Are you tired of worshiping the God of Love under the same roof as uppity women priests and gay people? Look no further, says the Vatican, because the Roman Catholic Church wants you. Come let us give you a safe place to worship, says the Church famous for harboring at least 4,000 pedophile priests.
Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter have severed their ties with Southern Baptist Convention. Why would they do this, after a six-decade long affiliation with the SBC? It’s because the SBC cherry-picked the Bible for the purposes of arguing:
that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
What are the consequences of this disparagement of women?
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.
The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.
For the past few years, I’ve been receiving emails and attachments from a woman with close ties to Iran. Along with this Youtube she wrote the following:
Here is a song gifted to the new Iran emerging from the 2009 election by the one of the greatest musicians of present day Iran, Mohamad Reza Shajarian. And he rightly calls it “Iran, the land of hope.
She indicates that letters are circulating in Iran to weaken the grip of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government by doing the following:
o Refusing to give ads to the state run TV, and newspapers
serving as the voice of the government.
o Pulling out money invested in banks and financial
institutions run by the government or by the revolutionary
guards.
o Refraining from contributing to the charity boxes scattered
throughout towns all across the country.
Protesting has become incredibly dangerous.
The June 8, 2009 edition of Missouri Lawyers Weekly (not available online) reports that only 1 out of the 17 current judges sitting on the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals are women. Her name is Diana Murphy and she was appointed by a Republican. All nine of the appointments to the 8th Circuit since 1994 (when Murphy was appointed) have been men. Each of these appointments is made by the President of the United States.
To put this in context, 47% of the people receiving law degrees in 2007 have been women. Another note: Of the 179 total judges sitting on the 11 U.S. Courts of Appeals, 26% of them (47) are women.
Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, wrote this week of a new report on the continuing human catastrophe in Darfur. In describing why he reported on what, to some, is old news, he reminded us “about the dangers inherent in indifference to the suffering of others. Stories of atrocities on the scale of those coming out of Darfur cannot be told too often.”
Pregnant woman were out in droves to breakdance to draw attention to a good cause. It happened in London in September 2008. The stats say it all: every day 1,400 women die in labor and child birth. Here’s the video:
BTW, at the end of the video, you’ll hear that the women who were actually breakdancing were not actually pregnant.
Those who vehemently oppose abortion steadfastly claim that abortion is “murder.” They want to make it illegal for any woman to have an abortion.
Therefore, it seems fair to ask anti-abortionists a simple hypothetical question. Assume that we changed the law and that all abortions were illegal. Under that scenario, how would you punish women who committed “murder” by having abortions?”
What do you get when you combine a camcorder, a simple question and a group of fervent anti-abortionists? You get a fascinating set of answers.
Where are all of the unflinching statements that the women who have abortions have thus committed murder and that they should all be punished as murderers? There were no such answers.
Why all the hedging and squirming? Is it possible that abortion is not really the equivalent of murder? Even in the hearts and minds of those who claim to know for certain that it is “murder”? Assuming that abortion were made illegal, why are so many anti-abortionists so willing to allow a bunch of female murderers walk free without without being penalized under the law? Especially when those who committed the “murder” killed “babies,” allegedly with deliberation and premeditation?
This January 2008 video was produced by At Center Network, “a project of the Northbrook Peace Committee, Inc., a group that works for justice and nonviolent resolution of conflicts.”
Have things changed since 1966? Those of us alive back then (I was ten in 1966) might need to think back before answering yes. Things must have changed since then, but in what ways? Let’s see . . . there were no personal computers. Color TV was a luxury. No [...]
You can find some artistically inspiring monuments in cemeteries for the rich and famous. For example, consider the elegant mournful figure below:
The above monument can be found in Bellefontaine Cemetery, in St. Louis, Missouri. The brochure distributed by Bellefontaine rightfully indicates that Bellefontaine is “recognized as an arboretum as well as [...]
