Trumpanzee Losers News - The Repugnican Party is Falling Apart.

Trump addresses a rally in Georgia ahead of the run-off election to decide both of Georgia's Senate seats, Jan 4th, 2021. Trump's Republicans lost both, conceding control of the Senate to the Democrats.

Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis

Exclusive: Dozens of former Bush officials leave Republican Party, calling it 'Trump cult' | Reuters

It's a well-known phenomenon, especially in political circles, that losing parties tend to turn inward and break up. This is especially true when the defeat is heavy. We saw it in the UK when the Tories fell apart after their catastrophic defeat in 1997 by Tony Blair's Labour; we saw it again when Labour fell apart after Gordon Brown's defeat by Cameron's resergent Tories in 2010; in 2017 when the Tories again degenerated into waring factions when Theresa May lost her majority in the House, and in Labour again in 2019 when Corbyn was beaten badly by Johnson.

And now, the American Republican Party is falling apart following Trump's defeat by Biden in 2020 and the loss of the two Georgia Senate seats and with them, control of the Senate, in 2021.

But perhaps the biggest cause of this mass desertion of the Republicans by former loyalist is not so much the scale of Trump's defeat but by his bizarre behaviour, supported by many senior Republicans, and the immense damage he did to the dignity of the office, afterwards. According to Reuters:

Religious Fundamentalism - A Threat to Health and Safety

Police outside the wedding at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls High School last week

Government gives final warning over illegal Jewish weddings | Jewish News

The ultra-Orthodox Jewish Charedi community in Stamford Hill, London, have been warned to stop holding mass gatherings at weddings at the Yesodey Hatorah school during the present coronavirus emergency lockdown, or face the consequences, following a wedding at which a reported 150 guests were present.

This warning was given by the Faith Minister, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh at an emergency meeting with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, Charedi charity Interlink and the Jewish Leadership Council. The meeting was attended by the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville, the head of the police in the local area and senior Jewish figures.

The family that organised the event have been fined £10,000. Those who helped organise it, including the Yesoday Hatorah Girls School, are currently under police investigation.

According to Jewish News, this was but one of 50+ such ultra-Orthodox Jewish weddings, some with over 300 guests to be held since the lockdown was imposed. According to this report, there have been:

• 50+ strictly-Orthodox weddings across London during lockdown.
• Lookouts set to raise the alarm and money set aside to pay fines.
• Bride at one Stamford Hill wedding was 'Covid positive'.
• Police 'not doing enough' to prevent acts of lawlessness.
• Further simchas[weddings with mass attendance] held since last weeks wedding scandal.

WATCH 📽 // Wedding? What Wedding? Police given Simcha runaround. Video evidence emerges of police being allegedly misled about an illegal simcha on the premises. pic.twitter.com/GHyBOmemXL

— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) January 28, 2021

THE ALLEGATIONS

A source intimately involved in the Orthodox wedding scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “These illegal weddings have been going on for 10 months. We’re not talking about one or two. We are talking multiple weddings every day. All have 150-200 guests. At one wedding the bride was Covid-positive.”

THE VENUES

There are five venues that are used regularly, several sources confirmed – “anything that has a hall”. One is the taxpayer-funded Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School in Stamford Hill. “It’s the one that was caught,” said one person.

The school’s long-time principal, Rabbi Avroham Pinter, died from Covid-19 last spring. The new principal is his son, Chaim, who became a director of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in July last year.

Another is Belz Hall at 98 Clapton Common. There, two floors below ground, is a new, purpose-built banqueting space for simchas of up to 350 people.


“There are up to four weddings a week there, Monday to Thursday,” another source said, in a claim later corroborated by three other people.

“There are many entrances to the building, with smaller halls upstairs for Jewish studies, security guards on all the doors. They confiscate your phones as you go in so photos don’t get out. There’s literally a table with a mountain of mobiles.”

Another person familiar with the shifting set-up said: “At one point they were taking over warehouses in the countryside, warehouses in Canvey Island, trying to do it behind closed doors… I think that’s what will happen now.”

Two separate sources said there had been several large weddings at the Lismirrane Industrial Park in Elstree over the spring and summer.

Another venue cited as frequently hosting large weddings during lockdown is Ohel Yaakov Beth Hamedrash (Pshevorsk) Synagogue at 26 Lampard Grove, a synagogue associated with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

Yet another venue cited as hosting lockdown simchas is Beis Ruchel D’Satmar School in Stamford Hill, an 840-pupil girls’ school that was raided by police in October for breaching number restrictions in place at the time

A Charedi source based in Stamford Hill said: “There are 20-30 venues [for weddings] in Stamford Hill, almost all tied to a community centre with [a] wedding hall, school, synagogue, mikveh, such as [the] Bobov [centre] on Egerton Road.”

THE SUPPORT INDUSTRY

As might be expected in such an insular community, there are a limited number of caterers, florists, photographers, videographers, musicians, organisers and security teams who are trusted to supply and support these large Orthodox weddings.

For instance, the same florist was quoted by five different sources as supplying flowers to big Orthodox weddings during lockdown in London and, in recent months, Bournemouth. One informed source said: “She has 85 percent of the market, at least.” The florist denied all knowledge and involvement.

Several also named a videographer as having filmed many of the weddings during lockdown, while Jewish News understands that there are three Israeli photographers who regularly fly in from Israel to take the snaps – and have done since March. One covered nine big Orthodox weddings in under four weeks.

