How Many Christians Does it Take to Conquer the World?

Living in liberal western Massachusetts often feels quite like existing in a vacuum of liberalism and humanistic ideals. It's always a wake-up call when reality strikes through the news. backyard.

This morning it struck like a thunderbolt. I was driving to work and heard an NPR piece entitled
In Quiverful Movement, Birth Control is Shunned. The headline itself is not particularly drastic news from Christian fundamentalists but the news story that unfolded was, to me, one of the more offensive and disturbing I've heard in a long time.

It's nothing new that many fundamentalist Christians like to procreate as many Christian babies as they can. What was shocking to me were the words of some of the people interviewed for the piece.

Nancy Campbell, a leader of the Quiverfull movement and author of Be Fruitful and Multiply had this to say: "The womb is such a powerful weapon; it's a weapon against the enemy."

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The "enemy", it turns out, is the gay community and Muslims (read the article) and doubtless anyone, including Christians who don't interpret the bible in the same way as they do.

In an article from The Nation, which I discovered at QuiverFull.com, I quote this passage about the Quiverfull movement:

They refuse any attempt to regulate pregnancy. Quiverfull began with the publication of Rick and Jan Hess's 1989 book, A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ, which argues that God, as the "Great Physician" and sole "Birth Controller," opens and closes the womb on a case-by-case basis. Women's attempts to control their own bodies--the Lord's temple--are a seizure of divine power.

Another Quiverfull warrior by the name of Mary Pride is quoted in The Nation article as writing: "My body is not my own." This rebuttal of the feminist health text Our Bodies, Ourselves is deliberate. Quiverfull women are more than mothers. They're domestic warriors in the battle against what they see as forty years of destruction wrought by women's liberation: contraception, women's careers, abortion, divorce, homosexuality and child abuse, in that order.

A evangelical pastor:

"Some people think that what I'm doing--having eleven children--is wrong. I don't really get into that much. The Bible says 'be fruitful and multiply.' That's my belief system. They don't believe in God, so they think we have to conserve what we have. But in my belief system, He's going to give us a new earth." Overpopulation isn't a problem in a universe where God promises a clean global slate."


It's doubtful they'll have the large-scale impact they think they may have. But joined with other fundamentalist Christian churches, these people are going to be a constant thorn in the side of those of us who are pro-choice and support marriage equality. Look at the extent to which the Mormon community has grown, flourished financially and taken up the battle against marriage equality in the state of California.

Talking About Religion And Absurdity ...

... things could not get any worse in this respect - to whit (emphasis added):

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Bill in Texas would allow creationists to grant Masters of Science degrees

If a private college doesn't receive funds from any governmental organization, should they have to be held to any standards or requirements when they award degrees? No, one Texan lawmaker is insisting.

Texas State Representative Leo Berman has proposed House Bill 2800, which would exempt any private non-profit institution that requires students to complete “substantive course work” from having to acquire a certificate of authority from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board(THECB). “If you don’t take any federal funds, if you don’t take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding,” Berman says. “Why should you be regulated if you don’t take any state or federal funding?”

Because creationism isn't science, critics argue.

Berman admits that his 'inspiration' for the bill was the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School, a Young Earth Creationism institution that has been trying to achieve certification in Texas for two years. Young Earth Creationism, much more popular than the recent Intelligent Design Creationism, is essentially Biblical literalism – Earth is 10,000 years old, Noah's Flood occurred, Adam and Eve were real people. ICRGS insists that they teach more than just “Biblical Creationism," which is based only on the word of the Bible; they also have incorporated tenets of “Scientific Creationism” into their bylaws. Most of these relate to origins of Earth and the evolution of species. Originally the creationist research branch of Christian Heritage College in San Diego, the ICRGS was forced to split from that college when California regulators threatened to take away its certification. Now, the ICRGS operates mostly online, and its Masters of Science Degree is recognized by California and federal law. According to its website, however, Texas residents cannot receive a degree.

Degree-granting colleges and universities in Texas currently must be issued a certificate of authority by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The certificate allows the holder to grant a degree that a graduate would need to apply for a teaching position in a Texas public school. If House Bill 2800 was made into law, only state-funded colleges and universities would have to report to THECB; everyone else would be free to design their curriculums without any regulation.

Here's what "M.Sc." means:

A Master of Science (Latin: Magister Scientiæ; abbreviated MSc, M.Sc., M.S. or S.M.) is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences.

It bears repeating: creationism is not science.

Creationism in fact belongs in theology (at best). Period.

And yet - here we are with such an absurd and ludicrous proposal to allow "private" (i.e. unregulated/unsupervised) institutions to give out M.Sc. degrees in non-sciences, in non-scientific religious/paranormal/supernatural beliefs.

What's next? B.Sc.'s in prayology? M.Sc.'s in demonology? Ph.D.'s in Spiritology?

A chiropractician who understands little about science as a Minister of Science and Technology?

I say again: welcome to the Semi-Dark Ages of superstitious ignorance.

And to think that, in the end, it's all in our heads.

Looks like constant vigilance on our part is de rigueur indeed if we are to prevent our modern, civilized nations from slowly and gradually becoming scientific/technological backwater societies ruled by parochial religious/supernatural beliefs ...

(More such absurdities can be found here, here and here, folks)

(Cross-posted from APOV)

8 Prop

I'm sort of weak in my enthusiasm for complicated legal matters, you know? So the title of the Prop 8 video immediately caught my eye: Proposition 8 Made Simple. If you haven't seen this, you have to.





