Truly Scary, Part II: Religious Violence Predicted

When a blogger like me warns of Christofascist violence, people think I'm just a leftist crackpot. However, when a former VIP (and son of a founder) to Christofascists warns people...

From The Raw Story:

"The bestselling status of the Left Behind novels proves that, not unlike Islamist terrorists who behead their enemies, many evangelical/fundamentalist readers relish the prospect of God doing lots of messy killing for them as they watch in comfort from on high," he added. "They want revenge on all people not like them -- forever."

"The scary thing is that there are a number of pastors on record as saying they are praying for the President’s death. Can you imagine what some gun-toting paranoid who hears that in a sermon is thinking and might do? And to them the fact that 'the world' likes this black man is reason enough to hate him. You wait. The reaction to Obama winning the Nobel Prize will be entirely negative from the far Religious Right. 'See the world, all those socialists like him that just proves he’s a -- fill in the blank -- communist, secret Muslim, the Antichrist, whatever.'"

Frank Schaeffer was the son of Francis Schaeffer, one of THE men who helped shape The Moral Majority and The Christian Coalition. Thanks to Francis (and Frank, to a certain extent) we've got people like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Rick Warren, Ralph Reed, Ken Copeland, James Hagee and Rod Parsley trying to gain the political upper hand in America. The title of Frank Schaeffer's first book says quite a lot:

Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back

On Obama's controversial Chicago Pastor:

"[W]hen my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr."

To Senator McCain during the '08 Presidential race:

"If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters ... history will hold you responsible for all that follows."

Violence is almost never attributed to the church. Christendom has never had to atone for the (approximately) 140,000,000 deaths committed by "Good Christians." It was, in fact, Mark Twain who pointed out that "Christians are the most efficient killers in the history of the world. (The Mysterious Stranger.)" In microcosm: it has never atoned for the miserable lives it took advantage of in the Magdalene Laundries* nor the children kept as science experiments in the Canadian orphanages (now termed The Duplessis Orphans).*

Yes, the Duplessis example was a more direct in its intolerance for life. Frank Schaffer gives us indirect, cause and effect violence. So what would be worse: if a minister told his flock that there were "evil doers out there" who should be punished and one (or several) person went out and shot someone, or if a minister takes it upon himself to shoot people "in the name of God"?

Three years ago, in the wake of Katrina, I wrote a piece called "God's Ambulence Chasers." It dealt with people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell who seemed to relish disasters and plagues so that they could rain Bibles down on people. And indeed, with these disasters Christofascists get two benefits: a) they can point out their enemies as the cause and b) they can take advantage of a dire situation to proselytize to huge captive audiences consisting of the most desperate people imaginable.

Guns, bigotry, manipulation, rhetoric, proselytizing, paranoia, revenge.

There are all sorts of ways to kill people and the Christofascist Right knows them all. They are armed and dangerous.

*The Magdalene Laundries
*The Duplessis Orphans

Both of the above institutions were among the world's worst child abuse cases involving tens of thousands of children and young adults. Both were built by the Catholic Church to shelter or "reform" children.

Truly Scary, Part III: Leviticus and Sad Puppy Dog Eyes

When You Use The Bible As A Weapon - Someone's Gonna Get Hurt,
And It Won't Be The Pulpit Pimp!

Michael Jones, GayRights.change.org:

Last weekend, two men beat up Jack Price in his neighborhood of Queens, NY. They crushed his lungs, broke his ribs and his jaw and lacerated his spleen. After he was rushed to the hospital, he was put into a medically induced coma in order to treat him. Jack Price is gay.

So, BFD. Happens all the time. But this time was made different by his assailants' adherence to the Bible's Book Of Leviticus. It was a hate crime spurred on by the admonitions of "The Good Book." In an interview at the scene:

"I don't want no man blowing me a kiss either. I mean things happen," said Marcel Gelmi, a friend of one of the attackers. "I've been beat up like that too, but you don't see me on the news and my family crying and this and that. Wounds heal."

After that statement, Glemi showed the reporters the tattoo he had on his arm:

"Leviticus. You should not lay with a man as one does with a woman. It's an abomination."

A tattoo. Not of a flag, not of a snake, not of any emblem, but a specific passage from scripture enlisted by homophobes everywhere. So how extreme in your homophobia do you have to be to wear it proudly on your arm? Are there Christfascist gangs out there?

