disinterested party: Religion Archives

July 13, 2006

Kent gets canned

A Pensacola evangelist was arrested Thursday and indicted in federal court on 58 charges that include income tax evasion, making threats against investigators and filing false complaints against Internal Revenue Service agents.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Miles Davis handed down the indictment against Kent Hovind, who operated a creationist theme park Dinosaur Adventure Land, off Old Palafox Road.

Hovind’s wife, Jo Hovind, was also indicted on 44 of the counts and appeared in court alongside her husband.

Arraignment for the Hovinds is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday. The couple was released pending their trial but are not allowed to travel outside the Northern District of Florida.

UPDATE: More detail here. And some background here.

Posted by Stephen at 06:14 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 01, 2006

Out of tune

Another fine example of how religion poisons everything:

For years, seniors in the wind ensemble at Henry M. Jackson High School have selected a favorite piece of music to play during commencement.

For last month’s ceremonies, the 17 students chose an instrumental version of “Ave Maria,” which they had performed at a school concert in December 2004.

But their choice was vetoed by Dr. Carol Whitehead, superintendent of the Everett School District. Instead, the ensemble played a selection by British composer Gustav Holst.

Now Kathryn Nurre, an 18-year-old who played alto saxophone in the ensemble before graduating, is suing Whitehead, claiming the decision violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech. She believes “Ave Maria” was nixed by Whitehead because she felt the song was too religious for a school-sanctioned event.

… Kathryn’s mother, Vicki Nurre, said neither her daughter nor the other members of the Mill Creek school’s ensemble — who unanimously voted to play “Ave Maria” — were trying to make a religious statement.

“The kids had no agenda when they picked the piece,” said Vicki Nurre, of Bothell. “It was a piece they loved, it was a piece they played well ... they were shocked when they were shot out of the water on this.”

The kids may not have had an agenda, but Nurre sure did:

Vicki Nurre contacted the Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal foundation based in Charlottesville, Va., that presses hundreds of cases each year that involve questions of religious freedom and free speech. The organization attracted headlines in the mid-1990s when it assisted Paula Jones’ sexual-harassment lawsuit against President Clinton.

W. Theodore Vander Wel, who has handled Washington state cases as an affiliate attorney for the Rutherford Institute for 15 years, was enlisted as local counsel and a complaint was assembled within days of the graduation ceremony.

All this over the instrumental version of Ave Maria, remember…

Posted by Stephen at 08:17 PM in Education | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 30, 2006

Rock, paper, schisms

Empty words:

When referring to the Trinity, most Christians are likely to say “Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.”

But leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are suggesting some additional designations: “Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child and Life-giving Womb,” or perhaps “Overflowing Font, Living Water, Flowing River.”

Then there’s “Rock, Cornerstone and Temple” and “Rainbow of Promise, Ark of Salvation and Dove of Peace.”

The phrases are among 12 suggested but not mandatory wordings essentially endorsed this month by delegates to the church’s policy-making body to describe a “triune God,” the Christian doctrine of God in three persons.

The Rev. Mark Brewer, senior pastor of Bel Air Presbyterian Church, is among those in the 2.3-million-member denomination unhappy with the additions.

“You might as well put in Huey, Dewey and Louie,” he said.

“Any time you get together representatives of 2 1/2 million people, you get some really solid people and some really wacky people,” he said, referring to the delegates who attended the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala.

… Like many longtime Presbyterians, Sherie Zander, a Brentwood psychotherapist, has followed the General Assembly’s actions. She worries that the report on the Trinity will further divide her denomination, already polarized over issues such as the ordination of gays.

“It’s very odd and bizarre,” she said. When she first heard about the report last week from a friend who called her from Birmingham with “You’ve got to hear this,” she burst out laughing.

“It’s very clear that God refers to himself as the father,” she said. “Jesus, when he walked on the Earth, referred to himself as the son. All through Scripture, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the spirit. What would give any of us the right to change that?”

… Bel Air’s Brewer also warned against over-familiar language.

A child calling parents “Father” and “Mother,” he said, is far different from calling them “Billy and Betty.”

Posted by Stephen at 11:51 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 22, 2006

Immaculate deception

I’ll let this one speak for itself:

Insurers have withdrawn the cover on their virginity taken out by three sisters in the event of the second coming of Christ.

Essex-based Britishinsurance.com confirmed it had provided the £1m policy, but said it was reviewed on Thursday following complaints.

The firm said the women from Inverness had renewed the policy since 2000.

The cover was meant to pay for the cost of bringing up Christ if one of them conceived immaculately.

Britishinsurance.com managing director Simon Burgess said it had not been the company’s intention to offend anyone.

… Mr Burgess said: “The people were concerned about having sufficient funds if they immaculately conceived. It was for caring and bringing up the Christ.

… The burden of proof that it was Christ had rested with the women and any premium on the insurance was donated to charity, said Mr Burgess.

The siblings had paid £100 annually since 2000. If they had secured a payout, they stood to receive £1m.

… The women, who have not been identified, are believed to be members of a Christian group in Inverness.

Posted by Stephen at 12:59 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 21, 2006

Science vs. fiction

A Good Thing, I guess, but frustrating that academia has to waste so much time on a crusade against the creationist cretins:

The world’s scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being “concealed, denied or confused”.

The national science academies of 67 countries warned parents and teachers to ensure that they did not undermine the teaching of evolution or allow children to be taught that the world was created in six days.

Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth. There have also been fears that these views are creeping into British schools.

The statement, which the Royal Society signed on behalf of Britain’s scientists, said: “We urge decision-makers, teachers and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and foster an understanding of the science of nature. Knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet.”

“Within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data, and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied, or confused with theories not testable by science.”

… [C]reationism is being included in the science curricula of a growing number of UK universities. Leeds University plans to incorporate one or two compulsory lectures on creationism and intelligent design into its second-year course for zoology and genetics undergraduates next Christmas, according to The Times Higher Education Supplement. At Leicester University, academics discuss creationism and intelligent design with third-year genetics undergraduates for about 20 minutes in lectures.

In both cases, lecturers argue that the controversial theories will be presented as fallacies irreconcilable with scientific evidence. But […] a THES investigation has also discovered there are at least 14 academics in science departments who consider themselves creationists. They believe all kinds of life were designed rather than evolved. Several others are proponents of intelligent design, which rejects evolution.

And is of course identical to creationism, although don’t tell the Independent.

More on creationism/ID here, and on Britain’s pseudo-education woes here.

June 19, 2006

Collect calling

Another time-honored Christian tradition:

Countries whose citizens regularly attend church are likely to be more corrupt, according to a think-tank’s report.

The study finds a link between religious devotion — calculated according to the proportion of the population that attends a place of worship at least once a week — and levels of perceived corruption among public officials and in business life.

Of the 27 countries considered, 22 were predominantly Christian. Ian Senior, who wrote the study for the Institute of Economic Affairs, said that the apparent link was a surprise. “Personally, I find it disappointing that religiosity apparently does not provide a bulwark against corruption,” he said.

He also found that high levels of corruption, as measured by Transparency International, an anti-corruption pressure group, were associated with low incomes per head, high regulation and a lack of press freedom.

Mr Senior compiled a league of corruption in leading countries and international institutions by analysing newspaper reports from the past 30 years of invest-
igations into corrupt practices, awarding “gold medals” to heads of government who play the system and lesser medals for politicians further down the line.

2 Peter 2:19 also comes to mind.

Posted by Stephen at 12:54 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2006

Feel the love

A haven of spiritual healing indeed:

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Christian reform school sued over Missouri’s removal of 115 students whom officials said they were trying to protect from abuse.

Heartland Academy and its parent corporation, CNS International Ministries Inc., were joined by more than 50 parents and children in the federal lawsuit.

The school, located 150 miles north of St. Louis, relies on a strict Christian doctrine and corporal punishment to try to turn around wayward students in kindergarten through high school.

In October 2001, a state juvenile officer ordered 115 students removed. Among the abuse allegations was that students were required to stand in manure and shovel it.

Charles Sharpe, the school’s founder, said Tuesday the school required some students to shovel manure but he called the claim they were made to stand in it “an outrageous lie.”

Several parents came to the school’s defense after the students were removed, and a judge later allowed the children to return.

… Sharpe said the only harm to students in 10 years was when staff placed two out-of-control students in a restraining device and broke their arms. Another student had his ear drum punctured in a confrontation with a staff member that got out of hand, he said.

And face it: broken arms, punctured eardrums and being knee-deep in shit are what real discipline is all about.

Posted by Stephen at 10:07 PM in Education | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 05, 2006

Lionheart

No, he isn’t:

Jun 5, 2006 — KIEV (Reuters) — A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal’s enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

“The man shouted ‘God will save me, if he exists’, lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,” the official said.

“A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.”

The incident, Sunday evening when the zoo was packed with visitors, was the first of its kind at the attraction. Lions and tigers are kept in an “animal island” protected by thick concrete blocks.

Posted by Stephen at 11:36 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 01, 2006

Led into temptation

If your parents believe in God, they’ll believe anything:

NEW YORK - Teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until marriage are likely to deny having taken the pledge if they later become sexually active. Conversely, those who were sexual active before taking the pledge frequency deny their sexual history, according to new study findings.

These findings imply that virginity pledgers often provide unreliable data, making assessment of abstinence-based sex education programs unreliable. In addition, these teens may also under-
estimate their risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.

“Teenagers do not report their past sexual activity accurately, with virginity pledgers giving more inaccurate reports of their past sexual activity,” study author Janet Rosenbaum, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health.

Consequently, rather than rely on self-reports, “studies of virginity pledges must focus on outcomes where we know we can get good information, such as medical STD tests,” she added.

LOL.

Previous research shows that survey respondents tend to answer questions about sexual activity according to their current beliefs, particularly if their current attitudes conflict with their past behaviors. Survey respondents may also underreport or overreport their health risk behavior.

Rosenbaum evaluated retractions of virginity pledges and reports of sexual histories among a nationally representative sample of seventh- through twelfth-grade students who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

The students were first interviewed in 1995 and followed-up in 1996. The first survey included responses from 79 percent of 20,745 students. The second survey included responses from 88 percent of 14,736 students from the first group.

In the initial survey, about 13 percent of adolescents reported that they had taken a pledge of virginity. Just one year later, however, more than half of this group said they had never taken such a pledge, Rosenbaum reports in the American Journal of Public Health.

In addition, more than 1 in 10 students who reported being sexually active in 1995 said that they were virgins in 1996. Students who reported they were sexually active in second survey were more than three times as likely as their peers to deny they had taken a pledge of virginity.

The adolescents’ denials of virginity pledges and sexual histories were associated with changes in their sexual and religious identities, the report indicates.

For example, adolescents who abandoned a born-again Christian identity were more than twice as likely as their peers to say they had never taken a virginity pledge.

On the other hand, 28 percent of nonvirgins who later took a virginity pledge retracted their sexual histories during the 1996 survey. The same was true of 18 percent of nonvirgins who later adopted a born-again Christian identity.

Sexually active teens who later took virginity pledges were four times as likely to deny previous reports of sexual activity than were those who had not taken virginity pledges.

According to Rosenbaum, “it’s not possible to know why pledgers retracted their sexual history since it’s impossible to know whether respondents actually had sex.”

Although with programs like this on offer, it’s not surprising that God-fearing kids are confused. Still, at least lying about your virginity is an established Christian tradition.

Posted by Stephen at 07:55 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 29, 2006

Land of the rising son

Except in this version of the myth, he didn’t exactly rise:

In a paddy-lined valley in the far north of Japan is a municipal signpost inscribed: “Tomb of Christ: next left.”

Follow the winding path up into the forest and there, sure enough, is a simple mound with a large wooden cross labelled as the grave of Jesus. Nearby is a tomb commemorating Isukiri, Christ’s brother, adorned with a plastic poinsettia Christmas wreath.

For two millennia the farming village of Shingo claims to have protected a tradition that Jesus spent most of his life in Japan. The village is the home of Sajiro Sawaguchi, a man in his eighties who claims to be a direct descendant of Jesus and whose family has always owned the land in which it is said that Christ is buried.

Mr Sawaguchi emerged as Jesus’s heir only in 1935, when a priest in Ibaraki discovered a document in ancient Japanese purporting to be Christ’s will. This document supposedly identifies Shingo as the location of the tombs of Jesus and Isukiri. The claim is widely believed. About 40,000 Japanese visit the site every year.

… According to the account in the Christ Museum next to the tombs, Christ arrived in Japan at the age of 21 and learnt Japanese before returning to Judaea 12 years later to engage in his mission and preach about the “holy land of Japan”. The official Shingo history is that Jesus’s place on the Cross was “casually” taken by his brother, leaving Christ free to return to Japan. On his return he fell in love with Miyuko, a local girl, and lived happily with his family among the rice fields until dying aged 106.

The grave’s upkeep is apparently supported by the profits of a local yoghurt factory.

Posted by Stephen at 07:53 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 24, 2006

Robust lying

Pat Robertson, superhero:

Did you know that Pat Robertson can leg-press 2000 pounds! How does he do it?

Where does Pat find the time and energy to host a daily, national TV show, head a world-wide ministry, develop visionary scholars, while traveling the globe as a statesman?

One of Pat’s secrets to keeping his energy high and his vitality soaring is his age-defying protein shake. Pat developed a delicious, refreshing shake, filled with energy-producing nutrients.

Leg-press a ton? Well, maybe not:

There is no way on earth Robertson leg presses 2,000 pounds. That would mean a 76-year-old man broke the all-time Florida State University leg press record by 665 pounds over Dan Kendra. 665 pounds. Further, when he set the record, they had to modify the leg press machine to fit 1,335 pounds. Plus, Kendra’s capillaries in his eyes burst. Burst. Where in the world did Robertson even find a machine that could hold 2,000 pounds at one time? And how does he still have vision?

Still, worth a try.

Posted by Stephen at 02:30 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 22, 2006

Legionaries’ disease

Prayer and penance: wipes the slate clean for even the most perverted priest:

As founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the Rev. Marcial Maciel is a central figure for the thousands of followers in the Roman Catholic order. Students study his life, portray him in skits to celebrate his birthday and follow his instructions on everything from table manners to how to wear their hair.

But the controversial order will likely face dramatic changes with the conclusion of a Vatican investigation into allegations that Maciel sexually abused seminarians decades ago. Pope Benedict XVI requested Friday that Maciel no longer celebrate public Masses, and that he should live a life of “prayer and penance.”

The church did not say if the allegations were true, but experts say the Vatican would not have imposed a severe penalty without finding at least some validity to the complaints.

“It would be like teaching the Franciscans they shouldn’t talk about St. Francis,” said the Rev. James Martin, associate editor of the Jesuit magazine America. “I think the order will survive, but it will be a very difficult few years for them.”

The order, which has its U.S. headquarters in Orange, includes some 600 priests and 2,500 seminarians in 20 countries in North and South America, Europe and Australia. In the United States, it operates boarding schools in New Hampshire, California and Indiana for boys interested in the priesthood.

Some predict a decline in new seminarians and students.

“Any parent who would send their child of that age to a group founded by a monster of that type has to be out of their mind,” said Glenn Faureau, a board member of ReGAIN, a group comprised of former Legionaries.

… The Legionaries has been a favorite of many traditional Catholics in the United States, for the order’s loyalty to church teaching and its success in recruiting priests despite a clergy shortage. Many had defended Maciel, an 86-year-old Mexican priest, arguing that liberals were making the abuse claims to undermine him.

Still, some conservatives questioned the order’s aggressive tactics. The Rev. Joseph Fessio, a conservative Jesuit and founder of Ignatius Press, the U.S. publisher for Pope Benedict, said, “this tremendous zeal for souls of the Legionaries sometimes leads them into kind of exaggerated forms of recruitment.”

Such as molesting potential seminarians, presumably. Still, not all of the Vatican's top clergy are sexual predators: some are loan sharks.

Posted by Stephen at 12:29 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 19, 2006

Blood disorder

Religion and bloodletting have always gone hand in hand:

Religion and spirituality may have a positive effect on blood pressure, according to a study of more than 5,300 black Americans.

Researchers found that people in the Jackson (Miss.) Heart Study who were involved with or participated in religious activities had significantly lower blood pressure than people who did not, even though the people involved in religious activities were more likely to have high blood pressure, higher body mass index (BMI) scores, and lower levels of adherence to medications.

… “Cardiovascular health disparities among African-Americans are widely recognized, and hypertension is the most prominent risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease in African-Americans,” study author Sharon Wyatt, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said in a prepared statement.

“Our findings show that the integration of religion and spirituality – attending church and praying – may buffer individuals exposed to stress and delay the deleterious effects of hypertension. These practices can be useful for individuals to incorporate into their daily lives,” Wyatt said.

Except that a more robust study released today suggests that chronic stress almost certainly doesn’t cause high blood pressure:

The notion that being stressed out on the job causes high blood pressure doesn’t hold up, according to a new analysis of studies involving more than 100,000 people.

“There’s no doubt that in the moment stress raises blood pressure,” the study’s author, Dr Samuel J. Mann of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said. But there’s virtually no evidence, he said, that such stress leads to chronic high blood pressure, or hypertension. “They’ve been trying to prove that for 40 years.”

… Studies have tied stress to heart disease, Mann noted, but hypertension is not likely to be the contributing link. Instead, he added, stress might boost high blood pressure risk by leading people to overeat, gain weight and abuse alcohol.

While Mann says he’s not categorically denying that job stress could cause hypertension in some people, it’s role is likely small. About 40 percent of hypertension is due to genetics, and another 40 percent to overweight, poor diet, salt intake and lack of exercise - leaving about 20 percent available for other causes, he explained.

Overweight, poor diet, alcoholic… that definitely sounds like my local evangelical congregation. Perhaps their stress levels are being reduced by the extra rest they get during endless sermons. Belief is a wonderful thing.

The illustration shows a more traditional way for Christians to cut their blood pressure.

Posted by Stephen at 12:06 AM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 17, 2006

ID comes to DC

DC’s new archbishop is an intelligent-designer who believes that ID’s pseudo-science encompasses evolution. He also thinks that ID and creationism are distinct, and seems confused about what the “I” in ID actually stands for. Apart from all that, a terrific choice by the Vatican:

The Vatican has announced that Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pitts-
burgh will replace Theodore Cardinal McCarrick as arch-
bishop of the Catholic diocese of Washington DC. The Arch-
diocese of Washington is one of the “red hat” dioceses of the US whose archbishop is customarily made a cardinal, and Wuerl, at 65, is likely to be of voting age at the next papal election.

Last year, Bishop Wuerl threw his support behind the teaching of Intelligent Design (ID) as an alternative theory of creation to materialist Darwinism. Bishop Wuerl spoke of the theory’s “reasonableness” and the need to offer students more than one theory of the origins of life.

In an article for the Pittsburgh diocesan newspaper, Wuerl said that ID presented a middle ground between the ardent secularists who deny the origins of life in God and the so-called creationists who refute any development of life. With ID, he wrote, “We recognize both God’s free creation of all that is and the possibility, or even probability, that creation carried within it the plan of development which we can call evolution.”

“Intellectual design in the world is a rational conclusion based on thousands of years of observation and reflection. It is not an “a priori” religious tenant superimposed on the facts. Rather it is the light of reason illuminating the universe.”

This puts Wuerl at odds with a number of Vatican luminaries, such as its chief astronomer, who only last month said:

“Teaching Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution is something we have to fight against in the scientific community because Intelligent Design is simply outside the realm of science.”

“Science completely excludes whether or not God had anything to do with the creation of the universe. There’s 1,500 years between the beginning of the writing of the Bible and the beginning of modern science. So to say one is reflected in the other is incorrect.”

Wuerl’s views, however, are apparently closer to those of Pope Benedict, who has described the universe as an “intelligent project:”

“With the sacred Scripture, the Lord awakens the reason that sleeps and tells us: In the beginning, there was the creative word. In the beginning, the creative word — this word that created everything and created this intelligent project that is the cosmos — is also love.”

In other words, the Vatican is more than a little confused.

You can read Wuerl’s thoughts on ID here.

Posted by Stephen at 12:09 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 16, 2006

Bibblespeak

Creationism—and other bibblical teachings—for the truly disturbed.

Hat tip to Cosmic Variance.

Posted by Stephen at 06:37 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2006

A Plan B for Plan B

A pretty good column from U.S. News & World Report (pity nobody reads it):

In the tradition of peaceful revolutionaries fed up with tyrants, the 49,000-member American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists unveiled a national prescription-writing campaign last week for the morning-after pill. What makes this group of physicians so irate, according to ACOG’s past President Vivian Dickerson, is the “despicable treatment of women at the hands of the FDA.”

In 1999, the Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency contraceptive, dubbed “Plan B” by its manufacturer, as safe and effective but only if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Because of the narrow window, the agency’s own scientists and its external advisory panel supported the manufacturer’s application to make the drug available over the counter so women could get it in the nick of time. But the FDA dragged its heels and eventually turned down the request, prompting an outcry. When the Government Accountability Office delved into the matter last fall, it concluded that the agency had made its call with an unusual amount of top brass involvement. What’s more, the FDA used a “novel” rationale for the thumbs down: Ready access to Plan B would encourage young girls to “engage in unsafe sexual behaviors because of their lack of cognitive maturity.” A fancy way of saying access to contraceptives would drive young women to reckless sex.

Plan B has also been a political lightning rod for antiabortion activists, even though the drug does not disrupt or harm a pregnancy. Rather, it prevents pregnancy with a high-dose jolt of birth control hormones. Thus it decreases the risk of abortion. In short, spurious concerns both about women’s sexual behavior and about abortion fuel the seemingly endless tempest surrounding women’s appropriate and lawful use of an emergency drug.

The ACOG campaign, called “Ask me,” effectively creates an over-the-counter option that subverts the FDA ruling. Doctors will offer information on the drug and prescriptions to women who, well, just ask. Patients can either keep the paper as Rx-in-waiting or have the prescription filled and ready in their medicine cabinets—which allows them to use the pills at their own discretion.

… But advance prescriptions may not be enough. […] Despite a doctor’s orders, a pharmacist can decide not to dispense the contraceptive based on moral or religious beliefs. Fine. But there must be an alternative pharmacist or pharmacy to fill the order, or else the conscientious objectors are imposing their beliefs on a woman who then becomes powerless to exercise her own.

Imagine if a pharmacist could block the sale of condoms based on religious persuasion. It’s not so far-fetched; the Vatican historically has banned condoms, even opposing their distribution in Africa to protect against HIV. And would there not be an uproar if a pharmacist’s own sense of sin used a man’s marital status to determine whether or not to fill his prescription for Viagra? The debate over Plan B smacks of a double standard. But worse, without knowing beforehand of the pharmacist’s opposition to the drug, a woman requesting it is not only turned away but also humiliated as her privacy is breached and her personal life judged.

Posted by Stephen at 01:55 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 12, 2006

Defense mechanism

Protecting the nation: $513 billion. Protecting the prayerful: $0. Protecting the rights of everyone else: ~~priceless~~ forget it:

The House passed a $513 billion defense authorization bill yesterday that includes language intended to allow chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies, undercutting new Air Force and Navy guidelines on religion.

… Before the bill reached the House floor, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee added the provision on military chaplains. It says each chaplain “shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible.”

Air Force and Navy rules issued in recent months allow chaplains to pray as they wish in voluntary worship services. But the rules call for nonsectarian prayers, or a moment of silence, at public meetings or ceremonies, especially when attendance is mandatory for service members of all faiths.

Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and other evangelical Christian groups have lobbied vigorously against the Air Force and Navy rules, urging President Bush to issue an executive order guaranteeing the right of chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus under any circumstances. Because the White House has not acted, sympathetic members of Congress stepped in.

“We felt there needed to be a clarification” of the rules “because there is political correctness creeping into the chaplains corps,” said Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.).

Hmm, that must explain why Louis Iasiello, the Navy’s chief of chaplains, is one of the provision’s leading opponents:

“The language ignores and negates the primary duties of the chaplain to support the religious needs of the entire crew” and “will, in the end, marginalize chaplains and degrade their use and effectiveness,” Iasiello wrote in a letter to a committee member.

The Anti-Defamation League put it more bluntly. Abraham Foxman, its national director, called the language “divisive.”

Posted by Stephen at 12:51 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 08, 2006

Of cardigans and corruption

Looks like Britain’s God Squad has a little image problem with the young:

The Church of England has debunked the widely held view that young people are spiritual seekers on a journey to find transcendent truths to fill the “God-shaped hole” within them.

A report published by the Church today indicates that young people are quite happy with a life without God and prefer car boot sales to church. If they think about church at all, the images young people come up with are “cardigans”, “sandals and socks”, “corrupt”, “traditionalist” and “stagnant”.

The report has prompted an “urgent” wake-up call from the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, who writes of a large “mismatch” between the Church and the views of those aged 15 to 25. He says: “The research suggests young people are happy with life as it is, that they have felt no need for a transcendent something else and regard the Church as boring and irrelevant.”

… The number of young people attending has been halved since 1979. Fewer than 7 per cent of those aged 15 to 19 and 5 per cent of those aged 20 to 29 attend church. The number of children in Sunday school is less than a tenth of what it was in 1930.

The authors began their work believing that even if the young had little knowledge of Christianity they would still have religious or spiritual yearnings. They were shocked to find that they did not.

In the pilot interviews they included a picture of Salvador Dalí’s Christ of St John of the Cross but had to drop it from the main interviews because it failed to produce any response at all except one: “Oh, my grandmother has that picture.”

… Nevertheless, young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is,” translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.”

In other words, when they’re not under siege from American-style theocrats, people tend to be humanists at heart. The report’s authors, unsurprisingly, don’t get it:

In their advice to the Church, the report’s authors say that the first thing to do is “avoid panic”. It recommends means of reconnecting with young people such as through alternative worship forms, traditional buildings, church schools and civic occasions where Anglican clergy often officiate.

… The authors conclude: “We live in an instant culture, which cannot be reached by instant missionary tactics.” And the desire for happiness is valid and should not be criticised by clergy. “It can only be outclassed by a Christ-like way of life, for in him alone is true happiness to be found.”

Nope, wrong on both counts. The Church should be panicking: its adherents are dying out, and they’re not going to be replaced. As for “a Christ-like way of life,” forget it. As one of the teens quoted in the Times puts it:

“I don’t believe in God and I don’t live according to any religious rules. Religion is a waste of time.”

You can buy the report on Amazon UK.

Posted by Stephen at 02:36 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 06, 2006

Tithing taxpayers

And the question for Jeb is Matthew 22:17:

TALLAHASSEE—The Holy Land Experience, an Orlando-based religious theme park with mock crucifixions and “Goliath” hamburgers, might not have to render its property taxes unto Caesar.

By a 28-10 vote, the state Senate on Thursday sent Gov. Jeb Bush a bill designed to settle a tax dispute between the 15-acre theme park and Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan.

The heart of the dispute: Park backers say it’s a church. Donegan says the $30-a-ticket park is a money-maker, a sort of religious Disney. He says it owes more than $1 million in back taxes since it opened in 2001.

An Orange circuit judge ruled against Donegan last year, and he appealed.

That’s when Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster of Winter Garden stepped in with his bill. Opposed only by Democrats on Thursday, the bill never mentions the park, but grants a local property tax exemption to theme parks that “exhibit, illustrate, and interpret biblical manuscripts.”

… “They write the laws, and if they want to give this one place an exemption, there’s not much I can do,” Donegan said.

The American Civil Liberties Union is monitoring the case to see if it will sue on the grounds that the exemption benefits one religious tradition to the exclusion of others, said Florida ACLU executive director Howard Simon.

Donegan said he has been to the park a number of times and is convinced it’s not just a money-making enterprise—it’s an expressly Christian one.

“You can go to the burning bush, and Christ rolls back the stone. It’s like Disney. You go from venue to venue to venue. The only thing I haven’t stayed for is the money-changers at the temple,” Donegan said, adding the “Goliath burger was good.”

Hat tip to Goldy, via The General. Read the backstory here.

Posted by Stephen at 12:03 AM in Business | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 05, 2006

Vatican: creationists are pagans

The Vatican really, really, really doesn’t like creationists:

Believing that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consol-
magno claimed yesterday.

Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a “destructive myth” had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.

He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a “kind of paganism” because it harked back to the days of “nature gods” who were responsible for natural events.

Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. “Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That’s why science and religion need to talk to each other,” he said.

“Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it’s turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do.”

The good brother isn’t exactly a fan of papal infallibility, either:

Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at the Glasgow Science Centre last night, entitled “Why the Pope has an Astronomer”, said the idea of papal infallibility had been a “PR disaster”. What it actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept “somebody has got to be the boss, the final authority”.

“It’s not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in his ear,” he said.

Stop the presses: the Pope makes mistakes. That explains a few things.

Posted by Stephen at 12:04 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 02, 2006

Hot zone

Another one for the intelligent designers to explain:

Scientists believe they have cracked one of the most enduring mysteries since Charles Darwin returned from the Galapagos islands: why is there such a variety of life in the tropics?

The bunching up of much of the world’s biodiversity along the equatorial regions contrasts with the rapid drop-off in organisms that eke out a living in more temperate and polar regions. But well-known as the pattern is, a full explanation has so far proved elusive.

Scientists have proposed that evolution, the natural process that saw modern life develop out of a primitive broth, speeds up at the equator, so more species are able to flourish there. One theory is that creatures living along the equator are more likely to evolve into different species for two reasons: firstly, they have a higher rate of metabolism, which leads to more genetic mutations; secondly, they have shorter generations, so genetic changes can be rapidly passed down.

… [Shane Wright, a plant geneticist at the University of Auckland,] tested the theory by counting up the number of genetic mutations in a collection of closely related plants. The pairs were picked so that one variety lived along the equator while the other lived at a higher latitude. Species showing a high number of mutations are more likely to pass genetic changes on to the next generation, and through natural selection ultimately give rise to new species.

The study, which looked at varieties of conifers, flowering plants and other tree varieties, found that on average equatorial plants evolved at twice the rate of more temperate species. In one case, a plant evolved 13 times faster than a close relative living in a temperate climate.

… Dr Wright said the study supported the idea that the equator was home to the lion’s share of the world’s species because organisms there respond to the warm conditions by speeding up their metabolism and reproducing faster.

… The finding explains why 4 billion years of evolution has given rise to biodiversity hotspots in rainforests, including Brazil’s Atlantic forest, which is believed to be home to millions of insect species, 20,000 plant species and more than 1,000 species of vertebrate.

Of course, it doesn’t explain much if you think the Earth is a few thousand years old.

Unless, that is, you’re Michael Behe. In Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, he argued that evolutionary anomalies could “have been placed there by the designer… for artistic reasons, to show off, for some as-yet undetectable practical purpose, or for some unguessable reason.” Well, there’s no doubt that many parts of the tropics are aesthetically pleasing to the point of showing off.

Back in the real world, Dr. Wright’s study is being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

April 30, 2006

Let us prey

I hate modern churches. Like hospitals, they have the kind of institutional smell that promises pain—and at least you get anesthetic in hospital. That said, watching 21st-century churches drop megabucks to lure more victims is kinda entertaining—largely because crassness and Christianity tend to go hand in hand. Some fine examples from the past few days:

First, the (subscription-only) Wall Street Journal looks at mega-churches, and how they are becoming God’s Own Wal-Marts—nobody wants them in their backyard:

A growing number of churches with huge congregations are growing so large that they need unconventional spaces in which to expand. Such churches – typically Protestant with regular weekly attendance of more than 2,000 – have doubled in the past five years to about 1,200, with almost a quarter of them in California and Texas, says Scott Thumma, professor of sociology of religion at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Hartford, Conn.

To make room for members, many churches are moving into commercial and retail spaces such as strip malls, big box locations and corporate campuses. Though often less spectacular in design than conventional churches, these buildings tend to be cheaper than new construction.

Large churches also see such properties as more desirable because they might attract potential churchgoers who are shopping at a retailer next door or across the street. And plenty of suburban property is available thanks to a commercial and retail push to both the fringes and downtowns of large urban areas.

But not everyone is giving thanks for the push into unorthodox religious real estate. The moves have sparked controversy, much as store-front churches did when they began popping up in the inner city years ago. Though protected by a 2000 federal law designed to shield religious institutions from discrimination in land use, churches acquiring commercial and retail property still find themselves under fire. Mr. Thumma says communities are often distrustful of large congregations trying to expand from a nearby town or city. They are reluctant to cede potential business real estate to nonprofits and leery of increased traffic and the demand a church might have for city services.

For three years, Christ Church of Montclair, N.J., has been locked in a battle with Rockaway Township, N.J., over its $14 million acquisition of Agilent Technologies Inc.’s 107-acre office and research facility there.

In addition to a 2,500-seat sanctuary, the church wants to build a K-5 school and recreational facilities for its congregation of nearly 5,000 people. But local officials, concerned about the impact of a crush of parishioners on city services and a potential loss of tax dollars, have so far blocked the project.

“What are we getting out of this?” says Louis Sceusi, mayor of Rockaway Township, which has a population of 22,000. Christ Church, in turn, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming religious discrimination.

Odd, I thought that was what evangelicals practiced. Still, if Rockaway Township was in Britain, it could be a whole lot worse:

The Hymnal Plus, a karaoke-like machine with a repertoire of 3,000 hymns and psalms, is becoming a must-have item at churches around the country.

As well as traditional songs of praise, the British-made machine can play a disco version of Amazing Grace and a jazzy adaptation of The Lord’s My Shepherd. Church-goers who struggle to remember the words can look up at a big screen for help, just like real karaoke.

… Worried by the shortage and ageing population of organists, churches are beginning to snap up the machine, which costs £1,900. The 15th century St Mary the Virgin church in Mudford, near Yeovil in Somerset, was one of the first customers. The parish does have an organist, Christine Whitby, but she is in her 80s and sometimes wants a week off.

Bill Watkins, a church warden and now “hymn DJ”, will have his fingers on the remote control when it makes its debut next month. He said: “We don’t want to replace Christine with this box of tricks but it will allow her to take a break or to stay away without her feeling guilty when she is feeling under the weather. There are no young organists on the horizon, which is a nationwide problem so one day it might be all we have.”

Christianity’s techno-worship leads c|net to ask: Is Jesus the next killer app?

Companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Avid and Hitachi are helping churches spread the gospel as part of an effort to cash in on an exploding market known as “house of worship technology.”

In recent years, members of the clergy have begun competing with MTV, video games and the Internet by jazzing up sermons with image magnification systems and large-screen video displays, a la Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs at a product launch. The trend has evolved, and churches now are Webcasting to distant parishioners with sophisticated multicamera operations and pumping up the volume inside worship areas with state-of-the-art sound systems.

… Perhaps America’s best example of the tech-savvy house of worship is the Houston-based Lakewood Church [also featured in the Wall Street Journal article], which last year recorded a weekly attendance of 30,000. Pastor Joel Osteen needed the Compaq Center, a former basketball arena that was once home of the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets, to serve as his chapel.

Osteen employs three massive video-display screens to project his image to people sitting in the nosebleed seats. Illuminating the walls and the giant globe spinning behind Osteen’s pulpit are Altman Micro Strips, strip lights that use a range of tungsten halogen lamps to create different lighting effects.

Lakewood is also planning a migration to HDTV and recently bought eight high-definition cameras from Sony. The dollar value on Lakewood’s video and production facilities is about $4 million, according to CIOinsight.com.

… “There’s not one major electronics manufacturer who isn’t trying to target this space,” said Dan Stark, who operates Stark Raving Solutions, a company that specializes in outfitting churches with the latest in audio and video technology.

Hopefully Stark’s customers can appreciate the irony of his company’s name.

Posted by Stephen at 12:30 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 27, 2006

The Vatican vs. creationism

The Reverend George Coyne, the Vatican’s chief astronomer, really does have it in for intelligent design:

The Alumni Memorial Union ballrooms were filled to capacity Wednesday night with people who came to hear the Vatican Observatory Director the Rev. George Coyne’s speech, “Dance of the Fertile Universe: Chance and Destiny Embrace.”

… According to Coyne, “evolution is the best scientific explanation for the scientific facts of the universe.” However, he also emphasized that evolution is compatible with Catholic thinking.

“If evolution was purely chance then it would exclude God, but it does not exclude God because evolution is not purely chance but a statistical destiny of probability,” Coyne said. “Why is it hard to believe that over billions of years particles would eventually collide and create the chemical makeup of life?”

“From the death of old stars brings about the life of new ones, from this creates the chemical elements that compose organic life...all in all Homo sapiens are organic beings composed of stardust,” Coyne continued.

Coyne said during his lecture that he is on a sort of “crusade” against the movement promoting the teaching of Intelligent Design in classrooms.

“Teaching Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution is something we have to fight against in the scientific community because Intelligent Design is simply outside the realm of science.

“Science completely excludes whether or not God had anything to do with the creation of the universe. There’s 1,500 years between the beginning of the writing of the Bible and the beginning of modern science. So to say one is reflected in the other is incorrect.

April 26, 2006

When will they learn?

PZ Myers thinks we may be making a little progress in the creation wars. England’s education watchdog, however, seems to be in full retreat:

A college that is sponsored by a fundamentalist Christian foundation has been rated as an outstanding school by Ofsted [England’s Office for Standards in Education]—for the third time in a row.

