It Was The Church

I was going to write a long diatribe… but honestly, the simple story is more moving than any framing I could possibly give it. I am late to the table when it comes to this story. But, frankly, to let that stop me from saying something would be wrong. People should be stopping each other on the street to tell one another this is wrong. Which, in some places… they are. And, no, it isn’t even close to an over-reaction.

When a tragically dying fetus was threatening the life
Of Rick Santorum’s wife

They performed what, without the Catholic church’s (and the Santorum family’s) quite understandable contortion
Was an abortion

Which saved the life of the mother.
You might have thought that the lessons learned from this incident might perhaps be applied to another.

But not so much.
Because the Catholic Church, in Ireland and around the world, is out of touch.

And when they feel the absolute control they exert over their subjects start to slip
They tighten their grip

So yes, when Savita died—died!—because a hospital refused to perform a routine but life-saving procedure in deference to religious proscriptions, a decision which should, now and forever, be for the hospital an unending source of shame
And you’re wondering who to blame

You don’t have far to search—
It was the church.

The Mitt Romney Mega Prayer!

The facts are clear; you must admit
The time has come to pray for Mitt

The time has come, if you believe,
To pray all day—election eve

And if it works—as well it may—
We cannot lose, if we just stay
At home, and pray and pray and pray
From dawn to dusk, election day.

You have to follow that link. Or here, here it is again. I am told it is for real. It looks like a parody, but I think a parody would have, as my verse does, asked people to stay home and pray on election day. I just love the graphic design–it reminds me of a simpler time, a time when everyone was straight, white, and Christian. A fictional time, in other words. A time that never existed except in the whitewashed memories of a privileged group.

But it’s just so shiny!

Half Right, Anyway…

I’m a sucker for church signs.

Mind you, they are trying to own anything positive while distancing themselves from anything negative; an old trick, but obviously one that has worked for some. But seriously, the Jesus described in the bible was not great, if you take it at face value. He was at best “good”, and at worst a bit of an ass, leader of a small cult, had a bit of a temper…

But I must say, the tide might well be turning when even churches (well, at least this one) are ceding the “religion is a positive force” claim, and retreating into smaller and smaller corners.

Jesus-Ween Coming Up!

Someone, on Twitter (I think it was @BugGirl) was pointing out that JesusWeen is a real thing. With the Cuttlekids out of the nest for the most part, I had forgotten that it was that season again.

Good Grief!

The dumbest thing I’ve ever seen
Is Jesus-Ween.

At Jesus-Ween,
the zombies walk the earth—well, one, at least.
At Jesus-Ween,
there’s blood and body, ready for the feast
At Jesus-Ween,
the demons are afraid to show their heads
At Jesus-Ween,
good boys and girls are safely tucked in beds
At Jesus-Ween,
good Christian children keep their bibles handy
At Jesus-Ween,
we all refuse to eat satanic candy
At Jesus-Ween,
we steal another holiday for Jesus
At Jesus-Ween,
we wonder why the other people tease us.

I suspect that if, after Charlie Brown had gotten a rock in his trick-or-treat bag, some other kid had gotten the little green Gideon bible, even Charlie Brown would have pointed and laughed.

Yes, it’s a re-run.

“Whatever Your Religion, We Are All One Family”

We’re all God’s children, can’t you see?
One giant, global family
We all love God, it seems to me
It’s just what people do!

“God-consciousness” is all around
Wherever humankind is found
It shows us all our common ground
I’m just the same as you!

One sees it best when one ignores
Religion’s role in bloody wars
A history that underscores
The way that faiths divide

The truth, so far as I detect,
Is, each and every separate sect
Will claim to be the one correct
And God is on their side

Y’know, it’s funny. I have heard that there are two sorts of people who view religion through the lenses of fundamentalism: fundamentalists and atheists. The majority of religious people are not so rigid; they are the moderate and liberal believers, the cafeteria Catholics, the warm and fuzzy spiritualists, the people who think, just maybe, that Deepak Chopra has a point. They are what much of religion is, rather than what the books say it should be.

One such example showed up in the Huffpo–an essay with the same title as my post here, by a rev. Ed Bacon. It’s the sort of thing my sister would love, and which I find cloyingly saccharine. He writes of how we are all really the same, in the manner that only the privileged can; it’s as if he “doesn’t see religion”, like Stephen Colbert doesn’t see race, and like the able-bodied tell my nephew they don’t see his wheelchair (“I really can’t see how you missed it; I’m sitting in it right now”).

The amusing bit, though, is the juxtaposition between his pollyanna writing and the cynical, often atheist, commenters at Huffpo. They certainly do see religion, and a good number of them don’t like what they see.

