Newbie (to the site, not atheism)

[kimmance]

Hello all, I'm brand new here and posted over on another topic and MommaSquid called me out on bad manners. :oops: So I'm here to introduce myself somewhat properly...

First off, I was raised by jackals, er, I mean fundamentalist evangelicals who after a stint with the 'name it and claim it' movement landed in Ted Haggard's mega-church in Colorado. (Yes, the now famous church with a recent shooting and their founding pastor ousted for methamphetamine and male prostitute-use.) I was there through my teenage years and actually knew Ted quite well.

I now am now happily free from religion and would like to share the wealth. Besides working in politics, I'm also a writer and have started doing opinion pieces on religion for major outlets. Always looking for interesting viewpoints who don't get a voice in the mainstream media.

Among my interests in helping change public opinion about atheism, I'm also very interested in also discontinuing the tax-exempt status of religious institutions. I'm also working on a book and my offline-activities often center around stopping their horrid practice of indoctrinating children and further, the teachings that women are are less valuable than men.

Um, and I love chocolate. With a passion. I have three kids, an ex-husband, an Indiana-Jones type scientist boyfriend and a new kitten who keeps scratching the crap out of my couch. (Trying to lighten it up a bit--I work in DC and sometimes we get pre-occupied with activism.) I'm looking forward to meeting kindred spirits on the forum. Well, actually, I like arguing too, so if you disagree about something, get ready for my views .

Oh, and I have a newly-launched blog called Religiarchy.

[MommaSquid]

Thanks for the awesome intro, Kim.  See how easy that was.  

[Whitney]

Thanks for the intro and welcome to the forum, kim.

[McQ]

Welcome to the forum, Kim, and thanks for the introduction. I look forward to reading the link you posted in the other thread.

Finally, another east-coast-er! I was feeling all alone over here. I happen to live in a town with a chocolate factory, too. Yeah, life is good here. All that cocoa smell drifting down....

[rlrose328]

Welcome, Kim!  Fascinating story... and I, too, love chocolate.  :-)

[kimmance]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

rlrose328, nice that we have not only godlessness, but chocolate in common  .

And McQ, way to make me all jealous...now I have to go rummage through the kitchen to see if there's any chocolate.

[Mister Joy]

Hello and welcome, Kim.  Unless you're talking about those chocolate coated coffee beans that you can buy in bags from certain places... I do like those. I also miss the whole chocolate+peanut butter thing that you guys have over there. Mention chocolate and peanut butter in the same sentence here and people will assume that you're either pregnant or 'special'. It's like ice cream on pizza; doesn't make any sense to us.

[McQ]

Wow, Kim! Impressive site, blog and job you have there! Seeing the members of the Council of Women World Leaders really got my attention.

So, do you shoot pool with Angela Merkel, and play golf with Mary McAleese?
 

Seriously, your job has to be great. Very fascinating. I am very sad about Benazir Bhutto's murder and a bit scared for the future of Pakistan (and us as well).

Would love to hear more about your work.

Also, I hope your six year old is getting the best treatment and care for his cancer. You're in a town with some great oncologists, and you have a lot of resources there.

[kimmance]

Mister Joy, thanks for the message. But it's really unfortunate to hear about the dislike of chocolate. My, my. Perhaps you should see a doctor about that  .

I only wish our good 'ol American evangelicals were as harmless and nominal as your upbringing proved to be in the UK... If you haven't yet, you should really see the documentary film Jesus Camp. It's one example of an extremely disturbing and very common practice among a large portion of practicing Christians here. I was sent to camps like that as a child. Thankfully I'm very strong-headed!

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rlrose328, I love your atheist quotes website.

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Thanks McQ. I really do enjoy my job (and my new lovechild, the blog). It is kind of stunning to see just how many women have lead their country, but usually people can only bring to mind Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, or Angela Merkel. Nice one, bringing out Mary McAleese .

In fact, as part of my religiarchy survey I asked people how many women had ever been democratically elected as a president or prime minister of their country (just out of curiosity)...  67% of them thought there were less than 10. In fact there have been 53!!  

No playing pool yet (dammit) and I haven't met all of the Council Members so far, but I did meet Benazir in October and was really upset about her assassination. Pakistan is now totally destabilized and sitting on a bunch of nukes with al queda hiding out there because W didn't want to piss of Musharraf by asking him WTF?? Nice job "Decider."

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia was super awesome, as are most of the others I've spent time with. Kim Campbell former prime minister of Canada is a kickass riot.  It's funny to see the difference of how they are on TV, compared with how they are in person, letting their guard down a bit. But that's like any of the bigwigs in DC too, they're all just people too. Well, people with PR handlers and speech writers.

The coolest part is that I can never lazily answer my phone at work, because I never know who it's going to be. If it's not a president's office, it's a member of the press. One day it was Maureen Dowd (from NY Times). I gave no comment, ick. She's a disaster. Sorry, not trying to obnoxiously namedrop, you asked...

Thanks for the kind words re my son. He's seen just about everybody here and has some good doctors, but his condition is terminal. I've actually started doing a couple of days a week of my work from home since he's often not feeling well and they really don't know how long he has left; it's a rare disease and sort of complex to predict.

[tacoma_kyle]

I saw the trailer to that Jesus Camp vid---holy shit! lol

[Mister Joy]

I saw the trailer to that Jesus Camp vid---holy shit! Literally!

Similar reaction, yeah. I've nothing better to do so I've ordered it online.

Mister Joy, thanks for the message. But it's really unfortunate to hear about the dislike of chocolate. My, my. Perhaps you should see a doctor about that.

Don't try to indoctrinate me!

I only wish our good 'ol American evangelicals were as harmless and nominal as your upbringing proved to be in the UK... If you haven't yet, you should really see the documentary film Jesus Camp. It's one example of an extremely disturbing and very common practice among a large portion of practicing Christians here. I was sent to camps like that as a child. Thankfully I'm very strong-headed!

I'm surprised that stuff like that doesn't put kids off religion... then again if you have Christian parents who force you into things like this then I guess you'd feel kind of obliged to conform because there's nobody else to turn to.

[kimmance]

I saw the trailer to that Jesus Camp vid---holy shit!

[SteveS]

Hello Kim - welcome to the forum!  Thanks for the great intro.

I'm also very interested in also discontinuing the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.

This is a really interesting idea.  How goes the battle?

[MommaSquid]

Kim, I just checked out your blog and website and I am impressed.  Not only are you intelligent, beautiful, employed by a worthwhile organization, and the mother of three children...but you have time to come here and talk with us!  

I feel totally lazy and inferior.  I think I'll go take a nap.  

[kimmance]

MommaSquid - You kill me. Your blog is funny too.

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This is a really interesting idea. How goes the battle?

SteveS  - Well, it's only just begun. I'm turning in an article tonight to The Guardian UK about fundamentalist US churches' teachings on women (I say they treat them like veal -- which they do), and say it's state-sponsored misogyny since they are allowed to do it with tax-exempt status.

I'll let you know how that goes!  I may get eaten alive by the Brits, or they may support the idea, who knows... What do you think Mister Joy?