The Loveshade Family Blog

Much of the world just celebrated St. Patrick's Day, which in America means a tradition of wearing green and of pinching those who don't.  It can be a lot of fun.

But it can also be a problem.  I just saw an opinion on Develle Dish that linked pinching on St. Patrick's Day to rape culture.  The author didn't equate pinching with rape, but wrote that she has the right for her body not to be touched whether it's a pinch or intercourse.

The issue of allowable touching is a very thorny and tricky one, and mixes societal norms with biological needs.

Certainly I would agree that when a playful pinch devolves into continued physical harassment there's a problem.  One commentor on the opinion piece said her daughter forgot to wear green and got pinched all day long and consequently didn't want to go to school the next day.  But where exactly is the line?

In America we live in an age where teachers are told to be afraid of touching their students even when those students want a hug or are crying and need comfort. A teacher was fired because he gave a girl a friendly pat on the back and she said he patted over her bra strap. It's a time of paranoia where people are afraid to touch each other.

And yet, ironically, people who might be afraid to give a welcome hug can boldly give an unwanted pinch.  Even more ironic, the same school employee who's afraid to give a girl a pat on the back may be fully authorized to whip that girl's bottom.

Touch is natural to social beings such as humans.  There's a great deal of evidence that shows that direct skin-to-skin contact (not through clothes) is critical for the psychological well-being and development of infants and young children.  And even adults don't outgrow the need for physical affection, even though some, especially men, think they can only get it through sex.

Maybe some day we'll move past this time of paranoia and confusing, mixed signals, to a time where a loving touch is acceptable and harmful and hurtful physical contact is not.

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I also have a question that's somewhat related.  When someone wears a T-shirt or button that says "Kiss Me I'm Irish," does that give me the right to kiss them?

Any opinion expressed by a member of The Loveshade Family does not necessarily reflect the views of the entire family.

Links and Image Rights

See opinion piece at http://dukegroups.duke.edu/develledish/2011/dontpinchme/

Zuchtlose Liebe (heinous love), oil on canvas, 55,5 x 51 cm (from a cycle of eight paintings "Schlechte und gute Erziehung", shown 1800 at the Berlin Academy) bySusanne Henry (née Chodowiecki) is past all copyright and in the public domain

Sparkly lips image by Daisy Romwall, image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Posted by Alden Loveshade at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

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Reverend Loveshade
First Baptist Church of Janustown
Janustown, Texas  

Westboro Baptist Church
3701 West 12th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66604-1730

2 March 2011

Dear Pastor Fred Phelps and members of Westboro Baptist Church,

I offer my heartfelt thanks and blessings to the members of Westboro Baptist Church.  You've won your God-given right to freedom of speech as delivered by the U. S. Supreme Court.  The fact that someone is grief-stricken and mourning the death of their son, brother or father is no reason their family shouldn't be legally harassed.  America is God's nation, and in God's nation no one has the right to deal with their grief or any other pain when homosexuals are allowed to live.

Jesus did not say, "I bring peace;" HE said HE brought a sword.  HE overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple because HE knew the Jews were gay.  And the unnatural closeness of boy-men to their Jewish mothers is a sure sign of incest, which is absolutely forbidden in the Bible.

Now that your church has won this victory, you can expand.  Why not start protests at schools, including elementary schools?  You could march outside classrooms, and tell children they're going to burn in Hell forever.  Another idea is to march outside orphanages with signs saying, "Thank God your Mommy and Daddy are Dead."

After that, you can move to the next step.  Remember that the same God-blessed U. S. Constitution that gives the rights of freedom of speech and religion in the first amendment also gives the right to bear arms in the second.  I think you know what I'm talking about.

I also applaud church members for supporting the rights of others to protest outside family funerals.  In order to demonstrate the strength of your faith, I pray to God that protesters demonstrate outside funerals of everyone who attends Westboro Baptist Church so you can demonstrate your love of God.  I can see the signs, "Thank God for Dead Baptists," "You're Going to Hell," "God Hates Christians/Support Killing Christians in the Middle East."  I hope that, in order to show your great love of God, no one in your church will have a funeral service in peace.  Maybe you'll be so blessed that everywhere you go, people will scream these messages at you.  That will make a wonderful witness to the world.

While some heathens who are destined to burn in eternal torment may say, "just because it's legal doesn't mean it's right," we know differently.  America is a God-fearing, Christian nation, and as Godly Americans we should exercise our full rights no matter how many people we hurt or how many lives we destroy.  Doesn't the Bible say we should follow the law?  All American Christians should live by the motto, "If it's legal, it's right."

Yes, some versions of the Bible have twisted Jesus' works to make it look like HE said "love your neighbor as yourself."  Some have even twisted it to look like, when someone asked him, "who is my neighbor?" HE pointed to the Samaritans who were hated by the Jews.  Do they really believe Jesus said we should love and help those who disagree with us?  Such a deception of Satan!

Some so-called Christians even say, "hate the sin, love the sinner."  Blasphemy!  We know Jesus never intended us to love sinners.  Some of those Satanic twisted versions of the Bible seem to imply that HE spent time helping sinners including thieves and even demon-spawned sex offenders like fornicators, prostitutes, and masturbators.  Some imply that HE said things like, "your sins are forgiven" and "go and sin no more."  Some covered in filthy lies seem to imply that HE actually emphasized forgiveness and correction over condemnation and violence.  Some even claim he healed sinners!  But we know that's not true.  He came to help pure and holy people, not to save sinners.

Let us hope that, through Westboro Baptist Church, we can speed up sending all those heathens deceived by Satan (non-Baptists) to burn forever in eternal torment in Hell.  Everyone who's deceived by any con artist, from the frail and confused elderly woman who lives alone to the naive young child, deserves to be burned by God.  It doesn't matter if they believe they're doing the right thing; those who are fooled must be punished eternally.  That will show them the true love of God.

For your spiritual edification, enclosed is a printing of the one true Bible.  Feel free to make as many copies of this as you want, and to distribute them freely.

Yours in Our All-Loving God’s Eternal Holy Hate,

Reverend B.C. Loveshade
Pastor of First Baptist Church of Janustown, Texas

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_us/us_supreme_court_funeral_protests

Opinions expressed by an individual member of The Loveshade Family are not necessarily those of all members of the family.  In this case they aren't necessarily the opinion of any responsible person.  Posters used in this article were made by The Loveshade Family.  Reverend Loveshade does not represent all Discordians anymore than the Westboro Bapitist Church represents all Baptists, Christians, or sign-carrying Americans.  We do not advocate violence against anyone, except maybe tasty cabbages.

Posted by Reverend Loveshade at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

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