When evangelicals attack 'the gay agenda' of an anti-bullying event in schools, something is sick in America's religious culture


October 29, 2012 | Mix It Up at Lunch Day is one of those programs that just seems like a nice thing to do.

The idea is that on one day of the school year, kids are invited to have lunch with the kind of kids they don't usually hang out with: the jocks mix with the nerds, lunch tables are racially integrated, et cetera. Sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of their Teaching Tolerance division, it arose out of a broad effort to tackle the problems of bullying in the schools and bigotry in society – and it appears to have been effective in breaking down stereotypes and reducing prejudice. Over 2,000 schools nationwide now participate in the program, which is set to take place this year on 30 October.

You can argue about how permanent its effects are, or whether other approaches might be better, but the idea of making new friends in the lunchroom seems utterly benign. Right?

Wrong, as it turns out – at least, according to the American Family Association, a radical rightwing evangelical policy group. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is, in fact, part of "a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools," according to the AFA literature . The program "is an entry-level 'diversity' program designed specifically by SPCL (sic) to establish the acceptance of homosexuality into public schools, including elementary and junior high schools," warns the AFA website. "See if your child's school is on the list."

--snip--

The far right 's fixation on same-sex relationships is so ludicrous that it defines a sub-category of camp. But let's take a step back for a moment. The big question, the one that keeps coming back in every one of these skirmishes in the culture wars, is: why is the loudest religion in American politics today so much about hate?

http://www.alternet.org/how-christian-fundamentalism-feeds-toxic-partisanship-us-politics?page=0%2C1

Good riddance to a religious approach that preached salvation through constant hard labor.


October 24, 2012 | Two weeks ago Pew Research pinpointed an historic threshold: for the first time only 48% of Americans deemed themselves Protestant. Yes, the dominant majority since Puritan days has shrunk to minority status, alongside (one trusts) its perennial double: the White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class.

With the Protestant hegemony fading, let us project a similar demise for the simplistic, planet-threatening credo known as the "Protestant Ethic." That triumphant code consecrates hard work, prosperity and control over nature, complacently measuring progress by net profit and GNP numbers. Here's a conviction that unifies our two parties in love with the status quo, along with reactionaries and fundamentalists everywhere. For all proclaim the Divinity of Hard Work, that Hard Work Conquers All, even that Work is Salvation, as both sign and vehicle of "exceptionalism" and personal deliverance.

For the hard right, does not the magic of hard work resolve crime, poverty, racial inequality, family shortcomings, economic stagnation and phantom enemies far and wide? The solution to all hard knocks, these hard people say, is hard work, the anvil for human destiny -- and beyond. Gee, what happened to one-time, theoretical promises of greater leisure time?

Certainly Yanks celebrate that savvy American, Benjamin Franklin, who elevated thrift, industry, and tenacity; or as he put it, "Energy and persistence alter all things." But today's ideological folly distorts the context of birthright, namely background, gender, education, and family assets. Thus schoolchildren still endure injunctions to "keep your nose to the grindstone" (ouch), "there is no substitute for hard work" (Thomas Edison), and my favorite, "hard work never killed anyone" ("but why take the chance," quipped witty Edgar Bergen).

http://www.alternet.org/labor/why-protestant-work-ethic-menace-society

A Christian group in Texas is threatening to file a formal complaint with the Attorney General’s office because a woman who lives near Austin was forced to cover up her “Vote the Bible” T-shirt after election officials suggested that it could be construed as illegal electioneering.

In a complaint to the Williamson Country Election Administrator, Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz said that Ms. Alva “Kay” Hill was told that her shirt “may be offensive” because it was an implicit suggestion to “vote Republican.” Texas Election Code § 85.036 states that “a person may not electioneer for or against any candidate, measure, or political party in or within 100 feet” of a polling place. Hill was permitted to vote after an election worker gave her a jacket to cover up the T-shirt.

Saenz is now demanding that the Williamson Country Election Office release a public statement that “Vote the Bible” T-shirts are allowed in polling places, inform poll workers and publicly apologize to Hill for the “embarrassment, humiliation and intimidation.”

