Game Review

The Geekbox "Comedy Button" reviews church as if it were a video game.

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All WOMen Created Equal

Our fellow kegger Streak has, when he's not posting about gun culture and getting in fights with Steve, done some posts about conservatism, religion, and modern religious "values" that run counter to what we common chaff perceive as, well, religious values.

In that vein, and because the legislature is on Spring Break and I finally have time to write things, I offer the following post written by Jimmy Carter: Losing my religion for equality; Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

In it, Carter makes the case that he eventually left the Southern Baptist Convention after it "carefully selected  Bible verses" that women must be subservient to their husbands and are thus prohibited from certain roles or professions.  I'm a sucker for Carter, so no surprise I was a fan of this post.  Before I start my list of favorite quotes from his post, I want to put this in a bit of context for why, other than to scream "I AGREE," I am taking up valuable blog space with a post like this.

IMO, the point isn't that Carter "left" his religion by resigning the Conference; in fact, I believe Carter still believes quite strongly.  It never makes me dance a merry jig when someone's faith collapses or they are forced to "leave" a certain sect because they tire of its oppressiveness or backwards-looking philosophy. I "left" my faith long, long ago, if it can be said "never really having it" is a form of "leaving," so I no longer need to see other people losing faith to justify my own departure anymore.  I'll not dance on the Southern Baptist Convention's eventual grave, nor will I rejoice in Carter's obvious pain in having to leave behind and organization that he thought had done so much good for so many decades.

For me, the value of Carter's statement here is more about an increasing number of people not only recognizing that their faith is starting to grow incongruous with its own actual perported value system, but also doing something about it.  It is having the guts, really, to look an entire institution in the face and say "you're wrong."  It's to believe strongly enough in the freedom that life or religion are supposed to celebrate to recognize when cultural leaders have finally gone astray.

So no, it's not that Carter resigned anything.  It's that he needs to send a powerful message to the powers-that-be that they are no longer in-touch with the tenets of their own myths.  And instead of grumbling or hoping it gets better, he, a former President Of The Most Powerful Country On Earth, vocally severed ties.  That's powerful.

Quote-o-rama:

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us....It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

In Iran, fellow keggers, against an oppressive regime, where they can be killed, women want freedom and are willing to stand up.  We're not Iran.  Nobody has anything to fear here but the scorn of the witch doctors.

And my favorite zinger:  The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

"And the timid acquiesence to oppressive rulers."  Poetry.  And that is what, but resigning and forming a new group and publishing his thoughts, Carter has rejected:  timid acquiesence.  Respect.

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Crimes Against Humanity

Most of us probably do not give one flying fuck that Pope Benedict XVI is the first Pope in over 600 years to step down, or, retire.  I laughed out loud when, in a recent report, NPR stated "with many Catholics still shaken by the Pope's announcement..."  No, Sylvia.  More like "with many Catholics still shrugging."

I, for one, think the guy is misguided in his focus and for the head of a church that vaunts its views on peace, community, and life, he was the ultimate relativist.  In a time where politicians and cultural leaders use fear as a means to an end, should not the church urge peace and be a place of solace and community?

I, though, am not the only one to be so disappointed.

• One third of Americans raised Catholic no longer describe themselves thus;
• American Catholics declined 5% in the last decade ("and the decline would have been much steeper if not for the offsetting impact of Catholic immigrants from Latin America.")
• 40% of Americans give Benedict a "favorable" rating
• American Catholic support for Benedict has dropped from 80% to 60% in just 2 years

In my opinion, I offer the following statements and sentiments from the retiring pope as "evidence," if you will, of engaging in the same sort of fear-based, dog-whistle-laced demogoguery that our politicians are guilty of:

Sex Scandal

• As Pope, he refused to open Vatican records to outside scrutiny;
• In an interview around the time he became pope, instead of taking charge of the sex abuse scandals just starting to break, Ratzinger blamed Americans for a plot to undermine the church:
• “In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower … In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts.” 

•  Before he was Pope, Ratzinger was the Vatican's chief "doctrinal enforcer."  But mounting evidence shows that he chose not to act, or acted covertly, as allegations of sex abuse escalated. It wasn't until the abuse broke in the media that the Vatican finally started to act, under Ratzinger's order.  

