How God Conquered One Lesbian's Heart

By Michelle D. Smith. Posted by Charisma News on 22 May 2016.

It took me a couple of years before I could work up the courage to go back home for a visit. I wouldn't go alone and took my girlfriend, Ann, and her daughter, with me. My mom was very warm and welcoming, even loving toward all three of us. I thought perhaps things had changed in the nearly seven years I'd been gone.

She pulled me aside and said, "Michelle, I love you, and you are all welcome to stay here tonight, but you'll have to sleep in separate rooms." I was mad, but I understood and appreciated the forewarning. We went to a hotel.

Mom continued to love on us by sending cards and money on birthdays and holidays. I joked it wasn't fair Ann got the same amount of money on her birthday as I did from my parents.

I was beginning to calm down, to live a more stable life, one that wouldn't cause the neighbors to blush. Normal. I thought perhaps I should also pursue a more normal religious identity. I was still seeking God. I knew I couldn't return to mainstream Christianity, just the thought of it still gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I had a deep longing I couldn't satisfy. I was still writing, reading and viewing porn.

I began studying Kabbalah and the Zohar (both Jewish mysticism), and I decided I needed to talk to a rabbi, to learn as much about the foundational aspects of Judaism as possible before I could truly attain proficiency in Jewish mysticism. At the time, this seemed to fall within the realm of "normal" for me. I met with a rabbi in the Reformed tradition, one who assured me it was OK to continue my life as a practicing lesbian.

Although the thought of entering a Christian church or speaking to any of my former mentors and friends who were Christians almost sickened me, I could read the Bible if I was doing it to pursue Jewish knowledge. I stuck to the Old Testament, which kept me safe from the pesky and disturbing writings of Paul. I couldn't deal with Jesus either, but that was OK for now. He seemed safely ensconced in the New Testament.

What I didn't intend during my course of study was to have feelings about God emerge. I began to sense an awareness of Him again. My previous experiences into other forms of spirituality (or non-spirituality) had always been to soothe an ache, but had always been unsuccessful. They were fun, scary, encouraging or wishful, but never fulfilling. I began to pray the serenity prayer and the 23rd Psalm.

More than a year passed as I met with the rabbi once a week, alone and in a small group. I rarely went to synagogue. I am an introvert by nature, and couldn't seem to break into this Jewish family in any meaningful way. Finally, Rabbi M. told me it was time to pick a date for my official conversion ceremony.

Within days of the announcement, I received devastating news. Aunt Jan, dearly beloved and only 11 years older than me, had died unexpectedly. My entire family felt this loss deeply. I drove with my girlfriend to Oklahoma to the funeral.

As I sat in the funeral home chapel, listening to a sermon by a very inexperienced friend of my uncle's, I heard a voice say to me, "You can't give up Jesus." I turned my head to the left and to the right, but no one was looking at me. "You can't give up Jesus." Again, I looked around and no one was paying any attention to me. It repeated again, and perhaps one more time.

I found myself saying, "I can't give up Jesus. I can't give up Jesus." The voice of the minister had faded. I wasn't aware of anything except that thought. I knew to convert to Judaism was to deny Jesus. It turned out I wasn't prepared to do that.

Strangely, even in spite of hearing an audible voice inside my head, I continued to be lost. I searched on the internet for an acceptable church. When I would find a local church that accepted and endorsed the gay lifestyle, I would get excited and go try it out. However, I never went back to any of those churches. It was as if there was a heavy cloud over every single one of them. It was like a giant room lit with only a few 25-watt bulbs. Any church that would accept me as a practicing lesbian lacked all credibility with me. I knew it was wrong, and having someone tell me it was right made me lose all respect for their authority.

I began reading theologians in what is called Progressive Christianity such as Marcus Borg and John Shelby Spong. While their theology was appealing to someone who wanted Jesus without sacrifice, Christ without obedience, I was still hungry. The intellectual spin was interesting, but didn't sound the bell of truth in my spirit. I had experienced a relationship with God when I was a child. I longed to be deeply loved and cherished by Him.

Excerpt from "Prodigal Pursued" by Michelle D. Smith. Former Assistant District Attorney, Michelle spent nearly 25 years as an out, loud, and proud lesbian. A feminist, separatist and anarchist, she wandered through New Age beliefs, witchcraft, Buddhism, agnosticism and all the other "isms" available to explore. At last she encountered the undeniable, indescribable love of Jesus, and everything changed. Today Michelle not only reaches out to touch the LGBT community with the love of God, but also speaks to the church, sharing a message of hope to those who feel they have lost a   loved one to the LGBT lifestyle.

Link: 

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/57327-how-god-conquered-one-lesbian-s-heart

Why Christ, Mao And The Buddha Are Making A Comeback In China

By Matt Sheehan. Posted on 08/06/2014 8:31 am EDT Updated: 08/07/2014 2:59 pm EDT by The Huffington Post.

BEIJING -- The dominant political narrative in China today is one of resounding triumph: targets for economic growth achieved, rival countries overtaken, an Olympics successfully hosted. Yet in the telling of a philosophy professor at a prominent Shanghai university, many of these supposed victories have proven hollow for the Chinese people.

"On the surface we've achieved the goals, but no one is happy," the professor, who goes by the English name Luke, told The WorldPost. "There's no love, no hope. For more than 100 years we Chinese have been trying to catch up with Western countries. We want science, technology and military power. But the most important thing is the soul of the culture. The mind is based on the soul, and we've lost our souls."

Luke, who asked that his Chinese name not be used because he worships in one of China's many illegal underground churches, isn't alone in his concern for the state of the country's soul. As a convert to Christianity, he is one of a growing number of Chinese who are turning to a variety of faiths as they grapple with what they say is a gaping moral abyss in society.

"People today are afraid of showing love, afraid of being laughed at by other people," Luke lamented. "That spells the end of society."

China’s Christian population has been expanding at rates that rival its awe-inspiring GDP growth, with one scholar predicting that by 2030 China will be home to more Christians than any other country on earth. Many Chinese are also seeking solace in traditional belief systems such as Buddhism and Confucianism, in what they describe as a reaction to China's transformation from a poor agricultural society to an urban-industrial powerhouse. Yet others have found spiritual comfort in a return to Communist ideology and view Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, as a savior who will help them revive communal bonds.

