Sins 2.0, Vatican SP1

Mark Morford has a fantastic column in today’s Sfgate commenting on the Vatican’s recent release of updated deadly sins.  Please check it out.

From Sfgate:

Note to the Vatican: You want true sin? Here you go: Lying to women is a sin. Pathological hypocrisy is a sin. Half a billion dollars in pedophilia lawsuit payouts is a sin. Homophobia is a sin. Hiding those golden vaginas is a sin. And creating new sins in a strange attempt to stay relevant as your church withers and struggles and falters in the new and spiritually hungry but religiously mistrustful world, that’s surely a sin.

No, wait. Check that. That’s not a sin at all. It’s actually just a sad, inexcusable joke.

Shaming the shameless

A group of some 300 dissenting Christians, gays and lesbians, and PFLAG rallied in the rotunda of the Oklahoma Reichstag Capitol building yesterday to demand an apology for the remarks of Rep. Sally Kern .    Covered in yesterday’s Oklahoman, the assembly was not attended by even one single member of the legislature.

The Rev. Jim Shields, a retired United Methodist minister who lives in Kern’s district that covers parts of west Oklahoma City and Bethany, called on the Republican legislator to hold meetings in the district to talk with gays and Muslims.

If Kern doesn’t do those things, then she should resign, said the Rev. Loyce Newton-Edwards, assistant pastor of the Open Arms United Church of Christ and president of the Oklahoma City chapter of PFLAG, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

More on point, for Kern has already said she would not apologize for her remarks, was this remark from Rob Howard of the Cimarron Alliance Foundation:

“Hateful speech leads to hate crimes just as surely as the sun rises in the morning,” he said.

Indeed.  How many more calls to Kristallnacht need our community endure at the hands of organized hate groups, which now include the Oklahoma state legislature?  Rep. Chris Benge (R-Tulsa), Speaker of the House, has refused to call for any official punishment or censure, referring to  Rep. Kern’s call to action as free speech.  Which goes to show, you can’t shame the shameless.  But we can’t stop trying.

Check out the Victory Fund and consider a donation to the group that brought Sally Kern’s shameless words to light.

Christian Anti-Defamation Group calls for Charles Barkley Apology

You may have seen on CNN or watched the Youtube clips of Charles Barkley taking conservatives to task for being “fake Christians” over the weekend.  He specifically mentions their opposition to gay marriage and pro-Life stances.

Said Barkley: “I think they — they want to be judge and jury. Like, I’m for gay marriage. It’s none of my business if gay people want to get married. I’m pro-choice. And I think these Christians — first of all, they’re supposed to be — they’re not supposed to judge other people. But they’re the most hypocritical judges of people we have in this country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they’re Christians. And they’re not forgiving at all…they should read the part about they’re not supposed to judge other people. They forget that one when it doesn’t fit what they want it to say.”

Predictably this is sparking an outcry from conservatives.