German Catholic Bishops Declare Homosexuality to be "Normal"

The Reformation began in Germany in reaction to the corruption and lunacy of the Roman Catholic Church.  It ultimately forced the Church to change its ways in a number of ways. One thing that did not change was the Church's dogma on human sexuality which remained firmly back in the 12th century - where it has remained to the current day despite advances in medical and mental healthy knowledge.  As a result, gays have been persecuted and sex has remained for procreation only and should never be enjoyed. Now, a synod of German bishops is committed to “newly assessing” the universal Church’s teaching on homosexuality, sexual morality in general, and seemingly at long last bring the Church out of the 12th century. As one might expect, the shrieks and screams from right wing Catholic extremists who live to condemn others and preach a message of division is off the charts. A piece in the Catholic News Agency looks at the ongoing development.  Here are excerpts:

Munich, Germany, Dec 12, 2019 / 02:10 pm (CNA).- The German bishops’ conference has committed to “newly assessing” the universal Church’s teaching on homosexuality, sexual morality in general, as well as the sacraments of ordination and marriage. The commitment comes at the beginning of a controversial two-year “Synodal Process” by the German hierarchy.

Following consultations in Berlin last week, the chairman of the Marriage and Family Commission of the German bishops’ conference declared that the bishops agreed that homosexuality is a “normal form” of human sexual identity.

“Both belong to the normal forms of sexual predisposition, which cannot or should be be changed with the help of a specific socialization”.

Koch went on to say that “developments” made possible by Amoris laetitia, Pope Francis’ exhortation of marriage and the family, the Church must consider the latest scientific and theological insights on human sexuality.

Archbishop Koch, together with diocesan bishops Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, Bishop Wolfgang Ipolt of Görlitz, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz, as well as several auxiliary bishops from the Faith and Family Commission of the bishops' conference consulted with a number of invited medical specialists, theologians and canon lawyers during the event.

Calling for a "solid discussion supported by human sciences and theology" Koch and Bode said that Amoris Laetitia already provides for noticeable "developments" of both Church doctrine and practice, adding that a sexual relationship for divorced and remarried couples after Amoris laetitia "was no longer always to be qualified as grave sin," and that wholesale “exclusion from the reception of the Eucharist" of such couples could no longer be justified.

Koch said that the "Synodal Process" should must begin from an "unbiased" position on the Church’s teaching and without fixed points of view, but rather an openness to taking into account “latest scientific insights”.

According to a press release issued by the bishops, there was also discussion on whether the prohibition of homosexual acts by the Church’s magisterium was "still up-to-date" – and whether artificial contraception should still be condemend by the Chuch for “both married and unmarried” couples.

The results of the “expert consultation” in Berlin will be fed in to the “Synodal Process” through the synodal forum on "Life in Successful Relationships - Living Love in Sexuality and Partnership", will begin its work in February 2020.

Coinciding with the opening of the Synodal Process, several diocesan and national Catholic associations funded by the German Church tax, or Kirchensteuer, have made public demands for changes to the Church’s teaching and practice on similar issues.

Calls for “reform” range from the blessing of homosexual unions to the priestly ordination of women, . . .

Ancient Manuscript: Jesus "Married Mary Magdalene and Had Children"

This blog has noted frequently the problem that biblical literalists are facing both from modern scientific knowledge - such as the human genome project which confirms that Adam and Eve never existed as historical persons - to new history discoveries that challenge the Church's manipulated and enforced version of the Christ story.   Now, a rediscovered ancient manuscript has yet again suggested that the Church's version of Jesus' life is not accurate.  The Independent has details.  Here are highlights:

Jesus married the prostitute Mary Magdalene and had children, according to a manuscript almost 1,500 years old unearthed at the British Library.

The so-called “Lost Gospel”, which has been translated from Aramaic, allegedly reveals the startling new allegations, according to The Sunday Times.

Professor Barrie Wilson and writer Simcha Jacobovic spent months translating the text, which they claim states Jesus had two children and the original Virgin Mary was Jesus’s wife and not his mother.

Many experts have downplayed the biblical figure’s historical importance but, according to the translators of the new gospel, she is of much greater significance than previously thought. 

Mary Magdalene already features in the existing gospels and is present at many of the important moments recorded in Jesus’s life.

“The Lost Gospel” is not the first to claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene.  Both Nikos Kazantzakis in his 1953 book “The Last Temptation of Christ” and, more recently, Dan Brown in “The Da Vinci Code” made the same allegation.

Further revelations from the book, including the names of Jesus's children, will be released on Wednesday.

The publisher, Pegasus, has confirmed the press conference will go ahead as planned.

