Real Christians Are Not Bigots

May 11, 2012 by Leave a comment

If any Christian churches in Albuquerque or Santa Fe want to put up a billboard something like this one by a church in San Diego (maybe excluding the odd “Christianity for All” coda, as my friend Kevin points out), I will make a contribution to make it happen. I encourage my friends, Christian or not, in other states, to make the same offer.
 There are lots of bigots who clothe their bigotry in Christian  makeup. I know many Christians, and hardly a one of them is bigoted. It seems the only ones we hear about on TV or in the news are of the gay-bashing, Koran-burning, funeral-desecrating variety. If there is a war on Christianity, it is this: that the most despicable people who self-identify as Christians are the only ones who get media attention. Fred Phelps has a church that consists almost exclusively of members of his own family. The Koran burner has a church of, I think, 12 members. They get all the media attention they want.
What about the nuns Nicholas Kristof wrote about this week, or the missionaries he’s written about before, who do some of the most caring work in the most dangerous circumstances? What about the Protest Chaplains who have offered counsel during the Occupations in Boston and New York City? Well, they don’t spend a lot of time on PR. Phelps, et al, are mean-spirited attention addicts. The media gives it to them.
It’s time to remember that Christians have founded hospitals, that Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Reverend Ralph Abernathy were  Christians. That Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Christian. They set the standards. Let’s dust them off and shine them up again. The Christians I know should be proud of who they are and the communities they have made and strengthened. They are not bigots. They are not pro-ignorance, anti-science. Those who are Republicans are not the caricature of Republicans that the Tea Partiers have made of the party – a caricature that my father, a lifelong Republican, would never recognize. The Christians I know are more concerned with being a light and a comfort in the world than they are with being a power in the world.
I will go a step further than my original offer. I am going to seek out churches that feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the outcasts, here in Santa Fe and in Albuquerque. I’m going to suggest that they, perhaps in concert with other churches (and perhaps also synagogues and mosques and temples) they know, put up a billboard like the one above, and I will promise to raise some of the funds to make that happen. Again, I encourage you to do the same in your home towns.

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President Obama Endorses Same Sex Marriage

May 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

President Obama, by endorsing same sex marriage today, spanks North Carolina the day after a large majority of its voters limited its own citizens’ civil rights.

Will the DNC follow Obama’s lead and move the Dem Convention out of Charlotte? Would they hold their convention there if NC had just voted to reinforce segregation?

The last time Dems had their convention in Charlotte, in 1860, they nominated Stephen Douglas. Who ran against Abraham Lincoln. We know how that worked out.

Democrats: Endorse Love, and Leave Charlotte. If you want to share that sentiment with the party, there is a petition here.

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Finally, A Tiny Speck Of Justice: Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena Charged In Baby-Stealing Operation, Refuses To Testify

April 16, 2012 by Leave a comment

In a small news story, the Huffington Post reports on the case involving some 300,000 stolen babies. This is big news in other countries, but here in the US, it’s not exactly front page news.

MADRID — An 80-year-old Spanish nun has refused to testify at a court hearing about her alleged involvement in the stealing of newborn babies from their parents and selling them to other families.

Spanish police have investigated hundreds of cases amid allegations of baby trafficking dating from the years after Spain’s 1936-39 civil war and supposedly a few even in the mid-1990s.

Authorities were alerted by an association of people searching for lost relatives. The group alleges the scheme involved a nationwide network, including doctors, nurses, midwives, nuns and intermediaries. Mothers were told their babies had been stillborn.

Sister Maria Gomez is the only person subpoenaed so far. She appeared in court Thursday and told the judge she would exercise her right to remain silent.

Reuters reports that Sister Maria Gomez is charged with “illegal detention and falsifying documents.”

According to Newser, one mother of a stolen infant alleges that Sister Maria Gomez also threatened to steal her other child.

