Have aProblem? Burn A Book! Some Thoughts on The Flames Of Control

Burning books is an act of desperation and a lesson in futility. And a method of control. Forget the images of Fahrenheit 451 where books were kept from a hedonistic society by  the government. Censorship and distrust of literacy have almost always been in the provenance of religion - at least in Western Civilization. And it should come as no big surprise that the first major book burning in recorded history was caused by righteous zealots:

The Western world's great storehouse of knowledge was in Alexandria, a cosmopolitan Mediterranean seaport in Rome's Egyptian province, where the wisdom of the ancient world was supposedly kept on scrolls. That centuries-old knowledge was preserved until 391 CE, when Emperor Theodosius, a Christian convert, ordered all non-Christian works eliminated. The Library at Alexandria, storehouse of the world's knowledge, was burned, the first of many book-burnings "inspired" by Christianity.

                                           - from Don't Know Much About The Bible by Kenneth C. Davis

In other words, Rome had seen the light, became a "Christian Only" empire, and could no longer tolerate any form of non-Christian thought. Historians have opined for years that the reasons for stashing away the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels were primarily because of the Emperor's edict. In fact, after 391 CE, books were basically outlawed for several centuries, and the Gnostic Gospels were written in Coptic before the 5th century. During Nero's day, Rome boasted 29 public libraries. By the 5th century, there were none.

“There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages.”

                                       - Ruth Hurmence Green, Freedom From Religion Foundation

With the Roman Rule of Religion came the closing of Plato's Academy and all other "secular" schools. When good Saint Augustine came along and invented Original Sin (as we know it) only the rich could afford to have their children tutored by the religious authorities (Augustine himself studied under Bishop Ambrose of Milan). Scribes of the Bible were encouraged in literacy only insomuch as it would help them make copies of the Bible. Then after the fall of Rome, monasteries gained control of much of Europe's land. Monks, priests and (some) nuns were highly literate, but they kept literacy to a minimum outside the walls of churches, monasteries and abbeys to a point where kings could not sign their own names to documents. Charlemagne was basically illiterate.

When the printed word started to become common, it was forbidden for Bibles to be written in the vernacular. In 1380, John Wycliffe produced on of the first English Bible translations... 

[Ken Davis] ... The authorities were not amused. Denounced as a heretic after his death, Wycliffe couldn't be executed. Church officials did the next best thing: they exhumed his corpse and burned it.

And as for the Quran or any other books written and read by Muslims, Queen Isabella's Spain trumped our own Rev.Terry Jones by 500 years and a few more books:

Thus on December 18, 1499, three thousand Muslims were baptized by force. These Moors had been told to bring all their books with them so they could watch them burn on the Plaza de Vivarrambla in Grenada. 

                                                                             - Lucien Polastron, Books On Fire

The blaze was so spectacular that the estimate of burned volumes numbered about one million. 

Control. Religious control. Of nations. Of denominations. Even the King James Bible itself came under fire when, in 1844, Catholics protested against it being read aloud in public schools.

In 1844, over the course of several days, nativists in Philadelphia claiming that Catholics wanted the Bible out of the schools killed thirteen people and burned a Catholic Church to the ground...Rioting in dozens of cities in the 1840s and '50s could be connected to the fight over the Bible in the schools.

                                                                                        - Noah Feldman, Divided by God

Control. I won't bother to talk about Germany's conflagration in 1933. It was about control. I wonder where Hitler got the idea?

"Knowledge Is Power" And whoever controls knowledge has the ultimate power. 

When Is Uganda hosting a bonfire? Ask Lou Engle, he'll know.

In Flagrante Delicto: Dangerously Stupid Bigotry In Action From Gainseville, Florida

"But in America, there is the freedom to be ignorant"

Today I looked up the definition of inflagrante delicto: it comes from Latin - "in a blazing offence" - from which we get the term "caught red-handed." So it may be it ironic that the act of burning a religious holy book has brought out the Christian Right's Islamophobia: it's been there all along, but this time it was caught in the act just as its homophobia was caught in the act with Fred Phelps' antics at Matthew Shepard's funeral. 

