Growing Tired of Atheism

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I think I am rapidly reaching a place where I am no longer going to use the atheist label.  This does not mean that I now believe in God or anything like that. As far as belief is concerned, I remain an unrepentant, apostate, unbeliever.

What I am growing tired of is the drama that seems to be increasingly common in the atheist community.  I think this started in earnest when the atheism+ crowd decided to act like Fundamentalists and divide atheists into two categories…either you are with us or you are against us. Quite George W. Bush of them, I would say.

Then there are the atheists who hate religion and view accommodationists like me as cowards. They see no value in religious belief and often suggest that religious belief is like having a virus or a mental illness.

Then there are the mythicists who are quite certain Jesus never existed. Doubt their certainty, question their evidence?  You secretly harbor desires to be religious or you are not willing to look at ALL the evidence. Translation…you are not willing to come to the same conclusions as they have, and you should, since they are certain they are right and everyone should think like they do.

Then there are those who lack basic social skills when they interact with those who disagree with them.  I have learned a lot about atheism just by watching how people like PZ Myers, Richard Carrier, and the atheism+ evangelists treat those who disagree with them on issues like politics, social justice, and feminism.

I find myself at a place where I am having to say, I am NOT that kind of atheist.  When I was a Christian, especially over the last ten years before I deconverted, I found myself having to say, I am NOT that kind of Christian. What I am finding out is that there is a Fundamentalist form of atheism that is an awful lot like the Christian Fundamentalism I left years ago.

As I mentioned in a comment  to Paula earlier, I think I am having an existential crisis. Maybe this is what is fueling my distaste for what I see and read from the atheist community.

I remember coming to a point as a Christian where I was embarrassed and ashamed to say, I am a Christian. I am at that place with atheism. I am tired of the infighting and the pettiness. I am tired of of the shortsightedness I see, and the hollow, cheap victories we win in the name of atheism.

So I hope you will forgive me if I leave off calling myself an atheist.  I hope you will also forgive me if I take a hiatus from the various atheist groups/forums/blogs I support and instead focus on developing my thoughts and ideas about secular humanism.

Or, I can just quit….

And, as of this moment, I don’t plan on doing so.  When I get to the place where I no longer enjoy what I am doing or I think it is a waste of time, then it will be time for me to hang the gone fishing sign.

I am not there…yet.

This is just me talking out loud to my friends. I hope you’ll understand.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.  Smile

The Inconsistent Pacifist, A Few Thoughts on War and American Empire

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Towards the end of my time in the ministry, I began to develop what I called a consistent life ethic. When I was an Evangelical, I was pro-life but I was also pro-war and pro-capital punishment. As my theology and beliefs turned liberal and socialistic, I realize how inconsistent I was on the life issues and I developed a consistent life ethic that was against any killing.

When it comes to war, I am a pacifist. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Wendell Berry,  Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Merton, Howard Zinn, and John Howard Yoder for teaching me, through their books, to abhor war.

Yet, I know that without war, without killing, evil would likely overrun the world. So, I am an inconsistent pacifist. I recognize that as long as people congregate into states there will be war. In fact, as we deplete our planet’s natural resources, I expect there to be more war and not less.

But, on principle, I oppose all war and I certainly oppose ALL of the wars that have been fought in my lifetime. From Korea forward, the U.S. has fought wars, not of self-defense, but to expand its empire.  To this day we continue to fight wars that are more about dominance and control than they are self-defense. This kind of warring is quite expensive, so we take money that should be spent on healthcare, infrastructure, and the social safety net, and we spent it on undeclared wars against terrorists.  (our military and security spending is almost more than the rest of the world spends combined(

It seems we can not keep ourselves from meddling in the affairs of the world. We arrogantly and naïvely think we are just good people out to spread the good news of the American way of life across the globe.

This is NOT how most of the world sees us. They see us as a bully that uses its strength to get what it wants. We concern ourselves not with what is in the best interest of the world, but what is in the best interest of the United States. We have a nationalistic tunnel vision that keeps us from seeing beyond our borders.

We have a standard of living to maintain and we are determined to keep up that standard of living even if we have to kill people to do so. Soldiers overseas are not fighting for democracy and freedom. They are fighting for empire and the American way of life. We seem to be quite willing to shed the blood of brave men and women and innocent civilians just so we can maintain our dominance in the world and everyone of us can have an iPad and a HDTV.

Our economy is driven by the exploitation of natural resources, greed, and consumerism. We wrongly think that as long as the GDP is moving upward and the economy is expanding that all is well. We think we can continue to enjoy the good life, as global temperatures continue to rise. We are oblivious to how large our carbon footprint  compared to the rest of the world. We have become devouring piranhas, stripping the land and the ocean of that which sustains us, and now other countries like China are following in our footsteps.

The American way of life is unsustainable, and the idea that we can continue to have unlimited economic growth is a fantasy.  Some day, the last person who needs a widget will buy one, then what?

