Whammer's Blog

The Fascist Tea Party

2012-01-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

(This article is going to be reworked into a chapter in the novel I'm currently writing, either to be called Resurrection, or Midnight Renaissance. It's also going to be a companion chapter to The Nazi Tea Party.)

Fasces n. A bundle of rods with a projecting ax blade.

In his 'victory' speech following the Iowa caucus this past Tuesday, Rick Santorum said: "My grandfather came (to America) back in 1925. He came by himself, even though he was married with two children, one of them being my father. He came after having fought in World War I, because Mussolini had been in power now three years, and he had figured out that fascism was something that would crush his spirit and his freedom, and give his children less than he wanted for them. And so he made a sacrifice. He left to the coal fields of Southwest Pennsylvania"

Do you know the history of fascism, Rick? In many ways you are a fascist.

The founder and leader of the Fascist party was Benito Mussolini. Born in 1883, he was a troubled and violent child; at eleven he stabbed a fellow student and was expelled. He was raised a socialist and spent his early life a union laborer. He railed against the king, the church, the government; and was opposed to war, conscription, and to censorship. Early on he demonstrated a high aptitude for journalism, and when he was 26 he started both a family with his girlfriend and a Socialist newspaper, La Lotta di Classe.

Journalism not only gave Mussolini the power to make up stories, but the means to spread his own mythology. He was quoted as saying: “The thing I learned as a journalist is you can make people believe almost anything.” He would write about non existent things, and people would believe them, and thus he utilized the media to influence the population.

Sound familiar?

It sounds eerily like the Fox news propaganda outlet that would endorse a Santorum candidacy if you are so nominated; the same network that is constantly being fact checked for truth and found to be telling the ‘pants on fire’ variety lies.

Mussolini was initially opposed to Italy entering World War I, but after a few months he broke from La Lotta di Classe and started a new newspaper, Il Popolo de Italia then went to fight in the war.

In 1917 a grenade launcher exploded near Mussolini, leaving forty fragments in his body. He called the explosion the most beautiful moment in my life, and incorporated the experience into his own mythology.

By 1919 Italy was in chaos, on the brink of civil war. Unemployment was rampant, strikes were called, and the Italian middle classes began to fear the spectre of communism. Mussolini exploited those fears, with promises to fight communism, restore law and order, and reduce unemployment.

Sound familiar?

Conservatives have exploited communism and other ideologies and issues to fearmonger for decades; it is one of their most common and preferred methods of influencing public opinion and election outcome.

Mussolini’s dream was to restore the Roman Empire, and he regarded himself as a modern Julius Caesar. On March 23, 1919 Mussolini formed the Fascist party, which he promoted as a sane alternative to the red menace of communism, and which established itself with violence, as he simultaneously formed a private squad of hundreds of men dressed in black shirts and armed with guns and knives who fought against the fascist opposition—liberals, catholics and socialists.

In 1922, when Mussolini was 39, at a fascist party convention the decision was made to go forward with a plan to overthrow the government. The black shirted fascists took up arms and marched to Rome with the plan to force the king to dismiss the government and make Mussolini prime minister. The king was afraid, and before any violence had occurred, made Mussolini Italy’s 27th prime minister. Yet Mussolini rewrote the truth through the power of the press, and told the nation he’d come to power through a violent takeover.

In 1925 Mussolini abolished all political parties excepting the Fascists, making Italy a totalitarian state. Opposition was made illegal by law. The only political party was the Fascists, and membership was mandatory. You could not teach in school, be a civil servant or government employee unless you carried the card of the fascist party.

Sound familiar?

Today’s Conservatives talk of a permanent majority isn’t much of a joke at all.

In 1925, Mussolini decreed: “the government demands that the schools be inspired by the ideals of fascism.” From childhood they were indoctrinated at school, and from the age of four were given toy guns and black shirts. The indoctrination was ordered by the fascist state to instill deeply patriotic feelings in the children.

Sound familiar?

Home schooling is the simplest way to fill a child with lies, and is most popular with the right wing; children are indoctrinated with patriotism through pledges and anthems and celebrations, and toy guns are still everywhere, now only more sophisticated. Texas permits its schools to rewrite its text books with false history and blatant lies. Similar underminings to education are under way all across America.

Mussolini also created a repressive police state to enforce fascism. There were widespread fascist police, and very little escaped their notice.

Sound familiar?

In today’s fascist America right wing militia domestic terrorist attacks, including many murders, are now almost a daily occurrence. And surely you’ve noticed exuberant policemen with their truncheons and their jugs of pepper spray--which the Fascist Propaganda Outlet calls a simple food product-and which they’ve been wielding against innocent protestors with reckless abandon.

Mussolini was politically savvy enough to know that he had to work with the Catholics, and the church was looking to make a deal. The church had lost control of the Vatican since around 1870. In 1929 Mussolini and the Vatican signed the Latin Pact, which ceded to the church virtually everything it sought. The pope gained control of the Vatican City, and received one and three quarter billion lira in compensation for losses, mostly through government bonds. Through their control of that quantity of government bonds, the Catholic church was effectively funding the fascist state. Pope Pius XI actually went so far as to proclaim that Mussolini “was that man whom divine Providence had allowed him to meet.”

Sound familiar?

Fascist America exploits Jesus Christ for money and power at the polls—and for members. That’s why the fundamentalists and evangelicals or whatever name you want to give to right wing, conservative Christians, support many of these ideals that smack so near to fascism.

Mussolini used the Italian newspapers to justify Italy’s military campaigns with rumors and lies, and their alliance with Germany in World War II that led to Mussolini’s downfall and execution, and the end of fascism.

Sound familiar?

We now know the right wing abused the media to disseminate the blatant lies that justified the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

So the fact is, Santorum, that yours is the political party promulgating fascist ideals and their implementations—indoctrinating children with lies, encouraging gun love and violence, writing your own sets of false truths which you spread through the media, and using those same lying media outlets to justify needless wars; all the while falsely abusing Jesus Christ as both a foundation and fundraiser to the fascist theocracy whose dictator you seek to be. Your grandfather may have escaped Italy, but you can’t escape yourself.

The Story of the Incredible William Tyndale

2011-12-29T22:56:00.000-08:00

This is not one of my normal posts, but something that came up in a recent conversation, and is a simple pointing to the great story of William Tyndale, one of the greatest heroes of Christianity, whose life fulfilled that most potent scripture: They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. John 16:2

There is a fantastic telling of Tyndale's story in the documentary: Devil's Words: The Battle For An English Bible, which can be viewed in five parts on youtube starting here: Tyndale's Story.

Fox News And The Holiday Spirit

2011-12-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:19

The holidays are upon us, and Fox News Propaganda Outlet has ramped up their annual manufactured Christmas controversy. They warmed up to it at Thanksgiving, when they took President Obama to task for not mentioning God in his spoken Thanksgiving address, even though he had done so in his written version. This year they used Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee's holiday tree lighting as their excuse to lob the first volley in their hysterical, and imagined liberals war on Christmas. This year it has resulted in a heated repartee between Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly, and here is a good compilation of Stewart and O'Reilly's back and forth.

Since it is widely agreed that Christmas is about children, let us look at how Fox News Propaganda Outlet treats children with regard to Jesus Christ, bearing in mind the words of Jesus when he said: But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6

Now how does much of America celebrate the birth of Christ? By flying in the face of everything Christ is and taught. Christ said: Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15

Yet in agreement with Fox News Propaganda Outlet's support of big business and free market economics, many Americans use Christmas to inculcate their children with the love of materialism, the fodder on which capitalism feeds; and since the Bible also says that covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), raising children as idolaters violates the second commandment against worshipping graven images and idols, and is antithetical to Christianity.

Now let’s look more closely at the presidential candidates Fox News supports and promotes, one of whom they will eventually get behind in full force in the race against Obama.

Rick Perry supports a constitutional amendment legalizing prayer in school. This directly contradicts not only the constitution, but Christ’s specific instruction concerning prayer, when he taught that public prayer is hypocrisy, inasmuch as it is done specifically to be seen of men, and to call attention to the ‘righteousness’ of the supplicant, and that prayer in truth is a matter to be undertaken in the privacy of one’s room.

Uptight moral crusader and presidential candidate Rick Santorum recently vowed to dramatically cut the food stamps program, citing the nation’s high obesity rate as proof that the program is unnecessary. That is an unbelievably bizarre and inherently flawed correlation, and the inanity of that statement speaks for itself. The fact is that millions of children suffer from hunger in this country every day, and that many more daily fall below the defined poverty level.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions recently remarked that the food stamp program is out of control, and earlier this year John Boehner, a Catholic (Catholicism being a perversion of Christianity), and the Republican caucus proposed defunding WIC, the government program that provides nutrition for Women, Infants and Children, in their frenzy of spending cuts.

What Santorum, Sessions, Boehner and the rest of their colleagues fail to acknowledge, and to even care the slightest about, is that malnourishment in developing children causes brain damage; and since malnourishment is so destructive to the development of children, exactly how would taking cereal out of the mouths of babes while continuing to fund subsidies for oil companies be the Christian thing to do? Jesus would surely call it ‘offending the little ones.’

And Newt Gingrich wants to abolish child labor laws, and fire union janitors, many of whom have families to support, and to give those jobs to children; to rush them from infancy to adulthood, with nary a moment to enjoy the innocent years of their lives, while stigmatizing them before their classmates. Exactly how is alchemizing childhood innocence into profits for big business revering the Lord?

So, if Fox News had their way in how America's children are raised to God, they would grow up being greedy, half-starved, broom pushing hypocrites. While I've read the book thoroughly, I missed that passage in my Bible.

Another of the Bible’s teachings that Fox News Propaganda Outlet disregards utterly (aside from all of them) is the commandment forbidding bearing false witness against thy neighbor. Fox News Propaganda Outlet does this on a daily basis, whether slandering President Obama, their favorite target, or any other liberals in Congress and Governorships across the country. Fox contributor Karl Rove releases so many attack ads slandering Democratic candidates with outrageous exaggerations and outright lies, that a truly Christian organization would long ago have dismissed him from their employ. But Fox regularly places Rove on the air for his 'valued' opinions.

In his feud with Jon Stewart, Bill O’Reilly plainly stated that Stewart is going to hell. Jesus Christ spoke explicitly of hell, and the denizens thereof; who are the children of the devil. And just who are they?

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44

Fox News lives in an alternative reality, a gigantic, self-perpetuating lie, a fictional narrative of their own invention far removed from the world mankind lives in. They spew so many lies that politifact.com, the Pulitzer prize winning, non partisan fact checking organization can barely keep pace with them. Here’s a video of Jon Stewart from a few months back, running out of breath giving a rundown of some of Fox News lies.

Merry Christmas, Mr. O’Reilly, to you and your colleagues. If lies were Yule logs you have enough to keep the home fires burning for eternity.

A Bible Lesson For Racist 'Christians'

2011-12-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

The Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky has barred interracial couples from becoming members of their church, and from all church activities except for worship and funerals. In their own words, the church did it “to promote greater unity among the church body.” Odd, for that is the exact opposite of what their exclusion accomplishes; and if they truly wanted to “promote greater unity among the church body,” they would bridge divides by embracing interracial couples, knowing that whether red, brown, black or white, we are all brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. So, it is time once again to explain to racists who are interested in Christianity that God sees men not by the color of their skin, but by the purity of the heart within.

Christianity arose from Judaism, which was founded on the law of Moses, so let us consider Moses.

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. Exodus 33:11

This Moses, friend of God, was married to Zipporah, who was Ethiopian. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. Numbers 12:1.

God actually became quite irate with Miriam and Aaron, and struck Miriam with leprosy, and Moses beseeched God to heal her, and after seven days God heeded Moses.

So how does that work? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the sheer incredibility of it. Moses received the ten commandments, and all the law upon which Gulnare Free Will Baptist is founded, yet if he and his wife came there, they could not become members.

Let’s leave Moses there scratching his head as he faces the doors which he helped raise and would be unwelcome to enter, and move to Jesus, who fulfilled the law of Moses. Throughout the gospel and the New Testament Christ refers to himself as a bridegroom and the church as His bride and the union of the two as a marriage.

And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:9

From the details of the story I’m going to infer that Gulnare is a predominantly white church (if someone points out otherwise I’ll happily correct myself). Since the denizens of the wilderness and deserts of Israel are naturally burnished, so was Jesus dark-skinned while on earth; and as He gave the gospel to the whole world, the marriage is a multi-racial affair. So again, I’m struggling to wrap my mind around the impossibility of an exclusively white church banning dark people while thinking they prepare themselves for eternal marriage to one.

What would Jesus say? Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34

A Bible Lesson For Herman Cain

2011-10-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw this story about Herman Cain's 2010 short essay on Jesus called: The Perfect Conservative.

In it Herman writes: 'He led without a mandate. He taught without a script.'

Herman, those assertions are simply untrue. Of course Jesus had a mandate: He was on a mission from God to save the world. And His script was the scriptures, which foretold of His coming. If you were a true believer you would know that Jesus quoted and lived them; pre-existed and wrote them.

Herman also writes: 'He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He fed the hungry without food stamps.'

And by having done so Christ calls on you to do the same--especially you, who aspire to political leadership. If your faith was great, you too could do these things without money or government. But since your faith is clearly not sufficient to accomplish these deeds miraculously, exactly how do you as a 'Christian' president intend to provide food and health care for the poor? From what I've heard, you not only have no intention of helping the less fortunate, but further plan to curtail and destroy existing government programs that currently serve their needs.

Herman also writes: 'The liberal court found him guilty of false offenses and sentenced him to death all because he changed the hearts and minds of men with an army of twelve.'

The court that tried and sentenced Jesus to death was the Sanhedrin, a council of chief priests and elders, taken from the sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees, who strictly clung to their old order. Caiaphas was the high priest.

The Sanhedrin a liberal court? Let us first consider the dictionary definition of liberal: 'Not limited to or by established traditional, orthodox or authoritarian attitudes, views or dogmas; free from bigotry.'

That describes Jesus Christ; He was the liberal; and the Sandhedrin was the orthodox tradition that He supplanted.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were the keepers and judges of the law of Moses. They were very much the conservatives of ancient Israel. They were also hypocrites, and repeatedly denounced as such by Jesus. When Jesus taught not to put new wine into old wine skins, the new wine was the gospel, and the old wine skins were the Pharisees and Sadducees. That is why Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors to receive and spread His word. Regarding themselves the holy men of Israel, the Pharisees and Sadducees resented that He came not first to them, and feared His influence greatly. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation. John 11:48. Therefore they resolved to have him put to death--Caiaphas said it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. John 11:50. To that end they had made a deal with the devil, insomuch as they paid Judas (Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:70)) to betray him, and when He was brought before the court, where He openly professed to be Christ, they convicted him of blasphemy and condemned Him.

That is a conservative court sentencing an innocent liberal to death.

The perfect conservative? Nay, Jesus is the greatest liberal. You have everything upside down and backwards, Herman. You've twisted the truth to suit your own perverted understanding, and in so doing mock God while misleading anyone fool enough to listen to you. Is that what you preach in your church? You are as the scriptures describe, a false prophet, an inwardly ravening wolf. The scriptures also warn against you who misinterpret the Bible: in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destructions. 2 Peter 3:16.

Dissecting The Lies With The Sword of Truth

2011-10-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

This is a response to a comment in a conversation with a friend on facebook. It became lengthy, and I wanted to include a bunch of links, so I've posted it here. This is the facebook thread, and my response pretty much addresses issues in order as they appear in Daniel's remark which begins: "Ah, Jon Stewart, that bastion of political and social policy intellect."

And here begins my response...

Jon Stewart is far more articulate, informed, fair and balanced, and intelligent, than most if not all of the knee jerk reactionary fearmongers at the Fox ‘News’ right wing propaganda lie factory. That he happens to be poignantly hilarious with his delivery is bonus gravy. And Stewart was merely reading a list prepared for him by his research staff; that he was reading the untruths does not change their veracity (or lack thereof).

You prefer the intellectual lions Muska and Corsi…I understand. Corsi writes for the World Net Daily, a rag so rife with garbage the major fact checking groups won’t even waste their time with it. Corsi’s last book, Where’s The Birth Certificate? was debunked before publication when the truth came out (it had been known for years) that Obama is a natural born American and has been for fifty years now. 200,000 unsalable copies of Corsi's rubbish had to be shredded because it was crap and fabrication. Corsi is a liar, yet you cite him as though he speaks the truth. Nice respect for the commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Resorting to one of the conservatives favorite scapegoats, the pudgy, blue state gay man, are you? Barney Frank crashed the economy? That's absurd. The FHA bill was signed by Bush in August 2008, and became law October 1, 2008. It provided up to 300 billion dollars to restructure underwater mortgages. And that’s what crashed the economy? How does that account for the roughly TWO MILLION jobs lost during the first nine months of 2008? Job creators’ fears of the bill becoming law? And how do you tie the additional 2.3 million jobs lost in the final three months of 2008 to Frank? Please. The acceleration in job losses at the end of 2008 and into 2009 was due to the hysteria Bush induced in the business community with his September 2008 ‘sky is falling’ warnings necessary to justify Wall Street backing their truck up to the Treasury. Barney Frank had absolutely nothing to do with the economic crash. Wall Street and the banks absolutely did.

Just today I saw this gem. Conservatives are determined to pin the blame on Frank. If he is the culprit who brought down the economy, why do they have to lie about it? Wouldn't the truth testify unto itself?

Funny thing about conservatives, the 700 billion dollar handout, aka ENTITLEMENT, for Wall Street—no problem. Countless billions waging unjust invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians and thousands upon thousands of US and allied troops had their arms and legs blown off, or their entire bodies blown to bits, and conservatives say, oh well…oops. 120 billion dollars of US taxpayer money were spent to rebuild Iraq after we bombed it (and which monies handsomely lined the pockets of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and Blackwater)--that's money spent on schools, roads and bridges. That was deemed necessary expenditures, but suggest spending a few billion on the health and welfare of the Americans who PAY the taxes, and conservatives get up in arms and cry WASTE, WASTE! 700 billion to rescue the predatory lenders gets a pass, but 300 billion to help the middle American victims—you crashed the economy!!! The argument is patently absurd, and the assertion utterly false.

I’m sure God looking down is very pleased with America’s treatment of her own and the rest of the world.

And yes, Bush bears much of the blame for the current economic calamity. You can cut a tree down in five minutes, it takes years to grow it back. Bush and his fellow fiends had eight years to wreak their devastation, and that is a long time to inflict a lot of lasting damage. Vote for conservatives, that’s what you get.
You should look to the Gramm Bliley Leach Financial Modernization Act of 1999 for some of the true causes of our current economic ruin. That Republican bill, which was passed by a veto proof bipartisan vote (for the record, Barney Frank voted against it), and signed into law by Clinton because it was veto proof, undid the regulations of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933. Glass Steagall imposed regulations in the financial sector to prevent another Great Depression. Those regulations were undone in 1999, and what a surprise, look where it led….

Business owners will take every penny they can get. They aren’t hiring because of lack of demand because the money’s not fluid because the economy sucks because the banks and corporations are holding onto trillions and because the Republicans want to prevent any positive forward movement in the economy because they want it to be an election issue to wield against Obama next year because they care more about politics than the American people.

Obama’s anti business policies? Do you also blow the deregulation trumpet? Because deregulation of the financial sector had a large hand in crashing the economy, and deregulation of the oil industry led directly to the BP Gulf disaster. As someone who was DIRECTLY impacted by that disaster, I am particularly offended, as those deregulations HARMED my business. Why does BPs capitalist interest supersede mine, which required that the Gulf of Mexico be maintained in the pristine condition it was before BP mucked it up? And that nonsense you see on tv, sentimental music and a young couple in their restaurant telling us how BP is making it right—it’s bullshit. I can assure you, dealing with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility subjects one to the same incompetence that caused the oil spill in the first place. Yeah, we need more deregulation to stimulate—er, further destroy the economy, and the earth, God's wondrous creation.

I don’t know enough about Solyndra to pass judgment yet. Enron was far more massive and insidious. The Roger Pelosi story is a non story. He joined PCG this past spring, three years after the loans were secured. The Drudge Report tried to gin up a scandal and pulled the story. As far as I understand it, Holder isn’t accused of lying about what he knows about Fast and Furious, but when he knew it. And I’ve also read that Fast and Furious was started by the Bush administration. The Bush administration should have been, and still should be, tried for crimes against humanity. What they did was so foul, so dark and so evil, and had the truth been dredged up and aired out we would have had a parade of Republican criminals across the national stage that would have resembled the Nuremberg Trials. These people are not Christian, as many of them call themselves, but sons and daughters of Satan. And many of these people are now on Romney’s list of who will be his foreign policy advisors. They should be in prison, and you want to vote them back into power? Solyndra? Oh the horror! Blackwater employees gang raping US servicewomen while sucking billions out of the US economy through the industrial military complex? Well, if we don’t talk about it we can pretend it never happened. Even now the Republicans have appointed the former car thief Darrel Issa to chair the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. What a freaking joke. What a mockery of God and America.

And yes, Dan, you are my friend, but I am going to call you out here on blatant hypocrisy. You endorse and vote for the politicians who make ridiculous and stringent drug laws which create violent drug trade south of the border and elsewhere. Then you leave the voting booth and add to the demand, thereby fueling the violence. (I too have added to the demand over the years, but you don't see me voting Republican and railing against illegals.) Take a hypothetical God fearing, Christian Mexican family (I know one in Florida) who leaves the crossfire to seek a safer and better life north. You have no problem with the illegal drugs crossing the border, but the illegal HUMAN BEINGS (who you call illegal, but God does not)? Oh no, stop them in their tracks. I’m just curious how you can look the Lord square in the eye and justify all that.

And while I’ve probably got your dander up with that, let me just out and ask you this: do you harbor racism in the dark recesses of your heart of hearts? I’m not accusing, just asking. Whenever someone speaks out so viscerally against Obama and aliens, the majority of the time that’s the reason why, and my immediate thought. I wouldn’t think so from having known you for so long, but neither would I have thought you’d espouse some of the positions you have, positions which are politically aligned with the millions of racist Americans.

Look at what the Republican house proposed last week. A Christian undertaking, like feeding the countless impoverished American children who go to bed hungry every night? Or something to address unemployment, like they campaigned on in 2010 and have done absolutely nothing to address since convening in January? Nope, another idiotic, draconian drug law.

Speaking of the hungry children in America, one of the Republicans’ targets in their slashing spending was the WIC program, which provides nutrition for impoverished women, infants and children. It is a noble and very necessary social program, and the Republicans want to CUT it. That’s very Christian. Have you ever seen the effects of malnourishment on children? I have, firsthand. My cousins’ lives were pretty much ruined by it. It is fathomlessly despicable for people to call themselves pro-life and continue to let children suffer. They take cereal from the mouths of babes and use the money to make bombs to drop on other babes overseas...very Christian, very Godly.

As to the antichrist Reagan, you tell me what I’m talking about, but again you are WRONG. I don’t call Reagan an antichrist because of some silly gematria. 666 is the number of the beast as described in Revelation 13. I am talking about the antichrists as described in the first epistle of John. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. 1 John 1:22-23.

Now, as Reagan was traipsing around America in the fall of 1980 shouting about our precious freedom and liberty, he was brokering a deal with Iran to keep the America hostages in captivity until after the election, in exchange for armaments. He arranged to deprive Americans of their freedom while peppering his campaign rhetoric with the words ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom.’ That is utterly despicable hypocrisy. Reagan claimed to be a Christian, but Jesus Christ, aka the Prince of Peace, said: If you love me, keep my commandments. Reagan did not. He armed both combatants in the Iran Iraq war, and then went on to supply weapons to the contras in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Roughly 135,000 people were killed in Reagan’s covert war in Central America, many of whom were innocent Christians caught in the crossfire. Look it up. Can you kill Christians in the name of Christ? No you cannot, that is a house divided. So while Reagan acknowledged Jesus Christ, his actions put the Lord’s commandments in mocking disregard, and therefore he was an antichrist, one of many.

Thirty percent of inmates are illegal immigrants? Not quite. That's another myth in the right wing narrative. But did you see Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona, who imposed those crazy profiling laws against Hispanics last year? She has direct ties to the prison industry, and the more beds they fill the more taxpayer dollars they can squeeze from the federal government’s teat. Nice, upstanding Americans, that hag and her cronies.

Afraid of the terrorist sneaking over the border? You should be far more fearful of the many domestic terrorists which the tea party and fox news encourage with their hateful rhetoric and unfounded fears they foment. From your stances, I suspect you sympathize with the tea party. If so, perhaps you should consider just how much and in how many specific regards they resemble the Nazi party. Check out my article, which is an objective juxtaposition of parallel histories: The Nazi Tea Party.

Beating the smaller government drum, are you? Another right wing talking point that is nought but empty rhetoric. The unholy governor of Florida Rick Scott made his fortune defrauding the federal government of billions—that’s right, BILLIONS. He’s a criminal who should be in a jail cell, not the governor’s mansion. He paid a 1.7 billion fine but managed to save enough money to sway the election with a dirty campaign and to take office and subvert the constitution and run the state like a dictator. He’s imposed mandatory drug testing for welfare applicants, a drug test conveniently administered by his company—whereby he siphons more tax dollars into his private pocket—and which has already proven to cost the state more than it’s saving. Rick Perry (that pro-lifer who knowingly had an innocent man put to death) created a government agency for a contractor named Bob Perry, who donated 2.5 million to Perry’s campaign. The agency is called the Texas Residential Construction Commission. Bob Perry overseas it (sucking a paycheck out of the state which gives him more cash to donate to Rick Perry), and its purpose is to restrict lawsuits against builders over defective homes. Nice people. Just two small examples of many ugly truths about Republican rule. Factor in the fact that the size of the federal government bloated by ten percent under George Bush, and you’ve got yourself another right wing lie.

There are many liberal Christians, and all true Christians are liberal. It is the mouth of the Devil that demonizes liberality, because the devil, being evil, hates that which is good. Definition of LIBERAL: adj. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox or authoritarian attitudes, views or dogmas; generous, giving; free from bigotry. Hmm…sounds like Jesus to me. And after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension, the apostles and disciples carried on living as Christ had instructed them: And all that believe were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Acts 2: 44-45. Sounds like a socialist collective to me. So how can you despise liberals and socialism, then tell God you wish to be admitted to such a kingdom?

The Christian right, by and large, act like fools. Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Deuteronomy 8:3. Numerous polls show that the vast majority of ‘Christians’ do not and have not read the Bible. Have you ever heard someone try to discuss a book they haven’t read, or a film they haven’t seen? Such are they. Prayer in school and prayer in the military are utterly ridiculous issues. First of all, the problem arises with the precious Constitution, which clearly states the separation between church and state. (The same document also once stated that African Americans were sixty percent human.) And notwithstanding that, Jesus Christ was VERY specific in His instructions regarding prayer, and stated very clearly that it was not to be a public display, and that those who pray so are hypocrites calling attentions to their own piety. Why then would you train your children to pray in public by insisting on prayer in school? It contradicts scripture. We are instructed by the Lord to go into our room and be alone with God. And anyone can pray anywhere, and no one can stop you, so what’s the hullabaloo? It’s manufactured hysteria over nothing designed to call attention to the holiness of those who shout it out. And that ‘simply call on Christ and give yourself to Him and your salvation is guaranteed and no one can take it away from you,’ that many conservative evangelicals like to preach? Crap. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23. Many on the right who call themselves Christian think it’s perfectly okay to spend tax dollars blowing up Muslims on the far side of the earth and don’t give a fig if their poor neighbors at home suffer and die for lack of basic necessities of food, shelter and health care. The religious conservatives were alive in Jesus' time, and he described them and their reward in great detail in Matthew 23.

The United States of America is one gigantic Sodom and Gomorrah. The land was seized by violent genocide and built by slaves. Those early capitalists worked their tails off subjugating negroes with whips and rifles while penning the glorious words "All men are created equal...." I’m sure that was very pleasing to the Lord. While capitalism is a necessary evil, make no mistake that it is evil, insomuch as the love of money is the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10. Capitalism is covetousness glorified. ("Hey, you red savages, we covet your land.") Jesus also warned against it: Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15. It is also written: Covetousness is idolatry. Colossians 3:5. What is the most prominent idol in Scripture, symbol of the abominations of man which the Lord hates? The golden calf. And look there on Wall Street—it’s a golden calf, arrogantly placed there as the true object of America’s veneration and worship--money. You cannot serve two masters, God and mammon, and Republicans, by their philosophy and actions have chosen the latter. This is not lost on the LORD. And when I compare America to Sodom and Gomorrah, I refer not to sexual deviancy, as the Christian right so loves to do, I refer instead to Ezekiel 16:49: Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.

Those liberals you hate, here is a partial list of what they have done for America over the years: Civil Rights, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Women’s Right to Vote, workplace safety laws, labor laws, child labor laws, eight hour workday, overtime and federal minimum wage law, the space program, the peace corps, public education, student loans, pell grants, national weather service, national science foundation, family and medical leave act, bank deposit insurance, Americans with disabilities act, food safety regulations, clean water and clean air acts, environmental laws, product labeling and truth in advertising laws, the GI bill of rights…and the list goes on. And most of these laws were passed in spite of varying degrees of vehement opposition of conservatives. Now when I ask a conservative to list their side’s achievements I am always met with the chirping of crickets. Care to break the silence? I’ll give you a bit of a lead in as to what they do accomplish—ravaged economy, the unjust sacrifice of American soldiers shedding innocent blood in countries afar, oil spills and public water supplies contaminated through fracking....

So you want to replace Obama with one of the Republicans next year? As of now the likely nominee appears to be Romney. So as a Christian who would you vote for? Obama is an avowed Christian who has spoken eloquently about Jesus Christ on several occasions--(go to the 45 second mark here)--and whose actions have been far more in line with Christian philosophy than any of the Republican presidents in our lifetime. Romney is not a Christian, he’s a Mormon. While its doctrine mentions Christ, and claims to be of Christ, it is not: it is a bunch of ridiculous fiction that was written by an eighteenth century money grubbing, power tripping, philandering graverobber named Joseph Smith, whom they revere as their Great Prophet. The deep secrets of the Mormon temples are all about the mighty dollar. But Romney will be perfect for Fox News and the right, for if he's willing to believe a lie regarding the salvation of his very soul, he’ll certainly be a willing mouthpiece for all the propaganda they’ll want him to feed us. Given the choice between Obama and Romney, tell me how a Christian would vote?

