Response to Ohio TRAP laws to limit Abortion access

Here's the letter I've written to my Ohio Senator and Representative regarding the state refusal to license local abortion providers.

Mr. X, 

I'm writing to express my sincere concern about how the state of Ohio is limiting my family's access to healthcare. If my wife were to have an ectopic pregnancy or any other condition where the ethical choice is to terminate the pregnancy, our access to abortion care is being severely limited by irresponsible and invasive Big Government decisions intended to limit access to abortion services. The legislation driving these changes is reckless, irresponsible, and unethical. Please understand that this situation needs to be rectified immediately.

In 50 years, Most Conservative Christian Churches will Disown their Unethical Stance of 2015

Time and time again throughout American history, conservative churches have stood on the side of barbaric biblical practices. These examples span a broad range of time and geography:

  • Witch burnings in Salem, MA (Exodus 22:18 "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live")

  • an extensive and well reasoned (biblically) defense of slavery http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/string/string.html 

  • Opposition to civil rights

  • Opposition to interracial marriage.

And most recently,

  • Opposition to Same Sex marriage.

For all but the most recent, support from churches in modern day America is unthinkable.  There may be a few, but they are seen as more radical and fringe than Westborough Baptist. 

I take great pleasure in the knowledge that like all these past immoral acts on behalf of a "God", in about 50 years, nearly all these churches will disown their former positions and claim they always supported equality. 

I derive a certain amount of glee from the knowledge that some day in the near future, their own religions will turn their back on conservative Christian leaders of today and pretend they didn't exist. 

Congratulations, America. 

Musings on LGBTQ Discrimination with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)

It's not the same as slavery. It's the same as  Jim Crow laws.  

Dear Christians: it's not a fucking "war." Nobody is trying to make churches illegal. The "war on Christianity" is an emotionally manipulative distortion of the truth meant to fire up your anger. Don't be played like a puppet. It's a lie. Lots of LGBTQ people are religious! (Sadly, IMO) 

Even the "scary evil" American Atheists and Freedom From Religion Foundation don't want churches to be illegal. They just want to defend our secular government so that the majority religion doesn't get preferential treatment. Just like it says in the first amendment and centuries of jurisprudence thereafter.  

 And frankly that's something even the most fervent religious zealot should agree with. Because the odds of our government picking THEIR particular sect of Christianity is vanishingly small. So the one government we all share must be fair and impartial.

Discrimination doesn't get a free pass for "minor" things like what events they'll cater or who gets to sit at the lunch counter. It doesn't matter if business owner is a bigot or a racist. That's the deal. If you want to run a for-profit business in this country, you follow the laws. And those include not acting on personal desires to discriminate. If you can't handle our country's antidiscrimination laws, Don't open a business!

The "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" is unconstitutional. Plain and simple. It's Jim Crow for LGBTQ community. And before you say, "But blacks can't hide their black identity and people can't tell who is LGBTQ!"   Remember that LGBTQ people shouldn't have to hide their identity.  Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone for a reason. It was discriminatory. When a gay or lesbian couple is out together, their identity is obvious. And they shouldn't have to hide it to avoid religions discrimination.

My Boy Scouts of America Survey Inputs

Boy Scouts of America asked me to take a survey.  Here are some of the comments I left:

I forget the exact question, but it's something like, "I enjoy participating with my son...".  I ranked it fairly high, but not the top and left this comment:

I've been Cubmaster of a large and successful Cub Scouts pack for over two years now. Many months into my service, I learned that as someone who happens to not believe any gods exist, I'm not technically welcome to serve.

Or maybe I am.  The policy is unclear. There's something about believing in things larger than ourselves. Like humanity? physics? The universe? I've not made an issue of it, but it's a lingering concern and it weighs heavily on my willingness to volunteer in the future.  I sincerely hope BSA can adopt a policy of non-discrimination soon.

If there was one thing that I would suggest to improve my Scouting experience, it would be. . .

