Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1969

Well Played, Mexican Nativity Scene

Nice touch with the black Jesús.

(via Reddit. Thanks to Brian for the link)

Two More New York Infants Given Herpes in Jewish Mouth-to-Penis Ritual

The Hebrew term metzitzah b’peh (MBP) describes a ritual practiced by some ultra-Orthodox Jewish circumcisers in which they orally suck the blood away from an infant’s penis after cutting away his foreskin. The practice, which we previously covered here and here, is exactly as unhygienic and indefensible as it sounds, frequently resulting in the transmission of communicable diseases, and sometimes even in brain damage and death.

Two additional Jewish infants just received more than a circumcision — the mohels who sucked them off suctioned away the blood with their mouths gave them a case of full-blown herpes.

Reports New York City’s Department of Health:

In July 2014, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene received reports of two new cases of HSV [herpes simplex virus] infection in newborn male infants following direct orogenital suction. Since 2000, a total of 16 laboratory-confirmed cases of HSV-infection attributable to direct orogenital suction have been reported to the Health Department; three of these cases were reported in 2014 alone. Two  of the 16 infants died, and at least two others suffered brain damage.

In both of the cases reported in July, the infant boys were born to mothers with full-term pregnancies, had normal vaginal deliveries, and underwent ritual Jewish circumcision including direct orogenital suction on day of life 8.

The Jewish Daily Forward adds that

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has tried to warn parents of the risks of MBP, which is particularly prevalent among the city’s ultra-Orthodox Jews. In January, 2013, the city instituted a regulation that forced mohels to get written consent from parents before performing the rite.

But ultra-Orthodox groups say that MBP is safe and many mohels refuse to comply with the regulation.

Since the regulation was enforced, four infants have contracted the disease.

‘Cause why bother following common sense, the Hippocratic Oath, or the law when your God commands you to place your mouth on an infant’s bleeding penis?

It seems that to these believers, infecting babies — and sometimes killing them — is a small price to pay for obeisance to your 4,000-year-old superstitions.

We’d Like to Highlight Your Secular Group!

We’re looking for secular groups from small towns, big cities, and every nook in-between to showcase on the Friendly Atheist Facebook page in a recurring feature. We hope to connect people with groups they didn’t know existed in their areas, spread creative ideas to groups that are struggling to grow, and bring much needed motivation to community activism. Let’s show the world what hands can do when they’re unclasped!

If you can fill out most of the questions below, your group is probably a good candidate to be showcased on our page. We hope to hear from you! E-mail submissions to me at SecularGroups@gmail.com!

Group name:

Location:

Mission Statement:

Links to group’s Facebook. website, Twitter, etc.:

When was your group established?

What does your group do for fun to connect with each other?

What community/volunteer activities does your group participate in, if any?

What political/social activism does your group do, if any?

Does your group have a favorite charity to fundraise for or promote?

Do you have any stories to share about your city having a positive reaction to your group?

What are some challenges your group has faced?

What advice would you like to share with other groups struggling to grow or are just starting up?

**Please attach some photos of your group as a whole, in action, and having fun**

Christian Pastor Writing for Charisma: Homosexuality is a “Putrid-Smelling Demon”

I get that conservative Christians have a problem with homosexuality. But this piece posted by Charisma magazine, written by Bert M. Farias, is so full of hatred and vile that I think we can finally put that whole “love the sinner” canard to rest:

The government of Denmark has made it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages, regardless of religious beliefs, conscience or convictions. No church or minister in Denmark is exempt from complying with this new law.

…

Here’s the raw, naked truth: Homosexuality is actually a demon spirit. It is such a putrid-smelling demon that other demons don’t even like to hang around it. A genuine prophet of God told me that the Lord allowed him to smell this demon spirit, and he got sick to his stomach. And yet as humans, many embrace this demon. Yes, you heard me right: Being gay is demonic.

There is an account in the Bible where Jesus casts 2,000 demons out of a man. The demons came out screaming and begged Jesus to send them into the pigs. The pigs didn’t want them, so they ran down a steep hill and were drowned in the sea. Pigs have more sense than some humans. Some people embrace homosexual demons, but the pigs would rather die than be possessed with demons.

…

Just as a fornicator or an adulterer can stop being sexually active, any gay person who claims to be a professing Christian can stop being gay.

Somewhere, the ghost of Jerry Falwell is thinking, “Dude… Too far.”

Charisma appears to have already deleted several dozen comments criticizing and correcting the piece. Even the part about what’s happening in Denmark, which Farias completely misunderstands. (Gay couples can get married in state-run churches, but no minister is forced to officiate.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Hindu Gods Get a Muscular Makeover in Graphic Novels

Usually, when you see images of Hindu deities, they’re calm, serene, and (*ahem*) well-fed. But graphic novels in India are starting to give them a more muscular look that might make them more appealing to a younger generation.

Plus, when mythology says the gods defeated thousands of warriors by themselves, you don’t really think “meditation.”

What’s surprising is that people aren’t crying blasphemy or taking offense:

Traditional Shiva (left) and Badass Shiva

The character Ravana as seen in an older TV program (left) and his modern, graphic, not-double-chinned depiction

In “Shiva: The Legends of the Immortal,” a series of graphic novels, the title character boasts bulging muscles that ripple under his tiger-skin wrap and dark tresses that blow in the wind as he battles with his trident.

…

Prakash Sharma, a spokesman for Vishva Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, says his organization isn’t opposed to presenting Hindu gods as muscular and strong. “But there should not be an effort to change the original character” of the deities, he says, adding the portrayal shouldn’t be demeaning.

…

Graphic novel publishers say they are careful to show respect to the gods in the story lines, even while giving them a more powerful look. And to be sure, traditional depictions still abound in mainstream media, including old-school comic books and the calendars that hang in many Hindu households.

That’s really the key to getting away with this: The depictions don’t necessarily go against the holy books; they’re done with respect and with the intention of making the gods’ bodies seem even more realistic given their legends.

One other thing to note in the Wall Street Journal article: There’s no mention of whether anyone takes these gods seriously. They’re basically assumed to be fictional characters. The stuff of legends. Tradition.

Not real life people who actually existed and did what the stories say they did.

I’m open to theories about why it works with Hinduism but not quite as well with Christianity…

Group That Evangelizes to Young Children Comes Under Scrutiny From Activists and Media

A couple of weeks ago, Hemant blogged about a international organization called the Child Evangelism Fellowship that thinks it’s cool to indoctrinate kids as young as four with talk of hell and damnation. CEF had picked relatively godless Portland, Oregon as its next battle ground, and the plan was to send more than a hundred missionaries into the city to form “Good News Clubs,” whose goal is to “harvest” children for Jesus.

A protest group, Protect Portland Children, rose to the challenge and took out an ad in the local alt-weekly to explain:

Good News Clubs are not about mainstream bible study or the Golden Rule. They are hardcore fundamentalist indoctrination. They terrorize children too young to understand with vivid warnings of eternal punishment. They teach children that they are born wicked and “deserve to die” instead of building self-esteem. They teach children submission to authority instead of critical thinking. These toxic, fear-based doctrines can cause traumas in children that last into adulthood.

Now, the Associated Press has picked up the story, and the AP account made it into a slew of newspapers, including the New York Times.

It was going to be an uphill battle for CEF all along.

Gallup polls in 2008 and 2012 have consistently indicated that Oregon is among the least religious states in the country, with one of the fewest populations identifying themselves as “very religious.”

Nonetheless, the volunteers have begun their work.

At a park on Monday, the group laid out a tarp for children and chairs for their parents. A pair of volunteers led about 12 kids through Bible verses and songs that praised a Christian god. ”My heart was dark with sin,” they sang, “until the savior came in.”

What got lost a bit in the AP piece is that, while the protests are real, no one is saying that evangelists don’t have free speech rights. What’s at stake is that the people behind Protect Portland Children credibly claim that the CEF’s longer-term goal is to establish Good News Clubs in Portland public schools this fall, as the fundamentalists have done in other cities. Sure, parents would need to give written permission for their kids to attend such school gatherings, but critics charge that CEF is underhanded and stealthy about the aggressive, everything-is-a-sin fundamentalism that it really teaches.

The journalist Katherine Stewart (below), author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children, explains it in this video.

Kids attending the Clubs were targeting their non-Christian peers or their friends for what I can only describe as faith-based bullying. And I also heard stories from parents whose kids would come home telling their parents that they were going to go to hell, because they didn’t go to the right kind of church. I began to realize that the Clubs seek to convey the unavoidable impression in small children that their activities are endorsed by the school. The kids would say they knew the religion of the Good News Club must be true because they learned it in school. Remember, we’re talking about little kids here. No institution has as much authority for them as the public school.

In public places like parks, where no permission slips are needed, skepticism might flow a little more freely. Consider the AP article’s ending:

Mia Marceau, a mother of two in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington, said she was intrigued when the group approached her apartment complex pool last week. She said she, too, believes in Jesus Christ. Within a few hours, however, she didn’t like what the group was telling her 8-year-old son and his friends: They were headed to hell, needed to convert their friends and were duty-bound to raise money for the organization.

I raised a free thinker,” she said. “He didn’t buy in. All of a sudden, he’s having arguments with his friends over salvation.”

That kid’s going to be all right.

Michigan Mayor Who Denied a “Reason Station” in City Hall (but Allowed a “Prayer Station”) Hit with Federal Lawsuit

IF you were to walk into the Warren, Michigan city hall, you’d see a Prayer Station, a kiosk of sorts with pamphlets about God, manned by Christians eager to proselytize. It’s been there since 2009.

So when resident Douglas Marshall filled out an application to set up a personal “Reason Station” to promote freethought and logic, you’d think he’d get a green light, too… Hell, his application was almost word-for-word identical to that of Pastor Darius Walden, who set up the Prayer Station.

The problem is that Warren Mayor Jim Fouts is a Christian who has made a habit of opposing atheist groups that want the same treatment as religious groups.

Mayor Jim Fouts

Fouts rejected Marshall’s request in April, wrongly assuming he was doing this as part of the Freedom From Religion Foundation when he was really just doing it on his own, and saying that only religious groups had a right to put up a display in the building. His letter to Marshall was just infuriating:

In his letter, Fouts said Freedom From Religion is not a religion, has no tenets and no congregation.

“To my way of thinking, your group is strictly an anti-religion group intending to deprive all organized religions of their constitutional freedoms or at least discourage the practice of religion. The City of Warren cannot allow this,” he wrote, underlining the last sentence.

“Also, I believe it is [the] group’s intention to disrupt those who participate in the Prayer Station which would also be a violation of the freedom of religion amendment. For these reasons, I cannot approve of your request,” he wrote.

So many false assumptions all around…

Marshall wasn’t doing this on behalf of FFRF.

Marshall wasn’t going to disrupt the Prayer Station.

Marshall wasn’t depriving religious groups of their freedom (nor, I assume, would he want to).

Fouts also made another unusual claim:

“We can’t put up every display that everybody wants because the atrium would be filled with displays,” Fouts said Wednesday. “I have certain discretionary rights about what I will and will not put up. And I determined that putting up an anti-religious display would serve no useful purpose. It would cause a lot of conflict and consternation.”

If a filled-up atrium is a problem, there’s a simple solution for that: Don’t allow any religious or non-religious displays.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent the Mayor a letter warning him about the problems with his decision, but they never received a response.

This wasn’t the first time Fouts promoted religion over non-religious while in office, either. He stopped FFRF from putting up a “Let Reason Prevail” sign in 2012 because he felt it was too divisive — and the courts agreed with him.

Today, a trio of church/state separation groups — FFRF, AU, and the ACLU — filed a federal lawsuit against Fouts and his town:

Defendants have imposed and are imposing a content- and viewpoint-based restriction on Plaintiff’s speech in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.

…

By prohibiting Plaintiff from reserving and using atrium space because his belief system “is not a religion”… while allowing similarly situated religious groups and persons to reserve and use atrium space “because of the right to freedom of religion”… Defendants have favored and are favoring religion over nonreligion, and religious belief over disbelief, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Marshall’s lawyers are all on the same page with this one:

“Once the government opens public space for use by private groups, it cannot pick and choose who can use the space based on the content of their message or whether public officials agree with that message,” said Dan Korobkin, ACLU of Michigan deputy legal director. “For instance, Warren officials would not be permitted to grant access to activists supportive of the mayor and reject the applications of activists who are critical of the mayor. The same logic extends to this matter: the city cannot allow speech supportive of religion and reject speech supportive of atheism.”

…

“The city has an obligation to serve all members of the community equally, regardless of their faith or their lack of faith,” said Alex J. Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United. “Our laws make it clear that our government can’t adopt a rule book that favors one group over another.”

…

“Our Warren member simply wants the same access to the atrium that has been granted to others, including those who operate the prayer station,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president. “There’s no legally justifiable reason to deny Mr. Marshall his First Amendment rights.”

I wish I could see the look on the judge’s face when s/he sees this case. When you have this much cooperation between allied groups, and the case is so obviously one-sided, I dare the judge not to roll his or her eyes.

The lawyers are asking for a preliminary injunction on the matter allowing Marshall to set up his “Reason Station” immediately.

Fouts’ only defense seems to be that he once gave permission for a Ramadan display, but that doesn’t excuse him from denying the atheist one.

Either the displays are going to stop for good, or the city hall’s atrium is going to start seeing displays from atheists and everyone else, too. (Hello, Satanic Temple…)

(Large portions of this article were posted earlier)

Conservative Christian Myopia: Israel Edition

It’s really hard for me to get caught up on the details of the invasion of Gaza by Israel over the last couple of weeks. Growing up in conservative Christianity, we had a myopic, distanced, and deliberately ignorant understanding of politics in the Middle East, and so now, I find myself at a loss for where to start in understanding news reports like this one:

Over 350 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing operation to root out Hamas fighters it says are hiding in Gaza tunnels. Meanwhile, tens of thousands came out to protest the victims of the invasion, almost 80 percent of whom are civilians.

The United Nations mission in Gaza says that more than 60,000 people have been displaced as a result of the escalating conflict. Israel has warned Palestinians living in over half of the country that they may come under fire either from the ground, air or sea.

Together with the mounting death toll, the Palestinian health authorities say that over 2,000 people have been injured. Around a quarter of the reported victims have been children.

The bloodshed is grievous and I wish I understood more of what was going on. The understanding I grew up with was a primitive and ahistorical one that went like this:

Israel (the Jews) were God’s chosen people according to the Bible (which we believed was inerrant). God said in the Bible that he was giving them the geographical land of Canaan for their home (elide the narrative bits in Joshua and Judges about the Israel-lead genocide of the natives), and the land would belong to the Jews and their descendants for the rest of known history. And the Jews believe in the same God we do, so we need to support them in keeping their homeland. The end.

I even knew conservative Christians who were so enamored with Israel that they appropriated Jewish traditions for their Christian practices and called themselves “Messianic” Jews — a concept that has always made me distinctly uncomfortable. To a lesser extent, I also grew up with the uncomfortable awareness that my parents (of German descent) chose to name me with an anglicization of the Hebrew pronunciation of the name Hannah, partly because they liked the sound, and partly because of their specific practice of faith. It’s unique, but it’s also cultural appropriation and I have to live with that.

I’m pretty disappointed that this Christian-centric narrative is all I knew of Palestine and Israel growing up and that my education hasn’t been significantly improved on the subject since. But also, I’m realizing that this mindset is a pretty old one among American Christians. Curious how far back this goes, I dug around and found a press release from 1967 about Billy Graham and the Six Day War:

Mr. Graham revealed that, during and immediately after the Six-Day Mideast war, he had been in touch privately with American political figures, urging support for Israel’s right to survival. He said he had delayed making any public statements because of the pleas of evangelical Christians in Arab countries who feared reprisal from their host governments. “The Jews are God’s chosen people,” Mr. Graham declared in the article. “We cannot place ourselves in opposition to Israel without detriment to ourselves.”

This mindset hasn’t gone away, though. This simplistic mindset is the one I learned in the 90s, and we’re still arguing these points today in the American Christian community:

Obviously, things need to change in how Christians see the Israel narrative, and I grew up with a single story. So: where should I (and others who have a similarly limited knowledge of the conflict) start to fix my education on this subject? Your feedback is appreciated, especially so I don’t have to avoid all conversations about a very important topic:

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Student Opts Out of Bible Classes in New Zealand School, So He’s Told To Do the Dishes Instead

They teach religious education in many New Zealand schools, but in some cases, the lessons veer into religious indoctrination. (That’s why groups like the Secular Education Network are trying to change the laws to fix that.)

That’s also why parents sometimes allow their kids to opt out of the classes.

When that happens, what are the students supposed to do? Maybe they do homework in another classroom. Maybe they read a book. Maybe they just go to the library.

But I didn’t think this was an option:

Tanya Jacob says she pulled her son out of Harewood School in 2012 after first opting him out of the religious classes for three years.

She claims he was being “snuck back in the classes” or in conjoining rooms sorting books “within earshot” and the school was repeatedly asked to have him completely removed, but then he was made to do dishes.

Seriously. They had the kid do manual labor because he wasn’t sitting through religion classes.

I guess the thinking went, “If those other kids aren’t learning anything useful, you can’t either.”

“Kids that do these classes are given lollies for believing in God, and the ones that don’t are made to pick up rubbish.”

Her son was reluctant to go to school on bible days, and by the end he was “anxious, tearful, and confused at how he was treated by the children and the staff.

“This really hurt our family.”

Jacob says she’s working with SEN to change the current law.

In the meantime, just think about what the worldwide reaction would be if this happened to the child of a Christian parent instead of a non-religious one.

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

Substitute Teacher Fired for His Music Video Mocking Religion Finally Gets Some Justice

Last year, I posted a delightfully funny video about two parents teaching their daughter about different religions, only to have her respond with “That doesn’t make sense!” to all of them:

That video was made by guitarist Jonathan Hurley and actress Whitney Avalon (who played the parents) and they even won an award for it last month. Yay! Happy ending, right?

Turns out that wasn’t the case for Hurley.

He was a long-term substitute teacher at a school district in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and once administrators found out about his video last December, he was unceremoniously fired from his job — and blacklisted from subbing anywhere in the district. Why? Because… well, they had no good reason. It’s not like Hurley was talking about religion in the classroom. The fact that students could access the video online should have been irrelevant. (***Edit***: Just to clarify, it doesn’t look like anyone complained specifically about him. The administrators decided to preemptively remove him from the classroom.)

Hurley got in touch with the state’s ACLU in January and they worked together to remedy the situation. I can’t imagine it was that difficult a case. Even the town’s lawyer “very quickly acknowledged this was wrong.”

This week, I’m happy to say, the two sides agreed on a settlement:

After the ACLU of Massachusetts and the law firm of Fish & Richardson came to Hurley’s defense, the town agreed to compensate him for what was done. The town has also agreed to train administrators and teachers about teachers’ rights to speak as citizens outside of school.

“The First Amendment protects teachers’ rights to speak out as citizens on matters of public concern as long as the speech is not disruptive of the school,” said Sarah Wunsch, an ACLU of Massachusetts staff attorney. “Jonathan’s music video was made outside of school and is irreverent and questioning on the topic of religion which is a matter of public concern,” she said, “and there was nothing disruptive about it.” Wunsch also credited the school system for quickly realizing and being willing to admit that a mistake had been made, instead of digging in their heels and causing lengthy and wasteful litigation.

“Teachers can’t be constrained in their lives outside of school with administrators preventing them from having opinions and speaking out on issues,” said Adam Kessel, a principal at Fish & Richardson who handled the case pro bono. “The school principal explicitly noted in Hurley’s personnel file that the reason he was being removed as a substitute was that his website contained a song he wrote that ‘parodies various religions’ and that students ‘have access to this.’ This reason was plainly improper.”

Hurley’s records with the school district will no longer have any mention of his firing and he will receive positive references if and when he applies for another teaching position. The training for administrators and teachers — focused on free speech issues — will begin this August.

I’m not sure what Hurley’s job situation is right now, but I hope he received fair compensation from the settlement and that this incident doesn’t prevent him from making more irreverent songs in the future.