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Oral Roberts, Finally Called Home

Paxton
Yesterday
3 comments

I don't know how I missed the fact that Oral Roberts died last week. I mostly know the televangelist from the controversy that occurred in 1987 when Roberts revealed that Jesus was holding him for ransom. During a fundraising drive, he stated that if he didn't raise $8 million by March, God would "call him home." People laughed, but Roberts raised the money and didn't die, thereby proving that he was right.

Apparently, this time, old Oral just couldn't come up with the cash.

Oral Roberts

"Jesus had two archangels break my kneecaps."

Blocked Vox Member: Atunotejuhe

Paxton
3 days ago
8 comments

Made a spam comment on one of my posts, trying to sell Viagra.

You know, if the stuff is so good, why do they have to go to such lengths (no pun intended) to sell the stuff?

Update on Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Paxton
Dec 10, 2009
3 comments

Update to my earlier post about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill being considered in Uganda.

They're striking the death penalty and life imprisonment provisions. Make no mistake: this bill is still abhorrent, but at least it's not going to be hanging people for being attracted to their own gender.

Bloomberg.com reported the update.

Book Review: The Graveyard Book

Paxton
Dec 10, 2009
3 comments

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan, and this book didn't disappoint. Gaiman has a great way of creating an entire universe from whole cloth and making it seem totally natural, and The Graveyard Book is a great example of that.

For reasons unknown until the end of the story, an assassin is sent to kill an entire family. He succeeds in killing all but a toddler, who wanders out of the house through the door left open by the assassin and into a neighboring graveyard. The toddler is adopted by the graveyard's "inhabitants", the ghosts of the century's worth of people buried there. The graveyard itself has been set aside as a historical nature preserve, so no the most recent ghosts there are decades old. The ghosts teach him what they know, including how to Fade from other peoples' notice and how move like ghosts move (through walls, etc.) and how to see as the dead see (without light). Silas, another not-alive being in the graveyard, is never explicitly explained, though the reader can infer that he is a vampire or something similar.

And it's a good thing the child (named "Nobody" by the inhabitants of the graveyard) has been so well educated, because the assassin isn't giving up.

First They Came...

Paxton
Dec 2, 2009
14 comments

It's old news now that the Ugandan Parliament is considering a bill (called the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill) that would impose prison time for people found to be homosexuals, prison time for anyone who knows a homosexual and doesn't report them, and death for repeat offenders and homosexuals who are HIV-positive. The Parliamentarian who introduced it, David Bahati, has been associated by some with The Family, the semi-secret (recently not so secret) fundamentalist Christian group that interferes in politics in the U.S. and abroad.

See a copy of the actual bill here.

This doesn't exactly come as a shock. Uganda is a backward, third-world country by almost any standard. It should also be noted that this is a bill, not yet law.

Also less than shocking, though worth mentioning, is the complete silence on the issue from U.S. evangelical religions. Pastor Rick Warren, of the Saddleback Church in California and the pastor chosen to give the invocation President Obama's inauguration, has refused to give an opinion on the Bill, saying that it is not his place "as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations." This seems an odd position for a religious leader who has no problem interfering in his own nation's political process and runs an international religious organization known as the PEACE Plan, a pro-Christian movement associated with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who may or may not have had a role in the massacre of millions of civilians in his country in 1994. Warren was specifically asked what he thought of the bill because he has previously been associated with the Ugandan minister most vocally supporting the bill, Martin Ssempa.

The Anglican Church of Uganda is still "studying the bill" and has not taken a position, but took the opportunity to reiterate their opposition to homosexuality in general.

A search for the term "anti-homosexuality bill" at Focus on the Family's website comes up with 0 results. Same for the Assemblies of God. Same for the Southern Baptist Convention. Same for the Catholic Church, including the Vatican's website. Though each of these religious organizations officially believe the homosexuals can be "cured," they are surprisingly silent about a bill that would make executing gays the norm.

It's true that a number of churches have condemned the bill. Unfortunately, it may not be enough.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

- Pastor Martin Niemöller

Pardon Whom?

Paxton
Nov 25, 2009
11 comments

Keeping with Thanksgiving tradition, President Obama will today - as every President has done since (possibly) as early as Truman - publicly pardon a Thanksgiving turkey.

Dick Cheney volunteered, but a spokesman for the White House responded that the tradition was to pardon a turkey, not a jackass.

American Terrorists Abroad

Paxton
Nov 24, 2009
4 comments

From The Week: "An American living in Israel has been charged with a string of terror attacks against Arab, gay, and leftist targets." Jack Teitel, 37, has confessed to numerous attacks "saying he was acting on direct orders from God."

America now has so many religious bigots that we have to export them overseas. That'll help our image.

Rev. Dobson, There's the Door

Paxton
Nov 23, 2009
10 comments

James Dobson has gone on record that if any of his taxes go to pay for abortions, he would not pay, and he and his wife would gladly go to prison or even - he dared to say - "leave this beloved country and spend the rest of our lives in exile."

Neither the House nor Senate version of the Health Care bill would use taxpayer monies to fund abortions. The Hyde Amendment is still fully intact, despite what opponents of health care reform are claiming. But, don't let that stop you, James. You are perfectly free to leave. Abortion is illegal in most Muslim countries - I'm sure they'd be happy to take you and your entire Theocratic following. I would happily throw a few dollars toward a fund to buy you all a big cruise ship to take you wherever the hell you want to go, so long as you promise to never come back.

Book Review: The Family

Paxton
Nov 22, 2009
6 comments

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

Jeff Sharlet

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but after seeing interviews with Jeff Sharlet about this book, I decided I needed to read it. The full title is The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, and it's a truly astonishing read on many levels.

It's a difficult read, both because of the depressing nature of the subject matter and because it's dense with facts - people, places, dates, and historical background all leading up to the situation we have today in America. This is due partly to the immensely knowledgeable author, who is a research scholar at New York University's Center for Religion and Media. This book is the product of his broad knowledge of the history of religion in the United States, first hand interviews and research (including what might be considered undercover work), and the arduous task of digging through archives of correspondence belonging to the early members of The Family.

In brief, The Family is a fundamentalist Christian organization that prides itself on its secrecy and its ability to infiltrate the American political power structure. I call them Christian because their theology focuses around Jesus, though they themselves don't even like using that label, presumably because calling themselves a Christian organization might keep them out of some settings. One might also hesitate to call them Christian because their version of Christianity is unlike anything I'd really heard before.

The Family believes that God speaks directly too them during prayer. That, in itself and unfortunately, is not unique to this sect. They take this to its logical conclusion, though, that if a political leader prays and follows the will of God as it is conveyed to him from on high, then nothing else matters. Their ideal form of government, then, is a dictatorship in which the despot follows God's orders directly. They frequently point out what they see as the positive leadership qualities of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Democracy is antithetical to this view, obviously. They have communed and prayed with vicious foreign dictators and innumerable domestic legislators from both major political parties.

This book should be required reading. Reading about this secretive theocratic movement within what many consider to be the strongest democracy in the world should frighten anyone who loves freedom.

Abandoned Books: The 2010 Challenge

Strixaluco
Nov 15, 2009
2 comments

Starting in January, I will be participating in the Abandoned Books Challenge posed by BookCrosser Secretariat. So here is my list of books that I have abandoned but would like to try again. I am sure I won't be able to get through all of these in a single year, but I will update this post as I finish them.

The Quincunx

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Cryptonomicon

Anna Karenina

Nineteen Eighty-Four

New Moon

My Life in France

The Monkey's Raincoat

21 Great Stories

Flowers in the Rain and Other Stories

Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories

Botchan