"Church leaders called Friday for Jamaica's government to drop plans for horse racing on Sundays, saying the ills from gambling addiction and its harm to families will far outweigh financial benefits." - Forbes.com
(http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/09/18/business-cb-jamaica-gambling_6905531.html)
Are you freaking kidding me? They're getting worked up about Sunday gambling, but nary a word about the epidemic of gay murders and mob violence? I'm sure this is the karmic result of colonization, imperial conquest, and other evils where one culture tried to dominate others...but it is mind numbing regardless of the sociological explanations. Give me strength!
Victorian prudishness is alive and well. This is a perfect illustration of fundamentalist religion...to be outraged about what day on the calendar gambling takes place while being totally ambivalent (or even pleased) about the violence done to same-gender loving people in society. Jamaica may be the most homophobic country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most dangerous countries for gay people on the planet. But in that country, an outcry can be heard from the "faithful" against horseracing on Sundays.
I know its complicated. I know many factors for many years have contributed to this sad reality. Slavery, financial exploitation, colonization, European racism, and imperialism disguised as "missiology" and other harsh realities can all share blame for the fundamentalist and violent attitudes that thrive in Jamaica.
We have contributed to a world where a day of the week is sacred, and love shared between two humans is not, where a column on a calendar has importance, and the human dignity of a person whose innate attractions are for people of the same-gender does not. Surely there is a cure for this madness. Surely fundamentalism will not always be with us.
Sigh.
- dw+
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