I recently finished the book Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. It is an excellent and life altering book. It really ties together a lot of what I have read about evolutionary psychology and evolutionary biology. If you have not read this book, or even if you have never read an evolutionary psychology book at all, read it. It may change the way that you see the world, and I mean that in a good way. It covers topics such as monogamy, swinging, infidelity, and polyamory in it.  It truly covers the wide spectrum of human sexuality. Wow is all I can say.

If you do not know what polyamory is I have written a primer on polyamory for those who are curious.

California’s Appellate Court granted a stay on Judge Vaughn’s ruling pending appeal. This was, in my opinion, to be expected since this is such a high profile case and precedent setting case,  so nothing drastic there. However, there is some good news as far as this process is concerned as is covered here BREAKING: 9th Circuit STAYS Judge Walker’s ruling; Appeal scheduled December 6 on Prop 8 Trial Tracker:

• the appellate court is expediting the the appeal of the ruling of the unconstitutionality of Prop 8 and set the date for the week of 6 December, which is awesome. The sooner the, hopefully, better.
• they are also specifically asking the Prop8′ers: In addition to any issues appellants wish to raise on appeal, appellants are directed to include in their opening brief a discussion of why this appeal should not be dismissed for lack of Article III standing. which is huge. Judge Vaughn said that they do not have standing for a stay or appeal, if I remember correctly, and the appellate court obviously pretty much agrees with them, but are giving them a chance to sound at least a little rational and try to retain some self respect.

In the scheme of things this is pretty huge. The appeal process could end up being pretty short (comparatively speaking) since they do not have standing for appeal, so this may most likely get dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent a Supreme Court Appeal. This will be a massively huge win and precedent for gay rights all throughout the US if this does happen, since there will be a court ruling stating that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional and they have no standing.

If  the Supreme Court does not dismiss out of hand due to lack of standing, which would rock, then the appellate court’s decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Cross your fingers everyone. History and justice is happening. =)

In light of the ignorance spewed here by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s  niece, Alveda King, below, I feel compelled to publish the following excerpt while Dr. King rolls in is own grave in embarrassment and furious anger.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail (more info at Wikipedia) that is quite pertinent to todays gay-rights movement:

…

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

…

Holy thank God! =)

As I fully expected, and if you followed the transcripts you will know what I mean, California’s proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional via Prop 8 Trial Tracker (full decision)! Judge Vaugh Walker dropped the big metal hammer of constitutional justice upon this sordid issue. Happy Days!

Now the long process of appeals begins for the Prop8′ers.

Take a look at the Live BLogging of the Closing Arguments for the Proposition 8 trial via Prop 8 Trial Tracker.  I have been very patiently waiting for this day.

You can find my previous comments on the Prop 8 atrocity them here if you are curious.

Here is an interesting article titled “Why I finally joined a church” on Salon about why a family finally joined a church after not having gone for so many years, and why they chose a Unitarian Universalist church.

OK, so I was reading a post on Prop 8 Trial Tracker where the following quote was rendered which spawned the creation of this post:

There’s two lenses here. One’s a biblical world view and the other is basically more of a secular humanist world view, and that’s why there never seems to be agreement,” said the Rev. Pastor Brad Cranston, of Burlington’s Heritage Baptist Church. “They’re not going to be reconciled with one another.”

Iowa – One Year Later (Proposition 8 Trial Tracker)

Now, my recent post A problem with conservative religions is that Dogma and tradition is more important than People really touched upon this, but having read that quote I realized that I realistically could take this a step further. I have stated before quite a bit, perhaps not specifically on this BLog, that modern (fundamentalist and Conservative) Christianity is not really “Christian”. They have lost their way. Jesus’ teachings were about love, compassion, mercy, and acceptance and many of the contemporary Christian teachings, especially fundamentalist and conservative Christian teachings, have nothing to do with these ideals, and in some way are antithetical to them, which saddens me greatly. In that post I also state flatly that for them dogma is more important that humans which is something that they need to move on from, especially if they are to remain relevant and not part of the problem.

Now, the above thought brought me to the create the idea of Biblical Humanism. Fortunately, I am not the only one to ever have considered this possibility. It was first (as far as my currently limited research shows) was thought up in the late 1400’s with Erasmus of Rotterdam’s’ writings. Erasmus was a monastic Catholic priest of sorts and was heralded in his time for his enlightenment and writings. He was, shall we say, the father of contemporary Biblical/Christian/Theological Humanism.

