Hegseth Is Losing Our Religions

Secretary of War Sociopathy Pete Hegseth decided over the past weekend to screw over the First Amendment and the faith of our troops (via Sarah Posner at Talking Points Memo): 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), an ardent Trump loyalist, recently got a taste of what it’s like to be a disfavored religion in the Christian nationalist world of MAGA. He was triggered by the news, broken by the defense news site Military.com, that the Pentagon had eliminated 180 recognized religious faiths in order to “streamline the DoW [sic] collection of religious preferences collection [sic] for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.” The Pentagon’s new list of what it calls Religious Affiliation Codes classified a number of religions, like Methodists and Baptists, as Christian. But Lee’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was not listed among the “Christian” faiths. He demanded — on X, of course, because United States Senators have no other means of either commanding attention or acquiring information — “why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was left out of the list of Christian churches...”

It’s hard to imagine why such a new classification system was even necessary, other than being another step in Hegseth’s march to his personal brand of Christian supremacy. Hegseth reportedly insisted on whittling the list down because the number of religions practiced by members of the military had “ballooned” to over 200 religions and needed to be reduced to an apparently very arbitrary 31. The new list omits, among others, atheists and Unitarian Universalists. In announcing the revised, Lee-approved list, the Pentagon wrote on X that “the Pentagon’s job is not to adjudicate theological debates, but instead to ensure sincerely-held faith is respected and encouraged in our ranks.” 

As a (lapsed) Unitarian, I'm actually not surprised Hegseth and his wingnut ilk would erase a rather liberal creed from their sight. What is shocking is how these extreme Christianists are shoving all the other faiths into the broom closet of despair (via Dan K at Daily Kos):

But there is a larger point here that I think is being missed: Hegseth and the fundamentalists behind him are redefining religion in general – Christian vs. everybody else – and also trying to control who gets to be a Christian.

It’s more than just the Mormons. While, for the time being at least, Hegseth is willing to allow Catholics (who are 20% of the country, including the vice president and the secretary of state) to be counted as Christians, I wonder how long that will last given that Hegseth has been labelled an “anti-Catholic bigot” by GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, a bigotry on full display this past Good Friday, when Hegseth held a Protestant-Only Religious Service at the Pentagon...

This latest movement by Hegseth the Indefensible is more than an attack on the non-religious, the less religious, the wrong religious. It’s the next move in a plan to define and limit Christianity to the fundamentalist Christian Nationalist version that many of us have been warning about for decades.

Among the many other dangers this presents is this one: No matter how incompetent Hegseth is, no matter how much he destroys the morale of our military, no matter how careless he is on national security, no matter how openly he wastes our money, no matter how often he rejects competent officers for promotion because they are the wrong color or the wrong gender, trump will not fire him – because the forces backing Hegseth constitute too much of trump’s base. They want Hegseth to do exactly what he is doing: ruin the military as an effective fighting force for democracy while turning it into a weapon for Christian Nationalism, fundamentalist Protestant version.

These Christian Nationalists have been calling on a massive holy war - trying to force a crusade against jihadists (and every other non-Christian creed) - ever since the 1970s when the Religious Right became a major component of the Republican Party. They've been keen on turning an actual armed forces into a Christianist army to send on Crusade, happy about the attempts post-9/11 to overthrow Saddam in Iraq and trigger wars across the Middle East to bring about their Apocalypse.

Hegseth is now in a position to give those wingnuts what they want: Using this revamped (and inaccurate) classification system to deny promotions to those the extremist evangelical faiths deem un-Christian, and ensure the rank and file are THEIR faithful and no one else's.

This will turn dangerous: Not only putting in charge any number of colonels and generals driven by religious dogma happy to shoot first and let God sort them out; but also gutting our military numbers to where our nation won't be able to field enough troops to be effective on the battlefield (or in the logistical supply chains). The quantity and quality of our armed forces are going to take a serious hit.

How many Catholics and Mormons and Greek Orthodox and Coptics and Lutherans and Episcopalians and Presbyterians and Jews and Muslims and Hindu and even Unitarians are already serving in the military about to get penalized for not being Evangelicals? How quickly will our armed forces get depleted of competent, trained officers and enlisteds?

All because of one minor sect of Christianity suffering the delusions of vanity and glory.

Gods (literally) help us.

Some Thoughts On Martin Luther King Jr. 2018 Edition

(Update: Thank you Batocchio for the link to Mike's Blog Round-Up on Crooksandliars.com!)

