I saw this amusing church sign message today. Your assignment – come up with an appropriate rejoinder.
Church Sign #1, 2009
Upon completing your homework, sit back and enjoy a light show photo:
Light Show #1
— the chaplain
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Female Pastors = Porn
Ah, those wacky Southern Baptists are at it again.
“Over 100 Christian bookstores run by the Southern Baptist Convention have pulled from their shelves this month’s issue of Gospel Today Magazine, which features a cover story about female pastors.”
Whoa! Cain’t have the womenfolks thinkin’ they c’uld be pastors or somethin’. That thar’s men’s work!
To add insult to injury, customers who want the magazine have to ask for it specifically, because it’s hidden behind the counter. You know, in the place where secular book stores sometimes hide the pornography.
According to the story I linked to above, “The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s second largest Christian denomination, officially opposes females serving as pastors. In 2000, the denomination overwhelmingly adopted a revised statement of faith that said the pastoral role should be restricted to men. “
The article goes on to say that, even though both men and women are gifted for work in the church, the pastoral role belongs solely to the men. Say this along with me, boys and girls – separate but equal. Those of you familiar with American history will recognize “separate but equal” as the phrase that justified decades of racial discrimination. African Americans were required to use separate facilities from those used by whites. They weren’t denied access to water fountains, washrooms, and so on, they just had to use the crummy stuff while the white folks got to use the good stuff. Similarly, black folks weren’t denied access to city buses, they just had to sit in the back seats because the white folks had first dibs on the front seats. Eventually, American jurists realized that the notion of “separate but equal” was meaningless; social separation inevitably entailed social inequality.
To look at this in ecclesiastical terms, the Southern Baptists believe that men and women both have places in the family of God, but that some places (leadership roles – surprise, surprise! Why not toilet cleaning positions and the like?) are reserved solely for men. Richard Land, a denominational leader, says that the church does not view women as subordinate to men and that women and men are all equal before God. It’s just that women can’t have authority over men because men have authority over women (the Bible tells him so). I need hardly point out that, if one group has authority over another, then the groups are not equal.
To be fair, the Southern Baptist Church is not the only denomination that continues to practice gender discrimination. According to Wikipedia, “about half of all American Protestant denominations ordain women and about 30% of all seminary students (and in some seminaries over half) are female.” This means, of course, that half of American denominations are still discriminating against women. The Catholic Church continues to bar women from the priesthood and several Protestant denominations have split over the issue of female ordination.
Most churches rely on women to crank the engines. Many church programs would cease if women didn’t run them. Here’s what baffles me: why do women continue serving congregations and denominations in which the (almost invariably male) leaders believe (or behave like they believe) they are second-class citizens? How long will they continue doing so? Many churches bemoan the fact that most of their men enter the front door as children and exit the back door as teens or young adults. In this age of deepening awareness of gender equality issues, if church leaders don’t examine the roles of women in their institutions (and in their theology), they may arrive one day, turn on the lights, and discover that the women have followed the men out the back door.
– the chaplain
Humanist Symposium #31: Presidential Inauguration Edition
Welcome to the 31st edition of the Humanist Symposium! On January 22, 2009, we in the USA will be installing our 44th president. In light of that event, I am pleased to present to you a humanist version of the Presidential Inauguration program.
Tuesday’s program will open with musical selections from The President’s Own Marine Corps Band. Today’s program opens with vjack’s post, When You Are a Victim of Discrimination, which can be found at Atheist Revolution.
On Tuesday, the Marine Band’s musical offerings will be followed by musical selections from the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Our program presents, in this slot, Spirituality is Just a Word, posted by Andrew Bernardin at the
evolving mind.
After the crowd enjoys the varied musical program presented thus far, Senator Dianne Feinstein will call the proceeding to order and issue welcoming remarks. Our ceremony offers, instead, Are You Really an Atheist? by John Remy at Mind on Fire.
The next item on Tuesday’s program will be what has been, to date, the most controversial event of the day, the prayer of invocation, which will be offered by Pastor Rick Warren. What I offer, in lieu of a prayer of any kind, is my commentary on the matter, presented as a response to an article by Tim Shriver.