And while we might argue that anything associated with  Westboro Baptist Church would be discounted as in bad taste, an ally of the church - the Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Fla, however, is trying to prove that bad taste can be deadly. In a news item that summarily falls into the WTF? category:

(CNN) -- The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

And to further solidify the proof of his idiocy, Pastor Jones of Dove World Outreach Center

...insists the event is "neither an act of love nor of hate," but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.

The website of Dove World Outreach Center (activew membership - 50) is a chilling affair, primatily because he so purposely demonizes Islam and the Christian Right's usual targets (the LGBT community and Obama, e.g.) referring to them all as "evil." The undertone of "destroy them before they destroy us"  is so prevalent that it renders his "neither an act of love nor hate" statement totally meaningless. He expounds on the "unbelivable cruelty" of radical Islam while negating the fact that his rhetoric will cause harm to Muslims in this country because, of course, there are no Muslims in America who are not part of radical Islam.

BTW: Jones boasts that he has never read the Quran.

There is, of course, a plethora of Christian leaders calling the proposed September 11th International Burn A Koran Day an abomination. The most insightful and glaring protests, however have come from the Gainesville, FL communities. One of them has a website to which people can affix their name to a petition.

From Please Don't Burn The Koran:

We the people of the City of Gainesville Florida, and others everywhere who support freedom of religion, sincerely request that the Dove World Outreach Center Church not proceed with their plans to burn the Koran on 9/11 or at any other time. Freedom of religion is a founding principle of our Constitution and the burning of any people's sacred texts is in direct opposition to this principle. If you proceed with your plans to burn the Koran, please understand that this act will not serve to lessen our respect for the Muslim faith, but will only serve to lessen our respect for you and what you are preaching.

This petition is now closed.

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Jones has refused all demands to stop the book burning.

CNN:

Jones canceled a planned appearance on CNN's "Rick's List" to discuss the controversy Monday afternoon. Plemon el-Amin, the imam of an Atlanta, Georgia, mosque, said that Jones' criticism of Islam is "really quite uninformed."

"But in America, there is the freedom to be ignorant," el-Amin said. "The only problem is in the world, many people don't understand that particular freedom. So what he is doing is like shouting fire in a theater, in a world theater, and people are upset."

Afghans burn an effigy of Dove World Outreach Center's pastor Terry Jones during a demonstration against the United States in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 6, 2010. Hundreds of Afghans railed against the U.S. and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce the American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11.

PLemon el-Amin was being kind  when he used the word "uninformed." Jones' foolhardy attempt at "evangelism" eerily conjures up the Christian Right's desperate attempt to gain control in a "Christian Only" nation and in doing so, magnifies its unreasonable and rather brainless world view. For example, the website for Dove World Outreach Center lists TEN REASONS TO BURN A KORAN. With it, Jones ticks off a litany that is so parallel to extreme/radical Reconstructionist thought  that it seems to simply switch the words Islam with Right Wingnut Religion. 

 - The Koran teaches that Jesus Christ, the Crucified, Risen Son of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords was NOT the Son of God, nor was he crucified (a well documented historical fact that ONLY Islam denies). Parenthetical expressions can effectively point out ingnorance: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and dozens of other faiths do not recognize Christ. The Koran, however, is an Abrahamic faith which does recognize Christ as a prophet. Also, Christ's crucifixion is only documented in one source outside the Bible. 

- The Koran does not have an eternal origin. It is not recorded in heaven. The Almighty God, Creator of the World, is NOT it's source. It is not holy. It's writings are human in origin, a concoction of old and new teachings. Hmmm...a lot of people say that about the Bible. Some reknowned Bible scholars are probably weeping at this statement.

- The Koran's teaching includes Arabian idolatry, paganism, rites and rituals. I wonder what he thinks about Catholicism and its Mariolitry or Eastern Orthodox and its reverence for icons?

- The earliest writings that are known to exist about the Prophet Mohammad were recorded 120 years after his death. ... Maybe Mohammad never existed. The earliest known writing about Christ (besides Paul's which did not chronicle Christ's life) were written over 50 years after the crucifxion in a language Christ did not speak. Some people doubt he existed.

