Dan at Between the Links has written a couple of posts about the reaction to a proposed Muslim worship center in Hoover.  Apparently some residents are not too excited about the idea.  At first they hid their opposition behind traffic concerns, but now it seems that their real concern is apparent: Islam.

My only question: can you blame them?

The vast majority of organized, occasionally well executed, terrorist attacks are conducted by Muslims.  It’s not that they happen to be Muslim by circumstance - the attacks are carried out in the name of their religion.  One could easily investigate attacks before 9/11, which as you might remember was carried out by Muslims.  But just looking at attacks and other atrocities since 9/11 shows that Islam is anything but a religion of peace.  The Madrid, Spain train bombing.  The bombing of The Tube in London.  Two half assed attempted “car bombs” last week in the UK.  Iraq.  Afghanistan.  Somalia.  Darfur.

Of course the media all but refuses to admit that all of the people associated with the most recent car bombs are Muslims.  The preferred way of framing it is to say they come from diverse backgrounds.  The media attempts to strain to find commonality between them, while ignoring the most glaringly obvious similarity.  They’re all Muslims!  James Taranto did a great job identifying some of the media foolishness.  Even the Prime Minister of Britain has refused to associate their religion with their crimes.  One thing you may not have been told about the attempted bombing in Piccadilly Circus is that the bomb was strategically placed outside of a club holding a “ladies night” in order to kill as many women as possible.  Such is the treatment of women in the peaceful religion of Islam.

Britain has been dealing with the effects of having a Muslim community that has established pockets of Sharia law within the island nation.  So-called “honor killings,” which are anything but honorable, are on the rise there and are the focus of increased investigation after a recent murder.

Are all Muslims extremists?  No.  But there are a whole lot of Muslims and even a vanishingly small percentage is still a significant quantity of people.  It has been shown that the extremists often meet and organize through their local mosques.  So, is it any surprise that folks in Hoover would be less than excited about a new Muslim “worship center” in their fair city?  The only real surprise is that any of them would have the temerity to speak against the project in today’s PC environment.

I’m not kidding.

The Governor has issued a proclamation declaring June 30 through July 7 as “Days of Prayer for Rain” in Alabama, and he is asking citizens to pray individually and in their houses of worship for rain.

“Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for His blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty. This drought is without question a time of great difficulty for our farmers and for communities across the state,” Governor Riley said.

This can’t set a good precedent.  Who’s he going to blame when/if the drought continues?

Kudos to Mitt Romney for standing up to one of America’s two biggest race pimps.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday turned the tables on the Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday, lambasting him as an example of “bigotry in America” after the controversial cleric insulted Mormonism by saying Romney’s White House bid will be defeated by voters who “really believe in God.”

Romney responded to the remark with uncharacteristic anger, firing off a series of heated statements accusing Sharpton of perpetuating the bigotry he so often rails against. Sharpton most recently led the charge to fire radio host Don Imus for racist remarks.

Apparently Sharpton made the inflammatory remarks in a debate with Christopher Hitchens.  Is it just me, or does it seem unfair to have Hitchens, who has been named as one of the top 100 public intellectuals, debate Sharpton, who specializes in crafting slogans?  It seems a bit like Milton Friedman debating John Goodman.

You can listen to the debate here.

Update (5/10/07 - 21:44): I listened to the debate and Hitchens mopped the floor with Sharpton as expected.  It was a very lively and entertaining debate with a rather excessive number of references to genitalia.

Apparently James Dodson is capable of determining who is and is not a Christian.

“Everyone knows he’s conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for,” Dobson said of Thompson. “[But] I don’t think he’s a Christian; at least that’s my impression,” Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination.

I thought God was the only one who could make that call.  Does Dobson think that he is God?

The Mormon Church has it’s funny underwear all in knots over a t-shirt.

From the NY Times:

T-shirts of a Mormon angel with coffee flowing into his trumpet are selling well at a coffee shop in this central Salt Lake Valley city. But they do not have the blessing of religious leaders.

The shirts have upset the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The angel Moroni is a revered figure (Mormons believe he appeared to church founder Joseph Smith); many Mormon temples are topped with a statue of the angel.

Also, Mormons are discouraged from drinking coffee.

The T-shirts show the angel Moroni, a male figure in a robe who is blowing a trumpet. The trumpet is turned up at an angle as coffee is poured in.

…

Scott Trotter, a church spokesman, said the angel’s image was a trademark of the church.

I didn’t know you could trademark an angel.

I heard about the conservative alternative to Wikipedia on NPR the other day.  It’s called Conservapedia.  On the NPR story they read aloud a portion of the entry for kangaroos dealing with their origins.  It’s worth reading.

According to the origins theory model used by creation scientists, modern kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah’s Ark prior to the Great Flood. It has not yet been determined by baraminologists whether kangaroos form a holobaramin with the wallaby, tree-kangaroo, wallaroo, pademelon and quokka, or if all these species are in fact apobaraminic or polybaraminic.

Also according to creation science theories, after the Flood, kangaroos bred from the Ark passengers migrated to Australia. There is debate whether this migration happened over land — as Australia was still for a time connected to Europe by a land bridge similar to the one that connected Asia to America — or if they rafted on mats of vegetation torn up by the receding flood waters. Another theory is that God simply generated kangaroos into existence there.

