by Edd Doerr
In recent days scientists have reported that atmospheric CO2 levels have exceeded 400 ppb, somewhat over the 350 ppb considered sustainable, and also reported that oceanic fish are migrating to cooler waters. Doesn't this suggest that fish are smarter than Republican/conservative climate change deniers?
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
In Possession of All our Faculties - a history of exorcism
We live in so called “modern, post-enlightenment”
times. Therefore I am often surprised by
old, unenlightened things that thrash about and make jangling noises in the
culture. Take the devil and demonic
possession. I would have guessed that,
aside from a Hollywood blockbuster or 2, we have gotten far from the fear of witches
and such. I normally operate with a
sense that it’s an idea that has been dying out since the good old
Judeo-Christian story days. For example, Luke has a little story in Acts 16 that
gives us some common talk about spirits in Judaic life:
"Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities." Acts 16:16-19 (KJV)
To be sure there are contemporary images or Obama as a
devil and an anti-Christ, but that’s fringe now, right? I guess there is Pat
Robertson who claims that Islam Is 'Demonic'. He also claimed the
devastating Haiti earthquake in early 2010 was caused by a pact between
the island nation and the devil. I'm not surprised to find nonsense from this source,
Well it turns out that
demonic possession is a trending item – at least in some sectors of the world. An example is an article with the jarring
title “Famous
Nollywood actress delivered from demonic possession.” OK, it says Nollywood, but Hollywood, but
Africa’s Nollywood is the 3rd largest film industry in the world. So
it was good to know that actress Camilla
Mberekpe was recently delivered of:
“an alleged demon that had been tormenting
her life …... The deliverance which was telecast on Emmanuel TV took place
during last Sunday service at the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in
Nigeria headed by Prophet T.B. Joshua….. Asked what her mission was in the life
of the actress, the unknown spirit disclosed that she wanted to ‘destroy her
because she has refused to worship me. She is always praying. She is a very serious
prayer worrier but I always make sure she does not get there.’”
Now there is a new book, The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism
in the Christian West by Brian Levack, professor of history at the
University of Texas at Austin, that brings an historical focus and some analysis. Levack investigates some of the history and brings
the story up to date and closer to home.
Demonic possession has surprising cache in parts of Catholicism perhaps as a
legacy of the olden days - after all the devil is after the ones with the true belief.
It wasn’t just the old world or even early, modern Europe that
was bathed in demon-haunted beliefs. Reports of people in various types of passion
are still reported especially by Catholic cultures and, of course, evangelical
and charismatic communities. By some reckoning
about half a million people in Italy today see an exorcist annually. This is about as easy a choice as visiting a chiropractor.
Levack described the current surge in belief in demonic
possession this
way:
“It’s
in communities, especially in highly religious communities, especially
evangelical and charismatic religious communities, who believe in a direct
relationship between demonic spirits and human beings […] and whenever you have
that belief, and that is a belief that has been cultivated greatly in the late
twentieth century, you’re going to get cases of demonic possession. And then
you have the demand for exorcists to relieve people of these symptoms of
demonic possession. You also have a number of exorcists, especially in Italy
and in Latin America, and in Poland, far fewer in America – and that might help
to explain why we’re not familiar with this, I don’t meet demoniacs every day!
– but you have these exorcists who actually go out and drum up business.
They’re celebrity exorcists. There’s one in Italy who claims to have exorcised 70,000 people!”
And in 2011 there was help for those
interested in drumming up business p an
international conference on exorcism. The Catholic News Service called it an Exorcist boot
camp and reported that “church leaders call for more training against evil.”
One
attendee, an 80-year-old retired priest
said that about once a month he sees a serious case of possession and
"tons" of cases of demonic influence in which people are being
"bothered or attacked by evil spirits." Those kinds of cases, he
said, are "a daily thing." We might instead diagnosis it as an unconscious
out of control and behaving according to some guidelines of how evil is
manifested.
