Today In Christian Love: Beaten For Being Gay

Matthew Fenner joined the Word of Faith Fellowship church in Spindale, North Carolina when he was just sixteen; by age twenty-one, he’d left the church, after claiming he was beaten, strangled, held captive by five church members, mentally, physically, and verbally abused because he’s gay.

For him, January 27, 2013, started off as just another prayer service, until parishioners began gathering around him.  They began to berate him because he was gay; one woman told him he was “disgusting.” This went on for two hours, with Fenner being pushed and beaten, and screamed at in a church ritual that some members believe was necessary to get Fenner to "break free of the homosexual 'demons.'"

Last week, five Word of Faith Fellowship church members — “Good Christians” Justin Brock Covington, Brooke McFadden Covington, Robert Louis Walker Jr., Adam Christopher Bartley and Sarah Covington Anderson — were indicted by the grand jury on charges of second degree kidnapping, simple assault and assault by strangulation; Sarah Covington Anderson was indicted on second degree kidnapping as well as simple assault and assault by strangulation.

In his affidavit to police, Fenner claims that, on at least three occasions, he was ganged up on and attacked, beaten, strangled, and demoralized for being gay. And he says that during that January 2013 assault, a group of church members, led by Sarah Covington Anderson, surrounded him, peppered him with questions about his sexual orientation, pushed him and screamed at him. It was then, he says that Sarah Covington Anderson grabbed him by the throat, punched him, and beat him. He says at least fifteen to twenty other “Christians” surrounded him while the beating took place.

“By this point, Sarah began to tell me how much she couldn’t stand to be around me and that I was disgusting because of my sexual orientation. I told her that I was sorry that I didn’t know what she wanted me to tell her and to which she then slapped me with a great amount of force across my left cheek. At this point I was really starting to get scared.” — Matthew Fenner

Matthew says he joined the church, with his mother and brother, at a time when he was questioning his sexual orientation; he says he decided to attend the church and its school because of his mother.

"My mom and I were always really close and I just thought maybe I can keep an open mind and see if it works — see if I can change. Obviously, that was really a stupid decision because you can't change who you are. But in my mind it seemed like the right thing to do." — Matthew Fenner

As a church member, he became a tutor, helping other students and going to services, but soon some of those “Christians” began to suspect Matthew was gay. It was then, after that January church service that he was attacked.

After he was released, and covered in bruises, Matthew raced home to his mother’s house; she refused to believe him, even though he’d clearly been beaten, and, in fact, both his mother and brother testified against him during the grand jury hearings.

Joshua Farmer, whose law firm is representing those five “Christians” calls the allegations “nonsense”:

“They are innocent of the charges leveled against them and we look forward to proving their innocence and to their complete vindication before a trial court. We are adamant that no one ever physically harmed Mr. Fenner… The church does NOT target members who are gay.”

But there are rumblings that this kind of behavior by church members — the shouting, screaming, physical abuse — is par for the course for Word of Faith Fellowship. The church, founded in 1979 by Sam and Jane Whaley, has, for years, been accused of enforcing extensive control over its congregation.

Former members say they were told by church leaders where to live and work, what to read, how to dress and when to have sex with their spouses. They say that Word of Faith practices "blasting," a form of hands-on, high-pitched, screaming prayer to drive demons from the bodies of parishioners like Matthew Fenner. In 2012, the church’s website stated, “Those who were once drug addicts, alcoholics, homosexuals, etc. are now delivered by the power of God and are living normal lives, serving God and doing his will.” Interestingly enough, since the allegations by Matthew Fenner, the statement has been edited to remove the word “homosexuals.”

Still, many LGBT groups have condemned Word of Faith after several young men — whose parents are church members — claimed they were abused because they are gay. In 2012, Michael Lowry made similar claims against the “church” which resulted in a Department of Justice investigation into the matter as a hate crime. Lowry later recanted his story and returned to the church, but today, he is once again out of the “church” and claiming he was manipulated by church members into recanting his story.

I’m always amazed by those in the far, far religious right, who rant and rave that the LGBT community is trying to strip them of their freedom of religion, and yet say absolutely nothing about the mental and physical abuse churches inflict on homosexual members. 

I’ve yet to see or hear of one instance where a gay group has kidnapped, beaten, verbally abused a member of any church to get them to renounce the demon of faith or come to “homosexuality”, but this kind of anti-gay behavior goes unpunished by so called “Good Christians” like, from left to right, below, Sarah Covington Anderson, Robert Louis Walker Jr., Justin Covington, Adam Bartley and Brooke Covington.

