Poor Scott Lively? Poor David Kato? Poor Uganda? No: Poor America - Our Religious Right Got Just What It Wanted!

One of my recurring rants about the extreme Religious Right is that whatever demonizing they inculcate into the minds of people, someone is going to get killed. It's happened in the past: the demonizing of GLBT people has resulted in bashings, murders and suicides. They disavow any wrongdoing, of course, going against common knowledge - and common sense - but hiding beneath the glorious cloak of religion, they feel they can get away with most anything. The latest murder simply confirms the extent to which their aspirations in Africa will go: David Kato was a dreaded "homosexual activist" (the term made pejorative by Family Research Council's Tony Perkins) in Uganda and was one of the people featured in Rolling Stone's* front page expose headlined "Hang Them!" 

David Kato was viciously bludgeoned to death last Wednesday, amidst not only the shock and horror of Uganda's LGBT community, but of the rest of the world. Kato was also an LGBT human rights activist of some reknown. Ironically, his fame reached its height when his picture was published in that (now infamous) tabloid shot. 

KUDOS to CLINTON:

The name of David Kato was known by our own State Department and Hillary Clinton had this to say about the murder:

This crime is a reminder of the heroic generosity of the people who advocate for and defend human rights on behalf of the rest of us -- and the sacrifices they make. And as we reflect on his life, it is also an occasion to reaffirm that human rights apply to everyone, no exceptions, and that the human rights of LGBT individuals cannot be separated from the human rights of all persons....We honor David’s legacy by continuing the important work to which he devoted his life.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly receive a rhetorical slap in the face by Tony Perkins, who, if memory serves us correctly, enlisted the services of a lobbying group for $25,000 to stop the U.S. Congress from admonishing Uganda for its proposed "Kill the Gays" bill.

WHATEVER IT TAKES

Let the backpedaling and disassociating rhetoric begin**: Scott Lively, co-author of The Pink Swastika has stated repeatedly that he had nothing to do with the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda, bemoaning the fact that the bill had a death penalty. However, back in 2009, after his "successful" presentations and lectures in Kampala, Lively exuded hubris about his exploits.

From Scott Lively's Defend The Family Newsletter, Mar. 17,2009:

I'm writing from Kampala, Uganda where I am teaching about the "gay" agenda in churches, schools colleges, community groups and in Parliament. My visit here is being treated as an international crisis by the "gay" activists and their media toadies, who are spinning lies in their usual manner, but the Ugandan response has been resoundingly positive ...

He [Stephan Langa - a "ministry partner" in Uganda] said that a respected observer of society in Kampala had told him that our campaign was like a nuclear bomb against the "gay" agenda in Uganda. I pray that this, and the predictions, are true. [emphasis and parentheses mine]

I still want to send them my remaining stock of about 100 or so copies of Seven Steps, but I didn't raise any money toward this in my last appeal. If you would like to help, please make a donation at www.defendthefamily.com/help/donate.php.

The "nuclear bomb" phrase has been duly noted by many LGBT rights activists, and for good reason: militaristic rhetoric has permeated the Right for a very long time.  And note that his newsletter post ends in a request for donations to support his work and his writings. Lively's seminal work The Pink Swastika was panned by historians and sales were poor  - until he started to hawk the book through churches and organizations like the Family Research Council and American Family Association. It's still being touted in the Right Wing WorldNetDaily.com by uber-conservative Michel Farah. The Pink Swastika is a small but steady moneymaker Lively is loathe to be rid of.

A particularly chilling video of a speaking engagement in Russia chronicled by Huffington Post's Alvin McEwen shows Lively disingenously decrying the audience not to applaud and cheer whenever he mentions bashings or (in this particular case) the manslaughter of gays.  His story concerning the incident in Sacramento turned out to be entirely false  as witnessed by the people who were on the scene. Besides this video, here is actual footage (below) of Lively speaking in Uganda about the "gay agenda" and how he, above everyone else, knows the most about it. Please be advised that this footage is included here only to emphasize the sincerity of Lively's demonizing: this is how America's Religious Right views the LGBT community and presents their view to the rest of the world.