Spanish nun Maria Gomez Valbuena (C) leaves a court in Madrid on April 12, 2012, after refusing to testify before the judge for her alleged involvement in a case of stolen children. (PEDRO ARMESTRE/AFP/Getty Images)

“Stop asking me [where the baby is] or else I will also take away your other daughter and you will go to jail for adultery,” the mother claims Sister Maria Gomez said.

The BBC explains that thousands of babies are thought to have been stolen under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship with the aim of removing children from their “undesirable” left-wing parents and placing them under the care of “approved” right-wing families.

via Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena Charged In Baby-Stealing Operation.

We’re talking about a baby-stealing operation that continued into the 90′s. Priests, nuns and doctors were involved. One nun has been found to have over a million dollars in her bank account.

The people running the operation told the parents their baby was dead, that they couldn’t see the body, and sold the baby to paying customers. They then falsified all the documents.

I find these crimes so heinous, so offensive and reprehensible, that for the life of me I cannot fathom why it is not front page news around the globe.

300,000 children. It will be hard to follow the trail, since all the facts have been covered up, but just imagine what it would be like to find out you had been one of these babies. You were stolen from your mother and sold to the people you thought were your parents. The people you know as your parents bought you from a baby stealing operation.

In the case of single mothers, that would make at least 600,000 people whose lives have been forever altered beyond belief. If you include the parents who bought the children – who may not have known they were complicit – that would make around 1,200,000 people affected. And once again, the horror is laid at the feet of the Catholic church.

Will the church demand justice for the victims? Will the vast wealth and resources of the Catholic hierarchy be used to help those harmed, bring families back together, and see that justice be done to all those responsible? Not bloody likely. The pattern they have followed for hundreds and hundreds of years is to cover up, to deny, and to protect the wealth and power of the church at all costs.  And it costs the victims of their crimes most.

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Limbaugh Is Just Batting Practice: State Legislatures Are Ground Zero For Women’s Rights

March 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

The least of women’s worries in 2012 is Rush Limbaugh calling them names.

Women are waking up and preparing to rise up all across the country, thanks to Mr. Limbaugh and to state legislatures passing laws restricting women’s rights at an unprecedented speed and level.

We thought all was well so long as Roe v. Wade was not overturned. We are like a woman leaning on her cane and not noticing that the ground has been eroded: as she goes over the cliff, she swears that her cane was fine just a moment ago. It’s not the cane that let her down. A woman can still choose to have an abortion – but good luck finding someone qualified to do it. Nationwide, 88% of counties have no abortion service provider. Fewer than half of ob-gyn residency programs offer training in the procedures required for a first trimester abortion.

Opponents of abortion have drawn the line against contraceptives and sex education – the very things most effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies and abortions. You may have just begun to hear about this, but it is not new.

Eleven states have given doctors and pharmacists – who may not know the patient or her situation – veto power over women’s health care decisions, because state legislatures value the moral and religious considerations of doctors and pharmacists over those of every woman.  National and state legislatures want to give employers, who know nothing about medicine, the same veto power. Who gets it next – the local police? Your dry cleaner?

It’s hard to keep track of all the fronts of this war on women. Personhood bills give a fertilized egg the full rights of personhood from the moment of conception, effectively making hormonal contraception and abortion illegal. Transvaginal ultrasound bills require a doctor, against medical advice, if necessary, to insert an instrument into a woman’s vagina, with or without her consent – an action that in every other circumstance would be considered rape. A bill just passed by the Senate in Arizona protects doctors who withhold information from a pregnant woman if that information might be used to justify a decision to abort the pregnancy – even if the situation threatens the life of the woman or her fetus.

The weapons of misogyny are not restricted to Limbaugh and legislatures.

• In 2010 alone, 19,000 sexual assaults were perpetrated in the military – to which newscaster Liz Trotta said, “What did they expect?”
• In 2012, women earn only 77% of what men earn for the same work.
• In 2011, only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs.
• In 2012, women comprise only 17% of the members of the US Congress and, on average, only 26% of state legislatures.

And on and on.

