Find Religion

Note: you can also read my posts about Kath Griffin at my other blog, www.RealityonBravo.com

People are still talking about it. Oh, Kathy Griffin. I suppose you’ll be making fun of religion more. It definitely is a great way to get press.

In any case, I’ve been passing over the posts and articles about this issue, simply because they all say the same thing. We can all argue until we’re blue in the face, but at the end of the day, no one is going to change sides on the issue. (some) Christians will argue that he remarks were inappropriate and that she’d be in a lot more trouble if she had made the comment about, for example, Moses. (some) Others will say that it was all a joke and people need to lighten up.

Well, I decided to read ONE MORE ARTICLE and finally read an intelligent comment about it:

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I have my email account with yahoo, so every day when I log online to check my emails, I also browse the Yahoo news stories of the day. I like to stay informed, after all, but I can’t stand to what the evening news. Today, there was a very interesting article on the homepage called “What to do do when you hate your job,” with tips like avoiding needless perfection to cope with an overwhelming job, asking for advice to cope with a job you’re not trained to do, networking for a better job if you do choose to leave, and approaching your boss is a non-confrontational method if you’re unhappy with his or her leadership. As I sat their reading the article, I realized that these same tips can apply to religion.

After all, what do you do when you hate your religion?

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Thought book burning was a thing of the past? Think again. Our network might be called “451″ to play on the classic book “Fahrenheit 451″, but I had hoped that book burnings weren’t really something we’ve have to deal with…ever. I mean, sure, there are those nutty people who still burn books. But they buy the books, then burn them. Hell, go ahead. Every time you buy a book to burn, you’re putting royalties in the author’s pocket. More can always be printed.

And then I came across this story. She was storing her books, and the other person took it into her own hands to take of of them and burn it, simply because the word magic was in the title. It was a REFERENCE book.

For every book that is burned, I hope that the press it brings gets at least five or so people to READ that burned book. As a Christian, I am deeply hurt that anyone would do something like this in the name of religion. That’s the problem with finding a religion that fits - you’ll never agree with everyone. There will always be those who make you ashamed.

I’m pro choice. Since I’ve entered into the world of adulthood, I’ve gotten a lot of questions (most of them weren’t ignorant, thank goodness) regarding my stance on abortion and my religion. I’ve done a lot of soul searching and have honestly given this a lot of though. I’m still pro choice. And I’ll tell you why.

Being pro choice doesn’t mean that you support killing a fetus that could viably be born. When in college I heard about this one girl who was recently “under the weather”. And by under the weather, I mean pregnant. She waiting a long, long time to tell her parents because she was afraid of what her dad would say. During this time, she knew she was pregnant (ie, there was no doubt in her mind), she did not go to the doctor, and she did not attempt to contact the baby’s father. She didn’t stop drinking on the weekends or smoking pot with her friends. She just kept her pregnancy to herself, with the mind set that she’d eventually take care of it.

She didn’t actually take care of it until she started showing, which was pretty far into her pregnancy. Her father went berserk. It’s understandable - she was a child about it - and the family demanded an abortion. When they found out that there were no doctors in the state that would perform the abortion because she was so far along, they flew her across the country to a state where laws aren’t as strict and where there was a doctor willing to do it…for some extra money of course.

And how did they abort this baby? They reached inside of her and broke its neck, then delivered the dead baby. She had about a week’s worth of “sick time” in the hospital, then came home. She was back at college the following weekend, making no excuses. She started sleeping around again within the month (as soon as it was again comfortable, given her surgery).

I’m pro choice. That doesn’t mean that I’m pro her choice.

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I know this has nothing to do with religion, but I’ve just started another job and wanted to let all of my loyal readers here know! If you like college football and don’t mind a little snarkiness (or just want to argue with me, which is highly encouraged), head over to BCS Frenzy. The site will officially be up to par on October 1, but you guys get a sneak preview!

JENA, La. - Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets of this little Louisiana town Thursday in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

The crowd broke into chants of “Free the Jena Six” as the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the local courthouse with family members of the jailed teens. read more here.

This is the single most idiotic thing I’ve seen in the news today. Basically, here’s the issue: Three white kids hung nooses from a tree. They were arrested, but given a slap on the wrist and released. Six black kids beat someone unconscious. They were arrested and are being tried (including one juvie being tried as an adult).

“THIS IS RACIST!” everyone is screaming. Thousands are showing up to protest the court proceedings.