  

And by no means does this demonizing view extend only to figures like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Pat Robertson or Bryan Fischer. Think of it: "Whatever It Takes" - the motto of Pastor Rick Warren - has a chilling sound to it these days: Warren has not come across as a friend of the LGBT community, taking so very long to denounce the "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda and doing so only under pressure from liberal evangelicals. "Whatever It Takes" may serve to underline the demonizing attempts of people to enact a kind of genocide in the name of God. 

EXPORTING HATE

OK, that last perception came across as a bit strident. Please forgive me for being overwhelmed by the brutal reality of the Religious Right's determination. However, I am not alone in believing that certain forces were the cause of Kato's murder. According to AP interviews, the notion that Kato's death was only the result of a theft*** is not holding any sway with the LGBT community nor with many others: "David's death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S evangelicals in 2009," said Val Kalende, a Ugandan gay rights activist. "The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S evangelicals must take responsibility for David's blood."

Whatever the views about the murder, one thing stands out above all others: America's Religious Right has exported anti-gay sentiment to Africa - vehemently.

And some say - murderously.

*absolutely no relation to Rolling Stone Magazine. 

** Don Schmierer, who co-authored, with Lively, The Pink Swastika and accompanied him to Kampala, Uganda, has stated: “Naturally, I don’t want anyone killed but I don’t feel I had anything to do with that.”

*** Deja Vu: Does anyone remember the pronouncement of Congresswoman, Virginia Foxx when countering the proposed passage of the Hate Crimes bill? With Matthew Sheperd's mother looking on in horror, Foxx recounted the brutal bashing as "... we understood it was a robbery!"

The Putrid Politics of Jesse Kelly's Super-Ego

Let's face it, the Giffords shooting brought out both the best and the worst in us: President Obama gave a fitting speech while pundits and politicians fought to prove who was to blame - and not to blame. And amidst this spectacle, we gave short shrift to some details which are now only emerging. 

We all knew that Giffords' election opponent, Jesse Kelly, used gun imagery (literally) in his campaign against Giffords. And we know that he wasn't at all apologetic about it. We also know that know that Kelly fully intended to keep his campaign alive after the election:

From Tucson Weekly  - DEC. 28:

The GOP rumor circuit is buzzing with word that Kelly will announce his plans to run against Giffords as soon as mid-January.


And, depending on how things go at tomorrow’s hearing of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, he may end up with a friend on the Independent Redistricting Committee.

That "friend" is one Christopher Gleason, whose ties to a right-wing religious group, Vision 360, kept him from being considered. The group "plants" churches in major metropolitan areas.

Vision360 is committed to furthering the message, the movement and the cultivation of leadership. As a church planting organization, our mission is to serve and empower a collaborative church planting community in 500 global cities by 2025. We believe through an investment in gifted leaders, we can change the spiritual trends of our country and the world.

Church planter Steve Johnson, together with Al Weiss, President, Worldwide Operations, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, felt a call by God to begin to multiply churches.  Originally the goal was to start 20 churches surrounding the city of Orlando, strategically using qualified and experienced church planters. 

The ministry's website also spouts fundamentalist biblical values which seem at odds with it other value statements concerning the now-pejorative social justice* (made so by Glenn Beck). To it's credit, however, it does not seem to ally itself with any fundamentalist denomination like the Southern Baptist Convention. Is it Reconstructionism in disguise? It's possible, since support of Jesse Kelly conveys the Reconstructionist premise of infiltrating government.

NO WORD


Tucson is oddly silent lately, maybe because Brian Miller, Pima County Republican Party chair, has called on everyone to take a break from politics for a while.. But with politics and politicians, nothing is really quiet from lack of activity. And while I haven't been able to find out any material on Gleason's appointment, sources say that Tea Partiers, Vision 360 and Jesse Kelly are busy laying the foundations of a new campaign. 

