Today In Christian Love: Women Who Have Sex Before Marriage Are 'Filthy Dishrags'

At Lancaster Baptist Church in California, one of those mega-churches — because a sign that you truly love God is to attend services with 5,000 devotees — Pastor Paul Chappell decided to tackle the issue of premarital sex, asking:

"One wonders, whatever happened to purity?"

Interesting topic, I thought, though clearly a topic more suited to America circa 1957 than America in 2014, but, you know, whatever. But then the not-so-good pastor went a step further, and wondered about the women who engage in premarital sex, calling the “filthy dishrags.”

"Whatever happened to that? Whatever happened to the days when girls said, 'I'm not going to be touched by every guy? I'm not going to walk down the aisle like a filthy dishrag on my wedding day.' Whatever happened to that day?"

I kina wondered what he thought about men who engaged in premarital sex. I imagine, Chappell thinks they’re real men, high fiving one another because they just boned their girlfriend or something. But Chappell doesn’t seem to realize that the women he calls filthy dishrags are having sex with men, so why no name-calling for the masculine gender?

He says his rant, and name-calling, was spurred on by criticism of his church's purity pledge:

“There is a standard in this church that the dresses are going to come down to the knee when a lady stands up here. They call me old-fashioned ... I’ve counseled too many men to know that if we don’t have everything covered just right they’re not going to be thinking about wonderful grace and Jesus.”

And some men in the crowd actually shouted "amen" to that, though I wonder how many filthy dishrags those men had gotten into during their lives. Before their wedding day; heck, maybe some of these men even married the filthy dishrag though why one would ever buy the cow … yada yada yada.

Chappell also ranted about the way women dress, especially at wedding and funerals:

“I get so sick and tired of going to weddings and, it’s the bride’s day, and here’s some Jezebel with hardly any clothes on strutting around the wedding, Look – you come to a wedding around here, show some respect to the bride. You go to a funeral ... women do the exact same thing. You come to the house of God, it ought not to be a flesh show!”

But Pastor, how are the men in your congregation ever gonna find that good woman if they don’t go through a Baker’s Dozen or so of those half-dressed filthy dishrags shaking their groove thangs on the dance floor at a wedding; or, I would imagine, bending over provocatively at the buffet after the funeral.

Pastor Chappell needs to wake up and quit shaming women for premarital sex because, as I said, unless these women are having battery-operated sex, or having girl-on-girl sex, then there are an awful  lot of men out there dirtying up the dishrags without fear of reprisal from Chappell's pulpit.

via NCRM

Lincoln University President Robert Jennings Blames Women For Rape

Stories of sexual assault on college campuses have been all over the news lately, especially with regards to college athletes who sexually assault women being given a kind of pass because, you know, football … or basketball … money. But, Robert Jennings, president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, says we cannot blame the rapists, but we should sometimes blame the women because they ask for it.

"Men treat you — treat women — the way women allow us to treat them. When it comes time to make that final decision, we’re going to go down the hall and marry that girl with the long dress on.  And let me tell you why I know I’m right about it. I’m right about it because we had on this campus last semester, three cases of young women, who after having done whatever they did with the young men, and then it didn’t turn out the way they wanted it to turn out, guess what they did? They then went to Public Safety and said, ‘He raped me.’” — Robert Jennings at, of all places, at Lincoln's All Women's Convocation in September

Trouble is, what Jennings seemed to have been saying doesn’t appear to be true. Michael Noone, the first assistant district attorney in Chester County, says he has never heard one single report of rape at Lincoln from the last semester, and the one allegation of attempted sexual assault was dropped because "it could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."

But that didn’t stop Jennings:

“When you allege that somebody did something of that nature to you, you go to jail. I don’t care how close they are to finishing the degree, their whole life changes overnight. Why am I saying all this, ladies? I’m saying this because, first and foremost, don’t put yourself in a situation that would cause you to be trying to explain something that really needs no explanation had you not put yourself in that situation.”

He’s victim blaming and victim shaming; it’s a woman’s fault if she gets raped because she was in a place where she shouldn’t be, like in public, or dressed in a way she shouldn’t dress because men cannot control their sexual urges when a woman dresses provocatively — as in wearing clothes — and so if they rape her, well, she was kinda asking for it.

All of Jennings’s comments were caught on videotape during the conference, but now, of course, he’s claiming that they were edited and taken out of context:

“No one would ever discourage a young woman on this campus from reporting a sexual assault. In fact, I emphasize to them how serious that allegation is and that the university takes it very seriously and so does the federal government and so does the court.”

And yet at the very meeting where he made his outrageous statements, there was a presentation for female students to show them how to dress; they were told not to show panty lines or wear dark bras under white shirts because that means they want to be raped.

