This is a very sad story from Turkey (h/t – DoublePlusUndead).

Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey’s first gay honour killing? – The Independent (UK) (7/19/08)

In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey’s gay poster boy will be buried — a victim, his friends believe, of the country’s deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.

Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who represented his country at an international gay gathering in San Francisco last year, was shot leaving a cafe near the Bosphorus strait this week. Fatally wounded, the student tried to flee the attackers in his car, but lost control, crashed at the side of the road and died shortly afterwards in hospital. His friends believe Mr Yildiz was the victim of the country’s first gay honour killing.

Please read the whole story.  It is, for the most part, well-written and documents a horrific problem throughout the world.

I would make two simple observations, however.  

First, I don’t recall ever hearing about Evangelical Christians “honor killing” their gay relatives.  My point:  This item from Turkey is an example of a true homophobic societal problem.  Further, most gay bashings that are reported in the USA take place at significantly higher rates in urban locations — Blue States, if you will, that are allegedly more “tolerant”.  

The gay murder in Turkey should provide you with some perspective in the world of gay tolerance; since all we are ever being told by our Gay Leaders is how bad Reagan Bush Bush McCain will be for American gays.  Get those Montana Gay Concentration Camps ready, folks!   They’ve been buildin’ them since 1980!!!   They HAVE to be done by now!

*sigh*

My other observation is that if you missed just one word in the last paragraph of the Independent’s story — it might have slipped your mind that the “entrenched conservative traditions” mentioned in the first paragraph are Islamic sharia law traditions.   I guess those “pesky immigrant kids” who riot in France are infiltrating Turkey now?

In the Liberal World of Moral Relativism — right and wrong have no meaning nor purpose.  Unless it is your blood on the sidewalk.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I figured I should post this new development given I covered this when the previous accounts surfaced a couple weeks ago.

Gorbachev Dispels “Closet Christianity” - Christian Post

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.

Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.

“Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies — I can’t use any other word — about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit to the Sacro Convento friary, where the remains of St. Francis of Assisi lie,” Gorbachev said, according to an Interfax article posted Friday.

Oh well… Have faith, Gorby. Have faith.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

All together now, folks…. say it with me:  “It is all George Bush’s fault!”

Christmas Cheer Returns to Bethlehem – Associated Press

Hundreds of Christian pilgrims celebrated Jesus’ birth on Tuesday in the West Bank town where he was born, in an atmosphere made markedly cheerier by the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after years of bloody conflict.

By midday, the ancient Church of the Nativity was packed with tourists waiting in line to see the grotto that marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

The visit to Bethlehem was a first for Kiel Tilley, 23, a science teacher from Charlevoix, Mich.

“It’s very powerful and meaningful to me,” Tilley said. “It’s very moving to visit a place which I always read about in the Bible.”

The relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month reassured him before his trip, he said.

“I’m always in fear something would happen,” Tilley said. “But the peace process made me feel safer.”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.  This was the first enrollment, when Quirin’i-us was governor of Syria.  And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city.  

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  

And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.  And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!”

(Luke 2:1-14)

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I’d like to add one thought this year as an addendum to last year’s Christmas Day posting, which is one of my favorite Biblical passages by the way.  When I was growing up in rural Pennsylvania, my Mom and I attended a very historic old Episcopal Church.   At the end of every Christmas Eve midnight service, our vicar used to read another favorite Biblical passage of mine.  He would read it by solo candlelight as the rest of the church was dark.  When he closed the Bible, he would begin to light all of the rest of the candles in the church as his wife sang a lovely rendition of “Silent Night” as the church slowly lit up.

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