Sunday Sermons Blast Obama Over Gay Marriage - But Not At The Fever Pitch Social Conservatives Want!

While President Obama has often considered the passage of health care reform his defining moment as President, people are now saying that it is his endorsement of same-sex marriage that has portrayed him and his Presidency in the most illuminating way.

The new cover for the New Yorker magazine, with the South Portico columns of the White House colored in rainbow hues is no doubt the rallying point for Right Wing pulpits across the nation. Certainly the cries of "homosexual lobby" and "homosexual agenda" have echoed throughout a great many churches.

And the cover of Newsweek certainly stokes the fires:




Of course, we knew it was coming: judging from this Sunday's sermons, The Washington Post got it right:

Pastors in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and other swing states are readying Sunday sermons inveighing against same-sex unions, while activist groups have begun laying plans for social media campaigns, leaflet drives and other get-out-the-vote efforts centered on the same-sex marriage issue.

The primary focus has been on black churches, and although other black ministers think differently, the question of "Wedge" - the strategy of NOM (National Organization for Marrige) - rears its ugly head:

Dwight McKissic, senior pastor at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said last week he would not speak on gay marriage Sunday because it was Mother's Day and his wife would lead the church. However, he planned to focus directly on the topic in next week's sermon. "President Obama has betrayed the Bible and the black church with his endorsement of same-sex marriage," McKissic said.

And a key religious supporter of Obama, Pastor Emmet Burns who is also a Maryland State delegate, has states his withdrawal of support for Obama on the issue (see below), but some of his congregation and community don't feel the same way. Many people feel that it is a relatively small, single point in Obama's term that does not define his Presidency.

It is this kind of reaction, however, that will drive the Christian Right to new heights of denegration of Obama on all issues.

Not All The Polls Are In, But...

A May, 2011 Gallup poll shows that over 53% of Americans favor same-sex marriage: a 6-point rise in one year. In fact, the sharp change in attitude since the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell suggests that is voted upon today by voters in California, Proposition 8 would not pass (it passed with 52%). At that rate, an updated Gallup poll might show a higher percentage of up to 56%. And in a sense, the North Carolina Amendment 1 vote may have helped to steer the country in that direction:

North Carolina Governor Beverly Purdue:

"People around the country are watching us, and they're really confused to have been such a progressive forward thinking economically driven state that invested in education and that stood up for the civil rights people including the civil rights marches back in the 50s and 60s and 70s," said Perdue. "People are saying what in the world is going on with North Carolina, we look like Mississippi."

The governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, was not pleased. But then, no one wants to look like Mississippi.

"I support my president and love my president, but I think he is wrong. He is not God, and he doesn’t speak for all black folk because he is African-American.”

Reverend Keith Ogden of Asheville, North Carolina spoke words in line with the Christian Right, but also ones which they did not want to hear: "I support my president and love my president."

The "Wedge" is not working as well as it could. Look forward to the rhetoric being ramped up past the pulpits.

So Obama's Evolved. Now What? A Boon To The LGBT Community Is Also A Boon To The Right, Christian Or Otherwise

The Bigotry Will Triple

One Comment on Truth Wins Out:"Once upon a time, a much loved/hated President from Illinois got down off the fence and came out in support of basic justice and human rights for a group of people who had been denied these things up to that point. Almost 150 years later, it happened again."

Andrew Sullivan: "[T]oday Obama did more than make that logical step. He let go of fear. He is clearly prepared to let the political chips fall as they may. That's why we elected him. That's the change we believed in.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a President to speak his mind, inalienable rights can be elevated ... or sometimes get f*cked. Yesterday, President Barack Obama stated, in his usual careful and diplomatic way, that he thinks same-sex couple should have the right to marry, and amidst the cries of jubilation (see above) there will be voices screaming to have him ousted from office immediately. This year's Values Voters Summit, hosted by Family Research Council's Tony Perkins and attended by uber-bigots (like Bryan Fischer of American Family Association) across the country, will be one monstrous Obama-bashing event and Presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney will be ballyhooed more than the Second Coming.


This year's Summit may even allow a Ku Klux Klan booth.* Who knows?




The above is the headline for FOX Nation, the blog for FOX News. It's indicative of what is to come. "War On Marriage"... is too strong for a "news" outlet and is the same phrase used by the Christian Right and NOM. The "Flip Flops" is an inept attempt to counter the usual criticism of Romney's politics.

And more (courtesy, Joe.My.God):

• Alliance Defense Fund: Today's statement is a tragic contradiction that promotes the creation of even more fatherless and motherless homes.
• Traditional Values Coalition: North Carolina just became the 31st state to affirm the sanctity of marriage. As if mainstream Americans needed any further reasons to reject Obama’s radical social agenda, we were most certainly reminded today.
• The Catholic League: The time has finally come to pass a constitutional amendment affirming marriage as an institution reserved to the only two people who can naturally produce a family, namely a man and a woman.

