Justice Ginsberg Gets It Right

Majority opinion, authored by Ginsberg:

In a series of decisions, this Court has emphasized that the First Amendment generally precludes public universities from denying student organizations access to school sponsored forums because of the groups’ viewpoints. See Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819 (1995); Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U. S. 263 (1981); Healy v. James, 408 U. S. 169 (1972). This case concerns a novel question regarding student activities at public universities: May a public law school condition its official recognition of a student group—and the attendant use of school funds and facilities—on the organization’s agreement to open eligibility for membership and leadership to all students?

In the view of petitioner Christian Legal Society (CLS), an accept-all-comers policy impairs its First Amendment rights to free speech, expressive association, and free exercise of religion by prompting it, on pain of relinquishing the advantages of recognition, to accept members who do not share the organization’s core beliefs about religion and sexual orientation. From the perspective of respondent Hastings College of the Law (Hastings or the Law School), CLS seeks special dispensation from an across-the-board open-access requirement designed to further the reasonable educational purposes underpinning the school’s student-organization program.

In accord with the District Court and the Court of Appeals, we reject CLS’s First Amendment challenge. Compliance with Hastings’ all-comers policy, we conclude, is a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral condition on access to the student-organization forum. In requiring CLS—in common with all other student organizations—to choose between welcoming all students and forgoing the benefits of official recognition, we hold, Hastings did not transgress constitutional limitations. CLS, it bears emphasis, seeks not parity with other organizations, but a preferential exemption from Hastings’ policy. The First Amendment shields CLS against state prohibition of the organization’s expressive activity, however exclusionary that activity may be. But CLS enjoys no constitutional right to state subvention of its selectivity.

The opinion's fun reading because it's clear (at least within SCOTUS opinion-speak) that Ginsberg really doesn't like the dissent. No surprise there, Altio essentially calls Ginsberg a politically correct liar. His rhetoric is rather overheated (my guess is that he was one of the votes for cert. and now regrets it.)

There are religious groups that cannot in good conscience agree in their bylaws that they will admit persons who do not share their faith, and for these groups, the consequence of an accept-all-comers policy is marginalization. See Brief for Evangelical Scholars (Officers and 24 Former Presidents of the Evangelical Theological Society) et al. as Amici Curiae 19 (affirmance in this case “will allow every public college and university in the United States to exclude all evangelical Christian organizations”); Brief for Agudath Israel of America as Amicus Curiae 3, 8 (affirmance would “point a judicial dagger at the heart of the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States” and permit that community to be relegated to the status of “a second-class group”); Brief for Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America as Amicus Curiae 3 (affirmance “could significantly affect the ability of [affiliated] student clubs and youth movements . . . to prescribe requirements for their membership and leaders based on religious beliefs and commitments”). This is where the Court’s deci-sion leads.

***
I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that today’s decision is a serious setback for freedom of expression in this country.

Yes, it's amazing how marginalized the xians are in this country. To be clear, Alito's not talking about admitting nonbelievers to your church; he's talking about admitting them to a campus club. Any group that can't "in good conscience" do that, isn't trying to form a campus club; they're trying to form a church -- which cannot, under the Constitution, get state funding or support.

This was a 5 to 4 decision. Breyer and Kennedy were on the right side, this time. You can read the full opinion here.

Essentially, all that the opinion holds is that Hastings Law School wasn't required to give "recognized student organization" status (which includes some money from student activity fees, use of some school bulletin boards, etc.) to a xian group that excluded, for example, gays (well, at least "nonrepenetant" gays -- I guess it's ok as long as you feel bad about it afterwards and ask your god to forgive you). The group was still free to (and did) meet, communicate over social media networks, put up notices on other bulletin boards, etc. Because the requirement to "accept all comers" was content neutral, it was upheld.

What it means for Pagans is that they can't expect recognized student organization status if they want to exclude from their campus club xians or those who, for example, refuse to call East using the term "Guardians of the Watchtower," or who won't sign a pledge stating that only the Greek pantheon are "true" Gods and Goddesses. More importantly, it begins to put to bed the silly notion that unless xians get state funding and status to discriminate against others, then the xians are being discriminated against. Like everyone else, xians can play by the rules (not discriminate) and use the school's softball equipment, or they can discriminate all they want -- with their own ball and bat.

PIcture found here.

Hey, Republicans! I Have A Suggestion For You!