But Williamson County Public Affairs Director Connie Watson told KTBC that poll workers were simply following Texas election law.

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1rxat)

“But it is dominion we are after, not just a voice. It is dominion we are after, not just influence. It is dominion we are after, not just equal time. It is dominion we are after. World conquest.” – Thomas Ice

I get a lot of email from fundamentalist Christians who chide me for having “the audacity” to compare their brand of Christianity with radical Islam. I have visions of pots and kettles, as these particular Christians, like their radical Muslim counterparts, also believe that everyone who does not hold to their brand of the faith are as equally doomed to hell along with everyone else. This is a belief that most mainstream Christians and many Muslims do not adhere to. Trust me, I’ve been to plenty of interdenominational events in my past, and Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. all pretty much play well together. I’ve been to Islamic community centers and have seen all sorts of people hanging out, not killing each other, as well.

However, when you compare radical Islam and Christian extremist doctrine, the commonalities between the two faiths are very apparent. The problem starts with their use of the Bible and the Koran as venues for the expression of their hate, bigotry and intolerance. Particularly the factions who cherry-pick the parts of their holy books that promote the murder of homosexuals, unbelievers, adulterers, fornicators, disobedient children and members of other religions – and perceive those words to be very literal and entirely relevant to contemporary society. There is no getting around the fact that the Bible and Koran have much in common when it comes to “death” commandments.

Infidels, Injustice and Ignorance…

Radical Islam and Fundamental Christianity are responsible for unspeakably horrific acts toward infidels, as well as their own members, past and present. One simply cannot look past all the evil that these two religions have perpetrated on humankind. Sure, there are good deeds being done in the name of these religions, but the ends do not justify the means, especially when you consider the proven ability of unbelievers to be altruistic and charitable. When you take away the comparatively little good from all the horrible things that have been done by the extremists in the name of the Christian and Islamic gods, it becomes quite apparent that there is little use in the world for either of these forms of the religions.

Members of the lunatic fringe of these two faiths are narcissistic, psychotic sociopaths. That’s a dangerous combination and the threat of both the physical and intellectual destruction of our species remains imminent. Where radical Islam is concerned, the threat to our species is physical. The access to weapons of mass destruction, including those of the biological and chemical variety, is relatively easy. The willingness of these radicals to use them has already been demonstrated. Where fundamental Christianity is concerned, the threat to our society is mainly on the intellectual level.

If you think intellectual terrorism is a joke, consider the continuing efforts of the Christian fundamentalists in the United States to rewrite history, to replace real science with creationism in the classroom, and to transform the entire nation into a Christian Theocracy. Secular civil rights organizations are fighting a seemingly never-ending battle to defend the First Amendment from its abrogation by literally thousands of politicians and educators in all levels of government and academia who insist on injecting their religion into their respective venues.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/103096/radical-religion-common-threads-of-the-lunatic-fring/

Religious freedom need not be a complicated concept. You can believe what you like. You have the right to worship the god (or gods) of your choice – or worship no god at all if you like. The problem is, some people are never satisfied with exercising that private right. They demand that they be allowed to use government channels to impose what they believe on others.

I’ve written before about some Christian cheerleaders in Kountze, Texas, who have taken to creating large banners containing Bible verses that are displayed during high school football games. When school officials told them to stop, the cheerleaders got an attorney to sue on their behalf in state court. Not surprisingly, the local judge sided with the cheerleaders, accepting their argument that their free speech rights had been violated.

The judge is wrong. No rights have been violated. No one has the right to use a government forum (such as a public school) to impose religion onto others.

--snip--

Writing in USA Today, Ken Paulson, president and CEO of the First Amendment Center, called for an end to sectarian activity at high school events.

“The safest course for all public schools is to simply call for a moment of silence before a game,” Paulson observed. “Players, coaches and fans alike can then pray silently in the tradition of their own faiths or simply sit in reflection. That will keep schools out of court, leave freedom of faith intact and ensure an even playing field for all religions.”

