Got a mention at the Progressive Faith Bloggers Carnival this week – thanks! Be sure to go visit for a wealth of posts about progressive values, different faith perspectives, and just plain interesting reading. There are some very talented writers and thinkers in this group, and I always learn a lot.
The next carnival will be held May 7th at a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens.
Happy Easter and Mystical Bunny with Eggs Day!
Catchin’ up with a few friend-blogs for a semi-random roundup…
Richard Shining Thunder has a new radio show in Cincinnati called High Spirits. Listen in at 1530AM WCKY, Cincinnati or online Sat 8-9 PM. I’ll personally vouch for him. He’s one of the good guys. Call in from 8-9 PM EST with spiritual questions and concerns – 877-345-3779.
Grateful Bear posts on a Pentacostal scholar who argues for the idea of the Holy Spirit moving like a wind through all the world’s religions. Great post! Call me to catch up when you’ve got a chance.
Etherealfire has a wonderful blessing for the day.
Just-Rambling thinks a surrender box is good idea. For an astonishing variety of reasons, I think so too.
No no no! It can’t be!!! Virtual Pus is gone! “2002-2006 – Killed by hackers”!?!? Come back!!!
Mr. H.K. skipped church today and instead went to the Museum of Modern Art’s opening of “Without boundaries: seventeen ways of looking,” featuring work by artists who come from the Islamic world. I’d better not link to his naughty naughty Easter graphic (heh -heh).
The philosofairy at Mermaid Tavern tells us why Arizona is the smartest state.
Rosei is planning her wedding as the rain pelts down in Brazil. I have fallen behind on the Photomeme posts, but not to worry, Rosei! John and Ben got me a digital camera for my birthday and it should arrive this week. I’ll catch up.
Raven, embroiled in activities with the boys, wishes everyone a Happy Easter/Ostara.
Lovebevvy is getting ready for a big move and new beginnings. Good luck Bev!
Mystical Grrl really has her hands full, as usual! Deep breaths Sara! Sending thoughts of warmth and calmness, and wishing you the very best of all news on the pregnancy. And I agree with you about the dog-sitting.
Dolphin and Leena have great feline Easter pics.
And keep your eyes out for the latest Progressive Faith Carnival Roundup!
Yesterday I wrote a very long and detailed post on the Plame leak situation. It had quotations and it had links. It had the whole history, the timeline, and it had several compelling points. Just as I was about to publish it, a site in another window crashed my browser. Bummer. I have really got to start writing these things offline. I’m just too disheartened to reconstruct the whole blasted thing. Since you can easily look up everything to do with it, I’ll just contribute my own thoughts to the public conversation.
I believe that Plame was outed intentionally, which is a felony crime if not outright treason. Either Cheney or Bush authorized it. I actually suspect that it was Cheney (with Rove?), and that the official story is a backdated version for coverup purposes. The outing of Plame was meant to punish Plame’s husband (Wilson) for stating the truth – and it was also a message to the intelligence community that they had better give them the “intelligence” that is wanted, rather than assessing reality.
Although people within the administration knew that Bush’s claims weren’t true – and there were efforts to remove them (including by Tenet), these claims kept getting re-added to Bush’s State of the Union speech, which was delivered. It was just one of the ways in which Americans were manipulated – playing on their fears to drum up support for our illegal and unethical invasion of Iraq. This has proven to be a disaster, and all of the people who were demonized for speaking their minds at the time have been proven correct. We took over in Iraq for reasons that will become abundantly clear in future, if they aren’t clear enough to you already (hint – permanent bases on the oil pipeline, Cheney’s secret energy meetings, Enron, Halliburton, record oil profits, corruption, fraud…).
Neither American lives nor Iraqi lives (remember, we’re “rescuing” them?) matter enough to this administration for them even to answer the basic question of what cause our soldiers are fighting for. Modus operandi: when in doubt, change the subject – when in doubt, use doublespeak – when in doubt, use your media assets or run commericals as news – when in doubt, change the “reason” we’re there – when in doubt, hide everything. If they had nothing to hide, we’d be getting a lot more information instead of being under surveillance ourselves.
To claim that “declassifying” Plame and leaking her CIA status to their kiss-butt reporter friends (remember, it wasn’t a White House press release) was in the interests of national security is an outright lie.
Tell me – how does disrupting a valuable source of intelligence, undoubtedly along with others who could be tied to her, help our national security? Isn’t it obvious that it is actually a serious breach of our national security? I wonder how many people died as a direct result, and how much real intelligence has been squandered. It is a felony for good reason.
