Religious Child Abuse = Parents' Religious Freedom?

Proponents of the Orthodox Jewish practice of orally sucking the blood from the infant's penis after circumcision claim that efforts by authorities to stop this disgusting practice infringes on their religious freedom. Seems like these mohel and the parents of these babies may be infringing on the babies' religious freedom!

Babies' herpes linked to circumcision practices

Even if the practice had never been linked to infants contracting herpes, some of whom have died and others left brain damaged, it is a disgusting, abusive practice that should have been done away with long ago. It also brings up the question of whether parents have a right to indoctrinate their children into their religion in the first place. If we teach children to believe a certain way without giving them a chance to make their own choice, are we not guilty of mental and emotional abuse? And in the case of ritual circumcision, is that not physical abuse?

Do children not have a right to religious freedom?

 



I wonder how long religion would survive if children were allowed to reach an appropriate age before being taught about their parents' gods? I'd give it one generation.

Spiritual Warfare For Dummies

According to a Pentecostal acquaintance/co-worker, humans are susceptible to all types of demonic spiritual influence. If you're angry, you're being influenced by a spirit of anger. If you're jealous, that's the spirit of jealousy, etc. Basically any perceived negative human emotion or reaction or experience is a spirit of something. I remember quite a lot of preaching on all these spirits when I was still attending church. I didn't buy it then either. But I think I was probably under the influence of the spirit of skepticism even back then. Considering my upbringing, I'm surprised that "spirit" survived since one of the goals of my childhood indoctrination into Christianity was to utterly destroy any skepticism I might have possessed.

I was fortunate my skepticism survived, but this particular acquaintance and many, many others were not so fortunate. Being attacked by demonic spirits is just one freaky belief out of countless others. I once saw a book this above-mentioned acqaintance brought to work to share with another co-worker. "The Blood of Jesus" by Elaine Davenport. I saw it on a desk and I couldn't resist a peek. The back cover summary of the book made me laugh and want to vomit at the same time. It also gave me some insight into the psyches of a couple of my co-workers. The book summary stated how to plead the blood of Jesus, how to create a blood line around your property to protect your family and home from Satan, etc. Later, out of curiosity I looked up the author's website. Most Pentecostal insanity doesn't usually shock me, but in this case I did mutter a "you're fucking kidding me" under my breath when I read the author's blog posts and the comments section.

On the subject of protecting your family, she mentioned that you could either buy a handgun to protect your family and property OR
"...you can “in faith” draw a blood line around your home, boldly declaring to Satan that he has no legal right to touch you, your family, or your possessions..."

There are SO many books and lectures and sermons covering the subject of spiritual warfare and how to be a prayer warrior, how to rid yourself of the spirit of (insert negative human emotion or experience here) and how to fight Satan and Pentecostals just eat it up. (I know because I WAS one) They revel in any perceived demonic attack because to them it means whatever they're doing is making the devil really mad! And if the devil is mad, they're doing a good job for Jesus! They would be worried if the devil WASN'T attacking them. And they do love to brag about it. They love to exchange their spiritual war stories. I've heard literally hundreds of them. The stories all consist of common events - unfortunate things that happen to everyone from losing their car keys when they were getting ready to leave for church, to having a bad dream, to suffering because of a bad economy, to losing a loved one or being diagnosed with a serious illness. I know folks who consider every event in their lives as having a supernatural cause. The owner of the above mentioned book IS one of those. The author of the above book certainly seems to be as well.

Most don't live at that extreme, but I've run across quite a few. They aren't your everyday Christians, but considering how popular books on the subject of Christian spiritual warfare are, I think it's safe to say there are a lot of deluded folks out there.

It's one thing to believe in a god, but believing yourself, or your family, or your church, or your entire country is under attack by Satan? Sounds a lot like paranoid delusion to me. If I'm not mistaken, paranoid delusion is a mental disorder. Whether it is taught, or innate, it is still a mental disorder. These pastors and apologists and authors are not only catering to it, they're perpetuating it!

So if you consider yourself a spiritual warrior or under attack by the devil, get a good therapist and some medication. And stop buying those stupid books!!

Rowan County, North Carolina Defense of Religion Act of 2013

We know by now the Rowan County Defence of Religion Act of 2013 was created in reaction to the ACLU's lawsuit against Rowan County concerning sectarian prayer during council meetings and speculatively political posturing by Reps Carl Ford and Harry Warren to appease their fundamentalist constituents. I don't discount the possiblity that it was actually an attempt to open the door to ultimately creating a state religion in North Carolina. I don't put that past some of our state's representatives and voters, but whatever the truth is concerning the reason behind submitting this resolution, it does further the conversation on Seperation of Church and State.

