Paul Wilczynski's Observations

Theological Biology Discoverist

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:23 PM 1 comments

Chavez offers aid to US

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to send food and fuel to the United States after the powerful Hurricane Katrina pummeled the US south, ravaging US crude production.

The leftist leader, a frequent critic of the United States and a target himself of US disapproval, said Venezuela could send aid workers with drinking water, food and fuel to US communities hit by the hurricane.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:39 AM 0 comments

Best job to have in the short term

Got that right.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:55 AM 0 comments

Changing from Christianity to Unitarian Universalism

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:06 AM 0 comments

10 Point Plan regarding Iraq

I'm not going to try to summarize it - just read it.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:17 PM 0 comments

Cesca: majority support the Patriot Act

a vast majority of Americans are as comfortable with the Patriot Act as they are certain that the universe was created 5,000 years ago...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:27 AM 0 comments

When compromise isn't always the solution

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:22 AM 0 comments

Starbucks promoting the h** agenda?

So let me get this straight. If I drink a cup of coffee with a quote about homosexuality printed on it, I might ... become homosexual??

Maybe I can get them to print quotes from gazillionaires on their cups!

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:15 AM 0 comments

Doug Muder: Who's afraid of freedom and tolerance?

Why are fundamentalists so frightened by liberal family values? The reasons, and why we shouldn't just dismiss them.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:06 PM 1 comments

Death in the Garden

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:22 PM 0 comments

Victory Is

After you watch it, check out Mark Fiori's web site (noted below the animation) for more.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:59 AM 0 comments

Massachusetts Quality Affordable Health Care Act

If you’re a resident of Massachusetts and are interested in health care reform, they’re looking for your help and the help of members of your congregation.

Below is a summary of the law they’re proposing. If you’d like to help, please call Lisa Vinikoor at 617-275-2807 or contact her via email at vinikoor@massact.org. They're having meetings right now and are planning a signature collecting campaign for September.

Section-by-Section Summary
Massachusetts Quality Affordable Health Care Act
SECTION 1: Policies and Purposes

• Outlines the current health care crisis.


• States the Act’s intention to increase access to affordable health insurance coverage for all Massachusetts residents.

• Creates the Massachusetts Quality Affordable Health Care program to assist moderate income families and small businesses with their health care costs. Uninsured individuals below 400% of the poverty line ($38,000 for an individual) will be eligible for the program.


• Authorizes increased eligibility in the Insurance Partnership, an insurance reimbursement program that helps small businesses provide health coverage.


• Allows the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to implement a targeted reinsurance program to lower premiums for small businesses and individuals. The reinsurance pool would cover individuals with catastrophic medical costs, allowing insurers to cut premiums.


• Authorizes sliding-scale premium reductions or tax credits for middle income households up to 400% of the federal poverty level.

• Establishes the Affordable Health Care Fund, which will be used to finance the Massachusetts Quality Affordable Health Care program and the expansion of MassHealth eligibility and benefits.  


• The Fund will consist of revenues from the increased cigarette tax, the assessments on businesses that do not provide health coverage to their employees, and federal reimbursements.

• Authorizes MassHealth to cover all adults up to 200% of the federal poverty level ($19,000 for an individual) and children under the age of 21 up to 300% of the federal poverty level ($58,000 for a family of 4).

• Repeals the $160 million Uncompensated Care Surcharge now paid by insurers and employers who purchase health coverage for their employees.  

• Limits the hospital sector’s Uncompensated Care Surcharge to $80,000,000, which is half of its current level.

• Raises the cigarette tax 60 cents per pack, to $2.11.


• All revenues will be deposited into the Affordable Health Care Fund.

• Creates an Affordable Health Care Fair Share assessment to ensure that all employers are contributing to their employees’ health care costs.


• For employers with more than 100 workers, the assessment is 7 per cent of their adjusted payroll.


• For employers with 100 or fewer workers, the assessment is 5 per cent of their adjusted payroll.


• The first $50,000 of an employer’s annual payroll is not assessed.


