OneAngryCultist: Just Passing Over

So, yeah, it's been a while since OneAngryCultist has posted anything but in the spirit of the season (which from my vantage point is still Winter) there's a lot happening this week in the world of religion.

First off, according to a recent report published Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, it seems that American Christians are starting to understand the message of the world's most famous stick-man and understand the value of putting one's money where one's mouth is.

Overall more Americans believe that Christian values are at odds with capitalism and the free market than believe they are compatible. This pattern also holds among Christians. Among Christians in the U.S., only 38% believe capitalism and the free market are consistent with Christian values while 46% believe the two are at odds. Religiously unaffiliated Americans look similar to the general population and to Christian Americans, with a plurality (40%) saying capitalism is at odds with Christian values, compared to 32% who say they are compatible; 14% say they do not know.

Next up, in the Holy Land even cows are expected to keep kashrut during the currently on-going Jewish holiday of Passover. According to the Christian Science Monitor:

Dairy farmer Ilan Reitich says Passover feed costs more and the cows produce less milk while they eat it. But Mr. Reitich, who is secular, must keep kosher cows to sell milk to Israel’s largest dairy cooperative, Tnuva. “If I don’t give them kosher feed, I will need to throw all the milk down the drain,” Reitich says.

In Iran however, man's best friend has been declared a threat to traditional Islamic values who may be in cahoots with the West... or Jews... or Snookie. CNN reports:

Lawmakers in Tehran have recently proposed a bill in parliament that would criminalize dog ownership, formally enshrining its punishment within the country's Islamic penal code. The bill warns that that in addition to posing public health hazards, the popularity of dog ownership "also poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West."

Poor Fido...



And in Kansas, where crazy is in the ground-water, a Jehovah's Witness is suing the state for a bloodless liver transplant.

Suffering from the late stages of liver disease, Stinemetz, 64, needs a transplant. But the operation could cost more than $250,000, an insurmountable expense for her family... Living in the small western Kansas town of Hill City, Stinemetz could get a liver transplant, one that would be paid for by Medicaid, at the University of Kansas Hospital.

But she also would have to compromise her Jehovah’s Witness principles, because she would receive a blood transfusion, something she believes violates God’s law.

Stinemetz, however, could undergo bloodless transplant surgery in Omaha, Neb., but Kansas is refusing to pay for the out-of-state procedure when a transplant is readily available in Kansas.

Methinks that she doth protest too much - there are plenty of my friends who could use that liver.

And, finally, if you happen to be in San Francisco this Easter weekend, please do yourself a favor and check out (or participate in) the annual Dolores Park Easter Celebration w/ Hunky Jesus Contest hosted by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Great fun is to be had by all and you'll see more than your fair share of well hung saviors.