It's Christmas Day in Canada. Where I live and where I'm going everything is covered with a blanket of fresh snow, as it should be in the Great White North. And for me it's a day to give thanks for living in a country so peaceful and so beautiful. A day to try to forget all the ugly Cons of the world, like Andrew Scheer or this depraved maniac.
People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
And a day when I rerun a post I wrote years ago to try to explain what Christmas means to me. I was going to write something different this year, but then I realized I had said all I wanted to say. So with a few little changes here we go again.
You might think that a church might be a safe place for homeless people to sleep. Considering how hard their lives are, and how little they have, and everything Jesus said about that. But not at this church in San Francisco.
It's Christmas Day, and although I'm an atheist, and I believe that our beautiful planet is our heaven and our hell. And that it's up to us to decide what world we want to live in. Not up to some invisible deity or some bloodthirsty Godzilla. And although I hate the shopping and the greed.
And although I know it can be a sad and lonely time for many. I was raised in the Christian tradition, I believe in the earthly message of Jesus the revolutionary, I share the vision of those fighting for a kinder, gentler world. So I do love this time of the year.
I think I can safely say that in the icy heart of this Harperland winter, just about the last thing I want to think about, talk about, or write about is the Quebec's Secular Charter. I've written about it before, and no doubt I'll write about it again. But not tonight. Tonight I'll just say I think it's unnecessary, divisive, and will stir up the bigots in this country like hitting a hornet's nest with a stick does to the flying hordes inside it. And although I'm an atheist, and a devoted secularist, I hate bullies of any stripe. And this video sums up exactly how I feel...
I wrote this post a few years ago, after somebody questioned how an atheist like me, could celebrate Christmas. And I've run it every year since then on this day, because with some minor revisions to accommodate the passage of time, it still sums up how I feel about this day. It's Christmas Day, and once again I have to explain to my friends, that although I'm an atheist, and I believe that our beautiful planet is our heaven and our hell. And although I hate the shopping and the greed. And although I know it can be a sad and lonely time for many. I was raised in the Christian tradition, I believe in the earthly message of Jesus the revolutionary, I share the vision of those fighting for a kinder, gentler world. And I do love this time of the year.
I really like this photo. And I'm glad some Quebecers took to the streets today to protest against the PQ's exclusionary so-called Charter of Quebec Values. And although I am an atheist if I had been in Montreal today I might have marched with them. Because I will not let anyone discriminate blatantly against others for no good reason. Or in the PQ's case for cheap electoral purposes.
It was a wonderfully warm sunny day in Toronto today. A great day off to relax and pretend that summer is still here. I went to the beach, I spotted my second Monarch butterfly of the season in some flowers near the Island Club House, and I got to pet the baby alpaca at Far Enough Farm. In short, it was almost the perfect day eh? Until I got home, a friend from Montreal called me and said: "I suppose you're going to write something about the Quebec Charter of Values." And I felt like collapsing and screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Well I must admit I can't think of a better Easter message, than this one outside a church in Oregon.
Tom Tate, the pastor of Rose City Park United Methodist Church in northeast Portland, told The Blaze that the sign shows his 385-member church's "radical hospitality" towards people who feel alienated from faith.
"The ones that are upset think we are pitting atheism against Christianity," Pastor Tate told The Huffington Post, "We are actually pitting kindness against hatefulness."
Because goodness knows so many Christians, and other religious folk, can be so hateful.
Well I suppose it was too real to be tolerated. A poster of the Virgin Mary receiving a pregnancy test.
So a religious fanatic attacked it with a pair of scissors.
"This is Satanic, this is the ultimate Satanic attack, when Lucifer attacks his worst enemy, the Blessed Virgin.
"This particular church - so called - is run by a gay, feminist-type lobby. They claim to be Christian and yet they put up a blasphemous image of the Blessed Virgin, attacking her virginity and the fact that she was the mother of Christ, the God-Man."
Even though the poster's message was gentle and human.
Holy Halloween Batman !!!! I see there's a new superhero in Gotham. He's as flamboyant as Liberace...with a large red thong and a matching cross. And his name is Captain Salvation!!!
"Victory!! In Jesus' name!" Captain Salvation says (in a dialogue balloon) as he vanquishes a giant robot in league with the devilish forces of the underground.
The muscular captain even has a masked sidekick: Joshua quotes the Bible and, in a takeoff on David's defeat of Goliath, loads his slingshot with magic yams.
Relax Robin. That caped Crusader will NEVER steal you away from me. I mean what's that around his waist? A holy voodoo belt or a Jebeesus in a tortilla? But go tell the Joker he's got some REAL competition.
And while you're at it, go tell his followers that if they want to lure the innocent into their empty churches.
They'd be better off praising the Lord.
And passing the doritos....
Golly Batman.... I hear that dastardly villain Herr Homophobe is REALLY upset.
As you know I believe that all schools should be secular. Not just because Adolf Hitler hated them.
But because religious schools are capable of filling young minds with the most grotesque kind of garbage.
According to a BBC Panorama investigation to be screened tonight, the Sharia law classes use textbooks which tell children that the penalty for gay sex is execution, that “Zionists” are plotting to take over the world for the Jews and the correct way to cut off the hands and feet of convicted thieves.
