Thursday, April 04, 2013 9:09:50 AM
Catholic League On Bill Maher's 'Anti-Catholic' Jokes: Time Warner Must Have 'A Serious Talk' With Him
By Carol Hartsell
Posted: 03/27/2013 5:04 pm EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 2:46 pm EDT
The Catholic League is mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore. Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time", has apparently made one too many jabs at the expense of Catholics, particularly priests, and the League has decided it's time for it to stop.
Ever since Pope Benedict announced he was resigning, Maher has found plenty of fodder for material. He told Catholics during his "New Rules" section of the February 15 episode of "Real Time", "If the Pope can quit, it’s okay for you to quit too." He then went on to discuss the resignation saying, "Now…as you all know, this week, Pope Benedict told Vatican Radio... he was going to resign because the Church needs a fresh, young face, somewhere other than a priest’s lap."
It's jokes like that which have continuously angered members of the Catholic League. In a letter to Glenn A. Britt, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable, League president Bill Donohue demands that someone have "a serious talk" with Maher.
Donohue's letter [ http://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/letter-to-Time-Warner-CEO1.pdf ] reads in part:
There is no other entertainer in the nation who has repeatedly spoken about the Catholic Church, especially its priests, in more vile and obscene terms than Bill Maher. Vicious beyond belief, his remarks would be condemned – indeed he would be fired – if directed at any other demographic group. Over and over again he libels [sic] priests, portraying all of them as sexual abusers. And he does so with impunity.
The letter was accompanied by another document entitled "Bill Maher's History of Anti-Catholicism, 1998-2013 [ http://www.catholicleague.org/bill-mahers-history-of-anti-catholicism-1998-2013-2/ (next below)]". The report quotes 39 instances of Maher making jokes critical of Catholicism, priests, the pope and religion in general, from his "Politically Incorrect" days up through his most recent episode of "Real Time":
What other business could you be in where your company gets caught running a child sex ring since forever and you still keep your customers?
Maher, a self-described agnostic who was raised Catholic, has made his anti-religious views one of the motifs of his comedy and political commentary over the years. He sits on the advisory board for Project Reason [ http://www.project-reason.org/ ], a "nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society." In his 2008 film "Religulous", he took a mocking look at all faiths, ultimately calling for more religious skepticism.
Nevertheless, Donohue maintains that Catholicism has been unduly singled out by Maher to a degree that demands Time Warner Cable's attention. The letter continues:
Catholics need to know just how far Time Warner is prepared to play the role of spectator. Does stewardship not count at all? HBO has been contacted many times, but nothing changes.... The time has come for someone in a position of responsibility to sit down and have a serious talk with this man.
Founded in 1973, the Catholic League [ http://www.catholicleague.org/ ] is "the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization", seeking to defend "the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination."
However, Donohue's letter may be incorrectly addressed, as Time Warner Cable split off from Time Warner (HBO's parent company) in 2009. So Britt, who is speculated to step down from the cable company at the end of this year anyway, has no authority over Maher, anyway.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/catholic-league-decries-bill-maher-anti-catholic-jokes_n_2965645.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Bill Maher’s History of Anti-Catholicism, 1998-2013
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
For Religious and Cvil Rights
Special Report
March 2013
March 26, 2013 by admin
March 22, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Pope Francis: After labeling the pope a “virgin bachelor,” Maher opined, “What other business could you be in where your company gets caught running a child sex ring since forever and you still keep your customers?”
March 15, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: After displaying pictures of notable persons holding signs mocking themselves, Maher showed a picture of the pope emeritus holding a sign saying, “Not actually sick…I just hated that f***ing job.”
February 15, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI: “Now…as you all know, this week, Pope Benedict told Vatican Radio—you know, Vatican Radio, playing the hits from the 8th century, 9th century and today—Benedict told them he was going to resign because the Church needs a fresh, young face, somewhere other than a priest’s lap.”
“It’s okay to let go. No one can fault you for losing faith in an organization that won’t even allow women as priests, because, the reasoning goes, Jesus didn’t have any female apostles. Yeah, you remember the Last Supper: a total sausage party.
“The fact is that any enterprise that excludes women almost always descends into sexual deviancy. At least at my bathhouse.”
“Show me any culture that’s traditionally hostile to women, and I will show you a culture that is screwed up. Like the Taliban. Like our military with its enormous rape problem. And like the Catholic Church.”
February 11, 2013, “Conan” [TBS], smearing priests: “We found early this year or last year in the Republican primaries when the Republicans made contraception an issue, 98% of Catholics use birth control and the only ones who don’t are the priests. They would if altar boys could get pregnant.”
October 12, 2012, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the vice presidential debate between Congressman Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden: “I have not seen an old Catholic guy give it to a young Catholic guy like that since since I was an altar boy.”
May 20, 2011, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: Maher and his panel of guests discussed the release of the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church. Maher branded all priests as abusers and falsely claimed that the report blamed the 60s for the abuse scandal.
Maher said, “Here is what they found: Not as bad as you think; it magically solved itself one day in 1985…. And the Church isn’t the problem, celibacy isn’t the problem, repressed homosexuality isn’t the problem. You know what the problem was? The 60s… I’m not kidding, they said it was the permissive attitude of the 60s.”
March 11, 2011, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on a Catholics Come Home ad campaign: “The Catholic Church is changing. We get it. You don’t want us touching your kids. Message received. This chart shows alleged inappropriate behavior toward children since 90 AD. (Chart shows arrow going up every year) When we first started keeping records. We are going to bring those numbers down. We are not miracle workers but here is our pledge to you. You bring your kids back to church and there will be a significantly lower chance that he or she will be inappropriately touched—particularly she. And if one of our priests does touch one of your kids, you will dine absolutely free at Long John Silver’s. We’re the new Catholic Church and we know it’s time to roll up our sleeves and pull up our pants.”
October 19, 2010, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” [MSNBC], on gay priests: “What’s interesting to me is the way conservatives—and I would put the military in this lately in the way they’ve been talking about it and the Catholic Church talk about gay as if it’s something that we really can’t resist if it’s around us. You know, that’s how the Catholic Church talks about it. You know, our priests are not sinning, they’re just giving into temptation when they’re molesting children and going gay and stuff like that.”
September 28, 2010, “Joy Behar Show” [HLN], on having faith: “Religion is all about sticking in fingers in your ears and humming. They don’t want to hear what the reality is. They want to believe what they believe. It’s—it’s not about critical thinking. I mean, faith is the purposeful suspension of critical thinking.”
“I don’t know if anybody could read the Bible and still want to be a religious person. It is a book that is filled with immorality, wickedness, and then just plain silliness.”
September 28, 2010, “Joy Behar Show” [HLN], on the Bible: “But it is a lot of wickedness, there’s a lot God acting like a psychopath and just ethnically cleansing people and wiping people out…. I was pointing out on the show Friday night the Ten Commandments. You know, this is the ultimate list of the ten things right from God and it doesn’t include rape, incest, or genocide. That’s ok. That’s not on the top ten. But apparently swearing, working on Sunday and building statues to other gods, those are the things that are important.”
November 19, 2008, “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” [NBC], on Proposition 8: Leno: “I don’t know how two people getting married will suddenly ruin my marriage. I was told this will ruin my marriage. If two gay people—how? What does it matter to me?”
Maher: “It doesn’t matter. And of course it’s all coming from religion, which is ironic because Jesus never said anything about homosexuality in the Bible. And, you know, what if Jesus was gay? I am not saying he was. But it wouldn’t make him any worse. I mean, it could be. He was a gentle guy, never got married. Every prayer ends with ‘ah, men.’ I’m just—What? What did I say?”
November 14, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on priest saying he would withhold Communion for people who voted for Obama: “A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his congregation: if you voted for Obama you can’t receive Communion. That’s right, the cracker won’t let you get the cracker. He said supporting Obama constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil. Then he proceeds to pass around the plate so everyone could chip in to pay off the child f***ing lawsuits.”
April 11, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking pope as Nazi and accusing him of covering up for molester: “And, finally, New Rule: Whenever you combine a secretive compound, religion and weirdos in pioneer outfits, there’s going to be some child f***ing going on. In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as ‘God’s infallible wing man’ here on earth, lock away the kids.
“Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound. And this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That’s right. The pope is coming to America this week, and, ladies, he’s single!
“Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Bill, you can’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult! For one thing, altar boys can’t even get pregnant.’
“But, really, what tripped up the ‘little cult on the prairie’ was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided. Religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!
“If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you ‘pope.’
“It’s like if you can’t pay your mortgage, you’re a deadbeat, but if you can’t pay a million mortgages, you’re Bear Stearns, and we bail you out. And that’s who the Catholic Church is, the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia. Too big to fail.
“When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out. And that’s the Church’s attitude: ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.’
“Which is fine. Far be it from me to criticize religion. But, just remember one thing: if the pope was, instead of a religious figure, merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of daycare centers where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he’d be arrested faster than you can say, ‘Who wants to touch Mister Wiggle?’”
February 8, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Mother Teresa: When Maher said, “Mother Teresa, who we found out recently, actually lost her faith,” Bob Costas then said Mother Teresa questioned her faith from time to time; she didn’t lose it entirely. Maher responded, “Well, but it’s Mother Teresa. Kind of like finding out Colonel Sanders doesn’t eat chicken.”
February 4, 2008, “Larry King Live” [CNN], on being an anti-Catholic bigot: “They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don’t have it out especially for Catholics. I think all religions are koo-koo. Ok? It’s not just the Catholics. I’m not a bigot. Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn’t make me a bigot. I also wish for [the] demise of Hamas and the KKK.”
January 25, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the Virgin Birth: “But I think it is much more likely that there could be space ships from outer space, than what a lot of things people believe. People still believe, you know, excuse me I know I may inject religion into every show but UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman…”
January 4, 2008, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” [NBC], attacking religious faith and the Eucharist: “You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”
August 17, 2007, “Larry King Live” [CNN], on the release of his movie “Religulous”: “It should come out at Easter. I would like it out as soon as the time people are celebrating the space man’s flying up to heaven.”
May 22, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking Catholicism, mixing it with homosexual themes: “And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I’ll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me – I don’t know how she got past the guards – and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in the confessional. Gay men, don’t say you’re life partners; say you’re a nunnery of two. ‘We weren’t having sex, officer, I was performing a very private Mass, here in my car. I was letting my rod and staff comfort him. Take this and eat of it, for this is my roommate Barry. And for all those who believe there is a special place for you in Kevin.’”
April 16, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], discussing religion and drugs: “Religion is bad, drugs are good.” On all religions: “Childish, destructive and nonsense.”
April 13, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking the Eucharist: Maher showed a pictured of Keith Richards and said, “New Rule, snorting your father isn’t crazy.” Then, he showed a picture of a Catholic priest giving Communion and said, “Eating your father, that’s crazy.”
April 8, 2005, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], mocking the death of Pope John Paul II: “The Pope may be cold but this crowd is hot.”
“The Pope was laid to rest just as he requested, in a pine box with his drum sticks, an Allen Iverson jersey and then Bono came and poured Jack Daniels on the coffin.”
“People waited in line for 24 hours to see the Pope’s body and when they got to see the Pope they smelled worse than he did.”
“For those who could not make the funeral the Vatican has asked that in lieu of flowers just stop touching your d***.”
“American Catholics say, ‘We love the pope, he should be a saint but he is kind of full of sh*t on everything we believe.’”
“For a church that is so against homosexuals they put on a pageant that you could not believe.”
May 2003, “Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home,” Maher’s Broadway show: “What’s the reason for this insanity?” Maher had been discussing Islam. “One word: religion. The Catholics got away with f***ing kids.” When the audience gave a mixed reaction, he said, “Oh come on! Get the rod out of your a**!” He then impersonated an altar boy saying to a priest, “Put some more lotion on, Father,” and said, “Holy lubricant, Father!”
“Don’t regulate drugs: regulate religion. I was raised Catholic and I was not molested. I’m a little insulted. Apparently, I wasn’t attractive enough.”
“The problem is they drill religion into your head when you are very young. Well, when you are four years old you believe in Santa Claus, too. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, the Virgin Birth, sure! When you’re a priest everyday spewing this bulls*** about the apple and the snake etc. you can see him just saying, ‘Ah, f*** it, just blow me, kid!’”
“It’s so gay, the Church! With the robes and the smoke and kneeling in front of the priest with your mouth open eating God.”
“How does a country get away with keeping half its population in beekeeper suits? I’ll tell you how. They say the magic word: religion. It’s their religion. You say religion, you can get away with anything. The Catholics got away with f***ing kids, for crying out loud!”
June 20, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the canonization of Padre Pio: “Pope John Paul canonized him and the reason it sticks in my craw is because it just seems like they needed a saint badly, because they had a lot of bad P.R. with the whole, you know, we’re having sex with kids thing.”
June 5, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], responding to a guest who had said that no one wants to see the Catholic Church go away: “Well, no, I’d love to see the Church go away. And there are lots of people who would.”
May 22, 2002, on “Larry King Live” [CNN], on the Catholic Church: “Well, I wasn’t raised Jewish. My mother is Jewish. But I never even knew I was half-Jewish until I was a teenager. I was just so frightened about the Catholics and everything that was going on there in the church—and I was never, you know, molested or anything. And I’m a little insulted. I guess they never found me attractive. And that’s really their loss.”
May 10, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church: “So it is in this spirit that I offer this modest proposal that the Catholic Church just drop the pretense and just go gay. Just come out of the confessional. Preach the sermon on the mountain. Embrace it. Let the straight people be Baptists. It’s high time you gay Catholics stood up and announced to the world, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get Eucharist.’”
May 7, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on sex abuse settlements: “I am not defending the Church. I have hated the Church way before anyone else. I have been pounding religion for nine years on this show.”
March 8, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the sex abuse problem: “Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics.”
“I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests].”
Jason Jones of Human Life International commented that the sex abuse problem was not prevalent in Europe or South America. Maher shot back, “You’re right. In African countries they rape the nuns.”
March 5, 2002, on “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Eucharist: Kirk Franklin, a black musician, attacked the Eucharist by complaining “gotta take the cracker.” To which Maher replied, “Gotta take the cracker from a cracker.”
October 27, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on Christianity and Halloween: “Christianity is grafted from paganism… It’s all about a man in the sky who’s going to send you in a burning lake of fire if you screw up… Which is the perfect description of religion itself. I mean, what is scarier than drinking the man’s blood every Sunday? That’s not a spooky ritual? ‘Here kids, drink his blood and eat his body.’ Like that’s not pagan? What can be more pagan than that?”
August 9, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on sex abuse: “Look, it’s a fact of life. Priests, a lot of times, molest boys, okay? They are celibate and it’s a magnet for homosexual pedophiles.”
July 11, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on celibate priests: “Be fruitful and multiply. What’s more weird than being celibate. There’s nothing more perverted than that.”
March 20, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Annunciation: Maher commented that the Archangel Gabriel didn’t tell Mary she was pregnant with Jesus, he showed her his “horn had turned pink.”
March 9, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the celibate priesthood: “Priests are supposed to be celibate. They’re not having sex with women…. Just with the boys.”
March 2, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on anti-Catholicism in the wake of George W. Bush speaking at Bob Jones University: “Isn’t it amazing that this is an issue in this election? When was the last time you ever heard of a Catholic being bashed? … But when was the last time someone called you a Papist? I mean really, is this really going on nowadays?”
November 10, 1999, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on why many people don’t go to synagogue or church: “You shouldn’t, I don’t think, lump the synagogue in with the Church. They operate very differently, OK. The synagogue—and I’m not Jewish, but I was raised Catholic—was never as corrupt as the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, which is people, not God running it, OK, hugely corrupt, did horrible things through history, maybe…because they were that powerful.”
“Catholics practice what they want to practice. They go to see the pope because he is a big celebrity, but they go home and they masturbate, they practice birth control…well they do.”
February 4, 1999, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the pope and abortion: “The pope had his dress up about the abortion issue.”
October 8, 1998, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Catholic Church: “But Catholics nowadays are like, you know, ‘The pope says we shouldn’t do this and this, but we really wanna pick and choose the parts of the religion that we feel fits us. You know the pope says you shouldn’t masturbate or have abortions, but that’s fine for him, he’s an elderly man, but for us…’”
Copyright © 2013 Catholic League
http://www.catholicleague.org/bill-mahers-history-of-anti-catholicism-1998-2013-2/
--
Bassem Youssef, Egypt's Jon Stewart, Released On Bail
By SARAH EL DEEB
03/31/13 05:10 PM ET EDT
CAIRO — Egypt's most popular television satirist, who every week skewers the Islamist president and hard-line clerics on his Jon Stewart-style show, was released on bail Sunday but could face charges of insulting the country's leader and Islam.
Bassem Youssef is the most prominent critic of President Mohammed Morsi to be called in for questioning in recent weeks, in what the opposition says is a campaign to intimidate critics amid wave after wave of political unrest in deeply polarized Egypt.
Arrest warrants have been issued for five prominent anti-government activists accused of instigating violence.
Deputy chief prosecutor Hassan Yassin denied the nearly five-hour interrogation was part of an intimidation campaign and said his department was enforcing the law and seeking to establish some guidelines on freedom of expression.
"The prosecution is the protector of social rights and we work on implementing the law. ... There must be guidelines for those working in the media to observe so as not violate the law," Yassin told The Associated Press.
Morsi last week accused private media of fanning violence and argued that it was being used for political aims.
But Yassin denied that the prosecutor's office was operating at the behest of the presidency to go after Morsi's critics, saying it has also interrogated and sentenced Islamists. Morsi appointed the chief prosecutor late last year despite an outcry from many in the judiciary who accused him of trampling on their right to choose the top prosecutor.
A court ruling last week declared Morsi's appointment void, a verdict he will likely appeal.
"There is no contact between us and the presidency. ... Just like we moved against someone who insults Christianity, we moved against someone who is accused of insulting Islam," he said.
Youssef is the host of the weekly political satire show known for his skits lampooning Morsi and Egypt's newly empowered Islamist political class. But he also mocks the opposition and the media.
The fast-paced show has attracted a wide viewership, while at the same time earning its fair share of detractors. Youssef has been a frequent target of lawsuits, most of them brought by Islamist lawyers who accused him of "corrupting morals" or violating "religious principles."
Youssef frequently imitates Morsi's speeches and gestures. He has fact-checked the president, and in one particularly popular episode earlier this year, he played video clips showing remarks by Morsi, made in 2010 before he became president, calling Zionists "pigs."
The remarks caused a brief diplomatic tiff with the U.S. administration, and Morsi had to issue a statement to defuse the flap.
In his last episode this week, Youssef thanked Morsi for providing him with so much material.
Youssef has also made regular jokes about comments by Islamic clerics and presenters on Islamic TV stations, exposing contradictions between their comments and public speeches and what he considers the spirit of Islam.
Prosecutor Mohammed el-Sayed Khalifa was quoted on the website of the state-owned Al-Ahram daily that he has 28 plaintiffs in the case against Youssef accusing him of insulting Islam, mocking prayers, and "belittling" Morsi in the eyes of the world and his own people.
The plaintiffs are mostly regular citizens, according to Shaimaa Abul-Kheir, a representative of the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists who was allowed to attend the interrogation.
In remarks to a TV presenter on CBC, the private station that airs his program, Youssef said on Saturday that his program does not insult Islam but aims to expose those who "distort" it.