More details will follow.  Expect shrieks and spittle flecked rants from those whose fragile faith depends on a literal (albeit very selective) reading of the Bible  and not having to think.

The Problem With Alcohol/Drug Rehab Programs

stevecoleimages, via Getty

The death of Cory Monteith has launched a much needed discussion on the flawed 12 step method that seems to be the basis for most drug and alcohol rehab programs.   These programs - I attended some session some years ago with a family member, so I have seen it first hand - stress abstinence only, ignore modern scientific knowledge, and in many cases have too much of a tie with lunatic conservative Christian mindsets.  It is little wonder that far too many individuals go in and out of these programs like a revolving door.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the short comings of these programs.  Here are highlights:

Charlie Sheen has been there. So have Courtney Love and Lindsay Lohan. In fact, Lohan will complete her sixth stint at an addiction treatment center at the end of this month before jumping into the arms of Oprah Winfrey. For every troubled star, it seems, there’s an accompanying stay (or three) in rehab. It only takes a casual tabloid reader to note that the system isn’t working as well it could.

The death of Glee star Cory Monteith,  . . .  has reignited a debate among addiction experts over the efficacy of rehab centers—many of which continue to be built around traditional 12-step, abstinence only-programs despite a growing body of evidence that this approach doesn’t work for everyone. To wit: a 2012 report from the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia) concluded that many addiction programs don’t employ the kind of progressive, science-based approaches that have been shown to be effective in studies, and that “only a small fraction of individuals receive interventions or treatment consistent with scientific knowledge of what works.”

Part of the problem is that addiction, which wasn’t formally recognized as a chronic brain disorder by the American Society of Addiction Medicine until two years ago, was long considered a behavioral problem rather than a mental-health issue. That stigma is one of the reasons addiction treatment is far from current with the latest scientific literature, says Anne Fletcher, who spent years interviewing rehab patients and researching the facilities taking care of them for her book Inside Rehab.

In fact, the stagnation seen at rehab centers today, both inpatient and outpatient, can be traced back decades, Fletcher says, to when the medical community would actually refuse to treat alcoholics and drug addicts. Addiction programs thus adopted Alcoholics Anonymous’s 12-step approach as a form of treatment, no matter that AA was designed to be a self-help program.

“The treatment model sprung up in a vacuum,” says Fletcher, which is why so many rehabs—including the most expensive ones in the country—remain grounded in the same one-size-fits-all treatment approach. Eight out of 10 programs in the U.S. today still incorporate the 12-step model in some fashion, she says, adding that group therapy is another staple of most programs even though there’s little evidence that this type of counseling helps.

Other systemic failures include inadequate credentialing standards for addiction counselors, with more than half of states in the country not requiring so much as a college degree, according to the 2012 CASAColumbia report.  . . . .

Forty to 60 percent of people treated for alcohol or drug dependence relapse within a year after discharge, according to a study published in 2000 by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

[M]any conventional drug rehabs refuse to educate their patients about medication-assisted treatment—primarily because abstinence-only approach remains so predominant in the U.S. As a result, many patients don’t have access to FDA-approved drugs that could potentially save their lives.

“There’s an attitude in addiction treatment where the facility thinks it knows what’s best for the patient,” says Fletcher, “but there’s strong research that involving the client in the treatment process and giving them a say in what goes on increases their chances for long-term recovery.”

What's most important, critics agree, is flipping the script on a treatment system that hasn't kept up with the times. "Constantly sending me to rehab is pointless," Lohan told CNN in May. "I've been court-ordered to do it six times. I could write the book on rehab."

Failed abstinence only sex education  has shown the illogical nature of abstinence only and the bogus "ex-gay" ministries have proven that "praying away" one's problem doesn't work.   My relative has succeeded in their process, but largely because they (i) rejected abstinence only approach, (ii) rejected the Christian brainwashing that was part of the program, and (iii) got therapy from a licensed psychologist familiar with modern knowledge. 

Uruguay Passes Gay Marriage While USA and Virginia Lag Behind

Yet another western hemisphere nation has joined the ranks of nations providing full marriage equality to all of its citizens, gay and straight.  This time the nation embracing equality for all its citizens is Uruguay, another historically Catholic nation.  Meanwhile, America and states like Virginia lag behind and make a mockery of America's supposed moniker as the "land of liberty" and a land of "religious freedom."   Freedom to Marry has details (the Montevideo newspaper, El Pais has details in Spanish):

The Uruguayan Senate passed freedom to marry legislation today allowing same-sex couples to marry, making Uruguay nearly certain to be the 15th nation in the world – and the fourth in Latin America – where gay and lesbian couples can share in the freedom to marry. The bill passed today had been modified slightly since passage by the Chamber of Deputies in December, but those changes are expected to be easily approved by the deputies. President José Mujica has said he intends to sign the bill.

