Miscellanea Agnostica

By now this isn’t surprising. There’s a long tradition of dour, Puritanical Christians loudly decrying homosexuality and sexual freedom in others, while they themselves engage in the very sorts of behaviors they rail against. It’s happened with Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard, “Bishop” Eddie Long, George Alan Rekers, and plenty of others. The latest militant Christian to be bitten by her own raging hypocrisy is the Rightist legal activist, affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom (aka the Alliance Defense Fund), Lisa Biron. WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH reports she was convicted in a child-porn case (WebCite cached article):

A Manchester lawyer has been found guilty of exploiting a 14-year-old girl to produce child pornography.

Lisa Biron, 43, was accused of videotaping the girl having sex with two men. Biron faced eight federal indictments on charges of child sexual exploitation, transporting a child across state lines to produce child pornography and possession of child pornography, and was convicted on all of them after the jury deliberated for less than an hour.

What’s amazing about examples of hypocrisy like this one, is not that they happen. It almost goes without saying that there are people who will fail to live up to their ideals. It happens all the time — in religious venues, and in others. What’s surprising, though, are the lengths people go to in order to defend their hypocrisy, especially when they’re Christians who are not permitted ever to be hypocritical. What’s equally amazing are the other Christian sheep willing to pretend these people have done nothing wrong and that their hypocrisy is OK. Clearly they have no clue about the teachings of their own religion’s founder, in spite of the fact that they loudly trumpet their own Christianity — and this only compounds their error, since expressing one’s piety publicly also violates Jesus’ teachings.

Let’s just hope the 14-year-old victim in this case recovers and is able to transcend it.

Photo credit: PsiCop original (quoting Mt 7:23).

Hat tip: Secular Web News Wire.

Tags: alliance defending freedom, alliance defense fund, child porn, child pornography, christian, christian right, Christianity, christians, conviction, hypocrisy, hypocrite, hypocrites, kiddie porn, lawyer, legal activism, lisa biron, manchester NH, religious right

This is a classic example of religionists presuming themselves the ability to do something to others, that they will not tolerate other people doing to them. In other words, they’re the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. The (UK) Guardian reports on Catholic outrage over a Scottish cardinal being condemned for having condemned gays (WebCite cached article):

Catholic leaders have reacted furiously after members of the gay rights group Stonewall named Cardinal Keith O’Brien “bigot of the year” for his vigorous attacks on gay marriage.

Stonewall said its 10,000 members had voted “decisively” to give the title to O’Brien, head of the Scottish Catholic church, after he described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion” [cached] of the universal human right which defines marriage as solely heterosexual. …

A church spokesman said the award showed Stonewall was intolerant of its critics. “Stonewall and others have promoted terms like ‘bigot’ and ‘homophobe’ relentlessly, in order to intimidate and vilify anyone who dares oppose their agenda,” he said. …

Stonewall insisted the award was entirely justified since O’Brien had been consistently abusive and intolerant about gay marriage. The cardinal had likened it to relegalising slavery [cached], said it was an “aberration”, and claimed it might clear the way for polygamous marriages and would cause “further degeneration of society into immorality”.

So, Catholics, let me get this straight. It’s OK for your cardinals to bluster, fume, stamp, and rage about gays — comparing gay marriage to “relegalizing slavery” and calling them every vile name in the book — yet it’s somehow impermissible for anyone to call them “bigots”? Really??? Are you people sure you want to go with that? I’d be careful if I were you; after all, this is hypocrisy, and your own Jesus specifically ordered you never to be hypocritical. Keep it up, and your mortal souls might be in danger.

Here’s another thought: If you don’t want to be called names like “bigot,” how about not saying bigoted things? How about keeping your nasty, fucking hatred to your nasty, fucking selves? That way, you wouldn’t cause others to call you out for being the hateful pricks you really are.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Hat tip: Peter at Anti-Bible Project on Delphi Forums.

Tags: archbishop keith o'brien, archdiocese of saint andrews and edinburgh, bigot, bigotry, bigots, cardinal keith o'brien, catholic church, gay marriage, gays, great britain, homophobe, homosexual, homosexuality, homosexuals, hypocrisy, hypocrite, hypocrites, keith o'brien, roman catholic, roman catholic church, same-sex marriage, scotland, uk

I’ve blogged numerous times about the Catholic Church’s hypocrisy and disingenuousness. For instance, it has condemned civil authorities that dare investigate child abuse at the hands of its clergy yet it simultaneously embraces those same authorities when it has been victimized. Another example is the Church’s open celebration of Galileo Galilei and his scientific achievements, in spite of the fact that the Church did everything in its power to destroy him because of those same achievements.

