E-Referendum On Same Sex Marriage - VOTE NOW!

[Freeker]

http://www.referendumcanada.ca

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I don't have the time to really dig much further on this, but a quick poke around came up with this, Caution re. Defend Marriage Project , which might well be the outfit launching this potentially dodgy poll. The given numbers - over three to one against C-38 - suggest a certain partisanship, not to speak of the wording on the site of the poll itself. I do agree with whoever penned the link here, though - don't go giving out personal information!

Conversely, there is something worthwhile in monkey-wrenching these sorts of things, and I wish you could just throw your vote without subjecting yourself to months of harrassment from REAL Women Canada or Focus on the Family (though hope to actually balance out the numbers, given the circles this poll with move around in, would probably be misplaced energy).

[Kaidy Mae]

My poor brother's uber-Conservative in-laws sent him this site. He voted "Yes" and the number didn't change so he sent it along to me to try out (some time last week). It seemed to work. Out of curiosity I checked the site out yesterday...the "Yes" number is back to what it was before I voted!

The other night I went to see a speaker at a Forensic Psychiatry conference who was discussing terrorism. He made a really interesting point about how terrorist cells get formed in other countries. Often people with similar likes/ideas/etc. will end up on the same website. Now, say that website happens to support a certain ideology (in this case one that supports the "traditional family"). The visitors to the site find people they share views with. They can bounce ideas off of each other and comment on how lost others are. This professor's point was that there may only be 20-50 people on that site. However, because it is on the "world wide web", it is believed that people all over the world are taking part and sharing the same views. The ideology is given the illusion of being accepted and supported on a global scale. Yet, in actuality, there are only 20-50 people who really believe in this particular ideology...hence the ball gets rolling. Long explanation, but helps to illustrate how the "marriage defending" groups feel that there cause is not only the right cause to belive in, but the only cause people believe in.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I checked the site out yesterday...the "Yes" number is back to what it was before I voted!

That's obscene! Thanks for that, KM. So much for Christian values like honesty; isn't there something they're supposed to observe about not bearing false witness? The hatred and contempt of some of these people seems to trump just about anything.

Grr. My poor teeth can't take much more of this.

On the other point, I've made it a rule in the papers that I assign that students not use any websites as sources unless they be primary sources - i.e. news outlets or scripture citations. The internet makes it way too easy for any idiot with an axe to grind to create the illusion of irreproachable truth, or mass consensus. As a further caution, I always give that slightly outdated reference to the Bloom County strip where Oliver Wendell Jones hacks into Pravda and messes with the headlines - "Gorbachev Sings Tractor! Turnip! Buttocks!" Nobody knows Bloom County anymore, apparently, but I think they get the point.

[MarcO]

So much for Christian values like honesty; isn't there something they're supposed to observe about not bearing false witness?

Seems that went the way of "thou shalt not judge" and something about living life with compassion and humility.

I am just surprised there hasn't been a more public outcry from Christians who don't feel well represented by the Evangelical nutjobs running around saying insane things all the time. I don't believe for a second that all Christians should be painted with the same brush. Seems to me Christianity is not incompatable with liberalism but it's hard to find public examples of this. The loonies just scream louder I guess.

Damn it is frustrating.

[Kaidy Mae]

Excellent point MarcO! I know that if some tyrannical group was using my religion as their soapbox I'd take issue with it. I too find it hard to believe that Christians have such a strong belief in conformity that they will let anyone represent them.

I didn't hear anything about members or leaders of the church commenting on Jimmy Swaggart's remarks (which even condoned a hate crime/murder). Maybe that's just not good "news".

[hamilton]

Bruce Cockburn is about the only Christian I ever see publicly speaking out against a lot of the right-wing Christians.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I love that line from "Red Brother, Red Sister":

"And it left me crying thinking about it/How they used my saviour's name to keep you down..."

Plus, of course, the entirety of "Gospel of Bondage" -

Tabloids, bellowing raw delight

Hail the return of the Teutonic Knights

Inbred for purity and spoiling for a fight,

Another little puppet of the New Right

See-through dollars and mystery plagues

Varied detritus of Aquarian Age

Shutters on storefronts and shutters in the mind -

We kill ourselves to keep ourselves safe from crime.

That's the gospel of bondage...

We're so afraid of disorder we make it into a god

We can only placate with state security laws

Whose church consists of secret courts and wiretaps and shocks

Whose priests hold smoking guns, and whose sign is the double cross

But God must be on the side of the side that's right

And not the right that justifies itself in terms of might -

Least of all a bunch of neo-nazis running hooded through the night

Which may be why He's so consipicuously out of sight

Of the gospel of bondage...

You read the Bible in your special ways

You're fond of quoting certain things it says -

Mouth full of righteousness and wrath from above

But when do we hear about forgiveness and love?

Sometimes you can hear the Spirit whispering to you,

But if God stays silent, what else can you do

Except listen to the silence? if you ever did you'd surely see

That God won't be reduced to an ideology

Such as the gospel of bondage...

[SaggyBalls]

The visitors to the site find people they share views with. They can bounce ideas off of each other and comment on how lost others are.

hmmm...interesting direction to go isn't it...

[TimmyB]

Bruce Cockburn is about the only Christian I ever see publicly speaking out against a lot of the right-wing Christians.

God bless Bruce Cockburn

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

It should probably be added that mainstream Christians denominations - viz. United Church and Anglicans - do a pretty good job too. I passed by Anglican Church House (national headquarters) yesterday, and the bookstore window display had a raft of really progressive stuff up; you couldn't find Stupid White Men so prominently displayed at Chapters anymore, e.g., nor, even more to the point, the most recent offerings from John Spong.

Pity, of course, that those are the denominations suffering the most marked decline in numbers, relative to the right-wing (manifestly evangelical) ones.

[SaggyBalls]

why can't we all just hit a bong?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

'Cause they'll crucify us.

Woman facing marijuana charges in US loses refugee bid

[timouse]

the CBC ran a documentary on gay marriage, focusing on the surviving spouse after a tragedy...the worst one was 2 midwest men who were a gay couple running a farm. they both sunk all their money into improving the farm, and were quite successful until one passed away. instantly the surviving family of the dead guy (who had not spoken to their uncle in 15 years, no doubt on account of lifestyle issues) came out of the woodwork and grabbed the farm out from under the survivor...

the current rules have to change. not only are the laws as they stand economically and personally crippling the surviving partners of gay couples, but there are millions of loving same sex couples out there who are truly happy. why not let them live? and in a larger sense, there's no more humane way to help reduce the world's population. who knows, some of these coules may even opt to adopt kids with no families...i just don't understand.