 |
| Empty Pews via Dialog Intl |
Only 47 percent of Irish polled said they were religious people, a 22-point drop from the 69 percent recorded in the last similar poll in 2005, according to the WIN-Gallup International network of opinion pollsters.I love the smell of irreligiosity in the morning.
 |
| To shroud your kids in ignorance, fail to prepare them for the modern world, and send them forth as bigoted regressives, to ensure the world never changes for the better. |
“Same gender couples are inconsistent with scriptural lifestyle and biblical teachings,” and "Home life doesn't reflect the school's belief of what a biblical family lifestyle is.”
The letter also says since the school is private, it is free from "excessive government interference in matters of religion."Oh really. Free from government interference, but happy to take $60,000 in federal funds this year.
Federal funded bigotry from my home town, Albuquerque. This one hits home: towleroad.com/2012/07/nmnoho…
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) July 31, 2012
Americans' confidence in religious institutions has hit an all-time low, with only 44 percent expressing a "great deal" of confidence in organized religion, according to a new Gallup survey.1. It is still stunningly high. Hard to imagine what there is to have confidence in?
"I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers," he says in his sermon, delivered on May 13. "Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there... Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out… And you know what, in a few years, they'll die." Worley fails to understand that gay people are born, not made, and that there would just be more LGBT folk coming down the line.
He also that if he's asked who he'll vote for, he'll reply, "I'm not going to vote for a baby killer and a homosexual lover."These guys would be comical buffoons if they weren't influential. But, the vicious rubes line the pulpits to "Amen," this nonsense, so pointing and laughing at them seems like only the best place to start. You can't reason with people like this, they just don't listen. They won't even consider changing their minds until they feel ashamed. So, I'm "ag'in" you, fool*, I'm laughing at your fat, dumbass and every ignorant cracker you've conned into turning out their pockets on Sunday when the collection plate comes by to pay for your lousy suit and bad haircut. There's no point trading bible verses, pointing out the ridiculousness with which you cherry pick the bits that suit your prejudices and ignore the bits that don't, I've tried it with too many of you clowns and gotten nothing but evasion, name-calling, and the spittle of morons on my shoes for trying.
Ed Gillespie, senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, told Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown that the campaign would make President Obama’s support for marriage equality an issue this November and that Romney will actively push for a constitutional amendment to take away the right of states to voluntarily extend marriage equality to same-sex couples.I think it's coming to the point we're going to have completely divorce, as it were, secular and religious marriage since the religionists are demanding the privileges of marriage, which include certain legal protections and rights which most (though not all) churches are unwilling to grant to every citizen fairly. Christians in particular, but I think people of faith in general, with the exception of liberal minority, want to define marriage as one man and one woman. The rest of us want marriage to be a legally recognized domestic union of one consenting adult to another that doesn't discriminate.
Some religious marriages, might not meet the criteria of what we probably agree civil marriage should look like. To enter into civil marriage, both parties should have attained the age of majority -- you should be old enough to vote and enter the military before you are old enough to decide if you are ready for marriage, in my opinion -- and have entered into the arrangement of their own free will. So those religions that approve of the marriage of girls that just got their first period to much older men, first cousins, and men being allowed to marry many women and girls (FLDS, we're looking at you) could not qualify for civil marriage.In Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), The Supreme Court's decision stated that the government's action must have a secular legislative purpose.Those blanks are no accident. Not only were there no secular reasons to vote for Amendment One, no secular reasons for even proposing it were offered -- as far as I'm aware. If there were, I'd fascinated to hear them. If there's no secular reason, there are only religious reasons -- and basing law on religion in this country is impermissible. It's a violation of the Establishment Clause. We are not Iran. We should not be modelling our government on failed or failing Muslim states.
As voters in NC will be deciding the fate of Amendment One, let's take a look at the ten most compelling secular legislative reasons to vote in favor of the amendment:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
 |
| Roman marriage image via NYRB |
Those who do not want to let gay partners have the sacredness of sacramental marriage are relying on a Scholastic fiction of the thirteenth century to play with people’s lives, as the church has done ever since the time of Aquinas. The myth of the sacrament should not let people deprive gays of the right to natural marriage, whether blessed by Yahweh or not. They surely do not need—since no one does—the blessing of Saint Thomas.Expecting most Christians to understand history, even the history of their own religion, or their own Bible is a form of wishful thinking.
Church-state separation is important because Christianity may not always be the dominant religion in this society. As Christians, our freedom is important. After all, it is again St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians that reminds us that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Restricting others’ freedom simply because we possess the political power to do so is precisely the opposite of Jesus’ mission.Secularism, it's for everybody's protection.
The Christian Porn FrameworkYou can read descriptions of movies, buy merchandise, and email for free clips. This has to be a joke, right? It just looks so ... earnest.
Only married couples engaging in sexual acts. All sexual partners in a Christian porn production are husband and wife, both on and off screen. All actors are married in real life and portray married couples on-screen. The depiction is their having sex with only their wedded spouses.
All sex is portrayed within the context of a Christian marriage. It is apparent through the actions, behaviors, and speech of the characters portrayed that they are Christian, lead a Christian lifestyle, and have a marriage in which their faith is central. This is depicted in a variety of ways, with scenes showing a couple praying together, studying the Bible, attending church or church functions, and generally relating to one another as loving Christian spouses outside of the bedroom.
 |
| Image via DougSaunders.net |
My mother began her career as a high-school teacher in a country that regarded women as the property of men. She could not get a bank account or a credit card of her own, only one bearing my father’s name – and only with his permission and under his control. Most jobs were open only to men. Only a quarter of drivers were women, and the whole phenomenon of women driving was hotly debated in the media.
That was Canada in the 1960s. I kept that in mind on Friday as I watched the ebullient spectacle of dozens of Saudi Arabian women daring to defy their country’s laws by getting into cars and driving. You might think their humble rebellion is doomed to failure. But we forget how fast things can change, and how suddenly that change can begin.
 |
| Jefferson via WSJ |
After completing this second micro-testament, Jefferson claimed in a letter to a friend that it demonstrated his bona fides as a Christian. 'It is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.'And here, TPers, is one of your Christian Founding Fathers, just as you like him.
