On May 21 Religion Clause released the following. I can’t do better today so I will repeat it verbatim:

“Yesterday, after comments by Secretary of Statse John Kerry, Suzan Johnson Cook, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, released the U.S. State Department’s 2012 International Religious Freedom Report. The Report assesses the situation county-by-country around the world. The Report’s Executive Summary outlines “some common themes regarding the status of religious freedom around the world”:

“Laws and policies that impede the freedom of individuals to choose a faith, practice a faith, change their religion, tell others about their religious beliefs and practices, or reject religion altogether remain pervasive…..

The use of blasphemy and apostasy laws continued to be a significant problem, as was the continued proliferation of such laws around the world. Such laws often violate freedoms of religion and expression and often are applied in a discriminatory manner….

This report also documents a continued global increase in anti-Semitism. Holocaust denial and glorification remained troubling themes, and opposition to Israeli policy at times was used to promote or justify blatant anti-Semitism….

“In addition to anti-Semitism, intolerance by members of society towards those of other faiths besides Judaism was a growing problem, and all too often evolved into violence. While Christians were a leading target of societal discrimination, abuse, and violence in some parts of the world, members of other religions, particularly Muslims, suffered as well. Societal groups targeted members of minority branches of Islam and smaller faith groups, often those considered by the majority to be heretical or “foreign.”…

“In many parts of the world… [g]overnments exacerbated religious tensions… fostering a climate of impunity, and failing to ensure the rule of law. In several instances of communal attacks on members of religious minorities and their property, police reportedly arrested the victims of such attacks….

“In connection with release of the Report, Secretary of State Kerry also announced that Ira Forman will serve as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.”

Yup, religious intolerance is spreading. Is it because there is more catastrophe in the world, less economic viability, more communication displaying ideological disparities? In any case, the atheists’ best strategy is to fight it on all fronts. Infrastructures that accommodate environmental change, better economics, the revulsion of nihilistic antibirthcontrol ideologies, and more communication. The best way is to make the public secular, religion private, and more education. There are enough excuses for immorality without religion but if the reason is something else then a secular public will help find focus.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com

Apparently most people don’t know that the bible wasn’t intended to be read by the common person until the Reformation.

The Council of Nicaea called by the Emperor Constantine met in 325 C.E. to establish a unified Catholic Church. At that point no universally sanctioned Scriptures or Christian Bible existed. Various churches and officials adopted different texts and gospels. That’s why the Council of Hippo sanctioned 27 books for the New Testament in 393 C.E. Four years later the Council of Cartage confirmed the same 27 books as the authoritative Scriptures of the Church.

Wouldn’t you assume that the newly established Church would want its devotees to immerse themselves in the sanctioned New Testament, especially since the Church went to great lengths to eliminate competing Gospels? And wouldn’t the best way of spreading the “good news” be to ensure that every Christian had direct access to the Bible?

He goes on to talk about the tradition of exegesis in Judaism and then adds support that determined what should be included in the bible and who should read it–including the complete exclusion and eventual abandonment of any texts that smacked of competing Jewish-Christianity.

Decree of the Council of Toulouse (1229 C.E.): “We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.”

Ruling of the Council of Tarragona of 1234 C.E.: “No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned…”

Proclamations at the Ecumenical Council of Constance in 1415 C.E.: Oxford professor, and theologian John Wycliffe, was the first (1380 C.E.) to translate the New Testament into English to “…helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which they know best Christ’s sentence.” For this “heresy” Wycliffe was posthumously condemned by Arundel, the archbishop of Canterbury. By the Council’s decree “Wycliffe’s bones were exhumed and publicly burned and the ashes were thrown into the Swift River.”

Fate of William Tyndale in 1536 C.E.: William Tyndale was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. According to Tyndale, the Church forbid owning or reading the Bible to control and restrict the teachings and to enhance their own power and importance.

While Plato may have introduced the means of dialog and Socratic questioning his Republic of the philosopher king made it clear he didn’t trust common people to rule. Democratic Greece was actually an oligarchy of men creating law by discussion and debate. Sophists were disdained precisely because they helped commoners to debate and win in court (lawyers have been long disliked).

Christians continued this with their priest class that would rule by claiming the text sacred, revealed, and yet requiring interpretation. To give Plato some excuse he was refining the ancient tradition of an oracle where a priest or priestess read the oracle as it was otherwise unintelligible.

