Sarkozy still unsure whether France is secular or not

Last year, I wrote about French President Nicholas Sarkozy's landmark speech at Puy-en-Velay on Thursday, 3 March 2011, in which he spoke about France's Christian heritage.

More recently, in campaigning for the 2012 presidential election, at another major speech at Raincy on 26 April 2012, incumbent President Sarkozy again referred to France's Christian heritage

Je veux dire d’ailleurs que ce fut une grave erreur – et je le dis en Seine-Saint-Denis en sachant à qui je parle – que pendant tant d’années, mes propres amis se sont contorsionnés pour reconnaître ce qui, à mes yeux, était depuis longtemps une évidence, je veux parler des racines chrétiennes de la France. Quand je dis que la France a des racines chrétiennes, je ne fais pas la défense d’une église, je regarde simplement dix siècles de royauté et d’église qui ont construit une nation, je regarde ce long manteau de cathédrales et d’églises. Et dire que la France a des racines chrétiennes, ça permet d’accueillir ceux de nos compatriotes qui n’ont pas une racine chrétienne et de venir additionner leur identité à la nôtre. Mais si, dans le même temps où on accueille des compatriotes d’identités, d’origines différentes, si, dans le même temps, on conteste l’identité profonde de la nation française, il ne peut pas y avoir d’intégration parce que chacun se sentira menacé dans l’identité qui est la sienne !

Et je vais plus loin ! Ce fut une erreur. J’ai toujours été Européen, j’ai toujours dit oui à l’Europe. Mais ce fut une erreur de renoncer à inscrire dans le projet de Constitution européenne que l’Europe avait des racines chrétiennes parce qu’il y a un certain nombre d’Européens qui ont compris à ce moment-là que l’Europe venait contester leur identité alors même que l’Europe venait conforter leur identité. Voilà la réalité ! Si on ne sait pas d’où l’on vient, on ne peut pas dire où l’on va ! D’ailleurs, si vous doutez de ce que je dis, il suffirait, il suffit de voir tout simplement ce que font tous les autres pays dans le monde !

Here, he talked about French identity being based on ten centuries of Christian roots.

As I mentioned last year, "In all his insistence that France is secular, particularly in relation to a perceived Muslim/Islam issue, it is an unusual step and an attempt to appeal to Christian voters.

The question remains, either France is a secular state or it is not."

See full speech or if you prefer, watch (all 59 minutes of it).

Has he lost his noodles?

Reported by BBC News (14 July 2011),

An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as "religious headgear".

Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons.

Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism.

Later a police spokesman explained that the licence was issued because Mr Alm's face was fully visible in the photo.

"The photo was not approved on religious grounds. The only criterion for photos in driving licence applications is that the whole face must be visible," said Manfred Reinthaler, a police spokesman in Vienna.

He was speaking on Wednesday, after Austrian media had first reported Mr Alm's reason for wearing the pasta strainer.

After receiving his application the Austrian authorities had required him to obtain a doctor's certificate that he was "psychologically fit" to drive.

Read more. Earlier reporting by AFP in France24 (12 July 2011), Der Spiegel (13 July 2011).

(photo from Niko Alm blog)

See also Niko Alm's blog. His press release

Eine kleine Pressemitteilung.

—-

Morgen 8.30 Ad hoc PK: Die Nudelsieb-Affäre. Die Hintergründe.

Eine Beweisführung darüber, wie absurd Kirchenprivilegien heute sind. Mit Niko Alm und seinem Nudelsieb.

(Wien 13.7.11,) Wie es kam, dass ein Führerschein-Foto des Unternehmers Niko Alm mit Nudelsieb auf dem Kopf von der Behörde akzeptiert wurde – Niko Alm, Atheist und Mitinitiator des Volksbegehrens gegen Kirchenprivilegien, ist bekennender Pastafari und hat 3 Jahre lang um sein Recht auf einen Identitätsausweis mit Nudelsieb am Kopf gekämpft. Der Pastafarianismus wurde 2005 vom US- Physiker Bobby Henderson gegründet, Gottheit ist das Fliegende Spaghettimonster. Niko Alms Führerschein hat dieser Tage großes mediales Aufsehen erregt. Allerdings kann jeder das Privileg einer konfessionellen Kopfbedeckung am Passfoto in Anspruch nehmen. Niko Alm möchte aufzeigen, dass religiöse Privilegien vielfach aus dem Mittelalter kommen, oft skurril sind und im 21. Jahrhundert endlich beendet werden müssen.

Alles über das Recht aufs Nudelsieb und den seit heute laufenden Wettbewerb “Pimp your Head” – zeig die kreativste konfessionelle Kopfbedeckung, präsentiert von den Initiatoren des Volksbegehrens gegen Kirchenprivilegien.

