Mike Pence Is A Holy Terror and It’s All A Lot Darker Than You Know
Where the hell has the Daily Kos been? You’d have to have been asleep, in a coma, or really not paying attention to not know or realize any of this.
Seriously….
Category: Religion,
U.S. gathering on religious freedom sets up competing narratives
The gathering gives Trump a high-wattage spotlight for showing his pro-Christian bona fides to the evangelical voters who helped him win the Oval Office. But it also gives the president’s critics a platform to assail what they see as his hypocrisy on human rights, especially when it comes to Muslims, whom Trump once proposed banning from U.S. soil.
…According to a State Department staffer, countries that managed to snag seats include Bahrain and Hungary, whose governments have been accused of hostility toward some religious groups. In Bahrain, Shiite Muslims, many of whom are opposition activists, have faced crackdowns by the Sunni-led monarchy. Hungary’s increasingly autocratic ruling party has faced a backlash over a law stripping recognition from a range of religious groups.
…The State Department staffer said that Russia and Turkey, whose religious-rights records have been increasingly problematic, were left off the invite list. The staffer added that administration officials hoped to highlight in particular the religious abuses by the government of Iran, an Islamist-led country that the Trump administration has singled out for pressure to the point where analysts say it is effectively aiming for regime change.
On the civil-society front, the administration is taking an inclusive approach: Invitees range from atheists to Scientologists, according to the State Department staffer. Representatives of more broad-based organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, are also on the list. Many are hosting side events.
…Trump ….avoids church.
U.S. gathering on religious freedom sets up competing narratives – POLITICO
hmmmm
Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s potential Supreme Court nomination draws attention to People of Praise, little-known Christian community
Single members might choose to live in a house with a family, or live in a house with other single members. Each member has a spiritual guide, called a “head.” The regional female leaders were called “handmaids” before the Margaret Atwood novel and subsequent TV series made that word too charged, and are now called “women leaders,” said Craig Lent, People of Praise’s overall coordinator, a position akin to chairman of the board. The coordinator is elected by the board to a single, six-year term.
…A founding member, Adrian Reimers, left People of Praise and wrote a manuscript that paints the group in its early years as having a powerful — in his view, dangerous — influence over its members. The 1997 document talks about how people who leave are described as having a “quitting spirit” and that leaving the group is like adultery.
Coral Anika Theill told the National Catholic Reporter that her five-year stint in the group in Oregon “still traumatizes me to this day.” She said she suffered under conservative ideology, strict gender-role divisions that emphasized women’s submission, and secrecy toward outsiders.
…Members contribute at least 5 percent of their gross income to the community, Lent said. Their commitment also may mean choosing to not take a promotion or other job in a city that does not have a People of Praise branch.
Lent said the group is politically and theologically diverse. Asked if members hold particular views about hot-button issues like abortion and gender, he said they believe life begins at conception, and that men are the leaders of the home.
oy…..
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher
“I think that this exquisite piece of art could be evidence for the papal artistic patronage in the church,” Re’em says. “It is proof that Crusader art was highly developed” and reflects the direct influence of Rome on the distant Jerusalem shrine. Most of the Crusader knights were French and German, and there are few contemporary reports detailing the 12th-century reconstruction of the church. The stone panel, he added, suggests that papal craftsmen may have been directly involved in the work.
…One European archaeologist, who requested anonymity because of religious sensitivities, explained that the altar’s disappearance reflects ancient tensions. Greek Orthodox clergy, he explained, are more interested in remains of the original Constantinian church than recovering those of the early 12th century, when the triumphant Crusaders for a brief time banished them as heretics from the complex they had long overseen.
One art historian, who likewise requested anonymity, is unconvinced by Re’em’s analysis, noting that some Byzantine craftsmen used similar designs that influenced Cosmati work in Rome. More research needs to be done to determine with precision the maker and precise placement of the stone. Since part of the panel is broken off, Re’em hopes to find the location of the remaining section.
