Christianity

Religion And Prejudice: Again Evident In Reaction To Boy Scout Decision to Admit Gay Youths

Ronald 11 Comments

The news that the Boy Scouts Of America will allow gay youths as members is a half step, as it still bans gay youths once they reach 18, and gay scout leaders, and that will have to be adjusted over time.

But it is extremely disturbing to see Religion being utilized to promote prejudice, bias, hate and discrimination against gays, as if they choose to be gay!

So we see the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church, and evangelical Christians employing very “Unchristian” values, and also Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Muslims, refusing to recognize how many of each religious group are gay, including some of the protesting leaders, who are “in the closet”, and are true hypocrites!

And it is disturbing that one family, as an example, with five sons, is removing all of them from scouting, as, supposedly, the children asked to be removed, and if that is so, that means they have been taught to hate and to despise gay people, when they will have to cope with plenty of them over a lifetime!

And who can be sure that some of these kids, or others, are secretly gay, and totally paranoid and fearful of being found out, and might cause them to commit suicide because of their guilt and their burden that they know they will NOT be accepted by their own parents and other family members?

This is all very sick and disturbing, but after all, we all know that elements of organized Christianity were infamous for nativism, racism, sexism, and antisemitism in american history! So what else is new?

Fortunately, the number of young people who accept gays is a clear majority and growing, and organized religion is losing adherents rapidly, so when the more devout and older bigots in society pass from the scene, we will have a much more tolerant and open minded society, free of their prejudice, hatred, and bias!

A First: Two Vietnam War Veterans In Charge Of Our Foreign And Defense Policies

Ronald 15 Comments

Here we are, 40 years after the Paris Peace Accords ended US involvement in Vietnam, and we finally have two Vietnam War veterans in charge of our State Department and Defense Department, with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts taking over the State Department on Friday, and former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska facing a Senate confirmation hearing tomorrow, in which he will be challenged by critics who never served in Vietnam, and could best be described as “chicken hawks”!

Hagel will have a rough reception, but he will be confirmed, rightfully, and he and Kerry will bring a different perspective to our foreign and military policies, the concept of thinking clearly and moving toward confrontation and engagement only when absolutely necessary for our national security and safety.

Kerry and Hagel are a repudiation of neoconservatism, which sees engagement in wars overseas as always a good thing, and constantly looking for places to send military force to promote American capitalist values and Christianity, and in so doing, antagonizing much of the “third world” nations of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. That is why they are fighting so hard to stop Hagel, but they will fail to do that.

Kerry and Hagel know the horrors of war and the reality of military life, and Hagel has war wounds to prove it. They will be excellent advisers to President Barack Obama, and will help to promote sanity in our foreign and military policies. May we wish both of them good fortune as they chart the course of America at a time when rational, sane behavior is essential for America’s revival from a decade of war and economic turmoil.

Senator Tim Scott Of South Carolina: Just What The Senate Does NOT Need!

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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has just announced the appointment of Congressman Tim Scott, who is African American, to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint, who resigned to become the head of the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation.

DeMint was the leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the US Senate, and his replacement by Scott, who is in the vein of defeated one term Florida Congressman Allen West, is in many ways, even worse than DeMint.

Scott is no Edward Brooke, African American Senator from Massachusetts from 1967-1979, who served credibly as a moderate Republican, the first popularly elected African American Senator, and received a Congressional Medal of Honor and a US Mint Medal struck in his honor a few years ago, a medal the author is proud to own. Brooke, now past 90, is a true credit to the US Senate and his race!

Scott is a right wing Tea Party activist, who has advocated the impeachment of President Obama; called for the cutting of food stamps to children; helped to push through cuts in services to HIV/AIDS patients in South Carolina; has backed large subsidies to Big Oil; and has promoted the idea of the Ten Commandments being on the walls of every government building in South Carolina.

This man is a right wing extremist, who will have no success in convincing African Americans to become Republicans, as he comes across as a firebrand, who will undermine any chance of compromise by House or Senate Republicans on any issue over the next two years.

He is the equivalent of Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, another African American who has turned against civil rights, and gone over to the white conservative establishment of the Republican Party, but can do a lot of damage, as Thomas has done repeatedly, including conflicts of interest on many cases brought before the Court.

Scott will not be a quiet freshman, and in many ways, will be a nightmare who will plague the Senate, and probably have a long career in a state which has gone so right wing and loony that its poverty stricken black and white population will suffer, but always with the thought that they are following the teachings of Jesus Christ, which they most certainly are NOT doing!

Momentous Day As Supreme Court Chooses To Pass Judgment On Gay Marriage!

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Today has been a very momentous day, as the United States Supreme Court has chosen to accept two cases on gay marriage, one involving the constitutionality of the Defense Of Marriage Act of 1996, and the other the validity of the passage of Proposition 8 in California, banning gay marriage.

This could be the blockbuster case of the present term, when it is decided in late June of 2013, after oral arguments in March.

