Religiosity

I find this map interesting. Living in a a Baptist enclave creates certain attitudes that are hard to understand if you don't live in such an area. I am ambivalent about this, some of these accepted norms are useful, some are extremely stifling. Tolerance of heathens is minimal.

Studying this map certainly helps to understand attitudes, moral, social and political, in each area of the country.

Things that make you say WTF

According to the Pew Forum on religion and public life, 21% of atheists believe in God, 55% of agnostics believe in God. Do these people not know what atheist and agnostic mean? I can see where a small percentage of agnostics might believe in God, but not 55%, and atheist means, according to Webster's online dictionary, Someone who denies the existence of god. Is this just another example of American ignorance?

Pointless

Senator Obama resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ on Saturday. He said he felt he was a burden to other church members, and he could no longer allow inflammatory things said in the church to be imputed to him.

This is some major portion of 20 years too late. He sat in a church where racist hate speech was delivered on a regular basis. The congregation clapped, cheered, amen'ed and hallelujah'ed this speech while he sat there (I suspect at least smiling.) His rejection of this, to me, bizarre hatred of white America comes quite a bit too late to be accepted as legitimate.

Rev. Wright is a racist, pure and simple

The Reverend Wright and Senator Obama have to deal with being black in American in very different ways. The Rev. Wright can very comfortably remain within his black identity and preach black isolation and hatred for whites. Sen. Obama must find a way to reconcile his identification with American blacks and the other 88% of the country who he needs in order to be elected.

I do not envy the Senator his position. He, no doubt, aligned himself with Trinity Church and the Rev. Wright in order to fit in his community and further his political career in Chicago. This served him well when he was a local politician and state senator, but now that he is running for a national office what benefitted him then is now a detriment. He has had to distance himself strongly from the Rev. Wright, but this has alienated some of the black community who supported him.

There is perhaps a positive in this brouhaha in that the discussion of race in America will now not be one sided. The past few decades have seen a racial discussion that basically devolved to “it is all whiteys fault and we have no responsibility for division.” Now the discussion has fallen down to the black community to sort out. Anyone who argues that the Rev. Wright’s views are not racist is promoting an agenda that does not hold up to argument. Making statements that the U.S. government is responsible for AIDS in order to kill blacks, that we are a terrorist nation, and that Louis Farrakhan is one of the great voices of the 20^th and 21^st century is just crazy. Then top that with the whole commentary about black brain physiology being different from Caucasians and Asians and you have certifiable bigotry.

This man is speaking from a place that is just not acceptable, and that he got cheers from the crowd at the National Press Club is disturbing. I am not saying that there is not racism in this country, clearly there is, but we rarely here it so openly displayed as we do when the Rev. Wright speaks. His speech sounded like the black version of a KKK rally. I know racist individuals, but I cannot think of ever encountering a single racial institution or having ever heard racism expressed in an open forum. I guess that makes the redneck Texan less of a bigot than the good Dr. of Divinity from Chicago.

I only hope that this is an opportunity for a real discussion about race in America.

End of rant.

San Angelo is overwhelmed

I made the mistake of going to the county library this morning. I didn't think about what was going on at the courthouse; the library is just across the street south of the courthouse. Parking was at a premium as there were 14 broadcast trucks parked around the courthouse, plus many additional vans from radio and television news services.

Today was the day that the hearings for all of the 400 plus FLDS children were held. Each child is represented by an attorney serving as ad litum. The task of the ad litum is to represent the child's best interest. There can be nothing easy about recommending to the court that the child is better off back in the home they have known, or in the state's foster care system.

The FLDS is completely foreign to the common west Texas resident. The attorney generals of Utah and Arizona have prepared a primer that helps we "gentiles" to understand the FLDS society.

This is a rare instance when I don't have an opinion on what is going on. On the one hand it seems that there may be some abuse (underage pregnancy seems to make this clear), on the other hand this sect has a totally different culture than mainstream America. A hundred years ago it was not rare, perhaps uncommon, but not unheard of, for young teenage women to enter into marriage and bear children. I may be wrong, but from my reading of history, it was fairly common for women from 14 and up to marry and have families in Appalachia, up to the early part of the 20th century. The age of consent in Canada was 14 years until February 28th of THIS year (it is now 16). I can see where there might be difference of opinion based on religious beliefs.

All I can finally say is that I hope our legal system ends up doing the thing that is best for these children; whether that is returning them to the ranch in Eldorado or placing them in permanent custody of the State of Texas.