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“A Phoenix school that was scheduled to play the 15-year-old Mesa girl and her male teammates forfeited the game rather than face a female player.

Our Lady of Sorrows bowed out of Thursday night’s game against Mesa Preparatory Academy in the Arizona Charter Athletic Association championship. The game had been scheduled at Phoenix College.

“This is not a contact sport, it shouldn’t be an issue. It wasn’t that they were afraid they were going to hurt or injure her, it’s that (they believe) a girl’s place is not on a field.”

To read the article, click below. Thanks to Rodney Beeber for finding the story.

http://espn.go.com/high-school/story/_/id/7918253/girl-baseball-player-15-cited-opponent-forfeit-phoenix

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Jim Rigby

May 11, 2012

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Answering the Rebuttals to “10 Things I Wish the Church Knew About Homosexuality”

When my recent article on homosexuality went viral I was buried in responses. Many conservatives sent rebuttals for what they considered to be errors in my thought. Some were respectful, others not so much so, but I want to honor the time all of them took to respond by giving my answers to those rebuttals.

.1. If Jesus did not mention a subject, it cannot be essential to his teachings.

Predictably, many respondents had a problem with this first point. “After all,” some said, “Jesus didn’t mention rape or child abuse. Does that mean he didn’t care about those things?”

I wish the church did care more about rape and child abuse. It is ironic, when so much of the church covers up child abusing priests, or tells sexually abused wives to go back to their husbands, that anyone would use this argument, but yes, it is technically correct to say Jesus didn’t mention those words. But his teachings would clearly preclude any such abuse because he did address the misuse of power. The essence of rape is not sexual. Rape is essentially abuse of power expressed sexually. It is easy to infer a condemnation of any form of sexual abuse in the words of Jesus. But where is that same condemnation for loving same sex relationships implied in the actual words of Jesus?

Further, that whole argument is distorting what I actually said. I didn’t say that just because Jesus didn’t mention something, that we can assume he wouldn’t care about it. I said that it is dishonest to pretend that a topic is essential to Christianity when Jesus didn’t even mention it.

When conservatives pretend that abortion or homosexuality are central issues for Christianity, it is fair to ask them “whose Christianity?” I realize those meager references to homosexuality in the Bible jump out for some people, but why should others have to suffer because you are reading scripture through a lens of sexual obsession? Who gave you permission to put words in Jesus’ mouth?

I felt the respondents made a stronger argument when they said that because the whole Bible is inspired by God, the whole text can be said to be the words of Jesus. I say it is a stronger argument, not because I agree, but I think it is consistent within their assumptions that the bible was dictated word for word. I understand from that perspective that someone would say, “You can’t just pick and choose what you like from the text. Every word in scripture carries the same weight.”

Here’s is the problem with that argument. Jesus himself emphasized some things and deemphasized others, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” (Matt. 23:23)

Jesus is both saying that the whole Bible matters, but he is also saying we should not give all scripture the same weight, which is why we no longer stone disobedient children. In fact, Jesus modeled disobeying the literal meaning of scripture when such obedience would be unloving. The reason people got mad at Jesus for healing on the Sabbath was that to do so broke the literal meaning of scripture. When he touched unclean people he was violating the very laws that fundamentalists now use to condemn homosexuals.

I had a biblical professor in Seminary who often said, “Don’t major in minors.” He was saying to focus on the great themes of scripture not the isolated verses. Literalism feels more religious, but it requires us to ignore the great themes of the text. The the original Bible wasn’t numbered, so it didn’t even have the verses we argue over today. When we pick verses out of context they become like “legos” we can use to construct a theology Jesus never intended.

Jesus said the whole law is summarized by two commands, “Love God” and “Love your neighbor.” If you say you are a follower of Jesus, he should have some say in what it is you are calling his religion. So, my fundamentalist friend, what I am asking you to do is lay down your Calvin or other fundamentalist commentaries, and get thee back to the Sermon on the Mount.

To see get to original link, click here

What is the difference between a symbol and an idea?

Last week I received two excellent questions about symbols. “Aren’t all ideas symbols?” And “who gets to say what reality is?” I knew it would take more than a Facebook response to give the questions their due.

Let me start by saying that others may wish to use the same words differently.  My hope is not that you will use the same words I use, or even agree with my attempt to say how they are different, but simply that you will see the complexity of the subject.

First let’s look at the difference between ideas and words:

If I see a rabbit and take a mental snap shot of it, and you do the same thing, we each have an idea we are both calling “rabbit” even though our actual ideas may be different. In addition, there is something out there hopping around outside either of our ideas.

Next let’s look at the difference between words and signs

A stop sign has a word on it, but the message it conveys is equally clear with a red light. A sign can point at something, or imply a message.

