I am glad to have reached the first week in January of 2024 without telling a lot of people to simply fuck off and leave me alone during the past month. The urge is, I’m afraid, great and growing stronger every year. The Xmas season does that to me, beginning
Continue readingTag: Christianity
Views from the Beltline: Religion still making mischief
In a rapidly changing world, some things do remain the same. One such thing is religion’s capacity for mischief. Examples are legion. The mullahs of Iran, who as religious leaders might be expected to be moral leaders, oppress their own people and make trouble throughout their region. Saudi Arabia, an
Continue readingScripturient: Why Jesus Won’t Answer Your Prayers
Christians pray to Jesus, but get no reply. They pray to Jesus for parking spaces closer to the mall, to win the lottery, to make their boss disappear, to lose weight, to restore Donald Trump to his lost presidency, for their kids to win the little league game, for better
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Islam—is the fear justified?
When it comes to religion, I am not a believer nor am I a student of theology. I am but a mere observer, much more inclined to fact than faith. I don’t have a high regard for any religion but there are things about most that I appreciate. Buddhism, for
Continue readingScripturient: That Fake War on Xmas
In my part of Canada the “war on Xmas” begins in September when some local box stores start putting Xmas ornaments and decorations out, sometimes just after Labour Day. By mid-October there are whole store sections dedicated to pushing gaudy, offshore-made, increasingly tacky lights and displays. Then the canned Xmas
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Alarm Bells Should Go Off
Millions of Americans claim to be Christians. But what they profess bears little resemblance to the teachings of Christ. Michael Gerson writes: They fear their values are under assault by an inexorable modernity, in the form of government, big business, media and academia. Leaders in the Republican Party have fed,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: An unholy duo
Christianity has often sucked up to power. Even in these days of generally more enlightened religion, there are still Christian leaders who will kiss the king’s ring in order to advance the interests of the church, or at least of the church leadership. There is no better example than the
Continue readingScripturient: Blame Everything on Satan
Three people have so far died of COVID-19 after attending a “multi-day gathering of faith groups” in Nova Scotia. Public health officials said that, “in violation of public health orders,” none of the more than 100 attendees were asked to show proof of vaccination. And, the attendees went unmasked while
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What is Enlightenment?
Further Notes On The Dualistic Illusion (This ought to raise the hackles of the fundamentalists – both secular and religious. But I don’t write for the narrow of mind anyway, so I am not concerned about that.) Now here is someone who knows what he is talking about: Rabbi David
Continue readingScripturient: The Talibangelist Conspiracy to Rule America and the West
Talibangelists (aka (aka the pseudo-Christian, far right) would love to force everyone believe in and obey their highly-adulterated pseudo-religion, and to punish those who don’t. Or won’t. Punishment is big on their agenda: unbelievers, those who stray, followers of a real faith, scientists, intellectuals, people of colour, gays, people with
Continue readingScripturient: Trump plays the god card
For a nation that allegedly separates church and state, Americans sure love to splash religion all over everything, their elections especially. So this week, Donald Trump made headlines by accusing the frontrunner, Joe Biden of being “against god.” Cue the angels with trumpets. Americans make big oompah sounds about their
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Happy New Year – We Are All Going to Die
Yes, we are all going to die and that’s it, the end. Except for the Christians, of course, they get to go to an afterlife of either heaven or hell. There seem to be two schools of thought on who goes where. One seems to believe good people go to
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: The War Against Holiday Diversity
They call it the War on Christmas, but in reality it is just an opportunity for a few people to get apoplectic, or is it apocalyptic, about the fact that some people acknowledge that many holidays are celebrated at this time of year. Proponents of the theory like to claim
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Waeza Shamsia Afzal, U.S. Evangelicals, and the corruption of dogma
Reading about the courageous young Canadian woman Waeza Shamsia Afzal carried my thoughts to American evangelical Christians and their worship of Donald Trump. The connection is religion. Ms. Afzal is an observant Muslim who has decided to boycott the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Her reason: “The hajj is governed by
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – That’s Quite the Kill Order.
Competing for the religion of ‘peace’ I see…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Christmas – Whose Holiday is it Anyway
It is time for the annual discussions about the “War on Christmas” and putting “Christ Back in Christmas”, but whose holiday is it anyway. The Christians claim it as theirs because, well, it has “Christ” in the name and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. But yet they chose the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Reflections on Easter Sunday, 2018: There really is a war against Christianity … it’s being waged by Christians
PHOTOS: Easter Sunday shoppers at West Edmonton Mall. Is nothing sacred? Well, actually, something is: The Almighty Market, god of Canada’s state religion. Below: A brass idol to the Market God in New York City’s Wall Street district. Below that, two unchristian politicians beloved by North American Christian conservatives: Doug
Continue readingScripturient: Why are American evangelical Christians so cruel?
The article in Forbes’ Magazine, March 11, didn’t ask that question I used in my headline. Instead, the headline simply stated the piece would explain, “Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel.” (The author later republished this on his own site under the less pointed title, “Why the Religious Right is
Continue readingScripturient: Prayer isn’t stopping the violence
An acerbic piece in Maclean’s Magazine from June had the title “America’s mass delusion.” The subtitle read, “Surprisingly, the strategy of praying to God is not stopping the mass shootings in the U.S.” That piece was recirculated when the news of the latest and largest mass shooting in the USA
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The DWR Sunday Religious Disservice – Christian Checklists.
Confused? So is the rest of the rational world. 🙂 Filed under: Religion Tagged: Christianity, Clear as Mud, Religion
Continue reading