The Watercolourist. Youtube link. I’ve painted with a lot of unorthodox media, cosmetics, and so forth, but I haven’t played with wine. Yet.
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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
The Watercolourist. Youtube link. I’ve painted with a lot of unorthodox media, cosmetics, and so forth, but I haven’t played with wine. Yet.
The Republican presidential candidate was pressed into discussing LGBT rights at a San Francisco town hall.
Bryan had asked Kasich if people are “born gay.” The Republican presidential candidate attempted to avoid answering the question, stating “I’m not gonna get into all the analysis of this or that.” But Bryan pressed Kasich and asked again.
“Do I think that people are, you know, born gay? Probably,” Kasich conceded, according to CNN. “I’ve never studied the issue. But I don’t see any reason to hurt you or to discriminate you or make you feel bad or make you feel like a second-class citizen. I don’t think that’s right.”
Kasich also reminded the audience that he once attended a same-sex wedding.
“I don’t agree with gay marriage,” he said, according to CBS News. “[But] I went to a gay wedding. OK? I mean, that’s what I’ve done.”
When asked if LGBT people deserve “free, regular rights like everybody else,” Kasich responded, “Well, you have free regular rights. We’re not denying you any rights. … I’m not out to discriminate against you. I think you ought to have as good a life as anybody else.”
[…]
“In terms of me, I don’t believe in discrimination,” Kasich said. “I think there is a balance, however, between discrimination and people’s religious liberties. But I think we should just try to, like, take a chill pill, relax, and try to get along with one another a little bit better instead of trying to write some law to solve a problem that doesn’t frankly exist in big enough numbers to justify more lawmaking.”
Kasich does keep affirming that he’s an idiot, and a mealy-mouthed one at that. Full Story Here.
A screen shot of various Jesus memes captured on a Google search.
Oh, poor moderate Christians, the right-wing has eaten Christianity, and no one pays attention to the good Christians, oh no.
The Christian right in America has dozens of politicians and mega-pastors broadcasting its beliefs. Meanwhile, more moderate Christians hardly make the media radar.
[…]
Moderate and progressive Christian activism doesn’t make headlines and it’s certainly not clickbait. The basic goodness in my corner of Christianity garners pretty much no mainstream media attention. Crazy gets more clicks, so the extremists get all the airplay. The progressive message needs a signal boost.
Once I started posting Jesus memes, I realized I wasn’t facing anti-Christian bias on the part of my friends, but rather cluelessness. They had formulated their ideas about modern Christianity from what the media was telling them. To them, “Christian” equaled global-warming denier and homophobe. Was I one of those people, they wondered? They needed assurances that I didn’t see faith and science as mutually exclusive, or even faith and common sense. It was up to me to inform them that I was down with Bill Nye, not Lou Sheldon.
Yes, yes, people are just absolutely clueless about Christianity. And of course, all that nasty, judgmental Christianity that gets all the airplay, why it’s not at all real, right? What’s important about those nasty beliefs isn’t that they are being pushed into law everywhere, is that poor, moderate Christians aren’t getting equal time. I’d like to see a moderate Christian think past their own nose, and come to the full realization that they are the foundation upon which nasty, hateful, judgmental Christianity rests. If the poor, downtrodden moderate Christians want to be taken for something other than people who happily spread poison about, perhaps you should stop whining about memes, and do something that matters, like rise up against your brethren. Take a stand. Something relevant, something more than weakly declaring “but I’m a good Christian!” on social media.
The #notallchristians made a show. Not a good one. So, moderate Christians, where are all your grass roots campaigns? Where is the activism to take back Christianity? Where are the ads? Where are the billboards? Where are the protests? Hello? As I pointed out to #notallchristians, Atheists do those things. Satanists do those things. Various Humanist groups do those things. When are all the moderate Christians going to step up? Put those supposed values where your mouth is, please.
Author Jerry L. Martin’s book describes his journey from non-believer to believer to translator.
