Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1953

Jack Chick Once Wrote About the Horrors of Dungeons & Dragons. Now, This Semi-Parody Movie Brings His Work to Life

Back in March, we learned that Zombie Orpheus Entertainment was making a movie based off of a 1984 Jack Chick tract. Those are the little booklets featuring stories of perfect Christians and evil non-Christians and characters standing in conflict between the two worlds.

This particular movie was based off of a tract about the horrors of Dungeons & Dragons. As I described it earlier, it wasn’t a Christian movie, per se. It was more like the movie atheists would make if they wanted to turn Chick’s work into a really shitty Christian movie.

And now, you can see the beginning of the film for yourself:

Reminds me of my college days… when a role-playing game ruined my entire life.

(If the movie’s premise seems over the top, seriously, just read the Chick tract on which it’s based.)

The full movie can be ordered here. Get the popcorn ready

(via Christian Nightmares)

There’s a Job Opening for the For-Profit Noah’s Ark Theme Park, so Why Do Applicants Have to be Christian?

Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham‘s ministry, is a religious non-profit. That’s why the Creation Museum can require you to sign a “statement of faith” if you want to work there.

Ark Encounter, the Noah’s Ark theme park that’s eligible for millions of dollars in tax rebates, is a for-profit business. They cannot discriminate in hiring.

Sounds simple enough.

But my colleague Dan Arel points out that there’s a job listing at AiG’s website that makes no sense at all:

As you can see, it’s a job that requires you to be a Christian… but appears to be an Ark Encounter position.

When Dan asked Ken Ham about this directly, Ham was adamant that it was a position for Answers in Genesis:

Dan explains the potential conflict:

What it appears is happening here is that AiG is hiring employees for their non-profit and having them work on the Ark Encounter project, a for-profit business. By doing so, they are able to use religious discrimination in the hiring process and claim that the Ark Encounter itself is not hiring or discriminating. If this sounds shady to you, that’s because it is.

Dan reached out to Americans United for Separation of Church and State and they agreed that Ham is on some shaky grounds here, and a lawsuit could be forthcoming.

There have been so many missteps in the creation of this theme park that it’s hard to believe Ham is still trying to make it happen. But a video posted yesterday shows that excavation of the park site has finally begun:

Anti-Gay Group Leader’s Wife Left Him For Another Woman

Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative anti-LGBT group Texas Values, is the laughingstock of the Internet this week. And I don’t feel bad for him.

He’s one of the most homophobic loudmouths of the movement, and just months before he became the head of a massive anti-gay group, his wife left him for another woman.

The Texas LGBT publication Lone Star Q acquired court records showing that Saenz’s ex-wife, Corrine Morris Rodriguez Saenz, was seeing a woman named Ercimin Paredes at the time of their divorce in 2012. The women were both teachers at Becker Elementary School in the Austin Independent School District.

Jonathan and Corrine were married in 2002 and separated in July 2011, with Corrine filing for divorce a month later. Jonathan, a conservative Catholic, took the reins at Texas Values in 2012, while the divorce was still pending. Fancy that.

In her original petition for divorce, Corrine Saenz alleged their marriage was “insupportable due to discord or conflict of personalities… that destroys the legitimate ends of marriage and prevents reasonable expectations of reconciliation.” In his initial response, Jonathan Saenz denied that claim and asked the court to refuse to grant the divorce on those grounds.

Since taking the role at the organization, he’s been a major proponent of eliminating LGBT rights pretty much entirely. It goes without saying that he’s active in the fight against marriage equality, but he’s also on the record pushing for ex-gay “conversion therapy,” accusing LGBT people of being sexual predators, and saying that anti-discrimination laws are like putting Christians in concentration camps.

But Jonathan Saenz didn’t limit his revenge — revenge? Retaliation? Self-preservation? — to his workplace. Instead, he took every legal avenue possible to try and punish his wife and/or separate her from her girlfriend. Unfortunately for him, they all failed.

