Hallmark Channel Caves To Anti-LGBT Bigots
The Hallmark Channel caved to the complaints of a small group of so-called Christians who objected to a television commercial.
As usual, this is the time of the year when the Hallmark Channel runs its Christmas-themed movies, all of which seem to have the same basic plot with the only changes being the actors, the setting, and the name of the movie. This year, though, the channel is drawing controversy from both sides of the culture war over its decision to first run and then pull a series of ads by wedding planning web site Zola:
The Hallmark Channel pulled four TV ads featuring brides kissing each other on Thursday after a targeted campaign by a conservative group.
Asked to explain why the ads had been rejected, an employee of Hallmark’s parent company said the channel did not accept ads “that are deemed controversial,” according to an email exchange shared with The New York Times. A spokesman for Hallmark said the women’s “public displays of affection” violated the channel’s policies, but he declined to comment on why a nearly identical ad featuring a bride and groom kissing was not rejected.
The series of six ads, for the wedding planning website Zola, first appeared on the Hallmark Channel on Dec. 2. The ads, which feature several configurations of couples, all offer variations on the same concept: While standing at the altar, couples ponder whether guests would have arrived on time and bought them better gifts if only they had created a custom wedding website with Zola.
In some of the ads, the couples kiss at the altar and in the aisle, surrounded by friends. Most of the ads feature a same-sex female couple along with heterosexual couples. One of the six ads focuses on only the lesbian couple.
Early this week, One Million Moms, a division of the conservative American Family Association that defines its mission as the “fight against indecency,” published a petition urging Hallmark to “please reconsider airing commercials with same-sex couples.”
(…)
On Thursday, Zola was notified that four of the six ads would be pulled. In the email exchange, an ad buyer representing Zola asks for an explanation of the decision.
“We are not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,” an account representative for Hallmark responded.
The Hallmark Channel spokesman suggested on Friday afternoon that the issue was the couple’s kissing. “The decision not to air overt public displays of affection in our sponsored advertisement, regardless of the participants, is in line with our current policy, which includes not featuring political advertisements, offensive language, R-rated movie content and many other categories,” he said.
Here is one of the ads that was causing controversy:
And here’s the statement from “One Million Moms” that prompted the campaign:
The Hallmark Channel has always been known for its family friendly movies. Even its commercials are usually safe for family viewing. But unfortunately, that is not the case anymore.
Recently, One Million Moms received concerns about Hallmark airing a commercial from Zola.com in which two lesbians are shown kissing at the end of their wedding ceremony. Similar concerns from regular viewers are posted on an online complaint board for the Hallmark Channel.
One viewer commented on the board:
“Why would you show a lesbian wedding commercial on the Hallmark Channel? Hallmark movies are family friendly, and you ruined it with the commercial.”
Another viewer wrote:
“Our family was watching a wonderful Hallmark movie based on a true story. It was late, but our daughter was up late with us. During the commercial break, there was a commercial from Zola with two women lip locking! Please Hallmark … we are fed up with having the gay agenda crammed down our throats! You are one of the few channels we thought we would not have to deal with this issue! Please remove this and any other gay, lesbian, bisexual, or anything else it is called from your channels. … We love you but won’t keep watching with this type of ads.”
Conservative viewers will be disappointed to learn that Hallmark has ideas of moving beyond airing only commercials with LGBT content and is open to producing LGBT movies in the future.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, Michelle Vicary, executive vice president of programming for Crown Media Family Networks – the company that makes Hallmark movies – recently said: “We are continuing to expand our diversity. We are looking at pitches for LGBT movies. …”
While currently there is nothing known in the works for Hallmark programming to contain same-sex couples as lead characters, Crown Media Family Networks CEO Bill Abbott confirmed Vicary’s words: “We look at a variety of different things, so we’re always looking for the best stories that we think will resonate in the best way. And so we’re open to really any type of movie of any type of relationship in any space.”