Many climate experts think that we have crossed the line of no return with global climate change. We are going to have to live with the consequences now.  As our climate continues to change and natural resources become scarcer, the countries with the military might will demand an unfair share of what natural resources are left.  Remember, the goal is to maintain the American way of life and standard of living no matter what. Even if that means killing people.

As a pacifist, I recognize a state’s right to defend itself from aggression. However, that is where I draw the line as an inconsistent pacifist. While I oppose all war on principle, I know that the U.S. government is going to go to war against people who fly planes into buildings and kill thousands of people.

Finding and killing the people who perpetrated 9-11 is understandable, and even though I oppose all killing, I do understand why we originally went to war in Afghanistan. We are now 12 years past 9-11 and all pretense is long gone. We continue to say that we are fighting the war on terror but what we are really doing is maintaining and expanding our empire.  Whatever our motives might have been 12 years ago, it is now clear that our grand objective is to have a lasting foothold in the Middle East.

It never seems to dawn on us that by our continued expansion of empire that we are actually fueling terrorism. I am of the opinion that if we drastically reduce our military footprint in the world and dramatically cut our military budget that we will likely reduce the threat of terrorist attack. Once we realize we can not export American democracy and amoral capitalism to countries who don’t want it,  the better off and safer we will be.

The future of the human race depends on our ability to live peacefully among the nation’s of the world. We must be willing to drastically reduce our carbon footprint and we must stop being the largest consumer of natural resources in the world. We must lead by example rather than by brute force.

Most importantly, we must rethink how we view the purpose of our military. We can no longer be the world’s policeman. We must begin to think of our military as a tool of self-defense and peace rather than the power behind expansive American imperialism. We must stop shedding the blood of our children on the altar of the American empire.

I support some sort of national service for all young adults.  Whether it is in the military or the Peace Corp, I think it is vital to expose our children to the realities of the world that exists beyond the consumer frenzied borders of the United States.  Our children have been indoctrinated with the myths of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny and the only way for them to know otherwise is for them to experience other cultures.

Having said all this, I am quite the pessimist and quite the hypocrite. While I intellectually understand what must happen if we are to survive global climate change, I am often unwilling to change my own way of life.  I want to keep all my toys and I want to live just like I have always lived with little to no inconvenience.  While I gladly claim the environmentalist label, I often live in ways that are anything but good for the environment.  Like with religious people, my talk is better than my walk.

But, this doesn’t mean I can’t change. I can change, and, for the sake of my progeny, I must change. If I don’t model a livable, sustainable way of life to them, who will?  I owe it to them to show them a better way. While my future will not depend on it since I will soon be dead, but theirs will. Surely, we all must consider the world future generations will inherit. Will they look back on the industrial age and American dominance of the world and curse us for destroying the planet, or will they laud us for being the people that put peace, sustainability, and the future of the earth first?

Note
Yes, I know, some of  you love my atheism and hate my politics. Smile

One Two Three, Repeat After Me, Salvation Bob Gray Style

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Bob Gray, retired pastor of the Longview Baptist Temple in Longview Texas is a super-duper salvation-dealing machine. Gray is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) who subscribes to the Jack Hyles Easy Believism, Cheap Grace way of evangelizing lost-sinners.

I was taught this kind of evangelism while a student at Midwestern Baptist College, but I came to see that it was little more than a cheap gimmick that allows preachers like Gray to say, Look at how many people I won to Jesus. (Gray knows to the soul how many people he has won to Jesus) It promotes an empty Christianity that does a real disservice to people who take the commands and teachings of Christ seriously.

Recently Gray was in Albuquerque, New Mexico to do some preaching. While at a local Subway, Gray decided to do some soulwinning. Here is his account, which has since been pulled from his blog:

… Flew to Albuquerque, NM, and was picked up by Pastor Brent Lenetine who pastors the Gospel Light Baptist Church of Rio Rancho, NM. I will be joined by Evangelist Allen Domelee Sunday night and Monday. This is a great soul winning church! After resting for a while I went next door to the Motel to get a bite to eat at the Subway Restaurant. I sat at a table next to a man named Bill McDermit. We joked a little bit together and after a while I went over to his table and continued our conversation. He lives alone in a house trailer and was a devout Catholic. After a few moments I presented the Gospel to him and he took me by the hand and prayed to receive Christ as his personal Saviour. WOW! That old KJB is still preserved inspiration and is THE incorruptible seed that brings life to a dead soul! Don’t treat this issue of preserved inspiration lightly. He who sticks his head in the sand gets his behind kicked! Either the KJB is inspired or it is not! Which side of this issue are you on?

Let me summarize Gray’s testimony:

  • Gray is on the prowl for souls in Albuquerque.
  • Gray is hungry so he goes to Subway to eat.
  • He jokes around with elderly trailer living Catholic man next to him. The joking is a pretext for what comes next.
  • After a few moments, Gray shared the Jack Hyles IFB salvation plan to him.
  • The life-long Catholic saw the error of his way, took Gray’s hand and prayed the sinners prayer. Holding the hand is important, just like the salesman giving you the pen. Hold their hand…and you are more likely to close the deal.
  • In but a few moments this man went from a headed for hell Catholic to a, uh, let me think, oh, I know, a Catholic who prayed a prayer so the busybody preacher would let him finish his sub,
  • And don’t forget that Gray used the all-powerful King James Bible to win this man to Jesus. It has supernatural powers that  perverted, Satanic, non-inspired versions do not have.

