It really is just us

From Time Magazine:

British Hotel Replaces Bedside Bibles with Fifty Shades of Grey

Nestled in the picturesque Lake District of northwest England, the Damson Dene Hotel seems, at first glance, like the typical English countryside hotel. But its bedside tables contain a shocking secret. Instead of the traditional bedside Gideon Bible placed at arm’s reach, its forty rooms each contain a copy of E.L. James’ bestselling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Jonathan Denby, owner of the hotel, told NBC News he felt that in a secular society,  it was “wholly inappropriate” to put a religious book in someone’s bedroom. He confessed the novel, which started life as Twilight fan-fiction, wasn’t his first choice of replacement. In fact, he hasn’t even read it. “I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand — Atlas Shrugged was my first thought,” he said, but “because everybody is reading Fifty Shades of Grey, we thought it would be a hospitable thing to do, to have this available for our guests, especially if some of them were a little bit shy about buying it because of its reputation.” 

Fifty Shades of Grey traces the relationship between a business magnate and a young college graduate, featuring explicit depictions of bondage and submissive acts. Since the Damson Dene’s dirty little secret has emerged, the hotel has received dozens of angry emails — not from Britons, but from Americans — demanding that the bibles be restored beside the beds. Writing on his personal blog, Denby revealed that he has been called a “puppet of Satan,” and that several people emailed him “pretending that they were just about to make a booking the Damson Dene, but had changed their mind.”

Emphasis mine.  Like what a British innkeeper does is any American's business.

Read more here.

Christians lie

They just do. Even when it would be easy to tell a simple version of the truth they lie anyway. The funny thing about it is that they have yet to realize that:

1 - They will be caught
2 - It will be recorded on the internet
3 - Everyone will know.

So not too long ago Dan Cathay, president of Chick-Fil-A, a chain of fast food joints, was quited in the Baptist Press as saying:

Some have opposed the company's support of the traditional family. "Well, guilty as charged," said Cathy when asked about the company's position. 

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.

Now everyone who's head hasn't been under a rock for the past few years knows that "the biblical definition of the family unit" means "not gay". Now, honestly, this is not a huge deal anymore. Dan Cathay was going on record as being a member of the Tribe*, a Paulist**, an American Christian, and it's his right to do so. It's also his right to work his beliefs into his private company.

And it is the right of every person out there to not support his business.  It's called voting with your dollars.  And it is the right of other companies to choose not to do business with his company.

Enter the Jim Henson Company, maker of toys for their kid's meals.  On July 20, 2012 The Henson Company decided to cut ties with Chick-fil-a over this issue.  From their Facebook page:

The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD. (http://www.glaad.org/)

And that is just as much their right. Fine, great, wonderful.

Up until these signs started appearing in Chick-fil-a stores.

Their fingers are getting stuck in the puppet holes. Really. As of July 19th. Probably the very day that The Henson Company told Chick-Fil-A to stop carrying their stuff since good corporate playerhood demand that you tell everyone before you make the public announcement.

Can't just say "we're not carrying the Muppets anymore". Can't just say "we're out". No, you have to make up a lie so other, weaker-minded members of the tribe don't realize that there's another way of looking at the world out there. They can't handle anyone disagreeing with them at all.

Really, can't we just give them their own country all ready? We'll all be so much happier.

------

*  For more on Tribal Christianity see Jonathan Dudley's Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics:

I learned a few things growing up as an evangelical Christian: that abortion is murder; homosexuality, sin; evolution, nonsense; and environmentalism, a farce. I learned to accept these ideas — the “big four” — as part of the package deal of Christianity. In some circles, I learned that my eternal salvation hinged on it. Those who denied them were outsiders, liberals, and legitimate targets for evangelism. If they didn’t change their minds after being “witnessed to,” they became legitimate targets for hell.

** For the opposite of Paulisim see Jesuism or Red-letter Christianity.  And while you're at it have a look at some of the Paul controversies.

PlantationLand

Charles Pierce has an interesting post up today about the Morrill Act which created the land-grant college system.  This is the college system that was intended to give us better farmers and schoolteachers and has given us all so very much more.

On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law what was known as the Morrill Act. The new law authorized the creation of what became known as "land-grant colleges," the purpose of which, as described in the Act was: "...without excluding other scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life."

