Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1960

Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Law Struck Down

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEWS!

But I’m really perplexed why it’s not making bigger waves in media circles: the Ugandan Constitutional Court ruled their Anti-Homosexuality Act “null and void” last week. This law — which was once dubbed the “Kill the Gays” bill before becoming the “Just Put Gay People in Jail for Life” bill — has been a nightmare for LGBT people in Uganda since it passed at the end of December last year.

In a victory activists were unsure they’d get, Uganda’s Constitutional Court overturned the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act today, declaring the anti-LGBT law “null and void” because of a parliamentary technicality in how it was passed.

The court determined that when members of Parliament passed the law in December 2013, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga had not established quorum — a required minimum number of members present to vote — effectively invalidating the law.

“The speaker was obliged to ensure that there was a quorum,” the court ruled, reports the Associated Press. “We come to the conclusion that she acted illegally.”

LGBT activists, attorneys, and allies cheered inside the packed courtroom in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, when the verdict was announced, waving rainbow flags and raising their fists in victory.

Kasha Jaqueline, one of the nation’s most prominent LGBT activists, a lesbian and feminist, and the founder of the country’s first LGBT group, Freedom and Roam Uganda, was ecstatic upon hearing the ruling, according to her Twitter account. “I am no longer criminal today,” Jacqueline tweeted. “We have made history for generations to come. Speak OUT now.”

Under the influence of American missionaries, this act is a reflection of rampant religious homophobia in Uganda, and culminated in Easter Sunday sermons that called for a blessing on those working to “free the land of gays” — and if that’s not a rallying cry for genocide, I’m not sure what is. One bishop’s comments were even more scary:

Bishop Emmanuel Obbo, the Archbishop of Tororo Archdiocese, urged every citizen who supported the anti-homosexuality law to lay down greed, corruption and “put them to death and let generosity rise up within us and flow out in abundance”.

This issue was the main reason for my decision to leave the Anglican church community I’d found refuge in after leaving Sovereign Grace Ministries and pushed me to attend a mainstream Episcopal church. The Anglican church groups in American split from the Episcopal church over LGBTQ-related differences in theology, and some churches realigned themselves into partnerships and put themselves under the authority of African bishops because they were ideologically aligned over LGBTQ issues. This includes Ugandan bishops. Horrified at this implicit endorsement of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda, I was happy to place myself in an Episcopal church instead.

And now the Act has been struck down, but only on a technicality. I just hope the religious leaders in Uganda will use their influence to offer protection and support of LGBTQ individuals instead of continuing to terrorize them with abusive theology and threats. And then maybe there can be hope that this kind of legal bullying will be a thing of the past for Uganda.

The Newest Left Behind Trailer Is Out

You’ll all be thrilled to learn that there’s a new trailer out for the Nicolas Cage Left Behind movie:

The saddest thing about this is that it could actually be a pretty good movie! (As far as these kinds of films go, anyway.) But they had to go and ruin an already implausible storyline with a heavy-handed dose of religion.

And Nicolas Cage.

(via Christian Nightmares)

The Creation Museum’s Latest Billboard is Blocks Away from a Museum Dedicated to People Who Lie for a Living

The Creation Museum now has a 15-second digital ad in Washington, D.C. that they proudly proclaim is only “four blocks from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History”:

Ken Ham is ecstatic:

Because millions of people visit Washington, DC, each year, we decided to reach into this influential city and let people know about a museum where they can learn the truth concerning origins, God’s Word, and the gospel — the Creation Museum.

Two out of three ain’t bad…

Continuing for a month, and 480 times a day (20 times per hour), a special series of three digital billboards are now on display on the corner of Seventh & H Street. Using spectacular animated artwork, the boards advertise the Creation Museum in our Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.

Because the Smithsonian teaches children an evolutionary, millions-of-years fictional story about dinosaurs, we decided to use our new $1.5 million Allosaurus exhibit as the basis for this digital billboard outreach.

Here’s the kicker: The billboard may be half a mile from the Smithsonian, but it’s even closer to the International Spy Museum, a place that pays homage to people who lie for a living.

I’d say that’s pretty appropriate ad placement.

