Personal Made Public

A judge in Indiana placed a court order on a couple during their divorce settlement to keep them from "confusing" their son with their Wiccan religious beliefs.

Considering that the right to religious freedom is explicitly enshrined in the Bill of Rights, it is expected that the Court of Appeals will overturn the restriction. Hopefully they'll add a very strong reprimand towards the conservative activist presiding over this case. If this doesn't constitute making law from the bench I have no idea what does.

Posted by Kevin at 06:42 PM | Permalink

The pastor of the Danieltown Baptist Church has apologized for saying that the Koran needs to be flushed on their church sign.

The pastor, who was previously quoted as saying he knew that some people would disagree with it, now says he "meant to affirm and exalt the Bible, not insult Muslims". Frankly, I have no idea how a sign reading "The Koran needs to be flushed" exalts anything. The pastor also claims that he had no idea that Muslims held such reverence for their holy book. Talk about criticizing ideas about which you are ignorant! If he knows so little about the Koran, how can he honestly comment on its worth?

Unfortunately, the pastor and his sign have done their damage to the image of Americans and Christianity worldwide as the store has been covered globally as an example of American values. I hope some stories about just how appalling this kind of statement is to most Americans also makes the news elsewhere, but I fear the damage is done.

Posted by Kevin at 06:01 PM | Permalink

North Carolina is in the national news again today for yet another act of extremism. Three burning crosses were erected in Durham last night - one at an intersection, one at a construction site (mounted on a large pile of dirt), and one on the lawn of St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

St. Luke's was one of several area churches recently targeted by Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas whose members came to Durham to protest a production of The Laramie Project by the Durham School of the Arts. During one of the protests around the city (source):

The demonstrators stood on American flag, saying the red strips represented AIDS-tainted blood. The protesters carried signs declaring that Matthew Shepard was burning in Hell, and Pope John Paul II recently joined him because "he told people that God loves everybody."

A young follower carried a sign reading, "Thank God for September 11th."

Additional information (along with righteous indignation) about that incident can be found over at Daily Kos.

You can learn about Westboro Baptist at their website:

http://www.godhatesfags.com/main/aboutwbc.html

Yes, that REALLY IS their site.

Like most Episcopal churches, St. Luke's is known for being moderate, community-oriented, and inclusive. I fear we're going to see an increase in these forms of hate speech against moderate churches by religious extremists. Fortunately, it is possible to fight back against these hate groups. Durham's churches did a great job of coming together to denounce the Westboro protestors' hate speech. Likewise, locals turned out by a margin of 10 to 1 to support our community. That gives me hope.

Posted by Kevin at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I simply can't imagine where they'd get such an idea...

Thanks, guys! That's really helpful!

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

UPDATE 2005-05-26: The original picture is still available on official website of the U.S. Marines.

UPDATE 2005-05-27: The story has been picked up by some papers and more and more sites. The Marines site has now (thankfully!) yanked the photo. Hopefully they'll get the tank repainted as well rather than just removing the picture.

Posted by Kevin at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A church in the small town of Danieltown, NC (outside of Charlotte) is proving that intolerance and extremism in the name of God is alive and well in North Carolina:

The pastor that put up the sign defended the action:

This is America and we have the freedom of the press, so I have the right to put up this sign.

Maybe he doesn't see the hypocrisy in hiding behind his right to free speech while suggesting the destruction of works with which he disagrees.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations showed a lot more civility and respect in their call for the removal of this piece of hate rhetoric passing itself off as Christianity:

Christians often ask themselves, 'What would Jesus do?"' said the group's spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper. "I don't think Jesus, who is loved by Muslims and mentioned frequently in the Quran, would use such hate-filled and divisive rhetoric.

Hate speech on church signs. What a sorry state of affairs...

Posted by Kevin at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Anyone that attends a traditional, tolerant, open-minded American church can tell you that those centers of spirituality don't bring in the really big bucks even though some do fairly well. Of course, much of what they do bring in is often used for charitable purposes in line with their teachings.

However, the far-right evangelicals are more and more frequently part of Monster Megachurches which exist as much as theme parks as they do churches. It is from these Megachurches that much of the battle to convert our American democracy from a secular government to a theocracy is directed.

I think this article (reprinted from the May 2005 issue of Harper's) should be required reading for anyone concerned about the march of religious intolerance in America. Don't let the length scare you off -- the bottom half the page is actually a comment section.

This is an institution that is more Hollywood than Holy Word: one bent on Holy War, one that named its bookstore the "Arsenal". This is an institution that accused dozens of their neighbors of being witches and then held "prayer vigils" outside their homes until they intimidated them right out of town.

This is what those who seek tolerance - liberty and justice for all - are up against. Huge American madrasas -- operating tax free to tear down the wall between church and state.

