Sun, 24. June 2012
Lifting the Christian Facade
The Bible. All Christians swear by it. Some of them cherry-pick the bits they like, some say parts of it should not be taken literally, whilst many accept it as being the word of god - in it's entirety. Most Christians like to ignore the bad bits which embarrass them - but they can't have it both ways.
The Salvation Army is a christian minority cult, which promotes and thrives on a craftily built reputation for unquestioningly helping any person in need, regardless of who they are or what they do. They receive much of their income from a clever fund-raising campaign which promotes them as docile, community-serving, harmless and compassionate do-gooders who will always turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of others.
Often they will do good deeds within the local community. However, hidden behind this placid facade lies the common Christian conviction that those people who do not align themselves with their own perception of morality, as dictated by the Bible, should be be executed.
In a radio interview with Major Andrew Craibe, the Salvation Army’s Territorial Media Relations Director for the Southern Territory in Victoria, the interviewer, Serena Ryan, 'expressed incredulity that the official Salvation Army handbook cites a scriptural passage which calls for the execution of LGBT people, and asked Craibe how he would respond to a hypothetical LGBT person receiving guidance from the Salvation Army who discovers the homophobic citation...'
RYAN: . . . that says, according to the Salvation Army, that [they] deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?
CRAIBE: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.
RYAN (cutting in): So we should die.
CRAIBE: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.
RYAN: Wow. So we should die.
That is an astonishing admission by a leading officer of the Salvation Army in Australia. Gays should be killed.
It is a shameful admission that the official doctrine of The Salvation Army is that homosexuals should be murdered. It's an attitude which is shared by many other christian groups, especially evangelists in the US and Africa, who openly advocate the killing of homosexuals and Atheists. It's Klu Klux Klan stuff and now we know it's here in Australia.
They put up a facade of love, goodness, honesty, humility, forgiveness and being kind to your neighbour - but scratch the surface and they will not deny a single word of their "holy scripture." It's a yearning for medieval Catholic Europe again for many of these hating Christians.
I doubt there is any leading person in The Salvation Army who would actually 'execute' homosexuals or others whose beliefs do not coincide with their own, even if it is part of their platform.
However, the very fact that it is part of their platform (and they are prepared to go on radio and confirm that it is) is an incitement to others to do just that. It is an incitement to the crazy fringe fundamentalists and it is an incitement to gay-haters.
Gays do get killed because of what they are; and Christians who do not repudiate the Biblical call for execution of homosexuals are contributing towards that happening.
It's hypocrisy. It's pious. It's unquestioning obedience to words that a goat-herder scribbled on a scroll thousands of years ago. It's incitement. It's shamefull.