Bryan Fischer Blames Air Force Academy Scandals on Christian Watchdog Group and Calls for Its Leader’s “Removal”

Fisher DeBerry (below) was the head football coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy until his retirement in 2006, but his tenure didn’t come without controversy. In 2004, after pressure from Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, DeBerry was forced to remove a banner hanging in the locker room which read, “I am a Christian first and last … I am a member of Team Jesus Christ.”

Now that there are reports of the football players (among others at the AFA) taking alcohol, doing drugs, and cheating, Religious Right mouthpiece Bryan Fischer knows exactly where to place the blame:

When the light of the world is removed, the world — including the locker rooms of football teams — is plunged into moral and spiritual darkness.

Bottom line: there is a solution to the Air Force Academy’s problems. Remove the cause — Mikey Weinstein and his atheistic trouble-making — and find another coach like Fisher DeBerry and turn him loose to bring the spirit of Christ back to the Academy.

I can flat out guarantee you that rapes will diminish, drug use will diminish, and cheating on tests will diminish. And the Academy will regain some of its lost luster. Your move, Air Force.

As usual, Fischer is full of shit. It’s not just his opinions that are messed up; it’s his facts.

Weinstein didn’t cause any problems; DeBerry brought those on himself.

MRFF never sued DeBerry. They only sued the school.

Weinstein isn’t an atheist. He’s an Agnostic.

And we know putting up religious banners in the locker room won’t do anything to fix the problems; just look at all the sexual abuse scandals taking place in Christian colleges right now if you need evidence of that.

I spoke with Weinstein over the phone this afternoon to ask what he thought of Fischer’s accusation. He told me that if we followed Fischer’s advice, it would take the AFA back to the hellish times of 2004, when you couldn’t get away from all the proselytizing. Weinstein even compared it to somebody in Biloxi, Mississippi suggesting we go back to the time of Hurricane Katrina, adding:

We currently have 387 clients at the AFA… Of them, 312 are practicing Protestants or Roman Catholics. When I see this type of blame here, I sit back in astonishment.

(In fact, of the more than 38,000 MRFF “clients,” 96% of them are Protestants or Roman Catholics. When MRFF files a lawsuit, it’s usually because a Christian was complaining, not an atheist.)

What’s especially troubling to Weinstein is Fischer’s solution: “Remove the cause — Mikey Weinstein and his atheistic trouble-making.” Remove the cause. It’s a not-so-subtle threat against Weinstein, who already receives death threats on a regular basis and usually travels with a bodyguard.

There’s also another reason Fischer’s statements are disturbing, said Weinstein. They suggest that, without “Fischer-DeBerry Christianity” pushed on everyone, people are going to rape and pillage and use drugs and assault people. Weinstein said those comments were as offensive as saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) “without white people guiding them, black people can’t survive. Or without straight people leading the way, gay people can’t survive. Or without men watching out for them, women can’t survive.” MRFF never took anything away from the AFA. If those awful things are happening at the Academy now, the MRFF isn’t to blame. (Hell, they were going on long before the MRFF asked for the Christian banner to be taken down.)

Weinstein called it (again, I’m paraphrasing) the most wretched, appalling, and hideous attempt at unbridled, free-range, old-school bigotry and prejudice that he’s encountered in his many years of being a public figure and civil rights activist. He also said that it showed the “true reason MRFF fights these fundamentalist Christian monsters who spiritually rape helpless and defenseless military subordinates.”

MRFF is currently considering filing a defamation suit against Fischer.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Former Church Members Call for Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Resignation; His Apology Isn’t Enough

The latest in the continuing saga of Pastor Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church: on Sunday morning, people took to the streets in Bellevue, Washington to protest the continually misogynistic, homophobic, and unethical ministry practices of Driscoll and call for his resignation.

Image via @LinziKIRO7

The events leading up to this require a bit of a recap.

Last Tuesday, blogger Matthew Paul Turner posted “Mark Driscoll’s Pussified Nation” in which he unleashed screenshots of rants that Driscoll had posted on his church’s forum back in 2000 under the pseudonym “William Wallace II.” Turner had read a passing comment about the rants from Driscoll in his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev. and went digging.

Here’s a sample:

We live in a completely pussified nation.