“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” I’m screaming.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, people. No, I don’t think that the three white teens should have be left off the hook. BUT WHAT DID YOU WANT THE SHERIFF TO DO? There are NO laws against hanging nooses in trees. None. Do you want the county to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to take these teens through a court battle only to find out that they win the case, or do you want them to just save the money and let them go off the bat. Protest the law all you want. Write to your congressmen. Hold a freaking rally to get the laws changed. That’s all really smart.

What’s NOT smart is protesting the release to six people who BEAT SOMEONE UNCONSCIOUS. Maybe I’m understanding this news story wrong, and please, please, please correct me if I am…but they could have KILLED this victim. And thousands of people want them released simply because it “wasn’t fair” that the white kids were released.

And what do you supposed will happen to the victim after they are released. THEY WILL KILL HIM. I know how these things work. I’ve seen it happen to good people. The person who snitches dies.

And these aren’t just innocent kids being set up to look like they did something worse than what they did. One of them even has a prior record. I’m willing to be that this group terrorizes others in their high school all the time. I’m willing to bet that their classmates breathed a sigh of relief and felt just a little safer when they got arrested.

No one brought race into this until the public saw pictures of the defendants. The law doesn’t see color - it only sees guilty and not guilty. I truly hope with all my heart that the laws do change so that no one can hang a noose from a tree in the future.

But I also hope that these six boys get punished to the full extent of the law. What they did was wrong, and if released, they’ll continue that lifestyle. If we want a safer, happier America in which to live, we have to pick our battles wisely. And this is an idiotic battle.

As most of you know, I’m sponsoring a Lee National Denim Day team to support breast cancer research. We have a long way to go to reach our goal, but if everyone reading this donates just $5, we can really add up to make a big difference.

As an added bonus, I have ten breast cancer support ribbon pins to give away! I’ll send one to the next ten people who join our team with a donation of just FIVE DOLLARS. Think about it - you can save $5 by bringing your lunch from home instead of eating out while at work. You can do that for one day right?

Our deadline is October 5, but I hope you’ll reach for your credit card right now to make an online donation here: https://register.denimday.com/TeamWebPage.cfm?pID=20788. After you donate, send me a comment with your mailing address and you’ll receive your very own pin for free!

You can also send a check - for more information about that, please contact me at allison.boyer -at- yahoo.com.

breast cancer, cancer, charity

There’s quite the debate going on over at my other 451 Press blog, Reality on Bravo. The backstory, in case you’re not a avid tv-watcher, is that comedian Kathy Griffin won an Emmy and proceeded to say that God had “nothing to do with the award” and “the award was now her god.” The kicker? She proclaimed that Jesus can suck it.

Some laughed, some gasped, and everyone went crazy. Recently, a Christian Theater group spent $100,000 to take out an add in USA Today denouncing Kathy, which I think is downright ridiculous.

I’d love for you to weigh in with your comments. Don’t be scared - even if I don’t agree with you, I still respect your opinion!

Kathy Griffin, religion

More than 100 delegates, including heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, Olympic gold medallists, global CEOs and the most influential thought-leaders will gather in New York City on September 23-25, 2007 at the second annual Global Creative Leadership Summit. Organized by the Louise T Blouin Foundation, an international non-profit organization, the conference will provide a new globalization platform from which to develop solutions in areas such as international trade, foreign policy, education, Africa and the environment. The event will be held at the Metropolitan Club (1 East 60th Street at Fifth Avenue, Manhattan).

Can we really find a solution for world peace through a summit like this? After all, the bottom line for any summit is that participants want to “get their own way” in a peaceful manner. But is that even possible anymore? I suspect that this summit will be a rather happy, lukewarm meeting, but in general - has peace become an afterthought for our political leaders?

Or are we simply working for submission? Wars have always been about power and money, but they have also been about morals and values. They underlying strategy was to find a peaceful way to “win” the war. Look at the Revolutionary War, for example. Britain lost. In the history of the world, it wasn’t that long ago when they lost. Are they still mad about it? Nah. There was a clear winner and clear loser to that war of power, but the leaders from both sides came together to find a peaceful situation for everyone.

I don’t think there can be a peaceful end to any of the wars happening today, because peace isn’t really the main goal of both sides. The goal is power and money, and if peace happens good. If submission happens, well, we’ll take that too.

And that’s sad to me. It’s why I don’t support the War in Iraq. I 100% support our troops, because I think that they are trying to fight with peace in mind. But I don’t support the administration. Bottom line? THEY DON”T WANT US THERE. They don’t want to work out a peace for the world. They just want to rebuild and, in 10, 20, 100 years whatever, try to take us down again.