Shame on Hallmark for airing commercials with same-sex couples and even considering movies with LGBT content and lead characters.
Until recently, Hallmark had a good record for keeping their movies and commercials family friendly. Now, parents can no longer trust Hallmark because Hallmark is no longer allowing parents to be the primary educators when it comes to sex and sexual morality.
Parents need to know they could now come face-to-face with the LGBT agenda when they sit down to watch the Hallmark Channel.
Family entertainment is not the outlet in which to be politically correct by forcing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality – a sinful lifestyle that Scripture clearly deems as wrong. You can read so in Romans 1:18-32.
One Million Moms is asking Hallmark to stay true to its family friendly roots that so many families have grown to love, and to keep sex and sexual content – including the promotion of homosexuality – out of its programming.
Jazz Shaw at Hot Air comments:
I know they specialize in “family friendly” content and want to avoid controversy, but this advertisement is pretty milquetoast if you ask me. Perhaps One Million Moms is more influential than I’d imagined (I’d never heard of them until today), but it still seems like they’re going to lose revenue either way. If they run the ad, OMM will protest and ask people to boycott the network. But having pulled it, the LGBQ community will be doing the same thing. It’s a lose-lose proposition.
And what is OMM trying to protect the children from? Learning that there are gay people in the world and that they get married sometimes? Really, I think the cat is out of the bag at this point. Just for the record, OMM is also boycotting this commercial from Hotels.com because Captain Obvious says the word “condoms” and suggests that two mothers are missing out on vacation trips because of their children.
Generally speaking, I agree with Jazz here. It’s ridiculous that anyone would be offended by this ad to such an extent that they’d threaten a boycott, but this is standard operating procedure for this group. As Jazz points out they are also mounting a campaign against Hotels.com over an ad because it uses the word condoms. Of course, they have a right to advocate for these causes, but the fact that they choose these as their causes is a pretty good indication of the narrow-minded world in which they live.
One Million Moms is part of the American Family Association, a group founded by Donald Wildmon back in the late 1970s when the so-called “religious right” was just coming into being. Over the years, they’ve been involved in a number of campaigns designed to impose culturally conservative values on the rest of society and objecting when they see things such as this ad, whether it’s on the Hallmark Channel or elsewhere. They are, in other words, right-wing versions of the “social justice warriors” who seek to ban things that they disagree with from their left-wing perspective. In that sense, I suppose, it’s no surprise that they would seek to ban something as innocuous as a commercial featuring two people in love.
It’s also testimony to the fact that, notwithstanding the fact that same-sex marriage has been legal for nearly five years now and that most polling shows that the majority of Americans are accepting of same-sex marriage, same-sex relationships, and that most Americans are accepting of homosexuality in general, there is still a minority out there for whom bigotry is so powerful that they’d be offended by a television commercial and a corporation weak enough to bend to the complaints of a minority. What’s unfortunate, a company that has previously sought to widen its appeal to all segments of society, so easily caved to small group of haters.
Updated: Hallmark has reversed its decision, details here.
At this point in time, earnest shock at a lesbian couple kissing makes as much sense as shock at a woman showing her ankles in public.
The rest is bigotry.
Dear Hallmark:
Money’s Tight, Times are Hard
Here’s Your Fuking Christmas Card!
If it were only bigotry, eyes would roll and we’d move on, but it is part of the larger campaign to use governmental power to enforce their moral authority over others.
It’s worse. They’re not the equivalent of the people they call “social justice warriors”, they are the equivalent of their ridiculous parody of the people they call “social justice warriors”.
Meanwhile, I don’t recall any outrage over the Folger’s incest commercial: https://youtu.be/z5Ir6CzxKl4
Extended cut:
https://youtu.be/fhfcWTZeP1k
The use of that metaphor never ceases to amuse me.
“One Million Moms” Should check their husband’s internet browsing history – It would likely be more shocking to them:-) – But they likely think since it is “clear” all the time, that their men are just good guys….lmao
Hallmark pulling a Chick-fill-a in 3…. 2…. 1….
