Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

My daughter and I were having a conversation yesterday about life after death. (I'm not sure how we got on the subject but it had something to do with the movie we were watching: Centurion.)

It went something like this:
Assuming that there is a life after death (not something either of us believe) and your spouse dies and goes to heaven. You remarry and then you die and go to heaven and are reunited with your first spouse. What happens when your second spouse dies and goes to heaven? 

It could either be a little awkward or a celestial ménage à trois. What do you think?

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Christian School Clothing

Apparently, not just the Catholic and other parochial students get to wear Christian clothing to school. 

Kerusso makes Christian themed t-shirts, hats and accessories that any kid could wear to public school. While I could not find any specific example of a public school student being asked to remove their Kerusso t-shirt, a Kerusso press release seems to encourage confrontaion:

"Kerusso Challenges Students to Share Their Faith on Campus! ... Students have First Amendment rights on a public school campus that cannot be denied without reason. Among their rights regarding religion on campus is the free distribution of Christian literature when class is not in session. In addition, students have the freedom to communicate Christian messages through apparel and/or school supplies and the freedom of voicing to others their beliefs as long as it does not interfere with class time. ... "

I certainly wouldn't expect a school to arbitrarily ask a student to remove a Christian themed t-shirt any more than I would an atheist themed t-shirt. However, many schools have policies prohibiting sayings on t-shirts. I think I see an issue coming.

The company markets primarily to teens and their designs are pretty cool. However, I am a little confused about the marketing of this item to teens:

3 Blade Pocket Knife # KNIF102
This high-quality Pocket Knife is a gift that he will treasure and use for years to come.

Kerusso claims that it is a secular company and that it's employees so not have to believe in Christ. However, it should be noted that "kerusso" is the Greek word for "preach."

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Christmas Miracles

Just in time for the holidays we have some "genuine" Christmas miracles.

Our first miracle comes from Decatur, AL:

Family bible remains unharmed in Decatur church fire

DECATUR, AL (WAFF) - An equipment failure is suspected in a church fire in Decatur but investigators are working to pinpoint the exact cause.

Fire investigators said the fire at the Fairview Baptist Church appears to have started in a mechanical room on the third floor.

Insurance agents spent the morning Friday looking over the fire scene which destroyed the sanctuary on Decatur's Magnolia Street.

The Church Pastor said a large family Bible placed on a communion table survived Wednesday's fire.

In fact, the Bible was found still opened to Luke Chapter 2 and the story of Jesus' birth.

The congregation at Fairview will hold their services Sunday afternoon at Faith Baptist Church on Beltline Road at 1:30 p.m.

Church leaders hope to be able to clean up the church's fellowship hall enough to be able to begin holding services there by Christmas weekend.

©2010 WAFF. All rights reserved.

Then we have the miracle from Toledo, OH:

Toledo man sees Christ, Virgin Mary in Christmas candy

TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) - It seems to happen every few months: someone sees an image of Christ -- in everything from French toast to a grilled-cheese sandwich.

Now just a few days before Christmas, a West Toledo semi-retired man thinks he's found the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus in a piece of hard holiday candy.

The piece of hard tack nearly gave James Burrows a heart attack. The 63-year old immediately saw the image of Christ in the Christmas candy, along with the Virgin Mary.

"I looked at it and it just struck me," Burrows said. "This time of year. for this to come up-- it was just kind of unusual, really: a great experience."

Burrows found the sweet scene while buying a container of candy at Fresh Market, where he also works part-time. He advised skeptics take another look at the Christ candy next to a more traditional image of the pair and let their imagination go.

So how sure is he of the resemblance?

"I'd say somewhere between 80- to 85-percent," he estimated. "I've showed it to several people even without the postage stamps to compare it to and they couldn't believe the similarity. It's uncanny."

So is Burrows worried about criticism from skeptics who don't see baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary the way he does?

"No, not at all, not at all. It's a piece of candy," he said with a grin. "If you see beauty in something, then you should enjoy it - and if you can't, you should move on."

The Vietnam vet isn't sure what to do with the Christ candy, but said he'll listen to offers. If Burrows does sell it, he wants to donate the proceeds to veteran's charities and his church.

After all, as Burrows points out, He is the reason for the season.