Uruguay’s vote today to move past civil union to marriage itself, Argentina’s enactment of the freedom to marry in 2010 and the Mexico Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling last month in favor of the freedom to marry -- citing the U.S Supreme Court cases of Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia -- all are inspirations and examples decision-makers here in the United States, including our Supreme Court justices, should swiftly follow to get the U.S. where it needs to be.”

When marriages between same-sex couples begin this summer, Uruguay will join 11 countries that have the freedom to marry for same-sex couples nationwide: The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, and Denmark. Three others have taken judicial and regional steps to allow same-sex couples to share in the freedom to marry in parts of the country: Brazil, Mexico, and the United States.

 The Washington Blade has additional coverage.  Here are highlights (note that the vote was not even close):

The Uruguay Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in the South American country.  The 23-8 vote took place after an hours-long debate on the proposal.

The Uruguayan newspaper El País reported Sen. Rafael Michelini compared the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples in Uruguay as a “profound modification” for society that one could compare to the abolition of slavery and the law that established an eight hour work day. Sen. Francisco Gallinal told fellow senators that nuptials for gays and lesbians does not guarantee equality.

Will the USA catch up with modernity and equality for all citizens?  Only time will tell.

Thomas Jefferson's Directive to Constitutional "Originalists" Like Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - who it would seem is working hard to become the Court's most notable buffoon - likes to claim that he is a "Constitutional originalist" as a justification for his Neanderthal like backwardness and resistance to acceptance of a changing nation and changing levels of knowledge.  What's a Constitutional originalist?  It is someone who claims that the Constitution is not subject to changing interpretations and can only be construed in the context of the  knowledge known to the Founding Fathers when the Constitution was written.  Interestingly enough, Thomas Jefferson apparently foresaw bigots like Scalia when he wrote the following in a letter written to Samuel Kercheval in 1816, had this to say about the law and human progress:

I am certainly not an advocate for for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Obviously, the foregoing passage cuts Scalia's argument off at the knees, but I doubt Scalia can overcome his own arrogance and bigotry to accept the views of one of America's most illustrious Founding Fathers.   The man truly needs to be removed from the Supreme Court.

Why Are Muslims - and Fundamentalists in General - So Easily Offended?

An op-ed in the Washington Post looks at the question of why the Muslims in the Arab world are so easily offended by what they perceive to be insults to  Islam in general or Mohammad in particular.   It's a question that, in my view, also applies to Christian fundamentalists who seem to look for what they describe as insults to their religious beliefs.  In both instances, there is a huge fear of modernity and an unspoken fear that what if critics are correct in their condemnation of fundamentalist faiths?  Too many of the adherents fear the same thing: having to think for themselves and having to formulate their own moral decisions in a world vastly different that that in which both Christianity and Islam first arose.  

And as the article in the Post also indicates, there is a huge sense of inferiority because the glories of the past for both religions have been lost.  Once the Catholic Church and Islam both fostered and protected knowledge of the past and respected learning.  Now, one can argue that the inflexibility and refusal to accept modern knowledge are at the root of the very causes for the decline of the intellectual levels of both Christianity and Islam.  Sooner or later modernity and new knowledge make old beliefs become untenable except for those who consciously decide to remain ignorant.  Any religion that refuses to change and adapt and which requires the equivalent to a lobotomy to maintain unchallenged belief is doomed to eventually die.  Just as we are seeing the slow death of Christianity in the western world because of conservative Christianity's refusal to change.  Conservatives in both Christianity and Islam are unwittingly the worse enemies of both faiths.  Here are some column excerpts:

Modernity requires the willingness to be offended. And as anti-American violence across the Middle East and beyond shows, that willingness is something the Arab world, the heartland of Islam, still lacks.

Time and again in recent years, as the outside world has battered the walls of Muslim lands and as Muslims have left their places of birth in search of greater opportunities in the Western world, modernity — with its sometimes distasteful but ultimately benign criticism of Islam — has sparked fatal protests. To understand why violence keeps erupting and to seek to prevent it, we must discern what fuels this sense of grievance.

There is an Arab pain and a volatility in the face of judgment by outsiders that stem from a deep and enduring sense of humiliation. A vast chasm separates the poor standing of Arabs in the world today from their history of greatness. In this context, their injured pride is easy to understand.

In the narrative of history transmitted to schoolchildren throughout the Arab world and reinforced by the media, religious scholars and laymen alike, Arabs were favored by divine providence. They had come out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century, carrying Islam from Morocco to faraway Indonesia. In the process, they overran the Byzantine and Persian empires, then crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to Iberia, and there they fashioned a brilliant civilization that stood as a rebuke to the intolerance of the European states to the north. Cordoba and Granada were adorned and exalted in the Arab imagination. Andalusia brought together all that the Arabs favored — poetry, glamorous courts, philosophers who debated the great issues of the day.

