So You Want To Know What's Wrong with Religion? (10)

Apparently Vista Print is being sued by a Gay couple who ordered wedding programs and were slightly (heavy sarcasm) perturbed when they opened the box the evening before the event and found anti-gay propaganda pamphlets instead. They are suing! Read a little about it yourself: "A Gay Couple Ordered Wedding Programs; They Got Anti-Gay Pamphlets Instead".  If had been just a messed up order, they would be upset, but not to the point of suing.  The fact it was some pretty vile anti-gay pamphlets makes more than likely a deliberate act.

Now, unlike some organizations, Vista Print does not have a history of being anti-LGBT.  So what probably happened is an employee took it upon themselves to make the change.  What I figure will probably happen is the Vista Print investigation will find the employee who decided printing programs for a Gay wedding violated their sincerely-held religious beliefs.  I hope Vista Print has the testicular fortitude to fire them!

You know, now that I think about it, Vista Print also should sue them for any damages they [VP] ends up paying because of the screw-up.  I mean they are being sued by the Gay couple, and at first glance, the responsibility certainly is their responsibility.  It also might be more than one person because I would assume some quality control.  

The more I think about it, I am willing to bet the person, or persons, get fired also sues Vista Print for a perceived violation of their religious rights.  I mean theists are known for not accepting responsibility for their actions, they try and pass it all onto their deity, don't they?

In any event I hope Stephen and Andrew have a long and happy life together and this incident didn't wreck what should have been a joyous occasion.

Little Kennie Ham is Having a Tantrum (Again!)

Apparently little kennie is upset because someone connected his words with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.  Here's one of the many articles that offended him: "Hurricanes punish us for gay rights? Who decided that?"  There are a number of Christians who have been blaming the recent hurricanes on many of the things they have decided are sinful, particularly homosexuality.  According the little kennie, he was unfairly lumped in with that group.  Here's the offending quote:

"Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Pat Robertson, Mike Huckabee and now Ken Hamm of Answers in Genesis and the Ark Park state without reservation that disasters like Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma are God’s punishment for homosexuality."

To be fair, kennie didn't specifically say that Harvey and Irma were caused by homosexual behavior.  Not in those precise words.  However, what has he said about hurricanes just a couple of weeks ago (My underlining for emphasis):

"Devastating Hurricanes-reminder we live in a fallen groaning world as a result of our sin against a Holy God-it's our fault not God's fault" (Sep 6, 2017 tweet)

So what is kennie's opinion of Homosexuality?  

• Well back a few years ago two men were denied entry into a AIG event because they were assumed to be gay.  They weren't as the multitude of articles can attest, but that didn't stop kennie and his folks at one of his ministries from denying them entrance to an event for which they bought tickets.  
• There are a huge numbers of posts and articles about Homosexuality on his many websites and blogs.  Boiled down, he tries that old trope about love the sinner and hate the sin.  In other words people can be as gay as they want, as long as they don't perform anything that can be construed as a homosexual act, that's the sin according to little kennie.
• Here are a couple of quotes from little kennie, again I underlined the most interesting parts:
• "Homosexual behavior is sin. All sin is evil. People need to understand what sin is, and not justify it and dress it up as something good and acceptable." (United Methodist Church Showing More Support for Gay Marriage)
• "Corinthians 6:9–10 lists homosexual behavior as a sin that will bring judgment by God on the unrighteous." (Kentucky Baptist Church Allows Its First “Gay Marriage”)

So if kennie views homosexual behavior as a sin, and hurricanes are the result of sin, doesn't that lump kennie in with those pseudo-Christians who claim Harvey and Irma was caused by such sins?  So while he may not have used those specific words, he is certainly a member of that group.

This certainly isn't the first time religious zealots have used natural disasters to drum up support and, more than likely, donations.  I recall Pat Robertson tried something similar about Haiti in 2010 when a devastating earthquake struck the country.  I'm not sure if you will remember, but Robertson even predicted a disaster for Dover PA in 2005:

"Conservative Christian television evangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them yesterday not to be surprised if disaster struck." (Robertson Says Town Rejects God)

So it's a pretty common theme. I recall a post from 2010 about an Iranian cleric claiming "Women's promiscuity and revealing clothing causes earthquakes".  I guess Iran being located in an Earthquake prone region has nothing to do with it.  Anyone else remember Jen McCreight's "Boobquake"?

