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by Pam Spaulding

Now this is what I’m talking about when it comes to the crazies on the right—the fire-breathing man of manufactured tears, Glenn Beck, telling people what they need to do about their church-going habits.

On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”

So all those ministers and priests that marched for equal rights for blacks back in the day were Nazis? WTF? I know Glenn thinks his sheeple are dim, but damn, he’s lowering the bar WAY down. Politics Daily has the audio.

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In a double-dip of insanity from the land of Beck, here is one of his advertisers, Survival Seed Bank, hawking “survival seeds” as a defense against “emerging totalitarianism.” (Protect your keyboards) Media Matters:

There’s nothing wrong with a business that serves some kind of demand in the marketplace, but it goes without saying that fearmongering about economic collapse followed by food shortages and citing World Net Daily for “strong evidence” is big time black helicopter stuff.

by Pam Spaulding

"As Roman Catholics, we differentiate between sacramental marriage and civil marriage. Therefore, we perceive that same-sex civil marriage poses no threat to our Church. While we respect the authority and integrity of the Church in matters of faith, our prayers and discernment have brought us to a new openness on this issue. We do not ask the Church to perform same-sex marriages. We do implore the Church to honor the States’ prerogative to authorize civil marriages for our gay and lesbian family and friends."

-- From the declaration of Catholics for Marriage Equality

This is exactly the messaging that is needed to counteract the hateful, bigoted and ignorant behavior of the leadership of the Catholic Church, which has taken a hardline stance that is arguably more damaging to the civil rights of LGBTs than the Mormon Church (there are 5.5 million in the U.S.).

With 70 million Catholics in the U.S. (representing 24% of the overall US population), and still-full coffers despite millions, if not upwards of a billion dollars in payouts as a result of its criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise, the Church has forged partnerships with fundamentalist churches and anti-gay causes.

There has not been an equally massive organized pro-LGBT Catholic opposition to the messaging and actions of Benedict’s machine, but Catholics for Marriage Equality (C4ME) has launched a web site that hopes to bring faithful members of the flock together to challenge the incessant conflation of church and state that has been used to abandon the Church's long record social justice when it comes to the rights LGBT Americans.

It’s time to dispel the notion the incessant bigotry being brazenly perpetrated by church hierarchy goes unchallenged by others in the flock. 

The Catholics for Marriage Equality Declaration

As faithful Roman Catholics we believe that the constitutional right to practice freedom of religion is based on respect for the dignity of each individual.

 

• The American principle of the separation of Church and State was enshrined in the Constitution to ensure that no particular religious perspective would be imposed on our pluralistic society.
• Catholic teaching on social justice has been central to the building of a just society, creating awareness of diversity in the human family, calling us to lives of respect, not simply tolerance, for one another.
• We remember that Roman Catholics were once denied civil rights, treated with suspicion, ridiculed because of our sacred rituals, and questioned as to our allegiance to “foreign authorities.” Memory challenges us to remain vigilant whenever bigotry and injustice enters into public discourse.
• Same-sex civil marriage does not in any way coerce any religious faith or tradition to change its beliefs or doctrine or alter its traditional marriage practices.

 

We know that God is a most gracious and wonderful Creator. Many of us have gay and lesbian relatives and friends.

As Roman Catholics, we differentiate between sacramental marriage and civil marriage.

 

Roman Catholics on board can sign on here.

by Pam Spaulding

“No person shall be admitted as a student in any Catholic school unless that person and his/her parent(s) subscribe to the school’s philosophy and agree to abide by the educational policies and regulations of the school and Archdiocese.  Homosexual couples living together as a couple are in disaccord with Catholic teaching… “Parents living in open discord with Catholic teaching in areas of faith and morals unfortunately choose by their actions to disqualify their children from enrollment.”
-- statements made by the Archdiocese of Denver. Archdiocese spokeswoman Jeanette R. De Melo didn’t return calls or e-mails inquiring whether students whose parents are divorced, non-Catholic or used fertility medication also are not allowed to attend the preschool.

And the church and school, Sacred Heart of Jesus preschool in Boulder, have the constitutional right to do this—they have the religious freedom to discriminate against an innocent child. Parents are outraged and starting a petition against this decision.

“I grew up Catholic in a strong Catholic family with six kids, and I’m just deeply, deeply disappointed by the decision of Sacred Heart,” she said.

Another protestor said she believes barring the student goes against the teachings of the Bible.

“I have a daughter that goes to school at Sacred Heart,” Colleen Scanlan Lyons said. “I’ve had 16 years of Catholic education, and this just reached the core of my being as completely wrong and against the teachings of Jesus.”

