The Gaytheist Agenda

At least according to this LTTE in the Salt Lake (UT) Tribune.

President-wise, I would vote today for an intelligent, compassionate, articulate, well-read, honest and brave atheist or agnostic over any one of the more-Christian-than-thou bunch pandering shamelessly in the ring right now.
Professions, assertions and declarations of “faith” belong at home and in the church/synagogue/mosque/temple/treehouse/cave of one’s choice. In government, I want common sense and practicality, neither of which is the exclusive preserve of any religion.
However, I have “faith” that no such individual will emerge to save us from our own self-righteousness.

Jackie McCowen-Rose
Roy

I don’t care about a politician’s religion or lack thereof. I just want them to keep it out of politics, political decisions and my life. Sadly too few of them seem to be able to do that so maybe it’s time for an atheist president.

Progressive Christians Respond to Neo-con Fundamentalism

The pendulum of religious influence on socio/political issues has begun to swing back to the Left and thank God for it. The unholy merger of neo-conservatism with the holy fever of the Religious Right is at last being countered by a growing contingency of left leaning Progressive Christians. A Christian think tank, the Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC) has risen up like young David to stand against the multi-headed Goliath incarnation of heavily funded Conservative think tanks and fundamentalism.

What took them so long? For years we non-Christians have been battling against the RRRW Christians. When we denounce the inappropriate actions of Christians in politics and the public at large we’re told by Liberal Christians, “Don’t blame us–it’s the RRRW Christians, not us!”. When we try to enlist the help of Liberal Christians in counteracting the damages inflicted by the RRRW we’re told, “It’s not our place to be our brother’s keepers”. In other words, they wanted to bury their heads in the sand and leave us to fight the battle alone. The problem with that, of course, is that it is perceived as an attack against Christianity.

Each election they won came with the blessing of the Religious Right and brought public policy further under their control. This allowed them to further cut taxes on the wealthiest and to issue contracts for federally funded business deals with cronies that drained the national treasury. Conservative Christians were forced to look the other way and condone some policies that flagrantly violate moral principles. Every strategic and ideological move made by the conservative ruling elite is conceived and developed behind the walls of those conservative think tanks.

Conservative Christians didn’t look the other way. They fully approved and embraced the policies with open arms. Their spokespeople touted twisted notions such as Prosperity Theology, which claims that financial prosperity is evidence of God’s favor. Tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting social services, corporate welfare and the like, therefore, were very much favored by such Conservative Christians.

There is no group or individual outside of the Christian community that could adequately respond to the religious dimension of this threat without being perceived and painted as a persecutor of the faith. A movement from within the Christian world was required to take a lead role in repairing the breach in the wall between the institutions of religion and government.

That’s what we’ve been trying to tell Liberal Christians for years. Have they finally heard us?

One of the stalwart examples of this new movement emerged when a diverse group of moderate and liberal Christian activists coalesced a few years back to form Crossleft.org. This Progressive Christian site was designed to help reframe the conversation of faith and values in the realm of political discussion. A little more than a year ago, CrossLeft inaugurated the Institute for Progressive Christianity. The IPC was expressly designed to strengthen a broad based Progressive Movement with much needed academic and moral capital while refuting the undue influence of fundamentalism in public policy.

The IPC is arising as a strategic nerve center for research and development of the Progressive Christian movement and offers a robust response to the Right. The institute has hosted innovative symposiums, published revolutionary research papers, issued provocative press releases, and is designing compassionate public policy proposals while championing the separation of church and state.

Bravo! By combining our efforts with theirs perhaps we’ll finally slay this beast.

Newly contested neo-con/fundamentalists have taken notice and not surprisingly have begun to lash back. Even Rush Limbaugh, king pin of far right talk radio, blasted the IPC during his 12/01/06 broadcast. He seemed offended when the fledgling IPC issued a press release publicly rebuking and refuting Dr. Dobson after his disparaging analysis of liberals on Larry King’s 11/22/06 show.

When the wingnuts take notice and offense you know you’re doing something right.

All Progressives have been forced to endure the seven painful years since neo-cons gained control of the government and steered the nation into the ditch on the Right. Dispirited moderate and liberal Christians helplessly watched as the Christian image was hijacked by extremist fundamentalism and they were politically marginalized. Standing against the giants on the Right, this emerging Progressive Christian movement is a long over due and promising response to the fundamentalists that have dominated the political arena far too long.