Can being more religious help this? I don’t know. But we are a country that is more atheist than not. I mean, even your typical Christian family…how often do they pray before dinner? How often do they go to church? How often to they read their Bible? Power and money have become more important that religion, and thus, more important than peace.

Lee National Denim Day® is one of the largest single-day fundraisers for breast cancer. In October, Lee Jeans encourages millions of people nationwide to slip into their favorite jeans and make a $5 donation to support the fight against breast cancer.

This year, I’m getting involved as a 451 Press Blogger. Of course, putting on jeans is actually dressing up, since bloggers often wear pjs or sweats, but instead I’ll be “comfortable” on my blog - instead of writing about religion for the day, I’ll write about another topic I really, really enjoy. You’ll have to “tune in” on October 5 to see what topic I choose!

I hope you’ll help me in raising money to reach my goal of $1000. If you’re a blogger, you can feel free to “wear jeans” on your blog for a day too!

To donate through my team online or join the team, go to my team page here. If you’re a blogger and going to participate, let me know and I’ll add you to the page.

Help Find Religion and 451 Press fight breast cancer. Thank you for your donation.

I’d just like to take a moment to wish all my Jewish readers a very Happy New Year! For those who are not Jewish, here’s a bit about the holiday:

Like the typical “new year” that takes place on Jan. 1, Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is a day of reflection and introspection. Everyone is encouraged to look back on the past year, apologize where needed, let by-gones be by-gones, and set goals for the new year.

No work is permitted on Rosh Hashanah, and Jews are encouraged to spend the day in a synagogue, where one of the most important traditions is the blowing of the shofar, a ram’s horn that sound kind of like a trumpet. “Tashlikh” is another common tradition. In this “casting off” ceremony, Jews walk to a body of water and throw bread to symbolize the casting off of sins.

If you meet someone Jewish today, wish them “L’shanah tovah”, which means “for a good year” and is the shortened version of a long Hebrew phrase meaning “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.”

To all who are Jewish - I admit that I don’t know much about this holiday. If you have info to add or correct, please let me know! In any case, have a Happy Rosh Hashanah, everyone!!

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ — To help Christians better understand the roots of their faith, Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection near Kansas City, has released a new book, “Christianity’s Family Tree: What Other Christians Believe and Why.” (Abingdon Press)

In the book he retraces church history and the movements that shaped eight major denominations and encourages their adherents to listen and learn from one another. He seeks to find common ground among the various branches, and unique emphases within each that help enrich the others.

The statement recently released by the Pope about Protestants being “defective,” for example, offended many non-Catholics. Hamilton cautioned against over-reaction. “Unfortunately the history of Christianity is characterized by our tendency to focus on what divides us rather than what unites us,” Hamilton said.

“We are all defective in some way. Is it possible that God looks at us as we look at our own children? That we are each different and unique, yet equally loved, and that God delights in our differences?”

Hamilton extends an approach started in earlier works, examining major world religions and the most controversial issues of our time. “Christianity and World Religions” explores the histories of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam, compares and contrasts them with Christianity, and discusses what Christians might learn from them.

Issues like abortion, homosexuality, war, creation and church/state separation continue to make news and act as a lightning rod for those holding opposing views. In “Confronting the Controversies,” Hamilton encourages readers to understand why people hold opposing views, and to be humble and willing to listen to others as they form their own.

Not afraid of controversy, Hamilton believes the best way forward includes listening, understanding and humility. “We will never all agree on all these issues, nor that our particular brand of faith practice isn’t better than others, but learning about each other and trying to understand why people believe as they do only enriches our own faith,” Hamilton said.

Note to Editors: Rev. Hamilton is available for interviews; review copies are available upon request.

Contact: Melany Ethridge at 972-267-1111 or via Melany@alarryross.com.

I wasn’t sure if I was going post about this today. It’s such a hard day for America, and it’s one of those situations where I just feel compelled to let the day pass by without adding fuel to the fire. However, Deb Ng at Freelance Writing Jobs posted a piece today that inspired me to write a post as well. My heart truly goes out to the families and victims of the terrorist attacks, and I wanted to share three stories.

