Pissed off Wiccan for Peace: 05/23/2004

Thursday, May 27, 2004

CNN.com - Australia bid to ban gay marriages - May 27, 2004

Welcome to the fray, Ben. :oD

posted by Kimber at 10:45 AM :: ~#~
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Wednesday, May 26, 2004

CNN.com - Archbishop enters communion debate - May 26, 2004:

"Archbishop Charles Chaput, leader of Colorado's largest Roman Catholic diocese, said anyone committing a serious sin such as theft, lying or adultery should not take the sacrament, but 'denying anyone communion is a very grave matter.'"

From what I gather, this is an accurate statement. And while there are those who are advocating for denying communion for not only politicians with non-churchlike voting record but also people who VOTE for politicians with a non-churchlike voting record, I think overall that isn't a popular position.

But for those other folks who think it's a great idea, let's look at this from a more generalized perspective using the current presidential candidates as examples. John Kerry supports choice in his political agenda, but not in his personal agenda. Unchurchlike. But, George Bush started a war that the Pope declared unjustified. Unchurchlike. George Bush supports capital punishment and has executed more than his fair share of people as the Governor of Texas including mentally ill individuals. Unchurchlike. John Kerry is against capital punishment except in cases of international or domestic terrorism. Less unchurchlike...

So who can catholics vote for without running the risk of being denied communion? Is the catholic church going to have to weigh the candidates and decide who is less unchurchlike and tell catholics who they can vote for? Or are they going to be told they must abstain from voting because neither of the candidates follows the cannons of the church to the letter. If that is the case then catholics either need to remove themselves from the political process or declare themselves a political party subject to the same governmental rules and restrictions as the other parties and run their own candidate. Because at that point they cease to be a religious institution.

If you follow the history of the catholic church, especially the roman catholics their position through out history has been as both secular and non-secular power. At the end of the Roman Empire, the Pope was the most powerful individual in the world. He gave power to the emperor or took it away as he saw fit. The Anglican church was created so Henry VIII could divorce his wives and not get excommunicated. Vatican City was created so the seat of the church would exist in no single secular state but that it could maintain it's sovreignity over all the churches in those states.

I have no problem with catholics voting their conscience. If you want to vote against John Kerry because he's pro-choice, more power to you. If you choose to vote a certain way because the leaders of your church tell you to, great. I think it's nuts, but it's a free country. But when the catholic church starts using it's power over it's congregations to enforce it's agenda on secular politics through religious extortion, that's wrong. It's not about an individual's choice anymore. It's not about free will, it's about using a person's fear of damnation to force them to advance an institutional policy on people who don't believe in it. I think it should be a crime to polute the air and water. I belive that any corporation that does so should be fined into insolvency and it's buildings turned into low-income housing. But not everyone agrees with that position. And there are ways to compromise so that everyone gets a little something out of it. And I'm not willing to ram my agenda down everyone else's throat because I'm right and the rest of you are damned. We all have to live together here. A good compromise comes when either NONE of the parties are happy or ALL of the parties are happy.

I'm sure I'm slipping into the Joel WishyWashy zone here but realistically speaking we can't ALL be right at the same time. It defies the laws of physics. ;oD

posted by Kimber at 2:24 PM :: ~#~
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CNN.com - California lawmakers protest pastor - May 25, 2004

These christians just keep digging holes and jumping in...

"...to protest a pastor who characterized female legislators with young children at home as sinners."

"Capitol Ministries' Bible study classes once met in the governor's suite of offices, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told Drollinger to move when Drollinger referred to Roman Catholicism as a false religion. Schwarzenegger and his wife are Catholic.'

posted by Kimber at 9:09 AM :: ~#~
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Monday, May 24, 2004

Why I fear for my life in this country.....

First of all: The Wacos are rallying in Alabama.

"Supporters of former Chief Justice Roy Moore have lined up to run for one congressional seat and all three state Supreme Court seats up for election."

