Next weekend

The schedule for Empowering Women Through Secularism is online.

Saturday 29th of June

9.30am-10.15am – Introduction – Annie Laurie Gaylor

10.15am-11.30am  Session 1 – Reproductive rights and Irish abortion law Ophelia Benson, Clare Daly, Anthea McTiernan, Ailbhe Smyth, Doctors for Choice

11.45am-1 pm – Session 2 – Secular Values in Society Leonie Hilliard, Nina Sankari, Farhana Shakir, PZ Myers

2.15pm-3.30pm – Session 3 – Separation of Church and State Ann Brusseel, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Rebecca Watson, Michael Nugent

4.45pm-6.00pm – Session 4 – Human Rights Jane Donnelly, Maryam Namazie, To Be Confirmed, Dan Barker

6.15pm-7.00pm – Keynote Speaker – Taslima Nasrin

Sunday 30th of June

10.15am-11.30am – Session 5 – Politics and Campaigning Rachel Donnelly, Maryam Namazie, Ann Marie Waters, Carlos Diaz

11.45am-1pm – Session 6 – Finalising the Declaration Panelists representing outcomes of each of sessions 1-5

2.15pm-3.30pm – Session 7 – Review of Conference and What Next Kate Smurthwaite, others to be confirmed

3.30pm – 4.15pm – Closing speeches

This is going to be great.

Forward-pedaling

It’s supposed to be a good thing to accept apologies, isn’t it? I’m seeing a lot of bizarre grumbling, and accusations of “back-pedaling.” It’s not back-pedaling to accept an apology. Jeez. And another word for “back-pedaling” is just “changing your mind” (ok three words), and changing your mind when there are reasons to do so is also supposed to be a good thing. It’s not “back-pedaling” unless you have shitty reasons for it.

This morning on Twitter.

aps

Ron Lindsay tweets [in reverse, hence chronological, order]

My apology re talk at WIS2 was not a victory or defeat for anyone; it was not forced or half-hearted; it was an expression of my heart

Secularists of good will need to try to find common ground and move forward; the community is heartsick and discouraged by the acrimony [Read more…]

The people have bought into the evils

In Ireland a group of priests – who have an official group, called Association of Catholic Priests, ACP, which makes it official and substantial and everything – got together with some other priests and mostly a bishop except for that one bishop who had to be somewhere. They got together and talked about things, and then issued a report on the things. This is that report on things.

They talked about how being a priest isn’t a red-hot popular career these days.

There is no doubt that priests are under great pressure, and that was generally acknowledged.  But we did meet with a fair degree of disagreement with our analysis of the situation. There seems to be a substantial number of bishops, and some priests, who believe that the problems we are facing are not due to any difficulties in the Church or with the priesthood, but are caused by a lack of faith in the people.  The people, they told us, have bought into the evils of materialism and consumerism, and don’t have time or interest in faith any more. [Read more…]

The Apostasy Project

Caspar Melville talks about what the Apostasy Project can do, and what it can’t.

Since we launched our funding drive for the Apostasy Project – our initiative to help those who feel trapped in their faith and want to leave – we’ve received a lot of messages of interest and support. Two hundred people have so far donated, and as of writing we are at just over £4,000, which is 20% of our target of £20,000.

Along the many messages of support and offers of help we we also get messages like this:

I am an ex Muslim living in Kenya. I am in the closet because if I go public I will lose my job, my children, my security and even my life. Would you please advice and assist me.” [Read more…]

We’re making progress

Guest post by Martha, originally a comment on Stephanie’s post Apologies Are Hard.

I think those who wish to reject Ron’s apology are forgetting that the goal here is not to have a movement only for feminist atheists, but to bring together a large coalition of people committed to social justice and atheism. Such a movement cannot exist without a commitment to feminism. Nonetheless, our culture makes such a commitment difficult for many decent and otherwise reasonable people – all the other side has to do is say “shrill” and all the buttons are pushed for many white men of privilege – and not just for white men of privilege.