Gay sex is punished by execution, the schools allegedly teach. However, children are told that clerics are said to differ in whether the guilty person should be stoned, thrown off a cliff or burnt.
Other textbooks are said to ask students to list the “reprehensible” qualities of Jews and claim that Jews are transformed into pigs and monkeys.
Great eh?
Oh yeah. One more thing. When I say that religious schools should be banned.
I mean ALL of them.
Look, I realize that there are many good religious people.
And I believe that adults should be free to choose what opium of the masses they want to swallow.
But as for religious schools, don't let children anywhere near them...
This woman will shortly be stoned to death, not by a mindless lynch mob, but by judicial order. Her "trial," for adultery, was carried out in a language she doesn't even understand, with no interpretation.
And the stones may not be too big--because she might die too quickly.
I'm glad I'm an atheist who believes in a kinder, gentler world...
And realized that the driving force behind the Islamic Cultural Centre is a Sufi, a follower of the gentle, mystical form of Islam that preaches love and reconciliation.
And is hated for that by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
In the most radical parts of the Muslim world, Sufi leaders risk their lives for their tolerant beliefs, every bit as bravely as American troops on the ground in Baghdad and Kabul do. Sufism is the most pluralistic incarnation of Islam — accessible to the learned and the ignorant, the faithful and nonbelievers — and is thus a uniquely valuable bridge between East and West.
And I mean HATED.
While the West remains blind to the divisions and distinctions within Islam, the challenge posed by the Sufi vision of the faith is not lost on the extremists. This was shown most violently on July 2, when the Pakistani Taliban organized a double-suicide bombing of the Data Darbar, the largest Sufi shrine in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city.
So that this Islamic Centre not only wouldn't insult the dead of Ground Zero, it would be a slap in the face to the murderous fanatics who killed them.
Can you believe it? Those crazed American bigots and tea baggers would blow up the bridges to reconciliation, attack the enemies of their enemies, and call violent the followers of the gentle Rahman Baba.
“I am a lover, and I deal in love,” wrote the saint. “Sow flowers,/ so your surroundings become a garden./ Don’t sow thorns; for they will prick your feet./ We are all one body./ Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.”
I try not to blog too much about the madness called religion, because it bothers me in so many ways. Sometimes it makes me shake my head. They knew he was probably a pervert, and they put him in charge of dealing with the victims? Huh? Sometimes it makes me shake my head ...... and laugh.
During the twenty minute early hours chase - which was described in court as "like something from a Hollywood movie" two police cars crashed and three police left injured. When he eventually stopped he told stunned officers:"You have no idea who I am. You don't know who you are messing with," not before he had tried to drive his car at them. And he's a Master of Ceremonies at the Vatican? What kind of ceremonies does he organize? Then there's the stuff that just makes me angry. Like the religious fanatic who killed five U.N workers today. For the crime of feeding the hungry. And then there's this horrifying story
Shia and Sunni clerics started to preach in their Friday sermons about the evils of homosexuality and “the people of Lot.” Police officers stepped up their harassment of openly gay men. Families and tribes cast out their gay relatives. The bodies of gay men like Mazen and Namir, often mutilated, began turning up on the street. There is no way to verify the number of tortured or harassed, but the best available estimates place that figure in the thousands. Hundreds of men are believed to have been killed. That just makes me wish for a religion-free world. I know there a lot of good religious people. But who will save us from this madness?
I was quite amused to see that a teenager in Quebec has been poking fun at religion by among other things, drilling holes in a holy cracker. A devilishly mischievous Canadian boy who mocks a central Christian ritual on YouTube has caused an international stir and earned the wrath of the Catholic Civil Rights League, which has called for his offensive, and popular, videos to be removed from the Internet.
I recorded last night's revival meeting between Obama and McCain. But when the time came to watch it this morning after about ten minutes I gave up. The sight of two men fighting for the top job in the most powerful democratic country on earth trying to convince people that God is on their side made me dizzy with disgust. So I read the transcript instead. And now I have a few questions....like why did Obama bother? Where did he think he was? For better or worse, Obama seems to have chosen to treat this event as sort of an intimate evening with Rick Warren — that just happened to be nationally televised. McCain, by contrast, treated it as a straight campaign event: he had his stump speech talking points ready, and he was eager to cram as many of them into his 50 minutes as possible. And does Obama REALLY not know the difference between a baby and a blob? WARREN: ....... Now, let's deal with abortion; 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. As a pastor, I have to deal with this all of the time, all of the pain and all of the conflicts. I know this is a very complex issue. Forty million abortions, at what point does a baby get human rights, in your view? OBAMA: Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade. Really? But isn't the Prezeedent supposed to know EVERYTHING? I suppose the evening wasn't a total bust. Americans got yet another example of why John McCain would make such a dangerous President. But even then I wonder. In a television/YouTube age it's the simple message that counts. It makes you look like a strong leader. Think Harper and Dion in this country.With his pro-choice stand Obama never had a chance of changing many Christianist minds.