" "If the Moore faction wins three or four of those seats, and especially if Parker beats Brown, I think the perception will be ... that the church faction of the Republican Party is now more powerful at the ballot box in Alabama than the business faction of the Republican Party,'' said Jess Brown, a government professor at Athens State University."

"Grafton, the political science professor, said the outcome will have a large bearing on the GOP's future in traditionally conservative Alabama.
"I hate to use a cliche,'' he said, ``but this is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party.'' "

Second: There are those who believe that this country was founded as a christian society. While there were some colonies who were christian, the founding fathers and the founding principles were deist at best. I have been watching "Colonial House" on PBS and I have to tell you it's TERRIBLY interesting. I highly recommend it. One of the big disputes in the colony has been over the laws governing the observance of the sabbath. Here are the laws as given to the original colonists from the Mayflower in the 1600s:

"FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD AND OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH

Sabbath
No man or woman shall dare to violate or break the Sabbath by any work or travel, but shall duly sanctify and observe it with his family by preparing themselves at home with private prayer according to the commandments of God. Also, every man, woman and child shall repair in the morning, to the devotional meetings held upon the Sabbath day.

Devotional Meetings
Until the year when a church is constructed, all Colonists shall gather to observe the Sabbath at the residence of the Governor, and shall take part in devotional meetings led by the religious leader recruited by the Company.

Sabbath and Sports
While all Colonists must observe the Sabbath, they should also take note of the King James Declaration of Sports:

After the end of devotional meetings our good people may engage in harmless recreation. There shall be an allowance for May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris dances and the setting up of Maypoles and other such sports. (note from me: Maypoles are a pagan tradition observed primarily at Beltane)

Still prohibited are all unlawful games upon Sundays:
- Cockfights
- Bull- and bear-baiting
- Bowling

Also prohibited on the Sabbath day is unseemly behavior such as gambling or drinking during worship.

Punishments include fines or public reprimand.

Blasphemy
No man shall blaspheme God's holy name, or worship idols, or use unlawful oaths, taking the name of God in vain, or curse.

Corporal Punishment was administered, either whipping or by branding with a hot iron, or boring through the tongue with a bodkin.

Heresy
Heresy, which is the overthrowing of the foundation of the Christian religion, shall be prohibited.

Punished by death.

Witchcraft
Witchcraft and any form of communication with the spirit world is banned. Consulters with Witches shall not be tolerated.

Punished by death or banishment from the Colony."

There came a point in the process when the "Governor" of the colony on the show had to suspend the enforcement of the attendence law because so many people were being punished for not going that no work was getting done.

But this is what we are slowly returning to. And it scares the crap out of me.

posted by Kimber at 3:05 PM :: ~#~
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Every month Martie and I carpool up to Orono for the Staff Meeting. We have a bizarre, otherworldly friendship, I must admit. A Wiccan and a Jehovah's Witness. We talk about a little bit of everything on the drive. Husbands, movies, men, Ian, autism, our families, politics, pop culture... You know the usual stuff ladies at our stage of life usually discuss (I'm 36 and she's 56-ish). But, of course the conversation generally makes its way around to religion.

Martie feels that it is her responsiblity to convert me. And I respect that. As long as she doesn't get nasty about it, I let her have her fun. I figure it's good practice for her for when she goes "out in service" on the weekends. For the first few months, I think she really thought she could get it done. She's very sincere. She gives me copies of their literature and reads to me from their bible. She really does believe all this guff and it's not my place to try and tell her she's wrong. She's probably not wrong for her. I just find it amazingly difficult to keep my mouth shut some days.