 - Mohammad's life and message cannot be respected. And, of course, no one has ever attempted to arrange Christ's life and words to suit their own agenda.

- Islamic Law is totalitarian in nature. There is no separation of church and state. It is irrational. It is supposedly immutable and cannot be changed. The outcry of  "No separation of Church and State" by the Christian Right has totally obliterated Jones' reasoning here and he looks the fool for even mentioning it.

 - Islam is not compatible with democracy and human rights. The notion of a moral individual capable of making decisions and taking responsibility for them does not exist in Islam. The attitude towards women in Islam as inferior possessions of men has led to countless cases of mistreatment and abuse... Jones has never been to a battered women's shelter. The abuse continues. The irony that Fundamentalists have a higher divorce rate than the rest of the country is apparently lost on him. The Southern Baptist Convention still struggles with the definition of a wife being subservient to her husband.

 - A Muslim does not have the right to change his religion. Apostasy is punishable by death. It's a good thing Roger Williams didn't die after being ostracized by the Puritans. Anyway,  I supposed Jones' point could be well taken in that today's non-Christian only faces  extreme discrimination. The Christian Right is, however, making headway in Africa/Uganda.

 - Deep in the Islamic teaching and culture is the irrational fear and loathing of the West. Deep in the Christian Right teaching and culture is the irrational fear and loathing of the Middle East.

- Islam is a weapon of Arab imperialism and Islamic colonialism. Wherever Islam has or gains political power, Christians, Jews and all non-Moslems receive persecution, discrimination, are forced to convert. History will always come back to haunt us: Native Americans were forced into slavery (by the good Franciscan priests of the California Missions) and Puritans killed off whole tribes because they wouldn't convert. 

The next days will be frought with tension as to who will side with whom or who will start distancing themselves from Rev. Jones and his little band of bigots.  We've been hearing from organizations like Family Research Council about "protecting" our troops from "homosexuality" but will they be silent about protecting our troops from one of their own? 


At least American Family Association's Bryan Fischer has the courage of his own stupidity: he defends Jones in a way that only a hardline anti-everyone Rightwingnut can.

When atheists and secularists like the minions of the ACLU, get the Bible banned from schools what do Christians do? They make phone calls, send emails, and go to court. What do Muslims do under similar circumstances? They start shooting and throwing bombs.

So now the Christian Right has been caught in flagrante dilecto in its fight for a "Christian Only Nation." 

Too bad that lives will be lost. 

Keeping Them Clueless: Dumbing Down Religion Has It's Consequences

I won't get into a detailed definition about what Christianity is, so let's just say that it is the organization that supposedly follows the teaching of Jesus the Christ of Nazareth as set down in the four Gospels of the Bible's New Testament. Anything more than that should be left to Biblical textual critics like Bart Ehrman and scholars of religious philosophy like Karen Armstrong. Yes, I respect these people very much, but the truth is that they haven't been allowed to make any real headway in teaching today's Christians about their own religion and about their own Bible.

Maybe their works will be published in the form of coloring books someday.

Hey, everyone knows I have to take a snipe at today's mass of "faithful." O.K., so I'll qualify myself: most (but not all) of today's Christians don't have the slightest knowledge of their own religion. They know nothing of early Christianity except the part about Romans and lions. They know nothing about Christianity's founders past a ragtag group of apostles whom most cannot name. They think that the Bible was always composed of the same number of books from day one (Christ's birth on December 25th). They're in the dark about the Dark Ages. They may have heard about Martin Luther and his split from Rome, but about popes even Catholics know very little. They know that some Christians in history were a bit anti-Semitic, but that's where their knowledge of Jewish persecution ends. They may have heard about the Crusades and how brave, chivalrous  knights tried to sweep away Muslims from the Holy Land, but they don't know that the roots of Christianity and Islam come from the same source and that, like Judasim, they are Abrahamic religions. Witch burnings and the like, of course, they save for Halloween and Hell Houses. Read Gary Laderman's account of Christianity throughout America's history. Lederman is the  Director of Religion Dispatches and Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religion at Emory University. He really gives a case for Christianity being a dangerous religion.

