Miscellanea Agnostica

The march of the Christofascists continues apace. They’re steadily working to force their religion on the country, because after all, they’ve defined this as a “Christian nation,” and non-Christians aren’t allowed here. The latest example of militant Christianism is Virginia Congressman J. Randy Forbes, who wants “In God We Trust” slapped on every public edifice in the country. The Virginian-Pilot reports on his effort to use the government to proselytize (WebCite cached article):

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes’ bill to reaffirm “In God We Trust” as the national motto and encourage its display in all public schools was approved by a House committee Thursday after a sharp partisan debate. …

Forbes said the legislation is needed to combat a concerted effort by some to drive all references to God out of public institutions.

“There has been a chilling effect where schoolchildren, school districts, where individuals in federal buildings didn’t know if they could post ‘In God We Trust’ on their walls,” Forbes said.

Congressman, you lie when you say people are being prevented from posting “In God We Trust” on their walls. They are most certainly able to do so … on the walls of their homes and their churches. They can do so to their hearts’ content; no one can possibly stop them, and in fact, no one is even dreaming of stopping them.

The fact is that religion is not being outlawed in the US; it will not be outlawed in the US; and there is no effort underway to outlaw it in the US. It doesn’t exist, even though Forbes says it does. Thus, I’m adding the Congressman to my “lying liars for Jesus” club.

I’m aware that Forbes and every other Christofascist demands that every American trust in their god. It’s very important to them … because communal reinforcement is the only way they can feel secure about their irrational and baseless beliefs. Well, Congressman Forbes, if you want me to trust in your god, you’re just going to have to make me trust him. Come on. I dare you! Make me trust your deity. You have nothing to lose by trying, so why wouldn’t you?

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

Photo credit: About.Com / Austin Cline (based on Nazi propaganda).

Tags: christ, christian, christianism, christianist, christianists, Christianity, christians, congress, in god we trust, j randy forbes, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, motto, national motto, norfolk VA, randy forbes, religionism, religionist, religionists

Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen recently made an incongruous claim, during an interview on Piers Morgan’s new show on CNN. CNN described his laughable equivocation in his own words (WebCite cached article):

Well, it’s strictly back to what the scripture says. I mean, I can’t grab one part and say God wants you to be blessed and live an abundant life, and not grab the other part that says, you know what? You know, live that kind of life. So it comes back to the scripture. I’m not the judge. You know, God didn’t tell me to go around judging everybody.

There it is. Osteen is judging gays to be sinners, but then states that he’s not judging anyone.

Fucking hilarious. Or at least it would be, if Osteen weren’t rationalizing treating a whole class of people as lesser human beings by virtue of their how they were born.

Of course, this is not Osteen’s only incongruity. He’s a “prosperity gospel” preacher who thinks Christians are entitled to be — and in fact should be — millionaires … even though the founder of his religion explicitly and unambiguously condemned being wealthy:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25)

“But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” (Luke 6:24)

“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:25)

By claiming not to judge others when he is, in fact, judging others, and by preaching that amassing wealth is what Jesus wants his followers to do, when in fact, Jesus stated the opposite, Osteen is engaging that time-honored Christian tradition known as “hypocrisy” — and that, too, is in spite of Jesus’ own words clearly telling his followers never to be hypocritical.

Oh, and because he lied when he said he wasn’t judging others, I’m putting Osteen into my “lying liars for Jesus” club.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Tags: christian, christian fundamentalism, christian fundamentalist, Christianity, christians, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, gay, gays, homosexual, homosexuality, homosexuals, joel osteen, judge, judging, lakewood church, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, osteen, prosperity gospel, sin, sinner, sinners

Christofascists in Giles county, Virginia have decided that they need not obey the Constitution, and are putting up copies of the Ten Commandments in its public schools. A mob of them showed up at a school board meeting and forced them to reverse a superintendent’s earlier decision not to do so. The Roanoke (VA) Times reports about this “peasants with pitchforks” moment (WebCite cached article):

The Ten Commandments will hang in public schools, the Giles County School Board unanimously decided Thursday afternoon despite the school district attorney’s recommendation and precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. …

More than 200 county residents packed the school board meeting room and adjacent hallway Thursday afternoon, and a half-dozen parents and pastors told the board to honor God and continue to teach children that the United States is “one nation, under God” with the commandments.

“You have a moral obligation to what is right,” Elwood Lambert of Narrows said to the board. “Do not let our future children be deprived of this right — a God-given right.”

This meeting was turned into a tent-revival-style event:

The crowd clapped and cheered, and many answered “Amen.”

This Christofascist went on to make a ridiculous accusation:

[Giles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Eric] Gentry told the school board to fight “hate groups,” such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which often takes on First Amendment legal battles, and keep the posters in schools.

This is because not wanting Christians to force their religion on everyone, particularly school children, is an expression of deep, abiding “hatred” of Christians. Why, it’s only one step short of going out and killing them!

Yes, people really do think that way. It’s childish, of course, but that doesn’t stop them from keeping this sanctimonious belief.

Ironically, a whole raft of Christian outfits were recently labeled as “hate groups” … and more objectively so.

For calling the ACLU and similar organizations “hate groups,” I’m putting Gentry in my “lying liars for Jesus” club. Way to go, dude!

If anyone thought that militant Christianism is on the wane in the US … well … here’s your evidence to the contrary.

Hat tip: Friendly Atheist blog.

Photo credit: TV Tropes.

