How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain (tags)
In moderation, religious and spiritual practices can be great for a person’s life and mental well-being. But religious fundamentalism—which refers to the belief in the absolute authority of a religious text or leaders—is almost never good for an individual. This is because fundamentalism discourages any logical reasoning or scientific evidence making it maladaptive.
A Conversation on our "Nihilistic Age" (tags)
As religious authority wanes, fundamental values—including the very value of truth—don’t die, but rather lose their absolute status and go a little haywire as a result... When the value of values declines, values don’t vanish but become trivial, fungible, instrumentalizable.
Debt Relief, Climate and Recovery Aid Needed, Say Africa Catholic Bishops (tags)
African Catholic Bishops called for an overhaul of the financial system to address health, climate, food and other challenges the region faces.
Leaders of Largest US and Puerto Rico Churches Urge Congress to Pass Same Level of Food an (tags)
Puerto Rico should receive the same nutrition assistance benefits, popularly known as food stamps, as US states receive, noted 28 major religious leaders from Puerto Rico and the United States.
Religious Fundamentalism. An ambivalent phenomenon of the modern age (tags)
The conclusion that Thomas Meyer repeatedly puts forward is obvious: "Fundamentalism proves to be an indeterminate negation of the foundations of Enlightenment and modernization."
Hundreds of Billions in New Lending on the Table at Cote d’Ivoire Gathering (tags)
World Development Banks Meet for Third Annual Summit
The Conversation of Sabbatai Zvi (1666) (tags)
Schabbtai Zvi, also Sabbatai Zewi or Schabbatai Zwi (born 1626 in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, today Turkey; died on September 16, 1676 in Ülgün, Ottoman Empire, today Montenegro), was a religious scholar and, as a self-declared Messiah, the founder of the Messiah named after him Sabbatianism.
Was god impregnating a minor or was it Josef? Or may the inqusition worked like a selection accelerate schizophrenia in christian and muslim phenotypes? No human ever know...
International Scholars Raise Concerns over “an Attempt to Destroy a New Religious Movement (tags)
On July 20, LA local minority church members spoke out at an international human rights webinar titled “COVID-19 and Religious Freedom: Scapegoating Shincheonji in South Korea”, which addressed the recent issues of aggressive attack from politically powerful conservative and fundamentalist Protestant churches against minority faiths.
Religious: Senate Pass Transparency Legislation (tags)
More than 80 national religious bodies and local churches, synagogues and Muslim groups sent a letter to the Senate urging passage of the ILLICIT CASH Act (S.2563) and the Corporate Transparency Act (S.1978).
The Political Theology of the New Right (tags)
The new right-wing movements try to create a state of emergency with the help of apocalyptic rhetoric. Apocalypticists long for the final struggle between good and evil. Eschatologists are driven by a theology of hope.
Amidst Puerto Rico Financial Crisis, Island Religious Leaders Call for Global Debt and Tra (tags)
San Juan, Puerto Rico - Last week, Archbishop Roberto González—the leader of the Archdiocese of San Juan, the Secretary General of the Puerto Rico Bible Society—Reverend Heriberto Martínez and the island's Catholic Charities head, Reverend Enrique Camacho released a statement urging solidarity with countries wrestling with debt crisis and economic challenges.
Tazria: Spiritual Leprosy and Real Faith In G-d (tags)
The G-d of Israel is Stronger than Trump! Jews Belong in Israel, the Torah says so. Jewish Self-defense is an Obligation.
Jewish Self-Hatred Rears Its Ugly Head (tags)
Looks at the self-destructive tendency of the Jewish Left in America and Israel through the prism of the Israeli election campaign, and the weekly Torah reading.
Israeli Elections: Unite the Torah Nationalists Now! (tags)
Israeli Elections Are coming Up, The Right Needs To Unite!
Refugee other Asylum I.D. reraly granted U.of :ouisiana DEc 29 ,2018 (tags)
the application for asylum as well as refugee evidence must rest on 2 foundation. 1st an applicant must be fleeing an active war zone such as south sudan or afghanistan. 2nd they could be victim of official persecution by a government this applies to nation states in many parts of the world.
Korban Pesach and Israel’s Redemption (tags)
Jews re-enact Passover Sacrifice near Temple Mount. Arab/Muslim world outraged.
Caribbean Religious Leaders Call for Debt Relief in Face of Disasters (tags)
From Grenada to Saint Lucia, religious leaders are calling for processes to provide debt relief in the face of natural disasters.
Religious Development Group Advocates for New York Law to Stop "Vulture Funds" (tags)
Religious leaders, lawyers, academics and debt experts are meeting to discuss changing New York laws that govern debt contracts from Puerto Rico to Mozambique.
U.S. Proxy War Update, Syria (tags)
[Photo: Syrian L-39 Albatros. One was shot down by U.S. armed, trained, & financed Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda) forces on December 26, 2017 using a man-portable air-defense system. The U.S. proxy jihadists captured the pilot, slit his throat, and shot him twice in the head. Like ISIS, who are almost identical ideologically and were a split from their forces, Jabhat al-Nusra posted their barbarity online to brag of it.]
Archbishop and Religious Groups Hold Puerto Rico Prayer Vigil at US Capitol (tags)
As Congress considers recovery and relief packages for hurricane-hit Puerto Rico, the island's Archbishop and national religious groups are holding a vigil in a Congressional office building on Wednesday.
Archbishop and Evangelical Leader Tell Congress to Protect Puerto Rico in Tax Plans (tags)
As the Senate and House tax plans head to conference committee to reconcile tax plan differences, major religious leaders from Puerto Rico are asking Congress to protect the island from new proposed taxes.
Religious Development Group Urges Stronger Corporate Reporting Standards (tags)
Jubilee USA, a religious development group, asked the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to require greater disclosure of what payments corporations make to governments where they operate.
Religious Groups Call for Aid and Debt Relief for Puerto Rico and Dominica (tags)
More than 130 faith communities across the United States are praying and acting for hurricane victims during religious services this weekend.
Trump Calls for Puerto Rico's Debt to be "Wiped Out" (tags)
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, President Trump called for Puerto Rico's debt to be wiped out.
Puerto Rico and US Virgin Island Religious Leaders Issue Debt and Aid Statement As Preside (tags)
As President Trump visits Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, island religious leaders are calling for aid, debt relief and measures to end child poverty. The statement is issued by San Juan's Catholic Archbishop, Roberto González Nieves, St. Thomas' Catholic Bishop Herbert A. Bevard and Evangelical Bible Society Head Reverend Heriberto Martínez.
Archbishop and Evangelical Leader Tell Congress to Reduce Puerto Rico Child Poverty (tags)
Puerto Rico religious leaders are urging Congress to reduce child poverty on the island by granting equal access to US health care funding and child tax benefits.
G7 Could Move Financing for Famine Relief, Says Religious Development Group (tags)
As G7 leaders continue to meet in Taormina, Italy, relief groups like Oxfam International are intensifying calls for aid monies to address famine.
Puerto Rico Religious Leaders Write Judge as Bankruptcy Process Begins (tags)
Puerto Rico religious leaders sent a letter to Judge Laura Taylor Swain as she presides over the first bankruptcy proceeding in San Juan to restructure more than $70 billion in debt.
Puerto Rico Religious Leaders Call for Bankruptcy Ahead of "Vulture Fund" Deadline (tags)
Before May, protections expire that shelter Puerto Rico from debt lawsuits and predatory financial groups popularly known as "vulture" funds.
Puerto Rico Oversight Board Mediates Last Ditch Debt Negotiations (tags)
Within weeks, Puerto Rico will likely enter bankruptcy proceedings tailored by Congress specifically for the US territory.
Puerto Rico Religious Leaders Ask Congress to Pass Debt Crisis Actions (tags)
"As religious leaders in Puerto Rico, we urge you to act on behalf of the 3.4 million American citizens living on the island," wrote two prominent ministers to Congress about policies to help the debt-troubled island.
US and Puerto Rico Faith Groups Send Congress Recommendations on Island's Crisis (tags)
Religious leaders in Puerto Rico and Jubilee USA urged a new Congressional task force to reform US laws to promote economic growth in Puerto Rico.
Religious Leaders Ask Senators to Pass Puerto Rico Debt Legislation (tags)
Religious leaders from Puerto Rico and the US mainland meet with Senators to urge them to support legislation to restructure the island's debt.
Necessary Medicine about Muslim Brotherhood: Gaza Strip and West Bank from Dict.of MidEas (tags)
The muslim Brotherhood is a religious group started in Palestine by visits between 1942 and 1945 by Hassan Banna who set up branches in towns.
At UN, Archbishop Calls for Puerto Rico Negotiations (tags)
Puerto Rico Archbishop Calls for Negotiated Settlement to Island Debt Crisis. Catholic Leader Asks "Vulture" Funds to Stop Lobbying Congress.
