LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY horvendile)

I wouldn't usually link to something of unknown provenance but if this is true I find it very disturbing.

A soldier in Iraq went through all the proper channels to organize an meeting of atheists. A Fundamentalist Christian Major attended and berated and threatened the other attendees all enlisted men.

Science Blog.com: Atheists Mistreated in Iraq.

That Major needs to be disciplined. I am not going to prejudge the army's response. Unfortunately i doubt I'll ever find out what it it.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ravan)

While not strictly related to Dominionism, this does come as a result of Dominionist influence in our society. ( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Great interview with Bill Moyers in the "Christian Century" magazine. Here's what he has to say about religion and politics:

So much is being written and said about the alliance between the religious right and the Republican Party. What role do you think religion should have in the public arena?

Whose religion? Christian? Muslim? Jew? Sikh? Buddhist? Catholic? Protestant? Shi'ite? Sunni? Orthodox? Conservative? Mormon? Amish? Wicca? For that matter, which Baptist? Bill Clinton or Pat Robertson? Newt Gingrich or Al Gore? And who is going to decide? The religion of one seems madness to another. Elaine Pagels said to me in an interview that she doesn't know a single religion that affirms the other's choice.

If religion is the voice of the deepest human experience—and I believe it is—humanity contains multitudes, each speaking in a different tongue. Naturally, believers will bring their faith into the public square, translating their unique personal experience into political convictions and moral arguments. But politics is about settling differences while religion is about maintaining them. Let's realize what a treasure we have in a secular democracy that guarantees your freedom to believe as you choose and mine to vote as I wish.

Some people on the left think the Democratic Party needs to be more explicitly religious. What do you think about that counterstrategy?

If you have to talk about God to win elections, that doesn't speak well of God or elections. We are desperate today for cool thinking and clear analysis. What kind of country is it that wants its politicians to play tricks with faith?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Imam leads first prayer by Muslim cleric on Texas Senate floor

( Read more... )

Sen. Dan Patrick stepped off the floor for Imam Yusuf Kavakci's prayer, in which he recited a passage from the Koran in Arabic and read an English translation.

"I surely believe that everyone should have the right to speak, but I didn't want my attendance on the floor to appear that I was endorsing that," said Patrick, a freshman Republican from Houston.

A native of Baltimore, Dan has been a Texan since joining Houston CBS affiliate KHOU TV in 1979. In 1988 he launched talk radio KSEV and soon after discovered a little known national host, Rush Limbaugh. His group added KPRC radio in 1992 and then sold the stations joining San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article from ThudFactor talks about how fundementalism isn't just for religious people:

Many atheists view religion through the prism of fundamentalism, and faced with a religious person with a radically different vision of deity find themselves at a loss. At this point, some atheists themselves become fundamentalist, insisting that the religious person they are talking to is either intentionally misrepresenting their beliefs or does not really qualify as religious.

But fundamentalism is a disease of community, not a hallmark of religion. The fundamentalist impulse—the pursuit of dogmatic purity for the sake of dogmatic purity—can be seen in almost any group, political or religious, vital or trival. Just as there are Christians who seek to prove they are more “Christian” than everyone else, there are atheists, political partisans, and Star Trek aficionados who do the same.

Religious fundamentalism leverages the language of religion and takes advantage of personal religious experience for authoritarian, earthly political gain. Many religious folks (including, arguably, Christ) consider the fundamentalist disease a corruption of and obstruction to genuine religious practice and experience. As such, we find religious fundamentalism particularly awful and far more of a threat to us than secular society or atheists; we are certainly not just moderate versions of fundamentalists.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY morchades)

Has anyone seen this article on polgamy yet? There's one paragraph that applies to this community In it, she's promoting a book of interest:

Unfortunately, the largest barrier to a healthy discussion will be the American instinct to treat religiously-motivated conduct as though it should not be held accountable - regardless of the harm that is caused. I document this phenomenon in my recent book, God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, and it is a very real component of American debate.

Found this lobbyist group through Mike the Mad Biologist. Sounds like it was started in reference to some new rule that lets Commanders endorse their religious beliefs to the troops in the USAF. The mission statement starts out wonderfully.

"The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

MRFF recognizes that military life requires individual adherence to shared patriotic principles. MRFF also recognizes the need for military personnel to at times temporarily relinquish some Constitutionally granted personal freedoms for the sake of military discipline and objectives.

However, MRFF believes that religious faith is a Constitutionally guaranteed freedom that must never be compromised, except in the most limited of military circumstances, because of its fundamental importance to the preservation of the American nation and the American way of life."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Source article in Baptist Press

[The Public Expression of Religion Act] would change a federal law that allows attorneys’ fees to be paid by the government when a court finds a person’s civil rights have been violated. The bill would bar the awarding of attorneys’ fees when the deprivation of rights involves the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion.

