Beyond The Broken Spectrum

Does morality depend upon religion? Most people believe it does, which is a major reason behind the appeal of the religious right. People believe that without faith in a supernatural authority, we can have no moral values–no moral absolutes, no black-and-white distinctions, no firm demarcation between good and evil–in life or in politics. This is the assumption underlying Justice Antonin Scalia’s assertion that “government derives its authority from God,” since only religious faith can supposedly provide moral constraints on human action. Read More

The Rev. Pat Robertson turned heads with his appearance on The 700 Club on Wednesday when he blamed Haitian history for Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. In short, Robertson claimed that the quake was divine retribution for a pact with the devil that was sworn long ago, a statement he was audacious enough to make while the 800 number for disaster relief scrolled at the bottom of the broadcast. Here’s the clip:

Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.

The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims.

“There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion,” Carl Ruck, professor of classical mythology at Boston University said.

Referring to the existence of cannabis in anointing oils used in ceremonies, he added: “Obviously the easy availability and long-established tradition of cannabis in early Judaism _ would inevitably have included it in the [Christian] mixtures.”

Mr Bennett suggests those anointed with the oils used by Jesus were “literally drenched in this potent mixture _ Although most modern people choose to smoke or eat pot, when its active ingredients are transferred into an oil-based carrier, it can also be absorbed through the skin”.

Quoting the New Testament, Mr Bennett argues that Jesus anointed his disciples with the oil and encouraged them to do the same with other followers. This could have been responsible for healing eye and skin diseases referred to in the Gospels.

“If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient anointing oil _ and receiving this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians, then persecuting those who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christ,” Mr Bennett concludes. The Guardian

City council members in Marietta, Ga., will consider changing the oath of office that the city’s police officers take so that recruits can swear to uphold the law without saying the phrase “so help me God.”

This article can be found at Fox News

Lets examine this article, shall we?

Det. Gwen Lewis, a police spokeswoman, said no complaints have been received recently regarding the five-sentence oath the Marietta Police Department last adopted in August 2001. To her knowledge, she said, no would-be officer has ever objected to saying “so help me God” as part of the oath.

Alright, so this oath isn’t very old, only having been in effect for 8 years. Its not some sort of long standing tradition so I’d say such a challenge to the policy would easily have merit. Not to mention that some people would prefer not to mix government and religion. She also states that to her knowledge, no one has ever objected, however that’s not a very solid statement since we don’t know just how good her knowledge is. Its also very possible that some recruits would object, but likely didn’t out of fear of reprisal.

The councilman that brought up the subject during the Public Safety Committee meeting says that he does not object to the phrase, but as the city’s deputy assistant district attorney, he had encountered problems with individuals doing so in legal proceedings. I’m glad to see a fair-minded person involved with this, concerned with solving potential problems. We need more people like this working for us in government.

“I don’t think anybody should be forced to say anything,” he said. “I just don’t know what the alternative would be.”

He also says the phrase should not be removed, but did say that there could be problems with the oath if a police recruit is an atheist or not religious. Bravo, nice to see someone at least thinking of others.

But another councilman, Anthony Coleman, who chairs Marietta’s Public Safety Committee and works as a pastor at a church in Mableton, Ga., said he “adamantly” opposes any change to the oath.

“I just see no justification, I don’t care if the person is an atheist,” he said. “We’re a Christian nation.”

Its sad to see such a hateful person in such a position of power. He doesn’t care what you think, you must conform to what he thinks and he will use government power to force you to his will. This is one of the worst kind of politician scum, drunk on power and perfectly willing to impose his beliefs on others. Its not just religion here, its every aspect of what he thinks.

Say if this guy were to believe that drinking alcohol is a sin and should not be consumed, if he could, he would use his power to make laws throwing people in jail for consuming alcohol. If he were to believe that getting a divorce should be illegal, he would try to impose his will. If he thought that everyone should should believe in a certain religion or no religion, banning all others, he would try to impose his will if he got the chance. I’m not saying he believes any of this, but he is the typical statist politician that believes he has the right to legislate his own version of “morality.”

He also says the oft repeated “we’re a Christian nation” line. Some of our founders were christians, others were deists and theists and of other various beliefs. What they all had in common though was the firm belief that religion should be kept separate from government matters. This they all agreed on because of the religious persecution that many had suffered at the hands of the British government. Nowhere in or on any official piece of government property were anything pertaining to religion or a divine entity until 1866, 90 years later when the words “In God We Trust” appeared on various coins and “Under God” appeared in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.

Coleman said city attorney Doug Haynie has been instructed to develop language to allow any potential police officer to affirm his or her duties without swearing to God before the next committee meeting on Dec. 30.

Its good to see that at least this action is being taken. I have wonder whether or not Coleman supported the measure, as it doesn’t say in the article. I’d prefer that the motto be removed but allow recruits to say what they want, however that isn’t going to happen.

Any effort to remove the phrase will likely be fruitless, as Mayor Bill Dunaway said he’ll veto any changes proposed by the five-member council. Only a unanimous vote could override Dunaway’s veto, he said.

