Insane pastor has own "cure" for AIDS

[JakeSully]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/arizona-pastor-predicts-aids-free-christmas-if-all-gays-are-killed-as-god-commands/

Any thoughts on his crackpot idea?

[IndigoErth]

Wow, what a creep. Really I'm not sure what makes me lose faith in humanity more, that people like that are able to seek out positions of power (such as becoming religious leaders like in this case), or that there are probably people willing to follow them.

[Cure]

I was the Cure4AIDS once.

[pennydreadful]

I've got a thought - f*ck him. And not in the good way.

[IndigoErth]

♫♪ So here's my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Santa oh please mow down this man, top speed...
Not for myself
But for a world in need ♪ ♬

[pennydreadful]

What is it with humans? Why do they have to hate people who are different from them?

I just don't get it, man.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

I know four brothers we could ask that question to.... :trazz:

[Leo656]

What a queer.

[pennydreadful]

Yeah, the biggest homophobes are always the biggest closet-cases. They're gonna find him holed up with a male hooker and an 8-ball of cocaine.

[Leo656]

Or they have even bigger skeletons, like finger-banging kids or f*cking horses.

[BubblyShell22]

Yeah, this guy needs to go down.

[snake]

:lol: Where in the bible does it state that gays should be killed again?

[BubblyShell22]

It doesn't say anything about that. One of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not kill." I guess this guy didn't get the memo.

[Gunpowder]

What is it with humans? Why do they have to hate people who are different from them?

I just don't get it, man.

Because they're humans. :tlol:

[Candy Kappa]

:lol: Where in the bible does it state that gays should be killed again?

Leviticus 20:13

[Katie]

This guy and guys like him who are vocal about such garbage are a huge reason why Christians get a bad rap. If my preacher spewed such hate I would stand up and confront him. Hate has no place in my church.

I have no problems speaking my mind and calling out bullsh!t.

[Davetello]

Notice how it's always religious zealots who come out with this sort of nonsense? The guy is a lunatic.

[JakeSully]

This guy and guys like him who are vocal about such garbage are a huge reason why Christians get a bad rap. If my preacher spewed such hate I would stand up and confront him. Hate has no place in my church.

I have no problems speaking my mind and calling out bullsh!t.

What about WBC?

[Darthknuxward]

F*ck this guy. With a chainsaw. Slowly. With vengeance. And a spoon.

[Katie]

What about WBC?

What about them? They are a whole hate mongering congregation. Also not a good representation of mainstream Christianity.

Again, vocal minorities coloring how Christians are seen.

[IndigoErth]

If WBC is who I think it is, from what I understand most (all?) of them are also supposedly related... just one big nutjob family. They're not even good examples of humankind let alone a theological demographic.

There are times that a law preventing the abuse of freedom of speech almost seems like a good idea...

[BubblyShell22]

I agree with that, Indigo, but it'll never happen.

[JakeSully]

I'm glad i'm an atheist.

[BubblyShell22]

Yeah, me, too. I agree that not all people who believe are like this, but it's the people who ARE bigoted and use religion in such a hateful way that makes me despise religion and want nothing to do with it.

[Jester]

I hate to go there, but there aren't bigoted, hateful atheist?

EVERY group has its complete and total douche-bags.

[pennydreadful]

Agreed - people can be utter wankstains regardless of race, religion, gender or any other factor. It's a shame that there are so many unpleasant specimens out there, but short of drowning them in a vat of their own piss, there ain't much you can do about it.

[BubblyShell22]

Yes, there are, but I feel they're doing it to fight back against the other haters, and I'm all for that.

[Netkeeper]

Angry atheists are arguably worse than some super Christians. I understand hating religion because religious people are often bigoted. This is why I'm scared of a lot of them. But I cannot condone shoving atheism down anybody's throat. I cannot condone treating them that way back.

I used to be like that and I was pretty awful.

[slashpieturtlemix]

I love it when a person takes one or two sentences from a book and takes an entire meaning out of it. Give me a Dr. Seuss book and I can make any meaning!

I agree with the extreme arguments on here. People who are to into anything (any religion, including atheism) is always a bad thing. People just need to mind their own business.

And if anyone wants to follow that entire sentence, we could always look at it like this, the phrase states that a man shall not lay with a man like he would a women. Clearly its just stating that they can still sleep together. Just can't spend the night. The phrase has nothing about Lesbianism. Also people need to read the entire book of Leviticus. Its boring as all hell but there is no ten commandments. Its like 250+ laws lol like my personal favorite, if you commit adultery, trade a ram to the wife's husband and your sin is forgiven.

[Candy Kappa]

Oh, I've gone through Leviticus, it's a... Interesting read... Rape is a "easy" way to get a wife...

[slashpieturtlemix]

Oh, I've gone through Leviticus, it's a... Interesting read... Rape is a "easy" way to get a wife...

lol it is def one of the more intriguing books. Ancient laws were dropped for some very good reasons. Still wish we practiced the ram law just for grins but that's just me.

