beautiful monsters

belonging

Tom Scott recently featured a kid who wanted to cancel his subscription to the human race. Sometimes I know how he feels. We can be so unbelievably heartless. But then… we are also capable of incredibly kindness, and creativity. Poetry, art... Buffy... and then there’s that smudgy child’s handprint that I still can’t bear to wipe off my wall. That’s the thing. We’re not born hateful. We learn it somewhere along the way. And if we can learn it... then we can unlearn it. Right?

Everyone has been asking me how I can be part of a church that makes such fundamentalist and homophobic decisions. The biennial Presbyterian General Assembly ruled that the church will not accept for training, license, ordination or induction, anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside the faithful marriage between a man and woman. Effective immediately. Only 37% of those at the assembly voted against the ruling.

And yeah, part of my initial reaction was “Screw you.” Part of me wanted to walk away from the church. I mean, I’m employed by this organisation! I’m not the kind of person who will take this shit in the workplace.

But really, I didn’t choose to work for the Presbyterian Church. I chose to work for St Andrew’s. I love my church. I love the people, I love being challenged by the teaching, comforted by the liturgy. I belong there. I am loved, supported and respected... and I have something to offer back to that community. No, we’re not perfect, but hell, who is?

New Zealand, as a country, has some things that go completely against what I believe in my heart... but I’m not about to throw away my citizenship in protest. Because there’s good stuff here too. And because it would be a long and lonely search trying to find a nation that was spotless.

Yesterday, at church, after the reports from the General Assembly, we sang, “Turn our grieving into grace,” and I looked up at the ceiling and blinked furiously, trying to stop the tears from spilling over onto my cheeks. Then I looked down, and saw that others were crying around me. During the passing of the peace, instead of grasping hands, we reached out and hugged one another. And I was proud, to be part of such a loving, radical, defiant congregation. I was so proud.

having a ball

I left early, due to splitting headache, but it was a great night. And it sounds like some people had a really good time...

The Drag Kings entertain us

Darthsappho and Dryadwoman all glammed up

Laputain and Jessikast looking utterly adorable

manic_subbie and shoeless_girl (who flats with JN not JW and therefore is not German)

sexy Sylvia

bellydancing

I don't think these two have a blog (shock, horror)

sunny day

I went to hear Flora Poetica ? local poets reading in the Botanic Gardens. James Brown read my favourite ? Feeding the Ducks. Stephanie de Montalk read her poem about the old oak tree on Glenmore St. A bunch of young and not so young poets from the poetry and landscape workshops read from their recent work. There was a general spring/gardens theme to the readings.

I want to write poetry again. I never seem to have the time or inspiration at the moment...

Afterwards I wandered through the cemetery, and wondered if a tombstone might belong to my great-great-great-great-grandfather, but I think the dates are a few years out. I?m not sure though, the stone was so worn it was barely legible.

I was going to go to the gym, but it?s just too damn sunny, so I think I?ll go for a walk instead. Hmmmm.... then maybe fish and chips on the beach, and then a talk on lovingkindness by a gay buddhist teacher...

cheat sheet

Reb quite rightly points out that the Heartbeat website doesn’t have much information about how they worked out the rankings. Didn't bother me at first, as I figure I know a bunch of hte people involved and I trust them, their ideas are pretty much in line with mine. Not that I'm following their instructions to the letter... the site is just one factor influencing my decision. But yeah, now Reb draws it to my attention... They do treat people as a bit… well, I was going to say dumb, but lazy is probably the word. And a lot of us are. Like me. What I want to know is, where’s the website that tells me who I want on my DHB??

more politics (and a mirror)

Heartbeat has information about candidates for a No Bypass council with emphasis on creativity, people and community. Plus you could win a $100 dollar voucher that would probably buy you a whole sleeve from Starfish. Or some coffee beans. Yay!

Iona blogs about mayoral candidates in Wellington.

Robin has a lovely piece over on DotMom. So all these insecurities, we’re not born with them, huh?

politics

Want to support a party who oppose GE, economic globalisation and university fees, while supporting Maori self-determination, organic agriculture and making the arts affordable for everyone? But before you sign up, think about whether you want to picket outside Asian foodcourts, and picket anti-racism meetings. Not to mention marching against civil unions. Yup, all this and more is bundled into the political group who call themselves the National Front.

