Freedom Of Religion The Bryan Fischer Way!

Bryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the social conservative group the American Family Association, says that when it comes to Islam, the First Amendment is a privilege, not a right. "Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam," Fischer wrote today.

Such is the slippery slope of Christofascism. The First Amendment was written to protect all religions, but Fischer does not think Islam is a proper religion.

"The First Amendment was written by the Founders to protect the free exercise of Christianity." He might have said, "Christianity alone," for it the statement meant.

While you're trying desperately to digest that form of bigotry and Islamophobia, watch this old sketch with the two Stephens battling it out. It's hysterical!

Life Without St. Liz

Can a woman who belonged to no particular denomination, converted to Judaism, married 8 times, played Cleopatra on screen and off, and scandalized the world with her affairs be made a saint? Benedict XVI certainly wouldn't approve, but there are many people who would nominate her and pray to her image every day. 

Elizabeth Taylor was beautiful to almost everyone: in her marriages she took a stance: you had to be a strong personality, and if you thought you had to compete, then you didn't stand a chance. She attracted both sexes. She learned early on that celebrity status could be used for fun and for compassion. She proved to be what she was most proud of: a survivor. She was vulnerable to physical illness but not to critics of her choice of lifestyle. She was passionate about the people who were her friends* - and she made friends everywhere. She became devoted to helping people with AIDS at a time when many people (e.g. Mike Huckabee) wanted to quarantine the entire gay community. Her compassion seemed eternal. She seemed eternal ... and the patron saint of survivors. 

But, like Benedict XVI, people noticeably shunned her... or at least her persona. 

My mother, only knowing of Elizabeth Taylor's affairs and husbands, (never seeing any of her movies and not knowing of her philanthropy) called her a "high-priced whore." Pulpits screamed about her affair with Richard Burton and synagogues whispered of her seemingly cavalier conversion to Judaism (she was raised in Christian Science). Yes, there were a lot of people through the years who hated the very image of Elizabeth Taylor. They failed to realize that their hatred was against a persona which they themselves had helped to create: every move, every role, every outfit, every love affair was magnified ten times by the excoriations of sacred cows. To them she was a dreaded feminist, screen goddess, home wrecker, libertine, and glamorous evil that pervaded Hollywood. The more they reviled her, the more alluring she became to the American public. She was simply her own person - a person she would not have been if she had followed the dictates of a crumbling Hollywood system  and a group of self-righteous malcontents. 

Some people would go to extravagant lengths to prove that St. Liz had an evil side: on JesusIsSaviour.com Elizabeth is aligned with the Satan because she once gave the "I love you" sign for the deaf and everyone knows that the inventor of the sign, Helen Keller, "was an occultist and Theosophist."

So Elizabeth Taylor will never be canonized a saint. Her image will not grace churches. Miracles will not be attributed to her. Schools will not be named after her. No one will celebrate her birthday or her feast day. People will not hawk her relics. 

Elizabeth Taylor, however, is enshrined everywhere: in art (Andy Warhol's painting of her recently sold for $62 million), in film, in the annuls of charity, in history. She is also shrined in our hearts. 

It will be difficult surviving without Elizabeth Taylor in our lives to tell us how to survive and help others to survive. It will be live without her presence emanating glamor and compassion. To whom can we turn to for advice on living? To whom can we turn to when we need a friend? Our friend, our mistress, our confidante is gone. Hopefully, she is still with us, observing and helping us in her own inimitable way.

Thank you, St. Liz, for everything you've done for us. Please look after us. Amen. 

*She saved the life of actor Montgomery Clift: after a car crash, she saw that he was choking on something, reached into his mouth and pulled out the back teeth that were lodged in his throat. She then covered his head and yelled to the attendant paparazzi that if they didn't leave, she would personally see that they would never work in Hollywood again.

Pray Away The Gay - Or Just Ejaculate It Out?

“When they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind,” Girouex allegedly told detectives.

Just when you thought you've heard about all the wacko sex therapies to turn gays into straights, there comes along another one that blasts you out into the stratosphere:

A former youth pastor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says he had sex with teenage boys because it was his pastoral duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”

Evidently he was "called to duty" hundreds of times, according to the young men who told authorities that he had molested them when they were as young as 11. And his sessions of "sexual purity" were held in his home. 

Makes "Bishop Eddie Long" look positively virginal. 

