Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1982

Conservative Leaders Say Obama Will Soon Start Putting Christian Pastors in Jail

Guess how many American pastors have been jailed for the “crime” of being Christian?

None. And it’s never going to happen. It doesn’t matter how anti-gay or anti-women they get, the laws will continue to be on the side of free (even idiotic) speech — with the support of most atheists, I would add. No pastor will ever be arrested for refusing to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony or condemning birth control.

But if you listen to Todd Starnes and Tony Perkins, conservative Christians who thrive on promoting the idea of Christian Persecution, you’d think Obama was going to start arresting pastors before his term is over.

In a conversation over the weekend, the men talked about how they should start preparing themselves for life in prison:

Perkins: I do think that it could very well come to that in our lifetime. A few years ago I didn’t think it would, not this quickly, but as we have seen the aggressive nature of this administration and this president and the open hostility of this administration toward orthodox faith — we have seen it in the HHS mandate, we have seen it in the numerous cases regarding marriage — I think it is going to come down to that. We’ve gotta choose whether or not we have a greater fear of man or a greater reverence for God. You can’t have both, and I think it’s gonna play out very quickly in our day.

It’s really incredible that anyone could think the Obama administration is hostile to faith when it sure as hell hasn’t been a day in the park for those of us without faith. This is an administration that expanded the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, supported sectarian invocations at government meetings, and bends over backwards to exempt religious groups from participating in potentially-controversial legislation.

The only thing Perkins and Starnes — and Rick Warren and Russell Moore, whom they also mention — have to worry about is becoming completely irrelevant and ignored because of their bigoted views. They’re digging their own graves and Obama has absolutely nothing to do with it.

(via Right Wing Watch. Image via Shutterstock)

In Response to Supreme Court, Democrats Introduce Bill to Help Women Who Work at Companies Like Hobby Lobby

In 2007, after the Supreme Court refused to hear a case involving pay discrimination, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a scathing dissent in which she urged Congress to take action where the Court had failed. When President Obama was elected the following year, he took her advice; the first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. As the New Yorker‘s Jeffrey Toobin points out, “A framed copy of the bill, inscribed by Obama, has an honored place in Ginsburg’s Supreme Court chambers.”

Over the past week, we’ve seen the Supreme Court fail once again on the issue of women’s rights. Last Monday, five justices — all male — said that Hobby Lobby’s Christian owners had the right to provide less-than-comprehensive insurance coverage to employees because of their faulty belief that certain contraceptives cause abortion. Later in the week, the justices added that it was too burdensome for a non-profit Christian college to simply fill out paperwork saying they didn’t want to directly provide emergency contraception to faculty members and students.

In both decisions, the dissents were blistering. In the Hobby Lobby case, Ginsburg argued the Court had “ventured into a minefield”:

Would the exemption the Court holds RFRA demands for employers with religiously grounded objections to the use of certain contraceptives extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations (Christian Scientists, among others)? According to counsel for Hobby Lobby, “each one of these cases… would have to be evaluated on its own… apply[ing] the compelling interest-least restrictive alternative test.”… Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today’s decision.

…

Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be “perceived as favoring one religion over another,” the very “risk the Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.”

Justice Sotomayor was equally furious in the Wheaton College decision:

Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today. After expressly relying on the availability of the religious-nonprofit accommodation to hold that the contraceptive coverage requirement violates RFRA as applied to closely held for-profit corporations, the Court now, as the dissent in Hobby Lobby feared it might…, retreats from that position.

….

Let me be absolutely clear: I do not doubt that Wheaton genuinely believes that signing the self-certification form is contrary to its religious beliefs. But thinking one’s religious beliefs are substantially burdened — no matter how sincere or genuine that belief may be — does not make it so.

Today, Democrats in Congress announced legislation to correct what the Supreme Court screwed up — once again, taking the advice of the women on the Court:

The bill, developed in consultation with the Obama administration, would require for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby Stores to provide and pay for contraceptive coverage, along with other preventive services, under the Affordable Care Act.

…

“Your health care decisions are not your boss’s business,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, who led efforts by Senate Democrats to respond to the court ruling. “Since the Supreme Court decided it will not protect women’s access to health care, I will.”

…

[The bill] says that an employer “shall not deny coverage of a specific health care item or service” where coverage is required under any provision of federal law. Moreover, it says, this requirement shall apply to employers notwithstanding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The bill would not amend that law. It explicitly preserves federal rules that provide an exemption for churches and other houses of worship that have religious objections to providing coverage for some or all contraceptives.