Neveretheless, today's Christians DO know that - whatever it is - Christianity is the ONLY, TRUE religion. That's what puts them a notch higher than everyone else. Whatever Christians did in the past, there was a Divine Reason. The TRUE religion doesn't have to apologize for anything. The TRUE religion is always right in whatever it believes. God loves Christians and has (at most) a kind of benign contempt for everyone else. 

But don't all of those vagaries give today's Christians a rather skewed vision of their own religion? Of course. It could then be argued that the more narrow and self-righteous view a people have of their own religion, the better it is to control them. As with the contradictions and complexity of the Bible, a simple but very narrow, very definitive construct is the best way to keep control: today's Southern Baptist preacher, for example, would never encourage scholarship in any form from his congregation. To do so would mean answering questions which threaten to make Christianity look less unique. Instead, tell them that the Bible is the exact word of God and tell them to forget all that history stuff. 

In other words, keep 'em stupid. 

Glenn Beck's recent Restore Honor rally gave a wake-up call to some Christian leaders, however: maybe they've let Christians in America become too stupid.

Russell D. Moore of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary:

It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined “revival” and “turning America back to God” that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.

The point that Rev. Moore touches on (but marginally) is what I've said in several past articles: America has made a religion out of entertainment and an entertainment out of religion. And in being dumbed down, today's masses of the Christian Right look more like Coliseum Romans being entertained at the sight of other people being denied rights or discriminated against. Francis Schaeffer's own own, Frank Schaeffer has soundly denounced today's Christian Right:

"In the mid 1980s I left the Religious Right, after I realized just how very anti-American they are."

Different perceptions.

So what was our Founding Father's perception of Christianity? Glenn Beck's "historian", David Barton, insists that their view was the same as today's, but, alas, it was much different: they were men who were educated in the European Enlightenment tradition. They knew about Plato and Aristotle as well as Erasmus. Many of them were actually educated in England. They had to be, if they wanted to have any standing at all, even in the "outback" of the colonies. They strove (as was the educated lifestyle of the time) to be "Renaissance" men and to know as much as possible about all things. Jefferson and Franklin were both practitioners of science, literature, mechanics, physics and even (horrors) metaphysics. Some were Freemasons. They did not envision a democracy as we see it, but a plutocracy run by men of education and property. This last precept is the reason why the populace were not invited to vote for senators nor were they allowed to vote for President.

The Founding Fathers had also known of the disastrous coupling of government and religion and not just from England: by that time, Europe had seen some 400 wars in less than 350 years and religion had its hand in every one of them. They knew about the Salem Witch trials and knew that many Native Americans had the fatal contempt of local "Christians" who even fought with themselves (Puritans, vs. Baptists vs Anabaptists vs Holy Rollers, etc. etc.). They certainly wanted everyone to worship as he pleased, but not to the detriment of everyone else. They would never have approved of the kind of yoke Constantine imposed upon the Romans.

In many ways, it was a wonder that the Founding Fathers would align themselves with Christianity at all! It's fortunate for men like Francis Schaeffer that the Founding Fathers considered religion something very personal, very local: if Christian leaders did not try to impose any of their (often petty) dogma on everyone else (i.e. the rest of the country), then the government would not interfere with their churches. They did not count, of course, on the churches becoming so large, so political ... and so entertaining.
 

So now we have apologists in the form of Glenn Beck  telling us that every Founding Father was a practicing Christian , that he placed Jesus Christ above everything and everyone else in his life, that he formed the Constitution of the United States while, like the Bible, he was inspired by a Christian God, that he cared little about Christian history.  And that he despised all other religions. After all, the First Amendment's "Freedom of Religion" clause clearly meant "Freedom of Denomination."


Two visions of Christianity with only one nation "under God". Is it possible that, in their Deism, the Founding Fathers were closer to the truth? After all, they prayed to be delivered from the bonds of colonialism for many years 

... but God did not answer.

The Church of St. Beck: Can "Divine Destiny" Help Restore Honor To The Christian Right?

 

Will 

Gay Marriage 

And 

Mormonism 

Sever Ties?