If you've ever attended a state college or university because the in-state tuition was actually affordable, then you have this act to thank.

But it's not only that.

From the established land-grant colleges came the cooperative extension services that aided farmers all over the country and the agricultural experimentation centers that produced, among other things, the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

So if you've ever taken a class at an extension service, or if you've ever been a farmer or if you've ever eaten food then this act has helped you in some way.

Also, if you've ever participated in 4-H then you've been helped by this act.  From Wikipedia:

The foundations of 4-H began around the start of the twentieth century, with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs tied both public and private resources together to benefit rural youth. 

During this time, researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries, but educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. So rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.

These universities have helped millions of us live better lives, no?

Of course back then there was opposition:

This heavy reliance upon Article IV led to strong counterattacks.Democratic Senator Clement Clay of Alabama was by far the most eloquent to stand against it. He insisted that the land grants were a "magnificent bribe" to encourage Alabama to "surrender to the federal power her original and reserved right to manage her own domesticand internal affairs." He argued that public lands were never meant to support such arrangements. This was followed witha long, vivid picture of judicious forefathers building limitation afterlimitation into the Constitution concerning the powers of the Federal Government. With the last stroke of his brush, Clay asked if one could believe that such a careful limitation was only a sham, that through deliberate intent or stupidity these great men had provided a means to circumvent their careful limitation of federal power.

(Please remember that since then the Democrats and Republicans have completely flipped their positions on pretty much everything.)

In the end we were only able to pass it because the states that opposed the idea of a national system of universities had already seceded from the Union.

You know, these guys.

(found here)

Do I really need to go into the whole Christian Patriarchy thing again?

Sara Robinson wrote a piece recently about how we're all living in PlantationLand now.  There's almost too much to quote there, so just go read the whole thing.

David Hackett Fischer, whose Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways In Americainforms both Lind’s and Woodard’s work, described just how deeply undemocratic the Southern aristocracy was, and still is. He documents how these elites have always feared and opposed universal literacy, public schools and libraries, and a free press. (Lind adds that they have historically been profoundly anti-technology as well, far preferring solutions that involve finding more serfs and throwing them at a problem whenever possible. Why buy a bulldozer when 150 convicts on a chain gang can grade your road instead?) Unlike the Puritan elites, who wore their wealth modestly and dedicated themselves to the common good, Southern elites sank their money into ostentatious homes and clothing and the pursuit of pleasure — including lavish parties, games of fortune, predatory sexual conquests, and blood sports involving ritualized animal abuse spectacles.
.....In the old South, on the other hand, the degree of liberty you enjoyed was a direct function of your God-given place in the social hierarchy. The higher your status, the more authority you had, and the more “liberty” you could exercise — which meant, in practical terms, that you had the right to take more “liberties” with the lives, rights and property of other people. Like an English lord unfettered from the Magna Carta, nobody had the authority to tell a Southern gentleman what to do with resources under his control. In this model, that’s what liberty is. If you don’t have the freedom to rape, beat, torture, kill, enslave, or exploit your underlings (including your wife and children) with impunity — or abuse the land, or enforce rules on others that you will never have to answer to yourself — then you can’t really call yourself a free man. 

When a Southern conservative talks about “losing his liberty,” the loss of this absolute domination over the people and property under his control — and, worse, the loss of status and the resulting risk of being held accountable for laws that he was once exempt from — is what he’s really talking about. In this view, freedom is a zero-sum game. Anything that gives more freedom and rights to lower-status people can’t help but put serious limits on the freedom of the upper classes to use those people as they please. It cannot be any other way. So they find Yankee-style rights expansions absolutely intolerable, to the point where they’re willing to fight and die to preserve their divine right to rule.

Kind of fits together, doesn't it.  I have the divine right because God says so.  And you can't go to college because you might become more and that would take away from me somehow.

Please remember, we've been fighting this beast for 150 years.  Either keep fighting or give them the country they want, let them go.  Don't given them the whole thing.

Why not ask?

Found at atheistpictures.com

Why? When believers write and talk and think about atheists, and about what they imagine atheists think and feel -- why don't they bother to ask us? What are they afraid of finding out?

Good question.  Find the answer here, it's well worth reading.