How Christ-like is that?

source

Random Musings

You know, last week when the Sixth Circuit Court ruled that discrimination against The Gays re: marriage was just fine, I loved the wingnuts coming out of the woodwork — the Bryan Browns, and the Brian Fishers and the Tony Perkins, and all those religiously-named Hate Groups — praising the judges on the bench for making the ‘right’ decision.

Funny, though, when the judges rule against them these asshats call them activists and unelected judges. Be careful boys, your hypocrisy is showing … again.

Speaking of rightwing loons, over there at Breitbart is a report that US Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch should face tough questioning before the Senate over her role in the 1992 Whitewater hearings:

“The prosecutor has a long career built of some high profile cases but there is one case Lynch was involved in that few are talking about. Lynch was a part of Bill Clinton's Whitewater probe defense team in 1992.”

One slight problem though. They’re talking about the wrong Loretta Lynch. The Lynch that was part of the Clinton defense team is on the right, and Obama’s nominee is on the left. 

It’s like they’re twins, right? So easy to get them confused.

I am not much of a fan of these action hero movies. I liked Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy because it was dark and edgy and, well, Christian Bale. I saw the first Iron Man because of RDJr; I haven’t seen a Thor or an Avengers because, well, it’s just not my cup of tea.

I did watch the new Superman on cable one night because, and again, well, Henry Cavill.

Do you blame me? I mean, sure, some of that body is the suit, but he is freaking hot and adorable.

Shoutout to Viktor at Maybe It's Just Me for first posting the pictures.

Hottie of the Week: Raza Jaffrey. He played Dev on Smash before they tried to reinvent that show between seasons and now he’s Aasar Khan on Homeland. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? We don’t know; we just know he’s delicious.

Bob Geldof is putting the Band Aid back on.

It was announced this week that Geldof will re-record the iconic charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas" to raise funds to fight Ebola. And some new voices will join some of the old ones, like U2; Sam Smith, will be there; Cold-meh, er, Coldplay, too. One Direction, yawn, and the incomparable Adele.

I’d suggest letting Adele do it solo, but that’s just me.

UPDATE:  Last week I posted about several North Carolina magistrates who quit rather than perform same-sex marriages after not one, but two federal judges said the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

And now, Judge John Smith, the chief administrator of North Carolina’s courts, has told Senate leader, Republican Phil Berger, that magistrates are duty-bound to perform same-sex marriages because it’s their job; and, he added, there is no federal law or rulings exempting the asshatted judges based on their personal religious leanings.

Of course, though, Berger and some two dozen other Senate Republicans have asked Smith to revise his directive, calling  it “at best incomplete and at worst misleading” by failing to take into account constitutional religious freedoms and federal civil rights laws for workers and government employees. But Smith countered with a 1991 Supreme Court decision that he says excluded state judicial employees from the definition of protected employees on the basis of religious beliefs because they are federal employees and cannot use their religion as a discriminatory weapon.

Then, as Republicans are apt to do, like rabid stupid dogs with a bone, Berger says he’ll introduce a bill next year protecting state officials who refuse to issue marriage licenses or perform weddings for same-sex couples.

Because discrimination is perfectly okay if you couch it in religion and use it against The Gays.

So, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the “Harlem Hate Pastor, James David Manning from ATLAH [All The Land Anointed Holy] Church. He’s the man of God who said The Gays should be stoned, er, put to death.

Now, though he’s gone even nuttier. Last week he claimed that Starbucks is “ground zero” for the Ebola outbreak because, ahem, "upscale sodomites" frequent the joint, and this week he upped the ante by claiming that Starbucks is using "sodomites' semen in lattes."

He says the reason that these “upscale sodomites” and "untoward types" hang out at Starbucks because the semen "flavors up" the coffee "and it makes you think that you're having a good time drinking that cup of latte with the semen in it."

Yes. He did. And he has a church. And he has a congregation. Seriously.

More stupid people? Okay ...

Megyn Kelly, one of Fox Now’s Talking Blonde Bimbos recently introduced Fox News’s Mike Huckabee as a guest on her “news” program The Kelly File with a casual mention to his show, only she called it, wait for it, it’s perfectly suited to a wingnut like Mike, she called it Fuckabee.

Oh, but she did.

More stupid people? Okay ....

Khloe Kardashian, whom I once thought of as the smart one — not saying much for that family, I know — has sparked a bit of outrage on Instagram after posting this meme on  featuring herself and her sisters Kim and Kourtney:

Khloe simply captioned the photo, “True.” While some fans found it funny, most found it racist and offensive and called her out on it; then after it received more than 400,000 ‘likes’ — from stupid racists, ALLEGEDLY — and 26,000 comments, Khloe deleted the picture from her page.

Like I said, I once thought she was the ‘smart’ one but she’s just as big a media-whore as the rest of that lot.

