I would like to state for the record that I'm a social justice loving Christian.

As usual, Fox News Should Be Ashamed

The story is that Mary Winkler has been awarded full custody of her daughters, who will continue to have visits with their paternal grandparents.

Unfortunately, the media vilification of Ms. Winkler continues with Fox News in the lead. Their headline for the balanced AP article: "Killer Mom Gets Kids" with a blurb that only identifies Matthew Winkler as a preacher and Mary Winkler as the convicted killer. (The screencap below is of Fox's home page, which I frankly don't care to link to.





I've previously ranted about similar treatment of Ms. Winkler by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and CNN, but that biased coverage pales in comparison to this travesty of journalism.

Fair and balanced, Fox News? Yeah. Better word is hypocritical.

h/t to Fran

Knoxville Church Shooting

A gunman walked into a Knoxville area Unitarian-Universalist church yesterday and opened fire, killing two members and injuring others. His actions probably were influenced by the church putting up a sign declaring support for GLBT persons. The Knoxville police report that in a letter he wrote he claimed to target the church because of it's "liberal stance on things."

There's a number of blogposts following this with more info:
Box Turtle Bulletin: here, here, and here
Pam's House Blend
and
The Wild Hunt

Continuing Commentary on Mary Winkler

...from your friendly neighborhood Restoration Movement feminist guerrilla.

In latest news, the custody battle for the girls continues. I've said before that I'm not certain what would be best for the girls. There needs to be substantial proof that Ms. Winkler's mental health has stabilized before full custody for her should be considered, and I haven't heard anything that isn't a rumor to suggest that the girls aren't being well cared for by their grandparents. (I do think that visitation rights for Ms. Winkler are in order at this time and am delighted to here that she's been visiting with her daughters.) In any case, my sympathy is first and foremost with the girls.

That's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how Ms. Winkler has been subtly condemned by the media. Case in point, today's article from the Commercial Appeal.

The first paragraph identifies Ms. Winkler as "the woman convicted of killing her preacher husband" (emphasis mine). Now, in the area in which the CA circulates, identifying Matthew Winkler as a preacher is automatically going to build up sympathy for him. The fact that Ms. Winkler was only convicted of voluntary manslaughter because she was able provide sufficient evidence to back her witness that Matthew Winkler was abusive is not mentioned until the third paragraph. The order in which the information is presented is a subtle sign that the media has condemned Ms. Winkler and privileges the image of the "preacher husband" over her testimony.

Yes. I find it a bit problematic.

So I'm a bit late...

but can we get a AMEN!

California Supreme Court Affirms Equal Marriage Rights for Gays and Lesbians!

Good news -- I like it!

Are You Going to be a Missionary?

I was just chatting last night about how a lot of people from the church I was raised in assumed that since I'm (was? -- oh god, just finished the last undergrad class!) double majoring in Russian Studies and Religious Studies that I'm going to go out and convert the heathen masses of Russia.

Yeah, I don't want to make Putin that mad. (And there's that whole opinion I have that Orthodoxy, while not perfect, is far superior to the Evangelical groups who tend to be running missions in Russia.)

There are huge problems with the way that the Orthodox Church in Russia has been caught up in a nationalist movement. There are issues of freedom of religion. (However, we Americans should be careful to not read our experiences with certain religion dominating government policy into the situation with Russia.) Obviously, Orthodox bishops dubbing Protestants "Christ-killers" is a problem. But the article would have you believe that the Russian Orthodox are all hateful barbarians and that the Protestants are squeaky-clean.

I really feel like this article didn't do justice to the colonizing element of Protestant missions in Russia. Many people involved with these missions seem to not even recognize Orthodoxy as Christianity. I have heard comments that dehumanize and defame Russians. (Most famously: "They just don't know how to love each other.") It's difficult to sort these colonial attitudes out from some genuinely good impulses that are also present in mission work, but the colonial attitude can't be ignored. That is -- the poor, persecuted Protestants aren't necessarily as innocent as this article would have you believe.

Du-buh?

Questions that have run through my mind recently:

Just what is Bill O'Reilly referring to when the words "the far left" leave his mouth? Does he realize that the "far" left actually isn't that excited about Barack Obama? I suspect the far left is too terrifying for the BOR to even imagine.

Disregarding other things Rev. Wright may have said (my gut feeling is that, for the most part, he's being unfairly taken out of context), how on earth is the statement, "America is run by rich, white people," incendiary? It just seems to be factual. Angry, yes. Offensive, no.