But hey, throw your support behind the Republicans, and give us four or eight or twelve more years of the same rats who ran the country into the ground under Bush. Put the same warmongering freaks in charge of foreign policy, and Rove back in the White House as an advisor, and we’ll send some more of our children to die needlessly slaughtering Iranians. The Republicans will thank you for your support by crapping on your head, peeing in your face and kicking you in balls. That Social Security they love to talk about? It’s not because it needs reform—it’s solvent for decades--it’s because it’s a massive federal cash reserve that they dearly want to lay their grubby hands on, and if they have their way, that and Medicare won’t be there for you when you come upon that age. You won’t have that guaranteed income and health care that you paid for all your life, but safely wrapped in it, your flag will protect from the liberal and terrorist bogeymen who are coming at you from every direction.

Are you familiar with the Great Commandment, Dan? Then one of them, which was a lawyer, sked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:35-40.

So do tell how inflicting Republican rule upon America and the world honors God and your neighbors? They are compassionless mammon worshipers who bear much more resemblance to the Pharisees, who became the enemies of Jesus and put Him to death, and about whom it is written: But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. Luke 19:27

Rick Perry's Biblical Worldview

2011-09-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. Luke 7:24.

For a man who claims to be of Jesus Christ, Rick Perry enjoys the millionaire lifestyle. According to this article in Politico, Perry loves to live lavishly. Wealthy campaign donors have jet Perry and his family around the world, to luxury hotels and vacation resorts, to concerts and sporting events, while gifting him 22 pairs of cowboy boots, Stetson hats, belt buckles and cuff links.

And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. Exodus 23:8

One of his donors is a man named Bob Perry, a Texas homebuilder who gave 2.5 million dollars to Governor Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns. What did he get in return? Perry created a government agency for him, The Texas Residential Construction Commission, which exists to restrict lawsuits against builders over defective homes. That’s defective government, and crony capitalist diversion of taxpayer money to the governor’s coffers. And Bob Perry is only one of many cronies. Way to go with the smaller government, Rick! Way to protect the perp while screwing the victim! It’s nice to see that you love the residents of your state the way you want Jesus to love you.

A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Proverbs 17:4

During last week’s debate Perry was busted telling a blatant lie. In explaining the executive order he issued mandating the HPV vaccine for young girls, he said: “I got lobbied on this issue. I got lobbied by a 31 year old young lady who had stage four cervical cancer. I spent a lot of time with her. She came by my office. She talked to me about this program.”

The woman’s name was Heather Burcham, and Perry lied. They didn’t meet until after he’d issued the executive order. Way to let the truth set you free, Rick!

Much has been written about Cameron Todd Willingham, the innocent man Perry allowed to be executed for arson and murder in 2004. Time Magazine recently published this excellent account of the story and subsequent coverup. If Perry were truly a merciful Christian, Willingham would be alive today. Perry’s supposed LORD Jesus was the most famous innocent ever executed, so one would suppose that Perry, when considering death penalty cases, would develop a sort of vicarious empathy for potential victims of the same fate. Pontius Pilate was the infamous governor of Judaea who sent Christ to his death. Beforehand Pilate's wife came to him and said: ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.’ Just before Willingham’s execution, renowned arson analyst Gerald Hurst came forward and informed Governor Perry of his conclusion that the fire was not arson, and that Willingham therefore was innocent. If Perry held a truly biblical worldview, he would have regarded the innocence of Christ and not the ignorance of Pilate--in wilfully ignoring those who came to him with the truth--when sending Willingham’s soul to appeal to God for justice.

Ironically, Perry does hold to a biblical worldview on one issue that has him at odds and on the outs with many in his party. Perry is sympathetic to the plight of foreigners, particularly Mexicans, in Texas (which was once part of Mexico).

Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Exodus 23:9

Some Republicans are livid with him for giving in state tuition rates to those who were brought into Texas as children and reared there. If America is all they know, then this is their home and nation too—certainly in God’s eyes—and Perry does right to afford them rights and respect. And yet his stance on undocumented immigrants has many of his fellow conservative 'Christians' worked into a foaming, crazed, hypocritical rage.

Still, Perry remains phony in his faith. Last week, before the debate, Perry gave a speech in Orlando, in which he said: "As a governor who has made a great deal of decisions of consequences over the years, I couldn't have done so without being driven to my knees on many occasions. As I campaign for president (his voice cracks there), I not only ask you for your vote and for your support, I ask you for your prayers. I ask you to pray for our country, I ask you to pray for our president, to give him wisdom, to open his eyes."

To open his eyes? To what? To Perry's interpretation of the scriptures that justifies being a false prophet who leads unprofitable public prayers, and a shedder of innocent blood, a liar and bribe receiver? Being such, it is clearly Perry's blind eyes that need prayers for opening, for it is about such as Perry that Jesus spoke when he said:

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Matthew 13:14-15

The Christian Executioner

2011-09-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

“You gotta be for life. I mean, how do you get up every morning and look yourself in the mirror and not be for life?” Rick Perry, Feb 3, 2010, speaking as a guest on the TBN program Praise The Lord.

If I could, I would use Perry’s words against him, and ask him: “How do you get up every morning and look yourself in the mirror?”

Perry was speaking about abortion, but life is life--there aren’t degrees thereof. As Rick Perry continues to flaunt his faith while flouting the Word upon which that faith is based, I am going to wield that Word against him. I have already provided biblical proof that he is a hypocrite and a false prophet; now his hands may well be awash with innocent blood.

If Perry were Christian, as he constantly claims, he would pray the scriptures into his heart and rely on them for governing.

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. 2 Samuel 23:3.

But Rick Perry is fearlessly unjust. Particularly gruesome is the alacrity with which he imposes capital punishment, and there exists the distinct likelihood that he’s put at least one innocent man to death.

Cameron Todd Willingham was involved in a horrific fire in his home in Corsicana, Texas on December 23, 1991. The blaze killed his three daughters, twins aged one and a two year old. Police and investigators became convinced Willingham had deliberately set the fire and he was eventually convicted of murder. The story is riveting, and I highly recommend reading about the details and the evidence in the excellent article Trial By Fire, by David Grann, which first appeared in The New Yorker, September 7, 2009.

Much like the advances in dna science and crime scene investigation, technology and understanding of arson forensics really took off in the 1990’s, and in the ensuing years quickly disproved and outdated many of the accepted arson investigation techniques and conclusions that were pivotal in convicting Willingham. That coupled with less than credible witnesses and the testimony of ‘experts’ who really were not, placed in this reader's mind anyway, very distinct reasonable doubt.

As I imagined myself in Perry’s shoes considering clemency for Willingham, and turning to Christ for guidance, this scripture came to mind: If ye had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ ye would not have condemned the innocent. Matthew 12:7

With a chill in my spine, I would have turned Willingham over to God, and let him live. With a chill in his heart, Perry turned himself into a god, and put Willingham to death.

There are countless stories of innocent victims executed throughout history. Since 1976 more than 130 people on death row have been exonerated. Inmates being freed after serving many years of long sentences--having had their convictions overturned by dna testing--are now an almost weekly event in this country. In 2000, after thirteen death row exonerations, then governor of Illinois, George Ryan, wisely suspended the death penalty. There are thousands of examples of innocent people who've been wrongly convicted of various crimes, and a Christian ruler would have taken this fact into consideration when weighing the Willingham case.

Another consideration is fiscal. According to the Trial By Fire article, ‘because of the expense of litigation and the appeals process, it costs, on average, $2.3 million to execute a prisoner in Texas—about three times the cost of incarcerating someone for forty years.’ As Perry gouges his state’s budget, by my calculations he has spent over half a billion dollars putting 235 inmates to death over his decade as governor. Do you think God is really pleased that poor children are going hungry and being deprived of education while this ‘pro-life’ hypocrite spends hundreds of millions usurping God's authority by executing men and women, some of whom might well have been innocent--allegedly?

Notwithstanding all these mitigating factors, Perry still chose to have the needleful of poison plunged into Willingham on February 17, 2004. A spokesman for Perry said: “The governor made his decision based on the facts of the case.” Yet that's not where Perry's complicity in this seemingly unjust death ends. It seems there was a coverup.

Just weeks before Willingham’s execution, highly respected scientist and fire investigator Gerald Hurst began to scrutinize the case. He quickly came to realize the conviction was rife with flaws. According to the Trial By Fire article, ‘A Texas prosecutor once told the Chicago Tribune, of Hurst, “If he says it was an arson fire, then it was. If he says it wasn’t, then it wasn’t.”’ Hurst said the Willingham fire wasn’t arson. After reading Hurst’s report on the case, Attorney Barry Scheck said: “The only reasonable conclusion is that the governor’s office and the Board of Pardons and Paroles ignored scientific evidence.”

In 2005 the state of Texas established a commission--Texas Forensic Science Commission--to investigate allegations of misconduct in the fields of forensics. With regard to the Willingham case, they reached out to fire scientist Craig Bayler and asked him to look into it and file an independent report. He came to the same conclusion as Gerald Hurst--that the Willingham fire was not a result of arson. Bayler was scheduled to present his findings to the commission on October 2, 2009. Two days before that, Governor Perry abruptly removed three members of the panel looking into the Willingham fire. Perry then appointed a longtime political ally, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley to replace Sam Bassett as the head of the nine member Texas Forensic Science Commission. Bradley immediately employed a number of underhanded bureaucratic maneuvers to effectively scuttle the investigation by turning it into a political circus. Perry has acted more like someone with something to hide than a Christian yearning to uncover the truth, however ugly. To read more about Perry's role in squashing the commission's efforts, here is an excellent article. There is also a documentary about the Willingham case called: Incendiary: The Willingham Case.

Willingham maintained his innocence to his death. His final words were: “I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.”

Every Christian actually familiar with the word of God knows that it is written in scripture: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD. Romans 12:19

Had Perry heeded that scripture, and erred on the side of life, and Willingham were guilty, he would have gotten what he deserved. But if Willingham was innocent, then Perry is guilty, and Willingham’s cries for vengeance will be acknowledged, and Perry will answer.

P.S. Governor Perry, Since the supreme court overruled the death order you signed for Cleve Foster, and he isn't being added to the reaper's harvest tonight, maybe Georgia Governor Nathan Deal could have you over tomorrow for the Troy Davis execution. There's a strong possibility Davis is innocent too.

Rick Perry: For Profit Non Prophet

2011-09-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Just before announcing his presidential candidacy, when asked about his popularity being greater around the country than in his home state, Rick Perry responded: “A prophet is generally not loved in their hometown. That’s both biblical and practical.” I imagine that Perry, in his own mind at least, while preparing to take to the national stage, was also comparing himself to Christ when Christ left Galilee to preach to the whole nation of Israel.

Back in April Rick famously called on the public to join him in a prayer for rain to help combat the Texas wildfires. Now, when a true prophet of God prays for rain, God hears and heeds the call. Consider Samuel: So Samuel called unto the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day. 1 Samuel 12:18

There was no answer to Perry’s prayer, only more widespread fire.

Then on August 6, Perry and some of his ‘religious’ friends got together in Houston in ‘a call to prayer for a nation in crisis.’ It was called The Response, and was an event loaded with irony and hypocrisy. Eleven years ago many of these same men and women were on their knees fervently praying in the name of Christ for the election of the ‘Christian’ George Bush. Their prayers then were ‘answered,’ and along with a ‘Christian’ Bush/Cheney administration, they got unjust wars, oil spills, a ravaged economy and high unemployment. Now they’re unhappy with the result of their prayer ‘answered’ a decade ago, and want something else? God must be saying: “What exactly do you want from Me?”

The Response was also sacrilegious, in its shameless disregard of scripture. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Matthew 6:5

(Incidentally, that very same day, there was a large gathering of some Christians in Houston, a gathering which Perry helped necessitate.)

The sponsor of The Response was the American Family Association. Among the AFA’s stated objectives is deregulation of the oil industry. What a strange goal for a Christian organization--unless it is not really a Christian organization, but a political/business interest that calls itself Christian for the sake of image and influence and public relations, much like the putting of lipstick on a pig. Even Hitler attempted to co-opt the Church in his persecution of the Jews.

I’d also be very curious as to how Perry would interpret this scripture. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Revelation 11:18

To destroy them which destroy the earth…if not the corporations that rip holes in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, and poison its pristine waters while setting them on fire, then who? And how do you stand in line for a prophet’s reward while standing with the men and women whose promise is destruction? It is impossible that one receive both.

The answer is the truth, which is that Perry is a false prophet, and a self-proclaimed one at that. They have their reward.

For were he truly a prophet, would Perry really implement massive cuts in the education budget of a state which already hovers near last in the country in education, and do so to preserve and protect subsidies and tax breaks for the aforementioned oil companies, who already report absurdly huge profits? For the scriptures also say: But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. Mark 7:27

Perry also cut the budget for volunteer firefighters by 75 percent, from 30 million to 7 million. While not accountable for all the fires spreading undeterred, the firefighters certainly would have prevented some of them, which thus far have destroyed five billion dollars in agriculture alone, while consuming five hundred homes and two human lives.

Pay close attention to the fires, Governor, for I daresay you shall taste of them again, and soon enough.

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matthew 13:29-30

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Pat, Michele, And The Acts of God

2011-08-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Pat Robertson publicly commented on last week's earthquake, and the crack it left in the Washington monument, calling it an act of God. A renowned homophobe, Robertson often ascribes America’s ills to its tolerance of homosexuality. Last year he blamed the monster Haiti earthquake on some voodoo deal they made with Satan centuries ago.

I agree, that the crack in the Washington monument was not lost on God, and was no coincidence. It is a humungous phallus that America arrogantly thrusts into the heavens. America has incurred God’s hot displeasure for all the innocent blood she sheds in unjust wars, and the oil she spills in raping the earth, and the masses she oppresses, and for her haughtiness, and for her millions who call themselves Christians, and think they live and act in the name of Christ, but lie and do not.

Michelle Bachman said that the earthquake and hurricane were a message from God, and that message was that the government must continue to cut spending. The Bachmann campaign later tried to explain her remarks by saying that she was joking, but no decent human being would even consider making light of such tragic events. Besides, Jesus said: O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Matthew 12:34.

So either Bachmann is lying, or Jesus lied—it can’t be both.

Both Robertson and Bachmann missed the golden opportunity to speak about the second half of God’s one two punch of the earthquake and Irene; for after the earthquake broke the Washington monument, the hurricane made a direct line for the unholy capital of capitalism, the golden calf of Wall Street.

And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron had made. Exodus 32:35

The golden calf on Wall Street adorns and guards the command center of mammon acquisition, where men and women dedicate themselves not to God, but to their passionate love of money, and their voracious avarice. Capitalism is covetousness glorified, and covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5), and the golden bull is the idol they worship that sits among their temples.

Surely it is because Pat and Michele worship that golden calf that they don't want to acknowledge it as a potential source of God's wrath. They cannot use the Bible to condemn themselves. If elected president, Michele has vowed to protect the interests of wealthy Americans while continuing her assault on the poor. Pat made the same promises when he ran for president in 1988. He did run as a Republican.

In the Bible God famously vented his wrath with the violent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. Genesis 13:12. And while outspoken homophobes like Robertson and Bachmann like to say it was sexual immorality that incited the LORD to that anger, it was in truth sins which Robertson and Bachmann commit by supporting the Republican agenda. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I saw good. Ezekiel 16:49.

The people of America differ from the people of Sodom and Gomorrah—not at all. The very spending cuts Bachmann says God is sending a message about are what provokes His wrath. And for Michele Bachmann to dare declare that He is demanding further enriching of the wealthy at the expense of the poor is the towering height of audacity, and an utter mockery of Christ.

The stone-hearted right wing ‘Christians,’ the Pats and Micheles, don’t want to know the whole truth of the LORD; they selectively choose the scriptures that suit their self-righteous egos. Homosexuality? A horrifying sin. Ministering to the poor? Where does the Bible say that?

And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark 7:9.

The hurricane is coming, Pat and Michele, the hurricane with raging winds of fire and swirling rain of brimstone; and the earthquake which will open the abyss below you.

Hunger And Righteousness

2011-08-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. Matthew 15:7-8

In a comment on my parable, The King’s Inheritance, Jason said: “I think it is narrow-minded to say that the only way to help the poor is through government welfare.”

I nowhere say “the only way.” Jason put words in my mouth to suit how he wanted to respond. That is sloppy and unfair rhetoric, and another example of distortion of truth that is the conservative way with words. In another message Jason described my parable post as 'deeply disturbing.' I responded that I am rooted in Christ, and if he finds my writing disturbing, then he is rooted in something else. And Jason’s objection to government caring for our poor makes that most powerful prophecy of Isaiah apply to him.

One of the many social programs Republicans are taking aim at slashing is WIC, which provides nutrition for needy women, infants and children. It is a much needed, very popular and excellent program that Republicans have proposed cutting by ten percent. This galls me personally.

When I was thirteen or so my mother learned that her sister was living in poverty a few hundred miles away. She was the single mother of five children by two different men. The children were aged roughly three to ten. They had nothing, and were truly living in half-starved squalor. My mother and another aunt brought them to our town.

My younger cousins had clearly been suffering malnourishment for years. They were accustomed to being dirty, slow, and didn’t speak very well. They had been sleeping in close quarters together all their lives, and were sexually active with each other. They wanted desperately to be healthy--physically, mentally and emotionally--but had been damaged, and subsequently suffered.

Not long after relocating to our town, the oldest boy coerced/forced/raped a down syndrome girl on the next street from his house.

My cousins grew up living lives of endless struggle. They all had trouble surviving, and trying to function in society. The two girls had several children with several different men. The oldest girl died from drugs around 32, and leaving behind, I believe, four or five children.

The constitution calls on government ‘to promote the general Welfare.’ If not feeding our most vulnerable children, that they are able to become contributing, healthy members of a peaceful society, then what? It is righteous to vote for Republicans who take food from children to maintain oil subsidies and the industrial military cash vortex, how? If not for the sake of the children themselves, Republicans should at least feed them for the welfare of their wealthy constituents,to prevent one of the money lovers they represent from having his daughter raped by a crazed hungry boy.

You ‘Christians’ are liars. You do not live in Christ, nor He within you. You are explicitly instructed to above all love God, and thy neighbor as thyself. And you know that anything you deny your neighbor here will be denied you hereafter, and that what you give your neighbor you will get; so why would you make life hell for so many of your neighbors here on earth, and think that so doing is your righteous assurance of heaven? No true Christian would. If your heart is not right with Christ then you are wrong for the kingdom, no matter what your mouth might say.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out many devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-22.

The King's Inheritance -- A Parable

2011-08-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

A friend has lately been asking my opinion of the conservative Christian belief that government has no obligation to help the poor, and actually should not. These hypocrites will tell you that a government which tries to do good to its people is evil. But that the many evils of our nation are what makes her great.

I disagree a vehement one hundred percent.

These persons merely try to justify being Christian while supporting Republicans. I find the two irreconcilable.

Anyway, it inspired a parable. Maybe I'll use it in one of my books someday.

There was a king who had reached the end of his life. He had three sons and was prepared to pass on the crown. His favorite son was the youngest, but being so, he could not inherit the throne before his older brothers, who were twins.

The king took his youngest son aside one afternoon and said: "Since you can't inherit the throne, I'll let you decide which of your brothers does."

The one brother esteemed all people equally, and was kindly disposed toward everyone. He embraced his neighbor as himself, and sought to do good for all.

The other brother delighted in being a prince, and believed the kingdom existed only to serve him. He hated the poor, and treated them with contemptuous spit. Furthermore, when he went among the people, if he saw someone offer food to one who was hungry, he'd knock it out of their hands and grind it in the ground. If someone tried to build a homeless man a house, he'd burn it to down, and if someone were injured or ill he thought nothing of letting them suffer and die.

If the younger brother truly dwelled in Christ, which older brother would he choose to rule the kingdom?

February 5, 1981

2011-07-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've been cleaning out a large attic which spans the four first floor rooms of the house, and is overflowing with stuff dating back to the 1930s. Amongst the mostly lovely junk I found a copy of The Patriot Ledger, a Massachusetts newspaper, from February 5, 1981, just two weeks after Reagan's inauguration. I read through and found five articles that seemed relevant with regard to America 2011, so I'm posting nutshells of the stories here with minimal commentary, though I do have to include a special appeal to John Boehner with regard to the story about Reagan and the debt ceiling.

Story number one, the headline: 5 Schools closed; 226 teachers cut. Total of 400 face layoffs; some city parents in tears. By Dennis Tatz. QUINCY--With some members of the audience struggling to hold back tears, the school committee last night faced its 'moment of truth' and voted to close the Adams, Beechwood Knoll, Gridley Bryant, Cranch and Quincy elementary schools. The closings...will mean the transfer of 900 students under a redistricting plan. The unanimous vote is expected to save the school department $7.2 million.

Story number two, also page one (where Reagan reveals that his real bed is in corporate America's back pocket): Gas price controls ending? WASHINGTON (UPI)-- President Reagan plans to ask Congress to scrap federal controls on the well-head price of natural gas as of Sept. 30--an action that could more than double the prices consumers pay, it was reported today.

Story number three, page three: Tables are turned on debt limit hike. WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The Reagan Administration's first legislative request--to increase the national debt limit--may languish in a political minefield, if Senate Democrats are to have their way...the Republican president is asking for a nearly $50 billion increase in the debt ceiling to $985 billion...Treasury Secretary Donald Regan (before which he was Merrill Lynch's chairman and CEO) said if Congress does not approve the increase, the federal government could run out of money by Feb. 17, forcing it to default on its obligations.

Weepy Man John Boehner, the tobacco industry darling whose favorite shade of suntan paint is demon burnt sienna, reveres Reagan as his hero. Perhaps he should harken to the past and heed his hero's dire warning and advice as they apply today. The debt ceiling was raised 17 times during Reagan's presidency, more than tripling the national debt.

Story number four, also page three: Reagan to address the economy. By Hedrick Smith, NY Times News Service. WASHINGTON -- With the initial wave of executive orders completed and the American hostages home, President Reagan is turning to his biggest challenge--mending the American economy. The president's televised address in the nation at 9 tonight will be his first major test in the White House as a public persuader in behalf of his economic recovery program. It takes on added importance as an appeal...to go along with a preliminary Reagan proposal to raise the national debt limit.

Administration officials contend that the new president's sweeping victory gave him a mandate for conservative reform. But both the comments of politicians and recent public opinion polls underscore the challenge Reagan faces in winning enactment for his cut in personal taxes and major cuts in federal spending....

And finally, the news would be incomplete without a lurid sex scandal. Story number five, page thirteen: Miss. congressman faces sex charges. WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Rep. Jon Hinson, R-Miss., who last fall overcame obscenity allegations in winning a second term, has been charged with a homosexual offense that could end his political life. Hinson, 38, was arrested yesterday and charged with having oral sex with Library of Congress employee Harold Moore, 28, in a men's room in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

His arrest came just five months after another congressman, Maryland Republican Robert Bauman, was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

And that's the way it was, February 5, 1981.

Sound familiar?

Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

2011-07-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans – Part 7

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Luke 11:44

Eric Cantor is suffused utterly by the spirit of Satan. Hypocrisy personified, his every intention and every action are motivated by pure evil lusts for money and power. He is a heartless, soulless, Godless corpse that hasn’t stopped breathing yet.

In his latest clash with Obama earlier this week, Cantor brazenly said that the exchange for the Democrats' concessions on spending cuts was the Republicans even discussing voting for a debt ceiling increase. “What I don’t think the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they’re going to vote to pay for a debt ceiling increase,” he said.

But Cantor led the Republican charge to raise the debt ceiling under Bush, five times, in 02, 03, 04, 06, 07.

And to call themselves fiscal conservatives is a joke. Reckless and corrupt Republican financial policy created this destroyed economy, and which Cantor helped legislate during his first six years in Congress. I highly recommend reading Ten Inconvenient Truths About The Debt Ceiling.

So here’s a rundown of some of Eric’s greatest hits.

Cantor’s response to the tornado that destroyed Joplin, Missouri was memorably deplorable. The monster tornado touched down on Sunday afternoon of May 22 at 5:41. While actual human beings were mobilizing aid to the area, Cantor was scheming how to manipulate the situation to political advantage. On Monday he said that if Congress passed an emergency bill for Joplin the money would have to be funded by spending cuts. His remarks were made while many were yet unaccounted and the death toll had yet to reach its height. People who had been buried in their shattered homes were dying while he was devising and delivering his rhetoric. That is stone cold evil.

From this article in salon.com: ‘Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1000 and $15000 invested in ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT. The fund aggressively “shorts” long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable. (A short is when the trader hopes to profit from the decline in the value of an asset.)'

If the economy tanks, Cantor pockets a windfall. The investment is all the more appalling when you consider that the Cantors lives quite comfortably. In 2009, Eric's wife, Diana Cantor, was running a branch of the wealth management division of Emigrant Bank, the recipient of 267 million dollars of the federal bank bailout. Meanwhile, the congressman played a key role in the 700 billion dollar bill getting passed.

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. James 5:1.

At a town hall meeting on September 24, 2009, Cantor said about health care: “Health care, in this building, has now made it so that we cannot seem to get anything else done. We’ve got burning issues out there in this country. First and foremost is the fact that Americans want to see job security return, they want to see economic security return. But somehow we’re unable to deliver on that because of the intransigence on the majority’s part on even discussing ways for us to agree on health care.”

In 2011 the burning issues for Republicans are spending cuts and providing the wealthy with continued tax relief. And in discussing the debt ceiling, Republicans are the intransigent ones, refusing to even consider raising taxes so much as one penny.

Beware ye the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Luke 12:1

At that same town hall meeting a woman asked Cantor what her very close relative with tumors in her stomach that needed immediate treatment and had no insurance was supposed to do for health care. Eric responded: “I guess I would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility and the existing programs that are out there. Because if we look at the uninsured right now, there is probably 23 or 24 percent of the uninsured that is already eligible for an existing government program. Beyond that, I know that there are programs, that there are charitable organizations, there are hospitals here who do provide charity care.”

And now, less than two years later, he is working with furious passion to eliminate those programs and more.

Cantor once said: “The use of obscenity…should not and cannot be tolerated. As a parent, I share the concerns of many regarding the level of offensive television and radio programs that are transmitted into our homes. The recent violations that have occurred disgusted not only me, but damage our society.”

In February of 2009, Cantor’s office released this unbelievable, profanity laced, union bashing video.

That’s just arrogant, mental illness hypocrisy from a foul, wicked man.

Cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 24:51

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess

2011-07-13T01:49:00.000-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Part 6

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

When Paul Ryan puffed on the coals of the right wing’s dormant love for Ayn Rand this past spring, and the flame flickered back to life briefly, I decided it was time to learn more about this woman. I searched online interviews and found one with Mike Wallace in 1959 that clearly expressed her outlook and philosophy. Mike Wallace asked questions from the Christian perspective of loving our neighbor, and that we are each others’ keepers, while she answered with virulent opposition to those views. Therefore have I modified the attributions. I have also edited these excertps so that they read like a three way conversation between Mike, Ayn and the Scriptures.

We’ll begin with Ayn Rand antichrist.

Ayn Rand antichrist: “I am primarily the creator of a new code of morality which has so far been believed impossible, namely a morality not based on faith, not on arbitrary whim, not on emotion, not on arbitrary edict, mystical or social, but on reason. A morality which can be proved by means of logic.”

Mike Wallace Christian (quoting a review of Ayn’s novel Atlas Shrugged in Newsweek): “It is said you are out to destroy almost every edifice in the contemporary American way of life, our Judeo Christian religion, our modified government regulated capitalism, our rule by the majority will. Other reviews have said that you scorn churches and the concept of God. Are these accurate criticisms?”

Ayn Rand antichrist: “Yes.”

Scripture: He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. John 12:40.

Mike Wallace Christian: “You say that you do not like the altruism by which we live. You like a certain kind of Ayn Rand selfishness.”

Ayn Rand antichrist: “To say that I don’t like is too weak a word. I consider it evil.”

Scripture: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Isaiah 5:20

Mike Wallace Christian: “We’re taught to feel concern for our fellow man, to feel responsible for his welfare, to feel that we are, as religious people like to put it, children under God and responsible one for the other...what’s wrong with loving your fellow man? Christ, every important moral leader in man’s history has taught us that we should love one another. Why then is this kind of love in your mind immoral?”

Ayn Rand antichrist: “It is immoral if it is placed above oneself. It is more than immoral, it’s impossible.”

Scripture: And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment….” Mark 12:29-30

Ayn Rand antichrist: “When you are asked to love everybody indiscriminately, is to love people without any standard, to love them regardless whether they have any value or virtue, you are asked to love nobody.”

Scripture: “…And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:31

And she babbled on along those same lines, while also praising the virtue of capitalism, and decrying the evil of a government telling others they have to spend their money caring for people they don’t know. Earlier this year, when Paul Ryan was peddling his snake oil called The Roadmap to Prosperity, he and a number of other politicians gushed anew with breathless admiration and love for Ayn Rand and her novels.

Paul Ryan said: “Ayn Rand, more than anyone else, did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism, and this to me is what matters most.”

Ayn Rand antichrist hated God; Paul Ryan and some of his buddies in congress love Ayn Rand, therefore…true Christians abhor them all.

Jesus Christ: Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite

2011-07-01T08:30:00.001-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Part 5

I read last week that Pat Robertson had compared Sodom to the United States of America. Aside from Jesus being Lord, this may be the first time I have agreed with Robertson on anything. But then I listened to his remarks and realized that our agreement was but a coincidence: that we reached the same conclusion along very different paths of truth. Pat voiced his homophobic rhetoric to rail against New York's recently passed gay marriage law.

In the monologue here, Pat said: "I think we need to remember the term 'sodomy' came from a town that was known as Sodom, and Sodom was destroyed by God Almighty, and the thing that they practiced was homosexual activity and even they tried to rape angels who came down there, so that's the kind of people they were, but beyond that, when Jesus spoke of Sodom he didn't say anything about the homosexuality, he talked just the fact that business was as usual until God decided to destroy it." While my reasoning was informed by the Bible, Pat went on to blah blah blah that there hasn't ever been a nation that embraced homosexuality that has survived.

Perhaps the reason Jesus didn't mention homosexuality in conjunction with his reference to the destruction of Sodom, is because that wasn't the source of God's wrath against the city. (Homosexual activity in Sodom is never explicity stated in the scriptures, only vaguely implied. Read it for yourself.)