"We don't insult religion. What we do is expose those so-called religious and Islamic stations which have offended Islam more than anyone else," he said. "If anyone is to be investigated for insulting religions, it should be all those who use Islam as a weapon and a political tool to swallow the others using religion."
When asked if programs in Egypt should be less scathing than those of the West, Youssef said: "We will give (the West) an example of how freedoms are respected after the revolution," he said of the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
After turning himself in for questioning, Youssef first tweeted a series of quips from the prosecutor's office.
"They asked me the color of my eyes. Really," one said.
A news broadcaster at a TV station affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Misr 25, accused Youssef of "mocking" the investigation. His tweets later were erased and he wrote that some reports from inside the interrogation room were "incorrect."
Amr Moussa, a former presidential candidate, called the warrant for Youssef's arrest a "provocation to Egyptians who are known for their love of what is funny."
"There is nothing odious about criticizing the president," he said in an emailed statement. "This humanizes the president."
Gamal Eid, a rights lawyer, said accusing Youssef of insulting religion – as opposed to just the president – is a tactic aimed at increasing public sympathy for the investigation.
"The accusation of insulting religion would mobilize more people against him," Eid said.
Gamal Heshmat, a lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, dismissed the opposition's claims of an intimidation campaign as an "exaggeration," adding that many critics of Morsi and his group are responsible for instigating violence and "offending" many in the public.
"What is the problem with abiding by the law? No one was detained and there were no extra-legal measures," he told the AP, describing the media as "chaotic," with numerous attacks against Morsi but few prosecutions.
"It is offensive ... Let the judiciary decide," he said.
A prosecution official said Youssef was to pay a bail of 15,000 LE ($2,200), pending the completion of an investigation. Youssef tweeted that the bail is for three separate cases.
Eid, the rights lawyer, said the release on bail means all options are open.
"The prosecution could continue investigation, put the case aside or send it to trial."
Meanwhile, in Egypt's second largest city, Alexandria, 11 people detained on Saturday including five lawyers accused of attacking a police station were released without charges.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/bassem-youssef-egypt-jon-stewart_n_2989099.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
*
Jon Stewart Defends Bassem Youssef, Calls Out Egyptian President Morsi For Hypocrisy, Fear
04/02/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/jon-stewart-defends-bassem-youssef_n_2998110.html [with embedded Daily Show video segments, and comments]
--
Kentucky governor vetoes “religious freedom” bill
Though Steve Beshear, a Democrat, blocked the bill, the legislature could still override his veto
Mar 24, 2013
Gov. Steve Beshear, D-Ky., vetoed a bill that would carve out broader protections for “religious freedom,” which in practice could give cover to those who discriminate against gays and lesbians. ...
[...]
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/24/kentucky_governor_vetoes_religious_freedom_bill/ [with comments]
*
Kentucky legislature overwhelmingly overrides veto of 'religious freedom' bill
Mar 27, 2013
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130326/NEWS0101/303260085/Kentucky-legislature-overwhelmingly-overrides-veto-religious-freedom-bill [with comments]
*
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86417434 and preceding and following
--
Boston College Objects to Condoms on Campus; ACLU Threatens Lawsuit
By Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter
March 29, 2013|5:38 pm
Boston College, a Jesuit, Catholic university located in Chestnut Hill, Mass., is currently working to stop the distribution of condoms and other "safe sex" materials on campus, arguing that the promotion of contraceptive use interferes with the university's religious values.
"The distribution of condoms is not congruent with our values and traditions," Boston College's Dean of Students Paul Chebator and Director of Residence Life George Arey said in a March 15 email to students, according to NBC News [ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17491012-boston-college-threatens-action-against-students-distributing-condoms ].
"We do need to advise you that should we receive any reports that you are, in fact, distributing condoms on campus, the matter would be referred to the student conduct office for disciplinary action by the university," the email continued, adding that the university has a "responsibility to protect the values and traditions of Boston College as a Jesuit, Catholic institution."
The condoms were reportedly being distributed by the student-run group "Safe Sites," a network of 18 dorm locations situated throughout the Boston College campus which serve as safe havens for students seeking free condoms, sexual lubricants, and informational pamphlets relating to safe sex.
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that the college is violating the students' rights by threatening to bring disciplinary action against the students, and has indicated that it is prepared to pursue legal action if the university does not change its stance.
"Jack Dunn needs to think about the state's civil rights act and its applicability to private parties," Sarah Wunsch, attorney for the ACLU, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 [ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/03/27/bc-threatens-to-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus/ ] on Wednesday in reference to Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn's comments about disciplinary action.
"They should not be threatening students with disciplinary action," Wunsch added.
Wunsch went on to argue that even though the students at Boston College attend a private university, they are still protected under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act of 1979.
Prominent Catholic universities from across the country, including the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America in Washington, have spoken out in support of Boston College, saying that they too forbid the distribution of condoms on their campuses.
"One of the teachings of our faith is that contraception is morally unacceptable," Victor Nakas, a spokesman for Catholic University, told The Boston Globe [ http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/03/27/catholic-colleges-show-solidarity-with-boston-college-condom-distribution-ban/zHwQW17fOPExM6bpJ132hN/story.html ].
"Since condoms are a form of contraception, we do not permit their distribution on campus," Nakas added.
The Safe Sites student group is sponsored by the Boston College Students for Sexual Health, and chairwoman for the BCSSH told NBC News [ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17491012-boston-college-threatens-action-against-students-distributing-condoms ] that the student group has been dispersing condoms on campus for the past four years and has never been threatened with disciplinary action from school administrators.
According to The Boston Globe, the leaders of the Safe Sites student group will be meeting with school officials at the end of April to discuss the conflict, but they will reportedly continue to disperse contraception at their on-campus locations until the meeting.
Copyright © 2013 The Christian Post, Inc.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/boston-college-objects-to-condoms-on-campus-aclu-threatens-lawsuit-92928/ [with comments]
--
Boston College Condom Controversy Continues
The school administration is threatening disciplinary action against the Boston College Students for Sexual Health.
By Melanie Graham
April 1, 2013
As debate continues [ http://northend.patch.com/articles/should-boston-college-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus ] on whether Boston College students should be disciplined for handing out condoms on campus, the students behind the contraceptive distribution have issued a statement describing the administration's correspondence as "fear mongering and threatening."
The student group -- Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH) -- have recently been told by school administrators to cease condom distribution on campus or face disciplinary action.
BCSSH Chair Lizzi Jekanowski said in the statement that the administration had not issued any prior warnings or disciplinary action against the group.
“We've had a very open and positive relationship with the administration. I would have expected them to initiate a meeting to talk about this issue before sending intimidating letters directly to the students," Jekanowski said in the statement [ http://o1.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/600x450/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/ec64ab27791cecdeb72e635bdd9f7d6 ].
Administrators from the Jesuit, Catholic school sent letters to BSCCH students on March 15 [ http://www.bcheights.com/news/admins-warn-bcssh-about-safe-sites ], and threatened disciplinary action against the students for breaking school policy and handing out the contraceptives on campus, The BC Heights student newspaper reported last week.
“As a Jesuit university, there are certain Catholic commitments that we are called to uphold,” Dunn told The Heights. “All we ask of our students is that they respect these commitments and the values upon which they are founded. If this group of students chooses not to comply with university policies, they will face disciplinary sanctions.”
In the letter, the administration specifically referenced the group's "Safe Sites," which are dorm rooms where students can find free condoms. The Safe Site locations are listed on the BCSSH website and the rooms are also marked with the Safe Sites logo.
In an interview on CNN last week [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gJWw7qmPpk (next below; embedded)],
Jekanowski said the BCSSH hands out nearly 2,000 condoms every semester through its safe sites program and off-campus distributions on College Road. This resource is important, Jekanowski said, because the Catholic university's health services does not provide any form of contraception.
According to the CNN report, school officials felt the distribution was becoming "too public."
Aside from the dorm room Safe Sites, the BCSSH acknowledged in its statement that it has consistently handed out condoms on the sidewalks of College Road, between McElroy Commons and Roncalli Residence Hall. However, the group says this location is technically off-campus.
"This location, which is designated a public area by the city of Newton, is both off of the school’s campus and over half a mile from St. Ignatius Church. BCSSH has the legal right to distribute on this property, in accordance with the ordinance of the City of Newton, articles 20-13, 21-5 and 26-17," Jekanowski said in the statement.
Last week the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts announced its support for the student group [ http://newton.patch.com/articles/planned-parenthood-aclu-clash-with-bc-administrators-on-condom-handouts ], calling the Boston College administration "irresponsible" and "short-sighted."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also stepped up to stand behind the students, saying that it may take legal action against BC if it follows through with discipline, WBZ reported [ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/03/27/bc-threatens-to-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus/ ] last week.
The BCSSH, which was formed in 2009, is not officially recognized by the university.
In addition to online petitions, BCSSH is also hoping to receive support from Gov. Deval Patrick, who is scheduled to speak at Boston College this week.
In a Facebook update posted Sunday night [ https://www.facebook.com/BCSSH/posts/137499219762444 ], the group asks supporters to call Gov. Deval Patrick's office and ask that Patrick refuse to speak at the university "until the administration rescinds its disciplinary threats."
Patrick is scheduled to present "The Policies and Politics of Inclusion [ http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/publications/chronicle/FeaturesNewsTopstories/2013/news/patrick032813.html ]," on Tues., April 2 in Boston College's Robsham Theatre.
Copyright © 2013 Patch
http://newton.patch.com/articles/boston-college-condom-controversy-continues [no comments yet]
--
Milwaukee Archdiocese Sex Abuse Files To Be Released
In this Feb. 25, 2012, file photo, Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks to the press after prayer services at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday, May 30, 2012, that it had a policy to pay suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry. The policy was crafted by Dolan when he was Archbishop in Milwaukee.
04/03/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/milwaukee-archdiocese-sex-abuse-files_n_3010663.html [with comments]
--
Sex Education Programs For Teens Targeted By GOP Lawmakers
04/02/2013
In addition to passing some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation so far this year, Republican lawmakers in North Dakota, Arkansas and Texas are now pushing bills that would defund comprehensive sex education programs for at-risk teenagers.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/sex-education-programs-gop_n_2993788.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Robertson: Liberals Use Schools like Gulags to "Indoctrinate" Youth
Published on Mar 1, 2013 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-liberals-use-schools-gulags-indoctrinate-youth
Pat Robertson says liberals don't believe in freedom and want to "indoctrinate" school children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkZRAIoH0wI
--
Indiana Abortion Pill Bill Passed By House, Aimed At Limiting Use
04/03/2013
INDIANAPOLIS(Reuters) - The Indiana House on Tuesday approved a bill requiring clinics that administer the so-called abortion pill to also have full surgical facilities, a move that would force Planned Parenthood to halt all abortion services at a central Indiana clinic.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/indiana-abortion-pill-bill_n_3002600.html [with comments]
--
Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor, Introduces Abortion Coverage Ban
03/27/2013
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) introduced an amendment to the state's health insurance exchange implementation bill [ http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?131+sum+HB1900 ] that would prevent insurance plans in the new health exchange from covering abortion.
While similar bills introduced [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/michigan-abortion-bills_n_2253380.html ] in other states would allow a woman to buy a policy rider for abortion coverage, McDonnell's proposed amendment late Monday night would ban that as well.
"No qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered for sale through an exchange established or operating in the Commonwealth shall provide coverage for abortions, regardless of whether such coverage is provided through the plan or is offered as a separate optional rider thereto," the amendment reads, adding that women who have become pregnant from rape or incest or whose lives are in danger would be exempt from the ban.
Most private insurance plans in the U.S. include abortion coverage. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia estimates that the ban on abortion coverage in Virginia will affect about 50,000 women in Virginia -- the estimated number who will be using state-based health benefits exchange.
NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights advocacy groups condemned the amendment because it could prevent many low-income women from being able to access abortion care.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/bob-mcdonnell-abortion-_n_2955628.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Doug LaMalfa Event: Redding Tea Party Orders Media Blackout At Town Hall
03/27/2013
[...]
LaMalfa took office [ http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results/california#house-races ] in January after defeating Jim Reed in the 2012 House race for California's 1st District. He turned heads with September comments linking abortion to cancer [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/doug-lamalfa-california-gop_n_1877630.html ].
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/doug-lamalfa-redding-tea-party_n_2959306.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Who was Mary?
Images of Mary have been plentiful throughout most of the history of Christianity. However, anyone seeking to put together a fully rounded portrait of Mary actually has very few clues to go on. Our Cover Story is reported by Martha Teichner.
CBS News
March 31, 2013 9:12 AM
Last Updated 9:52 a.m. ET
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women..."
There is no trace of suffering, or even joy, in the alabaster Mary's face. But it is not the emptiness of her gaze people see as they pray; it is the Mary whose pain at the loss of her son, Jesus Christ, resembles their own.
Father Neil Connolly, pastor of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church on the Lower East Side of New York City, said, "Mary's role for us as Christians is humanizing. It's somebody we can relate to."
He noted the second part of the "Hail Mary": "We say, 'Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.' It's a recognition of who Mary is. After Jesus, Mary is number one."
Twenty percent of all Roman Catholic places of worship in the U.S. -- nearly 4,000 -- are named for Mary.
"Her position also is a very iconic position, in the sense that people admire so much her life, or what we know about it," said Father Connolly.
But what exactly DO we know about it? Mainly, what little is written in the Gospels of the New Testament -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Mary (or Miriam. or Maryam) was from the little town of Nazareth, population maybe 400 in the first century. She was Jewish, and would have spoken Aramaic.
At the age of about 12, she would have been considered to be mature, said Professor Deirdre Good, a New Testament scholar at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York City. "So that's when she was, as the New Testament describes her, betrothed to Joseph. She would have been a teenager, anywhere from 12 onwards.
"What Mary represents in Christian tradition is the meeting of God with humanity," said Good.
We learn from Luke that the angel Gabriel visits her, and announces that she will bear a child, and that this child is from God. "Mary says, 'How is this possible, because I don't know a man?'" said Good. "That's what the Greek actually says. It's translated euphemistically as 'I am a virgin.'"
The Gospels tell the Christmas story -- how Mary gives birth to Jesus. During his adult ministries, she is seldom mentioned, although Mark describes what has been interpreted as a rift between them.
"Jesus is teaching and somebody says, 'Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you,'" said Professor Craig Evans, a New Testament scholar from Acadia University in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. "And he says, 'Well, who are my mother and brothers?' And he looks around at his disciples and he says, 'These are my mother and my brothers.'
"There's no interaction, and that definitely does point to a little bit of tension, at least at that point, between Jesus and his family."
Only one of the Gospels places Mary at the crucifixion, alongside the so-called "beloved disciple.".
"John -- perhaps the beloved disciple, perhaps not -- was told by the dying Jesus to take Mary and look after her," said Good. "The tradition is that John takes Mary to Ephesus."
Ephesus, the ancient city in Turkey, where today pilgrims visit the house in which she might have spent her final days, her role as supporting cast member in the story of Jesus on the verge of changing dramatically.
"Once the significance of Jesus settled firmly on his following in the aftermath of Easter, then people started asking, 'What is it about Mary?'" said Evans.
You can trace her take on glory in art.
Early Christian art existed literally underground, in chambers known as catacombs, on walls and coffins. "Most all of our early Christian art comes from Rome and maybe Italy, because it sort of survived there," said Professor Robin Jensen, who teaches the history of Christian art and worship at Vanderbilt University.
"We start to see Mary, maybe at the end of the third century, probably not until the beginning of the fourth, usually in a scene we would think of as a nativity scene, but a very specific one: the Adoration of the Magi," said Jensen.
The Adoration of the Magi, as depicted in a panel from a Roman sarcophagus dating from the 4th century, from the cemetery of St. Agnes in Rome.
Vatican Museum/Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikipedia
"We don't see Mary as so important in and of herself until the beginning of the fifth century, shortly after the Council of Ephesus, which was in 431, when they declared her to be the 'theotokis,' the god-bearer, mother of God.
"And then everything changes, and she starts to appear enthroned with a child on her lap, with angels and saints around her. That was when she becomes important."
By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, paintings of Mary could be read for symbols of her holiness.
Jensen described the characteristics of her appearance in art: "Her outer mantle is blue and underneath, she usually, not always, has a red robe. One interpretation of this, and I think it's right, is that's a symbol of her fleshliness, her body, her blood that supports the child in the womb." The blue, meanwhile, meant divinity. "It's a sign of the heavens. She's also a heavenly being and, some think, queen of heaven."
Rarely is Mary shown as anything but young, although by 1400 -- when an old, tearful Mary was painted -- her suffering had become central to our understanding of who she was, although her anguish is nowhere in the Gospels -- not even her collapse when she sees Jesus with his cross on Good Friday.
So why is a different Mary shocking?
In "The Testament of Mary," now on Broadway, Irish actress Fiona Shaw plays Mary late in life -- angry, tortured by doubt, as she remembers.
Author-playwright Colm Toibin told Teichner, "There's a sort of almost a hunger to create this woman."
"Is what you've done sacrilege?" asked Teichner.
"Anyone who looks at the story of Christianity, of the origins of it, of the crucifixion itself, must wonder -- even on the best days, even on Easter Sunday -- if there's any other way to look at it. And so I'm offering that as an artist."
Not every Christian wants to accept that offer -- protests greeted "The Testament of Mary" when it began previews.
Toibin's provocative take isn't the only alternative Mary story. In early Jewish texts, she was a harlot, the virgin birth untrue. She also appears in the Quran, honored by Muslims above all other women.
Who was she really? The answer depends on the eye and the heart of the beholder.
Copyright © 2013 CBS Interactive Inc.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57577124/who-was-mary/ [with embedded video, and comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=45326613 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=61201696 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=85410913 (in particular "How Mary Feels About Being a Virgin" about 15% of the way down) and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86275671 and following]
--
Retired Pope Benedict Elopes With Male Secretary, Asks For “Privacy”
Apr 1, 2013
http://www.queerty.com/retired-pope-benedict-elopes-with-male-secretary-asks-for-privacy-20130401/ [with comments]
--
Sue Everhart, Georgia GOP Chairwoman, Warns Of 'Free Ride' Gay Marriage Fraud
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Sue Everhart is photographed at party headquarters in Atlanta on May 4, 2011.
(David Goldman / AP)
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 04/01/2013 10:08 am EDT | Updated: 04/03/2013 11:47 am EDT
Georgia GOP Chairwoman Sue Everhart warned that straight people might enter into fraudulent gay marriages to obtain benefits, the Marietta Daily Journal reported Saturday [ http://www.mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Cobb+sounds+off+as+Facebook+goes+red+in+support+of+gay+marriage%20&id=22108736 ].
"You may be as straight as an arrow, and you may have a friend that is as straight as an arrow,” she told the Journal. “Say you had a great job with the government where you had this wonderful health plan. I mean, what would prohibit you from saying that you’re gay, and y’all get married and still live as separate, but you get all the benefits? I just see so much abuse in this it’s unreal. I believe a husband and a wife should be a man and a woman, the benefits should be for a man and a woman. There is no way that this is about equality. To me, it’s all about a free ride.”
