There are three states where one can receive a phsyicians help to end one’s life: Washington, Oregon and Montana. Both Washington and Oregon have almost identical laws governing physician assisted suicide, including residency requirements. In Montana, the Montana Supreme Court ruling in the case of Baxter v Montana said that there are no laws in Montana that prevent a physician from helping his/her patient commit suicide if that is what the patient wants. In essence, the ruling in Montana protects physicians from prosecution for assisting suicides more than gives those seeking to end their lives a legal right to do so. Since Oregon passed its “death with dignity” act in 1998, approximately 400 people have made use of the lethal prescriptions.

This kind of physician assisted suicide is far different from the “assisted suicide” allegedly performed by a Minnesota man recently. In that case, a career nurse was charged with helping someone commit suicide over the internet by encouraging them to follow through on their decision to die and giving them pointers like, “You can easily hang from a door….” Additionally, this individual lied to the people he met online, saying he was someone he was not and entering into a suicide pact with them that they then followed through with and he did not.

In Washington and Oregon (it’s unclear yet what’s going to happen in Montana because the plaintiff in the case died the day the ruling was handed down and never knew about his court victory), there are very specific criteria to be met. One has to be diagnosed with a fatal disease that will result in one’s death within six months by two physicians. One must be a resident of the state over the age of 18. One must be of sound mind and able to make medical decisions for oneself and communicate those decisions to others. There are oral and written requests that must be made within a certain time frame. Precautions are taken so that the person isn’t dying due to pain or depression alone.

In some countries, like Sweden, even foreigners can purchase a lethal concoction that will end their lives. These countries are considering putting further limitations no their assisted suicide laws. In other countries, like Mexico, one can walk into a pet pharmacy and buy the chemical used to put animals to sleep. It works on humans too. There are even groups who cater to the so-called “death tourist” by providing them with information on where to purchase what is required.

But these groups want to take it beyond assisting those with fatal diseases. They  offer “exit guidance” not only to the terminally ill but to those who have decided that the quality of their life is not worth sticking around for. There’s even a book entitled “Final Exit” that explains how to take one’s life legally and not get one’s family in trouble for assisting with the suicide.

These groups have taken a new approach to spreading the word: billboards. In San Francisco and New Jersey, these billboards have been popping up, in part thanks to an anonymous donation by someone who supposedly made use of the information provided by these groups. Many religious organizations are protesting the billboards because it violates their beliefs about life and God. But then laws in this nation are not supposed to be based on the beliefs of any one faith.

I myself feel that if someone has decided they no longer want to live, and they can give you their reasons and they’re not suffering from depression or other mental illness, they should be free to end their life if that is what they want. (If there is a history of chonic depression that does not respond to treatment, even someone who is depressed should be able to choose physician assisted suicide.) My copy of “The Final Exit” burned up in the fire that destroyed our house, but I’ll get around to replacing it one day.

It’s been a busy couple weeks. Maybe month. I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like. But here’s the latest news affecting gays. Some good. Some not so good.

In early July, a federal judge declared the federal DOMA unconstitutional. (Yes, I already wrote about this here but it’s such big news I wanted to talk about it again. ) I can already hear the rrr screaming that he’s an activist judge but we’re still waiting to hear if the Obama administration will appeal the judge’s decision. However, it is a very strong step forward for the GLBT community.

The Presbyterian church is making small strides forward. Earlier this month, 53% of the delegates to their convention in Minneapolis voted to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy. However, they tabled a discussion and decision with respect to defining marriage as between two people instead of a man and a woman. And a majority of the 173 presbyteries in the country have to approve it before it becomes official policy, but at least for now, it’s another step forward for equal rights.

Another step forward comes in Washington, DC, where the District’s highest court ruled that a voter referendum could not take place on the issue of gay marriage, which became legal in DC earlier this year (March, to be exact.) The court said that a district human rights law bars voter initiatives that would create discrimination. (I, personally, thought that’s what the Constitution was there for, but what do I know….)

On the world front, Argentina becomes the tenth nation in the world to legalize gay marriage and gay adoption, despite the objections of the Catholic church in that country. Argentina becomes the first Latin American country to allow gay marriage.