The 'business as usual' of that city is detailed here, in Ezekiel, 16:49-50. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therfore I took them away as I saw fit.

That bears an eerie resemblance to Republican America 2011, and as the Republicans take their scissors to state and national budgets, slashing programs that succor the poor, they numb themselves to the fact that the blades they wield are cutting real human flesh; and the red ink they slop all over is the blood of the needy and poor they injure, which blood indelibly stains the Republicans' fingers with guilt before God.

Meanwhile you, Pat Robertson, use your show's platform to exhort your viewers to vote Republican, brazenly stating that casting so is the Christian way to vote. Therefore Pat, in truth, you are committing the very abominable acts of the Sodomites that you decry in others. That is hypocrisy, and true sodomy, about which the Bible says: Woe unto you, Pat Robertson, Sodomite.

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie

2011-06-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Proverbs 17:4.

Michele Bachmann’s low regard for the truth is widely known; whether skewering the basic American history she holds so dear, or launching attacks on Obama, lobbing any ammunition regardless of however ridiculous or slanderous, her imagination invents its own realities. Facts have no place in her narrative unless they concur with her bizarre worldview.

Pulitzer prize winning Politifact recently published an analysis of 26 recent Bachmann statements, and rated them: true, half true, barely true, false, and pants on fire. Ranging from ridiculous to outrageous, her lies are legendary. Yet while all this is amusing in a pathetic way, there is a much greater lie she disseminates, a lie of which the Devil is the author.

Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44

Bachmann wears her ‘faith’ on her sleeve, but her actions give reason to question the words on her lips. A Christian woman who had raised 28 children and was running for president would be a passionate champion of causes like education, the WIC nutrition program, health services, and the growing number of homeless children. Yet she is one of the Republicans who are working to dismantle and destroy these programs: to defund schools while vilifying teachers; to cut programs that feed the poor to finance tax breaks for corporate America; and who continue to ignore the homeless, many of whom are the collateral damage of the foreclosure crisis they manufactured as a massive grift. Filled with the Holy Ghost, Bachmann would deliver the poor, the needy, the disabled and disadvantaged, and the downtrodden from their distresses. Instead, she is their oppressor.

A Christian would live in reverential awe of God's wondrous creation, and would strive to preserve it for her children's generation. Bachmann has vowed to undo every last environmental regulation she can get her hands on.

Jesus healed all who came to him. If she becomes president Bachmann has vowed to slash health care for millions of poor.

Where a Christian would do good, Bachmann wreaks evil. Where a Christian would show brotherly love, she and her tea party inflame hatred. She is no Christian, she is a liar, and a dangerous one at that; for all who believe and follow her, and her cold-hearted Christianity, which is false, will plummet into the same abyss.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:8

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Michele Bachmann Quotes The Bible -- And The Bible Quotes Back

2011-06-28T11:17:00.000-07:00

This past Monday Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign with a speech in Iowa. Toward the end, when talking of some servicemen, she said: "Theirs was a demonstration of the holy scripture which says: Greater love hath no man than this, but that he lay down his life for his friends. That’s the kind of love that we Americans have for this great country. We stick together. We triumph together.”

That scripture is John 15:13.

But the sentiment is actually mentioned again in the first epistle of John. As her actions in Congress are continually turning her back on her fellow Americans, and oppressing those in need, she would do well to apprise herself of 1 John 3:16-18.

Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth

2011-06-21T22:28:00.001-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans, Part Three

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

The other day I came across this excellent piece about Mitt Romney—You Know Mitt Romney Is Out Of Touch When…. I thought it merited bookmarking and sharing.

The article mentions the occasion in 2007, when Mitt was asked about his favorite novel. He cited L Ron Hubbard’s science fiction masterpiece: Battlefield Earth. It should have been The Book of Mormon, that great work of fiction upon which his faith is founded.

The Book of Mormon was written by the 'great prophet' Joseph Smith. In his teens Smith was a graverobber, plundering Indian burial mounds. After embarking on a number of other schemes, he claimed to have been visited by the angel Moroni, who revealed the location of golden plates buried in the earth, upon which were inscribed the sacred text of The Book of Mormon. He was also provided the seer stones to translate it. And that was how Joseph Smith claimed to have composed The Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon purports itself to be another testament of Jesus Christ. It is not, it is rubbish. It is the ridiculous tale of a lost tribe of Israel that sails to America centuries before the birth of Christ. There follows much nonsense, with undeniably racist overtones. For a more detailed and more entertaining explanation of the Mormon myth, read An Amish at Cumorah, which is chapter 3 of Drifting With Jesus.

Smith wielded his book with charisma, and attracted thousands of followers; and he amassed power and wealth and women as he led them into the west. He was a thief from the beginning: he tricked men out of money, and stole their wives; and from they who revered him as holy, he stole their souls. He preached a fable to satiate his lusts, and after the manner of all graverobbing, philandering, money grubbing, power tripping prophets, Smith died in a shootout with authorities.

If Romney believes a lie about something so sacred as his very soul, can he honestly be trusted to be truthful about anything? Even when he believes in his heart he’s telling you the truth, he’ll be lying. No one can believe a lie and tell the truth--such a one is deluded.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. 2 Thessalonians 2:11

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Rick Perry And The Wrath of God

2011-06-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Part Two

Governor Rick Perry of Texas, liar, tea party darling and wingnut extraordinaire, has been babbling about God again. When asked about his popularity being greater around the country than in his home state, he responded: “A prophet is generally not loved in their hometown. That’s both biblical and practical.”

Jesus used those words to describe himself while denouncing his countrymen who rejected him, and for Rick Perry to similarly apply them to himself, given the anti God Republican policies he enacts in Texas, is absolutely absurd. His latest budgest slashes necessary services to the needy and the poor, while laying off as many as 100,000 teachers, sadly and almost thankfully denying their capacity to impart revised US history to the children of Texas.

Earlier this week it came to light that in an interview last month Perry claimed that ‘God crashed the economy to return us to biblical principals.’

No, Rick, that's not it at all. The Bible teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil, and it was the wicked policies of your predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion and his cronies (some of whom are your cronies too) when they took the White House with the Congress in their pockets that accomplished that. George Bush and the Republicans crashed the economy by doling out the national treasury to their wealthy friends.

However, since you are so fond of mentioning God and the Bible, surely you know that God expresses His wrath upon mankind using fire. Here are a couple of scriptures for you.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Psalm 21:9

Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their head, saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 22:31.

In April, when Texas was battling wildfires, Perry publicly criticized Obama for not helping his state while he was receiving federal funds to do just that. That is hypocrisy, and being a hypocrite precludes Perry from possibly being a prophet.

So, Rick, if you are looking to a manifestation of God's displeasure with acts of Americans that controvert the Bible, you should look to the wildfires which ravaged your own state, and which are currently burning out of control in Arizona—the largest ever there. Wicked men control economies, but God is Lord of the elements: he kindles fire with His fingernails of flint, and fans and spreads the flames with the wind, which is His breath.

And why? Because it is also written in the Bible: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Galatians 5:14

The Arizona legislature’s relentless persecution of their neighbors to the south--God’s children in Mexico--and the recently enacted laws which persecute their neighbors in their own communities, are in direct contradiction to ‘all the law,’ also known as the OLD TESTAMENT, and this is what incites the LORD to ire.

If Rick Perry were truly a prophet he would quickly recognize these plain truths: but he’s doesn’t, and he’s not.

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction

2011-06-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

My recent reading of Romans inspired my new series of articles entitled: Why True Christians Abhor Republicans.

In Romans 11:16-24, Paul presents the metaphor of the good olive tree. It begins: For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

The firstfruit is Jesus Christ, and the root is Israel. The passage goes on to describe how unbelieving Jewish branches were broken off, that Gentiles might be grafted in, and how the Jews, being natural branches of the tree, are much more easily grafted in, which is how the nation of Israel will be saved, after the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

That got me to thinking about people who call themselves Christian, but then think and believe and act contrary to the gospel’s instruction. They try to graft Christ onto their own trees rather than humbly breaking themselves to nothing and growing into Christ; and because their root is evil, Christ withers and falls away. Call them whatever nom du jour—fundamentalists, evangelists, conservatives, right wing, extremist zealots or Republicans. They do not as their Lord Jesus instructs them to do.

Moses and the prophets taught it, and Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God above all, and thy neighbor as thyself, and Paul makes it an equal eleventh with the ten commandments in Romans 13:8-10: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Yet these Christians campaign in their holiness, in the name of Jesus, to elect rulers who oppress and ignore the downtrodden and the poor of the society—their neighbors--the very downtrodden and poor Christ came to deliver. That is a house impossibly divided, and those who dwell there are outwardly clean but inwardly ravening and filthy. These are the wolves in sheep’s clothing Christ warned would come.

And they exploit the media outlets--radio, the internet and Fox news--to spread their lies, which they proclaim to be truth, to justify their horrible, shameless abuse of the very people Christ called the children of the kingdom.

Give a listen to them on the radio, or a take a look at them on television and you shall see them as they are described in Romans 16:17-18: Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Republicans are zombie minions of corporate masters, hellbent on destroying everything from education to the environment; and whether spilling oil, or waging war, or stealing what little the poor have and giving it to the rich, or inflaming terrorism in the world, they accomplish no good, only evil.

Therefore do I obey Romans 12:9: Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

The Boehner Letters

2011-06-08T20:45:00.001-07:00

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Part One

No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24

Last week John Boehner presented a letter to the public signed by 150 ‘economists’ supporting the Republican agenda: greater corporate tax breaks at the expense of spending cuts to spur job growth and the economy. Methinks these 150 ‘economists’ were actors culled from a casting call. Go here to read some of the looney tune things these partisan hacks masquerading as economists have said on a variety of topics.

Last month, John Boehner delivered the commencement address at Catholic University of America in Washington. Boehner was raised in a devout Catholic family, and beforehand he was delivered a letter in public signed by more than 75 professors from Catholic University and other colleges, stating: “the Republican supported budget he shepherded through the House of Representatives will hurt the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and therefore he has failed to uphold basic Catholic moral teaching.”

He never acknowledged the letter’s contents.

John ignored his spiritual fathers to heel to and heed his corporate masters.

Now, the Catholic church doctrine varies from the very Bible it claims to be the inerrant word of God. They teach and utter repetitious prayers, which Christ warned against. They remove the second commandment, that against making and worshiping idols, and repeat the tenth as the ninth and tenth, which conveniently allows them to sell billions of statues of Jesus and Mary and Joseph and saints. Go here, scroll down a bit and see for yourself. They sanctify Mary as a virgin, when in fact she and Joseph gave Jesus brothers and sisters. There is no purgatory, the church invented it as a revenue stream many centuries after Christ. Jesus was crucified at Passover, not Easter, and was three days and nights in the heart of the earth before resurrecting, not the Friday to Sunday the church recognizes. Evil popes, indulgences and inquisitions were all works of the Devil.

Notwithstanding, the Catholic church would have been right to quote this scripture to the lost sheep of their flock:

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are, to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:16

Why True Christians Abhor Republicans -- Introduction
Part 1 -- The Boehner Letters
Part 2 -- Rick Perry And The Wrath Of God
Part 3 -- Mitt Romney's Truth Is Myth
Part 4 -- Michele Bachmann's Most Dangerous Lie
Part 5 -- Pat Robertson Is A Sodomite
Part 6 -- Paul Ryan's Antichrist Goddess
Part 7 -- Eric Cantor, Dead Man Walking

Obama and Infanticide

2011-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

In posting an article about Florida Governor Rick Scott vetoing a five dollar test for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease, which will mark untreated babies to death, my longtime friend Dan responded: “If it’s true, that’s bad. But as a Christian, how do you feel about this? Obama denies protection for infants of botched abortions.” He then quoted an article on worldweeklynet.com about Obama voting against the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act when he was a state senator. (The link to the Scott article and Dan’s full response are here.)

My local Christian station endorsed Rick Scott for governor in 2010, overtly stating that electing for him was the Christian way to vote. The truth is that a very real force of evil has been unleashed in the Florida governor’s mansion. Scott was John McCain’s campaign manager in 2008, and therefore in on the choice of Sarah Palin. Can you imagine if they’d won? He would be one of McCain’s closest advisors, and telling him to do all the evil he’s wreaking in Florida to the nation at large. Scott is also a criminal. His company perpetrated the largest Medicare fraud in history.

Regarding Obama’s vote against Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act, there is a more detailed explanation of it here on factcheck.org: Obama and Infanticide. Go there and read the last sentence of the summary. There was already law in place protecting viable fetuses outside the womb. It was other language in the bill that Obama opposed, and he knew that voting against it would not put any further life in danger, because those legal protections were already in place. It would be like this: suppose someone proposed a bill saying: “California has become too liberal, therefore it is mandated by law that every man must have his penis chopped off. This bill also condemns Hitler for atrocities.” The bill would obviously get shot down in congress, then everyone who voted against it could be subjected to criticism for voting against a bill that denounced Hitler.

Worldnetdaily.com is a lousy news source. It’s conservative wacko tabloid politics. Just the type of place to twist something this way.

As to the Christians, many of them are liars. I repeatedly hear polls saying that the majority of Christians have not and do not read the Bible; and since the only way to truly come to know Christ is by reading or listening to the word as it appears in the scriptures, so those know not of which they speak. Here are a few things the Bible says about infant death.

God knows what happens when infants die, and sometimes allows it. When he sent the ten plagues against Egypt, the last one was to smite the firstborn of every Egyptian household. God, the LORD, did that. And when Jesus was born, King Herod sent men to kill every child under two in Bethlehem. God did not withhold Herod’s hand, nor oppose it; instead an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt.

We know that few Christians would undergo abortion short of extreme circumstances, but would choose to raise a child unto God. Jesus also very clearly explained what happens to children who die. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10. And that is one way God mysteriously turns evil to good.

Abortion is a wedge issue. Legal ramifications in the United States have nothing to do with life or death; it is about the individual’s right to privacy. It is abused by politicians and others who want to exert influence over many who are, or think they are, or aspire to be Christian. Christ warned of the coming of wolves in sheep’s clothing, and such are these men and women.

Christ effectively summarized the entire Old Testament and distilled the heart of his teaching in a few simple verses: Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying: Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:35-40.

They would have you believe that Republicans are the party of Christ, but that is because they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Inflicting Republican rule upon society at large is no way loving your neighbor as yourself; it is utter disregard of your neighbor, and oppression of the poor. They would take a granola bar out of the mouth of a hungry child, sell it for a dime, then deposit the money in GE or Exxon’s general fund. And if you look back throughout history, that is one of the Devil’s many nefarious methods of operation.

Hi Bob
Sorry it took so long to reply.
Where to begin . .

First, I’m a a registered independent, and have voted as such since I could vote. I guess addressing your statements one at a time seems practical. You’ve given me a lot to weigh in on. First, your assertion; “ Scott is also a criminal. His company perpetrated the largest Medicare fraud in history.” Again, if this can be substantiated (not to doubt you, but I like to know sources) then of course I agree it‘s reprehensible. I will just say that I don’t doubt it, and I don’t think it necessary to review the 30,000 differing opinions, blogs, and points of view on the subject, as it isn’t germane to the main topic, and hey, I ain’t got the time. Suffice it to say that we can come up with examples of serious/criminal abuse by members of both parties, (Gov. Spitzer, Charlie Rangel, etc.).

I visited enough sites re. Obama’s stance on this topic to get a rough sampling of the prevailing dialog. It’s far more difficult to find articles and info denying Obama’s pro-abortion/late-term abortion stance than it is to find those confirming it. Even the site you provided cites many examples of both sides of this controversy. Most of the pages I encountered do express an antagonistic view of the Prez,’s position; i.e. they maintain that he is supportive of “following through” with an abortion (terminating) of the fetus in cases of “botched abortions”. There are his positions during interviews and campaign speeches, and quotes and then there is his voting record:

1997: opposed bill preventing partial-birth abortion
In 1997, Obama voted in the Illinois Senate against SB 230, a bill designed to prevent partial-birth abortions. In the US Senate, Obama has consistently voted to expand embryonic stem cell research. He has voted against requiring minors who get out-of-state abortions to notify their parents. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) gives Obama a 100% score on his pro-choice voting record in the Senate for 2005, 2006, and 2007.
Source: Obama Nation, by Jerome Corsi, p.238-239 Aug 1, 2008

Opposed legislation protecting born-alive failed abortions
Obama has consistently refused to support legislation that would define an infant who survives a late-term induced-labor abortion as a human being with the right to live. He insists that no restriction must ever be placed on the right of a mother to decide to abort her child.
On March 30, 2001, Obama was the only Illinois senator who rose to speak against a bill that would have protected babies who survived late term labor-induced abortion. Obama rose to object that if the bill passed, and a nine-month-old fetus survived a late-term labor-induced abortion was deemed to be a person who had a right to live, then the law would "forbid abortions to take place." Obama further explained the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not allow somebody to kill a child, so if the law deemed a child who survived a late-term labor-induced abortion had a right to live, "then this would be an anti-abortion statute."
Source: Obama Nation, by Jerome Corsi, p.238 Aug 1, 2008

Voting Record

Opposed born-alive treatment law because it was already law. (Oct 2008) Supports Roe v. Wade. (Jul 1998)
Voted NO on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
Voted YES on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Sponsored bill providing contraceptives for low-income women. (May 2006)
Rated 0% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-choice stance. (Dec 2006)
Ensure access to and funding for contraception. (Feb 2007)

I also see incident after incident of the ACLU trying to route out Christianity from every facet of our lives. From schools to townships, to prayer in the military. I know they are not an officially pronounced arm of the left wing. But gimme a break. Just to illustrate: as soon as I started receiving my subscription to “The Nation”, in came the donation requests for the ACLU in my mailbox, phone calls, etc. which I have never received before.

I think JFK would be considered at the most a moderate democrat these days, if not a moderate republican. I know I’m not the first to suggest that. But one need only compare most of his policies to the modern day far-left democrats to see that. I consider myself far more aligned w/moderate democrats than those further left.

Also, I am as committed a Christian as you. I am glad to see you espouse Christian beliefs. We need more of that these days. Regarding your recent post that “true Christians abhor republicans”, my understanding of Christ’s teachings is that we should try to love one another, even our enemies, including our political ones.

-Dan

Hi Dan,

First of all, I had no idea you are Christian. Fantastic.

Here's a couple links regarding Rick Scott. The fraud story is detailed here. He was the CEO of HCA, and several executives pled guilty to various charges, so either he knew full well about their shenanigans, or was an utterly incompetent CEO if such fraud was going on under his nose. Believe it, he knew. And here is a link to his deposition about the case. Note the smug, evasive answers. He's a lying piece of shit. This video's worth a quick look too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSN5zNSffOE One last thing to know about Scott that speaks volumes: He was John McCain's campaign manager in 2008, and had to be in on the decision to choose Palin as the running mate.

Why are you reading Jerome Corsi? He is an extreme right wing partisan hack. He is a liar. To wit, his latest book is: Where's The Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible To Be President. Obviously, all the time and effort he put into writing about that Fox manufactured (non) controversy was for nought. And yet he continues to pursue the issue as though it's somehow still relevant. Please. That's your go to guy about Barack Obama and abortion? His two bestselling books were criticized for inaccuracies; he plays fast and loose with the truth. That includes the one you cite, Obama Nation, so there's no saying whether the parts you cite are actually true.

Abortion is an awful thing. Truly abomination. Here is some of how I use the scriptures to view.

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Romans 4:15.

Nowhere is the law working wrath more evident than in America today. So from a legal standpoint, the abortion issue is not about life or death, but privacy. But you cannot take a child from God, only when He allows it. He allowed Herod to slaughter every child under two in Bethlehem after Jesus' birth, but he couldn't lay hands on that which belonged to God.

And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. John 6:39

The LORD loses NOTHING.

What's your beef with the ACLU? I've never had a problem with them. Prayer in school is the biggest bullshit non issue ever manufactured by self righteous 'Christians'. Why would a Christian teach his children to pray in school in the first place? Christ taught prayer in Matthew 6:5-13. Prayer is private, and Jesus instructed to go alone in your room and be with God, and that it is the hypocrites who publicly pray for show to be seen of one another. So it makes no sense to teach children that. They should be taught that they can pray whenever they like.

As to JFK, by the same token that six six six wicked wildebeast Reagan would be too moderate for many of today's Republicans.

As to them, the Bible instructs: abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Romans 12:9

Can you name one good thing Republicans have done in our lifetime? One? There is none. Whether spilling oil or waging war or oppressing the poor, they and their works are evil. Praying for your enemies applies, but it is to purify your own heart with compassion.

Nor do I see how a true Christian could advocate what Republicans are doing in congress and governorships these days. Cutting programs like Women Infants and Children, and health services for women, and education, and calling teachers evil parasites...all despicable. The cuts to WIC are particualarly heinous. That is literally taking milk from the mouths of babes while defending and protecting Exxon and GE.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23.

And if you read Matthew 23, pretty much the entire chapter, it is a condemnation of the Pharisees, Sadduccees and scribes, the ancient equivalent to today's fundamentalist, evangelical conservative Christian.

The Doomsday Dum Dums

2011-05-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

Another religious cult, Family Radio Worldwide, calling themselves Christian, has sought the limelight by predicting the end of the world. Using a jumble of numbers based on various scriptures, they have concluded that the world will end this Saturday, May 21. At their rallies they carry signs that mention Ezekiel 33, and on the top of their website they quote Ezekiel 33:3: blow the trumpet…warn the people….

So I sought there in the Bible for an explanation. The full verse reads: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people. –Ezekiel 33:3

Thus we can discern that Family Radio Worldwide is interpreting the sword to represent the instrument God will use to destroy the earth. But as they have everything else wrong, including ignoring the scripture that says no man knows this hour they predict, so have they also incorrectly interpreted the sword.

The sword is the Word of God. It is mentioned earlier in Ezekiel, in chapter 21, which is a prophesy of Christ.

Ezekiel 21:1-4. And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel, And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.

To break that down, Jesus is referred to as Son of man throughout the gospels. There is a striking verse in Luke 9:51: And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And Jesus did bring the word to bear against Jerusalem, and Israel, and all the earth.

Isaiah describes the sword before being withdrawn: And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me. --Isaiah 49:2

And that is the sword to which Jesus referred when he said: Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. –Matthew 10:34

That is why Christ is described several times in Revelation as having a sword for a tongue, including 19:13,15: And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God…And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Which brings us to the true meaning of Ezekiel 33:4: Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

To me, that says ignore the word at your own peril.

Even Jesus said that he knew not the hour, yet you do? Is the servant greater than the master? Your ignorance is only surpassed by your arrogance, to think you’ll be raptured away before the tribulation. Will you judge yourselves? (That pre-trib rapture crap is nowhere in the scriptures.) The Bible preaches humility, and you exalt yourselves, despite knowing that they who set themselves high will be brought low.

It matters not that you don’t understand much of the Bible, you disregard it anyway.

See you Sunday. I’d be curious to know what you say in church.

Mike Huckabee -- Phony Christian Huckster

2011-05-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Mike Huckabee made the long-awaited and highly anticipated announcement regarding his political future on his Fox News show this past weekend. In revealing that he was not going to seek the Republican presidential nomination, he said: “I don’t expect everyone to understand this, but I’m a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and that relationship is far more important to me than any political office. For me the discussion and the decision is ultimately not a political one, not a financial one, not even a practical one, it’s a spiritual one.”

In the minutes leading up to the announcement, Huckabee was joined on his show by Ted Nugent. The death of Bin Laden was brought up. I would have expected Huckabee the Christian to quote the verse: love your enemies, do good to those which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the cheek, offer also the other. Luke 6:27-29.

Instead Ted said: “It was a great moment and it was long overdue, but in the real world of the war on terror…we have to kill them all. We have to find all his idiots and we have to kill ‘em all. If we unleash the heroes of our military…and said, ‘go kill him, you know where he is, go get him.’ If we just let the warriors do that, like they’re supposed to, to all of those rats, to those mongrels, then we would be on our way to being safe, but we’re not safer now. The only way towards peace and love is to kill people who mess with your peace and love.”

Nugent is a raving, hate-filled antichrist. Witness him in his glory. A man who tells Obama and Hilary to suck and ride his machine guns is not a guest I would expect a Christian to invite onto his program to speak truth. If they were to debate, that would be one thing, but Mike invites Ted onto his program because they are likeminded.

Following the announcement, Huckabee welcomed Donald Trump,the famous rich man, attention whore and notoriously arrogant idiot, who came on to thank Huck on behalf of all the candidates for not running. Two days later Trump announced he wasn’t running. The chicken and the quitter.

Huckabee was a Baptist minister for a number of years, but now he’s a paid minister of propaganda at Fox Lies, and a huckster misrepresenting Jesus Christ. On Mike’s Wikipedia page it is written: Mike has stated: “Politics are totally directed by world view. That’s why when people say, ‘we ought to separate politics from religion,’ I say to separate the two is absolutely impossible.”

Were that so, Mike would understand the highest biblical importance of loving thy neighbor, and sparing the poor oppression by the wealthy. Yet he consorts with and endorses the people who inflict wicked law upon us all. People who are attacking teachers, firefighters and policemen, people who are defunding health services for women, and programs to feed infants and children, and education, and infrastructure spending, and many other expenses necessary to make America great, in part to make certain that GE and Exxon pay no tax and continue to receive government subsidies. Mike knows all this, and that he’s a professional liar on a network that is a flamethrower of hatred.

That is the hypocrisy of a house divided, and a house divided cannot stand.

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. Luke 6: 46-49

Republicans Hate Children -- Yours, Mine And Their Own

2011-05-10T15:28:00.001-07:00

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Luke 11:11

A Republican would. For let us consider the Republican agenda, and the way they govern when in power. They have never encountered an environmental regulation they like—which exist to protect God’s creation—and if they could have their way there would be none. They can’t undo existing regulations and block new ones fast enough to enable the alchemizing of the planet into dollar bills. It was Republican deregulation under Bush that led to the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which turned parts of a paradise into a toilet bowl, and tainted all the waters therein. That is a wicked thing to do to our children’s inheritance.

The wind and the sun and the rushing water of mighty rivers can more than satisfy all of our energy needs if we harness them, but when Bush and Cheney took office, one of their first orders of business was to cut funding for the development of alternative energy sources. They did, however, develop the very nasty process of hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, to extract natural gas from deep within the earth, and which is contaminating water supplies across America with chemical cocktails. Destroying our aquifers for profit is a wicked, and very selfish thing to do to our children’s inheritance.

That massive national debt Republicans love to crow and complain about? Republicans created it when Reagan and his cronies, and both Bushes and their cronies, swiped the national credit card and enriched themselves with an advance against America’s future, then handed the bill to their children. That's a wonderful way to start into life, saddled with your greedy parents' debt.

Jesus also said: Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it unto the dogs. Mark 7:27

Many Republicans wring their hands and squeeze phony tears onto their cheeks and cry out for the rights of the unborn who are too helpless to protect themselves. This must be because their upkeep in the womb doesn’t cost a penny, since it certainly seems like these Republicans are lying hypocrites who have co-opted the pro-life cause for the sole purpose of garnering votes at election time, otherwise they wouldn’t in turn vote to cut and destroy programs such as food stamps, and Medicaid for the poor, and education—all to finance tax relief for the most wealthy. Taking cereal out of the mouths of hungry children, and ripping pencils from their hands in the classrooms (while launching unfounded attacks against their teachers), and depriving them of medical treatment, all to increase the bank accounts of billionaires who will never spend the money anyway is the height and depth of evil, but that is exactly what Republicans do—taking children’s bread and casting it to the dogs.

From the very beginning God made it clear that we are our brother’s keeper, and Jesus said that whosoever does the will of God is his brother and sister and mother; therefore are we one great family, and should treat all children as our own.

And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10:13-14

Republicans clearly have not read that verse, and Republican politicians who call themselves 'Christian' while casting the votes they do are liars. Jesus said that the Devil is the prince of this world, and that he is a liar; and one of his favorite lies is to call himself Christian while deceiving and leading astray and persecuting the children of God.

Jesus Christ in the Psalms, and Republicans

2011-04-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I recently read the Psalms again, and did so paying close attention to the manifold manifestations of Christ therein. David authored many of the psalms after he was chosen by God to be the king of Israel, and promised by God to begin the lineage that would end with Christ. It is prophesied in Samuel: And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. --2 Samuel 7: 12-13

Stated within the Psalms themselves: I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. --Psalm 89:3-4.

And repeated by Jeremiah several hundred years later. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. --Jeremiah 33:14-15.

And since Christ existed before the foundation of the earth was laid, it is easy enough to imagine how his spirit touched David, and sang with his tongue. Many are songs of praise and rejoicing in the Lord.

O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory about the heavens. --Psalms 8:1.

And: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. --Psalm 91:1.

It is also fascinating to note the verses where the events of the crucifixion are foreshadowed in explicit detail (written about a thousand years in advance).

My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? --Psalm 22: 1 (Mark 15: 34)

For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and feet. --Psalm 22:16 (Mark 15:25)

They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. --Psalm 22:18 (John 19:23-24)

Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth. --Psalm 31: 5 (Luke 23:46)

He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. --Psalm 34:20 (John 19:33-36)

They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. --Psalm 38:12-13 (Matthew 27:11-14)

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. --Psalm 41:9 (John 13:26-27)

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. --Psalm 69:21 (Matthew 27:34)

David spent most of his life battling neighboring tribes in establishing the borders of the nation of Israel. There are many passages where he cries out to God for help against his enemies, and as read I began also to observe the remarkable resemblance between the ancient enemies of David and today's Republicans.

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. --Psalm 10:2

Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness...Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance or his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. --Psalm 52:2-3,7.

But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. --Psalm 50:16-19

While the righteous cry out: Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. --Psalm 119:53.

Republicans resemble the enemies of David because they are the enemies of David; and as the spirit of Christ resided in David, so are Republicans therefore also the enemies of Christ; and Republicans who call themselves Christian like lying soldiers who've infiltrated the ranks in phony uniforms to shed blood from within.

Yet Christ the king is victorious, His enemies conquered! But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. --Psalm 63:11

A Response to Lawrence O'Donnell

2011-03-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

Last week Lawrence O'Donnell stirred up a bit of controversy when he said these words on his show, The Last Word: "The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world. No half smart religious person actually believes the book of Revelation."

The full segment is posted here on O'Donnell's blog.