We could get every man, real man as opposed to pussified James Dobson knock-off crying Promise Keeping homoerotic worship loving mama’s boy sensitive emasculated neutered exact male replica evangellyfish, and have a conference in a phone booth. It all began with Adam, the first of the pussified nation, who kept his mouth shut and watched everything fall headlong down the slippery slide of hell/feminism when he shut his mouth and listened to his wife who thought Satan was a good theologian when he should have lead her and exercised his delegated authority as king of the planet. As a result, he was cursed for listening to his wife and every man since has been his pussified sit quietly by and watch a nation of men be raised by bitter penis envying burned feministed single mothers who make sure that Johnny grows up to be a very nice woman who sits down to pee.

So, that’s a bit of a PR problem for Driscoll, who has toned down his public persona in terms of language, but hasn’t changed much in terms of vitriol or obsessions since 2000. Bloggers and former church members calling for his resignation, naturally, got louder immediately.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that same day that the dissenters were planning a peaceful protest at the Bellevue Mars Hill location to respond to both the “pussified” comments and to a comment made in a recent sermon by Driscoll in which he dismissed his critics as “anonymous.”

In a video sermon, Driscoll acknowledged that there are disillusioned former members of his flock but said they have chosen to “remain anonymous.”

“And so we don’t know how to reconcile, or how to work things out with, with people because we’re not entirely sure who they are …”

The anonymity assertion “really touched a nerve,” said [organizer Rob] Smith, who once directed a church ministry called Agathos, which cares for orphans.

“We are Christian, loving people who don’t normally demonstrate,” Smith added. “We want to have a quiet, strong message for Mark Driscoll, that people he has harmed over the years are not unknown to him as he has claimed.”

The harming, according to disillusioned former members, ranged from verbal abuse to shunning to threats of retaliation.

Jim Henderson, a Seattle evangelical Christian and former pastor, is helping organize the Sunday protest, set for 10 a.m. outside the Mars Hill Church in Bellevue.

“I would call it a protest against his (Driscoll’s) bullying tactics,” said Henderson. “My concern is for young people in that church. I find it a manipulative and intimidating place.”

[Hemant's note: Yep, that's the same Jim Henderson who once "bought my soul" on eBay!]

Just a couple of days later, on Saturday, Warren Throckmorton, psychology professor at my alma mater and recent Driscoll watchdog at Patheos, posted an interesting little update, stating that James MacDonald and Paul Tripp had just resigned from the board of Mars Hill.

Taking together this message and another one which was sent today to the full council of elders, the timing of the resignations is confusing. According to the above communication, a joint decision was made “earlier this month” (although the email is dated August 1, I assume “this month” means July) “to open the opportunity for him [Tripp] to work with greater focus on issues directly related to his expertise, namely the continued development of our community and redemption ministries.” Then the email discloses that Tripp “graciously submitted his resignation from the BOAA in early June” so he could work as a consultant for the church. This email makes it sound like he resigned a month before a decision was made to retain him as a consultant.

Paul Tripp is a biggish name among the New Calvinist crowd (particularly for his conflict resolution ministry work), and he and MacDonald were both supposed to be speakers at Driscoll’s autumn leadership conference, The Resurgence. They’re still on the list, for now. I suspect Tripp is being cut loose from the board in anticipation of a “third party” “reconciliation” or “mediation” process between the leaders of Mars Hill and disgruntled (current and former) congregations. (I’ve seen this before in Sovereign Grace Ministries with my former church, KingsWay, and it just goes so, so badly.)

Additionally, the day after the forum rants went public, a former colleague of Driscoll’s came forward with further evidence of his plagiarism (a bugbear issue for his career). And unfortunately, this got buried in the “pussified nation” noise.