Imagine.
As if riding lightning, a bolt from the blue brings God’s voice to you one day.
Would you listen? Would you believe?
Jerry L. Martin did and does. Furthermore, he said that he collaborated with God on a book, “God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher” (Caladium, $24.95). A former agnostic, Martin journeyed from a status of non-believer to believer to translator within a transformation and result that brands as phenomenal.
“The first time God spoke to me,” Martin writes in the opening of the book, “I didn’t believe He existed.”
Martin was sitting with his future wife, Abigail Rosenthal, on a park bench in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, he heard a voice that she did not hear.
“I said, ‘who is this?’” Martin, a philosopher and former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said during a recent interview by phone.
The voice replied casually, as if in conversation.
“‘I am God,’” Martin said. “The voice was as real and normal as talking to my wife on the telephone. She was writing in her journal. I told her about it. She didn’t say very much. The voice kept talking to me.”
[…]
Gradually and unsurprisingly, Martin’s life radically changed. Essentially, his professional life shifted from that of a philosopher to an author, a skeptic to a conduit for God.
“God wrote 80 percent of this book,” Martin said. “God said He wanted me to tell His story. God gave me the title.
So…”God”, who apparently is happy with that damn placeholder rather than its proper name, is as good as Leonard da Quirm* when it comes to naming things.
*Oddly enough, his creativity seems to stop when needed to give appealing names to his inventions: for example, for his machine capable of travelling submersed in a marine environment he came up with the name of “Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device”. Source.
Aaaaaaand, a bonus facepalm:
From Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn. According to Paper Magazine, it costs $40.00. Looks like it would feed a lot of people!
Scatter Their Own, Scotti Clifford and Juliana Brown Eyes-Clifford (Oglala Lakota). Scatter Their Own website.
Scatter Their Own, Taste The Time.
Scatter Their Own, Don’t Fear to Tread.
Scatter Their Own, Earth & Sky.
You can read more about Scatter Their Own here.
It’s a slight rise, to be sure, but any is better than none.
PRINCETON, NJ — Four in 10 Americans, slightly fewer today than in years past, believe God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago. Thirty-eight percent believe God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms, while 16%, up slightly from years past, believe humans developed over millions of years, without God’s involvement. […] A small minority of Americans hold the “secular evolution” view that humans evolved with no influence from God — but the number has risen from 9% in 1982 to 16% today. At the same time, the 40% of Americans who hold the “creationist” view that God created humans as is 10,000 years ago is the lowest in Gallup’s history of asking this question, and down from a high point of 47% in 1993 and 1999.
The influence of political affiliation is also noted:
The significantly higher percentage of Republicans who choose a creationist view of human origins reflects in part the strong relationship between religion and politics in contemporary America. Republicans are significantly more likely to attend church weekly than are others, and, as noted, Americans who attend church weekly are most likely to select the creationist alternative for the origin of humans.
Borys Tarasenko is the Edmonton artist behind a new exhibit at the Bleeding Heart Art Space. (Dave von Beiker)
The son of a parish priest, Borys Tarasenko has drawn plenty of inspiration from the Bible.
But he’s far from a typical believer.
Tarasenko is the Edmonton artist behind the Sweet Jesus exhibit at the Bleeding Heart Art Space on 118th Avenue.
His handmade drawings, outlined in rudimentary black paint, depict a series of strangely reimagined Bible stories.
In one, an apron-clad Jesus is shown barbecuing, extending his holy hand to offer his disciples a slice of grilled hot dog. A rotund bear in priestly robes stands with jaws agape waiting for the grilled godly offering.
Tarasenko says his work was inspired by the iconography of the Ukrainian Catholic church. (Dave von Beiker)
Tarasenko, 27, grew up surrounded by religion and the images of Ukrainian iconography. But as he got older, his dogma changed, and departed from Catholicism.
