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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 18118
[Civil]
Date Posted:
7/4/2007
7:42:41 pm EDT
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Comments: 7
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ACLU Sues City Over Jesus Painting
Author: Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Source: Yahoo
Title: ACLU SUES CITY OVER JESUS PAINTING
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The ACLU sued after the Slidell City Court refused to voluntarily remove the picture and a message below it that reads: "To Know Peace, Obey These Laws." The ACLU says the portrait — an image of Jesus presenting the New Testament — is a religious icon of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity.
Submitted by and Thanks to: David K.
Additional Article Link: [Click HERE]
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Community Thoughts: There are 7 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Neuroscience Of Peace? | Jul 6th. at 10:02:38 am EDT
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Terry (Irvington, Virginia) - Email Me
Nightline yesterday had an interesting segment which might explain a key part of this situation, based on emerging neuroscience. In it, they compared brain imaging of meditating Buddhist monks, and self-identified supposed xtians talking in tongues, both of which produced distinct, human controlled, changes in brain activity patterns.
First, we need to consider what is meant by "peace" in this context. It's likely not what many of us first presume, such as civil peace including freedom from riots in the streets, or other violent crime such as that caused by defective drug laws triggering both a black market and subverting police into violent mercenaries rather than true peace officers. It's not avoidance of wars of aggression, whether blood for oil or historic Vatican and other genocides. However, by use of linguistic frauds and the many semantics of English, it's possible to argue it is those things which might legitimately overlap a court's lawful goals, and rabid fundie groups like Alliance Defense Fund specialize in tactical political frauds trying to proactively tamper with potential jury pools, as is well documented in their online guides and training sessions for how to get away with unConstitutional legislation and selective, malicious prosecutions for activities within citizen civil rights.
What is likely meant is a concept of being at ease with oneself and the world, sometimes called Pax Christi. The organization with that name has at least some US leaders I've known who show a bit of maturity, and link their notion of "the peace of Christ" to social justice and avoidance of illegal wars, including when certain Vatican doctrines and Papal policies contradict and call for oppression of others, outright stating very bluntly, "That's (obedience to Papal & Vatican abusive use of archaic authority) not what being a Catholic is about." Less mature or ethical people fail to make those secondary connections to the larger spiritual goal.
Medical studies focusing on brain region activity suggest the goals of Buddhist monks and what outwardly are psychotic spiritual practices of some RRR types may have similar goals, of being at peace with oneself and the world, or at least perceiving such a state. When for many an alternative is substance abuse to mask a lifestyle which is badly broken, and the violence drunks perpetrate on roads and against families, spiritual practices in general would seem a relatively innocuous and healthier alternative. But, maybe there's another major difference in why different such practices are chosen?
Studies of Buddhist monks in meditation indicate that frontal lobe activity "lights up" in brain images. This requires a larger lifestyle chosen from the ground up to be ethical and peaceful in outward respects, as people with highly conflicted or predatory life practices, or badly broken personal or subculture ethical systems, or who live as hypocrites relative to such ideals, tend to in extreme cases be driven to panic attacks if they start to practice the types of meditation, such as Ati yoga, used by the most serious of these monks. Ati yoga for most westerners is very difficult to practice, as its larger lifestyle bundle is at odds with a society pandering economics systems and other forms of "too much is never enough" aggression, and "money" as a court-endorsed de facto deity.
The same medical imaging studies, working towards medical and scientific explanations of the how and what but not the theology of what's been called "The God Delusion", show that the other crowd of xtians have frontal lobe activity nearly shut down when they use nonsensical tricks to go into an apparent trance state. One might question if a shutdown of that style is intended to disconnect from life realities which are too painful to admit to oneself, and if subconsciously knowing how abusive one has acted as a rabid fundie, both personally and collectively, drives public frauds to pretend what deep down, these people know is not a functional lifestyle in society or personally, can be covered like a drunk in denial by self-induced beyond narcotics style tampering with perceived larger reality? It's well known that humans can produce over a hundred families of neuropeptides, and in concert with our brains and pervasive limbic systems, biochemically self-medicate very intensely if we learn triggers which work with our own bodies.