Another photographer is reported to have contracted Covid-19 at one of the London weddings, subsequently forcing an entire El Al flight into quarantine on its return to Israel.

An Israeli involved in the set-up of weddings later said: “The mother of the chatan [groom] called me to tell me that she also had corona. She came to the wedding on Monday and she also had corona. She feels she got it at the wedding. You understand what happened in Stamford Hill now? Unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

Yet the increased risk is not leading to decreased incidence but only increased cost, with several sources telling Jewish News that some organisers of big Orthodox weddings are now asking for a £10,000 payment upfront specifically for the purpose of paying the fines if the wedding is raided by police.

THE PLAYERS

The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC) is an umbrella body representing more than 100 strictly-Orthodox synagogues around the country. It gets up to £500,000 per year from Kedassia Supervision Ltd, which approves kosher food for suppliers and caterers. Kedassia pointedly did not deny that it provides kosher supervision for the food at these weddings – a religious requirement if food is being prepared on the premises.

The UOHC also has a close relationship to Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School. At least four board members are also governors of Yesodey. The UOHC vets prospective pupils, and its own Rabbinate is officially listed as the authority by which the school is guided. The relationship stretches beyond that, however. The UOHC says it “provides a range of facilities for the Orthodox Jewish community. These facilities include Simchas Nissuin.”

On marketing material, Simchas Nissuin is described as “a subsidised wedding scheme offered in conjunction with the UOHC”. Two venues are offered for a “total package”. One of them, Yesodey Hatorah, for £7,495. The school earns £750 for each wedding it hosts.

The lengths these ultra-Orthodox Jews have gone to in order to circumvent the coronavirus emergency laws has prompted Jewish barrister Daniel Greenberg, to make this astonishingly frank attack on the Charedi Community, in the Jewish Chronical:

Those who have attended illicit weddings under lockdown represent a self-indulgent sect that should be disowned by the rest of the Jewish world.

I have seen some surprisingly intelligent commentators support the idea that the Charedi world requires special consideration in relation to compliance with Covid-19 regulations in the UK, Israel and elsewhere, because those regulations are so challenging to their core lifestyle practices.

This is ridiculous: and offensive to everybody else whose lives also revolve around meeting people in lots of different contexts and gaining social, professional, spiritual and other support from them, and who have suffered in dignified silence for the benefit of the health of the public.

There is no reason why Charedim should have more need, or be any more entitled, to gather together than any other community. The idea that their day revolves around learning and praying adds nothing: both of those activities can be carried out alone, assisted to some extent by remote communication.

What Covid-19 has actually taught us about many members of Charedi communities is something that many of us have suspected for some time: that they have no connection whatsoever with Judaism in any meaningful sense.

As Chief Rabbi Mirvis powerfully put it in commenting on a large Charedi wedding in Stamford Hill broken up by the police for flouting Covid-19 regulations, this a staggering denial of the fundamental Jewish emphasis on health and safety. That is so much the case that it is difficult or impossible to recognise these people as practising any kind of Judaism that I recognise.

But the reality is that this is just a new emergence of something that many of us have known known or suspected for some time, and which now perhaps needs to be articulated clearly and publicly: much of the lifestyle for many Charedi communities is completely incompatible with the fundamental principles of Judaism.

He then went on to condemn a general culture of lawlessness within the Charedi community and the code of silence which facilitates it, with:

In the UK, benefit fraud appears to be endemic in parts of chareidi communities, with housing benefit in particular being manipulated through bogus shell companies and the like in order to support an otherwise unattainable lifestyle. This is incompatible with the fundamental Jewish principles of truth, yashrus (being straight) and avoiding falsehood of any kind.

And it is also inconsistent with seeking the right to coexist as a community within a decent rule of law society: as the judge said in the case of Kliers v Schmerler in 2018: "to be confronted by a plan of this nature [a purported tenancy agreement in order to obtain housing benefit] which, on the evidence, is common practice amongst esteemed and respected religious and community leaders, is one which must cause very great concern to any court seeking to administer the law and the process of justice and legal remedy in this country if not elsewhere".

Even where benefit is obtained without fraud, the Talmud emphasises the importance of people being trained to earn their own living: bringing people up to be dependent on charity is again contrary to fundamental Jewish principles.

Perhaps most important of all, an ancient talmudic concept of not handing fellow Jews over to the non-Jewish authorities, based on times and places without rule of law and with arbitrary and largely antisemitic criminal and civil authorities, has been increasingly turned into a kind of theological support for refusal to wash dirty linen in public, despite the fact that there are no effective private laundries.

It came sadly as no surprise to many of us when in 2013 the rabbinic leader of a major Charedi organisation in London was "outed" on television in secret film footage telling an alleged victim of abuse that it was forbidden to report the alleged offender to the police.

There is no foundation for this in Jewish law whatsoever, and it is based on nothing but the wish to preserve the reputation of the community at the expense of the pain and suffering of the individual. It is not surprising that there is abuse of various kinds, including child abuse and other domestic abuse, within Charedi communities, which consist of human beings: but it is not just surprising but appalling that any community should institutionally refuse to address abuse through the only effective mechanism, the criminal courts.

I admire many people who count themselves as Charedim. Some of them are deeply inspiring people. There are aspects of some Charedi lifestyles and communities that I find inspiring, although I would not want to share all of them.

