The Probulator

Just in time to close out Banned Books Week a christian conservative group complains that librarians are “banning” books that present their “side” of the homosexuality “issue”.  When you look closer, you find that the librarians are evaluating all their books by certain standards and these aren’t passing.  Little things like poor scholarship, dodgey research, etc… are keeping them out of the libraries.

Since the conservative groups are buying these books and donating them, I say they should be accepted.  Please, spend all your money and donate them to every library in the country.  The message is weak and these books only preach to the choir.  Their best use is for freedom loving people (liberals) to use them as resources to discredit the faulty ideas they contain.  They won’t have to spend their own money to do this.

What can be better than for the conservatives to finance their own downfall?

Tags: Banned Books Week, Literature, Politics, Religion, censorship, conservatives by Dean
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Several weeks ago a teacher burned the image of a cross onto the arms of several of his students.  Using unusually good judgment, the district’s school board voted 5-0 to fire the teacher.  Because there is a religious element to the incident, there’s been something of an uproar over the firing.  Basically, he is a beloved teacher of the students and there’s the whole religious freedom thing and blah, blah, blah.

This is a newsflash to everyone who things the firing is unfair.  With or without an element of religion, this man BURNED several children.  This is an act know as battery.  Battery is a crime.  This makes the teacher, John Freshwater, a CRIMINAL.  He should be arrested, tried, jailed and never allowed near children again.  John Freshwater is a child abuser.

Tags: Child Abuse, Religion by Dean
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Part of me almost admires this guy.  A principal of a South Carolina high school resigned rather than force narrow minded beliefs on others and impeded his fellow citizens’ pursuit of happiness.  Eddie Walker objected to the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club.  Rather than attempt to block the formation or make a draconian decision and terminate all extracurricular activities, Mr. Walker took responsibility for his choice to follow certain religious beliefs.  He realized choosing these beliefs made him unfit to participate in public education and withdrew.

Now we need many other public school administrators to follow his lead, along with a slew of pharmacists.

Tags: Equality, News, Religion, gay by Dean
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The Wrath of God is a bitch, ain’t it, Mrs. Kern.

Tags: GOP Hypocrites, News, Politics, Religion by Dean
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A series of articles from The New York Times illustrating the unfairly favorable treatment religious orgranizations get from government agencies.

Tags: Religion by Dean
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A new term I discovered from this article about some igornant parent complaining about “Farenheit 451″ is Theologically Correct. It’s something I definately don’t want to be!

Tags: Literature, Religion by Dean
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A commentator from mysa.com reguritates the usual drivel about the separation of church and state.  He states:

The Founding Fathers and the Supreme Court were quite clear that Christianity was the established religion and was to be involved in the government.

Someone should tell Mr. Kaye that the first amendment’s establishment clause does not include the words: except for christianity.

He should also be aware that a number of state constitutions have equal or greater protection for the separation concept.  Ironically, Utah contains one of the strongest statements against the joining of church and state as evidenced in the Utah Declaration of Rights:

The rights of conscience shall never be infringed. The State shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office of public trust or for any vote at any election; nor shall any person be incompetent as a witness or juror on account of religious belief or the absence thereof. There shall be no union of Church and State, nor shall any church dominate the State or interfere with its functions. No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or for the support of any ecclesiastical establishment.

He should also read some more James Madison, the primary author of the constitution.  The Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assesments is particularly enlightening and even predates the constitution.

Tags: Politics, Religion by Dean
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In general, I’ve considered organized religion to be a potent poison.  It sets up an elitest clique who proclaim that they are better than you and unless you adhere to the ways of their dusty old scriptures you will suffer eternal torment.  While I have no problems with silly people believing silly myths as if they were reality, I do have a problem when these silly people try to turn their silly beliefs into silly laws.

How do you break the power of the masses?  By breaking the masses.  That’s why I’ve been following the whole Episcopal/Anglican series of stories with much greater attention than other religious stories.  The Anglican Communion and Episcopalian Church are smaller than some of the other influential religious denominations, but it can, hopefully, provide an example on how to dilute the power and influence of these types of organizations.

