Religion in Retrograde

Now that it is perfectly OK to defend your country and love the man who is fighting next to you with his SAW, or love the woman who serves as your co-pilot in an Air Force transport, it is comforting to note that the religious right, in the person of Rick Perry supporter Pam Olsen is speaking out, saying that the Lord God is going to have none of that.

“He will come and shake at everything that can be shaken,” Ms. Olsen avers.

Believe it.

Good grief. What a concept. All of the sinning going on is going to produce all manner of natural disasters.

What really gets me is that this can ignite people to violent acts against gays. It isn’t enough that they say God is going to punish just the gays for being gay, using laser surgery to extract them from among the straights. What they are saying is that God will punish gays and straights alike for the misadventures of gays. They are saying to straight evangelicals that these gays, doing what they are doing, threaten their very existence.

It is religion in retrograde motion. It is religion going back to the time before Jesus when God had a bone to pick with whole cities in Canaan, smiting them to a man, woman and child.

The Force Is Strong With This One

My friend Dave pointed out something to me yesterday and I immediately saw the need to put up a blog post about it. Then Blogger decided to take the day off and I couldn’t do the post.

           

It’s still a good idea though and although not as timely as it would have been yesterday, I still want to do the post so here goes.

Remember back a little over 3 weeks ago when Governor Rick Perry issued a proclamation that over the Easter weekend that Texans of all faiths should pray to the deity of their choice for Him, Her or It to bring rain to the dry Texas plains?

His reasoning, I guess, was that if all of the various deities receive enough prayers they will pool their resources and get the thing done. I threw in my two cents with my prayer to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And how much rain did we get?

Bupkis. Nada.

And then who should come to Texas for a few short hours in Air Force One, flying right over the drought-stricken area – twice – this past Tuesday but President Barack Obama.

And what happened a mere 36 hours later?

This.

Say what you want about him, The Force is strong with this one.

Witnesses Who Didn’t Testify at Tom DeLay’s Trial

The defense rested last Thursday in the money laundering trial of Tom DeLay, my former congressman, without fanfare or farewell. I was somewhat startled at the paucity of witnesses who were offered up to rise to the defense of DeLay. But judging from the colossal blunder of Dick DeGuerin last week in offering up evidence that only served to cook Tom’s goose a little more thoroughly than the prosecution meant to, perhaps the less said the better.

But there were two witnesses that I was mightily expecting to see on the stand before the defense rested, and neither of them showed up.

Who are these promised witnesses? Tom DeLay and God.

Tom DeLay won’t speak in his own defense. Now I know DeLay (well, not really, but I know someone who does) and I know that this is not his idea at all. Tom DeLay is all about shooting his mouth off. It is at the very core of his being. Heck, they even put a reporter on the stand to give testimony to a 96 second interview outside the courtroom earlier. Testimony to verify that Tom DeLay was again shooting his mouth off about how he could have prevented the RNC from giving the funds to his seven named State House candidates.

And didn’t.

No, this was strategy. DeGuerin finally realized that the less said in this trial in the defense of DeLay, the better.

But why didn’t Tom get his good ol’ buddy God to testify? He said he would. He did. He said that when he gave his farewell speech in the House back in June of 2006. This, among other things were said in that vast rambling speech that can be read here:

“Here on this floor, I have caught and thrown spears of every sort. Over the course of 22 years, I've probably worked with and against almost everyone in this chamber at least once. I have scraped and clawed for every vote, every amendment, for every word of every bill that I believed in my heart would protect human freedom and defend human dignity. I have done so at all times honorably and honestly, Mr. Speaker, as God is my witness and history is my judge.”

See? Tom DeLay named God to be on his witness list. But no God. No Jesus, and not even one of His angels came to testify for Tom DeLay.

So not only did Tom DeLay not give testimony at his own trial, because Dick DeGuerin told him not to, but God was a no-show as well.

Maybe God figured that if He couldn’t help Tom in his defense, He probably shouldn’t take the stand on the off-chance that He might also hurt the case.

