Strollerderby : christian

WTF: KKK Selling Kids T-Shirts

JeanneSager — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:03:00 GMT

I'm vacillating between speechless and spitting with venom. How else do you respond to news that the Ku Klux Klan is selling t-shirts for kids?

T-shirts at a Website that actually trumpets itself as a go-to source for "Christian" purchases.

I'm not sure if I should be thanking my husband for pointing this one out to me (he found it while working on a paper about domestic terrorism, FYI), but I guess the news that the KKK is targeting kids is hardly new. Kids don't come out of the womb seething with hate, so it does have to come from adults peddling bigotry to little kids. Remember, kids learn by imitating.

But making the hard Aryan sell face-to-face is disgusting enough. Sharing with the world that "Klan Kids Kare" is absolutely terrifying.

I've got to wonder, honestly, what Klan Kids Kare about. I was thinking Lynching, but according to the t-shirt, they "kare" about loving Jesus, white power and their heritage. Note to the Klan: Jesus lived in the Middle East - it's highly unlikely that his skin was white. And he certainly wasn't Aryan.

My big question, of course, is where are these kids going to wear these shirts? Besides Klan rallies, of course. Is there anywhere in public that they wouldn't be told to leave? I'm all for free speech, but if a kid walks into a school wearing a shirt that says "white power," I'd hope they get sent home to change. It's a gang symbol (yes, similar to the red of the Bloods - albeit on the opposite end).

And perhaps even more shocking here (to some of you anyway), this t-shirt is being sold by a Christian bookstore, a site that proudly proclaims itself as the "exclusive distributor of the Knights Party designs" (yes those Knights - the white ones). This to go with their "wide variety of Christian oriented t-shirts and sweatshirts." And no, I didn't find a "turn the other cheek" tee - the kind you'd sort of expect out of a Christian t-shirt selling site (OK, maybe only I would?).

Honestly, I'm not going to provide you with a link to this site. But if you REALLY need to find it for yourself (for some voyeuristic pleasure, we hope, rather than to make your purchase), enter the words "Christian books and things" into Google. It's the fourth site in the list.

Image: Christian books and things

Playmobil Sues Priest For Playing With Toys

JeanneSager — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:32:00 GMT

The idea of buying kids toys is to play with them, right? Even if you're an adult who happens to like playing with kids toys in order to amuse little kids?

Not according to Playmobil.

The toymakers known for their bizarre sense of what kids like to play with (the airport security checkpoint still blows my mind) are now suing a German priest who was using Playmobil's little people to recreate scenes from the Bible for little kids.

Father Markus Bomhard, from the Protestant Community of Eschborn, created the "Playmo-Bibel" (spelling is correct - this is Germany, after all) says on his site that he got the idea from his own daughters - who wanted to know why there was no "Playmo" minister toy. They used their own Playmobil toys to recreate everyday life, he said, so why not the Bible?

Broken down into the Old Testament and the New, his site is mostly pictures taken of his little scenes, from Adam and Eve to the last supper, plus scenes from church life, including a wedding.

But according to the Daily Telegraph, lawyers for Playmobil have told Bomhard he didn't get their permission for the project, so he must stop photographing the toys and using the name Playmobil. OK, the latter part I get - it's trademarked after all.

Here's the crazy part: the Telegraph reports, "the German firm is understood to be horrified that the scenes could offend people of other religion." This from the company that sells a Playmobil nativity set and an advent calendar set?

Their biggest gripe is apparently that Bomhard dared dress the characters up. As a Playmobil rep told the Telegraph, "We've got no problem with using the figures as they are in their original costumes. What we are on about is redesigning them and changing their appearance."

Isn't that what you make toys for? For people to play with, reimagine, redecorate and redesign? Because if we're not supposed to redesign toys, I imagine Fisher-Price will be coming for my daughter any day now . . . something about cutting all the hair off of Big Sister Dora.