It's theoretically possible that such a scenario could happen, but there isn't any evidence of widespread fraud following the adoption of gay marriage in nine states and the District of Columbia. Though fictional, the premise of the 2007 Adam Sandler movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" [ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762107/ ] was a pair of straight firefighters getting domestic partnership status.
Everhart does not note the possibility of marriage fraud among opposite-sex couples, though others have warned against marriage fraud committed in order to get immigration benefits. In reality, the number of proven cases [ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/nyregion/13fraud.html?pagewanted=all ] of such fraud is extremely small.
Everhart also said she could not understand how two gay people could ever have sex. "If it was natural, they would have the equipment to have a sexual relationship," she told the Journal.
(h/t TPM [ http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/georgia-gop-chair-warns-that-straight-people-will ])
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/sue-everhart-gay-marriage_n_2991860.html [with embedded video report, and (over 10,000) comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=36332552 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=48542526 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67072551 and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81256130 and preceding and following]
--
Cross-Dressing Priest Pleads Guilty To Dealing Meth
By Dan Avery
Apr 2, 2013
Back in January we named Monsignor Kevin Wallin of Waterbury, Connecticut, a Douche of the Week when he was indicted for allegedly having sex with other men in drag [ http://www.queerty.com/sex-crazed-cross-dressing-meth-dealing-priest-indicted-on-drug-ring-charges-20130119/ ] while high on crystal meth.
Well, the healing can begin because Monsignor Meth has pleaded guilty [ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/04/02/monsignor-meth-kevin-wallin-pleads-guilty-to-meth-charge/ ] to earning more than $300,000 by selling meth out of his home.
He also confessed to running an adult-video and sex-toy shop, Land of Oz. But that was only to launder his drug money, so it’s not so bad, right?
Wallin, who was busted after an undercover sting operation, faces 11 to 14 years in prison at his sentencing in June.
Before he was suspended from the ministry in May 2012, the 61-year-old priest was pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport.
Copyright 2013 Queerty, Inc.
http://www.queerty.com/cross-dressing-priest-pleads-guilty-to-dealing-meth-20130402/ [with comments] [and see "Collared - The life and times of a meth priest", about 60% of the way down at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=84115869 ]
--
Who Wanted to Take the Case on Gay Marriage? Ask Scalia
March 29, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/supreme-courts-glimpse-at-thinking-on-same-sex-marriage.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/supreme-courts-glimpse-at-thinking-on-same-sex-marriage.html?pagewanted=all ]
--
The Prop 8 Hearing: The Justice Antonin Scalia Comedy Hour
By Lester Brathwaite
Mar 26, 2013
Justice Antonin Scalia saw a moment to display that famous(?) sense of humor when pro-Prop 8 attorney Chris Cooper argued that procreation lay at the heart of the gay marriage debate.
Justice Elena Kagan asked Cooper about a heterosexual couple over 55 years of age seeking to get married, even though they technically wouldn’t be able to have children.
Cooper agreed that the court could not constitutionally ban such marriages, before Scalia heard the faint sounds of a rimshot in the not-too-distant future:
Scalia: “I suppose we could have a questionnaire at the marriage desk when people come in asking, ‘Are you fertile or are you not fertile?’
[Laughter]
Scalia: “I suspect this court would hold that to be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, don’t you think?”
Kagan: “Well, I just asked about age. I didn’t ask about anything else. We ask about people’s ages all the time.”
Cooper: “Your honor, and even asking about age, you would have to ask if both parties are infertile.”
Scalia: “Strom Thurmond was not the chairman of the Senate committee when Justice Kagan was confirmed.”
[Laughter]
Thurmond famously sired multiple children when most people can barely remember what sex is before drying up and dying at the tender age of 100.
Talk about Deaf Comedy Jam.
(h/t: New York Mag [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/03/scalia-jokes-about-strom-thurmond-infertility.html ])
Copyright 2013 Queerty, Inc.
http://www.queerty.com/justice-antonin-scalia-strom-thurmond-joke-20130326/ [no comments yet]
--
Ben Carson compares homosexuality to murder
In a 1999 book, the future GOP star explains numerous abominations, and vows not to be "politically correct"
Apr 1, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/01/ben_carson_compares_homosexuality_to_muder/ [with comments]
--
Did Chris Coleman's obsession lead to triple murder?
The Coleman family. From left, Colin, Chris, Sheri and Garett
The head of security for a televangelist is threatened, his wife and sons are murdered. Who wanted this family dead? Maureen Maher reports.
March 30, 2013
Watch the Episode
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50143908n
[This show originally aired on May 5, 2012]
[long article and additional information/media also included]
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18559_162-57427470/did-chris-colemans-obsession-lead-to-triple-murder/ [with comments]
--
Churches: Time to fight back
By Michael Reagan
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/michael-reagan-gay-marriage-editorial-_n_2999977.html ]
Published 9:41am Tuesday, April 2, 2013
You can’t win the fight if you don’t put on the gloves. A punch-drunk, old heavyweight boxer knows that’s a truism, but not the churches of America.
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state by a 52 to 47 margin in 2008 but has since been declared unconstitutional by federal courts.
Fox TV, Rush Limbaugh and other talk-show pundits have weighed in, arguing the conservative — and moral — position that sanctifying gay marriage with the grace of the U.S. Constitution is not only wrong but a serious threat to the culture of this country.
But those media outlets often speak to those who are already in the choir. That leaves a lot of other Americans who aren’t hearing anyone preaching the conservative argument on gay marriage.
I don’t expect the GOP to provide any leadership. Republicans are too busy cat-fighting with each other and making sure their presidential choice will be whooped by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
And where in the heck are the churches on the issue of legalizing gay marriage?
Where are the Protestants, Jews and Catholics? Have they lost their tongues? Their hearts and wills? Their institutional you-know-whats?
Where’s the moral outrage? Why aren’t thousands of our pastors, priests and rabbis shouting from their pulpits? Why aren’t they leading their congregations through the streets in mass protest?
Why aren’t their bishops appearing on the tube with David Gregory and Piers Morgan to defend the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman?
Like the bank executives who are too chicken to stand up to the federal bullies in Washington, and like the energy company bosses in California who won’t stand up to the Green Socialists in Sacramento, the churches cower in fear.
Are they afraid to lose their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by engaging in political activity? Are they afraid to be derided as religious nuts and cultural Cro-Magnons by the liberal media?
Or are our churches and their comfortable leaders simply no longer willing to fight for what is right?
This fight over Proposition 8 isn’t just about saying it should be legal in the eyes of government for two people of the same sex to get married in California.
It’s ultimately about changing the culture of the entire country; it inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different than traditional marriage.
There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder.
Churches should be in the vanguard of the fight to defend the culture against legalized gay marriage, not hiding in their pews.
Sure, the mainstream liberal media will be against them and will ignore them as much as they can. But if the churches show up en masse — and make sure millions of their members’ voices are heard — the media will be forced to cover them, and even the Supreme Court will feel the political wind.
Meanwhile, as the High Court decides our fate, it’s time for the churches to get engaged and start fighting for America, instead of wimping out. If it takes them giving up their 501(c)(3) status to start fighting for righteousness, then I’m all for it.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution [ http://www.amazon.com/New-Reagan-Revolution-Principles-Greatness/dp/031264454X ].”
© 2013, The Tribune
http://www.irontontribune.com/2013/04/02/churches-time-to-fight-back/ [with comments]
--
Church Promotes Sin! On Easter Sunday!
Published on Mar 31, 2013 by
Briancranford
A church in North Carolina will stop performing marriages until United Methodist pastors are allowed to officiate weddings for same-sex couples in the Tar Heel state.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/18/north-carolina-church-vows-to-stop-marriages-until-same-sex-couples-can-wed/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7OyJtfmW8k [via/more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/green-street-united-methodist-gay-protest-young-boy-_n_2993220.html (with comments)]
--
Should Christians Place Less Emphasis on Eternity?
By Dan Delzell
Special to CP
April 1, 2013|8:22 am
There are plenty of people, especially in America, who feel that Christians place too much emphasis on eternity. But is that a legitimate criticism? Or is it simply man's attempt to try to make Christianity only apply to this life here and now? Interestingly, those who are uncomfortable with the supernatural are also uncomfortable with the biblical teaching about eternity.
Christians have just celebrated the resurrection of Christ. We do this because that event really happened, and because it is the key to our own glorious resurrection one day. Should we downplay that reality just because some folks don't want to think about eternity? Or is it our duty to present the message which Christ Himself taught, as well as the apostle Paul and many others?
Think of it this way. Should doctors place less emphasis on physical health? Should financial planners place less emphasis on IRAs? Should mechanics place less emphasis on repairing automobiles? People do what they know how to do. Christians, by God's grace, know how to communicate the fact as taught in the Bible that everyone has an immortal soul. Christians know how a person can joyfully live forever, even though his body dies. What doctor or retirement planner or mechanic deals with such a critical issue?
Jesus said it best: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36) Did Jesus place too much emphasis on eternity? Of course not. He died and rose again to secure eternal life for all who believe in Him as Savior. He didn't die to only give us peace for a few years on earth. He died to give us an eternal relationship with our Creator in a place of inexpressible joy.
It is understandable why this message is unsettling to so many people. It would be unsettling to me too if I didn't know the Gospel. That doesn't make me or any Christian better than an unbeliever. It just makes us aware of the reality of eternity, and the importance of Christ's death and resurrection. Many don't yet see it. They don't get it. Some of them are highly intelligent, but they lack spiritual understanding. Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten them to know the truth about heaven and hell.
The minute that Christians start to downplay eternity is the minute that Christians begin to get away from a huge part of the Bible. Jesus talked about it all the time. And read how many times Paul addresses the topic of heaven in his epistles. He does so over and over again. When a person has received the free gift of eternal life through faith in Christ, it is something he then wants others to receive as well. It is such good news. What else can compare with it?
Christians who are flowing in God's love are Christians who attempt to lead others to see how Christ opened the way to heaven for us. (see John 14:1-6) That's what love does. When you know that people are in a bad spot, you want to help them. Without Christ, a sinner is still under God's wrath. (see John 3:36) When you know what God has done to rescue them, you try to get them the help they need. That's what God did for us, and that is what Christians do when they are flowing in God's love. We are simply beggars telling other beggars where we have found bread.
You might as well tell a Christian not to breathe if you are going to tell him to place less emphasis on eternity. Breathing comes naturally to the body. Emphasizing eternity comes supernaturally to the Christian. Why would we ever want to hide the truth about heaven and hell from others? Jesus never did. Whether man goes to heaven or not depends upon what he does with Jesus and the free gift that is being offered to him. We are all sinners in need of God's grace, but we don't all accept the message of salvation. There will always be those who choose to go their own way rather than God's way.
You will exist forever, no doubt about it. Whether you believe that right now or not does not change the reality of your situation. You can run from it. You can deny it. You can even laugh at it. But eternity isn't going anywhere. It is what it is. Meanwhile, you have only begun your eternal existence. So far, your experience has only been in this realm. One day, you will go to your eternal place of residence. Where would you like that to be?
When the Son of God left heaven, He came here on a mission. He completed the work the Father sent Him to do 2000 years ago. Christ will return to earth one day. There is no getting around Jesus, at least not ultimately. You might feel like you are able to successfully avoid Him for now, but that won't last. You will meet up with Him, either as your Friend, or as the One who will send you away forever. That is what the Bible tells us. No one made it up. God told it to us just the way it is going to happen. What remains to be seen is whether you are going to accept Christ as Savior as you become His disciple, or instead reject Him. There is only one wise choice.
You could spend your entire life on earth pursuing various pleasures and goals, but if you neglect your soul you will not be glad for long about the choices you made while you were here. Right now, your decisions probably seem to make sense to you. One day, your eyes will instantly be opened to see and experience your eternal place of residence. God wants you to go to heaven. He said so in His Word. (see 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9) Just because He wants you to join Him in heaven does not mean that you want to join Him there. Well, do you?
I guess that points toward the need for a conversation between you and God. This would be a perfect time to have that conversation with Him. He will speak to you through His Word. You can speak to Him in sincerity and truth through prayer and faith. The clock is ticking. The end is coming. And your life on earth is quickly winding down. Was this your last Easter before Christ's return, or perhaps before your own death? The older you get, the faster time will seem to go. And yet through it all, your soul is not aging. That is because immortal souls do not get "older." They just move from one realm to the next when the earthly body dies.
Is any of this getting through to you? I hope so. All of us who are Christians want to see you with us in heaven, even if you don't currently want to see us there with you.
Christians will continue to place much emphasis on eternity, even as we place much emphasis on feeding the poor and helping the needy. Those are just things that we do because our Lord wants us to do them, and because He has filled our hearts with a love to reach others with His grace and assistance. Some of that assistance helps the earthly body, while some of it helps the immortal soul. Both types of aid are needed in this life, but only one Person can bring you safely to paradise.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He gave his disciples a commission to go into all the world with this message of God's love and salvation. (see Matthew 28:19) That is our job, and it is a labor of love. That is what we do as Christ's disciples. And besides, if Christians don't attempt to help you connect with the Person who is "the resurrection and the life," (John 11:25) who will?
If you ever become a disciple of Jesus, you too will become interested in the welfare of the souls of others. If you repent of your sin and turn to Christ in faith, the Holy Spirit will give you that desire to see others come into God's family forever. It certainly is not a natural desire that any of us acquire by our own doing. This emphasis on eternity is something that really kicks in after you become one of the Lord's disciples. It becomes a passion for the believer because it is the passion of the Lord.
Why else would He have died and rose again for our salvation? He didn't go through all that just to give us a few peaceful years of service here on earth. Are you kidding? If that's all we were going to get, do you really think God would have even sent His only Son in the first place to suffer so intensely and die for our sins? Paul described it well: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Cor. 15:19) Amen to that!
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.
Copyright © 2013 The Christian Post, Inc.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/should-christians-place-less-emphasis-on-eternity-92998/ [with comments]
--
Man cuts off dad's and his private parts
25 March 2013| last updated at 11:38PM
KUALA TERENGGANU: A 40-year-old mechanic, obsessed with a doomsday theory, cut off his father's penis before cutting off his own at their house in an incident at 4.15am in Felda Kerteh 6, Ketengah Jaya, in Dungun yesterday.
Both men were warded in Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital and will undergo surgery.
State Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner K. Manoharan said the man who lives in Balakong, Selangor, returned to his family home on Tuesday and told his parents that he was certain the armageddon would be on the following Friday.
"Initial checks revealed that he had studied deviant religious texts on the Internet and had started preaching them to his parents since he came back.
"Yesterday, he sent text messages to his three siblings asking them to come home and congregate on this pressing matter," he said, adding that the man also mentioned that in order to save all of them, the spirit of Imam Nawawi had to be invoked and channelled into his 67-year-old father.
"According to the man's brother-in-law who came yesterday from Pahang, the man said the imam's spirit can successfully enter his father only if the father cried.
"After his father was not able to cry voluntarily, he hit him with his hands and with a rattan stick. This went on until 1.30am."
Manoharan said the man asked his brother-in-law for a knife who, without suspecting anything, handed a kitchen knife to him.
"The man then took the knife into a room where his father was resting and proceeded to cut off his father's penis in an attempt to make him cry," Manoharan said, and that minutes later after he cut off his own penis and asked his brother-in-law to do the same.
The cases were being investigated for causing grievous injury and attempted suicide respectively.
Copyright © 2013 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad
http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/man-cuts-off-dad-s-and-his-private-parts-1.241265 [no comments yet]
--
Robertson: Miracles Coming to "Simple" Foreigners, Not "Sophisticated" Americans
Published on Apr 1, 2013 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-simple-foreigners-more-likely-experience-miracles-sophisticated-americans
Pat Robertson explains why "simple" foreigners are more likely to experience miracles than "sophisticated" Americans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NesbG-Lj2g0
--
Crystal McVea, Author, Says She Smelled God During Near-Death Experience In Surgery
04/03/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/crystal-mcvea-smelled-god-near-death-experience_n_3007864.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Dave Agema, Michigan Republican National Committeeman, Posts More Anti-Gay Remarks On Facebook
Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema
By Chelsea Kiene
Posted: 04/01/2013 12:44 pm EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 12:59 pm EDT
Less than one week after posting a controversial article condemning the “filthy” lifestyle of “homosexuals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/dave-agema-homosexuals_n_2965310.html ],” Michigan Republican Dave Agema has once again taken to Facebook to voice his opinion on the LGBT community, warning his Republican colleagues that accepting “this lifestyle” in the party’s platform will “cause great harm to society.”
Responding to a petition posted on Facebook calling for Republican leaders to adopt “a more inclusive tone,” Agema -- a Michigan Republican National Committeeman -- refused, writing, “the homosexual community is pushing same sex marriage which will be taught in schools as an alternative lifestyle.”
Brad Fingeroot, the Oakland County Young Republican who posted the petition, thanked Agema for engaging in the discussion, but asked that the former state lawmaker “keep the smut on the sidelines.”
Agema, in response, accused Fingeroot of “trying to change” the Republican Party’s long standing principles.
“I can send you reems [sic] of studies showing the negative health affects [sic] of this lifestyle,” Agema wrote. “Instead you would have us accept it, teach it to our kids, include it in our platform and cause great harm to society.”
“The people of America have the right to know what lays ahead if the Supreme Court rules the wrong way,” Agema continued. “You want to change the landscape of our party in a direction that had not been accepted for over 230 years. I’m trying to maintain or [sic] platform.”
Agema’s entire post, provided to The Huffington Post by Dennis Lennox, a Michigan Republican precinct delegate:
Agema’s most recent anti-gay Facebook remarks come just two days after he appeared on Michigan’s WWMT Newschannel 3 to distance himself from the article he posted last Wednesday attacking the LGBT community.
“They quoted as what somebody else said and attributed it to me; I didn’t say that,” Agema told WWMT on Friday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/dave-agema-resignation_n_2984735.html ]. “So, do I agree with everything that that guy said and the way he said it in the article, no. But he gives a lot of statistics on the results of the health -- the mental and physical health -- of the lifestyle and what it causes.”
When pressed by WWMT on whether he agreed with the article's claim [ http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02rStatistcs.html ] that gays and lesbians account for a high percentage of murders, suicides and diseases, Agema responded, “I not only believe it, it’s substantiated by several different articles and studies. That’s just a fact.”
Although Agema is refusing to resign from his post as a Michigan Republican National Committeeman -- claiming that calls for his resignation are a “joke” [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/dave-agema-michigan_n_2974755.html ] -- members of his party are continuing to press Agema to step down.
Lennox, who has led a growing coalition of Republicans calling for Agema’s resignation, says that his most recent behavior proves that “he seeks to promote hate, viciousness and vitriol.”
"Dave Agema has finally admitted he seeks to promote hate, viciousness and vitriol instead of the Republican Party’s traditional forward-looking message of equal opportunity for all," Lennox wrote in a statement. "Dave Agema's extremism has no place in our Republican Party."
*
Related
Dave Agema Supported By Some Michigan Republicans After Sparking Anti-Gay Controversy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/dave-agema-petition_n_3007672.html
*
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/dave-agema-facebook_n_2992742.html [with embedded video report, embedded slideshow "Outrageous Homophobic Statements", and comments]
--
Buddy Collins Confirmed By North Carolina Legislature To Education Board, Despite Anti-Gay Past
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) nominated Buddy Collins to the State Education Board.
