Well, that's ... convenient

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/nov/30/desjarlais-says-god-has-forgiven-me-asks-constitue/

NASHVILLE — U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., said today that God has “forgiven me” and asked “fellow Christians” and constituents “to consider doing the same” over a tawdry past that included supporting his ex-wife’s two abortions and, as a physician, sleeping with patients, including one he urged to undergo the procedure.

...

He said he believes in “grace and redemption,” adding, “I think God gave me a second chance.”

Well, You Knew This Would Happen Sooner Or Later

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/21/146284/controversial-fla-pastor-weighs.html

SANFORD, Fla. — In front of the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center where George Zimmerman was granted bond, Pastor Terry Jones, the Gainesville, Fla., church leader who burned a Quran last year, gave a fiery speech Saturday in which he demanded the constitutional rights of Zimmerman be protected as his case moves through the judicial system.

"I am in no way taking a position on whether Zimmerman is guilty or innocent. I am here for truth and justice and standing up for the constitutional rights," said Jones, who heads Dove World Outreach Center and carries a pistol for his own protection. "Some of the black community just decided Zimmerman is guilty. I say there has to be due process. In America, you are innocent until proven guilty."

[Break]

Standing in front of about two dozen supporters, Jones said he traveled to Sanford to directly address simmering racial tension in the community which he blamed on "poisonous" black leaders Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He said the two hijacked the controversial shooting case, fanned race-based fears and helped divide the town. Jones later acknowledged that he had not heard Sharpton, in particular, say anything racially provocative related to the case but said his response was based on comments Sharpton made in the past.

[Break]

Sweet Baby Jesus On A Pogo Stick, I think we just jumped the shark. 

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/21/146284/controversial-fla-pastor-weighs.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/21/146284/controversial-fla-pastor-weighs.html#storylink=cpy

Faith, Fundamentalism and The First Amendment

I have been away from this blog for more than a week. I’ve been sitting and waiting for the results of MI and AZ to wonder in like drunken sailors from a liberty port. The last few days have seen the polls stagger, careen, and career about like a very abstruse chaos theory calculation. The results may be close in Arizona and Michigan, or maybe not. Who knows? The primary season has lost all sense of narrative arc, degenerating into a tale that is all sound and fury. But, Sweet Baby Jesus On A Pogo Stick ,the shear idiocy and stark raving insanity of the Elephant tribe has been unnerving to watch.

Just when I think the Republicans could not dig a hole any deeper, they break out the heavy equipment to bore through the political bedrock. In pandering to the crazy, the Mighty Mormon and Mr. Unfortunate Google Result have attempted to take a wrecking ball to the separation of church and state.

It was no great surprise that Rick Santorum went all Theo-Con radical on the subject. That Santorum would make a totally inappropriate comment about JFK’s fifty year old statement on the subject of church-state separation seems by now par for course.

It would take another post to tease out how wrong Santorum's musings were. Let’s just say that his religious beliefs are in no way “oppressed” when others block his attempt to force his special brand of theocracy down their throats.  Let’s us also say he has is Constitutional understandings of the First Amendments at a ninety degree opposition to reality. I could continue on this vane, but I want to move on to more pressing matters. There is a lot to cover, and only so much time. Let’s move on, shall we?

One of those matters was the rotting corpse of the US Catholic Bishops doubling down on contraception, along with Daryl Issa. I’m way late to this particular party, please forgive me, I was just unable to recover from the jaw-dropping idiocy of the whole tempest in a tea pot.

Of all the “cultural” conflicts that the Elephants could attempt to gin up outrage on, they choose contraception? And they did it in such ham-fisted way that the proceedings outraged anyone with a vagina or a functioning male brain? (I know, I know, a “functioning male brain” is an oxymoron)  

Riddle me this, how do the Elephants intend to win any national election with only 30% of the female vote? Yes, vote for us, the party that wants to take your BC pills, IUDs, diaphragms, etc, away from you! Vote for the barefoot and pregnant party! Wow, that’s a sure-fire winner; why has no one come up with that before?