 

Of course, timing is crucial, but so is the strategy of not seeming too eager to pounce on the tragedy, especially with the poor judgment of his last campaign. So, in a sense, Kelly's future will hinge on several things: Vision 360's generosity and patience and the CD 8 constituents' patience and compassion for Giffords.

 

UPDATE: As of this writing, Jesse Kelly has taken on the job of development director of the website for Vision360 and is soon to host a new radio talk show called Spotlight Arizona, sponsored by - Vision 360. 

 

Sigmund Freud defined the super-ego as the moralizing role of the psyche. Behind Kelly's shoot-em up Tea Party campaign lies a super-ego that may be a far greater driving force than the hunger for mere political power. I wonder if we shouldn't be very watchful of Kelly's political moves and Vision 360's as well. Remember the motto of the unhinged (but dangerous) Repent Amarillo: "Politics Is Ministry." And we should remember this quote from Kelly in December:

“We have unfinished business here in southern Arizona. It’s time to finish what we started,” the e-mail flier to top donors in Tucson, Ariz., read. “I am running for Congress again, and I am asking you to join me. Early contributions will allow us to focus for two years on unseating Gabrielle Giffords!”

A strategy of Generosity - Patience - Compassion. A tall order for Kelly and his friends. A very tall order.

* Read Vision360's statement on "Social Responsibility"

Insanity Overload: Why Can't We Just Sit Back And Enjoy It?

I haven't watched a TV sitcom in the last five years. RSS feeds from blogs and news services constantly decorate my home page with more inanity than all the networks could come up with. But there are times when I suffer from a kind of "insanity overload." And the last several weeks made it seem as if we were living on the front pages of the old Weekly World News:

• According to World Net Daily, Gay parents are going to abort their straight babies
• Michele Bachmann insists that America was founded by people from all over the world and Thomas Jefferson plagiarized the Declaration of Independence from the Mayflower Pilgrims.
• Rick Joyner reports from a portal to heaven that the foundation of America is on fire.
• Wiley "Imprecatory Prayers" Drake wants to be President of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Jared Laughner pleads "Not Guilty." Who knew?
• Michele Bachmann pre-records a "rebuttal" to Obama's State of the Union speech even though she doesn't know what he's going to say.
• Some evangelists can't wait for the End Times - Definitely Happening on May 21st 
• And Cindy Jacobs still insists that God speaks through her when she says "gliddy glop gloopy nibby nobby nooby le-le lo-lo-lo"

"Insanity overload" leads to a kind of bizarre form of writers' block: it freezes the brain, like cryoablation, before attempting to  remove any sense of reality. Fortunately, IO doesn't last very long because one's reason usually takes all of the really stupid and insane things that have happened and organizes them into IO files safely in the back of the brain, to be used at a later time when dealing with the idiots who created the IO in the first place.

I know this last sounded smug, but have pity, please. I'm dealing with the likes of Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner and Michele Bachmann and other assorted, ah... people (he says, discreetly).

So in the last weeks we had:

DADT CAUSED BIRDS TO FALL FROM THE SKIES

Cindy Jacobs declaring that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is (probably) the reason why we had dead birds falling from the sky in Arkansas. She did it in that inevitable Cindy Jacobs way, peppering her speech with unintelligable words just to point out that she is better than the Oracle of Delphi (who didn't know what she was talking about either).

And speaking of people who don't know what they're talking about, The Huffington Post Reports:

BACHMANN TO GIVE HER OWN STATE OF THE UNION REBUTTAL

The Minnesota Republican's office confirmed to The Huffington Post that she [Michele Bachmann] intends to broadcast a prerecorded message through the Tea Party Express website once Obama is done speaking.

A pre-recorded "rebuttal." Is there an oxymoron somewhere in that? Anyway, to ponder that sublime piece of idiocy can turn one's brain green.