In addition, the bill preserves an “accommodation” devised by President Obama for nonprofit religious organizations, like colleges, hospitals and charities, that have religious objections.

Checks and balances for the win.

The bill would only affect for-profit companies (“closely-held” or otherwise) owned by people who think pushing their religious beliefs onto the employees is more important than the employees’ health. (And make no mistake: The contraception we’re talking about here does far more than just prevent pregnancy.)

Will the bill pass through the House? Probably not. But you know what? Fine. Bring it on. Women’s rights shouldn’t be a political issue, but I can’t wait to see Republicans explain their rejection of the bill on the campaign trail. Let them stumble through explanations of why business owners should be allowed to make it more difficult for women to get the contraception they need… while the cameras roll. Let’s see all the Todd “legitimate rape” Akin clones snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

If Republicans were smart, they would do anything necessary to avoid debates on social issues this year. But they’re not smart. By opposing bills like this, they’ll just continue to push away female voters (and so many others) with their heartless, scientifically unsound, biblically-based thinking.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Tyler Perry Manages to Trademark ‘What Would Jesus Do’

Amid allegations of legal betrayal, TV and film producer Tyler Perry has succeeded in trademarking the well-worn phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”

Quips the progressive Christrian blogger Micah J. Murray:

Would Jesus wage a long and treacherous legal battle about what he would do? …

What does Mr. Perry plan to do with his newly-acquired trademark? One can only assume that he has invented a time machine, and this trademark is the final key in his plan to travel back to 1999 and get fabulously wealthy off of royalties from all those bracelets we were wearing in youth group.

More likely, of course, in what is sure to be another cultural high-water mark, Perry intends to launch a show or movie called Tyler Perry’s What Would Jesus Do or TPWWJD. Can’t wait.

(Image via Shutterstock)

New Atheist Billboard in Idaho Declares: “GOOD Works in Non-Mysterious Ways”

The Humanists of the Palouse are in the process of putting up five billboards in Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington that emphasize good over God:

In a direct rebuttal to the notion that God works in mysterious ways (which, when you think about it, means absolutely nothing at all), these billboards read, “GOOD works in non-mysterious ways.”

Janny Stratichuk, regional programs coordinator for the Humanists of the Palouse, stated, “The tongue-in-cheek statement is a take on the traditional and widely heard, ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ This religious phrase is often used as a last excuse when theism fails to provide clear results in the real world. While theism may offer hope and wishful thinking, human beings doing good makes a visible and tangible difference in our relationships, our communities, and our world.”

It’s a wonderful sentiment and one I’m sure super-sensitive Christians will find reason to object to within a day or two.

In 2012, the same Humanist group put up two other clever and positive billboards:

Watch These Pakistani Kids Play Suicide Bomber

Disturbing, to put it mildly.

Thank your lucky stars: at least they didn’t enact any cavorting with 72 virgins.

Contrary to News Reports, a Bank Teller Was Not Fired for Saying “Have a Blessed Day”

If you look at the headlines, you’d think Polly Neace got fired from her job at U.S. Bank just for telling customers, “Have a blessed day!”

Polly Neace tells WXIX-TV she said those words to all her customers. “I say ‘have a blessed day’ all of the time,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any better kind of day you can have than a blessed day.”

She’s filed a lawsuit against her employer, U.S. Bank, claiming she was discriminated against for her religious beliefs.

“I can’t back down from this. It’s the principle behind everything,” says Neace.

The stories certainly make it sound like that’s the only reason she was fired.

But if you dig into the lawsuit a little further, you see that her Christian blessing was only the mildest form of pushing her faith in the workplace. Look at how she treated one of her customers, according to her employer’s warning (grammar unchanged):

On Saturday, July 30th, a customer came into the branch to cash a check and when you asked for his signature he exclaimed “Oh Christ!” and you asked him “Did you just take the Lord’s name in vain?” and he answered you with “Jesus”. You again asked him “Did you just take the Lord’s name in vain?” and advised him that you wouldn’t tolerate him doing so in your presence and then proceeded to talk to him about salvation and telling him that it would be the most important decision he would ever make. You also quoted bible verses for him to read.

If you’re uncomfortable with someone taking the Lord’s name in vain in front of you, you tell your manager about the problem and have him or her deal with it. You don’t preach to a customer in response to an innocuous comment. That’s why Neace received a warning at work.

Later that year, around Christmas, Neace handed out “ministry cards” to her co-workers, prompting another warning from her employer. (The lawsuit mentions that Neace was told not to “discuss the subject of faith or religion with customers and co-workers alike.”)