But it gets better, or worse depending on your point of view. In the latests bit of Republicans pointing out, “if you haven’t noticed, the President is a black man,” Mitt channeled his inner, soulless, pander-bear and made noise about Obama’s lack of a proper Christian faith. Run that by me again oh magic underwear man, you have questions about Obama’s Orthodoxy? You who tote around a extra-special “Additional Gospel of Jesus Christ” want to get into a discussion of The One True Faith?

Exactly when did a candidates Christology become a matter of political speculation? When did a grubby, face-shifting, flip-flopping, political hack gain the right to smear any other candidates’ faith? What part of “no” in the constitution’s no religious tests for office did the seagull worshiping Romney fail to understand?

Honestly, that bit of pander by Willard floored me. It was so skeevy, so typical, so calculated, this slandering of Obama’s faith. It was a transparent bit of flummery tossed to the evangelical, fundamentalist, born-agains. It was Mitt saying “hey I can be an utterly intolerant jackass. I can do this racist, dog-whistle, political gamesmanship just like Mr. Sweater-vest and the Icky Amphibian can. See, I’m a narrow-minded, exclusionary, bigoted, Christian-In-Name-Only, mouth-breather--just like you!” How low has the Mitt man fallen. In the six years Willard Romney has pursued the goal of the Republican nomination for president, he has lost the thread, he has definitely forgotten Matthew 16:26.

I’m not even going to bother attempting to offer a rejoinder to the talking point that Obama is a bad or fake Christian. I have no idea what the term “Christian” might mean.* Give me the common thread that joins Orthodox Christians worshiping in one of the great basilicas built in post Soviet Russia ,and the Appalachians handling snakes in some shot gun shack in the middle of nowhere; then we can talk. Tell me what the link is between the mass of Syriac Orthodox Church and glossolaic utterances (Speaking in Tongues) of  Pentecostals --in twenty five words or less-- and you will rate as a super-genius in my book. No points for saying “Jesus” or “the Holy Spirit”

(* I know there are plenty of helmet-haired freaks of nature more than willing to blabber on ad infinitum, and ad nauseum, about their pet theory of what Christian and Christianity entails: “give your heart to Jesus, and blather, blather, yammer, yammer, jaw, jaw, etc.” That is not Christian nor Christianity. That is a very narrow interpretation of what Christianity might be. It is the not the first interpretation, nor will it be the last. It is most certainly not the only interpretation.)

As one who has read far too much history for normal functioning, I can tell you nothing good comes out of a debate about who the, “proper Christian” might be. The same question recast as , “who is the proper Muslim” is also incredibly problematic; just ask the Shia and Sunnis about that little conundrum. This is why we in West decided to give the entire thing a miss, and went for secularism.

I can see why the entire notion of secularism frosts Santorum’s corn flakes. For a Theo-Con like Santorum, secularism is the barred and bolted door that prevents him from achieving his theocratic state. Secularism is the big fat fortified mountain that Rick must overcome before he can shove his heretical notions down the rest of the nation’s throat. Secularism is real freedom contrasted with Santorum’s freedom to run the land as autocrat and Pope.

Our system of secularism did  not spring up as some evil plot hatched by Christ-hating, evil Liberals in the 1960’s. It was set up by the bitter lessons of two centuries of civil-religious warfare. It is the results of the hard lessons learned in Continental Europe, then In Cromwellian England and then finally in the wretched excess of the Puritans in New England. The founders wanted no part of any established faith, they had a belly full of the Church Of England and wanted no repeats.

In one respect the yammering of the Republican hopefuls is spot on, this election is a defining choice. Not because the shape-shifting, transactional Obama may win or loose a second term; it is not about Obama. What it is about is the over-reach of radical TEA Party ultras. It is about the over-reach of Theo-cons and other radicals who want to remake the nation into a regressive fantasy of a US that never existed. It is an attempt to negate not only the liberations of the 1960’s but also every bit of racial, social, and gender justice carved out since the New Deal. And once that work is complete the reactionaries will shred both the New Deal and that Commie pinko TR’s Fair Deal so they can properly relive the glory days of the Gilded Age.

