Pray and Prosper: You Pray, You Pay... and I'll Prosper

Who's Got the REAL money?

Why did Martin Luther hate the Roman Catholic Church so much? Because the prelates and the Pope had (literally) "more money than God." And the fact that the clergy sold indulgences (an indulgence, was a sort of "Get Out Of Hell" card) didn't sit well with the populace, either.

So what's the idea behind today's "seed" money? In prosperity theology, "seed" money is "holy" money you give to a church or organization showing your support. When you give "seed " money, God will give you back "tenfold." Most proslytizers of seed money, however, make it sound not as if you're getting back health or wealth, but securing a better seat in heaven (orchestra seat G10, maybe, unless heaven is bigger). Sort of like an indulgence. Hmmm.

Back to Luther: those prelates and popes lived in palaces, collected the best artwork (at sinfully high prices), were (tastefully) bejewelled and rode (drove) the best transportation on four hooves. Hmmm, again.

In a sense, they WERE entertaining, showing people the might, right and beauty of Almighty God. Shock and awe against Satan, presumably.

When I was a kid, our pastor (diocesan - no vow of poverty) always rode a brand new Buick. His rectory's game room (four poker tables, a pool table and several pinball machines) was much bigger than the office he used for counsultations. (To be fair, I can't recall him using it anyway so it didn't have to be very large.) He could also wring more money out of the congregation than any top-notch traveling salesman.

All the priests of my younger years would have made great politicians.

Now, some "men of God" are doing just that: shifting from religion to politics without moving a muscle. Especially men like Rev. Mike Huckabee.

"There's a political savvy that Baptist preachers who made it big in the Southern Baptist Convention learned from their mother's womb," said Bill Leonard, a former Southern Baptist seminary professor and dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina. "It's an instinct to know how to read populist moments and movements."

Just where am I going with all this? The headlines today mentioned that Huckabee's campaign is in financial trouble. Don't believe it. There are still people who will shovel money to Huckabee like they did to Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker. They even call campaign contributons "seed" money. Give to a campaign (megachurch pastor, or televangelist with political asperations) and you will receive it back tenfold.

Of course, if you don't contribute, chances are you might find it harder to get to heaven.

Be Prepared?

January 24 - The Day of Striking Ironies

In 1922, The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell. Their motto was, of course, "Be Prepared."

In 1942 - A special court of inquiry into America's lack of preparedness for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor placed much of the blame on Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter C. Short. Were they ever Boy Scouts?

And in 2003 - The new U.S. Deprtment of Homeland Security officially opened and its head, Tom Ridge, was sworn in. His biography does not mention the Boy Scouts, but while he was governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge's pen was always pepared to sign execution warrants (over 200).

From Slavery to Jim Crow and Right Back to Slavery

The Slavery of Literalism

Jan. 21-Jan. 24

This period of time between Martin Luther King Day and the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade should have given African-Americans a time to reflect on the subject of suppression. MLK was a Baptist minister, but was he a biblical inerrantist? A literalist? A young-earther? A creationist? In other words, was Martin Luther King, Jr. a Southern Baptist Minister?

No.

His early years were frought with scepticism:

San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 15, 2007

Writings show King as liberal Christian, rejecting literalism

by Mattai Chaoko Karuvila - Religion Editor

...King was not a conformist Christian. He not only eschewed literalism, he was a strident critic of how the Christian church perpetuated injustices such as slavery and segregation.

"Too often has the church talked about a future good 'over yonder,' totally forgetting the present evil over here," King wrote in 1952 to Coretta Scott, his future wife.

"Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and not concerned about the city government that damns the soul, the economic conditions that corrupt the soul, the slum conditions, the social evils that cripple the soul, is a dry, dead, do-nothing religion in need of new blood," King preached in 1962 to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

King "wanted to develop an intellectually respectable form of Christianity that did not require people to simply abandon their rational, critical abilities," Carson said. The essential truth King saw, according to Carson, was the social gospel -- "to see the Bible as a message of spiritual redemption and global social justice."

[From Wikipedia's oh-so-liberal slanted article on Margaret Sanger]

In 1930, Sanger opened a family planning clinic in Harlem that sought to enlist support for contraceptive use and to bring the benefits of family planning to women who were denied access to their city's health and social services. Staffed by a black physician and black social worker, the clinic was endorsed by The Amsterdam News (the powerful local newspaper), the Abyssinian Baptist Church, the Urban League, and the black community's elder statesman, W.E.B. DuBois.[22]

To set the record straight, Margaret Sanger was against abortion and proposed that there would be no need of abortion if contraception were used effectively.

