Vjack at Atheist Revolution has brought this to our attention — Democratic Convention to Include Interfaith Service Led By Pentecostal

Vjack writes:

Plans are coming together for the 2008 Democratic National Convention scheduled next month in Denver. But one question remains for the organizers to answer - what to do with those pesky atheists in the party. Specifically, should they be represented in the interfaith service someone deemed necessary to open the Convention? And in case you haven’t heard about that yet, not only will there be an interfaith service, but it will be led by a Pentecostal minister, Leah Daughtry.

Personally, I am not overly worried about whether atheists end up being part of the interfaith service or not. On the other hand, I am worried about why an interfaith service is deemed necessary in a country founded on separation of church and state. I am even more bothered over the role of a Pentecostal minister in organizing the service.

The Pentecostal leader (who has been accused of homophobia and other things) bothers me also, since that is such a crazy fundamentalist sect of Christianity. What are they thinking? WTF is going on in this country?! It’s like a nationwide religious revival instead of a national political campaign for President of a supposedly secular government.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Colorado Christian University can receive state scholarship money even though receiving these funds is blatant disregard for the separation of church and state because of this school’s aggressive religious indoctrination of it’s students, and strict religious guidelines for its faculty.

Another courtroom victory for religious colleges

A federal appeals court ruling that a Christian university in Colorado can receive state scholarship money is the latest in a string of legal victories for religious schools seeking public dollars.

The most recent case involved Colorado Christian University, a college of 2,000 students in suburban Denver where most students must attend chapel weekly and sign a promise to emulate the life of Jesus and biblical teachings.

Colorado Christian faculty must sign a statement that that the Bible is the “infallible Word of God.”

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Wednesday that the state of Colorado overstepped its bounds with a system allowing students to use state scholarship dollars at some religious colleges, but not those dubbed “pervasively sectarian” — a judgment that required bureaucrats to investigate such tricky criteria as whether religion courses amounted to neutral study or proselytizing.

*snip*

Supporters of Colorado Christian’s position hailed the ruling as an important victory for students.

Students “attending institutions such as CCU who take their faith-based commitment seriously should have an equal opportunity to participate in Colorado’s financial aid program,” said Paul Corts, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

But critics called it the latest example of a worrisome trend.

“The bottom line is that taxpayers will now end up having to pay for religious indoctrination,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The law wasn’t discrimination, but “a sensible judgment by Colorado that some colleges are so religious that they cannot expect taxpayers to support them.”

The ruling cuts to a conundrum in the First Amendment, which prohibits the state from establishing any religion, but also prohibits religious discrimination. Religious colleges have argued their students shouldn’t be deprived of a state benefit everyone else can get.

Courts have split the difference by allowing forms of state support to colleges with some religious affiliation, but not to those that take additional steps, such as requiring certain religious beliefs and chapel attendance.

But this latest ruling — on the heels of others sympathetic to religious colleges — calls into question whether any legal distinction between “pervasively sectarian” and merely religious colleges can survive.

Once again, we see another example that their god cannot operate without money. They must beg the state for human tax dollars to help them because there is no god. I say if students want to accept state scholarship money then they should be required to use it at a state or secular university. If their god can’t provide for them to go to their gawdly universities, it’s not the taxpayer’s problem.

Matt and Russell of the call-in show in Austin, Texas called “The Atheist Experience” have a lot of patience responding to a caller who has very little (if any) basic knowledge of science and how the human body functions. The funniest part of this is when the caller thinks that we get our electrical energy in our bodies from lightning and then asks what keeps us from getting electrocuted when we take a shower. Un-fucking-believable!

Get ready for more Gawd talk and praising Jeebus from the candidates in coming weeks and months and stock up on plenty of antacid and Pepto Bismol. We are all going to need it.

McCain, Obama to participate in church forum

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama will participate next month in a question-and-answer forum at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren said Monday.

Warren is the author of “The Purpose Driven Life.”