RICK JOYNER SEES THE END OF AMERICA - LITERALLY

Pastor Rick Joyner of Leading Way Ministries chimed in with his worldview on a Christian news station that he journeyed to Moravian Falls, NC where, as everyone knows, there is an actual portal to Heaven, then had a dream where he was shown the destruction of America. Remember, this is the same man who was taken up to heaven, had discussions with saints (whom he couldn't name) and saw William Branham (the man who preached the total subjugation of women through a doctrine called the "demon seed") sitting in the highest throne in heaven. He also said some of the saints were placed in wierd positions. Joyner is also a major investor in Heritage U.S.A. where you may still be batized while whizzing down a waterslide.

SBC IN TOTAL CHAOS

 

During the last week, we saw the Southern Baptist Convention, like alligators, eat their own: former president, Richard Land, was forced to resign from the Anti-Defamation League's Interfaith Coalition on Mosques because he stated that Muslims had a right to build mosques in this country and therefore "promoted Islam." Then we had Wiley Drake consider a run for Land's old job even though the Southern Baptist Convention practically disowned him for calling for prayers to end the lives of Obama and members of Congress:

In my opinion we have left our traditional BIBLICAL positions, and become a large group being led by a small group of leaders who are out of touch with what the average Southern Baptist desires for our ministry under the leadership of The Holy Ghost.

In other words, the SBC is living in the 21st century while it's members are really stuck back in the 14th century  - and want to stay there.

WORLD NET DAILY WARNS ABOUT GAYS USING ADVANCED GENOMIC DEVICES

 

If two homosexual men want to use in vitro fertilization to conceive a baby and then use genetics technology to ensure the baby is also "gay," while disposing of any "straight" embryos, would the law have any ethical problems with that? John A. Robertson of the University of Texas Law School is the chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and an advocate of what his book "Children of Choice" calls "procreative liberty."

This man doesn't believe that the world will come to an end May 21st.: his "example" comes in the form of a story set in the year 2025. Forward thinker. 

IF WE ELIMINATE LIBERAL VOTERS, WE'LL RESCUE AMERICA!

And last, but not least, on the Insanity Overload list, there's the tortured reasoning of Michael Voris, S.T.B., (see video below) who posits the theory that democracy is a failure and only the virtuous should have a right to vote since they're ...ah ...smarter? Since he's a devout Sedevacantist Catholic, he can never be attracted to Michele Bachmann. Pity.

Insanity Overload: watching the parade of the pompous and pious can be numbing enough without being assaulted to this degree. A TV sitcom is mighty tempting right now. After all, I have to have some grip on reality.

We Need a Christian Dictator

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Sheltering A Convicted Child Molester: The Decline and (Hopefully) Fall of Arch-Homophobe Scott Lively

Police have arrested a convicted child molester working at the Springfield, Massachusetts coffeehouse of infamous anti-gay activist Scott Lively, who runs the business as a Christian outreach to local teenagers. …   

The homophobic darling of Latvia, Uganda, Family Research Council, and the rest of the Third World, Scott Lively, has fallen on hard times. And I would be hypocritical if I didn't shout out "Amen!" Of all the debunked Right wingnut "researchers", Lively has been the most consistently insidious. Any bio of him is as entertaining as it is revealing. But more about that later. The latest news about Lively involves allegedly harboring an unregistered sex offender and running a coffeehouse for truant teenagers while selling them Jesus.

In an interview after police apprehended Michael J. Frediani for failing to register as a sex offender, Lively confessed to the same employment technique that catapulted Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell into the national spotlight: don't bother to vet the guy if he says the words "born again" and spells the words G-O-D, B-I-B-L-E and D-O-N-A-T-I-O-N  correctly.

“Having been a pastor a long time, and having known many people with a rough past, it doesn’t surprise me he has a rough past. That he has a criminal record. A lot of Christians are former criminals. That’s the beauty of the salivation of Christ.”(definitely not my typo). 