"...The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes.  ...Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that..." - from Where Do We Go From Here speech (1967)

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice" - a saying attributed to Reverend King, based on sayings from a speech by Unitarian minister Theodore Parker. King says it in one line where Parker took a whole paragraph, and King says it better. (this is kinda like how Jimi Hendrix's take on "All Along the Watchtower" is waaaaay better than Bob Dylan's original)

Never forget King spent his last years fighting against poverty and income inequality, seeing that as a universal problem for everyone's civil rights:

We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty...

The problem indicates that our emphasis must be two-fold. We must create full employment or we must create incomes. People must be made consumers by one method or the other. Once they are placed in this position, we need to be concerned that the potential of the individual is not wasted. New forms of work that enhance the social good will have to be devised for those for whom traditional jobs are not available...

MLK essentially argued for guaranteed basic incomes before it came into vogue a few years ago.

Also, this:

I know this kinda goes against Rev. King's admonitions against violence,
but never let a white guy in a bowtie speak for what King stood for.

Also, I really think if Reverend King were alive today (ducks to avoid Huey's thrown chair) he'd be under arrest for beating the everloving hell out of trump.

Unitarian Support for Syrian Refugees

I added this as an update to an earlier thread but I wanna highlight this for its' own.

The Unitarian Universalist congregation has a charity working for Syrian refugees. If you want to help out, that's a great place to start.

It will also be a nice F-CK YOU to the Republican Party leadership that's been showing themselves as a bunch of cowardly haters. Just look at Texas, where their asshole Governor is telling humanitarian charity groups in the state to stop helping refugees altogether.

Pretty much telling churches and social aid groups to stop clothing and feeding the poor and huddled victims of an ongoing war zone. Pretty much violating the teachings of Jesus to care for the hungry and the poor and those in need.

As Candida Moss points out, The Christian Bible is clear about what to do about refugees: HELP THEM.

...If I sound shrill, it is because this is profoundly obvious. It’s not as if, in pointing out the fundamentally un-Christian nature of this political posturing, anyone is asking for a high level of Biblical literacy: “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is a foundational Christian teaching and used in many denominations as a shorthand for the ethical teaching of the Bible as a whole...

...Are there risks involved in accepting large numbers of refugees? I’m not a specialist in this region so let’s for the sake of argument concede that there might be (although as the Economist has shown, none of the 750,000 refugees admitted since 9/11 have planned or committed terrorist acts against the U.S.). I am a specialist in Christianity though, so allow me to say that, biblically speaking, it simply does not matter if there are risks. There are more than 30 Biblical passages encouraging people not to be afraid and to trust in God. Allowing oneself to be terrorized is not the Christian option. Fear does not permit Christians to abandon the modern imperative to help those in need. 

Francis In America

Holy sh-t kids it's THE POPE!

Pope Francis is in the United States for the next six days to pray for us godless heathens.

QUICK, HIDE THE PLAYBOY MAGS.

...

Wait, I'm Unitarian.  He doesn't get to judge me.  Whew.

What, NOW he tells us?!  Lighten up, Francis!

Serious Ways To Celebrate Saturnalia (updates)

While the philistines at the FOX Not-News channel wage their ungodly war on the pagan festivities, it might behoove me to pass along some tips on how to honestly and sincerely celebrate the Roman winter solstice holiday known as Saturnalia.

1) Decorate your home with sun and moon iconography.  Apply garland wreaths where appropriate.

2) Hang out with Vestal Virgins.

2a) (update) In the possibility you cannot locate any Vestal Virgins to hang out with, you have a good excuse now to travel over to Rome, Italy and ask around for one.  Hell, this is a good time for Rome to set up a Vestal temple for the tourists...

3) Decorate all trees on your property.  They don't have to be the traditional triangle-shaped fir trees, any trees will do.  For those of us in Florida, we've been decorating palm trees for years...

image from the Minimalist Sweet Home website

Update: that photo isn't showing anymore!  The link might be broken.  Let's try this one...

from the Jen On The Edge blog

4) Drink Roman-styled wine.  There's a version called mulsum which mixes honey into the wine.  Should be interesting around bears...

5) Give small presents.  Nothing large or ostentatious.  Maybe a set of keys to a new electric-powered car.  ...what?