The right is freaking out about the twin liberations of women and blacks. They want their white patriarchy back and don’t who gets hurt in its restoration. They mau-mau the Constitution on the way to shredding it into a fine confetti. This concern tolling about “religious liberty” is nothing more than Orwellian doublespeak. It is not about liberty, its about oppression. It is the attempt of a small cadre of reactionary evangelicals imposing their notions, their will to power on the rest of us.

Who's obtuse and out of touch?

pandagon.net

To continue the theme of talking about “Friday Night Lights”, I have to link this review of the abortion episode from the New York Times, because it had such a beautiful distillation of what’s so wrong with the way abortion is treated in the mainstream media.

What was striking about the exploration of Becky’s circumstance on “Friday Night Lights” was the extent to which the opposing view was depicted as obtuse and out of touch. Two years ago an anonymous young woman ultimately received an abortion on “Private Practice” but not before an hour of television had passed which felt less like drama and more like journalism — sound, balanced and fair — with all relevant moral positions respectfully represented.

It’s one of those glistening moments when they admit that being “balanced” and catering to right wing nuts will always and forever be considered more important than being honest and accurate. And suggesting that “journalism” has some obligation to work PR for wingnuts that comes before its obligations to the public to be informative and, again, accurate. Because an accurate portrayal of the anti-choice movement would result in one where they come across as obtuse and out-of-touch, because that’s what they are. It’s almost definitional---anyone who waves off the struggles of a pregnant 15-year-old and suggests that it will all work out in the end is someone who has deliberately made herself unable to relate to the problems of her fellow human beings, because her dedication to the patriarchy is so strong. Anyone who puts an embryo over a living, breathing human being but refuses to admit that’s what she’s doing and turns herself into pretzels trying to rationalize that is obtuse by definition. Anyone willing to promote anti-choice lie because that’s what they wish was true is obtuse and out-of-touch at best. That’s the generous interpretation---that they’re fuddy-duddies who don’t know any better. In many cases, it’s worse than that, and they’re just sadistic assholes.

...

Snip:

More here:

http://goo.gl/p7m2

Leviticans

Posted by john at February 24, 2004 11:46 AM
On occasion people ask me what, exactly, it is I have against Christianity, inasmuch as I seem to rail against it quite a bit. My general response is: I have nothing against Christianity. I wish more Christians practiced it. The famous bumper sticker says "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven," but I often wonder just how often they check in with Christ about that last one. I look at the picture I included with the last entry, the one with the kid protesting the gay marriages in San Francisco, wearing the shirt that has "homo" written on it with a circle and slash through the word, and I try to find some of Christ's teachings in that. As you might imagine, I'm finding very little.

If that kid were hit by a bus and got to meet Christ shortly thereafter, I do imagine the conversation would be a sorrowful one, as the homo-negating young man would have to try to reconcile his shirt with the admonition to love others as one loves one's self. I would imagine at the end of that conversation, the young man would be looking to see if Christ were holding a lever, and if there were a trap door under the young man's feet.
In the comment thread of the last entry, one of the posters wondered why many fundamentalists spend so much time in Leviticus and so little time in the New Testament, and I think that's a remarkably cogent question. Indeed, it is so cogent that I would like to make the suggestion that there is an entire class of self-identified "Christians" who are not Christian at all, in the sense that they don't follow the actual teachings of Christ in any meaningful way. Rather these people nod toward Christ in a cursory fashion on their way to spend time in the bloodier books of the Bible (which tend to be found in the Old Testament), using the text selectively as a support for their own hates and prejudices, using the Bible as a cudgel rather than a door. That being the case, I suggest we stop calling these people Christians and start calling them something that befits their faith, inclinations and enthusiasms.

I say we call them Leviticans, after Leviticus, the third book of the Old Testament, famous for its rules, and also the home of the passages most likely to be thrown out by Leviticans to justify their intolerance (including, in recent days, against gays and lesbians -- Leviticus Chapter 18, Verse 22: "Thou shalt not not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination").

More at :

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/002675.html

Schools Continue to be the Front Lines of the Culture Wars; Texas Edition

Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.

Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.

The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.

"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.

Snip

Arizona's assault on diversity education is only a small part of the iceberg dear reader.

