I'll Hold Off On My Parade For The Catholic Church

Last week we got word from the Vatican that maybe, maybe, the Church was changing their stance on The Gays and before you could say, Ooh Pope Franky, where did you get the red Pradas, The Gays and The Gay Friendlies had broken out the Rainbow Flags and the Glitter Balls and the Mardi Gras Beads and were outside marching and cheering the Catholics.

All because we learned that the Church was thinking of including The Gays because, ahem, I paraphrase, we have gifts to offer the Church even though we are, ahem, I quote, “morally problematic.”

Morally problematic is a reason for a parade, Gays? Really? Morally problematic?

Luckily, we’ll never find out what that means because, right after that select group of Catholics thought about being nicer to The Gays, another group of Catholic bishops decided to say F**k it — or the religious equivalent thereof — and scrap their whole welcome to The Gays Plan.

In fact, they even skipped over a watered down version of The Welcome to The Gays and, rather than consider us — well, some of you, I guess, if you’re Catholic because I’m not — as someone who has gifts, or as my father called it, money, to offer the church, the newly revised non-welcome now refers to The Gays as one of the “problems” that Catholic families have to confront. Mind you, though, the Bishops said nothing about that other problem of priests who rape children because, well, I guess that’s not really a problem …

And we're stopping ...

Let me put that this way: say there was a very elite, rather expensive, worldwide boarding school. And say that the story broke that some of the teachers in that boarding school, in schools all over the globe, were raping children. No, what if you then found out that the headmaster, and all past and future headmasters, knew about the sexual abuse and did nothing. And in addition to doing nothing, they allowed those teachers who rape the opportunity to avoid prosecution by moving to another school, you know, where there are fresher choices to rape. Or, maybe they asked those pedophile teachers to quit their jobs but still receive a nice big pension. Would you sit idly by and let that happen?

And we’re back …

In addition to calling The Gays morally problematic, and deciding that they should still welcome us because we have money to toss in the collection plate — money to replace the tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars the Church has paid to rape victims worldwide — the Bishops have also decided not to be nice to divorced Catholics, even the straight one, and to civilly remarried divorced Catholics, though they were not dubbed morally problematic, in saying that they cannot receive Communion.

Yes, the Church has no problem with rapist and pedophiles; it has no problem with bigwigs in the company — and let’s face it, the Church is a business — from aiding and abetting those rapist, but God forbid, literally, you are a man-loving man or woman-loving woman, or have been divorced because, yeah, you’re not their kind of people.

So, the next time you hear Pope Franky mention one single word about The Gays and how times have changed, celebrate the fact that, at least, he’s talking about us in a somewhat positive way, and not in the framework of straight to hell or a blight on humanity or a moral problem, but let’s hold off on the parades and the celebrations until the Church actually does something.

And then does something about their rape problem.

Ow! I haven't ranted for over a week, and I should'a stretched first!

This Is Hobby Lobby

In July 2010, Felicia Allen was hired as a part-time cashier at a Hobby Lobby in Flowood, Mississippi. Soon after she began working, she discovered she was four months’ pregnant with her third child and, because she had only been employed a short time, she did not qualify for leave under the federal Family Medical Leave Act—something Hobby Lobby offers for maternity leave.

Felicia Allen went to her supervisor.

“I asked her would I lose my job due to me being four months and only having five months before I have my child. She told me ‘no.’ I felt like everything was OK. I had talked to my boss, and she let me know that everything would be OK. I would still have my job.”

But five months later, when the time came to take her leave of absence to have her child, that same supervisor told her she would be terminated for taking unpaid time off to have a baby, but she could reapply afterwards if she wanted her job back; side note: she tried to come back to work three weeks after her child was born but she was denied..

“I was like, I can’t get fired. She can’t terminate me because I have to go have my child. I started asking everybody on the job, ‘Can they do this?’ And even the assistant manager who had just got hired [said,] ‘No, that’s not right.’”

And it got worse. The so-called Christian craft store then tried to prevent Felicia Allen from accessing unemployment benefits and she was not allowed to sue the company for those benefits. See, Hobby Lobby, which likes to crow about operating its business based on “Christian” values—like firing a pregnant woman then refusing to rehire her—requires  its employees to sign a binding arbitration agreement saying they cannot sue the company to resolve employment disagreements, but instead go through arbitration. Companies like Hobby Lobby claim arbitration is better for both parties because it tends to take less time and money, and usually employers are required to cover employees’ legal fees.

