LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY shawnsmalley)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/03/golden.compass.religion.ap/index.html

My favorite quote from this article:

Sister Rose Paccate, director of the Pauline Center of Media Studies in Culver City, California, said the books portray benevolence toward children and a God figure -- just one that's much different than the one Christians know.

She sees irony in calls to shun the film, considering that one of Pullman's central themes is that people should not follow orders and forfeit critical thought.

"If you just say 'no' to your kids without engaging in a conversation, they're going to see the movie anyway and all you're teaching them is power, not really teaching your values," Paccate said. "If we have faith, what are we afraid of?"

That quote pretty much sums it up for me.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY idragosani)

The state's director of science curriculum has resigned after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design.

Chris Comer, who has been the Texas Education Agency's director of science curriculum for more than nine years, offered her resignation this month.

In documents obtained Wednesday through the Texas Public Information Act, agency officials said they recommended firing Comer for repeated acts of misconduct and insubordination. But Comer said she thinks political concerns about the teaching of creationism in schools were behind what she describes as a forced resignation.

Read more

There are media reports floating around that Mardel Bookstore--a subsidiary of Hobby Lobby--has apparently bailed out Oral Roberts University to the tune of nearly 70 million dollars US.

More here in a DailyKos post I've written on the situation (those of you who are members--recs and tips appreciated!).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY thebustocrookes)

Remember our chums at
Conservapedia “the trustworthy encyclopedia” (set up to give Dommies an online resource that shows the world *their* way without the liberal bias of, erm, facts)?


There’s a story in today’s Guardian about the most viewed pages on Conservapedia:

Main page: 1,951,467
Homosexuality: 1,810,286
Homosexuality and hepatitis: 518,398
Homosexuality and parasites: 453,062
Gay bowel syndrome: 429,873
Homosexuality and promiscuity: 422,589
Homosexual couples and domestic violence: 374,456
Homosexuality and gonorrhoea: 332,262
Homosexuality and anal cancer: 294,852
Homosexuality and mental health 294,223

Good to see what the "fair and balanced" people out there are using it to research…

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

Since it's been in the news and I think mentioned here before...

As I recall, the bible hadn't been added to the monument until just a few years? before the suit, not from the beginning as stated in the article. Or maybe the bible just wasn't opened, or something.

I also love our new County judge's opinion on the matter... *cough*

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5331059.html

The court's decision brings to a close a four-year battle over a monument that used to stand outside the former Harris County Civil Courthouse on Fannin. The monument included an open Bible under glass.

But there could be future legal wrangling over the monument. County Judge Ed Emmett and Commissioner Steve Radack said they want the county to install the monument and Bible elsewhere on county property.

"I definitely would favor putting it up," Emmett said. "Some (separation of church and state) rulings are silly. We carry money around that says, 'In God We Trust.' "

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY pretentioustfu)

So, something just popped into my inbox notifying me that I've been subscribed to Americans For Truth (warning: hate link). I'll post the full e-mail beneath the cut, with my name redacted. I'm wondering if I'm a target of a planned dominionist spam campaign and they subscribed me against my will, or if some stalker's ganked my e-mail address and decided to punish me today.  Needless to say, I have no interest in this group's mission, as you can probably tell from my icon, my usual pattern of posting, and that I don't like to join hate groups that would happily kill me.

( The full text of the e-mail )

ETA: I'm getting a Yahoo Groups confirmation, a mailing list notice, or other crap on the average of one every 10-15 minutes.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY rechan)

This story surprised me. A school board decides to remove books by Phillip Pullman because he's an atheist.

The kicker is this is in Canada.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_oreilly) Haha. Those Intelligent Design guys at the Discovery Institute took the video "The Inner Life of a Cell" (owned by Harvard and XVIVO) and turned it into propaganda. DarkSyde talks about it on dailyKOS.

Basically, they took the video, modified it and presto! New video to be shown at creationist revival meetings. DarkSyde links to the source of this discovery (ha!), who was there and has video of the original and the fake. I dunno how many of you fully trust/believe in the stuff posted at dailyKOS, but the video of their version is enough evidence for me.

For anyone not familiar with Intelligent Design. It's this new... "movement" to get God put into science classes by creating a "controversy" where the meanie science peoples aren't letting an alternate version of where life on Earth began - instead of the Big Bang or what have you, it was God. The Dover, PA case is a pretty well known case that NOVA did a piece on, where the school board tried to put it in science classes and failed.

