Category Archives: Religion

May 12, 2011 · 5:44 pm

Catholic Scholars To GOP Speaker Boehner: Your Agenda Defies ‘Church’s Most Ancient Moral Teachings’

I’m glad to see more and more religious leaders focusing on the hypocrisy of the Republican Budget process.

The GOP has counted on the Religious Right and Right to Lifers – including Catholics- to get them into office for years…

Then they ignore them and serve the Rich…

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ahead of the visit, dozens of faculty members from the school and other other Catholic universities are writing to Boehner — who is himself an observant Catholic — challenging his willingness to “gut” social programs while protecting “new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” of caring for the poor, they write:

“Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”

“The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.”

More:   ThinkProgress » Catholic Scholars To Boehner: Your Agenda Defies ‘Church’s Most Ancient Moral Teachings’ On Helping Poor.

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May 11, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Presbyterians Approve Ordination of Gay People

More progress….

It’s nice to see some of the mainstream denominations coming around….

Even if it did take them 33 years….

The times, they are a changing…

After 33 years of debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has voted to change its constitution and allow openly gay people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers, elders and deacons.

The outcome is a reversal from only two years ago, when a majority of the church’s regions, known as presbyteries, voted against ordaining openly gay candidates.

This time, 19 of the church’s 173 presbyteries switched their votes from no to yes in recent months. The Twin Cities presbytery, which covers Minneapolis and St. Paul, cast the deciding vote at its meeting on Tuesday. The vote was 205 to 56, with 3 abstentions.

Cynthia Bolbach, moderator of the church’s General Assembly, its highest legislative body, said in a phone interview from Minneapolis after the vote: “Everyone was civil. There was no applause, no cheering. It was just reflective of the fact that we are moving forward one other step.”

via Presbyterians Approve Ordination of Gay People – NYTimes.com.

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May 9, 2011 · 8:45 pm

LGBT “Welcome” Ad Rejected by Sojourners, Nation’s Premier Progressive Christian Org

This is truly sad…

This was an ad welcoming Gays and Lesbians to Church….

I was just beginning to think Sojourners was a different kind of Christian than the Crazy Fundamentalists…

But I guess they are either not being completely honest in their mission or are just scared…

Believe Out Loud is more than four years in the making. Virtually every mainline Protestant LGBT denominational advocacy group is a partner, making it a credible place for church leaders to turn for help on this issue. We have asked ourselves why Sojourners, a preeminent voice for justice in the religious community, rejected our ad buy. Does the organization not really believe in welcome for “everyone” in our churches or do they believe everyone is welcome, but they are afraid to “believe out loud” for fear of alienating some constituents? On one level, it doesn’t really matter. Their dilemma, apparently, is a ringing testimony for both the urgency and the necessity of this campaign since the issues they confronted are similar to those that face congregational leaders in addressing this concern within their settings. In recent years, American society has made significant strides forward towards full equality for LGBT persons. Tragically, the church has lagged well behind. Clearly, there is more work to be done.

More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/09/progressive-christian-gro_n_859695.html

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May 3, 2011 · 8:52 pm

Jim Caviezel Claims “The Passion of the Christ” made Him a Hollywood Outcast

It sounds to me, all these years after he played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” that Jim Caviezel still hasn’t yet climbed down off the cross…..

And I hate to tell him, but Mel Gibson isn’t the best source for career advice….

And perhaps he should also consider that there are other factors in play-

Like the fact that maybe he’s just not that good of an actor…

Or is too much of a self-centered, self-important, paranoid personality even for Hollywood…

It also sounds like he’s made the career change to Professional Christian….

It probably pays better than acting- at least it did for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson…

And it’s not all that different from acting….

From The Guardian:

“He said, ‘You’ll never work in this town again.’ I told him, ‘We all have to embrace our crosses,'” said Caviezel. He added: “Jesus is as controversial now as he has ever been. Not much has changed in 2,000 years.”

A passionate Christian, Caviezel told the audience at the First Baptist Church of Orlando he had learned to accept that the destruction of his acting career was a price worth paying. “We have to give up our names, our reputations, our lives to speak the truth,” he said. Though he labelled Gibson “a horrible sinner”, he said the actor turned film-maker should not be vilified. “Mel Gibson doesn’t need your judgment, he needs your prayers,” Caviezel said.

The Passion of the Christ was an enormous box office hit in 2004, taking more than $600m worldwide after attracting huge numbers of religious filmgoers. However, it was also the source of controversy with some critics accusing Gibson of antisemitism. Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News called it “the most virulently antisemitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II”.

via Jim Caviezel claims The Passion of the Christ made him a Hollywood outcast | Film | guardian.co.uk.

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April 14, 2011 · 8:37 pm

Woe to You, Legislators! Or Ayn Rand vs the Bible

Great Blog post from Jim Wallis at Sojourners….

I’m not much for organized religion, but I like a lot of what this guy has to say…

I’ll let the excerpt speak for itself and encourage you to click the link to his full post…

It is reported that Congressman Paul Ryan makes every member of his staff read philosopher Ayn Rand, the shameless promoter of the gospel of aggressive self-interest. This makes sense to me as I read Congressman Ryan’s new budget proposal. I wish he had his staff reading the Bible instead.