(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 04/03/2013 1:19 pm EDT | Updated: 04/03/2013 1:24 pm EDT
The North Carolina General Assembly has confirmed attorney Buddy Collins to the State Board of Education, despite opposition by a gay rights group over Collins' long history of opposing anti-bullying measures aimed at protecting LGBT students.
The state House and Senate met for a rare joint session [ http://www.wral.com/gov-s-education-board-picks-ok-d-by-nc-lawmakers/12298549/ ] on Wednesday, approving Collins and several other nominees put forward by North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R). The GOP-controlled legislature rejected an amendment by Democrats to remove Collins from the list of confirmed nominees.
Collins is an attorney and a longtime member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board of Education. He has clashed with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) over the years surrounding the group's efforts to stop bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Buddy Collins has always been a retrograde voice [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/buddy-collins-north-carolina_n_2980757.html ], inimical to the interests of youth, on the school board," GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard told The Huffington Post last week. "He has directly tried to block efforts to fully understand [students'] experiences in the service of making things better in schools in his district."
While on the school board, Collins resisted GLSEN's efforts to make "sexual orientation" a protected category in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system's nondiscrimination policy and voted against allowing the school system to amend an annual parent-student survey to include new questions about bullying, racism, homophobia, sexism and discrimination against handicapped students.
In 2002, Collins published a column [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/buddyope.jpg ] advocating against the "public endorsement of a homosexual union and homosexual sexual practices."
Equality NC, a pro-LGBT group, had called on McCrory to withdraw Collins' nomination [ http://equalitync.org/latest/news/equality_nc_calls_on_governor_mccrory_to_reconsider_collins_appointment/ ].
"Gov. McCrory should reconsider his appointment of Buddy Collins to the State Board of Education. Surely, there are others Gov. McCrory could appoint that would protect the rights of all North Carolina students,” said Stuart Campbell, executive director of Equality NC, in a statement. "All students, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, deserve a high quality education, in a safe environment and free of harassment of any kind."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/buddy-collins-confirmed_n_3007068.html [with comments]
--
Matt Salmon, GOP Congressman, Does Not Support Gay Marriage Despite Having Gay Son
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 04/01/2013 11:54 am EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 3:06 pm EDT
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he did not support gay marriage despite having a gay son, drawing a sharp contrast to another elected Republican, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who came out for gay marriage after his son came out to him [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/rob-portman-gay-marriage_n_2947796.html ].
"I don't support gay marriage," Salmon told Phoenix station KTVK [ http://www.azfamily.com/news/Gay-son-doesnt-change-congressmans-view-on-gay-marriage-200686251.html ] in an interview that aired Sunday. "My son and I have had a lot of dialogue about it. I will say this: you know, my son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say."
Salmon said he didn't believe his son chose to be gay. A host then asked why he should be denied the right to marry if he didn't choose to be gay.
"My view is while I don't believe we should be vitriolic and try to enact harmful policies, by the same token, I'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family," he responded.
"It just means that I haven't evolved to that station," he continued. "Rob Portman apparently has. I haven't."
Another Arizona Mormon, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/jeff-flake-gay-marriage_n_2988661.html ] that he thought it was "inevitable" that a Republican presidential candidate would back gay marriage.
The Phoenix New Times reported in 2010 [ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-09-16/news/over-the-rainbow-the-namesake-son-of-conservative-mormon-matt-salmon-wants-to-make-a-name-for-himself-in-republican-politics-only-he-s-gay/full/ ] that Salmon's son, also named Matt, was in a relationship with and shared a home with Kent Flake, the senator's second cousin.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/matt-salmon-gay-marriage_n_2992362.html [with embedded video, and comments]
--
Liberty University, Kirk Cameron Want To 'Create Tens Of Thousands Of Kirk Camerons'
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
Posted: 03/25/2013 4:26 pm EDT | Updated: 03/25/2013 4:59 pm EDT
An evangelical university famous for its conservative ideology is partnering up with a similarly controversial activist to create a new religious film.
Liberty University, founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell, will team with former child star-turned-Christian activist Kirk Cameron to produce the 90-minute film, slated for release later this year. Cameron said the film will answer questions about why God lets bad things happen. The partnership was announced last week during Christin television program "Praise the Lord [ http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/NqbmxiYTqb_HXP9E-gsqZxleU-t5axdA ],” which airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Liberty's Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said on the program that Cameron is the "example of the type of graduate that Liberty is trying to turn out [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=84707 ]" and praised Cameron for "using your profession to impact the culture, and that’s what we’re trying to do in every profession.”
“So that’s why we decided to partner with you on your newest project," Falwell Jr. went on to explain. "We’re trying to create tens of thousands of Kirk Camerons and put them out there.”
Cameron and Liberty University have both made a point of supporting conservative candidates and causes over the past several years. Liberty has hosted many Republican politicians [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/bill-maher-new-rule-liberty-university_n_1530400.html ] (including Mitt Romney in 2012), while Cameron has defended Todd Akin (of "legitimate rape" fame) [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/kirk-cameron-todd-akin-defends-video_n_1822922.html ] as a "good man" who "is defending life."
But the thought of "thousands of Kirk Camerons" might strike particular fear into the hearts of LGBT advocates familiar with the "Growing Pains" actor's track record on issues like same-sex marriage.
Cameron gained infamy in March of 2012 after he told CNN's Piers Morgan that homosexuality is "unnatural" and "ultimately destructive [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/kirk-cameron-piers-morgan-homosexuality-unnatural_n_1318430.html ]." Despite criticism, Cameron later defended the comments [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/kirk-cameron-homosexuality-gay-marriage_n_1366673.html ], saying to Fox News' "Fox and Friends" hosts, "I don't think anything I said surprised anybody as a Bible-believing Christian."
Mathew Staver, the school's vice president and law school dean, meanwhile has made several anti-gay statements and supported the criminalization of homosexuality in the southeast African country of Malawi [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/tim-tebow-anti-gay-liberty-university_n_2812808.html ]. And after 9/11, Falwell Sr. said gays and lesbians, among others, were partly to blame for "help[ing] this happen [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/19/september11.usa9 ]."
(Hat tip, Patheos [ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/03/25/liberty-university-chancellor-were-trying-to-create-tens-of-thousands-of-kirk-camerons/ ])
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/liberty-university-kirk-cameron_n_2950489.html [with embedded video, and comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=39666340 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=41973574 and preceding (and any future following), http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63424165 and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79360305 and preceding and following]
*
Kirk Cameron And Bananas
Uploaded on Apr 28, 2006 by alex beltran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4
--
One in four Americans think Obama may be the antichrist, survey says
2 April 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/americans-obama-anti-christ-conspiracy-theories [with comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86281760 and preceding and following]
--
Google under fire for Cesar Chavez doodle
The Google doodle celebrated Cesar Chavez's March 31 birthday.
AP Photo
By KEVIN CIRILLI
4/1/13 8:50 AM EDT Updated: 4/1/13 3:56 PM EDT
Conservative bloggers hopped all over Google after the search engine giant on Sunday used its Google Doodle to recognize Cesar Chavez — and not Easter.
“March 31 marks the birthday of National Farm Workers Association (later United Farm Workers) co-founder Cesar Chavez,” Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro wrote [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/30/Google-features-Chavez-on-Easter ]. “Chavez, who was trained by Saul Alinsky in the tactics of community organizing, has become a cult figure in California due to his organization of agricultural workers. March 31 also happens to be another important date this year: Easter. So, naturally, Google’s current logo features a graphic of Chavez’s face, rather than anything having to do with Easter.”
He added: “[As] millions of Christians return home from Easter vigil on the holiest day of their calendar, they are currently being greeted by Cesar Chavez in a white suit.”
On the right-leaning The Daily Caller, Mickey Kaus hit Google and Chavez on his labor legacy.
“Google should google it: Cesar Chavez’s legacy on illegal immigration may not be what Google thinks it is. … As a labor leader, Chavez realized that uncontrolled immigration undercut his workers’ bargaining position — as late as 1979 he inveighed against ‘illegal alien strikebreakers’ before Congress. Some of his tactics were even less than Gandhiesque,” Kaus wrote [ http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/31/psst-cesar-chavez-opposed-illegal-immigrants/ ].
Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy website also criticized Google’s move.
“Yep. While two billion Christians around the world celebrate Easter Sunday on this 31st day of March, Google is using its famous ‘Doodle’ search logo art to mark the birth of left-wing labor leader Cesar Chavez. For real,” Twitchy’s staff wrote [ http://twitchy.com/2013/03/31/google-celebrates-easter-with-cesar-chavez-birthday-tribute/ ]. “Google’s Doodle logo overlords sure have a way of rubbing their politics in people’s noses.”
Google spokesperson Samantha Smith told POLITICO in a public statement that it’s “difficult to choose” what to highlight in the Doodle.
“We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past,” Smith said in a statement.
Meanwhile on the left, The Daily Kos’s Markos Moulitsas rolled his eyes at a Twitchy post that had confused Cesar Chavez with Hugo Chavez, the controversial recently deceased Venezuelan president. An original Twitchy headline (which has since been updated) had stated: “While Google honors Hugo Chavez, Bing delivers Easter eggs.”
“They changed it eventually, but too late to avoid looking like morons. I know, I know, all brown people look the same to that crowd. And two brown people named ‘Chavez?’ Who could expect them to get that straight? I mean, it’s not like they were the only ones who got it wrong!” Moulitsas wrote.
He continued [ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/31/1198276/-GOP-Rebranding-update-All-Chavez-s-look-alike ]: “So now all those conservatives are going to take their search and Web services to Bing, because that’ll show Google to be celebrating some brown guy that liberals love! And I’m sure they’ll turn in their Android phones as well, because those run on software created by Google.”
John Hawkins wrote on Right Wing News that Google “hit a new low.”
“Google has long been known as a left-wing corporations that’s decidedly unfriendly to conservatives and Christians, but they hit they a new low yesterday by making a point of celebrating a point of celebrating the birthday of far left-wing union activist Cesar Chavez on Easter Sunday,” Hawkins wrote [ http://www.rightwingnews.com/liberals/on-easter-google-honors-cesar-chavez/ ].
He continued: “Certainly Google is a private corporation and can celebrate anyone or anything they choose, but after they went out of their way to slap their Christian customers in the face on Easter Sunday, no one should be surprised that people are upset.”
Shawn Mitchell wrote [ http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/shawnmitchell/2013/04/01/ponder-christian-soldiers-googles-smirking-war-on-you-n1554133 ] on Town Hall that Google “scrambled some Easter eggs” with its Doodle.
“Google scrambled some Easter eggs yesterday. Or, more precisely, it didn’t. It would be silly and counterproductive to exaggerate Google’s eye-poke at Christians, but it would be a mistake not to consider its meanings, too,” Mitchell wrote. On Christianity’s holiest day, Easter Sunday, the Web’s hyper-dominant site’s commemorative screen was an earnestly winsome portrait of American labor organizer, Caesar Chavez.”
He continued: “Sure, no Christian was mocked, defamed, arrested, or persecuted. And heaven forbid any believer needs internet graphics to help bolster their faith. But hundreds of millions of Christians received the clearly intended message that Google doesn’t deign to wish them well on their sacred day. It would rather honor a liberal labor icon.”
Conservative commentators also tweeted their disdain:
Michael Krempasky
@krempasky
Happy Easter, Google. Nice Doodle. So it's Chavez today, for real? Ok then. Settings>Search>Default>Bing>Save Changes.
11:18 AM - 31 Mar 13
Glenn Beck
@glennbeck
Cool for Google to not celebrate Easter but really?!!? Go to http://google.com . HAPPY Caesar Chavez day everybody! #HELIVES!
2:04 PM - 31 Mar 13
Dana Perino
@DanaPerino
I thought the Chavez-google thing was a hoax or an early April Fool's Day prank...are they just going to leave that up there all day?
3:14 PM - 31 Mar 13
Erick Erickson
@EWErickson
Looks like Google thinks 2.2 billion people are celebrating Caesar Chavez today.
12:08 PM - 31 Mar 13
Rick Wilson
@TheRickWilson
Google is celebrating Easter with Cesar Chavez. I'm celebrating Easter with Bing.
5:00 AM - 31 Mar 13
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/google-cesar-chavez-easter-89508.html [with comments]
--
Marrying Out of the Faith
By STANLEY FISH
April 1, 2013, 9:00 pm
Back in 1963, my brother Ron was going out with (that was the phrase then) an Irish Catholic girl named Ann who was attending the University of Rhode Island. One day, she was sitting in class and suddenly through the window she saw my father, who, it turned out, had tracked her down by finding out from the university administration what classes she was taking and at what times. He took her to dinner and then proceeded to tell her that it would ruin his son’s life is he were to marry a non-Jewish girl. He then asked if she would be willing to have no contact with Ron for a year; in return, he offered to pay all her expenses during that time. She refused.
Meanwhile I had been asked if I could get Ron into the University of California at Berkeley, where I was then teaching. (My father, as I recall, was for this plan, and may even have initiated it.) I went to the head of the admissions office and said, “My brother has to get out of Rhode Island. Can you admit him here?”
“Sure,” he said, and it was done. (Those were the days; if I tried that in 2013, I would be run out of town.)
If the idea was to separate the two young people, it didn’t work. Shortly after Ron got to California, he sent Ann a plane ticket. When she arrived, they got married and have remained married to this day. She got a job at the university, took a class in Judaism and, much to my brother’s surprise, converted, although it took her a while to find a rabbi willing to give her the required course of instruction. Just the other day she remarked, “It was a hard club to get into.”
In 1963 I didn’t know any interfaith couples, but things have changed, as Naomi Schaefer Riley reports in her new book, “’Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is Transforming America [ http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/American/?view=usa&ci=9780199873746 ].”
According to Riley’s research — in 2010 she commissioned a large interfaith marriage survey — the interfaith marriage rate in the United States is 42 percent. The book is chock-full of fascinating statistics (“Jews are the most likely and Mormons are the least likely to marry members of other faiths”), but at its heart is a cautionary thesis: the growing number of interfaith couples don’t know what they’re getting into. “Interfaith couples tend to marry without thinking through the practical implications of their religious differences. They assume that because they are decent and tolerant people … they will not encounter difficulties being married to someone of another faith.”
They do, however, worry about marrying someone whose political views differ from theirs. Riley’s data show that “inter political party marriages are far less common than interfaith marriages.” Why, she asks, “do Americans seem so much more reluctant to marry outside of their political affiliation than their faith?”, and she answers that they may be “unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that religion can be a serious dividing in a marriage.” Because debating political differences is part of the culture in a way that debating religious differences is not, two people entering into a relationship are likely to be more concerned with the former than the latter.
That, Riley suggests, is a mistake. Early on, a difference in faith may seem unimportant and an occasion for practicing tolerance, while a difference over same-sex marriage or global warming or gun control may seem intractable and full of future hazard. (I can’t marry someone who believes that!) “But faith,” Riley insists, “is a tricky thing and it sneaks up on people,” especially at significant moments when the pull of old loyalties supposedly outgrown reasserts itself. “The death of a loved one, the birth of a child, the loss of a job, a move to a new city — all of these things can give people a sense of religious longing, a desire to return to the faith of their childhood.”
This can be true even of those whose childhood faith was weak and perfunctory. A Christian may think of herself or himself as not being religious at all, yet “find it hard to imagine family life without a Christmas tree.” A wife or a husband, also not particularly religious, may feel that having a Christmas tree goes too far. In an interfaith marriage, Riley observes, holidays can “become like bargaining chips.” (I’ll do this if you’ll do that, and if the children get to choose.) Even when one of the partners has converted and religious tensions have supposedly been eliminated, the fact of conversion can be the source of its own tension, as when one spouse, in the course of an argument, “plays the conversion card” and says “but I left my faith for you,” or, in other words, “You owe me big-time and for a long time.”
Once you begin to think about it, it’s obvious how many potential pitfalls await interfaith couples, but it is often not obvious to them, Riley says, for at least four reasons.
First, the liberal rhetoric of individualism and personal choice is casually affirmed without sufficient attention to the ways in which one’s choices and much else are influenced by tradition and community. Many interfaith couples have “chosen the romanticism and the individualistic ethos of America over the demands of the communities that they have come from” only to find, later on, that those demands still exert a force.
Second, young people today “consider religion to be a pursuit of the individual” and therefore downplay differences in ritual and doctrine; they minimize the requirements of faith by conceiving of faith as something without a specific content that might become the source of friction.
Third, the assertion, found everywhere in American cultural life, that differences are to be celebrated and embraced — our “obsession with tolerance at all costs” — obscures the extent to which those differences touch on something deep and immovable. “Ironically, interfaith marriage may awaken people to the fact that … that the particulars of practice and belief do matter, and that not all interfaith conflicts can be solved with the placement of a menorah next to a manger.”
And fourth, faith has become “racialized”; that is, we have come to think that “like skin color [it] is a trait that need not divide us.” But, Riley demurs, believing that faith “is a superficial characteristic the way race [and] ethnicity are” doesn’t make it so. In fact, “religious identity … can and should be considered” as more substantive than racial identity; and like any other substance it remains in place even when the commonplaces of multicultural doctrine tell us that it shouldn’t really matter.
My rehearsal of Riley’s points may suggest that her book is a brief against interfaith marriage. Far from it. She is herself a partner in an interfaith marriage (and in an inter-racial one, too), and she and her spouse have made it work. She just wants prospective interfaith couples to know that it is work, that love doesn’t conquer all, that “a rocky road may lie ahead of them” and that they “need to think in practical terms about their faith differences — how it will affect the way they spend their time, their money, and the way they want to raise their kids.” Her message is that if you don’t make the mistake of thinking it will be a bed of roses, you’ll have a better chance of its not being a bed of thorns.
*
Related Posts from Opinionator
We Found Our Son in the Subway
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/we-found-our-son-in-the-subway/
The End of ‘Marriage’
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/the-end-of-marriage/
The God of Marriage
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/the-god-of-marriage/
*
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/marrying-out-of-the-faith/ [with comments]
--
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65086614 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=85908877 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86050099 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86060852 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86088019 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86102793 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86104875 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86104879 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86146564 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86152803 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86153645 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86155545 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86187471 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86238200 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86258176 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86263045 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86267148 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86277139 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86390420 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86421668 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425534 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425596 and preceding (and any future following);
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86263399 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425918 and preceding and following
By Carol Hartsell
Posted: 03/27/2013 5:04 pm EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 2:46 pm EDT
The Catholic League is mad as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore. Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time", has apparently made one too many jabs at the expense of Catholics, particularly priests, and the League has decided it's time for it to stop.
Ever since Pope Benedict announced he was resigning, Maher has found plenty of fodder for material. He told Catholics during his "New Rules" section of the February 15 episode of "Real Time", "If the Pope can quit, it’s okay for you to quit too." He then went on to discuss the resignation saying, "Now…as you all know, this week, Pope Benedict told Vatican Radio... he was going to resign because the Church needs a fresh, young face, somewhere other than a priest’s lap."
It's jokes like that which have continuously angered members of the Catholic League. In a letter to Glenn A. Britt, Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable, League president Bill Donohue demands that someone have "a serious talk" with Maher.