I only wish people who think that freedom of religion means they should be able to advance their religion even in a taxpayer funded situation like council meetings, public schools, etc., and that legislating their religious views is their constitutional right, would realize that other people exist who don't hold the same religious views. Their freedom of religion is the only one that matters. If they actually DID respect the views of others, they would easily understand why people have fought so hard to keep church and state seperate. They could empathize with the discrimination that minority religions and non-believers have been subjected to. They would understand how it feels to be forced to live in a way that goes against what we believe and who we are.

It would be easy enough for any of them to understand this if they put themselves into the very scenario they would like to create. That scenario...with a slight twist. What religion would they like to see become the official religion of the United States, by which all laws would then be created? Christianity! they would answer.

But really? As if Christianity is a generic term? Even if we break it down into Catholics and Protestants, which one should be the official religion? Can we even imagine the war between those two? It might play out a bit differently than it did in the middle ages, but it still wouldn't be pretty. Could a Protestant imagine how he or she would feel if they were forced to practice Catholicism? Or simply forced to hear Catholic prayers at the beginning of their council meetings or led by a teacher at the beginning of their school day then required to genuflect? Or if laws were based on the Catholic interpretation of scripture and all the extra dogmatic crap they have invented? What if birth control became illegal and you were forced to give a percentage of your income to the Roman Catholic Church? What if you were forced by law to baptize your children into Catholicism? What if you were required to pledge allegiance to the Pope? And if your beliefs would not allow you to do any of this and maintain your integrity, not to mention your freedom, or if you were discriminated against when trying to find employment, or were evicted from your home because you believed differently, or were abused verbally or physically and shunned by your community because you didn't conform? Or were demonized by the ruling religion simply for your different beliefs?

Can you put yourself in that scenario and really understand how you would feel? If not, please read the above paragraph again carefully. If so,can you finally understand why government must remain neutral and secular? It IS as much for your freedom as for everyone else's. But it is as much for everyone else as it is for you.

No one is taking away your rights if prayer or worship or bible study is not allowed in taxpayer sponsored situations, or if laws are created through the influence of your religion. But you are taking away others' rights if you force your own religion into these situations. That is when it becomes only about YOU. Neutrality and secularity makes it about ALL OF US.

Hate Speech and Terrorism

In the midst of the terrible events these past few days in Egypt, Lybia, Yemen and now spreading through other parts of the Middle East, the subject of free speech has come up many times with regards to this so-called movie that has set off so much opportunistic violence and death.

I see the instigators who make these videos intended not to educate but to inflame and these extreme right wing pastors who burn religious texts as hate-driven cowards who start shit from a safe distance and let innocent people suffer the bloody consequenses. I believe completely in free speech, but I don't put what Sam Bacile (or whatever his name is) and Terry Jones and their ilk do in the category of free speech or the extremist Islamists publicly calling for the killing of those who insult their religion. Nor do I condone extremist Islam's use of any excuse to justify attacks on anyone they hate. I would hold them ALL responsible for every death that results from this kind of violence.

I'm talking about intentionally inciting violence as opposed to speaking out against policies or beliefs or situations that cause harm to society or individuals that must be addressed. So often, taking a stance in an ethical manner does cause violent reactions from the opposition, and some argue that even hate-speech is protected under free speech. It's a complicated issue and a slippery slope. But there is a difference in criticizing and insulting. I believe in criticizing what needs criticizing. Including religion. We do this to effect change, hopefully in a good direction. Insulting only results in negative reaction. Insulting is an attack. Criticism is a discussion. That's the difference.

And in light of what we are hearing about this movie and it's maker, that even the actors were not aware of the actual content, which was allegedly dubbed over after the fact, if that is true, I would call on authorities to find him and hold him responsible for putting so many lives in danger, including the lives of those involved in the movie if they truly did not know what was being done. Certainly, absolutely, those who reacted with violence must be held responsible for their own actions and for the deaths they have caused. I think the consequences for this terrorism should be aggressive, immediate and harsh. But I'm addressing the issue of free speech and the boundaries that those of us priviledged to have that freedom should be observing. We have the freedom to condemn and criticize or stand up for any issue or situation we feel strongly about, but we should do it responsibly and honestly.

With that said, I condemn this disgusting video and it's maker and his "message", and I also condemn the attack on the mission in Benghazi by jihadists who murdered Ambassador Stevens and the 3 American staff members, whether that attack was provoked by the movie or was pre-planned. And I agree with the statement issued by the Embassy in Egypt and with Sec. Clinton that we do not condone any effort to intentionally insult any individual or group for their religion. And despite what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan so opportunistically and idiodically claimed, it is NOT an apology. It is a condemnation of hate speech.

