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Girls — maybe you should just stay at home . . .

Creepy Christian Patriarchy Movement Shackles Daughters to Their Fathers and Homes By Gina McGalliard, Bitch Magazine Posted on November 29, 2010, Printed on November 30, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/story/149022/   “Daughters aren’t to be independent. They’re not to act outside the scope of their father. As long as they’re under the authority of their fathers, fathers have the ability to nullify or not the oaths and the vows. Daughters can’t just go out independently and say, ‘I’m going to marry whoever I want.’ No. The father has the ability to say, ‘No, I’m sorry, that has to be approved by me.’” . There’s a lot of talk in American mainstream media lately about the diminishing role of men -- fathers, in particular. Have feminism and reproductive technology made them obsolete? Are breadwinning wives and career-oriented mothers emasculating them?

Assumptions: Our History of Religious Freedoms

Our assumptions chapter discusses what happens when we run across — and recognize — incongruities. Remember, an incongruity "is something that does not meet our expectations about what is correct, appropriate, logical, or standard."

Read the brief section on incongruities in the text (p. 152) and then read this article. What incongruities do you find here?

 

 

Philadelphia's Bible Riots of 1844 reflected a strain of anti-Catholic bias and hostility that coursed through 19th-century America

America's True History of Religious Tolerance

The idea that the United States has always been a bastion of religious freedom is reassuring—and utterly at odds with the historical record

By Kenneth C. Davis Smithsonian magazine, October 2010

Wading into the controversy surrounding an Islamic center planned for a site near New York City’s Ground Zero memorial this past August, President Obama declared: “This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are.” In doing so, he paid homage to a vision that politicians and preachers have extolled for more than two centuries—that America historically has been a place of religious tolerance. It was a sentiment George Washington voiced shortly after taking the oath of office just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

But is it so?

Assumptions and History: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Critical thinkers are truth-seekers. They don't like distortions, white-washes, or lies. They avoid knee-jerk jingoism (look it up) in favor of honest evaluation. They don't avoid the truth just because it is unpleasant. If  they have false assumptions, they would rather know the truth than believe a comforting fiction. 

Surprise -- The Very Dark Side of U.S. History

By Peter Dale Scott and Robert Parry, Consortium News
Posted on October 8, 2010, Printed on October 9, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148451/

Editor's Note: Many Americans view their country and its soldiers as the "good guys" spreading "democracy" and "liberty" around the world. When the United States inflicts unnecessary death and destruction, it's viewed as a mistake or an aberration.

In the following article Peter Dale Scott and Robert Parry examine the long history of these acts of brutality, a record that suggests they are neither a "mistake" nor an "aberration" but rather conscious counterinsurgency doctrine on the "dark side."

There is a dark -- seldom acknowledged -- thread that runs through U.S. military doctrine, dating back to the early days of the Republic.

This military tradition has explicitly defended the selective use of terror, whether in suppressing Native American resistance on the frontiers in the 19th Century or in protecting U.S. interests abroad in the 20th Century or fighting the "war on terror" over the last decade.

The American people are largely oblivious to this hidden tradition because most of the literature advocating state-sponsored terror is carefully confined to national security circles and rarely spills out into the public debate, which is instead dominated by feel-good messages about well-intentioned U.S. interventions abroad.

Over the decades, congressional and journalistic investigations have exposed some of these abuses. But when that does happen, the cases are usually deemed anomalies or excesses by out-of-control soldiers.

But the historical record shows that terror tactics have long been a dark side of U.S. military doctrine. The theories survive today in textbooks on counterinsurgency warfare, "low-intensity" conflict and "counter-terrorism."