Four years ago, when Bush "won" his second term, there was no fucking end of discussion, both from the so-called liberal media and from Democrats, themselves, (I'm looking at you Harry Dry Powder Reid) about how Democrats needed to "learn how to reach out to 'people of faith'", to "talk about their faith," to "mend fences with 'value voters'", blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The Republicans just had an epic loss, following a campaign where their entire strategy seemed to be to reach out to the batshit insane fundies (I'm looking at you, Palin) and to insult the religious beliefs and geographical origins of as many people as possible (I'm looking at you, lady at the McCain rally who said, "He's, he's, he's an Arab," and I'm especially looking at you, Liddy Dole.) So I'm wondering when I'll start to hear pundits and Republicans, themselves, talking about their need to distance themselves from the snake handlers, the cretins who don't believe in science, the ignoramuses who don't even know that Africa is a continent.

I'm not holding my breath.


Picture found here.

Take This Bible Park And Shove It

Turns out, the early news reports were wrong. The Rutherford County, Tennessee Planning Commission voted 8-7 to deny a rezoning request to allow the development of Bible Park USA. They were likely responding to local pressure from residents concerned about traffic, light, and noise. For example:

County Commissioner Steve Sandlin moved to deny the park.

Sandlin based his motion on lack of TDOT approval of the access road, bridge and tunnel; a belief that the park does not conform with the Blackman Land Use Plan; and most importantly, because the park would affect the character of the neighborhood in a negative way.

His last point was the park is at odds with the regulations for a Conditional Use Permit, which requires developments to not have a substantial effect on the value of the neighboring buildings or have a negative effect on the basic character of the neighborhood.

Fine by me. They might want to consider, as well, though, the legal costs that they're going to face, without a doubt, if they go ahead with this obvious violation of the First Amendment. Is that a good use of tax dollars?

The next step: The zoning plan will go before the Rutherford County Commission, which has final say in the zoning, on May 15.

The real First Amendment problems arise from the tax dollars that will be used to build this humiliating abomination.

In a separate process, the park's developers are seeking $27.9 million in property tax revenues in tax-increment financing (TIF) from an area around the park.

Under the TIF, the local government would authorize the sale of bonds to help pay for the park. The increased property tax revenues generated because of the value of the land of the Bible Park USA and inside an impact zone around the park would go toward the park's debt.

That financing plan is set to go before the Rutherford County Budget Committee on May 8, and will likely be considered by the Rutherford County Commission on May 15.

The developers are also likely to seek a second TIF, which would capture some sales tax from the area as well as a luxury tax on sales in the park to help pay for the development. No proposal on that TIF has been submitted to the county yet.

And, of course, in 2006, the county was successfully sued by the ACLU for posting the Ten Commandments in the Rutherford County Courthouse as part of a historical display, and made to pay legal fees of $50,000.

Contact decision-makers here. No Pagans at all in Tennessee to stand up against this nonsense?

My New Name For A Blog

What res ipsa loquitor said.

[Evangelicals, such as Robertson and Falwell and Dobson, have spent the last thirty years demonizing liberals.] Why in Jesus or Allah or the Buddha's name would I reach out to anyone who's been kicking me for three days, let alone three decades? And don't tell me, "Those guys are the old guard." Instead, show me that they're not [still in charge] by laying off your efforts to control my body, my mind, and my wallet (by agitating for my tax dollars to funnel toward your unconstitutional "faith-based initiatives) and by halting your Thirty Years War against liberals. That means, among other faith-based initiatives, taking on esteemed evangelical "opinion leaders" like the Parshalls, the Parsleys, and Pastor-I-Have-A-Weekly-Call-With-The-White-House Dobson.

If evangelicals think it's time for a group hug, let them do the reaching out for once. But don't be surprised if I'm wary, dirty fucking hippie that I am. Because when people spend thirty years telling me I'm going to hell for everything from not having whatever the hell a "personal relationship with Jesus" is to enjoying sexual communion with the occasional libidinous liberal lad to whom I happen not to be married I tend to be a little suspicious of their embrace.

You know, when I was in grammar school, this miserable little bitch used to give me no end of shit for doing everything from reading on the school bus to wearing the "wrong" sneakers to living on whatever passes for the wrong side of the tracks in one of the toniest suburbs in the northeast. It wouldn't have occurred to me to "reach out" to this little shit until she'd learned some manners, shut her mouth, and got off my back, my idiotic teachers' suggestion to "be the bigger person", notwithstanding. Just saying.

