On Ernestine Copeland, Demons and The Ugliest Example of the Ugliest of Evils

A friend of mine sent me the following video. In this video, Ernestine Copeland speaks at a Washington, D.C. hearing on same-sex marriage. My friend asked me to watch the following video and blog about it. Since I strive to be obliging, I am obliging.

Upon seeing this, my first thought was to write a post about the Bible. It’s very easy for a rational human being to study the Bible and see that the Bible really has very little to say on the issue of homosexuality. In fact, only six or seven of the Bible’s verses even refer to same-sex behavior in any way, and none of these verses refer to homosexual orientation as it’s understood today. On the other hand, divorce is strictly forbidden in both the New Testament and the Old Testament, as is remarriage by anyone who has ever been divorced.

I realized that providing such a rational argument in response to Ms. Copeland’s outrageous testimony was pointless. Clearly the woman is insane. A rational response would do no good here.

My second thought was to play the race card. Ms. Copeland does not feel that a correlation can be made between the fight to end slavery and the fight for same-sex marriages. I disagree. They are both very clearly civil rights issues. There was a time when white men stood in courtrooms across this country and spewed the same kind of nonsense Ms. Copeland subjected her audience to. The only difference is that they were fighting against Ms. Copeland and anyone else of color.

Again, I realized that a rational argument is not the way to go here. You can’t fight insanity with sanity.

My third thought was the one that stuck.

Ms. Copeland is quite simply pathetic. Everyone like her who vomits such irrational hatred is just pathetic. These people are disgusting and sad and misguided. To see Ms. Copeland in action was almost heart-breaking. If she wasn’t spewing such hatred, I would almost feel sorry for her.

The power of religion is that it can bring people together in faith. When it is perverted to the point that it is unrecognizable, religion can become the ugliest of evils. And Ms. Copeland is one of the ugliest examples of this.

“My God is about reproduction,” she tells us. Those are the first words she uses to describe her God. She later calls Him just and pure. And yet she chooses to first tell us that her “God is about reproduction.” She does not tell us that her God is about love or humanity or peace. No, her God is about sperm meeting egg and creating a child.

I could have stopped the video there. That was all I needed to hear to know that Ms. Copeland has strayed too far from any beauty found in the Christian religions to ever return. And, sadly, Ms. Copeland represents many many people in this country. These people have poisoned their minds and souls with hatred. They’ve turned something that can be beautiful and unifying into something that is purely monstrous.

And they have to live with this fact. They have to go to bed every night and wake up every morning with hatred coursing through their hearts and minds. What a dark existence they must lead, one that I can only imagine is the stark opposite of the existence their God would hope for them.

What these people fail to see is that hatred will not win in the end. I promise you that. The tide is turning. Yes, it is turning slowly, but it is turning. And one day Ms. Copeland will wake up in a world where her worst nightmares have come true. Love will have won out and she will be left with nothing but her own hatred and her own demons to keep her company.

Where will her God be then?

On Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize and Expecting Actual Change

President Barack Obama was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Is this some kind of joke? Is the world trying to make America feel better about being unceremoniously booted from the race for the 2016 Olympics? It really must have been a slow year for peace.

On awarding the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said of Obama, “Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future”

Well, I guess I’ll give them that. About a year ago, Obama did do quite a job of introducing hope into the political conversation, especially here in the United States. I’m just not exactly sure what he’s done since actually entering the White House.

I’m not a political mastermind. I try and pay attention to the major issues as much as possible so as to be informed, but I’d never claim to be someone who has a truly firm grasp on the nuances of American politics. That said, I have been paying attention and I fail to see what Obama has done to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama has been in office for just over nine short months. In that time, he has not even begun to really tackle foreign policy. He’s pretty much turned his back completely on the gay community, a voter base that did much to earn him his spot in the Oval Office. His plans for the economy and healthcare have polarized party lines in the US to a degree that is almost frightening. None of this really smells of peace in my book.

I don’t think Obama is a bad President. I just don’t think he’s had enough time under his belt for the world to decide just what kind of President he’ll really be. And I certainly don’t think the man has done enough to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama has a lot to prove. Given time, he may very well prove it. Given time, he may very well resolve a few of the military issues the US is engaged in worldwide. He may very well find a way to blur party lines. He may very well bring about the change he campaigned for last year.

Let’s just give him the time to actually do those things before we go giving him awards for simply saying he’ll do them.

On Olympics, Bids and Chicago’s Waning Gold Medal Status

The world will find out on Friday whether or not Chicago will be hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. I, for one, am rooting against the city in which I live. I love Chicago. I love the Olympics. I’m just not convinced the two belong together.

Chicago is a terrific city, but it is also a city with a whole slew of problems. This month our unemployment rate soared to 9%, the highest it has been since 1992. Chicago continues to be one of the most violent cities is America. Chicagoans pay higher sales taxes than anyone else in the United States. Our roads are a mess of potholes. Public transportation is wholly unreliable. The public school system in Chicago is in shambles. On many accounts, Chicago is a mess.

Having lived in other major cities in the United States, I know that these problems are common to a lot of urban areas. What bothers me, however, is that those other urban areas are not throwing money and time at an Olympic bid.

The way I see it, the powers that run Chicago are having a hard enough time keeping the city running as it is. I don’t see how spending the next six years gearing up for the Olympic Games is going to solve that problem.