These sound relatively mild, but the wild is yet to come. Already false speculations are emerging: one is that the Obama campaign is depending upon gay money since gays, of course have more money than God.

The myth that gays have more disposable income, however, is dispelled by the fact that a higher than national average are caregivers for their partners and parents** - those people for whom straight relatives (mostly siblings) have little or no concern. If the Obama administration doesn't know that it might be disappointed in the level of campaign donations. However, it will not be disappointed by the level of campaign work by gays and lesbians, reaching perhaps the level of 2008.

Reality, however, has never bothered the Right when it comes to attacking the Left. In this, the ferocity of the Right cannot be underestimated: they will counter Democratic campaigns with organizations like the discredited NOM. They will double-down on sanctioned bullying in schools. They will trumpet lies against Planned Parenthood and the Girls Scouts.

All of Mitt Romney's sins will be whitewashed to the nth degree.

And their victory in North Carolina will embolden them to paint gay activists as godless but powerfully manipulative demons and Obama as the anti-Christ for helping them along.

All liberals - gay and straight, better hunker down for an exceptionally vicious war.


*On religious grounds, of course. Those are fiery CROSSES, aren't they?
** The national average is 17% while the average for gays is 21%.

When Guns Become Godly: The Winning GOP Candidates, The Christian Right and the NRA.

https://publicfrenemy.wordpress.com/tag/jesus/

Two or three centuries from now it will be recognized that all the competent killers are Christians; then the pagan world will go to school to the Christian - not to acquire his religion, but his guns. 


- Young Satan, from Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger


From Joe.My.God:

The St. Gabriel Possenti Society has named GOP Sen. Mike Johanns (NE) as its "gun saint" of self-defense for his work to thwart gun control laws. In other news, there is a Patron Saint of Handgunners. Or will be, rather, if the Vatican approves the request of the Society.

A quick rundown of the GOP and Libertarian candidates running for President shows that all of the frontrunners except Romney have opposed gun control laws. On the other side, Obama supports the Second Amendment with a caveat about individual ownership:

“I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally...  We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. 

OK, we all knew it existed, that strong link  between the NRA and the Christian Right, but has it gotten stronger? Let's put it this way: it's as strong as it ever was.

The Christian Right - NRA Link

Perhaps the most powerful visage of a strong link between the Christian Right and the NRA is that of Pastor ("Rome Is The Whore of Babylon") John Hagee. He is the headliner for Citizens United For Israel and is the most prominent Christian Zionist around. He came to prominence during the 2008 election as one of John McCain's questionable religious mentors (Rod Parsley being the other one of note). His insistence that Israel must the be spark of Armageddon has caused him to be both vilified and glorified - especially in NRA circles. 


So it may not be a surprise that the ties of the Christian Right and the NRA have gotten stronger since 2008. 


Michele Bachmman addressed the NRA's 2011 annual meeting with: 


“In 18 months, we’ll face one of the most important elections of our time. In 2012, we have the opportunity to repeal the current president and elect a Constitutional conservative who will protect our Second Amendment rights.”

Rick Perry drew cheers from a speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University when he was introduced by the chancellor:  “Today’s speaker also has an A+ rating, but it’s from the National Rifle Association.”


Newt Gingrich gave a speech to the NRA equating American exceptionalism, the Second Amendment and the "Creator's" God-given rights (see below at 3:57 mark). 


Recently, Rick Santorum used a 1994 of Mitt Romney's to underscore a certain amount of distance between Romney and the NRA. The quote "I don't stand in line with the NRA" was taken out of context during a different between Romney and Ted Kennedy concerning gun control laws, but was not a blanket denegration of the NRA.


The Problem With Mitt and Obama


Perhaps more than his Mormonism, Mitt Romney's support for gun control (ala the Brady Bill) has caused concern among the Christian Right: it seems that he flip-flops on his association with the NRA more than any other issue. For while he is an actual member of the NRA, he is strongly against private use of assault weapons and has worked with local gun groups in Massachusetts to restrict gun ownership. 


And the Christian Right/NRA crowd won't stand for even a tepid involvement in gun control:

While delivering one of the liveliest and best-received speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the president's low-key approach to gun rights during his first term was "a "conspiracy to ensure re-election by lulling gun owners to sleep."

Will gun control become a major issue in the election? Probably not, but the Christian Right would like it to be: along with DOMA, the repeal of DADT, contraception and health care reform, gun control is a major "social conservative" issue. And if Romney wins the nomination, his support of the Brady Bill just may be another mark against him. 

Obama, Breitbart and Video Tapes

The thought of oh-so-sinister Obama putting a hit out on poor Andrew Breitbart has been too compelling for the conspiracy theorists. Now they have "revealing" tapes of Obama during his Harvard years to prove just how sinister and radical he really is. 


How will Obama react? With aplomb. Which will get the Right even angrier. 

The Bachmann Files: From Scandal In Scandia To Farm Subsidies

WORK IN PROGRESS

This is certainly not a comprehensive list of Michele Bachmann’s gaffes and exploits, but it does give insight to Bachmann and Bachmannites.