Finally difference between signs or ideas and symbols

A watch looks like a sign but there is an important difference. A watch with hands isn’t a snapshot of something else, it is an analog of something we can’t see, namely the movement of the earth relative to the sun. It is a coded image that puts us in relationship to something else which is very real but hard to talk about. If the watch is broken, or simply not set to the right time, it is still called a watch but its purpose is missing. In the same way, religious ideas that do not reveal anything outside themselves may be said to be broken.

Religious symbols are more like watches than a signs. Their purpose is not historical or scientific. They don’t just point, they decode. Their purpose is to give us mental or sensual images of our fundamental connections to the things we cannot really make into pictures- things like being and time.  This can be done through stories that bring to awareness our intuitive sense of connectedness. There is a distinction we need to make between analogs to a particular time and analogues to time itself and between analogues to any particular beings, and to being itself.

Religious symbols, if they are healthy, aren’t just ideas we make up. They are a kind of code that mediates between our consciousness and the mysterious reality which lies all around us. Sane religion isn’t trying to say WHAT the mystery is. Sane religion just remembers THAT the mystery is.

The philosopher Baudrillard warned of a postmodern condition where humans fall into a world of pure images detached from any relationship to reality or to one another. In a time when most of us look at the world through a media owned and controlled by people who have an incentive to mislead us, and in a time what we think of as our own thoughts and experiences are actually coming from controlled media like television and corporate news, the philosopher’s vision has been eerily fulfilled.

From a “Baurillardian” perspective, Reagan and Bush became president because the people who shaped their images skillfully manipulated our images of westerns and Americana. Obama became president because his image shapers were able to stir our distorted memories of Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. People did not vote for specific policies, but for images and feelings. Some voted for “pride.” Others voted for “hope.” So many people were not voting for specific policies, we were voting to feel a certain way.

Last year “Occupy Wall Street” became a voice outside the system. It was carefully designed to avoid being co-opted by centrist voices that would only lead back into the same marsh. This year, new groups have emerged that look like “Occupy Wall Street,” but have corporate sponsors.  Corporately owned media like the New York Times praise them as the “younger siblings of Occupy Wall Street, but with a nonpartisan agenda, more centralized leadership and one specific mission: to help young people find jobs.”

From the philosopher’s viewpoint, the difference is huge. Instead of being global citizens like occupiers, these young people are seeking to be entrepreneurs, thus returning to a self centered world view that will be easy to divide and conquer . Instead of taking democracy back from corporate control like occupiers, these youth will advocate for other jobless youth.  From a “Baudrillardian” point of view, instead of David slaying the giant, he will turn to Goliath for employment. And instead of leaving the labyrinth, we will strike a deal with the Minotaur to eat other people first.

For years, President Obama has said he is evolving on the issue of same-sex marriage. Finally, he has stopped evolving and started leading. The real subject is not really same-sex marriage at all. The real subject is, and always has, been universal human rights. If GLBT citizens are asked to pay all their taxes they should get all of their rights. Today, Mr. Obama has left the safe cover of silence, and at great risk stood as President for all the citizens in our nation.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” -President Obama

I was at a meeting yesterday of people very engaged in the political process, and was horrified to realize many of them do not know what ALEC is. It has been called “Corporate America’s Trojan Horse.” The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) claims that legislators have introduced more than 3100 pieces of legislation based on their models. You haven’t heard of them because they are a front for hundreds of corporations. They disguise themselves in hundreds of ways to fool well meaning conservative voters into voting against their own interest. They use immigration, same sex marriage, and anything else they thing would trigger voter turn out, to turn out one trojan horse after another.

Of course, don’t believe any one source, but if you haven’t heard of ALEC, push the link below and begin your education today.

To visit alecwatch.org, click here.

Imagine you’ve hit hard times. Imagine swallowing your pride and turning to the state for help. Now imagine the state handing you a cup and telling you to pee in it. The people that want to dismantle the safety net will kill two birds with this stone. They will humiliate those needing help, and reafirm the prejudice of those who think that reason our economy is imploding is not because of the rich, but because of those least in a position to do so.

to read article, click here.

I’m confused. The original headline I saw in the U.S. Press read, “CIA thwarts Al Qaeda underwear bomb plot near anniversary of bin Laden’s death.” Kind of makes you proud. Now, the U.K. Guardian reveals that the bomber in question was “working as an informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA.” How do you put those pieces together?

.to read article, click here

The above picture is what it looked like at one voting place. A church site telling people how to vote as they entered. At the end of the day North Carolina, which already bans same sex marriage passed an amendment that may come back to haunt heterosexuals as well.

The new amendment reads, “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic  legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.” So many heterosexals flocked to the polls not realizing they had opened up a generation of lawsuits in domestic partnerships and civil unions. Eager to keep same sex marriage they didn’t realize the wording applied to many heterosexual relationships as well. That’s the way it goes. When you write a law to oppress any one group, you have given the state leverage to oppress you as well.

To read N.Y. Times article on this subject, click here.