Just days before the arrest, Lively had to close the doors of the Holy Grounds Coffee House to teenagers during school hours due to complaints by the school board that truants were using it as a hangout. He insisted that no proselytizing ever happened in the coffeehouse, but then admitted it was also a meeting place that held services for THREE different "churches." Yes, definitely hard times.

And he stood by the honesty of his volunteer, although being careful to point out that there were always two people manning the shop:

There was no opportunity for him to have done anything. Always other people there. At least 2 people on duty ... If not, someone may have ran out for coffee.

He said this in a Palinesque way not thinking about the silliness of a person who's manning a coffeehouse going out ...for coffee. (Must be very bad coffee at Holy Grounds).

Of course, Lively also said that he did not know about Frediani's past - just like he didn't know about the death penalty in Uganda's "kill-the-gays" bill.

According to one of his bios, Scott Lively is "One of the most knowledgeable and articulate opponents of the homosexual agenda in America."* But while Lively can point to almost total anti-gay legislative successes in Latvia and Uganda, his native land is starting to look askance at him and portray him as a ...loser. Witness the Daily Show spot that featured his contention that homosexuals were really the source of Nazism.

Purportedly Lively now wants to shed his anti-gay persona and retire blissfully amongst the denizens of declining Springfield through his ministry, Redemption Gate Mission Society. He is still, however, the moving force behind Mass Resistance and Defend The Family, two listed hate groups. He is still someone who Family Research Council counts as an "expert" source for anti-gay rhetoric. He still hawks copies of Pink Swastika to church groups. He still makes himself available for speaking engagements throughout the world. His voice is quieter, but any comparison to a sleeping dog is, in my opinion, still quite accurate.

Yes, Lively is on a decline, thanks to informed people shouting out louder than ever before. But let's not dim the voices, lest Lively return to the public eye.

* Conservapedia talk page on Scott Lively's bio: The Nazi's anti-homosexual laws were very similiar to Wikipedia's rules, i.e. selective enforcement based upon who you and who your friends are.

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Romancing The Golem: The Blood Libel and Sarah Palin

Finally, one comment that may forever define a career of the most intense cluelessness:

"But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible," she said.

WTF?? I suppose she had to cover up her ridiculous "surveyor's symbols" explanation for using cross-hair gunsite graphics against people she wanted us to "take out."

COURAGE

It takes courage to admit that you're wrong about something. I think we all agree on that. We all think that guarded, half-apologies or distracting, sugar-coated sentiments are just as spineless. And defending spineless sentiments with totally inappropriate  terminology is obscenely insulting, unless, of course we take into account that the person perpetrating such an insult did so without having a clue as to what the term meant in the first place. 

"Blood Libel" certainly sounds like something a Palin would imagine on the spur-of-the-moment. It sounds serious ... credible ... intense. Indeed the term is each of those things and more: because it involved a myth full of such enormous hatred that people would rarely say it out loud, let alone ascribe it to anyone today. The "Blood Libel" was the myth of Jews killing gentile children for blood rituals in the Cabala [sp]. It was a myth that kept hatred at its height for hundreds of years. It was one of the reasons for Jewish ghettos. It kept superstition and stupidity alive. It was fulminated by noble and peasant and clergy. Queen Isabella believed it. Martin Luther believed it. And it gave rise to other myths and legends, most notably, the legend of the Golem. 

The Golem. The term is Hebrew for something not yet formed. It was the name for the clump of earth God used to make Adam. So the story goes that Rabbi Loewe of Prague (btw: a real rabbi who lived in the 16th century) formed a man out of mud with prayers from the Caballa and engraved four letters on his forehead: emet - truth. He told the enormous hulk that he would be used to guard the gates of the city's Josefov (Jewish Quarter - at that time, Jews were locked up at night in a section of the city). He was to be a guardian and protector - nothing more. During the day, the hulk of mud delighted in all the things of the earth. He saw such beauty in the simplest of things and he seemed to love life with a delicate passion. 

