When I have writer’s block I can always count on visiting some Xian blogs to find something to make fun of eventually. I ran across this and read thoroughly to make sure that it wasn’t some kind of parody or spoof. Nope…it’s the real thing. You can order your own bottle right here at http://virtueperfume.com

“We created Virtue perfume as a tool to assist people to accelerate their identification with the still, silent part of ourselves, and to assist those who have trouble holding in their awareness, this conscious connection to the formlessness of BEing Still. When we say it’s to remind you of God, we mean it helps a person refer their attention in any given moment, to the ‘Stillness and Presence’ of what we call God”

Testimonials

“I recently received a bottle of Virtue® from a friend. It was given to me in the midst of an inspiring and prayerful conversation. Virtue® has become part of a morning ritual for me, as I get ready to start my day. When I use Virtue® I associate the scent with my peaceful morning prayers that I walk in Faith and know I am in God’s hands. Throughout the day, the scent reminds me of those prayers and helps sustain me.”

Sincerely, Jill M.

“The concept is such a good idea, and I look forward to gradually associating that smell with my ‘Spiritual State,’ so that each time I get a whiff of it during the day, I’ll instantly feel that refreshment and reverence.”

Stephanie S.

“I wear VIRTUE® because of what it symbolizes in purity of intention, thought and deed. It is a beautiful fragrance with a higher meaning that I believe most human beings aspire to.

I have given it to my loved ones and strangers who have asked “What is that beautiful fragrance you are wearing?” The 6 years of biblical research to birth this fragrance is not only fascinating, but also an opportunity to share testimony with others.

The best use so far has been spraying it in my home, my children’s room or on their pillow before they sleep. To all of my sisters in Christ I say: A mother’s heart is like a deep well that bursts forth in tears when her children are in pain, who prays endlessly for love to guide them to a righteous path and blesses the broken road because their journey will end in strength, faith and a victorious life.

Ultimately, it is my desire to be a pleasing fragrance to God and that is why I wear VIRTUE® and have shared my testimony.”

Joanne A.

What it all really comes down to is money and marketing. Virtue® perfume is not very affordably-priced. It’s $80.00 for 1.7 fl. oz. in a bottle with 24 KT Gold Raised Lettering!
$42.00 for Virtue® Body Lotion w/Pomegranate & Resurrection Plant. ($99.00 when you buy both together.) Why waste money on feeding the poor or helping the homeless when there always will be poor and homeless and you can spend the money on yourself so you can keep yourself brainwashed while you are away from the rest of the “flock”.

All this expense and effort to maintain God belief. It’s such a struggle.

(There are no Virtue® products for men that I could see.)

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts - for support rather than illumination.” - Lang.

Fresh off a discussion at the NoGodBlog about the value of life and atheism (starts right about…here), I engaged (and still am) a theist who made an incredibly brave statement: that secular countries have a HIGHER suicide rate, based on a study here, carried a little further here - which I think I dissected properly.

(I really wonder though - how many suicide notes were collected that stated that “There is no God! I can’t live without Him!”)

I think said fellow derived this nonsense from Andy Gadfly’s errant idiocy - Conservapedia!

Ah yes, the bane of our existence! The most ill-informed source on the web, more like.

 I can name one prominent atheist who committed suicide - Ernest Hemingway. But one pea does not a pod make.

I will make a bold statement here - that the afterlife cheapens this life, rather than enriching it. It sure beats the epistemology of ‘gee, it makes people HAPPY!’

For the most part, I’m fairly tolerant for a ‘militant atheist’. If it helps you sleep at night, I’m down with that. But, as many of you know, I tend to crook a critical eyebrow at such pronouncements, and usually five minutes is all it takes to gnaw the bones of said philosophy, and find little marrow in them.

And really - if you’re working towards a reward AFTER this life, then you’re essentially working at nothing. The root source of your efforts to aid others is the result of a complex Pavlovian conditioning. A religious person is seeking a reward, after all. Brownie points. A pat on the head from on high. Call it what you will.

 And, on a serious note (and a bit different one, but not by much), there’s this ‘minor’ caveat:

I find it terribly sobering that of all the countries, there’s only two of them that are atheist on the list - Russia and China. For the most part, the Russian religious engagements aren’t between atheists and theists, but between theist and theist. The Chinese government - they tend to be a bit fucked up in re: their human rights record. A lie that costs upwards of millions of lives, in the divisiveness it creates?

So, to nutshell:

Suicide is a serious issue. But to conclude that it’s preventable by accepting some foolish anachronistic codex from the Bronze Age is…well, the philosophical question then becomes this: is it preferable to save a life with a lie? Is reality that insurmountable for some?

Food for thought.

I have now been to a secular wedding, and to many religious weddings, and the ending is so similar. The officiants say similar words “by the power vested in me by the state yadda, yadda, yadda, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Even if Gawd isn’t invoked, it still has a religious feel to it. I am wondering now if I was to marry my husband over again, would I even have a ceremony at all? I probably would, only secular next time around.

In his recent post titled Marriage, American Style: Is It Past Time For Church And State To Get A Divorce?AU writer Joseph L Conn proposes that we apply separation of church and state principle to marriage.

Conn quotes Washington correspondent Rob Marus as saying:

“In all of America’s brouhaha over whether legalizing same-sex marriage will sully the institution’s sanctity,” Marus notes, “very few Christians are asking one important question: When – and why – did the government get into the sanctification business?

“When the preacher, at the end of a marriage ceremony, says, ‘By the power vested in me by the state of (fill-in-the-blank), I pronounce you husband and wife,’ is he or she acting as a minister of the gospel or a magistrate of the government – or both? How does that happen in a society with a First Amendment designed to guarantee functional separation between religion and government?”

