There was recently discovered a dozen copies of a particularly disturbing magazine in the “free take one” bookshelf of the prison chapel.
For this magazine to have been placed there it had to go through one of two processes.
1)It is sent in the mail, which means it is searched by the mail room then forwarded and reviewed by the chaplain then put on the shelf.
2) It is brought in by a sponsor, which means it is searched as it comes into the facility then given to the chaplain who reviews it and has it put on the shelf.
In both cases it is reviewed by a random c/o and the chaplain. That is an important detail.
The magazine in question is the May 2018 issue of “PW magazine.”
The cover is of gay pride rainbow flags being prominently displayed on a large, presumably government, building. Cover story is advertised as follows in large sanserif letters:
“Sodomites: Being Placed In High Offices”(capitalization original).
Under that in smaller sanserif text “IN THIS ISSUE:/ Destroy and Scatter” (capitalization original).
Now, I may be a simple back-country blogger, but something about this just don’t seem right.
Many of the people I deal with on a regular basis, most LGBT some not, brought this to my attention asking “what should we do about it?” (read: what are you going to do about it?)
I have never liked censorship. Like really really don’t like censorship. So before having a conniption fit about about it, I braced myself for impact, grabbed a copy and read it.
PW is a publication of “the house of Yahweh.” For the record, I don’t like typing/ writing/ stating the name of the Christian deity in that way so I haven’t even opened it and it already has two strikes against it as far as I am concerned. I feel it to be disrespectful to people that practice the Jewish faith to pronounce or write the name of their god like that in a non-sacred space. Elohim, Hashim, etc are (in my understanding) considered respectful however, anything so similar to the name is just rude.
In reading the article itself I was absolutely floored by the inquisition-esqu tone.
Their cover story, written by Yisrayl Hawkins, begins with a critique of Pope Francis and some statements he made. Apparently (according to the article) the Pope asked anyone in the crowd who was sinless to raise their hand and stated “the line between good and evil passes through the heart of every person.” and “We are all sinners.”
The author immediately describes this statement as “stupid.” Yet, this lesson is nearly identical to one of the teachings of Jesus. “Let you who are without sin cast the first stone.”
Thus, in the first two paragraphs of the article, we already can see the author’s bias and falseness of argument.
Like I said, I have a problem with censorship, it takes a lot for me to say “this has got to go.” However, with the author’s following arguments I was slowly convinced that whomever wrote it seriously needed to go back to Sunday school for a primer on what it means when words are written in red.
He argues that acceptance of other people being imperfect is a sin by equating other people’s flaws to the fruit in the Garden of Eden and the person doing the acceptance to Eve. On the second page of this article the author states “The Temple that once stood in Yerusalem is now called the Sistine Chapel and sits in Rome. Write, Call or Email for more information.” (spelling original) On first seeing the first of those two sentences I thought he was meaning in a metaphorical sense, for which an argument could be made. However, the second sentence shows he means literally and that is a completely false statement.
Here he moves on to hit the classic, Leviticus 18:22-27, and is seemingly unconcerned with the history of the first five books of the Bible/the Torah. Leviticus is where every hair-brained rule someone in a position of authority came up with. If the rule was not restated in Deuteronomy then that meant Moses did not approve it, him deriving his authority from, according to both the Jewish and Christian traditions, being the last man to see Elohim’s face while on earth. Thus, as seeing the bits about a man lying with a man are not restated, but the parts on having sex with animals is stated as a no-no in Deuteronomy, the correct interpretation is that one is a sin and the other isn’t.
The author then goes on misquoting and misrepresenting the Bible, both new and old Testament, until he reaches the conclusion that “The Pope is sent by the Vatican to push sodomy and to condemn all who practice righteousness.”
So because the Pope is saying ‘Let’s not kill everyone that doesn’t meet your narrow definition of righteous purity’ that somehow makes him evil? No. That, to use the author’s word, is stupid. Why? Because: “All your righteousness is not but soiled rags.”
For the remainder of the article the author argues, quite unsuccessfully, that the keeping of government records was a prophecy of Daniel (which he spells “Daniyl”), that “you will never hear the instruction from the Vatican to repent,” and that the Vatican has the power to get US officials removed from office. So apparently the kingdoms in Daniel’s time didn’t keep records, the confessional doesn’t exist, and nor does popular elections? None of that makes sense.
One argument I will grant that the author made was that Christmas, Easter, and Halloween are all pagan holidays. They were originally Yule, Ostara, and Samhain and were adopted to the Christian tradition in an attempt to make converting people easier. Not sure how that is relevant to his point of the existence of LGBT people to the end of the world.
What I do understand is that this is a threat not just to LGBT people, but Catholics as well.
Thus, the next time I was in the chapel I saw to in that this magazine found the recycling bin.
Seemed socially conscious to me.
Amber Fayefox Kim 