More at the Guardian UK 

Killer Cult

Prosecutors: Boy Starved to Death at Cult's Hands
Baltimore prosecutors: Cult leader, followers watched as 1-year-old boy 'wasted away'
By BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE February 22, 2010 (AP)

The leader of a religious cult was "outraged" when a 1-year-old boy did not say "Amen" before a meal and ordered her followers to deprive him of food and water until he died, a Baltimore prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Three members of the now-defunct cult known as 1 Mind Ministries are on trial for murder in the death of Javon Thompson, who was around 16 months old when he died of starvation and dehydration in either December 2006 or January 2007, according to authorities.

After the boy died, the cult members prayed for his resurrection, then destroyed all evidence of his death and stuffed his body in a suitcase, which they hid in a shed behind a home in Philadelphia, Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake told jurors.

More of this at ABC News Here and Here

And People Wonder Why Some Folks Get Turned Off By Religion

OROVILLE -- A fundamentalist religious philosophy that espouses corporal punishment to "train" children to be more obedient to their parents and God is now being investigated in connection with the death of a young Paradise girl and serious injuries to her sister. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey confirmed Thursday that other children in the home who have been interviewed told investigators "this philosophy was espoused by their parents." 

Ramsey said he is also exploring a possible connection to a Web site that endorses "biblical discipline" using the same rubber or plastic tube alleged to have been used to whip the two young ridge girls by their adoptive parents. 

In court Thursday, a judge granted a two-week postponement before the children's parents, Kevin Schatz, 46, and Elizabeth Schatz, 42, enter a plea to murder and torture charges that could carry two life terms in prison. 

The delay will allow the mother to retain legal counsel as her husband did earlier.
The father's attorney, Michael Harvey, declined to comment regarding the specific allegations against the couple until he has a chance to review the evidence. 

"All I can say is the family is shocked; they are grieving the loss of their daughter and (ask) that people of faith will pray for everybody involved," the defense attorney stated outside of court Thursday.
The Schatzes were arrested Saturday morning after their adopted daughter, Lydia, age 7, stopped breathing. She was subsequently pronounced dead. Her 11-year-old sister, Zariah Schatz, remains in critical condition at a Sacramento children's hospital, though she is showing some signs of recovery. The two were adopted at the same time with an infant girl, now 3, from the same African orphanage about three years ago, 

Prosecutors allege the two victims were subjected to "hours" of corporal punishment by their parents on successive days last Thursday and Friday with a quarter-inch-wide length of rubber or plastic tubing, which police reportedly recovered from the parents' bedroom. 

Police allege that the younger girl was being disciplined for mis-pronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson the day before she died. 

The two young girls reportedly sustained deep bruising and multiple "whip-like" marks on their back, buttocks and legs, which authorities believe resulted in significant muscle tissue breakdown that impaired their kidneys and possibly other vital organs, said Ramsey. 

He said investigators are researching a possible connection to an Internet Web site set up by "fundamentalist Christian people" that recommends use of the same whip-like implement "as an appropriate tool for biblical chastisement ... to train a child from infancy to make them a happier child and more obedient to God because they are obedient to the will of their parents," said Ramsey. 

The district attorney said some of the Schatzes' six biological children, who were removed from the family home for their protection following the parents' arrest, have made statements suggesting the ridge couple shared this philosophy. 

Snip

More, if you can stomach it, at  the Chico Enterprise Record 


A little girl is beaten to death for "mis-pronouncing a word during a home-school reading lesson" but its all O.K. because it was done in the name of Jesus. How did the authorities miss what total whack-a-loons these parents were? Also it is a pretty searing indictment of the home-schooling movement; it it not?

Plumbing the depths of bigotry, Pat Robertson talks about Haiti.

Just when you thought that televangelist Pat Robertson could not manage to be any more narrow minded and crass, he manages to show how small and slime-ridden his soul truly is. Preacher Pat decided to spout off on the subject of Haiti and God's divine judgment. It was not pretty; it was actually a stomach-churning demonstration of pettiness unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

If this is the euangelion, the "good news" that Pat is trying to spread, one wonders what the bad news is. Then again, Preacher Pat has that covered; you are headed for an eternity of torment from his deity if you don't accept every jot and tittle of his divine word, as revealed in the King James Bible.