Emmanuel College, in Gateshead, is backed by Christian philanthropist Sir Peter Vardy, and attracts controversy by teaching pupils about Creationism.

The city technology college was called “remarkable” in the latest report.

It is now one of only 12 secondary schools in the country to have received three consecutive top ratings.

Emmanuel College has a strong Christian ethos but has attracted controversy by teaching Biblical creationism as well as evolutionary theory.

In the latest Ofsted report, inspector Andrew Bennett praised teaching at the school, which has 1,231 pupils.

… “Excellent behaviour and very high levels of attendance emphasise their desire to make the most of what the college offers them.”

“Students feel safe and secure and, while expected to conform to the college’s rules and expectations, are encouraged to express freely their own views and articulate personal feelings.”

Unless, of course, those views and feelings are at odds with those of Emmanuel’s car-dealing fundamentalist founder.

The Emmanuel foundation says its schools teach the theory of evolution, as required by the national curriculum for science.

Creation is taught in religious education. But the two concepts “touch” at points, it says.

This approach has the approval of the Department for Education and Skills and Ofsted, it says, so parents can be assured the issue is not presented as “certain more sensationalist commentators” suggest.

It’s hard to see how the reality of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation could be sensationalized. Nigel McQuoid, who chairs Emmanuel’s governing body, has been crystal clear about its values:

To teach children that they are developed mutations who evolved from something akin to a monkey as a result of a cataclysmic chemical accident and that death is the end of everything is hardly going to engender within them a sense of purpose, self-worth and respect. To present, however, the Truth that they were made by a loving and just God who sees every one of them as being of equal and real value and capable of achieving their best, and to speak of the life beyond death, creates an altogether more positive sense of responsibility, accountability and direction.

A really sound basis for education, then.

April 17, 2006

The second coming

On schedule for 2006 in Vanuatu:

Followers of a South Pacific cult, who worship a mythical Second World War American serviceman they hope will one day return bearing riches, believe that their prayers have been answered.

For 60 years, the bizarre John Frum movement on Tanna, in the Vanuatu archipelago, has believed that the great wealth or “cargo” that the United States military brought to their island home in wartime will one day miraculously return.

They worship a messiah-like figure, John (or Jon) Frum, thought to be a combination of an ancient spirit and wartime GIs based on Tanna who introduced themselves to locals as “John from America”.

Carrying wooden “rifles”, and with the letters USA daubed in red paint on their bare chests, they have paraded for decades in home-made GI uniforms beneath a tattered Stars and Stripes in the hope of somehow persuading the US government to bring back the wealth.

Now, as part of its Millennium Challenge fund - which rewards developing nations that have adopted political and economic reforms - the US is to give Vanuatu £37 million in aid, prompting cult followers to believe that their decades of prayer have not been in vain. This has caused a problem for the government of Vanuatu, which must now explain to the cult that the aid is intended for the entire nation, and not just Tanna.

… “We’re just about to embark on explaining to the John Frum leaders that the money from the Americans is a gift for the whole nation, not just for them,” said John Shem, an official at the finance ministry. “It’s one of their beliefs that some day John Frum will revisit them and bring a lot of money. It’s absurd - a load of rubbish - but they’re convinced of it.”

More here and here.

Posted by Stephen at 06:16 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 15, 2006

Kneel, Diamond

Last time we met Dominik Diamond he was planning his own crucifixion. God, it seems, had other plans:

A British broadcaster who travelled to the Philippines to be crucified on Good Friday for a television programme pulled out of the stunt in tears yesterday — and blamed God for his decision.

Dominik Diamond broke down and wept after watching nine Filipinos take their turn to be whipped and nailed on crosses and realising that his turn was next. “God wanted me only to pray at the foot of my cross,” he sobbed, sinking to his knees and praying as local people and tourists started to boo.

… Diamond was set to join an elite group of radical Roman Catholics who mark each Easter by re-enacting the Crucifixion. Thousands of people gather to watch the volunteers nailed to crosses with metal spikes the size of pencils.

Negotiations had taken place to bestow on Diamond the privilege of becoming only the second Westerner to take part in the event, known as Karabrio. The ceremony is held in the village of Cutud, 50 miles (80km) north of Manila. Men dress in white robes and flagellate themselves with glass-tipped paddles and bamboo whips, in penitence for their sins.

… After pulling out of the challenge, Diamond said: “At no point was it ever conveyed that I would definitely be crucified. At all times in this journey I have been guided by my God in ways I could never have predicted. Having experienced the humility of bearing my own cross through the streets, I felt my God wanted me only to pray at the foot of my cross.”

… [Executive produce Ed] Stobbart conceded that the programme’s name, Crucify Me, may no longer be appropriate. “Let’s just say the title is subject to discussion. Read between the lines,” he said.

Posted by Stephen at 04:11 PM in Media | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 13, 2006

Bad bunny

The folks behind The God Who Wasn’t There launch Operation Easter Sanity:

A total of 666 DVDs will be hidden like “Easter eggs” in sanctuaries, church yards and other holy areas by Beyond Belief Media’s national team of volunteers. The DVDs will be slipped into hymnals and other locations where they are likely to be discovered by unsuspecting worshippers.

Some DVDs will be planted by undercover operatives among actual Easter eggs at churches holding egg hunts on Easter Sunday.

“People go to churches to hide from the truth,” explained Beyond Belief Media president Brian Flemming, a former Christian fundamentalist. “At no time is this more apparent than Easter, when Christians get together to convince each other that a man died, stayed dead three days, rose from the dead and then flew into the air above the clouds.

“Our nonviolent campaign sends the message that nowhere in the country is safe from the truth. Wherever Christian leaders are indoctrinating children with 2000-year-old fairy tales, the truth may just find its way there.

“Our ‘War on Easter’ is of course completely without violence of any kind. Christians believe that beating a man to a pulp and nailing him to a cross somehow solves all the world’s problems. Beyond Belief Media does not.”

You can find battle reports here.

Posted by Stephen at 12:13 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 12, 2006

Lost in transition

Christian hypocrisy, exhibit #5,737:

ST. FRANCIS, Minn. - A church that refused to care for a woman who was once a man has found itself in the middle of a national debate over the role of faith-based social services.

The Anoka County Social Services Department has sent disabled seniors and other vulnerable adults who need care during the day to Trinity Lutheran Church in this town north of the Twin Cities. But when the county brought a woman who had begun life as a man to the conservative Missouri Synod church, the church refused to let her in. The county then refused to send any more clients to the church.

The Rev. John Maxfield, who says the church is now losing significant money on the program, is left to wonder what the future holds for faith-based government-supported social services. “It places the church in a difficult situation,” he said. “We want to minister to everyone. But this person’s outward behavior contradicts the church’s teaching.”

… A county social worker brought a woman from Fridley to the church on May 13, 2005. Tracy Curie, then the program’s director, showed her around, filled out all the forms - and assumed she would start 10 days later. Then the woman disclosed that she had formerly been a man.

“We felt taken by surprise,” Maxfield said. “Looking back on it, the county usually gives us a lot of information beforehand, but in this case there was not much at all.”

In declining to accept her, the church said its staff wasn’t trained to deal with such a person. It feared discomfort among members and other clients, not least over use of the bathroom. And it pointed to its own theological beliefs. What she has done, Maxfield said, runs totally “contrary to God’s revealed will.”

Really? So where exactly are God’s views on transsexuals revealed?

The dispute was finally resolved late last month. Under threat of having all of its low-income, county-paid clients withdrawn, the church signed a document agreeing it will keep its current clients but won’t get any more.

… Maxfield said, “This is causing us quite a bit of financial difficulty - a deficit of $30,000 last year. We covered it through the church budget, but our entire staff took a 10 percent pay cut this year, partly because of this program.”

Tragic.

Posted by Stephen at 06:39 PM in Humanity | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 11, 2006

Is Britain’s children learning yet?

Apparently not:

Leading scientists have launched an unprecedented attack on the teaching of creationist theories in Tony Blair’s flagship academies.

Britain’s most prestigious scientific body, the Royal Society, said children were being confused by the teaching of the Bible’s creation story in science lessons.

It follows a recent revival in creationist thinking, most notably in three schools supported by multi-millionaire car dealer and evangelical Christian Sir Peter Vardy.

The schools - a city technology college and two city academies - are allowed to stray from the national curriculum under Labour’s controversial scheme to give schools more autonomy if they win private backing.

… Sir Peter’s charitable trust runs Emmanuel College in Gateshead, the King’s Academy, Middlesbrough and Trinity Academy, Doncaster. A fourth school is in the pipeline.

Nigel McQuoid, director of schools at the Emmanuel Foundation, has said he believes the earth was created by God in six days.

A recent Channel 4 documentary showed former students at Emmanuel College saying that although they were taught the theory of evolution, teachers made no attempt to hide their bias towards creationism.

Other developments which have prompted the society’s statement include the revelation that a new national science syllabus invites teachers to discuss creationist theories in GCSE lessons. Exams set by the OCR examination board - one of the main three in England - could require students to outline ideas which contradict evolution.

… [T]he Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said recently that the creation story was not worth teaching alongside the modern theory of evolution. He stated that classroom work should include the Bible only when ‘discussing what creation means’.

In other words, even the Church of England thinks these people are nuts.

April 10, 2006

Fred Phelps’ extended family

Bask in that Christian compassion:

ATLANTA — Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she’s demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.

With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. “Christians,” he said, “are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian.”

A right that apparently can’t be exercised unless everyone else’s are extinguished:

“What if a person felt their religious view was that African Americans shouldn’t mingle with Caucasians, or that women shouldn’t work?” asked Jon Davidson, legal director of the gay rights group Lambda Legal.

Christian activist Gregory S. Baylor responds to such criticism angrily. He says he supports policies that protect people from discrimination based on race and gender. But he draws a distinction that infuriates gay rights activists when he argues that sexual orientation is different — a lifestyle choice, not an inborn trait.

By equating homosexuality with race, Baylor said, tolerance policies put conservative evangelicals in the same category as racists.

That seems fair—and hopefully the evangelicals will get much the same treatment:

Christians are [also fighting] a case involving Every Nation Campus Ministries at California State University. Student members of the ministry on the Long Beach and San Diego campuses say their mission is to model a virtuous lifestyle for their peers. They will not accept as members gays, lesbians or anyone who considers homosexuality “a natural part of God’s created order.” […] At issue is whether the university must grant official recognition to a student group that discriminates.

… [T]he university may have a strong defense in court. The California Supreme Court recently ruled that the city of Berkeley was justified in denying subsidies to the Boy Scouts because of that group’s exclusionary policies. Eddie L. Washington, the lawyer representing Cal State, argues the same standard should apply to the university.

“We’re certainly not going to fund discrimination,” Washington said.

April 08, 2006

Extinct

Fraudster Kent Hovind’s creationist creation is going the way of the dinosaurs:

It may have been built with heavenly intentions, but a judge has ruled that the creationism theme park known as Dinosaur Adventure Land still must obey earthly laws.

Escambia County authorities this week locked up a museum building at the theme park on North Palafox Street in Pensacola after Circuit Judge Michael Allen ruled the owners were in contempt of court.

Owners of the park, which shows how dinosaurs may have roamed the Earth just a few thousand years ago, did not obtain a building permit before constructing the building in 2002. They have argued in and out of court that it violates their “deeply held” religious beliefs, and that the church-run facility does not have to obtain permits.

After almost four years of litigation, the judge disagreed and said the county has the authority to close the building until the owners comply with regulations.

The judge also fined two church leaders $500 each per day for every day the building is used or occupied. If church officials continue to refuse to comply with local ordinances, the judge may decide that the building can be razed, Allen’s ruling said.

County commissioners showed no sympathy to members of the Creation Science Evangelism ministry who spoke out Thursday night at a commission meeting about the county’s actions.

“Scripture also says ‘Render unto Caesar what Caesar demands.’ And right now, Caesar demands a building permit,” County Commission Chairman Mike Whitehead said.

Church leader Kent Hovind vowed to appeal the case.

April 07, 2006

Praying politics

The IRS is apparently home to some Republican church mice:

A group of religious leaders accused the Internal Revenue Service yesterday of playing politics by ignoring its complaint that two large churches in Ohio are engaging in what it says are political activities, in violation of the tax code.

In a letter to Commissioner Mark W. Everson, the clergy members cited reports of political events involving Fairfield Christian Church in Fairfield and World Harvest Church in Columbus and groups affiliated with them that have occurred or been disclosed since they raised the issue in January.

The group argues that the churches may be violating prohibitions on political activities by charities and other tax-exempt organizations and has asked the I.R.S. to audit their political activities.

The group often notes that the agency is investigating All Saints Church, a large liberal Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif., over a sermon in 2004 that imagined a debate among Jesus, President Bush and Senator John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential candidate, and asks why the agency has not begun a similar audit of the two Ohio churches, which are conservative.

… The critics’ group says that the two churches’ activities continue to support the gubernatorial candidacy of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell almost exclusively, violating requirements that nonprofit organizations treat all candidates in a race even-handedly.

In 2004, Mr. Blackwell flew to three events on the World Harvest Church plane with its pastor, the Rev. Rodney L. Parsley, to protest same-sex marriages. Mr. Blackwell paid $1,000 for the flights, The Associated Press said, and Mr. Hudson noted that Mr. Blackwell took the trips before he was officially a candidate.

Well, that’s OK then.

Posted by Stephen at 11:56 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 06, 2006

Life in a theocracy, part 5

Another reason why religious education (subscriber link) is an oxymoron:

In Religion Studies, Universities Bend To Views of Faithful

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – In 1993, the Mormon church excommunicated D. Michael Quinn, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the faith, whose writings had frequently contradicted the church’s traditional history.

Now, he has become a pariah in some higher-education circles as well.

Although Mormon studies is a fast-growing academic discipline, Mr. Quinn – a former professor at Mormon-run Brigham Young University and the author of six books on Mormon history – can’t find a job. In 2004, he was the leading candidate for openings at two state universities. Both rejected him.

At least three other secular schools plan new professorships in Mormon studies, but he appears to be a long shot for these posts, too – not because he lacks qualifications, but because almost all the funding for the jobs is coming from Mormon donors.

“At this point, I’m unhireable,” says the 62-year-old scholar, who lives with his mother to save money in this town east of Los Angeles.

Mr. Quinn’s struggles reflect the rising influence of religious groups over the teaching of their faiths at secular colleges, despite concerns about academic freedom. U.S. universities have usually hired religious-studies professors regardless of whether they practiced or admired the faiths they researched. But some universities are bending to the views of private donors and state legislators by hiring the faithful.

… “Every single department of religion is negotiating with religious communities in new ways,” says Laurie Patton, chairwoman of the religion department at Emory University, a private, secular school in Atlanta.

In other words, compromising their academic objectivity to appease religious zealots:

Harvard University’s divinity school is close to filling a professorship in evangelical theological studies funded by Alonzo L. McDonald, an evangelical Christian and former White House staff director who runs a Michigan investment group. Mr. McDonald says the scholar should be “understanding and empathetic” toward evangelical traditions. Harvard’s general counsel advised the school that it cannot legally ask job applicants about their religious beliefs. The 1964 Civil Rights Act bans religious discrimination in hiring at secular schools.

The school’s faculty recently recommended hiring a specialist in evangelical history whose work is unlikely to ruffle the faithful, say faculty members.

Welcome to the new McCarthyism.

The Journal has much more (2,500 words, to be precise) on Quinn’s persecution.

Posted by Stephen at 02:14 PM in Education | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Parking break

Experience the miracle of tax evasion:

TALLAHASSEE – A biblical theme park in Orlando where guests pay $30 admission to munch on “Goliath” burgers and explore reproductions of 2000-year-old tombs and temples could get a property tax exemption written into state law.

A Senate committee easily passed a bill that would grant theme parks “used to exhibit, illustrate, and interpret biblical manuscripts ... an exemption from local property taxes, like churches, even though the parks charge money.”

The legislation is designed to resolve a tax dispute between Holy Land Experience and the Orange County property appraiser, but legislative staffers say the exemption could encourage development of other parks to take advantage of the tax break.

The 15-acre Orlando park recently won its challenge against Orange County, which has appealed the case. The nonprofit, which would owe about $300,000 in property taxes each year, argued that the park helps finance its Christian ministry.

… The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, says the bill really only applies to Holy Land Experience and said it would be difficult for another park to meet the “stiffly-worded” criteria.

Yet when a Pensacola park dedicated to creationism learned of the Webster bill Tuesday it promptly sent an emissary to Webster’s office to find out how it could qualify for the same tax break.

Dinosaur Adventure Land, devoted to demonstrating that the Bible proves dinosaurs and humans coexisted, displays pages from ancient Bibles and “biblical accounts of dinosaurs,” said Creation Science Evangelism founder Kent Hovind, who also goes by “Dr. Dino.”

Dinosaur Adventure Land is a nonprofit but is organized under a different section of the IRS code than Holy Land Experience. A director with Creation Science Evangelism said the group won’t change its IRS designation, but will see about getting the Webster bill tweaked to include it too.

… Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan said the bill smacks of tax abuse and wondered if it was discriminatory. “There are churches out there that have bookstores and sell some Bibles and that’s not what this is about, this is a theme park that charges $30 admission,” said Donegan, who had been to the park. “This bill is taking a special interest and granting it an exemption in the state of Florida.”

In other words: holy crap.

April 05, 2006

Imposter

How many times can you bend the truth in a single poster? If you’re crazy creationist Jack Chick, at least eight.

Via Pharyngula.

April 04, 2006

Cold comfort

Another myth gets iced:

Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist reported Tuesday.

The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus could have walked on an isolated patch of floating ice on what is now known as Lake Kinneret in northern Israel.

Looking at temperature records of the Mediterranean Sea surface and using analytical ice and statistical models, scientists considered a small section of the cold freshwater surface of the lake. The area studied, about 10,000 square feet (930 square meters), was near salty springs that empty into it.

The results suggest temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) during one of the two cold periods 2,500 to 1,500 years ago for up to two days, the same decades during which Jesus lived.

With such conditions, a floating patch of ice could develop above the plumes, resulting from the salty springs along the lake’s western shore in Tabgha. Tabgha is the town where many archeological findings related to Jesus have been found.

“We simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years,” said Doron Nof, a Florida State University professor of oceanography. “We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account.”

Here’s a PDF of Nof’s paper (note: opens in new window), which will be published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Paleolimnology.

Posted by Stephen at 05:37 PM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 03, 2006

Not-so-good book

XXXed out:

LOS ANGELES – The American Bible Society is refusing to print New Testaments with covers that say “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”

California pastors Mike Foster and Craig Gross, whose anti-porn ministry is called www.xxxchurch.com, had ordered 10,000 of the customized Bibles to hand out at adult film conventions.

But the edgy cover led the publisher to cancel the paid order. The American Bible Society said that while it appreciates the pastors” mission, the words “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” are “misleading and inappropriate for a New Testament.” In a statement released on the Web site, the pastors said that they believe the publisher is wrong.

“We think this goes with the central message of the gospel and Jesus loves you regardless of your profession,” the statement read. “This is not about shock tactics, this is about trying to get the word of God to places most say would be impossible but we have found a way to do it.”

The pastors said they are confident the Bible will be printed, saying someone will step up and help in the effort.

The American Bible Society might want to consult Corinthians 5:8-10.

Posted by Stephen at 01:28 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 01, 2006

Dumbski

Apparently this isn’t an April Fool:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — To William Dembski, all the debate in this country over evolution won’t matter in a decade.

By then, he says, the theory of evolution put forth by Charles Darwin 150 years ago will be “dead.”

The mathematician turned Darwin critic says there is much to be learned about how life evolved on this planet. And he believes the model of evolution accepted by the scientific community won’t be able to supply the answers.

“I see this all disintegrating very quickly,” he said.

… But biologists call Dembski’s statements on the death of evolution absurd. They say intelligent design, or ID, has failed as a science, so its supporters are trying to foster interest in a receptive public.

Dembski, who holds a Ph.D. in both mathematics and philosophy, teaches a course on intelligent design at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. He calls Darwinian evolution “viscerally unacceptable” to most Americans.

Ah, then the science must be wrong.

Even more troubling is that Dumbski and the IDiots at Seattle’s Discovery ~~Institution~~ Institute are now trying to position creationism as the voice of reason:

“It is a reasonable question to ask if there are patterns in biological systems that point us to intelligence,” he said in an interview. “It is a reasonable question to ask what are the limits to evolutionary mechanisms.”

… Dembski and other ID proponents say intelligent design is in its “infancy” and not yet ready to be taught alongside evolution in the science classroom. [Spokesman Rob] Crowther said the Discovery Institute actually opposed the actions by the Pennsylvania school board that brought the federal court case.

“People assume that we must be actively and aggressively seeking for intelligent design to be put in the classroom, and that’s not our position. What should be required in a classroom is more about evolution, and by that we mean students should be able to learn not only the evidence that supports it, but also some of the criticisms of the theory.”

That is enough for now, Dembski said.

Our children clearly isn’t going to be learning yet.

March 30, 2006

Without a prayer, revisited

If God exists, He doesn’t seem to be listening:

NEW YORK - In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.

Researchers emphasized that their work can’t address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another’s behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.

They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.

… The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal.

Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for “a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications” for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.

The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren’t prayed for but were told it was a possibility.

… The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.

Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, who didn’t take part in the study, said the results didn’t surprise him.

… Within the Christian tradition, God would be expected to be concerned with a person’s eternal salvation, he said, and “why would God change his plans for a particular person just because they’re in a research study?”

Uh, because prayer is supposed to produce that kind of result?

Posted by Stephen at 05:34 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Chosen

DeLay waxes delusional:

WASHINGTON - American society looks down on Christianity, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay asserted Tuesday at a conference of religious conservatives, but God and Jesus Christ have chosen Christians to stand up for faith.

… The Sugar Land Republican said some commentators — the “chattering classes” — will argue that there is no war on Christianity in this country.

“But in a sense, there always has been and always will be,” he said. “Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world. We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition.”

Despite those factors, DeLay said, “we have been chosen to live as Christians at a time when our culture is being poisoned. ... God made us specifically for it. ... Jesus Christ himself made us just so that we could live in this nation at this time.”

The conference was convened by Vision America, a group founded by the Rev. Rick Scarborough to mobilize “patriot pastors” of all denominations to promote Christian involvement in government.

Scarborough, the former pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pearland, is a long-time DeLay ally.

“This is a man, I believe, God has appointed ... to represent righteousness in government,” Scarborough told the audience, which included Eagle Forum Founder Phyllis Schlafly, former ambassador Alan Keyes, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

If that’s the case, Christians might want to question their God’s infallibility.

Posted by Stephen at 12:28 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 29, 2006

Story time

This week’s theme appears to be works of fiction:

ATLANTA, March 28 — Georgia is about to become the first state to approve the use of the Bible as a textbook in public schools.

On Monday, the State Senate passed a bill providing money to high schools that offer elective classes in the Bible, and setting specific guidelines for those classes. The bill was approved by Georgia’s House of Representatives last week.

Gov. Sonny Perdue is expected to sign the law.

The bill creates two courses, the History and Literature of the Old Testament Era and the History and Literature of the New Testament Era, that can be offered as electives. It gives the state’s Department of Education a year to approve the curriculum, but it requires that the Bible itself, not a textbook, be the core material used. Supplementary materials can also be used.

Other state school systems offer classes in the Bible, but Georgia’s law would be the first to require that the Bible be the core text. Legislators in Alabama and Missouri are considering similar measures.

With the enactment of the law, public schools in Georgia will be pushed, once again, into grappling with whether or how ideas tied to religion can be introduced into classrooms without violating the separation of church and state.

Well, they can’t, as a Georgia school district discovered last year when a federal judge ordered the removal of textbook stickers that questioned evolution. It’s hardly surprising that Frances Paterson, an associate professor at Valdosta State University who specializes in religion and public education, thinks the new bill “might be a little constitutionally infirm.”

Tommie Williams, the Georgia Senate majority leader and sponsor of the bill, said the law was intended to encourage an understanding of the Bible’s myriad cultural influences.

“Kids are illiterate of the Bible,” Mr. Williams said. “They don’t understand the text and how it affects government or history. If we’re teaching a kid what the Good Samaritan law was about, they wouldn’t know.”

“Kids are illiterate of the Bible?” Williams, it seems, is simply illiterate.

March 28, 2006

Monstered

USA Today readers meet the Flying Spaghetti Monster:

Worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster—“Pastafarianism” as it is known to its adherents—began as a whimsical side dish in last year’s standoff between advocates of evolution and intelligent design. FSM, as it is known to its followers, took shape in a protest letter to Kansas officials who were embroiled in a controversy about how to teach students about the origins of life. The parody religion leapt from those pages to become an Internet phenomenon, finding fans among supporters of the theory of evolution—and receiving e-mailed threats of bodily harm from evolution’s opponents.

“I wrote the letter for my own amusement as much as anything. And it totally snowballed. Some people say I’m going to hell,” says FSM’s 25-year-old creator, Bobby Henderson, who recently moved from Oregon to Arizona, partly to escape the uproar. But his paperback testament, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster ($13.95, Villard), which arrives Tuesday, reveals the tenets of the parody religion. A few of them:

• A “Flying Spaghetti Monster” created the universe, Earth and its creatures, making a few mistakes on the way after drinking heavily from heaven’s beer volcano.

• The FSM hid dinosaur fossils underground to “dupe mankind” about Earth’s true age and is the secret force behind gravity, pushing everything downward with its “noodly appendage.”

• The FSM wants everyone to talk and dress like pirates. Global warming is considered a punishment for the relative scarcity of pirates these days.

• Every Friday is a sloth-filled holy day. Instead of “amen,” devotees end missives with “R’amen,” in honor of the college student’s favorite noodle fare.

… “Clearly, (FSM) theology is ludicrous, but no more ludicrous than intelligent design,” says Stephen Unwin, author of The Probability of God, a look at reconciling faith and reason.

Unsurprisingly, the lunatics at the Discovery ~~Institution~~ Institute disagree:

“It’s too bad that they’ll get attention for this sort of drivel when we have a robust scientific research program that the media doesn’t seem to want to write much about,” Discovery Institute spokesman Robert Crowther said in an e-mail interview. The Seattle-based institute is the leading think tank for intelligent-design advocates.

I’d love to hear Crowther defend his “robust scientific research program.”

USA Today has much more, including the scary opinion-poll finding that 53% of Americans believe God created human beings in their present form exactly as described in the Bible.

Better, perhaps, to buy a different good book.

March 26, 2006

Supersaints

The Catholic Church makes yet another attempt to corrupt children’s minds:

A chisel-jawed man with flowing chestnut-brown locks, rippling muscles and a penchant for “endless parties” stares from the cover of the latest comic book. This is not Superman or one of the traditional superheroes, but St Francis of Assisi, the pious 13th century monk who became the Roman Catholic patron saint of animals and the environment. This is sainthood: comic book style.

The lives of the saints have been turned into comic books by a publishing company hoping to attract young people to the Catholic Church.

The books, which appear four times a month, seek to capitalise on the recent popularity of big screen adaptations of comic books such as X-Men, Spiderman, Batman and V for Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman and Stephen Fry.

Among those immortalised in the comic book format are Joan of Arc, Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, St Pachomius, a hermit who set up a monastery in the fourth century, and Antony of Padua, the patron saint of shipwrecks, the elderly and expectant mothers.

Not to mention St Celestine, pictured here looking strangely unhinged.

Arcadius Press, an American publishing company based in Springfield, Missouri, is launching the series in Britain later this year. A payment of around £7 a month will entitle subscribers to 48 comic books a year. Each book bears many of the hallmarks of the traditional superhero tale.

For instance, St Rose of Lima is able to protect herself from attack by two beams of light emerging from the palms of her hands. St Joan of Arc wears superhero tights underneath her thigh-length coat of armour.

Tony Sansone, the 22-year-old founder of Arcadius Press, said: “We wanted to show the saints as real people who had flaws - like St Ignatius Loyola, who we depict living a playboy lifestyle before he was called.”

This may help explain Pope Benedict’s red Prada shoes and designer sunglasses.

Posted by Stephen at 01:47 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 24, 2006

Without a prayer

In how many ways can our theocratic government squander taxpayer dollars—and “scientists” waste their time? Let me count them:

At the Fairfax Community Church in Virginia, the faithful regularly pray for ailing strangers. Same goes at the Adas Israel synagogue in Washington and the Islamic Center of Maryland in Gaithersburg.

In churches, mosques, ashrams, “healing rooms,” prayer groups and homes nationwide, millions of Americans offer prayers daily to heal themselves, family, friends, co-workers and even people found through the Internet. Fueled by the upsurge in religious expression in the United States, prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies.

… The outpouring of spiritual healing has inspired a small group of researchers to attempt to use the tools of modern science to test the power of prayer to cure others. The results have been mixed and highly controversial. Skeptics say the work is a deeply flawed and misguided waste of money that irresponsibly attempts to validate the supernatural with science. And some believers say it is pointless to try to divine the workings of God with experiments devised by mortals.

… The contentious enterprise is [also] at something of a crossroads. Two new studies are about to report no benefit of having people pray for the sick, the only study underway is nearing completion, and the largest, best-designed project is being published in two weeks. Its eagerly awaited findings could sound the death knell for the field, breathe new life into such efforts, or create new debate.

… [T]he most controversial research focuses on “intercessory” or “distant” prayer, which involves people trying to heal others through their intentions, thoughts or prayers, sometimes without the recipients knowing it. The federal government has spent $2.2 million in the past five years on studies of distant healing, which have also drawn support from private foundations.

So exactly how rigorous are these studies?

San Francisco cardiologist Randolph Byrd, for example, conducted an experiment in which he asked born-again Christians to pray for 192 people hospitalized for heart problems, comparing them with 201 not targeted for prayer. No one knew which group they were in. He reported in 1988 that those who were prayed for needed fewer drugs and less help breathing.

William S. Harris of St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and colleagues published similar results in 1999 from a study involving nearly 1,000 heart patients, about half of whom were prayed for without their knowledge.

But these and other studies have been called deeply flawed. They were, for example, analyzed in the most favorable way possible, looking at so many outcomes that the positive findings could easily have been the result of chance, critics say.

“It’s called the sharpshooter’s fallacy,” said Richard Sloan, a behavioral researcher at Columbia University. “The sharpshooter empties the gun into the side of a barn and then draws the bull’s-eye. In science, you have to predict in advance what effect you may have.” […] “I would like to see us stop wasting precious research dollars putting religious practices to the test of science,” Sloan said. “It’s a waste of money, and it trivializes the religious experience.”

But the “research” keeps on coming:

[Duke University’s Mitchell W.] Krucoff, a cardiologist, published a study last summer involving 748 heart patients at nine hospitals. That study failed overall to show any benefit. But Krucoff said he did find tantalizing hints that warrant follow-up: A subset of patients who had a second group of people praying that the prayers of the first group would be answered may have done better.

Wow, real science—those “tantalizing hints” that one group “may” have done better are so much more convenient than hard data.

Two smaller, more recently completed studies illustrate yet another problem. Each involved about 150 patients with brain tumors or AIDS. Only some were targeted by “distant healing” and only some knew they were the recipients. But in addition to traditional prayers, many of the dozens of “healers” used other approaches, such as visualizing patients and sending a “healing intention” or “energy” or “light.” Both studies, which will be published later this year, did not show any effect. But neither of the researchers who led them is advocating giving up, saying their studies may have been doomed by including too many healing variations.

Pass the shotgun.

March 21, 2006

Caped crusaders

Well, this is really helpful:

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity.

The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day “jihad against the Jews and Crusaders”.

The late Pope John Paul II sought to achieve Muslim-Christian reconciliation by asking “pardon” for the Crusades during the 2000 Millennium celebrations. But John Paul’s apologies for the past “errors of the Church” — including the Inquisition and anti-Semitism — irritated some Vatican conservatives. According to insiders, the dissenters included Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

… At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places”.

… Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 had helped to provoke the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, called by Pope Urban II.

He said that the Crusaders were “martyrs” who had “sacrificed their lives for the faith”. He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades “do not know their history”. Professor Riley-Smith has attacked Sir Ridley Scott’s recent film Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom, as “utter nonsense”.

Professor Riley-Smith said that the script, like much writing on the Crusades, was “historically inaccurate. It depicts the Muslims as civilised and the Crusaders as barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality.” It fuels Islamic fundamentalism by propagating “Osama bin Laden’s version of history”.

Bask in that reality-distortion field.

Posted by Stephen at 06:41 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 19, 2006

Is this a bleeding miracle?

Only the Australian media could stick that title on this story:

The Catholic Church claims a modern-day miracle is unfolding in Rockingham.

It says that a 50-year-old father of three, whose identity is being kept secret, is displaying stigmata on his hands and feet – wounds that appear similar to those on the crucified body of Christ.

The Rev Father Finbarr Walsh told The Sunday Times this week that he had witnessed the phenomena, which lasted 24 hours and included visions of and messages from the Virgin Mary.

He said he had never seen such a thing in his 50 years as a priest, with the wounds appearing to be covered in blood.

He believed the stigmata was real, saying he had no reason to think the man was a fraud.

“I haven’t come across anything like this before,” Father Walsh said.

“I have seen the wounds. They are not fake. He is getting the wounds of Jesus on his hands and feet.”

“You see them bleeding. When he has them, he is in great pain. But they disappear within 24 hours. It has to be a miracle.”

… Father Walsh said the man had received hundreds of messages from the Virgin Mary.

She appeared to him on the eighth day of every month and sometimes more often.

“I have been there when he says he has seen Our Lady,” Father Walsh said. “He is the only one who sees her. The only evidence is his word.”

“I don’t think he (is lying). He is a holy person.”

And holy people never lie, do they?

Posted by Stephen at 02:56 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 12, 2006

Piss artist

Thomas Kinkade: bringing Christian family values to a bar near you:

In a letter e-mailed to his licensed gallery owners this week, the artist accused “disgruntled ex-dealers” and a former employee of launching “media attacks” on him. But he also said he might have behaved badly during a stressful time, now behind him, during which he overindulged in food and drink and gained 50 pounds.

“If during this period I ever offended anybody, I am sorry — anyone who knows me knows I always try my best to be loving,” he wrote in response to an article in The Times in which some ex-gallery owners and others painted a harsh portrait of the self-proclaimed “Painter of Light.”

“The good news is I learned many valuable lessons from that phase of my life,” Kinkade wrote. “With God’s help and the support of my family and friends, I have returned balance to my life. And if you have seen me lately you know I have lost over 50 pounds and I feel terrific.”

In sworn testimony and interviews with The Times, some ex-dealers have accused Kinkade — whose dreamily inspirational limited-edition prints are steeped in Christian-oriented themes of faith and family values — of ruining them financially while enriching himself and his business associates.

They and others also described incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy; cursed a former employee’s wife who came to his side when he fell off a barstool; fondled a startled woman’s breasts at a signing party; and urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

… Terry Sheppard, a former company vice president who is the “angry ex-employee” Kinkade referred to in this week’s letter, earlier told The Times that he often went to bars and strip clubs with the artist and once heard him utter, “This one’s for you, Walt,” as he relieved himself on the Disney figure.

As these are all solidly Christian activities, we shouldn’t be too hard on him. And frankly, Winnie the Pooh had it coming, given that he was likely a Muslim extremist.

Posted by Stephen at 02:37 PM in Religion | Whatever | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 10, 2006

The coat-hanger state

So you will be able to get an abortion in South Dakota:

One backer of the [South Dakota abortion] bill, State Senator Bill Napoli, argued on PBS’s Newshour that if a victim had followed strict religious guidelines, her life would be endangered by the pregnancy. Under this scenario, she would be eligible for an abortion.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls “convenience.” He insists that exceptions can be made for rape or incest under the provision that protects the mother’s life. I asked him for a scenario in which an exception may be invoked.

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Praise the Lord! As for all you ungodly rape victims: just have the damn kid.

From Newshour via Raw Story.

March 07, 2006

Design by committee

Dateline 2010, and creationism has evolved:

The most extensive analysis yet undertaken of the structure and contents of the universe conclusively proves the universe was created not by a single entity, as has been widely suggested, but by “a fractious and disorganized committee or committees given to groupthink and petty infighting”, according to Drs. Karl Pootle and Yumble Frick, co-authors of the study. The analysis is expected to have profound implications on the theoretical underpinnings of many popular religions.

The study, entitled “Universe: Made By Whom How?”, was commissioned by an interfaith consortium of world religious leaders seeking to develop a comprehensive scientific foundation for various fundamentally compatible theories of creation, theories that until recently had been little more than matters of faith with no objective scientific underpinning. The Universe Made By Whom How data was intended by its sponsors to be a “Mother of All Bombs” in the ongoing war on evolution, according to Dr. Frick.

“Several major western religions proceed from the assumption that the universe and all it contains were created by some form of very powerful conscious entity who had both a purpose and a plan of some kind in mind,” Dr. Pootle said. “That assumption formed the starting-point of our scientific inquiry. However, as so often happens when you scientifically attempt to prove a theory you assume without objective justification to be fact, the data failed to work in our favor. We were forced to rethink our whole hypothesis. Drawing-board time.”