Although the book is largely historical Levack puts
such things in a modern perspective with rational-medical-cultural explanations
from mental (e.g. brain infections) or
physical illness, to deliberate fraud. Trances we can explain, but
how
else to explain and exorcist being hit in the head by a ball of fire (reported
by Rev Thomas Thomson,
who died in 1718). Levack covers classic cases with detailed reports of vomiting including vast quantities of nails, pins, blood,
feathers, stones, coins, coal, dung, meat, cloth and hair – (Being on the wrong
side of allotriophagy
- An unnatural
desire for abnormal foods; also known as cissa, cittosis, and pica.?). Thinkers such as Hobbes, Spinoza and
latterly Charcot and Freud were of the opinion that possessions could be
attributed to illness but also. And Levack documents many confessions of fraud.
Illnesses might explain bestial sounds are
popular along with distorted limbs and faces and of course convulsive writhing
(Tourette’s Syndrome?). There is the occasional floated in the air, which has to be
fraud or illusion. Now that I’m not surprised about, but it probably the small cases of discomfort that many people have that is being served by that old profession of exorcist. Out with it.
Images
Book cover: http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=9608Exorcism and The Devil Inside: http://www.holyblasphemy.net/the-devil-inside-2012-the-truth-about-demonic-possession-exorcism-and-satanism/
Indiana High Court Missteps on Vouchers
This letter was published in Education Week on May 15, 2013 ----
Regarding "Indiana Supreme Court Upholds Voucher Law" (News in Brief, April 3, 2013): In upholding the Republican-sponsored school voucher plan, the Indiana Supreme Court sanctioned the state's doing indirectly what Article I, Section 6 of the state constitution says may not be done directly -- divert funds from the treasury to benefit "any religious or theological institution."
Had the legislature had the decency to propose an appropriate amendment to the state constitution, to allow voters to say yea or nay, the voucher plan would not have survived a popular vote, just as state schools superintendent Tony Bennett, a voucher supporter, failed to survive his bid for re-election last November.
The ruling was hardly a good lesson in ethics for Hoosier children.
Edd Doerr
President
Americans for Religious Liberty
Silver Spring, MD
(The writer previously taught in pub,kic schools in Indiana.)
Regarding "Indiana Supreme Court Upholds Voucher Law" (News in Brief, April 3, 2013): In upholding the Republican-sponsored school voucher plan, the Indiana Supreme Court sanctioned the state's doing indirectly what Article I, Section 6 of the state constitution says may not be done directly -- divert funds from the treasury to benefit "any religious or theological institution."
Had the legislature had the decency to propose an appropriate amendment to the state constitution, to allow voters to say yea or nay, the voucher plan would not have survived a popular vote, just as state schools superintendent Tony Bennett, a voucher supporter, failed to survive his bid for re-election last November.
The ruling was hardly a good lesson in ethics for Hoosier children.
Edd Doerr
President
Americans for Religious Liberty
Silver Spring, MD
(The writer previously taught in pub,kic schools in Indiana.)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Gosnell's House of Horrors
by Edd Doerr
The following comment was posted in the Washington Post (on line) on 5/14/2013 ---
News coverage of and opinions voiced about Gosnell's housde of horrors clinic in Philadelphia have generally left out somethng very important: the fact that so many poor women in need of abortions could find no accessible alternative to this disgraceful outfit. The remedies: comprehensive sexuality education in public schools, ready access to contraceptives and family planning services, abortion providers that meet decent medical standards (as most do), broad compliance with the new healthcare law's mandate for insurance coverage for contraception, and, lastly, serious attention to the poverty that is increasing in our country and the growing gap between the small percentage of the wealthy and all the rest of us.
What the vociferous anti-choice and anti-Planned Parenthood movement doesn't grasp is that good comprehensive sexuality education, readier access to contraception and the reduction of poverty would actually shrink the need and demand for abortion, especially procedures after 12 weeks.
