8 Ways Christian Fundamentalists Make People Become Agnostics or Atheists

While surveys have shown that religious fundamentalism tends to inversely related to education levels (Episcopalians and Evangelical Lutherans are among the best educated denominations and least likely to believe in the Bible as inerrant), science, reason and knowledge are not the only things that drive individuals from Christianity.  No, the Catholic hierarchy and their Christian fundamentalist allies are do a great job all on their own as they daily demonstrate that the hallmarks of their style of religion are hate and hypocrisy.  And ironically, their constant jihad against gays is one of the leading reasons why people are increasingly converting to agnosticism or atheism.  Yes indeed, rather than "converting people to God's word" they are driving them away.  An article in AlterNet looks at the leading reasons people walk away from Christianity.  Here are excerpts:

If the Catholic bishops, their conservative Protestant allies, and other right-wing fundamentalists had the sole objective of decimating religious belief, they couldn’t be doing a better job of it.

 

[I]f you read ExChristian testimonials you will notice that quite often church leaders or members do things that either trigger the deconversion process or help it along. They may turn a doubter into a skeptic or a quiet skeptic into an outspoken anti-theist, or as one former Christian calls himself, a "devangelist."Here are some top ways Christians push people out the church door or shove secret skeptics out of the closet. Looking at the list, .you can’t help but wonder if the Catholic bishops, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann and their fundamentalist allies are working for the devil.

 1. Gay Baiting.   Ignorant and mean-spirited attitudes about homosexuality don’t drive just gays out of the church, they are a huge deconversion issue for straight friends and family members. When Christians indulge in slurs, devout moms and dads who also love their gay kids find themselves less comfortable in their church home. Young people, many of whom think of the gay rights issue as a no-brainer, put anti-gay churches in the “archaic” category. Since most people Gen X and younger recognize equal rights for gays as a matter of common humanity, gay baiting is a wedge issue that wedges young people right out of the church.

2. Proof texting. People who think of the Bible as the literally perfect word of God love to quote excerpts to argue their points.  .   .   .   .   They proceed to quote whatever authoritarian, anti-gay or anti-woman verse makes their point, like,    .    .    .     .   In doing so, they call into question biblical authority, because the Bible writers so obviously got these issues wrong. Literalists who prooftext are a tremendous asset to those who would like to see Bible worship fade away – because prooftexting on one side of an argument invites the same in return, and it is easy to find quotes from the Bible that are either scientifically absurd or morally repugnant.

3. Misogyny. For psychological and social reasons females are more inclined toward religious belief than males. They are more likely to attend church services and to insist on raising their children in a faith community.   .    .   .    but fortunately for atheists, this fact hasn’t caused conservative Christians to back off of sexism that is justified by – you got it – proof texting from the Old and New Testaments.    .    .    .   Between 1991 and 2011 the percent of women attending church in a typical week dropped by 11 points, from 55 to 44 percent.

4. Hypocrisy. Christians are taught – and many believe—that thanks to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit they are a moral beacon for society.   .    .    .    But the added pressure on those who call themselves the "righteous” means that believers also are prone to hiding, pretending, posing, and turning a blind eye to their own very human, very normal faults and flaws.  .     .      .    People who desperately want to be sanctified and righteous, “cleansed by the blood of the lamb” – who need to believe that they now merit heaven but that other people’s smallest transgressions merit eternal torture—have a lot of motivation to engage in self-deception and hypocrisy.    .    .   .   Backbiting and social shunning are part of the church-lady stereotype for a reason. They also leave a bitter taste that makes some church members stop drinking the Kool-aid. 

5. Disgusting and Immoral Behavior. The priest abuse scandal did more for the New Atheist movement than outspoken anti-theists like Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith) or Bill Maher (Religulous) ever could.  .    .    .   .   The Freedom from Religion Foundation publishes a bi-monthly newspaper that includes a regular feature: The Black Collar Crime Blotter. It features fraud, drug abuse, sex crimes and more by Protestant as well as Catholic clergy. 

