Hostage drama at Clinton office

This isn't really religion related but I thought that this was an interesting story. This just illustrates the emotions that people feel about Hillary Clinton and the presidency. You either love her or hate her enough to take two hostages.

Barack Obama's ties to the Muslim faith are being widely publized like in this article in the Washington Post.

In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.

Obama's father was not Muslim and his mother was an atheist but his stepfather did occasionally attend a mosque and his paternal grandfather was Muslim. This is obviously noteworthy because America has a phobia of the Muslim religion. No doubt the higher ups in Obama's campaign are doing there best to avoid any discussion of this.

Jesus Camp

This documentary is a great examination of the pentecostal teachings, as well as, their influence in American politics. It's really interesting and I'm not just saying that because I'm addicted to documentaries, I think most people will find it interesting. I will warn you though that it is a bit disturbing to see how crazy these people are...especially when they are talking in tongues.

Religion in American politics

This is a small part of an interesting documentary by a Dutch filmmaker on religion in American politics. It's well worth watching and if you find you can't get enough the full version can be found here

They were funny

The Danish cartoons of the prophet muhammed have been talked about incessantly so I will not belabor the reader (if there are any). I will merely say that this got way blown out of proportion. Come on, who dies over a cartoon? Think about it. But that's what happens with religion--it destroys all sense of rational thought. I should be king of the world.

Giuliani and Religion

The topic of religion has been a hot topic in the Republican presidential primary. The candidate that most conforms to the party's ideals, Mitt Romney, is a Mormon, a fact that a lot of Republicans find appalling. The candidate that most has a chance winning the presidency, Rudy Giuliani, is a Catholic who "does not attend regularly attend mass".

This article does a good job examining the religion of Giuliani and the dillema facing the Republican party. One interesting quote:

Their choice raises deep concern among prominent conservative Republicans who feel it would be a serious mistake for leaders of the religious right to scorn the former mayor of New York.

Hillary Clinton tries to court the Christian Vote

According to this article Hillary Clinton has hired an evangelical consultant to help her attract some of the Christian vote. This is significant because as the article says, "More than one-quarter of the USA's voters identify themselves as evangelical, a voter bloc that has long been courted by Republicans." If Clinton can win just a small percentage of that vote she will have a huge advantage in winning the presidency.

However, my question is: What can the consultant do to make Clinton more attractive to the evangelical community? She is still a pro-choice, anti-religious liberal in the eyes of many evangelicals. I dunno, I guess that's why there are consultants.

Visual Imagery

If you really want to scare yourself picture this: a congregation of Muslims. Before you go calling me a stereotyping racist, answer this: what image came to your mind? I’ll be more than willing to bet that it was an image of a violent Muslim protest or a group of al Qaeda soldiers with automatic rifles. How can this be? Simple, it’s all we see. Everyday major news networks flood our living rooms with disturbing visual images of the Arab world. Day in and day out newspapers print images that conjure up fear and hatred of these people within us. Today’s media has single handedly caused Americans to fear and hate nearly a quarter of the world population and that my friends, is scary.

Eddie Long Pimping for TBN with Steve Munsey

I cannot believe people would give money to TBN. It is an absolute crime to think that this organization does not pay taxes. On that note, whenever I drive by the TBN headquarters in Costa Mesa next to South Coast plaza I'm always amazed that with all the lights. I wonder if God wants them to waste all that electricity?

JFK and Religion

John F. Kennedy was the first (and only) Catholic president. This might not sound like a big deal but it was. So scared was the American public of having a Catholic president who could potentially be influenced by the (gasp!) Pope. Kennedy had to give this speech to try and qualm these concerns.

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

Wow. I wish I could have seen him speak. The reason this is relevant is that a lot of people are calling for Mitt Romney to give a speech similar to this over his Mormon faith...but Mitt Romney is not as good looking as JFK.

The Middle East

I had an earlier post lamenting how the Middle East is beyond repair. Well I'm not a physic it appears because there has been recent talks of a meaningful compromise between Israel and Palestine. As was said in this article from the BBC:

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said failure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians would spell the end of the State of Israel.

The talks were negotiated by President Bush which is probably his most meaningful move of his entire presidency, in my opinion. Which is pretty pathetic considering that it is almost the last year of his presidency. It's also worth noting that while Bush has done a good deed in helping foster this negotiation that the damage Bush has done in the Middle East with his numerous wars has far outweighed this one little good deed.

This is Funny

This isn't going to be an in depth post and the Kahuna will probably grade me down but whatever...I want to make a point. Why is it that Christians welcome the end of the earth or, as they call it, the rapture? It's pretty barbaric, I feel. I've had arguments with Christians over religion and inevitably the argument always turns toward something like this: "Well, when judgment day comes..." ARE YOU SERIOUS? Why would you want the end of the world to come? Idiots.