Knowing thy enemy is becoming more and more complicated. Remember the days when enemies were the opposite of everything you stood for? No, me either, but wouldn’t it be simpler? Thank God for the Greens, who still seem to echo most of my values.

If you’re in Christchurch you might want to avoid (or protest against) the National Front’s "Return the streets back to New Zealand campaign". Apparently Christchurch has “so many Asian signs and languages written on widows it is hard to tell what country we are in when in the city. Our Library and other public facilities have been taken over by the Foreigners. It is time to give the Central City back to the people of Christchurch. It seems is not important for them to respect our language and culture any more, they are waving flags of victory. They are rubbing it in our face that they are here whether we like it or not and they have no intention to be part of Kiwi way of life and culture.”

Kyle Chapman (national director of the NF and Christchurch Mayoral Candidate) has sent out a press release announcing the NF’s intention to single out “business's that are no longer make no any pretence about catering to kiwis, and only target Asians customers. We will have teams who will protest out side Asian food courts and we will make it known that we are not happy that our city is being handed over to foreign interests and the money is being handed over to foreign owners.”

Where did these guys come from? Have they been around all along and I just never noticed, or have they become more active lately? It seems that way. Marches and pickets all over the place.

You can download a PDF here, with some information about the NF (and Destiny). Apparently Kyle once firebombed a marae. Way to go, Kyle. (Has anyone invented a way to indicate sarcasm in text yet?) A bunch of people are organising a counter rally against the NF anti-immigration protest over Labour Weekend. Once upon a time I used to protest stuff, you know, directly. Now I protest protests. Huh.

If you’re not already convinced that the NF are fascists, check out some of their policies:

• Polynesian and Chinese migrants will be encouraged to return to their homelands of origin or suitable alternative destinations, with a humane and gradual policy of repatriation.
• Institutionalised Political Correctness will be eliminated. This includes the repeal of race relations and human rights legislation designed, far from ensuring “rights”, to impose a tyrannical multi-cultural infrastructure at all levels of society. Political Correctness, particularly in the forms of the Treaty of Waitangi and feminism, has become a State dogma as pervasive as the Marxism of Communist states.
• Motherhood will be accorded a place as the most honourable and important of vocations, which requires full attention, without the distractions of economic hardship and the requirement for other employment.
• National Labour Service will be established for all youth for a period of 6 months, after having completed their secondary education; which will encourage a sense of solidarity and respect for productive labour among all sectors of society. A period of 6 months Military Service will follow.
• Ultimately we desire the re-constitution of the White Commonwealth of Nations, comprising Australia, Britain , Canada , and New Zealand based on shared kinship and heritage, as an alternative to the globalist schemes for herding “humanity” into a “New World Order”.
• We consider any territorial threat to most likely come from Asia whose population is bursting at the seams, and where any war or natural catastrophe could prompt a mass population exodus, backed by force of arms.
• Violent recidivist criminals should be permanently removed from society, perhaps by being put to work on an outlying New Zealand island.
• Where murder is proven beyond doubt, capital punishment will be applied. Capital punishment will also be meted out to repeat sex offenders.

just for today...

I’m just beginning my third week of abstinence from sugar... I’ve still got a splitting headache, but I think it’s easing. Every night I have dreams about eating chocolates. Dark Swiss chocolates, crunchy on the outside, soft praline inside… *drool.* Then I wake up, and I feel a mixture of panic, thinking that I blew it, and relief, thinking oh well, I’ve eaten chocolate now, I can stop trying not to.

They say just make it through one day at a time. I'm managing by living through one minute at a time.

These guys are my lifeline. My blueprint for sanity.

sometimes stones

My favourite song by Tommy is on the new Green Room CD. Yay! (The singer/songwriter and namesake of the band is a friend and former flatmate) Apparently there’s a video too, filmed at the Pinnacles… so if you happen to have Juice TV (we don’t) keep an eye out for it. I love all Tommy’s songs, but this one always touches me particularly. “I wish that there was some kind of stone that I could hold to make everything alright… But sometimes stones can’t change the moonlight, sometimes stones can’t make the dark bright.”