[DarkLightDragon]

Oh goodie, another person using his religion as justification for spewing hatred and malice towards those who are different than him/her.

Somebody give me a dollar.

[IndigoErth]

I hate to go there, but there aren't bigoted, hateful atheist?

EVERY group has its complete and total douche-bags.
Yes, and agree. And say that as an atheist.


Personally I stay out of theistic arguments most of the time, just not worth it. I attribute that largely probably due to the fact that I was born and raised as I am (and still agree with this angle, so no proselytizing please) and simply don't discuss it much because prejudice over some topics is unfortunately just a fact of life... Only people who are close enough to me have any business knowing. Most are theists and so far I choose good enough friends that none have walked away because of it nor disrespected my right to my own views (and visa versa of course).

I have for a long time felt that some of the more vocal atheists are more likely 'new' atheists, those raised religious and may have grown up with religious debate/defense as second nature and have simply switched sides while continuing to argue.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

lol it is def one of the more intriguing books. Ancient laws were dropped for some very good reasons. Still wish we practiced the ram law just for grins but that's just me.


Agreed, Leviticus is one of the books I use when people try to tell me I'm "going to H*ll" because I'm Wiccan. I just shoot back with "Did you know the line about not suffering a 'witch' to live was originally a 'poisoner'? It changed because of a mis-scribing of a SINGLE WORD when the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek!" If one reads the early books of the OT, there were people consulting with sorcerers, soothsayers, and witches all the time. But after that one word got mistakenly changed, it was suddenly "righteous" to stone them to death! One letter literally changed an entire sentence into something that it wasn't supposed to mean.

[DarkFell]

Jeez, what a dumbsh*t. Somebody from his congregation better drag that guy off of the pulpit.

[BubblyShell22]

Believe me, I'm not that extreme about what I believe in. I don't like religion, but as long as people don't shove their beliefs down my throat, I'm fine with what people believe in, even if I may not agree with it and think that it's just a fictional book not unlike any other book. But if someone wants to try and shove their beliefs down my throat, I have no problem doing it back. I do admit though that there are times where I just wish people would stop believing in this stuff as I think it would make the world a better place.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Yeah, that's one reason why I found an alternative path myself. Who needs a book? I live by ONE "rule"- "And ye harm none, do as ye will." It means basically live and let live, and do whatever you like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone- including yourself. I can't think of any better words to live by.

[pennydreadful]

Back to the original topic, it's thoroughly depressing that someone can actually be that ignorant. HIV and AIDS are not solely contracted by gay people - and anybody who thinks so is an utter moron. The virus is just as easily spread by heterosexual sex as by gay sex - or by exchange of blood through dirty needles. I suppose this idiot thinks that the thousands of heterosexuals in Africa should be killed off too? Actually, he probably does.

In America, gay and bisexual men do account for a larger percentage of the affected population than heterosexuals, but heterosexual intercourse is responsible for the majority of worldwide cases.
Citation:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/HIVAIDS-in-America-Snapshot-508.pdf
http://www.aidstruth.org/denialism/misuse/padian

But hey, it's not like this is a new thing. Remember when Pat Robertson said:
- that you can get AIDS from saliva (wrong, you can't)
- you can get AIDS from sharing a towel with someone (wrong, you can't)
- gay people have a magical secret society where it's against Gay Law to tell people that you have AIDS (what?)
- gay people in San Francisco have special magic rings which cut people so they can spread the virus (what???)

Citation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/pat-robertson-aids-rings_n_3824401.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/anderson-cooper-pat-robertson-aids-ridiculist-cnn_n_6030022.html

Bottom line, extremists who actively encourage violence against other people should be watched very carefully. I don't think people who encourage hate crimes and murder of other people should be looked up to as any kind of leadership figure or role model within the community. It's disgraceful, and shame on anybody who tolerates that kind of thing and doesn't speak out against it.

[IndigoErth]

That man himself actually has a worse disease infecting humanity. AIDS might one day be curable and eradicated, but Ignorance probably never will be. Especially considering it has the side effect of seeking power and spreading itself. And mental blindness. People like him can do what he's doing, yet preaching about somehow ridding the world of people like him would be 'wrong'... :roll: This world, I just don't know anymore.

[Metalwolf]

This guy and guys like him who are vocal about such garbage are a huge reason why Christians get a bad rap. If my preacher spewed such hate I would stand up and confront him. Hate has no place in my church.

I have no problems speaking my mind and calling out bullsh!t.I think Christians need to confront these types more openly, like going to these nutbags' 'demonstrations' and counter-preaching or something. We'd do a whole lot of good, just showing we won't stand for that crap.

I hate to go there, but there aren't bigoted, hateful atheist?

EVERY group has its complete and total douche-bags.I've seen them, mostly through game channels and un-moderated comment sections. They know they won't get in trouble (or that it will take a long time to ban them) so they go in and 'cut loose.'