There are pictures at Fox Toledo's web site but I'm just not seeing it.

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Go Irish!

Image via Wikipedia

Not the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame but the Irish themselves.

Wikileak cables show Ireland irked Vatican on sovereignty. Apparently, the Vatican was dissed by Ireland over their investigation of church sex abuse.

FRANCES D'EMILIO

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Newly released U.S. diplomatic cables indicate that the Vatican felt "offended" that Ireland failed to respect Holy See "sovereignty" by asking high-ranking churchmen to answer questions from an Irish commission probing decades of sex abuse of minors by clergy.
That the Holy See used its diplomatic-immunity status as a tiny city-state to try to thwart the Irish fact-finding probe has long been known. But the WikiLeaks cables, published by Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Saturday, contain delicate, behind-the-scenes diplomatic assessments of the highly charged situation.

Read the entire article here:
http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_36972/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=SLN2Z0n8

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Sarah Palin: International Embarassment

Image via Wikipedia

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey writes in Pravda:

“By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral….

And now she turns not only against the fibre and backbone of her country, but against its democratically elected President, accusing him of being incompetent for not stopping Wikileaks. Where was she and where was her GOP before and during the 9/11 attacks? She accuses President Obama of not taking “steps” to assure the leaks were not published. What “steps”?……

If anything is a threat to the national security of the United States of America, it is this screaming, unrefined oaf with as much class as a searing release of flatulence followed by hysterical giggling at a state banquet. Is this what the people of the USA deserve?

To attack the President of the country at a time when the USA needs to close ranks and stand together to consolidate the enormous strides his (President Obama’s) intelligent and respectful approach has achieved in building bridges, when her party’s period in government bombed them, Spankin’ Sarah Palin comes across as a pitifully inadequate anachronism from the times of the Far West.”

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Religion or Culture?

“All progressive schools worth their label will, these days, boast of their efforts to teach children about each other's 'cultures'. In fact, they lie. What they are teaching is each other's religions. If they really meant culture, it would involve song, dance, art, literature, dress, drink and food; all we actually get, in most cases, are religious festivals.”

Carol Sarler 

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Yet Another School Disrtict Being Investigated for Civil Rights Violations

I have posted before about school districts being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights. This time we have a school district being investigated after a NAACP complaint was filed against the board for eliminating racial diversity through reassignments and disproportional suspension of minority students.

Wake School Board Under Probe
By T. Keung Hui, Thomas Goldsmith, and Mandy Locke, The News & Observer, N.C. (MCT)

Wake County school leaders will have to defend their student assignment and discipline policies to federal civil rights investigators responding to complaints filed by the NAACP.
The Office of Civil Rights investigates a third of the 6,900 complaints it receives each year, according to Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman of the U.S. Department of Education. Wake was notified about the investigation in a letter dated Nov. 5. Bradshaw said they typically try to complete investigations within six months.
If the school system is declared in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Wake could lose about $80 million a year in federal funding.
Word of the Wake review comes near the end of a tumultuous year for the elected leaders of the 143,000-student system. Having discarded socioeconomic diversity as a factor in school assignment, as newly elected board members promised voters last fall, the school board now faces not only the federal investigation, but also a review by a national accrediting body.
The state and national NAACP alleged in complaints filed in September that the board engaged in racial bias by eliminating diversity in the assignment policy, through student reassignments made this year and in the way minority students are disproportionately suspended.

Read the entire article here.
 
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Should God Be Edited Out Of History?

Image by sroemerm via FlickrI was reading an opinion column by Nolan Finley in the Detroit News about whether editing God out of history distorts truth. I am not convinced that editing out God necessarily distorts the truth unless the event was specifically centered around God. 

Nolan uses the example of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving to make his point. Specifically, he asks, "Ask any grade school kid who the Pilgrims were giving thanks to on the first Thanksgiving and I'll lay you three-to-one odds that the answer you get is, "the Indians."" While this is only partially true, I am not sure it really distorts the meaning or historical relevancy of Thanksgiving. 

I asked my daughter how she understood Thanksgiving and she said it is for giving thanks to the Indians and God for the bountiful harvest. I would accept my daughter's answer as historically correct. Note that my daughter is now a junior in high school and hasn't studied the Pilgrims since 2nd or 3rd grade.

