I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful New Years Eve and Day, as well as a year of health, success, love and joy. 2009 will be a year of great challenges but with diligence and due effort I hope we’ll achieve what we need and want to.
But if everything else fails, there’s always the PrayerMax 5000. 
Every now and then, in my humble opinion, it’s good to take a break from everything else for something enjoyable. I fell in love with this the first time I heard it. It’s far too long to post in it’s entirety, so here’s a small portion. Georges Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2.
Movements 1 and 2
Movements 3 & 4 (The Menueto at the beginning of Movement 3 is hauntingly beautiful)
This is a wonderful opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald following Pope Ratzi’s claim that saving the world from Teh Gays was like saving the rainforest. The article is well worth the full read, but here are some highlights.
…..
What does it take to make people re-assess their fundamental allegiances and beliefs? Surely people reach a point when it becomes untenable to “hang on in there” in the hope reform is round the corner, or in the conviction the club overall is more good than bad.Surely that point for gay Catholics is now. Yet there are many who proclaim they are “proud to be gay, proud to be Catholic”, as one website attests.
…..
It is liberating to cease defending the indefensible. But it takes guts. It can be a tremendous wrench. Why gays want to belong to a club that despises their way of living and loving is beyond me. How any Catholic, evangelical Anglican, or member of any church critical of homosexuals can feel comfortable in the pews is perplexing. Church leaders feel free to write off homosexuals in a way that would not be tolerated if other minorities were condemned in similar vein.
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That’s because far too many people continue to allow them to do so, including so-called Progressives who claim they support LGBT equality. Sorry, bigotry in the name of one’s “deeply held religious beliefs” is still bigotry and is as indefensible.
In his former job as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope said that homosexual inclinations represented a “more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil”, and in 2003 he authored a battle plan instructing Catholic politicians to oppose gay marriage and gay adoption. The church teaches that homosexual people are not sinful, but that homosexual acts are. The spurious distinction condemns a significant minority to a loveless, lonely life. The Pope may see no problems in choosing life-long celibacy, but many of his priests failed the test.
What makes me sick, and deeply saddened, is the way so many people continue to claim the moral high road while insisting human beings live an isolated life without love, affection and companionship. No compassionate person would subject cats or dogs to it, yet it’s demanded of gay and lesbian humans by those who proclaim themselves the arbiters of morality.
As well as its lack of humanity, the church’s view provides bigots with the moral justification for their homophobia. Virtually every institution in civil society has abandoned the old prejudices against homosexuals. Homosexuality is no longer regarded as a mental illness, and it is illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexuality in most areas of life.
Religious institutions remain the last bastion of bigotry. They have resisted the evidence from health and legal professionals that homosexuality is a normal part of human sexuality. They have instead maintained a hardline interpretation of a few scattered references in the Bible.
Sadly the writings of Bronze-Age sheep herders with an extraordinarily limited understanding of science, psychology and pretty much everything else trump current knowledge every time. That is, unless personal convenience and desires come into play–hence Prosperity Gospel, no death penalty for adultery (or cries for one), and the fact that RRRWers feel no compunction about violating the 9th Commandment with frightening regularity.
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Young people in religious schools or from religious families experienced the most anguish because of notions of evil and sin. They struggled for years with their sexuality. In rejecting it, they experienced self-hatred, self-harm, loneliness and suicidal thoughts. For many, the path to happiness lay finally through rejecting their religion - “a sad loss for the church and a survival choice for the young people”, the report concludes.
Of course the RRRW hasn’t figured out yet that their strong-arm tactics are a great deal of what’s driving people away from religion. They still have the mistaken notion that if they just scream, threaten and impose enough hateful laws people will do as they demand–they’ll find religion and “be moral”. But as the saying goes, you cannot legislate morality, and you cannot make people find god at the point of a gun. Hatred and intolerance will not make LGBT people bow down and “turn straight”, it will only push them away.
Only a supreme optimist could believe in the possibility of reform from within any time soon, given the lack of movement on contraception. Church leaders should be spreading a message of love and acceptance of gays. Instead, they are part of the problem. Evangelical Anglicans are tearing their denomination apart over homosexuality, and now the Pope has added to the cacophony of prejudice.
A supreme optimist, or somebody who just doesn’t get it. Attempting to reason with the Pope and others like him on matters of LGBT rights is as useless as banging one’s head against a brick wall. All you’ll end up with is a severe headache, because that wall isn’t going to give a centimeter. It’s not in it’s nature to do so.
