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How to Make Women’s Bodies Disappear, Pt 1: No Women in the Holocaust

By Chris Hall
April 4, 2013
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The censored photograph of Polish Jews surrendering to Nazis after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May, 1943.

The censored photograph of Polish Jews surrendering to Nazis after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May, 1943.

The injunction to “never forget” the Holocaust apparently doesn’t apply to the women who died, at least not as far as the Haredi newspaper Bakehillah is concerned. When the newspaper ran an iconic photo of Polish Jews being rounded up after the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, they blurred out the face of Matilda Goldfinger and her daughter Henka for reasons of “modesty.”

Ynet reported that the Haredi newspaper “Bakehillah” (In the community) censored the face of Matilda Goldfinger, the woman who appears to the left of the little boy wearing a yellow star with his hands raised in the iconic photo documenting the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1943, following the Jewish uprising there that began on the first night of Passover that year. Goldfinger’s daughter Henka (Hannah) was killed moments after the photograph was taken….

In response to inquiries from Ynet, Avraham Dov Greenboim, editor of “Bakehillah,” said the blurring of the woman’s face was appropriate, given that the article was focused on the little boy. “In addition, we honor the memory of victims of the Holocaust, and we also respect our readers and only put in front of them what they need and want to see,” he said. The paper, along with other Haredi publications, operate under the watchful eye of a “spiritual commission” that ensures “modesty.”

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Filed Under: Atheism, Feminism, Gender, Religion Tagged With: Atheism, censorship, holocaust, judaism, rape culture

Faith No More, Pt. 2: Genocide is Not Justice

By Chris Hall
December 31, 2012
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If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits. It is intellectual bankruptcy. With faith, you don’t have to put any work into proving your case. You can “just believe.” —Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

Blind Faith

Read Faith No More Part 1

The extent to which faith compels progressive believers to blind themselves injustice so they can pretend their own ethics are backed up by divine authority is illustrated beautifully by Nahida herself, in the article that originally started my Twitter war:

[Nahida] interprets the condemnation of Sodom through a pro-queer, feminist lens as well: “My interpretation is that it was because they were rapists, not because the people they raped where of the same sex.” The book’s message, to her, is that “even when you don’t agree with someone’s decisions, you have no right to suppress the free will that was given to them by God.” Therefore, she says, Muslim law is inherently pro-choice, and inherently against imposing one’s religious beliefs on other people.

Whether the crime of Sodom was homosexuality, rape, or mere blasphemy, there is no way to tell that story without showing up god as a malignant, unjust thug. Nahida’s supposedly pro-queer and feminist interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah conveniently glides past the fact that according to the story, two entire cities were massacred by her god because of an attempted rape.

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Filed Under: Atheism, Politics, Religion Tagged With: Atheism, feminism, Politics, Religion, social justice

Faith No More, Part 1: Why Religion is a Poor Tool for Justice

By Chris Hall
December 30, 2012
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As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.—Bertrand Russell

I believe, without reservation, that secularism is a far superior way to build a fair and just society than religious or spiritual thinking, no matter how well-intentioned.

Faith No More: We Care A Lot (Album Cover)That catches some people by surprise. When you’re out and open about being an atheist, they naturally think that the religious people you’re against are the cartoonish fundamentalist preachers on TV, the middle eastern theocrats that spray women in the face with acid for some crime or another against “modesty,” or child raping priests. And it’s true; I am against all of those people with a feverish passion. What catches people by surprise though, is that I’m also critical of the nice, liberal theists, the ones that I mostly agree with on issues of queer rights, feminism, poverty, racism, the environment, and so on.

And it’s true that I’m not against progressive theists in the same way that I am the fundamentalists. They are largely tolerant and decent people, and we can work together, at least in the short term. But in the long term, I think that using faith as a foundation for social justice is rot at the heart of the apple. What someone believes is important in determining what kind of person they are, but why they believe it is just as important, if not more so.

This has been sitting in my brain for a long time; it’s something that I wrestle with a lot, because criticizing religious progressives in some ways feels like kicking puppies. They are, after all, the good guys, as far as I’m concerned. I want more people in our society who support the rights of queers and women, who want people to have free medical care and free speech, and who are willing to stand up against poverty and racism.