When they divorced, the ex-couple agreed to each receive psychological treatment, not atypical when a divorce affects children. (They have three and share custody.) Jonathan ordered that he and his wife receive evaluations from Austin psychologist Stephen Thorne — whose practice includes evaluating sex offenders — at a cost of $2,500 apiece. When Corrine was unwilling to pay the fee and sought out a different, more reasonably priced psychologist, Jonathan filed a motion to have her fined or jailed for violating the terms of the divorce.

Both Corrine and Jonathan Saenz agreed to psychological evaluations as part of the divorce, but results aren’t included in the case file. However, court records suggest Jonathan Saenz had a prior history of mental health treatment. During discovery in the divorce, Jonathan Saenz sought to compel his ex-wife to produce all records in her possession “pertaining to the psychiatric, psychological, counseling or other mental health treatments of Jonathan Saenz, including but not limited to any documents relating to any consultations or treatments during their marriage.”

In another move, Jonathan tried to ban his wife’s girlfriend from having any contact with his and Corrine’s children. He also reportedly issued subpoenas looking for records of interactions between his ex and her girlfriend: photos of them together or with the children, school records of their work schedules and travel plans, and proof of trips, entertainment or meals they shared.

Last, but not least:

In a counterpetition for divorce dated May 7, 2013, Jonathan Saenz accused Corrine Saenz of adultery and sought a permanent order barring Paredes from being in the presence of the children.

But Jonathan Saenz was unsuccessful, and there is no mention of Paredes in the Agreed Final Decree of Divorce, which was hammered out through mediation.

Given his uber-conservative background, it’s safe to say Jonathan already harbored some intense homophobia. Watching his wife leave for the *dark side* was the trigger that sent it spiraling to another dimension. Getting divorced sucks (I wouldn’t know, but I can only imagine) and knowing your partner has already moved on surely makes it worse.

But is that any reason to forgive his excessive bigotry? Hell no. There are countless political cartoons mocking straight people who say marriage equality will “ruin their marriages,” including my personal favorite of a distracted husband checking out a pair of brides. Cute, but no. If your marriage isn’t stable, that’s not anyone else’s fault. Straight people leave each other every day, too. Don’t villainize us for your relationship troubles.

As for Corrine — good for her for getting out of there. Hearing those kinds of hateful beliefs over and over would be impossible for any partner to endure, whether the hate was aimed at you or not. But especially if it was.

Responding to “The Three Mistakes Atheists Make”

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, writing for the Huffington Post, explains the three most common mistakes atheists make.

The problem is they’re not really mistakes at all.

1. They dismiss, often with contempt, the religious experience of other people.

Yoffie’s argument is that we don’t take religious people seriously enough when they say they’ve had divine experiences. He doesn’t mention that many of us had those religious experiences ourselves back when we still believed in God. We could speak in tongues, we knew God was talking to us, we felt an aura of sorts. Those feelings, we realized later, were entirely in our minds. So it’s not that we’re dismissing those beliefs now — we know people have them — but we aren’t going to pretend like there’s a real connection being made between them and God. And we can still get those feelings by listening to great music, or meditating, or being around someone we love.

There are ways of making that clear without coming off as an asshole, but it’s never easy to point out that someone else’s heartfelt experiences aren’t on solid footing.

Just look at all those books written by people who were close to death and visited Heaven. When they were debunked, people were angry.

Is it possible that most (if not all) religious experiences aren’t divine at all?

2. They assert that since there are no valid religions but that religions do good things, the task of smart people is to create a religion without God — or, in other words, a religion without religion.

This is a controversial view, even among atheists — that we need to create some sort of atheist “church.” Not many people have been making this case at all. It’s confined primarily to a handful of philosophers and a number of atheists who seek a community without the supernatural glue. And the latter group is especially adamant that they’re not creating a Godless religion.