This might well explain the underlying drive behind the superficially professional legal tactical fraud of counsel for ADF, as well as many less dangerous variants among sheeple followers, and more dangerous ones found within certain SCOTUS lynchmen linked to RRR practices, even if outwardly educated to couch their frauds in verbiage few people study closely enough to see what lies within. It took David Souter 8 years on the top court to "get it", with far closer access to observe how a Scalia or Thomas function than most of us ever have.
Removed from the context of a democratic republic where all citizens have duties and roles in mutual governance, and core standards based on a model of civil rights and rational basis for government laws and actions, both the psychotic disconnect practices and meditational mindful engagement might seem weird to outsiders, and be innocuous as to whether neighbors do one or the other, or neither. In our society, when the rabid fundie tools are used to disconnect and enable people to live with themselves as they conspire in what are rightfully collective or in some cases personal felonies against neighbors, or to excuse or rationalize war crimes, we might take these medical studies the next step, and consider to what extent they become not just exercise of religious rights, but the equivalent of tolerating people during the course of hallucinogen, alcohol, or heavy narcotics use, guide public policy and use of mercenaries with uniforms and guns in beyond pathological ways.
Is there any other reason one group would so need to shut down brain regions, when another which instead quiets minds while activating the same region acts as peaceful and responsible neighbors?
Answering such questions might be part of defining a more functional, neutral standard of religious and parental rights, versus medical pathology and child abuse. Doing so calls for asking some difficult questions, and perhaps also the next step in technology evolution. While in the last decade there's been much progress in SPECT developing into PET/CT systems, and in MRI's, the imaging used in the Nightline covered medical studies of spiritual practices are still low resolution, whereas high resolution systems used for medical studies of the same brain regions aren't effective in showing the types of activity useful for spiritual and thought trigger display. The technology is progressing so fast, that theosophers, rights activists, and sociologists might well consider what questions would be useful to have medical studies pursue, in order to form rational basis evidence of different modes of human function, which could alternately explain functional human practices and distinguish them from what are potentially pathologies or triggers for unlawful patterns using government to extent broken theology or twists of it into abusive lifestyles.
Some of the same questions could be interesting as to differences among pagan paths, and heathen or scientific pantheist differences from supernatural, or deities as if entities rather than human symbolic tools, pagan theologies. Those questions become secondary in our larger social context, when other identified groups act as dangerous predators in many forms, such that there's a serious functional need to better distinguish the details explaining underlying factors, which knowledge could become the basis for serious changes to law and society.
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| I Think That The LAST Place Jesus Would Show | Jul 5th. at 7:29:05 pm EDT
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William (Buda, Texas) - Email Me
up is a courthouse in Louisiana, unless he was there to toss the "money changers" out on their collective republican asses
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| Inclusive Message?! | Jul 5th. at 10:34:59 am EDT
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Opus the Poet (Garland, Texas) - Email Me - Web
The ditz that is defending this actually said the picture presents an inclusive message. I guess because it's a copy of an Eastern Orthodox icon, that makes it inclusive by Louisiana standards (where if it ain't Catholic it's Baptist) , but for those of us in the real world including a slightly different flavor of Christianity does not include religions that are not monotheistic, or are from a different branch of the mono line.
Opus
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| GOOD! | Jul 5th. at 5:51:45 am EDT
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Whitewolf (Schenectady, New York) - Email Me
I don't think such a painting belongs in a courthouse! As the old saying goes....
Know jeebus
NO peace
NO jeebus
KNOW peace....
With those 2 jokers ( gawd & jeebus ) it's always "Obey this rule.... Obey that rule" Sheesh, what are we, a pack of dogs? IF those 2 jarheads exist, they should TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THEIR OWN F***UPS AND QUIT POINTING THEIR FINGERS AT US!! That's what's always cramped my cookies.... and they REFUSE to do it. That's one of the reasons I left....
Oh, well.... their loss....
Love to all
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| To Know Peace, Obey These Laws | Jul 4th. at 9:19:32 pm EDT
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Shadowbear (Hillsboro, Oregon) - Email Me
This is not a religious saying. It equally applies to the laws of the land - unless you put it under a portrate of jesus. Are these people stupid to be arguing over the words when they would be acceptable but it is the PICTURE that is unconstitutional?
I guess they are & the picture will come down. The monuments they talk about - the sayings underneath may well refer to the depicted person's beliefs but they are not in a courthouse either.
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