"Many people perceive a moral and spiritual crisis in China today," wrote the editors of the Review of Religion and Chinese Society, a new academic journal dissecting China's religious revival. "The foundation of a better future for China is believed by many people to be a spiritual renewal."

The topics of faith and the state of one's soul have been on the backburner for many Chinese since 1978, when leader Deng Xiaoping turned China away from the pursuit of a Communist utopia and toward the construction of a modern market economy.

Deng's sober and pragmatic push for economic reform came in response to Mao's Cultural Revolution, a movement from 1966 to 1976 to enforce Mao's version of Communism and purge China of any competing ideologies, everything from capitalism to Confucianism. Fanatical believers in the movement desecrated the Buddhist and Confucian temples that had served as the bedrock of Chinese spirituality for thousands of years. Meanwhile, Mao issued ideological manifestos and presided over mass public rallies that elevated him to God-like status in the hearts of many.

The Cultural Revolution robbed China of a decade of development, demonized traditional Chinese religious practices -- and, in the process, discredited Maoism for millions. Since then, 35 years of economic reform have more than quintupled both rural and urban income levels. But China and its people are currently at the "lowest of lows," according to Luke.

Asked to identify the low point for Chinese society, Luke and many other Chinese point to Oct. 13, 2011. That was the day Wang Yue, the 2-year-old daughter of migrant shopkeepers in southern China, wandered into an alley behind her father's store and was run over by two vehicles. For seven minutes she lay crying and bleeding in the street as 18 pedestrians, one by one, delicately made their way around her body without doing anything to help. It wasn't until a woman scavenging for trash came upon her mangled body that Wang was taken to a hospital, where she died eight days later.

The entire event was captured on closed-circuit television, and this bone-chilling display of indifference to human suffering was the second most viewed video of the year in China. What became known as the "little Yue Yue incident" stirred up a wave of soul-searching and hand-wringing among Chinese people, and strengthened Luke's conviction that China needs God's grace.

DABBLING IN FAITH

Luke's personal journey to Christianity had already begun a few years earlier after he made a painful decision facing hundreds of millions of Chinese: He left behind his wife and young child, moving to another province in pursuit of a better job. The coveted position as a professor of philosophy at a prestigious university came at the cost of personal isolation and a deteriorating marriage.

Luke first sought solace in the practice of Buddhism, but said he quickly grew disillusioned with the monks' emphasis on hierarchy and ceremonial gifts.

"I took on a Buddhist name, read the books, and for two months prayed every day, but I didn't find peace," Luke recalled.

He then turned toward the western tradition of Christianity, which he'd first encountered several years earlier in philosophy courses. After a brief period of time attending the state-sanctioned "Three-Self" churches, Luke found a loving community and a sense of belonging in an underground "house church."

"The relationship between the brothers and sisters is full of love, and everyone can speak," Luke said. "It's not like the Three-Self churches where only the priest can speak and everyone else sits there listening."

He said the sense of purpose and humility that came with his conversion have transformed his life and marriage, as well as the way he sees his country and culture. Luke believes that Christianity can also help China solve its myriad social woes and put an end to the spiritual drift that followed the Cultural Revolution.

"The culture was and still is destroyed," Luke said. "The most important things for Chinese people have been demolished, and what happened to little Yue Yue is related to the destruction of that meaning."

REVERTING TO RED

Each Sunday morning, while Luke is worshipping the Christian God in a house church, 54-year-old Fan Huiming is attending her own services in Jingshan Park at the very center of Beijing. She plays the role of congregant, preacher and choir member, putting all her heart into singing the praise of a different deity: Chairman Mao Zedong.

"It doesn't matter whether you look at his leadership, his art, his poems, his philosophy, his calligraphy ... In my heart he's simply a perfect person," Fan said. "As someone who truly loves Chairman Mao, as a true Marxist-Leninist, I will never change my faith."

Fan's faith is a result of her birth into unique historical circumstances. Just as Mao's Red Army was closing in on Beijing and preparing to declare the founding of the People's Republic of China in the fall of 1949, Fan was born in the capital to parents who were officials in Chiang Kai-Shek's defeated Nationalist government. Many in her family were able to flee to Taiwan, but Fan's pregnant mother couldn't make the journey, and she gave birth to Fan amid the tumult of the new Communist order.

Her status as the child of Nationalists -- Mao's sworn enemies -- would dog Fan through much of her life. Despite a fanatical devotion to Mao and a venomous hatred for the Nationalists, she said she has never been allowed to join the Chinese Communist Party. But what she lacked in credentials she made up for in zeal. Throughout the Cultural Revolution she collected Mao memorabilia, memorized his speeches and struggled against capitalists and all perceived enemies of the proletariat class.

Thirty-eight years after Mao's death, she still gathers with fellow Mao devotees in Jingshan Park every Sunday morning to sing red songs, hold up Mao's portrait and lecture passersby through a microphone. A sturdy and serious woman, Fan shuns the "red" dancing that many of her fellow 60-somethings enjoy, choosing instead to challenge people who seek to tarnish Mao's image.

"Nowadays you have so many people attacking Chairman Mao," Fan fumed. "I'll just come right out and say it: Those people are taking money from the American government."

Her impassioned defense of Mao's legacy stems from rosy childhood memories of the chairman's reign, when everyday life was imbued with a kind of communal spirituality, she said.

"Mao Zedong's era was about saving people's souls, about teaching people to strive for something higher," Fan said. "People from that time really put all their heart and soul into building this country and into following Mao Zedong."

Fan said she remembers a time when no one locked their doors at night, and maintains that the crimes committed in a single day in 2013 surpassed those committed over the entirety of Mao's 27-year reign. In her mind, the Cultural Revolution was a necessary bump on the road to a Communist utopia; where things really turned sour was with economic reform, she said.

"When Deng Xiaoping first brought up this idea of letting some people get rich first, it was just wrong, and it completely violated the main principle of the Communist movement," Fan said emphatically. "Everything is going in the direction of privatization. We're missing the concept of doing things for the common good, for the country, and to serve the people."