But ultimately, I think that we’re a lot more likely to get those things if we stop trying to justify through the will of spirits and deities and prophets, and talk instead about the needs of ourselves and our communities, right here in the real world. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Atheism, Politics, Religion Tagged With: Atheism, feminism, Politics, Religion, social justice

The First Amendment: Christians Only

By Chris Hall
July 24, 2011
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Ed Brayton calls this quote by Bryan Fischer, the notoriously vicious Director of Issue Analysis at the American Family Association, “The Dumbest Thing Ever Said.” I don’t know if I quite go for that: it’s got some pretty stiff competition. The Reagan Administration alone provides piles and piles of political bullshit, and that only takes us up to 1988. Then you have to sift through another eight years of the George H.W. Bush years (starring Dan Quayle!), the crazed, drooling anti-Clinton paranoia of the eight years after that, and then finally the Shrub years, which may have triggered some tonic-clonic seizures as a result of all the facepalming I did in that time. Yes, the last thirty years of political culture have been heavy on the stupid, not to mention the sheer horrific. Fischer’s essay, in which he argues that Muslims—and by extension all non-Christian—have no First Amendment rights really falls more properly into that second category. The really horrifying thing is how used to hearing this sort of thing I’ve become.

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Filed Under: Atheism, Politics, Religious Right Tagged With: christianity, Religion

Chutzpah!

By Chris Hall
September 21, 2008
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The classic example of chutzpah, the Yiddish word for brazen gall, is that of a man who, after being convicted for killing both his parents, throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he’s an orphan. Everyone in every culture in the world has experienced chutzpah, but to my knowledge, only Yiddish nails it so precisely. The beauty of so many Yiddish words is that you don’t have to actually know what they mean to understand them completely when used. Yiddish is one of the most emotionally onomatopoetic languages ever invented.

Another example of chutzpah that rivals even the archetypal parricide is that of the Chassidic Jews in Brooklyn who’ve recently gotten into a snit because “scantily clad” women ride their bicycles on the bike routes along the bike paths on the streets running through the South Williamsburg area:  [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Religion, Sex and Gender, Smut Tagged With: judaism, public space

Children’s Books for Homophobes

By Chris Hall
August 18, 2007
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Wow.  This is what the Christian Right reads to their children at night, apparently, to make sure that they don’t turn out to be queer.  Right here we have the entire text of a darling little book called Alfie’s Home, which explains how, thanks to an emotionally distant father, a mom who’s too emotionally close, and a pedophile uncle, Alfie starts to think that he might be a homo.  Fortunately, there’s a wise and compassionate psychologist who hasn’t fallen prey to the homosexual conspiracy who can explain it all to him.  All Alfie really needs is some male bonding time with his dad, and probably a hooker or two, to make him happily heterosexual.
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Filed Under: Queer Politics, Religious Right

God Hates Fags — Even the Dead Ones.

By Chris Hall
August 11, 2007
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For the ultimate in Christian love and compassion we hie ourselves down to the great state of Texas.  Arlington, specifically.  The local megachurch, High Point Church, run by the Reverend Gary Simons.  When Cecil Sinclair, a Gulf War veteran and the brother of High Point congregation member died last Monday, the church volunteered to host a memorial service, complete with refreshments for 100 people and a multimedia presentation showing the deceased’s life.

Everything sounds good so far.  Except for that multimedia presentation.  Turns out that Cecil was a big ol’ homo, and the photos the family picked for the multimedia presentation showed that.  In glossy, high-def color.  Or in the words of the Rev. Simons: “Some of those photos had very strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging…. My ministry associates were taken aback.”

And once they saw those images, the church told the bereaved parents to go take a flying fuck at the moon.  Or, to put it more diplomatically and charitably, that the family would have to have the service somewhere else.

The Rev. Simons explains his decision thus:

The issue was not so much that Mr. Sinclair was, from the church’s perspective, an unrepentant sinner, he said. It’s that it was clear from the photos that his friends and family wanted that part of his life to be a significant part of the service.

The pastor said that he could imagine a similar situation involving a different sin. Perhaps a mother who is a member of the church loses a son who is a thief or murderer, Mr. Simons said. The church would surely volunteer to hold a service, he said.

“But I don’t think the mother would submit photos of her son murdering someone,” he said. “That’s a red light going off.” [Emphasis added by incredulous blogger.]

Even if I were a Christian (I’m not) who believed that homosexuality was a sin (again, I’m not), it wouldn’t occur to me in a million years to compare that “sin” to murdering someone.  And I certainly wouldn’t make such a comparison while such a person’s family was grieving for the loss of their loved one. 

