Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1899

Texas Judge Begins Court Sessions with a Five-Minute Bible Reading and Prayer

I’m pretty certain that high on the list of Things Judges Should Never Do is make the parties in front of them extremely uncomfortable.

Both sides expect a fair hearing and anything that detracts from that is a problem. Obviously.

So what the hell was Texas Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack (below) thinking when he opened a recent court session with a five-minute Bible reading followed by a formal prayer?

That’s what the Freedom From Religion Foundation wants to know:

We understand that in August you opened one of your court sessions with the Christian prayer. We believe that this is regular practice in your courtroom. A concerned Montgomery County resident who had business before you contacted us to report that after you entered the courtroom you stated, “We are going to say a prayer. If any of you are offended by that you can leave into the hallway and your case will not be affected.” After that announcement, we understand that you introduced a pastor who read from the bible for more than five minutes. While the pastor was reading, our complainant says, “I felt that the Judge was watching for reactions from the courtroom; bowed heads, indifference, etc. I definitely felt that our cases would be affected by our reactions [to the bible reading].” Our complainant further says, “Once the Bible reading was over we were then asked to bow our heads to pray. I was very uncomfortable and certainly felt that I was being coerced into following this ritual and that the outcome of my case depended upon my body language.”

It’s meaningless that Mack said “your case will not be affected” when all of his other actions indicate otherwise.

Mack never responded to the letter, sent a month ago, however he has scheduled a prayer breakfast in a few days and will talk about the situation then. In an email to supporters, he said this:

… I will be addressing [FFRF's] demand that we “immediately end the practice of court prayer” at the Oct 23rd Prayer Breakfast. I am not seeking the potential controversy, as I will have to respond to these groups as well. We are on strong moral and legal ground.

I want to make a statement to show those that feel what we are doing is unacceptable, that not only is it acceptable to our community, but show them that God has a place in all aspects of our lives and public service, during times of tragedy and conflict, when we as a community need to bring peace to the storm. That it is reflected in how we as a community respond and treat each other during these times of tragedy.

There you have it — a judge who doesn’t understand the First Amendment. Separation of church and state isn’t something you can throw out just because the majority of the community doesn’t like it. Mack thinks that pushing his faith through his position is more important than providing a safe space for the people who come in front of him. That alone should disqualify him as a judge.

And just to reiterate a point I’ve made repeatedly, Mack would never be able to get away with this if he was anything other than Christian.

Police In Bangladesh Say They Thwarted an Islamist Murder Plot Against an Atheist School Teacher

Via Agence France-Presse comes the bad news that the fundies of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) – whose crowning achievement came a decade ago when they set off roughly 400 bombs in one day – are staging a comeback.

But there’s also good news: Bangladesh police prevented JMB members from murdering an atheist school teacher.

Bangladesh police said Thursday they had foiled an attempt by suspected Islamic militants to murder an “atheist” school teacher in the capital, amid concerns a banned hardline outfit is reforming. Police fired on the militants from banned group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh whom officers had stopped by chance on Wednesday near the teacher’s home in north Dhaka, a local police chief said.

By chance? Not reassuring. Still, thank heavens that Allah the Most Gracious and Merciful had the intended victim’s back. A bit ironic, that.

Police arrested one militant and seized two syringes full of a poisonous liquid and a pistol, while two other suspected militants fled, Atiqur Rahman told Agence France Presse. “Our patrol team stopped the car for routine check, but the three men got out and opened fire at us. Officers were forced to retaliate by firing live rounds,” Rahman said. “We thought they were a group of muggers, but during interrogation (militant) Rubel admitted they were heading to murder a teacher at a school for what they said were his atheist views.”

The group believed that the teacher held anti-Islamic views, had forced a colleague to shave off his beard and had converted a prayer space into a classroom, another officer said.

Forced beard-cutting? What does this guy think he is — Amish?

The JMB was blamed for a series of blasts in 2005 including a synchronised attack across the Muslim-majority nation when more than 400 small bombs were set off killing at least two people. The JMB was also involved in a spate of bombings on judges and courts deemed un-Islamic that left at least 28 people dead in 2005. Two of its leaders were sentenced to death for the murder of a Muslim convert to Christianity in the country’s north.

Let’s hope that whoever else the JMB intends to kill gets just as lucky as that teacher.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Putting the Sin in Synagogue: DC Rabbi Accused of Spying on Congregants via a Hidden Camera in Temple’s Showers

You know what might tip a reasonable person off to something untoward going on in the mikvah, the ritual bath that orthodox Jewish women (and men) take to purify themselves? I dunno, maybe something like this:

Emma Shulevitz remembers seeing a clock radio in the mikvah. The rabbi told her not to put clothes in front of it.

For some reason, Shulevitz thought nothing of it at the time. But the rabbi, Barry Freundel of Washington D.C., was arrested this week when it was finally discovered that the clock radio — reported to be, appropriately, a Sony “Dream Machine” — contains a small camera. The pervy cleric had been digitally ogling unsuspecting women for years.