This is how you treat an abusive priest

On Thursday:

California pastor arrested for child molestation

VACAVILLE, Calif. -- A pastor at a Fairfield church was arrested on suspicion of molesting five children, police said.

Authorities took the Rev. Robert "Silas" Ruark, 65, into custody on Thursday at his home in Suisun City after investigating the allegations, The Vacaville Reporter reported ( http://bit.ly/KI3MEa).

He was booked into Solano County Jail. The Fairfield Police Department could not immediately confirm Friday whether he had retained a lawyer.

Clergy at the Orthodox Christian diocese that oversees St. Timothy Orthodox Church contacted police and asked for an investigation, the newspaper said.

The alleged victims now range in age from 20 to 24. Police said they reported being molested when they were as young as 13 and photographed in the nude, some when left alone at the church with the pastor.

Ruark has been a pastor at St. Timothy since he was ordained in 1997. The diocese has told authorities it will cooperate fully.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/29/4600182/calif-pastor-arrested-for-child.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/29/4600182/calif-pastor-arrested-for-child.html#storylink=cpy

Please note that the clergy contacted the police and are cooperating with them.  That matters.

And on Sunday:

Much applause for  the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of los Angeles and the West.  Thank you for protecting the children.

h/t to Mojoey at Deep Thoughts.

It's just evil

How you can even call Dominionisim Christianity is beyond me.

Click over to YouTube to read along.  It's important.

And have a sick bucket handy.

How to cook

We haven't done one in a while.


Season 3, Episode 2 - "Family Supper"







In this episode they do glazed meat loaf.

 and crunchy potato wedges

They test kitchen towels and give some tips on how to avoid common cooking mistakes.

Enjoy. 

This is abuse

For all you people who say that spanking is acceptable discipline and we don't know the difference, if this is what you mean then we're on the same page, and this is abuse.

Yep, you guessed it.

I'm not going to re-write this one.  Hemant Mehta nailed it.

Christian Pastor Gets Arrested for Beating Daughter… 

Commenters Defend Him on News Website

I ask that same question over and over and over....

Edited to add:  This, from the CNN article about the incident.

Dollar is a senior pastor of World Changers Church International in suburban Atlanta, which claims about 30,000 members and has an $18 million sanctuary that resembles a golden-domed spaceship atop a hill. 

He built an international religious empire, with broadcasts of his sermons beamed worldwide and speaking engagements in Europe. 

A barrel-chested man who favors impeccably tailored pinstripe suits in the pulpit, Dollar preaches the Prosperity Gospel, a message that says God will bless faithful Christians with wealth and debt-free living.

Which has nothing to do with Christians supporting and encouraging child abuse.  But it does relate to this.

Matthew 19:24

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Why is this so difficult?  Why?

Perspective

Time to get a little perspective here, people.

Let me introduce you to The Punisher.

Well, let Alvin McEwan introduce you to The Punisher.  The Punisher is a comic put out by Marvel Comics, which has included:

Eviscerations (i.e. disembowlements), cannibalism, rapes, immolations (i.e. setting people on fire), close-ups of violent shootings, death by snakes, piranhas, sharks, polar bears (the scene in which the polar bear swipes the man's head clean off was simply incredible), beheadings, the destruction of an entire island by a nuclear bomb, a tossing of a gangster from the top of the Empire State building (in the full view of a young teenager who got super excited over it), testicular castrations . . .
I think you get the picture.

According to One News Now:

. . . Focus on the Family's Glenn Stanton, director of family formation studies, says it is "shameful" to press this issue upon children.

And

. . .Monica Cole of OneMillionMoms.com, an advocacy branch of the American Family Association, agrees.
"DC Comics and Marvel, they have an agenda, and it's to indoctrinate children at a younger age," she laments. "And they're doing it. They're being successful at it."

But they don't mean this.

Or this

Or even this, which I must point out is a wedding

No what has everyone up in arms is this

This is why I'm an Agnostic Maltheist.  If there is a God, and I seriously doubt that, then he is evil and cruel and not only does not deserve worship but needs to be actively countered by any loving, rational human being.  I mean, just look at his followers.  They fight against love and at best tacitly approve of the worst violence imaginable.  If he was real and he didn't approve, wouldn't he change their minds and hearts?  But he doesn't.  In fact, if you look at his Bible he's rather into the whole thing.