Indeed, the response by the Progressive Christians is long overdue. But now that it has begun I heartily welcome it.

Right-wing radio host Bob Grant was due to receive a 2008 Lifetime Industry Achievement Award from industry magazine Radio & Records Inc.. Alas, the magazine withdrew its award on Wednesday.

In a statement, R&R said that it did not want the award “to imply our endorsement of past comments by him that contradict our values and the respect we have for all members of our community.”

That’s their prerogative. As a private company they don’t have to hand out their awards to anybody they don’t want to.

The right wing is furious at R&R’s revocation. Levin has written a protest letter to the publication, and Hannity is trying to organize a boycott against R&R’s upcoming convention.

RWers organizing a boycott? What’s new?

In 1996, Grant was fired for his on-air comments wishing the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. But that remark was only the tip of his offensive, racist speech during his 60 years in broadcasting. A sampling:

Stating that he had been praying for the death of basketball star Magic Johnson, Grant implored, “Why is it taking so long for the HIV to go into full-blown AIDS?” [10/1/92]

“Minorities are the Big Apple’s majority, you don’t need the papers to tell you that, walk around and you know it. To me, that’s a bad thing. I’m a white person.” [Newsday, 6/2/92]

Referring to black churchgoers, Grant said, “I can’t take these screaming savages, whether they’re in that A.M.E. Church, the African Methodist church, or in the street, burning, robbing, looting.” [4/30/93]

Grant onced claimed that the United States has “millions of sub-humanoids, savages, who really would feel more at home careening along the sands of the Kalahari or the dry deserts of eastern Kenya-people who, for whatever reason, have not become civilized.” [1/6/92]

“I’d like to get every environmentalist, put them up against a wall and shoot them.” [New York Times, 4/18/96]

Grant said that he hoped that President Clinton would “exchange bodily fluids” with an HIV-positive immigrant. [New York Times, 4/18/96]

Grant referred to former New York Mayor David N. Dinkins, an African-American man, as a “washroom attendant.” [New York Times, 4/18/96]

In that case I fully commend R&R’s decision to revoke the award. This sort of filth is what the so-called “Family Values” crowd supports? Apparently, to some, hate is a Family Value.

What Religion’s Blind Stranglehold on America Is Doing to Our Democracy

It’s a presidential campaign like no other. The candidates have been falling all over each other in their rush to declare the depth and sincerity of their religious faith. The pundits have been just as eager to raise questions that seem obvious and important: Should we let religious beliefs influence the making of law and public policy? If so, in what way and to what extent? Those questions, however, assume that candidates bring the subject of faith into the political arena largely to justify — or turn up the heat under — their policy positions. In fact, faith talk often has little to do with candidates’ stands on the issues. There’s something else going on here.

Look at the TV ad that brought Mike Huckabee out of obscurity in Iowa, the one that identified him as a “Christian Leader” who proclaims: “Faith doesn’t just influence me. It really defines me.” That ad did indeed mention a couple of actual political issues — the usual suspects, abortion and gay marriage — but only in passing. Then Huckabee followed up with a red sweater-themed Christmas ad that actively encouraged voters to ignore the issues. We’re all tired of politics, the kindly pastor indicated. Let’s just drop all the policy stuff and talk about Christmas — and Christ.

Ads like his aren’t meant to argue policy. They aim to create an image — in this case, of a good Christian with a steady moral compass who sticks to his principles. At a deeper level, faith-talk ads work hard to turn the candidate — whatever candidate — into a bulwark of solidity, a symbol of certainty; their goal is to offer assurance that the basic rules for living remain fixed, objective truths, as true as religion.

…..

Mitt Romney was courting the evangelical-swinging-toward-Huckabee vote when he, too, went out of his way to link religion with moral absolutes in his big Iowa speech on faith. Our “common creed of moral convictions? the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet” turned out, utterly unsurprisingly, to be none other than religious soil: “We believe that every single human being is a child of God? liberty is a gift of God.” No doubts allowed here.

…..

When religious language enters the political arena in this way, as an end in itself, it always sends the same symbolic message: Yes, Virginia (or Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina) there are absolute values, universal truths that can never change. You are not adrift in a sea of moral chaos. Elect me and you’re sure to have a fixed mooring to hold you and your community fast forever.