August 28th, the day Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally hits the nation's capitol, may become a notable date in history: it will be the first time that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin will meet to extol the glory that was our country and what we should do to regain its former stature among nations and among ourselves. It will be notable because it surely will not be the only time these two world-renowned people will be together under the shadow of Abraham Lincoln to put forth their philosophies and theologies. History is ready to enshrine their wisdom.

Then again...

Ben Dimiero, Media Matters:

Beck's messianic religiosity took the next logical step this week, when he announced a new event scheduled on the eve of the 8-28 rally. Employing his characteristic humility, the event will be titled "Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny" and will feature "nationally-known figures from all faiths." Beck describes the evening as an "eye-opening" event "that will help heal your soul."

"... from all faiths." Will that panoply of religion include Islam? For Beck's sake, it had better not. It shouldn't include Hinduism. Or Buddhism. Or Mormonism. Or even Judaism (to any extent - tokens may be accepted since he's actually had several rabbis on his radio show). The guest list MUST be packed with such notables as Tony Perkins (FRC), Bryan Fischer (AFA), Lou Engle, Rick Warren, Richard Land (SBC), Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and (if he's feted enough), Pat Robertson. If Glenn Beck wants to solidify his power-base, he needs these men and needs to keep within their boundaries. Through his historian-guru, David Barton, Beck has firmly placed the Christian Nation ideology on the political map. With rallies like this one, however, he must make certain that the meme is stretched to mean "Christian-Only Nation."

There will be points that Beck will need to punctuate or else the Tony Perkinses and Franklin Grahams will walk away and leave a very unpleasant tension in the air:

• First: America is a Christian Nation. Beck's "historian" David Barton must be able to point to every founding father and declare that without a doubt he was a Christian and that this country was founded solely on Christian principles.
• Gay rights are not Civil Rights. The fact that August 28th is the 47th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech will not be lost on the multitude, hopefully sprinkled with African American pastors.
• America must repent. It must feel utter remorse in the fact that it let hedonistic and immoral forces take over the country.
• If America does not stop the machinations of the Obama administration, it will be doomed to become a totalitarian, Socialist - and Godless - state.
• The Freedoms of Religion and Speech are being strongly curtailed and, if we do not act now, Christian churches and congregations will be persecuted.
• Traditional marriage is under attack by a small but powerful minority of homosexual, Socialist activists.
• The current administration seeks to uphold immoral laws allowing abortion.
• Our justice system has been corrupted by the ideologies of lawless Socialists.
• If our country does not turn away from Socialist ideas, Socialist science, and Socialist education, then it is doomed both spiritually and physically.
• Muslims - especially the ones who practice Islam - should be looked upon as potential terrorists.

I don't think the Beckian concept of "social justice" will be featured, since all of Beck's apostles know it by heart.

I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, the idea - hang on, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!

That now-famous statement has been enshrined in the halls of the Christian Right while being scorned from the pulpits of the progressives. With that one statement, Beck defined both sides: Progressive=evil, Conservative = good. 

Beck's definitions are not, however, quite balanced: "conservative" should be replaced by "regressive." And then "Restoring" would make more sense, for according to the Right's philosophy, we must reach back in time to retrieve the principles, to take back the Christian morals that we don't have today. And Beck's definition of "honor" is also amiss: isn't hypocrisy one of the opposites of honor? Isn't hiding behind the Bible, cowering behind the pulpit and evoking the First Amendment to justify hate speech dishonorable? Isn't bloviating about religious freedom while (literally) demonizing other religions dishonorable? What is so honorable about turning one's rights into something to be feared? And what is so unifying about "us" versus "them"? Restore Honor, by its very name says that "we" are better than "them."  

That begs the question: who's honor needs to be restored? 

Cracks In Divine Destiny

Unfortunately for Glenn Beck, his ship of Divine Destiny this Friday has already had some serious bailouts:


Brannon Howse, of World View Matters:

He has swerved into theological and doctrinal realm in the last few weeks. He’s said things on the air that makes my skin crawl. . . a ‘works based’ theology that is based in Mormonism. . . . We are not serving the god of Mormonism that says you can be like God… a religion that said Jesus and Satan were brothers. . . . Leave your pagan—your cult—religion. . . .