If anyone has additional links, please feel free to refer to them in the comments section. Thanks.


1. During a televised Hardball appearance in 2008, Bachmann told Chris Matthews,

"I'm very concerned that (then-candidate Barack Obama) may have anti-American views. That's what the American people are concerned about. That's why they want to know what his answers are... I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large, the people who are radical leftists. That's the real question about Barack Obama... I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out are they pro-America or anti-America. I think people would love to see an expose like that."

Subsequent to these inflammatory remarks, the Republican National Committee suspended $1M in advertising they had planned for Bachmann

2. The Census:

The 2010 census will likely determine whether Minnesota loses one of its eight U.S. House seats; population determines seat allocation. Political experts agree that a few thousand people not filling out census forms may be all it takes for the state to lose a congressional advocate in the nation’s capital. If Minnesota were to lose a congressional seat, Bachmann’s district appears to be candidate for absorption. Bachmann has been careful to say that she’s willing to tell the census how many people live in her household, the basic information that will determine whether Minnesota keeps a congressional seat. But that’s a message that’s easily lost in her fear-mongering; Beck didn’t help when he pantomimed flushing census documents down the toilet.

3. McCarthyism:

I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that.

4. “Armed And Dangerous” on Cap & Trade. Perhaps her most clueless gaff - it shows that she shows uses judgment in chooses phrases for her speeches and flings around catch-phrases willy-nilly.


5. Americorps Program = Re-education Camps

During an appearance of the Sue Jeffers show, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) claimed that the recent expansion the Americorps program is a dream comes true for those who want to rid America of capitalism because the Americorps program is really reeducation camps for young people.

BTW: her son joined an Americorps program. Go figure.

6. Bio-partisan economics same as Mussolini’s fascism:

"Let's remember really what this is. This has a lot in common with Italy in the 1930s and they way Italy dealt with economics," she said. "It still continues private ownership of business but government is in control."

7. The French culture is “going away” 

On the face of it, Bachmann observed, “multicultural diversity … sounds wonderful. But guess what? Not all cultures are equal. Not all values are equal. And ... those who are coming into France, which had a beautiful culture, the French culture is actually diminished, it’s going away.”

8. On evolution:

“There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design.”

9. On Terry Schiavo:

There was brain damage, there was no question. But from a health point of view, she was not terminally ill.”

10. Fears of a “global currency”:

“I’m very concerned about the international moves they’re making, particularly … moving the United States off the dollar and onto a global currency, like Russia and China are calling for.”

11. Unscientific attack on global warming:

“Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”

12. Senseless link of Democratic Presidents to swine flu:

“I find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out under another, then under another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. I’m not blaming this on President Obama, I just think it’s an interesting coincidence.”

13. On the sinister intentions of Obamacare:

“Does that mean that someone’s 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, have [her] abortion, be back and go home on the school bus? That night, mom and dad are never the wiser.”

14. Another premise on the evils of the Obama Administration:

Bachmann then continued, in her own words: "We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves."

15. Her heels were suspiciously killing her. 

April 8, 2005: When Bachmann tried to force a floor vote to create a state constitutional amendment to ban civil unions for gay couples, the Senate told her to take a hike. So she did -- outside to the Capitol grounds, where she spent an unknown amount of time lurking behind the shrubbery, spying on the rally OutFront Minnesota organized to protest her homophobic legislative tendencies. Her excuse: she was just sitting to rest because her heels were killing her.

Right.

16. Ebonics is not her strong point:

There's nothing more embarrasing than a middle-aged woman speaking ebonics, proven when Bachmann big-upped the chair of the Republican National Committee during the CPAC conference last March. You go on with your bad self, gurl! Ugh.

17. Wherever goes Israel, so goes the United States: 

 “I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States.

18. One of the primary contributors to Bachmann’s campaigns has been Club for Growth, dedicated to ferreting out RINOs and seeing that they are properly chastised or ousted. The other major contributors have been: Hubbard Broadcasting (major Minneapolis media expanding to other cities), Target, and TCP Financial, a holding company for one of Minnesota’s largest banks.


19. Playing one fear off the other:

“It’s clear that a bill that is silent on eligibility means a bill that includes illegal immigrants.”


NOT TRUE. NEVER HAS BEEN.


20. On control of our food supply:

"President Obama said we can't eat as much food as we want and think the rest of the world will be okay about that -- as if that matters to freedom-loving Americans," said Bachmann. "Well, we just heard last week that the Federal Government now under the Obama administration is calling for a re-ordering of America's food supply. What's that going to mean? Now will the White House decide how many calories we consume, or what types of food we consume?"

21. Now Nostradamus:

"I said I had very serious concerns that Barack Obama had anti-American views," she said. "And now I look like Nostradamus."