But millions of the self-righteous don't see things that way:

What is also fairly well known among pro-lifers who know about what a wicked institution Planned Murderhood is, is the fact that Sanger callously planned on using black ministers (willingly or by deceit) to trick their flocks into going along with PP’s agenda. [From: The Myths of Martin Luther King, by By P. Leslie Riley, Chairman, Constitution Party of Mississippi]

But is this self-righteous way of looking at pro-choice a cover-up for something more seminal and sinister? Is it possible to be enslaved by the Church? Please feel free to discss.

Christianist Cartoon Characters Aren't Very Funny

Remember: Fudd's The One With The Gun

I've told this one to friends many times before: at one time a fundamentalist fumed "Well, when you think of us, you just think we're either like Elmer Gantry or..or...Elmer Fudd!"

It's twoo, it's twoo, it's weewee weewee twoo.

But while we can make fun of Christianists (I like Andrew Sullivan's term much better than "fundamentalist" - it has a more sinister ring to it) we can't escape the fact that some of them (not all) might have a predeliction for violence.

The next quotes come from Top 100 Greatest Quotes from fundamentalist christian chat rooms. Granted, they might be suspiciously over the top, but after viewing other responses in Christian blogs, they read waaay too close to home.

[Following the comment "The evolutionists are only here to throw sh*t on the Christians... that is their sole purpose... ]

Exactly! The enemies of Christianity know that their pseudo science is bogus, fake, phony and fraudulent. They can fool some of the people some of the time, but they can't fool the vast majority of people. The only reedeming feature about these neo anti-Christians is that there are so few of them and, hence, easily annihilable. And the battle continues as it has for 2 thousands years.

[Reviewing "Letter to a Christian Nation"]

How much longer will I have to endure atheistic christophobia? Atheism is a religion, and let me cite some doctrines: ...

ATHEIST TENANT OF FAITH: The CRUSADES is an amazing example that I Love to cite in order to illustrate how wicked and vile Christianity is

REBUTTAL: The crusades were GOOD. If it weren't for the crusades the Muslim invaders would have conquered Europe and you'd be praying to Allah right now. Thank God (or the IPF for you atheists) the Crusaders pushed the Muslilm hoarde out of Europe and threw them back into the desert. Jihadian Mohammadans invaded Europe, and your damn straight Europe had a right to defend itself.

What's an "Atheist Tenant of Faith" ? Is Faith a landlord? What's a Muslilm hoarde? Is it a cache of Muslilms?. Jihadian Mohammadans invaded Europe. Yes, we can see the results of that horrible invasion in the ruins of mosques - from Italy all the way to Finland!

(on crying)

... while crying might not be a totally evil sin, crying offen does reflect a babies inner desire for itself. note that Jesus did not cry when he was born. Also, even if the baby is quite, you can see that sin is born with it. Sin can effect you in two ways, by it being done to you or you doing it. In the case of a new-born, by living in a sinful world, even the new borns suffer from sin. Not all new borns are born in perfect bliss? without disease...infact all are born...someday to die. the price of man's sin...sad isn't it... yes you might have seen me before...but God will always provide a witness. We will all stand together on this one.

I think he saw The Bad Seed too many times. If Jesus didn't cry when he was born, he must have had some other means of getting oxygen into his lungs.

And this bit of reasoning worthy of Aristotle:

Gravity: Doesn't exist. If items of mass had any impact of others, then mountains should have people orbiting them. Or the space shuttle in space should have the astronauts orbiting it. Of course, that's just the tip of the gravity myth. Think about it. Scientists want us to believe that the sun has a gravitation pull strong enough to keep a planet like neptune or pluto in orbit, but then it's not strong enough to keep the moon in orbit? Why is that? What I believe is going on here is this: These objects in space have yet to receive mans touch, and thus have no sin to weigh them down. This isn't the case for earth, where we see the impact of transfered sin to material objects. The more sin, the heavier something is.

Wow! I knew it! Calories are caused by the Devil!

This one is just plain scary:

Seriously, does anybody ever cry at an Atheist's funeral? I mean, since Atheists have no value whatsoever as human beings (they're not even human, but only inhuman animals), since Atheists are nothing but miserable Liars, Cowards and Murderers, after all, why would anybody in their right mind weep over the dead rotting corpse, or bone chips and ashes (that get mixed together with those of others from the crematory) of a worthless dead Atheist? And what epitaph do you engrave on an Atheist's grave marker? "Here lies the only good Atheist, which is a dead Atheist". What else is there say? Nothing at all. No last words, no last rites, no flowers, no anything.

Every time an Atheist dies, the world is better off as a result of that dead Atheist being dead, & its damned God-forsaken soul burning in the fiery pits of Hades. :) Which begs another related question, do Atheists cry at funerals? If so, why? Since Atheists hate God, and they hate Family, and they hate Country, who are they crying for? It is true: The only good Atheist is a dead Atheist.