If Islam’s rise was spectacular, its fall was swift and unsparing. This is the world that the great historian Bernard Lewis explored in his 2002 book “What Went Wrong?” The blessing of God, seen at work in the ascent of the Muslims, now appeared to desert them. 

The coming of the West to their world brought superior military, administrative and intellectual achievement into their midst — and the outsiders were unsparing in their judgments.

Even as Arabs insist that their defects were inflicted on them by outsiders, they know their weaknesses. Younger Arabs today can be brittle and proud about their culture, yet deeply ashamed of what they see around them. They know that more than 300 million Arabs have fallen to economic stagnation and cultural decline.   .   .   .   .   In the privacy of their own language, in daily chatter on the street, on blogs and in the media, and in works of art and fiction, they probe endlessly what befell them.  But woe to the outsider who ventures onto that explosive terrain. The assumption is that Westerners bear Arabs malice, that Western judgments are always slanted and cruel.

We know the celebrated cases when modernity has agitated the pious. A little more than two decades ago, it was a writer of Muslim and Indian birth, Salman Rushdie, whose irreverent work of fiction, “The Satanic Verses,” offended believers with its portrayal of Islam.  .   .   .   .   The confrontation laid bare the unease of Islam in the modern world.

The storm that erupted this past week at the gates of American diplomatic outposts across the Muslim world is a piece of this history. As usual, it was easily ignited.

It is never hard to assemble a crowd of young protesters in the teeming cities of the Muslim world. American embassies and consulates are magnets for the disgruntled. It is inside those fortresses, the gullible believe, that rulers are made and unmade. Yet these same diplomatic outposts dispense coveted visas and a way out to the possibilities of the Western world. 

The ambivalence toward modernity that torments Muslims is unlikely to abate. The temptations of the West have alienated a younger generation from its elders. Men and women insist that they revere the faith as they seek to break out of its restrictions. 

Cultural freedom is never absolute, of course, and the Western tradition itself, from the Athenians to the present, struggles mightily with the line between freedom and order. In the Muslim world, that struggle is more fierce and lasting, and it will show itself in far more than burnt flags and overrun embassies.

One huge irony is that the Christofascist elements in America - especially in today's Republican Party - hate and condemn Muslims when in fact both the condemned and those that condemn them suffer from the same affliction: a refusal to adapt to a changing world and to admit any possibility that maybe, just maybe, their religion doesn't have all the answers.  For both fundamentalist Christians and Muslims this truth threatens their flimsy house of cards world view and fabricated definition of who they are.  It terrifies both groups and outrage and violence are the natural fruits of closed minds and limited world views.  As they fight against modernity and knowledge, Pope Benedict XVI and the ayatollahs have more in common than either would like to admit.  I've often said that gays are so hated by both groups of fundamentalists because our existence suggests that perhaps the Bible and the Koran are in error.

New Theory: Sexual Orientation Determined by Brain Hemisphere Dominance

While the Christofascists continue to peddle the fraudulent claim that sexual orientation is a choice and/or is something that can be "changed," members of the LGBT community know that their sexual orientation is no more of a choice than breathing.  Some of us, like myself, tried to deny and ignore this reality for many, many years before we finally faced reality.  Others sadly will continue to believe the Christianist lies and Bible based poison they disseminate and live their entire lives denying reality - and likely being miserable in the process.  As The Advocate is reporting, a new book that has reviewed numerous peer reviewed studies (as opposed to the studies conducted by Christianist funded quacks) confirms a physiological basis for sexual orientation and concludes that it is something set before birth.  Here are a few highlights:

Olson believes that current research looking for a “gay gene” is searching in the wrong place. Rather, Olson contends, sexual orientation is determined by brain hemisphere dominance. Most men are left-brain dominant, whereas most women are right-brain dominant. Seizing on the implication that “most” necessarily excludes some people, Olson wondered what happened when brain dominance was reversed from the standard. 

After reviewing a large collection of scientific literature, Olson hypothesized that when a man is right-brain dominant or a woman is left-brain dominant, that person will be gay or lesbian.

If sexual orientation is determined by brain dominance as Olson contends, it’s important to note that the pathways connecting the two hemispheres of the brain and determining which side is dominant are mostly finalized before birth. As such, Olson reiterates conventional scientific wisdom that sexual orientation is predetermined and unchangeable. The author, a straight, single man originally from Oklahoma, also believes that his observation could help demystify the source of sexual orientation and thereby foster peace and understanding.

