Posts tagged ‘Religion’
Climate Change, Cosmos, Republicans
Just read an article – a great one – on Cosmos. The link is below.
Neil deGrasse Tyson v. the Right: Cosmos, Christians and the Battle for American Science – http://huff.to/1l3Nerk
This is a passage that struck me:
“The scientific consensus about global warming must be untrue, because, as Dr. Innes writes in Left, Right and Christ, the world is “not a glass ornament that we might accidentally destroy… we are not capable of destroying it, whether by nuclear weapons or carbon emissions.”
Just to clear something up:
The Earth itself will be fine. The Earth doesn’t care about its cities; it will keep spinning and orbiting. It’s the humans who are at risk. It’s our way of life that would suffer. The rocky planet will keep going…
Greatest Quote on Religion
This might be the greatest quote on religion. Ever.
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
Dalia Lama
School vouchers – one of the problems
Some greatest hits from a good piece on school vouchers and Republican Valerie Hodges (who clearly doesn’t put much thought into the laws she votes for in Louisiana).
Read the whole article here: http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/louisiana-revelation-school-voucher-funding-it-s-not-just-for-christians
A member of the Louisiana House of Representatives who eagerly supported Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to fund private schools has had an epiphany: Muslim schools might start getting taxpayer money!
Hodges’ bigotry is perhaps only rivaled by her ignorance of constitutional and legal principles.
Ouch.
In Washington, D.C., where House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican allies in Congress have established a federally funded voucher program, most of the schools taking part are Catholic, but two Muslim schools have been among the recipients.
Some legislators aren’t comfortable funding Muslim schools. What’s to be done? How about not establishing these programs in the first place? Let Muslims fund Muslim schools. Let Catholics fund Catholics ones. Let fundamentalist Protestants pay for the conservative Christian academies and so on.
Rep. J. Rogers Pope, points out that the law allows students to be educated off campus and establishes no standards for what qualifies as meaningful education.
“This is impractical on so many levels,” said Pope, a conservative Republican. “What will a high school diploma from Louisiana mean, if nobody can list our courses? How will we verify course content, attendance, teacher qualifications, and testing?”
Welcome to the brave new world of school privatization!
In other states where vouchers have been implemented, we’ve seen a plethora of fly-by-night schools, schools whose leaders are more interested in making a quick buck than educating children and schools where the primary focus is making sure kids are indoctrinated in a particular form of religion, not offering them a sound education.
NEW YORK — A day before Easter, the head of New York’s Roman Catholic archdiocese faced a challenge to his stance on gay rights: the resignation of a church charity board member who says he’s “had enough” of the cardinal’s attitude.
Joseph Amodeo told The Associated Press on Saturday that he quit the junior board of the city’s Catholic Charities after Cardinal Timothy Dolan failed to respond to a “call for help” for homeless youths who are not heterosexual.
It’s not just Dolan…it’s a large part of the entire church (especially the “executive management” of the church). It’s pathetic how the church tolerates and protects homosexual molestation by it’s employees but denies food and shelter to homosexual youth. PATHETIC. I would quit, too. I would also quit putting money in the collection plate and I’d give to a secular organization.
“As youths find the courage and integrity to be honest about who they are at younger ages, hundreds of thousands are being turned out of their homes and forced to survive alone on the streets by parents who cannot accept having a gay child,” Siciliano wrote in his letter, sent last week.
Siciliano, who is Catholic, said parents who are strongly religious are much more likely to reject children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Of the nation’s homeless youths, as many as 40 percent are LGBT, studies show.
Screaming about religion on a plane
When people start doing crazy things on airplanes screaming about their religion…you beat them down. It does not matter at all which religion they’re hollering about because either way – it’s bad news.
Cardinal Dolan calls for Catholics to join religious battle
Ahh, the state of things:
Cardinal Timothy Dolan called on Roman Catholic worshippers Saturday to become more involved in politics as the church stands against the government…
Cardinal Dolan is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Speaking at Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville, the spiritual leader of the Archdiocese of New York said the U.S. government is engaged in “an unwarranted, unprecedented radical intrusion.”
Cardinal Timothy Dolan called on Roman Catholic worshippers Saturday to become more involved in politics as the church stands against the government in what he called a “freedom of religion battle
“We’re not trying to impose our teachings on anybody,” said Dolan in his 45-minute speech to a packed auditorium of about 1,000 people. “We’re simply saying, don’t impose your teaching upon us and make us do as a church what we find unconscionable to do.” [Employers have can opt out – they don’t “have” to do anything].
Proponents say the plan is a breakthrough for women’s rights, but Dolan and other leaders say it violates religious freedom.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/nys-cardinal-urges-freedo_n_1318984.html
No one is making you do anything, you self-righteous self-centered tool. The law states that you can opt out. The president himself has come forward and explained this to dumber members of our society who have trouble with the ‘reading’ and the ‘learning’. (And the ultra-stupid seem to keep turning up with bibles in their hands for some reason).