Pope Francis' Jubilee Year Begins (tags)
Pope Francis began the Catholic Church's "Jubilee Year of Mercy" at St. Peter's Square with a public mass and ceremony attended by 50,000 people. Pope Francis opened a "Holy Door" at St. Peter's Basilica to officially launch the year-long celebration with its themes of mercy and solidarity for the poor.
Puerto Rico’s Religious Leaders Call for Debt Relief and End to Austerity (tags)
Puerto Rico’s religious leaders called for debt relief in the face of the $72 billion financial crisis burdening the Caribbean US territory. At a press conference in San Juan, leaders of the principle religious groups laid out six principles to resolve the crisis.
A Formal Response to California’s Death With Dignity Act Legislation (tags)
Recently a major and moral decision was made to quell California legislature as to whether people suffering with terminal illness should have the right to die with dignity. Democrats did not have enough votes although the legislation might come back later in the year? To the extent that there was much of a debate in the news it has been one-sided with a chorus of status quo preventivists. Religion has once again slammed up common sense and compassion
Saudi Host UN Human Rights Conference (tags)
police state
Saudi Blogger Imprisoned for Supporting Free Speech (tags)
police state
US Council of Muslim Organizations statement on Armenian incident (tags)
Founding members of USCMO: American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), The Mosque Cares (Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed).
Human Rights Transparency needed to expose cultural cleansing of Genius and Greatness. (tags)
I consider Human Rights Transparency is needed. Some interpretations of the UDHR emphasize individual self-determination while neoliberal variants seek to culturally cleanse the latter and therefore Genius and Greatness.
ANALYSIS: Blatant act of anti-Semitism shocks UCLA community.
Gifted, highly intelligent victims of cultural cleansing may seek accountability. (tags)
Some of the gifted, highly intelligent victims of the UN's and State's cultural cleansing of individual self-determination are likely to seek accountability.
Guadalupe's Day is today in LA, look for her (tags)
Guadalupe is seen and honored everywhere especiallly in LA, as everyone noticed. Most dont know the stories that are connected to her but can still relate and experience Guadalupe as a symbol of natural life forces, indigenous ones that emanate and connect us to earth. She is not a Cathoic nor a religious symbol or representative tho that has been co-opted via majority religious practices.
Yazidis Join Top Religious Leaders in Irvine, Discuss Peace and Religious Freedom (tags)
Religious leaders from eight different faiths gathered before an audience of 200 University of California, Irvine students for the Alliance of Religions: Dialogue of the Holy Scriptures conference
Debt Payments Dwarf Reconstruction Aid on Philippine's Typhoon Haiyan Anniversary (tags)
Religious, Development and Environmental Groups Petition World Bank for Debt Relief
Activists Hold Prayer Vigil for Lexi Dillon and Jonah Rief in Orange County (tags)
Southern Californians fed up with the trafficking of American children through the California Courts held a protest and prayer vigil outside the Lawmoreaux Justice Center
Racist Extremism in Israel (tags)
Israel
Responses to more religious political influence, also sustainable development. (tags)
Responses of human rights members to post which considers religious political parties would have more influence if adopted a secular, ethical human rights base. Also, my response to sustainable development.
Religious parties more influence if have an ethical human rights base. (tags)
Secular ethical human rights, which are universal, can be adopted by any political party as its ethical base. This includes religious parties as secular ethical human rights virtually equate with the Golden Rule espoused by the major religions.
220 schoolgirls enslaved by Boko Haram (tags)
Quote: "If occidentalism was absurd in the past, it's preposterous now. Boko Haram is not reacting to western intervention in Nigeria, for there is none. The only way you can pretend the west is to blame is by agreeing that knowledge is "western knowledge", rather than the property of the entire human race, and that the education of girls is "western cultural imperialism" – a road that leads you to nihilism as soon as you step down it."
Caribbean Religious Leaders Demand Debt Forgiveness (tags)
Caribbean religious leaders gathered in Grenada last week to demand an end to austerity and debt policies harming poor communities in the region.
can a democracy be relgious? (tags)
Can a democracy be a religious state? Can a religious state be a democracy?
Mixing Government and Religion in Tempe, Arizona (tags)
How do you spell "F*ck the First Amendment" - Tempe, Arizona a religious theocracy
79 Religious and Development Institutions Join SCOTUS Filing in Argentina/NML Capital Case (tags)
Jubilee USA Network, a religious anti-poverty coalition, along with 78 other religious and development groups filed with the US Supreme Court in the case between Argentina and NML Capital
Dalai Lama Met With Protest Over Religious Persecution (tags)
The Dalai Lama's public talk today was met with protest from the International Shugden Community. The demonstrators were protesting the religious persecution of Shugden worshippers, a practice which has been banned by the Dalai Lama.
The Pussies did not Riot, they wanted publicity instead (tags)
Argentina Files Final Supreme Court Appeal in Global Hedge Fund Debt Case (tags)
Religious Community Joins IMF, Legitimate Investors and Governments in Opposing Exploitative Hedge Fund Behavior
Capitalism as a Secularized Religion (tags)
It is never too early or too late to challenge the dominant narrative. Capitalism is a fetish social formation, a demolishing of being not a reform of being. Capitalism may be the first case of an indebted cult, not an atoning cult, possibly the most bloodthirsty cult of humanity's history.
The Myth of Turkish Secularism (tags)
If Turkey is ever to be secular, it must allow the free exercise of all religions – including Islam – and guarantee the rights of the faithful to be free from harassment and compulsion.
Israeli Rabbinical Scandals (tags)
Israel
Remembering Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907 - 1972) (tags)
activism
U.S. Government Playing Yahweh With Gulag Gitmo: (tags)
Many Americans, of Christian ancestry, were taught their (supposedly their) Judeo-Christian “God” (Anglo-Saxon term for Yahweh) knows all because he sees all. Yet if we put these powers into political terms and context—then these capacities are not much different from the current National Security Administration’s “Operation Prism” that has vast potential to know all about Americans and apparently the entire world of personal communications, as recently revealed by Glen Greenwald’s stories in British daily The Guardian. Thus we learn our Leviathan State can know everything and anything about anyone. By analyzing religion through a lens of political philosophy we can see the psychology of Judeo-Christian Yahweh’s exclusivity to power, as in “he” (anthropomorphized) holds all the cards, is thus the exemplar religious model for a political state of Monarchy (and privileges to a more or less self-select court elite).
Lawless NYPD Spying on Muslims (tags)
tyranny
Vatican Changing of the Guard (tags)
Vatican
The Demonization of Dissent in the United States (tags)
On Oct. 3rd, 2012 Wired.Com’s (or Wired Magazine’s) Danger Room came out with Spencer Ackerman’s story of a leaked although unclassified U.S. Army “chart” that lists indicators and behaviors for identifying people who are supposedly becoming radicalized to terrorist potential. But what is so startling about this Army’s presumptively rational analysis (more like propagandic analysis) is its broad categorization of symptoms for identifying those thought alienated enough to become potential terrorist material.
Religious extremism acts to defy logical thinking (tags)
The rhetoric from religious extremism found in Christian Zionism (CUFI) and Islamist groups (Sunni Wahhabists) acts to prevent logical thinking and encourages meaningless sacrifice of life and limb from impressionalbe and vulnerable youth turned soldiers.
Mitt and Mormonism: Does It Matter? (tags)
Romney
One Step Away from Protecting Muslim Calif. Workers' Rights (tags)
Throughout the year, CAIR-California has actively worked to mobilize community support in passing of Assembly Bill 1964 (the Workplace Religious Freedom Act). Your response to our call has been overwhelming.
Syria’s “Liberated” Future: Ethnic-Religious Cleansing and Genocide (tags)
A fascinating shift has happened in the U.S. mainstream media: After a year of anti-Syria war propaganda and lies, glimmers of truth are making their way into the public’s view. This may be too little too late: the country is being torn at the seams into the nightmare of ethnic-religious cleansing and massacres.
Katherine Stewart Exposes the "Good News Clubs" (tags)
They bill themselves as "nondenominational Bible study" groups for grade-schoolers, but according to investigative reporter Katherine Stewart, the Good News Clubs are just part of a broad-based campaign by the radical religious Right to turn public schools into arenas of religious conversion. They've already won virtually complete permission from the U.S. Supreme Court to run roughshod over the separation of church and state, and religious organizations — especially anti-woman, anti-Queer Fundamentalist ones — have become a 900-pound gorilla able to push themselves into any public school they want to crash.
Where's OUR Religious Liberty? (tags)
The recent controversy over whether institutions owned by the Roman Catholic Church should be required to include birth control coverage in the health insurance they offer employees, the attempt in Virginia to require women seeking abortions to submit to medical rape, and the radical Right's reaction to the 9th Circuit appeals court ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional raises the question: why does it seem as if only bigoted Right-wing churches have "religious liberty" in this country? Why are America's officially tolerated spiritual belief systems seemingly limited to those of the Roman Catholics, Mormons and Southern Baptist Convention?