Gay Marriage

• During the 2013 World Day of Peace, the Pope's message of hope and call for world peace consisted of...wait...what?  An appeal to the existential threat of gay marriage??
• "There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union. Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.These principles are not truths of faith, nor are they simply a corollary of the right to religious freedom. They are inscribed in human nature itself, accessible to reason and thus common to all humanity. The Church’s efforts to promote them are not therefore confessional in character, but addressed to all people, whatever their religious affiliation. Efforts of this kind are all the more necessary the more these principles are denied or misunderstood, since this constitutes an offence against the truth of the human person, with serious harm to justice and peace."

• Let's not  forget the Pope's Christmas speech, where he took time out of celebrating the pagan-timed birth of Jesus to remind us that gay marriage is a threat to humanity:
• "There is no denying the crisis that threatens it [the family] to its foundations — especially in the Western world,” the Pope is quoted as saying. “When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child — essential elements of the experience of being human are lost"

•  Let's not forget the Pope's "scientific" finding that the LGBT community are not fully developed humans.

Moral Relativism

• Benedict liked to make grand statements about moral relativism:
• "We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires"
• But he sure likes to pardon excommunicated priests who are "convicted" holocaust deniers, speaking of moral relativism.
• Oh, and let's not forget that some death is OK for Benedict's church, just not ever abortion and euthanasia, but some death is OK because not everyone in his flock might agree with, say, anti-death penalty or anti-war sentiments:
• Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion, even among Catholics, about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not, however, with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

Some leadership.  This guy was anything but a source of peace, using the tactics and words of fear and division for some gain that I can't see yet.  What I do see is that his tactics have led to decline.  Fortunately for the world, these archaic views are also on the decline; perhaps what we see in Benedict is some of the last gasps of a dying mindset.

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EZ-Belief, Take 2

In the post below this one I provided a fun little flow chart to help find what religion you should be.  Ha!  Enjoyment!  Snark!

But then I read this article and wonder how Santorum fits on that flowchart.  Based on his comments and sentiment, I think we need to add a new string to it.

Sick.

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E-Z Belief

I found this flowchart below quite helpful.

I am vastly interested to know everyone's answer to "are you a naturally annoying person" even if it doesn't fit as a question in your particular part of this matrix.

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Fun with Rick Perry

The Rick Perry Scary:



The Heathen Response:

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Christian Nation?

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Nerds!

Never thought about religion in this light:

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Welcome to the 19th Century

I *could* have added a piece of classical
art, but...

It's nice to see some Evangelical intellectuals (try to hide the snickering) finally get in tune with Chuck Darwin's 1859 publication. From NPR's Morning Edition this morning: Evangelicals Question the Existence of Adam and Eve.

Read it or listen to it, it'll take you 5 minutes.

A few highlights:

Asked how likely it is that we all descended from Adam and Eve, Dennis Venema, a biologist at Trinity Western University, replies: "That would be against all the genomic evidence that we've assembled over the last 20 years, so not likely at all."
...
And Venema is part of a growing cadre of Christian scholars who say they want their faith to come into the 21st century. Another one is John Schneider, who taught theology at Calvin College in Michigan until recently. He says it's time to face facts: There was no historical Adam and Eve, no serpent, no apple, no fall that toppled man from a state of innocence.

"Evolution makes it pretty clear that in nature, and in the moral experience of human beings, there never was any such paradise to be lost," Schneider says. "So Christians, I think, have a challenge, have a job on their hands to reformulate some of their tradition about human beginnings."

Of course, we have the fire-and-brimstone crowd:

"From my viewpoint, a historical Adam and Eve is absolutely central to the truth claims of the Christian faith," says Fazale Rana, vice president of Reasons To Believe, an evangelical think tank that questions evolution. Rana, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ohio University, readily admits that small details of Scripture could be wrong. [ed note: Gee, thanks for that little glimmer, Faz]

"But if the parts of Scripture that you are claiming to be false, in effect, are responsible for creating the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, then you've got a problem," Rana says.

Yeah, a mighty mighty big problem. But that's OK. The Fundy church has a way of dealing with its internal heretics:

"You get evangelicals who push the envelope, maybe; they get the courage to work in sensitive, difficult areas," Harlow says. "And they get slapped down. They get fired or dismissed or pressured out."

Harlow should know: Calvin College investigated him after he wrote an article questioning the historical Adam. His colleague and fellow theologian, John Schneider, wrote a similar article and was pressured to resign after 25 years at the college.

