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Sunday, November 12, 2006

Sir Elton v God

Sir Elton John has recently made some statements that firmly place him in the camp (members of which I encounter on a regular basis) that seems to believe that "religion" is to blame for pretty much everything wrong with the world today (I know, I should just be thankful he's not blaing the Jews directly...)

"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays... From my point of view I would ban religion completely... the reality is that organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate...

The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave? Why aren't they coming together?"
My first thought on this kind of mindset is that people, in general, are assholes. They often use religion as a justification for their actions. If religion was "banned," the assholes would just find something else to justify themselves with.

He, of course, also ignores the large number of religious people who campaign FOR gay rights and AGAINST war. But I guess just demonizing your perceived opponent as a monolithic whole is much more fun..

Second, I find it funny that someone who has had to deal with so much intolerance of his sexual orientation and lifestyle is so intolerant of other peoples' belief systems. Can you say "hypocrite," children? I knew you could!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one to see the double standard in this argument. Everyone should be tolerant and accepting of the gay lifestyle, but let's demonize and insult anyone who opposes it.

The background image on this page is a Hebrew translation of the verse from Bob Dylan's song  It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), from which the title of this blog is taken. Translation courtesy of Yoram Aharon of Hod-HaSharon's page--found via YudelLine-- which has many Dylan lyrics in Hebrew.