More Holy Crap

I'm sure there's a website or a blog that catalogues the outrages of organized religion; Dog knows there's plenty of it every day. And this story must top the chart for the day.

WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- The pastor of a church that has stopped letting women teach Sunday school said that won't affect his decisions as a city councilman in upstate New York.

Rev. Timothy LaBouf dismissed a female Sunday School teacher this month, saying a woman can perform any job -- outside the church.

The First Baptist Church in Watertown dismissed Mary Lambert Aug. 9 after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible.

The reverend recently dismissed Lambert, who had taught Sunday school for 54 years, citing the biblical advice of the apostle Paul: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

Lambert has publicly criticized the decision.

The church board said other issues were behind Lambert's dismissal, but it did not say what they were.

LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman.

"I believe that a woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to" outside the church, LaBouf wrote Saturday.

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

Here's an idea: let's pass a law that says it is illegal for any member of the clergy to hold a position of power in any government entity. After all, separation of church and state, right? Besides, these humble ministers of the Gospel should be more concerned about leading their own flock of gullible faithful followers and leave the governing of the city to people who are at least grounded in the 20th century, not the 13th. Outrageous? You bet. But so is Mr. LaBouf and his medieval interpretation of fairy tales and superstition.

The Christian conservatives all whimper and whine that there's an "anti-Christian" bias in this country. Aside from that being the most steaming pile of sulphurous bullshit to hit the floor in this century, it's things like the dismissal of Mrs. Lambert that make people, including some of those to whom their faith means a great deal, shudder with revulsion at the things that are done in the name of religion. Forget gay marriage, stem cells, or abortion. This is the kind of sanctimonious bigotry that makes the average American sneer at the Religious Reich, and it just goes to show you why we really need the wall that separates the church from the state.