This is the bankrupt gospel preached in countless IFB churches.

I noticed today that Google lists this site third when searching for the Longview Baptist Temple. The church is first, Wikipedia second, and then The Way Forward. Sweet. Smile I love cozying my apostate atheist blog right up next to IFB church websites. That way it will be easier for them to know how to pray for me. Smile

Evangelical Homophobia and Bigotry

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Cartoon by Andrew Birch

As most of you are aware,  the Boy Scouts decided that their troops will allow gay boys to join.  However, at the age of 18, the gay boy turned young adult will not be permitted to serve as a leader in the troop.

This decision has offended the righteous who take this as a sure sign that God is fixing to rain fire and brimstone down on America.

I checked Ken Ham’s Facebook page to see what he had to say on the subject. Ham posted a New York Times article on the subject and made no commentary. But, his homophobic, bigoted followers sure did. What follows is a mix of outrage, paranoia, bigotry, homophobia, hypocrisy and prophecies of the soon-coming demise of America and the Boy Scouts:

I bought no Girl Scout cookies this year because they aligned with Planned (non) Parenthood on abortion.

I will be withdrawing my financial support for the scouts tomorrow. Very, very tragic decision.

Oh, no! I really hoped they would buck the tide on this one. But I consider the Boy Scouts to be a dead organization now. They just haven’t done the last rites yet.

I wish they would have said they were dissolving the Boy Scouts. That would have been the honorable and manly thing to do, rather than caving in to bullies. All they have taught boys by doing this is, if you are mean enough for long enough, you will get what you want. They people who decided this should hang their heads in shame. My young son is more a man than these men have been

I’ve been a leader and my son has been a scout. When the discussion started in late October early November we resigned. Yes our entire troop dissolved. We are done for good. Such a perverted shame!!!

How filthy and disgusting. We are fast becoming Sodom and Gomorrah.

The way that civilizations collapse.

We are called to repent and sin no more, not continue to live in sin. Homosexuality is sin, clearly called that in the Word .

How sad. About 5% of our population has so much power. Lord, have Mercy.

Less than 5%

Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV) 20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

They caved. Too bad. IT will be the END of the Boy Scouts of America. Why couldn’t the Gays just go form their own group instead of ruining the Boy Scouts? Oh, yeah, that’s what the Gays want…to ruin the “establishment”.

Sigh… First the Girl Scouts got really disgusting, and now the Boy Scouts have followed suit. It would have been better to have dissolved the organization than to so pervert its values.

GLAAD says they will not stop at just this, and will continue to hound the Boy Scouts until they have gay leaders and actively teach pro-gay lessons to the scouts. That was their goal all along. That’s why my husband says he won’t let our future sons join, and why I’m sure membership will drop.

As soon as I get my Eagle rank, I’m out!!

The death march of an American institution has begun. Sad day in the U.S.A. It is always the case when principle is sacrificed for an immoral agenda.

Christians can drop from the scouts and join AWANA. Imagine the effect that would have on the culture. Hmm?

On my honor I will do my best To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong,mentally awake, and morally straight…so much for the Scout Oath.

Well the oath will have to change now along with disobeying Gods Word.

This is a tragic compromise. The camel’s head is in the tent…..it’s only a matter of time. God help us!!!

Thats a dang on shame!….I will never allow my sons to be in Boys scouts.

I thought for sure it wouldn’t pass this time. This is the nail in the coffin for them.

This will end the BSA. I could comment on the religious issues. I could comment on how it violates the Scout Oath. I could comment on how it will cause troops to loose their free meeting places. But those reasons are not why I am saying this.

I say this because it is nearing summer camp time. Time where these scouts will go off to spend a week together, sleeping in pairs, alone. Putting an adolescent, at the height of their new-found hormones of which they have not learned to control, in a tent with someone they are potentially sexually attracted to, is throwing a match into a powder keg.

While the potential for this was there before, it is now an openly accepted and even encouraged scenario. No different than putting a boy and girl in the same unsupervised tent alone, together. The BSA has effectively just removed ANY defense they may have had in such a case. They can no longer say they did not know the youth was gay when putting him in with another boy because the youth kept it a secret for fear of not being able to participate. Now they have to openly welcome the most ‘out-of-the-closet’ youths and trust to hope. Unfortunately, that hope will not pay the law suits that will follow

We wouldn’t allow open thieves, open assailants or open adulterers either. Boys cussing and throwing spit wads would be corrected- not ignored. Why is this sin okay to ignore?. And while its a sin equal to others, it’s different in that its a very dangerous sin that targets young boys specifically. Gays are usually recruited by sexual abuse as children. So why would we risk our children having to fight the trauma and risk of that experience? Think camping situations. There is always opportunity no matter how careful the guardians.

