Stephan: I have always made a very clear distinction between spirituality and religion. Spirituality is something innate to being a living being, it is the nonlocal aspect of our consciousness; it reveals to us that we are part of a greater unity.
Religion in contrast is entirely human created, exploitative of spirituality, often grounded in the words of people who have had nonlocal consciousness experiences, but who are otherwise often very disturbed individuals. Frequently sexual dysfunctionality plays a big role, which is why in so many religions women are made subordinate. Religion almost always also postulates dogmatic positions that are not in accord with actual facts, demanding that followers adhere to beliefs that create violence, pain, and death. More people have died as a result of religion than anything else in human culture.
But now humanity faces a challenge unlike anything we have ever faced before, and religion in the United States. I am afraid, has become the principal obstacle to our preparing to meet it. Look at the map that accompanies this report, and you will notice immediately the strong correlation between religiosity, poor health, low education level attainment, and conservative politics.
We need the guidance of spirituality, Based on social outcome data we can not say the same about the religiosity of christofascism.
Forty-five percent of Americans living in the Southwest and 43% in the Southeast are “very religious” — a classification based on how important people say religion is to them and how often they attend religious services. They are the only two of the nation’s eight regions with at least 40% of their residents classified as very religious. The percentage is below 30% in the Pacific and New England regions, while religiosity is in the 30s across the center of the country from the Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic.
Religiosity in U.S. Regions
Very religious
Moderately religious
Not religious
%
%
%
Southwest
45
31
23
Southeast
43
31
26
West Central
39
29
32
East Central
37
29
34
Rockies
35
27
38
Mid-Atlantic
33
30
36
Pacific
29
28
43
New England
26
26
48
GALLUP U.S. DAILY, JANUARY-DECEMBER 2017
The regional results are based on 130,959 interviews conducted in Gallup’s U.S. Daily survey in 2017. The data include more than 6,000 interviews in every region and at least 350 interviews in each state — with more than 1,000 in most states.
Gallup classifies Americans into three categories:
Very religious Americans say religion is important to them, and they attend religious services weekly or almost weekly.
Moderately religious Americans either say religion is important to them, or they […]
Stephan: Hate, greed, religion, and stupidity have put America in a box. Impeaching Trump will leave us with Pence, who in many ways, as this report lays out, would be worse than Trump.
If we impeach both Trump and Pence, we would be left with Ryan, the congress' greatest pseudo-intellectual since Newt Gingrich was thrown out.
But there is a good outcome, and I think Mueller has figured it out. However, it depends on all wellbeing-oriented people getting out and voting Democratic, and I mean everyone. Please discard the canard that voting does not matter. We are in the current situation because of people who thought that.
If Mueller releases his reports at the end of June or July, and they are as bad as they look to be, it will set in motion a massive rejection of Republicans. If that were to happen in the November election both houses would flip from Republican control. That would almost certainly lead to impeachment of both Trump and Pence, and with a Democratic majority in the House, the newly elected Democratic speaker, and it will not be Pelosi in my opinion, would become President, with the Democrats in control of both houses of the legislature, and it would be a different kind of Democrat.
Throughout 2019 and beyond we could reverse all of the damage done by the christofascist Republicans and their toadies, and set America on a course to foster wellbeing. What gives me great hope are the Millennials and Gen Xers who are passionate about change, as one can see by their ongoing demonstrations.
The future of America and the world hangs in the balance, and it is up to you how it comes out.
Mike Pence, the Christian nationalist who may be the root of Trump’s support among Evangelicals/Screenshot
Political scientists—and law enforcement agents—have spent the last 18 months parsing information to determine Donald Trump’s surprising win in the 2016 election.
Among the things they’ve looked at include working-class white people’s economic stress, racism and fear of immigrants.
But new research from the journal Sociology of Religion points out that when when socioeconomic, demographic and racism are controlled for, one of the strongest predictors of support for Trump is Christian nationalist attitudes. That is, these are people who believe that America is a “Christian nation” and want to see politicians push policies that encourage the government to implement their own agenda. Symbolic defense of the United States’ perceived Christian heritage is their biggest motivator.