Pressekonferenz und Fotoshooting:
morgen Donnerstag, 14.7., 8.30h

mit
Niko Alm, Unternehmer, Mitinitiator Volksbegehren gegen Kirchenprivilegien,
und
Univ. Prof. Heinz Oberhummer, Physiker und Wissenschaftskabarettist, Mitinitiator des Volksbegehrens gegen Kirchenprivilegien

Café Prückel
Stubenring 24 (Luegerplatz)
A-1010 Wien

Presse-Rückfragen:

FJ PUKARTHOFER PR, Jakob Purkarthofer, +43-664-4121491, info@purkarthofer-pr.at

Strangely, it's not a bad look. Fitting that the appropriate headwear for worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is one that is used to drain spaghetti.

Sarkozy unsure whether France is secular or not

James Creedon from France24 (1:45 minutes into the video of Friday's press review) gives a neat summary of French President Nicholas Sarkozy's landmark speech at Puy-en-Velay on Thursday, 3 March 2011.



In his speech, Sarkozy spoke about France's Christian heritage

C'est ainsi qu'entre 2009 et 2010, 47 des 86 cathédrales appartenant à l'État ont bénéficié d'une opération de restauration. Dès cette année d'autres chantiers majeurs seront ouverts, comme celui de l'abbaye de Clairvaux, autre lieu exceptionnel et témoignage vivant de l'apport de la Chrétienté à notre civilisation. En disant cela je ne fais simplement que rappeler une évidence : l'apport de la chrétienté à notre civilisation. Dans un tout autre genre le familistère de Guise, rare exemple de ces utopies sociales qui ont passionné le XIXe siècle va faire l'objet d'importants travaux.

Here, he talked about state funding of the restoration of cathedrals and the contribution of Christianity to (French or western) civilisation.

In all his insistence that France is secular, particularly in relation to a perceived Muslim/Islam issue, it is an unusual step and an attempt to appeal to Christian voters.

The question remains, either France is a secular state or it is not.

See
- full speech (in French)
- editorial in Le Parisien (newspaper in French)

High level, low level, unofficial official meeting...

Statement issued by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

The President met this morning at the White House with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. The President stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China. The President commended the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” approach, his commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government. The President stressed that he has consistently encouraged both sides to engage in direct dialogue to resolve differences and was pleased to hear about the recent resumption of talks. The President and the Dalai Lama agreed on the importance of a positive and cooperative relationship between the United States and China.

One official photograph of the event was publicly released, which is why all media reports are using the same picture.


Official White House photo by Pete Souza

The meeting was held in the Map Room, not the Oval Office, to play down the status of the meeting. There was no official welcome (or fanfare) and no media witnesses to the 'private' 70 minute meeting.

As expected, Beijing responded sternly. Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai, summoned Jon Huntsman, the US Ambassador to China, and “lodged solemn representations”. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu issued a very strongly worded statement about US President Obama's Meeting with the Dalai Lama

On February 18, 2010 (EST), the US side bent on arranging the meeting between President Obama and Dalai in the Map Room of the White House in disregard of the repeated solemn representations from the Chinese side. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also met with Dalai on the same day. The action of the US side has seriously interfered in China's internal affairs, seriously hurt the national feelings of the Chinese people, and seriously undermined China-US relations. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai has summoned the US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman for solemn representations.

Tibet is an inseparable part of the sacred Chinese territory and Tibet-related issues are purely China's internal affairs. China is firmly opposed to any meeting with Dalai by leaders or government officials of any country in whatever form. China is also resolutely opposed to the interference in China's internal affairs by any country or person under the pretext of Dalai-related issues. The words and deeds of Dalai in the past several decades have shown that he is not purely a religious figure, but a political exile engaged in long-term anti-China splittist activities under the disguise of religion. The approval of Dalai's visit to the US and the arrangement of meetings with the US leader and other government officials have severely violated the basic norms governing international relations, undermined the principles enshrined in the three China-US Joint Communiqués and China-US Joint Statement, and gone against the commitment of the US Government on different occasions that Tibet is a part of China and the US does not support "Tibet Independence". China hereby expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition.

The Chinese Government and people stand steadfast in their resolve to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any attempt from any person to interfere in China's internal affairs under the Dalai issue is doomed to failure. China requests the US side to take China's position seriously, take prompt and effective measures to remove the malign impact, stop the connivance and support of the anti-China splittist forces for "Tibet Independence", and stop the interference in China's internal affairs by taking concrete actions to maintain the healthy and stable development of China-US relations.

Beijing should perhaps take some comfort in the fact that this visit was very much a low key affair compared to the last time.


President George W. Bush, joined by U.S. Senator Robert Byrd and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presents the Congressional Gold Medal to The Dalai Lama at a ceremony Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
(photo by Chris Greenberg, then employed at the White House)

So the diplomatic dance begins again.

Here is a good analysis from PBS Newshour

Jesus rifles

GENERAL ORDER NUMBER 1B (GO -1B) lists the prohibited activities for US Department of Defense personnel present within the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR). Item 2.k states

Proselytizing of any religion, faith or practise.

