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Editor: Duane Bates

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P. O. Box 1744

Greenville, SC 29602

May-June, 2009

The Voice of Sanity

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE UPSTATE S.C. SECULAR HUMANISTS

Visit our web-site for current and back-issues at: www.uscsh.org

e-mail: secularhmnst@aol.com

CALENDAR

UPCOMING BRUNCH

We combine the May and June meetings to only one brunch on the second Saturday of June. The brunch will be June 13th at 10:30 a.m. at Denny’s Restaurant at 2521Wade Hampton Blvd, Taylors.

There will no meetings after this brunch until our annual picnic on August 23^rd. Time and place of picnic will be announced in an upcoming edition of the VOS.

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FAITH HEALING

Lee Deitz

Christianity claims, through its founder, Jesus Christ, that faith heals! In Matthew 8:7 Jesus says he will “come and heal him (speaking of one in need of healing).” Jesus gave his 12 followers the power to heal in Matthew 10:1. On other occasions, Jesus allegedly healed those who were diseased.

Today, some TV evangelists claim to have a direct channel to God and have the ability to heal using vials of water. They parade vulnerable people across a stage and go through some motions that excite the audience into a frenzy and “heal” all kinds of maladies.

A recent news article reported that “Faith and religion may offer comfort to the sick and dying but there is not medical evidence that they cure disease or improve health.” The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center researchers who write in the British Medical Journal report that the evidence for religion and health is weak and inconsistent.

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to bring anyone forward who could prove beyond any doubt, that faith or religion has healed anyone. While I realize that the human spirit can work “miracles” for the human psychic, each individual has limited inward powers to change life’s directions and could possibly have an effect on health. But, it is a long stretch to believe that a “god force” can reach down through some religion (and there are thousands) and take a cancer out of a human body. Millions of human bodies are lying in hospitals, sick rooms, sanitariums and elsewhere, with diseases of every variety and modern medicine nor doctors have no solution to their healing. While the “religious healers” rake in millions of dollars touching the would-be-healed on the forehead and pace the platform promising healing, those sick millions lie in their respective death beds waiting for a cure. Wouldn't it make all the sense in the world, if the faith healers made a visit to the sick beds of those dying and “heal” them?

I posed the question to someone not long ago, “Do you know anyone who has been healed by faith (in god/religion)? That drove the point home! No one I have ever known, can positively point to a “faith healing.” Claims are made but relapses are inevitable.

Who should we trust? Medical science or your TV variety of “healers?” As for me and my house, we’ll trust the honest efforts of medical science and not the proven dishonesty of religion.

HATE GROUPS AND CHURCH ATTENDANCE

©R. Georges Delamontagne, April, 2009

According to statistics compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)[i], there were 926 active hate groups in the U.S. in 2008, which represented an increase of 4% over the 888 of 2007 and a 50% increase above the 602 identified in 2000. Of the various factors contributing to this growth, the SPLC singles out the rise in immigration and, more recently, the worsening economy and the election of our first black president.

Hate groups are classified by the SPLC into the following categories: Ku Klux Klan with 186 groups; Neo-Nazi, 196; White Nationalist, 111; Racist Skinhead, 98; Christian Identity, 39; Neo-Confederate, 93; Black Separatist, 113; and General Hate, 90.

The SPLC also provides a breakdown of hate groups by state. Not surprisingly, these data reveal that in general the largest states in terms of population size have the largest number of hate groups, while the smallest states have the fewest. For example, our largest state, California, with a 2008 population of 36,756,666, representing 11.95% of the U.S. total had the largest number of hate groups, 84, and Texas, the next largest, with 7.81% of the U.S. total population, had 66, the second largest number of hate groups.[ii] At the other extreme, were states like Alaska with .22% of the U.S. population with 0 hate groups; Hawaii at .42% also with 0; Maine at .43% with 1; and North Dakota .21% also with 1 hate group. Therefore, at first blush, one might be tempted to conclude that the size of the state population explains or accounts for the number of hate groups it will have. In short, the larger the state population the larger its number of hate groups.

This simple hypothesis may be tested by an equally simple statistical technique, namely that involving percentage comparisons. If we calculate: (a) the percentage of a state’s population size relative to the U.S. total population, as in the examples of the preceding paragraph; and (b) the percent that its number of hate groups are relative to the 926 U.S. total hate groups; (c) compare the percentages of (a) and (b); then (d) we may determine the extent to which state population size and hate group number are related. Again, using the example of California, we find the following: the state population is 11.95% of the U.S. total and its 84 hate groups represent 9.07% of the U.S. total [(84÷926) × 100 = 9.07%]. If we then take the ratio of the latter to the former (9.07%÷ 11.95%) or .76, we see that while the population and group percentages are similar (differing only by 11.95% – 9.07% = 2.88%), California actually has fewer hate groups than we would expect if the state’s percentage of hate groups were the same as its percentage of the U.S. population. If that were the case, then we would expect California to have (.1195 × 926) or 111 hate groups rather than the 84 it actually has. In this sense, we can say that hate groups in California are “underrepresented” in terms of the state’s population.

