Lighthouses > Churches – The 63, Signs, & Farts

63 Strong
63 former Catholic priests have released a statement today in support of Referendum 74, the same sex marriage bill, in Washington State. This group with over 800 years of service to the church has some clout. This is their first group effort and I’m happy to see them on the side of equality for everyone.

I don’t often find positive articles to post about Catholics… Just wanted to share this one since it’s something that I have helped support as well.

 

So Close Yet…
…So far away, as the saying goes. Ya’ll might have heard that Clearwater, Florida is on the western side of the peninsula, medium sized city with over 100K of people, & the capital of Scientology. It’s that last part that is of interest to this story.

Travis Wilkinson owns a spa in downtown Clearwater. Travis is upset with people thinking he must be a Scientologist just because of the business location. This is where he took the initiative to put up signs declaring he is not a part of that group. To bypass any copyright issues I’ll quote the sign instead of copy the image:

NOTICE (Jesus fish)
THIS IS ONE OF THE ONLY SPAS IN DOWNTOWN CLEARWATER NOT OWNED BY A SCIENTOLOGIST
(emphasis: his)

There are undoubtedly a lot of Scientologists in Clearwater so I understand Travis’s want to differentiate himself from the people who tried to take over his city during Project Normandy. I think Travis got it half right but for the wrong reason. Travis is coming from a place of hate and discontent by showing his alliance to – my old tribe – the Southern Baptists. If only he could put aside his feelings and leave off the “jesus fish” to try to make even more people feel included. Or, and I’m just spitballing here, not put up a damn sign in the first place.

 

Dinosaur Farts
Say what you like about Rachel Maddow, she made me chuckle a couple days ago when calling out Republicans who should, but don’t grasp science. Republicans that are on science committies but don’t have a full grasp on reality – nevermind anything from a reasonable 6th grade biology text book.

People like:
Congressmen Paul Broun – “Young Earth” creationist
Representative Todd Akin – infamous and need not be repeated
Representative Roscoe Bartlett – for the same reason as Akin
Representative Randy Neugebauer– Wrote a bill for rain in Texas via prayer
Representative Dana Rohrabacher – Dinosaur farts might have caused global warming

 

~Wesley

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