Prometheus 6 - Religion

We'll be watching Keith Olberman tonight

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:24:03 -0400

Well, it seems the Bushistas aren't religious fanatics after all.

Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction

Check part one of the dreaded exclusive report, Windows Media, Quicktime, or transcript at Crooks and Liars .

When President Bush touched on Iraq at his news conference this morning, he may have been revealing more than he knew.
[video] BUSH: The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives.

He was talking about religious extremists in Iraq. But an hour later, Mr. Bush posed with officials from the Southern Baptist Convention.
It is described as the largest, most influential evangelical denomination in a new book by the former number-two man in Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.
The book, "Tempting Faith," not out until Monday, but in our third story tonight, a Countdown exclusive we've obtained a copy and it is devastating work.
read more

Nice work if you can get it

Prometheus 6 — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:51:24 -0400

The article is worth more than a snarky headline, though.

Until 1968, clergy members were exempt from Social Security unless they joined voluntarily. Since then, they have been automatically covered — but, unlike other citizens, they are allowed to drop out as conscientious objectors if they assert, by a certain point early in their ministry, that they have a religious opposition to receiving public welfare benefits.

“Few people, outside of the Amish, could plausibly say that,” said Mr. Hammar, an accountant who also has a law degree from Harvard and attended its divinity school.

Yet his research shows that 3 of every 10 ministers in America have opted out of Social Security. “The only conclusion is that the conscience-based objection is usually really a financial decision,” he said.

In God’s Name
Religion-Based Tax Breaks: Housing to Paychecks to Books
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

Ms. Barber...paging Ms. Barber

Prometheus 6 — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 03:22:34 -0400

Tucker Carlson to Evangelicals: Duped
By: John Amato on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006 at 5:29 AM - PDT

Tucker Carlson gets honest about what he says the Republican elites feel about the Extreme Christian Right.

Video-WMP Video-QT

Duncan:

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…
read more

Corporate America gets the same deal, but overseas

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:45:51 -0400

Some of these exemptions are rooted in long traditions, while others have grown from court decisions over the last 15 years. Together, they are expanding the ability of religious organizations — especially religious schools — to manage their affairs with less interference from the government and their own employees.

The most sweeping of these judicial protections, and the one that confronted the novice nun in Toledo, is called the ministerial exception. Judges have been applying this exception, sometimes called the church autonomy doctrine, to religious employment disputes for more than 100 years.

As a rule, state and federal judges will handle any lawsuit that is filed in the right place in an appropriate, timely manner. But judges will almost never agree to hear a controversy that would require them to delve into the doctrines, governance, discipline or hiring preferences of any religious faith. Citing the protections of the First Amendment, they have ruled with great consistency that congregations cannot fully express their faith and exercise their religious freedom unless they are free to select their own spiritual leaders without any interference from government agencies or second-guessing by the courts.

Where Faith Abides, Employees Have Few Rights
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

J. Jeffrey Heck, a lawyer in Mansfield, Ohio, usually sits on management’s side of the table. “The only employee cases I take are those that poke my buttons,” he said. “And this one really did.”

His client was a middle-aged novice training to become a nun in a Roman Catholic religious order in Toledo. She said she had been dismissed by the order after she became seriously ill — including a diagnosis of breast cancer.

In her complaint, the novice, Mary Rosati, said she had visited her doctor with her immediate supervisor and the mother superior. After the doctor explained her treatment options for breast cancer, the complaint continued, the mother superior announced: “We will have to let her go. I don’t think we can take care of her.”

Working vacation

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 05:12:38 -0400

Pssst. Want to create a dynasty?

Bishop Long also said that he is planning a trip to Kenya mid next year with influential African American business men/women to meet with their Kenyan counterparts to develop business partnerships and exchange ideas.

Don't just build businesses. Build infrastructure.

Now Kenya targets African-American tourist markets
By a Correspondent

The Government is targeting the African- American market in an effort to increase the number of tourists from the US. According to the Kenya Tourist Board, the African American market has huge potential with $700 billion worth of economic power.