… “Biodiversity is the primary stumbling block,” said Dr. Pootle. “Whoever created this cacophony of species would have had to be infinitely powerful and infinitely creative, but also infinitely schizophrenic to come up with the myriad different solutions to identical problems that the creators of the universe have. Either that, or we’re looking at a different kind of process altogether.”

The Pootle and Frick study found that for any particular biological niche, a vast number of different approaches are taken by different species for solving nearly identical issues of survival. They also found that species are never static, but are constantly “being tweaked” in small but easily verifiable ways.

“If you’re one guy designing a universe, why come up with twenty different ways of tackling the same issue?” Pootle said. “If you’re omnipotent, presumably you know perfectly well whatever the one solution is that will work best, and you go with that. The fact that the world obviously doesn’t work that way is what led us first to the committee theory. The plants and animals that inhabit the Earth show the kinds of random and incoherent thinking that can only otherwise be found in the products of design committees where there’s a lot of CYA and turf protection going on.”

March 05, 2006

Doonesbury on “situational science”

Click here or on the image to see the entire strip.

Sunday God-blogging

Too good to pass up:

VACAVILLE, Calif. — Four times a year, the Rev. James Tramel preaches via collect call to Berkeley’s Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.

“The way of Jesus is radically inclusive,” he said one morning last summer. “The grace of God as manifest in Jesus Christ is a grand love that embraces sinners, outcasts and strangers.”

Beeps from taping equipment punctuated his oration. Every few minutes, a recorded voice said: “You are on the phone with an inmate at Solano State Prison.”

Good Shepherd has offered him a job as assistant pastor, but there is a good chance that Tramel will not be showing up for work soon. Tramel, believed by many church officials to be the only U.S. inmate ever ordained as an Episcopal priest, is a convicted murderer.

… He and a friend were convicted of killing a homeless man in Santa Barbara — a crime so infamous locally that homeless activists wore lapel pins with the victim’s dying words: “No, my friend, no!” […] The homeless man was Michael Stephenson, 29.

… Tramel looked for redemption where others have long sought it. He said he pored over the parable of the prodigal son. He pondered the life of the Apostle Paul, who, he pointed out, instigated a murder when he was still “among sinners, the foremost.”

… Tramel has told parole officials that he has led his life to honor Stephenson’s memory. He has sent letters of contrition to Stephenson’s relatives, who refuse to read them.

… [Stephenson’s] father, Edward Stephenson of Newport Beach, has attended numerous hearings to oppose Tramel’s parole. The man he sardonically calls “this Christian missionary prisoner” should preach all he wants — but only behind bars, he has told officials.

Bernice Bosheff, Michael Stephenson’s aunt, has also opposed Tramel’s release.

“Tramel is prison-smart,” she said from her Riverside County home. “He knows just what to say, when to say it, and who to say it to. He’s taken in the Episcopal diocese — and the D.A. is in the same corner.”

… “I know that we Christians can sometimes be dreamy idealists, but as a Calvinist I think I am quite realistic about human sinfulness,” wrote Don Compier, a former professor at Tramel’s seminary. “I’m not easily fooled. James has passed my test.”

I may have bridge to sell him.

Posted by Stephen at 05:41 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 03, 2006

Unorthodox

What happens when you try to serve God, mammon, and blackmailers:

Leaders of the Orthodox Church in America, facing allegations that they mismanaged millions of dollars, rejected calls for an immediate investigation but promised to follow better accounting procedures in the future.

The 400,000-member denomination has been reeling since October from accusations by its former treasurer, Deacon Eric A. Wheeler. He says that during the late 1990s, its top officials diverted donations from agribusiness magnate Dwayne Andreas, U.S. military chaplains and ordinary parishioners, using some of the money to cover credit card debts and pay sexual blackmail.

After an all-day, closed-door meeting Wednesday in Syosset, N.Y., the church’s Holy Synod, a governing body of 10 bishops, announced that it will adopt a set of “best practices” for financial management. The synod also promised to seek outside audits for 2004 and 2005, and to review all its fundraising appeals since 2001.

But the bishops postponed a decision on whether to look into Wheeler’s allegations of sloppy bookkeeping as well as misappropriation of funds in the late 1990s. They indicated they might reconsider the matter when they meet again in the spring.

“On the threshold of the Great Fast [of Lent], we exhort the faithful to remember the Holy Gospel, to conform to the example of Christ, and to live as Christians in mutual repentance and forgiveness,” the synod’s statement concluded.

And to forget about all that “sexual blackmail” stuff.

Posted by Stephen at 05:02 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 24, 2006

Pulpit politics

Life in a theocracy:

IRS exams found nearly three out of four churches, charities and other civic groups suspected of having violated restraints on political activity in the 2004 election actually did so, the agency said Friday.

Most of the examinations that have concluded found only a single, isolated incidence of prohibited campaign activity. In three cases, however, the IRS uncovered violations egregious enough to recommend revoking the groups’ tax-exempt status.

The vast majority of charities and churches followed the law, but the examinations found a “disturbing” amount of political intervention in the 2004 elections, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said.

… The IRS examined 110 organizations referred to the tax agency for potentially violations, and 28 cases remain open.

Among the 82 closed cases, the IRS found prohibited politicking and sent a written warning to 55 organizations and assessed a penalty tax against one group. Those organizations included 37 churches and 19 other organizations.

… Among the prohibited activities, the examiners found that charities and churches had distributed printed material supporting a preferred candidate and assembled improper voter guides or candidate ratings.

Religious leaders had used the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate, and some groups had shown preferential treatment to candidates by letting them speak at functions.

Other charities and churches had made improper cash contributions to a candidate’s political campaign.

This is known as “reverse-tithing.”

Posted by Stephen at 04:14 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 23, 2006

Desperate measures

More censorship from America’s Taliban:

On the heels of the demise of NBC’s “Book of Daniel” – which many Christians saw as an affront to their faith and actively opposed – ABC’s popular “Desperate Housewives” program has become the latest target of a media watchdog organization that will sponsor a boycott of the show’s advertisers.

OneMillionMoms.com, which is affiliated with the American Family Association, calls “Desperate Housewives” “one of the most vulgar and tasteless programs on television.”

The group plans to monitor the program from April through June to identify companies that advertise during the show. OneMillionMoms.com will then call for a one-year boycott of one or more of the leading sponsors.

“We want to identify companies that sponsor ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ask moms not to buy their products for a period of one year,” said Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of OneMillionMoms.com, in a statement. “So instead of boosting sales because of their sponsorship of the program, the company or companies selected will lose sales.”

“ABC says the show is watched by 15 million people each week. That means that 265 million don’t watch the show but still end up paying for it by the products they buy,” he said.

Donald would clearly make a great mom.

For some suggested reading to fill those fallow Sunday evenings, click on the pic.

Posted by Stephen at 02:07 PM in Media | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 20, 2006

Crucifiction

The Scots nail reality TV:

Telly [note to U.S. readers: this appears to be Scottish for “television”] and radio host Dominik Diamond may be crucified for real in a bid to restore his faith in God, he has revealed.

Dominik had a Catholic upbringing but gave up on religion five years ago.

Now the father of three is planning to put his faith to the test in a pilgrimage to the Philippines via the Vatican and Jerusalem for a TV show.

And the trip may end with him being nailed to a cross in a painful and bloody Filipino ritual.

Each year, three worshippers are chosen to be nailed to makeshift crosses in the town of San Fernando.

Dominik, 35, said: “Five or six years ago, I went through a period of insomnia and every night I would pray to God to help me but it didn’t happen.”

And he added: “I am obviously not going to die doing it. There is wood supporting your arms and legs so you don’t bear the weight of the nails.

“But it is as real as possible and if I go ahead with it, I will be the first person from Western Europe they have allowed to take part.

In another interview, Diamond added:

“I’m in my mid-30s, I’ve got three kids and it’s about time I did something that didn’t involve cheap gags.”

Not that undergoing a fake crucifixion is a cheap gag or anything.

The Church of Scotland has apparently condemned Dominik’s plans, saying he would be better off doing charity work. Or perhaps seeking counseling.

Posted by Stephen at 12:29 PM in Media | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 18, 2006

Religious tolerance update

Compassion, Russian style:

Plans to stage Russia’s first gay pride parade have been vetoed by Moscow’s city government on the grounds that the idea has caused “outrage” in society.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s administration said yesterday it would not even consider an application for a parade, prompting Russia’s gay community to threaten legal action in the European Court of Human Rights.

Gay and lesbian activists have been campaigning for permission to stage the country’s first gay pride event on Saturday 27 May.

The date marks the 13th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia in 1993. But the plans have drawn a furious reaction from religious leaders and been condemned as “suicidal” by other gay activists.

Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia’s Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead. “If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that - Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike ... [The protests] might be even more intense than protests abroad against those controversial cartoons.”

The cleric said the Koran taught that homosexuals should be killed because their lifestyle spells the extinction of the human race and said that gays had no human rights.

Chief Mufti would feel right at home in America’s theocracy. Although given that he previously declared a holy war against the U.S., perhaps not.

Posted by Stephen at 01:33 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 11, 2006

U.S. Prayer Force

With the emphasis on force:

The Air Force, under pressure from evangelical Christian groups and members of Congress, softened its guidelines on religious expression yesterday to emphasize that superior officers may discuss their faith with subordinates and that chaplains will not be required to offer nonsectarian prayers.

“This does affirm every airman’s right, even the commanders’ right, to free exercise of religion, and that means sharing your faith,” said Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, the Air Force’s chief of chaplains.

The guidelines were first issued in late August after allegations that evangelical Christian commanders, coaches and cadets at the Air Force Academy had pressured cadets of other faiths. The original wording sought to tamp down religious fervor and to foster tolerance throughout the Air Force. It discouraged public prayers at routine events and warned superior officers that personal expressions of faith could be misunderstood as official statements.

But evangelical groups, such as the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, saw the guidelines as overly restrictive. They launched a nationwide petition drive, sounded alarms on Christian radio stations, and deluged the White House and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne’s office with e-mails calling the guidelines an infringement of the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and free exercise of religion.

Seventy-two members of Congress also signed a letter to President Bush criticizing the guidelines and urging him to issue an executive order guaranteeing the right of military chaplains to pray “in Jesus’ name” rather than being forced to offer nonsectarian prayers at public ceremonies.

The revised guidelines are considerably shorter than the original, filling one page instead of four. They place more emphasis on the Constitution’s free exercise clause, which is mentioned four times, than on its prohibition on any government establishment of religion, which is mentioned twice.

… Americans United for . of Church and State, a Washington-based group whose investigation of the Air Force Academy helped spark the controversy last year, said the revisions “focus heavily on protecting the rights of chaplains, while ignoring the rights of nonbelievers and minority faiths.”

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, an Albuquerque lawyer who is suing the Air Force over its policy on religion, questioned the sentence allowing commanders to share their faith when it is “reasonably clear” that they are speaking personally, not officially.

“Reasonably clear from whose perspective, the superior’s or the subordinate’s?” asked Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate. “When a senior member of your chain of command wants to speak to you ‘reasonably’ about religion, saying ‘Get out of my face, sir!’ is not an option.”

Posted by Stephen at 04:56 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 07, 2006

Sexual assault

In five states, at least, the Catholic Church is apparently above the law—at least when it comes to re-abusing rape victims:

Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) released last week the results of a survey that found Catholic hospitals were not fully complying with laws requiring emergency contraception be provided to rape victims. The survey was done by Ibis Reproductive Health, on behalf of CFFC, and focused on Catholic hospitals in New York, New Mexico, California and Washington. These states require that sexual assault survivors be told about emergency contraception (EC) and that it be provided by the emergency room upon request. The survey also looked at hospitals in South Carolina, where the state has agreed to pay for emergency room care of sexual assault survivors, including EC. The survey found that in 35 percent of hospitals, those taking patient phone calls said that EC was not available for sexual assault survivors.

In nearly one-third of cases, these statements conflicted not only with state laws, but also with the hospital’s own policies – in other words, the hospital policy indicated that EC be provided, but the individual taking the call responded differently.

The call-in survey indicated another troubling result – 10 to 20 percent of hospitals that provided EC in 2002 now indicate that it is not available under any circumstances.

You can find the CFFC’s report here.

Posted by Stephen at 12:04 AM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 04, 2006

Tithed

A new twist on the collection plate:

A rehabilitation program at a church is facing allegations it forced people to work as telemarketers for 28 cents an hour under the threat they could go back to jail.

The state Department of Human Services, which investigated the program, notified the House of Refuge on Thursday that it had 10 days to explain itself before its license would be revoked and the program shut down.

The men were sent to the program by judges or state agencies for substance abuse rehabilitation. A department report said they were paid about 28 cents an hour, but even those wages were withheld and donated to the church.

… Steve Sandlin, one of the pastors at Central Christ Church, said he was preparing a response and did not have an immediate comment.

State Department of Commerce Executive Director Francine Giani said the Division of Consumer Protection also found that the telemarketing company was not registered as a business in the state. She said Sandlin was told two weeks ago to shut it down or register it. The company had not been registered as of Thursday.

Malachi 3:8 comes to mind…

Posted by Stephen at 03:12 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 02, 2006

Miraculous design

The Statesman eviscerates intelligent design, proving once again that Austin isn’t exactly deep in the heart of Texas:

Scientists in every field (and now a federal judge in the Dover, Pa., school board case) have firmly rejected [ID], as has the science adviser to President Bush. But its advocates — who seem to have among their number U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the president and Gov. Rick Perry — carry on undeterred.

One of the chief problems with ID is its arbitrary application of the non-scientific, purely subjective word “intelligent” to natural phenomena. However, if we consider, among many counter-examples, life’s ruthlessly predatory and destructive aspects (“nature red in tooth and claw”) — or just the oddity of nipples on men — this “intelligence” seems much less evident.

Since proponents focus on ostensibly inexplicable facts and unhesitantly invoke divine intervention, why not call it “MD” (“Miraculous Design”) instead of using the misleading and blatantly anthropomorphic word “intelligent”?

Even more serious objections can be raised against ID. There are two black holes at its core — the issues of purpose and causality, which do not generally turn up in discussions on either side of the controversy.

Starting with William Paley in the early 19th century, ID proponents have argued that a watch carries unmistakable evidence of design, and they would surely agree that watches are designed to carry out a particular purpose — telling time.

But what is the purpose of a specific structural feature in bacteria, or any of the innumerable non-human life-forms on the planet? What was the purpose of the bizarre — and now extinct — Burgess Shale creatures, enthusiastically described by Stephen Jay Gould in “Wonderful Life”?

ID will be trapped in a morass of implausible and unscientific rationalizations, trying to explain why a designer did this or that, whereas evolution does not ascribe purpose to the process called “natural selection.” As Gould emphasized in his final public appearance here (in February 2002), it is unscientific and self-centered to think that our species — perhaps 160,000 years old, after 3.8 billion years of mostly microscopic unicellular life — represents the goal of evolution.

The other black hole might be even worse, for it challenges the assumption, simply taken for granted in most ID theory, that the hypothetical designer is able to go from a mental concept to actual effects in the material world — i.e., that divine intervention is possible.

For centuries, theologians have insisted that God must be, among other things, non-physical and, like the soul, not observable by the empirical methods of science. How, then, does a divinity that by definition has no physical existence carry out its designs? It must be through Walt-Disney-style magical powers, as there is no other way to get from an incorporeal entity to some kind of concentrated and controllable force.

“Walt-Disney-style magical powers”—now there’s a concept the religious right can really embrace.

The entire article, by retired classics professor James Dee, is a great read. You can also find more on ~~intelligent~~ miraculous design here.

January 28, 2006

Under-medicated

Sometimes I think I should devote this entire blog to Pat Robertson:

CHICAGO - Four Illinois pharmacists have sued U.S. drugstore chain Walgreen Co., saying they were wrongly fired for refusing to dispense the “morning-after” emergency contraceptive pill.

The four are represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group founded by Christian evangelist Pat Robertson.

The suit, filed Friday in Madison County, Illinois, charges that the company violated the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which allows health care providers to opt out of procedures they object to on moral grounds.

“It couldn’t be any clearer,” ACLJ attorney Francis Manion said in a statement. “In punishing these pharmacists for asserting a right protected by the Conscience Act, Walgreens broke the law.”

Er, no—the pharmacists (who were put on unpaid leave, not fired) did:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last April ordered pharmacists to make the morning-after pill, known as Plan B, available to customers “without delay.” The ACLJ along with several pharmacists have challenged the measure.

Polzin said Walgreen had all of its Illinois pharmacists file an electronic, online statement saying they would follow Illinois pharmacy regulations including Plan B. The four pharmacists refused to agree by a set deadline, he said.

… Walgreen’s policy allows pharmacists to decline to fill a prescription if they have a moral objection. However, they must refer the prescription to another employee who can arrange to fill the order swiftly.

[Walgreen spokesman Michael] Polzin said the four pharmacists worked the overnight shift at 24-hour facilities, and as the only ones on duty, they could not have the prescriptions filled without delay, as state law requires.

More on America’s wingnut phamacists here.

Posted by Stephen at 08:04 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 27, 2006

News from the Old Country

Given that they live in an essentially godless nation—only 1 million people attend Church of England services each week, out of a population of 60 million—a large number of Brits still seem to be falling for creationist crap:

Just under half of Britons accept the theory of evolution as the best description for the development of life, according to an opinion poll.

Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned believe that creationism or intelligent design (ID) should be taught in school science lessons.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the BBC’s Horizon series.

Over 2,000 participants took part in the survey, and were asked what best described their view of the origin and development of life: 22% chose creationism; 17% opted for intelligent design; 48% selected evolution theory; and the rest did not know.

It gets worse. When given a choice of three descriptions for the development of life on Earth, and asked which they would like to see included in school science lessons, 44% of participants said creationism, 41% intelligent design, and 69% evolution.

The findings prompted surprise from the scientific community. Lord Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society, said: “It is surprising that many should still be sceptical of Darwinian evolution. Darwin proposed his theory nearly 150 years ago, and it is now supported by an immense weight of evidence.”

“We are, however, fortunate compared to the US in that no major segment of UK religious or cultural life opposes the inclusion of evolution in the school science curriculum.”

No kidding: just think how bad the numbers would be if Britain had its fair share of fundies. Still, at least the Flying Spaghetti Monster has somewhere to call home.

January 26, 2006

Funding the fundies

Pat Robertson may be insane, but that doesn’t seem to have discouraged the government from showering him in faith-based cash:

When President Bush launched his “faith-based initiative” in 2001 to funnel federal money to religious groups, Pat Robertson was skeptical, calling the idea a “Pandora’s box” and a “narcotic” that would ensnare religious organizations in government red tape.

Those misgivings notwithstanding, the federal government has become a major source of money for Operation Blessing, Robertson’s international charity, under the Bush initiative. In two years, the group’s annual revenue from government grants has ballooned from $108,000 to $14.4 million.

Critics worry that the president’s program, which directed more than $2 billion to religious groups nationwide in 2004, is subsidizing evangelistic activity and religious discrimination in hiring.

Operation Blessing says it adheres carefully to federal guidelines designed to safeguard church-state separation and uses the grants for humanitarian relief, not evangelism.

… Among other things, those guidelines say federal money must not be used for “inherently religious activities.” Any such activities must be separated, in time or location, from government-funded activities, and recipients of services must not be required to participate in them.

… Some say that’s a difficult line to draw. “We’re concerned that people might just put up with proselytizing because they need the help,” said Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, another Washington-based lobby group. “Often, these folks are not in a position to complain. They don’t want to rock the boat.”

And then of course there’s the little issue that organizations like Operating Blessing hire only Christians, blatently breaking federal anti-discrimination law:

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Norfolk and Portsmouth, has been one of the initiative’s most persistent critics in Congress. He says it flies in the face of federal anti-discrimination protections that date back to the civil rights laws of the 1960s.

Once when testifying on the issue, Scott recalled recently, he was asked by a congressional colleague, “What’s wrong with Catholics hiring Catholics?”

“My response was that we had had that debate 40 years ago, and my side won,” he said. “We convinced enough people that telling somebody they can’t get a job solely because of their race, color, creed, national origin or sex was so inherently offensive that we made it illegal.”

“If a policy that ‘we don’t hire Catholics, Jews or Muslims’ offends you, I don’t have to explain to you what’s wrong with the faith-based initiative.”

Hat tip to The Carpetbagger Report.

Posted by Stephen at 12:08 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 25, 2006

Beyond our Ken

Pastor Ken Hutcherson, a small-time Pacific Northwest bigot who last year almost succeeded in blackmailing Microsoft into abandoning its support for gay rights, now has a new scheme to destroy the local economy. His plan has a few flaws, however—like being financially self-immolating:

A pastor who threatened a national boycott against Microsoft and other major companies for supporting a gay civil rights bill is now urging people to buy up the companies’ stock and dump it to drive prices down.

Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, says he wants to use the stock market to make a political point.

… Hutcherson told The Associated Press last week he was calling for a boycott of the companies, but said Tuesday that the stock-dumping plan, which calls on people to sell the companies’ shares on May 1, had been his strategy all along.

… “For me to ask people not to buy their product would be stupid,” said Hutcherson, whose community is also home to the software company’s headquarters.

Yes it would. Which doesn’t explain why Hutcherson has done exactly that twice in the past year—both last week and last spring.

Instead, he wants his supporters to buy one or two shares over the next few months.

“All of us get together on the same day and sell our stock, just run it in the ground,” Hutcherson said.

Well, no, Ken, that ain’t gonna happen. Blame the market:

[One] market expert laughed at the idea. “The chances of him being successful with that are slim to none,” said Hans Olsen, chief investment officer at Bingham Legg Advisers.

… Olsen also said few investors would gamble their money on a political statement, especially big investors, such as those who hold major blocks of shares in mutual funds.

“The big guys, they won’t touch that with somebody’s else 10-foot pole, let alone their own,” Olsen said.

So, let’s think this through. Microsoft has about 11 billion shares outstanding with a market value of some $280 billion—plus 30,000 Puget Sound employees who would be delighted to boycott any local businesses owned by members of Antioch’s congregation.

Hutcherson has at most 3,000 followers, the majority of them too poor to splash out on Microsoft stock—even if Pastor Ken blesses the trade.

Posted by Stephen at 12:06 AM in Business | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 24, 2006

Reed vs. reality

Ralph experiments with truthiness:

Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition and candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor, said Monday that he’s confident voters will reject accusations of ‘‘guilt by association’’ through his links to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Reed has been under intense scrutiny since his longtime friend Abramoff admitted to conspiring to defraud his Indian tribe clients and pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges.

In an interview, Reed told The Associated Press that he was approached by Abramoff’s lobbying firm with the ‘‘understanding that none of the funds contributed to my efforts were derived from gambling activity.’’

Reed’s Georgia-based public relations and lobbying businesses received a reported $4.2 million from the lobbyist to mobilize Christian voters to fight the Indian casinos competing with Abramoff’s clients.

‘‘Had I known then what I know now, I would not have done that work,’’ Reed told AP. ‘‘On reflection, I should have turned it down.’’

And if you believe any of that, read this. Or even this, from the Christian World:

Mr. Reed […] has maintained that though he knew funds for his anti-gambling work came from tribal sources, he believed what Mr. Abramoff’s firm told him: that the money came from the tribe’s “non-gambling funds.” (Anti-gambling leaders in Alabama, such as Dan Ireland of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, have called that distinction illegitimate.)

Mr. Abramoff first hired Mr. Reed, a prominent evangelical who once called gambling “a cancer,” to leverage his evangelical contacts to defeat pro-gambling legislation in Alabama in 1999. Mr. Abramoff hatched the campaign to protect the gaming interests of one of his clients, the Choctaw Tribe of Mississippi. While Mr. Reed worked to rally Christians for campaigns that benefited Mr. Abramoff’s clients, Mr. Abramoff’s partner, Michael Scanlon, wrote an e-mail to Kathryn Van Hoof, a former lawyer for the Coushatta Tribe, describing the plan to use Christians: “Simply put we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information [from] the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet, and telephone.”

To that end, Mr. Reed worked on at least three separate projects for Mr. Abramoff from 1999 to 2002. E-mails released by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee suggest Mr. Reed worked with Mr. Abramoff to funnel tribal money through intermediary organizations to anti-gambling groups and to his own consulting firm, Century Strategies.

Mr. Reed has admitted funneling $1.15 million from the Choctaw Tribe to two anti-gambling groups in Alabama, including the Christian Coalition of Alabama (CCA), in 2000. In 2001, Mr. Abramoff hired Mr. Reed to rally evangelicals to oppose casino openings and pro-gambling legislation in Louisiana to protect the interests of the Coushatta Tribe. E-mails released by a Senate committee late last year show that Mr. Reed knew the Coushatta Tribe was Mr. Abramoff’s client. (In his plea agreement, Mr. Abramoff has admitted charging the Coushattas $30 million for his work, and pocketing nearly $11.5 million without the tribe’s knowledge.)

In fact the entire World article is surprisingly good.

Posted by Stephen at 12:17 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 23, 2006

Deus Pecunia Est

The Vatican must be feeling the pinch:

The Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Pope’s words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements.

For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

The edict covers Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, which is to be issued this week amid huge international interest. The edict is retroactive, covering not only the writings of the present pontiff — as Pope and as cardinal — but also those of his predecessors over the past 50 years. It therefore includes anything written by John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI and John XXIII.

… A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.

Vittorio Messori, who has co-authored works with Pope Benedict and John Paul II, said that he was “perplexed and alarmed . . . This is wholly negative and absolutely disastrous for the Vatican’s image.” A pope’s words should be available to all free of charge, he said, and to “cash in in this way surrounds the clergy with the odour of money”.

Although that’s an aroma the Catholic Church has always found alluring.

Posted by Stephen at 11:59 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 22, 2006

Landed

Christian (property) values:

Days after an appeal for £60 million to save dilapidated churches, it emerged yesterday that the Church of England is to spend £2.5 million [$4.4 million] for a new home for the Bishop of Oxford.

Pullens End, the home of the novelist Angela Huth for the past 30 years, is an eight-bedroom Victorian house set in an acre and a half of grounds about a mile from the city centre.

… [The] bishop will, like all his colleagues, live rent-free, which is a just as well because mortgage repayments on a house the price of Pullens End would be more than £16,000 a month; local estate agents estimate that it would cost £9,000 a month to rent it on the open market. A bishop of the Church of England earns about £40,000 a year.

[…]

The Church Commissioners are under fire for selling low-cost housing for key workers. One campaigner, Brendon Mooney, a palliative care worker, said: “It’s disgraceful and the Church of England should be ashamed of itself. Homes for single mothers, the elderly and key workers are a greater priority than the Bishop of Oxford.”

Posted by Stephen at 12:25 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 19, 2006

The Vatican evolves

Darwinism: now with the papal seal of approval:

The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as “correct” the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution.

“If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for another,” Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, wrote in the Jan. 16-17 edition of the paper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science,” he wrote, calling intelligent design unscientific. “It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious.”

The article was not presented as an official church position. But in the subtle and purposely ambiguous world of the Vatican, the comments seemed notable, given their strength on a delicate question much debated under the new pope, Benedict XVI.

… L’Osservatore is the official newspaper of the Vatican and basically represents the Vatican’s views. Not all its articles represent official church policy. At the same time, it would not be expected to present an article that dissented deeply from that policy.

Although Benedict’s recent comment that the creation of the universe was an “intelligent project” suggest that the pope still isn’t exactly a committed Darwinist.

January 17, 2006

Poorly designed

Well that was easy:

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – Under legal pressure, a rural school district Tuesday canceled an elective philosophy course on ‘‘intelligent design.’’

A group of parents had sued the El Tejon school system last week, accusing it of violating the constitutional separation of church and state with ‘‘Philosophy of Design,’’ a high school course taught by a minister’s wife that advanced the notion that life is so complex it must have been created by some kind of higher intelligence.

In a settlement, the district agreed to halt the course at Frazier Mountain High next week and said it would never again offer a ‘‘course that promotes or endorses creationism, creation science or intelligent design.’’

‘‘This sends a strong signal to school districts across the country that they cannot promote creationism or intelligent design as an alternative to evolution, whether they do so in a science class or a humanities class,’’ said Ayesha N. Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the parents.

… The settlement in the El Tejon school district was announced just before a federal judge was scheduled to hold a hearing on whether to halt the class midway through the monthlong winter term.

Next, Kansas.

January 16, 2006

Taxable

More on Ohio’s rampant religious right:

A group of religious leaders has sent a complaint to the Internal Revenue Service requesting an investigation of two large churches in Ohio that they say are improperly campaigning on behalf of a conservative Republican running for governor.

In their complaint, the clergy members contend that the two Columbus-area churches, Fairfield Christian Church and the World Harvest Church, which were widely credited with getting out the Ohio vote for President Bush in 2004, have allowed their facilities to be used by Republican organizations, promoted the candidate, J. Kenneth Blackwell, among their members and otherwise violated prohibitions on political activity by tax-exempt groups.

Both churches denied that any of their activities violated limitations on nonprofit political activity. “We endorse values, but not candidates,” said the Rev. Russell Johnson, Fairfield’s leader.

… Thirty-one clergy members representing a variety of Christian and Jewish denominations signed the complaint, which was shown to the news media on Sunday. Rabbi Harold J. Berman said he had signed because he was concerned that the line between church and state was becoming blurred. “I think government is clearly impaired when churches get too actively involved in government,” he said, “and I think religion gets impaired when government acts in religious affairs.”

… The complaint questions, for example, how the Ohio Restoration Project, a nonprofit organization led by Mr. Johnson, Fairfield’s leader, obtained charitable status when among its stated purposes are to support and promote legislation. The group has said its goal is to create an army of “Patriot Pastors” to help increase the participation of church members in this year’s statewide elections.

Clearly a non-partisan initiative.

Posted by Stephen at 12:38 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 13, 2006

Pillocks

As long as you don’t go too far:

A Walgreens pharmacist from West Peoria is accused of refusing to fill a prescription for the morning after pill, and that’s sparking some major controversy. It is the second time that this particular Walgreens has allegedly refused to fill a prescription for the morning after pill, even after laws requiring pharmacies to fill birth control prescriptions without delay were put into effect.

On Sunday, a nurse practitioner called in a prescription for the morning after pill, Plan-B and was told that they would not fill it for her patient. Now, Planned Parenthood is outraged.

The Illinois President of Planned Parenthood, Joyce Harant said, “I think its wrong. If all the facts are true then in my estimation this pharmacist should not be practicing.”

Springfield Planned Parenthood Nurse Practitioner Stephanie Cox has filed a complaint after what she claims is violation of the state law. Harant is backing her up.

“The pharmacist did not respond as we interpret the state regulation that either they must provide emergency contraception or insure that the pharmacy provides that method to her.”

… The Walgreens corporation is currently investigating the claim, and issued a statement saying that if the accusations are true the pharmacist violated both state law and their company policy.

Strange that so many Walgreens pharmacists don't comply with “company policy.”

Posted by Stephen at 12:04 AM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 11, 2006

Yet more signs of intelligent life

~~Creationism~~… ~~Intelligent design~~… Philosophy of design:

A group of parents in the small Tehachapi mountain community of Lebec on Tuesday filed the first lawsuit challenging the teaching of “intelligent design” in a California public school.

The suit targets what appears to be the latest wrinkle in the continuing national fight between supporters and opponents of teaching evolution in public schools — a course that says it examines the debate as an issue of “philosophy.”

Supporters of intelligent design lost a court fight in Pennsylvania last month that both sides had seen as a test case. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III rejected the Dover, Pa., school board’s decision to teach intelligent design as part of a science course, ruling that design was “an interesting theological argument, but … not science.”

In this case, the parents say in their suit that school officials in Lebec — a town of about 1,300 just west of Interstate 5 in Kern County and about 63 miles north of Los Angeles — designed their course as a way of getting around that decision.

At a special meeting of the El Tejon Unified School District on Jan. 1, at which the board approved the new course, “Philosophy of Design,” school Supt. John W. Wight said that he had consulted the school district’s attorneys and that they “had told him that as long as the course was called ‘philosophy,’” it could pass legal muster, according to the lawsuit.

… The course, which began Jan. 3 and is scheduled to run for one month, is being taught by Sharon Lemburg, a special education teacher with a bachelor of arts in physical education and social science, according to the lawsuit.

The suit adds that Lemburg “has no training or certification in the teaching of science, religion or philosophy,” and is “the wife of the minister for the local Assembly of God Church, a Christian fundamentalist church, and a proponent of a creationist world view.”

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is representing the plaintiffs, said the course is “the wave of the future throughout the United States,” for backers of intelligent design.

It’s the sheer, straightforward honesty of religious conservatives that truly impresses.

Divine retribution

Mad Pat Robertson gets crucified:

JERUSALEM - Israel won’t do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday, putting into doubt plans to develop a large Christian tourism center in northern Israel.

Avi Hartuv, spokesman for Israel’s tourism minister, said officials are furious with Robertson’s suggestion that the stroke was retribution for Sharon’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. “We can’t accept this kind of statement,” Hartuv said.

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise $50 million to build the Christian Heritage Center in Israel’s Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

Under a tentative agreement, Robertson’s group was to put up the funding, while Israel would provide land and infrastructure. Israeli officials believe the project will generate tens of millions of tourism dollars.

But the project now is in question in light of Robertson’s comments, said Hartuv.

“We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don’t back these comments,” Hartuv said. “We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him.”

January 10, 2006

Dispensed with

Part of the solution to wingnut pharmacists:

A Dublin-based pharmacy has become the first chemist in Ireland to implement a robotic medication-dispensing system.

The system, called Rowa Speedcase, is an automated storage and retrieval system for medication. As soon as the pharmacist enters the required drug into the pharmacy’s computer, a robot automatically selects the medication, labels it and delivers it to the point of sale. Developed by European firm ARX, the system can help pharmacies to improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of dispensing medication to customers.

Irish-based Systems Solutions has worked with ARX to deploy the system, as well as developing a software interface that links Rowa Speedcase with Systems Solutions’ flagship pharmacy solution, QicScript. Essentially, the interface eliminates the need for pharmacists to duplicate the entry of prescription items into both their pharmacy system, QicSCRIPT, and the robotics machine.

The first pharmacy to implement this automated solution is Dublin-based Shannon’s Pharmacy. The owner of the pharmacy, Criofan Shannon, said he hopes the system will help to boost efficiency as well as guaranteeing accuracy in medication dispensation.

Systems Solutions says it wants to help pharmacists, not replace them. But with many doctors’ offices moving to computer-generated prescriptions, the system will undoubtedly be adapted to scan and dispense prescriptions directly—enabling patients to get their medications as easily as they get soda from a vending machine.

Which, together with mail-order drug suppliers such as Medco, should help dispense with hate-group pharmacists too.

Posted by Stephen at 10:12 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 08, 2006

Oiling Alito

Breaking and entering just isn’t what it was back in Nixon’s time:

WASHINGTON – Insisting that God “certainly needs to be involved” in the Supreme Court confirmation process, three Christian ministers today blessed the doors of the hearing room where Senate Judiciary Committee members will begin considering the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito on Monday.

Capitol Hill police barred them from entering the room to continue what they called a consecration service. But in a bit of one-upsmanship, the three announced that they had let themselves in a day earlier, touching holy oil to the seats where Judge Alito, the senators, witnesses, Senate staffers and the press will sit, and praying for each of the 13 committee members by name.

“We did adequately apply oil to all the seats,” said the Rev. Rob Schenck, who identified himself as an evangelical Christian and as president of the National Clergy Council in Washington.

… The three ministers insisted they weren’t taking sides in the Alito debate. “This is not a pro-Alito prayer,” insisted the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. With abortion, public prayer, gay marriage and right-to-life issues among those topping public debate, however, “God… is interested in what goes on” in the nomination hearing, Rev. Schenck said.

That kind of insight into God’s thinking is just so… inspiring.

Note: The oil shown above may not be exactly the one used to bless Alito’s ass, but I understand it’s a perfectly acceptable substitute.

Kabbalists claim curse felled Sharon

Pat Robertson apparently has competition:

Far-right activists took credit Thursday for the severe deterioration in Ariel Sharon’s health, claiming that a pulsa denura - Aramaic for “lashes of fire” - death curse they instigated against the prime minister in July was the real catalyst behind his current state of health.

“I take full responsibility for what happened,” far-right activist Baruch Ben-Yosef, one of the participants at the July pulsa denura, told The Jerusalem Post. “Our pulsa denura kicked in. Nothing could kill Sharon and he said his ancestors lived until they over 100 years old but we got him with the pulsa denura.”

On Wednesday night, Ben-Yosef and additional far-right activists gathered in the Samaria settlement of Kfar Tapuah to honor Binyamin Kahane - son of Meir Kahane - and his wife Talya who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists exactly five years ago. Upon hearing the news of Sharon’s stroke, Ben-Yosef said, the group broke out in song and dance and celebrated the prime minister’s fall throughout the night.

On Thursday, the activists said it was not a coincidence that Sharon fell gravely ill the same day as Kahane’s murder. “There is a judge in this world,” Ben-Gvir said. “[Prime minister] Yitzhak Rabin was killed on the fifth anniversary of Meir Kahane’s murder and Sharon fell ill on the anniversary of Binyamin Kahane’s murder.”

