St. Maarten Private Eye

I read a leter published in the DH today called Some 'enlightening' thoughts. Hah, what a load of claptrap, who is this so called religious Nazi?

do you remember a few years ago when someone was arrested for threatening to blow up a cruise ship with a jet ski??
well, that's who Ronald Peterson is.
He is a local Simpson bay man who ..and I will be discreet here.. has some problems..

Oh I see. That explains it. Maybe he needs to check in with his pdoc and get a meds adjustment.

Great little trailer. It's not the gay people that need educating and saving here.

Flipper

Listening to what these church leaders have said, I truely belive what we have here is an example of "collective psychosis", shamelessly encouraged by church leaders who now want to have more political power. Here is some examples of schizophrenic thinking that often mirrors the thinking of religious people. It is well noted in psychiatry that a very high percantage of schizophrenic people are prone to religious "experiences". I in no way wish any disrespect to schizophrenic people by saying that,as I have suffered from the illness myself..

Symptoms
Paranoia of others (gay people) "they are out to destroy my way of life"
Feelings of persecution, "these people (gay people) are threatening my morality and my belief in God".
Delusions are false beliefs that are strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence
Delusions of Grandure, beliving that you are very special and you personally know the will of God. ie. I know the will of God, God is anserable to no one and above the law, there fore I am answerable to no one and above the law.
Delusions of Referance; beliving things in the enviroment are directly related to you even when they are not, ie, "my allowing gays here will bring disaster and calamity, hurricanes etc to the island".

Well they say it takes a nutcase to spot a nutcase. I should know, ha ha.
My advise to those people of SMURF is to go get some help now. There is some great meds out there to help with you paranoia and delusions.
Risperidal, Quietapine, Seroquel etc. Go to your doctor with things you have been saying in the papers and I am sure he will give you a perscript.
God Bless

When I read Saturday's DH, I was so angry I was spitting fire. How dare they?
If they get away with this, who next won't be allowed to visit. What on earth are they so scared of? We have no right to say to an entire group of people that they should not come here.
We have had gay cruises here before, more than once, if I remember
correctly, and there were no problems. 1300 gay people here for a few hours is not going to turn your child gay. They are not going to try to convince your children to turn gay. They simply are here to enjoy our beautiful island just like any other people. And they do not, as stated by one pastor, leave bad influences and destruction in their paths.

I would submit that the pastor, by those ridiculous comments, is the one who is leaving bad influences and destruction in his path. If you are concerned about your children growing up with the proper values, then teach them not to hate.

If this group organizes a campaign and/or protest , then we, those of us who believe in the freedom of individuals to make their own decisions about sexual preferences, should organize a bigger protest. We cannot allow this to happen on St. Maarten. The religious right cannot make decisions for the entire community. And I will sign my name to this because I am not afraid to fight against this.
Barbara Cannegieter

This got that litany of losers some face time in the paper , which is there primary goal . They care little about a boat full of gays and more about a boatload of potential power and influence.
This is the same game that there type has played over and over .. find an enemy and exploit it/them for there own best interests.
A ploy exploited by supposed "religious " do gooders for century's.
Exploit the ignorant and uninformed ..... kind of like a con-man.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. These so-called "religious leaders" know they are more powerful when the can unite their flocks against a common enemy.

I think it's important for real christians out there to understand here that these people claim to speak on their behalf. I'm much like Voodoo, in that as long as they don't try to preach at me or tell me how I should think or live then there is no problem.

These people hide behind religion, they claim that their bigoted and ignorant views are based on the bible and the message of God. We are taught to respect religion, (or is it fear?) so it's at a risk of offending moderate and liberal christians when you take them on. But really, it's those moderates and liberals that should be speaking up against these extrimists, for tarnishing their religion.

I heard a call in on the radio this morning, Lloyd's show, but with Fernando. One caller asked "What are we going to do about all the gays already on the island".

They claim they don't want to incite violence towards gay people, but that is exactly what they are doing here, giving credability to homophones and bigots.

Flipper

I say.. as long as we have (tolerate) bordellos ..and thereby condone prostitution...we cannot make any claims on "moral authority". Until these "Christians" clean up all that moral filth on our island....their demands are nothing other than puritanical hypocracy.