Things are going sour day by day, more and more…despickable.

Just another sign of a spiritually dying America!

Liberal deviancy wins again.

As with public schools, Christians should consider the irreparable harm they do to their children when they expose them to this garbage without first grounding their kids in scripture.

How many boys, I wonder, were wanting to join the scouts but couldn’t? 1 in 1000? So they change their national policy based on this miniscule percentage? This wasn’t about treating people fairly; it was about sponsorship money and donations. The leadership cares more about money than integrity and doing what’s right.

Here is my question: Why is it acceptable to have a gay scout but it’s not acceptable to have a gay scout leader? What’s the rationale? If one is morally wrong…aren’t they both?

Impossible to be “morally straight” and sexually deviant. So now the BSA morphs into the “Boy Sodomite Abominations”

More elements of prophecy playing out.

Its not that i particularly care about gay peoples one way or another… i do have a problem with gay men teaching my boy how to be a man when they dont seem to know how themselves..

Very sad day as we move deeper into the enemies camp.

A pathetic, cowardly betrayal. Good riddance to the spiritually dead BSA.

I agree with you Ken. Sad day for our country. We must pray for all these lost kids.

This is truly sad, I would say God is very sadden over this deal, I kinda feel the the Christian people allowed this to happen. We did not fight hard enough for what is right for the Boy Scouts. Every Christian parent should take there children out of the Boy Scouts ASAP. Or try and fight this to change openly gay members getting into the Scouts. I’m sure they could get a Gay Scouts of America there own group.

Sexual sin destroys our soul in ways other sins don’t. It’s not only the fact it is a sin, but it is one with disastrous consequences; different than any other sins. Above all opinions of society and popularity and political correctness do we want to honor God or men? That’s the point. God says “He that honors Me, I will honor.” May we do so, despite the force against us. We love people, we hate sin. Sin has to be disciplined and be brought under control. At what level does society teach us not to?

Ken is exactly right. The bad element will corrupt the good. You must see the “Entire Picture”, which is the proven method of operation with gay adult activists and atheists, they pretend to be upfront: ” Oh, we just want gay boys accepted to join and they will be discreet and not flaunt gay activities.” Sadly it’s proven that’s a lie, the adult gay leaders & sexual deviates will be aggressive to push GROWTH AND RECRUITMENT of other gays within the BSA ranks, therefore, desecrating all they have stood for over 100 years. This is a SAD day in America. Pray for God’s Will to be done!!

Sure be adult leaders to the lost but don’t take your boys. Recruitment into their lifestyle is the goal. Make no mistake. There’s something called battalion that I thought was Christian and a similar alternative.

Bad company corrupts good behavior the Bible says. How could any Christian condone their kids mixing like this–kids are a gift from the Lord–parents are responsible for them–we have to answer to the Lord as to how we train our kids and what influences we allow them to have.

Great place for homosexuals and pediphiles to recruit young unsuspecting boys. Any parent who would allow their son to be subject to this would have to be nuts!

Cowards.

Let them go to the Girl Scouts.

Sad day when perversion is chosen over morals and family values.

Congratulations on drawing your line in the sand…NOT! Now that you’ve retreated, you can’t stop with just homosexual youth…you may as well just allow everyone and anyone to join….at least we still have Godly organizations like Pioneer Clubs to instill Christian values…if you are old enough to declare yourself homosexual, you are old enough to reject the authority of Scripture.

Maybe they’ll be renamed to the “Boy George Scouts”.

You will need to find a very very modern thinking set of parents to send off their son with other possibly older boys who are openly homosexual. Way to winnow down the field even more with ultra modernism.

Absolutely. Unless it’s changed to honor gay lifestyle instead of God. Satan still wants to be God…

Satan knows to destroy a nation is to begin at the children level. If they can be raised to believe sin is right then the whole nation will soon fall. Jesus come quickly.

Homosexuals pushing their way into organizations like this is just a form of adult bullying and the spineless government allows it for fear they will bully them. This is not a peaceful “COEXIST” attitude. BULLY is the right term.

They`ll have to change from Pullin Pud to Stickin`Mud… That`s the sad truth…

All sins are NEVER justified in God’s eyes. Who will protect the sons of our nation from a sexual sin that will destroy them? Saying no to homosexuality in Boy Scouts is us protecting those boys from what they may not understand. If anyone causes these little ones to sin it would be better that a milestone was hung around his neck and he drown in the depths of the sea. Pray for those in opposition to God’s holy law, they need freedom in Christ as do the boys.

When I read the announcement I felt as though I was literally punched in the stomach and had the wind knocked out of me…

I was hoping the would stand their ground and morals … I wonder if they realize that these are children … why are children thinking about sex at such early ages … does anyone take that into consideration.

The end of civilization.

Thou Shalt Not Touch

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Imagine for a moment, that you are sitting in the pew of an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church. You are 16 years old and sitting next to you is your 17-year-old girlfriend. Like normal teenagers, you are sitting as close as possible to your girlfriend and  you are holding hands.

