And while we're at it, lets ban banning

Sir Elton John wants to ban religion:

Sir Elton John wants religion banned completely -- because he believes it promotes hatred of gays.

Speaking to the Observer Music Monthly Magazine the singer said religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings".

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He said there was a lack of religious leadership, particularly in world politics, and complained that people do not take to the streets to protest any more.

Sir Elton said: "I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.

"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion. From my point of view I would ban religion completely.

"Organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."

He added: "The world is near escalating to World War Three and where are the leaders of each religion? Why aren't they having a conclave? Why aren't they coming together?

"I said this after 9/11 and people thought I was nuts. Instead of more violence why isn't there a meeting of religious leaders?

Ground control to Sir Elton: They can't meet if you ban them! When you ban banning, only banners ban. Or something like that. So there are some religious people who don't like gays. OK, there are a lot of religious people who don't like gays. But a whole lot of them don't hate you, and a lot of them adore you, buy your records and go to your concerts. So do you think it is justified to promote hatred of them just because there are others who promote hatred of you?

Besides, Pope Benedict XVI is all prepped and ready to talk about peace. The problem is every time he says something riots break out.

"It's like the peace movement in the Sixties. Musicians got through to people by getting out there and doing peace concerts but we don't seem to do them any more.

"If John Lennon were alive today he'd be leading it with a vengeance," he said.

Ground control to Sir Elton: Your pathetic 60's peace concerts didn't achieve peace. We're at war with people who hate gays so much that they put them to death. And, hard as this may be for you to believe, one of the reasons that many people on our side are fighting them is because they treat gays that way, among other things. So make up your mind and choose a side. Do you want to make peace with people who want you dead, or do you want to fight them? And do you want to piss off every religous person who is willing and able to fight for your right to live without fear of being killed and to express your gayness openly by denying their right to express their faith openly without fear?

If so, then you'd better have more allies on your side than the reanimated corpse of John Lennon.