LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

I found a clip of Pastor Ted Haggard giving Richard Dawkins a lecture about arrogance. Holy shit- talk about the pot calling the kettle black... Richard Dawkins, for those of you who do not know, is an eminent evolutionary biologist who is also an ardent atheist. He wrote "The Blind Watchmaker", and "The Selfish Gene", among other things. Ted Haggard is the pastor of the dominionist New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Here's the site. And here's the show it came from. Chances are that we'll never see it in the US.

What I could not get over was the snarl on Haggard's face as he dressed Dawkins down, and the flat hate in his eyes. And you could see that Dawkins was shaking with anger. He does not play well with True Believers ™.

Here's an article about Dawkins from the Guardian.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Is your faith toxic? Or are you sliding down a slippery slope that leads to such a belief set? I found a Self Test from a book entitled "Toxic Faith" that might be of use in determining if this is indeed true.

( Take the test )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY scarcrest)

State of Belief starts Sunday on Air America Radio. I have a feeling the topic of Dominionism will come up sooner rather than later, as the host is the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance and a former Southern Baptist Convention official from the days before fundamentalism marched in and stuck a sword through Jesus' heart.

I've created a syndication feed for the show's site at state_of_belief -- looks a bit more ambitious than some of the other Air America Radio sites.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

Article here, from USAToday

Exerpt:

The civil rights lawsuit filed by Calvary Chapel alleges that the 10-campus University of California is trampling the freedom of "a religious school to be religious." UC rejected the content of courses such as "Christianity's Influence in American History" and "Christianity and Morality in American Literature."

In court documents, UC says the free-speech clause of the First Amendment gives it the right to set admission standards. "What we're looking for is this: Is the course academic in nature, or is it there to promote a specific religious lifestyle?" UC spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina says.

The university rejected some class credits because Calvary Chapel relies on textbooks from leading Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Book. A biology book from Bob Jones University presents creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution. The introduction says, "The people who have prepared this book have tried consistently to put the Word of God first and science second."

UC says such books would be acceptable as supplementary reading but not as the main textbook.


Your thoughts?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

Christian groups oppose bill to establish Bible course

Now, why on Earth would they do something like that - after all, wouldn't having a course (elective) in school about The Bible be a good thing?

Could it possibly be due to the following minor little detail?: "...the bill also specifies a specific textbook to be used in the course, which he said would violate the state process for selecting textbooks."

Nyahh...couldn't be that. You know, them not being able to control the course content and all...