Until you back off your stands on procreation, your “worries” about global warming are as credible as you are. You've done as much to bring on Hell for so many people as anyone.
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Sorry, Mr. Pope, Sir
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Well, Who Woulda Thunk?
U.S. physicians who identify themselves as religious are no more likely to care for poor, underserved patients than those who have no religious affiliation, researchers have found.
The study suggests doctors in the United States who see religion as a "master motive in their lives" are not more likely to care for the poor than others.
"Religious physicians are not disproportionately caring for the underserved," Dr. Farr Curlin, of the University of Chicago, said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Curlin, who considers himself religious, said he undertook the study because many religions include a call to serve the poor.
It’s not like Jesus would have, after all.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Uh, Mr. Pope, Sir . . .
. . . is this the only church that Jesus created?
LA Church 'in record abuse deal'
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Bible Says So Somewhere
The Pope has once again asserted that Jesus created “only one church.” With popes and bishops and dioceses and excommunication and . . . mmm, wait a sec. . . .
Sunday, July 08, 2007
A Minister to Listen to
I can't say enough good about this essay in today's Boston Globe by an evangelical minister distraught about what's happened once again to his religion when the opportunists and powermongers have gotten hold of it. The best part is his reliance on the life and words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to explain what the evangelical should be doing in the world and how far removed that it is from the nationalistic perversion of religion that has occurred, just as it occurred under the Nazis in Bonhoeffer's time. Let's hope that this man gets more megaphone and the Franklin Grahams, whom he roundly and rightly smacks, actually do get what's coming to them on Judgment Day.
Here are a few excerpts to give you reason to read the whole thing:
These past six years have been transformative in the religious history of the United States. It is arguably the passing of the evangelical moment -- if not the end of evangelicalism's cultural and political relevance, then certainly the loss of its theological credibility. Conservative evangelical elites, in exchange for political access and power, have ransacked the faith and trivialized its convictions. It is as though these Christians consider themselves to be recipients of a special revelation, as if God has whispered eternal secrets in their ears and summoned them to world-historic leadership in the present and future.
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In a German concentration camp in 1944, the theologian, pastor, and Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer pondered the future of the church in Germany as it lay in the ruins of its fatal allegiance to Hitler.
"The time of words is over," he wrote. "Our being a Christian today will be limited to two things: prayer and righteous action."
Bonhoeffer, who had actively opposed the Nazis since the passage of the Aryan Laws of 1933 and was executed in April 1945, believed that the church had so compromised its witness to Jesus Christ that it was now incapable of "taking the word of reconciliation and redemption to mankind and the world." The misuse of the language of faith had humiliated the Word; any hope for renewal would need to begin with the humble recognition that God was most certainly tired of all our talk.
It is time to give Bonhoeffer's meditations a new hearing. With many other Christians in the United States and many more abroad, I have watched with horror in recent years as the name of Jesus has been used to serve national ambitions and justify war. Forgetting the difference between discipleship and partisanship, and with complete indifference to the wisdom and insights of the Christian tradition, we have recast the faith according to our cultural preferences and baptized our prejudices, along with our will-to-power, in the shallow waters of civic piety.
By the time American troops began bombing Baghdad before sunrise on March 20, 2003, the collective effort of the evangelical elites had sanctified the president's decision and encouraged the laity to believe that the war was God's will for the nation. Evangelicals preached for the war, prayed for the war, sang for the war, and offered God's blessings on the war.
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. . . I remember the outrage I felt when I saw a photograph in Time magazine during the 2004 presidential election of Christian Coalition activists in Ohio. Two men, both white, and both identified as Coalition members, are holding two crosses aloft. The crosses upon closer inspection appear to be made of balloons twisted together. Across the beam-section of one of the crosses was the "Bush-Cheney" logo, and alongside the president's name was the image of an American flag. In the second cross, the president's name appeared in full at the places where Jesus's hands were nailed.
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The gospel has been humiliated because too many American Christians have decided that there are more important things to talk about. We would rather talk about our country, our values, our troops, and our way of life; and although we might think we are paying tribute to God when we speak of these other things, we are only flattering ourselves.
If only holiness were measured by the volume of our incessant chatter, we would be universally praised as the most holy nation on earth. But in our fretful, theatrical piety, we have come to mistake noisiness for holiness, and we have presumed to know, with a clarity and certitude that not even the angels dared claim, the divine will for the world. We have organized our needs with the confidence that God is on our side, now and always, whether we feed the poor or corral them into ghettos.
To a nation filled with intense religious fervor, the Hebrew prophet Amos said: You are not the holy people you imagine yourselves to be. Though the land is filled with festivals and assemblies, with songs and melodies, and with so much pious talk, these are not sounds and sights that are pleasing to the Lord. "Take away from me the noise of your congregations," Amos says, "you who have turned justice into poison."
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Franklin Graham, the evangelist (and son of Billy Graham), boasted that the American invasion of Iraq opens up exciting new opportunities for missions to non-Christian Arabs. This is not what the Hebrew or Christian prophets meant by righteousness and discipleship. In fact, the grotesque notion that preemptive war and the destruction of innocent life pave the way for the preaching of the Christian message strikes me as a mockery and a betrayal.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Well, They're Right about Some People Never Evolving
The Southern Baptists have resolved to doubt global warming. God must be really proud of how these "good" folks have exercised the dominion He gave them over His creation. . . . Speaking of intelligent religions and science, this breakaway polygamous Mormon sect has verified why cousins shouldn't marry (really) . . . and why Southern states are the way they are, too. . . . Finally, the fundamentalist sect known as Economists must be very proud of the way the market is going to save the planet from global warming through all the scammy, wormy "carbon offset" programs that even rich nations' governments are pushing.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Channeling Molly Ivins...