• Money that employers already spend on health insurance benefits for employees will be considered a credit against this assessment.  Thus companies covering their workers will not pay the assessment.


• The regulations enforcing these provisions will include exemptions for substantial hardship.


• Revenues will be deposited into the Affordable Health Care Fund.

• Restores benefits which were in effect in January 2002, including:


• dental services and dentures


• eyeglasses


• Adds smoking and tobacco use cessation treatment and information to the MassHealth benefit package


• All residents who are lawfully residing in the United States are eligible for benefits on the same terms as citizens.

• Directs MassHealth to pay hospitals, community health centers and physicians their costs for serving MassHealth recipients.


• Directs MassHealth to use the Medicare payment system in reimbursing hospitals and physicians.

• Declares that if any section of this law or an application of it is deemed invalid, the invalidation will only affect that specific section.  

• The cigarette tax increase takes effect on January 1, 2007.


• The employer assessments take effect on July 1, 2007.


• The MassHealth payment reforms take effect on October 1, 2007.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:25 PM 1 comments

Sinkford Supports NCC'S Response to Pat Robertson

"I join with National Council of Churches in Christ General Secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, in rejecting the Rev. Pat Robertson's suggestion that the U.S. should execute President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. As a religious leader, as a person of faith, and as an American I must reject any kind of religious fundamentalism that condones violence, whether it comes from terrorists abroad or prominent Christian leaders here at home. I hope my colleagues in faith and in this country will do the same." William G. Sinkford President Unitarian Universalist Association

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:38 PM 0 comments

Talk Show Host Fired Over Islam Remarks

Washington radio station WMAL-AM fired talk show host Michael Graham yesterday [August 22] after he refused to soften his description of Islam as "a terrorist organization" on the air last month. ...

According to WMAL, Graham said "Islam is a terrorist organization" 23 times on his July 25 program. On the same show, he also said repeatedly that "moderate Muslims are those who only want to kill Jews" and that "the problem is not extremism. The problem is Islam." ...

Finally a station takes some responsibility.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:55 AM 0 comments

Robertson Calls for Chavez' Death

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club."

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:45 AM 0 comments

Theory of Intelligent Falling replaces Gravity

As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state [Kansas]. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:43 PM 1 comments

Preaching the positive

...there's a line that needs to be drawn when hard questions turn into venomous outbreaks against other segments of the church. I can't count the number of times I've sat in church and listened to the pastor tell me how wrong "denomination x" is and how their erroneous theology is going to lead them all to hell in a hand basket. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 4:39 PM 0 comments

Fast Company: Why We Hate HR

In a knowledge economy, companies with the best talent win. And finding, nurturing, and developing that talent should be one of the most important tasks in a corporation. So why does human resources do such a bad job -- and how can we fix it?

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:30 AM 0 comments

Muslim moderates

For years, Muslims have been criticized for their seeming complacency about Islamic terrorism. Time and again, Islamist radicals have committed some savagery, and time and again non-Muslims have wondered why there was no outcry of condemnation from the Islamic world. Let a fictional TV show depict Muslims unflatteringly, and Muslim spokesmen thunder in outrage. Where is that outrage when real atrocities are being carried out by killers professing Islam?

Good news: Since 9/11 a growing number of Muslim moderates have been speaking out. They have denounced the jihadis' ideology as a perversion of Islam and a disgrace to Muslims everywhere. More important, they have emphasized that decent Muslims have an obligation to enlist in the war on terror -- not merely to denounce the fanatics from afar, but to delegitimize and defeat them at home. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:57 AM 0 comments

ACLU Freedom Files

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:35 AM 0 comments

How to support the troops

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:18 AM 0 comments

James Moore: Proud Left-Wing Liberal

Liberals are people who believe, like Jefferson, that our country and our culture are best judged by how we treat the least of our citizens. They believe in a tax code that is progressive enough to help families and puts a greater share of responsibility for funding government on the corporations that are making huge profits. Liberals prefer to spend money on programs that give the disadvantaged a chance in America instead of buying and building tanks and guns that are outdated in the war on terrorism. We want a strong defense but demand accountability from the Pentagon and defense contractors. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:09 AM 0 comments

