George Orwell for giving us the vocabulary in which to describe the world we find ourselves living in. In my lifetime, I have seen "The Ministry of War" become "The Ministry of Defence" and "civilian casualties" become "collateral damage".

    Now we have an "atheist chaplain".

    And, yes, still being involved (in a small way) in Polish media issues, its impossible not to notice the blatant double standards of Political Correctness. And I have noticed this very odd situation whereby the world has re-started the Crusades, yet, Islam has a lot of PC-protection.

    Its not that I am grudging it to Muslims - knowing what life is like without it, but its odd. The current enemy is usually vilified.

    However, re Christianity, didn't Jesus say that his followers would be hated by the world? And hasn't that always been true?

    And the standards of sexual morality, as set out in the Hebrew and the Christian Greek Scriptures are simply unacceptable to the world.

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