It's important to know that Howse was a big supporter of Beck and David Barton's "Christian Nation" meme, but the prospect of Mormonism creeping into Beck's "Daily Prayer" (on radio) and into his new found religionist theories makes many Christians' "skin crawl".

Coupled with Beck's promoting Mormonism is the even worse possibility that he might also promote the tolerance he showed for same-sex marriage on Bill O'Reilly's program:

O'Reilly: ... Is it going to harm the country?

Beck: I believe that Thomas Jefferson said: "If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket what difference is it to me?

Alan Keyes on Restoring Honor:

The MSM will undoubtedly tout attendance at the event as evidence of support for his patently false view that promotion of "gay marriage" poses no threat to our Constitution, sovereignty and liberty; that the majority of Americans are willing to allow the legal abandonment of the natural family and a redefinition of rights that makes them figments of government power rather than authoritative assertions of God's will for justice.

Famous CR homo-Islamo-everyone-who's-not-CR-phobe Bryan Fischer:

Count Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck as the latest deserters in the culture war and in the battle for sexual normalcy. They have flinched at "precisely that little point which the world and the devil are ... attacking," and so have forfeited the right to consider themselves any longer culture warriors.

Glenn Beck's Minister Of Chauvenism

Of course, a laissez-faire attitude towards gay marriage will oppose Beck's most ardent promoter, Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego and one of the men who spearheaded Proposition 8. 

Below is an audio clip from one of Beck's most recent radio shows which can serve as a guide to what thought processes will be used during the two-day fete. It really bears listening to, because Garlow regurgitates all the points above with (unfortunate) sincerity and piety. His sermon is  supposedly based on the book of Hosea (on which he so proudly says that he based his master's thesis).  Garlow then uses the usual supposition that no one actually reads the Bible (let alone an obscure  book like Hosea) and procedes to carve out his own fictitious story that Hosea forgave this wanton wife and she obediently followed him home.  Look it up in the KJV (Hosea), and see if there's any way you can conceivably make out his story from what is written.

The above anecdote serves to tell us the kind of "honorable" men Beck has been surrounding himself with.

Beck's homespun demagoguery is at times reminiscent of Andy Griffith's character in A Face In The Crowd. In the clip below, Griffith gloats to the late Patricia Neal about his political power. The horror on her face looks familiar, because you can see the same horror in the faces of Beck's critics: here is a man who has is enraptured by his own effect on people. With Beck, the medium has become the message.

I ask that you would come and bring your family, bring your children, this is going to be a historic day, it is going to be a day that I think will shock those naysayers, those people on the far left, those people who think we are going to dishonor...it is about Restoring Honor.

So whose honor will Divine Destiny Beck restore? The country's? The Christian Right's? His own?

When musing on Glenn Beck's many scattered (and even contradictory) philosophies, someone used the old saw "a broken clock is right twice a day." That may be true. However, a brocken clock is also wrong 1438 times a day. Whatever happens on Satruday, let's not give Beck too much credit.*

Listen to internet radio with glennbeckprayer on Blog Talk Radio

Here’s the clip, via Media Matters:

*After all, he'll have Palin with him, too.

We Don't Have To Be Nice, Ctd: Goodness Is Our Sole Propriety

 

I've always had a problem with the phrase, "It's the Christian thing to do." Somehow I always imagine it being said with a slight air of contempt. It's always said by self-righteous old ladies (English ladies, to be sure) with their noses firmly pointed towards the sky and their eyes looking down at their underlings. To me, it is the most insufferably arrogant phrase in our very difficult, but very precise language and it conveys to the listener that the person saying it, like others of his or her ilk, have a corner on goodness. 

So in the midst of the furor brought about by the Cordoba Center ("Ground Zero Mosque"), I'm wondering when the phrase will be uttered. Oh, it's been bandied about in several ways by that paragon of Christofascism, Bryan Fischer (he of the SPLC-listed hate group, American Family Association), but not with anything even resembling compassion, even condescending compassion. (He said that deporting all Muslims would be "compassionate" but he couldn't be heard thereafter above the laughter).