Speaking for myself only, I wouldn't like to see them start a crusade against prostitutes either. Being liberal, I prefer the Dutch attitude of legalisation and regulation. Prostitution is called the oldest proffession, and like drug use, it will never be eradicated or wiped out, all cracking down on it does is drive it further into the shadows.

I think that the situation we have now contributes greatly to shameful attitudes towards women, domestic violence, abuse and crime, but I don't see the point of closing the whole business down because I think rape cases would probably rise. I would support tighter regulation and stricter controls.

Flipper

oh..dear flipper...you are sometimes so busy reacting to your liberal radar..that you missed the entire point of the prior entry. I was clearly expressing that there are on-island activities that clearly fall in the classification of immoral activities for the religious right. It is hypocritical for them to be against a gay cruise while tolerating prostitution on St. Maarten. ..That doesnt mean that I have any problem with prostitution whatsoever. ( I do think that you are dead wrong about the rape correlation. But that is another topic. ).

I just wanted to make sure we didn't get a bunch of posts on religiously victimising and bashing prostitutes too. Yep, they are hypocritcal in so many ways. My comment about the rape issue is based on nothing except my knowledge and perception about the men who visit these places and the attitude they have towards women and sex. If they all closed then it would drive the business underground.

Flipper

OK flipper, I understood your motivation. Interesting letter in the DH, where a Christian says it is her duty to convert them "show them another way" .by showering them with love......and how can she do that if they are being chased away? ....So, lets all go to the pier with "Jesus loves you signs" and see if we can convert them!! This would all be so damn amusing if it weren't real.....

WILLEMSTAD – Now that the Antilles are little by little falling apart, we need to make sure that the legislation remains the same as much as possible. It would be best to take over each others’ existing and new legislation as much as possible. “We do not have to keep re-inventing the wheel.”

That’s what the new and first female presiding judge of the Joint Court of the Neth.Antilles and Aruba contended during her installation in Curacao yesterday afternoon. Even though the two new states and the three Dutch islands get a new status, the Final Statement stipulates that the Court remains jointly. Hoefdraad says that the administration of justice becomes quite more difficult if there is no uniformity in the legislation. The Court has already experienced that, when the Netherlands decided to lower the minority level from 21 to 18. “How had we have to consider a 19-year old that established on these islands at that time; was he underage or was he of age?”

****Something else; haven’t we noticed all the problems that the gay marriage has caused?****

This happened due to the differences in legislation. The newspapers were full of it. “Laws that are enacted in one country can serve as basic principles of laws in other countries and can easily be implemented via the proposed adoption system with indication of the differences.” It would also be advisable to distribute the duties for promoting bills amongst the several legislation jurists of the countries and subsequently take over each other’s legislation products. If the differences between the states and the Netherlands for the BES-islands are already necessary, these differences must be explicitly added. If this is not done, not only the Court, but also all the jurists and lawyers will be dealing with a complex confusion. “In the interest of the administration of justice, we need to prevent that situation.” http://www.amigoe.com/

Wow,
So much for standing up for Jesus!!
As a christian lady, I have had several friends confide in me that they were gay, however I am tolerant of this because of the fact that I comprehend that everyone is NOT the same.
Although the Bible's teachings are contrary to what lesbians and homosexuals do, we as Christians need to realize that constantly nagging does not solve anything, neither does it aid anyone in understanding what Christianity is all about if we cannot get our message across without being overbearing.
Although I am opposed to being gay because of what I have been taught, I cannot hate anyone solely based on that fact. God is love, and like Mr. Voodoo (quite an interesting name to have) mentioned, if our God is about love, why is it that we do not show this same love as he has shown us...after all, the Bible states that WE HAVE ALL SINNED AND COME SHORT OF HIS GLORY. Therefore, we should realize that everyone is entitled to grow into what he/she thinks is right for his/her life. In the end, that individual will either come to know Jesus Christ through a loving Christian's assistance, or through God's own hands, or that person will die without knowing God intimately.
Be as Christ was; if he were like humans we'd all be dead!