6. Science Denial. One of my former youth group friends had his faith done in by a conversation with a Bible study leader who explained that dinosaur skeletons actually are the bones of the giants described in early books of the Bible.  .   .   .   .   science denial doesn’t just move believers to nonbelief; it also rallies opposition ranging from cantankerous bloggers to legal advocates. It provides fodder for comedians and critics: “If the world was created 6,000 years ago, what’s fueling your car?” It may produce some of the most far-reaching opposition to religious belief, because science advocates argue that faith, even socially benign faith, is a fundamentally flawed way of knowing. 

 7. Political Meddling. If you look at religion-bashing quote-quip-photo-clip-links that circulate Facebook and Twitter, most of them are prompted by church incursions into the political sphere.   .   .   .   .   I myself give George W. Bush credit for transforming me from a politically indifferent, digging-in-the-garden agnostic into a culture warrior. He casually implied that, when going to war, he didn’t need to consult with his own father because he had consulted the big guy in the sky, and my evangelical relatives backed him up on that, and I thought, oh my God, the beliefs I was raised on are killing people. The Religious Right, and now the Catholic bishops, have brought religion into politics in the ugliest possible way short of holy war, and people who care about the greater good have taken notice.

8. Intrusion.  [S]erious intrusions, in deeply personal beginning- and end-of-life decisions, for example, generate reactive anti-theism in people who mostly just want to live and let live.  Catholic and evangelical conservatives have made a high-stakes gamble that they can regain authoritarian control over their flocks and hold onto the next generation of believers (and tithers) by asserting orthodox dogmas, making Christian belief an all-or-nothing proposition.   .   .   .   .   the more they resort to strict authoritarianism, insularity and strict interpretation of Iron Age texts, the more people are wounded in the name of God and the more people are outraged. By making Christian belief an all-or-nothing proposition, they force at least some would-be believers to choose “nothing.” Anti-theists are all too glad to help.

Nowadays, when I hear someone proclaim that they are a Christian - frequently in inappropriate settings where such statements ought not even be made -  it's usually one or more of the foregoing characteristics/actions that springs to mind.  Believe me, it's almost nothing of a positive nature.  Let's hope the bishops and their Christianist allies continue killing Christianity - or at least their foul version of it.

GOP Telling Hundreds of Voters They Are Inelligible to Vote

If you can't win the voters over with your lies about failed policies, then the next best thing is to strike them of the voter registry so that they cannot vote against your failed policies.   Or so seems to be the agenda of the Florida GOP and Florida GOP Governor Rick Scott (shown at left) who want to purge all "non-citizens" from the voting rolls.  The only problem is that the voters being stricken are in fact qualified voters.   I'm sure it's an approach that Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell would like to emulate here in Virginia.  Not surprisingly, those viewed as least likely to vote Republican are being particularly targeted while white Republicans are not.  It's yet another example of why I find it impossible to be a Republican nowadays.  Here are excerpts from Think Progress:

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has ordered the state to purge all “non-citizens” from the voting rolls prior to November’s election. But that list compiled by the Scott administration is so riddled with errors that, in Miami-Dade County alone, hundreds of U.S. citizens are being told they are ineligible to vote, ThinkProgress has learned exlusively.

According to data from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections obtained by ThinkProgress:

- 1638 people in Miami-Dade County were flagged by the state as “non-citizens” and sent letters informing them that they were ineligible to vote.
- Of that group, 359 people have subsquently provided the county with proof of citizenship.
- Another 26 people were identified as U.S. citizens directly by the county.
- The bulk of the remaining 1200 people have simply not responded yet to a letter sent to them by the Supervisor of Elections.

You can see a similar letter sent to alleged “non-citizens” by the Broward County Supervisor of Elections HERE. (“The Supervisor of Elections… has received information that you are not a citizen of the United States.”) If recipients of the letter do not respond within 30 days — a deadline that is mere days away — they will be summarily removed from the voting rolls. The voters purged from the list, election officials tell ThinkProgress, will inevitably include fully eligible Florida voters.

An analysis of the state-wide list by the Miami Herald found that “Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted” as ineligible by the list. Conversely, “whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal.” 

Late last year, Scott ordered his Secretary of State, Kurt Browning, to “to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls.” Browning could not access to reliable citizenship data. So election officials attempted to identify non-U.S. citizens by comparing data from the state motor vehicle administration with the voting file. That process produced a massive list of 182,000 names, which Browning considered unreliable and refused to release. Browning resigned in February and Scott pressed forward with the purge.

