Meeting Persephone

Sean Penn won an Oscar for his portrayal in "MILK". I've not yet seen it - I intend to. I go to an average of one movie per year and the rest I watch in the comfort of my own home. I anticipate being just as moved by the movie as I was by the acceptance speeches from those involved in the movie. It's a sensitive subject for me because many people I love are fighting for their given rights in this country and, as was mentioned in Mr. Penn's speech, the equality that the heterosexual community takes for granted and the right wing believes they are entitled to deny to a contributing part of our society. And because it's sensitive material, I'm likely to cry. This is why I'll be watching it at home - to save others from my ugly cry face!

The ugliness that Sean Penn spoke about coming from a group of right-wing extremist "Christians" in the US is nothing new. The group (I refuse to name them) are unfortunately based not far from where I live. They are a vominous crew of hateful people representing their deity in the most heinous of ways. It's gotten old - very very old. I've yet to hear of them converting anyone's way of thinking and fortunately they are a very small group made up mostly of relatives of a disbarred attorney who now considers himself founder and head clergy of his disturbed church. The comfort, for me, lies in the fact that at least their group will die when these members are dead. The other comfort is that most of the rest of us are too decent as human beings to place a counter on a website celebrating the number of days they've been dead. They may not be above that sort of behavior, but I think the rest of us are.

They are the poorest representation of Christianity that I can think of. I don't go out of my way to defend Christianity, but they are not it.