304 Comments
User's avatar
oraxx's avatar

Delicate snowflakes being held in the grip of magical thinking. The mentality at work here is a great example of why no sane country entrusts its rights to the clergy.

James Scammell's avatar

Hopefully !

🤞

Airlane1979's avatar

Very true. No sane country entrusts its rights to imams, Hindu priests or Buddhist monks either, of course. Yet many countries are run by such types.

oraxx's avatar

No theocracy was ever a bastion of human rights and intellectual freedom.

Airlane1979's avatar

Exactly. I suspect it's simple racism that prevents far right Christian nationalists in the West from allying with deeply conservative groups of other faiths who also loathe LGBTQ+ people, despise democracy & socialism and want to return women to the kitchen.

wreck's avatar

"The company also said performers “insulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians”"

Boo-Fucking-Hoo snowflakes.

larry parker's avatar

70 protesters is close to a million.

Also, that significantly more than a million christian Australians couldn't care less.

Len Koz's avatar

That reminds me, we don't really hear about One Million Moms anymore. Did they lose all their money investing in Trump crypto?

wreck's avatar

One Moron Mom shows up regularly and moronically on Joe.My.God (https://www.joemygod.com/)

Len Koz's avatar

I just took a quick run through the headlines on Joe.My.God. The amount of raw sewage pouring out of the Oval Office is enough to drown a kraken.

NOGODZ20's avatar

They’re still infesting us.

David Graf's avatar

Just because a belief is religious doesn't give it a free pass from controversy.

Airlane1979's avatar

On this site, it seems that non-Christian faiths are largely exempt.

larry parker's avatar

Nope. Faith of any kind is frowned upon.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Yup. To the best of my knowledge, FA has been bashing ALL forms of religion when they engage in bad behavior since this site began in 2006. Christians get the most attention as they are the dominent religion in many regions of the world.

Airlane1979's avatar

Yet Christianity is not the dominant religion in many other regions, and they get bupkiss from this site, strangely. Perhaps the explanation is the same as that used for the so-called World Series: to many Americans, anything outside the USA doesn't exist or doesn't matter.

RegularJoe's avatar

Where is this site based? Take your time, think it through.

And have some pie. 🥧

RegularJoe's avatar

Nope. All the woo is subject to scrutiny and mocking laughter.

Have some pie. 🥧

David Graf's avatar

That's not surprising because most of the commenters apparently live in nations where Christianity is the primary religion. Plus, Hemant most comments about Christians and Christian groups in his columns.

Airlane1979's avatar

I live in the UK where Christianity is the primary religion. When I initially came upon this site, I thought it would expose the bigotry of all faiths. But clearly, it doesn't.

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Then leave. This blog clearly isn’t giving you what you want, so sayonara.

This blog does criticize other religions when appropriate, what it doesn’t do is attack minority faiths simply for existing, which is what you are looking for as evidenced by your rather aggressive comments about Islam. When the minorities fight each other, they all lose and the majority gets to entrench their “superiority”. We defend the reasonable calls for minority religions to have liberty for the same reason we defend our own liberty, we also defend the majority religion’s reasonable liberty for the same reason. What we do is call out those that harm or overstep. Your comments are focused only on Muslims and how can you justify hating them. Have fun with that, somewhere else.

And take Davey boy with you.

Airlane1979's avatar

"what it doesn’t do is attack minority faiths"? Minority? Islam is followed by about two billion people. What seems to me from this 'atheist' site is that it is obsessed with Christianity to the extent that it sends newsletters highlighting what are often minor incidents... yet is largely silent on Scientology (maybe afraid of being sued), Mormons (maybe afraid likewise), Hinduism (despite the atrocities it perpetrates against Muslims in India, mostly much worse than anything committed by Christians), Islam... How can you justify hating Christians? I have as much right to express my dissent as does any other atheist.

RegularJoe's avatar

It does. Stupid people might miss the obvious.

Pie? 🥧

Anri's avatar

Every word you post here could instead be on your own blog calling out whatever faith you care to call out.

Do you trust yourself enough to make such a blog?

Or are you only good for commenting on other people's work?