When he was asked about this leak, he stood up and said he’d get to the bottom of it, that whoever was responsible would be fired. Fire Cheney and yourself, Mr. President. Resign. If there wasn’t anything wrong with what your administration did, you would have explained yourself at the time, not years later when Libby was in court.
Oh wait, we still haven’t really gotten an explanation from the mouth of the king. His sycophant messengers have just given us some spin, that’s all.
Whatever voting machines haven’t been hijacked yet will tell you our judgment – if that matters anymore. We’ve seen what the interests of the American people mean to you – that is, nothing at all.
Take a good look around. Our land and water are being polluted. Corporate interests are all but writing our laws. Our system isn’t functioning – ask people from New Orleans, ask people who have to face new interest rates, ask people who are working part-time in more than one job, ask people trying to navigate Medicare and Medicaid, ask the children who are left behind or who graduate from our schools with a substandard education. Many people who believe they are religious have been hookwinked into following false prophets who would like to see this country turned from the land of the free into a pseudo-christian theocracy – money-grubbers of hate and corruption are even attempting to start ’em young with home schooling and bible classes in the public schools. People openly assert claims of empire and world domination. Now you’re deliberating whether we might use nukes on Iran? So what, we’re worse than Hussein now? Wasn’t that the ultimate no-no? Oh, and didn’t you just make a deal on that very topic? What was that all about?
I’m watching to see what happens in November. We know about the election fraud, the hidden programming in the voting machines. We know that even now Diebold technicians are making the rounds. With popularity in the 30-40 percent range, it would be very strange if the Republicans retained control of both houses, wouldn’t it?
So what’s on the menu? Planning to blow up a few more towers? Maybe a Bin Laden sighting in Chicago? A nuclear meltdown in Florida? A small dirty bomb in some suburban neighborhood?
Contact your congresspeople – it’s time for them to show some spine. We still – so far – have only the soft version of fascism. There is still a chance to use our democratic system the way it was intended.
Wherever you are, do whatever you can – while you still can.
How can anyone still support this President, this Vice-President, these cronies of theirs? What more proof do you need?
Vote. Vote. Vote.
The Georgia State Senate has passed two pieces of legislation that pose a serious threat to the separation of church and state.
One would create state-funded Bible classes in Georgia public schools.
The second would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed by county governments.
Both bills are on Governor Sonny Perdue’s desk, and he is contemplating whether to sign them.
If these were really christians, they would want to post something that better represented Jesus’ teaching. The focus on the ten commandments is symptomatic of their seeming inability to understand love, forgiveness and grace. Neither do they take into account hundreds of years of Jewish and Christian scholarship and debate on issues of interpretation, translation, or socio-historical context. Their “take” on christianity is a perversion of their own religion. Their absolutist views of human beings show little evidence of any of the spiritual virtues. Think I’m overstating? Try Googling “Christian Reconstruction” or “theonomy” – they want a theocracy here, complete with the total control of women, even stoning!
From the Forerunner – I’m not linking to this site – Google a phrase:
We are not looking for a “voice a the table” nor are we seeking “equal time” with the godless promoters of pornography, abortion, safe-sodomy subsidies, socialism, etc. We want them silenced and punished according to God’s Law-Word.
They use God as a tool. Jesus would think they were jerks. This is about votes! This is about scapegoating and turning us against one another so that we don’t notice that we’re all getting robbed. I mean literally robbed – of our traditions, our ideals, our treasury, our natural resources, our futures.
From Apologetics Index:
Epitomizing the Reconstructionist idea of Biblical ”warfare” is the centrality of capital punishment under Biblical Law. Doctrinal leaders (notably Rushdoony, North, and Bahnsen) call for the death penalty for a wide range of crimes in addition to such contemporary capital crimes as rape, kidnapping, and murder. Death is also the punishment for apostasy (abandonment of the faith), heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, ”sodomy or homosexuality,” incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, ”unchastity before marriage.”
I can’t believe this. Really. I’m shaking my head. So now they want to get ’em while they’re young – and use our own tax dollars to do it! Already they have uniforms. What next, a special salute?
The separation of church and state protects religious rights, the freedom of religious expression. There should be no state sponsorship of a specific religious tradition. Religious training of minors is the right and responsibility of families and their own religious tradition.
There is no proposal here to teach a wide range of religious texts or religious themes across the world’s traditions. The cuts to more fundamental educational areas serve only to highlight the political motivation of these bills.
Bible classes for minors are an unconstitutional use of funds. At the college level, courses related to religion, such as comparative religion and mythology, spiritual autobiography, Bible as literature, and the like are appropriate as elective courses at state universities. I have been trained in theology and ethics at a state university, and taken courses in religion at the undergraduate level at another. But courses and departments of religion have a different set of approaches than the ones we can expect to see from public school teachers. They started with home schooling, now this. Questions of belief will enter the classroom, and we will see a newly indocrinated “Christian Youth” if they get their way. Wake up, sheeple.