More War Against Venice Street People (tags)
The City of Los Angeles rolled out new Venice Boardwalk Ordinance (LAMC 42.15) and initiated concentrated effort to remove homeless people from Venice.
BTL:Obama Ruling on Access to Birth Control Provokes Attack from GOP and Religious Right (tags)
Interview with Meghan Smith, domestic program associate at Catholics for Choice, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
State of Human Rights in Israel (tags)
Israel
Occupy LA Interfaith Council of Elders (tags)
Nov 20th was one of the rainiest days, but a few dozen people came out to listen to speeches by several of L.A.'s prominent progressive and religious leaders.
The Cycle of fear is my second article on hate and fear
Tarja Halonen establishing Palestinian State into Middle-East ? will Israel declare war to (tags)
President of Finland Tarja Halonen (SDP) has been talking for Palestinian State. According to president Halonen, Palestinians has got right to their own independent nation. Tarja Halonen offers Finnish model as a solution to Middle-East.
Islamic Jordanian Divorce in USA (tags)
Muslim men from Jordanian background may choose to go to their homeland in order to obtain Islamic divorce decree from the religious courts in that country. Can such a decree be recognized in the United States?
Islamic Lebanese Divorce in U.S. Courts (tags)
American men with Lebanese ancestry may travel to Lebanon in order to obtain quick divorces. In such a situation, the man leaves most of his property, children, and wife in the United States. But could the divorce obtained in such a way be entitled to recognition and enforcement in the United States?
Our Spiritual Leadership Stumbles and Falls (tags)
A lesson in betrayal and trust.
Back to the Ballot - Queer Activists Debate Whether to Seek Repeal of Prop. 8 (tags)
With the court challenge to Proposition 8, California?s voter-approved ban on legal recognition of same-sex marriages, mired in potential legal wrangling that could take years to resolve, Equality California (EQCA) revived their plans to take the issue back to voters and seek an initiative to repeal Prop. 8. But the 70 or so activists at the EQCA town-hall meeting in San Diego June 3 split over whether that?s a good strategy ? or whether EQCA, primarily a lobbying organization, is the right group to run such a campaign.
Support Middle Eastern democracy struggles! No Intervention! (tags)
No to imperialist intervention in the Libya! Saudi, UAE troops out of Bahrain! Support Middle Eastern democracy struggles! End imperialist wars in Iraq, Afghanistan!
On March 17, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee approved House Concurrent Resolution 13, a measure that would unnecessarily reaffirm the divisive phrase “In God We Trust” as our national motto and encourage its display in all public andgovernment buildings
USA Founding Fathers Encrypted Time-Capsule Decoded (tags)
The founders of the USA left deeply encrypted and time-encoded messages for future citizens and lawmakers. More astounding is where and how they were hidden, what they were designed to prove, and why they are being revealed now.
It’s Secularists That Are Poisoning Discourse, USD Professor Says (tags)
According to University of San Diego professor Steven D. Smith, the coarsening of our public discourse shouldn't be blamed on religious people arguing issues on the basis of moral values. Instead, it's secular people who consider themselves "rational" and "scientific" who have intimidated religious people from expressing their views openly and forced them to "smuggle" in their perspectives in ostensibly secular terms.
Publishing of George Washington's Deepest Secret Designed to Shame Lawmakers (tags)
At this time of great shock and sadness across the USA following the latest violent episode, perhaps now is the perfect moment to reflect on how far away from the intentions of the founding fathers this nation has strayed, and how to finally fix it.
THE BBC,THE NORMANS, THE PAPACY, THE TEACHING OF HISTORY AND US! (tags)
As one who watched both Professor Robert Bartlett's 'Normans' and Dan Snow's 'Norman Walks', let me say how much I enjoy the BBC's sense of history and these two items in particular. BUT CAN THESE AUTHORS SEE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES/
Why Zionism Will Loose the PR War (tags)
Even as Judeo-Christianity engages a new series of crusades on Islamism, in which case the intermediate outcomes could be very devastating for the world at large, still in the long run Abrahamic Religions, that is Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism, that is, their authoritarian ego psychology will little matter.
La Naval as a Religious Festivity in the Philippines (tags)
After discussing the history of the La Naval De Manila of 1646, we now discuss the La Naval as a religious festivity in the Philippines. According to historians, in 1593, on the death of his father, the Spanish Governor General of the Philipppines, Luis Perez Dasmarinas commissioned Captain Hernando de los Rios Coronel to have a Marian statue sculpted. He wished to give a religious imprint to his regime in the Philippines. Governor Dasmarinas whose name bore one of the plush high class subdivision among the richest in Makati and also was the builder of the famed walls of Intramuros asked a non-Catholic Chinese sculptor to make the statue.
‘8: The Mormon Proposition”: Two Movies in One (tags)
Director Reed Cowan’s film “8: The Mormon Proposition” is really two movies in one. It’s an exposé of the Mormon church’s role in passing California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, at the polls in November 2008 and also a stunning tale of how a church that has institutionalized anti-Queer bigotry wreaks its vengeance against hapless Queer youth from Mormon families who, as part of their belief system, feel duty-bound to drive out their Queer kids and abandon them to homelessness, drug use, prostitution or suicide.
Israel's aim - make all Jerusalem exclusively Jewish
Helen Thomas Is Not A Bigot À La 'Eric Cartman' (tags)
The problems of Palestine are religious in nature. The religions have become conflated, of course, with 'race' and ethnicity. But religions have always been nothing more than aspects of mass media. Before television, organized religions ~were~ the mass media, since people would assemble every Saturday or Sunday to hear the propaganda of the ruling classes who financed the temples.
With religious intolerance a thing is only gotten: to turn the unviable politics.
Holocaust Museum For Persecuted Heretics? (tags)
Verily, if the origin of the word ‘holocaust’ meant ‘whole’ + ‘burning’ then surely the history of the persecution and killing of pagans and various heretical sects would qualify to this nomenclature? After all, how many supposed witches, were tortured and/or burned over the centuries? How many believers in the ‘wrong’ religions or denominations, according to those fanatics who thought themselves within ‘thee’ singularly right religion, were persecuted and murdered? We don’t know any kind of exact number but it is a frightening reality to behold nevertheless.
There Is No God — and He Can Prove It (tags)
There is no God, says 85-year-old author and ex-Roman Catholic Horacio Hanson — and he can prove it. That’s the claim he makes in his self-published book There Is No Creator: Religion Is a Fraud: What Now? — a title he readily admits is a deliberate in-your-face challenge to believers — and repeated when he spoke about it to the San Diego Humanist Association at the San Diego Public Library downtown on March 13. After noting that the worst insult in the Arabic language is, “May God deprive you of your religion,” Hanson launched into an hour-long presentation that made it clear that depriving his listeners — and the rest of humanity — of religion is precisely his intention.
Holocaust Museum For Persecuted Heretics? (tags)
Still it is time for crisis-plagued modernity to look beyond last century’s WWII and Hitler’s propaganda and deeds, and even to the persecution of Jews in general over the centuries, to a ‘larger’ picture of religious persecution, and to especially contemplate an underlying psychology behind it all—that mankind might gain a more balanced interpretation of religion’s politics—because religions have been ‘especially’ political—as they still are today in our own time—and as they were from time immemorial—as we will ‘only’ begin to explore.
Cops forcing religion on homeless folks in Venice Beach (tags)
Looks like the cops want to force religion on people in Los Angeles - Just what part of the First Amendment don't these police thugs understand?
When Authors Are Authoritative (tags)
It is not mere coincidence the word authority takes command from the word author, or a group of authors acting as a united force. Both words are coequal and stem from the idea that some form of egotistic persuasion has come to dominate or rule. This authoritarian reality is true irrespective of whether people put their faith in law, religion, articulated ideology, or any other form of persuasive power. Yet there is little doubt that the most effective form of authority, if believed, is that which speaks fore an endgame result of lasting spiritual finality—namely those clerics, that is how their personalities, claim to speak for an ultimate power of religion, and the ego-will of God, Yahweh or Allah. What mere mortal can stand up to what Hobbes has described as the Leviathan or the iron-fisted state?
The Libertarian C.N.T. and the F.A.I. Supported Freedom of Religion in Spain (tags)
“Could any other declaration be made? It is de rigueur (socially obligatory -ed) that in any programme type declaration we register our respect for religions…” 1. states the C.N.T. on May 10th, 1938 Circular No. 12.
Targeting Muslim Charities in America (tags)
the face of a police state
It’s “loot the Yanks” time in Afghanistan. (tags)
5 good years for Karzai &co.
Fred Phelps Brings Road Show of Hate to San Diego; 500 Protest Against Him (tags)
Fred Phelps, founder and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas and a man so far on the fringes of the radical religious Right even the late Rev. Jerry Falwell called him “a certified nut,” brought his nationwide road show of hate to San Diego the weekend of October 16-18. Along with a number of synagogues and Jewish community groups, one of his picketing targets was San Diego High School for its alleged tolerance and acceptance of Queer students. A counter-protest drew 500 people as opposed to the 10 or so Westboro Baptist Church members on the opposite side of Park Boulevard from the school.