Donning a tie to get into a fancy club is a minor irritant. But having to ignore, excuse or accept hateful views about a minority in order to get through the door seems an unacceptably high price to pay.
Wise words. Hopefully the intended audience will heed them.
He does indeed defend Warren, but not quite in the way you might imagine. My favorite quote from it, ‘And unlike “ex-gays”, ex Christians remain ex Christians’ .
And here is a good companion piece to that, Skeptic Bible Study: Gay Bashing Bible
This is one of those pieces that had me shaking my head the whole way through. The author has a very serious case of projection going on.
Starting in Olympia, Wash., and spreading to two or three other cities, atheists couldn’t stand by and not attempt to draw attention to themselves.
You mean by demanding everybody say only “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays” though there are numerous holidays celebrated by people of various belief systems during the season? Oh wait, that’s not us…
Olympia originally simply allowed a Nativity scene and a Menorah, two symbols important to Christians and Jews, to be displayed on public property.
The atheists predictably demanded a display themselves. Their wish was granted when city officials caved, but rather than being a statement of their nonreligious, unbelieving “faith,” they chose to denigrate and insult my religious beliefs.
So city officials “simply allow” the Nativity scene and Menorah, but they “cave” to those nasty atheists. Interesting choice of phrasing there.
Why are you so afraid of religion, and Christianity in particular? What do you fear? It’s easy to declare yourself an atheist, especially out of laziness, since I’m sure very few of you ever attempted to give religion a serious chance through exploration and introspection. Isn’t it also quite egocentric to not acknowledge a supreme being greater than yourself?
Why are you so afraid of anything or anybody who questions religion, and your faith in particular? Is it because, perhaps, you’re not as secure in it as you might believe. Or are you terrified that others might see that sign and see a grain of truth in it? And BTW, the sign makes no mention whatsoever of Christianity. Perhaps you might want to go back and read it again. (Hint: The world does not revolve around your religion no matter how much you guys might think it does and want it to.)
As to my atheism it has nothing to do with laziness (and I was a Christian for 20 years so I gave it a thorough chance). It has to do with the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever for the existence of gods. Note the plural there, gods, there are more than 2,850 of them out there and I lack belief in every one of them. This isn’t some personal hissy fit against your god, Mr. Sears, though many Christians like to believe it is. And when you get right down to it, don’t you think it’s pretty egocentric to think that some deity who was so powerful as to create the entire universe and everything in it is concerned with you and your paltry desires (as well as every little thing you do and say)? Really now.
Instead of proudly proclaiming your stance and backing it up with research that led you to your ultimate decision, you choose to exhibit nastiness and hate toward my religious faith.
You post a sign next to the above-mentioned displays that says, “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but a myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
The sign does proclaim the stance. The stance is that “There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but a myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds”. Was that in any way unclear? As to the research done to come to it, it varies from atheist to atheist and certainly couldn’t fit on a display that size. And I don’t recall any Nativity creche having “supporting research” posted on it so why do you demand it of us on such a display?
Christianity has been around for more than 2,000 years. Our country was founded on Christian/Judean principles. I could fill many columns with quotes and speeches from the Founding Fathers to back up this claim.
Atheism has been around longer, not that longevity necessarily proves anything. The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion (That’s John Adams in the Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11). Many of the Founding Fathers were Deists and some were quite possibly agnostic or atheist. A good number of them had very unkind things to say about organized religion, and Christianity in particular. Here are but a few of their quotes:
Thomas Jefferson:
-”In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot … they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose.”
-”Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.”
Benjamin Franklin:
-”In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the lack of it.”
-”The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
Thomas Paine:
-”Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies.”
-”I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”
Christmas has been a national holiday since the late 1800s. Polls show that there are only 3 percent of Americans who consider themselves atheists (still way too many), 92 percent who believe in God, and 84 percent who consider themselves Christians.
3% is still too many atheists? Such a good Christian you are. But of course we’re the intolerant ones.
Is this why you’re afraid? Is this why you feel that you have to remove all references to God and religion from the public square? Are you worried that a child could see a Nativity scene and wonder who this baby Jesus really was? Of course you are.
You’re still not getting it. Most atheists don’t care about religious displays in the public square so long as they’re not financed by public tax dollars and endorsed–either implicitly or explicitly–by the state. If religious displays are allowed on public property (say, a Nativity creche) then any and all must be given equal access. That means Menorahs, Pentacles, Star and Crescent, Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc. But we know that’s just what certain people detest most–equal time and access. It’s often when anything but a Nativity creche (and maybe Menorah) are displayed that protests and even vandalism occur.