In the early 1980s she wrote a letter to Deng expressing this sentiment. She was rewarded not with a reply from China's leader, but with an ominous visit from state security agents.

Yet decades into the changes that have catapulted China toward superpower status, she is still a true believer in the principles of her youth.

"We've been through so much, and now only Mao Zedong Thought can save China," Fan said. "After so many years of reform and opening, people are just more isolated and hopeless."

Adoration for Mao is concentrated heaviest among people who came of age during the Cultural Revolution, but it has also spilled over into broader society during moments of international tension. During anti-Japan protests in recent years, patriotic demonstrators frequently carried portraits of the former leader and chanted, "Long live Chairman Mao!"

For Fan and her cohorts, an absolute faith in Mao has morphed the man into something of an omniscient and all-powerful God whose spirit still permeates the world. Following devastating tornadoes in the American Midwest during the summer of 2013, she wrote in a text message: "The spirit of Chairman Mao Zedong is always protecting the people he loves, the people of the world ... If the American government perpetrates evil, then the heavens will react! Bigger tornadoes, bigger volcanic eruptions!"

Her vision may be one of fire and brimstone, but ever since retiring from her job in the long-distance bus industry, Fan said she has been content engaging in more mundane acts of revolution by bringing her message to the people of Jingshan Park every Sunday. The one disappointment for Fan has been her son's indifference to Mao's message.

"To tell the truth, when I talk to my son about this, he just doesn't want to get involved in politics," Fan said while running her thumb over a Cultural Revolution-era Mao button. "He always tells me, 'That's all behind us, don't always bring it up.' But in my heart that really makes me sad.

"In China, society's influence is stronger than the family's. No matter what kind of education my son gets at home, as soon as he goes out the door he'll run into that kind of pollution from society."

BUDDHISM AS 'SOCIAL EDUCATION'

In the central Chinese city of Xi'an, home to the ancient terracotta warriors, Samantha Yang has had better luck in sharing her newfound spirituality with her son, Leo. Yang runs her own English training school in Xi'an, and the financial pressures from the school, combined with her struggles as a single mom, brought her to Buddhism.

Yang grew up with no strong spiritual influences in her life, and left her hometown of Xi'an after college to seek employment in the southern island province of Hainan. After working as a saleswoman for a cosmetics company, she founded her own English-language training school in 2002 for children back in her hometown.

"For a long time I thought I was a superwoman," Yang recalled. "I thought I could do anything.

"When I first started the school, there was just so much pressure in my life. In 2006 we ran a summer program and lost 200,000 yuan [about $25,000], which was really hard to deal with. I tried reading some philosophy and even looked at those Chicken Soup books, but none of it was for me."

Yang's spiritual breakthrough came when a friend brought her to a Buddhist monastery in a village outside of Xi'an. During some of her first meals at the monastery she was captivated by the practitioners' refusal to waste an ounce of food. When she left her mostly-eaten watermelon slices on a plate, the elderly woman collecting dishes chewed the last remaining hint of pink off Yang's white watermelon rinds.

That humility and simplicity won Yang over. She said she now practices Buddhism not only because it brings her peace, but because she views it as a "social education system" for Chinese society. The religion advocates a serenity and humility that stand in stark contrast to many people's frenzied desire to accumulate wealth at any cost. Its appeal has fueled what many say is a Buddhist revival in China, with surveys suggesting that up to one-third of Chinese now consider themselves Buddhists.

In Yang's assessment, traditional Chinese culture has been eroding since 1919, when nationalist student demonstrations known as the May Fourth Movement blamed China's Confucian tradition for the country's domination by colonial powers. She sees those attacks on China's ancient heritage as having destroyed something fundamental to the culture.

Yang and her son have approached Buddhism in different ways. While Leo rarely visits the monastery, Yang has noticed a new equanimity in her son despite the pressure-cooker environment in Chinese high schools. Yang has taken up chanting meditation at the monastery as a way to clear her mind of the "wild luxury ideas" that she feels permeate contemporary Chinese society.

Searching for the root of her own spiritual journey, Yang looks back to her grandmother, a peasant who never abandoned China's diverse array of folk religions.

"My grandmother was very open to belief," Yang said. "She was willing to worship almost anything, any God she thought had power. I think maybe she was a seed for my faith."

The simplicity and community Yang has found at her monastery give her hope that China can be saved from what she describes as its current state of ethical anarchy. Her faith has taken a different form from that of Luke and Fan, but in searching for a moral compass to navigate the tumult of modern China, they have all forged their own path toward personal salvation and social redemption.

"The fate of Western society is comedy, but in China it's tragedy: hopeless, aimless, meaningless," Luke said. "The fate of China can be changed to comedy."

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/06/china-religion_n_4860813.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Haters Under The Facade Of Atheism

By Michael Gryboski. Published by The Christian Post on 30 April 2014.

A West Virginia school district has painted over a Bible verse formerly located in the gymnasium of one of its high schools. Philippians 4:13, which was inscribed on Parkersburg South High School's gymnasium wall more than a decade ago, was painted over last week after the district received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist group based in Madison, Wisconsin.

"Last week, the Bible verse was painted over after a recommendation from our legal council informing the administration we were in violation of State and Federal Law," Tim Yeater, president of the Wood County Board of Education, told The Christian Post on Wednesday.

Yeater also told CP that the decision to paint over the verse has received a "mixed response" from the community. "The local media and a few community members have taken the viewpoint that we need to maintain a definitive separation between church and state, while most community members I have heard from thought we reacted too quickly and should not have painted over the Bible verse," said Yeater.

"I think the bigger issue from the public was protecting the rights of our students and ensuring we permit the students to wear T-shirts with the verse while in school or attending athletic functions," he added.

In a statement to local media Pat Law, superintendent of Wood County School District, said, "We asked them to take it down. We have to follow the law, whatever that law might be. We're going to be certain that everyone's rights are being protected."

The verse, Philippians 4:13:  "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me," was placed in the gymnasium wall outside the wrestling room at Parkersburg South High. Philippians 4:13 was not only on the wall, but is also the motto of the high school wrestling team and is on their official T-shirts.

