Israeli religious leaders unite, call gays "unacceptable, dirty".

[Bluebear]

Religious leaders met on Wednesday in Jerusalem in a united protest against a gay pride festival planned there in August. From left: Sheik Abed es- Salem Menasra, deputy mufti of Jerusalem; the Rev. Michel Sabbagh, the Latin patriarch; the Rev. Aris Shirvanian, the Armenian patriarch; Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi; and Rabbi Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi. The man at right was not identified.

International gay leaders are planning a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem in August, saying they want to make a statement about tolerance and diversity in the Holy City, home to three great religious traditions.

Now major leaders of the three faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.

Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, added: "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."

"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/international/worldspecial/31gay.html?hp&ex=1112331600&en=ea87f5d9f1d87d9d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Clark2008]

1. Wow - looks like a fun bunch.

eom

[Kerrytravelers]

29. ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:rofl: :woohoo: :thumbsup: :bounce: :toast:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. It's hard to respect religion when their leaders even look like they

are from the same dark ages they'd like to hurl us all back into

[foreigncorrespondent]

11. What I find ironic...

...is when you delve back into religious history, and especially Catholic religion history you find that they in fact accepted homosexuality, and went as far as approving of same sex marriage.

It seems the dark ages religions were far more accepting than the way things are now.

I guess people back then were a lot smarter, because they obviously read the bible and understood what it was saying, rather than twist its meaning to suit their own bigoted agenda.

[jdj]

21. what I find ironic is we aren't that far historically from "dirty jew".

that was some of the same propaganda that the nazis used to defame jews. Oh the sick irony.

Of course we did it with native americans, as in "filthy savages", and you can still hear this is the south as far as african americans go, the other day my boss said about one of our (white) sub-contractors "you'd never guess she's married to a black man, she keeps herself so clean.

I think I have the code for prejudice worked out, it's all purpose, and works on any class of people you want to apply it to.

it's God, Intelligence, Hygiene, Sex, or GISH for short.

any propagangda defaming any group will contain one or all of the above; they don't worship God right or at all(or the right God), they aren't clean, they are stupid, and they are sexually perverted in any direction. If anyone has anything to add to GISH that they see as a recurring aspect of prejudice propaganda please p.m. me with it, this is one of my pet topics.

[autorank]

3. Oh, and they're supposed to look clean! Right...

:rofl:

[Carolab]

4. What IS it with men and their pricks anyway?

Women don't put up this much of a stink over lesbians.

[jdj]

22. you ever notice how weird it is that in an androcentric culture

the touch of the penis is the kiss of death?

this is one I can't make sense of.

Like in the rape case where the girl was passed out, after the act they scrawled all these hateful words on her...but it was only after she'd been annointed by these various phalli that she morphed into the these hateful terms, they didn't do this before, they did it after.

and the virgin birth is the *immaculate* conception. and a virgin is *chaste* and *pure*, when she loses her virginity she is *deflowered*, *despoiled*, somehow defiled.

She only fits the descriptives of slut/whore/tramp/harlot/etc because of what the penis does to her. Without these actions she is perfectly clean.

I don't understand why more men don't pick up on this. It's really some vile anti-penis propaganda that we swallow in this culture from day one, and you never hear men standing up and questioning why the penis has such power to render a whole person dirty and immoral, whether gay or straight. And it's ANY penis, not just bad penises, ANY penis that deflowers the maidenhead or any penis that goes where no man, supposedly, is supposed to go, renders the person it entered bad somehow. It's power, but it's so negative and creepy.

Men need to do a vagina monologue type thing for themselves; you'd think from our culture the penis itself is an STD.

[Az]

23. Gene lines

Its not the touch of the penis that does the damage. Its the touch of another man's penis. Its a posession thing. If the woman is compromised by the touch of another then the line of succession cannot be ascertained.

[jdj]

24. I get that. So is this flying over the top of men's heads or

so they just have a tacit acknowlegement that they are fighting their battles in the female body.

Because if I were a man hearing this shit about the power of my penis to defile, especially with regards to virginity, I'd be pissed.

[Az]

26. Such things are based on how one views the world

We are approaching the matter from a sociological/biological point of view. They are approaching the matter from a dogmatic moral position based on a doctrine they believe to be true. The range of ways to view such matters is as diverse as the human population.

[jdj]

28. no, I think they need their paradigm shifted but have no motivation to.

if something is fucked up, but to your advantage, why change.

the lack of curiosity about what might lie on the other side that could be possibly even more fulfilling and advantageous is disappointing, however.

[Az]

30. Oh from our perspective

Yes they definately need to be brought into line. Their archaic position is demonstrably harmful to people. But its not a simple matter of explaining our positions to them and happly expecting them to take our word for it.

[Carolab]

25. But this doesn't apply to gays. n/t

[readmoreoften]

27. no, but men put up a stink over lesbians too n/t

[Dutch]

32. yeah, all homophobes are men...

Honestly, way to grind your own axe.:eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

5. Jerusalem is the City of David

Of course, you all familiar with the story of David and Jonathan.

[tuvor]

6. I wonder how they feel about David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi

http://members.aol.com/matrixwerx/glbthistory/jonathan.htm

[foreigncorrespondent]

13. One of the most...

...romantic versus in the bible has to be:

"Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whether thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

[Az]

7. This is a common outcome

One has to realise that moral positions really are not written in stone. A society explores and discovers various aspects of our human nature. Sources of moral authority contend with changing social values. Through the chaos a balance establishes in the society made of the mix of sources governing morality.

As we extend our influence to different cultures we are going to find that few if any cultures are in the same place culturally or morally. Thus when we look at a culture that continues to embrace morals we find repugnent we are repulsed.

But it takes time. It takes time for a culture to embrace new ideas. We can't force our's on them. The best we can do is provide them with information and our insite on the matter. And of course we have to realise that there will always be elements within the society that see our influence as corruption rather than assistance.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. The great uniter!

Nothing brings religions together like the hatred for a common group! It used to be witches, then Jews, then communists, now it's gays! And, to preempt the "whining" about how I am "bashing" religions, I know that not ALL religions are anti-gay, but if you don't see homophobia as a powerful tool at "rallying the base," then you are myopic!

[IndianaGreen]

9. Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism are not anti-gay

It is the ideologically rigid branches of Judaism that are having problems.

I highly recommend the documentary Trembling Before G_d that deals with gay and lesbian Orthodox and their struggle to gain acceptance from their families and friends.

[Az]

12. Don't forget Humanist Judaism n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

18. Oh I know that.

Even the conservative branch is starting to come around. I have seen Trembling Before G-d and it is FANTASTIC! Of course parts of it made me bawl!

[sakabatou]

10. Ah, the Orthodox...

Very uptight people. Used to be one of them, not very fun.

[Must_B_Free]

14. Dude! What about those fucking hats?

[incapsulated]

19. Looks like a funny hat convention, lol.

Isn't it sweet to see such unity, though?

"Let's all stop fighting and come together to get those fags!!"

[BuyingThyme]

15. Can anybody find a

comparable photo from the Hitler era?

[DulceDecorum]

16. Is the man at the right from Chabad?

He looks like a Hasid from Brooklyn.

[Bluebear]

31. I think he is a gay infiltrator from a Fiddler on the Roof touring company

Shhhh don't blow his cover.

[Book Lover]

17. Because, of course,

there's no gay sex happening in the Holy City right now. Right this very moment, there is absolutely zero intimacy between members of the same gender in the city of Jerusalem. Oh, and I also bet that there never was any, either. Ever.

[JVS]

20. Wow, they finally found some common ground!

Peace must be approaching ;-)