PAUL ALLEN & CHARLES KOCH ~ YOUR COUNTRIES 45 MILLION POOR AMERICANS NEED YOUR HELP~SOS (tags)
LAWYERS FOR POOR AMERICANS ASKS ALL OF AMERICAS HONEST CARING & CONCERNED BILLIONAIRES TO UNITE AND HELP LOBBY AGAINST THESE CONTINUED YEARLY U.S. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY BEING INFLICTED ON OUR 46 MILLION POORER AMERICANS.
Author Darrel Ray Lectures on “God Virus” (tags)
It’s not every atheist author who begins a lecture to promote his book with a bit of a fire-breathing Fundamentalist Christian sermon on the nature and ubiquity of human sin and the need to appeal to the Holy Spirit to be cleansed of it. But that’s what Darrel W. Ray did at the San Diego Public Library September 19 in an appearance sponsored by the Humanist Association of San Diego (HASD). A former believer, Ray discussed the total lack of logic in religious appeals and the way religions mimic the behavior of germs in spreading from person to person, use classic hypnotic techniques in their services, and inculcate guilt in their believers — especially about sex. Ray also mentioned ways rationalists can talk to belivers without immediately putting them on the defensive, and offered help for those who are — in his words — “recovering from religion.”
Religious Fundamentalism in Israel (tags)
religious extremism in Israel
For the Iranian workers, only one solution: the class struggle ! (tags)
The brutal repression of street demonstrations that have hit Tehran and the larger cities shows the determination of the Iranian government's Ahmadinejad not to tolerate any questioning of his political power. Accused of electoral fraud, the supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and the outgoing president have responded with arrests, beatings and shootings; the police, the Pasdaran, and Basji volunteers headed by the Pasdaran are the instruments of the current repression.
ADL Hate Laws Hate Freedom of Speech (tags)
The Anti-Defamation League (as its contrarian euphemism for an organization that does little, if anything, to fight defamation against Arabs and Muslims by rabid Islamo-phobes in the U.S. like Jewish-American Michael Savage) is “again” proposing another anti-free-speech bill disguised as the “Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act” HR 1966, which makes it a thought crime to “intimidate” and “harass” anyone over the Internet or on the airwaves.
The Gospel According to Acharya S (tags)
Zionism Is America’s Existential Threat: (tags)
We The People of the United States need a new “Declaration of Independence from Religious Oppression” in all its forms and insinuations. Zionism is based on the “delusion” that some “questionable” psychological character who once posed mythically as a high-god deity “gave,” or ordained, the Israel tribal lineage of people to the territory in Canaan at a particular historical point. We are supposed to be “past” the turbulent and insane ages of divine right for kings and it is equally time to recognize that we are also concomitantly past a time for divine right for nations.
Scientology Cult Targets Haiti for Slave Labor (tags)
The Scientology organization has increasingly targeted poor countries such as Haiti in its recruitment efforts. Why would this money-hungry crime-cult be interested in one of the world's poorest countries? The answer: Because they want to bring Haitians in to the USA on "religious worker" visas to serve as unpaid laborers.
Zapatista University Chapter 5: Science and Religion (tags)
Here’s another free science lesson for Third-World farmers. The complete book can be read on my site. The complete audio book is on my site now also, and the printed book can be ordered by mail. My Spanish isn’t good enough to translate a whole book, but I know there are plenty of people who can.
Atheist speaks at Montclair church (tags)
Atheist speaks at Montclair church: Addresses censorship and church-state separation violation in Rancho Cucamonga February 22, 2009 MONTCLAIR, California -- Dan Barker, influential atheist and co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, addressed a full house today at the Monte Vista Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Montclair, a quiet community on the western end of San Bernardino County known more for its shopping mall than as a bastion of religious tolerance and freethought. One topic on the minds of many in the audience was the recent controversy surrounding a FFRF-sponsored billboard reading "Imagine No Religion" in the nearby city of Rancho Cucamonga. Despite the foundation's contract with the billboard company to display the message for a month, the sign was censored after a mere five days. Legal action against the city is pending.
right to choose
The Dark Night or NeoCon Artist: (tags)
One wonders why so many in the media and film industry are in such frenzy over Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Night”? Granted the movie is good, and in some ways great, but still the plot is really no more ingenious that what passes for standard fare on Law and Order. So why is it that the Powers-that-Be is such a tizzy? No doubt a fair share has to do with it portending to hold a mirror up to post-9/11 society—with a major theme of how terror can corrupt those that fear and fight terrorism.
The Dark Night or NeoCon Artist: (tags)
One wonders why so many in the media and film industry are in such frenzy over Christopher Nolan’s film “The Dark Night”? Granted the movie is good, and in some ways great, but still the plot is really no more ingenious that what passes for standard fare on Law and Order. So why is it that the Powers-that-Be is such a tizzy? No doubt a fair share has to do with it portending to hold a mirror up to post-9/11 society—with a major theme of how terror can corrupt those that fear and fight terrorism.
To interpret the Old and New Testament's of the Bible by extending the horizons of Christian theological inquiry pertaining to "The Two Stars Of Bethlehem".
Religious fundamentalism
“No on 8” Actions, Discussions Continue (tags)
The fight against the anti-marriage Proposition 8 has lasted quite a bit longer than the election, in which the same-sex marriage ban passed by a five-point margin. Queer and allied activists are still holding demonstrations against the initiative and meeting to discuss where the fight will go next. But their discussions are stronger on building communications strategies than actually plotting a course to reverse the ballot measure.
Mary-Guadalupe Day ! Celebrate Dec.12 downtown (tags)
Red Suited fat guys are not all that this season represents. In the land of deserts and conquerors, another honored person still exists, called Senora or Virgen, but always Guadalupe [ with familiarity and maternal warmth in her projected image]
Former Prof Speaks on Religion/Science/Democracy Conflicts (tags)
Former UCSD professor Lew Perry spoke to the Humanist Fellowship of San Diego November 16 on the conflicts between religion, science and democracy. He said that conflicts are inevitable because when religion makes statements about the physical world -- like the Bible's claim that the earth is fixed in space -- scientists can and must challenge the religious understanding of physical reality.
Prop. 8 and the Triumph of Theocracy (tags)
The passage of Proposition 8 proves that many American voters are committed to a basically theocratic view of government in which THEIR moral values and commitments should rule over others. It also means the Queer community needs to do some soul-searching over why people of color and others we considered natural allies voted for 8 in greater percentages than whites did, and whether "marriage" as a term carries too much religious baggage ever to win majority support for its legal extension to same-sex couples.
FREE CD and videos addressing Human Rights and political and religious corruption in the United States.
Faith and religion could be a force for peace after militarism and intolerance are excised as false corrupted consciousness. Prejudice could be a stepping stone to the event of understanding, the fusion of horizons (H.G.Gadamer,Truth and Method).
Turning the Tables on the Israel-Firsters (tags)
Zionism's last gasp is due. Jewish groups are springing up throughout the world which are challenging Zionism's dominance in foreign affairs, and refuting the lie that Zionism's organizations speak for the majority of Jews, who reject Zionism.
The Nature of the Christian Faith and the New Atheism (tags)
New atheism fights against fundamentalism, human religion, sees all violence as the product of faith, doesn't recognize the positive good in the church and theology and conflates all faith with fundamentalist literalism and reductionism. That Jesus is the way means no mone is alone.
Neocon-o- m: A Real Threat to America (tags)
Contemplate a connection between Leo Strauss, the NeoCons, and m in general—to see if there are any connections—especially since it has been the NeoCons’ strategy to consistently use their racist term “Islamo m” and to argue Arabs and Muslims are America’s boogeymen. The manipulation of American xenophobia and ignorance of foreigners are the anthropological realities of what has happened here in the United States via the propaganda machines run by the powers-that-be and pro-lobbyists (see Daniel Lazare’s “Lobbying Degree Zero” in The Nation Oct. 22, 2007).
The Simple but Powerful Secret to Freedom Is Already Within You (tags)
In the “Language of Light” the Sacred Prayers of the Universe; Transmissions of the highest heaven will activate your “God Code Points”; Awakening you to your Higher Self and Return to God. Are you ready to be who you came here to be?
Civil Society by Stephen Hume (tags)
Improvements in people's lives often have come about when society listened to voices on the periphery, not just the political and economic elites.
Fitna, a hateprovoking and discriminative film of Mr Wilders (tags)
In ''Fitna'' the Duttch right wing politician Mr Wilders presents a onesided and discriminative image of the Islam, which is highly hateprovoking Also he is mentioning the WTC and Madrid attacks, with denial of ''christian'' and Jewish fundamentalism and bagatellising the political causes
The pacifist strategy of Jesus - 1. The lost message (tags)
Throughout history there have been people who have faithfully read about Jesus in the Bible over and over again and yet for all their reading, not once did they ever understand a thing that the man was really saying. The following investigation is intended both to expose how religion functions as a brainwashing tool, as well as recovering the Lost Message of Jesus.
