So much hate. So much fear. So many lies.

One of the stupider arguments from Ray Comfort, an already pitifully stupid evangelist as it is, is the "have you ever lied?" argument, which Comfort fancies is a slamdunk takedown of non-Christians and their imagined lack of moral fiber. The deep, deep irony of this is that no one lies like a fundamentalist Christian. Lying is so pervasive amongst their ranks that one can imagine the altar call involves taking a solemn oath never to tell the truth for the rest of their lives when they can help it. (The innate contradictory nature of that act would be one that a fundamentalist could in all likelihood dismiss with ease.)

Donald Wildmon's dispicable American Family Association is among the fundie flock's most reprehensible organs of dishonesty. A rabid anti-gay hate group, they are equally infamous for linking their website to another organization, the pretentiously-named Family Research Institute — a loathsome rabble that has been openly classified a hate group by watchdogs the Southern Poverty Law Center for calling for the extermination of gays — as well as using the F.R.I.'s pseudoscientific "research" to bolster their own homophobic position. The AFA are such pathological liars about, well, everything that even Snopes.com has had to run interference on their disinformation (here and here).

The latest eeek-teh-gayz liefest to erupt from the AFA sewer is an "Action Alert" regarding the refusal of a Dallas church to hold a funeral for a Desert Storm vet once they discovered that the deceased was gay. The church made a national disgrace of itself by likening homosexuality to murder, and further cemented the reputation of fundamentalists as simple-minded Neanderthals who preferred hanging on to their divisive, hate-feuled ideology even if it meant pissing on the bereavement of a family.

Naturally, the AFA is right there with the attempted save. To them, it's the church being persecuted for refusing to push — all together now! — "the homosexual agenda"!

There is a battle taking place in Dallas. It is a battle trying to force a church to lower their Scriptural standards to meet homosexual demands.

When High Point Church refused to allow their building to be used in a memorial service celebrating homosexuality, the homosexuals became very upset and started a campaign of harassment and public ridicule aimed at High Point.

If those pushing the homosexual agenda get their "hate crimes" bill passed into law, this is only a sample of what churches, pastors and Christians can expect.

Now, one actual look at the article reveals this:

An Arlington church volunteered to host a funeral Thursday, then reneged on the invitation when it became clear the dead man's homosexuality would be identified in the service...

But the photos that the family selected alerted church officials that there might be a problem with the service, Mr. Simons said.

"Some of those photos had very strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging," he said. "My ministry associates were taken aback."

Gee, you're kind of left with impression there that the family wanted a whole barebackin' photospread laid out along the altar, complete with anal creampie. I suspect that the "strong homosexual images of kissing and hugging" actually consisted of the deceased with a boyfriend, arms around each other, and maybe sharing a smooch in exactly the same way a man and wife/girlfriend might. In the deranged, paranoiac world of the AFA, the family's desire to have photos of their loved one in his service is perversely morphed into "homosexual demands." Thus do Christian lies spread, from a warped, hate-crazed worldview.

Having just observed the funeral of my best friend's mother, and seen firsthand how Christians exploit such opportunities to hold just another sales-pitch sermon (I've talked to my friend since I blogged about that, and she's told me not only was she disgusted by the whole thing as well, her mom would have been pissed to boot), I can see the church's problem. And frankly, I'm not sympathetic. The church was going to want to use the funeral of this brave vet to push their Christian message, and to have photos of a happy, contented, and loving gay man on the altar brazenly defying their agitprop that gays are loathsome miserable sinners, they'd be in a conundrum. Good. Churches deserve to find themselves in conundrums 24/7. Let the light of reality and reason shine on their lies day and night, until the human race as a whole understands what religion really is, a repellent, mindless practice of faith-based ignorance and fear, and throws it over the side once and for all.

As for the survivors of the late Cecil Sinclair, they have my sympathy and support, plus my assurance — though I'm sure they don't need it — that they're entitled to feel nothing towards Cecil but love and pride, despite the efforts by "loving Christians" to tell them he was a piece of shit who didn't even deserve a memorial.