Birthright UUs vs converts

For many years, I've maintained that there are differences between those who were raised UU and those who converted to UUism as adults. For one thing, converts often (but far from universally) suffer from Angry Ex-Christian Syndrome, which in its related Diehard Secular Humanist manifestation is blamed by many for making UU churches uncomfortable places for theists, Neo-Pagans, and other types of UUs. It also seems to me that converts have lots of issues that just aren't as pressing for people who grew up UU, such as anxiety over whether UUism is a religion, what our core beliefs or values are, concern about our roots as a Christian tradition, etc. In interacting with other people who grew up as Unitarian-Universalists, I've often felt a common recognition of shared understanding of what it is to be UU that is essentially experiential and nonverbal. There also tends to be an easier acceptance of the fluidity of personal and communal religious belief/practice and a predeliction for reconciling different religious ideas or even holding them in creative tension among many lifelong UUs. Many other possible trends that distinguish converts and non-converts might be proposed. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:49 AM 0 comments

Christian Alliance for Progress email

A few weeks back, I requested your help with an important issue. I asked you to speak out against Jerry Falwell’s claim that the Christian Alliance for Progress is “Hardly Christian”, and you did. We received nearly 1,000 letters from across the country. To those of you who wrote, thank you. Your responses affirm that Falwell and other leaders of the Religious Right can not speak for all Christians.

Now I ask you for your help on another issue. We need to guard against the ever increasing threat of the Christian Right continuing to erode America’s separation of church and state.

This past Sunday in a church in Nashville, the Christian Right held Justice Sunday II. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum and many other leading figures of the Radical Right joined House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay in a live broadcast sent via satellite to thousands of churches nationwide. The original Justice Sunday a few months ago in April included speeches from political figures like Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Then, as now, the event was draped in Christianity and called for the nomination and approval of very conservative - even ultra conservative judges for our courts.

Indeed, the Religious Right is blurring the lines of church and state, using a place of worship to stage a political rally headlined by one of the most powerful office holders in the country – one who has publicly called for integrating the Right’s version of Christianity into our government.

Separation of church and state has been a fundamental American value that both protects us from the government imposing a particular religion while also guaranteeing our freedom from that government in our place of worship. The Christian Right seeks to institutionalize and impose their beliefs on all Americans when our country’s political and religious traditions honor precisely the opposite values.

At the Christian Alliance for Progress, we affirm America’s well established commitment to a clear separation of church and state. We need to make our voices heard. Please take a moment to send a letter to your Senators expressing your personal commitment to a separation of church and state. Take action now.

The Christian Alliance for Progress participated on Sunday in Nashville with other local and national organizations in a counter event. We stood in opposition to the extremist message of Justice Sunday II. Click Here to read my remarks from the “Freedom & Faith” Event.

Your personal participation in this movement matters. Christian Alliance for Progress is the place where your voice can be heard. Thank you for your passion and commitment.

Sincerely, Patrick Mrotek

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:55 AM 0 comments

Unitarian Universalism, The Next World Religion

We have all the elements of a great religion, one that could bridge the gap between modern science and ancient wisdom. One that really could bring peace to the nations and peace in our hearts. We have both a clergy and a membership who, together, comprise an expertise in both science and religion that is unmatched. We have a culture of open discussion, and we also are willing to change and have changed our service format, music and words. We could be the force that reinterprets spirituality in our time.

We lack organization. We are stuck in the worst possible model - every church for itself, but with a centrally educated clergy and a weak national association dominated by a professional staff (although that part is changing). We don't know what our message is, we are unable to separate important issues from distractions, and we have the foolish idea that every individual has the right to pull the organization in his or her particular direction. Sometimes I wonder that we exist at all.