Some parents are considering taking a full-page ad out in a local paper to blast the Archdiocese’s decision. Others say they might pull their kids from Sacred Heart school.

Inside the church, Father Bill Breslin explained his decision to his congregation. While he didn’t want to speak to reporters, he encouraged people to visit his blog to learn about why he decided bar the student.

On his blog, Breslin said, “This past week we implemented a policy that has been the most difficult decision of my life.” Breslin also said he “chose to protect the faith over doing what would have looked like the loving thing to do.”

GLAAD has called on the national media to shine a light on the Diocese’s decision and Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“These actions by the Denver Archdiocese harm the student by taking the child away from friends, teachers and community,” said Jarrett Barrios, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). “It’s deeply troubling to see any school remove a child from their educational program simply as the means of rejecting that child’s parents.”

GLAAD is in close contact with local advocates who are on the ground in Boulder working to help community members organize around this situation. GLAAD will also continue to conduct outreach to local and national media to spotlight this story and raise awareness of the harms faced by LGBT families.

“[Friday] night, in conjunction with Wesley Chapel, Boulder Pride held a community forum about the situation, to provide people a space to talk about their feelings and plan action going forward. We have heard loud and clear from the LGBTQ community, as well as from allies, that this situation has stirred feelings of anger, pain and frustration,” wrote Boulder Pride’s Board President, Dave Ensign and Executive Director, AicilaLewis. “While this situation has been incredibly difficult and reminded us all of vital work that remains to be done, it also has highlighted our strengths as a community. We are grateful to live in Boulder County with engaged, passionate community members like you.”

As Boulder community leaders continue to help constituents deal with the hurt caused by this decision, GLAAD calls on the nation’s media to elevate the story to larger platforms and show the American public the concrete harms facing the children of gay and lesbian parents across the country. “The media has a responsibility to spotlight how this type of exclusion damages families and creates roadblocks to children’s future achievements,” said Barrios.

A student came to ask me if he can miss a week of classes because he is going to the beach. But not to have fun (which I would have totally understood and encouraged even in this very weak student). Rather, he is going to "approach people on the beach to talk to them about God." Of course, I let him go and allowed him to write a midterm we will have that week after he comes back from his missionary activities. Far be it from me to prevent students from doing whatever it is they feel they need to do at any given moment in their lives.

Still, I had to wonder, what makes young, energetic, fairly intelligent people want to participate in this kind of activity? Why would they go to the beach not to swim, play, flirt, sunbathe, dance, and drink, but to bother people with religious conversations? I'm going for my spring break to the same area where this student will be proselytizing and I cannot imagine how annoying it will be to be approached by somebody who wants to discuss God in such an inappropriate setting. What is it that these young missionaries are getting from bothering unsuspecting sunbathers and making themselves look ridiculous?

I hope nobody tries to convert me to any religion while I'm on the beach. I think I'll take my Star of David with me to protect myself from unwanted proselytization efforts.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.

With these words Karl Marx condemned religion for making the class-disadvantaged masses complacent in the face of injustice. New data from the Pew Forum, sent in by Dmitriy T.M. and Allie B., suggests that this may be true for some religions more than others!

Visual at GOOD, shown here in three parts:

Allie was actually quite troubled by this figure, arguing that it affirmed stereotypes that Jews controlled all the money and encouraged people of different religions to see each other as competition.

Indeed, how we choose to present data is always a political decision.   Why correlate religion with income at all?  Maybe religion is somewhat spurious, compared to variables like geographic location, race, or immigration status.  That is, it may be that income correlates with geography, race, and immigration status and those variables correlate with religion.

It’s pretty tricky to figure these things out (and that’s why we force sociology graduate students to learn fancy statistical methods), but in the end we still can’t attribute causality, just correlation.  Figuring out why and how things correlate requires qualitative of research.

(View original at http://contexts.org/socimages)

by Pam Spaulding

So will Papa Ratzi turn a blind eye to one of his boyz pimping and man ho’ ing around? Is there any other less-than-holy behavior this criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise hasn’t engaged in as it piously hatemongers against LGBTs? (Gay News Watch):

Police wiretaps are expected to result in charges against Angelo Balducci, 63, a Papal Gentleman, as lay attendant are called, and the former chairman of the Holy See’s Public Works Department, which is itself caught up in a corruption investigation.

According to police, Balducci regularly contacted Chinedu Ehiem Thomas, a Nigerian man who sings in St. Peter’s Cappella Giulia, to engage the sexual services of young male members of the choir, along with seminarians and undocumented immigrants seeking residency status.

