First They Came for the Gays

As students of history may remember, in Nazi Germany, it was first the Jews who were targeted for state sponsored discrimination and later far worse.  But once the Nazi regime got away with what was being done to Jews, others were then targeted: Gypsies, gays, Slavs, etc.  Here in America, American Christofascists are little different from the Nazi regime.  There are those they hate in particular, i.e., gays, but many others are also despised: non-Christians, Muslims, non-whites, independent women, etc.  The list is a long one.  A piece in The Daily Beast makes the case that, if the Christofascists are successful in enacting anti-gay laws that exempt Christofascists from compliance with non-discrimination laws and public accommodation laws, then other groups will be targeted in the future.  Here are excerpts:

If Republicans allow businesses to refuse people in the name of religious freedom, you can expect women, minorities, and others to get the cold shoulder. 

If the Republican-controlled Arizona state legislature has its way, gays could be thrown out of bars, restaurants, and hotels across the state.

Last week it passed a bill that would permit businesses to deny services to any person if doing so would substantially burden the business owners “exercise of religion.”  Why? Because the Bible condemns such homosexual unions. In essence, this measure would legally sanction discrimination against gay Americans by masquerading as a defense of religious freedom.

When I first read about this proposed law, my reaction was probably the same as many others: Are you f#@#ing kidding me?!  But they’re not. And even scarier is that Arizona isn’t the only state where Republicans are trying to to turn the Bible into the basis for American law. The Republican-controlled Kansas House of Representatives passed a similar bill two weeks ago, while Idaho and Utah have considered similar measures.

Who else can be denied services? The proposed Arizona also law doesn’t warn the public about which religions don’t approve of which people. Nothing could spoil a family vacation to Arizona more than going to check into the hotel and discovering that the owner doesn’t religiously approve of you. So, in an effort to help people, here are a few groups in addition to gays who should be concerned:

A. Interracial couples.  For many, the laws that deemed it a crime for blacks and whites to marry were grounded upon their religious beliefs.  For example, the trial judge in the famous case of Loving v. Virginia made that very point: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents… The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” And the Bible appears to support this very proposition. 


B. Women who try to tell men what to do.  The Bible states: “…do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.”  So ladies, if you start telling  your husband what to do while in an Arizona restaurant, you may find yourself sitting in the parking lot while he finishes his dinner in the establishment.

C. Jews, Muslims, atheists, Sikhs, and others.  The New Testament also tells Christians: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

Arizona’s Republican governor Jan Brewer should veto this bill when it comes to her desk in the next few days.  However, that’s not enough.  The Republican National Chair Reince Priebus and other GOP Leaders need to make it clear that their party will no longer tolerate discrimination against any American for any reason.

It’s truly time the GOP makes a choice:  Will they continue to be beholden to the extreme elements of their party? Or will they finally have the courage to stand up to the voices of intolerance and embrace the inclusivity that truly represents our nation today. What’s it going to be? 

GOP's "Bishop" E.W. Jackson Says Non-Christians Engaged "False Religion"

All three of the Republican nominees for statewide office this year - Ken Cuccinelli for Governor, "Bishop" E.W. Jackson for Lt. Governor, and Mark Obenshain for Attorney General - are all insane extremists in my view.  But "Bishop" Jackson (pictured at right) truly takes the batshitery and bigotry to new levels.  Indeed, if one isn't a far right religious extremist and/or Kool-Aid drinking "Stepford Wife" robot , I candidly do not how anyone can support Jackson's candidacy.  Now, Jackson has made statements that insult non-Christian Americans and accuse them of engaging in a "false religion."  The Washington Post looks at this latest lunacy from Jackson.  Here are excerpts:

 At a morning sermon Sunday in Northern Virginia, Republican lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake pastor, said people who don’t follow Jesus Christ “are engaged in some sort of false religion.”

Jackson offered that view while describing a list of the “controversial” things he believes, and that must be said, as a Christian.

“Any time you say, ‘There is no other means of salvation but through Jesus Christ, and if you don’t know him and you don’t follow him and you don’t go through him, you are engaged in some sort of false religion,’ that’s controversial. But it’s the truth,” Jackson said, according to a recording of the sermon by a Democratic tracker.  

As for non-Christians, “I would expect they would be offended,” Ahlemann [the church's pastor]  acknowledged. “It’s not our purpose. And [Jackson] said he did not set out to offend people. It’s his purpose to proclaim what the Bible said as a preacher. That was not a political speech. That was a Bible sermon...Those of us who are Bible-believing Christians are very proud of what he had to say.”

Historically, it is a fact that this nation was founded by individuals who were Christians and wanted this to be a Christian nation. That’s truth. That is historical fact,” he [Ahlemann] said.  Jackson did not respond to a request for comment.

