April 28, 2018

The poor don't have a prayer in today's Washington

Source: WaPo, by Dana Milbank

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House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) did not give a reason when his chief of staff this month told the Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest and House chaplain, to resign or face dismissal.

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He prayed to God that lawmakers would help “the least among us.”

He prayed for them to follow the example of St. Nicholas, “who fed the hungry, brought hope to the imprisoned, gave comfort to the lost.”

He admonished lawmakers “to serve other people in their need” and “to pray for the unemployed and those who work but still struggle to make ends meet.”

After an immigration deal collapsed, he urged “those who possess power here in Washington be mindful of those whom they represent who possess little or no power.”

He prayed for lawmakers to be “free of all prejudice” and, after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, to “fulfill the hopes of those who long for peace and security for their children.”?

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Only in this perverted time could a priest lose his job after committing the sin of crying out for justice for the poor. But then, look around: Everywhere are the signs of a rising kleptocracy. The $1.5 trillion tax cut did make winners of corporations and the wealthy. And actions since then show that the Trump administration is making losers of the poor.

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Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-poor-dont-have-a-prayer-in-todays-washington/2018/04/27/70f52bd8-4a43-11e8-8b5a-3b1697adcc2a_story.html

April 28, 2018

Lynching memorial leaves some quietly seething: 'Let sleeping dogs lie'

The brutal new memorial to the south’s dark side has left some in Alabama frustrated and angry at its insistence on confronting the past

Source: The Guardian, by Sam Levin


Black men were lynched for “standing around”, for “annoying white girls”, for failing to call a policeman “mister”. Those are just a few of the horrific stories on display at a new national memorial to lynching victims in Montgomery, Alabama.

One mile away, another historical monument tells a very different tale about the American south: the First White House of the Confederacy celebrates the life of “renowned American patriot” Jefferson Davis, who served as the president of the Confederate states, while making virtually no mention of the hundreds of black people he and his family enslaved.

The contradictions of Montgomery’s historical narratives were on full display this week as thousands of tourists and progressive activists flocked to the city to mark the opening of the country’s first memorial to lynching victims – while some locals quietly seethed, saying they resented the new museum for dredging up the past and feared it would incite anger and backlash within black communities.

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The angry and in some cases blatantly racist reactions to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and accompanying Legacy Museum provided a window into some white Americans’ deep resistance to confronting the nation’s brutal history of racial violence, from slavery to mass incarceration.

While celebrities and civil rights icons lauded the memorial as a powerful symbol of America’s shame and a turning point toward healing, some conservatives in Alabama rolled their eyes at the project, saying they were more concerned with saving Confederate monuments, now under threat from leftwing activists.

Alabama’s Republican governor, Kay Ivey, wasn’t present at the memorial launch, but did release a video promoting her efforts to preserve Confederate monuments a week prior.



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Read it all at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/28/lynching-memorial-backlash-montgomery-alabama

April 28, 2018

Paul Ryan dismissed the House chaplain. Wait, why does Congress even have a chaplain?

Source: Washington Post, by Sarah Pulliam Bailey


In the early days of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress approved the role of military chaplains, and it chose Anglican minister Jacob Duché to be its first chaplain in 1774. The founders debated how to pick someone among the different denominations represented, but they ultimately decided that the main question was whether the person supported the American Revolution.

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Why did they decide to open congressional sessions with prayer? In 1787, Benjamin Franklin proposed prayer as a way of encouraging discourse during the Constitutional Convention, citing how it helped during the American Revolution.

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In a 1983 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the practice of opening legislative sessions with a prayer offered by a paid chaplain. The case, Marsh vs. Chambers, involved a Nebraska lawmaker who had challenged the state legislature’s chaplaincy practice. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court cited history and tradition in determining that the chaplain did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

In 2014, the Supreme Court determined in Town of Greece v. Galloway that town boards can begin sessions with prayer.

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(On the dismissal of Rev. Conroy by fellow Catholic Paul Ryan: )

Some have speculated that Conroy comes from a more progressive end of the spectrum while Ryan, who is also Catholic, comes from the right. The tension among Catholics right now, said Raymond Arroyo of the Catholic network EWTN, is not about politics but, rather, about Catholic doctrine and Pope Francis’s pastoral approach over Catholic teachings on marriage, divorce, communion and other issues.