From (US) ABC News Nightline


Rachel Maddow on MSNBC


The (US) Military Religious Freedom Foundation was, understandably, furious - statement

Albuquerque – Mikey Weinstein, the President and Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the first organization to bring the now infamous “Jesus Rifles” to light publically, made the following statement after learning gun manufacturer Trijicon will stop imprinting bible verse citations on the sides of rifle scopes intended for the U.S. military:

“Its about time! Trijicon’s outrageous practice of placing bible verse citations on military-issued gunsights for weapons was an unconstitutional disgrace of the highest magnitude to our military and an action that clearly gave additional incentive and emboldenment to recruiters for our nation’s enemies. It is nothing short of a vile national security threat that, despite our nation’s efforts to convince the Muslim world we are not pursuing a holy war against them, our military and its contractors time again resort to unlawful fundamentalist evangelical Christian practices, even on the battlefield. It has been said that ‘civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.’ We can now only hope that the United States Congress and The Pentagon will comprehensively investigate how this catastrophe and countless other examples of military religious extremism infiltrates every branch of our honorable armed services. But for now, at least we can take solace in Trijicon's affirmation that it will expeditiously remove the bible verse citations from its scopes. We only hope that the damage from their actions is not yet beyond repair.”

Unfortunately, allies of the United States have also become embroiled in this controversy - Canada and Australia, both of which are also secular.

It is fair enough for the founder of a company that manufactures parts for weapons to be a devout Christian, but there is something disturbing about associating an instrument of killing (preferably only in self defence) with Christian teachings. It is also a disturbing trend that there are so many so called Christians who are hate-mongers.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Taking the Bible literally

Right-wing Christian conservative puritans could be considered extremist in their views, particularly those who interpret the Bible literally in order to preach hate. Tibor Krausz has written a brilliant article in Killing the Buddha magazine. Excerpt

Notwithstanding Bible-thumping puritans who claim scriptural authority for their censorious prudery, the Good Book is replete with lewd metaphors, sexual innuendo, and outright obscenities, often starring some of the Bible’s most famous characters.

and

Far from being embarrassing anachronisms in a timeless tale, the naughty bits do much to enrich biblical stories by affording us insight into the beliefs and ideas of ancient Israel. As literary depositories of antiquity’s customs and beliefs, the biblical texts are fascinating documents. It’s when antiquated religious prescriptions and practices are treated as an enduring moral authority that trouble starts. Taken together, the Bible advocates a rather curious set of “family values.”

Take incest. Adam and Eve’s sons and daughters couldn’t have perpetuated the human race without it. And while early Israelites prized virginity, they also considered it a mark of hospitality to offer their wives and daughters to male guests for complimentary sexual services, just as it was a father’s right to sell his daughter to be a “maid servant” (Ex. 21:7).

In the famous story of Sodom, Lot, the nephew of Abraham, volunteers his virgin daughters to placate randy Sodomites seeking to “know” his male guests—two angels in disguise, as it happens. Later, while he’s in a drunken stupor sheltering in a cave after God’s destruction of Sodom, Lot is raped by these same daughters to “preserve the seed of our father” (Gen. 19:32).

Deuteronomy, meanwhile, prescribes the amputation of a woman’s hand for grabbing a man’s family jewels, or “secrets”—even those of an attacker as she comes to the rescue of her husband (Deut. 25:11-12). A biblical scholar, Jerome T. Walsh, has argued that the text in fact stipulates another punishment: the shaving of the offending woman’s pubic hair to shame her. Either way, incapacitating an attacker in a tried-and-tested method would seem preferable to letting your husband perish lest you overstep the bounds of propriety. Not by the lights of the Bible, though.

Not even the most devout can afford to interpret the Bible too literally—selective reading is inevitable. Yet many people still think that without the Bible (and religion in general), we’d all be morally adrift in a sea of licentious barbarism. Judging from many a biblical passage, the reverse is true: sexual civility requires ignoring scripture.

Bible-thumping scripture-citing fanatics are unreasonable. One can counter argue their claims, but as they won't listen to anybody else, there is no point in arguing with them.

Time to sacrifice the Gadhimai festival's animal sacrifices

Reported in the Times of India

Indians throng Nepal's Gadhimai fair for animal sacrifice
Sudeshna Sarkar, TNN 24 November 2009, 06:05pm IST

KATHMANDU: Thousands of Indians from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states bordering Nepal swarmed to the Himalayan republic’s southern plains Tuesday to attend a notorious Hindu fair there and sacrifice animals and birds in the hope their wishes would be fulfilled.

While a debate began to grow in Nepal about the Gadhimai Fair in Bara district and the wanton cruelty it inflicted on animals, the festival drew its strength from zealous Indian attendees who have been flocking to it every five years in a bid to circumvent the ban imposed on animal sacrifices in their own states.

The name on everyone’s lips on Tuesday, when the slaughter of buffaloes started, was that of Raman Thakur, a farmer from Sitamarhi in Bihar who sacrificed 105 buffaloes to show his gratitude. The goddess, Thakur said, had answered the prayer he had made five years ago by granting him a son.