While I'm doing all this condemning, I would like to condemn Romney for claiming the Obama administration is apologising to the jihadists for this movie, for dishonestly twisting words and using it for campaigning purposes and I hope his supporters see it for the lie that it is. I was disgusted by his statement. I hope anyone else who feels the same lets him know that in November.

As for Mr. Bacile (or whatever your name is), why don't you come out of your hiding hole and take your part of the responsibility for this bloody mess. If you did what the reports are saying you did, you owe a lot of people restitution, and you owe everyone the truth. Not that it would even begin to be enough, but you should never forget that you played a part in the deaths of innocent people.

Do not misunderstand what I'm saying. More than anything, I condemn these jihadist groups for using any perceived insult to attack innocent people and hold them completely repsonsible above any other player in this sickening situation because there is NO justification for this kind of reaction.

Period.

What are you really worshipping?

We've all heard Christians claim that Jesus dispensed with the Old Testament laws (even though they like to trot out tidbits when it suits them). They say Christians live by the New Testament and the OT does not apply to them. It's how they get around our questions on the morality of stoning people for any little thing. We have all heard that over and over. And I don't care whether or not Jesus abolished Mosaic Law. What I want to hear is a real justification for worshipping the god of the Old Testament - the immoral, murderous, jealous tyrant who rules with fear and threats. Or did Jesus dispense with him too? The god of the OT and the god of the NT do seem to be two vastly different characters. Jesus's father seems a kinder, gentler version of Yahweh, at least until you get to the book of Revelation. Even so, Christians consider the OT god and the NT god to be the same One True God. And he is a god who loves all his children unconditionally. Just don't piss him off.

So, if the Old Testament is mostly a book of history for Christians, let's look at the character of Yahweh and some of his accomplishments as told in the books of the OT. These are a few highlights as I found so many examples it would make this post much too long.

Genesis:
Chapter 3: God curses all of mankind for a sin committed by Adam and Eve. Interestingly, eating of the tree would have "opened their eyes and made them as gods, knowing good and evil." If Adam and Eve didn't know good and evil before, how can God blame them for disobeying him? They were innocent, ignorant, uninformed, and even misled by God himself. He didn't bother giving them enough information to make a right decision, but instead, created them with human curiosity and weaknesses and placed the temptation there for them then allowed the serpent to seduce them, knowing in advance what would happen. He is omniscient, after all. They were set up and there is no other way to spin that. Then they were punished for something they were hardly responsible for - a punishment that certainly didn't fit the crime! The entire human race cursed, forever.

Chapter 6: God commits global genocide, destroying every living thing on the planet except Noah and his family and the animals on the ark. He regretted creating humans because they all turned out evil. (Really? ALL of them?) But being omniscient, didn't he know that was going to happen? And if he did, he created it that way to begin with. So, again, Yahweh punishes humans for HIS own mistake. And for good measure, he kills all the other living creatures as well.

Chapter 19: God's angels visit Lot in Sodom to warn him that God is going to destroy the city. The men of the city surround Lot's house, demanding he send the angels out so they can "know" them but Lot (the only man God finds righteous in the city) "righteously" offers to send his virgin daughters out intstead for the mob to rape. God doesn't care about this, but later turns Lot's wife into a pillar of salt only because she looked back at the city as they were leaving. Can't spin that one to make Yahweh look good no matter how thick those Holy Spirit glasses are!

Chapter 22: God commands Abraham to kill his only son Isaac to show his obedience. Of course the angel stops Abraham just in the nick of time. Christians think God was merciful for not having Abe go through with murdering his son. I wonder how Isaac felt about that.

Exodus:  God sends plague after plague upon Egypt, even after Pharoah said he would let the slaves go. It was God who kept the slaves in Egypt as he "hardened Pharoah's heart" quite a few times after Pharoah consented. Most of the death could have been avoided when Pharoah first agreed. But apparently, Yahweh wasn't done killing.

Leviticus 26: God lists all the punishments for not doing what he says including "sending wild beasts among you, to rob you of your children" and "ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters ye shall eat". He really seems to enjoy punishing innocent people, especially children, for something someone else did.