Image: Telegraph - from Father Bomhard's Playmo-Bibel

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North Dakota Passes Law Establishing "Personhood" at Conception

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:01:00 GMT

In the latest salvo against abortion rights, North Dakota's house of representatives this week passed a law defining a fertilized egg as having all the rights of a human being. The bil, which passed with a 51-41 vote, will now move to the state's senate for its consideration. If it is approved, legal challenges are expected that could end up in the United States Supreme Court -- a body that is now widely seen as having a five-justice majority willing to restrict abortion rights first enumerated in the 1972 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Dan Ruby, the Republican state congressman who sponsored the bill, says it's not intended to ban abortion, simply to define when life begins -- a question that has mystified thinkers for centuries, but apparently is obvious to the North Dakota Republican Party -- and to give that life "some protections under our Constitution."

This is hardly the first or the only legislative assault on Roe, and it certainly won't be the last. It is, however, part of an interesting new political/religious movement that uses the term "personhood" to attempt to define not only fetuses, but blastocytes (what's next, follicles?) as fully-fledged human beings deserving of all the legal status of a baby, child, or adult. The so-called "personhood movement" aims to roll back abortion rights by means of state legislative action, primarily working in states that outlawed or restricted abortion in the days pre-Roe, when each state had its own laws regarding reproductive rights. In defining even a fertilized egg as human, backers are not only taking aim at abortion but also at many forms of birth control, which operate by preventing fertilized eggs from implanting in the woman's uterus. It could also result in pregnant women being prosecuted for behavior said to endanger their fetuses.

I'm interested in this movement, and wonder when they will turn their attention to granting "personhood" rights to children who have already been born. One group of persons whose rights need protecting is children who are US citizens but whose parents are not -- an estimated 100,000 parents were deported over the past decade whose children, having been born here, should be enjoying all the rights of other US citizens, rather than left behind by their parents or forced to return to countries with fewer opportunities for them. And how about extending "personhood" rights to gay Americans who would like to marry and raise their children together, just as their straight friends and relatives do?

The religious right's emphasis on what happens before birth and after death is mystifying to me at times. I'd like to remind them that there's life after birth, and protecting those lives seems a much better use of everyone's time, energy, and attention.

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Foster Mom Loses Job When Muslim Charge Converts

JeanneSager — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:26:00 GMT

A Muslim teenager's conversion to Christianity has prompted British officials to strip her evangelical foster mother of all responsibilities after ten years fostering kids for the government.

The woman, who has fostered eighty kids in the past decade, says she's being persecuted as a Christian. What's more - she says she tried discouraging the girl, now seventeen, from switching religions.

Not named because of legal reasons, the foster mother told the British Daily Telegraph that she offered the girl alternatives to living a Christian lifestyle, despite her own church-going practices. The caregiver attends an evangelical church and says family services was aware the girl had chosen to attend with her. They were OK with it, until the girl was baptised.

"I offered to take her to friends or family. But she said to me from the word go: 'I am interested and I want to come [to church]'," the woman told the Telegraph. Her case against the government - an attempt to regain her "job" as a foster mother (which did provide her income), is being funded by the Christian Insitute, which has charged the government with violations of both the girl's and women's right to religious freedom.

I'd tend to agree that a child of sixteen making a religious conversion is markedly different from a child of five or six (it's one reason I've always argued for baptism later rather than at birth). Teens have some sense of the gravity of decisions, and they're also relatively open to change. Teenagers like to make big decisions and take some control of their own lives. The fact that this girl had a troubled childhood, pushing her out of her home and into foster care, would understandably make her more willing to make a change in her life - especially one that would please a caregiver.

Does that mean the caregiver MADE her do it? Maybe. Maybe not. But maybe this could have all been avoided if the government either a. placed her in a home with a Muslim foster family or b. provided some means for the child to attend Muslim services, then checked up to see why she wasn't attending. At sixteen, she could have answered for herself.

She has answered for herself since. The girl is back with her own parents now and says she supports her former caregiver. She's staying a Christian, and she doesn't regret it.

So what do you think?

Image: BeliefNet

Lutheran High School Can Expel Lesbians—And Does

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

A California appeals court has upheld the right of a private Lutheran high school to expel students based on sexual orientation. Creepy as that sounds, I don't think the court is actually wrong. As long as they don't take one single of penny of my taxpayer money, religious organizations have the freedom to be petty, mean, and discriminatory in their own special ways all day long.