I’m sorry if I offend your delicate sensibilities, but kangaroos didn’t hop or commandeer rafts from the Middle East to Australia.  I can’t imagine anyone saying that they - all of them, no stragglers - rafted 6,000 miles from Iraq to Australia with a straight face.

From Time: The Religious Right’s Era is Over.

In the churches, a combination of deeper compassion and better theology has moved many pastors and congregations away from the partisan politics of the Religious Right. In politics, we are beginning to see a leveling of the playing field between the two parties on religion and “moral values,” and the media are finally beginning to cover the many and diverse voices of faith. These are all big changes in American life, and the rest of the world is taking notice.

Evangelicals — especially the new generation of pastors and young people — are deserting the Religious Right in droves. The evangelical social agenda is now much broader and deeper, engaging issues like poverty and economic justice, global warming, HIV/AIDS, sex trafficking, genocide in Darfur and the ethics of the war in Iraq. Catholics are returning to their social teaching; mainline Protestants are asserting their faith more aggressively; a new generation of young black and Latino pastors are putting the focus on social justice; a Jewish renewal movement and more moderate Islam are also growing; and a whole new denomination has emerged, which might be called the “spiritual but not religious.”

Read the rest for yourself.

I think that the “Religious Right” has done great harm to Christianity by turning it into a bastardized, two issue (anti gay, anti abortion) religion.  My own readings and research of the bible don’t mesh with the vitriol espoused by most Christian “leaders” such as Dobson and Robertson.

As an example of one of the other misguided fights that the Religious Right is engaged in, we have this Georgia state legislator:

A Jewish organization is demanding an apology from a Georgia legislator for a memo that says the teaching of evolution should be banned because it is a myth propagated by an ancient Jewish sect.

State Rep. Ben Bridges denies writing the memo, which attributes the Big Bang theory to Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.

Bridges has long opposed the teaching of evolution in Georgia classrooms and has introduced legislation requiring only that “scientific fact” be taught.

…

The memo asks readers to challenge the “evolution monopoly in the schools” by logging onto Hall’s anti-evolution Web site, http://www.fixedearth.com .

“Indisputable evidence - long hidden but now available to everyone - demonstrates conclusively that so-called ’secular evolution science’ is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” says the memo, which has Bridges’ name on it. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

You really do need to take the time to visit the “Fixed Earth” website above.  Those people are absolutely nuts.  Not only are they anti Darwin, they don’t even believe in the findings of Copernicus.  Of course their important findings aren’t free, you have to buy the book!  All I have to say is that if you think the earth doesn’t rotate then you are a complete moron.  I would go over the orbital mechanics with you, but I doubt you would understand.

In case you haven’t heard, a new law that goes into effect in April in England prohibits discrimination in “goods, facilities, and services on the basis of sexual orientation.”  This new law has the Catholic and Anglican churches’ panties in a wad because it would force them to allow gay people to adopt children.  They have threatened to scuttle their entire adoption programs if they are not exempted.  For now it seems that Blair will not side with the churches.

First of all, I don’t think government should interject themselves into the affairs of private organizations, such as churches.  Individuals and organizations should not be compelled to conform to the government’s definition of morality.  If this were America and the churches were found to be violating the constitutional rights of gay couple then that would be another story.

The reaction of the churches highlights what I feel is a grave shortcoming of modern day Christianity: the dramatic amplification of the “sin” of homosexuality (among others) above and beyond many other more explicitly spelled out wrongs.  Homosexuality didn’t even merit a top ten ranking on Moses’ stone tablets.  In my readings of the Bible I noticed countless references to helping the poor and those who cannot help themselves.  I scarcely recall instances where homosexual lifestyle was condemned and many of the passages cited by anti-gay zealots are dubious at best.  In keeping with the Christian spirit the churches should realize that the children would be better off if they were to be adopted by caring people, gay or straight.  How do you rationalize “punishing” (an action that most Christians will be quick to tell you should be set aside for God) a gay couple by depriving a child of a better life?

It’s a plus for McCain in my opinion.

“Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances,” said James Dobson, founder of the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family as well as the Focus Action cultural action organization set up specifically to provide a platform for informing and rallying constituents.

Dobson may be a great guy and a great preacher.  For all I know he may be a future Ted Haggard.  But he seems to be in favor of some kind of fundamentalist theocracy in America and I just can’t endorse that.

If your deeply held religious beliefs cause you to deny scientific facts then you are a moron.

belief (n) - something believed; an opinion or conviction

fact (n) - something that actually exists; reality; truth

Case in point: the Bush administration’s orders to National Park Service employees that they say “no comment” when asked how old the Grand Canyon is so as to avoid upsetting fundamentalists who believe a great flood that supposedly carried a vessel containing two of every animal carved out the canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah’s flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.’”

It is entirely possible to maintain faith in the deity of your choosing despite scientific evidence - which was not available at the time that earthly humans penned your religious document(s) - that refutes certain stories.  Some people, though, have faith so weak that the refutation of even a single parable shakes them to their very core.