If the latter, you've pretty much accepted their venue, haven't you?

David Graf's avatar

It's pretty limited like the Roys Report to highlighting the failures of Christianity.

Len Koz's avatar

Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

Airlane1979's avatar

Would you say the same if it were, say, Zionist Jews mocking the sincerely held religious beliefs of Palestinian Muslims? And there are plenty of middle class, well-off Palestinian Muslims, so let's not argue about punching down - because under capitalism, class is the basic division in society.

wreck's avatar

Did you read what Hemant posted? Whatabout much?

Airlane1979's avatar

I was responding to the comment by wreck.

larry parker's avatar

“There are millions of [other] venues,”

Lying liars lie.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

"Millions?" Per usual, people like that make assertions and more than likely can't back them up with specifics. Making a vague statement like that is NOT tantamount to offering an actual FACT.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Then again, we're talking about people who can't even verify that their own god(s) exist or ever existed.

Richard S. Russell's avatar

Wellllll .... I suppose if you consider every square of sidewalk in a city the size of Sydney to be a "venue" in its own right, there MIGHT be a million of 'em.

wreck's avatar

"...it was “hard to believe” the building was the “best location” for the performances by Divine Playhouse’s artists.

“There are millions of [other] venues,” he said."

They can even have their own water fountains there too!

Die Anyway's avatar

And their own entrance too......around back.

larry parker's avatar

I hear the Sydney Opera House is pretty nice.

Joe King's avatar

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑛-𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑡.

Why not? It's not like they took out the pews and used the sanctuary to store the garbage.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

𝑺𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒓: 𝑊𝑒'𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒!

𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒔: 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐿 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑐 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠!

If the Muppets can do it, why not Divine Playhouse?

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

That’s what the church did. Stored the garbage in the sanctuary, feeding it to those sitting in the pews.

Vanity Unfair's avatar

I get the drift.

https://genius.com/Arlo-guthrie-alices-restaurant-massacree-lyrics

[Intro: Spoken]

This song is called "Alice's Restaurant", and it's about Alice. And the restaurant. But Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. And that's why I called the song "Alice's Restaurant".‎

[Chorus. Sung]

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Walk right in, it's around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

[Verse 1: Spoken]

Now it all started a-two Thanksgivings ago, was on two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant—but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the belltower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And living in the belltower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in, an' having all that room, seeing as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

On my first cuppa. And you know that means I am crankiniferous.

“ This isn’t just about being offensive for the sake of it. Conservative churches have spent years telling LGBTQ people that their identities and relationships are sinful.”

Oh, if only that is what they did. But it isn’t. Let’s start with how much they love us.

We don't hate you. we love you. We really really love you. We just hate your grievous, grievous sin, and...

your child molesting, disease spreading, freedom endangering, sin delighting, morality despising, nature rebelling, god defying, Chrstianity insulting, promiscuity loving, Rome declining, sexuality perverting, faith hating, religion denigrating, marriage destroying, military endangering, free-speech curbing, on-Jesus crapping, society undermining, innocent recruiting, marriage attacking, holiness oppressing, family eroding, sacred institution destroying, god's-messengers-victimizing, speech denying, future-of-humanity threatening, perversion flaunting, Scouts infiltrating, priesthood undermining, virtue despising, muslim loving, and chicken-sandwich abhorring...

...ways.

And really, how could anyone find hate in that?

Next, let’s talk about the sexual abuse crisis in conservative religion. Every year, according to my

Count from numerous sources, there are around 500 professional Christians, mostlyMen-o’-God, arrested, or convicted, or sentenced for their sexual crimes and assaults: mostly children, often women, occasionally men. Pretty much anything with legs, except tables and chairs, that can’t run fast enough. And that doesn’t even get into the culture of secrecy and coverups that perpetuates the abuse over decades and even centuries. Or the literal billions of dollars that they have spent paying off the victims.

And yet, the unending fecal bleating that we hear from them is that gay people are the danger children. But if you Google it, you will get a few hits every year—for LGBT people. But literally thousands and thousands, if not millions for God’s favorite people.