At least, however, Warren doesn’t seem as big of a whackadoo as Huckabee and Hagee. Warren is actually working to help people as stated on his website:

As a global strategist , Dr. Warren advises leaders in the public, private, and faith sectors on leadership development, poverty, health, education, and faith in culture. He has been invited to speak at the United Nations, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the African Union, the Council on Foreign Relations, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, TIME’s Global Health Summit, and numerous congresses around the world. TIME magazine named him one of “15 World Leaders Who Mattered Most in 2004” and in 2005 one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.” Also, in 2005 U.S. News & World Report named him one of “ America’s 25 Best Leaders”.

When will people see the the real “faith” belongs in human endeavor? We can accomplish much if we just rid ourselves of the religion obstacle and believe in each other and humankind.

Fundies provide an endless supply of stuff to mock. Here is another one to make you laugh.

The senior pastor of Crossroads Community Church in Kokomo, Indiana was trying to give some sort of lesson on how to be “one” with his motorcycle . . . I assume to illustrate how one needs to be “one with god” (I have heard these types of sermons before.) Well, he didn’t exactly become “one” with his bike and gave a very good example about how his god was not there for him, and there is no one to become “one” with. We each are on our own, and shit happens because of things we cannot control, or because we do something idiotic, as did Pastor Jeff here:

Pastor gets into motorcycle crash — during service

KOKOMO, Ind. - A pastor brought out a dirt bike during a church service to demonstrate the concept of unity. Now he’s demonstrating the concept of healing.

Jeff Harlow, the senior pastor at Crossroads Community Church, broke his wrist when he lost control of the motorcycle at the start of Sunday’s second service, driving off a 5-foot platform and into the vacant first row of seats. He underwent surgery on the wrist Monday.

“Jeff has already laughed a lot, so he’s OK. I think his pride was bruised,” said his wife, Becky.

Becky Harlow said her husband had recently attended a motorcycle race in Buchanan, Mich.

“He had this idea that he would bring this bike out onstage and show people how the rider would become one with the bike,” she told the Kokomo Tribune. “He was going to just sit on it and drive it out. He was just walking the dirt bike out onstage and somehow it got away from him. It was not intended.”

No one else was hurt.

Jeff Harlow had performed the demonstration at earlier services Saturday night and Sunday morning without incident.

This seems to be a thing with redneck pastors…lookie here at youth pastor David Few (That should be Pastor David-Too-Few-Brain-Cells).

Pat Robertson is boo-hooing that Americans United for Separation of Church and State is once again stifling his speech. People For the American Way (Right Wing Watch) are trying to “stifle” their speech. The truth is that all these watchdog groups do is broadcast the words that spew forth from the mouths of Robertson, DeMint and other rightwing whackadoos to a larger audience. AND what spews out of their mouths is rightfully being criticized and lambasted for being bigoted and for promoting suppression of people who are different from them whom they deem “immoral” and a “threat to society” based on their own prejudiced, personal religious “moral judgment.” The only ones they have to blame for “embarrassing” themselves, are themselves. They probably don’t even hear what they are saying when they talk.

Jim DeMint and Pat Robertson Boo-Hooing They Are Silenced

“Whisper” my ass!

I really should start a category for Boo-hooing since these posts are growing in numbers.

If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the latest from Jib Jab for some fun campaign humor.

It is perhaps, no shock to anyone who knows me, that of all the religious hooey that alternately shocks, dismays, or provokes outrage from me, Scientology is in the top three.

I live in Mountain View, and right there on Castro Street, is one of their ‘illustrious’ churches. Usually, there’s a very quiet member passing out literature in front of it, and there has been more than one occasion where Anonymous members donning Vendetta masks have protested it right across the street.

This is a sterling example of how religion gets a free pass in our society. Call yourself a religion, don the mask of ‘religious persecution’, and reap the perks.

(Having a cadre of lawyers as members probably helps, I might add.)

Now, I disagree with Michael Shermer’s take on this particular ballyhoo. These people are dangerous - more so than most of the other fundies we deal with (regionally speaking of course: no doubt there’s a few ‘good ole boys’ in various states who’d pronounce “JEBUS LUVS U!” while booting you in the ribs).