For example, Juan Artabe, a resident of Miami-Dade, was flagged as a “non-citizen” based on motor vehicle records from 2006. He became a citizen in 2008 but no one notified the state. He was able to retain his ability to vote only by sending his citizenship papers to the Supervisor of Elections.

The purge of fully eligible voters from the voting rolls by Scott could be enough to tip the balance in Florida and, perhaps, the presidential election. In 2000, the final (disputed) margin was just 537 votes. 

Monday Morning Male Beauty

Vatican Scandal Continues - Is a Cardinal Involved?

Personally, I find few things more fun to watch than the dirty laundry of the Vatican being dragged out into the light of day.  Where the current “Vatileaks” scandal will go is hard to tell, but it seems the Italian media is in a frenzy and that speculation exists that tales of a power struggle and other titillating tidbits may come out.  Given all the evil that the Church hierarchy has done and continues to do, I for one hope the scandal shakes things up to the core of the secretive and possibly illegal activities that center on the Vatican.  The only thing more fun would to have documentation come forward that Benedict XVI has a gay lover.  Here are highlights from an updated story in the Washington Post:

One of the Vatican’s biggest scandals in decades widened Monday with the pope’s butler — arrested for allegedly having confidential documents in his home — agreeing to cooperate with investigators, his lawyer said Monday.

Paolo Gabriele’s pledge to cooperate with Vatican magistrates raises the specter that high-ranking prelates may soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue inside the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Italian media reported Monday that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the “Vatileaks” scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted “there is no cardinal under suspicion.”

He also dismissed as “pure fantasy” a rash of other unsourced reports about the investigation in the Italian media, which have been on a frenzy ever since reports of Gabriele’s detention emerged Friday.

Gabriele, the pope’s personal butler since 2006, was arrested Wednesday evening after documents he had no business having in his possession were found inside his Vatican City apartment. He remains in custody in a Vatican detention facility, accused of theft, and has met with his wife and lawyers.

Gabriele’s arrest gave the already sordid scandal of the leaks an unfathomable Hollywood twist. So far, he remains the only one who has been arrested, but Lombardi stressed that the investigation was continuing.

Baptist Pastor Condemns Pastor Worley's Concentration Camp Sermon

Personally, I do not understand the mindset where one deliberately closes one's thoughts and intellect to anything that challenges the writings of ignorant and totally uneducated "Bronze Age nomadic herders" to quote my blogger friend Bob Felton at Civil Commotion.  Worse yet, these same ignorant by choice individuals lash out and attack those with differing beliefs and perspectives.  Gays, of course, receive their most hateful venom.  I increasingly view these individuals and their power and control maddened pastors and bishops as suffering from a form of mental illness - a form of pathological paranoia that makes them feel driven to destroy anything and anyone that jeopardizes their flimsy house of cards religious belief constructs.  Constructs that cannot withstand objective facts, scientific knowledge and logic and reason.   But once in a while it seems one of these "godly Christians" states what many believe but fear to speak out loud and it presses some to take a good look in the mirror and recognize hate and bigotry.  A column in the Associated Baptist Press by a Baptist pastor is once such example where the adulation of ignorance, bigotry and unconcealed hate results in the opening of eyes of others. The trigger for this epiphany?  Pastor Charles Worley's sermon seeking to imprison gays behind electrified fences and allow us to die.  Here are highlights from the column by Bill Leonard, Professor of Church History and Baptist Studies at the School of Divinity, Wake Forest University:

Tonight I am ashamed to be a Baptist. Born into Baptist “cradle role” in the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Texas, and baptized on profession of faith in that congregation when I was 8 years old, I’ve been a born-again Baptist for over five decades.

Tonight I watched excerpts from a sermon preached by Charles Worley, pastor of Providence Road Baptist Church, an Independent Baptist congregation in Maiden, N.C., the state where my family and I live.

Pastor Worley said things that are repugnant in any Christian pulpit, that shame the name Baptist and undercut the gospel itself. Although I’ve sometime been embarrassed to be a Baptist, until now I’ve never really been ashamed.

I remain haunted by the courage of those early Baptists who, for reasons I cannot fully comprehend, looked beyond their historical context to the vision of a believers’ church, uncoerced faith, freedom of conscience and transformation through Christ.

