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Gay Marriage Leads To Mass Murder?

Is there a connection between same-sex marriage and mass murder?

That's what one religious right outfit is suggesting. This week, Morality in Media disseminated a statement noting that the Iowa Supreme Court had legalized gay marriage on the same day that a gunman murdered 13 people in Binghamton, New York. The headline on the release: "Connecting the Dots: The Line Between Gay Marriage and Mass Murders." The group's president, Bob Peters, notes that the "underlying problem is that increasingly we live in a 'post-Christian' society, where Judeo-Christian faith and values have less and less influence." And, he continues, this "secular value system is also reflected in the 'sexual revolution,' which is the driving force behind the push for 'gay marriage.'"

Here's the punch line:

It most certainly is not my intention to blame the epidemic of mass murders on the gay rights movement! It is my intention to point out that the success of the sexual revolution is inversely proportional to the decline in morality; and it is the decline of morality (and the faith that so often under girds it) that is the underlying cause of our modern day epidemic of mass murders. 

That is, he's not saying that gay rights activists are directly responsible for the murderous actions of gun-toting madmen. But Peters maintains that those who champion gay rights are undermining the moral fiber of society and that this assault on traditional values creates an environment in which killing sprees can more easily occur. These acts of gun violence, he insists, are the poisoned fruit of the push for gay marriage.

Talk about exploiting tragedy to advance an agenda. It might be tempting to dismiss Peters and Morality in Media as marginal, but this group did receive federal funding from 2005 through 2007. The money supported a Morality in Media project, ObscenityCrimes.org, which paid two retired law enforcement officers to review citizen complaints about obscenity on the Internet and to forward the best leads to the US Justice Department for possible prosecution. A total of $300,000 was provided to Morality in Media through two earmarks Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) placed into spending bills, according to Peters. And a portion of that money went to cover Peters' salary. As The New York Times reported in 2007, no obscenity prosecutions had resulted from the Morality in Media's obscenity-tracking work.

Peters tells me that since 2007--thanks to the fuss about earmarks--he has received no more funds from the US government. After the earmarked grants ran out in 2007, he did apply directly to the Justice Department and was turned down. Since then, he has raised private funds to keep ObscenityCrimes.org going. That may be for the best--particularly for Morality in Media. Peters has recently attacked President Barack Obama's pick for deputy attorney general, David Ogden, as an "ACLU-minded" sort who would "likely weaken" government efforts "to curb sexual trafficking and sexual exploitation of children." It would be difficult--or, at least, awkward--for Peters to blast a Justice Department that was funding his own work.

In his statement on gay marriage and mass murder, Peters notes that Christianity and Judaism teach "that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves and to forgive others." But on the subject of gay marriage, he does seem to have a rather unforgiving approach.

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Comments
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Homosexuality is no more

Homosexuality is no more immoral than Heterosexuality. Which is to say, NOT AT ALL.

However, demeaning and degrading fellow human beings? THAT is immoral. I am sure God would take issue with that. If there was such a person.

These people don't even have the common sense to be embarassed or ashamed of themselves and their bigotry.

Thankfully, they will lose this battle.

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"It is my intention to point

"It is my intention to point out that the success of the sexual revolution is inversely proportional to the decline in morality"

Well, I agree. As the sexual revolution succeeds, the decline in morality goes down. In other words, the sexual revolution leads to more morality. This guy is an idiot who either doesn't know what "inversly" means, or doesn't know what a double negative is.

shannon

Jenius

excellent point! Obviously he wasn't thinking clearly when he wrote his ridiculous article pairing gun violence and gay rights.

Shannon from Brooklyn
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/home.html

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I caught that, too.

I caught that, too.

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Guys like Peters are utterly

Guys like Peters are utterly bizarre. He tries for a completely untenable connection between mass murderers and gay rights even as his brethren (Beck, Hannity, et. al.) deny any causal relationship between their hateful comments and those same mass murderers. What astounds me--truly--is that these people, apparently, all believe they're ticketed for heaven. Unless, of course, they're simply knowing liars. If the latter, it depresses me that they're that cynical. I'd almost prefer them to be self-righteous.

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TFA: "It is my intention to

TFA: "It is my intention to point out that the success of the sexual revolution is inversely proportional to the decline in morality"

Anyone catch how the author fails to understand the meaning of "inversely proportional"?

How people this stupid ever learned to use computers is beyond me.

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And, speaking of 'people

And, speaking of 'people this stupid', how in the world did the TAXPAYERS of this nation get to pay the salary of this bigot? Amazing! AND! We didn't even know about it, until now. How very convenient. I guess we all need to get some friendly congress person to put an earmark in some unrelated bill to pay our salary for a couple of years!

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What the man wrote is very

What the man wrote is very philosophical and only parochial people would not understand the link between mass murder and homosexuality.
The question is the same for both criminals and homosexuals. are they born or made?

Viola

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Huh?

So, can I ask what sort of evidence you can provide for this? No? Didn't think so.