Men, women and children poured in from Bihar, most of them carrying kid goats and roosters, many of which had been smuggled across the porous Indo-Nepal border, bypassing the few Nepali quarantine posts. “My son Vishnu has been ill for years and can’t walk,” said Kalaiya Devi, pointing to a severely malnourished child in her arms whose legs looked like matchsticks. “I am going to sacrifice a pigeon now and come back with a buffalo at the next fair if the goddess gives him the strength to walk.”

People who believe in witchcraft and supernatural powers and were hardened to suffering due to the suffering they themselves have undergone for generations are the people who keep the Gadhimai Fair in Nepal alive while the locals regard it more as an occasion to do brisk business when their hotels and restaurants remain full.

Ram Mahato, 37, who also came from Sitamarhi, planned to watch the execution of the animals, visit the circus and drink his fill of local liquor that has also been doing brisk sale underground despite an official ban on it. He had not heard of Maneka Gandhi, let alone her plea to the Nepal government to ban the quinquennial slaughter at Gadhimai. Neither had he heard that six people, including one from Motihari, had died after consuming adulterated hooch.

“Gandhi?” he asked, scratching his head. “Is she related to Indira Gandhi? But then, they have everything, unlike us. They can afford not to seek the blessings of the goddess.”

The local Maoist MP, Shiv Chandra Kushwaha, said he had decided to skip attending parliament – which his party had agreed to allow to convene for three critical days to pass the budget – to attend the fair since it was for a bigger cause. “About 75 percent of the people who come to fair to offer sacrifices are Indians. We can’t stop them because it is a religious sentiment. Why blame us? It is not us who are making the sacrifices.”

The Maoist MP estimates about 15,000 buffaloes will be killed Tuesday. On Wednesday, he says, the number of slaughtered goats, roosters and pigeons will run into hundreds of thousands. The temple authorities have built a new slaughter house at a cost of nearly NRS 5 million while a huge pit has been dug to bury the heads of the butchered animals. The animal skins are being bought by tannery owners in India and Nepal.

Nepal’s government refused to ban the massacre despite warnings by animal lovers and livestock experts that it could cause an outbreak of animal-borne diseases like goat plague, swine flu and bird flu.

Though celebrities like Maneka Gandhi and yesteryear’s sex symbol French actress Brigitte Bardot raised their voices against the killings, the root of the problem perhaps is that these voices are not as potent in the drinking water and electricity-less villages of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as the voices of imagined gods and demons.

Vision from Associated Press


The reporting from an Indian newspaper is even more remarkable, as it reports that attendees are mostly Indians from neighbouring states but more importantly, indicates that such ritual sacrifice is itself banned in those neighbouring Indian states.

Just because a cultural practice is old, it does not make it right. There is something macabre about turning mass killing into a spectacle, no matter how old the tradition.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States of America has yet again pardoned another turkey (or two) from being slaughtered for Thanksgiving, even if the 'nominated' turkeys were named, pampered and raised to perform for the televised spectacle. Surely the whole ritual is rather pointless when another nameless turkey is going to be killed and eaten anyway.

Ending caste discrimination

The Indian Constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth basis. It also abolished the practice of "untouchability". Unfortunately, the caste system still exists. Discrimination based on the caste system also still exists.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has now drawn attention to India's caste system, much to the embarrassment of the Indian government. From Times of India

UN set to treat caste as human rights violation
Manoj Mitta, TNN 28 September 2009, 06:10am IST

NEW DELHI: If the recent genome study denying the Aryan-Dravidian divide has established the antiquity of caste segregations in marriage, the ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva looks set to recognize caste-based discrimination as a human rights violation. This, despite India's opposition and following Nepal's breaking ranks on the culturally sensitive issue.

Nepal has emerged as the first country from South Asia -- the region where untouchability has been traditionally practiced -- to declare support for the draft principles and guidelines published by UNHRC four months ago for ``effective elimination of discrimination based on work and descent'' -- the UN terminology for caste inequities.

In a side-event to the session on September 16, Nepalese minister Jeet Bahadur Darjee Gautam said his county welcomed the idea mooted by the UNHRC document to involve ``regional and international mechanism, the UN and its organs'' to complement national efforts to combat caste discrimination. This is radically different from India's stated aversion to the internationalization of the caste problem.

Much to India's embarrassment, Nepal's statement evoked an immediate endorsement from the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, a South African Tamil. Besides calling Nepal's support ``a significant step by a country grappling with this entrenched problem itself'', Pillay's office said it would ``like to encourage other states to follow this commendable example''.

The reference to India was unmistakable especially since Pillay had pressed the issue during her visit to New Delhi in March. Pillay not only asked India to address ``its own challenges nationally, but show leadership in combating caste-based discrimination globally''. The granddaughter of an indentured labourer taken to South Africa from a village near Madurai, Pillay recalled that in 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had compared untouchability to apartheid.