But tonight I am ashamed, because I heard a Baptist pastor say things so abhorrent to the gospel of Jesus that I could not keep conscience with my Baptist forebears and remain silent. In what appears to be a May 13 sermon, Charles Worley declared: "Build a great, big, large fence -- 150 or 100 mile long -- put all the lesbians in there," Then he continues: "Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out. Feed them, and you know what, in a few years, they'll die out. Do you know why? They can't reproduce!"

I’ve listened to those statements multiple times, each time hoping that I’m not hearing what I think I’m hearing. But I am.

That a person who serves a congregation calling itself Baptist would utilize such brutal words is not simply an affront to the men and women he wishes death upon, but to all who “name the name of Christ.” So dastardly are those words and the sentiment behind them that those of us who value the Baptist tradition must demand repentance of this fallen Christian brother.

Tonight I’m disgusted with and praying for Pastor Worley, clinging to Paul’s words to Corinth offered in contrast to “another gospel” he found rampant there: “We recommend ourselves by the innocence of our behavior, our grasp of truth, our patience and kindliness; by gifts of the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by declaring the truth, by the power of God” (2 Cor. 6:6-7).  Tonight I am ashamed to be a Baptist.

What is unfortunate is that Leonard fails to see that throughout its history the message of the Christian Church - certainly that of the Roman Catholic Church - has been more in line with Worley's statements than a message of love, acceptance and compassion for all.  One need only think of the Crusades, the driving of the Moors from Spain, the Inquisition, the conquest of the Americas and the deliberate extermination of the "heathens" and even the "Christ killer" label applied to Jews that helped set the mindset for the Holocaust.  Blind allegiance to the writings of often ignorant authors and succumbing to a feeling of self-righteous and being better than others usually has had deadly consequences.  Worley is merely the latest incarnation of what Christians have done and said towards others for 2000 years.

Ontario, Canada: All Schools, Religious or Otherwise, Must Host Gay-Straight Alliances

The Canadian province of Ontario has dealt a major blow to the Catholic Church's undisguised anti-gay discrimination by announcing that ALL schools in the province, including Catholic school which receive government funding, must host gay straight alliances.  Needless to say the bitter old men in dresses in the bishoprics in Ontario have their patties in a major wad.  To me it's a simply call: receive any form of government funds and you lose the right to discriminate based on alleged religious belief or otherwise. It is the same standard that should be applied in the USA to Catholic hospitals and universities all of which receive large amounts of state and federal tax derived dollars. It would make the greedy bastards in the bishops miters decide which they worship more: bigotry or money.  If they opt for bigotry, then let their institutions wither and die.  The statements of bigoted parents are noteworthy and likewise reflect an all too common desire to have special rights and privileges: taking government money and yet being free to discriminate and trample on the rights of others.  Here are highlights from the National Post:

The Ontario provincial government has ignored months of behind-the-scenes negotiations by announcing Friday that all schools, religious or otherwise, will be required to host gay-straight alliances, Church sources say.  As part of the original Bill 13, which was intended to curb bullying in schools, the province included a provision for organizations with the name “gay-straight alliance or another name.”

Ontario Education Minister Laurel Broten said there would be no compromises.  “Schools need to be safe places for kids to be themselves — and for some kids, that means being able to name a club a gay-straight alliance,” Ms. Broten said. “I don’t think there’s anything radical about allowing students to name a club.”
Church sources said they were blindsided and disappointed by the announcement. Cardinal Thomas Collins, the head of the Archdiocese of Toronto, is expected to make a statement on Monday.

Teresa Pierre, who is part of a group of Catholic parents opposed to Bill 13, said forcing gay-straight alliances into the school would erode Church teaching.  “Our concern is that this anti-bullying legislation is meant to bring a change in the Catholic curriculum,” said Ms. Pierre. “We are concerned about the potential erosion of Catholic principles.  She added later: “The Church’s position on homosexuals is not different than any group struggling to abide by Catholic teaching. It is no different than straight teens that are sexually active. We wouldn’t have a club centred around birth control.”

The government hopes to pass the legislation before the legislature rises for the summer on June 7.

