22 Aug 2006
Sunday school teacher dumped for being female

I want to send a big Thank you! to Rev. Timothy LaBouf for potential contributions to the growth of heathenry! Keep it up, preacher man:

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
1 Timothy 2:11-12

Of course, he could've gone with another passage:

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35

I have a deeply personal reason for reporting on this in this fashion. You see, when I was seven years old my mother divorced my dad after she'd caught him with other ladies several times, and after he'd abandoned the family for nearly three years.

Immediately upon filing the legal action she was dismissed as a Sunday school teacher, and asked politely to leave the church, as divorced women were so obviously wanton. She'd only taught kids, by the way, even then her church recognized the above passages as forbidding her to teach men anything. But as she was divorced, she'd be a "bad example" for her charges - for this and this alone they basically told her not to let the door hit her on the way out! Never mind her years of service and utter devotion. Nope - not good enough! She is just a girl, after all.

She had done nothing to deserve this: she was faithful and true to her god throughout. And she still is. It's a rare day she misses a Sunday morning service.

In retrospect that day was the beginning of the end for any hope Christianity ever had of getting a hold over my life. I waffled for a while, to be sure, going back and forth through my teen years between rabid fundamentalism and outright atheism. But in the end I'd always remember Mom's tears. I've never forgotten them. And I never will.

So keep jammin' with the Good Book, buddy. You never know who's soul you'll set free.

The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job -- outside of the church.

(link) [CNN]

12:23 /Asatru | 3 comments | permanent link

British channel bans smoking cartoons

What next for the historical revisionists? Stubbing out Churchill's cigar? Erasing FDR's cigarette holder? But why stop with smoking? Tom and Jerry is a pretty damn violent cartoon - I'll bet that's why we have so much gang violence these day! That's it: ban the 'toons!

AP - A British television channel is stubbing out smoking from classic children's cartoons after a viewer complaint about episodes of "Tom and Jerry."

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

11:59 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link