Grrr...
I wrote a pretty decent little piece yesterday, which Blogger was more than happy to not post and then promptly eat. Ah well.I came across this wonderful piece of trash today:
An excerpt from 9/11 and The Sport of God
Let’s take a brief detour to Ohio and I’ll show you what I am talking about. In recent weeks a movement called the Ohio Restoration Project has been launched to identify and train thousands of “Patriot Pastors” to get out the conservative religious vote next year. According to press reports, the leader of the movement— the senior pastor of a large church in suburban Columbus—casts the 2006 elections as an apocalyptic clash between “the forces of righteousness and the hordes of hell.” The fear and loathing in his message is palpable: He denounces public schools that won’t teach creationism, require teachers to read the Bible in class, or allow children to pray. He rails against the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America and prevent school kids from learning that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist.” He links abortion to children who murder their parents. He blasts the “pagan left” for trying to redefine marriage. He declares that “homosexual rights” will bring “a flood of demonic oppression.” On his church website you read that “Reclaiming the teaching of our Christian heritage among America’s youth is paramount to a sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation.”
One of the prominent allies of the Ohio Restoration Project is a popular televangelist in Columbus who heads a $40 million-a-year ministry that is accessible worldwide via l, 400 TV stations and cable affiliates. Although he describes himself as neither Republican nor Democrat but a “Christocrat”—a gladiator for God marching against “the very hordes of hell in our society”—he nonetheless has been spotted with so many Republican politicians in Washington and elsewhere that he has been publicly described as a“spiritual advisor” to the party. The journalist Marley Greiner has been following his ministry for the organization, FreePress. She writes that because he considers the separation of church and state to be “a lie perpetrated on Americans—especially believers in Jesus Christ”—he identifies himself as a “wall builder” and “wall buster.” As a wall builder he will “restore Godly presence in government and culture; as a wall buster he will tear down the church-state wall.” He sees the Christian church as a sleeping giant that has the ability and the anointing from God to transform America. The giant is stirring. At a rally in July he proclaimed to a packed house: “Let the Revolution begin!” And the congregation roared back: “Let the Revolution begin!”
(The Revolution’s first goal, by the way, is to elect as governor next year the current Republican secretary of state who oversaw the election process in 2004 year when a surge in Christian voters narrowly carried George Bush to victory. As General Boykin suggested of President Bush’s anointment, this fellow has acknowledged that “God wanted him as secretary of state during 2004” because it was such a critical election. Now he is criss-crossing Ohio meeting with Patriot Pastors and their congregations proclaiming that “America is at its best when God is at its center.”) [For the complete stories from which this information has been extracted, see: “An evening with Rod Parsley, by Marley Greiner, FreePress, July 20, 2005; Patriot Pastors,” Marilyn Warfield, Cleveland Jewish News, July 29, 2005; “Ohio televangelist has plenty of influence, but he wants more”, Ted Wendling, Religion News Service, Chicago Tribune, July 1, 2005; “Shaping Politics from the pulpits,” Susan Page, USA Today , Aug. 3, 2005; “Religion and Politics Should Be Mixed Says Ohio Secretary of State,” WTOL-TV Toledo, October 29, 2004].
-Bill Moyer
This just continues to push me away from Christianity in any way shape or form. I know that not all Christians are like this, I know that these are the extremes. It is just becoming more and more prevalent and gaining more and more influence (especially within the Rep. Party). We have a Pres. who believes that he speaks for God and represents His will. Excuse me, Mr. Holier-than-thou, but give me a break. He's an alcoholic, ex-drug addict with an addiction to power and sending people to die. He's a liar, self-delusional, and responsible for the death of thousands.
Oh wait, God killed those people. He sent the hurricane, He sent the terrorists, we're fighting His war (for oil, cause God always needs more oil). We're just being punished for being too liberal, allowing those damn gays to exist, not forcing children to pray and read the bible in school, not teaching creationism in school, etc... That whole 1st amendment thing is definitely evil, no more freedom of religion, speech, beliefs, ideas, thoughts... God has told us how to talk, what to think, and that we're supposed to kill all the infidels. Oh wait, is infidels too Islamic of a word? Sorry, didn't mean to do that, don't want to get confused over which extremist religion we represent.
Since the Global War on Terror is bullshit, they tried to give us a new spin line: The Global Struggle Against Extremism. Well shit, we don't need to go anywhere for that, let's just start killing the liberals, the abortionists, those damn treehuggers standing in the way of our money, I mean progress...
I think it's high time for a struggle against extremism. There's plenty at home to deal with. THere are lots of good Christians (I'm assuming), it's time for people to start standing up for what they believe and start thinking for themselves. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Russell Johnson (the guy from the link above) are the extremists we need to deal with.
Well, I'm sure I've managed to offend just about anybody who's ever read the bible so far. Thanks for reading my rant.
posted by WunEyedDog @ 2:18 PM
7 Comments:
can i send this to your mom? or my mom? i agree with you conor. when i lived in Mississippi the first time, they were JUST THEN (1996) having a fight about prayer in school. of course i'm sure it was some yankee just down there causing trouble. these extremists are not harmless bible thumpers. they have very very deep pockets. (what's wrong with god blessing his servents, right?) in fact, their pockets are so deep, they can hold the republican party.
Oh yes, the conservative christian party...I mean republicans are awash with money. They've been rewarded well, they just don't seem to read what the bible says about that, but hey, who am I to throw stones.
And no, I don't know if it would be the best idea to send this to our respective mothers. Not yet, give us a couple more years of good relations.
I read the Bible. I go to church (just about) every Sunday.
Not only am I NOT offended, I wholeheartedly agree.
Most people that I know who have turned away from Christianity have done so not because they disagree with what Jesus himself taught, but because of the hypocrisy of the people who claim to represent Him.
When I come across horrors like this story, I don't know whether to fight or hide under my bed.
I know quite a few people who have quit going to church because of people like this (the two of us among them). It's sad that people have to use religion to justify being hateful. Why can't they just face up to the fact that they are evil and soulless? Have to hide behind the curtain of religion.
i try so hard to convince myself that there is an equal number of bad people in every group. i try to remind myself that i was around mostly "christians" growing up. as hard as i try i can not convince myself that there is not a concentration of hateful bigoted gossipy people in christiandom. thank god for my momma, because she is the shining exception in my history.
FD - I understand where you're coming from. I was just raised in a church that has some very opposite values from my own. It's made it hard for me to reconcile returning to the christian church. I've spent a long time looking at what I think about religion in general. I think it has a large potential for both good and bad.
it's not that we're not serious about our faith...it's that we lost it all togther.
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