Ep 228 The Professional Left Podcast

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Blog Against Theocracy - The sins of the fathers

I've been really interested in this whole defund Planned Parenthood thing from the standpoint of stopping theocracy in America.   Mike Pence is a self-described evangelical Christian, and his insistence on defunding the non-abortion activities (he can't defund the abortion part because he doesn't fund it) of Planned Parenthood stinks of Levitican punishment for something with which he and his acolytes disagree.

Take note: I called them acolytes not constituents.   Pence is running for Governor of Indiana and needs his coffers filled from way beyond the Sixth Congressional District he "represents," and a number of his constituents, particularly women of child-bearing age and those who love those women, don't see Pence as a representative of their values.

from the "Mike Pence does not represent me" collection on Tumblr

I find it fascinating that the push for Theocracy so often dovetails with the sin of avarice.

Blog Against Theocracy is April 22 - 24 #NoTheocracy

Actually, South Park Jesus, it's over a month away, but I want to get the word out.

Blog against theocracy is an annual blogswarm dedicated to the separation of church and state.It takes place Easter weekend, only because that is one time we can depend on the mainstream media to cover the religion beat.

It is not a blogswarm against religion. Bloggers who believe in religion and those who don't are equally welcome here. What we share is a common commitment to the First Amendment to the Constitution and, paging Teabaggers, its guarantee of church-state separation.

And the theme this year is "Because Sinclair Lewis was right."

Sinclair Lewis, to whom is attributed the quote, "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”

We'll be using Twitter again to promote the blogswarm. Tag your posts #NoTheocracy.

Someone did this image of Palin and I made it into a lulz; if you know who did it please let me know in comments:

Here are my photoshops.

"Rudy Guiliani has an illusion...

... and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant."


Original quote from here, inspiration from Driftglass.


PS.  Since when has the GOVERNMENT given away LAND to a CHURCH to give the WINGNUTS happy pants?    I'd ask Rudy to not be an idiot, but really.  

Blog Against Theocracy - The Movie

More info at the Blog Against Theocracy website.

You can promote your posts with the #BlogAgainstTheocracy hashtag on twitter, or if you're old skool, the Blog Carnival info is here.

Blog Against Theocracy is this weekend plus CONTEST!

Just a reminder that this weekend, April 2-4, is Blog against Theocracy Weekend. Details on how to participate are here.

Related items:

In honor of BAT, Tengrain is holding a "Pin the Tail on the Theocrat" CONTEST.

Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has an article on the Faith Based Initiative issue at Huffpo.

Darkblack has a nice image for ya, too.

Countdown to Blog Against Theocracy

Tengrain did the Palin hand thingy. Thanks, Ten.

We're gearing up for Blog Against Theocracy. The website has been updated somewhat and I've also set up the carnival page where you can submit your posts.

In addition, this year we'll be using the Twitter hashtag #BlogAgainstTheocracy, which is admittedly long. My sense is if people use that with only a tiny URL to their post it should work fine. If we go shorter passers by won't know what's going on.

Great timing: AU Executive Director Barry Lynn has an excellent op-ed at AOL Opinion on Obama's faith-based mumbo jumbo. I consider this a main focus for our efforts this year.

I look forward to the blogswarm and reading everyone's posts!

Prayers for today? What?

[Image stolen from Bay of Fundie]

The "National Day of Prayer" is a silly convention that Washington DC uses to suck up to the constituency that is comforted by such nonsense. If you pray daily this kind of political fellating makes little difference, and if you don't, the National Day of Prayer "reminder" is jingoism, pure and simple.

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On topic, Americans United has a new homepage design and an article on this National Day of Prayer mumbo jumbo -- well worth a click.

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An update to my Kent State Massacre story: the sister of slain student Allison Krause has a blog and a very meaningful post on the anniversary of her sister's death. Check it out. Thanks to Sad But True at Les Enrages for bringing that to my attention.

A memo to non-believers about Blog Against Theocracy

[image above from Tengrain, and the post below revised from 2007.]


Dear non-believers, athiests, and others participating in Blog Against Theocracy from a position different from my own:

Thank you.

Thank you for participating, and for your open-mindedness and love toward this little Christian lady.

Here's something paraphrased from some earlier posts, but which really say what I want to say.

