Rubio, Rubio, Wherefore Art Thou Rubio? The Non-Romance Of LGBT Equality In The Last Week

Marco Rubio is neither for nor against the LGBT community. But he's definitely for the Christian Right.

Now take deep swig of bottled water and explain all of that to us again, Marco.

Actually, Marco has a problem 'splainin himself to everyone. If ever there was a candidate who looks confused while being "certain", it's Rubio:

With Bob Schieffer:

"I don't believe courts should be making that decision, and I don't believe marriage is a constitutional right," he added. "I also don't believe your sexual preferences are a choice for the vast and enormous majority of people. In fact, the bottom line is that I believe that sexual preference is something that people are born with."

By saying that being gay is not a choice is Rubio giving a hand the the lgbt community?  But yet be says that marriage in itself is not a constitutional right. WTF ? Don't discriminate, but don't give people rights, either.

Oh, but he DID say that he would attend a gay wedding. BFD.
But you can't talk nicey-nice to gays while courting the likes of Tony Perkins.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, which lobbies against same-sex marriage, said socially conservative candidates in 2016 will face the challenge of "distinguishing themselves in a crowded field, so there are those who are going to try to solidify support early. Sen. Rubio has hit a stride where he's comfortable talking about these issues, even though some people in his party are not."

So ... in Iowa:

Rubio drew loud applause when he said the institution of marriage consists of one man and one woman.

Scheiffer To The Rescue:

In his appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, anchor Bob Schieffer introduced Perkins by saying “we have been inundated by people who say we should not even let you appear because they, in their view — quote — you don’t speak for Christians.”

The Cordileone Conundrum:

CBS SF reports:

In a written statement, the Archdiocese of San Francisco said other Catholic bishops from around the country will attend the March for Marriage, saying it allows Cordileone to “remain home and attend to the pastoral needs of the Church here at this time.”

Attend to the backlash from parishioners and prominent Catholics, that is. On more than three fronts, Cordileone has shown himself to be the anti-Francis: being divisive, moralizing, and hypocritical. 

“I suspect just because things have heated up so much that he has changed his mind,” said Brian Cahill, a former director of Catholic Charities, who was among about 100 local parishioners signing an ad in The Chronicle last week calling on Pope Francis to replace Cordileone. “Everywhere I go — even at a Catholic Charities fundraiser the other day — I run into people who say, 'How can I sign something like the ad in The Chronicle?’”

The ad Cahill is referring to was an open letter to Pope Francis asking him to remove the Archbishop because his policies were so divisive. That letter - and the resignation of Bishop Finn may have made Cordileone nervous and uncertain about  his own tenure. 

Yet Francis has made no move to censure Cordileone in any way, perhaps because he is afraid of losing the strongest link to America's Christian Right, pro-family sector.

Hate March 2015

"The outpouring of support from the faith and pro-family communities has been amazing, and is a reflection of how important we see this opportunity to demand of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court that they respect our values and our votes in support of preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman," NOM President Brian Brown said in a statement before Saturday's march.

Amazing support? Do pictures lie? The group below included pro-same-sex marriage advocates. The estimate for the entire crowd: 10,000. Several thousand (mostly bused in for Rueben Diaz) is not terribly "amazing." And while NOM (National Organization for Marriage) has photo-shopped its gatherings to look bigger, this one doesn't seem to fill the Supreme Court mall.

Iowa

WAUKEE, Iowa —Several Republican presidential hopefuls are in the metro for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-Off event. The GOP contenders will offer their views on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues important to the Christian-Conservative constituency.
Gary Chidester, 65, of Lakesburg, said he had talked to most candidates even before the event, but remained undecided. He was most interested in hearing support for traditional marriage and opposition to abortion rights, adding: “As a Christian, when I’m holding my Bible and the words change in it, I’ll change.”

The people whole clung to their bibles as well were: Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Carly Fiorina, and Bobby Jindal. Strong supporters of RFRAs, these presidential hopefuls courted the Christian Right.

Marco Rubio was in good (if not entirely supportive) company.

Q: Why Can't Right-Wing Christians Police Their (Embarrassing) Own? A: Because They're Policing Everyone Else!

Idaho Lady Tries To Beat, Choke Jewish Woman Into Personal Relationship With Jesus

Yes, it's OK to distance yourself from the crazies, but sometimes distancing is not enough. So many Christians cry "we're not like that" while silently condoning the actions of the embarrassing few. Every day we see people who embarrass Christianity by using it to the extreme, like the case of the homeschoolers who tried to sell their daughter in marriage. 

International Cops For Christ 

You have the right at any time to stop this preaching to repent of your sins and to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Attorney – Romans 10:9-10. If you do not confess Christ, you will be convicted of sin before the Divine Court of Law and face an eternal sentence in Hell – Revelation 20:12-15. Do You Understand?