“We fear what we don’t understand,” said Olson, who holds a business degree from the University of Oklahoma. “I’m looking for peace and an end to this war against gay people. The answer is education — if people understand what’s going on, then the fear disappears.”

Olson says he culled numerous peer-reviewed articles about the hemispheric preference — and corresponding behavior — of straight, gay, and bisexual men and women. One important study Olson cites comes from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, which found that scans of gay people’s brains most closely resembled — in structure and composition — those of heterosexual people of the opposite sex. Essentially, the 2008 study posited that a lesbian’s brain closely mirrored the structure of a straight man’s brain, while a gay man’s brain was most similar in structure to a straight woman’s. 

Olson’s supporters say his common-sense conclusions may be our next best hope at understanding the origins of sexual orientation and proving that LGBT people are not mentally ill, making a lifestyle choice, or in need of a cure.

Olson’s book, The Whole-Brain Path to Peace, has received four national book awards and required a broad range of research to complete. This brain-dominance theory, and the paper which presents it, is his first effort to synthesize scientific information, and Olson believes it is the first to discover the connection between brain hemisphere dominance and sexual orientation.

British Conservatives Lead Charge for Gay Marriage

Marriage and the stability, commitment increased security it brings for children that it underscores are conservative values - at least if these social goods are separated from religious extremism driven by chosen ignorance, self-enriching demagogues and whore like politicians who are only too happy to subvert such true conservative values for perceived short term political gain. Indeed, in my view, the far right of America's professional Christian class and far too many Republican politicians make the nastiest of whores look virtuous. In contrast, conservatives in the United Kingdom - outside of the hate and ignorance peddling Catholic bishops and some of their counterparts in the Church of England - seem to understand that affording marriage rights for all committed couples upholds social stability and what are true conservative values. The Washington Post looks at the night and day difference between true conservatives and the modern day witch trial like elements that have taken over conservatism in America. Here are highlights:

Americans watching the latest push for social change in Britain might feel as if they had stepped into an alternate political universe: Here, the Conservatives are leading the charge for same-sex marriage.

Gay couples in Britain won the right to civil partnerships in 2004, which granted them nearly the same legal status as married heterosexual couples while avoiding the controversial use of the word “marriage.” But Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative-led coalition have launched a historic drive to grant gay men and lesbians the option of also entering into civil marriages, touching off a surprisingly fierce uproar in largely progressive Britain and fueling a rebellion on the right as the party comes under heavy fire from traditional allies in the British clergy.

Yet challenging tradition appears to be exactly Cameron’s point. The proposal, put forward this month despite the lack of a strong clamor for marriage within Britain’s gay community, is nevertheless emerging as the cornerstone of a bid by the 45-year-old prime minister and other young leaders on the right here to redefine what it means to be a modern Conservative.

“I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative,” Cameron said in a recent landmark speech on the issue. “I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative.”

[S]trategists see Cameron’s decision to champion the gay marriage cause as an attempt to seize the mantle of progressive change from the left and broaden the Conservative Party’s appeal among an increasingly key voting group: young urbanites.

There are at least 12 openly gay members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, more than all other British political parties combined.

What prompted the shift? “We lost three elections, in 1997, 2001 and 2005,” said Margot James, former vice chairman of the Conservative Party and an openly gay member of Parliament.

“The electorate was not seeing us as a viable alternative in a modern world. But David Cameron came along and changed all that. This is a different Conservative Party now, one that is fully in favor of equal rights. I think the Republicans could learn a lot from us in how to appeal to the center, without whose votes a party cannot hope to win.”

Cameron, a Christian and married father of three whose position on same-sex marriage gradually evolved since winning the party’s leadership in 2005, is calling gay marriage a matter of basic human rights. He is also making a pitch to uneasy religious conservatives, suggesting that the institution of marriage will reinforce traditional values of commitment and monogamy within the gay community.

The terms of political debate here remain different than in the United States, where the Republican Party base contains a highly influential religious right whose views on social issues are considered extreme even among many British Conservatives.

By offering the proposal, Cameron has put his party out in front of even many gay advocates here who had seen other issues, such as stiffer penalties for hate crimes, as higher priorities. . . . “This is more of David Cameron trying to drag the Conservatives kicking and screaming into the modern world,” said Ben Bradshaw, a ranking Labor lawmaker who in 1997 became one of Britain’s first openly gay members of Parliament. “Of course, we’ll support it, but this is pure politics on their part.

