Infidels of Every Denomination

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Denounces The Vatican

Yes, you read that right.  Earlier this week the San Francisco Board of Supervisors issued a resolution denouncing the Vatican and its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith generally with regard to its teachings about homosexuality, and specifically about it's directive to the Archdiocese of San Francisco (among others) and Catholic Charities not to participate in adoption placements.  (I've included the full text of the resolution at the end of this entry.)  The directive was in response to legislation requiring that adoption services not discriminate against lesbian and gay applicants.

You've already seen my mixed thoughts about such anti-discrimination policies that don't allow exemptions for religious services providers.  I wish I could tell you that my opinion has solidified one way or the other, but it hasn't.  I'm still torn, and suspect I will be for some time.

What's interesting me here is the Supervisors' resolution itself.  The Vatican is a sovereign nation, and it's perfectly legitimate for a nation or one of its political subdivisions to denounce the conduct of a foreign state (which the Supervisors made clear it was doing in the second paragraph -- the first "whereas" clause -- of the resolution).  In that sense, what the Supervisors did was proper.  Where things get sketchy is that it's not just a nation -- it's also the center of a religious body:  is it proper for a government entity to officially denounce the teachings and directives of a particular religion, and the actions of its clergy?

The Big Deal about Big Love

HBO's new series Big Love has gotten quite a bit of press, mostly aimed towards its portrayal of a polygamous family.  The key word being "polygamous."  Perhaps some of their promos mentioned the word "Utah."  One word you most definitely didn't see, however, was "Mormon."

Interesting, that.  Especially since, from where I'm standing, the show's about a Mormon polygamous family -- the most relevant word being "Mormon."

I wonder how the press -- and the Mormon church -- would have reacted to that?

Catholic Charities stops facilitating adoptions in MA

I may have more to say about this later,  but I wanted to at least get things started.

As you may know, Massachusetts has a law prohibiting discrimination against gay and lesbian families when placing children for adoption.  A few months ago Catholic Charities' board unanimously voted to continue to facilitate adoptions of hard-to-place children in state care, despite the state law.  Last week Catholic Charities announced that, pursuant to the decisions of local bishops, it would no longer participate in adoptions in Massachusetts.

First, kudos to Catholic Charities' board -- especially the members (seven, I believe) who resigned in protest -- for intending to make this decision after careful thought and consideration.  It's my sincere hope that those former board members -- perhaps with the assistance of others still on the board -- have the desire and ability to found a new agency that continues the good work that Catholic Charities had been doing for all children.

Second, was there really no way to work around this apparent conflict?

We're back!

Ha!  I bet you thought we were gone!  But no!

Actually, a lot of us here at Infidels have been deaing with what I shall call Significant Challenges In Our Personal Lives.  I know, I know, other bloggers have travelled through Hel and back and kept writing the whole time.  Well, good for them!  I'm not at all bothered by our taking the time we need for ourselves.  I'm hoping you're not either.

I know I've found some interesting fodder for entries over the past month or two, and I'm hoping that my entries will help get us back up and running on a regular basis.

So -- back to business!

The Tolerance Trade

More tales from the "hope for the future" files...

The Journal Star out of Lincoln, Nebraska has a piece about some Catholic school kids, high schoolers, who chose as their Junior Achievement project to create and sell t-shirts that say "TOLERANCE" with the T, A, and C replaced by the cross, Star of David, and crescent respectively.

Why did they choose it?

James Lange, a senior, is the company’s financial officer.

“I just think it’s really important to recognize that even though there are all different religions and beliefs,” he said, “it’s really important to accept others for who they are and to just try to eliminate indifference by learning about other faiths.”

Although there have been some negative responses in the town, the reception has been on the whole overwhelmingly positive, and their initial run sold out. (They are re-ordering, though, and the article includes ordering information.)

I think it might be just as encouraging that people are enthusiastic about buying something that promotes a message of peace and tolerance, as it is that these kids wanted to promote that message. Considering that it seems like the only people getting any public airtime anymore are the most narrow-minded, bigoted, persecution-complexed, hateful and divisive elements, it's good to remember that there ARE a lot of decent, open-minded, and just generally groovy people in the world.

If the "Tolerance" tee is a bit too limited in scope for your religious tastes, here are some alternatives:

Bono's "Coexist" on a sticker

World Religions

It's Not About the Name

Peace from Purplemoon.com

Celebrate Diversity

Peace Necklace from Multifaith Works

A Witches' Brew of Bad Arguments

Reading the Slate article "Witches' Brew At Winter Solstice: How Wiccans Do Themselves In" by Mark Oppenheimer, I actually found myself checking the date it was published. Surely this was written in, say, 1987 and re-published to fill in for a missed deadline? But no, there it is, today's date.