Tonight I went to an “exploring the faith” meeting at Crossways. The group is working their way through Marcus Borg's The Heart of Christianity, which I haven’t read, but I found tonight’s discussion interesting anyway. The topic was “thin places” – the idea that there are places, times, or experiences where we are closer to “the divine” or “God” or the deeper reality of the universe. Places where the boundaries or barriers between us and the divine are thinner. For some it was revelations in science, or a beautiful piece of music, or mountain climbing, or looking up at a tall tree.

For me, a lot of my experiences of “thin places” have taken places at Tapu Te Ranga Marae. Chanting karakia in Tane in the darkness before dawn, or planting seedling natives up above Manawa Karioi, or sitting round the table, with candles lit, learning Taize chants. There are other thin places too. Physical places (the south coast of Wellington, Chartres cathedral), emotional or intellectual places (suddenly understanding a concept of astro-physics, or listening to a child’s laughter), even places in time, periods of life when these encounters seem more accessible.

I also realised, as others were speaking about how church is a thin place for them; Sunday mornings are not a thin place for me. What with the fighting over toys, the cries of “I don’t want to,” it’s hard to believe that anything divine permeates our world. And I worry that I’m not facilitating an environment where the children can experience thin places. But perhaps I’m trying to impose adult experiences on children. When I think back to childhood, I probably wouldn’t have experienced Chartres as a thin place. But I think that I did have experiences of the divine. I remember the excitement of seeing Haley’s comet, and a sudden sense of the wonder of the universe. I remember holding a little ball of fluff, and sense of the miraculous, that this living creature had hatched from an egg. And I remember making paper lanterns and walking through the streets with them after dark, as part of a festival at my kindergarten.

So... I’m curious. Does anyone else remember any thin places from their childhood? And can any of these experiences be created, facilitated, encouraged?

I’m taking the Galaxies service (7:30 in the lounge at St Andrew’s on the Terrace) this Sunday. Given my obsession with the whole Destiny saga lately, I thought a good theme for Sunday might be “where to from here?” The outrage that many of us felt initially has its place, but it’s not a constructive response in the long run. So what are some responses to situations of persecution or abuse? There will be some readings, poems, and probably some metta/loving kindness meditation. And we might have a late celebration of Rosh Hashanah with apples and honey... or maybe just some spiced hot chocolate. I haven’t decided!

L’shanah Tovah!

Many sweet blessings for the year ahead.

sliding

Everything is wobbly at the moment. I’ve cut back on one of my medications, because it was making me dopey and fat... but now, I’ve lost some weight and I’m more alert but the world is falling apart around me and I can't quite catch hold of the pieces. My doctor is away and I don’t want to need the public health system because the last time I did, this is what happened. I really don’t want to go there again. So I plan to get better. Yup, that’s the plan. Er... it’s not a very specific plan yet...

signs

A few more billboards have gone up since I headed north. There’s one at the top of our street now. I received an email asking me if I’d like to paint billboards for Tim O’Brien. Kerry Prendergast endorses her own billboards – good on ya Kerry. But the slogan – STICK WITH KERRY – is just asking for trouble. Perhaps someone could paint over the W and the H. Not that I’m advocating vandalism or anything. No. Because that would be wrong.

There seemed to be a lot more billboards in Rotorua than here. Or perhaps there’s the same number, but with fewer people and a smaller area. Is there some quota that each town is allowed? The mother of one of my childhood friends is standing for mayor. She helped me out with my waiata essay, and her husband creates the most beautiful bone taonga. I was going to ask if he would carve me something for my graduation, but now it would just feel weird. My mum told me that they had an Enough is Enough billboard parked outside their house. Someone recently asked Janet if she was a member of Destiny, and if she went on the march; she said she was a member, but refused to say whether or not she went on the march.

There were still a few people proudly wearing their Enough is Enough t-shirts around Rotovegas. And someone still had a sign outside their house. “Standing up for the next generation.”

Everything is depressing. Especially elections. I’m going back to bed.

Ok, weird.

We have to do the weirdest assignment for oral history and autobiography... we have to write about ourselves as if we’re not ourselves. Pretend to be our own biographer. Only a very short biography – could be an obituary, a job reference, a magazine article... yeah. It’s a weird exercise. Then we have to analyse it, why they choose certain things, why they left out others... but we wrote the damn thing! We have to write about whether we consider biography truth or fiction. Well, in this case it’s obviously fiction.

