Happy As Kings

G. Washington: Letter to Hebrew Congregation at Newport

Letter to Hebrew Congregation at Newport

...

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

...

cdesign proponentsists

See the blog post Intelligent Design = Creationism at Pharyngula.

The 'words,' "cdesign proponentsists" were found in a draft of Of Pandas and People.  According to a Wikipedia entry,

FTE founder Jon Buell claims that the word creationism was a "placeholder term" whose definition "changed to include a religious context after the draft was written, so the writers changed the word." [15] However, the proof that intelligent design was creationism re-labeled played a significant part in the Kitzmiller trial, and "cdesign proponentsists" has been described as "the missing link between creationism and intelligent design."

Trinity joke

Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday, so the Trinity was the focus of Bill Tammeus's column today in the Kansas City Star.  Mr. Tammeus cracked me up over my breakfast by ending his column with a Trinity joke.

Explain the Trinity and remain humble

Jesus said, “Who do people say that I am?” His disciples replied, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah or another of the prophets.”

Jesus replied, “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as his rationality and then, by an act of his will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only because Scripture speaks of a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple.”

And Jesus answered, saying, “What?”

Booking through the Bible

A Bible reading series is going on at The Meming of Life.  A recommended read-along is The Skeptic's Bible.

Looks as if it could be interesting.

American founders and religion

How the Christian Nation Thesis Hurts Religious Conservatives...Again, 28 August 2007, jonrowe.blogspot.com

Sali starts off his op-ed with quoting one of David Barton's phony quotations.

The Founders recognized that “it is impossible to rightly govern the without God and the Bible.” It is unfortunate those words, which come directly from George Washington, would be deemed narrow-minded or bigoted if they were spoken today.

Sorry, Washington didn't say it. And David Barton, the one most responsible for spreading the quotation, admitted it was "unconfirmed" and admonished followers not to spread it. But, alas, most of them haven't gotten the message (Sali is not an exception, do a google search on the Internet of that and the other "unconfirmed" quotations and they are presently constantly spread by the Christian Nation crowd).

Global warming and the Flying Spaghetti Monster

(for background, see the post farther down:  Global warming's easier to accept if you've seen a glacier shrink)

We can all cross our fingers and hope that the Flying Spaghetti Monster looks kindly on the resurgence of pirates and smooths over the climate change.

Global Warming, Pirates, and the Rise of the FSM, 23 June 2007, The Cincinnati Beacon

If you have never heard of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, read this open letter from Bobby Henderson to the Kansas City School Board. Henderson, who wanted to protest the inclusion of intelligent design in high school curriculum, wrote his letter that he would like his god, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, to be included. According to Flying Spaghetti Monsterism—whose followers are called "Pastafarians"--the FSM really likes pirates, and has been punishing the world with global warming since pirates have disappeared. The proof: Henderson has a chart showing an inverse statistical relationship between the number of pirates and the increase of global warming.

Ramen!

Harry Potter as a religious text?

Natalie, at The Homeschool Cafe, has a post about the most recent 'banned book' lawsuit concerning the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter books to stay in GA school libraries

Priceless snip:

At Tuesday's hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

If that were the case, then book banners would be busy in most school libraries, not only in the fantasy section but all over the shelves looking for any book mentioning Easter, Christmas, Yom Kippur, or Ramadan.  But, I'm happy to say, that is not the case. 

The Harry Potter series is no more about witchcraft-practiced-as-religion than Morris's Disappearing Bag is a Christian text.  What's more, Harry Potter isn't about witchcraft-practiced-as-religion -- it's fantasy, it's fiction, it's made up.  Novelists do that.

One of the things in the Potter stories that jerks me out of the suspension of disbelief necessary to read fiction and stay 'in the story' was that Hogwarts has Christmas break -- not winter break, mind you, but Christmas break.  The kids in the story get Christmas presents, Dumbledore presides over Christmas dinner, and Mrs. Weasley spends what must be a good deal of time knitting sweaters for everyone as their annual Christmas presents.  Christmas gets a lot of space in Harry Potter's world although Christmas is not a pagan tradition -- Yule is, but not Christmas.

Another dissonance was that Sirius Black is Harry's godfather.  Godfathers and godmothers are a Christian tradition.  It may be that in some pagan traditions initiates have sponsors (I haven't a clue), but it is in Christian traditions that children are blessed with godparents.

Some critics argue that Christmas has become a secular holiday, and that many people who aren't Christians celebrate it.  Non-religionists may celebrate a secular form of Christmas, but it is unlikely that people of another religion (especially those who want to convert people to their own religion) will make a religious celebration of Christmas day.  Heathens and pagans-who-are-so-inclined celebrate Yule or the Solstice, not Christmas.  Regardless of a person's choice of winter holiday, secularists do not bestow godparents, so Sirius Black, as Harry's godfather, is in a curious position if the thrust of Harry Potter's world is to be anti-Christian.