The FFRF sent a letter of complaint recently to Wood County regarding the presence of the Bible verse on both the gym wall and the T-shirts. "We needed to point out the obvious fact that this cannot be a team's motto; that this is unconstitutional for a public school to endorse or advance religion," Patrick Elliott, an FFRF attorney, told WTAP regarding his organization's action. "And so, that was our letter to the superintendent on April 11 about that being the team's motto."

The debate about whether or not the Bible verse will remain the wrestling team's motto and if the T-shirts will continue to have Philippians 4:13 on them is ongoing. Supporters of the T-shirts and motto have argued that, since parents purchased the shirts, no public funds were used, and thus no public funding of a sectarian enterprise.

Link: http://m.christianpost.com/news/west-virginia-high-school-paints-over-bible-verse-after-atheist-group-complains--118880/cpt

Published on 18 April 2014. By Michael Gryboski.

A Wisconsin-based atheist organization has announced their intention to "scrutinize" the Bible class that an Oklahoma school district recently approved. The Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison expressed their intentions Wednesday in response to Mustang Public Schools approving a Bible class elective championed by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green. In the statement, FFRF announced that they are "keeping a close eye on the Bible course developed by Green for public school students."

Dan Barker, FFRF co-president and a former pastor, stated in the press release that he was troubled about the possible content of the elective course. "In the religious climate of the Bible belt, given the impetus for this class, we are seriously concerned," stated Barker. FFRF, along with other groups focused on church and state separation, have expressed their concerns since last November.

A letter from FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel was sent to Mustang Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel last year. "The Green family's constant attempts to impose their evangelical Christianity on Hobby Lobby employees has secularists naturally suspicious that any Hobby Lobby Bible class will not conform to the law," wrote Seidel. "Previous investigations have revealed that Bible classes in Texas rarely comport with the law, that teachers lack training, and that teachers impose their personal religious beliefs on all students."

Last November, Hobby Lobby's president announced his effort to create a Bible course for public schools that focuses on its history, meaning and impact. "With the history, we want to show the archaeological evidences of the Bible and then we want to show the impact of the Bible," Green told the Mustang Times. "The Bible has had an impact on just about every area of life, whether you like it or not, it has. It has impacted government, education, art, science, literature, you name it. Thirdly, is the story, meaning what does the book say."

Earlier this week, Mustang Public Schools voted to approve the elective for Mustang High School, with the course being introduced in the fall. In an earlier interview with The Christian Post, McDaniel said that he's "excited to offer the elective." "The Green Scholars Initiative has brought in more than 70 renowned scholars of different faiths from Jerusalem and Oxford to Baylor University to create the curriculum," said McDaniel. "The course is an elective. When our pre-enrollment packets were returned by students earlier this semester, more than 170 students indicated the course would be their first choice for an elective class."

Regarding church and state concerns, McDaniel told CP that it is a voluntary course, so "no student will ever be required to take it." "Also, the professors with the Green Scholars Initiative who put together the curriculum come from different personal faith backgrounds, not just Christianity," said McDaniel. "The curriculum has been through a rigorous review to check for bias and to ensure the content is neutral."

Link: http://m.christianpost.com/news/atheist-group-vows-to-scrutinize-hobby-lobby-presidents-public-school-bible-class-118253/

By Katherine Weber. Published on 19 April 2014.

A small, coastal town in central California has settled a lawsuit regarding prayer at City Council meetings, ultimately agreeing to no longer hold any form of prayer, whether sectarian or non-sectarian, ahead of the local government meetings. City officials say they decided to settle the lawsuit to avoid further legal costs paid by taxpayer money. 

Pismo Beach city officials announced their settlement earlier this week, nearly six months after the Freedom From Religion Foundation [FFRF] and the local chapter of Atheists United San Luis Obispo filed a lawsuit against the city, arguing that it had violated the U.S. Constitution's separation of church and state and the state Constitution's "No Preference" Clause by allowing predominately Christian-themed prayers before city council meetings.

The groups argued that the city had allowed its volunteer chaplain, the Rev. Paul E. Jones, to lead predominately Christian prayers ahead of city council meetings from 2008 to 2013. The lawsuit alleged that Jones often called on Pismo Beach citizens to live a "Christian lifestyle in accordance with the bible," among other sectarian statements.

As part of their settlement, city officials agreed to do away with the volunteer chaplain position, and Jones has resigned. The city has admitted no liability in the lawsuit, but said it would settle with the FFRF to avoid using taxpayer money to fund what would likely be a costly litigation process.

"[…] in keeping with the city's goal of carefully managing taxpayer funds, the City Council determined that it would not be a prudent use of public monies to contest the suit through trial," City Attorney David Fleishman said in a statement, according to The San Luis Obispo Tribune. The city will be paying $47,500 in attorneys' fees.

David Leidner, a board member of the local Atheists United San Luis Obiso group, told the Times Press Recorder that his group is "very happy the city of Pismo Beach has decided to end this exclusionary and unconstitutional practice and make their government meetings welcoming to all citizens."

The Pismo Beach ruling comes as the Supreme Court currently weighs the case of Greece vs. Galloway, in which residents of Greece, N.Y. are contesting their city council's references to "Jesus Christ" during government meetings. A decision is expected to be reached by June.

Another battle over prayer at government meetings is currently taking place in Carroll County, Md., where one city commissioner disobeyed a judge's recent ruling to temporarily stop sectarian prayers when she referenced "Jesus Christ" and "God" in a prayer prior to a commission meeting. Carroll County Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier decided to deliver the sectarian prayer in spite of the judge's injunction because she said the ruling was an "infringement on my First Amendment rights of free speech and free religion."

U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. had temporarily banned Carroll County commissioners from saying sectarian prayers at their government meetings after the American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit against the county, arguing their prayers were a violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause.

Carroll County commissioners have since passed a resolution agreeing to comply with Quarles' injunction as the lawsuit proceeds through court. If the Carroll County lawsuit is resolved before the Supreme Court rules on Greece vs. Galloway, the ruling could become moot depending on the higher court's ruling.

