Sunday, April 15, 2018

notes 4/14/18 - Of Hope - and evangelical patriarchy's victimization complex.

As they say, in the end it’s like the blink of an eye.  

It’s done and I’m feeling good about it.  500 fliers, I stuck to my resolution and engaged with nearly 400 people, actually more, I’m not counting declines.  

Though I kept them to a minimum since I was targeting a specific audience, young, intelligent, serious looking like they were here for business.  Of course, scientific method loving people was there in my introduction and that sorted 'em out in a hurry, with over three thousand people I wasn't planning on wasting copies, or time, I was looking for the chorus and pretty much found them.  ;-) . 

Walking around scanning the crowd, you could say profiling.  In fact, I did say it, it was a good ice breaker.   Not that everyone was chronologically young, many were rather flattered to hear they made my liberal cut, exuding youthful vibes goes a long ways.    ;- )

Dare say I swept up a number self identified scientists, cool people, love the hard eye, yet willing ear, then some nice discussions.  Experiences like those lets me know that I'm not totally bonkers and that I best keep doing whatever it is I'm doing.  (Guess that's what 'bliss' - of the Joseph Campbell variety - is all about, no other options if one's going to be honest with oneself.)  

I had a basic pitch thought out and it held up fairly well through a couple hundred variations.  I was reassured at how many people engaged my intro question with stories and outlooks of their own, before returning back to the flier I was holding in my hand.

Would like to write about it sometime, but not tonight (nor this morning, I'm going home.) 
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There is this last item, ironically in light of various discussions centered on evangelical amorality, hypocrisy and their blind-sidedness, after returning to my room, Dartagnan at Kos pointed me to this timely, illuminating opinion piece. 

I never thought about evangelical patriarchy quite this way.  Hessinger and Tobey wrote a column that's like a good hypothesis - it clears up a lot riddles.  As for my title, today at the Convention I saw the hope, the following describes the problem.  I’m quoting the first few paragraphs to get your interest, please read the full column, bet you'll find it time well spent.


By Guest Columnist/cleveland.com  | Posted Apr 11, 2018
Rodney Hessinger is a history professor at John Carroll University.  Kristen Tobey is an assistant professor of religion and the social sciences at John Carroll University.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The most recent Pew polls suggest that President Donald Trump hasn't just held his support amongst white evangelicals but actually has grown his support since the Stormy Daniels story took hold.

Friday, April 13, 2018

Memes Courier - Colorado Democratic Assembly 2018 - Intellectually Confronting Faith-Based thinking

I'm at my fourth Colorado Democratic Assembly and I've always been a pamphleteer.  Not the easiest for a private shy sort of guy.  So I've been rather passive, offering my pages and ready for dialogue but not stepping forward to engage people.  Time passes, we learn more with every day and this year I've promised myself to step it up a little and reach out to people to introduce the topic and establish an interest before offering my flier. 

Had a little practice during the short district assembly this evening.  At first looking at the 350+ District 3 delegates it seemed the crowd of the usual old folks, and not that many young faces.  But, then I started spotting them.  Not in the numbers I had hoped.  Then I heard a couple powerful speeches by young speakers.  Followed by a few good conversations,
as in 'yippy, they get it.'  I realized their small number way under-represented the energy and substance and power they possess.

It was fun.  I'm feeling a little better already and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  Here's side one, a lifetime's distillation.  I'll share side two tomorrow, now I'm going to bed, it's late and tomorrow will be a long busy day.
The Memes Courier
    Colorado Democratic Assembly -  April 13, 2018  
      
Intellectually Confronting Faith-Based thinking and Dogma Driven Tribalism.

The opposing sides: Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment vs Faith-based dogmatism spearheaded by the evangelical movement (driven by wannabe oligarchs).  Winning at the polls is only half our challenge when well over a third of our country fully supports this amoral president and his white supremest bullying and his attacks upon our government and democratic institutions.  
Beyond winning in the 2018 elections, we need to nurture a massive grassroots movement of informed and engaged voters who are willing to confront faith-based delusional thinking on an individual level, while also standing behind those we elect to make sure they get their jobs done.
Faith-based thinking demands a rejection of serious science along with hostility towards learning from down to Earth evidence.  This attitude is enabled and reinforced by a constant flow of contrived high pitched fear-mongering and paranoid machinations towards “the other” be it different people or ideas.
Why have we allowed their religion and God a free pass?