End policies which discriminate based on beliefs and sexuality. Scouting SHOULD be a safe place for all, not another opportunity to exclude the out-group.  These policies must extend to all people: adult leaders, not just scouts.  Our kids see the bigotry wrapped in "family values".  They notice when an organization practices school-yard style exclusion.  

Discriminatory policies are a vestige of old cultural ignorance of beliefs and sexuality.  It's time to end them.

Resources for Atheist Cub Scouts

As a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Cubmaster, father of a Webelos scout, and atheist, I'm frequently struggling with how to deal with the scout's bigoted policy regarding atheism and homosexuality. It's an unfortunate part of life that otherwise good organizations fall victim to the glorified bigotry of religion in an attempt to teach "values."  Rather than reject the whole organization over one disagreement, I've thus far decided to work within the organization.  Note that I discovered that atheists weren't welcome after I'd already accepted the Cubmaster position, and I've stayed on because the pack needs me.  Though our pack is sponsored by a church, they have been very hands-off, allowing us to run a secular pack that largely serves the local schools.  Few of our scouts members are members of the church that sponsors us and provides us with meeting space.  I can't help but wonder how they'd respond if they ever asked my religion -- I wouldn't lie, but it's never come up.

But this isn't about me. It's about my 10 year old son in Webelos Scouts.  Ten is too young to have a firm and defensible opinion on the nature of the universe. But since he's close to me and I talk about my beliefs with him often, he identifies as atheist. This could wind up being a problem for my him since BSA doesn't consider it an acceptable to admit honest, rational, and reasonably skeptical world views. I've been looking for a good solution, and I found a few useful tidbits to share.

Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fellowships are not merely tolerant of atheist world views; my atheism is welcomed as the perfectly rational worldview it is and there are many other open atheists in our local fellowship. I know that some atheists consider UU a religion, but I think of it more as a socially conscious club to which I'm a member. There's no dogma (no creed to join), and a very wide range of beliefs are welcome.

Why am I talking about "church"? Because to earn the Webelos badge, scouts MUST accomplish a religious requirement.  The Unitarian Universalist Scouters Organization UUSO Answers the mail for atheists by providing a comfortably secular perspective on scouting in their "Religion and Family" program (note the lack of "god" in the title).  They've done the hard work of getting a dogma-free curriculum through the scouts religion panel. http://www.uuscouters.org/ hosts PDFs of relatively simple workbook you and your scout can work through to complete his religious requirement without being brainwashed into accepting absurd and indefensible claims of magic sky wizards. The material focuses on values and the role of religion plays in society. By helping your son understand what other people mean when they say "God", it's possible to get all the valuable aspects out of scouting without the spiritual woo.

There are two main charitable organizations I regularly donate to that are working to solve this problem over the long haul. 

  Scouting for All: http://www.scoutingforall.org/

  Scouts for Equality: https://www.scoutsforequality.org/

Unfortunately, LDS, Catholic, and Baptist influences hold substantial sway and their closed-minded one True™ answer worldview makes them difficult to work with. 

Secular Quotes for Chalice Lightings on Meaning and Purpose

I'm leading a Unitarian Universalist parent group this morning.  We're reading Parenting Beyond Belief,   and the class is mostly atheist, with a few skeptical believers  mixed in.  I am leading chapter 5: "Values, Virtues, Meaning, and Purpose".  So I needed to find something that expresses our general view that meaning and purpose in life don't come from a higher authority.  I thought I'd share the resources I found in the process in the hopes that others might find them valuable.

I found some good quotes on Good Reads.

“If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!” ― Mahatma Gandhi

This one made me think.  I don't consider myself to be the center of the universe.  If anything, Science has taught me that I'm small and insignificant on the scale of things and that defining something like a "center" is almost a nonsequitur.