Why is this book in existence? Seriously, I kinda want to get my hands on it for laughs. I love the scrambling to shore up the hegemony of representation. And my two cents on the matter: Eastern Orthodoxy is very much Christian.

Why does much of Christianity purport to conform to Chalcedon and yet completely ignore the FULL HUMANITY of Jesus Christ?

How did I manage to miss the word theosis until today? How sad for me. Much easier to say than bogochelovechstvo.

How can it be so difficult to find a picture of two broken pots on the interwebs?

Now leaving my brainspace...

On another note -- to anyone and everyone celebrating the Resurrection today -- Happy Easter!

Ooo...can I be a part of this agenda too?

Given my last paper was titled originally Origen and the Angry Inch, and then retitled Breaking Both the Vessels: Narrating the GenderQueer Kingdom of God, I think I'm already there.

Via Peterson Toscano (who will be in Memphis this month!), Christianity Today's take on the "Transgender Movement."

This article demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of gender identity, overlooks transgendered persons who do not feel the need for SRS, as well as genderqueer persons, gender outlaws, and any other persons floating about in the gender spectrum.

Further, anyone who is paying any attention at all when they read the Bible should be able to pick a cue here and there that gender is constructed in different ways in different times and places. Elements of gender queering remain in the New Testament -- eunuchs for the kingdom of God anyone -- even if J.C. didn't mean that statement literally, the implication of saying that in a society which considered eunuchs to be walking the line in between women and men, is certainly a striking idea. Mary of Bethany is praised for ignoring her traditional womanly gender role and taking up a studious masculine gender identity. Early church hagiography is rift with gender bending saints. The early church didn't seem to have much of a problem with "glorifying wierdos." And this is only what made it past the canon redactors.

Do a bit of digging and a lot of other stuff pops up! Joseph's "technicolor dream coat" -- yeah, the only other time that Hebrew word is used in the Bible -- it refers to the garment worn by the virgin daughters of King David.

Suggested Reading:

She's Not the Man I Married, Helen Boyd, of (en)gender -- I'm only about halfway through, but this is both clear and nuanced introduction transgenderness.
Homoerotic Narrative in Hebrew Bible, Theodore W. Jennings, Jr.
The Manly Eunuch, Matthew Kuefler
Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism, Bernadette Brooten

Update on Columbia Mosque Arson

Three people ranging in age from 19-32 have been arrested.

Also, this article contains responses from a couple of area churches. I'm glad to see churches calling for respect for all religions. Unfortunately, the comments at the end of the article are reviving my desire to leave Tennessee and never look back.

Home Grown Terrorism

The neo-nazis in Maury County burned the Islamic Center in Columbia, TN to the ground. Thank the Divine in all the forms and faces that no one was injured.

It's a hate crime, which means the FBI is involved and hopefully the good ol' boys won't be able to sweep this under the rug if they were so inclined. I hope they catch the bastards and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Those bastards are terrorists.

They intended to spread fear through the Muslim residents and citizens of Maury County, Tennessee, and the United States of America. They intended to reassert their sense of being powerful and being able to oppress others. To violently assert their mistaken sense of superiority and self-righteousness. To communicate what they would like to do to every person who doesn't share their skin color, religion, etc.

This is the result of the anti-Islamic rhetoric that has taken over the Republican party. This is the result of people who believe the lies that the television is feeding about Islam -- usually, without ever having met a single Muslim individual. That mindset allows the hatred and the misunderstanding to grow, until it does become violent. Words can and do support terrorism, and every slur against Islam, every misrepresentation of Islamic culture does just that. It supports and undergirds the mentality that leads people to do things like this.

I expect to see and hear a number of arguments that this doesn't reflect the actual attitudes of people in Maury County, and on a certain level it doesn't -- most of them wouldn't actually go out and commit a violent crime. However, the people of Maury County, the people of Tennessee, and the people of the United States as a whole, have to realize that incidents like these don't form ex nihilo in the mind of a racist redneck one night. They grow out of, and are supported and informed by, a cultural context and a cultural rhetoric, and when something like this happens, it's time to take a look at the social constructs that fostered and gave birth to it.

The rhetoric of hatred is a problem anywhere it is found.

The Shrub Loves Freedom?

But he is selling 20 billion dollars worth of weaponry to Saudi Arabia.

Cause, you know, the Saudi's aren't repressive in the least. Not at all. Of course, it isn't immoral to back the Saudi regime. Nope.

I don't care that the Saudi's have massive influence on how much oil costs. We're screwed no matter what at this point. And I'd like to be a citizen of a country that's a little less hypocritical.

For you, my heart bleeds...

No, not really.