Only Tigers Survive: Scientology (tags)
As Erich Fromm would say, scientology fits in the world of the marketing character and the "unproductive I-orientation." Scientology is the glorification of an American ego-trip. Life is a game! Everyone plays for himself! Everyone can be a winner! Wars are only part of this game!
best link of 2008 Powerful Secret to Freedom (tags)
In the “Language of Light” the Sacred Prayers of the Universe; Transmissions of the highest heaven will activate your “God Code Points”; Awakening you to your Higher Self and Return to God. Are you ready to be who you came here to be?
Egoism versus Pluralism: The Crucifix Decision (tags)
The truth of faith can only prevail without worldly authority through the word of proclamation. The Christian chruch must affirm pluralism relativizing its own existence. The state has the task of limiting egoism.
Traces of the Authoritarian Personality in the Three Abrahamic Religions (subtitle of enti (tags)
We will examine whether terror is institutionalized in the psychology of some religions. There are many interesting and provocative ideas discussed. Arguably, this work is as controversial as it is timely. Such an intelligence estimate, if you will, would not have been written had it not related to many important and critical political issues and crises of our day (particularly as related to dominant “cultural clashes” as so framed by various think-tanks). But this work also significantly relates to political theory, history, criminal justice, jurisprudence, as well as social and political psychology etc.
Provocative Thoughts While Touring a Park: (tags)
From book subtitled: The Authoritarian Nature of the Three Abrahamic Religions: as When God Became the Terrorist: The major thesis of this book is that authoritarianism, as a “human” personality trait, throughout history, has influenced both the “creation” and the “interpretation”, of religious and political dogma, and that this was even more so before there was a constituted division between Church and State. In Judeo-Christianity and Islamic authority, to some extent, is the egotistic imprint of monotheism in which God basically is perceived to have a “psychological” ego consciousness able to understand and communicate with the human ego consciousness of mankind. Particularly, we will want to focus on the ideas of justice—both the ideas of divine metaphysical justice and human social justice. According to Daniel Defoe, in no trivial sense, “Justice is the end of government”.
This is how we (could) pray (tags)
On Tuesday December 11, 2007, I joined in a community effort to welcome and support a coalition of Native American Nations and environmental justice groups in their ongoing effort to defend Arizona's San Francisco Peaks from proposed ski area development.
WHEN GOD BECAME THE TERRORIST: Traces of the Authoritarian Personality in the Three Abrah (tags)
Arguably, this work is as controversial as it is timely. Such an intelligence estimate, if you will, would not have been written had it not related to many important and critical political issues and crises of our day (particularly as related to dominant “cultural clashes” as so framed by various think-tanks). But this work also significantly relates to political theory, history, criminal justice, jurisprudence, as well as social and political psychology etc. It has something of interest to many inquiring minds. Ideas here will not likely be easily dismissed—irrespective of one’s stance.
When God Became the Terrorist (tags)
Arguably, this work is as controversial as it is timely. Such an intelligence estimate, if you will, would not have been written had it not related to many important and critical political issues and crises of our day (particularly as related to dominant “cultural clashes” as so framed by various think-tanks). But this work also significantly relates to political theory, history, criminal justice, jurisprudence, as well as social and political psychology etc. It has something of interest to many inquiring minds.
Exposing the Thanksgiving myth
Muslim Scholars and Leaders move towards The World Peace Religion (tags)
A giant leap in the right direction.
Forrest Church Speaks on God and America in San Diego (tags)
Forrest Church, Unitarian-Universalist minister and son of the late Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), spoke October 4 at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in San Diego on the history of the relationship between church and state in the U.S. His message, surprising in front of a progressive audience, was that religion shouldn't dominate politics but it shouldn't be read out of the public sphere altogether either. Many progressive causes, including the abolition of slavery and the 1960's civil rights movement, were headed by religious leaders.
Ten Things You Didn't Know About Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (tags)
1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pronounced mah-MOOD ah-mah-dih-nee-ZHAD) was born Oct. 28, 1956, three years after the CIA-sponsored coup that installed the pro-Western leader Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Iran's leader. A Shiite Muslim, he and his wife, a professor, have two sons and a daughter.
Karen Armstrong, the British theologian and author of numerous books on the great religions, has advanced the theory that fundamentalist religion is a response to and product of modern culture. A Catholic nun for seven years, she left her order while studying at Oxford University. She is one of the 18 leading group members of the Alliance of Civilizations, an initiative of the former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, with the purpose of fighting extremism and furthering dialogue between the Western and Islamic worlds. Andrea Bistrich interviewed her for Share International.
Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries (tags)
The lists “show a bias toward evangelical popularism and Calvinism,” he said, and lacked materials from early church fathers, liberal theologians and major Protestant denominations.
From the Market of Religions to the Religion of the Market (tags)
The democratic order became concrete as a form of the market. While a secular state forms around the market, the market ceases being merely profane. The market as a fate religion accepts and rejects like a Calvinist God,
Extremists in 3 faiths seen to share views (tags)
Violent Muslim, Christian and Jewish extremists invoke the same rhetoric of "good" and "evil" and the best way to fight them is to tackle the problems that drive people to extremism, according to a report obtained by Reuters.
War and the Misuse of God (tags)
No freedom of religion if religion calls to war, glorifies war, presents war as inevitable or promotes the hatred of humankind.
Interfaith Coalition Condemns Jailing of Egyptian Student over Blogposts (tags)
The "Free Kareem Coalition," an interfaith group of human rights activists from around the world, condemned the sentencing of Egyptian student Abdelkareem Soliman for expressing his opinion on his personal blog
Drug warriors flush 1st down the toilet (tags)
Screw freedom of religion - You didn't think the 1st Amendment would prevent the drug warriors from jailing people for smoking pot!
Exporting Values: On the Religious Aspect of the US War (tags)
When the institutions fail, a superhero arises out of the American people who can wage the just battle without regard for laws or institutions. Does George W Bush under-stand himself as the incarnation of this American myth?
Elton John Backed by The World Peace Religion (tags)
Only we can because the other religions command the killing of all non group members in their Holy Bibles.
Spirituality and Liberation: Segundo Galilea (tags)
Advent is a time of beginning as crisis can be a time to pause and gain new perspectives and priorities. We are called to be internation-alistas, to create a new language and a new mathematics. The world will be changed when people speak as Jesus spoke, in a way that scandalizes and attracts by its power
Is there a Genocide in the Making? (tags)
Stages leading to Genocide
World Peace Religion Lambastes U.N. Report of Alliance of Civilizations (tags)
Once again the UN drops the ball.
Against the Despisers of the Body: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Today (tags)
We need Bonhoeffer's earth piety today. A new ecological theology must oppose religious and practical world denial. We humans came from the earth and belong to this earth. There is no salvation for humans without the salvation of the earth.
Meat Sheik, Anglican paedophilia, and non-regulation Jewish foreskin (tags)
This past week in Australia has been ‘fundamentally’ outstanding; dimwitted fundamentalist religionists vied with each other for top billing in the local media. Never has the nation seen such retarded behaviour from so many diverse religious groups. The prize for fundamentalist imbecile of the week however goes to the Muslim cleric Sheik al-Hilali for his retrogressive reference to women as “uncovered meat”. He unashamedly placed the responsibility for rape and other sexually violent acts onto women; men were exonerated on the basis that “uncovered meat” is sexually provocative! The local media now refers to the cleric as the “Meat Sheik” and continues to sensationalise aspects of the story.
The fake compassion of Europe's right-wing (tags)
It’s interesting to see what issues can infiltrate and corrupt the Left. Usually the offenses are blatant— supporting the ‘war on terror’, electing ‘progressive Democrats’, calling for military intervention into a troubled region (Yugoslavia— and now Sudan). Sometimes though, more subtle topics can confuse and disorientate the Left, the most recent example being the sudden reemergence of the WWI Armenian genocide as a hot-button issue.
CHURCH IS WAR.
A speech for the 12/14/05 Senate hearing organized by the American Committee for Democracy in the Middle East.
Self-Redemption Through Work (tags)
"A strange mania rules the working class of all lands where capitalist civilization prevails - the love of work, the work mania. Instead of fighting this spiritual confusion, priests, eco-nomists and moralists canonize work."
The Compulsion of Violence: Retaliation (tags)
Retaliation is giving back in kind. We are struck, we strike back. Both President Bush and Osama Bin Laden believe in retaliation; both argue that their strikes are answering attacks, that they are protecting and avenging their people. Both anathematize the other as ruthless and evil. And both are far from the forgiveness and peace their religions preach. In the Koran Allah says "My mercy embraces all things." In the Christian Gospel Christ says "Do not resist evil with evil. If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well." Israel also is very righteously into retaliation, answering the abduction of two soldiers with war. Are Bin Laden, Bush and Olmert, reigning leaders who affirm the great monotheisms, more than warriors? The fusion of political and religious leadership in these figures is volatile-they license crusades without check.