( Full Text of the very long article in the Baptist Press )

So, let's follow the logical progression. The ACLU is prevented from recovering legal fees when it challenges an unconstitutional religious expression. The lawyers who put in the tremendous amount of work fighting these battles can't get any compensation. The attorneys for the government entity in question are paid for their time defending said "unconstitutional religious expression". There are no more cases brought against the government challenging "unconstitutional religious expression" by government.

Why only freedom of/from religion cases? It would seem clear that Indiana’s John Hostettler is another Dominionist to keep an eye on.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Op-Ed column in today's LA Times says some interesting things about the sport of 'Christian bashing':

The connection between Christianity and political power is enough to make this believer hang her head. And yet to attack this Christianity as all of Christianity is, of course, an error. It ignores the fact that medieval Christianity was reformed — by Martin Luther and the Church of England, among others. But most of all, it neglects a history that includes someone such as the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who organized the Confessing Church to resist Nazi exclusion laws, joined the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler and paid for it with his life.

Bonhoeffer believed that the heart of what it meant to be a Christian was to act on behalf of the marginalized — the helpless, the sick, the poor, the friendless. He distinguished between what he called "cheap grace," that form of lip service I think we can all identify with, and "costly grace," meaning the kind that gets you into trouble.

If I think of costly grace, I remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks; the abolitionists; the Christians of Jubilee 2000 who successfully pressured Britain and the United States to forgive the developing world's crippling debt; the Quakers who protect and advise pacifists; the women and men who work daily in soup kitchens, for living-wage ordinances, against torture at Guantanamo Bay. None of us have done enough, and that is partly why so many people only know about the Christianity that cozies up to power.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jmthane)

I'm still finding things to add to the Illinois section of "Bad Laws" on the Wiki, and I came across one that made me think. The religious type of jobs would like to be excluded from having to hire someone that doesn't follow their faith or belief systems - there's a bill pending that would make that so in Illinois.

I don't have a problem with that, really. If, say, a Baptist church doesn't want to hire a secretary that's a Pagan - I don't mind. (I also don't know how many Pagans want to work for a Baptist church, but that's beside the point.)

But I think there ought to be some equinamity to that. If you are applying for a public service position and your religion makes it impossible for you to perform that position as required in the job description, then you should not be hired for that job. Kinda like a conscientious objector in the Army. Or thought of in another way, if you're religion means you are anti-abortion, you can't become a pharmacist, because your religion is going to interfere with the full and complete performance of your job.

This would, of course, have the hypocritical fundies screaming "DISCRIMINATION"!!!"

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

...if any of you here who keep track of Dominionist news orgs have heard anything about the Afghan Christian on trial for 'rejecting Islam'?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Preventing Proselytism in the Workplace

There's nothing worse than being a 'captive audience' at some mandantory meeting where people spew religious stuff- especially if you are not religious, and don't care to be evangelized... I am glad this CT bill is on the table.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY vanar_en_daeor)

Bluemoontide's posting of the article about the Christians moving to South Carolina mentions Darla Wynne. It reminded me of the atrocities and discrimination Darla's been through by these guys in the Bible Belt. I found the original article I had read a while back and thought it would be informative to post the link to it here.

Warning though, some of the stuff, especially what was done to her pets because she doesn't follow these people's (and I use that term very loosely) view of God and the Bible, is quite graphic.

http://www.exploringthecauldron.com/October05/DarlaWynne.htm

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

A judge has decided that a woman's contact with the satrical religious group "Church of the SubGenius" was enough to take custody of her son away from her.

Bartholomew's Notes on Religion has more links and details.

But here's the "Dark Christian" connection: the photos that the staunchly Catholic judge viewed contained a parody of "The Passion of the Christ", which enraged him so badly that he went ballistic:

The judge, allegedly a very strict Catholic, became outraged at the photos of the X-Day parody of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ — especially the photo where Jesus [Steve Bevilacqua] is wearing clown makeup and carrying a crucifix with a pool-noodle dollar sign on it while being beaten by a crowd of SubGenii, including a topless woman with a “dildo”.

…Judge Punch lost his temper completely, and began to shout abuse at Rachel, calling her a “pervert,” “mentally ill,” “lying,” and a participant in “sex orgies.” The judge ordered that Rachel is to have absolutely no contact with her son, not even in writing, because he felt the pictures of X-Day performance art were evidence enough to suspect “severe mental illness”…

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY charlayne)

This is another one of those examples we keep running into:



Teacher Forces Girl To Remove Religious Necklace

POSTED: 6:59 am EST December 13, 2005

WFTV.com (Florida), October 13, 2005 (found off www.witchvox.com) WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. -- A Seminole County mother is speaking out after her daughter's teacher forced her to remove a necklace, which is a religious sign.