But Hobby Lobby has a different arbitration policy from most corporations in that it allows for “Christian-influenced” arbitration. The mutual arbitration agreement Felicia Allen signed gives employees the option of an arbitrator through the nonprofit American Arbitration Association [AAA] or the Institute for Christian Conciliation [ICC], run by a nonprofit called Peacemaker Ministries which views arbitration as “a process for reconciling people and resolving disputes out of court in a biblical manner”:

“Generally, Christians are not free to sue other Christians, at least not until they have exhausted the process that Jesus sets forth in Matthew 18:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 6:1-8. God instructs Christians to resolve their disputes within the church itself, with the assistance of other Christians if necessary.”

Christians can’t sue Christians, but Christians can fire a pregnant woman and then tell her she cannot be rehired.

At the end of the arbitration — during which Allen says Hobby Lobby’s corporate office gave a false version of events, claiming she could have taken off personal leave but chose not to — she won her claim for unemployment benefits, but felt she had been wrongly discriminated based on the fact that she was pregnant. And so, in February 2012 she tried to sue, but her lawsuit was dropped because of that arbitration agreement she was forced to sign.

These days Felicia Allen works at Xerox while pursuing an associate’s degree in accounting and says she is through with Hobby Lobby.

“How can you be Christian and lie about something to hinder your employee or don’t want them to come back after they’ve had their baby? Or you’re taking up for your manager knowing that they had done the wrong thing. I feel like that’s not being Christian at all. That’s why I don’t even shop there anymore. I used to shop at that store all the time.”

Naturally, Hobby Lobby has no response because, well, liars and hypocrites. 

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Hobby Lobby ... Your Source For Christian Love

The Green family, who own and run the Hobby Lobby stores — we have one here in Columbia, in which I will not set one foot — like to proclaim how ‘Christian’ they are; Steve Green, the president of the company, proudly says, "We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles."

Hardly. Look at the crap they sell and I dare you to find many that don’t say ‘Made In china’ on the bottom. I double-dog dare you.

China, a country that has one of the worst human rights records in history; a country where children often toil in sweatshops making the little trinkets you can buy at Hobby Lobby; a country where, in Shanghai at least, the minimum wage is $293 … a month. And that;s the highest paid anywhere in mainland China; it works out to about $10.00 a day … a little more than a dollar an hour.

That’s what your Christian Hobby Lobby is selling you. Doesn’t sound very Christ-like does it? Can you call yourself a "Christian business" when you support underage labor?

And since this issue is ALLEGEDLY all about Hobby Lobby’s Christian owner’s refusal to pay for contraceptives under their healthcare plan, let’s look at how China handles that situation, since Hobby Lobby is really an extension of the Chinese marketplace right here in our own back yard.

Think about China's one-child policy, which means that many Chinese couples hope for sons to carry on the family name; female children are considered valueless and because of that there is an enormous underground abortion business going on. Hobby Lobby, in purchasing goods made by children for a dollar an hour funds that abortion business. So, so Christ-like.

There are roughly 35,000 abortions in China every single day; 336 million over the last four decades. In purchasing Chinese made products, Hobby Lobby pays for that,. though they don't want you to know it.

Okay, sure, lotsa companies buy their goods from China and sell them on their shelves to us, but how many proclaim to be ‘Christian’ businesses run on Christian principles? How can they be so riled up about providing employees with health insurance covering contraceptives when they don’t give a good God damn about the policies in China that result in horrific child labor and forced abortions? 

If contributing to a healthcare system that provides state funded abortions or birth control was truly against their deeply held Christian beliefs, Hobby Lobby could easily have chosen to buy and sell goods made in the US. And they could have opted to do business in any part of the world where these services aren’t funded by tax dollars. They did not.

How is that Christian love?

And speaking of Christianity and faith, think about the 1.35 billion Chinese people who are denied the freedom to worship; Hobby Lobby doesn’t care about that because they have knick-knacks to sell.

So, if you shop at Hobby Lobby, think about that the next time; think about the children who made that plate; think about the women forced to undergo abortions because their unborn child won’t be male; think about the people in China who cannot freely worship. And if you still want that little trinket, then stop calling yourself a Christian, because you aren’t. If you still want to spend your money at Hobby Lobby, go right ahead, but in addition to knowing what you are buying, and where it came from, and how it was made, know where your hard-earned dollars go.

For their employees’ 401K plans, Hobby Lobby invests in the very industries the Greens say they oppose; they invest, and make money off of, the makers of Plan B, Tevo Pharmaceutical Industry. They also invest in Actavus, which makes a generic version of Plan B, and also distributes Ella, a second form of birth control that Hobby Lobby claims to be religiously opposed to.

Unless they’re making an investment in it.