Link: http://m.christianpost.com/news/calif-town-drops-city-council-prayers-to-avoid-further-legal-costs-118257/

I want you to join me in saying, 'Praise Darwin!'

By William Rameau, BREATHEcast News Reporter. Published on 26 April 2014.

Just like Kevin Sorbo's character (Professor Jeffery Radisson) from the Christian film "God's Not Dead," a real life Atheist college professor went berserk on Christians for expressing their faith recently on the UConn campus.

On April 22, UConn Anthropology Professor James Boster was infuriated when street preacher Don Karns and other Christians were holding signs that stated "Evolution is a Lie" and "Sin Awareness Day."

Outraged at what he saw, Boster couldn't hold himself back and began his rant. Video here.

"He says that evolution is a lie! Have you read the 'Origin of Species'?" yelled Boster to Karns in a video of the incident. "I have read the New Testament and the Old Testament!"

Boster further insulted the street evangelist in front of college students.

"Bull****! Bull****! You are full of ignorance and lies!" said Boster to Karns. "I want you to feel ashamed that you are willing to call something a lie that you have never actually read."

Boster then exhorted his views on evolution, and testified his love for Charles Darwin to college students.

"I want you to join me in saying, 'Praise Darwin!," said Boster to the students, with some joining in his chant. "We are all bonded together in that great spiritual web, because the divine saturates nature the way gravy saturates cornbread."

The rant sparked widespread rebuke online as the video went rival, and the University of Connecticut issued the following statement to condemn the professor's aggressive behavior:

"Everyone has the right to exercise free speech on our campuses. At the same time, we expect our faculty to act in a way that promotes civil discourse and to express themselves respectfully. The use of abusive language and the confrontational posture seen here are inconsistent with UConn's values."

This is not the first time that UConn has been plunged into religious freedom controversy. Previously former UConn assistant football coach Ernest Jones was forced to resign after he was criticized by the University President Susan Herbst for saying that "Jesus Christ should be in the center of our huddle."

"It should go without saying that our employees cannot appear to endorse or advocate for a particular religion or spiritual philosophy as part of their work at the university, or in their interactions with our students," said Herbst in a statement. "This applies to work-related activity anywhere on or off campus, including on the football field."

Evangelist Don Karns talked about his experience with Boster at UConn in recent interview.

"He asked me if I had accepted Darwin as my lord and savior," said Karns, according to the Christian News Network. "He was very agitated, very demonstrative. ... It was very unbecoming of a professor."

Link: http://www.breathecast.com/articles/atheist-uconn-professor-curses-rants-at-christian-evangelists-full-of-ignorance-lies-praise-darwin-video-15310/

Faith In God

Professor : You are a Christian, aren’t you, son ?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, you believe in GOD ?

Student : Absolutely, sir.

Professor : Is GOD good ?

Student : Sure.

Professor: Is GOD all powerful ?

Student : Yes.

Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD didn’t. How is this GOD good then? Hmm?

(Student was silent.)

Professor: You can’t answer, can you ? Let’s start again, young fella. Is GOD good?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Is satan good ?

Student : No.

Professor: Where does satan come from ?

Student : From … GOD …

Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student : Yes.

Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it ? And GOD did make everything. Correct?

Student : Yes.

Professor: So who created evil ?

(Student did not answer.)

Professor: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?

Student : Yes, sir.

Professor: So, who created them ?

(Student had no answer.)

Professor: Science says you have 5 Senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son, have you ever seen GOD?

Student : No, sir.

Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard your GOD?

Student : No , sir.

Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smelt your GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?

Student : No, sir. I’m afraid I haven’t.

Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student : Yes.

Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Professor: Yes.

Student : And is there such a thing as cold?

Professor: Yes.

Student : No, sir. There isn’t.

(The lecture theater became very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.

(There was pin-drop silence in the lecture theater.)

Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t darkness?

Student : You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light. But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and its called darkness, isn’t it? In reality, darkness isn’t. If it is, well you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?

Professor: So what is the point you are making, young man ?

Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Professor: Flawed ? Can you explain how?

Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You are viewing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.

Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor, do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Professor: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shook his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument was going.)

Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor. Are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class was in uproar.)

Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor’s brain?

(The class broke out into laughter. )

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established Rules of Empirical, Stable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room was silent. The Professor stared at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Professor: I guess you’ll have to take them on faith, son.

Student : That is it sir … Exactly ! The link between man & GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things alive and moving.

Legend has it that the student was EINSTEIN.

Residents Protest Removal of Memorial Cross After Atheists' Complaint

BY ANUGRAH KUMAR, CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR. Posted on 10 March 2014.

Some residents of Lake Elsinore, Calif., are protesting the removal of a cross, which was placed two years ago in honor of a young Christian man who died in an accident there, by installing smaller crosses with messages for the atheist group under whose pressure the memorial was taken down.

"What happened to our freedom," reads the message on one of the small wooden crosses that replaced the big, white cross that was set up as a memorial for 19-year-old Anthony Devaney, who was fatally struck by a car while crossing Lake Street in May 2012.

"What if this was your child?!?!" reads the message on another cross. "Ever heard the phrase to each his own?!!! Does this bother you??? Look the other way!!" says another one. "People suck!!! Get a life!!!" reads yet another one.

The mother of the deceased, Annmarie Devaney, removed the memorial cross last Thursday to avoid a conflict, as the American Humanist Association had complained to the city of Lake Elsinore saying the cross on public property was unconstitutional and a matter of separation of church and state.

"It hurts. It's like reliving the moment again, it's like losing my son again pretty much," Annmarie told ABC News. "I don't understand why they need it to come up, but me being the mom and try to keep it positive, I want to do what's right and I don't want to make it a big deal or cause a scene."

"I think they're just looking for something to complain about, really, and I think that it's petty," she told The Riverside Press-Enterprise. "The cross is there because my son's Christian, and not for any other reason. I don't know why they're doing this, but it makes me sad."

The atheist group has said it is "pleased with the city's decision to comply with the constitutional requirement of separation of church and state by removing the Latin cross from its property."