[JakeSully]

I hope this pastor bastard gets aids himself

[BubblyShell22]

Yep, same here. I think the whole myth was that AIDS was only contracted by homosexuals and that they were the ones who started the disease when it's obviously not true. Hell, Ryan White got it from a blood transfusion, so it's obvious that he didn't get it through sexual intercourse. Some people just baffle me.

[Jephael]

Wow, this dude is a schmuck.

[Leo656]

Well, statistically speaking, it's more likely to infect members of the homosexual population simply because fewer numbers of that population tend to engage in "safe sex", especially in areas where education about the disease or even on safe sex in general is limited or even forbidden. Factor in that homosexuals tend to be slightly more promiscuous than other people (again, going solely by reported statistics), and you have a plethora of reasons why the gay community has always been hit harder by the disease than most other populations.

That said, it's not as simple as all that, because there's also the fact that people share needles and get dirty blood transfusions and sometimes garbage workers cut themselves on discarded medical waste. "Sh*t Happens", basically. So while it's not false to say, "AIDS as a disease has historically hit the gay community much harder than others", it's also not like a virus can have an agenda. Diseases don't choose who they infect.

I don't talk about this kind of thing much because I'm a little sensitive to it, but when I was a kid I watched one of my Dad's best friends die from AIDS. He actually lived at our house off and on for a few years when he had no place else to go. So I got to see the reality of it up close, and it's unspeakably horrible. He was a good guy, one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet on this Earth; I mean, he was very spiritual and spoke mostly in Bible verses, so that could turn you off I guess if you're not into that, but he wasn't "religious" per se, because he always had a lot of negative things to say about organized religion, but anyways, he just was always trying to help people out and help them see the good in life and in other people, just the kind of guy everybody liked being around. You'd talk with him and just feel better about things. But turns out he did heroin a few times and happened to share a needle with somebody, and turns out his number came up. It was awful. It took about 3 or 4 years from start to finish; he didn't have a lot of money for treatment and his family refused to take care of him, so he had no real incentive to even fight. He just slowly withered away to a skeleton until he died while living at the hospital. I still can't believe it when I think about it. I mean, if you knew this guy, you'd know that he was the absolute last person you'd think would have this happen.

So yeah, it's awful, and it's completely indiscriminate. Because nobody deserves to die that way, but they do. I get mad when people try to marginalize it or say it only affects certain people, or that they "earned" it or "deserved" it, because that's bullsh*t. People have a way of reaping what they sow in life, for sure, but trust me when I say that *nobody* deserves to die like *that*. And it even happens to people who did absolutely nothing to "earn" it and definitely don't "deserve" it.

[BubblyShell22]

Wow. That sounds awful, Leo. Yeah, no one deserves any of that no matter what they do or how they contract it. This guy is an idiot, but I take comfort in the fact that he'll be proven wrong about all of this.

[pennydreadful]

Sorry to hear about that, Leo - it is very sad and people definitely need to show compassion towards anyone with any type of illness.

HIV infection in the US is highest for gay men, but again, worldwide, the majority of HIV-positive adults have contracted from heterosexual sex. (source: http://aids.about.com/od/dataandstatistics/a/world_facts.htm). All you have to do is look at the infection rate in Africa to see that it has nothing to do with sexual orientation (source: http://www.avert.org/hiv-aids-sub-saharan-africa.htm).

Sadly, most non-gay people just don't bother educating themselves about HIV or AIDS; a lot of people don't even know the difference between the two! So that just feeds into the social stigma and misunderstanding of infected people.

Socially, people need to examine the factors that accompany HIV infection in gay and bisexual men. First and foremost, they're dating/having sex within a much smaller pool than heterosexuals. HIV infection is actually at its lowest for gay/bi teens and people in their 20s; infection risk is higher for men aged 30 - 50, and that's because teens and people in their 20s are much better educated about safe sex than people of the older age brackets.

Second, as I said before, there is a huge amount of social stigma leveled at people who are infected. I mean, you have to ask yourself - would you want to walk into a hospital as a man and say "I have AIDS and need to talk to someone about treatment"? You know you wouldn't - because you know exactly what they'd be thinking about you. You probably wouldn't even want to get tested in case the doctor thought you were gay. Gay and bi men are more reluctant to get tested because they don't want to have to deal with judgmental doctors and nurses in the healthcare system. The Centre For Disease Control actually has recommended universal HIV testing for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation - but it's not commonly implemented because again, HIV is seen as the gay mans' disease.

Unprotected anal sex is definitely a high-risk activity for infection, because a persons' tissue in that area is thinner and it's very easy to get microtears which then allow the virus access to the bloodstream.

That being said, unprotected vaginal sex is also high-risk for infection, because the lining of the vagina is actually a mucus membrane, which again, then allows the virus access to the bloodstream. (source: http://www.mnaidsproject.org/education/educate-yourself/hiv-transmission.php)

So it actually has nothing to do with engaging in "unnatural" sex acts, as uneducated zealots like this pastor would lead us to believe.