OMG! Suburban schools have different grading standards and don't all give students the same amount of credit for AP and IB hurting little Johnny and Susie's chances at merit scholarships at prestigious universities. That's like, totally unfair.

Give me a break. The real disparity and unfairness is between filthy rich suburban schools who can actually offer AP and IB classes, and poor schools in the inner cities where you're lucky if they actually manage to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the poor schools in rural areas, where maybe they teach reading, writing, and arithmetic very well, but there's no resources available for advanced classes.

Yeah, it's really a tradegy that Johnny or Susie didn't get extra GPA points for their AP classes. It's not like a county or two over, or in the inner city, there are kids who aren't being taught to read, or graduating without being able to make change for a dollar. Oh, wait, nevermind, it is.

Thank god, I'm from a family of inveterate geeks!

Wake Up! Time for the sex talk!

First comment, Whithorne Middle School has real DJs at their dances?! Us kids at the unloved stepchild of the Maury County School system had to make do with having the Student Council and friends haul in what CDs we had, and dragging Cousin Eric's speakers and player down the hill to the school. A real DJ? At 300 dollars a pop? That's . . . there have to be better uses for that money -- get creative!

Yes, I know that I'm overlooking the fact that Hampshire has somewhat older kids, somewhat better equipped to collectively disc jockey a school dance than a middle school does. But I'm all for unit schools anyway.

Okay, so, what's the occasion? Apparently, some parents were offended by lyrics they overheard while waiting to pick their kids up from the dance and with the normal wisdom shown by the powers that be in Maury County, the director of schools is contemplating suspending dances at middle schools.

Yeah, so, I might be wrong, but I think the song in question "Get Low" is kinda passe. I believe I remember it from my high school days . . . and four years does seem to make all the difference as to what's cool in the musical tastes of pre-adolescents. Seriously, you hadn't already heard this song enough to be offended by it? I'm not questioning whether the song is offensive or in bad taste -- the lyrics make my feminist skin crawl. And, actually, I'm not the most sensitive flower in the field. There would literally be no way to edit these lyrics. Of course, you also can hardly understand them -- with the exception of "My BALLS" being yelled at points, which is probably where the offense was taken.

But, no one remains innocent forever, and while the school should have guidelines for the music played at school-sponsored dances, you can't escape "Get Low" -- believe me, I tried for most of my junior and senior years of high school.

But then what offends me about the song was probably not the parental objections. The Herald article doesn't mention people being offended by misogyny and the abject objectification of the female body. Just offense at mention of genitalia and explicitives. So, they'd probably also object to The Dresden Dolls, without distinguishes between the two. (No, I wouldn't play most of the Dresden Dolls' catalog at a middle school dance, in part because they wouldn't get it.)

The sad thing is that songs like this, Cosmogirl, television shows, and misinformation on the school bus is roughly all the sex education the kids of Maury County are getting. So, not only are they not innocent -- they have nothing with which to balance the pop culture. And the solution, dear parents and school board of Maury County -- is not to suspend school dances because of an inappropriate song, the solution is to get some real sex education. Something to counter the prevalent mythology. To teach respect in sexual situations, both for your own self and for whoever else is involved. Maybe some basic knowledge of how things work -- because I, being known as the smart kid, was once asked on the bus if you could get pregnant if you were taking birth control pills and using a condom. I was in middle school at the time! The girl asking me was, I think, a junior! Something isn't quite right with this scenario. And, this scenario is far more harmful (and objectionable) than an inappropriate song being played at a school dance.

But why would anyone think of doing a silly thing like that. Nope, no, let's bury our heads in the sand.

I hate Bambi: Deer, Farming, Suburbanization

Seriously, I've never understood the appeal of that film.

So there's a Commercial Appeal article today about a farmer in Shelby County shooting 40 deer in defense of his cotton crop. He had applied for and received a permit to do so. At least a 30% damage to his cotton was noted by the appropriate authorities. The area of land the guy rents to grow cotton on is 200 acres. The neighbors are, of course, in an uproar whining abut how they "don't like to deer slaughtered" and "brutality."

So some of the things this bloke was up to strike me as less than well thought out. Just dragging all the corpses into a wood and leaving them to rot, for one. There should be a better system in place to deal with that issue. But really, it's the little suburbanite residents that I have no sympathy for. Overpopulation of deer is an actual problem. Yes, death is brutal and it freaking happens. Deal.

