www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall International Blasphemy Day on Sept. 30

If you think about it, the acceptable term of 'gay' is just as derogatory as 'queer'. One can easily think of 'gay' as being hip swaying, affected speaking, wrist hanging, ditzy men...

Just as the homosexual community accepts the term 'gay' for themselves, I do not think that they are averse to 'queer'.

I say this because there is a television show (which I have seen and kind of enjoy except for a few subtle innapropriate sexual innuendos), called 'The Queer eye for the straight guy'...

Now let's get back *on topic*!!

Alice

This is linked to the day the Dutch paper printed some cartoons depicting Mohammad as a suicide bomber, is it not? There were major riots from that.

Terry

As they apply it to themselves, and have even created an intellectual construct called "queer theory" which is quite the rage in the humanities these days, I don't see why not. I for one do not object to them calling me a "breeder". And I am most definitely a subscriber to the intellectual construct I call "straight theory".

Yale University looks like it may finally invite the publisher of the original cartoons to speak at the school. As you may or may not know, Yale University Press recently published a book about the controversy, but under pressure from CAIR and other Muslim groups, removed illustrations of all the offending cartoons from the book. The publisher of the cartoons was asked to speak, then the invitation was withdrawn (again under pressure), but the outcry was so great that he had to be reinvited.

In our society, other than militant Muslims, the only other group likely to riot or otherwise engage in acts of violence in response to political discourse, is the secular left--hence take advantage of an opportunity to gore their ox and break their ricebowl.

That's because right and left converge, if you go far enough in one direction.

At that point of convergence they become a false icon of humanity.

The "extremists" and the "moderates" are animated by the same worldly spirit.

As a former college rower I agree completely. I remember a former football player at my school joining our rowing team. During winter training camp in the middle of erg training(rowing machines) he cried out this is harder than football!

Back to the point at hand. This is a horrible blasphemy and we as Christians should pray and fast (it is a Wednesday so it is a fast day in the East) for the conversion of the organizers. I'm not sure a protest would really do anything. Look at the 9/12 marchers, they didn't get any coverage by the major news media, only fox. I believe that pray and fasting are the best weapons in this case. They can't defeat the Lord, so really in the end, to use an old civil rights slogan, we will overcome.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever

Labeling people might easily lead to their objectification. Once you have turned a person into a "thing", you can justify doing practically anything to them. I am thinking, for example, of the way the pro-aborts have turned preborn babies into mere clumps of cells.

Without labels, there is no ability to deal with aggregations or generalities. It becomes impossible, therefore, to study people and society at all--obliterating the disciplines of history, sociology, psychology, and political science, among others. It also paralyzes the political process, since we are a nation of laws, and laws assume the ability to categorize, aggregate and quantify.

On the other hand, Christianity is a faith based on a person, and is therefore inherently personalist. On the one hand, it assumes the need for aggregation and categorization, for the Church is composed of persons who fall into a particular category--the baptized believers in the divinity of Jesus Christ. And the Church is governed by a set of laws, because all institutions require rules for governance and to maintain good order. Yet the Church is not an institution, but a sacrament, a typos of the Kingdom of God which is both here and not yet here. And in the Kingdom, we are ruled not by laws but by faith, and those appointed by the Church to oversee it have an obligation not to apply the law blindly, but to shape it to the needs of each person.

The Church, therefore, is paradoxical in its approach to labeling. The world, however, is not. Labeling is an essential aspect of dealing with the world, and the only thing that matters is whether the labels in question accurately describe the aggregations of persons to whom they are applied.

The Church does indeed categorize people. Some folks are catechumens, some are laity, some are clerics, and so on.
Labels ALSO sometimes say something about the people who apply them. The other thing that matters is the motive behind their employ. It has to be based not on bald fact alone - much less on subjective prejudices - but also on kindness, justice and, ultimately, on love.
I think it's cruel and therefore contrary to the Gospel to label people in order to dismiss them and strip them of their personhood.
So I am drawing a distinction between benign categorization and malicious labelization.

"Here's one: Right-wing ideology is just as much part of anti-Christ as the Left."

No, it's really not.

Sorry Fr. Deacon, but much of it is just as offensive and self righteous and narrowminded as the left.

I really want to see these blasphemers go after Islam.

"Sorry Fr. Deacon, but much of it is just as offensive and self righteous and narrowminded as the left.

I really want to see these blasphemers go after Islam."

Perhaps you have a good point there, however I will say that abortion, homosexual marriage and euthanasia are all ideals of the left.

This thread has run its course and since it's off on tangents, I'm closing it.

BOB
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