Why The "Kill Team" Photos Are NOT Abu Ghraib Redux

The German news magazine Der Spiegel on Monday published photographs of atrocities carried out last year by members of a US Army unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. One photo includes an American soldier smiling for the camera as he lifts the head of a dead Afghan civilian like a hunter after bagging his game.

Der Spiegel published three photos, but it and Der Spiegel TV have reportedly obtained 4,000 photographs and videos from a collection belonging to a suspected member of a US army “kill team.”

I suppose I should write about morality. I don't want to write about morality right now because morality is much more an issue of the heart than of the mind and, therefore, relative. Some people abhor the word "relative", but it's the only word at hand for the moment. But I must write about morality today, the day in which I must write about another subject: the "Kill Team."  

"Everyone would share the photographs," one of the defendants, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, told investigators. "They were of every guy we ever killed in Afghanistan."

Comparisons to the Abu Ghraib scandal are in the thousands, but the exploits of the "Kill Team" were slightly different: at Abu Ghraib, people were tortured and humiliated for sport. In Afghanistan, people were killed for sport. At Abu Ghraib, photos were the stuff of souvenirs. In Afghanistan, body parts were souvenirs. There were hundreds of photos at Abu Ghraib. There were thousands of photos in Afghanistan. Most of the men at Abu Ghraib were prisoners of war. Some of the bodies in Afghanistan were civilians. Abu Ghraib was considered an isolated incident. Photos and "souvenirs" were shared and traded throughout a larger segment of the military. 


While American soldiers are increasing their vigilance and preparing for anti-American riots and violence, we really have to think about the causes of this latest black mark on our military: what made these young men so callus to human life? And while their brigade took some very heavy losses, was sheer vengeance the motive?

A total of 12 soldiers have had criminal charges leveled against them. All are from the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Only five have been accused of murder, but the rest are alleged to have carried out a host of other violent crimes.

There are 76 charges against the 12 ranging from murder to assault. One charge deals with the threats made on the whistle-blower's life. Another charge is leveled against Staff Sgt. Gibbs (Billings, MT) who had in his possession  numerous human bones. 

Morality is, as I've said, relative. While some say it is an absolute, static thing, others compare it to a tree with huge limbs and many branches, but with deep roots in humanity. Is it possible that the people of Afghanistan have been dehumanized (both in their own country and in the U.S.) to the point that they have become objects of sport? Or is it possible that some of our soldiers  themselves have become dehumanized by a war that has little meaning? 

And what of their roots in humanity? Do they have any? Of course they do, but maybe their roots are being fed with poisonous ideologies and they are not well-prepared for alien cultures. Yes, there will be comparisons to Abu Ghraib, but the most horrifying conclusion of these comparisons is that evidence of the "kill team" is worse.

Like war itself, the discovery of torture and humiliation for fun at Abu Ghraib was supposed to deter men from repeating atrocities, but it seems some men never learn.

Something's Still Phishy in Philly

No news reports about John Joe Thomas and his "The Bible told me so" confession. Methinks something is missing in this case and it isn't the brains of the defendant. 

Speculation is abounding in this case and unless Thomas' defense or the prosecution come up with more facts or testimonies, angry villagers with torches will be storming the Upper Darby jail house. I'll admit that I'm hooked as well: there's got to be more substance than what everyone else has been given. Whether Thomas really hears "voices" or not may not be as important as the presence of a third party telling Thomas that gays should be stoned to death. Or telling Thomas that he should "plead the Bible."

Christian Aid in Japan To "Believers" Only???

While reading this, I was struck by the term "believers." It could of course, be a simple mistake of grammar that made this entreaty look exclusive, but I think not. Not the way to  get converts, guys!

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 18, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Christian Aid relief coordinator for Japan is calling Americans to pray and collect aid in Sunday services for the Fukusima families who lost loved ones in last week's killer quake.

Christian Aid Mission is sending the aid to Japanese believers working among residents evacuated from the nuclear reactor town on the northeastern coast of Japan. Fukusima is located just below the epicenter of the quake near Sendai.

Stoning The "Homo To Death"

Will we see more facts emerge in this bizarre case? How will the Christian Right react? (OK, predictable: "So he's insane - it's not our fault!"). Will John Joe Thomas' parents shed more light on the murder? Who will defend him? What will be the plea? Will a third party emerge? Yeah, kids, it's like a soap opera.