Another option would be for the cheerleaders in Kountze and all of those who agree with them to understand that not everyone shares their enthusiasm for ostentatious public displays of faith and in-your-face forms of proselytizing.

http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2012/10/hey-cheerleaders-forcing-your-faith-onto-others-isnt-religious-liberty/

Churchgoers were left stunned after a man tore out both his eyeballs in the middle of a priest's sermon at Sunday Mass in a scene that resembled a horror film.

Parishioners in Viareggio, near Pisa, in northern Italy, could only watch as one of their number calmly stood up and carried out the horrific self-mutilation in front of them.

Aldo Bianchini, 46, who was born in Britain but has lived in Italy most of his life, is believed to have suffered from voices.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044605/Horrific-scenes-British-born-worshipper-tears-eyes-Mass-BARE-HANDS.html#ixzz29sx1jMBd

On October 7, 2012, the office of the Egyptian General Prosecutor decided to start an official investigation accusing me of "blasphemy" -- or, as they call it, "insulting Islam." My crime was expressing my atheist beliefs on my Twitter account. The Egyptian authorities also arrested my friend Alber Saber on similar charges. He remains in jail to this day.

Egypt has signed many international treaties that ensure freedom of expression, but the Egyptian penal code still has approximately 20 laws that make certain opinions a crime.

The specified offenses include criticizing the president, the parliament, the military, or the judiciary. Criticizing a foreign president, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Bashar Al-Assad, is also a crime, punishable with a three-year term in prison.

When I learned of the charges against me and Saber, I remembered my friend Kareem Amer, a famous Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for insulting both Islam and then-President Mubarak. Kareem suffered a great deal in prison. He was tortured several times, and spent a long time in solitary confinement under horrible conditions.

The latest threat of legal action against me has also stirred up memories of my previous imprisonment last year, when I was imprisoned in Egypt for 10 months for the crime of "insulting the institution of the military." Since then, two corrupt police officers, Sayyed Abdel-Kareem and Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, have declared that they want to file an additional case against me. They're both accusing me of insulting Islam during my imprisonment in El-Marg Prison. They've tried to use this new case as a form of blackmail to keep me from speaking about the torture I faced while I was there. (Their accusation is entirely separate from the case brought against me by the prosecutor, by the way.)

Alber is not the only opinion prisoner in Egypt accused of criticizing Islam. There are at least six Christians (three of them under the age of 18), four atheists, and one Shiite who now face the same charges, and it is no surprise that not one of them is a Sunni Muslim. It's a new Inquisition happening in Egypt in the twenty-first century while the whole world remains silent.

http://transitions.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/19/yes_i_m_a_blasphemer_get_over_it

Atheists and agnostics are more driven by compassion to help others than are highly religious people, a new study finds.

That doesn't mean highly religious people don't give, according to the research to be published in the July 2012 issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. But compassion seems to drive religious people's charitable feelings less than other groups.

"Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not," study co-author and University of California, Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer said in a statement. "The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns."

Willer's co-author Laura Saslow, now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, became interested in the question of what motivates charity after a non-religious friend lamented that he donated money to earthquake recovery in Haiti only after seeing a heart-touching video of a woman being pulled from rubble, not because of a logical understanding that help was needed.

"I was interested to find that this experience – an atheist being strongly influenced by his emotions to show generosity to strangers – was replicated in three large, systematic studies," Saslow said in a statement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/religious-compassion-atheists-agnostics_n_1468006.html

The Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation has revealed that it has abandoned plans to introduce a global blasphemy law through the United Nations.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said his 57-nation body would not try again for United Nations support to ban insults to religion, saying that Western opposition — particularly from the USA and Europe — made the prospect of success very remote.

"We could not convince them," said the Turkish head of the 57-member organisation which had tried from 1998 until 2011 to get a United Nations-backed ban on blasphemy. "The European countries don't vote with us, the United States doesn't vote with us."

Western countries see the publication of such images and materials regrettable but a matter of free speech.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/10/islamic-bloc-abandons-plans-for-global-blasphemy-law-at-un