And if they dress like that, and if they are raped, then it is their fault, and they shouldn’t press charges because they might ruin the life of a college male who’s close to graduating.

For its part, Lincoln University said that the point of the convocation was to help female students make "informed decisions about dating, in an effort to protect them from some males who may mislead them," and noted President Jennings "holds the same kind of conversation with male students in their convocation."

Bully for him that he talks to male students about the subject, but you know he also tells those students that just because a woman looks like she wants to be raped, and goes to a place where she’s likely to be raped, doesn’t mean they should rape her.

Now, to be fair, I’m sure there are cases of women who cry rape when it wasn’t rape, but that is not the norm, and that does not ever mean you blame any woman who says she was raped. You investigate, fully, and then you punish the perpetrator, either the rapist, or the woman who lied about being raped. You do not simply lump every rape allegation into the “She Asked For It” or “She’s Just Pissed Because He Never Called Back” category.

And Jennings should be ashamed of himself for suggesting that, and he should step down immediately. It’s a disgusting tale he’s telling.

Now, of course, Jennings is no longer playing the “out of context” game and has issued an apology … of sorts:

"My message was intended to emphasize personal responsibility and mutual respect. I apologize for my choice of words. I certainly did not intend to hurt or offend anyone."

He didn’t intend to offend anyone.

Note to Robert Jennings: It should have gone like this:

“I’m sorry I offended anyone with my remarks. I’m sorry I hurt anyone. I.Was.Wrong.”

That’s an apology.

via NCRM

A Trifecta of GOP Asshats ... And How They Think About Women

Y’all remember Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? From the big budget action films, for one; and from his time in office as Governor of California; and, lastly, as the man who cheated on his wife with the maid and had a baby with her.

Oh yeah, and it goes without saying he’s a Republican. I mean, he’s the stereotypical Republican. And even more so because of something he’s just done.

Back in 2003, Schwarzenegger requested the painter of his official portrait include his wife's, Maria Shriver’s, face in the painting.  And the artist obliged, creating a campaign button of sorts on Schwarzenegger’s lapel with Maria’s face on it.

Lovely, no?

Then, after leaving office the story broke of the maid schtupping and of the child he’d fathered with the help and, well, Maria, kicked Arnie to the curb. Oh, he begged for forgiveness; he publicly whined about wanting his wife back; he released this statement:

“After leaving the governor’s office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.”

His feelings of sorrow must have abated because Schwarzenegger has decided to re-issue his official portrait to the public, with Shriver’s face erased and replaced by a smudge.

That’s what he thinks of his ex-wife; it’s what the GOP thinks of women.

Okay, Ray Rice. Yeah, he beat his girlfriend in the elevator and lost his job, and the NFL is still trying to spin itself out of this one. But this isn’t about the NFL, but another three letters, GOP, and specifically Todd Kincannon, the chairman of the Simpsonville, South Carolina Election Commission.

Yes. South Carolina.

After the Rice story broke, Kincannon released this Tweet:

Uh huh. But he wasn’t done because, well, he’s a member of the GOP and the GOP thinks very little about women, unless the woman wants to control her own body. See, in Todd Kincannon’s world, Ray Rice is the victim, and ever since the story broke Todd has been on a roll, making light of domestic violence, violence against women, and even his own significant other:

Indeed, while most of us are in shock by what we saw in that video, Todd Kincannon thinks the woman deserved it, and that’s it’s all a big joke. Even his own wife, Ashley, should be grateful that she was thoughtful enough to be thinking of him, lest she get a beat-down, too.

GOP.OMG.

Well, well, well, last week South Carolina’s own Appalachian-Trail-Hiking-Mistress-Schtupping-ex-governor-current-congressman has broken off his engagement to his mistress because … his ex-wife is mean.

Uh huh. Oh, and he announced it on Facebook, changing his status from “Adulterer” to “Single.”

In the long and rambling Facebook post, Sanford complained about his ex-wife making life too hard for him with an acrimonious divorce, and then lists the amounts of money and assets he gave to The Darling Jenny—and, yeah, that’s sarcasm there because she’s no peach—and says she has continually asked for so much more that he had to ditch the mistress that he so loved but had never married:

“Jenny had said at that time was that if she didn’t get those things we would go to court and just have another public spectacle. I found that idea haunting, and so I indeed folded all the cards and that brings us to today. “

And so his five-year-engagement to his thirteen-year-mistress, The Not-So-Darkling Maria Belen Chapur suffered because, well, he cheated on his wife and she was mad:

“No relationship can stand forever this tension of being forced to pick between the one you love and your own son or daughter, and for this reason Belen and I have decided to call off the engagement … Maybe there will be another chapter when waters calm with Jenny, but at this point the environment is not conducive to building anything given no one would want to be caught in the middle of what’s now happening.”

