Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Blog Assignment 3

http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?record=4097§ion=2

The above link is to a press release from the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), discussing a revised statement from the Department of Defense regarding the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in the military
( http://www.sldn.org/binary-data/SLDN_ARTICLES/pdf_file/4097.pdf ) . The new statement was first released to The Advocate, a LGBT
newsmagazine, and suggests that gay and lesbian men and women "should continue to utilize their skills in support of national security efforts, even after facing dismissal under the law." It's ironic that, on the one hand, these skilled service men and women are booted out of the military because of their sexual orientation, then told that they're welcome to continue working for the military in a civilian capacity, often doing the same job that they did while enlisted. This seems to be the height of hypocricy. The reason that they're not allowed to serve is because "military commanders' insistence that the prohibition on open service was necessary to maintain unit cohesion and morale". It's time for this country to get rid of this backward policy and welcome talented men and women to serve openly without regard to sexual orientation. We're one of the last developed countries that still discriminates in this way. It's time to join the 21st century and get beyond these prejudices. (213)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Blog Assignment 2

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070507F.shtml

Christian Reconstructionists Are Trying to Take Dominion in America - and They Have Powerful Friends
By Jeremy Leaming
Church and State

Monday 02 July 2007

"A recent conference held by American Vision, a radical ministry that toils away to "help Christians build a truly Biblical worldview," displayed the growing organization of the dangerous Reconstructionist movement."

The above is at the heading of an article I recently found republished on the Truthout site. This article is one of the scariest things I’ve read in awhile…and there have been a LOT of scary things in the news in recent years.

The article is a report on a gathering at the LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center that was hosted by American Vision, a group that has been advocating making America a Christian nation. They push Christian Reconstructionism, “a form of fundamentalism that argues for re-writing American history, dismantling secular democracy and constructing an America governed by "biblical law." Reconstructionists seek to impose the criminal code of the Old Testament, applying the death penalty for homosexuals, adulterers, fornicators, witches, incorrigible juvenile delinquents and those who spread false religions.”

By their own acknowledgement, they’re “on the extreme fringe of society today”, but their influence is growing, and they’re becoming more vocal, claiming that other groups (gays, women’s rights groups, civil rights groups) are doing to Christians exactly what American Vision wants to do to everybody who doesn’t goosestep to their rigid beliefs.

My previous blog was about the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalists who want to kick the Middle East back to the Dark Ages. This group is the twin to the Taliban, and the inroads that American Vision and others of that ilk have made into our government is enough to keep me awake at night, and equally frightening is that nobody seems to be making much of an effort to thwart their efforts.

Hopefully the American public will wake up before it’s too late and we find ourselves in the same situation as the population of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

Below is the link to the site where the article appeared originally. (346)

http://www.alternet.org/story/55717