… Yosef Dayan - another participant in the pulsa denura ceremony - said that Thursday was a “great day” for the State of Israel since Sharon, whom he called an “evil man,” was incapacitated and could no longer return to power. Dayan said that while he could not say for certain that the death curse caused the stroke, he was sure that Sharon’s crime in evacuating the Gaza Strip settlements contributed to the deterioration in his health.

The curse, for what it’s worth, isn’t the ancient ritual the Kabbalists claim: it was conjured up in the mid-20th century.

Hat tip to Bartholomew’s notes on religion.

Posted by Stephen at 12:05 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 05, 2006

Robertson on Sharon

More madness from God’s Own Spokesman on today’s 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: I have said last year that Israel was entering into the most dangerous period of its entire existence as a nation. That is intensifying this year with the loss of Sharon. Sharon was personally a very likeable person. I am sad to see him in this condition. But I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who, quote, “divide my land.” God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible, he says, “This is my land.” And for any prime minister of Israel who decides he going carve it up and give it away, God says, “No. This is mine.” And the same thing – I had a wonderful meeting with Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. He was tragically assassinated, and it was terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, he was dead. And now Ariel Sharon, who was again a very likeable person, a delightful person to be with. I prayed with him personally. But here he is at the point of death. He was dividing God’s land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations or United States of America. God said, “This land belongs to me, you better leave it alone.”

Consider yourself warned.

Posted by Stephen at 11:25 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

January 04, 2006

Still, there’s always Kansas

DOVER, Pa. (AP) - Dover's much-maligned school policy of presenting “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution was officially relegated to the history books Tuesday night.

On a voice vote, and with no discussion beforehand, the newly elected Dover Area School Board unanimously rescinded the policy. Two weeks earlier, a judge ruled the policy unconstitutional.

“This is it,” new school board president Bernadette Reinking said Tuesday, indicating the vote was final and the case was closed.

Not in Kansas it isn’t. And there are still challenges to the teaching of evolution in around 40 other states or local school districts, all of them backed by wingnuts or extreme-right hate groups.

January 03, 2006

Fabled

This could prove interesting:

AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.

The case against Father Enrico Righi has been brought in the town of Viterbo, north of Rome, by Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist who once studied for the priesthood but later became a militant atheist.

Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest denounced Signor Cascioli in the parish newsletter for questioning Christ’s historical existence.

Yesterday Gaetano Mautone, a judge in Viterbo, set a preliminary hearing for the end of this month and ordered Father Righi to appear. The judge had earlier refused to take up the case, but was overruled last month by the Court of Appeal, which agreed that Signor Cascioli had a reasonable case for his accusation that Father Righi was “abusing popular credulity”.

Signor Cascioli’s contention — echoed in numerous atheist books and internet sites — is that there was no reliable evidence that Jesus lived and died in 1st-century Palestine apart from the Gospel accounts, which Christians took on faith. There is therefore no basis for Christianity, he claims.

… Signor Cascioli said […] that he would withdraw his legal action if Father Righi came up with irrefutable proof of Christ’s existence by the end of the month.

The Vatican has apparently declined to comment.

Posted by Stephen at 11:47 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 01, 2006

New Year God-blogging

Resurrection (well, sort of):

FORT MILL - The three-word sermon title summed up Jim Bakker’s life as the leader of the fallen PTL ministry: Something went wrong.

Speaking to a packed house Friday night at MorningStar Fellowship Church, located on the site where Bakker’s famed PTL ministry and resort rose and fell in scandal, the former televangelist delivered a fiery and blunt message of restoration and redemption, while also challenging his listeners to prepare for the trials they’re sure to face living in what he says are the last days of the Earth.

… Bakker made international headlines in the 1980s after a sex and money scandal tore apart his ministry. He freely admitted his mistakes. But he also said God allowed those trials to make him stronger.

… “Prison was God’s love for Jim Bakker,” he told the congregation. Bakker spoke with passion about the need for Christians to let God mold them into the followers they were meant to be.

… Using biblical stories of failure and redemption, along with his own life experience, Bakker’s recurring theme was of God as a potter who molds his people, even after their most tragic failures.

“I was a lump of clay that got too full of myself,” he said of his failures.

Mercifully, Christians are ~~gullible~~ forgiving souls:

The sermon was like old times for Bakker, who received a standing ovation at his introduction and numerous cheers from the congregation as he made his points.

For those who don’t recall the gory details of why Bakker was thrown in jail—and why his original 45-year sentence should have been upheld on appeal—here’s a refresher.

Bakker’s former 2,200-acre Heritage USA resort is now a residential area and golf course—thus continuing the Bakker tradition of serving Mammon rather than God.

Posted by Stephen at 04:04 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 23, 2005

The plane truth

Yeah, I know, I should be writing about Alito’s wingnuttery—warrantless wiretaps and backstreet abortions, anyone?—or today’s demonstrations in Iraq. But it’s ~~Christmas~~ the holidays, and this is much more fun:

HOUSTON (AP) - The wife of the pastor of the nation’s largest church said she chose to leave an airplane after a disagreement with a flight attendant, disputing accounts that she was asked to go.

The FBI has said Victoria Osteen was asked to leave after failing to obey crew instructions. The Continental Airlines flight Monday from Houston to Vail, Colo., was delayed an hour as a result.

In a statement posted on the Lakewood Church Web site, Osteen says: “Regardless of how some have portrayed the situation, please know that it was truly a minor misunderstanding and did not escalate into what you saw or read in the news. Contrary to those reports, it was my choice to remove myself from the situation.’’

Really?

A statement from Continental said the situation was resolved and a spokeswoman would not elaborate. The FBI reviewed a report from the airline and determined that no illegal activity had occurred, FBI spokeswoman Luz Garcia said. “She failed to comply with the flight attendant’s instructions, and they were asked to leave the flight,’’ Garcia said Tuesday.

Or in the words of a passenger who saw the whole thing:

“She was just abusive,” said Sheila Steele, who said she was sitting behind Victoria Osteen. “She was just like one of those divas.”

Proverbs 12:22 comes to mind. Osteen might also want to take another look at this.

Posted by Stephen at 05:58 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Monstrous

Wired News interviews Bobby Henderson, founder of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (aka Pastafarianism):

Wired News: Why does Pastafarianism deserve equal time in science classrooms where intelligent design is taught?

Bobby Henderson: Our theory is as much science – in fact much more so – than what the ID (intelligent design) guys are proposing. And, if you are going to redefine science to include supernatural explanations, you have to allow them all. To include intelligent design in a science classroom you have to first expand the definition of science to include supernatural explanations, rather than only natural ones, as it is now.

… WN: Why do you think so many people have responded to [Pastafarianism and intelligent design], so many scientists?

Henderson: I think it’s just because they have a better understanding of what the ID nuts are trying to do. I think part of it is that the science community, itself, is pretty quiet about the issue. Their strategy is to ignore the “debate” so that the ID people don’t get the forum.

WN: Do you think that’s a mistake?

Henderson: Yeah, totally. They need to be out there calling these people retarded all the time. Nonstop. The ID people are winning because the scientists think if they ignore the issue, it will go away. Plus, I’m sure it would be therapeutic to make fun of the ID people. I think it’s pretty amazing that these people without scientific backgrounds – or really any education at all – think they have the right to decide the science curriculum. And it blows my mind that they are getting away with it.

WN: What do you think about the impact this all has on the education a student will get?

Henderson: I would be skeptical of anyone with a supernatural science education.

And anyone whose life is controlled by an imaginary friend.

Read the entire interview here.

Posted by Stephen at 12:04 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 22, 2005

Unbalanced

The fundies find themselves another fucked-up school board:

Trustees of the Ector County Independent School District here decided, 4 to 2, on Tuesday night that high school students would use a course published by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools for studying the Bible in history and literature.

The council is a religious advocacy group in Greensboro, N.C., and has the backing of the Eagle Forum and Focus on the Family, two conservative organizations.

The vote on the disputed textbook, for an elective Bible study course, has not ended the matter. Critics say the book promotes fundamentalist Protestant Christianity.

… David Newman, a professor of English at Odessa College, said he planned to sue the district because the curriculum advocated a fundamentalist Christian point of view. […] Professor Newman said, “If the beliefs of others don’t match theirs, then the beliefs of others are irrelevant.”

Last summer, the Texas Freedom Network, which promotes religious freedoms, asked a biblical scholar at Southern Methodist University, Mark A. Chancey, to examine the council course. Dr. Chancey said it had factual errors, promoted creationism and taught that the Constitution was based on Scripture.

There are so many layers of irony here.

More pharmacist insanity

The truly blessed Jay Sekulow strikes again:

A group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson is suing to stop Illinois from requiring pharmacies to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception, saying the rule violates a druggist’s right to refuse on religious and moral grounds.

The Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice filed the lawsuit Monday in US District Court in Springfield, Ill.

The lawsuit, mirroring some claims in state lawsuits challenging the rule, names Governor Rod Blagojevich and the heads of the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and its Division of Professional Regulation as defendants.

The Illinois rule, the first of its kind in the nation, requires pharmacies that sell federally approved contraceptives to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control “without delay” if they have the medication in stock.

… The lawsuit represents five pharmacists indefinitely suspended by Walgreen Co. for refusing on religious or moral grounds to dispense the drugs.

The suit also represents two pharmacists who are worried they may face similar disciplinary action.

Sekulow’s “Trial Notebook” illustrates the extent of the ACLJ’s insanity:

[W]e will be filing two lawsuits today on behalf of pharmacists who have lost their positions because of the refusal to dispense a drug that induces abortion. Simult-aneously, we have filed claims with the EEOC on behalf of our clients. These Con-science Clause cases are significant and represent the cutting edge of the abort-ion debate in our country right now. Doctors, nurses and pharmacists should not be compelled to violate their conscience and participate in an abortion procedure.

Abortion procedure?

As I’ve written before, the irony is that emergency contraception ought to be the pro-lifers’ friend: on one estimate, it could save 80,000 abortions every year in New York state alone. But the pill works in two ways: if given prior to ovulation, it prevents or delays the release of an egg from the ovary; if ovulation has already occurred, it helps prevent the fertilized egg from traveling down the fallopian tubes and implanting in the uterus. Wingnuts, in their parallel universe, see this second way as “abortion.” Never mind that fertilized eggs often fail to implant without any kind of medical intervention, or that pregnancy doesn’t even begin until the egg is implanted:

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg implants into the uterine lining, not when the egg is fertilized. Forty to 60 percent of fertilized eggs naturally fail to implant in the uterus and are eliminated when a woman menstruates.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, emergency contraception is not effective if the woman is actually pregnant.

“Claiming contraception—especially emergency contraception—can cause abortion is one of the most common deceptions perpetuated by anti-choice extremists,” said Sarah A. Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Presumably, if all else fails, Robertson will issue another curse. After all, in 1998 he warned the city of Orlando to expect hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist attacks because it allowed rainbow flags to be displayed in support of sexual diversity. And more recently he told Hollywood to expect an earthquake because “sexual deviant” Ellen DeGeneres was chosen to host the Emmys.

So the outlook for non-wingnut (i.e., sane) pharmacists is truly bleak.

Posted by Stephen at 12:07 AM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 20, 2005

Intelligent life

Discovered in a Pennsylvania courtroom—and boy is it pissed:

HARRISBURG, Pa. - “Intelligent design” is “a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory” and cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.

Dover Area School Board members violated the Constitution when they ordered that its biology curriculum must include the notion that life on Earth was produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III said.

“We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion. “The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy,” Jones wrote, adding that several members repeatedly lied to cover their motives even while professing religious beliefs.

… “We conclude that the religious nature of ID would be readily apparent to an objective observer, adult or child,” Jones said.

But not to a wingnut.

… The judge made a point of singling out the school board members and the “breathtaking inanity” of the decision for criticism. “It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy,” he wrote.

The wingnut board, of course, is long gone, ousted by voters in a November school-board election. It was replaced by a slate of eight board members who pledged to remove intelligent design from the school curriculum.

I guess all this means that the Flying Spaghetti Monster doesn’t exist either.

December 18, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

Not for the first time, words fail me:

After two years of biblical debate over Adam and Eve and their fig leaves and whether or not nudity is sinful, a 67-year-old Quaker grandfather is preparing to open a modern-day Garden of Eden 40 miles north of Tampa, Florida.

Bill Martin’s ambitious plan for a 200-acre Christian-oriented Family Naturist Village has survived legal challenges, doctrinal disputes and a plague of internet prudes. Land is now being cleared for the opening next year of what may become the world’s only Christian community to feature nude volleyball.

… Martin remains confident that Christians will flock to Natura to experience the spiritual benefits of a lifestyle “free from body shame”. He is spending more than $2m on a nudist recreational complex that will also feature a hotel, campsites and a children’s water park.

… Martin and his supporters argue that nudism is unhealthy, especially for children, unless it occurs in a proper Christian context. He has criticised non- religious nudist camps for encouraging alcohol and sensuality. “We are going after a totally different group, a group that doesn’t want a sexual atmosphere,” he said. “There is absolutely no relationship between nudity and sex.”

Hmm, so why is he so obsessed about this?

Martin also became embroiled in a bizarre dispute about an article on his website discussing male erections — a perennial concern for novice nudists. Martin told the St Petersburg Times that the article was meant to help young men worried about an embarrassing reaction when first confronting naked women.

“If you can’t speak about human nature, I don’t know what you can speak about,” he said. “Erections have to be addressed. It’s a major concern of teen males.”

Family Naturist Villagers who find themselves reliving Genesis 3:12 can find help here.

Posted by Stephen at 04:43 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 14, 2005

Ford backs down

And another “Christian” hate group gets its ass whipped:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it would reinstate and expand the scope of its advertising in gay publications after criticism from gay rights groups.

Ford said in a letter it would restore advertising for its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications and run corporate ads marketing all eight of its vehicle brands in the publications.

… In late November, the American Family Association had canceled a boycott of Ford vehicles, which had been announced in May when the organization criticized the nation’s No. 2 automaker for making contributions to gay rights groups, offering benefits to same-sex partners and recruiting gay employees.

Several gay rights groups said the move created the perception that Ford had struck a deal with the AFA to reduce its advertising in gay publications. Gay leaders met with Ford on Monday and asked that the automaker reinstitute the advertising and distance itself from the Mississippi-based AFA.

Which it duly did—albeit after two days’ thumb-sucking—thanks in large part to John Aravosis’ all-out campaign to take out the auto maker.

So what does the ~~Klan~~ American Family Association do next? Go after the ACLU, via Progressive Insurance.

Which means we all know where to get coverage next time we need it.

December 12, 2005

Scientific American on pharmacists

Editor-in-Chief John Rennie dissects a depressing new survey that finds, among other things, that 69% of pharmacists believe they should have the right to refuse filling prescriptions for emergency contraception:

That more than two-thirds of the pharmacists believe that they should have the authority to refuse to fill the prescription doesn’t surprise me. Pharmacists, justifiably, don’t want their professional judgment about whether to fill a prescription to be forced by official fiat; it’s their responsibility to intervene if a patient’s personal medical history would make filling some prescription unwise, for example. But when it comes to emergency contraception, the important issue isn’t whether they should have that authority, it’s whether they should exercise it in service to their own conscience and without regard for their patients’ moral autonomy and physical health. The meaning of that survey finding therefore seemed open to debate, when I first read it.

The more relevant finding was that about 39 percent of the pharmacists felt they should be able to refuse to fill a legal prescription, apart from another 37 percent who felt they should be able to refuse with a referral to a more cooperative pharmacist. (Only 23 percent said that a patient’s legal rights should prevail over the pharmacist’s misgivings.)

So at least when it comes to emergency contraception, almost 4 out of 10 pharmacists would consider it appropriate to brush off a woman’s legal request for services. I would have expected to see a larger portion of the pharmacist population putting the welfare of their patients before their own moral judgments.

As Rennie points out, this is vastly at odds with the views of physicians: a previous survey (also by HCD Research) found that 78% of physicians thought pharmacists should be obliged to provide emergency contraception.

Rennie remains optimistic that the pharmacists’ oath will eventually bring the profession to its senses: it commits pharmacists to “consider the welfare of humanity and relief of human suffering my primary concerns” and to “apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal drug therapy outcomes for the patient I serve.”

Trouble is, it also commits them to “maintain the highest principles of moral, ethical, and legal conduct.” That’s a catch-all that wingnut pharmacists could easily use to justify refusing to prescribe, on the grounds that such a clause has the broadest possible impact on “the welfare of humanity.”

Which of course would be BS—all that pharmacists need to care about is the welfare and suffering of the individual. But that kind of thing has never been a primary concern of the religious right.

Posted by Stephen at 04:47 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

December 11, 2005

Sunday fundie-blogging

According to its mission statement, “intellectual diversity, integrity and disciplined inquiry in the search for knowledge are of paramount importance” to the University of Kansas. Right:

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) – A college professor who drew sharp criticism for comments deriding Christian fundamentalists over “intelligent design” said he was forced out as chairman of the university’s religious studies department.

Paul Mirecki, who remains a professor at the University of Kansas, said he had no choice when he signed the resignation letter, typed on stationary from the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“The University penalized me and denied me my Constitutionally protected right to speak and express my mind,” he said in a written statement Friday for the Lawrence Journal-World. He said his career had been ruined and his speaking engagements canceled.

… University spokeswoman Lynn Bretz said Saturday that Mirecki resigned the chairmanship last week on the recommendation of faculty members.

The university “stands unequivocally in support of his First Amendment rights and his rights to academic freedom,” Bretz said.

Well, maybe not “unequivocally.”

And let’s not forget that the Kansas Kreationist Klan has already given Mirecki a roadside beating for exercising those rights.

More here.

December 10, 2005

Diagnosing Dobsonitis

Looks like the medical community is beginning to grasp what most of us have known all along—that the hatemongers of the Christian right are actually insane:

Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.

Advocates have circulated draft guidelines and have begun to conduct systematic studies. […] The proposed guidelines that California psychologist Edward Dunbar created describe people whose daily functioning is paralyzed by persistent fears and worries about other groups. […] Dunbar and others say patients with disabling levels of prejudice should be treated for the same reason as are patients with any other disorder: They would feel, live and function better.

“They are delusional,” said Alvin F. Poussaint, a professor of psych-iatry at Harvard Medical School, who has long advocated such a diag-nosis. “They imagine people are going to do all kinds of bad things and hurt them, and feel they have to do something to protect themselves.”

“When they reach that stage, they are very impaired,” he said. “They can’t work and function; they can’t hold a job. They would benefit from treatment of some type, particularly medication.”

… “We treat racism and homophobia as delusional disorders,” said Shama Chaiken, who later became a divisional chief psychologist for the California Department of Corrections, at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. “Treatment with antipsychotics does work to reduce these prejudices.”

A recent study by Robb Willer of Cornell University identified some other symptoms of homophobia to watch out for at your local megachurch:

“[M]en who are insecure about their masculinity will behave in an extremely masculine way as compensation. […] They displayed more homophobic attitudes, tended to support the Iraq War more and would be more willing to purchase an SUV over another type of vehicle.”

“Masculinity-threatened men also reported feeling more ashamed, guilty, upset and hostile than did masculinity-confirmed men,” states Willer’s report, “Overdoing Gender: Testing the Masculine Overcompensation Thesis.”

Not that folks like Dobson or his fellow klan members are overcompensating, of course. They’re simply delusional.

December 07, 2005

Emergency contraception in Romneyland

If you’re on the religious right and run a Massachusetts hospital, you’re apparently beyond the law:

The state Department of Public Health has determined that Catholic and other privately-run hospitals in Massachusetts can opt out of giving the morning-after pill to rape victims because of religious or moral objections, despite a new law that requires all hospitals who treat such victims to provide them with emergency contraception.

… The ruling, which the department plans to outline to hospital CEOs in a letter this week, says the new law applies to all hospitals but does not nullify a statute passed years ago that says privately-run hospitals cannot be forced to provide abortions or contraception.

… The new law, which was passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature this summer over the objections of Governor Mitt Romney, takes effect next week. Backers of the measure yesterday said the department’s decision is evidence that Romney, who said during his 2002 campaign that he supported broader access to emergency contraception, is actually fighting to undermine it.

But Romney isn’t getting home free:

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, the state’s top law enforcement official and a Democratic candidate for governor next year, criticized the Department of Public Health decision yesterday.

‘‘We believe the law is clear and that it applies to all hospitals,” Reilly said in a statement. ‘‘We expect all hospitals to follow the law.”

December 06, 2005

Unevolved

Spreading the creationist message—one beating at a time:

LAWRENCE - A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after what appeared to be a roadside beating.

University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki said that the two men who beat him made references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring.

Originally called “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies,” the course was canceled last week at Mirecki’s request.

The class was added after the Kansas State Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and secondary students.

“I didn’t know them,” Mirecki said of his assailants, “but I’m sure they knew me.”

How not to self-destruct

Ford could learn a little from Wells Fargo:

The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family has closed all its Wells Fargo accounts because the San Francisco bank contributed to a gay rights group that promised to use the funds to “fight ... the anti-gay industry.”

… A Wells Fargo spokesman said the $50,000 donation to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation came from profits on accounts in the San Francisco area, not Colorado, where Focus on the Family has its headquarters.

“We absolutely made a $50,000 grant to GLAAD, and we’re absolutely proud of our support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community,” said Chris Hammond, spokesman for the banking giant, which gives about $2 million a year to gay and lesbian organizations.

Strangely, Wells Fargo has never donated to “Christian” hate groups such as FOTF.

December 05, 2005

Ford opts for self-destruction

What Ford says:

Valuing Diversity

Diversity embodies all the differences that make us unique individuals. Not limited to physical aspects of race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation, it includes culture, religion, education, experience, opinions, beliefs, language, nationality and more.

… Reflected in our products, diversity is a competitive advantage in a global economy. It broadens our range of talents and stimulates our creativity, adding to the appeal of our products especially in new and emerging markets. Our understanding of diversity helps us serve our customers better.

What Ford does:

The antigay American Family Association claimed a cultural victory on Thursday and called off its threatened boycott of Ford Motor Co. On Friday, Ford spokesman Mike Moran confirmed to Advocate.com that the company will stop advertising its Jaguar and Land Rover brands in gay publications but insisted it was strictly a business decision.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker came under fire from the AFA in May for its longtime efforts to increase LGBT workplace diversity and support gay rights causes. Ford has long been a regular advertiser within gay media, including The Advocate, and has donated significant sums to LGBT causes and nonprofit groups such as the Human Rights Campaign.

Threatened with a boycott by the Mississippi-based AFA, Ford and some of its dealers agreed to negotiate, and the AFA announced in June that it would hold off on its planned action. On Thursday, AFA announced the boycott would be canceled altogether.

And AMERICAblog offers Ford a taste of what it can now expect. If Microsoft’s fate is anything to go by, it won’t be pretty. Wells Fargo should probably take note too.

Wonder what Ford’s Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees (GLOBE)—one of the auto maker’s “company-sponsored Employee Resource Groups”—thinks?

December 04, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

Words fail me:

A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar illustrated with erotic scenes from the Bible.

The 12 re-enacted passages feature a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson’s hair and a nude Eve offering an apple.

The Nuremberg-based group said they wanted to represent the Bible in a way that would entice young people.

Nuremberg pastor Bernd Grasser said: “It’s just wonderful when teenagers commit themselves with their hair and their skin to the bible.”

“There’s a whole range of biblical scriptures simply bursting with eroticism,” said Stefan Wiest, 32, who took the racy photographs.

Anne Rohmer, 21, wearing garters and stockings, posed on a doorstep as the prostitute Rahab.

“We wanted to represent the Bible in a different way and to interest young people,” she told news agency Reuters.

“Anyway, it doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that you are forbidden to show yourself nude.”

What is it with Christians and erotic calendars?

Posted by Stephen at 12:48 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Flunking the intelligence test

When fact and fiction collide:

The only university where intelligent design has gained a major institutional foothold is a seminary. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., created a Center for Science and Theology for William A. Dembski, a leading proponent of intelligent design, after he left Baylor, a Baptist university in Texas, amid protests by faculty members opposed to teaching it.

Intelligent design and Mr. Dembski, a philosopher and mathematician, should have been a good fit for Baylor, which says its mission is “advancing the frontiers of knowledge while cultivating a Christian world view.” But Baylor, like many evangelical universities, has many scholars who see no contradiction in believing in God and evolution.

Derek Davis, director of the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor, said: “I teach at the largest Baptist university in the world. I’m a religious person. And my basic perspective is intelligent design doesn’t belong in science class.”

Mr. Davis noted that the advocates of intelligent design claim they are not talking about God or religion. “But they are, and everybody knows they are,” Mr. Davis said. “I just think we ought to quit playing games. It’s a religious worldview that’s being advanced.”

Let’s hope he has tenure.

December 02, 2005

Christians revolt

If Bush is losing support for the war here, God help him:

OPINION: Congress must begin gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq

The United States should start to gradually remove its troops from Iraq. We’ve been there long enough and done enough and spent enough.

Gradual withdrawal is the best of the three possible options. One of the other two possibilities would be remaining indefinitely while perhaps sending more troops. But how can we do that when we’ve already been there just about 32 months? When will the end come?

The United States can’t really expect to make things perfect before ending its Middle East visit. The Iraqis won’t feel independent and capable of launching out on their own until we, the Americans, the foreigners, have left. They needed us, but only for a while. So continuing the stay indefinitely risks losing the welcome.

With respect, I think we’ve lost that already.

November 30, 2005

Clamping down on wingnut pharmacists

Perhaps Walgreens is getting the message:

ST. LOUIS – Walgreen Co. said it has put four Illinois pharmacists in the St. Louis area on unpaid leave for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception in violation of a state rule.

The four cited religious or moral objections to filling prescriptions for the morning-after pill and “have said they would like to maintain their right to refuse to dispense, and in Illinois that is not an option,” Walgreen spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce said.

A rule imposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in April requires Illinois pharmacies that sell contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control. Pharmacies that do not fill prescriptions for any type of contraception are not required to follow the rule.

… Walgreen, based in Deerfield, Ill., put the four on leave Monday, Bruce said. She would not identify them. They will remain on unpaid leave “until they either decide to abide by Illinois law or relocate to another state” without such a rule or law. For example, she said, the company would be willing to help them get licensed in Missouri and they could work for Walgreen there.

On the other hand, perhaps it isn’t getting the message:

Walgreen policy says pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions to which they are morally opposed - except where state law prohibits - but they must take steps to have the prescription filled by another pharmacist or store, Bruce said.

Naturally the wingnut pharmacists have lawyered up via the lunatic-fringe Americans United for Life, which has already filed suit on behalf of several other pharmacists who seem confused about their role in the prescription process.

As I’ve written before, there are a couple of things that chains such as Walgreens, Target, Wal-Mart, Rite Aid and Winn Dixie (along with the American Pharmacists Association) need to get straight.

First, the role of a pharmacist is to dispense—accurately—any medication that a customer legitimately needs, and if necessary advise them on how to use that medication. That’s it. Nothing else. Zip. This is especially true of emergency contraception, as a recent Policy Forum in Science explained:

Pharmacist refusals to dispense—and in some cases to refer or transfer—prescriptions for contraception threaten women’s access to basic health care both in the United States and around the world. In the United States, this problem appears to be growing; increasing reports of pharmacist refusals have surfaced in the media, and numerous states have introduced bills that would amend pharmacy codes to permit pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception. This Policy Forum reviews current legal standards and professional ethics that govern the practice of pharmacy; this review, together with an assessment of the harm to women’s health, dictates that women must have access to contraception at the pharmacy without delay, harassment, or other interference.

Second, there’s choice out there in the marketplace. There are plenty of pharmacy chains that forbid wingnut pharmacists from aiding and abetting rapists, including Brooks/Eckerd, Kmart, CVS, Costco, Fagen’s, Harris Teeter, Super Valu and Price Chopper—although not all of their drugstores will actually stock emergency contraception, so you need to call ahead. In addition, many of the major supermarket pharmacies also offer OTC emergency contraception.

November 28, 2005

Going with God

More on Alito and the Christian right from an Alternet interview with Esther Kaplan, author of the recently published “With God on Their Side: George W. Bush and the Christian Right:”

On the religious front, he has issued majority opinions that allow religious displays in public buildings and proselytizing groups – such as the Good News Club – access to public schools. And he wrote an opinion knocking down an anti-discrimination policy at a university after a Christian group on campus argued that it would restrict their right to condemn homosexuality. You get a strong sense that he wants to inject religion into government and that he doesn’t support the spirit of equal rights at all.

What does this nomination mean to the Christian Right?

You cannot underestimate the extent to which the Christian Right feels like this is the culmination of their work. This is the moment they’ve been waiting for. Roe v. Wade was the single most important factor in the rise of the Christian Right as a social movement, and the brass ring has always been to stack the Supreme Court so they can overturn that decision. They have the Senate, they have the presidency. This really is their moment and they are going to pull out all the stops.

As Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council declared, they are “ready to rumble.” But it’s interesting to speculate, politically, do the Republicans really want Roe overturned? We forget that the majority of Republicans are pro-choice, as are the majority of Americans. It’s always been convenient for the Republican Party to posture as pro-life and trust that the Supreme Court will uphold Roe, but that could change now, with major political consequences.

… The Christian Right is saying that that whole set of decisions that revolve around the right to privacy should be overturned, which would mean it is okay to ban abortions, it is okay to ban sodomy, and it is okay for the state to impose itself in very strong ways on people’s private decisions. They are saying that if states across the country ban gay marriage, a court should not overturn that legislation because it is the “will of the people.” A judge who overturns discriminatory laws, in their eyes, is “activist.” It’s a rubric that implies that even horribly discriminatory legislation should be upheld because it reflects “the will of the people.”

Which is why, as I’ve said before, Alito must be stopped. Even if it means a filibuster and all that entails.

Posted by Stephen at 11:50 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 22, 2005

Intelligent life in Kansas

This will have the religious crazies soiling themselves (then calling their lawyers):

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution.

A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies.”

“The KU faculty has had enough,” said Paul Mirecki, department chairman.

“Creationism is mythology,” Mirecki said. “Intelligent design is mythology. It's not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not.”

Kansas’s Board of Education, you’ll recall, recently approved new public-school science standards that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

UPDATE 12/01/05: The university backed down and cancelled the course. Cowards.

November 21, 2005

Comfort and joy

Falwell enters into the true spirit of Christmas:

Evangelical Christian pastor Jerry Falwell has a message for Americans when it comes to celebrating Christmas this year: You’re either with us, or you’re against us.

Falwell has put the power of his 24,000-member congregation behind the “Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign,” an effort led by the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel. The group promises to file suit against anyone who spreads what it sees as misinformation about how Christmas can be celebrated in schools and public spaces.

The 8,000 members of the Christian Educators Association International will be the campaign’s “eyes and ears” in the nation’s public schools. They’ll be reporting to 750 Liberty Counsel lawyers who are ready to pounce if, for example, a teacher is muzzled from leading the third-graders in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

An additional 800 attorneys from another conservative legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund, are standing by as part of a similar effort, the Christmas Project. Its slogan: “Merry Christmas. It’s OK to say it.”

… “There is no war against Christmas,” said Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “There is no jihad against Christians. There is nothing going on around Christmas except these groups’ incessant fundraising.”

Never forget, of course, that Falwell is also the lunatic who blamed gays, lesbians and the ACLU, among others, for 9/11.

Posted by Stephen at 06:45 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 20, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

Corporate America stands up for science in its own special way:

An exhibition celebrating the life of Charles Darwin has failed to find a corporate sponsor because American companies are anxious not to take sides in the heated debate between scientists and fundamentalist Christians over the theory of evolution.

The entire $3 million (£1.7 million) cost of Darwin, which opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York yesterday, is instead being borne by wealthy individuals and private charitable donations.

… While the Darwin exhibition has been unable to find a business backer - unlike previous exhibitions at the museum - the Creationist Museum near Cincinatti, Ohio, which takes literally the Bible’s account of creation, has recently raised $7 million in donations.

The outbreak of corporate cold feet has shocked New York’s intellectuals. “It is a disgrace that large companies should shy away from such an important scientific exhibition,” said a trustee of another prominent museum in the city, who was told of the exhibition’s funding problem by a trustee of the AMNH.

… Niles Eldredge, the exhibition’s curator, confirmed that the exhibition was intended to redress the balance in the battle between scientists and creationist Christians being fought across the country.

“This is for the schoolchildren of America,” he said. “This is the evidence of evolution.”

OK, so what about all the evidence you’ll find in the glorious Creationist Museum, which “will be a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural history museums that are turning countless minds against the gospel of Christ and the authority of the Scripture” when it opens in 2007. Let’s take part of the online walk-through:

Explore the wonders of creation. The imprint of the Creator is all around us. And the Bible’s clear—heaven and earth in six 24-hour days, earth before sun, birds before lizards …

… Everywhere you turn, science confirms the biblical account! As you explore, children can scurry off into the section ‘just for kids,’ where they interact with displays of exotic living animals and learn more about the Master Designer.

Lots of good solid evidence there, then.

November 18, 2005

The Vatican on intelligent design

We’re on a roll here:

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican’s chief astronomer said Friday that “intelligent design” isn’t science and doesn’t belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was “wrong” and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

“Intelligent design isn’t science even though it pretends to be,” the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. “If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science.”

Of course, it would help if his boss hadn’t said this last week, but good judgment has never been Benedict’s strong suit.

God, lemurs and intelligent design

Krauthammer’s scientific roots start to show:

Dover [Pa.] distinguished itself this Election Day by throwing out all eight members of its school board who tried to impose “intelligent design” – today’s tarted-up version of creationism – on the biology curriculum. Pat Robertson then called the wrath of God down upon the good people of Dover for voting “God out of your city.” Meanwhile, in Kansas, the school board did a reverse Dover, mandating the teaching of skepticism about evolution and forcing intelligent design into the statewide biology curriculum.

Let’s be clear. Intelligent design may be interesting as theology, but as science it is a fraud. It is a self-enclosed, tautological “theory” whose only holding is that when there are gaps in some area of scientific knowledge – in this case, evolution – they are to be filled by God. It is a “theory” that admits that evolution and natural selection explain such things as the development of drug resistance in bacteria and other such evolutionary changes within species but also says that every once in a while God steps into this world of constant and accumulating change and says, “I think I’ll make me a lemur today.” A “theory” that violates the most basic requirement of anything pretending to be science – that it be empirically disprovable. How does one empirically disprove the proposition that God was behind the lemur, or evolution – or behind the motion of the tides or the “strong force” that holds the atom together?

In order to justify the farce that intelligent design is science, Kansas had to corrupt the very definition of science, dropping the phrase “ natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us,” thus unmistakably implying – by fiat of definition, no less – that the supernatural is an integral part of science. This is an insult both to religion and science.

Well, that’s probably gonna mean the end of those lucrative gigs on Fox News.

Defining delusional

Some congregants say the statue keeps watch over a section of freeway that was once among the most dangerous in Ohio. Twelve people died along that 15-mile stretch of I-75 in the two years before the image was erected, eight of them killed after cars jumped the median into oncoming traffic. Since the statue went up more than two years ago, there have been no such crossover deaths.

“Can’t too much go wrong next to a big statue of Jesus,” said one member of the church, James Nelms, 23.

Officials at the Ohio Department of Transportation attribute the improved safety to a $1.1-million high-tension cable that the department built in the freeway’s median about the time, coincidentally, that the statue was erected. Cars have hit the cable 183 times since then, and in three of those cases, crashes have occurred within three-tenths of a mile of the church. (Mike Simons / NYT)

Posted by Stephen at 12:16 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 16, 2005

Republican family values

Georgia-style:

ATLANTA (AP) – Ever since her 13-year-old niece wed a 14-year-old boy last year, Sharon Cline has sent lawmakers a slew of letters begging them to change a Georgia law that allows children of any age to marry – without parental consent – as long as the bride-to-be is pregnant.

“Some of the lawmakers just didn’t believe this could happen,” said Cline, who lives in Weston, Fla. “It was very frustrating.”

They’re believers now.

Lisa Lynnette Clark, 37, was charged last week in Gainesville with child molestation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old friend of her teenage son. Just days before her arrest, she wed the boy under a Georgia law that allows pregnant couples to marry regardless of age and without consent.

So you’re a Republican lawmaker: what ya gonna do?

First, deny:

“I never knew it was in the code until this morning,” Jerry Keen, the state’s House Majority Leader, said Tuesday. “Our legislative counsel – the lawyers who draft the laws – even had to look it up.”

Second, do nothing:

Still, Keen and other leaders in the Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature stopped short of endorsing a change to the state’s marital requirements.

“It’s very difficult to govern by exception. You have to govern by rule,” Keen said.

Third, persecute gays instead:

As the only openly gay elected official in Georgia’s state government, [Democratic Rep. Karla] Drenner said the irony of the lax marriage standards for minors is not lost upon her – particularly a year after lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

“We’re protecting society from the perceived threat of homosexual marriage, which was already illegal,” she said. “But yet if you’re pregnant, you can get married – and it doesn’t matter if you’re 9 years old or 10 years old.”

Drenner plans to author a bill that would bar children aged under 16 from marrying—at least without parental consent. Which isn’t much of an improvement, frankly.

November 14, 2005

The four-year-after pill

The FDA—choosing ideology over science every time:

The Food and Drug Administration did not follow its usual procedures in rejecting an application for over-the-counter sales of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B, the investigating arm of Congress found today.