…..

So, when it comes to religion and politics, here’s the most critical question: Should we turn the political arena into a stage to dramatize our quest for moral certainty? The simple answer is no — for lots of reasons.

For starters, it’s a direct threat to democracy. The essence of our system is that we, the people, get to choose our values. We don’t discover them inscribed in the cosmos. So everything must be open to question, to debate, and therefore to change. In a democracy, there should be no fixed truth except that everyone has the right to offer a new view — and to change his or her mind. It’s a process whose outcome should never be predictable, a process without end. A claim to absolute truth — any absolute truth — stops that process.

Read the rest at the link. You won’t be sorry.

I wonder how many of these have been sold.

Get yours now for the low, low price of $19.95 plus $5.00 for shipping (available in silver for just $39.95 + $5.00s/h).

Don’t you want to boost the power of your prayers?

I’m no sports fan, and I don’t agree that steroid use in sports is completely irrelevant. However athletes juicing up on steroids bothers me far less than politicians (who decide the fate of our nation and make laws that restrict my freedoms) being junked out on religion.

The APA removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1973 and the homophobes have yet to get over it. In 1999 the APA denounced so-called “reparative therapy” as the harmful sham that it is. Nonetheless the charlatans that perpetrate this psycho-spiritual terrorism upon the GLB community continue to fight scientific fact with misrepresented “studies”, propaganda, and blatant lies

They are currently decrying the APA’s refusal to accept the results of a study that allegedly proves sexual orientation can be changed through religious means.

Conducted by psychology professors Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University, the study, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, was published in book form and scheduled for an October release.

…..

The results were impressive: 38 percent of the participants in the Exodus program had either embraced “chastity with a reduction in prominence of homosexual desire” or experienced “a diminishing of homosexual attraction and an increase in heterosexual attraction with a resulting satisfactory heterosexual adjustment.” According to press reports, another 29 percent had had only partial success in leaving the homosexual lifestyle but were committed to continuing their efforts.

Those results are “impressive”? Chaste homosexuals are still homosexuals just like chaste heterosexuals are still heterosexuals. Therefore they are not “ex-gays”. Furthermore a “diminishing of homosexual attraction” means essentially nothing. They’re still gay, or in the case of those who claim to be attracted to the opposite sex as well, bisexual.

The study has likely fallen prey to the hawthorne effect. Subjects so want to change–for the researchers, for themselves, for the program leaders, for God/Jesus–that they temporarily cease same-sex activities. It’s also possible they’re unconsciously or purposely telling Jones and Yarhouse what they want to hear. It’s called the subject-expectancy effect. In any case, that study is hardly indicative of success.

In case you don’t want to take just my analysis of the study, read Dr. Patrick Chapman’s brilliant response to Dr’s. Jones and Yarhouse.

Now back to the wingnuts.

Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, said the shift in opinion among mental health professionals is probably helping to lead the large shift in public opinion toward acceptance of homosexuality. “When ordinary people continually see and hear and read what many mental health professionals believe — that gays and lesbians were born that way and that homosexuality cannot be changed — it’s bound to influence the opinion of the average man on the street,” he said.

You mean the more the public is exposed to facts as opposed to hateful RRRW propaganda, the more they’ll realize that GLBTs are not the monsters the homophobes have made them out to be? LGBT people are ordinary people. They go to work, pay taxes, raise families, attend church and do the same sorts of things everybody else does. RRRW wingnuts who obsess about what other people are doing in their bedrooms are the abnormal ones.

“But we’ve got to keep at it,” Wildmon said. “Even though lies often get a huge head start, ultimately we have to believe that the truth will be victorious.”

It’s already happening, and that’s what the you’re frothing at the mouth about. Your propaganda is falling to the wayside and the real truth is taking over. You can have your own version of reality, but not your own version of the truth.

Most Americans have noticed that a presidential campaign is underway. All but one candidate is Christian, with the remaining candidate being a devout Mormon. We have been inundated with speeches and, dare I say, sermons from the candidates professing how deep and abiding their faith is. Particularly from the GOP side the candidates sound more like they’re running for preacher than president. Candidates visit churches frequently while on the campaign trail to stroke the egos of congregations and stump for votes.