So, it looks like Joan Rivers should never have died.

A new Department of Heath report on her death confirms that, while undergoing an endoscopy at the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic, there were multiple failures in protocol which occurred after her trachea closed up while she was underwent an unauthorized laryngoscopy by her personal physician:

Rivers never signed off on that procedure, which was performed by a doctor who was not authorized to operate at the endoscopy facility.

Rivers was possibly given too much anesthetic because she was not weighed before the procedure, which is standard practice.

The facility lacked the basic medication that could have been administered to open her trachea and quickly save her life.

As a result, Joan Rivers suffered irreversible brain damage.

In addition, there were stories about someone in the room while Rivers was under anesthesia taking selfies of him/herself with the comic; Yorkville Endoscopy states that the staffer taking the photos has been fired, as has the physician who performed Joan’s endoscopy.

While I am not a person who sues, if this was my mother, I’d sue the pants off the clinic and both doctors.

Joan Rivers was 81, but she showed no signs of stopping, or, hell, even slowing down before she went in for a routine endoscopy.

Sad. Sad.

As I've said, I wake up with a song in my head every day; something old, sometimes new, sometimes something I had no idea I even knew.

This week it's The Byrd's "My Back Pages."

North Carolina: Six Judges Resign Over Marriage Equality and the Law

It was just a few years ago that the people — at least some of the people, a bigoted majority — of North Carolina voted to add a ban on same-sex marriage to the state Constitution, and a lot has changed since then; except for the bigoted people part.

Last month, when the Fourth circuit Court ruled that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, and there struck down, it also included the bans on marriage in West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. And while Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina accepted the ruling, South Carolina’s asshat Governor Nikki Haley and its asshat Attorney General Alan Wilson, have vowed to stand in the way of equality for as long as it takes to keep South Carolina in the Dark Ages.

Okay, rant about South Carolina over, because this is a rant about judges in North Carolina.

Since same-sex marriage was legalized in the state on October 10 six North Carolina judges have resigned from their benches because they do not want to go against their Christian faith and conduct wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

I say, Good bye! Hope you find work wherever Bigoted ex-judges find work. Surely there’s a website for that … HatfeulMagistrates.com?

Those judges, those, and let us not forget this part, public servant are John Kallam Jr., Gilbert Breedlove,  Bill Stevenson, Tommy Holland, Gayle Myrick and Jeff Powell; they say they are waiting on God to give them direction in starting the next phases of their lives.

I think God is thinking, You’ve chosen your direction, now live with it.

Bill Stevenson is the latest judge to have publicly stepped down from his position, rather than marry a gay couple:

"It was something I had to do out of conscience. I felt like to perform same-sex unions would be in violation of the Lord's commands, so I couldn't do that."

Now he is out of a job that paid him $50,000 a year to uphold the law, all of the laws, in his state. And, again, goodbye, and don’t let the door hit you where the Good Lord split you.

Here’s the deal: as a judge your are a public servant, elected, or appointed, to, ahem, serve the public; and that means all of the public, not just the parts of the public you agree with, or even like. Your job was to put your own personal bias out of the way and do your job.

You cannot do that? Then go. I hear the Piggly Wiggly is looking for bag boys.

Former judge, since he cannot do his job the way it was intended, Tommy Holland, who is also Baptist, said he knew he had to resign as soon as he got a memo from the state saying that magistrates would have to honor the new marriage law no matter what their beliefs on same-sex marriage were:

"When the federal judges ruled that gay marriage was legal and North Carolina honors that, and part of a magistrate's job is to perform marriage ceremonies, I knew I couldn't honor that law. It's against my belief. It's against what the Bible says … I was raised a Southern Baptist. God has always taken care of me."

God; as I said, She’s up in heaven just shaking her head, because even She knows that the United States is not now, nor has it ever been, a Christian nation; even She knows we have a Separation of Church and State in this country, which means you, as judges, should keep your church out of the state’s business.

But, since you can’t do that, can you ride a bike? Maybe you can deliver pages, though I worry that your black robes will get caught in the gears. 

And former judge Gayle Myric echoed the hateful sentiment when she resigned:

"I believe that marriage was ordained by God to be between a man and a woman. For me to do what the state said I had to do, under penalty of law, I would have to go against my convictions, and I was not willing to do that. I want to honor what the Word says."

Um, most folks believe God’s word is Love, Gayle, but I guess you think God’s word is Hate the Fags. I picture you trading your black robe for a white one, and your gavel for a torch.

Now, the Six Looney Judges are but a small portion of the 670 county magistrates that serve in North Carolina, and other, so-called, Christian judges who haven't resigned have indicated that they will simply not conduct the same-sex marriages as required by law, which could lead to their dismissal.