The Government Accountability Office also said in its 57-page report that there were questions about whether top officials of the F.D.A. made the decision to reject the application for over-the-counter sales of the drug, which is opposed by some religious conservatives, even before its own advisory committee had issued its recommendation on the matter.

Several legislators and scientists have complained that the F.D.A. was putting politics ahead of science in its handling of the contraceptive, which can be used as emergency, morning-after contraception.

The G.A.O. said in its report that “the Plan B decision was not typical of the other 67 proposed” changes from prescription to over-the-counter sales that the agency received from 1994 through 2004.

… “We are deeply opposed to this subversion of science,” Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, in a letter signed by 17 other lawmakers.

They urged Mr. Leavitt, who oversees the F.D.A., to intervene to assure that a pending reconsideration of the pill’s status “is based on the best available science instead of ideology.”

… Last month, a consultant to that advisory panel, Dr. Frank Davidoff, editor emeritus of the Annals of Internal Medicine, resigned in protest of the agency’s handling of the Plan B contraceptive, saying it was putting politics over science. In August, the top women’s health official at agency, Susan Wood, also quit in protest over the Plan B decisions.

Meanwhile, the FDA continues to drag its feet, which is why NARAL Pro-Choice America has launched an online clock to keep track. Right now, it’s 1,734 days since the day in 2001 that some 70 medical and public health organizations filed a citizen’s petition urging the FDA to make emergency contraception available over the counter.

You can read the GAO’s full (PDF-format) report here.

November 12, 2005

Weekend God-blogging

If Christian magazine Charisma thinks things are getting weird out there, they probably are. Editor J. Lee Grady:

Everywhere I turn I find that leaders of so-called Spirit-filled churches are making bizarre choices that compromise basic Christian integrity. Some examples:

At one charismatic megachurch, staff pastors successfully convinced all their wives and female staff members to get breast implants. (I wonder: Was this discussed at a staff meeting?)
A church in California (known for its revival meetings and prophetic ministry) recently imploded after members learned that several men in the church had been having homosexual affairs with the pastor, who was married.
A leader with an international following (who wears the label of “apostle”) recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation.

As Grady asks: What Bible are these people reading?

Via Bartholomew's notes on religion.

Posted by Stephen at 12:52 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 11, 2005

Benedict gets creative

Which century are we in? Apparently the fourth:

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the evolution debate in the United States, saying the universe was made by an “intelligent project” and criticizing those who in the name of science say its creation was without direction or order.

… He quoted St. Basil the Great, a 4th-century saint, as saying some people, “fooled by the atheism that they carry inside of them, imagine a universe free of direction and order, as if at the mercy of chance.”

“How many of these people are there today? These people, ‘fooled by atheism,’ believe and try to demonstrate that it’s scientific to think that everything is free of direction and order,” Benedict said.

“With the sacred Scripture, the Lord awakens the reason that sleeps and tells us: In the beginning, there was the creative word. In the beginning, the creative word — this word that created everything and created this intelligent project that is the cosmos — is also love.”

Well that all makes perfect sense. Or at least it probably did in the year 370.

Posted by Stephen at 10:52 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 10, 2005

Robertson on “intelligent design”

Pat channels his imaginary friend:

WASHINGTON - Conservative Christian televangelist Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting “intelligent design” and warned them Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

… “I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, “The 700 Club.”

“And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for his help because he might not be there,” he said.

Seasoned readers may recall that in 1998 Robertson warned the city of Orlando to expect hurricanes, earthquakes and terrorist attacks because it allowed rainbow flags to be displayed in support of sexual diversity. More recently, of course, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Posted by Stephen at 07:45 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 09, 2005

Torturous

Fafblog has obtained a transcript of a not-torture session at a CIA not-black site:

Q. Why am I being not-tortured in this non-prison?

A. Because you're a dangerous terrorist and an enemy of the United States.

Q. Ah! How'd you find that out?

A. You told us, right after we started torturing you.

Q. You also got me to say I was a duck.

A. Ducks are dangerous terrorists and enemies of the United States.

Q. And to think I never knew! Who told you that?

A. Some duck we tortured.

More at Fafblog, which also unveils a bold new educational theory in conjunction with the Kansas Board of Education.

Although to fully understand it, you have to believe in ~~God~~ Giblets.

November 08, 2005

Kansas Kreationists strike again

UPDATED: It’s probably fair to say that evolution hasn’t really helped the Kansas Board of Education:

TOPEKA, Kan. - Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

The 6-4 vote was a victory for “intelligent design” advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.

Critics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the separation of church and state.

… “This is a sad day. We’re becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that,” said board member Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat.

All six of those who voted for the new standards were Republicans.

UPDATE: Back in the real world, it appears that the good creationist folk on Pennsylvania’s Dover Area School Board got their Darwinian dues.

November 06, 2005

Sunday night God-blogging

Because it’s never too late to watch the faithful being fleeced:

RIPON — A minister accused of selling his congregation’s church was arrested Friday and accused of another shady real estate deal — selling the church-owned house where he lived.

… Police said they learned this week that, in 2002, Radic allegedly forged documents to obtain the deed to the modest home where he has been living. County property records show the house was valued at $150,763 in 2004.

First Congregational Church members said they had assumed the house at 137 N. Elm Ave. belonged to the church.

It was the second shock this week. Earlier, Radic was charged with felony embezzlement on suspicion of selling the church for $525,000 without the congregation knowing.

First Congregational is the city’s oldest church, built in 1917. Radic has been the pastor for 10 years.

But forgiveness is swift for the fallen—even for a priest whose bail has been set at $1.5 million to reflect his flight risk:

Patricia Chavez, who identified herself as a Christian, said she understands how it could happen.

“We’re humans,” she said. “Temptation is always there. … It’s very hard not to fall into sin.”

Chavez said she is praying for Radic and his family.

Via Bobo’s World.

Posted by Stephen at 10:46 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 30, 2005

Pharmacists and emergency contraception

The religious right—spreading Christian compassion, one rape victim at a time:

More than 70 students, community members, and local politicians held a demonstration outside of Fry’s Food and Drug Store in Tucson, Arizona, yesterday to protest its refusal to fill a rape survivor’s prescription for emergency contraception (EC). The 20-year-old unnamed woman and a friend told the Arizona Daily Star that they tried calling “nearly 50” pharmacies before they found one that stocked EC, but then the Fry’s pharmacist on duty by the time they could get there would not fill the prescription on so-called religious and moral grounds.

“I was so shocked,” the unnamed woman told the Star. “I just did not understand how they could legally refuse to do this … I just don’t think this should be the pharmacist’s decision.” The two women said that the Fry’s manager on duty said he would fill the prescription if they could get there within ten minutes before his shift ended, which was unfeasible, but offered no referral to another pharmacy, as required by Fry’s corporate policy, the Star reports.

What’s most disturbing is just how many big pharmacy chains—most recently Target, thanks to its lunatic-right CEO—support their pharmacists in refusing to fill prescriptions on “moral” grounds:

In allowing its workers to deny birth control – including emergency contraceptives – to women seeking to prevent pregnancy, Target joins four other national chains. According to a Planned Parenthood report, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Rite Aid and Winn Dixie also permit pharmacists to decline prescribing the drug.

Not to mention hospitals:

According to a study published this spring in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, 55 percent of Catholic and 42 percent of non-Catholic hospitals do not make emergency contraception available in the emergency department, even in cases of rape or incest.

Fortunately, there are plenty of pharmacies that forbid wingnuts from aiding and abetting rapists, including Brooks/Eckerd, Kmart, CVS, Costco, Fagen’s, Harris Teeter, Super Valu and Price Chopper—although not all their drugstores will actually stock emergency contraception, as the Tucson rape victim discovered.

Even more fortunately, as I’ve written before, America’s drugstore pharmacists are a dying breed:

To cut costs, more and more U.S. healthcare providers are requiring patients to have routine prescriptions (i.e., like contraceptives and drugs used to treat chronic pain) filled via large mail-order drug dispensers such as Medco. Many federally and state-funded healthcare programs will, for the most part, go mail-order too.

This won’t solve the problem of filling one-off prescriptions such as morning-after birth control—for that, patient-rights groups will have to resort to the courts. But it will make drugstore pharmacists increasingly dispensable—and the religious right are going to find it much harder to infiltrate companies like Medco than the local Walgreens.

October 27, 2005

Not in Kansas anymore

The religious right—destroying America’s school system, one state at a time:

TOPEKA, Kan. - Two national groups say Kansas can’t use their copyright material in proposed science standards that critics contend promote creationism.

The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association notified the Department of Education in writing.

… The State Board of Education expects to vote next month on the proposed standards, which incorporate language sought by intelligent-design advocates expressing skepticism about evolution. The board’s conservative majority contends it wants only to give students a balanced view of evolution, but critics say they’re promoting intelligent design, which detractors describe as a repackaged form of creationism.

“Evolution is singled out as an area of science where there is major scientific controversy because of alleged weakness in the theory,” academy President Ralph Cicerone wrote. “In fact, the vast majority of scientists accept evolution as the most compelling explanation for how the diversity of life arose on this planet.”

The position the two groups have taken means that Kansas Department of Education attorneys will have to scrutinize any standards the board approves to ensure they don’t use language from the groups’ material—an experience that should be familiar, given that the groups withheld their permission back in 1999 for exactly the same reason. Two years later, elections changed the makeup of the board, and Kansas rejoined the real world. That seems less likely to happen this time around.

October 23, 2005

Sunday God-blogging: Richard Scrushy edition

UPDATED 10/26: Remember Richard Scrushy—the former HealthSouth CEO who was acquitted in June of masterminding a scheme to inflate the company’s profits by $2.7 billion? Scrushy’s acquittal was met with stunned disbelief—five former HealthSouth chief financial officers testified against him, and the case looked watertight. But the prosecution reckoned without religion:

[J]urors in the case embraced the defense portrayal of Scrushy as a deeply religious son of the South and rejected prosecution witnesses as self-serving and untrustworthy, legal experts said.

… During the trial, Scrushy appeared on a morning television show in Birmingham called “Viewpoint” in which he and his wife read Bible verses. He began preaching in fundamentalist churches and invited pastors to the trial. Several jurors said in pretrial questionnaires that they attended church.

Now, Scrushy and his wife are tightening their embrace of his (literal) savior by founding a ministry—tax-exempt, naturally:

Richard and Leslie Scrushy Ministries was incorporated in Jefferson County last month. Records list the charity as being based at 2310 Marin Drive, the private company housed on the Scrushy estate in Vestavia Hills.

The nature of business is listed as “religious, charitable, literary, educational purposes,” all categories making it eligible for tax-exempt status under IRS code 501(c)(3).

… Meanwhile, Scrushy and his wife continue hosting the “Viewpoint” religious television show, though it has moved from studios at Guiding Light Church.

It’s not surprising that Scrushy continues to wear his faith on his sleeve, because he still faces several civil lawsuits—all enthusiastically supported by his former employer:

Under Scrushy’s so-called stewardship, the Company’s former management touted earnings and revenues that have now been proven to be a fiction. Our new management team, with the assistance of numerous external resources, has determined that the internal controls were completely inadequate and millions of dollars of shareholder money were wasted on pet projects completely unrelated to HealthSouth’s core operations. Among the beneficiaries of the fraudulent conduct of the Company’s former management is Richard Scrushy. Through civil actions, numerous outside parties, including the SEC, certain shareholders and bondholders and other parties, are seeking to recover what they consider ill-gotten gains.

Hopefully Scrushy isn’t overseeing his new ministry’s finances.

UPDATE: The prospects for Scrushy Ministries just got a whole lot worse.

Posted by Stephen at 01:19 AM in Business | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 16, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

And you thought this kind of thing only happened in bad movies:

ABOUT 120 priests and theologians gathered in Rome yesterday, anxious to learn the increasingly demanded rite of exorcism. “There is no doubt that the Devil is intervening more in the life of man these days,” they were told.

Father Paolo Scarafoni said: “It is indispensable that every priest knows how to discern between demonic possession and psychological problems.” He was opening a four-month course entitled “Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation” at the Regina Apostolorum pontifical university in Rome.

Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, said that there were nine priests carrying out exorcisms in Rome. “I have carried out more than 40,000 exorcisms,” he said. “Satan exists, and targets the young above all. When faith is in decline, idolatry enters in.”

Father Vincenzo Taraborelli, one of the exorcists in Rome, said that the number of exorcisms had more than doubled since he took up his post as a parish priest 15 years ago. “There is always someone sitting in the pews waiting for my help,” he said. Most were aged between 20 and 40 and many were psychologically disturbed. He urged them to see a doctor or psychiatrist, but in other cases he concluded after careful examination that they were “genuinely possessed”.

He said: “Films about exorcism tend to exaggerate, but the victims really do scream and yell in strange, incomprehensible tongues and roll the whites of their eyes.”

I believe this kind of behavior is also popular among evangelicals.

Posted by Stephen at 07:22 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 14, 2005

Values of the dolls

My daughter is not going to be happy about this:

NEW YORK (AP) - American Girl, manufacturer of a highly popular line of dolls and children’s books, has become the target of conservative activists threatening a boycott unless the toy maker cuts off contributions to a youth organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of lesbians.

The protest is directed at an ongoing American Girl campaign in which proceeds from sales of a special “I Can” wristband help support educational and empowerment programs of Girls Inc., a national nonprofit organization which describes its mission as “inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold.”

… The Mississippi-based American Family Association, in a campaign launched Wednesday, is urging its members to demand that American Girl halt support for Girls Inc., which it called “a pro-abortion, pro-lesbian advocacy group.”

… The Pro-Life Action League, a Chicago-based anti-abortion group, also is asking supporters to contact American Girl to express dismay. […] “Parents need to know that this effort to promote self-esteem among girls is not as innocent as it seems,” [director Ann] Scheidler said. “While Girls Inc. has some good programs, they also support abortion, oppose abstinence-only education for girls, and condone lesbianism.”

… Girls Inc., which traces its roots back to a center founded in Waterbury, Conn., in 1864, serves about 800,000 girls a year, many of them black or Hispanic and most from low-income families.

… Joyce Roche, the president of Girls Inc., said the New York-based organization had never before been targeted by a protest campaign. “We were taken aback,” she said in a telephone interview Friday. “Our programs are well-respected. We’re all about helping girls see possibilities and dream big dreams.”

The AFA’s Randy Sharp noted that it was “very troubling” that American Girl was teaming up with an organization that supports “the very things we oppose.”

Now read the last two paragraphs of quoted text again.

Posted by Stephen at 05:00 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 13, 2005

Christian values

More evidence—from an unlikely source—of the conservative crackup:

The Christian Coalition, once one of the most powerful forces of the religious right, is running a much leaner operation these days.

The group – once based in Washington – now has its headquarters in Charleston, S.C., where it is coping with a vastly reduced budget of $1.3 million, down from the $26 million it enjoyed a decade ago.

… “The Christian Coalition is - how shall I put it? – it’s moribund,” said Richard Cizik, director of public policy for the National Association of Evangelicals.

… The group has been fighting off creditors and coping with the lack of a charismatic spokesman, such as former Executive Director Ralph Reed or [founder Pat] Robertson. Mr. Reed departed in 1997 to start a political consulting firm and Mr. Robertson stepped down in 2001. He was replaced by Roberta Combs, director of the group’s South Carolina affiliate.

… An Oct. 8 article by the Virginian-Pilot described the Christian Coalition’s “trail of unpaid bills from Texas to Virginia,” as well as a small army of creditors that have filed at least a dozen claims against the group.

Among them is a lawsuit filed in June by mailing company Pitney Bowes for more than $13,600 in unpaid postage. The case has since been settled out of court.

In 2002, Focus Direct, a San Antonio direct mail firm, sued the group over a fundraising problem. Mrs. Combs said the claim was settled for $200,000.

Christian Coalition’s former law firm, Huff, Poole & Mahoney of Virginia Beach, asked a judge last year to garnish the group’s assets for $75,530 in unpaid bills. Since then, the law firm has secured a partial payment of more than $21,000, the Virginian-Pilot reported.

… When Mrs. Combs took over as the group’s president in 2002, she also hired her daughter’s husband, Tracy Ammons, as a lobbyist. But when the marriage between Michele Combs and Mr. Ammons dissolved in 2003, he sued the group for $123,500 in unpaid compensation.

He and his lawyer, Jonathon Moseley, filed more than 80 pleadings and motions in Arlington Circuit Court, for which Circuit Judge Joanne Alper slapped Mr. Ammons with $83,000 in sanctions for frivolous pleadings. Mr. Moseley said the matter is now under arbitration.

“Roberta Combs is one of those people who routinely doesn’t pay people,” Mr. Moseley said. “She has a habit of forcing everyone to sue her.”

I guess that must be a loose interpretation of Matthew 6:12.

Posted by Stephen at 08:37 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 12, 2005

Reasons to impeach

Never mind lying about Iraq—today alone, says Will Bunch, Bush has committed at least one high crime and two misdemeanors by citing religion as a primary reason he nominated Miers:

Misdemeanor No. 1: In using religion as a key basis for offering Miers a job, the president would appear to have violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the law “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

Misdemeanor No. 2: More specifically, one could make the case that Bush’s actions are also in violation of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which specifically covers federal employees. According to the same EEOC primer: “The CSRA prohibits any employee who has authority to take certain personnel actions from discriminating for or against employees or applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability.”

High crime: As you might expect, the “high crime” here is more serious, and is also the area where it’s hardest to argue that the president did not cross the line. We are referring to Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

More at Attytood.

Jesus lived there

Pat Robertson wants to assume a missionary position in Israel:

Along the northeastern edge of Lake Kinneret, the landscape is quiet, the wind blows gently and the Korazim River meanders tranquilly, much as it did in the time of Jesus, but this undisturbed vista may not last much longer. Plans are underway to develop an evangelical Christian center in the area – a mini-Israel of sorts and perhaps a biblical theme park.

As part of the project, Israel will initially lease 125 acres (500 dunams) in the area between Capernaum, Tabgha and the Mount of Beatitudes. The idea: to build a center that will provide Christian believers with a sense that “Jesus lived here.” Some see the project as having great potential to attract pilgrims.

Indeed, most tourism to Israel is Christian. In 2000, for example, 2.7 million tourists visited Israel, of which 1.5 million were Christians. Tourism Minister Abraham Hirchson says evangelicals will invest $50 million to $70 million in the project, and that they will design the area with Israeli consent. Hirchson says, “I hope that in November we’ll be able to sign the first agreement.” Hirchson believes the new center will draw a million to 1.5 million additional tourists a year.

… And who is the group with whom the negotiations are underway? “We are talking about a broad group, and at its heart one of the key figures will be Pat Robertson,” says Hirchson. Robertson, an Evangelist from the U.S., is widely known from the “The 700 Club,” the Christian news and talk show that is the flagship of the Christian Broadcasting Network.

… Opponents to the project, among them the chairman of the Yad L’achim organization, Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifschitz, who met with Tourism Minister Hirchson, argued that bitter experience with evangelicals leaves no doubt regarding their missionary activity. The Ministry of Tourism says the project calls only for a visitors’ center, with staffers saying, “Israeli children will not sit down there to learn about Jesus.”

Via Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

Posted by Stephen at 03:17 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 11, 2005

Unbelieving

About time:

The Air Force, facing a lawsuit over alleged proselytizing, has withdrawn a document that permitted chaplains to evangelize military personnel who were not affiliated with any faith, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

The document was circulated at the Air Force Chaplain School until eight weeks ago. It was a “code of ethics” for chaplains that included the statement “I will not proselytize from other religious bodies, but I retain the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated.”

… The Air Force distanced itself from the code of ethics after complaints by Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate who has accused the academy’s current leaders of fostering pressure on cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity.

Last week, Weinstein filed suit in federal court in New Mexico, alleging “severe, systemic and pervasive” religious discrimination in the Air Force.

… “They say the bad guys we’re fighting, the jihadists, represent a theocratic, fascistic movement,” Weinstein said. “If the United States Air Force, probably the most technologically lethal organization ever assembled by man, has a policy of evangelizing ‘the unchurched,’ you tell me how that makes us look.”

Like hypocrites. But the winged wingnuts haven’t given up completely:

The Air Force has new guidelines on religious tolerance that discourage public prayers on all but rare occasions. They do not ban evangelizing but say chaplains “must be as sensitive to those who do not welcome offerings of faith as they are generous in sharing their faith with those who do.”

Weinstein called the guidelines insufficient, but evangelical Christian groups attacked them as overly restrictive. “Mikey Weinstein might not like it, but it is the job of an evangelical Christian chaplain to evangelize,” said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for the Colorado-based Focus on the Family.

Ah yes, that fine Christian organization whose compassionate leader believes that 9/11 was God’s retribution against America for abortion, profanity and immorality.

Posted by Stephen at 12:17 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Theocrat vs. theocrat

Mitt Romney’s hypocrisy continues to astound:

RALEIGH, N.C. – Venturing into foreign policy, Governor Mitt Romney yesterday told a largely Republican audience that Islamic terrorists “want to bring down our government” and “want to put in place a huge theocracy.”

“We’re under attack, as you know, militarily,” Romney told about 150 people gathered at an exclusive Raleigh country club. “They’re not just intent on blowing up a little bomb here and there at a shopping mall, awful as that would be. They want to bring down our government, bring down our entire economy. They want to put in place a huge theocracy.”

That would be the same Mitt Romney who wants to establish his very own theocracy—one where stem-cell research is banned, same-sex marriages and civil unions are forbidden, emergency contraception isn’t available to rape victims, mosques are wiretapped, and foreign students are under surveillance.

Yet another reason why “Romney 2008” is an oxymoron. With emphasis on the moron.

Posted by Stephen at 11:28 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 09, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

Even by the routinely insane standards of the religious right, this is hard to swallow:

FLORENCE, Ala. - The First Assembly of God Church has a Fear Factor ministry that lets youths swallow live goldfish in order to teach them about fear.

“We need to be realistic about what the Bible says about fear and not be afraid to share our faith in school,” youth minister Anthony Martin told the TimesDaily in a story Thursday. “We can’t let that fear rule our lives.”

Martin said the ministry’s participants are between the ages of 14 and 21 and that they had to get their parents to sign a waiver to be involved.

… “Through this ministry, kids are surrendering their lives to Jesus and developing a deeper relationship with Jesus,” Martin said. “The method of the ministry that we use to bring people is going to change, but the message is going to stay consistent.”

Uh, sounds like the goldfish are the ones surrendering their lives to Jesus.

You can report the church to Huntsville Animal Control (256-883-3630), Decatur Animal Control (256-351-7765), or the ASPCA. Preferably all three.

Posted by Stephen at 12:13 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

October 06, 2005

Creative

In case there’s anyone left who doesn’t think intelligent design is creationism in a fancy SCOTUS-proof suit:

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Early drafts of a student biology text contained references to creationism before they were replaced with the term “intelligent design,” a witness testified Wednesday in a landmark trial over a school system’s use of the book.

Drafts of the textbook, “Of Pandas and People,” written in 1987 were revised after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June of that year that states could not require schools to balance evolution with creationism in the classroom, said Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Forrest reviewed drafts of the textbook as a witness for eight families who are trying to have the intelligent design concept removed from the Dover Area School District’s biology curriculum.

… Forrest outlined a chart of how many times the term “creation” was mentioned in the early drafts versus how many times the term “design” was mentioned in the published edition.

“They are virtually synonymous,” she said.

Posted by Stephen at 12:07 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 05, 2005

Visionaries

Chances are this all seemed pretty rational at the time:

A couple accused with two others of overturning the altar at a Roman Catholic church during Sunday worship acted on a vision from God and the belief the new pope is the antichrist, according to interviews published Tuesday in The Decatur Daily.

In a jailhouse interview with the paper, Adam Joseph Turgeon, 27, also admitted his actions at the Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church were in poor judgment.

Decatur police charged Turgeon; his common-law wife, Lisa Marie Wagner, 26; and their roommates, Val Eugene Loughman, 20, and Loughman’s wife, Emily Beth Loughman, 21; with felony criminal mischief, following the outburst at the 11 a.m. service.

“I had a vision. Lisa and me were tearing a church apart,” Turgeon said in the jailhouse interview. “That’s not what I did. I just tore up a table that people saw as an idol, kneeling before it and bowing before an idol.”

… “We are in end times,” Wagner said. “This is Armageddon, the end of all things. Basically, what we’re in right now is the appearance of the antichrist, who we believe to be Pope Benedict (XVI). ... That’s the main reason we chose the Catholic church. It didn’t have anything to do with the people in it.”

… “We’re not doing anything like this again,” Wagner [added]. “We’re all very peaceful people.”

Posted by Stephen at 07:29 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Not to mention war, plague and famine

This was published last week, but I only just discovered it:

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

… The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.”

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.”

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.

… The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.

Mr Paul said: “The study shows that England, despite the social ills it has, is actually performing a good deal better than the USA in most indicators, even though it is now a much less religious nation than America.”

If past wingnut reaction to this kind of heresy is any indication, Paul will need to go into hiding real soon.

You can find the entire paper here. And thanks to Jacqueline for the tip.

Posted by Stephen at 12:07 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 04, 2005

Yet more signs of intelligence

Lapsed uber-creationist Cardinal Schoenborn takes half a step in the right direction:

PARIS - A senior Roman Catholic cardinal seen as a champion of intelligent design against Darwin’s explanation of life has described the theory of evolution as “one of the very great works of intellectual history.”

Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said he could believe both in divine creation and in evolution because one was a question of religion and the other of science, two realms that complemented rather than contradicted each other.

… “Without a doubt, Darwin pulled off quite a feat with his main work and it remains one of the very great works of intellectual history,” Schoenborn declared in a lecture in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna on Sunday. “I see no problem combining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, under one condition — that the limits of a scientific theory are respected.”

Science studies what is observable, and scientists overstep the boundaries of their discipline when they conclude evolution proves there was no creator, said the cardinal, 60, a top Church doctrinal expert and close associate of Pope Benedict XVI.

… Schoenborn, who ranked among the papal hopefuls last April, caused an uproar in the United States last July with a New York Times article that seemed to say the church no longer accepted evolution and backed intelligent design.

… In his [Sunday] lecture, Schoenborn said his article had led to misunderstandings and sometimes polemics. “Maybe one did not express oneself clearly enough or thoughts were not clear enough,” he said. “Such misunderstandings can be cleared up.”

Posted by Stephen at 05:55 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 02, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

Is it so wrong to sell thongs to the throng?

[A] new book backed by a Church of England bishop urges Christians to spread the message to their friends and neighbours by hosting lingerie parties.

The book, Open the Door, argues that in an age when more people know their zodiac signs than the Ten Commandments, Christians have to use unconventional methods to reverse the decline in churchgoing.

It says: “What a tragedy that we are surrounded daily with television programmes, art, film and even real-life stories sold to magazines and newspapers that champion casual sex and pornography, yet as Christians we often have so little to say about it.”

The book, produced by the charity Activate, which is primarily aimed at women, also recommends murder mystery evenings and “pamper” parties as ways to break the ice with non-churchgoers. Other opportunities to spread the faith include knitting groups and book clubs.

The Rev Jan Harney, a Church of England cleric in Manchester who also works for Activate, said that she wanted Christians to relax, have fun and to get to know people before trying to convert them.

“I have not conducted a lingerie party myself, but when Bridget Jones was all the rage I know that some Christian groups were holding knickers parties,” she said. “To be honest, I am not sure what happened at those. Nobody has told me.”

That can’t be good.

(Meant to add: some fine Christian lingerie can be found here.)

Posted by Stephen at 01:00 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 01, 2005

Counter-intelligence

This may be the only time I’ll ever agree with a Catholic theologian, so forgive me while I savor the moment:

HARRISBURG, Pa. - “Intelligent design” is vastly similar to creationism and should be taught as religion, not science, a Catholic theologian testified Friday, on the fifth day of a trial over whether the concept belongs in a public school science curriculum as an alternative to evolution.

Georgetown University theology professor John F. Haught said that while intelligent-design proponents do not explicitly identify God as the creator of life, the concept is “essentially a religious proposition.”

“I understand it to be a reformulation of an old theological argument for the existence of God,” he said.

Haught testified as an expert witness on behalf of eight families who are trying to have a reference to intelligent design removed from the Dover Area School District’s biology curriculum. The families contend that it effectively promotes the Bible’s view of creation, violating constitutional guarantees on freedom of religion.

Posted by Stephen at 12:40 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 25, 2005

Intelligent life in Pennsylania

This should be entertaining:

In a civil trial set to begin Sept. 26, the Dover Area School District will defend its policy requiring ninth-grade students to hear about “intelligent design” in a preamble to biology lessons on evolution.

… Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism — a literal reading of the Bible’s story of creation — camouflaged in scientific language, and it does not belong in a science curriculum. Eight Dover families are suing the school district, alleging that the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

“Our objective is to demonstrate that the prior (legal) precedent, which forbids the teaching of creationism, applies here as well,” said Eric Rothschild, a Philadelphia attorney representing the families.

The state American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are assisting the parents, including lead plaintiff Tammy Kitzmiller.

“The school board has no business instructing children about religious matters,” Kitzmiller said at a December news conference on the lawsuit.

… Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which supports the teaching of evolution in public schools, said the controversy had little to do with science because mainstream scientists have rejected intelligent-design theory.

Intelligent-design supporters “seem to have shifted virtually entirely to political and rhetorical efforts to sway the general public,” Scott said. “The bitter truth is that there is no argument going on in the scientific community about whether evolution took place.”

There remains, of course, fierce debate about Flying Spaghetti Monsterism and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

September 23, 2005

Discrimination

Pure and simple:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted Thursday to let Head Start centers consider religion when hiring workers, overshadowing its moves to strengthen the preschool program’s academics and finances.

The Republican-led House approved a bill that lets churches and other faith-based preschool centers hire only people who share their religion, yet still receive federal tax dollars.

Democrats blasted that idea as discriminatory.

Launched in the 1960s, the nearly $7 billion Head Start program provides comprehensive education to more than 900,000 poor children. Though credited for getting kids ready for school, Head Start has drawn scrutiny as cases of financial waste and questions about academic quality have surfaced nationwide.

Overall, the House bill would insert more competition into Head Start grants, require greater disclosure of how money is spent, and try to improve collaboration among educators in different grades. Yet on Thursday, the dispute over religion eroded the bipartisan support for Head Start’s renewal.

… “Congress should not be in the business of supporting state-sponsored discrimination,” said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla. Said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.: “The (Republican) majority has decided to choose religious discrimination over what could have been a rare bipartisan agreement.”

Holy shit, this blog is turning into Bobo’s World. Gotta lose some of my religion.

Posted by Stephen at 12:21 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 22, 2005

Disabused

It never ends:

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A three-year grand jury investigation of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the longest known inquiry in the national clergy sex abuse crisis, ended Wednesday with scathing allegations that cardinals and other churchmen had conspired to protect offenders.

However, the grand jury said it could bring no indictments because of time limits on prosecuting the claims and because the Roman Catholic archdiocese is not a corporation under state law. Only one priest in the archdiocese has been indicted.

… The grand jury was unsparing in its condemnation of Bevilacqua, who retired in 2003, and his predecessor, the late Cardinal John Krol, who was archbishop of Philadelphia from 1961-88.

The two men knew that priests were molesting children but conducted bogus “non-investigations” designed to avoid uncovering abuse, while they and their aides transferred known abusers among parishes, the grand jury said.

The 418-page report names 63 priests “whose abusive behavior was well-documented in archdiocesan files and by witnesses who testified” before the panel. All had multiple victims, and many more abusers certainly exist, the grand jury said.

The examples of abuse cited in the report included an 11-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and impregnated by a priest, who took her for an abortion, and a priest who falsely told a 12-year-old boy that the child’s mother knew he was being raped repeatedly and allowed it.

“The evidence is clear. This reaches the top - the very top of our archdiocese,” Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said at a news conference. “Regrettably, the perpetrators of these crimes and the people that protected them will never face the penalties they deserve.”

Unsurprisingly, the archdiocese continued to defend its child-molestors, calling the report “discriminatory” and “a vile, mean-spirited diatribe,” and accusing investigators of “bullying” former Cardinal Joseph Bevilacqua. Ironically, Cardinal Justin Rigali, who succeeded Bevilacqua, then went on to offer his “heartfelt and sincere apologies” to the victims at a press conference. Must be a new definition of “heartfelt and sincere.”

There have now been at least 11 grand-jury investigations of dioceses over the past three years, but so far no criminal charges against bishops for failing to curb abuse.

Posted by Stephen at 12:05 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 21, 2005

Aid and succor

Available courtesy of the Vatican to child-abusers, exorcists, war criminals…

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The chief prosecutor at the U.N. war crimes tribunal accused the Vatican on Tuesday of hindering the hunt for a fugitive Croatian general.

Prosecutor Carla del Ponte’s spokeswoman said Gen. Ante Gotovina was believed to be receiving support from a network of Roman Catholic monasteries in Croatia.

If church leaders “would give orders not to harbor war crimes suspects, if they would assist justice, fugitives wouldn’t find protection in monasteries,” Del Ponte’s spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, said.

… Hartmann said Del Ponte had sent letters to the Vatican and met with top church officials this summer requesting that the church reprimand Croatian Bishop Mile Bogovic. Bogovic publicly called Gotovina a hero and said his prosecution was politically motivated.

Hartmann says that Del Ponte’s pleas went unanswered.

Posted by Stephen at 12:05 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 20, 2005

Teflon-coating Benedict

Not exactly a surprise, but still wrong:

ROME (AP) - The U.S. government has told a Texas court that Pope Benedict XVI should be given immunity from a lawsuit accusing him of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian, court documents show.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Peter Keisler said in Monday’s filing that, as pope, Benedict enjoys immunity as the head of a state - the Vatican. He said that allowing the lawsuit to proceed would be “incompatible with the United States’ foreign policy interests.”

There was no immediate ruling from Judge Lee Rosenthal of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston, who has been presiding over the case. However, the Supreme Court has held that U.S. courts are bound by such “suggestion of immunity” motions submitted by the government, Keisler’s filing says.

… The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was named as a defendant in a lawsuit by three boys who allege that a Colombian-born seminarian on assignment at St. Francis de Sales church in Houston, Juan Carlos Patino-Arango, molested them during counseling sessions in the church in the mid-1990s.

Many lawsuits stemming from the U.S. church sex abuse crisis have named the pope, the Vatican and other high-ranking church officials, but they failed because the officials could never be served with the papers. This case got further than most recent ones because Ratzinger was actually served with the documents.

… The lawsuit alleges that Ratzinger, who headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before becoming pope, was involved in a conspiracy to hide Patino-Arango’s crimes and to help him escape prosecution.

The lawsuit cites a May 18, 2001, letter from Ratzinger, written in Latin to bishops around the world, explaining that “grave” crimes such as the sexual abuse of minors would be handled by his congregation and that the proceedings of special church tribunals handling the cases were subject to “pontifical secret.”

Daniel Shea, attorney for one of the three boys, has said such secret proceedings amounted to a conspiracy to cover up the crimes.

Shea isn’t giving up, however. He now intends to challenge the constitutionality of the U.S. diplomatic recognition of the Holy See on the grounds that it goes against the First Amendment’s “establishment clause.” In other words, this one could run and run.

Posted by Stephen at 11:30 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The New Yorker on intelligent design

We join God and his fellow deities on day six of Creation:

“Today I’m really going out there,” said the Lord God. “And I know it won’t be popular at first, and you’re all gonna be saying, ‘Earth to Lord God,’ but in a few million years it’s going to be timeless. I’m going to design a man.”

And everyone looked upon the man that the Lord God designed.

“It has your eyes,” Zeus told the Lord God.

“Does it stack?” inquired Allah.

“It has a naïve, folk-artsy, I-made-it-myself vibe,” said Buddha. The Inca sun god, however, only scoffed. “Been there. Evolution,” he said. “It’s called a shaved monkey.”

“I like it,” protested Buddha. “But it can’t work a strapless dress.” Everyone agreed on this point, so the Lord God announced, “Well, what if I give it nice round breasts and lose the penis?”

“Yes,” the gods said immediately.

“Now it’s intelligent,” said Aphrodite.

“But what if I made it blond?” giggled the Lord God.

“And what if I made you a booming offscreen voice in a lot of bad movies?” asked Aphrodite.

Posted by Stephen at 12:06 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 19, 2005

Cashing in on Katrina

Trust the churches to use Katrina as a fund-raising opportunity:

Where the government stumbled, churches rushed in. That’s the message religious disaster relief groups already are bringing to Capitol Hill, hoping the dramatic example of how they sped aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors along the Gulf Coast will build new momentum for President Bush’s drive to expand federal funding for faith-based groups.

… Critics are alarmed by this latest push, saying the work of churches following the tragedy - while heroic - does not resolve the complex constitutional questions surrounding Bush’s faith-based proposals. But religious leaders contend with such overwhelming need, lawmakers must act quickly.

Bob Reccord, who is coordinating the massive relief operation for the Southern Baptist Convention, plans to lobby federal lawmakers and last week testified with Hood before a Senate subcommittee on behalf of the CARE Act. The legislation would provide tax breaks and other incentives to Americans making charitable donations, and is part of a broader campaign to ease restrictions on federal grants for social service providers with a religious mission.