Personally, I do not think God should be edited out of history in any way. Even though God does not likely exist, God has played direct and indirect roles throughout history. To remove God would potentially doom us to repeat the same mistakes as those who have used God to make history.

However, what I do have an issue with is teaching the glory of God or that our country and our world history were shaped by God. Our history was shaped by people who believed they were doing God's work not people chosen by God.
 
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Latest in Atheist Camping Cookware

Baby Pouch Cooks Babies Alive. Sorry, Keeps Them Alive [Beds]

via Gizmodo by Kat Hannaford on 11/16/10

This low-cost sleeping-bag keeps infants warm for between four to six hours, and once it cools down it can be plugged in or submerged in water for 20 minutes to heat up again. Not while the baby's still inside, mind. More »

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The War on Thanksgiving

Repost from Thanksgiving Past:

I am a traditional Pilgrimist. I can trace my family's roots back to early colonial days. As a Thanksgiving Pilgrimist or TP'er I always celebrate Thanksgiving by having a traditional turkey, traditional stuffing, traditional cranberry sauce and traditional pumpkin pie. I watch the traditional Macy's parade and the traditional Lions and Packers football game.

However, the last few years I have seen a constant assault on Thanksgiving. First we have people having pasta or sushi and not turkey. Now we have people calling Thanksgiving, Turkey Day, Gobble Day or Gobble Gobble Day. Then there is the advertising, "Gobble up Savings", "Don't be a Turkey and Pay Too Much".  And of course there is the Black Friday sales and if that were not enough we now have Pre-Thanksgiving or Pre-Turkey Day sales.

When will it end?!

As a TP'er I demand that we take Thanksgiving back. Show your support for a traditional Thanksgiving and become a TP'er by leaving a comment of support.

Turkey Time at Trader Joe's!

Local TJ's does the Turkey Wrap. It is much better live. My wife and I saw it yesterday with just the two guys. Today they had the whole crew.

 
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Schools Pave the Way to Hell

John Dewey Image via Wikipedia

Or at least that's what we are led to believe in this incredible post by Bill Wilson at Standing for God.
Bill starts off with the provocative title, "As Souls Hang In The Balance, Public Schools Pave The Way To Hell." 


He starts off by blasting the Cambridge, Mass public schools for including a Muslim holiday in next years calendar. He quickly devolves from there. Here are some choice quotes:

The public schools are generational brain-washing facilities for the Communist Manifesto which “abolishes eternal truths,” “all religion,” and “all morality.”

The brainwashing by the public schools is deeply rooted in the Hegelian Dialectic as brought into the schools by John Dewey, co-author of the Humanist Manifesto, a socialist and considered the “Father of Education” by the National Education Association. 

This guy is truly a piece of work. There is no critical thinking going on in the post. I have seen more coherent thoughts by conspiracy theorists.

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Several School Districts Violating Civil Rights of English Language Learners

Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights is looking in to eight school districts nation-wide for possible civil rights violations in their English Language Learner (ELL) programs.
Working with English Language Learners, Second Edition: Answers to Teachers' Top Ten Questions 
The following school districts are being investigated to make sure they are giving equal educational access to ELL students:

Los Angeles Unified School District
Hazelton (Pa.) Area School District
DeQueen (Ark.) Public Schools
New London (Conn.) Public Schools
Tigard-Tualatin (Ore.) Public Schools
Lake Washington (Wash.) School District 

Two other districts Tulsa (Okla.) Public Schools and Dearborn (Mich.) Public Schools are in the midst of compliance reviews.

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Be God and Perform a Chilean Miracle

From a Chilean programmer comes a flash based game, Los 33, where you get to save the 33 trapped miners.

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Jail Sued Over Reading Material

A South Carolina County Sheriff, Wayne DeWitt and county jail officials are being sued over denying inmates access to reading materials other than the Bible. The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the plaintiff, Prison Legal News, alleges that the jail does not deliver publications to inmate cells, violating the First Amendment right of free speech.

"Many detainees are held at the Detention Center -- and thus deprived of all access to magazines, newspapers and books other than the Bible -- for months and years on end," the lawsuit alleges.