The scandal now envelops Balducci, a well-known and powerful local figure who is married with two children, who despite all this is said to have taken remarkable risks in setting up sexual liaisons even in Chigi Palace, home of the Italian prime minister, or immediately after a private audience with a cardinal.

In 72 pages of transcribed wiretaps, Ehiem tells Balducci about one possible candidate:  “Angelo ... I’ll say no more. Two meters (6-foot-7), 97 kilos (250 lbs.), 33 years-old and completely active (top).”

In one wiretap from last December, Renzi is heard explaining the rules of engagement: ”You’ll get up to 2,000 euros ... Do not touch his balls. You need the money. Put on some music, take out the [inaudible], swallow the Viagra, and adelante!”

And how about the treatment of immigrants? Wonder what promises Baldacci sold them about residency so he could turn them out. Wow. Just. Wow.

Asra Q. Nomani, a feminist who fights for the rights of Muslim women, reports at The Daily Beast on a protest to allow women to pray in a Washington, DC mosque without being segregated to a partitioned area in the back:

Shortly after noon on a recent Saturday, Fatima Thompson, a Muslim convert, and three other women prayed in the men's section of the lavishly decorated Islamic Center of Washington, in a moment akin to Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat.

A bearded, middle-aged man scolded one of the women. "Sister, go there!" he said, pointing to a back corner, dubbed the "penalty box" by one disgruntled woman. The seven-foot wooden barrier separated the men and women's sections in a visual metaphor of gender apartheid. She ignored him...

The women's prayer was a "Stand In," a civil-rights protest against gender segregation in mosques, inspired by Black History Month.

Read the full article by clicking here.

The Supreme Court yesterday chose not to block DC's gay marriage law. This means same sex couples should be able to apply for marriage licenses in the nation's capital today.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which threatened to abandon their contracts for providing social services in DC if gay marriage became law, has already ended its foster care program. And starting yesterday Catholic Charities no longer provides benefits to spouses of new employees or those who are not currently enrolled in a health care plan. Because opposing gay marriage is way more important than the health care of employee's families.

These moves are despicable. And attempts by the Archdiocese to blame the new same sex marriage law are ridiculous. The law didn't force the Archdiocese to abandon children in foster care or screw over their employee's families. The blame sits squarely on the shoulders of church leadership that's decided to prioritize a commitment to discrimination over valuable social services work.

The church faced two options with the approval of the new law, said Robert Tuttle, a George Washington University professor who studies the relationship between church and state. One choice was to expand the definition of domestic partner, as the Archdiocese in San Francisco did years ago, to include a parent, sibling or someone else in the household.

The second choice was to do what the Washington Archdiocese has done: eliminate benefits for all spouses.

Or, you know, stop with their obsessive homophobia.

Congratulations to those who will soon be able to get legally married, and shame on the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.

Tomorrow (March 3) is another historic day for same-sex marriage. Unless something drastic happens, it will be the day that the Washington, D.C., law allowing same-sex marriage goes into effect. Many marriage applications are expected.

That means that the Catholic Church has lost its battle to prevent the law from going into effect. As Emily wrote in November, the church had gone on attack against the bill by threatening to cut off services that it offers in D.C., That would mean that services would be removed for thousands of homeless or low-income people, even though the bill would not require any religious organization to perform or assist with any same-sex marriages. The reason that the church made that threat was because, if the law went into effect, it would not be allowed to discriminate against the people employed by the group (Catholic Charities) that provides the services. Its stance was that it could not agree to provide employment benefits to employees who were involved in same-sex relationships because that would go against the beliefs of the church.  (Of course, it would seem unlikely that the church would employ any open lesbians or gays.)

Well, now that the threat didn’t work, the church has had to make a decision on what it should do.  One possibility, of course, would be to continue to provide services and offer employment benefits to any of its employees who are in same-sex relationships.   But, no, the church is not going to take that approach.

Instead, it has decided to continue to offer services (good!), but will not provide any spousal benefits to any new employees it hires (whether straight, lesbian or gay) or to current employees who are not already enrolled in its health plan.  That is truly unbelievable, but, of course, there are many truly unbelievable things that the church does (see this and this for examples).

by Pam Spaulding

Let’s start with the good news before going right to the crazy.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP has named Van Jones as a recipient of the civil rights organization’s highest NAACP Image Award for 2010—The President’s Award.

Van Jones is an American treasure.

He is quite simply one of the few Americans in recent years to have generated powerful new ideas that are creating more jobs here.
He wrote the national bestseller, “The Green Collar Economy,” which provided the definitive blueprint for retooling American industry to create pathways out of poverty and generate a national economic recovery. He was a driving force behind passage of the 2007 Green Jobs Act. In fact, Van’s ideas have helped lead to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs across the industrial Midwest and throughout the nation’s decaying urban and rural areas.

