Unfortunately, it’s at a student’s expense. While the University of Central Florida administration cleared him of all wrong-doing, the student-run senate impeached Webster Cook and removed him from office. Donohue may gloat a little bit, but isn’t it rather cheesy that he should shriek to mobilize national outrage and this is the worst he can do?
Why? Because that is the day of the Pulpit Initiative, when brave and idiotic right wing preachers will defy the IRS and lose their tax exemptions.
The Pulpit Initiative
Reclaiming pastors’ constitutional right to speak Truth from the pulpitOn Sunday, September 28, 2008, we are seeking pastors who will preach from the pulpit a sermon that addresses the candidates for government office in light of the truth of Scripture. The sermon is intended to challenge the Internal Revenue Code’s restrictions by specifically opposing candidates for office that do not align themselves and their positions with the Scriptural truth. By standing together and speaking with one voice, it is our hope to recapture the rightful place of pastors and churches in American life.
This really isn’t that hard to understand. If you are an organization that has a tax exemption, you pay for that privilege with some limitations: you don’t get to use your economic advantage to campaign for politicians. It’s not just churches, but also organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the NCSE — talk to them and you’ll discover that they are scrupulous about avoiding any entanglement with elections. Why, if Ken Ham were running for president against Ken Miller, the NCSE would not try to even hint at who you should vote for … to do otherwise would be to jeopardize their legal status.
I think it is fine that wingnut churches should be able to speak freely and endorse candidates, as long as they think it’s so important that it is worth setting aside their tax-free status. These kooks, though, want to be able to both act as power brokers in politics and not pay for it.
By the way, if anyone out there detests the political content on this blog, one solution would be to arrange a major tax exemption for me for shutting up. I’m paying tuition bills for two kids in college this week, so I’d take it readily.
Whenever you hear someone defend an action with the excuse that “it is our custom,” “it is traditional,” “we’ve always done it that way,” “it is written so in our sacred texts,” or variants thereof, slap ’em down and spit in their eye. Those are not excuses for anything but the perpetuation of bad old dogma rather than taking the useful step of actually thinking about causes and consequences — it’s the common fallacious shortcut that allows ancient evils to thrive. Case in point in Pakistan:
Integrity Bank in Georgia decided to build their business model on Christian principles.
Integrity’s employees regularly prayed before meetings or in branch lobbies with customers, while the bank gave 10 percent of its net income to charities.
“We felt if we prayed and obeyed God’s word and did what He asked, that He would help us be successful,” the bank’s founder, Steve Skow, told the Journal-Constitution in 2005.
Chalk this one up to another example of how religion fails and we really ought to base our decisions on reality: the bank failed. You really can’t rely on that God fella, you know.
Perhaps one contributing factor was their obedience to that other Christian principle, greed.
CEO Steve Skow earned $1.8 million that year, while senior lender and executive vice president Doug Ballard earned $847,222. A typical community bank CEO, banking consultants said, earn roughly $300,000 per year.
And say…isn’t there something in the Bible that prohibits lending at interest, too?
An elementary school in Missouri has been allowing the Gideons to distribute bibles to students on their lunch hour. It’s crazy stupid, a clear violation of the separation of church and state (not that fundie churches care about that anymore). Fortunately, Americans United is on the ball.
In its brief, AU asserts that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that school district promotion of religion puts pressure on nonbelievers or dissenters and is unconstitutional.
“In the cafeteria, students who choose to take Bibles and those who choose not to will be visible to much, if not all, of the student community — a prospect made more likely given the school’s small size, 427 students,” the brief said. “Any child visibly ignoring the availability of the Bibles or returning to class empty-handed will stand out to his peers and thus feel pressured to take a Bible.”
The Gideons distribute the Bibles “to encourage the children to accept Christ as their personal savior.” The Bibles distributed at South Iron also include a place for students to sign under the written statement: “My Decision to Receive Christ as My Savior.”
That’s a sound, frequently-used strategy. May I suggest another? Next time the Gideons invade the school, dispatch a crack team of radical atheists to the lunch room to:
Show students where the racy/violent parts of the bible are.
Teach them how to fold an origami pigasus from the pages.
For students with less dexterity, to referee paper airplane flying contests.
Let’s teach students to disrespect foolishness!
I just received this email from some communications group trying to publicize the virtues of the Democratic Party. It had the opposite effect on me — I am appalled. It’s the usual Democratic strategic inanity of pushing to ape the Republicans instead of even trying to be a party of progressive ideas, so they’re going to promote futile religious bullshit at their convention. This just makes me furious.
DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION TO HIGHLIGHT DIVERSE COMMUNITY OF FAITH LEADERS WORKING TOWARD COMMON GOOD
First-Ever Faith Caucus Meetings to be Held at Democratic Convention
Invocators and Benedictors to Include Pastor Joel Hunter, Rabbi David Saperstein, Sister Catherine Pinkerton, Reverend Cynthia Hale, Archbishop Demetrios, Cameron Strang
Plus Coloradans Polly Baca of Greeley, CO, Reverends Kang of Aurora, CO
Interfaith Gathering to Open Convention Week on Sunday, Aug. 24th, featuring Local Clergy Imam Abdur-Rahim Ali, Rabbi Steve Foster, Reverend Lucia Guzman, University of Colorado Student Kathryn Ida
DENVER – In keeping with Barack Obama’s personal commitment and the commitment of the Democratic Party to put faith in action, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) and the Obama for America campaign today announced that the 2008 Democratic National Convention will recognize the tireless efforts of those in the faith community working
toward the common good.“Senator Obama is a committed Christian, and he believes that people of all faiths have an important place in American life,” said Joshua Dubois, Obama For America Director of Religious Affairs. “He’s proud to work with the Democratic National Convention Committee on a Convention that fully engages people of faith in dialogue, celebration and prayer. We are honored that so many religious leaders are reaching across partisan and ideological lines in this Convention to address the values that matter to Americans.”
“Democrats have been, are and will continue to be people of faith – and this Convention will demonstrate that in an unprecedented way,” said Leah D. Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC. “As Convention CEO and a pastor myself, I am incredibly proud that so many esteemed leaders from the faith community will be with us to celebrate this historic occasion and honor the diverse faith traditions inside the Democratic Party.”
Each night of the Convention, the official program will begin with an invocation and end with a benediction delivered by a national faith leader or an individual who is active in their local faith community. Among the group selected to deliver these opening and closing prayers are a Republican pastor of a leading Evangelical church in central Florida, a major young Evangelical leader, a nun from a diocese in Cleveland and a Methodist couple, both ordained ministers from Arvada, CO.
National leaders from a range of denominations will host the Convention’s first-ever Faith Caucus meetings during the week where they will discuss bringing people of faith together to address some of the most pressing issues of our time.
On Tuesday, August 26, the Faith Caucus will hold two panel discussions – “Common Ground on Common Good,” an opportunity to discuss finding common ground on the moral issues of the day, and “Faith in 2009: How an Obama Administration will Engage People of Faith.” On Thursday, August 28, the Caucus will convene for “Moral Values Issues Abroad,” a panel on how the faith community can work together to address pressing moral issues around the world, and “Getting Out the Faith Vote,” a session on how to appropriately engage communities of faith in the 2008 election.
In addition, a first-ever Democratic National Convention interfaith gathering will kick off the week, bringing delegates, elected officials, local residents, musical guests and spiritual leaders from many communities of faith together for a unique gathering. In addition to keynote remarks, the program will include readings from diverse religious texts, prayers and musical selections.
There are more details that follow, with day-by-day announcements of invocations and benedictions and meetings led by people like the vapid Jim Wallis, that I’ve cut off. You don’t want to go, anyway.
I am particularly annoyed by the claim that “Democrats have been, are and will continue to be people of faith” — which I take as a declaration that I can’t be a Democrat. I notice, too, that the roster of speakers is nothing but a list of religious con artists, people of dumb, blind, pointless faith, with no representation from the people of reason. I can understand why, though.
If they actually invited an atheist to join in the “dialogue, celebration and prayer”, he would be obligated to rebuke the assembled crowd. The dialogue would consist of informing them all that the United States has a secular government, the Democrats are obligated to fill the role of a secular party, and there should be no place for superstitious nonsense in the hard work of governing. There is also nothing to celebrate. Our country has been wracked by an assemblage of idiots ruling in the name of greed and god, and the time has come to restore rational Enlightenment values to the United States of America, not return to benighted medievalisms, and that people of faith ought to confine their silly hobbies to the halls of their churches and keep them out of the state. As for prayer … what a waste of time and effort and imagination. Take your useless pleading to a nonexistent and unresponsive deity and go hide away in shame and do it in private — it’s the equivalent of masturbation, only it provides an even lesser sense of accomplishment.
People of faith are welcome to contribute to politics. In order to do so, however, they will have to get off their knees, unclasp their hands, and do something productive. Enshrining the prating rubbish of the religion racket as an important element of secular administration, as Obama seems to want to do, is a catastrophic betrayal of good government.
And that’s why they haven’t invited any godless rationalists to their party of pandering to fools.
In the reality based community, when you’ve got a problem, you call an expert with some skills and training to deal with it. In the rest of the world, you call a priest to blame evil spirits and do nothing for a small pile of money. How else to explain asking a wizened old Catholic priest to explain ‘perversions’ and STDs?
Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Fr. Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession. Offering what may be an explanation for the explosion of homosexuality in recent years, Fr. Davies said, “Among the causes of homosexuality is a contagious demonic factor.”
Fr. Davies continues: “Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits.”
He goes on to blame all kinds of evils on demons. Forget medical explanations: we need to treat with leeches, stat, and if that doesn’t work, an exorcism. And if that fails, there’s always the 100% successful traditional treatment: tie them to a stick and set them on fire.
Although I was actually in Guayaquil the day before brave heroes despoiled another cracker&hellip:
In response to criticisms by the nation’s Catholic bishops regarding pro-abortion and anti-family language in Ecuador’s new proposed Constitution, a group of people entered a chapel in Guayaquil, grabbed the Eucharistic host that was exposed for adoration, tore it apart, spat on it, and stepped on it, according to ACI Prensa.
…I was actually a thousand kilometers away on the island of Santa Cruz when the action went down. Clenched fist salute, anyway!
Note that the quote is from the crazy anti-choice site, LifeSite, and that the “anti-family language” is actually pro-family planning language, and is a generally good thing unless you you’ve been infected with a fanatical hatred of contraception and abortion by a nominally celibate man in a dress.
I’ve been gone for 11 days now, and I’m not having a happy re-entry. Trying to get out of Quito this morning was a nightmare — we were up at 3:30am to catch a 4:00am shuttle to the airport for a 6:30am flight, and in order to leave Ecuador they make you stand in line for over 2 hours. Do the math, and you’ll note that we barely made it. Then our destination was Miami. There’s some storm on the way here, the airport is packed with people trying to flee, and our flight is not until 8:30pm…so we’re just stuck in an airport concourse all day, hoping our flight will get us out of here tonight.
I made the mistake of actually looking at the news last night before going to sleep. What? John Edwards imploded over yet another peccadillo that is no business to the electorate? And worse, Obama pandered to the religious lunatics by groveling before the vapid and cheerfully toxic RIck Warren of the Saddleback Church? I saw a few clips of that sorry spectacle, and once again Obama is making me regret having to vote for him this year. Please, please, let’s not ever nominate a spineless quisling to run for the presidency, OK? At least Barry Lynn offers exactly the right criticism of this move, which cheered me a little bit.
Maybe Lynn should run in the next election…
Anyway, I’m ready to go back to the islands with virtually no internet connection and limited news access.
LisaJ here again.
Wow. Now here’s a story that just disturbed me to no end. Little Javon Thompson’s mother, 21 year old Ria Ramkissoon, became a Christian at a young age, but when her local pastor disappointed her by pleading guilty to molesting young boys, she left her church and was taken in instead by what is now being described as a dangerous religious cult (I’d like to make the point that even plain ‘ole regular Christianity is a dangerous cult, but that’s beside the point). This cult, called 1 Mind Ministries, is headed by a 40 year old, I’m assuming woman, who calls herself Queen Antoinette, and it appears that the relatively small group lives together and operates under the extremely god-driven Queen’s direction.
What happened to Javon, Ms. Ramkissoon’s little boy, in 2005 is what has me so disturbed. The ONE year old child was denied food and water for two days because he wouldn’t say “Amen” after finishing his meals. This outrageous punishment killed him, and none of his caretakers intervened to save him. Police say that the group viewed this child as a demon, and that they left his lifeless body in a backroom of their apartment for more than a week while they simply prayed to god to raise Javon from the dead. Instead, the boy’s body began to decompose and no resurrection occurred, obviously.
Reportedly, after the cult members accepted that Javon would not be resurrected they stuffed his body in a suitcase. His mother lovingly added mothballs and fabric softener to the contents of the suitcase, and occasionally sprayed some disinfectant inside. The case, with the child’s body still inside, was found earlier this year, after it had been stored behind a home in Philadelphia when the cult relocated to New York City, over a year earlier.
Javon’s mother Ria and four other cult members face first degree murder charges in this case. Ria’s mother, however, contests that her daughter was brainwashed by the cult. Her attorney has recently declared that “the members of this cult, who were more than twice her age, were calling the shots,” and that “she bought the program hook, line and sinker.” So because this young woman was reportedly brainwashed, does this then mean that she should not be prosecuted with her child’s murder? To put this into perspective for myself, I was raised catholic, and there are certainly many faulty decisions I made while growing up that I consider to largely be the fault of my indoctrinated mindset. But murder? I have a really hard time swallowing the brainwashing excuse as justifying your active involvement in your child’s murder. And besides, even if her supposed brainwashing is really at fault here, someone this stupid to allow someone to talk her into effectively killing her child, under the guise of god, should be put away where she is no longer a danger to herself or anyone else.
This disturbing story highlights perfectly the dangers that society faces for teaching people to believe in whatever god they’re confronted with, instead of thinking for themselves.