If you squint hard enough you can justify Pat's view by a limited reading of the Old Testament. Many parts of the Old Testament contain a wrathful, vengeful, deity who is heavily into smiting. There is a laundry list of people that got on the wrong side of the ancient Jewish desert god a long time ago. Chief among these people were the Jews themselves. They were a stiff necked people constantly straying from God's holy word and generally causing the deity grief.

It is not like the Jewish God did not give prior warning. He sent plagues, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, floods to set his people right. At least that is the P.R. spin coming out of his various agents. The Old Testament is chock a block full of Prophets warning of seriously bad thing that were going to happen to the people of Israel if they did not shape up. But since the people were way into being evil and disobedient, God had no choice but to let the Babylonians come crashing in a put a hurting on the Jews.

If one is of a mind to do such things, a person can definitely find support for the idea that evil things happen to evil people in the Bible. There is a long authoritarian tradition supported by the "Good Book" that demands absolute obedience to God and to God' chosen leaders. The price of disobedience is punishment by a justified and wrathful God on the sinful human. Thus if something evil has happened to people, it is because they have done something to offend God.

Pat Robertson's line of thinking does have a long and distinguished history in all the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. It is a conservative Orthodoxy shared by grumpy Mullahs, crabby Rabbis, and ill-tempered Christian Prelates of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Mormon, and Protestant traditions. Regardless of the outer ceremonial trappings, all these religious leaders see humans as basically evil. As people are inherently evil, God or God's appointed agents must punish them to guide them on the right path. Every bad thing that happens to people is a result of their own evil, disobedient ways.

For Robertson then it was simply a matter of determining what the Haitians did to invoke the righteous anger of an all-knowing God. For Robertson this was like shooting fish in a barrel. The "crimes" of the Haitians were manifest. First they had the bad sense to be Roman Catholic, not good bible-believing Christians like himself. While Pat is not as up in one's face about his anti-Catholicism as Pastor John Hagee is, he too sees the Church of Rome as the Whore of Babylon. It is just that Pastor Pat does not mind renting the services of the "Whore" from time to time. (http://www.founders.org/journal/fj17/article4.html)

Second strike for the Haitians is that they are not strictly Catholic. Many follow a syncretic faith that is equal parts Roman Catholicism and West African Polytheism. Pastor Pat does not cotton to such amalgamations. It is his (God's) way or the highway. His God is the ultimate good, which make everyone else's belief the ultimate evil—Satanism. Give Pastor Pat his due; he has been rather clear about which Religions he feels are actually being run by the Horned One. Hinduism (http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/pat_quotes/hindus.htm) and Islam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson#cite_note-37) have been specifically targeted as being the work of Lucifer. A little closer to home Robertson once said ""You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/1999/may/23/columnists.observerbusiness1) If Pat is going to question the righteousness of such main-line, White-Bread, denominations, is it any surprise he is condemning the faith of Afro-Caribbean's?

Of course the Bull Elephant in Preacher Pat's sanctuary has got to be the skin tone of the Haitians. If you haven't noticed Haitians tend to have an excess of melamine pigment in their skins; at least if one accepts that the Pastors' pasty hue as normative. Even the very light-skinned mulattos do not get Pastor Pat's stamp of approval. Remember this is the same Pat Robertson who was forced to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit back at the tail-end of 2001. (http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/pat_quotes/cc_racism.htm) The most damning (pun intentional) bit of the case was this little gem: "U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that the employees had shown they were likely to prevail in the case and issued an injunction ordering the coalition not to retaliate against them." In other words the judge figured that Pat's organization was guilty, guilty, guilty of the charges.

For some Robertson's comments were first and foremost racist. One cannot deny the racist component of the remarks. Robertson was essentially saying that a people of color, the Haitians, were sine qua non evil Satanists from the very founding of their nation. That is some racially toxic material the Reverend is dumping by the barrel-loads on this subject. Still it is only one small bit of the superfund site of Toxic material that Pat has dumped on the public discussion.