All my footnotes get mangled when I cut and paste I’ll just stick them at the end and you can try and work out where they come from.

Portrait of a Homosexual

What sort of person would be standing up against our church? What happens to make a person hate the church so much that they would violently oppose the work of God in this land? This profile will help you to get inside the minds of the few disturbed individuals who run the homosexual lobby.

If you passed Fionnaigh McKenzie in the street, you might not realise the sort of person she is. She might come across as a typical university student, outgoing and a bit liberal. But really Fionnaigh is a prominent member of the homosexual lobby. She writes and distributes homosexual propaganda, and she recruits vulnerable young children into the homosexual lifestyle. How did Fionnaigh come to be such a dangerous opponent to the word of God?

Even early in her life there were some worrying signs. Fionnaigh’s parents were both atheist, and they did not attend church. Fionnaigh was not baptised as a child. Instead, her parents sent her to a kindergarten run by the occultist sect of Anthroposophy. Then, when Fionnaigh started attending a state primary school, her parents wrote a letter to the school demanding that she not attend the religious instruction classes. Instead she went to the school library with a group of Jehovah’s witnesses.

During high school Fionnaigh befriended several Christian students, and started attending a number of churches. Perhaps at the time part of her was searching for a deeper meaning in her life. She became a regular attendee at one church, even singing in the worship team. She deceived many people into believing that she was a Christian, when in fact she was just using the church environment for her own means. She told her friends that she was a lesbian, and tried to brainwash them into thinking that this was ok with God. When some of her friends tried to object she accused them of homophobia, and used distorted intellectual arguments to support her position and confuse the young people of the church. Several of the people she befriended at that time are now hurt and confused, and no longer attend church.

When she faced strong opposition to her extreme views Fionnaigh stopped attending church, and her unchristian parents took little persuading to make the long drive to Auckland so that she could attend the homosexual group Rainbow Youth, which recruits and brainwashes confused young people. Then Fionnaigh went to Costa Rica as an exchange student. While she was there she met a pastor who tried to drive out the spirit of homosexuality in her life, but Fionnaigh resisted and fled the country.

Fionnaigh then moved to Wellington, where she joined another homosexual group, School’s Out. With this group Fionnaigh went into schools with the aim of brainwashing students with her homosexual agenda, trying to convince them that homosexuality was a normal, even preferable, behaviour. She also joined a homosexual club at the university, which gave her the opportunity to learn and spread more propaganda.

Two years ago Fionnaigh was given the job of teaching the children at St Andrew’s on the Terrace. Homosexual supporters claim that this group is a church, but do not be deceived. It is not legitimate. It is run by homosexuals who wish to recruit vulnerable young people, and spread their message of hate. What kind of church would let a known homosexual corrupt the minds and bodies of its children?

Fionnaigh now works for the homosexual lobby, trying to legitimise by law sexual perversions that God has condemned. This group is a very small minority who are trying to impose their views on our nation. They seek to normalise unnatural acts. Prostitution and sodomy have already been legalised, and now they are trying to legitimise gay marriage. These are very dangerous laws that undermine family values and give the Devil a foothold in this nation.

Fionnaigh also runs a website, where she promotes homosexual laws, endorses abominable practices such as homosexuality, prostitution and the occult. Imagine if a child were to stumble onto this website. People like this are trying to pervert our own children. But God has said “Enough is Enough”.

Remember, here at Destiny, we do not hate people like Fionnaigh, but we do hate the spirit behind them. God condemns this spirit of homosexuality, and it is our duty to stamp it out. But there is hope, this condition is recoverable.

For other young people, there may still be time. If a good neighbour had taken Fionnaigh to church when she was young, she might have been saved. As a church we should develop training programmes to help our members reach out to young people who are at risk, in their neighbourhood or amongst friends or family.

God’s vision in this nation is for His word and His laws to reign in our schools. Imagine if there was a Destiny in schools programme! God could bless his children in new and wonderful ways. If there had been a strong Destiny presence at her school, perhaps Fionnaigh would not have turned out the way she did. It is our duty, as the people of God, to intervene in cases such as this. A child’s soul may be at risk.

In is vital that we continue to minister to people like Fionnaigh. This spirit can be driven out, and these people can be saved. With God all things are possible… but only if we are willing to turn to Him.

