famished for meaning

“We must help and pray for those ravaged by this disaster, but let us not forget that the citizens of New Orleans tolerated and welcomed the wickedness in their city for so long,” Marcavage said. “May this act of God cause us all to think about what we tolerate in our city limits, and bring us trembling before the throne of Almighty God,” Marcavage concluded.

yep, someone actually said that.

oh and if that wasn’t enough, i got this little gem from here:

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God’s mercy in the aftermath of Katrina — but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.

The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as “Southern Decadence” — an annual six-day “gay pride” event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week — God’s judgment would be felt.

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion — it’s free of all of those things now,” Shanks says. “God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there — and now we’re going to start over again.”

The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. “It’s time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won’t have to deal with that wickedness,” he says.
(Source)

you see that?? stop shedding tears for the poor people of new orleans, it is at least now abortion free! plus, southern decadence got cancelled and what more could good, god fearing christians ask for?? so what if thousands are rendered homeless or dead? at least the gays did not get to parade around, celebrating sodomy and their false religion and their false god!

yayyyy for hurricane katrina!

…you know what i don’t understand? when a muslim says something so infinitely stupid and MEAN, it gets SO much coverage. it is analysed for days on end on CNN and BBC and all the moderate muslims are forced to abandon their 9 to 5 lives, come forward and defend their religion, the religion of peace and all that.

this reverend should really receive the same treatment or better yet, be shot for what he said. instead, because he is a god fearing christian, no one really gives a shit - i had trouble locating the original quote.

what amuses me the most is the amount this guy has in common with your usual mullah, who at this precise moment must be attributing this act to his own god, as revenge for america’s policies and presence in iraq! he spouts his nonsense after friday prayers and our good reverend says the same crap, different god, on sundays.

i don’t know who the fuck came up with religion but it needs to go.

completely.

UPDATE:

i found rev’s best friend!!

presenting Mr. Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi:

“The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah…”.

“this wind, which completely wiped out American cities in these days, is a wind of mercy and blessing. It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire.”
(Source)

MORE A LOFT THAN A DAMASCENE CONVERSION

“An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind” -Gandhi

There is little better deconstruction of selective religion than this. Nowadays religion is used to lend authenticity to things people want to do anyway. Ali’s post citing the one verse in the Koran that refers to the allowance of beating a woman whilst many others appear to contradict that stance is mirrored in Western Christianity. Domestic violence here is frowned upon, and yet it exists and in many areas appears quite widespread. Murder, rape, assault, GBH etc. are criminal offences and yet the “eye for an eye” verse of the old testament is cited and seemingly used for justification to extol far greater international conflicts.

It has always puzzled me how people wishing to use the bible to defend reactionary and fundamentalist positions only ever seem to use the old testament. Is it that they do not know the new testament or simply that they choose to ignore the more progressive teachings in it? After all “eye for an eye” is in direct contradiction to Jesus’ principle that you must forgive those that have wronged you 77 x 7 times - no-one would think of taking that literally and, breathing a sigh of relief, kill their neighbour on the 540th time s/he has wronged them. So why do they cherry pick the parts to take literally? It is because it suits what they wish to believe in nothing more, this isn’t religion it is more a fundamentalist political doctrine based around an outdated notion of theology.

When it comes to the interpretations of the bible itself I remain astonished that some wish to take it all so literally to deflect scientific study. If you had a science book that was 2000 years old you might well expect that much of it would have been superseded by modern studies. That does not degrade the study or the original premise, nor does it do so to the method of study which can well form the basis of future expansion in this area. However to disregard well-researched and backed up scientific principles for something which has been written by a bunch of enthusiastic laymen some 2000 years ago is utterly barking and does the human race neither credit nor good. It seems that the more scientific evidence contravenes what the dogmatic theologians would have us believe the more said clerics seek to bury their head in the sand with a “La la la I can’t hear you” hands over the ears approach.

Islam is purported, were you to believe the hype out of the West, to be the other side of this great clash of civilisations. It is portrayed as a strange, violent, fundamentalist religion to be feared. And yet we are expected to believe the same is not true of Christianity? This in spite of the fact that the two religions are both mono-deist and in fact share very many of the same beliefs not to mention the same figures of worship. In fact of all the religions practised by humanity these two along with Judaism are perhaps the most homogenous. Perhaps therein lies the problem. Besides this great clash of civilisations hardly seems at the forefront when the Western leaders deal with the House of Saud who preside over one of the more repressive regimes in the Middle East.

It reflects poorly on us as societies that we seem to have such basic irrational concepts when it comes to a more metaphysical outlook. Is, and more prevalent, should religion be immune from the scrutiny to which we subject science and technology? If it is then we are destined to be constantly dragged back to a regressive and arcane past by outdated conservative tenets. It is time for religion to evolve or die.

I ought perhaps to declare that personally I think organised religion is horse shit but then many people think the same of socialism which I do believe in so it’s all dogma really isn’t it. It is all about giving you the guidelines by which to form your advanced moral code and live your life. If people choose to do so in an aggressive fashion then they will look for any justification by which to do so. It’s just that religion makes it so easy for the zealots not to even have to work for a bloody reason.

/rant!