Guess the Discovery Institute guys are getting desperate.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kesnit)

I found a reference to this group in a book I read and looked them up. I think I have an idea of what they try to do, but how successful have they been. I ask because there is a lot in the news about the fight to keep ID out of schools, but not so much about this.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY or_mabinogi)

What Would Jesus Buy? [link goes to Apple Movie Trailers, you may need Quicktime to view the trailer]

From producer Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) and director Rob VanAlkemade, “What Would Jesus Buy?” examines the commercialization of Christmas in America while following Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt.) The film also delves into issues such as the role sweatshops play in America’s mass consumerism and Big-Box Culture. From the humble beginnings of preaching at his portable pulpit on New York City subways, to having a congregation of thousands - Bill Talen (aka Rev. Billy) has become the leader of not just a church, but a national movement. Rev. Billy’s epic journey takes us to chilling exorcisms at Wal-Mart headquarters, to retail interventions at the Mall of America, and all the way to the Promised Land on Christmas Day. The Stop Shopping mission reminds us that even though we may be “hypnotized and consumerized,” we still have a chance to save ourselves this Christmas.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_oreilly)

Hope this is topic appropriate for this community.  

Long story short, last week I overheard my Evangelical Presbyterian father call my cousin Jay to ask if he would read a Bible verse at Thanksgiving. Jay is not religious and my father knows this. He asked anyway. Twice. Jay politely turned him down. I called immediately afterward and got the whole scoop - my parents are having the "heads of the households" in our family to read a Bible verse, if they would, on Thanksgiving. There's a lot of hypocrisy involved with who they asked to read, but I digress.

This is completely bizarre to me. We've never done anything like this before in our family at all. Not even at Christmas or Easter gatherings. So I vented in my personal LJ and a friend said they had read something about the equivalent of the "War on Christmas" now being waged on Thanksgiving. This sounded crazy to me, but apparently Slate Magazine has an article on it:

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY karlita)

One of the reasons I enjoyed and was so moved by my experiences at Cathedral of the Holy Spirit - at Chapel Hill in Decatur, GA, was because it was a truly racially integrated church. Also, because the people there are so REAL, and the message coming down was so much the truth - no shame, blame, guilt or negativity - a message of acceptance of ALL - and purely standing in God's Love.

This is where Kel and I got married, and the senior pastor who performed our ceremony is D.E. Paulk, who Kel has a personal connection with, and who is also someone who has profoundly impacted me in many ways, as far as my spiritual path and growth.

One of the reasons that he has impacted me so very much has been his honesty, and his heart.

I sat in the congregation on the Sunday that he discussed and disclosed that he and his now current wife, Brandy, had made the choice to terminate a pregnancy during the time prior to their marriage.

It took a tremendous amount of courage, humility and guts to talk about this - especially from someone who is a senior pastor and is directing a church. He spoke about the choice from his perspective - he talked about his emotions then, and now. He did not regret that they chose what they chose, yet he was honest about the aftermath, especially once they were married and at choice regarding reproduction. They subsequently had two beautiful children, and even though he is tremendously happy, he often feels that there is a third one missing.

We all stood in solidarity with him, and with his beautiful wife, and I was so grateful that here is someone in a position of spiritual authority who is not afraid to speak frankly about their past, about controversy, about personal pain.

Somewhere it is said that God shines through the broken places, and there is something about being a weak and damaged vessel as being the place that God can do the most work through. I'm stumbling over the words here, yet it is communicated.

So, today Kel and I heard some news that both astonished us, and in a great way, was an affirmation.

Kel's former spouse called and left a message, and I'm sure it was in the spirit of a negative piece of news, yet for us it is a positive piece of news.

Apparently DNA tests have shown that D.E. Paulk's father is not the man his mother is married to. D.E. Paulk's biological father is actually his uncle, Bishop Earl Paulk.

And apparently CNN is going to have a piece about this tonight.

So, on the face of it, D.E. Paulk is the illegitimate child of his uncle, and that has some incestual overtones!

Yet, this is NOT news. Because on October 14th, during the services at the Cathedral, Senior Pastor D.E. Paulk announced this fact publicly.

I am proud of him. I am proud of his family. I'm sad that outsiders and the general Religious Right holier-than-thou judge-ers (is that a word?) would exploit all of this, and hold it against him and his family.

Who his bio parents are, and what he's done in the past, has very little to do with the message of God that comes through.

And, more than ever, that's a message of acceptance, peace, beauty and LOVE.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY stormwardenace)

Stop me if this has already been posted, but a link I found may prove useful in acquiring literature that can be used against the dominionists.

http://the-end.com/

He is giving away two books on the subject of Doomsday...so, who wants to run the Vegas odds that he is right (he isn't).

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY raven_oreilly) I got wind of PBS putting on a NOVA presentation about Intelligent Design over here at dailyKos.com a little too late - I checked KOS after the show had ended. Anyways, it's available to be watched on the PBS site dedicated to the presentation. I watched it today and it's fantastic. They basically go into the entire Dover story - how it started, who was involved, the lawyers, the case, the ruling (with Judge Jones reading excerpts) and the fallout - including Pat Robertson saying, "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city..." in response to the Dover citizens electing an entirely new school board that aren't pro-ID.