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown summed up this beating pretty damn well: "This is probably the most vicious and brutal incident that I've seen, captured as it was on videotape."

Truly Scary, Part IV: When Christofascists Turn On Themselves

It's A Study In Mind-Boggling Bigotry And Idiocy!

Most of my readers know how I feel about book burning. The first massive, intentional book burning occurred in 391 at the Great Library of Alexandria (housed in The Serapeum - a former temple) when close to 400,000 scrolls went up in flames. The Christian Emperor Theodocius decreed that all pagan temples were to be destroyed and possession of pagan literature a criminal offense. Ceasing upon this decree, a mob burned The Serapeum and the books/scrolls in it. Later, owning anything considered "heretical" was also made a criminal offense. One speculation about why the Gnostic Gospels were hidden in a large jar stationed in a remote cave was that the nearby monastery knew that it was illegal to possess of such material and instead of burning the books, chose to hide them.

Some old habits, however, die hard: we've seen and heard of book burnings within the last century. The most famous book burning took place in Nazi Germany where thousands of books were consigned to flames. The latest one, however, is notable for its truly audacious stupidity:

Right Wing Watch

Celebrate Halloween With A Good Old Fashioned Book Burning

Submitted by Kyle on October 14, 2009 - 2:45pm

Via Raw Story we see that the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina church will be "hosting a 'Halloween book burning' to purge the area of 'Satan's' works, which include all non-King James versions of the Bible, popular books by many religious authors and even country music."

What is especially exciting about this particular book burning is the list of authors who will see their books being burned includes Rick Warren, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, Chuck Colson, Mother Teresa, and even The Pope:

Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan's bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God's Word the King James Bible.

We will also be burning Satan's music such as country , rap , rock , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel , contempory [sic] Christian , jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.

We will also be burning Satan's popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort , Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham , Rick Warren , Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll , John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn , Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa , The Pope , Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.

The video below is almost cartoonish in the presentation of the church pastor, bib overhauls and all, and the news station gets in a jibe with the "14 members but growing" statement. (Think of it - if, in one year they grow to 28 members they'll be able to say that they have had a growth rate of 100%). But make no mistake about it: these people are serious in their inanity.

And serious in their hatred. After all of the derogatory coverage, you have to wonder, is there anything besides the KJV Bible the good pastor doesn't hate? Does he know what kind of impression he's giving to the camera, to the country, to the world? Does he know what a biblical scholar is?

The Amazing Grace Baptist Church Website statement of beliefs mirrors its abject ignorance.

Obama: Lost With Chicago, But Won With Oslo

Now Come The Sneers And The Jeers

It's 6:00AM EST and the announcement has hit AP fifteen minutes ago: President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," [as well as his] outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation. (AP)

So guess who won't be able to stomach their breakfasts: Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter, Perkins, Ingraham, Dobbs, Malkin and just about every other rightwing pundit.

Their laptops will also suffer from the furious typing (and the awful grammar) of their emails to friends, associates and Townhall.com. Won't it be fun to watch them cover the news with sour faces? Will they insult the Nobel committee as a group of dunderheads? Will they proffer the possibility of a "conspiracy?" Will they hint at some kind of political bribery? Or will they just dismiss the prize as a meaningless symbol of milquetoast diplomacy? After all, they rode on the winds of Bush's hardlined cowboy diplomacy: pre-emptive strikes, torture, and laughable last minute attempts at securing a "legacy." They saw history's greatest diplomatic dimwit act tough and folksy. He had diplomats putting their best foot forward - landing in cow patties in lustrous and sophisticated Crawford, Texas.

The rightwing pundits must say SOMETHING derogatory about this event. They're MANDATED to deride the President.

The sneering face of Greta Van Sustern will be frozen and placed atop the FOX News headlines for days, weeks maybe. Ann Coulter will be repeating the name "Hussein" until she has to have her jaw wired shut (again!). And Glenn Beck will make a bizarre connection from Alfred Nobel to Chairman Mao.

It's now 6:46 AM EST. I'm in San Francisco. I'm going to bed.



Let the circus begin begin without me. I've seen it before.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

Townhall.com and the Militia Movement: The Guns Are Free, But What About The Bullets?