I also have to wonder about the Latinate flavor of many of the 'spells' used in the Potter stories (and I'm not the only one who's noticed).  Latin was one of the languages of the early Christian Church, which was later scaled back to be the Roman Catholic Church.  Latin-flavored spells add a literary gloss to the Potter stories, but they also unsuspend my disbelief as the Episcopal liturgies often include bits of Latin here and there.  References in the Book of Common Prayer to the Nunc Dimitis, the Magnificat or Te Deum laudamus rather spoil the otherworldly feel of lumos, colloportus and crucio, but I manage to soldier on.

Authentic witchy spells in another language are more likely to be in Gaelic or the tongue of where the tradition originated.  Latiny words could ruin the mood, especially since the Inquisition's prime document, The Hammer of the Witches, the Malleus Maleficarum, was originally titled in Latin.

The opinion of a witch can be found at Witchvox:

Adult Pagan Essay Series:  Harry Potter ...

But c'mon! Nobody can just wave a wand while blurting something in amusingly-mangled Latin and expect to work magic. Which, to be honest, is part of the fun for real- world Witches: only in our dreams is magic that easy and the result that spectacular!

Good to know I'm not the only one to notice.

The writer continues with what many think is the underlying theme of the Harry Potter series, xenophobia and genocide.

Voldemort can only have been based on Adolph Hitler: his rise to power is created by appealing to the fears, prejudices, and in some cases snobbery of wizarding society. He preaches racial purity, advocating the destruction or enslavement of all who are not from "pureblood" wizarding families. His and his followers' treatment of non-human magical creatures such as house-elves is extremely cruel, echoing the forced slavery of non-Jewish prisoners in Third Reich war industry. Their term for Muggles, "mudbloods," even echoes the racial rhetoric of the Nazi party**. Yet as the child of a Muggle and a witch Voldemort does not meet his own standards of racial purity, just as Hitler the swarthy Austrian was anything but the Arian ideal.

Those flaws still plague the world of humans, and they have nothing to do with witchcraft -- despite any use by the SS of what they thought to be occult practices.  The SS would have gassed witches just as they did the Rom (aka gypsies).

The banning of Harry-as-witchcraft also uses as a reason that witchcraft is anti-Christian, which isn't the case any more than apples are anti-oranges.  Satanism (I'm supposing, since I don't know any Satanists and don't have the time or carpal tunnel flexibility to do substantive research) is the Christian heresy, not witchcraft (or Wicca). 

The practice of witchcraft has nothing to do, one way or the other, with the middle-eastern Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity or Islam.  Much of witchcraft, or Wicca, usually (but not exclusively) derives from European pre-Christian religions. 

• Italy:  Stregheria
• Wales:  Dynion Mwyn
• Northern Europe:  Ásatrú (a recognized religion in Iceland)  These are the heathens.

Other non-Christian religions are included in paganism, as well, and they, too, are not related either to Christianity or it's presumed opposite, Satanism.

In any case, the Harry Potter books are novelistic fantasy, not witchtracts.  I'll have to join the good Presbyterian, Ian Isherwood, and point my wand at the boggarts trying to ban Harry and yell, "Ridikulus!"

Three Kings Day #2

Before the gospel, we had an inventive procession of the Magi.  To the tune of "We Three Kings" each applicable verse accompanied a King down the aisle, and no ordinary kings were these.  They were giant (papier mache?) heads, with beads and bangles, atop 'bodies' of gossamer robes.  They put me very much in mind of the giants of Ath, in Belgium (but without the twirling).

It was pret.ty cool.

Three Kings Day #1

Setting:  family service in church, with children by the altar for the sermon.

   

Question to children about the gifts brought by the kings:  Why did the kings bring frankincense to the Babe?

Answer:  "To clear out the smell of the animals?"

   

Yes, that answer 'brought down the house.'

Episcopal/Anglican split

I followed the links from the Talk2Action blog post, Orthodox Anglicans' Akinola: 'Five Years in Jail if You are Gay in Nigeria', to a column by Episcopal bishop Chane in the Washington Post:  Gospel of Intolerance.

• Surprisingly, few voices -- Anglican or otherwise -- have been raised in opposition to the archbishop. When I compare this silence with the cacophony that followed the Episcopal Church's decision to consecrate the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man who lives openly with his partner, as the bishop of New Hampshire, I am compelled to ask whether the global Christian community has lost not only its backbone but its moral bearings. Have we become so cowed by the periodic eruptions about the decadent West that Archbishop Akinola and his allies issue that we are no longer willing to name an injustice when we see one?

In light of continuing scientific exploration of sexual orientation and how it affects other aspects of a person's life, it seems to be an injustice for developing laws to consider same-sex attraction as an offense worthy of jail time.

• Gay men read maps like women
• Survival of genetic homosexual traits explained
• Study Suggests Difference in Lesbians' Brains
• Gay men respond diferently to pheromones

(I only searched for New Scientist articles, so the list of findings is incomplete, to say the least)

An article about something I've never thought about also popped up on the search:

• One in 100 adults asexual

But I digress.

Now if the sign I saw outside a Methodist church is correct ("God's still speaking"), and if new scientific findings are a way (very slow, though) of God communicating with us, then whose 'word' do you take?  That of writers from thousands of years ago, or the continued work of the Creator in making people?

The idea of jailing people for what appears to be a natural orientation seems about as 'just' as jailing people for being short.  Anyone remember the song Short People?