Colbert Said It First. We’re Getting Double Poped.

Although Vatican fears of a possible schism of power might have some ring of tiny truth to them, the main reason for remaining cloistered at the Vatican is most likely the same as the motivating factor in his resignation.

Scandal, and a great deal of it. Once away from the protecting arms of Rome and the new Pope’s regime, just exactly how safe would Benedict be, either in his person or in a legal capacity?

The amount of attention which seems to continue to focus on the Pope Emeritus is a bit disturbing and presents an unfortunate aura of continued silence and non-action regarding rumors and accusations of abuses in the church.

If the church has any real intention of addressing these problems and repairing their deteriorating image, giving gabby reports of bi-Papal lunch dates is not the best way to go about it. This smacks of more sweeping under the rug of concerns and protecting their own.

 

Been A While Since I Had A Good Rant……..

Taken from my Facebook newsfeed……

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Ok, so, it has taken 12 years before i have had to deal with this subject in the school system. My children go to a public school. My 12 yr old 7th grader is taking an Eastern Global class, and currently their unit is on paleolithic and neolithic time period, with evolution of man. That being said, my son came home from school with some pretty serious questions, ones that i am not sure how to answer. In this family we are firm believers in God, and His creation of man. His questions:
Do I have to sit through this unit in class?

What If i do not believe what they are teaching?
Am i allowed to tell the teacher he is wrong?
Am i allowed to debate his teaching? (PS…anyone who knows my son, knows that debate is his FAVORITE thing to do)
Seeking out responses from parents who have gone through this, as well as friends who are teachers who have been placed in this same situation.
Thank you in advance.

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My first reaction was to wonder at what point did your religion give you a right to randomly sit out of any class you disagree with?  This is a public school, after all.  If you are so hell bent on preserving your faith based beliefs at the cost of sheltering your children from any alternate ideas, you  (1) are doing them a disservice (2) are obviously not so very comfortable that they will not change their opinion based on new information (3) very clearly need to send them to a private school to continue sheltering them in the bubble you store them in when they are away from your side.

Out of 26 responses so far, every single one actually agrees with the poster that the school MUST make an accomodation for religious beliefs.  Sorry, disagree.  If your religion demands that you plunge your head into the sand (along with your children) and ignore, deny, and avoid all exposure to science based disciplines, it is your right to follow said religion.  I do not think that should give you the right to demand special treatment from a public school though.  Keep your kids home and teach them whatever you want.  Send them to a private school whose curriculum you agree with.

Personally, I tend to think that things like this are far more important and far more worth making a stand about.  Our children are our future.  They need, and deserve, access to all the wealth of knowledge we can give them.  To hamper their education because it doesn’t agree with what they are taught in Sunday school simply puts a burden on the rest of society.  When they reach maturity, they will be at a disadvantage because of the gaps in their learning history.  They will be at best, a generation of sheep, easy prey to whatever political party panders to their uninformed or slanted beliefs.  At worst, they will be carried by that part of society who were able to realize their full potential.

That doesn’t seem much of a gift to your children, and I don’t find that to be super parenting, either.

Gee, Guys, I don’t Know……..

Okay, the sad thing here is that they actually do believe they are being persecuted and unfairly labeled as a hate group.  The level of blindness in operation here simply staggers me.

Umm…..if you stopped yelling at the top of your voices about all the things you hate, perhaps we would stop ‘attacking’ you with the truth.

 

*picture taken from the Facebook page of The Equality Mantra.

Well, If You’re Gonna Put It THAT Way………

As the nice drunk in Groundhog Day said…..”That about sums it up for me.”

I am very proud to see the Democratic party making the advancement of marriage equality a plank in their platform.  May they follow through on this promise, and get us all one step closer to the equality we ALL deserve.