The reformation initiated the bible be read by everyone for their own interpretation. Mostly because it became clear just how cheated they were being by the church for its sake. The translation of the bible into other languages was hugely contested. The bible was dangerous without a priest. How could an untrained person make sense of the book? Indeed, considering the gibberish, contradictions, and nihilistic bullshit within it’s not surprising they didn’t want savages, foreigners, commoners, or women reading it. There is a reason so many have said if you want to turn someone away from religion have them read the bible closely.

More importantly the bible has been an instrument of control and it’s not the text that is important but the class that uses it to rule.

Time has shown that people are incredibly forgiving in their reading and will call red blue and up down to make the bible coherent. Nonreaders as would be expected create their own message like Jesus is love and go from there.

That this article exists as news shows just how much protestants have forgotten their own tradition and how much they think the bible will miraculously create conversion by its appearance and reading as the word of god when it’s just rehashed theological humanism.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com

When I went to one of my first secular conferences I heard Margaret Downey talk about secular celebrants. Knowing that many atheists need a replacement for the religious celebrations, rituals, and social supports that had been shed by the government (under conservative duress in favor of faith-based organizations and so called grass-roots groups) I thought to become one.

After a bit of investigation I realized I am not the right personality type. I don’t really like jazzy parties and rituals. I would not have gotten married but for the rather insistent insistence of my spouse for reasons too great to discuss here. A few years later, what appealed to me about the Amish and Mennonites in our new farm home was their plainness and simplicity–it certainly wasn’t their religiosity and familial culture.

I decided to write instead. After years of nonwriting it took awhile to make it automatic again as it had to be to meet time limits–especially the requirements of editing and getting the typo’s and grammar drops out.

Celebrations are important for most and serve as the glue in communities. As a secular community it is important that we push back against government defunding of social support services and that we find secular approaches to a membership that is growing and desires this type of community building.

As Ireland gets less Catholic, civil celebrants are stepping to the plate.

Wojnar is now a registered civil celebrant, presiding over funerals and weddings for people who refuse to associate with Ireland’s scandal-tarred Roman Catholic Church. She’s not alone; many newly minted civil celebrants are starting their own businesses as part of Ireland’s “post-Catholic” economy.

Although many observers have noted the impact of secularization and child abuse scandals on church membership and finances, only now are the Irish seeing the cultural and socioeconomic reverberations. These include a class of people willing to observe life’s most significant milestones outside the church.

“People only get one opportunity to get a funeral right,” Wojnar said. “I help them prepare a service which honors the bereaved without being constrained by the convention of religion.”

Irish funeral directors estimate that 10 percent of the nearly 30,000 funerals conducted annually are nonreligious. Government data show that about 30 percent of the 21,000 weddings annually are outside any church, up from 5 percent two decades ago.

I had two weddings. One with the highest level of Episcopal authority in Minnesota outside–boy did we have a fun premarriage discussion. Having it outside was about as far as it could stretch. The other a week later on the beach with my friends in a circle in the fog where I got to thank them all for the value they had added to my life. I had left California to begin, yet again, a new life and would miss them and their import in my life. Which wedding was more valid? Hmm, depends on who you ask.

Brian Whiteside, the director of ceremonies for the Humanist Association of Ireland, led more than 100 weddings, funerals or naming ceremonies in 2012.

“We’re busier than we ever thought we would be,” Whiteside said. “I thought I would do this as a sideline, but it’s taken over my life.”

Humanists – who believe in ethical values and a sense of compassion – have been at the forefront of performing nonreligious ceremonies. Whiteside said he and his 10 fellow Humanist-sanctioned celebrants have seen consistent growth, topping off at 78 funerals and 200 weddings in 2012.

Deirdre Lonergan is among those who chose a nonreligious wedding because she felt disillusioned with the church. But she needed two ceremonies to marry Eoghan Murphy.

The couple had a government-sanctioned ceremony in a small, unadorned government office without rings, vows, music or a priest. Three days later, they had a ceremony at a hotel with friends, a civil celebrant and all the normal regalia.

The dual ceremonies were needed because Ireland requires someone from the government’s Register of Solemnizers to perform an “official” marriage. Of the 5,600 people on the government’s roster, 4,300 are Catholic clergy.

An uneasy transition that we have no choice but to follow if there is to be change and somehow the couple has to live in two worlds. One side of my family considers the first wedding to be real and the other side considers the second to be real. Luckily my relationship has thrived in spite of great difficulties and I attribute it to the intensity of our insisting that we enjoy it.

As to funerals, I would wish to be eaten by the earth for sustenance but since my partner has more specific wishes I want to be with her. And yes a big party–you all are invited!