Adding to India's discomfiture, Sweden, in its capacity as the president of the Europeon Union, said, ``caste-based discrimination and other forms of discrimination based on work and descent is an important priority for EU''. If this issue continues to gather momentum, UNHRC may in a future session adopt the draft principles and guidelines and, to impart greater legal force, send them for adoption to the UN General Assembly.

The draft principles specifically cited caste as one of the grounds on which more than 200 million people in the world suffer discrimination. ``This type of discrimination is typically associated with the notion of purity and pollution and practices of untouchability, and is deeply rooted in societies and cultures where this discrimination is practiced,'' it said.

Though India succeeded in its efforts to keep caste out of the resolution adopted by the 2001 Durban conference on racism, the issue has since re-emerged in a different guise, without getting drawn into the debate over where caste and race are analogous.

See also - (UK) Daily Telegraph

UN webcast on 16 June 2009


Of course it is a human rights issue.

evangelising ignorance

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published on 24 November 1859. To celebrate the 150th anniversary, Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort's evangelism ministry The Way of the Master will be giving away 50 000 copies of a 'special edition' of the book to top universities in the United States.

Here is his YouTube video.


Here are two YouTube videos from people who think Kirk Cameron is an idot.

Challenging assumptions - pork eating Turkish Muslims

Simon Reeve is one of the best travel docu-journalists around. In his new BBC series called Explore, in episode 'Istanbul and Anatolia', Adil Ray reported on the enigma of secular Turks who eat pork and drink beer.

You see, what I discovered in Turkey was probably the single most shocking piece of information regarding practising Muslims I have ever encountered.

No, not that the longer the beard the more religious you are, although some TV journalists would have us think so.

It's that in some parts of Turkey it is deemed perfectly acceptable for a Muslim to eat pork!

The guys I met take so much pleasure from it, in fact, that they actually go and hunt for it themselves - presumably to make sure it's real pork and not some kind of "tofu" variation supplied by the Islamic authorities.

I never thought I would see this day.

While a student, I was under the impression that even if a speck of my housemate's bacon fat was to get anywhere near my fish finger, I would be immediately struck down by lightning, but not before I had received 40 lashes in public from the local mullah and was disowned by the entire family.


Adil Ray joins a wild boar hunt in a Turkish forest

What struck me about the pork-eating and beer-drinking Turkish Muslims was how informed they were about their religion.

The people I spoke to had read the Koran and had made their choices.

This wasn't a case of someone feeling it had to be one choice or the other and that his or her life, beliefs and freedom were being compromised.

Until, that is, the authorities try to make it hard for them to hunt and sell pig meat or try to close down their local bars.

There are exceptions to every rule!

In any case, there was a time friends came over for breakfast and I had served bacon. The Jewish friend ate the bacon knowingly without any problem.

book - finished reading

Breakout : how I escaped from the Exclusive Brethren by David Tchappat (New Holland 2009)

From publisher's notes

Imagine a life without television, music or freedom; imagine every minute of your spare time being spent attending church; imagine growing up believing swimming pools, cinemas and dancing were evil.

For members of the Exclusive Brethren, a strict religious sect, constraints such as these are normal. No member is allowed to eat in the same room as a ‘worldly’ person, they are forbidden from owning a pet and they are restricted from socialising with anyone outside of the Exclusive Brethren. Most members are so isolated within the sect that they can’t even imagine a life on the outside.

But not all members can live such a controlled existence. Once David Tchappat had a taste of the real world as a teenager, there was no going back despite the fact he knew he would be cruelly ostracised from his family, friends and the only life he had known.

A very interesting read from a personal perspective of a very secretive organisation. Exclusive Bethren received a lot of media attention during previous Australian federal election campaigns allegedly due to their political influence with the previous Australian prime minister and political donations, particularly given members of the organisation are forbidden to vote.

Tchappat's autobiography is very honest and revealing.

More information on Exclusive Bethren.

They shun the conduits of evil communications: television, the radio, and the Internet.

No equivalent of the Amish's Rumspringa.

papal lessons

Pope Benedict XVI met with Muslim religious leaders, members of the diplomatic corps and university leaders in Jordan today, 9 May 2009. He gave a very interesting speech to them. An interesting passage -

For this reason we cannot fail to be concerned that today, with increasing insistency, some maintain that religion fails in its claim to be, by nature, a builder of unity and harmony, an expression of communion between persons and with God. Indeed some assert that religion is necessarily a cause of division in our world; and so they argue that the less attention given to religion in the public sphere the better. Certainly, the contradiction of tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied. However, is it not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society? In the face of this situation, where the opponents of religion seek not simply to silence its voice but to replace it with their own, the need for believers to be true to their principles and beliefs is felt all the more keenly. Muslims and Christians, precisely because of the burden of our common history so often marked by misunderstanding, must today strive to be known and recognized as worshippers of God faithful to prayer, eager to uphold and live by the Almighty’s decrees, merciful and compassionate, consistent in bearing witness to all that is true and good, and ever mindful of the common origin and dignity of all human persons, who remain at the apex of God’s creative design for the world and for history.