So often I talk or email with fellow lefties who have just had it with the religious right to the point that they can't stand Christianity or even religion in general. It's as if there is such a slippery slope in their minds between any admission of faith and total fundamentalism that it's just not worth it to go down that path. No religion is better than any religion, because in the end we all become Pat Robertson or Al Qaeda.

I'm actually quite sympathetic to those lefties who think they hate Christianity. Funny thing is when you engage with atheists in conversation, a great many of them think Jesus was a cool guy, and some actually revere him. Even those who reject Christianity outright are not nearly so angry as they let on.

Let me point something out here, again. Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to a tree by the political and religious CONSERVATIVES of his day because they mistakenly thought they had power and that he threatened that power. ANY Christian, myself included, who thinks they would have rescued Jesus from the cross, that certainly WE wouldn't have gone along with Pilate and Judas and abandoned him like Peter, are just kidding themselves. And those right-wingers who think they're really serving the cause of Jesus by electing Republicans, or working to make America a "Christian" nation? Little Christian ladies can say fuck off, can't they?

It's that the religious right/Republican Party has so often set the discourse that "God/Jesus equals us" that some of us lefties tend to believe that. Rejecting hate speech, intolerance, and fundamentalism becomes rejecting all religion.

But see, I love Jesus, and I'm strongly committed to making sure YOUR right NOT to believe is protected. I also believe, while we're at it, that I would be SINNING against my God to attempt to convert you. That's His provence. And if I believe (and I struggle to, at least) that God is Love and that God loves his creation, I think smart, funny, gifted non-believing bloggers have one of the better tables at Divine Love's cocktail party. You certainly do at mine.

Here's the deal about Christians, though. We're not all Pat Robertson, and I refuse to allow the Religious Right to define what Christianity is, for me, or for my readership.

Blog against Theocracy is this weekend. Everyone is welcome.

Blog Against Theocracy Promo Spots part 2

There may be more of these coming. Feel free to steal this or the ones below. Thanks.

More on Blog Against Theocracy

It looks like for Blog Against Theocracy we might be up against the current administration. From Americans United, which is an excellent resource as we all start thinking about this year's blogswarm:

President Obama has failed to deliver on his campaign statements. When creating his Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Obama failed to adequately prevent harmful discrimination on the basis of religion by government grantees. Although President Obama had originally proposed a new take on the Faith-Based Initiative, one that will not maintain the constitutional and civil rights pitfalls of the Bush Administration, the executive order he signed last week leaves the entire architecture of the Bush Faith-Based Initiative intact - every rule, every regulation, every executive order. And thanks to an aggressive anti-civil rights push from the Department of Justice near the end of the Bush Administration, nearly every social service tax dollar distributed by the government can be used for discriminatory hiring. In a time of unprecedented need, this is even more unacceptable than ever.

We have some lovely submissions for Blog Against Theocracy logos. Please keep them coming! Email me at bluegalsblog gmail.

From Mark Hoback at the revived and reviving Fried Green Al Quedas:



And here at long last is Tengrain's, which is available in different sizes on his Flickr page (suitable for sidebars and such):



And then here's a little thang I crayoned this afternoon:

No Vlog Today, but Salon Tonight

Blue Gal's Salon 3/24 hosted by blue.gal.

Join now

---

Chat about what's on your mind. More about public chats.

Had a child home from school today and I have a strict policy of none of my children on the video blog, ever. Note that even Pammy took down her My Sharia video, and those of you who saw that...well...

I'll try for a video blog tomorrow. Incidentally, those of you who don't know, I'm moving with my three kids to the Midwest this summer. If you have moving advice, please share it!

Here's the link for salon. The past couple days have been very up and down so I'm looking forward to kicking back with everyone as I can.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Blog Against Theocracy, which was amazingly successful. Go visit the amazing writers who took the time to blog about separation of church and state.

By the way, I'm still putting up links over there, so don't think it's too late. I haven't even written my own post yet. But I've thought about it.

Housekeeping? hah.

Hey, if there's a clear path to the computer? We're good.

Two things.

Salon tonight, 9 PM Eastern. I'm even posting the URL right this minute, so you can go get ready and know the invite is sitting next to your car keys:

http://tinyurl.com/2mccag

Don't forget that in order for that link to work, you have to download skype, but you don't need a headset or any skype equipment. It's live chat with Blue Gal and a group of people more fascinating than she deserves to have at her house.