So when your scientific research finds you at odds with the bible, and you suggest that perhaps we be less dogmatic in our approach to fundamentalism and try to read that book-of-books as allegory and poetry, you get fired.

The end of the article sums it up perfectly:

But others say Christians can no longer afford to ignore the evidence from the human genome and fossils just to maintain a literal view of Genesis.

"This stuff is unavoidable," says Dan Harlow at Calvin College. "Evangelicals have to either face up to it or they have to stick their head in the sand. And if they do that, they will lose whatever intellectual currency or respectability they have."

"If so, that's simply the price we'll have to pay," says Southern Baptist seminary's Albert Mohler. "The moment you say 'We have to abandon this theology in order to have the respect of the world,' you end up with neither biblical orthodoxy nor the respect of the world."

Mohler and others say if other Protestants want to accommodate science, fine. But they shouldn't be surprised if their faith unravels. [emphasis added]

There is a certain pridefulness in Mohler's willingness to be an intellectual martyr over the tenets of his faith, and that is so typical of folks willing to dive head-long into the sand. Mohler's last comment is exactly why: the fear of what happens as your faith unravels in the face of real evidence.

What do you do? You've been brought up to believe this series of stories as literally true, and that the nature of your belief in and love of God - everything you know to be good and moral and comfortable - is in question.

Or is it?

Somehow the Catholic Church has found a way to apologize for its treatment of Galileo and his findings, accept what science has to offer, and still attract a billion followers world-wide. The Dalai Lama published a nice little thoughtful book called The Universe in a Single Atom about how science and spirituality can converge if you view them as complimentary and allow that science is built to unlock answers to physical questions.

All they really lose by unburying their heads is an illogical literal belief in old stories if they still truly want to cling to God; a huge number of people are there already, given what most educational curricula still look like. Maybe the faith that unravels is faith in literal truth of poetry. Maybe the faith that unravels is all faith altogether. Either way, there is no reward for obstinance and ignorance other than ridicule and the departure of your former adherents as they accept the world as it really is.

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After the Rapture Pet Care...Repent! The end is nigh!

After the Rapture Pet Care, a business in Lansing, has created a valuable service for Christians expecting to be raptured this weekend. For the low, low price of $10, a non-believer will collect a pet and care for them after it's owner has moved on to be with Jesus.




I am not sure how all the Jews, Muslims and Atheists will collect pets while simultaneously trying to extinguish the flames of hell, but if you are interested you might find the answer at their website. They also have some great merchandise. The doggie t-shirt is a nice item and is Made in the USA, which might be important to you if you think our economy might survive the end-of-days.

UPDATE: A second service has been located.

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Dearborn Responds

Mayor O'Reilly, a fine Irish-American

I missed this, but apparently the Mayor of Dearborn, Jack O'Reilly, wrote an open letter to "Pastor" Terry Jones before Terry's silly protest.

Click that link. It's a great letter; cogent, calm, well-put. Some highlights:

I watched you on television speaking about the Constitution and Dearborn, and it appears you need more information about both before you come to our city.

...

The Constitution says that your rights must be balanced with the rights of others under the same document. Your free speech rights do not allow you to trespass on the private property of others or prevent them from the Constitutional right to freely practice their religion. I am not just talking about Muslims but members of all faiths.

The members of the Christian churches on Altar Road asked me last week if they should cancel their Good Friday services because of your planned visit. I assured them that they should not because the Constitution does not allow you to violate their rights. I don’t know why you selected Good Friday but it wasn’t very considerate of the significant Christian services being held at that time. I assure you that you will not make them forfeit their services.

...

There is no Sharia Law in Dearborn, only Constitutional Law. Sharia Law is church- or faith-based law that is applicable only to the followers of that faith...The actual originator of the event you plan to hold in Dearborn, Frank Fiorello of the Fraternal Order of the Dragon, accepted my invitation to learn more about Dearborn, and after seeing the truth, he canceled his protest.

But, if you don’t believe that Dearborn follows the Constitution, here are some realistic facts for you. Businesses in Dearborn lawfully meet the diverse needs of our Greater Detroit area, but if Dearborn practiced Sharia Law, would we have ... more alcohol licensed bars and restaurants per capita than most other cities? None of that should be allowed under Sharia Law.