And Marky ends by saying he must rededicate himself to God for answers; yup, a good Christian, and a good Republican, whenever they cheat on their wives and then have to break it off with their mistress, always turns to God because …..

Luckily, most people who are friends with Sanford on Facebook — and that in itself leads to the question WHY??? — aren’t nearly as accepting of his sad, sob story about mean Jenny; here are just two of the best:

It just proves, again, and how many times do the people of South Carolina need to be kicked in the teeth by Mark Sanford, that he cares most about his own personal life and less about the duties of the job to which he was elected.

But hey, South Carolina Republicans, you voted him back into public office. How you feeling about that now?

Schwarzenegger

Kincannon
Sanford

The GOP Hates Children, Too

It’s fairly clear that the GOP doesn’t like The Gays because, many of them, most of the party, is working against marriage equality everywhere; hell, they’re against any and all legislation that might be deemed gay-friendly.

And we know the GOP is anti-women because this party, of mostly old men, wants to poke their noses into women’s vaginas — and not in the way a woman might enjoy — and wants to tells women what they can, and cannot, do with their own bodies, their own healthcare, and, well, doesn’t think women should earn as much as men even if doing the same job.

The GOP is also anti-immigrant, and uses fear-based rhetoric to spread their message; how many times have we heard the wingnuts like Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert suggest that these children, children, coming across the borders are only coming here to rape “our” women. Man, that’s anti-women — suggesting that we, I assume, men, own women — and anti-immigrant. And let’s be queer, it’s only the brown-skinned undocumented immigrants the GOP has trouble with, because you never hear them rant and rail against the white ones coming here illegally from Europe.

But now it appears that some in the GOP are anti-children, working to pass legislation to restrict who can adopt a child in this country.

There’s a new bit of federal legislation — S. 2706/H.R. 5285 — introduced this week by co-authors, and Republicans, of course, Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, that would allow adoption or foster care providers to refuse service on the basis of their own personal religious objections.

And it affects everyone.

See, this new law, if passed, would allow a religious adoption agency from a non-Christian faith to refuse adoption services to a straight, Christian couple; a single parent seeking to foster a child could be denied; and, of course, let us not forget the gay and lesbian couples who would be told ‘No’ when asked if they might adopt a child.

Children, in need of a loving parent, adoptive or foster, would sit in orphanages or group homes because an adoption providers own personal religious beliefs will not allow that child to be adopted out to a loving home because, well, gay … or single … or of a different, i.e. bad, faith.

That’s the GOP people; working against LGBT rights, women’s rights, the brown-skinned, Hispanic speaking immigrants, and now children.

Is that the kind of party we want in an elected office? In any elected office?

via Human Rights Campaign

ISBL Asshat of the Week: Renee Ellmers

I don’t know why anyone would choose to be a Republican; sure, I get conservative; I get financial conservative. But what I don’t get is the rigid, rightwingnut religious rantings of people who say they want smaller government then try to get Big Government to stick its nose in every nook and cranny, and vagina, in the country.

And I’ll give men a pass because, well, men are idiots. But I don’t understand female Republicans. Why would you join a party, a political party that seems hell bent on telling you what you can do with your own body? Sure, I know there are Pro-Life women out there, but why let a man tell you what you can do, what health care choices you can make, and how you should live your live as though you don’t know how?

Then I read about Renee Ellmers, the ISBL Asshat of the Week and if she’s a typical Republican, well then, I get it now.

Recently, a group of the more conservative GOP women in the House of Representatives attended a Republican National Committee conference that was supposed to train them how to talk to women voters about Republican policies.  You know, cuz women — and by women, it appears they mean the non-GOP women — are dumb.

Since there are only 19 female Republicans in the House, it wasn’t a big meeting and it went mostly unnoticed; except for ….

One of the 19 was Renee Ellmers, a two-term Congresswoman from North Carolina. Ellmers shot to conservative asshat fame last year when she that she won’t be giving up her pay during the government shutdown that her party created because, she said, “I need my paycheck. That’s the bottom line.” 

She also, at the same time, used that tried-and-untrue GOP method of opposing Obamacare with a boatload of lies and innuendo; in fact, she was such an outright liar that even her own constituents stormed her Facebook page to put her on blast for “embarrassing them” and their state. 