(For clarification: This is a school run by the "Wisconsin Synod" Lutherans, not Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is more tolerant.)

The school itself, on the other hand, which ended up in court because it did in fact expel two female students for having a relationship with each other, is wrong in so many ways.

I really can't say the main point much better than Shaun Martin over at California Appellate Report, who writes: "I know that if I taught at a private high school . . . I'd definitely spend my valuable time looking up the myspace pages of all the female students in my class to see if any of them said that they were bisexual or in love with another female student. Yes, and if I were the principal of said high school, and a teacher discovered that two female students had in fact so identified themselves, I'd definitely call them into my office and interrogate them about whether they had a consensual lesbian relationship. . ."

Not to mention the crazy power this gives mean, rumor-mongering teens.

And would the snooping stop with teenagers? If religious schools think they have license to control not only what happens in school, but the private lives of their communities, are parents of young kids in religious elementary schools going to find their kids expelled when it becomes clear that they aren't using birth control (not enough kids! need more tuition!) or don't attend church enough? I know in some dioceses unmarried Catholic school teachers have actually had problems with priestly peeping Toms trying to see whether they are having overnight guests.

According to the AP, the school's lawyer says the school's goal is to "educate based on Christian principles." I realize the world is full of examples to the contrary, but it's always been my understanding that the core Christian principles are supposed to be forgiveness and redemption. Oh well.

I guess the girls who were expelled will have a good chance to practice forgiveness, but I'm guessing there are more and more parents out there who are going to just opt out of schools like this in the first place.

Photo by Made Underground.

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Dad Finds Daughter Abducted During Bosnian War

JeanneSager — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:01:00 GMT

It's been sixteen years since Muhamed Becirovic saw his family, abducted by Serbian soldiers at the start of the Bosnian war. But the Bosnian Muslim - now living in Germany - never gave up hope.

Now Red Cross workers, using DNA samples, have reconnected the father with one of his two little girls, now living with a foster family in Serbia. Senida was nine months when last seen by her father; she's now sixteen and goes by the name Mila.

She's also a Serbian. And a Christian.

She's known nothing of her father for the past sixteen years, nothing of his life or her heritage. Now she faces the biggest question of all - should she stay with what she knows? Or join her biological father in another country, taking on a new life?

It's the kind of story that tears at a parents' guts. Becirovic has rebuilt his life since losing his wife and two daughters after fighting broke out while he was working out-of-town, and ethnic Serbs took control of his hometown. By the time he finally got to his home, the building was demolished, his family gone. He's spent more than a decade and a half trying to find them, even if that meant discovering they were among the bodies dumped in the mass graves created during the Bosnian war. He's also since become a permanent resident of Germany, remarrying a German woman and fathering another daughter.

But a third daughter can't possibly replace his elder two. Finding Senida would seem like a dream come true.

But what of Senida? She's no longer a baby, and she says she doesn't want to move to Germany. “Of course I am very happy to have found my family and my roots. But at the moment it is all too much for me," she told the Sunday Times.

Is it fair for a child to be uprooted from everything that she knows? With the long history of the region, pitting Serbs against Bosnians and Christians against Muslims, it's hard to say how much of this child's biological heritage can really take hold over what she has been raised to believe. It's akin to a child raised evangelical Christian in America suddenly learning she's an Orthodox Jew - and her biological parents believe nothing of the born again, Jesus loving faith she's been raised to hold so dear. Doesn't nurture trump nature in this case?

By the time kids reach a certain age, biology can hold only so much sway in their lives. Heritage is more environmental and less what one is born with at sixteen. Not to mention the utter lack of relatable moments between father and daughter in this situation because of such a large chunk of their lives spent apart.

For the Becirovics, what should be one of the happiest days of their lives is fraught with confusion. Unfortunately, they're still a family torn apart by war.