“People go to their political corners and try to politicize it,” Arroyo said of the debate within the church, “but it’s foundational issues that make people nervous.”

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Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/04/27/paul-d-ryan-dismissed-the-house-chaplain-wait-why-does-congress-even-have-a-chaplain/

April 27, 2018

Most Americans believe in a higher power, but not always in the God of the Bible

This just has to include an awful lot of Democrats, doesn't it? I mean, utilizing logic and reason, of course.


Source: Washington Post, by Yonat Shimron







Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/04/25/most-americans-believe-in-a-higher-power-but-not-always-in-the-god-of-the-bible/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.95d2a3926d34

April 26, 2018

No Sympathy for the Devil: 'The Exorcist' Director William Friedkin Looks Back

With a new documentary, 'The Devil and Father Amorth,' the filmmaker returns to his original sin

Source: Rolling Stone, by Kory Grow

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For about 17 minutes, as shown in The Devil and Father Amorth, the priest sits next to the woman. He literally thumbs his nose at the Devil and begins to pray at which point Cristina's voice drops significantly, sounding very much like Regan's demon voice in both the movie The Exorcist and how it was described in Blatty's book as "deep and thick with menace and power." Cristina shouts "Stop it" in Italian.

"Surrender to the will of God," Amorth commands as several men restrain her as she attempts to leap forward. "Surrender to the will of the Virgin Mary. Surrender to the will of Jesus. … The Virgin Mary will destroy you, Satan." It's not quite "The Power of Christ compels you" with Linda Blair floating in the air as Holy Water rips her skin apart, but it's still arresting. Cristina's demon tells Amorth that it is Satan Himself but also that there are many demons inside her. "We are legion." When it's done, Cristina appears to return to normal until Amorth exorcises her parents in case the demon moved to another person and she lashes out again.

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To understand it all better, Friedkin took his home-movie exorcism to various experts – brain surgeons, psychiatrists, representatives of the church – and interviewed them for the second half of The Devil and Father Amorth. Dr. Neil Martin, then the chair of neurology staff at UCLA, described Cristina as experiencing an "major force within her." He added that Cristina seemed to be suffering delirium and, when Friedkin asks if she would be better helped by brain surgery than this ritual, the doctor says, "unlikely." "I haven't seen this kind of consequence from any [regularly treatable] disorders," he explains.

A group of shrinks referred Friedkin to their bibles: the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. Dissociative Identity Disorder, as defined in DSM-V, is "an experience of possession." It explains: "Possession-form identities in D.I.D. typically manifest as behaviors that appear as if a 'spirit,' supernatural being or outside person has taken control, such that the individual begins speaking or acting in a distinctively different manner. … An individual may be 'taken over' by a demon or deity, resulting in profound impairment, and demanding that an individual or a relative be punished for a past act, followed by more subtle periods of identity alteration." Moreover, it says, "The identities that arise during possession-form D.I.D. … are not a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice," dovetailing even deeper into Friedkin's mystery of faith. One of the doctors compared exorcism to "placebo response" – "If you believe something is more likely to work, it's more likely to work." To that point, it's worth noting, too, that because the diagnosis is faith-based, people who aren't Christian, such as Muslims or Jews, are unlikely to be seeking a Catholic exorcist.

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Read it all at: https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/exorcist-director-william-friedkin-horror-documentary-devil-possession-w519493

April 25, 2018

James Comey to speak at town hall with CNN's Anderson Cooper (8PM, 7CT)

Audience questions tonight!

I want to hear about why Hillary was a public target - and why Putin's puppet wasn't.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/politics/james-comey-anderson-cooper-town-hall-cnn/index.html

The hour-long town hall takes place at William & Mary, Comey's alma mater, in Williamsburg, Virginia, and will air on CNN at 8 p.m. ET. The Student Assembly at William & Mary will co-host the event.

In addition to live television viewing, the town hall can also be viewed via CNNgo at CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV along with all CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android.

April 25, 2018

When Americans Say They Believe in God, What Do They Mean?