Barack Obama, for example, has bent over backwards to woo Christian evangelicals to vote for him. Particularly in light of accusations that he is a Muslim owing to his middle name (Hussein) and Muslim lineage he has been hawking the fact that he is very much a Christian. The latest in his “Vote for me because I’m a really, really, really good Christian just like you are” campaign is this:

The brochure being handed out in South Carolina shows a picture of the candidate with his hands together and eyes closed. In large letters, it reads “ANSWERING THE CALL.”

Inside, voters learn of a candidate who was “CALLED TO CHRIST” and even larger letters is a “COMMITTED CHRISTIAN” and is quoted saying, “I believe in the power of prayer.”

Barack Obama’s campaign in South Carolina is targeting black voters, and one of the ways he’s doing it is appealing to a connection based on shared religious faith. Obama, a Christian who attends a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago, has talked about his faith in Iowa and other states, as well, but his campaign literature is particularly focused on his religion here, where he depicts himself, in one picture, before a pulpit, and, in another, praying with an African American man.

Whoa. He sounds really super Christiany. I guess I’ll just have to vote for him.

Hillary Clinton does her share as well. In November she proudly announced that she had the backing of 60 pastors. Apparently the endorsements of clergy are better than laypersons because clergy would never do or say anything unethical, you know. Clinton also felt it necessary to advertise her church attendance. See, going to church is important, but other people knowing you go is critical. How else will they know you’re a Good Christian?

John Edwards, too, wants you to know how central his faith is to his life, and therefore how it will guide his presidency. He went on CBN in November to attest to his faithiness:

Edwards: Well, my faith is hugely important to every aspect of my life and it has been for a long time. I’m not going to lie to people. I was born and raised in the Southern Baptist church, baptized when I was young. I went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. It was the center of our lives. My father was the deacon in the Baptist church.

…..

I lost my son 1996 — and then of course more recently Elizabeth’s development of cancer and recurrence of her cancer. The truth is I don’t know how I could have ever gotten through these struggles plus the day-to-day stresses of being a candidate for president without my relationship with the Lord. It’s hugely important in every part of my life

The GOP candidates are not only trying to out-Christian one another (even Romney), they’re making infinite promises as to how they’ll impose RRRW Christian morality on all of Amurka–whether the rest of us like it or not. Says Mittens:

I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Marriage is fundamentally an institution about the development and nurturing of children. Every child deserves a mom and a dad. We must recognize the traditional union of a man and a woman as the bedrock of the family in our society. If our courts are determined to undermine this principle, then we have no choice but to defend it through a constitutional amendment.I support an amendment to prevent activist judges from misreading the Constitution to force same-sex marriage on any state.

I oppose civil unions between same sex partners. Government should encourage the formation of families and the nurturing of children, and I believe that this is best accomplished with a mom and a dad. Every child deserves a mother and a father.

Then there’s John McCain, who hits several of the right buttons–if you’re a RRRWer, that is.

Watching Beliefnet’s exclusive John McCain video, God-o-Meter finds it perplexing that the Arizona senator has long been a scourge of the Religious Right. After all, McCain told Beliefnet that the “Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation,” that he’s in talks with his pastor about undergoing a full-immersion baptism to become a full-blown evangelical, and that the prospect a Muslim presidential candidate makes him queasy because he wants someone who shares a “solid grounding in my faith.” That certainly checks some big boxes on the Christian Right’s presidential prerequisite list. (Not to mention that it offers a stark contrast to some of former Christian Right golden boy Fred Thompson’s recent stumbles on matters religious.)

Of course he’s small potatoes compared to Mike Huckabee, the Baptist Preacher turned Arkansas Governor turned presidential candidate.

“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards,” Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Can you say Dominionist ? I knew you could!

So we have the candidates jumping through hoops, speechifying, sermonizing, wearing their belief on their sleeves and doing everything in their power to prove to the faithful that they’re the right believer for the job. But the job is the presidency of the United States, not pastor, reverend, priest or pope. So why is there so much emphasis on religion? What ever happened to “There shall be no religious test for public office”? And why do candidates not only spend so much time visiting churches, but feel compelled to, lest they “lose” the religious vote? Are religious people that needy and fragile. Do they really need that much pandering and ego-stroking? What is this insane need they have for people to tell them their beliefs are right, true and good? And why do politicians–particularly the GOPers–always have to promise the nation will be run according to the RRRW Christians rules to make them happy? Never mind; I already know the answer to those questions.