Image: USIP

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Number of Homeschoolers Grows

Amy Kuras — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:02:00 GMT

While it’s still a tiny fraction of school-age kids, the number of homeschooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2001, up a whopping 74 percent since the US Department of Education started tracking homeschoolers in 1999. The percentage of the school-age population who are homeschooled grew last year from 2.2 percent in 2003 to 2.9 percent of all school age kids in 2007.

Some of the statistics from the most recent survey done by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics indicated the reasons parents are choosing to homeschool their children might be changing. Traditionally, the biggest reasons have been religious or moral motivations for forgoing traditional schooling, but parents are increasingly claiming an interest in alternative methods of education, dubbed “unschooling.” Also growing are a desire for more family time or a need in family finances to educate children at home.

Perhaps because of the increasing availability of online classes, fewer children are enrolled part time at local schools to learn the classes their parents don’t have enough expertise in to be teaching.

I don’t quite get homeschooling, mostly because I fully admit I lack the teaching skills, knowledge or interest to do it properly and are a little creeped out by the isolationist Christian aspects, and I think “unschooling” sounds like utter claptrap. However, I think it’s a pretty scary indictment of our educational system when more and more people are choosing to opt out of it entirely.

Indiana Planned Parenthood Sells Gift Certificates

Brett Singer — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:00:00 GMT

From the Chicago Tribune:

"What do you get the person who has everything—except adequate health insurance? If you live in Indiana, consider this offering from the state's Planned Parenthood affiliate: gift certificates in $25 increments."

In news even less surprising than Clay Aiken coming out of the closet, anti-choice groups are not happy. The Tribune quotes Jim Sedlak, who is with both the American Life League and Stop Planned Parenthood (where DOES he find the time?) as saying that the gift cards are just PP's "annual [attack] on the Christian community at Christmastime...[Planned Parenthood] could easily have said, 'these certificates are not to be used for abortions.' But they intentionally chose not to do that." Because I'm sure that Planned Parenthood spends most of their time thinking about how they can ruin Christmas for Christians everywhere.

Now my initial reaction was a great big ol' "Huh?" Luckily my mother was present when I heard this news (on The Daily Show). She pointed out, as does president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana Betty Cockrum, that most of what PP does is "provide basic health care." In fact, Cockrum says that's 95 percent of what they do. Still, "a pap smear in a Pear Tree" doesn't sound very appealing.

All joking aside (you can see Jon Stewart's slightly reluctant mirth-making on this topic in the video below), I guess this isn't as weird as it sounds. It's not weirder than a doctor's office selling gift cards. Well, that would be weird too. The underlying message of providing health care is a good one. But who do you buy one of these cards for? The Duggar family? Jon and Kate? Kevin Federline? (I know, it's about health care, not just birth control. The jokes are almost too easy. If Jon Stewart can apologize, so can I!) I guess in theory you could pick one up for someone you know who doesn't have health care. But isn't that incredibly awkward? "Hi, I know you're uninsured, so I thought you could use one of these. Happy holidays!" I would love to know how many cards Planned Parenthood Indiana (who have the unfortunate acronym PPIN – say it out loud and then make a Beavis and Butthead chuckling noise) actually sells. So far, they say they've sold about twelve. This isn't Vegas, but I'm putting the over-under at 25. Anyone want to take that action?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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Source: The Daily Show, Chicago Tribune

Image: PPIN

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Christian Parents Opt for Religious Circumcision . . . Even if It's Jewish

JeanneSager — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I always thought participating in a religious ceremony was supposed to have something to do with your religion. I know, call me crazy.

Christian parents who have started calling on Jewish mohels to perform their sons' circumcisions apparently don't care that they're not, well, Jewish. They don't even care that it costs a little extra.

Traditionally, Christian parents who have opted to circumcise their little boys have it done in a hospital setting - where it's often covered by a parent's health insurance. Many Jewish parents, however, follow the traditional method of a bris - a ceremonial circumcision performed after the baby has been released from the hospital, in the presence of friends and family. A mohel - a specially trained Jewish circumciser - traditionally does the honors, not only cutting the foreskin but leading the onlookers in a small religious ceremony. The whole thing can cost upwards of $300 to $800 - and that's not including the party the parents' usually throw for their guests.

