Diane Vera

Looks like the religious right wing has succeeded in stalling the same-sex marriage bill in the NY State Senate.

Below are some news stories from June 1. (I've bolded some who/what/when/where details that I should research further later.)

( News stories from June 1 )

And now for some more recent news stories on same-sex marriage, mentioning various religious right wing groups. Some stories from yesterday, June 3:

( News stories from June 3 )

And now for some news stories from today, June 4:

( News stories from June 4 )

On Sunday, May 17, there were rallies in Manhattan on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue.

( Links to news stories about the rallies )

What's noteworthy here is the leading role of Hispanic Pentecostals. In years past, here in New York City, our local religious right wing consisted primarily of the Catholic hierarchy plus ultra-Orthodox Jews. Pentecostals and other Protestant evangelicals did not play a major political role around here, as far as I could tell. That seems to be changing.

An even more ominous new (as far as I am aware) development is the direct involvement of a Democratic politician, State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. in organizing an anti-gay rally. Politicians, even Republican ones, don't usually take a direct leadership role in activist organizing for or against specific political causes. Usually they'll only lend their name to a cause that's already well-organized and popular among their constituents. Evidently there must be lots of well-organized homophobia in Rubén Díaz's neck of the woods.

( P.S., May 19, 2009: Religious right wing in Nassau County )

Here's a news story I missed during the time I took a break from monitoring online developments having to do with Satanism:

( London Daily Mail story about Pope setting up exorcist squads )

See also the following posts on my Theistic Satanism blog (listed below in forward chronological order):

• Full-blown alleged SRA case in Italy - Friday, April 27, 2007
• Some news from Italy, about Satanism and about the Catholic Church - Monday, April 28, 2008
• More about Satanism and the Catholic Church in Italy - Friday, May 2, 2008
• Blaming "Satanists" for Catholic clergy sex scandals??? - Saturday, May 3, 2008
• How they'll clean up after you at a Maltese hospital - Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In The End of American Jewry's Golden Era, Daniel Pipes is quoted as saying:

"Militant Islam cannot be compared to any segment of Christianity, Judaism, or Hinduism. These religions do not embody groups with totalitarian utopian ideologies that seek world hegemony.

Yes they do.

Admittedly, the Christian and Jewish equivalents of Islamism (the totalitarian ideology) are a much more marginal fringe, among adherents of their religions, than Islamists now are among Muslims. Hence they are currently far less dangerous on a worldwide scale. But they do exist. And, from my point of view, the Christian counterparts of Islamism do pose a real threat - although not nearly as big a threat, on a worldwide scale, as Islamism.

The Christian counterparts of Islamism are Reconstructionism and Dominionism, whose longterm goal is the restoration of "Biblical civil law." For Christian Reconstructionists and other hardcore Dominionists, this would include a death penalty, by stoning, for "idolators," "blasphemers," and homosexuals. Although they are a fringe, Reconstructionists and other Dominionists are disporportionately active in the Christian religious right wing, still a very powerful political movement.

( Links to info about Christian Reconstructionism and Dominion Theology )

There are also ultra-Orthodox movements within Judaism with a similarly theocratic agenda - and which have enlisted the support of some like-minded non-Jews.

Traditionally, Jews don't try to convert non-Jews to Judaism. However, Jews traditionally do believe that all humans, including non-Jews, are obliged to obey the seven "Noahide laws," one of which is the establishment of courts of justice to enforce the other Noahide laws. At least "theoretically," this would include a death penalty for "idolators," "blasphemers," and homosexuals - albeit by beheading, rather than by stoning. There is now a new and growing "Noahide" religious movement of non-Jews who have not fully converted to Judaism, but who follow the teachings of Jewish rabbis (usually Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox rabbis) regarding the Noahide laws, and whose ultimate aim to establish a worldwide theocracy. Noahide groups differ on whether and to what extent the "death penalty" is to be taken literally, but, as far as I can tell so far, it seems that most Noahide groups, or at least the more visible ones, do call for a literal death penalty for purely religious transgressions.

( Links about theocratic Judaism and Noahidism, with my comments )

( Some info about theocratic movements in Israel )

Still, despite the growing strength of the Israeli religious right wing, it seems that GLBT rights are better in Israel than anywhere else in the Middle East.

( Links to more info on GLBT rights in Israel )

One of my heroes is Brad Hicks, who was one of the earliest activists against the "Satanic Ritual Abuse" scare back in the 1980's. (He discusses this briefly in the following posts of his here on LiveJournal: Wicca Lies (part 3): Hierarchy and Wow, I Haven't Been Threatened for My Writing in More than a Decade.) He was president of the Alliance of Magical and Earth Religions (AMER), in which Michael Aquino, founder of the Temple of Set, was also active.

Anyhow, a recent post of his calls attention to something very scary about Hillary Clinton. Her pastor, Doug Coe, runs a secretive, cultish group called "The Family" or "The Fellowship," to which a lot of religious right wing politicians also belong.

( More here about Doug Coe )

On another topic, another excellent post on Brad Hicks's blog: Republicans and the War on Justice.

P.S., 5/19/2008: Regarding Brad Hicks's fight against the SRA scare, I just now came across another relevant post of his: Personal History: Me versus a Religious Bigot Cop.

On the blog A Heathen's Day, I just now learned about a news story in the Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, North Carolina), SC lawmakers have religion on minds, in bills by Jim Davenport, Associated Press, Tue, May. 13, 2008, in which Democratic Senator Yancey McGill (of South Carolina) says that Wicca is not a religion, and he's not sure about Buddhism.

( More here )

"A Heathen's Day" cited the Wild Hunt blog, which referred to an earlier post, The ACLU, South Carolina, and Religious Minorities, about how South Carolina has generally become one of the "hot zones" for church/state separation and religious freedom issues.

Here's an interesting recent entry on the Wild Hunt blog,
Where Old Satanic Panic Practitioners Go. Apparently some now-discredited Christian "experts" on Satanism and Wicca have moved their base of operations to the Third World in search of new dupes.

In one of my replies in the thread Grandmothers arrested over 'satanic sex abuse' on "satanicnews," I wrote:

I do not deny that human sacrifice exists. However, it exists in the context of religious and magical worldviews that are largely (though not completely) extinct (unless you stretch the definition of "human sacrifice" to include things like religious wars, religiously motivated terrorism, and executions).

Satanism, on the other hand, is inherently post-Christian, or at least post-Abrahamic. Satanism necessarily involves reinterpretations of the Christian/Abrahamic figure of "Satan." (By the way, I don't define "Satanism" as narrowly as some folks do, e.g. by limiting that term of LaVeyan Satanism. To me a "Satanist" is anyone with a favorable view of Satan.)

Because Satanism necessarily post-dates the Abrahamic religions, most Satanists, of whatever stripe, are simply not in touch with the ancient magical and religious worldviews that necessitated human sacrifice. Ditto for most modern Pagans and occultists, whose beliefs are likewise post-Christian, even though they do pride themselves on drawing from more ancient roots. Of course, even Christianity does preserve the idea of human sacrifice in symbolic form (e.g. the Eucharist). However, by the time of the Roman Empire, most of the civilized world (not just the Abrahamic religions) had pretty much left human sacrifice behind.

( Read more )