"Lynch Mob" Attacks Mosque (tags)
Churches and anti-fascist counterprotestors banded together today to defend a local mosque from right-wing hate-mongering.
Middle EastHizballah, the Lebanese Shi‘i movement whose militia is fighting the Israeli army in south Lebanon, has been cast misleadingly in much media coverage of the ongoing war. Much more than a militia, the movement is also a political party that is a powerful actor in Lebanese politics and a provider of important social services. Not a creature of Iranian and Syrian sponsorship, Hizballah arose to battle Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon from 1982-2000 and, more broadly, to advocate for Lebanon’s historically disenfranchised Shi‘i Muslim community.
Shin Bet Vetoed Secret Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement (tags)
PRESS RELEASEDrafted by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Department of International Relations, University of Sussex
One Man’s Direct Opposition to World War III (tags)
Religious fundamentalists' use of religious dogma as political ideology is quickly escalating from evolution vs. inelligent design to World War III and Armageddon. FREE audio book on how evolutionary science can be used to turn the tide against religious fundamentalism.
The Second American Revolution : The Jesus Revolutionary (tags)
A brief discussion of that greatest of all revolutionary theorists, who it turns out, surprise surprise, was Jesus. The sun will hide its face in shame, and the moon will no longer give its light at night, for the entire earth will be as full of the glory of this Jesus as there are waters covering the surfaces of the seas and oceans.
The Second American Revolution : The Garden of Eden (tags)
Make haste my beloved, and be like a gazelle, or like a young stag upon the mountains of spices.
The Second American Revolution : Israel and the Religious Right (tags)
An examination of Ted Bundy, the 'god' of Israel and the Religious Right
Pfc. Chris Gorman: I refuse to go back to Iraq, because this war is illegal and unjust. (tags)
Interview with Christopher Gorman, a religious Conscientious Objector who is refusing to return to Iraq.
The Rev. Billy Graham is No Phil Berrigan! (tags)
The Rev. Billy Graham was in Baltimore recently doing his religious revival thing. For years, he was a crony of warmongering presidents, like Richard M. Nixon. Rev. Graham’s preaching never attracted me. However, the life work of the late Phil Berrigan, an ex-Josephite priest, had a profound influence on me, and others. Berrigan spoke the truth to power. He relentlessly took on the War Party and spent 11 of his 79 years in prison for his protest actions.
The Second American Revolution : More Revolutionary Proverbs (tags)
More proverbs and parables
Horowitz Watchman Brutalizes Farm Supporter Days Before Hearing (tags)
Horowitz Watchman Brutalizes Farm Supporter Days Before Hearing Recovery of South Central Farmers' Personal and Religious Objects Denied
Fundamentalist Christianity Weds the Military (tags)
Fundamentalist Christianity weds the military and their offspring is ecclesiastically induced genocidal war from the command center of Fatherland Patriarchy [1]
No gay rights in Moscow!!! (tags)
Russian cops beat up homosexual activists who held a "gay pride" parade
Judaism And Zionism Are Not The Same Thing (tags)
The Zionist movement created the Israeli state. The latter is a persuasion less than one hundred years old. Its essential goal was and is to change the nature of the Jewish people from that of a religious entity to a political movement. From Zionism's inception the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people stood in staunch opposition to it.
THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN JEW IN RACIST-MARXIST ISRAEL (tags)
Before Israel became a state in 1948, Jews world-wide were filled with the Zionist propaganda that Israel would be a homeland for all Jews, a refuge for persecuted Jews, a truly democratic country, and the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
oped
IT'S TIME TO THINK BIG AND TAKE POWER IN ISRAEL (tags)
This article looks at the upcoming elections in Israel and what Israel's leaders should say.
Captain Ahab and his Watery Grave (tags)
The novel Moby Dick appeared to Moltmann and others as the American myth. "Thewhite whale is the symbol of evil and Captain Ahab is the tragic hero. America's messianic dream becomes the tragic myth."
America's heart turned black (tags)
a heart turned black
The Social Contract and God's Reign (tags)
The truth will set us free but the truth is a process, not a cudgel. Discovering the Bible in the Bible, the kerygma or proclamation of Jesus, is vital to disarm the literalists, Litera-lism can repress mystery, uncertainty, diversity, engagement and interdependence,
On the Theological Foundations of Religious Socialism (tags)
Under today's conditions, the option for a life in abundance for all people necessitates preserving the natural foundations of life.. God's reign has a transcendental dimension that Jesus compares with a treasure in a field.
Reflections on Christmas (tags)
In my christmas-message to the readers I reflect on the great contradiction between the real meaning of Christmas, being the appeal to human rights and respect and the hypocrisy, used by the ''christian'' polticians
American Legal System Corrupt (tags)
Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit talks to members of Harvard Law School's Fed-eralist Society. Jones said that the question of what is mor-ally right is routinely sacrificed to what is politically expedient.
What if all this misanthropic ideology were artificially designed in the name of Christianity by some think tanks? To neoconservatives, war is the father of all things, the father of permanent revolution.
conservitive an religion (tags)
hate and conservitism
Religious Persecution of Muslims In The US (tags)
Four fans celebrating a birthday at Giants Stadium were plucked from their seats by New Jersey State Police and detained for nearly an hour as FBI agents probed their religious beliefs, the men charged yesterday.
"The social state is dismantled in favor of the globalization of industry..The democratic idea of equality is incompatible with ever-greater inequalities..If globalization produces third world conditions, theology of liberation logically becomes universal.."
"In its religiosity, the US is more like an Islamic country than a western European country." Fuhndamentalism instrumentalizes religion to justify violence and revenge, distorts God's nature and replaces the option for the poor with the warrior cult.
Bob Avakian: Religion, Morality ... Polarization, Repolarization (tags)
EDITORS NOTE: This is part of a series of excerpts on various subjects—drawn from conversations and discussions, as well as more formal talks, by Bob Avakian—which we will be running in this newspaper over the next period of time. This has been edited for publication, and subheads and footnotes have been added
"The religious fundamentalist gave the American superpower's mission character to the megalomaniac worldview. its soldiers bring freedom everywhere as the gift of the almighty God, not as America's gift.."
Avakian: Religion is Religion, Communism is Scientific (tags)
A Leap of Faith and a Leap to Rational Knowledge: Two Very Different Kinds of Leaps, Two Radically Different Worldviews and Methods This article was written by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in response to a letter that sent to him. In addition to attacking communism, that letter also argued against the scientific viewpoint and method and insisted that atheism is just another form of religion. This article by Chairman Avakian speaks to a number of points in that letter but focuses on the fundamental difference between a communist and scientific outlook and method on the one hand and, on the other hand, a religious worldview which relies on "leaps of faith."
Onward, Christian theocrats: the Yankee Taliban on the attack (tags)
“Our goal is a Christian nation,” says Terry Randal. “We are called by God to conquer this country.”
National Atheist Organizing (tags)
Plan of action to undermine the theocrats
General Aoun addresses the crowd at Martyrs Square one hour after his return from exile (tags)
Oh Great People of Lebanon! I told you one day that the world can crush me but it won’t get me to sign. I return to you today and the world has neither crushed me nor did it get me to sign. I once told you, shame on a world that is afraid of a general in battle fatigues who has to tell the world that life, that existence outside the realm of freedom is a form of death. Here I am today, returning to you to a Lebanon that has recovered its sovereignty, freedom and independence.
Microsoft paying Religious Right leader Ralph Reed $20,000 a month retainer (tags)
Microsoft paying Religious Right leader Ralph Reed $20,000 a month retainer
Revolutionary Communists Take on Christian Fascists Over Schiavo (tags)
"One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what's going on in America."
Tom DeLay, Congressman from Texas, House Republican Majority Leader,
speaking to his co-thinkers of "Family Research Council"Tom DeLay is a powerful right-winger who wraps his ambitions in a frenzied god-speak. He is the cynical manipulator, who redistricted Texas to disenfranchise political opponents, and is now rewriting congressional ethics procedures to rescue himself from his own colossal corruption. He is an aggressive liar, who recently dared describe Terri Schiavo as "lucid."
But, for a half second there among allies, he let out something true.
This huge national power struggle over Terri Schiavo's fate has, in fact, elevated the visibility of what's going on in America.
Iraq Week at the University of Southern California (tags)
Press release and schedule of events at USC Iraq's Week.