High ranking leaders speaking to impressionable, using ‘the word of God’ as their justification for using aggressive verbage like ‘battle’, speaking about how America is threatening their religions, talking about the USA as radicals….thin line.
So this idiot is calling for a religious battle against the government. If he were a high-ranking member of a different monotheistic religion…there would be an outcry. The line between this Cardinal encouraging his followers to join a religious battle against the “radical” United States, and a Muslim cleric who is encouraging his followers to join a religious battle against the United States….is a thin line.
Priest is way out of line at a funeral
(Almost) Unbelievable.
She’s burying her own mother and this asshole is…unbelievable. I refuse to believe the Jesus would deny communion to a member of the church, even if they are a sinner. If this priest is denying sacraments to sinners, then he needs to deny communion to all sinners.
A Maryland lesbian who was denied Communion by a Catholic priest while attending her mother’s funeral is speaking out about her experience.
“I approached [Father Marcel Guarnizo of Gaithersburg’s Saint John Neumann Catholic Church] to receive communion, and at that moment, he placed his hand over the bowl containing the Eucharist and looked into my eyes and said, ‘I cannot give you Communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin.'”
Johnson, 51, now says that Father Marcel also left the altar as she was delivering her eulogy.
Though Johnson has reached out via an email, the priest has yet to apologize.
Catholic warning about racism to Republican candidates
For the right, protecting life is solely about abortion. There’s no interest in providing pre-natal care or medical care. And the moment the birth is announced, they don’t give a shit about the kid – especially if it isn’t white. Not only do they spend a large percentage of time railing about cutting back on assisting the poor (another real “WWJD” leadership moment from the Christian Republicans), but these cuts are always associated with black people on welfare. Yet the race who who receives the largest percentage of food stamps is white. And if it’s not black, it’s about how hispanics are destroying the economy because they get so many food stamps. The “other immigrant status” of recipients accounts for 3% of total distribution. 3% isn’t changing the world. It would be better if it were 2% or 1%, sure. But 3% is hardly bringing America too it’s knees nor is it ruining the entire system – and it’s certainly not a widespread problem.
Catholics Warn Gingrich, Santorum On Race Baiting
The signers of the open letter, which was released Friday (Jan. 20), cited Gingrich’s repeated criticisms of Barack Obama as a “food stamp president” who encourages government dependency for the poor, especially for African-Americans.
They also criticized Santorum’s statement that he does not want “to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”
“Some presidential candidates now courting ‘values voters’ seem to have forgotten that defending human life and dignity does not stop with protecting the unborn,” the authors write.
“We remind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum that Catholic bishops describe racism as an ‘intrinsic evil’ and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, [over] one-third of food-stamp recipients are white, while 22 percent are African-American and 16 percent Hispanic. Some 41 percent of all recipients live in households where family members are employed. Surveys show that strong majorities of Americans say they do not want food stamp programs cut.
Food Stamp Participants: http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/MENU/Published/snap/FILES/Participation/2010Characteristics.pdf
Catholics issue warning on racism: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/catholics-ginrich-santorum-race_n_1220152.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl7%7Csec3_lnk2%26pLid%3D129191
Perry’s Strong Ad – 2
More stuff from Perry’s ‘Strong’ ad. More funny!
It’s too late to make the lists of top 2011 memes, but parodies of Rick Perry’s “war on religion” ad are shaping up to be a good one nevertheless.
You can see the original Rick Perry “Strong” ad here. The ad also inspired a Twitter hashtag, #XmasWarDiaries, which encouraged those fighting in the “front lines” to tweet their observations about taking elves hostage and using candy canes as weapons.
War on Christmas
This is exactly the way Jesus planned it – making sure that major retailers don’t say anything blasphemous like “Happy Holidays”. (Gasp… it’s so offensive I can barely type it).
Christians Winning ‘War on Christmas’
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9421835-war-on-christmas-waning-list-shows
The American Family Association, a Christian group, has taken the leading role in alerting the media to the grave danger posed by retailers who avoid using the word “Christmas” in marketing materials in favor of the more neutral “holidays.”
Anyone whose faith is shaken by someone saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is someone who’s faith is tenuous at best. It’s these frail whining brats that drive people away more than win them over. It’s not appealing. I don’t want to be associated with idiots like that, few people do.
Jesus spoke to me and he said he doesn’t give one rat’s ass whether retailers say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. He said he cares what actions you take during your day. He said he is more concerned with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and healing the sick. Not petty bickering by spoiled Americans about how some retailer greets them.
The difference between someone who gets upset at “Happy Holidays” and someone who gets upset about a drawing of their prophet is….almost nothing. Both are over-sensitive children whose tantrums contribute nothing.
Go Earth! 