Religous Right's Tough Call

For Professor Lobdell's fascinating and thought provoking class, Politics, Media and Religion, I had to write a paper examining the coverage of five different mainstream news agencies of a current event with a religious element. I chose the Values Voter summit in Washington, D.C. organized by the Family Research Council. Basically, where a bunch of the religious right gets together to listen to the GOP candidates culminating in a vote. Winning the Christian Right is usually seen as a big deal for Republicans because they represent a significant voter block. Usually, this is summit is seen as a formality since the front runner of the GOP usually easily wins the majority. However, the Christian Right faces a tough decision this upcoming election.

As this article in The Christian Science Monitor says:

The bad news is that the strongest Republican in national polls, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is not with them on those issues. And if religious conservatives fail to coalesce around one of the "anti-Giulianis," his chances of getting the nomination rise dramatically – and their issues, they fear, will be off the table. With the next president likely to replace two or more Supreme Court justices, including some who support abortion rights, the opportunity of a generation to overturn the nationwide right to abortion, established in Roe v. Wade, could be lost.

Furthermore, the candidate who appears to best fit the qualities that the Christian Right embodies is Mitt Romney who is a Mormon.

This article in USA Today says it best:

Christian conservatives have not coalesced behind any Republican and have objections to most of them. Rudy Giuliani supports legal abortion, a deal breaker for many. Fred Thompson and John McCain oppose a federal ban on same-sex marriage and led efforts to limit political spending by interest groups. Mitt Romney is Mormon — troubling to some Christians — and didn't oppose abortion until 2004.

Stay tuned to see what republican wins the primary and whether or not the Christian Right supports them or a third party candidate. If the latter is the case most experts agree that a democratic winning the office is a slam dunk.

I think this is a great cartoon. This is a perfect illustration of how cartoons can more effectively portray viewpoints than words.

Religion and Voters

This article by the the Pew Forum shows the preferences each religious constituency has for each candidate both Republican and Democrat. Interesting to note is that Rudy Giuliani has strong support among the evangelicals despite all the rumblings you hear of them being dissatisfied with a lot of his political positions. I guess they must really think anything is better than Hillary...

The Middle East

Is so f**cked up, it's beyond all repair or FUBAR. Look at this picture...this is a of a Palestinians young man staring into Israel. My opinion of the situation is that if I were a Palestinian and my life was totally destroyed by the Israeli army I would be pretty pissed off. Now, would I be pissed off enough to blow myself up killing countless innocent civilians? No. But that is why the Middle East is FUBAR.

The Crusades

The Crusades are a perfect example of why separation of church and state is so necessary today. The Crusades were a set of holy wars which began in 1095 and lasted for the next 300 years. The Crusades were launched with the intent of Re-capturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control. Over the entire course of the Crusades millions of people, both Christians and Muslims died fighting for unclear reasons. The Church promised that any man who fought in and or died in the Crusades would be absolved of his sins and inducted into Heaven. Under this false pretense European kings sent millions of men to their death trying to capture a plot of barren dessert. If I have to go die fighting for a barren piece of land today, at least I know its over oil and not religion.

Religion, Politics and the End of the World

This is an interesting lecturer by Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith. He talks about the implications religion has an on the world. He is really disparaging but thats the best part.

Zoroastrianism

Zoro-what? Zoroastrianism was the religion of the once mighty Persian Empire. Over the centuries, the number of followers of Zoroastrianism has severely declined for numerous reasons. Today the number of followers of this religion stands at around about 200,000 many of whom are found in Iran and India. Many of those who live in Iran today are an oppressed minority officially condemned by the Ayatollah and his government. I would try to sum up this religion for you, but to say its complicated would be an understatement. One of their fundamental beliefs is to practice “good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.” Sounds simple enough, if only the whole world had a few more good thoughts, words, and deeds, we’d all be a lot better off. I found the religion to be an interesting read. If you’d like to know more click here.

America and Relgion

Although this article from the Christian Science Monitor is from 2004 it is a good examination
of the strong ties between religion and politics in America.

"This country is the most religious developed democracy in the world," says pollster Celinda Lake. "On the one hand, Americans want separation of church and state, but on the other they feel comfortable with 'In God we trust' and 'One nation under God.' It's a core value."

This is probably our most striking divide between America and Europe. Europe lost there religion a long time ago and has no tolerance for religious displays in their government. Not so in America where religion holds a lot of power.

On another note, I see a general trend in America away from religion and I wonder what implications this will have on the future of our country. For example, my parents go to church but I don't. This is typical, I feel, of America where the older generations are the religious ones and the younger generations have become turned off by the pragmatic teachings of organized religion. If this trend continues and the younger generation does not go back to religion then organized religion will loose a lot of its power in America and we will become much similar to Europe.