Carnival of the Godless #91 has been posted at State of Protest. I submitted Oliver's latest post in his "A Non-Believer in Church" series, and it was included in the carnival. Check it out.
Tags: Carnival of the Godless, non-believer in church, church, atheist, blog carnival
Monday, May 12, 2008
Carnival of the Godless #91
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Americans United Condemns Religious Right Plot to Politicize Pulpits
According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Christian extremist group, calling itself the Alliance Defense Fund, is asking clergy to disobey the law preventing tax-exempt religious organizations from endorsing political candidates. The full press release is provided below.
May 9, 2008
Americans United Condemns Religious Right Plot To Politicize Pulpits
Asking Churches To Violate Federal Tax Law Is Deplorable, Says AU's Lynn
A Religious Right group's plan to ask churches to violate federal tax law on electioneering is deplorable, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is urging clergy to defy the tax-law ban on candidate endorsements by tax-exempt groups. Ministers are being pushed to use their pulpits on Sept. 28 to preach about candidates and spark a showdown. The Wall Street Journal report: http://www.au.org/site/R?i=Ej32Bqo34RL906fe73i90w..
The ADF, a theocracy-minded legal operation founded by right-wing religious broadcasters, hopes the Internal Revenue Service will launch investigations of these churches, thus opening the door to a federal test case of the constitutionality of the law.
Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, "This is a truly deplorable scheme. Federal tax law rightly requires churches and other tax-exempt groups to use their resources for religious and charitable purposes, not partisan politics. When the faithful put their hard-earned dollars in the collection plate, they don't expect it to wind up pushing
some politician's campaign.
"The Religious Right leaders who lust for political power in America will apparently stop at nothing, not even the sacred character of the church," Lynn continued. "The vast majority of clergy do not seek to turn their incense-filled sanctuaries into smoke-filled political backrooms.
"I think very few clergy will yield to the Alliance Defense Fund's worldly temptation," Lynn concluded. "And those who do will find their churches' tax exemptions in jeopardy. I assume the ADF will provide a list of congregations unwise enough to join this move, and we'll be ready to report those churches to the IRS."
Lynn noted that clergy know they are free to speak out on religious, moral and political issues. But they cannot use tax-exempt resources to support or oppose candidates for public office, which includes statements from the pulpit by church officials and other indications of campaign intervention.
In May of 2000, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously held that the IRS properly revoked the tax exemption of the Church at Pierce Creek, a congregation near Binghamton,N.Y., that bought newspaper ads in 1992 opposing presidential candidate Bill Clinton. (Americans United filed a complaint with the IRS about this clear violation of tax law.)
The court ruled in Branch Ministries v. Rossotti that "the revocation of the Church's tax-exempt status neither violated the Constitution nor exceeded the IRS's statutory authority." (The three judges were Reagan appointees, and the opinion was written by James Buckley, a scion of the ultra-conservative Buckley family and brother of William F. Buckley.)
Americans United has served as a monitor of the intersection of religion and politics. In response to church politicization efforts, the watchdog group has distributed informational literature to religious leaders about federal tax law. In 80 cases since 1996, Americans United has asked the IRS to investigate apparent electioneering violations of the IRS Code by religious groups.
Tags: Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Christian extremism, Alliance Defense Fund, law, tax, religious right, tax law, churches, church and state, clergy, religion, politics, IRS
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Invitation From New Orleans Secular Humanist Association
Mississippi atheists are invited to a presentation by Glen Sandberg on Saturday, May 17, at the New Orleans Public Library. The presentation, "Naturalizing the Magic of the Mind," will start at 2:00 PM and is brought to you by the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association.
Here is Glen's description of the presentation:It tries to clarify how imagination and creativity are natural results of the massively-parallel processing by billions of neurons in our brain, that each constitute an associative pattern-recognition element. It will take about 30 minutes and leave time for discussion and other NOSHA business.
You can even find a preview of Glen's presentation here. For those who cannot attend, the presentation will also be posted here.
Tags: Mississippi, atheists, Mississippi atheists, New Orleans, New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, New Orleans Public Library, imagination, creativity, presentation
Monday, May 5, 2008
A Non-Believer in Church: St. Peter's Episcopal at Oxford
As a college student, the end of the semester is good about throwing me off of my regular routine, but I found some time to visit St. Peter's Episcopal Church here in Oxford. This was my first time inside of an Episcopal church so once again I am asking any readers who are familiar with this denomination to elaborate in the comments. The service was so wrapped in symbolism that I felt completely lost.
I attended the 5:30 PM service of the Holy Eucharist, which is designated to fit into the busy schedules of local college students. There were about 50 people in attendance. Nearly all were college students wearing typical college student garb. The music was the best that I've heard in any church visit yet. The music at The Orchard was good, but felt mass produced. The music at First Free Will Baptist was country folk singing at the top of their lungs. Here we had a small band of mostly acoustic guitars and a violinist playing a set of honest and beautiful songs. If I could get a CD of this small band, I would.