22. Foreclosures are the homeowners’ fault:

A Minnesota Independent investigation reveals today that Minnesotans in Bachmann’s district face the worst effects of the foreclosure crisis — but she’s doing the least about it. Bachmann calls homeowners “irresponsible”

23. Bachmann and Bradlee Dean:

Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH).

Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.

23. Then, of course, there’s the famous Bathroom Hysteria Scandal in Scandia!

24. Historical mangling #435: Bachmann claimed that Franklin Roosevelt started the Great Depression by signing an Act that, in actuality, Herber Hoover signed.

25. There are some birther-type concerns about Bachmann’s bar exam and her University’s accreditation at the time.

26. Recently, Anderson Cooper hacked away at the issue of the farm subsidies Michele Bachmann's family has been receiving a number of years:

So, when the congresswoman says she has never gotten a dime from the farm, she's contradicting her own disclosure filings. It's possible her disclosure filings have been wrong year after year or maybe her recollection is wrong.

In any case, you saw what happened when we asked her about it this evening. We invited her on the program tonight. She declined. Did the same thing last night. She did, however, appear on all five network morning shows today, where not a single interviewer asked her directly about the family farm and her statements about it. Sunday, when CBS's Bob Schieffer asked the right question, he got even less of an answer than we did. Mrs. Bachmann simply changed the subject. 

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. And So Is "Cowboy Diplomacy" (We Hope!)

Justice Is Served. 
Obama Is Lauded.
Statesmanship Is 
Re-established. 
And The Right is
...check-mated. 

A statesman does not gloat: in an hour when United States needed supreme statesmanship, Barack Obama made the announcement of Osama Bin Laden's with a slightly somber note. He did not smile. He simply noted that justice had been served and that we must be ever-vigilant in the war on terrorism. He also reinforced his image as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in declaring:

We must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

He did not gloat. Instead, the gloating was done for him around the country, and while people are justified in being satisfied with the Al Qaeda leader's death as a point of closure to horrific events in our history, the current hysteria may look to the world exactly like the joy Islamic militants had demonstrated on 9/11. Obama's calm hopefully countered that image.

The cheers may also signal a blow to the Right, for those jubilant crowds at Ground Zero are the people the Republican Party counted on to destroy Barack Obama. After all, they are cheering Obama's "gutsy" but intelligent strategy. Not...George...Bush's. 

And it's very obvious that conservatives across the country are holding back tears of frustration. After all, Bush's "cowboy diplomacy" was an oxymoron: it was no diplomacy at all. His desire to wear a white stetson and go into the Middle East with guns blazing was loutish and engendered more fear of the U.S. than admiration. It was the result of an excuse to annihilate Saddam Hussein, an act of bravado that cost more U.S. lives than were lost on 9/11 and spiraled the economy down into debt. Bush was derided as a brute - history's greatest diplomatic dimwit.

Reactions by Republicans have tried to temper their commendations of Obama with references to Bush:

Eric Cantor: "I commend President Obama who has followed the vigilance of President Bush in bringing Bin Laden to justice." 

Tim Pawlenty: In the hours after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush promised that America would bring Osama bin Laden to justice -- and we did."

Donald Rumsfeld: "All of this was made possible by the relentless, sustained pressure on al Qaeda that the Bush administration initiated after 9/11 and that the Obama administration has wisely chosen to continue." 

And some didn't bother to commend the President at all: reactions eliminating any mention of Obama include Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Rep. Darrell Issa,  Sen. Marco Rubio to name a few.

Those Amazing Conspiracy Guys

Perhaps the most loyal adherents to cowboy diplomacy are the country's conspiracy theorists: Obama's comparatively restrained militarism helped them paint him as un-American. And on the outset, the publication of the long form birth certificate coupled with Bin Laden's demise should render the brand of un-American moot and pointless. Of course, conspiracy theorists are still having a field day because of the manner in which the body of Bin Laden was disposed of: dumping it in the ocean was not (to them) conclusive. No matter that the comprehensive coverage of the assault by CBS IN THE WAR ROOM leaves no doubt that Obama, Vice-President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and other officials viewed the assault in real time. No matter that one woman in the compound made a positive identification of the body. No matter that photos were taken. No matter that positive DNA results were released. 

No matter.

We have Birthers (some refuse to believe the legitimacy of the long form) and now there will be (Bin Laden) "Deathers" as well. Ho hum. We can only hope that all these theorists whose raison d'etre is to "get" Obama at any cost may find their numbers dwindling, not because of the last two events, but because the pile up of conspiracy theories may increase to such a point that the industry itself may implode. Too many jokes founded on too many theories will eventually bore the public and adamant theorists will be looked upon for what they are: rubes who will grasp at anything to discredit him and make him look un-American. 

And when that happens, let's hope that they will take cowboy diplomacy along with them. It's too expensive. We can't afford it any more.

