Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2011, Blaðsíða 32

32
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2011
Local newspaper Fréttablaðið
recently reported that The
City of Reykjavík had can-
celled a subsidy earmarked
for the Icelandic Church of Christ (a small
independent Lutheran congregation) due
to its hostile views towards homosexu-
als. The story started in June, when the
city’s church-construction fund agreed to
grant subsidies to various projects, thereof
700.000 ISK to the Church of Christ. Frét-
tablaðið says the city’s executive commit-
tee later decided to stop the funding and
send the matter to the city’s human rights
officer, Anna Kristinsdóttir, for examina-
tion. The reason? Suspicions regarding the
congregation’s preaching, and whether
they violated Reykjavík’s human rights pol-
icy. Suspicions that were later proved true.
According to Fréttablaðið, the officer ruled
that the congregation’s preaching were
contradictory to the city’s policy and rec-
ommended the funding to be withdrawn.
Which was done. Now, how did the con-
gregation violate the city’s human rights
policy?
SAVE THE CHILDREN FROM HOMO-
SExUALITY AND DEBAUCHERY
Fréttablaðið cites the officer, who said the
congregation’s website was swarming with
examples of leader Friðrik Schram’s hostile
views towards homosexuals. According to
the officer, Friðrik’s articles preach that
homosexuality is an unnatural thing, a sin,
and is comparable to theft and lies. The
officer cites an article where the leader
says that “young vulnerable souls must be
protected from being seduced into homo-
sexuality and/or debauchery.”
Friðrik, on the other hand, complains
about the withdrawal. He says the city is
punishing him for saying that ‘homosexu-
ality isn’t good and healthy for us.’ A view
he says the Christian church has held for
two thousand years. Friðrik reiterates this
view in Fréttablaðið on September 20, but
denies to have referred to homosexual
people as ‘sinners.’ Apparently, he was
merely talking about the act of homosexual
intercourse. He claims that many homo-
sexuals do not have sex at all and that one
should make a distinction between sexu-
ality and sexual acts. He then goes on to
emphasise that homosexual relationships
are wrong, claiming to speak for the major-
ity of the Christian world. He concludes by
presenting himself as a victim of suppres-
sion of opinion and that he now is being
discriminated against.
MASKING HATRED AS FATHERLY
CARE AND LOVE
Not for one second does it occur to me to
discuss LGBT rights on the premises of a
fundamentalist’s understanding of a two
thousand years old religious scripture he
chooses to live by. However, I am going
to analyse Friðrik’s choice of words and
criticise his impertinent methods. When
doing so there are mainly three points in
his speech I stumble over. Firstly, there is
the classical approach of today’s Christian
fundamentalists ‘hating the sin, but loving
the sinner,’ which of course has its roots in
The Bible. A similar theme has been promi-
nent in many Western countries’ ‘sodomy
laws’ through the ages. The focus is alleg-
edly on the act, not the person. By making
this distinction people have tried to mask
their hate and condemnation as fatherly
care and love. This is however of no differ-
ence to homosexuals, who experience no
less hatred or condemnation, fully know-
ing that love and sex will not that easily be
separated. We all want to experience love,
and it so happens that sex plays a huge role
in that experience. Sexual drive is simply an
integrated part human nature and should
be allowed to thrive. This, of course, should
be a well known fact to Friðrik. The prob-
lem is that he only wants people to experi-
ence this on his own terms.
THE HUMAN RIGHTS MONSTER
Secondly, Friðrik dresses up as an ‘ordi-
nary’ victim of power, while simultaneously
trying to belittle the human rights office
and push its policy to the fringe. This he
does by accusing the office of ‘creating its
own rules and imposing them on everyone
else.’ That is to say, he creates a terrifying
monster whose sole purpose is to force ‘or-
dinary’ people into living by its strange and
alien policy. An attack like this can best
be tackled by pointing out that the human
rights office doesn’t float around in some
kind of a vacuum. It bases its mandate on
Icelandic law and constitution, as well as
the many international conventions Ice-
land has committed itself to, e.g. within the
United Nations and the Council of Europe.
These documents are the results of de-
cades of work on the advancement of hu-
man rights and are in fact the offspring of a
philosophical debate that goes back many
centuries and revolves around the dignity
and goodness of mankind. One therefore
has to ask: who’s the monster here?