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So-called Christians are actually mass murderers

It seems to me that all the mass murders in this country are straight men who would have called themselves "Christians." I guess we can surmise from this that being a Christian turns you into a mass murderer.

Whereas I don't really know of any mass murders by homosexual atheists -- I guess that "proves" my theory.

Why do people think that their marriages are challenged by other peoples' marriage. Why is it more righteous to have game show contests where the "winner" gets to marry someone than to have two committed people in an actual loving relationship marry? Will someone answer that with something more intelligent that a verse from the Old Testament that uses the same language (meaning it equates them the same) as eating seafood. If you are a Christian you should know that Christ came and made a new covenant with people and God -- one that was no longer about the old laws of eye for an eye but rather about love. Most Christians hate Christ's teachings and run back to the Taliban-like teachings of the Old Testament.

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Trespass against Trespass _ for sake of argument!

It is not in my nature to be mean to people with whom I disagree. Assuming that statement actually means directly proportional to the decline in morality, I am inclined to think he may be right!!!!
Maybe the killer was a religious zealot who was is just sick of all that immorality evident and gaining upper hand in modern times. Or the reverend also has sometimes inadvertent thoughts of blasting the world to pieces! I know this is rather mean of me, but I hope to excused. Saying that gay marriage is immoral, is meanness too, because it implies that the two persons voluntarily entering a socially legalized relationship for whatever purposes is wrong! Why is it wrong? They are hurting nobody? They are certainly not condemning the way of life, that the reverend holds for more moral? They are gracious enough to leave him alone with his life. He should be gracious enough to leave them with theirs!

I sincerely beg his apologies for being forced to indulge myself in this rather equally vitriolic argument, but it is meant to enlighten the reverend, how much we can be off the mark in our convictions. Of course I am sure the reverend as no such thoughts, this is a deliberate bias on my part meant to draw his attention to the bias evident in his judgment about the motivation behind the actions of other people!

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Morality

I may also add here I certainly find that religious morality, as experienced by generations of men and women and put down in scriptures (not only that of the Bible) sometimes explain many phenomenon of social life better than any political or economical theory. It certainly is less the gay marriage but the political, social, institutional and predominantly from media reinforced GREED (as postulated by our great religious heritages) that is the source of much that is wrong with the world. It is the greed of Homo Sapiens on almost all the Universe, Other human beings and the Natural resources, the greed to make all into a private property although well aware of the fact that each generation of us a joke in the great time span of history.

Nature knows no private property and human beings are just her fantasy creatures, she bestows them an very tempting delusions of private property.

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Perspective

And lastly I assure you reverend that Natural Laws are more powerful than we all can imagine. They will put an end to it. The excessive specialization in the cretaceous and the excesses that Nature indulged had to end! You had the demise of the reptiles!
The Greeks knew about it. They even had a word for it: Hybris! But as ever and always there will be something new, and perhaps even more beautiful coming around the corner than the Mammals and angiosperms and playboy bunnies, boulevard-news celebrities and junk food, T.V and all that McLuhan Trash!

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Ludicrous comparisons...

On September 11, 2001, I watched in horror as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapsed a few blocks away from me, right across the street from the headquarters of the investment banking institution at which I was employed at that time.

Within 48 hours -- before the dust had settled and while first responders were still struggling to locate the bodies -- Pat Robertson took to the air and announced that gay men and lesbians were responsible for this atrocity.

I have not entered a church or house of worship since Robertson made that statement, and will never enter any church of house of worship again as long as I live. In the face of this, I have no use for organized religion whatsoever.

Now Bob Peters states that the "inverse relationship" between the "sexual revolution" and the "decrease in morality" (somebody has already pointed out that he got this wrong) can be seen in two issues -- mass murder and the legalization of gay marriage.

If this is the mentality that we have to face and against which we have to fight, then we need all the help that we can get. Thankfully, most Americans are not so benighted as to fall for this tripe.

Does Peters note the direct relationship between increases in computing power and the availability of laptop computers today that are more powerful than the IBM mainframes of 20 years ago on the one hand, and the legalization gay marriage on the other?

Does Peters note the availability of powerful new antibiotics to treat infections that were untreatable not long ago on the one hand, and the legalization of gay marriage on the other?

Any fool can note a correlation and then assert that the correlation is proof of a cause. Peters states that this is not what he is doing – I have difficulty believing that he does not understand the connotations of his comparison.

We won in Vermont, and we will probably win in New Hampshire and Maine in the near future. We will probably win in New Mexico within two or three years. Let’s keep focused on these (and other) goals, and not let this megalomaniac distract us…

PHILIP CHANDLER

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reply to Philip

Philip I think judging all religion based on the judgment of one fanatic's brand of religion is narrow thinking, and something we need to do less, not more or even the same. There are a lot of religions that work hard to oppose what fanatics like Mr Robertson represent, and are managing to make some progress.

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Of course

Gay Marriage Leads To Mass Murder?

Well of course it does. Mass murder, famine, economic meltdowns, global warming and Armageddon. It's all their fault.