In Allah We Trust

You have to wonder what is wrong in Washington DC if 41 neoconservative members of the Republican Party are taking time out of their schedules to sign onto an amicus brief filed by the rightwing American Center for Law and Justice (as long as you are a white Christian) that opposes a Freedom From Religion Foundation lawsuit filed recently by the organization of the same name.

The Foundation, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization representing atheists and agnostics, collectively referred to a “non-theists,” has objected to the inclusion of an engraving of the words “In God We Trust” into the wall of the newly constructed Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC.

This watchdog group actively monitors attempts to inject religious doctrine into our secular institutions. Their main objection in this case was that the engraving will do this:

“‘…give actual and apparent government endorsement and advancement of religion,’ while excluding nonreligious Americans. ‘[T]he mandated language diminishes nonbelievers by making god-belief synonymous with citizenship,’ the foundation says.”

The 41 GOP congressmen, led by a certifiably loony Michelle Bachman as well as Minority Leader John Boehner oppose this groups opposition. Their reasoning goes like this:

“These expressions simply echo the sentiments found in the Declaration of Independence and recognize the undeniable truth that our freedoms come from a source higher than the state…. While the First Amendment affords atheists complete freedom to disbelieve, it does not compel the federal judiciary to redact religious references in every area of public life in order to suit atheistic sensibilities.”

Well, I can get behind part of that at least. But in actuality, the sentiments found in the Declaration of Independence goes something like this:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Get that? Not “God.” “their Creator.”

Jefferson, who wrote the document was not a Christian. He was a Deist.

Indeed, Jefferson, in a letter to Ezra Stiles, wrote of his religion “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.”

So let’s not hide behind Jefferson’s letter to George III, OK?

But I also have a bone to pick with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Really, it’s not all about them. It’s not about a country establishing a state religion and in doing so “diminishing” them or their beliefs. Atheism, in my humble opinion, is every bit as much of a religion as Christianity.

Denial of the existence of God takes every bit as much of a leap of faith as professing God’s existence.

No, I think both parties get it absolutely wrong. It’s not about violation of the Establishment Clause. It’s about diversity.

How would Congresswoman Bachman like it if it was decided to engrave “In Allah We Trust” in the Visitor Center’s walls? Or what about “In Krishna We Trust?”

What about “In Gaea We Trust?”

Please. It’s all about diversity, not about us versus them.

The litmus test should not be whether one act or one inscription prefers the Christian religion over unbelief, it should be whether that act, or that inscription favors one religion over another, and whether in doing so society benefits.

Because if society doesn’t benefit, then what, after all is said and done, is the point?

Republicans: Be Wary of What You Pray For – It Might Come To Pass

I noted with not just a little mirth at Stewart Shepard’s unbelievable plea to his God on high to rain on Barack Obama’s parade.

He had all his bases covered but one: what if God replies with a counter offer?

Here is his video on YouTube:



Funny, huh?

If you watched the DNC closing night at Invesco Field (Mile High Stadium? Where’s that?) you would have seen deep azure skies without the slightest hint of a cloud of any kind.

The only rain that fell on Invesco Field tonight was confetti.

But wait, there’s more.

The Republican National Convention is scheduled to kick off on Monday, September 1st. At just about the same time as the opening remarks from their convention, Hurricane Gustav should be about ready to make landfall on the beleaguered city of New Orleans. A city that has yet to recover from Hurricane Katrina, courtesy of the Republican Regime in Washington, DC.

So at the exact moment the GOP convention convenes, the Lord our God sends a hurricane to wreak a repeat performance on New Orleans.

That should be maybe a little newsworthy, and not only draw national attention away from the Elephantitis Party and their lies, but it should again underline Republican failures that we Americans have had to endure.

I have to wonder what god Stewart Shepard prays to. Because He certainly doesn’t listen to Shepard. Apparently, Shepard’s personal supreme being is vested with an incredible instinct for irony.

And I do love irony.

Sure I am concerned for the people who are now threatened by a coming hurricane. I hope that they all get safely out of the way. These people have paid their dues and need a break. But maybe, just maybe, Stewart Shepard’s prayer has had an effect that he did not anticipate.

Maybe.