Politics is personal. I know Pastor Matthias Esoimeme featured in these video clips. In fact, I exchange pleasantries with Matthias every Saturday at the Vallejo Farmers Market and at community meetings we both attend. And, over the last few years I have had a number of conversations with him. Last week I told him I was not voting for him, and in this diary I will explain why.
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Matthias Esoimeme's Anti-Gay Agenda, Member of the homophobic Vallejo Faith Organization Marc Garman (left) - Matthias Esoimeme (right)
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Matthias is featured in this interview conducted by Marc Garman. The letter beyond the fold is an analysis of the video by a local Vallejo rights activist, David Crumrine. The letter was submitted to the local newspaper, the Vallejo Times Herald.
Dear Editor,
A recent interview with the Vallejo Faith Organization’s candidate for Vallejo City Council, Pastor Matthias Esoimeme has yielded some interesting information on this candidate and his views about the gay community. He freely admits his role as part of the Vallejo Faith Organization as well as their ties with Ed Silvoso, and his Dominionist group of homophobic religious fanatics who have been preying on the citizenry of Vallejo for the past few years. He still uses that tired old cliche about loving the sinner but hating the sin. But after watching a clip of the interview on YouTube, some other very problematic issues come to light.
1. He thinks that gay people having children is a bad thing.
2. He says that being gay is a choice and can be changed.
3. He insinuates that gay people are recruiting others to become gay and says that it risks a human population collapse and that our country risks being “overthrown” by other nations.
4. He says that the reason individuals become gay is to take advantage of “a protected status” such that they can “not be touched" by employers for committing wrongful acts.
5. He says that since transgenderism is not mentioned in the Bible, that it does not actually exist.
Lastly, he talks about gays having a "lower mentality" in comparison to heterosexuals. Isn’t this the same type of discriminatory rhetoric that racial bigots profess?
This is an example of certifiable hate speech. Esoimeme should issue a retraction immediately for his homophobic and discriminatory comments in an attempt to find a way to heal the wounds he has caused. He should also undertake some sensitivity training to learn the truth about homosexuality, transexuality, discrimination, bigotry and the danger it poses to our youth in our schools.
We are fighting an epidemic of “bullycide” where youths are killing themselves due to hate speech like this and due to bullying on campuses. A candidate for public office making these kind of extremist and ignorant comments is not right for Vallejo.
We do not need more division within our city, we need to find ways to bring our community together. The Bible should not be used as a weapon to harm people, nor as a shield from behind which to hide hateful rhetoric and label it as religious freedom.
David Crumrine
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Pastor Matthias Esoimeme is best understood as a natural outgrowth of the of the
Vallejo Faith Organization, also known as VFO. The VFO has been engaging in Memetic Warfare on Vallejo for years using the LBGT community as its target.
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Deployment of memetic weapons
Fundamentalists, notably those supporting the neoconservative agenda, place considerable emphasis on the challenge of sin -- in justifying their support for faith-based governance. Their focus is on very tangible manifestations of sin as understood in religious terms.
Seven Deadly Sins of Fundamentalism - assessing memetic weapons capability of neoconservatism
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The VFO is large enough and active enough in our community to influence the social norms and change the understanding of language in Vallejo. The 20 or so churches supporting VFO have used their "bully pulpit" to create an environment where it is normal to consider LBGT individuals sinful.
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There is today in America a disease, a sickness of hatred. It’s very existence is a universal form of group narcissism. Peck calls it, “enemy creation,” or “hatred of the ‘out-group.’” If a group does not have an enemy, “it will most likely create one in short order.” Peck wrote, “The groups become cliques. Those who do not belong to the group are despised as being inferior or evil or both.”
Jerry Falwell was fond of telling the story of how he learned the secret of being a successful pastor. As a young man he went to an older minister and asked, “What do I have to do to be a success?” The old pastor put his arm on Jerry’s shoulder and said, “Son, if you want to be a success, keep a good fight going all the time!”
How to Detect Evil: Book Review of People Of The Lie by M Scott, Peck, M.D.
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Matthias learned his political skills on the job in Vallejo. Here is a 2008 video of Matthias speaking out in support of "YES on 8", the
California Marriage Protection Act. As the viewer can see Matthias has not changed his views on the LBGT community.
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I would like to mention the Prop 8 campaign in Vallejo because of the unusual vote outcome in our county. The Vallejo Faith Organization with the help of the local Mormon and Catholic community were able to mobilize the their faithful to create this outcome:
On Nov. 4, 2008, Solano County voted 55.9% for Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. It was the only Bay Area county to approve the initiative.
From Wikipedia: Solano County Politics
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A month ago at a political meeting where I was talking about the influence of the Vallejo Faith Organization on Vallejo politics Matthias was present. After the meeting Matthias engaged me in an extended conversation. I knew about his views on the LBGT issues, but I did not know much about his humanities breadth. So, I found myself framing our conversation in terms of the influence of Enlightenment thinkers on the Constitution and American institutions rather than talking about LBGT issues.
He immediately took exception and stated the source for the U.S. Constitution was the Bible. I mentioned Descartes, Newton, Spinoza, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson and these were not recognized. But all he said was that I was wrong ... the source is the bible.
And no conversation would be complete without mention of Sodom. And, of course I disagreed with his interpretation. I offered to sit down with him and show him what I believed based on using Strong’s Concordance. Surprisingly for a Pastor he was unfamiliar with Strong's and it’s use.
He changed tactics, again, and questioned my personal beliefs by asking me what church I was affiliated with. I said that I felt comfortable calling myself a Deist and believed in the Jefferson Bible. However, Matthias was not familiar with these.
I went back to defending the founding documents of the United States as being, in part, inspired by the Enlightenment. And, the conversation did not get much further than that.
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About the Enlightenment
.... The new intellectual forces spread to urban centers across Europe, notably England, Scotland, the German states, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Austria, and Spain, then jumped the Atlantic into the European colonies, where it influenced Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, among many others, and played a major role in the American Revolution. The political ideals influenced the American Declaration of Independence, the United States Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and the Polish–Lithuanian Constitution of May 3, 1791.
From Wikipedia: Age of Enlightenment
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As David said above, "A candidate for public office making these kind of extremist and ignorant comments is not right for Vallejo." I agree with David:
Matthias is not right for Vallejo.
Specifically, I reject Matthias as a canideate for Vallejo City Councel because he holds misguided and simplistic ideas about the LBGT community. Second, I think he should have a better understanding American history, American civics, and of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Third, I reject his ideology of category simplifications that supports memetic warfare against Progressive values in the Vallejo community.
Lastly, I think Matthias is being used by the Vallejo Faith Organization to make their regular slate of candidates look more normal and main stream. The other Vallejo Faith Organization candidates are much more polished than Matthias, and I hope to mention them in a future diary.
And on that note, I will end this diary on pledge to keep talking to Matthias. I'm hoping I'm able to show him some examples of the tragic outcomes for children who are targeted by those that categorize LBGT individuals as sinners, e.g., see Daily Kos diaries like Chrislove's CA Christian Coalition: Anti-gay bullying simply "part of maturing," "not a real problem".
For additional information on Dominionism in Vallejo see: Vallejo Faith Organization - Dominionism Proxy?
Best,
Jonathan Gordon
Vallejo Community Activist