Comment

Comment by Chris on April 26, 2012 at 2:17am

This one pisses me off. The entire Faith Based initiative should be eliminated as Obama promised. Maybe in six more years we'll be able to vote for a progressive. As disgusted as I am with Obama, I'm still going to vote for him -(

Taxpayers Funding Employment Discrimination By Religious Groups

Listen to the Catholic Bishops and there’s an all out assault on religious liberty and freedom in this country. But if that’s the case, what’s with all the tax payer dollars going to support organizations that discriminate by hiring only Christians?

Crisis Pregnancy Centers can legally refuse to hire non-Christians if they are privately funded. But in some cases, they do so and  receive federal funds. And as Sophia Resnick reports, these are not isolated incidents.

Thanks to a Bush-era rule, and one that remains in place thanks to the Obama administration, recipients of federal funds can discriminate in hiring staff based on religion in a practice spun by supporters as “co-religionist hiring.” Candidate Obama had promised to do away with that rule but caved after political pressure from evangelical leaders.

Still think President Obama is anti-religion?

The attacks launched against Planned Parenthood and the contraception mandate depend on embracing an idea that taxpayer dollars should not go to support those programs even though funding streams are kept segregating. But crisis pregnancy centers, which offer spiritual counseling are entirely religious and do not segregate funding. And they promote an agenda that is squarely antagonist to democratic principles of equality of opportunity.

So that means that for the time being there is no way to guarantee that taxpayer dollars are not going to fund sectarian religious activity and that the rights of those who receive services from those taxpayer-funded organizations aren’t violated in the process.

Related Story: Crisis Pregnancy Centers Lie In Minnesota Too

Comment by doone on April 25, 2012 at 6:20am

From Epiphenom

Instinctive thinkers more likely to believe in a personal god – and less likely to be atheists

Posted: 24 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Late last year some fascinating research revealed that people who take a more deliberative approach to problem solving – rather than just going with their instincts – are also less religious. Now some independent research not only confirms those findings, but also extends them to show how there is a progressive link thinking style and decreasing religious beliefs.

Comment by doone on April 23, 2012 at 7:41pm

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 23, 2012 at 6:14pm

Heh!

Comment by doone on April 23, 2012 at 5:51pm

You Come Back Later

Apr. 23, 2012

No… no… Mr. Jesus no es here…

Comment by doone on April 23, 2012 at 1:02pm

Scumbag God

Apr. 23, 2012

Comment by doone on April 22, 2012 at 2:07pm

The Non-Believing Clergy

Daniel Dennett sympathizes with them:

There are many paths into this predicament, we find, but a common thread runs through most of them: a certain sort of innocence and a powerful desire, not for social prestige or riches, but rather the desire to lead a good life, to help other people as much as possible. The tragic trap is baited with goodness itself.

Here is how it often works: teenagers glowing with enthusiasm decide to devote their lives to a career of helping others and, looking around in their rather sheltered communities, they see no better, purer option than going into the clergy. When they get to seminary they find themselves being taught things that nobody told them in Sunday school. The more they learn of theology and the history of the composition of the Bible, the less believable they find their creed. Eventually they cease to believe altogether. But, alas, they have already made a substantial commitment in social capital - telling their families and communities about their goals - so the pressure is strong to find an accommodation, or at least to imagine that if they hang in there they will find one. Only a lucky few find either the energy or the right moment to break free.

Comment by Neal on April 22, 2012 at 11:46am

Always good to see a rift develop between the religious, makes them think, albeit only slightly.

Comment by doone on April 22, 2012 at 10:32am

The Vatican vs American Nuns

This week, the Church cracked down on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80% of American nuns. How Barbie Latza Nadeau frames the dispute: 

[Sister Beth Rindler of Detroit, who is part of the National Coalition of American Nuns as well as a member of the LCWR] believes the Vatican is focused on the American sisters because they tend to be more independent than their European, Latin American, and African colleagues. While nuns in the rest of the world still wear conservative habits and head covers, the majority of American nuns stopped the practice shortly after the Second Vatican Council reforms.

Many American nuns also live independently and reach high education levels—all while still serving the church. Rindler says she believes that the hierarchy in Rome is really worried that the American nuns will influence other sisters around the world. “That’s why the men in the Vatican want control, what they see as influence, we see as enlightenment,” she says, adding that some nuns are brainwashed into thinking they are lesser beings than their male counterparts. “What woman truly believes she is not equal to a man?”

I don't think the bishops will either ever forgive the nuns for backing universal healthcare as the highest priority rather than the control of women's contraception. Their witness to a balanced and sane Christianity put the cramped authoritarianism of Dolan et al in an unflattering light, and Dolan takes his orders from Rome. An example of the nuns' alleged "doctrinal problems":

Read On »

Comment by Michel on April 21, 2012 at 10:48am

I had forgotten about Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

Woman is the creation of man - how's that for denial of reality =)

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