From Throckmorton:

Wheeler told me that he began teaching this material in 2003 and that Mark Driscoll did not cite another source since he heard it from Wheeler. I have both books and I can find no reference to Wheeler. Wheeler added that Driscoll called him the night before the Radical Reformission book released to inform him the material was going to be in the book. Wheeler said:

As far as the phone conversation, Mark called and basically said “my book Radical Reformission is being released tomorrow and I don’t remember if I asked you or not, but I used your parachurch, fundamentalism and liberalism categories on the gospel/church/culture model. Thanks bro.“

That same Friday, Driscoll responded to Matthew Paul Turner’s revelation by giving Christianity Today a copy of an apology he was issuing to the Mars Hill community:

“While the discussion board itself was a bad idea, my decision to attack critics who were posting there (I did so by posting under the character ‘William Wallace II’) was an even worse idea,” Driscoll said in his letter Friday, provided to CT. “I was wrong to respond to people the way I did, using the language I used, and I am sorry for it and remain embarrassed by it.”

In his 2006 book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Driscoll acknowledged and apologized that he posted to the forum under the pseudonym in response to postings from “emerging-church-type feminists and liberals.”

“I went on the site and posted as William Wallace II, after the great Scottish man portrayed in the movie Braveheart, and attacked those who were posting. It got insane,” he said in the book. “This season was messy and I sinned and cussed a lot, but God somehow drew a straight line with my crooked Philistine stick. I had a good mission, but some of my tactics were born out of anger and burnout, and I did a lot of harm and damage while attracting a lot of attention.”

In his Friday apology, Driscoll noted that, in his 2006 book, he used the forum posts as an example of “something I regretted and an example of a wrong I had learned from.”

As is typical of the Christian blogging community, responses to Driscoll’s apology were immediate, varied, preachy, and full of strong emotion.

Religion News Service writer Jonathan Merritt (and many others) urged acting on the theology of grace and accepting Driscoll’s apology:

When Christians have grown so bitter toward someone that we can’t even accept their apologies, something has gone seriously wrong. If Driscoll had ignored these comments, his critics would have excoriated him for his silence. But when he says he is sorry, they criticize him still. We must refuse to create lose-lose situations for each other where one is damned if they apologize and damned if they don’t.

Let me be clear: Accepting Driscoll’s apology does not mean we excuse his reprehensible actions in the past, fail to call him to better behavior in the present, or ignore future abuses if (or when) they occur.

I hope that Mark is genuinely trying to carve a different path for himself. One that is isn’t so angry and arrogant, sex-obsessed and sexist, dishonest and defensive. I hope that his recent actions signal a change in course. A change, that is, because I don’t expect a total and immediate about-face — sanctification is a slow, chipping away after all.

Some have said that he needs to be publicly shamed. Mark Driscoll has heaped shame on many, and now his critics apparently want to return the favor. Apparently, that whole “do not repay evil with evil” thing doesn’t apply to us and that “love your enemies” bit was just Jesus being cheeky.

Rachel Held Evans disagrees, explaining the difference between an apology and true repentance in her post from just this morning (emphases hers):

When Christians are told that Christlike forgiveness means accepting every apology as sincere, we can inadvertently perpetuate abuse. There is a difference, after all, between an apology and repentance. An apology is an acknowledgment of wrong. Repentance is marked by a dramatic change in direction, a noticeable change in behavior. While neither an apology nor repentance is required for forgiveness, an apology alone is not enough to rebuild trust. The abused girlfriend can forgive her abuser without accepting another empty apology as a sufficient reason for returning to him.

Forgiveness isn’t earned, but trust is. You can forgive a person without trusting him.

[Husband] Dan and I were talking about this yesterday, and Dan put it like this: “An apology is for the benefit of the bully/ abuser. Forgiveness is for the benefit of the victim. It releases the victim from lingering damage caused by past abuse. But it’s a mistake to tell anyone in an abusive situation exactly when they should accept an apology. Until the victim is completely removed from abusive situation and has had time to process what’s happened on their own, what looks like beneficial forgiveness can actually enable the abuse cycle to continue. When the exchange of verbal apology and forgiveness allows abuse to continue it defeats the purpose and benefit of the forgiveness, which is to lessen the harm done to the victim… Forgiveness is renewable and not the same thing as trust which can be lost forever… If someone’s been a victim of bullying at the hands of Mark Driscoll, for example, they are under no obligation to ever trust him again.”