I’ll make it easy for you, candidates. You don’t need to give me flowery speeches or monologues about your faith. I don’t want to hear about your fabulous gay friend or the one who is the most ethical person you know–and she’s even an atheist. I don’t need to be validated by you nor do you need to be validated by me . I don’t want any form of song and dance. Save the pandering for the believers.

All I want for myself is equal human and civil rights. ENDA, Marriage Equality, the Hate Crimes Act. Enforce Separation of Church and State, “no religious test for public office” and equal-access laws. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. You’ll also save a lot of time, effort and money on the campaign trail.

Now what I want for everyone else–that’s going to take a bit more time, effort and money.

Every now and then I stop by Fundies Say The Darndest Things to get some laughs. Now pour yourself a drink, grab some popcorn and prepare to laugh (or not). We start with the theories about atheism and hatred of atheists.

No, everyone is born Christian. Only later in life do people choose to stray from Jesus and worship satan instead.Atheists have the greatest “cover” of all, they insist they believe in no god yet most polls done and the latest research indicates that they are actually a different sect of Muslims.

Trinidad and Tobago

…..

Athiests as a Majority

This is what it would be like, if the majority of people were athiests.
ATHIEST KID: Mom, I’m going to go fuck a hooker.
ATHIEST MOM: Okay, son.
ATHIEST KID: Afterwards, I’m going to go smoke pot with my friends, since it’s “not addictive.”
ATHIEST MOM: Okay, come home soon!

The athiest kid leaves the room. The father comes home from work several minutes later.

ATHIEST DAD: Hey!
ATHIEST MOM: Hi, honey! I’m pregnant again. I guess I’ll just get another abortion, since “fetuses don’t count as human life.”
ATHIEST DAD: Okay, get as many abortions as you want!
ATHIEST MOM: Oh, and don’t go in the bedroom.
ATHIEST DAD: Why not?
ATHIEST MOM: There are two gay men fucking eachother in there.
ATHIEST DAD: Why are they here?
ATHIEST MOM: I wanted to watch them do it for awhile. They just aren’t finished yet.
ATHIEST DAD: Okay, that’s fine with me!

Suddenly, their neighbor runs into the house.

ATHIEST NEIGHBOR: Come quick, there’s a Christian outside!
ATHIEST MOM: We’ll be right there!

The athiest couple quickly put on a pair of black robes and hoods. They then exit the house, and run into the street, where a Christian is nailed to a large, wooden X. He is being burned alive. A crowd of athiests stand around him, all wearing black robes and hoods.

RANDOM ATHIEST: Damn you, Christian! We hate you! We claim to be tolerant of all religions. But we really hate your’s! That’s because we athiests are hypocritical like that! Die, Christian!

THE END

Scary, isn’t it?

The Prince of Pain, GameTalk

…..

I honestly don’t care about your rights. If it were up to me, all Atheists would be burnt at the stake and or cast into a river with weights tied to their ankles and or placed before the firing squad, etc etc etc.

Apologist

…..

Of course they also hate Teh Gays.

Just recently my son Bobby came out to me. I had been worried for awhile. His teachers said most of his grades were slipping and he seemed depressed and withdrawn.

Bobby said he’d been hiding it for awhile because he was afraid I would reject him. I sat him down and told him that I loved him and that God loved him, but that his salvation was in danger if he did not resist his unnatural tempations. I told him how being gay would mean he would live a shorter life, and that if he couldnt change his orientation he could be celibate like most the ex-gays are. He started crying saying something along the lines of “I knew you wouldnt understand! You’re just like everyone else!” before running to his room and slamming the door.

What did I do wrong? I dont want to lose my son, but I fear I already have. I talked it over with his therapist, who had the ludicrous idea that homosexuality was unchangable and that trying to repress could lead to lots of psychological damage (I’ve dropped him and will try to be finding another therapist with more moral beliefs). I wouldnt be surprised if he’s the one who’s feeding my son all the homosexual propaganda about how its ‘ok’ to be gay. That, or how homosexuality has engulfed the media, making it seem ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ and how they were just another oppressed minority. You didnt have to worry about seeing two men making out on tv at my age! I dont want to sound like a fanatic, but Im worried what other effects will come out of this increasingly secular, immoral society obsessed with filth.

Am I too late? Or is it possible to save my son

[Note: the boy eventually took his own life.]

