Witchy Woman

"An argument has been coalescing in my mind recently, as more and more religious people are making me understand that their definition of marriage is “a specific type of union that is sanctified by God according to their beliefs.”
I draw your attention to an adoptive mother. She is not, biologically, a mother. But she is legally (and socially and practically) a mother. But none of that will ever make her biologically a mother. Let’s say a group of people, for some reason, decided that it was patently ridiculous for someone to be legally allowed to use the term ‘mother’ and have all the rights & responsibilities associated with motherhood when they were clearly, factually, not a mother biologically. They decided that the definition of a mother was a female who had borne a child, and to that child, or children, she was now a mother. Well, that’s impossible to argue with, right? I mean, that’s the biological definition of mother.
To those religious people who believe that a marriage is any union between any one man and woman and therefore sanctified, that definition is as true to them as the biological definition of mother is a true definition. But that’s the key–it’s only one definition of mother. Legally, mother has another meaning. You can be an adoptive mother without having to call it “civil parenthood” or “nonbiological parenthood” or some other weird word whose rights were not clearly defined already and may not be recognized even if legal. You’re just a mother – a different type of mother.
So why can’t we do it this way with marriage? To be a biological mother or a legal mother you don’t have to fulfill the same criteria. It should be that to have a (sanctified according to some religions) marriage and a (legal; has nothing to do with religion) marriage you don’t have to have the same criteria, either.
The stranger who swats the cat away from eating my hair at night pointed out that in Connecticut, the reason they wound up with gay marriage was that they tried separate but equal (the civil union thang) and people weren’t recognizing it. Like, they passed a law saying they were supposed to be treated equally, but people weren’t. It’s not just a word. It’s over a thousand individual rights. That’s one definition of marriage. The one some Christians talk about is clearly another one. We don’t need another word, just like we don’t need to call someone a life parent or some other contorted phrase when they’re a mom of an adopted kid."

"One familiar sound during the holidays is the ringing of Salvation Army bells, beckoning passersby to spread good will and compassion for their fellow man.
One volunteer is forced to leave his job because he wants to marry a non-member.
But for Salvation Army Capt. Johnny Harsh, that same sound signifies quite the opposite. It is the sound of an entire life he will likely be forced to leave behind -- all because he fell in love and found himself in opposition to church doctrine that is nearly a century and a half old.
The Salvation Army, a church established in the 1860s and widely known for its charity work, expressly forbids officers to marry non-officers of the church.
That means that Harsh, after working for the church for 14 years, will have to forfeit his job in order to marry his girlfriend and non-member, Cia.
"This ruling, like a lot of other things in other churches, is a manmade rule," Harsh told "Good Morning America." "God does not look at a Salvation Army uniform." "

"Taneka Talley was stabbed to death in March 2006 while she was working as a clerk at a Dollar Tree store in Fairfield. Her killer’s only motive, prosecutors say, is that she was African American. That’s also the reason the store’s workers’ compensation insurer is denying $250,000 in death benefits to Talley’s 11-year-old son.

The boy’s grandmother, the child’s legal guardian, said Specialty Risk Services is taking the position that a racially motivated killing is personal, not work-related - even though the man charged with killing Talley had never met her before. The insurance company, Dollar Tree and their lawyers aren’t talking publicly about the case but are defending their position before a state appeals board that hears workers’ compensation disputes.

The opposition by Dollar Tree and its insurers to paying benefits to Talley’s son represents an attempt to set new limits on California’s workers’ compensation system, under which a company provides benefits to employees or their survivors for work-related deaths or injuries regardless of whether the firm was at fault.
“The doctors testify that Mr. Thompson’s motivation in stabbing Taneka Talley was purely race motivated,” attorney Kelly Hamilton wrote. “As such, it is our belief that our denial in this matter is proper.”

The compensation law doesn’t consider an on-the-job injury to be work-related if the
motives were entirely personal - for example, if an estranged lover or spouse comes to the workplace and attacks an employee because of a private grudge.

“Taneka Talley was at work, doing her job, when she was killed,” the lawyer said. “If she had not been in that store, she would not have been available to (the killer), and she would still be alive.