… “If the president wants to really put his money where his mouth is on the faith-based initiative, now is the time,” said the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of the “The Purpose Driven Life.” “Long after the Red Cross pulls out and FEMA pulls out, the churches are still going to be there.”

Bishop T.D. Jakes, who gave the sermon Friday at the Washington National Cathedral service marking Bush’s day of prayer for victims, has told the president that more money should be channeled directly to religious groups responding to the tragedy.

“I felt it was incumbent upon me to share with him that the faith-based community is working with 10 percent, or a tithe, of people’s income, while the government is working with 30 percent of everyone’s income,” said Jakes, a best-selling author and pastor of The Potter’s House, a 30,000-member Dallas megachurch. He has been working with Dallas city officials, religious relief groups and individual churches to raise money, find housing for survivors and bring them food, clothes and other aid.

… Opponents, however, say it would be a mistake to set policy based on the Katrina response.

They contend secular relief groups also have been key contributors to relief efforts, as have some arms of government, such as the Coast Guard, whose members spent days under dangerous conditions plucking hundreds of New Orleans residents off the roofs of flooded homes.

James Dunn, who served in Washington for more than two decades with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which works to protect the separation of church and state, said that among the unresolved constitutional issues is Bush’s desire to allow church groups to consider religion in hiring, even if they receive federal grants. Critics say that’s discrimination.

“I think what’s happening is they’re trying to dismantle the civil rights program without saying it,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

Posted by Stephen at 07:27 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sorry

Well, this ought to make things right:

Church of England bishops have suggested Christian leaders apologise to Muslim leaders for the war in Iraq.

A report from a working group of bishops says the war was one of a “long litany of errors” relating to Iraq.

As the government is unlikely to offer an apology, a meeting of religious leaders would provide a “public act of institutional repentance”, it said.

It urges a “truth and reconciliation” meeting, but acknowledges that arranging it could be difficult.

… The Church of England has criticised the war, saying it was not a “just war”.

But a dilemma now exists for those within the Church - to pull out of Iraq without a stable democracy in place would be irresponsible, but to stay suggests collusion with a “gravely mistaken” war, the bishops said.

… The report said errors in the West’s handling of Iraq included support of Saddam Hussein over many years as a strategic ally against Iran, a willingness to sell him weapons and the suffering caused to the Iraqi people by sanctions.

It also says the war appeared to be “as much for reasons of American national interest as it was for the well-being of the Iraqi people”.

The insights here are simply stunning.

(OK, that was a low blow. If you want to read the report, there’s a link on this page.)

Posted by Stephen at 11:56 AM in Religion | War | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 18, 2005

Sunday God-blogging

The (purchasing) power of prayer:

A Corsican priest whose penchant for the good life raised eyebrows among churchgoers has been placed under formal investigation for abuse of confidence and forgery. He is accused of defrauding the church out of hundreds of thousands of euros.

Father Antoine Videau, 60, rolled up to celebrate mass in the small Corsican village of Calacuccia in a new, top of the range Audi, with a Rolex on his wrist.

“It was all rather disconcerting - he was more of a playboy than a priest,” one parishioner told Libération yesterday. “We know we’re talking about at least €200,000 [£135,000],” said a spokesman for the Corsican police, who launched an investigation this year after the new bishop of Ajaccio, Monsignor Jean-Luc Brunin, voiced concern about the priest’s lifestyle.

“But the real figure is difficult to establish. He had been active for a long time and had bank accounts in France and abroad. This is a priest whose net worth was so substantial he was paying supertax; who took luxury holidays in South America.”

Posted by Stephen at 12:22 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 16, 2005

Vade retro satana

Remind me: which century is this again?

Pope Benedict XVI, who often greets religious groups visiting Rome, made a surprising welcome in his general audience: He offered best wishes to a convention of exorcists, whom he encouraged to “carry on their important work in the service of the church.” Details of the convention were not released publicly, but exorcism has gained a more prominent role in the Catholic church in recent years. Pope John Paul II, who died in April, oversaw the rewriting of the ritual for exorcisms and reportedly took part in at least one himself, in 2000. Regina Apostolorum, a top Vatican university, is planning this year to offer another course in exorcism to priests; a course last year proved popular with students.

Brought to you by the most enlightened church on the planet.

Oh, and you can find a list of approved exorcists here.

Posted by Stephen at 11:26 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

And in more Romney news…

Mitt discovers—not for the last time—what it’s like to be a loser:

BOSTON (AP) - The state Legislature voted Thursday to override the governor’s veto of a measure that will expand access to emergency contraception by requiring hospital emergency room doctors to offer the medication to rape victims.

The measure, which Gov. Mitt Romney vetoed in July, will also make the medication available without a prescription from pharmacies. A provision that exempted Catholic hospitals was eventually dropped from the legislation.

The Senate voted unanimously 37-0 to override the veto. In the House, the vote was 139-16 to override, far more than the two-thirds needed.

… “Rape survivors will now receive the standard of care they deserve at any hospital emergency room,” said Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “Women will have access to emergency contraception sooner, when it is most effective.”

The lunatic right responded with their usual spasm:

“A woman could unwittingly be aborting an unborn child. That is one of our top concerns,” said Marie Sturgis, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens of Life.

Never mind that this is actually impossible, as I’ve written before:

In the real world, the morning-after pill ought to be the pro-lifers’ friend: on one estimate, it could save 80,000 abortions every year in New York state. But the pill works in two ways: if given prior to ovulation, it prevents or delays the release of an egg from the ovary; if ovulation has already occurred, it helps prevent the fertilized egg from traveling down the fallopian tubes and implanting in the uterus. Wingnuts, in their parallel universe, see this second way as “abortion.” Never mind that fertilized eggs often fail to implant without any kind of medical intervention, or that pregnancy doesn’t even begin until the egg is implanted:
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg implants into the uterine lining, not when the egg is fertilized. Forty to 60 percent of fertilized eggs naturally fail to implant in the uterus and are eliminated when a woman menstruates.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, emergency contraception is not effective if the woman is actually pregnant.

“Claiming contraception—especially emergency contraception—can cause abortion is one of the most common deceptions perpetuated by anti-choice extremists,” said Sarah A. Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

One of many. But then—as I’ve also pointed out before—the anti-choicers don’t care about the health and welfare of women, or about the underlying science:

What they want is control, to turn back the clock to the glory days when, if you were with child, you were with child. Even if you actually were—or are—a child.

Posted by Stephen at 12:06 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 13, 2005

Losing their religion

Gays, according to the Vatican, just can’t control themselves:

The American prelate overseeing a sweeping Vatican evaluation of every seminary in the United States said yesterday that most gay candidates for the priesthood struggle to remain celibate and that the church must “stay on the safe side” by restricting their enrollment.

Archbishop Edwin O’Brien made the comments as Roman Catholics await word of an eagerly anticipated Vatican document on whether gays should be barred from the priesthood. O’Brien and several other U.S. bishops have said they expect that document to be released soon.

O’Brien, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services in Washington, said that “there are some priests ... with same-sex attractions and they’ve done very well” remaining celibate.

“But generally speaking, in my experience, the pressures are strong in an all-male atmosphere,” he said. “And if there have been past failings, the church really must stay on the safe side. ... The same-sex attractions have gotten us into some legal problems.”

O’Brien had told the National Catholic Register, an independent newsweekly, that “anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary,” even if they had been celibate for a decade or more. O’Brien told The Associated Press that the church is not “hounding” gays out of the priesthood but wants to enroll seminarians who can maintain their vows of celibacy. The church considers gay relationships “intrinsically disordered.”

A description that might more aptly be applied to the Catholic Church itself.

Posted by Stephen at 10:14 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 12, 2005

Farrakhan’t

For some unknown reason, Majikthise appears to think this is OK:

Louis Farrakhan addressed a packed auditorium at Southern University in Baton Rouge this afternoon. The event was part of Farrakhan’s tour of regions recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

… Farrakhan spoke about the meaning of Katrina. He argued that the hurricane was divine punishment visited by God upon America. He said that God was punishing “wickedness in high places”: the stolen election of 2000, America’s shadowy role in 9/11, the PATRIOT act, the[y] trumped up Iraq war, and systemic racial oppression. Farrakahn [sic] also endorsed the theory that one of the New Orleans levees was preemptively dynamited to spare wealthy white suburbs at the expense of poorer black neighborhoods.

But why would God punish a racist American federal government by inflicting disproportionate suffering on black people? The reason, Farrakahn [sic] said, is that God sent Katrina to unite the black community. If the community unites in the face of this catastrophe, those who lost their lives will not have died in vain.

Hmm. Over here at the Party, we don’t much like folks who think catastrophes are the perfect opportunity to roll out their latest religious rant. We tend to group them with hate-groupies like Pat Robertson, Michael Marcavage, Dwight McKissic, and all the other “Christians” who are exploiting Katrina and preying on the South.

The sad thing is that Farrakhan did make some good points:

Farrakhan wants to lobby the Red Cross and FEMA for transparency. He wants to make sure that the black community is a powerful force within the reconstruction effort. Otherwise, New Orleans will be rebuilt by wealthy white developers who import their own highly paid workers to fill lucrative contracts. Farrakhan warned that if the black community didn’t band together and press their case, New Orleans’ the city’s black heritage would be expunged.

But, as usual, the good was obscured by the bad, the evil, and the plain insane. Farrakhan has for too long got a free pass on this kind of crap—a pass that nobody on the liberal side of the house should give him. He’s a religious bigot who has done nothing to help African Americans. If he delivers in New Orleans, it will be a first.

Oh, and Lindsay, you say in a comment on your own post that you’re “not endorsing Farrakhan’s views.” Sure doesn’t read that way—I can’t imagine you’d have reported the story this uncritically if it had been a Robertson gig.

Posted by Stephen at 12:11 AM in Humanity | Religion | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

September 11, 2005

The politics of hate

Moron:

Gov. Rick Perry spoke at two private events this week where a Texas minister wondered if God sent Hurricane Katrina to purify the nation of sins, including homosexuality.

The GOP leader didn’t object at the gatherings in San Antonio and Houston on Thursday.

Gubernatorial spokesman Robert Black, contacted Friday, said: “The governor does not agree with that. But far be it for the governor to try to divine the will of the Almighty.”

… The Rev. Dwight McKissic, organizing pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, said he asked only if God sent the hurricane “to purify our nation.”

It’s hard to know what to say about this kind of crassly offensive bullshit. It’s also hard to believe that anyone out of kindergarten would think it acceptable—just days after hundreds have died and ~~tens~~ hundreds of thousands have lost everything—to tacitly approve McKissic’s delusional ramblings.

That the governor of America’s second-biggest state—even allowing for the fact that he’s a Republican—would do so is, well, beyond comprehension.

Guess this must be what they call a Texas welcome to evacuees.

September 01, 2005

Robertson exploiting New Orleans

With help from FEMA:

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the lead federal agency in the rescue & recovery operation at work in New Orleans and the Mississippi gulf coast.

FEMA has released to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the storm’s hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the list.

The Rev. Pat Robertson’s “Operation Blessing” is next on the list. [UPDATE: FEMA changed the link, and now it's in third place.]

“It’s an outrage,” said privacy watchdog Bill Scannell, who alerted Sploid to the FEMA / Robertson scam. “Operation f**cking Blessing? And it’s right underneath the Red Cross link!”

Scannell, currently campaigning against the Transportation Security Administration’s refusal to turn over personal information illegally collected from 100 million U.S. air passengers, noted that Operation Blessing’s board of directors is dominated by the televanglist and his family.

The chairman, “MG Robertson,” is none other than the Rev. Pat — Marion Gordon Robertson is his real name — while Pat’s wife DeDe is vice president and son Gordon Robertson is also on the board.

The front operation for the radical, pro-assassination televangelist and Republican power broker is also based in the Rev. Pat’s headquarters, Virginia Beach.

Robertson’s shell organizations have already collected more than $25 million from the federal government under various “faith based” federal-handout programs. And with millions of distraught citizens looking to FEMA for help in finding reputable organizations to help Katrina survivors, Robertson stands to profit magnificently from the horror that has fallen on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Unbelievable.

Posted by Stephen at 04:44 PM in Humanity | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 31, 2005

Abort

Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration put off a long-awaited decision on whether to sell emergency contraception without a prescription, saying the pill was safe to sell over-the-counter to adults but grappling with how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers. Today, one of the FDA’s leading advocates for women’s health quit in protest:

American women lost an advocate for women’s health and scientific integrity as Susan F. Wood, Ph.D., Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health and Director, Office of Women’s Health announced her resignation today.

… Ms. Wood sent the following correspondence today to her colleagues and women’s health advocates:
“Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I regret to tell you that I am leaving the FDA, and will no longer be serving as the Assistant Commissioner for Women’s Health and Director of the FDA Office of Women’s Health. The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women’s access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women’s health. I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health policy decisions. I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled. I therefore have submitted my resignation effective today.

I will greatly miss working with such an outstanding group of scientists, clinicians and support staff. FDA’s staff is of the highest caliber and it has been a privilege to work with you all. I hope to have future opportunities to work with you in a different capacity.”

While Wood’s resignation may help call attention to the fact that the FDA has caved to the wingnuts, it also hands conservatives a major victory. Inside the FDA, Wood could make a difference. Outside, she’ll likely have much less impact.

What Christians think about New Orleans

Why aren’t Marcavage and the rest of his insane “religious” terrorists in jail?

(New Orleans, Louisiana) An evangelical Christian group that regularly demonstrates at LGBT events is blaming gays for hurricane Katrina.

Repent America says that God “destroyed” New Orleans because of Southern Decadence, the gay festival that was to have taken place in the city over the Labor Day weekend.

“Southern Decadence” has a history of filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars” Repent America director Michael Marcavage said in a statement Wednesday.

“Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city.” Marcavage said.

Let’s be very clear about this. Groups like Repent America don’t exist in a vacuum. In fact they don’t exist at all unless a large number of “Christians” support and finance them. And as John Aravosis points out, Repent America has the support of a very big chunk of the religious right:

This is a group that has been defended by scores of lead religious right organiz-ations in just the past year, including the Southern Baptist Convention, Center for Reclaiming America (attached to D. James Kennedy), the American Family Association’s AgapePress, WorldNetDaily, the men over at the Concerned Women for America, Lou Sheldon’s Traditional Values Coaltion, the freepers, and more.

Think about that for a moment. And maybe figure out a way to let these assholes know what you think of them.

Thanks to AMERICAblog for the pointer.

Posted by Stephen at 06:04 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 28, 2005

Creative

We seem to be stuck in a bit of a religious rut right now—sorry:

LOS ANGELES - A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.

The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming university admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Other rejected courses include “Christianity’s Influence in American History.”

… University of California spokeswoman Ravi Poorsina said she could not comment because the university had not been served with the lawsuit. Still, she said the university has a right to set course requirements.

“These requirements were established after careful study by faculty and staff to ensure that students who come here are fully prepared with broad knowledge and the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed,” Poorsina said.

Since “broad knowledge” and “critical thinking skills” are not qualities usually associated with the religious right, that may be the crux of the problem here.

Posted by Stephen at 07:27 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sunday God-blogging

“God has blessed us to ride in the best automobiles, live in the best homes, wear the finest minks and exclusive clothing, and to have large bank accounts,” a Chicago bishop once told a Pentecostal convention in the 1970s. This may not be exactly what he had in mind:

Bishop William A. Ellis, pastor of Apostolic Pentecostal Church of Morgan Park, admitted earlier this summer he stole more than $500,000 in church money. That pilfered collection-plate cash came on top of the hefty salary, the $100,000 car and the Flossmoor mansion the church already provided for Ellis.

Two months after pleading guilty to felony tax fraud — and more than a year after he was first charged in the case — Ellis remains at the helm of the sprawling house of worship at 114th Street and Vincennes Avenue. Ellis was able to parlay the conviction into martyrdom, according to one longtime parishioner.

At a sentencing hearing scheduled for Tuesday, federal prosecutors are likely to tell U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman that Ellis should spend at least two years behind bars. But the pastor’s lawyers will contend prison time isn’t appropriate — arguing in part that Ellis still is desperately needed at his church.

“Support your bishop,” blared a bulletin calling on worshipers to reserve seats on church buses bound for Chicago’s federal courthouse for the 11 a.m. sentencing. “Prayer warriors wanted. No doubters allowed.”

The evening of the sentencing — as well as the evening after it — a “victory rally” is planned at the church. In fact, there have been “victorious prayer vigils” at the church every single night of August leading up to Ellis’ sentencing.

… When Ellis was indicted last year, he was accused of not reporting to the IRS $520,000 in church money he skimmed between 1996 and 2001. In addition to an estimated $1,000 he took from each Sunday’s collection plate, he also used the church’s American Express card for personal expenses and church funds to pay off his own credit card and life insurance premiums.

… Prosecutors also alleged Ellis used church funds to buy himself a second Mercedes-Benz to supplement the one the church already had bought him. The fully loaded church-bought Mercedes cost $107,000, Worthon said.

Bobbe Worthon, who has collected nearly 200 signatures from church members calling for Ellis to resign, thinks the pastor should drive directly to jail: “I love him—I don’t hate anybody,” Worthon said. “But God knows I hope he goes to jail. He needs it.”

Posted by Stephen at 06:40 PM in Legal issues | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Gay priests and the Vatican

In 1999, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the Vatican’s guardian of doctrine, he ordered an American nun to stop ministering to gays and lesbians in the U.S. The world is just about to find out whether, as Pope Benedict XVI, his personal prejudices will also define his papacy:

The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests.

The controversial document, produced by the Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the body overseeing the church’s training of the priesthood, is being scrutinised by Benedict XVI.

It been suggested Rome would publish the instruction earlier this month, but it dropped the plan out of concern that such a move might tarnish his visit to his home city of Cologne last week.

The document expresses the church’s belief that gay men should no longer be allowed to enter seminaries to study for the priesthood. Currently, as all priests take a vow of celibacy, their sexual orientation has not been considered a pressing concern.

… ‘It will be written in a very pastoral mode,’ Haldane said. ‘It will not be an attack on the gay lifestyle. It will not say “homosexuality is immoral”. But it will suggest that admitting gay men into the priesthood places a burden both on those who are homosexual and those they are working alongside who are not.’

The instruction was drawn up as part of the Vatican’s response to the sexual abuse scandal that surfaced in the American church three years ago, which has seen hundreds of priests launch lawsuits against superiors whom they accuse of abusing them.

… In a further sign of the instruction’s deeply controversial nature, it is expected the document would be signed by a cardinal rather than the Pope himself if the Vatican decides to publish it.

Which would be a pointless gesture, given that the instruction won’t see the light of day unless Benedict personally approves it.

Posted by Stephen at 12:04 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 26, 2005

The FDA and emergency contraception

Unbelievable. OK, not at all unbelievable in Bush’s America:

The government on Friday put off its long-awaited final decision on whether to sell emergency contraception without a prescription, saying the pill was safe to sell over-the-counter to adults but grappling with how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers.

In a surprise move, the Food and Drug Administration postponed for at least 60 days a final decision on how to allow nonprescription sales of the morning-after pill called Plan B just to women 17 or older.

“Enforceability is the key question,” said FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford.

… Crawford broke a personal pledge to Congress to decide Plan B’s fate by Sept. 1, charged two senators who called for congressional hearings into the delay.

“It is a breach of faith,” Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who lifted objections to Crawford assuming leadership of FDA only after his pledge, wrote in a statement. “There is no credible scientific reason to continue to deny increased access to this safe health care option.”

And as feministing points out, the non-decision is most damaging to those who are most vulnerable—teenagers:

Young women are the women who need EC the most. And as we’ve pointed out before, many American teens can get abortions without parental notification or consent—so why in the world would we want to give them a hard time about preventing a pregnancy?

Answer: because we’re scared shitless of the religious right.

Posted by Stephen at 08:40 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 24, 2005

Liar

UPDATED: Well, I’m sure his flock believes him:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) – Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson insisted Wednesday that he did not call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, despite comments broadcast on his program two days earlier.

“I didn’t say ‘assassination,’” Robertson said Wednesday on his Christian Broadcast Network show “The 700 Club” about remarks reported by The Associated Press and other media outlets.

“I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ ‘Take him out’ could be a number of things including kidnapping.

“There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.”

But a video of Monday’s telecast shows that Robertson’s exact words were: “You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.”

Satan made him say it.

UPDATE: Robertson has now apologized for what he previously said he didn’t say, MSNBC reports. “Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement,” he said. “I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.”

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Posted by Stephen at 04:34 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Uncharitable

Today’s caring, compassionate Christians appear to have forgotten Matthew 19:21:

Nations where fewer people attend church tend to be more generous in their support for development in poor countries than those where church attendance is much greater, according to the third annual edition of the “Commitment to Development Index (CDI)”, published this week in Foreign Policy magazine.

The Index, a joint project of Washington-based Foreign Policy and the Center for Global Development (CGD), found that Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, and Norway retained their top rankings among wealthy countries for their helpfulness to poor countries from last year. Italy, Ireland, Greece and Japan were the least helpful of the 21 countries ranked by the Index.

… Index researchers subsequently matched their results against the World Values Survey, which tracks social and cultural changes around the world, and found that those donor countries that were most supportive of development in poor countries were also less likely to have high rates of church attendance.

Denmark received the highest Index rating, yet only three percent of Danes attend church at least once a week – the lowest attendance rate of all 21 donor nations. While church attendance rose to 14 percent in second-place Netherlands, Sweden (3), Norway (5), and Finland (6) all had church attendance rates well below 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the most religiously observant country, Ireland – where nearly two-thirds of the population attend church at least once a week – ranked 19 in the Index, while the next two most-observant nations, the United States and Italy, ranked 12 and 18, respectively.

“It’s often said that one should love they neighbor as one lives oneself,” according to Foreign Policy, which noted in reference to the Index findings, however, that “where there is more preaching, there is less practicing.”

Of course, that’s not to say that America’s Christians don’t care about what happens in other, less-fortunate countries.

Posted by Stephen at 12:24 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 23, 2005

Fetuses and pain

Another “pro-life” myth bites the dust:

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) – A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don’t feel pain until the final months of pregnancy, a powerful challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think more about ending pregnancies.

The review by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco comes as advocates are pushing for fetal pain laws aimed at curtailing abortion. Proposed federal legislation would require doctors to provide fetal pain information to women seeking abortions when fetuses are at least 20 weeks old, and to offer women fetal anesthesia at that stage of the pregnancy. A handful of states have enacted similar measures.

But the report, appearing in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, says that offering fetal pain relief during abortions in the fifth or sixth months of pregnancy is misguided and might result in unacceptable health risks to women.

… The researchers reviewed dozens of studies and medical reports and said the data indicate that fetuses likely are incapable of feeling pain until around the seventh month of pregnancy, when they are about 28 weeks old.

While brain structures involved in feeling pain begin forming much earlier, research indicates they likely do not function until the pregnancy’s final stages, said the report’s senior author, UCSF obstetric anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Rosen.

The religious right, who’ve never seen a scientific study they couldn’t debunk with a fact-free fantasy, will of course be all over this—particularly as they currently have a measure pending in Congress that would affect about 18,000 U.S. abortions a year performed after the fifth month of pregnancy. The good news is that with the California study on the table, that (already long-shot) legislation is now dead.

Posted by Stephen at 07:35 PM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Creating tomorrow's theocrats

I don’t think this was what the Founding Fathers had in mind:

WASHINGTON — In the blue and gold elegance of the House speaker’s private dining room, Jeremy Bouma bowed his head before eight young men and women who hope to one day lead the nation. He prayed that they might find wisdom in the Bible — and govern by its word.

“Holy Father, we thank you for providing us with guidance,” said Bouma, who works for an influential televangelist. “Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill.”

“Amen,” the students murmured. Then they picked up their pens expectantly.

Nearly every Monday for six months, as many as a dozen congressional aides — many of them aspiring politicians — have gathered over takeout dinners to mine the Bible for ancient wisdom on modern policy debates about tax rates, foreign aid, education, cloning and the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Through seminars taught by conservative college professors and devout members of Congress, the students learn that serving country means first and always serving Christ.

… That puts them at the vanguard of a bold effort by evangelical conservatives to mold a new generation of leaders who will answer not to voters, but to God.

Well, there goes the constitution. Along with women’s reproductive rights, scientific progress, evolutionary theory, the education system, individual freedom, and pretty much every other aspect of progressive democracy the U.S. once stood for. In its place: the United States of Afghanistan, brought to you by America’s Taliban.

Posted by Stephen at 05:33 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 22, 2005

More on stem cells

Science—unlike religion—is all about progress:

Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells – without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has always been required in the past, a Harvard research team announced yesterday.

The technique uses laboratory-grown human embryonic stem cells – such as the ones that President Bush has already approved for use by federally funded researchers – to “reprogram” the genes in a person’s skin cell, turning that skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself.

The approach – details of which are to be published this week in the journal Science but were made public on the journal’s Web site yesterday – is still in an early stage of development. But if further studies confirm its usefulness, it could offer an end run around the heated social and religious debate that has for years overshadowed the field of human embryonic stem cell research.

… While that cell has all the characteristics of a new embryonic stem cell, it contains the DNA of the person who donated the skin cell and also the DNA that was in the initial embryonic stem cell.

At some point before these hybrid cells are coaxed to grow into replacement parts to be transplanted into a person, that extra DNA must be extracted, the researchers write.

The team describes this task as a “substantial technical barrier” to the clinical use of stem cells made by the new technique.

Although as the Post points out, a number of other research teams are already making progress removing DNA from hybrid cells.

More stem-cell news here.

Posted by Stephen at 01:12 AM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 21, 2005

Having their fill

A small victory against wingnut pharmacists:

AUSTIN - Texas’ capital city became the first in the nation Thursday, according to Planned Parenthood, to prohibit a pharmacy from refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control, emergency contraceptives and other medications.

The measure, approved unanimously by the Austin City Council, requires Walgreens, the city’s pharmaceutical contractor, to fill prescriptions for patients on Austin’s medical assistance program “in-store, without discrimination or delay,” even if an individual pharmacist declines to fill a prescription based on personal beliefs.

Planned Parenthood hailed the measure as a model for other cities and a strong statement against recent high-profile cases across the country in which pharmacists cited moral objections to filling birth-control prescriptions.

“We haven’t heard of any other city to do this,” said Danielle Tierney, regional spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood. “Instead of waiting for a woman in Austin to get denied her prescriptions, we’re putting in this extra layer of protection and taking a positive, proactive approach to the problem. Our hope is that other city councils will look at this and say, ‘What a great idea. We can do this in our community, too.’”

In the Dallas area, several women have been denied prescriptions, including a rape victim who was refused the “morning after pill” and a North Richland Hills mother of two and first-grade teacher, who was denied her birth-control pills.

It never fails to amaze me how out of step the big pharmacy chains are with the vast majority of Americans. By allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions on moral grounds, Walgreens—along with pharmacy chains such as CVS—is siding with religious hate groups that think forcing rape victims to have abortions is somehow a morally superior act.

In fact some of the hate-group pharmacists may well be breaking the law, as I wrote in another post:

The role of a pharmacist is to dispense any medication prescribed by a licensed physician, and if necessary advise me on how to use that medication. That’s it. Nothing else. Once written, the prescription belongs to me, so if a pharmacist refuses to return an unfilled one—apparently a popular wingnut tactic—they are stealing my property. I believe that’s a crime.

Yet despite consistently bad press and several lawsuits, the big pharmacies stubbornly refuse to change their policies (one of Walgreen’s PR flacks describes its policy as “balanced.”). Which is why local governments need to step in—fast.

Posted by Stephen at 02:08 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 19, 2005

No sign of intelligence

Famed for his innovative diagnosis of Terri Schiavo’s condition, “Dr.” Bill Frist is now applying the same scientific rigor to intelligent design:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Echoing similar comments from President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said “intelligent design” should be taught in public schools alongside evolution.

Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, spoke to a Rotary Club meeting Friday and told reporters afterward that students need to be exposed to different ideas, including intelligent design.

“I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith,” Frist said.

Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design “doesn’t force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future.”

Absolutely. Which is why schoolkids should also be taught about the Flying Spaghetti Monster—which, as we all know, actually did create the universe—and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

Posted by Stephen at 06:22 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Blessed

The Vatican has asked Bush to grant Pope Benedict immunity in a lawsuit that accuses him of conspiring to cover up the sexual abuse of three boys by a Texas seminarian:

The Vatican’s embassy in Washington sent a diplomatic memo to the State Department on May 20 requesting the U.S. government grant the pope immunity because he is a head of state, according to a May 26 motion submitted by the pope’s lawyers in U.S. District Court for the Southern Division of Texas in Houston.

Joseph Ratzinger is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. Now Benedict XVI, he’s accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up the abuse during the mid-1990s.

… In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Gerry Keener, said Tuesday that the pope is considered a head of state and automatically has diplomatic immunity.

Which is depressing, given Benedict’s apparent role in trying to keep a lid on the abuse scandal:

In May 2001, [Ratzinger] sent a confidential letter to every bishop in the Catholic church reminding them of the strict penalties facing those who referred allegations of sexual abuse against priests to outside authorities.

The letter referred to a confidential Vatican document drawn up in 1962 instructing bishops on how to deal with allegations of sexual abuse between a priest and a child arising out of a confessional.

It urged them to investigate such allegations “in the most secretive way... restrained by a perpetual silence... and everyone... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office... under the penalty of excommunication.”

As I’ve written before, this isn’t a trivial issue. The Catholic Church itself estimates that 4,450 priests who served between 1950 and 2002 have faced credible accusations of abuse. And research by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice suggests that in the U.S. alone, 10,667 children were abused by the clergy during that period.

Posted by Stephen at 12:14 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 17, 2005

Intended consequences

The reality for embryonic stem-cell research, via Technology Review:

On August 9, 2001, Mathew “Willy” Lensch sat with his wife in their Oregon living room and watched President George W. Bush speak to the nation. Millions of Americans had their TVs on, but unlike most of them, Lensch was, as he puts it, “on the edge of my chair, the rest of the universe ceasing to exist.”

Lensch was finishing his PhD in molecular and medical genetics. His research specialty was a genetic malady called Fanconi anemia, which often kills its victims before they reach adolescence. […] Fanconi victims’ best hope for a cure, Lensch believed, lay in re-creating their missing blood cells from embryonic stem cells—stem cells derived from an early human embryo, which are unusually adaptable and changeable. Earlier that year, Lensch had accepted a position with a brand-new stem cell group that is now based at Children’s Hospital Boston, a prominent biomedical research center.

… To his relief, Bush tried to find a middle ground. Arguing that scientists had already created “more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines,” the president decided to “allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life-and-death decision has already been made.” But Uncle Sam would not spend any money on new stem cell lines. With this compromise, Bush argued, researchers would be able “to explore the promise and potential of stem cell research without crossing a fundamental moral line.”

At first, Lensch was relieved, even elated. […] “I really thought we might be up and running in a few months,” [he] says.

Today, that reaction strikes him as naive. Bush’s apparently simple decision to withhold federal money inadvertently created an enormous regulatory maze that few scientists have managed to escape. Four years after the president’s speech, Lensch’s team has not yet been able to begin a full research program. Its story is not unusual: with a few exceptions, private funding sources—philanthropies and businesses—have not stepped into the gap left by Washington’s withdrawal. Nor have research groups been able to capitalize on federal funding for the study of existing stem cell lines, partly because they are fewer in number than Bush thought, and partly because of unexpected patent restrictions.

Worse, Lensch says, the small amount of stem cell research that has been permitted is taking place almost entirely without the benefit of public scrutiny. “When research is tied to the federal government, there’s a whole structure of oversight to make sure that it’s performed for the public good,” he says. “When you cut the tie, it’s the Wild West—there’s no rules.… In the name of preserving morality, the president’s decision has ended up creating moral anarchy.”

Entire (lengthy) article here.

August 15, 2005

Falling short

Bit by bit, leg by leg, standards on the religious right are falling fast:

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) – Capri pants and flip-flops will be fine in class but shorts will remain forbidden as school starts next week at Liberty University, the college founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Students were notified of the more relaxed campus dress code by e-mail. As recently as five years ago, men were required to wear ties at the university and women had to wear long skirts or dresses.

“I am thrilled, because flip-flops and jeans are my favorite attire,” said student Grace Burns.

The code requires “neat jeans” – no holes or patches. Shorts “are never acceptable” in the classroom, though the ban is eased for the dining hall and academic buildings after 4:30 p.m. Shorts must be mid-thigh length or longer.

Heaven forbid. Still, the students are coping, in their own wacky way:

“I picked this school because it was different and because it had a dress code,” student Angie Sweeney said.

Still, she says she plans to wear jeans and flip-flops when classes start Aug. 24 “just because I can now.”

Makes perfect sense.

I’m curious about the 4.30 pm cut-off—is that medication time?

Posted by Stephen at 06:28 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

“Intelligent” design is toast

Well, the religious right wanted a debate:

Harvard is joining the long-running debate over the theory of evolution.

The school is launching an ambitious research project that will bring together experts from a variety of fields, including astronomy and biology, to study how life emerged on Earth.

Researchers hope recent scientific advances, such as the discovery of water on Mars, will help them learn more about life’s origins.

“My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention,” said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.

The “Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative” will get $1 million a year in initial funding from Harvard, but the university expects to add faculty and budget over the years.

For those who don’t quite see what there is to debate here, the National Academies—which comprise the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council—have a great evolution-resources Web site. Plus—for entertainment purposes—here’s more on “intelligent” design.

Posted by Stephen at 01:01 AM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 13, 2005

CVS, your pharmacy of (no) choice

More company-sanctioned pharmacist wingnuttery:

CVS pharmacists, acting on their religious or moral beliefs, can refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions as long as they make sure the customer can get the medication when another pharmacist is on duty or at another CVS store, company officials said yesterday.

“Our policy is to fill prescriptions for all customers in a timely manner and to make sure their needs are met and that they are satisfied,” Eileen Howard Dunn, vice president of corporate communications and community relations for CVS, said yesterday. “As an employer, however, we must also accommodate a sincerely held religious conviction that may prevent a pharmacist from dispensing a certain prescription.”

Dunn’s remarks came in response to media reports of a woman who was temporarily denied the “morning-after” contraceptive pill at the CVS pharmacy on Tiogue Avenue in Coventry last Friday.

Dunn, who declined to identify either the patron or the pharmacist, said that the customer pulled up to the store’s drive-up window at about 10 p.m. The pharmacist on duty at the 24-hour store refused to fill the prescription because it conflicted with his or her personal beliefs, Dunn said.

… The incident has angered leaders of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, who called CVS’ actions “criminal.”

“Why are we placing undue obstacles on a woman?” Kathy Kushnir, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood, said. “If a woman presents a legal prescription, it must be filled at that time – period, end of story.”

“And even if this is just one case, it’s a major case because we have a woman going from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to fill a valid prescription,” Kushnir said. “That is criminal.”

Which is a concept CVS should be familiar with:

CVS Corp., the number two US drugstore chain, said former Rhode Island state Senator John A. Celona will plead guilty to federal charges as part of investigations into business relationships between politicians and the company.

Celona, who resigned from the Rhode Island Senate March 9, 2004, was charged June 27 with ‘‘defrauding the citizens of Rhode Island,” according to a statement from the US attorney’s office. Celona also agreed to plead guilty in federal court to three counts of mail fraud.

The US attorney’s office alleged that between April 2000 and September 2003 an unidentified pharmacy company paid Celona monthly fees totaling $45,000 to persuade the lawmaker to oppose ‘‘Pharmacy Freedom of Choice” legislation and to benefit the company in other ways. Celona’s attorney, William Dimitri, identified the company as Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS.

When a CVS executive in August 2003 told Celona it was ending his consulting agreement, according to the US attorney’s office, the executive provided Celona with a complimentary trip to a charity golf outing in San Diego.

Nice. And yes, I know Celona is/was a “Democrat.” Seems to share the reddest of Republican values, though.

Posted by Stephen at 12:13 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 10, 2005

John Roberts, radical liberal

Conservative logic is a bit like a round-the-world trip—you drift far enough to the right, you’ll end up by the left:

WASHINGTON – A conservative group in Virginia said Tuesday it was withdrawing its support for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays.

The group, Public Advocate of the United States, is one of the first conservative organizations to announce anything but support for the judge.

Eugene Delgaudio, the president of the group, said in an interview that he hopes his stance will prod others. […] “We can’t take our limited resources and put it toward a candidate who is not a strict constructionist when we were told he is,” Delgaudio said.

… Delgaudio said his group had planned to send out more than 1 million pieces of direct mail for Roberts, as well as work telephones, poll and conduct petition drives.

But now, “canceling our mail campaign is the least we can do,” he said. He said he would poll his group to see if members want him to be neutral, spend money to oppose Roberts or reinstate support.

… Arguments that Roberts’ work on the case does not equal support for gay rights doesn’t wash with Delgaudio. “Nobody’s forced to help your opponents,” he said. “I can’t believe that a senior attorney would voluntarily help somebody he doesn’t agree with. I don’t believe it. It’s not credible.”

And if there’s one thing the wingnuts have going for them, it’s credibility.