Town Hall's Advertising Expertise

I've let this post simmer for about 48 hours because I wanted to gather more facts. I've read other articles before on "The Millionaire Patriot" Dr. Ignatius Piazza, but the above popped into my email and I decided to investigate it:

Can you believe this hypocrisy? Premiere Radio Network, makes a fortune off millions of listeners who believe the hosts they are listening to don't just "talk the talk" of conservative values but also "walk the walk" and yet when I place the word "Gun" in an ad with a proven track record of delivering over 3,000 courses and guns to responsible American citizens across this country, Premiere Radio Network refuses it!

That's incredible! Do Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck know about this blasphemy?

OK, so maybe the brouhaha has not been covered much by the MSM, but the fact remains that a gun training promotion was denied by a network that is a subsidiary of Clearchannel which has a close corporate "relationship" with Rupert Murdoch-owned FOX News. Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and practically every microphone-slinging, right-wing air wave pundit owe's his substantial income to Clearchannel. And what about those pundits who include "screeding?"* Townhall.com (Townhall Daily) carries the likes of Ann Coulter(geist), Michelle Malkin, John Stossel, Chuck Norris, and Bill O'Reilly (who was awarded the "Courageous Broadcaster of the year" award at the Values Voter Summit).

It's an irony (not lost by "Dr." Piazza, to be sure) that Premiere Radio Network seems to bite the hand that feeds it. Is it so afraid of a liberal backlash? I doubt it. It seems to be some mid-level executive's lame attempt to present Premiere as a peaceful, non-violent advertising venue. But the more interesting thing about this affair is how Townhall.com has handled it: relaying "Dr." Piazza's message through its email list of subscribers. Almost secretly: you'll have a hard time finding the rant in Townhall's Oct. 4th issue. Is Townhall afraid of backlash as well? I'm not so sure. Publishing right-wing writings is its bread and butter. Then again, becoming involved in a gun control law suit could be a bit prickly, even to Townhall's tough hide.

Firearms Training Institute is definitely "militia lite": training programs cost from $1200 to $50,000 (lifetime memnbership). Taking cost into consideration, the "gift" of a gun is more like finding the plastic toy inside a box of Cracker Jack. However, Piazza has stepped up his promotion by offering to train teachers and pupils where crimes with firearms have been perpetrated.

wikipedia:

In 2007, University of Utah lifted the ban on students carrying concealed weapons. In support of this, Piazza announced that a free 5-day course on carrying and using a concealed handgun would be offered to every student there.

Then there's Piazza's own persona: he's been allied with Scientology, has been sued more than several times and made undisclosed settlements.

Check out some recommendations of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute by teenagers HERE. They're about as silly as you can get.

One former Front Site customer:

"I was flipping through the channels one evening and happened to catch a news segment about a place out in Nevada that was offering a free one day Uzi submachine gun class. I thought that sounded like a lot of fun."

Q: After you've finished a course on shooting with an Uzi, how do you put your knowledge to good use? A: Move to Alaska and show Sarah Palin what you can do to a moose.

And, of course, the high priest of right wing net media, Joseph Farah, endorses Piazza's promotion:

*My own word for writing in a thoroughly biased and bombastic style. Sort of like "bloviating" for writers.

Why I Am Allergic To Glenn Beck

“Only in America can you make that much money crying.”
(And From Having Vick's Vaporub applied under your eyes!)

Glenn Beck has spawned a new wave of pejoratives as well as bon mots. Some of them are worth repeating.

"High Priest of the paranoid style."

"Glenn Beck and reality do not mix well."

"Simply put: Glenn Beck is a modern day demagogue who spews lies and misinformation, fosters racism, hate and fear and whips all of this into a witches brew of anger that is divisive, destructive and pollutes healthy discourse and clouds the future of this country."

"If they’re giving Glenn Beck the key to the city, they should change the locks."

"...as inchoate and paranoid as that hawked by Father Coughlin during the Great Depression and George Wallace in the late 1960s."

Comparing Glenn Beck to Rachel Maddow is like comparing Bozo the Clown to Einstein.

Perfidiously obnoxious and superficial.

Truth-challenged.

Then there are those comments which are banal, but succinct:

Whiny douchebag.

Please keep in mind that some of the above comments were from own his home town!

