religion
stcynic | June 7, 2004The leadership of several religious groups, including the Presbyterian, Lutheran and Episcopal churches, has sent an open letter to Congress opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban gay marriages nationwide:
"Although we have differing opinions on rights for same-sex couples, we believe the Federal Marriage Amendment reflects a fundamental disregard for individual civil rights and ignores differences among our nation's many religious traditions," the letter said. The United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Universalist Association, which recognize same-sex marriages, also…
stcynic | April 26, 2004I'm going to start another new feature here, only because this subject fascinates me so much. It will be a series of posts on the subject of fringe religious groups, particularly those in the loonier groups of the religious right wing in the United States. I make no pretense of being fair minded in their regard, I think those who populate such organizations are generally in need of serious psychological help. But still, I'm quite fascinated by the various strains of the fundamentalist mindset in its crazier manifestations. I also make no pretense that such people or groups in any way…
stcynic | April 3, 2004See Feddie's screed on Southern Appeal about how horribly those anti-gay marriage folks are being treated. I'll paraphrase his argument:
The bible says gay people are abominable. Therefore gay marriage is abominable and I want to use the law to impose those views on everyone else. And if you try to stop me - if you even point out that I'm trying to impose my religious views through the law on others - then you are persecuting me. But that's okay because that means I'm just like Jesus.
I suggest that we immediately start a National Association for the Advancement of White Christian Law Clerks…
stcynic | April 1, 2004Why am I not surprised this took place in Texas? A woman in Tyler, Texas stoned her two sons to death and says that she was reading between the lines:
A housewife said the first sign that God wanted her to kill her three boys came Mother's Day weekend when she saw her 14-month-old playing with a toy spear.
Deanna Laney said she resisted at first, but the signs kept coming. The baby came to her with a rock, and later in the day squeezed a frog, and she believed God was suggesting that she should either stab, stone or strangle her children.
A sobbing Laney recounted in a videotape played at…
stcynic | March 15, 2004One of the things I find disturbing lately is how many Americans have lumped all Muslims together into one monolithic group labeled "terrorists". You hear a lot of tsk tsking over this from those of us who are inclined to try not to demonize an entire group based on the most extreme among them, but I think that masks an even more important point. Lumping all Muslims together as terrorists is not merely unfair to the vast majority of Muslims in the world, it also undermines what could be our most powerful tool in fighting terrorism in the Islamic world. The battle is not Islam vs The West. The…
stcynic | March 7, 2004Ryan Boots, of the Soundfury blog, has decided to vent his spleen about gay marriage. Basically, he doesn't like it one bit. And typical of those who oppose gay marriage, his arguments against it run the gamut from the outright false to the profoundly silly. He begins by saying:
I am weary of having of having to defend the institution. Marriage existed before any of the institutions we know today were created.
I'm always amazed that people think that they're defending the institution of marriage by preventing some people from participating in that institution. If marriage is such a good thing…
stcynic | March 6, 2004I came across this blog while following links and all I can say is "wow". Ironically, it has the fluffy name "Sunny Days in Heaven" while its author seems to be advocating a civil war to stop the advance of civil rights for homosexuals. In a post yesterday on this blog, the author is discussing a National Review Online article that criticized right wing radio talk show host Dennis Prager for comparing the battle over same sex marriage with the battle against Islamic terrorism because both are vital for "the survival of civilization". Jonah Goldberg, writing on the NRO blog, took Prager to…
stcynic | March 5, 2004Since most of the opposition to gay marriage seems to be coming from fundamentalist Christians who claim that gay marriage is opposed to God's word, maybe it's time to write a constitutional amendment based on the biblical model of marriage. If we're going to turn to God's word for our laws, we can't pick and choose, can we? So here is my proposed constitutional amendment:
Neither this constitution, nor the constitution of any state, nor any state or federal law, may lawfully change the definitions and standards of marrage laid out in the bible as the legal definition in these United States.…
stcynic | March 1, 2004Rusty from New Covenant has replied to my post on the religious right lowering its expectations, but more specifically to a comment I made at the end. I ended the post by saying, "The culture war isn't going well for the religious right. Another victory for true decency." Rusty responds:
True decency?
Why is it that Darwinists continue to hold on to ideas such as decency, morality, justice, and rights? Actually, what I should ask is: Why do inconsistent Darwinists continue to hold on to such ideas?
Let me say a couple of things. First, I hate the term "darwinist". I am no more a "darwinist"…
stcynic | February 29, 2004Interesting article in this morning's San Francisco Chronicle titled Culture war being reshaped; Conservatives lower expectations. It points out that in the debate over gay marriage, the religious right seems to have pretty much given up on stopping the trend toward civil unions for homosexual couples:
Conservative activist William Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says he believes Bush's proposal for a constitutional amendment is a "cultural tipping point" that will restore a "culture of restraint and decency."