In 2003 V. Eugene Robinson, a gay man, was appointed a bishop in the Episcopalian Church.  It was a great stride forward for religion in general.  It was, of course, not seen this way.  Robinson’s elevation to higher office was greeted with derision and outright hatred, particularly by a backward man named Peter Akinola in a backward country called Nigeria.  Akinola has wasted no opportunity to call homosexuality a sickness and say that homosexuals are not fit to live.  To promote his stupidity, he has taken some of the more conservative parishes and diocese under his wing.  This is a good thing.  By following Bishop Fred Flintstone, these people may be placing themselves in limbo under their church law.  They certainly look ridiculous and this can only blunt their message of hatred.  Please Bishop Homo Habilis, enlarge your silly flock!

Personally I can’t wait for the whole shebang to break apart into hundreds or thousands of pieces.  The Anglicans are only the starting place.  The best thing that could happen to religion is a million Martin Luthers in every denomination, branch, cult, etc… splitting them all into tiny slivers so they can argue theology while the rest of us get along with something important like creating peace on earth.

Amen!

Tags: News, Religion by Dean
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If you’re a Catholic bishop and can’t get people to stop having sex with condoms what do you do?

You tell them condoms are purposely being made with the HIV virus.

I’m sure George W. Bush is incredibly proud right now.

Tags: AIDS/HIV, Religion by Dean
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A friend of mine saw the ad below and gave kudos to putting a black man in the Jesus spot, since the chances that The Annointed One was the pasty faced Aryan of his typical portrayal in the west are pretty slim.

Tags: Religion, gay, leather by Dean
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In what should be a non-story, the Concerned Women of America (or is it for America) have some problems with the above image, an advertisement for the upcoming Folsom Street Fair this weekend. A number of blogs have picked up on this including the prolific Andrew Sullivan, Towleroad, Joe My God and postmodernbarney. Sullivan is brief, calling it an unnecessary provocation and “easy, cheap blasphemy”. I can understand the “unnecessary provocation” comment even if I don’t agree with it, but the blasphemy crack seems to touch a nerve or two of his.

What bothers me most is that Sullivan went on some time ago about not having the right to not be offended. (I attempted to search his archives for the entry, but there are way too many to look through. If I find it in the near future, I’ll update this.) It’s one of the few points we both agree on. Is Sullivan saying that this alleged blasphemy is the exception to this rule? I certainly hope not as this would compromise both free speech and freedom of religion.

Towleroad’s slightly longer entry is more of a news announcement with a slightly smarmy, buy well deserved, attitude toward CWA. Joe My God’s entry is similar, but states an opinion of the ad. He likes it! The more interesting parts of both these articles are the voluminous comments each have generated. It’s worth a read.

Postmodernbarney has the most well written and intelligently reasoned “so what” I’ve ever read. (I’ve followed the site for awhile and the man has talent.) OK, I don’t think Sullivan is that right-wing, but that’s just my opinion. He’s the only one to actually come out and say “be ourselves”, “stop changing your behavior for the sake others”, etc….

I would take this a little further. We need to condemn CWA’s call to political leaders. Asking them to condemn blasphemy represents a serious threat to everyone’s freedoms. Our constitution states the congress can make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibit its free exercise. The call by CWA is their attempt to elevate Christianity above other religions. If this were out of sense of fairness they would have asked members of congress to condemn religious right leaders who committed blasphemy by calling Islam satanic and Muhammad a pedophile. These are they people who call gay rights special rights, but want to put Christianity beyond anyone’s criticism. Talk about hypocritical.

I like the poster. It’s a clever and slick image. If you have a problem with it don’t look at it. You don’t have the right to eliminate the things that offend you but you do have the right to walk away from it. For everyone else, enjoy it!

Update: Check the comment below for a story in Time Magazine about Andrew Sullivan and his argument that you are not protected from offense.  My thanks to the reader for his diligent research.