Following the removal of the cross blogger Hemant Mehta the "Friendly Atheist" wrote on the Patheos website, "These replacement crosses are far more offensive to Anthony Devaney's memory than anything the Humanists did. Where's the backlash against these people who are using an unfortunate controversy to advance their own agenda?"

Mehta says the Devaney family could build another memorial in their home or church focusing on how Anthony lived instead of where he died. "And let's see how quickly the Lake Elsinore City Council removes these distraction crosses; at this point, there should be no reason for a delay."

According to Press-Enterprise, City Councilman Brian Tisdale says he thinks the atheist group is being insensitive by requesting Devaney to remove the cross. "I think they're going a little bit overboard and being insensitive to other people's needs," he said. "This has nothing to do with city or government."

Tisdale previously headed the city's committee that planned to erect a veterans' memorial of a soldier kneeling next to a cross at the local minor league baseball stadium. The American Humanist Association challenged the veterans' memorial, and in February a U.S. district judge ruled the monument was unconstitutional and must be redesigned.

Link: http://www.christianpost.com/news/calif-residents-protest-removal-of-memorial-cross-after-atheists-complaint-115866/

Atheism Is An Intellectual Luxury For The Wealthy

By Chris Arnade. Published by The Guardian on 24 December 2013.

They prayed whenever they could find 15 minutes. "Preacher Man", as we called him, would read from the Bible with his tiny round glasses. It was the only book he had ever read. A dozen or so others would listen, silently praying while stroking rosaries, sitting on bare mattresses, crammed into a half-painted dorm room.

I was the outsider, a 16-year-old working on a summer custodial crew for a local college, saving money to pay for my escape from my hometown. The other employees, close to three dozen, were working to feed themselves, to feed their kids, to pay child support, to pay for the basics of life. I was the only white, everyone else was African-American.

Preacher Man tried to get me to join the prayer meetings, asking me almost daily. I declined, preferring to spend those small work breaks with some of the other guys on the crew. We would use the time to snatch a quick drink or maybe smoke a joint.

Preacher Man would question me, "What do you believe in?" I would decline to engage, out of politeness. He pressed me. Finally I broke, "I am an atheist. I don't believe in a God. I don't think the world is only 5,000 years old, I don't think Cain and Abel married their sisters!"

Preacher Man's eyes narrowed. He pointed at me, "You are an APE-IEST. An APE-IEST. You going to lead a life of sin and end in hell."

Three years later I did escape my town, eventually receiving a PhD in physics, and then working on Wall Street for 20 years. A life devoted to rational thought, a life devoted to numbers and clever arguments.

During that time I counted myself an atheist and nodded in agreement as a wave of atheistic fervor swept out of the scientific community and into the media, led by Richard Dawkins.

I saw some of myself in him: quick with arguments, uneasy with emotions, comfortable with logic, able to look at any ideology or any thought process and expose the inconsistencies. We all picked on the Bible, a tome cobbled together over hundreds of years that provides so many inconsistencies. It is the skinny 85lb (35.6kg) weakling for anyone looking to flex their scientific muscles.

I eventually left my Wall Street job and started working with and photographing homeless addicts in the South Bronx. When I first walked into the Bronx I assumed I would find the same cynicism I had towards faith. If anyone seemed the perfect candidate for atheism it was the addicts who see daily how unfair, unjust, and evil the world can be.

None of them are. Rather they are some of the strongest believers I have met, steeped in a combination of Bible, superstition, and folklore.

The first addict I met was Takeesha. She was standing near the high wall of the Corpus Christi Monastery. We talked for close to an hour before I took her picture. When we finished, I asked her how she wanted to be described. She said without any pause, "As who I am. A prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God."

Takeesha was raped by a relative when she was 11. Her mother, herself a prostitute, put Takeesha out on the streets at 13, where she has been for the last 30 years, "It's sad when it's your mother, who you trust, and she was out there with me, but you know what kept me through all that? God. Whenever I got into the car, God got into the car with me."

Sonya and Eric, heroin addicts who are homeless, have a picture of the Last Supper that moves with them. It has hung in an abandoned building, it has hung in a sewage-filled basement, and now it leans against the pole in the small space under the interstate where they live.

Sarah, 15 years on the streets, wears a cross around her neck. Always. Michael, 30 years on the streets, carries a rosary in his pocket. Always. In any crack house, in the darkest buildings empty of all other furnishings, a worn Bible can be found laying flat amongst needles, caps, lighters, and crack pipes.

Takeesha and the other homeless addicts are brutalized by a system driven by a predatory economic rationalism (a term used recently by J. M. Coetzee in his essay: On Nelson Mandela). They are viewed by the public and seen by almost everyone else as losers. Just "junkie prostitutes" who live in abandoned buildings.

They have their faith because what they believe in doesn't judge them. Who am I to tell them that what they believe is irrational? Who am I to tell them the one thing that gives them hope and allows them to find some beauty in an awful world is inconsistent? I cannot tell them that there is nothing beyond this physical life. It would be cruel and pointless.

In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.

We are all sinners. On the streets the addicts, with their daily battles and proximity to death, have come to understand this viscerally. Many successful people don't. Their sense of entitlement and emotional distance has numbed their understanding of our fallibility.

Soon I saw my atheism for what it is: an intellectual belief most accessible to those who have done well.

I look back at my 16-year-old self and see Preacher Man and his listeners differently. I look at the fragile women praying and see a mother working a minimum wage custodial job, trying to raise three children alone. Her children's father off drunk somewhere. I look at the teenager fingering a small cross and see a young woman, abused by a father addicted to whatever, trying to find some moments of peace. I see Preacher Man himself, living in a beat up shack without electricity, desperate to stay clean, desperate to make sense of a world that has given him little.

They found hope where they could.

I want to go back to that 16-year-old self and tell him to shut up with the "see how clever I am attitude". I want to tell him to appreciate how easy he had it, with a path out. A path to riches.

I also see Richard Dawkins differently. I see him as a grown up version of that 16-year-old kid, proud of being smart, unable to understand why anyone would believe or think differently from himself. I see a person so removed from humanity and so removed from the ambiguity of life that he finds himself judging those who think differently.

I see someone doing what he claims to hate in others. Preaching from a selfish vantage point.