While I've never been hunting myself, I grew up in the middle of a community that hunts. And hunts in closer proximity to houses than this fellow was. (A neighboring family interrupted Thanksgiving dinner because a small herd of deer had wandered into the field out back.) Sure, there could be safety concerns to this, but we knew not to go out to play in the woods without at least having on brightly colored clothing. If my parents knew someone was out hunting in a certain area (we leased back lots to hunters) we were not allowed to go out into that lot to play. Simple as that. Further, communication happens in farming communities. One neighbor who hunted raccoons would knock on our front door fairly frequently after dark to say that his dogs had followed a coon onto out property, would it be okay to go after it?

So, in the clash of cultures, I really don't have sympathy for the suburbanites who are moving into "the country." Yeah, life's more brutal out here. You might drive down the road and see a calf who died laying on the shoulder waiting for the dead wagon to come pick him up. You might hear gunshots because Billy Bob and Bubba are going hunting and their land abuts yours. Or because you moved next door to my grandfather, and if you are a critter you shouldn't expect to mess with my grandfather's crops and get away with it. (If you are a human, lock your car doors or you'll go out one morning and find two or three plastic shopping bags of sweet corn and tomatoes -- its a risky business living near my grandfather.) Your kids will encounter dead things and dying much earlier than they will if you keep them in an actual suburb. (They might encounter it at school on an agsci class field trip to see a hog slaughtered, or when they are assigned to bring in a dead squirrel to learn taxidermy. Or when they open the freezer in the ag shop and find the intact roadkill that the teacher keeps on hand for students who can't bring their own critter corpse.) You will need to pay attention to what you're neighbors are doing -- like as not, they'll be happy to keep you informed, if you ask them -- and instruct your children accordingly. Wear something with bright colors, and unless Dick Cheney came to visit, your kid should be fine. Besides, deer hunters are normally out at dawn and at dusk, not the middle of the afternoon.

If you want to live in the country, live in the country -- there's lots of things I like about it. Quiet. Knowing what I'm eating and how it was slaughtered. The neighbors dropping off part of the mess of fish they caught at the river. Well water with high iron content to keep the mild anemia I think have under control. My tree forts. Seeing deer and other critters that aren't road kill. Peaches that freaking taste right!

But if you want something sanitized and clean, the country is not the place for you and your escapism. Real human society is probably not the place for you. With some massive systematic restructuring society would be a lot cleaner, but you can't do that while trying to create an escapist existence in the "country." And certainly not if you think a fellow shooting some deer is the gun crime worthy of complaining about. Particularly, when your little housing development likely contributed to the greater strain on his crops. Reality. Deal with it. If you don't like it, change the system that creates the problems instead of just trying to run away from them and creating more problems somewhere else.

Now this is what I've been hoping for...

Sweetness! There is yet hope! Found from (en)Gender.

Torture, ethics, and hijacking

It's alright for the CIA to torture detainees for information, and there's no need to give them any real guidelines.

Oh yeah, the Shrub has so much moral superiority over Mr. Putin. And torture has such a good track record for producing reliable information. I mean, heck, it got all those confessions during the inquisition, didn't it? Man, just think what we could do if we could burn folks at the stake!

How does he sleep at night? Does he just not comprehend what he's doing? That must be it, cause I really don't believe the Shrub is evil incarnate (although, things like this make me reconsider) -- he just has the approximate intelligence of a rock. Or maybe he is evil incarnate, I don't know anymore.

I mean there's the obviously questionable ethics of the US condoning the torture of people, but there is the small practical matter that if we're torturing enemy combatants and mocking international treaties, how in God's name can we expect any other country to not do the same should they capture American soldiers? And back to that first bit -- how it is ethical to do that?

Weren't you sucking up to the moral majority, Mr. Shrub? Oh wait, I forgot, the moral majority is only concerned with the "traditional family." They only care about keeping women in the house and making sure that gays are treated as subhuman in the economic and legal systems. (More moral that way, I suppose.) Justice isn't a part of morality -- just ignore the prophets behind the curtain.

Shoot, I'm not worried about hijacked airplanes -- I'm a little more concerned with the hijacked constitution and morality.

Cause Religious Freedom Apparently Only Applies to Evangelical Christian...

Again from Gandhi, "I like their Christ, but not their Christians."

Hindu Prayer in Senate Disrupted

I think Barry Lynn from Americans United For Separation of Church and State hits the nail on the head:

“America is a land of extraordinary religious diversity, and the Religious Right just can’t seem to accept that fact,” Lynn continued. “I don’t think the Senate should open with prayers, but if it’s going to happen, the invocations ought to reflect the diversity of the American people.”

But, what's the problem with a Hindu prayer opening the Senate? (I love Hindu services, myself.) We turn to the original American Family Association action alert to find out how these minds (dys)function.