One would think examples of this phenomenon are so common that additional ones would no longer be necessary, but one would be wrong. With the R.C. Church’s huge pushback campaign now well underway, and with the bishops becoming increasingly vocal and intransigent, we can no longer afford merely to take for granted that the Church and its hierarchs are dissembling liars. Every example of their disingenuousness and hypocrisy must be exposed so that no one is fooled by their pious facade.

Exactly one such example is exemplified in Canada. On its Web site, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops hosts this manifesto on what they call “religious freedom,” in PDF format (WebCite cached version). In point 6 (page 4), it says:

We are never to impose our religious beliefs on others, but always to respect individuals and cultures, honouring the sanctuary of conscience. …

It is a violation of freedom of conscience for anyone to attempt to impose his or her own understanding of the truth on others. The right to profess the truth must always be upheld, but never in a way which involves contempt for those who think differently.

Now, this sure sounds all nice and reasonable and tolerant and accomodating. One would think the Canadian bishops want to hold hands in a ring around the planet and sing “Kum Ba Ya” together. But in practice, this is most assuredly not how the Canadian bishops have behaved! Quite the contrary. Back in 2005 when gay marriage became permitted in the Great White North, Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary penned a pastoral letter condemning gay marriage (cached); included in it was a call to outlaw homosexuality, adultery, and pornography as well:

Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good.

Maybe it’s just me, but this reads like the bishop’s attempt to “impose” his views and beliefs on others, and it certainly displays more than a little “contempt” for those he dislikes.

Way to go, Canadian bishops! What a marvelous way to live up to your own stated ideals. Maybe you should crack your Bibles open and read what Jesus himself reportedly said about people who engaged in hypocrisy of this sort. I’m not sure he’d be as impressed with you as you might want to think.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: bishop frederick henry, calgary, calgary AB, canada, canadian conference of catholic bishops, catholic church, CCCB, christian, Christianity, christians, diocese of calgary, frederick henry, hypocrisy, hypocrisy in christianity, hypocrite, hypocrites, religious freedom, religious liberty, roman catholic, roman catholic church

As if the government and people of Norway don’t have enough to deal with at the moment, America’s favorite no-longer-televised paranoid schizophrenic, Glenn Beck, felt the need to insult them by invoking a reductio ad Hitlerum against them. You see, one of the attack sites was a summer camp on Utøya Island run by Norway’s Labor Party. According to Gawker, Glennie thinks political camps are just horrific (WebCite cached article):

Today, on his stupid radio show, [Beck] compared the Norwegian Labor Party youth camp that was the site of a spree killing that left 76 people, most of them teenagers, dead, to the Hitler Youth:

There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler Youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.

OK, so incendiary and insulting comments are something one expects from the Glennster. My guess is, he’s still enraged with the Norwegians because in 2009 they dared give the Nobel Peace Prize to Glennie’s mortal enemy, President Barack Obama. So really, I get that Beckie-boy would want to insult that country. Of course he would! He’s much too childish to be able to control his sanctimonious rage at anything and everything associated with Obama.

But there’s a problem with Glennie’s complaint about Norway’s Labor Party summer-camp … and Gawker also picked up on it. You see, guess what other political and ideological organization also hosts summer camps for kids? That’s right … a Tea Party outfit connected with none other than Glenn Beck himself (cached)! Yes, folks, even the Tea Partiers that Glennie so dearly loves, are guilty of doing the very same thing he condemns in Norway’s Labor Party!

Wow. Glenn Beck, a hypocrite? Whodathunkit?

Memo to Glennie: Since you’re such a devout Christian, I suggest you go open your Bible and read the parts of it where your own Jesus specifically, clearly, and unambiguously ordered you never to be hypocritical. Ever. Not at any time, and not for any reason. Try it just once. OK?

This despicable escapade reveals the morally and intellectually bankrupt nature of the Christofascist mindset, as depicted in this post’s graphic (above): “It’s not fascism when Christians do it.”

Photo credit: Austin Cline / About.Com.