The Christofascists will certainly have a difficult go of it: the closest they can come to "the Christian thing to do" is to tolerate the building of the Center, but they won't do that since they've been demonizing Muslims so long it would be totally out of character. So here is an instance where "the Christian thing to do," becomes different than "the American thing to do." Again, a stumbling block, but one which Christofascists are certainly more experienced in handling. For years, Christofascists have made equal rights for gays "unAmerican" in their circuitous reasoning, so they will somehow turn the freedom of religion for Muslims into an attack on America's principles. Don't ask me how they will do it, but there will be ads/billboards demonizing Islam and Muslims. Maybe they'll cling to that imaginary string (a leftover from some Southern Baptist minister's sermon) that Islam is not really a religion, but a cult of bloodthirsty thugs. And when they get through demonizing, we'll be glad if the KKK moves in on the spot.

Forget the "insensitivity" issue. It's dead. In it's place will come "evil." Christofascists will talk of evil more than any thing else from now on. They have to use force. Maybe force will be "the Christian thing to do."

Now the GOP has chimed in and said it will definitely make the GZM a talking point in midterm elections. Why? Is it necessary for politicians to take a stance at all? To Christofascists across the country it definitely is, because involving politicians only lends credibility to their stance: more politicians on their side is the "American" bridge they need. It will be "the American thing to do."

Rob Kall of OpEdNews had an interesting take on the situation:

The world we live is no longer so simple, so small that we can speak to one group and assume another group will now know what we've said. It hasn't been for a long time. Yet this is how the opponents of the Cordoba building, which is not being built on Ground Zero, are acting. They need to come out of their caves and wake up to the reality that their small, bigoted response does not stand the smell test, when they claim failed Muslim "sensitivity." On the contrary, their own sensitivity to the threat to America is the problem.

I will agree that Christofascists are zenophobic because they realize the wisdom of taking on one country at a time, but Kall is wrong when he thinks that they will ever "come out of their caves." Many of those "caves" are Fundamentalist congregations owned by the new "Christian" leaders like Tony Perkins, Rick Warren, Rod Parsley and Lou Engle.  And if they come out at all, it will be too late.

America's pop religious icons are coming very close to expelling Muslims altogether, from jobs, from homes, from America. And they will somehow manage to take Bryan Fischer's  "compassion" and fashion it into one big, righteous package: "It's the Christian AND American thing to do." I don't know exactly how or when (or who), but someone like Tony Perkins will re-enact Queen Isabella's expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain which, being the "Christian thing to do" allowed people to keep their lives in some warped worldview of compassion and humanity. And of course, it won't be "nice" just "Christian." 

And "good."

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

overt

                    

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." 

What Do You Call 410,000 Lawyers And A Federal Judge In Favor Of Marriage Equality?

A Start?

No, Just Serious Wounds to the ADF, the FRC, the AFA, the ACLJ 

(and all the other homophobic acronyms you can think of )

"RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges state, territorial, and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry."

First, the ruling of Judge Vaughn Walker, now this! OMG! The American Bar Association has just de facto legalized same-sex marriage! The largest and most influential group of legal eagles in the nation (and possibly the world) has come out with a resolution urging all governments to legalize gay marriage. It's mind-boggling! And the timing must have been intended (the Right will call it "conspiratorial"). 410,000 members! How many will resign in protest/disgust?

According to the ADF, that group of bumbling legal eagles (more like legal chickens) people are already starting to turn in their memberships, but, after all, it doesn't speak for many lawyers. Huh? ONE THIRD of U.S. lawyers are members.

“The fact that ADF and other lawyers disagree with ABA on a number of controversial issues demonstrates the gross inaccuracy of ABA’s claim that it speaks for the U.S. legal profession,” remarked ADF Senior Legal Counsel Doug Napier, who resigned from the ABA because of its stance on controversial political issues.

It must have been the word "urges" that got to them.

Anyway, the ABA is still the largest professional organization for lawyers in the country -- and the largest voluntary professional association in the world. And the ABA has one tiny modicum of clout: it accredits law schools. Did the ABA accredit Liberty University School of Law (Jerry Falwell's pet project) or Regent University Law School (Pat Robertson's territory - which buried over 150 of its graduates in George Bush's Department of Justice)? Yes, both are accredited by the ABA.

