OVO

Trevor Blake on Books: The Boy-Man by Tim Jeal [LINK-ZUM]

A biography of Lord Baden-Powell (22 February 1857 - 8 January 1941) and a history of his greatest achievement, the Boy Scouts.

In most of the world you can be a girl Boy Scout (see FAQ at Scouting for All). You can be in prison for robbery, rape, or murder and still be a Boy Scout. But heaven help you if you try to be an atheist Boy Scout. The Boy Scouts of America aren't vague about this ban either - they expressly state that no atheist can be a Boy Scout. The Boy Scouts is a private organization, and I think it is reasonable to allow them to exclude whoever they want. I think it is a private affair that the Boy Scouts - the British original - allows atheists to join while the Boy Scouts of America does not. But in doing so, the BSA should not have access to tax-funded schools or tax-funded public lands, as our taxes are not supposed to support private organizations that discriminate.

But is the Boy Scouts of America is a private organization or is it a recruiting arm of the Mormons? Nearly 10% of the members of the Boy Scouts Advisory Council live in Salt Lake City; Mormons are less than 2% of the U.S. population but make up 21% of the Boy Scouts. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: "If the Boy Scouts of America is forced to accept gays as scoutmasters, the LDS Church will withdraw from the organization and take more than 400,000 Scouts with it." As late as 1974, Mormon BSA troops reserved leadership positions for white men only.

All of this nonsense is at a distance from what Lord Baden-Powell set out to do with his Boy Scouts. Read The Boy-Man and find out for yourself.

Labels: atheist, books, mormon, religion, sex, theocracy

Trevor Blake: Thinking of the Children [LINK-ZUM]

The recent impoundment of illegal children in Texas (they had too many mommies) is like the Waco siege, except this time conducted with social workers instead of tanks.

Labels: fascism, mormon

Trevor Blake: Marriage [LINK-ZUM]

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: " The LDS Church has joined with several California religious groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman."

The Church of Jesus Christ, Later-Day Saints (The Mormons) has tried for decades to play down the most obviously strange or cruel or foolish aspects of their superstition and build up a new reputation of being just like any other cult in town. The above is another example of this public image campaign. While the Mormons will forever be associated with polygamy, they are now also advocating traditional limit-one-per-customer marriage.

I do not think the increased number of men and women who want same-sex marriages has ever or will ever constitute a threat to marriage. What has caused harm to this institution (disclosure: I have presided over several marriages and will do so again next month) are easy access to divorce, easy access to safe and effective birth control and less social opprobrium for having children out of wedlock. Easier access to divorce and birth control were good changes, and if the institution of marriage suffered for them then individual human beings prospered for them. Having children out of wedlock seems to generally co-occur with poverty and crime, but of course any generalized claim breaks down for individual human beings.

The cause of changes to the institution of marriage are clear. Bt many would prefer to keep what has caused harm to marriage, shifting the blame for that harm to homosexuals and simultaneously keeping homosexuals from the rights and responsibilities found in marriage. Superstition is, of course, to be found in nearly every example of this hypocrisy.

Several times I have asked religionists what legal rights they specifically do not want same-sex couples to have. They have never been able to answer that question. Every legal right of marriage (inheritance, making medical decisions, etc.) that I mention to them, they think same-sex couples should have. Over time I realized that what they are imagining about same-sex marriage is that the sheriff will show up at their church and force their pastor to conduct a homo wedding at gunpoint. I think if we disabuse them of that fantasy then progress can be made. Disabusing the superstitious of fantasies (or, at least, mean spirited and stupid fantasies) is part of what OVO is all about.

Labels: christianity, mormon, ovo, religion, theocracy

Abul Taher: Muslims break taboo to allow guide dog into mosque [LINK-ZUM]

A retriever is in training to become the first dog in Britain to be permitted to enter a mosque, acting as a guide for its blind Muslim owner. The animal has been chosen because it salivates less than usual, thus reducing the risk of flicking spittle onto other worshippers at the Al Falah

Keeping pet dogs is considered "haram" (the Arabic word for "forbidden") in Islamic teaching, because they are regarded as unclean, particularly their saliva. The mosque took its decision after advice from imams and scholars at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), who carried out a full review of Islamic teaching on dogs. [...] Ibrahim Mogra, a senior imam at the MCB, who has overseen the review of teaching on guide dogs, said they could be justified as they served an "urgent practical purpose". He said: "We found the Koran allows Muslims to use dogs for hunting. So if Muslims can eat a prey bitten by dogs, then there should not be a problem using them to guide you if you are blind."