Analysis

I had originally started this assignment from a different angle, but I decided to invent a biographer who was part of Destiny church. This exercise would be a useful way of evaluating whether I am putting out information that I may later regret. When I first came out, during high school, my parents cautioned me that although I was living in a reasonably tolerant environment at the time, it might not always be safe to be open about my sexuality. At the time I dismissed their concerns. Recently, however, when I took part in the counter protest at the “Enough is Enough” rally, their words came rushing back to me. I was separated from my friends, surrounded by people who were shouting angrily and punching the air with their fists. The men who had control of the microphone were dehumanising and demonising people like me, and, as I had wandered away from the bulk of the counter protest, I was part of a very small minority. I began to wonder if wearing a bright orange t-shirt and a bag that said “with perfect love and infinite wisdom, God made me QUEER”, was such a great idea after all.

The autobiography component of this exercise is edited from a page on my website. I decided to use information that really would be easily accessible to a biographer, as I wanted to keep this exercise as “real” as possible.

Selecting what to write about in the biography was easy. A few internet searches for my name combined with words like “lesbian” “queer” and “sex” turned up enough results to write a small book. I ignored any other information that came up about myself such as volunteer work, art and poetry, and concern for peace, justice and environmental issues. The leaders of churches like Destiny seem to have an unhealthy obsession with anything to do with sex. The way that my imaginary biographer has treated my life is similar to the way that many fundamentalist Christians treat the bible. They focus on the parts that mention homosexuality and ignore the parts condoning polygamy, slavery and condemning those who eat fish without scales (kina, crays and pipi) . To give the biography a ring of authenticity, I personalised phrases from interviews with Brian Tamaki, and used words from comments that members of Destiny have posted on my website.

The biography that I have ended up with is a very narrow portrait. It focuses exclusively on one aspect of my life, ignoring all the other interests, beliefs and activities that make me who I am.

This exercise has made me realise that there is a lot of personal information about me available to anyone with an internet connection. I do not, however, regret putting any of it out there. Although recent events have caused me to wonder if the tides may change, I cannot live in fear of what may or may not happen in the future. I am open about who I am so that others may know they are not alone. Also, I believe the best cure for homophobia is interaction and community. It’s easy to say “God hates fags” when one doesn’t know of anyone who is openly queer. It becomes harder when one realises that Sue and Mere or Dave and Paolo down the road are real people, with families, with hopes and dreams, with mortgages and grocery bills.

Biographies may provide useful insights that the person themselves may not be able to see, or may choose not to write about. However, biographies can also discredit people or provide narrow false views - such as the biography that I created about myself. It is interesting to consider how a person could deal with a bad biography about themselves – or if they are dead, how would their friends, family, or descendents deal with it.

My great aunt, Chris Cole Catley, spoke about a concept she called “the compassionate truth.” Michael King links this idea to a principle expressed by Voltaire: “To the living one owes respect; to the dead one owes the truth.” He also maintains that if the subject of the biography is still living, then the biographer owes them truth and respect. Not everyone agrees with this idea, however. Harry Ricketts , for example, feels that King’s biography of Janet Frame suffers due to King adhering so conscientiously to the “compassionate truth”.

Although many aspects of my life would not be recorded in a Destiny-style biography, they would not be lost, as I have published my own side of the story on my website. Oscar Wilde said that “every great man has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.” Perhaps one way to deal with this is to tell all before Judas gets a chance. But autobiographies can also show a narrow view, as the autobiographer is choosing which elements of their life they wish to share with the world, and which they will conceal. They also make choices about what biographers may write about them. Sometimes, as in the case of Katherine Mansfield, these wishes are not respected. Through the ages there have been countless examples of bonfires fuelled by letters, manuscripts and other papers. This is an extreme way of altering the biography. Now there are options, such as placing embargoes on work in public collections, which protect the subjects, without resorting to such destructive means.

In my opinion there is a very thin line between truth and fiction. Novelists and short story writers often draw on real events or people. Non-fiction writers may make guesses when there are gaps in factual information, may choose to leave out less interesting information, or may make some events seem more important than they were. Michael Holroyd writes that “Children are sometimes told not to tell ‘stories’ – by which adults mean telling lies. But when we grow up we go on telling stories, hoping that they are metaphors which will show our lives as having significant patterns, some moral foundation, and even a purpose.”

