LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

And as per usual, the Religious Right is crying discrimination. Fortunately, at least some of the British seem well aware that this is nonsense....

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY crazyjane13)

Some potentially good news for a change ...

For those who may not be aware, in Victoria we have something called the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, which basically acts to protect people from being vilified on the basis of either ethnicity, race or religious belief (or lack thereof). The first case to be brought under this Act has finally been resolved.

The case was brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria against Nalliah and a colleague (Scot), who work for Catch the Fire Ministries (an Assemblies of God-affiliated organisation). Nalliah is also a political candidate in the Family First party. Unsurprisingly, the message Nalliah and his colleague were pushing was a fairly standard "Islam-is-violent-and-will-conquer-the-world, arise good Christians" diatribe. (Nalliah's notorious for this kind of rhetoric. He's been known to publicly advocate burning down Hindu temples, mosques, and places where "witches and lesbians" meet.)

The ICV case has been hung up for nearly 4 years - the initial decision against CFM Ministries was appealed, and reviewed, and appealed again. Finally, a settlement has been reached, and a joint statement was issued. It remains to be seen whether there will be any knock-on effects from this decision.

( read media release here )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

CNN: Supreme Court says taxpayers have no standing to oppose OFBCI

( Excerpt. Click Headline for full story. )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY navytron89)

The Free Speech.Net has contacted my via e-mail to endorse to our local politicos more radio stations and channels for the local area and  I'm of two thoughts on this:

First off being down the street from Regent University and Pat Robertson. Why would I want to hear more of his propaganda on the local radios if I do endorse this program ?  I could see him pumping the local stations with money for his programing and then making them into Christian Channel.

But on the other hand NPR and other independent radio over Clearwater Channels (which has ties to fundie media) is a blessing and it would be nice to have more choices to listen to locally here in Tidewater area.  

So I'm torn and feel a few comments for and against from others might help me decide as well as let others know about this choice which is going on nationally and see if there are other things going on under the radar of normalcy.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gothic_oreo)

UK rules Intelligent Design is not science

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

Michael and Debi Pearl, that is. The article about making a knife in particular strikes me as incongruous in an allegedly religious magazine, but the sections about wives submitting to abusive husband are utterly chilling.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_moon)

I know a slew of folks posted their intros as comments to catvincent's post, but I'm gonna do it in my own post. Meh, call me a rebel...

*EDIT* And since rebels sometimes cause trouble, this post in now cut ( HERE ) with apologies to all whose F-lists blossomed out of control... :D

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY catvincent)

EDIT:
NB - Please put your introduction posts on THIS THREAD ONLY - we're getting swamped by the individual intro posts on the main list! Thanks.


Since Dark Christian has increased membership so much over the last few months - and also to see just how diverse a bunch we are - we're asking everyone here who is willing to post a short introduction about themselves.

You don't have to post any information you don't want to share - and you can be as detailed as you want if you do join in.

The main things we'd like to hear about you are:

Who you are - your LJ handle (and if you are so inclined, your real name).

What you do - work, student, whatever. (Again, only be specific if you really want to).

Your beliefs - religion, political and whatever else matters to you.

How you came here - what drew you to join DC and how long you've been around.

What can you do - what active efforts you are doing or are willing to do to oppose Dominionism.

Anything else you'd care to add - your age, sexuality, your family status, whatever matters to you that you want to share with us.

Guess I'm first...

I'm Ian Vincent. Most folk know me as 'Cat'. I live in Bristol, England.

I'm founder/director of a company which specialises in paranormal security - ghost-busting, curse-breaking, (non-violent, non-denominational) exorcism and the like.

My beliefs are best described as 'eclectic' - though raised in a not-very-devout Church of England home, I'm now a Goddess-worshipping Taoist heretic with elements of various occult/shamanic traditions and a flavour of Discordianism and the use of sex-magic as a sacrament. As far as the beliefs of others go, I think all belief systems have an element of truth to them - and that none of them have *all* the truth.
That includes my beliefs!

Politically, I'm a cynical skeptic - mostly I believe in equal human rights for all and anything that gets in the way of that (especially for reasons of power or profit) makes me quite annoyed.

I joined DC quite early on - long ago enough that I can't remember how I got here!

Aside from being a Moderator here, I try to spread alternatives to the Dominionist mindset/memes wherever I can. I'm lucky to have a wide network of friends involved in various forms of activism (from womens issues to Deep Green alternatives) as well as writers in many fields. Between us, those memes get quite widely spread.
I'm always looking for other ways to make the message go wider.

Somehow, I managed to make it to be 43 years old.

I'm in a long-term poly triad with two wonderful women (which has lasted longer than most of my friends' straight marriages...) so queer rights and support/recognition of non-traditional family groups is very important to me. Having gone from low-lower-working class to middle-class over my lifetime, I'm quite sensitive to class issues - and when I get intense or angry my voice becomes rather Cockney!

Enough about me.
Over to you...