Christmas and Freedom
Part two of Ad’s series where he asks if Christianity is actually a liberation theology and maybe Jesus was a leftie after all.
Social issues
religion
Supply side Jesus
Ad proposes the theory that Jesus was actually a right winger.
Petition on Slater’s hate speech
Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions
Christianity doesn’t compromise with other religions or has the World Finally Gone madder?
Amazing Grace
Barack Obama sings the spiritual Amazing Grace during the eulogy for Clementa Pinckney, one of those killed by a racist gunman in Charleston. Not completely in tune, but he hits the right note. As his Presidency winds down, Obama has one last opportunity to move the American mindset. The rule of the gun must end.
Pope Francis has much to say
The pope and climate change
The Pope is calling for action on climate change. Naturally, he is being attacked for it.
can we just ignore it?
somebody says something stupid about muslims. then it has to be picked up by every media organisation who rush around for comments. of course they’ll find some muslims who will be angry and upset, given the serious stupidity of the comments. then the media report how OUTRAGED those muslims are, as well as interviewing the original culprit to give more air to his views.
War Begets War
We’re not good at learning from history.
Religion without God
What does religion without God look like… Sounds unlikely but Atheists the world over are meeting in!”churches” to indulge in religious-esque rituals
The NZ equivalent of the Westboro Baptist Church
The Westcity Bible Baptist Church based in West Auckland has posted a biblical passage on its Facebook page suggesting that homosexuals should be put to death. And its pastor has some strange views.
Shhh! It’s the ‘P’ word.
You don’t have to be white and male and financially wealthy to assume a prominent position within systems of patriarchy, but it helps. And you don’t have to be financially strapped and black and female to feel the full weight of patriarchy always pressing down on you, but it helps.
Conscience exceptions are for people with a conscience
The ability of doctors to refuse to provide proper healthcare if God says it’s bad is again in the spotlight, with a Blenheim GP refusing to prescribe the Pill to a patient because he decided she needed to have babies, and her views on the matter don’t mean shit. But are we seriously going to label that as an act of “conscience”?
Lining up for charter schools
The PPTA has published a list of organisations that have expressed an interest in setting up charter schools, almost half of them religious groups, some of them with rather fringe beliefs. Do we really want scarce state education funding being used to teach creationism?
ImperatorFish: A special thank-you to Richard Prosser
Scott thinks Richard Prosser’s done us a favour.
Help our kids!
Irish has already covered the appalling statistics from the Children’s Social Health Monitor. What struck me was the paucity of the Government’s response. […]
He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy
Don’t get me wrong. Apart from a couple of policies (asset sales, overseas investment, no borrowing for tax cuts), Colin Craig’s politics are bad. But I like his Boscawen-like mad honesty. It’s fun. Mainly because it makes him so uncomfortable for his new National suitors. But his up-frontness ends when asked about his compulsory Christianity employment contracts.
No country for old bigots
What is it about New Zealand media? Seems if you’re an old, privileged white man, you get a podium to say whatever nonsense you want – Henry, Laws, Armstrong, George, Du Fresne. And Deaker. The old twerp’s latest is to attack Sonny Bill Williams saying “I don’t like that he’s Muslim in a so-called Christian country”.
Peter Jackson – “Satan’s Little Helper”
Ken Perrott at Open Parachute points out another of those strange absurdities of our time. The Christians (well some of the stranger sects) think he is… arghh it is absurd – I’m not going to say it. And it is too early to be a shameless self-promotion. My only question is to wonder how this will cause John Key to give taxpayers money away again? And how much this time?
Dimpost says it all on Mutu
Margaret Mutu argues she isn’t being racist in her call to stop Europeans immigrating here because their cultures are inherently racist. She says she can’t be racist because racism is a power issue – discrimination against and degradation of people by others on the basis of ethnicity – and Maori are not in a position of power. But, wait a minute, is Mutu really powerless?
Just resting in his account?
Did anyone else see the Herald article beginning: “A priest working as a senior executive at the Auckland University of Technology has resigned after “accounting discrepancies” involving hundreds of thousands of dollars.” and think “the money was just resting in my account“?
No? Just me?
Lessons in hatred and tolerance
There are some ugly things going on in England at the moment, with PM David Cameron feeding an already eager fire of anger directed at Muslims. Meanwhile in Egypt thousands of Muslims acted as human shields to protect Christians from terrorist attack. “It is up to the press to report these positive stories and not exaggerate the sway that extremists hold over the global Muslim community.”
Brethren taking subsidies for illegal discrimination
Another great piece of work from I/S at No Right Turn: “the Exclusive Brethren have set up their own KiwiSaver scheme… The scheme will only be offered to members of the cult. This is, of course, illegal.” They’re trying to take taxpayer money for a business that illegally discriminates on the grounds of religion. It must be stopped.
Carter must go
Agriculture Minister David Carter has been exposed abusing his ministerial powers to protect the trade interests of his private investments. Earlier this year, Carter banned Jewish religious slaughtering practices because of perceived risks to the meat trade with Muslim nations after being briefed by companies he owns that take part in the trade.
Public money funding to keep children ignorant
The Herald looks at the Exclusive Brethren’s state-funded, schools. The lengths the cult goes to in an effort to keep their children ignorant is astounding. Everything is censored. Books in school libraries have pages torn out and passages blacked out. Ignorance is strength. All conservative movements realise they need to restrict knowledge and debate to prevent change.
Camels, Eyes, Needles
If you agree that money is power, and that power corrupts, then it follows having a lot of money may be a corrupting […]
Against the atheist bus campaign
I’m sorry, but I just can’t see the point of this atheist bus campaign. New Zealand is one of the most secular countries […]