[S]aid Ewan Watson, 37, a London-based lawyer who is in a same-sex relationship. “For some of us, having marriage is huge. It’s a statement that we really are equal, and we won’t be as long as they segregate us from the word ‘marriage.’ ”

So while David Cameron works to drag the British conservatives into the modern world, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and a plethora of members of the GOP strive to drag America back into the Dark Ages. One can only hope that as the aging bigots and Christofascists in the GOP base die off, the GOP is setting itself up for a harsh day of reckoning with younger voters.

The Need for a Brain Power Revolution

A Washington Post column echos many of my thoughts in the last post. It lays out facts and data that tell a story far different than the one told by those who love to praise American exceptionalism even as the USA slides downward in many categories. Talk is cheap and talk that wants to move the nation backward in time is even worse. Will voters wake up to reality and reject politicians and groups that actually threaten America's future? Sadly, I am not holding my breath. Here are some column highlights:

This is a moment when policymakers should be thinking big, not small. History will little note nor long remember that the payroll tax holiday was extended for two months rather than 12. The complex and difficult questions we’re avoiding, however, may haunt us through the century.

It’s crazy to have spent so much brainpower and energy on a skirmish that was purely tactical, while blithely ignoring the enormous challenges we face. It would be difficult to squander all of our nation’s tremendous advantages. At present, however, we seem to be doing our best. The central issue is the prospect of decline.

Our systems seem to have become sclerotic. The United States still has the finest colleges and universities in the world, but it now ranks no higher than fifth among 36 industrialized countries in the percentage of working-age adults who have at least an associate degree, according to a 2011 report by the College Board. We have the most expensive medical care in the world, yet rank 50th in life expectancy, behind such nations as Jordan and Greece, according to the CIA Factbook. Our society now features less economic mobility than is found in Canada and much of Europe, according to the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Our manufacturing sector is just a shadow of what it once was, and that’s not China’s fault. . . . . Our future lies in knowledge and information. So let’s go there.

The solution that conservatives advocate — let free markets do it — isn’t enough. Yes, free markets are marvelously efficient at allocating capital and creating wealth. But they have to be overseen and helped along, as with the G.I. Bill. It’s important to remember that markets are supposed to serve the nation, not the other way around.

Since last year’s Republican landslide, instead of reaching boldly for the future we find ourselves mired in trench warfare. . . . Is the political system broken? Yes, but this can’t be an excuse. The system didn’t break itself. Our elected officials put in place the rules that create dysfunction — campaign finance regulations that allow money to corrupt the political process, redistricting procedures that ensconce our representatives in districts where they couldn’t lose if they tried. The rules can be changed.

Hawaiian House Passes Civil Unions

The haters at NOM and the professional Christian set will be whining and spraying spittle all about over today's vote in the Hawaii House of Representatives that passed a bill to legalize civil unions for same sex couples. The bill has to go back to the Senate which has already passed a similar bill. Thus, Hawaii is poised to join the list of states that truly honor the constitutional right to freedom of religion - not to mention equal rights for all citizens. Obviously, I applaud the result - although full blown marriage rights would have been a better result. But I will take an incremental approach as opposed to nothing. The march toward equality, modernity and the acceptance of modern medical and mental health knowledge continues to advance despite the hysterical rear guard efforts of Bible beating Neanderthals and self-enriching professional Christian whores like Maggie Gallagher. Here are some highlights from the Star Advertiser:
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State House members approved a proposal today to legalize civil unions in Hawaii. Members approved the proposal by a 31-19 vote. One member, Rep. Rida Cabanilla, was absent. The bill now goes back to the Senate, which passed a similar version of the measure last month. If the Senate agrees to changes in the bill made by the House, the measure would go to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who supports civil unions legislation.
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Senate Bill 232 would grant same-sex and heterosexual couples the ability to enter into a civil union with all of the rights, protections, benefits and responsibilities of traditional marriage.
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The House changes — recommended by the state Attorney General's Office — clarify that because civil unions will not be recognized under federal law, certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to husbands and wives in Hawaii would apply with the same force and effect to partners in civil unions. Family Court will also have jurisdiction in matters of annulment, divorce and separation in civil unions, as the court does over marriages.
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Clayton Hee has said the changes appear reasonable and he believes the Senate’s inclination would be to agree to the changes and send the bill to the governor.

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As more states afford same sex couples legal recognition, the pressure will mount on reactionary backwaters like Virginia to either move into the 21st century or else find themselves increasingly non-competitive in the global labor and business market.