[Article continues at link. This is an example of how religion tries to have it both ways. On the one hand, keeping dogs is haram - an eternal, unchanging, infallible, supreme, all-knowing Allah told us so! On the other hand, we can talk about it and change the rules if it suits our urgent practical purpose. It might have helped the 'revelation' along that in June a UK Muslim cab driver was fined for refusing a blind couple with a guide dog access to his cab. Just as the 'revelation' to allow Black men to lead Mormon Boy Scout troops miraculously came at around the time lawsuits against the Mormons were being filed. Or the 'revelation' that Mormon polygamy was for heaven and not Earth miraculously came at around the time Utah wanted to join the United States. It is good that theists try to have it both ways. Debating religion and making changes are both steps toward secularization, in which human reason and compassion trumps tradition. Secular humanists, like atheists, just get on with things. Religious humanists, as these Muslims are whether they want to be or not, may cloak their reason and compassion in superstitious garb. But at the end of the day they recognize themselves and not an invisible monster that lives in the sky as the true active moral agent. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: islam, mormon, race

Daily Rotten: December 10 [LINK-ZUM]

[The following is from Daily Rotten for December 10, 2007. Sometimes I imagine creating a calendar of 'this day in the history of religion.' Days like December 10 show that it would almost write itself. - Trevor Blake]

December 10, 1520: The heretic Martin Luther burnt the papal bull issued by Leo X, titled "Exsurge Domine", demanding an end to his heresies. Luther had published 95 points against the practice of granting indulgences, and the Catholic Church only had 94 points in favor of them. Although technically he was the winner, Luther was subsequently excommunicated.

December 10, 1792: "That if any do commit the detestable and abominable vice of Buggery, with man or beast, he or she so offending, shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer death, in the case of felony, without the benefit of Clergy." (Act of General Assembly of Virginia)

December 10, 1958: Ralph Muller and Peter Kamenoff, two ex-members of the Fountain of the World religious cult, accost guru Krishna Venta at the cult's hillside compound in Box Canyon, Ventura County, California. The men accuse Venta of having fucked their wives. For whatever reason Venta, the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and formerly known as Francis Pencovic, is unable to placate the men. So they detonate 20 sticks of dynamite they brought, 19 of which are strictly overkill. The three men are instantly blown to pieces along with 7 other cultees. Venta's remains are only ever identified through dental records.

December 10, 1993: Adolf Hitler is baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in a ceremony performed inside their London temple. Mormons use this strange retroactive baptismal ritual to ensure ancestors or other relatives may join them in heaven.

[Also in the news on December 10, 2007..."Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south: Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against 'violating Islamic teachings,' the police chief said Sunday." ... "Iran Executes 21-Year-Old Accused of Gay Sex as a Teen: Mouloodzadeh was a 21-year-old Iranian citizen who was accused of committing anal rape (ighab) with other young boys when he was 13. However, at Mouloodzadeh's trial, all the witnesses retracted their pre-trial testimonies, claiming to have lied to the authorities under duress. Mouloodzadeh also told the court that his confession was made under coercion and pleaded not guilty." ... and happy 60th birthday to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The advance of the secular is the advance of peace and prosperity. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, fascism, islam, mormon, religion, sex

Trevor Blake: The Latter-Day Saints and the Boy Scouts of America [LINK-ZUM]

Time magazine wrote in 2000 that Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population but make up 21% of the boys in the Boy Scouts of America. This suggests that while most BSA Scouts are not Mormon, most Mormon boys are BSA Scouts. Mormon sponsorship of the BSA goes back nearly eighty years. The Mormons like Scouting so much that it is an official Church program. Brigham Young University offers a major in Scouting [article] [description]. In some areas the only BSA Troop available for boys to join are Mormon BSA Troops. Mormon BSA Troops, with BSA approval, have their own requirements for membership, advancement, and activities. Until 1974, one of those requirements was that no leadership position could be held by anyone who was Black. No Black man could hold a leadership position in the Mormon Church, therefore they reasoned no Black man or boy could hold a leadership position in the BSA. Because of this discrimination a secular lawsuit against the LDS arose in that year. By magical coincidence the invisible monster that lives in the sky and talks to the LDS Elders chose exactly that time to tell them their policy had changed and Blacks could now lead Mormon BSA Troops. Currently the Mormons are developing their own Scouting program in case the BSA joins every other Scouting program in the world and allows openly homosexual people to be Scouts.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a terrible thing if the Mormons got out of the Scouting business.

