Athée Canadien
Activism
“Catholic Education Week 2012 — More equal than others since 1841″
May 7th
This message, in honour of Catholic Education Week 2012, was posted on the OneSchoolSystem.org blog and on CFI’s Facebook page:
Happy Catholic Education Week 2012 (May 6-11)! God bless you premier McGuinty, Tim Hudak, and Andrea Horwath for upholding the Catholic faith above all others before and under Ontario law. You uphold Catholic school funding in the face of fiscal austerity in health care and education. You uphold this funding in the face of wage freezes for public sector employees.
Ontarians can wait a little longer for essential medical services, go without them altogether, or pay for them themselves — if they have the means. Hospital expansions and renovations can wait. Communities with both a half empty public and a half empty Catholic school can close one or the other and ship half their kids elsewhere to go to school, rather than combining the two student bodies into the best of the two buildings. School maintenance backlogs, already on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars in some school boards, can grow for a few more years yet before the schools actually start to fall down. Doctors, nurses, teachers, and other public sector employees can handle a few years of wage freezes or sub-inflation increases. Our cities can learn to do more with less.
The important thing here — the really important thing — is that all Ontario taxpayers continue to fund the promulgation of Catholic religious beliefs to the 80-90% of Catholic families who use Catholic schools but do not go to Church. God bless all of our Members of Provincial Parliament for setting proper priorities and for ignoring the majority wish to move to a single public school system for each official language. That takes a truly breathtaking combination of callousness, insensitivity, and political cowardice. In Ontario, we are fortunate to have politicians with all of these qualities in spades.
Know who else was an atheist??? Hitler! (and other arguments of this type)
May 4th
Irrespective of whether you accept that the earth is getting hotter, you will hopefully find this attempt to argue against it embarrassingly tragic. It’s amazing to see such a blatant and epic ad hominem fallacy in billboard format. I can only hope that, as the Guardian article says, supporters of heartland.org will pull their funding and distance themselves from such idiocy.
Clergy Residence Deductions
Apr 26th
Your taxes are due in a few days so here’s an annual reminder that members of the clergy don’t pay income taxes on their residences simply because they’re in the profession. This year the clergy resident deduction is hidden on Line 231 in the general T1 form (as opposed to the T1 Special that most people use) so you probably won’t notice it. Since I’m lazy and nothing else has changed, I can quote me from last year.
Keep in mind the clergy deduction isn’t a simple tax credit like transit passes, education expenses, or charitable donations that only credit you around 15%. Deductions from your net income decrease your taxable income which, in Canada, can mean thousands of dollars a year in reduced taxes. For example, a small town minister earning $35,000 a year likely wouldn’t have to pay any taxes because the clergy deduction would put his taxable income below the basic personal amount.
Why are ministers allowed to avoid paying any taxes? Religions have always enjoyed avoiding taxes as a result of their charitable status (see Day 2 for details) but this is a tax break on the personal incomes of members of clergy. We certainly have our objections to the procedures and practices of all religions, but this is referring to the personal income taxes of one particular profession. If you want to be a priest, that’s fine, but pay taxes on your income just like everyone else.
According to the rules, a minister is defined as someone who:
- is authorized or empowered to perform spiritual duties, conduct religious services, administer sacraments and carry out similar religious functions. Religious functions may include participation in the conduct of religious services, the administration of some of the rituals, ordinances or sacraments, and pastoral responsibilities to specific segments of the religious organization;
- is appointed or recognized by a body or person with the legitimate authority to appoint or ordain ministers on behalf of or within the religious denomination; and
- is in a position or appointment of some permanence.
It seems like a loose definition. It might allow Michael Payton and Justin Trottier (Canada’s only full-time employees who work for an atheist organization) to deduct their living expenses.
Stop This Attack on Women
Apr 15th
On April 13, the website A Celebration of Women posted this appeal:
Honduras – No jail time for birth control
The Honduran Congress is about to vote on a proposal that would send women to jail if they use the morning-after pill — even for victims of sexual assault. But the President of the Congress can stop this. He’s concerned about his international image and his future in politics, so our massive outcry can shame him and stop this attack on women.
