Overwhelming majority of women getting abortions are Christians. Let's file this under "Things we kinda already knew."

Courtesy of Reverb Press:  

When it comes to anti-choice activists interfering with women’s reproductive rights, there’s no denying that it’s mostly Christian groups trying to get Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers shut down. From the Pro-Life Action League to the National Pro-Life Religious Council, there’s an undeniable link between Christianity and anti-choice activism. That’s what makes a recent survey, sponsored by a self-proclaimed pro-life group, so ironic. 

The newly released research, conducted by Christian research group LifeWay at the behest of pro-life group Care Net, paints a very different picture of those seeking abortions than you might imagine. The study interviewed 1,038 women who had received an abortion. Surprisingly, a full 70 percent of these women were Christian.

The study’s results were broken down by religious beliefs, and Christianity was further divided into four distinct categories — Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and non-denominational. The two groups with the highest reported abortion rates were Protestants (26 percent of respondents) and Catholic (27 percent of respondents).

I have two favorite parts of this report.

First that Atheists only account for 4% of abortions which should be shoved in the face of every one of those smug fundamentalist who call us sinners and accuse us of lacking morality.

Second that this study was paid for by a pro-life group who certainly expected a different result to emerge.

The study goes on to point out that 43% of those Christians who had an abortion go to church at least once a month, and 20% go weekly. So these are not just women who picked the label Christianity out of a hat, they are died in the wool church going believers.

Which leads to only one conclusion. When it comes to baby murdering none of us can hold a candle to Christians.

Now whose turn is it to be smug?

Child abuse, plain and simple.

“A child is not a Christian child, not a Muslim child, but a child of Christian parents or a child of Muslim parents. This latter nomenclature, by the way, would be an excellent piece of consciousness-raising for the children themselves. A child who is told she is a 'child of Muslim parents' will immediately realize that religion is something for her to choose -or reject- when she becomes old enough to do so.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

I just thought this needed to be said, though it SHOULD be obvious to all.

Now do you get it Fox News? Rush? Sarah?

Religious tolerance does NOT mean only protecting the rights of Christians.  It means making ALL people, of ALL faiths, feel included in this great country of ours.

I am pretty sure that is what Jesus would have wanted.

Tibetan monks give NBC news a true taste of China's version of freedom.

I have a feeling that China may be rethinking the wisdom of inviting the Olympic games to their country.

My heart is breaking for these young men, and I hope that the national attention will help and relieve their suffering.

Of course America can do little since China holds the marker on our debts. And since we have adopted torture and illegal detainment ourselves, we are no longer the moral authority in the world. We are just another criminal regime in the eyes of the world.

China will not allow reincarnations without their permission. Can they do that?

A senior Tibetan lama and Chinese government advisers have defended contentious rules banning reincarnations of "living Buddhas" without approval.

The rules are apparently aimed at empowering China to name the next Dalai Lama when the 14th and current Dalai Lama dies.

Last July, China's State Administration of Religious Affairs issued regulations banning reincarnations of living Buddhas, or holy monks, who failed to seek government approval, ostensibly to manipulate the centuries-old practice and legitimise future appointments by the atheist Communist Party.

Damn! The Chinese government is strict!

I just have to wonder what they do if someone claims to be a reincarnated "Buddha"? Do they kill them and tell them to try again? This is just bizarre.

Buddhists monks stripped of their identities and brutalized. "You are no longer monks"

"At the beginning it was very, very bad," one recently released monk told Reuters, requesting anonymity because of the threat of repercussions against those who speak out against the regime, the latest face of 45 years of unbroken military rule.

Caged for more than a week at a former Government Technical Institute compound in north Yangon, the monks -- revered figures in the devoutly Buddhist nation -- were stripped of their maroon monastic robes and treated like common criminals.

"When one of us used a pronoun referring to himself as a monk, he was slapped," the monk said. "Then an interrogator said: 'You are no longer a monk. You are just an ordinary man with a shaven head."'

The monks, mostly young men whom the army sees as the biggest threat to its iron grip on power because of their moral authority, were packed into rooms so tightly they could not lie down, let alone sleep, in the sweltering monsoon season heat.

For days, they had no toilet, nowhere to wash their hands, and were forced to scoop up slops of barely cooked rice with their bare hands.

How cowardly must a regime be to treat the keepers of their religion in this fashion?

These monks are a peaceful people.

I cannot believe I am posting this. It looks like Bush might be getting ready to do a GOOD thing.

US President George W. Bush will risk angering China by attending a ceremony next week to award a Congress medal to the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, at the bastion of American democracy.

Barely a month after China strongly protested German Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama, the White House said Wednesday that Bush and his wife will participate in the landmark event for the 72-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader at the Capitol building next Wednesday.

"The president and Mrs Laura Bush will attend the ceremony," national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told AFP.

It goes against every fiber of my being to say anything positive about this President, but this is a very good thing.

Just for the record it does not change my opinion about the other things he has done however.

Still I have to give mad props here.

Hundreds of Budddhist monks killed and their bodies dumped in Myanmar jungles.

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

We are so caught up in our own crisis's in this country that it is easy to forget the horrible atrocities being visited on our fellow humans in other parts of the world.

But this thing in Myanmar is absolutely horrendous!

Buddhists may be the most peaceful people on the planet, and to see them brutalized this way is heartbreaking.

The US and the other nations need to apply pressure to stop the government from this wholesale slaughter. It is fucking barbaric!

Buddhism revives the dead! Take that Jesus!

An 87-year-old man in Taiwan Province who was thought to be dead awoke while relatives recited Buddhist prayers for hours at his mourning hall.

I may have to do a little more studying on Buddhism in the future. I spent that last six months devouring books on Taoism. I feel very peaceful most of the time. Except when I talk about the war, or George Bush, or the Republicans.

But what do you expect? I am only human after all.

Evangelicals plan to "save" Buddhists from their peaceful religion. Just not enough hell and damnation in Buddhism for these guys.

If you're a Tibetan Buddhist or you're leaning that way, you may not know it, but you need Jesus.

That's the thinking behind a series of Christian evangelical workshops -- including one later this month in Wheaton -- that will coincide with the Dalai Lama's trip to Chicago and other American cities this spring.

Interserve USA is putting on the workshops to teach Christians how to talk to Buddhists and, perhaps, to win converts.

"We welcome the Dalai Lama here, but we also want to have a chance to reach Tibetan Buddhists with the gospel," said Doug Van Bronkhorst, executive director of Interserve, an international missionary group based just outside of Philadelphia.

What arrogant assholes! How dare anybody be so full of themselves that they not only believe that they have stumbled upon the one true religion out of all of hundreds of possibilities, but that they have the right to force their beliefs on other people already worshipping in their own way.

Do you know how you really gauge a religion's peaceful intentions? If they allow others to worship however they see fit. That is a truly respectful religion.