Perhaps there is no such thing as absolute truth. Any human statement is shaped by that person’s point of view and underlying assumptions. Even writing in disciplines that we consider firmly in the domain of non-fiction, physics for example, is only guesses (albeit educated ones) that have not yet been disproved. However, some truths are truer. The biographer walks a thin line; holding the interest of the audience while respecting the feelings of friends and family; allowing the subject a voice while acknowledging that even our own views of ourselves are not always balanced and accurate.

There are, of course, different definitions of “truth”. In once sense it can mean “conformity to fact or actuality” . However, there is another usage of the word: “that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence”. Whether a biographical work has the power to reveal some element of truth about ourselves or about life is not necessarily related to the degree to which it adheres to fact or reality.

I do not regard the discipline of biography to be either truth or fiction. Rather, I believe that some biographies are closer to the concept of factual truth than others. And some have the power to reveal something of human nature, or of life. Picasso is supposed to have said that “art is the lies that tell us the truth.” Holroyd expresses a similar sentiment when he says that “…the lies we tell are part of the truth we live.” I would like to suggest that biography can be composed of lies, but has the potential to show us truth.

References

Marsh, Terry. Gospel Messages. Letter, New Zealand Listener. September 18, 2004.
King, Michael. Tread Softly For You Tread On My Life. Auckland: Cape Catley, 2001, p13.
Ricketts, Harry, Pers. com., Wellington, 2003.
BBC entertainment (Wilde)
Holroyd, Michael. Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography. London: Little, Brown and Company, 2002.
dictionary.com

Nothing to report

I was considering checking out Destiny in their heartland, but it turned out that my dad’s birthday was on Sunday, and it seemed rude to ask for a ride into town… Oh well.

I made a birthday cake. A sugar-free cake. Well, cane sugar free. It had fruit - banana, apple and orange - and a wee bit of honey. And pumpkin, sunflower and poppy seeds, sultanas, currants, apricot, ground almond, barley flour, and coconut. The sugar-freeness was selfishly motivated; I didn’t want to make a cake that I couldn’t eat. Anyway, my grandparents were here for dinner, and they can’t stay up late, so I made the cake in a bit of the rush. Took it out of the oven, stuck some candles in, went to get matches… and when I got back the candles had all fallen over. I couldn’t work out why at first. Then I realised they had completely melted. The cake was too hot. We had to cut around the holes where the candles used to be because there was wax all through those parts of the cake. Oh well. It tasted pretty good.

And… I’m really tired. Fotoblog now, so my blog doesn’t keep doing that thing it does. Content tomorrow. Maybe. If I’m not sick AND I’ve finished an essay. Or maybe I’ll just post an essay.

Hey look, it’s spring here! (here is Rotorua - don’t tend to get so many blossoms and prancing lambs in wellyville).

See that deck up there to the right? That’s part of my family home. Yeah, it’s pretty nice to be hanging out here.

More spring

This is what happens if you’re bored in a car at night. With a camera.

I had a dream that I was pregnant and I gave birth to a kitten... and then I kept almost dropping it over the balcony. And my friends all rejected me because they thought that it meant that I had slept with a snake. But I didn’t care, because I loved my little cat. Which occasionally morphed into a human baby.

(When I was studying stuff to do with Orpheus I read somewhere that people used to believe women could be impregnated by snakes. I guess it stuck in my head!)

(OK, when I said I might not be posting... short ones like this don’t count)

In Salient each week they ask five random students five questions. This week was supposed to be the Pride issue of Salient, but they seem to have gone with an Anti-Destiny issue instead. On the Five page one of the questions is, “What legislation should be passed to piss off Destiny Church even more?”

Geoff (24, BA) responds: “Every gay couple receives one free kid from CYFS.”

Drugged

This is the stuff I had to ingest today:

And no, it’s not fun, but thanks for asking. I might not be blogging much over the next few days because I’m not feeling so great. It's almost got to the point where the side-effects are worse than the original symptoms.

OK, no, you're right, it's not quite that bad. Yet.

Also, I’m a bit behind on my assignments...

mini linkfest

This should be amusing. I’m still breathing easy - the latest Marae-Digipoll has Destiny trailing far behind, supported by 0.2% of voters on both Maori and general rolls.