But that didn’t stop Ellmers who, at that GOP conference on how to talk to female voters, gave a speech entitled "Taking Back the Future" and here’s a little of what she said:

“Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level. Many of my male colleagues, when they go to the House floor, you know, they’ve got some pie chart or graph behind them and they’re talking about trillions of dollars and how, you know, the debt is awful and, you know, we all agree with that.”

Okay, let me get this queer: she believes men are smarter than everyone else because they have props, and most of us are just too dumb to understand a pie chart. But she goes on — and boy, does she go on — to say that all women really want is more time in their lives … as in, and I quote, “more time in the morning to get ready.”

So, according to this woman, women are too dumb to understand a graph, and need more time in the mirror before heading out to do a job that men do better because they have graphs. But then she puts another nail into the coffin of the GOP when she said this:

“We need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman’s level and with everything that she is balancing in her life — that’s the way to go.”

Bring.It.Down.

Wow. So, the way to get women to understand GOP policies is to treat them as though they are stupid; use one-syllable words and pictures; maybe pretty music and mirrors and lights; shiny stuff.

Again, I say, I get conservative, but I don’t get why a woman should join the GOP when the men in the party want to tell her how to use, or not use, her own body, and the women in the GOP think she’s too dumb to understand anyway.

At least Renee Ellmers doesn’t understand, and that’s why she’s the ISBL Asshat of the Week.

Let me put it in a way she might understand: you’re dumb, honey.

via The New Civil Rights Movement

Hobby Lobby ... Your Source For Christian Love

The Green family, who own and run the Hobby Lobby stores — we have one here in Columbia, in which I will not set one foot — like to proclaim how ‘Christian’ they are; Steve Green, the president of the company, proudly says, "We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles."

Hardly. Look at the crap they sell and I dare you to find many that don’t say ‘Made In china’ on the bottom. I double-dog dare you.

China, a country that has one of the worst human rights records in history; a country where children often toil in sweatshops making the little trinkets you can buy at Hobby Lobby; a country where, in Shanghai at least, the minimum wage is $293 … a month. And that;s the highest paid anywhere in mainland China; it works out to about $10.00 a day … a little more than a dollar an hour.

That’s what your Christian Hobby Lobby is selling you. Doesn’t sound very Christ-like does it? Can you call yourself a "Christian business" when you support underage labor?

And since this issue is ALLEGEDLY all about Hobby Lobby’s Christian owner’s refusal to pay for contraceptives under their healthcare plan, let’s look at how China handles that situation, since Hobby Lobby is really an extension of the Chinese marketplace right here in our own back yard.

Think about China's one-child policy, which means that many Chinese couples hope for sons to carry on the family name; female children are considered valueless and because of that there is an enormous underground abortion business going on. Hobby Lobby, in purchasing goods made by children for a dollar an hour funds that abortion business. So, so Christ-like.

There are roughly 35,000 abortions in China every single day; 336 million over the last four decades. In purchasing Chinese made products, Hobby Lobby pays for that,. though they don't want you to know it.

Okay, sure, lotsa companies buy their goods from China and sell them on their shelves to us, but how many proclaim to be ‘Christian’ businesses run on Christian principles? How can they be so riled up about providing employees with health insurance covering contraceptives when they don’t give a good God damn about the policies in China that result in horrific child labor and forced abortions? 

If contributing to a healthcare system that provides state funded abortions or birth control was truly against their deeply held Christian beliefs, Hobby Lobby could easily have chosen to buy and sell goods made in the US. And they could have opted to do business in any part of the world where these services aren’t funded by tax dollars. They did not.

How is that Christian love?

And speaking of Christianity and faith, think about the 1.35 billion Chinese people who are denied the freedom to worship; Hobby Lobby doesn’t care about that because they have knick-knacks to sell.

So, if you shop at Hobby Lobby, think about that the next time; think about the children who made that plate; think about the women forced to undergo abortions because their unborn child won’t be male; think about the people in China who cannot freely worship. And if you still want that little trinket, then stop calling yourself a Christian, because you aren’t. If you still want to spend your money at Hobby Lobby, go right ahead, but in addition to knowing what you are buying, and where it came from, and how it was made, know where your hard-earned dollars go.

For their employees’ 401K plans, Hobby Lobby invests in the very industries the Greens say they oppose; they invest, and make money off of, the makers of Plan B, Tevo Pharmaceutical Industry. They also invest in Actavus, which makes a generic version of Plan B, and also distributes Ella, a second form of birth control that Hobby Lobby claims to be religiously opposed to.

Unless they’re making an investment in it.

Hobby Lobby also has investments in Pfizer, AstroZeneca and Forest Laboratories; companies that make drugs commonly used in abortions, including Cytotec, Prostin E2 and Cervidil. Hobby Lobby’s 401K investment program, which offers an employer matching contribution, also invests in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover abortion, abortion drugs as well as Plan B and Ella.