Finally, it needs to be recognized that the anti-choice movement is actually seeking to impose their unscientific and unbiblical misogynist patriarchalist religious opinions on all women,in violation of women's religious freedom and rights of conscience.
Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
The following comment was posted in the Washington Post (on line) on 5/14/2013 ---
News coverage of and opinions voiced about Gosnell's housde of horrors clinic in Philadelphia have generally left out somethng very important: the fact that so many poor women in need of abortions could find no accessible alternative to this disgraceful outfit. The remedies: comprehensive sexuality education in public schools, ready access to contraceptives and family planning services, abortion providers that meet decent medical standards (as most do), broad compliance with the new healthcare law's mandate for insurance coverage for contraception, and, lastly, serious attention to the poverty that is increasing in our country and the growing gap between the small percentage of the wealthy and all the rest of us.
What the vociferous anti-choice and anti-Planned Parenthood movement doesn't grasp is that good comprehensive sexuality education, readier access to contraception and the reduction of poverty would actually shrink the need and demand for abortion, especially procedures after 12 weeks.
Finally, it needs to be recognized that the anti-choice movement is actually seeking to impose their unscientific and unbiblical misogynist patriarchalist religious opinions on all women,in violation of women's religious freedom and rights of conscience.
Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
Hearing the Voice of Freethinking Robert Ingersoll
You may have heard that WASH is holding its
annual banquet in Lynchburg, VA this year on May 25. All are welcome to come. You don't need to be a WASH member to attend. Details and
registration are available at:
http://washbanquet2013.eventbrite.com/
http://washbanquet2013.eventbrite.com/
It’s a chance to join other secularists in
what many call the "belly" of the fundamentalist beast. It’s an easy label since Lynchburg is the
home of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's evangelical Liberty University and Thomas
Road Bapwill be Dr. J. Anderson Thomson
and the topic will be the cognitive science of religious belief.
This is a topic explored in her new book, The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll
and American Freethought. Jacoby is the perfect person to play the
role of bringing Ingersoll, “mover and
shaker” of the early Republican Party, back into mainstream discussion. Seven score years ago Ingersoll did the
same secular resurrection for Tom Paine.
For most of us Ingersoll, like Paine is largely forgotten
today although earlier he was listened to on topics of the separation of church
and state, Darwin’s theory of evolution, women's rights and much more.
His Centennial Oration gives one a feeling about the timely relevance of his thought:THE Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral courage and of political wisdom....
Such things had occasionally been said by some political enthusiast in the olden time, but, for the first time in the history of the world, the representatives of a nation, the representatives of a real, living, breathing, hoping people, declared that all men are created equal. With one blow, with one stroke of the pen, they struck down all the cruel, heartless barriers that aristocracy, that priestcraft, that king-craft had raised between man and man. They struck down with one immortal blow that infamous spirit of caste that makes a God almost a beast, and a beast almost a god. With one word, with one blow, they wiped away and utterly destroyed, all that had been done by centuries of war — centuries of hypocrisy — centuries of injustice.
What more did they do? They then declared that each man has a right to live. And what does that mean? It means that he has the right to make his living. It means that he has the right to breathe the air, to work the land, that he stands the equal of every other human being beneath the shining stars; entitled to the product of his labor — the labor of his hand and of his brain.
What more? That every man has the right to pursue his own happiness in his own way. Grander words than. these have never been spoken by man.”
Fifteen speakers will select their favorite pieces to orate some of these ideas. Susan Jacoby will be there as one of the judges making it a great event for secular DC.
Also of note, WASH board member Steven Lowe offers walking tours of Ingersoll’s life in
DC. Upcoming are morning walks June 20th and 29th.