BREAKING (OK, not exactly breaking): In a related (OK, vaguely related) development, Giblets offers advice on how to tell how gay your gay son is. Among the helpful tips:

Place two photographs in front of your son lying face down. On the left place a photograph of Tom Welling, TV's gay Superman; on the right place the stern but genial visage of James Dobson. Flip them over simultaneously. Which does your son look at first? If he looks at Tom Welling, he is gay. If he looks at James Dobson, he is gay with an unnatural fixation for James Dobson.

Posted by Stephen at 12:23 AM in Legal issues | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 08, 2005

Violating stem cell research

More insanity from the caring, compassionate religious right:

A national anti-abortion group yesterday served the administrators of California’s stem cell institute with a federal lawsuit seeking to stop their work on the grounds that the civil rights of frozen embryos are violated by stem cell research.

… Around the same time it arrived, committee Chairman Robert Klein was announcing that several lawsuits filed in state court had been consolidated to be heard by one judge, in one county, on an expedited basis.

That litigation has blocked the sale of government-backed bonds to fund the institute, which is supposed to award $300 million annually for stem cell research.

The federal lawsuit, filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children, could now further delay the sale of bonds.

The lawsuit appears to be identical to one filed against the National Institutes of Health and dismissed after the 4th Circuit court determined it had no legal standing.

What a wacky bunch these “pro-lifers” are—NAAPC, get it? That must have raised a few laughs at the local Klan meeting. And boy do these folks care:

The people who filed the federal lawsuit likely know it is still a moot case, said Joan Samuelson, a member of the committee overseeing the stem cell institute.

“It is just a maneuver to continue to delay our work, which 7 million Californians voted to try to get cures to people,” said Samuelson, who has multiple sclerosis.

Which of course is one of many diseases stem cell research could eventually cure.

August 07, 2005

Softer cell

This could turn the embryonic stem-cell debate on its head:

Scientists looking for less controversial alternatives to stem cells from human embryos yesterday said they had found a potential source in placentas saved during childbirth.

Stem cells - which can potentially become any kind of cell and so be used in transplants for a multitude of illnesses - could revolutionise medicine.

… A team at the University of Pittsburgh described primitive cells found in a part of the placenta called the amnion, which they coaxed into forming a variety of cell types and which look very similar to sought-after embryonic stem cells.

With millions of children born each year, placentas could provide a ready source of the cells, the team said.

It is not yet certain that the cells they found are true stem cells, said Stephen Strom, who worked on the study. But they carry two important genes, called Oct 4 and nanog, which so far have only been seen on embryonic stem cells.

The cells found by the Pittsburgh researchers failed to form tumors and don’t appear to be immortal—two features of embryonic stem cells. But in experiments, the team did get the cells to form into what looked like heart cells, nerve cells, liver cells and pancreatic cells—which suggests they could have many medical uses. Better still, they would come pre-inoculated against the religious right.

Posted by Stephen at 12:37 AM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 04, 2005

No way out

Bitch Ph.D. summarizes what wingnuts want for women:

The Republican party is promoting laws to make birth control and rape counselling unavailable; to allow pharmacists to deny birth control even with a prescription; to deny emergency contraception to women, including rape victims, who need it to prevent pregnancy; and to restrict abortion. Bush has nominated a Supreme Court Justice who we have reason to believe wants to overturn Roe v. Wade.

No birth control. No emergency contraception, not even if you are raped. No counselling if you are raped. No abortion.

Still, you’d expect this from crazed conservatives. What you wouldn’t expect is that they are being aided and abetted by “professional organizations” like the American Pharmacists Association, which has more than 50,000 members and since 1998 has endorsed a pharmacist’s right to refuse to dispense any medication that goes against their moral or religious convictions. (So much for the APhA’s mission statement, which is “Improving medication use. Advancing patient care.”)

As I’ve written before, the role of a pharmacist is to dispense any medication prescribed by a licensed physician, and if necessary advise me on how to use that medication. That’s it. Nothing else. Once written, the prescription belongs to me, so if a pharmacist refuses to return an unfilled one—apparently a popular wingnut tactic—they are stealing my property. I believe that’s a crime.

The good news is that drugstore pharmacists are dying out, albeit slowly. To cut costs, more and more U.S. healthcare providers are requiring patients to have routine prescriptions (such as contraceptives and drugs used to treat chronic pain) filled via large mail-order drug dispensers like Medco. Many federally and state-funded healthcare programs will eventually go mail-order too.

This won’t solve the problem of filling one-off prescriptions such as morning-after birth control—for that, patients and patient-rights groups will have to resort to the courts. But it will make pharmacists increasingly dispensable—and the wingnuts are going to find it much harder to infiltrate companies like Medco.

Posted by Stephen at 12:25 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 03, 2005

Supreme beings

Never mind that majority leader Tom DeLay has agreed to appear on a right-wing Christian telecast to rally wingnut support for Roberts’ Supreme Court nomination. After all, (a) it’s not exactly surprising, (b) it’s being organized by DeLay buddy and hate-group honcho Tony Perkins, and (c) DeLay is corrupt and irrelevant.

Worry more about this parallel effort:

In a televised prayer on Tuesday for Judge Roberts’s confirmation, for example, the television evangelist Pat Robertson asked his viewers to pray: “Take control, Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the court.” (A “prayer point” on the Web site for Mr. Robertson’s “Supreme Court Freedom Project” includes “additional vacancies” as well.)

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the prayer “ghoulish,” saying, “The only way people leave the court these days is through death or infirmity.”

But a spokeswoman for Mr. Robertson said he was praying only for retirements, not deaths, noting that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had retired after his prayer was first posted.

Well of course. That was clearly why O’Connor retired.

I have to agree with Jacqueline Passey—the truly religious are, quite simply, nuts:

Most people in the world have some sort of imaginary friend. They think this imaginary friend has magical powers to spy on and reward or punish people, and that this imaginary friend has given them a list of arbitrary and/or outdated rules for them to follow. Many of these people spend a great deal of time talking to their imaginary friend, trying to figure out what their imaginary friend wants them to do, and giving money to other people who claim to have a special insight into the thoughts, actions, and desires of their imaginary friend. Some even hallucinate and think their imaginary friend talks back to them. Sometimes in these hallucinations they think their imaginary friend is telling them that people who don’t share their belief in their imaginary friend are bad people and should be punished, forced to believe, or even killed.

So add “insane” to corrupt and irrelevant.

Winger clipped

Like the majority of Americans, the Senate doesn’t appear to like religious extremists:

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — The Senate has put off an Air Force proposal to promote the No. 2 officer at the Air Force Academy, a born-again Christian who has been criticized for proselytizing in memos and speeches.

Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida’s name was on a list of 21 Air Force generals nominated to receive a second star, but the Senate did not act on his promotion.

Weida, a 1978 academy graduate, was nominated May 9 for promotion to major general. Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said Tuesday the Senate pulled Weida’s name off the list before Friday’s vote.

… The Air Force inspector general’s office cleared Weida in June of six of seven allegations he improperly shared his faith, saying he did nothing wrong. That included his June 2003 “guidance” to cadets telling them they are “accountable first to your God.” He also urged cadets and staff to pray.

An investigators’ report did not detail the remaining allegation, saying only it was under review.

Let’s hope it gets reviewed more thoroughly than the other allegations—which, as I detailed in previous posts, were whitewashed by an Air Force internal investigation:

“The root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs,” stated the report, headed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Roger Brady.

Yeah, right. Doesn’t sound like what happened to the youngest son of Mikey Weinstein—a 1977 graduate of the academy and a White House attorney in the Reagan administration—who says he was called a “fucking Jew” and told that Jews were responsible for “executing Jesus.” And it doesn’t sound like what other investigators found either:

A team from Yale Divinity School said in April it found evangelical Christian proselytizing commonplace at the academy, which has about 4,400 students, and cited “stridently evangelical themes” by staff. The team described a campus chaplain telling cadets they would “burn in the fires of hell” if they were not born-again Christians.

The watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State released an April report detailing allegations that academy instructors proselytized in classrooms and that senior cadets harassed non-Christian junior cadets over religious beliefs […] The report found a “perception of religious intolerance” at the academy, inadequate guidance regarding religious expression and cited a need for training in the area of religious diversity and respect.

For once, the Senate seems to have been reading the right reports.

Posted by Stephen at 12:14 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 02, 2005

News from the Sanatorium

Is there nothing that America’s third-ranking Republican senator knows nothing about?

Rick Santorum says that the “liberal” view of freedom is “not the kind of freedom our founders envisioned.” Elaborating, he says “It is an entire culture that focus (sic) on immediate gratification and the pursuit of happiness and personal pleasure. And it is harming America.”

Actually, Rick, here’s what those wacky founders wrote in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (emphasis ours)

Not only does Rick have has the audacity to claim that he knows what sort of freedom the founders envisioned, he believes that one of the three “unalienable Rights” they chose to enumerate is harming our country.

Oh, and of course he blames our country’s divorce rate on “the left.” Even though the divorce rate in America is actually highest in the “Bible Belt”— hardly a bastion of liberalism.

All this from an entertaining CN8 interview, via Santorum Exposed (which also has the full video).

Posted by Stephen at 06:16 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Unintelligent

Apparently Bush “didn’t seem eager” to talk about this. But he did:

WASHINGTON - President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and “intelligent design” Monday, saying schools should teach both theories on the creation and complexity of life.

… Bush compared the current debate to earlier disputes over “creationism,” a related view that adheres more closely to biblical explanations. As governor of Texas, Bush said students should be exposed to both creationism and evolution.

On Monday the president said he favors the same approach for intelligent design “so people can understand what the debate is about.”

… “I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. “ You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

The National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both concluded that there’s no scientific basis for intelligent design and oppose its inclusion in school science classes.

“The claim that equity demands balanced treatment of evolutionary theory and special creation in science classrooms reflects a misunderstanding of what science is and how it is conducted,” the academy said in a 1999 assessment. “Creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science.”

This may also be true of the president’s IQ.

Pataki: the morning after

A busy day, so I didn’t spot this until I picked up the Times tonight. But worth commenting on, even belatedly:

Gov. George E. Pataki’s aides said last night that he would veto a bill to make the so-called morning-after pill available without a prescription, prompting outrage among abortion-rights advocates.

Kevin C. Quinn, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement that the governor’s main objection was that the bill did not include provisions that would prevent minors from having access to the drug.

Mr. Quinn said the governor would be willing to reconsider the measure if the Legislature drafted and passed a new bill that addressed his concerns about the drug’s availability to minors, as well as “other flaws.”

And of course we know exactly what they are:

The pill, which has been shown to be effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, has been at the center of a national debate. It is classified as a contraceptive and acts in most cases by preventing ovulation or fertilization. Because it may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, it has also become a flashpoint in the debate over abortion.

Pataki has long supported abortion rights—one reason why he’s managed to get elected three times in Democratic New York. But with his eye on a possible presidential run in 2008, Pataki now has to start pandering to the religious right. And in doing so, he finds himself with fertilized egg on his face.

Pataki’s dilemma is simple. In the real world, the morning-after pill ought to be the pro-lifers’ friend: on one estimate, it could save 80,000 abortions every year in New York state. But the pill works in two ways: if given prior to ovulation, it prevents or delays the release of an egg from the ovary; if ovulation has already occurred, it helps prevent the fertilized egg from traveling down the fallopian tubes and implanting in the uterus. Wingnuts, in their parallel universe, see this second way as “abortion.” Never mind that fertilized eggs often fail to implant without any kind of medical intervention, or that pregnancy doesn’t even begin until the egg is implanted:

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg implants into the uterine lining, not when the egg is fertilized. Forty to 60 percent of fertilized eggs naturally fail to implant in the uterus and are eliminated when a woman menstruates.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, emergency contraception is not effective if the woman is actually pregnant.

“Claiming contraception—especially emergency contraception—can cause abortion is one of the most common deceptions perpetuated by anti-choice extremists,” said Sarah A. Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

All of which leaves Pataki squirming—arguing against himself, against scientific fact, against common sense, and against women’s reproductive rights. All to satisfy a small minority of right-wing lunatics who care nothing about the health and welfare of women, or about the underlying science. What they really want is control, to turn back the clock to the glory days when, if you were with child, you were with child. Even if you actually were—or are—a child.

Unsurprisingly, most Americans find this repugnant, if not downright insane. As Pataki will discover if he runs in 2008.

Posted by Stephen at 12:17 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 31, 2005

Santorum tantorum

A lot of blogging today about Rick Santorum’s grilling by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. And it’s certainly entertaining, with little Ricky on the edge of hysteria much of the time. But it’s also chilling, particularly in how it sets out the religious right’s real agenda on abortion:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you say you don’t want the courts to decide, you want the people to decide. And of course, if Roe v. Wade were overturned, each state would have the choice. But I wonder if that’s good enough, given what you believe. If you believe that that would essentially give the states a license to kill, don’t you have to be for a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions in every state?

SANTORUM: Well, OK, let’s just say, let’s say that we did that, that would be the democratic process. Again, it…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But do you support that?

SANTORUM: I would support a constitutional amendment, sure.

In other words, rolling back Roe v. Wade is nothing more than the opening salvo.

Posted by Stephen at 09:33 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sunday God-blogging

A new variation on the collection plate:

A minister-turned-financier who helped finance construction of hundreds of churches across the country allegedly bilked investors by diverting money to an account where he made loans to himself and others.

A federal judge this past week froze the assets of Vaughn Reeves of Sullivan, Ind., his brokerage, Alanar Inc., and three sons who followed him into the family business. The Securities & Exchange Commission alleged in a complaint they had committed “affinity fraud” with solicitations aimed at their investors’ shared beliefs.

“They were dependent on the trust and faith of a large network of Christian investors,” said John Sikora, assistant regional director of the SEC’s Chicago office.

… The family raised more than $120 million from buyers of bonds used to finance church construction projects and more than $50 million from investors in church bond funds that they had created, the SEC said.

Over 20 months ending in May, the SEC said the Reeveses and their various companies diverted $8 million held in trust for bondholders into an online brokerage account they used to trade stock, loan money to at least one church and to make unsecured loans to themselves and their companies. They also allegedly transferred nearly $5 million in investor proceeds to their companies.

The punishment here should clearly fit the crime. Ezekiel 18:13 offers one suggestion.

Posted by Stephen at 12:05 AM in Business | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 29, 2005

Lowlife

More caring, compassionate Christianity from the, uh, pro-life brigade:

An activist with ties to anti-abortion violence has been jailed after losing an appeal of his conviction and 18-year prison sentence for molesting a teenager at the home for troubled girls he operated.

… [John] Burt has been a key figure in anti-abortion protests and violence in nearby Pensacola. He had associated with Michael Griffin, now serving a life sentence for fatally shooting an abortion doctor in 1993, and Paul Hill, executed in 2003 for the shooting deaths of another doctor and clinic escort in 1994.

He was jailed in the 1980s for bursting into a clinic and damaging equipment. He also demonstrated in support of two young couples who bombed three clinics on Christmas Day 1984.

Burt was convicted last year of molesting a 15-year-old resident at Our Father’s House, which he and his wife, Linda, operated near Milton.

What never fails to amaze me is how many of these stories are out there—you could fill an entire blog with them. In fact some folks do.

Posted by Stephen at 01:30 AM in Legal issues | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 26, 2005

Rolled-back rights

Something needs to be done about the Independent Republic of Wal-Mart, which for too long has behaved like a theocratic government in waiting.

In the past, you’ll recall, the company has banned magazines like Maxim and hid the covers of Cosmopolitan; refused to carry a Sheryl Crow album that contained lyrics about children killing each other with guns bought at the store; and banned a Prodigy album because it decided the lyrics were offensive. Now the retailer has decided that Willie Nelson (age 72) is also a little too risqué [August 2005: link dead, no substitute available]:

[T]he cover of Willie Nelson’s new reggae album comes in two separate versions: regular and Wal-Mart. The cover art of Countryman, released Tuesday, features green marijuana leaves over a red and yellow background and looks similar to a large pack of rolling papers.

However, for those looking to snap up the CD at Wal-Mart’s famously rolled back prices, the cover features a palm tree in place of the offending leaves, a change made by Universal Music Group Nashville out of deference to the retailing giant’s strict guidelines with regards to lyrics and packaging.

And God help anyone who dares criticize the company, as the Pensacola News Journal recently discovered:

Columnist Mark O’Brien wrote in June 19 editions that Pensacola should “be more than the Wal-Mart kind of town we’re becoming – cheap and comfy on the surface, lots of unhappiness and hidden costs underneath.”

O’Brien then cited a New York Times report that Georgia’s health care program included more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart workers, costing taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. He noted the Times report was cited in “The World is Flat,” a new book by Thomas Friedman about the global economy.

Wal-Mart’s response was predictable: it decided once again to censor free speech. The company banned sales of the newspaper from area stores, and also tried to get the columnist fired. On Tuesday it relented, lifting the ban and saying it had made “an error in judgment.”

No kidding. But this is the line Wal-Mart always spins (remember this, for example?), and somehow it gets away with it. Why any Democrat would shop there is beyond me.

More on the Independent Republic at Walmartwatch.

Posted by Stephen at 09:40 PM in Business | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 25, 2005

Gay rites

The Church of England attempts to redefine “having it both ways:”

The Church of England will today give its blessing to gay clergy who want to enter into civil partnerships. But the Church is refusing to accord civil partnerships the status of marital relationships and gay clergy will be told that they must remain chaste.

The “sexless marriage” code for gays, to be published today, has been prepared by a working group headed by the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham James.

The established Church’s complex manoeuvrings are the result of having to remain on the right side of the law while abiding by Church doctrine.

The worldwide Anglican Communion is deeply divided over the issue of gay clergy and has been brought to the brink of schism over the election of its first openly gay bishop, the Right Rev Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in the US.

Posted by Stephen at 05:29 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 19, 2005

Jerrymandering

Jerry Falwell discovers the separation of (tax-exempt) church from (taxable) state:

The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint against the Rev. Jerry Falwell that said he broke federal election law by urging followers last summer to re-elect President Bush.

Falwell’s lawyer, Mathew D. Staver, said in a news release Monday that the FEC notified him that it had ruled in the evangelist’s favor by a vote of 6-0.

“Dr. Falwell does not lose his right to personal expression each election cycle,” Staver said. “As a member of the media, the media outlets through which he communicates enjoy the protection of the First Amendment.”

A similar complaint against Falwell lodged last summer with the Internal Revenue Service remains pending, said Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed the claim. An adverse IRS ruling could jeopardize the tax-exempt status of some of Falwell’s holdings.

Falwell, founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and the defunct Moral Majority, told religious conservatives in his July 1, 2004, “Falwell Confidential” Internet newsletter that “voting for principle this year means voting for the re-election of George W. Bush. The alternative, in my mind, is simply unthinkable.”

The Campaign Legal Center complained to the FEC that Falwell and two allied, tax-exempt nonprofit organizations broke election laws by explicitly advocating the election of a federal candidate.

However, Staver noted that Falwell founded Liberty Broadcasting Network, television station WTLU, the Liberty Channel cable network and two radio stations. He argued that Falwell did not relinquish editorial rights just because he is also a preacher.

This, of course, is a total crock—and if the FEC really believes it, I have a choice of bridges to sell them.

To be clear: just because Falwell founded a bunch of media properties as a conduit for his conservative Christian hate—never forget that this is the wingnut who blamed gays, lesbians and the ACLU, among others, for 9/11—it doesn’t make him a “member of the media.” No matter how many times he sounds off on those media outlets—or anywhere else, for that matter.

Moreover, Falwell’s televangelism properties are mostly financed by funds raised for and by his tax-exempt, nonprofit religious organizations. So Falwell wasn’t exercising his “right to personal expression” as a member of the media; he was leveraging his tax-exempt-funded assets for very explicit political advocacy. And that, last time I checked, contravenes both election law and IRS nonprofit guidelines.

Maybe I’m missing something here. Please let me know if I am.

Posted by Stephen at 01:22 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 15, 2005

Life in a theocracy, part 4

Yet more love from America’s caring, conservative Christians:

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) – A Christian adoption agency that receives money from Choose Life license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency’s “Statement of Faith.”

Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year.

“It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith,” Bethany’s state director Karen Stewart wrote. “Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant’s time, money and emotional energy.”

Bethany, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a nationwide adoption agency with 75 offices in 30 states. And it shouldn’t be in business.

Posted by Stephen at 05:18 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The evil one draws near

Wingnuts worldwide celebrate the launch of a new Harry Potter book:

A primary school celebration of JK Rowling’s blockbusting boy wizard, Harry Potter, has been cancelled after a rector claimed its organisers were “seeking to lead children into areas of evil.”

Pupils from The Holt in Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire, were planning to dress up as witches and wizards to celebrate Saturday’s launch of the latest installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Its headteacher, Paul Martin, wrote to parents explaining that the situation was escalating disproportionately when the local rector complained the event was an attempt to lead the children into areas of evil. Parents had also written letters expressing concerns about links between the day’s festivities and witchcraft.

Pope Benedict has already given his verdict:

Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern that the Harry Potter books “erode Christianity in the soul” of young people in a letter two years ago, a German writer says. The comments came in an exchange of letters between the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Gabriele Kuby, a Bavarian-based Roman Catholic sociologist who penned a book criticising JK Rowling’s blockbusters.

In a letter dated March 7, 2003, the text of which could be seen today on Kuby’s website, Ratzinger thanked her for sending him a copy of “your informative book” … “It is good that you are throwing light on Harry Potter, because these are subtle seductions that work imperceptibly, and because of that deeply, and erode Christianity in the soul before it can even grow properly,” the letter added.

And where would we be without America’s religious right?

In 2000, Aristea Zekios, an education team leader at St. Luke the Evangelist Orthodox Church in Palos Hills, wrote an essay, “I’m Not Wild About Harry,” for her church’s Web site. Five years later, she still finds the books too intense for younger readers and questions the subject matter.

“Basically, we’re talking about sugar-coated witchcraft,” said Zekios, of Oak Lawn. “As I read through the series, I wondered what impression it may be making on young minds. I wonder if it stirs an interest in witchcraft to the point where they’ll be desensitized to it.”

Fortunately, saner souls are also speaking out:

Oak Forest resident Morn Geiger, who says she’s a real witch, doubts the books have convinced anyone to join the Wiccan religion. “These books are not used to recruit anyone at all,” Geiger said. “There are tons of books out there where kids have magical powers. A few years ago, my nieces wanted to become spies because of the ‘Spy Kids’ movies. If you ask most kids, they know that Harry Potter is a fantasy.”

And yet to wingnuts, it all seems terribly real.

Posted by Stephen at 12:01 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 12, 2005

Insantorum

According to third-ranking Republican senator Rick Santorum, this is all Boston’s fault. Brian McGrory in the Boston Globe:

[H]ere’s what Santorum wrote about the church pedophile scandal on a religious website called Catholic Online. ‘‘When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.”

So thank you, senator, for setting us straight about the problems with the clergy. Thank you for letting us know that all those pedophilic priests and the church leaders who covered up their crimes are the fault of every Bostonian.

Who knew that the president of Harvard, the people at the Museum of Science, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino were to blame for Cardinal Bernard F. Law’s decision to move predatory priests from one parish to another? Here’s who knew: Senator Rick Santorum.

… Santorum’s words about Boston, though written in 2002, weren’t highlighted until the last couple of weeks. […] I asked a Santorum spokesman whether the senator still believed what he said about Boston. […] ‘‘It’s an open secret that you have Harvard University and MIT that tend to tilt to the left in terms of academic biases,” said Robert Traynham, the Santorum aide. ‘‘I think that’s what the senator was speaking to.”

Of course. The whole thing is MIT’s fault. Why didn’t we realize this sooner?

Oddly, fellow wingnut and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney disagrees:

His spokeswoman, Julie Teer, called back and said: ‘‘What happened with the church sex abuse scandal was a tragedy, but it had nothing to do with geography or the culture of Boston. What we know now is that the sex abuse was occurring around the country and around the world. Boston was just the first to find out about it.”

Good answer. Then I called Menino, who groaned. ‘‘Typical of the guy who doesn’t understand the issue, doesn’t understand the Catholicism. He should come up to Boston and see what it’s all about.”

Back in 2003, Dan Savage asked his readers to come up with a new definition for the word “santorum,” after Ranger Rick expressed his views on homosexuality. The winning definition was “the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.” On reflection, that seems too kind.

More Santorum hypocrisy here, while here (updated) he continues to slander Boston.

Posted by Stephen at 11:09 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 09, 2005

More Saturday God-blogging

Sorry, but we do seem to be on a roll here:

INDIANAPOLIS – The chairman of the Catholic lay reform group Voice of the Faithful predicted Saturday that the clergy sexual abuse scandal will eventually cost U.S. dioceses $2 billion to $3 billion.

Speaking at the first national meeting of the group in three years, David Castaldi urged leaders of local affiliates to press their bishops for better financial reporting as individual dioceses post large payouts to abuse victims, lawyers and others.

… Boston, where the scandal first erupted more than three years ago before spreading nationwide, reached an $85 million settlement with 552 people in 2003. The Diocese of Orange, Calif., settled 90 abuse claims for $100 million last December, followed by last month’s settlement of $120 million by the Diocese of Covington, Ky.

“That record will not last,” said Castaldi, who is also a former chancellor and chief financial officer for the Boston Archdiocese.

The bankrupt Diocese of Portland, Ore., faces claims topping $500 million, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle cases for at least $500 million and perhaps as much as $1.5 billion, he said.

This is—by a wide margin—the highest estimate yet of the Vatican’s potential sexual-abuse liabilities.

Here’s a refresher on Pope Benedict’s role in all this.

Posted by Stephen at 08:48 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Compassionate Christianity

More love from America’s caring, conservative Christians:

MIDDLEBROOK, VA — A small fire was set in St. John’s Reformed United Church of Christ this morning and anti-gay graffiti was painted on the side of the building.

The outside of the church was vandalized with anti-gay messages and a declaration that United Church of Christ members were sinners. The graffiti’s message appeared to be a reference to the national church’s decision earlier this week to endorse gay and lesbian marriages.

… A member of the congregation discovered the graffiti Saturday morning when he stopped by to mow the grass. He went into the church building, and when he opened the sanctuary there was a small fire.

Posted by Stephen at 05:39 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 08, 2005

Aborting the wingnuts

When will these morons finally realize that they don’t in any way represent the views of the American people? OK, probably never, but I live in hope:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a ruling that the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unconstitutional.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis agreed that the ban, while containing an exception to save the life of the mother, is unconstitutional because it makes no such exception for the health of the woman. The court upheld an earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln, who heard one of three cases brought over the issue last year.

Kopf’s ruling followed decisions overturning the law by federal judges in New York and San Francisco. Those decisions also have been appealed and are expected by many legal experts to eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

“When ‘substantial medical authority’ supports the medical necessity of a procedure in some instances, a health exception is constitutionally required,” Judge Kermit Bye of the 8th Circuit wrote in the opinion issued Friday. “In effect, we believe when a lack of consensus exists in the medical community, the Constitution requires legislatures to err on the side of protecting women’s health by including a health exception.”

President Bush signed the abortion ban in 2003, but it was not enforced because of the legal challenges.

What with yesterday’s defeat for Jeb on Schiavo, the week is definitely looking up.

Posted by Stephen at 12:42 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jeb jab

UPDATED: Maybe the wingnuts will now let Terri Schiavo rest in peace, although I doubt it*:

There is no evidence that Terri Schiavo's collapse 15 years ago was caused by criminal activity, said a prosecutor asked by Gov. Jeb Bush to look into the case.

Bush, who asked State Attorney Bernie McCabe to further investigate Schiavo's case after her autopsy last month, responded Thursday by saying he considers the state's involvement with the matter finished. "Based on your conclusions, I will follow your recommendation that the inquiry by the state be closed," Bush said in a two-sentence response to McCabe.

… Bush had cited an alleged gap in time between when Schiavo's husband Michael found her and when he called 911 as something that remained unsettled. McCabe said, however, that while such discrepancies may exist in the record, Michael Schiavo's statements that he called 911 immediately had been consistent.

"This consistency, coupled with the varying recollections of the precise time offered by other interested parties, lead me to the conclusion that such discrepancies are not indicative of criminal activity and thus not material to any potential investigation," McCabe wrote in a letter to Bush accompanying his report dated June 30 but not released until Thursday.

… "A review of the available records, including. [Medical Examiner Jon] Thogmartin's report, reveals no 'facts' or 'evidence' that indicate a criminal act ... was causative of Mrs. Schiavo's collapse or subsequent death," McCabe wrote.

More Bush-baby BS here.

*UPDATE: I guess this was inevitable.

Posted by Stephen at 01:39 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 30, 2005

Polygamy in the U.S.

Remind me again what century this is:

James Harmston’s letters to his youngest bride threaten fire and brimstone for her refusal to sleep with him. Not only would Rachael, 43 years his junior, have “a lonely miserable life” in this world for not going to his bed, but it would be far worse in the next.

“Rachael, the facts are, whether you want to believe or not, the end is coming and judgment will be executed in severity, especially for those who have broken their covenants,” Mr Harmston wrote, adding: “For certain I will deal with you in the future eternity.”

He signed himself “Your Husband, King and Priest”, and sent copies of his letters to five of his 18 wives, one of whom was Rachael’s mother, Pauline.

They would be troubling letters from any jilted husband. But from Mr Harmston - the self-declared prophet of a polygamist and apocalyptic sect, the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days - they were terrifying.

This from a long and disturbing article in The Guardian, which estimates that up to 100,000 Americans still live in polygamy, most of them in Utah. And if you’re a victim of an abusive polygamous relationship in Utah—or “mentally ill,” according to Harmston’s assessment of his now ex-wife—don’t expect much sympathy from the authorities:

With the help of Tapestry Against Polygamy, a support group for former wives of such marriages, Ms Strong has taken her case to the Utah state authorities, claiming that the pressure Mr Harmston put her under to have sex constituted rape. “If someone sat there with a gun and said sleep with me, you’d call that rape. But God is scarier than that,” she said. “God is more powerful than a fist.”

The Utah attorney general’s office in Salt Lake City has said it will look into Ms Strong’s case but is clearly sceptical. Jim Hill, special investigator into polygamous sects, said: “She was an adult when all the conduct alleged occurred - an adult consenting to a bigamous relationship … The attorney general is not interested in pursuing people for their religious beliefs or their private conduct in their own bedrooms,” Mr Hill said.

Even if that “private conduct” is frequently sexual assault, often of a minor—and in this case by someone who believes they really are a space cadet:

From the age of 11 [Ms Strong] was taught that Jim Harmston was the reincarnation of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith. He travelled to other planets in his sleep and spoke with God’s authority. Sex with the church elders was a sacrament.

“He says orgasm and witness of the Holy Ghost are the same thing,” Ms Strong said. “Sex is the whole thing for him.”

Seems to be that way for a lot of the religious right.

Posted by Stephen at 11:14 AM in Humanity | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 24, 2005

The pharmacist farce

I’ve written a couple of times about wingnut pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control—in at least one case causing a woman to have an abortion. Avedon points out that it’s not just contraceptives:

Now, however, many pharmacists have extended their objections to include painkillers and psychotropic drugs. In some situations pharmacists are also refusing to return the prescriptions thereby preventing patients from turning to other pharmacists.

More details from Newsinferno:

If you think this can’t happen, think again. This rather improbable sounding scenario is happening every day in pharmacies across the country with respect to a growing number of important medications like painkillers, Emergency Contraceptive (EC) pills, psychotropic drugs, and birth control pills.

Pharmacists (and the American Pharmacists Association) call it conscience-based refusal; the American Medical Association (AMA) sees it as a wrongful denial of a patient’s access to legally prescribed therapy and medical care.

To its credit, the AMA is trying to prevent hate-group pharmacists from playing God:

At its annual meeting on Monday, the AMA voted to use its influence to see that such “conscientious refusals” do not deny patients’ of needed medical treatment by supporting legislation that would require pharmacists to fill any valid prescription or to refer such patients to another pharmacy that will. The AMA will also press for amendments to existing state laws to allow physicians to dispense medications when there is “no willing pharmacist available within a 30 mile radius.”

The American Pharmacists Association, by contrast, appears to be on the side of the hate groups—and is likely (and deservedly) going to find itself on the losing side of many lawsuits.

The APA needs to get a couple of things clear. The role of a pharmacist is to dispense—accurately—any medication prescribed by a licensed physician, and if necessary advise me on how to use that medication. That’s it. Nothing else. Zip. Once written, the prescription belongs to me, so if a pharmacist refuses to return an unfilled one, they are stealing my property. That’s a crime, and combined with the nasty little religious-discrimination ingredient, it becomes a hate crime.

Fortunately, drugstore pharmacists are a dying breed. To cut costs, more and more U.S. healthcare providers are requiring patients to have routine prescriptions (i.e., like contraceptives and drugs used to treat chronic pain) filled via large mail-order drug dispensers such as Medco. Many federally and state-funded healthcare programs will, for the most part, go mail-order too.

This won’t solve the problem of filling one-off prescriptions such as morning-after birth control—for that, patient-rights groups will have to resort to the courts. But it will make pharmacists increasingly dispensable—and the religious right are going to find it much harder to infiltrate companies like Medco than the local Walgreens.

Posted by Stephen at 04:33 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Uncooperative

One of Britain’s biggest financial institutions is telling the religious right to go to hell:

The Co-operative Bank has asked an evangelical Christian group to close its account because of its anti-homosexual views. The bank said the opinions of Christian Voice were incompatible with its support for diversity.

… Christian Voice has held an account with the Co-operative Bank for about three years. But now the bank has decided the group’s stance on homosexuality is so extreme, it has asked members to look for a new bank.

“It has come to the bank’s attention that Christian Voice is engaged in discriminatory pronouncements based on the grounds of sexual orientation,” a spokesman for the bank said. “This public stance is incompatible with the position of the Co-operative Bank, which publicly supports diversity and dignity in all its forms for our staff, customers and other stakeholders.”

The hate group’s national director, Stephen Green, complained that the bank was, “for all its fine words, discriminating against us on the grounds of conscience and religion.” The irony in that statement is not subtle.

Posted by Stephen at 12:19 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 22, 2005

Only believe

According to an internal investigation, the U.S. Air Force Academy isn’t a hotbed of religious intolerance and evangelical Christian proselytizing:

“The root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs,” stated the report, headed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Roger Brady.

“No overt religious discrimination” doesn’t sound like what happened to the youngest son of Mikey Weinstein—a 1977 graduate of the academy and a White House attorney in the Reagan administration—who claims to have been called a “fucking Jew” and told Jews were responsible for “executing Jesus.”

It doesn’t sound like what anyone else found, either:

A team from Yale Divinity School said in April it found evangelical Christian proselytizing commonplace at the academy, which has about 4,400 students, and cited “stridently evangelical themes” by staff. The team described a campus chaplain telling cadets they would “burn in the fires of hell” if they were not born-again Christians.

The watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State released an April report detailing allegations that academy instructors proselytized in classrooms and that senior cadets harassed non-Christian junior cadets over religious beliefs … The report found a “perception of religious intolerance” at the academy, inadequate guidance regarding religious expression and cited a need for training in the area of religious diversity and respect.

An academy chaplain who criticized the “pervasive evangelical climate” at the institution has already quit in protest at the Air Force’s report.

Posted by Stephen at 04:21 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jeb Bush, scientist and humanitarian

More scientifically sound thinking from the Bush baby:

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he opposes human embryonic stem cell research because it requires the destruction of days-old embryos.

Embryonic stem cells form during the early days after conception and can turn into any tissue in the body. Many scientists hope to one day harness them to grow replacement tissue to treat diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other diseases.

But prominent social conservatives, including President Bush and the Roman Catholic Church, are against the research because days-old embryos are destroyed. On Tuesday, the president’s brother said he agreed.

“I’m opposed to it,” the Florida governor told a small group of reporters. “Taking a human life to save life is a huge contradiction morally.”

I guess “taking a human life to save a human life” must be wingnut shorthand for “using cloned embryonic stem cells to develop treatments that could save tens of thousands of lives.” The wingers certainly repeat their little mantra at every opportunity. Perhaps they hope to convince the three out of four Americans who really do support saving lives.

Still, Bush was speaking at a biotech conference—one organized by supporters of embryonic stem-cell research—so you might expect some dissent from attendees. Say, from cutting-edge establishments like the Scripps Research Institute:

Bush was in Philadelphia at the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual convention to build on his attempts to create a biotechnology hub of companies in Palm Beach County.

Bush cobbled together $800 million in state and county money to woo the prestigious Scripps Research Institute to expand to Florida from its La Jolla, Calif. location. Bush believes many biotechnology companies will choose to launch or relocate to be near Scripps, [whose] … researchers are known for groundbreaking work in leukemia, ovarian cancer, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and AIDS.

But a spokesman said the institute doesn’t work with human embryonic stem cells and the governor’s position has no effect on its continued intentions to move to Florida. “It’s not an issue for us,” said Scripps spokesman Keith McKeown.

That stance may prove a little short-sighted.

Posted by Stephen at 12:47 AM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 20, 2005

Automotive absolution

So when he’s not enforcing hardline Catholic doctrine, advocating abstinence as the best way to solve Africa’s AIDs crisis, despatching Italy’s fertility laws back to the Dark Ages, and urging Catholic officials in Spain to ignore a new law that permits gay marriage, how’s Pope Benedict spending his time? Focusing on world hunger? Ministering to the poor? Ridding the church of pedophile priests? Not exactly:

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict has offered his blessings to some fast movers.