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/24/atheism-richard-dawkins-challenge-beliefs-homeless?CMP=twt_gu

Lawsuits Against Religious Communities Over Gay Marriage & Abortion Are Crossing 'Red Lines of Liberty'!

By Michael Gryboski, published by The Christian Post on 19 November 2013.

A legal expert and head of a conservative law firm has stated that government actions against religious groups over same-sex marriage and abortion are "red lines of liberty" being crossed.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, told The Christian Post while part of an event in the Washington, D.C.-area on Monday that these red lines involve coercion on the part of government.

"These red lines of liberty are coming very rapidly. They're not just issues that are contrary to Christian values that you can coexist with," said Staver.  "These are issues where the government is seeking to force you to affirm ideas and values that are completely contrary to your Christian faith."

Staver spoke in regard to measures like the HHS "preventive services" mandate, which critics say forces some religious organizations to violate their moral objections to abortion and birth control, as well as recent lawsuits leveled against Christian businesses that refuse to provide their services to same-sex weddings and receptions.

"It's a zero-sum game, not because we made it a zero sum game, but because they've made it a zero-sum game," said Staver. "The sanctity of human life transcends politics and now we're moving into a situation where the federal government, under the HHS mandate, is forcing employers to fund the taking of innocent human life; otherwise be fined or go out of business."

Staver's remarks came at a two-day event sponsored by the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, titled "Justice Summit 2013."  Beginning Monday afternoon and held at the Crystal City Hilton near Ronald Reagan National Airport, the summit features several Christian leaders from various churches and organizations. In addition to Staver, guest speakers include Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church; and Danielle Jones, chair for the FreedomUNITED Campaign.

"The NHCLC Justice Summit is an opportunity to amplify our influence, to dialogue and strategize about key justice issues," reads an entry on NHCLC's website.  "The NHCLC Justice Summit 2013 is an effort to increase our unified commitment and propose answers, from a Christian worldview perspective, to key issues such as: immigration reform, poverty, the struggle against human trafficking, the defense of the right to life and religious liberty."

Gus Reyes, director of the Hispanic education initiative for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, served as emcee for the summit.  Samuel Rodriguez Jr., president of the NHCLC, gave remarks early Monday afternoon where he spoke inspirational words and provided an overview of the summit.  In his remarks, Rodriquez stressed that he believes true justice comes from God and that far too often the word "justice" has been "exploited" by ideological partisans.

"Justice is not a term to be exploited. It is not a copyrighted nomenclature to be exploited by political operatives on the left or on the right," said Rodriguez.  "Justice does not belong to the donkey or the elephant, justice comes from the heart of the lamb. And we are here these days to lift up, to elevate justice."

At one point, Rodriquez went "off script" and led the audience through an emotional prayer based in "reflection and repentance" in which a majority of summitt attendees went to their knees.  "We repent before you in the name of Christ as a nation, as a community, and people of the Church, we have fallen short," prayed Rodriquez.

Staver, who presently serves as executive board vice president and chief legal counsel for NHCLC, told CP that the event was some time in the making.  "We've been actually talking about and planning an event like this for quite a while. So it's good to see it come to pass," said Staver.

Said to be the largest Latino Christian organization in the United States, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference is a sister organization to the National Association of Evangelicals.

Link: http://www.christianpost.com/news/expert-lawsuits-against-religious-employers-over-gay-marriage-abortion-are-crossing-red-lines-of-liberty-109037/cpt

By Katherine Weber, published by The Christian Post on 19 November 2013.

A small town in upstate New York has rallied together to continue funding its local community's Christmas celebration, even though an atheist's complaint forced the local government to stop supporting the event.

The town of Spencerport, N.Y., a small village located just outside of Rochester, has been celebrating its annual "Christmas on the Canal" event for 17 years until this year, when Elaine Spaziano, the event's founder and organizer, announced that the tradition had to be canceled after an atheist complained about First Amendment rights and the separation of church and state to the local government... 

According to the local Rochester YNN news, after word got around that the "Christmas on the Canal" event had been canceled, donations from local residents and businesses began pouring in, in an effort to keep the decades-long tradition going. Resident Ralph Parmelee began imploring local businesses to donate to the event, and the town has now officially raised enough money to hold "Christmas on the Canal" for another year.

"We cannot let this die. For the generations that are coming, the young people and all, we can't take Christmas out of the picture. It's got to stay there and we're going to keep it there," Parmelee told the local media outlet.

Read more here:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/ny-town-rallies-to-keep-christmas-event-after-atheists-complaint-cancels-government-funds-109132/cpt

First Atheist Church Opens In London

By Brad Hirschfield. Published by The Washington Post on 7 January 2013.

The first atheist church has opened in London, and it serves as yet another reminder of three important facts connected to the ongoing cultural struggle between many believers and non-believers. First, principled atheism is as much a faith as is theism; no matter how much many atheists would have us believe otherwise. Second, the human longing for community transcends the often bitter divides about where to find it and how to celebrate it. Third, like most so-called firsts in the world of faith and no-faith, this one is not really new.

Very few, if any, ideas or institutions are truly new. Virtually everything that we celebrate as new has its roots in something else, and that is especially true when it comes to religion. For example, before there was Christmas, there was Hanukkah. And before there was Hanukkah there were yet older celebrations of light in the midst of darkness - some Greco-Roman and others Zoroastrian. Of course, each of these traditions is unique, but none simply fell from the sky as fully formed novelties. Each emerged from a context which included predecessors which they both mirrored and altered, and the same can be said for this “first” atheist church.

While there may be no precedent for this kind of church in England, Americans have been playing with idea of church without God for generations. Perhaps best known, and most durable, among these experiments is the Society for Ethical Culture. Founded in 1877 by Felix Adler, the society did not actively embrace atheism. It simply pursued “deed over creed” and assumed that both theist and atheist beliefs were entirely personal and largely irrelevant.

