Silence speaks volumes

So the government is under pressure?

PRIME Minister John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello are under pressure to distance themselves from an evangelical church leader who has spoken at a meeting of the far right-wing League of Rights.

Pastor Danny Nalliah, the head of Melbourne-based Catch the Fire Ministries, has confirmed he addressed the group, despite being warned that they were “anti-Jewish”.

Right. So they should distance themselves from Nalliah for addressing an “anti-jewish” group, but Federal Liberal candidate Pastor Peter Curtis’ comments that homosexuality is a perversion and that intelligent design should be taught in school science classes, doesn’t raise so much as a whisper of response for either the Liberal or Labor parties.

Says a lot really – just nothing good.

EDITED TO ADD: Pastor Peter has made the latest Geologic Podcast’s Religious Moron of the Week. Nice.

Here’s your antibiotics, your change, and a short sermon on the morality of birth control…

His royal Pope-ness once again wades head first into the real world:

Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that pharmacists have a right to use conscientious objection to avoid dispensing emergency contraception or euthanasia drugs and told them they should also inform patients of the ethical implications of using such drugs.

Benedict said conscientious objector status would “enable them not to collaborate directly or indirectly in supplying products that have clearly immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia.”

The catholic church also disapproves of birth control – so what next? Contraceptives?

Great. Now we just need some Jehovah’s Witness doctors who who won’t do blood transfusions, and maybe some Christian Science paramedics who won’t do anything.

Religion ex-pell-ed from public discussion

Good old George Pell. What’s the point of being the Archbishop of Sydney if you can’t take a swipe at those nasty secularists?

RELIGION was not only refusing to die out in modern Australian life but there was “some real danger” of its revival and growth, says the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell.

He accused the Greens, some Democrats and “silent minorities” in the Coalition and Labor parties, as well as large sections of the media, of wanting to exclude the church from legitimate public discussion.

At your command

Halloween isn’t a big thing here in Australia, but the little nerd whispering in my ear usually talks me into making a Jack-o-lantern anyway (mostly ’cause they look cool). This year I was thinking of trying something a little different, so I had a look around the inter-webby thing for some inspiration. It would appear however, that I have been thoroughly out nerded:

That is so cool.

Politics and religion margaritas! Half price Sundays!

Take 1oz of politics. Add 1 oz of religion. Shake and strain. Serve garnished with generous dash of stupidity:

FEDERAL Liberal candidate Pastor Peter Curtis says homosexuality is a perversion and that gay men die from disease at many times the rate of heterosexuals.

Hmm, and just why does he think that homosexuality is a perversion?

“As a Christian, I do not agree with the idea of homosexuality. That’s the reality. I can’t put it any other way,” Mr Curtis told The Sunday Age yesterday.

Ah. His religion. A good reason then [slaps head].

#1 on Google meme

At the suggestion of the Worlds Fair, I’m hopping on the meme train:

I’d like to suggest a meme, where the premise is that you will attempt to find 5 statements, which if you were to type into google (preferably google.com, but we’ll take the other country specific ones if need be), you’ll find that you are returned with your blog as the number one hit.

PZ is doing it so it must be cool. Here’s my attempt:

Change is good, or so I’m told

If you’ve noticed that the posts are looking shorter these days, that’s because they are. Looking shorter anyway.

I’ve finally made the decision to break posts up with more tags. I haven’t done this previously, because my old theme had a pretty ugly way of presenting the split messages, but as my super new green theme is a little more subtle in this area (and my rants are getting a bit longer), I’ve decided to make nod toward readability and give it a try for a while.

As always with changes to the theme/layout, if you don’t like it, then let me know in the comments.

Okay, okay. You can get on the bus, just sit at the back

When contrasting the two major parties in the upcoming federal election, it’s interesting to see that the lesser of two evils can still be pretty crap. From the Age:

OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd has angered members of the gay community by saying he is opposed to homosexual marriage and refusing to be drawn on the question of gay couples adopting children.

My god heartily endorses this event or product!

In further news regarding yesterday’s prayer-fest:

A FRINGE Christian pastor known for comments attacking Muslims has led a prayer session in Parliament House — and given Prime Minister John Howard a strong endorsement.

Of course he did. Howard and Costello have certainly supported him in the past.

Hundreds pray for…um…you know…stuff

Good grief. Breaking news from the Age:

Rain and a prime minister of God’s choosing were the focus of prayers from 600 flag-waving, singing and dancing Christians in Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.

Haven’t they heard? Prayer doesn’t work.

Apparently one of the faithful commented:

“I hope the country will be run on good Christian values based on good ethics and principles,” he said.

Hmm. Good Christian values. Why not good secular values? Let me guess:

1. Good secular values? There’s no such thing silly!
2. But that would be unfair to Christians!
3. This is a Christian nation!
4. Stupid non-theists. They smell like foreign cheese. (Isn’t Australian cheese good enough for em?!)
5. All of the above.

Sometimes I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.