Lay Theism

You have got to be kidding me. The Southern Baptist Convention has once again done themselves a huge disservice by acting like this is the 1st century BCE.  The SBC has pulled Gospel Today from the shelves at its bookstores. What surprised me more is that the SBC actually owns Lifeway bookstores. Who knew?!  Anyway, maybe moronic actions like this will ultimately be their undoing (from the Associate Press):

The group says women pastors go against its beliefs, according to its interpretation of the New Testament. The magazine was taken off stands in more than 100 Lifeway Christian Bookstores across the country, including six in metro Atlanta.

“They basically treated it like pornography and put it behind the counter,” the publisher, Teresa Hairston, said. “Unless a person goes into the store and asks for it, they won’t see it displayed.”

Nationally, the Southern Baptists have adopted statements discouraging women from being pastors, but their 42,000 U.S. churches are independent and a few have selected women to lead their congregations. The faith was organized in 1845 in Augusta, Ga.

Chris Turner, a spokesman for Lifeway Resources, said the cover was not the reason the magazine was pulled from Lifeway’s shelves.

“The buyers said the statements that were in it took positions that were contrary to what we would say,” Turner said. “It wasn’t so much that there were women on the cover.”

Featured on the cover are Pastor Sheryl Brady of The River in Durham, N.C.; Pastor Tamara Bennett of This Is Pentecost Ministries in Sacramento, Calif.; Bishop Millicent Hunter of The Baptist Worship Center in Philadelphia, Pa.; Pastor Claudette Copeland of New Creation Christian Fellowship in San Antonio, Texas; and Pastor Kimberly Ray of Church on the Rock in Matteson, Ill.

Backwoods, unenlightened fucking idiots. I only put the f-word in here hoping to increase my hits if people go searching for “fucking baptist porno” or “female pastors take it on the chin” or “lifeway books whips it out, but only if you ask nicely”.

Ironically, I support these women being in positions of leadership, as I would anyone.  Discrimination is such an ugly way to retain power — and that’s all it ever has been.  I’m so disappointed that I was born into the baptist faith.  Took me 40 years to escape from the shackles.  Sigh…

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After seeing the best SNL opening I have seen in a while, I was inspired to blog about it.  First, Tina Fey nails Sarah Palin… in the theatrical sense.  Then, they whipped out (oops) the whole MILF thing. But they couldn’t leave it at that.  Amy Poehler doing Hillary (stop that) says that she doesn’t like being referred to as a “flirj”. Yeah, I had no clue, so I “Gergled” it like Hillary did.  Who would have known that there’s something Google doesn’t know?!  At any rate, the best I came up with was FLIRJ = First Lady… I’d Rather Jack-Off.  Supposedly IRJ is a common suffix, so it follows that we would end up with flirj (vs. flirg, flerg, flerge, flerj, flerje, flirg, flirge, flirj, flirje, flurg, flurge, flurje, flurj, or flurdge which are clearly ridiculous and just plain wrong).

Actually, what made me laugh was later in the show when Alaska Pete (which harkins back to Produce Pete — not this douche, this douche) pointed out that Sarah Palin is not just a MILF, but is soon to officially be a GILF.  Kinda funny, and had not occurred to me… although I had already heard VPILF elsewhere.

Anyway, as you may or may not know based on the general ideology of this blog, I do not share Gov. Palin’s view of the world having been created in six days because God thought it was a good idea.  Nor, do I think that her youngest son was born with Down’s Syndrome because God thought that would be swell too.  In fact, I think it’s sad that McCain felt he needed to add that particular contrast to his ticket. On the other hand, she has shaken up this campaign in a way that was badly needed.

I still think McCain is to be the next president, and it scares me less than Obama.  I will reluctantly cast my vote for the screwed up, broken, Republican party once again.  If the Democrats can ever get their shit together and start to act like they will be responsible with our money, they’ll have my vote in a heartbeat (I am not implying that I think the Republicans have been responsible with our money, but they don’t overtly want to take as much of it away).  Until then, I feel like I have no choice but to deal with crazy Christians and the rest of the right outside of the political forum.  At the end of the day, I guess I worry more about my checkbook than I do my kid’s textbook.

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In light of Tony Snow’s untimely death today, I think this piece he wrote not quite a year ago for Christianity Today is pretty sad:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/25.30.html

To believe in something so fervently just to bring comfort to yourself and your loved ones about the pain, suffering, worry, and randomness of such events makes no sense. Even some of the passages seem written to convince the reader (and maybe even the writer) that his beliefs are not just fantasy.

Blessings arrive in unexpected packages—in my case, cancer.

Seriously?

