It’s Not Enough to Blame Them For the Financial Crisis…

You thought it was bad when a conservative Christian blamed gay people for the problem on Wall Street?

David Popescu, a “perennial independent candidate” from Sudbury, Ontario, was on a panel with his opponents at a local high school the other day. He said the following in regard to questions about abortion and gay marriage:

Near the end of the more than two-hour event, students were invited to ask the candidates questions. As a long line of pupils waited to speak, Popescu told a young female student who asked about stem cell research that, “God would hurt” those who had an abortion.

The crowd jeered and many rose to their feet in protest after Popescu answered another teenager’s question on gay marriage.

During a telephone interview later in the day, Popescu reasserted his view. “A young man asked me what I think of homosexual marriages and I said I think homosexuals should be executed,” he said. “My whole reason for running is the Bible and the Bible couldn’t be more clear on that point.”

At least he’s known as a kook in Canada.

Sarah Palin‘s church thinks you can pray away the gay and she is running on a major national ticket…

(Thanks to Yuri for the link!)

Shane

The ridiculous thing about Canadian hate crime laws is that it makes a specific exemption for “religious” arguments. Something is wrong with the idea that religion has the moral high ground when you have to explicitly exempt it from hate crime laws.

Canadian Criminal Code
Section 319
…
(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2)
…
(b) if, in good faith, he expressed or attempted to establish by argument an opinion on a religious subject;

The guy’s taking it straight from the Bible so he is establishing a religious argument in “good faith” so he is completely safe from prosecution. If an atheist said the same thing, he would be charged.
Rest

The guy is a nutter. I did a search for him and came across this news piece from 2006:

“A Sudbury man will be able to visit his mother in hospital even though he pleaded guilty Friday to breaching a probation order to stay away from her.

David Popescu, 58, has been an unsuccessful candidate for political office in Greater Sudbury.

He runs on a platform of Bible study. Because his mother will be undergoing surgery Tuesday, his sister has been added to a list of people who must be in attendance when Popescu visits the woman. In 2003, Popescu was found guilty of assaulting his mother and his sentence included three years of probation where he’s can’t visit her alone. Court heard Friday Popescu visited his mother alone last summer which prompted his sister to phone police.”

http://www.northernlife.ca/News/PoliceandCourt/2006/04-23-06-popescu.asp?NLStory=04-23-06-popescu
mikespeir

We can test this. Get all the gays to turn straight for a year. (Fake it, okay!) If by the end of the year the financial crisis is solved and world hunger becomes a thing of the past; if deserts teem with flowers and honeybees and butterflies and rainbows float overhead; if Arabs are hugging Jews and Iran abandons its nuclear program, etc., then we know what’s what.

On the other hand, if things stay bad or get worse, we can go on to blaming someone else.
Marzipan

At least he is acknowledging what his holy book says, unlike the moderates who prefer to pretend it’s not there. Hopefully, nuts like this will draw their attention to what a sick book the Bible is.
justin jm

I get the sinking feeling that, in a thousand years when we’re taking jetpacks to Mars and time-traveling, we will still have people like Popescu running for office on outdated mythology. Whoever said hope springs eternal had it bass-ackwards.
Milena

I’m just glad none of the major political parties here are interested in opening up the abortion and the same-sex marriage debates. Creeps like this guy come onto the scene every once in a while, but they never get anywhere, really.
Ron Brown

That anyone should be expected to have even the smallest grain of respect for such beliefs is ridiculous.
Pseudonym

You thought it was bad when a conservative Christian blamed gay people for the problem on Wall Street?

No more than when Pat Robertson blamed 9/11 on Atheists and the ACLU and Sam Harris blamed fundamentalism on moderate theists. I think I’m desensitised to it now.