So why would Christian parents call on a mohel? Philip Sherman, a mohel in the New York City area, told the Houston Chronicle parents would rather have the process done in the comfort of their own homes; they like to make it spiritual. Plus, he claims, the process is much quicker for the baby - he says it's a few seconds for a mohel, half an hour in a hospital (The American Academy of Pediatrics actually calls for anesthetic cream to be applied sixty to ninety minutes before the procedure in a hospital or the use of some other, faster-acting anesthetic. The AAP also suggests a clamp be left on the area for several minutes to stop bleeding).

The mother of a daughter, I never had to make the "to circumcise" or "not to circumcise" decision. I don't have a feeling either way. But where I can accept a Jewish parent's decision to call in a mohel to practice their faith, I find the concept of a Christian parent doing the same slightly bizarre. Even odder? That mohels are adjusting their usual ceremony to make them less Jewish. In the case cited in the Chronicle, he actually handed out a prayer booklet that was appropriate for the largely Presbyterian crowd. Instead of religious, they call it "holistic" circumcision.

Isn't this a bit like calling on a rabbi to perform your Catholic wedding? Maybe I'm just not well-versed enough in the Bible. Is there really any religious meaning to a bris outside of the Jewish faith?

Image: Houston Chronicle

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Make Your Own Religious Doll

Brett Singer — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Doll Creation Station allows people of all religious persuasions to make dolls featuring the accoutrements of their faith. To be fair, the site only offers Christian, Jewish and Muslim dolls, but the company suggests that you "Check back with us as we expand into other religious and ethnic markets."

The best seller at the moment is "Set 3J", which is the Jewish doll.

The set comes with "a Jewish themed t-shirt and matching denim skirt, socks and shoes," as well as a "matching Magen David bracelet set for you and your doll as well as a silver plated matching Magen David necklace set for you and your doll!" But wait! There's more! "Dress your doll in a satin white and gold trim Queen Esther costume with gold crown and sceptre, and play Shabbat with a 10 piece wooden toy Shabbat Set that includes challah, wine, and candles."

Maybe it's just me but "Let's play Shabbat" doesn't really have the same appeal as "Let's play house." But again, maybe that's just me.

Also, if I were a more observant Jew, I wonder if I might be slightly offended by the idea of "playing" a religious ritual. Do Catholic children "play communion"? Also, is it fair to lump all of Christianity together? And what exactly does a "butterfly hooded sweatshirt" have to do with being Christian? (The Muslim doll sets include a "2 piece Hijab", which is more specific to the doll I suppose.) Will the atheist doll come with a copy of "The God Delusion"? (I'll go out on a limb here and say that I don't think they will ever make an atheist doll. Although it would be funny if they did.)

The idea of dolls that better reflect the way the world actually looks is not a new one and it is important. But I always thought the point was more physical than spiritual – that is, all dolls shouldn't have blonde hair and white skin. The company does plan to expand to include other ethnicities, and offers a choice of hair color and type, so part of the pitch is definitely "a doll that looks like you." But another part of it is "a doll that shares your faith."

Would anyone out there buy a religious doll for their child?

Source: dollcreationstation.com

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Evangelical Teens' Very Active Sex Lives

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

In this week's issue of The New Yorker, there's a cartoon that made me laugh so hard I spit out my tea. Although it's not technically Bristol Palin's unborn child speaking, it easily could be. Two kids are sitting on a stoop and one says to the other, "I was an abstinence-only baby."

An article by Margarot Talbot in this same New Yorker tackles the issue of evangelical teen pregnancy in a more serious vein. Even for someone who is already convinced that abstinence-only sex education doesn’t work, these statistics are shocking.

Although 74 percent of white evangelical teenagers are opposed to premarital sex, more evangelical teens are sexually active than almost any other major religious group, including mainline Protestants, Jews, and Mormons. The average age for an evangelical to lose her virginity is 16. And half of these kids are not using protection. Compare that with 69 percent of non-evangelical teens who report using contraception every time they have sex.