The pastor is getting ready to preach and he asks everyone to turn to 1 Corinthians 7:1,2. With a thunderous voice, the pastor says, THE BIBLE SAYS:

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.  Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:1,2)

and THE BIBLE ALSO SAYS:

Abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:22)

All of a sudden, the pastor turns your way, looks at you and your girlfriend, and then slowly turns back to his sermon notes. You feel guilty, so you unclasp your hand from your girlfriends and you scoot a few inches away from her.

Welcome, to just another Sunday morning service at First Independent Baptist Church of Bible Believersville, Ohio.

In the real  world, teenage boys and girls hold hands, put their arms around each other, and kiss each other. We also know that some of them engage in intimate sexual activity.

But at First Independent Baptist Church, any physical contact between unmarried teenagers or unmarried young adults of the opposite sex is strictly prohibited.

The thinking goes something like this. Fornication, the intimate sexual contact between unmarried people, is a SIN. Committing fornication requires touching, so the best way to avoid fornication is to keep unmarried teenagers or unmarried young adults from touching each other.

Over the years, I told countless teenagers that no girl ever got pregnant without holding hands with a boy first. I repeatedly told them that holding hands leads to familiarity and before you know it you’ll be having sex. So the answer is, no touching.

When I was a teenager, boys and girls were not allowed to touch each other. Now, this doesn’t mean we didn’t touch each other, it just means that we did our touching away from the sight of the pastor, youth director, deacons, or any other church adult.

We turned it into a game. The pastor said we couldn’t touch each other, so while choir practice was going on we would find out-of-the-way places to neck. It was almost like a challenge, we dare you to catch us.

From the age of 14 to my wedding day, I kissed a few girls, put my arm around them, and held her hand. But, that’s where it stopped. Both my wife and I were virgins when we married in 1978.

Polly and I attended Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac Michigan. The college had a strict no touch rule. The rule was called the six-inch rule. Young men and women were expected to keep 6 inches away from each other at all times. A failure to do so resulted in severe discipline.

Of course, a dorm filled with normal, hormone raging, heterosexual men and women, made the six-inch rule a real challenge. Most of us learned how to discreetly break the rule and when we went out on double dates, we learned to double date with couples who were six-inch rule breakers like us.

Sandra, a regular commenter, shared in a comment about her time at Hyles Anderson College:

About the gateway issues with card playing . . .I’m not psychologist but I do believe if you restrict normal human behavior in one way, normal human behavior will come out in another. When at Hyles Anderson we were all told to not touch the opposite sex. I mean, no hand holding (which was fine with me and the IFB church I was in before I left for HAC). But no touching through a pen either, like tapping on a shoulder.

We are social beings and I do believe we need touch to stay alive. When at HAC, since all of the women were not allowed to touch a man on his hand or to tap his back with a pen, guess what happened? The dean of woman (Miss Belinda) said she noticed a LOT of petting going on between the women. In chapel, women would sit next to women and they’d pet each other’s hair, they’d stroke each other’s leg. And she was right – all of that behavior was happening. But my question is why? Probably due to the human need for basic touch. Since the women were not allowed to hug their own blood brother on campus, nor to hold hands for 5 seconds, nor to tap a man on the back with a pencil. . .is it any wonder that the women found a way to get physical touch in their lives? It is normal to want a hug and to rub someone’s bad when they are hurting. By repressing opposite sex touching, they encouraged same-sex touching and it was very evident.

Ponder for a moment being exposed to this kind of environment. Is it any wonder people coming out the IFB church movement have to deal with emotional, mental, and sexual dysfunction?

When you are constantly told that a normal human desire is sinful it is bound cause emotional and mental damage. Of course, being normal heterosexuals, our desires could only be suppressed for so long, and, we found various ways to get around the rules and the ever-watchful eyes of those charged with keeping us from fornicating.

In a chapter of The Fundy World Tales I wrote:

Another time I was written up for breaking the six-inch rule. The six-inch rule was a rule meant to keep unmarried men and women from getting too close to each other. 6 inches is about the width of a songbook or a Bible and unmarried students were not allowed to be closer than a songbook or a Bible from each other.

I was on the college basketball team. One day during practice I slapped at a basketball and severely dislocated a finger. I was rushed to the emergency room and the doctor was able to fix the dislocation. I’m left-handed and the dislocation had occurred on my left hand.

Every male student was required to wear a tie to class. I found it very difficult to tie a tie with one hand, so one day I asked my fiancé to tie my tie for me. In doing so we broke the six-inch rule. Someone anonymously turned us in for breaking the six-inch rule and we had to appear before the disciplinary committee to answer the charges against us.

We each receive 25 demerits for breaking the six-inch rule. We were warned that if we broke the six-inch rule again we would be expelled from school. Little did they know that we have been breaking it for quite some time.

Most dormitory students lived for the weekend. Students could only date on the weekends. Double dating was required and no student could go farther away than 10 miles from the dormitory. This was called the 10 mile limit. No physical contact between students was allowed. No kissing. No holding hands. No physical contact whatsoever.