The quote by Robertson was deeply a-historical. No such event happened, ever. The meme that Haiti was curse by God at its founding because of some evil performed by the Haitians is a (pardon the expression) black myth. It is a deep libel and slander. It is particularly vile because Haiti was the first colonial people to throw off the chains of slavery by their own efforts. To claim that this act was somehow the act of satanic forces or people in the throes of Demonic possession is despicable. By a back door it supports the institution of slavery. By a back door it rejects the notion that people of color can be active participants in their own destiny. It is a bit of Racism so deep and evil that it is radioactive.

The statement is also profoundly ignorant of how the Haitians found themselves in such a death trap situation. It totally ignored the historical, social, climatic, and economic forces that left the Haitians exposed to this disaster. It ignored the issues of crushing poverty, deforestation, overpopulation and governmental inadequately. It turned a blind eye to the rampant interference of both the EU and especially the U.S. in Haitian affairs. It refused to come to grips with the governmental dysfunction, nepotism, and Kleptocracy that has been Haiti's lot since the beginning of the 20^th century. Haiti did not reach this hideous state of affairs by some supernatural agency; it came to this place via the assistance of the government of the United States. It came to this place via the efforts of one of the most corrupt, callous, abusive, and self-centered elites on the planets. In Haiti the lighter the completion of the individual, the blacker is the soul. The Francophone mulattos that occupy the upper tier of Haiti have next to no peers in the world for their depravity and greed; only the Burmese generals come close. The rot in Haiti starts right at the top. The rot has nothing to do with the activities of the Devil. It has an earthly source. But as Pat Robertson is the type of businessman who befits from such arrangements, it is in his interest to divert our attention elsewhere.

Suffer The Little Children--And Then Some

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jun/30/knox-youth-minister-arrested-child-rape-charges/

KNOXVILLE - A youth volunteer at a Knox County church kept photos of children engaged in sexual activities and is accused of sexual acts with a boy younger than 13, according to paperwork supporting his arrest Tuesday.

Randall Thomas Hollifield, 45, of Powell was taken into custody after deputies executed a search warrant at his house on Little Joe Road, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Martha Dooley.

He is charged with two counts of rape of a child, in which affidavits state he both performed oral sex on a child under the age of 13 and forced the child to perform oral sex on him.

He is also charged with sexual exploitation of a minor. The search uncovered more than 3,000 images on a computer and digital camera at his home, and the sexual exploitation charge filed against Hollifield states more than 100 images involved a minor engaged in sexual activities.

Snip

No comment.

Manifested Glory Ministries "Exorcises" a Gay Teen

An American church has been condemned over a video showing a 16-year-old boy apparently being exorcised by church leaders trying to cast a "homosexual demon" from his body.

The 20-minute video posted on YouTube shows the teenager lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church shout "Rip it from his throat!" and "Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!"

Later, the teenager is seen coughing and apparently vomiting into a bag before lying on the ground, limp and covered in a white sheet.

Gay and youth advocates claim the film depicts abuse and are demanding an investigation. But a spokeswoman from Manifested Glory Ministries, which posted the video on YouTube, this week denied any wrongdoing.

"We believe a man should be with a woman and a woman should be with a man," the Rev Patricia McKinney told the Associated Press. "We have nothing against homosexuals. I just don't agree with their lifestyle."

McKinney denied the ritual was an exorcism, describing it instead as a casting out of spirits. She said the church took care of the youth, providing him with clothes.

"He was dressing like a woman and everything. And he didn't want to be like that," McKinney said.

The church has since removed the video from YouTube.

Snip

More at the Gaurdian UK

There is no Common Ground Mr. President

The genius of Barack Obama is that he was able almost intuitively to either find common ground or suggest that common ground may actually exist. He appealed to the nation’s exhaustion with the endless culture war that has been part and parcel of the Boomer generation.

Of the many prickly and contentious issues that Obama tries to smooth over fewer are more fraught than Abortion. As a good squishy Centrist Democrat Obama has taken the Clinton formula – Legal, Safe and Rare— and ran with it.