The reason for this high percentage of unsafe sex among evangelical teens likely stems from shame at being sexually active—if you carry around condoms or suggest using one, you could give the impression that you are looking for sex. Furthermore, abstinence-only sex ed. teaches that condoms are not effective protection against STDs and pregnancy.

As we’ve seen in the widespread conservative support for Bristol Palin’s plans to get married and have a baby at age 17, for many evangelical parents, a teen daughter becoming pregnant is not a problem—so long as she keeps the baby and marries the father. This is a perfectly valid attitude based on a personal moral belief. The problem is that this retroactive problem solving often does not lead to happy families.

The states with the highest divorce rates and the highest teen pregnancy rates are all red (where people are, obviously, more likely to be evangelical conservatives than social liberals). The states with the lowest divorce and teen-pregnancy rates are all blue.

Many are arguing, even within the evangelical community, that if Christians want to preserve a commitment to abstinence until marriage, they must do more to encourage happier, younger marriages, since delaying sex until age 25 or 30 is just not realistic.

A large part of encouraging young Christians to have happier relationships is offering them more realistic attitudes toward sex. If hormonal teenagers are taught, for instance, that masturbation is sinful, they are more likely to have less engagement with and control over their bodies. Similarly, teen girls who are taught that they can always become "born-again virgins" if they "accidentally" have sex before marriage are not likely to embark on a responsible sex life. And such guilt-addled, unrealistic attitudes toward sex are likely to cause problems for couples well into marriage.

Photo: Mary Ellen Mark/The New Yorker

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Arkansas Evangelist's compound raided, six children removed

Brett Singer — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:35:00 GMT

Arkansas police raided Tony Alamo Christian Ministries on Saturday. The church, located near Texarkana, was raided because of suspicions that children are being abused there. The raid was part of a child pornography investigation. The six children are currently, "in the custody of the state Department of Human Services," according to CNN.

Tony Alamo (that name!) is denying any shenanigans. "It's a hoax…They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying…that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will." Then he compared himself to Jesus Christ, saying that, "Jesus is living within me." Yeah, that's what I used to tell people. Then the doctors switched my meds and I'm much better now.

I do wonder why the only way to find out what's going on in these places is to do a huge dramatic raid. CNN reports that, "About 100 agents raided the 15-acre site on Saturday and met with no resistance." Did they really need that many officers of the law to take six children into custody? Of course, if they had found armed guards, I guess that would be a different story. Whatever the facts turn out to be, I hope the kids are OK, or as OK as a kid could be after this sort of experience.

Image/source: CNN

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Teaching Evolution as Theory not fact

Brett Singer — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:00:00 GMT

An article in last week's New York Times discussed a major hot-button issue in schools across the country: evolution vs. creationism, or its offshoot, intelligent design.

It's a long article, and certainly worth reading. I won't try to summarize the whole piece in this post, but the big surprise for me was that it was less about two competing theories/beliefs, or even about science versus religion. It was about a teacher who, in my opinion, has the patience of Job.

That teacher is David Campbell, who teaches Biology in Orange Park, Florida. The story the article tells is not of him fighting with parents, the school board, or local churches. Actually, he's not fighting with anyone. This quote sums up his attitude nicely:

"He scanned the faces of the sophomores in his Biology I class. Many of them, he knew from years of teaching high school in this Jacksonville suburb, had been raised to take the biblical creation story as fact. His gaze rested for a moment on Bryce Haas, a football player who attended the 6 a.m. prayer meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the school gymnasium.

"'If I do this wrong,' Mr. Campbell remembers thinking on that humid spring morning, 'I’ll lose him.'"

His main concern is not "proving" anything one way or the other. It's teaching.

"'Faith is not based on science,' Mr. Campbell said. 'And science is not based on faith. I don’t expect you to ‘believe’ the scientific explanation of evolution that we’re going to talk about over the next few weeks. But I do expect you to understand it.'"

That, to me, is the bottom line. Campbell's students, although they probably don't think so, are incredibly lucky to have him.

image/source: NYTimes