Thanksgiving weekend was spent in the Tulsa area with both sets of parents. Too much food. Just the right amount of football (Go OU!). And, good times with family.

But, on the drive in and out we were confronted with these ubiquitous billboards:

yellowsnapdragons.blogspot.com

Apparently, these have been placed all around the Tulsa area by the Diocese of Tulsa. [sarcasm]It makes me so proud to have been married at Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa. It’s enough to make me want to seek an annulment.[/sarcasm] Contrarily, I have the utmost respect for Father Gier.

This ad campaign just seems dangerous. The website not only rails against hormonal birth control, but also against condoms. And, apparently, tubal ligation and vasectomies are not free from attack. Anything that prevents procreation is frowned upon. And, of course, it relies on the assumption that people will only have sex inside a marriage, in a healthy manner, and for nothing but procreation purposes.

Although the dangers of birth control are clearly evident on the site, I can find no mention of the dangers of pregnancy and giving birth. This “natural” way is not without its own possibilities of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual harm.

Like marriage, I don’t see the problem with an evolving definition of sex. Things are a lot different than they were hundreds, or thousands of years ago. In fact, things are a lot different than they were 30 years ago (ask black Tulsans). Why can’t sex be engaged in for pleasure? If done in a safe and respectable way, how does that violate God’s plan? And, safe and respectable are desired independent of the existance of God. Besides, why did God allow the clitoris to form and latex to be invented?

I just don’t get it.

And, it looks like the secular group No Room For Contraception liked the billboard idea so much that they’re going to start their own misguided billboard campaign.

(via Truthdig)

Patrick Marsh, designer of the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum, on the fossilized remains of early humanoids that have been found all over the world:

There are no such things. Humans are basically as you see them today. Those skeletons they’ve found, what’s the word? … they could have been deformed, diseased or something. I’ve seen people like that running round the streets of New York.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Oh. I Can’t. Catch. My. Breath.

Seriously, if this crap wasn’t designed to “educate” the youth of this country, I’d be content with just sitting back and laughing. But, this is just plain scary. Wise up people! At least try to make the Bible and reality converge. And, until moderate and reasonable Christians stand up and call this divergence for what it really is, I hold them all accountable.

It could be that Mr. Marsh has seen the Geico commercials with the cave man and very much does not get the joke. This still, however, makes him an idiot.

I much prefer comment spam that is nothing but a single URL and something like this:

akdjfjf rouroru afljhalsfh

or even this:

buy [insert pharmaceutical of choice here] now

than the spam that is nothing more than a long, exhaustive list of URL’s loosely based on a particular subject. And, when copied and pasted into Microsoft Word, returns the following stats:

46 pages
2875 words
44, 468 characters

This is only a single piece of comment spam. One. Luckily, none of these have made it through. Still, quite a pain to scroll through and moderate.

The Holidays bring with them two inevitable creatures of the underworld–relatives and religion. Some embrace them, others run away from them. Personally, I can deal with both in only very small doses (so long as I am free to flee at anytime). A Nobel laureate in physics and an Oxford professor see it this way:

Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg on religion:

She tells lies, and she stirs up all sorts of mischief and she’s getting on, and she may not have that much life left in her, but she was beautiful once. When she’s gone, we may miss her.

Oxford evolutionary biologist Dr. Richard Dawkins’ response:

I won’t miss her at all. Not a scrap. Not a smidgen.

This week, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma approved a resolution calling on businesses, organizations and government to deny family benefits to same-sex and unmarried couples thereby setting the bar of hypocrisy and bigotry just a little bit higher. Providing benefits to such families, the resolution states, defies Biblical principles and moral standards for the family.

Defies Biblical principles? Which Biblical principles?

What this decision basically states is that if youre gay, or simply a hetero couple shacking up together, you and your kids dont deserve any help at all. Hell, you people can starve for all we care. Better your children skip a few meals than for us to support your sinful lifestyle. We wouldnt dream of letting you into our good Christian homes, but heres a nice cardboard box we can even point you towards a quiet alley.

Yeah, sounds like Biblical principles to me.

How can these people possibly call themselves Christians? How can those who supposedly strive each and every day to follow Christs teachings be so unfeeling, so uncaring, so utterly compassionless that they would hang entire families out to dry simply because theyve deemed their lifestyle to be inappropriate?

And people think Atheists lack any sense of morality.

Im unable to find words strong enough to describe how sickened I feel. Shame on you, Oklahoma Southern Baptists, shame on you.