Boycotts are a legitimate tactic, although Trump is trying to make the BDS movement illegal. Conservatives have for years had a long list of ineffective boycotts going. I think they’re still boycotting Disney, which doesn’t seem to be staggering under the impact. This Hallmark nonsense is the price we pay for being able to do better founded boycotts.
So, if letting your young kids see a lesbian marriage is OK then I guess that a 50-ish years old man marrying a 6 year old girl is fun video for your readers too, eh? Don’t let me hear from those who say pedophilia is illegal. So wasn’t homosexuality and IT got legalized.
Who could have guessed that the Bible is like a buffet, where one can pick and choose whatever one wants…I assume these members of OMM don’t eat shellfish nor wear clothing of mixed fabrics? If so, someone should tell them that they are violating scripture…of course, such hypocrites have been violating scripture for a very long time…
You seriously believe that homosexuality is the same as pedophilia? You need more than Jesus…
I’ll say the exact same thing I say when some left wing nincompoops threaten a boycott: Call. Their Bluff.
“One Million Moms” probably has, at most, a few thousand members. More likely a few hundred. Their petition gathered fewer signatures than the petition to have the federal govt build a Death Star. No one actually cares except Wildmon’s minions. Call their bluff.
I wound up watching a Hallmark movie the other day. I was cooking my famous black pasta with lobster and mindlessly turned the TV on. While peeling the shallots and bruising the peppercorns, I started watching this movie. You know when you walk into a restaurant and see this perfectly matched cute couple, and you want to overhear their conversation? That’s what this movie offered. I liked it. I do feel obligated to watch several Die Hard films in order to pretend that I’m a regular American guy. The pretense of macho American males is so phony, so out of keeping with human needs that one can only laugh. Real men are not bothered by ads featuring two women; only feeble pretenders care.
Recommend Lacrimi Christi with my pasta.
@Jc:
This heterosexual male who for 30 years has been married to a very devout Roman Catholic Filipina, has made their living since the spring of 2014 by writing and selling non-erotic LGBT* fiction ebooks. My wife knows too, she prays for me daily, has read two of my over two dozen ebooks currently for sale at Amazon.
*- My ebooks feature one type of LGBT people, though all the others can be found in most of them.
I watch a ton of Hallmark films but find this to be profoundly disappointing and a bit pathetic on Hallmarks’ case that they are caving to a very bigoted but loud minority of moms who refuse to acknowledge that society has changed and become more tolerant as the years progress.
Lifetime has aired at least two holiday/Christmas themed films that straight up show a homosexual married couple (one of the guys refers to the guy sitting next to him at a dinner table as his husband). I think they have also shown a lesbian couple. Here’s the thing, both couples in the films basically amount to background noise and the existence of married same-sex couples is not shoved down anybody’s throats in these Lifetime films.
It is beyond sad that these moms refuse to acknowledge the reality around them, and the only people trying to shove an agenda down anyone’s throats are folks like those who are part of the OMM organization.
@Slugger: Please tell me more about this black pasta with lobster!
@John430: While I recognize that we are a Christian nation, could you refresh my memory— did Jefferson include the statements about the gays in the Bible when he rewrote it to remove the divinity of Christ?
Happy Holidays, buddy. I hope Santa sticks a package down your chimney.
Hallmark Channel is responding to a key demographic in their current broadcasting plan.
The Hallmark Channel can see that pseudo-Christians are a diminishing component of any demographic trend in the United States and is examining its programming mix with an eye on replacing an already diminishing demographic [edit:]
shouldas the opportunity presents itself.Now, how about a big, deep, cleansing breath everybody? Hold it and let it out slowly. Good! Feeling better now?
One Million Moms are going to be screwed if Pete Buttigieg ever gets to be president. The sight of him kissing his husband on election night will give their kids nightmares for the next four years.