“Christian nationalism operates as a unique and independent ideology that can influence political actions by calling forth a defense of mythological narratives about America’s distinctively Christian heritage and future,” the paper reads.
Speaking to Salon, Andrew Whitehead, one of the authors of the piece, implied that […]
Stephan: One of the major aspects of the Great Schism Trend centers on the status of women. Do women control their bodies or not? Are they the equals of men or not? How a state answers those questions can be easily seen by comparing a Blue value states like California, and something like what is described in this report, in a Red value state, Nebraska. The growing disparity between the two is becoming a defining part of the culture.
The inevitable result of this bill will be abortion attempts that result in the death or disablement of the woman in Nebraska. Septicemia will increase. More than that it will increasingly cast a pall over the culture of Red value states. Gender and racial equality are on the path of wellbeing, and those states who create that kind of social policy will prosper, and be healthier, and the others will not.
Credit: wfaa.com
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) has repeatedly tried to deny federal family planning funds to Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, and on Wednesday he signed a bill into law that does just that.
“This is what happens when states follow in the steps of the Trump-Pence administration — women suffer,” said Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement.
Lawmakers passed a budget bill, 38 to 6, on Tuesday that blocks health clinics from participating in the Title X federal family planning program if they perform, counsel, or refer patients to abortion services. If signed, the law would be effective immediately on July 1st. According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Planned Parenthood would have to provide 30 days’ notice to its Title X patients to inform them that that it can no longer serve them — that’s 8,000 Nebraskans.
Ricketts’ first introduced the restrictive family-planning measure into the budget, but it was later amended to include referral exceptions for “emergency situations.” Clinics will also […]
Stephan: In the last two weeks I have finally begun to see pushback from real Christians who are fed up with the machinations of the christofascist cult that has co-opted their faith. Here's an example of what I mean. It will be interesting to see how this trend develops.
Credit: Shutterstock
Since the early seventies, with the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade, the Christian right has been on the prowl, adding grievance to grievance, aligning themselves with the Republican Party and its Teapot wing.
The Christian right had long, of course, been gathering steam in the South in response to the Civil Rights movement—there is a dark story there, with prejudice rooting in distorted Biblical arguments—but the mass turn of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians into the realm of politics has been at full strength only in the past four decades. Their influence on the 2016 election of Donald Trump was noteworthy, signaling a high point of hypocrisy on their part. It didn’t matter that Trump was an unhinged philanderer, a braggart whose own life and example was a mockery of Christian values—as long as he delivered a reliably anti-abortion and anti-gay rights judge to replace Antonin Scalia. Neil Gorsuch was their man, and Trump delivered.
Stephan: This story is so inflammatory that right wing media and Jeff Sessions are running around with their hair on fire challenging every word of it; that's why I am using Snopes as the primary source. The thing about the opioid crisis which ought to outrage people, but that is hardly mentioned, is that the crisis was entirely manufactured by two pharmaceutical companies, and a complicit network of distributors, physicians, and drugst0res. And it was all completely legal.
One of the reasons pharmaceutical companies hate marijuana is that it offers a cheap alternative to many of their most popular high opioids. Here is the fact based reality.
Two studies published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine add to an increasing body of research hinting at an association between cannabis legalization and a reduction in opiate use.
The researchers involved in both studies utilized records of opiate prescriptions reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, and analyzed how the prescription trends changed as a result of state-level changes in marijuana policy. Both studies, which utilize a larger data set than previous studies designed to address the same question, broadly reached the same conclusion: there are fewer prescriptions for opiates filled after a state legalizes medical or recreational marijuana.
In one study, a researchers analyzed the total number of daily doses for any opioid medication prescribed in Medicare Part D — an optional prescription drug plan for Medicare recipients — in each state in each year. They found a significant reduction of opiate prescriptions in states that adopted some […]
Forty-five percent of Americans living in the Southwest and 43% in the Southeast are “very religious” — a classification based on how important people say religion is to them and how often they attend religious services. They are the only two of the nation’s eight regions with at least 40% of their residents classified as very religious. The percentage is below 30% in the Pacific and New England regions, while religiosity is in the 30s across the center of the country from the Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic.