I started reading atheist blogs – mostly here at FtB – about the time that DJ Grothe started blaming people calling for sexual harassment polices for the dropoff in women’s registration at JREF. I was appalled, but unsurprised by some of the misogynistic responses during the arguments that followed Groethe’s boneheaded statement. What really upset me, though, was the hyperskepticism of so many toward the feminists. [Read more…]

The shamed person has nowhere to go

More from Mistakes Were Made.

Chapter 6 is on self-justification in marriage, but it applies to other kinds of relationships too. One particularly striking observation is on page 171.

Social psychologist June Tangney has found that being criticized for who you are rather than for what you did evokes a deep sense of shame and helplessness: it makes a person want to hide, disappear. Because the shamed person has nowhere to go to escape the desolate feeling of humiliation, Tangney found, shamed spouses tend to strike back in anger.

One which ends with “you must be reprehensible to humiliate me this way.” [Read more…]

Wherever she chooses

A sign on a bus in Israel:

Photo: When the wrong admin has to travel and then moves house, the result is a few weeks silence, now broken. This snapshot illustrates the state of play in the Israeli bus segregation issue. The sign reads "Every passenger may sit wherever he chooses (with the exception of those places marked for people with disabilities), harassment of a passenger on this matter may be considered a criminal act." Other than the (somewhat misleading) use of the male gender for the passenger, a step in the right direction.

Translation: “Every passenger may sit wherever he chooses (with the exception of those places marked for people with disabilities), harassment of a passenger on this matter may be considered a criminal act.”

“He” is the wrong pronoun there, but good about the sign.

Photo and translation by Gnu Atheism.

The intersection between rationalists and feminists

Jason discusses Ron Lindsay’s apology and, while accepting it, suggests ways to expand it.

“My talk repeated tropes that are used against feminists and feminism in many of the same ways that creationists attack atheism and evolution. Accusations of dogmatic atheism, suggestions that Piltdown Man disproves evolution, and accusations of attempting to control the scientific discourse by not ‘teaching the controversy’, all would have been as ill-received at an atheists’ convention as were my assertions about dogmatic feminism and silencing of men was received by the feminists in attendance. Knowing that the conference we’d put together would specifically attract the intersection between rationalists and feminists, raising the spectre of the more irrational complaints against this crowd was every bit as ill-received as it should have been.”

I think that part about attracting the intersection between rationalists and feminists is absolutely key. I’ve been wanting to tell Ron the same thing ever since the talk. I think now the lines are open again, and I think he’ll listen. [Read more…]

Correct, diplomatic, and timely

Reactions from the other direction also give us reasons to take Ron’s apology as genuine.

Like this for instance:

blackf

Center for Inquiry @center4inquiry tweets

CEO Ron Lindsay apologizes. http://t.co/ZMyrx2PHbL This weekend, Ron also gave a heartfelt apology in person to CFI staff and branch leaders

Russell Blackford @Metamagician tweets

@Center4inquiry This was a terrible thing for Ron to do. He has handed a victory to the people who bully, vilify, and intimidate. [Read more…]

Onward

So now I think my post yesterday on Ron’s apology was too grudging. It read as chilly to me then, but see Stephanie’s post for reasons to think it’s not.

Some specifics on the remarks and the circumstances surrounding them.

  • While the remarks don’t contain much in the way of specifics, the apologies there are solid apologies. I’ve heard them referred to as not-pologies. They are not. They apologize for both the behavior and the results of that behavior.
  • CFI is holding a branch leaders meeting at the moment. Several people who are there are telling me (in varying degrees of public settings) that discussions there have been intense. They are also confirming that when Lindsay says he’s starting to understand what the letters told him. He is listening again.
  • Lindsay has apologized to CFI staff. Official communications from CFI refer to this apology as “heartfelt”, and people at the meeting confirm this. Both in terms of professionalism and in terms of him dealing with people I care about, this is huge to me.

Yes. The hell with being grudging. I apologize for being grudging. I take it back.

Amy too is optimistic.

You know what would be great for WiS3 (assuming it happens)? Martha Nussbaum and Christina Hoff Sommers doing a dialogue.