Got an idea for a new gay Holiday

[OphidiaPhile]

I sooo want a date with Keira Knightly.

If only she would put on about 15 kilos.

 

[OphidiaPhile]

You're not going to win anyone to your cause with this method of argument. Just a thought.

Somehow I don't think that was the point of his OP.

 

[No Swansong]

Ok if I have to date a man can it be Jimmy Smits?

 

[LittleNipper]

Ok. Mardi Gras is a Christian celebration and it corresponds with the Christian feast of Shrove Tuesday. The first Mardi Gras mass was held at Point Du Mardi Gras in 1699. We actually don't know where that point was though New Orleans people say it was in New Orleans and Mississippi people say it was somewhere near Gulfport. Biloxi was the only French settlement at the time so even if it was in Louisiana state territory the claim would go to Biloxi by virtue of Fort Mareapas being the only fort in operation at the time

The first Mardi Gras celebration in terms of an outright festival was held at Fort St. Louis de la Mobile which later evolved into the city of Mobile. When New Orleans was founded in 1718, the French continued Fat Tuesday celebrations there as well. New Orleans had the first Mardi Gras flag. Mobile had the first parading organization and exported that tradition to New Orleans in the 1850s. It has been recognized as a state holiday in both cities since the 1870's.

Having grown up in one of these cities I can assure you that Mardi Gras is about many things. A celebration of homosexuality is not one of them. We do have gay and lesbian societies such as the Order of Osiris. That Osiris exists does not make the holiday a gay one. Mardi Gras is a Christian liturgical holiday and it is the last fun that you get to have before the sacrifices of Lent. That is why it is the day before Ash Wednesday. The public schools let the children out so that they can attend church, though that is a holdover from the time when Catholics used the public schools which with the exception of a few specific schools they no longer do. In the Catholic schools, you do have to attend on Ash Wednesday and you attend at the Ash Wednesday mass.

Mardi Gras is about balls, throws, family and community. It is obvious from your comment that you have never been to Mardi Gras and know nothing of what it is about. To judge it by what tourists in the tourist section of New Orleans do is completely ignorant. As part of the friendly rivalry I don't want to defend New Orleans during Mardi Gras season but I will. Most New Orleans people don't actually hang around the tourists during Mardi Gras and most of the New Orleans people are not in areas where people flash for beads. If you do that in one of the family sections along the N.O. parade route they will haul you off to jail. If you do that in Mobile at all you will be hauled off today. Mardi Gras is a celebration of the community and in Mobile, New Orleans and in most of southern Louisiana it is the most important celebration that the community holds.


The following cities hold Mardi Gras celebrations: New Orleans and suburbs, Mobile and suburbs, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Pensacola, Beaumont, Galveston, Panama City, Destin, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, Metairie, Panama City and probably other cities I have forgotten.


Now, how many of those cities do you associate with "strong gay culture?"


Before you go insulting a holiday please learn what the holiday you are insulting is actually about

I know enough that I recognize that it (Mardi Gras) presently has very little to do with any biblical celebration. I certainly do not feel it is a holiday any Christian should be proud of. Actually, Christians are not supposed to be proud. Pride comes before a fall. I've never celebrated it and I'm no less a Christian in spite of that fact. But if homosexuals wish to claim this holiday for their own, they are welcome to it and the city of New Orleans, too.

 

[Skaloop]

I've never celebrated it

You seem awfully proud of that.

 

[Garyzenuf]

I know enough that I recognize that it (Mardi Gras) presently has very little to do with any biblical celebration. I certainly do not feel it is a holiday any Christian should be proud of. Actually, Christians are not supposed to be proud. Pride comes before a fall. I've never celebrated it and I'm no less a Christian in spite of that fact. But if homosexuals wish to claim this holiday for their own, they are welcome to it and the city of New Orleans, too.

You did read the post you quoted right, because someone went to some trouble to try and explain it to you, and you just blew it off. Not very considerate ole' man.

*

 

[.Sabre.]

If only she would put on about 15 kilos.

I'm not into skeletons, but I like her face. So she's a reverse butter face, I guess!

 

[Joachim]

I know enough that I recognize that it (Mardi Gras) presently has very little to do with any biblical celebration. I certainly do not feel it is a holiday any Christian should be proud of. Actually, Christians are not supposed to be proud. Pride comes before a fall. I've never celebrated it and I'm no less a Christian in spite of that fact. But if homosexuals wish to claim this holiday for their own, they are welcome to it and the city of New Orleans, too.

You obviously didn't read anything I wrote because you made the immediate association of Mardi Gras in New Orleans even though I gave a very brief synopsis of the holiday in the western hemisphere and the locations of places that actually hold Mardi Gras celebrations.

