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Home  >  Egypt • Qatar  >  Going To Church In The Muslim World: My Experiences In Doha And Cairo
EgyptQatar

Going To Church In The Muslim World: My Experiences In Doha And Cairo

Matthew Klint Posted onMarch 6, 2023March 6, 2023 157 Comments

Wherever I am in the world, I like to attend church on Sunday. In Egypt and particularly in Qatar, I found the process of attending Anglican church quite interesting.

My Anglican Church Experience In Doha And Cairo

Typically, when I am out of the country I will attend an Anglican church because I prefer liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer and I greatly prefer an organ and hymns to a guitar and contemporary choruses.

Doha, Qatar

Qatar is a semi-constitutional monarchy, ruled by a hereditary emir with a prime minister serving as the head of government. The freedom of religion is partially guaranteed, but must be practiced in accordance with “the maintenance of public order and morality.”

Practically, in Doha there is a religious compound for non-Muslim faiths. Within that complex is several churches, including the Church of the Epiphany, the Anglican church I attended.

From the Four Seasons, I took an Uber to the “Religious Complex” located in the heart of Doha:

On a Friday morning (not Sunday, but Friday since that is the holy day in much of the Muslim world and therefore a day off from work), the complex was hopping. With so many expats working in Doha, including a huge Filipino population that is predominantly Roman Catholic, there was a lot of people going to the various churches on the campus.

I passed a checkpoint to get in, where a soldier or police officer in military uniform patted me down. I then proceeded through a parking lot until I came to the Qatar Anglican Centre.

The church was in a new structure and the service very well-attended.

I can’t read Arabic and when I first saw this sign I thought it might have been the Muslim Shahada (as in, we’ll let you worship freely, but our profession of faith will always stand over yours), but that was not the case. This window receives a verse in the Bible.

Cairo, Egypt

A couple of weeks later I found myself in Cairo on a Friday morning. Egypt is more democratic than Qatar and there are fewer restrictions on religious gatherings of non-Muslim faiths (or the “wrong” flavors of Islam).

From the Four Seasons, I traveled to All Saints’ Cathedral again via Uber, arriving in time for the English service. Like in Doha, church meets on Friday, not Sunday.

The campus was behind a tall walled gate and I had to go though a security checkpoint to get inside. Once inside, I found a coffee shop (next time…) and a large cathedral:

But due to small attendance, we met in the chapel instead. Every Anglican Church may preach from the same passage of the Bible each week, but every church is different. Here, the pastor was downright Evangelical…I felt like I was in a Baptist Church in America. Typically Anglican sermons are 10-15 minutes, but he preached for 45 minutes.

In both Doha and Cairo, there is coffee time after the service, which is a great chance to meet like-minded expats and locals.

CONCLUSION

I love visiting different churches as I travel the world and enjoyed attending Friday church in Egypt and Qatar. I am thankful that while so many Christians (and other religions) face persecution around the world, in Doha and Cairo there is a vibrant community of faith that freely worships each week.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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157 Comments

  1. Joseph Story Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 3:48 pm

    That’s really poor taste, Matt. Why would you just assume when you see Arabic that it must be the Muslims bashing the Christians? People worship the Christian God in a variety of languages.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 3:55 pm

      You totally misinterpreted what I was saying. Was it deliberate?

      I’ve worshiped in vibrant Arabic-speaking Christian churches going back to my time in Nazareth in 2009. I never implied that Arabic = Muslim.

      And if those words above the cross did indeed say there is only one God and Muhammed is his prophet I would not consider it “bashing,” but a sign of the land I was a guest in.

      • Aaron Reply
        March 6, 2023 at 4:20 pm

        But why would you assume they would have something like that in a Christian church? I’m not saying I agree you thought it was bashing of any kind, but still.

        • Matthew Klint Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 9:55 pm

          Religious freedom is granted as a courtesy, so I thought that such freedom may have been subjugated to what is viewed as the one and true faith.

  2. Aaron Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    “A couple of weeks later I found myself in Cairo on a Sunday morning”

    Ok, but…

    “Like in Doha, church meets on Friday, not Sunday.”

    and…

    “enjoyed attending Friday church in Egypt and Qatar. “

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 4:29 pm

      Well, I was in Cairo on Sunday too, but I meant Friday!

  3. Jeff Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    Interesting article. Thanks for sharing your experiences,

  4. Joseph Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    I am an atheist but feel a spiritual connection to Anglican church churches/cathedrals as well. When traveling internationally I’m often unable to come home over the weekend, and find that attending an Anglican service brings me comfort, and I love the choral music. The mural you shared from Doha reminds me of the mural at one of my favorite cathedrals in Wellington NZ. When I was struggling with long hours and a difficult assignment there I would often go there during my lunch break and enjoy the silence. That place helped me to get through some long days away from my family.

    • Bandmeeting Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 5:00 pm

      Bar tender comes home from work and is chatting with his flatmate. Had a CrossFitter, vegan and an atheist in tonight.

      Wait. How did you know that?

      They all told me within two minutes of walking in.

      • Ricardo Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 10:09 am

        Of course Bandmeeting, are the atheists who, with all their books, churches, crosses, space in the media and in politics, who are trying to convince naive people to convert and buy a piece of heaven…

    • AJ Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 5:11 pm

      I think many people go through periods of atheism. You sound sound more spiritual than atheist to me, which is not a bad thing. Spirituality > religion. Mind, body and spirit is a trinity after all.

      https://i.redd.it/xyhalljreu981.jpg

  5. viapanam Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 5:23 pm

    In a world that seems to have lost its moral center, it’s nice to see someone who travels as much as you do go out of their way to attend services.

    • DCS Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 5:52 pm

      Its nice that he can find accommodating services in his travel. Seems important to him.

      But I haven’t seen any correlation between one’s moral center and their participation in religious services. In some people I swear it’s an inverse correlation

      • David H. Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 1:33 pm

        @DCS I could not agree more! Most church-goers in America spread so much toxic hate against people who differ from them… it’s truly disgusting.

        • Matthew Klint Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 9:56 pm

          I think “most” is a bit much.

  6. Dan @ Points With a Crew Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 6:05 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experiences Matthew. I also enjoy attending church on Sundays when I travel. In some ways, I find it more refreshing and enjoyable than attending church in my home congregation 😉

  7. wpr8e Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 6:15 pm

    Egypt has a very long history with native Christian populations. The Egyptian Copts, argumentatively, believe they are the original Egyptians and followers of Christ.

    There are churches all over Egypt.

    While the Copt population has dwindled significantly recently, attending mass/church in Egypt is not really a big deal.

    Qatar is a different story

    But the Islamic world has a long history of allowing other faiths to worship as they choose. Mohammad did preach that Ahl al-kitāb, people of the book; Christians, Muslims, and Jews, were welcome to pray and worship in their own communities, and even allowed deal with local issues (marriage, divorce, petty arguments) within their own communities. In fact they had legal status within the various Islamic Empires.

    • stuartr Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 11:06 pm

      Qatar I think built the religious area as a compromise.

      Kuwait I know they have Christian churches but are not allowed to show any religious symbols at all

  8. Jerry Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    You and I dress quite differently when we travel. I’m sure you were dressed very nicely. Would a well intentioned foreigner in shorts and flip flops have been welcome? I know the official church answer is “all are welcome,” but I grew up in the south and know that isn’t true. I also wouldn’t want to ruffle any feathers.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 6:57 pm

      It’s a fair question. I don’t have shorts or flip flops in my wardrobe and over-dressed to a degree, though I like wearing suits on Sundays and Just wore a sport coat here. Shorts aren’t worn much in the Arab world (no knees) but people were modestly dressed.