How interesting for the Pope to talk about manipulating religion for political ends.

Let those without sin cast the first stone...

sci fi saviours

One would think that science fiction is futuristic and completely non-religious. There was a great article in (New York) City Journal

There is a young man, different from other young men. Ancient prophecies foretell his coming, and he performs miraculous feats. Eventually, confronted by his enemies, he must sacrifice his own life—an act that saves mankind from calamity—but in a mystery as great as that of his origin, he is reborn, to preside in glory over a world redeemed.

A familiar story to Christians. Change a few details, and it's The Matrix or Superman Returns.

In fact, stories about good triumphing over evil, such as Star Wars have religious undertones.

The re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, as many fans found out after watching the finale, was about god.

Even in an imagined future, we all want to be saved.

Stille Nacht

Christmas celebrations are not yet over, as Ephinany falls on the last day of the twelve days of Christmas on 6 January. Furthermore Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate 6 January as the nativity.

One of my favourite carols is Silent Night, which is best heard in the original German (Stille Nacht).



The words in German also have a slightly different meaning.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute heilige Paar.
Holder Knab' im lockigten Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn! O wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’.
Jesus in deiner Geburt!
Jesus in deiner Geburt!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn
Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt seh'n
Jesum in Menschengestalt.
Jesum in Menschengestalt.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Wo sich heut alle Macht
Väterlicher Liebe ergoß
Und als Bruder huldvoll umschloß
Jesus die Völker der Welt.
Jesus die Völker der Welt.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit,
In der Väter urgrauer Zeit
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß.
Aller Welt Schonung verhieß.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Alleluja,
Tönt es laut bei Ferne und Nah:
Jesus der Retter ist da!
Jesus der Retter ist da!

Stille Nacht was written by Josef Mohr in 1816 and put to music by Franz Xaver Gruber in 1818 for guitar. It was first performed on 24 December 1818 at the Nikolaus-Kirche (Church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria.

I think it should only be sung in German.

************
Back to work tomorrow. Poor me.

books - finished reading

The Islamist by Ed Husain (Penguin 2007)

A very insightful book that is also very well-written. It should be read by everyone, especially those who pigeon-hole all Muslims as potential terrorists. This is not the case. There are extremists in every religion - radical Christian fundamentalists do as much damage to society with their hate.

Buddha would have no bar of it...

Yet another so-called 'Buddha Bar' has opened, this time in London.


Photograph: Sophia Evans (Guardian)

What is really wrong with the London venue placing a statue of Buddha there is that people on the upper level are looking down on Buddha. Goes to show really, how thoughtless and ignorant the proprietors are and totally not having any understanding.

A number of so-named 'Buddha-Bars' already exist, located in Paris, Subiaco (Western Australia), Adelaide, Byron Bay (New South Wales), Waikiki Honolulu and New York city, with many more elsewhere.

Misappropriating a religious symbol as interior decor with no connection to its religious teachings is highly offensive.

If the proprietors of these venues that serve alcohol are Christian, would they have statues of Jesus inside their bars and restaurants? No, of course not. It would be disrespectful. Catholics would be highly offended if a bar serving alcohol was called 'Virgin Mary Bar'.

Not only culturally inappropriate, but also highly insensitive.

A suitable response would be for monks and worshippers from the local Buddhist communities to enter these places without a reservation and to start burning incense and chanting and praying. After all, there is a statue of Buddha on the premises, so it must be a temple.

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Today was a horrid day weather-wise. I discovered a bank cheque in unopened mail from June this year. Oh, I must open all my mail on time.

suing God

Associated Press reported on 16 October about Nebraska state Senator Ernie Chambers' lawsuit against God being dismissed on grounds of no home address was listed to serve the lawsuit.

The story was widely reported in media outlets.

Strangely, not one of them mentioned the 2001 Australian film The Man Who Sued God. In the film, churches and synagogues as God's representatives were liable to the lawsuit against God. The only way out of it was if they proved that God did not exist.

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Despite staying home today, I still have a mess to sort out following yesterday's burglary.

a born again atheist

I found this article by Catherine Deveny in The Age (also in sister paper, Sydney Morning Herald) very interesting

Red hot enlightenment led me to believe in one fewer god
Catherine Deveny
July 23, 2008

Believe what you will, but don't expect me to stop prodding you about why you're religious.

WASN'T it hilarious how World Youth Day was an attempt to make Catholicism appear all modern and trendy, but what it achieved was to highlight how deluded and anachronistic the religion is?

The cavernous gap between the fresh-faced young teenagers and the old blokes in frocks and party hats was never more apparent than when the words "pilgrim" and "texting" were used in the same sentence. Repeatedly.

I had to laugh when I heard that "Ratzinger Rules" had been spray-painted on the Hyde Park War Memorial. And when I saw pilgrims chanting, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Oi! Oi! Oi!" I can't help wondering how the teenage pilgrims coped with their hormones and no condoms and what the consequences will be in a few weeks' time.