A more humanistic approach to religious practice and teachings less zealous, blind, irrational, and tyrannical. The heaven hell model and the extreme religious tyranny are why Christianity is slowly dying and why people for many years have been defecting from Catholicism and other orthodox religions to other more humanistic faiths. These conservative or fundamentalist faiths enforce their dogma with fear – fear of going to hell, fear of sinning, fear of not getting presents on Christmas, fear of not being saved. This sort of fear based propaganda stresses the psyche and emotions and eventually there is going to be a break down, and we are seeing that, especially in Europe an Asia, and also here in the United States. These religions are killing themselves and they are too proud and arrogant to see it. Historically they have changed only when they see that they have had no real choice, but perhaps this time… they may not be able to fully recover, unless they embrace a more humanistic view of Christianity – a view that is more “Christian” than what is being taught in many churches today. A Humanism Theology may be the only way to save contemporary Christianity.

Resources

• Why bother with the Bible? … Interpret, or others will do it for you (by John Buehrens @ UU World, April 2003 )
• Protestantism and Christian Humanism – Fundamental Differences Between the Two Movements of the Reformation
• Society for Humanistic Judaism
• Biblical Humanism: The Tacit Grounding of James Clerk Maxwell’s Creativity (The American Scientific Affiliation)
• Humanism in Scripture and Culture – Recovering a Balance (by Dennis Bratcher @ The Voice)
• Humanism
• Christian Humanism
• The Christian Humanist
• Some Reasons Why Humanists Reject the Bible (by Joseph C. Sommer)
• The Rennaisance Bible: Rewriting the Vulgate (University of California E-Books Collection)
• Humanist Theology

A major problem with many religions, especially conservative or fundamentalist religions,  is that, for them, their dogma, tenets, traditions, and beliefs are more important than people. Following their tradition and teachings is more important than the harm that they cause. It is easy to forget that people are affected by your teachings when the teachings themselves allow for the dehumanization of the public in a very similar way that militaries train soldiers. It is about the enemy, soldier, sniper, hand-to-hand combat in a similar fashion as it is about sin, immorality, sinner, faith and salvation.

The entire point of theses religions seems to be the propagation of their religion and it is not really about people. Religions need to shift their focus from being dogmatic faiths to being more humanistic faiths where people are what is important.  Until then we are all going to suffer because “we” are not the focal point of conservative faith and teachings, the dogma and tradition is.

A great example of this hypocrisy is where the Catholic Church in Washington DC threatened to stop all of their social services if gay marriage was passed. Another great example is the Uganda issue which I posted about a while back. With the concerted effort of the Anglican Church and some Fundamentalist Senators they have effectively achieved a death sentence for homosexuals and anyone who helps them in Uganda.  Let us also look at the Stupak amendment to stop abortion for health insurance which is the only real reason that health care reform is not passed. Then there is also the abstinence only education issue too. It has been well proven what damage this causes.

Read More

• Religious Institute to D.C. Catholic Charities: These are NOT Family Values
• Angry But Not Surprised About Stupak
• Wikipedia article for the “Stupak–Pitts Amendment” to the Heath Care Reform package
• Dec ‘09 Milestone: Abstinence-Only Education
• Abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education — It’s back…

If you think that what I am about to write does not affect you please take a look at this quote:

Texas is the nation’s second-largest textbook market and one of the few biggies where the state picks what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to the whims of local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. As a result, the Lone Star State has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers. As one senior industry executive told me, “Publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.”

Mariah Blake

This article titled Revisionaries: How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks by Mariah Blake from the Washington Monthly is very saddening to me. I had heard off-handedly through the news that it was pretty bad down there (i.e.  teaching creationism in schools movement), but I did not realize how bad it was until I read this article. There is an all out assault on education to, again, enshrine Fundamentalist Christianity into our culture and education while totally ignoring scientific facts and historical accuracy.

Again, they wish to impose upon the public their theological view points when we, most assuredly, do not ask for it. Our public education system needs to be free from religious interference or view points, for our education system is for everyone regardless of your religious preference. If you want religious knowledge go to church or a seminary, buy a book, or talk to your parents and family. The public education system is not the place for a theological bias.