Fischer: The Constitution Allows Us To Be Absurd

When Bryan Fischer REALLY gets to fuming about gays, Obama, Muslims, etc. etc., he becomes a talking head telling everyone what he thinks is "absurd."* The irony is that Obama's "DOMA Dump" has made Bryan Fischer look "absurd." He is also obsessed with the word "animus" in Obama's statement about DOMA. Given how much he thinks the Constitution, like the Bible, was mandated by God, Fischer argues for our God-given right to hate people if we want to. 

*The comedian Steve Allen was also a philosopher with some substance and he wrote a book about the Bible. With clarity and reason, he criticized most of the Old Testament with his favorite word - "absurd." There's an irony there somewhere as well.

It's Really Hit The Fan!: How Obama's "DOMA Dump" Brought Out The Self-Righteous, The Insane And The Just Plain Stupid

Did you know that homosexuality is the REAL cause of "dead beat dads"?? Mike Huckabee says so!!

Yesterday, I could smell the explosion of fire and brimstone here in San Francisco (where it was a cool and beautifully clear day, totally devoid of God's wrath). I could even sense the gnashing of teeth, ripping of garments and tearing of hair. And I'm evil enough to say that I enjoyed it all. The Christian Right, in full force, came out in its totally self-righteous mode, entertaining the whole country. 

So what the hell did people expect? My fingers were glued to the keyboard the moment I read the news about Obama, the Justice Department and DOMA. Then I thought, "Sit and wait, rev." The deluge of self-righteousness was overwhelming: so many people were "appalled" at the "outrageous" and "unthinkable" act "radical element" Obama has done, all-but-declaring DOMA to be null and void, "abandoning his role as President." Some diatribes were (relatively) short, others long-winded and others too flabbergasting to be coherent. The panoply and intensity of outrage was - to use their own words - "staggering":

I first went to Family Research Council's Tony Perkins since he has become, after all, the country's Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the Royal Order of Righteous Rhetoric:

"This decision by President Obama and the Department of Justice is appalling. The President's failure to defend DOMA is also a failure to fulfill his oath to 'faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.' What will be the next law that he will choose not to enforce or uphold? "Marriage as a male-female union has been easily defended in court and overwhelmingly supported by the American people.

Ahem. That "overwhelmingly supported by the American people" has changed a bit since the Dark Ages (before Prop 8), but Perkins is well known for skewing numbers to the point that some researchers are thinking of suing him and the FRC.

Matt Staver, Liberty Counsel:

“This is outrageous and unthinkable ... Today President Obama has abandoned his role as President of the United States and transformed his office into the President of the Divided States. He has been the most divisive president in American history.

Staver's bluster is countered by the fact that Obama has always been a lawyer first, a President second and a constitutional scholar third when it comes to matters of law. He would not have made such a statement if he hadn't thought it out with all of the legal ramifications it might entail.  The "divisive" adjective may go along with Perkins' "overwhelming" statement, but people are beginning to think differently about same-sex marriage... and Staver knows it.

Maggie Ghallagher, NOM:

“We have not yet begun to fight for marriage. The Democrats are responding to their election loss with a series of extraordinary, extra-constitutional end runs around democracy, whether it’s fleeing the state in Wisconsin and Indiana to prevent a vote, or unilaterally declaring homosexuals a protected class under our Constitution, as President Obama just did. 

Maggie Ghallagher is no John Paul Jones, but she is definitely on a sinking ship: the "crowds" at her rallies can all fit into my bathroom.

As always, Bryan Fischer:

[This is] "a wake-up call to all conservatives that fundamental American values regarding the family are under all-out assault by this administration. It ought to represent a clarion call to man the barricades before we lose what is left of the Judeo-Christian system of values in our public life."

"Assault" and "man the barricades" reinforce more than Fischer's penchant for militaristic rhetoric: it's his evocation of the myth of the masculine privilege. Fischer is being the forceful "man" he thinks Jesus Christ was, all Rambofied and armed with tough love. This gives us the feeling that Mr. Fischer is compensating for something.

And Mike Huckabee:

"There is a quantified impact of broken families," Huckabee said. "[There is a] $300 billion dad deficit in America every year...that's the amount of money that we spend as taxpayers to pick up the pieces because dads are derelict in their duties."

This is genuinely a WTF? correlation. Is Rev. Huckabee losing it? Maybe no more than Pat Robertson who was last seen helping to conduct a faith healing that looked more like an episode of Jerry Springer.* What is a "dad deficit"? Do we now have a shortage of fathers because gay men are luring them away with their wiles? Some women should be so lucky! Point of fact: some women would rather have a gay husband. Totally apropos sentiment from one wistful woman: "I long for the old days, when the good ones were either married or gay. Now they're both!"

 

Rick Santorum:

"President Obama's refusal to defend a law that was overwhelmingly supported on both sides of the aisle and signed into law by a president of his own party is an affront to the will of the people." 

(h/t Joe.My.God)

Yes, the accompanying photo is a rather cheap shot, but I couldn't resist it. Santorum is still trying to get his name re-googled.

