Monday, September 7, 2009

Blurring the lines between church and state

Blurring the lines between church and state

Keep Church and State separate

Coach Scott Mooney of Breckinridge County High School in Louisville, KY took a group of football players on field trip to a church where a revival was going on and several of them were baptized without their parents’ permission. School Superintendent Janet Meeks was at that service. One mother was angered because her husband is Catholic and she is Baptist and they wanted to be a part of this decision with their son.

Meeks says that none of the students were coerced or forced into going to the service and that parents were told about it. She also said that it did not violate rules against separation of church and state because the gas for the bus was paid for by another coach. The pastor at the church said that about nine players came down to be baptized however none of them were manipulated into coming down.

Now anyone who has ever been to a revival knows that the whole process is manipulative and anyone who has ever played on a sports team knows the power of a coaches words to his/her players. So the pastor is a blatant liar because revivals are inherently manipulative because of the stories told and the music used and team sports, especially, football are coercive by their very nature.

Now we hear that a new law in the state of Texas requires teachers to teach bible literacy. Now, as a literature teacher, I find this an interesting proposition since most of our early American Literature was based on religion and bible beliefs. However, the State of Texas has required teacher to do this without giving them training or telling them how to do it to keep it religion neutral.

Texas has just opened the door for proselytizing by teachers with religious agendas. They have also broken their own laws by not training teachers to do the job they have given them to do. The program also lacks funding. This means that how to teach this material is left to individual teachers. Can you see the lines between church and state being blurred?

People have the right to believe what they want. The problem arises with forcing students to read a book they may not believe in. That goes against the Constitution of the United States. It also offers the opportunity for teachers with extreme beliefs to ingrain those beliefs in the minds of impressionable students without the consent of those students’ parents. Does this concern anyone else?

How do parents who do not believe in the bible guard against their children becoming indoctrinated with unwanted religious ideas? How do we guard against those who would indoctrinate children with their brand of radicalism or hate that they believe that the bible sanctions?

President Barack Obama took a lot of criticism for just asking kids to pay attention and stay in school. Yet, no one is screaming about this? I don’t believe in religion. I think that it has caused or been the catalyst for most of the world’s atrocities. As a literature teacher, I find it an interesting idea of teaching the bible as part of the literary experience. The problem I have is how do you keep your individual beliefs from being forced on the young minds before you? It is almost impossible.

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Support Healthcare now


Support Healthcare now

Stop the rhetoric

I heard about this charity called Remote Access Medical (RAM). Generally, RAM, drops medical supplies and medical teams into remote areas and treats people who may need it in countries like Haiti, Somalia, or Guyana. However, just last week, RAM was in Inglewood, CA at the Inglewood Forum helping people who lack health care. Many of the people lined up at 4 p.m. and were still there at midnight.

The stories were amazing. One little girl had to skip school so that she could go get glasses. When her father was asked about the alternative, he said, “She just wouldn’t get glasses.” Another gentleman who suffers from constant pain said that if he had not gone to the Forum, he would have had to suffer. Now many of these people were uninsured, but the vast majority of them were people with healthcare who could not afford their premiums or had inadequate coverage. Many were minorities, but a large number were Caucasian. Many were unemployed, but the vast majority hard working people.

The director of the program was appalled because he said that he should be in a third world country and not in downtown Los Angeles. I am amazed that most Americans do not agree. How horrid is it that hard working Americans have to go to a charity for basic health care, for dental care, and to have an eye exam. These seemingly intelligent people listen to the rhetoric of people like Sarah Palin who talks about death panels for seniors, they fail to see that the same representatives who jumped on this band wagon about death panels voted for the same language in a 2003 Medicare bill that was passed. Sen. Charles Grassley, of Iowa, who is one of the biggest opponents of health care reform voted for this bill which allowed seniors who were terminally ill to receive end-of-life counseling.

The question is one of equity. America is the richest country in the world, yet we have millions of children who go to bed each night hungry. One of the people at the RAM event said that she was afraid that she could be having a heart attack and not be able to call an ambulance because she would have to pay a large bill later. America is the richest country in the world and yet we have a large homeless population, many of which are children.

Christians are required to tithe 10% of their salary to the church to provide for those who give them spiritual “food”. This is an organization whose mandate, according to the Isaiah 58 is to care for those who can not care for themselves. My question to the church is where is the money? Why are you not taking care of the people in Inglewood? Why are you not taking these homeless people into your sanctuaries and feeding and clothing them? Why do you refuse to care for the infirmed?

Instead you preach hate, you preach intolerance, and you preach rhetoric while you fill you coffers.

RAM is doing what those in the church are supposed to be doing. Yet, we as a nation have the opportunity to do something great and take care of those who need a little help caring for themselves. Grow up America and support health care.

Watch 60 mins. About RAM in Tennessee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9JmEHsCv4c

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Comparison: Who is more like Hitler--George Bush or Barack Obama


Comparison: Who is more like Hitler--George Bush or Barack Obama

George Bush's Legacy

Racism abounds in America and a black president has just brought out the redneck in people. People have compared him to Adolph Hitler. However, the question must be asked, who is more like Hitler: Barack Obama or George Bush? Lets compare shall we?