6) GO TO ANY TEMPLE OF THE GOD SATURN AND LIGHT A CANDLE TO EARN HIS FAVOUR.  If you can't find a temple, trick your local churches into funding a charity that you'll secretly use to build one.  That oughta learn 'em, stealing the winter solstice and all...

7) Gamble.  It's allowed during this festive period.  But do it in legally-approved areas like Hard Rock Casinos on local tribal lands or Las Vegas.

7a) Gamble using other people's money.  See 6) for hints.

8) Sing classical Roman ditties.  If you don't know any classical Roman ditties, sing "Louie Louie" off-key and no-one will notice.

9) Greet everyone by saying "Io Saturnalia!"  Now here's the tricky thing about the Latin language: they didn't have a letter J to represent that phonic in the western tongues, so they doubled it to the letter I.  It's really Jo Saturnalia! being said.  And the Romans pronounced the J not like "jay" but like "yo".  So it should sound like YO SATURNALIA (akin to YO ADRIAN).  But type it IO SATURNALIA.

9a) Do this early and often around Bill O'Reilly until he goes batsh-t insane.

10) Enjoy the holiday season no matter how and why you celebrate it.  If you're Christian, Hebrew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Pastafarian, what have you.  THIS IS A TIME TO CELEBRATE, TO REFLECT, TO ENJOY FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO THE UPMOST THAT WE CAN.

This message brought to you by a faction of the Unitarian Jihad.

Presidential Character: Week Twenty-Seven, I Was Gonna Use "Taftastic" But Someone Else Already Invented The Word

Dammit, I hate it when other people beat me to the punch on being clever with words...

From James Monroe up to Teddy Roosevelt, I've been doing these Presidential character reviews operating blind: the person who came up with the idea, James David Barber, had only covered most of the 20th Century Presidents as well as the first four Presidents - Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison - as examples.  As a result, I've really only guessed - using my own interpretation of each President's actions and inactions - as to which guy followed which trait.  I'd like to think I'm correct, but with Professor Barber passed away it's not like I can forward my reviews for... um, review.

But from here on, I can refer entirely to Barber's work on the history and traits of William Howard Taft, and rely entirely on Barber's assertions that Taft was a Passive-Positive at heart.

By that I mean I can cheat and quote extensively from Barber's book Presidential Character (4th ed.), especially Chapter 7, pages 195 to 207.  ...what, I have to do my own summarizing still?!  Sigh. Fine...

Taft came into politics from by all accounts a loving boisterous family where his father worked as a lawyer and eventually served as judge: from this Taft got his love of people and love of law.  As a young man he dithered at a few jobs - court reporter, revenue collector, sharing a law office - but came into his own when at the age of 29 he secured a judgeship in Ohio.  A decent reputation as a jurist led to a federal career with the appellate courts, and all things looked good for Taft to work his way up to what had to be the job he coveted above all: a seat on the Supreme Court.

Except in 1900, when McKinley, needing someone to chair his oversight committee managing the newly acquired Philippines territory, put Taft in charge of a purely political operation.  Even though Taft had personally asked McKinley, a fellow Republican from Ohio, to consider him for the Court rather than this.

That Taft accepted is the first clue to his Passive-Positive nature: rather than turn down the offer, fearing it would hurt his chances elsewhere or at least his standing among the Republicans, Taft accepted.  His Compliant nature making itself known.

While Taft didn't run the commission for long, it bore some of his fingerprints: a focus on civil service reform, and a strong judiciary came out of the first few years that the commission worked.  He didn't run it for long because he quickly received the Governor-General's position to run the Philippines during what he viewed as a transition from colonial to self-rule.  His Pass-Pos skills of being well-liked served him well: he became popular with the Filipinos for his sincere efforts to fix what had become a corrupt system under Spanish rule, and he was popular back in the States for pacifying through sheer charm an annexed nation that had during the three years prior to his arrival been suffering a violent insurrection.

This is where a paradox seems to happen in Taft's biography: Roosevelt, liking the man on a personal level and respecting the work he'd done, offered Taft the big prize of filling an open seat on the Supreme Court.  Under normal circumstances, Taft would have jumped at the chance.  But he turned the offer down.  The best explanation the historians can come up with was that Taft didn't like to leave jobs unfinished: a stickler for the rules (of law, of common sense), he felt compelled to stay on in the Philippines because he knew the situation remained tenuous and didn't want to leave the mess to someone else (it didn't help that he was openly beloved as much as a Governor-General could be loved in occupied territory).