Betty

…..

The only solution we have to stop gays from recruiting other people is to cut off the source. They need to be taken to specialized containment centers where they will be forced to become straight and accept Jesus as thier savior and to repent from their disgusting, wicket, hatful, devilish ways. Those that refuse to go can either be forced, or banished from society in other specialized communities where they have no connetion to the outside world at all. Most would die of AIDS anyway. Anyone who refused any of the answers to make them better would have to be killed or banished.

Meg,

…..

Hitler, is that you?

And here’s somebody’s theory as to why children are born with disabilities.

[about a girl being born with mental disabilities]

This girl is like a leper so what she needs to do is try and find god

if she really believes she can be healed from this state, she will be healed from this state

Most afflictions like this are caused by sins committed while still inside the womb. If she can repent for what she does god will embrace her and make her as human as you or me but if she chooses not to she’ll always be like this

god tests every one of us [emphasis added]

theSAVED

Tell me this, theSAVED. A blind woman has profound mental retardation and a mental age equivalence of about 9-months. She is utterly incapable of understanding the concepts of God, prayer, repentance, sin, etc. How is she supposed to become fixed and “saved” under your twisted ideology? What sort of sadist are you?

The next fundies unwittingly tell it like it is.

[Am I in discussion with a human who has a functioning brain?]

What does a functioning brain have to do with the Bible?

LittleLambofJesus,

…..

“Make sure your answer uses Scripture, not logic.”

cdevidal

…..

[on the subject of a Bible printing company]

Yes, that is a great company. I bought one of their large print version (old eyes… what can I say?).

The only thing I don’t like about them is they sell foreign language versions of the KJB. I don’t think that’s right. We know the only true translation is the 1600’s version in English.

It’s too risky for anybody to translate that into other languages. Mistakes can creep in… and that can lead to heresy. True Christians should only read English.

leyenda

Riiiight. Because Moses, Jesus and friends all spoke the King’s English.

 

God revealed to me two things about the timing of the rapture. God specifically told me 2007 was the year, because I was only going to have from 3 to 3 1/2 years to spread the message after my book was published.

Shelby Corbitt

Guess God got another one wrong.

 

Jesus is not a Jew. Jesus was Jewish.

awesomelegend

…..

To me, religion is evil. It is manmade and man-centered. I have a belief. A belief in My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

jesuslover1968

Don’t you just love fundie logic?

Do you know what medical students are exposed to as they are learning about medicine? In one college course, students were required to “examine” other stripped down students! This is abominable. Is it worth it to go through that kind of education and ignore God’s Word? Looking on nakedness is a shameful and intolerable thing. And most employment for doctors and nurses requires looking on other people’s nakedness (bathing patients, giving shots, operating, examining, etc.) What will we do as people who have been bought at the very high price of the blood of God? What will be most important to us? Our careers… or our integrity as priests of God?

Jesus lovers in Indianapolis

I’d be interested to hear how you expect them to examine, diagnose and treat you with all of your clothes on. Idiot.

Now remember Meg? She was the one who thought gay people should be forcibly converted to Christianity, put in containment centers or exterminated. Well she’s back and playing the Christian Persecution Card.

This past spring I was expelled from my high school. Why? Because I’m a Christian. There was a girl in my class who was wiccan, and I didn’t want demons to possess me or anyone else and save her from satan. So, I told her that her faith was evil and told her to accept Jesus as Savior and she would be saved. Simple as that. Just say the sinners prayer and you can be saved!

Well I got sent to the principal for that. She said I was ‘discriminating’ against her religion. I was only doing what the Bible, God, Jesus and my pastor said! How is that wrong!?

Well, afterwards I was forced to aplologize, even though it’s a sin to, so I never meant what I said. So, instead I put a copy of a Jack Chick tract in her locker about how wicca and a paganism lead to murder, rape and other horrible things because it lets the devil get inside of you. I also left a little note about how she was going to hell. I was hoping she would see the error of her ways and repent from the evil, disgusting ‘religion’.