Donohue's letter [ http://www.catholicleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/letter-to-Time-Warner-CEO1.pdf ] reads in part:
There is no other entertainer in the nation who has repeatedly spoken about the Catholic Church, especially its priests, in more vile and obscene terms than Bill Maher. Vicious beyond belief, his remarks would be condemned – indeed he would be fired – if directed at any other demographic group. Over and over again he libels [sic] priests, portraying all of them as sexual abusers. And he does so with impunity.
The letter was accompanied by another document entitled "Bill Maher's History of Anti-Catholicism, 1998-2013 [ http://www.catholicleague.org/bill-mahers-history-of-anti-catholicism-1998-2013-2/ (next below)]". The report quotes 39 instances of Maher making jokes critical of Catholicism, priests, the pope and religion in general, from his "Politically Incorrect" days up through his most recent episode of "Real Time":
What other business could you be in where your company gets caught running a child sex ring since forever and you still keep your customers?
Maher, a self-described agnostic who was raised Catholic, has made his anti-religious views one of the motifs of his comedy and political commentary over the years. He sits on the advisory board for Project Reason [ http://www.project-reason.org/ ], a "nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society." In his 2008 film "Religulous", he took a mocking look at all faiths, ultimately calling for more religious skepticism.
Nevertheless, Donohue maintains that Catholicism has been unduly singled out by Maher to a degree that demands Time Warner Cable's attention. The letter continues:
Catholics need to know just how far Time Warner is prepared to play the role of spectator. Does stewardship not count at all? HBO has been contacted many times, but nothing changes.... The time has come for someone in a position of responsibility to sit down and have a serious talk with this man.
Founded in 1973, the Catholic League [ http://www.catholicleague.org/ ] is "the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization", seeking to defend "the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination."
However, Donohue's letter may be incorrectly addressed, as Time Warner Cable split off from Time Warner (HBO's parent company) in 2009. So Britt, who is speculated to step down from the cable company at the end of this year anyway, has no authority over Maher, anyway.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/catholic-league-decries-bill-maher-anti-catholic-jokes_n_2965645.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Bill Maher’s History of Anti-Catholicism, 1998-2013
CATHOLIC LEAGUE
For Religious and Cvil Rights
Special Report
March 2013
March 26, 2013 by admin
March 22, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Pope Francis: After labeling the pope a “virgin bachelor,” Maher opined, “What other business could you be in where your company gets caught running a child sex ring since forever and you still keep your customers?”
March 15, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: After displaying pictures of notable persons holding signs mocking themselves, Maher showed a picture of the pope emeritus holding a sign saying, “Not actually sick…I just hated that f***ing job.”
February 15, 2013, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI: “Now…as you all know, this week, Pope Benedict told Vatican Radio—you know, Vatican Radio, playing the hits from the 8th century, 9th century and today—Benedict told them he was going to resign because the Church needs a fresh, young face, somewhere other than a priest’s lap.”
“It’s okay to let go. No one can fault you for losing faith in an organization that won’t even allow women as priests, because, the reasoning goes, Jesus didn’t have any female apostles. Yeah, you remember the Last Supper: a total sausage party.
“The fact is that any enterprise that excludes women almost always descends into sexual deviancy. At least at my bathhouse.”
“Show me any culture that’s traditionally hostile to women, and I will show you a culture that is screwed up. Like the Taliban. Like our military with its enormous rape problem. And like the Catholic Church.”
February 11, 2013, “Conan” [TBS], smearing priests: “We found early this year or last year in the Republican primaries when the Republicans made contraception an issue, 98% of Catholics use birth control and the only ones who don’t are the priests. They would if altar boys could get pregnant.”
October 12, 2012, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the vice presidential debate between Congressman Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden: “I have not seen an old Catholic guy give it to a young Catholic guy like that since since I was an altar boy.”
May 20, 2011, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: Maher and his panel of guests discussed the release of the 2011 John Jay Report on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church. Maher branded all priests as abusers and falsely claimed that the report blamed the 60s for the abuse scandal.
Maher said, “Here is what they found: Not as bad as you think; it magically solved itself one day in 1985…. And the Church isn’t the problem, celibacy isn’t the problem, repressed homosexuality isn’t the problem. You know what the problem was? The 60s… I’m not kidding, they said it was the permissive attitude of the 60s.”
March 11, 2011, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on a Catholics Come Home ad campaign: “The Catholic Church is changing. We get it. You don’t want us touching your kids. Message received. This chart shows alleged inappropriate behavior toward children since 90 AD. (Chart shows arrow going up every year) When we first started keeping records. We are going to bring those numbers down. We are not miracle workers but here is our pledge to you. You bring your kids back to church and there will be a significantly lower chance that he or she will be inappropriately touched—particularly she. And if one of our priests does touch one of your kids, you will dine absolutely free at Long John Silver’s. We’re the new Catholic Church and we know it’s time to roll up our sleeves and pull up our pants.”
October 19, 2010, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” [MSNBC], on gay priests: “What’s interesting to me is the way conservatives—and I would put the military in this lately in the way they’ve been talking about it and the Catholic Church talk about gay as if it’s something that we really can’t resist if it’s around us. You know, that’s how the Catholic Church talks about it. You know, our priests are not sinning, they’re just giving into temptation when they’re molesting children and going gay and stuff like that.”
September 28, 2010, “Joy Behar Show” [HLN], on having faith: “Religion is all about sticking in fingers in your ears and humming. They don’t want to hear what the reality is. They want to believe what they believe. It’s—it’s not about critical thinking. I mean, faith is the purposeful suspension of critical thinking.”
“I don’t know if anybody could read the Bible and still want to be a religious person. It is a book that is filled with immorality, wickedness, and then just plain silliness.”
September 28, 2010, “Joy Behar Show” [HLN], on the Bible: “But it is a lot of wickedness, there’s a lot God acting like a psychopath and just ethnically cleansing people and wiping people out…. I was pointing out on the show Friday night the Ten Commandments. You know, this is the ultimate list of the ten things right from God and it doesn’t include rape, incest, or genocide. That’s ok. That’s not on the top ten. But apparently swearing, working on Sunday and building statues to other gods, those are the things that are important.”
November 19, 2008, “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” [NBC], on Proposition 8: Leno: “I don’t know how two people getting married will suddenly ruin my marriage. I was told this will ruin my marriage. If two gay people—how? What does it matter to me?”
Maher: “It doesn’t matter. And of course it’s all coming from religion, which is ironic because Jesus never said anything about homosexuality in the Bible. And, you know, what if Jesus was gay? I am not saying he was. But it wouldn’t make him any worse. I mean, it could be. He was a gentle guy, never got married. Every prayer ends with ‘ah, men.’ I’m just—What? What did I say?”
November 14, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on priest saying he would withhold Communion for people who voted for Obama: “A Catholic priest in South Carolina has told his congregation: if you voted for Obama you can’t receive Communion. That’s right, the cracker won’t let you get the cracker. He said supporting Obama constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil. Then he proceeds to pass around the plate so everyone could chip in to pay off the child f***ing lawsuits.”
April 11, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking pope as Nazi and accusing him of covering up for molester: “And, finally, New Rule: Whenever you combine a secretive compound, religion and weirdos in pioneer outfits, there’s going to be some child f***ing going on. In fact, whenever a cult leader sets himself up as ‘God’s infallible wing man’ here on earth, lock away the kids.
“Which is why I’d like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult. Its leader also has a compound. And this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That’s right. The pope is coming to America this week, and, ladies, he’s single!
“Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Bill, you can’t be saying that the Catholic Church is no better than this creepy Texas cult! For one thing, altar boys can’t even get pregnant.’
“But, really, what tripped up the ‘little cult on the prairie’ was that they only abused hundreds of kids, not thousands all over the world. Cults get raided. Religions get parades. How does the Catholic Church get away with all of their buggery? VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!
“If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you ‘pope.’
“It’s like if you can’t pay your mortgage, you’re a deadbeat, but if you can’t pay a million mortgages, you’re Bear Stearns, and we bail you out. And that’s who the Catholic Church is, the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia. Too big to fail.
“When the—when the current pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul’s Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the statute of limitations ran out. And that’s the Church’s attitude: ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.’
“Which is fine. Far be it from me to criticize religion. But, just remember one thing: if the pope was, instead of a religious figure, merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of daycare centers where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he’d be arrested faster than you can say, ‘Who wants to touch Mister Wiggle?’”
February 8, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on Mother Teresa: When Maher said, “Mother Teresa, who we found out recently, actually lost her faith,” Bob Costas then said Mother Teresa questioned her faith from time to time; she didn’t lose it entirely. Maher responded, “Well, but it’s Mother Teresa. Kind of like finding out Colonel Sanders doesn’t eat chicken.”
February 4, 2008, “Larry King Live” [CNN], on being an anti-Catholic bigot: “They accuse me of being a Catholic bigot. First of all, I don’t have it out especially for Catholics. I think all religions are koo-koo. Ok? It’s not just the Catholics. I’m not a bigot. Just because I wish for the demise of an organization that I think is entirely destructive to the human race, that doesn’t make me a bigot. I also wish for [the] demise of Hamas and the KKK.”
January 25, 2008, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], on the Virgin Birth: “But I think it is much more likely that there could be space ships from outer space, than what a lot of things people believe. People still believe, you know, excuse me I know I may inject religion into every show but UFOs are a lot more likely than a space god [that] flew down bodily and you know who was the Son of God and you know had sex with a Palestinian woman…”
January 4, 2008, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” [NBC], attacking religious faith and the Eucharist: “You can’t be a rational person six days of the week and put on a suit and make rational decisions and go to work and, on one day of the week, go to a building and think you’re drinking the blood of a 2,000-year-old space god. That doesn’t make you a person of faith…That makes you a schizophrenic.”
August 17, 2007, “Larry King Live” [CNN], on the release of his movie “Religulous”: “It should come out at Easter. I would like it out as soon as the time people are celebrating the space man’s flying up to heaven.”
May 22, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking Catholicism, mixing it with homosexual themes: “And it’s easy to start a religion! Watch, I’ll do it for you: I had a vision last night! A vision! The Blessed Virgin Mary came to me – I don’t know how she got past the guards – and she told me it’s high time to take the high ground from the Seventh Day Adventists and give it to the 24-hour party people. And what happens in the confessional stays in the confessional. Gay men, don’t say you’re life partners; say you’re a nunnery of two. ‘We weren’t having sex, officer, I was performing a very private Mass, here in my car. I was letting my rod and staff comfort him. Take this and eat of it, for this is my roommate Barry. And for all those who believe there is a special place for you in Kevin.’”
April 16, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], discussing religion and drugs: “Religion is bad, drugs are good.” On all religions: “Childish, destructive and nonsense.”
April 13, 2007, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], attacking the Eucharist: Maher showed a pictured of Keith Richards and said, “New Rule, snorting your father isn’t crazy.” Then, he showed a picture of a Catholic priest giving Communion and said, “Eating your father, that’s crazy.”
April 8, 2005, “Real Time with Bill Maher” [HBO], mocking the death of Pope John Paul II: “The Pope may be cold but this crowd is hot.”
“The Pope was laid to rest just as he requested, in a pine box with his drum sticks, an Allen Iverson jersey and then Bono came and poured Jack Daniels on the coffin.”
“People waited in line for 24 hours to see the Pope’s body and when they got to see the Pope they smelled worse than he did.”
“For those who could not make the funeral the Vatican has asked that in lieu of flowers just stop touching your d***.”
“American Catholics say, ‘We love the pope, he should be a saint but he is kind of full of sh*t on everything we believe.’”
“For a church that is so against homosexuals they put on a pageant that you could not believe.”
May 2003, “Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home,” Maher’s Broadway show: “What’s the reason for this insanity?” Maher had been discussing Islam. “One word: religion. The Catholics got away with f***ing kids.” When the audience gave a mixed reaction, he said, “Oh come on! Get the rod out of your a**!” He then impersonated an altar boy saying to a priest, “Put some more lotion on, Father,” and said, “Holy lubricant, Father!”
“Don’t regulate drugs: regulate religion. I was raised Catholic and I was not molested. I’m a little insulted. Apparently, I wasn’t attractive enough.”
“The problem is they drill religion into your head when you are very young. Well, when you are four years old you believe in Santa Claus, too. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, the Virgin Birth, sure! When you’re a priest everyday spewing this bulls*** about the apple and the snake etc. you can see him just saying, ‘Ah, f*** it, just blow me, kid!’”
“It’s so gay, the Church! With the robes and the smoke and kneeling in front of the priest with your mouth open eating God.”
“How does a country get away with keeping half its population in beekeeper suits? I’ll tell you how. They say the magic word: religion. It’s their religion. You say religion, you can get away with anything. The Catholics got away with f***ing kids, for crying out loud!”
June 20, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the canonization of Padre Pio: “Pope John Paul canonized him and the reason it sticks in my craw is because it just seems like they needed a saint badly, because they had a lot of bad P.R. with the whole, you know, we’re having sex with kids thing.”
June 5, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], responding to a guest who had said that no one wants to see the Catholic Church go away: “Well, no, I’d love to see the Church go away. And there are lots of people who would.”
May 22, 2002, on “Larry King Live” [CNN], on the Catholic Church: “Well, I wasn’t raised Jewish. My mother is Jewish. But I never even knew I was half-Jewish until I was a teenager. I was just so frightened about the Catholics and everything that was going on there in the church—and I was never, you know, molested or anything. And I’m a little insulted. I guess they never found me attractive. And that’s really their loss.”
May 10, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church: “So it is in this spirit that I offer this modest proposal that the Catholic Church just drop the pretense and just go gay. Just come out of the confessional. Preach the sermon on the mountain. Embrace it. Let the straight people be Baptists. It’s high time you gay Catholics stood up and announced to the world, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get Eucharist.’”
May 7, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on sex abuse settlements: “I am not defending the Church. I have hated the Church way before anyone else. I have been pounding religion for nine years on this show.”
March 8, 2002, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the sex abuse problem: “Before puberty, I would say nobody caused me more pain than the Catholics.”
“I apparently was not attractive enough to be hit on [by priests].”
Jason Jones of Human Life International commented that the sex abuse problem was not prevalent in Europe or South America. Maher shot back, “You’re right. In African countries they rape the nuns.”
March 5, 2002, on “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Eucharist: Kirk Franklin, a black musician, attacked the Eucharist by complaining “gotta take the cracker.” To which Maher replied, “Gotta take the cracker from a cracker.”
October 27, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on Christianity and Halloween: “Christianity is grafted from paganism… It’s all about a man in the sky who’s going to send you in a burning lake of fire if you screw up… Which is the perfect description of religion itself. I mean, what is scarier than drinking the man’s blood every Sunday? That’s not a spooky ritual? ‘Here kids, drink his blood and eat his body.’ Like that’s not pagan? What can be more pagan than that?”
August 9, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on sex abuse: “Look, it’s a fact of life. Priests, a lot of times, molest boys, okay? They are celibate and it’s a magnet for homosexual pedophiles.”
July 11, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on celibate priests: “Be fruitful and multiply. What’s more weird than being celibate. There’s nothing more perverted than that.”
March 20, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Annunciation: Maher commented that the Archangel Gabriel didn’t tell Mary she was pregnant with Jesus, he showed her his “horn had turned pink.”
March 9, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the celibate priesthood: “Priests are supposed to be celibate. They’re not having sex with women…. Just with the boys.”
March 2, 2000, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on anti-Catholicism in the wake of George W. Bush speaking at Bob Jones University: “Isn’t it amazing that this is an issue in this election? When was the last time you ever heard of a Catholic being bashed? … But when was the last time someone called you a Papist? I mean really, is this really going on nowadays?”
November 10, 1999, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on why many people don’t go to synagogue or church: “You shouldn’t, I don’t think, lump the synagogue in with the Church. They operate very differently, OK. The synagogue—and I’m not Jewish, but I was raised Catholic—was never as corrupt as the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, which is people, not God running it, OK, hugely corrupt, did horrible things through history, maybe…because they were that powerful.”
“Catholics practice what they want to practice. They go to see the pope because he is a big celebrity, but they go home and they masturbate, they practice birth control…well they do.”
February 4, 1999, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the pope and abortion: “The pope had his dress up about the abortion issue.”
October 8, 1998, “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” [ABC], on the Catholic Church: “But Catholics nowadays are like, you know, ‘The pope says we shouldn’t do this and this, but we really wanna pick and choose the parts of the religion that we feel fits us. You know the pope says you shouldn’t masturbate or have abortions, but that’s fine for him, he’s an elderly man, but for us…’”
Copyright © 2013 Catholic League
http://www.catholicleague.org/bill-mahers-history-of-anti-catholicism-1998-2013-2/
--
Bassem Youssef, Egypt's Jon Stewart, Released On Bail
By SARAH EL DEEB
03/31/13 05:10 PM ET EDT
CAIRO — Egypt's most popular television satirist, who every week skewers the Islamist president and hard-line clerics on his Jon Stewart-style show, was released on bail Sunday but could face charges of insulting the country's leader and Islam.
Bassem Youssef is the most prominent critic of President Mohammed Morsi to be called in for questioning in recent weeks, in what the opposition says is a campaign to intimidate critics amid wave after wave of political unrest in deeply polarized Egypt.
Arrest warrants have been issued for five prominent anti-government activists accused of instigating violence.
Deputy chief prosecutor Hassan Yassin denied the nearly five-hour interrogation was part of an intimidation campaign and said his department was enforcing the law and seeking to establish some guidelines on freedom of expression.
"The prosecution is the protector of social rights and we work on implementing the law. ... There must be guidelines for those working in the media to observe so as not violate the law," Yassin told The Associated Press.
Morsi last week accused private media of fanning violence and argued that it was being used for political aims.
But Yassin denied that the prosecutor's office was operating at the behest of the presidency to go after Morsi's critics, saying it has also interrogated and sentenced Islamists. Morsi appointed the chief prosecutor late last year despite an outcry from many in the judiciary who accused him of trampling on their right to choose the top prosecutor.
A court ruling last week declared Morsi's appointment void, a verdict he will likely appeal.
"There is no contact between us and the presidency. ... Just like we moved against someone who insults Christianity, we moved against someone who is accused of insulting Islam," he said.
Youssef is the host of the weekly political satire show known for his skits lampooning Morsi and Egypt's newly empowered Islamist political class. But he also mocks the opposition and the media.
The fast-paced show has attracted a wide viewership, while at the same time earning its fair share of detractors. Youssef has been a frequent target of lawsuits, most of them brought by Islamist lawyers who accused him of "corrupting morals" or violating "religious principles."
Youssef frequently imitates Morsi's speeches and gestures. He has fact-checked the president, and in one particularly popular episode earlier this year, he played video clips showing remarks by Morsi, made in 2010 before he became president, calling Zionists "pigs."
The remarks caused a brief diplomatic tiff with the U.S. administration, and Morsi had to issue a statement to defuse the flap.
In his last episode this week, Youssef thanked Morsi for providing him with so much material.
Youssef has also made regular jokes about comments by Islamic clerics and presenters on Islamic TV stations, exposing contradictions between their comments and public speeches and what he considers the spirit of Islam.
Prosecutor Mohammed el-Sayed Khalifa was quoted on the website of the state-owned Al-Ahram daily that he has 28 plaintiffs in the case against Youssef accusing him of insulting Islam, mocking prayers, and "belittling" Morsi in the eyes of the world and his own people.
The plaintiffs are mostly regular citizens, according to Shaimaa Abul-Kheir, a representative of the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists who was allowed to attend the interrogation.