And there are other aspects of Charedi life that I do not relish but to which I believe they have a protected legal right in the UK (something that has frequently arisen in my advice to Charedi communities over the years about the place of yeshivahs within the educational regulatory system, for example).

He then called upon the rest of the Jewish world to stand up and condemn a society that tolerates these abuses perpetrated by the Charedi Community (benfit fraud, child and domestic abuse and risking public health and safety):

But when the three things most publicly known about the Charedi world become benefit fraud, covering up abuse and breaking public health law, it is time for the rest of the Jewish world - including those Charedim to whom these things are abhorrent - to stand up and say clearly and loudly that any community that tolerates these three things has no connection with Jewish law or values and has become simply a self-indulgent and dangerous sect.

The biggest problem in all this is that Charedim look so very Jewish. Their obsession with the externals means that to themselves, to the outside world, and even to many other Jews, they appear to be the quintessence of Jewish life. In fact, many of them are the antithesis of fundamental Jewish principles in so many ways.

It is time for the rest of the Jewish community to disown those individuals publicly and allow them to go their own mad and dangerous way, and turn to the task of publicly representing a more balanced approach to Jewish practice as being the real continuation of the Jewish heritage in all meaningful ways.

What we have here is yet another example of religious fundamentalists living out their arrogant belief that they have a special entitlement to pick and choose which laws to obey and to disregard any that inconvenience them or interfere with their assumed right to practice their religion anyway they wish, regardless of any threat they pose to society at large and to the health and welfare of those with whom they come into contact.

In this regard, the Cheredi Jewish community of London are little different to the entitled American evangelical Christian nut-jobs and other religious fundamentalist throughout the world, who insist on holding their Sunday super-spreader events with no regard for the health and safety of their family or their local community. The coronavirus pandemic has brought the selfishness and basically antisocial nature of religious fundamentalists into sharp focus.

Religious groups have been a major obstacle in controlling the spread of this deadly plague, when we should have been able to rely on their support in the name of humanity.

If any good can come out of his terrible tragedy, we should never forget this lesson.

---

Tweet Link

American History - Jefferson's DOI Edited to Remove Condemnation of Slavery!

Thomas Jefferson (Official Presidential Portrait) Rembrant Peale, 1800

Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence - Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents | Exhibitions - Library of Congress

With the Black Lives Matter campaign still ongoing in the USA, it's worth taking a quick look at the history of a constitution which allowed slavery for so long and which has left America with a divided society where racism is institutionalised and a white President-reject who relied on racist white supremacists for support, describing them as 'very fine people'. And a very large proportion of the population incensed at the realisation that America now has a black (female!) Vice President, as though having had a black President for 8 years wasn't bad enough!

This also relates to the increasing clamour from the evangelical Christian white supremacists insisting that America is a Christian country, founded as such by the almost saint-like figures of the (White Christian) Founding Fathers.

The truth, as always with these assertions from the extreme right in politics is very different.

The founding document of the American Republic, the Declaration of Independence (DOI), was originally drafted by that deist friend of Thomas Paine and follower of John Locke, the liberal left Humanist, Thomas Jefferson. It included the following passage:

UK Faiths Can't Resist Discriminating Despite the Equality Act 2010

Equality law ‘failing to protect people from faith-based discrimination’, says report - National Secular Society

A report by the National Secular society into the working of the Equality Act - Faith-shaped holes: how religiously privilege undermines equality law, which was intended to end discrimination in the UK, shows how religious organisations are exploiting in-built loopholes in the law to continue to discriminate against people with the 'wrong' religion (or none) and, because of the link between some faiths and ethnicity, on the basis of race or ethnic origin.

These loopholes were intended as allow discrimination in matters of employment in situations where religion was an important part of the job, for example, not to provide holes through which religious bigots, who want to continue to discriminate and victimise minorities, could drive a coach and horses, so rendering the law unenforceable and ineffective. In the matter of education particularly, religions are exploiting privileges granted to them by the Education Act to discriminate against minorities and those from the 'wrong' faith or none and so to circumvent the provisions of the Equalities Act.

In her forward to the report, the former Equalities Minister, Rt Hon Baroness Featherstone said:

The Equality Act is something that, as a country, we should be extremely proud of. It has contributed to the UK becoming, on the whole, a more tolerant nation and has been vital in tackling discrimination against minorities and safeguarding individuals’ rights.

...the continued existence of exemptions for religious privilege is completely at odds with ambitions to create a fair society. Whilst the aspirations of the Equality Act were – and remain – laudable, this should not blind us to the fact that provisions within the Act itself have created stark areas of on-going discrimination and gaps in the guarantees of equality. Until exemptions that create religious privilege are tackled and ended, we cannot claim to have created a just and fair society.

In the Executive Summary to the report, the National Secular Society say:

Equality is an essential principle not merely for its own sake. It underpins community cohesion, democratic participation, and personal liberty.

Freedom of religion or belief is an indispensable component of personal liberty. It also pertains to an area of UK society that has undergone dramatic change within the past ten years since the Equality Act became law.

Firstly, diversity of different religions has increased. Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism are amongst the religions on the rise.