@Jax: I am not much for recipes because my stints in the kitchen start with a decent sized martini. I sort of follow the Marcella Hazan recipe that is googleable. I substitute black pasta for the flavor. My place is at 4500 feet, and it takes 12-15 minutes for the pasta. About five minutes from the end, I throw in a handful of sugar snap peas for color and crunch.
@Gustopher: The jokes on you, fool. I personally don’t care what you do in your bedroom. You can have sex with livestock for all I care. I was merely noting that some sexual more’s are possibly on a slippery slope and many would-be supporters are not sure where the slide ends. But perhaps that was too subtle for you. My reference was to Mohammed marrying a 6 year old girl but the thought of criticizing THEM likely has you crapping in your pants.
Okay, you’ve fought back the hoard. Everybody can relax now. The Hallmark Channel is apologizing and reversing course after it had pulled four commercials for the wedding planning website Zola that featured a same-sex couple kissing during their marriage ceremony, saying Sunday night that it hopes to reinstate the ads.
@Sleeping Dog:
A recent article on Frank Zappa over at The Guardian sent me down the rabbit hole this past weekend. I only really knew Zappa from a couple of novelty songs and his testimony in the Senate against the music censorship and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Well, eventually I landed upon an old Dan Rather report on “Porn Rock” set to the Phil Collins hit Easy Lover. I challenge anyone to watch this without bursting out laughing. There’s also a Nightline debate with an introduction that, if you didn’t know better, you’d swear was an SNL parody.
@Slugger:
I’m a het dude.
I cry occasionally at well written and well acted emotional scenes.
Why crying is judged to be unmanly has always eluded me. Being in touch with oneself and being able to evince compassion and empathy is a good thing.
Unalloyed.
In fact, failure to cry is a weakness.
There is a weird collection of preferred behaviors around maleness that are so incredibly stupid. It needs to stop. So idiotic.
Even the most reactionary people must at some point realize that this a one way street.
Queer people will no longer accept being silenced.
The only cultural war is cranks trying to fight a war they’ve already lost.
No one accepts their hate anymore.
It’s sad in a way. Not that much, though. They are on the wrong side of history after all.
@John430: You are a joke fool. You put your religious bigotry on parade and pretend it is morality when all it really is is a cry of fear. Go hide under your sheets.
I noted above that conservatives run a lot of ineffective boycotts @gVOR08: . Hallmark just counter-caved and will resume running the ads in question. I would guess they got reminded that LGBT people buy cards and watch kitschy TV.
So much for free speech, choosing NOT to air LGBTQ ads isn’t discrimination as that organization has members that make a voluntary decision on their personal lives. We, those of us who disagree with the LGBTQ should be entitled to equal and fee access to programming we prefer, not for an organization to bully their way. I would not buy anything advertised by the LGBTQ community.
Here is my outline for a script for a Hallmark movie. Miranda, a real estate agent, dresses very conventionally, even a little formal with pearls, high heels, and make-up but finds that her considerable financial success has not brought real satisfaction. She encounters a tattooed, punky woman, Jen, who runs a small funky coffee shop. After a few funny incidents, they discover that they are soulmates. Miranda’s boss warns her that this liaison may endanger her business success. The boss’s grandmother has a heart-to-heart talk with her after overhearing this warning and tells her that love is love. The boss’s eyes are opened, and a joyous wedding takes place with a rocking musical presentation by some of Jen’s punky friends.
Now they have caved in the other way.
Who watches commercials? Who watches Hallmark?
Both sides are crap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjzeNBSZFUo&feature=youtu.be
More’s, huh? 😀
@Tyrell: I sell data plans and tv/internet packages for a living. NFL Season Pass, HGTV, and the Hallmark Channel are my 3 go-tos for upselling tv.
I was worried there for a minute. The pigs own the White House but we own the culture, and we’ve won all the fights against public-facing companies. . . until Hallmark. And then we beat Hallmark.