I also have no clue what the city of Chicago plans to do when the entire world lands within its limits. I have a hard enough time getting to and from work on public transportation. How exactly is that commute going to work when I am surrounded by hundreds of thousands of visitors, many of whom may not speak English? I do speak English and half the time I can’t figure out what the conductor of my train is trying to tell me over the public announcement system.

I sincerely wish that Chicago would take a moment to assess the problems already facing its citizens. Let’s then take the millions of dollars being spent on the Olympic bid and make Chicago an even more amazing city. Let’s reopen some schools. Let’s fix the potholes. Let’s work on creating jobs that won’t disappear the minute the Olympic torch is extinguished.

Once we’ve done that, we can go back to looking at the Olympics. We can go back and show the world how far we’ve come. We can point to our hard work as just one of the many reasons Chicago deserves to host the Olympic Games.

Right now, I don’t think we deserve it. As a citizen of Chicago, I know I deserve a whole lot more than I am getting. And yet, all the money and time and power are tied up trying to secure our Olympic bid. No one really cares for the little guy. The little guy doesn’t make news. The little guy is ignored.

Meanwhile, in the eyes of this resident, Chicago is falling further and further from its gold medal status.

On David’s Bridal, Michael Weiner and A Few Musings on the Subject of Gay Marriage

I’ve been rather silent on the subject of gay marriage. As a gay man, I’m all for it. As a compassionate human being who believes in love, I think it’s the only way to go. As an American, I find it deeply disappointing that I live in a country where all men are indeed not treated equally.

I’ve been silent on the subject because everyone else has been doing enough talking for all of us. I don’t always feel like I have anything fresh to offer. I’d also like to think that anyone reading my musings on any kind of regular basis can surmise exactly how I feel about gay men and women being allowed to marry in the United States.

Today, however, I’d like to share a few thoughts and experiences related to the subject of gay marriage. Please excuse the lack of cohesion. In fact, think of what follows as a set of related mini posts. And please do not look here for some grand statement about why gays should be allowed the same human rights as everyone else. If you are truly looking for that, look inside yourself.

Over the last week or so I have been slammed with emails from David’ Bridal. I do not know how I got on their radar. I do not know why they feel the need to send at least two emails a day. All I know is that I’ve been getting the emails and I am not amused. This morning I clicked on the link at the bottom of the email in order to unsubscribe myself. In doing so, I was brought to a web page that asked me why I wanted to unsubscribe. A list of options appeared as well as a space in which I could type my own reason. I chose to do that. “I’m a gay male,” I typed. “I am not allowed to get married and I have absolutely no need for your services.”

I was reading Voenix Rising this morning and came across this post. Michael Weiner, co-founder of the Rockstar Energy Drink company, is a complete bastard. Among other things (“When I hear someone’s in the civil rights business, I oil up my AR-15!”), the bastard had some choice words to say on the subject of gay marriage. “I don’t like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke … I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it’s child abuse.” Boycott this bastard. And, if I may be so bold (and slightly hypocritical), oil up your AR-15 just in case you run into him.

My best friend is in love with a man. That man is from Australia. Because they are gay they can not be married. Because they can not be married, my best friend’s partner has to be in the United States on a visa. That means that his time here is perpetually limited. Until they can legally be together, they will continue to live their lives being uprooted from their homes. It breaks my heart. It makes me sick.

Lastly, I would like to just say that I believe in people. I believe in love. I believe that one day soon we will have moved beyond all the fear and hate that currently dominates our society. I have to believe that. I have to have hope. I have to accept that the antiquated beliefs of an older generation will give way to the open-mindedness of those who will soon make the crucial decisions in this country.

Believe with me.

On Hope, Inaugurations and What it Would be Like if I Were President

In case you failed to notice, I have some big news for you. Today is the day that Barack Obama is being sworn in as the forty-fourth President of the United States.

And in case you have failed to be swept up by the obscene sense of hope sweeping the nation (or at least the nation that is represented by people in Chicago), I have even more news for you. Today is the day that the world changes forever. Today is the day that the snow and ice thaw and winter disappears from the land. Today is the day that Israelis and Palestinians will dance together in the streets. Today is the day that the global economy miraculously rectifies itself and poverty is eradicated.

Today is a pretty damn important day.

All of the excitement and paparazzi surrounding the inauguration has got me thinking. What if Barack Obama was not being sworn in today? What if another man had been elected in his stead? What if I had been chosen to run this country?

Oh, what an inauguration it would be!

For one thing, Oprah would not be my television celebrity of note. She could come along for the ride if she wanted to. I wouldn’t stop her. But I’d be riding to the White House on the back of another television host. I’d be side-by-side with one Miss Tyra Banks. I mean, someone’s got to skill me on how to be fierce when dealing with foreign dignitaries.

And you can forget about Beyoncé singing anything at my party. I’m just not down with that. My first dance will be sung by Madonna. I don’t care what the press or the Christians would have to say about it. She will sing Deeper and Deeper and I will shake my ass for the nation as I’ve never shaken my ass before.

And who will join me for my first dance? Since there’s not a First Gent in sight, I’ll just place an ad on Craig’s List. I’m bound to find someone with rhythm who also craves the spotlight.

Sadly, today is not my day. There will be no fabulous balls hosted by gay bars. There will not be a pasta feed. And I’m pretty sure Madonna will be nowhere near Washington today. My hope is shattered. But at least the hope of a nation is restored.

Way to go, Barack.