Groups have demonstrated on the streets and in city council meetings over the conservative commentator's visit. Petitions have been collected calling on the cancellation of the visit. A small business owner put up a sign that says: "Glenn Beck & Hatred not welcome here." And the leader of a nearby city has offered the key to his city to Jon Stewart in sort of a mayoral rebuttal.

Of course, we all have our reasons for hating Glenn Beck and I have mine: I've come to the realization that I don't REALLY hate Glenn Beck. It's just that I've grown to be allergic to him.

This isn't silly, so please hear me out:

Hatred is man's dumbest, most unreasonable emotion. Hatred is without accomplishment. Hatred is useless. Hatred is totally against human survival.

Hatred is stupid.

And hatred is fostered by stupid people who want to gain control (or the gratuitous adulation) of other stupid people. Hatred through stupidity only begets ... more stupidity. And that's the point at which I get a rash... of hatred. And for that I am guilty and very stupid.

Just as I would go into anaphylactic shock if given penicillin, whenever I come in contact with Glenn Beck, I suffer an immediate reaction of hatred and, thence, stupidity. It's something I may have to live with the rest of my life. This, of course, drives a kind of stupidity phobia in me (yes, there is such a phobia). It's kind of circular when you think of it: Glenn Beck's stupidity/hatred makes me stupid/hate him. Does that make sense? We've experienced the opposite to be true: so many stupid Americans have a phobia against intelligence. They were the ones who voted for George W. Bush TWICE. And make no mistake about it: those same Americans have a fear of President Obama's intelligence.A President who is lampooned in the media as an idiot is preferable to a President who is mistrusted because his policies might be right.


So whenever I write disparagingly or condescendingly about Beck, I'm reacting to my allergy.*

I broke out in a rash of hatred when I read this, for instance:

In 2007, forest fires raged out of control in Southern California, "leaving one person dead, four firefighters wounded, and forcing about 1,500 people from their homes",(The New York Times). Here's what Glenn Beck had to say about the event:

"I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today."

Even Republicans are developing the rash: watch as Senator Lindsey Graham (R - SC) skewers Beck and right-wing media in general:


I never thought I'd compliment a Republican, but Lindsey Graham does seem to have a saner side than most.

I wonder what he thinks of teabaggers.


The latest on YouTube is Glenn Beck applying Vicks Vaporub under his eyes to make them tear. It was for a photo shoot. Now, only a true idiot would have allowed that video to be taken, much less published. Beck's too stupid to care about credibility. He'll now have to counter the video with genuine crying or he'll have to admit to deceit and laugh at the people who thought we was REALLY CRYING. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

*This also applies to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Fred Phelps, Tony Perkins, everyone who attended the Values Voter Summit, Sarah Palin, Lou Dobbs, Michelle Malkin, Michele Bachmann, Joe Wilson, Dick Cheney, Rick Warren and all Christofascists.

The Rift Of Rifqa Bary! Or Is It Elian Gonzales? Or Terry Schiavo? Or Carrie Prejean?

Who Cares?

What is it about Christofascists attaching themselves to cause celebres? Is it some form of rare addiction, leading Christian Right zealots to mainline celebrities du jour? A long time ago (or so it seems) it was Terry Schiavo. Then it was Elian Gonzales. Then it was stem cells, those tiny beings nobody knew about until Christofascists said they were the very origins of life. Recently, (or so it seems) it was Carrie Prejean.

Now it's Fathima Rifqa Bary. This may seem like harping on old news, but to Christian Right proselytes across the country, their newly-persecuted Fathima is still a star to hitch their futures and fortunes on.

"..use Rifqa to be an Esther."

On September 24th, the Christian Right bellowed a battle cry against America's perceived "Islamization." The National Day of Prayer Task Force headed by Lou Engle (The Call), Shirley Dobson (wife of Focus on the Family's James Dobson), Tony Perkins, (Family Research Council) gathered for a prayer rally and conference call to counteract a Muslim pray-in at the nation's capitol. Their big and wonderous "surprise guest" was Rifqa Bary, who, bouncing back and forth from humility to hysterics, told them about her love for Jesus and the intent of Muslims to put her to death as an "honor killing." (listen to it below).

On Sept. 4th, From Atlas Shrugs:

It's official: The Fathima Rifqa Bary Trust has been established.