This is the latest from the courts on overturnings Prop 8.

And then I want you to take a look at this video of this yes on prop 8 counter-ad.

the war on christmas- and other things

so, i went to the office cmas party this past weekend- mr. betmo's not mine. my 'office party' is going to consist of me, mr. betmo, 2 cats and a bottle of bully hill sweet walter white. and it will be infinitely less tedious. and there are oddly enough- right wing christians in the financial industry. who would have thought that right winger christian capitalists would go into the financial industry? color me surprised :) wink wink. anyhoo- i generally behave myself because any reader familar with my posts here, there and over at my place- know i have little to no tolerance of christianity these days.

my biggest pet peeve is the fact that these asshats are so incurious about a religion that allegedly rules their lives. these people who believe that mere words and symbols negate an entire religion- so you can't even say 'xmas' let alone write it out. for the record, Xmas is not sacriligous. it doesn't mean "taking the christ out of christmas" it's greek for christ's sake.

"The use of "Χ," derived from Chi, the Greek alphabet initial, as an abbreviation for Christ (most commonly in the abbreviation "Χmas") is often misinterpreted as a modern secularization of the term. Thus understood, the centuries-old English word Χmas, is actually a shortened form of CHmas, which is, itself, a shortened form for Christmas. In fact, the use of "Χ" to represent the full word goes back to the earliest days of Greek Christianity."

but, don't try and educate these people- who generally get upset over being called on the fact that the holiday season encompasses chanukah, christmas, eid-ul-adha, and kwanzaa- not to mention celebrating the winter solstice. nope- they feel victimized by the fact that they aren't allowed to put creches on courthouse lawns and that private business have employees say 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry cmas'- even though you only ever hear cmas music piped out of every speaker in the northern hemisphere. mr. betmo has held firm on including other religions being represented in his office if there will be christmas displays- and i support him wholeheartedly. i am not anti-christmas. i am anti-christian. the two are mutually exclusive.

so, in the alleged season of peace while the christians sing 'silent night'- i wonder if they will truly listen to the words and read the words of their bible regarding 'the prince of peace?' nah. if they haven't in the last 2,000+ years- what would make me think that they would now?

A Dear John Letter...

Dear John,
You said, don't blame Palin...

I don't blame Governor Palin.

The responsibility lies solely at your feet.

You, sir, are seen as a war hero by many, including myself, but aren’t war heroes supposed to be heroic?

Your use of "Country First" was shameful and it became quite evident that it was an empty slogan when you chose Sarah Palin as your running mate because someone told you that it would fire up the base and that it would miraculously shore up the Hillary vote. Of course all it shored up was animosity towards you for having used such a transparent tactic against the American electorate thus proving that you have no respect for their intellect and reasoning skills. Never underestimate your audience. Never.

You thrust an unknown governor and first dude and their innocent children into an untenable and preposterous situation.

No. I do not blame you for her actions, after the fact. I do, however, blame you for allowing the use of her as cutthroat surrogate to a rabid base and for you selling your principles and your very soul for god-awful power!

I blame you for sucking up to the Christian fringe and for cozying up to the lobbyists and big oil!

I blame you, Mr. McCain for using your veteran status as a stepping stone for your hubris without thinking of what it is that you were doing to yourself, the nation, war veterans, African Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, the world’s perception of our country, women, gays and lesbians, and senior citizens!

Your doom, I believe, along with many others, began when you visited Liberty University six years after having labeled the Reverend Jerry Falwell one of the political "agents of intolerance". Licking your chops at the possibility of holding the highest office in the land you got your ass in line and kissed the symbolic ring of the contemptuous Christian alliance that is hell-bent on this countries destruction. I find this, not only cowardly on your part, but to have placed a nasty pox upon your record and, simply put, it was precisely where your mavericky demise took root.

Your story of the Vietnamese guard drawing a cross in the dirt with his sandal while you were a POW, which you say is true and I’ve no reason to dispute it, sounded false and your use of such a tale at the Saddleback Church wasn’t you employing a personal and inspirational story to guide sad sacks to God, or as some philosophical anecdote to shed light upon some theory of forgiveness existing within all men, but instead you only used it to shore up your base. The “congregation" and many people watching your performance on television sucked it up like hungry calves on a domesticated ungulate’s teat! It was shameful to say the least. It also proved to the millions of others watching that you would say and do anything to capture the throne. Why the "Christians" could not see this transparent attempt can only be explained by the following verse, “When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend's eye.” In other words, they are blinded by allegiance for supremacy as much as you.

But what really irked me was your inability to curb your racist and bigoted base during the campaign, or more accurately, it was your complicit silence as the ugliness, spawned by your own shameful rhetoric, began to audibly boil over during your kkkampaign rallies. As shameful as that was, it was more shameful when your interest in the quelling of such was peaked only when it became a liability to your campaign. Your behavior is not something that shall soon be forgotten, nor should it be. Your campaign was more despicable than the man’s you hoped to succeed, and that certainly must not have been a cakewalk!

So, you may sense that many of your fellow citizens are blaming Sarah Palin for you and your party’s demise, but please understand that your inane choice of a running mate was merely a byproduct of your own sickly sweet hubris and shallow principles and your base’s lack of a soul.

Sincerely,
thepoetryman