OK, I'll stop being giddy about the situation and stop to breathe a more serious note: the problem we now face is that of a circus trainer trying to put his tiger back in its cage. The Christian Right, with its power behind the Republican Party (and some Tea Partiers) will not only be ferocious in its onslaught against Obama, but against anyone they feel is not backing their agenda 110 percent. They've already begun to peel some moderate skin off the Republican Party with their claws.  

When pseudo-historian David Barton recently spoke to the Connect 2011 Pastors Conference, he said that Christians needed to take control of the culture and media so that "guys that have a secular viewpoint cannot survive" because Christians will "chop that kind of news off." I don't think Barton's talking about viewpoint. 


I'm serious.

ANDERSON COOPER IS A TERRORIST!! Who Knew?

Straight from one of the country's most arduously clueless clergymen (I'm deeply ashamed):

"This politically correct media wants to feel warm and fuzzy to Islam ...overthrow a duly-elected natural-born citizen (Mubarek) ...blatant attempt to fuel fire ...Anderson Cooper, beyond the pale of reporting ...we cannot, as Americans who love freedom and justice allow this to go on."

Manning goes on to use an analogy of the US media ganging up on Obama and forcing him to resign.

Gimme a break!

Soros & Murdoch: Fighting For Control Of The World

 According to Beck, Soros is a sneaky and sly ideologue who just loves to do almost everything under the cover of darkness, using a lot of front groups and organizations to hide his real agenda.

Rupert Murdoch Reportedly Funds North Korean Regime

Glenn Beck's recent attacks on the character and machinations of George Soros have raised speculation as to how much these stones have to do with "social justice" or if they are prompted by Soros' arch enemy, Rupert Murdoch. In any case, it is interesting to compare the two billionaires and to speculate who is doing what to whom. And the even bigger question: why?

The answers are not only based in the political and social views of the two men, but how they conduct their businesses and how they spread their wealth.

George Soros is almost twice as wealthy as Murdoch and spends a much greater portion of that wealth contributing to liberal causes and charities:

THE GENEROSITY INDEX

“The Giving Game: Billionaire Edition”(p. 85). Condé Nast Portfolio looks at which billionaires are giving the most to charitable causes, relative to their wealth; which are giving the least; and who is refusing to say. ... The top 10 most generous billionaires (in order of giving): Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, George Soros, John Kluge, Michael Bloomberg, David Koch, Pierre Omidyar, George Kaiser, and Michael Dell. ... Among the wealthiest people in the country with no record of public giving in the past several years (in order of giving): Kirk Kerkorian, Sumner Redstone, Anne Cox Chambers, Steve Ballmer, and Rupert Murdoch.

George Soros' Open Society Foundations has funneled money into welfare organizations throughout the world and if any theme might be given to his philanthropy it is "social justice." In a very real sense, Soros' philanthropy also focuses on politics both national and international:

Open Societies Statement:

Working to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens

That statement certainly sounds noble enough, but without the word "tolerant" the statement falls flat. It can be said that from a liberal POV, Open Societies is all-inclusive, meaning: conservatism is, by nature, exclusive. In contrast to Soros' philanthropic focus, Murdoch has been putting more money into political campaigns and media outlets for the Republican Party. In response to questions put to him by stockholders in NewsCorp as to transparency, Murdoch had this to say:

“We’ve considered[it] from time to time. I don’t believe we’ll be doing it again. We’ll see.”
And would he be willing to involve shareholders in this process?
“No,” he said. “Sorry, you have the right to vote us off the board.”

And while Murdoch aptly points out that NewsCorp has contributed more money to Democrat campaigns in the past, he has never divulged the value of time and promotion FOX News has given to conservative political campaigns. It runs in the billions, to be sure.

So here we have two men in different realms of power:  Soros has international power and (ostensible) goals of social justice, while Murdoch wields more national power through the media and has (ostensible) goals formed from pure capitalism. It's almost a fight between pure liberal and pure conservative (although Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic would disagree about anyone on the Right being a "pure" conservative). Murdoch's Glenn Beck has been trying desperately to make "compassion" and "social justice" pejorative to the lower middle and middle class, thereby depicting left-leaning philanthropists like Soros as people who "embrace the darkness" (at least, that's the way Lou Engle would put it). George Soros has been fighting back with contributions to organizations like Moveon.org and Media Matters.* Soros knows, however, that Murdoch owns too much of the media to ever be attacked effectively: sicking the Beck-Bulldog on Soros is something Murdoch will never cease to do until Soros is buried (rhetorically speaking, of course).

There is an insightful article in the Nov. 10th post of News Corpse that eviscerates Glenn Beck's "special" broadcast, The Puppet Master (I especially like the flipped-off title with Glenn Beck as The Muppet Pastor). It brings out Murdoch's machinations and scrutinizes them with the same criteria used to skewer Soros.

Conspiracy theory #4,876: So, is this feud merely a distraction? Is it a cover-up for the REAL players in world power? If I were a spy/mystery/sci-fi freak, I suppose it could be. But think of this: the Soros-Murdoch war may be a metaphor for the age-old war of "social justice vs. capitalism." Both sides may want you to look at it that way.  

