Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Cover Your Ears And Hold Your Stomachs: Ratchet-Voice Comes Back To California



Right Wing Watch has this to say about Lou Engle's upcoming prayer rally in Sacramento: 

On the tenth anniversary of that event, Engle is bringing The Call back to California as he seeks to build a "wall of intercession for the battle for marriage, as well as the battle for the sanctity of life" and unleash a "great, great Jesus movement" that will "literally be a wall that holds back darkness in our nation": 

There is a kind of musical instrument known as a ratchet that perfectly describes Lou Engle's voice: 

(wikipedia) A ratchet, also called a noisemaker (or, when used in Judaism, a gragger (etymologically from Yiddish: גראַגער) or ra'ashan (Hebrew: רעשן‎)), is an orchestral musical instrument played by percussionists. Operating on the principle of the ratchet device, a gearwheel and a stiff board is mounted on a handle, which can be freely rotated. The handle is held and the whole mechanism is swung around, the momentum causing the board to click against the gearwheel, making a clicking and rattling noise. Alternatively, smaller ratchets are sometimes held still or mounted and the handle turned rapidly by the player.

In Judaism, the gragger (or noisemaker) is used for the holiday of Purim. The gragger is used every time Haman's name is mentioned during the reading of the Megillah.
So Lou Engle really does have ties to Judaism!

Seriously, if you've ever heard this guy speaking from a stage, you would only hope that what he has isn't contagious and that includes his brand of holiness. Regardless of what he releases to the press, Engle hates gays to the point that he would rather kill them all than convert them, let alone tolerate them. Most evangelicals cover their loathing with a thin veneer of "love and concern" but not Lou. He's a Reconstructionist through and through and that raspy voice will bore into the brains of his audience (yes, even the ones who do have brains) and declare that YOU MUST BE CHRISTIAN in order to be considered worthy of God's love.

The proselytizing of the Christian Right has gotten out of hand. It is beyond preaching, beyond evangelizing, beyond moralizing. 

It has become threatening.

Just a thought.