The only other conclusion I can draw is that the majority of the research he did in the Wiccan community consisted of visiting AOL chatrooms full of eager newbies and looking for "Never again the Burning Times" t-shirts on CafePress.

Intelligent Design is struck down in PA, but what does the opinion foretell about the future of an independent judiciary?

It's been a rough few months for this blogger, which is why you haven't seen me in a while.  This doesn't mean that there hasn't been a lot happening on the legal front -- there has.  And, hopefully, I'll be able to do some catching up during the next few weeks.  Today, though, it's time for current events.

Earlier today a judge from the Middle District of Pennsylvania held, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, that the School District cannot require students to hear about Intelligent Design.  The court determined that  "the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom, in violation of the Establishment Clause."  The court based its ruling, in part, on the fact that plaintiffs' scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution "in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator."

In case you're wondering, the judge who decided the case -- the Hon. John E. Jones III -- is a 2002 Bush appointee.

In a striking commentary on the current climate in the US, the court apparently felt constrained to preemptively defend its own decision -- and itself -- from charges of judicial activism.  The court not only protested any such label, but criticized the school board and its attorneys in a manner rarely seen in court decisions.

Holiday Guide

This article in the Daily News out of Jacksonville, NC is a pretty simple one-- just a column with a brief rundown of the winter holidays of various religions, each of which includes links to sites with more information.

It's not exceptionally comprehensive, since it doesn't even include some of the Christian feasts surrounding Christmas nor does it touch on festivals like the Zoroastrian mid-winter festival of Sadeh or the Buddhist Bodhi Day (which is unrelated to other winter holidays but is celebrated in December). I'm going to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and guess, though, that her intention was to create a primer for the holidays that her readers would be most likely to encounter.

The reason I point this article out is that it includes a paragraph about Yule as a Pagan holiday, and the information link it includes is from Circle Sanctuary (definitely a reliable source for information about Paganism). I was pleased to see it included alongside the Big Three without any qualifiers or judgments. It was also nice to see the mention of some of the historical facts around the evolution of Christmas, including the fact that it assimilated some pagan customs and the fact that Dec. 25th was set as the date for the holiday in the 300's CE.

Considering all the intolerance and acrimony that's getting slung around this holiday season, it's refreshing to see someone writing for the mainstream press with a goal of real information, understanding and tolerance.

Young Philanthropist Needs No Training Wheels

(Trying to make an effort to post more regularly here again...oh blog, how I've missed you!)

As Christmas rolls around every year, there are the ubiquitous "news" stories screaming about the year's hottest gifts, the toy that parents are sticking each other with shivs to get their hands on, and usually a healthy dose of moaning about the current generation of selfish, spoiled kids whose concept of Christmas is summed up by whatever beeping, light-up, battery-powered crap they demand this year. And every year, the problem is the worst it's ever been.

So, as a tonic to those consumerist doom-and-gloom reports, I wanted to share this WaPo story about an 11-year-old boy named Winston Duncan who is from my neck of the woods (Northern Virginia) and who, having traveled to Africa and seen the widespread lack of transportation there, came home and organized a drive to collect bicycles to send to poor communities in Namibia. (He also donated his own.) He aimed to collect 75 and ended up with more than twice that many.

Dixie Duncan, Winston's mother, said her son has always been sensitive to the needs of others and aware of poverty around the world as a result of their frequent foreign travel. Two hours into Saturday's collection, Winston was talking about applying for a grant to continue his work, as well as holding a big bike collection on Earth Day. "I want to try to make it bigger," he said.

This kid is from Arlington, which is a pretty upscale town, and obviously he's what we would consider quite privileged in life. I think it's commendable that he's so interested in making a difference in the world at such a relatively young age, and his mom also deserves credit both for clearly supporting her son in his philanthropic efforts, and for almost certainly modeling the kind of values that have taught him to take action in the world.

I will continue to keep an eye out for and post stories about kids who are making this kind of effort to do good, especially in the holiday season. Please send me links if you find them!

Here are the websites for Bikes for the World and the Bicycling Empowerment Network, both mentioned in the story, for further reading or to make contributions. (I couldn't locate a website for Winston Duncan's nonprofit Wheels to Africa, although there apparently was one.)

Sehr frohe Weihnachten, ja!

Just in time for Christmas! Now this is some bible study I can get behind: German Protestant students create 2006 calendar with sexy photos depicting erotic moments from the bible

You can see a couple of sample pictures from it here (not work safe).

I think Jon Stewart needs to send this, with a big "MERRY CHRISTMAS, MWAH, JONNY" to Falafel O'Reilly so the latter will be too occupied with his, um, loofah to bring horror to the evil anti-Christian forces in this country who are oppressing him by saying "Happy Holidays".

Of course, if you wanted to send one to *me*, well, I AM a porn liberal.