Let me start by saying that I am a likeminded liberal, and like Lawrence O'Donnell quite a lot. I agree with him a vast majority of the time, and greatly appreciate that a voice like his has a prominent place on the airwaves. But as a Christian who profoundly cherishes the Bible, I felt compelled to weigh in.

Dear Lawrence,

I read the Bible first thing every morning, have gone cover to cover four times, and am nearing my fifth completion. The day after that I will turn to page one and embark on my sixth reading of the word of God. I also study the history of its composition, its influence on the history of mankind, and cannot get enough of the documentaries and movies that have been made about it.

The Bible is not a work of fiction. The country of Israel is a real place, both ancient and modern, history records that its inhabitants were conquered and carried away captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar around 700 BC, and that Jesus Christ did walk the earth there about two thousand years ago. These and other events and people of the Bible were all very real, so if your belief that the book of Revelation is fiction extends to the whole of the Bible, you are very wrong. Just for a couple of many proofs, the Psalms are a collection of songs of worship and praise, and the Proverbs are just that: proverbs. Being such, they cannot be fiction.

In your monologue, you also said: "To believe in the book of Revelation literally, you have to believe in dragons. Quote: And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth, and the dragon waxed wroth with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed." (Incidentally, those verses are Revelation 12: 16-17.)

Lawrence, the dragon is not a literal dragon, the dragon allegorically symbolizes the Devil. If you had read the entire book of Revelation before talking about it, or even just the chapter from which you quoted, you’d have seen this verse: And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Revelation 12:9. It's a mere few lines before the verses you quoted. Not to be harsh, but you come across like someone who’s only seen the preview discussing a film; or a book he’s only read parts.

Over the years I have had countless people remark on my intelligence, so if they are to be believed, then I am no half smart religious man. You also seem to misuse the word religious. Religion is going to the temple, and performing the liturgies and outward shows of worship. Faith is making a temple of your own body, and keeping the love of God and your neighbor in your heart and soul.

Furthermore, I believe much of the conservative Christian right is wide of the mark. They are hypocrites in much of what they say and do. Beck and Palin and the rest are a lot of misguided liars who drape themselves in mantles of Christianity to lead others astray for political gain or to exercise authority and power to the satisfaction of their own egos. Jesus did say that when the blind lead the blind they all fall in the ditch. True Christians are far more humble, compassionate, and yes, liberal.

You also referred to a well known Thomas Jefferson quote in which he called the book of Revelation blasphemous. I was familiar with the Jefferson quote before you repeated it on your show. I actually lost more respect for Jefferson when I first heard it. The parts of Revelation that apply to the world today could not have been fully comprehended by someone reading it before industrialization. His remark displayed where his faith was weak, at least to my mind.

I wrote a break down of some of the prophesies in Revelation with accompanying youtube videos to show precisely how they are coming to pass today. I find the accuracy with which they are fulfilling to be stunning and uncanny. That link is here, if you wish to take a look. I'd hardly call any of that fiction.

And if you’d care to write back, and are willing to do a little reading, I can direct to some places where I can demonstrate precisely how a reasonably intelligent man could do anything but believe the Bible.

Regards,

Bob Charest

Franklin Graham And The End Of The World

2011-03-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

I just came across this recent interview with evangelical leader Franklin Graham on Newsmax.com, wherein he stated that the tsunami in Japan and other events could be signs that the return of Christ is near.

What I read made me wonder just how well Graham really knows the Bible. The signs he mentioned--war, famine and earthquake--are taken from what is called The Olivet Discourse, which Jesus delivered outside Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, and wherein he prophesied the details of the destruction of Jerusalem, the desolation of Israel, the Apocalypse and His Second Coming.

It seems to me, Mr. Franklin Graham, that if you are going to call the recent tsunami one of the signs of the end times, you'd do well to specifically mention the verse in The Olivet Discourse where Jesus said: the sea and the waves roaring. Luke 21:25. It certainly pertains, and would make you sound a little more authoritative.

And why do you hedge? "Could be?" War, famine and earthquakes are three of the many signs Jesus said to heed. Any believer who's read the Bible knows this, and that they are coming to pass right now with uncanny accuracy, so why not quote the Bible directly instead of deferring to it vaguely? And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:27-28.

And why are you giving such an interview to Newsmax.com? Those people are not exactly compassionate Christians. It's a website that's run by and caters to hard right arch conservatives and the mentally ill tea partiers on the lunatic fringe.

To get a better feel for Newsmax, take a quick look at the authors of the Newsmax.com blogs.

Here's a brief rundown of the bloggers I recognize. Among his many foul personality traits, the bloated, bellicose gasbag Dick Armey is a misogynist. Then there's the notorious Y2K wacko Pat Boone. I've never heard of Chris Freind, but his latest blog post is entitled: America Needs More Nuclear Power. That sounds like a common sense response to the recent disaster in Fukushima. Dr. Laura is a racist whose potty mouth ruined her radio career. Betsy McCaughey is a former tobacco industry lobbyist and was a vociferous opponent of health care reform (how very Christian) who propagated the death panels lie. Dick Morris is insane, Grover Norquist is inane, and both are Fox News hacks. Ralph Reed, along with the aforementioned Grover Norquist, was intimately involved in the infamous Jack Abramoff Indian Casino scandal. John Stossel's muddled mind is just plain weird, and George Will is a pompous, condescending, right wing liar who still holds to the ridiculous belief that climate change is not real.

Are these the modern day disciples of Christ you associate with, Franklin?

Additionally, Mr. Graham, you are a Republican, and in the Bible I read, Republicans resemble the enemies of Jesus Christ, not the disciples and friends. For as I understand it, Republicans screw everybody--including themselves. Jesus instructed us to give to the poor, and to be of compassionate hearts, and when asked what were the two greatest commandments, He said: Love God above all things, and thy neighbor as thyself.

So exactly how is inflicting Republican policy upon everyone ministering to the poor and loving God and thy neighbor as thyself? Seriously. Republicans condone raping God's sublime creation for cash, they don't give a fig about their neighbors, their hearts are stone, and they enrich themselves at the expense of what little the poor do have, thereby oppressing their neighors while condemning themselves, insomuch as it is written: 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.

Furthermore, you supported Mitt Romney for president in 2008. Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Mormonism calls itself a Christian denomination, but it is not: it is a false religion based on a work of fiction that its adherents hold to be a sacred book. It's a crock of rubbish that was written by their great 'prophet' Joseph Smith, a nineteenth century grave robber and womanizer who was killed in a shootout with authorities.

The Bible very clearly prophesied that such believers as the Mormons would come. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Barack Obama is a Christian. Mitt Romney is not. So your preference of Romney based on Christian faith makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

You recently used your charitable foundation Samaritan's Purse planes to deliver 90 tons of relief supplies to Japan, and that is commendable; but you also used one of those planes to chauffeur Sarah Palin around in style during one of her book tours,and to solicit charity in the name of Christ and spend it in such a manner is deplorable.

Franklin Graham called Islam 'wicked' and 'evil.' As one who loves and clings to Jesus Christ, I feel the same way about right wing Christians, in that they give a horribly false example of what it means to be Christian, thereby leading some astray and turning others off, and about whom Jesus said: ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

The Nazi Tea Party

2011-02-28T04:21:00.000-08:00

Author's Note: If you read this and notice any glaring omissions please let me know in the comments or with an email. I'd like it to be as comprehensive as possible.

peace, love and chai lattes!
Whammer

I recently watched the excellent documentary: The Nazis: A Warning From History. From the beginning I was struck by the many similarities between the formations of the Nazi party and today’s Tea party. I did some research, and the more I read and watched the more striking parallels I discovered.

Both parties were spawned by the extreme right wing’s virulent reaction to a new leftist government, and in both cases the shift in the national direction was dramatic—whether Germany abandoning its presence in World War I, or America inaugurating its first black president.

First, some necessary historical background. At the advent of World War I, Germany was under the imperial rule of Kaiser Wilhelm II. His government was becoming increasingly more difficult to control because of the growing presence of Social Democrats, pacifism and other movements on the left.

At the time, Europe seemed incapable of surviving a long war, as a long war was seen only as ending in chaos followed by a socialist revolution. But on 28 June 1914 the Austrian heir apparent, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the province Bosnia-Hercegovina, then occupied by Austria. Suspicions were that the Serbian government was involved with the terrorist group responsible for the assassination. The German government of Wilhelm II and his chancellor encouraged Vienna to take punitive action against Serbia. The Germans were also clear that they would stand by Austria-Hungary even if an attack on Serbia provoked Russia, Serbia's ally, to declare war on Austria-Hungary.

Austria-Hungary was unwilling to compromise and declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Russia mobilized first on its borders with Austria, but quickly ordered general mobilization. Germany ordered Russia to halt. Russia ignored Germany. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1. What the Germans feared in Russia was that a population explosion coupled with industrial growth would transform their eastern neighbor into a superpower that would threaten and eventually crush Germany.

One day later the Germans, who knew that the French would not stand by in a German-Russian war, also declared war on France. The Germans then sent an ultimatum to Belgium. Belgium rejected it and Germany invaded. Britain demanded a German withdrawal from Belgium. That condition was not met, and Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August. World War I was begun.

In March 1917 a bourgeois revolution overthrew the Tsar of Russia. The new government declared it would democratize Russia and, to the dismay of the Germans, stay in the war. Hoping to destabilize Russia further, German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff offered Vladimir Lenin passage to Russia. Lenin was the most radical and able leader of the revolutionary socialist faction, the Bolsheviks.

On 7 November 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the democratic government and took power in Russia. Lenin was inclined toward peace with Germany because he expected that socialist revolution would spread there and elsewhere.

Toward the end of the war the German political landscape painted a peculiar picture. On the one side it looked as if the military had established a dictatorship. This triggered wild resistance from the Right, which saw its parliamentary majority in Prussia and its strong influence on German politics threatened by the reform.

On the other side the more centrist Reichstag parliament continued to push for reform, and together with the left liberals and the moderate Social Democrats, the Center formed a loose alignment called the Reichstag Majority. They managed to secure more parliamentary control and demanded a peace without major annexations and reparations. In June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed and the conflicts ended.

The German troops were surprised and angry when the war stopped. They wanted to continue the fight. They felt betrayed by the Marxists and the Jews that had fomented the dissent back in Germany that led to surrender. They returned home embittered, which bitterness fertilized the seeds of the Nazi party. Their resentment of the Jews, whom they blamed for the unfair terms of Versailles, continued to simmer.

After the war, politics in Germany were highly polarized between Conservatives and Socialists; and the Weimar Republic, a democracy, was established as the new government.

In 1919 the left wing group Raterrepublik took Munich by force, which led quickly to the Munich Soviet Republic, an attempt to create a Soviet style government in Munich, inspired by the Bolsheviks’ very recent victory in the Soviet Union. Fearful of communist revolutionaries fanning throughout Germany, government troops went into the city and suppressed the rebellion. They were supported by the Freikorps, right wing mercenaries hired by the government. The anti-Semitic prejudice of the right was fueled by the fact that most of the leaders of the Raterrepublik were Jewish, and there are documented cases of Freikorps soldiers killing Jews for sport.

Sound familiar? Many members of today’s Tea Party are racists who hate Obama only because he’s negro. Whether directed at Jews or blacks, it’s the same racist hatred. And it would be plenty easy to find mercenaries for a Freikorps in America today. The number of extremist militia groups has exploded since 2009.

Through the spread of propaganda it gradually came to be believed in Germany that Bolshevism and Judaism were the same, which engendered widespread anti-Jewish attitudes.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party machine feeds on false equivalencies and thrives on propaganda. They demonize liberals by equating them with Communist, Socialist, Fascist revolutionaries.

After the Freikorps suppressed the Raterrepublik, the Jews were abused like scapegoats, and were blamed for all the country’s ills.

Sound familiar? The Tea Party machine blames Obama for everything from 9/11 to the Lindbergh kidnapping.

The Freikorps had the support of right wing officers in the army, including Ernest Wearne, who said of himself: “Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois order. Brutality is respected. People need wholesome fear. They want to fear something.”

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party responds to fear as if it’s the only emotion they know. They also attract the more angry and mentally unstable element of society.

Wearne was involved in the violent politics of the extreme right. In 1919 he joined the German Workers Party, where he met Adolf Hitler, then a thirty year old World War I veteran. Among other commonalities, they shared a deep hatred of Communists and Jews.

In the early 1920’s inflation exploded and the German economy collapsed. There was famine and fatigue, and when democracy didn’t produce an immediate fix, the cries began to rise for a strong leader.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party gave Obama roughly forty eight hours to repair the economic devastation left by the Bush administration before holding him accountable for it and complaining for a different course of action to be taken.

By 1921 Hitler had become leader of the small German Workers party, which was later renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, or, the Nazis. It was only one of many right wing parties in Munich, who shared the common belief that the Treaty of Versailles was a crime, and that the Jews were behind it.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party, which loosely bands together a multitude of militia groups, thirstily slurps up the lies, however outrageous, and wants no part with the truth. Among the many outrageous, they falsely regard Obama to be a Muslim, and to not have been born in America.

Hitler channeled his hatred and anger at the way the war had ended into powerful speeches. His charisma, and the uncompromising tone of his rhetoric, began to attract prominent Bavarians to the Nazi Party. In 1923 he led the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, an attempt to take over the city, in which his followers also robbed a bank. He was arrested and tried and served nine months of a five year jail sentence.

One small political party, Wandervogel, longed for a return to a simpler way of life embracing old-fashioned values. Their lifestyle became the model for the Hitler Youth.

Sound familiar? However full of lies they are, today’s Tea Party loves to boast themselves the virtuous party of old-fashioned family values.

The Hitler Youth were nationalist patriots, and lived by the slogan: Germany First.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party is passionately nationalistic—USA! USA!

In the mid 1920’s the Nazis were small but radical: their prospective agenda if coming to power included stripping German Jews of their German citizenship, and potential expulsion.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party is obsessed with our borders, and wants stricter law regarding citizenship and deportation of illegals.

The Nazis started spreading propaganda lies that the Jews sought power and aspired to rule the world.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party spreads propaganda that Obama wants to create a government takeover of every aspect of American life.

The phony Jewish world conquest conspiracy was spread openly by the Nazis, and believed by many.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party fears a New World Order of one world government. They also believe that Obama’s diplomatic outreach to nations the Tea Party regards to be enemy is evidence that he is part of that conspiracy.

The Nazis were a scant minority in the 1928 elections, receiving just under 3 percent of the vote. After the stock market crash of 1929, Germany was the worst hit nation on earth. Germany’s five major banks crashed in 1931, and thousands of German businesses closed down. The middle class was suffering.

Sound familiar?

Meanwhile the industrialists stayed rich. They financed the Nazis when they seemed likely to win, and submitted to Nazi direction with little objection to policy.

Sound familiar? The Koch brothers and Karl Rove fronting election campaign donations for other billionaires.

In 1930, campaigning on the same slogans and issues--Jews are evil, Communists and Socialists must be destroyed, and Germany must be reborn through purification—the Nazis received almost 25 percent of the vote.

Sound familiar? In the 2010 midterms the right wing propaganda was rife with anti Socialist and Communist rhetoric, and the Tea Party went on to secure a small number of seats in congress.

But in 1930 elections the Communists gained in voter strength along with the Nazis, and the fledgling democracy was disintegrating as voters gravitated to the extremes. At the same time the Nazis began making public shows of might, staging marches and parades to display their military stormtroopers.

In 1932 Hitler challenged Hindenburg for the presidency. He promised to bring about economic recovery and to rid Germany of a failed democracy. He lost, though the Nazis were established as the biggest party in Germany, with 37 percent of the vote. Hitler demanded to be Chancellor. At first Hindenburg refused, but in January 1933 he succumbed to political pressure and appointed Hitler to the chancellorship.

One of the Nazi party’s first orders of business upon taking power was to round up political opponents, Communists and Socialists, and detain them in holding camps like Dachau. In February 1933 the infamous Reichstag fire destroyed the home of all political opposition, and the Nazis were left the only party in Germany.

In April 1933 they organized a one day boycott against the Jews, who they continued to blame for all of Germany’s problems, including the loss of World War I; and against whom the hatred was steadily intensifying. The Nazi stormtroopers also began to perpetrate random acts of violence against Jews.

Sound familiar? Until the Tuscon Massacre the right wing propaganda machine openly peppered their rhetoric with deadly metaphors, and committed a number of acts of domestic terrorism, while many more were thwarted.

The Nazis did not have detailed policies that they planned to enact once in power. Hitler was known for thinking that things usually sorted themselves out naturally.

Sound familiar? Today’s Tea Party has little agenda beyond the undoing of Obama; they are unified hatred of the opposition.

The Jews were systematically excluded from German life. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws outlawed marriage between Jews and other Germans, and stripped Jews of their German citizenship.

Sound familiar? The Tea Party wants to alter the constitution to deny citizenship to some babies born on US soil.

On May 2, 1933, Hitler abolished trade unions and arrested their leaders.

Sound familiar? Wisconsin.

On July 14, 1933, Hitler banned political parties—only the Nazi party was permitted.

Sound familiar? Right wingers still periodically express their longing for a ‘permanent majority.’

Shortly after World War II was begun, law was passed in Germany requiring all Jews to carry identification.

Sound familiar? Arizona.

Tea Party Propaganda Minister Glenn Beck once called Obama a racist. And a week before that he said that Obama’s entire agenda was based on one word: reparations. But Beck is projecting. He is the racist. Just last week he compared rabbis with islamic radicals. He later apologized, but nonetheless said it.

This is Glenn Beck dressed as a Nazi SS officer.

His followers think nothing of displaying Nazi signs at their rallies. They claim it's to point out the Nazism in the opposition, but they are only projecting: pointing out in others what truly resides in themselves.

They call themselves Christian, but as one myself, I wouldn't be caught dead bearing a Nazi insignia, so offensive to our Lord, who is King of the Jews.

The end result of the Nazi regime was chaos, mayhem and rivers of blood. The Hitler Youth came of age. Raised in hatred by bitter parents for twenty years, they were bred for war, which was why they were so heartless and merciless. As the Tea Party continues study to Nazi history, they claim to prevent America from repeating it, we need to be wary and watchful that they aren't truly seeking further inspiration.

Hey Clarence, Isaiah Is Talking To You

2011-02-21T21:44:00.001-08:00

I won’t bore you with Bible study here, but just for a set up, if I had to describe the first half of the book of Isaiah in one sentence it would be this: a very detailed and accurate series of prophesies, written around 700 BC, some yet to be fulfilled, describing the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem the righteous in advance of God unleashing his fiery wrath to destroy the wicked. As I read the book now, a number of verses therein bring Clarence Thomas to mind.

Isaiah 33:14-15 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.

Let’s take that verse in pieces, Clarence. It says, who speaketh uprightly. A good man in your position would stand up and speak out for righteousness. But you don't care about what is right; you only care about things right wing. And you don’t speak at all. In the past five terms you haven’t uttered a single syllable. No other justice in the history of the Supreme Court has gone an entire term without speaking; you’ve gone five years.

He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes. You are pals with the billionaire Koch Brothers; and with fellow justice Scalia attended a weekend gathering at a Palm Springs estate to discuss campaign finance reform. When you should have recused yourselves from the case for conflict of interest, you instead ruled that GE was equal to me when it came to individual campaign contributions. You consort with some of the wickedest men on earth, and let them use you as a hammer to pummel the poor. That is oppression. And knowing your love of money, as revealed by your failing to disclose your wife’s income for twenty years, we can safely surmise that you have been bribed.

…that stoppeth his ears from hearing blood. The first Iraq invader, Bush Senior, installed you on that court wherefrom you ruled to install his son Bush Junior into the presidency, to launch a second invasion of Iraq. You signed that unjust decision in blood.

And shutteth his eyes from seeing evil. You seek it out wide-eyed, gauging by the company you keep, and the things that they do.

In describing God’s judgment against the wicked, it is depicted throughout the Bible as destruction by fire, and eternal burning in the infernos of hell. Therefore in Isaiah 30:12, it is written: And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in fire.

And who shall withstand the flames in that day? The faithful and true and right. There are many fire metaphors in scripture: trying souls like gold, harvesting wheat while burning the chaff and bundles of tares; and holy men walking with Jesus in a fiery furnace.

Isaiah 43:2 ...when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Those righteous men and women able to withstand the heat are also described in Isaiah as LIBERAL.

Isaiah 32:4-6 The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

You may have ascended to become one of the nine highest judges in the land, Clarence, but there is a much higher judge before whom you will come on your knees begging mercy. For God maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Isaiah 40:23.

The works you have wrought in the dark are coming to light. You are a man corrupted by wickedness, and as it goes with the father, so it will with the son.

Isaiah 14:12-15 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning…for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…yet thou shalt be brought down to hell.

FRC Stands For Hypocrisy

2011-02-17T15:05:00.001-08:00

I've somehow gotten onto the mailing list of the Family Research Council. They are a right wing Christian political group headed by a guy named Tony Perkins. Their motto is Advancing Faith, Family and Freedom. They proudly portray their primary battle to be a pro life agenda. A couple days ago I received an email entitled: Tell Congress to Cut This Budget.

After lauding cuts to 'Democratic allies PBS and NPR,' the email stated: 'What many politicians seem to forget is that wasteful spending is a moral issue as well as a fiscal one. Could you imagine if you ran your family budget in the same haphazard way that President Obama and Congress have ruined our national pocketbook? The biggest difference is that when the government runs out of money they just make plans to take more money from us and future generations! Leaving our children and grandchildren to pay the bills for excessive spending cannot be justified.'

Then I discovered that last week they posted this tribute page to celebrate the centennial birth of Ronald Reagan, where they described him as the greatest pro life president and thanked God that he was born.

So much hypocrisy, where to start? Ronald Reagan created the enormous foundation of that national debt, and we are the children and grandchildren that are saddled with the bill that he and his cronies left when they raided the national treasury by swiping a credit card and taking an advance against our future. Ronald Reagan, pro life Christian? He was a warmongering arms dealer who's probably swimming in the blood he shed rather than cradled in the arms of Christ. Ronald Reagan cherishing liberty and freedom? Like the 52 American hostages he made a deal with Iran to keep in captivity until after the election? Their freedom?

The myth of Ronald Reagan is a lie. And they who knowingly believe lies, are liars also.

Tony Perkins, you are another Republican liar.

Republicans and Money -- A Quick Study in Proverbs

2011-02-09T11:03:00.001-08:00

Endorsed by the ‘Christian’ right, Republicans successfully bought the 2010 election with massive cash donations from undisclosed sources, many foreign, and a one promise campaign: extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Many of these conservative ‘Christians,’ who call the Bible inerrant, cannot actually have read the book; else they would not have contradicted themselves by voting Republican. For consider the Proverbs.

He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want. --Proverbs 22:16

Extending tax relief to the wealthy at the expense of necessary services for the poor does exactly what the scriptures warn as being evil, and deleterious to the soul. Here in Florida, my local ‘Christian’ radio station, WTBN, endorsed Republican Rick Scott for Governor of Florida; and not just by implying, but by stating outright that doing so was the righteous way to cast a vote. Rick Scott is a CRIMINAL. He should be in jail for defrauding the government of 1.7 BILLION dollars; instead he’s now in CHARGE of the government.

Now that he’s taken office, here are some of the highlights of the budget proposal Scott released earlier this week. He wants to cut education by 3.3 billion dollars over two years, while increasing the amount spent on private school vouchers by 250 million dollars in 2012. He wants to cut 3 billion dollars in Medicaid spending over two years. Medicaid provides health care for the poor. He wants to cut 178 million dollars and 1800 jobs from the Department of Children and Families; and 173 million dollars and 155 jobs from the Agency for Persons With Disabilities. And what does he plan to do with all those monies saved? The corporate income tax would drop from 5.5 percent to 3 percent in 2011-2012, and be phased out completely by 2018. And many Republican governors around the country are similarly waging war on the poor on behalf of the wealthy patrons who helped install them in their offices.

The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it. --Proverbs 29:7

According to the inerrant Bible, Rick Scott is a wicked man. And by proxy, so are the voters on whose behalf he is acting, and who had the unashamed gall to endorse his candidacy in the name of Christ. Over at WTBN, I heard both station manager Chris Gould and morning personality Bill Carl express on air their breathless relief and exultation that the Republicans had won the election. Since Chris and Bill are so overjoyed that 'Christianity' prevailed, perhaps they should go around and explain things to those who will be directly affected by Scott’s budget. Many children would rather not go to school, and I know many of the disabled, including veterans who were maimed in the ‘pro life Christian’ president’s wars justified by lies, are fakers; layabouts who make their living waiting for the mail. Chris and Bill could approach someone in a wheelchair, and have a conversation that goes something like this (after checking to be sure his fake leg is real).

Chris or Bill, to a hypothetical one legged man in a wheelchair: “Rejoice, brother! Rick Scott is governor! Christ is victorious! Get up out of that chair!”

“Christ is going to heal me?” the one legged man replies.

“No, thanks be to God, and all praise, the corporate income tax has been eliminated, as have been the jobs of the people who’ve been caring for you!” Bill or Chris explains. “You have to fend for yourself now, so get up out of that chair!”

And from there on to a schoolyard, where they say: “Rejoice, children! Rick Scott is governor! Christ is victorious!”

“What does that mean to us?” the bewildered children reply.

“It means, thanks be to God, and all praise, the corporate income tax has been eliminated, and there’s no money to educate you, so go play!” Bill and Chris explain. “Uneducated ignoramuses are much more likely to vote Republican, so you growing up stupid means Jesus wins!”

“Cool!” they cry, running away from the school.

There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filth. There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. --Proverbs 30: 12-14

And there are described the Christians of WTBN, the pharisaical, self-righteous, arch conservative hypocrites who think oppression and disregard of their less fortunate neighbors is justified by simply uttering the name Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t trade my heart for the cold black scabs that pump the icy blood through the compassionless veins of your lifeless bodies.

WTBN: Taking Christ Out Of Christian Radio

2011-02-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

Maybe WTBN should consider redescribing itself as occasional Christian radio, or revising its website to show the time slots when actual Christian programming is aired. The last few times I have tuned into WTBN I have heard nothing, not a word about Christ, nor anything even remotely Christian, which is in part why I rarely bother to listen any more. I cannot be alone.

A few weeks ago I tuned in to hear WTBN's two Saturday night weirdos (that is the word, that's what they are) talking about Obama’s mosque. Obama doesn’t have a mosque nor does he worship in one. Obama is a Christian. That nonsense about the mosque in New York City was right wing propaganda designed to whip voters into a frenzy leading up to the election. While listening I heard Stephen Baldwin talking about a recent contention he’d had with Sean Hannity. I found it ironic. Both men call themselves Christians, and both men set themselves up to be the recipients of charity. Baldwin's started out as RestoreStephenBaldwin.com, but is now allthatknowhim.com. Comparing Baldwin to Job is laughably preposterous. The sordid details of Hannity's 'Freedom Alliance' scumbuggery are here. The Hannity case is particularly despicable in that American men and women were mutilated and killed to protect his right and to create the need for him to ask for charity. It is a vile human being with a foul soul that does something like that. True Christians give to others, not themselves.

A couple weeks after that I woke up right about around six am, and decided to turn on WTBN to catch a little Sunday morning Jesus. Surely WTBN Christian radio broadcasts programming related to Jesus Christ on Sunday morning as people prepare for church. Nope. It was Hugh Hewitt, the reich wing talking head whose virtually every word is blind despite for Obama.

This is Hugh Hewitt.

(How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! Proverbs 16:16)

And this is an article about those good 'Christian' scam artist thug enterprise criminals he works for at the Republic Monetary Exchange. I just feel the overwhelming love of Christ surging through me every time I hear Hewitt's voice!

A few nights later, in the wee hours, I tuned in to WTBN, again at random just to see what might be on. It was Jay Sekulow, another right wing chatterbox who decides his stance on any particular issue by first learning what Obama thinks and then taking a diametric stance. He was babbling his self-proclaimed 'expertise' on the crisis in Egypt. I couldn't make heads or tails of his diatribe, but it had nothing to do with the gospel of the Lord.

Sekulow went to a break by announcing that he would interview Senator Mike Lee of Utah in the next segment. I didn't listen to the interview (remember, I started out looking for radio pertaining to Jesus Christ), but I do know a little about Mike Lee. First of all, he is a Mormon. Mormonism calls itself a Christian faith, but it is a perverted fiction that very loosely draws from the story of Jesus Christ. Mike Lee believes it is the truth, and in so doing believes a LIE. He also has some very bizarre ideas about government. Actually, flatout wacko notions. He thinks federal child labor laws are unconstitutional, and that such legal code should be written on a state by state basis. This means that if Montana decided it was alright for business to exploit child labor, the feds should keep out of it. You can read about and watch Mike Lee in action here. Do so and maybe you'll understand why I didn't find an interview between he and Jay Sekulow to have anything to do with Christian radio, and to be worthwhile listening.

Then this morning, again early on another Sunday, I popped in on WTBN again. I'm not sure who (I think it might have been Hugh Hewitt) was extolling the virtues of Ronald Reagan in honor of the deceased president's one hundredth birthday. Here are a few of Ronald Reagan's Christian accomplishments. Even before becoming president he negotiated with terrorists. He said to the Iranian revoluntionaries: "Keep my fellow Americans hostage through the election, and I will sell you guns and bombs five for a dollar to use in your war with Iraq." Then he campaigned on the priceless value of freedom. It's despicable hypocrisy to use freedom in campaign slogans while using fellow Americans deprived of theirs as pawns in an election. He then supplied Iraq weaponry to use in the same war against Iran--so he could be sure to get his hands good and bloody. He and his cronies swiped an International Amex credit card and took out a cash advance to make themselves wealthy. The bill is now due, and it is called the massive deficit that Reagan foisted upon future generations. He also covertly funded two undeclared wars in Central America that resulted in roughly 135,000 deaths, and many innocent Christians were among the number. All this and more he did in the name of Christ on his way to his resting place in Abraham's bosom. Or maybe not.

So anyway, I'm sending this to every email address I can find for the staff of WTBN. If you would be so kind as to let me know when such programming is on, I do enjoy Christian radio. Otherwise, do your listeners, and the Lord, a favor, and stop describing yourselves as Christian radio. It's false advertising.