At first blush it seems to be an adequate compromise. Almost everyone feels a little uncomfortable with the subject and a plurality probably is very uncomfortable with the subject. They would be perfectly happy with Roe being the final definitive answer and for the whole subject to be dropped. The status quo that Roe vs. Wade represents leaves almost no one happy and thus qualifies as excellent public policy.

If Roe had been implemented by legislative means, it would possibly be more widely accepted. As Roe was delivered sui generis by five justices of the Supreme Court it always lacked a large portion of legitimacy. The opponents of Roe almost immediately began chipping away at the decision. They were able to do this because the “victors” of Roe became flaccid in the defense of the decision and because opponents were able to shift the make up of the Supreme Court. Roe still exists because judicial stasis is so hard to overcome; it is actually enshrined in the concept of Stari Decisis. Thus the right to choose has been attacked on the flanks not frontally.

Be under no illusions though, the ultimate goal of the “pro-life” movement is not only the repeal of Roe but the negation of contraception and the entire “sexual revolution.” As Amanda Marcotte points out it is not about being for life it is about “forced pregnancy.”

As a passionate blogger Ms. Marcotte has next to no sympathy for the “pro-life” movement. She rightly points out the underlying and fierce misogyny that informs the movement. She also is merciless in her deconstruction of religious underpinning of the anti-choice “wingnuts.” From Ms. Marcotte’s perspective it is all about punishing women for being sexually aware beings. Children are “punishment” for being a “slut.”

Ms. Marcotte has a point. Exactly how do we deal with sexuality as it really exists, how do we deal with the consequences of human passion? Also exactly what is the proper place of the female gender? Are women full and equal actors? Are they fully autonomous and independent actors or does their lack of certain anatomical artifacts leaves them somehow “defective.”

The whole premise of having to regulate Abortion presumes that a woman can not make rational decisions regarding the status of the fetus she is carrying. It presumes that a woman’s right to plan when and even if she should have children is beyond her mental capacity. It assumes that women will make these kinds of decisions illogically or even frivolously.

Take the furor over late-term abortions. Exactly why should the government intervene by either outlawing the procedure altogether or banning a specific procedure? What is the alleged reason? That some foolish woman will be “tricked” into ending her pregnancy by some money grubbing doctor? Remember the woman has carried the fetus for at least six month now. Remember she has felt the fetus shift and kick and otherwise show signs of life. All of a sudden she is going to terminate because why? She terminated because the clinic was offering a free toaster and an oil change with the procedure? She terminated because she was physically inconvenienced by the pregnancy? She terminated because she thought it would be fun to watch the fetus die after the doctor induced a false labor?

The reason for late term terminations is some kind of medical tragedy. The fetus has some kind of deformity that will render its life short, painful and pointless. The mother has a condition that threatens her life. She made a gut-wrenching decision because of the unfortunate facts. She wanted that child, she wanted motherhood, but because of the medical facts it was not an option. She definitely did not do it on a whim or because she was a silly slut. The procedure was chosen because it was the safest and most efficient available, not so the Doctor could get his jollies. One has to assume that the Hippocratic Oath is one big joke to the medical profession to legally limit or ban late term Abortions.

So the ban on late term abortions has little to do with medicine and everything to do with politics and a bit of common sense. Common sense does dictate that a fetus in the late stages of developing is different entity from a newly implanted blastisis. That is why in deciding Roe the Supremes reached all the way back to the common law precedent of “quickening.” It is a good a dividing line as any other, “if it kicks, you must protect.” Unfortunately the standard of “viability” was always a can of worms begging to be opened.

That can was gleefully released by the opponents of Roe. They were more that happy to conflate the status of a late-trimester fetus with the status of newly fertilized egg. Never mind that this equivalence was so much rubbish as far as the medical arts were concerned. Roe’s opponents were and are driven by religious considerations; by their Roman Catholic or Protestant Evangelical convictions. Life for these folks starts at conception full stop. Thus abortion was the killing of life and murder.

This is the nub of why common ground is a chimera. One side—the feminists—see that fertilized egg as a medical construct. It is an appendage to the woman who carries it. That appendage has no more “rights” than wart on a woman’s toe. For the feminist it is all about the woman’s right as an autonomous individual to control the functions of her own body as she sees fit.