Tags: 2011 norway attacks, ad hitlerum, beck, camp, christian, christianism, christianist, christianists, Christianity, christians, christofascism, christofascist, christofascists, fascism, fascist, fascists, glenn beck, hitler youth, hypocrisy, hypocrite, labor party, labor party of norway, nazi, nazis, nazism, norway, norway labor party, norwegian, norwegians, reductio ad hitlerum, religionism, religionist, religionists, summer camp, third reich, utoya island

Many times I’ve discussed the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church. Mainly I’ve pointed out that, on the one hand the Church claims to be the sole remaining arbiter of morality and ethics on the planet; but on the other, it has spent decades allowing its own clergy to prey on children almost at will, has obstructed efforts to prosecute them, and has covered up for abusive clergy as much as they could get away with. That they aren’t getting away with it as much as they used to, bothers the Vatican immensely, and that institution is not happy with the impertinence of those who dare criticize it for refusing to accept the consequences of its actions.

The Church, therefore, proudly claims “the moral high ground” — but hypocritically refuses actually to stand on it.

But now comes another, somewhat different, example of the Vatican’s hypocrisy. USA Today reports that the Church is celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s revelation of his telescope and its wonders (WebCite cached article):

Four hundred years after Galileo Galilei first demonstrated his telescope to scholars on a Roman hilltop, the astronomer condemned by the Catholic Church was celebrated on the same spot with a multimedia art exhibit that, oddly enough, included an installation from the Vatican.

Heliographs, astrolabes and other antique astrological instruments that belong to the Vatican Observatory stood alongside contemporary art inspired by Galileo and his science: rows of intensely hot, blindingly bright floodlights simulating the sun; a performance by a Tibetan musician playing a telescope-like horn.

The event took place Thursday night at the American Academy in Rome, a research center for the arts and humanities whose gardens lie on the exact spot where, on the night of April 14, 1611, Galileo showed off his telescope for the first time to the most important scholars of his time.

What makes this whole thing sickly hypocritical, is that this is the very same Catholic Church that prosecuted Galileo for having published his findings, specifically his confirmation of Copernicus’s heliocentric solar system theory:

Galileo made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gather evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time had placed Earth at the center of the universe. The church denounced Galileo’s theory as dangerous to the faith, but Galileo defied its warnings. Tried for heresy and forced to recant in 1633, he spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

The Vatican is trying to act as though its harassment, persecution, and imprisonment of Galileo was somehow “no big deal”:

“It’s not a simple ‘The church was against science,’” said Brother Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican’s Observatory. “The church never speaks with one voice on these things.”

Actually, Brother, it IS that simple! The Catholic Church in Galileo’s time was, in fact, “against science,” at least any science that could have been construed to undermine its authority. Since the heliocentric model of Copernicus appeared to contradict scripture, Galileo’s confirmation was something the Church was very much “against,” in every possible way.

For decades the Vatican has been tap-dancing around the wrong that had been done to Galileo. In 1979 Pope John Paul II called for an annulment of or amendment to Galileo’s conviction; it took that august body an entire 13 years of dodging and swerving to finally decide that Galileo had been right … but also that his persecutors should not be faulted.

What an accomplishment. The Vatican must be so proud.

At any rate, the Church celebrating the scientific accomplishments of a man who was targeted by the Church for his scientific accomplishments, is the very height of chutzpah, and exactly the sort of hypocrisy that Jesus Christ himself explicitly and utterly condemned. Way to to, guys. You just may have outdone yourselves.

Hat tip: Mark at Skeptics & Heretics Forum on Delphi Forums.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: 1611, catholic church, christian, Christianity, christians, galileo, galileo galilei, heliocentric, holy see, hypocrisy, hypocrite, hypocrites, italy, persecution, physics, Religion, roman catholic, roman catholic church, rome, telescope, vatican, vatican city, vatican observatory

After his pledge to destroy Jim Wallis over the issue of Christianity and “social justice” fizzled like old ginger ale, Glenn Beck has decided to take on another one of his old foes: George Soros. Soros, you see, leads a “shadow government” in the US and has been the puppet master of the country for years. He’s a Communist who rules the Democratic Party, and now the country, with an iron fist. (Forget for a moment that, for long stretches during the 80s, 90s, and 00s, we’ve had Republicans in charge — at various times and in various combinations, including all three at once — of the House, the Senate, and the White House. So it’s pretty hard to see how the Democratic Party’s “puppet master” could have been running the country for so long.) He recently ran what he considers an exposé of Soros, which, as the New York Times Lede blog revealed, included some stretches of the truth as well as some outright lies (WebCite cached article):

In his indictment of Mr. Soros this week, what Mr. Beck did not say about the list of governments he claimed the philanthropist had helped to topple was striking. Before naming America as Mr. Soros’s next “target,” Mr. Beck ominously intoned:

Soros has helped fund the ‘Velvet Revolution’ in the Czech Republic, the “Orange Revolution” in the Ukraine, the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia. He also helped to engineer coups in Slovakia, Croatia and Yugoslavia.