How about this? A business we boast about, the nationally known Dearborn Sausage, opened more than 60 years ago across the street from the first mosque in Dearborn and is famous for its sausages and spiral sliced hams. It is one of many meat packing operations in our City and no one has ever objected. [Sharia Law expressly forbidding pork; note added by me]

Dearborn is also famous for The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, where more than 1.5 million visitors come each year from across the country and the world to learn about the foundations of our American way of life.

I could go on, but you get the point. It's a nice letter. It plays Terry for the fool he is and in essence plays anyone small-minded enough to believe his or other reactionaries' hype and nonsense.

His closer is spot on: "As we work hard to balance your rights with the rights of others in Dearborn, you will be extended every courtesy during your visit – as long as you follow the law based on the Constitution’s protection of everyone’s rights. That should be a familiar statement to you."

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The Limits of Free Speech

Pastor Terry Jones seems to be giving Fred Phelps competition for the title of most offensive 'christian'. His latest stunt brings him to my state where he plans on staging a rally in front of a Dearborn Mosque against "the radical element of Islam." Local officals have expressed concern that things may get out of hand and have asked him to put of money to help pay for some of the massive amount of security that will have to be deployed. He has refused and there is a hearing scheduled later today to decide if he has to pay.

Not surprisingly, the ACLU has come out in support of the right of Terry Jones to protest and said that the government cannot impnge on someone's free speech rights. I can see both sides of this and the fact that Jones is so offensive makes it hard to support him in any way. This would be a security nightmare. Jones has a 1.2 million dollar bounty on his head from some Pakistani group and I am sure that there are many others that want him dead. On the other hand, with 'free speech zones' and other similar pratcices, are we seeing a gradual erosion of free speech rights? What kinds of constraints should the state put on groups when they want to protest? The Supreme Court has said time and time again, that content-based restrictions are unconstitutional, so does this amount to a de facto contetnt-based restriction?

Personally, I wish that the media and everyone else would ignore this guy, but that isn't going to happen. In the alternative, I would like to see a massive, peaceful, counter-protest.

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Partisanship and Religion in the Workplace.

Late last week I found the following printed on a sheet of paper and posted anonymously above the copier in the office where I work:

“Solution to the problem in Libya:
They want a new Muslim leader, I say give them ours…
Solves 2 problems.”

This item pissed me off, but I held off responding until I thought about it. As a manager, I have the ability to address the item to the entire staff, but am unsure if I too am just being partisan.

It bugs me for multiple reasons.  Not only is it tin-foil-hat, Obama-is-a-Muslim crap, it touches on religion and politics.  We work in a state government office, so we need to avoid partisanship.  I am considering the following statement to our staff:

"Last week I found some commentary posted above the copier that I found troubling.

The printed item (which I won’t reprint) could be seen as a silly joke. It could also be read as conspiracy theorist nonsense or partisanship in the workplace. At worst, it could be read as religious intolerance.

We all come from different backgrounds religiously, politically, and culturally. Overall we work well together. Our diversity is a real strength. Let’s keep it that way."

Am I just being too sensitive? What are your thoughts?

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In Case You Needed Clarification...

I found this article on the WaPo's new "On Faith" column. Normally, I read this column because I hate it and it makes me insane. For some reason, I need that in my day; that anger, that cleansing self-flagellation of reading things that make me furious. But this article this time? I agreed.

It's written by a Jesuit, and is extremely critical of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The article is clear on their partisanship:

This year, as president of the bishops' conference, he [Cardinal Francis George] led the attack on President Obama's healthcare bill, which he claims will fund abortions even though the Catholic Health Association disagrees.
...
The conservative tilt of the bishops' conference was shown even more clearly by the election for vice president. After two votes, the final runoff was between the two most conservative candidates of the eight bishops on the ballot: Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, who wants to ban pro-choice politicians from Communion, and Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, chair of the bishops' committee on the defense of marriage--the committee assigned to fight gay marriage. [emphasis added by me]

Now, none of this is particularly remarkable; gee, go figure, the Catholic Church is weighing heavily into our trumped-up "culture wars." Nothing really new there. But the article ends with the real point by this Jesuit, and it's the one that really got me going:

What is most remarkable about this meeting is that it took place in the middle of the most devastating economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the bishops said nothing about it. It was as if they did not know that almost 10 percent of their parishioners are unemployed, that the new Congress is going to take aim at programs helping the poor and that now is the time to speak out for social justice. Their silence was deafening.

There. It. Is. When it comes time for the Catholic Church's leadership to show their true colors on social justice issues, they don't. They stick with gays and abortion.

Tone deaf as ever, it saddens me that Catholic enrollment is up 1.94%. I'm not sad for the church (I rarely attend) per se, I'm sad because that means that this is a reflection of the priorities of parishoners. With 1% of the U.S. holding not only 34% of the U.S.'s wealth but also a wealth that is more than the bottom 90% of our population as an aggregate, with the gap between rich and poor widening, and with more people being forced from their homes and in need of services...ma and pa Hackett still only care about gays and abortions.

Or is it just that they find a spiritual home in the Catholic Church, whose leaders are simply tone-deaf to their parishoners' real needs?

Or...are the poor not going to mass because, amidst homilies on abortion, biblical literalism and gays, does the church really offer them nothing?

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Religious Knowledge - Take the Test.

As has been reported over the last week, a study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life found:

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

I found this concept facinating and took the test.  I got 13 out of 15.  I am such a heathen.

Take the test yourself here and let us know how you did.

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Another Good Work

The "Military Religious Freedom Foundation" has announced that they will buy one copy of the Qur'an for every one burned on the Saturday.  The group, plans to send the copies to the military, to be donated to the Afghan National Army by U.S. soldiers.

The Foundation is also calling for a "buy a Qur'an Day" for September 11.

UPDATE:
As it turns out the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is one sweet organization.  It is also run by one real badass.  The guy comes from a three-generation military family.  He was a boxer, JAG officer and Reagan administration lawyer.  He is no pinko-liberal. Read more about him here. 

Here is a quote from him:

"'Wherever I see unconstitutional religious predators in the U.S. military, of any stripe, I don't care if I live or die. Someone's gonna get a beating and we're going to do it," he says. 'The two ways to administer the beating is to go into the media or into court,' he explains..." 

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Christians Who Aren't Afraid

Just when I am about to swear off all Christians, even the liberal ones, I hear about this event.

All Saints Episcopal Church of East Lansing, Michigan will be holding an open reading from the Qur'an in their sanctuary on Saturday. They have invited members of a local Islamic Center to attend.

This might actually get me to church.

For those in the area who are interested:

All Saints Episcopal Church
800 Abbot Road, East Lansing, MI
7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, September 11

By the way:

For those that compare the burning of the Qur'an to the building of the Islamic Center in New York City, (both protected by the first amendment) I should remind you that the building of the Islamic Center was planned to bring people of multiple religions together, but burning the Qur'an is being done out of hate.

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Moron the Community Center 3 Blocks From Ground Zero

Watch in fascination as an angry lily-white mob threatens a guy who they think is a Muslim (24 seconds in, he delivers, fearlessly, my favorite quote of this entire debate: "y'all dumb motherfuckers don't know my opinion on shit.").We are a stupid, stupid people.

From Little Green Footballs (quoted from the videographer): "Later I caught up with the man who’s name is Kenny. He is a Union carpenter who works at Ground Zero."

The next time NPR of all stations calls it the Ground Zero Mosque, I am calling them and asking for my money back. As far as I'm concerned, that phrase is part and parcel to the racist attack we see here. It fuels all of the misconceptions that the drivers of this movement use to their advantage. It's fucking twisted.

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Profile in Courage

Yesterday, the New York Times had a profile of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s support of the construction of a Muslim community center a few blocks away from ground zero in Manhattan.

Bloomberg Official Photo

The article details his position as one in opposition of religious discrimination, something his parent’s faced as Jews trying to buy a home in Massachusetts.

Yet his quote really simplifies the argument:

“If somebody wants to build a mosque in a place where it’s zoned for it and they can raise the money, then they can do that,” he said. “And it’s not the government’s business.”

No matter what someone’s emotional reaction is to the building of this center, there is no way to stop it. Any efforts will be a violation of one group’s religious constitutional rights, which would be settled by the courts, likely in favor of the Muslim people developing the center.

I think it is important to note that this center will welcome people of different faiths as a way to bring the community together. Isn’t this kind of what we all dreamed and cried for following September 11, 2001?

Bloomberg could have dodged the whole argument and left it to the courts and various development boards to settle. Instead, he has weighed in on it in support of religious tolerance, despite public oppostion.  One person said it is the mayor's finest hour.  It may very well be.

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I'm Convinced.

I was skeptical about belief at first. But now that I have seen this commercial, I am convinced. Allow me to share this with you...to preach this gospel.

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