Posted by Kevin at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I find I'm writing more and more on the subject of right-wing religious extremists in the U.S. and their attempts to replace our secular separated-church-and-state system with a goverment rooted in their view of Christianity. As such, it seems only fitting that these articles get their own category.

Taking a line used by many other free-thinkers in this young movement determined to protect our free society from evangelical theocrats I'll file articles on this subject under the "American Taliban".

It's time to take back our country as a nation with Liberty and Justice for ALL, not just those that believe the same as ourselves.

Posted by Kevin at 05:48 PM | Permalink

Cheeseburger in Paradise and Uncle John's Band and Sk8ter Boi and I'm a Believer and..

Does life get any better than this?

Posted by Kevin at 09:22 PM | Permalink

People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.

Posted by Kevin at 08:34 PM | Permalink

British MP George Galloway finally said out loud that which has been pretty much buried in reports and underreported by our media: the war in Iraq was started on completely false pretenses. Note that EVERYTHING he said (up to his comment on "crimes that you supported") are substantiated by U.S. reports from the Weapons Inspectors (appointed by the White House), US Intelligence findings and the 9-11 Commission Report.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11, 2001. Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong. And 100,000 people have paid with their lives — 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies, 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever, on a pack of lies. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported.

I assume that by "crimes" he is referring to our invasion of Iraq in light of the fact that a condition of our joining the UN was that we would (like all member states) never invade another sovereign state preemptively.

I'll repeat the facts for anyone that missed it:
NO WMD in Iraq prior to our invasion (the justification for the war)
NO involvement in 9-11 (the people and funding were almost all Saudi)
NO connection to Al Qaeda (bin Laden called for Hussein's removal since Iraq was secular)

Folks, Emperor W has no clothes!

Posted by Kevin at 08:11 PM | Permalink

Are the Democrats blocking an abnormal number of Bush court appointments?

According the New York Times, the Bush and Clinton rates of success in winning appointments breaks down as follows:

So basically Bill Frist wants to go "nuclear" in the Senate and destroy the long-standing parlimentary procedures that let the Senate function in spite of the fact that there is no significant difference in the rate of success appointing judges no matter which side is in power. All this just to get a handful of religious extremists on the bench?

This has got to be one of the most short-sighted, stupid political moves that a senator has managed to make in a long time -- and when you look at the people we have in the Senate that's no small feat!

Posted by Kevin at 06:49 PM | Permalink

I can't wait for the album to come out.

The iTunes Music Store has the video. If you like anime or cyberpunk, you'll love the video. Think of it as a world where Blade Runner meets Castle in the Sky.

Posted by Kevin at 06:36 PM | Permalink

After the recent Revenge of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Kansas, I've been thinking quite a bit about science, evolution, religion, and Intelligent Design.

After some reflection I realized that the real problem with the idea of Intelligent Design as a scientific theory (which is what proponents of Intelligent Design claim it to be) is that there can be no room for God in science.

I'm not claiming there is no room for God, just no room for God in science.

After Copernicus determined that the Earth circles the sun rather than vice-versa, people naturally asked what kept the Earth and the other planets circling. The popular answer was that God's angels pushed them in circles, so basically the answer came down to "God ordered it be done".

Isaac Newton rejected that notion and developed the Theory of Gravity. (Side note: Gravity is a scientific theory, not a fact, just like evolution. See my previous post on Evolution to learn more about the meaning of "theory" in science). Gravity replaced the angels with a natural force.

Therein lies the problem: once you claim that something happens because God wills it to be so, you have closed the door to finding the mechanism. The nature of gravitational attraction was discovered because "God said so" wasn't a good enough answer for Newton.

Intelligent Design poses the same problem for the Theory of Evolution. How and why do beneficial mutations occur in organisms? The current form of the Evolutionary Theory postulates that they occur randomly and that natural selection reinforces beneficial mutations while killing off negative ones. It may well be that this is not true -- perhaps there is underlying chemistry or some intricate interplay between energy flow and entropy that actual drives beneficial evolution. Personally, I do feel that the idea that the mutations are truly random may not suffice to explain the evolution of species. However, once you claim that beneficial mutations occur because God tweaks the process, you are closing off further investigation.

Science works only so long as a supernatural being is not changing the rules while the game is in play. Once you allow room for routine divine intervention in your theories, you can no longer make testable predictions (a cornerstone of scientific inquiry) because God can do whatever God wants.

Back to gravity for a moment: If you assume that objects don't float away from the ground because God doesn't want them to do so, then when you see a helium balloon the only possible explanation is that God wants it to float. You've learned nothing from your new evidence that not everything falls when dropped.

It may be that the Universe is exactly what God wants it to be, but you can't learn anything new if you are willing to say that everything that happens does so simply because God wants it that way.