Then came the fateful night when rumors of the Blood Libel erupted as if from nowhere: was a child killed? Who did it? Must have been Jews! Thousands of Prague's more "noble" citizens marched in anger to the gates of the Josefov and threatened to annihilate everyone whithin its walls. The Golem rose up, up, up even bigger than he was before, frightening the crowd. Then he took the enormous crossbeam of the gates and smashed people left and right, killing many. The people flew in terror. Rabbi Loewe was horrified beyond belief.

The next day, the king of Bohemia summoned Rabbi Loewe and asked him to explain the meaning of the enormous creature. When Rabbi Loewe explained that it was created to protect the Jews from a bloodlust such as had happened the night before, the king told him "I understand. From now on, your people will have my protection. I swear nothing, no one will harm them. But you must destroy the Golem you have created." So Rabbi Loewe told a horrified Golem that he was to go back to being mud and that he was no longer needed. The Golem pleaded with the rabbi not to take his life away, but the rabbi erased one letter from the Golem's forehead: emet became met - death. And so the man turned back into a simple pile of mud. 

As all good legends have, this one has an addendum: that pile of mud is hidden somewhere in the recesses of Prague - perhaps in one of the thousands of old attics that exist. It is covered with pages from the Cabala. The Golem will rise when he is needed again.

Back To Cluelessness

Myths have depths of meaning that can go beyond mere experience: they can touch a person's heart and an entire nation's soul. But if the Divine Sarah (sorry, Ms. Bernhardt) had any inkling of what she had referred to when she said "Blood Libel" I somehow doubt she would have refrained from using it simply because of her total indifference to any meaning other than her own. 

Ironic, isn't it, that a person who so depends upon myths and character assassination ("death panels," "pals around with terrorists") should come up with such an extraordinarily heinous myth to defend herself. And with such extraordinary shallowness and flippancy! Yes, such fools are indeed dangerous, not only to the Gabrielle Giffords of the world, but to the rest of us. 

Sorry to cut this off, but I have to catch a plane - to Prague.

Just The Way The Right Wants It: The Queen of Idiot America Will Be President!

I had no idea that the people of Minneapolis had such a monumental hatred for the rest of the country. I mean, didn't we portray it in a good enough light on the Mary Tyler Moore Show? Sure, we saw lots of snow, overcoats and a woolly caps, but come on, there's no reason for Minneapolis to curse the rest of the country with one of history's most insidiously stupid politicians!

Yeah, yeah we know that Sarah Palin started us down the slippery slope of accepting power-grabbing dimwits, the country was starting to opine for the good 'ole days of W and stand-up comedians are starving for material, but has our hunger to be entertained overshadowed our need to be led by someone with at least half a brain?

Apparently not.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel:

From the instant his fruitful eight-year reign ended, Republicans have pined for the next Ronald Reagan... Sarah Palin, you say?  The buzz inside the Beltway is that Mrs. Bachmann may be looking to add a woman's touch to the Oval Office (beyond just sprucing up its temporary occupant's eyesore decor). Her spokesman, Doug Sachtleben, has confirmed to media that the congresswoman is considering a potential presidential run, saying: "Nothing's off the table."

Nothing's off the table, except, maybe, sanity. Or a modicum of intelligence. Barber goes on to describe Bachmann as a "maverick's maverick," the most conservative member of Congress (because only a right wingnut job will do) and "indifferent to what the moonbat media and the larger loony left think about her." Not counting the rather original "moonbat media" jibe, Barber waxes predictable: Bachmann is the perfect uber-Christian for the office of POTUS. So, if elected by all of the other uber-Rightwing Christians, we will be treated to more of these wonderful bits of wisdom:

• ''[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said she has even said she is trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that 2,000 years ago.''
• "A woman (Terri Schiavo) was healthy. There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.''
• ''If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.''
• ''I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back."    

Bachmann's "reasoning" runs the gamut from tortured to absolutely clueless.