While this doesn’t have to do with gay equality, it does affect the gay community, especially those living in poverty. A recent study has found that the rate of HIV infection is more likely to be tied to poverty than to race. Gay men still have the highest rate of infection. This new study seems to help explain why blacks have a rate of HIV infection that is about 8 times higher than whites and Latinos have a rate of infection about 3 times higher than whites: these minorities disproportionately tend to live in poorer neighborhoods and therefore have higher rates of infection. Just another reason to keep fighting to eliminate poverty as well.

Remember Candace, the young woman from Mississippi who wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom and wear a tuxedo? The school not only said no, but they staged an elaborate hoax by having an “alternative prom” to which Constance and six or seven other couples were invited while the rest of the school had their prom elsewhere. Well, the school has agreed to put a policy of non-discrimination into effect with respect to orientation and gender identity as well as pay the young woman $35ooo for the humiliation and harassment she suffered after the school canceled prom rather than allow her to go with her girlfriend. Congratulations, Constance!

Remember the story about Clay Greene and Harold Scull? They had been partners for 20 years and each had POA for the other. But when Scull fell down the stairs at their home, the county claimed that Scull told them that Greene had pushed him and so they went to court to become Scull’s guardian. In that role, they put him in a nursing home, not only kept Mr. Greene away from him but had him confined involuntarily to a different nursing home, falsely claiming he was suffering from dementia. While both men were in the nursing homes, the county seized their assets and auctioned off what they could sell and took control of the couple’s bank accounts. Well, the county and the nursing home where Mr. Greene was held have agreed to settle the case out of court. The county is refusing to admit any wrong-doing but is going to pay Mr. Greene $600,000, while the nursing home will toss in an additional $53,000. Of course, that doesn’t help Mr. Greene, who never again saw his partner of 20 years alive after he fell. But it does set a legal precedent with respect to the recognition of gay couple’s wishes as they near end of life.

Virginia is not known as a gay friendly place. It’s home to some of the most virulent anti-gay legislation and also home to Jerry Falwell’s “Liberty University”. So it was rather surprising that this study came out of the University of Virginia. It confirms what millions of gay parents already know: the fact that their gay does not adversely affect their child’s ability to adjust or to thrive in the world around him/her.

And finally, the small step back. The New Jersey Supreme Court today refused to grant an early hearing to the issue of gay marriage in that state. The case involved an attempt to get the Civil Union law replaced with a marriage law. But the court ruled that the case must be heard by the lower courts first.

Overall, a rather good month on the gay equality front! Let’s keep it that way!

There’s a wonderful article on by Robert Fisk that was originally published in The Independent in the UK. It talks about the use (and overuse) of the word “terror” in the media today and the semantics we get mired down in when discussing things like the Middle East “peace process”.

But this is nothing new here in the US. The use of semantics began a long time ago in US politics. Remember Nixon’s famous line, “I am not a crook!” Define crook….

Then we had the “hostage crisis” during Carter’s presidency that probably cost him reelection. Of course, Reagan was allegedly holding behind the scenes negotiations with the Iranians to sell them arms in exchange for the release of the hostages. And then that blossomed in the Iran- Contra scandal in which Reagan made his famous defense: “I don’t recall.”

Then there’s the first Gulf War when Bush jumped down Saddam’s throat when he invaded Kuwait despite the fact that the previous administration (Reagan) had pretty much given Saddam free rein because Iraq was in a war with Iran and we didn’t like Iran because they’d taken our embassy personnel hostage and had scandalized the Republican party yet again with criminal charges of top government officials. Reagan and Schultz gave Saddam the weapons that Bush II would later claim threatened US security.

Then of course there was Clinton. Who can forget his famous line: “It depends on what the meaning of the words ‘is’ is.” And the Republicans wasted tens of millions of tax-payer dollars trying to nail Clinton for lying about his personal affairs (and I don’t mean taxes or the hiring of illegal immigrants and forgetting to declare their salaries on your income tax). I think it was all so that the Republicans weren’t the only disgraced party.

And then…then you had the master of word manipulation. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement— Bush was probably the most oratorically challenged president we’ve ever had. He even put Dan Quayle to shame.  So let me rephrase that. You had the misadministration whose speech writers were experts at twisting words and manipulating the national subconscious through the power of words. After 9/11, when Bush’s ratings began to fall, all he had to do was claim they thwarted another attempt of terrorists to attack this country and his ratings would soar once again.

