We Will Line Up For Crucifixion to Defend Our Bigotry.

Gov. Phil Bryant. AP Photo.

Gov. Phil Bryant. AP Photo.

Well, Misssissippi Governor Phil Bryant must be bursting with pride – he’s made Right Wing Watch. ‘Over the top’, melodramatic, dramatic, glurgetastic, none of these is an adequate descriptor anymore. A brand new word is needed.

At least week’s Watchmen on the Wall conference, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins presented Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant with the first ever “Samuel Adams Religious Freedom Award” for having signed a radical anti-LGBT bill into law earlier this year that will allow businesses to deny service to gay people.

While introducing the governor, Perkins said that America’s elected leaders should be “ministers of God,” while Bryant praised the hate group leader as something of a modern-day David.

[…]

Later, Bryant recalled how “all of the secular progressive world had decided that they were going to pour their anger” out on him for pledging to sign the legislation, wrongly thinking that he could be pressured into backing down because they were unaware that Christians like him would line up to be crucified before turning their backs on Jesus.

“They don’t know us very well, do they?” he asked. “They don’t know that Christians have been persecuted throughout the ages. They don’t know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if we are going to stand, now is the time and this is the place.”

Gee, Phil, did you ask all the other Christians if they are good with being crucified?

 

Onbashira Festival

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Held every 6 years in Nagano, Japan, the festival involves moving enormous logs over difficult terrain completely by hand with the help of thickly braided ropes and an occasional assist from gravity as the logs barrel down hills. The purpose is to symbolically renew a nearby shrine where each log is eventually placed to support the foundation of several shrine buildings. The event has reportedly continued uninterrupted for 1,200 years.

Onbashira is split into into two parts, Yamadashi and Satobiki, taking place in April and May respectively. Yamadashi involves cutting down and transporting the logs, each of which can weigh up to 10 tons. The logs are harnessed by ropes and pulled up to the tops of mountains by teams of men and then ridden down the other side. The event is exceedingly dangerous and comparable to the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, where a brush with peril is seen as a form of honor. The second part, Satobiki, is a ceremonial raising event where participants again ride atop the logs and sing as each is hoisted into the air. Participants of both events are frequently injured and sometimes killed, but despite the obvious risks the tone of Onbashira is quite festive with lots of singing, music, and colorful costumes.

Via Colossal Art.

The End of Absolutes: America’s New Moral Code.

Barna_Morality_charts_v42

Christian morality is being ushered out of American social structures and off the cultural main stage, leaving a vacuum in its place—and the broader culture is attempting to fill the void. New research from Barna reveals growing concern about the moral condition of the nation, even as many American adults admit they are uncertain about how to determine right from wrong. So what do Americans believe? Is truth relative or absolute? And do Christians see truth and morality in radically different ways from the broader public, or are they equally influenced by the growing tide of secularism and religious skepticism?

Again with this “oh no, Christianity is on the very brink of extinction!” The hell it is. If that were the case, then why are constant attempts to legislate Christian bigotry happening every 5 bloody seconds? Why is there a never ending fight against Christian based hatred of this group, that group, every group but the Christian one? All this wailing and weeping over nothing.

While most American adults agree that culture plays some role in establishing moral norms, a majority also agrees “the Bible provides us with absolute moral truths which are the same for all people in all situations, without exception” (59%). There is broad agreement across age groups, which is surprising when one considers the notable generational differences on other questions related to morality. When it comes to faith groups, practicing Christians (83%), as one might expect, are much more likely to agree with the statement than others, especially those with no faith (28%). In fact, more than half of practicing Christians strongly agree (56%).

I am sick to death of Christian ‘morality’. There’s no such thing. What there is, is Christian hate. What passes for Christian morality is patriarchal privilege, sitting in judgment and ruling over every tiny aspect of others’ lives. If that patriarchal privilege is eroded even by the smallest amount, the wailing, weeping, gnashing of teeth, and panic sets in.

Americans are both concerned about the nation’s moral condition and confused about morality itself. As nominally Christian moral norms are discarded what, if anything, is taking their place? Barna’s research reveals the degree to which Americans pledge allegiance to the “morality of self-fulfillment,” a new moral code that, as David Kinnaman, President of Barna argues, has all but replaced Christianity as the culture’s moral norm.

Emphasis is mine. Once again, the fuck it has. Mr. Kinnaman, is the president of Barna, supposedly a non-partisan organization, who has written a book about faith and being a good Christian. So, we continue with the stream of melodramatic glurge from those who insist that Christianity is dying, slain by secularism.

The morality of self-fulfillment can be summed up in six guiding principles, as seen in the table below.

Barna_Morality_charts_v43

“The highest good, according to our society, is ‘finding yourself’ and then living by ‘what’s right for you,'” says David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group in Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme. “There is a tremendous amount of individualism in today’s society, and that’s reflected in the church too. Millions of Christians have grafted New Age dogma onto their spiritual person. When we peel back the layers, we find that many Christians are using the way of Jesus to pursue the way of self. . . . While we wring our hands about secularism spreading through culture, a majority of churchgoing Christians have embraced corrupt, me-centered theology.

There’s much more, including more graphs and charts, here.

Darla – #Absolutnights.

Screen capture.

Screen capture.

Absolut Vodka’s #AbsolutNights campaign centers on archetypes that don’t get much attention in traditional advertising…The newest ad in the series, titled “Darla,” features a guy at a music festival who runs into an old friend, who’s gone through gender reassignment and renamed herself. As they run the gauntlet of cool music festival stuff, Darla explains her experience in a teachable moment that honors the campaign’s tagline, “When was the last time you were true to yourself? Sometimes being open to new possibilities is all it takes.”

Reaction to this ad has been mixed, to say the least. The most mature response came from Unicorn Booty, whose editor-in-chief both slagged the ad for being a “typical cisgender redemption story,” which it totally is, and cautiously applauded it for being “one of the few [ads] from a major company that even acknowledges trans existence.”

Unicorn Booty’s response is a fair one, we think. Considering who Absolut’s preferred demographics are, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the ad’s protagonist is a cisgender guy who’s cool enough to accept his trans friend. But now that we know brands are open to speaking to the trans community in a way that isn’t crass or insulting, we should definitely ask more of them.

From Adweek.