In the meantime, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Armenians, Copts, and Syrians jealously guard their respective territories within the Holy Sepulcher, with Ethopians relegated to the roof. Scuffles among clergy of the different sects is not uncommon, and occasional bloodshed is recorded. Two Muslim families hold the keys to the great Crusader doors to ensure everyone access.
A Crusader-Era High Altar Resurfaces in Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulcher | History | Smithsonian
Wild.
Who is Michael Curry? The minister who told royal wedding ‘love is the way’ | UK news | The Guardian
Curry is the first African-American to serve as presiding bishop of the predominantly white US Episcopal church, and has recounted his family history as slaves and sharecroppers in North Carolina and Alabama in his autobiography Songs My Grandma Sang.
He told the New York Times in 2016 that when he was training for the priesthood, “the expectation at the time was that if you were a black priest or seminarian, you were going to be serving in black churches. There was a black church world and a white church world. That was the given-ness of racism, not that anybody said anything.”
…His appointment in 2015 as presiding bishop came soon after the Episcopal church decided it would permit its clergy to conduct same sex marriages, a move which led to de facto sanctions by the Anglican communion the following year.
Curry said: “For many who have felt and been rejected by the church because of who they are, for many who have felt and been rejected by families and communities, our church opening itself in love was a sign of hope. And [the decision to impose sanctions] will add pain on top of pain.”
In January this year, he responded to the #MeToo movement, saying the church “must examine its history and come to a fuller understanding of how it has handled or mishandled cases of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse through the years.”
Who is Michael Curry? The minister who told royal wedding ‘love is the way’ | UK news | The Guardian
hmmmm
In The Same Day Oklahoma Governor First Angers LGBTQ And Guns Rights Activists
In a rare blow to the National Rifle Association, Fallin vetoed a bill that would have loosened gun laws in the conservative state. Had it passed, SB 1212 would have allowed gun owners to carry a firearm — either open or concealed, loaded or unloaded — without a state license or permit. About a dozen states have passed similar so-called “constitutional carry” laws.
In a second move late Friday night, she signed into law the so-called adoption bill that allows private child-placement agencies to deny the placement of a child in foster care or adoption if that placement would “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”
In A One-Two Punch, Oklahoma Governor Angers LGBTQ and Guns Rights Activists : The Two-Way : NPR
hmmm
House Chaplain Who Prayed About GOP Tax Bill Fired By Paul Ryan
House Chaplain Who Prayed About GOP Tax Bill Fired By Paul Ryan | HuffPost
Had nothing to do with his Catholicism. Rayan’s such a turd for implying that it did.
Speaker Ryan Backs Down From House Chaplain Fight
In a sharply worded letter, Conroy, a Jesuit priest, suggested bias against his Catholic faith in the speaker’s request for his resignation last month. Conroy alleged Jonathan Burks, Ryan’s chief of staff, had said “maybe it’s time we had a chaplain that wasn’t a Catholic” during an April 13 private meeting in which Burks informed Conroy that the speaker wanted him to step down.
Speaker Ryan Backs Down From House Chaplain Fight : NPR
hmmmm
Pope Francis reportedly denies the existence of hell. Vatican panics.
The Vatican communications department has been working overtime the past few weeks. First, its chief communications secretary, Dario Vigano, resigned under pressure after the Vatican admitted to doctoring a photo of a letter from Pope Benedict XVI to bolster Francis’s conservative credentials. Now, they’re scrambling to contextualize a remark attributed to Pope Francis by an Italian journalist at the newspaper La Repubblica that hell does not exist.
…Speaking to the newspaper’s founder, journalist and atheist Eugenio Scalfari, Francis was quoted as saying of those who die in a state of mortal sin: “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”
If the Pope indeed said those words, the consequences would be catastrophic for the Catholic Church, which — according to its own catechism — “affirms the teaching of hell and its eternity,” including “eternal fire,” although it stresses that the “The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God.”