What Mr. Beck failed to mention is that in each of the countries he named, Mr. Soros in fact provided support to popular pro-democracy groups battling repressive regimes led by Communist or former Communist autocrats. The Fox host also seemed confused about some of the events he described in those nations.

To start with, the mass street protests led by the Czech playwright Vaclav Havel in 1989 that brought down Prague’s Communist regime took place in what was still Czechoslovakia, not the Czech Republic, which did not exist at the time.

There were also no coups in Slovakia, Croatia or Yugoslavia. Slovakia was created by the so-called “velvet divorce” [cached], the peaceful dissolution of the federal state of Czechoslovakia by democratically-elected leaders in 1993; Croatia’s wartime president, Franjo Tudjman, an authoritarian former Communist general, died in office [cached] in 1999 and was replaced by a former member of his party after a democratic election; Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav leader who was most responsible for the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that killed tens of thousands in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, resigned in 2000 [cached], following street protests after his loss in a democratic election.

Thus, if one looked only at Soros’s activities during the late 80s and early 90s, one would have to assume him to have been a vehement anti-communist, rather than the devout Marxist Beckie-boy tells us he is.

And while it is true that George Soros does bankroll a lot of Democratic Party operations and Leftist groups, the Times shows he doesn’t leave the Right untouched by his money:

The Fox News host also made no mention in his program of the fact — first reported by Justin Elliott of Salon on Friday — that Mr. Soros has paid more than $150,000 to Randy Scheunemann, a Republican lobbyist who is a senior adviser to Sarah Palin, to press Congress and the White House to keep sanctions in place against Myanmar’s military junta and promote a resolution “calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” whose party won the last free elections held in the country.

The Times goes on to say that Beckie-boy’s rhetoric is eerily similar to that of the Islamofascist regime of Iran:

Oddly, Mr. Beck’s conspiratorial reading of the recent history of Eastern Europe puts him in complete agreement with Iran’s intelligence ministry, which for years has been working to discredit the country’s reformist leaders and their calls for fair elections as the puppets of foreign plotters. …

Mr. Khatami called the allegation absurd, but, as The Lede explained in a post on “Iran’s Fear of a ‘Velvet Revolution’” [cached], Iran’s intelligence service seems to be obsessed with Mr. Soros.

What’s more, other commenters on Beckie-boy’s “exposé” of Soros have noted more than a whiff of anti-Semitism within it, among them Michelle Goldberg at the Daily Beast (cached article):

Anti-Semitism, like all ideologies, tells a story about the world. It’s a story about almost occult Jewish power, about cabals that manipulate world events for their own gain. In classic anti-Semitic narratives, Jews control both the elites and the masses; they’re responsible for the communist revolution and the speculative excesses of capitalism. Their goal is to undermine society so that they can take over. …

If you know this history, you’ll understand why Glenn Beck’s two-part “exposé” on George Soros, whom Beck calls “The Puppet Master,” was so shocking, even by Beck’s degraded standards. The program, which aired Tuesday and Wednesday, was a symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles. …

Soros, a billionaire financier and patron of liberal causes, has long been an object of hatred on the right. But Beck went beyond demonizing him; he cast him as the protagonist in an updated Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He described Soros as the most powerful man on earth, the creator of a “shadow government” that manipulates regimes and currencies for its own enrichment. Obama is his “puppet,” Beck says. Soros has even “infiltrated the churches.” He foments social unrest and economic distress so he can bring down governments, all for his own financial gain. “Four times before,” Beck warned. “We’ll be number five.”

Now, for the record, I do not believe Glenn Beck is an anti-Semite. And that’s not just because I believe Fox News’s denials of it, or because Beck claims he’s a supporter of Israel. No, it’s because I think he hates Soros so vehemently and so passionately, that he will stoop to nothing, including using Protocols of the Elders of Zion-type claims against him, in his campaign to destroy Soros. He’s so driven by hatred, that he simply doesn’t care that he’s using traditional anti-Semitic rhetoric against a Jewish survivor of the Third Reich.