And finally, the next April, after several incidents of customers complaining about her Christian comments and Neace telling her employers, “I might as well go ahead and tell customers have a blessed day,” they decided to fire her.

Neace wasn’t let go because she said a phrase as harmless as “bless you” after someone sneezes. It’s because she treated customers and co-workers like targets that needed to be converted, received multiple warnings to that effect, and ignored them all.

And what was her reaction to all that?

“I felt very persecuted,” Neace said.

That’s what Christian persecution looks like in America these days. It’s not that anyone was telling her she couldn’t be a Christian. It’s that they were asking her to do her job properly and take her boss’ warnings seriously. How dare they demand those perfectly-reasonable things from a Christian?!

(On a side note, I’m surprised by how this is news now, since Neace was fired in April of 2012 and the complaint was filed in August of 2013. That’s what happens on a slow news weekend, I guess.)

Here’s Why Pope Francis’ Meeting Yesterday with Sexual Abuse Victims Was Meaningless

Yesterday, Pope Francis met with six victims of Catholic-priest-initiated sexual abuse and assured them that bishops would be “held accountable” for not doing enough. But unless he starts pushing pedophile priests out of the Church and into the hands of the criminal justice system, those words really mean nothing.

Even CNN didn’t seem to take him seriously, with an initial headline missing a key word. (Accidentally, of course…) Neither did Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):

“Let’s not mistake this meeting today for real action,” SNAP President Barbara Blaine told CNN. “The meeting today will not make children safer.”

“I think that Pope Francis has yet to take strong action that will protect children and he could do that by firing the bishops who have been complicit and who are transferring predators,” she said.

What the Pope said sounds fine at the outset until you give it a deeper look:

Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.

I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves. This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it endangered other minors who were at risk.

On the other hand, the courage that you and others have shown by speaking up, by telling the truth, was a service of love, since for us it shed light on a terrible darkness in the life of the Church. There is no place in the Church’s ministry for those who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not. All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.

I hate that he uses the word “sin” to describe the crimes… and I especially hate that he uses it first, before “grave crimes.” As if sinning is the bigger problem here, that those priests let down God. Asking for forgiveness may be nice PR, but the Pope didn’t abuse anyone, nor was he in charge when these incidents took place. He’s not the person who needs to be forgiven.

But he would be moving in the right direction by removing all priests accused of sexual abuse from their parishes immediately, kicking them out of the Church altogether if they’re found guilty of abuse (or covering it up), and supporting harsh criminal sentences against anyone involved. Let’s see him support criminal charges against bishops who transferred pedophile priests to new locations. Let’s see him open up all the Vatican’s books to secular authorities instead of impeding their investigations by limiting access.

As it stands, Joe Paterno received a harsher penalty than some of these bishops who helped cover up child rape.

The time to ask for forgiveness was decades ago. The victims and their families deserve action, not wordplay. And those actions need to stem from the spiritual leader of the Church.

(Image via giulio napolitano / Shutterstock.com)

Married at First Sight, Reality Show Featuring Atheist Matchmaker, Premieres Tonight

Tonight marks the premiere of Married at First Sight on the new FYI network (formerly The Biography Channel). Harvard’s Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein is one of the four experts who will pair together three couples who agree to get married, sight-unseen.

The first episode is already online in case you’re curious. I know I was, so I watched the whole thing last night. It’s one of those shows that could theoretically be condensed into about five minutes. There are just a few moments you really want to see. Like when the contestants find out about the premise of the show…

… and when the couples see each for the first time at the altar.

Everything else is just filler. In that sense, it’s not that different from other matchmaking reality shows that have a surprise twist (think Joe Millionaire, the already-canceled I Wanna Marry “Harry”, or Superstar USA). But at least this show has good intentions, right?

I will say that I enjoyed the episode (and not just because I know Greg). If you don’t take it all that seriously, and you aren’t thinking about the sociological implications of the experiment, and you’re not lamenting how this is legal but gay marriage is still controversial in some places, and you aren’t questioning how “scientific” these matches really are, it’s one of those shows you can have on in the background and pay attention during the few moments when something interesting happens. Just don’t think too hard about it. (And don’t believe for a moment that these couples have any chance of remaining together.)

Secular Invocation Delivered in Groveland, Florida

Last night, Paul Tjaden delivered a secular invocation at a meeting of the Groveland City Council (in Florida):

Mr. Mayor, Members of the Town Council, and citizens of Groveland.

For tonight’s invocation I would ask that instead of bowing your heads you would just take a moment to look around at others who are here tonight. Fifty years ago, had you done that, the people you would be looking at would be people you had known most of your lives. They would be old friends from school or the church you attend on Sunday.

