God, Jews, fags & serial adultery

Well, it’s been quite a week so far.

We’re seeing more and more of Newt Gingrich, known among LGBT commentators as that thrice-married serial adulterer, in Iowa these days, greasing palms and courting Christians as he eyes the White House again.

Bob Vander Plaats and David Lane, key players in the ouster of three of our state Supreme Court justices during November, confirmed recently for The Los Angeles Times that it was Newt who arranged the $200,000 anonymous donation that got their campaign off to a flying start.

“It wouldn’t have happened without Newt,” Lane told The Times.

Some may recall Gingrich’s marital record --- cornering his first wife whilst she recovered from cancer surgery to arrange a divorce so that he could marry his mistress, then divorcing the second Mrs. Gingrich to marry a newer mistress.

Now Mr. Gingrich has converted to Roman Catholicism and discovered God. Which is convenient, since the Roman God does not recognize his first two marriages, thus absolving him of adultery. You’ve got to love a theological approach that would have allowed Brigham Young, had he converted late in life and thereafter remained celibate, to die a virgin.

But seriously, asking Newt Gingrich to lead the charge for sanctity of heterosexual marriage is little like asking the pope to lead an anti-pedophilia campaign. Oh wait …

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Speaking of Benedict XVI, there been a certain degree of excitement this week because the pontiff has in a new book entitled “Jesus of Nazareth” absolved Jews of their collective guilt for killing Christ --- although the Second Vatican Council already did that in 1965. Mighty big of ‘em in any case.

Warms your innards, doesn’t it? Of course if the Vatican had gotten around to this some centuries ago we might have been spared Christian anti Semitism entirely. And perhaps headed off that wingnut renegade priest Martin Luther whose horrific rantings helped Nazis feel good about themselves whilst killing six million or so .

Better late than never, I suppose. Maybe the Vatican can move on now, get over this blame game --- Jews killing Christ, queers killing the family. Oh wait …

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Then on Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that First Amendment free-speech guarantees apply to our “God hates fags” Westboro Baptist Church friends, too, as they protest at military funerals. Nice to know stupid and hateful people have rights, too.

Some on the right are distressed by the ruling --- hating fags is not a hot-button issue, of course, but involving dead soldiers and their families in the brawl is.

And of course there’s no way Westboro rantings can be seen as a logical, although extreme, expression of what’s preached and proclaimed in many churches on Sunday mornings and at other times. Oh wait …