“It’s shocking that Dollar Tree and its insurance carrier are using the alleged racist motivation of a killer as an excuse to get out of paying benefits,” Stagliano said. (San Francisco Chronicle)"

"Unfortunately for the little lord Jesus, his manger was placed in the Illinois Capitol, where it could draw criticism on many fronts. On the one hand, protests and demonstrations are allowed at the Capitol. Displays such as this, which use freedom of expression, are clearly allowed within the grounds of the capitol building.On the other hand, the Constitution states that the governments of the United States will be separated from religious connections. Putting a nativity scene inside of a government building runs completely against that idea. In fact, it is a blatant attempt at mixing religion and government.Unlike a Christmas tree, which despite the name can be decorated in many ways to support different religions and ideas, a nativity scene depicts the baby Jesus lying in a manger, a story directly from the Bible."

"In March 2008, this presentation, titled "A New Approach To Suicide Prevention: Developing Purpose-Driven Airmen," was shown at a commander's call that was mandatory for an estimated 1,000 of Lakenheath's Air Force personnel, and sent out by email to the entire base of over 5,000 the following day. As the use of the phrase "Purpose-Driven" in its title implies, also incorporated into this presentation is the wisdom of presidential candidate inquisitor Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, a book that, second only to the Bible itself, is the most heavily promoted religious book in the military.
Following a slide stating, "Dr. Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, provides a powerful model for Suicide Prevention, developing leaders, and making troops combat ready and effective," the author of the presentation, Air Force chaplain Capt. Christian Biscotti, brings up Charles Darwin for the first time in defining what he calls "3 Levels of Purpose."On one of the next slides, Capt. Biscotti states that if we don't know where we came from we are lost, and that knowing where we come from is the origin of hope. This is followed by a slide comparing "Chance" and "Design," a.k.a. evolution and creationism.

And, why not work a little religious nationalism into this "suicide prevention" presentation? (I'm still trying to figure out how Capt. Biscotti came up with the notion that Charles Darwin was a leader of the former Soviet Union.)

Another segment of Capt. Biscotti's presentation, titled "FAITH is Foremost," contains three stories -- his own personal story, the story of the woman who made the news a few years back by talking her way out of a hostage situation by reading to her captor from The Purpose Driven Life, and, incredibly inappropriately for a presentation promoting religion, the story of Pat Tillman. I'm sure everyone remembers Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich's outrageous remarks that Tillman's parents' dissatisfaction with the investigation of their son's death was caused by their religious beliefs, or lack thereof, saying in an ESPN.com interview, "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more -- that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough." I'm fairly certain that the Tillmans would not be very happy to find out that their son is now being used as an example in a presentation promoting religion to the military.
The presentation ends by asking the viewer to receive their fist tool, which is to "Impart Faith." According to MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein, "The shocking discovery of this hideously unconstitutional, mandatory, military PowerPoint presentation, which is essentially coterminous with Rick Warren's sectarian Purpose Driven Life, takes the quintessential cake as far as magnitude of odiousness of illegality is concerned. Indeed, it is arguably not only the most prominent example in MRFF's current Federal lawsuit against the DoD of the 'pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice' of unconstitutional rape of the religious freedoms of our honorable armed forces members, but an example of the reckless substitution of religious ideology for the real professional help that could save the life of a member of our armed forces considering suicide.
Bertrand Russell once sagaciously opined that very few people can be happy without hating another person, nation or creed. This 'Purpose-Driven Airmen' mandatory presentation is the epitome of military-sanctioned 'hatred of the other' and those commanding its viewing must face trial by General Courts Martial."
The entire "Purpose-Driven Airmen" PowerPoint presentation can be viewed here."

"The lower house in the central African nation of Burundi has passed legislation making homosexuality a federal crime.
The legislation, which must first be approved by Burundi’s senate, is part of a sweeping reform of the country’s legal system that for the first time abolishes the death penalty and creates laws on genocide.
The new law[s] also protect women and children from all forms of violence - especially sexual violence.
Burundi is struggling to emerge from a civil war that has resulted in more than 300,000 deaths since 1993. The provisions on genocide and the abolition of the death
penalty are considered part of the healing process, but increasingly, hardliners have blamed many of the country’s problems on gays."