Sunday Male Beauty

VatiLeaks Exposes Rot and Corruption in the Vatican

Based on all I have read on the still ongoing sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the secret Vatican orders dating from the 1960's commanding secrecy and the cover up of sexual abuse by priests, I have admittedly come to see the Vatican and the Church hierarchy in many ways to be a worldwide criminal enterprise.  Some may say that judgment is too strong, but new secret documents leaked from the inner most circles in at the Vatican suggest that hypocrisy reigns supreme as do money laundering, corruption and blackmail.  What makes it all even better is the fact that the information apparently was leaked by Pope Benedict XVI's butler who had access to Benedict's private papers.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the developing scandal and the arrest of the butler who is being held by the Vatican's secretive judicial system that sounds like something out of the Inquisition of old.  The simple truth appears to be that the Vatican and the Church hierarchy believe that they are above the law.  They can do as they wish and no one is supposed to challenge them.  Here are highlights from the article: 

The pope's butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested in Vatican City on Friday, suspected of leaking hundreds of documents to Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. Sources say Garbriele had been under surveillance for weeks and was caught red-handed with documents he should not have had. Papal spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed to Italian news service Ansa that Gabriele had been found "in illegal possession of confidential documents."

For a year Nuzzi was a conduit for sensitive documents that surfaced from deep within the Curia Romana, which he highlighted in his Italian television show The Untouchables. This week, he published the documents in full in a book called Sua Santità—Le Carte Segrete di Benedetto XVI or Your Holiness: The Secret Papers ofBenedict XVI. He says he kept the documents on a USB key sewn into his neckties, and he worried constantly that someone might try to harm him or steal them back.

Since his first television program, VatiLeaks has made a major impact in Rome. The reopening of the criminal investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who disappeared 30 years ago, has come to symbolize the VatiLeaks scandal and a small victory for transparency in the Roman Catholic Church.

He says he thinks his sources gave him the documents out of duty after witnessing years of lies and manipulation by the church. “Since Karol Wojtyla [Pope John Paul II] died, I started putting copies of documents aside that I came across in my job at the Vatican,” Nuzzi quotes “Maria” in the book. “The truth emerging in the newspapers and the official discourse within the Holy See was so different, the hypocrisy reigned supreme, and the scandals were multiplying. I’m not talking only about the pedophilia and murder cases like the killing of the Swiss Guard and the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, but about money laundering, corruption, and threats.”

The heavily footnoted book has photos of the documents and transcripts of the letters, faxes, and internal memorandums between Pope Benedict XVI and key Italian politicians and world leaders. Some of the documents are titillating, like secret correspondence from Dino Boffo, the former editor of the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, asking a high-ranking cardinal and the pope to intervene against editor Gain Maria Vian of the rival Catholic newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, who had leaked allegations that Boffo had harassed the wife of his gay lover.

The book also contains ample reference to the troubled American church, which was nearly bankrupted by legal costs and payments to victims of pedophile priests. In spite of its strategic importance for the Roman Catholic Church, the American church was considered a purgatory in terms of papal appointments. No one wanted to be “sent to Washington” to deal with the crises, which included the pedophilia scandal, the liberal American nuns, and liberal government policies that contradicted key church teachings. Nuzzi was given a number of documents referencing multi-million-dollar transfers to bail out the American diocese, including $10 million sent to the Wilmington, Del., Federal Bankruptcy Court, which shows for the first time just how much money the American church has cost the Holy See.

Anyone who crossed the wrong cardinals in Rome risked being sent to oversee the troubled American diocese. For example, Cardinal Carlo Maria Vigano had uncovered widespread corruption in the Vatican accounting department and wrote a series of letters to the pope pleading that he consider making high-level changes to stem the money laundering, nepotism, and embezzlement going on in the church. Soon after his initial complaints, he received notice of his impending transfer to Washington, D.C., three years before the end of his tenure.

But the pope is not amused. He has appointed a trio of heavy-handed prelates led by Opus Dei leader Julian Herranz to stop the leaks—one way or another. “The latest publication of documents of the Holy See and private documents of the Holy Father can no longer be considered a questionable—and objectively defamatory—journalistic initiative, but clearly assumes the character of a criminal act,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the chief Vatican spokesman. For Nuzzi, that just proves he did the right thing. “What was I going to do, sit here on all these documents?” he asks. “Don’t you think Catholics who give millions to the church deserve to know the truth?” Even when that truth is stranger than fiction.