In a political landscape that has religious freedom as its mantra and "religious persecution" as its great social concern, the force of evangelism goes unnoticed: International Cops for Christ is just one of the organizations that promotes what some people might consider forced conversions.

Project ROSE is a Phoenix city program that arrests sex workers in the name of saving them. In five two-day stings, more than 100 police officers targeted alleged sex workers on the street and online. They brought them in handcuffs to the Bethany Bible Church. There, the sex workers were forced to meet with prosecutors, detectives, and representatives of Project ROSE, who offered a diversion program to those who qualified. Those who did not may face months or years in jail.
In the Bethany Bible Church, those arrested were not allowed to speak to lawyers. Despite the handcuffs, they were not officially “arrested” at all.

In Montgomery, Alabama, a similar program, called Operation Good Shepherd, is explicitly designed to bring young women under the power of local Christian leaders. “What we want to do is combine the religious community and the Mont­gomery Police Department, and we want to unite those as one,” explained police corporal David Hicks. No non-Christian religious groups are allowed to participate in the program.

Grass roots conversion conspiracy? Perhaps. But policing souls is what many evangelicals see as a calling, forgetting such things as separation of church and state and the individual's right not to be coerced into any form of religion. 

NALT

"Not All Like That" is a project that affirms the Christianity of gays and lesbians. That's fine, but does NALT have any actual power in policing the ones they are distancing themselves from? No. "Not All Like That" is a nice group - in other words, a group of nice people who are scorned by most Evangelicals. They are also exclusively associated with the gay community. So how about Jews? How about prostitutes? How about atheists? Do they have any Christian groups accepting of them? NALT may be a step in the right direction, but it is a baby step, not the kind of forceful leap needed to shake up the "Christians" embarrassing the rest of Christianity.

Would that a non-denominational Christian tribunal existed to strip embarrassing "Christians" of their Christianity, or at least their association with Christianity. An excommunication of sorts - one enforced through social media - might seem vengeful and drastic, but embarrassing people who are in themselves embarrassments would be fitting. Their websites, publications and rallies would be declared "no-go zones" for Christians. 

A Christian tribunal. We can dream, can't we?

Of course, a problem presents itself in the fact that anyone can declare themselves "Christian" and get away with most anything non-Christian. Such is a society with freedom of religion: people are free to use religion in any way they want. And according to Evangelicals, they are free to use people any way they want in the name of religion. 




The Embarrassing Criminals:

Everyday, we experience people who, in professing their love of Christianity, unmask themselves by being un-Christian.

Benny Hinn - The domino (Let the Bodies Hit The Floor) healing of Benny Hinn is certainly entertaining, but it's also embarrassing to serious, reasoning Christians. Hinn's lavish lifestyle is also a testament to greed resulting from the gullibility of desperate people. His shills are never ashamed to look as if they are wired together with high voltage cable. 

Cindy Jacobs - Jacobs cannot be cast as a charlatan simply because people are dumbfounded that anyone believes her. But some people do, since her "ministry" rakes in cash enough to keep her in ridiculous outfits. 

Ann Coulter - "Christianity drives everything in my life." However, her eschatology ("love thy neighbor" is a minor, incidental tenet) and self-admitted mean-spiritedness undermines all her claims to Christianity. In fact, the only reason that the gold cross she wears hasn't burned a hole in her chest is because her righteous arrogance oozes out of every pore, forming a force-field through which Jesus Christ's teaching could never get through. 

Victoria Jackson - To associate with Victoria Jackson (who recently claimed that Obama is most certainly a Muslim) is to have your I.Q. syphoned out of you by a black hole of reason. The only guest on her show to make her look intelligent was E.W. Jackson and that's saying quite a lot. 

Bryan Fischer - Changing positions for Bryan Fischer at the American Family Association has done nothing to undo the hatred he continues to spew. The man seems to thrive on ostracism, since he wasn't a featured speaker at the Values Voter Summit last year. 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone - In his latest skirmish with his unhappy parishioners, Cordileone was forced to "reconsider" wording in his now-infamous morals clause for teacher contracts. Considered the "anti-Francis" in his obsession with morals and opposition to gay rights, the archbishop was chastised by California lawmakers who threatened to probe schools for civil rights violations. 

His case brought up a significant point: must embarrassing clergy be policed by the state in order to draw attention to their un-Christian attitudes? 

Scott Lively - In yet another case of clergy being called to task for un-Christian activities, Lively has been hit with a "crimes against humanity" lawsuit concerning his involvement in Uganda. He continues to crow about his associations with Russia and Uganda and their acceptance of his rhetoric. 

Off Bounds

The crazies, the charlatans, the mean-spirited pundits should be exposed and declared off-bounds to a reasoning, loving Christian community. In affect, they have been time and time again, but people still contribute, still believe, still read and support them. They manage to survive scandals and congressional investigations. They manage to amass fortunes and (in the case of Cordileone) authority. 

Maybe their followers should be policed for being embarrassing to Christianity as well.