So Evangelicals, you come to me and you be nice. Bring some coffee (I take it light and I don't do artificial sweeteners) and a couple of Krispy Kremes (the chocolate frosted ones, please) from the franchise at your megachurch. Then we'll see if we have anything in common.

Actually, though, res can have my doughnuts. There isn't anything those creepy evangelicals could do to cozy up to me. I wish they'd all just find another planet to go to and practice their weird, sick, unhealthy religion. I'd always be waiting for them to drop the nicey-nice routine and tie me to a stake.

And They'll Know We Are Xians By Our Love, By Our Love, And They'll Know We Are Xians By Our Love

Jason Pitzl-Waters at The Wild Hunt continues to do a v. good job reporting on attempts by radical xianists to take over our country's armed forces. Jason notes that:

Michael Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and a former Naval serviceman who served with the Reagan Administration, [who] has been waging a very public battle over what he sees as the pernicious influence of a certain strain of evangelical Christians on our supposedly secular military has been threatened with death by the radical xianists. Jason quotes Weinstein as saying that:

We get death threats practically every day. We've had the largest windows in our house shot out, we've had dead animal sacrifices put on our front door. We've had feces and beer bottles thrown at the house. My wife and I have a group of what we presume are fundamentalist Christian women who call about every eight to 10 days, for most of the last 34 months, and they just chant on the phone, "Mikey Weinstein, bullet in the head, praise the Lord, he's finally dead." We've got little children, three or four years of age, call and say, "Now we lay you in your grave, there was no way you could be saved; you hate our Lord and he can tell, which is why you burn in hell." And that's not the worst part. The worst part is listening to the adult males and females in the background telling them what to say and how to do this."

Anyone who thinks that (a) the xianists aren't serious about taking over this entire country, including its armed forces, or that (b) they're not "really" dangerous is kidding herself. What the sort of behavior Weinstein describes has to do with a "god of love" is beyond me, but that doesn't mean that you see "moderate" xians criticizing these groups nor does it mean that they should be ignored.

Interestingly, Jason reports that Pagans constitute only a v. small percentage of the almost 7,000 active duty members of the armed forces who have contacted Weinstein's group with concerns. Jason quotes Weinstein's description: 96% of them coming to us are Christians themselves. Roughly three-quarters are traditional Protestants, like Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodist. We get Mormons, we get Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Southern Baptist. One-fourth of that 96% percent . . . are Roman Catholic. About 4% will be Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Jain, Shinto, Native American spirituality or atheist or agnostic. It would be interesting to analyze the complaints to find out whether the types of discrimination vary by religious groups, as well. Are, for example, Southern Baptists abused in the same way as Wiccans?

It would be nice to think that the next president will make cleaning up the military a priority, but I'm less than hopeful.

**************************

Addendum: Of course, it's always the xianists who are really being persecuted because they can't shove their own religious beliefs down everyone else's throats.

/Hat tip to JR in comments at Eschaton.

Great. Just Great.

Well, it's early days and all and everyone knows that a lot can happen between last night and the conventions this Summer, but I've got to say that an Obama v. Huckabee match up is definitely not going to be good for Pagans.

Huckabee is a Baptist minister who's running almost exclusively on the fact that he will "return" America to its "xian roots." Obama, far more than either Edwards or Clinton, is already running as Republican lite, apparently convinced that he can get people who want a Republican in office to vote for a Democrat who pretends to be a Republican (because that's worked so well before and makes such inherent sense, I guess). He's also run farther into the arms of the xian right than either Edwards or Clinton, appearing at "gospel concerts" with xian homophobes. If he's running against Huckabee, his strategy is going to be to run even harder on Jebuz, Jebuz, Jebuz. Huckabee, meanwhile, will spend his campaign arguing that Obama's church isn't a "real" xian church and showing that he's a better (read: more fanatic) xian that Obama. (This has already been his, apparently successful, strategy against Romney). The entire election will be about who's more xian and I just can't imagine that being good for either Pagans or America.

Onward Xian Soldiers, Marching As To War

After a while, you run out of adjectives to use and new things to say about this sort of illegal, wrong, and immoral behavior.

A foundation that has sued the military alleging widespread violations of religious freedom said Tuesday that it has evidence showing that soldiers are pressured to adopt fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

. . .

The material was gathered from Fort Riley in Kansas, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Fort Jackson, S.C.