Tags: christian, Christianity, christians, christofascism, christofascist, christofascists, decalogue, elwood lambert, eric gentry, freedom from religion foundation, giles county, giles county VA, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, militant, militant christianism, militant christianity, militant christians, pearisburg VA, public schools, religion in public schools, socas, ten commandments

In a bid to promote himself as a dutiful general in the armies of the Religious Right, Alabama’s now-governor Robert Bentley declared that — while he is decidedly color-blind, he is most assuredly not belief-blind. The Birmingham News reports on his blanket disavowal of non-Christians (WebCite cached article):

Gov.-elect Robert Bentley in a speech at a Baptist church this afternoon said he plans to be the governor of all Alabamians and be color-blind, but he also said people who aren’t ”saved” Christians aren’t his brothers and sisters. …

“There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit,” Bentley said. ”But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.”

Bentley added, ”Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

Rather incredibly, Bentley later claimed not to have wanted to insult or offend anyone and does not think he did so:

Asked later if he meant to be insulting to people of other faiths, Bentley replied, ”We’re not trying to insult anybody.”

This is complete bullshit. Of course he intended to “insult” non-Christians! Of course he knew his comments would be offensive to them! Absolutely he knew exactly what he was doing … which was to ingratiate himself to the teeming masses of militant, angry, atheist-hating, Bible-thumping, God-praising, Christianists who make up the majority of Alabama. There’s no other explanation for this, and anything else he or his spokesman may say, can only be a lie. This makes Gov. Bentley (who was sworn in to office yesterday the 17th) the latest member of my “lying liars for Jesus” club.

Hat tip: Lordrag at iReligion Forum on Delphi Forums.

Photo credit: Press-Register / Kate Mercer.

Tags: AL, alabama, christian, christian right, Christianity, christians, dexter avenue king memorial baptist church, jesus, jesus christ, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, montgomery, montgomery AL, religious right, right, robert bentley, savior

One of the more militant of the many Christofascists in Congress, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, spewed another lie about Christmas. Politico reports it as part of his juvenile bellyaching about how horrible it was that Congress dared hold a lame-duck session before the holiday, which apparently he finds personally inconvenient (WebCite cached article):

“You can’t jam a major arms control treaty right before Christmas,” [DeMint] told POLITICO. “What’s going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians.”

DeMint is not correct when he says Christmas is “the most sacred holiday for Christians.” Everyone with even half a brain knows that the true most sacred Christian holiday is Easter.

That’s right, Senator. Easter — not Christmas — is the most sacred day, for Christians. Don’t just take my word for it, either … have a look, for example, at this Christianity Today page on holidays, which says (cached):

Celebrate Christianity’s most sacred holiday with us! Our Easter section features ChristianityToday.com’s best articles and resources on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I get that DeMint is upset that he’s being forced to attend a Senate session, when he’d rather be home in South Carolina, cooking up new ways to force his Christianity on the rest of the country. But too bad for him. He needs to man up and do the job he signed up for, back when he campaigned for the Senate. And he needs to stop lying in order to support his childish wishes.

That DeMint lied about the sanctity of Easter places him in my “lying liars for Jesus” club. I’ve also added this particular lie to my page on myths about Christmas that are commonly told in the US.

Hat tip: Religion Dispatches.

Photo credit: wumpus.

Tags: christian, christian right, Christianity, christians, christmas, congress, easter, holiday, holidays, jim demint, lame duck, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lie, lies, lying, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, religionism, religionist, religionists, religious right, SC, senate, south carolina

In a time when the Religious Right is screaming to high heaven over government spending of any sort, there’s one project not one of them is speaking up about. A Noah’s Ark theme park is going to be built in Kentucky, with the assistance of commonwealth tax abatements. The New York Times reports on the Kentucky government’s latest proselytization effort (WebCite cached article):

Facing a rising tide of joblessness, the governor of Kentucky has found one solution: build an ark.

The state has promised generous tax incentives to a group of entrepreneurs who plan to construct a full-size replica of Noah’s ark, load it with animals and actors, and make it the centerpiece of a Bible-based tourist attraction called Ark Encounter.

The project’s main proponent doesn’t give a shit about the “separation of church and state” issues inherent in this, even though they’re obvious to everyone else:

Since Gov. Steven L. Beshear announced the plan on Wednesday, some constitutional experts have raised alarms over whether government backing for an enterprise that promotes religion violates the First Amendment’s requirement of separation of church and state. But Mr. Beshear, a Democrat, said the arrangement posed no constitutional problem, and brushed off questions about his stand on creationism.

“The people of Kentucky didn’t elect me governor to debate religion,” he said at a news conference. “They elected me governor to create jobs.”

Actually, Governor, they didn’t elect you governor in order to create jobs at any cost. They elected you to perform the job of governor, and that job requires you to live within the boundaries of the Constitution.

You remember the Constitution, don’t you? You Rightists are always yammering and howling about it. Well — try obeying it for once. OK?

Beshear’s lie that this is not an example of Kentucky promoting religion, places him in my “lying liars for Jesus” club. Congratulations on finding yourself in such glorious, pious company, Governor!

(Yes, I’m aware Beshear is a Democrat, and he might once have been liberal to some degree, but he typically does things according to the Religious Right’s whims, so as far as I’m concerned, he’s a definite Rightist.)

The group behind this project, by the way, is Answers in Genesis. They’re the people who previously brought you the laughable Creation Museum, and who also have claimed that non-believing teens are all murderous sociopaths, eager for a chance to grab some firearms and blow away everyone else. Yeah, they’re a wonderful bunch, too.

Photo credit: JonnyBaird.

Tags: answers in genesis, constitution, creation museum, first amendment, kentucky, liar for jesus, liars for jesus, lying liar for jesus, lying liars for jesus, noah's ark, petersburg KY, religious right, right, Separation of church and state, socas, steve beshear, steven beshear, steven l beshear

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