Click here to sign the petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_prison_for_contraception_global/?vl
AVAAZ.org goal was 400,000 signatures. As I write this, 514,779 people have signed the petition. Please add you name to this “urgent petition calling on the President of the Honduran Congress to stand up for women’s rights.”
H/T Choice in Dying
Nate Phelps talks
Apr 13th
Nate Phelps, CFI:Calgary executive director, describes his life growing up with the Westboro church.
From my earliest memories I can recall questions in my mind. How could we be the chosen ones if we treated people with such disrespect? How does an all-consuming god manage to remain invisible from world affairs? What of the people born in other parts of the world who never heard of him, or those born before Calvin or Christ? What about me and my actions gives me value above all others?
In an environment that violently quelled any defiance, I found myself uniquely at odds with my father and on the receiving end of brutal violence for much of my childhood. At one point the police became involved, but my father preached his way out of that and assured us that God had protected him, validating his violent behavior toward his wife and children.
As a third or fourth generation atheist, reading stories like this force me to imagine what life could be like with religion. The only religious ceremony I’ve ever attended was the wife’s friend’s wedding (it was creepy) so I consider myself lucky. Granted, growing up in Westboro isn’t a typical religious upbringing but every so often we need a reminder of the things we’re fighting for.
Taking Jesus to School
Apr 4th
Separation of church and state can sometimes make it seem like religion is being excluded… at least some people say that. But it was never about separating religion from individuals, just from public institutions, in order to avoid religious oppression. Students in school for instance can still pray at school on their own time.
Of course, free speech and free expression, even apart from religion, often get tangled up with the interests of education. In order to teach, teachers need to set rules, even ones that limit a students right to do as they please. Maintaining order verses freedom when it comes to kids, can be a difficult balance.
When I first read about this student who wore a shirt saying “Jesus is not a homophobe”, and that he was told not to wear it again, I was expecting a standard justification about ‘being disruptive to learning’. It’s not a great excuse, but within the context of school, I think it can have some value, even if its not always.
The actual excuse… is a bit more ridiculous…
“…the message communicated by the student’s T-shirt is sexual in nature and therefore indecent and inappropriate in a school setting.”
Oh yeah, you’re definitely getting sued now.
Pussy Riot in prison
Mar 20th
Ok… I’m probably going to get some annoyed comments about that title, from those who haven’t heard about this yet, but seriously, read this first. Pussy Riot is a punk rock band in Russia that has gotten into trouble for the double whamy of blasphemy and speaking out against the government.
In the month since it performed an unsanctioned “punk prayer service” at Christ the Savior Cathedral, entreating the Virgin Mary to liberate Russia from Vladimir V. Putin, the feminist punk band Pussy Riot has stirred up a storm about the role of the church, art and women in Russian society.The group has been accused of blasphemy; three of the women are in pre-trial detention and could face up to seven years in prison.
So, serious stuff.
Unbless You
Mar 19th
Those unholy atheists are at it again, this time in Florida.
Representatives from various atheist groups in the area scrubbed the road at the Pasco-Polk county line. They were figuratively removing holy oil that had been put on the road last year by a group of area religious leaders. That group was Polk Under Prayer, or PUP.
While I tend to see this as somewhat childish, it did actually make me laugh, and as a pretty harmless publicity stunt, it does make their point.
Naked Atheists
Mar 7th
Maryam Namazie publishes a calendar (NSFW) in support of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, an Egyptian atheist who pissed off the authorities by posting nude photos of herself.
The calendar is designed by SlutWalk Co-founder Toronto, Sonya JF Barnett who says: ‘I felt that women needed to stand in solidarity with Aliaa. It takes a lot of guts to do what she did, and the backlash is always expected and can quite hurtful. She needed to know that there are others like her, willing to push the envelope to express outrage.’
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A Snapshot of CFI:Canada
Mar 4th
It was a quiet Wednesday evening when I wandered in to Centre for Inquiry: Canada’s headquarters in Toronto. I hadn’t been there since the move last fall so I was curious to see what they’ve done with the place.
The building is a designated heritage site that has one the few remaining attendant-operated elevators in the city which meant I had to take the stairs because the elevator is only open during regular office hours.
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