I apparently don't know how to use the internet but the Rick Knickerbocker protest (cache button):
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762|Rick Knickerbocker|19:59:12 3/05/99|dinak_@hotmail.com|California|USA||To whom it may concern:<P>By portraying Krishna, the Supreme Lord, and Hanuman, a great devotee of the Lord, as fictional personalities, the writers of the Xena show have committed a great offense. The appearance of the Lord and His devotees on this planet are for the enlightenment and deliverance of the fallen souls of this world. Their, existence, words, and activities, are very real, and are recorded in the Vedic scriptures for the benifit of humanity.<P>It is sad, that rather than study the words of Krishna and of His devotees, and learn the truth of their existence, the writers of the Xena show make up stories and attempt to profit off God. Instead of making a mockery of the Vedic scriptures and misleading people, the writers of the Xena show, and all of Hollywood, should study and learn the message of Love of God contained in the Vedas. Then maybe they could use their creative writing skills, which are a gift of God, to in some way benifit humanity, instead of continuously leading humanity into a darker and darker condition of immorality and hedonism.<P>Sincerely, <P>Rick Knickerbocker<br>
It has been a trend on this thread to suggest that the homsexuality became an issue to as a political stunt. All accounts however show that Siddha was homophobic in the 70's and it was admitted here that he was aggressively hateful towards effeminate men early on. The stereotype for centuries is that effeminate men are gay. So I believe there has been a little playing with words.
My theory though is that Butler and his gang of rogues are completely xenophobic which fits in with the cult mentality where everyone outside of the cult is bad.
If you look at his books and lectures from the early days he has ignorant and hateful ideas about all non-SIF groups. Of course there is a list of priority with regard to people they hate; How open they are about it; how it will be accepted by new recruits; the best way to indoctrinate followers to believe their hatred is scripturally justified and "compassionate"; and of course politically.
How this effects politics also effects the group. It is obvious they mold this list of priorities to how the public will accept them. For example in the cult hating cow-killers or anyone who eats meat is on par with their hatred of Iskcon. But Mike Gabbard is not rampantly against the beef industry. He would get no votes. He even led a rally for 'meals on wheels' where the meals he was supporting were not vegetarian. So in order to be so dishonest about their values they actually have supported the cow killing industry. Gabbard was less vocal about his anti-abortion stance and said at one stage that it was a females constitutional right and he had no interest in opposing abortion rather than lose the votes.
So they are lying to the public and contradicting their own religion at the same time.
I remember Balakhilya giving a lecture on a "sinful" gay man on a street corner proudly pushing for gay rights at the top of his lungs. He pointed out the contradiction that members of SIF don't proudly and publically speak about Krishna in this manner. They can't. Now SIF is becoming increasingly insular. So they know their own cult mentality contradicts their religion.
Another contradiction is the fact that SIF teaches Allah means 'all-merciful' and this is their view of how a devotee should be. It is difficult to claim you are compassionate when you are calling for concerntration camps for homosexuals, trying to take all their rights away and being hypocritical that Xena can't write a story about Krishna because the lead character is a lesbian.
They know this so they portray themselves as compassionately anti-gay :roll: as Mike does.
Here is another example of Mahaksadasa lying to support his guru:
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As far as homosexuality goes, the most compassionate writing by a Krsna Conscious Scholar on the subject is by Siddhaswarupananda, so your "dissing" him for an imagined stance he may have is inappropriate, as are your attempt to discredit any "successful ventures" by devotees you may have a grudge against.
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www.indiadivine.org]
This book was a "nice" cult propaganda to subtly state that homosexuality is more sinful than illicit heterosexual sex (hypocritical), he suggests that homosexuality is contagious (falsehood), he speculates about a gay agenda to recruit children and he suggests that bisexuality is a a gateway to having sex with pigs and dogs.
The irony is not lost on other vaishnava groups however:
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6) THANKS MAHAKSA DASA. You seem to be going through one of you mood swings
again. First, you said we have to be tolerant of the GBC homosexual guru
program. Now you say, gays should be castrated, hung from trees until dead,
and tossed off of cliffs. Have you missed taking your daily Zoloft again?
This is always the problem with you guys, first you are driving way too
slow, which is unsafe, then you zoom up to 400 mph, which is also unsafe.
thanks pd
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www.harekrsna.org]
SIF uses compassionate pleas to other vaishnava groups not to criticise them as a person should not criticise a devotee of Krishna, which ignores the fact that Butler regularly criticises other vaishnava groups.
They write off all criticism (such as this forum) they can't dispute as "offenses", "lies" and "gossip" and use this as a moral excuse for not speaking openly with us. But among SIF members offenses, lying and gossip is an olympic event.