The first story, of course, is “where were you”, because, as one person pointed out on Deb’s site, it’s like the Kennedy Assassination of our generation. You will always remember where you were. I was in high school. It was my junior year and our business teacher had signed some of my friends and I up for a program called “Building Leaders.” Once a month, we’d meet with other students from neighboring schools and do leadership activities, go on field trips, etc. Our first meeting of the school year was on September 11. We spent the day in a park, meeting one another and doing silly, stupid things like the human knot game. The lady who ran the program got the call very quickly and she made the worst decision possible - not to tell us. She decided that it would be a distraction to her program and she would instead tell us at the end of our day.

What right did she have. WHAT RIGHT? When we found out, one of the boys in the group started sobbing. He dad worked in the towers and all day, while he did “getting to know you” activities, his family had been trying to reach him. He didn’t come back the next month. I don’t know if his dad made it or not, but I like to think that he did and that he told his son to screw this stupid Building Leaders program. In any case, I didn’t find out about the terrorist attacks until about 2 PM that day. I was wearing a graphic t-shirt that read “I love New York”.

My second story isn’t really mine. I heard it from someone. I meet many, many people as a freelance writer, and met even more as a college student. Maybe I heard this on TV. Maybe it’s urban legend. I simply don’t remember who told me this story. I wish I did. If it was you, please let me know. In any case, it touched me.

The person was sitting in his/her office in LA about to do a teleconference with their sister office in New York. These people had the office right where the first plane hit. Everything during the meeting was going well, when suddenly they heard a loud noise and the screen went blank. They frantically tried to figure out what was happening in New York to cause a power outage, but they couldn’t get anyone from their office on the phone - not even on the cell phone. Finally one message came through from New York from the dozens of “What’s happening?” messages that were sent. Three words:

“We are dying.”

Lastly, I just want to note that this is an especially rough day for my boyfriend’s family. His sister was living in New York at the time and her husband worked in the Towers. When the first plane hit, everyone was told to sit tight, even as smoke came pouring through the vents. Having a bad case of asthma, her husband decided to go against the advice and leave because the smoke would bring on an attack. He was the only one from his office to make it out, as the Towers tumbled soon after. I have to admit that I’m not 100% sure I got the story right. I haven’t talked to him about it. I want to talk to him about it, someday. I want to hear his story. But now, it’s too soon. It may always be too soon.

The survivors today are scattered around the world. Some remained in New York to pick up the pieces. For others, that was simply too hard. People have lost friends, spouses, fathers, mothers, children. People born on this date have lost the ability to ever truly celebrate their birthday in complete happiness. People who were just children on this date grew up. The terrorist robbed us of more than some buildings and more even than the hundreds of lives taken that day. They robbed the whole country and created a crusade out of anger.

There’s one song in particular about the day that says “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way.” And while I agree that action needed to be taken, it makes me pray that “putting a boot in their ass” isn’t the end result of all of this. I still hope for peace. I still hope for a better tomorrow.

On a special ending note, I’d like to give my full support for our troops who are still dying for “the American way.” These men and women are doing what they think is best to keep our country safe, and although I don’t always agree, I do feel honored that my liberties are so important to other people. In particular, two of my friends - Paul and Andy - are soon leaving to go to the Middle East. I pray for their safety and that I will be able to welcome them home safely someday.

Taoism: Shit happens.

Hinduism: This shit happened before.

Confucianism: Confucius say, “Shit happens”.

Buddhism: It is only an illusion of shit happening.

Zen: What is the sound of shit happening?

Islam: If shit happens, is it the will of Allah?

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Knock, Knock, “Shit happens”.

Atheism: There is no such thing as shit.

Agnosticism: Maybe shit happens, maybe it doesn’t.

Protestantism: Shit won’t happen if I work harder.

Catholicism: If shit happens, I deserve it.

Judaism: Why does shit always happen to me?

Televangelism: Send money or shit will happen to you.

Do you have a case of “the Mondays?” (inset your favorite Office Space joke here)

I hope I can help! Every Monday, I’m going to give you a list of fabulous freebies, all religiously inspired. These are give-a-ways or contests…nothing you have to “complete sponsor offers” to get (and if you find one of those that slipped through, please comment immediately to notify me!)

Check out what this week has to offer. Happy religion-finding!

Beliefnet is promoting peace by giving away free armbands and free bumper stickers. You can choose one or the other. This freebie is available in almost any country!

You can also find free bumper stickers from Above and Beyond Ministries. They’ll send you two stickers that read “JesusIsComing.com”.

CAIR is offering a free book or DVD on Muhammad to U.S. residents (sorry international folks!).

FingerRosaries.com is giving away…you guess it…free finger rosaries!

Enjoy your free stuff!

Webmasters, let me know if you have any free offers you’d like to promote.

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