Are people pining away for George Bush to the extent that they'll take someone with equal (or lesser) value? The Right constantly screams at the Left on how vicious it was towards Bush when the truth is that many of us were laughing too hard to be vicious. Focusing on ineptitude as monumental as Bush's took a vigilance so constant that it wore many of us out, leading the introspective amongst us to surmise that maybe Bush was acting "The Good Soldier Schweik." The fact that half of the country voted for him TWICE was an indication that the dumbing of America had finally taken hold and that we were on the slippery slope to irrelevancy. 

Barber's fawning also stated "her existing widespread Tea Party support" which may or may not be true, because the TP's lack of credible foundation and leadership makes them look as if they'll hold on to anything that says "no more big government, no more taxes." 

Excess of any kind can be comical, so that is why Barber's statement that if coupled with Obama in a debate, Bachmann would "mop the floor with him," now lies as the most laughable statement out the mouth of a rabid Religious Right (oops, - social conservative) Reconstructionist. 

Excessive idiocy aside, the Right wing theocrats (religious or political) of today need to rein Bachmann in and let her make her mark in history through insanely stupid malapropisms. Allowing her a wider audience would be a nail in the coffin of America's intelligence.

God Never Apologizes. ... But Don't You Think It's About Time He Did?

Keith Olbermann gave an insightful special commentary concerning the Rotten Rhetoric that has engulfed politics. I think everyone should view it: he raises some good points and he even apologizes to viewers for using the same kind of militaristic, gun-related rhetoric. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that Olbermann included both Left and Right in his speech and transcended the image of crosshaired gun sights by condemning all violent political rhetoric. It seemed quite inclusive. However, it did not include a vital component of today's American society.

It did not include God.

No, I'm not going all batsh*t-crazy, at least not in a theological sense: with a God who has been the instigator of all things good and bad, apologies are not on the table. Explanations aren't even considered. "He works in mysterious ways" has been the ubiquitous reason why bad things happen to good people. It's lame, but God gets away with doing things simply because He's ...God.

And He's done some pretty horrendous things: drowned innocent animals in the Great Flood, commanded genocide (slaying of the Moabites), condoned slavery, toyed sadistically with Jonah on a bet with Satan, and created the Texas Board of Education. But perhaps the worst thing God has ever done to humanity is to create hypocritical and corrupt apostles, prophets and preachers who will never apologize either: as "representative" "anointed"  even "beloved" shepherds of God, they and their chosen feel they are exempt from guilt, hence, without consciences and are to able to do most anything as long as they rationalize it as "God's will." 

The sins that have been committed against humanity and in the name of God are, like Satan's followers, Legion. History looks a lot like the infinite expanse of dead and dying soldiers in Gone With The Wind: religious strife litters humanity's past and "Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men" seems like a bad joke. And it will stay that way as long as there are "men of God" campaigning for the sake of righteousness.

BEYOND WESTBORO

The instance of Jared Lee Laughner's horrendous assassination attempt of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has prompted the MSM to analyze just how much politicians and pundits exacerbate violence with their speech and actions. Notice, however, that not one commentator mentioned anyone within the Religious Right communities: Giffords has weighed in as a pro-choice, pro-ENDA and pro-Health Care Reform. There are over 500 churches in the Tucson metropolitan area, with Baptist (approx. 80), Mormon (90+) and Catholic (100+) churches. What are the chances that none of them campaigned vitriolically against Giffords? Have any of those churches apologized?

Hardly. Not a peep out of any of them. Religious demonizers, like God, never apologize.

And how many of those churches supported Giffords opponent Jesse Kelly who, BTW, sponsored a campaign fundraiser* wherein people could shoot an M-16 for sport? Those churches and the rest of the Religious Right, if called on the carpet, will probably refocus the debate by pointing to entities like Westboro Baptist Church (who have announced that they will picket the funerals of those killed in the shooting). They will use stark contrast to deflect criticism or they will simply take an how-DARE-you stance, like when Tony Perkins ludicrously told the nation that the Religious Right had absolutely no culpability in the suicides of gay teens:

There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression. However, there is no empirical evidence to link this with society's general disapproval of homosexual conduct.

