Category: Religion

Yup, Joe Dirt thinks about this from time to time.

Posted on

I Am So Proud To Live In Missouri – Not

The following article from the alternative newspaper, Riverfront Times, popped up in my Google news feed: Missouri Ranks Dead Last in National Survey of LGBTQ+ Equality

I Misunderstood Missouri

I moved to St. Louis after living and working in Mississippi for over three years. While I left some good friends behind I was more than glad to get away from the religious conservatism that dominates politics down there.  My first impression of Missouri was of St. Louis which left me with a hopeful feeling. Then I discovered the rest of Missouri.   While St. Louis is more of a purple with bluish hues, the politics of the rest of the state is a Trumpian dystopia concerned with protecting so called guns rights and waging cultural battles against basic individual rights and freedoms, especially against women and folks with alternate lifestyles. It is deeply red, and, for me, very discouraging to the point of being depressing. Of course, I am an Okie by birth and with Oklahoma’s super hard turn to the far right, I find my native state even more depressing.

Why Would You Care

I really do not care what consenting Continue reading “I Am So Proud To Live In Missouri – Not”

Download as PDF

Posted on

Bill Maher On Current Middle East Crisis

I used to be a bit of a Bill Maher fan, but not so for the last several years.  I now find him to be a self-righteous pendejo, and thus hard to watch.  However, the video below was embedded in an article  that appeared in the online version of the St. Louis Jewish Light: ‘Where do you think Israel is going?’ Bill Maher quips in viral eight-minute clip.

Maher makes a lot a sense to me in his segment.  At some point you just have to move on.  Of course, it took me a few years to stop lamenting about some of the fallout from my divorce, but you just do it. Sometimes you just need to let go.

Given that this is Bill Maher, the language is reasonably clean.

If you want a good quick review of the current history of Israel and The Occupied Territories, I discussed a recently published book by Daniel Skotach at this link: Can We Talk About Israel?

And is almost always the case, there are two sides to the story, if not more.  I discussed a 2005 Arabic language movie about the recruitment of two young West Bankers to be suicide bombers here: Paradise Now | Revisited

While not Jewish myself, my wife is, so much of this strikes close to home. Especially so as our October trip to Israel – a lifetime dream of my spouse – was cancelled abruptly.

And so it goes in this absurdity we call life.

Download as PDF

Posted on

It’s Not That Hard Folks | Golden Rule

I came across this cartoon this morning.

Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…

The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:

“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”

There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:

“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’

In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’“

How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.


To see the Golden Rule as expressed by many other religions follow this link: The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions

Download as PDF

Posted on

All Christian denominations explained in 12 minutes | A short video

Many moons ago I worked with an Egyptian Database Administrator at the Saks data center in Jackson, MS. Besides Arabic, he, obviously spoke English, but his English was better than 99%of the native speakers in America.  He also spoke German as his parents, two college professors, had taught in Germany for many years.  He was and is a very bright man in many ways. He originally trained as an engineer, but discovered better money in administering huge corporate databases.

I was reasonably friendly with him, to the point of eating dinner at his house.  He was secular, but his wife was a very devote Muslim. I remember asking him if Muslims believed in hell. He responded adamantly with, “Oh do we ever believe in hell.”  And a tough hell it is, but you can get out of it, unlike Christian hell.

One night, at her request, I attempted to elucidate to his wife the various Christian denominations. I gave up in a short while as it was very tough slogging.  I did gift her a book on the various branches of Protestantism from either the Dummy series or Idiot series of books.  I really does boil down sometimes to how many angels are dancing on the head of a pin.

I wish I had had this little video to point her to.

Download as PDF

Posted on

Ron DeSantis Has Asked Pope Francis to Fire These Nuns

Ron DeSantis has asked Pope Francis to fire the nuns in this picture.

“They are obviously setting a bad example for our children visiting such a pornographic exhibit,” he stated with his resting disgust face, “what was the Pope thinking letting these nuns loose with a selfie-stick instead of rulers?”

“Besides, finding humor in the male anatomy is a blatant example of Critical Size Theory, and makes some of us question our manhood,”  the Governor continued, pulling up his white boots.

Finally adding, “A man’s wee-wee should never see the light of day. The Italian government should require this museum to put a kilt on this statue… for decency sake. I really don’t care if it is considered one of the greatest pieces of art ever produced. Everyone knows that those supposed art critics work for Disney.”

Yup, I intentionally channeled my inner Andy Borowitz.

And so it goes.

Download as PDF

Posted on

Michelangelo’s David – Redux

Unless you have been doing the wise thing, and totally avoiding the news, you have seen or heard this news story: Principal resigns after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue

Apparently in one of the classes at this Christian school, students were shown a picture of the statue of David by Michelangelo. The lesson on Renaissance art, given to 11 and 12-year-olds, also included references to Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam” painting and Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus“.  Of course, all three pieces of art display the unclothed or partially unclothed human body. They are also some of the most renowned pieces of art of Western civilization.

The article states that the principal was given the option of resigning in place of being fired.  The reason given was that she had not Continue reading “Michelangelo’s David – Redux”

Download as PDF

Posted on

My Approach to St. Augustine

This posting is going to be a little bit about St. Augustine, but more about how I approached learning about this influential man.  Given that there are whole college courses devoted to St. Augustine and to the books of St. Augustine, anything I could add would be pure folly.  But fool I did play … just a little.

Who was St. Augustine?  He is also known as the Bishop of Hippo and lived from 354 to 430. When the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, many in the Roman Empire blamed the sacking and weakness of Rome on the Christians, and this, in part, was the impetus for his most famous book, The City of God. In total he wrote 48 books, many that are still studied by scholars and a few by lay persons.

Why I became interested in St. Augustine. While not a religious person, religion fascinates me.  One could make the argument that the history Continue reading “My Approach to St. Augustine”

Download as PDF

Posted on

Saint Augustine and Anti-Semitism

It probably says more about my naivety than anything else, but I did not discover that there was such a thing as anti-Semitism, prejudice against Jews, until I was a freshman in college.  That year the entering freshman class at the University of Rhode Island was huge, and in the economy dormitories they were housing three students in rooms meant for two.  In mine, besides myself, there was Continue reading “Saint Augustine and Anti-Semitism”

Download as PDF

Posted on

Missouri religious leaders sue to overturn Missouri’s ban on abortion

One of the guiding principles of my life is live and let live.  If I were being honest, I would have to admit to falling short of this goal far too often, but it is a light I steer towards.  In that same vein I have a mantra I recite whenever I am speaking or thinking about religious beliefs or sexual orientation, “Life is tough, whatever gets you through the day, whatever gets you through the night.”

My issue with many Christians, especially Evangelicals and Catholics, and Continue reading “Missouri religious leaders sue to overturn Missouri’s ban on abortion”

Download as PDF

Posted on

Spiritual Quotient

I encountered the following article while scanning the news Monday morning, 13 Types of Intelligence (Which Ones Are You?), The fact that they found 13 types of intelligence peaked my curiosity enough to cause me to click the bait.  I knew about IQ, Intelligence Quotient, being blessed to be somewhere on the right side of that famous bell curve. I knew about EQ, Emotional Quotient, mainly because one of my former intimate partners once shoved a cassette tape (yeah, that long ago) into my face (well my hands) telling me that I needed to listen to it as I had an EQ…wait for it… of zero.

I am not sure I agree with their thesis that there are so many different types of intelligence. However, of the 13 types of intelligence listed in the article the one that captured my attention the most was, Continue reading “Spiritual Quotient”

Download as PDF