"A big problem is the churches..."

[onager]

That's a line spoken in the new Showtime documentary L Word Mississippi - Hate The Sin.
Directed by Lauren Lazin.

Fascinating and heartbreaking film about lesbians unlucky enough to live in Mississippi.

Don't want to ruin it for y'all with a lot of *SPOILERS," but this is really worth watching.

And I can't resist a couple of notes:

Since this is Mississippi, many of the gay women interviewed seem just about as religiously insane as the good Xians persecuting them on a daily basis. Not one single person had given up their religion, or at least didn't mention that.

One woman is a former preacher herself. Started a very successful ministry to drug addicts. Until her fellow preacher publicly outed her in front of the whole congregation.

And speaking of preachers...we get to hear quite a bit from one Randy Cofield. Who is typical of the bloated, poisonous little toads croaking from pulpits every Sunday.

He starts off by saying "Homosexuals are DERANGED!" But then generously allows that gay people "can be freed from the slavery of sin!"

No, Randy, they need to be freed from the Bronze Age bullshit you and your buddies are peddling. Asshole.

Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of editorializing there. Won't happen again.

[PoutrageFatigue]

1. Well, yeah....

...I would have thought that was pretty self-evident. ..

[Warpy]

2. Offhand I'd say those poisonous toads croaking away in the pulpits

are the major problem with the south and increasingly, the midwest. People in the cities are mostly fine, they have plenty of opportunities for social interaction without churches. However, in small towns across the country, church is where you go to socialize without fistfights followed by hangover.

The toads suck them in to a poisonous form of religion by convincing people that their churches are the way to bribe their way out of hell, a fate that is automatic for all of us who weren't born rich.

[Curmudgeoness]

3. When I moved

back to my small hometown from Houston, after 14 years in the city, that was my joke---and it wasn't a funny joke. "There are only two places in this town to meet people, churches or bars." It really is true about a lot of small towns.