What the *$ happened to Canada
I'm visiting Ottawa with my family today. And we thought it would be a great idea to tour the Parliament Buildings. Turns out, however. that it was just the wrong day for me to do that.
As a way to "combat" the pride parade, a group of evangelicals booked the lawn for their big event, "The Cry". In effect, they held a revival meeting in front of the seat of Canadian government. And they were loud, and they pissed me right off.
We walked around to find the tour, ignoring them. And then we passed somebody who was taking photos from the back, so I decided to ask him exactly what was going on. And we had a moderately pleasant conversation, or, rather I tried to listen to him and, every time I pressed him on a point, he changed his story.
Because, it turns out, gay marriage is going to destroy us. He knows. He lived "the gay lifestyle" for two years, as a dancer in New York and some touring companies. So he knows, see, how being gay is really bad, and all about sex and drugs. Because he was there.
I called him on this, about how he was in a sex and drug culture that happened to be gay, and that the two concepts are orthogonal. I tried to listen, and to have a reasonable conversation with him.
And them we left, and two minutes later he walked up to the mic and began a 15 minute rant on how evil is is to be gay, and how the Pride parade was going on somewhere else in Ottawa, and this was a war. And he was declaring victory for Jesus.
Fucking prick.
He also had the gall to tell us that, as a Christian, he expects to see increased persecution. He says that, in five years, he doubts they'll be able to speak in public, and that the fact that their sound guy was late was proof that the government was against them. I pointed out that, as an atheist, there are many places in the US where I couldn't even serve in public office, and that evangelicals have been saying they expect to be in jail in 5-10 years for at least 30 years now. And he just couldn't believe that i couldn't see how persecuted he was.
He's speaking in public, telling every non-evangelical in a public place that our beliefs are wrong, with full support of the police, the capital services, and the constitution. He's saying that his religious opinion should be law, and they are praying that the government will impose "God's Will", which is to say their exact interpretation of a cryptic political text, on all of us. And they are the ones who are being persecuted? If he had is way, I'd not be allowed to express belief.
The only bright side was that there were only a couple of hundred people there. But when calls for Jesus to return and impose his will on the people of Canada are bouncing off of the nation's parliament, it just makes me sick. I'm livid. These people piss me off.
Basically, they took a fantastic day and I let them fuck it up for me. I just want to go back there and tell them how stupid they sound. And I know that they think I'm "confused by Satan", and that they think it's the best thing they could ever do to help me understand how their insane fiction of a saviour, and help me join their adoption of mystical doublespeak as a source of guidance.
Right now, this very minute, I wish there were some way I could help these people see just how stupid evangelical Christianity appears from the outside, and how fucked up their values are. And I want to stop thinking about these assholes and just enjoy a nice city with my family. I kind of expect this shit in the USA. But I thought I'd escape this stupidity in Canada. I guess I was wrong.
As a way to "combat" the pride parade, a group of evangelicals booked the lawn for their big event, "The Cry". In effect, they held a revival meeting in front of the seat of Canadian government. And they were loud, and they pissed me right off.
We walked around to find the tour, ignoring them. And then we passed somebody who was taking photos from the back, so I decided to ask him exactly what was going on. And we had a moderately pleasant conversation, or, rather I tried to listen to him and, every time I pressed him on a point, he changed his story.
Because, it turns out, gay marriage is going to destroy us. He knows. He lived "the gay lifestyle" for two years, as a dancer in New York and some touring companies. So he knows, see, how being gay is really bad, and all about sex and drugs. Because he was there.
I called him on this, about how he was in a sex and drug culture that happened to be gay, and that the two concepts are orthogonal. I tried to listen, and to have a reasonable conversation with him.
And them we left, and two minutes later he walked up to the mic and began a 15 minute rant on how evil is is to be gay, and how the Pride parade was going on somewhere else in Ottawa, and this was a war. And he was declaring victory for Jesus.
Fucking prick.
He also had the gall to tell us that, as a Christian, he expects to see increased persecution. He says that, in five years, he doubts they'll be able to speak in public, and that the fact that their sound guy was late was proof that the government was against them. I pointed out that, as an atheist, there are many places in the US where I couldn't even serve in public office, and that evangelicals have been saying they expect to be in jail in 5-10 years for at least 30 years now. And he just couldn't believe that i couldn't see how persecuted he was.
He's speaking in public, telling every non-evangelical in a public place that our beliefs are wrong, with full support of the police, the capital services, and the constitution. He's saying that his religious opinion should be law, and they are praying that the government will impose "God's Will", which is to say their exact interpretation of a cryptic political text, on all of us. And they are the ones who are being persecuted? If he had is way, I'd not be allowed to express belief.
The only bright side was that there were only a couple of hundred people there. But when calls for Jesus to return and impose his will on the people of Canada are bouncing off of the nation's parliament, it just makes me sick. I'm livid. These people piss me off.
Basically, they took a fantastic day and I let them fuck it up for me. I just want to go back there and tell them how stupid they sound. And I know that they think I'm "confused by Satan", and that they think it's the best thing they could ever do to help me understand how their insane fiction of a saviour, and help me join their adoption of mystical doublespeak as a source of guidance.
Right now, this very minute, I wish there were some way I could help these people see just how stupid evangelical Christianity appears from the outside, and how fucked up their values are. And I want to stop thinking about these assholes and just enjoy a nice city with my family. I kind of expect this shit in the USA. But I thought I'd escape this stupidity in Canada. I guess I was wrong.