But they have no problem with that because they're making money off of those investments.

And finally, know that, just before declaring their Christian faith as a reason to opt out of paying for contraception under their healthcare plan, Hobby Lobby’s own private insurance plan actually provided coverage for both Plan B and Ella; it wasn’t until Obamacare came along that they suddenly had an issue with it.

That ain't Christian, it's Teabagging.

So, when you listen to folks praise Hobby Lobby for standing up for their Christian faith, be aware that they are not being truthful. They buy goods from countries that fund abortions, state-sanctioned and illegal abortions; they buy goods from countries that have one of the worst records for child labor laws. And, they take your money, the money you spend on bric-a-brac and crap, and invest it in the very companies that provide the kinds of drugs and services they say their Christian faith is against.

That is not Christian love; it’s hypocrisy; it’s corporate greed; it’s a lie.

source

#JoinTheDissent

via The Advocate

Two Mormons Threatened With Excommunication ... For Trying To Include Women and The Gays

Kate Kelly is a Mormon, and a human rights lawyer; she founded the Ordain the Women movement to push for women to be allowed to become ministers within the Mormon Church. John Dehlin created an online forum for Mormons and, as a doctoral candidate in psychology, published into the issues faced by openly gay church members; he wants the Mormon Church to embrace its gay members.

So, what do these two folks have in common? Well, because of their ‘radical’ ideas, they have been notified by the Mormon Church that they face excommunication for apostasy.

Yup, they are being threatened with being kicked out for their beliefs; and if it happens, it will mark the first time in twenty-one years that the Mormon Church excommunicated members for trying to bring the church into the present. In 1993, the Latter-day Saints [LDS] ejected a handful of members dubbed the “September Six” — members who published scholarly work against Mormon doctrine or criticized LDS leadership.

This latest move by the Church seems a surprise, as it comes at a time when it appears the LDS is ready to change the course of their rigid anti-gay, anti-women doctrine. They even released a new ad campaign, “I’m a Mormon”, which features people of all colors, and even some Mormons who identify as feminist, gay or liberal. Of course, these are the same Mormons that, until 1978, excluded many of their black members from the priesthood. Now, they are coming down strong against Kelly Dehlin, saying:

“Local leaders have the responsibility to clarify false teachings and prevent other members from being misled. Decisions are made by local leaders and not directed or coordinated by church headquarters.”

Dehlin was sent a letter by the president of his stake, or church region, whom he has never met, asking him to either resign from the church or face a disciplinary hearing. The letter also said, “Because of the love I have for you, I have become concerned about some of your recent statements and actions regarding this church and your place in it.”

Because of the love I have for you, I am asking you to keep quiet or be kicked out of the church, is what the letter is really saying.

Dehlin considers himself a true Mormon, and loves the church, but has always questioned the exclusion of gays and lesbians. His “Mormon Stories” website is aimed at Mormons who question their faith and it is because of the site’s popularity that he is being threatened with excommunication.

“Mormon Stories has always been about administering to those who have doubt and have hard questions. And I think Kate is doing the same thing. … I worry that the church is kind of shooting the messenger,” he said. “They’re shooting the people who are trying to help and be part of the solution.” — John Dehlin

The Ordain Women movement, organized last year by Kelly, clearly agitated LDS leaders by mobilizing protesters to travel to Salt Lake City during the LDS’ annual conference, in order to stand in line and be turned away from entering the male-only priesthood meeting. A demonstration in March drew 500 protestors who carried “proxy cards” signed by 400 additional supporters, but, still, the idea of female priests does not have broad support, even from Mormon women who say they are concerned about inequality and gender issues in the church.

Still, because of her organization, and her questioning leaders, Kelly received her excommunication threat earlier this month from her local bishop in Virginia informing her that she faced “disfellowshipment … on the grounds of apostasy [rejecting the revelations and ordinances of God, changing the gospel of Jesus Christ, or rebelling against the commandments of God].” She has also been called to a disciplinary council hearing later this month.

Kelly’s stake president also wrote her to say that if she did not shut down the website, dissociate herself from it and repent, she faced excommunication for “openly, repeatedly and deliberately acting in public opposition to the church and its leaders after having been counseled not to do so.”

Kicked out because she believes women should be ordained in the church.

So, while the Mormon Church plays this role, in media campaigns, of being more open, and perhaps ready to be inclusive of the LGBT community in the church, they are telling two members working for inclusion that they will be excluded if they don’t stop.

Excluded for working towards inclusion; it doesn’t get more hypocritical that that.

source: The New York Times