The necklace is a pentacle, a sign of the Wiccan religion.

Aleigh Garmen said Indian Trails Middle School teacher Mary McNeal told her to remove the necklace because it represents Satan. The girl took it off, but with her mother's permission she was transferred to a new class with a failing grade.

Her mother feels it's no different than someone wearing a cross.

"It's your right to be Christian, just like it's my right to be Wiccan, just like it's my daughter's right to wear a necklace," said the girl's mother, Angi Martin.

Channel 9 tried to talk to the teacher, but she would not comment.

The school district said it should have never happened and gave the teacher a warning.

Copyright 2005 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


My only question is why the failing grade?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ellid)

Courtesy of xochiquetzl

http://www.heraldpalladium.com/index.php?pSetup=heraldpalladium&curDate=20051201&pageToLoad=showFreeArticle.php&type=art&index=02

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Welcome to Faith-Based America
By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real
Posted on October 22, 2005, Printed on October 22, 2005
From AlterNet

What's wrong with this picture?

As part of President Bush's "faith-based initiative," US taxpayers gave the Salvation Army's children services division $47 million this year -- 95% of its total budget. Several Salvation Army employees refused to take the Salvation Army's pledge "proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," reveal which church they belong to or identify gay co-workers -- and were summarily fired.

Let's parse this event out. The money came from American taxpayers, many of whom are not Christians. Nevertheless the workers were fired for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Christian prophet. They were also fired for failing to disclose their own religious affiliations, if any. And finally, they were fired for refusing to rat out their co-workers.

Sounds like something that would happen in Communist China, doesn't it? And, if it had happened in China, and it was Christians getting fired, you can bet your sweet bippy the Bush administration and America's Christian right would be screaming bloody murder about it.( Read more... )

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1129454355261710.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051004/church.shtml
http://www.hartselleenquirer.com/articles/2005/10/05/news/news1.txt
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1128417430152490.xml&coll=1
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/opinion/editorials/051009a.shtml
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=3931806&nav=0hBE
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051003/assault.shtml
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1128503864150130.xml&coll=1
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/NEWS02/510050350/1009

Two persons--neither of which are from the Hartselle, AL area--interrupted a Mass held at a Hartselle-area Catholic church and attempted to destroy the altar claiming they did so "on orders from God".

The article does not detail which churches they are affiliated with, but the description of theology by the two persons (being held in jail) indicate they may be involved in the "third wave"/"spiritual warfare" flavours of dominionism. There are also indications the reason they destroyed objects in the church is on account they saw people in the church as "worshipping objects".

In fact, per statements from witnesses (http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1129454346261710.xml&coll=1) the church invaders were accusing the church of "idol worship" before the attempt to destroy the altar.

Per other reports (http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051005/church.shtml) the persons who disrupted the service have been in town for approximately one month, mostly in libraries reading "religious books"; http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=3931897&nav=0hBE has a video interview with a neighbour of one of the persons accused of attacking the altar.

At least one report (http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/10/05/suspect_says_attack_on_church_followed_vision_from_god/) indicates they may have even felt the present pope was the Antichrist.

The second article is especially telling in regards to the potential involvement of dominionist groups into "deliverance ministry/spiritual warfare", as they are reported to have harassed a coffeeshop owner (who has also been subjected to hate speech due to claims he is having Wiccan meetings in the coffeeshop--see http://www.hartselleenquirer.com/articles/2005/09/28/news/news1.txt for further details) and who in fact were called to the area because of the article re the coffeeshop in the Hartselle Enquirer.

Per http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/051017/church.shtml the FBI is now investigating the act as a hate crime.

I am noting this as a) this sort of theology is very common in dominionist circles (in that, especially in regards to dominionist groups practicing "third wave" and/or "latter rain" theology it is literally preached that people are being used as "God's puppets" to institute a theocracy) and b) I intend to post a very large post to this community later today regarding dominionism (and in particular the groups associated with dominionism) as coercive groups.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY droid_1)

Discrimination alleged
The county “issues invitations to deliver prayers to all Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders in the country. It refuses to issue invitations to Native Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Wiccans, or members of any other religion,” justices were told in her appeal by American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Rebecca Glenberg.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9661790/

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From The Staten Island Advance

FEMA needs to change policy of blessing the dead
Government policy is a violation of the principal of church-state separation
Friday, September 30, 2005
By RABBI A. JAMES RUDIN

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's errors and blunders are by now well known, including those I personally witnessed in an early September visit to hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston's Astrodome.

But Newsweek magazine recently reported another, more hidden, problem, that FEMA requires chaplains to recite a blessing over the bodies of hurricane victims. The requirement also extends to civilian contractors involved in recovering the dead following Katrina and Rita.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

"For a Christian parent, you've got some areas of concern that they're teaching things opposite to your faith..."