Hobby Lobby also has investments in Pfizer, AstroZeneca and Forest Laboratories; companies that make drugs commonly used in abortions, including Cytotec, Prostin E2 and Cervidil. Hobby Lobby’s 401K investment program, which offers an employer matching contribution, also invests in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover abortion, abortion drugs as well as Plan B and Ella.

But they have no problem with that because they're making money off of those investments.

And finally, know that, just before declaring their Christian faith as a reason to opt out of paying for contraception under their healthcare plan, Hobby Lobby’s own private insurance plan actually provided coverage for both Plan B and Ella; it wasn’t until Obamacare came along that they suddenly had an issue with it.

That ain't Christian, it's Teabagging.

So, when you listen to folks praise Hobby Lobby for standing up for their Christian faith, be aware that they are not being truthful. They buy goods from countries that fund abortions, state-sanctioned and illegal abortions; they buy goods from countries that have one of the worst records for child labor laws. And, they take your money, the money you spend on bric-a-brac and crap, and invest it in the very companies that provide the kinds of drugs and services they say their Christian faith is against.

That is not Christian love; it’s hypocrisy; it’s corporate greed; it’s a lie.

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Asshats Of The Day Week Month Year Decade Century: The GOP

Remember that day back in 2001, after the attacks on the World Trade Center, when President George W. Bush stood before the nation and held up an old timey Wanted: Dead or Alive picture of Osama bin Laden and told us we’d hunt him down to the ends of the Earth and then didn’t?

The Republicans don’t remember that, either, because even after bin Laden was captured on President Obama’s watch they tried to say it was a victory for Bush.

And remember when President George W. Bush — draft-dodging George W. Bush — flew a fighter plane onto the deck of an aircraft carrier at sea in 2003 and proclaimed the war in Iraq was over even though the fighting went on and on for years and years after?

The Republicans don’t remember either, and now, with a new crisis in the Middle East their laying the blame for all that at the feet of Obama.

But what galls me most about this group of whiners and do-nothings and asshats is that now, after how many months of their phony Benghazi hearings and months of their fake Benghazi theories and scandals — created only in an attempt to make the President look bad — how is that now, under Obama’s watch, again, when the senior leader of the Benghazi terror branch, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured, the GOP only whines about how long it took, how it seems a little too convenient, and how it’s just a ruse, a distraction, to take our minds off all those other scandals that the GOP rails about instead of doing the jobs for which they were elected.

Remember when the Republicans criticized President Obama as being weak on radical Islamic extremists for his “failure” to apprehend the suspects in the embassy attack? Remember when then-presidential failure Mittsy Romney said Obama was weak on terrorism?

Well, they don’t remember that either, because now, in the manner of Mittsy that will forever be known as The Flip-Flop, the GOP doesn’t think that the capture of  Khattala should detract us, and by us I mean them, the GOP, from their now nearly six-year struggle to bring down the President.

See, now the GOP, and its lapdog FoxNews, is saying that the capture of this terrorist was orchestrated simply to take our minds off the IRS mess … or Hillary running for president … or because Obama wants to boost his approval ratings.

Seriously, GOP?

Fox News has a theory that the capture occurred because Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and perhaps the next President of the United States, is on a book tour. Yes, Fox News said this was done to make Hillary look good; on their program ‘Outnumbered’ the host said:

“You have a former Secretary of State who is in the middle of a high profile book tour, I think this is convenient for her to shift the talking points to some of the things she has been discussing.”

Yup, we captured a terrorist to get Hillary’s book to the top spot on a Best Sellers List.

Even has-been Eric Cantor, just before the door hit him where the Good lord split him, released a statement through his spokesman saying:

“While it’s great to see they caught the Benghazi suspect, it’s important to remember, he wasn’t really hiding.”

Seriously GOP? But they must be serious because the rest of the party took to Twitter to test their theories as to why Obama let this terrorist roam the world before capturing him at this most opportune moment, Chief wingnut in the asshat parade, Allen West, a Teabagger who can’t get elected and can’t shut up, Tweeted this:

Then former Representative and deadbeat dad, Joe Walsh chimed in:

And, of course, South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham, who’s done nothing while in office but kvetch about Obama, added his two-cents — though I think he’s overcharging us — by saying:

Then, as if on cue, Rush Limbaugh set down his bottle of prescription meds to imply that this was all too coinky-dinky and so it must not be right:

“Isn’t it an amazing, timely coincidence here that they have found a militia leader of the Benghazi attack and they’ve arrested him? So I guess the video really wasn’t to blame. Because the guy that did the video is in jail, he’s who knows where anymore. Remember the video made these guys do it, so whoever did this really can’t be blamed. They were just incited by this video. But all of a sudden we’ve got the militia leader. But isn’t it fortunate that President Obama get a headline using the US military when he really needs one.”