George Bush started a war in Iraq under false pretenses. Reports range from 100,000-1.2 million Iraqis killed so far. However, no on knows for a fact because according to one American General Tommy Franks, “We don’t do body counts.” Obama wants to give all Americans health care and to make sure that our economy recovers. George Bush arrested, humiliated, and tortured men who had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden or September 11th. Obama has been working to close Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

George Bush took away liberties and invaded our privacy more than any President since the McCarthy era, however, Obama is being called Hitler because he wants to fix health care in this country. Hitler killed 11 million people. Six million of those people were Jewish, but many others were gay, gypsies, or people who did not fit into Hitler’s master race plans. He sounds a bit like a Republican to me. George Bush allowed people to be tortured as part of his War on Terror. He imprisoned thousands and then used techniques that made them hate Americans. We are less safe as a nation because of George Bush.

George Bush waited while thousands of Americans died and suffered in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He praised his FEMA director who did nothing as the people died and the levees overflowed. Maybe, it was not important that most of these people were poor and African American.

George Bush had a private firm that Vice President Dick Cheney hired to assassinate the enemy. The problem is that this private firm is more like Hitler’s Gestapo and they believe in Christian Supremacy and that all Muslims should die. The owner of Xe/Blackwater is now being accused of murdering informants against his operation, running a child prostitute ring, and wife swapping among his top executives. Hitler had a lot of the same things going on in Nazi Germany.

What does the right say about Barack Obama? He is a socialist. He wants to change our way of life. He is muslim. He was not born in the United States. All of this hides a racist countries insecurity over having a black President.

The fact is that George Bush was the worst American President ever. He did more to damage American relations with other nations that Obama could undo in two terms. He murdered innocents, tortured people, and allowed people to die because of his political ideology. Maybe we should put the Hitler mustache on him.

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Churches do your job!!!


Churches do your job!!!

People are dying

Pastor Steven Anderson of Arizona has a prayer that he says to God every day. That prayer is that President Barack Obama will die or be killed. One of his parishioners was the man who carried a loaded rifle outside of an Obama appearance in Arizona a few weeks ago. Anderson believes in the bible, but I am not sure which bible it is since the one that most Christians read is clear that believers should pray for the well being of their leaders and for their wisdom. However, a black president seems to bring out the worst in the faithful. It is obvious that Pastor Anderson does not read the bible because if he did he would not be praying for the death of another man.

Wednesday night I took part in a vigil for healthcare reform. There were about 150 people there. Most of them were pro-healthcare reform. There were six or seven people who were against healthcare reform and they were the most vocal people at this candle light vigil. They carried signs that disparaged President Barack Obama. Most of them called the idea of single-payer health care a socialist idea. Most of them spouted rhetoric—saying the same things over and over. They were aggressively pushing people and yelling in their faces. In another event in Thousand Oaks, CA, the violence escalated and one man had his pinky finger bitten off and had to rushed to the hospital.

The highlight of my night though was talking to a younger man who was basically saying the same things again and again. I asked him if he was Christian and he said yes. My next question to him was what was the solution for those who did not have health insurance? His answer was, “Get a skill and get a job.” With that, I asked him did he know that it was the church’s responsibility to care for the sick, the poor and the needy. His answer, “Says who?” The simple answer, “The Bible.” After a while, he just disappeared.

It became obvious that he doesn’t read the bible after a couple minutes of conversation because if he did, he would know that countless passages in bible from the old testament to the new testament direct those who believe to be the safety-net if you will--for those who cannot care for themselves. It is the theme of the entire Book of Ruth. Jesus said and taught that believers who did not do that were not even welcomed in the Kingdom.

So the question is where does the virulent hate come from? Why is it that those who are charged with caring for the poor are so adamant against legislation that would protect them? What happens to the money that big-time religion gets from its parishioners? It goes to building large sanctuaries and supporting political platforms based in hate because the faithful sit in pews and listen to rhetoric without questioning its veracity.

The fact is that the first church practiced a form of socialism. People sold land and brought there earnings and food and shared it in common with others because of the political climate of the day. I have heard this explained away in several ways. The first way is that the first church was not a government, however, it was a governing body and it used what was given to it as it saw fit. I have heard it said that under socialism there is no ownership of property, well the first Christians gave up their ownership of their property for the common good of their brothers and sisters.

The truth is that most of those who believe never read the book they say leads them or listen to and believe the politics of the right and deny the basic doctrines of their beliefs. They sit in churches and are spoon fed rhetoric which they take to the streets as the truth. They become an army for their leaders’ political agendas. They spread this vitriol without ever thinking about the logic. They do not question their leaders or their leaders’ doctrine.

There are a few for whom this will never change, but my problem is with those who know better and refuse to stand up to the hate. I have been proud to call many of these people my friends for years and now it is time for them to stand up for what is right. Most right-wing doctrine is based in the racism of the 50s and 60s. People are dying. Stop the rhetoric and look at the facts. It is your job to care for the sick, the needy, the widows, the orphans, prisoners and anyone else who cannot take care of themselves. Do your job.