Examples at Fort Riley, where Hall is stationed, included a display outside his military police battalion's office with a quote from conservative writer Ann Coulter saying, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Another photo from Fort Riley shows the book "A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" for sale at the post exchange.

. . .

Weinstein said materials for a Bible studies course from Military Ministry, part of Campus Crusade for Christ International, teach soldiers that the U.S. military and government are instruments to spread the word of God. The material was found at Fort Jackson, S.C., he said.

. . .

The lawsuit also alleges that Gates permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and allows a culture that sanctions activities by Christian organizations.

It also says the military permits proselytizing by soldiers, tolerates anti-Semitism and the placing of religious symbols on military equipment, and allows the use of military e-mail accounts to send religious rhetoric.

It's not surprising; xianity has almost always associated itself with armies of the patriarchy and the list of wars fought "in Jesus' name" is a long one. The xian church and the armed forces are simply two branches of the patriarchy and it's not surprising to see them working together.

But it is illegal. It violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. It is wrong. It's wrong to use the government and the coercive power of the military to privilege one religious group over all others. It is immoral. It's immoral to force people to abandon their religious beliefs in order to serve their country in the military. And, you know, it just stinks to high heaven. Is this really the face that xians want to show to the world?

I know.

Wherein Robin Demonstrates That Pagans Can Be As Stupid As Mitt Romney

You know, Robin, what's true for you may not be true for others. I realize this is a revolutionary concept for zealots and fundies. You sound as stupid as Mitt Romney. Really, you do.

It all goes back to belief. The emotional center of a person's life is anchored to belief- mythical and religious iconography and mythical themes have always been pregnant with human emotions. We express our deepest longings through these things. This is why atheists tend to be such miserable people, even those atheists who have mastered the appearance of "well-adjusted and happy" people.

They aren't happy; they're just good at acting happy. What they are is desperate to anchor their emotional life anywhere else they can, but no house outside of the halls of the Gods or the power of engaged myth is a truly restful place- they try physical comforts and delights, secular movements like secular humanism, family life, political life, raving public lunacy (think of Richard Dawkins) or just basic degeneration into extremes of indulgence, always looking for that home for their souls-in-denial. And it's no surprise that so many of them convert later to some religion, or burn out to suicide, depression, or intoxication.

In my own life, every atheist I've known has either converted to something, or simply remained as they were when I met them: unhappy, issue-ridden people, bitter people, hollow, empty people.

Give me a fucking break. Jason has a much more thoughtful discussion here.

Remembering The Salem Dead

At Samhein, we remember our dead. The population of Salem, Massachusetts, location of many of America's witch trials, swells during Samhein. Which is odd, because the people tried and, generally, executed at Salem almost certainly were not witches. And, yet, I find it somehow appropriate, as a witch, to recall their names at this time of year. According to the Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project, the following people were executed as witches.

Bridget Bishop
Rev. George Burroughs
Martha Carrier
Giles Cory
Martha Cory
Mary Easty
Sarah Good
Elizabeth How
George Jacobs Sr.
Susannah Martin
Rebecca Nurse
Alice Parker
Mary Parker
John Proctor, Sr.
Ann Pudeator
Wilmot Redd
Margaret Scott
Samuel Wardwell
Sarah Wilds
John Willard

Additionally, these people died in jail:

Lydia Dastin
Ann Foster
Infant Girl (daughter of Sarah Good)
Sarah Osborne
Roger Toothaker.

Now, when the veil is thin and all times are one time, is a good time to to say: May the Goddess guard them. May they find their ways to the Summerland. May their friends and families know peace. It's also a good time to say: Never again, the witch trials.

Confusing 1950s Culture With Scripture

Prior Aelred directed my attention to this post from The Carpetbagger Report, which makes, I think, some v. good points.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, for example, is offering courses on homemaking — in which women are taught that “men make decisions; women make dinner.”More moderate Southern Baptists disagree, and counter with their own biblical references. When Jesus dined at the home of two sisters, he praised Mary, who spent the evening studying his teachings, above Martha, who did chores. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul writes that “there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ.”

“We’re confusing 1950s culture with the teaching of Scripture,” said Wade Burleson, a Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma. “I nowhere see where the Lord Jesus places limitations on the role of women in our culture.”

That said, I think the Baptists have a right to do this, with their own (not tax) dollars. Just as I think that Moslem women have a right to wear a head scarf, even though I don't agree with the notions upon which that practice is based.