In remarks to a TV presenter on CBC, the private station that airs his program, Youssef said on Saturday that his program does not insult Islam but aims to expose those who "distort" it.
"We don't insult religion. What we do is expose those so-called religious and Islamic stations which have offended Islam more than anyone else," he said. "If anyone is to be investigated for insulting religions, it should be all those who use Islam as a weapon and a political tool to swallow the others using religion."
When asked if programs in Egypt should be less scathing than those of the West, Youssef said: "We will give (the West) an example of how freedoms are respected after the revolution," he said of the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
After turning himself in for questioning, Youssef first tweeted a series of quips from the prosecutor's office.
"They asked me the color of my eyes. Really," one said.
A news broadcaster at a TV station affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Misr 25, accused Youssef of "mocking" the investigation. His tweets later were erased and he wrote that some reports from inside the interrogation room were "incorrect."
Amr Moussa, a former presidential candidate, called the warrant for Youssef's arrest a "provocation to Egyptians who are known for their love of what is funny."
"There is nothing odious about criticizing the president," he said in an emailed statement. "This humanizes the president."
Gamal Eid, a rights lawyer, said accusing Youssef of insulting religion – as opposed to just the president – is a tactic aimed at increasing public sympathy for the investigation.
"The accusation of insulting religion would mobilize more people against him," Eid said.
Gamal Heshmat, a lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, dismissed the opposition's claims of an intimidation campaign as an "exaggeration," adding that many critics of Morsi and his group are responsible for instigating violence and "offending" many in the public.
"What is the problem with abiding by the law? No one was detained and there were no extra-legal measures," he told the AP, describing the media as "chaotic," with numerous attacks against Morsi but few prosecutions.
"It is offensive ... Let the judiciary decide," he said.
A prosecution official said Youssef was to pay a bail of 15,000 LE ($2,200), pending the completion of an investigation. Youssef tweeted that the bail is for three separate cases.
Eid, the rights lawyer, said the release on bail means all options are open.
"The prosecution could continue investigation, put the case aside or send it to trial."
Meanwhile, in Egypt's second largest city, Alexandria, 11 people detained on Saturday including five lawyers accused of attacking a police station were released without charges.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/bassem-youssef-egypt-jon-stewart_n_2989099.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
*
Jon Stewart Defends Bassem Youssef, Calls Out Egyptian President Morsi For Hypocrisy, Fear
04/02/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/jon-stewart-defends-bassem-youssef_n_2998110.html [with embedded Daily Show video segments, and comments]
--
Kentucky governor vetoes “religious freedom” bill
Though Steve Beshear, a Democrat, blocked the bill, the legislature could still override his veto
Mar 24, 2013
Gov. Steve Beshear, D-Ky., vetoed a bill that would carve out broader protections for “religious freedom,” which in practice could give cover to those who discriminate against gays and lesbians. ...
[...]
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/24/kentucky_governor_vetoes_religious_freedom_bill/ [with comments]
*
Kentucky legislature overwhelmingly overrides veto of 'religious freedom' bill
Mar 27, 2013
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130326/NEWS0101/303260085/Kentucky-legislature-overwhelmingly-overrides-veto-religious-freedom-bill [with comments]
*
(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86417434 and preceding and following
--
Boston College Objects to Condoms on Campus; ACLU Threatens Lawsuit
By Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter
March 29, 2013|5:38 pm
Boston College, a Jesuit, Catholic university located in Chestnut Hill, Mass., is currently working to stop the distribution of condoms and other "safe sex" materials on campus, arguing that the promotion of contraceptive use interferes with the university's religious values.
"The distribution of condoms is not congruent with our values and traditions," Boston College's Dean of Students Paul Chebator and Director of Residence Life George Arey said in a March 15 email to students, according to NBC News [ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17491012-boston-college-threatens-action-against-students-distributing-condoms ].
"We do need to advise you that should we receive any reports that you are, in fact, distributing condoms on campus, the matter would be referred to the student conduct office for disciplinary action by the university," the email continued, adding that the university has a "responsibility to protect the values and traditions of Boston College as a Jesuit, Catholic institution."
The condoms were reportedly being distributed by the student-run group "Safe Sites," a network of 18 dorm locations situated throughout the Boston College campus which serve as safe havens for students seeking free condoms, sexual lubricants, and informational pamphlets relating to safe sex.
The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that the college is violating the students' rights by threatening to bring disciplinary action against the students, and has indicated that it is prepared to pursue legal action if the university does not change its stance.
"Jack Dunn needs to think about the state's civil rights act and its applicability to private parties," Sarah Wunsch, attorney for the ACLU, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 [ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/03/27/bc-threatens-to-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus/ ] on Wednesday in reference to Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn's comments about disciplinary action.
"They should not be threatening students with disciplinary action," Wunsch added.
Wunsch went on to argue that even though the students at Boston College attend a private university, they are still protected under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act of 1979.
Prominent Catholic universities from across the country, including the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America in Washington, have spoken out in support of Boston College, saying that they too forbid the distribution of condoms on their campuses.
"One of the teachings of our faith is that contraception is morally unacceptable," Victor Nakas, a spokesman for Catholic University, told The Boston Globe [ http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/03/27/catholic-colleges-show-solidarity-with-boston-college-condom-distribution-ban/zHwQW17fOPExM6bpJ132hN/story.html ].
"Since condoms are a form of contraception, we do not permit their distribution on campus," Nakas added.
The Safe Sites student group is sponsored by the Boston College Students for Sexual Health, and chairwoman for the BCSSH told NBC News [ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/27/17491012-boston-college-threatens-action-against-students-distributing-condoms ] that the student group has been dispersing condoms on campus for the past four years and has never been threatened with disciplinary action from school administrators.
According to The Boston Globe, the leaders of the Safe Sites student group will be meeting with school officials at the end of April to discuss the conflict, but they will reportedly continue to disperse contraception at their on-campus locations until the meeting.
Copyright © 2013 The Christian Post, Inc.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/boston-college-objects-to-condoms-on-campus-aclu-threatens-lawsuit-92928/ [with comments]
--
Boston College Condom Controversy Continues
The school administration is threatening disciplinary action against the Boston College Students for Sexual Health.
By Melanie Graham
April 1, 2013
As debate continues [ http://northend.patch.com/articles/should-boston-college-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus ] on whether Boston College students should be disciplined for handing out condoms on campus, the students behind the contraceptive distribution have issued a statement describing the administration's correspondence as "fear mongering and threatening."
The student group -- Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH) -- have recently been told by school administrators to cease condom distribution on campus or face disciplinary action.
BCSSH Chair Lizzi Jekanowski said in the statement that the administration had not issued any prior warnings or disciplinary action against the group.
“We've had a very open and positive relationship with the administration. I would have expected them to initiate a meeting to talk about this issue before sending intimidating letters directly to the students," Jekanowski said in the statement [ http://o1.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/600x450/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/ec64ab27791cecdeb72e635bdd9f7d6 ].
Administrators from the Jesuit, Catholic school sent letters to BSCCH students on March 15 [ http://www.bcheights.com/news/admins-warn-bcssh-about-safe-sites ], and threatened disciplinary action against the students for breaking school policy and handing out the contraceptives on campus, The BC Heights student newspaper reported last week.
“As a Jesuit university, there are certain Catholic commitments that we are called to uphold,” Dunn told The Heights. “All we ask of our students is that they respect these commitments and the values upon which they are founded. If this group of students chooses not to comply with university policies, they will face disciplinary sanctions.”
In the letter, the administration specifically referenced the group's "Safe Sites," which are dorm rooms where students can find free condoms. The Safe Site locations are listed on the BCSSH website and the rooms are also marked with the Safe Sites logo.
In an interview on CNN last week [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gJWw7qmPpk (next below; embedded)],
Jekanowski said the BCSSH hands out nearly 2,000 condoms every semester through its safe sites program and off-campus distributions on College Road. This resource is important, Jekanowski said, because the Catholic university's health services does not provide any form of contraception.
According to the CNN report, school officials felt the distribution was becoming "too public."
Aside from the dorm room Safe Sites, the BCSSH acknowledged in its statement that it has consistently handed out condoms on the sidewalks of College Road, between McElroy Commons and Roncalli Residence Hall. However, the group says this location is technically off-campus.
"This location, which is designated a public area by the city of Newton, is both off of the school’s campus and over half a mile from St. Ignatius Church. BCSSH has the legal right to distribute on this property, in accordance with the ordinance of the City of Newton, articles 20-13, 21-5 and 26-17," Jekanowski said in the statement.
Last week the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts announced its support for the student group [ http://newton.patch.com/articles/planned-parenthood-aclu-clash-with-bc-administrators-on-condom-handouts ], calling the Boston College administration "irresponsible" and "short-sighted."
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also stepped up to stand behind the students, saying that it may take legal action against BC if it follows through with discipline, WBZ reported [ http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/03/27/bc-threatens-to-punish-students-for-handing-out-condoms-on-campus/ ] last week.
The BCSSH, which was formed in 2009, is not officially recognized by the university.
In addition to online petitions, BCSSH is also hoping to receive support from Gov. Deval Patrick, who is scheduled to speak at Boston College this week.
In a Facebook update posted Sunday night [ https://www.facebook.com/BCSSH/posts/137499219762444 ], the group asks supporters to call Gov. Deval Patrick's office and ask that Patrick refuse to speak at the university "until the administration rescinds its disciplinary threats."
Patrick is scheduled to present "The Policies and Politics of Inclusion [ http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/publications/chronicle/FeaturesNewsTopstories/2013/news/patrick032813.html ]," on Tues., April 2 in Boston College's Robsham Theatre.
Copyright © 2013 Patch
http://newton.patch.com/articles/boston-college-condom-controversy-continues [no comments yet]
--
Milwaukee Archdiocese Sex Abuse Files To Be Released
In this Feb. 25, 2012, file photo, Cardinal Timothy Dolan speaks to the press after prayer services at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed Wednesday, May 30, 2012, that it had a policy to pay suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry. The policy was crafted by Dolan when he was Archbishop in Milwaukee.
04/03/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/milwaukee-archdiocese-sex-abuse-files_n_3010663.html [with comments]
--
Sex Education Programs For Teens Targeted By GOP Lawmakers
04/02/2013
In addition to passing some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation so far this year, Republican lawmakers in North Dakota, Arkansas and Texas are now pushing bills that would defund comprehensive sex education programs for at-risk teenagers.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/sex-education-programs-gop_n_2993788.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Robertson: Liberals Use Schools like Gulags to "Indoctrinate" Youth
Published on Mar 1, 2013 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-liberals-use-schools-gulags-indoctrinate-youth
Pat Robertson says liberals don't believe in freedom and want to "indoctrinate" school children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkZRAIoH0wI
--
Indiana Abortion Pill Bill Passed By House, Aimed At Limiting Use
04/03/2013
INDIANAPOLIS(Reuters) - The Indiana House on Tuesday approved a bill requiring clinics that administer the so-called abortion pill to also have full surgical facilities, a move that would force Planned Parenthood to halt all abortion services at a central Indiana clinic.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/indiana-abortion-pill-bill_n_3002600.html [with comments]
--
Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor, Introduces Abortion Coverage Ban
03/27/2013
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) introduced an amendment to the state's health insurance exchange implementation bill [ http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?131+sum+HB1900 ] that would prevent insurance plans in the new health exchange from covering abortion.
While similar bills introduced [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/michigan-abortion-bills_n_2253380.html ] in other states would allow a woman to buy a policy rider for abortion coverage, McDonnell's proposed amendment late Monday night would ban that as well.
"No qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered for sale through an exchange established or operating in the Commonwealth shall provide coverage for abortions, regardless of whether such coverage is provided through the plan or is offered as a separate optional rider thereto," the amendment reads, adding that women who have become pregnant from rape or incest or whose lives are in danger would be exempt from the ban.
Most private insurance plans in the U.S. include abortion coverage. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia estimates that the ban on abortion coverage in Virginia will affect about 50,000 women in Virginia -- the estimated number who will be using state-based health benefits exchange.
NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights advocacy groups condemned the amendment because it could prevent many low-income women from being able to access abortion care.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/bob-mcdonnell-abortion-_n_2955628.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Doug LaMalfa Event: Redding Tea Party Orders Media Blackout At Town Hall
03/27/2013
[...]
LaMalfa took office [ http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results/california#house-races ] in January after defeating Jim Reed in the 2012 House race for California's 1st District. He turned heads with September comments linking abortion to cancer [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/doug-lamalfa-california-gop_n_1877630.html ].
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/doug-lamalfa-redding-tea-party_n_2959306.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Who was Mary?
Images of Mary have been plentiful throughout most of the history of Christianity. However, anyone seeking to put together a fully rounded portrait of Mary actually has very few clues to go on. Our Cover Story is reported by Martha Teichner.
CBS News
March 31, 2013 9:12 AM
Last Updated 9:52 a.m. ET
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women..."
There is no trace of suffering, or even joy, in the alabaster Mary's face. But it is not the emptiness of her gaze people see as they pray; it is the Mary whose pain at the loss of her son, Jesus Christ, resembles their own.
Father Neil Connolly, pastor of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church on the Lower East Side of New York City, said, "Mary's role for us as Christians is humanizing. It's somebody we can relate to."
He noted the second part of the "Hail Mary": "We say, 'Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.' It's a recognition of who Mary is. After Jesus, Mary is number one."
Twenty percent of all Roman Catholic places of worship in the U.S. -- nearly 4,000 -- are named for Mary.
"Her position also is a very iconic position, in the sense that people admire so much her life, or what we know about it," said Father Connolly.
But what exactly DO we know about it? Mainly, what little is written in the Gospels of the New Testament -- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Mary (or Miriam. or Maryam) was from the little town of Nazareth, population maybe 400 in the first century. She was Jewish, and would have spoken Aramaic.
At the age of about 12, she would have been considered to be mature, said Professor Deirdre Good, a New Testament scholar at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York City. "So that's when she was, as the New Testament describes her, betrothed to Joseph. She would have been a teenager, anywhere from 12 onwards.
"What Mary represents in Christian tradition is the meeting of God with humanity," said Good.
We learn from Luke that the angel Gabriel visits her, and announces that she will bear a child, and that this child is from God. "Mary says, 'How is this possible, because I don't know a man?'" said Good. "That's what the Greek actually says. It's translated euphemistically as 'I am a virgin.'"
The Gospels tell the Christmas story -- how Mary gives birth to Jesus. During his adult ministries, she is seldom mentioned, although Mark describes what has been interpreted as a rift between them.
"Jesus is teaching and somebody says, 'Your mother and brothers are outside and want to see you,'" said Professor Craig Evans, a New Testament scholar from Acadia University in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. "And he says, 'Well, who are my mother and brothers?' And he looks around at his disciples and he says, 'These are my mother and my brothers.'
"There's no interaction, and that definitely does point to a little bit of tension, at least at that point, between Jesus and his family."
Only one of the Gospels places Mary at the crucifixion, alongside the so-called "beloved disciple.".
"John -- perhaps the beloved disciple, perhaps not -- was told by the dying Jesus to take Mary and look after her," said Good. "The tradition is that John takes Mary to Ephesus."
Ephesus, the ancient city in Turkey, where today pilgrims visit the house in which she might have spent her final days, her role as supporting cast member in the story of Jesus on the verge of changing dramatically.
"Once the significance of Jesus settled firmly on his following in the aftermath of Easter, then people started asking, 'What is it about Mary?'" said Evans.
You can trace her take on glory in art.
Early Christian art existed literally underground, in chambers known as catacombs, on walls and coffins. "Most all of our early Christian art comes from Rome and maybe Italy, because it sort of survived there," said Professor Robin Jensen, who teaches the history of Christian art and worship at Vanderbilt University.
"We start to see Mary, maybe at the end of the third century, probably not until the beginning of the fourth, usually in a scene we would think of as a nativity scene, but a very specific one: the Adoration of the Magi," said Jensen.
The Adoration of the Magi, as depicted in a panel from a Roman sarcophagus dating from the 4th century, from the cemetery of St. Agnes in Rome.
Vatican Museum/Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikipedia
"We don't see Mary as so important in and of herself until the beginning of the fifth century, shortly after the Council of Ephesus, which was in 431, when they declared her to be the 'theotokis,' the god-bearer, mother of God.
"And then everything changes, and she starts to appear enthroned with a child on her lap, with angels and saints around her. That was when she becomes important."
By the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, paintings of Mary could be read for symbols of her holiness.
Jensen described the characteristics of her appearance in art: "Her outer mantle is blue and underneath, she usually, not always, has a red robe. One interpretation of this, and I think it's right, is that's a symbol of her fleshliness, her body, her blood that supports the child in the womb." The blue, meanwhile, meant divinity. "It's a sign of the heavens. She's also a heavenly being and, some think, queen of heaven."
Rarely is Mary shown as anything but young, although by 1400 -- when an old, tearful Mary was painted -- her suffering had become central to our understanding of who she was, although her anguish is nowhere in the Gospels -- not even her collapse when she sees Jesus with his cross on Good Friday.
So why is a different Mary shocking?
In "The Testament of Mary," now on Broadway, Irish actress Fiona Shaw plays Mary late in life -- angry, tortured by doubt, as she remembers.
Author-playwright Colm Toibin told Teichner, "There's a sort of almost a hunger to create this woman."
"Is what you've done sacrilege?" asked Teichner.
"Anyone who looks at the story of Christianity, of the origins of it, of the crucifixion itself, must wonder -- even on the best days, even on Easter Sunday -- if there's any other way to look at it. And so I'm offering that as an artist."
Not every Christian wants to accept that offer -- protests greeted "The Testament of Mary" when it began previews.
Toibin's provocative take isn't the only alternative Mary story. In early Jewish texts, she was a harlot, the virgin birth untrue. She also appears in the Quran, honored by Muslims above all other women.
Who was she really? The answer depends on the eye and the heart of the beholder.
Copyright © 2013 CBS Interactive Inc.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57577124/who-was-mary/ [with embedded video, and comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=45326613 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=61201696 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=85410913 (in particular "How Mary Feels About Being a Virgin" about 15% of the way down) and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86275671 and following]
--
Retired Pope Benedict Elopes With Male Secretary, Asks For “Privacy”
Apr 1, 2013
http://www.queerty.com/retired-pope-benedict-elopes-with-male-secretary-asks-for-privacy-20130401/ [with comments]
--
Sue Everhart, Georgia GOP Chairwoman, Warns Of 'Free Ride' Gay Marriage Fraud
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Sue Everhart is photographed at party headquarters in Atlanta on May 4, 2011.
(David Goldman / AP)
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 04/01/2013 10:08 am EDT | Updated: 04/03/2013 11:47 am EDT
Georgia GOP Chairwoman Sue Everhart warned that straight people might enter into fraudulent gay marriages to obtain benefits, the Marietta Daily Journal reported Saturday [ http://www.mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Cobb+sounds+off+as+Facebook+goes+red+in+support+of+gay+marriage%20&id=22108736 ].
"You may be as straight as an arrow, and you may have a friend that is as straight as an arrow,” she told the Journal. “Say you had a great job with the government where you had this wonderful health plan. I mean, what would prohibit you from saying that you’re gay, and y’all get married and still live as separate, but you get all the benefits? I just see so much abuse in this it’s unreal. I believe a husband and a wife should be a man and a woman, the benefits should be for a man and a woman. There is no way that this is about equality. To me, it’s all about a free ride.”