  9. koggerj Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 7:48 pm

    I wish the west was more like the middle-east. They have morals and their society has boundaries.
    I’m betting that teachers are grooming their students into the LGBT ideology like they are doing here.
    Sharia is sounding better and better.

    • AJ Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 9:06 pm

      Don’t they only make video games like this in the west though?—

      Trans game developer launches first person shooter where players kill anti-trans villains, including priests

      Creator Sandra Moen claimed making the bloody game helped ‘heal’ from her ‘trauma’ as a trans person.

      A transgender video game developer recently launched a game where players can hunt down critics of transgenderism, like anti-trans feminists and Catholic priests, and kill them in a bloody, first-person shooter action.

      The game launched on PC gaming platform Steam in January. In a description provided for the site by Moen, she claimed the game offers “LGBTQAI+, transgender, and feminist themes of gender-critical people and what a post-war apocalyptic world would look like if gender fascists won.”

      —progressive progress.

      • Aaron Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 12:41 am

        Anecdotal evidence used to try and make a point about something? Isn’t this something from Santastico’s playbook?

        • Koggerj Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 1:16 am

          No it’s actually a real game.
          And American lefties suffer from twice the mental illnesses as normal people.

          60% of child abusers.

          • Jake K
            March 7, 2023 at 4:12 am

            Republicans do self report better “mental health” in polls than Democrats, if that’s what you meant. However, this is not an indication of lower or higher clinical “mental illness.”

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 4:45 am

            Wasn’t disputing whether it was a real game or not. Do you not know what anecdotal means?

            Also where are you getting these figures from? “Dave Edwards” I believe used to post the same “statistics”, interestingly enough…

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:29 pm

            Father transitions son into girl at three years old https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpftlwmAEE

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:30 pm

            Correct link, sorry https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpftlwmAEEL/

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:56 pm

            More anecdotal examples, yay.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:57 pm

            What exactly do you want to see, if not true stories and reality?

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:03 pm

            Actual statistics and evidence to support any of your nonsense?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:13 pm

            NPR: Americans are widely opposed to allowing transgender female athletes to compete on women’s and girls’ sports teams, and, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll, are deeply split along partisan lines on questions of transgender rights.

            The NPR/Ipsos poll shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) are opposed to allowing transgender women and girls to compete on teams that align with their gender identity, while 24% overall support that.

            Independent voters oppose trans female athletes right to compete by 3:1 (21% support; 63% oppose).

            Among Republicans, support plummets to just 4%, while 88% oppose.

            PEW: 60% say a person’s gender is determined by their sex assigned at birth, up from 56% in 2021 and 54% in 2017.

            These views differ even more sharply by partisanship. Democrats and those who lean to the Democratic Party are more than four times as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to say that a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth (61% vs. 13%). Democrats are also much more likely than Republicans to say our society hasn’t gone far enough in accepting people who are transgender (59% vs. 10%). For their part, 66% of Republicans say society has gone too far in accepting people who are transgender.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:37 pm

            Also,

            New poll shows Americans overwhelmingly oppose anti-transgender laws.

            https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-poll-shows-americans-overwhelmingly-oppose-anti-transgender-laws

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:07 pm

            A growing number of gender-care professionals say that in the rush to meet surging demand, too many of their peers are pushing too many families to pursue treatment for their children before they undergo the comprehensive assessments recommended in professional guidelines.

            Such assessments are crucial, these medical professionals say, because as the number of pediatric patients has surged, so has the number of those whose main source of distress may not be persistent gender dysphoria. Some could be gender fluid, with a gender identity that changes over time. Some may have mental health problems that complicate their cases. For these children, some practitioners say, medical treatment may pose unnecessary risks when counseling or other nonmedical interventions would be the better choice.

            “I’m afraid what we’re getting are false positives and we’ve subjected them to irreversible physical changes,” said Dr Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist who previously worked at the University of California San Francisco’s gender clinic. “These errors in judgment are fodder for the naysayers – the people who want to eradicate this care.

            In Europe, concern that too many children might be unnecessarily put at risk has prompted countries like Finland and Sweden that were early to embrace gender care for children to now limit access to care. The United Kingdom is shutting down its main clinic for children’s gender care and overhauling the system after an independent review found that some staff felt “pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach.”

            Dr Annelou de Vries, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry, is one of the Dutch researchers whose early work established the importance of rigorous patient assessments before starting medical treatment. She said that while she worries about the growing number of children awaiting treatment, the graver sin is to move too fast when puberty blockers and hormones may not be appropriate.

            “The existential ethical dilemma in transgender care is between on one hand the (child’s) right for self-determination,” de Vries said. “On the other hand, the do-not-harm principle of medical intervention. Aren’t we intervening medically in a developing body where we don’t know the results of those interventions?”

            https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-care/

          • Aaron
            March 8, 2023 at 12:47 am

            None of which contradicts that there is a majority of Americans who are against laws that target and discriminate against trans people, or that the majority of trans people (teenagers included) live happy lives (when they aren’t being discriminated against or stigmatized by people like you).

        • AJ Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 10:49 am

          Aaron, I don’t see the harm in anecdotes. Do the democrats not use them? They tell a story and paint a picture.

          How about this? Parent of 11 year old talks about book in school library:

          https://www.instagram.com/p/CpdHLIqgXW4/

          How can you stand for this?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 10:49 am

            Or maybe you can explain why biological males are selling tampons? https://www.instagram.com/p/CpdoRZkul_z/

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 10:54 am

            There’s plenty of “data”. The data doesn’t tell the full story. Parents do. Whistleblowers do.

            https://edsource.org/2022/controversial-gender-ideology-in-public-education-undermines-families-of-faith/671790

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:29 pm

            “Aaron, I don’t see the harm in anecdotes. Do the democrats not use them? They tell a story and paint a picture.”

            Not sure why you had to bring Democrats into this? Also, the problem with anecdotal evidence is that they tell a very small and limited story and picture which people use to paint a much larger one, even if it isn’t applicable.

            “How about this? Parent of 11 year old talks about book in school library”

            What exactly are you trolling about/changing the goal posts here?

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:32 pm

            “Or maybe you can explain why biological males are selling tampons?”

            What are you really objecting to here santastically?

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:42 pm

            “There’s plenty of “data”. The data doesn’t tell the full story. Parents do. Whistleblowers do.”

            What “data”? This is an opinion piece, nothing more. As it says in the article:

            “The opinions in this commentary are those of the author.”

            Opinions are not fact. The issue why are you so anti-Queer and why do you hate queer people so much that you end up trying to hijack so many of Matthews articles just to promote your vile and disgusting homophobia, in such a disgusting way?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:45 pm

            I didn’t say that specific piece had data. It was another anecdotal piece that makes sense. Also I’m not anti-queer. I’m gay myself. I’m more ‘anti-forcing LGBTQ+xyz down everyones throats’.

            Gen. Flynn: The progressive movement needed to destroy the very fabric that makes America and our people unique and exceptional in our own right. For instance, the sexual revolution, with all its diversity and the push to equalize all sexual behaviors as the norm, together with the creation of a culture of drug dependency, transgenderism and immorality, created even more division, further isolating factions.

            –there is simply no need to equalize all sexual behaviors as the norm

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:59 pm

            Please, you are about as gay as Ron DeSantis.