Bush made terrorism a “fun game” with his “most-wanted” deck of cards.

If he wanted a piece of legislation passed, all he had to do was find some way to tie it to “protecting America” and no member of Congress would dare vote against it for fear of public backlash and losing their reelection.

The misnamed PATRIOT Act and PATRIOT II were shoved through Congress without anyone reading the entire act. To vote against it would have been seen as being helping the terrorists, something Bush often accused his opponents of doing. After all, if you weren’t with us, you were against us!

So while I’m glad the rest of the world is finally realizing how politicians and the media have been manipulating the world through their choice of words, it’s something I’ve been saying for a long time.

I wrote this a while ago, but it’s still relevant, I believe.

The Parable

Linda has three children: 4 year old Joe, 10 year old Susan and 16 year old Jim. Linda has to run some errands and she’s going to leave the three kids at home. So she finds Joe and she tells him, “I’m going out for a while. While I’m gone, listen to your brother. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t let anyone in the house. Don’t go outside. Don’t turn on or use the stove or the microwave. Don’t rough-house and don’t fight with your brother or sister. I’ll see you in a little while. I love you.”

Then she goes and finds Susan and tells her, “I’m going out for while. While I’m gone, Jim is in charge. Don’t leave the yard. Don’t fight with your brother and don’t monopolize the phone. No friends over while I’m gone. I’ll see you when I get home. I love you.”

Then she finds Jim and says, “I’m going out for while. Keep and eye on your brother and sister and behave. I’ll see you in a little bit. I love you.”

Fifteen minutes after Linda leaves, the phone rings. Susan answers it and calls for Jim. Jim talks for a while and then hangs up. Joe finds Susan and says to her, “You’re going to get in trouble. Mom said don’t answer the phone!” Susan shakes her head and goes to her room.

Ten minutes later, there’s a knock at the door and Jim answers it. He let’s his friend Adam come inside. The two of them go into the kitchen to make lunch for everyone. While the water heats up on the stove, Jim thaws out some hotdogs in the microwave. Jim and Adam, who are both in wrestling, begin to practice some moves in the living room.

Susan comes in and asks if she can use the phone and Jim says “Sure, but don’t be on too long.” Joe follows Susan into the family room where she picks up the cordless phone so she can sit on the sofa. Joe says, “Mom said not to use the phone! You are gonna be in big trouble. And so is Jim because he’s rough-housing with Adam and he let him in the house and he’s using the stove and the microwave.” And all the time he’s talking, Susan’s trying to hear what her friend is saying on the phone. Joe goes on and on about how much trouble they’re going to be in and Susan finally gets up and walks outside onto the back porch so she can hear what her friend is saying. Joe runs into the kitchen yelling for Jim. “Susan went outside and she’s not allowed!” Joe says. Jim smiles, tells Joe not to worry about it and finishes making lunch for everyone.

Half an hour later, Linda comes home and Joe runs up to her saying, “Mommy, Jim and Susan broke all the rules and they’re going to get in trouble, right?”

But of course they don’t get in big trouble because while the rules for each child are different, the GOAL of those rules is the same: to protect the children from harm. There has to be different rules for the different maturity levels of the children. God is no different. He knows we all have different spiritual maturity levels and that we therefore need different rules. He knows that there are a lot of people who don’t know what “Behave!” means. Of course, God’s equivalent of “Behave!” are the two greatest commandments: Love God with all your heart and Love your neighbor as yourself. God even tells us that the goal of ALL the rules/laws/prophecies that have ever been handed down is to teach us to Love when Yeshua adds in Matt. 22:40: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. God knows that some people don’t know how to Love someone (or even how to love themselves) so he tells us: don’t murder them, don’t lie about them, don’t steal from them, don’t covet their things, don’t covet their wife… You get the picture, I’m sure.