I have calculated these two sets of percentages with their corresponding ratios for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. While the details of all of these calculations are too space-consuming to reproduce here, I will share with you a major finding, namely, that the hate groups are more disproportionately overrepresented among the Southern States :

1. D.C., which has 8 hate groups, has the largest ratio of % hate groups relative to % population size (.86% ÷ .19%) = 4.53

2. South Carolina, with 45 hate groups, has the next largest ratio (4.86% ÷ 1.44%) = 3.38

3. Alabama, with 36, is next (3.89% ÷ 1.51%) = 2.58

4. West Virginia, with 14, at (1.51% ÷ .59%) =2.56

5. Mississippi, with 22, at (2.38% ÷ .95%) = 2.51

6. Arkansas, with 20, at (2.16% ÷ .93%) = 2.32

7. Montana, with 6, at (.65% ÷ .31%) = 2.10

8. Tennessee, with 38, at (4.10% ÷ 2.01%) = 2.04

Along with D.C. these are the only states that contain the largest proportionate number of hate groups, that is, those with a % hate group to % population ratio of 2.00 or higher. One could argue, for example, that D.C., with its ratio of 4.53, has more than 4 times its “fair share” of hate groups; South Carolina more than 3 times its fair share; Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia more than 2.5 times; and Arkansas, Montana, and Tennessee more than 2 times. The ratios of all other states are below 2.00, although Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and South Dakota are all between 1.50 and 1.99.

Interestingly, the states having the highest disproportionate share of hate groups also tend to be the most “religious,” as measured by church attendance.[iii] While 42% of Americans reported that they attended church “once a week” or “almost every week,” there was wide variation among states, the range extending from a high of 58% to a low of 24%. Of the eight above-mentioned states, Alabama and South Carolina residents attended church at a rate of 58% each, Mississippi was at 57%, Arkansas 55%, Tennessee 52%, West Virginia 46%, Montana 34%, and D.C. 33%. With the exception of Montana and D.C., states having more than their “fair share” of hate groups have church attendance rates above the national average, most notably in the South.

Isn’t religion supposed to be about love, not hate? Is one to “love thy neighbor” only if that person has the same skin color, has the same religious affiliation, and doesn’t speak English with an accent? Go figure.

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Thoughts on the $700 million the governor is refusing and the cutting of funds for education in this state.

Joyce Bates

Politicians and movers in industry tell us this state needs more economic development and job creation especially during these difficult times. They want to support and attract sophisticated businesses such as BMW and Michelin. The key word here is “sophisticated”. Ordinary people in the south historically have come up either from slavery, sharecropping, or working for low wages in industries such as paper, and textiles. They are not “sophisticated” and yes, they have needed education in the past and sorely need it now, not only for job skills, but for ways to more fully live their lives, as well.

It’s tough to convince many people that education isn’t boring or that “book learning” is important to getting a better life. Well, education is boring if it’s presented badly. As to book learning, it is important to realize that those with money and power have excellent book learning, which was and is instrumental in controlling those who don’t have it. That being said, it is still difficult to convince many the importance of obtaining something they have no experience of beforehand no matter where they come from.

I was persuaded to change my mind about the unimportance of learning when I was 11 years old. I was put in a class that was taught by what all us kids thought was the meanest teacher on earth. The scariest thing about this class was that every one of us had to give talks in front of the other students. Each semester we each had to give one talk lasting fifteen minutes, scheduled in the morning after recess, and one half hour talk in the afternoon. Reading from a report that was prepared beforehand didn’t count. That was a failing grade. We all had to “talk” about our subject and were encouraged to have pictures or examples to pass around the room. Years passed before I realized that these “talks” forced us to ferret out, and then organize information until we understood it well enough to just talk about it. And on top of that, talk about it in front of an audience. We were only 11 years old, but we all did it no matter how terrified we were. This was a wonderful tool I learned to use, and I would never have missed it if it hadn’t been for that awful teacher. I wonder how many elementary schools, burdened by shortages of money and time could afford to hire her now.

Whether it is balancing a checkbook, deciding how to discipline a four year old, going to the polls to vote, or, yes, speaking in front of a group of people, education and practice is required. Maybe being unaware of what we need to learn is a natural way to feel, but it is not a good way to survive. Turning away from new information and skills for solving problems means becoming prey to those who would take advantage of us.