Somehow, if it were meant to be something of complete debauchery and wickedness school districts in multiple cities along the Gulf of Mexico would not be letting their children out for Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday.

I am with you on gay marriage for the most part. When you attack a holiday that is a part of my community and a part of who I am without knowing anything about it provokes the reaction you are recieving now. We and our more famous cousin to the west have been doing this for three centuries. We were doing this before there was a United States of America. If you have ever been to either Mobile or New Orleans you will learn that they have a long period of parades before Mardi Gras day itself.

The New Orleans parades traditionally begin on Twelfth Night, a Catholic liturgical holiday. Our parades once began on New Years but during the modern era it has evolved to where the first parade in the area is on Dauphin Island. It is always a month before Fat Tuesday. Since we got the bowl game we have been having a Mardi Gras parade the prior night. Since the recent change in our bowl game's date of exposition, in the last few years that has translated to us having our own parade around the Epiphany. If I had to bet I will say that if this continues then we will eventually have a Twelfth Night parade ourselves. It will be like everything else with Mardi Gras, an organic tradition that has grown on our own terms. The only exports have been organized secret parading societies, Mardi Gras flags and colors, various kinds of throws, various kinds of coach building techniques and so on. It is a very organic thing


Because we have Mardi Gras we don't do a big St. Patty's Day parade, even though most of the city's Catholic community has at least some Irish blood in them. The thing is, St. Patty's always comes after Mardi Gras and Mardi Gras taps out the money. St. Patrick's Day is nothing special anyway. It is a Mardi Gras parade with people dressed in Irish costumes throwing green throws. The only parades I can think of that do not involving throws being made to people Mardi Gras style are Veteran's Day and King Day. It is a part of our community.


As for your remarks about Mardi Gras not being Christian.....If it was not a Christian holiday you would not see so many clergy out in the streets during the parades and out at the balls. It is very much a Christian holiday and you learn this from the very beginning in Catholic school. You do this because for the next 40 days after it everything is all sacrifice; no meat on Fridays, Stations of the Cross every week, and the general things you do during Lent. What we celebrate during Mardi Gras is the upcoming Resurrection of our Lord. We celebrate it because we know that at the end of Lent we will celebrate Christ's victory over sin once again.


It is also obvious, and I hate sticking up for them during the season but a point must be made, that you have never been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras. If you did you would know that the gay involvement in those parades, just like that of the tourists, is combined to a certain part of the city. I am personally glad that they get all the tourists because tourists don't know what it is about. If you haven't grown up with it you really never will get it. I can never understand Carnival in Rio but I would guess it is probably similar in many ways and different in others


You know we decorate our houses for Mardi Gras. We put up Mardi Gras garland. If you go into any store in the city they will have Mardi Gras tree and other Mardi Gras decorations up. More people decorate for Mardi Gras than they do for Christmas. It is a family holiday and a community holiday. It is a Catholic holiday and historically it has been associated with our city's Catholic and Episcopalian communities as well as our wealthy citizens but it is indeed a day for all people. It is the only time where you will get the entire city into the downtown area for the same purpose other than Bayfest. Christ the King is only for Catholics. No one comes to the Christmas parade because the throws aren't good. This celebration though is for everybody. On a street during a parade you can see the Archbishop, an elderly woman and a child being held on the shoulders of a parent all there for a purpose.


Before you knock Mardi Gras you really should try it. If it was such a terrible holiday you wouldn't have cities across the country trying to have knock off celebrations. As far as I'm concerned if it is held in America and is not held on the Gulf then you can't call it Mardi Gras because Mardi Gras in this country means something really specific.


Finally, I feel I should tell you this. Most atheists don't become atheists out of their strong beliefs. They become atheist because an overbearing Christian, usually a fundamentalist, ticks them off and drives them to it. You really should consider the image you project when you hold yourself out as a member of the body of Christ.


Why did it edit out a certain word I used?

 

[SiderealExalt]

Finally, I feel I should tell you this. Most atheists don't become atheists out of their strong beliefs. They become atheist because an overbearing Christian, usually a fundamentalist, upsets them and drives them to it. You really should consider the image you project when you hold yourself out as a member of the body of Christ.

Thanks for the stereotype. Most atheists I know were not "driven" to atheism by stupid Christians.

 

[PhilosophicalBluster]

"We the Fabulous?"

Best thing ever.

Oh, I call dibs on Thom Yorke.

 

[soul_biscuit]

Thanks for the stereotype. Most atheists I know were not "driven" to atheism by stupid Christians.

*Raises hand*

I was not driven to atheism at all. It's the only position that makes sense to me.