I'm a little surprised kennie is trying to separate himself from the group, it's not like he's suddenly changed his mind on sin?  While it would be fun to claim his Rainbow lights on his ark park ministry is a sudden show of support for LGBT rights, it's not, he's trying to re-claim the rainbow for his version of evangelical pseudo-Christianity.

Bottom line is simple, anyone actually believe little kennie doesn't belong in the same group as the rest of the pseudo-Christians who want to blame natural disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes, on sin and homosexuality?  I didn't think so!

What 911 means to little kennie ham

While many of us were remembering September 11, 2001, little kennie ham was not just trying to make some religious mileage out of it with one tweet, he was trying to re-define the word 'marriage' with three.  Now, why would he want to do that?  Simply put . . . he's homophobic.  Here is the series of twitter posts from the little guy on 9-11:

Now I do not follow kennie on Twitter, I actually caught this reported from the Friendly Atheist: "Ken Ham Thinks He Can Defeat Same-Sex Marriage With a Hyphen", a blog I read often.  Once I read that, I popped over to Twitter to take a look myself, and sure enough, kennie wants to spell 'Marriage' as 'Mar-raige' and use the definition of the word 'mar' because it means 'Damage/Impair'.

I know little kennie only wants to apply it to gay marriage, but I am sure there are others who might like to apply it to all marriages.  The Friendly Atheist had a great suggestion:

" . . .we can all start describing Ark Encounter as mar-velous and he won’t know whether or not it’s a compliment."

I was wondering at all the other words starting with 'Mar' and how people who dislike them can try and convince us to change the way we spell it to publicize their dislike:

• Mar-athoners - for couch potatoes.
• Mar-gerine - For dairy purists who insist on butter.
• Mar-ksman (or Mar-kswoman) - for those who don't like guns.
• Mar-aschino - for those who hate maraschino cherries.
• Mar-supial - antikangaroo bigots.
• Mar-ch - for those years the month comes in like a lion.

There are many other words starting with the letters 'Mar' that someone, somewhere, has a grievance with.  But just because a minority has a disagreement with a word, that doesn't mean we have to change the spelling.  Actually the whole idea is rather silly and reveals kennie's lack of understanding of English.  Hyphenated words are two actual words whose relationship is hyphenated for a new phrase that may mean something different than the two words individually, for example 'deep-fried',  'one-eyed', and 'same-sex'.  So if 'mar' means 'Damage/Impair', just what does 'riage' mean anyway?

In reality, there is no such thing as 'gay marriage', it's just 'marriage', little kennie and his philosophical compatriots like calling it that because it makes them feel all warm inside. . . sorta like when he pees on himself while wearing black trousers. Supposedly it's a nice warm feeling, but no one can see it.

And since little kennie seems to consider himself a martyr for Jesus in the make-believe 'war on Christians', we can call him a mar-tyr see if he gets it.

Little Kennie Ham is Disappointed! Yeah!

I am a Whovian, I've enjoyed the show through its constant evolution of main characters.  Just last year I got to meet David Tennant and Billie Piper at a Comic Convention in St. Louis.  Even saying that I have to admit  I haven't been too impressed with the current Doctor, but I am still a fan of the show.

Before getting into little kennie's problem, I do want to address something related and something that I think put's little kennie's issues in perspective.  The Doctor is an alien and while there has been a little romantic tension between at least one doctor and companion, there hasn't been any romantic entanglements.  In fact several of his companions have been involved with others.  The relationship between the Doctor and the companions has been nearly always familial, more brother/sisterly than romantic.  So why is that important?  Well, as reported by the Christian Post little kennie isn't a fan of the show any more because one of the main characters is gay.

So how do I know little kennie is disappointed in Doctor Who?  Take a look at his own words -- which seem very discouraging:

"While it is sad -- but not surprising from the world -- this reminds me that we need to teach our kids not to be in love with the world, because we will be disappointed at some point."

What a thing to say, especially to kids.  What this tells me is the world changes, and you have to learn to deal with the changes -- obviously kennie can't handle change.  You can't hide your head in the sand, or stuck in the pages of a book written a long time ago.  How limited his world view is, no wonder he's incapable of love in the world -- a world he claims his version of a deity created! 

I really think this is also very  hypocritical of little kennie.  Doctor Who has featured:

• A time-traveling alien with two hearts and who knows what other physical differences.
• Traveling in a device often exceeds kennie's idea of a 6,000 year old Earth.
• Discusses concepts like evolution.
• Having a child through cloning.
• Santa Claus
• Homosexuality and Bisexuality, anyone else remember Captain Jack Harkness?

