That's fucking stupid

Posts Tagged ‘Religion’

Says Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi:

“The Pope wants to have a direct, pastoral relationship with people where you can touch children…”

Says it all, really

Fundies don’t want teachers to be discriminated against.

If a kid’s being bullied, then it’s all part of a teacher’s job to help that child and make sure they’re not coming to any harm, and of course to help sort out the situation.

Unless (according to militant fuckwits The Christian Institute) that kid’s suffering from homophobic bullying. After all, how could a devout extremist Christian teacher help out a kid that’s subject of homophobic bullying, when the very idea of homosexuality is a bit icky because mummy told them that it’s dirty to touch dangly bits abhorrent to them?

There has been an orchestrated movement over the past couple of years in the UK towards “protecting” the “rights” of religious people. Now, it’s not as though they’re being denied their rights to worship. It’s not as though they are being put in prison for their beliefs. It’s not as though they don’t have uncensored access to religious material.

Religious people have as much freedom as they want to practise their quirky little rituals however they want. They have representation in government. They have a say in local communities.

Why in the name of all that’s unholy do they need to tell the rest of us how to live our lives? Why should they feel the need to persecute some poor kid because a bigger kid thinks that they’re a bit too effeminate / butch for their peer group?

Sure, bullying happens. It’s part of growing up. You’ll never stop it. But for fuck’s sake don’t treat a kid like shit because of your shitty belief system, because (without wanting to sound too much like a Have Your Say reactionary bigot) where do you draw the line?

Do you allow Christian or Jewish teachers to treat children differently who have a Sunday job (Numbers 15)? or long hair (1 Corinthians 11)? or who wear polyester/cotton mixes (Deuteronomy 22)?

So remember, all you schoolkids out there, support the Christian Institute in their bid to change the Code of Conduct. It means you won’t get in trouble if you do all your gay bashing in the presence of a Christian teacher!

Huzzah!

After seeing this I thought I would run it by the ASA in case it was a statement that should be substantiated. Carlsberg can’t say that their beer is definitely the best beer in the world because they can’t prove it so why should the bible thumpers be able to state as fact something that nobody can prove?

Turns out that the Christian Party, as a political party, is exempt from rule which prevent lying. The letter I got from the ASA said that their code prevents them from interfering with the political process.

12.1 Any advertisement or direct marketing communication, whenever published or distributed, whose principal function is to influence voters in local, regional, national or international elections or referendums is exempt from the Code.

I would, of course, argue that the advertisement in question was aimed at recruiting members to the party rather than influence voters in an election. Either way the toothless ASA won’t get involved.

From the ASA code:

3.4 Obvious untruths or exaggerations that are unlikely to mislead and incidental minor errors and unorthodox spellings are all allowed provided they do not affect the accuracy or perception of the marketing communication in any material way.

Well i guess that’s how they are going to justify this:

New Scientist has published an excellent article concerning research by Scott Wiltermuth of Stanford University in California that suggests that “activities performed in unison, such as marching or dancing, increase loyalty to the group”. The article discusses proposals by psychologist Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville that “this research helps explain why fascist leaders, amongst others, use organised marching and chanting to whip crowds into a frenzy of devotion to their cause”.

The article very carefully skirts around the similarity between the chanting and singing, encouraged by facist leaders, and the hymns and prayers which form the bedrock of religious observance.