And even scarier yet:

I can sum it all up in three words: Evolution is a lie!

Yes, we can all laugh with Bugs about how stupid Elmer Fudd is, but until he takes that gun (and that hatred) away from Fudd, someone's going to die.

Is There a Universal Doctrine in the House?

Christian, Christian, Who's Got The Christian?











The flap about Mitt Romney's religion has become a three ring circus with no ringmaster, so let's look at it all in a broader context:

The Roman Catholic Church claims its authority through the Apostle Peter. It claims it's the only "true" religion.

Protestants have doctrinal differences that have led to over 3,000 denominations of significant size (over 20,000). They all stress "truth" in their doctrines.

Mormons believe that their practices are closer to "original" Christians.

Church of God With Signs Folowing are non-denomational because they believe all denominations carry "The Mark of the Beast."

Snake handlers have a doctrine based on two verses from the King James Bible. That's two more than the Christians who have the doctrine of the "Rapture."

So who has the True doctrine? The Best doctrine? The Only doctrine? Nobody. Is there a doctrine that's common among all of them? There's supposed to be: the teachings of Jesus Christ. Somehow, however, that doctrine gets short shrift. Then, of course, there's alwas this doctrine:

Or this one:

Images: Snakehandlers (ca. 1946), Joseph Smith, Pope Benedict XVI, Televangelist JoyceMeyer and "Rev. Prosperity" himself, Joel Osteen.

Martin Luther King, Ghandi and Harvey Milk

Being assasinated for what you believe in always makes you a martyr. What you believe in becomes secondary. In the Roman Catholic Church, for instance, you can become a saint after you go through a series of testamonies and a miracle or two. But when you become a martyr, sainthood is automatic. Theoretically, Hitler could have avowed his faith as a Roman Catholic after the Holocaust, been shot because of his faith, then instantly venerated as a saint. Would he have become the patron saint of ... silly mustaches?

Instant hero-worship: who's actually worthy of it? Possibly the ones who were worthy of it while they were living. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi and Harvey Milk come to mind. They were also deemed worthy of intense hatred. Just ask the people who still hate them. You say no one comes to mind? Try the ones with tightly closed, lead-lined craniums.

OK, I'll get off the soapbox, but remember that today of all days, people who preach passive resistance in the face of intolerance deserve respect.

Honey, I Stoned the Kids!

Just How Close is Huckabee to Recontructionism?

The right question may be: just how close is he to Rick Scarborough? Scarborough describes himself as a "Christocrat," but as a Reconstructionist, he's further Right than anyone can imagine.

Andrew Sullivan, premier jouranlist and commentator of The Atlantic has this to say about Scarborough's type of fundamentalism:

Once you have dedicated your life to fundamentalist religion, once you have insisted that nothing - let alone politics - can be independent of absolute Biblical judgment, documents like the Constitution are indeed secondary. They have to be amended to be brought into line with the authoritative truth. Nothing can interfere with that authority - nothing.

Want to see Scarborough in action? Want to see people applauding a very dangerous ideology? See the video below - if you dare!

Let's go over the list of what Reconstructionists consider worthy of the death penalty:

Murder - kidnapping - disrespect to parents - sorcery - withcraft - Sabbath breaking - negligent homicide - bestiality - homosexuality - breaking the Sabbath - sacrificing to other gods, especially Molech and Baal, adultery, marrying your wife's mother, comtempt of court, false witness to a capital crime and unchastity.

Now, let's clarify some of these, shall we? "Disrespect to parents" would mean that James Dean would have been killed in the first part of Rebel Without a Cause - where's the angst in that? "Sabbath breaking" could be doing even minor tasks such as "gathering twigs." Does this mean that if you want to build a fire on a cold Sunday you're sh*t out of luck? "Prostitution" is a stoner only if you're the priest's daughter. That means that the girl on the corner doesn't need to be killed, even in a drive-by stoning. Blasphemy is wide open - ANYTHING goes, so better check the list for the state you're in (I hear Texas is fairly liberal, as #%*@%#$ states go) "Unchastity" is ok unless your engaged to be married. So no flirting with the waiter at your wedding no matter what the groom smells like!

Should we be afraid of Reconstructionists? Extreme right-wing crackpots have their uses to those who don't publicly acknowledge prejudice. They divert attention from the ones who are subversive - and "charming." They also open the doors for forms of neofascism. Religious historian Karen Armstrong thinks Reconstructionism can lead to totalitarianism: "There is no room for any other view or policy, no democratic tolerance for rival parties, no individual freedom," (Armstrong, Battle for God, pp. 361-362). The term "Christofascists" is often linked with the movement.

Four days ago, Mike Huckabee made a particularly strident comment about revamping the Constitution. Some people look upon him as a "the guy next door" with a set of moral values.

He's also perceived as "charming."