Link Me Up, Scotty - Diversity, Faith and Morality Edition

Monday, November 9, 2015
A black software engineer decided to leave his plum job at Twitter because of their abysmal diversity record. Many of the points made by Miley could be expanded to include women in engineering and technology, so I feel the man's pain. Yes, I am the only woman on my technical team...for the last seven years. Why do you ask?
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In the year 1959, a father gives his gay son the best advice in the world - "Don't sneak."

H/T Brother Juan
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There's a Lutheran pastor here in Denver who appears to be my kind of gal. If I wasn't an Atheist, I mean.

H/T Brother Juan
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An interesting study on how children raised in religious households tend to be more selfish than children raised in secular households. While I have a tendency to believe that children raised by assholes tend to be more assholish than their more generous counterparts, this does bring up an interesting point. Is religion really necessary to provide moral instruction? I come down unequivocally on the "no" side.
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Sex ed for the 21st century.  Coming back around to "Don't sneak."

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Our furry friends to the rescue, again. I heart service dogs.

H/T Cindy
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Two brothers are able to finish the NY Marathon due to the kindness of strangers. See, people CAN be awesome!

H/T Brother Vince
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Video of my Heart: College Humor takes on the "boys will be boys" rape culture that leads to one in five college women being sexually assaulted before graduation.

7 comments:

mom in northern said...

RE: service dogs...
Check this one out..
http://mostexcitingplanet.com/kids-afraid-to-testify-in-court-until-dog-came-in/

Zana said...

My uncle was a Lutheran Pastor. Also a recovered alcoholic.He stood up in front of his congregation and announced that it wasn't the Indians stealing the wine, it was him. Then he went on making restitution to the Souix, becoming a drug and alcohol counselor, the spiritual part that did not adhere to any one creed. He was adopted by the tribe who made him some beautiful vestments to wear in his church. This was after getting in trouble with the church for running supplies to the protesters at Wounded Knee and having Father Brennigan as a "guest" while on the lam. Russel Means stood next to me at my uncles funeral and plucked some of hair off the hats on display. My uncle always referred to God as "She".
Lutherans are quiet on their faith as a rule. They act on it quietly. They also have the best potlucks.

Janiece said...

Those are good, GOOD dogs.

Welcome, Zana. I approve of the role some churches play in their communities, and consider them a "net good." It's only when they get on the "worthy poor" bandwagon or try to push their belief into the secular sphere that I get bent out of shape.

Your uncle sounds like he was an interesting human.

vince said...

Is religion really necessary to provide moral instruction? No, which my saying annoys some of my fellow Christians. But it's empirically true, unless you game the definition of "moral", as is sometimes done by Christians. I know some awesome people (like you) who are not Christians, and I know some real asses who are Christians.

Zana said...

My niece is a pagan priestess, her sisters are also pagans. I only see them at weddings and funerals. They were at my daughters wedding this weekend. My daughter had one of her friends perform the ceremony. There was a Christian blessing in a nod to the grooms mother's beliefs but the ceremony, to me was much more profound with the friend. Later, at the reception, I overheard the nieces speculating on the beliefs of the bride and groom. They were pretty sure they were leaning pagan. This kind of made me mad because they were so hopeful,almost gleefull, at the thought they may believe as they 3 sisters do. They wanted the newly weds neatly fitted into a system of beliefs over the mindfullness in the way the newlyweds live their lives. Bottom line is do you live your beliefs rather than examine and criticize others beliefs. I once visited a lutheran church by invitation from a friend. I was a Realtor at the time. While still in the lobby, a realtor from another company approached me and asked "What are you doing here? we already have to many realtors here."

Janiece said...

Zana, the desire for in-group/out-of-group designations are frustrating, but understandable. One of the things I like about getting older is that such things are not as importable as they once were.

Random Michelle K said...

I heard and interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber a couple months ago, and immediately thought of you when I heard it.

I actually wondered if you'd find her services interesting, simply because she seems like such a grounded, down-to-earth, and centered person.