The Ongoing Lameness of CNN

2011-01-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

While generally a serviceable outlet for news of the day, CNN has long cultivated and maintained its much deserved reputation for lame-o anchors and commentators. In recent years, Glenn Beck worked there for a stint before going over the edge and landing at Fox News. Tea swilling Lou Dobbs’ show was unwatchable before he retired it. Erick Erickson, with his inarticulate and unabashed reich wing stances, is a buffoon. Not so warm and fuzzy Rick Sanchez was fired after calling Jon Stewart a bigot and saying Jews run CNN and all media (an ironically bigoted statement). And after Parker and Spitzer debuted their new show last fall, and invited Andrew Breitbart to be their first guest, I thought CNN had finally extended itself to the furthest reaches of lame.

I was wrong. They continue to outdo themselves. They hired the Englishman Piers Morgan to replace Larry King. To use a word from his country’s popular slang, Morgan is a wanker. I was first introduced to him three years ago, when I caught a couple episodes of his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice, where he availed his tongue to Donald Trump for use as a nutsack polisher. It was a repulsive display of brown nose.

Then I lost all respect for Morgan when I heard a quote from him last year following the BP disaster. In defense of Tony Hayward, BP’s CEO, Morgan said that President Obama seemed to be on “an absolute witch hunt,” against the BP boss. “You know, accidents do happen,” Morgan told CNN’s Connect The World. “There are major issues in terms of safety here, in terms of environmental tragedy that’s going on where this spillage is occurring, but I think simply to demand the guy’s head on a plate when he’s trying to fix it is not sensible politics, and it’s slightly self-serving. And I, if I was Barack Obama, would cool the rhetoric.” That is a quote from this June 11, 2010 article--from CNN.com, of all places. (It was only eight days later, June 19th, that Hayward was seen feverishly working to cap the gusher at a yacht race in the Isle of Wight.)

"Accidents do happen." Wow. I found that British twit's nonchalance to be absolutely appalling.

This was his second week on the air, and Morgan interviewed Joel Osteen. Osteen is the renowned mega church pastor in Houston, famous for preaching the perverted prosperity gospel. During the first part of the interview, when Morgan asked for his opinion on homosexuality, Osteen said: “The scriptures shows that it’s a sin. But you know, I’m not one of those that are out there to bash homosexuals and tell them that they’re terrible people and all of that. I mean, there are other sins in the Bible too….”

Indeed there are other sins in the Bible, one of which is the love of money, and which Osteen also addressed. When Morgan asked him if he feels guilty about his wealth, Osteen replied: “I don’t ever feel guilty because it comes from—it’s God’s blessing on my life. And for me to apologize for God’s—how God has blessed you. It’s almost an insult to our God.”

An insult to God? Osteen sure knows the Lord’s mind.

Amazing, how that Bible is right there at Osteen’s side when he needs it to decry homosexuality, yet when they contradict his own sins, the scriptures conveniently disappear. There are so many that denounce the love of riches--and referring to them as blessings qualifies as love--it is a central theme of the Bible.

Christ’s response to the rich young ruler speaks to Osteen. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved; for he had great possessions. Mark 10:21-22. Osteen behaves exactly as the rich young ruler.

It is a remarkable thing, coincidence. After seeing that clip online last night, I decided to watch some of the Michael Moore film, Capitalism: A Love Story. There is a part where Moore interviews three catholic priests. He asks Father Dick Preston: “Is capitalism a sin?”

Father Preston answers: “Yes. Capitalism, for me, and for many of us, at this present moment, is an evil. It’s contrary to all that’s good, it’s contrary to the common good, it’s contrary to compassion, it’s contrary to all of the major religions. Capitalism is precisely what the holy books, our holy books in particular, remind us of what is unjust, and in some form and fashion, God will come down and eradicate somehow. Capitalism is wrong, and therefore has to be eliminated.”

He then asked Father Pete Dougherty, a catholic priest for forty five years, who said: “It is immoral, it is obscene, it is outrageous. It is real evil, it is radical evil. It’s radically evil.”

And then he asked Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, who said: “The system doesn’t seem to be providing for the well being of all the people, and that’s what makes it, almost in its very nature, something contrary to the Jesus who said: blessed are the poor, woe to the rich. That’s right out of Saint Luke’s gospel.”

As when you have a believer and an atheist together, one of them has to be wrong, they can’t both be right; so it is with Osteen, who says one thing, and the three priests, and the Bible, who say another.

And that is one of CNN’s go to guys for the Christian perspective.

The Bloodiest Liberal

2011-01-20T21:10:00.000-08:00

Last week this cover of Townhall Magazine began making the rounds.

This issue was released January 6, two days before the Tuscon Massacre, but took a few days to grow legs and spread. The image of Attorney General Eric Holder hovering above the dark and bloody field bears a striking resemblence to the Godfather. Hmm.

As of this writing, a week after the tragedy, a visit to townhall.com and the first thing that appears on your computer is a window offering you one of Sarah Palin's books as a subscription bonus. Impeccable timing with relation to the shooting, not failing to mention great respect for the victims.

For all intents and purposes, townhall.com is WTBN 'Christian' radio's sister website. WTBN promotes it heavily, and gives many of its commentators a voice on their airwaves. And every election cycle WTBN endorses the straight Republican ticket, including Palin in '08.

This is the devil that townhall.com, and Fox News, and Sarah Palin's crosshairs, and the volatile climate and the violent rhetoric of the arch conservative media inspired.

And these are that devil's own words: "If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. I define terrorist. This, a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem. You call me a terrorist. Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem."

You can denounce the act, and shout at others, and pass blame and point fingers, but absolving yourselves is not absolution.

John 8:44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

I'm sure that God looking down, and Christ among us, and the Spirit everywhere are all very pleased with WTBN 'Christian' radio and townhall.com's respect for that which is holy.

The list of the 50 most dangerous liberals includes Barack and Michelle Obama, Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey and Jon Stewart--a crew intent on wrecking America if ever one were assembled.

The two criteria were that the person has to be living, and based in America. As all lists are subjective, they are subject to debate, but I really think townhall.com missed the mark and made a momentous omission of the bloodiest, deadliest, most compassionate liberal living in America today. Someone who has inspired the spilling of bulging, raging rivers of blood; and whose own liberal blood, liberally offered up, WTBN claims to be washed by constantly.

Jesus Christ.

The Governor's Mansion

2011-01-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

This past Monday, Martin Luther King Day, to honor the occasion, Alabama's newly sworn in Governor Robert Bentley gave a speech at a Baptist Church.

Included in his remarks were this statement: “I was elected as a Republican candidate…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 it 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.”

Okay, Guv’ner. Are you sure you’re really a Christian? Because you would favor social programs, and would not call yourself a Republican, as their philosophy and agenda are in direct contradiction to Biblical truth.

In Matthew 13: 47-50, it is written: Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

And what is the will of God in heaven, regarding your treatment of your brothers and sisters? Well, in Leviticus 25: 35, it is written: And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

I hope that your new Governor’s home is a ‘mansion with many rooms,’ because there are a lot of poor people in Alabama.

A Christmas Carol for Election Day Chapter 1

2011-01-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

Chapter 1

His first memory of life was a church spire seeming to pierce the clouds. He was a small boy in his mother’s arms, gazing at it over her shoulder while she chatted with some friends from their congregation. She then said goodbye, carried him off along the sidewalk, and the steeple shrunk from view.

They reached a nearby store; she set him down, took his hand and led him in. He stared up at the surroundings while she picked out a few items. She then brought him to the counter, and while she was occupied with the cashier girl, he took a piece of candy and tucked it under his shirt. The girl saw him do it, and when his mother tugged him outside, she followed.

“Mrs. Sleezer,” she said, then having her attention, spoke in her ear.

His mother looked down and said: “Richard, what is inside your shirt?”

He remained mute and still. She removed the candy from hiding, and lightly scolded: “”This does not belong to you, it belongs to the store until you pay for it with money, then it’s yours.”

“But I want it,” he answered.

She handed the candy back to the girl, saying: “I’m sorry, and thank you.”

The following Sunday morning in church, while everyone around him sang and preached and listened and prayed, Richard’s thoughts drifted to daydreams about candy. He wanted to be outside, and hoped they would go to the store again after the service. Then he noticed the alms plate coming down the pew, and when his mother dropped in then passed it over his lap to the man on Richard’s other side, and the man and his mother looked in each other’s eyes and smiled, he deftly snatched a nickel from the plate and clutched it tight. He even made certain to keep it in his right hand, as his mother always held him by the left.

She did indeed carry him to the store, set him down and take him inside again. When they were at the counter Richard deftly reached out, and in one motion left the nickel on the shelf and took a piece of candy and placed it in his shirt. He had picked an invisible moment, and went unnoticed. His mother carried him back to the church, strapped him into the backseat of her jalopy, and they headed home.

He couldn’t resist, and upon reaching their house his lips and hands were smeared with chocolate.

“Where did you get that?” she sternly asked.

“I bought it, mommy,” he answered.

“Where did you get a dollar to buy that?” she asked.

“I didn’t. I paid a nickel. I left it in the store. You said I had to pay for it, you didn’t say how much.”

Richard’s father was a drunken redneck hillbilly who hated negroes, and japs, and chinks and gooks and ruskies and wops and spics and pollacks—everyone who wasn’t a fellow drunken redneck hillbilly. His name was Evert Sleezer, and he lived just a couple miles away from his family, out in the woods, in the three room shack where he was born and raised and had lived his fifty years of life but for the decade he’d been married to Richard’s mother, Bethany. They divorced shortly after Richard’s birth, when Evert, in a whisky-laced haze, nonchalantly twirled a loaded gun while Richard sat on his lap. Bethany had the police take him away, and phoned a lawyer first thing the next morning.

Evert and Bethany produced three children. The twin sisters, Melinda and Belinda, were eight years older. After the divorce they spent a lot of time looking after their little brother, so that their mother could work long hours as a hospital nurse. While each a perfect likeness of the other, there was a clear dichotomy between the twins. Belinda was more drawn to and from their mother, while Melinda had more of their father. Belinda was more thoughtful, and soft; Melinda was rougher and more reactionary.

The children lived with Bethany, but when the time came to visit their father, Belinda hedged while Melinda had to prod her sister; and when it came time to return home to their mother Belinda was by the door while Melinda dawdled and stalled. They did have more freedoms and fun staying in the woods with their father, and spent many weekends there while Bethany looked after Richard.

Richard grew to be isolated and introverted. The vast majority of his time was spent in the company of the three females in his life, and on the rare occasions when he was alone with his father, he felt more awkward and confused rather than any feelings of bonding. Evert did take his son out hunting once when Richard was five. They never encountered anything to kill, but Evert did stop and teach the boy to fire the rifle. The recoil knocked Richard off his feet. He left the gun on the ground, picked himself up and dusted him off. The explosive sensation had been awesome, but he remained in awe the power. Evert reloaded the weapon and offered it to his boy; Richard declined.

Bethany was an avowed bibliophile, and began teaching her son to read from the earliest age he could comprehend. When he could still barely talk she would prop him up on her lap open a book on his and read. She surrounded him with an expansive library, they read together, sometimes for hours. It came to him like second nature—like swimming to a fish, or flying to a bird—and when Bethany began teaching his Sunday School class, he was reading to his classmates from the Bible before most of them had even learned the alphabet. While not anti social, neither was Richard seek out friends. He was always perfectly content to avoid human contact by disappearing into another book.

When he was ten there came a momentous event in his life. Seized by a growing urge to emerge from his shell, he decided it was time to come out before the peers he was with for the large part of most days. He came home from school one afternoon and announced to his mother that he was running for president of his fifth grade class.

She was both surprised and pleased, but also a little wary, for if he had even one friend in school, she was unaware. But she encouraged him. He, on the other hand, had a plan. One Saturday afternoon, when he knew that Belinda and Melinda were off with their father at a fair, he rode his bike out to his father’s house and stealthily made his way through the trees. A couple years earlier he had seen his father bury a strong box containing cash, and memorized its location. He quickly dug it up from the earth—it contained about two thousand dollars. He took a twenty then buried it again and smoothed the ground over with twigs and leaves.

From there he went to a store and had the bill broken into twenty singles. His class was comprised of seventeen children. The election was the coming Tuesday, and his opponent was the very popular Martin Cawler, who was friends with just about everyone in the class, excepting Richard. On Monday after school, Richard surreptitiously slipped one dollar bills to thirteen of his classmates—every one but Martin and his three best friends—with a polite request for their vote the next day.

The following morning Martin confronted him first thing, saying: “So, you think you can buy an election? The only vote you’ll get is your own, and I’ll bet even you’re considering voting for me.”

“I’ll probably get a few votes,” Richard replied.

When they were tallied, Martin squeaked out a nine to eight victory. Richard never forgot how close he’d come to winning, and how he had reached that brink. He overcame his fear of human interaction, and confidently resolved to win any future elections he might enter.

His junior high school career was uneventful, although during those years he began committing an act of thievery that he repeated frequently throughout his life. Whenever he was in a store, and felt an impulse, or found a convenient moment, he would steal his desire and leave a nickel in its place. Anything from toys and food, to books and clothes was fair game—and had he paid a nickel apiece for many of his possessions. This led to a fondness for the actual coin, and he saved them, and always kept a few jingling in his pocket.

At the end of the summer before entering high school, several sudden changes turned his life topsy turvy. His sisters were married in a double wedding. It was a delightful outdoor ceremony in which Belinda wed Stan, an aspiring pastor, and Melinda wed Warren, a soldier. Within a week both girls were gone with their husbands, to a military base in Florida and a mission in the Philippines. A few days after that, Bethany passed away suddenly. Richard found her in her bed; she was gone, and he was alone.

Evert came to the memorial, and they spoke, but it was clear that neither wanted to live with the other, nor would. They agreed that Richard would stay in the house for the time being, and that Evert would avail his presence whenever needed. They put on a show that placated authorities and school officials, and afterward only saw each other occasionally. Then Richard asked and was granted emancipated minor status, and it became irrelevant.

Rather than become despondent, Richard was driven. He focused entirely on his studies, with the goal of graduating in three years, or sooner. He wanted to be away from that place as quickly as possible, so he stacked the school books on a desk and methodically digested them.

In the autumn of his junior year, Richard decided to run again for class president, which pitted him against Martin Cawler, in a rematch of the fifth grade race six years earlier. Richard had thought about it for all that time, and concluded that the large problem was that he simply hadn’t spent enough money.

Knowing that his father would be gone for the day one Sunday, Richard rode his bike out to the woods. He fetched a small shovel from the cellar and dug up the strong box. It was empty. His pounding heart sank. He left box open there on the ground and went into the house. He looked about and pondered, then recalled the luger. It was a World War two handgun that had been stolen from a German and used to kill him and six others. It was very valuable, and his father treasured it. He took it straight to a guy he knew who traded in pawn, and who gave him five hundred dollars for it.

The following morning on his way to school he stopped by the bank and had the cash changed into one hundred five dollar bills, which he went to school and handed out. That night he started sorting through his things, and packing them neatly. The next day he easily defeated Martin by fifteen points. That night he battened down the house and carefully organized a backpack. The next morning he slung it on his back, stopped by the school to submit his presidential resignation, and the papers to prove he’d completed the requirements for his degree. Everything was in order, and after promising to soon provide an address where they could mail his diploma, he left. Two days later he turned seventeen.

A Christmas Carol for Election Day Chapter 2

2011-01-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Richard intended to explore the neighboring states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The plan was to move about by whatever manner any given moment presented, and to seek out random encounters with strangers, in the hope of finding tour guides and new friends, and hopefully, guest beds, couches and floors.

But that was not at all how things turned out. Instead he met only people who wanted his money and his possessions, and whatever he could do for them. He slept many nights hungry and in the open, he was rained upon, he was chased by dogs, and bit by dogs, and bugs, taunted by teenagers, yelled at and spat upon, and when he was attacked and robbed and had a knife within an inch of slashing his throat, he decided to call the venture failed. He turned toward home and walked almost one hundred miles over three days until he was there.

After a few days of mulling his future, he settled on several decisions. He missed academia, and yearned to return, so he went to the bank, took out a loan on the house that was his inheritance, and enrolled in some classes at the local community college. He took several classes that satisfied all college requirements, and one elective, Cognitive Thinking, to satisfy a personal interest in the subject.

He had been enrolled and studying for about two months when one afternoon he was walking across campus when he came upon a guy with a megaphone address a small group of people. Richard stopped to listen and quickly caught the gist.

“This is not a game of world conquest, this is a very real threat, and you should be afraid, deathly afraid, of what might come to pass. For what made America great could become the Achilles’ Heel that brings about her downfall; the very open armed generosity she extended to the rest of the world will be her undoing. For she is a hodgepodge mix of all the nations of the earth. And when the immigrants were pouring through her ports, as many as ten thousand a day, to seed the land, so to speak, they came from every corner of the globe--Europe, Asia and Africa, Central and South America. They also came, good and evil. And the evil brought with them Lucifer’s system of government, the communist red menace.

Communism succeeded for a time under Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, but those dictators were all defeated by allied forces led by the USA. Since America would be the most glorious jewel in Lucifer’s crown. Since he could not take it by force with a frontal assault, he retreated and devised to conquer us from within. Their invasion has been gradual, but they seeds they scattered over the years have now taken root, insidious tendrils spreading like venomous vipers through the fabric of our society. They’ve been biding their time, but that time is drawing dangerously near.”

Richard was listening intently. He had browsed some of the anti-communist literature that someone had lately been distributing around campus, and was profoundly intrigued. He spent endless hours reading history and political philosophy—so much so that he was using it as material to fulfill the curriculum of his Cognitive Thinking class. He was riveted by the man’s speech, who was one of his peers; and when he caught a long pause, he asked the man if he might have the microphone. It was handed to him, Adrenalized emotion surged in his gut, and he passionately said: “He is right. They are here among us and have been for decades, and now do they intend to rise up, and band together against us. Where you have sowed, they intend to reap, the houses you built they intend to occupy, and when your daughters grow up they will take them to wife. You will deposit the money in the bank and they will withdraw and spend it. And the wine you press? Not only will they drink it, you will serve it to them. They will enslave you, and you will pave the roads they travel. What you think is freedom will be slavery, slavery to the government, who will be your god. The question is: are you going to fall in line like lemmings, or resist and be yourselves? Stand your ground and demand your liberty? Or will you be led into a shower to be scrubbed and brainwashed and handed a uniform, a government issued uniform. A striped government issue uniform--not the red and white stripes of liberty, not the thin pintstripes of success--but the harsh black stripes of prisoners. If you are not pulling the strings you are the puppets, and if you are sitting here and can hear my voice, I assure you, you are not pulling the strings. You are dangling pawns who will soon be laying your backs at the feet of communist, Marxist, socialist, fascist overlords!”

That hour’s classes were readying to begin, and most of the small crowd of students who were listening began to trickle away. The young man took the mike back from Richard and introduced himself. “You speak well, brother. My name is Terrence Gill.”

“Richard Sleitzer,” he answered, returning the handshake. “Have you been leaving the literature around campus?”

“That was me. Have you been reading it?” he asked. “It sounds like you have.”

“Indeed, it’s very intriguing,” Richard remarked.

“We’re having a meeting this Saturday night,” Paddy said. “Though it’s really more an excuse to invite some girls over and drink beer. You’re more than welcome. The address is one hundred Blake Street. It’s two blocks that way, the red house on the corner, you can’t miss it. Any time after ten.”

Another student approached the two and said: “You both speak with great conviction, but I think you should know something. People started spreading those false fears a hundred years before you were born. If such a system were going to take hold here, it’s time was long ago, and that time has passed. You also exaggerate some things, and say others that simply aren’t true. Socialism as you hear it advocated nowadays is a political philosophy collective control of the things we necessarily share, such as infrastructure and natural resources, as well as providing equal dignity for our fellow man with regard to education, housing, health care and general welfare. Communism is a philosophy which abolishes class structure by a central government which controls all aspects of life—stores, schools, hospitals, banks and businesses. From the womb to the tomb, so to speak. Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto, so to say ‘communist Marxist’ is redundant. Fascism derives from the Latin word ‘fasces,’ which describes a bundle of wood with a protruding axe head. In political philosophy it is a totalitarian regime that mercilessly oppresses the masses economically, with the vast majority of the citizenry ruled over by a small elite who wield the power of their wealth. They are three very different philosophies, and shouldn’t be lumped together as you just did, and as so many others do also. It makes sloppy rhetoric, flawed forensics, and is intellectually weak.”

“I will keep that in mind, and it was nice to meet you too,” Terrence sarcastically responded. “I have to get to my Political Theory class. It was great to meet you, Richard. Don’t forget the invite for Saturday night.”

“If you’d paid attention to your professor, you’d know these things already,” the stranger remarked. Then he too turned and headed away, adding: “You propaganda drinking nimwits drive me crazy. You slurp it up. I’m in awe of propaganda. In expert hands it is used to convince people to see as good and support the very system that victimizes and destroys them . You don’t want to know the truth, you just listen for what you like, however phony or downright false.”

Richard pondered the wisdom in those words for a few moments, and had turned to go to Cognitive Thinking class when another young man approached him. “That was some dynamic oratory. Wow. I was really impressed.”

“Well thank you. My name is Richard Sleitzer,” he said, offering his hand.

“Paddy O’Maddy,” he answered. “We’re in the same Cognitive Thinking class.”
Richard scrutinized his face, and replied: “I don’t recognize you.”

“That’s because I haven’t been in class for almost two months.”

“That’s half the semester,” Richard remarked.

“I know, and I have to talk to Professor Melonwhite, to see if I can salvage a grade,” Paddy explained. “Speaking of which, we should be going, I’ve already gotten myself in deep enough, I don’t want to compound it by being late on my first day back.”

They walked there together, and were in fact five minutes late. They slipped in the back of the room and quietly seated themselves at the rear. The course was team taught by two women who lectured on alternating days. Professor Melonwhite was a middle-aged woman whose primary discipline was philosophy. She started every class with a five minute introduction, whether she was lecturing or not. Professor Adamly was an elder woman who’d been in the history department for twenty five years. She took attendance during Professor Melonwhite’s introductions, and was seen to fall into naps several times during her lectures.

After class Paddy said to Richard: “Can I buy you a cup of coffee at the campus union? I’d like to hear more of your thoughts on politics.”

“Sure, why not?” Richard answered.

“Great,” Paddy said. “First let me go explain my long absence to Professor Melonwhite. “ They approached the woman and Paddy very apologetically explained that he’d been attending to an illness in his family. She was understanding, and said they could arrange for him to do enough work to get credit. Then she turned to Richard and said: “And what about you?”

“What about me?” he replied incredulously.

“Where have you been for the past two months?” she asked.

“I’ve been right here,” he answered. “I haven’t missed a class.”

“That’s not what the attendance book says,” Professor Melonwhite declared. She retrieved it from the desk where Professor Adamly sat, and showed Richard where he had been marked absent for eight weeks. He produced from his book bag a paper she’d graded and returned the previous week. “I had to be in class to get it back.”

“That explains one,” she said.

“Well I had to be here to turn it in!” he said in exasperation.

“That explains two, what about the rest?” she demanded.

“Do I have to have a special occasion every day to prove I’ve been here? Professor Adamly has obviously been overlooking me when taking attendance, which is no surprise, as she sleeps through the classes she’s not teaching.”

Stung by the insult, Professor Melonwhite lost her cool. “If you can’t prove you were in those other fourteen classes, I’ll have no choice but to fail you.”

“I’ll just re-enroll in your class next semester,” Richard retorted, “after speaking with the department head first, of course. With you two asleep at the wheel, this course is careening out of control. It just sideswiped Professor Evans economics class, clipped the chemistry lab, which it crippled, and flipped into a barrel roll and is bearing down on your beloved history department like a hundred mile an hour tumbleweed! It’s about to scatter your colleagues and decimate their offices with the force of a mighty ten pin strike! ”

“Very well, Mr. Sleitzer, I am a reasonable woman,” she calmly stated. “I have a better solution. You’ve demonstrated a great understanding of cognitive thinking, and let’s just count that little outburst of yours as your final. If you never set foot in my classroom again I will promise you an A. Do and it reduces to a B, do it and open your mouth, you’ll get a C, and anything beyond that will result in you passing with the minimum grade that ensures I never have to see your face again. Deal?”

He smiled and silently turned his back. She disappeared into the crowded hallway.

Paddy gave Richard a slack jawed stare, then said: “That was awesome….”

How Republicans Are Fulfilling Biblical Prophesy

2011-01-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

I recently came across this nonsense in The Christian Science Monitor, an article entitled: Would Global Warming Be So Bad? http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Stefan-Karlsson-s-Blog/2010/1223/Would-global-warming-be-so-bad (For the curious, you can read a brief history of Christian Science by reading chapter eight of DRIFTING WITH JESUS, which I have posted here.)

Last month it was the Resisting The Green Dragon idiocy that I wrote about, and last week the sputum spouting liar Tucker Carlson at Fox ‘News’ seized on the recent blizzard as proof that climate change is a hoax and a lie. This was a day after he professed himself a Christian in the subject of a sentence, then pronounced that Michael Vick should have been executed for his dog-killing crimes with the predicate, should you be curious to Carlson’s credibility.

These ‘Christian’ attacks on the validity of climate change science are absurd, and truly not Christian at all. Condoning the destruction of the earth is disrespect of God, period. If you spent months planting, watering and tending a garden only to have your children chop it down, trample it into the ground and set it on fire, would you chasten or reward them? It’s not difficult to imagine. Notwithstanding, any true Christian familiar with the Scriptures knows and fears the starkly accurate prophecies regarding the destruction of the earth in the latter days. But since many Christians don’t actually read the Bible, I thought I’d give a brief rundown of a few as pertaining to climate change. At the end of each prophecy I’ve included a link to a video that demonstrates how these prophecies are coming to pass even now. The focus here is on the prophecies that appear in Revelation, so for the sake of logic I’m just going to take them in order.

The prophecies really begin in Revelation 6:2-8, which describes the famous four horseman of the Apocalypse—Conquest, War, Famine and Death. The latter three are pretty self-explanatory as pertaining to end times prophecy. As to Conquest, I have written a longer piece offering my interpretation of that, which you can read by following this link.

Next is Revelation 6:12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

Earthquake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_s4UMLm8LM

Black sun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EN5wPOkOoA

Blood moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc5Ck-N0CzE&feature=watch_response

Revelation 8:7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwfQTTbAtKA

Revelation 8:9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dh4hmVi7qg

Revelation 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died because of the waters, because they were made bitter.

BP oil spill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brqz9q3xR3s

Hydraulic Fracturing aka Fracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8&feature=related

Revelation 9:7-10 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails; and their power was to hurt men five months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD6zab5GxTo&playnext=1&list=PLD92C14E0F3B7B53B&index=10

Revelation 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-gELlf2xy4

Revelation 16:9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues; and they repented not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlKfpaSOuBM

Revelation 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sks6D2l8erA

Revelation 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfk_5WNxVY

Revelation 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQYrmlv5TsQ&feature=related

Now, some of these are acts of Nature, and God, but many are the works of the hands of men, and those are driven by one thing—money. Since the Bible teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil. 1 Timothy 6:10; using syllogistic logic we can conclude that these are works of the Devil. The driving force behind money is big business (see the aforementioned ‘merchants of the earth’), wherefore big business seeks representation in and control of world governments. And that is where the Republican party comes in. Once a political ideology, the Republican party has morphed into the beholden servants of big business. They claim to be the party of family values, and fiscal responsibility, and Jesus Christ, but they are liars, and will say and do anything for votes.

The Republicans one item agenda this election was extending tax cuts for the wealthy. Beyond that their only concerns are opposition to universal health care, as it interferes with the interests of big business health care; and defanging and removing environmental regulations, which interfere with the big business of oil and energy; and ignoring the foreclosure crisis they created, in the interest of the big business of legally stealing homes; and opposition to Wall Street reform, because it interferes with the big business of the filching financial industry; and authorizing the unjustified invasions of two sovereign nations to benefit the big business of the war profiteers in the industrial military complex. And all this while preaching austerity for the middle and lower class as the way to address the massive national debt which the Republicans created, and just increased. That is shameless hypocrisy.

Many Republicans call themselves Christian, but just like the Devil, they are liars. Otherwise their concerns would be helping their less fortunate fellow Americans in the areas of housing, health care, job creation, education and feeding the millions who go hungry every day—just the general welfare of the people that the Bible calls their ‘brothers and sisters.’ And if they were truly Christian they wouldn’t fix themselves squarely at the wrong end of powerful scriptures.

In Luke 17:1 Jesus warned: It is impossible that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

I would say that destroying the earth, and bombing innocent civilians, and oppressing the poor qualify as offenses.

Furthermore, if they were truly Christian they would be deathly afraid of this scripture in Revelation 11:18. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

The White Horseman of the Apocalypse

2011-01-10T08:15:00.001-08:00

Four of the more mysterious figures in the Bible are the horsemen of the Apocalypse—Conquest, War, Famine and Death. I recently came across the white horseman, Conquest, yet again interpreted as the Antichrist, and decided to lay down my thoughts on the subject.

Many Christians interpret the white horseman as the Antichrist. Notables are Billy Graham and David Jeremiah. In recent years, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of the apocalyptic Left Behind series, offer the same interpretation.

I forced my way through the first 100 pages of the first Left Behind novel, and found it unreadable. The writing was atrocious, and there was not a single scriptural reference. I also slogged through the three film crapfest to see what everyone was purportedly talking about. It was…um…blech. That’s only my opinion, and if I thought it was good I’d be the first and loudest voice singing their praises.

In Left Behind a character offers such a speculation, and in their nonfiction book ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES? LaHaye and Jenkins write: “The first seal introduces the initial member of the famous ‘four horsemen of the Apocalypse.’ The rider is said to have a bow but no arrows, indicating that although he is militarily strong, in the beginning he does his conquering by diplomacy. Since he wears a crown, we know he is successful in his efforts. And who is this rider on a white horse? There can be no doubt that it is the Antichrist, who through deceit and clever maneuvering will bring a false peace to the world. But that peace will not last.”

That is just plain sloppy interpretation of prophecy. Here is the verse, Revelation 6:2. And I saw, and behold, a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The scripture clearly states that the crown was given to him, not that he obtained it through military victory; and that after receiving it, he went forth conquering.

Yet the white horseman as THE Antichrist remains a common belief among many contemporary Christians. Go online and watch some end times/antichrist documentaries, and read in a few books, and you will see over and over the white horseman interpreted to be the Antichrist. Even though Jesus Christ later appears in Revelation, in heaven, upon a white horse: Revelation 19:11-12 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.