Van Jones also may be the most misunderstood man in America.

He resigned from the White House last year after some sought to discredit him for missteps, such as political statements made years ago. However, we can never afford to forget that a defining trait of our country is our collective capacity to practice forgiveness and celebrate redemption. This is a nation built on second chances.

His appointment as President Obama’s “green jobs” czar occurred early on—and his tenure experienced a death by a thousand right wing cuts and resigned/was tossed under the bus (you make the call), for a controversial past. The smear machine worked.

Jones, who joined the administration in March as special adviser for green jobs at the CEQ, had issued two public apologies in recent days, one for signing a petition in 2004 from the group 911Truth.org that questioned whether Bush administration officials “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war” and the other for using a crude term to describe Republicans in a speech he gave before joining the administration.

His one-time involvement with the Bay Area radical group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which had Marxist roots, had also become an issue. And on Saturday his advocacy on behalf of death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of shooting a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, threatened to develop into a fresh point of controversy.

But what has earned Jones the NAACP President’s Award is is present contributions to society, not what he has already apologized for in the past:

Through Green for All, and others organizations, Van Jones continues to work for an American economy that can thrive again—a nation whose prosperity reaches beyond Wall Street to Main Street and back streets. A country where jobs in installation, manufacturing and construction flourish again—to upgrade our homes to conserve energy, create solar panels, build electric cars, and manufacture wind turbines and smart batteries.

Furthermore, Van is working to make sure that our country does not lose out to India, China or Germany in the green industrial race. His vision gives us a fighting chance to reclaim something we lost years ago, back when steel was king. In those days, blue-collar workers could support their families with their wages, and our nation was not the world’s leading debtor. Van’s vision, in short, is a vision for America restored to its place as the definitive world economic leader.

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With that in mind, it was interesting to see this tripe land in my inbox from Coral Ridge Ministries pimping its outlandish TV show that includes Van Jones in a less-than-celebratory, fact-based manner.  Unleash the crazy below the fold…

Radical Nature of Obama’s White House “Czars” Exposed in Nationwide TV Special to Air Sun., Feb. 28

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (February 23, 2010)

Obama’s appointees are “bent on socialist policies; there’s really no other way to describe it,” stated Robert Knight, Coral Ridge Ministries’ Washington, D.C., Correspondent and author of the explosive new book, Radical Rulers: The White House Elites Who Are Pushing America Toward Socialism.

The roster of White House radicals profiled on the TV special include:

* Carol Browner, the President’s “Climate change czar,” found to be a member of the Socialist International.

* Van Jones, formerly the President’s “Green Jobs Czar,” responsible for finding ways people could be employed through alternative energy development. Jones resigned after revelations that he was a self-avowed Communist.

* Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, appointed “Safe Schools Czar” in the Department of Education. Jennings advocates a radical homosexual agenda that includes instructing public school students to accept homosexuality.

“Barack Obama has surrounded himself with probably the most radical group of advisors of any previous administration in American history,” said Dr. Gary Cass, President of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, on the broadcast.

The TV special looks at other radicals commissioned by the current administration to bring “change” to America—individuals like Chai Feldblum, a law professor, lesbian activist, and advocate of polygamous marriage, nominated to serve as an Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner.

Feldblum announced at a 2004 seminar a “strategic plan” to bring about the gay agenda in the workplace this way: “It requires the statement that ‘gay sex is morally good.’… The idea is we want to change the American workplace and we want to revolutionize social norms.”

“The real disaster with President Obama is the fact that the public has absolutely no say- so in what’s happening [with appointees]. This is completely unprecedented,” said Janice Shaw Crouse, executive director of The Beverly LaHaye Institute and a guest on the TV special. Obama’s czars “require no Senate confirmation, and nobody knows who is being appointed. They are appointed under the radar.”

Program host Dr. Jerry Newcombe asks Knight on the broadcast if he believed Americans had any idea about Obama’s radical agenda, now evident in the nature of his appointees.

“Surveys show that Americans have changed their views of Obama,” Knight said. “The people who once believed that he was a centrist, a moderate, a bargainer who could bring parties together, now believe that he’s a divisive, leftist, big government, big spending President, and they don’t like what he’s doing.”

Knight’s brand new book, Radical Rulers, is available at http://www.radicalrulers.org.

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Coral Ridge Ministries is a Christian media outreach founded by the late Dr. D. James Kennedy. Its programming reaches a national television, radio, and Internet audience at