Numbers and Deuteronomy: With Yahweh's approval, the Israelites slaughter city after city, men, women, children and animals. Including the poor guy who picked up sticks on the sabbath. He also personally killed tens of thousands with fire, plague, venomous snakes and caused the earth to open up and swallow men, women and children (because the MEN were rebellious).
He also commands Moses to kill all the male Midianite children, all their women who were not virgins, but tells the Israelites they can keep all the virgins "for themselves". Overall, they ended up with 32,000 virgin girls and women.

Joshua: Yahweh helps Joshua slaughter everyone in Jerico, Ai, Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, and the Gibeonites. At the Waters of Merom, God commanded Joshua to "hamstring their horses and burn their chariots."

And this interesting nugget:
Joshua 11:20 - For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
That one certainly says alot.

Judges: More slaughter by the Israelites under God's command.

I Samuel: God kills 70 men for looking into the Ark of the Covenant. More men, women and children slaughtered by God's command.

II Samuel: Uzzah reaches out to steady the Ark when the oxen stumbles. God kills him for touching the Ark. More slaughter by David and his armies under God's command. God sends a plague on Israel that kills 70,000 innocent people to punish David for sinning.

2 Kings: Elisha curses 42 "little children" who made fun of his bald head. God sends 2 she-bears to kill the children.

God's punishment for Babylon:
Isaiah 13: 9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Job 1 & 2: God allows Satan to kill Job's children, destroy everything he owns and curse him with boils to prove to Satan that Job would still worship and obey God even if God cursed him.

Hosea 13:16  Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

That is just a smattering of examples from the Old Testament that describe Yahweh's character. And I didn't even mention those immoral Mosaic laws! (other than the poor guy picking up sticks on the Sabbath). How much twisting of the scriptures does it take to make that god appear as one who loves all his creation "unconditionally" instead of the disgusting, immoral, genocidal, baby-killing, woman-hating, jealous, petty, murderous tyrant that is described in those books? How can a single drop of goodness be wrung from the fabric of Yahweh's character as the OT describes him? And yet, not only do Christians claim him as their god, they don't have a problem with any of the atrocities he commited. They see those horrible acts as good and moral because if God did it, it MUST be good and moral. And because of the Original Sin caveat, we apparently all deserve to be slaughtered if God sees fit because we can't possibly know his REAL reasons for doing those things and those things are automatically, unquestioningly righteous and just, because it's God.  William Lane Craig said when God kills children, it's actually an act of love because they get to go straight to heaven. WHAT KIND OF WARPED MIND AGREES WITH THAT???!!!

It doesn't matter if the Old Testament doesn't apply to Christianity. Yahweh is still the Christians' God. They are still worshipping a character who makes Satan himself look like a Cub Scout. And they really don't see that?

Prophets: A Dime a Dozen

Prophesy pronounced /prä-fə-ˌsī/

transitive verb

1: to utter by or as if by divine inspiration

2: to predict with assurance or on the basis of mystic knowledge

(Mirriam Webster)

Someone recently told me their son had been "prophesied over" in church. The "prophecy" about the young man was that he would become a preacher - that he was called by God to go into the ministry. (I don't know why people tell me these ridiculous things, knowing I'm atheist. Obviously they have no idea what I actually think about their stories.)

So, I'm going to prophesy something about this situation: the kid believes his preacher has had a revelation from God that he is going to become a minister. The knowledge gets downloaded into his brain and begins to work on his mind. His mother and other church members continue to remind him of the prophecy and constantly reinforce it. Everyone involved are determined to help that prophecy come to pass, come Hell or high water. One of three things happens:

 1) He doesn't feel any real desire to become a minister, but has this prophecy gnawing at his psyche. Being a believer, he is tormented by his conflicting feelings of thinking God is calling him to preach and of not wanting that for himself. He tries to force himself into the role anyway since it is apparently God's will and he has to pray constantly for God to give him the desire to fulfill what God has called him to do, but unless he manages to completely brainwash himself, his prayers don't work and he is miserable for the rest of his life because some idiot said something stupid in church one day. If he doesn't go into the ministry, he's even more miserable. If he forces himself to do it, then everyone will think God had actually spoken through this prophet and what he said has come to pass. Praise the Lord!

2) He may actually want to become a minister, in which case he is encouraged by the prophecy and its constant reinforcement from family and peers to go ahead a do it, not realizing it was a self-fulfilling prophesy to begin with since he knew about it beforehand and thought that's what God wanted him to do so he did it, at which point everyone will think God had actually spoken through this prophet and what he said has come to pass. Praise the Lord!