A rabbi at a prominent Washington, D.C., synagogue faces voyeurism charges following accusations he secretly recorded women in the changing and shower area there.

Dr. Barry Freundel was released on his own recognizance Wednesday under the conditions he stay away from the victims, the temple and the mikvah where, according to the police report, at least six women were photographed. …

Detectives [said] there could be more than 200 victims, some as far away as Israel.

Freundel’s lawyer, Jeffrey Harris, offered this statement:

“As you might expect, he’s in a lot of pain.”

So the rabbi is feeling deep shame and remorse?

It’s not that, Harris clarified:

“He has a back ailment, and I really don’t have much more to say than that.”

Watch this report from NBC’s News Channel 4:

In “Explosive Shakeup,” Vatican Demotes Homophobic U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke

Last week, Cardinal Raymond Burke responded to a question about the well-being of children, posed by the Christian website LifeSiteNews. You might think that the topic had something to do with the astonishing number of Burke’s brethren who like to illegally probe boys’ bottoms, but no. This was the concern:

How should Catholic parents deal with a difficult situation like this: When planning a Christmas family gathering with grandchildren present, parents are asked by their son, who is in a homosexual relationship, if he can come and bring with him his homosexual partner.

And this was Burke’s answer:

If it were another kind of relationship — something that was profoundly disordered and harmful — we wouldn’t expose our children to that relationship, to the direct experience of it. And neither should we do it in the context of a family member who not only suffers from same-sex attraction, but who has chosen to live out that attraction, to act upon it, committing acts which are always and everywhere wrong, evil.

The outspoken cardinal (below) has a history of homophobic remarks, and there’s no reason to think that that will change. What will change is his job title.

In one of the more explosive shakeups in recent history of the Catholic Church, the second-most powerful man in the Vatican has been ousted.

American Cardinal Raymond Burke, a darling of conservative Catholics who is virulently anti-gay, has confirmed to BuzzFeed what rumors from Rome have said for weeks. He will be demoted by Pope Francis from the head of the Roman Catholic Church’s version of the Supreme Court to a figurehead role as the Patron of the Knights of Malta, a chivalrous order known for its work among the sick.

This is not the first demotion for Burke, who was dropped by Francis almost a year ago from an important Vatican bureau that selects bishops around the world. Burke was replaced on The Congregation for Bishops by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who, while also conservative, does not use the inflammatory rhetoric that has made Burke a darling of the far-right in the Catholic Church. …

These moves are thought by Vatican watchers to be signs that Francis wants to tone down the attacks on communities that are marginalized by the Catholic Church, including LGBT parishioners and divorced and pro-choice Catholics.

According to Buzzfeed, Burke, who’s openly clashed with his earthly boss multiple times, believes that

“The pope is not free to change the church’s teachings with regard to the immorality of homosexual acts or the insolubility of marriage or any other doctrine of the faith.”

He and Francis might actually be in agreement on that count, but under this pope, tone matters.

While Francis has shown no sign he supports overhauling the church’s teachings that homosexuality is sinful, he [displays] a desire to downplay conflicts over sexuality in order to broaden the church’s message.

We’re most likely still decades away from the Catholic Church officially softening or repudiating its bigoted views on same-sex relationships. The baby steps taken by Francis are both encouraging for the fact that he’s taking them at all, and troubling for their slow, plodding nature. But it’s fair to say that the Holy See has at least delicately nudged the issue forward in ways that almost no one foresaw when Jorge Bergoglio took the Vatican’s reins, 18 short months ago. That’s not the prize we want, but it’s progress nonetheless.

This is What Mimicking Looks Like at Church

We’ve seen what it looks like when children speak in tongues. They just go along with what everyone else is doing, probably under peer pressure.

I dare someone to tell me this baby isn’t under the same influence:

Does anyone really believe it’s feeling the spirit?

Ugh. It’s just creepy…

(via Jerry Coyne)

Delegates in UK’s Student Union Vote Against Condemnation of ISIS… Because Islamophobia

When advocacy organizations adopt motions to praise or — more typically — condemn this or that, it’s a symbolic, well-intentioned act that rarely changes anything. Sometimes, the more horrific and farther flung the actions being protested, the more inadvertently comical the proudly announced statements of disapproval become.

Such was the case when the left-leaning U.K.-based National Union of Students condemned the bloodshed by ISIS terrorists the other day, in a motion that made the Islamist butchers quake in their boots.

Oh wait — neither of those things happened. The NUS couldn’t get the required votes for its anti-ISIS motion, despite the language being relatively weak and more than a little mealy-mouthed (you can read the full text here).

The bill called for the Union — which claims to represent UK students — to support unity between Muslims, condemn the bloody terror of ISIS (also known as the Islamic State), and support a boycott on people who fund the militants.

But the motion offended Black Students Officer Malia Bouattia, who said: “We recognize that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamophobia.