The fusion of wild youth and religious rapture is a complicated reality. A complicated reality I assume was responsible for the GOD ROCKS! graffiti I saw on an old stone church yesterday.

I don't give a stuff what people believe in, but it won't stop me poking at it or prodding it. Why should religion be any exemption? Telling me I'm going to hell won't bother me because I have the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Invisible Pink Unicorn and Bertrand Russell's Teapot in my heart. Google them if you are in the market for some red hot enlightenment.

Over the past couple of weeks Catholic-bashing has been elevated to the level of an extreme sport. Put your hand down at the back there, I'm allowed to. I spent every Sunday for the first 18 years of my life sitting in a medieval torture chamber listening to a bloke bang on about his imaginary friend who did magic tricks. Then the next 20 years massaging, editing and pruning the brainwashing into something that fit until suddenly I woke up one day and realised I was an atheist.

I wasn't searching for anything. I wasn't dabbling or questioning. I wasn't having any kind of spiritual breakdown. I just opened my eyes one day, looked around and realised that I had once been standing in a house and one by one the walls had collapsed and there was no longer a house there. I was standing out in the open. It was very liberating.

Funny though. For a while I would go to pray and then remind myself that I didn't believe. These days I send out wishes. I know, just as crazy.

I question some of my progressive, believing mates about if they believe in Noah's ark, the Immaculate Conception, Adam and Eve, the Resurrection, even heaven, and they squirm a little and try to change the subject. They get vague, defensive and then start muttering something about faith and mystery and a power of love that unites us all.

Sure, it would be easy to torture them, but they're adults and it's their life. I just can't see why it's so difficult to have a rigorous discussion about it. I feel no need to convert them. I just want them to know that if you are brave enough to place your hand through the invisible electric fence there's a bigger world beyond.

It's been a revelation to me a year since my "epiphany". I feel as if I'm walking through life with the blinkers off. Suddenly all the religious mumbo-jumbo jumps out as so bonkers. Wearing certain things, eating certain things, mumbling certain things at certain times so some imaginary friend will let you into a club in the sky when you die. I want to do my living now, thanks. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of never having lived.

There is a school of thought that suggests atheists should not call themselves atheists but just say we apply rational thought to everything and religion is no exception.

As Sam Harris, author of The End Of Faith, puts it, "I think that 'atheist' is a term that we do not need, in the same way that we don't need a word for someone who rejects astrology.

"We simply do not call people 'non-astrologers'. All we need are words like 'reason' and 'evidence' and 'common sense' and 'bullshit' to put astrologers in their place, and so it could be with religion."

I don't care what people believe in, but I do care that religion impacts on political discourse, public policy and that it stunts the ability of people to think for themselves and question. And that it kills people and causes suffering. But most of all I care that the invisible electric fences that are wired in the minds of children brainwashed by religion are difficult to remove. And impossible if you don't even know they're there.

A quote attributed to Stephen F. Robert sums it up for me: "We are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Peace be with you.

It reminded me of the time when I was young and in college. I challenged a very devout Catholic about her faith. I couldn't understand the concept of the infallibility of the Pope. I questioned how the Pope's authority could come from God when he was elected by men. Anyway, I made her cry. I guess faith is meant to be taken for granted. I was studying science. Of course I questioned everything. I still do.

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Emily came over for dinner tonight. I made baked balsamic vinegar marinated pork belly, with blanched cauliflower and broccolini. It was a very simple meal.

We've taken to watching The Gruen Transfer and The Hollowmen on TV. Both quality viewing from our public broadcaster.

French equality?

Strange things are going on in France. Succinctly reported in The Economist

A burqa barrier
Jul 17th 2008 | PARIS

How Islamic headgear can stop a woman becoming French

WHAT is the right balance between public expressions of religious faith and legally enshrined national values? France, with its 6m Muslims and secular constitution, faces that question in acute form. In 2004 it banned the Muslim headscarf in state schools and other public buildings. Now the wearing of the burqa has been ruled “incompatible” with French values—and nationality.

A young Moroccan, Faiza M, married a French citizen in Morocco and came to live near Paris. In 2005 her application for French nationality was rejected for “lack of assimilation”. Now the Conseil d’Etat has rejected her appeal on the ground that she “adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with the essential values of the French community, and particularly with the principle of sexual equality.” This is the first time the court has refused nationality on the grounds of religious expression. The court heard that the couple followed salafism, a radical form of Islam. The woman adopted the burqa at her husband’s request in France, where she “lives in total submission to the men in her family”.

The court decision has been welcomed. Fadela Amara, the cities minister, who is of Algerian origin, says the burqa is a prison. “It is not a religious sign but the visible sign of a totalitarian political project preaching sexual inequality,” she said. The new (Moroccan) head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith, Mohammed Moussaoui, called the burqa “neither an obligation nor even a recommendation” of Islam. In Britain and the Netherlands, the burqa has also stirred political controversy recently.

