LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

Va. Schools Win Christian Poster Dispute

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)

I woke up early with something on my mind, and this seems the right place to bring it.

There is an older woman that I work with, a lovely, kind, nurturing, accepting woman. She mothers me, brings me little treats, and gives me hugs when I'm having a bad day. I've known her and her family for 6 years now. She has two great adult kids and a husband who is one of the sweetest men I know.

Here's the thing: she is a fundamentalist Christian. I mean fundy hardcore. She loves Bush like nuns love the Pope, she supports the war, she's really happy about the abortion bill in South Dakota. She believes the Republican party is the party of God. She acknowledges that Bush isn't so very clever, but doesn't think it matters as long as God is working through him. Her beliefs are everything we fear and oppose.

Except when they're not. Here's the problem. Everything I said about her is true. She is one of the kindest people I've ever met. She has no racial bigotry at all, since she believes we are all God's children. She believes she is called to do justice and walk humbly, and mostly she succeeds. She is the farthest thing from cruel or vengeful imaginable. She is poor as a church mouse but I've seen her take her last dollars out of her pocket and give them to students in need. She sort of knows we're not on the same page religiously, but doesn't push or harangue me about it. She acknowledges that there are people of faith who are Democrats or progressives and who feel just as strongly about war as she does about abortion, and she doesn't think they're wrong. She's not tremendously bright or insightful, which puts her on par with most of the human race. She's a kind, decent person, which on many levels trumps it anyway.

Why am I relating all this? Because the lines we're looking at aren't anywhere near as clear as we would like to think. And we need to know that. For every bitter walking swamp of hatred like Tim LaHaye, there's a woman like this woman. And there's the problem, the challenge, and the possibility as well. Knowing her doesn't change a thing about how I feel or what I believe to be true, but it has taught me that it's not as simple as "us" and "them". And it also makes me angry, with a deep, cold fury, because Bush is using both the Tim LaHayes and the people like her. He's been able to cast an enormous, simplistic net, and by god, it's worked. He and his ilk are cynically using people's faith --- and I've known that for a long time, of course. He's turned this kindly woman into a supporter of death,mayhem, torture, and cruelties beyond imagining, and she doesn't see it or can't see it. All he had to do was link it to abortion, and she was on board, because abortion really bothers her and she's a single-issue voter. She's been duped. Her faith has been hijacked. We know that. But she doesn't. She's not intellectual enough to be swayed by argument and reason. She worries about me because she thinks I chew over things too much, which can jeopardize faith, in her mind. And of course, it does in my case, but I don't go too much into it with her. It wouldn't do any good and she would be scared and upset for me, because she loves me, and I love her.

So there it is. That's a more dimensional view of what the real challenge is - that many, many, many of these people would never hurt a fly, would never attack or abuse anyone, would never choose to torture a prisoner or add to a young girl's misfortune and pain. But they are doing it, everyday, because the powers that be have duped them and lied to them and scared them and gotten their vote on single issues and blown smoke in their eyes on everything else. There's a glimmer of hope in this, though. We'll never change the minds of the Pat Robertsons and the LaHayes and such. But folks like these, we might. If we can show them where their faith is served through progressive politics - and get them to see that war is a bigger social issue for a Christian than abortion or homosexuality, then there's a chance. But how to break the hypnosis? How to get the basically decent people -- albeit with views we oppose -- to see that?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY seshen)

If Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in a quiet corner of southwest Florida will be governed by strict Roman Catholic principles, particularly when it comes to sex.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)

...using its own vocabulary and concepts:

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. On this day when all Christians are enjoined to emulate Christ and undergo a 40-day period of reflection and penance, I invite Christian America to do just that. You wish to follow Jesus? Let’s begin.

Go ye into the wilderness and meet the demons of the desolate places. Leave the comfort of your climate-controlled homes and learn what it is to go without water or food. See those bleached bones? Do you imagine yours would look any different, or do you envision them as gold-plated? Climb up that mountain. The Prince of High Places is waiting for you. He speaks from his white mansion and spreads the bounty of the earth before you, if you will but follow him. Do you hear his voice? It’s telling you to trust him, to sanction his will, to do his bidding. Listen. War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Weren’t you supposed to go into all the earth and make converts of all nations? Maybe this is what was meant. Ask yourself your own question – what would Jesus do? Do you think he’d believe the Prince of Lies even if that Prince claimed to speak in Jesus’ very name? Would he sanction what you have sanctioned? Would he be tempted by the fear, the uncertainty, and the lust for power as you are being tempted? Would he yield to it? Do you truly want to follow Jesus? It’s time to look in the face of the lying angel beside you and realize that it’s not the Christ you say you believe in.

