Archive for category Religion
Tea Party Jesus
Posted by Richard Warnick in Ann Coulter, Bigotry, Conservatives, Hypocrisy, Laugh, National Politics, Religion, Tea Bag Party on June 30, 2010

Via HuffPo:
The concept behind the site Tea Party Jesus is simple: Put the words of conservative Christian social and political figures in the mouth of Christ. The juxtaposition of hateful, ignorant, or otherwise nonsensical rants with serene photos of JC himself isn’t only funny, but says a lot about the people who claim to be Christians.
Scroll through the site and find a nationally-known quote from Utahn Chris Buttars.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry I haven’t been to church lately…
Posted by shane in Activist groups, GLBT issues, People Are Nuts, Religion on June 4, 2010
I have been busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian.
If that sounds familiar that is because it was a bumper sticker that was created to make fun of Pat Robertson, who actually said:
“Feminism is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
It is always sad to see crazy people you can laugh at fade away, and that is why a lot of us miss not having Pat in the news all the time. On the other hand we now have new fresh crazy like Sarah “oil slick” Palin and Glenn “bad acting is taught in LDS churches” Beck.
Still, while those two aren’t shy about their crazy religions, they don’t scream about it every third word like the good old fashioned crazies of my youth. For that kind of nostalgia I turn to groups like the Family Research Council. Read the rest of this entry »
Current Affairs and Ancient Prophecy are Strange Bedfellows
Posted by Glenden Brown in Activist groups, Conservative, Conservatives, Neocons, People Are Nuts, Philosophy, Religion, Religious Fundamentalism, Tribalism & Blind Obedience to Authority on May 31, 2010
Every so often, I tune into the Christian stations to watch either The Hal Lindsey Report or Jack Van Impe. Now you may be wondering what a nice boy like me is doing watching two over-the-hill possibly nutty as fruitcakes right wing televangelists. It’s an excellent question.
Lindsey and Van Impe are both easily two decades past the peak of their influence. People like James Dobson, John Hagee and Joel Osteen have had been far more influential in the past decade than either of the older men. Ted Haggard, before his fall, was exponentially more influential than either Hal Lindsey or Jack Van Impe. So why watch them? The short answer is that both Hal Lindsey and Jack Van Impe represent a strain of conservative theology that is shared by many Christian conservatives but which is generally hidden from the mainstream public by Lindsey and Van Impe’s more PR aware peers. Read the rest of this entry »
Reverend Moonie’s Job is Done!
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), Capitalism, Chris Cannon, Conservative, Conservative Sell-Outs, Corruption, Election Fraud, Free Speech, Liars (politics), National Politics, Religion, This Blog, Voting Rights, censorship on May 18, 2010
I’m not sure what that job was.
Was it to make lots of money or simply destroy the United States? Was it to make fools of the US citizens and the congress? What ever it was, he surely mooned us; that much is clear! There is also no doubt that George Herbert Walker Bush and his family, other religious leaders, the entire American media and many in congress helped him moon us.
Why?
Well, for money, of course, or the darkest medium of exchange, sometimes referred to as “an offer you can’t refuse.” A friendly token of appreciation or something else entirely – most likely, the threat of a political assassination in a respected publication called “The Washington Times”; a publication propped up with billions of illegal cash according to somebody who did his homework many years ago and suffered occupational consequences.
The best way to get the story is to listen to an interview conducted with two brave men who have worked tirelessly to expose this monumental fraud. One of them recounts research which tells ways in which Reverend Sun Myung Moon could have amassed such game changing amounts of money, and the other is a journalist who is an expert on the inner workings of the Moon empire. A video promoting his book follows. It is almost 20 minutes long, but if you want to understand how American culture became so strange, the radio interview and the video below are a MUST HEAR and a MUST SEE, respectively:
Watch The King of America in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Some notes:
Although it is widely known that Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s church was considered to be a cult and is even ridiculed by John Belushi in the “Saturday Night Live” video segment provided from the seventies, most information outlets have treated “The Washington Times” with deference over many decades, (including C-Span.) None of these outlets ever mentioned the involvement of Mr. Moon in that publication.
George Herbert Walker Bush acting as former President of the United States gave Reverend Moon essential credibility by taking very large amounts of money in exchange for puzzlingly complimentary speeches in Moon’s favor. Even Moon’s followers were taken by surprise. At least one other member of the Bush family was embellished with riches and – you know who – was helped in his race to “beat” Al Gore by the “Washington Times’s” characteristic smear campaigns of the “dishonest” Gore.
After previously, harshly condemning Reverend Moon, Jerry Falwell accepted millions to save his failing University and praised the action in one of his shameless speeches/sermons, (I don’t know which.)
