Palin’s Preacher Problem

Michelle Goldberg blogs (with video):

In 2005, the Kenyan preacher Thomas Muthee stood on the stage of Alaska’s Wasilla Assembly of God and called on Christians to take over the world’s economic system. “The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It’s high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations,” he said, his remarks captured in recently unearthed video footage. Then he continued: “If you look at the – you know – if you look at the Israelites, that’s how they work. And that’s how they are, even today.”

It’s seems pretty clear that Muthee was alluding to Jewish control over global finance. But if Sarah Palin objected, she certainly didn’t show it when, a few minutes later, she joined him on stage. There, as she bowed her head and turned her palms toward heaven, Muthee laid hands on her and beseeched God to pump money into her gubernatorial campaign coffers.

On being transgender

Mia, at Black Looks, blogs:

My name is Mia Nikasimo. As a volunteer for Changing Attitudes at the Lambeth Conference I found myself in an opportune position to reflect from a translesbian (i.e. a transsexual woman who identifies as a lesbian not to be confused with above or beyond “lesbians,” or a transgender man) standpoint on the Anglican Communion and attempts to exclude the LGBTI.

I have purposely mentioned my trans status here because “transgender” as an umbrella term (for transsexual female, male, sister, brother, mothers, fathers any of the following might choose to cross dress, are intersexed, queer, kings, drag queens and more) can easily loose ones identity in the mix and because I can only share this reflection as a translesbian in the full awareness that some, like my LGBTI African brothers, sisters cannot. As the founder of an online support group call Transafro I aim to give voice to our various narratives Anglicans or otherwise, to promote, empower and raise consciousness in Africa, the Diaspora and allies.

White by the Numbers

Tammerie, who is pursuing a dissertation on anti-racism and Christian theology, blogs:

By the numbers, white people still hold a preponderance of the positions that count, out of proportion to our presence in the population, from which I would argue we are able to maintain white-privileging control over the systems and institutions that shape our society, including business, legislative and judicial systems, property sales and management, education and health care. (Note that the percentages of non-white, non-male legislators was considered too small to be tabulated.)

Of course, not all white people are employed in positions that afford economic power and privilege. Whites represented 44 percent of the 37 million U.S. citizens living below the poverty line in 2006. The (historically constructed) sad thing about that is that most of the white people living in poverty think they have more in common with wealthy white people than they do people of color also dealing with poverty. And that keeps folks from banding together and working together to insist on change in an unjust reality.

The Transgender Sista Among Us

A blogger at Black Women, Blow the Trumpet, blogs about MtF transgendered women within the Black community:

The church folks who read this blog and who know me personally have noticed that I have a few transgender friends. I never set out to find transgender friends, but life has a way of bringing us into situations that are intended to teach us. My transgender friends have always created a huge scene whenever they visit my church. People seem to become nervous and afraid when seeing transgenders. I think that our natural instinct is to fear whatever we do not understand. There is a blog that addresses transphobia. Click here to read the writings of a 30-something transwoman.

Authentic Mystical Experiences

The Stumbling Mystic blogs about the documentary Jesus Camp, a movie on a camp that indoctrinates children into a hard-ling arch conservative Christian message:

Authentic spiritual experiences erase the “us versus them” mentality. They blur the boundaries between self and other. Emotional and vitalistic experiences like the ones portrayed in Jesus Camp by their very nature reinforce the shadow rather than transmuting it and therefore deepen the fault lines within humanity. Some of the children in the movie report feeling “disgusting” inside when they meet a non-Christian. What a terrible tragedy that such nonsense is being peddled in the name of Jesus of Nazareth!

Blog first viewed at BlogBharti.

The Death of a Reverend

Pam blogs about the death of the Rev. Jerry Falwell in her blog Pam’s House Blend:

It’s sad to hear, as of last week (in an interview with CNN), he stood by his 2001 comments that gays, lesbians, pro-choice advocates and feminists were to blame for 9/11.

I wish that Reverend Falwell, who at one time was against integration and interracial marriage, could have lived long enough to see full LGBT equality finally come to pass. We all know that it will prove him terribly wrong once again — that treating one group of citizens the same as everyone else isn’t a threat to marriage, the American family or this country.

Montesinos and de las Casas: Prophets Against the Ruling Class

Dr. Fallon blogs about the Dominican friars Montesinos and de las Casas who spoke out against the Spanish Empire and their enslavement of the native population:

I’m not surprised. Do not expect people to rally around you when you are speaking the truth about their — and your — common human imperfections. No one wants to hear they’re doing the wrong thing. No one wants to think that God is NOT on their side. Montesinos and Las Casas were prophets, as Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet, and Oscar Romero was a prophet. And prophets don’t live long. To paraphrase Leo Rosten, conservatives make heroes out of prophets only after they’ve martyred them.

Ulster Volunteer Force Disbands

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir blogs about the disbanding of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Northern Ireland in the blog From The Balcony, A Publisher’s Blog:

For the notion that the UVF was ever anything more than a pseudo-gang of toy soldiers nourished and directed by the British is confirmed in both the coming and, hopefully, the going of that bunch of wannabe warriors.

Once MI5 declared it surplus to requirements, the UVF became nothing more than a parasite on its host community. What else was to be expected from ‘volunteers’ whose most famous ‘brigade’ was baptised the Shankill Butchers for its cut-throating feats of derring-do?

Christianity and the Working Class Movement

In subliminal tyranny G. posts an excerpt from Milan Kundera’s The Joke:

 “The churches failed to realize that the working-class movement was the movement of the humiliated and oppressed supplicating for justice. They did not choose to work with and for them to create the kingdom of God on earth. By siding with the oppressors, they deprived the working-class movement of God. And now they reproach it for being godless. The Pharisees!”