But since then, our community has seen incredible growth, with people moving here from other states and from countries around the world. We have citizens who are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, and people who profess no religious belief at all. I believe that any prayer in this diverse setting would cause at least some of our citizens to feel like outsiders, that they had entered a place where their requests or problems might be considered with suspicion or indifference because their beliefs differed from the majority.

Because of this and in respect to all of our citizens, I come before you to invoke the spirit of goodwill between all of us. To be sure, we do not agree about everything and we often feel fiercely protective of what we do believe. But there is one thing on which we all agree: We share the goal of making our community the best place it can be. We unite here with that aim and common purpose.

It is my hope that, at this council meeting and others, we will work together to make positive changes in our community. It is my hope that we challenge ourselves and others to improve our quality of life. It is my hope that respect is always extended to others. And it is my hope that logic and reason guide the decisions of all within and outside of this room.

Thank you.

Tjaden, who will also be delivering an invocation in Lake County this August, is a member of the Central Florida Freethought Community, a group that’s organizing several more secular invocations all over the state. You can see their running list — along with a compilation of transcripts of secular invocations around the country — right here.

(Thanks to CFFC’s David Williamson for the video and transcript)

Kentucky State Senator: Mars Has the Same Temperature as Earth, so Climate Change is a Hoax

I didn’t realize Kentucky was holding a contest to replace Rep. Louie Gohmert as the dumbest elected official when it comes to climate change. But apparently they are and they have a candidate who might defeat him: Republican State Senator Brandon Smith:

Smith is a member of the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, which met last Thursday to discuss new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that would limit carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants. Even though none of Kentucky’s coal plants would be shut down as a result, committee members were eager to point out that reason for the changes — to curb the effects of climate change — was pointless to begin with since it’s all a great big hoax:

“All this stems, this carbon capture, all this other stuff, it stems back to a scare, generated years ago about global warming,” said Rep. Stan Lee, a Republican from Fayette County. “Finally it turned out there hasn’t been global warming in 15 or 20 years, then they changed the name to climate change.”

…

[Rep.] Kevin Sinnette, a Democrat from Boyd County, complained that the discussion always seems to be about “save the bees, save the trees (and) save the whales.” He said climate has always been changing and the world adapts.

“The dinosaurs died,” he said. “The world adjusted.”

To quote the Wonkette blog, “No explanation was provided by Representative Sinnette as to how it is any comfort to humanity if we are the ones that go extinct.”

(The committee, by the way, is co-chaired by Democrat Jim Gooch, a climate change denier himself.)

But all of that was just a prelude to the unbelievable claim made by Sen. Smith to an official from the Energy and Environment Cabinet:

“I don’t see you as being one of the enemies. I know you’ve got a very tough job to do. As you sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and the constituents and stuff behind us. I don’t want to get into the debate about climate change, but I will simply point out that I think in academia, we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of. So I think what we’re looking at is something much greater than what we’re gonna do.”

I’ll repeat that: The temperature on Mars is the same as the temperature on Earth — no one will dispute that — but we don’t regulate coal mines and factories on Mars, so why are we bothering with that on Earth? We’re all part of academia here, amirite?!

I guess we’re all part of academia in the same way MIT and Liberty University are both colleges…

Just to point out the obvious, the average temperature on Earth is about 61° Fahrenheit. Mars, on the other hand, is -80° Fahrenheit. (I’m sure Smith just round that 140° difference down to 0.) And if you look at long-term trends, the temperature on Earth has indeed been rising.

Phil Plait also adds some sanity to the mix:

Ironically, if Mars ever did have the same temperature as Earth, it would be due to global warming from the greenhouse effect. The atmosphere of the Red Planet is less than 1 percent as thick as Earth’s, but it’s mostly carbon dioxide. That gas raises the planet’s temperature a few degrees. On Earth, given our distance from the Sun and other factors, the average temperature should hover around freezing. Thanks to greenhouse gases like CO2, it’s far more clement… but since we’re adding huge amounts of carbon dioxide to our air, it won’t stay that way for much longer.

What’s scary is that Brandon Smith has been in office for a while now, as LEO Weekly‘s Joe Sonka reminds us:

… Smith is an actual elected official in Kentucky’s state Senate, who has been elected to this position twice by real Kentucky voters, and served four terms in the House before that.

He’s the Majority Whip in the Senate, too, a position of at least some power. And, as we are well aware of now, he’s on a committee dealing with the environment despite thinking that climate change is a hoax due entirely to numbers he pulled out of his ass.

(Thanks to Kathleen for the link)