The thinking goes that because the first horseman has a single crown and a bow, while Jesus Christ has many crowns upon his head, they are two different entities. But to this student of scripture it seems otherwise, that the white horseman is Jesus Christ. First of all, since white is used throughout the Bible to symbolize purity, holiness, righteousness and good, why would a prince of Satan be portrayed riding a white horse? And if God sent forth a horseman upon the earth to conquer, who would he conquer but the kings of the earth? And when you defeat a king what is the ultimate gesture of subjugation? you seize his crown. And so it seems to me the explanation is that Christ was given one crown--when coronated the king of kings--then sent forth, and after conquering the kings of the earth, he appears in heaven with all their crowns.

Further, in between the sending forth of the first horseman and the appearance of Christ on a white horse in heaven, there is this scripture, which would fit the notion of it being Christ on the white horse conquering: Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

When I watch these documentaries and read these books, I am struck that very often these writers and preachers want you to believe that they are gifted with profound understanding of scripture; that they have been given know the truth, which they are sharing with you; that they are so beholden to their own egos rather than submitting themselves as servants of the Lord, that they will bend the Bible to fit their own narrative.

It is part of the mystery that God only knows. I think you should read the Bible cover to cover ten times, study it in context, and decide for yourself.

The Christian Car Thief

2011-01-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. -- Job 15:34.

Over the weekend Congressman Darrell Issa--the incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with the power of subpoena--appeared on the Sunday morning political shows and primed us for the coming two years of investigations into the Obama administration that he plans to oversee. On the Rush Limbaugh show last fall he called Obama “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” This past Sunday he rephrased the statement to “the Obama administration.” Since this showboating buffoon seems determined to bask in the limelight for the duration of the 112th Congress, let us turn the spotlight onto his past.

It is common knowledge that Darrell Issa is the wealthiest member of Congress, with an estimated worth of roughly 250 million dollars. He amassed the bulk of his fortune through the sale of the Viper car alarm. How did he come to know so much about car alarms? The years he spent as a car thief were his apprenticeship, of course.

Here are some of the highlights of his criminal past, as widely reported online. Here follows a nutshell; you can read in greater detail here: Issa's Arrests.

“In 1971, a retired Army seargent claimed that Issa stole a Dodge sedan from an Army post near Pittsburg. The seargent said he recovered the car after confronting and threatening Issa. Issa denied the allegations and no charges were filed.

In 1972, Issa and his brother allegedly stole a red Maserati sports car from a dealership in Cleveland. They were indicted for auto theft, but the case was dropped.

That same year, Issa was convicted in Michigan for possession of an unregistered gun. He received three months probation and paid a $204 fine.

On December 28, 1979, Issa and his brother allegedly faked the theft of Issa’s Mercedes Benz sedan and sold it to a car dealer for $16,000, according to court records. He and his brother were charged with felony auto theft in San Jose in 1980. But in August 1980, a prosecutor dismissed the case for lack of evidence. The men were later charged with misdemeanors, but that case was not pursued, said retired police detective Richard Christiansen, lead investigator in the case.

Issa later accused his brother of stealing the car, and said that the experience with his brother was the reason he went into the car alarm business.

A day after a court order was issued, giving Issa control of automotive company A.C. Custom over an unpaid $60,000 debt, Issa allegedly carried a cardboard box containing a handgun into the office of A.C. Custom executive Jack Frantz, and told Frantz he was fired.

In response, Issa said, “Shots were never fired. …I don’t recall having a gun. I really don’t. I don’t think I ever pulled a gun on anyone in my life.’”

He doesn’t recall ever pulling a gun on anyone in his life? I never have, but I’m sure I would remember it vividly if I had. Unless he's done it so many times that one particular incident got lost in the blur.

So this is the man calling the Obama administration corrupt. What a despicable hypocrite. That, friends and neighbors, is the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. That, friends and neighbors, is one of the ‘righteous’ Republicans that WTBN ‘Christian’ radio rejoiced in getting elected this past November (although where WTBN sees righteous men and women, I often see devils). That, friends and neighbors, is the real Darrell Issa—Liar, Thief, Congressman.

You’ll be seeing much more of him in ’11 and ’12 as the Republicans seek to divert attention from the real issues by conducting frivolous investigations while they enact their Christian agenda of cutting social programs, outsourcing more jobs, wrecking social security, attempting to repeal health care for ALL GOD’S CHILDREN, and destroying public education while giving more money to Darrell Issa’s wealthy friends. He asked the oil corporations which regulations they would like him to weaken or remove altogether. That is pure evil.

I began with Job, so I’ll end with Job. On Darrell Issa’s Wikipedia page it states that he belongs to the Antiochian Orthodox Church. If Issa was truly a Christian he would model himself after the spotless Job: I put on my righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor…. Job 29:14-16.

But for Issa to call himself a Christian then pursue what he has planned means he’s a liar, not a true Christian, and more likely to fulfill Job 27:8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

The Lies Of The White Lotus

2010-12-22T09:31:00.000-08:00

“The Devil lurks behind the cross.” -- anonymous.

Earlier this year, when the Catholic sex scandals were back in the news, the Catholic church’s chief exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, said that the Devil has infiltrated the Vatican.

It’s no surprise that the Devil covets all things on earth that belong to Jesus. Nor does he confine himself to churches. I’ve been listening to WTBN ‘Christian’ radio on and off for two years, and in that time the amount of actual Christian programming about the real Jesus seems to have decreased significantly. Now when I tune in WTBN I am more likely to hear some foaming conservative blabbermouth spouting wicked right wing talking points rather than anything about Jesus Christ (who is liberal, by the way. Get a dictionary and look the word up. Here, I’ll do it for you.)

Liberal, adj. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry; marked by generosity.

This past election cycle the voices of WTBN endorsed the Republican candidates, implying, by virtue of being ‘Christian’ radio, that doing so was casting a righteous vote. I don’t understand how they draw their conclusions.

Hypothetical Christian Agenda

Assisting the poor
Housing the homeless
Feeding the hungry
Educating all children
Providing health care to everyone
Peace

Very Real Republican Agenda

Tax cuts for the wealthy
Obstruct Obama
Shut down the government
War

The devil was a murderer…and a liar. John 8:44. Republicans are murderers and liars too. They spouted a pack of lies to justify launching two unnecessary wars. They claimed to be fiscally conservative while wrecking the economy with their reckless policies. They scream at Democrats about the national deficit, yet Republican presidents and congresses CREATED the deficit. They say tax cuts for the wealthy stimulate the economy. Howso? Unemployment has more than doubled since those tax cuts were first implemented nine years ago. Many Republicans call themselves Christians but are not, because they are liars, because they are of their father, the Devil. It goes on and on and on. There’s pretty much one sure way to determine if a Republican politician is lying: their lips are moving.

Yet these are the politicians WTBN endorses every election cycle, in the name of Christ.

So, the same WTBN who casts its votes for devils; that had a sponsor who declared gold is king; whose ‘Christian’ website, the unholy, hate-spewing, lying propaganda outlet townhall.com, which, among other nasties, once peddled a tee shirt emblazoned: I’D RATHER BE WATERBOARDING; whose hosts interview nazi consorters and call them ‘blessed with insight,’ and white supremacists and call them ‘historians,’ now have taken up a new cause to advocate: environmental activism is evil. That’s right, you heard correctly: environmental activism is evil. It boggles the mind. They call it the ‘green dragon.’ I heard WTBN advertise this website the other night, go see for yourself: www.resistingthegreendragon.com

That is one of the most ridiculous videos I have ever seen. In Freudian psychology, there is a phenomenon known as 'psychological projection,' which is defined as: ‘a psychological defense mechanism where a person unconsciously denies their own thoughts, attributes and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world or to other people.’ The video was made by Republicans who accuse environmentalists of doing the very things they themselves seek to accomplish. Since virtually every word of the video is false or misleading, let’s call it the ‘lies of the white lotus,’ the white lotus being phony Christians and the perversion of the gospel they hold for doctrine.

Here is a verbatim transcription of the narrative of the video: “In what has become one of the greatest deceptions of our day, radical environmentalism is striving to put America, and the world, under its destructive control. This so-called ‘green dragon’ is seducing your children in our classrooms, and in popular culture. Its lust for political power now extends to the highest global levels (picture of the White House shown), and its twisted view of the world elevates nature above the needs of people, of even the poorest and the most helpless. With millions falling prey to its spiritual deception, the time is now to stand and resist.”

Here the screen is filled with several short captions: False Religion, Hurting The Poor, Endangering Human Life, Global Government, Resisting The Green Dragon.

The narrative thread resumes: “The religious and political environmental movement, what we call the ‘green dragon,’ has become one of the greatest threats to society and the church in our day. Taking care of the earth sounds like a good idea because it is a good idea. What most Christians don’t understand is that environmentalism is a whole worldview. It offers its own doctrines of God, of creation, of humanity, of sin, and of redemption. I think the fear mongering is simply a way of obtaining power. Whoever controls the environmental regulations controls the economy, controls the population. Most environmentalists want to greatly reduce human population, which is why the green movement, and the population control and reduction movements have gone hand in hand. The Green Dragon series is not simply about global warming. This is a twelve week series about properly understanding the times in which we live, and properly understanding a biblical response to the times in which we live. In this series of lectures we have some of the world’s leading Christian experts addressing one of the greatest threats that now faces society and the church. We call this resisting the green dragon.”

Now let’s go examine the content, applying the theory of psychological projection to the Republicans who made the video.

--Lust for Political Power. Republicans continually covet greater political control of the government, and to the highest levels—i.e. the White House.

--False Religion. That’s a good one. Republicans are purveyors of the white lotus, offering a selectively interpreted version of Christianity that is not the true Jesus. They exhort you to hate liberals and fear socialism when Jesus is a liberal and the kingdom of heaven socialist. That is how the Devil talks. See Isaiah 5:20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.

--Hurting The Poor. The mention of the needs of the poorest and most helpless is utterly laughable: Republicans don’t give a flying fig about the poor. The Republican party is an aspect of corporate business models, and their only concern is for the wealthy. Republican politicians clomp upon the heads of the poor, with cold callous, like endless miles of cobblestone.

--Endangering Human Life. Ask the countless Iraqi civilians and coalition forces who were maimed in that wicked war founded on lies by Republican ‘Christians.’ The million or so more dead can't speak for themselves, but I think it safe to conjecture they'd say their lives were endangered by American Republican 'Christians.'

--Global Government. Another laugher. The Republicans accepted massive campaign donations from undisclosed sources in foreign countries this past election cycle. If the Democrats had been the recipients of the same donations, the Republicans would have been screaming Communist infiltration! Global government! Be afraid, be very afraid! But since Republicans received the money, not a peep. These campaign donations were not proffered philanthropically, so the Republicans are beholden to give something back, which will mean working together, as one, with their overseas benefactors, who influence their nations’ governments.

--Fear mongering to obtain power. Have you watched Fox News and read conservative websites in the past decade? Republicans are the shameless masters of exploiting fear to influence the vote.

--Copntrolling Environmental Regulations. It is Republicans who seek to control environmental regulation, and to remove every last one, and to destroy the earth for financial gain. The BP disaster was a direct result of Bush administration deregulation, and no Christian in their right mind would subscribe to such a wicked view. In Revelation 11:18, regarding the last judgment, it is written: …the wrath is come…and the time…to destroy them which destroy the earth. True Christians cherish creation; false Christians, the lying children of the Devil, are among those who will ravage the earth to their own destruction.

--Leading Christian experts addressing environmental activism as a threat to society and churches? They are the social and spiritual threat, being blind Republicans who seek to lead others into the pit wherein they will fall.

Disrespecting our Father by decimating our Mother, to the contamination and destruction of our children’s inheritance, does not strike me as acting righteously; and claiming thusly is a lie. And since the Devil is the father of lies, it logically follows that Resisting The Green Dragon is a work of the Devil.

I’m going to recycle some newspaper now. I know you green dragon fighting 'Christians' will say I’m being deceived by Satan, and doing his bidding, but I know better than to listen to you: the white lotus that fills your bellies fuels your lips. Nor does recycling feel evil; it feels good, and right.

A Prayer for Sarah

2010-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

Geez Sarah, I don't even know where to begin with what to say. Quite simply, Catholicism and Jehovah's Witnesses are false doctrines. They teach their followers many things that simply are not true. I most pity your husband, going from the one to the other.

I’ve read and studied these things extensively for years now. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover four times, and am now about halfway on my fifth time through. I'm in no way boasting, just making it clear how dearly I love the Lord and his Word.

The Catholics teach that Mary is a Virgin eternally. The Bible makes it clear that after giving birth to Jesus, Mary and Joseph consummated their marriage and had other children. Read Matthew 13:55-56. The ten commandments forbid idolatry. The Catholics churn out millions upon millions of statues of Jesus, Mary and the saints, which are idols. It goes on and on...Catholic disregard for Biblical truth is simply arrogant.

There are no 144,000 chosen that will rule with Christ. You can believe it, but it’s not true. That number comes from Revelation 7:4-8, and Revelation 14:1-4. If you read in the Bible you’ll see them clearly described as Jewish and as virgins, so you’ve got NO shot at getting there, since you're neither.

The Jehovah’s Witness doctrine was invented as a money making scheme by a middle aged salesman named Charles Taze Russell. He was not a good person. He’s well known for hiding his money from his wife before divorcing her. Jehovah’s doctrine is not revelation from God, it’s a crock of crap. Sorry to be so harsh on what you believe, but it’s fiction. What about the billion or so people who walked the earth between the time of Jesus and the appearance of Charles Taze Russell in the 1870s? Why were they denied the knowledge of the 144,000 chosen?

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 reads: “And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have four time predicted the end of the world (which was doubly stupid, as Matthew 24:36 reads: But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.) Jehovah's Witnesses are NOT gifted with prophesy.

There are several places in the Scriptures where God issues stern warnings about altering the Word of God. Read the very last lines of the Bible: Revelation 22:18-19. "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made their own translation of the Bible which spliced in somewhere in the neighborhood of 270 references to Jehovah that aren’t in the real New Testament. Similarly they’ve removed most or all references to Hell, about which Christ spoke extensively. According to the Bible, altering scripture as the Jehovah's Witnesses have is very, very bad. And while the Jehovah’s Witnesses can teach you all day that there is no such place as Hell, they are very wrong.

I just came across this scripture, which I quite like. John 4:23: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.”

My suggestion, which I pray the Spirit will inspire you to do, is for you and your husband to read the Bible beginning to end. Forget everything you've been taught, much of which is untruth, and open it to page one and read. I try to read four or five pages each morning and let them sink in throughout the day. Do that and it should take you about a year. And if you’re using that Jehovah's Witness New World Translation place it in the garbage. Seriously. Don't even donate it to a thrift store, remove it from circulation and place it where it belongs, in the trash. It's nothing sacred, it’s rubbish. Get yourself a King James Version, or another legitimate translation.

I really hope I don’t sound harsh nor mocking--with the way I have and do live, I honestly don't believe my own salvation is guaranteed--and I’m sure you fellowship with some lovely and sincere people at your Kingdom Hall. I also hope you come to know the real Jesus, and not that strange variation the Jehovah’s have invented.

The Antichrists

2010-11-14T09:38:00.000-08:00

Chapter 21 of Drifting With Jesus

The Antichrists

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. -- 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

When the bus stopped off in Colorado Springs, Jeremy suddenly said goodbye to Oscar again and alighted. Oscar was unsurprised, and replied that given the way their paths were running, they’d probably cross again before Jeremy reached the east coast. After a light lunch Jeremy was strolling around the small downtown when he came upon a theater. He looked up at the marquee and saw that the film Jesus Camp was playing. He then checked the show times, and saw that the projector rolled in ten minutes. He nonchalantly bought a ticket and went in.

The film told the story of how Pastor Becky used her ministry and bible camp to indoctrinate children into her interpretation of Christianity. She did it with a microphone and a mix of chanting, cheers and fear. She gathered the children together and stirred them into a babbling frenzy, then began speaking in tongues. “Oh so co ho, rashal de cahalebusida….Hallelujah!” Becky forced the passion into her voice while the children looked on fearfully. “Let’s do it. Oh, we love you Jesus. Let the Holy Spirit fall. Feel His power. This is you talking, and the Holy Spirit’s going to tell you what to say. Don’t stop! Don’t stop! This is the greatest day of your life, this is the day you got saved.” Many of the children were crying.

Becky then explained herself to the narrator. “A lot of it, just in the last few years, has to do with President Bush. He’s really brought some credibility to the Christian faith. He’s been very open, blatantly open, about his faith in God.”

The children were taught that global warming is not real. And that creation was right and evolution was stupid and that science doesn’t prove anything. They were told to hold flags while laying hands on a Bible. They were shown stuffed animals that represented sin, and told that the devil was after them. They ritually smashed ceramic cups with a hammer, then cried out to Jesus through their tears. They were dressed up as soldiers and trained to be prayer warriors.

In one scene where the children were gathered, another woman brought out a life size cardboard idol of George Bush, stood it before them, and said, “Okay, we’re gonna welcome Mr. President now… say, ‘welcome President Bush…do some warfare over him. Do some war-“ As the children chanted, ‘in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name’ she started babbling in tongues. “Odda boka she code tela ma haya. Here he is, he’s come to visit us. Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Tell him.” She led them. “Mr. President.”

The children repeated after her. “Mr. President.”

“One nation under God.”

“Mr. President, one nation under God,” they shouted, then the room exploded into cheers.

Toward the end of the film Ted Haggard was briefly featured. He was also referred to as Pastor Ted, and was then president of the National Evangelical Association, and peacock proud of his weekly phone calls to President Bush.

In the film, Haggard said: “We believe that the Bible is the word of God. We don’t have to have a general assembly about what we believe, it’s written in the Bible. So we don’t have to debate what we should think about homosexual activity, it’s written in the Bible.” He then exhorted his congregation to uphold a core moral code, and led them in prayer. “Father, in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus, we pray for President Bush as he’s preparing to elect a new supreme court nominee. Give us a pillar of strength that lasts forever.”

In Pastor Ted’s book, he describes his ideal Christian life. “I want my finances in order, my kids trained, my wife to love life, and good friends who are a delight…I don’t want surprises, scandals or secrets… I want the church to help me live life well, not exhaust me with endless ‘worthwhile’ projects.” Those are not exactly the selfless words one would expect to hear from a Christian.

A few months after Jesus Camp was released Pastor Ted was disgraced when regular methamphetine fueled dalliances with a gay prostitute were revealed.

After viewing the film Jeremy walked over to the library and did some research, then cobbled together a short piece of writing based on the results of his reading.

In the 2000 presidential campaign George Bush invoked the name of Christ during a debate, and said that discovering Jesus Christ “changes your heart.”

Okay, well enough, and very true. Now read and apply this scripture. Hebrews 10:26-27. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Much of the speculation about the Antichrist is based on the beast in Revelation, but while the words beast, dragon, false prophet, devil and Satan all appear in the narrative of Revelation, antichrist is not used. The word ‘antichrist’ appears only five times in the Bible, and all in the first two epistles of John, and defines itself in one scripture: Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:22

The word’s appearance four verses before is just as revealing. Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. 1 John 2:18
So as some pastors and prophecy fanatics warn us from pulpits and in pop culture that these are the last days and the antichrist is coming, so is the first part of the scripture fulfilled; and that being so, thus also is the second, that many antichrists are now among us.

He who says he is of Christ but does abominably is a liar, and denies God, and is antichrist. How a man is abomination to God is described in lucid detail in Proverbs 6:16, where it is written: These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Therein do we find our former president described uncannily. That smug, prideful look of George Bush is as unforgettable as the lies, the bloody hands and the dreams of a dark heart—everything you would imagine an antichrist to be. He stole an election, with help from his father, and deceived many, in that so many Christians voted for him—exactly as some ‘Christians’ say will happen when the Antichrist comes.

Along with his sidekick the false prophet Cheney--who fear mongered about the falling sky while warnings were ignored and attacks launched on their watch--they roared through eight years of history and left waves of social, cultural and economic destruction still repercussing into the future and a deep wake of devastation behind, bungling everything from hurricanes to terror attacks. And just as with those disasters, it will take the fulness of time to number the dead and measure the damage.

It could be argued that Bush was worse than a Caesar—insomuch as while the Caesars persecuted the Jews, Bush not only wrought evil upon his enemies, but his OWN countrymen. Bush a Christian? In eight years did he do even one good act? One? The military invasions and the resulting bloodshed? Doling out to the wealthy from the national treasury, at the expense of the poor, and to the devastation of the world economy? Ignoring the cries of the dying when Katrina swept through? Blessing his friends who were destroying God’s earth?

A truly Christian president would have performed MANY good deeds. Bush--I can't think of one. Yet the Christian right wing, that pack of hypocrites and liars who’ve hijacked the word of the Lord to their own selfish and perverted ends, propped up George Bush antichrist as one of their leaders.

President Reagan is another of their heroes. Like Bush, Reagan professed himself Christian. Many ‘Christians’ describe him as “a great…beloved…hero.” In truth, he was one of the more evil characters in United States history. He never met a war he didn’t want to arm. As to those covert, undeclared wars he funded in Nicaragua and El Salvador, the people of Central America are largely impoverished, and predominantly Christian in the civilian regions where Reagan’s contras were planting land mines and murdering. Roughly 135,000 people died in those conflicts, and it is fair to say that innocent Christian blood was spilled in the slaughter.

Jesus said, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Can you spill Christian blood in the name of Christ? No.

Are Bush and Reagan antichrists? Two of the many prophesied by the scriptures.

The Shakespeare Rejection Letters

2010-11-09T10:51:00.000-08:00

The Shakespeare Rejection Letters

(This stand alone piece is chapter 27 of my novel, Peppercorn Cafe. You can read more about the novel and the first few chapters here.)

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Michael Morneau asked me to respond to your submission of Hamlet to Pyramid Publishing, which I have now reviewed.

Let me start by saying that you do show some skill in developing characters and plot. Also, the amount of carnage and blood spilled meet the quotas as set forth in the Pyramid Publishing guidelines for lurid content. That said, I do think the story needs to be reworked before it will be ready for publication.

What struck me most was that the end should have been the beginning. Give our readers the slaughter they crave right from page one. Then, rather than having Horatio and Fortinbras recounting the events in retrospect, introduce a CSI detective to reconstruct the crimes. With all the blood everywhere, it would be interesting to run the DNA to see if Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius were actually related or not. You could also blood test Ophelia, to discover whether she really drowned or if the manner of her death was staged as a cover up to some nefarious poisoning. Are you seeing all the same potential here that I do?

Since you mention in your cover letter that you have some other ideas for stories, this could be the first in a series of detective novels, which sometimes do quite well here at Pyramid Publishing. If you decide to rework Hamlet with these thoughts in mind, please resubmit to Mr. Morneau’s office and I’ll be glad to take another look.

All best,

David Haverly
Assistant to Michael Morneau
Vice President
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Thank you very much for thinking of Pyramid Publishing as a potential publisher of your play Macbeth. After much discussion and serious consideration, we are going to have to pass. While you make use of some interesting imagery and quirky language, in the end I felt it was a confusing story that fell flat.

As a woman I was put off by your naming a character ‘Lady.’ Just last week I was walking along Fifth Avenue when this little scalawag plowed into me and then had the nerve to say: “Hey lady, watch where you’re going.” My name is not Lady, and he was the one not paying attention. Since roughly half our readers are women, we need to be mindful of and appeasing to their sensibilities, part of which is calling them by identifiable names. Consider Edna or Melissa or somesuch.

I also didn’t understand the part about Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane. Being rooted in the ground, trees can’t move. However, should you decide to rework Macbeth into something more commercially viable, the forest setting does offer a suggestion. Lately Pyramid Publishing has been doing very well with vampire and werewolf fiction. We have to give our readers what they demand, which is vampirism and lycanthropy, as well as women with recognizable names.

I do wish you well.

Molly (not Lady) Dugall
Acquisitions Editor
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

I’d like to thank you for submitting your cycle of plays about the War of the Roses to Pyramid Publishing. Eight plays, that’s an impressive accomplishment! I don’t know how you kept all the Richards and Henrys straight.

As you might know, the publication of history books is a tricky business, those murky waters being colored by many shades of grey. Here at Pyramid Publishing our standard of excellence demands an excruciating degree of fact-checking and cross-referencing before we will publish anything we are comfortable calling factually accurate by branding it with the Pyramid Publishing logo. Because of this high bar whereto we strive, we can only consider history books written by authors who hold PhDs or are enrolled in doctoral programs at accredited institutions of higher learning.

Because you seem to really know your subject matter, I have enclosed a list of Pyramid Publishing approved universities whose faculty, students and alumni are qualified to write for us. Should you decide to enroll in one of these programs we will be happy to consider your plays for publication; and if you already are, please submit proof and we will proceed with your submission forthwith.

Warm regards,

Genevieve Blumquart
Acquisitions Editor
Pyramid Publishing

P.S. Did you see the film The War of the Roses? While I thought Michael Douglas’ performance left somewhat to be desired, Kathleen Turner was fabulous.

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Thank you for submitting your poetry collections to Pyramid Publishing. While at times interesting, and displaying some degree of proficiency with the language, I’m afraid I’ll have to take a pass. People stopped writing rhyming poetry years ago—think free verse, free association, and stream of consciousness. And since the only people who buy poetry books are other poets, I don’t see how we could successfully create nor carve a niche for you in the limited and highly competitive market for poetry chapbooks. You might try one of the smaller presses that specialize in that sort of thing.

Very best regards,

Lulu Pluma
Senior Editor
Pyramid Publishing

P.S. The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis are rather longish, don’t you think? I’d consider streamlining the stories by cutting a few verses here and there. Just a thought. (smile).

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to consider your play, Othello, for publication here at Pyramid Publishing. Ms. Lulu Pluma’s office forwarded it to mine.

Being in a biracial relationship—I am Latina and my husband is Irish—I was very empathetic to the plight of Othello and Desdemona and their clandestine romance. If I only had a peso for every potato enchilada and whisky soaked taco joke I’ve ever heard…. But with the advances in race relations that have taken place over the last couple generations, it is my informed opinion that the troubles publication of Othello would stir up would not be worth the sales the resulting publicity would generate, so I am going to pass.

Also, I don’t think it’s necessary to refer to Othello’s blackness by calling him a Moor. While I would prefer to call a spade a spade, we here at Pyramid Publishing refer to negroes as Persons of Color. POCs is also acceptable.

Best wishes,

Pilar McGregor
Acquisitions Editor
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Thank you for submitting Romeo and Juliet to Pyramid Publishing Romance. I’m afraid this doesn’t fit in with our current needs. To be blunt, your play could not be more diametric to what we publish. Two lovers who pine for each other only to commit suicide because they can’t be together really doesn’t make much sense. Why didn’t they simply hook up? I know families can cause problems when they disapprove of a loved one’s lover, but the Montagues and the Capulets carry it to an absurd extreme.

I also found the lack of physical description to be most annoying. While they certainly would be no less than perfect physical specimens, you could throw a muscle and a breast in here and there to satisfy the reader.

We also prefer stories starring empowering women, not just some heartsick girl like Juliet who sits around her house whining to her maiden while waiting for Romeo. Our heroines are self-possessed women with strong careers who not only know what they want from life and in their men, they TAKE it. For your future reference I have enclosed a copy of our guidelines, which you’ll find are similar to those of most publishers of romance novels. While strong writing is a plus it’s not necessary, as we are more interested in adventurous, beautiful characters having erotic encounters in exotic settings with HAPPY endings. And don’t feel obligated to limit yourself by being realistic—the sub-genres of paranormal, science fiction and time travel romances sell just as well, and often even better.

Also, if you’re going to get serious about writing romance, I’d suggest adopting a nom de plum (that’s French for ‘pen name’). At the risk of offending you, Shakespeare sounds rather…tribal. We actually have a staffer here, Amanda Van Skyhawk, who creates and assigns names for our authors whose God given names are too dull for a book cover. Should you ever reach that point in a relationship with us, she would give your moniker a makeover.

In closing I will say that from my years of experience as an editor, I’ve found that men have a great deal of difficulty writing successful romance, but should you persist in your dream, I wish you well.

Palpitatingly,

Pamela Der Hartenbrajker
President
Pyramid Publishing Romance

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Thank you so very, very much for submitting your wonderful play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, to Pyramid Publishing. I greatly enjoyed your charming drama, which only augments my regret that my employer, Pyramid Publishing, does not own the smallest imprint that will even dabble in gay and lesbian literature, wherefore I must pass on your project. The lexicon lacks sufficient superlatives to describe my admiration for your writing about Two Gentle Men—we need more courageous artists like yourself openly celebrating and embracing our lifestyle—and it is my sincerest hope that you find a brave publisher willing to introduce your work to the wider audience it so richly deserves.

I especially enjoyed the delightful device of having Julia disguise herself in the dress of a boy. Have you ever considered writing something about men dressing as women? Something that could be set to music and staged on Broadway? How about a musical with a huge cast of men singing not to and about women, but as women. Flamboyant costumes, dancing and song, men in makeup…my heart flutters just fantasizing.

I am a member of an informal group of drag queens called The Azaleas. We perform pretty regularly in the karaoke bars in the West Village, and if your visage is as appealing to the eye as your words are to the mind, I suspect I would very much enjoy being in your company. We can be found kicking it up around Christopher Street every weekend, and should you wish to come out and meet us some time, consider this a standing invitation. We usually get together for drinks at Boots and Saddle on Friday nights, and Stonewall on Saturdays.

Thank you again, and in the hope of meeting you in person some day sooner than later, I remain affectionately yours,

Benjamin Donald “Ben Don” Yurnese
Senior Editor
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

I write in response to your submission of your play, Julius Caesar, to Pyramid Publishing. I’m afraid we’re not going to offer to publish it, which, to be perfectly frank, was a decision easily reached. Countless thousands upon thousands of books have been written about the Roman Empire and the Caesars over the centuries. What could you possibly have discovered that isn’t already known, and adds something worthwhile to the canon of historical writings? To this end I found your work to be a pointless exercise in futility.

A small bit of advice, should you ever find a publisher willing to collaborate with you in bringing out your book. Be sure to thoroughly check and credit your sources. While I can’t cite them specifically offhand, I did recognize several of your phrases—‘Et tu, Brute,’ ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend my your ears,’ and ‘Beware the ides of March,’ among others. Plagiarism is a legal morass for the publisher, as well as an ethical burden for any author with the least shred of conscience.