A core precept is Fair Game - put forth by the Mighty Profit Enron Hubbard:

In 1965 Hubbard formulated the “Fair Game Law”, which states how to deal with people who interfere with Scientology’s activities. These problematic people, called suppressive persons, could be considered “fair game” for retaliation:

A Suppressive Person or Group becomes fair game. By FAIR GAME is meant, may not be further protected by the codes and disciplines or the rights of a Scientologist.

Later in December of that year, Hubbard reissued the Fair Game policy with additional clarifications to define the scope of Fair Game. He made it clear that the policy applied to non-Scientologists as well. He declared:

The homes, property, places and abodes of persons who have been active in attempting to: suppress Scientology or Scientologists are all beyond any protection of Scientology Ethics, unless absolved by later Ethics or an amnesty … this Policy Letter extends to suppressive non-Scientology wives and husbands and parents, or other family members or hostile groups or even close friends.

Hubbard made it clear elsewhere in his writings that the policy would be applied to external organizations, including governments, that were guilty of having interfered with Scientology’s activities. He told Scientologists:

If the Internal Revenue Service (in refusing the FCDC [Founding Church of Scientology, Washington DC] non-profit status) continues to act up or if the FDA does sue we can of course Comm Ev [Committee of Evidence] them and if found guilty, label and publish them as a Suppressive Group and fair game … [N]one is fair game until he or she declares against us.

The policy was further extended in an October 1967 Policy Letter (HCOPL 18 Oct 67 Issue IV, Penalties for Lower Conditions), where Hubbard defined the “penalties” for an individual deemed to be in a “Condition of Enemy”:

ENEMY — SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.

When a man named Peter Goodwin in Hampshire, England purchased a high-level Scientology course for £250 and resold it to friends for £50, Hubbard personally issued an Ethics order which “withdrew any future help from Goodwin and his associates, (presumably for eternity), and threatened the most dire retaliations.”

If you read further down the link, you will find that Hubbard back-pedaled a bit, changing stances as circumstances warranted. But I’ve no doubt there’s more than a few Scienmythologists who’d have any SP’s head on a plate if they could.

ABC News has this report:

Over the past few months, Anonymous has picketed and protested at Scientology centers around the world from Australia and Atlanta to Brussels and Boston. They’ve also hacked into the church’s Web site, posted numerous videos on YouTube criticizing the church and have been accused of harassing church officials.

Now the church is fighting back with its own public relations onslaught, releasing a recent video titled “Anonymous Exposed,” which identifies individual it said were members of the group and accuses them of being accessories to criminal acts that include death threats and destruction of property.

“We wanted people who were unaware of what’s going on to know about the criminal acts permitted by their leaders,” church spokeswoman Karin Pouw told ABCNEWS.com, adding that the church is working with federal and local law enforcement. “[The video] summarizes our position.”

Anonymous (members), of course, deny many of these allegations:

“Anonymous contains all kinds of individuals, academics, college students, members of law enforcement, media professionals and blue collar workers,” a 25-year-old member of Anonymous with a computer science background told ABCNEWS.com in an e-mail, on the condition that he remain unidentified. “We are united by a mind-set, not by a membership card… We have no leaders and adhere to the true definition of a collective.”

Responding to claims made in the church’s video and statements from Church of Scientology leaders equating Anonymous with domestic terrorists, the Anonymous member wrote:

“Anonymous does not support, encourage or condone threats of violence in our campaign against Scientology. The ‘bomb threat’ video was reported to the FBI and to the media as soon as it was seen on YouTube. They were both told that this video was not produced by Anonymous.”

So of course, Hubbardologists have made the usual spurious claims. Cries of ‘persecution!’, etc. Denial-of-service attacks launched at their websites. Then again, cry me a frelling river. Weren’t these the same assholes who launched a 24 year attack on the IRS, using ‘terrorist’ tactics until they became tax-exempt? Yes, they were.

Boo-fucking-hoo, then. Turnabout’s fair play, as the saying goes.

Once again, some UFOologists dive under that ridiculous umbrella of protection that is provided via government sanction, proclaiming an argumentum ad numerum as sufficient grounds to protect them against criticism no matter how rightful that critique might be, giving them a degree of cart blanch that non-religious aren’t allowed to have.

In short, the nutters among us get more privilege. More protection. More say.

It is to cringe.

Till the next post, then.