3) He wants to become a minister, or he doesn't, but there's that prophecy, so he goes into Seminary and while taking bible history courses, realizes the bible is not what he thought it was and begins to have doubts and questions and his intellectual curiosity kicks in and he starts studying more and more about the subject until he wakes up one day and realizes the whole thing is bullshit and declares himself an atheist rendering the prophecy null and void. In which case, everyone will think that Satan had been attacking this kid because he would have become a great preacher and done awesome work for God and Satan had "temporarily" won. They, of course, know this because someone prophesied something and they'll all be praying for him even if they've shunned him and told him he's going to hell and cut him out of their lives and have been treating him like a leper since he quit Seminary and came out as an atheist.

I feel really sorry for this kid. I can't completely imagine what kind of burden those words of prophecy put on his mind, but it must have. And the likelihood that it will fulfill itself because of that pressure and because of his perceived expectations of his family and church peers, not to mention his perceived expectation from God! seems very high. I remember people being "prophesied over" in church when I was younger. Then, it just seemed creepy. Now, I find it disgusting.

In my experience from every church I've ever attended (all Pentecostal), prophesying isn't an act performed only by the pastor. Any member of the congregation can do it. Anytime anyone feels overcome by emotion (sorry, I mean "filled with the holy spirit") and some thought pops into their head which they "interpret" as coming from God, they can blurt it out and everyone will automatically take it as prophecy. They have to. They would risk possibly denying a word from God if they didn't. Even if someone had doubts, they would dare not speak it out loud! I won't go into the silent jealousy factor when many of them think "why did God pick him to prophesy and not ME! I want to prophesy too! I could prophesy just as good as that guy!" But the thing is......people are saying shit in church and claiming God is speaking through them and everyone believes it. And in the case of this poor kid, possibly laying some ridiculous burden on them that may screw them up for the rest of their lives.

Just another mindfuck, courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Lord of Hosts.

Dinosaur Discomfort Syndrome

How many fundamentalist Christians who claim Evolution is false and Creationism is the truth really believe that, deep down? I know many fundamentalists don't really know the facts and details of Evolution due mostly to their willful ignorance of the subject, but they all know at least something about it. I'm sure there isn't a single citizen of this country who doesn't know about dinosaurs and the fact that they lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Many know about Homo neanderthalensis and Homo erectus. Who hasn't heard about Neanderthal Man? Most everyone has at least a small bit of knowledge about Evolution. Enough, possibly, to make them feel a twinge of discomfort when they think about the story of Genesis. Or at least, it should.

How many fundamentalists protest the fact of Evolution simply because it is what they're expected to do in order to maintain their biblical infallability/literalist views? How many really feel - somewhere deep in their own minds- how shaky that argument really is? How many KNOW that something isn't quite right?

I know of at least one person who has admitted just that very thing. I don't think she even realizes what she was actually admitting, but it came out, nonetheless. This is a person I know very well so I won't name her. She told me that it always bothered her "about the dinosaurs". She said she had always loved seeing drawings of dinosaurs and reading about them when she was a child and that they facinated her all her life. After she reaffirmed her Christianity in her older years (after she was 50 or so) she said knowing the dinosaurs existed millions and millions of years ago "bothered her." Then, amazingly, she said "So I just decided not to think about it." I said something about evolution and she (again, amazingly) said, almost hatefully, "That's just a theory." And then she quickly changed the subject.

Decided not to think about it.

I was completely dumbstruck by that comment. That isn't even cognitive dissonance! She was willfully, consciously denying something she knew was true to somehow salvage her young earth creationist belief! And she has been denying it for a couple of decades now. I've never encountered that before. I have known a lot of people who are in denial about one thing or another, but they don't seem to be quite conscious of that. At least, they would deny being in denial! But to deny a fact on purpose? She didn't even try to convince herself that dinosaurs must have existed more recently, alongside humans. She just decided not to think about the subject at all. How the hell do you even DO that? How do you take something we know is real, that we have undeniable evidence for, and weigh it against something for which there IS no evidence, and choose on the side of no evidence? Choose no evidence when you already accept the side with the evidence? She had already accepted the dinosaurs existed millions of years ago, and she still does. But at the same time accepts that the earth was created 6,000 years ago. And this is actually a sane, fairly intelligent woman. She is forcing herself to believe something that contradicts facts she also accepts. I don't even know what to call that. Desperation?

But this also made me wonder about how many other fundamentalists feel the same way she does? How many are actually aware that their beliefs don't stand up to what we actually know about our world and our universe and our origins? And how many make a conscious decision to just not think about it instead of doing what we non-believers did when we realized the facts of nature don't match what the bible says? Is it that they want so desperately to believe God is really there that they can somehow seperate reality from their beliefs?

That would seem like enough to drive someone insane. Maybe it eventually does.