"Prayer Costs Women $1,734 Annually," Say Researchers
Religion makes the gender wage gap even worse.
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Did you vote? Are you going to vote? Go vote.
I'll be watching everything from home tomorrow, but approximately 12 years ago, I was in a crowded sea of strangers in Grant Park in Chicago. I arrived a little before the official announcement (in the video below) was made. I’ve never seen that many total strangers high-fiving and hugging each other, witnessing a moment many people never thought they'd see.
(That’s not my video. But I’m in that crowd somewhere.)
When I was walking the mile or so back to my car that night, after Obama delivered his speech, I witnessed something else that surprised me: It was unusually quiet. Rather than celebrating and cheering, people were just in total shock. It was like a sudden release after eight years of political frustration and it arrived with the first Black president.
Tomorrow night, even if it goes well, won’t be the same for obvious reasons. (Yet still historical if Kamala Harris becomes Vice President-elect.) But I hope people will be able to exhale and start thinking about how we can improve our future instead of constantly fearing our present.Need more motivation to vote? Read this thread:
Two researchers have dug further into pay inequality between men and women and found that the more religious an area is, the greater its gender wage gap. Their findings, published in Academy of Management Journal, show that in the least religious countries, women earn 75% of men's salaries, compared to women earning 46% of men’s salaries in the most religious countries. The trend is similar when comparing U.S. states based on religiosity— and as the wage gap decreases, the most religious states are closing the gap to a lesser degree.
At this rate, the most religious states won’t close the pay gap until 2129. That is, if we don’t work to remedy this.
Yet another right-wing pastor who carried on with maskless, non-socially distant church services has caught COVID.
Back in March Pastor Rick Joyner claimed the U.S. and North Korea had the lowest COVID death rates (not true) because they “are the two strongest nations in prayer.” And now he has tested positive for the virus and is symptomatic, according to a public statement. Interestingly enough, he has very good medical care. Apparently prayer is not the protective force field Joyner thinks it is.
We do hope he recovers, even if he attributes prayer to his survival.Religious Right pseudo-historian David Barton wants you to vote for the adulterous presidential candidate who will strip away LGBTQ rights, because gay people in monogamous relationships are (wait for it) adulterous.
Pastor Daniel Chalmers, the man who mistook a fellow flight passenger for a urinal earlier this month, isn’t getting any free passes for his deed.
The woman he peed on has filed a $2,000,000 lawsuit against him and his ministry, Love Wins Ministries, for “hiring a pastor … who lacked the appropriate skill and/or knowledge to not urinate on others.”
“Catch the Fire” church, his employer, also made a public statement announcing that they were accepting his resignation.A Latvian Jehovah’s Witness family just won a major victory in their religious discrimination case against their nation’s Ministry of Health, which refused to pay for the family to travel to Poland so their child could have specialized heart surgery. (It’s not a done deal, but this was an important win.)
Normally, Latvia’s universal healthcare would have covered such a procedure, but all hospitals performing the necessary surgery within the nation require a blood transfusion, something that is strictly forbidden in the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Instead of let the child die, which is a choice some JWs have made for their children, the family traveled to Poland where the surgery is available without a blood transfusion.
We’re glad the child appears to be healthy now, but let’s not ignore how his family’s religion took him within an inch of his life when all the necessary medical procedures were readily available at home, at no cost to the family.A quick note: We may or may not send out a newsletter tomorrow night BECAUSE OF ALL THE THINGS but if our minds are elsewhere, you’ll get an even bigger one on Wednesday!
WEEKEND QUICKIES
Glenn Beck warns: “We are not fighting the Democrats; we are fighting Satan himself.”
Right-wing radio host E.W. Jackson says “I don’t believe he can influenced by money or power or fame …” about Donald Trump, who’s only motivation for anything is money, power, and fame.
Canada’s federal conversion therapy ban has passed its second reading, while the Conservative Party of Canada grumbled in opposition.
Conversion therapy is rooted in the harmful premise that one’s sexual orientation or gender identity could and even should be changed. Our legislation will criminalize efforts to force someone to change or hide who they are. While Conservatives couch their support for conversion therapy behind misleading arguments, on this side, we will always stand up for the rights of Canadians. —Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Some Christian parents in North Carolina are suing Lake Norman Charter School over a poetry book on a ninth-grade reading list they call “a frontal assault on Christian beliefs and values.”