Images
Quote on religious divisions: http://choiceindying.com/2013/02/02/robert-ingersoll-the-great-agnostic/
and http://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/happy-birthday-to-robert-green-ingersoll-the-great-agnostic/
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Vacate Humanae Vitae
by Edd Doerr
This letter was published in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) on May 10, 2013 ----
"Vacate Humanae Vitae"
"Brian Roewe's piece on global warming (NCR, April 12) is an important contribution to the vital conversation on climate change. What needs also to be discussed is the role played by human overpopulation in this huge problem; our numbers have grown from a little more than 2 billion in the 1950s to more than 7 billion today while our damage to the environment has grown on a hockey stick curve.
"Pope Francis could take an important step toward saving our planet by a stroke of the pen, by following the sound advice that Paul VI declined and vacating the 1968 Humanae Vitae condemnation of contraception. The vast majority of Catholics would approve."
"Edd Doerr
"Silver Spring, MD"
This letter was published in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) on May 10, 2013 ----
"Vacate Humanae Vitae"
"Brian Roewe's piece on global warming (NCR, April 12) is an important contribution to the vital conversation on climate change. What needs also to be discussed is the role played by human overpopulation in this huge problem; our numbers have grown from a little more than 2 billion in the 1950s to more than 7 billion today while our damage to the environment has grown on a hockey stick curve.
"Pope Francis could take an important step toward saving our planet by a stroke of the pen, by following the sound advice that Paul VI declined and vacating the 1968 Humanae Vitae condemnation of contraception. The vast majority of Catholics would approve."
"Edd Doerr
"Silver Spring, MD"
Friday, May 10, 2013
A Really "Must Read" Book
a review by Edd Doerr
Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City, by Barbara J. Miner, The New Press, 2013.305 pp, $27.95.
In early May of 2013 the US Department of Justice announced, nearly two years after the complaint was filed, that Milwaukee private schools, mostly sectarian, funded by tax-paid vouchers to the tune of about $6400 per year per student, must not discriminate against students with disabilities. Only about 1.6% of students in Milwaukee's voucher-funded private schools are classified as having disabilities, compared to 20% in the public schools. In March of 2011 the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction reported that, despite their selectivity advantage, Milwaukee's voucher schools were significantly behind the public schools in math and reading. Milwaukee's vaunted school voucher plan, the oldest in the country, then, is an obvious flop, in addition to everything else that is wrong with it.
In this timely and extremely important book veteran Milwaukee journalist and native Barbara Miner traces the history of this pioneering experiment in diverting public funds to private, mostly religious, schools, from rather modest beginnings in 1990, through its expansion to religious schools in 1995, to today's Scott Walker fueled Wisconsin nightmare. She does this by presenting the whole fifty year background of the civil rights and desegregation movements -- touching on race, racism, demographic evolution, white flight, religion, politics, educational pseudo-reforms, court rulings, the influence of zillionaire conservative private foundations, enrollment statistics, and more -- providing a comprehensive picture of developments in Milwaukee, a sort of microcosm of major cities throughout the country.
Sadly, the Wisconsin supreme court approved this tax aid to religious schools in 1998 in defiance of the obvious intent of Article I, Section 18 of the state constitution and the US Supreme Court declined to accept an appeal, perhaps in anticipation of its own mistaken 2002 5-4 ruling to uphold Ohio's equally objectionable voucher plan.
Indiana and Louisiana followed Wisconsin's lead with even more ambitious and damaging voucher plans, as did Florida, though at least Florida voters were allowed to reject vouchers in a referendum in November of 2012. It is abundantly clear that when the voters in a state are allowed to pass on voucher, tax credit or similar plans they invariably reject them, as has happened in 27 statewide referenda from coast to coast. But voucher promoters will do anything to bar the voters from having their say.
Throughout the country conservatives and the religious right are fanatically bent on voucherizing and privatizing our public schools, which serve 90% of our kids, aided and abetted by school pseudo-reformers, fat cat conservative foundations and media, and public ignorance and apathy.
Barbara Miner's explosively important book should be a primary tool for defending public education, religious liberty, and democratic values.