            An anecdotal piece may make sense to you since it fits in with your myopic view of things. But that doesn’t make it fact, it’s just you looking for cherry picked items to support your disgusting homophobia.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:01 pm

            What was cherry picked? Nothing. What was homophobia? Nothing. That’s all you really have at this point, fake accusations, as the majority of Americans are against the castration and mutilation of children.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:03 pm

            Anecdotal evidence is cherry picking since you offer nothing that represents hard numbers and statistics lol

            You just hate queer people, we get it.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:04 pm

            Bro you’re demanding studies and data by the very people causing the problem in the first place.. Talk about delusion. I already addressed below: “it’s not like marxist controlled education and science are going to study this issue anyway, seeing their promotion of the destruction of the nuclear family, promotion of the mutilation and castration of children, et al.”

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:09 pm

            No, I am asking for data to prove your nonsense posts. Nothing to do with Marxism or anything like that. Keep changing the goal posts all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re a homophobic person.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:23 pm

            A new poll claims an overwhelming majority of Americans support banning trans youth from accessing gender-affirming treatments.

            Poll: Nearly 80% of Voters Oppose Transgender Procedures on Minors

            Voters Say ‘Gender Reassignment’ Procedures and Puberty Blockers Should Be Illegal for Underage Children

            (Austin, TX—October 21, 2022) Convention of States Action, in partnership with The Trafalgar Group—one of America’s most accurate pollsters in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021—is releasing the results of a new national survey. Results were from surveys conducted October 8th through October 11th of over 1,000 likely 2022 election voters.
            “This polling confirms the obvious—the vast majority of Americans are not on board with the far-left’s sexual agenda, which is seeking to permanently mutilate the young and vulnerable. The idea that young people have to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote, and 21 to drink, and yet can undergo life-altering medical procedures in middle school defies common sense, and the American people see that clearly,” said Mark Meckler, President of the Convention of States. “As the Biden Administration refuses to do the right thing for our children and take action to protect them from the horrors of the far-left agenda, it’s imperative that individual states–like what we see happening in Tennessee right now–step up and stand against it.”

            KEY INSIGHT: Majority of Voters Believe Underage Minors Should be Required to Wait Until They Are Adults to Legally Use Puberty Blockers and Undergo Permanent Gender Change Procedures:

            -78.7 percent of voters believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures.
            – 21.3 percent of voters do not believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures.

            KEY INSIGHT: Overwhelming Majority of Independents and Republicans Oppose Gender Change Treatments for Underage Minors, Democrats Divided:

            – 84.6 percent of Independent voters believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures. 15.4 percent do not believe they should be required to wait.
            – 96.8 percent of Republicans believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures. 3.2 percent do not believe they should be required to wait.
            – 53.2 percent of Democrats believe underage minors should be required to wait until they are adults to legally use puberty blockers and undergo permanent sex-change procedures. 46.8 percent do not believe they should be required to wait.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:28 pm

            Which doesn’t mean people are necessarily anti-trans, they just want kids to wait till they are older to begin their transition.

            Meanwhile…

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/trans-kids-dont-have-the-regretsrepublicans-cynically-claim/2022/10/21/843cb024-5134-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:29 pm

            Also,

            New poll shows Americans overwhelmingly oppose anti-transgender laws.

            https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/new-poll-shows-americans-overwhelmingly-oppose-anti-transgender-laws

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:40 pm

            The stories exist. You call them homophobic:

            “I was failed by the system. I literally lost organs.”

            When Chloe was 12 years old, she decided she was transgender. At 13, she came out to her parents. That same year, she was put on puberty blockers and prescribed testosterone. At 15, she underwent a double mastectomy. Less than a year later, she realized she’d made a mistake — all by the time she was 16 years old.

            Now 17, Chloe is one of a growing cohort called “detransitioners” — those who seek to reverse a gender transition, often after realizing they actually do identify with their biological sex. Tragically, many will struggle for the rest of their lives with the irreversible medical consequences of a decision they made as minors.

            “I can’t stay quiet,” said Chloe. “I need to do something about this and to share my own cautionary tale.”

            In recent years, the number of children experiencing gender dysphoria in the West has skyrocketed. Exact figures are difficult to come by, but, between 2009 and 2019, children being referred for transitioning treatment in the United Kingdom increased 1,000% among biological males and 4,400% among biological females. Meanwhile, the number of young people identifying as transgender in the US has almost doubled since 2017, according to a new Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:44 pm

            Chloe said testosterone altered her bone structure, permanently sharpening her jawline and broadening her shoulders. She said she also struggles with increased body and facial hair. She has a large scar across her chest from her mastectomy, which disturbed her about surgery. “The recovery was a very graphic process, and it was definitely something I wasn’t prepared for,” she said. “I couldn’t even bear to look at myself sometimes. It would make me nauseous.”

            ..these young people — who will forever live with the consequences of hasty transition — refuse to be silenced. “I want my voice to be heard,” said Chloe. “I don’t want history to repeat itself. I can’t let this happen to other kids.”

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:47 pm

            Stories exist, sure. But they don’t represent the majority. Not that you really care.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:48 pm

            Ah, we’ve finally come full circle, as that is the main point. LGBTQ+ persons are NOT the majority, hence they do NOT get to decide policy regarding the medicalization, mutilation, sexualization, and castration of children! Period, fool.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:52 pm

            Except gay people are not the ones solely deciding policy…that’s not how a democracy works! Period, fool.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:58 pm

            This isn’t a democracy. The left runs and owns just about everything in America currently.. higher ed, corporations, media, and way more, so they are deciding and influencing policy, in this corporate oligarchy,

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:03 pm

            You just can’t help but keep changing those goal posts, can you…

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:04 pm

            I learned from the best..from you:) All relevant though.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:06 pm

            Nah, unlike you, I stay on topic.

            Speaking of, what does any of this have to do with Matthew visiting churches overseas?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:09 pm

            now that you’ve commented a hundred times.. now we are off topic? LOL.

            As an important step in becoming a doctor, medical students must take the Hippocratic Oath. And one of the promises within that oath is “first, do no harm” (or “primum non nocere,” the Latin translation from the original Greek.)

            Stop. Doing. Harm.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:12 pm

            “Stop. Doing. Harm.”

            Follow your own advice and stop trying to be such a hateful person.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:12 pm

            OMG! The goal posts! The goal posts are about stopping harm to children. Stop doing harm–to children.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:17 pm

            Yes, protect the children who transition as well. The ones who end up happy with their decision and go on to live long, productive, happy, and healthy lives. Protect them as well.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:21 pm

            That’s not who this is about, first of all. Just replace your sentence with Trump voters and you’ll see what I mean.

            Protect Trump voters as well. The Trump voters ones who end up happy with their decision and go on to live long, productive, happy, and healthy lives. Protect Trump voters as well.

            LOL–no.

          • Aaron
            March 8, 2023 at 12:48 am

            Quite possibly the most asinine and nonsensical statement you have made (so far).

    • AJ Reply
      March 6, 2023 at 9:09 pm

      It’s just marriage equality, they said. https://i.postimg.cc/VLRpJ90H/3803-B0-B8-708-A-4-A92-B1-C5-BE5-E3-FF22546.png

    • Average Republican Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 12:44 am

      Right on! What this country needs is a true theocracy! That’s really what the founding fathers wanted. Many people think they left England for freedom of religion, but the true reason was to wait 250 years then destroy all the non believers. Many people also don’t realize that George Washington was the first president to write about how he hated wokeness. I just bought a bunch of full body coverings for the females in my family! Good to someone else that agrees with me

      • Koggerj Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 1:17 am

        Remember that 60% of pedophiles are lgbt

        • Jake K Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 3:44 am

          Could you share your source for the number? The only study I’ve come across was for heterosexual versus homosexual male pedophiles, with an 11:1 ratio (11 being heterosexual).