Secondly, as I've said before, we're doing another blogswarm against theocracy July 1-4.

One thing I accomplished this weekend, in addition to folding six loads of wash and helping my three year old recover from a double nosebleed injury, was to work out the bugs so that blogswarm participants will be able to email their blogswarm posts and they will appear directly on the BAT website.

While I will still be responsible for cleaning off any spam, this should make this blogswarm much more efficient and easier for me. Details will be posted at BAT or send me email if you want to be on the BAT mail list. (If you got an email from blogagainsttheocracy this morning then you're already on it.)

The New Look, and Salon Tonight

Salon is here. See you at 9 Eastern.

The topic for tonight's skype salon is

Just how awesome is Manila Ryce?

He designed the new avatar and header you see here. He's awesome, humble too, but knowing him, he'd much rather we discuss this at length tonight, with particular attention to his sublimity. How sublime is Manila? When my breasts stop being a sex object/infant feeding device and become an Adobe Illustrator CS3 shading conundrum? That's pretty damn sublime.

Don't think the old avatar is going away. The resplendent Dr. Zaius just sent me this, to get ready for the Blogswarm against Theocracy II happening July 1-4:



Bwa ha ha. Don't forget that Zaius is hosting Carnival of the Liberals that same time so if your BAT post has a strong focus on patriotism you should submit it to him, too.



Salon

Tonight is the weekly live Skype chat with Blue Gal and some people she hardly deserves to know. I'll be there after 9 Eastern time. I'll post the link to the salon at the top this evening.

You do need to download Skype to join in but remember, it's just typing. You don't need a skype headset or anything special.

In honor of the Archbishop of Canterbury

'kay in my opinion this whole gay thing is gonna bifurcate the Anglican Church for a hundred years or so. It'll turn out alright, on the side of humanity and love, in the end.

Think I've got a gay agenda? Damn right.

Anyway, I was joking about Monty Python last night with a friend and so today I was gonna post the Whizzo Butter thing (one of my favorites) but then I found this and I honestly don't think I've seen it before today.



Ya know, Archbishop, while I hate to be pro-smoking...dark shades and a cigarette do wonders for the clerical collar.

A memo to non-believers regarding Blog Against Theocracy

Thank you.

Thank you for participating, and for your open-mindedness and love toward this little Christian housewife. (Sent Mr. BG off this morning with this statement: "Okay honey, I'll remember! Ban, toothpaste, pharmacy, and drycleaning! Love you!)

Here's something paraphrased from some earlier posts, but which really say what I want to say.

So often I talk or email with fellow lefties who have just had it with the religious right to the point that they can't stand Christianity or even religion in general. It's as if there is such a slippery slope in their minds between any admission of faith and total fundamentalism that it's just not worth it to go down that path. No religion is better than any religion, because in the end we all become Pat Robertson or Al Qaeda.

I'm actually quite sympathetic to those lefties who think they hate Christianity. Funny thing is when you engage these lefties in conversation, a great many of them think Jesus was a cool guy, and some actually revere him. Even those who reject Christianity outright are not nearly so angry as they let on.

Let me point something out here, again. Jesus of Nazareth was nailed to a tree by the political and religious CONSERVATIVES of his day because they mistakenly thought they had power and that he threatened that power. ANY Christian, myself included, who thinks they would have rescued Jesus from the cross, that certainly WE wouldn't have gone along with Pilate and Judas and abandoned him like Peter, are just kidding themselves. And those right-wingers who think they're really serving the cause of Jesus by electing Republicans, or working to make America a "Christian" nation? Heh, and once again, Mr. BG suggests I stop saying "fuck" on this blog.



It's that the religious right/Republican Party has so often set the discourse that "God/Jesus equals us" that some of us lefties tend to believe that. Rejecting hate speech, intolerance, and fundamentalism becomes rejecting all religion.

But see, I love Jesus, and I'm strongly committed to making sure YOUR right NOT to believe is protected. I also believe, while we're at it, that I would be SINNING against my God to attempt to convert you. That's His provence. And if I believe (and I struggle to, at least) that God is Love and that God loves his creation, I think smart, funny, gifted non-believing bloggers have one of the better tables at Divine Love's cocktail party. You certainly do at mine.

Here's the deal about Christians, though. We're not all Pat Robertson, and I refuse to allow the Religious Right to define what Christianity is, for me, or for my readership.

Blog against Theocracy is this weekend.