This time was one of those days. The ride home she just really started to get on my nerves. She started to tell me about the bible being the divine word of god and as proof of that she told me about all the rules laid down in the old testament. Like circumsizing baby boys on the 8th day which, coincientally, happens to be the precise time when there is the highest level of a certain clotting agent in their blood. Or not eating pork before they knew about trikenosis (sp), or not going poo inside the camp before they knew about bacteria. You know, that sort of thing. I had just finished having an argument with her about evolution. Her bible says that in the beginning, the animals in the water spread forth. Now this is a perfect example of evolution. All life started in the water and evolved into fish, then amphibians, then repitles etc. But she says that evolution is proven wrong because ever case of genetic mutation has caused the animal to de-volve rather than evolve, and there is no evidence in the fossil record of any links between one animal and another, so god just caused each new species to appear on the earth at different points in history. That was frustrating enough. But the rules thing blew it for me. So I flat out told her. It had NOTHING to do with god writing down on a rock, don't do this stuff! It had to do with someone noticing that baby boys started getting infections or "something bad" on their penises shortly after birth and deciding that the skin was probably what was causing it and cutting it off. The timing just happened to be a matter of trial and error and keeping track of when the babies bled to death and when they didn't! And noticing that people got sick when they ate pork! And seeing all the flies and maggots around the piles of poo inside the villiage and deciding that doing it outside might be a better idea! Just as god didn't tell Pasteur not to throw out that moldy piece of bread nor did he tell him to study the mold! These things are not in any way proof that the bible is the divine word of god. The bible was assembled by a synod about 500 years after christ died! An announcement was made that all the holy books of all the christian sects were to be brought and submitted for inclusion in the new book. There were 3 criteria. If it didn't meet at least one of these criteria it wouldn't get in the book. Revalations was added to appease the radical fringe. It was added at the end because the synod would send the book out with a note that if you wanted to tear the last chapter off, feel free.

Personally, I think that the explorers, the inventors, the people who ask why and how and then try to figure it out rather than falling back on the omnipotent, omnipresent god figure are actually the ones who ARE divinely inspired. No one wanted to believe in god more than Carl Sagan, or magic more than the Amazing Randy. But until there can be no other explanation, they couldn't/can't. (I don't think Randy's dead yet. ;oD ) But something is driving them to find out why and how and has given them the talent to do it. I don't believe electric meat could or would do that. So the people who decided to circumsize children and poo outside the camp were given the tools to find the answers by god, but not the answers themselves. And there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't make the discoveries any less godly. It just doesn't make the bible the word of god.

GAD. I don't know why I let the whole thing get me so annoyed this time. I guess it's because I am in the middle of a pretty stressful personal situation with my son right now but the whole thing was just nuts. She is sitting here trying to convince me of something based on what she considers to be irrefutable proof and I am sitting right next to her refuting it all over the place. The only thing it accomplished was to make me annoyed. And more steadfast in my own belief system. Which I'm sure would depress Martie to no end. LOLOL The hilarious thing is that in some of her beliefs we are in perfect agreement! She says that above all other rules are love your neighbor and love god. She says that if everyone would live by these two rules the world would be a utopia. And I agree. The rules of god or deity are around us everyday in every part of nature. And all the creatures of the earth are our neighbors. And if we all lived by the rules of nature, and loving our neighbors, the rest is just a matter of mechanics. And EXTREME population control on our part. But she thinks that the only rules are the rules of the bible and only Jehovah's Witnesses follow those rules properly. So no other religion could attain the perfect utopia. When I pointed out Hari Krishnas, Buddists and other peace and love groups, she didn't really have much to say.

Why do I argue with her? Why don't I just let her ramble on and do algebra in my head or something? Am I a mental masochist? I don't enjoy getting into that kind of "head against brick wall" arguement. But I guess, it's just an extension of feeling generally attacked in the US these days. I suppose after a while, when you hold such differing beliefs from those around you, you start to look at everything hypercritically. Take it personally or as an attempt to nullify you and your beliefs.

I haven't been posting on this blog much because the whole thing just depresses me right now and I've got enough going on in my own life to depress me without worrying about the rest of the world. As soon as this personal mess is over, I will try to get back to more of this stuff.

posted by Kimber at 10:36 AM :: ~#~
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