Personal Made Public

Faith is a belief for which you have no proof.

It ranges from the simple and highly justifiable (setting the alarm because you believe tomorrow will be just another workday) through the tenuous to the incredible.

In my mind faith becomes fanaticism when you cling to a belief even when the facts overwhelmingly deny what you believe.

That's what makes it very disturbing to me that a recent Gallup poll discovered:

more than half of all Americans, rejecting evolution theory and scientific evidence, agree with the statement, "God created man exactly how Bible describes it."

Are we so fanatical as a society that we reject the entire concept of evolution along with the copious volumes of data that support it simply to maintain a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story? Of course, many of these same people do not view Revelations as literal, but symbolic, but fanatics do get to have it both ways, don't they? If such a big portion of country is made of fanatics, are we destined for a future of sectarian strife such as the Middle East and Ireland have long known?

Maybe all those people aren't fanatics. Maybe they are just so ill-equipped by our education system to rationally appraise competing explanations. Then again, is that much better than a society of fanatics? How can a technological knowledge-based democracy succeed if the citizens can't tell myth from science?

I expect the reality is a bit of both: a mix of fanatics and those unequipped to deal with science, logic and reason.

A person of faith knows that what they believe truly is faith, not knowledge. Most people of faith with an ability for logical reasoning accept evolution as compatible with their faith: it serves as a reminder that the Bible from which they base their faith is not the literal word of God. Knowing that you cannot know is the basis for tolerance.

A fanatic "knows" that which cannot be proven, and can therefore not tolerate the beliefs of others or facts that dispute what they "know". They cannot incorporate new knowledge since they do not have beliefs that grow with time but "facts" that are immutable.

We cannot afford to be a society without reason. We can be a society of faith, but cannot be fanatics. Whether our problem is a lack of education or burgeoning extremism, the Gallup poll shows we live in dangerous times, and it may not be the terrorists that we need to fear the most.

Posted by Kevin at 01:51 PM | Permalink

The best definition of Creationism I've ever seen:

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Creationism

UPDATE: Someone has removed most of the great content. Too bad...

Posted by Kevin at 10:25 AM | Permalink

If you are a Christian and believe that Christianity should be a religion that spreads peace, hope and love rather than intolerance, hate and war, this is the movement for you:

They have a great Flash movie available on their site about their views. This group represents the best in what American Christianity should be and can be. Go get'm guys!

Posted by Kevin at 05:03 PM | Permalink

John Danforth, former Republican senator from Missouri, has an op-ed piece in the NY Times today in which he attempts to remind the American Taliban that you can be a Christian and a moderate, a uniter rather than and divider, and humble rather than arrogant. I particularly love his comments on the political stances he takes due in no small part to his Christianity:

When, on television, we see a person in a persistent vegetative state, one who will never recover, we believe that allowing the natural and merciful end to her ordeal is more loving than imposing government power to keep her hooked up to a feeding tube.

When we see an opportunity to save our neighbors' lives through stem cell research, we believe that it is our duty to pursue that research, and to oppose legislation that would impede us from doing so.

We think that efforts to haul references of God into the public square, into schools and courthouses, are far more apt to divide Americans than to advance faith.

Following a Lord who reached out in compassion to all human beings, we oppose amending the Constitution in a way that would humiliate homosexuals.

What reason does he give as the basis for this? His view of Chrisitianity (and as an Episcopal minister he does know a bit about the subject) is this:

But for us [Moderate Christians], the only absolute standard of behavior is the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find that the Love Commandment takes precedence when it conflicts with laws. We struggle to follow that commandment as we face the realities of everyday living, and we do not agree that our responsibility to live as Christians can be codified by legislators.

Any Fundamentalists out there listening? THIS attitude is Christianity at its very best. This is FUNDAMENTALLY Christian. The "Fundamentalists", meanwhile, look more and more like Fascists. KUDOS to John Danforth for speaking up!

Posted by Kevin at 06:25 PM | Permalink

Here's the kind of quote you here from the neocons in one form or another just about every day now:

The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press -- in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years.

Continue reading "Food for Thought" »

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

Posted by Kevin at 07:22 PM | Permalink

Nice page of quotes. It's a good reminder of what kind of insanity religious extremism creates.

Posted by Kevin at 05:58 PM | Permalink

I knew that the FRC were bad, but in bed with David Duke and white supremacy groups? Ewwwww...

Tony Perkins, the president of the FRC, is featured in this article about an $82,500 payment that Perkins made to David Duke for his mailing list. The campaign organization that Perkins ran at the time was fined $3,000 for attempting to hide the money trail.

This is the guy that Bill Frist was supporting in his recent TV appearance on FRC's "Justice Sunday".

Posted by Kevin at 06:39 PM | Permalink

A judge in Kentucky is giving out a choice of sentences to individuals convicted of misdemeanor drug violations: 10 days in jail or attending 10 worship services.

The judge says that since the choice is up to the individual and he doesn't specify which worship service then his sentencing doesn't violate separation of church and state.

Excuse me? The court system has no business snagging people on misdemeanor charges and then pushing religion on them to "reform" them. I don't think anyone in their right mind can say that 10 hours sitting in a pew (less than half a day) is a sentence equivalent to 10 DAYS behind bars.

Just another right-wing judge re-writing the Constitution from the bench...

Posted by Kevin at 12:08 PM | Permalink

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