Pope Francis reportedly denies the existence of hell. Vatican panics. – Vox
hmmmm
68 Iowa faith leaders: We support woman’s right to an abortion
The constitutional right of women to make their own healthcare decisions is being attacked in the Iowa Legislature. With arguments based only in religious beliefs, it will create harm to Iowa women and a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions. It is creating a clear path for the government to intrude in the most personal rights and decisions of Iowa women. This is unconstitutional and it is wrong.
…We know that women do not want to be in the place to need an abortion. Life is not perfect and there are personal, often difficult, reasons that lead women to make a decision to end a pregnancy. The reasons are as varied as the women themselves. Unless we are invited into that conversation with a woman, it is not our business and it is not the business of the government.
…Every person has the right to their own personal and religious beliefs and to live their life how they determine is best for them. The government does not have the right to infringe on the freedoms or privacy of Iowa women based on those religious beliefs.
Every woman deserves to consult her values, faith, and doctor when making a decision about her body and her pregnancy. Any law that strips a woman of her faith and tries instead to legislate her values for her is immoral.
We stand with the women of Iowa and their constitutional right to make their own healthcare decisions. We ask the Iowa Legislature to do the same.
68 Iowa faith leaders: We support woman’s right to an abortion
nice!
India Supreme Court restores ‘love jihad’ marriage
Hadiya Jahan, who is in her 20s, was born into a Hindu family, but converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.
Her family alleged she was brainwashed as part of an anti-Hindu conspiracy, prompting a lower court to annul the marriage.
India’s top court has now set aside the ruling, restoring their marriage.
Marriages between Hindus and Muslims have long attracted censure in conservative Indian families, but the attachment of a deeper, sinister motive to them is a recent phenomenon.
…In November, a top court bench allowed Ms Jahan to leave her father’s custody and resume her studies.
India Supreme Court restores ‘love jihad’ marriage – BBC News
hmmmm
Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages
First, their villages were burned to the ground. Now, Myanmar’s government is using bulldozers to literally erase them from the earth — in a vast operation rights groups say is destroying crucial evidence of mass atrocities against the nation’s ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.
…Myanmar’s armed forces are accused not just of burning Muslim villages with the help of Buddhist mobs, but of carrying out massacres, rapes and widespread looting. The latest crisis in Rakhine state began in August after Rohingya insurgents launched a series of unprecedented attacks on security posts.
Myanmar bulldozes what is left of Rohingya Muslim villages – ABC News
State sponsored evil. Cue the Israeli-like propaganda about racist facism being all about safety for its citizen in 3,2,1…
Ahed Tamimi’s trial gets under way behind closed doors
Ahed Tamimi, 17, was arrested in December after a video of her slapping and hitting two Israeli officials outside of her house in the village of Nabi Saleh went viral. Her mother, Nariman, was arrested soon after.
Court proceedings began on Tuesday at Israel’s Ofer detention centre, with only family members allowed into the hearing after the judge barred reporters despite a request for a public trial by Gaby Lasky, the lawyer of the Tamimis.
…Amit Gilutz, spokesperson for Israeli rights group B’Tselem, said all of the practices being used against Ahed and Nariman “are completely routine” for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“The military courts themselves are one of the most injurious mechanisms of the occupation and are not designed to seek justice or truth, but to maintain the occupation,” Gilutz told Al Jazeera.
…Ahed has since become an icon for the 330 Palestinian children currently held in Israel’s prisons, and rights groups have demanded her immediate release.
“As an unarmed girl, Ahed posed no threat during the altercation with the two Israeli soldiers who were heavily armed and wearing protective clothing,” Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy director for Amnesty International’s Middle East and Africa programme, said in a statement on Monday.
Mughrabi said Ahed had not done anything that could justify her continued detention and “the long, aggressive interrogation sessions she has been forced to endure”.
“Yet again, the Israeli authorities have responded to acts of defiance by a Palestinian child with measures that are entirely disproportionate to the incident in question,” she added.