It's ironic that we are quite clear on advising individuals on how to organize their individual lives, how deal with grief or loss, how to prioritize and move forward, but we have not yet figured out that the same issues and problems exist at an institutional level. As an institution, we need to do the work that a weakly functional individual does when he or she sees a professional; that is to review, refocus and move forward with purpose.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 5:39 PM 2 comments

Sinkford joins challenge of upcoming "Justice Sunday II"

Teleconference speakers addressed the Religious Right's plans for "Justice Sunday II," an evangelical event subtitled "God Save the United States and this Honorable Court" which will be held in Nashville on August 14th. The progressive religious leaders offered a different religious perspective on the nomination and addressed the role of faith in politics.

In his statement Sinkford said, "We are concerned that the events planned by conservative groups in Nashville will continue to falsely claim to represent the only faithful perspective on the Roberts nomination. We affirm the right of any group to express its position on the issues of the day, but we will not remain silent when any group falsely claims to speak for all people of faith. There is no one "religious" position on the Roberts nomination, no one religious view on the future of the Court or the cases it will hear." The complete text of Sinkford's statement can be found at http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050812_justice_sinkford.html.

The complete story on the teleconference, plus UUA commentary and grass roots resources, can be found at http://www.uua.org/news/2005/050812_justice.html. Deborah J. Weiner Director of Electronic Communication Unitarian Universalist Association 25 Beacon Street Boston, MA 02108 617-948-6104 617-742-7025 (FAX)

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 5:22 PM 0 comments

Meet the original power couple

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:49 PM 1 comments

Conservative org withdraws support for Roberts

The move comes as a result of Roberts' support for the radical homosexual lobby in the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, which overturned a pro-family law passed by the citizens of Colorado in an appalling act of judicial activism.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:07 AM 0 comments

ADL To Falwell: Retract Call To 'Vote Christian'

New York, NY, August 8, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) strongly criticized the recent appeal by Reverend Jerry Falwell for his constituency to "vote Christian in 2008" and urged him to retract his "divisive and un-American" call to action.

In a mass fund-raising letter, Reverend Falwell wrote that he sought "to utilize the momentum of the sweeping conservative mandate of the November 2, 2004, elections to maintain a faith and values 'revolution' of voters who will continue to go to the polls to 'vote Christian' and call America back to God." Falwell included in his letter to supporters a car sticker that reads, "I Vote Christian."

"Reverend Falwell's recent statements are directly at odds with the American ideal and should be rejected," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Understanding the danger of combining religion and politics, our Founding Fathers wisely created a political system based on individual merit and religious inclusiveness."

Mr. Foxman said that Rev. Falwell "should retract his divisive and un-American call to action. Appeals to voters should not be on the basis of religion, nor should a candidate's religious beliefs be a litmus test for public office."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 6:59 AM 0 comments

United American Committee

We are Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, YOU! All Americans, striving for a better tomorrow in America. A tomorrow where our children may be free, free from Islamic extremist threats at home.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:48 AM 2 comments

Dems: Come to the loading docks

I have been reading pages and pages about the DNC and the DLC and I want to tell you why I am so opposed to the direction the DLC has taken the Party in the last 20 years.

I have been advocating, writing letters, talking locally within the Democratic Party for 25 frickin' years now. To no avail.

My message is simple: talk about workers' rights. Unionizing, outsourcing (especially outsourcing!), management cheating (we have ALL been cheated out of portions of our wages by innumerable statistical tricks). SPEAK OF THEM and blue-collar men go absolutely NUTS with recognition of the problems! Followed 5 minutes later with the most intense hunger to do something about it all that you have ever witnessed. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:50 PM 0 comments

What "can" you believe as a Unitarian Universalist?

There's a mighty big myth about Unitarian-Universalism that has been circulating for years. It's the idea that in UUism "you can believe whatever you want." That's not how I understand it at all. Truthfully, in UUism "you have to believe what you really do believe, whether you want to or not." Followed authentically (dare I say "religiously"?), this is potentially a far harder, more spiritually refining course than creedal religion. UUism isn't for slackers. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:07 AM 1 comments

National Council of Bible Curriculum in Public Schools

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:48 AM 0 comments

Just 10 commandments in public aren't enough for some

Followers of the Summum faith say Moses made two trips down from the mountain. On one journey, the prophet returned with the Ten Commandments, "lower laws" that were easily understood and widely distributed.