Most students tried to adhere to the rules for a while. Some, like my fiancé and I, kept the six-inch rule religiously until we went home for our first Christmas break. While home on Christmas break were allowed to act like normal young adults who were in love. We held hands, kissed, necked, and pretty much acted like any other couple mutually infatuated with each other.

Once the genie was out of the bottle it was impossible to put her back in. When we returned to Midwestern we realized we could not continue to keep the six-inch rule. So for the next 18 months we sought out couples to double date with that had the same view of the six-inch rule as we did. We had to be very careful. Choose the wrong couple to double date with and you could end up getting expelled from school.

Rules, like the six-inch rule, put the dormitory students in a position where they had to lie and cheat just to be able to act like normal young adults. Many students ended up getting campused (not allowed to leave the campus or date) or were expelled because they broke the six-inch rule.

Illicit sexual activity was quite common among dormitory students. There was always a lot of gossip about who was doing what, when and where. During the spring of my sophomore year many of us rented apartments in the Pontiac area. We were all planning to get married over the summer, and since apartments were hard to come by, we rented them as soon as we found them.

Unfortunately the apartments turned into a big temptation for some couples. They began using the apartments as a safe place for sexual activity. I could give you the names of several well-known preachers and their wives who lost their virginity at one of these apartments. Some of these preachers are now known to rail against sexual immorality. It seems they have forgotten about their own sexual immorality many years ago.

Is it any wonder, that many of us who were raised in this kind of sexually repressed environment require counseling?  When you are told over and over that certain basic human needs and desires are sinful, it leads to overwhelming guilt and despair. (and remember masturbation, self-pleasuring, was also a sin)

This is one of the reasons why I think the IFB church movement is emotionally and mentally harmful, and my advice to anyone in an IFB church is that they RUN as fast as they can away from the IFB church they are a part of. Get out before they so fuck up your mind that it requires years of  therapy to regain any sense of self-worth and emotional balance.

How about you? Did you spend your teenage years in an IFB church? Did you attend an IFB college?  How did you deal with the no-physical-contact rule? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

USA USA, We’re Number One!

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An excerpt from America the Possible: A Manifesto Part 1 by James Gustave Speth which first appeared in the March/April 2012 edition of Orion. Orion is one of my favorite magazines, I hope you will check out their website. They have a new subscriber special, six issues for 19.00, if you are interested in subscribing to the magazine.

LIKE YOU AND OTHER AMERICANS, I love my country, its wonderful people, its boundless energy, its creativity in so many fields, its natural beauty, its many gifts to the world, and the freedom it has given us to express ourselves. So we should all be angry, profoundly angry, when we consider what has happened to our country and what that neglect could mean for our children and grandchildren.

How can we gauge what has happened to America in the past few decades and where we stand today? One way is to look at how America now compares with other countries in key areas. The group of twenty advanced democracies—the major countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, the Nordic countries, Canada, and others—can be thought of as our peer nations. Here’s what we see when we look at these countries. To our great shame, America now has

• the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;
• the greatest inequality of incomes;
• the lowest social mobility;
• the lowest score on the UN’s index of “material well-being of children”;
• the worst score on the UN’s Gender Inequality Index;
• the highest expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP, yet all this money accompanied by the highest infant mortality rate, the highest prevalence of mental health problems, the highest obesity rate, the highest percentage of people going without health care due to cost, the highest consumption of antidepressants per capita, and the shortest life expectancy at birth;
• the next-to-lowest score for student performance in math and middling performance in science and reading;
• the highest homicide rate;
• the largest prison population in absolute terms and per capita;
• the highest carbon dioxide emissions and the highest water consumption per capita;
• the lowest score on Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (except for Belgium) and the largest ecological footprint per capita (except for Denmark);
• the lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of national income (except for Japan and Italy);
• the highest military spending both in total and as a percentage of GDP; and
• the largest international arms sales.

Our politicians are constantly invoking America’s superiority and exceptionalism. True, the data is piling up to confirm that we’re Number One, but in exactly the way we don’t want to be—at the bottom.

These deplorable consequences are not just the result of economic and technological forces over which we have no control. They are the results of conscious political decisions made over several decades by both Democrats and Republicans who have had priorities other than strengthening the well-being of American society and our environment. Many countries, obviously, took a different path—one that was open to us as well…

….When it comes to social conditions, it’s important to recognize that nearly 50 million Americans now live in poverty—one in six. If you’re in poverty in America, you’re living on less than $400 per week for a family of four. Poverty is the bleeding edge of a more pervasive American shortcoming—massive economic insecurity. About half of American families now live paycheck to paycheck, are financially fragile, and earn less than needed to cover basic living expenses, let alone save for the future.

Back in 1928, right before the Great Depression, the richest 1 percent of Americans received 24 percent of the country’s total income. Starting with the New Deal, public policy favored greater equality and a strong middle class, so that by 1976, the share of the richest 1 percent of households had dropped to 9 percent. But then the great re-redistribution began in the 1980s, so that by 2007, right before the Great Recession, the richest 1 percent had regained its 1928 position—with 24 percent of income.

