Maybe I Didn't Do Enough
So I'll Arm Myself Better For The Next Time
This is something I must write. I must say this, no matter how irrational it sounds. It reads almost as unreasonable as what they write.
I know I won't stop fighting them. I can't. I saw what they did to people during the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Make no mistake: they are the same people. They pass off hatred as faith and love of God. They live lives of massive hypocrisy. They will do whatever they can to achieve total submission to their ideals. They don't care that they have been exposed countless times for being hypocrites and hate mongers."They" are the 21st century's Christofascists. Yes, they've dominated every post I've written these past two years. You might say I'm obsessed. I am. So shoot me.
People kill. Guns kill. Rhetoric kills. Mark Twain said (Chronicles of Young Satan) that Christians were the most efficient killing machines the world has ever known. He was right. He also said that the most effective weapon in the world is humor:
"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand"
If you want to make a Christofascist REALLY mad, just make fun of him. NEVER poke fun at Christianity itself. It is, after all, a basically good religion with some good universal rules to live by and to survive with others. The WAY some "Christians" go about practicing their religion, however, is, as the title of Bill Maher's movie, "religulous." And quite stupid. The origins of that stupidity were in the Apostles themselves: Christ kept asking them, "Don't you get it?". And after 2000 years, 30,000 denominations, countless wars, people hunted as witches, "heretics" tortured and murdered, whole civilizations wiped out, meaningless "crusades", after 140 million deaths "in the name of God" THEY STILL DON'T GET IT. The message was simply "love thy neighbor" and, more importantly, "love thine enemy." God wanted his creation to SURVIVE in the best possible way.
That's it. That's all. It's simply "why can't you all just get along?".
Doctrines, churches, relics that weep tears of blood, rituals and holidays are mere entertainment for the people Christofascists have never really allowed within striking distance of rationality. If the people need bread, give them a baroque church they can build to keep them busy and to keep them from asking too many questions. If they experience sickness, blame it on another group of people who are "outcasts". Blame it irrationally on the displeasure of God. Manipulate them by making them hate certain groups or societies or even the rest of the world. If not sheer hatred, at least blind contempt for those whose spirituality is different. The power Proposition 8 gives the Christofascists is immense. They can now feel free to forge ahead with more state constitutional amendments. They will then try for a U.S. Constitution amendment. God forbid, if that happens, they will be rolling out attempts at other restrictions and eliminations of rights based not just on sexual orientation, but on religion. Are certain religions "anti-American?" as the McCarthyite Michele Bachmann wants to know? Muslims will be first, of course. And anyone of Arab or Iranian descent will be targeted for discrimination.
Fiction, you say? Remember that there is no intolerance like religious intolerance. Rod Parsley will have his wish to destroy Islam and all its people (who haven't converted, of course - the converted will be sent to concentration...ah..."holiness camps"). John Hagee will have his Armeggedon even if he has to bomb Israel himself and somehow blame it on Iran. After all, Pat Robertson predicted something like that would happen. God "told" him.
That's it. That's all. It's simply "why can't you all just get along?".
Doctrines, churches, relics that weep tears of blood, rituals and holidays are mere entertainment for the people Christofascists have never really allowed within striking distance of rationality. If the people need bread, give them a baroque church they can build to keep them busy and to keep them from asking too many questions. If they experience sickness, blame it on another group of people who are "outcasts". Blame it irrationally on the displeasure of God. Manipulate them by making them hate certain groups or societies or even the rest of the world. If not sheer hatred, at least blind contempt for those whose spirituality is different. The power Proposition 8 gives the Christofascists is immense. They can now feel free to forge ahead with more state constitutional amendments. They will then try for a U.S. Constitution amendment. God forbid, if that happens, they will be rolling out attempts at other restrictions and eliminations of rights based not just on sexual orientation, but on religion. Are certain religions "anti-American?" as the McCarthyite Michele Bachmann wants to know? Muslims will be first, of course. And anyone of Arab or Iranian descent will be targeted for discrimination.
Fiction, you say? Remember that there is no intolerance like religious intolerance. Rod Parsley will have his wish to destroy Islam and all its people (who haven't converted, of course - the converted will be sent to concentration...ah..."holiness camps"). John Hagee will have his Armeggedon even if he has to bomb Israel himself and somehow blame it on Iran. After all, Pat Robertson predicted something like that would happen. God "told" him.
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2 comments:
I am sorry. This is narrow minded hatred and nothing else. Their Biblical reasons do not stand any logical test, from context to equal attention to other parts of their Bible. You are more generous to Christianity that I am. It is thing people made up to explain what they could not explain and to comfort themselves in the face of death. Science increasingly explains the things religion sought to explain, yet they will not give up. Creationism and young earth theories are laughable. For an intelligent person to beleive in them requires a special form of delusional thinking that would surely qualify as mental illness if psychology were truly objective. To thnk that gay marriage somehow threatens hettero marriage requires a leap of logic I cannot make even as an exercise in trying to understand the other side. To say that loving another person is sin when it harms no one is evil in itself, if evil does exist. I heard once that the devil would be most effective if disguised as an angel. That must be what these Pentacostals must be is the devil in the clothes of a Christian. The Jesus I was taught about in Sunday School said love your neighbor as yourself. That is the old concept of empathy. These people cannot empathize. They can only demonize. Perhaps to deflect from us noticing who the real demons are? The vote that got me in the gut was the one about stopping adoptions. Why can't single people adopt? Plenty of single parent homes do a great job. Why can't unmarried hetero couples adopt? And they admit that gay couples were their target. It is scientifically proven that you can't 'teach' a straight person to be gay, so what are they afraid of? It makes me sick. This is a religious rule that has not been voted into law. It is wrong. It is like saying you can't eat meat on Fridays. Wlll that be a law for all of us soon? And you are right. It will creep. It will be illegal to be of any but their religion. In a country that was founded on religious freedom, our religious freedom is being eroded away. Will people wake up and realize this before it is too late?
Well written, as usual.
It's unfortunate that we're at war over things like gay marriage. Perhaps people will always find a way to be at war with "the other". I think it's pointless to be afraid of what you don't know or understand. Find out about it! Experience it! Then you'll know if it's bad for you!
Yes, these people have a special kind of delusion, but it's a delusion brought on by a kind of spiritual laziness and stupidity: spirituality is so "other" and people are so afraid of it that they think it's way too difficult for them to handle - let someone else tell you what to do and how to do it! It's easier, isn't it? And after all, the pastor said he had a "calling" didn't he? Let him do his work, for crissakes!
It's easier to watch Benny Hinn on television. And a lot more entertaining! Who wants to see a "critics raved" documentary about Buddhism? Hell, I'd rather see the pope in all his regalia coming down the aisle! Give us ritual. Give us tradition. Give us that "ole time religion" but give us a skate board park along with it, ok?
The worst of the lot (if they are actually part of it) are the Christofascists who KNOW that they are fleecing their flock - for money, for power, or just for the hell of it! For all his Hawaiian shirts and "unchurched" campus, Rick Warren wants the entire world to be his form of Christian, and he, like other Christofascists, will do anything the achieve his goal.
It's sad, but true.
Thanks for reading.
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