It's theoretically possible that such a scenario could happen, but there isn't any evidence of widespread fraud following the adoption of gay marriage in nine states and the District of Columbia. Though fictional, the premise of the 2007 Adam Sandler movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" [ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0762107/ ] was a pair of straight firefighters getting domestic partnership status.
Everhart does not note the possibility of marriage fraud among opposite-sex couples, though others have warned against marriage fraud committed in order to get immigration benefits. In reality, the number of proven cases [ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/nyregion/13fraud.html?pagewanted=all ] of such fraud is extremely small.
Everhart also said she could not understand how two gay people could ever have sex. "If it was natural, they would have the equipment to have a sexual relationship," she told the Journal.
(h/t TPM [ http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/georgia-gop-chair-warns-that-straight-people-will ])
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/sue-everhart-gay-marriage_n_2991860.html [with embedded video report, and (over 10,000) comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=36332552 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=48542526 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67072551 and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81256130 and preceding and following]
--
Cross-Dressing Priest Pleads Guilty To Dealing Meth
By Dan Avery
Apr 2, 2013
Back in January we named Monsignor Kevin Wallin of Waterbury, Connecticut, a Douche of the Week when he was indicted for allegedly having sex with other men in drag [ http://www.queerty.com/sex-crazed-cross-dressing-meth-dealing-priest-indicted-on-drug-ring-charges-20130119/ ] while high on crystal meth.
Well, the healing can begin because Monsignor Meth has pleaded guilty [ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/04/02/monsignor-meth-kevin-wallin-pleads-guilty-to-meth-charge/ ] to earning more than $300,000 by selling meth out of his home.
He also confessed to running an adult-video and sex-toy shop, Land of Oz. But that was only to launder his drug money, so it’s not so bad, right?
Wallin, who was busted after an undercover sting operation, faces 11 to 14 years in prison at his sentencing in June.
Before he was suspended from the ministry in May 2012, the 61-year-old priest was pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport.
Copyright 2013 Queerty, Inc.
http://www.queerty.com/cross-dressing-priest-pleads-guilty-to-dealing-meth-20130402/ [with comments] [and see "Collared - The life and times of a meth priest", about 60% of the way down at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=84115869 ]
--
Who Wanted to Take the Case on Gay Marriage? Ask Scalia
March 29, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/supreme-courts-glimpse-at-thinking-on-same-sex-marriage.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/us/supreme-courts-glimpse-at-thinking-on-same-sex-marriage.html?pagewanted=all ]
--
The Prop 8 Hearing: The Justice Antonin Scalia Comedy Hour
By Lester Brathwaite
Mar 26, 2013
Justice Antonin Scalia saw a moment to display that famous(?) sense of humor when pro-Prop 8 attorney Chris Cooper argued that procreation lay at the heart of the gay marriage debate.
Justice Elena Kagan asked Cooper about a heterosexual couple over 55 years of age seeking to get married, even though they technically wouldn’t be able to have children.
Cooper agreed that the court could not constitutionally ban such marriages, before Scalia heard the faint sounds of a rimshot in the not-too-distant future:
Scalia: “I suppose we could have a questionnaire at the marriage desk when people come in asking, ‘Are you fertile or are you not fertile?’
[Laughter]
Scalia: “I suspect this court would hold that to be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, don’t you think?”
Kagan: “Well, I just asked about age. I didn’t ask about anything else. We ask about people’s ages all the time.”
Cooper: “Your honor, and even asking about age, you would have to ask if both parties are infertile.”
Scalia: “Strom Thurmond was not the chairman of the Senate committee when Justice Kagan was confirmed.”
[Laughter]
Thurmond famously sired multiple children when most people can barely remember what sex is before drying up and dying at the tender age of 100.
Talk about Deaf Comedy Jam.
(h/t: New York Mag [ http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/03/scalia-jokes-about-strom-thurmond-infertility.html ])
Copyright 2013 Queerty, Inc.
http://www.queerty.com/justice-antonin-scalia-strom-thurmond-joke-20130326/ [no comments yet]
--
Ben Carson compares homosexuality to murder
In a 1999 book, the future GOP star explains numerous abominations, and vows not to be "politically correct"
Apr 1, 2013
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/01/ben_carson_compares_homosexuality_to_muder/ [with comments]
--
Did Chris Coleman's obsession lead to triple murder?
The Coleman family. From left, Colin, Chris, Sheri and Garett
The head of security for a televangelist is threatened, his wife and sons are murdered. Who wanted this family dead? Maureen Maher reports.
March 30, 2013
Watch the Episode
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50143908n
[This show originally aired on May 5, 2012]
[long article and additional information/media also included]
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18559_162-57427470/did-chris-colemans-obsession-lead-to-triple-murder/ [with comments]
--
Churches: Time to fight back
By Michael Reagan
[ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/michael-reagan-gay-marriage-editorial-_n_2999977.html ]
Published 9:41am Tuesday, April 2, 2013
You can’t win the fight if you don’t put on the gloves. A punch-drunk, old heavyweight boxer knows that’s a truism, but not the churches of America.
The Supreme Court heard arguments this week on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state by a 52 to 47 margin in 2008 but has since been declared unconstitutional by federal courts.
Fox TV, Rush Limbaugh and other talk-show pundits have weighed in, arguing the conservative — and moral — position that sanctifying gay marriage with the grace of the U.S. Constitution is not only wrong but a serious threat to the culture of this country.
But those media outlets often speak to those who are already in the choir. That leaves a lot of other Americans who aren’t hearing anyone preaching the conservative argument on gay marriage.
I don’t expect the GOP to provide any leadership. Republicans are too busy cat-fighting with each other and making sure their presidential choice will be whooped by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
And where in the heck are the churches on the issue of legalizing gay marriage?
Where are the Protestants, Jews and Catholics? Have they lost their tongues? Their hearts and wills? Their institutional you-know-whats?
Where’s the moral outrage? Why aren’t thousands of our pastors, priests and rabbis shouting from their pulpits? Why aren’t they leading their congregations through the streets in mass protest?
Why aren’t their bishops appearing on the tube with David Gregory and Piers Morgan to defend the institution of marriage as a union of one man and one woman?
Like the bank executives who are too chicken to stand up to the federal bullies in Washington, and like the energy company bosses in California who won’t stand up to the Green Socialists in Sacramento, the churches cower in fear.
Are they afraid to lose their 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status by engaging in political activity? Are they afraid to be derided as religious nuts and cultural Cro-Magnons by the liberal media?
Or are our churches and their comfortable leaders simply no longer willing to fight for what is right?
This fight over Proposition 8 isn’t just about saying it should be legal in the eyes of government for two people of the same sex to get married in California.
It’s ultimately about changing the culture of the entire country; it inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different than traditional marriage.
There is also a very slippery slope leading to other alternative relationships and the unconstitutionality of any law based on morality. Think about polygamy, bestiality, and perhaps even murder.
Churches should be in the vanguard of the fight to defend the culture against legalized gay marriage, not hiding in their pews.
Sure, the mainstream liberal media will be against them and will ignore them as much as they can. But if the churches show up en masse — and make sure millions of their members’ voices are heard — the media will be forced to cover them, and even the Supreme Court will feel the political wind.
Meanwhile, as the High Court decides our fate, it’s time for the churches to get engaged and start fighting for America, instead of wimping out. If it takes them giving up their 501(c)(3) status to start fighting for righteousness, then I’m all for it.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution [ http://www.amazon.com/New-Reagan-Revolution-Principles-Greatness/dp/031264454X ].”
© 2013, The Tribune
http://www.irontontribune.com/2013/04/02/churches-time-to-fight-back/ [with comments]
--
Church Promotes Sin! On Easter Sunday!
Published on Mar 31, 2013 by
Briancranford A church in North Carolina will stop performing marriages until United Methodist pastors are allowed to officiate weddings for same-sex couples in the Tar Heel state.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/18/north-carolina-church-vows-to-stop-marriages-until-same-sex-couples-can-wed/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7OyJtfmW8k [via/more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/green-street-united-methodist-gay-protest-young-boy-_n_2993220.html (with comments)]
--
Should Christians Place Less Emphasis on Eternity?
By Dan Delzell
Special to CP
April 1, 2013|8:22 am
There are plenty of people, especially in America, who feel that Christians place too much emphasis on eternity. But is that a legitimate criticism? Or is it simply man's attempt to try to make Christianity only apply to this life here and now? Interestingly, those who are uncomfortable with the supernatural are also uncomfortable with the biblical teaching about eternity.
Christians have just celebrated the resurrection of Christ. We do this because that event really happened, and because it is the key to our own glorious resurrection one day. Should we downplay that reality just because some folks don't want to think about eternity? Or is it our duty to present the message which Christ Himself taught, as well as the apostle Paul and many others?
Think of it this way. Should doctors place less emphasis on physical health? Should financial planners place less emphasis on IRAs? Should mechanics place less emphasis on repairing automobiles? People do what they know how to do. Christians, by God's grace, know how to communicate the fact as taught in the Bible that everyone has an immortal soul. Christians know how a person can joyfully live forever, even though his body dies. What doctor or retirement planner or mechanic deals with such a critical issue?
Jesus said it best: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36) Did Jesus place too much emphasis on eternity? Of course not. He died and rose again to secure eternal life for all who believe in Him as Savior. He didn't die to only give us peace for a few years on earth. He died to give us an eternal relationship with our Creator in a place of inexpressible joy.
It is understandable why this message is unsettling to so many people. It would be unsettling to me too if I didn't know the Gospel. That doesn't make me or any Christian better than an unbeliever. It just makes us aware of the reality of eternity, and the importance of Christ's death and resurrection. Many don't yet see it. They don't get it. Some of them are highly intelligent, but they lack spiritual understanding. Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten them to know the truth about heaven and hell.
The minute that Christians start to downplay eternity is the minute that Christians begin to get away from a huge part of the Bible. Jesus talked about it all the time. And read how many times Paul addresses the topic of heaven in his epistles. He does so over and over again. When a person has received the free gift of eternal life through faith in Christ, it is something he then wants others to receive as well. It is such good news. What else can compare with it?
Christians who are flowing in God's love are Christians who attempt to lead others to see how Christ opened the way to heaven for us. (see John 14:1-6) That's what love does. When you know that people are in a bad spot, you want to help them. Without Christ, a sinner is still under God's wrath. (see John 3:36) When you know what God has done to rescue them, you try to get them the help they need. That's what God did for us, and that is what Christians do when they are flowing in God's love. We are simply beggars telling other beggars where we have found bread.
You might as well tell a Christian not to breathe if you are going to tell him to place less emphasis on eternity. Breathing comes naturally to the body. Emphasizing eternity comes supernaturally to the Christian. Why would we ever want to hide the truth about heaven and hell from others? Jesus never did. Whether man goes to heaven or not depends upon what he does with Jesus and the free gift that is being offered to him. We are all sinners in need of God's grace, but we don't all accept the message of salvation. There will always be those who choose to go their own way rather than God's way.
You will exist forever, no doubt about it. Whether you believe that right now or not does not change the reality of your situation. You can run from it. You can deny it. You can even laugh at it. But eternity isn't going anywhere. It is what it is. Meanwhile, you have only begun your eternal existence. So far, your experience has only been in this realm. One day, you will go to your eternal place of residence. Where would you like that to be?
When the Son of God left heaven, He came here on a mission. He completed the work the Father sent Him to do 2000 years ago. Christ will return to earth one day. There is no getting around Jesus, at least not ultimately. You might feel like you are able to successfully avoid Him for now, but that won't last. You will meet up with Him, either as your Friend, or as the One who will send you away forever. That is what the Bible tells us. No one made it up. God told it to us just the way it is going to happen. What remains to be seen is whether you are going to accept Christ as Savior as you become His disciple, or instead reject Him. There is only one wise choice.
You could spend your entire life on earth pursuing various pleasures and goals, but if you neglect your soul you will not be glad for long about the choices you made while you were here. Right now, your decisions probably seem to make sense to you. One day, your eyes will instantly be opened to see and experience your eternal place of residence. God wants you to go to heaven. He said so in His Word. (see 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9) Just because He wants you to join Him in heaven does not mean that you want to join Him there. Well, do you?
I guess that points toward the need for a conversation between you and God. This would be a perfect time to have that conversation with Him. He will speak to you through His Word. You can speak to Him in sincerity and truth through prayer and faith. The clock is ticking. The end is coming. And your life on earth is quickly winding down. Was this your last Easter before Christ's return, or perhaps before your own death? The older you get, the faster time will seem to go. And yet through it all, your soul is not aging. That is because immortal souls do not get "older." They just move from one realm to the next when the earthly body dies.
Is any of this getting through to you? I hope so. All of us who are Christians want to see you with us in heaven, even if you don't currently want to see us there with you.
Christians will continue to place much emphasis on eternity, even as we place much emphasis on feeding the poor and helping the needy. Those are just things that we do because our Lord wants us to do them, and because He has filled our hearts with a love to reach others with His grace and assistance. Some of that assistance helps the earthly body, while some of it helps the immortal soul. Both types of aid are needed in this life, but only one Person can bring you safely to paradise.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven after His resurrection, He gave his disciples a commission to go into all the world with this message of God's love and salvation. (see Matthew 28:19) That is our job, and it is a labor of love. That is what we do as Christ's disciples. And besides, if Christians don't attempt to help you connect with the Person who is "the resurrection and the life," (John 11:25) who will?
If you ever become a disciple of Jesus, you too will become interested in the welfare of the souls of others. If you repent of your sin and turn to Christ in faith, the Holy Spirit will give you that desire to see others come into God's family forever. It certainly is not a natural desire that any of us acquire by our own doing. This emphasis on eternity is something that really kicks in after you become one of the Lord's disciples. It becomes a passion for the believer because it is the passion of the Lord.
Why else would He have died and rose again for our salvation? He didn't go through all that just to give us a few peaceful years of service here on earth. Are you kidding? If that's all we were going to get, do you really think God would have even sent His only Son in the first place to suffer so intensely and die for our sins? Paul described it well: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Cor. 15:19) Amen to that!
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Wellspring Lutheran Church in Papillion, Neb. He is a regular contributor to The Christian Post.
Copyright © 2013 The Christian Post, Inc.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/should-christians-place-less-emphasis-on-eternity-92998/ [with comments]
--
Man cuts off dad's and his private parts
25 March 2013| last updated at 11:38PM
KUALA TERENGGANU: A 40-year-old mechanic, obsessed with a doomsday theory, cut off his father's penis before cutting off his own at their house in an incident at 4.15am in Felda Kerteh 6, Ketengah Jaya, in Dungun yesterday.
Both men were warded in Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital and will undergo surgery.
State Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner K. Manoharan said the man who lives in Balakong, Selangor, returned to his family home on Tuesday and told his parents that he was certain the armageddon would be on the following Friday.
"Initial checks revealed that he had studied deviant religious texts on the Internet and had started preaching them to his parents since he came back.
"Yesterday, he sent text messages to his three siblings asking them to come home and congregate on this pressing matter," he said, adding that the man also mentioned that in order to save all of them, the spirit of Imam Nawawi had to be invoked and channelled into his 67-year-old father.
"According to the man's brother-in-law who came yesterday from Pahang, the man said the imam's spirit can successfully enter his father only if the father cried.
"After his father was not able to cry voluntarily, he hit him with his hands and with a rattan stick. This went on until 1.30am."
Manoharan said the man asked his brother-in-law for a knife who, without suspecting anything, handed a kitchen knife to him.
"The man then took the knife into a room where his father was resting and proceeded to cut off his father's penis in an attempt to make him cry," Manoharan said, and that minutes later after he cut off his own penis and asked his brother-in-law to do the same.
The cases were being investigated for causing grievous injury and attempted suicide respectively.
Copyright © 2013 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad
http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/man-cuts-off-dad-s-and-his-private-parts-1.241265 [no comments yet]
--
Robertson: Miracles Coming to "Simple" Foreigners, Not "Sophisticated" Americans
Published on Apr 1, 2013 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/robertson-simple-foreigners-more-likely-experience-miracles-sophisticated-americans
Pat Robertson explains why "simple" foreigners are more likely to experience miracles than "sophisticated" Americans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NesbG-Lj2g0
--
Crystal McVea, Author, Says She Smelled God During Near-Death Experience In Surgery
04/03/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/crystal-mcvea-smelled-god-near-death-experience_n_3007864.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
--
Dave Agema, Michigan Republican National Committeeman, Posts More Anti-Gay Remarks On Facebook
Michigan Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema
By Chelsea Kiene
Posted: 04/01/2013 12:44 pm EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 12:59 pm EDT
Less than one week after posting a controversial article condemning the “filthy” lifestyle of “homosexuals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/dave-agema-homosexuals_n_2965310.html ],” Michigan Republican Dave Agema has once again taken to Facebook to voice his opinion on the LGBT community, warning his Republican colleagues that accepting “this lifestyle” in the party’s platform will “cause great harm to society.”
Responding to a petition posted on Facebook calling for Republican leaders to adopt “a more inclusive tone,” Agema -- a Michigan Republican National Committeeman -- refused, writing, “the homosexual community is pushing same sex marriage which will be taught in schools as an alternative lifestyle.”
Brad Fingeroot, the Oakland County Young Republican who posted the petition, thanked Agema for engaging in the discussion, but asked that the former state lawmaker “keep the smut on the sidelines.”
Agema, in response, accused Fingeroot of “trying to change” the Republican Party’s long standing principles.
“I can send you reems [sic] of studies showing the negative health affects [sic] of this lifestyle,” Agema wrote. “Instead you would have us accept it, teach it to our kids, include it in our platform and cause great harm to society.”
“The people of America have the right to know what lays ahead if the Supreme Court rules the wrong way,” Agema continued. “You want to change the landscape of our party in a direction that had not been accepted for over 230 years. I’m trying to maintain or [sic] platform.”
Agema’s entire post, provided to The Huffington Post by Dennis Lennox, a Michigan Republican precinct delegate:
Agema’s most recent anti-gay Facebook remarks come just two days after he appeared on Michigan’s WWMT Newschannel 3 to distance himself from the article he posted last Wednesday attacking the LGBT community.
“They quoted as what somebody else said and attributed it to me; I didn’t say that,” Agema told WWMT on Friday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/dave-agema-resignation_n_2984735.html ]. “So, do I agree with everything that that guy said and the way he said it in the article, no. But he gives a lot of statistics on the results of the health -- the mental and physical health -- of the lifestyle and what it causes.”
When pressed by WWMT on whether he agreed with the article's claim [ http://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/a02rStatistcs.html ] that gays and lesbians account for a high percentage of murders, suicides and diseases, Agema responded, “I not only believe it, it’s substantiated by several different articles and studies. That’s just a fact.”
Although Agema is refusing to resign from his post as a Michigan Republican National Committeeman -- claiming that calls for his resignation are a “joke” [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/dave-agema-michigan_n_2974755.html ] -- members of his party are continuing to press Agema to step down.
Lennox, who has led a growing coalition of Republicans calling for Agema’s resignation, says that his most recent behavior proves that “he seeks to promote hate, viciousness and vitriol.”