On the other hand both sides may just want you to look the other way. Just a thought.

*Irony of Ironies:  WASHINGTON -- In one of the more clever moments of issue advocacy in recent memory, the progressive media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, successfully won an online auction Thursday to have a "friendly lunch" with its long-time nemesis, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. [And don't forget that Soros donated one million dollars to Media Matters just days before the elections]

UPDATE 11/13/2010:

In the category of "nobody saw this coming" one of Sarah Palin's top aides, Randy Scheuneman, (foreign policy) has been on George Soros' payroll for years! Beck and Palin have some 'splainin' to do!

You're Right, Mr. Obama, It Gets Better - But Not If The Christian Right Has Anything To Say About It!!

You'll look back on the struggles you've faced 

with compassion and wisdom.

There's nothing wrong with your monitor. It's green because so many Christionists are puking up bile onto their screens and blogs and websites and desks and carpets and dogs. 

Stock tip: Buy stock in Resolve and Magikist Rug Cleaners (They're out of business? Damn!).

The President delivered an "It Gets Better Speech" last night. He got some kudos, but not enough from the LGBT community to make a dent in their disappointment. His DOJ put DADT back into play. It doesn't balance out. but there will be hell to pay nevertheless. And both the LGBT community and the President will suffer.

So now, what? 

As a diversion, it's time for the Tony Perkins "Homosexual Agenda Show!" What awful pun will he use for his first headline? The suspense kills. Then there will be the Bryan Fischer radio rant chanting "perverted president" "Christians are always right, "gays are nazis!" ("pssst: kill them!"). Concerned Women for America will release a statement like : "Of course, we want ALL children to be safe, but must we push the homosexual agenda on infants?" Southern Baptist ministers across the land will be nixing their Sunday sermons and feverishly drafting new ones to tell people that their Halloween Hell Houses will contain an "Abominable Obama" rainbow-colored monster. And FOX News ... will live for the next YEAR on this one. 

Yes, I feel sorry for the President. He was pressured to do the right thing, of course, but it still took a certain amount of courage to do it. He could have abstained by lauding Hillary Clinton's speech as sufficient. Still, some people in his own party may be distancing themselves from him even more than they have recently. The Democrats are so scattered right now, you 'll hear groans amongst the faint cheers. To some, Obama may have shown the wrong time to deliver compassion.

Compassion. Seriously, that's a word that the Christian Right has now taken to demonizing as a soft, wimpy word, not commensurate with the bold measures needed to "Take Back America" from the godless secularists. Ironically, however, compassion will be the word the Right will need to adopt before looking totally hard-hearted. It will need to convolute the definition to mean something, well, less compassionate and more boot-strapsier.

"We've got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage-that it's some inevitable part of growing up. It's not."

This is when the Right will turn and say "yes it is!" Christine O'Donnell and Sharon Angle are shouting "man it up!" The red states will say "he's teaching our kids to be sissies." 


Compassion will be banned from the conversation. If there is a conversation. But instead it will be a one-sided bray from the Right, backed up by righteous indignation. 


Yes, I also feel sorry for the LGBT community. The bullies may win the day: after all, they still have Hell Houses to give the bullies justifiable support. After Oct. 31st, we may wake up to a spate of gay bashing the likes of which we've never seen since the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic.


Just a thought.

We Don't Have To Be Nice Anymore: Is Christofascist Tough Love Gaining Ground?

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This is how evil advances in America - 

one weak-kneed group of kind-hearted, wimpish people at a time. God has not called us to be nice, he has called us to be good, and being good will occasionally call us to stand firm in the face of evil and stare it down.

 - Brian Fischer, Focal Point, 7/21/10 

When Barack Obama dove into the Ground Zero Mosque Debate, he expressed a fundamental  American tenet: to be kind and tolerant of everyone. Of course, he qualified his statement by implying that he didn't necessarily agree with the wisdom of building an Islamic cultural center just blocks away from New York's infamous site, but the sentiment threw the Christian Right into a near-violent tantrum of Islamophobia. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association pre-empted Obama's statement by saying that absolutely no mosques should be built at all:

Bryan Fischer:

"Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for Ground Zero," Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association wrote this week on the AFA website. "This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government."

From Renew America:

That's what you get when you elect a man named Barack Hussein Obama about whom you know nothing other than the fawning, worshipful puke served up by the liberal media all through the campaign and for most of his first year and a half in office.

The rhetoric of the Christian Right is getting dangerously vitriolic. Forget the calls for the death of Obama: these were considered to be the squeakings of church mice like James Manning and Wiley Drake (and Pat Robertson's edicts have been on the wane for the last decade). No,  the Lou Engles and covert Reconstructionists of today's Christofascism*  don't put their faith in imprecatory prayers, but instead focus their prayers (sung by rock bands) on a Christian-only nation ridding its country of perceived enemies whether they be Muslims, gays, atheists, feminists ... o.k., it's a rather long list. 