The paradox is that it was only when Faiza M came to France that she felt obliged to don the burqa. Ni Putes Ni Soumises, a group founded by Ms Amara to campaign for sexual equality, says many second-generation women in France come under pressure from Islamist radicals. Efforts to secure women-only sessions in local swimming pools and gyms are seen as similar attacks on equality. Last month a court in Lille caused a row by annulling a marriage between two Muslims because the bride falsely claimed to be a virgin, and the case was sent back for review. The latest court ruling may signal a more robust reaffirmation of secular values.

I am finding it hard to understand how a country of liberté, égalité, fraternité could demand equality by denying someone the liberty of practising their religion. The French government means well, but surely denying the right of religious expression is just as totalitarian.

There are no easy answers.

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I nearly slept in today. I wonder if it was Mondayitis.

Who knew that World Youth Day was on?

In Australia, it was hard to escape the news coverage of World Youth Day (WYD SYD 08). Saturation coverage indeed from The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, ABC and SBS to name a few.

Crikey, on the other hand, came up with a totally different angle.

WYD: Sydney converted, it's time to rein-in Spain
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Nicholas Pickard writes:

On Sunday Pope Benedict will announce that Madrid will be the World Youth Day host city for the next event in 2011. The focus will then shift from Cardinal George Pell and Sydney, as the Catholic world focuses its attention to another battleground in the fight to resurrect a dying religion's popularity. Spain is, for the Vatican, the last bastion.

Not only is Spain experiencing the usual drop in Catholic adherence, but the country now has a socialist government within a society that is very liberal. Abortion, divorce and gay marriage are all legal, so the Church must make some inroads to reverse these trends.

Leading the charge will be some of the most right-wing and conservative elements of the Church. The elite Opus Dei with their stranglehold on power in the Vatican will of course be there but not far behind are the newer and more youthful right-wing organisations. And they are all here in Sydney.

From the outside, this big youth day event appears to be a religion united, but nothing could be further from the truth. Such is the rift between the right-wing and more liberal elements of the Catholic Church many within are busting at the seams to come out and say what they think.

To understand the politics of what is happening domestically, it is vital to understand that Pell isn’t particularly popular among your rank-and-file Catholics and this whole World Youth Day event is less about the Pope, and more about our local Cardinal boosting his career opportunities in the Vatican and impressing the people that matter.

With the Pope by his side, he can hurl a few two-fingered salutes to the liberal members of the congregation. Aside from Opus Dei, one of the organisations prominent in youth day events is a big contingent of neocatecumenals, an extremely conservative organisation that emerged out of Spain and has spread to more than 105 countries and more than 860 parishes worldwide. I understand that 40,000 neocatecumenal pilgrims have descended on Australia, 3000 from Spain.

For a moment, forget about all the Guy Sebastian, hippy type guitar events, this World Youth Day is largely influenced by restorationist Vatican I theology. Out with new fangled liberal views on environmental concerns, the role of women in the Church, contraceptives and gays and in with Opus Dei, Eucharistic Adoration, aggressive evangelism, relics of stigmatics and a host of rites that haven’t been seen in Australia since the introduction of Vatican II.

Cardinal Pell will be presiding over a meeting of the neocatecumenals on Monday and has asked them to make the Gospel spread around Australia and provide some spiritual help for a country that has some “very serious problems”.

For the left of the Church these associations are having some very practical and alarming consequences. Stephen Crittenden reported in last week's episode of the ABC’s Religion Report, that in one instance “the Jesuits have been ordered to withdraw their plan to host a forum with the gay Catholic group Acceptance and PFlag, the organisation for parents and friends of young gays and lesbians”.

All this will very pleasing for the Opus Dei members in the Vatican.

As soon as the Pope arrived, Pell swiftly transported him to Australia’s Opus Dei headquarters. Pell is one of its 500 or so members in Australia. Opus Dei isn’t particularly popular here and is at odds with many.

"There is a great dissatisfaction with the Restorationist spirituality, which is also devoid of any commitment to social justice," Fr Confeggi, a parish priest in the outer Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Many of the kids flying in from all over the world would be unaware of this theological undercurrent. Nevertheless, they will be the ones taking part in these baroque rituals that will not necessarily take them closer to God, but will move them toward the Opus Dei view of the Church.

At one stage, George Pell even wanted to get the Catholic conservative and sometime racist Mel Gibson to direct the WYD Stations of the Cross ritual. It never happened, but we are getting close to the type of doctrines exposed on the youth walking around Sydney with their red back packs.

And none of this even comes close to the worries within the Church over the cost. It's costing the Church an estimated $150 million on top of the $86 million that NSW taxpayers are throwing in. The left of the Church might have other ideas for where they would rather spend that money. Let's see how they go in Madrid in three years time.

It makes sense that in any large organisation, there would be politics involved.

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Aside from an early afternoon outing with Kane, today has been a lazy day.

So was yesterday, though Kim came over for dinner and I made baked chicken (marinaded in preserved lemon, marmalade and soy), with dry roast potatoes (skin on, no oil), baked corn and blanched broccolini.