Brunch, Bible Study, and Summer Camp!

It's almost time for another Sunday M.A.S.S. Brunch. As usual, we'll be in the meeting room at the Stone of Accord at 4951 N. Reserve at 10am, Sunday June 5th. Just tell the hostess you're with the group in the meeting room and she'll show you they way.

Also, Milo, our seminary graduate, is putting together a monthly "Secular Bible Study" class. No dogma allowed. This class will be intended to arm the non-believer with the knowledge they need to understand how the bible came into being and the influence it's had on society. If you're interested in participating, please email and watch this space for further details.

Families may be interested in attending a secular summer camp July 30 -August 6. Camp Quest Montana describes itself as "a family camp. That means families attend together. Our schedule is structured with activities for children, tweens, and teens. Sometimes, families will participate together. Sometimes, counselors will conduct the activities with the children, leaving the parents free for an adult discussion group or activity. There is also a counselor in training program for camper’s ages 13-17 who want to attend without their parents (you know how it is). Typical camp activities include games, swimming, arts and crafts, hiking, singing, and campfires. Unique Camp Quest activities include geomythology, creation stories, the scientific method, famous freethinkers, freedom of inquiry, dealing with religious bullying, evolution, and critical thinking."

No kids? No Problem! Camp Quest Montana needs volunteer staff as well. (The Missoula Area Secular Society is not responsible for organizing Camp Quest. For more information about Camp Quest, please contact them directly.)

Happy National Day of Reason Everyone!

Many who value the separation of religion and government have sought an appropriate response to the federally-supported National Day of Prayer, an annual abuse of the constitution. Nontheistic Americans (including freethinkers, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and deists), along with many traditionally religious allies, view such government-sanctioned sectarianism as unduly exclusionary.

A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year (May 7th in 2009). The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.

The Day of Reason also exists to inspire the secular community to be visible and active on this day to set the right example for how to effect positive change. Local organizations might use "Day of Reason" to label their events, or they might choose labels such as Day of Action, Day of Service, or Rational Day of Care. The important message is to provide a positive, useful, constitutional alternative to the exclusionary National Day of Prayer.

Continued on the National Day of Reason website

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

Thanks to one of our newest M.A.S.S. members (Bill) for letting me know that any email sent to me at this domain wasn't getting through (and apparently hasn't been since mid November). It should be fixed now though. So, if anybody has tried sending anything (words of wisdom, well wishes, event ideas, death threats, etc) to jon@that-domain-up-there-in-the-address-bar.org, anytime since mid November, please go hunt it down in your sent mail box and send it again. Thanks.

We're in ur office... proselytizing ur minions.

Several months ago I endured a period wherein every two or three weeks, the Jehovah's Witnesses would show up and leave stuff at my door. Apparently, I wasn't the only one they were having trouble reaching, because today.... they showed up at my office.

A lady came in shortly after 1pm asking to leave some pamphlets for us. She was steered toward our Executive Director who politely took the pamphlet, and when she left, promptly put it in the garbage. I asked to see what she left (I think it's good to know what superstitious mumbo-jumbo people are spreading), so she fished it out of the garbage for me.

This sparked a short friendly conversation about the Jehovah's Witnesses between her and I, and then just a little later a much longer and extremely interesting group conversation with most of the rest of the office (it's a small office) on religion in general. Thankfully, nobody in the office is too hard core about their personal beliefs, so it was a very congenial conversation with each person in turn sharing their own personal world views.

I even got to ask the one Catholic about her beliefs regarding the eucharist in reference to The Ongoing Cracker Kerfuffle. Her position was that she has trouble getting her head around the idea that the cracker literally turns into the body of christ (in fact, the idea kinda grosses her out), and that she thinks most of today's younger catholics probably feel the same. It's the older Catholics, in her opinion, that really buy into it.

Oddly, it was the Taoist (one of those interesting facts that the conversation revealed) in the group that seemed the most opposed to someone taking the cracker without eating it. The consensus between the Taoist and the Catholic seemed to be that, if you're going to voluntarily walk into a church during services, then you should respect their traditions and rituals. I didn't really have a good rebuttal to that. But they also seemed to agree that the responses from the church involved in The Cracker Kerfuffle, the Catholic League's Response, and the responses from multitudes of good xians, was also an overreaction.