(guest post courtesy of the red baron)

Three out of four voters in california believe medical marijuana should be legalized. They have passed the measure at the polls in opposition to existing American laws. I was recently talking to an otherwise young and healthy friend who also happens to be a strong supporter of the californian position on medical marijuana. He kept on pointing out the various opiates, barbiturates, steroids, and whatnots that are legally prescribed by doctors. Possession of such drugs without a prescription is illegal. Similarly, possession of marijuana would remain illegal without a prescription. The only reason why common sense wasn’t prevailing, he believes, was because of Big Pharma influence. For somebody with an impressively broad knowledge of various drugs, he just couldn’t understand the difference between a controlled substance and an illegal drug. You can beg your friend who went to the dentist for some leftover oxycontin or you can hand over a mini fortune on the street. But you can’t grow it in your backyard. Pot, you can grow in a pot in your studio apartment. Kids on street corners will hook you up for 10 bucks. Morphine is controlled in vaults. It is administered in controlled doses in controlled environments. Once you put such controls on medical marijuana its cost will shoot up and everyone will be looking for stronger stuff at similar prices. Or they will still get it on the street. The californian voters in favor of medical marijuana are not in favor of legalizing drugs. Or maybe they are. Damn hippie spawn. The american govt. stance against such measures is not trying to punish those already in pain. Or maybe it is.

Laws follow attitudes. If you are angry about the one verse in koran that allows hitting a wife, get angrier because there are many more verses that allow taking slaves. In wars past muslim warriors were even allowed to take the women of their enemies as slaves. But so did everyone else those days. There is still slavery going on in the world, even when it is universally illegal. No one is using religious texts or cultural norms to defend or justify them. There is a clear understanding those who engage in such business are doing it for the profits.

There are over 6300 verses in the Koran. Search for “wife beating islam” and Google spits out thousands of pages repeating the same single verse that allows hitting a wife. One could say even one verse is one too many. But there are many more verses that tell us to cherish and treat women with respect and equity. Those are not paid any attention either. I am not going to say that hitting a woman is not allowed in Islam. It is. But women are not hit because one verse in the koran allows it. I have never seen, heard, or read of any instance where a man has justifies his violent behavior by bringing up the Koran. They are hit because the men feel they have no other avenue left in the confrontation. Some men take that street at the first instance. Some men don’t know that street is even on the map.

Domestic violence in islamistan is not inspired by that singular verse. It is a cultural thing like every other culture. And at the heart of the matter, it is a personal thing. It needs to change but the change is not going to come out of questioning the Koran. The muslim mind becomes completely unreceptive at the first hint of questioning the authenticity of the text. The change has to come out of the culture. Every second Bollywood film has the male lead or other good guys slapping the woman when she gets out of hand. Watch old hollywood movies and the women are getting slapped around like nothing. Different cultures and different rates of change. One day soon one would be able to pick up a blunt OTC at the corner sav-on-drugs, and people will stop beating up their women. Or maybe not.

the internet, in fact all telecommunications in my country, is monopolized by one organization. this basically means that even if we hate their service, we have to suck it up and deal with it.

usually, it isn’t that bad - the only thing i have a major problem with is the internet. the speed and packages are fine but it is heavily censored - they actually play ‘parents’ or god and block everything that is deemed ‘unislamic’. sometimes, one can understand it - like the famous ‘belle du jour’ blog being blocked? ok, i see what you’re saying - she’s a prostitute, and is writing about her exploits and it is all so very unislamic…

but friendster?

apparently, it’s blocked because it is a badly disguised, hooking up forum.

ok, mayyyy be i see your point. after all, once i put my profile up there, i did get a number of men sending me naked pictures of themselves, with offers for sex, along with their mobile numbers…

but i LOVE (not) how they block absolutely anything that contains any suggestive words in the url. if one looks up anything on STD’s and the url contains (as it most naturally would) the word sex, then the site is blocked. sexualhealth.com is BLOCKED - i am sorry, you can not educate yourself regarding the various diseases you may be contracting while shagging, because it is UNISLAMIC.

it gets more amusing.

‘freemuslims.org’ is blocked.

doesn’t that just say EVERYTHING?

today, jon over at asshole roomate (good site, by the way) posted something about saudis (did you know they actually have a law against women driving? misogyny at it’s best) and islam. he linked to this page - it was blocked. since the post mentioned wife beating in islam (which by the way is ALLOWED, under certain circumstances), i googled it. the first result was this site, which was ALSO blocked.

i finally found the actual verse that jon was talking about, on a site that my service provider approved of.

here it is:

[4:34] The men are made responsible for the women, and GOD has endowed them with certain qualities, and made them the bread earners. The righteous women will cheerfully accept this arrangement, since it is GOD’s commandment, and honor their husbands during their absence. If you experience rebellion from the women, you shall first talk to them, then (you may use negative incentives like) deserting them in bed, then you may (as a last alternative) beat them. If they obey you, you are not permitted to transgress against them. GOD is Most High, Supreme.

charming, isn’t it? no wonder they were trying to block me from reading this - obviously it would piss any woman off!!

given the liberal amount of bad, bad, bad words and blasphemy that one can find on my site (including/especially the old one), i am just waiting for it to be deemed unsuitable for viewing in this country. i don’t know whether i will laugh or cry when it happens…imagine being unable to access your OWN webpage?!

frankly, i am surprised it hasn’t happened yet.