THE MARTYR
Thirdly, Friðrik goes to the extreme and
tries to make a martyr of himself. We wit-
ness the theatrical entrance of a white,
heterosexual, Christian male, who turns
everything upside down and compares
his situation to that of LGBT people that
for centuries have been the subject of ha-
tred and persecution, torture and death.
And what is he complaining about? He’s
complaining about the ‘injustice’ hetero-
sexual people, who express their antipathy
against homosexual people’s sexual be-
haviour, now must suffer. ‘Where is the tol-
erance?’ Friðrik asks. This question really
has one answer only: You must be joking!
Honestly, this is no different from the bully
that starts whining when stopped from ha-
rassing the minors on the playground. But
it’s a well known and popular theme none-
theless. Recently used by a bunch of white,
straight, right winged, males, whimpering
and feeling persecuted by the homosexual
pop star Páll Óskar and his comments at
this year’s Reykjavík Gay Pride. Typical re-
action of the ruling power that automati-
cally takes on the role of a persecuted mi-
nority whenever the real minorities dare to
take their minor steps towards equality.
HUMAN RIGHTS POLICY IN ACTION
No. Reykjavík City’s recent actions are just
the right reaction in just the right moment.
They send a clear message about how
prejudice and injustice will not be tolerated
on the watch of those currently controlling
City Hall. They encourage future council-
lors and they clearly signal the fact that
Reykjavík City’s Human Rights Policy is not
a meaningless document for ornamental
use only. That bigotry can cost you money.
That the concept of human rights doesn’t
embody the right to trample on the rights
of others. That hate speech does not de-
serve public funding.
Opinion | Hilmar Magnússon
Reykjavík City: Hate Speech Is
Not A ‘Human Right’
Do you feel that conducting in some good ol' fashioned 'hate
speech' should be your 'human right'? Why/why not?
Aðalstræti 2 / 101 Reykjavík / tel. 511 1212 / sjavarkjallarinn.is
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Music | Reviews
Since their 2007 debut ‘Bat Out Of
Hellvar,’ Hellvar have grown from a duo
and laptop to a fully fledged band, with
drums, bass and everything. And with
their second album, they are setting
out to ROCK very hard, like a fucker of
mothers.
And yes, ‘Stop That Noise,’ does have
plenty of rock components such as big
drum rolls and squalling guitars. But for
a ROCK album it feels too clipped, too
constrained, too clean to really hit home.
There’s a distinct lack of dirt going on
here. Even Heiða’s vocals, while good
and strong, are not particularly that rock-
ing.
No, what ‘Stop That Noise’ is is a
superior piece of pop-as-rock, just like
their music spirit totem, Garbage. There
are some really catchy tunes and lyrics
on this album, although they do remind
you of other tunes. ‘I Should Be Cool’
contains that stomp riff motif that’s
been used by everyone from the Troggs
to Transvision Vamp, ‘Falsetto’ has the
cyber-pop feel of T.A.T.U, while I’m sure
they got clearance from Janes Addic-
tion’s lawyers to rework ‘Classic Girl’ as
‘Anna Amma.’
But despite this air of similarity, ‘Stop
That Noise’ does show a clear progres-
sion from their first album and there’s
definitely enough here to keep their fans
interested.
- BOB CLUNESS
Hellvar
Stop That Noise
www.gogoyoko.com/artist/hellvar
Helluva familiar noise
Iceland’s synth pop revival continues
apace with the debut release from the
latest project of Reykjavík duo Vilmar
Pedersen and Jón Schow. ‘Let The
Party Start’ is a simple 3 track EP of
smouldering mid-tempo synth pop,
that bubbles and foams with happy
juice in its joints.
LTPS doesn’t reinvent the wheel or
change the game of synth pop, but the
production shows a lightness of touch,
and with some of the synth sounds and
robot vocals on tracks such as ‘Ultra
Beam,’ you’d easily be forgiven for
thinking that the likes of Evil Madness
were trying to slip some secret synth
tracks under the radar.
- BOB CLUNESS
Synthadelia
Let The Party Start EP
synthadeliarecords.bandcamp.com
Happy Party Time