Iona has already blogged about recent Brian media coverage. My mum tells me she had to rip the cover off the Listener because it was too offensive to have lying around the house.

I went to hear Lynne Truss on Friday. Go on, try the link. There’s a Hall of Fame. Someone called Erin Moore has way to much time on her hands. There’s a little game too. Apparently I’m a 92% stickler. Only because the game doesn’t test on semicolons. I am ashamed to say that although I understand the importance of semicolons, and appreciate their grace, I still have no idea what to do with them. Sorry. The talk was sold out, but since it was at St Andrew’s, I managed to arrange to be in the right place at the right time, ostensibly to help set up. She was very funny. I especially liked the anecdote about the virus...

Can’t think of a witty response to that lame pick-up line? Never fear, the paper napkin rejection service is here to help.

Find out if you can tell the difference between a dog toy and a, er, “marital aid” with this quiz. You never do find out exactly what they do.

Oh, and apparently the internet has dropped its capitals. “Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.”

Faith, hope, and oh god not more Destiny...

Those of you hoping to find pictures of Faith in the shower, well, you’ll just have to wander over to my LJ (yes I succumbed).

Those of you hoping I’ve stopped talking about Destiny, well, maybe soon. Meantime, here’s some real life quotes.

Brian says:

God calls [homosexality] a perversion, and it’s a very severe one.

People are beginning to get sick and tired of the permissive and hyper-tolerant attitude that’s permeated this nation.

You can’t socially and legally recognise something that God says is a sin. It’s wrong.

Human rights become human wrongs when they violate the laws of God.

The message I would have for [the kids from Wellington high] is that they can certainly be transformed out of that lifestyle.

Reporter: There are gay churches, and there are churches who don’t condemn homosexuality. How do you deal with that?
Brian: They’re not legitimate. There’s no such thing as a gay church. Not in God’s eyes. That’s something that’s been created by that particular spirit.
Reporter: Is it fair to say that Destiny represents a Christian view point, but it’s not the only Christian view point? There are others.
Brian: Well this is the viewpoint of the bible. So those people have to argue with that, and anybody else that takes contention with me about this, because we shouldn’t even be ordaining gay priests, or homosexual ministers. What Jesus was once condemning, as a perversion, today, some of the, um, some parts of the church are ordaining it, is evil.

Brian: It is a crime. It’s a crime that we allow that to be accepted, and then that we should allow our children, our grandchildren to having to contend with that abnormality.

Random Destiny guy on Holmes: We’re not against people. It’s a spiritual thing.
Reporter: What are you against?
Destiny Guy: Wickedness. In heavenly places.
Reporter: And that is what?
Destiny Guy: Ah… the devil.
Reporter: And does that equate with gay… homosexuality and lesbianism?
Destiny Guy: Yeah. Well it’s the spirit that is behind them, it’s not the actual people themselves.

Destiny Woman: We love the gay people. Just not what they do.

Reporter: Families come in all shapes and forms now days.
Brian: No they don’t. No they don’t. There’s only one stable unit that’s called the family, that’s one man, a male, and one woman, a female, coming together in the covenant of marriage, when they legitimise that, in that covenant, then they have the legal right, as far as god is concerned, to be able to not only be together in a relationship, but it’s the only relationship that can procreate. That can produce children. Two men can’t produce children. Two women can’t produce children. The day that they can naturally produce children, then I’ll change.

changing the subject

May contain Buffy/Angel spoilers for seasons...er... 7 and 4-5 respectively

Season four Angel was a great break from all the... no, I'm going to try not to say the D word for at least one post.

Spin the Bottle was an awesome... almost as good as a Buffy ep. "The government gave me bad hair!" Hee... And the references to Buffy... the florist and salty goodness quips. Nice.

And as for Faith in the shower... ooooooh... not going to go there. Might be children in the audience.

Willow and Fred meeting was another highlight. They'd be so cute. Sigh.

They've gotta stop recycling actors though. The doctor who shows Fred around Wolfram & Hart, wasn't he an undead pysch student on Buffy? And Andrew was a vamp in Harmony's gang before he popped up as one of the evil trio. And the weird bug monster in the sewers, he was on Buffy, I'm sure he was. But not as a bug. Come on, surely there are enough starving acting students wandering around in the States?

Anyway, it was fun. I can't wait until season 5, I hear there's lots of salty Spike goodness...