From: <CEvans1950@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 11:19:35 EDT

Hello,

Here is yet another example that tends to support the hypothesis that a great many of the religiously convinced are but deluded patients-without-doctors whose understanding of reality is so incredibly flawed as to be little more than a form of mental illness -- and not a merely another of the many sane philosophical opinions available to us.

These poor fools have become so possessed by their silly superstitions that they do not, indeed probably dare not, allow the incursion of reality into their ridiculously flawed notion of reality. They go on and on about their unevidenced, non-existent, invisible magic beings and the primitive, uninformed taboos of barely civilized desert savages and are generally blissfully unaware that no intelligent person takes them seriously.

Many of the stable simply smile and nod and hope they go away -- and the religiously convinced delusional paranoics goofily imagine that this is agreement -- when in fact most stable people couldn't be bothered with them and are simply too polite to tell them the transparently obvious truth: "Sorry, but you are plainly tripping!"

Their problem is that they are so simple-minded or mentally ill that they cannot recognize the difference between the internal hallucinations they worship and the reality that exists outside of their stone-thick skulls.

Many of them are fairly good-natured and well-meaning but the sad fact is that they are merely deluded goofballs and are to be given the same benevolent disregard as any other neighborhood "mentally challenged" person.

You might invite them to a neighborhood cookout but you don't let them play with the fire.

It is long past time for humanity to cast off superstition in the guise of religion....THAT is the true abomination.

Sincerely,
Caroline

Religious Vow Homosexuality Fight

By JANELLE CARTER
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A group of conservative religious ministers says it is time for the religious community to play a more active role in opposing homosexuality.

"We the religious people have to start to act up," Rabbi Yehuda Levin of New York, a member of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of U.S. and Canada, said at a Wednesday news conference sponsored by the conservative Family Research Council. "I think this is a new beginning of the family fighting back."

"Our outreach to the gay and lesbian community is not motivated by hate," said Bishop Harold Calvin Ray of the Redemptive Life Fellowship in West Palm Beach, Fla. "I would hope the message of the church would be: `We don't condense and compromise ... in order to be politically correct."'

"Homosexuality is a sin," said the Rev. Jerome McFarland, a Baptist minister from Washington, D.C. "It's contrary to the express will of God."

But even religious leaders are divided on homosexuality. Several other clerics attended a news conference held by a gay rights organization.

"God loves and accepts love from all people, regardless of sexual orientation," said Rabbi Marc Israel, director of congregational relations for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Israel called the other ministers an "intolerant, homophobic chorus."

"This is a very well-orchestrated political campaign against the gay community," said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.

Conservative leaders said they were only responding to massive lobbying efforts by gay activists to influence public policy.

Wednesday's news conferences were the latest in a recent public dispute over homosexuality. Several religious groups took out full-page newspaper advertisements last month denouncing homosexuality.

The Judicial Council of the 9.5 million-member United Methodist Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination, ruled at a meeting Tuesday night in Dallas that a minister who performs a marriage of two people of the same sex can be removed from the ministry.

Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., compared homosexuality to kleptomania. And Green Bay Packers star Reggie White, an ordained minister, drew fire from gay activists and political liberals for calling homosexuality a sin during a broad attack on homosexuality in a speech to the Wisconsin legislature.

Senate Republican leaders have blocked a vote on confirming James Hormel, a homosexual, as ambassador to Luxembourg to protest what some have called Hormel's promotion of a "gay lifestyle." And last month, the House voted to block federal payments to San Francisco or any other city that requires city contractors to provide benefits to same-sex partners.

But last week the House voted to uphold a Clinton administration order banning discrimination against homosexual federal workers - a major election-year blow to conservatives.

AP-NY-08-13-98 0245EDT