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com

Religion makes you moral? You can’t be moral without religion? Hmm, I wonder if you can be moral with religion. If you can worry about justice in the next life, if you can be forgiven for your sins in this life, then this life can be a big orgy of bad behavior. We can’t lose weight, stop drinking, or save money for old age and we’re supposed to do justice here for a big carrot a lifetime away? No wonder the threat of hell or the promise of heaven fails except when you choose to martyr yourself in hopes of immediate reward–now where are those virgins, I died with a hard on?

The City Harvest church leaders (Singapore) are on trial for bilking their sheep of 40 million to pay for Sun Ho’s singing career. I wish I could watch this like an OJ trial as I want to see how they will prove her sexy videos really are promoting christianity. Oh, OK, she’s a christian so it’s about christian success… Wouldn’t it be great if christians finally got it that sex, erotica, and porn are actually good for people. Hmm, I don’t think that’s the message. Megachurch on trial.

“The question is not whether CHC and its members supported Sun Ho’s music career. The question is whether the diversion of Building Fund monies towards financing her music career, under the guise of purported bond investments, was an authorised use of the Building Fund,” said the prosecution.

And,

The prosecution’s opening statement ridiculed the contention of church leaders that pop music was a tool of evangelism that would help spread God’s message. It said Ho recorded and launched secular music albums to influence people “who would never choose to step foot into a church to listen to a preacher.”

The great thing is she now is Executive Director and still married to church leader Kong Hee. It’s good to run the largest Megachurch in Malaysia. Just look at the video in the HP piece and note the ad they do for the church in the middle. That shit-eating grin is because they know these people are paying for her to go to Hollywood, Hollywood.

Actually, it looks like they’re stoned. That’s not natural bliss. Oh, wait, I forgot about the embezzlement. Unearned money makes people drunk. I wonder if he gets more sex for helping her. Maybe when she’s gone he can find a few babes, or guys, on the side. Hmm, I wonder about an audience that finds them appealing. No accounting for taste, especially when you’re desperate in Malaysia.

I guess if you could have a religious renewal in old Europe after the plague kills half the population, as you need someone to blame, nonchristians, and someone to praise, christians, then it makes sense for the poor and unhappy in Malaysia  to want to see a smiling face telling them god loves them and they are good–yeah, especially compared to the embezzling, shit-eating grinners talkin the shit.

Here she is in her video China Wine. Some of her followers didn’t feel bilked because she is promoting Asia to the West. But I thought it was the building fund?

Jim Newman, bright and well

wwww.frontiersofreason.com

Pat Robertson advises a woman that men tend to wander and she should remember why they got married in the first place to get over the affair. First, people, kill, steal, cheat, and lie and we should allow it because humans are weak? Or we should have so much physical security that it’s impossible to get away with anything and we no longer even need personal morality as it’s physically impossible to be immoral? With the technology we have now we could continue and set up a police state which is so safe we could eliminate the words integrity, character, and free will (what little we have) from the dictionary. Sorry, getting carried away, distracted.

Why do religious people play psychiatrists and counselors with bronze-age therapy when they aren’t trained in any way. Would you take your car problems to your doctor? Why can’t we normalize professional therapy so people can actually get better?

Philandering is not the male domain. The only reason we hear about male philandering is because men can get away with it. Indeed, many consider male conquest normative as our boy Pat says, or even worthy of praise because it shows older, stupid men still have it–they still got the power, baby. Women don’t have quite as many affairs as men but nearly as many (and that’s changing). They just keep it quiet. Farrah Fawcett had a ten-year affair and Ryan O’Neal refused to admit it was possible. We think we can tell when people lie and yet we can’t, at least not significantly enough to matter.

When women have the freedom and exposure to express themselves, as in a moral, modern society, they evidence the lack of monogamy as typical to human primates. It’s both genders Pat–some woman has to say yes to the man and repeats don’t account for it.

Robertson has also said slatternly women are the problem and they should keep their appearances. He has also said before women should be more aggressive in sexiualizing their man. And forgive, remember the man makes the money, buys the clothes, and takes the kids to sports events.

Oh, yeah, it’s also true that women like sex and many men don’t like it as much as their female partners. Who’d athunk it. Both sides have problems getting it up or wanting to.

The anachronistic Robertson is a living relic of an age that blamed women for social ills. In this country domestic abuse is 10-20%. In non industrialized nations like Ethiopia and Jordan, 80-90% of women think the man should be able to beat them. The great dividing line in Arab countries are the marks aren’t supposed to show–if you don’t pop a blood vessel it’s OK. Americans are learning this as well since the advice now is to  not mark your spouse or kid or the doctor, nurse, cop, or social worker will spot it and call more cops. And we thought Islam wasn’t as advanced as us.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com