This matter brings to mind the Loving V Virginia case of 1967, when the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of interracial couples to be able to marry, a very controversial and divisive case in the age of the Civil Rights Movement.

It should be pointed out that many Southerners and Christian religious leaders opposed interracial marriage bitterly, but once it was settled by the Supreme Court, the issue was moot.

The same opposition, heavily Southern and religiously based, is now vehemently against gay marriage, but the tides of history are going against a continuation of discrimination.

If gay marriage is accepted by the Court, after already being legal in nine states, no religious group would be required to marry a gay couple, but they could be married civilly by a judge or county clerk, or hire someone who is legally qualified to marry couples.

The belief is strong that the Court will rule at least 5-4, if not 6-3, for gay marriage rights, with the four Democratic appointments to the Court—Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan—voting for the majority, along with Justice Anthony Kennedy, and possibly Chief Justice John Roberts.

Kennedy is the key vote, but since he supported the right of gays to privacy in the Lawrence V. Texas case in 2003, and was, indeed, the decisive fifth vote, it is believed he will take a step further in support of this major step forward.

Roberts is an unknown quantity, but after his surprising vote for ObamaCare in June, it is believed he might join the majority on this significant case.

So now, ten years later, it looks likely that the Court will have evolved further, and the right of anyone to marry who they love will be guaranteed as a basic civil right.

This is basic social justice, and a majority in public opinion polls, and particularly the younger generation, support gay marriage.

No one is saying that there cannot be people who oppose gay marriage, but society does not have the right to use their prejudices and religious views to deny basic human rights to others!

UN Disabled Treaty Rejected By US Senate: The Shame Of The Senate!

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A United Nations Disabled Treaty, to promote human rights and security for the disabled world wide, negotiated and agreed to by the George W. Bush Administration; reaffirmed by the Barack Obama Administration; backed by disabled Republican Senators and Presidential nominees John McCain and Bob Dole and many other reasonable Republicans in and out of government—sadly was defeated today in the US Senate by a vote of 61 in favor, 38 against, with a two thirds vote (or 66 out of 99 votes) required.

This is to the shame of the Senate, as only eight Republicans joined all of the Democrats and two Independents, to support the treaty.

Blame for the defeat goes heavily to wingnut former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the so called “runner up” to Mitt Romney in the 2012 Presidential nomination battle, who organized opposition from outside, but had willing participants from sitting Senators of his party, who did not care to insult McCain and Dole and all disabled citizens.

The crazy argument of Santorum and others was that the treaty would take away power from parents over home schooling and medical care, when nothing could be further from the truth!

If this lunatic and wingnut is allowed to be the Presidential nominee of his party in 2016 by so called “inheritance”, it will be the final demise of the Republican Party as we knew it, and a new party will arise in its ashes!

Meanwhile, the human rights of the disabled have been harmed by the short sightedness and religious extremism of a determined minority which does not promote the true beliefs or teachings of Jesus Christ, but instead distort them, and promote hate and division!

Eight Poor, Backward States Reject Expansion Of Medicaid For Their Poor, Sick, Disabled And Elderly Citizens: Reprehensible!

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Eight states, among the poorest in the nation, and mostly in the South, have now seen their Governors and Republican legislatures reject an expansion of the Medicaid program, which is so desperately needed by their poor, sick, disabled, and elderly citizens, an absolutely reprehensible development!

The states are Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Maine.

2.8 million people will suffer, with half of them being in Texas. So this means that Governors ranging from Rick Perry, Nikki Haley, Paul LePage to Bobby Jindal, all except LePage having shown interest in running for President, have taken a hard stand against those less fortunate!

It is unbelievable that in 21st century America that we could have such backward leaders of states, who show contempt for their own citizens, and yet are likely to be reelected by an ignorant, uncaring population, and in states where, with the exception of Maine, the population claims to be “religious” and “good Christians”, but defy the message of their faith, to care for the poor and disadvantaged!

Paul Ryan Vice Presidential Pick Creates Most Ideological Election Since 1964!

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The decision of Mitt Romney to select Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, head of the House Budget Committee, as his Vice Presidential running mate, throws down the gauntlet clearly for all voters!

This election will be the most ideological election since the Lyndon B. Johnson-Barry Goldwater race of 1964!

It is a clear cut attempt of the right wing—-the Tea Party Movement, the social conservatives, and the economic conservatism of Fox News Channel, The Wall Street Journal, The National Review, and The Weekly Standard—to destroy the New Deal and Great Society!

It is a war on senior citizens, minorities, women, the poor, the middle class, in favor of the elite wealthy two percent, the corporations, the privileged, who want to destroy the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!

It is the triumph of Ayn Rand, who promoted selfishness, greed, and lack of concern for our fellow citizens, in the mad dash to only promote one’s own interests!

It is an attempt to bring back the Gospel of Wealth of industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the Gilded Age!