Essentially, the two greatest commandments are simply another way to phrase the Golden Rule, a rule which has been found in virtually every faith known to modern man. It first appeared in the Hindu Vedic scriptures about 3000 BC, and it appeared in Jewish scripture in about 1300 BC and in Christian teachings after the writing of the Bible. It also appears in Buddhist and Islamic scriptures as well. It is the universal truth: Treat others as you want to be treated. You’ll notice it is a unilateral command. It doesn’t say “Treat others as you want to be treated only if they treat you that way first.” Or “only if they’re of the same faith” or “only if you like them” or “only if they don’t hurt you” or “only if” anything. It means you do it no matter HOW they treat you, whether you like them or not, whether they’re the same faith or not, whether they are your friend or your enemy: you treat them the way YOU want to be treated. And at the root, we all want to  be treated exactly the same way: we want to live our lives as we see fit according to the beliefs we hold dear without interference from someone else. (Kind of like the founding father’s unalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, huh?)

Part of the reason it’s costing so much to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan is that certain military personnel in charge of handing out the funds are taking kickbacks and bribes. Contractors are stealing or conspiring to steal supplies paid for by the US citizens. Corruption is apparently a growing trend.

Now, mind you, I’m absolutely not suggesting that military personnel should steal or condoning what is happening. But given the fact that many of the people stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan are National Guard and that many of them have lost their higher civilian salaries because they’re not working at their civilian jobs. Some of them even lost their jobs, although it is now illegal thanks to legislation passed by the US Congress. Most of  them signed up to be weekend warriors, not to spend a year or more in the Middle East. The resulting pay cut means that their families back home are often in danger of losing their homes. And many already have. (The obscene power given home owner’s associations is another story in and of itself.)

Additionally, military salaries are not all they’re cracked up to be, especially for the enlisted men/women. My son joined the Air Force in 2007. Taken out of  his pay were costs for uniforms, cleaning of uniforms, dorm room, food and the GI Bill! That doesn’t leave one with much money for other bills one might have, especially if they’ve got a spouse and children. (He was sucked in by the claims of how much money he was going to make every month…and yes, he made that much. But they never told him what he’d have taken out every month as well. Don’t get me started on military recruiting tactics.)

Given these two factors as well as the reputation of the military for paying outrageous sums of money for simple items, it’s easy to see why someone would be tempted to engage in fraud and corruption. Again, not that I’m condoning it. And I’m glad the government is cracking down cause we’re gonna be in both places for a long time…

There is a legal substance consisting of spice and synthetic marijuana (which for some reason is not illegal) that goes many names. It works much like pot but it has some nasty side-effects as well. Some that may even cause you to do something like commit suicide.

The fact that some spent time figuring out how to put together a pot substitute that was entirely legal as well as the epidemic of huffing going on shows that people are going to get high one way or the other! You’re not going to stop them. And as long as they’re not doing something that can hurt anyone else, you really don’t have the right to try. It is their unalienable right to get high if that’s what they choose (pursuit of happiness).

So rather than waste all that money trying to stop what you’re never gonna stop, why not legalize all drugs, save tens of billions every year and make tens of billions every year in new tax revenue. Not to mention all the other bonuses mentioned in my earlier blog post about the drug war.

I saw a bumper sticker recently that reads “The thing about Viet Nam is that it so many who survived it.”

For those who grew up during Viet Nam, who had loved ones who served over there, they understand the damage and destruction it wreaked in the lives of those who came back. Whether they died from cancer from Agent Orange or from suicide due to PTSD, there are thousands of other names who should, but all rights, be added to the Wall.

Now it seems that the same thing is happening due to the prolonged wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Marines who have returned from those war zones are attempting suicide at unheard of rates despite specific efforts to target those thought to be most at risk. The Army reported a record number of suicides in June. Twenty-two of the thirty-two suicides in June were combat veterans. Ten of those veterans had been deployed at least twice and as many as four times.

Not only are suicides taking a hidden toll, but more than 13,ooo Army soldiers are unfit for active duty in a war zone. And that’s just the Army! With so many unfit soldiers, army units are undermanned, which means that the chances of something going wrong on a mission increase because they’re short staffed.

It’s time to get out of both Iraq and Afghanistan with our military forces, but we need to maintain financial responsibility to repair all the damage we’ve caused in our illegal— and in the case of Iraq, unprovoked—  invasions of both nations. And that must include ongoing health care for those affected by the depleted uranium bombs we dropped by the tons, which will continue to affect the people of these lands for the foreseeable future.

Peace is not treason. And peace won by force will never last. Bring our troops home and give them the medical care and mental health care they need.