Well, apparently, senators might hear that there are scriptures other than the Bible.

in his prayer he will likely include references to ancient Hindu scriptures, including Rig Veda, Upanishards, and Bhagavard-Gita.

They can't see Upanishads or Bhagavad-Gita correctly -- sounds like their research is top-notch. And I'm sure no one will admit that the Rig Veda is the oldest scripture known to mankind. But what other reasons could their be?

Well, Hinduism isn't a monotheistic religion.

"In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods," the Christian historian explains. "And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator -- that's not one that fits here because we don't know which creator we're talking about within the Hindu religion."

Actually, buddy, and I might be wrong here because I have hardly scratched the surface of Hinduism, I think Hindus generally do know what Creator they are talking about because creation is a specific aspect of the Divine Being. Oh, and, Hinduism isn't polytheistic either -- the many gods are all different aspects of one God. So, in a way, Hinduism is more monotheistic than Christianity that has had so many problems working out the relation between the members of the Trinity.

It burns! The bigoted ignorance burns!

Exhibit A: Silencing

And, in today's Post we have an article showing an actual case where political force was exerted in order to censor a person. Assuming, of course, that the ex-Surgeon General is telling the truth, which given this administration, I'm inclined to believe that he is.

Ex-Surgeon General Says the White House Hushed Him

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried," he said. "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds."

But, I mean, it's perfectly okay to censor information about the effectiveness of teaching kids how to use condoms in high school sex ed classes, or the facts about emergency contraception, or stem cell research. After all, you're not actually playing with people's lives and health when you do that. And if you are, well, you prayed about it with Pat Robertson or James Dobson, Jesus wants you to do it, right? Besides it's mostly kids and women who are hurt, and they aren't actually people, you know.

I commented earlier to a friend regarding the Pope announcing Catholicism to be the only true church, that Jesus must have popped a couple of migraine pills and is laid out flat on his back in a darkened room in heaven praying to himself for it to just stop. I think that expression works here too.

This could get interesting...

Fred Thompson inches closer to declaring a campaign for president.

You know, I doubt I'll just fall head over heels in love with Thompson (okay, just looked at his voting record -- ain't going to happen), but the enemy of my enemy is my friend effect at least adds some humor to the bleak realm of presidential possibilities. After all, James Dobson has already declared that Fred Thompson, a Church of Christ boy, is not a Christian. Does Mr. Dobson not realize how many CofCers make me feel nausous by substituting Focus on the Family for the denominational structures the CofC lacks? Are his CofC puppets also not Christians? Oh wait, it was just because Thompson isn't public enough in his expressive of faith. Because, Jesus didn't actually mean it when he said not to pray in public but to go shut yourself in your closet.

Oh, please, oh, please, can the Libertarians and the Green party get in on the debates this time around inside of getting the lock-up. Pretty, pretty please. With sugar on top.

The Libertarian in Me Isn't So Sure About This

Universal Health Care in Massachusetts?

Umm... is requiring people to buy health insurance or face a penalty on their state taxes really a good idea? And at least, the state has thought through this enough to know that they need to offer subsidies to help folks out and exemptions for the people who still won't be able to afford it, but I'm still hitting a brick wall in trying to comprehend how requiring that individuals have health insurance (rather than simple trying to create a system in which basic health insurance is available to those who desire it at a reasonable rate) is, well, frankly, ethical.

The argument that it's for their own good doesn't work for me. Doesn't work for me with mandatory seat belt laws, won't work for me on this. And I'm not saying that the health care system in the US isn't broke or that trying to extend access to health coverage to the vast majority if not everyone is a bad thing. I just don't think that coercion of individuals by the government is the right way to go about it. Maybe indirect coercion where the system is fixed to the point that everyone has access to health insurance if they want it, and if an individual chooses not to have insurance he or she also accepts sole responsibility for any medical bills incurred.

Yeah, the libertarian isn't too delighted with this idea and seriously hopes that no feds decide they want to try and follow it. The conspiracy theorist is also thinking that its one short step from "You will have health insurance." to "You will turn your body over to the state health care system because it's for your own good. We want to make sure you get preventative health care. And now we're going to force you to get treatment for disease X. No, no, we don't care that you don't want treatment. You can't refuse." Yeah, yeah, I know slippery slope. Whatever. I did say I have a tendency to think in terms of conspiracy theories. Everyone is out to get me.

And then Putin made my day. Scary as the man is, I do love him for his tendency to tell the Shrub off, either subtly or not so subtly.

Putin to Shrub: My dog is bigger than your dog, little man.