Former cult member and writer Elizabeth Esther cautioned against cries for Driscoll’s resignation, reminding people that a pastor resigning won’t necessarily dismantle the abusive mindset or culture he’s helped create (emphases hers):

… Those of us outside Mars Hill Church have become increasingly alarmed by the stories emerging from exiting members. We are trying to find a way to be helpful and supportive!

But I just want to issue a mild word of caution to those of us seeking to “help”: I remember what it was like to be inside an abusive church and outsiders telling us what to do only made that worse.

If outsiders had called for my grandfather’s resignation, I would have felt happy that the abuses were being brought to light. However, I also would have known that outsiders calling for his resignation wouldn’t make a difference in what my grandfather did or didn’t do. My grandfather wasn’t gonna resign just because outsiders said he should. Ultimately, when my grandfather refused to repent, I was the one who had to make the choice to leave.

I get lots of emails from parents, siblings, friends and lovers all asking me the same question: “My child/brother/sister/girlfriend/boyfriend is stuck inside a dangerous church. What can I do to help them?”

he answer is always the same: you can live your own life and be happy in it. You can be a welcoming, loving presence. But you cannot control, change or force a person to leave an abusive church or relationship. That’s not how life works. That’s not how freedom works.

And Fred Clark at Slacktivist rightly brings the focus back to (one of) the biggest issues with Driscoll’s attempts to apologize for his comments as William Wallace II:

Everything Driscoll identifies as bad, weak, dirty or evil he characterizes as feminine.

Everything Driscoll identifies as feminine he characterizes as bad, weak, dirty or evil.

This is what he believes. This is the gospel that Mark Driscoll preaches: All that is feminine is bad, weak, dirty and evil. All who are female are bad, weak, dirty and evil.

In a sense, Driscoll’s so-called “apology” only reinforces and restates his gospel of misogyny. He apologizes for his tone and his language because, in his eyes, repeatedly comparing his targets to women is the worst possible thing anyone could say.

Driscoll’s apology acknowledges that this gospel of misogyny is hurtful and offensive, but he still does not seem to understand that it is also a lie. He doesn’t understand that he is simply wrong — that his head and his heart are overflowing with a lot of seriously warped, messed-up delusions about men and women, masculinity and femininity.

And then, on Sunday morning, the protest occurred. Most accounts suggest it was fairly uneventful, as Mars Hill didn’t directly respond.

Spiritual Abuse watchdog blogger JulieAnne provides a thorough Storify recap:

[View the story "Coverage of Mars Hill Peaceful Protest and Commentary" on Storify]

I’m glad they got out there and protested. I’m hoping that current members are quietly reading and absorbing the Internet noise on the situation and making their own decisions, and not just listening to whatever’s coming down from a Mars Hill pulpit or middle level leadership memo. I think the coverage is important, but I have to agree with Elizabeth Esther: the best way to keep the heat on Driscoll and shining hope for his church members is to show spiritual abuse recovery happening in other, similar realms. Moving on from SGM abuse happened best for me when I plopped myself down in an Episcopal church where no one had ever heard of SGM and nothing there was anything like what I’d grown up with in SGM, and I was able to just soak up the alternative culture without any signifying bridge to the places I’d come from. There is spirituality and life that isn’t defined by or in any way connected to my past, and that was the best antidote to the megalomania myopia of cult-brain thinking.

Calling for Driscoll’s resignation is not useless, however, and I think it’s appropriate. I also think it’s appropriate to be suspicious of his apology. But the best solution here is to remind his church members that they have the power of voting with their feet. Dismantling Driscoll’s power trip will only truly happen when he’s finding himself talking to half-empty auditoriums and looking at taking out a loan to make up for lost donations. I don’t know if there’s hope for a narcissist on a power high who is dismissive of therapy, but I do know that the most effective way of ending a narcissist’s ability to abuse is to refuse to enable him. Without a source for his narcissism, he can have no power.

So here’s my suggestion: let’s focus the efforts fueled by our Mark-Driscoll-is-an-asshole rage on inciting his congregants to question him (the protest did this nicely with their “Question Mark” signs) and on getting former Mars Hill pastors to speak up and tell their stories (as they are doing on the We Love Mars Hill blog). The revolution will happen when he finds he has no one’s back to stand on any longer.