If you don’t catch anything else from this post, be sure to watch the horrifying/funny segment in the above video starting about five minutes in which recounts some old and quite new lies designed to help supporters of Moon and continues with videos of “The Washington Times” 15th anniversary dinner years before, which includes a speech by Moon which must have sickened the attendees. How many reading this post are more worried about satin then the subject of this post. Why have we been so worried about Rupert Murdock, (who is co-founder with Moon in the “New York Post” publication), and yet totally ignored the influence of Moon at the “water cooler.”
Although former Utah Congressman Chris Cannon was virtually expunged of any involvement in the coronation of Reverend Moon as the new messiah in Utah’s media long ago, “The Washington Times” listed him as a contributor to the effort here.
I hate to say this, but even public radio and television have not exposed this fraud. Tony Blankley, (also Newt Gingrich’s press secretary for seven years), has been allowed to go on countless radio and television programs as a pundit. Although he is routinely sucker-punched by the facts on those programs by their participant’s, he is invited back on, endlessly. Personally, I think a “three lies and you’re out” program should be implemented. David Brooks is on PBS’s “News Hour” almost every night despite the fact that he got his “cred” from Moon’s “Washington Times” and another awful and totally partisan publication called “The Weekly Standard.” I’m sure there are others who were weaned and introduced into our national conversation by Moon’s corrupt system, (possibly hundreds or more, (I have to work and I’m not even a journalist, so I have no idea)), but I’ll just bet you David and Tony are doing OK financially. I’ll just bet you others have branched out from pretty well paid jobs as “journalists/pundits” from similar organizations. JUST SAYIN’
Four American newspapers, (all right!)
New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post, Washington Times.
My theory of why American newspapers are dying is that Americans can’t tell truth from fiction. I’m not sure if they ever could. I believe this is by design. Where do we go from here?
To reiterate:
Listen to this. (What is the deal with Gordon Liddy?)
You decide.
This is why people make fun of creationists
Posted by Glenden Brown in Activist groups, Conservative, Religion, Religious Fundamentalism on May 4, 2010
From the reliably wingnutty One News Now, Peter Heck (not making that name up!) has a wonderfully shallow op-ed excoriating the world for not treating the “discovery” of Noah’s Ark as a serious, scientific find.
The truth is that science is supposed to be skeptical of everything. And yet, so often we see the reality that Darwinists hijack the name of science in an effort to proselytize their own faith, and thereby commit the same offense they condemn creationists for committing. Think about it:
Kuniholm mocks Ark hunters by saying, “These guys have already gotten the answer worked out ahead of time, and then they go out to prove it.” In other words, if there does end up being a large wooden structure on the mountain, that doesn’t necessarily prove Noah’s story. It only proves there is something wooden on the mountain. Creationists then work that structure into a narrative they’ve already accepted of a worldwide flood.
Fair enough…but what was Ida? Nothing about her suggested anything other than an extinct, lemur-like creature. Yet Darwinists took a dead organism and worked it into a narrative they’ve already accepted of macro-evolution. They presuppose Darwin’s model is correct and then interpret the fossil in a way that helps tell the story.
Boil down all the nonsense and you see the fundamental problem. Heck assumes the biblical record is equivalent to the scientific record. He argues that the scientific consensus (the one based on evidence) is the same kind of “assumption” as you make when accepting the biblical account. Read the rest of this entry »
Vatican “Forgives” Beatles; Ringo Starr Says Bugger Off
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), American History, Free Speech, Peace, Religion, Science, Sex, This Blog, censorship on April 20, 2010

This is the first time I’ve ever used somebody else’s headline, but it was just too good not to use!
What Ringo actually said was:
“Didn’t the Vatican say we were satanic or possibly satanic? And they’ve still forgiven us? … I think the Vatican’s got more to talk about than the Beatles”
File this under “look over there, not here!” I’m still not sure if the Vatican has forgiven or changed their mind about forgiving Galileo for discovering moons around Jupiter yet, but I’m dead sure that all four of the Beatles were honest to a fault, great musicians, and improved our lives greatly by bridging two nations in a friendly and productive competition which enthralled the entire world with a message of peace; never shame! That’s why we loved them AND their music!
Note: Be sure to watch Lennon’s honest explanation of his comment in the linked video which apparently ended the controversy at the time; It most certainly did for me, but, then again, I’m a 60’s freak. I learned about this story by visiting a blog called “Big Dan’s Big Blog.” A prolific commenter at BradBlog, who always tries to tell the truth.
