Archbishop prays while topless gay activists shout curses and douse him with water

reply to post by sad_eyed_lady

Excuse me, I am offended. When people start acting like rabid animals and lose any sense of decency they paint a clear picture of themselves and the merit of their cause takes a big PR hit. This free-for-all bothers me greatly and I'm sad to know that things are so messed up around the globe.

I think that Americans, such as you and I, should try to avoid thinking of Belgian politics as if they were American politics. The hate-speech laws in Europe seem to have more teeth than what we know of in the U.S. This recently appointed Arch Bishop has himself been tried under Belgian hate speech laws.

One of the peculiarities of Belgian politics is that a foreign appointed ( Vatican) Belgian person (Arch Bishop) is seen as a partner in Belgian political decisions (akin to, say, an Oil Company executive invited to write energy policy for U.S. law)

So, to Belgians, he is not merely a Roman Catholic speaking to Roman Catholics, he is an unelected, foreign appointed, politician, speaking of Belgian and European civil law.

What particularly caught my attention was that the venue was an International, multicultural university hosting a debate on blasphemy laws. Obviously, he was arguing in favor since his opponent, Guy Haarscher, views blasphemy as 'a normal - and maybe cathartic - value in open societies. ' (quote by Yvonne Sherwood, Biblical Blaspheming: Trials of the Sacred for a Secular Age page 65)

reply to post by pthena

. . . the venue was an International, multicultural university hosting a debate on blasphemy laws. Obviously, he was arguing in favor . . .

Thanks for pointing that out, and for discovering that part, to start with.
I engage in what some would consider, blasphemy, every day on this forum, in the religion section. Also, just a little while ago, on Facebook, I was criticising Rick Warren for saying that the Christian and Muslim gods were the same person. I don't even think that the Christian and Jewish gods are the same person.
I am afraid that at some point in the future, we will all have to be Rick Warren's if we want to be religious at all.
So, my point is, anyone on this forum should realize that it only even exists because of the US and its freedom of speech, which is constantly under heavy attack.
btw: on another forum web site, I was being ridiculed by some members for saying there was a such thing as anti-blasphemy laws. Everyone had better wake up to this right now.

reply to post by jmdewey60

Before going too far off-topic, I give a nod to on-topic comment and views.

I checked the FEMEN website to see what they were about. An excerpt from (about)

femen.org...

FEMEN - is a new ideology of the women's sexual protest presented by extreme topless campaigns of direct action . FEMEN – is sextremism serving to protect women's rights, democracy watchdogs attacking patriarchy, in all its forms: the dictatorship, the church, the sex industry.
The magic of the body get your interested, the courage of the act make you want to riot.
Come out, Go topless and Win!

My view is that there is a very real chance that these women are being exploited.

Some readers may be angry and offended thinking such thoughts as, "Look what they get away with!", but no, they aren't getting away with anything, they do suffer the legal and physical consequences for their actions. The organizers and recruiters may not suffer consequences yet, but the recruited definitely do; tear gas, police cuffs, verbal abuse, incarceration, criminal records, PTSD etc. A definite case for exploitation in my thinking and feeling.

Now that that's addressed,

So, my point is, anyone on this forum should realize that it only even exists because of the US and its freedom of speech, which is constantly under heavy attack.

Right, what we can or can't write about religious subjects would be severely narrowed down if the forum were hosted in another country. One person's statement of faith is another person's blasphemy.

Examples:
A Christian may say, "Jesus is Lord", a Jew responds, "that's blasphemy, there's only one Lord, and it ain't Jesus!"

A Puritan may say, "The Papacy is anti-christ." A Roman Catholic would cry, "Blasphemy!"

In short, any one discussing religion would have to stay within very limited vocabulary or suffer the consequences. And that is not an open society.

reply to post by pthena

My view is that there is a very real chance that these women are being exploited.

Right, it sounds too much like this thing that happened in Russia, PussyRiot, or whatever I am allowed to say.
It looks like another sort of 'color revolution' to affect local politics for a globalist agenda, by way of the CIA.
Like get people upset enough to create a 'backlash', which in reality is something planned and ready to be carried out by operatives planted in the government, but need 'public approval' to implement.

reply to post by jmdewey60

Right, it sounds too much like this thing that happened in Russia, PussyRiot, or whatever I am allowed to say.
It looks like another sort of 'color revolution' to affect local politics for a globalist agenda, by way of the CIA.

I can't see any indication that Pussy Riot had any clandestine funding. Do you have any supporting evidence?

FEMEN, on the other hand does seem to get much outside support.

FEMEN also receives donations from individuals[21][60][130] like Helmut Geier (also known as DJ under the alias DJ Hell),[67] German businesswoman Beate Schober (who is currently residing in Ukraine),[131] the American-Jewish businessman Jed Sunden (founder of Ukrainian KP Media and former owner of Kyiv Post newspaper)[1][132] and Ukrainian Canadians.[103] There is also speculation the group receives support from clandestine sources.[103]
Financing

Now I wonder: FEMEN claims to be against all patriarchal religion. If the planned branch in Tel Aviv actually opens, will an action be called in order to expose the brutal beatings of women who attempt to board buses while not meeting dress codes of ultra orthodox Jewish morality vigilantes? If someone dies as a result, will it show up in any news outlet?

Edit to add:

While in Kharkiv I also met with Tatiana Isaieva, the founder and director of a new gender museum funded by the local city administration and the Global Fund for Women. Although Isaieva was careful to distance her own work from Femen’s activities, she did mention Anna Hutsol as a fellow participant in a leadership training seminar funded by the U.S. State Department several years ago
Anthropology of East Europe Review 29(2) Fall 2011 page 216 underlining by pthena

reply to post by pthena

I can't see any indication that Pussy Riot had any clandestine funding. Do you have any supporting evidence?

No, I don't because I never looked into it much but I saw it all over, so it was given a lot of free publicity and a lot of famous people made statements of support for it.

. . . will an action be called in order to expose the brutal beatings of women . . .

No, and since this thread has already been moved into the religion forum, they (the zionist regime) are not going to risk exposing that they are not genetically superior to Arabs.

That the organization is based in the Ukraine may be taking advantage of an existing real gender inequality in that country, where it would be relatively easy to get willing recruits for their soldiers so that the 'leadership' does not have to take the brunt of retaliation against the organization's activities.

The page that you linked to starts out interestingly,

“Now when people in America think of Ukraine they will add Femen to their list of vodka, snow, and the Orange Revolution,” my friend Lilya sighed in disappointment, . . .

So, my 'off the top of my head' reaction to this news story with the bishop is that there is someone directing the whole thing and taking advantage of people with a legitimate complaint, and pushing them past the limits of public acceptability of behaviour, to cause an engineered reaction against them in order to give 'street cred' to the bishop who just has to strike an 'innocent' pose.