The litigation goes on to say copies of the magazine and other materials from that company were returned stamped "Info not allowed," "Book not allowed" and "Magazines not allowed."

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Anyway They Can

Churches are so desperate for fresh meat congregates that they are willing to let them attend virtually. 

From Techie-Buzz:

In this day and age of technology, far less people visit places of worship than ever. However, a Tech Savvy Florida Church is tackling the issue with the help of technology by providing Live Worshiping for devotees on devices such as iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

The Northland Church has also been using the Facebook platform to allow users to worship from the comfort of their computers. And if that was not enough they have now launched a first-ever live church channel on the Roku set-top device.

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NYC is Not the Only City with a Mosque Dispute

Image via Wikipedia

A fight has erupted over a new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, TN. What started as a zoning issue his now a fight over theology and the role of government in recognizing religion. Opponents say local Muslims want to replace the Constitution with an Islamic legal code called Shariah law and they want the 16th Judicial District to issue an injunction stopping the mosque.

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Evil Jewelry

A Fremont, Ca woman was scammed out of $5000 of jewelry by two people claiming to be able to cleanse her jewelry with prayer. 

WTF?!?

She could have bought jewelry cleaner from CVS for $5.99 and saved $4993.01.
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"One Nation Working Together" Rally on the National Mall

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Progressive and civil rights groups marched by the thousands Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats. 


More than 400 organizations including labor unions, environmental groups and gay rights groups partnered for the event.

Among the speakers were: Ed Schultz, host of "The Ed Show" on MSNBC, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, and NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous among others


Ed Schultz said, "It is about the people standing up to the corporations".

"They don't need hateful rhetoric. They need real solutions," said Van Jones former White House energy advisor.

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Modesto, Ca. Science Teacher to Teach ID

Image via Wikipedia

According to the Modesto Bee, Roosevelt Junior High (Modesto City Schools) science teacher Mark Ferrante announced at back-to-school night that he would teach the theory of intelligent design alongside evolution. District officials said teaching ID will not happen however some trustees said that ID should be taught. Parents are equally diveded.

 

District trustee Nancy Cline said,

"The current curriculum states that the evolution of man, Darwinism, must be taught as a theory. I feel we do our students a disservice by not helping them become critical thinkers when we forbid the teaching of competing scientific theories, such as intelligent design."

However, Modesto City Schools spokeswoman Emily Lawrence said,

"He will not be teaching intelligent design. He has been instructed to teach the state standards and intelligent design is not in the state standards."

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Random Thought 0003

Image via Wikipedia

If a candidate is not willing to take questions from their constituents then they are not worthy of our vote.

Chris Christie Bullies Constituent at Meg Whitman Town Hall

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Random Thought 0002

America - A wholly owned subsidiary of The Corporation*.

Image by SheepGuardingLlama via Flickr

* You know, Wall Street.

Publisher To Remove Creationism Material From Text Book

Image by ljfullofgrace via Flickr

It is a good thing there are pro-science advocacy groups like, Florida Citizens for Science:

Creationism has become a possible minor issue here in Florida recently as instructional materials committees conduct a scheduled review of materials and recommend new textbooks for the state’s classrooms. A book meant for marine science classes contained some unusual language that raised red flags for a couple of members of one committee. “Life on an Ocean Planet” (a Florida edition published by Current Publishing Corp with a copyright of 2011, ISBN 978-1-878663-66-5) contained a two page informational sidebar entitled “Questions About The Origin and Development Of Life” that is packed with good ol’ fashioned creationist language. No, I am not exaggerating; it’s really packed. For a purported science book, these two pages manage to mangle basic science concepts to a jaw-dropping degree while at the same time injecting a laundry list of tired creationist objections to evolution.

Read their entire post here.
 