I suspect this was about more than the fact that Hallmark might have trouble selling cards in the enlightened parts of the country. There’s a lot of TV being made, a lot of talent required, and a lot of talent not wanting anything to do with a company that’s anti-LGBT. I’d be interested to hear from @Eddie and @WR on that.
@Teve:
I think he meant s’mores.
@steve norris:
Public-facing American capitalists choose us because we are the future, and you are the past. Simple as that. We have the youth and we have the women and we have the growing demographic groups. You’ve got the people who’ll be dead soon and the sort of white people who hide under their beds in Nebraska because they saw a black man at the grocery store.
Plus: big problem. Creatives won’t create for you people. There are effectively no writers, directors or actors willing to be tarred by association with you. You can have tractor pulls, MMA and your Nuremberg rallies. We get everything else.
The LGBTQ community is hardly an “organization” and one’s sexual orientation is hardly “voluntary”…it is little wonder that Hallmark changed their policy, what with the opposition spouting idiotic arguments like those above…
@steve norris:
Well, that’s pretty much everything, so you’re already buying stuff advertised by the LGBTQ community. Not only that, but actual gay people work in every company! They’re not just advertising everything, they’re MAKING everything! So unless you can figure out how a stupid bigot like yourself can make everything you need to survive all on your own, you’re pretty much screwed if you want to avoid the LGBTQ community.
@Slugger:
Why would Miranda’s boss care? Think about Jen’s mom as the antogonist.
Would totally watch that movie, btw.
@Teve: Thanks for that information.
What is the best NBA package for the money? I can’t afford the ticket and other costs associated with going to the closest team’s games. ABC carries some games, but not many.
@Michael Reynolds:
I like Omaha.
The west side up on the hill is white bread boring, but downtown and warehouse is cool.
Conor Oberst is from Omaha. Their scene is good. One of my all time faves is from Bright Eyes – Lua. Awesome song.
One of the most interesting things about mid-sized cities is that they attract interesting people. People who grew up in Podunk wherever and want to meet and befriend other creative and interesting weirdos. They graduate, turn 18, and evolve.
A month ago I was on a walk, and I happened on the world’s most gothiest couple raking their yard. It was delightful. It made me happy.
@Michael Reynolds:
What the bigots don’t understand is that they’ve already lost this battle. Hallmark’s reactions would have been proper for them as late as 2004, when Karl Rove was able to put Gay marriage referendums in several states, which helped get GW over the finish against Kerry. Since then, it’s been the Harlem Globetrotters vs. the Washington Generals in the LGBTQ fight. Someone at Hallmark – my guess is a mid level VP – decided to pull this ad without really discussing it with the heads of Marketing, Publicity or HR at Hallmark.
The best work in entertainment currently is taking place in Television. There have never been so many good shows being produced on so many different platforms for so many different audiences. There is no excuse to not find something you can watch and enjoy. There is even a niche market for “Faith Based films”. These are usually produced for low budgets, and do very, very well financially, because they use churches, home schooling groups, and megachurch pastors to spread the word (no pun intended) about the films and series.
HOWEVER, the majority of mainstream companies, have seen first hand how small the Christian audience and aren’t catering to it. Michael is correct. Many of the biggest showrunners and creators are either gay, gay-adjacent, or, at the very least, gay-friendly. Many of these people are actively boycotting Georgia because of the heartbeat abortion bill. Others wont’ shoot in China, despite the strong financial incentive to do so, due to their human rights violations.
There are very few actual anti-LGBTQ people in Hollywood. Even rightwing wackos like Selleck, Heston (when alive), Voight, Woods, Kid Rock, and the rest, have close gay friends.
Don’t be surprised if Hallmark goes out of their way in the other direction for the next round of Hallmark movies, or perhaps even creating a series of movies around the theme of same-sex relationships.