(Edd Doerr is president of Americans for Religious Liberty and author of "The Great School Voucher Fraud", available at arlinc.org.)
Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City, by Barbara J. Miner, The New Press, 2013.305 pp, $27.95.
In early May of 2013 the US Department of Justice announced, nearly two years after the complaint was filed, that Milwaukee private schools, mostly sectarian, funded by tax-paid vouchers to the tune of about $6400 per year per student, must not discriminate against students with disabilities. Only about 1.6% of students in Milwaukee's voucher-funded private schools are classified as having disabilities, compared to 20% in the public schools. In March of 2011 the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction reported that, despite their selectivity advantage, Milwaukee's voucher schools were significantly behind the public schools in math and reading. Milwaukee's vaunted school voucher plan, the oldest in the country, then, is an obvious flop, in addition to everything else that is wrong with it.
In this timely and extremely important book veteran Milwaukee journalist and native Barbara Miner traces the history of this pioneering experiment in diverting public funds to private, mostly religious, schools, from rather modest beginnings in 1990, through its expansion to religious schools in 1995, to today's Scott Walker fueled Wisconsin nightmare. She does this by presenting the whole fifty year background of the civil rights and desegregation movements -- touching on race, racism, demographic evolution, white flight, religion, politics, educational pseudo-reforms, court rulings, the influence of zillionaire conservative private foundations, enrollment statistics, and more -- providing a comprehensive picture of developments in Milwaukee, a sort of microcosm of major cities throughout the country.
Sadly, the Wisconsin supreme court approved this tax aid to religious schools in 1998 in defiance of the obvious intent of Article I, Section 18 of the state constitution and the US Supreme Court declined to accept an appeal, perhaps in anticipation of its own mistaken 2002 5-4 ruling to uphold Ohio's equally objectionable voucher plan.
Indiana and Louisiana followed Wisconsin's lead with even more ambitious and damaging voucher plans, as did Florida, though at least Florida voters were allowed to reject vouchers in a referendum in November of 2012. It is abundantly clear that when the voters in a state are allowed to pass on voucher, tax credit or similar plans they invariably reject them, as has happened in 27 statewide referenda from coast to coast. But voucher promoters will do anything to bar the voters from having their say.
Throughout the country conservatives and the religious right are fanatically bent on voucherizing and privatizing our public schools, which serve 90% of our kids, aided and abetted by school pseudo-reformers, fat cat conservative foundations and media, and public ignorance and apathy.
Barbara Miner's explosively important book should be a primary tool for defending public education, religious liberty, and democratic values.
(Edd Doerr is president of Americans for Religious Liberty and author of "The Great School Voucher Fraud", available at arlinc.org.)
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Eden Foods' Fundamentalist Kowtow
by Edd Doerr
I have just sent the following message to Eden Foods, 761 Tecumseh Road, Clinton, MI 49236 (info@edenfoods.com) ----
"Eden Foods: Our family is vegetarian. We have been using your products for years. Now we learn that your company has filed suit in federal court challenging the new healthcare law's contraceptive insurance mandate. We are appalled by this blatant kowtowing to religious fundamentalism. So we will not buy your products until we know that you have withdrawn this malicious lawsuit. Further, as a well-published writer I will be conveying this message far and wide on the internet. --- Edd Doerr (arlinc@verizon.net)
Anyone care to follow our example?
I have just sent the following message to Eden Foods, 761 Tecumseh Road, Clinton, MI 49236 (info@edenfoods.com) ----
"Eden Foods: Our family is vegetarian. We have been using your products for years. Now we learn that your company has filed suit in federal court challenging the new healthcare law's contraceptive insurance mandate. We are appalled by this blatant kowtowing to religious fundamentalism. So we will not buy your products until we know that you have withdrawn this malicious lawsuit. Further, as a well-published writer I will be conveying this message far and wide on the internet. --- Edd Doerr (arlinc@verizon.net)
Anyone care to follow our example?
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