Secondly, the UK is now more irreligious than ever, with more than 50% of British adults saying they have no religion. This rise coincides with a dramatic fall in adherents of the established church, the Church of England. Only 2% of young adults identify as belonging to the C of E.¹

But according to Humanist International’s Freedom of Thought Report 2018, this non-religious majority in the UK suffer from systemic discrimination in all areas monitored: government, education, society, and free expression. This is in stark contrast to some of our surrounding European neighbours – France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland – where the non-religious enjoy ‘free and equal’ treatment in all or most of these areas.²

The report identifies three key areas in which there is still discrimination on religious grounds:

KEY FINDINGS

Education

• The religious ‘gaps’ in the Equality Act take their heaviest toll on our children. Although our nation’s schools should be beacons of tolerance and equality, the entrenchment of religion in British education systems shatters these aspirations. This report finds that exceptions to accommodate faith schools, faith-based admissions and religious practice in schools are leading to a level of religious discrimination that would not be tolerated in any other area of society.

Caste-based discrimination

• Migration into the UK from Asia has meant caste-based discrimination and harassment has become a feature of British life. Although tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people belonging to oppressed castes live in the UK, they still have no genuine protection from discrimination.

Employment

• There is evidence that some organisations might be using the ‘genuine occupational requirement’ exceptions in the Equality Act as ‘loopholes’ to avoid employing people who don’t belong to the ‘right’ religion in seemingly secular roles. This shuts off job opportunities for talented people who do not share the same beliefs.

It is perhaps in the area of education where religions, especially Anglicanism and Catholicism, the two largest providers of publicly-funded 'faith schools', can't resist the opportunity to discriminate both in their selection and treatment of children and in their employment of teachers. The National Secular society cite several examples of children being bullied and victimised for not sharing the religious views of the schools 'ethos' - public humiliation for not preying correctly, being coerced into attending a Catholic mass even though not a Catholic, valuable hours of study being lost to attend compulsory religious ceremonies, being excluded from the class for not saying the school prayer, etc.

The report listed several examples of discrimination, bullying and victimisation in faith schools, including:

• A child placed in a Catholic faith school in Medway which was not the parents' first choice but no other schools were available, and being made to attend all Catholic services, including Mass.
• An Atheist girl from Preston being chastised in front of the whole school for not praying properly.
• A sixth form girl from Gloucester made to miss crucial A-level lessons to attend compulsory religious ceremonies such as mass, and being threatened and punished for non-attendance.
• A student from Sheffield forbidden to participate in the class and being made to sit at the back and not speak or ask questions, because he wouldn't say the school prayer.

The report outlines a case study of Burford Primary School. Burford is of interest to me because I have ancestral family connections with this lovely Cotswold town and it was against the wall of the church on May 17, 1649, that three Levellers (early English socialists who had sided with Cromwell in the civil war but whom he then suppressed) who had taken refuge in the church along with about 150 others, were dragged from the church and summarily executed by firing squad, by Puritan soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. The bullet holes can be seen in the wall. May 17 is now commemorated as Levellers Day.

But that event, relevant only in that it shows how draconium, discriminatory and blood-thirsty a fundamentalist theocratic government would be if it got the power fundamentalists crave, is not germane to this case study:

CASE STUDY: BURFORD PRIMARY SCHOOL

This is a summary of casework handled by the NSS. The full versions can be read at:

www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2018/12/my-childrens-school-has-become-christian-by-default
www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/11/coe-trust-to-introduce-alternative-to-worship-after-legal-challenge

Burford Primary School is a community ethos school in Oxfordshire. Lee and Lizanne Harris enrolled their children there “primarily because it was a non-faith-based community”, one of a minority of non-faith schools within four miles. The parents were both active contributors to the school, with Lizanne taking a leading role in the Parent-Teacher Association.

In 2015, the school joined the Church of England’s Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST) under the condition that its community school ethos would be protected. But the Harrises discovered through conversations with their children that regular assemblies were being held by the church in the school. The children said they were encouraged to participate in active prayer, Christianity was positioned as truth, and Bible stories were 'acted out' including beatings and crucifixion.

When the Harrises raised concerns, the head explained that she was legally entitled to run daily worship and was simply operating within the law.

The Harrises decided to withdraw their children from collective worship. This led to the children feeling “increasingly excluded” from assemblies and school activities, left to sit in side-rooms for long periods of time with a teaching assistant. “More and more it felt like our children were being discriminated against”, Lee said. “Daily activities that could help to provide an inclusive environment were seemingly being ignored.”

In July 2019, the Harrises launched a judicial review against Burford Primary School, arguing that the school must provide an inclusive assembly as a meaningful alternative for pupils withdrawn from Christian worship.

In response, ODST agreed to provide an inclusive alternative assembly for pupils withdrawn from Christian collective worship.

This case represents a rare win for the parents, but it shows the damage caused to inclusion and cohesion in school life, and the relationship and trust between school and parents, when religious worship is imposed. No parents should have to threaten legal action in order to ensure their children are treated equally to others. No school should impose collective worship.

When given the opportunity and excuse, the Anglicans who took over the running of Burford Primary School, clearly wasted no time in exploiting the provisions of the Education Act to avoid their obligations under the Equalities Act and seeking to impose an intolerant Christianity on non-believers and the children of non-believers, and to isolate and discriminate against non-believers. Not surprisingly, the Anglican Church is very much in favour of faith schools and the requirement in the Education Act that all schools should have a 'Christian ethos', including a daily act of worship.