Sincerely,

Brian Hammond
Executive Editor
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Thank you very much for submitting your play, The Taming of the Shrew, to Pyramid Publishing, which I had the good fortune to have land on my desk. Whether by insulting her, or starving her, or denying her clothing, or tying her up and forcing her to ride upon a decrepit old horse, the ways in which Petruchio berates and humiliates Kate into submission make for an excellent entertainment.

Therefore, it is with sincere disappointment that I must inform you that Pyramid Publishing will not be offering to publish your play. As it went with several of my colleagues who read it, I’m afraid the average reader would misunderstand the comedy of the misogyny as a paradigm of domestic abuse instead of the parody that it really is, and that it would stir up controversy and resistance and denouncements for being politically incorrect, however unnecessarily.

Nevertheless all that, if you’re ever available for drinks, I’m a very naughty, undisciplined girl. You can reach me during normal business hours at the Pyramid Publishing general number; all the receptionists know my extension.

With great regard,

Catherine Abruzola
Assistant Executive Vice President
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

Merci for sending along King Lear to Pyramid Publishing, which I’ve now reviewed. Very interesting stuff, and I empathize on several levels. Dementia is a sensitive topic, and having worked here at Pyramid Publishing since 1939, I’ve seen more than a bit of it pass through these halls. As the mind reaches into the latter years, it flickers as it dims, like a dying fire. With Lear you capture the madness of advanced years with exceptional lucidity. Perhaps you could utilize this piece as a public service announcement on the subject.

I was also touched by the stories of the king’s three daughters. At least Lear got one flowery apple of a child in Cordelia—all three of mine are rotten to the core, like Goneril and Regan. Ever, to this very moment, it amazes me continually that my seed and Gladys’ womb produced three such wretched monsters as Melvinia, Delores and Velma. Our only consolation is that they have long been out of the nest and flown—but only after gorging their bellies full of worms, of course. But where the worm dwells, the worm turns, and so are they like upright graves walking. As the gratitude of progeny is a blessing, so is the lack thereof a ravenous disease with an insatiable appetite for the spirit. O my soul. But enough of my troubles….

As always, it was fantastic to hear from you. Next time don’t be so long between letters, and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone—they dial from both ends. You really must get stateside for a New York visit someday soon. I know, I know, planes cross the pond in both directions every day. Do give my warmest regards to your latest wife.

Affectionately,

Quincy
Editor
Pyramid Publishing

Dear Mr. Shakespeare,

It is my great pleasure to inform you that Pyramid Publishing has accepted your play Titus Andronicus for publication. All the tongue chopping and limb lopping made for some of the most awesome scenes of violence I have ever read. My colleagues here at Pyramid Publishing Horror unanimously agree, and we are eager to add your talent to our team.

A few minor tweaks are needed before Titus will be publishable, which we’re confident you’ll be able to apply in short order. Because most of our readers think Rome is a brand of spaghetti sauce, we want to advance him through history and into a contemporary setting. We were thinking of Baltimore. We also want him to be the psychotic product of a twisted childhood, and a serial killer named The Rampager, who is sometimes nicknamed The Baltimore Butcher. We plan to publish him in a series of graphic novels—that’s graphic as in comic books, not graphic as in violent, though they will be, to be certain. Juice him up on steroids, arm him to the teeth and cut him loose to run wild.

We especially loved the storyline where Titus baked Tamora’s murdered sons into a pie and fed them to her. This gave us a brilliant marketing idea—a series of Rampager Cookbooks entitled: Revenge Is A Dish Best Served…Curried. Or, With Chicken. Or, Ala Mode. Or, Grilled. You get the idea. This will serve the twofold purpose of introducing your character while also selling food books to our gothic/vampire/zombie/monster/mindless murder markets.

If you want to come to New York, we’d be delighted to meet you in person. And if you just want to get to work, the moment we get some acceptable stories and/or recipes from you, we have a set of contracts and checks with your name all over them. Either way, welcome aboard!

Best regards,

Pierre Boucher
Senior Editor
Pyramid Publishing Horror

Disston Optical Review

2010-11-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

At the end of April 2010 I had an eye exam with Dr. John Hedman at Disston Optical in St Petersburg, Florida. I had been examined by him once before without problem, and he had my records. After the exam he gave me a pair of trial lenses to wear for a couple days. I did so, and returned and explained that the right eye was perfect, but that in the left eye the lens was uncomfortable and I was not seeing very clearly. He put me on the eye machine, adjusted the prescription, and wrote it without giving me a second trial pair of lenses.

Shortly thereafter I went north for the summer, where I ordered the lenses from an online contact lens retailer. When I received the lenses I discovered that the left eye was still uncomfortable and unclear. I tried a second lens, same result. I opened a second box thinking perhaps the first box was defective. The lens from the second box was again uncomfortable and unclear. It was such a problem that I had great difficulty seeing out of my left eye while driving home one of the few nights I wore the lenses.

I contacted Disston Optical immediately and explained the situation, and that I wouldn’t be returning to Florida until the autumn. Linda told me to come see them when I was back and that they would make it right. I made it explicitly clear to them that I had purchased the lenses through an online vendor, and Linda said that it was no problem, that they would exchange them for me once they had corrected my prescription. I then purchased a box of my old prescription to tie me through the summer.

I went to see Dr. Hedman last week, on Tuesday, November 9. I am a very articulate man, and explained every detail—it is a simple situation--in very clear and lucid language, and yet again that I had bought the lenses from an online retailer. Dr. Hedman said that it would be no problem for him to exchange the lenses once he had corrected my prescription. He gave me a pair of trial lenses to wear for a couple of hours before returning for the over exam, which we scheduled for two days later. I returned at the appointed time, and it was then that he informed me that he was not going to exchange the lenses because I had not bought them from his office. I had now made it explicitly clear on several occasions, including just two days earlier, that I had bought them online and was stuck with them because of HIS mistake. I don’t know how many times I have to say it for it to register with the people at Disston Optical. THE CONTACT LENSES INCORRECTLY PRESCRIBED TO ME IN APRIL WERE PURCHASED FROM AN ONLINE RETAILER WHILE I WAS IN ANOTHER STATE. I think that’s about the EIGHTH time I’ve said it now. Is it registering with you yet?

Dr. Hedman insisted that I had requested monovision. I don’t even know what that means. I have been wearing bifocals and reading glasses for years and had been resigned to do so for life. I simply wanted my prescription updated and that was all I told him. He further insisted that he had prescribed the correct lens for my left eye, and that it was my mistake. How could that be, when I COULD NOT SEE WELL with the prescribed lens, and HAD TOLD HIM SO SEVERAL TIMES? The only possible reason that could be my mistake is because his ego refuses to admit error. He became quite indignant, said it was my word against his, threw three packs of lenses at me, a hastily scrawled prescription, then asked for my mailing address so that he could refund the cost of my exam, which he did.

He’s very old, in his eighties, and while outwardly he has a good manner with the patients, inwardly he revealed himself, to me anyway, to be a mean old man. Proceed at your own risk.

Goodbye Rodi

2010-11-01T22:49:00.001-07:00

“And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.” Matthew 10:12-14

Goodbye Rodi, whoever you are. I don’t know you and I don’t care to, and that is why I just defriended and blocked you.

This was a difficult breakup to initiate, we being ‘brothers in Christ,’ but in the end I feel comfortable with my decision. Today is election day. Rodi voted to hate me, while I voted to love him. Since we serve two different masters, I have to obey mine.

Rodi and I only met through facebook. We have a mutual friend that suggested Rodi friend me because of my writings about Christ. Rodi says he’s a Christian, but it’s strange…every time I receive an email from one of my Christian friends, I always feel a little ping of joy in my heart before reading it. Whenever I receive communication from Rodi, I prepare myself to be outraged or annoyed or simply confused by incoherence.

Rodi is a conservative ‘Christian.’ There is very little difference between trying to converse with him and trying to converse with a rock. Last week I asked him a straightforward Yes or No question three times. He could not answer it. The question really was as direct and simple as: “Is your name spelled R-O-D-I?” And he really could not and never did answer it.

I once quoted Ezekiel in a ‘debate’ we were having. He called my argument weak. He claims he’s read the Bible, but I don’t think so. (His actual words were: 'he’s gone through it several times.') As it turned out he had absolutely no clue what he was talking about in the first place in attacking my use of the verse from Ezekiel. I think he’s afraid to actually read the Bible for the truth he knows it contains.

I once said that Christ was about love. Rodi replied not always, then quoted Matthew 10:34. “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” When I asked Rodi what he thought that passage meant, he couldn’t answer me. I don’t think he understands that the sword to which Christ referred is not forged from metal and designed for murder.

The sword of Christ is the word of God as described in various places throughout Scripture. For example, Isaiah 49:2 "And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me." And Revelation 1:16 "And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

Like many conservatives, Rodi loves the part about the blood of Christ washing away sin, but the ‘do unto others’ and ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ parts he could do without. I think that much like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their 144,000 chosen, and the Mormons and their great prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Rodi believes in a derivative Jesus that simply does not exist.

Rodi strikes me as blind to the truth, and somewhat mentally ill, and that what he needs from Christ before forgiveness is first to be healed. Jesus did heal many who were blind and lunatic, and 2 Peter 3:16 certainly seems to apply to Rodi’s worldview and odd ‘understanding’ of the Bible as he babbled it to me. “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”

He also calls to mind the basket of figs in Jeremiah 24:2. "One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad." That metaphor describes one of the core messages of the Bible that so many conservative Christians fail to grasp. Simply put, God wants your heart. You can attend church eight days a week, tithe a billion dollars and donate to every charity under the sun, but if your heart is filled with racism and/or hatred and/or violence and/or greed and/or lies and/or corruption and/or contempt for your fellow man then you are like an apple that appears shiny and firm, but once tasted and found to be rotten is spit out and tossed.

For me to come Rodi’s rendering of Christ would require me to harden my heart. For him to come to mine would require that Rodi soften his heart. Since fruit softens as it ripens, and the goal of life is to become palatable to God....

Rodi is praying for a landslide Republican victory today. He thinks the Republican policies of well-oiled war machines and disdain for social programs is somehow Christian. He has no problem cutting monies for education and housing and infrastructure and food for the poor to build more bombs for foreign babies and to give more billions to billionaires. He thinks it's a-ok that bankers of America are lying and cheating to turn people out of their homes. He just does not get it. Rodi hates Obama. But if McCain and Palin were in power we'd probably have 23 percent unemployment, war with Iran, and Fox News blaming all that on Obama too. Don't worry, Rodi, with the direction things are taking, McCain may just live to see that glorious day of Bomb, Bomb Iran that is the stuff of his wettest nocturnal emissions.

So Rodi, when you raise your champagne glass in victory this election night I hope this lyric from Welcome to the Terrordome by Public Enemy pops into your head, (via this subliminal seed): “Traits of hate who’s celebratin with Satan?” If the Republicans win it will be a victory for SATAN. Yet more irreversible damage will be inflicted on our society, and the death knells for democracy, already ringing, will start pounding out their ominous dirge. I hope the next time you eat some homemade mango raisin gelato dipped in capitalist turd sprinkles you think of the child labor you knowingly exploited with your vote so that Americorp could expand its profit margins while raising unemployment. I hope when you complain about the deficit, again, in a few years, that you remember voting today to let REPUBLICANS add a few more trillion to it, again. I could go on and on with the specific political truths, but you don't care about the truth, you are perfectly content to let right wing propaganda poisons zombify your mind with unfounded fears and outright lies.

Rodi is an avowed capitalist. I have no problem with the concept of hard work and accompanying reward, and I work in a capitalist business on the Gulf of Mexico. Our profit margin was directly impacted by the oil spill. In order to succeed, my business needed the gulf to be left as God made it. In order to succeed BP needed to rip it up. In Rodi’s bizarre 'Christian' world BP’s capitalist rights superseded mine. Let me repeat that: BP's right to destroy God's creation for profit supplanted my right to profit from the Gulf of Mexico being left alone.

Rodi thinks his place in heaven is assured, and that until then he’s free to visit the wickedness of the Devil in the guise of self-righteous Republican misery on the rest of the world. I don’t at all feel like my salvation is guaranteed. I’ve given God plenty enough reason to reject me, and know there are no buts in the judgment of my life, and I walk through mine on my knees hoping to shape my heart into an acceptable fruit. The last line of Drifting With Jesus embodies my philosophy: “I hope to see you all in heaven, for that will mean that I am there also.”

I suggest you take one of those Bibles from the shelf, Rodi, puff off the dust, open it to page one, start with “In the beginning…” and read a few pages a day for a year or so until you’ve reached the last “amen.” It's not boring nor tedious, it's AWESOME. I have nothing further to say to you, and anything else I would say can be found between those four words.

Speaking of a poof of dust....

Another Basic Bible Lesson For Rodi, Who Seems Determined Not To Understand

2010-10-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

I say it, your pastor says it, the Bible says it, and you still don’t want to hear the truth. You are obtuse. There is no other word for it. Conservatives act like Jesus Christ is some sort of get of jail free card for a life of wickedness. Do anything you want, dip your hands in the blood of forgiveness at the end and you’re good to go. Except there’s a little problem with that attitude in the Bible. Hebrews 10:26-27. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain looking for of fearful judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. It should be self explanatory, but ask your pastor if you want try and understand the scripture but then continue to ignore it if it doesn’t suit your views. You want to conform the Bible to your own weird outlook on the world rather than submitting yourself to the TRUTH of it. The Bible addresses people who do that, it doesn’t work.

I know quoting the Bible means little to you, but there it is again. Galatians 5:14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. It is one of the most repeated sentiments throughout the Bible, it must be REALLY important. You can tell yourself that the way you vote and the government you choose has nothing to do with that, but maybe you're just wrong. Just maybe it is a direct reflection is a cold, hard heart, which God will spit out like the fig in Jeremiah. And notwithstanding your denials, the truth is that the kingdom of God is SOCIALIST. Not the mentally twisted Glenn Beck imaginary kiss Karl Marx version that would never take root here. So how can you rail against socialism then expected to be accepted into a kingdom where that is the order?

Am I a political bigot? No, I just hate assholes who don’t give a fuck about me and my welfare and who think nothing of pissing on my joy. George Bush and Dick Cheney are a couple of hatchlings incubated under the left and right wings of Satan. They raped the earth, slaughtered innocent human beings, maimed their own soldiers and wrought immeasurable environmental, economic and social havoc and devastation at home and abroad.

You voted for them, and when that is brought up, your response is: have you seen where John Kerry docks his yacht? Ridiculous. Not just ridiculous, a pathetic response. I live on the Gulf of Mexico, and not only did their heinously irresponsible deregulations turn a beautiful body of water into a bilious toilet bowl, it has DIRECTLY impacted my livelihood. YOUR vote did that to me, I’m fucking pissed the fuck off about it, and if my detesting the wicked assholes responsible makes me a political bigot, then you’ve let Fox News redefine more words for you. And the Republican response: Oops, sorry, accidents happen. Deal with it, we’re pissed off at Obama for the moratorium.

You cannot be a child of God and choose DEVILS to rule over yourself and your NEIGHBORS. Your vote for these foul, wicked, godless human beings says screw you to me, screw you to the earth, and screw you to God himself. Yep, it does. Do you understand that much of what is going on behind the REPUBLICAN scene is continued outsourcing of jobs, much of it to China where they have no child labor laws? Those Chinese children are your NEIGHBORS. Nice show of love with your vote Rodi. Your capitalist pigvomit greedmongers profit margins are more important than your neighbors’ welfare and quality of life, both unemployed Americans at home and those children abroad who make your kitchen appliances so you can enjoy the creamy gelato of capitalism. The Conservatives don’t give the slight crap about their fellow man, so how is supporting them loving your neighbor as you are explicitly instructed to do?

Can conservatives be saved? Well, when you finally get around to reading the Bible, pay close attention—it is in there. Conservatives were alive in his day, and Jesus Christ addressed them directly. They were called the Pharisees and the Sadduccees, and they are virtually carbon copy, cookie cutter, fruit from the same tree as today’s Conservative Christians. Change right wing Jew to right wing Christian, saved by the bloodline of Abraham to saved by the blood of Christ, and the Pharisees are virtual mirror images of today’s conservatives. The Pharisees/Conservatives hated Christ, because he was constantly denouncing their cold hearted, mean spirited, hypocritical wicked ways. The Pharisees/Conservatives hated Christ so much that they conspired with Caiaphas, King Herod and the Romans to murder him. Yes, the conservatives of his day took part DIRECTLY in the murder of Christ. About them Jesus said: They have their reward. Hint, it wasn’t the kingdom of heaven. You tell me what I think, believing in the BIBLE as I do.

An Open Letter to Black Republican Pastors

2010-09-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I came across this article on CNN.com. The article mentions an African American pastor named Aaron Wheeler who usually votes Republican, swung to Obama in 2008, and now, disillusioned, is planning to vote Republican again. He also mentions that he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. That inspired me.

Dear Black Republican Pastor,

I recently read about one of you, and was troubled by a couple things. Quite simply, how on earth do you vote Republican? How? They are the party of lying, racist hypocrites.

As a black man, you are supporting the party that harbors the vast majority of racists in America. Many of them are the great great grandchildren of slave owners, and while the laws have changed, their hearts have not. Those are the attitudes they continued to instill in their children for a century after Abolition--you need only look back at how their parents were treating your parents when you were a child--and those are the attitudes many continue to instill to this day. They call themselves Republicans and Tea Partiers, and you vote for them to rule over you. I find it utterly mystifiying.

As a ‘man of God,’ how on earth do you vote Republican? Do you actually read the Bible, or just wield it and thump it? For the most part, Republicans are lying hypocrites, and God hates liars and hypocrites (look it up--I can give you the specific Bible verses if you need them). Whether they’re screaming about the need to pay down the deficit (a deficit which they created, look it up) then planning on increasing it with continued tax breaks for the wealthy--their only promise and their only concern--or screaming that abortion is murder while dropping their pro life bombs on babies across the globe, or saying that now is not the time to address immigration then blaming the federal government for inaction on immigration, they are HYPOCRITES. I could go on and on--how they 'plan' to create jobs to replace the jobs they destroyed and outsourced, and how the government is too big when it bloated by ten percent during the Bush administration--the hypocrisies are shameless and neverending. They are afraid to face the TRUTH, which is why they fabricate their own phony facts.

So you finally voted for Obama to clean up the mess that YOU made with your votes over the years, then when he can’t clean it up in a day, you become disillusioned and plan to vote for his enemies who have been knocking the mop out of his hand for two years. That'll move government forward. (And if you somehow think Jesus would be OPPOSED to health care for everyone, then you need to go look up the verses where HE HEALED THEM ALL (Matthew 12:15), non believers included (Luke 17:11-19).) Yet you now plan to vote for the racist hypocrites who want to repeal health care for everyone. How is that Christian?

Can you see how God might be looking down at you and saying: What exactly do you want, Black Republican Pastor? I give you everything you ask. You vote Republican, and you get Republican oil spills, Republican economy, Republican unemployment, Republican wars, Republican oligarchy and its accompanying Republican contempt for the impoverished. And now with their new Contract on America the Republicans have promised to continue governing EXACTLY as they did when they were in power, so if that’s how you vote, that’s what you’re going to get. Don’t choose those politicians then cry out to God when they oppress you. If the Republicans take over and fulfill their one promise, more money for the wealthy, then shut down government by holding superfluous hearings about members of the Obama administration (when the entire Bush administration deserves to be incarcerated for crimes against humanity, at home and abroad) while America continues to suffer, don't you DARE to complain--you will have gotten exactly what you asked for.

You may have been in attendance when Martin Luther King Jr. marched, but you weren’t with him---not if you spent your life empowering his enemies with your vote. You were just another onlooker at a civil rights rally. And when you stand there in the voting booth this November with your finger poised again on the Republican lever, take a moment and listen carefully in the quiet: that sound you'll hear is Satan laughing in your face.

Why I Stopped Attending Tampa Bay Rays Games

2010-09-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

After reading about Evan Longoria and David Price whining and complaining about attendance at Rays games, I decided to write all this down and post it here on my blog. Not one word is invention nor exaggeration.

I moved to Florida in October 2003, and to St Petersburg in November 2004. I went to three or four Rays' games in 2006, and following the bush league manner in which I was treated by Rays management in August 2006 I swore never to attend another game. I have not. From my perspective, the management of the organization is a comedy of errors acted out by a cast of boneheads and bozos.

In 2006 my friend and neighbor bought a single season ticket for the Rays. She had some extra Red Sox tickets she had previously purchased, and treated me and few other of her friends to some random games throughout the season. Then in August she came to me and another neighbor and invited us to that evening’s Rays' game. She explained that the Rays management had invited her to a ‘wine and dine’ in a luxury box to try and get her to commit to season tickets for 2007. She told us not to eat, because they had promised her food and drinks aplenty would be provided.

When we arrived we were brought to an obstructed view box deep in the right field side line. It was like watching the game through an oversized slit. We couldn’t see much—fly balls would appear for a moment on the way up, and then again for a moment on the way down before disappearing back onto the field, most of which we couldn’t see.

There was no food and no drink. After two innings, realizing the screw up, a Rays rep explained to us that it was just that, a screw up. He apologized, then said, and I quote: “I think there are some diet cokes in the fridge in the corner.” There weren’t, just a single bottle of water, which he handed to us. About the fourth inning he came and brought us to a better vantage to watch the rest of the game—actually, to be able to see the game. It was, well, utterly absurd, and a golden opportunity squandered by the moron Rays rep. It would have taken so precious little to wow us--were I the rep I would have been able to do it for about two dollars--but instead we left the building muttering about morons and badmouthing the Rays.

And if management in some way thinks I’m making this up, go ahead and check your records. Her name was Terry, she was a huge Red Sox fan from New Hampshire, and her seat was near the third base dugout, directly behind Dick Vitale’s seats. I haven't seen her in a couple years, and for all I know she may still be sitting there.

But the amateur shitshow continues.

In 2008 I worked for a restaurant that had gotten permission from the Rays to give out coupons at Spring training games. So one day my coworker and I went and did just that. We were only allowed to hand out coupons outside the stadium, and only between innings. Fair enough, and we fully respected that. It was about the seventh inning of a blowout, and we asked if we could go in and watch a couple batters while waiting to hand out coupons. At first the security woman we asked was boggled by the request then she simply freaked out. She got on the radio with more security, they called around to more security and fifteen minutes later—after we had told her not to bother, and we were sorry to have asked—she informed us that we could go to the top of the tunnel and watch, but no further. You’d think we had asked to go on the field and solicit autographs while the game was in progress. Again, just freaking ridiculous. And another squandered opportunity to give my coworker and I a taste of the product and make us fans.

A month later I happened to turn on my radio just as a Rays game was beginning. The announcers, whose names I forget, began EATING DOUGHNUTS the very moment the broadcast began. 'Mmf, mf…somemfone…brought us a box…mfmf…of doughmfmfnuts. mmf..delmmflicious....pflitchim tomay fo da Ways...' It was beyond amateur. Have you ever heard someone eating while talking on the radio? It's not just unprofessional, it's disgusting. And I could not believe what I was hearing. They had all morning to stuff as many omelets and doughnuts down their gullets as they desired, but they waited till the moment the microphones were turned on to start munching. I was turned off, and did turn it off and haven’t listened again. I kid you not.

Word on the street is unanimous—the cowbells are HORRIBLE. Worst idea ever. The New Coke of event attendance. I’ve heard fans talk about them, and no one has ever said anything remotely approving. The perception is that they're still in the stands to this day, and if you think someone wants to drop a hundred bucks on parking, tickets and overpriced weenies and beer only to run the risk of getting stuck next to some drunken yahoo screaming and whacking a bell in their ear for three hours, well, that’s Rays management for you. Trust me, that godawful idea has cost you untold ticket sales.

Even today, I went on to the official Rays website and sent them a note through their contact form. (If you didn't get it, well, that's the Rays.) I said that if they emailed me I’d be happy to tell them why I refuse to go to games. Here’s a page of Web Design 101. You DO NOT default your website to start playing music or making any sound the moment someone clicks on it. It's obnoxious and annoying. Most people are listening to radio or music or watching television while browsing the internet, as was I this afternoon. So, after clicking to the Rays official website and being bombarded by an online replay of some Rays game that conflicted with what I was already listening to, I had to immediately click off the site, turn down my speakers, then go back and search for the very tiny ‘Contact Us’ button hidden at the bottom. What an annoyance. And as of now, about seven hours later,(well, now it's over two days) no one from the Rays has responded to my offer to tell them why some people don’t go to their games, which is further testimony to the incompetence of Rays’ management.

If you’re hiring, send me an email. I’ll come in for an interview. I've worked in pr and service all my life. You are bumbling a potentially lucrative business. Even I could have gotten 12,000 fans in to see the possible division clinching game last night. But you wouldn't even consider me, because you’re the Rays.

An exchange might go something like this:

PR Expert: "Hey Tampa Rays, you should listen to this guy Bob and put him on payroll. He has years of experience and wisdom in dealing with and pleasing the public, and any salary you might pay him would yield ten, twenty, fifty or a hundredfold in increased revenue."

TB Rays: "Yeah, right. In case you haven't seen our ticket sales, it's pretty obvious that we know what we're doing. Thanks anyway."

We know, it's not management. It's the outdated stadium, and the parking, and the neighborhood, and the local apathy, and the economy, and every other excuse under the sun. Not anything to do with management. Except, if the inhospitable ways I was treated are extrapolated to Rays' employee interactions with other locals over the years, then 12,000 attendance the other night really should come as no surprise. Hold it in the light--you are a JOKE.

And if you go to another city, as is speculated, and take this team—-this MANAGEMENT team with you--you won’t be leaving the problem behind, you’ll be bringing it along. Because you’re the Rays management team...the inept, incompetent, bumbling Rays management team.

Now get out there and vote for the criminal Rick Scott and the ultra right wingnut teabag sucking Rubio and the rest of the Republican ticket so they and their felonious cronies in congress can hammer the Republican wrecking ball on the economy a few more times, and outsource a few hundred thousand more jobs, and in the coming years nobody will have a nickel of disposable income to waste on your silly baseball team.

You Are The Pharisees

2010-09-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduccees—then understood they how he bade them not beware of the leaven of the bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadduccees. Matthew 16: 6-12

The Pharisees were an ancient Jewish sect that bear many resemblances to today’s compassionate, conservative, right wing, fundamentalist, evangelical Christians. Pharisee means separate, and describes one who keeps away from impure people and things, to be more righteous, better to commune with holy God. They were obsessed with the law, moral purity, and outward shows of faith, but were so strict they made hypocrites of themselves, and were used for examples by Christ.

The very first mention of the Pharisees in the Bible is in Matthew (3:7-9), when they are watching John baptize in the Jordan, who...when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O brood of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Viper describes false ‘Christians’ who lie, and are not what they call themselves, and many more who expect to come to reward, and will not. And just as the Pharisees thought that being in the bloodline of Abraham guaranteed their salvation, so do they say of being Christian today.

The Pharisees were a political force, and respected as authorities of Jewish law. The Sanhedrin was a council of 71 sages mostly comprised of Sadducees and Pharisees, before whom Caiaphas conducted the trial of Jesus. The Sadducees were concerned with matters of the temple while the Pharisees with obedience to the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also known as the Pentateuch); and while they were sworn enemies on account of these differences, they were able to put those aside for a moment and come together in condemning Christ to death.

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Such are the self-righteous moral authorities who preach the very Bible they disregard and disobey. Some boast the sanctity of marriage while committing adultery; some rail against homosexuality and get caught in the act, and some decry pornography while the thoughts of their hearts, minds and souls are pornographic.

But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments.

And strut their faith, which should be private, and wear it proudly upon their sleeves.

And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues.

And crave celebrity, and seek the spotlight on their faces, and to be approved and beloved by men.

And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

And other titles, like doctor, or pastor, or Phd.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

And woe to you evangelicals, who give the wrong example of what it is to be in Christ, and who lead anyone that follows you astray into oblivion.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

And woe to you fundamentalists, whose voting blocs empower the lawmakers that enable the banks to ravenously consume homes, and who publicly proclaim yourselves to be Christian over and over, and invoke God in earshot of everyone. You will get yours.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Woe to you evangelicals, who rejoice in finding and claiming converts, thinking it diminishes sin while increasing reward, when in truth all you’ve really done is find others to share in your ultimate misery.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

And woe to you fundamentalists, who wage passionate fights for the right to pray in school, yet neglect the schools themselves; who tithe to the penny, and raise vast sums of money and campaign vigorously for changes in marriage laws instead of domestic violence and the needs of children who are victims thereof. Who indignantly fight for the right to display the ten commandments in public, while in private are thieves and adulterers and blasphemers.

No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

Tell that to someone who uses Christianity to try and prosper themselves, and they will deride you too.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

Sanctimony testifies unto itself.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

They’re not going in, neither anyone who is no better.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

Like fundamentalists who point out the faults and measure the sins of others.

`And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.

And hold at fault they who associate with them.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

So do they call on Christ, and are seen coming and going in church, while their hearts are prideful, gluttonous, greedy and violent.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

And if they live not in Christ, they are already dead.

The Pharisees believed strongly in the resurrection of the dead even before Christ; they are alive and thriving in America today. And since it is repeated in the gospels, it bears repeating here: beware the leaven of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

The Congressman and The Lepers

2010-08-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

WHAT IF REPUBLICANS WERE PRESENT AT THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST

Miracle Number Three -- Jesus Heals Ten Lepers

Luke 17:12-19 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

The nine in question had fled into the nearby hills, where they were accosted by a strange man. His flesh was orange, and he waved what looked like a rapier with a knobbed tip. “You must be the groundskeepers,” he said. “Have you seen a top flite four? I’ve been spraying my three wood all day.”

“Ay, Diablo!” one of the lepers cried, and they cowered in fear.

The man introduced himself. “Congressman John Boehner, eighth district, Ohio. Say, you guys look awfully pale considering you work in the sun. Have you ever considered artificial pigmentation techniques?”

They shrunk further away as another one said: “Diablo! Es Diablo!”

Congressman Boehner pulled some business cards out of a cigarette pack and offered them to the lepers. “Give me a call, I can help. I have a great tanning booth. It’s Brazilian. I bought it when Obama implemented that idiotic tanning tax. I’ll cut you a deal. And if you’re in a real hurry I’ve got some dynamite spray on products.”