According to The Daily Collegian Online, the US has about 90 guns per 100 residents. While we account for only about 5% of the world’s population, we account for 35-50% of the world’s private gun ownership. Gun owners would have you think this is a great thing! That it helps protect us from crime! And yet the US also has the highest rate of incarceration for its citizens, far outstripping even China! One quarter of the world’s entire prison population is imprisoned in the US.

Now, industry insiders are saying that gun sales are going to start climbing because of a recent Supreme Court ruling regarding the second amendment and Chicago’s 28-year ban on handguns. Just what we need! More handguns in the hands of more people!

Handguns have only one purpose: to kill/injure/threaten other people. They’re not good for hunting animals. They’re made specifically to kill/injure/threaten other human beings. And now there’s going to be more of them.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time.

Ever hear of the “Stolen Valor Act”? Neither had I until I read this story about a man who claimed to be a Marine who served in Iraq and won a silver star and a purple heart. He was not. And he was charged and prosecuted under the 2005 “Stolen Valor Act” signed into law by George W. Bush. The measure passed the US Senate unanimously, which is a very scary thought to me because it shows that no one in the Senate was willing to stand up for our unalienable rights.

But I digress.

The judge in this case threw out the Stolen Valor Act by declaring it an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. The judge also said that the government didn’t show a compelling reason for not allowing people to make false claims (unlike the compelling reason of preventing panic that makes it illegal to scream “Fire” in a crowded building when there is no fire.) And the judge is absolutely correct!

I understand there’s emotional outrage that those who actually earned the medals and honors must feel when some impostor shows up making false claims. But truth of the matter is, no one is being harmed by those false claims without their tacit consent. If someone claiming to be a hero asks you to give him money, and you do based on his claims, that’s on you! Check out his story before giving him money. Despite all the claims to privacy, that’s not too hard to do when you’re talking about things like military service. If you don’t check it out, then you tacitly give consent for him to take advantage of you. Laws cannot be based on the fact that some might be offended by what you do. That’s like creating thought police.

Now, if the man produces documentation like a DD-214, then he’s crossed the line to fraud by fabricating false documentation. But if he’s just saying it, and has nothing to back up his claims, then he’s committed no crime. You might be angry if you gave him money and you might feel that he deserves to go to jail, but as PT Barnum is credited (some say erroneously) with once saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Just because you’re this minute’s sucker doesn’t mean that someone committed a crime.

It won’t be long until someone in the rrr is calling the judge an “activist judge” for upholding the US Constitution….

between standing up for one’s own beliefs and mocking another’s.

Recently, a group of atheists have been using hair dryers to conduct an “unbaptism”.

I need to say two things.

First, the real problem in our society with respect to personal beliefs is not any belief system in particular. It is fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believe that there was is THE right way and THE only way and that everyone who believes differently is either stupid or damned. In my own life, I have encountered as many rabid fundamentalist atheists as I have rabid fundamentalist Christians.

Second, I realize the definition of atheism is a lack of belief in a deity. And that technically, it does NOT say “God does not exist.” But the vast majority of atheists I have met have been those who are so turned off by fundamentalist theology (particularly, in the US, fundamentalist Christianity) that they say they are atheists and that there is no such thing as a god. In truth, they haven’t really explored other options. They simply disagree with the God of fundamentalist Christians and so say he doesn’t exist. I realize that’s a sweeping statement, but I have yet to encounter an atheist who has not explained his/her atheistic stance based on his/her disagreement with the Christian Bible.

I am also aware that you cannot prove that something does not exist. For example, I can’t prove that superminiature flying elephants with orange stripes who live under mushrooms that grow in pine forests don’t exist because one could always be under the next mushroom! But to say that God does not exist is a statement of faith as much as to say that God does exist because neither can be proven. Faith is, by definition, belief in that which is beyond proof and/or in spite of “evidence” to the contrary.

OK, so let’s get back to the article.