No thanks, I'll pass.  And congratulate Northstar on his wedding day.

A round up of compassion

I've missed a few things, my in-laws have been in town.

So Jeremy Hooper over at Good As You reports on Baptist Pastor Leatherman's desire to just kill off all the gay people.

"To be… have a tendency to be effeminate or homosexual is just as wicked as to have a tendency to be a womanizer. Sinful nature does not justify sinful behavior. Now what is our take? What is our response? I appreciate your bearing with me tonight. First of all, there is a danger of reacting in the flesh, of responding not in a scriptural, spiritual way, but in a fleshly way. Kill them all. Right? I will be very honest with you. My flesh kind of likes that idea. But it grieves the Holy Spirit. It violates Scripture. It is wrong."

At least he got the part about murder bring wrong correct.

Jeremy also reports on a Baptist Pastor Knapp who thinks that if the government does it, well, then the Holy Spirit might not mind.

"Oh, so you're saying we should go out and start killing them? No, I'm saying the government should. They won't, but they should."

Pastor Baity of the Berean Baptist Church declares that homosexuality should be illegal as always.

"For 300 years, we had laws that would prosecute that lifestyle. We've gone down the wrong path. We've become so dumb that we have accepted a lie for the truth, and we've...discarded the truth on the shoals of shipwreck!"

Except it really wasn't.

Another Berean Baptist, Pastor Harris, tells parents to beat the gay out of their children.

"So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, 'Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,' you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed. 

Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign [sic] her in. And you say, 'Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.'"

He tried to say this was taken out of context.  Right.

And last but not least HuffPo brings us Baptist Pastor Worley who is bringing back the old concentration camp idea.

"Build a great, big, large fence -- 150 or 100 mile long -- put all the lesbians in there. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out...and you know what, in a few years, they'll die out...do you know why? They can't reproduce!"

Must...not...invoke...Godwin!

In the great church evil - good continuum I do believe that Baptists are a solid anchor on the evil side of things.  Now, if you're about to tell me that you're a Baptist and not all Baptists are like that, I must point out that y'all have so many rotten apples going in your bushel that you might want to get out before they rot you out too.

Once again the atheist must school you.  And in red letters because you know who is saying these things.

Matthew 25:40

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 7:12

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets

It's not hard people.

And now for some good news.  I give you JC Penney:

“What makes Dad so cool? He’s the swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer and hug giver — all rolled into one. Or two.”

With a sick cat we go through a lot of towels and sheets.  And I know where I'm buying them from now on.

Stuff does get done around here

I'm way overdue for a finished projects post.

Among the projects finished recently is this years sunhat.  I made the pattern a few years ago using the Wild Ginger WildThings pattern maker

Made out of cool 100% cotton, which will also shade my scalp from sunburn.  I've done that before, and it's miserable.

It does look a bit wrinkly and rumpled, I know.

But there is a good reason.  See that little, round bag lying next to it?  Well, the frame of this hat is made of the same wire that lets you fold up tents and those sunshades that fit in your windshield, and what not.  (The thing across the top is my bow, which has nothing to do with this post.)

So the whole hat, bow and all, folds down into the pouch and then into your purse.

Rather nifty, if you don't mind a rumpled hat.

Speaking of things that go on your head, I finished a flock of knitted hair slides.

I used the pattern from OneSkein Wonders, but without the I-cord trim, which means they curl a bit.They're good for turning a braid into a bun, very nice on hot days.  And an unused double pointed needle makes a fantastic hair stick.

My last project here is the bag set I finally finished for my MIL.  

Given that they're visiting this week and I promised it to her the last time they came out, I think I finished just in time.

The main bag is the Sassy Bag from Lazy Girl Designs

And the wallet is the Little Wallet from Valori Wells Designs.

On following the bible...

So R. Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, made the front page of CNN.com today trying to answer the question on why Conservative Christians focus on Homosexuality.  I was going to frisk this one, simply because I found it so very, very friskable, but I don't have time this week, my in-laws are coming to visit and I have a house to clean.

But there are a few points I'd like to make.

