Noted Corporate Leviathan Amway Linked to an Anti-Gay Marriage Group [Rights And Rites]

Amway, the Michigan-based purveyor of fine, consumer-pleasing clutter, has been linked to the National Organization for Marriage, one of country's most vocal advocates against same-sex marriage. Amway's proximity to NOM has spurred Fred Karger, the president of LGBT activist group Rights Equal Rights, to call for a boycott of the Amway, which could prove pretty hard for the average person to do considering that Amway has its fingers in everything from cleaning products, to jewelry, to the NBA (Amway has the naming rights to the Orlando Magic's professional playpen).

In 2009, the Douglas and Maria DeVos Foundation — Douglas DeVos is Amway's president — donated a cool $500,000 to NOM. That three-year-old donation prompted Karger to announce an Amway boycott on Friday. He linked the company to Chick-fil-A, and explained that NOM, like the Christian chicken-breast peddler, "constantly defends anti-LGBT companies." The DeVoses reminded everyone that Amway itself hasn't taken an official company stance on the marriage issue — only the DeVoses have, and, they would have the general public know, expressing "personal beliefs as a participant in the democratic process" is "one of the highest callings of any individual." Having an opinion and expressing it is one of the highest callings, everyone, even if that means expressing stupid opinions, like that Pierce Brosnan was good in the Mamma Mia! movie, or that McDonald's doesn't clearly serve the best fries.

Orlando Magic, Amway Boycotted For Anti-Gay Marriage Donation [ABC News]

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National Organization for Marriage Unmoved by Infographic of the Bible’s Many Awful Marriage Possibilities [Rights And Rites]

An infographic purporting to show the bible's actual nightmarish definition of marriage in the years when people still thought the sun was either the poison bump on the back of an enormous gila monster or an egg yolk that could end famine has been steadily canvassing the internet, yet has somehow failed to dissuade the National Organization for Marriage that maybe the whole "one man, one woman" note has been struck a little too often. The infographic shows how biblical definitions of marriage include, though are not limited to, the following perversities: man + woman + concubines; man + woman + slaves; man + oodles of wives; and rapist + victim. All of that sounds like pretty damning evidence — straight from the most important textbook ever, no less — that perhaps the conservative case that marriage is strictly between a man and woman because, like, the bible is a thing has some holes.

Aha! exclaimed NOM's Ruth Institute on its blog — the infographic only proves that conservative worries about same-sex marriage are well-founded, because...

Look carefully at the image and you will see that in ALL of the examples, both genders are represented. This image reinforces the conservative position about needing a gender requirement, it does not undermine our position. And here is why: marriage has always been understood primarily as the means to bearing and raising children. Yes marriage provides companionship to the married partners, but that has never been the reason we needed marriage as a society.

Of course, the Ruth Institute doesn't explicitly defend any of the more, um, passé iterations of biblical marriage (despite what Think Progress' headline insinuates), but the organization does try really, really hard to work with pretty bleak material. A selective reading of the bible will yield pretty much whatever its peruser is looking for — that's sort of the point. The bible is really just a comprehensive reference book for moral dilemmas spiced up with a few beheadings, monsters and wars. It'd be almost impossible to show someone biblical evidence of anything because the bible is like a cloud — where one person sees a deity trying to test a person's faith, someone else sees an asshole trying to prove to his cosmic adversary that he can literally shit all over some sap named Job and the guy will still be super devoted to him. Like a dog.

NOM Defends Biblical Marriage, Including Slavery, Concubines, Polygamy, and Rape [Think Progress]

Image via MNStudio/Shutterstock.

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Megachurch Pastor & Author of Marriage Advice Books Fired After Getting Caught Making Out with Teenager [Holy Crap]

Jack Schaap, an Indiana megachurch pastor with a finely tuned Sincerity Face, has been fired after he was caught sincerely sucking face with a girl who was not his God-endorsed wife. The good news is that the girl appeared to consent to the makeout sesh. The super, extra gigantic bad news is that according to some sources, she's underage. God impregnated the Virgin Mary when she was, like, 14, so I don't understand what the big deal is here.

The 54-year-old Schaap was the head of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana, the 20th largest church by population in the US with a congregation of some 15,000 parishioners. He was busted just days ago, when a deacon at First Baptist retrieved Schaap's cell phone for him just in time to see a picture message arrive from Schaap's young paramour. The picture showed the two of them — the girl and the God guy — making out.