CRITICAL MOMENT Calls for Submissions (tags)
CRTICAL MOMENT is an Ann Arbor, MI-based radical politics journal. CM is released every other month and distributed for free throughout the Southeast Michigan area. Each issue deals with a specific theme. The content of the paper is based on submissions received through our open submissions process. CM invites you to submit your writing for possible publication in upcoming issues of CM. Read below our Calls for Submissions for our next two issues: the Environment (May/June) and Religion & Spirituality (July/August). Questions can be sent to momentboard at umich dot edu . Visit us online at criticalmoment.org
Corporate America, backed by major banks has privatized our religious communities...promoting a radical right-wing ideology.
The Religious Left offers a provocative alternative and, or so we pray, eventually a forum of live talk for those who don’t think they have a prayer because they aren’t “christians.” Please find bbb (Length 5:09 Type MP3) a copy of the opening segment of a first show, to give you an idea of what we mean.
The last of the Halloween candy has been eaten. The harvest moon is a radiant memory. The family festival of Thanksgiving has drawn us closer together. All of these warm seasonal memories can mean only one thing: It’s time for the Christmas haters to shift into high gear.
Hitler & Bush -- Birds Of A Feather (tags)
The witch-hunts.
No Prospect for Improvement (tags)
The world cannot expect any impulses for a better world from the new president. The world must adjust to a superpower armed to the teeth whose political and economic elites are hardly concerned with the well-being of humanity.
A Bush/Rove plan to OUTLAW homosexuality (& dissent)? (tags)
In the wake of an election riddled with irregularities, before most states have certified their election results, with recounts being called for in several states, and long before the Electoral College has cast the only deciding "vote" for President, the Bush Gang is reportedly cooking up plans to continue marching toward religious dictatorship while shredding what's left of the Constitution. Read up, spread the word--and PLEASE DONATE NOW to the recount effort!
Message to Bush: ‘We will never give up!’ (tags)
With a note of defiance, leaders of the broad democratic movement vowed a determined fightback against George W. Bush’s extreme right-wing agenda in a second term.
CNP? Religious Right and Bush (tags)
Who Is The Council For National Policy And What Are They Up To? And Why Don’t They Want You To Know?
CNP - The Greastest Danger Behind The Bush Agenda (tags)
Who Is The Council For National Policy And What Are They Up To? And Why Don’t They Want You To Know?
It's not about furthering our agenda (tags)
"Any reasonable analysis..must recognize the clear and present danger that Bush and his band of neo-cons and religious end time thinkers represent..They are potentially fascist..The Bush Republican party is serious about endless wars.."
Gay-marriage foe fails to make case (tags)
Abaham Lincoln said, "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves." I suggest that anyone who would deny those different from themselves the freedom to marry should look in the mirror and try a little introspection.
Egyptian Moslem Imams from Al Azhar Justify Suicide Bombing (tags)
Senior Clerics at Al Azhar University in Cairo (the oldest and most prestigious religious university in all of the Islamic world, and a university closely related to the Egyptian government) - these Imams justify Suicide Bombing and recommend it as a tactic
Bringing Evangelical Hypocrisy to its Knees (tags)
The In God We Trust Protection Act - ( petition) has raised a whole lot of issues totally unrelated to this proposal to U.S. Congress. It has nothing to do with a constraint on freedom of religion. It has to do with politically bringing Evangelical Hypocrisy to its knees - socially, morally and financially stopping them dead in their arrogant tracks. The Christian Right Wing Zealots, are wielding the power of religion politically, financially, socially and legislatively
Blogger Challenges Jerry Falwell on Christian Family Values (tags)
"Whenever We Read the Obscene Stories, the Voluptuous Debaucheries, the Cruel and Torturous Executions, the Unrelenting Vindictiveness, with which more than Half the Bible is filled, it Would be More Consistent that we called it the Word of a Demon, than the Word of God. It is a History of Wickedness, that has Served to Corrupt and Brutalize Mankind." Thomas Paine (1737-1809; Original Founding Father
Petition to Rock Fabric of Evangelical Hypocrisy (tags)
Petition to U.S. Congress Eliminates Religious Institutions from Tax Exempt Status - All Religious Texts Promoting Criminal Activity Must be Purged From Public Worship Handbooks.
The Western and the Apartheid walls (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyleft artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, on behalf of Neturei Karta.
Bush wants your church membership directory (tags)
In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among conservative church congregations.
New organization to raise funds for a great cause.
Religious Storm over Script (tags)
An innocent-looking script called "The Presence" by English writer Matthew Horton is at the center of a new religious storm in Hollywood, proving that religion is still one of the most prickly of all subjects when it comes to the big screen.
Once upon a time in Rafah (by Latuff) (tags)
Copyright-free artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, on behalf of brave Palestinian people and their resistance against U.S. backed IsraHell's ethnic cleansing.
"Can a simple mind like Bush distinguish between terrorism and other religions?.. How much tolerance can anyone completely convinced of the uniqueness of his God show other gods and their followers?.."
Building Bridges Radio-Labor and the Bill of Rights (tags)
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report presents this 28 minute radio program. TO LISTEN CLICK ON INTERNET LINK.
What's wrong with America... and how we can fix it (tags)
Excerpts from 'The Empire of Ignorance, Hypocrisy and Obedience'. why the US lacks religious freedom... the seven basic tools of US foreign policy... poverty in the US... why money doesn't make one happy... and more.
A Christian Persecution Complex (tags)
I'm most bothered by Limbaugh’s biased use of history. The fact is that our secularist fellow citizens have good reasons to worry about those of us who defend the "good old days" when our kind of belief system dominated public life.
Bahrain Protests France's Ban on Muslim Scarves (tags)
Women gathered in protest outside of the French embassy in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain Thursday, urging an end to Chirac's plans to remove the Hijab from France's state schools.
A Conservative explains ''Why They Hate George W. Bush'' (tags)
The core of the Hate Bush Movement is fueled by the fact that he is a self-professed Christian and unfortunately many leading this parade are so-called Libertarians.
The Boykin Affair Still simmers (tags)
One top U.S. official noted that when the Boykin story broke, it "was the worst day of my life. . . .It confirmed [the] conspiracy theory that the war on terrorism is really a war on Islam."
Their fear is my weapon; their screams are my reward. (tags)
The sky is blue the grass is green now get off your ass and join the Marines! -- Hondo
Religious Activists Influencing Congress on Who Receives Health Study Funding (tags)
This past week, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter instructing the Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) to investigate what may be a sharing of confidential study information to the “religiopolitical extremist” group, Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)
The religious right, their Republican Party supporters, conservative columnists and television commentators all have leapt to defend General Boykin for stating that, "George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States ... he was appointed by God ... He's in the White House because God put him there."
I invite one to examine the Constitution for language that authorizes the Federal Government to become involved in an individual's education. There is none. Evil, therefore, is any Congressman who voted (in willful violation of his Oath of Office) for any bill involving the FedGov with education.
peacecoup.us to defeat war of all against all (tags)
please forward
The Ulterior Motive Behind School Vouchers (tags)
A network of Religious Right groups, Free-Market economists, ultra-Conservative columnists and others "are using vouchers as a vehicle to achieve an ultimate goal of privatizing" the education system.
U.S. prosecutors sue Quaker group over pacifist's unpaid taxes (tags)
Priscilla Adams says she doesn't mind paying taxes. She just doesn't want her money going to the military.
GOP Alliance may Split over Stem-Cells (tags)
For most of the 20th Century, leading conservatives and libertarians united against atheist-collectivists. To this day, a WWII-era alliance between US capitalists and moralists continues long after the defeat of the "Reds." And then came stem-cell research...
By making certain statements about God blessing America in the war on Iraq, did George Bush inadvertently make it a Holy War? I will look at the use of God in his State of the Union address and how he has invoked God since then. Many religious groups and leaders were very upset by this.
NYC sued over 'non-vegetarian' prison policy (tags)
Egert pointed to an affidavit from Richard Schwartz, a college professor and president of the group Jewish Vegetarians of North America, saying vegetarianism is consistent with the teachings of Judaism
Analysis: Hamas history tied to Israel (tags)
First published June 6th 2002 by UPI Terrorism Correspondent produced by your friend and ally for freedom Sy$teMF@iLuRe
Saudi citizens react to terrorism (tags)
Saudi's get the message loud and clear!
Misuse Of Islamic Values Indicates Crisis In Arab Thought (tags)
During the Iraq war we were bombard with fetwas, often contradicting one another -- most were associated with the positions of governments or expressed the interests of conflicting groups.
Free speech is one thing, hate speech is another.
Religious Peace Tax Fund - H.R. 2037 (tags)
Rep. John Lewis has introduced H.R. 2037 to create the Religious Peace Tax Fund and allow taxpayers to direct their taxes to be used for nonmilitary purposes.
ONE MORE INDIGNITY FOR IRAQIS...
Of God and Man, in the Oval Office (tags)
"In the nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft. It is apocalyptic in its implications." Rev. Fritz Ritsch is pastor of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church.
Of God and Man in the Oval Office (tags)
In a nuclear age, American triumphalism may not only be spiritually bereft, it is apocalyptic in its implications.