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 4:48 am

            As I posted above, wasn’t there someone else on here, I think the name he used was Dave Edwards, who used to post those same “statistics” over and over again? If it wasn’t him, then maybe someone else who wasn’t Koggerj, then it does make me wonder how many people this person is posing as on this blog…

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 11:20 am

            At first glance, the sources/data for this info that I am finding are not recent. Not surprising though, as it’s not like marxist controlled education and science are going to study this issue anyway, seeing their promotion of the destruction of the nuclear family, promotion of the mutilation and castration of children, et al.

            Homosexual Pedophiles are Vastly Overrepresented in Child Sex Abuse Cases

            Homosexual pedophiles sexually molest children at a far greater rate compared to the percentage of homosexuals in the general population. A study in the Journal of Sex Research found, as we have noted above, that “approximately one-third of [child sex offenders] had victimized boys and two-thirds had victimized girls.” The authors then make a prescient observation: “Interestingly, this ratio differs substantially from the ratio of gynephiles (men who erotically prefer physically mature females) to androphiles (men who erotically prefer physically mature males), which is at least 20 to 1.” 17

            In other words, although heterosexuals outnumber homosexuals by a ratio of at least 20 to 1, homosexual pedophiles commit about one-third of the total number of child sex offenses.

            Similarly, the Archives of Sexual Behavior also noted that homosexual pedophiles are significantly overrepresented in child sex offence cases:

            The best epidemiological evidence indicates that only 2 to 4 percent of men attracted to adults prefer men (ACSF Investigators, 1992; Billy et al., 1993; Fay et al., 1989; Johnson et al., 1992); in contrast, around 25 to 40 percent of men attracted to children prefer boys (Blanchard et al., 1999; Gebhard et al., 1965; Mohr et al., 1964). Thus, the rate of homosexual attraction is 6 to 20 times higher among pedophiles.” 18

            The stark imbalance between homosexual and heterosexual child molestations was confirmed in the Archives of Sexual Behavior study itself, which divided 260 pedophile participants into three groups: “152 heterosexual pedophiles (men with offenses or self-reported attractions involving girls only), 43 bisexual pedophiles (boys and girls), and 65 homosexual pedophiles (boys only).” 19 In other words, 25 percent of the offenders were homosexual pedophiles — or 41 percent if those who molest girls as well as boys are included.

            Other studies report an unusually high percentage of child molestations by homosexual pedophiles:

            A study on pedophilia in the Psychiatric Journal of the University of Ottawa reported: “According to the literature, findings of a two-to-one ratio of heterosexual to homosexual pedophiles have been documented.” 20

            The Journal of Sex Research reports a study that included “199 offenders against female children and 96 offenders against male children. . . . This would indicate a proportional prevalence of 32 percent of homosexual offenders against children.” 21

            A study of male child sex offenders in Child Abuse and Neglect found that fourteen percent targeted only males, and a further 28 percent chose males as well as females as victims, thus indicating that 42 percent of male pedophiles engaged in homosexual molestation. 22

            https://famguardian.org/Subjects/SexualImmorality/Pedophilia/HomosexualityAndChildSexAbuse.htm

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 11:24 am

            While a homosexual cannot automatically be considered a child molester, nevertheless there is cause for concern, Judith Reisman, president of the Institute for Media Education in suburban Louisville, Ky., and a social researcher who has studied sexual behavior for 25 years, stated in a May 2001 article in Baptist Press.

            Reisman noted, first, that 17-24 percent of boys are abused by age 18, nearly as many as the 25 percent of girls. Then, she noted, since heterosexuals outnumber the homosexual population about 44 to 1, as a group the incidence of homosexuals molesting children is up to 40 times greater than heterosexuals.

            “You’re looking at a much higher rate of abuse,” said Reisman, a former university research professor who had completed a study titled, “Crafting Gay Children.” Department of Justice data at the time showed the rate of abuse by homosexuals as “off the charts,” she said.

            An extensive analysis titled “Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse” by Timothy J. Dailey, Ph.D., senior fellow for culture studies at the Family Research Council in Washington:

            Dailey, in his study spanning 13 pages and 76 footnotes, wrote, “Homosexual apologists admit that some homosexuals sexually molest children, but they deny that homosexuals are more likely to commit such offense. After all, they argue, the majority of child molestation cases are heterosexual in nature. While this is correct in terms of absolute numbers, this argument ignores the fact that homosexuals comprise only a very small percentage of the population.”

            Bill Maier, a child and family psychologist who serves as psychologist in residence at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo., recounted in an article in July:

            Maier continued, “While gay activists insist there is no connection between homosexuality and the sexual abuse of children, the evidence indicates that a substantial number of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners,” in findings from the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

            “It is also important to note that many pedophiles consider themselves to be homosexual,” Maier wrote. “A study of 229 convicted child molesters found that 86 percent of offenders who molested boys described themselves as homosexual or bisexual.

            https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/homosexuals-despite-the-assertions-more-likely-to-commit-sexual-abuse/

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:52 pm

            So AJ, Dave Edwards, and Koggerj are all the same person?

            https://thegatehouse.org/debunking-childhood-sexual-abuse-myths-lgbtq-community/

            https://www.d2l.org/7-myths-about-child-sexual-abuse/#collapse_3061

            https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2011/10-anti-gay-myths-debunked

            https://lgbpsychology.org/html/facts_molestation.html

          • Jake K
            March 7, 2023 at 3:13 pm

            I do not see support for anywhere near the “60%” claim in any of the referenced links -my request was for the source of this number. And, the “studies” cited and referenced by Dr. Dailey (who is a “Christian” scholar) are more anecdotal than statistically meaningful, with sample sizes of a few hundred at most, which leaves too much room for cherry picking subjects depending on author’s motivations. Also, many of the studies he cites classify male pedophiles who molest boys as homosexual, which is an erroneous and outdated assumption.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:18 pm

            Fair enough but lol at “Christian” in quotes.. you just can’t hide your true feelings, Jake, can you? Bet you are CIA.

          • Jake K
            March 7, 2023 at 4:00 pm

            I do believe Jesus is embodiment of “… the Way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and do try my best to live accordingly. I do not believe Dr. Dailey and others who spread misinformation to the detriment of others are true Christians who aspire to the Way.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 4:04 pm

            LOL! So Jesus would not want us to call out the important topics..got it! You win, again! LMFAO

      • AJ Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 11:28 am

        It’s also interesting that Asian Americans are leaving the left over these issues..

        Asian American voters are gradually drifting toward the Republican Party in state and nationwide elections amid increasing frustration with left-wing education policies..The New York Times highlighted the shift showing Republicans gaining ground with the expanding voter bloc in nationwide contests since earning a recent low of 18% support in 2016, when former President Donald Trump won election.

        Trump, for his part, rebounded considerably with the Asian American community, earning 30% of their support in his 2020 reelection bid. Republicans expanded on those gains to earn 32% from the demographic in the 2022 midterms.

        In more localized contests, the trend is more pronounced. Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott managed to win a majority of Asian American voters in the state for his 2022 reelection bid, earning 52% support to Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke’s 46%.

        Former New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, meanwhile, won Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Chinatown, an area that had long been a Democratic bastion.