The report lists instances of discrimination in their selection process by faith schools. These include:

• An autistic child from Sheffield unlikely to be accepted by any of the smaller-intake schools which are all faith schools, because his parents are not church-goers.
• Children in Guildford, Surrey being unable to get into their local school while the school bussed 60% of its intake in from surrounding counties.
• A girl in a London borough unable to get into a local school because of discrimination on religious grounds.
• A girl in Liverpool unable to get into the school of her parents' choice because of religious discrimination. As her parents point out, it would not be tolerated if secular schools refused to take children of religious families.
• A Girl in Warrington unable to get into high school because she was not baptised, her parents believing she had the right to chose her religion, or none, when she reached adulthood.
• A girl in Romford refused admission to her closest school because the family were Atheists.
• A school governor in Cambridge who reported that middle-class parents had succeeded in turning the local faith-schools into state-funded independent schools by selection criteria that excluded under-privileged children, resulting in segregated education on socioeconomic status.
• A parent from Bath who admitted lying to get his children into what was considered a better school than the alternative on a local sink estate where bullying and drugs were endemic.
• Atheist parents from Preston going to church regularly to get their children into a local school.

As can be seen, selection criteria are not only being abused by faith schools but are also being used to artificially boost church attendance figures. Religious bigots seem unable to resist abusing the little bit of power and privilege the Education Act affords them.

There is also considerable evidence of active discrimination on religious grounds in faith schools: There are from the Secular Society report:

TESTIMONIALS:

DISCRIMINATION WITHIN FAITH SCHOOLS

The following quotes are from parents, pupils and teachers who have experienced or witnessed discrimination and alienation due to the religious curriculum at faith schools. All quotes come from signatures of the No More Faith Schools campaign petition at www.nomorefaithschools.org.

“My children were always under pressure to believe in God in their C of E primary. It was seen as naughty/ disrespectful to question or disagree with the school ethos.” – AMANDA, BIRMINGHAM

“My son is currently being forced by his C of E secondary school (an academy) to take a GCSE in RE which means he will have to drop either history (his preferred choice of humanity) or triple science. This is a ridiculously stressful and unnecessary thing to put a young person through. This is the only secondary school in our town and we had no choice but to send him there.” – JENNY, BATH

“The overwhelming emphasis on religion at my children’s Church of England school is affecting my son’s mental health. He is constantly being reprimanded for questioning Christianity.” – NANCY, READING

“As someone who is about to finish their time at a Catholic school, I have seen first-hand over the last 13 years the toxic environments they can be. I hold no ill will towards religion, that’s not what this is about. This is about a more equal and inclusive society where people aren’t indoctrinated. Since finding out about my atheist beliefs, I have been singled out, berated and humiliated by more than one teacher, even though my personal religious beliefs are none of their business. Despite my respect for them, they evidently show a lack of respect for me.” – FRANKIE, GLASGOW

“My daughter was discriminated against repeatedly at age 4 for coming from a nonreligious family. First she wasn’t able to attend our local state school because we had to prove we attended Catholic mass for her to be admitted. Then she was repeatedly discriminated against at the Church of England school she attended. Despite not being voluntary aided, the local vicar and people from his congregation who did not have children or grandchildren at the school had taken up all the school’s governor positions. This resulted in the school holding mass rather than assembly every morning, making the children pray four times a day and overall an inordinate religious influence. Although we had officially requested that she not have to attend RE – as this was taken as an opportunity for indoctrination rather than teaching tolerance and understanding of different beliefs – we were told this would be too difficult for the school to implement so she was forced to attend. Following repeated night terrors after being told by the vicar that nails were put into Jesus’s hands and feet due to YOUR sins, she asked please not to go into assembly again and was punished by the school for making this request.” – EUGENIA, YORK

“My son has to go to a Roman Catholic school because of SENS needs - his timetable includes five periods of RE every two weeks. This is more than any other subject and is straight up evangelising. Educational should be secular, faith schools severely limit the choice of pupils especially in areas like mine which is a grammar area.” – SALLY, CANTERBURY

“As a non-Catholic who has worked as a supply teacher in a Catholic school for two years, I have seen first-hand religious discrimination and horrible attitudes. This has no place in our society and would be illegal in any other work place.” – HAYLEY, GLASGOW

“I come from Slovenia where religion has no place in the educational system. I am now facing a tremendous problem finding a school for my child that will teach her to think for herself instead of valuing faith as a virtue. She has been given a place at a Church of England school because all non-religious schools in the area are full. I am an atheist, a scientist, an engineer. I suffer from anxiety knowing my kid is at risk of being indoctrinated into a religion… The only alternative the UK government is giving me is to have her home-schooled and deprive her of the social aspects of going to school.” – ELIZABETH, READING

“We have taken the very hard decision to remove our children from our local C of E school. The attempted indoctrination and divisive nature of the school became too much.” – CHRISTINA, PETERBOROUGH

“Our children’s infant and primary schools were both C of E, which caused them a great deal of confusion - their teachers telling one thing, when they knew we didn’t believe. Our son in particular became very upset about it. I find it almost beyond belief that in 2018, when only a minority of people in the UK still believe in a god, our local schools can still exclude on the basis of faith.” – CHRISTOPHER, GUILDFORD

“My great grandchildren attend a village faith school and are raised as free thinkers by their family which causes conflict and confusion for the children.” – MARK, COLCHESTER

Once again we see religious authorities unable and unwilling to resist abusing the power over others that the Education Act allows them, to abuse, bully and victimise those who disagree with them or who come from the 'wrong' background. Faiths are fulfilling their historical role of spreading division, disharmony and suspicion within society, made worse in a multicultural, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society such as the UK. The National Secular Society report makes recommendations which would close these loopholes and pivileges in the Education Act which are enabling religious leaders to circumvent the intention and spirit of the Equalities Act and continue to bully, victimise and alienate minorities of their choice.