Bryan Fischer's pronouncements - that we should deport all Muslims, that gays are a threat to the entire country, that Christians are commanded by God to be "good" but not necessarily "nice" - are  foolhardy statements that nonetheless reflect the inner core of Christofascism. If people distance themselves from Fischer, it's only because they don't want their true agenda to be known just yet. Sound like a conspiracy theory? Maybe, but even the most far-out theories can have a grain of truth in them.

Today, more and more people are taking on the titles of "theocrat" or "Reconstructionist" with only a slight brush to the side: i.e., they don't take as much offense at those labels as they used to. Yes, I've read The American Spectator article on the misuse of the term "Reconstructionist," but I still think that Sharron Angle is a Reconstructionist ....disguised as a complete ditz.

Love The Sinner

Most Christofascists believe that if you repeat the "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" slogan a certain number of times, anyone will believe your intentions are good. The LSHS ideology has been around a long time: it's good PR. But they also know that only a miniscule portion of their adherents believe it, much less practice it. LSHS grates against human nature: which one of us loves the person who stole our food? our shelter? our clothing? 

Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 14, 1991:

You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them.

Maybe it comes down to this: the Christofascists of today simply tout their stance as one of "tough love." E.G.: Bryan Fischer said that deporting all Muslims may actually be compassionate, since they would get to be with "their own kind." A monstrous statement, to be sure, but one that had conviction.

The Lies

Another reason I think that Christofascist Tough Love might be gaining ground is that old lies are brought out and brandished with impunity:

Boots on the Ground piece:

The Gay subculture is one of the most violent subcultures out there.  Government studies show gays are 20 times more likely to be abusive or abused in their personal relationships.  This reflects an inherent emotional instability that is not conducive to good order or discipline. 

The author of the piece above was referencing a thoroughly debunked 40-year-old statistic. Whether or not he knows it's a lie is, of course, another story: it's the same old lie repeated in every one of the Family Research Council's donation pleas. Along with it are the "facts": gays have a shorter life-span by 20 years, gays are unstable because their suicide rate is 6 times greater than "normal" people, and gays always have HIV-tainted blood. 

But lies are gaining ground in the fact that, given support (like a moronic congressman), they reach the ears of the general populace:  The Rachel Maddow show (rightly) poked fun at Rep. Louie Gohmert (R., Texas) and his assertion about supposed "terror babies." (See below). We all laughed, but think of this: how many people had to believe in "terror babies" before it came to Gohmert's attention? Where did the story originate? And despite the ludicrous presentation Gohmert made, how many believed him because he was made to look like a fool on Anderson Cooper 360? Sometimes more support is gained when an adherent to the cause is ridiculed by the "liberal" media.  America loves an underdog. 

It may seem contradictory for a religious group based on the teachings of Christ to espouse such potentially violent ideologies: wasn't Christ "good-hearted" and "nice" to people? Aren't we "good" because we are "nice" to people? Doesn't our own Statue of Liberty declare how "nice" and compassionate a country we are? Unfortunately,  "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free" is, day-by-day, becoming an anachronism when compared to a Christofascist's  "tough love" stance on immigration and Muslims. And even occassional shots of "Love the sinner" - given to anaesthetise people from the pain of Christofascist's demonization of gays - are giving way to overt lies and distortions.

Periodically, the cry will go out that the Christian Right is dead or that Christofascists are losing the culture war because their numbers are shrinking. This assertion, however, does not consider the fact that no matter what their number, their hate has become louder, yet more insidious, if that's possible. They have concentrated their strength, condensed it, and  even localized it. Their national screeds and bloviators, like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Lou Engle of The Call, are spearheads they hope will inflict serious wounds into a diverse democracy. The Values Voter summit, unfortunately, grows every year. Their screams concerning freedom of speech and freedom of religion grow louder with each of their setbacks or obstacles; e.g. October will be a tipping point in the Fred Phelps saga - in as much as they've distanced themselves from Phelps,  they will most certainly support a Supreme Court decision for Phelps. Their kind of freedom  must trump the kind of emotional vandalism Phelps heaped upon the families of war casualties. 


And they will continue to trumpet lies and distortions through people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. They will continue to support creationism, homophobia, Islamophobia. They will continue to foster the image of a militaristic Jesus and eschew the "kind-hearted", "bleeding hearts" and "nice" people in favor of the  aggressive, political religious. 

I realize that these last points make me sound polemic, but how can I sound balanced when faced with the biased, the unbalanced? 


How can any of us be patient for human rights and equality when faced with aggression that is threatening to rob us of the "kind-hearted"?

* While some may balk at the term "Christofascism" the Christian Right's politically aggressive stance has lately paralleled fascism too much to be ignored:  overt NATIONALISM, SEXISM, combination of RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT, protection of CORPORATE POWER, disdain for INTELLECTUALS and THE ARTS ... And in the end, the best explanation was by Sinclair Lewis: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."