I don’t believe we don’t need these “religions without religion,” but more power to those who want to be part of a larger group and have the organizing skills to make it happen. Yoffie says this is impossible because you need ritual and faith to strengthen those bonds. I say it’s too early to tell; we’re only beginning to see what these types of communities look like in the Internet age. In any case, the number of people who are interested in joining these groups are a small fraction of atheists as a whole.

And do religions do good things? Religious people often do, sure, but religion as a force for good is, at the very least, debatable. If faith groups have done more good, it’s likely because they have incredible access to money, resources, and people, not because there’s something special about faith itself.

3. They see the world of belief in black and white, either/or terms.

Talk about a straw man…

Yoffie thinks atheists have a binary view of religious people: They believe in the supernatural (idiots!) or they don’t (we’re so smart!) and that’s all that matters. But that’s rarely the case in practice. There’s a clear difference between fundamentalists, strong believers, casual believers, and people who call themselves spiritual-but-not-religious (and everyone in-between). Many of those people are on our side on legal issues and matters of social justice — they’re natural allies. If they believe in the supernatural, sure, I have no problem saying there’s no evidence for any of it — but you’d be crazy to treat them the same way just because they harbor some belief in a higher power.

Sam Harris even alluded to the problem with that sort of binary thinking earlier this week:

One very dangerous blind spot engendered by generic “atheism” is a default assumption that all religions are the equally bad and should be condemned in the same terms. This is not only foolish, it’s increasingly dangerous. Anyone who is just as concerned about the Anglican Communion as he is about ISIS, al-Qaeda, and rest of the jihadist menace needs to have his head examined.

As a commenter on the site says, Yoffie and many other religious people are guilty of three mistakes of their own:

They dismiss, often with contempt, the spiritual experience of other people who do not share their religion.They assert that there are no valid religions other than their own.They see the world of belief in black and white, either/or terms.

But even I wouldn’t go so far as to claim all religious people think like that. I know better than that.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Atheists Should Stop Fighting Church/State Battles Because Christians Are Persecuted in Iraq

Yesterday, on Fox & Friends (so you know this will end well), host Elisabeth Hasselbeck ranted about how atheist groups are removing the Bible from Navy hotels and warning a Georgia school district against football coaches who impose Christianity onto their players.

She went on to say that, since Christians are legitimately being persecuted in Iraq, we should stop paying attention to the pesky First Amendment:

Eric Bolling: I don’t know how having a Bible in a hotel room in a drawer is forced on anyone. You don’t want to read it, leave it in the drawer. You’re not forced to read it. How is that implicating the Navy in any way, shape, or form? I can’t figure that one out.

Brian Kilmeade: But you would think that a… federally run organization would be able to make their own decisions. But it’s atheist organizations that are pushing back on that.

Bolling: And if it’s a money thing, I bet my bottom buck you can find someone who’s willing to donate all the bibles for all the rooms in the Navy and in the high school. [Hemant's note: It's not a money thing. Gideons International provided the bibles free of charge. Also, public high schools don't need bibles.]

…

Hasselbeck: You know, in light of what’s going on in the world and the persecution of Christians right now, how close… do we want to get to eliminating religious freedom in the globe? Particularly here.

Bolling: And I carry the Constitution every single day. This is a big big point of contention. I’m a Constitutionalist. And these “freedom from religion” groups, I don’t think they have a basis in this. I really don’t. I think they’re expanding, they’re overstepping the bounds on it.

Kilmeade: They’re passionate in what they don’t believe.

It’s amazing how Bolling can carry a pocket Constitution in his pocket, yet never get past the First Amendment…

More importantly, all the letters sent by the Freedom From Religion Foundation or American Humanist Association are jam-packed with precedents — cases where the courts ruled on their side of the issue. They’re not overstepping anything. The courts have sided with them time and time again.

And no one’s taking away the Bible! It’s still available in the Navy hotels and visitors can always bring their own copies. The football players can still pray all they want. The only problem is when the government is promoting Christianity by giving everyone a Bible in the hotel room and public school coaches are coercing their players into participating in team prayers.