"As they beat me with sticks and whips, the soldiers repeatedly shouted, ‘We will crush you! We will crush you!' Then they threatened to kill me and others who opposed Kabila."

"At 3 in the morning seven Republican Guards came into the prison. They took 10 of the prisoners, tied their hands, blindfolded them, and taped pieces of cardboard over their mouths so they couldn't scream. The captain who did this said he had received orders. He said he would drink the blood of Equateurians that night. They took them away.... I knew one of the guards and asked what had happened. He said the others had been taken to the [Congo] river near Kinsuka and killed."

"They started to hit me. They stripped off my clothes. They took four sets of handcuffs and tied my hands behind me and then to my feet. I was thrown on the ground in this position... They gave me electric shocks all over my body. They put the electric baton in my anus and on my genitals.... I cried so much that I could hardly see any more. I shouted I would sign whatever they wanted me to."

"Kabila took a decision to beat-up on Bemba and to teach him a lesson."

"We all saw this coming, but again we did not do enough to avert the crisis."

"You JED who do you think you are? If you don't agree with the regime, go into exile and wait until your champion takes power. If you don't leave we'll help to shut you up for good. We won't miss. Too much is too much. You have been warned."

"Afghan authorities have arrested 10 Taliban militants in connection with this month's acid attack on schoolgirls, a provincial governor said Tuesday.
The militants confessed and said they were paid 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,265) to carry out the acts, said Rahmatullah Raufi, governor of Kandahar, where the November 12 attack occurred.
The men said high-ranking Taliban officials in Pakistan paid them to cross the porous border to carry out the attack, Raufi said.
The attackers used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, U.S. military officials said at the time.
Kandahar government spokesman Parwaz Ayoubi gave different figures on the number of girls injured, saying that six were burned, including one severely. He called the attackers "enemies of education."
Girls were forbidden to attend school under the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when U.S.-led forces removed them."

"Barely three weeks since America elected its first black president, noose hangings, racist graffiti and death threats have struck dozens of towns across the country.
More than 200 such incidents - including cross burnings, assassination betting pools and effigies of President-elect Barack Obama - have been reported, according to law enforcement authorities and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups."

"You said recently the real issue behind the anti-gay marriage movement is the crisis in the family. What do you mean?
American families are under a great deal of stress. The divorce rate isn't declining, it's increasing. And the majority of American women are now living alone. We are raising children in America without fathers. I think of Michael Phelps at the Olympics with his mother in the stands. His father was completely absent. He was negligible; no one refers to him, no one noticed his absence.
The possibility that a whole new generation of American males is being raised by women without men is very challenging for the churches. I think they want to reassert some sort of male authority over the order of things. I think the pro-Proposition 8 movement was really galvanized by an insecurity that churches are feeling now with the rise of women.
Monotheistic religions feel threatened by the rise of feminism and the insistence, in many communities, that women take a bigger role in the church. At the same time that women are claiming more responsibility for their religious life, they are also moving out of traditional roles as wife and mother. This is why abortion is so threatening to many religious people -- it represents some rejection of the traditional role of mother.
In such a world, we need to identify the relationship between feminism and homosexuality. These movements began, in some sense, to achieve visibility alongside one another. I know a lot of black churches take offense when gay activists say that the gay movement is somehow analogous to the black civil rights movement. And while there is some relationship between the persecution of gays and the anti-miscegenation laws in the United States, I think the true analogy is to the women's movement. What we represent as gays in America is an alternative to the traditional male-structured society. The possibility that we can form ourselves sexually -- even form our sense of what a sex is -- sets us apart from the traditional roles we were given by our fathers."

"The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined to reconsider its decision in a child custody case in which the child's father claimed the child's mother practiced Wicca.Two judges dissented, accusing the majority of embarking on "a grand inquisition."

In a per curiam order, the appeals court denied without explanation a petition for rehearing filed by the child's mother, who claimed a Chicot County circuit judge's decision granting custody of her child to the child's father was based in large part on the judge's finding that the mother was involved in a "cult." "

"A draft resolution scheduled for consideration by a committee of the United Nations General Assembly threatens to criminalize criticism of religion.
In its current form, the resolution would declare defamation of religion to be a violation of international law. The resolution’s drafters hope to circumvent free-speech statutes in other countries, including the United States’ own First Amendment."