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Texas EXECUTED an innocent man




Texas EXECUTED an innocent man

Murder by state

Before his trial in 1992, Cameron Todd Willingham refused to plead guilty to the murder of his children in return for a life sentence. For the next twelve years, he maintained his innocence even though he faced the Texas death machine. On February 18, 2004 he was executed.

Now, it appears that the state of Texas murdered an innocent man. In an article in the New Yorker, writer David Grann makes a compelling argument that the State of Texas ignored an experts report that a fire in Willingham’s Corsicana, TX house was an accident and not arson. Further investigations into the case by a board of Arson Experts reached the same conclusion. Texas will release its own report next year and the question is whether officials in the death state will finally acknowledge that they murdered an innocent man.

The facts of the case are simple. On December 23, 1991 Willingham’s wife had left to go buy a Christmas presents for his three children at the Salvation Army. Willingham went to sleep and was awakened by his daughter Amber calling “Daddy, Daddy”. Willingham said later that he could not get close to the children’s room. He rushed outside and yelled at a neighbor to call the fire department because his “babies” were inside. He broke out windows and tried to get to the children to no avail.

Policemen, firemen, and neighbors all said at first that Willingham was trying to get into the house and he had to be restrained. Other people reported that he was hysterical. His babysitter and his wife said his children were spoiled and that he could never hurt them. As a matter of fact, no motive was ever found for Willingham killing his children except that he was a sociopath and they crimped his “beer drinking and dart throwing” time.

Willingham was tried and convicted on evidence collected by Douglas Fogg and Manuel Vasquez, two state investigators who were convinced that Willingham had killed his children by using an accelerant because, according to them, the fire had at least three points of origin. The investigators concluded that Willingham was the only person who could have started the fire.

The trial lasted two days and the jury was out for about an hour. Willingham was sent to death row where he spent 12 years. They relied on the testimony of jail house informant Johnny Webb, who testified that Willingham had confessed to him that he killed his children. Webb has since been diagnosed as being bi-polar. The defense only called one witness.

A short time before he was executed, his case file was given to arson expert, Dr. Gerald Hurst of Austin. Hurst systematically and scientifically disproved all of the evidence against Willingham and sent a hastily written report to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. This group never vetted the report and voted by fax to execute Willingham. One member said that the board had never once met to in person. Governor Rick Perry denied clemency to Willingham and the state killed him, even though another inmate was earlier released using the same type of evidence. Willingham went to his death protesting his innocence.

Now, faced with a mountain of evidence, the state of Texas has to look in the mirror and decide whether to be the first state to admit that an innocent person was executed. If it is true, there should be an immediate stop to the death penalty and every case that is suspect should be vetted to see if those who claimed innocence are lying or telling the truth.

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Stop Paranoia over Obama's Education Speech


Stop Paranoia over Obama's Education Speech

Well, tomorrow, The President of the United States plans to speak to the school children of America about their responsibility for their education. Despite all the rhetoric and fear that has been going around in the media, that is what the speech is about. If you do not believe me, read it for yourself. Now there has been a lot said in the media and by those who believe in this politics of paranoia that he is somehow going to indoctrinate there children into some socialist/Marxist/communist agenda. Well, if getting a good education and being responsible for yourself is socialist indoctrination, hallelujah.

I am a teacher and I see the effects of students who have no motivation and refuse to be responsible in the classroom every day. Most teachers spend valuable time dealing with those students instead of teaching those who actually came to learn. Yet a faction of American society has placed fear in the hearts of others because of this idea that the Obama will use mind control to indoctrinate children into his political agenda. They have done this without ever reading the words the President intends to deliver. Well, now is your chance to see for yourself what the President plans to say and stop the fear-mongering.

Most of this fear is from the far right and it carries with it a political agenda that is based in hate and racism. I have not seen such virulent hate since I was a boy in sixties watching the civil rights movement. There was the same paranoia in the sixties when some of the most religious people in the country fought vehemently to deny black people the right of citizenry.

I hope that every child who can watch takes Obama’s message to heart because we as a country need it. San Bernardino County, where I work, has a 25% dropout rate overall and it is closer to 50% among Hispanics and African-American males. Most people want to blame it on teachers, but the problems go deeper than that and most of them begin in the home. Kids come to school hungry, abused, and sometimes neglected. There are other distractions for their time including video games and the internet. Many seem to think that their education is not important and the President, by using his own life and that of others who have overcome difficult situations, is trying to point them in the right direction. Good for him.

I am teaching persuasive writing and speeches to my writing classes and I plan to use this in my classroom to show students the different techniques used to persuade people. I also plan to ask them, as I do every year, to be responsible for their education on a daily basis because it is the only way for them to overcome the poverty that surrounds them. I know because I was one of those kids who went to school hungry and struggled to stay focused on my education. Yet, I prevailed and they can too. Get over the paranoia America.

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