@EddieInCA:
I thought as much. Basically being anti-gay in entertainment is like being anti-Asian in tech – it’s going to put you at a massive disadvantage.
@EddieInCA:
Underline the golden age of television.
When I was wee, God damn did it suck. Mary Tyler Moore was good. The Rockford Files. Mostly, it was an effing wasteland. ABC had a line-up of utter trash.
We do live in a golden age. Television is better. Long stories. Deeper dives.
Movies are an hour and a half to two hours. Most of them are DC or MCU ephemera. (I do like The Guardians of The Galaxy movies, tho. Chris Pratt. Due to television. Who could have predicted as you watched the original run of Parks & Rec that Chris Pratt and Aubrey Plaza and Aziz Ansari would become this big?)
It is amazing. The least likely to succeed succeeded. The most likely to succeed waned.
Chunky, schlubby Chris Pratt is now a movie star.
@de stijl:
I have a tendency to value skills I don’t have, or skill levels I have not yet (and may never) achieve. In writing I start from ‘can I do that?’ and ‘could I do that?’ It did not used to be the case that I’d look at TV and think either that I can’t currently, or might never be able to write at that level. Boy has that changed. Right now, today, I’m better than the writers at say, Blue Bloods. (We hate-watch it for the writing). But Michael Schur or Damon Lindelof or the Kings or Vince Gilligan? Nope. I am not there and may not be capable of being there. They have moves I don’t. (I could hold my own with Charlie Brooker but only because his stuff is so in my wheelhouse.) .
@John430: OK, boomer.
@steve norris: No one cares about your “disagreements” and T.V. commercials aren’t your personal debate stage to hone your hatred of people you do not know such that you become entitled to take away their rights.
Hallmark got that. Eventually.
@Michael Reynolds:
I have seen Blue Bloods a few times. My dear lord, the concept and execution is so old school. Boomer tv.
I did like the daughter. [Google’s then IMDB’s] Sami Gayle. She’s good. I like her.
@steve norris:
The problem is that the ads were packaged as a sequence of 8 so that is what Hallmark agreed to buy from Zola. I am pretty sure that since they bought 8 the agreement stipulated that at a certain point during the duration of the Zola campaign all 8 needed to air. The fact that Hallmark chose to pick and choose which ones aired is the problem here. Zola then decided to pull all the ads, but I suspect this was a breach of contract issue between Hallmark and Zola and there would have been a behind the scenes settlement between Hallmark and Zola. I do not work in advertising so I could be wrong, but suspect I am more right than wrong.
Please go ahead and claim that you are scared to live in a country that forces you to watch a 1 1/2 second kiss between 2 women, an act that will permanently scar your psyche…the horror, the horror, two women/men kissing. I said this in my earlier response, companies like Zola are not part of the side forcing an agenda down my throat.
See this sites post about the crazy restrictive abortion ban in MS that was halted by the courts, now that is an example of the court system having to step-in to thwart a group of people trying to push an issue down one’s throats….quite literally trying to control what a woman can do with her body. I suspect you have no problem with that agenda being pushed by certain individuals in this country.
Just sad dude, just sad.
@Michael Reynolds:
AMC started out as American Movie Classics showing old b&w movies.
Then Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire and Breaking Bad, and now Lodge 49. A season or two of The Walking Dead was okayish.
I never would have predicted how good tv has got.
I’m watching Attack The Block right now. Pretty good movie. It deserves to be a movie. Wouldn’t work as a long story unless you took it down a TWD path.
This is indeed a golden age. Community, The Good Place, Bob’s Burgers.
If you haven’t been watching Lodge 49, give it a go.
@steve norris:
Should have been done before they took their money. Know what it’s called when you take payment for service rendered but don’t actually render the service? Fraud!!