As to a child seeing a Nativity scene and “wondering who this baby Jesus really was”, get over yourself. Any child not brought up under a rock has heard about Christianity and Jesus. The USA is saturated in Christianity. It wouldn’t take a Nativity scene in front of City Hall for a child to begin asking about this Jesus dude.
…The saddest part of all this are your children. I’m sure you won’t even give them the opportunity to make an informed decision on their own. Why wouldn’t you do this? You’re afraid of the choice they might make. In last weekend’s edition of The Daily Star, there was an article titled “Israel celebrates Hanukkah tale.” It tells of an Israeli village where the re-enactment of the Hanukkah story takes place, which I believe is an annual event.
On the contrary. The children of atheists are typically brought up with a very broad range of options and given the opportunity to make informed choices. They’re told about the wide variety of religions and belief systems that exist, and are free to decide for themselves when the time comes if they want to believe in one–and which one to believe in. They aren’t, as many other children are, indoctrinated from birth into one line of belief (the Only True God/Religion) and even threatened (ostracism from the family, hellfire, damnation, etc) if they dare even think of straying from it. So whose children are to be pitied?
A perfect example was Bill Maher’s film “Religulous.” It was highly promoted and a total flop. Compare that to the movie “The Passion of The Christ.” This was produced by Mel Gibson with his own funds since Hollywood rejected its religious theme. It ended up being 12th of the top 1,000 grossing films. So we do have some clout and can exercise it if pushed too far.
The Jesus Chain Saw Massacre (ironic how Christians will protest the tiniest display of sex in movies but adore depraved levels of violence) was bought out in droves by churches who took their congregants to see it en masse. That’s why it grossed so well. As to atheism, it’s selling fine. Just ask Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, et. al. But if you prefer film to books perhaps you’d like The God Who Wasn’t There.
Now you have a Happy New Year, Mr. Sears. And stop being so afraid of those who question or criticize religion. We don’t bite and we’re not out to “get you”. We just happen to not believe as you do.
On January 10th, 2009 there will be a national rally to protest DOMA. Go to Join the Impact for more information on rallies in your area. It is hoped that 1,000,000 people will come out.
The United States proves yet again it’s not a 21st Century Nation, nor a bastion of human rights. Just look at all of the illustrious company we’re keeping lately…
Onward RRRW Christian Soldiers, marching bravely into the Dark Ages and dragging the rest of us along with them.
From Arrogant Atheist. Guaranteed to offend easily offended religious individuals. It may even offend some not-so-easily-offended religious individuals.
Partying With Baby Jesus. (from 2007)
The Water of Life.
Enjoy!
At least according to the bat-poo crazy Don Wildmon and his AFA pals. They’ve decided to launch another one of their boycotts because Campbell’s had the audacity to place ads in The Advocate promoting their Swanson Broth. According to Wildman by doing so Campbell’s:
sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support
Well FSM forbid that anybody do that. We have to keep pretending that the one and only acceptable family on earth consists of a white Heterosexual Christian woman, a white Heterosexual Christian man and 10-20 white Christian children that the woman spent the bulk of her life on her back spawning (since the only purpose a woman has in life is to be a brood sow for God and slave to her husband). Everyone and everything else has to be marginalized and treated like garbage so the RRRW busybodies can continue to imagine themselves superior while they collectively dump on the rest of the world.
They also gave their approval to the entire homosexual agenda.
You mean Campbell’s supports equal human rights for everybody? Wow, I think I’ll go out and buy some more Campbell’s. I’m glad that one of the things I recently donated to charity was an 8-pack of their soup.
In the meantime here’s one of the horrible ads that got Wildmon in such a tizzy. Be sure to send all young children out of the room before viewing because it’s really offensive.
Once you’ve gotten over the shock of that ad perhaps you can tell me how it is these people still get away with their claims that they don’t hate us. Maybe they’re just deluding themselves is all, because we’re certainly not fooled.
Now I think I’m going to start a grocery list, beginning with some Campbell’s products…
Courage Campaign has a photo community project called Please Don’t Divorce… They’re asking people to send pictures of themselves holding signs that say Please Don’t Divorce (Us/My Moms/My Friends/Californians or whatever is applicable to your case). You can e-mail your photo to them, and in the meantime see their slide show of the beautiful (and sometimes heartbreaking) pics others have sent in. Here’s our contribution:
