Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Losing A Generation

Via Pandagon, a very interesting article on how the never-ending culture wars, especially in regards to anti-homosexual bigotry, are costing U.S. churches an entire generation of Christians.

So my question for those evangelicals leading the charge in the culture wars is this: Is it worth it? 

Is a political “victory” really worth losing millions more young people to cynicism regarding the Church?

Is a political “victory” worth further alienating people who identify as LGBT?

Is a political “victory” worth perpetuating the idea that evangelical Christians are at war with gays and lesbians?

And is a political “victory” worth drowning out that quiet but persistent internal voice that asks—what if we get this wrong? 

Too many Christian leaders seem to think the answer to that question is “yes,” and it's costing them.  

Because young Christians are ready for peace.

We are ready to lay down our arms. 

We are ready to start washing feet instead of waging war.  

And if we cannot find that sort of peace within the Church, I fear we will look for it elsewhere.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing.

Security Theatre

When the HELL is someone, anyone,  going to rein in the TSA???

 "It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?"

Riyanna's parents, who asked not to be identified, said they think they know the answer to that question. They believe they were profiled because they are both of Middle Eastern descent. Riyanna's mother wears a hijab, a traditional head scarf. That's why they have asked to remain anonymous. They said they're concerned about repurcussions. That said, they are both Americans, born and raised in New Jersey, just like their daughter.

Riyanna's parents said once they were taken off the plane, they were met by TSA agents and made to stand in the terminal for about 30 minutes.

"We were put on display like a circus act because my wife wears a hijab," Riyanna's father said.

North Carolina Enshrines Bigotry

Since when are rights subject to a plebiscite?  I guess ever since religious bigots are allowed anywhere near the levers of power.  To wit:

"I think it sends a message to the rest of the country that marriage is between one man and one woman," Fitzgerald said at a celebration Tuesday night. "The whole point is simply that you don't rewrite the nature of God's design based on the demands of a group of adults."

Gay marriage goes against you religion?  Fine.  Don't have one.  Stop forcing your bronze age religious intolerance upon everyone else.

I See What You Did Ruth Ann!

Just when I thought Ruth Ann Dailey was going to write a decent column, she blows it. Today's column was titled "America a Christian Nation? Think Again.

Yay!!! Perhaps Ruth Ann understands that while the majority of citizens in this country are some flavor of Christian, the government is expressly secular. Alas, she goes all squishy. To wit:

"The correct answer to the question "Is America a 'Christian nation'?" is "yes and no." And both sides need to get over it."

She then goes on to note the early efforts to decouple government and religion, before dropping this heap o stupid:

"But it matters very much to American history that Christians discovered and established this principle well before Enlightenment philosophers did. It took root here because our forebears were -- literally and metaphorically -- plowing new ground. When the Enlightenment was barely under way in the Old World, deist intellectuals and learned Christians worked side by side in the New World to lead the war for independence, to draft and ratify the U.S. Constitution and to establish the separation of church and state.

In short, the principle that today's agnostics and atheists file lawsuits to protect comes to them courtesy, first, of Christian thinkers. Is it too much to ask them to acknowledge this fact?"

AAARRGHH!! No atheist or agnostic I know of refuses to acknowledge that many of the founding fathers, and the people who influenced them were Christians and Deists. That's not the issue. The issue at hand is that these leaders knew that entwining sectarian beliefs and government leads to persecution of those whos beliefs are in the minority or out of the mainstream. As Jefferson put it, "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

She does call out the odious fake historian David Barton, but then goes on to cite Stalin and Mao as examples of evil atheists, while ignoring that the atrocities committed by those men were based on politics, not religion, or the lack thereof.

All we atheists and agnostics want by filing these lawsuits is to get the government to follow the law. Is that too much to ask Ruth Ann?

Signs of the Divine!

Its a sign!

Pennsylvania Gets Sued

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing Pennsylvania over the "Year of the Bible" resolution.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. FFRF names as defendants State Rep. Rick Saccone, author of the resolution, Clancy Myer, House Parliamentarian and Anthony Frank Barbush, Chief Clerk of the Pennsylvania House.

“FFRF's membership includes individuals residing in Pennsylvania who have had direct and unwanted exposure to the Year of the Bible Resolution and the hostile environment created thereby as a result of the official declaration of a state religion by the Pennsylvania Legislature,” notes FFRF’s legal complaint. Members include “individuals [who] oppose governmental speech endorsing religion because they are made to feel as if they are political outsiders.”

I'm not sure how much of a chance this lawsuit has, as the legislation is basically symbolic  Don't get me wrong, I think the resolution marginalizes non-Christians, and probably violates both the Commonwealth's and the United States' Constitutions.  However, is THIS particular fight a fight worth picking NOW?  I'm more concerned about the Ten Commandments memorial on public property over in New Kensington.

A Pretty Clear Violation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a Ten Commandments monument in Westmoreland County in its sights.  The monument sits on the grounds of New Kensington-Arnold School District's Vally Highschool.

A Wisconsin-based atheist group wants officials to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the front of a New Kensington high school, claiming the display amounts to an "egregious" violation of the separation between church and state.

Freedom From Religion Foundation sent New Kensington-Arnold School District officials a letter this week asking them to remove the stone monument, which the New Kensington Eagles gave to the district more than a decade ago. It sits near the entrance to Valley High School's gymnasium.

The law is pretty clear on this issue (just ask the folks in Cranston, R.I.)  If the FFRF has to sue, there's a very high probability that the school district will lose.  The legal fees the district will pay out in what's likely a futile defense could better be used on books, salaries, and maintenance. 

If I'm a member of the New Kensington-Arnold School District, I'd be looking for someone willing to host the monument on private, rather than public property.  The grounds of one of the many churches in the region would be a good spot.

 

But Of Course

Pennsylvania Nonbelievers put up a billboard containing an actual bible verse (Colossians 3:22) to point out the controversy with the legislature decalring this year to be "The Year of the Bible" in the commonwealth.  It lasted but a day before it was vandalized.

Brian Fields, president of Pennsylvania Nonbelievers notes,

The irony of course is in what they destroyed: they left the bible verse that supports slavery, one of many missed opportunities in the bible for the authors to actually say “Slavery is bad”. They removed the entire point of the billboard, the criticism, and left the actual ignorant and savage part.

 

Outfoxing The Pope

Everyone thought the President was going to cave to the Catholic Church today, but I think he just outmaneuvered the priests.  Even the headline writers are getting it wrong, calling it a "retreat" or a "compromise" but look what he's announced:

President Obama will announce today that religious employers won't have to cover birth control for employees -- their insurance companies will, senior administration officials said.

So unless the church is self-insured (and according to this article, many Catholic institutions purchase insurance off the shelf), contraceptive services are covered, and in any case, have been covered for years.

Institutionalized Evil

Its worth remembering that while the Catholic Church is freaking out about having to cover contraception in prescription drug plans, Church leaders turned a blind eye towards rape allegations against clergy.  The latest from Wisconsin:

The bankruptcy hearings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee have revealed more than 8,000 previously unreported instances of alleged sexual abuse of children, according to one attorney representing the victims. The charges cover a span of 60 years and implicate a group of 100 alleged offenders, including nuns, church workers and some 75 priests.

That works out to over 130 allegations per year on average.  Can't we go after this criminal organization with the RICO laws?