The time to say no or object is before the check’s in your hand and the deal done. Not only is it caving to the bigotry of a small subset of theoretically viewers (proof needed!) but it shows them to be bad business partners as well. Yanking services is one thing because it involves future business / activities but you do what you were paid to do. The set of commercials was initially approved and there was no issue from ANYBODY until this whiny group that lies about it’s membership level decided to have a hissy. I promise you, there was at least one disapproving Christian somewhere in this whole process but it didn’t affect the outcome because it shouldn’t have.
Get paid to do thing? Do thing or give money back. It’s not rocket science.
Christians can’t have anything without the gay people taking it over. Say what you want but homosexuality is an abomination to God and that will never change! The Hallmark Channel will soon realize that their viewers are predominantly Christian. It’s was the only channel that we had left to watch that still had Christian values. Everyone’s religion matters except for Christians. The world even takes up for Muslims who advocate the death of homosexuals in the Koran but Christians just would rather stay away from you. Go ahead take it all you heathens! I don’t believe many of you even watch that channel because it has Christian values and when their ratings drop the Hallmark Channel will soon realize too!
Have you seen the GEICO ad where the office kid is humiliated because he doesn’t know the gecko’s name, so he can’t send him an email? Toward the end, broken, he says “I just want this to be over.”
That’s how Hallmark’s retraction reads.
@John430:
Poe’s Law wins the internet for today. Capitalizing THEM is a beautiful touch.
(John, if you seriously think any commenter here would hesitate to criticize the behavior you cite, regardless of the religion of the perp, then you have failed to understand even the most basic facts about us.)
@Michael Reynolds:
Consider running a joint like Mad Men.
Holy crap that would be so daunting!
It takes me a day to write one page that I consider non-sucky. I always tell myself to just write it out now and fix and edit it later, but I cannot abide by my own rule.
In Mad Men there were a dozen stories happening simultaneously all requiring a deft touch.
How is it possible to manage to do what they did? Quite astounding!
@Rhonda Smith:
Praise the Lord! Finally Christians will stop commenting on television. With that front shored up, any advice on where we can next direct our fire? What are you guys doing for fun these days?
@Rhonda Smith:
Trumpies are not Christians. You got tired of waiting for your messiah, so you tossed him overboard and danced around your golden calf with the spray tan. I’ve known some genuine Christians and they are nothing like Trumpies.
Here’s a thought: try being an actual Christian. It’s hard. But if you follow Christ you will turn away from hate. Or you can be a fake Christian and worship Trump and rage, rage against the dying of your sad little bigoted world.
It’s funny. You people were all raised on stories about the golden calf and false prophets and you learned absolutely nothing. I’m an atheist and I’m more a follower of Christ than you culties.
@Rhonda Smith:
Funniest parody I’ve read all year – and this is deep into December.
Well done! I bow to you.
Have you met Tyrell? He’s more human than human.
@James Knauer:
I recognize your avatar. Did you used to comment here regularly under a different name?
@Rhonda Smith:
Your god is imaginary and nothing can change that.
When choosing between your imaginary friends and real people, I would not hesitate a millisecond choosing real people.
@Rhonda Smith: “Say what you want but homosexuality is an abomination to God and that will never change!”
Rhonda, it is your empty words and negative attitude that are the problem here.
” but Christians just would rather stay away from you.”
Not according to the same bible you are trying to thump us over the head with.
You sound very angry, Rhonda, mostly at people you don’t even know. Look to the plank in your own eye first, hon.
@Rhonda Smith:
BTW, of the 10 states that consume the most pornography, 9 are Republican states.
Of the 10 states that consume the least porn, 6 are Democratic states.
Hmm. All those good Christians. You know their favorite search term? Lesbian, Hentai, MILF, Step Mom, Step Sister, Mom and Teen. Now guess what the most popular day is for watching porn. Go on, guess.
Did you guess Sunday? All those good Christian Trumpies in Alabama and Mississippi and South Carolina are staying home from church to watch lesbians.
@Neil Hudelson: Neil, I have used James in Silverdale or James in Bremerton in the past but usually time does not permit much commenting, so any such missives would be few and far between, both in frequency and content.