        The outlet attributed much of the change to the Asian American community’s discontent with Democratic Party policies on crime and education issues. Proposals to abandon meritocratic admission methods to elite schools do not appear to sit well with a community that traditionally performs well in those metrics.

        The Times further called attention to a growing class divide that appears to transcend race in terms of its implications for political affiliations. While the college educated increasingly skew toward the Democrats, white working-class voters have overwhelmingly backed the GOP. That divide appears to translate to both the Asian American and Latino communities.

        https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/briefing/asian-americans-conservative-republican.html

        • AJ Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 11:40 am

          Bernie saying similar: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the Democratic Party abandoned working-class Americans in favor of the elites.

          “The point that I was making is that when FDR was president, when Truman was President, even when JFK was president, you go out on the street, and you say to people which party represents the working class of America. Most people, I think, agree, would have said the Democratic Party. Today, you go out on the street, that is not the sentiment. In fact, the Republican Party probably has more adherents than the Democrats,” he said.

          The shift happened after Democrats decided to go after corporate money and “forget about the people who are working 50 or 60 hours a week,” Sanders said.

          https://justthenews.com/government/bernie-sanders-says-gop-has-more-working-class-supporters-democratic-party

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:43 pm

            All of which proves…what, exactly?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:46 pm

            That the left (and their insane woke positions and policies) is losing.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:53 pm

            Not quite, Dave, but keep thinking that lol

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:02 pm

            It’s always an insult “Dave.. russian bots.. homophobia..” and so on. You can never debate or counter any actual articles or facts. That speaks to your own IQ, not mine.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:05 pm

            I’ve debated your mostly anecdotal posts quite well. You keep posting negative and nasty posts about queer people, which speaks to your homophobia.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:06 pm

            I can’t recall a time where you “debated your mostly anecdotal posts quite well”–doubt anyone else can either–but please feel free to link me to those fantasy comments of yours. I am gay. Gays against groomers exist.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:11 pm

            I’m not the one offering anecdotal evidence as facts or some type of smoking gun to prove a point, That’s your stock in trade.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:12 pm

            Also, you are not gay. Anyone who is against a marginalized group can anonymously claim to be one in an attempt to legitimize their hateful and nasty views towards that same marginalized group.

            Which is the tactic you seem to be intent on using.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:24 pm

            WRONG. I am gay. Sorry.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:25 pm

            Lol Sure you are. And so is Ron DeSantis.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:41 pm

            Not sure what this has to do with Ron, but okay. As far as my sexuality, I am gay. Gays against groomers exist. You’re the groomer. We’re against you. Sorry.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:48 pm

            Nope. You’re not gay, and I’m not a groomer.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:51 pm

            Ok, I’ll tell my best friend the next time I’m getting some from him. “Ssh.. Aaron says I’m not gay”.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:53 pm

            You are 100% a groomer. Anyone advocating for the forced sexuality of minors is a groomer. We’ve got a whole Instagram page for people like you: https://www.instagram.com/gaysagainstgroomers/

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:53 pm

            Whatever you need to say on here to try to convince us you are gay.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:59 pm

            Ok, I’m not gay. Aaron said so LOL. Nope. You don’t get to decide someones sexuality when you don’t even know them. FOH

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:02 pm

            You don’t get to lie about being gay to spread homophobia either.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:12 pm

            You can accuse me of lying all day long. I have no reason to lie about being gay. Why TF would I lie about being in a minority? My life would be so much easier if I was straight. You’re so fucking stupid bro

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:14 pm

            In an anonymous setting like this, there is no way to prove you are being truthful. Many people try to discredit and spread lies about marginal groups by claiming to be a part of that group, in an asinine way to try and legitimize the hate they are spreading. Which is what you are doing, and it is so transparent, you vile hateful person.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:19 pm

            No, Aaron. Lack of support for intervening medically in youth where the long term results of those harms are not known is not hate. Anti-support for the medicalization, mutilation, sexualization, and castration of children is not hate.

          • Aaron
            March 8, 2023 at 12:53 am

            “You are 100% a groomer. Anyone advocating for the forced sexuality of minors is a groomer.”

            I stand corrected. This has to be the most asinine and nonsensical thing you have posted (again, so far).

        • AJ Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 2:07 pm

          Link me to something homophobic or post a screenshot. If it is homophobic, I’ll admit it. But you haven’t linked me to anything yet.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:14 pm

            Besides all the nasty and negative posts you have posted so far?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:20 pm

            Again, link something and explain why it’s homophobic. Your comments are otherwise pointless. Everyone knows you are the resident woke pro-LTBQ+xyz.. nothing new here.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:25 pm

            It’s homophobic because it displays your dislike of queer people by painting them is as negative a light as possible, like it’s wrong.

            Nothing wrong with being woke, since that means someone is for justice and equality for all people, for all groups. You being anti-woke means you are against that. Which we all know you are, and are the hateful homophobic resident of this site, regardless of what name you use with each post.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:27 pm

            If find true stories and news stories homophobic, that says more about you then it does about me. Your perception of me is a reflection of you.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:30 pm

            Nah, just your cherry picked stories and homophobic. As are you, “AJ”.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:47 pm

            Helena Kerschner, a 23-year-old detransitioner from Cincinnati, Ohio, who was born a biological female, first felt gender dysphoric at age 14. She says Tumblr sites filled with transgender activist content spurred her transition.

            “I was going through a period where I was just really isolated at school, so I turned to the Internet,” she recalled. In her real life, Kerschner had a falling out with friends at school; online however, she found a community that welcomed her. “My dysphoria was definitely triggered by this online community. I never thought about my gender or had a problem with being a girl before going on Tumblr.”

            She said she felt political pressure to transition, too. “The community was very social justice-y. There was a lot of negativity around being a cis, heterosexual, white girl, and I took those messages really, really personally.”

            Chloe Cole, a 17-year-old student in California, had a similar experience when she joined Instagram at 11. “I started being exposed to a lot of LGBT content and activism,” she said. “I saw how trans people online got an overwhelming amount of support, and the amount of praise they were getting really spoke to me because, at the time, I didn’t really have a lot of friends of my own.”

            Experts worry that many young people seeking to transition are doing so without a proper mental-health evaluation. Among them is Dr. Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist specializing in gender, sexuality and identity. A transgender woman herself, Anderson has helped hundreds of young people navigate the transition journey over the past 30 years. Anderson supports the methodical, milestone-filled process lasting anywhere from a few months to several years to undergo transition. Today, however, she’s worried that some young people are being medicalized without the proper restraint or oversight.

            “I’m concerned that the rise of detransitioners is reflective of some young people who have progressed through their gender journey very, very quickly,” she said. She worries that some doctors may be defaulting to medicalization as a remedy for other personal or mental-health factors. “When other issues important to a child are not fully addressed [before transition], then medical professionals are failing children.”

            According to an online survey of detransitioners conducted by Dr. Lisa Littman last year, 40% said their gender dysphoria was caused by a mental-health condition and 62% felt medical professionals did not investigate whether trauma was a factor in their transition decisions.

            “My dysphoria collided with my general depression issues and body image issues,” Helena recalled. “I just came to the conclusion that I was born in the wrong body and that all my problems in life would be solved if I transitioned.”

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:49 pm

            A sad case, but what does it prove exactly?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:50 pm

            dysphoria exists. unhappy detransitioners exist,. Why do you want to silence stories that can help others?