She led a bloc who either abstained or voted against the proposal – leading to the bill’s defeat at the NUS NEC (National Executive Council) meeting.

Reza Aslan, is that you?

Douglas Murray commented in the Spectator that

The word and charge of ‘Islamophobia’ really is deadly. Today it is deadliest of all for the Kurds, the Christians, the Shia and the Yazidis of Iraq and Syria.

It must be for people like Bouattia that the term useful idiot was invented.

One of Ebola’s Side Effects Could Be a Dangerous Turn Toward Science

Humorist Andy Borowitz cracks wise about the current health crisis:

There is a deep-seated fear among some Americans that an Ebola outbreak could make the country turn to science. In interviews conducted across the nation, leading anti-science activists expressed their concern that the American people, wracked with anxiety over the possible spread of the virus, might desperately look to science to save the day.

“It’s a very human reaction,” said Harland Dorrinson, a prominent anti-science activist from Springfield, Missouri. “If you put them under enough stress, perfectly rational people will panic and start believing in science.” Additionally, he worries about a “slippery slope” situation, “in which a belief in science leads to a belief in math, which in turn fosters a dangerous dependence on facts.”

Whole hilarious thing at the NewYorker.com.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Thanksgiving Dinner’s Gonna Be Awkward at This House…

After a conservative Christian (in red) posted an image on Facebook, her atheist sister (in black) emailed me the ensuing conversation…

You can’t unfriend relatives, can you…?

Christian Movies Are Backfiring on Their Own Terms

In the past year, we’ve seen the released of two high-profile Christian movies: God’s Not Dead and Left Behind. It’s easy to make the argument that both movies fail at their core mission — to convert heathens into believers — because they’re just plain awful. Left Behind has a 2% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes while God’s Not Dead is at 17%. (By way of comparison, Gone Girl is at 87%.)

But there’s a more compelling reason the filmmakers’ missions are backfiring on them, says Edwin Lyngar at Salon:

Liberals are comically stereotyped as vegetarians or “god-hating” college professors. Serious journalism is suspect, and secular people are all outlandish cardboard cutouts, less human than disembodied twirling mustaches of absolute evil. When religionists reduce critics to banal caricature in order to defeat them on film, it betrays a lack of confidence in their own arguments.

…

The people who create and consume Christian film are neither mature nor reflective. They are at their core superstitious, afraid and tribal. They self-identify overwhelmingly Republican and shout about “moochers” while vilifying the poor. They violate the teachings and very essence of their own “savior” while deriving almost sexual pleasure from the fictional suffering of atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Hindus, and even liberal Christians. To top it all off, the stories they tell themselves are borderline psychotic.

The fundamentalist community will continue to shrink until they start telling themselves — and those they hope to win over — more honest and humane stories…

At their core, these movies make Christians all good and everyone else all bad, and that’s very hard to believe in a country where Christians have damn near all the power no matter how you slice it.

I’ll admit it’s entirely possible to make a compelling “Christian movie,” with a message that you’re better off having faith, but it would require a sense of honesty that these filmmakers tend to avoid. The movie would need nuance that risks alienating church audiences, with non-Christian characters becoming heroes and well-intentioned Christians turning out to be villains.

A great movie is never as simple as these types of two-dimensional films. They make you think. They teach you something new. They make you reconsider your firmly-held beliefs, not cling to them even more tightly.

These movies aren’t panned because they have a religious message, but because they fail to tell interesting, complex stories.

God’s Not Dead makes for an interesting discussion just by itself. The reviews were terrible, the characters were stereotypical if not outright offensive, I’m almost positive it hasn’t changed any minds, but it raked in as astonishing $60,000,000. Financially, it’s a phenomenon, but it’s the sort of movie atheists are watching for no other reason than to make fun of it.

So would Christians call it a success?

CJ Werleman Responds to Accusations of Plagiarism

***Update 1***: Yikes. There are a lot more examples of plagiarism at The Daily Banter. This doesn’t look good.

***Update 2***: Werleman sent me one more comment. It’s at the bottom of the page.

…

Atheist CJ Werleman (below), whose work often appears on Salon and Alternet, has been a strong critic of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and the other “New Atheists,” comparing them to medieval Christian crusaders, accusing them of Islamophobia, or just claiming they don’t get it.

That may be why the subjects of his criticism were positively giddy last night when a blog called Godless Spellchecker pointed out several instances of Werleman’s apparent plagiarism.

Take this article from Fareed Zakaria: ‘America’s educational failings’ from The Washington Post dated May 1st 2014 and the following passage:

“The United States had a wide gap between its best performers and worst performers… And it had the widest gap in scores between people with rich, educated parents and poor, undereducated parents.”

And then compare it with this from Werleman’s article published days later at Salon and Alternet:

“The United States has a wide gap between its best performers and its worst performers. And it had the widest gap in scores between people with rich, educated parents and poor, undereducated parents…”

There is no indication that this isn’t Werleman’s original writing or any citation given.

…

Take part of an interview with Robert Pape from the