Rifftrax - please stop with the transgender "jokes"

[Smith Dr John Smith]

I'll be praying that God will open your eyes he has mine.  I will ask the Mods one thing if they come in here. This is Mike's site and Mike is a brother in Christ before you decide what to do with me and my posts please send him a link to this thread and tell him that I wish him to ask The Lord what he wants done with these posts.

Whenever someone came to Jesus to ask to follow him or be healed he told them the same thing "go sin no more",because the only way God can work is if we let him into our hearts but Satan's lie and sin can not live in the same heart with God's love so if you choose to hang onto a sin you have to push God's love out.  We all choose which master we will follow and in the end we go with them. If we choose to let Jesus in and give up our lives to serve him his blood makes us pure and we will go with him and live in Heaven and New Earth,if we choose to reject him and follow our own path and believe Satan's lies there is nothing Christ can do because he can not force us to take his gift and we will end up in the lake of fire with all other unclean things.  God doesn't send us there we send ourselves there,that is where I was was heading last night.  That is what it means when the Bible tells us we have to lose our lives to save them.  "Go sin no more" is not just a command it is a blessing. Jesus is telling us that if we truly let him in his love will fill us and we will not want to sin any more and we will look back and see the old dead person as having nothing to do with us any more.  This is how great Christ's love for us is,that it was my name that lead me to understand what I have done and how Christ will use it.  When I was born 27 years ago my parents named me after Matthew breaking a long held family tradition because they felt the Lord calling them to,and now I understand why.  My whole life makes sense. He knew back then that I would choose to spend more then a decade as the worst sinner there is,there isn't anyone worse then me but he also had a plan for how to use my bad to choice to not only help me but others.  I didn't see it until today but like Matthew I am guilty of a sin that the world tells me is not a sin,but I cut myself off from go so I could go on with it. Like I ended up empty and doomed and I ended up not know what to do. Like him I went to Jesus first just being selfish and wanting rewards with out giving up sin. Like him I was told that the only way I could be saved would be to admit what I was doing was sin and sin no more,I baulked at this last night but now I see that is is the only way. Like him as soon as I did these two easy steps I was filled with the spirit of Jesus and now I don't want to go back to the ways of sin. Like him I know because of the spirit within me that I am called not to hide the light of God under a basket but to share it with all who are stuck in sin and I have a special calling to share it with those who are stuck in the same sin I am. I must tell them about how the sin we share cuts us off from everlasting life and and must tell them that their lives can be changed through the love of Jesus.  To do anything else would be an act of hate and God's love leaves no room for hate.  This doesn't make sense to people who don't know God's love but now my only hope in life is that everyone will turn from sin and let Jesus into their heart.  God loved me when I rejected him,how can I do any less for everyone on Earth still in sin?

I now have complete peace because I know that in the end God's will will be done(no one can stop it)and that whatever happens to me his word does not return void. Some people choose to hate it,some to love it but the living word of God can't be ignored.

I have no stress in my life any more because by letting Christ fill me I am now on a path where all I have to do is keep telling people about God's love and as long as I do that everything else is in his hands and souls will be saved.  Life does not get any better then this.

[Danecho1967]

Doc,

As someone who has been firm in his Christian faith for many years, I feel compelled to give you a small amount of guidance.  If you wish to share your faith, do it in a more effective way.  This is not the right thread, and probably not the right forum.

People don't like prozilitization as a rule, and will only have more contempt for you if you already have established a negative opinion with them.  Choose a better way to bring your faith to people, know your stuff inside-out, and be concise.  People don't read 500 word paragraphs.

Most important, if you want to be convincing, find people who are ready to be convinced.

Finally:  you don't have the best reputation here.  That means no one will be listening.  Jesus got a poor reception in his home town just because people knew him.  Here, you have the added handicap that many people don't like you.  I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it is the truth.

I'm glad you have found faith, but I think you should cool it.

[Tripe]

I agree with Cho. Leave this thread Doc, you're doing no good here and a lot of harm, in essence you are causing others to sin by your behaviour, and I don't know if you got to the bit about what happens to those who do that.

Now, go away.

EDIT: Before you do however, delete all of your post; I'm sure the rest of us will do likewise to our responses to them, and the thread can be salvaged.

[torgosPizza]

please send him a link to this thread and tell him that I wish him to ask The Lord what he wants done with these posts.

No.

Banned for 24 hours. Come back when you've learned to behave.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

It seems to me that the guys are pretty "equal opportunity" about making jokes about people or groups of people.  Also, they never come across and malicious or hateful when they do.

Occasionally, a joke might hit close to home, and gives us an opportunity to either laugh at ourselves (a dying art) or get offended and belligerent.

In the two hours or so of a typical riff, there are probably dozens of jokes about other people or groups that your friend is not offended by, but that one joke that hits "close to home" (to use the phrase again) is the one the ruins the experience?  Perhaps your friend needs to consider his or her thin skin when choosing to indulge in a form of comedy that is based on making jokes often at others' expense.

Ah yes, the "thicker skin" argument.  Complete BS.  My friends who are trans already have thicker skins then anyone I know.  They have to in order to survive in a world where they have to deal with the threat of verbal abuse, physical assault, or murder at any time just for trying to be themselves.

They just want to watch what is supposed to be family entertainment (Rifftrax words, not mine) without hearing "jokes" that reinforce negative attitudes towards them.   

And in case anyone was wondering why I am posting about this and not my friends, it is because they are afraid of reprisal and threats from the people here just for speaking up. 

There is a contradiction between having very thick skin and being afraid to post for fear of reprisal. As a white anglo-saxon male in the US, I can't say I know how it feels to be oppressed or ostracized by anything more than a high school class, but living in the South I observe and interact with it daily. I have had friends and relatives in that position, and it is an issue that I care a lot about. I know that almost all members of persecuted groups are personally effected by jokes and attacks on them, but there is a definite difference in degree. Many people, myself included, have very strong self-esteem issues, and anything that pokes at one's insecurities can be hurtful, but sometimes those same people can develop a victim complex, as though they are ALWAYS under attack, even when the source (and they will even admit this) is clearly lacking malice. It comes from the natural human tendency to judge ourselves based on what society and particularly those voices we respect and enjoy (i.e. Mike, Kevin and Bill) have to say about us. Of course, negative comments with the intent of being negative are offensive, and shouldn't be tolerated against non-negative personalities and traits (like being transgendered or transsexual.) However jokes are a different animal. A joke can be a sign of acceptance and respect, sometimes even a lampoon of those people who hold those negative views sincerely. When a person is unable to separate this type of reference from a truly negative one it points to a strong self-validation issue. I have watched most rifftrax that have been released, and as an unbiased 3rd party, I have never heard the guys riff maliciously on any group of people.
I think that your intent here is noble and worth consideration, particularly so that Riffers are conscious of their jokes and who they may effect, but I also think that your efforts should be helping your friends deal with their internal demons. I have known many people who would be categorized as "easily offended" or "victims" and by and large they usually grow out of it (even at older ages.) Some don't, usually because their families refuse to support them, and without strong support at home they fail to find it anywhere and become of the opinion that all people should "treat them equally" by treating them differently, by giving them special treatment or exemption. The fact that your friends have someone like you to defend them is excellent for all of them. Ideally they would be treated the same as any other group in all aspects. The problem is that the groups that treat them unfairly tarnish their appreciation of those that treat them the same as any other person. I personally believe that instead of asking to be treated differently, you and your friends should start looking closely at how the world treats them and attack the areas that are truly unfair, like employment and service.  Also it is important to look inward and become totally comfortable with yourself, and that will help them know the difference.

TL;DR I am not saying that your friends should "get over it" or "just deal with it," just that they should focus their energies on fighting real injustices, and not just perceived ones.

Well said, just want to quote this here to get back to some level of sanity.

Also it was interesting to hear the quote from Bill about not doing so many jokes about physical appearance, I hope they can do that, I rarely find those very funny. 

[RVR II]

*enters thread* ...

[Sideswipe]

Yes, praise God!   The invisible sky daddy who endorses slavery and genocide, he certainly is worthy of your unending worship!

[Danecho1967]

Yes, praise God!   The invisible sky daddy who endorses slavery and genocide, he certainly is worthy of your unending worship!

Feel free to take that crap to the religion thread. Thank you.

[D.B. Barnes]

Yes, praise God!   The invisible sky daddy who endorses slavery and genocide, he certainly is worthy of your unending worship!

Feel free to take that crap to the religion thread. Thank you.

Agreed. Marty was trying to put the thread back on track. No need to pick the scab.

[torgosPizza]

Yes, praise God!   The invisible sky daddy who endorses slavery and genocide, he certainly is worthy of your unending worship!

You've been issued a warning for this post. Don't feed trolls.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I was thinking about deconstructing a few of these jokes, to show they are not making fun of transgendered people.  But have lost the will to do it.  Maybe someone else can try.

[RoninFox]

I can't remember making a lot of jokes about transgendered people in my riffs, but I do know I've made more than my share of gay jokes, and admit I sometimes wonder if I've offended with them.  They can become kind of an easy crutch, especially if there's a reputation for them with the subject matter (He-Man riffs, Nightmare on Elm Street 2, Batman and Robin).  When I do them, I'm never out to hurt anyone, except maybe the screenwriter or director of the film who I feel used gay imagery in an unintentional or irresponsible way (yes, irresponsible, like in Nightmare on Elm Street 2, I can rant about that all day, but as I have at least once before on this forum I'll leave it unless its requested.)

[Sideswipe]

Damn, I got reproted!

[RVR II]

Damn, I got reproted!

The Honey-badger don't give a shit

[MontyServo]

I don't really want to beat a dead horse here, but thought I should clarify my own personal beliefs just a bit.

Per moderator request this post has been moved to the religion thread which I had to look several pages back for:

http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php?topic=24550.0