Religion is a personal choice and our public schools are not. By virtue of teaching Fundamentalist Christian view points we are discriminating against everyone who does not share that view point, and are ensuring prejudice and bigotry towards non-Christians in the next generations. Perhaps a student attending a public might be Hindu, Muslim, Mormon, or Jewish? Should they be subjected to heavily conservative and Christian colored history lesson.

I do believe that we do need to teach about religion in our schools so people know about the different religions out there. We need to teach and not preach a Comparative Religion class.

Who do you want writing your public schools’ text books?

Other Articles

• Why You Should Worry About Texas Education
• One more time
  Texas education board yet again promotes ideology over academics
• Texas Board Delays Vote; Defends Christian Influence in U.S. History

The more I read of the Proposition 8 Trial Tracker BLog’s account of the trial’s testimony the more I believe that there is really no valid argument against gay marriage.  Their Questioning, and their expert witnesses are crushing the pro- Prop 8 people. It is a blood bath in there. The historical evidence supporting the homosexuality has been to subject to demonizing, discrimination, and bigotry throughout history is huge and painful to recount, but consistent. There is also plenty of historical evidence of changing marital laws with slaves, interracial marriage, etc…  I am impressed with the legal work here.

I see good things to eventually come.  Yea!

I just received word the the Supreme Court has affirmed a block on televising the Prop 8 court proceedings. I am saddened by this. Transparency to the public in such a high profile case is important, especially to let the world see the bigotry and lies that are spread by the pro Prop 8′ers. They want to keep this as hidden as possible so they do not look so bad. They are trying to keep as much of their commercials and other propaganda and so on from being admitted for similar reasons.  They hate to have their own work used against them.

New York Times Coverage

• Two Ideological Foes Unite to Overturn Proposition 8
• YouTube Moment on Hold in Same-Sex Marriage Case in San Francisco
• Personal Focus as Same-Sex-Marriage Trial Opens in California (Day 1)
• Same-Sex Marriage Case, Day 2: History Lessons
• Same-Sex Marriage Case, Day 3: The Defense Pushes Back

Here is a link to a live blog detailing the happenings at the Proposition 8 trial: Proposition 8 Trial Tracker BLog from the Courage Campaign.

Read it and get involved. This is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time.

Read about it and you be the judge:

• Uganda considers death sentence for gay sex in bill before parliament (Guardian UK, November 2009)
• Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill: Inspired by the U.S. (Time, December 2009)
• Taboos Silence Opponents Of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill (NPR, December 2009)
• Uganda’s bill to imprison gays for life is an outrage that should be rejected (Washington Post, January 2010)
• Op-Ed: Bearing False Witness in Uganda (HRC Backstory, January 2010)

Contact your legislators via HRC to let them know that this is not acceptable anywhere in the world.

I know what I am about to write here is bitterly sarcastic and angry… but here it is anyhow:

Congrats Scott Lively, Don Schmierer and Caleb Lee Brundidge! This must be a proud moment for you and your Fundamentalist Christian community. Bravo! Bravo! You have worked hard spreading ignorance and lies to ensure the deaths of more people. How proud you must be to know that you will soon have the potential death of many vile homo’s on your hands. Your “Godly” works are now responsible for promoting another tyrannical and oppressive regime like Iran and China where human rights are only a convenience for the state to play with and not a human right. I hope you enjoyed the participatory process in bringing about such stellar and model Christian legislation.

This article in Newsweek titled “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage
Why same-sex marriage is an American value” is written by Theodore Olson who is a prominent Republican lawyer that served under Bush and Reagan during their presidential administrations. He, along with David Boies, a prominent liberal lawyer, have taken it upon themselves to overturn Proposition 8 all the way to the Supreme Court.

This article states his reasons for taking up the Gay Marriage case with hopes of ending the discrimination and injustice in this country. The Republican party has been struggling with their identity and have been trying to find themselves again. I think that they should take up with Mr. Olson to find out where to go – Freedom, Justice, and Family and not persecutive religious dogmatic status quo’ism.

Please take the time to read his view point. It is very compelling. And if you are really bored you can read my scrawlings on the gay marriage issue too.

I was not surprised to see this still an issue. In the pre-revolution days many of the colonies had religious tests as a requirement to hold office. They did out-law it at some point prior to the the uniting of the colonies, if I remember correctly, but still there remains these last remaining vestiges of Christian religious oppression. Fortunately, the Constitution is really clear on this and tells the state to suck it.