You will remember the piece I published the other day, reporting that the Methodist Church was splitting over the LGBTQ issue. (see SR archive) Now we have a report on a Baptist Church. What is really driving the hate for LGBTQ people? I think that is the real question to focus on. It's not as if LGBTQ were pressing straight White heterosexuals to have sex with them. They aren't. Nor are they "grooming" children in any notable number. Is there an LGBTQ equivalent of the Roman Catholic priests "grooming" scandal that has cost the church hundreds of millions of dollars? Evangelical pastors "groom" children and have sex with them, although in fewer numbers. Is it that these anti-LGBTQ haters simply won't deal with the facts, and if not, why? I suggest this is not the problem of LGBTQ men and women; this is the problem of the haters. Theirs is the aberrant behavior. And we should start thinking about what their problem is.
First Baptist Church in Jacksonville’s Senior Pastor Heath Lambert has been an outspoken proponent of ‘traditional’ family values and now the church has given members until March 19 to sign the ‘Biblical Sexuality Agreement’ oath or to immediately resign their membership. Lambert says he doesn’t care what members do, and that real Christians do not have a problem with it.
According to Lambert, he did not make the decision on his own — that the entire congregation wanted to move forward with the agreement.
The First Baptist Church ‘Biblical Sexuality Agreement’ states:
“As a member of First Baptist Church, I believe that God creates people in his image as either male or female, and that this creation is a fixed matter of human biology, not individual choice,” the Agreement continues. “I believe marriage is instituted by God, […]
The failure of the American illness profit industry becomes evermore glaring, and here a comparison between ERs and Urgent Care Centers is the latest example. We need universal birthright single payer health care, but the corporations that control Congress, particularly in the Republican Party, won't stand for it. As a result -- and let's deal with facts not political crap -- we have an average of 96 excess deaths per 100,000 people, which means the U.S. leads all developed nations in deaths that can be prevented by timely intervention, compared to just 83 in the U.K. and 65 in France.
Would the “American Girl Doll Hospital” accept Medicare and Medicaid patients? This question was posited by a viral tweet a few weeks ago. My answer? Not if doll hospitals operate anything like American urgent care centers.
Data from CDC released in late December showed that U.S. life expectancy had dropped to its lowest in 2 decades. With an average of 96 excess deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. leads all developed nations in deaths that can be prevented by timely intervention, compared to just 83 in the U.K. and 65 in France. COVID-19 deaths certainly contributed to this decrease, but this is not the full picture. While the entire globe felt COVID-19’s burden, some experts suggest the precipitous drop in the U.S. is more so led by our health system’s inability to provide universal health coverage, ensure equitable access, and address administrative inefficiencies. These factors make it harder to mitigate not only COVID-19 deaths, but also other preventable deaths from accidental injuries, drug overdoses, and chronic conditions, such as heart disease.
Jeffrey Fleishman , Reporter - msn / Los Angeles Times
Stephan:
This trend is a huge problem. Libraries from the time of Benjamin Franklin, who felt passionately about libraries to about 10 years ago, were revered institutions because American society realized that libraries, and the books that filled their shelves, were a critical resource, particularly for the poor, by which people could advance themselves. In my own life libraries have been a huge influence, and I will be forever grateful to a series of women who helped me explore literature and self-educate myself. Now all that has changed and racist Whites frightened by a changing culture are trying to sabotage this ancient tradition and resource. It is despicable and evil and the consequences of this MAGAt craziness will haunt America's future.
The Patmos Library in Jamestown, Mich., where at least two librarians have quit amid pressure and harassment from residents demanding the removal of books. Credit: Joshua Lott / Washington Post / Getty / LA Times
In her time as a Texas school librarian, Carolyn Foote watched the image of her profession veer from “shrinking violets behind spectacles” cataloging titles to “pedophiles and groomers” out to pollute the minds of the nation’s youth.
“Librarians came from a climate of being so appreciated to hearing this message that we’re reviled,” said Foote, co-founder of Freadom Fighters, an advocacy group for librarians that has nearly 15,000 Twitter followers. “It was an astonishing turn of events.” A lot of librarians are asking themselves whether they want to remain in the profession, she added. “At least five people I know have retired early.”
Once a comforting presence at story circle and book fairs, librarians have been condemned, bullied and drawn into battles over censorship as school and library boards face intensifying pressure from conservatives seeking […]
Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate Economist and Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center - The New York Times
Stephan:
As usual Paul Krugman gets the facts right and cuts through the crap of political misinformation. Part of the Great Schism Trend is the growing divide between rural and urban America, particularly White rural Americans and the multi-racial citizens of cities. The central problem the United States faces as a society is that there is no longer one America, and as we become a minority-majority nation racially, there is a segment of White Americans that resents this happening, that feels they are somehow victims and is becoming increasingly prone to violence.
Rural resentment has become a central fact of American politics — in particular, a pillar of support for the rise of right-wing extremism. As the Republican Party has moved ever further into MAGAland, it has lost votes among educated suburban voters; but this has been offset by a drastic rightward shift in rural areas, which in some places has gone so far that the Democrats who remain face intimidation and are afraid to reveal their party affiliation.
But is this shift permanent? Can anything be done to assuage rural rage?
The answer will depend on two things: whether it’s possible to improve rural lives and restore rural communities, and whether the voters in these communities will give politicians credit for any improvements that do take place.
This week my colleague Thomas B. Edsall surveyed research on the rural Republican shift. I was struck by his summary of work by Katherine J. Cramer
✎ EditSign, who attributes rural resentment to perceptions that rural areas are ignored by policymakers, don’t get their fair share of resources and […]
I confess that I have never understood what "wokeness" is supposed to be. It has clearly become a political tool used by christofascist White supremacy Republicans, but what is it? As far as I can work it out it is any policy that fosters gender and racial equality, that fosters wellbeing, and accepts the LGBTQ community. What I do understand is that It is becoming an increasingly important political issue for Republicans and that they clearly see it as a tool to achieve political power.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the chair of the House Republican Conference, at a news conference on Capitol Hill on June 9. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP
Republicans in the House of Representatives swear they do not want to touch Social Security and Medicare in their budget cut demands — so instead they’re going after what they called “wokeness” in the federal government.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) previewed his caucus’s demands in the upcoming standoff over raising the debt ceiling by outlining how they aim to dismantle anything they deem to be “woke” in the federal budget.
“We need to cut wokeness out,” Norman explained. “Our office is going to be looking at the dollars that go into wokeness — whether it’s in the military, whether it’s in discretionary money.”
While it might seem like cutting “wokeness” out of the government would be a relatively small task, Republicans are claiming that a full 50 percent of the budget for the National Institute of […]