The higher law obtained from the other trip, though, was passed down only to a select few who were able to appreciate it, according to the Salt Lake City-based religion.

But now, Summum is fighting a legal battle to share that higher law - the Seven Aphorisms, or principles that underlie creation and nature - with everyone in a public forum. The church has filed suit against Pleasant Grove over its refusal to allow it to erect its own monument in a city park that has held a Ten Commandments monolith since 1971. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 1:22 PM 3 comments

New Thought Church

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:04 AM 2 comments

Teaching the alternatives?

• Alchemy vs Chemistry
• Phrenology vs Neurology
• Magic vs Physics
• Astrology vs Astronomy

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:43 AM 0 comments

Jim Wallis: Democrats need to define message

• Lead on the issue of poverty
• Speak of the environment as a religious concern
• Win back "values voters" only with fresh ideas
• Become the truly pro-family party by supporting parents in doing the most important and difficult job in America: raising children
• Argue that the safety of the United States depends on the credibility of its international leadership

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:21 AM 0 comments

Binladenism

... Ironically, it is us Muslims who have the greatest vested interest in eradicating terrorism. We need to do this to salvage our religion and our self-respect. As long as we are marginalized by the West and taunted by the extremists, we are made to feel as if we were part of the problem rather than of the solution, and our commitment becomes ambivalent. If the so-called war on terrorism has any chance of being won, there needs to be an immediate redefinition of the enemy.

First, to achieve a delinkage between Islam and terrorism, the term ''Binladenism" has been suggested. It is an accurate characterization of the architect whose unifying call is hate, whose target is the current world order, whose modus operandi is the terrorization of innocent civilians, and whose fascist ideology directly contravenes the basic principles of the religion it claims to espouse. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:50 AM 0 comments

Global War On Terror renamed

The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, according to senior administration and military officials.

In recent speeches and news conferences, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the country's top military officer have spoken of "a global struggle against violent extremism" rather than "the global war on terror," which had been the catchphrase of choice.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 8:42 AM 0 comments

A letter to Hillary

...stop trying to figure out how to be in the middle of the old political spectrum, and instead consider becoming an uncompromising vanguard for defining dynamic change in the post-DLC era. Re-read David Sirota’s Da Vinci code, the latest in a long line of useful clarion calls from Jim Hightower and others for a new grassroots politics of passion that actually wins in red states. Remember the unlikely political success of a Paul Wellstone, or a Ronald Reagan and even a Ross Perot who was after all, key to your husband’s 1992 election. And should you choose to embrace and define the emerging parameters of a "new middle," you will no doubt find some really strange bedfellows waiting there, like your new health care buddy Newt Gingrich (I loved that one by the way). ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:34 AM 0 comments

Only wanting God sometimes

You should figure it out before you order the invitations, because if you're trying to pull off a pretend covenant before God -- if you think he won't notice that you're lying, reading your prayers from a cheat sheet, renting a church you've never set foot it to fake out Grandma -- you've picked the wrong man to fool. No matter how pretty you look in your Vera Wang.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 7:17 AM 0 comments

Bush endorses Intelligent Design

President Bush waded into the debate over evolution and "intelligent design" yesterday [August 1], saying schools should teach both on the origins and complexity of life.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with a small group of reporters, Bush essentially endorsed efforts by Christian conservatives to give intelligent design equal standing with evolution in the nation's schools. ...

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:45 PM 0 comments

Moral relativism

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 12:43 PM 0 comments

Altar Boyz

Very funny, great music, and not in the least sacrilegious - at least to me.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 2:32 PM 0 comments

Bolton to be U.N. Ambassador

Whatever happened to the "We demand a vote!" on presidential appointments? Oh, sorry. That's only if the Republicans want a vote.

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:16 AM 0 comments