We are the daughters (and sons) of Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth, Gloria Steinem and Susan Faludi. We must do as they did: we must speak out in public, we must march, and we must be prepared to fight to reclaim the rights that women inherited from their struggles.
There will be a march, a first step in reclaiming the inalienable rights of women, on April 28. It will take place in every state capital in the country. Join us, and tell your friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, and pro-woman men to join us, too.

Whom did they choose to mace? The Woman, of course.

Understand that there will be resistance. This is why it must be a movement of all of us, not just a few. Sojourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony may have been the leading lights of their time, but they were backed up by thousands of others. If you think the authorities are not threatened by women when they assemble, look at the abuse riot police in Virginia recently gave to peaceful women who protested the transvaginal ultrasound bill there. Women have power; it’s been much too long since they unsheathed it.

Finally, consider this: resistance to women’s rights has always been a problem at the state level. When Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment in 1920, it gave women across the land the right to vote. Do you know how long it took other states to ratify?

Georgia (23.7), North (22.4) and South Carolina (9.4) and Louisiana (16) did not ratify it until the 1970’s. And Mississippi (14.9) did not ratify it until 1984. The numbers in parentheses are the percentages of women in the legislatures of those states in 2011.

The march is just the beginning. Women must be better represented in legislatures throughout the country. Run for office, or press other qualified women to do so. Run, or prepare to be run over, again and again.

We still have some choices in America. But the most fundamental one in 2012 is this: do we take over, or do we take cover? Our freedom and dignity depends on each other’s answer.

[See also my article, Will Women Rise Up in 2012?]

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Apparently, In Arizona, They Will Gladly Take Your Baby When They Pry It From Your Dead, Cold Hands

March 9, 2012 by Leave a comment

Let’s call it what it really is: the “Let The Woman Die” Bill.

It’s called a “wrongful birth” bill and it’s all about preventing women from having an abortion, even if it kills them. The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that gives doctors a free pass to not inform pregnant women of prenatal problems because such information could lead to an abortion.

In other words, doctors can intentionally keep critical health information from pregnant women and can’t be sued for it. According to the Arizona Capitol Times, “the bill’s sponsor is Republican Nancy Barto of Phoenix. She says allowing the medical malpractice lawsuits endorses the idea that if a child is born with a disability, someone is to blame.” So Republicans are banning lawsuits against doctors who keep information from pregnant women so as to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion.

This bill is actually more disturbing than the Republicans seem to realize. Giving doctors such a free pass risks the lives of both the expectant mother and the fetus she carries. Prenatal care isn’t just for discovering birth defects and disabilities. It is also for discovering life threatening issues such as an ectopic pregnancy which often requires an abortion to save the life of the mother. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable anyway, but Republicans are allowing anti-abortion doctors to keep life threatening information from pregnant women all because they are obsessed with stopping any and all abortions. Women may not know they have a life threatening condition until they die on the emergency room table. And the doctor couldn’t be sued.

This is an egregious bill that will lead to higher mortality rates for infants and mothers. Doctors should be held accountable for not disclosing information learned from prenatal examinations. Pregnant women have the right to know if their future child is going to have a disability or if the pregnancy may require an induced abortion to save their lives. Any decision that is made as a result of the information is the mothers own. Doctors should not be allowed to make decisions for pregnant women as a way to prevent abortions. Women have the right to make their own health decisions and hiding critical information is irresponsible, unconscionable, and risks lives. In the end, Republicans are only putting more lives in jeopardy. They might as well call this the ‘let women die’ bill.

via Arizona Senate Passes Bill Allowing Doctors To Not Inform Women Of Prenatal Issues To Prevent Abortions | Addicting Info.

I’m thrilled to see the outcry over the hatred towards women that these politicians and their supporters are trying to make into law. I also think there should be more outrage, a lot more; I’m surprised women aren’t rioting in the streets. Yet the more calculating side of me is glad that the furor hasn’t reached the point where the Christian Right realizes they’ll lose – and waits till after the election to properly finish fucking over the women in America. Vote Santorum in the your primary to expose the war on women for what it is.