As for national security, the U.S. now spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. If one totals military and other U.S. security spending, the total easily climbs to over $1 trillion annually, about two-thirds of all discretionary federal spending. In what has been called a key feature of the American Empire, America now garrisons the world. Although the Pentagon officially reports that we maintain a mere 660 military bases in 38 countries, if one adds the unreported bases in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere, there are likely as many as 1,000 U.S. military sites around the world. By 2010, we had covert operations deployed in an estimated 40 percent of the world’s 192 nations. On the home front, in 2010, the Washington Post reported that the top-secret world the government created in response to 9/11 now contains some 1,300 government entities and 1,900 private companies all working on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the United States.

When you’ve got an armful of hammers, every problem looks like a nail, and the U.S. has tended to seek military solutions to problems that might be addressed otherwise. The costs have been phenomenally high. When all told, our wars since 9/11 will cost us over $4 trillion and more than 8,000 American lives, with another 99,000 U.S. troops already wounded in action or evacuated for serious illness.

Another sorrow is the huge, draining psychological burden that U.S. actions have on its citizens. We see our own military, the CIA, and U.S. contractors engaged in torture and prisoner abuse, large killings of innocent civilians, murders and the taking of body parts as souvenirs, renditions, drone assassinations, military detention without trial, collaboration with unsavory regimes, and more.

Meanwhile, outside our borders, a world of wounds has festered without much help, and often with harm, from the United States. We are neglecting so many problems—from world poverty, underdevelopment, and climate change to emerging shortages of food and water and energy, biological impoverishment, and transnational organized crime.

The following are among the many treaties ratified by all nations, except for a few rogue states—and the United States: the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Land Mine Convention, the International Criminal Court convention, the Biodiversity Convention, the Law of the Sea, the Kyoto Protocol of the Climate Convention, and the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. The U.S. is the main reason we do not now have a World Environment Organization.

In these respects and in many others, the U.S. posture in the world reflects a radical imbalance: a hugely disproportionate focus on the military and on economic issues and a tragic neglect of some of the most serious challenges we and the world now confront…

You can read the entire article here and read Part 2 here.

James Gustave Speth is:

a professor at Vermont Law School and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy organization. A former dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, he also co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, was founder and president of the World Resources Institute, and served as administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. He is the author of six books, including the award-winning The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability and Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment.

Bruce, Do You Think Ken Ham is Sincere?

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A commenter asked this question in the comment section of my latest post on Ken Ham.

It would make things easier if Ken Ham was a money-grubbing Elmer Gantry.  We could then dismiss him as a con-artist and shake our head at those who are conned by him.  However, I don’t think Ken Ham is a 21st century Gantry-like con-artist.

I have no doubt that Ken Ham is a sincere, devoted follower of Jesus Christ. I am sure that we would have been friends if we had known each other in my Fundamentalist days. Everything I have read written by Ham is consistent with his Fundamentalist belief system.

Now, we may rightly think Ham’s beliefs are ignorant and superstitious, but millions of people hold to similar beliefs, and, we should at least acknowledge that they are sincere believers.

Before we we can understand Ken Ham we must first understand his belief system. A lot of atheists and evolutionists fail to do this, and, instead, attack Ken Ham the person rather than Ken Ham’s beliefs.

Ken Ham is a true-blue Fundamentalist and part of his religious DNA is the belief that the world will become more evil the closer we get to the Rapture and that there are Satanic forces at work trying to destroy ‘”Biblical” Christianity. Anyone who has been a part of the Evangelical church for any length of time knows how this kind of thinking permeates Evangelicalism.

Atheism is on the rise in the West and Ham sees this as Satan attacking “Biblical” Christianity.  He fears that if he, along with his followers, don’t fight the atheist horde, that America will be destroyed.  I have no doubt he sincerely believes these things.

Everything Ham does is an attempt to promote “Biblical” Christianity and turn back the unrelenting attack of Satan. Yes, Ham makes a good living off his work and his efforts to promote Young Earth Creationism and “Biblical” Christianity attract millions of dollars in fees and donations. But, I suspect that Ham would still be an Evangelist for Young Earth Creationism and “Biblical Christianity” even if he wasn’t financially remunerated.

I remember when I used to think like Ken Ham. It was never about the money. My goal was to preach the good news of the gospel to as many people as possible. I was willing to do without and live in poverty if necessary to accomplish this goal. It was all about being obedient to Christ and being a faithful messenger to a lost and dying world.

When we attack Ken Ham the person we only make ourselves look bad. We need to focus on his beliefs and we need to challenge his assertions.  When going head-to-head with an adversary we owe them our respect. I may hate what Ken Ham believes and I may think those beliefs promote ignorance, but, if my objective is to counter his beliefs, I must focus on his beliefs rather than his person. (even when it is very hard to do so) I must, as an atheist, be a better man than many of the Fundamentalist Christians who personally attack me in the comment section of this blog and in the local newspaper.