Hassebeck’s comment, though, is the most appalling, because she’s suggesting we ignore our own Constitution because of what Christians are facing overseas, neglecting the fact that people of all faiths are protected here precisely because of it.

That didn’t even register for Bolling, who was probably too busy thinking about his precious pocket Constitution to offer a rebuttal.

Oh, who am I kidding. He wasn’t thinking, period.

FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel responded to Hasselbeck’s statement yesterday, holding very little back:

Let’s be clear, removing Christian privilege so that our government complies with the Constitution is not persecution. Eliminating religious privilege is not the same as eliminating religious freedom…

Fox’s problem is that Christian privilege in this country went largely unchallenged for nearly 200 years. But that has been changing. FFRF, our members, and like-minded groups are seeking to end Christian privilege and bring our government into line with the our secular Constitution. Christian privileges are not Christian rights, no matter how long they’ve been around.

(via Raw Story)

A Conservative Christian Group is Now Begging the IRS to Come After Politicking Churches So They Can Fight Back

Last month, in the face of a lawsuit from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the IRS agreed that it would enforce its own rules and go after pastors who endorsed political candidates from the pulpit. This had become a trend in recent years, especially with “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” but the IRS never went after those churches.

Conservative Christian groups are now arguing this is an issue of free speech — ignoring the fact that the rule applies to all non-profits — and one legal group is essentially provoking the IRS to come after its clients:

Alliance Defending Freedom has been campaigning to overturn the portion of the tax code that prohibits nonprofit organizations from “intervening in political campaigns as a condition of their tax-exempt status.” To achieve that, it has organized the annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday since 2008, for which it encourages pastors to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech — including political speech — from the pulpit and send copies of their sermons to the IRS. Once the IRS attempts to take away a church’s tax-exempt status, ADF will represent the church free of charge and seek to declare the law unconstitutional, Eric Stanley, senior counsel with ADF, said.

It’s hard to see any path to political victory there. The current law, which doesn’t single out churches in any way, hardly violates a non-profit’s free speech rights just because they can’t endorse specific candidates. If they don’t want the exemption, no one’s forcing them to have it. They’re welcome to give it up and endorse whomever they’d like.

If anything, allowing churches to endorse candidates would only serve to increase a rift that’s already widening. Can you imagine what would happen if an evangelical pastor supported a liberal Democrat? Chaos. What if a pastor decided not to take sides at all? Coward! Churches are already under fire for being too political — giving pastors the ability to actually be involved in politics would only make things worse for them.

Canadian Order of Catholic Priests Will Have to Pay $20,000,000 to Victims of Sexual Abuse

The Redemptorists are Catholic priests who are part of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. In Canada, they reside in Quebec, associated with the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré shrine (below):

And yesterday, after losing a long-standing class action lawsuit for child abuse last month, they agreed to pay a monster fine of $20,000,000:

In a deal announced on Tuesday, the order approved settling a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of abuse victims at the school during a 27-year span beginning in 1960. The students, all boys, were aged 12 to 16 at the time.

“This is a landmark case,” said Robert Kugler, a Montreal lawyer who represents the victims. “This is the highest amount that has ever been paid by a religious congregation in Quebec to settle a class action dealing with sexual abuse.”

…

Quebec Superior Court held the religious order responsible in a ruling in July. The court decision recounts a harrowing catalogue of abuse carried out by the Redemptorist priests against young boys entrusted to their care, from sexual touching to sodomy.

Each of the 70 victims involved in the lawsuit will receive between $75,000-$150,000. And, thankfully, it may bankrupt the Redemptorist order in the area.

No amount of money makes up for what those kids went through, of course, but it’s always good to see some semblance of justice done.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to Michael for the link)

Atheist Delivering Invocation Praises Glendale (Arizona) City Council for Creating Change “Without Supernaturalism”

Atheist Brooke Mulder delivered an invocation at yesterday’s meeting of the Glendale City Council in Arizona:

Video is not available as of this writing, but Mulder was kind enough to provide me with a transcript of her speech:

The purpose of the invocation read before each city council meeting is to “add solemnity” to the proceedings. I can’t think of anything more solemn or significant than the act of democracy itself.