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Arizona Using Tax Dollars For Religious Education

~UPDATE: CFI, Council for Secular Humanism Join Amicus Brief on Religious School Subsidies


For Immediate Release Sept. 23, 2010

Contact:
Sarah Ameigh
202-238-9088
sameigh@americanhumanist.org

Arizona Shouldn't Use Tax Dollars to Fund Religious Education, Says the American Humanist Association"
ArizonaWashington, DC--The American Humanist Association filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court today asking the Court to affirm a lower court's decision that the Arizona statute that permits awarding taxpayer funded scholarships on the basis of religion violates the First Amendment.
A PDF of the amicus brief can be found here.
Arizona created a program in which dollar-for-dollar income tax credits are granted to individuals contributing to school tuition organizations (STOs). The STOs use the taxpayer funded donations to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools.
However, when awarding the scholarships, the statute permits STOs to specify which schools a recipient attends, thereby denying students true school choice. In recent years, over 80 percent of the scholarships dollars went to private religious schools.
"STOs should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion in awarding taxpayer-funded scholarships," said Bob Ritter, staff attorney at the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, legal arm of the American Humanist Association.
The American Humanist Association argued in its amicus brief that because the STO program is a conduit for funding private education with tax dollars, the Arizona statute violates the First Amendment's prohibition against government establishment of religion to the extent scholarships are used to fund private religious education.
The amicus brief asks the Supreme Court to affirm the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the scholarship program violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) advocates for the rights and viewpoints of humanists. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., its work is extended through more than 100 local chapters and affiliates across America.
Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.

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Random Thought 001

I was calling my fellow union members for support for Jerry Brown and propositions 24 and 25 and I was surprised at how many of my members are republican. It surprised me since unions are typically democrat strongholds.

So, why are there so many republican union members ?

We've Been Blasphemed!

Image by Nick Atkins Photography via Flickr
Or at least we would have been had atheism been deemed a religion as some theists wish.

Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”  

~ Pope Benedict XVI 

 As Phil Plait put it at Bad Astronomy:

"[Pope Benedict] saying secularism and atheism = lack of virtue and morality = Nazism."

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FFRF Letter Shelves Library Bible Club

Image via WikipediaA single letter from the FFRF to a Bellwood, Pa middle school closes the book on a bible club. The principal and school's attorney quickly respond to the issue:

School says it will drop Bible/Library Club
September 20, 2010

The Bible/Library Club that was a homeroom activity at Bellwood-Antis Middle School in Bellwood, Pa., has been dropped by the public school district after a complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of a parent.

FFRF sent a letter Sept. 13 about an Aug. 30 flier that was sent home with students listing the club as one of four that students could participate in during the first-semester homeroom activity period. The other three are chorus, band and cartooning.

The description for the Bible/Library Club, supervised by librarian Susan Crawford, says: "Students will assist in the various library activities of organizing and returning books to the shelves and creating bulletin boards. Students may participate in various 'Christ' centered activities such as devotional readings, Bible study, prayer and games."
FFRF received a letter from Principal Donald Wagner dated Sept. 14:  "The club name has been changed. The new name of the club is Library Club. There is no reference to the Bible and there will not by an 'Christ' centered activities, devotionals, prayer or Bible study."

That letter was followed up by one dated Sept. 15 from David Andrews, a school district attorney. "The superintendent was not aware that this club was being conducted during the school day." Andrews said the district "has taken immediate steps" to discontinue it during the school day and will not allow it to be led or supervised by a teacher.

"The district will permit the Bible/Library Club to meet before or after school as a student-run organization," Andrews said.

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Random Thought

Cover of City SlickersI was reading a wonderful post on The Religion Virus by Craig A. James titled, "The Scandal of Atheism".

For some reason my mind went to the scene in "City Slickers" between Curly (Jack Palance) and Mitch (Billy Crystal):

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger]
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out.

Don't ask me why. Sometimes my mind goes on a random tangent.

Is This Even Legal?

Image via WikipediaAnd if it is legal, is this a good idea?

I have seen many closed public schools in my area leased to private, charter and religious academies but I have never heard of a Christian school leasing space inside a functioning public school.

Living Stones Academy a start-up Christian school opened this month with 42 kindergarten through fifth-grade students in one leased hallway of the U-shaped Grand Rapids Public Schools Southeast Academic Center.

Apparently, the organizers of the school have never heard of a Christian academy inside a public school either. I wonder why?

What Did He Really Expect?

Christian Doc says goodbye to Religious Forums. Apparently, God Christian Doc couldn't take the heat in the kitchen over his creationist views. As SKWIM put it, "And another one bites the dust."