Science is not a study of God. Science cannot do that by its very nature. Science is not anti-God, though. It just must never use "God's will" as an explanation or the process breaks. Science is the study of the machinery of the Universe, not the why. So, much though it may distress those who wish otherwise, there is no room for God in science.

Posted by Kevin at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are now a THREE guitar family: one Washburn D-10 acoustic, one 3/4-size acoustic belonging to my daughter and now:

my new Candy Apple Red Satin Fender Stratocaster.

It's on the lower end of the Fender line-up, but WOW what a great instrument. Playing on it is so effortless compared to my acoustic. Now, don't get me wrong -- I love my acoustic and hope to spend a good deal of time on it.

This year's birthday ROCKED! Literally...

To Elizabeth, Ariel and my parents: THANK YOU!!!

While I'm on the subject, I want to give a shout out to Musician's Friend. They offer great service and great prices on a great website. They also entertain requests for price matches if you find something elsewhere for less. I heartily recommnend them. In addition to my Strat, I ordered my amp, cable and guitar stand there. Check 'em out...

Posted by Kevin at 05:45 PM | Permalink

There's an interesting article over at AMERICAblog about ABC selectively enforcing their policy on not accepting religious advertising.

Apparently ABC used the aforementioned policy to reject an ad from the United Church of Christ encouraging tolerance in America (you know, that radical notion that gay or straight, we are all human beings?)

What ABC did accept, however, is an ad from Focus on the Family, a group whose mission statement reads:

To cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family.

Hello? Can anyone say "hypocrisy"?

Hey ABC: Pull the plug on Focus on the Family! I'd much rather see UCC pro-tolerance ads than ads from an organization with such a history of intolerance that they include a section of their FAQ entitled "Why can't Focus be more inclusive of gay people?"

I'm pro-family. Focus is pro-fundamenalist. Help stop this kind of right-wing evangelical advertising by writing ABC to let them know these values are unacceptable and inflammatory. I've emailed them to let them know my feelings on the matter. You can click below on the extended entry to see my email to ABC. Please consider doing likewise by writing ABC at netaudr@abc.com.

Email to ABC
To: netaudr@abc.com

I am very disappointed that ABC (whose Lost series is my favorite show) chose to air advertisements on behalf of Focus on the Family, a far-right fundamentalist organization whose own web page includes sections entitled "Why can't Focus be more inclusive of gay people?" as well as one discouraging women from working after having children, and which boycotted Proctor and Gamble for what they refer to as "pro-homosexual activism". All of this information is readily available on the organization's own website (which is where the links in my text will take you).

The mission statement of Focus on the Family succinctly states that Focus is a RELIGIOUS organization:

To cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family.

My understanding was that ABC declined an ad from the United Church of Christ promoting tolerance in recent months because of an ABC policy against running ads from religious groups. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I find an ad from a religious group that openly fights against the idea of a tolerant and open society.

Focus on the Family is not the kind of group from which ABC should accept advertising. While they convey their message with a great deal of skill, the underlying theme that runs throughout the policies and activities of this organization is one of intolerance. I hope that ABC will more completely investigate the nature of this organization before accepting any further advertisements from them.

Sincerely,

Kevin N. Gunn
Carrboro, NC

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Update: More information can be found at Media Matters, including some of the awful stands taken by the Focus on the Family leader (which include the application of nerve pinches on children as a form of corporal punishment). Yeesh, they call it "discipline", I call it child abuse.

Posted by Kevin at 06:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.

Posted by Kevin at 10:10 PM | Permalink

Posted by Kevin at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week we saw it all:

My neighbor gave birth via a home delivery to the newest member of our community.
A friend of the family got married with my daughter acting as flower girl.
We celebrated another neighbor's 55 birthday with champagne on her porch.
My daughter's teacher died. :-(

Ms. Judy Anders was greatly esteemed in our little town. She had been out of school for several weeks recovering from a hospital stay. She loved her students and thought about them to the very end (she had scheduled a balloon delivery for her class that was to happen the morning after she died). She taught an entire generation of our children and will be sorely missed.

Posted by Kevin at 12:29 PM | Permalink

The NY Times has a report on the efforts of Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican chairman on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to remove what he sees as a "liberal bias" in public television.

In the search for a new President for the corporation, Mr. Tomlinson believes he has found the perfect person to provide unbiased leadership for public television free from any taint of politics: Patricia Harrison.

Ms. Harrison is uniquely qualified to provide politically neutral leadership thanks to her work as an assistant secretary of state under the current administration and her previous work history as co-chair of the Republican National Committee. She should also be a good working fit with the board, where only three members currently are not Republican.

I wonder if Fox News will resent the competition?

Posted by Kevin at 06:18 PM | Permalink