From The New American:

Honor killing is that Muslim practice of killing women because they misbehave. They might not want to wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf. Perhaps they are “too” Western. Maybe a woman is dating the wrong boy. She could be a rape victim. Whatever the case, husbands, fathers, and brothers, sometimes assisted by women in the family, routinely kill wives, daughters, and sisters.

(ed. note: The New American is the magazine of the John Birch Society)

Sept. 25th - From The Washington Times

Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of "apostates from Islam" are in peril.

Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, the Granada Hills, Calif., group cited the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old from Ohio who converted to Christianity four years ago. She fled to Florida this past summer in fears that her parents would murder her for "honor" reasons. Her father, the girl said in a court filing, had already threatened to kill her.

So much for futures hanging on Rifqa's star, so how about fortunes?

Enter the couple who "lured" her away to Orlando, FL (as Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary states): Pastor Blake Lorenz and his wife Beverly. They corresponded with Rifqa on Facebook for weeks before she took flight from home. Their church was called Global Revolution Church. They have since dismantled the old church name and direction, but you can still view their website HERE. (With its broken links and meatless prose, it looks to be a ministry that needs a little more attention, publicity, and donation$). Florida juvenile and court authorities have since then placed Rifqa in foster care, until a custody ruling in October. The Lorenzes have not yet explained why they have chosen to reorganize.

Blake Lorenz:

"These are the last days; these are the end times," he said, "and this conflict between Islam and Christianity is going to grow greater. This conflict between good and evil is going to grow greater."

From Right Wing Watch (Sept. 1)

If Rifqa's claims are indeed false, that raises the question of whether she may have been prodded by her new friends at Global Revolution Church to make the death-threat accusations, and whether she was somehow lured to Orlando by the Lorenzes via the Internet.

Mat Staver [sic], the Lorenzes' lawyer and longtime friend, said there is "no solid basis for the complaint" filed against them.

Perhaps you remember the name Mat Stavor from other articles: he's the Dean of Liberty University School of Law, the man who put together a "brief" list of wrongs about the Health Care Reform Bill (128 - all debunked) and the good friend of not only the Lorenzes, but of Rick Joyner of "I met Jesus and some saints" fame. Read HERE and HERE.

Sept. 14, The Orlando Sentinel:

The Ohio teen had planned locations thousands of miles away from her home -- known as "fire drills" -- where she could seek refuge. Orlando was her "primary planned sanctuary," and that's exactly where Rifqa ended up in July.

Those were among the details of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report that said investigators found no credible reports of threats toward the 17-year-old runaway.

Of course, the FDL report has been attacked by the right-wing media. But just look at the dates: even after the FDL report came out, and even after press had speculated that Rifqa would be returned to her family, Rifqa's story of abuse, "courage in her flight," and love of Jesus Christ have been spotlighted and expanded. But for who's benefit? Rifqa's?

The Ohio teen had planned locations thousands of miles away from her home -- known as "fire drills" -- where she could seek refuge. Orlando was her "primary planned sanctuary," and that's exactly where Rifqa ended up in July. Those were among the details of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report that said investigators found no credible reports of threats toward the 17-year-old runaway.

(and later, on Sept. 25th) A Muslim girl who gave her heart to Jesus and then ran away to Christian evangelists in Orlando is not just any Christian. She is driven to save souls and prays that God will make her a prophet.

That's according to writings she left behind when she fled.

Update (Orlando Sentinel)

The Department of Children and Families is trying to figure out who arranged for Fathima Rifqa Bary to join-in on a conference call with "thousands" of people and on which the 17-year-old delivered her testimony and a frenzied prayer.

It's amazing how Christofascists (aka, the Christian Right) can cling to something so flimsy as a youthful but deluded zealot, a girl who swore she was a Christian since she was 13, who swore that her parents (who knew of her conversion for at least a year) would murder her, who planned her "escape" well in advance, and who hopes to become a "prophet" for Christ.

Aren't these the same people who spirited away a young gay man named Bryce Faulkner to be "cured" by bogus "ex-gay" (reparative) therapy? As always with Christofascists, their actions are deeply rooted in hypocrisy. Faulkner has not been heard from in three months.

So to Christofascists who are always coming up with standard-bearers for their part in the culture war, I have to say:

You have your Rifqa Bary, but we have Bryce Faulkner.
Check. Your move.