Tags: News, Politics, Religion, gay, leather by Dean
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The week wasn’t shaping up to be too wonderful.  The toy we broke four and a half years ago still isn’t anywhere closed to being on the road to getting fixed.  They couldn’t meet even half the benchmarks and the security forces aren’t ready to take over.  And we just found out that Senator Toilet Tryst is reconsidering his resignation.  I suppose he thinks he hasn’t embarrassed himself and his family enough yet.  The mean part of me hopes he succeeds in keeping his seat and runs again next year.  It should be the most entertaining election in years.

I’m usually not one to speak ill of the dead, but what can you say about D. James Kennedy, who like his fellow TV salesman, Jerry Falwell earlier this year, returned to the Kingdom of Satan in hell early this morning.  I have to say that I must agree with Wayne Besen’s  assessment.  While I am certain Mr. Kennedy was a man devoted to his family and his congregation, he was an enemy to anyone different from him and caused them a great deal of pain.  He brainwashed others into thinking like him and spreading this message.  He was an enemy of freedom seeking to overturn our constitution in favor of biblical law as interpreted by him.  I give my condolences to his family, but the world in general is not worse off for his absence.

Tags: Politics, Religion, Republican Congressmen by Dean
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HBO’s latest sensation is a series called Big Love. It’s all about polygamy and it was created by gay couple. Creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer wanted to create an unbiased look at polygamy. Technically they are exploring a subset of polygamy called polgyny, the marriage of one man and multiple women the most common form of “plural marriage” in the United States thanks to offshoot sects of our friends at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, informally known as The Mormons.

I became interested in the history of this unique group with the publication of Jon Krakauer’s “Under the Banner of Heaven”. A fascinating book it presents some of the more recent cases of violence in the breakaway Mormon sects (most famously the Fundamental Latter Day Saints or FLDS) and contrasts them with the history of Mormonism in general. It’s a pretty good read. Pick it up if you come across it.

Now, the show actually presents two views of polygyny. We first encounter Bill Henrickson and his wives: Barb, Nicki and Margene. They live in three adjacent houses with a common backyard. This is the voluntary polygyny family. Bill, one of the lost boys thrown out of the compound he called home to reduce competition for wives has developed his relationships with his wives naturally (or as naturally as possible in this situation). Even though the family is strictly patriarchal and Bill is unquestionably the king of his castle, he and his wives are in the situation entirely by consent. (The children are a different matter.) Bill and his family have chosen to live in the mainstream rather than remain on the sect’s compound. It must mirror the difficulties that polygamists have when trying to blend in with society at large.

The other view of polygyny is shown in via the Juniper Creek compound. Here the Mormon sect has separated itself from the rest of the world. It is obviously inspired by the FLDS sect at Colorado City/Hildale. Here marriage is not the product of a developing relationship. Women are assigned to their husbands by the compound’s prophet. (The prophet is an office established by Joseph Smith when he founded the LDS and is believed to be appointed by God.) Though there are similarities to arranged marriages, they are less stable. If the prophet is displeased with a man’s behavior, he could be expelled and his wives could be reassigned to others. Women are very much property and not considered an equal.

We have Bill’s relationships, the good polygamy, and the compound marriages, the bad polygamy. While Bill’s marriages are far from idyllic, I think they show that the one man and one woman dynamic isn’t necessarily the only way we need to go. As long as all parties involved are consenting and of age, there is no real reason to discourage these types of relationships by making them illegal. Of course, all types of polygamy must be legal and any number of men could marry any number of women. Or any number of men could marry any number of other men. Or any number of women could marry any number of other women. It’s certainly not up to government to regulate happiness or attempt to make all relationships conform to a cookie cutter norm. And it’s not a duty of government to deny responsibilities and benefits to a minority. Our constitution is engineered to protect these people. Otherwise we simply become a tyranny of the majority.

Tags: DVD, Entertainment, Polygamy, Religion, Television by Dean
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