Instead I was called down to the principal again and this time there were two police officers there. And they said I was under arrest for harrasing this girl and threatening her! What did I do? I just wanted her to accept Jesus and be saved! Now her family (all evil, stupid, disgusting god hating wiccans) want to sue me for discrimination and creating a hostile workplace! How is that fair? She’s the one who’s discriminating against me because I’m one with the LORD!
Jesus is the only way to salvation! It’s that simple people! No pope, wicca, or anything stupid like that! JESUS ONLY! Why is is wrong to tell others that? It’s all the fault of the ACLU and simlar atheist organizations trying to destroy us Christians. Next they’ll want to genocide us for doing our Godly work.

Meg,

Meg, Meg, Meg. Have they gotten your meds right yet?

This was posted by Sapphocrat on Lavender Newswire

An Obama Supporter Illustrates Why Obama Supporters Scare Us. A Lot. Really.

A post on a mydd.com blog was re-posted on another message board (which, because I genuinely like the board admin and don’t want to embarrass him any more than he’s already been by the mere presence of said post, shall remain nameless), under the subject line:

“This is what the Obama ‘movement’ is all about…”

Here’s the original post:

THE BAM”… PASS IT ON AT THE NEXT OBAMA RALLY!

Having caught “Obama fever” like so many others rallying in support of Barack, I experienced something at a Barack Obama Rally on Thursday, January 10 at the College of Charleston here in Charleston, South Carolina, which I felt was both inspirational and spontaneous!

As Barack worked the line following the close of his speech, there was a surge of people moving forward hoping to get close enough to shake Barack’s hand. Since I was standing about 20 feet back from center stage in the crowd, I felt the crowd down front tighten as many of us stood on our toes, stretched our bodies forward while reaching out to Barack. I noticed that a six foot tall guy who was standing in front of me had stretched far enough above the crowd and shook hands with Barack. As the guy drew back his hand I asked him, “You shook his hand didn’t you?” Happily the guy said “Yes.” I then said, “give me some of that” and the guy shook my hand with the same hand he had just clasped with Barack’s. A woman friend of mine who was standing next to me saw me shake hands with the guy. I turned to her and said “He [the guy] just shook hands with Barack,” to which she responded…”Hey, give it up.” We then shook hands. She then turned to the person next to her and shook hands. This chain of hand shakes went on for about five or six more persons.

I did not know the tall guy in front of me; he is white, I am black. But at the moment we shook hands, I felt some solidarity with this stranger, consummated by a handshake and signifying some unspoken agreement presumably about Barack Obama and his core message of UNITY!

I call this hand-shake scenario the “BAM” because, descriptively, it takes a bit of Obama’s name and it’s the sound of a collision, of People Coming Together!

My reaction:

If that’s “what the Obama ‘movement’ is all about” — the blind frenzy of a mob clamoring to touch the hem of his garment — then the Obama camp is scaring the absolute crap out of me.

What next? Obama raises the dead? Where does the line start to worship a fragment of The One’s sandal?

“Give me some of that”? Jesus Christ, people, GET A GRIP! Obama is NOT GOD!

“You don’t get it! Why do you hate hope? Why do you hate change? Let Obama change your life…!

Holy crap. Ho. Lee. Crap.

Oh, yes, I “get it” — which is precisely why it scares me. The writer sounds like every “est” convert I ever knew in the 1970s. And I remember People’s Temple, and Heaven’s Gate, and Waco, much too well not to be shaken to the bone by this blind madness over Obama.

This is beyond 1960s-era teenyboppers spending a precious five dollars on a one-inch square of bedsheet that one of the Beatles supposedly slept on. This is the guy in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wearing a vial containing the holy relic of an ABBA turd. Neither Anni-Frid nor Agnetha — nor Obama — is the Second Coming of Christ!

To the writer, and especially to the rest of the adoring throngs blinded into a froth:

How do you expect the rest of us “non-believers” to take you — or your candidate — even half-seriously when all you can offer is this kind of cult worship I thought died out with the 1970s?

And people think Kucinich is nuts for admitting to seeing a UFO? This craziness dwarfs any UFO talk — by light years.

And: Do you have any clue whatsoever as to the fodder you’re providing far-right sites that exist solely for the opportunity to point out how wacko Democrats are? Do you even care how embarrassing posts like that are? I don’t know if such lunacy makes me more ashamed to be associated with the message board to which the message was cross-posted, or with the entire party.

Thank God I’m as dissociated from Obama and his apostles as I ever can be!

I have to agree. I don’t get the whole Obama phenomenon. But then being an atheist perhaps I have a special immunity to whatever it is people are falling prey to. And for that I am thankful.