It's rare to note a Passive-Positive character showing a rigorous work ethic (any Actives) or focus to details (Active-Negative).  Then again, the charting alignment between the four traits is not static: there can be overlap of sorts between traits, where Taft may be a Pass-Pos but right along the border to an A-P or A-N.

But another thing: Taft accepted other posts from his good friend Roosevelt, such as becoming Secretary of War in 1904 as well as helping out with Roosevelt's election campaign that year.  Taft apparently took the Secretary job because it still allowed him some influence in handling the Philippines while moving him up the chain of command to where he could convince Roosevelt to grant him the Chief Justice job (by that point a mere Associate Justice's position would not do for Taft, still oddly ambitious for a Pass-Pos).  If that were true Taft misread the situation entirely, because when it came time and Roosevelt declined another term of office Taft suddenly found himself tabbed as the successor Presidential candidate in 1908.

It was his own damn fault.  Being a Passive-Positive at heart, it made him Compliant to the needs and opinions of those around him: and the one closest to him was Teddy Roosevelt, the most over-sized ego-driven Alpha personality our nation ever conceived.  Where Taft was big physically (from birth), Roosevelt was big in spirit and personality.  And where Roosevelt and Taft would agree on key points - a shared love of fairness and justice, Roosevelt's skill in working the legal system to his reformer's desires and Taft's unbending commitment to the law - it overwhelmed other points where Roosevelt and Taft could disagree, such as administration and effective governance.  Roosevelt merely saw a fellow progressive-minded Republican who shared with him a love of trust-busting, an empathy for the common people, and a desire to make the United States a major international force for GOODNESS AND JUSTICE (basically, it'd be like Roosevelt as Batman keen on putting Taft as Commissioner Gordon in a Bat-suit): for that alone he felt Taft could be trusted to serve as President and continue fighting the Good Fight.

But it was also Roosevelt's fault as well for not recognizing his friend Taft was Compliant and congenial at heart.  Once Roosevelt took his retirement off to places like Africa, it left a huge void in Taft's world when it came to role-models and advice-giving.  While Taft still carried on various trust-busting of various industries, he did so with a slowness and caution reflecting the more conservative elements of the pro-business Republican Party.  Taft still worked on an open-minded foreign and economic policy, but reacted to situations more than acted, and also relied on Cabinet members and a State Department that sometimes left him in the dark, such as the crisis along the Mexican border that Taft didn't know about until he met one-on-one with his ambassador while the Secretary of State was on vacation.

Taft's biggest weakness was a failure to play the political game: while he was well-liked personally, Taft just wasn't very good at either broadcasting his intentions (to give his allies an idea of what to do) or organizing political support around any issue.  After the Bully Pulpit years of Roosevelt, it left both Americans and elected officials cold and in the dark, hurting Taft's public standing.

When Roosevelt returned from his safari he found the situation not to his liking, and made a play for the Presidency for the 1912 election cycle.  Taft, caught between an angered friend, a diminished level of respect within his own party, and the judgment of history, made the decision to run for re-election against Roosevelt rather than step aside.  We can't fault Taft on this point: most Presidents in their first terms desire a shot at a second term to validate their success (the exceptions being the ones who promised to serve just the single term).  But it created the worst of both worlds: a divided party between two well-liked leaders.  When Taft won the nomination by being better at the rules than Teddy, his friend-turned-enemy took his ambitious A-P traits and formed his own Third Party platform, basically ensuring the Republicans would be split on Election Day and allow the Democratic candidate to win the White House.

Taft's post-Presidency years started off working at his alma mater Yale at the College of Law.  He notably railed against the 18th Amendment for Prohibition, predicting the adverse affect it would have on law enforcement and its' conflict with other Constitutional rights.  Taft eventually got the Chief Justice role he desired when the seat was available under the next Republican administration (1921).  By all accounts he served well as Chief Justice: he reformed the legal process, clearing up the docket by making SCOTUS more discretionary in choosing which cases to hear.  He also argued successfully for a separate Supreme Court building (the court up until then was serving in Congress' basement: Taft argued SCOTUS needed to be physically independent of the Legislative Branch), and it surprises me that nobody's gotten around to name the damn thing after him.

One other note: Taft is to date the last Unitarian President our nation has seen.  We've had three (four if you count Jefferson, but he's more Deist than anything), and if you ask me we need another one soon to help get the re-enforcement of the Separation of Church and State back in working shape...  but I digress.

Next Up: A Nixon Before We Really HAD Nixon In Office.