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Just being anti-abortion costs a man nothing. What could be easier than telling other people how they should live without lifting a finger to help them? If a male sincerely wants reduce the number of abortions, he should work to help open other doors so women will have other choices, not slam in their face the one door some women may have.
This story shows why it is so important to rescue people from a fundamentalist worldview. Once a person of any religion begins to take their scripture literally, they begin a downward spiral. The violence inherent in the fundamentalist worldview is not visible at first, which is why intelligent and kind people can take it up. Eventually, violence errupts from a combination of factors that each seem benign. Literalism, sectarianism, fear of difference, and desire to get back to a mythic past can all seem harmless, but when combined, they will produce a violence as surely as the ingredients of gunpowder produce an explosion.
In this case an 11 year mentally disabled Christian girl was accused of desecrating pages of the Koran. Anyone who could step out their own religious tunnel vision could see this girl had no idea what she was doing, but an angry crowd forced police to take the child into custody by threatening to burn down the houses of Christians if she was not arrested.
It is easy for Christians to see Islamic fundamentalism and condemn all Islam. It is easy for Muslims to see Christian fundamentalism and condemn all Christianity. The truth is, the problem is fundamentalism and none of us is immune. We must all commit ourselves to a life long struggle to keep our hearts and minds open.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19311098
When I first began as an ally for women’s reproductive rights, I had been largely unpolitical up to that point in my life. But, after working with rape survivors I felt an obligation to help make the world safer for women by joining their efforts to make sure our laws give them basic rights over their own person and body.
I was deeply disturbed to hear the unquestioned mythologies of the pro-life advocates. A more current example is Todd Akin, who recently said “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” You get the connotation, ‘this woman says she was raped but if it were “legitimate” her body would have somehow blocked the unwanted sperm, so we know what kind of woman she really is.’
As I say I was amazed and depressed to hear such incredible dishonesty used in an effort to control the lives of others. The person saying the absurd mantra was usually a man, usually with a knowing smirk, and never with a shred of evidence to back it up. For a man to be pro-life usually costs him next to nothing, but his interference in someone else’s life may cost her the ability to keep her life in balance. And, if he succeeds in making abortion illegal, it may cost her own life as well.
To read more, click here:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/candidates-comments-on-rape-draw-criticism/
When some people say they want small government, handguns, and to make this a Christian nation, I can’t help but think that all of that has been tried before. The era of small government and handguns is remembered as the “wild, wild, west.” And the time in history when one religion was able to call the shots across all of Europe also has a name. It’s called “the dark ages.”
I’ve been enjoying the pictures of Mars this week. What is attached is an older picture that took years to piece together. It is a 360 degree view with amazing detail. You can move the camera so it feels kind of like you are there. I believe the new kid on the block “Curiousity” has now done a 360 degree spin, which I will post as well.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/photography/la-sci-bw-mars-curiosity-pano,0,5525118.htmlstory
It is important to remember that many of the protections we now enjoy from dishonest advertising were the result of lawsuits and not from our elected leaders actually protecting us. Our wait for Washington to force food makers to let us know what we are consumming has had mixed results. This N.Y. Times story is definitely good and bad news. The good news is that the lawyers who took on big tobacco are turning their sights to the food industry. The bad news is that, because these possible regulations are not being crafted through the democratic process, they could result in reforms that are more profit driven than thoughtful pursuits of the common good.
Someday I would like to build a sanctuary with virtual stain ed glass windows showing scenes from deep space and from electron microscopes. Religious symbols should not call us out of this world, but so deeply into it that we discover a transcendent unity. The best religious art of all time pales next to the birth of a star or the wing of a butterfly. Heaven may not be another world, but a symbol of an invisible depth within this world. Angels may not be supernatural half-human, half-bird creatures, but symbols of a cosmic song coming out of every star and subatomic particle.
The article and pictures that are linked below will take you to a wonderful vision of what it might look like to see the birth of a star.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19266284
Setting aside the fact that Huffington Post is using the vocabulary of the anti-immigration crowd, this article has some good quotes and insights. While the number of undocumented border crossings is down, the percentage of deaths per apprehension has risen.
“We never thought that we’d be in the business of helping to identify remains like in a war zone, and here we are,” said Isabel Garcia, co-chair and founder of the Tucson-based Coalición de Derechos Humanos.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/border-crossing-deaths-illegal-immigration_n_1783912.html
First reports from the shooting at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. imply that the shooter was a volunteer for GLBT issues who objected to the FRC’s work against such issues as same sex marriage . My understanding is that no one was killed, but that a guard was shot. It is too early to make assumptions about what actually happened during this crime, but it is not to early to condemn the violence.
Those of us who work on the other side of such issues from FRC have an obligation not only to condemn violence against our opponents, but to grieve with them at times like this. Our cause is not restricted to any one issue. We seek human rights for all, which includes our brothers and sisters at FRC.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/15/family-research-council-shooting_n_1779232.html
Most people spend a fairly small percentage of their life actually having sex. For religious activists to focus so much of their attention on other peoples’ sex lives is the real perversion, in my opinion. If these pious crusaders weren’t so fixated on other people’s groins maybe they could look into their eyes, see their character, and be open to the gifts they have to share with our world.