While widely lauded by conservatives, Congressman Ryan’s budget isn’t really about deficit reduction. It’s about choices — choices that will determine what kind of a country we become. And Paul Ryan has made the choice to hurt people who don’t have the political clout to defend themselves. Two-thirds of the long-term budget cuts that Ryan proposed are directed at modest and low-income people, as well as the poorest of the poor at home and abroad. At the same time, he proposed tax cuts up to 30 percent for some of our country’s wealthiest corporations. Let me say that again: Two-thirds of the cuts come at the expense of already struggling people and families, while corporations posting record profits get tax breaks. In short, the most vulnerable members of society are being attacked by Ryan and his supporters. This makes them bullies.

In dramatic contrast, Ryan has chosen to help the people who need help the least. Wealthy individuals and companies reap a windfall of benefits in Ryan’s plan — with tax cuts and breaks, continued subsidies and loopholes for every powerful special interest, and increased corporate welfare payments from the government. Congressman Ryan and his supporters have carefully and faithfully rewarded the rich people who make their campaign contributions, and, in most cases, have also rewarded themselves as rich people. This makes them corrupt.

And, as self-professed budget hawks, they have completely ignored the most consistently egregious, wasteful, and morally compromised area of the whole federal budget — our endless and unaccountable military spending. Paul Ryan and the Republicans would cut nothing from the Pentagon profligacy. This makes them hypocrites.

via Woe to You, Legislators! – Jim Wallis – God’s Politics Blog.

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April 6, 2011 · 11:17 pm

Passover: If Moses Had Had the Internet…

As Passover approaches, this seemed very appropriate…

And appropriately cool and entertaining…

Hat tip AmericaBlog where I first saw it:

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March 28, 2011 · 8:37 pm

The Bible vs The Koran, Christians vs Muslims

Very interesting column from Leonard Pitts….

You’ll have to click the link to get your results and read the rest of the column…

OK, put your books away. We’re having a pop quiz.

Below are four quotes. Each is from one of two sources: the Bible or the Koran, although, just to make things interesting, there’s also a chance all four are from one book. Two were edited for length and one of those was also edited to remove a religion-specific reference. Your job: identify the holy book of origin. Ready? Go:

1) “. . . Wherever you encounter [non-believers], kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for them at every lookout post . . .”

2) “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

3) “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods’ . . . do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death.”

4) “Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.”

All right, pens down. How did you do?

via Here’s reason for us to fear fear itself – Leonard Pitts Jr. – MiamiHerald.com.

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March 26, 2011 · 10:03 am

Obesity Rates Higher Among Churchgoers | AlterNet

Another reason I steer clear of organized Religion….

It just isn’t healthy…

Young people who are active in their religion are more likely to become obese by the time they reach middle age, according to a new study. Participants who go to church at least once a week were found to be about twice as likely to have a higher body mass index than those who attended infrequently or not at all.

The LA Times reports:

Young adults age 20 to 32 who were on the high end of religious involvement were 50% more likely to be obese by the time they hit middle age compared with those in the “none” category. This was true even after researchers adjusted for sex, age, race, education, income and the participants’ body mass index at the start of the study.

More about the research, which was presented at an American Heart Association conference, from CNN:

“Churches pay more attention to obvious vices like smoking or drinking,” said Matthew Feinstein, lead author of the research and fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Our best guess about why is that…more frequent participation in church is associated with good works and people may be rewarding themselves with large meals that are more caloric in nature than we would like.”

The [research] involved 2,433 people enrolled in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. The group was tested – at first between 20 and 32 years old – for various cardiovascular disease risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and smoking. Those same tests were repeated in the same group over the next 25 years.

CNN quotes a pastor in Chicago who suggests two factors that may be involved: the disappearance of church-sponsored sports leagues, and that church attendance will often displace involvement in less sedentary activities.

via Obesity Rates Higher Among Churchgoers | AlterNet.

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March 25, 2011 · 11:14 pm

Elizabeth Taylor, Al Jazeera and the Raid on Entebbe | The Nation

A little known bit of history that even I had forgotten…

When Elizabeth Taylor died, Al Jazeera English reported that her greatest role was Cleopatra.

They didn’t report that she had offered herself as a hostage at Entebbe in exchange for the 100 hijack victims held by terrorists at that airport in Uganda in 1976. The terrorists turned down the deal, and then Israeli commandos freed the hostages.

“The Jewish people will always remember” Taylor’s offer—that’s what the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Simcha Dinitz said in 1977, according to CNN.

Taylor had converted to Judaism in 1959, when she was 27 years old—Time magazine reported that she had taken the Jewish name “Elisheba Rachel Taylor.” Raised as a Christian Scientist, Taylor converted in part under the influence of her third husband, producer Mike Todd—“born Avrom Goldbogen,” as Time explained, “grandson of a Polish rabbi.”

The year after her Entebbe hostage trade offer, 1977, she married John Warner, who then ran for the Senate from Virginia as a Republican—she campaigned for him actively, and her star power was credited with his narrow victory. Warner reportedly resented being called “Mr. Elizabeth Taylor.”

But life as a Republican political wife in Washington made her “a drunk and a junkie,” she later said, and in 1983 she checked into the Betty Ford clinic.  The rest is history.

via Elizabeth Taylor, Al Jazeera and the Raid on Entebbe | The Nation.

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March 22, 2011 · 9:15 pm

More Pole Dancing for Jesus

Here is a longer clip of the news story out of Houston…

This is not a joke…

I’m still speechless…

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