As citizens of this great country, we have the right to participate equally in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. We may choose to do this directly, by serving on a city council, as governor, or even as President of the United States. Or, we may choose to participate indirectly by electing representatives to act in our interests.

Let us all take a moment to reflect on why we are here tonight. If you are here, you may have chosen a path of serving your electorate, to the benefit of their welfare. Or, you may have concerns you’ve chosen to bring in front of the council. We should be grateful that the City of Glendale has those who are willing to serve and those who trust in the system enough to participate in the process. It is people like those that enable us to truly govern ourselves.

My principles as a secular humanist teach me to rely on reason and our common humanity. A city council is an excellent illustration of how people can come together, without supernaturalism, to provide meaningful changes in each other’s lives.

I would like to leave you with a final thought from Thomas Jefferson: “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order and they will preserve them.” Thank you.

I love it. Inclusive and direct!

…

The Central Florida Freethought Community keeps a running list of transcripts of secular invocations around the country and you can see their compilation right here.

Indonesian Supreme Court Upholds Alexander Aan’s Jail Sentence on Charges of Blasphemy

Alexander Aan, you may recall, is the Indonesian atheist who spent 19 months in jail for promoting atheism online (his original sentence was 30 months). He was hit with a blasphemy charge and put away so he could do no further “damage.”

Even though he’s out of prison now, the Jakarta Post reports that, yesterday, the Indonesian Supreme Court deemed his sentence appropriate:

The court said it upheld the sentence for former civil servant Alexander Aan, who was found guilty of disseminated a cartoon portraying the Prophet Muhammad and saying on Facebook that “God does not exist.”

“The defendant is proven to have spread information which blasphemes the Prophet Muhammad in eleven cartoons,” the court said in its ruling.

Alexander, who worked as a civil servant at a local government office in West Sumatra, was beaten by a mob before taken to jail after he posted the status and cartoons.

The Indonesian state requires every citizen to believe in God.

It goes without saying that Aan’s “crime” was victimless. For the country’s Supreme Court to uphold that sentence (even after it’s been served) is embarrassing, disappointing, and a sign that they haven’t learned a damn thing since Aan’s imprisonment.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

Ask Richard: British Teen Atheist Enduring Muslim Exorcisms

Note: I have altered a few details of this letter to better conceal the writer’s identity, because safety is of concern. The gist of the situation remains the same.

Dear Richard,

I come from an incredibly strict Muslim household, I am a teenager and living in the UK, and I am an atheist. My mum believes that our entire family is ‘possessed’ by ‘jinns’ (devils). She has previously sent us all to a Muslim version of a priest who basically performed an exorcism, only with the Quran instead of the Bible, and he pressed “pressure points” which left my sister and mum with large bruises.

It was very disturbing. My mum and siblings believe it all, and so the “devils” supposedly “speak through them,” even though I know that it is probably their minds creating these alternate personas after being put through a physically and emotionally terrible situation.

The sessions were a frequent thing last year. I thought she forgot about it all, but now she’s saying that she will send me to this ‘retreat’ lasting a few days, where they will do what I described above as well as forcing me to do other Islamic rituals. I think that it’s supposed to start very soon, not sure because she only revealed she was going to send me when she was angry and shouting at me. I really don’t want to go. What can I do to make her not send me?

Thanks for your time and help,
More Than Just A Little Scared

My dear young friend,

Your immediate safety is the most important thing right now, and your anonymity and privacy are important for that. I’m assuming that no one else in your family already knows that you are an atheist. That could be dangerous for you. The news is filled with stories of Muslim families being very abusive, disowning, shunning, threatening, harming, or even killing their young family members who reveal that they no longer believe. This has happened in the West as well as in the Middle East.