Can we talk about mega churches, and the millions and millions they spend to keep the masses in Masses up to their asses? Or the pastors marrying the church secretary? Or the clergy living in mansions while children starve? Or catholic priesthood in dresses that would put Lindseybelle to shame, where she wearing dresses anymore?

Or can we talk about the overwhelming evangelical support for the most corrupt, incompetent, immoral, adulterous and fornicating half of a man that ever disgrace the office of the president, a man who just paid $5 million to a woman he sexually assaulted, and yet is still president?

In all cases, they are presuming to judge us, where they will not judge themselves. I’m sure somebody who used to be important to modern Christianity had something to say about that, or you would if he actually ever exist existed and they actually ever cared about it.

If they want to complain about “insulted and mocked the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Christian Australians”, they can go down to their local dollar store and buy a cheap Chinese made mirror.

Die Anyway's avatar

Too mild. Have a couple more mugs of coffee and write something with real bite. 😉

Bensnewlogin's avatar

But if I do that, people will accuse me of being intemperate.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

Everyone knows that I am the soul of loving kindness and tranquility. And if you don’t believe it, I will beat it into you.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

That's odd. I thought your temperate was 98.6°F! Darn thermometer! 😖

David Roddis's avatar

I know, like I have better things to do with my time than read some wishy-washy, indecisive, apologetic rant from someone who doesn't even give any examples and seems to revel in making us guess what his true feelings are. Jeezus.

NOGODZ20's avatar

As always, one must ask the faithful: "How do LGBTQs and drag queens impact your lives in any way, shape or form? And why don't you ever have an answer for this simple question?"

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Two things: 1) They exist. 2) They're DIFFERENT. That brand of believer barely deals well with anything INSIDE of 3 Sigma. Stuff outside of 3 Sigma is flat-out beyond the pale and therefore intolerable to them.

But you knew that! 😁

SeekingReason's avatar

Key word in the article is “former” church. But the arrogant religionists can’t keep their big noses out of something that is none of their business. As always their poisonous opinionated demands are arrogantly applied regardless of what others want. Truly sickening.

Airlane1979's avatar

Christians have emotional attachment to even former church buildings. I doubt that many commenters here would be so dismissive of believers' feelings if they were... say... Muslims attached to a former mosque.

Airlane1979's avatar

You think that Christians do not have emotional attachments to church buildings, even those that have been deconsecrated?

David Roddis's avatar

What is the point then of the "deconsecration" ceremony? Is that the one piece of mumbo-jumbo that doesn't work? You can't have it both ways. If the building is "deconsecrated" then it's just a building (in fact, that's what it always was, just a building) and one can't complain of misuse or blasphemy. Just like water doesn't remember cascading over volcanic rocks, buildings don't remember what they were used for.

If all it takes is someone saying they are offended by satire and mockery, then free speech and minority rights really are at an end, because anyone could claim offence at anything, without proving any harm caused.

When we become adults, we generally understand that people will say mean things sometimes. As I said in my original reply, I don't feel that the Christian church is in any way a put-upon minority whose existence will be endangered by spoofs and criticism. Society is more in danger from allowing a religion unchecked power to restrict people's speech and actions, than the religion is in danger from that speech and action.

I definitely have kicked this dead horse down the beach quite enough. I have that low-grade headache that comes from attempting logic on people whose only standard is their feelings.

larry parker's avatar

They might, but it's irrelevant to current use.

Alverant's avatar

Doesn't matter. It's not their property anymore and they have no say in how the current owners use it. Why should they?

Alverant's avatar

You are incorrect (as usual).

Maltnothops's avatar

Confidently incorrect.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

It's the usual deal. The christers LOVE to dish it out, but they can't take it worth a ripe dump. Whenever their beliefs are lampooned, their panties get all in a twist, they scream bloody, and at least sometimes, the local powers-that-be go along with the gag. I AM pleased to see that Divine Playhouse is getting support from some quarters, and it's pretty clear to me that this story is a fair distance from being over.

Still, that the venue was shut down in the first place is still disturbing, and I hope that the final resolution favors Divine Playhouse.