In the days when non-believers are now in a very clear majority at 53%, totalling more than all other faiths together in the UK, and where believers make up only 3% of the key 'parent' age-group of 25-34, there is now no excuse for continuing these privileges for faiths in the UK. Because they have now shown themselves incapable of resisting the temptation to abuse what privileges they might have, it is time to remove these privileges and put an end to faith schools altogether. Anglicans and Catholics comprise only 12% and 7% of the UK population yet are given an enormous and privileged status in the education of our children!

Religion should have no place in the education of children, other than as part of a curriculum which looks objectively at world religions and compares the value of faith over an objective assessment of the evidence in forming opinions - prospect which would no doubt terrify religious leaders and have them foaming at the mouth and screaming about discrimination and not being privileged enough.

---

Tweet Link

Brits Becoming Less Religious and More Scientific

British Social Attitudes | NatCen Social Research

The British Social Attitudes Survey 36, published by the National Centre for Social Research towards the end of last year, has some worrying figures for organised religions in the UK and some reassuring figures for rational humanists.

Brits are still rapidly becoming less religious and more tolerant with now well over 50% having no religion, and are much more trusting in science, with just 11% agreeing that science does more harm than good, compared to 24% in 1983. Trust that science does more good than harm is now at 55%, up from 46% in 1983.

On the subject of religious belief (a term which includes no religion and Atheism) The report states (pdf):

Consternation and Shock as Detroit Priest Casts the Wrong Magic Spell

Rev. Matthew Hood. The wrong magic spells!

Invalid baptism of Dearborn priest results in invalid sacraments

LOL! You couldn't make this up!

30 years ago Matthew Hood was baptised into the Catholic Church and, having graduated from the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in 2017, subsequently became an ordained Catholic priest, empowered to carry out the rituals of baptism and marriage. Since July he has been serving as an associate pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Utica and at Divine Child in Dearborn since 2017.

But there was a hitch!

Catholic Abuse News - McCarricks' Paedophile Sex Ring

Theodore McCarrick, 1997

Credit: Steve Auchard/NorthJersey.com

Theodore McCarrick: Lawsuit alleges ex-cardinal ran NJ sex ring | USA Today

Former Cardinal, now plain Mr Theodore McCarrick, still, pending Cardinal Pell's defrocking, the most senior Catholic cleric to be defrocked by the Vatican because of his involvement in child sex abuse, is now facing court action in Essex County, New Jersey, USA, accused of running a sex ring at his New Jersey beach home.

He is being sued by one of his victims who alleges in the papers presented to the court that he was abused by McCarrick and three other priests at his home in Sea Girt, in the early 1980s. McCarrick has been accused of bringing adult seminarians to his home and harassing them during overnight stays, as well as abusing children. It was these allegations that led to McCarrick being stripped of his title by the Pope.

The unnamed plaintiff alleges that he was abused by two other clerics, including the former Essex Catholic High School principal, who introduced him to McCarrick on the pretext that McCarrick would help him pay for his school tuition.

The lawsuit alleges that the abuse began when McCarrick was bishop of the Metuchen Archdiocese. He later became Archbishop of Newark and later Archbishop of Washington, when he became a Cardinal and essentially the senior Catholic cleric in the USA. However, it emerged two years ago that allegations about McCarrick's predatory sexual behaviour were known to the the Catholic Church when Newark Archbishop Joseph Tobin admitted that allegations of sexual abuse against him had been settled secretly many years before.

McCarrick is also facing two other lawsuits in New Jersey alleging that he sexually abused boys. These lawsuits have been filed under a new law that took effect last December, suspending the statute of limitations for two years. More than 100 such lawsuits have been filed under this law against all five of the state's diocese. Four of the five priests name in the Newark lawsuits have previously faces allegations of child sexual abuse. They are Gerald Ruane, Michael Walters and John Laferrera, all accused of abusing boys aged between 14 and 16 at McCarrick's beach home. Gerald Ruane has since died as has the fourth accused, the former Principal of Essex Catholic High School, Brother Andrew Thomas Hewitt. The fifth person named is Anthony Nardino, accused of abusing a boy aged 11 years old and a parishioner at St. Francis Xavier in Newark in 1978. Nardino has since left the priesthood.

The lawyer acting for the boys alleges that McCarrick began abusing the boy shortly after they met in 1982. The boy was “taken on overnight and weekend trips” to the beach house in Sea Girt.

“McCarrick assigned sleeping arrangements, choosing his victims from the boys, seminarians and clerics present at the beach house,” the suit said. “Minor boys were assigned to different rooms and paired with adult clerics.”

The lawsuit alleged that the Catholic Church knew of McCarrick's abuses for many years and that Pope Benedict XVI placed restrictions on McCarrick. And this is where the affair begins to close in on Pope Francis. The disgruntled and embittered Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has claimed that both Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, knew of the sexual abuses by McCarrick but allowed him to continue in his role as the senior American Catholic Catholic cleric. Viganò has alleged that Pope Benedict XVI, now in seclusion as self-style Pope Emeritus in the Vatican, the first pope to resign in 600 years and giving Catholicism the unique experience of having two Popes in the Vatican, placed McCarrick under restraint and that that restraint was removed by Pope Francis, even though he too knew of McCarrick's predatory sexual activities.