Mr Morris Dzoro, the minister for tourism and wildlife, recently met Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church to target the influential African Americans in the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Here's how I see it

Prometheus 6 — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:22:31 -0400

Humans have had the religious impulse since the species arose, however you explain that rise. Don't think atheists are exceptions...many atheists proselytize for their position as strongly as any evangelical. Long term, banning it from public spaces is beyond absurd...it's impossible.

Fortunately no one has ever tried to do it. What has happened is an attempt to shape society to eliminate the ability NOT to be religious moment to moment. That, long term, is as absurd as trying to ban religion.

Short term, however, you can push the pendulum way over to one side.

Just watch the return swing.

Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Despite their packed megachurches, their political clout and their increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.

...and you were a gullible fool for believing it would turn out otherwise

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:37:15 -0400

via Jack andJill Politics

Apparently only three (3) tiny percent of the many millions of dollars in this fund has actually dispersed to majority-black churches...
Leading pastors such as famous author T.D. Jakes have been buddy-buddy with Bush in the past and Jakes originally signed on to the Inter-Faith Katrina Relief Fund with Rev. Bill Gray, former Democratic congressman and CEO of the United Negro College Fund last December. Since then, Jakes, Gray and most of the committee members have resigned in disgust from the Fund. From CarpetBagger:

Numerous disagreements ensued, but Jakes and Gray said the last straw was the fund's decision to cut checks to 38 houses of worship, each for $35,000, without first conducting an audit to ensure the church exists.
UGH. Sound like the Bush Administration cronyism and corruption we've come to know and despise? Glad to see that though Bush may have pulled the wool over some preachers' eyes, that they might be finally starting to wake up to what this particular set of so-called-Christian conservatives really has to offer African-Americans

I'll be honest, I didn't expect THIS much

Prometheus 6 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:10:03 -0400

Vatican Says Pope Benedict Regrets Offending Muslims
By IAN FISHER

ROME, Sept. 16 — A top Vatican official said Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI “deeply regretted” that a speech he made this week “sounded offensive to the sensibility of Muslim believers.”

The statement, by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the new Vatican secretary of state, was made as denunciations from Muslim leaders over the speech continued for a third day around the world.

And in the West Bank town of Nablus on Saturday, a day after street protests and grenades were thrown at a church in the Gaza Strip, two churches were lightly damaged in fire bombings. A group calling itself the “Lions of Monotheism” said the attacks were in reaction to the pope’s remarks.

Sounds like the whole damn blogosphere

Prometheus 6 — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 12:03:02 -0400

The first post tagged with both Religion and Tech. I think that's a notable event.

I seriously invite you to consider exactly what you've done when you confess anonymously over the Internet. You may well find the Internet, anonymity and confession to all be tools to accomplish effects attainable by other means.

Perhaps the most important activity the Web site has is letting people know that they are not alone in their suffering, Professor Thumma said. It harkens to the now rare practice of “testimony time” at evangelical churches, he said, when “you could hear stories about people overcoming problems, stories of hope, so that you felt you weren’t the only one struggling.”

Among those changed by the confessions is Mr. Groeschel himself.

“Knowing that so many people I see every week on the outside look so normal, and yet inside there is so much pain, that has been surprising,” he said. “When you hear about it in their own words, it’s hard to bear.”

Intimate Confessions Pour Out on Church’s Web Site
By NEELA BANERJEE

Oh, please...she ain't THAT fine

Prometheus 6 — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:55:04 -0400

Group files complaint against Miss Indonesia
Tue Jul 25, 2006 03:13 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A militant Islamic group has filed a police report against Indonesia's Miss Universe candidate accusing her of indecency, a lawyer for the organization said on Tuesday.

Nadine Chandrawinata's participation in the contest and display of her body in a swimsuit there "is actually insulting for Indonesian dignity and women," Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attorney Sugito told Reuters.

Chandrawinata did not make it to the finals of the Sunday competition in Los Angeles, which was won by Miss Puerto Rico, but she had drawn heavy media coverage in Indonesia, partly because of her mixed Indonesian-German parentage and Eurasian looks.

Sugito said FPI had also filed complaints against four people involved in sponsoring and organizing Chandrawinata's participation.

"I am worried that Nadine is only victim of their ambition," he said.