Given the heated nature of our current debates, it’s a question conservative Christians have learned to expect. “Look,” we are told, “the Bible condemns eating shellfish, wearing mixed fabrics and any number of other things. Why do you ignore those things and insist that the Bible must be obeyed when it comes to sex?”


An honest consideration of the Bible reveals that most of the biblical laws people point to in asking this question, such as laws against eating shellfish or wearing mixed fabrics, are part of the holiness code assigned to Israel in the Old Testament. That code was to set Israel, God’s covenant people, apart from all other nations on everything from morality to diet.

As the Book of Acts makes clear, Christians are not obligated to follow this holiness code. This is made clear in Peter’s vision in Acts 10:15. Peter is told, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

In other words, there is no kosher code for Christians.

Err, no...

I didn't pick up on this on the first pass.  Thankfully Fred Clark over at Slactivist did.

But while popular, this view utterly contradicts Peter’s own interpretation of his vision. If Mohler is right, then Peter was wrong. If Peter was right, then Mohler is wrong.

For Peter, his rooftop vision wasn’t about kosher dietary laws — it was about people. He says this explicitly: “God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”

That’s a very different conclusion from the one Mohler draws. Mohler says this story — this scripture — is about purity laws. Peter says this story is about God’s commandment that no people should be excluded as impure.

I’m going to have to side with Peter on this one. Peter was right. Mohler is wrong.

Mohler’s case for his interpretation of Peter’s vision only looks plausible if you extract a tiny portion of the story from the rest of the chapter, but if you read all of Acts 10, you’ll see that the story doesn’t allow that.

That was point one.

Point two:

The New Testament condemns both male and female homosexual behavior. The Apostle Paul, for example, points specifically to homosexuality as evidence of human sinfulness. His point is not merely that homosexuals are sinners but that all humanity has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The New Testament condemns a full range of sexual sins, and homosexuality is specified among these sins. In Romans, Paul refers to homosexuality in terms of “dishonorable passions,” “contrary to nature” and “shameless.” As New Testament scholar Robert Gagnon has stated, the Bible’s indictment “encompasses every and any form of homosexual behavior.”

Yeah, "Paul said".  Not Christ, Paul.  Christ said nothing about homosexuality.  He did strongly and specifically condemn divorce, but all Mohler has to say about it is:

The church failed miserably in the face of the challenge of divorce. This requires an honest admission and strong corrective.

If you were honestly trying to structure your lives and society to follow Christ you would do more than just give it a throwaway line.  You'd condemn divorce and excommunicate everyone who ever divorced and remarried.  Full stop.  You wouldn't waste time and energy going after an issue Christ didn't see as important enough to mention.  

But then when you look at the emphasis Conservative Christians place on Paul, you have to wonder who exactly they're following.  These Pauline "Christians" follow the Romans Road to salvation, instead of the Gospels.  After all, the Gospels make you work, but by following Paul you just have to believe really hard.

A few more points:

Some people then ask, “What about slavery and polygamy?” In the first place, the New Testament never commands slavery, and it prizes freedom and human dignity. 

If you're going to follow Paul than you really need to pay attention.

Ephesians6:5

Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

Colossians 3:22

Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 

Ahem.

Why are Christians so concerned with homosexuality? In the first place, that question is answered by the simple fact that it is the most pressing moral question of our times.

I call circular logic on this one.  Homosexuality is a big deal to Christians because everyone is making a fuss.  And everyone is making a fuss because it's a big deal to members of the majority religion, Christianity.

Christians who are seriously committed to the authority of the Bible have no choice but to affirm all that the Bible teaches

And we're right back around to the whole divorce/shellfish issue.  You cannot have it both ways.

But all of this misses the big point.  The big point is that not all of us are Christians.  Some of us really don't care what the Bible says.  We follow good common sense when it comes to how to treat others.  And when you try to turn your religious beliefs into law, you're violating our right to believe as we want.

Believe what you want.  Live as you want.  Stop trying to force the rest of us to be just like you.  We're not, and you're just going to have to deal with that.

Dear Girls....

From a HuffPo article by Soraya Chemaly


Dear Girls,


You are powerful beyond words, because you threaten to unravel the control of corrupt men who abuse their authority

.......

If you were not powerful, they would not take you so seriously and they take you very, veryseriously. You should, too. You can set the world on fire.