The historical truth is that the Founding Fathers did NOT want a Christian nation.  Most of the Founding Fathers were very distrustful of organized religion and the bullshit recited by Ahlemann is a myth fabricated by the Christofascists as a ploy to allow them to trample on the religious freedoms of others.

Looking At the Real History of December 25th and Christmas

It is December and while the holiday season can offer time with family, friends and hopes for a better tomorrow, as is the norm, we also see the ugly efforts of the Christian Right to demonize retailers and others who fail to force all of their customers to engage in the Christmas story.  These "godly Christians" basically flip the middle finger to non-Christian Americans - and label as a foe those who "censor" Christmas.  Three years ago I did a post that looked at the phenomenon and as the onslaught of the far right once again ensues, it is forth while remembering the real history of how today's Christmas story - myth if you will - came to be.  It is very different from what one hears coming from America's pulpits.  As Bob Felton at Civil Commotion noted in 2009, not only are such "campaigns" to stop the "war on Christmas" insulting to non-Christian Americans, but they also ignore the historical fact that the present day date of Christmas was hijacked from pagan festivals, in particular celebrations to the middle eastern derived god, Mithras. Here are a few of Bob's comments:

* ‘Recognition’ includes exclusivity from retailers when greeting shoppers; those who say ’season’s greetings’ to the nation’s Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Bahai, agnostics, atheists, Wiccans … they are foes.

* The comical irony, of course, is the grotesque and garish dishonesty of it. Christianity stole the solstice from the Romans, who observed Saturnalia, who stole it from the Greeks, who stole it from the Egyptians, who stole it (probably) from Asia. The winter solstice has been the occasion for observances for at least 5000-years and, always, literally and metaphorically, the shortest day of the year has signified a sort of bottom and the promise of coming better times.

Not only was the date of December 25th commandeered from the pagan celebrations by Pope Julius I in the year 350, but the Mithras cult had other interesting parallels to the relatively new Christian faith (as did aspects of the cult of the Egyptian goddess, Isis). Here are some highlights from History 101:

* However there is another theory - regarding the worship of Mithras, an Indo-Aryan deity (the Mitra of Vedic religion, the Mithra of the Persian Avesta) associated with the heavens and light. His cult entered the Roman Empire in the first century BC and during the formative decades of the Christian movement was a formidable rival to the latter, with temples from Syria to Britain. Given his solar associations, it made sense to believe that he had been born on the darkest day of the year, the winter solstice. That falls this year on December 21 but the Romans celebrated the birth feast of Mithras on December 25, ordered to do so by Emperor Aurelian in 274 AD. Christian texts from 325 note that the birthday of Jesus had come to be observed on that same day, and the Roman Catholic Church has in modern times acknowledged that the December 25 Christmas quite likely derived from Mithraic practice.

* Mithras, the story went, had been born of a virgin. Virgin-birth stories were a denarius a dozen in the ancient world, so this similarity to the gospel story isn't surprising. But Mithras was also born in very humble circumstances in a cave, and upon his miraculous birth found himself in immediate proximity to the bovine. In his case, not mellow manger beasts but a wild bull. In the Persian version of the myth, this bull had been the first creation of Ahura Mazda, another, greater god of light. (Ahura Mazda, in the history of Persian religion, gradually becomes conceptualized as something like the Judeo-Christian God. But his worship in the Zoroastrian tradition probably predates the Jewish conception of Yahweh as universal deity. Quite likely the Zoroastrian conception of God influenced the Jewish one.)

* Mithras serving Ahura Mazda subdued the bull, confining it in the cave, and later slaughteed it. The blood of the slaughtered bull then generated vegetation and all life. This myth surely has something to do with cattle-worship among ancient Aryan peoples, which of course survives to this day in India. In Rome the Mithras cult involved such rituals as drenching the Mithras devotee in bull-blood, and having believers in secret ceremonies consume in the form of bread and wine the flesh and blood of the fabled slaughtered bull. A communion ceremony, if you will. Mithras died and was entombed, but rose from the dead. In some accounts, he does so on the third day.

Yet another source has this about Mithras:

 

Mithra was a Persian savior. Worship of Mithra became common throughout the Roman Empire, particularly among the Roman civil service and military. Mithraism was a competitor of Christianity until the 4th century. Their god was believed to have been born on DEC-25, circa 500 BCE. His birth was witnessed by shepherds and by gift-carrying Magi. This was celebrated as the “Dies Natalis Solic Invite,” The “Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.” Some followers believed that he was born of a virgin. During his life, he performed many miracles, cured many illnesses, and cast out devils. He celebrated a Last Supper with his 12 disciples. He ascended to heaven at the time of the spring equinox, about March 21. 