Now he doesn’t believe in any higher power. But religion is still a big part of his life, and he faithfully attends St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in Edmonton at least once a week.
“As this was happening I came to enjoy going to church more because I could appreciate it for what it was,” he said. “And I really loved going, because it was just culturally beautiful. So much a part of me growing up that I loved going back there.”
[…]
The exhibit includes an open invitation to colour its walls, even supplying the felt pens.
Much like the pages of a colouring book, what was once stark in black and white has gone technicolour, and the already bizarre images have become even more outlandish.
“It’s crazy. It’s bonkers,” Tarasenko said an interview with CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active. “People have been adding things I couldn’t have imagined. Speech bubbles, fish, what looks like a hot air balloon, wings on characters. Such a different way than I expected. Every time I come in it’s like opening a present.
“I wanted people to be able to add themselves to the work.”
Once black and white, the artist’s images have gone technicolor as visitors to the gallery make their own additions to the work. (Dave von Beiker)
In a previous campaign ad, GOP Congressional hopeful Kay Daly threatened to shoot her opponent.
North Carolina GOP Congressional candidate Kay Daly claimed that she’s being targeted by LGBT rights activists in a recent message posted to her Facebook account.
Referring to equality groups as the “P.C. GAYSTAPO” and the “LGBTQ Mafia,” Daly wrote, “The homosexual extremists and their lavender lobby are coming after me again.” The Republican hopeful, who is currently running in the state primary race for a seat in the Senate, further alleged that LGBT groups are “outraged that I proudly support the North Carolina law that says grown men can’t use the girls’ restrooms in government facilities.” Daly, however, offers no proof to substantiate her claims.
The post links to a fundraising email in which Daly further argues that transgender people are “perverts and deviants.” She said, “It is God who selects your gender, not you.”
[…]
In a recent endorsement posted to Facebook, James Dobson, founder of the right-wing anti-LGBT group Focus on the Family, described Daly as a “faithful warrior in the fight for the traditional values and religious liberties.” “Kay is one of us,” he said. “She has proven it over and over in word and deed, often when others with less courage have sounded the retreat.”
Artemisia has some peas.
From Out Magazine.
A House committee is using the defense bill to pass “religious exemptions” for federal contractors.
Republicans in Congress are using defense funding to help pass a “religious freedom” law through Congress.
The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved a “religious freedom” amendment to the defense authorization bill. It would undo an executive order from President Obama that prohibits government contractors from engaging in anti-LGBT discrimination against their employees.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Steve Russell, could be compared to the “religious freedom” laws that caused outrage in Indiana, Arizona, Georgia and elsewhere. In this case, it would limit the federal government to protecting only those groups now named in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the American with Disabilities act, reports the Washington Blade. Neither of those laws protect LGBT people from discrimination, therefore Russell’s amendment would allow religious organizations doing business with the U.S. government to fire or punish any employee based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Nashville, TN Assistant DA Chad Butler (screen capture)
Finally, someone talks sense.
The District Attorney of Nashville, Tennessee said Thursday that anti-trans “bathroom laws” like North Carolina’s are aimed at the wrong people. Sexual predators as a group, he said, are overwhelmingly “heterosexual men.”
WSMV Channel 4 reported on statements by assistant DA Chad Butler, who said that in his long career of prosecuting sex crimes, he has never prosecuted a single case against a transgender person.
“As long as I’ve been doing this job and the hundreds of cases I’ve reviewed, I’ve never once had a transgender person come across my desk as an offender,” he said.
Butler specializes in crimes against children, who are ostensibly the people the discriminatory laws are meant to protect. He told Channel 4 that the people parents need to be on guard against are the people they see every day.
“A majority of my cases are fathers, stepfathers, uncles, Boy Scout leaders, coaches, youth ministers, preachers,” Butler said. “People that are already close to the family that the family trusts.”
The idea that trans people are more likely to victimize children, he said, is “statistically unfounded and off base.”