The other side sees that fertilized egg as a full human being. More to the point they see it as a person with a soul. Not only does that person have rights that match the mothers, they supersede her rights. Once imbedded that “child” must be born regardless of either its or the mothers condition, full stop; the mother has no relevant wishes or desires, only the “child” matters.

It gets worse. Not only does a woman not have a right to terminate a pregnancy she does not have the right to prevent it in the first place. Abortion opponents are to a great extent foes of contraception. The Roman Catholic Church is clear on the matter: No abortions, no pill, no condoms, if you must use the rhythm method but the only real reason to have sex is procreation. Sex for fun, especially out of marriage, is sin and thus evil.

Does this sound like a position that can be compromised with? The central error of Obama’s ideology is that there is some kind of middle way. He cedes ground by accepting the talking point that Abortion is some how a bad thing, an evil thing. Abortion is just one part of the panoply of reproductive choice. Other than the expense and risks incurred it is not inferior to other methods of family planning. Even in Europe where contraception is easily acquired and there is no stigma attached to un-wed mothers and the social welfare system gives generous support abortion remains very prevalent. It is safe, it is legal, but it is not in any way shape or form rare. Obama is promising something that can not be delivered.

On the other side the anti-choicer are also promising something that can not be delivered. At best what they can deliver is the world we had prior to Roe. In that world the wealthy and the upper middle class always had a choice. Those women with money or connections will always be able to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. It will be lower-middle class and poor women who will be sacrificed to the demands of the religious fundamentalists. It will be them who will be crushed underfoot. It will be a return to unequal protection. It will be a return to back ally abortions and the pointless death and maiming of thousands of women. It will be a marked increase in the number of unwanted children and the ruination of hundreds of thousands of lives. All this so a militant minority can impose its version of morality on the rest of the Republic.

There is no common ground here; there is either the egalitarian impulse or the authoritarian will to power. Do women hold up half the sky? Are the full human beings with rights that must be respected? Are women equals to men in the use of their mental facilities, able to reach logical decision by the use of their fully developed reason? Or women the other, frilly, foolish, flighty things driven by out of control hormones? Are they less than full human beings? Are they in the end permanent children in constant need of direction of big daddy? Common ground? No Mr. President there is only a choice between the angels of our better nature and the troglodyte urge to oppress those who are classified as “other.”

Leilani Neumann, Christian Crazy

Wausau - A jury Friday found a central Wisconsin mother guilty of killing her 11-year-old daughter by praying for her to heal instead of rushing her to a doctor.

A Marathon County jury deliberated about four hours before convicting Leilani Neumann, 41, of rural Weston of second-degree reckless homicide. No sentencing date was set. Neumann remains free on bond.

"We have another shot on appeal," defense lawyer Gene Linehan said. "Obviously, there will be an appeal."

Neumann left the courtroom clutching her husband as her three other children, looking stunned, followed. She declined to comment.

Neumann's daughter Madeline died of untreated diabetes March 23, 2008, surrounded by people praying for her. When she suddenly stopped breathing, her parents' business and Bible study partners finally called 911.

Prosecutors contend a reasonable parent would have known something was gravely wrong with Madeline, and her mother recklessly killed her by ignoring obvious symptoms of how gravely ill she was. During closing arguments, Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad described Neumann as a religious zealot who let her daughter, known by the nickname Kara, die as a test of faith.

"Religious extremism can be dangerous," Falstad said. "In this case, it was fatal. Basic medical care would have saved Kara's life - fluids and insulin. There was plenty of time to save Kara's life."

Snip

Four hours is a rather quick verdict so the Neumann families claims that they "are Bible-believing, God-believing, Holy Ghost-filled people who want to do right and be right." did not seem to hold much water with the jury. Besides riddle me this if you really believe in the power of prayer then why are you calling 911 and EMS when it fails to bring the anticipated results? In God we trust but we trust medical science even more? EMS is an escape hatch for prayers that can't pass muster? What is the theological justification? Maybe Ms. Neumann can contemplate this while she is spending her twenty-five years in prison.