I sure hope the young woman discussed in the article, who is sewing a pink-and-brown polka-dot dress for herself and who says, “It really doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the Bible says,” never finds herself widowed or divorced with a passel of kids to feed. In those situations, it's useful to know how to do something beyond sewing polka-dot dresses and it starts to matter a whole lot whether you can think.

Who Would Jesus Frag?

Jason Pitzel-Waters, at the Wild Hunt, covers the disturbing story.

Oddly, When You Spend A Generation Acting Like A Bunch Of Asses, Young People Grow Up Disliking You

Recently, both Atrios and Jason Pitzl-Waters have blogged about a study showing that today's young people (16 to 29 year-olds) have a less favorable view of xianity than did previous generations. The study attributes this change to: a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment among young people. I assume that means a "disengagement" from xianity and a "disillusionmnet" with xianity among young people. But that's not really an explanation, it's merely a restatement of the results of the study.

I'm willing to take a wild guess and suggest that the change in attitudes is due to a change in xianity, at least in the version of xianity that's been shoved relentlessly down America's throat for the last few decades. That version of xianity is a far cry from the "care for the sick/judge not lest ye be not judged/blessed are the meek" version of xianity that, for example, I grew up with during the sixties and seventies. I didn't like xianity's view of women, but I generally believed xians to be good people who cared for others, tried not to do evil, attempted to convert by example. And, to be clear, there are still many, many xians who believe in and follow that version of xianity. But they're as invisible today as St. Paul wanted women to be.

The only kind of xianity that many of today's young people, especially those in their teens, have ever seen is the "hate on gays/hate on abortion/hate on women/hate on Islam" xianity that's gotten oddly tangled up in some bizarre form of American exceptionalism and mad desire to bring on a bloody Armageddon. They've seen that Catholic priests are pedophiles protected, at all costs, by the church. They've seen xians insist that evolution is a lie, that science is bad, and that the myths of Bronze Age sheep herders are the final word in -- well, in everything. They've seen one creepy minister after another turn out to engage in exactly the behaviors against which he's gotten rich inveighing. They've heard over and over again that it's wrong to have sex, use birth control, have an abortion and they know that none of that works in today's real world. The face of modern xianity is mean, hateful, intolerant, relentlessly anti-woman, anti-sex, protective of the privileged, and spiteful to the downtrodden. It's not surprising to me that just 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Hell, I'm surprised that the xians got 16%.

I'd like to think, as Jason Pitzel-Waters' commenter, Steve Caldwell, suggests, that: [a] shift in Christian cultural and political dominance is possible based on current demographic trends that [Jason Pitzel-Waters post] highlighted and similiar trends posted on the Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance web site:

"By about the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber the Christians in the U.S."

"14.1% do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost a doubling -- from only 8% in 1990. There are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans taken together."

Source:
Religious identification in the U.S.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm

So Christianity may find itself as a minority faith in the U.S. and no faith group will be in the majority. That would, IMHO, be a good thing. It might put an end to the obvious lie, repeated over and over by people who profess to believe that it is evil to lie, that "America is a Christian Nation." When you probe a bit and ask people what they mean when they say that "America is a Christian Nation," there's just not, in the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, much "there, there." Everyone I've asked has responded that it means that "America was founded on Judeo-xian ideals." Forget how odd it is that they never say that "America is a Judeo-xian Nation," what's weird is what they say when you ask what that means. The inevitable response is that it means "respect for life" (sometimes phrased as "respect for human dignity"). And we all know what that means.

Look, I love the idea of America a whole lot. But America was founded by people who owned slaves, kept women as second-class citizens for generations, massacred the Native Americans, and, practiced early forms of abortion to deal with unwanted children. It was also founded by people who said: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Hopefully, today's young people will be more true to the vision of our Founders than are the likes of Fred Phelps, James Dobson, and America's Bishops.

I Am Just Saying

Hmmmm. That gives me an idea for a magical working.

Lying About Liberals

But the most intensely religious Americans of both traditions also tend to be the most conservative on moral issues such as abortion.

Really, Michael Gerson can bite my intensely religious ass.

And the biased pictures need to stop.

It's One Damn Thing After Another With These AssClowns

Goddess, they're just such freaking fascists, even when there's really no need for them to be. And, incompetent.

I'd love to know what Pagan books made the "cut" and what Pagan scholars were consulted (not).