Tuesday’s invocation will be followed by a musical selection presented by Aretha Franklin. Today’s program features Burak Bilgin’s post, Two Scenarios that Define our Lives, which is available at Burak’s blog, Distiller’s Corner.
Ms. Franklin’s music will be followed by the installation of Joe Biden to the office of Vice-President of the United States of America. Justice John Paul Stephens will administer the oath of office. Here, the program features 101 Interesting Things, Part I, by She Who Chatters. This post is available at at a blog named , eponymously, She Who Chatters.
The administration of the Vice-Presidential oath of office will be followed by a musical selection presented by a quartet consisting of Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill. They will play an item composed by John Williams (the composer of Star Wars, Superman and Harry Potter soundtracks, to cite just a few of his many musical projects). Our program features, Is naturalist spirituality an oxymoron? by Zach Alexander.
The next event on Tuesday’s program will be the highly anticipated installation of President-elect Barack Obama as the 44th president of the USA. Chief Justice John G. Roberts will administer the oath of office. Today, I am pleased to present A Golden Age of Discovery, by Andrew Bernardin.
The presidential oath of office will be followed by the president’s inaugural address, delivered by President Barack Obama. Our program features The Story of Atheism, written by Ebon Muse and available at Daylight Atheism.
After the inaugural address, Ms. Elizabeth Alexander will recite a poem. I present to you, How Can Atheists Be Good Allies? by Greta Christina.
The penultimate item on Tuesday’s program will be the prayer of benediction, offered by the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery. The penultimate item in today’s program is a piece entitled, Money can’t buy me love, by The Investor.
Tuesday’s program will conclude with the American National Anthem, sung by the United States Navy Sea Chanters. This Presidential Inauguration edition of the Humanist Symposium, #31, concludes with the god of small miracles, offered by your host.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of the Humanist Symposium. Mike will host the next edition on February 8, 2009 at his blog. I’ll meet you there in three weeks.
Correction: Are You Really an Atheist? was written by John Remy’s blogging partner, xJane. Thanks for pointing out my error, John. I want to give credit where it is due.
– the chaplain
the god of small miracles
This story is heartbreaking. When Danny and Danielle learned that the baby Danielle was carrying had hydrocephalus, Danny was livid at Danielle’s god. Understandably so. Doctors told the couple that the baby would either be stillborn or would only live for a short time.
Enter the Christians. A compassionate pastor and a group of friendly church people befriended the couple. Church members raised money to help pay mounting medical bills. The pastor and the church members kept in touch with Danny and Danielle throughout the pregnancy. Eventually, Bobbi was born alive; she lived for 18 months. And, in that time, Danny became a born-again Christian.
I’ve got four things to say about this story. First, I commend the Christians for behaving according to their creed. Their religion commands them to love others and they did so. They gave both practical and spiritual support to people who were in great need emotionally and financially. Good for them.
Second, I can’t imagine the hell that Danny and Danielle endured and I understand how the support of a loving community made the difference between surviving their ordeal and sinking into despondency. When Danny and Danielle were in need, a nice group of people helped them and loved them. I also understand that even just a few short months of life with their child was better than never having that relationship at all. And, I understand the attraction that a group of kind people and their faith had for a couple searching for answers to some of life’s most profound and painful questions.
Third, I’m not at all impressed with the god of this story. He didn’t perform any miracles. Doctors predicted either a stillbirth or a short life. The baby lived, as predicted, a short life. Poor Danny asked for a miracle and this was what he got. He, his wife and their church friends set their standards far too low. If God is powerful enough to raise the dead, to smite armies, to feed thousands with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread, why didn’t he deliver a child free of a debilitating defect? I don’t see the activity of a deity in this story at all. I see nature working in its indifferent way, a way that sometimes leads to beauty and sometimes leads to tragedy. I don’t see God working in and through the lives of his people. I see people who probably would have befriended the couple anyway, with or without a religious creed to define their attitudes and actions. Their compassion was not the product of a god working in their hearts, it was the product of their own innate decency.