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Humans are all born the

Humans are all born the same, however, during the process of socialization which is turning from a biological creature into a social person by exposure to 1- Family 2-Friends 3- School would shape up the features of one's personality. Now, that "tainted" or "immoral" content is surely in decline. How? The three elements before mentioned have been drastically changed in the last century due to the massive change within the fabric of ALL societies on the face of earth as well as the fairly easy accessibility to ALL sorts of information (Moral and Immoral) on the World Wide Web.

A child could be exposed to the internet long before he/she would make friends at school, therefore, individualism has taken a million shapes in the different layers of society. A simple example is, an unethical upbringing would produce a criminal personality---> A criminal personal is more likely to molest a child---> A molested child is more likely to become a homosexual---> A homosexual person is more likely to exhibit his/her acquired sexual orientation to others through uncountable mediums. Comparing homosexuals with criminals IS harsh but its a reality.

Homosexuality is DEFINITELY not a result of genetic reasons as well as Criminality. Here's the connections folks and to gay guys who would take this very objective point of view very personally I say: Don't let Hubris control you and use your head rather than attacking people for expressing their thoughts and presenting their arguments and by the way I am a homosexual myself but I realist one.

Peace to all

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I got stuck on this comment from ExFab

"... and only parochial people would not understand the link between mass murder and homosexuality."

Huh? It appears to say that only church-going, small town people don't understand this "link".

Well, I'm an agnostic, suburban housewife, and I don't understand it either.

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Um. I think our (remaining)

Um. I think our (remaining) Native American brothers and sisters would be justified in disputing that mass murder is a recent phenomenon. The perversion of morality espoused by some churches dates back that far as well. Coincidence?

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Yeah right. And I suppose

Yeah right. And I suppose gay people & heterosexual supporters of gay rights are responsible for the Nazi Holocaust (talk about mass murder!)--by self-proclaimed Christians I might add--and the deprivation of freedom, objectification, exploitation, dehumanization, physical abuse, of slaves in this country as well as lynchings that continued into the 20th century (by Christians); and the genocides of peoples in other countries whose regimes we have supported including materially, and the countless individuals murdered in the Crusades & the Inquisition (both of which "Christians" were instrumental in carrying out) and the murder of women in the Salem area who were accused of being witches (by Christians) & so forth & so on. For everyone's sake, get off your ridiculous, obnoxious, arrogant, self-righteous high horse, & quit inflicting your oppressive, fascist views on everyone else. Yes, you're entitled to your opinion & free speech, but not when it hurts others, oppresses others, poisons & degrades our humanity & becomes violence-inciting hate speech. Many of the shooting sprees are committed by people who admit & proclaim they were motivated by (their version) of Christianity & their irrational belief that they "must" perform their henious acts because they believe people are behaving in conflict with what (they think) the Bible dictates.
Furthermore, it's unbelievable that you got away with using taxpayer-derived federal monies, especially in a sneaky, unlikely-to-be-noticed way. How dare you! How presumptuous & self-serving. The audacity!
Then, after you have ceased your campaign of illogical persecution of others, try getting a life, & channel your energies into prosocial activities such as alleviating hunger, freeing dissidents & political prisoners from torture chambers (including ours--a situation which, thanks to President Obama, has drastically improved)--try Amnesty International & other legitimate human rights organizations--reducing & eliminating brutality, war crimes (including ours), child abuse & neglect, child molestation by heterosexual pedophiles, child pornography, human trafficking, burning of India widows & women accused of adulter, the genital mutilation of girls (& don't give me that cultural relativism absurdity to rationalize such practices), plundering, rape, bigotry, poverty, environmental pollution & devastation, gun worship, unspeakable animal cruelty of both domestic & wild animals, etc.
Jeez Louise, stop wasting time & resources on your vicious, ludicrous nonsense.

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Wait so let me see if I got

Wait so let me see if I got this right. A guy who got a bunch of money from the justice department to police the words sent through the TV by those behind the Christian sexual revolution has proven without a a sigle doubt or bit of evidence a link between catching the gay and seemingly unrelated distant events?

If the gay causes completely unrelated things far away to occur could it be possible the state of Vermont also contracting the gay will cause a completely unrelated distant good thing to occur rather then a bad thing? in this case filling my brain with all the biochem and enzyme kinetics material for this term.

Last year the midterms I took in physical chemistry and biophysics which fell on the same day the judges in California announced people could catch the gay as a legal couple I got A's on both midterms.

Could it be possible to request the next time two people with the gay being together is made legal the stop lights on my route to school be finally resynchronized. They have been backing up traffic for over a year now.

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I love how the mouths of the

I love how the mouths of the Christian Right constantly imply that anyone who doesn't subscribe to their world-view lacks morality. I am certainly not alone when I say that by attending a fairly fundamentalist Christian school during my childhood and early teens, I am quite socially conservative on many issues, despite the fact that I subscribe to a secular humanist view of the world. While my personal take on what constitutes 'moral' and 'immoral' behaviour has been shaped by religion, I do not require religion in order to have those opinions, or behave in a 'moral' way. Adherence to religion does not morality make.

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thank you for this nice

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