In answer to that question, Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn argues that the relationship between religion, marriage and government is rooted in history but has become quite problematic today. Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, says he has to apply for a license and become an officer of the court in Virginia to serve as an officiant at marriages there.

Lynn said it probably would be a good idea to separate religious marriages from the civil marriages (or civil unions) recognized by the state.

But then those religious folks are still not happy because it would be taking their sky daddy beliefs out of government. Seems some even would love to force others to abide by their own individual traditions and beliefs.

Anti-gay crusader Maggie Gallagher whines:

“I’m not especially in favor of it,” she told ABP.

“A real alternative would be for government to recognize and enforce religiously distinctive marriage contracts so long as they serve the government’s interest – say, permanent ones for Catholics,”

PERMANENT for Cat-o-licks? Eeeghads! What about other denominations’ beliefs about marriage and divorce? How would government accommodate them all? And what is this “so long as they serve the government’s interest”???

Gallagher continues:

“But what people who talk about ‘separating marriage and state’ really propose to do is simply to refuse to recognize religious marriage contracts at all. This is not neutrality; it is a powerful intervention by the government into the lives of religious people.”

In response to Gallagher’s proposal, Conn writes:

It sounds like Gallagher would make a bad situation worse. Is she really saying that the government should forbid Catholics to get a divorce in keeping with the tenets of her Catholic faith?

That just illustrates why America might want to consider moving in the other direction. Gallagher and her Religious Right cronies want American civil law to reflect religious doctrine. In a nation that respects freedom of conscience, it should not.

The whole issue of marriage wasn’t so complicated until gays stood up and demanded their right to same-sex marriage and the religious folks have a problem with that.

Major maintenance essentially completed. Obviously things look a little different right now, and will probably get tweaked more (especially appearance) in the next few days or even weeks, but we’re the same old blasphemers under the surface, where it counts. Please resume the petty bickering. (UPDATE: I expect to have a non-minimalist theme back up by tomorrow.)

The site is going down tomorrow (Sat 6/28) for some long-overdue maintenance. If all goes well, it’ll be back up by Sunday (6/29).

I can’t wait till this movie comes out (October 3rd)!

Religulous!

Is my hometown of Chicago next?

Video link: Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gun Rights

Below is a video of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to lift a ban on handguns in Washington D.C. With youth killing other youths, children shooting themselves, people shooting each other in a violent rage, guns to use in muggings, robberies…this decision is appalling.

This Supreme Court ruling is just going to make it that much more difficult, if not nearly impossible to control violence in our big cities. Further debate is coming over the meaning and interpretation of our second amendment rights.

It’s easy to vote for a ruling like this when you are sitting in your cushy upper-class home full of security devices and alarms, protected by police who will come to your aid in an instant.

Mayor Daley outraged at court’s ruling in handgun ban

Another typical stunt pulled by the Bush administration, once again subverting the taxpayers’ money to religious groups who have no business getting any tax money to support their blatant prosyletization efforts. Bush and his regime is going to push this faith-based bullcrap agenda as one commenter put it right “down to the wire, to the very last day and hour of being in power.”

Juvenile Injustice: DOJ ‘Faith-Based’ Grants Were Steered To Bush Allies, Says ABC

Thanks to a strong push by the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded part of a $1.2 million grant to an evangelical Christian organization, Victory Outreach, whose mission is to carry “the hope and message of Jesus Christ to the four corners of the earth,” ABC News has reported.

The other part of the $1.2 million was awarded to a consulting firm run by Lisa Trevino Cummins, who previously headed Hispanic outreach efforts for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

According to ABC, “The grant was awarded over the strong objections of career DOJ staff who did not believe that Victory Outreach was qualified for the grant and that too great an amount of the funds was going to Cummins’ consulting company instead of being spent on services for children.”

In the end, the network reported, Victory Outreach rejected the grant because it was too large and the group did not believe it was qualified to carry it out.

A former DOJ official who spent 10 years awarding juvenile crime grants told ABC News earlier this month that “the agenda for children is not always a priority” in awarding the grants since J. Robert Flores took over as administrator of the DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

ABC News reported that Flores has consistently ignored recommendations from DOJ staff, and instead has awarded grants to organizations that have “political, social or religious connections to the Bush administration.” He is now under investigation by the DOJ’s Inspector General.

There’s more:

The DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which exists to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization, is supposed to award grants to organizations performing services that will help meet this goal. It turns out it has become yet another chance for Bush to get his faith-based agenda some play.

In addition to Victory Outreach, $1.1 million went to an organization called “Best Friends,” which has a fundraising gala every year for a program that promotes teenage abstinence. “Best Friends” is run by the wife of former Republican Cabinet member William Bennett.

ABC News also reported that Flores turned down money to the program ranked highest in merit by DOJ staff because it provided sex education and condoms to at-risk teenagers in San Diego.

The report noted that in the six years Flores has been in charge, he has never approved grant money for programs that work with gay and lesbian teens, a group with a high risk for suicide.

But what Flores, and apparently Bush, believe will really help save the children is the half million dollars that went to the World Golf Foundation. Not shockingly, the group’s honorary chairman happens to be former president George H.W. Bush.

President Bush’s “faith-based” initiative has been a fiasco, and the examples now being reported are just the latest bits of evidence. The initiative has been riddled with partisan politics and favoritism toward political and religious cronies, and it has undercut civil rights and civil liberties.

Bush is reportedly scheduled to speak at a faith-based conference tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be great if he announced that the initiative has all been a horrible mistake and he’s shutting it down?

Shutting it down? Nice fantasy, but GW will never do that. Not in a million years. Hopefully the next president will do the job for him?