(1) Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown LA, Wednesday, April 16th (tags)
Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 16th
(2) Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown LA, Wednesday, April 16th (tags)
Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 16th
(3) Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown LA Wednesday, April 16th (tags)
Anti-War protest at the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles Wednesday, April 16th
Of God and Man in the Oval Office (tags)
"In a nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft, it is, quite possibly, apocalyptic in its implications." Rev. fritz Ritsch is pastor of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church.
Colorado to implement School Vouchers (tags)
DENVER – Colorado will soon become the first state to initiate public-school vouchers since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declared such programs constitutional.
europe says Osama Bin Bush a religious fundamentalist (tags)
europe catches on to shrub's "crusade"
Syrians told to prepare for fight with U.S. (tags)
It is considered certain that the fatwa was approved by Syria's authoritarian government, which has tightly controlled religious bodies since its ruthless suppression of a fundamentalist uprising in 1982.
Atheism in the Church, and the Pro-War Movement (tags)
The Pro-War position, which is advocated by ‘bible believing Christians' who are part of the religious right, is actually an expression of an ancient form of atheism, in that those who hold to this position do not really believe in the existence of God, and therefore turn instead to a bankrupt philosophy that holds that ‘God can only work through people' (the military industrial complex in this example).
WASHINGTON CLERIC SLAMS BUSH CHRISTIANITY (tags)
Washington Cleric Slams Bush “Christianity” as “Triumphalism” singling out for attack the code hymn/references, phrases, and End/time constructs used by the President, for example in his State of the Union speech.
A Proposal for an Urgent New Resolution to avoid war (tags)
My father called me at 8am this morning to ask me to forward this proposal for a new Resolution to encourage Congress to look at reasons NOT to go to war.
Religious Leaders Intervene, CIW Hunger Strike Ends on Day 10 (tags)
The Hunger Strike is Over! The Struggle Continues! The CIW Campaign Gains Strength as National Religious Groups Join in Solidarity!
BREAKING NEWS: CIW Hunger Strike Ends as National Religious Groups Endorse Boycott (tags)
Today, amidst a groundswell of support from National Religious Groups, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) ended its ten-day old hunger strike against Taco Bell.
Exploiting the Religious Title: Costa Mesa's Trinity Broadcasting Network Fights To Annoy (tags)
Costa Mesa's Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) attempts to overstep its bounds in using the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 to conduct church services and taping outdoors -- nearby residents outraged.
U.S. Navy Scapegoats Riverside Muslims (tags)
The park in the Norco navy base (yes, there's such a thing) is closed. What's the biggest threat? No, it's not Osama bin Laden. It's Muslims from Riverside. Really. That's what the Navy says.
Negationism in India - Analysis
Conscientious Objection (tags)
Information on Conscientious Objection. As the war rhetoric increases, and newspaper editorials appear calling for reinstating the draft, its time to review how to stand in Conscientious Objection.
Israel Does NOT Allow Inter-Religious Marrages (tags)
Not all Haaretz articles make it into English (guess, they don't want their foreign readers to know everything they publish). Here's one such article: Israel does not allow inter-religious marrages.
The Fight for Iran's Democratic Ideals (tags)
Over the weekend thousands of Iranian students continued their protests to demand political reform. Their voices were raised in support of Hashem Aghajari, the college professor who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy. But the student movement is broader than dissent over one injustice.
Miss World pageant highlights terrible conitions of masses in Nigeria (tags)
Ethnic conflicts in Nigeria
CHICAGO RELIGIOUS LEADERS SAY NO TO IRAQ WAR ! (tags)
In an unprecedented show of unity, Chicago's top Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders have drafted a joint letter urging President Bush to avoid war with Iraq.
Bush's Base Are Planning The Next Jewish Holocaust. (tags)
A lot of people don't know that Jesus crucified actually did not become a symbol in the church until the fourth century BC after Rome's conversion to christianity
OPRAH WINFREY PIMPS FOR WAR (tags)
The Queen of Daytime talk-shows pimps for war.
BTL:Religious Leaders Oppose White House Drive for War with Iraq (tags)
Interview Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches by Scott Harris
Muhammad - the Most Influential Person in History (tags)
My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.
Islam is a political manifesto of terrorism masquerading as religion. (tags)
Islam, like its communist neighbor, is attempting to destroy all western thought in favor of intolerance, mass murder and mass conformity. Islam is a direct attack on the individualism and freedom of thought that helped create the western world. If Islam is permitted its cancerous spread, the world will enter another dark age of bigotry, intolerance, and the genocidal rage of madmen masquerading as religious leaders.
Religion and Revolution (tags)
Issues surrounding religion have generated much debate on http://2changetheworld.info -- in the discussion over the Draft Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA. Here are some excerpts from some of the themes under discussion: the role of religion in holding back liberation, how to criticize religion without seeming to attack the believers themselves, and whether some forms of religion can play a positive role in the revolution and in socialism.
House Votes 416 to 3 to Condemn Court for Tossing Pledge of Allegiance (tags)
Not to be outdone by the US Senate, which voted 99 to 0 to support the illegal, religious, reactionary Pledge of Allegiance, the House of Representatives voted 416 to 3 to condemn the 9th Circuit Court's excellent Church/State separation ruling, thus proving that they, like the US Senate and Gov Gray Davis all are proud of violating their oath of office which mandates they support the Constitution, including the First Amendment, which mandates separation of church and state.
***DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT*** (tags)
L.A. DOWNTOWN FEDERAL BUILDING Friday, June 28 @ 4 PM FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 213.487.2368
Are you a Middle Eastern/South or Central Asian Womin Activist? (tags)
tired of being left out? join us for some talk
Resident CokeHead Taliban Bush (tags)
Bush continues following the orders from those who placed him in position. Democracy, what democracy?? Perhaps a couple of eight-balls, or Belushi specials are in order.
Right-Wing Authoritarianism--The Mindset Behind Religious Extremists (tags)
There is a universal authoritarian trait which predisposes some people toward a greater willingness to thoughtlessly follow authoritarian leaders in attacking enemies identified by those leaders. This trait is generally associated with religiosity, and produces mirror-image behavior between the most belligerent people on both sides of any given conflict. It illuminates similarities in attitude of hardline religious fanatics, no matter what their religion.
REVIEW #2: "Forcing God's Hand" -- Book re Christians Eager For Armageddon (tags)
"Anyone who wants to understand where the Religious Right is really heading ought to read this book…. The main premise of Forcing God's Hand is that Christians want the Holy Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt, knowing full well that it may bring on a world war. In fact, that's what they hope for, or more precisely, what they yearn for. They call it the Battle of Armageddon, which would end civilization as we know it. Of course, they believe that Jesus will rescue the faithful, and to hell with the rest of us."
Islamic Fundamentalist, Mirroring Falwell/Robertson, Blames Terrorism on Darwin (tags)
Conveniently ignoring thousands of years of religious conflict, murder and war, and Islamic fundamentalist tries to blame Darwinism for all the violence that religious true believers have perpetrated in the name of God.
facist Italian prime minister says Western civilization superior to Islamic (tags)
He told a news conference, "We must be aware of the superiority of our civilization, a system that has guaranteed well-being, respect for human rights and -- in contrast with Islamic countries -- respect for religious and political rights, a system that has as its values understandings of diversity and tolerance." hah! like he cares about human rights or freedom. dirty facist.
Deny Them Their Victory: A Religious Response to Terrorism (tags)
American religious leaders offer a 3-fold response: "First, we must find a word of consolation for the untold pain and suffering of our people…. Second, we offer a word of sober restraint as our nation discerns what its response will be. We must not retaliate in ways that bring more loss of innocent life…. Third, we face deep and profound questions of what this attack on America will do to us as a nation. The terrorists have offered us a stark view of the world they would create. But we can deny them their victory by refusing to submit to a world created in their image."
Progressive Religious Leaders Issue Call for a Faith-based Response to Terrorism (tags)
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with the Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners Magazine, who summarizes the statement he helped draft and his concerns as America and the world enter a new and dangerous era.
Our Enemy's Enemies Are Not Our Friends
Right Wing Wigs Out-Falwell, Robertson, Coulter Go Over The Edge (tags)
Rightwing religious zealots Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson attempted to shift blame for the slaughter of innocents away from their fellow religious fanatics in the ranks of Islam, and put it squarely on the shoulders of secular and religious Americans who don't share their brand of bigotry. Meanwhile, anti-feminist columnist Ann Coulter called for an outright holy war. "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Congressman promises to introduce 'free speech' law for religious right (tags)
On the religious right TV channel, TBN, on September 4th, a U.S. congressman promised to introduce 'free speech' laws for churches (read 'gay bashing' as the U.S. already has 'free speech' in the consitution - and this is the church that always complains about gays getting 'extra rights')
Fuck the Religious Right - Orange County Rally Against Hate (tags)
Rally Against Hate protester with sole anti-abortion counter-protester.