NASA Langley Engineers Helped Design Miners' Rescue Pod

NASA Langley here in Hampton, Virginia, is one of the regions crown jewels even though it often fails to receive the recognition that it is due. Indeed, the City of Hampton needs to talk up NASA Langley far more than is usually the case since the installation is a strong counter point to the ignorance and backwardness embodied by Pat Robertson and Regent University over in Virginia Beach. Clint Cragg (pictured) is one of the NASA Langley personnel who assisted in the design that helped result in the amazing rescue. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
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Clint Cragg spent Wednesday glued to his desk, but he didn't get much work done. He was too busy taking calls from the media and watching the live feed from Chile on his computer.
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Reporters wanted to know the same thing: How does it feel to see the miners coming up alive? "It's a relief," Cragg said in an interview as rescuers pulled the 17th miner from the ground. "The capsule is working the way we hoped it would."
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Cragg is an engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, and he helped design the 13-foot-long pod that carried the miners to safety. "To see them in good health, to see them coming out smiling - it's a good day." Cragg, who is 55 and spent 26 years in the Navy, became involved with the miners soon after they were discovered to be alive. It was mid-August and the Chilean government had called the U.S. State Department looking for help. So the State Department called NASA headquarters, which called Cragg, who seemed a natural choice for the assignment.
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Cragg quickly assembled a team of 20 engineers. Roughly half worked from Hampton. The others were scattered in NASA offices across the country. They toiled 16 hours a day for three days, then sent the Chileans a paper containing 75 specific suggestions for the design of the capsule.
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Among their ideas: The pod should move on spring-loaded rollers so it doesn't grind against rock as it travels up and down the rescue shaft. A loose harness should be installed in case a miner loses consciousness during the ascent to the surface. The capsule must be built so one person can operate it alone; someone's going to have to be the final person pulled from below. The Chileans used many of NASA's suggestions in their final design. "We're just glad we could help," Cragg said.

Marriage Bill Signed in Buenos Aires

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has signed the bill making same sex marriage legal nationwide in Argentina. The photo shows her making remarks after signing the landmark legislation which puts Argentina far ahead of the United States in terms of the treatment of its LGBT citizens. Here in Virginia pet owners are afforded more recognition of their relationship with their pets than members of same sex couples are afforded vis-a-vis each other. It's pathetic state of affairs, but that's what one gets when the state is run by spineless legislators and religious extremists. Here are highlights from Yahoo News:

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Within the halls of the 19th-century Casa Rosada, or Pink House, Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Wednesday signed into law South America's first same-sex marriage bill.

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Hundreds crowded the streets outside Buenos Aires's Casa Rosada to show their support for the bill, which the Argentinean legislature passed on July 15. . . . The room, and a spillover room, erupted into applause following the signature and it was announced that marriage equality was now the law of the land.

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Fernandez then spoke to the ebullient crowd. She stated that by signing this law the government is granting marriage equality to a group that deserves rights granted to them, not taken away. Change and progress are a good thing, Fernandez added, saying that once Argentina's senators debated allowing divorce. Finally, the president pointed out the symbolism of signing the bill within the Hall of Science, saying it demonstrates that enlightenment trumped suspicion and fear.

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This is how a fierce advocate acts - President Obama, are you listening?? As Andrew Sullivan correctly noted, it is sad when the rest of the world leads America in the area of the advancement of human freedom and equality. This video clip shows the elation after the signing of the bill.

Open Minded and Closed Minded Lutherans

The Church of Sweden - a sister church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - has elected Eva Brunne, 55 (pictured at left), as the world's first openly lesbian bishop this past week thereby demonstrating that some within the Lutheran Church have embraced modern knowledge on sexual orientation and grasp that LGBT individuals are fully human and entitled to full membership in the Church. Here are some highlights from Metro.US:

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Yesterday was a historic one for the church: Eva Brunne, 55, became the world’s first openly lesbian bishop. Only two weeks ago the Lutheran Church of Sweden — the country’s largest — said yes to same-sex marriages. Metro spoke to Eva Brunne before her ordination in Stockholm.
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You’ll be the world’s first openly lesbian bishop. How does it feel to have so much public and media attention devoted to your sexual orientation?
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I don’t think a heterosexual bishop would ever be asked about his wife or marriage, but I am happy if I, to some degree, can be a symbolic figure. Of course there are other things in my life that qualify me as a bishop.
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Sadly, some parishes within the ELCA here in the USA are a different story from the Church of Sweden - such as the Roanoke, Virginia, parish that I discussed in a prior post that has generated comments from some of the church's members, including one that I received yesterday (I chose not to publish it in its entirety). I do not intend to be cruel to the writer of the most recent comment, but the intellectual dishonesty and contortions used to justify clinging to a few arguably anti-gay passages in the Bible, while basically ignoring prohibitions against divorce are unbelievable. Indeed, after indicating that no variance should be allowed vis-a-vis anti-gay passages, the writer said:

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God does not like divorce but accepts it when unbelievers are involved (1Corin 7:10-15). In the same context, if a church leader is experiencing emotional difficulty because of a messy divorce it would be advised that he/she take an absence from their leadership duties until such problems are dealt with. . . . What is really sad in this whole situation, is the fact that only a small number of ELCA churches are taking the correct stance.