When You Think of the Story of Jesus This Way, It Becomes Downright Weird

Carolyn Hyppolite used to be a conservative Catholic when she began hearing voices in her head — voices of reason — telling her that Church doctrine just didn’t make sense. She especially had a hard time reconciling the violence and misogyny in the Bible with her own moral compass. Eventually, those small voices began to get louder until she realized she had no choice but to leave the faith for good.

Hyppolite’s book documenting her journey is called Still Small Voices: The Testimony of a Born Again Atheist and an excerpt from that book is below:

[Imagine] if you were about to be hit by a car and someone jumped in the middle of traffic, pushed you out of the way and saved your life. In the process of doing this, the person was hit by the vehicle and suffered great injury. The injury resulting from the car accident was so serious that the person in question was in a [coma] for three days. The doctors were certain that he would die and all his loved ones were mourning. However, quite unexpectedly, the hero recovers.

Once you hear that the man who saved your life has recovered, you run into the hospital room and thank him. You express how incredibly grateful you are for the sacrifice made on your behalf and ask if there is anything you can do to repay your benefactor. He responds as a matter of fact, there are few things. You discover that the man who saved your life is a world famous psychotherapist who has written a popular book on how to live a good life. He now insists that you read this book regularly and live according to its prescriptions. The heroic psychologist goes on to tell you that it is unwise for you to make any decisions without consulting him. You should seek his counsel in everything you do. If for example, you wish to marry, you should call him and discuss the matter; by the way, he will not approve of any matrimony with someone who does not also read his book and follows its instructions.

At this point, you might be thinking your benefactor to be rather demanding and you may be wishing that you were now dead instead of in his debt. But wait there is more! The man now goes on to tell you that he has saved the lives of many people and moreover, there are many fans of his popular book. A Facebook fan page has been created in his honor and he wishes for you to go to the fan page every day and post a positive message about him. There is still more. Fan clubs have been created in his honor and you should attend their weekly meetings in which they discuss his book and sing songs about how great he is. One more thing. He has left a few people in charge of his fan clubs. These fan club presidents are very competitive and constantly accuse each other of being pseudo-fan clubs. He does not actually care which fan club you join but it is very important that you are regularly faithful in celebrating him and that you follow the book he has left. If you fail to do these things, he will have no choice but to have you killed.

You now realize that the gift of your life has indeed been bought at a great price but not to your benefactor, who doctors say will be as good a new in no time, but to yourself. In saving your life, this man has placed a great burden of lifelong servitude upon you. You now realize that your life was not spared for your sake but so that your benefactor could gratify his desire for endless praise and unquestioning obedience. Not such a great gift, is it?

The saying that Jesus “died for our sins” has never made sense to me. If God sent him here to die, knowing he would rise again days later, it’s not really much of a sacrifice, is it?

Still Small Voices is now available via Amazon.

Republican Whip Sends Bible to Every Member of Congress to Help Them with “Decision-Making”

Even though this is arguably the least productive Congress in U.S. history, maybe that’s for the best given how one legislator thinks they should guide themselves.

Assistant House Whip Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-MS), a Tea Party member elected in 2010, sent a Bible to every member of Congress this week, and Talking Points Memo obtained a copy of the letter that came along with it:

Dear Colleague,

On a daily basis, we contemplate policy decisions that impact America’s future. Our staffs provide us with policy memos, statistics, and recommendations that help us make informed decisions. However, I find that the best advice comes through meditating on God’s Word.

Please find a copy of the Holy Bible to help guide you in your decision-making. This copy is provided as an inspirational and informational resource to you by Mr. J.B. Atchison, a constituent of mind from South Mississippi.

If there is ever anything I can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

How about passing legislation that’ll actually help Americans instead of asking members of Congress to rely on supernatural fairy tales for guidance?!

Sorry… That’s why I’m not in public office. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim who’s much more polite than I am, just sent back a thank-you note.

(In case you’re wondering, only a few dozen members of Congress are something other than Christian.)