Nine-in-ten Americans believe in a higher power, but only a slim majority believe in God as described in the Bible

Source: Pew Research Center, April 25, 2018

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In the U.S., belief in a deity is common even among the religiously unaffiliated – a group composed of those who identify themselves, religiously, as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” and sometimes referred to, collectively, as religious “nones.” Indeed, nearly three-quarters of religious “nones” (72%) believe in a higher power of some kind, even if not in God as described in the Bible.

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Overall, about half of Americans (48%) say that God or another higher power directly determines what happens in their lives all or most of the time. An additional 18% say God or some other higher power determines what happens to them “just some of the time.”

Nearly eight-in-ten U.S. adults think God or a higher power has protected them, and two-thirds say they have been rewarded by the Almighty. By comparison, somewhat fewer see God as judgmental and punitive. Six-in-ten Americans say God or a higher power will judge all people on what they have done, and four-in-ten say they have been punished by God or the spiritual force they believe is at work in the universe.

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In addition, the survey finds that three-quarters of American adults say they try to talk to God (or another higher power in the universe), and about three-in-ten U.S. adults say God (or a higher power) talks back. The survey also asked, separately, about rates of prayer. People who pray on a regular basis are especially likely to say that they speak to God and that God speaks to them. But the survey shows that praying and talking to God are not fully interchangeable. For example, four-in-ten people (39%) who say they seldom or never pray nonetheless report that they talk to God.

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Read it all at: http://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/

April 25, 2018

50 years. Timeless. Let's do it again.

Watch the Trailer for a Stunning New 70-Millimeter Print of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Released by Christopher Nolan on the Film’s 50th Anniversary

April 25, 2018

Uranus has a familiar odor, scientists say, and Earthlings wouldn't like it

To be honest, I couldn't get past the headline. Some editors are too damn smart.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/04/24/uranus-has-a-familiar-odor-scientists-say-and-earthlings-wouldnt-like-it/

April 24, 2018

The Ugly Coded Critique of Chick-Fil-A's Christianity

"When you mock Christians, you’re not mocking who you think you are."

Source: Bloomberg, by Stephen L. Carter


'The New Yorker' has been taking it on the chin lately for its essay about Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City...

What the author really seems angry about is that the company’s CEO opposes same-sex marriage. But the framing of the piece made Christianity the villain, and the headline -- “Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City” -- was sufficiently troubling that Nate Silver quickly tweeted “This is why Trump won.” Fair point. Religious bigotry is always dangerous. But there’s a deeper problem here, a difficulty endemic to today’s secular left: an all-too-frequent weird refusal to acknowledge the demographics of Christianity. When you mock Christians, you’re not mocking who you think you are.

A 2015 Pew Research Center study of race and ethnicity among U.S. religions provides some basic facts. In the first place, if you’re mocking Christians, you’re mostly mocking women, because women are more likely than men to be Christians. The greatest disproportion is found among black Christians, of whom only 41 percent are male. So you’re mocking black women in particular.

Overall, people of color are more likely than whites to be Christians -- and pretty devout Christians at that. Some 83 percent of all black Americans are absolutely certain that God exists. No other group comes close to this figure. Black Christians are far more likely than white Christians (84 percent to 64 percent) to describe religion as very important in their lives. Of all ethnic groups, black Christians are the most likely to attend services, pray frequently and read the Bible regularly. They are also -- here’s the kicker -- most likely to believe that their faith is the place to look for answers to questions about right and wrong. And they are, by large margins, the most likely to believe that the Bible is the literally inerrant word of God. In short, if you find Christian traditionalism creepy, it’s black people you’re talking about.

It’s true that, politically, black Americans are overwhelmingly Democrats, and that’s true of black Christians as well. On the other hand, black Christians tend to be socially conservative: the least tolerant of homosexuality, the most likely to oppose same-sex marriage and the least likely to believe in evolution. If you’re maligning traditional Christianity, the people you’re maligning are disproportionately black.

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Which brings us to one last point from the Pew study. Among Latinos and Asians, Christians are overwhelmingly first-generation immigrants.



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In other words, American Christianity is growing heavily through immigrants who are people of color. If Christians are really so scary, maybe it’s time to build that wall.

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Read it all at: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-21/criticism-of-christians-and-chick-fil-a-has-troubling-roots