The vote on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is scheduled to take place in Houston City Council chambers some time today. The ERO would simply prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on race, gender, religion, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity and a number of other protected characteristics . But from the moment the ordinance was proposed, the religious right has been rallying opposition with a series of scare tactics and misrepresentations about what the ordinance will do.
On Tuesday, for example, we came across a video featuring Pastor Michael Amador of New Beginnings Church in Houston from earlier this month. Branded with the logos of the far-right group Houston Area Pastors Council/Texas Pastors Council, Amador’s video urged ordinance opponents to attend the May 13 City Council meeting and speak against the measure. Amador explains in the video what he believes is driving the measure — suggesting, in essence, that supporters of the measure, including the mayor and council members, are also supporters of the devil.
The video can be seen below. Here’s a translation:
“We are living in end times, when many will come against our faith, against evangelism and against Christians. Now, we are confronting something very serious. The mayor of Houston wants to pass a law that will let men enter women’s bathrooms. We, brothers, have to be united in fighting against this. We can’t let the devil do what he wants. We have to stand firm as a church. We encourage you to go, and united we will break all the traps the devil has set against our church.”
We are, of course, watching today’s City Council meeting, as there will be plenty more to be said about the ERO before council members get a chance to vote. You can follow our tweets at @TFN.
“We are living in end times, when many will come against our faith, against evangelism and against Christians. Now, we are confronting something very serious. The mayor of Houston wants to pass a law that will let men enter women’s bathrooms. We, brothers, have to be united in fighting against this. We can’t let the devil do what he wants. We have to stand firm as a church. We encourage you to go, and united we will break all the traps the devil has set against our church.”
This is a perfect example of the pervasive fear and siege mentality that drives Christian fundamentalism. It is always expressed as the small little group “us” against a whole world of evil people (everyone else on planet Earth) who is in league with Satan. And why are they in league with Satan? They are in league with Satan simply because they fail to believe everything that these fundies believe and in the exact SAME WAY that they believe it. This “us” also believes that most of the Christian churches on the planet (excluding theirs and the churches in their own little clique) are in league with Satan too. You see. They think the word “Christian” applies only to “us” and their small circle of friends.
However, they also deal in lies and deceit when they use just the word “Christian” by itself. They use it like this because they hope to deceive all the people of the world into believing that they are the vanguard (the spearhead) of a vast and united worldwide movement in which all Christians and all Christian churches (including those churches they hate and call apostate) are following them in their assorted social and political causes. This is the blowfish using lies and deceit to puff itself up so people will think the movement and cause are a whole lot bigger than they really are.
The end times are coming soon—maybe tonight!!! This is one of the oldest and most worn out evangelism tools on the planet. Scare people into believing that Jesus is going to show up and punish people tonight if people do not do what they say right now!!! For these people, a million years from now will still be the end times. In their eyes, all times and in all places are the end times.
DO NOT buy into the lies and the scare tactics. Instead, ask yourself this, “Would the Jesus of the New Testament deny a starving man or woman a piece of bread simply because they are gay?” Think back to the Sunday school days of your youth and what you learned there. The opponents of the ERO ordinance want the right to deny him or her that piece of bread.
Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If you were that starving gay man or woman, would you want them to deny you that piece of bread? This is the issue.
Okay, this is pedantry, but I am sure that the words Jesus used — quoting Hillel, from whom many of his ideas seem to come — were “Do NOT do unto others what you would NOT have them do unto you.” That is so much more sensible a rendering of the idea that the later Christian rewrite was, I’m sure, one of the many errors that crept in.
I believe TFN has an announcement to make before bedtime. C’mon guys!!!
We’re working on it, Charles. Dan is typing away even as I type.
You guys did a great job!!! Congratulations!!!
These religious extremists believe they know what god wants, and they think god needs their help carrying out those wishes. It seems to get worse and worse all the time.
They just can’t mind their own business. They want to mind everybody else’s. If they’re not stopped now, they’ll be emboldened to force their dogma even further on everybody else.
I certainly don’t mind telling them that they’re full of shit. All I need is the opportunity to do so. Of course, they’d just claim that I’m denying their religious freedom. I don’t have to respect their religion at all. They don’t respect my religious (non)beliefs.
They make me want to barf!
The basic function of these FUNDametalist religions is to raise “FUNDs”, not to save “souls”. They are simply another type of business whose only goal is simply to relieve the uneducated of their hard-earned “FUNDs”. Note: FUNDs means money, or, simply, financial support. Amen!
from France : if any man involved in politics spoke like that, bringing in the devil or God in his rhetorics, the whole country would burst out laughing .