Those of us with potentially fatal diseases—and there are millions in America today—find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God’s will.

Uh, yeah… it’s certainly a challenge to discern “God’s Will” in a plan that includes as much death, disease, and destruction as His apparently does.  Just because people find strength through adversity does not mean there is a grand design or a designer.  In fact, I would suggest that this is direct evidence that there is NOT.

Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence What It All Means, Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations.

OK, this is a problem.  Hints?  Consolations?  If I were all powerful and had left behind a book that was to give My most intelligent creatures some indication of my design, I might do better than vague hints and worthless consolations.  The bible is such a inconsistent mess, it’s hard to believe anything sensible can be gleaned from it. 

I don’t know why I have cancer, and I don’t much care. It is what it is—a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths begin to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence: We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out.

Here’s where a believer’s logic completely breaks down.  If it is “The Will of God” that you have cancer, why are you seeking a cure?! It’s God’s Will! Quit trying to alter God’s blessing for you. Even worse, these great and stunning truths were already there before you had cancer.  You were mortal before you had cancer. Why is it after these awakenings that people decide to live their life differently or more purposefully?

Love is free, and if you aren’t getting plenty of it, then you are not living right. Experiencing love without God getting the credit is wonderful. It focuses the energy and directs the action… it’s all you.  There is no other force behind your life.  Whatever you do with and for others is entirely your free will.  That’s what makes it so amazing.

Now get off the Internet, and go hug your kids, or kiss your wife, or walk your dog… Go tell someone that you love that you love them, especially if that’s not something you say frequently.

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Truth conquers all…  I wish.  Clearly this is one of those maxims that requires its own brand of faith to believe.  The difficulty of the problem is compounded by the sheer number of “truth-tellers” that do little else than to spread myths, half-truths, and downright lies. 

I certainly have faith that this human race will slowly become enlightened.  The number of rational thinkers currently on this little blue marble FAR outnumber those at any prior period in human history… and that number continues to increase not just in absolute terms, but also in relative terms.

That’s all I have for today… thanks for reading.  Incidentally, do me a favor and let me know you stopped in by dropping me a comment.  I enjoy doing this for the cathartic effect, but wouldn’t mind an intelligent discourse on occasion as well.  Cheers!

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I wrote a while back about the inadequacy of the study by Bruce Hunsberger and Altemeyer of non-believers entitled Atheists.  In fact, the subtitle of their book is at best misleading because of the focus on the atheists in only three samples. Their surveys were very well written, but their samples were terrible. But that was another day (more here).

Today, I want to point out an impressive study with a strong methodology, large sample (35,000), and fascinating conclusions.  The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has just completed a tremendous survey of religion in the United States and has revealed exactly what I suspected (emphasis mine):

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children.

My guess is that religion is NOT supplying the answers that people seek.  How can it?  It’s mythology. All religions were completely, 100% dreamt up my men… typically primitive men desperate for explanations regarding tragedy and natural phenomena. 

As more information becomes available via the Internet, our 250+ channels, modern schooling, book stores, etc., people will have more and more difficulty reconciling truth and reality with ancient texts.  Another highlight of the study includes the numbers of “Unaffiliated”. 

Hey, there I am!  I like the description “Secular Unaffiliated”.  How cool is that?  The term Atheist always gives me heartburn because it seems to be used almost like a weapon… for shock and awe. It certainly cuts to the chase. Although, almost anything is better than “bright” – oh, please…

I am not sure what “Religious Unaffiliated” means, but in the future, I would rather see a category called Non-Believer or Non-Theist, and I’m happy to join the atheists there.  I know there is really no distinction between my non-belief and atheism, but note that only 1.6% were comfortable identifying as the latter. 

It’s one of those weird things… when you find that you are an atheist… because it is essentially impossible for you to believe in the claims of religion – you have no choice of succinct label.  Once you are at the point of non-belief, you are, in fact, an a-theist.  HOWEVER, many people (ahem, present company included) still have trouble identifying with that lot.  I have found when it comes right down to picking the words that come out of my mouth when asked (what I am) are “non-believer”. That quickly turns to “You’re an ATHEIST?!” (typically with significantly increased volume on the respondent’s part). To which I must reply, “Yeah, I guess I am.” Then, because I am choosy about the company I keep and allowing the conversation to steer into that area, we usually proceed to have an intelligent conversation.

I know this veered off into “me” territory, but I think this survey is strongly indicative of the unraveling of organized religion, which is exactly what happened to me.  And, unlike over the last several millenia, once the genie is out of the bottle this time, no one will be able to put him back.

As an aside, great post from Majikthise.

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