The Christian Taliban

[greatbear]

(Warning - What follows is a personal opinion of mine which most likely will offend those more devout Christians among my friends list and other readers. However, if anyone in my list seriously believes that which is detailed in the following article is good for this country and good for me as well, then you best 'defriend' me now.)

I had come to view this current administration as the worst thing to happen to this country since 9/11 itself, and I have been following a lot of what this self-righteous lame excuse of an administration has been doing to totally fuck up the U.S. from the inside out. But reading it all so well-summarized in an AlterNet article (thanks joedecker)really pissed me off tonight. I'm seeing red.

Progress in health and reproductive safety and research that has taken decades to reach current levels is being wiped out not unlike thousand year-old monuments dynamited by Taliban extremists in Afghanistan. Worthless religious dogma and empty ideas are replacing sound scientific practice. History is being rewritten or quietly 'lost'. Stuffing people's heads full of Jesus has become a government sponsored cure-all for whatever problems one might have. Separation of church and state? Not in THIS administration!

Some people need to wake up and smell the fucking anthrax.

You cannot tell me that what is going on over in Iraq is anything less than a holy war with oil as a nice big bonus. It did not take long for some missionaries to start their meddlesome ways over there before they got blown away. Too bad, so sad, kthxbye. Now you can be martyrs. It's the ultimate compliment.

I am sick to death of the persecution complex being foisted upon the public as a whole by far-right crazies and their twisted beliefs. It's gone too far and then some. Their belief system has brought persecution to the forefront as another form of "either you are with us or against us". Not "pro-Christian"? Well, by GOD you must be AGAINST it and for all it stands for. Fuck you. I leave you to your beliefs and respect them up until the point you try to directly or indirectly affect me with them. Then it's time for the gloves to come off. Persecuted? You don't know what it's like. And no, it's not detailed in the almost pornographic bloodfest currently raking in tons of money in the theaters. That's fantasy. That's a guilt trip. That SHOULD be a lesson to not let certain things happen, but it's not taken that way. For the far right wingnut, it's something that happened personally, to them, and those not on their side must suffer. Persecution is their divine sign that they are right and everyone else is wrong. The belief system revolves around it. Without constant signs of real (rare) and/or imagined (mostly) persecution, it would invalidate the foundations of the system.

We constantly hear about 'radical Muslims' being at the root of our current war on terrorism, etc. No one ever mentions the idea of 'radical Christianity' and it's place in this conflict. Think of it this way. Not always does a conflict erupt between extreme opposites. In many cases, it's because the two conflicting parties are too much the same. Opposites at first glance, but often at the core very similar, if not on the same page. Both parties have the same ideals, but are of a different color, polarization, angle, whatever. Factor religion into the arguement, and you can toss all logic out the window. Religion abhors logic and reason. It's faith, after all. Don't question it, because you will no longer be on their side, you will be against them.

The current environment of broad revisions made on ill-defined moral grounds are doing extreme, almost irreparable damage to our society. Religion needs to stay out of government for obvious reasons. America was not founded as a Christian nation. 'In God We Trust' was not on our currency from the beginning, and 'under God' was not a part of the Pledge from the start either. These were added in the mid 1950s after constant urgings by bishops and other religious figures as a swipe at so-called 'Godless Communism'. Any wonder why so many of the far-right look back so longingly at the '50s and wish a return to those ideals? White man in power, women home in the kitchen, McCarthy and his crusades, lots of defense spending. Gun in the holster, God by your side. You know the drill.

I hope that sane people finally wake up and do the right thing and remove these people from power and work to changes things back and for the better. If not, then America will be much like Israel and similar nations where terrorist attacks are almost a daily occurance. The news will be filled with blown up buses, bombed shopping malls and clubs, etc. Extreme government provoking extreme retaliation. From those who are so different. And so much the same.

Comments

that...

[leatherotter.livejournal.com]

is soooo disgusting...

unfortunately I wonder if it's not already too late for us (as a nation) having provoked a lot of anti-American sentiments... :(

though I wasn't aware of the origins of 'In God We Trust' nor the 'under God' part. that's definitely a useful tidbit to know.

Great topic for Good Friday

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Kudos.

It's worthy to note that the majority of the "Framers" were not Christians as mistakenly claimed by 'Christ-Insanity' suffering Jihadi/Wahabi[1] Christians. They were Deists: "a person who believes in the existence of a remote, unknowable deity, usually male, who created the universe, but has not been involved with it since. Most of the politicians who founded America were Deists."