The First Amendment mandates that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

You can't deny people access to their religious books without prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

Update: I'll just add that I've never practiced First Amendment Law, but I have a vague memory from ConLaw that restrictions on the First Amendment need to be designed so as to be no more restrictive than necessary to promote some important government interest. I'm willing to bet that the government could ban a book from a prison library if it could show that that particular book advocated violence, for example. (Course, I remember a whole lotta smiting going on in the xian holy book, and I don't imagine they're going to ban that one any time soon. Sad; it "disparages" my religion if you believe the correct translation is "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.") But that's exactly the opposite of a movement to only allow "approved" books. The Liberty University-stocked DoJ has chosen the Most restrictive approach to this issue rather than the Least restrictive.

And, again, I'd like to know what Pagan books are allowed. And which esteemed Pagan scholar got to do the choosing?

People Who Throw Stones Shouldn't Live In Glass Houses

Karl Rove's got his pasty self all in a huff because Bill Moyers reported what everyone in Washington has always known: Rove, that master manipulator of the xian right, that gaybaiting son of a gay body-piercer, is an agnostic.

Here's the thing. I'd love to live in an America where one's religious beliefs, or lack thereof, were irrelevant to one's participation in politics. I remember a time when someone else's religion was a minor interesting thing about them: she keeps kosher so we need to pick a restaurant that will work for her, too, he sings in the Methodist choir and can't come on Wednesdays because that's when he has choir practice, they're Catholic and their kids go to St. Mary's Parochial School. Beyong that, no one cared.

You know who made religion one of the most important issues in politics? Karl Motherfucking Rove. It didn't have to be religion; Rove was looking for a guillable group of people to manipulate into voting for his candidate and America's fundie whackjobs were just sitting there in the middle of the road with a sign that said, "Use us" taped to their collective ass. Rove orchestrated the Catholic bishops humphing and pumphing and threatening to deny Communion to John Kerry. Rove's entire electoral strategy consisted of shifting the focus from who would be a more competent president to who was a "better" or "truer" xian. I didn't hear Rove issue a peep when whackjob xians showed up to protest a Hindu minister's invocation in Congress, upset that the Hindu wasn't praying to the "one true" god.

So, you know what Karl? Suck on it. I hope that the press spends quite a bit of time snooping into your lack of religious beliefs. I hope you spend a lot of time upset about it and defending yourself and pretending that you really, really, really, really do believe in Jebuz. I'd like to have you explain over and over why the pope is wrong when he says that anyone who isn't catholic isn't really right with god. I'd like to hear what you think of Mitt's Mormonism and why Mormonism isn't so bad but Hindus don't pray to the "one true" god. You reap every bit of that whirlwind, ok? Cuz it's yours, babe. You unleashed it and were glad to do so. Ass.

As per usual,What Athenae says.

It's Funny What Upsets People In Florida.

Floridian blogger Sinfonian, not AFAIK a Pagan (although Santeria, generally classified as syncretic, seems, to me, as much a xian denomination as a Pagan one), has an interesting post up concerning the latet dust-up between yet-another group of those animal-sacrificing Santerians and the neighbors who love to hate them.

Like so many others, I have mixed feelings about this whole issue (upon which, it's important to note, the Supreme Court has already ruled). I love animals and am repulsed at the idea of killing them. But, I eat meat, fish, birds, plants with whose devas I've communed. I swat mosquitoes. I've put out traps and poison when mice invaded my home. And, I have experienced how much power is released at the moment of any creature's death, so I can certainly understand why it can be useful in a ritual. (Really difficult to channel, but, still useful for a practiced (and there's the rub) practitioner, simply because there's so much of it and it's so instantaneous). Additionally, ritual slaughter of animals goes back at least to the Kurgans and possibly back to the domestication of farm animals. It was certainly practiced by the ancient Greeks, the Hebrews, and likely the Celts. Santeria goes back to the Yorubans of modern-day Nigeria. It beats, by most accounts, sacrificing other humans.

What I find truly interesting is the societal cognitive dissonance on this issue. It's completely ok for Dick Cheney to slaughter birds raised in captivity and released specifically so that he can slaughter them. Killing animals from magestic bucks to squirrels is considered a bonding experience for groups of men, fathers and sons, brothers. Hell, can you imagine how the NRA would react to the suggestion that maybe we should at least even the odds and make hunters use spears or bows and arrows? And, beyond that, conservatives hate the endangered species list. It's absolutely a god-given right of American developers to destroy the environment needed to sustain entire species of animals, to damn up the streams that salmon need to spawn, to cut down the trees where birds and squirrels and insects live. We enslave animals and use them to run races for our amusement, to suffer and die in safety tests for old ladies' eye creams, and to live in our zoos. But, ZOMG!, don't let the Santerians sacrifice a chicken or a goat!