Schaap is married to the daughter of another megachurch pastor, and the two have two adult children. When he isn't preaching the word of God, he's writing marriage advice books. I swear I didn't make that up. Here's a sort of creepy passage from one called Divine Intimacy,

When a person acts out by his life actions that lie about the truth of the Bible, God gets very upset. Nothing symbolizes more of what God has with the believer like the romantic, intimate, physical intimacies between a husband and wife. The wife receives her husbands body. Ephesians 5:23 says that the husband is Christ in the home. When a wife receives her husband's body, she is saying, 'I just want to remind you, Christ, that I am receiving You'.

And another,

The person who deeply loves Christ understands that when He receives Christ as Saviour, it is a spiritual intercourse. A person receives the body of Christ. A Christian is the female gender in the spiritual realm, and God is the male gender of the spiritual realm. When a person receives Christ as Saviour, he is receiving Christ as a lover.

Maybe he wasn't wearing his glasses that day and, in his haze, he could have sworn the teenage girl was Jesus? IDK, maybe they have similar hairstyles and beards.

Other books by marriage expert/philanderer Jack Schaap include How to Speak Husband, Marriage: God's Original Intent, and How to Speak Wife.

What's Wife for "I'm sorry I cheated on you with a girl who may be as young as 16?"

[NYDN]

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Democrats Are Just About Ready to Include Same-Sex Marriage in Party Platform [Rights And Rites]

Just a few months after Barack Obama said that it should be totally cool for same-sex couples to get married, Democrats seems poised to add same-sex marriage to the party platform.

Party officials met in Minneapolis over the weekend, approving the the first step to change the party platform. The next hurdle will come in two weeks when the entire platform committee meets in Detroit to vote on the inclusion of same-sex marriage. If the change is approved, it would then be up to Democratic Convention delegates to vote on when they convene in Charlotte this September. Though the language in the proposal could be revised, Democrats who were briefed on the Minneapolis decision don't think that there will be any major obstacles to same-sex marriage being included in the party platform. Language in the platform also included a condemnation of the Defense of Marriage Act, which boasts a somewhat misleading name because it doesn't so much safeguard marital unions as it does prohibit people from being recognized as married couples. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for that, of course — Republicans crafted it on Washington D.C.'s district-wide Opposite Day, a little-known holiday on the official calendar that is particularly sacred to the GOP.

Democrats Move to Include Gay Marriage in Party Platform [NY Times]

Democratic platform includes marriage equality plank: sources [Washington Blade]

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Surprisingly, Vietnam Might Legalize Same-Sex Marriage Pretty Soon [Lgbt]

Vietnam could, through an interesting confluence of government policy and national journalism, be on track to legalize same-sex marriage, something that would set it apart from other countries in Southeast Asia where the issue, according to the AP, hasn't really been up for debate. The Justice Ministry recently proposed to include same-sex couples in an overhaul of the country's marriage law, and though many remain pessimistic about the same-sex provision sticking around long enough for a National Assembly debate, some herald the proposal itself as evidence of significant progress.

Vietnam remains a socially conservative country, though its communist government has restricted the religious organizations that typically offer the most vociferous objections to same-sex marriage. Thailand, for example, boasts a vibrant lesbian, gay, and transgender community, but it's mostly relegated to the entertainment industry and otherwise separate from the country's socially conservative politics and society. Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which are largely Muslim countries, have strict laws against homosexuality (in Malaysia, sodomy can lead to a 20-year prison sentence). Even though the law isn't widely enforced, homosexuality also remains a crime in Singapore, where a record 15,000 people recently turned out for a nighttime demonstration in support of gay rights.

The state-run media in Vietnam has, by placing restrictions on journalists who voice dissent with the Communist Party or report on politically sensitive topics, created a news vacuum that journalists have started to fill in with longform articles and broadcast news features about gay rights. Vietnam's first publicized gay marriage was televised in 2010 and, since then, other ceremonies have followed, putting the issue front and center in the Vietnamese news stream.

The country will hold its first public gay pride parade in Hanoi on August 5. Between now and next May when the marriage law proposal will be put in front of the National Assembly, the same-sex provision will face a series of pretty rigorous tests — the Justice Ministry will have to consider opinions from the public, as well as from government agencies. Then, in order for it to become law, the majority of parliament will still have to approve it because even nominal representative government is a slow, leaky machine that you have to kick a few times to get it working again. Now, I'm not saying everyone should have a monarch or anything, but, Queen Elizabeth has been on a bit of a roll lately...

Unlikely Vietnam considers same-sex marriage [AP]

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