BUT (and it's a big one) the goal of the ABA is to "Eliminate bias in the legal profession and the justice system" and "Work for just laws, including human rights, and a fair legal process." 

The ABA also requires that all students at ABA-approved schools take an ethics course in professional responsibility.*

Ooops. It may be hard to prove that, say, Regent University Law School's graduates are not professionally responsible or ethical, but the ADF doesn't look like it has that kind of reputation. Especially if it is willing to have "junk science experts" testify in an important trial.

And in endorsing the right of gays to marry, the ABA is stating that it is working toward its goals of "eliminating bias" and working laws concerning human rights. So what will the ethics courses at Liberty and Regent look like from now on? They'll have to practice their rhetorical skills in finding some loophole.

It has just recently been discovered, for example, that Matt Barber, an ever-enlightened dean of Liberty will go to extreme lengths to demonize homosexuality: below is his seminar on arcrotomophilia (sexual attraction to amputees) and its evil link to ENDA. If you're amazed at what Barber can get away with, write to the ABA about Liberty's accreditation.

Hmmm, I wonder how many "philias" they'll be teaching that ALL/MOST gays have? How about: 

Nasophilia (noses) Somnophilia (sleeping people) Macrophilia (giants) Lactophilia (breast milk) Emetophilia (vomit) or the ever popular Ursusagalmatophilia (teddy bears).** Of course, Barber probably figurers that if you can spell it, you must have it. (Teabaggers are so very dull)

The California Seesaw

Considering the up-'n-down situation of same-sex marriage in California, it ought to qualify as a ride in an amusement park: it's on again...well, sort of. It's not clear. Walker declared the stay to be voided on Aug. 18th, PENDING no ability to appeal. If you've been following the trial and its decision, you know that the ABILITY to appeal is in question. The supersonic dimwit defense team of ADF will try to finagle the appeal, but they must have a solid reason, like allowing gay marriage will cause bloodshed (maybe theirs, from Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer, etc.). Personally, I would love to see them appeal if not for anything but to see them make idiots out of themselves again. I could sell tickets! But an appeal could draw things out for another year, making SSM a hotbutton issue for November. Besides, just how much authority does a "proponent" for a group related to the state proposition have? The Christian Right will make it look like another needless nailbiter and another cause to outs "activist" judges.

Speaking of which...

Walker said on Thursday that ban proponents didn't convince him that anyone would be harmed by allowing same-sex marriages to resume...

Finally, Walker said it also appeared doubtful that the opponents of the ban have any right to appeal his decision striking down a state law that he said should have been defended by either Schwarzenegger and Brown, who both refused to do so.

Judge Walker has taken it on the chin from critics before (even from gays - consider the "Gay Olympics" fracas), but this time he is to be commended just for hanging in there and not stooping to react to critics, like Tony Perkins of the FRC:

The decision to shove Proposition 8 aside so quickly only heaps more outrage on a judge who should have never been allowed to consider the case in the first place. By lifting the "stay" on marriage licenses, he's attempting to plunge the state- and, by extension, the country--into deeper legal chaos just to satisfy his own radical agenda.

...and the following who practically considers him to be the Anti-Christ:

Suzyrice.com:

How Walker’s animus about Christ and Christianity was relevant to his considerations, as to the Constitution, of Proposition 8 shall be left to psychiatrists to determine, but, clearly Judge Walker used the opportunity before him to launch his personal hatred of “society,” about “heterosexuals,” about “the majority (in his ruling, Walker defined “the majority” as society and heterosexuals) and about Christianity.

But let's look at the situation this way: we scored the ABA, a federal judge (appointed by Reagan, btw), the governor of California and the Attorney General of California in a matter of weeks. Our side is beginning to look a bit heavier than theirs right now. 

They don't like it, but...tough.

* wikipedia: Typically, this is an upper-level course; most students take it in the 2L year. This requirement was added after the Watergate scandal, which seriously damaged the public image of the profession because President Richard Nixon and most of his alleged cohorts were lawyers. The ABA desired to demonstrate that the legal profession could regulate itself and hoped to prevent direct federal regulation of the profession.

**For a list of some more "philias" go to wikipedia's page.