I think it was pretty well done. They gave the ID people their representation and the narrator doesn't seem to be obviously bias towards either side (at least to me upon first viewing). They let the ID people speak for themselves and I think it's apparent to anyone who isn't a fundamentalist Christian that the Judge made the right decision.

Glad to see PBS aired this, especially after some of that fishiness I think this community blogged about a few months ago.

On a personal note, I wanna punch Phillip E. Johnson in the face, after reading the interview "In Defense of Intelligent Design" and seeing him in the show.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY penguinpusher)

I'm sure a lot of people on this list know about the creation "museum" (theme park is far more accurate) in Kentucky. I'm not going to link to them directly, google them if you want. Thanks to reddit.com I found a bunch of photos from the inside of this pit of lies and brainwashing I thought people might find interesting.

One can only wonder how soon there'll be a flat earth museum...

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY karlita)

Kel and I had a wonderful time in October at Glorieta for the Emergent Village conference. This group is very liberal, all-inclusive, and some of the conversations we engaged in were "Zen and Christianity", had to do with meditation, I did a massage and ministry class, it is an amazing group that meets every year, most of the members are writers and many are published authors.

While we were at the beautiful retreat center, Glorieta, I met several people who volunteer there every year - they come for 10 weeks - and put in 30 hours of volunteer work a week in exchange for a place to stay and 3 meals a day in the dining hall. It sounded like a wonderful opportunity to both of us - and so I investigated it a little bit more.

I was horrified to find some very rigid "lifestyle" requirements on the website - and no, we will not be going there again, and yes, I am inquiring into some aspects of it with their Human Resources department and I may take it further.

( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ad_kay)

Leaders of Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin canceled an organization's reservations for an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration, leaving Austin Area Interreligious Ministries only four days to find a new venue. The reason? Church leaders suddenly realized that the interfaith celebration would include non-Christians, including--gasp! Muslims. Fortunately, a Jewish congregation has opened their doors, so the event will be held as planned. The local paper has covered the the church's rude behavior, ensuring that tens of thousands of people are going to know exactly the kind of bigoted xenophobes that lurk at Hyde Park.

Church rejects interfaith service on its property

If you live in the Austin area: the event will be held at Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Blvd., on Sunday, November 18th at 4:00pm. Given the publicity, I'm guessing it will be packed.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

Link here

“It doesn’t outlaw abortion, it doesn’t regulate birth control,” said Kristi Burton, 20, of Colorado for Equal Rights. “It’s just a constitutional principle. We’re laying a foundation that every life deserves protection.”

Burton said the initiative would simply define a human.

“It’s very clearly a single subject,” Burton said. “If it’s a human being, it’s a person, and hey, they deserve equal rights under our law.”

Colorado for Equal Rights must collect 76,000 signatures in six months to get the measure on the ballot.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY pretentioustfu)

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1684330,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-nation

( Cut for article text )

Verrry interesting. So Huckabee has ties to the Copeland empire, which seems to be under investigation right now. I'm very interested in where this goes, how deep the rabbit hole is.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

A Harvard University professor has found that the English Reformation spurred a Fundementalist approach to Bible reading.

The English Reformation — heyday of religious change — spurred a fundamentalist approach to Bible reading, according to new research by a Harvard professor.

“Evangelical reading habits after 1525 were disciplinary, punishing, and even demeaning,” says James Simpson, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In 1525, protestant reformer William Tyndale translated the Bible into early modern English. Scholars have widely hailed that moment as a liberating step for the literate public, who could suddenly read the Bible on their own terms — without the constraints of priestly interpretation.

Simpson disagrees.

“The 16th century moment was not the foundation of liberalism, as many historians have maintained, but rather the foundation of fundamentalism,” he says. “Anyone who wants to understand how fundamentalism is a product of the modern era must look to its birth in the 16th century.”

Tracing the history of biblical translations between 1525 and 1547, or from Tyndale to the death of Henry VIII, Simpson argues that reading in this era became a program of punishment that left believers “persecuted and paranoid.”

“Evangelicals did not believe that you could be saved through good works, so they looked for signs that the decision had gone their way,” Simpson says. “Reading became the locus for salvation or damnation. It was an intense experience in which your eternal fate would be decided.”

Because scripture has become such an explosive issue, it is important to be clear what it is and what it is not. This biography of the Bible provides some insight into this religious phenomenon. It is, for example, crucial to note that an exclusively literal interpretation of the Bible is a recent development. Until the nineteenth century, very few people imagined that the first chapter of Genesis was a factual account of the origins of life. For centuries, Jews and Christians relished highly allegorical and inventive exegesis, insisting that a wholly literal reading of the Bible was neither possible nor desirable. They have rewritten biblical history, replaced Bible stories with new myths, and interpreted the first chapter of Genesis in surprisingly different ways.