“..let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.”
By this point, most of you have heard about the tragedy in Norway a few weeks ago when a Christian Fundamentalist murdered 92 people and injured another 96. The story has been well-covered by International media and the mainstream press here in the US. What you probably have not heard about is the married lesbian couple … Read More
via Talk About Equality
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This entry was posted on August 2, 2011 at 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized with tags gay-marriage-2, hege-dalen, heroism, lesbian, lgbt, lgbt-history, marriage-equality, massacre, Media, norway, press, rescue, toril-hansen, uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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In the Dark 
August 2, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Honour to them.
This is no the only media distortion in this story, for Anders Breivik is not a Christian, whether ‘fundamentalist’ or any other sort. In his tedious manifesto he wrote:
“Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I’m not an
excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic…
If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then
you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not
necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God.
We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity
and moral platform. This makes us Christian.”
No it doesn’t! If I were to assert publicly that I am a member of the Athenaeum Club, my assertion doesn’t make me one; I would have to conform to the Athenaeum’s entry criteria. The same goes for the church, and the criteria for being a Christian are given in the New Testament. They correspond to what Breivik calls (incorrectly) a “religious Christian” – which he says he isn’t, and in view of his actions I believe him. Jesus of Nazareth harmed nobody and said “Love your enemies” (in the Sermon on the Mount) and “If you love me you will keep my commands”. Breivik did the opposite.
I think it suited the media to call him a Christian uncritically, and it suited the media not to mention the tale of these brave and selfless lesbians. Lesson? Don’t trust the media!
August 2, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I didn’t write anything about the terrible events in Norway because I felt there had been far too much drivel thrown around without me adding to it.
It was strange however that it was initially rumoured that this murder was a terrorist member of Al-Qaeda then, when it transpired he wasn’t, he became either a Christian fundamentalist or a lone extremist. In the first case this seems to imply that an anti-Islamist must be a Christian (which clearly isn’t the case) and the second that terrorists aren’t extremists (which isn’t true either).
I think the problem with all this is that the press want to feed the need we seem to have to label people who do monstrous things as monsters in themselves, i.e. some kind of “other”. Religion – any religion – is a convenient badge for those seeking easy answers, but I don’t think it is religion that motivates such crimes. I wish the article hadn’t used the phrase “Christian Fundamentalist”…
And as for the two women concerned in the story, they show how terrible events like this bring out the very best in some people, even if the press don’t want to acknowledge it.
August 2, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Thanks for re-posting – it’s much appreciated and thank you for the Desiderata quote – very well done. 🙂
August 2, 2011 at 4:50 pm
It’s my pleasure….very happy to send some traffic in your direction!
August 2, 2011 at 7:30 pm
I did manage to find a link to the article in some corner of the internet, and was equally baffled that no mainstream media ever wrote about it.
Then bafflement turned to dissapointment.
I’m just glad we have the internet to highlight things like this.
And massive praise to those two ladies; what a heroic thing they did.
August 2, 2011 at 7:35 pm
By article, the article I stumbled on was this one.
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/07/26/Lesbian_Couple_Saves_40_from_Norwegian_Shooter/
So at least someone wrote about it.
August 3, 2011 at 12:32 pm
There’s now an article in the Pink Paper, but I don’t think any of the mainstream papers have taken it up yet; The Advocate is a well-known US-based gay and lesbian newspaper.
August 2, 2011 at 8:14 pm
It is of course possible that some media outlets wrote about the heroics of these two women but didn’t mention that they were lesbians. I understand that there is debate in the gay community over whether such things should be mentioned.
August 2, 2011 at 8:22 pm
I’ve been fortunate in my life to meet a few people who acted with similar courage in rescuing people from extreme danger. It’s common to all of them that they shunned publicity, shrugging off the plaudits with the phrase “I just did what anyone else would have done”. That may also be true of these two wonderful women.
August 2, 2011 at 9:50 pm
What got me about this were the comments that the article generated on its website. Some of them were so mean and small-minded, some downright unpleasant. Why ?
Why is it not possible simply to celebrate an act of heroism by two regular people acting with amazing courage? I hope that they get the praise and recognition that they deserve.
Mon
August 2, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Mean and unpleasant comments go with the territory when you have a blog, I’m afraid.
I’ve often thought that we waste a lot of money trying to contact extraterrestrials. All you have to do to get in touch with alien creatures is post something on the internet and wait for the comments…
August 2, 2011 at 10:59 pm
You are wronging extraterrestrials. All mine are quiet and well-behaved, sitting on their shelves almost as if they were rocks….
M
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