 

I believe that individuals are free to believe whatever they want about the Christmas holidays.  That does not mean that everyone else must be forced into submission.  The historic truth is that few Christians (or others) nowadays know of Mithras, but today much of the world unwittingly celebrates his birth.  The irony of the history challenged, egocentric morons of the Christian Right and professional Christian set is that they foolishly rely on an allegedly inerrant Bible that can be proven to be anything but inerrant. Moreover, they are in effect promoting a pagan holiday to which the early Roman Catholic Church added a veneer to further its own aggrandizement. It would be humorous but for the damage these Christofascists do to others in the process of their self-centered love affair with themselves.

Atheists Launch a "Coming Out" Campaign

A story in the Washington Post looks at a new movement by atheists to band together and have their own "coming out" campaign. Needless to say, the professional Christian set and the Christianist crowd will be hyperventilating and the spittle will be flying -these merchants of hatred and discrimination will be furious that other citizens are exercising their constitutional right to embrace no religion. The irony is that the campaign is modeled on the gay rights coming out model, another movement subjected to constant condemnation, vilification, and untruths by the professional Christians. One of the best argument around nowadays for being an atheist is the "godly Christian" crowd who set a standard of what not to be. Add to that the scientific evidence that the existence of Adam and Eve is a mere fairy tale - as is "The Fall" and you're well on your way to atheism. I don't view myself as an atheist - I believe that there is a creator or higher power, just not as described in the Old Testament. But I digress. Here are highlights from the Post story:

The young man in the video pulls in close to his computer camera with the trappings of a typical college dorm room — a loft bed and the clutter of cast-off clothes — piled behind him. Alex Fiorentini isn’t talking about girls, beer or football. Instead, it’s a coming-out moment of sorts.

“Is it acceptable to the majority of the population to be an atheist?” he asks the camera. “Nope. Are all of your friends going to accept you as an atheist? Probably not all of them. And yeah, those things are gonna suck. But the real question is, ‘Is it OK to be me?’ That is the real question if you are an atheist.”

For Fiorentini, a student at the University of Illinois, the answer is yes. He and scores of other atheists, young and old, have made similar videos for a new campaign designed to build community and support among nontheists around the world.

Brown, who had founded a gay-straight club in her high school, patterned We Are Atheism on the gay community’s “It Gets Better” video project, launched in 2010 after a string of suicides by bullied gay teens. It Gets Better features self-made videos by gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual people who share their coming-out experiences and offer encouragement to those who remain closeted. “The whole point of the website is to let younger atheists know you will face persecution,” Brown said. “But through us knowing each other we can all help.”

Brown’s project also piggybacks on the gay community’s experience that familiarity breeds acceptance: Knowing actual gay people tends to break down homophobia, ignorance and prejudice.

“If the polls are correct, there are literally millions of nonbelievers in America,” said Richard Haynes, president of Atheist Nexus. “However, many atheists feel all alone. This is the primary reason we must come out of the closet. Coming out is the only way to change the public perception of nontheism.”

As noted on this blog before, surveys continue to show that atheists (and Muslims) are actually in many ways more moral in their conduct and treatment of others than conservative Christians.

In the Begining - Origins of Christian Beliefs

Fellow blogger Bob Felton at Civil Commotion likes to look at the intersection of religious and public policies/laws. Bob is a libertarian and possibly an atheist - whereas I am more a Jeffersonian deist - and he often does an amazing job at exposing the malignancy and growing influence of religious fundamentalism on American public life. He also likes to poke holes in the fragile belief of system of Christian fundamentalists who fearfully hang on to superstition and throw common sense and any ability to grasp reality to the wind- particularly when they claim the Bible is the inerrant word of God. The reality is that certain "myths" seem to go through religious revivals over the centuries and thus question the originality of what the Christian fundamentalist profess to believe. Here are highlights fro one of Bob's recent posts:

*

In the beginning, says a Mesopotamian tale that pre-dates Genesis by almost 1200-years, there were two ranks of gods. There were old important gods who made all the decisions, and lesser gods who did all the work. In time, as happens still amongst we humans, the worker gods decided the system was rigged against them and went out on strike.

*
Every single one of us gods declared war! We have put a stop to the digging. The load is excessive, it is killing us!Our work is too hard, the trouble too much! A compromise was reached. The worker gods would be permitted to have helpers: Men.

*
Then one god should be slaughtered. And the gods can be purified by immersion. Nintu shall mix clay. With his flesh and his blood. Then a god and a man Will be mixed together in clay.Let us hear the drumbeat forever after, Let a ghost come into existence from the god’s flesh. Let her proclaim it as his living sign,And let the ghost exist so as not to forget the slain god. Later, the gods grew tired of mens’ noise and attitude, and drowned them all in a great flood, excepting the man Atrahasis and his family. The likeness to Genesis cannot be denied or overlooked.

*

Is the Book of Genesis merely a rewrite of the far older Mesopotamian beliefs with Jewish outspreads for added good measure? We may never know, but it is an interesting question worth pursuing. Should it prove true, then the fragile Christian fundamentalist construct falls apart.