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To the writer apparently these passages are to be ignored while passages purportedly against homosexuality are inviolate:

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Mark 10:11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
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Mark 10:12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
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To me, these passages are pretty clear and I see no way that the writer can find ways around them yet mindlessly cling to the literal application of passages that do not effect her. The truth is that the Bible CANNOT be applied literally. When it is applied literally, all kinds of horrors can be justified, ranging from slavery, the murder of women and children, the subjugation of women, racial segregation, etc. The list goes on and on. Why is it so difficult to understand that the Bible was written over 2000 years ago by people who lacked modern knowledge - indeed, they believed the universe revolved around the earth - and knew nothing about modern mental health knowledge? Yet only when it comes to condemning gays, is a literal application acceptable to some.

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And as for the writer's comment that "all people are welcome in her church," she has a strange view of what being "welcome" means. Being told your relationships are sinful and that you cannot be a member of the clergy is not my idea of being welcome. I guess this woman believes blacks found segregation to be a welcome experience as well. It boggles my mind how people can be so mindlessly bigoted. My relationship with the boyfriend in no way affects her and were we to marry, her marriage would not be impacted one iota.

Lutheran Gay Clergy Vote Tests Mainline Churches

As I have previously noted, I am very happy with the vote by the ELCA to adopt both the social statement on human sexuality and the resolution allowing partnered clergy in same sex relationships because at last I feel that I am fully welcomed and part of the church. I will certainly encourage friends who lack church homes because of the sexual orientation to check out the ELCA. But I am also happy with the vote for another reason - it will challenge other churches to accept modern knowledge on sexual orientation and move into the 21st century or remain among the ignorant backward denominations that in time will become increasingly marginalized in time by the younger generations that favor gay marriage. If a denomination wants to become the stronghold for the old and uneducated so be it, but there will ultimately be a cost to be paid. My own children have stated that they will not go to a church that is not gay friendly and up until now have had limited options. A column in the Washington Post looks at the challenge the ELCA has laid down:

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In breaking down barriers restricting gays and lesbians from the pulpit, the nation's largest Lutheran denomination has laid down a new marker in a debate over the direction of mainline Protestant Christianity, a tradition that once dominated American religious life.

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By voting Friday to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy, the 4.7-million member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will either show how a church can stand together amid differences, or become another casualty of division over sexual morality and the Bible, observers say. "We're going to be living in tension and ambiguity for a longer time, partly because the culture has shifted," said David Steinmetz, a Duke Divinity School professor of Christian history.

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The ELCA - the nation's seventh largest Christian church - reached its conclusion after eight years of study and deliberation. That culminated Friday when the church's national assembly in Minneapolis struck down a policy that required any gay and lesbian clergy to remain celibate.

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The assembly also signed off on finding ways for willing congregations to "recognize, support and hold publicly accountable lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships." The church fell short of calling that gay marriage, but conservatives see that as the next step. While congregations will not be forced to hire gay clergy, conservative ELCA members decried the decisions as straying from clear Scriptural direction and warned that defections are likely.

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The ELCA's move is especially jarring and significant because "it is viewed by all of us as one of the more Reformation-rooted, broadly orthodox denominations" and takes its theology seriously, said Richard Mouw, president of the multi-denominational and evangelical Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

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Barbara Wheeler, a former president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York who is now director of the school's Center for the Study of Theological Education, praised the ELCA for laying a theological foundation for Friday's vote by first approving a broad social statement on sexuality. . . . "What you're seeing is two things: The society is in the process of changing its collective mind about the moral status of same-sex relationships, and there's a parallel theological movement."

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Conservative ELCA members have warned of damaged relationships with Lutherans in other countries. While Lutherans in Europe and Scandinavia are to the left of the ELCA on homosexuality, African and Asian Lutherans have been taught a more conservative line by missionaries and theologians, said the Rev. Conrad Braaten, senior pastor of Church of the Reformation, an ELCA congregation in Washington, D.C. Braaten is optimistic the ELCA can hold together through the sexuality tensions.

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Braaten is optimistic the ELCA can hold together through the sexuality tensions. "This particular discussion has been going on with a lot of deep feelings in the Lutheran church, but not a lot of acrimony and not a lot of bridges being burnt," he said. "I think that's going to make a difference."

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For readers in search of a church home, please consider the ELCA - I would love to have the church expand because of this bold decision and further pressure other denominations to move into the 21st century or run the risk of dying out.