The ban will not prevent the…
stcynic | February 21, 2004Jerry Falwell has written an article in - where else? - the WorldNetDaily, entitled How Satan and Darwin Undermined the Church. Quoting Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, Falwell takes the position that things have gone to hell, so to speak, in America because of evolution:
He diagramed how bygone theologians began to accept evolutionary thought. Initially, they said they could accept the conclusion that the earth must be millions of years old. They concluded that this was all right that doesn't affect the Bible in any way. But they had to subsequently reinterpret the six days of creation. So…
stcynic | February 20, 2004The Washington Times is reporting that conservative evangelical Christians are upset at President Bush for a wide variety of supposed offenses. Such religious right luminaries as Gary Bauer and Donald Wildmon are sending up warning signals that evangelicals may just decide to stay home on election day because Bush hasn't inspired their faith in him. The mind absolutely boggles, doesn't it? Supporting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, virtually ending stem cell research in the US, pushing through faith-based initiatives (by executive order in some cases), ranting in his state of…
stcynic | February 17, 2004WorldNetDaily is reporting on a new poll, taken by ABC, which says that 60% of Americans believe in a literal 6-day creation and a literal global flood. This is a bit unsettling to the scientifically literate, but it should come as no big shock. The average American is likely to get their information not from science journals but from rags like the WorldNetDaily, which is basically an online version of the National Enquirer, but with more right-wing commentary sprinkled in. The article cited above provides a perfect example. In the middle of the article is a link to another WND story about…
stcynic | February 12, 2004Just another note on the whole French ban on religious clothing or symbols. For all of France's screaming about following international norms and international law in the debate over war in Iraq, have they given no thought to the Universal Declartion on Human Rights, which they signed in 1948? Article 18 of that document states:
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching,…
stcynic | February 11, 2004The religion news blog is reporting the story of Marilyn Cole, a Virginia woman who keeps getting arrested for trespassing at a car lot:
The case against Marilyn Cole, 40, of 4420 Scarborough Square, appeared to baffle Prince William County General District Court Judge Wenda K. Travers for a time Tuesday morning following calm, often rational testimony from Cole that God told her to get a free vehicle from Malloy Lincoln Mercury & Mitsubishi.
Cole testified she knew she had been ordered to stay away from the dealership, at 14655 Jefferson Davis Highway, after being convicted of…
stcynic | February 10, 2004Yesterday's story of the American Airlines pilot cajoling his passengers to use the time in the air to proselytize just gets funnier and funnier. First, in the interests of fairness, it should be said that other passengers on the flight, and the pilot himself, have said that he did not call non-Christians "crazy", but used that term for the Christians on board in an affectionate manner. But here's the part that I find even funnier...
The pilot did an interview with, of all magazines, The Advocate. It seems that the pilot, whose name is Roger Findiesen, thinks that God told him to do it:
"I…
stcynic | February 9, 2004First up, the airline pilot who doesn't seem to understand where the boundaries of appropriate behavior lie in his job. Seems an American Airlines pilot asked the passengers aboard his flight from LA to New York to raise their hands if they're Christian, announced that those who didn't raise their hand were crazy, and suggested that they use the opportunity of having a heathen trapped in a seat next to them to do a little proselytizing. The behavior was so bizarre that the flight attendants on board notified ground control.
Second up, over a million people are expected to attend a Benny Hinn…
stcynic | January 9, 2004Ignored in the justifiable attention being paid to foreign Muslim terrorists after 9/11, domestic Christian terrorists have taken a backseat in terms of media coverage. How many people know that in 2001, 3 of the 10 names on the FBI Most Wanted List were anti-abortion zealots? Not many, I imagine. Clayton Waagner was one of them, recently convicted of sending over 400 anthrax threat letters to Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups and clinics. Eric Robert Rudolph was captured last year after a nearly 5 year manhunt that followed his apparent bombing of several abortion clinics and…
stcynic | January 7, 2004The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Hewlett-Packard's right to fire an employee who insisted on posting anti-gay bible verses on his office cubicle in response to the company having posters encouraging respect for diversity in the office building he worked in. The diversity campaign, as the Chronicle reports, was the sort of empty sloganeering that anyone in the corporate world is used to seeing:
The conflict started in 2000 after the company began implementing a diversity policy that was developed at staff meetings and put up workplace posters showing different employees, with labels…
stcynic | January 6, 2004Salon.com has an article today on Howard Ahmanson, the reclusive savings and loan heir who has spent millions to promote religious right causes in America. In addition to his enormous support of seemingly any anti-gay organizations he can find, Ahmanson is well known to those of us who are active in the evolution/creationism battle because he is the primary money man behind the Discovery Institute (DI), the Seattle-based think tank at the forefront of advocating Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC). The DI's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture is where you will find such IDC…