No – you can’t use our tax dollars to indoctrinate our children. No – you can’t fool us, we know what this is all about, and we’re not all as ignorant as you seem to think. Add these totalitarian “religious” power freaks to the neo-cons of empire and the puppets of corporate interests, and you see the unholy trinity that is killing this country and all it stands for! Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, take heed!
Wayne Jackson has an interesting biblical analysis of the JW position on Armadeddon at Christian Courier.
A sample:
In Matthew 24:5ff, Christ set forth a number of “signs†that would herald the impending destruction of Jerusalem. He plainly declared: “this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished†(v. 34). Of special interest are the expressions “this generation,†and “all.â€
The word “generation†(genea) refers to “the sum total of those born at the same time, expanded to include all those living at a given time and freq[uently] defined in terms of specific characteristics, generation, contemporaries†(F.W. Danker, et al., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000, p. 191).
The expression “this generation†(he-genea-aute) is found five times in Matthew’s Gospel record, and never is it employed in any sense other than that of the “generation†contemporary with Jesus Christ (cf. 11:16; 12:41-42; 23:36).
The “Witnesses,†however, assign a most strange interpretation to the phrase. They contend: “It is the generation of people who saw the catastrophic events that broke forth in connection with World War I from 1914 onward†(Watchtower, op. cit., p. 31).
The fact of the matter is, however, the “Watchtower†folks concede that Christ’s application was to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. “[Christ] outlined things that would befall the Jewish nation during the execution of Jehovah’s judgment upon Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman general Titus (Dan. 9:26)†(Aid to Bible Understanding, Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Society, 1971, p. 642).
Incredibly, however, they manipulate the expression “this generation†across more than 2,000 years of history to embrace the modern era. Further, they totally ignore the Lord’s declaration that “all†the signs of Matthew 24:5-33 were to be fulfilled in the A.D. 70 event. The common-sense rules of responsible exegesis are thrust aside with reckless abandon.
I have one quibble with the piece. Anyone who refers to the JWs as a “non-prophet” enterprise is correct only in the literal sense. Lack of prophetic vision, yes.
But it’s no fun without the pun, and JWs are not non-profit – far from it.
Note for researchers – “Watchtower” is written as a single word in the name of the sect’s New York corporation, but as two words in the name of the Pennsylvania parent corporation.
A suspected sexual predator who disappeared last year after being charged in San Diego with child molestation has been added to the U.S. Marshals Service’s 15 Most Wanted fugitive list (photo posted).
Jehovah’s Witness Brother Frederick McLean (aka Frederick McClean, aka Rick McClain) was a member of the congregation in Vista and Oceanside, CA during the last 25 years. He was a pioneer and Ministerial Servant, and was recently disfellowshipped. Most of the news reports have omitted any reference to his long involvement with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The mother of 2 of McLean’s alleged victims says he used Jehovah’s Witness congregations to seduce the victims.
“His preferred age of his victim was from 6 or 7 years old to 12 years old. Some of his victims did come forward . . . Some of the victims we have identified are now adults. Some of the victims identified are still children.â€
Investigators believe McLean’s abusive acts against young victims span over a 20-year period. One alleged victim, now an adult, reported that McLean assaulted her more than 100 times, starting when she was 5 and ending some 7 years later.
Frederick McLean, 55, is wanted on multiple counts of sexual assault on a child. In May 2004, family members of an alleged molestation victim confronted McClean, who admitted the allegations were true, prompting them to call the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. McClean’s wife left him after the confrontation, and he later signed divorce papers and transferred financial assets to her. The last known sighting of the suspect was in September, when he made contact with his ex-wife.
McLean last lived in the Riverside-area community of Winchester, but detectives believe most of the alleged crimes occurred in San Diego County. He is the former owner of a race car restoration and sales business, may be driving a small, dark-colored pickup truck or a 1955 Chevrolet, license number 4WQH018. He is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 170 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. McLean is considered armed and dangerous, and possibly suicidal.
A reward of up to $25,000 is being offered for information leading to McLean’s arrest. Anyone with information is urged to call the nearest U.S. Marshals Service office, or the agency’s 24-hour hotline at 1-800-336-0102.
I called just because their posting didn’t include anything about his JW involvement. He could be accepted into any Kingdom Hall. They don’t really keep tabs on who might be disfellowshipped, and if he’s talking the talk, he’ll most likely be taken in. He would stick out anywhere else, but he could blend in very easily in a JW context. I hope they’ll add that to the information on the site – anyway, they said that they would pass on the information to the investigating officer.