These atheists are conducting their “unbaptism” with a hair dryer that is labeled “Reason and Truth”. As if what everyone else believes is a lie. While I cannot offer anyone objective, scientific proof for my beliefs in a creative force I call God’dess (yes, that’s the way I have chosen to start spelling it because the slash seems to indicate either one gender or the other and I believe that this creative force is of no particular gender), I have plenty of personal proof. I personally believe that most people who makes a statement of faith actually feel as if their statement is one of knowledge, not faith because they have their personal proof(s). I’m sure that these atheists believe that their beliefs are not subject to speculation because they’re based on “reason and truth” and reason is based on logic and logic is objective in the sense that it does not depend on personal points of view. And reason does depend on logic. But truth does not always do so. The two cannot always be used interchangeably and the two are not always synonymous.

However, in the case of some of these atheists, their “reason” is not even logical. Take the quote by Cambridge Boxterman.

According to my mother I screamed like a banshee, and those are her words, so you can see that even as a young child I didn’t want to be baptized. It’s not fair. I was born atheist and they were forcing me to become Catholic.

This statement is full of logical fallacies.

As a young child (and while I can’t be certain, knowing that Catholics baptize infants, I’d say “young child” is a bit of a stretch since it gives the impression that there was a chance that she could reason at that age), I’d be willing to bet what she was screaming about was having water poured on her head by a stranger. I’m pretty certain she had no idea she was being baptized or had any concept of what baptism was or even what religion or God was. She probably didn’t even understand what “parent” meant. Her understanding at that age was probably no more than simplistic recognition that her mother or father was the one to feed her and clothe her and comfort her. It does not logically follow from the fact that when a child screams during a baptism that  it means they don’t want to be baptized.

The second logical fallacy is her statement that she was born an atheist. Atheism, like any other belief system, is a matter of “choice” in that sense that it is a product of one’s life experiences and one’s intellectual processes and emotional and/or spiritual needs. (I put “choice” in quotes because I personally could not choose to believe in the God of modern Christianity. He makes no sense to me. But then again, neither does atheism.) Perhaps a better way to put it would be that one’s belief system is the result of an ongoing process called “living” and that, like all living things, it is constantly evolving and being refined.

While I agree with many of the things Edwin Kagin, national legal director of American Atheists, has to say, I do not agree with his mocking of other faiths. Simply because he does not need to hold onto a certain belief about God does not mean others do not because everyone has different spiritual needs and there are varying levels of spiritual maturity. (Mind you, I am NOT saying, hinting, insinuating or otherwise suggesting that atheism is better than a theological belief system.) To mock another’s beliefs is no different than mocking another’s race or height or physical abilities. It’s just not a polite, courteous, caring, compassionate or loving thing to do. And it turns off more people than it appeals to, I believe.

Of course, Mr. Kagin doesn’t care who he offends and says he’s acting completely within his rights. Yes, he is. But simply because one has the right to say offensive things doesn’t mean that one should. There’s this thing called karma…cause and effect…what goes around comes around…call it what you will. Of course, that’s part of my personal belief system and Mr. Kagin would say there’s no proof that such a thing as karma exists. In fact, he’d probably point to thousands of cases in which it appears as if karma was thwarted: unsolved murder, rape or abduction cases; the Holocaust; ethnic cleansings the world over, random acts of nature that destroy entire families or communities. Of course, all that’s based on the assumption that there is no such thing as reincarnation and that karma isn’t carried over from one lifetime to the other.

Mr. Kagin makes his own logically challenged statement when he says,

If someone is so secure in their faith, why are they the least bit concerned about some little atheist mocking them? [...] I think the reason they are worried and concerned is the very deep fear that if everyone doesn’t believe it, maybe it isn’t so.

I don’t give a rat’s behind what Mr. Kagin thinks of my faith. What concerns me about Mr. Kagin and his colleagues is that they think so little of their fellow human beings’ heartfelt beliefs that they mock them on a regular basis. That shows a level of uncaring for and, for some, superiority over those who hold a theologically based belief system.

I personally do not care if anyone else believes what I believe. In fact, I don’t think it’s possible because all of us have different needs in terms of our spiritual lives. And no two individuals have the same life experiences and therefore no two individuals will have the same spiritual needs and therefore no one faith will fit everyone or even most people. One’s spiritual beliefs are highly personal and Mr. Kagin’s lack of respect for his fellow human beings is disheartening.

I really don’t see much difference between Mr. Kagin’s brand of fundamentalism and that of fundamentalist Christians in the US like Pat Robertson or James Dobson.