Four, I wish that the friendships that abound in this story would have been accomplished without the framework of religion to constrain them. This story speaks poignantly of both the power and the depth of human empathy and compassion. Danny, Danielle and Bobbi didn’t need a deity; they needed other people. The Christians didn’t need a deity; they had tremendous strength and love within themselves. Danny, Danielle, the pastor and all of the church people have sold themselves short. Instead of recognizing their own virtue, they believe that the source of all their goodness is a small god who performs pitifully small miracles. That’s almost as tragic as the death of baby Bobbi.
– the chaplain
Of Myths and Mailmen
The Postman, by David Brin
The latest Nonbelieving Literati selection was, The Postman, by David Brin. The story opens in a post-apocalyptic USA. Technology, communications and all of the infrastructures of civilization as we know it have been destroyed. The USA is little more than a chain of feudal towns and villages. People struggle to survive and the boundaries of their social worlds often don’t extend beyond the physical limits of their city walls and local fence lines.
Gordon Krantz is a loner, wandering through the western wilderness, searching for a cause to believe in and a leader to follow. In order to alleviate the suspicions of people who have suffered greatly and lost nearly everything, he has to devise a plausible tale to explain who he is and why he has appeared in their village. His solution: tell them he is a US postman who has been assigned the duty of re-establishing communications between towns, cities and villages that have been isolated from one another for far too long. Gordon is flummoxed when people not only accept him, but embrace his mission and begin to have hope that life will get better as a shattered nation rebuilds itself. As the story unfolds, Gordon becomes more deeply enmeshed in his assumed persona and, very much against his will, becomes the leader that he once sought to follow. Gordon’s simple tale has grown to mythological proportions and the myth has taken control of his life. Even more astonishing, by the end of the book, the myth is becoming real for the people whom Gordon, in his role as a simple postman, has reconnected. His tale began as a falsehood and evolved into something that came true.
As I read The Postman, I couldn’t help thinking of a question that often arises in discussions between believers and nonbelievers. That question is, roughly, even if what religious people believe is not true, what harm does it do if it gives hope? The Postman can provide an answer to that question.
The differences between Gordon’s myth and most religious myths have to do with what people are hoping for and in whom they are placing their faith. In Gordon’s case, people were hoping for something that they could actively participate in creating. If they wanted to re-establish connections with neighboring towns, they had the power within themselves to do so. They simply had to be reminded of that power. Yes, they were putting hope in a fictitious Restored United States, but the reality behind the fiction was that there were actual people to communicate with. The RUS was not some pie-in-the-sky-get-it-when-I-die prize; it was something that could be created in real world conditions. Moreover, they were trusting a real flesh-and-blood man, Gordon, to play a key role in creating the new reality. The myth began as a falsehood, but it was a fiction that could be transformed into reality. Even if Gordon had failed, someone else could have taken on the mission and made the dream come true. The myth of the Postman was never rooted in anything other than real world possibilities; it allowed people to dream again, and to strive and hope for things they could achieve.
In contrast, many religious myths are about beings and circumstances that purportedly exist in some realm other than the space and time that we know. Furthermore, the goals established in religious myths are usually beyond the power of mere mortals to achieve without divine intervention. There are at least three serious problems with this situation. First, no one has ever actually met a god or goddess. We simply don’t know whether any such beings exist (although one can eliminate specific deities that are logically incoherent). Second, since no one actually knows the deities in question, human beings can never be sure that they understand properly what, if anything, the deities require of them (it could be the case that deities, if they exist, don’t care one way or the other about humans). Moreover, people often believe they can’t meet their obligations without assistance from the deity they are trying to appease. This is, to say the least, an uncomfortable situation. Third, human hopes in religion usually are based on acquiring something in a world other than this one, such as eternal life through resurrection, or getting another chance at life on earth through reincarnation (neither of which we have any evidence for). These factors make religious myths impossible to realize because one can never measure success in reaching the goals. One is never sure if one is meeting the expectations of the gods, and one can’t learn the answer to that question until one dies. Thus, unlike the myth of the Postman, religious myths are more likely to frustrate believers than to encourage them.
Reading The Postman gave me a new appreciation for the potential benefits of myths. Given my history with religious mythologies, I’ve been very suspicious of myths since my enlightenment and have been leery of considering the possibility that humanist myths may serve useful purposes. My shifting thoughts about this issue are nascent and require much more development, but I think I’m ready to start thinking about the matter now.
– the chaplain