“In the eight years I’ve been mayor, there’s never been a problem,” he said of the oath. “I don’t think there will be any changes at all. If someone does not want to make that statement, I’m not so sure I want them on our police force.”

So atheists and non-religious people shouldn’t work in law enforcement because of their personal beliefs? That this some how makes them unfit to serve and protect people? That statement of intolerance and hatred is an embarrassment to public service. I’d go as far as to say he likely believes the same about politicians as well. He’s the same kind of politician Coleman is, only worse.

I’m glad he decided to not run for mayor again and is a lame duck. If he plans to try and attain higher office in the future, I hope his attempts are futile, because such a person is not fit to serve the good of the people. This can be seen in his clear disregard of the law, tax payer’s money, and rules of procedure.

So if I was writing biology text books for use in Texas or Kentucky or Missouri schools I think I would join their education authorities in demanding that the word evolution not be mentioned. Instead I would put all of my effort into explaining speciation. Show how that original bacterium could become 2, 4, 8, 20, 30, 60 … species. Could become, even after losing tens of thousands of species along the way, the tens of thousands of species, including humans, chimps, and bacteria, we see today. Explain about the movements of continents, and climate change, and its effects on both the origin and demise of species. You will find they will know about climate change in the past as a result of another misinformation campaign, but it will come in useful here.

An except from an article at the Huffington Post

If you haven’t heard already, a Home Depot employee was fired from a Florida store for a dress code violation. Sounds pretty clear cut and straight forward; he broke the rules, refused to follow the rules he agreed to when signing his contract of employment, and as a result was fired for insubordination. This wouldn’t even be a news story if not for the content of the pin he was fired over.

As a company policy in an attempt to be a neutral company to its customers, Home Depot has long had a blanket policy requiring that any pins or patches worn at work must be company issued. The same goes for hats and other articles of clothing, in that they cannot display any sort of logo or message unless it has been authorized by Home Depot. My uncle works for Home Depot and is not allowed to wear his Texas A&M hat due to company policy, because it could be offensive to a customer. It is a very sound policy that is entirely non-discriminatory in manner.

The employee was fired for wearing a pin that read “One nation under God, indivisible.” In what sounds like a sobbing manner, the guy made the statement “I’ve worn it for well over a year and I support my country and God, I was just doing what I think every American should do, just love my country. It feels kind of like a punishment, like I was punished for just loving my country.” If this is about patriotism, Home Depot offered him a pin that reads “United We Stand”, but he rejected that offer. It seems the guy was just looking for trouble and believed he was above the company policy that he agreed to.What is eye catching here is that Home Depot waited a year before approaching him about his pin, which they didn’t do until after the employee started bringing a bible to work. That’s a screw up on their part and it only serves to fuel this guy’s supporters, even though ultimately, its irrelevant that they were late in confronting him about his dress code violation since a violation is a violation.

I find it funny that he refuses to take responsibility for his actions and admit he was wrong, and would rather play the religious discrimination card and play to people’s emotions about their patriotism and God. I would hope any sensible person would not fall for such a trap, and would come to the realization that this employee is in the wrong. This has nothing to do with God or patriotism, but a person’s refusal to follow a rule that they agreed to.

So now Home Depot is being sued over the matter. Though I would hope it is unlikely that Home Depot would lose such a clear cut case, there is really no telling these days as more and more Judges are ruling on emotion rather than by facts and laws.

The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning bibles that aren’t the King James version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence, including works by the Pope, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Rick Warren. The pastor cites instances of scripture that supports book burning. It also likely talks about burying your head in the sand as well.

“I believe the King James version is God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God,” Pastor Marc Grizzard told a local news station of his 14-member parish. Nevermind that this version of the bible was created because a king wanted a divorce. Nothing divine or holy about that.

All of this book burning won’t go to waste though, as they are planning to hold a barbeque during the book burning. Isn’t that something, they’ll be leaving with full stomachs and empty heads.

The parents of an 11 year old Wisconsin girl that died from treatable symptoms of diabetes have been sentenced for using prayer to save their daughter rather than take her to the doctor. They showed no remorse for their actions, sticking to their faith claiming what they did was right. They received only 6 months jail and 10 years probation. A paltry amount for knowingly allowing their daughter to suffer for days and die. The Guardian reports

It seems that conservatives aren’t too happy with the wording of their holy document, so they’re seeking to change it and scrub out some of the non-conservative parts of the bible that they don’t like. I’m not fan or student of religion, but it would seem to me that re-writing the bible to satisfy conservative bias would be blasphemous, as you’re denying the word of God in favor of your own wording. Not to worry though, I’m sure these people know what they’re doing since they’ve likely done this several times throughout history to suit their needs.

Below is a list of guidelines they would like to meet in their new and improved version of the bible. Of course they’re interested in wiping out liberal “bias” in the bible, but they also seek to change some words, one of them being peace, as they believe the meaning has changed. I wasn’t aware that the meaning of peace had ever changed. They also want to strike the fear of logic into people about hell being a very real place. Is this is a really bad joke?

