Yet, still more of the juiciest bits from the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm. My post is now buried way back here. And now, at number 91….

91) Cause for Concern: “Is it right for our elected officials to use the Capital lawn as a spawning ground for Jesus Hallelujah? No, it is not. Free speech is protected, and on that angle, whatever they feel they need to talk about is fine. But using our time and our airwaves and our lawn to spawn a religious revival is not right.”

92) Beep Beep It’s Me: “Whereas secularism protects the right of citizens to be of any religion of their choosing, or no religion at all, theocratic governments demand civilian adherence to the scriptures of ONE religion. That religion and the beliefs of that religion, would be enshrined in all law. Both of these religions seek to oppress and deny individual rights in favour of the tenets of their religion. Both religions are imperialistic by nature. They each seek to be a religious monopoly.”

93) There are no Barking Sparrows: Posts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948. I’m stunned. And we think we’re some kind of human rights leader? See how far we’ve fallen.

94) God is for Suckers! Great quotations video. Take a look-see.

95) Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes: “Barton is the darling of the homeschool movement because he feeds those who would demolish the wall between church and state the precise fairytale they need in order to justify their misguided assault on the Constitution. They never seem to have heard that among the most fervent initial supporters of the separation of church from state were…wait for it…fundamentalist Christians. Really. They were afraid that Anglicanism, should it become the official religion of the state, would make their small sects outlaw. Of course, the establishment of what is essentially an unregulated free market of religion ultimately served these loud little groups well, and the loudest of them have risen to political ascendancy.
And they want more power.”

96) APLawrence Blogger: “I’m sick of a politicians decrying their faith to curry favor from the religious. I’m sick of religion in general, from the crazies pushing “intelligent design” to my neighbor who thinks a tattoo of Jesus on his back would be a wonderful thing. I absolutely support the right of every person to believe whatever crazy thing they want to, but why is it that people who say they talk to aliens are seen as fruitcakes but people who say they talk to gods aren’t? The evidence for gods is no better than that for UFO’s; and the latter at least doesn’t suffer from logical inconsistencies.”

97) Cycle: “Those people are better at deliberative debate than I am or could ever be. Their points are valid, cogent, and important. I am as incapable of such feats as I am of commanding with success a mountain to throw itself into the sea. What I do do well is this: Jesus Boobies. That is humor. Pure. Concentrated. Let’s do it again. Jesus Boobies. Do you feel it? Do you feel alive? Jesus Boobies quench that insatiable thirst. They bring life to the young. Jesus Boobies love little children. Stick my face into Jesus Boobies and I am filled with life, (res)erected. What we are doing here is using absolute nonsense to offend. I have said nothing. Made no point. I took two, pure, holy entities – Jesus and Boobies respectively – and conjoined them in a delicious and nutritious soul-saving spread. Christi de leche. It’s great on ice cream and your sins. Quiets a crying baby and rescues a drowning man. What we need to do is to open up religion to be discussed. At the moment, when a drawing of Mohamed (Mohamed Boobies) can cause riots and the UN can draft resolutions to “protect” people from slander of their religion, we need to be as much on the offensive as possible. I urge you to actively attack religion. ”

98) Unrepentant Old Hippie: “The anti-choice movement, many if not most of whom are religiously-motivated, increasingly puts pressure on the government for more restrictive abortion laws, their ultimate goal being a complete ban (and then on to contraception!). But Canadian abortion laws are guided by medical and scientific definitions and personal privacy rights, not by anyone’s interpretation of religious tenets. In spite of anomalies like the House of Prayer just a short walk from Parliament Hill, we don’t yet have a theocracy. But with stealth tactics like Focus on the Family-type groups trying to exercise influence in politics, it isn’t for lack of trying on the part of the fundies, and they will keep pushing. We need to send the message that when push comes to shove, we can push a lot harder than they can.”

99) Another Ravan Perch: “Essentially, these Religious Right wingnuts are turning their reach and media aided influence into a defacto religious test for office, and non Judeo-Christian(-Islamic) people automatically flunk, and the rest are graded on how well they mouth the bogus morals of the Christianist party. BTW, if you need a religious book or preacher to tell you what is right and wrong, under the threat of hell if you don’t obey, then to me you are mortally defective, and possibly a sociopath. The person who does right because it is right, not because a book or church says to, or because they expect some sort of reward in an unknown afterlife, is the truly moral person.”

100) The Rational Christian: “It doesn’t take a genius to see that many of today’s Christian leaders symbolize much of Jesus preached against.” Examples follow: quotations + photographs.

101) Dark Christianity: “Many adhere to a statement of belief that puts the Bible (and its literal truth) first, God second, and Jesus Christ, a distant third. They are Christian in name only. They are a political force wrapped in the most popular religion. They use that cover to insinuate themselves into every corner of our society, because Christian still equals ‘good’ to most people. But the leaders of this movement are not good people. They do not believe in the greater good of a nation of many faiths. Only their beliefs are valid. They do not emulate Christ or follow his teachings at all. Worse, they treat those who do actually adhere to Christ’s teachings as religious pariahs, or non-Christians. The word “Christian” itself has become tainted with the stain of intolerance, homophobia, fear, ignorance and hatred. … A believer can govern, as can a non-believer. But the believer must be capable of looking beyond the dictates of his or her faith to serve the greater good. And in doing so, they are actually following Christ’s greatest commandment: to ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself’. That is the ultimate governence.”

102) The Skeptical Alchemist: “No need to go as far as Pakistan, Iran or India to look at religious abuse of women, who are forced, if they now decide to undergo IVF in Italy, to go through multiple pregnancies or (as pre-implantation screening is not allowed anymore) multiple abortions. You just need to look at a place where the separation of Church and State is law, and still the Church does not pay taxes, gets money off of Italians, while getting their (well, foreign!) policy through in the Italian Parliament. – Welcome to the Country of Jokes. We make you laugh, but you’ll be joining us soon.”

103) ProgressiveU: “When we find a billion year old fossil, don’t discount the evidence. When we connect the genes with bone records suggesting connections between two seemingly unrelated species, don’t cry out against evolution. When a non-traditional couple wants to be married, don’t judge and say they will go to hell (according to one translation of the bible, the people who say ‘You are going to hell’ are passing judgement, and right given only to the christian god, and are condemned to hell for attempting to act in place of god… never thought of that did you?) All I ask is that you keep your faith, share your faith, but don’t deny others a different faith. No two people believe the exact same thing, faith is a very personal thing.”

104) Hypnocrites: “James E. Hanson, once NASA’s director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has accused the Administration of muzzling him and censoring his findings on global warming. He was warned there would be “dire consequences” if he spoke publicly about his findings. They even had an oil lobbyist and a college dropout editing his work at the direct instruction of the White House. And then, at the end of last year, the Admnistration issued new rules requiring all scientists to submit papers and speeches for “review” before they could be presented. And it just keeps getting worse, as now scientists are forbidden from speaking at all if they disagree with Administration dogma.” Check out the great cartoons!

105) Timeline of Theocracy: Sample entry – “250-350 (about). Constantine the Great. Flavius Valerius Constantinus to you, if you are walking around back then. Turns Roman Empire into a Christian State and carries the religion across Europe and even to those pesky Celts up in those big islands.”

That’s it for me tonight.

And yes, there’s more…