"Opponents of a voter approved measure banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children in Arkansas are calling on lawmakers to overturn it.
About 300 people gathered at the Capitol to denounce the ban, known as Act 1 and approved Nov. 4 by voters. Act 1 does not have the power of a constitutional amendment, but does change state law to make fostering and adoption by unmarried people illegal.
A two-thirds vote by the legislature could overturn it.
Protesters carried signs saying “Kids need loving homes: Repeal Act 1.” The rally was organized by a number of LGBT rights groups.
Among the speakers was Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen who said Act 1 ties the hands of judges to the detriment of children in state care.
“In the name of justice I am here to ask you to say to legislatures please respect the judges that the people of Arkansas have elected to do their job,” he said.
Griffen, who also is a pastor, drew on Biblical references to criticize Act 1, referencing Jesus and Naomi and Ruth from the Old Testament, saying “[none of them] would be allowed to foster or adopt a child according to Act 1.”
Act 1 passed by 57 percent of votes. The voter initiative was organized by the socially conservative group behind the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Although it does not specifically mention same-sex couples, Act 1’s target was gay pairs and grew out of a controversial state supreme court ruling last year.
Arkansas’s Child Welfare Agency Review Board had established a policy in 1999 that banned gay people from serving as foster parents, and the Arkansas Supreme Court struck it down after a seven-year legal battle between the state and the ACLU."

"Police are investigating a death threat against Vermont Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, made a day after the Democrat announced he would introduce a marriage equality bill in the new session of the legislature.
The threat was made by an anonymous woman angry over the proposed bill who telephoned Campbell. Campbell said she threatened to blow up his home.
“It is disturbing,” Campbell told the Times Argus newspaper. “You never can tell if this is someone who is giving an emotional reaction or if there is some seriousness to it.”
Campbell said the threat was not just directed at him but also at his family. “They should not be exposed to threats of this type,” Campbell said. “You don’t expect that in Vermont.”
Campbell already has drafted the same-sex marriage bill. It would amend Vermont’s landmark civil union law to allow gay and lesbian couples full marriage.
Vermont was the first state in the country to legalize civil unions in 2000."

"His bill, which has already been drafted, would specifically exempt religious organizations from having to recognize such marriages, Campbell added. Campbell said it is one thing to have someone react with a threat against a lawmaker, however distasteful and worrisome. However, his family was also threatened by Wednesday's phone call, which police are investigating, he said."

"Residents of the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs noticed the homosexual community was growing. But they felt no threat. They went about their business as usual. Then, one day, they woke up to discover that their beloved Eureka Springs, a community which was known far and wide as a center for Christian entertainment--had changed. The City Council had been taken over by a small group of homosexual activists. The Eureka Springs they knew is gone. It is now a national hub for homosexuals. Eureka Springs is becoming the San Francisco of Arkansas. The story of how this happened is told in the new AFA DVD “They’re Coming To Your Town.”
One of the first actions of the homosexual controlled City Council was to offer a “registry” where homosexuals could register their unofficial “marriage.” City Council member Joyce Zeller said the city will now be promoted, not as a Christian resort, but a city “selling peace, relaxation, history and sex.”
AFA’s “They’re Coming ToYour Town” documents the story of how and why this happened. And how homosexual activists plan to do the same in other towns. Order a copy of “They’re Coming To Your Town.” Watch it. Then take the 28-minute DVD and share it with your Sunday School class and local church. This is a story the liberal media will never tell, but one you need to know." (Via Shakespeare's Sister)

"ROMANCE -- The lure of romance keeps Eureka Springs at the top of the list for getaway destinations. On any given day, somewhere in this historic hamlet, a couple is beginning their wedded bliss together, an anniversary is being celebrated, a marriage proposal is being proffered, or a spark is being rekindled. Eureka Springs has long been a special place for lovers."

" "On December 10th, you are encouraged not to call in sick to work. You are encouraged to call in "gay"- and donate your time to service."
The idea of 'calling in gay' could be an issue in the 30 states where lesbian, gay and bisexual employees have no legal protection against discrimination at work.
The organisers have provided a list of other activities that may not involve coming out in the workplace."