Labels: atheist, mormon, race, sex

Trevor Blake: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (The Mormons) [LINK-ZUM]

There are feminist housewife Mormons, gay Mormons, kinky Mormons, celibate Mormons... Republican Mormons, Democratic Mormons, socialist Mormons, Libertarian Mormons... police Mormons and murdering Mormons.... orthodox Mormons and reformed Mormons and heretical Mormons... Mormons all over the map, so much so that most generalizations about their actions and character would likely fail. But it can be said that Mormon parents do place a premium on having children.

A study in Utah concluded that the more children a couple had, the worse their health became and the sooner they died. Parents in Utah have a fertilitate rate of 2.6, compared to 2 for the rest of the USA. Inbreeding among Mormons has caused the highest concentration of fumarase deficiency (and its resulting severe mental retardation) in the world.

Learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints than most LDS members know. Read The Book of Mormon and The Skeptics Annotated Book of Mormon. Although unwilling to turn their critical eye upon themselves, the Utah Lighthouse Ministry offers well-documented accounts of Mormonism. And wrap it all up by viewing (legally, of course, never via a pirate copy) episode 712 of South Park, titled All About The Mormons.

Labels: mormon, sex, television

Amanda Townsend: Child bride wanted to preserve 'eternal salvation,' court told [LINK-ZUM]

A reluctant child bride told a Utah jury Friday that she was trying to preserve her "eternal salvation" when she obeyed a command by polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs to marry her cousin at age 14. Referred to in court as Jane Doe, the young woman was married in a 2001 religious ceremony officiated by Jeffs to the cousin, then 19. She said she disliked him because he once had sprayed her with a water hose on a freezing day." I preferred to stay away from him," she said.

Later, miserable in her marriage, she testified she sought a meeting with Jeffs, and she told him she couldn't see herself having a family with her husband and "could not do what they expected me to do." She begged to be released from the marriage, she said. But Jeffs told her she needed to repent and to "go home and give myself to [my husband]," she testified, and he gave her a book of teachings.

[Article continues at link. Utah Code Section 76-5-401.2. relieves Warren Jeffs and Mr. Doe of statutory rape charges, as the age of consent laws in Utah state 16 years old is old enough to legally have sex. But marriage between first cousins is only legal if both are 65 or older, or if both are 55 or older and one is unable to reproduce. The courts have reason to question the actions of Jeff and the Does. In addition to all of that, it is sad that anyone does anything for their "eternal salvation." There is no such thing, and any effort to that end is wasted. Be kind to one other now because now is all we have and because kindness is pleasant. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: christianity, mormon

Associated Press: Atheist, Muslim candidates worry voters [LINK-ZUM]

One in four people in the U.S. said in a recent poll that they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who is Mormon, an ominous sign for Republican contender Mitt Romney. Yet the survey found two groups, atheists and Muslims, were even less likely to win votes. Sixty-one percent of those questioned said they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who did not believe in God. Forty-five percent said the same for a Muslim contender. [...] Republicans were likelier than Democrats to express concerns about voting for an atheist, Muslim or a woman, while more Democrats than Republicans said they would be less likely to support an evangelical Christian. The party breakdown for the other traits was about even.

[Article continues at link. So who is it that voted Ernie Chambers and Culbert Olsen and Pete Stark into office? Why did we let Elizabeth Cady Stanton influence the Constitution? Where do all those atheists in the military get off? What were the Demoracts thinking when they let Ron Reagan give their opening address? How did 'not a person of faith' Karl Rove get to where he was? America, go ahead and vote for the best candidate. Superstition is no guarantee for virtue, atheism no guarantee for villany. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: atheist, christianity, islam, mormon, theocracy

atheist tags [LINK-ZUM]

9/11 atheist buddhism christianity hindu islam judaism magick mormon philosophy religion satanism scientology subgenius subud theocracy watchtower

Labels: 9/11, atheist, buddhism, christianity, hindu, islam, judaism, magick, mormon, philosophy, religion, satanism, scientology, subgenius, subud, theocracy, watchtower

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