Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptist Church’s propaganda is all over the internet. Not in a sinister way, but the news that they plan to picket Heath Ledger’s funeral has been posted on facebook and myspace walls everywhere and emailed to death.

They are all too easy to dismiss as a bunch of loons. Because they are a bunch of loons. The fact that they’re so interested in other adults’ sex lives is more than a little bit pervy, and I think all this gay-bashing is more of an excuse to hold signs with rude pictures on them (see madman below) and bond with their peers than anything else.

Really, if you were going to make a serious point would you use a wee picture of two people shagging? I think no.

But as fun as laughing at half-wit bigots is, it’s actually all a bit worrying. Quite aside from the horrible distress they cause by picketing funerals (at random as far as I can see: they picket the funerals of soldiers because they defended a country that allows gays… what the eff?) there are gay people who have to grow up in their malevolent shadow.

According to The Rough Guide to the USA:

“In the heartland [of America] life can look more like the Fifties – away from large cities, homosexuals are oppressed and commonly reviled. Gay travellers need to watch their step to avoid hassles and possible aggression.”

I know Rough Guides aren’t a piece of political literature, but a “sadly” wouldn’t have gone amiss. It just seems a bit flippant. “Oi gays. You’re reviled, okay? Watch your step.”

What’s more it shows the Westboro bigots are not a mental minority, in the deep south their views are the norm. And that’s making me lose my faith in democracy. Something needs to be done to protect the gay people in these areas. But as homophobia is so widely accepted, any state intervention would be suicide for whichever party put it in place.

Anyone got any good ideas? Obama?

Abortion rally in Cardiff.

Ann Widdicomb MP is coming to Cardiff on 4th March as part of her “Not on your life..or anyone else’s” tour, which seeks to promote anti-abortion goals around the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

I will be going to protest outside.

The debate on abortion has been well and truly had. I’m not going to argue my side here, but I will state my position: I believe a woman’s body is her own, there are too many badly cared for children in the world, and that believing that terminating an early stage embryo is akin to murdering a baby is just a hop, step and a jump away from “every sperm is sacred”.

The details for anyone interested:

Not on your life..or anyone else’s, The City Temple, Cowbridge Road East:-Tues 4 Mar at 7.30pm

Oh Pope Benedict XVI, you are a card

Who would have thought the Vatican would go in for PR stunts? Well it seems it’s all for them: anyone who makes a Pilgrimmage to Lourdes within the next year gets less time in Purgatory, says Ben.

 

The… um… special offer(?) is to mark the 150 years since the vision of the Virgin Mary is supposed to to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes.

According to the nuns who taught me an hour of R.E. a day throughout my formative years at the now defunct La Sagesse Convent School, Purgatory is a pretty rubbish place. It’s where St Peter sends those of us who are not bad enough for Hell, but need a bit of punishment for their (non-mortal) sins before they’re good enough for heaven. So a buy-one-get-one-free offer on time there’s a pretty good deal.

Having said that, mortal sins – which include perjury, adultery, lust, masturbation and contraceptive use – are enough to get you sent straight to hell. And easyjet doesn’t fly to Lourdes…