...(via CorrenteWire) Nancy Greggs tells us why her God is way better than the Republican God.
It’s not that I don’t believe in God, my Republican friends. It is just that I don’t believe in your god, the one you have created in your own image and likeness.Yeah, nothing to add to that. Go read the whole thing.
...
My God expects me to be my brother’s keeper, to help the sick, the hungry, the friendless and the homeless. Your god only wants you to look out for yourself; he expects you to ignore anyone who is less fortunate, less monied, or anyone who worships him in a way different than your own.
My God values every life he has created equally, without regard to religion, country, or ethic origin. Your god only values American lives, Christian lives; all the rest are expendable.
My God is not a product to be sold to the highest bidder, nor a fictional character to be endowed with the characteristics I deem to be suited to my purpose. My enemies are not His enemies, to be exploited, maimed, orphaned or killed at my pleasure. My friends are not His friends because they belong to my church, my country club, my income bracket, my political party.
My God knows that I believe in Him. He needs no financial contribution to prove my faith, no political persuasion to prove my loyalty, no mouthing of words without a true appreciation of their meaning to demonstrate that I understand my obligations to my fellow man.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Don't know how this domain was still available...
...but I'd say it's getting put to good use. Scroll down the page for a classic Angry Pat moment...and a little further for a couple of Jerry's greatest hits...those crazy kids...and whatever you do, don't forget to check where the Rapture Index stands today!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Let's Dump Separation of Church and State, Okay?
When I taught American government, I used to love to warn the little fundamentalist morons (and yes, they were, no matter how “nice” they were and how we should “respect them” for their moronicity--look what they've done to this country) who couldn’t see what the problem was with allowing governments to give approval stamps to religions that they only felt that way because they didn’t see how their religion could lose. Let the prayer in school for the day be Islamic in western Oklahoma and see how long it sounded like a good idea. And I specifically told them that Wiccans were just as protected as Baptists. God, I was smart when I was young.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
O, Mohammed . . . .
I love this idea. Some folks in WA, protesting the state’s stance on gay marriage and its reliance on the notion that marriage is for procreation, are circulating a petition to require straight couples to have children within a period of time or, oops, null and void. Now, no, they’re not serious, but the concept is. So many “arguments” that keep people down are grounded in not-good nonsense so let’s call people on them. Don’t believe in Social Security, you good little Libertarians you? Then you get to pay for Mom and Dad’s retirement. Homosexuality banned in the Bible? Well, then, let’s stone adulterers and lock up those shell-fish eaters (and don’t even get started about beard-cutters or those who don’t forgive debts every 7 years). Prayer in school? I’ve got your prayer in school right here, don’t we, Abdul? Or you, Sing Ha? Let’s go for it. Let’s see what the world looks like with these dingbats’ visions in power . . . well, let’s just do it in WA, okay?
Friday, January 05, 2007
Ashcroft Exposure
A buddy of mine sent me to this link about Ashcroft and "exposing his religion"...eww...
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has a word of advice for Missouri lawmakers: Don't be afraid to pray.
Speaking today at the governor's annual prayer breakfast on the second day of the legislative session, the former Republican Missouri auditor, attorney general, governor and U.S. senator said religion should be in the "public square" but not forced."
It's against my religion to impose my religion, but I don't think it's against my religion to expose my religion," Ashcroft said.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, public officials and judges gathered in a Jefferson City hotel for breakfast and to pray for wisdom and a good legislative session. Proceeds from the event go to a gubernatorial program designed for faith and public policy.
Ashcroft said as a public official, he wanted to invite God into his life to help him devote his efforts to Missourians. He recalled how his ailing father had come to Washington to watch Ashcroft be sworn into the U.S. Senate and struggled to get out of a sofa and be "knee to knee" so they could both pray. Shortly after he joined the Senate, Ashcroft's father died.
Republican Gov. Matt Blunt said he believed the truth had been revealed and people had a capacity given by God to encounter and understand that truth. Blunt said he believed certainty in one's morals was important but not mutually exclusive with tolerance."
The problem lies in how some of us treat those who we believe are wrong," he said.
First of all, yeah right.
Second of all, didn't Ashcroft impose his religion last time he addressed exposure?
Friday, December 22, 2006
In Case You Thought There Was Hope
The header on a news story today: "Sam Brownback said Thursday that conservative values like opposition to abortion and gay marriage will distinguish him from others vying for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination."
You just can't make stuff like this up.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Talk about a bad week...
Aravosis with a quick and effective summary of a forgettable week in the life of the American Religious Right:
First, the vice president endorses his openly-lesbian gay-activist daughter having an out-of-wedlock artificially-inseminated (we assume) fatherless birth, and then the House Ethics Committee tries to exonerate the folks who enabled a sexual predator by claiming that the enablers may simply have been trying to protect a known homosexual, so that makes it okay. In other words, the conservative House Republicans put gays ahead of kids. Add that to the fact that Rick Santorum, George Allen, Katherine Harris, and the rest of the religious right wacko brigade went down in flames either during or after (e.g., Bill Frist) the election. It's a sorry time in America to be a far-right theocratic bigoted hate group.Plus, the congressmen they elected actually have to work now! And they're not happy about it!
For all they've attempted to do to this country, I'd say they're owed a few more weeks like these...but you've gotta start somewhere!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Religion, Conservation, and God
Don't forget Moyers' PBS special tonight on evangelicals and environmentalism.
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