The lepers cried out “Diablo!” again then turned and ran back toward Jesus.

Boehner pulled a ball out of his pocket, dropped it on the ground, propped it up on a good lie, then whacked it with a seven iron onto the green.

“I wonder if those guys were illegals,” he pondered aloud, then answered himself. “Naw, too white.”

Sarah's Death Panel -- Decider, Executioner

2010-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

WHAT IF REPUPLICANS WERE PRESENT AT THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST

Miracle Number Two – Lazarus Raised From The Dead

John 11:42-43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Just then Sarah Harpycrite, a prominent Republican, stepped forward and said: “No, no, no! Wait, wait, wait! What is going on here?”

One of the astonished onlookers said: “The master just brought him back from the dead! He’s been in that tomb four days. Truly is Jesus the Christ!”

“Is that so?” she said to Lazarus. “And who, may I ask, is your health insurer?”

“Whatever that is, I don’t have one,” he answered. “I’m a poor man, I have nothing. But I have life, God be praised!”

“So you’re just going to go back to sucking on Uncle Sam’s teat—that’s your plan, isn’t it?” Sarah smarmed. “Why don’t you do the world a favor, and just stay dead? Weren’t you happier where you were anyway? Isn’t that where all you dreamers want to be? Why don’t you go prepare it for him, he’ll be coming right along, woncha Jesus?” she said more than asked, and with a wrenching wink that could break glass.

“I do have loved ones I would like to see again,” Lazarus explained.

“Sob, sob, sob!” Sarah harped. “Don’t we all. Ya know what, it’s time to put a stop to this government interference with its ‘wah wah wah’ death regulations.” She hefted up a large rock and whacked him in the head with it. “Since you’re already dead, I can’t get in trouble for killing you. And if you’re already dead, then you’re a--die, zombie!” She shrieked and leaped on him, then whipped herself into a frenzy and pummeled him with the small boulder.

Everyone looked to Jesus for his response. He stood staring, then slowly said: “He was never dead and shall live forever: God had caused a sleep to be upon him, that he might become an example for all.”

“And I made him just that,” Sarah proudly declared. She clapped the imaginary dust off her hands, then blew the imaginary smoke off her pistol of a fingertip, and strutted off into her oblivion. The dumbstruck, slackjawed witnesses watched her departure in awe while Jesus kneeled down and ministered to Lazarus.

What If Republicans Were Present At The Miracles Of Christ?

2010-07-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Miracle Number One—Thousands Fed With A Few Loaves and Fishes

Matthew 15:34-36. And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples—

Just then two older, white-haired men stepped forward and intervened. Let’s call them Newt and Judas Lieberman.

“Hold on a moment, everybody,” Newt said. “There seems to be enough to go around, but before you eat we have to get a few things straight.” He turned to a couple of lads that were standing nearby and said: “You boys, run and get some plastic bags and a scale, and you’ll eat for a discount. Hurry!”

“Why hurry?” one of the boys answered. “Because the people are starving?”

“No,” Newt replied. “If the fish spoil in the sun they’ll be worthless. Now go!” He turned and addressed the crowd: “Before anyone gets any ideas, you should know that a hundred Roman soldiers are about five minutes away and marching toward us.”

“We are non-violent people gathered in peace,” one of the disciples explained.

“Good, that simplifies the matter of crowd control,” Newt replied.

"Excuse me," the disciple meekly said; "but this is our food."

"Is it now?" Newt replied. "Do you have soldiers backing you up? I think not. My food."

"Uh, Newt," Judas Lieberman quietly said. "Wouldn't it be more expeditious to just sell sandwiches rather than weighing and bagging everything?"

“Good idea! What’s the going price of a fish sandwich in Galilee these days?” he asked the disciple.

The disciple was utterly bewildered, and mumbled: “I don’t know, half a shekel?”

Newt rubbed his chin and contemplated for a few moments, then said: “Very well, taking into consideration the circumstances, the rule of supply and demand, and the clear lack of competition, I think we can fairly expect to get a shekel a sandwich. The line forms in front me.” Then he lowered his voice and said to Judas Lieberman: “You fill the bread, I’ll collect it.”

“You always make me get my hands dirty,” Judas Lieberman complained.

“They are your people,” Newt answered. “And knowing how finicky they are about their food, they’ll be more apt to buy knowing that it was handled by a fellow Jew.”

“Uh, these people don’t have any money,” the disciple explained. “They are the poor children of God. We've been nurturing their souls, and were about to nourish their bodies.”

Newt’s face scrunched into a twisted visage of contempt. “Do they think free market means free eats and free rides for freeloaders? Whose sardines are these anyway?”

“Our Lord and master provided them,” the disciple revealed, pointing Jesus out.

“Newtie Patootie,” Judas Lieberman whispered in his ear, “that’s the famous Nazarene who’s been working wonders and miraculously healing the sick about Israel of late. I'm not a believer myself, but I have heard the tales.”

“Is he now?” Newt said. He approached Jesus and looked him up and down. “Do you have your fishing license?” he asked. Jesus stared back in silence. Newt continued. “Because if you don’t, that’s a violation of the law, and you’ve been cheating the government of tax revenue. Answer me.” Jesus continued to stare back in silence. The Roman soldiers appeared, and several gathered behind Newt and Judas Lieberman.

“Very well,” Newt said to Jesus. “Even if you do have your license, you’ve obviously exceeded the legal catch limit, so one way or another you’ve broken the law. Boys, arrest and take him to jail. We’ll let a judge sort out the charges.” Two apprehended Christ, and Newt instructed the other soldiers to disperse the crowd, eat their fill of fish and bread, and throw the leftovers to the dogs. Then he turned to the people and shouted: “And the rest of you, get out of here! Go get jobs and feed yourselves! You hang around with your hands stretched out--you claim in prayer, but I see the truth through your lie. You’re waiting for someone to hand you something for nothing. You lazy slobs make me sick! Go on, before I command a slaughter!”

Rick Warren's Blindness

2010-07-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Rick Warren was temporarily blinded earlier this week, when the toxic ooze of a firestick plant got in his eyes while gardening. He was hospitalized overnight, and his burning eyes swollen shut for at least a day before receding. I pray for you, Rick. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

I was harkened to a famous blinding in the Bible—when Saul was stricken for three days on the road to Damascus. He was a Jew from Tarsus who had delighted in persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ. He encouraged the mob that stoned Stephen, the first martyr to die for Jesus. In his blindness he saw the glory of the light, changed his name to Paul, and through much suffering, which he counted all joy, planted the church in the world.

It’s very basic New Testament.

In November 2006, after a trip to Syria, while commenting on Christian Muslim coexistence in that nation, Rick Warren stated: “In fact, you know Saul of Tarsus—Saul was a Syrian. St. Paul, on the road to Damascus, had his conversion experience, and so Christians have been here the longest, and they get along with the Muslims, and the Muslims get along with them. There's a lot less tension than in other places.”

Tarsus is in TURKEY.

On April 7, 2009, on The Larry King Show, Warren famously lied: “I am not an anti-gay, or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be. During the whole Proposition Eight thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never, never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop Eight was going.”

In a prominent video supporting prop 8 that ran during the election cycle of 08, Rick Warren said: “Now, let me just say this really clearly: we support Proposition Eight, and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition Eight. I never support a candidate, but on moral issues I come out very clear.”

In December of 2008, Pastor Warren presented George Bush with the first International Medal of PEACE, in recognition of his contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Giving George Bush warlord a PEACE award in the name of Christ. Words fail me there.

Treating his eyes back at home, Warren tweeted: “May God use this pain for His Glory.”

Here’s your chance to emulate Paul, Rick.

With renewed eyes you should read that Bible you thump. You’ll see therein God doesn’t like lying, and if you truly aspired to a heart like Christ, you wouldn’t endorse and campaign to elect the devils you exhort with implications that it’s Godly to vote in. It’s not. It’s not very Christian to wage war, destroy the earth, deprive the poor to enrich the wealthy, who oppose health care for everyone, who condemn the innocent with lies, who enable banks to steal wealth and wield it against the victims to also steal their homes. Many of your chosen candidates are very evil men and women, liars who call themselves Christian but are not.

Don’t you see them for who they really are? Don’t you SEE what they’ve done to America and the world? Are you still BLIND?

If so you have a cold and hard heart like Pharaoh and I pray for you, Rick, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Is Sharron Angle Another Phony Christian?

2010-07-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

“I’m a Christian, and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives, and that He can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things.” Sharron Angle, The Bill Manders’ Show, 780 KOH, in January 2010.

I watched Sharron’s June 29th interview on Face to Face with Jon Ralston.

You confuse me, Sharron.

You say you’re pro life and pro death penalty. It’s pretty basic English, it’s one or the other, you can’t be both.

Sharron said: “Those who commit heinous crimes should pay the consequences, and where there is innocent life, I’ll always err on the side of innocent life.” Have you seen the spate of dna exonerations of long term inmates who were innocent all along? Don’t those innocent lives count into your definition of ‘innocent?’ Or if the courts so decide, must they die? God said: Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Who are you to usurp God's authority?

Sharron takes the position that global warming is not real. Thousands of scientists and researchers and academics have provided reams of proof that it is real, but Sharron, who may not even know what the periodic table is, says otherwise.

Sharron revised her previously stated position of eliminating Social Security into revamping it as a privatized system. And Medicaid and Medicare, and all health care for that matter, still must go. How very Christian. Yours is one of the compassionate hearts Jesus wants to people his kingdom.

She claims her role as Senator is not to create jobs, then blames Harry Reid for not creating jobs, when he actually used the stimulus to bring lots of jobs to Nevada. All that being true, Sharron is lying (not very Christian). She said “a census part time job is not a job. People want a job that has benefits, that has a future, that is something they can count on to pay their mortgage.” Immediately after that she said that she would have voted against extending unemployment benefits because it discourages people from taking low paying menial jobs, and we need to get back to work. Again, which is it?

Even after the oil disaster you want to eliminate all corporate and environmental regulations, making it still easier for the wicked ones who savage God’s creation. Surely you’ve read the Bible, where it is written of the end of the world: Revelation (11:18), And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

If you were truly Christian those words would terrify you, and you’d distance yourself from the destroyers of the earth, not enable and be a complicit partaker of their deadly sin.

So let’s recap the Angle campaign. Innocent people should die if judged guilty by the courts. Climate change needs not be addressed, it’s not real. The elderly who aren’t fortunate enough to be able to pay into the bizarro world Angle social security system will have nothing to support them in their golden years, and no health care—from a Christian society—to ease the pains of age and provide a dignified exit from this world. Even after DESTROYING the gulf, (where I happen to live and which provided my livelihood), big business should be allowed to conduct their affairs unregulated by the government. And Americans should pipe down and lick up the crumbs of the minimum wage jobs they provide.

So, Sharron, after perpetrating all these things in the last years of your life, you plan on coming to Jesus at your death and hearing him say the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

You must really hate your children, and your country, if that’s the society and the planet you’d leave for them to inherit. I love Christ—you don’t sound like a Christian to me. You sound like one of the self-righteous morality enforcers who call themselves ‘Christian,' in the hope of receiving forgiveness for all your evils, and votes in November from likeminded liars.

Oh When Their Prayers, Go Up In Smoke

2010-06-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

With a unanimous vote in the senate last week, Louisiana lawmakers declared Sunday to be a day of prayer for the disaster in the gulf. They called on people of all faiths to chime in their supplications.

“Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail. It is clearly time for a miracle for us,” state Senator Robert Adley said in a prepared statement.

Let’s do some simple inferential deduction. You, Mr. Adley, are a Southern Republican, and also a man of prayer. If you toe the party line like a good GOP elephant, then you likely vote mostly Republican--if not always--and certainly in presidential elections. So it’s probably fair speculation on my part that leading up to the 2000 election, you were praying to God with might and main that George Bush win, that you voted for Bush, and that afterwards you offered up your heartfelt thanksgiving to God for prayer answered.

If that is the case—and we know the scenario was played out by millions of fundamentalist ‘Christians’—then the blood started to drip off your fingers the moment you struck that death blow with your vote. The blood of the earth in the gulf, Iraqi and Afghani blood, American blood, economic blood, cultural blood—your hands are drenched in it. Ironic, if the inconveniently green Al Gore had been elected, his Mineral Management Service might have been enforcing regulation rather than become the drug fueled brothel the Bush Cheney Halliburton BP beast trampled it into, and you'd be enjoying the gulf instead of praying for it. If God gave you exactly what you asked for, you have NO right to complain. Do you also pray that God keep pace with your caprices?

Well is it written of you hypocrites in Isaiah (1:15-17): And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yeah, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Notwithstanding that the Republican philosophy ignores everything God would have of you in that verse, you’d better prepare to pray for mercy if He finds you complicit and holds you accountable for the tragedy in the gulf when He fulfills this prophecy from Revelation (11-18), And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Remedial Christ For Palin And Her Acolytes

2010-06-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Since thrusting herself into the public eye by accepting McCain’s offer to have her try and siphon the Hillary vote in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin has repeatedly proclaimed herself to be a Christian while repeatedly acting like anything but one. She is a veritable walking, talking manual of ‘How Not To Live in Christ’: the profound lack of humility, the hypocrisies, the exaggerations, the lies, the broken vows and the fearmongering—all are antithetical to what Christ taught.

Her continual screeching ‘drill, baby, drill,’ is not exactly respectful of God’s creation. There is a youtube video of her taking the microphone in the pulpit of her church in Alaska and discussing state business and gas and oil pipelines—like a moneychanger in a house of prayer. (Go to the 1:25 mark here.) She takes monies entrusted to her stewardship (many of the donors doubtless trusting her as a Christian) for one purpose and uses them for others. And if you give credence to the expression: ‘You know a person by the company they keep;’ we can measure her by that legion of devils she runs with over at Fox News. And make no mistake, Fox News is not a good place: it is a network that spews lies and hatred and evil.

And now Palin has publicly violated what is known as the Great Commandment—love thy neighbor as thyself.

In Judaism it is considered by many to be the one sentence summary of the Torah. It first appears in the Bible in Leviticus (19:18), when the law is given to Moses, and is emphatically reiterated by Christ in the gospels, and yet again by Paul in his epistle to the Galatians (5:14): ‘For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ It is one of the core principles of Christianity, and is as important to making life better here as it is in getting your heart right with God, who doesn’t populate the kingdom with bitter harpies.

Jesus also said: 'This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you...ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.' John 15:13,15.

But now Palin appears to have disregarded Christ twice in one fell swoop, in the brouhaha over the house next door in Wasilla. When author Joe McGinniss took up residence next to the Palins in Wasilla, did she show up with a smile, a pie and a pot of coffee? Nope, she went straightway to facebook and posted railing sarcasm. Granted, McGinniss is writing a book about her, but what better way to influence his pen and show him that the rumor mills were wrong than to smother him with kindness?

But now it’s come out that McGinnis was sought out by the neighbor who owns the home as a vengeful payback. It is reported that the Palins asked the neighbor to make some improvements on the house, offering to reimburse them, but that once said improvements were completed, the Palins withheld the cash. That’s not a demonstration of Christian neighborliness, that's LYING.

And she exacerbated the rancor by taking the money which she promised her neighbor--which would have created the concord she inherently preaches in professing to be Christian—and using it instead it to erect an enormous (and unsightly) fence. Fences are used to divide, not unite, and calling to mind perhaps the two most famous fences in history—the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall--begs the question: is Sarah Palin actually a communist masquerading as a Christian?

The Inerrancy of the Bible -- God is Liberal

2010-05-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

The Inerrancy of the Bible -- God is Liberal

It is written: ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him.’ James 1:5.

So if you love Jesus Christ, you eat of his body and drink of his cup, seeking to emulate his heart, in hope of attaining resurrection. Since Jesus said: “I and my father are one,” John 10:30, in so doing you strive to be like God.

It is also written: ‘Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and the table of devils.’ 1 Corinthians 10:21.

Therefore, if you hate the liberal, how can the bread you eat and the cup you drink come from the table of the Lord?

WTBN Christian Radio and Its Talk Show Host Charities

2010-05-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

WTBN CHRISTIAN RADIO AND ITS CHARITIES—A RECAP

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

I’ve been listening to WTBN Christian radio for a couple of years now, and I’m at a loss what I should do with money I’d like to donate to a charitable Christian cause.

Should I give to Focus on the Family? They are constantly asking listeners to send them cash.

During the election of 2008 Focus on the Family and its partners and offshoots contributed more than a million dollars in support to Proposition 8 in California, which clarified the definition of marriage as between same sex couples. Two weeks later, just a few days before Thanksgiving, Focus on the Family laid off roughly 20 percent of their workforce. That was a nice happy holidays. Did they at least get turkeys?

Just a couple months later I heard the venerable Dr. James Dobson lamenting that some of the very same donors who once were able to offer Focus on the Family generous gifts of stock options had been reduced to giving meager cash contributions of ten, twenty or twenty five bucks. His lamentations had a particularly hollow ring in light of the fact that the current economic disaster was brought about in large part by the policies of the Republican hypocrites, criminals and sleazeball liars he endorsed from the pulpit, and with money solicited from his congregation in the charitable name of Christ. The two words that best describe his complaint are ‘unmitigated audacity.’

Should I give to Samaritan’s Purse, the Graham family charity? William Franklin Graham receives airtime on WTBN.

Samaritan's Purse owns/leases a private jet, ostensibly in order to more quickly and effectively reach disaster sites, but last fall they used it to wing the wingnut ‘Christian’ Sarah Palin around North Carolina in luxuriant first class style when she was gathering riches on earth signing books. Should I buy ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Palin a gallon of fuel and a cappuccino—er, donate to the Samaritan’s Purse mission?

Speaking of Palin, should I donate to her PAC, to help insure that more ‘Christian’ Republicans are wrecking government and wreaking evil and ruining real lives in the name of God? The same PAC that donated a mere 9,500 dollars--representing only 2.3 percent of monies raised—-to political candidacies in the first quarter of 2010. The rest went to consultants, de-icing planes, and 63,000 dollars buying copies of her own book. Who gets the proceeds from sales of her book?

WTBN Christian often directs listeners to one of its affiliated websites, townhall.com. A recent visit there brought me to an offer for a free copy of rightwing liar and professional exaggerator Sean Hannity’s latest book. Should I donate my Christian dollar to Sean Hannity’s charity, Freedom Alliance, which purports to create scholarships for the children of combat veterans, but which was recently revealed to be spending little funding college educations and more on Hannity and his entourage’s lavish lifestyles? In 2006 Freedom Alliance raised almost 11 million dollars, but of that total only 397,900 was donated to the children of veterans and fallen soldiers, while the rest appears to have been spent on consultants, ‘office expenses,’ and supplying Hannity’s reported demands for private jets and fleets of Cadillacs and Lincoln SUVs to transport him to and from charity events.

On Saturday nights WTBN gives an hour to washed up actor/reality tv star and ‘born again’ Christian Stephen Baldwin and and his partner, right wing tea party host and townhall.commie Kevin McCullough. Baldwin recently declared bankruptcy--doubtfully not as a result of Christian living, but through profligate giving--and some unknown entity started an online petition at www.restorestephenbaldwin.org to raise money to rescue Mr. Baldwin. Direct comparisons were drawn to Job—THE righteous Job who was the center of a discussion between God and Satan, whom Satan tried by taking away everything he had, including his loved ones, and then striking him head to toe with boils. Yes, that Job. I read Job. I studied Job. I wrote an honors thesis about Job. Baldwin is no Job. The outright absurdity and open contempt of what is sacred by some who call themselves Christian in 2010 is sometimes unfathomable.

The website (which as of this writing is offline) was started by a fan, based on Job 42:10-11, which says everyone who knew Job “came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring”.

And Baldwin approved the message, stating that he didn’t start the website, he will take the cash, and that doing so in the name of God would not be presumptuous. According to New York Magazine’s online edition, Baldwin explained it thus: "Hey, if you're a Christian and person of faith, there are people doubting whether or not the God of Stephen's faith had abandoned him, and here's a way we can step up and say, 'This is our expression of wanting to counteract that.'" And that he "welcomes the support more in a way of other people of my faith saying, 'We support you being as bold and outspoken about what you believe.' I receive that support more than any dollar amount. But the truth is, I do have a personal financial situation ... If enough money came through this opportunity to clear my debt, I'd be stupid not to do it."

I don’t know, Baldwin, since your rich brothers won’t bail you out…and since you’re so close already, why not take the plunge and the final step as revealed by our Lord in Matthew 19:21, when Jesus answered a man who asked ‘What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?’ And Jesus said: “If thou will be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”

So now I ask WTBN—what would Jesus do with my dollar?

Christianity: A History--A Christian Response

2010-05-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the eight part documentary Christianity, A History, which was broadcast in 2009 on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. It was mostly interesting and very well done, but when I viewed the eighth and final installment, which was hosted by former Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie Blair, I was so perturbed by some of what I saw that I was moved to write the television station in England. That response became more than a note, and I decided rather to post it here.

Greetings from across the pond. I have just watched the Channel 4 program, Christianity, A History. It was mostly excellent, but the final installment, Cherie Blair’s The Future of Christianity, moved me to write you. In a word, I was APPALLED. I was dismayed, disgusted and left with a godawful taste on my tongue. Setting forth George Bush as an example of a man of faith is absurd—downright insane. It could be argued that he was worse than a Caesar—insomuch as while the Caesars persecuted the Jews, Bush not only wrought evil upon his enemies, but his OWN countrymen. In eight years did he perform even one good deed? One? The military invasions and the resulting bloodshed? Doling out to the wealthy from the national treasury, in the form of tax cuts, at the expense of the poor, and to the devastation of the world economy? Destroying God's earth with his environmental deregulations? Ignoring the cries of the needy when Katrina swept through? Shall I continue?

A truly Christian president would have performed MANY good deeds. Bush--I can't think of one.

In his actions that man proved his mouth to spew lies—starting with his proclamation that he is a man of Christ.

Here are a couple of apropos quotes from the Bible. Revelation 2:9 “…I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” Change Jew to Christian and it applies to that murderous, oppressing, God-flouting monster.

In the 2000 presidential campaign Bush invoked the name of Christ, and said that discovering Jesus Christ “changes your heart.” See it here.

Okay, well enough, and very true. Now read and apply this scripture. Hebrews 10:26-27. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

Cherie Blair laments the decline of Christianity in her homeland, then turns around and CONTRIBUTES to it. For someone who might sincerely be curious and interested, seeing Bush set forth as a shining example of a life lived in Christ would say within themselves: “I want to be good. If Christ turns you into such a beast, I want no part of it.”

And anyone who did take up Bush’s cross and follow after would only fulfill the scripture: “When the blind lead the blind they all fall into the ditch.”

It is also written: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

So it is that the Christian right wing, that pack of hypocrites and liars--pro lifers who bomb babies, homosexuals who rail against homosexuality, men and women who crave earthly riches and obtain such by oppressing the very poor that Christ exalted--has hijacked the word of the Lord to their own selfish and perverted ends, propping up George Bush, that antichrist, as one of their figureheads and leaders.

CHANNEL 4'S RESPONSE.

We are sorry to hear that you felt the final episode in this series soured your enjoyment. Please be assured your complaint has been logged and noted for the information of those responsible for our programming.

Is The Pope A Sociopath?

2010-03-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sociopath, noun. A person who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience; unconcerned about the adverse consequences for others of one's actions.

This is not a flippant question lightly posed, nor a potent word placed in a headline to grab attention. It is what came to mind when reading recent stories about the catholic church and its continued coverups of sexual abuse within its walls. I actually first had those thoughts about Pope Benedict in July of 2007.

Back then I was struck by the juxtaposition of two stories from the news. The first was on July 11, 2007, when the pope "reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation." You can read the story in greater detail here.

The Roman Catholic Church cites apostolic succession, and claims that the papal lineage traces back to the apostle Peter, whom Christ called the rock upon which he would build his church. But what of the other eleven apostles (not to mention the numerous disciples)? Were they lesser men vested with lesser power and authority paving a lesser path to the kindgom of heaven? No one who truly understands Christ would ever believe so.

I thought it a rather bold declaration, since Christ repeatedly teaches that 'whoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Luke, 14:11.

And I found it especially moreso just a few days later when on July 15, 2007 it was announced that the archdiocese of Los Angeles was paying 660 million dollars to more than 500 sexual abuse victims. You can read that story here. That's an awful lot of alms, and not how the faithful who cast them into the collection plates were expecting they would be spent by their stewards.

When he made his statement on catholic primacy, Pope Benedict simply had to be aware that the church was about to pay a whopping two thirds of a BILLION dollars to rape case settlements, yet when he should have been dropping to his knees with his hands clasped in remorse and sorrowful prayer he was instead raising them to the sky. Christ warned of wolves who would come in sheep's clothing, and just such devils are pedophiles who become priests that prey; yet when the pope should have been calling on Christ to cast the devils out of His house, he was instead using it to provide them safe harbor. That is why the notion that he might be a sociopath first came to my mind.

Now the BBC has revealed that 'the Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight. In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.'

Surely he's read where Christ said that nothing is secret that shall not be known and come abroad.

Jesus also taught that bringing harm to a child is about the worst thing a man can do. 'Then said he unto his disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.' Luke 17:1-2.

One wonders if these verses are in the Bible the pope reads. Really. And if they are, has he read them. Really. And if it is true that he was complicit in the coverup, and therefore become an accessory to the crimes as they were perpetuated, and doing so with such fearless and blatant disregard for the Bible he preaches, isn't that acting like a sociopath?

'Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.' Luke 12:1.

Jesus Christ International

2010-03-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Biblical Proof That True Christians Support Health Care Reform (Part 9)

As health care reform heads to Sunday’s vote, WTBN talk radio Christians continue to be dragged kicking and screaming, when according to my understanding they should be embracing and insisting upon it. Just now I heard the well known lying, racist hypocrite Malkin, who openly consorts with nazis, and Janet Mefferd railing against it, and saying that, God willing, it will be struck down tomorrow.

If we truly were a Christian nation, with the best health care on earth, we’d not only take care of our own, we’d share it with everyone, knowing that then God would bless America for giving generously of her gifts.

I opened my Bible and that’s exactly what happened two thousand years ago when the world discovered that Jesus Christ in Israel was the greatest doctor anywhere.

Matthew 4:24 ‘And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.’

Did you catch that, townhall.com and Fox News and all you other right wing compassionate conservative 'Christian' crazies? He healed the LUNATICS. He could help you.

He really got around, too. Check out some of the countries he visited.

Matthew 8: 28-34 ‘And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.’

Matthew 14: 34-36 ‘And when they were gone over into the land, they came into the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased; And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.’

Matthew 19: 1-2 ‘And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.’

Mark 7: 31 ‘And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And straightway his ears were opened and the string of his tongue was loosed, and spake plain.’

Many also came from afar.

Matthew 15: 22 ‘ And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to the dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.’

Mark 7: 25-28 'For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the childrens’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.'

Look what he did for a Roman.

Matthew 8:5-10 ‘And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.’

So if a Syrophenician woman brought you her sick daughter, would you treat her? Jesus did. He didn't just heal wealthy Americans with bullet proof insurance policies--He healed them ALL.

O Untimely Birth

2010-02-22T21:05:00.000-08:00

Not every bud on the vine matures into fruit; some fall and rot in the earth, and nourish the roots. It can be said that in a manner they are born again.

Miscarriage, stillbirth and crib death account for millions of infant mortalities worldwide every year; it’s been a natural aspect of the human condition since man was cast out of the garden.

The inscrutable, omniscient God, who knows the number of hairs upon your head and all the thoughts in your heart, takes every last one of these babes up into His arms. Jesus described it thus: 'In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.' Matthew 18:10.

He also addressed their existence in His book long, long ago.

Job 3: 11-16 ‘Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and had been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest… as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw the light. There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.’

It is a biblical truth essentially repeated in Ecclesiastes 4: 3-4, ‘Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.’ And Ecclesiastes 6: 3 ‘If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.’

Would a true child of God abort a fetus? Of course not. Why then do you fret when they you surely regard as the spellbound sons and daughters of the devil off their own young? And why do you seek to legislate the sin of others? We all know who the LORD says is qualified to cast those stones.

Speaking of stones, let us segue to Matthew 3:9, where John the Baptist denounces the Pharisees (the ancient equivalent of today’s self-righteous republican ‘Christians’), saying: ‘God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.’

Knowing that, do you think that even one soul God determines has been or ever will be lost? In John 6:39, Jesus says: ‘And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.’

Jesus also accuses the Pharisees on various occasions, including Matthew 23:23: ‘Woe unto ye, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.’

In this you pharisaical hypocrites make a show of your piety by taking up your indignation against abortion, but turn your backs upon the infants the moment they take their place among the living. You despise spending tax dollars on the social programs that would feed, house, educate and give them health care, and by opposing such seek to subject them to the very evils the Bible says they’re better off never knowing. Abortion is abomination, but so are ruthless bankers who devour houses, making people homeless to accumulate money they’ll never spend; and heartless health insurers who alchemize blood by visiting death upon the impoverished; and the soulless politicians who enable and protect them in the name of God. And even if the abortion ruling were ever overturned, the money saved would not be spent on the resulting babies—it would be divvied by and to the bankers and the insurers and the liars whom the very Bible says had been better off were they aborted in the first place.

Yet Another Catholic Contradiction

2010-02-16T02:39:00.000-08:00

Biblical Evidence That True Christians Support Health Care Reform Part Eight (Shall I continue?)

There are two major themes to Drifting With Jesus (synopsis and first three chapters here). One is an exploration of the various manifestations of Christianity in America—to explain exactly who are the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh Day Adventists, etc. The other arc is the many ways the Catholic church either opposes biblical doctrine or invents their own (very) loosely based on the Bible. In snooping around the internet for pertinent bits from the news related to a certain passage of scripture I wanted to expound upon, I came upon this gem from last November.

This is the first paragraph of a news story copied from The Colorado Independent, first posted on November 3, 2009. “This past weekend the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops instructed pastors at parishes across the country to distribute material urging Catholics to oppose the health reform bills making their way through Congress for allowing public funding of abortions. Priests were to insert the Bishops Conference leaflets and letters into parish news bulletins, distribute them at church doors or place them in pews. They were also directed to read a statement at mass to reinforce the message.”

And here follows the Bible passage that edict contradicts, as the edicts of the Catholic church so often do. From Ezekiel, chapter 34, verses 1-4. ‘And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.’

The Bible speaks for itself, as does the Catholic church, and I add nothing more.