I've said it before and I will say it again: how can anyone truly moral remain affiliated in any way with theRoman Catholic Church and its cesspool like leadership?

Virginian Pilot: Make Gay Marriage Legal

I nearly fainted when I saw the lead editorial in today's Virginian Pilot which called for Virginia and the federal government to make same sex marriage legal.  Moreover, the column takes both Republicans and Democrats - but more so Republicans - in Virginia for the anti-gay discrimination that is the hallmark of this state.  And yes, "Slideshow" Bob Marshall gets slammed by name.  As do "Christians" who for centuries used the Bible as justification for slavery and later segregation.  Not surprisingly, in the comments left on the editorial some of the local Christofascsists and Kool-Aid drinkers are shrieking and claiming that they, not gays, are the ones being persecuted.  Obviously, these folks are not only liars and hypocrites but they also need to extricate their heads out of their asses.  Here are excerpts from the column:

Democrats and Republicans joined in Virginia to pass a law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Democrats and Republicans together decided to put the civil rights of homosexuals to a popular vote. And Virginians - Democrats and Republicans - voted to marginalize their gay neighbors in 2006.  It was clear, even then, that history would judge such "defense of marriage" measures harshly - and not only because they do nothing to defend marriage. Popular opinion has been moving inexorably toward tolerance for gay unions.

Still, state lawmakers this month rejected a judicial candidate because of his sexual orientation. That gave his chief detractor, the author of Virginia's constitutional amendment on marriage, the opportunity to explain.  Del. Bob Marshall denounced the notion that gay people struggling for marriage rights have any parallel in history: "Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks never took an oath of office that they broke," he said on CNN. "Sodomy is not a civil right. It's not the same as the civil rights movement."

One of the nation's most forceful civil rights organizations pointedly repudiated thinking like Marshall's: "(T)he NAACP has opposed and will continue to oppose any national, state, local policy or legislative initiative that seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the Constitutional rights of LGBT citizens," read the organization's statement. "We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the 14th Amendment. ..."

Virginians seemed to recoil immediately at the legislature's vote on the judicial candidate and at Marshall's explanation, seeing both for what they are: embarrassments.  The vote and explanation also represent compelling arguments for why anything short of marriage equality will continue to provide cover for such bigotry and argument.

The federal government once deferred to states on mixed-race marriages, for example, and most passed laws barring it. The avowed purpose, to quote the U.S. Supreme Court, was "an endorsement of the doctrine of white supremacy."  The high court cited 14th Amendment freedoms when it settled the issue for the nation in the 1967 case that pitted Mildred and Richard Loving against Virginia: "To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law."

Civil life and laws aren't fixed to religious doctrine, nor should they be in a secular society.  Churches supported and resisted the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. But the legislation that ended institutional bigotry arose from America's foundation in equality, belated though its application might have been.

To deny marriage to any couple solely on the basis of the way they are born makes a mockery of America's bedrock principles. To refuse marriage to gay people based on tradition or cultural norms elevates both above human rights.  It gives government too much authority over the most intimate relationship in an adult's life without sufficient civil justification. If the NAACP and Obama's endorsements were overdue, so is this one: Gay marriage should be legal across America, and it should be legal now.

A Proud Father's Wedding Reflections

All of the work in the yard and reception planning paid off and the wedding and reception went wonderfully well.  And the weather cooperated completely and was near perfect.   I think everyone had a great time and better yet all went smoothly with my former wife, her new husband and the former and new in-laws.  The food was great and the "white stars" - champagne, peach schnapps and a slice of peach - were a big hit.  The only regret I have is that being the hosts, I don't feel I had enough time to talk to anyone in particular as I tried to talk with everyone. I can't wait to see the photographer's full selection of photos.  The image above gives you a sampling of what her work is like.

This morning is feeling anti-climactic, but in a good way, the house is pretty much back to normal and I think it will be a day to be lazy and probably go chill at a friend's pool.  I'll post more later in the day.  Below are a few photos that we took with our camera.

The bride and her parents

The ceremony

My two daughters and new son-in-law

The new son-in-law

The Boyfriend with my children and me

The first dance