Girls, these things happen because there are men with power who fear you and want to control you. I know that I have equated relatively benign baseball games with deadly, honor killings but, whereas one is a type of daily, seemingly harmless micro-aggression and the other is a lethal macro-aggression they share the same roots. The basis of both, and escalating actions in between, is the same: To teach you, and all girls subject to these men and their authority, a lesson: "Know your place." I also know that there are places where girls are marginalized and hurt that are not religious. But all over the world these hypocritical, pious men, in their shamefully obvious wrongness, represent the sharp-edged tip of an iceberg, the visible surface of a deep and vast harm. They employ the full range of their earthly and divine influence to make sure, as early as possible, that you and the boys around you understand what they want your relative roles to be. Where there are patriarchal religions girls, in dramatically varying and extreme degrees, disproportionately suffer. Understand these men for what they are: bullies. Do not internalize what they would have you believe.



Read the rest here. It's fantastic. And it has lots and lots of links to back up her words.

True Manliness

OK, I have to pick on this one.

Doug Phillips, of Vision Forum fame, has a new scheme going, The Hazardous Journeys Society. From the looks of it, from this side of the rabbit hole, it looks like a company that arranges and markets wicked cool father/son vacations.



Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with wicked cool father/son vacations. Based on his videos here it looks like a lot of camping crossed with some kind of reenactment. I mean why else would you use such clunky, old-school equipment? But if that's what turns your crank go for it.

The problem I have is that he touts his trips as the way to get your boys to achieve manhood. That they involve bravery and risk, facing the enemy and testing yourself and growing into something greater than yourself.



I'm sorry, but going on a camping trip with your church group isn't going to test you. It's not going to prove anything about your manhood. You're not really facing anything. And it irritates me no end that he crows about how his little packaged tours are the be-all end-all of turning boys into men.

Um, no. Just...no.

For some reason I find his swaggering exaggeration extremely annoying.

Want to see real courage? Real bravery? A real test of manhood? Real risk and real daring and really facing the enemy? Um, try feeding the hungry. Clothing the naked. Helping the sick. You know the drill. Or try something harder. Get between a gay kid and a bully. Adopt a foster kid. You're a lawyer, go to bat for a family losing their home to an illegal foreclosure. Take those adult sons you keep attached to your coattails and train with Search and Rescue. Not your made up, only for church members version, I mean go to the local Sheriff's office and volunteer. Take your bible to the nearest ER and hold hands with a homeless person while they die.

Do something real.

Or, you know, my personal favorite example of the really, really real. You're too old, but your sons aren't. Granted they'll have to serve with gays and with women and with people of other faiths, but hey, risk, right? It will certainly turn them into men, it has for 237 years now. Real courage, real bravery, the entire deal.



Or take your kids on vacation with your friends, whatever works for you. But stop pretending it's anything more than that. We know better.

Oh, and Joshua and Justice and the rest of you?  If you think you're really ready for it.

http://www.marines.com/home

Good luck.

---

EDIT: My husband suggested I use the 2012 Marines video, now shown above, as it's more relevant. But the Silent Drill Team across America still gives me the shivers.

The illusion of choice

Go here - failblog.org and just look. It's not linking well.

More on compassion

Overwhelming Christian Compassion

Picture found at The Mudflats

It just keeps getting better.  The Military Religious Freedom Foundation received an e-mail recently from a woman's prayer group.

Now for our prayer, we pray that the women who work in your MFRR and the women in your family will befall fast moving breast cancer which can not ever be cured.  

 You can find the original here. Can't you just feel the love and compassion and these women pray for other women to die of cancer in the name of their imaginary friend.

I don't blame Mikey for hanging up on them.

I need to do another cooking post soon, this is getting depressing.

Christians and Gay Children

Twitter is a fabulous place to hear how the vast majority of people really think.

Let's see, under the hashtag #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon we have a choice few...

1. 
   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon if you decide 1 day u wanna be gay, don't come home you lil bitch

   
   

   ~~Wavy~~

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
2. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon if you be gay...*pulls out whip* I will beat the gay right outta yo ass!

   
   

   Daborey Burrell

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
3. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon don't be gay... Or else I'm putting him up for adoption.