Pope Francis has remained silent on the Viganò allegations, probably to protect Pope Benedict XVI, because Benedict is in the double bind position that if he did not know anything about McCarrick's activities then he should have known and if he did but did nothing he was culpable. However, if he did know and did do something, then he is in the clear but Francis is dropped in the mire.

It may be remembered how right-wing conservative Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò fell from favour when he effectively ambushed and embarrassed Pope Francis on a visit to the USA by arranging a meeting with right-wing extremist fundamentalist, Kim Davies, in which Francis appeared to give support to her campaign of refusing to register same-sex marriages, despite their legality and despite a court order instructing her to do so. It appeared that the Pope was interfering in the legal process of the USA as a guest in the country, giving him a less than triumphal end to an otherwise successful official visit. The affair effectively ended Viganò's career and put paid to the hope he had to become a cardinal and the Papal legate to the USA. As a former Vatican staffer, Viganò's toadying and naked ambition had already made him several powerful enemies.

It will be interesting to see whether any more information emerges in court, to shed light on the truth or otherwise of Viganò's allegations. No doubt, the Vatican will be taking a close interest in proceedings. One Pope or the other could well end up with egg on his face as the Pope who did nothing while McCarrick ran his cosy beach-side paedophile sex ring.

---

Tweet Link

Covidiots - Californian Pastor For God and Covid-19

Greg Fairrington, Destiny Christian Church. "Mandated by God to disobey lockdown"

California Pastor Vows Church Will Defy Lockdown Order

Is it really too much to expect Christians to start behaving like caring and compassionate people, willing to give a little self-sacrifice to the welfare of others or is there something deeply ingrained in their faith that tells them to be selfish at all times and never to put the needs of others above their own personal needs?

It really looks that way when you look at the reaction of Christian fundamentalist to the measure introduced to try to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and reduce the number of people killed or made sick by the virus.

Covidiots - Christian Fruitloops Against Altruism

DeAnna Lorraine, Fruitloop Trumpanzee Fundamentalist Christian
"Face-masks are a Marxist globalist Satanic conspiracy"

Right-Wing Conspiracy Theorist: “God Does Not Want Us Wearing Masks” | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

American Right-wing Christian fruitloop covidiots are continuing their campaign to Make America Sick Again with Covid-19, as though having the highest infection rate in the world (above 77,000 new cases per day and rising at the time of writing) was not good enough.

Not only did they promulgate the covidiot notion that the whole thing was some sort of hoax - either man-made or Satanic - to stop Christians from going to church (and paying their tithes), they then campaigned against all lockdown measures and are now campaigning against wearing a face-mask.

Death of an Old Fraud

Morris Cerullo

Christian fraud Morris Cerullo is ‘alive and well’ in the arms of Jesus | Barry Duke

The self-aggrandizing, avaricious old faith-healing fraud, Morris Cerullo has died - unless you believe Christian Post reporter, John Whittle, that is. He has announced that Cerullo is alive and well and living with Jesus.

Apart from a brief mention of 'some controversy' over allegations of tax evasion by filing false income reports on three consecutive years (dismissed by a district judge on a technicality because ther grand jury which indicted him had not been told that a donor’s intent is key to determining whether money given to religious ministers is subject to tax), there is no mention in Christian Post of the unethical and ruthless way way he amassed a fortune by exploiting gullible and desperate sick people.

Civilising the Uncivilised with Humanism

Sudanese women campaigning for reforms

Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims - BBC News

Good news that under Sudan's new 'reforming' Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan is abolishing many of the old Islamic fundamentalist laws of the ousted former president, Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted by a coup following street protests. Sudan is now governed by a council which includes military officers who staged the coup.

What is striking is how the laws being abolished are being replaced by more humanitarian, even Humanist laws such as one might expect to find in a modernt civilised state.

Southern Baptist Paedophile Convention

This collection of mug shots includes a portion of the 218 people who, since 1998, worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches and were convicted of or pleaded guilty to sex crimes.

Source: Houston Cronicle

Bellevue Baptist sued after volunteer coordinator sexually abuses teenager

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant organisation in the USA and has a record of child sexual abuse resembling that of an average Catholic archdioceses. Since 1998, 218 people who worked for Southern Baptist churches have either been convicted of or pleaded guilty to, paedophile sex crimes.

All too familiar is the case of 43-year-old James Hook, a paid volunteer coordinator with the crown jewel church in the SBC, Bellevue Baptist Church, who was discovered under a blanket in his car with a 15 year-old girl volunteer. He was later convicted of sexual assault and given a six-month sentence followed by 4.5 years probation. Now the girl's parents are suing the church for failure to protect their daughter.

According to this report in Memphis Commercial Appeal:

Covidiots - Rishi Sunak Waives the Rules

The chancellor served customers at a Wagamama restaurant in central London on Wednesday.

Photograph: Simon Walker/HM Treasury

About half of health care workers positive for COVID-19 by serology have no symptoms | VUMC Reporter | Vanderbilt University

The discovery by a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, that almost half the healthcare workers tested for Covid-19, tested positive but displayed no symptoms is evidence, if any more were needed, of the importance of wearing a face-mask in all public places.

Among 249 front-line health care workers who cared for COVID-19 patients during the first month of the pandemic in Tennessee, 8% tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies by serology testing, suggesting they had contracted COVID-19 in the first several weeks of taking care of COVID-19 patients. Among these health care workers with positive serology results, 42% reported no symptoms of a respiratory illness in the prior two months. This suggests that front-line health care workers are at high risk for COVID-19 and that many health care workers with the virus may not have typical symptoms of a respiratory infection. These results were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on July 6.