 

[SiderealExalt]

Same here. Been an atheist all my life. Declared myself as one actively since I was a little kid.

 

[soul_biscuit]

Same here. Been an atheist all my life. Declared myself as one actively since I was a little kid.

I was raised a Catholic, though I used to go to Evangelical vacation bible schools in the summer. I genuinely, honestly offered myself to Jesus at one point. I guess it didn't take.

 

[Angel4Truth]

Very cute thread. One thing it ignores though is that we believe that the acting on it part is the choice - (not the having an attraction to the same sex part)

We certainly choose whether or not to have sex and with who - but why would anyone deliberately choose to have sex with someone just because its a holiday?

 

[soul_biscuit]

Very cute thread. One thing it ignores though is that we believe that the acting on it part is the choice - (not the having an attraction to the same sex part)

I'm not sure everyone agrees with you on that.

I'm making some assumptions about your beliefs in asking this, so correct me if I'm wrong, but why would God make people with an inborn attraction to the same sex if he didn't want them to act on it? Is he just baiting gay people?

We certainly choose whether or not to have sex and with who - but why would anyone deliberately choose to have sex with someone just because its a holiday?

I think the point was that if being gay is a choice, then there's no reason why we can't all have a "Let's Be Gay Day" in which we reverse our choice of sexual orientation for 24 hours.

That is, those of us who haven't already chosen to be gay.

 

[SiderealExalt]

Very cute thread. One thing it ignores though is that we believe that the acting on it part is the choice - (not the having an attraction to the same sex part)

As another said, not everyone would agree on that. For that matter, I would care why? American law does not say gays must for any reason be celibate, or that there is anything wrong with non celibate homosexuality. The Bible never specifies this for gays, and the Bible does not dictate American law.

We certainly choose whether or not to have sex and with who - but why would anyone deliberately choose to have sex with someone just because its a holiday?

Satire is lost on some people. That a good enough reason for you? But to be more serious. It has to do with what, again, soul said. Christians and others say it's a choice in dishonesty. Because they know they couldn't be that way on a complete level. Physically, emotionally, the whole ball of wax. Yet the lie is perpetuated that to be so is.

You can certainly argue what you have above. But that makes even less sense, and still arrives at the same conclusion at the others. The irrational decision(the real choice in this matter) that to be gay is to be less, and that it is harmful.

So I make a choice for a little satire and fun, and a choice to treat gay people with the same motivation MLK plainly spoke to everyone. To judge people by the content of their character.

 

[explodingboy]

Thanks for the stereotype. Most atheists I know were not "driven" to atheism by stupid Christians.

To be fair I think there is some truth in the statement the wording isn't all there though.

Allot are driven away by the firebrand Christians, not neccisarily to Atheism though, just a large mix of non Christian or no religious opinion at all.

 

[OphidiaPhile]

Very cute thread. One thing it ignores though is that we believe that the acting on it part is the choice - (not the having an attraction to the same sex part)

We certainly choose whether or not to have sex and with who - but why would anyone deliberately choose to have sex with someone just because its a holiday?

Why would someone want to date a entire gender that they are not remotely attracted to nor have any desire to be intimate with?

I could never in a million years be with a man just as most homosexuals have no desire at all to ever be with a woman.

 

[SiderealExalt]

To be fair I think there is some truth in the statement the wording isn't all there though.

Allot are driven away by the firebrand Christians, not neccisarily to Atheism though, just a large mix of non Christian or no religious opinion at all.

Certainly, the problem is that it is a highly simplistic answer. Often used for the purpose of slurring an atheist.

A popular method of doing so goes generally like this. If the atheist is young, the atheism is attributed to immaturity and a sense of youthful rebellion. The position is portrayed as juvenile, a phase as it were.

If the atheist is old, the atheism is attribute to bitterness. To unfortunate events within the course of one's life making the person angry at their God of choice.

Both often add that the atheist in question isn't really an atheist, simply a denying believer who hates their God.

The effect of, particularly if the offender is a close family relative, can certainly play into the decision, but rarely is it accurate to say it was the ONLY and the most pertinent and strongest reason for either the change. Or if the person is simply declaring it. Many atheists I've known were for a long time, but coming from stringently religious families, up to extended family. There was quite a bit of social pressure to hide the fact.

For myself, my mother was raised Irish Catholic in the 1950's. I never got details but she has said the experience sowered her to it and the Catholic Church. Though she herself is a theist. She's more a deist or at best a very liberal Christian that does not believe in the majority of the supernatural claims of the bible. She however, save in one decision, did not effect my being an atheist. Nor for that matter my experiences with Southern Baptists and others while I lived in the South.