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:56 pm

            Not saying it doesn’t, but only pushing stories of these type to try and “help” others isn’t painting the full picture. Maybe posting stories of people who have transitioned happily and are living happy, full, and productive lives as well? Or do you just scour the internet looking for stories that support your hateful views? And yes, that last one was rhetorical.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:00 pm

            Hateful because minors are being lied to and coerced into being mutilated? NOPE.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:01 pm

            They are neither being lied to nor coerced.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:03 pm

            And this is a female.

            https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-transyouth-care/RTXISGLJ.jpg

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:04 pm

            Good for her.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:11 pm

            Maybe. Bad for humanity, for sure.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:14 pm

            Not really, no.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 3:23 pm

            “Not really” a woman. Biology 101. https://snworksceo.imgix.net/dpn/0beb9c65-13cb-4d69-9b7e-0209bf8ae079.sized-1000×1000.jpg

          • Aaron
            March 8, 2023 at 12:54 am

            So you say.

  10. Krakhauer37 Reply
    March 6, 2023 at 10:28 pm

    For those who appreciate understanding amongst the Abrahamic faiths, I read this today:

    https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/03/03/pope-francis-muslim-christian-dialogue-244833

    • AJ Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 1:15 pm

      I’d like to see Francis address these issues:

      Gay clubs’ run in seminaries, says Pope Benedict in posthumous attack on Francis. New book by the late pontiff makes extraordinary claims about the Catholic Church under his progressive successor

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/23/gay-clubs-run-seminaries-says-pope-benedict-posthumous-attack/

      • Aaron Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 1:45 pm

        Those are accusations offered by a dead man.

        • AJ Reply
          March 7, 2023 at 1:48 pm

          ..and backed up the living

          https://lithub.com/the-closeted-underworld-of-the-catholic-seminary/

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 1:54 pm

            Seems like the problem is celibacy and not homosexuality.

            But keep trying to spread your nasty homophobia, if that gives your life meaning.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 1:59 pm

            Please point me to my exact comments that were “homophobia” lol

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:01 pm

            The fact that almost everything you have posted so far is a reflection of your dislike of or prejudice against gay people? lol

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:03 pm

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:06 pm

            What is the truth you seem so adamant about proving to people on here? That you have homophobic views? Even Stevie Wonder can see that.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:07 pm

            Link me to something homophobic or post a screenshot. If it is homophobic, I’ll admit it. But you haven’t linked me to anything yet.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:14 pm

            Besides all the nasty and negative posts you have posted so far?

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:21 pm

            What has been nasty and negative? Nasty maybe, but true, still. You’re just fighting to fight.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:31 pm

            Nasty and negative for sure. And definitely not true.

            Not fighting to fight, but homophobia needs to be fought when hateful people like you keep trying to spread it.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:38 pm

            Stick and stones, Aaron.. Call me names all day long, have at it. I’ll be ready when you are willing to discuss specifics, of which conveniently you never are able to do.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:44 pm

            Calling someone who is a homophobe a homophobe isn’t calling them names…it’s stating what they are.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:45 pm

            It’s a badge of honor when awarded by you.

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 2:50 pm

            Spoken like a truly hateful person.

            And I’m sure I’m not the only one giving you that honor lol

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:54 pm

            Studies for reference: Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition Who Subsequently Detransitioned: A Survey of 100 Detransitioners

            https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-02163-w

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:54 pm

            Desisting and persisting gender dysphoria after childhood: A qualitative follow-up study

            https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1359104510378303

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:55 pm

            Psychosexual outcome of gender-dysphoric children.

            https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Psychosexual-outcome-of-gender-dysphoric-children.-Wallien-Cohen-Kettenis/5d46ec82d6bb6f65e78f5140b6edb04efb7b5cdd?p2df

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 2:55 pm

            A Follow-Up Study of Girls With Gender Identity Disorder

            https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5657572_A_Follow-Up_Study_of_Girls_With_Gender_Identity_Disorder

          • Aaron
            March 7, 2023 at 3:01 pm

            Yes, and here are some counterexamples:

            https://www.gendergp.com/detransition-facts/

            https://fenwayhealth.org/new-study-shows-discrimination-stigma-and-family-pressure-drive-detransition-among-transgender-people/

            https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213007/

            https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/study-finds-2-5-of-transgender-kids-go-through-detransition/135029/

            But keep trying to convince us.

          • AJ
            March 7, 2023 at 10:09 pm

            Ok so we have studies proving transitions for minors are harmful, and you have studies showing they are not, so sure.. let’s go with the..studies showing they aren’t harmful? No. This is about minors. Perhaps if you were one you’d appreciate an adult standing up for you. FOH. And I’m not Dave or Kogger. FOH.

          • Aaron
            March 8, 2023 at 12:56 am

            “This is about minors. Perhaps if you were one you’d appreciate an adult standing up for you.”

            There are lots of adults standing up for minors. You are not one of them. You are just using them as a way to cloak your hate of queer people. Most minors seem to have transitioned successfully and are happy. By all means, let us help and supoort the ones who don’t for whatever reason as well.

            “And I’m not Dave or Kogger. ”

            Suuuuure lol

  11. Chi Hsuan Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 1:43 am

    I visited Jerusalem recently and was able to see how different communities of faith interact – Muslim, Jews, Christians, and I concluded religion is largely a waste of time and energy and I’m so damn happy to be an atheist.

  12. Andy K Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 10:40 am

    You really missed out not going to a Coptic church. This is typical American Christian tourism – find the church I’m comfortable with instead of seeking out the true local Christians (often persecuted). Very unbiblical.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 9:58 pm

      Umm…

  13. Aaron Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 1:36 pm

    “There’s plenty of “data”. The data doesn’t tell the full story. Parents do. Whistleblowers do.”

    What “data”? This is an opinion piece, nothing more. As it says in the article:

    “The opinions in this commentary are those of the author.”

    Opinions are not fact. The issue why are you so anti-Queer and why do you hate queer people so much that you end up trying to hijack so many of Matthews articles just to promote your vile and disgusting homophobia, in such a disgusting way?

  14. David H. Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 1:48 pm

    @AJ and @Koggerj are most likely Russian bots – trying to stir us up and divide us. @Matt can’t you just delete their posts? I’m all for free speech – but hate speech with cherry-picked articles to prove their hate against the LGBTQ is just wrong. Let’s not have it on your blog – a place we come to every day to enjoy our hobby of travel.

    • AJ Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 1:50 pm

      Not a bot but open to hearing what is cherry picked. Also the Russian bot insult is about fourteen decades old as this point.

      https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamelder/stop-blaming-russian-bots-for-everything

    • Aaron Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 1:59 pm

      Calling then Russian bots is actually rather insulting.

      To Russian bots.

      • AJ Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 2:02 pm

        What a burn! LMAO

    • Maryland Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      @David H. I called this out a while ago. This aj is a cyborg bot. Mostly a pile of this/ that nonsense occasionally controlled by a human. While occasionally entertainment it is a bit. Best to ignore and not engage. I view as pollution. I ran across an AP article in the last few days about this and consulted an acquaintance.

      • AJ Reply
        March 7, 2023 at 9:01 pm

        Maryland, you can call me a bot or borg all you want. The only borg I know are from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fuck off.

  15. Sigh Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 2:23 pm

    The comments section demonstrates why we can’t have nice things anymore.

  16. Aaron Reply
    March 7, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    “No, Aaron. Lack of support for intervening medically in youth where the long term results of those harms are not known is not hate. Anti-support for the medicalization, mutilation, sexualization, and castration of children is not hate.”

    If you say so.

    • AJ Reply
      March 7, 2023 at 4:57 pm

      “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” said Martin Luther King, Jr.