   
   

   Timothy Civick

   
   

   11 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
4. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon ion got none against gays , but Don`t come w/ that Gay shit cause I`m go crack yo fucking skull.

   
   

   ✈✈JeT-Maxxinq✈✈

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
5. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon DO NOT BECOME GAY OR YOUR DEAD!

   
   

   ⓐⓜⓑⓘⓣⓘⓞⓝ✞

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
6. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon You will not be gay in this house. Not up in here. #HellNaw

   
   

   ☜Chancellor Harris☞

   
   

   11 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
7. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon to beat up gays

   
   

   Stuart Jordan

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
8. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon gays are infectious and should be mauled on sight

   
   

   Martyn Beaton

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet
9. Share
   “

   #ThingsIGottaTeachMySon no gays allowed

   
   

   Mr.Richardson

   
   

   12 days ago

   ReplyRetweet

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   aS

As an example.  Found here

We have a collection of tips on what to do with gay children.  Namely:

1. Beat the gayness out of him
2. Put him up for adoption
3. Pay a hooker to rape him
4. Make him uncomfortable at home
5. Neglect him
6. Kick him out
7. Beat him more
8. Force him to have sex with a girl
9. Disown him
10. Disassociate him from your family
11. Force him to be straight
12. Torture him
13. Kill him
14. Kill yourself
15. Cut off his body parts
16. Try again for another, better, baby

Found here, with the tweets in question

And my personal favorite, under the hashtag #ToMyUnbornChild...

100 Real Tweets from Homophobes who would murder their unborn child

A selection:

“
#ToMyUnbornChild if you so much as think about being a homosexual I'll put a bullet in your damn skull

codie sowdersa month agoReplyRetweetShare

1. 
   

   
   
2. “

   #ToMyUnbornChild u bet not be gay. Because I will hang u at da first sign of gayness!!!

   
   

   iBarber

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
3. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild i'll kill you if you were gay!"

   
   

   Bibi gabriels

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
4. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if you turn out gay, I will burn you alive.

   
   

   Daborey Burrell

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
5. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild u betta not be gay mi ahh fi kill u

   
   

   Fredrick Stactic

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
6. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild If you're gay, I'll kill you.

   
   

   Samurai Dave

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet

1. 
   Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if your gay i will prolly kill you

   
   

   allen derosa

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
2. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if you're gay... You will sleep in the oven.

   
   

   Storm Jones

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
3. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if you turn gay, ill kill you and make another

   
   

   #T-raww

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
4. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornchild Never sweat these females & you bet not be gay neither or ima hang you from,a bridge and beat you

   
   

   Yung Nigga

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
5. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if your gay I will kill you!

   
   

   Camryn Alan Hart©™

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
6. Share
   “

   #tomyunbornchild the first time you experience your gay moment I'm stepping on your throat #fuckwitme

   
   

   Marcus Wilson

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
7. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild i'll kill you if you were gay!

   
   

   MALEK

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
8. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild if your a girl i will drown you in the bathtub, and if your a guy and your turn into a faggot ill kill you

   
   

   Tucker Briley

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
9. Share
   “

   #ToMyUnbornChild I Will Put A Bullet Through Your Skull If You Become Gay...

   
   

   Shiguy Walcott

   
   

   a month ago

   ReplyRetweet
10. Share
    “

    #ToMyUnbornChild If you're gay ima kill you !

    
    

    A-Flocka !

    
    

    a month ago

    ReplyRetweet
11. Share
    “

    #ToMyUnbornChild if you turn out gay imma kill you.

    
    

    DJ Morton

    
    

    a month ago

    ReplyRetweet
12. Share
    “

    #ToMyUnbornChild if your gay ill kill you

    
    

    Michael Morelli

    
    

    a month ago

    ReplyRetweet

Now I am compelled to point out that according to Wikipedia 60-75% of Americans identify themselves as Christians.  Which means the vast majority of this list is showing their pro-life Christian compassion.  This also explains my personal favorite:

"#ToMyUnbornChild if your gay i will beat you to death with a bible" 
[The username of this homophobe has been removed upon request]

I would have left his or her name on. But I'm mean that way.

And now for my take on the subject:



#ToMyFutureGayChild.

I love you.