Two final points: I’m not a fan of George Soros myself. He supports the ideological Left too much for my taste; I consider Americans’ thralldom to ideology of any sort to be counter-productive if not dangerous, and Soros is as responsible for this as anyone else at the moment.

And lastly … I’d like to point out that Glenn Beck, and the “Tea Party” movement of which he is a core part, is itself the product of secretive ideological philanthropists; David and Charles Koch, to be exact (cached article). Beck is very much an officer in their army, if not its Field Marshall. Presumably he has no problem with the Koch brothers’ own large, “shadow” ideological apparatus (seen as how Beckie happily does their bidding); yet he points an accusing finger at another ideological philanthropist. How dare he! What a fucking hypocrite. Glennie, haven’t you read your Bible recently? You must have missed the parts of it where your own Jesus instructed you never to be hypocritical … ever … not for any reason. He said it clearly, unambiguously, and offered no caveats or exceptions to this rule. Christians such as yourself, Glenn, must never be hypocritical. That’s just the way it is.

Hat tip: Religion Dispatches.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore.

Tags: anti-semite, anti-semitic, anti-semitism, beck, christian, christian hypocrisy, Christianity, christians, delusion, fox news, george soros, glenn beck, hypocrisy, hypocrite, koch brothers, liars for jesus, lying liars for jesus, puppet master, soros, tea party, tea party movement

Here it is, not even the middle of November yet, and already I’m typing my first entry in the annual edition of the “war on Christmas.” The militant Christian organization which calls itself the Liberty Counsel has released a list of stores they’re ordering Christians not to buy from, because they don’t mention “Christmas” often enough in their holiday advertising (WebCite cached article).

Ordinarily, this is the point in my post where I’d be quoting from their page … however, these Christofascists are too sickening and vile to quote. Besides, naming any of the businesses here will only grant additional voice to what they’re saying, and thus aid them in their struggle for publicity. I refuse to go along with it. If you want to know what they’re saying, you’ll just have to go there and find out.

I’d just like to point out two things:

1. The Religious Right whines, annually, that there’s an effort underway to forbid people to say “Merry Christmas.” Supposedly it’s being made illegal … or something. Of course there is no such effort to outlaw “Merry Christmas,” as I explain in my page on Christmas myths, but militant Christians never let little things like “facts” prevent them from saying so. Here, though, we find the Religious Right forcing people to say “Merry Christmas” when — perhaps — they might not wish to. Fucking hypocrites. (Evidently these folk are not aware that Jesus himself explicitly and unambiguously forbid his followers ever to be hypocritical.)

2. The group’s name, “Liberty Counsel,” is itself a lie, because these people do not want “liberty” in the US — at least not “religious liberty.” What they want is a US which is uniformly evangelical Christian, like themselves. They may tolerate other forms of Christianity, but want non-Christian religions outlawed, as well as irreligion. (Their use of this misnomer places them in my “lying liars for Jesus” club.)

At any rate, I’m glad to open this annual series of posts on Christmas. There’s nothing like a supposed “war on Christmas” to bring out the height of stupidity and irrationality from the Religious Right and the hosts of Christian warriors who obey their every command.

Hat tip: The Friendly Atheist.

Photo credit: silas216.

Tags: christian, christian hypocrisy, Christianity, christians, christmas, christmas wars, christofascism, christofascist, christofascists, hypocrisy, liars for jesus, liberty counsel, lying liars for jesus, merry christmas, naughty and nice, religiofascism, religiofascist, religiofascists, religionism, religionist, religionists, war on christmas, war on christmas 2010

In the state which has become the latest battleground in the Religious Right’s ongoing effort to remake the country into a fierce Christian theocracy — as I’ve blogged a number of times already — a group of Satanists held a convocation. And some Christians in the Sooner State (and elsewhere) were downright furious about it, as the Oklahoman reports (WebCite cached article):

A Satanist organization held its much-talked-about public event at the Civic Center Music Hall on Thursday as a crowd of Christians from various faith communities prayed outside the building.

About 45 people attended the Church of the IV Crown Princes’ “satanic exorcism.”

Oklahoma City police Lt. Stuart May said he estimated that 75 to 80 people gathered outside the building.