That the society was founded not only by a Jew, but by the son of noted Reform rabbi Samuel Adler, also fits within a tradition in which arguing against the very right of God to be God goes back to the Genesis story of Abraham. Not to mention the fact that according to recent studies of the American spiritual landscape, Jews are the most highly secularized religious group in the nation. They would eschew the term religious, but functionally, that is what it is. They are part of a community of meaning, values and practice which draws on a shared past and identifies with a collective present and future.

Like their predecessors, the newly founded atheist church of England, seeks to create meaning and offer a sense of belonging for those who lack what one of its founders describes as “the good stuff of religion.” They see no reason why “theological disagreement” should keep people from enjoying that so-called good stuff, and especially in a world where decisions about worship are made increasingly based on what works for the worshipper, not based on some pre-existing theology or creed, that seems like a more than reasonable claim.

In fact, while I am not at all sure that a monthly meeting arranged by a performance artist and a comedian, as is the case in England, will be able to deliver all that they promise, successful spiritual ventures have started with far crazier stories. Not to mention that to recognize the power of no God, is not so different from recognizing the power of some newly identified God or prophet, which is the founding story of pretty much every faith tradition.

And it is for placing itself on the same continuum as theistic systems, that I am most grateful to the founders of this new church. The decision to believe or to disbelieve is just that, a faith claim. Nobody can know for sure when it comes to finite beings making claims about either existence of non-existence of the infinite. But, as this new church reminds us, we can see more of ourselves in each other than we often do.

In recognizing that we all make the decision to believe or not for a variety of reasons, with some going back and forth about exactly where they stand on that issue, we can recognize that both faith and non-faith are personal journeys which seek both communities of affirmation and the possibility of finding greater purpose and meaning in our lives. Perhaps it is because we are so very alike, we believers and non-believers, that some of us fight so hard to distinguish ourselves from each other. Perhaps.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/for-gods-sake/post/first-atheist-church-opens-in-london/2013/01/07/ed6136fc-5918-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_blog.html

CS Lewis to be honoured in Poets' Corner

Published by BBC News on 22 November 2012.

A memorial stone to writer and scholar CS Lewis is to be placed in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey in 2013. A service will take place on 22 November 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. Lewis will join such greats as John Keats, William Blake and TS Eliot in a tradition going back 600 years.

Vernon White, Canon Theologian at Westminster Abbey, said Lewis was an "extraordinarily imaginative and rigorous thinker and writer". Lewis, he continued, "was able to convey the Christian faith in a way that made it both credible and attractive to a wide range of people". The author, he said, had "had an enduring and growing influence in our national life".

Lewis (1898-1963) is best remembered for writing The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of books that has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first instalment in the saga, was published in 1950 and has been adapted since for stage, TV and film.

Other works by the Belfast-born novelist, essayist and literary critic include The Screwtape Letters, The Space Trilogy and the non-fiction titles Mere Christianity and Miracles. 

Former poet laureate Ted Hughes was the most recent writer to be commemorated at the Abbey with a posthumous memorial stone. His memorial was unveiled by Seamus Heaney at a service held in December last year.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20426778#TWEET383477

When did it become 'okay' to bag Christianity?

By STEPHANIE BROWN. Published by www.mamamia.com.au on 11 September 2012.

The mother in my radius this week was discussing her reasons for wanting to move out of the area in which we live. Top of her list, the thing she dislikes most about our leafy suburbia, is that everyone is religious; she perceives we live in a bible belt.

She went on to talk about the large percentage of parents and children in her son’s class who were involved with a church. She vented about feeling in the minority, saying that although people didn’t talk to her about their faith, she felt they were ‘preachy’.

All in all, it seemed that there was little evidence of actual problems or encounters, quite simply she didn’t like it, she didn’t like them. People weren’t like her and this made her uncomfortable.

The reactions were mixed. Some nodded politely, and some had confused looks on their faces. Some went as far as to point out that their experience was quite different, but no one directly challenged her, and I believe she would have walked away thinking people were in agreement with her.

I sat there pondering. I couldn’t help but feel I was caught up in a moment that could be somewhat farcical. If she had said she wanted to leave an area because she didn’t like that there were a group of Asian or Middle Eastern people, it would have been met with shock.

If she had said she was miserable because there were so many homosexual people she would have been heatedly challenged. If she had singled out any other group, even any other religious group, I think it would be seen as being narrow minded and intolerant, and she would have been put in her place.

In contrast, it seemed it was socially acceptable to isolate and attach negative stigma to people involved in the Christian faith. In essence, it was stereotyping and placing prejudice on a group of people without knowing or experiencing them as individuals.

Without getting into the nuts and bolts of whether the area is in fact a bible belt, I have felt uncomfortable about that conversation. It seemed to reinforce a trend, where people with a Christian faith in Australia are free game to be joked about or spoken of negatively in the paper, on the radio and in comic sketches.

You only have to look at regular columns in mainstream papers to find numerous examples of this kind of treatment. The jokes and criticism are often entertaining, and in some cases valid, but I have some level of concern. If the mainstream media took this approach to any other group it would be inappropriate and unacceptable. So why is it tolerated in this case?

Is it because Christianity is perceived to be the institution so many have experienced and are rebelling against? Is it acceptable to generalise and stereotype because most Australians have had some personal contact and experience so, as they see it, they are insulting their own and not a vulnerable minority group? Or do people really have such horrid experiences relating to Christians that their treatment seems valid? I really don’t know the answer, but I have some hopes that things will change.

Surely we should be aiming to remove stereotyping, generalising, pulling down, slandering and discriminating against any one group completely, not just selectively. I want my children to grow up in a world where these things are never acceptable, without exceptions.

I hope this mother can learn a few things. I hope she can learn to put aside her own experiences and prejudices and treat these people like individuals without projecting a uniform typecast on them. I hope she can teach her son that although he may be in the minority in his class, he will still have many things in common with his peers and to look for those commonalities rather than the differences.

I hope she can stop publicly making negative statements about a broad group of people based solely on their belief system. I hope she can extend the courtesy and respect to others that she demands for herself.

And more than anything, at ballet this week, I hope I can find the words to challenge her, because although it sounds more politically correct when couched in an atheistic viewpoint, to be that prejudiced and generalising towards one group is still pretty ugly.

Read more here: http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/why-ballet-and-religion-dont-mix/