…The village has also faced rising threats from settlers residing in Israel’s illegal Halamish settlement, located adjacent to the home of the Tamimi family.
Earlier this month, locals said Israeli settlers had snuck into Nabi Saleh in the middle of the night and sprayed graffiti around the village, including slogans such as “Death to Ahed Tamimi” and “There’s no place in this world for Ahed Tamimi”.
Ahed Tamimi’s trial gets under way behind closed doors | Palestine News | Al Jazeera
Not sure which is worse, being black in the US justice system or Palestinian in the Israeli court system. Either way, you’re pretty much fucked.
Military Trial Opens For 17-Year-Old
For many Palestinians, Tamimi is a symbol of resistance to a half-century military occupation that stands in the way of Palestinian independence and shows no sign of ending.
For many Israelis, Tamimi is a provocateur who goads soldiers on video and champions rock-throwing, influenced by relatives who have been involved in protests and attacks against Israelis.
Tamimi was arrested and indicted after a public outcry in Israel when a video of an altercation with the soldiers, posted by her mother, went viral.
…The altercation with soldiers happened shortly after Tamimi’s cousin was shot in the head with a rubber bullet during a demonstration as he climbed a wall of a complex that Israeli soldiers had commandeered, according to Bassem Tamimi, Ahed’s father, who is a well-known leader of protests in his village.
Military prosecutors say Ahed Tamimi’s slapping, kicking and punching of soldiers was assault. Bassem Tamimi recently told NPR that his daughter’s confrontation is a natural reaction to a life of watching her relatives being arrested and killed.
…Human rights advocates, including Human Rights Watch, have criticized Ahed Tamimi’s pre-trial detention – now at more than 55 days. “Her case raises concern that Israel’s military justice system, which detains hundreds of Palestinian children every year, is incapable of respecting children’s rights,” the rights group stated.
Military Trial Opens For 17-Year-Old Palestinian Activist : The Two-Way : NPR
The United States isn’t perfect but at least awe aren’t Israel….
An insider explains how rural Christian white America has a dark and terrifying underbelly
…I dated their calico-skirted daughters. I camped, hunted and fished with their sons. I listened to their political rants at the local diner and truck stop. I winced at their racist/bigoted jokes and epithets that were said more out of ignorance than animosity. I have watched the town I grew up in go from a robust economy with well-kept homes and infrastructure to a struggling economy with shuttered businesses, dilapidated homes and a broken-down infrastructure over the past 30 years. The problem isn’t that I don’t understand these people. The problem is they don’t understand themselves or the reasons for their anger and frustration.
…Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power.
… It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen, what language you use…if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted.
…Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact that I’m the enemy because I’m an educated liberal.
…Education is the enemy of fundamentalism because fundamentalism, by its very nature, is not built on facts. The fundamentalists I grew up around aren’t anti-education. They want their kids to know how to read and write. They are against quality, in-depth, broad, specialized education. Learning is only valued up to a certain point. Once it reaches the level where what you learn contradicts doctrine and fundamentalist arguments, it becomes dangerous.
…The religion in which I was raised taught this. Non-whites are the color they are because of their sins, or at least the sins of their ancestors. Blacks don’t have dark skin because of where they lived and evolution; they have dark skin because they are cursed. God cursed them for a reason. If god cursed them, treating them as equals would be going against god’s will. It is really easy to justify treating people differently if they are cursed by god and will never be as good as you no matter what they do because of some predetermined status.
Once you have this view, it is easy to lower the outside group’s standing and acceptable level of treatment.
…Another major problem with closed-off fundamentalist belief systems is they are very susceptible to propaganda. All belief systems are to some extent, but fundamentalist systems even more so because there are no checks and balances. If bad information gets in, it doesn’t get out and because there are no internal mechanisms to guard against it, it usually ends up very damaging to the whole.