So while I've zero desire to participate in the ritual slaughter of animals, forgive me if I'm not clutching my pearls over Santeria. Get back to me when Dick Cheney gets in trouble for shooting his friends in the face, much less captive birds, shot for mere pleasure.

And, you know, Florida, first you couldn't count chads, and then you elected Katherine Harris, and now, well, now, you're apparently still working hard to convince the rest of us that you are mentally retarded:

"They ordered us out of the house, desecrated a holy space, treated us like criminals," the Santierian priest said. They were doing this inside.

Neighbors said that while they respect Batista's right to practice his faith, they wish he would not be so public about it.

"I just think they should do those things away from neighborhoods, where there are no kids and nobody can see those things," said Ricardo Celiz, a sports anchor for Univisión's Spanish-language broadcast network, TeleFutura. His family, including two small children, lives four houses away.

"And definitely I don't want them to see any dead animals at that house," he said.

OK, Mr. Sports Anchor, here's a suggestion. Don't send your kids four houses down to peep in the windows, ok? Meanwhile, I won't turn on the fucking tv, where my G/Son would be subjected to horses being quirted to run faster in horseraces, fishing shows that display fish getting gutted, show dogs being groomed and trotted around Westminster, or xian ministers blathering on about the sacrifice of the body and blood of jebuz, how would that be?

The Residents Of Idaho's First Congressional District Must Be Mentally Retarded. It's The Only Explanation

Turns out, only xians can be in Congress. It's apparently what the Founders wanted.

Wiki has more on this intellectual degenerate, including this interesting fact: Sali and his wife, Terry, reside in Kuna, Idaho. They have been married since 1976 and have six adult children, presumably as racist as their father.

You can contact this Christianist here.

Update: 6:00 pm

Heh. Didn't take long for them to clean up Wiki. But there's a screencapture here.

Margaret Atwood, A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You.

Here's a lovely (and by lovely, I mean fucking awful) follow-up to yesterday's story that the Pentagon is engaged in a "long and deep collusion with a fundamentalist, religious missionary organization." Troutfishing reports in a diary at Daily Kos that:

The "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game, is set in a "post apocalyptic" New York that looks almost exactly like New York City after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and lets players simulate commanding a paramilitary Christian army that seeks to convert Jews, mainline Christians, Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, and everyone else in New York City to fundamentalist Christianity. All who resist will be killed.

Some who criticized the game have said that it conditions players for religious war.

Now, with the blessing and endorsement of the Pentagon, a Christian ministry with apocalyptic fundamentalist beliefs that is planning a series of tours it calls a 'military crusade' to entertain US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq will also be distributing the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" 'Convert or Die' religious warfare video game....

To US troops.

What ?

Let me repeat:

The United States Pentagon has endorsed sending a Christian supremacist religious warfare video game to United States troops in Iraq, a predominantly Muslim nation.

Osama Bin Laden himself could hardly hardly have hatched a better plot to incite widespread war between Christianity and Islam, and the Pentagon's endorsement of "Operation Straight Up" and that ministry's plan to bring the bigoted, hateful religious ideology inherent to Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Left Behind" book series to American troops in the front lines casts into question the basic competence, not to mention the sanity, of every Pentagon official involved in the decision to endorse such mind boggling idiocy.

Someone tell me one reason to believe that we are NOT living in a theocracy. I'll wait right over here.

Diversity

Here's a nice article about a soldier who made it home after an extended tour in Afghanistan. He discusses what it was like being over there and how he continued to practice his religion under those circumstances, giving a nice nod to Wicca:

The soldier, who brought his own siddur and kippah to Afghanistan, said that prayerbooks could be obtained from visiting chaplains. And, he noted, kosher food could be obtained on request.

"There’s a stereotype," he said. "People hear ‘Jewish’ and they hear ‘military’ — a minority within a minority. They ask me to tell them about anti-Semitism in the army, but I haven’t seen any," he said, noting that fellow soldiers "may be curious but I haven’t seen any discrimination."

"This country is great because it’s a conglomeration [of people] of all different backgrounds," he said, noting that he served along with Muslim, Buddhist, and Wiccan soldiers. "We’re fighting to keep it that way."