@James Knauer: I remember James in Bremerton. Welcome back.
(Or I just recognize the avatar and Bremerton. Welcome back anyway)
@John430: Sorry, I don’t speak Right Wing Crazy, and missed the Mohammed reference.
Fucking children is wrong, whether you’re a prophet or a priest or a layperson. Even if the child is an alter boy. Children cannot consent.
Fucking consenting adults, on the other hand… the more the merrier if that’s your thing. Merry Christmas.
@Rhonda Smith:
In 30+ years of reading internet comments, I think this is actually the whiniest one I have ever seen. Amazing.
@Rhonda Smith:
Isn’t that really a sign of His will? Why do you hate God?
Hallmark has reversed its decision, details here.
@Rhonda Smith:
And yet, when asked what the most important commandments were, Jesus didn’t say anything about gays. What he did say, which your preacher apparently has never shared with you, was:
1. Love God.
2. Love other people as much as you love yourself.
3. Treat people exactly the way you would like to be treated.
4. Don’t judge. No, really — you’re all equally sinful in My eyes. Don’t judge. Worry about your own shortcomings instead. I’ll handle the judging.
Seems pretty clear to me.
@Michael Reynolds:
Japan is weird.
Anime dating games where the optimal result is seeing drawn sexy fun time stuff. Not actual sexy fun time, mind you, but drawn.
Tentacle stuff. So bizarre. Why would anyone be aroused by that?
Japan, you have me perplexed. Your psychosexual desires are quite odd. Also, drop the misogyny. Thanks!
@de stijl:
I think you answered your own question there.
@DrDaveT: Awesome — we have reached the “downvoting Jesus” stage…
@Rhonda Smith:..It’s (sic) was the only channel that we had left to watch that still had Christian values.
The folks at TCT (Tri-State Christian Television), Hillsong Channel and Trinity Broadcasting Network, INSP, EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) will be suprised to hear this. They are all purveyors of their particular brand of Christian values.
I have a friend who’s father is a Vice-President at one of these venues and she is damn fine human being. She does not practice the homophobia you exhibit. You might take a lesson from her but somehow I doubt it.
@John430:
Okay, help me out here:
(1) What does the marriage of two consenting adults have to do with a 6 years old girl marriyng a 50-ish man? Did I miss the legislation that now makes it legal for a 6 year old to marry?
(2) Exactly what is the relationship between the marriage of two consenting adults to pedophilia?
@DrDaveT:
What has Jesus done for me lately?
I’m all for his unalloyed message, but his followers tend to skew towards that want to tell me how to interpret it towards ends they want in this world.
Pride is a sin. Telling others what and how to believe is a sin of pride.
The Ting Tings. That’s Not My Name. Live at SXSW.
I do like Austin. It is a good town.
I got rid of my TeeVee because it is all lies and propaganda. The TeeVee, like the automobile, was invented to separate us from our humanity. Don’t take my word for it.
“I’m the slime oozing out from your TV set.”- Frank Zappa
@de stijl:
The entire course of my life pivoted in Austin. Everything I have, everything I’ve accomplished, and all the awful shit I avoided came because I fell in love in Austin, Texas.
@de stijl:
Best birthday ever was my 59th in Tokyo. We went to the robot restaurant of shinjuku. Bourdain basically said it was the greatest show he’d ever seen, and I agree completely. More weird packed into about 90 minutes than you’d see in a decade.
In one segment Japanese girls in bikinis swing from the wings of a mocked-up B-29. A B-29. In Tokyo. I still can’t even.
God bless Austin.
Everyone else in Texas effing hate them hard.
They abide and thrive.
That night I finally figured out that girlness is profoundly different than boyness societally. How you experience the world, how the world responds to you. Power, powerlessness.
Scales slid from my eyes. I was ashamed.
I had been so blind and stupid, and that condition had colored and hindered my relatioships.
I grew up.