If Christianity is to survive it needs to reclaim the body of Christ
Posted by Glenden Brown in Bigotry, Bigotry, Conservative, Homophobia, Religion, Religious Fundamentalism, This Blog on April 19, 2010
Christian theology is a mishmash of ideas from two thousand years of history. The earliest Christians were Jewish citizens from Roman occupied Judea, a cultural and political backwater in the sprawling, cosmopolitan world of the late Hellenic era. Christianity was absorbed into the Roman world and its earliest centers were places like Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople. Christian thinking evolved as it came into contact with the Hellenic world. Saul of Tarsus, later known as Saint Paul, has been described as having one of the most dynamic religious imaginations in history. Hyam Maccoby credits Paul with the “invention” of Christianity.
In the Hellenic world, Christianity absorbed so deeply the ideas of that world that they are largely invisible. Christianity defined itself by two dualisms – the first is the spirit/body dualism, the second male/female dualism, in case accepting that the first item is superior to the second. So deeply embedded in Christian theology are these dualisms that most Christians simply accept the theological outcomes of these dualisms without examining them.
Examining the behavior and policies of Christian churches you can see these dualism as play. The resistance in many denominations to women as priests and pastors can only be realistically defended if you accept that men are spiritually superior to women. Arguments that women “can’t” be priests are simply untrue – the skills and knowledge required to successfully preach and teach don’t require having a penis. Christian hostility toward women is often packaged in pleasant sounding crap – assertions that women have such a special role in rearing children that they shouldn’t work outside the home, think for themselves or generally behave a fully fledged, morally aware adults.
It’s no accident that strongly authoritarian faiths (the Catholic church, Mormonism) resist women in leadership, a resistance ultimately grounded in profound levels of sexism – distrust of and diminishment of women’s abilities and gifts. The teaching in many conservative faiths that men must be the head of household, that women are to support male leadership, to trust male judgement. (I don’t fully grok, but as I undrestand doctrinal Mormonism, any priesthood holder is considered worthy and able to give counsel to people, to make decisions, to lead even those who are older and wiser who do not “hold” the priesthood; there’s a lot that could potentially be unpacked from the language used in this area.) Read the rest of this entry »
What do you do when the only thing you have is moral authority and you’ve destroyed that?
Posted by Glenden Brown in Religion, Religious Fundamentalism, This Blog on March 31, 2010
The tragedy of the expanding flood of revelations about the Catholic church and its decades long efforts to coverup the deeds and protect the perpetrators lies in two places – first the harm done to the most vulnerable (for instance, the priest in Milwaukee who raped deaf boys for years and when those boys became adults the church’s stubborn insistence on ignoring them) and second in the dismantling of the church’s moral authority.
Newsweek has an interesting article:
The pope’s ideas about the church include his belief that interpreters of Vatican II overly weakened the church’s teachings on salvation outside the church (that is, they relaxed the message that only Catholic dogma can lead to salvation), ecumenical relations with other Christian communities, abortion, homosexuality, and contraception, for example. There is already an air of widespread indifference, if not outright opposition, to some of Benedict’s objections, such as those related to human sexuality and reproduction.
AND
Now, though, the pope’s moral authority is very much in doubt. Especially if additional cases surface, his teaching on moral matters will hold much less sway among ordinary Catholics. The indifference to his agenda would probably expand into outright rejection. And Benedict would likely be less able to draft undecided Catholics to his side, except perhaps the most conservative.
The point here is a powerful one – the church’s sole source of authority has been its moral authority – it’s ability to sway people through moral argument. Whether the issue was poverty or sexuality or war, when the Catholic church spoke much of the world listened. John Paul II was so profoundly loved and respected that Catholics were willing to listen even if they disagreed. Benedict XVI has no such reservoir of goodwill. Benedict XVI certainly seems complicit in the church’s decades long criminal conspircy to coverup child sexual abuse and assault.
The church faces a truly daunting task – repairing its damaged credibility by removing those men who were either abusers, actively covering it up and protecting those who did both would gut the church. Removing abusive priests at this point isn’t enough; far too many were knowingly protected from consequences of their actions by other priests and bishops. Not removing those men will undermine any efforts to rescue the church’s reputation. With the Pope himself apparently involved in covering up these crimes, the church’s moral authority is badly if not irrevocably damaged.
When you’ve destroyed your only source of authority, you’re in deep trouble. The Catholic Church isn’t going away anytime soon, but unless the church finds some way to correct the problem, it will find itself entering a dark period of church history in which its authority and influence decline dramatically. The gulf between lay Catholics and the hierarchy – so hopefully bridged with Vatican II – will grow wider and wider until a great many lay Catholics feel little or no allegiance to the church and simply reject its moral teachings out of hand; the era of the cafeteria Catholic will become a fondly remembered golden age.



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