On a side note, a quick search for J.B. Atchison on Facebook found one Mississippi resident who likes Rep. Palazzo (bingo!), loves the movie God’s Not Dead, wants to impeach Obama, and likes Jim Carrey (the horror!)…

Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State had some very strong words against the Christian gesture:

“When a politician calls for using the Bible as the basis for public policy, what he or she is really saying is, ‘Let’s use the Bible as I interpret it as the basis for public policy,’”… “When it comes to religion, our nation is pluralistic and diverse. Rather than look to the Bible or any other religious book to craft our nation’s public policy, we would do well to examine another source instead, one that was actually created to guide governance. It’s called the Constitution.“

Palazzo clearly hasn’t read the Constitution. At least he never got past the First Amendment.

Come to think of it, he probably hasn’t read the Bible either. Like most conservative politicians, he seems much more interested in using the Bible as justification to vote however he’d like. It’s not a source of guidance for him; it’s just a method to prevent further discussion. (Turns out God’s a Tea Party member, too. Who knew?!)

Sounds like a good time to rehash this old West Wing clip:

(Thanks to Scott for the link)

Want to Join the U.S. National Guard? First, Take This Bible…

If you want enlist in the National Guard at the U.S. General Services Administration in St. Louis, Missouri, be prepared for a dose of Jesus after you sign on.

According to the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, government officials there are giving away camouflage-covered copies of the New Testament to recruits, including one who thankfully blew the whistle on the practice:

During the swearing-in process, our client observed the government offering the aforementioned New Testament Bibles for free to military recruits. There do not appear to be any other books or written materials for distribution. The Bibles are tailor-made for military recruits, adorned with camouflage book covering. In light of the coercive atmosphere of the recruitment office, our client felt pressured to take a free Bible.

The AHA is arguing — correctly, in my opinion — that by giving away these Bibles, the government is illegally endorsing Christianity. It’s irrelevant that the Gideons donated these Bibles and taxpayer money wasn’t used. (Would the government have given away copies of The God Delusion if an atheist group donated them? What about the Koran?)

The letter by attorney Monica Miller continues:

Our client arrived in St. Louis on Thursday and took his Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. He stayed overnight in a hotel and woke up early the next morning to fill out paperwork and be administered his medical briefing. He took a Breathalyzer test, a vision test, hearing test, urine test, and blood test, followed by fingerprinting and more paperwork. After the testing, he sat in the waiting room in which the Bibles were distributed for about an hour. He observed a fellow recruit take a Bible. Military personnel were present at all times.

Given the importance of first impressions, you can understand how much pressure there would be to take a copy of the Bible, whether or not you believe its contents.

The AHA isn’t filing a lawsuit. Yet. All they’re asking for is for the practice to stop immediately. It’s a simple request requiring a simple solution — yet it’ll inevitably be decried by those who think this constitutes some sort of injustice against Christians.

The Gideons can just hand the Bibles over to local churches, who can do with them as they please. In the meantime, it’s the government’s responsibility to respect the beliefs of all recruits, not just the Christian ones.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

Help Us Out and Tell Us What You Do!

We’ve posted this in the past. If you’ve already responded, there’s no need to do it again. Thanks!

…

Every now and then, the writers on this site will be working on a post about, say, the difference between the geology of the Grand Canyon versus city streets… and we realize it would be great if we could talk to atheists who actually study that subject! Maybe we want to quote you in the post. Or (more likely) we just need to ask you a question about geology in general.

It’s not just science — there are many times when we have questions about business or law or medicine or music, or need someone to help us translate an article, but we don’t know anyone off the top of our heads who can help us.

So we’re trying to compile an online Rolodex of sorts and that’s where we could use your help. If you have an expertise in some area (e.g. law, medicine, Russia, public health, etc.), or you speak another language, or you live in another country and know its politics well, we’d love to be able to get in touch with you in the event that we’re working on a story about that subject.

We created a form for you to fill out. It should only take you a minute to complete, and it’ll allow us to compile a database of contacts that we can use when we need to. (Obviously, we’re not going to post the information you give us anywhere, and we’re not going to contact you unless we really need your input about something.)

Thanks for your help!

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Church/State Separation Under Fire in Ohio; Check Out These Bills Being Considered

This is a guest post written by Michael Gregory. Michael spent three years in the Ohio Army National Guard. He writes at Heretic’s Log.