“The person with a secular mentality feels himself to be the center of the universe. Yet he is likely to suffer from a sense of meaninglessness and insignificance because he knows he’s but one human among five billion others - all feeling themselves to be the center of things - scratching out an existence on the surface of a medium-sized planet circling a small star among countless stars in a galaxy lost among countless galaxies. The person with the sacred mentality, on the other hand, does not feel herself to be the center of the universe. She considers the Center to be elsewhere and other. Yet she is unlikely to feel lost or insignificant precisely because she draws her significance and meaning from her relationship, her connection, with that center, that Other.” ― M. Scott Peck, A World Waiting to Be Born: Civility Rediscovered

I'm considering a quote from American Humanists' Definition of Humanism:

Humanism is the light of my life and the fire in my soul. It is the deep felt conviction, in every fiber of my being that human love is a power far transcending the relentless, onward rush of our largely deterministic cosmos. All human life must seek a reason for existence within the bounds of an uncaring physical world, and it is love coupled with empathy, democracy, and a commitment to selfless service which undergirds the faith of a humanist. • Bette Chambers, former president of the AHA

Humanism is an approach to life based on reason and our common humanity, recognizing that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone.• The Bristol Humanist Group

Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity. • American Humanist Association

Humanism is a democratic and ethical lifestance which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethics based on human and other natural values in a spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. • The International Humanist and Ethical Union

This one is long (also from AHA), but it's a winner. I didn't read the whole thing -- just the bolded parts.

Humanism is a philosophy of life that considers the welfare of humankind - rather than the welfare of a supposed God or gods - to be of paramount importance. Humanism maintains there is no evidence a supernatural power ever needed or wanted anything from people, ever communicated to them, or ever interfered with the laws of nature to assist or harm anyone. Humanism's focus, then, is on using human efforts to meet human needs and wants in this world. History shows that those efforts are most effective when they involve both compassion and the scientific method - which includes reliance on reason, evidence, and free inquiry. Humanism says people can find purpose in life and maximize their long-term happiness by developing their talents and using those talents for the service of humanity. Humanists believe that this approach to life is more productive and leads to a deeper and longer-lasting satisfaction than a hedonistic pursuit of material or sensual pleasures that soon fade. While service to others is a major focus of Humanism, recreation and relaxation are not ignored, for these too are necessary for long-term health and happiness. The key is moderation in all things. Humanism considers the universe to be the result of an extremely long and complex evolution under immutable laws of nature. Humanists view this natural world as wondrous and precious, and as offering limitless opportunities for exploration, fascination, creativity, companionship, and joy. Because science cannot now and probably never will be able to explain the ultimate origin or destiny of the universe, I think Humanism can include more than atheists and agnostics. The lack of definite answers to these ultimate questions leaves room for reasonable people to hypothesize about the origin of the natural universe, and even to hope for some form of life beyond this one. In fact, two of Humanism's greatest luminaries, Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll, maintained a hope for an afterlife. On the issue of whether God exists, Ingersoll was agnostic, and Paine believed in a deistic God who established the laws of nature but then stepped away and never intervenes in the world. Those beliefs did not interfere with their ability to lead outstanding humanistic lives. Thus, in my opinion, people holding such views can be Humanists if they believe that humanity is on its own in this world, and the lack of any evidence for an afterlife means this life should be lived as though it's the only one we have. • Joseph C. Sommer

As an aside, @BekoLazarus suggested the poem, "A Thunderstorm In Town".  I liked the poem, but it's more romantic.  And we all know that parenting now has absolutely nothing to do with romance. *sigh*

If you have suggestions, please leave a comment.

AiG Files Frivolous Lawsuit Over Not Getting Their Christian Privilege

Here's their press release:

• https://answersingenesis.org/religious-freedom/religious-discrimination-lawsuit-filed/

I'm sorry, Ken Ham, but it wasn't "religious discrimination" that led the state of Kentucky to reject your request for a tax incentive.  It's that your bigoted Answers in Genesis organization intends to discriminate in its hiring based on religious affiliation and sexuality.

You can't have it both ways, Ken. If you want our secular society to invest in the success of your monument to mass genocide, you'll need to demonstrate that the economic benefit will support all citizens, not just your fellow religious kooks.  So build your homage to horrific destruction with the money you bilked out of the gullible. But don't come asking us for a hand out.

And fuck you for wasting our money on a frivolous lawsuit.