And also by the way, I'm honored to be guest blogging today over at the First Freedom First blog (it's a repeat of the initial blogswarm post, but still). Wow. What an honor.



.

We interrupt this blog.

I'm having kind of an emotional day today anyway, and then I watched this. This video made me cry. Cry for our country. Cry for gratitude that I can show some people this, even if the AG doesn't like it. I need a mop, people. Wondering what Blog Against Theocracy is about? Here:

From First Freedom First.

Yup, Lent's Over

This is kind of a religious post, but non-believers I've got some stuff for you, too. Welcome to Holy Week, as opposed to Holy Crap (and thanks for the linky love yesterday, Mike.) Back to the hippie-chick banner.

Lots of thoughts swirling around my head today. Have been having a mild debate with a friend over whether we humans are "deserving" of happiness. Friend's position (and they can email me if I'm mis-stating their position) is that those who have suffered deserve at least some happiness in return.

I tend, particularly at this time of year, to think of love as not deserved. We don't "deserve" the love of God, it's given to us freely and unconditionally. That probably goes against the teachings of some churchy types. (Tough.) If we think of that higher power as a divine parent, then there are disciplinary lessons and there are hugs and treats and time-outs. It's all done for us with love but we are being raised in some way, aren't we?

Okay, now for the non-believers out there (love you guys, unconditionally, and I mean that).

The author of the blog God is for Suckers (equal time? there ya go) wrote me that they are participating in the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm (can't have too many atheists, I mean that, too). Edited the email a little for publication, but the message is exactly what I want from this blogswarm:

It could be important for Atheists to see that there are Christians who don't buy into the Jerry Dobertson model of US governance. And if educated Christians who surf the blogosphere see that there is a growing groundswell of moderate and liberal Christians speaking out, they may be emboldened to shout down the Jerry-Dobertson-Machine. One can hope...("Jerry Dobertson" is a conflation of Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Pat Rob ertson. Doesn't he sound like a used-car salesman???)

Nope, sounds like a closeted preacher to me.

On the topic of calling out the theocrats, I've been very grateful that John at Crooks and Liars has been speaking as a Catholic against the lunacy of Donohue.

Happy Sunday, folks.

The most dangerous people on the planet right now?

foulmouthshirts.com actually has worse than this...I couldn't wear it anywhere but I love this shirt. Love it.

My vote goes to Christian Zionists, who think apocalypse of one kind or another is a good thing, that we should let Israel do whatever it wants because nuclear Armageddon is gonna bring Jesus back (I mean, like QD I want my Jesus back, but not that way) and then once Israel helps bring Jesus back through nuclear Armageddon the Jews will have the choice of converting to Christianity or (tell 'em what they've won, Ryan)... burning in hellfire for all eternity!

In the meantime, these psychopathic FUCKS (sorry, Mr. BG) openly fellate the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC fascists, who seem to like it. Aaah to the Zionism part, la-la-la-la to the convert or die part. How convenient.

There's more, as Bruce Wilson of the amazing blog Talk2Action points out:

...if the US gets drawn into a war with Iran, the "theocracy problem" will get much worse in a hurry, I can almost guarantee.

That's why I've been directing a lot of attention to writing on Pastor John Hagee, who has formed "Christians United For Israel", a 'pro-Israel' lobby that may develop more legislative clout than AIPAC and which has been created to foment war, catastrophic nuclear war no less, in the Mideast and globally too.

CUFI is a big political problem right now in its success at tying down political opposition to a war against Iran ; John Hagee is making tremendous inroads in the American Jewish community, which is extremely conflicted but likes Hagee because of his noisy denunciations of antisemitism. Hagee also writes that Hitler and the Nazis were carrying out God's plan, that the Holocaust and antisemitism were ultimately the Jews' fault for disobeying God, that most of the Jews in Israel will die in the war Hagee hopes and lobbies for and the rest will have to convert to Christianity....

Anyway, I could go on but Hagee is both a would-be theocrat but also has become a major tactical threat, right now, to world peace.

More later, like, maybe a post on how Christians (and fuck yeah, I call myself one) should be for peace and shit. Oh nevermind.

We're up.

There will be a link fest for all participants at blogagainsttheocracy.blogspot.com.

Also, those participating in the blogswarm are ENCOURAGED to tag their posts "Blog Against Theocracy".

Thanks.