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Taking Down Mother Teresa

March 8, 2012 by 1 Comment

I recently saw this article linked on Facebook. It calls Mother Teresa a fraud, opening with this passage by one of my favorite authors, Christopher Hitchens.

“[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.”

Sorry, all, and especially you, Hitch, but I don’t buy it. Were some of her beliefs and practices wrong, to the best of our knowledge? Sure. Her aversion to contraceptives, for example. As an agnostic – and former Catholic AND fundamentalist – I obviously don’t share her metaphysics. But give me a big break. People hold differing beliefs that inform their policy stances all the time, and they sometimes turn out wrong. Remember when environmentalists opposed prescribed burns in forests? Give her credit for holding the hands of poor and sick people and living her life among them. I’ve read and enjoyed God Is Not Great: I love a good diatribe. But Mother Teresa gave people in extremis great comfort in language they understood, and the author of this article wants to criticize her for what she didn’t do, or because she didn’t do it the way he or she would have?

When my mother was dying three years ago, she had one very bad night, moaning and writhing in her bed. She was painfully thin, and her body and mind were shutting down. It was torture to watch and not be able to do anything. I recited the Hail Mary to her, and she grasped that like a drowning person grabs a rope, or at least what appears to be a rope, and cried out, “Help, Mary!” We provided her with painkillers and hospice care, but at that moment what she needed was, apparently, someone to sing her the lyrics of the song she needed to remember, to throw her a lifeline she recognized.

Mother Teresa was human, and made mistakes. Duh. We do, too. Duh. (What am I? Ten?) But if the best thing we have to do with our time is to take pot shots at a woman whose life was given to comforting the poor and dying in the way that she believed would best help, then we need to pick up some new hobbies.

Filed under belief, inspiration, irreligion, religion Tagged with ,

Santorum: Separation Of Church And State ‘Makes Me Want To Throw Up’

February 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’m starting to really enjoy watching political batting practice with Rick Santorum these days. No matter what pitch they think he’ll lay off on, Rick just keeps swinging for the fences. So if you were expecting him to try to give a good safe political answer on the separation of church and state question on Sunday, you watched him drive another soft pitch deep into the the Christian rights’ bleachers.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute,” he told ‘This Week‘ host George Stephanopoulos. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country…to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up.”

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he “almost threw up” after reading JFK’s 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.

Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was “not the founders’ vision.”

via Santorum: Separation Of Church And State ‘Makes Me Want To Throw Up’.

Well, gee, Rick, you know what makes me want to throw up?

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Will Women Rise Up In 2012?

February 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

INRX Pharmacy

The barbarians are not at the gate: they are inside, raping and pillaging, and it’s the women who need to put a stop to it.

According to Emerge America, the US ranks 84th in the world for women in elected office. We lag behind Mexico, China, and Pakistan – and 80 others.

Women make up only 17% of office holders in the US Congress.

Those numbers are responsible, at least in part, for the following numbers.

Women have the right to choose whether or not to have abortions in the US, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Or do they?

According to the National Abortion Federation, 88% of counties in the US have no identifiable abortion service provider. If you live outside a major metropolitan area, good luck – 97% of counties have no identifiable abortion service provider.

One number I don’t have but would like to have: what is the average distance a woman outside a major metropolitan area would have to travel in order to obtain abortion services?

According to the Guttmacher Institute,

11 states require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services.

20 states regulate the provision of ultrasound by abortion provider

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 11 states have laws on the books that permit doctors or pharmacists to refuse to provide contraceptive or other services on moral or religious grounds without fear of being sued. This is not just abortion. This is contraception, including emergency contraception. It may be legal, you may choose to use it – and some guy in a lab coat may legally deny it to you.

You think you have choice? It depends on how far you are prepared to travel, and who is on duty when you get there.

If you know women who would make good office holders in a local, state, or national level, send them this article and put them in touch with Emerge America. They train women to run for office. They currently have affiliates in only 9 states. My guess is that you could travel from one of the other 41 states for a training elsewhere. (Women have to do a LOT of traveling to get things done in America. That needs to change, too.) 40% of their workshop graduates are women of color. 60% of graduates who have run for office after one of Emerge America’s workshops have won their elections. You could also check out the resources at Emily’s List, to see if they have trainings closer to home.

