Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter sever ties with Southern Baptists over disparagement of women

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.

Continue ReadingJimmy and Rosalyn Carter sever ties with Southern Baptists over disparagement of women

Song from Iran and other news

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.

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It’s 2009

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.

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Darfur, lest we forget –

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."

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Pregnant women breakdancing?

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.

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