Logically Illogical Logic

If you believe, believe with all your heart.  If you have a strong faith, and it uplifts you and makes you happy, that is a wonderful thing.  But if you want to convince and convert others to your point of view,  you are just going to have to make some sort of sense.  Statements like this, uttered with total conviction, simply do not have the effect you are striving for when talking to me.  I am not mocking your belief, but I can’t respect it much, either, when it sounds this silly.  I certainly can’t take you seriously when you claim to speak for a creator that endorses your silliness.

Or, to put it another way…… (as a family member once said to me) “I think THAT bookcase looks more like THAT bookcase, than THIS bookcase looks like THIS bookcase.”

Republican Nirvana

AHA!  A perfect haven of exactly the type of ideologies the far right espouse and profess to want.

Coolio. I wonder if they can get a group rate for the mass exodus?

* picture borrowed from the Facebook page of I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists

Very interesting. I have often pondered the correlation between the slow disassociation from strong church ties and lifelong unquestioning faith that seems to follow increased exposure to that big ‘ol world outside the church. It does seem that the more you are exposed to free thinkers, examiners, & questioners…..the more you begin to see the inconsistencies of your religious upbringing.  I guess the moral of that tale is that if you want to remain part of your flock, you must remain a sheep.

Recovering Agnostic

Religion seems to fear secularism. I often hear people saying that secularism is a threat to religion, or treating it as synonymous with atheism. I find these arguments rather odd – secularism has no relation to religion, being a position that can be held by all beliefs or none, and it actually protects believers from persecution by ensuring that no religious belief can take precedence over others and claim the right to enforce its own particular dogma in the public sphere. But my own experience makes me wonder if that fear of secularism might be more rational than I previously thought.

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I Love This

Moving, beautiful, and stated so much better than I can.  Just awesome.

Gay Marriage – Rev. Marlin Lavanhar

(Sermon delivered on Sunday, May 20, 2012, at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, Senior Minister.)

Oh, Yay, Another Ramble On Tolerance………

A word on values, tolerance, and our ever vanishing civil liberties.

I do not care what personal belief system anyone subscribes to, except at the point that it begins to attack or infringe on what I consider to be personal liberties.  Any ideology that endorses and promotes intolerance or repression is unacceptable to me.  Prior to that line in the sand, I love the prerogative of the denizens of this country to pursue their faith and beliefs.  It is a great and beautiful thing.  Unfortunately I see far, far too many instances of personal faith and ideals becoming public faith and ideals.  If you really feel that you must forcibly shoehorn every person you meet by sanctions and legislation into whatever odd shaped cubbyhole your religion happens to reside in……..perhaps you should go home, sit down, and really, really think about your own value system.  I think you may have diagnosed the problem correctly, but completely missed the actual source.

I have friends who are gay.  I have family members who are gay.  I worked with folks who are gay.  I find, increasingly, as time goes on, that I am putting that out there in my discussions of tolerance.  Why is that, exactly?  How is it that a narrow minded and fearful section of our society can force us to make such statements as if they matter?  It shouldn’t matter.  No more so than the fact that I have family, friends, and acquaintances with brown hair, or blue eyes, or who like jazz.  The only reason it even has to be repetitively brought to the forefront is that nobody is trying to criminalize, marginalize, penalize, attack, or shame anyone based on their hair color, eye color, or musical taste.

It’s a damn shame that such basic personal freedoms have to be dragged out into the public forum, like laundry on the line.  I want to believe, and I really do believe, that someday down the road nobody will even think to ask if so-and-so is gay, because it won’t matter.

As it should be.

Then we can begin to focus on things that actually matter, such as sustainability of fuel and food, the economy, and so forth.

Yep, that’ll be awesome.

In the meantime, we must yell loud and proud in defense of ourselves and our loved ones.  In defense of those we don’t know.  In defense of those we don’t particularly like. In defense of everyone.  Change never happens because of apathy or inertia.  Someone, somewhere, has to get up and start kicking over the conservative dominoes.

Succinct

(from the Facebook wall of I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists)