Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1978
July 13, 2014
This May Be the Worst Possible Way to Confront an Anti-Abortion Group
You know how preachers sometimes visit college campuses, spew the vilest-sounding biblical word vomit ever, and anger just about everyone who crosses their path?
There are a few appropriate ways to respond to them: You can try talking to them (good luck with that), you can ignore them, you can out-preach them, you can mock them:
What you can’t do is physically confront them, or threaten them, or destroy their setup. That seems obvious.
Even if you only use words, you’re not going to win any points by using bad language, screaming louder than them, or being just as obnoxious. You’re an idiot if you think screaming, “FUCK YOU! THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING GAY” will change their minds. It doesn’t matter if you’re fighting for a more righteous cause; your passion shouldn’t excuse you from being as asshole right back. (And it probably won’t win anyone over to your side, anyway.)
Now take a look at this video featuring a pro-choice woman (Victoria Duran) confronting members of a anti-abortion group (Created Equal). I hope you can understand why, despite agreeing with her, I cringed while watching the confrontation. She let her emotions get the best of her and played right into the anti-abortion group’s hands by being an jackass on camera in every possible way.
The group members remained relatively calm the whole time — while the camera rolled, I must add. It was a brilliant move on their part.
Duran now faces an assault charge, but Created Equal said it would drop the charge if she just apologizes. (Another brilliant move on the group’s part.) No word yet on whether she’ll accept that offer.
Who knows what she was trying to accomplish in that video. Whatever it was, it failed. The group members kept the smug smiles on their faces, knowing the whole time that any legitimate criticisms against them would be completely overshadowed by her own words and actions.
I don’t understand how anyone could watch this video and consider her approach effective. It just turned me off completely and I’m on her side.
(Thanks to Brendan for the link)
July 12, 2014
Can Atheists Be Buddhists?
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses whether atheists can be Buddhists:
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!
And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon.
All Humanist Conference Trailers Should Look Like This
A year after producing a wonderful movie-like trailer for their annual conference, the Florida Humanist Association has done it again. It’s over-the-top and I don’t mind one bit:
The conference takes place in Orlando, October 10-12. Registration is open and you can see the full speaker list here.
Carroll County Commissioner Says She’ll Go to Jail Before She Stops Reciting Christian Prayers at Meetings
After a judge told the Carroll County (Maryland) Board of Commissioners that they needed to stop their prayers to Jesus at meetings, they decided they didn’t give a damn what the law said.
A day after the ruling, commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier said a religious prayer anyway (falsely attributing it to President George Washington).
Robin Bartlett Frazier
After the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center sent the commissioners’ lawyers a warning letter threatening a contempt charge if there was another attempt to defy the ruling, the board went ahead and invited a speaker who also said a prayer to Jesus.
So the AHA demanded the court issue a heavy fine against the board — to the tune of $30,000 immediately and $10,000 for each additional violation of the court order.
While the judge hasn’t said if he will hold the board in contempt, the commissioners voted 3-2 in April to stop with the sectarian prayers.
3-2. So two of the commissioners thought the wise move was to defy the court order, waste their constituents’ money, and continue using the government meetings as personal worship services.
Two of the commissioners wanted to become martyrs for the Christian cause, even if it meant hurting the very county they represent.
This week, one of those faux-martyrs was back in the news, speaking with Christian Today specifically about what she’s willing to do rather than stop those prayers. Just look at how the piece begins:
A local official in Maryland recently announced that she is willing to go to jail because of her Christian faith.
That’s how they’re setting this up: Throw your faith aside or go to jail. How’s that for a false dichotomy?
No one is suggesting Frazier give up her faith. The AHA is only telling the commissioners to keep their invocations inclusive of everybody. If she ends up in jail, it’ll be because she broke the law, not because she was a Christian.
Carroll County Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier decided that she will continue to defy a federal judge’s order against sectarian prayers in board meetings, and is willing to suffer any consequences.
I think JT Eberhard summarizes that thinking perfectly: “… she’s no more a martyr than someone who stabs herself in the hand and complains that she’s bleeding.”
This is how the Christian Persecution Complex works. Even though there’s an easy way to avoid “persecution” that doesn’t require you to violate your personal beliefs, you choose not to go that route because you want Jesus to notice you. Or something like that.
Frazier can pray before meetings. She can even pray during meetings (privately). She can also invite Christians to deliver invocations, as long as that invitation is extended to people of other faiths and no faith.
The only thing she can’t do is turn the government meetings into a Christian revival. Yet that’s the one thing she refuses to give up. It’s a stand that has to make even right wing groups scratch their foreheads.
You know what? Let her keep fighting this fight. This is a losing battle — and an embarrassing one for Christians at that, especially since people like Frazier would be among the first to flip out if a Board of Commissioners consisted of a majority of Muslims who wanted to hold an Islamic prayer during meetings.
If I lived in Carroll County, though, I would be furious at how my elected officials are wasting their time and my money.
(Large portions of this article were posted earlier)
Edmonton Public School District Drops Abstinence-Based Sex Education Classes
The other day, I posted about a mother-daughter team who were fighting back against the factually untrue, abstinence-only sex education classes that were being taught in the Edmonton Public School District.
A quick summary: Emily Dawson, a recent graduate from Edmonton, Alberta, took mandatory sex education classes at her high school and was surprised to see that it was being taught by an anti-abortion activist from the Christianity-promoting Pregnancy Care Centre. The lesson consisted of misinformation, slut-shaming, and fear. (And, of course, all discussion about homosexuality was just shut down immediately.)
Emily and her mother Kathy filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, in which they said the sex ed program “infringed upon their rights as non-Christians.”
Well, there’s been a wonderful development. After all the pushback it received (presumably from people in Canada and beyond), the Edmonton Public School District has announced it will not be asking the Christian group to teach the class again:
The Edmonton Public School Board has said it will tell teachers not to use an anti-abortion centre to teach part of its sexual education curriculum, after a high school student filed a human rights complaint over what she was taught.
“We’re getting a significant (amount) of push back on the group, in terms of the program that they’re offering in our schools,” said Lorne Parker, acting superintendent with Edmonton Public Schools.
It’s not a definitive victory yet because a letter from the superintendent still leaves the door open for the group to come back at a later date, but it’s doubtful they will now that people are paying attention.
And what do the Christian presenters have to say about all this?
The Edmonton Pregnancy Care Centre told CBC News it was “disappointed” by the decision. Executive director Norah Kennedy said the news comes as a shock.
“I think that it’s fear-based,” Kennedy said. “I think that an individual who decides she’s going to just go after something can cause fear to happen.”
I don’t even know what that means. But I’d be scared, too, if my mandatory sex ed class was being taught by people who didn’t understand sexuality and insisted on teaching bullshit.
Just look at how defensive they get:
“While we have a faith background, the religious part does not come up in the public school or education,” said Jutta Wittmeier, director of the Calgary centre.
“That’s just not part of the program, it’s science- and research-based.”
She says teachers are in the room during the presentation, and that she “can’t imagine” they wouldn’t step in if the students were given misleading information. Wittmeier said that her group is specifically invited to talk about abstinence, and that it only makes up a small part of the larger Alberta sex ed curriculum.
“We, in reality, recognize … that while abstinence is a good choice, it is not the only choice. We talk about STIs, we talk about, to some degree, birth control, obviously.
There’s a very fine line, though, between directly preaching Christianity, and pushing Christian “values” such as abstinence and (a false sense of) modesty.
Wittmeier says teachers would step in if misleading information was taught, but that assumes the teachers know the material (in which case, why invite the so-called experts?) and that they would be brave enough to call out other adults in the classroom.
Finally, they say they “talk about STIs” and “to some degree, birth control,” but what they don’t tell you is how they do it. If you’re teaching that STIs are the inevitable result of any sexual encounter or God’s way of punishing you for having sex, that’s a problem. If you’re wrongly teaching that certain forms of birth control cause abortions (a la Hobby Lobby), that’s a problem. They don’t get specific because even they know that telling the truth would hurt their cause.
I’m glad the Dawsons aren’t pulling their complaint with the Human Rights Commission. This still needs to be investigated if for no other reason than to prevent it from happening again.
I don’t know them personally, but I can’t thank them enough for their courage in speaking out against this travesty and refusing to back down despite the really sensitive nature of the subject.
(Thanks to David for the link)
New Rule: Students Who Have a Same-Sex Wedding Can’t Be Mad When Their Christian Schools Expel Them For It
Southwestern Christian University, in Oklahoma, makes its students sign a “lifestyle covenant” upon acceptance. It’s one of those lists that says you can’t smoke or drink or be in the dorm of the opposite sex after hours. And don’t you dare have sex. It’s part and parcel of going to a school like that.
Christian Minard signed that covenant a few years ago when she came to the school on a basketball scholarship. Despite leaving the team to avoid injuries and giving up her scholarship, she remained at the school and would have started her senior year this fall.
Now, she’s been expelled. The reason? She got married last spring to her longtime girlfriend Kadyn Park:
Kadyn Park (left) and Christian Minard
The two were married in Albuquerque, N.M., on March 17. On Wednesday (July 9), a letter addressed to Minard from Brad Davis, the school’s vice president of student life, arrived at her parents’ home, telling her she was being expelled.
“I was informed that you recently married someone of the same sex and saw a few pictures from Facebook,” Davis wrote. “Of course, this is opposing to our view as an International Pentecostal Holiness denominational university as well as the Lifestyle Covenant that all students must agree and sign.”
Minard claims that kicking her out for her same-sex marriage is selective enforcement of the school’s expulsion policies and that administrators are leaving her in the dust given her unique major that isn’t offered at other nearby schools:
“There isn’t a similar program at an area university, so I’d have to change my program of study,” Minard said. “And, being one semester from graduation means I have taken all my electives. I’ll lose all those credits if I transfer.”
…
“Students violate parts of that covenant all the time, but they don’t get expelled,” she said. “I didn’t even get a hearing, just a letter to my parents.”
I have a really hard time sympathizing with her.
Minard, a God-believing Lutheran, knew exactly what she signed up for when she came to the school (which is affiliated with the “International Pentecostal Holiness” denomination). Complaining about her expulsion is like getting mad at a cop for giving you a speeding ticket even though others on the road are going almost as fast. You still broke the law.
Should we be mad at the school for punishing a student for being a married lesbian? Morally, sure, they’re repugnant. But it’s a private school and bigotry is enshrined in their rules. They have the right to enforce that policy. It’s that simple. If Minard wanted to go to a school that respected her same-sex relationship and treated her with decency and kindness, she shouldn’t have attended a Christian college.
I hope Minard can find a way to finish her degree elsewhere or get a job without one, but she brought this upon herself. I don’t understand why she couldn’t have waited to get married until after graduation just to avoid this very situation. You can argue she shouldn’t have to postpone her wedding just because some Christians are assholes, but then you can’t argue the administrators were in the wrong to punish her as they saw fit.
Honestly, I don’t know what she hoped to gain by shining a media spotlight on this story. Did she really think the social pressure would cause the university to change its policy and reinstate her as a student? If that’s the case, she’s incredibly naïve.
I wish her happiness in her marriage. It’s just too bad she had to learn the hard way that her school doesn’t feel the same.
I reached out to her last night to ask her about some of these criticisms, but I haven’t heard back yet.
Well, That’s a Weird Way to Remember the Ten Commandments…
You know how hard it is to memorize the Ten Commandments? (No? Who cares. Work with me here.)
That’s why the folks at Prayer Stop (which, ironically, could double as the name for an atheist group) created a mnemonic to help you remember all of them in order.
It’s so easy, even an 8-year-old can do it:
That gesture, by the way, is for “Thou shalt not commit adultery”… I was shocked they were teaching that to a child until I realized what she was actually trying to do…
You’ll find out what I mean in a moment when the Christian version of Guy Fieri explains it all. Also, pay special attention to how you’re supposed to remember Commandments 5 and 6:
Spanking and breaking out the guns. Because that’s what we should teach the kiddies…
As a mnemonic, it’s actually not that bad. (Congressman Lynn Westmoreland could’ve used it a few years ago.) But the purpose of it — to remind children that they’re all “sinners in need of a savior” — is still pretty damned disturbing.
(via Christian Nightmares)
July 11, 2014
Why Atheists Can’t Be Republicans
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses why atheists can’t be Republicans:
You can read more about the subject here and check out a contrarian view here.
In case it’s not clear, the title is tongue-in-cheek. The point is that, if you care about the values that most atheists subscribe to, then you probably shouldn’t be voting for GOP candidates in the current political climate. But since no one’s going to read this, let the comments commence about how atheism and politics have nothing to do with each other.
A transcript of the video can be found on the YouTube page in the “About” section.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!
And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon.
Despite Opposition from Its Leaders, a Catholic Church Ends Up on “George Carlin Way,” At Least for Now
In 2012, Kevin Bartini to name a New York City street — the one George Carlin lived on — after the famed comedian who died in 2008:
That idea didn’t go over so well with the local Catholic leaders because there’s a church on that street and Carlin was no fan of religion:
“The Corpus Christi community is opposed to the renaming because we feel that George Carlin and his comedy do not accurately reflect the values we uphold,” Connor Hailey, vice-chairman of the church’s Parish Council, and a freshman in Columbia College, says. Indeed, Carlin had included his rejection of the church’s values in routines…
They say that as if it were a bad thing…
Anyway, the local community board at the time. George Carlin would have a street named after him, but it would be the next street over from Corpus Christi Church.
I thought that was the last we’d hear of the controversy, but it reared its head again this week when it was discovered that there was a technical glitch in the city’s system that accidentally put the church on George Carlin Way:
It will only be temporary. All sides describe the mix-up as a simple mistake, to be amended in the fall, when the City Council votes on another batch of street renamings. And church officials have been assured that a street sign bearing Mr. Carlin’s name will not be posted until the problem is sorted out.
…
[Carlin’s daughter, Kelly] laughed when told of the error in the bill.
“That’s funny,” Ms. Carlin said. “Who knows if they’ll get around to amending it?”
Knowing the priorities of the Church, this will be taken care of much faster than, say, any real scandals. Too bad, too. It would’ve been a huge honor for the Church to be on Carlin’s street.
(Part of this article were posted earlier. Thanks to Scott for the link)
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