Good. Bye. If you cannot do the job for which you were elected, or appointed, to uphold the laws of North Carolina then you have zero business of the bench; unless it’s a park bench and you’re feeding the pigeons and looking through the help wanted section.

Of course, these wingnut judges have the support of wingnut politicians-mostly Republicans, of course; Republican state senator Phil Berger, and 27 other Republicans, have requested the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts to protect state officials who refuse to participate in gay marriages because of religious beliefs. Berger is said to be drafting a bill that will grant protections to state officials who refuse to either issue marriage licenses or conduct gay marriages, out of religious belief.

But, again, if we allow this handful of Bigot Judges to decide what laws they want to uphold and what laws they don’t then why have judges, or courts or laws at all? Why not just let the mayhem ensue?

Your job is the law; the law says marriage equality is legal.

Uphold the law, or get off the bench.

source

Marriage Equality Inches South ....

Earlier today a federal appeals court panel in Virginia became the second one this summer to strike down a state ban against same-sex marriage, making it more likely that the Supreme Court will settle the issue as early as next year.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond ruled 2-1 that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry that is paramount to state marriage laws:

"We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws."—Judge Henry Floyd

The circuit court has jurisdiction over Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina [emphasis mine]. The panel's decision will not take effect for at least 21 days while circuit clerks defending the state's ban decide whether to appeal to the full appellate court or the Supreme Court.

It’s getting closer, y’all!

UPDATE:
The latest news is that the Attorney General of North Carolina has now said he will no longer defend that state's marriage ban in light of the Virginia ruling!

UPDATE # 2
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson  says South Carolina’s gay marriage ban remains intact and he sees no need to change course because the U.S. Supreme Court will likely make the final decision about gay marriage.

South Carolina ... and Alan Wilson ... you disappoint me.

via USA Today

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

ISBL Asshat of the Week: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory

Up there in neighbor to the north, North Carolina that is, Republican Governor Pat McCrory has opted to pass over protections for LGBT workers when he signed a new executive order that bars employment discrimination for state workers on the basis of “race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability and genetic information.”

Let me make this queer: he wants to make sure that no one is discriminated against in the state’s hiring policies unless those people are LGBT and then let the discrimination roll!!

And while North Carolina LGBT advocates have condemned the policy, and are demanding an explanation, a McCrory spokes-tool, Ryan Tronovitch, claims McCrory’s new executive order mirrors federal employment language which already includes protections for LGBT workers.

Except that isn’t true.

Still, McCrory declared, as he signed the order, “This order ensures fairness and encourages people to work for state government. Insisting on nondiscrimination will strengthen our state and demonstrate that we value diversity of thought and each of our citizens’ unique backgrounds.”

Nondiscrimination, though, does not apply to sexual orientation or gender identity. So, really, it’s not nondiscrimination, it’s discrimination.

North Carolina — one of 29 states were LGBT employees can be fired based solely on their sexual orientation and gender identity — currently has no employment protections for LGBT workers. And efforts to pass employment protections for state workers and teachers have consistently stalled in the Republican –controlled state legislature because, well, gay.

Workers tied directly to the federal government are already protected under pre-existing presidential executive orders and rulings from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and last week President Obama said he would issue an executive order more clearly prohibiting discrimination in federal employment on the basis of gender identity.

It might be a tough sell in North Carolina because the Governor, and his flunkies, don’t seem to know what the law entails, or what it even means. See, when asked to comment on the lack of employment protection for North Carolina LGBT employees, McCrory Deputy Communications Director Ryan Tronovitch stated that McCrory’s executive order was similar to both federal language and past executive orders from previous North Carolina governors:

“This Executive Order mirrors federal language as well as orders issued under Governors Hunt, Martin, Easley and Perdue over the course of more than 30 years. Insisting on fairness and nondiscrimination for employees and applicants to North Carolina’s state government is a tradition that Governor McCrory is proud to continue.”

But, federal equal employment policies do, in fact, cover sexual orientation, instituted by executive order of President Barack Obama, as well as gender identity, as interpreted by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And when this fact — and you know how republicans handle facts … they act like they don’t exist — was pointed out to Tronovitch, he replied, “Actually…you are wrong” and then directed the writer from qnotes — the source for this post — to an outdated 2009 version of federal employment policies.

And when it was pointed out, again, that he was wrong, Tronovitch finally acknowledged his earlier, incorrect statement, but then fell back on that old, still untrue, standby argument that McCrory’s new executive “mirrors” federal regulations.

Like I said, they don’t need no stinking facts.

Asshats never do.