Most of the service was foreign to me. The services began with a procession of people in white robes holding various holy relics like a Bible or a Cross. I did not understand a single action of the minister. He had a metal ball that produced smoke that he started swinging at a candle. There is a deeper symbolic reference here I'm sure, but I've read the Bible from cover to cover and must have missed the references to a metal ball, the smoke, and the candle. There was part of the service where everyone recited a prayer while staring at a stain glass window of Jesus . There were parts where we were requested to kneel during a prayer. At another point, the assistants brought all of the holy relics to the center of the auditorium while the minister produced a lot of smoke from his metal ball and began reading from the Bible. Like the Presbyterian service, the congregation recited the Nicene Creed, and many did it from memory. I felt uncomfortable (and very weirded-out) for not understanding any of the symbolism.
The minister asked everyone to greet those sitting around them. When people shook my hand, I made the mistake of saying "hello." The word of these people was "peace." I began to stick out.
The minister's sermon was on the ascension of Christ which takes place in Acts Ch. 1, but aside from reading the passage, he didn't use any scripture to support his lesson. His message was that Christ meets you regardless of how strong your faith is. (My faith is nil, so I'm curious how far Jesus has to stretch to reach me considering that I don't believe him to be divine.) He wanted everyone in attendance to act in a manner which is "countercultural and foolish for your faith." To some extent, I can agree. He wanted the people to practice peace. Peace is certainly counter cultural, but it is not foolish, and peace is good whether it is done in the name of your faith or not.
Near the end of the service, the minister prepared the communion with a series of elaborate actions involving two cups sitting on a table. All of these actions had a symbolic meaning but it was all lost on on me. Like the Presbyterian service, communion was served by everyone coming to the front of the auditorium to receive it from the minister. Again, I felt like an oddball for being the only person who remained in the pew during communion. In a group of 50, it was not hard to spot the new guy.
The service concluded when the minister asked everyone to go outside for a group picture. Everyone was dismissed and began talking in the front of the church. I stood on the front lawn for about five minutes wondering if anyone would at least greet the new guy, but no student did. The minister spoke up, "We have a visitor!" He just might be the nicest guy in the world. He asked me, "So which parish are you from?" I told him how I was visiting in order to experience an Episcopal church service and he told me about the church website and invited me to the group dinner for all students after the service.
Aside from conducting a very peculiar service and being forced to work with college students who are too scared to say "hello", the minister made me feel welcome.
Tags: Oxford, Mississippi, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Episcopal, college students, bible, church, atheist, communion, minister
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Atheists Dancing Naked
Wouldn't that be something? The Olive Branch Atheists are meeting on May 18 at 3:00 PM at Fox and Hound (Southaven) to "dance naked in the glorious month of May." Details here.
Tags: atheists, naked, Olive Branch Atheists, Mississippi
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The Politics of Elitism
As I watch more than my share of political shows and read various analyses of the upcoming Presidential election on assorted political blogs, it is becoming obvious that elitism is going to be a big issue between now and November. With Clinton's last-ditch efforts focusing on casting Obama as an elitist while pretending to be in touch with the "average American," she is foreshadowing what will almost certainly be a key strategy of McCain's campaign once Obama receives the Democratic nomination. It is far from just another political strategy and provides us with a key example of how reason, intelligence, and education are routinely devalued in contemporary American society.
In the unfolding political drama, the Democratic candidates are now falling all over themselves to trick the ill-informed voter into thinking they are something they're not. Clinton and Obama are both qualified to be President, so much as anyone can really be said to be qualified. They are also both wealthy, intelligent, well-educated people whose daily lives bear little resemblance to most Americans. I don't see either as elitist, but certainly both are elite.
What bothers me about this whole affair is the idea that anyone in their right mind would want a President who was just like them. A President has an extremely difficult job. Why would we not want someone qualified to do the job? In most every other job, we value intelligence, education, experience, proven leadership, and even evidence of financial success. We aren't seeking an assembly line worker or custodian but a President.
Part of this fascinating phenomenon - wanting a President who is no better than us - is about narcissism. We have a need to believe that nobody, including our President, is better than us. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Another part is about our wholesale acceptance of the myth of equality - equal opportunity is a worthy goal, but equality in terms of ability is an absurdity. Humans differ, and characteristics such as intelligence are normally distributed in the population. When it comes to intellectual ability, equality could not be farther from the truth. But another part, even if it is not a motivating factor, involves a general devaluing of intelligence, education, reason, and the like. We bring those with Presidential aspirations down to our level by overlooking and devaluing their accomplishments.
Denigrating intelligence, education, and reason is bad for all of us. Maybe some people need to combat their feelings of inadequacy in this way, but it harms even then. And what about their children? Level of parental education is a potent predictor of eventual educational achievement by their children and not simply because of the genetic link. It also has to do with environmental effects such as modeling the importance of education.
To be sure, this is a subject that could use additional investigation and discussion. I posted this here rather than on Atheist Revolution because I have found negative attitudes toward intelligence, education, and reason to be far more prevalent in Mississippi than in other places I have lived. What do you think?Tags:
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