Perhaps the most insipid lack of remorse for extremely violent message content lies in everything done by a group named Repent Amarillo. I've written about it before, but its last publicity-grabbing escapade deserves to be reiterated: the execution of Santa Claus. "Santa" was really a pinata (to placate critics, of course), but the guns and ammo used were real...in front of a group of children ...who will  probably develop psychoses larger than that of Jared Lee Laughner. No one rushed forward to accuse them of emotional child abuse because they were, of course, acting in the "name of the Lord." 

Rampages like Laughner's help develop a serious time of reflection as to their causes. Violent rhetoric, militaristic terms, virulent attack modes can come from pulpits as well as politicians. We live amidst a slew of God's self-appointed emissaries who have never apologized for their organized religion's crimes and never expect to apologize for their Rotten Rhetoric now or in the future. They may indulge themselves in vicious platitudes of the worst kind while thinking themselves totally unaccountable.

After all, righteous arrogance has its privileges. Just ask God.

 

 * Flier blurb: "Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."

Rotten Rhetoric Strikes Again: What We Can Learn From The Giffords Shooting

"They've got to realize there are consequences to that," she said. "The rhetoric is incredibly heated."

 - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' remarks about Palin's mailer after vandals attacked her office in March.

Rotten Rhetoric: it's protected by free speech, it's guilt free, and can bring out the creative evil in anyone. It can also kill people through righteous assassination. And so many people have used it in history: Pope Urban II used it to spur on the Crusades; Hitler used it for political purposes; Father Charles Caughlin used it in this broadcasts. And today: Ahmadinejad uses it; Osama Bin Laden uses it; Glenn Beck uses it; Bill O'Reilly uses it. Repent Amarillo uses it. Lou Engle uses it.

And now we know that Sarah Palin uses it.

Ok, EVERYBODY uses it. So why is America just waking up to its very real consequences? Are we just now looking at the deleterious effects of popularity and position? Or have we become so totally bombarded with the bloviations of power and celebrity that we only skim the barest buzzwords and pay no attention to other meanings? Sarah Palin's little map with target sites says different things to different people, but with her one-track mind, Palin didn't care if anyone drew different conclusions. She probably thought she was being clever (fat chance) or folksy (better). She aimed for a metaphor of political annihilation which could have resulted in actual annihilation. 

Toning It Down

This country's Rotten Rhetoric has got to be toned down. What we say has become second to how we say it: impact has become more dependent on imagery than meaning. The steam-roller effect of the imagery, however, has gotten totally out of control and to rein it in will take a massive effort on our part. It will take a major pushback against people like Palin who will slough off situations like the Giffords shooting.

And the sloughing off and pious distancing has already started: "tragic" - "sickened" - "horrified" are starting to pump out of people like blood from a bullet wound. Get used to them for the next several days, because they'll be coming ad nauseum from people who vilified Giffords in no uncertain terms.

"My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice."

 - Sarah Palin

“I am horrified by the violent attack on Representative Gabrielle Giffords and many other innocent people by a wicked person who has no sense of justice or compassion. I pray for Gabby and the other victims, and for the repose of the souls of the dead and comfort for their families. 

 - John McCain

BFD. Words: they can't heal as much as they can hurt. Politicians know that. 

So what can we do to tone down the rhetoric? Boycott Glenn Beck's sponsors?  Bombard Sarah Palin with vicious tweets of our own? Unfortunately, we're caught in a free speech conundrum: by telling people to tone down their Rotten Rhetoric, we're committing an act of censorship. And waiting for political suicide to set in could be a very long time, since people like Beck and Palin are never truly erased from public discourse. The solution may involve education and creativity: somehow we must make civil discourse look totally cool and Rotten Rhetoric look totally stupid. Ironically, we may have to use the Giffords shooting to shock people with lampoon and laughter, reminding people like Palin that Rotten Rhetoric is a two-edged sword, resulting in political suicide. 

So SNL, what's keeping you?

Sarah Palin's Wish List