Lastly they want to promote open mindedness. Lord knows these people need a LOT of open mindedness.

As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:

1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other modern emasculation of Christianity
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level
4. Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”; using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Liberal Passages: excluding the later-inserted liberal passages that are not authentic, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”

Texas schoolchildren should know how God and religion greatly influenced the country’s Founding Fathers more than 230 years ago, say some of the experts reviewing the state’s social studies curriculum.

It is a viewpoint that troubles others who worry that a controlling majority of conservatives on the State Board of Education may go too far in pushing Christianity in public schools.

To characterize the origins of this country as a Christian nation would be wrong, said Steven Schafersman, who routinely attends SBOE meetings as president of Texans Citizens For Science.

Continue at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6640410.html

Texas schoolchildren should know how God and religion greatly influenced the country’s Founding Fathers more than 230 years ago, say some of the experts reviewing the state’s social studies curriculum.

It is a viewpoint that troubles others who worry that a controlling majority of conservatives on the State Board of Education may go too far in pushing Christianity in public schools.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6640410.html

Americans were fed the story of Timothy McVeigh’s trial and execution as a simple, unquestionable narrative: he was guilty, he was evil, and he acted largely alone. Gore Vidal’s 1998 Vanity Fair essay on the erosion of the U.S. Bill of Rights caused McVeigh to begin a three-year correspondence with Vidal, prompting an examination of certain evidence that points to darker truths—a conspiracy willfully ignored by F.B.I. investigators, and a possible cover-up by a government waging a secret war on the liberty of its citizens.

Toward the end of the last century but one, Richard Wagner made a visit to the southern Italian town of Ravello, where he was shown the gardens of the thousand-year-old Villa Rufolo. “Maestro,” asked the head gardener, “do not these fantastic gardens ’neath yonder azure sky that blends in such perfect harmony with yonder azure sea closely resemble those fabled gardens of Klingsor where you have set so much of your latest interminable opera, Parsifal? Is not this vision of loveliness your inspiration for Klingsor?” Wagner muttered something in German. “He say,” said a nearby translator, “‘How about that?’”

How about that indeed, I thought, as I made my way toward a corner of those fabled gardens, where ABC-TV’s Good Morning America and CBS’s Early Show had set up their cameras so that I could appear “live” to viewers back home in God’s country.

Continue reading, if you dare, at http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?currentPage=1

I have never been a fan of Ted Kennedy and I widely disagree with his views and policies. However, there are always some areas that people can agree on even if they are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. A friend of mine made a blog post concerning Kennedy and his beliefs in the separation of church and state. I must say, he hit it on the head in this speech.
http://potomac9499.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/ted-kennedy-on-separation-of-church-and-state/

Today the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group based in Madison Wisconsin, has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in western Michigan against the federal government, seeking a court order to prevent the government from having the motto “In God We Trust” engraved in the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC. The group claims that having the motto placed on the building and paid for by tax-payer money would be a government endorsement of religion, which is unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, both the house and senate passed resolutions directing the Architect of the Capitol to engrave “In God We Trust” in several places near entrances for tourists to see. The resolution came in response to critics who complained Congress spent $621 million on the new visitor center that opened last December, without paying respect to the nation’s religious heritage. The lawsuit says both the motto and the words “under God” in the pledge were adopted during the Cold War as anti-communism measures, and that engraving them at the entrance to the U.S. Capitol would discriminate against those who do not practice religion and unfairly promote a Judeo-Christian perspective. A brief history of the motto In God We Trust and Under God can be found in a prior article written here on BrokenSpectrum.com

Several members of congress were quick to denounce the suit however, with Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa making the statement, “This lawsuit is another attempt by liberal activists to rewrite history and deny that America’s Judeo-Christian heritage is an essential foundation stone of our great nation.” Rep. Daniel Lungren, a Republican from California, said he was expecting a lawsuit but called the claims “patently absurd.” Strangely, when doing research for this article, it was found that a large majority of news outlets ran the same exact story, word for word, and there was no mention of other comments made from anyone else in congress. It almost stands to reason that this lawsuit has been widely denounced, or more plainly stated, the a respect for the separation of church and state has been widely denounced.

Aside from the current lawsuit to block the engravings, the foundation is also challenging the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer in federal court, which is also a government endorsement of religion. It seems that every day, our politicians drift further from the founding father’s concept of separation of church and state, a policy which has helped to enhance our country, where other countries have been inhibited by the mixing of religion and government.

Many would hope that reason and common sense will prevail here, while many more would be outraged at the thought of not having God on our currency and government buildings. Of that group, many would tell you that God has always been deeply ingrained in our government, and they would be wrong. However ignorance is easier to attain than knowledge, and those in charge would prefer it remain that way. What these people seem to fail to realize is that the separation of church and state is their greatest ally, yet they trounce it so. This policy has helped to safeguard their religious freedoms that would have otherwise been squashed. Freedom of religious choice is no longer possible when religion has been embraced by the government, as anyone that does not follow that state-endorsed religion is placed into the chains that our ancestors in Europe were escaping from in the 1700’s.