To put it in religious parlance, I must be a good witness and I must always remember that people are going to judge me by the words I say and write. If I personally attack someone, I know that some readers will not hear what I have to say. And, I don’t blame them. (and yes, I am aware of the many Christians who confuse a critique of their beliefs with a personal attack.)

Kerry left a comment on my latest Ken Ham post that I think sums up well what I am trying to say:

Name calling does nothing to advance the understanding between world views. I didn’t do it as a believer and I don’t do it as a non-believer in Christianity. I do, from time to time, rework the pithy little sayings so many Christians use, such as; “Love the sinner but hate the sin” which I change to “Love the believer but hate the belief.” For the various beatitudes that get quoted, I usually quote from Confucius or Buddha which sound the same but are a little bit different. They of course do not notice until I point it out to them and educate them on the fact that these sayings are some 600 years before God gave them to the Jews. There are ways to make the point about the facts we as atheists have embraced without doing it in a manner that closes off all minds and debate.

Thou Shalt Not Lie Evidently Does Not Apply to Ray Comfort

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If you are not familiar with Ray Comfort, Comfort is a street preaching Fundamentalist Evangelist who is considered by many Evangelicals to be an expert in evangelism. Comfort’s Bio page on the Living Waters website states:

Ray Comfort is the Founder/President/CEO of Living Waters Publications. After relocating from New Zealand to Southern California in the late 1980s, Ray introduced a long line of pastors and churches to a biblical teaching which he called Hell’s Best Kept Secret. The positive and enthusiastic response that followed took Ray’s Living Waters Publications ministry to a whole new level. From humble beginnings, LWP has become an internationally recognized ministry, reaching the lost and equipping Christians with every necessary resource to fulfill the great commission.

When I pastored Our Father’s House in West Unity Ohio, I showed the church congregation Comfort’s multipart series on Evangelism. I am quite familiar with Comfort’s methodology and Fundamentalist beliefs.

The video clip that follows is a blurb from a typical Ray Comfort street preaching session. What I want you to pay attention to is how Comfort reedits the video to make it seem like the men in the video are saying something different from what they originally said.

Video Link

Wolf Blitzer Schooled by an Atheist After Tornado

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I am not sure if CNN host Wolf Blitzer thinks everyone is Oklahoma is a Christian, but he learned very quickly that there is at least one atheist in Oklahoma. What follows is a video clip of an interview Blitzer did with a survivor of the recent devastation in Oklahoma. Atheists should pay attention to how nice the woman is as she answers Blitzer’s ignorant notion that everyone affected by the tornado is thanking the Lord for their survival.

Video Link

My apologies for messing up the link

When the Power Goes Out

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silence

The Cincinnati Reds are playing the New York Mets.  The Reds have soundly thrashed the Mets the first two games of the series. The game features two tough pitchers, Matt Latos for the Reds and Matt Harvey for the Mets. It’s the eighth inning now and the score is tied. I sit here hoping the Reds will pull out an exciting ninth inning win.

It’s raining out. We need the rain. The garden is planted and Polly has flower seeds planted here and there in the yard. Without rain nothing grows, so the rain is a needed and welcome friend. I can feel the air cool as the temperature drops. I need a blanket.

And then it happens.

Pop. Blink.  Silence. The power is off.

Dammit, I thought, Now I won’t know if the Reds won the game.

Silence.

I can’t hear the freezer or the refrigerator humming and the satellite DVR has ceased its constant clicking. All of a sudden, the house is eerily quiet.  The noise of our electrified home is silenced by a line-dropping car accident, power surge, or blown transformer.  It looks like all the homes in the one stoplight town of Ney have lost their power. Silence pervades the hundred homes that surround me.

As my ears begin to adjust to the silence, I notice voices I had not heard while the power was on, voices that are drowned out by the noise of modernity.

Birds. I hear numerous varying chirps and tweets.  A mourning dove calls out with her haunting voice.

My neighbor is talking on his cellphone. I can hear every word he says and in the distance I hear children playing loudly.  I hear car doors slam shut and I  hear the tires of passing cars as they slosh through the water that covers the pavement.

The silence reminds me of what I lose when the television or sound system is blaring. Sometimes I think I fear silence. I don’t want to be left alone with my thoughts, with the sound of blood being pumped by my heart. Silence forces me to confront my mortality and my place in a culture that can not bear a moment of silence.

Click. Pop. The power is back on. I can hear the refrigerator and the freezer doing their work cooling and freezing our food. In a few minutes, the satellite DVR will finish its start-up process and I will be able to see if the Reds beat the Mets.

Yet, I find myself thinking, maybe the power needs to go off more often…so my ears and my mind can reset; so I can once again hear the tunes of the world I live in.  I find myself thinking that silence is a catharsis we moderns need. As long as we have noise to entertain and occupy us, we need not think about what goes on outside our home. We need not think of our own mortality.

The Reds won 7-4.