Posts tagged “religion”
A Vermont mother wrote a brilliant letter defending her gay son. The standout line: "If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you." I want it everywhere.
My friend Ed and I can't figure out why Mormons donated a billion dollars to fight gay marriage. I live in SF and see guys kiss maybe twice a year. If you find it icky, stay in Utah. Expecting rational thought from the religious is itself irrational.
I subscribe to AFA newsletters for the laughs, but today's message from Donald Wildmon is genuinely alarming. He's claiming this election will permanently destroy America's Christian foundation, eliminate religious freedoms, and pass the entire "homosexual agenda." The panic is palpable. Register to vote. Defeat Prop 8.
The AFA's Ford boycott roundup reads like a great advertisement for Ford's gay-friendly policies. No gay rights group is tracking Ford this closely. The "horrific" gay kiss they link to is laughably tame, and their claims that the boycott hurt Ford's sales are just as ridiculous.
I'm subscribed to the AFA newsletter for laughs, and they deliver. They're claiming their boycott is tanking Ford's sales, ignoring that Ford has been declining for a decade. Better yet, gay people not buying Fords apparently proves gay disloyalty rather than the absence of any agenda.
The American Family Association, those charming right-wing loons who fill my inbox with weekly entertainment, have outdone themselves by condemning a Hindu Senate prayer. Apparently Hinduism hasn't "produced great things in the world." They just dismissed the oldest major religion in a single sentence. Stunning.
Here every creed and race Find an equal place and may God bless our nation (from The Trinidadian National Anthem) The Archdeacon of Tobago doesn't want Elton John to perform at the Plymouth* Jazz festival. Because he's not a jazz singer? No, because he's gay. And because Trinidad and Tobago is not so great at keeping its laws up to date and has altogether too many religions, there are still laws on the books against sodomy: passed as recently as 1986, the law provides for up to 10 years in prison for homosexual acts between consenting adults (but if you are a minor, and you commit the act, it's only five years... how lenient!). There's also another, much older law which prevents "self-confessed prostitutes and homosexuals" from entering the country, but I cannot find any record of it online. It doesn't look like this will really happen, of course. Gay rights has come a long way in Trinidad in recent years. But this kind of story just makes me want to weep for my stupid,...
A Christian college receiving $10 million in state funding expelled an honor roll student simply for being gay. This is textbook discrimination, and exactly why church and state must stay separate. Spread this story.
The cartoon controversy is muddled because both sides are partly right. The first cartoon is genuine hate speech; the rest are legitimate commentary. Meanwhile, we condemn their treatment of gay people while they condemn our blasphemy, each convinced the other is crazy. And neuroscience suggests neither side can really help it.
Scientology isn't uniquely corrupt. Christianity, Islam, and Scientology are the same animal at different life stages. Religion is a strong, viral, self-defending idea, but strong doesn't mean good. I'm done apologizing for rationalism. I think religion is actively harmful, personally and socially, even if I won't hassle you about it.
After July 7th, I emailed my former Muslim coworker M to get an unfiltered view on British Muslim anger. He confirmed many are furious, but condemned the bombings as un-Islamic. His ranked grievances: Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Bosnia, and Western hypocrisy. This isn't hatred of freedom. It's anger at specific things we did.
A B.C. comic strip where Johnny Hart takes a swipe at evolution. Says it all.
Just back from the amazing Grenadines, full report coming. Also: the new Pope looks genuinely evil. Emperor Palpatine levels of evil. Lightning bolts from the fingers, people who use condoms, you know the drill.
Pope John Paul II has died. Time for the media to treat the papal election like a presidential race. Also, happy birthday M!
Madonna dressed as a nun, Guy as the Pope. My day is complete.
Federally funded abstinence-only sex ed is teaching kids that touching genitals causes pregnancy and half of gay teens have HIV. My tax dollars are funding medieval gender roles dressed up as science. I am furious. You should be too.
The rule placing Election Day on "the first Tuesday after the first Monday" in November exists to avoid November 1st, which is both a Catholic holy day and the day merchants balanced their books. Big business and the religious right shaping US politics? Apparently a founding tradition.
Growing up in Trinidad, I never realized how special its diversity was. Two major races, dozens of religions, yet remarkable harmony. That upbringing made racial and religious equality feel self-evident, not politically correct. I was lucky, even if our tolerance hasn't yet extended to sexuality.
Today's a great day: Massachusetts just struck a blow for marriage equality, and I'm done with euphemisms. He's my husband. Not my partner. My husband. Also, Henry VIII's church probably shouldn't lecture anyone about traditional marriage.
Random thoughts: the Church of England being non-bigoted about sexuality deserves grudging credit; Lemon Jelly's Pushy is worth downloading; cops can't say "what can I do you for?"; and I keep failing at my one-day streak of self-improvement.
Christian publishers are marketing Bibles to teens as lifestyle accessories, including the "Extreme Teen Bible" for boys and "Revolve" (styled like a teen magazine) for girls.
I support civil unions over gay marriage. Marriage is a religious ceremony, like a bar mitzvah, and we shouldn't demand access to it. But the legal rights marriage provides? Those are a human rights issue. Separate the two, grant civil unions to all couples, and let churches sort out the rest.
Depressing statistics from Bob Harris reveal that huge swaths of American adults are dangerously misinformed, fundamentalist, or just plain stupid. Not uniquely American problems, really. Except the Elvis truthers. Obviously he's still alive.
I attended St. Mary's College in Trinidad and hated every minute of it. Crumbling facilities, Catholic indoctrination, non-Catholic students used as unpaid groundskeepers, a culture of universal mutual hostility, and a teaching staff composed almost entirely of incompetents and burnouts. Sadly, it's still one of the better schools in the country.
A poem about the suffocating cost of "perfect" religious upbringing, where every thought, touch, and doubt is controlled. The model child, shaped entirely by his parents' will, has nowhere for his rage to go. Until they find the body.
A frustrated challenge to those who understand science yet still cling to religious belief. How can you know the chemistry of life, the neuroscience of thought, the physics of the universe, and still need God to explain the stars?