      What matters today is America, specifically its woundedness and our responsibility to repair it. It’s time for us to help initiate a season of repair.

      After years of denial, of the disengagement of some of our best and brightest from the political scene, enough of us are ready now to rise to the occasion. This isn’t a time to whine or give in to despair or personal anger. It’s a time for an awakening.

      Our personal thoughts and actions matter. And politics is our collective behavior, no more or less important than our individual concerns. We’re living at a time when we can’t afford to see this as an either/or. We must step up as people and we must also step as citizens.

      It’s been said that you can live your life in one of two ways; according to circumstances or according to a vision. We all know the challenging circumstances in America today. What we do now is to create a positive vision for this country that will override the forces of hatred and division that now plague us.

      Most of us are upset in some way about what’s happening to America. I remember the look on one young man’s face when he said, “What are we going to do?” with such youthful sincerity. But sometimes in life the first question is not what do I need to do, but what do I need to understand? Americans are drowning in information, but we have far too little understanding.

      The key to our deliverance in the present lies in a deeper understanding about some things in our past. We need to understand the American story and where as a generation we fit into it.

      Our story began, as an established nation, in 1776. Some very brave men got together and signed a document called the Declaration of Independence. I say they were brave because if the British had won the war, they would have all been executed for treason against the king of England. And what they signed their names to – John Hancock writing his name famously very large so that George III would be sure to see it – were the establishment of principles profoundly enlightened not only for their time but for all time.

      These principles are not just enlightened politically – declaring that not only king or aristocracy but rather ALL men have the to right to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness; they’re also enlightened morally. They declare that God created all men equal. And that sentence, then as now, forms our national creed. It is that on which we have agreed to agree.

      But that is also where things got very gnarly. For while 56 men signed that document, 41 of them were slave owners. Obviously, slavery is a direct contradiction to the right of all men to be free. Just as our freedom defines our national creed, the dichotomy between the principles of the Declaration and slavery forms our national character. This has always been true. We are, in essence, a split mind. From our very beginning we have been filled with people brilliantly and courageously willing to struggle and to sacrifice for the right of all people to be free; yet also filled with powerful forces who, usually for our their economic purposes, have no intention whatsoever of seeing a full actualization of those principles and have proven their willingness to go to violent extremes to make sure they don’t.

      That struggle, that dichotomy, is America’s story. It has been with us from the very beginning. American is like a book and every generation writes of its own chapter. Every generation, including our own, lives out that story – the often poignant, often painful, struggle between those whose lives are dedicated to freedom and those who would place their economic interests before the values and humanitarian interests put forth in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. This is not a struggle between left and right. It is a struggle between the powerful and the powerless. Thomas Jefferson himself said, “It is the general tendency of the rich to prey upon the poor.”

      A nation has its character defects, just like individuals do. Maturity in a nation, like maturity in an individual, involves recognizing those defects, taking responsibility for them, and ultimately transforming them.

      It is true that America has a shadow side, but we shouldn’t forget the extraordinary light that lies at the core of our founding principles. No one ever thought, and no one has ever said, that America has fully embodied the principles on which we purport to stand. But it is every generation’s responsibility to try; to continue the work of creating a more perfect union. Every generation, including ours, lives out the struggle inherent in our national story. And it is important to remember that if we look back at the sweep of American history, we have nothing to be ashamed of. For where we have been wrong, generations before us have risen up to correct our path.

      It is simply our turn now.

      We responded to slavery with abolition, we responded to the institutional suppression of women with the women’s suffragist movement, we responded to the ravages of the Gilded Age with the New Deal and the Labor movement, and we responded to the evils of segregation with the Civil Rights movement. Our ancestors did those things. They rose up, they corrected the path of this nation in whatever ways they could and at times they brilliantly succeeded. We owe them an extraordinary debt of gratitude. But we owe them more than that right now. We owe it to our ancestors – and more importantly we owe it to our descendants – to rise up in our time as they rose up in theirs.

      Today, it’s not a specific institutional reality that counters equality and the God given rights to which we are devoted. It’s not one thing, it’s many things. It’s like an atomizer spray of dysfunction and disrepair. It’s the water in Flint, Michigan and it’s the rivers drying up in the American Southwest. It’s 68,000 people dying of from lack of health care every year and it’s mass incarceration. It’s income and opportunity inequality and the ubiquitous despair of the majority of our citizens shackled by the consequences of an unjust economic order that has gripped this country, laying claim to every aspect of our lives, dominating our government and tearing apart the fabric our nation. It is not an institution – it is an economic mindset.

      This mindset is called by many names, from neoliberalism to trickle-down economics, to crony capitalism to hyper capitalism to free market fundamentalism. But whatever we call it, is not the high side of capitalism and it is not a free market. Quite simply it is a racket. A racket so huge and so entrenched that it has gripped this nation for almost fifty years in the vice of economic injustice. It has perpetrated a 50 trillion-dollar theft from the bottom 90 percent of Americans to the top one percent. It has literally destroyed America’s middle class. It has denied people health care, education – and most importantly, hope. It has sucked the resources of both money and opportunity into the hands of a few at the expense of the many. It is the people of the United States who have suffered and are suffering the ravages of this mindset. Twenty per cent of us are doing fine, at least for the most part. But that twenty per cent lives on an enchanted island surrounded by a vast sea of economic despair.

      We don’t need any more evidence that the system has become deeply, intrinsically corrupt. We can see it in the broken windows, shuttered factories and violent crime in our once thriving communities. We can see it in the hollowed eyes and addiction rattled brokenness of our fellow citizens. We can see it in the mass despair of millions of Americans who work hard all day yet cannot afford a place to live, who were holding on but now find themselves homeless, who are struggling with anxiety born of constant economic uncertainty, who tried their best to get into the game but have found the game so rigged against them. Despite the scandalous scale of despair in our midst, leading politicians barely mention the word poor, barely address the root causes of poverty, so drunk are they on money and power that they are buffered emotionally against the ravages of human suffering.

      This situation is America’s current status quo, neoliberalism having burrowed so deeply into the sinews of our nation’s capital, that the function our government is more often than not as a handmaiden to the economic forces that – with their multibillion-dollar donations and corporate lobbyists, in total, three times more than there are legislators in this town – make it little more than a system of legalized bribery.

      And that status quo will not disrupt itself.

      That is our job. Like generations before us, the people must not serve the political parties, but push and propel the political parties. Emancipation was propelled by abolitionists and enslaved people themselves; women’s rights were secured by suffragists and feminists; worker’s right were won by the Labor movement; and racial justice and desegregation by the civl rights movement. Major political parties did not originate those ideas, they were conduits for the ideas. But the people led in all those cases, and it’s time for the people to lead again.

      Just as Franklin Roosevelt led the charge against the power of the first Gilded Age, it is time for us to rise up against the ravages of the Second Gilded Age. For that is what we’re living through now. Our government gives billions of dollars in subsidies to insurance companies, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Food, Big Ag, Big Chemical companies, and defense contractors of the military industrial complex. It bows down to the most irresponsible demands of gun manufacturers at the expense of the safety of our own children, it continues to support fossil fuel extraction although that literally puts humanity on a collision course with global catastrophe. It is willing to prostitute our national interests kowtowing to a murderous dictator for the sake of oil. This is not at this point a left-right dichotomy. It is a reversion to the aristocratic paradigm from which our ancestors fought, and gave their lives, to be free. The least we can do is pay attention, get real, and get busy. Only we the people can turn this ship around.