Malala The Mighty

How strong are the words of a young teen-aged girl
To frighten the Taliban so?
What cowards decide, since she’s telling the truth,
That courageous Malala must go?
How mighty is she, that they thought they would need
An army arrayed against one?
The pen, we all know, is much mightier than the sword…
So they figured, instead, use a gun.

Taliban attack wounds teen activist blogger

I have an appointment in mere seconds, so read Ophelia for more. And more.

Fasting And Praying… For Mitt?

If you’re feeling some frustration
With the leaders of this nation
Do your part to help them muddle through the mess
Politicians think it’s funny
Cos they really need your money
But it looks as though they’re getting rather less

Since Obama needs defeating,
Let’s help Romney, by not eating
As a show of faith, so God will take our side
Mitt needs help, without delay,
So let’s pray pray pray pray pray!
And, God willing, that must surely turn the tide

I’ll be fasting; I’ll be praying; I’ll be leading with my heart
Though I’ve done precisely nothing, still I feel I’ve done my part

I hear cynics sometimes saying
That they don’t believe in praying—
That it cannot make a difference, which we must!
All the pundits and the scholars
Say what matters more is dollars
But the bills remind us all “In God We Trust”

So I’m praying and I’m fasting—
My support is everlasting
Money’s worth is artificial–this is real!
That’s the sort of aid I’m choosing
So if Romney is still losing
Well, I’ve done my best; at least, that’s how I feel
[Read more…]

Yeah, But Fundamentalist Atheists Are Just As Bad!

The fundamental atheist—the fire-breathing kind—
Is as radical an entity as any that you’ll find.
He or she’s the mirror image of the faithful they despise
Though they’ll claim they’re vastly different—just another of their lies

An example of the power of the god-belief they lack?
Though we changed the pledge to put in God, they want to change it back!
We put God on all our money, but they want it taken off!
And they never say “God bless you” on the chance you sneeze or cough.

They complain about religion, which itself is quite a shame,
But they never see, their own demands are really just the same!
When we pledge “one nation, under God”, and they refuse to stand
It’s the same as forced compliance, under law, across the land

It’s a crystal-clear agenda, and it’s radical and brash
Like the lunatics who spend their time de-Godding all their cash
Fixing money in a workshop, twenty quarters at a stint
Is the same as printing millions with the power of the mint

You can see, they’re all extremists—fundamentalists, in fact—
Driven solely by beliefs they held, or those they claim they lacked;
But you never will convince them all (and Lord God knows I’ve tried)
That the atheists and faithful are the same on either side!

Over on NPR’s Cosmos and Culture blog, Adam Frank writes about Religion, Science, and Easy Answers (although, strangely enough, the URL says “religion-science-and-no-easy-answers”, and the headline bar says “Religion, Science And Magic Fairy Cellphones”; I guess there was some toying around with different possibilities). Immediately, in the comments, came the predictions, and realities, of what commenters would say.

So today’s verse comes courtesy of those who see atheists as just as extreme as fundamentalists. Even the small percentage of us who actually do cross out “God” in our money’s “In God We Trust” (as I’ve said before, I sometimes go a bit further and use my engraver to remove God from my coins as well) could not possibly be the equivalent of a the system that imposed that God on an entire population. Refusing to say the pledge cannot possibly the equivalent of requiring the nation’s schoolchildren to recite it. If the act of removing God from something is seen as radical, surely (equal and opposite, and all that) the act of putting God there in the first place must be seen as radical as well, and on a far grander scale.

News Site Debates Existence Of Hell. Seriously. In 2012.

I read it just this morning (I will need to make this clear,
But I had to check the calendar to verify the year)
On what claims to be a news site, and a major one, I fear—
They debated the reality of Hell

I thought Hell was merely fiction; just a myth from long ago
An adapted form of Hades, which the Greeks saw down below
For an educated person, this is something you should know
It’s a story that the ancients used to tell

In our modern world, the concept of a Heaven or a Hell
Or creation in a paradise from which our species fell
Is a sign that the believer isn’t thinking very well—
Those are remnants of beliefs from way back when

Or at least that’s how it should be; I was truly shocked to see
In our age of information (and so much of it is free!)
Such an ancient and outdated view—so how, then, could it be
On the home page—yes, today—at CNN?

No, really! Look:

Ah, but on the story’s page itself, the title is a bit less sensationalistic: Different Takes: Should we abandon idea of hell?

(Oh, and given the predictable nature of the comments, I am a bit disappointed in CNN that they didn’t tweak the comments page to read “Abandon all hope, ye who enter”)