Why this sudden change?  After all the  . . . from little kennie's point of view, . . . objectionable things Doctor Who has presented, why now?  It is just because it's a main character?  No, I think it's simpler than that.  I think he's bleating now because the idea of a main character being gay is getting press, and we know how little kennie likes attention.  That's why I see him as more than a little hypocritical.

This isn't the first time kennie has had various things to say about gay people.  Recently he was also whining about a movie that portrayed a gay character in a very matter-of-fact way.  I mean how dare Hollywood see a gay character as in any way . . . normal.  Here is what he said about that:

The directors and actor are using an aspect of their film for good by showing that those with autism are just regular people and can do amazing things, but sadly they are also using their film in a negative way—to promote sinful behavior as acceptable, which undermines the entire movie. (Power Rangers Movie: It’s OK to Be That Way)

I haven't seen Power Rangers, for me,

 it's a wait until cable movie.  But this past weekend my wife, both daughters, and my granddaughter saw it.  Not only did they enjoy it, but they made absolutely no mention of any gay characters -- which tells me two things.  That it was portrayed as being nothing special and that is exactly what pissed kennie off.  What I find funny is that he sorta dropped a couple of Bible Quotes:

"Treating everyone, regardless of differences, with dignity and respect actually stems out of a biblical worldview. Because all human beings are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), everyone has inherent worth and value. We are all “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14)."

He used those quotes when discussing how an autistic character is portrayed, but apparently if you are gay, you have no inherent worth and value!  He goes on and rationalizes it because he considers homosexuality 'sinful'.  But do all Christian sects view homosexuality that way?  Not at all!  I do recall knowing many gay Christians.  I bet that aggravates kennie even more!  Do you see why I no longer refer to kennie as a Christian, and I refer to him and his cult members as 'hamians'.  They don't worship the ideas of Christianity, he worships his interpretation of a book.  This does lead me to have to ask just how are gay characters supposed to be portrayed?

Little kennie, and his hamians, do not like gay people, that's pretty obvious.  Oh they might say things like 'gay people are fine, as long as they don't behave in a sinful way'.  To me that is just a rationalization, declaring the act sinful and expecting gay folks not to act is an excuse.  But the reality is they don't like them, they won't hire them, they don't even want them in their ministry.  But . . . gay people exist in the real world, so how should they be portrayed?  Since not everyone, nor every religion, holds homosexuality in the same way little kennie does, gay people will continue to exist, much to his displeasure.  So we have two choices, either they are never portrayed in film or television or they are portrayed as . . . something else?  I'm having a problem here figuring out how kennie would like to see them portrayed, or maybe 'expect to see them portrayed' is a better way to put it. Since a realistic portrayal of gays isn't allowed, I would hate to see what portrayal he would approve.

In my opinion they should be portrayed as . . . people . . . after all, aren't they?  Gay folks are in this world and will continue to exist, so should they be represented in our entertainment media?  How about exactly how they live in the real world, just like everyone else.  Folks like kennie not only do not want them to exist, but don't even want anyone to even know they exist.  How realistic is that?

Gay folks aren't the only targets for the little, narrow-minded, hypocritical kennie.  Check out this announcement:

"Join us for the World Religions Conference July 24-27 and please share this with friends and family members who might be interested.More than ever, Christians need to know what other religions believe and then learn how to reach the lost souls mired in them." (World Religion Conference)

Don't you just love the last line?  Not even an effort at co-existing, or recognizing the many ways people believe in one deity or another might be just as valid as his way.  No, he and his ilk call them 'lost souls'.  But it gets worse . . . kennie appears to be hosting this 'conference'.  It's not obvious at first glance, but the contact number is the same and the website is one of AiG's. .  Here look at this:

Here's the link

Is he really asking for people of other religions to come to Kentucky and sit there politely while he tells them how mistaken they are and do his utmost to save their 'lost souls'?  Let us not forget, he's also asking them to pay for the privilege.  As one of my neighbors would say 'That takes chutzpah!'  

 If you've been reading my posts you know how I feel.  If you don't like the idea of homosexuality, don't be homosexual.  If you disagree with a religion, don't become a member of that religion.  If you think abortion is wrong, then never do anything that would lead to an abortion.  But you do not have the right to tell everyone else how they are supposed to live.  Your religious beliefs, or non-beliefs, are your own.  Don't ask me to support them and certainly don't demand that they be taught in schools.  Little kennie ham and his hamians are incredibly close-minded, as evidenced by his own words!