      And we’re doing that. From the resurgence of the Labor movement to the bravery of environmental activists, from protests against racial and police injustice to the movements for indigenous rights, food security, gender liberty and women’s rights, the American spirit is asserting itself and the American people are rising up. The American people are not the problem. The American people are just fine. But the American people are stymied. In a very real way, the voice of the American people is now muffled, replaced by the power of the corporate matrix that in our time is doing what such forces throughout our history have done: they seek to replace the will of the people, the well-being of the people, the safety of the people and the security of the people, with their own often ill-begotten economic bottom line. It is time for us to do what generations before us have done. It’s time for the people to respond.

      We need to take a very serious look at the words of Abraham Lincoln, who when writing about those who died at Gettysburg, said that they gave the last full measure of devotion that a “government of the people, by the people and for the people would not perish from the earth.” It’s time for America to take out a mirror, to look at what has become of us, and realize that it is perishing now. We are not currently functioning as a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We are functioning as a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations.

      And so the suffering continues. From almost one in four Americans living with medical debt, to 68,000 people who die each year from lack of health care, to 18 million people who cannot afford to fulfill the prescriptions their own doctors give them, to 12 million children who go to bed hungry in America every night, to half of our seniors living on less than $25k a year, the trajectory of despair will not be interrupted until we the people interrupt it. Leaders in Washington, with a few very brave exceptions, are divided into two major categories: those who do not care about that suffering enough to fix it, and those who do not have the spine to do so. I’m running for president with one message: let me in there. I will.

      The American revolution is never over. We must constantly, generation after generation, be willing to look at our defects and pull them out at their roots. We should identify the problems in our past, but we should identify with the problem solvers. We must, in the words of Martin Luther king Jr., “conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” But we must not tarry. For the hour is late, and the task is ours. No one effort, no one election, no one person, will save us now. Ours is an age of collective effort.

      But no more pretending. No more half measures. No more pseudo-sophisticated PR from a corporatist elite who would tell us we simply don’t understand, that we should sit down now, that we should sit this out and let the grownups be in charge. They are neither truly sophisticated nor are they grown up. Real grown-ups do not knowingly let a child go hungry.

      President Franklin Roosevelt said we wouldn’t have to worry about a fascist takeover as long as democracy delivered on its blessings. It is not delivering on its blessings now, and that is what must change.

      We are six inches from the cliff regarding the state of our democracy, the state of our economy, the state of our environment, and the state of the people. We will no longer live the absurdity that only those who drove us into this ditch should possibly be considered qualified to lead us out of it. It is time for them to sit down now and let the people take it from here. We will stand up for our rights: from universal health care, to tuition-free college and tech schools to free child care to paid family and sick leave to a living wage – all considered moderate positions in most advanced democracies – to a 21st century Economic Bill of Rights. We will right the ship of our economic vessel, listing now so far to one side. Let the uncaring minions of a sociopathic economic order be the ones to sit down now. We the people will now stand up. –Marianne Williamson

      • Aaron Reply
        March 8, 2023 at 12:58 am

        Wow…that is a lot of words that really say nothing.

  17. DFWSteve Reply
    March 9, 2023 at 9:18 pm

    Excellent post Matt. I’ve also attended churches around the world over the last four decades wherever I’ve traveled, lived or worked. Have made some enduring friendships as a result.

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The new United Polaris Lounge at Washington Dulles The new United Polaris Lounge at Washington Dulles is the most beautiful of all Polaris Lounges. Stay tuned for a detailed look and many more photos on the blog tomorrow. Well done @united.
@malaysiaairlines just announced it would retire i @malaysiaairlines just announced it would retire its A380 fleet. While not surprising, it is sad to see the growing list of carriers retiring this superjumbo jet. On Malaysia Airlines, I flew the #A380 once from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to London (LHR) and had the entire first class cabin to myself (full review on the blog). It was a beautiful flight that I will always remember.
Welcome to @fly_bur @aveloair! I am so excited tha Welcome to @fly_bur @aveloair! I am so excited that a new carrier, Avelo, has launched, especially from an airport just 12 minutes from my home!
I greatly miss the @lufthansa #747-8 at @flylaxair I greatly miss the @lufthansa #747-8 at @flylaxairport. Hopefully this summer it will return.

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#Lufthansa #FirstClass #747 #747-8 #StarAlliance #Miles #Points
I recently spent a weekend at the @ventanabigsur. I recently spent a weekend at the @ventanabigsur. This is not only a lovely, all-inclusive resort, but one of the best properties to use your @hyatt World of Hyatt points.
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#Hyatt #BigSur #California #WorldofHyatt #CA-1 #Points #Hotels
In terms of a spacious first class product, the @E In terms of a spacious first class product, the @Emirates suite on a 777-300ER is hard to beat. My preference is Suite 2K.

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#Emirates #777 #firstclass
Nearly five years ago, I took a “break” from I Nearly five years ago, I took a “break” from Instagram ahead of the birth of my first child. Goodness, how time flies. While I’ve enjoyed catching up on others over the years, now it is time for me to return to Instagram. In this first post, I highlight two joys in my life, my two children, whom I trust will grow up to be prolific travelers that circumnavigate the globe as ambassadors of love and respect.

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#travel #airplanes #airlines #miles #points #familytravel #human #integrity #honor
United Airlines' new Polaris seat is a huge improv United Airlines' new Polaris seat is a huge improvement over UA's current business class seat. Check out my blog at liveandletsfly.com for 70+ photos of how @united is transforming its entire business class experience starting this December!
The perfect @flysas name tag for #Longyearben! The perfect @flysas name tag for #Longyearben!
Spotted four #polarbear outside of #longyearbyen - Spotted four #polarbear outside of #longyearbyen -- oh, and I love 40°F summer weather!
One of the best crews I have ever had the pleasure One of the best crews I have ever had the pleasure of flying with in all my years of flying. Thank you @flysas SK940 on 11 Aug 2016
Next stop ARN! But dear @flysas , next time if I a Next stop ARN! But dear @flysas , next time if I assign a window seat months in advance, don't move me to a center seat "for my convenience" with no way to get my original seat back... 😞
Ready for #PIA from #MAN to #JFK -- we will be rac Ready for #PIA from #MAN to #JFK -- we will be racing the #Delta flight to JFK at the gate next to us, which also departs at 12:45p. With @onemileatatime
Another room with a beautiful view... #hyattregenc Another room with a beautiful view... #hyattregencycasablanca #cassablanca #hyatt
Enjoying #shanghai with @onemileatatime from the i Enjoying #shanghai with @onemileatatime from the inside of the @grandhyatt_shanghai ... It is 40°C outside! 😓
From my front gate to my boarding gate in 15 minut From my front gate to my boarding gate in 15 minutes flat. I ❤️ #bur #burbankairport
@malaysiaairlines #747 out of retirement and in se @malaysiaairlines #747 out of retirement and in service at #kul -- beautiful livery!
View from my 61st floor room at the beautiful bran View from my 61st floor room at the beautiful brand new @parkhyattguangzhou -- look for a full review coming soon on the blog #hyatt #parkhyatt #guangzhou #parkhyattguangzhou
Will miss the @united #globalfirstlounge at #ord, Will miss the @united #globalfirstlounge at #ord, which closes tomorrow and the Queen of the Skies #747 which will be retired in 2018.
The colonial #architecture of #mumbai is stunning. The colonial #architecture of #mumbai is stunning. If you're ever here, get up at 5am and have a walk around the city before it gets busy. You can hear the birds instead of honking horns.
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