Seriously GOP? The terror suspect was captured and you found a way to twist that into yet another scandal, another cover-up, another falsehood, in order to make the President look bad?

Stop already. And though I know none of you can stand Harry Reid, maybe take a page out of his book, just this once, and then go back to be the Party Of Loons, again:

"It doesn’t matter what your ideology is, you should feel good about this. There’s no conspiracy here, this is actual news. But the reaction of some of the Republicans, I’ve been told, is to downplay and insult the brave men and women of our special forces and the FBI….They’re insulting these good men and women who did some courageous things, heroic things, in order to criticize President Obama. I think they’ve lost touch with reality; it’s really pathetic, there’s no other word for it."

Think, as Reid suggests, about the men and women who captured Khattala, who risked their lives to do their jobs, and stop using this as another feeble attempt to attack the President.

Unless you like being the Asshat Party …

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Two Mormons Threatened With Excommunication ... For Trying To Include Women and The Gays

Kate Kelly is a Mormon, and a human rights lawyer; she founded the Ordain the Women movement to push for women to be allowed to become ministers within the Mormon Church. John Dehlin created an online forum for Mormons and, as a doctoral candidate in psychology, published into the issues faced by openly gay church members; he wants the Mormon Church to embrace its gay members.

So, what do these two folks have in common? Well, because of their ‘radical’ ideas, they have been notified by the Mormon Church that they face excommunication for apostasy.

Yup, they are being threatened with being kicked out for their beliefs; and if it happens, it will mark the first time in twenty-one years that the Mormon Church excommunicated members for trying to bring the church into the present. In 1993, the Latter-day Saints [LDS] ejected a handful of members dubbed the “September Six” — members who published scholarly work against Mormon doctrine or criticized LDS leadership.

This latest move by the Church seems a surprise, as it comes at a time when it appears the LDS is ready to change the course of their rigid anti-gay, anti-women doctrine. They even released a new ad campaign, “I’m a Mormon”, which features people of all colors, and even some Mormons who identify as feminist, gay or liberal. Of course, these are the same Mormons that, until 1978, excluded many of their black members from the priesthood. Now, they are coming down strong against Kelly Dehlin, saying:

“Local leaders have the responsibility to clarify false teachings and prevent other members from being misled. Decisions are made by local leaders and not directed or coordinated by church headquarters.”

Dehlin was sent a letter by the president of his stake, or church region, whom he has never met, asking him to either resign from the church or face a disciplinary hearing. The letter also said, “Because of the love I have for you, I have become concerned about some of your recent statements and actions regarding this church and your place in it.”

Because of the love I have for you, I am asking you to keep quiet or be kicked out of the church, is what the letter is really saying.

Dehlin considers himself a true Mormon, and loves the church, but has always questioned the exclusion of gays and lesbians. His “Mormon Stories” website is aimed at Mormons who question their faith and it is because of the site’s popularity that he is being threatened with excommunication.

“Mormon Stories has always been about administering to those who have doubt and have hard questions. And I think Kate is doing the same thing. … I worry that the church is kind of shooting the messenger,” he said. “They’re shooting the people who are trying to help and be part of the solution.” — John Dehlin

The Ordain Women movement, organized last year by Kelly, clearly agitated LDS leaders by mobilizing protesters to travel to Salt Lake City during the LDS’ annual conference, in order to stand in line and be turned away from entering the male-only priesthood meeting. A demonstration in March drew 500 protestors who carried “proxy cards” signed by 400 additional supporters, but, still, the idea of female priests does not have broad support, even from Mormon women who say they are concerned about inequality and gender issues in the church.

Still, because of her organization, and her questioning leaders, Kelly received her excommunication threat earlier this month from her local bishop in Virginia informing her that she faced “disfellowshipment … on the grounds of apostasy [rejecting the revelations and ordinances of God, changing the gospel of Jesus Christ, or rebelling against the commandments of God].” She has also been called to a disciplinary council hearing later this month.

Kelly’s stake president also wrote her to say that if she did not shut down the website, dissociate herself from it and repent, she faced excommunication for “openly, repeatedly and deliberately acting in public opposition to the church and its leaders after having been counseled not to do so.”

Kicked out because she believes women should be ordained in the church.

So, while the Mormon Church plays this role, in media campaigns, of being more open, and perhaps ready to be inclusive of the LGBT community in the church, they are telling two members working for inclusion that they will be excluded if they don’t stop.

Excluded for working towards inclusion; it doesn’t get more hypocritical that that.

source: The New York Times