Joe King's avatar

Free speech is one more thing the Christians think they own.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

That's one more fallacy they need to get their noses rubbed in. 😝

Linda's avatar

Cowards hiding behind free speech for everything! Weird how using trickery to run a phony medical facility (CPC) is protected by free speech??

Joan the Dork's avatar

𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 what a bunch of snowflakes. "Our religion can spend 1700 years terrorizing the rest of the world, but don't you dare mock it with a drag show in a building we haven't used for a century!" As though the all-powerful creator of everything would be so thin-skinned that...𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦.

*𝘙𝘦-𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦...*

...ah. So he is. Carry on then.

Joe King's avatar

𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑔 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑟, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠; 𝐷𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑦ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟.

And there it is: the RCC, through shell corporations, wants to keep the building as Catholic as they can until they can line their coffers. It's about money, power, and maintaining their numbers by any means necessary (as we saw from yesterday's article). How much does Divine Playhouse need to buy the structure outright? That might be the best solution.

NOGODZ20's avatar

So will xtians next journey to Rome to paint over the Sistine Chapel's ceiling? I'm givn to understand that it was decorated by a gay man.

David Graf's avatar

Please don't give people any ideas. For example, underpants were added to the Last Judgment picture in the Sistine Chapel after Michelangelo's death.

David Roddis's avatar

There's just something about the word "underpants" in this context that... no. Now I can never unthink this.

David Graf's avatar

Sorry. Unfortunately, in a number of the figures it was not possible to later remove them

David Roddis's avatar

I recommend "Why Hast Though Forsaken Me" White, edged with "Rosary" Red. Much more tasteful than the eye-popping travesty that Michelangelo hastily slapped up. To make it worse, I hear he's, you know... "that way..."

Die Anyway's avatar

I look at a situation like this....the LGBTQ artists have a right to lampoon the Catholic Church and the Catholics have a right to complain about being lampooned....and ask a couple of questions to determine which side I support.

1. Who's being hypocritical? I commented yesterday about the abusers not liking being abused. I see the Catholics as the hypocrites.

2. Is one group punching down and the other group punching up? In this case, the Catholics are the ones with power and have been punching down on the LGBTQ community for centuries. The LGBTQ community is just barely able to punch back up a meager amount.

The breaking of the lease is a legal matter between the Divine troupe and the building owner and is completely separate from which group should get public support. But hopefully, public support for Divine will convince the building owner to reconsider.

Pati Beardsley's avatar

This upsets me to my core. It’s A.Buiiiiiildinnnggg!!!!!! There IS no Holy attached to this structure! I thought Australia was supposed to be cool and largely non-cuckoo! I feel so badly for those poor folks.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

But-but-but ... it USED to be ... [insert dramatic sting] HOLY!

And now the thought processes of those who are all bent out of shape are mostly HOLEY! 😝

larry parker's avatar

Kookaburra calls will drive you nuts. : )

Boreal's avatar

Stop sitting by the old gum tree...........

😄

David Graf's avatar

It's interesting that when the NT refers to a building in a religious sense that it talks not about church buildings but the body of believers. And if the whole world is the Lord's then all creation is consecrated. Of course, other believers disagree with me.

Len Koz's avatar

If all creation is consecrated then we have no need of religious buildings.

David Graf's avatar

Early Christians apparently met in homes. Religious buildings work well once the group has outgrown a home for larger activites but I don't think that it has to be consecrated. Plus, it doesn't even have to be a "church". Many religious groups use public facilities like community centers when they meet.

Old Man Shadow's avatar

I wonder how many sites from other religions were taken and turned into churches throughout history.

Crowscage's avatar

All of the ones that were not demolished and deliberately defiled.

Jane in NC's avatar

Seems like using a building's long-ago use as a church is just a hook for another round anti-gay, anti-drag discrimination. Nobody was forcing the tediously fragile men of these christian groups to attend any of the exhibits or performances they don't like, yet they'll say the most hideous things about people simply because of their sexuality.

Christopher Hitchens was right when he said that people who are looking to take offense will always find a provocation. It's sad to see the jelly spine virus has spread to Aussie pols as well.