We need more women like Elizabeth Warren and Gabrielle Giffords to counteract the Santorums and Gingriches and Issas of our country.

It’s time for women to either Take Over, or Take Cover. This year. This election. Enough is Enough.

"The state legislature did WHAT?"

Alex Kingston, in Warrior Queen.

UPDATE:

There will be marches on April 28, on DC and, more importantly, to state capitols all across the country, where most of the inroads against women’s freedoms have been made. You can find details about the state and national marches here.

But please, be advised: no march will make the difference that needs to be made. They make an important statement, and are a rallying battle cry, no doubt. But Women Must Run For Office. There are other ways to be take up arms, too. Go to med, nursing, pharmaceutical or law school, and determine to provide the services women need, whether mandated or permitted or not. Elect pro-woman men to office, if no women are ready for a particular election. Most of all: improvise. Women are great creative thinkers and multi-taskers. Last thing you need is for me, or any man, to tell you how to run your revolt. But count me in!

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Apparently, it IS natural, Mr. Santorum: Over 1,500 Animal Species Practice Homosexuality

February 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

Rick Santorum has been widely quoted as saying that homosexuality is “against nature”. In fact, he has said that any sex act that doesn’t involve procreation is against nature. Once again, science begs to differ:

Homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, especially among herding animals. Many animals solve conflicts by practicing same gender sex.

The Norwegian Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo is hosting the first exhibition that focuses on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

“One fundamental premise in social debates has been that homosexuality is unnatural. This premise is wrong. Homosexuality is both common and highly essential in the lives of a number of species,” explains Petter Boeckman, who is the academic advisor for the “Against Nature‘s Order?” exhibition.

The most well-known homosexual animal is the dwarf chimpanzee, one of humanity’s closes relatives. The entire species is bisexual. Sex plays an conspicuous role in all their activities and takes the focus away from violence, which is the most typical method of solving conflicts among primates and many other animals.

“Sex among dwarf chimpanzees is in fact the business of the whole family, and the cute little ones often lend a helping hand when they engage in oral sex with each other.”

Lions are also homosexual. Male lions often band together with their brothers to lead the pride. To ensure loyalty, they strengthen the bonds by often having sex with each other.

Homosexuality is also quite common among dolphins and killer whales. The pairing of males and females is fleeting, while between males, a pair can stay together for years. Homosexual sex between different species is not unusual either. Meetings between different dolphin species can be quite violent, but the tension is often broken by a “sex orgy”.

Homosexuality is a social phenomenon and is most widespread among animals with a complex herd life.

Among the apes it is the females that create the continuity within the group. The social network is maintained not only by sharing food and the child rearing, but also by having sex. Among many of the female apes the sex organs swell up. So they rub their abdomens against each other,” explains Petter Bockman and points out that animals have sex because they have the desire to, just like we humans.

Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1,500 animal species.

“We’re talking about everything from mammals to crabs and worms. The actual number is of course much higher. Among some animals homosexual behaviour is rare, some having sex with the same gender only a part of their life, while other animals, such as the dwarf chimpanzee, homosexuality is practiced throughout their lives.”

Animals that live a completely homosexual life can also be found. This occurs especially among birds that will pair with one partner for life, which is the case with geese and ducks. Four to five percent of the couples are homosexual. Single females will lay eggs in a homosexual pair’s nest. It has been observced that the homosexual couple are often better at raising the young than heterosexual couples.

When you see a colony of black-headed gulls, you can be sure that almost every tenth pair is lesbian. The females have no problems with being impregnated, although, according to Petter Boeckman they cannot be defined as bisexual.

“If a female has sex with a male one time, but thousands of times with another female, is she bisexual or homosexual? This is the same way to have children is not unknown among homosexual people.”

via 1,500 animal species practice homosexuality.

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Well, There’s Your Problem

February 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

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