(CNN) – For Southern Baptist pastor Tim Reed, it was Scripture versus the Scouts.
“God’s word explicitly says homosexuality is a choice, a sin,” said Reed, pastor of First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge in Jacksonville, Arkansas.
So when the Boy Scouts of America voted to lift its ban on openly gay youths on May 24, Reed said the church had no choice but to cut its charter with Troop 542.
Those who founded the Republic in 1923 might well be turning in their graves: their vision of Turkey as a strictly secularist and nationalist state – not just a separation of state and religion, but also the removal of religion from all aspects of public life – is being questioned.
In the lead-up to the 89th anniversary of the Turkish Republic on 29 October, political values have never been more openly debated, thanks to a public consultation process, initiated by Turkey’s parliament, for a new constitution.
George Pell says, “I have always been on the side of the victims.” But the archbishop of Sydney has a funny way of expressing his support.
During an inquiry this week into what the Herald Sun describes as “rampant” child sexual abuse by priests going back decades, Pell admitted, “We’ve been slow to address the anguish of the victims and dealt with it very imperfectly.” He acknowledged that his predecessor, Sir Frank Little, “did cover up” sex abuse and that former Ballarat Bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew of accusations and destroyed documents and moved suspects to other parishes, actions that were“followed by disastrous consequences.”
So a British soldier was stabbed to death in public, the atrocity being caught and shared on social media. They stayed around to be arrested, not afraid of the consequences, and this is the scary thing. Now there is a widespread Muslim backlash. To make matters worse, the government has admitted that “thousands are at risk of radicalisation” in the UK.
So what do we do to unite society? What do we do to make it more inclusive and less exclusive? How do we break the in-group / out-group psychology which fuels the fires of societal discontent and fear? How to we pull down the walls of separation of ‘us’ and ‘them’?
Urghhhh.
Of course, on his logic, it is the children’s fault for building their houses and schools in a tornado area.
Oh no, they are only children.
Everything about this makes me want to cry…
Over to the BBC:
A Christian evangelical movement where followers avoid contraception and have as many children as they can is spreading to the UK. They are The Quiverfull, writes Cat McShane.
“Get married. Have a quiver full of kids if you can.”
The article below is from the UK Human Rights Blog. There is an interesting development in allowing subgroups of a society to exempt themselves from national laws or requirements. Then again, is there a sense that there is an analogy here between this and the rights of someone with dietary requirements (eg Halal) to have certain school meal or job-provided provision for their needs?
You´ve all heard the standard lies about the third reich being an “Atheist regime” and Darwinian evolution being a foundation for the Nazi race ideology. The funny (“funny” in a tragic way) thing about this is, that these claims are not only wrong, but that the exact opposite happens to be true.
Andrew Brown in the Guardian:
The settled world order is secular, and fanaticism thrives when people feel alienated and threatened for their beliefs.
It’s a commonplace that wars and religions are closely associated. Since about 1945 there has been an increasing tendency for wars to be fought along religious, as well as ethnic, economic and cultural lines, though I don’t think many people realise that the most warlike religion in the modern world, measured by the proportion of countries at war where it has a significant following, is actually Buddhism.
This is a great (not in a good way) video posted originally on John Loftus’ Debunking Christianity site here at…
Another fascinating Guardian article. It seems like Egypt is imploding in Islamic-led idiocy. Such a shame, with a wonderful opportunity to progress the country in starting with what could have been a blank slate. Instead, the country has largely regressed under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood:
This is a post from Paul Jenkins, a friend of mine form Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub who has a blog Notes from an Evil Burnee, and who also runs the Skepticule podcast on which I do a counter-apologetics segment. Recently I had written on my experience with Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Paul has also posted on this. I repost his offering with kind permission:
Beth, over at SIN’s Incongruous Elements, recently posted on the Vatican approach to sex abuse (that being cover it up or sweep it under the carpet):
Fifteen years before the clergy sex abuse scandal came to light, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top advisor plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including keeping them out of California to avoid prosecution, according to internal Catholic church records released Monday.
The archdiocese’s failure to purge pedophile clergy and reluctance to cooperate with law enforcement has previously been known.
As I have reported with regards to the Scouts and the Girlguides, the British Humanist Association are doing wonders in getting (children’s) organisations to consider changing religiously orientated oaths. Now the air cadets have taken bold action themselves, as the Guardian reports:
As The Friendly Atheist points out, Republican politicians are pressing for a bill which would force high school students to make a pledge in order to graduate; a pledge which includes pleading to God:
This is an intriguing report from the Telegraph, of all places. It may promote messages such as “love thy neighbour”…
From the Guardian: Organisation launches landmark consultation on oath as part of wider shift to change outdated imaging of…