Covidiots - California's 'Persecuted' Christians

California Covid-19 timeline

Data Sources: Cases and deaths data from JHU CSSE. Policy actions from the National Governor’s Association, D.C. Policy Center, and Washington, DC’s Coronavirus website.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Evangelicals Are Furious That California Temporarily Banned Singing in Churches | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

In addition to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in California, there has been an resurgence of persecution mania amongst California's evangelical Christian community.

This time, their indignation is over not being allowed the privilege of spreading Covid-19 in the manner of their choosing - by gathering together in an enclosed space and bellowing at the top of their voices.

The cause of their self-righteous outrage?

The attempt by the governor, Gavin Newsom, to introduce measures intended to bring under control the serious and accelerating second wave of Covid-19 cases in the state. The new guidelines include discontinuing singing in church services:

Catholic Priest Calls BLM Activists, "Maggots and Parasites"

Rev. Theodore Rothrock, "They are maggots and parasites"

Catholic priest suspended for comparing BLM activists to 'maggots’

Were you under the impression that Christianity is about caring and compassion and regarding everyone as equally deserving of life and respect as children of God, and that Christians are people who would burn with indignation at the idea of a fellow human being treated as an inferior, lesser being?

Well, it seems it's not just the fundamentalist white evangelicals who disagree with you when it comes to black people, but an ordained Catholic Priest, the Rev. Theodore Rothrock, of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel, disagrees with you too.

He has now been suspended by his bishop, Bishop Timothy Doherty, of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, for writing in his weekly bulletin:

Episcopalians For Bigotry and Race-Hate

Scott and Debra Volland

Mississippi Church Ousts Pastor For Taking a Stand Against Racism | Val Wilde | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

The Black Lives Matter campaign, following the casual public murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, while his colleagues stood and watch the crime being committed, has polarized America like few other issues could have done, and has force people to show their true colours and take sides. This is, after all, what polarization does.

Making Excuses for God's Psychopathy

The Battle, Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665)
Sporting contest, biblical style.

Christian Apologist: God’s Calls for Genocide Were Just “Figures of Speech” | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

It's a mark of just how far decent Humanist values have penetrated into Christianity that Christian apologists are now having to make excuses for the things God supposedly ordered in the Bible that nowadays would be thought of as barbaric and unacceptable - the actions of a tyrannical war-criminal.

When it was written in the Bronze Age, no doubt the terrible things they wrote about God ordering were the sort of things you would expect a powerful despotic tribal leader to order his people to do, so, naturally, any self-respecting god would be expected to behave the same way. A brutal, merciless tyrant who rewards his loyal followers with plenty of land, war-booty and women captives and in return sanctions and glorifies their savage and brutal behaviour.

Far-Right Raging at 'Non-White' Jesus

GraphicaArtis/Getty Images

White people are furious that the archbishop of Canterbury said Jesus shouldn't always be white | indy100

The raving right in Britain are incensed at Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby's statement of the obvious on BBC Radio 4's Today Program that Jesus was not a white man.

Welby made this statement in response to the "Black Lives Matter" movement's campaign to have statuary and representations of racists and removed and the general review and reassessment of institutionalised racism in society, following another casual killing of a black man by white police in America.

Covidiot News - White Evangelicals Least Bothered About Others

White Evangelicals’ Coronavirus Concerns Are Fading Faster...... | News & Reporting | Christianity Today

You would expect evangelical (i.e fundamentalist) Christians to be the most compassionate, most caring and most concerned for the welfare of their fellow humans, given their fundamental belief that we are all created by the same god who holds each of us in the same high regard, and give the alleged teaching of Jesus that loving your neighbour is second in importance only to loving God.

The reality is something very different, as their response to the Covid-19 pandemic is showing. There is something in the mindset of evangelicals that make them the least concerned, the most cavalier and the most selfish in their attitude toward collective responsibility for reducing the spread of the virus, as a recent poll showed.

More Powerful Old Dead Gods of Wiltshire

Distribution of features over a composite Lidar and OS profile data derived digital surface model (shaded) with OS 10k overlay © Environment Agency copyright and database right 2019. All rights reserved. Lidar Composite DTM 2m resolution, Scale 1:8000 and 1m resolution, Scale 1:4000; © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 OS 1:10000 Scale and Profile DTM Raster, Scale 1:10K; EDINA Digimap Ordnance Survey Service (100025252)

Source:http://digimap.edina.ac.uk

A Massive, Late Neolithic Pit Structure associated with Durrington Walls Henge. Internet Archaeology 55.

A major new discovery in the landscape of Wiltshire, England, associated with Durrington Walls, shows the immense power that must have been wielded in the name of some long-forgotten god or gods some 4,500 years ago. The labour-force needed to construct structures like Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and and Durrington Walls indicates an economy and political organization able to provide and command this labour-force as well as to supply it with food - which would need some form of tax on those who were producing it.

This in turn suggests a ruling class that would have needed more than simple force of arms. It suggests an elite ruling with divine sanction, probably in the form of priest-kings and a fearful population who believed the priests and gods were necessary to ensure continuity of the seasons and the success of the crops. It's likely that these structures played an important part in the religious rituals, so there was a strong motive for constructing them.