Anyway, it was a fascinating workplace conversation, inadvertently instigated by the Jehovah's Witnesses, so I guess they're inadvertently good for something. For those keeping score... 1 Catholic, 1 Taoist, 2 "Not even a little smidgen" Nonbelievers, and 1 abstention.

Expect a Miracle (Final Report)

[ This is the final update on my visit to a good old fashioned Tent Revival and Faith Healing here in Missoula, MT. Be sure to see the original post and the update before proceeding. ]

Well, that was truly a worthwhile experience, and not precisely what I was expecting. My goal was to simply be a respectful observer. I wasn't there to heckle, or otherwise be disruptive, but simply to witness what I could and document as much as possible. In that regard... Mission Accomplished. It appeared that this event was associated with "The Potter's House", a nearby "Christian Fellowship Church", but many of the attendees had traveled in from all over. Roger (see below) for instance is from Coeur D'Alene, and the main attraction preacher was from New Mexico. Several others claimed to be from "Springfield", the nearest of which I can find is south of Idaho Falls.

I was somewhat surprised that at no point did anybody ask anybody else for money. There were no hats passed around or anything. In fact, they were even giving away hot dogs and soda (although I didn't think it would be fair to take any of that, considering my motives for being there, so I politely declined when offered).

I was also surprised at how much they let me take pictures and video. I was fully expecting that at some point they would ask me to stop (especially once they discovered that I wasn't "one of them"), but on the contrary, many people made a distinct point of not walking in front of the camera. Unfortunately, the really interesting parts were the conversations I had with people when the camera was off.

Several times, whomever had the microphone at the moment would ask everyone to bow their heads. I just couldn't bring myself to do that, and it didn't take long for Roger to notice. I gathered that Roger was one of the organizers/insiders of the event. Upon noticing my anti-conformist behavior, he walked right up and started talking to me, which I thought was somewhat disrespectful of the guy on the stage trying to lead whatever prayer they were on.

Anyway, Roger and I got to chatting there in the back of the tent. He claimed that he himself had had an ulcer and a broken ankle healed by god (as opposed to modern science based medicine), and witnessed similar healings of other people. I replied that I wasn't going to believe anything like that without some solid evidence and challenged him to show me some medical records to prove it. He accused me of not walking around everywhere carrying my medical records to show to people. I retorted that I wasn't making extraordinary claims of miracle healings. He conceded that point to me, and took down my mailing address so that he could mail me his records. I won't be holding my breath on that one. (And before anybody asks... I gave him my P.O.Box, not my home address. What kind of moron do you think I am?)

At some point in the conversation, he brought up war and famine, and how some people see things like that as proof that god does not exist, but that he thinks they're proof god does exist. Then, he proceeded to make his point by talking about something that had nothing to do with war or famine. When I finally pointed out that he still hadn't explained how war and famine are proof of gods existence, he said "Oh, oops, I pulled a Democrat... Oh, sorry, I hope you're not a Democrat... or maybe you are." I let him sweat a moment, then replied that, "I'm an Independent, I think for myself" which he seemed relieved by. In the end, he never did explain how war and famine prove god exists. I don't think he really knew.

I also talked very briefly with a guy named John (I'm assuming the 'h'), another of the organizers/insiders. He also claimed to have witnessed all kinds of healings, and claimed that we don't hear about these things in the news because the media doesn't like to report on certain things. He also seemed to think that I was being unreasonable by suggesting I would need to see some good evidence to back up these extraordinary claims. So, the media doesn't want to report a story about some crackpot "faith healers" who think providing scientific evidence of their claims is unreasonable. Go figure.

Oddly, Jesus and his healers were only doing lower back aches and sore feet tonight. I guess they're saving the androgenic alopecia and amputees for Saturday. Unfortunately, I have bowling plans with the rest of M.A.S.S. for Saturday, and so won't be able to witness those miracles. Darn it. I would have liked to get in on that for my receding hairline.

In the end, I reached the conclusion that they were all (at least the ones I talked to) very nice people who really, truly, believe that they're doing good. I only wish they could step outside themselves and listen to the crazy things they say with fresh ears. Honestly. If I tell you that I don't believe in god, what's telling me that "god still loves you" supposed to do? Am I supposed to say, "Oh, well in that case, I guess god does exist." (sigh)

When it was over, I shook Roger's hand and he asked if I was taking off. I replied, "Yah, I think I'm going to go slaughter some baby kittens, or something... I don't know." He laughed, obviously recognizing how ridiculous that sounds... "baby kittens" beings redundant and all.