…What has happened to too many fundamentalist belief systems is damaging information has been allowed in from people who have been granted “expert status.” If someone is allowed into a closed-off system and their information is deemed acceptable, anything they say will be readily accepted and become gospel.
…Everyone who isn’t just like them has been sold to them as a threat and they’ve bought it hook, line and grifting sinker. Since there are no self-regulating mechanisms in their belief systems, these threats only grow over time. Since facts and reality don’t matter, nothing you say to them will alter their beliefs. “President Obama was born in Kenya, is a secret member of the Muslim Brotherhood who hates white Americans and is going to take away their guns.” I feel ridiculous even writing this, it is so absurd, but it is gospel across large swaths of rural America. Are rural Christian white Americans scared? Damn right they are. Are their fears rational and justified? Hell no. The problem isn’t understanding their fears. The problem is how to assuage fears based on lies in closed-off fundamentalist belief systems that don’t have the necessary tools for properly evaluating the fears.
An insider explains how rural Christian white America has a dark and terrifying underbelly
hmmmm
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele just told evangelicals to “shut up” on live TV
Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has made it clear that he feels evangelical leaders who continue to support President Donald Trump have lost their moral authority.
…”I have a very simple admonition at this point: Just shut the hell up and don’t ever preach to me about anything ever again. I don’t want to hear it,” Steele told NBC.
Steele added, “After telling me how to live my life, who to love, what to believe, what not to believe, what to do and what not to do and now you sit back and the prostitutes don’t matter? The grabbing the you-know-what doesn’t matter? The outright behavior and lies don’t matter? Just shut up.”
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele just told evangelicals to “shut up” on live TV – Salon.com
Satanic Temple victorious over Missouri in abortion rights showdown
On Tuesday, the Temple argued their case in front of the Missouri Supreme Court after convincing an appeals court that the state’s mandatory 72-hour waiting period and ultrasound viewing before having an abortion violates their religious freedom.
The Temple spoke on behalf a member they refer to as “Mary Doe,” who claimed the law is counter to her religious beliefs. Mary Doe says that back in May of 2015, she was forced to view an ultrasound of her fetus and required to read a booklet that stated life “begins at conception.”
“Specifically, her letter advised she has deeply held religious beliefs that a nonviable fetus is not a separate human being but is part of her body and that abortion of a nonviable fetus does not terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being,” the case summary stated according to NBC News.
Satanic Temple victorious over Missouri in abortion rights showdown – DeadState
Well, huh. God bless the Satanic Temple, I guess!
These are the obscure Trump staffers who are systematically dismantling the federal government
Because Trump has appointed very few officials, the small group of conservative activists who are attempting to implement his agenda could hold outsized influence. A leaked document from Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, reportedly leaked from the Office of Management and Budget and published in October by Crooked Media, identified eight Domestic Policy Council members who are apparently quietly leading that charge as points of contact.
…Rob Goad
Handling education policy for the Domestic Policy Council is Robert T. “Rob” Goad II. The leaked document suggests his work has focused on two key priorities: expanding school choice and making colleges and universities share some of the responsibility for student loans. Both efforts would divert federal funding for public schools toward private and even religious schools.
…In his Trump administration capacity, has he has made news twice. First, he was the administration staffer tasked with defending then-Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos against plagiarism charges. Then, he hosted a media conference call to announce a Trump executive order on “education federalism” — an order that, Goad admitted to reporters last April, does virtually nothing.
Laura Cunliffe
Laura Cunliffe is the point-person for changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Farm Bill, according to the leaked document.
…She spent most of the past five years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administering child nutrition programs under President Barack Obama. As a USDA program analyst, she joined with nutritional advocates in 2013 to make the rounds explaining the department’s new healthy school snack requirements. Two years later, she gave a keynote speech on the importance of child nutrition programs at a foster-parent conference.
In her new role, she appears to be now working to eliminate much of what she worked to implement in the past administration.
James Sherk
The point person on labor issues is James Sherk. According to the document, his priorities are to reduce benefits to federal employees and labor unions.