My favorite "Christianity" quote is attributed to Ghandi. He is reported to have said that he thought Christianity was one of the world's great religions, and had considered becoming one were it not for the christians he had met.

I have a problem with the 'don't question' mindset I witness in so many Xtians. I have always believed true faith comes from questioning one's beliefs, then having the FAITH to believe you are correct absent any proof. To not question, to believe lock-step what you are told, is not faith, it's cultism. Hence my name for their malady, The Cult of Christ-Insanity.

John Shelby Spong, retired Bishop of Newark, and I believe one of the great theologians of our time, summed up my feelings regarding these "protectors of the past" in his weeking Q&A column:

Warren from Atascadero, California asks:
"Since you say that any god who can be killed should be killed, is it not fair to say that if Christianity can die, or should die or it must die?"

Dear Warren,

My answer is a simple yes! If Christianity can die then it should die and it will die. If Christianity needs you or me to defend it from real or imagined enemies, it is surely in bad shape.

The real question is what is Christianity? Is it what the Pope says it is? Is it what Billy Graham says it is? Is it what Al Sharpton says it is? Or Jerry Falwell or James Kennedy or Robert Schuler? You see when we pose the issue this way, we discover that there is no consensus, and when the various defenders of Christianity discover that, when each defines what he or she believes Christianity to be, there is no consensus.

Christianity has changed throughout history dramatically. There was a time when the Pope was married, when the church taught that to invest money for interest was a sin, when slavery was allowed, and when critical thinkers were burned at the stake. The Church did not develop the doctrine of the Incarnation until the fourth century and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was not fully developed until the fifth century. We once taught that Adam and Eve were real people, that Moses wrote the Torah and that David wrote the psalms. None of these ideas still has credibility in the great academies of Christian learning.

... All of this leads me to assert that Christianity is not a fixed system that was born at the first Pentecost and might die in the 21st century. Christianity is a way people journey into the mystery of God. It is a process not unlike the ocean, it never changes its substance but it ever changes its form. People who want to defend or protect Christianity have always defined it in such a way as to make an idol out of their definition.

An idol always dies. A channel through which the living God is ever revealed never does. Christianity may be transformed but it will not die. Its forms, its creeds, its doctrines, its dogmas, all of which are the products of human creativity, are always mortal. There is no ultimate unchanging truth that anyone possesses. There is only subjective experience to which people apply explanatory words.

So enter the stream of history that has been called Christianity and allow it to carry you in ways you cannot imagine into the mystery of God but don't expect the forms of Christianity, developed in human history, to be immortal.

-- John Shelby Spong

Now,I need to go find the asbestos boxers for the impending flame-war. And locate a parish outside the 1/6th of the Episcopal church in a tizzy over the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson -- not an easy task in the Dioceses of Fort Worth or of Dallas.

*hugs*

-John

[1] The Wahabi sect is sometimes erroneously confused with the Wasabi Christians. The Wasabis believe that Christ fed the multitude with 3 pounds of Ahi and a few dozen spring rolls. ;-})

[md-mancub.livejournal.com]

We constantly hear about 'radical Muslims' being at the root of our current war on terrorism, etc. No one ever mentions the idea of 'radical Christianity' and it's place in this conflict.

In this statement, the truth is solidly rooted. The capture of Eric Randolph was almost a regretful afterthought by the current Administration. You could almost here in their heads, "Ah, well, while dozens of Devilish Muslim Radical Killers create evil pandemonium in the world, we are bound to arrest this man who tried to carry out the Will Of God(tm) by offing a couple of evil abortion doctors, who were just as bad as the damned Muslims." Ashcroft and Bush are, in my humble opinion (and yours apparently), a bunch of self-serving, self-righteous, backward-thinking fools who need to find new jobs. Now. Oh, yeah, the jobs should be something in the line of fast food service too. Mmmmmmm. Ashcroft manning the fry station. There's an image to meditate on today. Yep.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

I can so see Dumbya at the register, "Ummmmm, errr, yew wan' fries wuth thay-at?"

[themonkeybear.livejournal.com]

totally kickass post.

I fear we're headed for a social civil war here...

[musicmanchicago.livejournal.com]

I with ya baby!

[chastmastr.livejournal.com]

I'm a devout Christian and I agree with you. :) "Devout" does not mean "right-wing fascist." ;)

David
Anyone But Bush!!