In this case, she decided, instead of indoctrination into any religion. She would let me choose. I read at an early age. By 2nd grade I was on a college reading level. I read lots of myths and religion, read the bible and many other things. History,etc. I especially enjoyed Greek and Egyptian religion/myth and general mythology. Vampires(myth kind, not the movie kind), and all the other superstitions of the world. It had immediately occured to me that little to nothing seperated dead myth from living religion. My first act of public atheism in a way happened when I was around ten. I used to go to this Saturday night sleepovers at this local Catholic church. Tons of kids would come over, play, watch stuff like animated bible tales, and I remember the animated version of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Then in the morning parents would pick em up early. Take them home, and they'd come back for services.

Well, I never went, but under curiousity, though I did not consider myself remotely Christian, to attend while my mother was out and about. I had read the Bible before already. I was in a sort of bible study thing and the teacher was talking to the kids about the Noah story. I remember it distinctly hit me just how disgustingly immoral the story was. Here was this spirit just murdering people. Oh I'm sure he drowned a bad lot. But I was thinking of the toddlers, the infants, the innocent people,etc.

It was not the first thing or primary thing that struck upon me the immense immorality of Christianity, but it was definitely my earliest and most distinct memory. So...I stood up, set the bible I was given under the chair, and walked out the class. The teacher was rather mad and kept yapping at me as I walked down the hall. I stopped at a public phone and dialed my mother and left. Never came back. The second was when asked in third grade to draw pictures of animals, I included a picture of a human. The teacher didn't appreciate that.

Atheism came to me naturaly. I've always been fond of saying, all newborn babies are atheists.

But this is all off topic. I'd prefer poking fun at the holes in anti homosexual ideology

 

[allhart]

Certainly, the problem is that it is a highly simplistic answer. Often used for the purpose of slurring an atheist.

A popular method of doing so goes generally like this. If the atheist is young, the atheism is attributed to immaturity and a sense of youthful rebellion. The position is portrayed as juvenile, a phase as it were.

If the atheist is old, the atheism is attribute to bitterness. To unfortunate events within the course of one's life making the person angry at their God of choice.

Both often add that the atheist in question isn't really an atheist, simply a denying believer who hates their God.

The effect of, particularly if the offender is a close family relative, can certainly play into the decision, but rarely is it accurate to say it was the ONLY and the most pertinent and strongest reason for either the change. Or if the person is simply declaring it. Many atheists I've known were for a long time, but coming from stringently religious families, up to extended family. There was quite a bit of social pressure to hide the fact.

For myself, my mother was raised Irish Catholic in the 1950's. I never got details but she has said the experience sowered her to it and the Catholic Church. Though she herself is a theist. She's more a deist or at best a very liberal Christian that does not believe in the majority of the supernatural claims of the bible. She however, save in one decision, did not effect my being an atheist. Nor for that matter my experiences with Southern Baptists and others while I lived in the South.

In this case, she decided, instead of indoctrination into any religion. She would let me choose. I read at an early age. By 2nd grade I was on a college reading level. I read lots of myths and religion, read the bible and many other things. History,etc. I especially enjoyed Greek and Egyptian religion/myth and general mythology. Vampires(myth kind, not the movie kind), and all the other superstitions of the world. It had immediately occured to me that little to nothing seperated dead myth from living religion. My first act of public atheism in a way happened when I was around ten. I used to go to this Saturday night sleepovers at this local Catholic church. Tons of kids would come over, play, watch stuff like animated bible tales, and I remember the animated version of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Then in the morning parents would pick em up early. Take them home, and they'd come back for services.

Well, I never went, but under curiousity, though I did not consider myself remotely Christian, to attend while my mother was out and about. I had read the Bible before already. I was in a sort of bible study thing and the teacher was talking to the kids about the Noah story. I remember it distinctly hit me just how disgustingly immoral the story was. Here was this spirit just murdering people. Oh I'm sure he drowned a bad lot. But I was thinking of the toddlers, the infants, the innocent people,etc.

It was not the first thing or primary thing that struck upon me the immense immorality of Christianity, but it was definitely my earliest and most distinct memory. So...I stood up, set the bible I was given under the chair, and walked out the class. The teacher was rather mad and kept yapping at me as I walked down the hall. I stopped at a public phone and dialed my mother and left. Never came back. The second was when asked in third grade to draw pictures of animals, I included a picture of a human. The teacher didn't appreciate that.

Atheism came to me naturaly. I've always been fond of saying, all newborn babies are atheists.

But this is all off topic. I'd prefer poking fun at the holes in anti homosexual ideology

This drum beat has been beaten. There is more to life.... in mental substance and in the natural reality's. If there was a cartoon showing of a beating of a dead horse; it would be appropriate.