But did he lose the support of other undecided Americans by sounding ....to them... like a wanker? Instead of the Strong Leader they crave. Did he try to please everybody and end up pleasing only his own supporters?
Quick first impressions: Obama spent more time trying to impress Warren (or to put another away) not offend Warren while McCain seemingly ignored Warren and decided he was talking to folks watching on TV. The McCain way of handling this forum is usually the winning way. Obama may have had more authentic moments but McCain was impressively on message. Don't get me wrong, this will play well with some but McCain's directness and snappy answers that were on message allowed him to look commanding on that stage.
Which is the LAST thing we need. My conclusions? The United States is the closest thing to a scary theocracy in the democratic world. After a slow start, John McCain is now ready to go down on his knees and blow the religious-right all the way to Moscow. i.e. do ANYTHING to win.
Nobody ever got anywhere in Amerika overestimating the intelligence of the American people. And with less than three months to go, unless Obama sharpens up his act and quickly. We could all be heading for The Abyss ......in the Garden of Good and Evil. Faster than God can count...
Take a look at the miserable face of a liberal-hating homophobic terrorist. Because that's who he is, and that's what it was. At a news conference Monday, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen IV said Adkisson left a note in his vehicle before entering the church, thinking police would kill him after the shooting began.
Owen said the letter, signed by Adkisson but not addressed to anyone, expressed hatred for gay people and what he called the liberal movement. The church was home to several gay and gay-friendly groups and recently posted a "gays welcome" sign "as part of its long-range planning to conduct more outreach and welcome" to gay men and lesbians. They've been killing and hurting us forever. Now they are killing and hurting our friends.
I could say so much but it would probably be so angry I would regret it later. And it would be the worst possible way to remember the victims. And honour their message of tolerance and love. So I'll leave it up to Chet Scoville at the Vanity Press to say what needs to be said..
The same loathing of "liberals" that has raised cash and gotten out the vote for Republicans, the same feelings of inchoate anger that have convinced millions to vote against their own interests in the name of screwing some nameless Other that they hate and blame, are what moved this man to walk into a liberal church and start gunning people down. His actions were a straightforward fulfillment of some of the conservative movement's most powerful words, and of the feelings of impotence and rage that those words continually evoke. Until and unless American conservatism actually expunges the anti-"liberal" hatred from its rhetoric and motivations, I see no reason to let the movement disown this guy who shares and is clearly motivated by that same hatred. They made him, whether they like it or not. And just add this heartbreaking account.
Yup. Greg McKendry, the hero who was killed trying to shield the others, was fostering trans kids with his wife. The kids who are hardest to place. The kids nobody wants.
You know sometimes I get so angry and frustrated by all the hate and bullshit directed at us by the Christian Church, I forget that there are many good Christians out there. Like Greg McKendry a great human being and a hero....and all the other members of that progressive religious community. This church has always loved everyone in the community and would turn their back on no one. I may be an atheist, but I'm not ashamed to admit that if I lived in Knoxville... and I saw that Gays Welcome sign....I'd be proud to help that congregation and its wonderfully caring human mission in any humble way I could. I still wouldn't believe in God of course. But I'd know I'd be working with good people and helping to build a kinder, gentler, and more just world. And that's all that counts.
The right-wing hatemongers should hang their heads in shame.
Long may that little church stand....
------------------------------------------------------ P.S. If you want to send a message of comfort and encouragement here's their website.
When I saw that West Bank residents had defaced Banksy's donkey not far from where Jesus is supposed to have been born. I couldn't help but think that now the poor Palestinians have lost everything.
Even their sense of humour.
And I also couldn't help but think of another donkey. And one of my favourite childhood Christmas stories.
The story of Small One the poor old abused donkey who finally has his moment of glory...when he gets to carry pregnant Mary to that manger in Bethlehem.
I could never watch that one without choking up. Of course that was before I learned that Mary was a virgin. And that Small One didn't really exist. And neither does God. But even as an atheist I love this time of the year. The lights....the songs....the food ...the feeling that we should treat each other more kindly than we do the rest of the time. And of course all that talk about peace on earth. So it annoys me when I see some religious fanatics claim that we are waging War on Christmas. Even though... as JJ has fun pointing out... there isn't one. And it disturbs me to see how right wing xenophobes use that fake war to make people believe that foreigners are stealing our culture and traditions. All this would just be seasonal silliness if it were not cover for a more sinister drumbeat. The right has taken to flying the "Christian" flag in ways that suggest none too subtly that foreigners - Muslims - are stealing our culture and traditions. "They" are stopping "us" celebrating Christmas and teaching Christian stories to our children. Which is not only nonsense...but dangerous as well. And the LAST thing we need in Canada. So I guess I'll just keep on believing that there is no God. Just a lot of humans living on a small and fragile planet who need to respect and care for each other a lot more than we do now if we're going to survive. Because the earth is our only heaven and our only hell. And the gods aren't going to help us. While I also keep on enjoying the beautiful myth of a baby born in a manger during a time of terror and persecution. Or the legend of the Hannukah lamp that burned forever. Or the story of Small One the poor humble donkey. And of course all those Christmas songs....
The words may not mean anything to me. But isn't that HUMAN sound beautiful ?