…He is a 2003 alumnus of Hillsdale College, a Michigan school known as a “citadel of American conservatism” with a stated mission of not “succumbing to the dehumanizing, discriminatory trend of so-called ‘social justice’ and ‘multicultural diversity.’” As an undergrad, he penned an article for the college paper denouncing all government stimulus programs.
…He opposed public sector employees’ right to bargain collectively, embraced so-called “right to work” laws, and fiercely opposed a $15 minimum wage. He worked to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made it easier for workers to unionize.
…Kara McKee
The memo identifies her as point person for proposals to allow Pell Grants to be used for job training, to cut or “repurpose” some job training programs at the Department of Labor, and to repurpose Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds to increase private-sector partnerships and apprenticeships.
…The efforts in particular to cut federal programs is very much in line with her long history of pushing to decimate government.
Peter White
Peter J. White is the point of contact for issues related to aeronautics and space, according to the document.
…White’s former boss Brooks boasts that he “consistently receives the highest rating in Congress from NumbersUSA,” a notorious anti-immigration group known for racist attempts to convince black people that immigration takes away their jobs. Brooks’ views on immigration and other judicial issues are far-right — he once complained that the Democratic Party had launched a “war on whites. White also served as his old boss’ conduit to the Trump administration when Brooks was upset in January that the new administration did not immediately rescind protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as kids.”
…In his Trump administration role, White authored a presidential executive order reinstating the National Space Council, which President Bill Clinton disbanded in 1993 as part of a larger effort to reduce White House staff.
White is a member of the conservative Federalist Society. While space policy may be one area where White and the Trump administration are not pushing for massive cuts, it remains to be seen whether they will push for a massive privatization of the space space.
…Darin Selnick
Darin Selnick has been tasked with fixing the Veterans’ Affairs department, according to the document. And that apparently means privatizing it.
So far the VA is in the process of outsourcing its electronic records system, replacing its in-house Vista system with an estimated $10 billion to $18 billion system through the company Cerner. A recent push in Congress on a bill to overhaul the Veterans Choice Program, which proponents say would give veterans more flexibility in receiving care from private doctors (but opponents warn could effectively dismantle the VA), also aligns with the leaked list of Trump administration priorities — though it’s unclear if Selnick has been involved with the legislation.
…From 2013 to 2017, he served as senior veterans affairs adviser for Charles and David Koch’s libertarian dark money group Concerned Veterans for America, which is trying to push veteran healthcare into the private sector and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on electing Republican U.S. Senate candidates.
…His role in the Trump administration would seem to be chiefly a continuation of his longstanding pro-VA privatization activism.
Katy Talento
Two women are listed on the document as overseeing the health policy area: Katy Talento and Alexandra “Alex” Campau.
In that capacity, the duo would be trying to dismantle a long list of USAID and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health programs aimed at curbing sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, chronic diseases, teen pregnancy, and infant mortality, and improving environmental health and workers’ safety.
Now, the administration’s fiscal year 2018 State Department and USAID and CDC budgets propose drastic cuts to global AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs, global health initiatives, and a range of chronic disease prevention and health promotion programs and grants.
…[Talento] has written columns for the right-wing news site The Federalist arguing birth control causes miscarriages and abortions and is a form of medical malpractice. She opposed funding for HIV/ AIDS research while working as a U.S. Senate staffer in 2003 because she claimed it supported Russian prostitution.
…The New York Times, in a July profile, called Talento one of the “architects” of Trump’s reversal of the Obama administration’s requirement that health insurance plans cover birth control.
…Alex Campau
…Her work shilling for the healthcare industry make her a prime fit to dismantle important initiatives and programs intended to improve global health.
hmmmm
Female Journalists Had Obstructed View of Pence’s Visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem
Female Journalists Complain Of Obstructed View At Pence’s Western Wall Visit : Parallels : NPR
If any of this is a surprise to someone, that person is an oblivious idiot.
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