So please handle all of your communications with me and with anyone else very carefully. Create accounts that do not contain your name, with new passwords that no one can figure out. Set your browser to “private” so that it will not record your browsing history. Do not say anything about this on Facebook or any other social media. Be extremely cautious about what you share with friends. Friends might care about you, but friends can be careless with information, not realizing they’re putting you at risk.

However, you’re not alone. A resource that might be helpful or at least supportive is the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, CEMB. I don’t know for certain, but they might be able to give you some kind of help, or guidance, or at least supportive encouragement. Again, be extremely careful to cover your tracks when using any computer, cell phone, or any other device that can be used by someone else to find out what you’re doing and who you’re talking to.

With so little time before this several-day ordeal, I’m not sure if it can be prevented. I don’t know if the laws in Britain can protect you as a minor, but you should look into it. Talk to someone, perhaps a teacher or school administrator whom you trust. It could be that this qualifies unambiguously as child abuse, and then the authorities might be compelled by law to intervene.

From your letter I also don’t know if you are male or female, and culturally that might have a bearing on how much power or choice you have, how much say you have in such things at your present age.

I immediately wonder if there is an adult male family relative who is rational even if he is religious, and who has some authority that he could use to get your mother to stop this lunacy. Clearly the Muslim cleric who is doing these exorcisms is taking advantage of her disturbed thinking, and I expect that he is charging her money for it. That might be an objection that a family member who has some kind of influence could use to argue against this.

If you appeal for help from a family member, an authority at school, or to the police, you do not need to reveal at this time that you are an atheist. The rituals sound abusive and inappropriate for any child, whether believer or not. Your atheism is a separate issue that you should reveal only when you have enough control and independence in your life for you to be safe. Since revealing that can never be undone, you should take plenty of time to consider all the consequences.

If you end up having to go to the retreat, I think you should do whatever it takes to survive with as little hardship for you as possible, and with as little risk for revealing your atheism. Because you are in a vulnerable position with little or no power, I suggest that you play the role of a rather dull and uninteresting student. Do not defy or argue with them, and do not go overboard agreeing with them or pleasing them either. Don’t be too dumb or too smart. Don’t irritate them, and don’t impress them either. Just cooperate properly, adequately, and offer nothing extra that might accidently provoke the clerics to be suspicious and question you closely or browbeat you about your beliefs. Just be another one of the people on whom they’re making money, not someone to notice or to remember. Survive, just for now, the way a chameleon survives by taking on the colors of its surroundings, not standing out at all, one way or another.

I wish I could call in a helicopter rescue, but it’s probably a good thing that it’s impossible anyway. Heroic, dramatic, or drastic measures usually cause more problems than they solve. Bold, reckless courage that is not balanced with prudence and pragmatism is just for the movies. In real life, that’s usually called stupidity. No, because your power, freedom, and choice are very limited, and because there are people around you who could react very irrationally, this will have to be solved with patience, quiet courage, discreet caution, and with carefully selected allies. It will take time.

After you’re out of there you can begin building a plan for a life that will gradually be yours. Eventually, with the help of people who have done the same thing before you, you will be able to be true, free, and open about who and what you are. But the full realization of that will not come right now. Right now you must do whatever is necessary for your short-term safety and survival. Contact the CEMB right away, and if they are of any use to you, contact them again after this “retreat” is over.

Also, please write to me again with more information as things develop, and perhaps I and my dear readers here can put our heads together and come up with suggestions better than the meager ones I have offered you today.

Stay strong, stay patient, stay wise. You can be strong, patient, and wise even when you’re also “More Than Just A Little Scared.”

Richard

Related posts:

Ask Richard: Teen Atheist Daughter of Muslim Parents

Ask Richard: Atheist Muslima in Europe Feels Trapped by Family Ties

Ask Richard: Update from European Ex-Muslim Feeling Trapped by Family Ties

You may send your questions for Richard to . Please keep your letters concise. They may be edited. There is a very large number of letters. I am sorry if I am unable to respond.