LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

Building a Theocracy: the Ohio Model

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

The Slactivist checks in on those 'car fish', and one in particular:

I was reminded of driving my friend's old fish-car last fall, after putting a Joe Hoeffel for Senate sticker on my car. This again made me a self-consciously courteous driver -- I didn't want to cost Joe any votes with my driving.

But a campaign sticker is a very different thing from a fish symbol. A campaign sticker doesn't carry the same implicit assertion of my own virtue. It simply indicates, "I'm voting for Joe and I think you should too," which invites a very different response than a symbol which says, "I am a Good Person, most likely a Better Person Than You." It's that implicit claim of goodness that invites such a skeptical response to the fish symbol, triggering the selective mental cataloging of every driving blunder by fish cars. This may be why I'm more likely to have a preconceived, negative opinion about the relative driving skills of a fish-car driver than I am an opinion about someone with, say, a rainbow sticker or a sticker of Calvin peeing on something.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

There is an ongoing forum about Spiritual Progressives that has a great many interesting topics under the 'religion' category. One of them asks if we should treat Right Wing Religion as an addiction. It's a fascinating discussion.

An excerpt:

"Treat Right Wing Religion as an Addiction"
Religion Professor Says

(Kansas City, MO) In his latest national monthly column, Dr. Robert N. Minor, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, charges that much of the religious right wing is addicted to their religion. "Dealing with the right-wing's religious/political lifestyle and its evangelistic agenda," says Minor, "is like dealing with an alcoholic or hard drug user."

"Like all addictions, when right-wing religion dominates one's life obsessively, it tells people how to feel rather than getting in touch with their real problems," says Minor. "It also prevents the addicts from understanding the harm they are doing to those around them."

Minor advises readers in his "Minor Details" column that "no matter how hard this might be to accept, strategies that try to embrace, excuse, or move toward the religious right-wing are the actions of enablers." Enabling is a common response by family members to addicts that reinforces their addiction.

"While addicts are expected to be in denial about their addiction, creating a mythological view of the world to maintain it and 'protecting their stash,'" Minor said in an interview about his column, "enablers are the ones making excuses, arguing with the addict, covering up for their addiction, and refusing to do the unpopular, confrontational work of intervention."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Here's another Rockridge Institute forum about the "Rapture Cult Heresy".

The Rapture Cult Heresy by Carol Wolman

Millions of Americans are caught up in a delusion I call the rapture cult. This heresy teaches that God intends to destroy life on planet earth. Those who believe in the rapture theory and voted for Bush will go to a better place, and the rest of us will be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust or some such catastrophe. Meanwhile, it's fine for the cult leaders to get as rich as possible as quickly as possible, and to indulge their lust for power, blood and oil as much as they want, with no regard for the teachings of the Prince of Peace.

Unlike most cults, the rapture cult has the power to destroy not just its own members, but all life on earth. It has taken over the government and the military of the world's only superpower, and seems hell-bent on destruction.[Emphasis mine- ed.]( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ccroft)

Readers of this community may be interested that Christian fundamentalism intruding into 'state' and citizen matters may not be a phenomenon limited solely to the United States. In an article from 'The Fundy Post' titled Who Watches the Watchers? it has been revealed that website filtering software endorsed by the NZ government actually can be traced back to The American Family Association:

Last Monday afternoon, a student at Takapuna Grammar School wanted to look at the anarchist website www.infoshop.org on one of his school's computers, as he had done several times before. This time, however, he found access to the site was blocked by software installed by the school and provided by a company called Watchdog...(Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY brigidsblest)

This article is originally from The Boston Globe, and was reprinted at http://www.CommonDreams.org/ :

Religious Tolerance: Climate Change

by James Carroll

Scandal at the Air Force Academy used to mean cheating or sexual harassment. Now the uproar is about the academy's religious ''climate," in the word used by an investigative task force. Christian cadets have been pressuring peers who believe differently, or who do not believe. Jewish cadets, in particular, have been targeted, charged with the murder of Christ.

Academy faculty and chaplain's staff are reported to have joined in the pressuring. The Pentagon is investigating. Reports of US guards denigrating the Koran in order to pressure Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay sparked violent protests in Afghanistan. People died. Newsweek now says the report may not be true, but the storm it caused grew out of a general sense in the Islamic world that Muslims as Muslims are mistreated at Guantanamo Bay, and that America's war, despite Washington's denials, is against Islam itself.

( The rest... )

It really isn't just one incident--the scandal at the academy, or the defilement of the Qu'ran (c'mon...does anyone really believe Newsweek when they say they made a mistake? I believe pressure was put on them to say such a thing, but I doubt the article was actually false or in error). No, it's a pattern of behavior manifested through multiple incidents--displaying the disrespect and contempt commonly found for other religions by those who follow Dominionist religions--and I doubt it's going to go away any time soon.

The article may be found at: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0517-21.htm