Random thoughts

Have Mercy

Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Pacific, has left more than a half million people without food, water, shelter, and medical care in the Philippines. The death toll is still expected to top 10,000. A list of vetted charities can be found here. The people affected are "losing hope." Please help if you are able.

Junk Food

The Washington Post discusses food stamps: too much is being spent on items high in calories and low in nutrition. It is a well-formed half-truth. The article barely mentions the absence of stores that sell fresh produce, abundance of stores that sell only junk food, and lack of living wage jobs in the community. That leaves an article with many words and little substance.

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Brain Damage

Researchers find that childhood poverty disrupts brain function related to emotional regulation decades later. Perhaps they should scan the brains of politicians that disparage the poor and slobber over the rich. I am curious to see what ethical bankruptcy does to the brain.

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Oops

An advocate of patriarchy gets caught committing adultery and resigns his "ministry."

Doug Phillips, an outspoken proponent of male “dominion” over women and a leading home-schooling activist, has stepped down as president of his Texas-based Vision Forum Ministries after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a woman.

At least we know he is not without sin. It is ironic, however, that his sin also reveals that he is a clever money-changer.

In 2011, the San Antonio-based ministry reported about $3.3 million in revenue, the most recent available financial records. Phillips received $44,000 in salary from the ministry for a 30-hour workweek, according to the ministry’s financial documents. 

The related for-profit company was paid $193,176 in 2011 by the nonprofit for “labor and services,” according to records. 

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Say what?!?

Sarah Palin tells Matt Lauer that she loves the commercialization of Christmas while hawking her book supposedly decrying the commercialization of Christmas. Her book was released just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

"I love the commercialization of Christmas. It spreads the Christmas cheer. It's the most jolly holiday, obviously, on our calendar."

I could explain that a month long orgy of consumption and spending does not honor Christ in any way, shape, or form, but why bother?

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War on Thanksgiving

The list of major retailers forcing their employees to work on Thanksgiving is growing longer. Nothing is sacred but money for the vipers that run these companies.
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Good Grief

The inspiration for all those boneheaded 'rape victims cannot get pregnant' comments was a study done by a Nazi doctor, Hermann Stieve, on executed female political prisoners. At the time, Stieve was chairman of anatomy at the University of Berlin.

If the source were not repulsive enough, the original study was even dishonestly presented by Fred Mecklenburg, the physician responsible for the much cited gospel of the anti-abortion crowd. Mecklenburg claimed that women in concentration camps were sent to a mock execution before they ovulated and then re-examined to see if they ovulated as expected by their normal menstrual cycle. No such study was ever done. Instead, the Stieve examined women about to be executed as political prisoners and then harvested their ovaries, concluding that the stress of anticipating one's execution disrupted ovulation.

Extending Stieve's finding to rape victims is ridiculous. If a woman has already ovulated when she is raped, there is abundant medical evidence that pregnancy is possible.
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Martyring Truth

The often cited claim that 100,000 Christians are murdered each year because of their faith is wildly false. About 90% of those 'martyrs' were killed in the Congo civil war, typically by others calling themselves Christians. The source of the misleading statistic is unrepentant. Apparently it is more important to scream about persecution than it is to accurately report how frequently it actually happens.

"And ultimately I think making that point is more important than being precise about the death toll."

Anyone that uses religion as an excuse to kill another person has betrayed God. The religion of the victim and of the killer makes no difference. It is all a betrayal of the Holy One.

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Interesting

Some atheists have discovered they like church. In fact, they like it so much they are creating their own "mega-churches" around the world.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It looked like a typical Sunday morning at any mega-church. Hundreds packed in for more than an hour of rousing music, an inspirational sermon, a reading and some quiet reflection. The only thing missing was God.

Good for them. Just a word of advice. I understand why God will be missing, but it would be wise to teach all to love others as they would want to be loved.

By the way, Jesus laid out the criteria God will use to separate the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. The bottom line is that you have to love others and especially care for those that suffer from hunger, thirst, homelessness, sickness, despair, and imprisonment.

Understand this, brothers and sisters, God understands our inability to understand God. God defies our senses and imagination. As I read the New Testament, my take is that God is less offended by disbelief than people who claim to love God but ignore or increase the suffering of our fellow humans. We all understand what it means to be hungry, thirsty, scared, in pain, lonely, and broken in spirit. Every single one of us will experience these things at some point in our life, even if only briefly. That means we have no excuse for any lack of empathy and compassion.

They don't bash believers but want to find a new way to meet likeminded people, engage in the community and make their presence more visible in a landscape dominated by faith.

So can you avoid the temptation to proselytize and convert people of faith, instead seeking to stand out in in love for others? Remember the very thing you claim to hate is people of faith that do not respect your lack of faith. Intolerant atheists are just as ugly as intolerant religious folk. Search your heart. You know that is true.