It is the promotion of arrogance, selfishness, greed, a mean spirited nature, and false claims of promoting the so called message of Jesus Christ as not caring about the sick, the poor, the disadvantaged! Catholic nuns and open minded Protestant groups have condemned Ryan’s call for ending food stamps and other assistance to poor children, and his push to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, while wishing to give more tax cuts to the elite wealthy!

So the battle is on, and the election, which seemed to have no focus, has become very focused, and it is a battle for the middle and lower classes, and it is a battle that cannot afford to be lost, because if President Barack Obama loses, the “American Dream” will be destroyed, as we allow an oligarchy, which already has too much power and concentration of wealth, to seize control of all wealth and property, and make us closer to Fascism than at any time since the defeat of Fascism in World War II!

The Founding Fathers And Religious Intolerance

Ronald 4 Comments

Having spent the past few days touring Presidential homes of the Founding Fathers in Virginia, it becomes ever more clear how they viewed organized religion.

All of the great Founding Fathers were born of the Christian faith, one sect or another, but all were skeptical of organized religion, being very educated and learned about the history of Christianity, which had included mass murder, bloodshed, violence, and holy wars against Islam, and promotion of antisemitism against Jews.

So George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe all were not regular church goers, and in many respects were Deists, having given up on organized religious trappings.

The Adamses, John and John Quincy, also had similar views, as did Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.

If they had been here in today’s world, witnessing the bias, prejudice, and hate promoted by SOME Christian groups in the name of Jesus, they would be totally disgusted for sure!

The 2012 Farm Bill: Favoring Big Agriculture, But Cutting Food Stamps As “Waste, Fraud And Abuse”!

Ronald 1 Comment

The 2012 Farm Bill is becoming the center of controversy as House Republicans are proposing major cuts in Food Stamps, while favoring Sugar, Cotton, and Dairy producers with subsidies that are not truly needed, as farm prices are better, and farm income is at historic levels!

So again, the Republicans are trashing food stamps, as “waste, fraud, and abuse”, while not seeing the same with Big Agriculture!

The fact that poor children are the majority on food stamps, along with the elderly and single mothers, has no effect on the mean spirited Tea Party Republicans!

They would argue that some people on food stamps “abuse” the system, and no one is denying that there is likely some abuse, a few percent, maybe, but there is far greater abuse by agricultural interests who do not need subsidies in good times, but have lobbyists who can fight for them, while poor people, who would be denied necessary nutrition, do not have that advantage.

The fact that school breakfasts and school lunches for the poorest children will be cut dramatically has no effect on the Republicans in Congress.

The fact that lack of good nutrition can stunt the growth and health of children has no effect either.

The fact that the food stamp program is a minor part of the Farm bill and farm programs does not phase these members of the majority in the House of Representatives.

No, they would rather trash the poor, kick them down when they are down, and lack concern for children that they constantly fight for to be born, no matter what, but once they are born, to hell with what happens to them and their mothers, and also to hell with the elderly, who have their lives shortened by poor nutrition, leading to bad health, as well!

And yet, these Republicans are good church goers on the Sabbath!

What hypocrisy, which Jesus Christ would condemn, as he cared about the poor, and did not see religion as based on the acquisition of wealth, and the promotion of selfishness and greed, and lack of concern for thy fellow human being!

Trying To Decipher The “Republican” Brain: Crazy, Lacking In Reality And Ethics

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Republicans used to be a reputable major political party, and have a lot to be proud of in their history of 158 years.

But there is little to be proud of in 2012, as Republicans seem to have lost their minds, their ethics, their morality, their ability to understand reality!

How else to explain the following:

A vast majority of Republicans believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya, is a Muslim, is a Socialist, a Fascist, a Communist, and wishes to destroy America.

The deficit issue began with Barack Obama, ignoring $2 trillion investment in failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and $1.3 trillion in tax cuts to the top two percent of the population under George W. Bush.

The Federal budget can be balanced with only program cuts, not tax increases ever again.

Global warming is a hoax, and evolution is just a theory, and God will always protect all of us from harm from the climate, and mankind walked the earth alongside dinosaurs.

Iraq caused September 11, and we found Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

Since there is no body, how do we know that Osama Bin Laden was really killed by US Navy Seals?

Contraception is evil, and knowledge to adolescents about sex is evil, and it is all a plot to promote gay sex and abortions.

All Hispanics and Latinos are illegal immigrants, and they are all criminal elements that must be deported en masse.

Barack Obama is easily the most corrupt President we have ever had in American history, including Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush.

The collapse of Wall Street in 2008 was due to too much regulation, and was caused by Democrats and liberals.

The entire New Deal and Great Society is unconstitutional, and needs to be repealed, and return us to the days of states rights, instead of a powerful national government.

America was designed to be a theocracy, and we are a Christian Republic, and if we follow Jesus Christ, we will be just fine.

Science is atheism, and should be dismissed as propaganda to turn America away from God and Jesus Christ.

The list goes on, but this is enough to tell any sane person that the GOP has gone amuck in its craziness about the real world we live in!