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Saturday, July 05, 2008

Praying for oil, selling your vote

Rocky Twyman is a Seventh-day Adventist, who realizes that high gas prices are a bad thing. So he has been holding prayer services at various gas stations around the country in order to bring them down. Apparently that wasn't effective, so he decided to move his prayer vigils to the Saudi-Arabian embassy in Washington D.C., in the hopes that God would move the oil country to release more oil barrells.

Interestingly, Twyman has also decided to do more than just pray, now - he is asking passersby to sign a petition. When he was asked about this, he replied,
"I think we have just entered a new phase. We were in the prayerful phase, but now we're going into a more activist phase, because we feel that whole faith without works is dead," Twyman told reporters.

Hmm. I can just see these groups of people gathered around gas pumps, praying, probably like our ancestors did when they prayed for rain. It's also interesting that as prayer alone doesn't seem to be working, they do more active work. But of course, it won't be their actions that bring success, it'll be the prayer.

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I'm not sure how I feel about this one:

19-year-old Max Sanders lives in Minnesota. Like many young people (unfortunately), he doesn't really care much about politics or the presidency. So he decided to put his vote up for bid on eBay.

He set the beginning price at $10, and offered to take a picture of his vote as proof he voted as the winner wanted.
Here's the problem: his auction was halted right away because he broke a state law prohibiting selling your vote.

The law had good origins, I think, as it was designed to combat the practice during Prohibition when people would go into bars and give drunks $20 to convince them to vote. We do need to make sure things like that don't happen.

But is this that kind of case? It seems more of a joke or a sarcastic comment on society than a serious problem. The county prosecutor even admits that he isn't aware of people really trying to buy votes in modern times. Is this a "slippery slope" case? If this were allowed to happen once, would it happen more and more until it became a real problem?

While the charge technically carries up to 5 years in jail and a $10,000 fine, nobody expects the student to get more than community service. The prosecutor says the charge is is more of a statement to respect such an important process.

But who is making the better statement, the apathetic college student or the patriotic prosecutor?

Friday, July 04, 2008

Faith healing and violence

I would like to introduce you to Todd Bentley. Born in 1976 in Canada, his parents divorced and he fell into a life of drugs, alcohol, and criminal activity that included sexual molestation.

Now I would like to pause right here. If you read the title of this entry, you might suspect that this story will continue with a weird story of Bentley being "saved" by a faith healer. But no, actually, Bentley became the faith healer! He converted to Christianity at 18, and has caused some controversy with his revivals, where he recounts his adventures healing people. The highlights are below:

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Fist bumps are all the rage

Everyone pretty much knows about the fist-bump that Barack Obama gave his wife during his victory speech of clinching the Democratic nomination a month ago:

Of course, FOX News then suggested it might be a "terrorist fist jab":

But not one to get left out of the hipness, George Bush tries it out with a youngster:

I love America!!!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Racist fashion

As hinted at in a recent post, I have long been fascinated with the neo-Nazi/White supremacist movement. It stems from an earlier job working on civil rights issues. I read their forum posts and peruse their websites. I'm a firm believer in what's called "opposition research" - keep an eye on the enemy.

Because of that, and because of the nature of society today, I have decided to occasionally put posts here of what's going on with members of that community. It's an effort to shine the light on a murky subject and subculture. I don't think I have to state that the opinions of the "White Nationalist" movement are not mine. Besides, being a white, openly gay teacher in a minority school gets me branded as a faggot race-traitor, and they would happily give me part of the tree that they might use to lynch people of color.

So here we go:

I was recently surprised to learn that the hate movements are starting to open up to non-believers; it was generally accepted that one's religious affiliation had to be either Christian (like the KKK) or followers of a Nordic mish-mash of gods and philosophies (the neo-Nazis). Here is a recent forum post:

I attend gatherings that have C.I./Odinist/Athiest/Etc... As a
Christian I serve God through service to my race. I don't argue
religion or anything like that. I respect your beliefs and will never
turn my back on Jesus. I do not believe for 1 second that he was/is
Jewish but I salute those who are racially aware and wear the uniform
of white skin, no matter your faith. In the trenches, in this war, we
are allies! I am hoping for the day that all of us - KKK/National
Socialist/Skinheads/etc... can stand in unity and quit the infighting.

Doesn't that make you atheists out there feel all welcome?

I've also been struck by current racist fashion: Here are two shirts that are popular right now:

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Making aliens Christian

The possibility of alien life on planets other than Earth is a source of endless discussion, perhaps even more so now that the Mars lander has found that Martian soil has the requisites for organic life. I've always been fascinated by Christian perspectives on the idea.

I've talked to Christians who simplified the whole conversation by saying that of course aliens do not exist because the Bible never mentions them.

However, last month, according to the Times Online, Father Jose Gabriel Funes, who is the Vatican's chief astronomer, said that it is not against Christianity to believe in aliens; that it is perfectly possible
to "admit the existence of other worlds and other forms of life, even those more evolved than ours, without necessarily questioning faith in the Creation, the incarnation and the redemption of mankind".

At first, that sounds cool; the Vatican is open to such ideas. However, the chill crept into me a moment later when Fr. Funes continued by saying that like Christians, aliens would be able to benefit from hearing about Jesus and being redeemed by "the mercy of God".

So great. While it is ok for Catholics to believe in aliens, the aliens must also be able to be converted to Christianity. I just keep thinking about the masterful movie The Mission.

What's even more interesting is that in the comments at the end of the article, someone from the US has another common response that I've heard before:
This is why I am an Orthodox Christian, because we are still the same and never changing like the Catholic church. Orthodox believe aliens are demonic. Why would they work under the cover of darkness and be able to manipulate time ans space and move through dimensions just like the bad/good angels!

So it looks like the options for Christians regarding aliens are to
1) deny their existence
2) convert them to Christianity
3) fear them as agents of Satan, and, I'm guessing, go to war with them in an attempt to destroy them.

Woot!

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