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In case you aren’t aware, the Ohio government website maintains a spreadsheet containing bills and resolutions of the Senate and House. The 104-page PDF file, while not as easy to update, is a lot easier to skim through for anything of interest. And when it comes to church/state separation, there are a number of items that are, not surprisingly, questionable.

House Bill No. 82, originally sponsored by the late Terry Blair (Republican and Catholic) and Bill Hayes (Republican), was introduced in order to exempt religious institutions from the Ohio Civil Rights Law. Not only does this include churches, but the bill, if approved, would amend the definition of “employer” to exclude religious entities by adding the following underlined portion to the current law:

“Employer” includes the state, any political subdivision of the state, any person employing four or more persons within the state, and any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer, but shall not include a religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by such corporation, association, educational institution, or society.

If this bill were to pass, any organization that claims to be religious, or would claim to be for the right to discriminate (*cough* Hobby Lobby *cough*), would be allowed to deny employment based on a person’s sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, etc. In other words, religion would become a legal excuse for state-supported bigotry.

House Bill No. 171 is a bill I don’t fully oppose. This legislation would allow for a public school student to take a religious education course in lieu of other approved electives. Why isn’t this problematic? 1) The sponsoring entity, parent/guardian, or student is responsible (financially and legally) for transportation to and from the school, including accommodations for students with disabilities, 2) “No public funds are expended and no public school personnel are involved in providing the religious instruction,” and 3) “No student may be released from a core curriculum subject course to attend a religious instruction course.”

What does bother me is that the course can only be evaluated by the school district based on “secular criteria.” This includes making sure the number of hours spent in class is appropriate, the syllabus lists all requirements and materials needed, the methods of assessments are reasonable, and that the qualifications of religious instructors are similar to that of other teachers in the district. This leaves the actual material completely open to the instructor (or sponsoring entity). Teaching that Creationism is true? Not a problem. Teaching that Jesus died for our sins? Can’t complain.

It would be more beneficial for students to take a “World Religions” type of course that offers an unbiased curriculum of what the major religions believe, how they evolved from and relate to other religions, and the impact they’ve had throughout history. I wonder how the school district would feel if there were a Humanism course or even a class from The Satanic Temple.

House Bills 303 and 376 are just plain ridiculous. H.B. 303, a.k.a. The Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2013, is supposed to protect a student’s religious expression, something that was never in question in the first place. The sponsoring and co-sponsoring representatives are showing how little they understand the Constitution with this one. Not to mention that the bill also protects students from being graded on the content of any work containing religious material, leaving a back door cracked open for Creation and anti-evolution science projects to weasel their way into the classroom as if they were factual. H.B. 376 is just a state level version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.

The most embarrassing resolution, as an atheist Ohioan and former National Guardsman, is House Resolution No. 283. This resolution is intended to “urge the United States Congress and the United States Department of Defense to protect and uphold the religious and free speech rights of military service members.” However, the document contains an itemized list of “egregious events” that are allegedly targeting Christianity. These actions include: Removing bibles from Air Force Inn checklists, removing a reference to God from an official logo, banning the distributions of bibles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and even blaming the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center for releasing a study that linked pro-lifers to terrorism. (Data can be a cold, cold mistress.)

It’s no surprise that many religious people hate having their unconstitutional privileges taken away in favor of neutrality. The resolution calls for the U.S. Congress “to take action to protect and uphold the religious freedom of military service members.” Which is exactly what they did when they knocked Christianity down to the same playing field as all other religions.

By the way, not once does the bill reference the absence of Humanist chaplains, the lack of Korans being passed out, or even call for investigations in the event of a non-religious soldier being retaliated against for not taking part in an invocation before official military ceremonies. It is only defending the religion of the majority from having to follow the same rules as everyone else, and it’s only to perpetuate the false conspiracy of Christian persecution.

Honestly, I don’t think most, if any, of the bills will pass, especially the military resolution. If any do, there will be groups like the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State that will evaluate the situation and take action, if time and resources permit. You can do your part, if you’re a fellow Buckeye, by writing to your representatives and urging them to oppose each bill and resolution. If you know of any other local laws, regulations, or ordinances in your area that are violations of church/state separation, go to FFRF’s website to report them.

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