Dozens of gleaming Ferrari sports cars were driven into St. Peter’s Square – to get the pope’s blessing after his noontime remarks.

The drivers weren’t disappointed, as the pope made special mention of the Easy Rider World Association by saying that “we see them and soon we'll hear them.”

There were 45 vehicles inside the square during the blessing.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine propero. Or something like that.

Posted by Stephen at 01:04 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Stem cells and fertility

From the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Copenhagen:

Scientists in Britain have shown that stem cells extracted from human embryos can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that become eggs or sperm, raising the possibility that one day eggs and sperm needed for infertility treatment could be grown in a dish.

Preliminary experiments also suggest that scientists may eventually be able to use the technique to create a supply of eggs for cloning.

But the more immediate benefit of the work could be a better understanding why some men and women do not create their own sperm or eggs and whether toxic chemicals in the environment may play a role … “It may allow us to investigate the very earliest processes of how a human (ovary and testis) develops,” said Harry Moore, a professor of reproductive and developmental medicine at Sheffield University in England.

And this should send the religious right into paroxysms:

… The cloning technique, called cell nuclear replacement, involves emptying out the genetic material in an egg and replacing it with the genetic material of another cell, say a skin cell taken from an adult. Instead of being fertilized by sperm, the new reconstituted egg is then bathed in chemical nutrients and electrocuted to shock it into dividing. It then evolves into an embryo, from which stem cells can be extracted. For infertile couples, that approach would eliminate the need for donor sperm or eggs.

… “It opens new and challenging possibilities: because the technique can be used to generate eggs from a man’s (adult) cells, gay couples could have children genetically related to both,” said Anna Smajdor, a medical ethicist at Imperial College in London.

“Single men could even produce a child using their own sperm and an engineered egg, opening the way to a new form of cloning. Women’s fertility would no longer need to be curtailed at the menopause,” she said. “These possibilities raise new questions about how we define parenthood and about how we decide who has access to these new technologies.”

Not the kind of questions wingnuts like to ask.

Posted by Stephen at 12:06 AM in Religion | Science + technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 19, 2005

Wings vs. wingnuts

You may recall that the U.S. Air Force Academy—the same place where, in 2003, dozens of female cadets came forward to say they’d been sexually assaulted—now has a little religious issue.

So far, at least 100 cadets have alleged that faculty and staff have pressured them to convert to evangelical Christianity. As usual, this has meant creating a culture of hate. Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the academy and a White House attorney in the Reagan administration, has sent two sons there:

His eldest son is also a graduate, and his youngest son had been there just a few months when he complained of abuse from evangelical cadets. Mr Weinstein said his son had complained of being called an “f-ing Jew” and was told Jews were responsible for “executing Jesus”.

Mr Weinstein said 117 people had given him examples of abuse. Only eight of them were Jewish, he said - the rest were Catholics, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian and Methodist. “They’re not used to being preyed upon by their evangelical brothers and sisters. But that’s exactly what’s happening.”

So where’s all that good Christian love coming from?

Focus on the Family - perhaps the most powerful lobbying organisation on the Christian right - is over the road from the academy.

Colorado’s largest evangelical mega-church, the New Life Church, sits on a hill just a few kilometres away, looking down onto the academy grounds. Its pastor is Ted Haggard, president of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals. He boasts his own huge congregation of 11,000.

Pastor Ted—who runs the “Prayer Shield for Families Summer Retreat” and claims to talk with President Bush “most weeks”—seems ambivalent about his church’s involvement in the harassment:

“Liberal movements in America treat people like they’re stupid” … “Are we saying that we want those students to understand representative government... but they can’t understand religious discussion?”

… “Proselytising causes people to improve their argument, and exposes false arguments. Why in the world would we adopt a view that freedom of speech applies in every area except religion?”

Pastor Haggard says he believes cadets should be robust enough to withstand passionate evangelising. He denies systematic evangelical links to the academy.

Of course. Perish the thought.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has formed a taskforce to investigate the hate campaign, and earlier this month U.S. Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) added an amendment to a defense appropriations bill that criticizes “coercive and abusive religious proselytizing” at the academy. It also requires the Air Force to submit a plan to Congress to correct the problems.

God’s Own Party would prefer the harassment to continue. This week, Congressional Quarterly reported that U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the House Armed Services Committee chairman, plans to strip the Obey amendment from the bill and replace it with a watered-down version.

These people truly are beyond redemption.

Posted by Stephen at 12:46 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 17, 2005

Gravediggers

As I wrote a couple of days ago, the religious right isn’t going to let Schiavo go:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that a prosecutor has agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged gap in time from when her husband found her and called 911.

Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her. In a letter faxed to Pinellas-Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, Bush said Michael Schiavo testified in a 1992 medical malpractice trial that he found his wife collapsed at 5 a.m., and he said in a 2003 television interview that he found her about 4:30 a.m. He called 911 at 5:40 a.m.

“Between 40 and 70 minutes elapsed before the call was made, and I am aware of no explanation for the delay,” Bush wrote. “In light of this new information, I urge you to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome.”

… Bush’s request was immediately criticized by some lawmakers. “Enough is enough,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Klein. “I don’t want to see it on TV any more, I don’t want to hear politicians talk about it. Let her be at peace.”

… An autopsy released Wednesday concluded that she had been in a persistent vegetative state and revealed no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused before she collapsed.

The Bush boys: spreading Christian compassion across the U.S.

Posted by Stephen at 01:36 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 16, 2005

Digital divinity

When theocracy meets technology (source URL unavailable as of July 2005):

The year is 2018 and the Church has turned to technology as a means of revolutionising Christianity … ‘Praystation’ addresses declining church attendance, offering ‘Fast Faith’ - faith without the worry or time that comes with commitment. The Praystation, and e-priest located within it, take care of individuals and guide them along the right path, playing the part of a conscience. The Praystation is a sound proof cubicle found wherever it is needed: shopping malls, train stations, airports, strip clubs, offices ... It is opened by the iCross, which stores the user’s soul, recording their life and sins, emotions, problems, health, interactions and movements. These are uploaded to the e-priest, who advises and finally down-loads absolution and forgiveness. It also functions as a ‘soul meter’, its colour reflecting the state of a soul from pure white to a sinful black, thus informing the owner on their soul’s condition. The e-priest is a cognitive artificial intelligence that will learn and evolve the more you visit it, building up a profile. It is custom-isable so that the user can define their priest’s appearance. It acts as therapist too, using a biblical and psychological database as well as data from the iCross.

Why do I find this all too easy to envision?

Via we make money not art.

Posted by Stephen at 02:16 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mitt Romney, Christian crusader

Mitt wants embryos to live, unless they grow up gay:

BOSTON (AP) -- Gov. Mitt Romney said Thursday he will support a proposed constitutional amendment banning both same-sex marriages and civil unions in Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is now legal.

The proposed amendment, which was announced Thursday by opponents of gay marriage, will take the form of a citizen’s initiative. That means the state attorney general’s office must sign off on the proposal’s language, supporters must collect enough signatures and one-quarter of lawmakers in the Legislature must vote to approve it.

… “Governor Romney believes that voters should be given a straightforward amendment to decide the definition of marriage and not one that muddies the water by creating civil unions that would be equivalent of marriage in all respects but name,” said Romney’s spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley and the bishops of the state’s other three Roman Catholic dioceses pledged support for signature-gathering efforts. “We encourage all Catholics to exercise their civil right to participate in the signature drive for the new initiative petition,” they said in a statement.

This latest Romney romp is a “citizen’s initiative” in name only: it’s being driven by the Massachusetts Family Institute, an extreme-right religious group led by Kristian Mineau. He has described gay marriage as “a significant assault on the fundamental building block of our society.”

Still, it’s amusing to see the MFI—one of whose stated goals is to prevent the sexual abuse of children—in bed with the Catholic church. According to a report by Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly, more than 1,000 children in the Boston archdiocese were abused by priests in the last 60 years.

The new initiative, which can’t appear on a state ballot until November 2008 at the earliest, isn’t the only anti-gay effort underway. Last March, the Legislature passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages but permit civil unions. It must be passed in identical form this year in order to appear on a state ballot in November 2006.

Posted by Stephen at 12:33 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 15, 2005

Paging Dr. Frist

So once again the religious right was out of touch with reality:

In a victory for Michael Schiavo, a coroner who performed an autopsy on Terri Schiavo reported Wednesday that she suffered from an irreversible brain injury and would not have recovered as her parents insisted was possible. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

“Her brain was profoundly atrophied,” Jon Thogmartin, medical examiner for Florida’s Pinellas-Pasco County, told a press conference. “There was massive neuronal loss, or death. This was irreversible and no amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”

… Thogmartin was joined by Dr. Stephen Nelson, who described her condition as “very consistent with a persistent vegetative state,” which is what Michael Schiavo and most doctors had contended was the case.

… Thogmartin added that Terri Schiavo had been blinded by the injury and that all evidence indicated that she could not have survived without a feeding tube.

As ThinkProgress points out, this sure undermines the diagnosis of renowned heart surgeon Bill Frist, who in March was adamant that Schiavo wasn’t in a persistent vegetative state—and, moreover, wasn’t blind:

“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”

Truly a miracle. Unfortunately the wingnuts are unlikely to let go, because the autopsy failed to uncover what caused Schiavo’s catastrophic illness 15 years ago—and in particular found no evidence that she had an eating disorder that might have stopped her heart.

All of which leaves Schiavo’s husband open to more accusations that her collapse was a result of spousal abuse—an opening the religious right is unlikely to resist.

Posted by Stephen at 02:24 PM in Health | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 14, 2005

Ministry of hate

This would be Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps [October 2005: link dead, no substitute available]:

(BOISE – AP) – The Kansas preacher who tried to erect an anti-gay monument in a Boise city park says he’s coming to Idaho this week to picket the funeral of a fallen soldier.

Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, says God killed Idaho National Guard Corporal Carrie French with an improvised explosive device. Phelps says God is retaliating against America for a bombing of his church six years ago.

French was a 19-year-old Caldwell High School graduate and varsity cheerleader. She was killed June 5 in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk by an improvised explosive device. French served as an ammunition specialist with the 116th Brigade Combat Team's 145th Support Battalion.

Phelps says there is no reason he is targeting French specifically. He says his church will protest any public funeral of soldiers killed in Iraq.

As usual, the conservative blogs are running for cover (hi Michelle).

Posted by Stephen at 07:54 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

More anti-evolution madness

You may have noticed that wingnut anti-evolutionists have been making headway in schools across such enlightened states as Kansas, Ohio, Georgia and Utah. Their logic is usually pretty sublime:

Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, plans to lead the fight for instruction of divine design in Utah public schools. He wants to defuse some of the expected controversy by avoiding the term “creationism” altogether.

Instead, he favors “divine design,” sometimes called “intelligent design,” which “doesn’t preach religion,” he said. “The only people who will be upset about this are atheists.”

“The divine design is a counter to the kids’ belief that we all come from monkeys. Because we didn’t,’’ said the conservative Republican and retired director of a private school for troubled boys. “It shocks me that our schools are teaching evolution as fact.”

Buttars doesn’t disregard evolution completely, rather he believes God is the creator, but His creations have evolved within their own species. “We get different types of dogs and different types of cats, but you have never seen a ‘dat,’” he said.

Well you can’t argue with that, although The Carpetbagger Report does its best:

Of all the dumb things Christian fundamentalists say about evolution — and they say many dumb things about it — perhaps the dumbest is a line like this: “We didn’t come from monkeys!”

When anti-evolutionists say this, it proves they have no understanding of what the theory of evolution teaches. It is next to impossible to take their criticisms seriously, when it’s obvious they don’t understand the thing they are criticizing.

Let’s be clear: Monkeys did not turn into people. Evolution does not say they did. Evolution says that apes and humans shared a common ancestor. At some point in the distant past — about six to eight million years ago — there was a split, one branch leading to today’s apes, the other to human beings.

The close relationship between apes and humans is beyond dispute. Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives. They share 95 percent of our DNA. Chimps are more closely related to humans than they are to some other apes.

There are now challenges to the teaching of evolution in around 40 states or local school districts, all of them backed by wingnuts or extreme-right hate groups. And it’s not just in schools: last week the Park and Recreation Board of Tulsa, Oklahoma voted 3-1 to approve a display depicting the biblical account of creation at the Tulsa Zoo.

Frustrated, the National Academies—which comprise the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council—have, uh, created an excellent evolution-resources Web site. This is kinda belated—the National Academies have been fighting the wingnuts on this issue for years—but it has everything you’ll ever need to counter anti-evolutionist insanity. If you have kids, make sure their teachers are aware of it.

Posted by Stephen at 12:29 PM in Evolution | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2005

Life in a theocracy, part 3

MID-MONDAY UPDATE: Well, the final voter turnout was 26%, so the referendum was invalid. Next stop for the theocrats: Italy’s law legalizing abortion, because it conflicts with provisions of the fertility legislation that give embryos the same legal rights as born children.

MONDAY MORNING: So the land of da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo is voting to return to the Dark Ages. Or rather, not voting [September 2005: link dead, no substitute available]:

ROME (Reuters) - Italians voted in an emotionally charged referendum on fertility treatment and embryo research on Sunday but a low turnout looked set to make it invalid – a victory for the Catholic Church’s campaign for a boycott.

At the end of the first day of the two-day poll, only some 18.7 percent of those eligible had cast ballots. A half day of voting will be held on Monday until 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).

Barring an unlikely surge in turnout on Monday, commentators said the referendum that could repeal a restrictive law on assisted procreation would fail to reach the minimum turnout of 50 percent needed to make it valid.

If the referendum fails, it will be a major victory for the ultra-conservative Pope Benedict XVI, whose bishops and cardinals have been urging Italians not to vote. And it will enshrine a December 2003 law that transformed one of the world’s most socially liberal countries into a theocratic wonderland.

The law’s breadth is breathtaking: It bans almost all research on embryos, gives embryos the rights of born children, and outlaws the use of donor sperm and eggs. It denies in-vitro fertilization and other assisted fertility techniques to women beyond child-bearing age, gay couples and single people. And it means that embryos can no longer be screened for abnormalities.

The law also limits to three the number of eggs that can be harvested and fertilized at any one time. Moreover, it requires all three to be implanted in the aspiring mother’s womb at the same time—once the eggs are fertilized, she cannot refuse implantation. And because the law forbids the freezing of spare embryos, a failure to conceive (not exactly uncommon) means the entire process has to be started over again.

In some respects a successful referendum may not have made much difference, because Benedict clearly believes he is above secular law. Shortly after his April inauguration, for example, he ordered Catholic municipal officials in Spain to ignore a new law legitimizing the marriage of gay couples.

This is exactly what the religious right wants for the U.S.—total control over relationships and reproductive rights, and a theocratic veto over laws it doesn’t like. That’s why the right is so wrong for America.

Posted by Stephen at 12:07 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 11, 2005

Papal bull

More sound advice from Pope Benedict XVI, this time on AIDS:

Pope Benedict XVI urged African bishops Friday to keep up their fight against AIDS, reiterating church teaching that abstinence is the only “fail-safe” way to prevent the spread of the virus.

“It is of great concern that the fabric of African life, its very source of hope and stability, is threatened by divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraceptive mentality, all of which contribute to a breakdown in sexual morality,” Benedict said.

… Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than 60 percent of the 40 million people infected with HIV worldwide. In March, a U.N. study predicted that more than 80 million Africans may die from AIDS by 2025 and infections could soar to 90 million — or more than 10 percent of the continent’s population — if more is not done to expand prevention programs and offer better access to drugs that can control the virus.

… [Benedict said that] “the Catholic Church has always been at the forefront both in prevention and in treatment of this illness” and that “the traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only fail-safe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.”

Catholicism doesn’t seem to have worked too well so far in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the religion has grown at more than twice the rate of the population over the past 50 years, and now has around 140 million followers. An estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in the region, with approximately three million new infections occurring in 2004 alone. And some of the highest infection rates are found in the most Catholic countries: in South Africa and Zambia, for example, one out of every five adults is infected.

The reality, of course, is that the Vatican’s stance does much more harm than good: while its other-worldly teachings about abstinence go unheeded, its opposition to condoms has made most African Catholics wary of using them. The result: tens of thousands of needless deaths.

Some leading Catholic bishops are starting to break ranks over the condom issue:

A South African bishop and leading advocate of scrapping the Catholic Church ban on condoms on Wednesday urged new Pope Benedict XVI to open a dialogue with those who have had the “crucifying experience” of the AIDS pandemic.

… [Catholic Bishop Kevin] Dowling harshly criticised “technocrats” in the Vatican who are far removed from what he termed the “crucifying experience” of meeting and trying to help people dying from AIDS in southern Africa.

“They haven’t got the first-hand experience of massive shack settlements like where I live and work and face this tremendous challenge where young women are dying of AIDS in terror and fear and totally rejected, with a baby dying as well, and worrying about what will happen if she dies first...”

“And where she has been forced into becoming a sex worker simply because she has no other means of survival and no options and therefore cannot follow the Church’s direction,” said Dowling in a phone interview with AFP.

“I believe our official stance is totally irrelevant to such people,” said Dowling, whose archdiocese covers the platinum-mining heartland of South Africa.

… “If the new pope engages in a dialogue with those who have had the experience of tragedy on the ground and have raised this issue, perhaps, perhaps as a theologian he will see that it is possible to make out a case” for ending the ban on condoms, said Dowling, 61, who has been bishop of Rustenberg for close to 15 years.

Apparently not.

Posted by Stephen at 06:20 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dispensable

Pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives are another fine example of how out of touch right-wing hate groups are with the rest of the country:

A new poll commissioned by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) has found overwhelming public support for women’s access to contraception. Eighty-eight percent of respondents supported women’s access to contraception, reports National Public Radio. Of self-identified Republicans, 80 percent supported a women’s right to use birth control, as did 80 percent of respondents who identified themselves as “pro-life.”

The scientific community has also joined the growing condemnation of pharmacists who force their own extreme religious views on customers. A Policy Forum in the latest issue of Science (abstract via Bush v. Choice—paid subscription required to read article) doesn’t pull punches:

Pharmacist refusals to dispense—and in some cases to refer or transfer—prescriptions for contraception threaten women’s access to basic health care both in the United States and around the world. In the United States, this problem appears to be growing; increasing reports of pharmacist refusals have surfaced in the media, and numerous states have introduced bills that would amend pharmacy codes to permit pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraception. This Policy Forum reviews current legal standards and professional ethics that govern the practice of pharmacy; this review, together with an assessment of the harm to women’s health, dictates that women must have access to contraception at the pharmacy without delay, harassment, or other interference.

But the hate groups aren’t giving up:

A pharmacist in Illinois has filed a lawsuit challenging an order by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich requiring pharmacies to dispense birth control and emergency contraceptives without delay.

… “Prior to this rule, I had always practiced pharmacy using my judgment and my conscience and the law as my guide,” he said. “Here comes this grenade thrown in here that says you’re going to have to do things that are morally objectionable.”

Abby Ottenhoff, a spokeswoman for Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, said the governor had issued the order to make sure women had access to the health care their doctors prescribed. “They’ve chosen to be in the field of providing contraceptives,” Ms. Ottenhoff said. “They don’t have the right to pick and choose who they’re going to serve.”

Eighty-eight percent of Americans agree.

Posted by Stephen at 12:14 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 10, 2005

More Christian hate

Right-wing hate groups really do believe their values are America’s values. From a New York Times feature on gay rights in public schools:

Last month in Montgomery County, Md., a parents’ group, alarmed because revisions to a health education course for 8th and 10th grades included a discussion of homosexuality and a video that demonstrated how to use a condom, went into federal court and gained a restraining order to halt them. The county school board then voted 7 to 1 to eliminate the amended program, six months after unanimously approving it.

Conservative groups applauded the board’s vote as a victory for religious conviction, and described the litigation strategy as a model for school districts across the country.

“This was huge,” said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, which seeks to apply biblical principles to public policy.

… Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar at the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan free-speech advocacy group, said gay rights issues involving public schools had become a litmus test to many religious conservatives.

“They feel the public schools are getting ahead of the country,” Mr. Haynes said. “They believe the schools are imposing a view of homosexuality that offends their faith and is not consistent with where we are as a country.”

Where we are as a country is not even remotely on the same planet as the religious right. For example, an NBC/USA Network poll carried out in April found that just 27% of Americans believe that greater acceptance of gays and lesbians would be a bad thing for the country.

Wingnuts—they’re a small, freakish minority. Remember that.

Posted by Stephen at 01:16 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 08, 2005

Blessed

Why we probably shouldn’t fear the Christian right:

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A man who swindled hundreds of Christians out of more than $26 million by promising a 4,000 percent return on their money was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison and ordered to repay his victims.

John C. Jeffers, 64, was sentenced Monday after victims told U.S. District Judge Robert Timlin they lost everything to Jeffers.

… In letters to investors, Jeffers used quotes from Scripture and said God had given him a plan “for financing the gospel in the end times,” according to court documents.

Well of course. That would be a similar plan to the one described by John Phillips in his recently published book “God Wants You to Roll.” From the Booklist review:

In 1994, two 19-year-old boys, Robert “Buddha” Gomez and James Nichols, unfolded a scheme to sell cars belonging to a nonexistent inheritance estate for the bargain price of $1,000 to $4,000 apiece. Nichols, as “executor,” employed his own mother, a devout Christian, who sold the phony “miracle cars” through her church. He then funneled the proceeds to Gomez, who was quickly becoming a notorious casino gambler. Before long, they had a network of saleswomen in churches from Los Angeles to New York and thousands of “investors” clamoring for the “blessings” that were to be delivered “any day now.” They continued the scam for seven years, eventually fleecing faithful believers of $21 million, in the largest case of automobile fraud ever.

Moral: if you believe you’ll be saved, you probably believe in free cash and cars too.

Posted by Stephen at 12:02 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 04, 2005

Life in a theocracy, part 2

America has Tom DeLay and James Dobson; Italy has Pope Benedict. Spot the difference:

This week Pope Benedict XVI stepped into politics for the first time since his election six weeks ago, endorsing calls to voters from Italy’s Roman Catholic bishops to boycott a referendum on the country’s fertility laws.

Addressing the bishops, the Pope said that easing restrictions on assisted fertility treatments would pose a threat to life and the family. The present law, passed last year, restricts the provision of fertility treatment to stable heterosexual couples and excludes single women or same-sex couples. It also restricts surrogacy and research using human embryos, forbids sperm and egg donation, and limits the number of embryos created with in-vitro techniques to three.

The referendum, the work of liberals who regard the law as oppressive and fundamentalist, seeks to lift the ban on embryo research, remove limits on the number of eggs that can be fertilised, lift the ban on egg and sperm donors and remove language giving fertilised eggs full legal rights.

The church’s call for a boycott is designed to sink the referendum—if less than half of registered voters take part, the result won’t be valid. But the ultra-conservative Benedict may have underestimated the opposition. Although Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has sidestepped the debate—and been accused of appeasing Benedict by scheduling the vote for a summer weekend, when many Italians will be at the beach—his wife has been a vocal supporter of the referendum:

[T]he former actress Veronica Lario, by whom he has three children, favours the “yes” campaign. She revealed that, 20 years ago, she had had an abortion at six months after discovering that the child she was carrying had severe birth defects. “Veronica’s on your side,” the Prime Minister told “yes” campaigners.

She isn’t the only well-known actress the church is up against:

With a week to go to the vote, the walls of Italian cities are plastered with posters for the “yes” campaign, backed by the actresses Monica Bellucci and Sabrina Ferilli.

Signora Bellucci, who had her first child last year at the age of 36 with her husband, Vincent Cassel, the French actor, posed naked last year while heavily pregnant in the Italian version of Vanity Fair to highlight the campaign. She said that the law “creates an absurd situation, as if Italian science should stop and leave us trailing behind other countries”.

Not if hatemongers like DeLay and Dobson have their way.

Posted by Stephen at 06:57 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 02, 2005

Religious conviction

Ten days in jail or ten church services—your choice, Kentucky-style:

When Scott Ray Hays pleaded guilty to a drug charge two weeks ago, Laurel District Judge Michael Caperton gave him three choices: Go to jail for 10 days. Go to rehab. Or go to church or another house of worship for 10 services. Hays chose church.

Caperton, 50, a devout Christian, said he thinks church attendance could help some of those convicted find spiritual guidance. “The goal is to help people and their families,” the judge said.

“I don’t think there’s a church-state issue, because it’s not mandatory and I say worship services instead of church.” Any denomination is acceptable, he said.

Whatever Caperton believes, this clearly violates the Establishment Clause, as Eugene Volokh observes:

Seems pretty “mandatory” to me. Sure, the offender doesn’t have to go to religious services; but if he says no, he’ll have to go to jail or rehab. Whether the condition is phrased as “You must go to religious services, or else we’ll send you to jail” or “You must go to jail, but we’ll let you get out of it by going to religious services,” the government is coercing people to go to religious services by threatening them with jail. Nor does it matter that he’s not picking the denomination; he’s still coercing people to engage in religious activity.

Definitely one for Kentucky’s Judicial Conduct Commission, which reprimanded Caperton five years ago for violating ethics rules by presiding over a criminal case that involved a friend.

Posted by Stephen at 02:00 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 27, 2005

Apparently it cures gays, too

Religion is good for your mental health, according to a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association:

A new survey of nearly 37,000 men and women shows that people who regularly attend church, synagogue, or other religious services are less likely to suffer from depression and other psychiatric illnesses than those who don’t.

“The higher the worship frequency, the lower the odds of depression, mania, and panic disorders,” says researcher Marilyn Baetz, MD, of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

The study didn’t assess the effect of church-going on bigotry, intolerance and right-wing extremism, but I’m guessing it’s good for those too.

It’s worth noting that Baetz has been producing similar studies for some years.

Posted by Stephen at 07:44 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 26, 2005

Without a prayer

You just can’t beat religious tolerance:

Somali immigrants who work as cab drivers at the Cleveland airport say police are ticketing them when they step out of their cabs for traditional Islamic prayer.

…Members of the Islamic religion are required to have five formal prayers daily, which must be done facing the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, considered the most holy city in Islam. Muslims are recommended to be freshly cleaned with water, and they also must recite the prayers in various positions, including standing and kneeling on the ground. The cab drivers say this is why they must leave their cars to wash up in the airport restrooms and to pray in certain areas.

Police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said police ticket only law breakers, regardless of their cultural background. “Our only concern is the safety and security of the airport,” he said.

Of course. Evangelical Christians would be treated exactly the same way.

Posted by Stephen at 07:28 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 25, 2005

Life-threatening

Now that the House has voted to lift limits on embryonic stem cell research, Bush is of course waving his theocratic veto:

Bush called the bill a mistake and said he would veto it. The House approved it by a 238-194 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto.

“This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life,” the president said Tuesday. “Crossing this line would be a great mistake.”

So as the president urges the nation (as he did when he first threatened the veto) to “pray that America uses the gift of freedom to build a culture of life,” he might consider what that really means. From the National Institutes of Health:

Studies of human embryonic stem cells may yield information about the complex events that occur during human development. A primary goal of this work is to identify how undifferentiated stem cells become differentiated. Scientists know that turning genes on and off is central to this process. Some of the most serious medical conditions, such as cancer and birth defects, are due to abnormal cell division and differentiation. A better understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of these processes may yield information about how such diseases arise and suggest new strategies for therapy. A significant hurdle to this use and most uses of stem cells is that scientists do not yet fully understand the signals that turn specific genes on and off to influence the differentiation of the stem cell.

…If scientists can reliably direct the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into specific cell types, they may be able to use the resulting, differentiated cells to treat certain diseases at some point in the future. Diseases that might be treated by transplanting cells generated from human embryonic stem cells include Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, traumatic spinal cord injury, Purkinje cell degeneration, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and vision and hearing loss.

It sure must feel good to be, uh, pro-life.

Posted by Stephen at 12:24 AM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 20, 2005

Bush vs. progress, again

Another medical breakthrough that could save many lives:

British scientists have created a cloned human embryo for the first time, placing the country in the vanguard of a technology with the potential to cure conditions such as Parkinson’s, diabetes and paralysis. The Newcastle University team has become only the second to achieve the feat, crowning a momentous day that underlines the pace at which the science is moving.

Their announcement came as the South Korean researchers who pioneered human cloning last year announced breakthroughs that bring its medical promise closer to reality. In 15 months, the group led by Professor Woo Suk Hwang, of Seoul National University, has dramatically improved its techniques and established a production line for cloned cells. It has now made 11 batches with genes from patients.

These advances pave the way for using cloned embryonic stem cells — master cells that can form any tissue in the body — to create spare part tissue for treating disease. Stem cells could eventually be taken from cloned embryos that are genetically identical to patients and grown into replacements for damaged tissue. These cells would carry the patient’s genes and could be transplanted without risk of rejection by the immune system.

While therapies for Parkinson’s or diabetes are probably a decade away, other benefits could come more quickly. Cloned cells are also valuable for testing drugs, possibly providing an alternative to animal experiments.

And yes, I know it was inevitable in a theocracy that Bush would gag on this—but that doesn’t make it any less depressing:

President Bush on Friday said he would veto legislation that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and expressed deep concern about human cloning research in South Korea. “I’m very concerned about cloning,” the president said. “I worry about a world in which cloning becomes accepted.”

…The president also threatened a veto of legislation that would clear the way for taxpayer money to be spent on embryonic stem cell research. …”I made very clear to Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayer’s money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life - I’m against that,” Bush said. “Therefore, if the bill does that, I would veto it.”

Bush began his day at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, where he was cheered for urging people to “pray that America uses the gift of freedom to build a culture of life.”

Posted by Stephen at 12:52 PM in Politics | Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2005

Rules of engagement

Rising Hegemon defines some rules for the religious right, including:

If you have had an extra-marital affair, dated your secretary, or been with a prostitute (paid or unpaid), you must leave the field. You cannot tell the rest of us what to do when you don't live by your own rules. This is a very fair deal considering that you don't have to wear any scarlet letters.

I think he’s letting them off lightly—I don’t see anything about child-molesting, racism, gay-bashing and general hypocrisy. Although I guess then they’d all be disqualified…

Posted by Stephen at 06:16 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 13, 2005

Life in a theocracy, part 1

And she gets to sue Walgreens:

A mother of six claims a pharmacist refused to fill her prescription for an emergency contraceptive and berated her as a baby-killer, leaving her so traumatized she didn’t seek out another pharmacist and ended up having an abortion.

“The pharmacist crossed the line,” said Tricia Knight, the attorney for the woman. “It’s one thing to conscientiously object. But you cannot intend to inflict emotional harm on a woman when she is making a very important and often very emotional decision in her life.”

The state Department of Regulation and Licensing, which regulates pharmacists and other professionals, opened an investigation into the pharmacist’s actions after learning of the incident through news reports last week, agency spokesman Chris Klein said.

I guess wingnuts value saved souls over dead fetuses.

Thanks to Echidne of the Snakes for the tip.

Posted by Stephen at 12:32 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 10, 2005

Holy war

Last week he ousted the editor of America. Now he’s bathing entire suburbs in electromagnetic radiation. Is there no stopping Pope Benedict XVI?

A Rome court convicted a Vatican cardinal and a top Vatican Radio official Monday of polluting the environment with electromagnetic waves from a transmission tower, an official from Vatican Radio said.

Cardinal Roberto Tucci, former head of Vatican Radio's management committee, and the Rev. Pasquale Borgomeo, the station's director general, were sentenced to 10 days in jail, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the station's program director. The sentences for the two Jesuits were automatically suspended.

OK, maybe I’m overreacting…

Posted by Stephen at 12:10 AM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 25, 2005

Fallible

The New Yorker’s Jane Kramer has more on what to expect from Pope Benedict XVI:

His agenda, or his orders, were always clear. During his first ten years as Prefect, the Jesuits were censured for challenging papal teachings on contraception, parts of their constitution were suspended, and their Vicar General, Vincent O’Keefe, a passionate advocate for social justice, was removed. The reactionary lay order Opus Dei was transformed into a “personal prelature” accountable directly to the Pope. The dioceses of progressive Latin-American bishops were gerrymandered out of existence, liberation theologians like Leonardo Boff were called to Rome and silenced as “Marxists” (they were, more accurately, Christian communitarian evangelists), and the priests they had trained, who were responsible for an ebullient Catholic revival in Latin America, were ordered back into the fold of tradition and obedience. The relative autonomy of the North American bishops’ conference was ended, and its most progressive members—most famously Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, of Chicago—were marginalized.

If we ever were “moving towards a dictatorship of relativism,” as then-Cardinal Ratzinger claimed a week ago, we’re sure heading in the other direction now.

Posted by Stephen at 10:29 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2005

The wrong pope, revisited

Newly inaugurated Pope Benedict XVI may not tolerate doctrinal relativism, but he seems worryingly at ease with moral relativism. As The Observer reports:

Ratzinger’s role in protecting the church against scandal became apparent four years ago. In May 2001, he sent a confidential letter to every bishop in the Catholic church reminding them of the strict penalties facing those who referred allegations of sexual abuse against priests to outside authorities.

The letter referred to a confidential Vatican document drawn up in 1962 instructing bishops on how to deal with allegations of sexual abuse between a priest and a child arising out of a confessional.

It urged them to investigate such allegations “in the most secretive way... restrained by a perpetual silence... and everyone... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office... under the penalty of excommunication.”

Recall that this is no minor issue. The Catholic Church itself estimates that 4,450 priests who served between 1950 and 2002 have faced credible accusations of abuse. And research by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice suggests that in the U.S. alone, 10,667 children were abused by the clergy during that period. The Church has already paid as much as $1.3 billion to settle abuse claims, a sum that will likely soar in the years ahead.

At today’s inaugural mass, Benedict seemed eager to distance himself from some of his own more extremist views:

“My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him so that He himself will lead the church at this hour of our history.”

Rethinking the Vatican’s stance on abuse would be a good start. The Observer again:

Shortly after he was elected the spiritual head of more than one billion Catholics last week, Ratzinger approached Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago. The last time the two men talked, George raised the abuse crisis with Ratzinger and pressed him to intervene.

In perfect English, the new Pope assured George that he remembered their last conversation and would “attend” to the matter. The reign of Benedict XVI may well be judged on whether he holds true to his word.

Posted by Stephen at 02:19 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 19, 2005

The wrong pope

It’s hard to know what to say about the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. Given an opportunity to choose relevance and reform—or at least continuity—the College of Cardinals instead chose fundamentalism, extremism, divisiveness… and irrelevance. This, remember, is the Cardinal who in 1999, as the Vatican’s guardian of doctrine, ordered an American nun to stop ministering to gays and lesbians in the U.S. The Cardinal who only yesterday stated that:

Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching’, looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today's standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

A comment in the (paid subscription) Wall Street Journal nails it:

“Ratzinger is saying the biggest problem is not issues like poverty, but rather the direct assault on the center of the church and the church's identity,” says Oscar Aguilar, a lay professor at Mexico's Universidad Iberoamericana, a Jesuit university in Mexico City. “They are armor-plating the doctrine.”

And Andrew Sullivan drives the nail home:

What this says to American Catholics is quite striking: it's not just a disagreement, it's a full-scale assault. This new Pope has no pastoral experience as such. He is a creature of theological discourse, a man of books and treatises and arguments. He proclaims his version of the truth as God-given and therefore unalterable and undebatable… For American Catholics, I foresee an accelerating exodus. But that, remember, is the plan. The Ratzingerians want to empty the pews in America and start over. They will, in that sense, be successful.

Depressing—even for us committed heathens.

Posted by Stephen at 07:22 PM in Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

disinterested party

SORTING THE GOOD EGGS FROM THE BAD

When

Where

Elsewhere

July 13, 2006

Kent gets canned

July 01, 2006

Out of tune

June 30, 2006

Rock, paper, schisms

June 22, 2006

Immaculate deception

June 21, 2006

Science vs. fiction

June 19, 2006

Collect calling

June 13, 2006

Feel the love

June 05, 2006

Lionheart

June 01, 2006

Led into temptation

May 29, 2006

Land of the rising son

May 24, 2006

Robust lying

May 22, 2006

Legionaries’ disease

May 19, 2006

Blood disorder

May 17, 2006

ID comes to DC

May 16, 2006

Bibblespeak

May 15, 2006

A Plan B for Plan B

May 12, 2006

Defense mechanism

May 08, 2006

Of cardigans and corruption

May 06, 2006

Tithing taxpayers

May 05, 2006

Vatican: creationists are pagans

May 02, 2006

Hot zone

April 30, 2006

Let us prey

April 27, 2006

The Vatican vs. creationism

April 26, 2006

When will they learn?

April 17, 2006

The second coming

April 15, 2006

Kneel, Diamond

April 13, 2006

Bad bunny

April 12, 2006

Lost in transition

April 11, 2006

Is Britain’s children learning yet?

April 10, 2006

Fred Phelps’ extended family

April 08, 2006

Extinct

April 07, 2006

Praying politics

April 06, 2006

Life in a theocracy, part 5

Parking break

April 05, 2006

Imposter

April 04, 2006

Cold comfort

April 03, 2006

Not-so-good book

April 01, 2006

Dumbski