So the protestors almost doubled the participants. Also of note:

The crowd outside came from diverse faith communities, including Roman Catholic, Baptist and full gospel. Several Christians said they came from other states such as Kansas, Texas and Arkansas to pray for the souls of those attending the Satanists’ event and for Oklahoma City as a whole.

It’s remarkable how the presence in Oklahoma City of a few dozen Satanists seems to have forced all these good, devout Christians to set aside all their differences and work together to interfere with their event. How nice of them.

As for the Satanists themselves, I’m not sure how serious their ceremony was, and not only because the name of their organization is “the Church of the IV Crown Princes”:

A heavy-metal band performed for about 45 minutes in the Civic Center’s CitySpace area where the event was held. When the band finished, [James] Hale and a handful of other people went to the center of the stage area and surrounded a large table. Hale told the audience that they would witness a ritual “blasphemy” taken from the Roman Catholic rite of exorcism.

He told the crowd that their parents probably gave them information about religion when they were younger, “but it’s good to get rid of that old garbage that they pumped into you.”

Hale told the audience that they were about to be part of a participatory ritual and warned Christians who may have been attending for educational purposes that they would need to be careful during a certain segment invoking Satan because it was unforgivable to do so according to Christian beliefs.

The lights were lowered, and a spotlight shone on the table.

The scent of incense filled the room and a soundtrack featuring cymbals and heavy-metal music played softly as people in the audience looked on intently.

A woman laid on the table, and Hale and six other Church of the IV Crown Princes members, some garbed in black robes, gathered around her and invoked the name of Satan and demons to exorcise Christianity and religion out of her.

“Depart forth in fear from this soul who seeks enlightenment from Hell’s power,” Hale said.

As one member of the group chanted “Come out Yahweh! Come out Jesus Christ! … Come out, oh foul holy spook!,” other members said “Satan compels you!”

At the end of the ritual, a gong on the table was sounded, and the woman lying on the table sat up, smiled and shouted “Hail Satan!”

I don’t know about you, but this is not the sort of bone-chilling blood-curdling rite one might expect from “Satanists.” It seems more of a mockery of Christianity than anything else, and not a serious effort to “worship” a being known as “Satan.”

The protesting Christians appear blissfully unaware that, perhaps, a joke was being played on them:

Controversy arose in September when the public learned that the Satanist group had leased the Civic Center for the event.

At least two church groups obtained permits to hold prayer activities outside the building as the Satanist group gathered.

Velma Brandt, 58, of Edmond, said she was a local member of the national laypeople’s group America Needs Fatima. She and other members of the group, from places like Topeka, Kan., and Fort Worth, Texas, prayed the rosary at the time of the Satanists’ presentation.

“This is a Christian nation founded on Christian principles,” Brandt said.

“I think this (Satanist gathering) is sad.”

Yeah, that “Christian nation” bullshit again. All I can say to Ms Brandt — and the rest of her ilk — is, if you want this cold-hearted, cynical, god-hating agnostic heathen to become a Christian … well … you’re just going to have to make me. Go ahead. I dare you.

Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the whining that the Oklahoman reports:

Francis Slobodnik, a member of America Needs Fatima from Topeka, Kan., said he traveled to Oklahoma City to lift the city up in prayer.

“I’m a Roman Catholic, and my religious faith is most important to me. Lucifer is the exact opposite of God. God is good. Lucifer is evil,” Slobodnik said. “We were horrified about this, and we thought we needed to do something, to take a stand for God and for His right.”

I’m sure Slobodnik’s Catholicism is important to him. But I think that, before he goes stomping around and whining about the existence of “Satanists,” he’d best remember the old saying that “charity begins at home.” Before he protests others, he should be cleaning up the stinking amoral cesspool which is his own R.C. Church. And the same goes for the rest of the protestors … they should likewise be first protesting the messes which are their own churches. Once they’re all cleaned up, THEN they can go around railing about other people. After all, did not the founder of their own religion, Jesus Christ, himself say:

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:42)

Enough with the bellyaching and caterwauling that there are non-Christians in the world. Just get over it, you fucking crybabies.

Hat tip: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: america needs fatima, blasphemy, christian, christian hypocrisy, christian nation, Christianity, christians, church of the iv crown princes, civic center music hall, hypocrisy, oklahoma, oklahoma city, oklahoma city OK, satan, satanic exorcism, satanism, satanist, satanists