And yet, as one of Cecil Sinclair’s friends points out, this isn’t new or unique at all:

[T]hat kind of reaction is all too familiar to survivors of the AIDS onslaught of the 1980s, said Ed Young, a charter member of the Turtle Creek Chorale. Back then, having churches turn down funerals of gay men was not uncommon, he said.

“It may be surprising to younger gays, because most gays think that doesn’t happen any more,” he said. “But it’s still there.”

It’s an ugly history lesson to be learning at this late date.  (link)

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Technorati Tags: homophobia, gay, religion, politics

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Filed Under: Queer Politics, Religious Right

Laugh or Cry, Your Choice

By Chris Hall
August 2, 2007
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Fundies Say the Darndest Things is a great site that shows what happens when you combine ignorant superstition, fear of your genitals, and a minimal familiarity with basic rules of grammar and spelling with a keyboard and an internet connection. If you were wondering who’s making up the 25% of Americans that don’t think George Bush is a nutcase, these are them. Some of FSTDT’s top 100 quotes from the non-reality-based community:

2006 Post of the year:

“No, everyone is born Christian. Only later in life do people choose to stray from Jesus and worship satan instead. Atheists have the greatest ”cover“ of all, they insist they believe in no god yet most polls done and the latest research indicates that they are actually a different sect of Muslims.”

Trinidad and Tobago, CARM [Comments (241)] 2006-Oct-01

Technorati Tags: weirdness, anti-feminist, politics

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Filed Under: Religion, Religious Right

Yes, Virginia, Perversion and Christmas Do Mix

By Chris Hall
December 11, 2006
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After Ted Haggard, and now this guy, it’s starting to seem positively de rigeur for Christian homophobes to have a nice, dark closet that they can hide in. And why not? Have you seen the way these people raise their kids? I’m surprised that we didn’t find out that Haggard liked to get rimmed by billy goats while dressed as Ava Gardner and watching reruns of Green Acres or something equally inventive.

If you really, really want to make sure your kid turns out to be the city’s biggest perv, Kids in Ministry International has just the thing for you. For a mere $124.95, you can get their Blood of Jesus Visual Kit. What do you get for your money? Well…..

  • Crown of Thorns
  • One Crucifixion Nail
  • Cat of Nine Tails Whip
  • Tabernacle Felt Set
  • Life-size Latex Heart Model
  • Kids Discover Magazine on Blood
  • Scarlet Cord with Tassels
  • Cardboard Ark of the Covenant
  • Cardboard Brazen Altar
  • Instructions to Make High Priest Costume
  • Instructions to Make a Temple Veil
  • Chef’s cap for High Priest’s Crown
  • Judge’s Gavel
  • Simplicity Patterns for Bible costumes
Nails
Crown of Thorns
Whip

With stuff like this, the parents should be happy if giving blowjobs for a nickel apiece in the back room of the Mine Shaft is the oddest thing their darling little angel winds up doing. I mean, I remember getting my first flogger, and it sure wasn’t a present from mom and dad.

The best thing, though, is the accessory they offer: The Sacrifice Lamb.

Sacrifice Lamb

Adorable, isn’t he? The Sacrifice Lamb “stands 15″ tall so it is nearly life-size of a new-born lamb.” Even better, it’s made to fit perfectly on the altar that comes with the Visual Kit, so that your darlings can practice their Holy Butchering techniques. (I suppose it would be “too Jewish” for them to include something on proper Kosher slaughtering methods.)

Christianity: for when your kid absolutely, positively has to be a closet case by 16.

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Filed Under: Pop Culture, Religion, Sex and Gender Tagged With: Christmas, Religion, Sex

Fear and Loathing and Fucking

By Chris Hall
November 9, 2006
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No matter how cynical I get, no matter how many nauseating things that I see perpetrated in the name of morality and decency, it seems that there’s always some fucktard out there whose mission in life is to show me that there’s always just a little farther they can take things.

In short, although I didn’t think that I could be shocked anymore, I am once again appalled at the fear and hatred of sexuality that those in charge of our country harbor in their hearts. Hatred of the naughty bits has been an aggressive part of the Republican party’s agenda at least since Reagan’s malign neglect of the AIDS crisis, allowing thousands to die because they were a bunch of sinful faggots and junkies while simultaneously casting abortion as a luxury item for murderous sluts who would rather kill a baby than lose their girlish figures. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Politics, Religious Right, Sex and Gender Tagged With: abstinence, Politics, public-health, Religious Right, Sex, sexual-education

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