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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
I was planning to post a piece comparing the pseudo controversy of children singing a song praising President Obama to past phony moral panics put on by the religious right.
But something caught my eye today via Americablog.
CNN covered the Kevin Jennings controversy and revealed a few facts that even I wasn't aware of.
And they aren't negative facts:
And if that's not enough, according to Media Matters:
. . . Jennings' attorney wrote in a 2004 letter that the student was 16 years old, which Jennings' book appears to support, and that 16 is — and was at the time — the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.
The funny thing about this is that a friend of mine, Matt Algren, has said from the beginning that the young man was the legal age of consent.
Take a bow, Matt. You nailed it!
I went to the mat for Jennings because I believed in what he was doing and I know how the religious right distorts situations.
Please don't think I'm gloating when I say this because I am not, but:
It feels good to be vindicated.
UPDATE – Peter LaBarbera gives statement about the latest developments in Jennings controversy
I wondered what folks like Peter LaBarbera felt about this new information.
LaBarbera published a lot of negative pieces on Jennings such as:
Washington Times: Obama ‘Safe Schools’ Czar Kevin Jennings Enabled Sexual Predator of Teen Boy
I emailed LaBarbera saying that I felt he owes Jennings an apology. This is his reply:
You are so pathetic Alvin. Hanging on a technicality. You are as corrupt as the perverted movement you serve. Spare me the preaching.
So much for the Christian principle of apologizing when you are wrong.
Related posts:
Let's not be so quick to blame Obama if Kevin Jennings is dismissed
Washington Times publishes ugly hit piece on Kevin Jennings
The new attack on Kevin Jennings – he said something ugly about God
The continuing attacks on Kevin Jennings – now Fox News gets involved
The possible attack on the President's lgbt appointees
The tea party idiots – will they go after the lgbt community next?
Traditional Values Coalition attacks Kevin Jennings and . . . Tom Cruise?
Support Sean's Last Wish and Kevin Jennings
The religious right thinks that character assasination is a Christian virtue
The war against Kevin Jennings – now it's getting pathetic
Attacks on Kevin Jennings sleazy, un-Christian
More right wing lunacy on Kevin Jennings courtesy of Kevin McCullough
More attacks on GLSEN'S Kevin Jennings – Now the Family Research Council gets in the act'''
'Fistgate' and President Obama – religious right pushes a pitiful attempt of guilt by association
12 Comments
thanks for your diligent work covering this, AlvinAs we all know, The Peter doesn’t like inconvenient facts to get in the way of his 24/7 all homo-hate all of the time over at
Porno Pete’s Man CaveAmericans for Truth Against Homosexuality.Hey LaBarbera Spare us from your preaching…
Dena
You’re obviously under the misapprehension that facts matter anymore
LaBarbera: as corrupt as the perverted movement that he serves.Peter;
I took your own words for this, but corrected the grammar. You lied, you misrepresented, you slandered. You broke one of your faith’s commandments and bore false witness. It seems, though, that attacking minorities gives Christians a pass on the bearing false witness thing, suggesting that the virtue cherished most by reactionary evangelical Christians is hypocrisy, followed closely by irrational fear and hatred.
You do not make a good case for the divinity of your Christ when you can totally jettison his aparent adherence to truths, inconvienient truths as far as his own age.
No lawyer could ever put you upon a witness stand to testify without facing a charge of suborning perjury since you leave a clear, pubilshed trail of falsehoods. You can not be trusted to be a witness let alone to bear witness
You are a great inducement to hate speech laws, since your own hate speech is by and large so filled with prevarications as to make the loss of freedon of expression valueless in terms of the content of what you say. No one needs to hear lies, there is no public benefit to the State is the freedom to express loathesome, factless propaganda on behalf of a “lord” who stood opposed to the very things that you do in his name.
An evil man you are, Sir. But apparently your “faith” acts as a dishcloth to wipe away the filth of your own vile lies.
Will Peter’s Lifelong Promotion of Deception gethim a closer spot next to the Throne of God?
Perhaps in his delusional mind…
Peter wouldn’t recognize Truth even if it rolled across his shoe.
Porno Pete’s Man Cave Replace key board 1st. That is too funny but also true. I just wonder if you will get another wonder award from him?
The boy’s age is irrelevant–at least in the minds of the ChristersThe operative fact is all this–the ONLY significant fact, for them–is that Jennings is gay. Ergo everything he does, or has ever done, is evil. The student involved could be a forty year old in an adult education class; it wouldn’t matter. Kevin Jennings could rescue a kitten stuck in a drainpipe and LaBarbera and the rest would find a way to spin it as proof of his perversion (probably with something about bestiality).
Hoorah. Good work!Nailed.
Now, of course, they’re trying to link him to NAMBLA. Of all the pathetic…
AND….spare us from his comb-over!
Kevin Jenningsdoesn’t look like Marlon Brando!!
How do you remove Coke Zero from between the keys? I spit my afternoon glass of soda everywhere when I saw the words “Porno Pete’s Man Cave.” Thank you Ma’am- I needed that.
age of consent, and –Remember also that both the young man and the teacher were in the closet. Of course Jennings wouldn’t have breached his confidence. And this is what happens when you have a more intolerant climate — this was 21 years ago, after all — so of course they’re not going to be candid, and young people will do this kind of risky behavior. Which, incidentally, Jennings was not involved in and in no position to advise against, not after the fact.
A climate today in which a student can take a date to the prom, instead of skulking about, means a lot more honesty. Of course, honesty is in very short supply on the religious right. Q.E.D.
Certainly, the student, today, has no second thoughts. See
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2…