"Dave Agema has finally admitted he seeks to promote hate, viciousness and vitriol instead of the Republican Party’s traditional forward-looking message of equal opportunity for all," Lennox wrote in a statement. "Dave Agema's extremism has no place in our Republican Party."
*
Related
Dave Agema Supported By Some Michigan Republicans After Sparking Anti-Gay Controversy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/dave-agema-petition_n_3007672.html
*
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/dave-agema-facebook_n_2992742.html [with embedded video report, embedded slideshow "Outrageous Homophobic Statements", and comments]
--
Buddy Collins Confirmed By North Carolina Legislature To Education Board, Despite Anti-Gay Past
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) nominated Buddy Collins to the State Education Board.
(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 04/03/2013 1:19 pm EDT | Updated: 04/03/2013 1:24 pm EDT
The North Carolina General Assembly has confirmed attorney Buddy Collins to the State Board of Education, despite opposition by a gay rights group over Collins' long history of opposing anti-bullying measures aimed at protecting LGBT students.
The state House and Senate met for a rare joint session [ http://www.wral.com/gov-s-education-board-picks-ok-d-by-nc-lawmakers/12298549/ ] on Wednesday, approving Collins and several other nominees put forward by North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R). The GOP-controlled legislature rejected an amendment by Democrats to remove Collins from the list of confirmed nominees.
Collins is an attorney and a longtime member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board of Education. He has clashed with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) over the years surrounding the group's efforts to stop bullying on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Buddy Collins has always been a retrograde voice [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/buddy-collins-north-carolina_n_2980757.html ], inimical to the interests of youth, on the school board," GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard told The Huffington Post last week. "He has directly tried to block efforts to fully understand [students'] experiences in the service of making things better in schools in his district."
While on the school board, Collins resisted GLSEN's efforts to make "sexual orientation" a protected category in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system's nondiscrimination policy and voted against allowing the school system to amend an annual parent-student survey to include new questions about bullying, racism, homophobia, sexism and discrimination against handicapped students.
In 2002, Collins published a column [ http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/buddyope.jpg ] advocating against the "public endorsement of a homosexual union and homosexual sexual practices."
Equality NC, a pro-LGBT group, had called on McCrory to withdraw Collins' nomination [ http://equalitync.org/latest/news/equality_nc_calls_on_governor_mccrory_to_reconsider_collins_appointment/ ].
"Gov. McCrory should reconsider his appointment of Buddy Collins to the State Board of Education. Surely, there are others Gov. McCrory could appoint that would protect the rights of all North Carolina students,” said Stuart Campbell, executive director of Equality NC, in a statement. "All students, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, deserve a high quality education, in a safe environment and free of harassment of any kind."
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/buddy-collins-confirmed_n_3007068.html [with comments]
--
Matt Salmon, GOP Congressman, Does Not Support Gay Marriage Despite Having Gay Son
By Luke Johnson
Posted: 04/01/2013 11:54 am EDT | Updated: 04/01/2013 3:06 pm EDT
Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he did not support gay marriage despite having a gay son, drawing a sharp contrast to another elected Republican, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who came out for gay marriage after his son came out to him [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/rob-portman-gay-marriage_n_2947796.html ].
"I don't support gay marriage," Salmon told Phoenix station KTVK [ http://www.azfamily.com/news/Gay-son-doesnt-change-congressmans-view-on-gay-marriage-200686251.html ] in an interview that aired Sunday. "My son and I have had a lot of dialogue about it. I will say this: you know, my son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say."
Salmon said he didn't believe his son chose to be gay. A host then asked why he should be denied the right to marry if he didn't choose to be gay.
"My view is while I don't believe we should be vitriolic and try to enact harmful policies, by the same token, I'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family," he responded.
"It just means that I haven't evolved to that station," he continued. "Rob Portman apparently has. I haven't."
Another Arizona Mormon, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Sunday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/jeff-flake-gay-marriage_n_2988661.html ] that he thought it was "inevitable" that a Republican presidential candidate would back gay marriage.
The Phoenix New Times reported in 2010 [ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-09-16/news/over-the-rainbow-the-namesake-son-of-conservative-mormon-matt-salmon-wants-to-make-a-name-for-himself-in-republican-politics-only-he-s-gay/full/ ] that Salmon's son, also named Matt, was in a relationship with and shared a home with Kent Flake, the senator's second cousin.
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/matt-salmon-gay-marriage_n_2992362.html [with embedded video, and comments]
--
Liberty University, Kirk Cameron Want To 'Create Tens Of Thousands Of Kirk Camerons'
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
Posted: 03/25/2013 4:26 pm EDT | Updated: 03/25/2013 4:59 pm EDT
An evangelical university famous for its conservative ideology is partnering up with a similarly controversial activist to create a new religious film.
Liberty University, founded in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell, will team with former child star-turned-Christian activist Kirk Cameron to produce the 90-minute film, slated for release later this year. Cameron said the film will answer questions about why God lets bad things happen. The partnership was announced last week during Christin television program "Praise the Lord [ http://www.itbn.org/index/detail/lib/Networks/sublib/TBN/ec/NqbmxiYTqb_HXP9E-gsqZxleU-t5axdA ],” which airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Liberty's Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said on the program that Cameron is the "example of the type of graduate that Liberty is trying to turn out [ http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=84707 ]" and praised Cameron for "using your profession to impact the culture, and that’s what we’re trying to do in every profession.”
“So that’s why we decided to partner with you on your newest project," Falwell Jr. went on to explain. "We’re trying to create tens of thousands of Kirk Camerons and put them out there.”
Cameron and Liberty University have both made a point of supporting conservative candidates and causes over the past several years. Liberty has hosted many Republican politicians [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/bill-maher-new-rule-liberty-university_n_1530400.html ] (including Mitt Romney in 2012), while Cameron has defended Todd Akin (of "legitimate rape" fame) [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/kirk-cameron-todd-akin-defends-video_n_1822922.html ] as a "good man" who "is defending life."
But the thought of "thousands of Kirk Camerons" might strike particular fear into the hearts of LGBT advocates familiar with the "Growing Pains" actor's track record on issues like same-sex marriage.
Cameron gained infamy in March of 2012 after he told CNN's Piers Morgan that homosexuality is "unnatural" and "ultimately destructive [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/kirk-cameron-piers-morgan-homosexuality-unnatural_n_1318430.html ]." Despite criticism, Cameron later defended the comments [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/kirk-cameron-homosexuality-gay-marriage_n_1366673.html ], saying to Fox News' "Fox and Friends" hosts, "I don't think anything I said surprised anybody as a Bible-believing Christian."
Mathew Staver, the school's vice president and law school dean, meanwhile has made several anti-gay statements and supported the criminalization of homosexuality in the southeast African country of Malawi [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/tim-tebow-anti-gay-liberty-university_n_2812808.html ]. And after 9/11, Falwell Sr. said gays and lesbians, among others, were partly to blame for "help[ing] this happen [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/sep/19/september11.usa9 ]."
(Hat tip, Patheos [ http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/03/25/liberty-university-chancellor-were-trying-to-create-tens-of-thousands-of-kirk-camerons/ ])
Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/liberty-university-kirk-cameron_n_2950489.html [with embedded video, and comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=39666340 and preceding and following, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=41973574 and preceding (and any future following), http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=63424165 and preceding and following, and http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=79360305 and preceding and following]
*
Kirk Cameron And Bananas
Uploaded on Apr 28, 2006 by alex beltran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4
--
One in four Americans think Obama may be the antichrist, survey says
2 April 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/02/americans-obama-anti-christ-conspiracy-theories [with comments] [and see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86281760 and preceding and following]
--
Google under fire for Cesar Chavez doodle
The Google doodle celebrated Cesar Chavez's March 31 birthday.
AP Photo
By KEVIN CIRILLI
4/1/13 8:50 AM EDT Updated: 4/1/13 3:56 PM EDT
Conservative bloggers hopped all over Google after the search engine giant on Sunday used its Google Doodle to recognize Cesar Chavez — and not Easter.
“March 31 marks the birthday of National Farm Workers Association (later United Farm Workers) co-founder Cesar Chavez,” Breitbart’s Ben Shapiro wrote [ http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/30/Google-features-Chavez-on-Easter ]. “Chavez, who was trained by Saul Alinsky in the tactics of community organizing, has become a cult figure in California due to his organization of agricultural workers. March 31 also happens to be another important date this year: Easter. So, naturally, Google’s current logo features a graphic of Chavez’s face, rather than anything having to do with Easter.”
He added: “[As] millions of Christians return home from Easter vigil on the holiest day of their calendar, they are currently being greeted by Cesar Chavez in a white suit.”
On the right-leaning The Daily Caller, Mickey Kaus hit Google and Chavez on his labor legacy.
“Google should google it: Cesar Chavez’s legacy on illegal immigration may not be what Google thinks it is. … As a labor leader, Chavez realized that uncontrolled immigration undercut his workers’ bargaining position — as late as 1979 he inveighed against ‘illegal alien strikebreakers’ before Congress. Some of his tactics were even less than Gandhiesque,” Kaus wrote [ http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/31/psst-cesar-chavez-opposed-illegal-immigrants/ ].
Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy website also criticized Google’s move.
“Yep. While two billion Christians around the world celebrate Easter Sunday on this 31st day of March, Google is using its famous ‘Doodle’ search logo art to mark the birth of left-wing labor leader Cesar Chavez. For real,” Twitchy’s staff wrote [ http://twitchy.com/2013/03/31/google-celebrates-easter-with-cesar-chavez-birthday-tribute/ ]. “Google’s Doodle logo overlords sure have a way of rubbing their politics in people’s noses.”
Google spokesperson Samantha Smith told POLITICO in a public statement that it’s “difficult to choose” what to highlight in the Doodle.
“We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven’t in the past,” Smith said in a statement.
Meanwhile on the left, The Daily Kos’s Markos Moulitsas rolled his eyes at a Twitchy post that had confused Cesar Chavez with Hugo Chavez, the controversial recently deceased Venezuelan president. An original Twitchy headline (which has since been updated) had stated: “While Google honors Hugo Chavez, Bing delivers Easter eggs.”
“They changed it eventually, but too late to avoid looking like morons. I know, I know, all brown people look the same to that crowd. And two brown people named ‘Chavez?’ Who could expect them to get that straight? I mean, it’s not like they were the only ones who got it wrong!” Moulitsas wrote.
He continued [ http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/31/1198276/-GOP-Rebranding-update-All-Chavez-s-look-alike ]: “So now all those conservatives are going to take their search and Web services to Bing, because that’ll show Google to be celebrating some brown guy that liberals love! And I’m sure they’ll turn in their Android phones as well, because those run on software created by Google.”
John Hawkins wrote on Right Wing News that Google “hit a new low.”
“Google has long been known as a left-wing corporations that’s decidedly unfriendly to conservatives and Christians, but they hit they a new low yesterday by making a point of celebrating a point of celebrating the birthday of far left-wing union activist Cesar Chavez on Easter Sunday,” Hawkins wrote [ http://www.rightwingnews.com/liberals/on-easter-google-honors-cesar-chavez/ ].
He continued: “Certainly Google is a private corporation and can celebrate anyone or anything they choose, but after they went out of their way to slap their Christian customers in the face on Easter Sunday, no one should be surprised that people are upset.”
Shawn Mitchell wrote [ http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/shawnmitchell/2013/04/01/ponder-christian-soldiers-googles-smirking-war-on-you-n1554133 ] on Town Hall that Google “scrambled some Easter eggs” with its Doodle.
“Google scrambled some Easter eggs yesterday. Or, more precisely, it didn’t. It would be silly and counterproductive to exaggerate Google’s eye-poke at Christians, but it would be a mistake not to consider its meanings, too,” Mitchell wrote. On Christianity’s holiest day, Easter Sunday, the Web’s hyper-dominant site’s commemorative screen was an earnestly winsome portrait of American labor organizer, Caesar Chavez.”
He continued: “Sure, no Christian was mocked, defamed, arrested, or persecuted. And heaven forbid any believer needs internet graphics to help bolster their faith. But hundreds of millions of Christians received the clearly intended message that Google doesn’t deign to wish them well on their sacred day. It would rather honor a liberal labor icon.”
Conservative commentators also tweeted their disdain:
Michael Krempasky
@krempasky
Happy Easter, Google. Nice Doodle. So it's Chavez today, for real? Ok then. Settings>Search>Default>Bing>Save Changes.
11:18 AM - 31 Mar 13
Glenn Beck
@glennbeck
Cool for Google to not celebrate Easter but really?!!? Go to http://google.com . HAPPY Caesar Chavez day everybody! #HELIVES!
2:04 PM - 31 Mar 13
Dana Perino
@DanaPerino
I thought the Chavez-google thing was a hoax or an early April Fool's Day prank...are they just going to leave that up there all day?
3:14 PM - 31 Mar 13
Erick Erickson
@EWErickson
Looks like Google thinks 2.2 billion people are celebrating Caesar Chavez today.
12:08 PM - 31 Mar 13
Rick Wilson
@TheRickWilson
Google is celebrating Easter with Cesar Chavez. I'm celebrating Easter with Bing.
5:00 AM - 31 Mar 13
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/google-cesar-chavez-easter-89508.html [with comments]
--
Marrying Out of the Faith
By STANLEY FISH
April 1, 2013, 9:00 pm
Back in 1963, my brother Ron was going out with (that was the phrase then) an Irish Catholic girl named Ann who was attending the University of Rhode Island. One day, she was sitting in class and suddenly through the window she saw my father, who, it turned out, had tracked her down by finding out from the university administration what classes she was taking and at what times. He took her to dinner and then proceeded to tell her that it would ruin his son’s life is he were to marry a non-Jewish girl. He then asked if she would be willing to have no contact with Ron for a year; in return, he offered to pay all her expenses during that time. She refused.
Meanwhile I had been asked if I could get Ron into the University of California at Berkeley, where I was then teaching. (My father, as I recall, was for this plan, and may even have initiated it.) I went to the head of the admissions office and said, “My brother has to get out of Rhode Island. Can you admit him here?”
“Sure,” he said, and it was done. (Those were the days; if I tried that in 2013, I would be run out of town.)
If the idea was to separate the two young people, it didn’t work. Shortly after Ron got to California, he sent Ann a plane ticket. When she arrived, they got married and have remained married to this day. She got a job at the university, took a class in Judaism and, much to my brother’s surprise, converted, although it took her a while to find a rabbi willing to give her the required course of instruction. Just the other day she remarked, “It was a hard club to get into.”
In 1963 I didn’t know any interfaith couples, but things have changed, as Naomi Schaefer Riley reports in her new book, “’Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is Transforming America [ http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/American/?view=usa&ci=9780199873746 ].”
According to Riley’s research — in 2010 she commissioned a large interfaith marriage survey — the interfaith marriage rate in the United States is 42 percent. The book is chock-full of fascinating statistics (“Jews are the most likely and Mormons are the least likely to marry members of other faiths”), but at its heart is a cautionary thesis: the growing number of interfaith couples don’t know what they’re getting into. “Interfaith couples tend to marry without thinking through the practical implications of their religious differences. They assume that because they are decent and tolerant people … they will not encounter difficulties being married to someone of another faith.”
They do, however, worry about marrying someone whose political views differ from theirs. Riley’s data show that “inter political party marriages are far less common than interfaith marriages.” Why, she asks, “do Americans seem so much more reluctant to marry outside of their political affiliation than their faith?”, and she answers that they may be “unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that religion can be a serious dividing in a marriage.” Because debating political differences is part of the culture in a way that debating religious differences is not, two people entering into a relationship are likely to be more concerned with the former than the latter.
That, Riley suggests, is a mistake. Early on, a difference in faith may seem unimportant and an occasion for practicing tolerance, while a difference over same-sex marriage or global warming or gun control may seem intractable and full of future hazard. (I can’t marry someone who believes that!) “But faith,” Riley insists, “is a tricky thing and it sneaks up on people,” especially at significant moments when the pull of old loyalties supposedly outgrown reasserts itself. “The death of a loved one, the birth of a child, the loss of a job, a move to a new city — all of these things can give people a sense of religious longing, a desire to return to the faith of their childhood.”
This can be true even of those whose childhood faith was weak and perfunctory. A Christian may think of herself or himself as not being religious at all, yet “find it hard to imagine family life without a Christmas tree.” A wife or a husband, also not particularly religious, may feel that having a Christmas tree goes too far. In an interfaith marriage, Riley observes, holidays can “become like bargaining chips.” (I’ll do this if you’ll do that, and if the children get to choose.) Even when one of the partners has converted and religious tensions have supposedly been eliminated, the fact of conversion can be the source of its own tension, as when one spouse, in the course of an argument, “plays the conversion card” and says “but I left my faith for you,” or, in other words, “You owe me big-time and for a long time.”
Once you begin to think about it, it’s obvious how many potential pitfalls await interfaith couples, but it is often not obvious to them, Riley says, for at least four reasons.
First, the liberal rhetoric of individualism and personal choice is casually affirmed without sufficient attention to the ways in which one’s choices and much else are influenced by tradition and community. Many interfaith couples have “chosen the romanticism and the individualistic ethos of America over the demands of the communities that they have come from” only to find, later on, that those demands still exert a force.
Second, young people today “consider religion to be a pursuit of the individual” and therefore downplay differences in ritual and doctrine; they minimize the requirements of faith by conceiving of faith as something without a specific content that might become the source of friction.
Third, the assertion, found everywhere in American cultural life, that differences are to be celebrated and embraced — our “obsession with tolerance at all costs” — obscures the extent to which those differences touch on something deep and immovable. “Ironically, interfaith marriage may awaken people to the fact that … that the particulars of practice and belief do matter, and that not all interfaith conflicts can be solved with the placement of a menorah next to a manger.”
And fourth, faith has become “racialized”; that is, we have come to think that “like skin color [it] is a trait that need not divide us.” But, Riley demurs, believing that faith “is a superficial characteristic the way race [and] ethnicity are” doesn’t make it so. In fact, “religious identity … can and should be considered” as more substantive than racial identity; and like any other substance it remains in place even when the commonplaces of multicultural doctrine tell us that it shouldn’t really matter.
My rehearsal of Riley’s points may suggest that her book is a brief against interfaith marriage. Far from it. She is herself a partner in an interfaith marriage (and in an inter-racial one, too), and she and her spouse have made it work. She just wants prospective interfaith couples to know that it is work, that love doesn’t conquer all, that “a rocky road may lie ahead of them” and that they “need to think in practical terms about their faith differences — how it will affect the way they spend their time, their money, and the way they want to raise their kids.” Her message is that if you don’t make the mistake of thinking it will be a bed of roses, you’ll have a better chance of its not being a bed of thorns.
*
Related Posts from Opinionator
We Found Our Son in the Subway
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/we-found-our-son-in-the-subway/
The End of ‘Marriage’
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/the-end-of-marriage/
The God of Marriage
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/the-god-of-marriage/
*
© 2013 The New York Times Company
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/marrying-out-of-the-faith/ [with comments]
--
(linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65086614 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=85908877 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86050099 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86060852 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86088019 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86102793 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86104875 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86104879 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86146564 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86152803 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86153645 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86155545 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86187471 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86238200 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86258176 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86263045 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86267148 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86277139 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86390420 and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86421668 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425534 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425596 and preceding (and any future following);
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86263399 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86425918 and preceding and following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