Shall you follow Jesus? Then repent. Repent of your pride, you arrogance, your Pharisaic bigotry and complacency. Shall we grind your nose into the mud and dust of misery, despair, hunger, oppression, war, hatred, death? Jesus knew all these things. Follow him and learn the darkness in your own soul. Do you think you are blameless? Sightless eyes gaze out from rubble world-wide, rubble you sanctioned as surely as if you had guided the bombs and the bullets with your own hand. Do you think you don’t need forgiveness for what you have done? So tonight, go to your churches, and be marked in oil and ash. And this year, maybe for the first year, consider what it means. When the greasy black soot is crossed upon your forehead, imagine how much the consistency resembles that of the flesh of children buried in flame from the skies, how much the ash is akin to the ash of death and destruction. The priest will say, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That day is coming for you, as it is for everyone. Do you believe you will be held to judgment after death? If so, your repentance had better begin now. You have much to answer for.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dracontias73)

Saw on my local news this morning http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060301/NEWS010504/603010357
Who's next? Very sad day indeed here in Mississippi....

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY britzkrieg)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- House lawmakers scuttled a bill that would have required public school students to be told that evolution is not empirically proven -- the latest setback for critics of evolution.

The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars, had said it was time to rein in teachers who were teaching that man descended from apes and rattling the faith of students...

Buttars said he didn't believe the defeat means that most House members think Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is correct.

"I don't believe that anybody in there really wants their kids to be taught that their great-grandfather was an ape," Buttars said.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kiji_kat)

School distances itself from Brokeback actress.

“Michelle doesn't represent the values of this institution. We would not approve of her movies and TV shows (including the teen drama “Dawson's Creek”). We'd not like to be tied to 'Brokeback Mountain.'

“I hope we offered her something in life. But she made the kinds of choices of which we wouldn't approve. 'Brokeback Mountain' basically promotes a lifestyle we don't promote. It's not the word of God.”

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY scarcrest)

I saw seshen's recent post here about Domino's Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan's dream of building a Catholic city in Florida, keeping out pharmacies that sell birth control, etc. For a while, the pro-life camp was boycotting Domino's because of his support for anti-choice groups (I refuse to call Operation Rescue "pro-life"), and every time this story comes up online, his Domino's connection is mentioned in a way that makes it sound like he's still with the company. As I wrote in my journal a couple of weeks ago:

No, Domino's Pizza DOESN'T support anti-abortion terrorist group Operation Rescue. Its founder -- who's in the news for plans to create a town in Florida called Ave Maria, a town in which he'd own all the land and plans to keep pharmacies that sell birth control out of town -- has given money to them, yes, but he sold the company in 1998 and receives no money from them these days.

Buying Domino's Pizza before 1998 = good chance a couple of pennies of your money went to terrorists. (Well, people we'd call terrorists if they weren't Americans and didn't claim to be committing their crimes in the name of the Christian religion, anyway.)

Buying Domino's Pizza after 1998 = only hurting yourself, just like all the other junk we eat.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY exotic_princess)

Dealing with post-rapture times, finding converts and training them to lead the fight against the Antichrist.

wheee fun!


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11567350/site/newsweek/

Pee Ess: Just a tidbit, also from MSNBC.com

Next up — Brokeback clothing
Here’s something you won’t see Heath Ledger wearing: a Christian clothing company is making a bible-quoting T-shirt mocking Brokeback Mountain.

Second Coming Clothing Company — which says it sells "Christian T-shirts with attitude" — is hawking a shirt emblazoned with the words: "The Original 10 Commandments, BrokeBack on the Mountain." It shows an irate Moses staring at people dancing around Golden Calf and quotes the Bible: "In his anger, Moses broke the two tablets of stone that the Ten Commandments were written on while walking back down the mountain." (Emphasis ours.)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY mizliz)
Here's a nice counter to my earlier posts - an article from Mother Jones about leftist Christian community organizing. It's a struggle sometimes (particularly where I live) not to blindly tar everyone with the same brush, and the article gave me a good slap to the head as a reminder.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article from Sojourners illustrates the bias that the religious right has against women's and ultimately public health:

The Religious Right's vaccination vexation
by David Batstone

When it comes to teen sex, all parents hope and pray that their children make wise choices. Children as young as 12 or 13 weigh decisions with consequences that could impact the rest of their lives in a dramatic way. At this point in the conversation our teenage children roll their eyes, but parents know the risks to be real.

Parental anxiety therefore is unavoidable, all the more so because they realize that the ultimate choices their teens make about sex are beyond their control. That begs a question: If a child violates the moral code that parents set, are those parents willing to put their child's life in mortal danger? Tragically, some Christians are willing to answer, "Yes."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jargon_john)

In a rare public dissent, 19 Catholic priests have denounced the Vatican's opposition to gay marriage and allowing homosexuals into the priesthood.

The clerics signed an open letter that ran Sunday in Montreal's La Presse newspaper, criticizing the church's positions on the issues.

The priests said the church was invoking "natural law" to make its case against homosexuality, arguing that slavery was also once considered "natural."

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY dunesong)

Hello all. First off a heartfelt thanks from me to all who posted advice or information to my post concerning my sister. I have posted a longer thank you there, but in case it was missed, I wanted you to know I really appreciated the time you took to post and the wealth of info provided.

Now onto the insanity:

Alito kisses up to Dobson. Plus Dobson pulls a Robertson and prays for a vacancy on the court.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/alito-sends-james-dobson-_b_16596.html

To me it seems like these people are getting more and more bold. This just reeks of conflict of interest. This thing that strikes me is that he wanted it public. Even if this is somehow legally legitimate, it has the appearance of impropriety. That use to mean something.