Canadian Anglicans, having little else to be proud of, paid their annual homage to the Zeitgeist yesterday:
Oakville was represented by St. Jude’s, the town’s posh church:
Someone lamented that there was only one bishop present, Terry Finlay. I think the person may have been mistaken, though: this fellow looks like a bishop to me:
Here is Rev. Andrea Budgey sprinkling onlookers from her aspergillum. As Chris Ambidge (the one in the tiara) declared: “Who woulda thought evangelism could be this much fun?”
What continues to puzzle me is why a church thinks its participation in an exhibition of debauchery makes it anything other than a preposterous laughing stock.
You can see the whole sorry spectacle here.
Apparently one million people attended the Gay Pride parade in Toronto today:
TORONTO – More than one million people jammed the streets of downtown Toronto on Sunday, sporting rainbow-striped outfits, corsets and glitter for the country’s largest gay rights parade.
The crowd whistled and cheered as the Pride parade’s colourful floats many covered in balloons and blaring Lady Gaga music winded down Yonge Street under the blazing sun.
[……]
Still, one person was noticeably absent from the crowd – Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford.
This is what one million people looks like:
Obviously, there would have been no room for Rob Ford. Come to think of it, there would have been no room for a parade either.
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid saw some stiff opposition at the Toronto Pride parade:
Although I agree with the opposition, the whole raucous, ugly cacophony of thousands of people trying to make a point simultaneously leaves me queasily thinking of something Søren Kierkegaard wrote:
When the truth triumphs with the help of 10,000 roaring people – also assuming that what triumphs in this way is itself true – because of the form and manner of the triumph a far greater untruth triumphs. Papers and Journals.
h/t BCF
From Blazing Cat Fur:
The title says it all: to outsiders the Anglican Church of Canada is little more than an extravagant display of buffoonery.
From the CBC:
Jewish groups are angry that organizers of Toronto’s Gay Pride festival have decided to reverse an earlier ban that prevented the Queers Against Israeli Apartheid group from participating in the Pride Week events.
Earlier this year, Pride Toronto decided to ban the group from their July 4 parade for fear that allowing them to participate would jeopardize their funding from the City of Toronto.
That decision caused an outcry within Pride Toronto, with some members saying the decision smacked of censorship.
On Thursday, Pride Toronto’s board lifted the ban, saying it was not up to them to decide whether groups violated the city’s anti-discrimination policy. Instead, Pride Toronto will now ask all groups participating in Pride Week to first sign the city’s anti-discrimination policy.
Giorgio Mammoliti, who is also running for mayor, will introduce a motion at council demanding that Pride return all city funding, about $250,000.
Generally I am all for allowing anyone to say whatever they want; that some people – including Jimmy Carter – foolishly call Israel’s attempts to protect itself “apartheid” is more a comment on their own blinkered anti-Israel bigotry than anything else.
But now we have the organisers of the Gay Pride festival who, if criticised, are only too ready to deflect the criticism with shrill cries of “homophobia” and “hate speech”, permitting a contingent in their parade to display – hate speech. And the city of Toronto is paying $250,000 – so far, at least – to help them finance it.
The idiocy of all this is not diminished by the fact that the only country in the Middle East that allows a gay pride march is the one Queers Against Israeli Apartheid are determined to vilify.
From the National Post:
Pride organizers have voted to effectively ban the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from this year’s parade.
Councillor Kyle Rae confirmed the decision despite the efforts of Pride Toronto board members to defer the announcement until a news conference on Tuesday.
“Pride has voted to ban the use of ‘Queers Against Israeli Apartheid,’ ” Mr. Rae told the Toronto Sun.
The board reportedly decided to ban the phrase “Israeli apartheid,” but not any individuals or groups from the July 4 event — a sleight of hand that has outraged a spokesman for Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.
Tim McCaskell accused Pride Toronto of betraying the gay community and buckling under pressure from politicians and sponsors.
“I think people will find it shocking,” Mr. McCaskell said.
I would have thought that the Toronto homosexual march would welcome a restriction that people find “shocking”, considering they have exhausted every other means of shocking the public.
