Tuesday, July 29, 2014

“God told me to…” : How a deity decides who to converse with.



I swear, it seems like a week can’t go by without the media having a report on who god has had a conversation with.  You’d think with all these personal exchanges someone other than the recipient would have over heard it.

Most recently Sarah Palin advised the country that “God wants Obama impeached”.
One can pretty much assume she didn’t reach that conclusion by deductive reasoning, since any real reasoning eludes her. There can only be one other possibility - God told her so. She went on a bizarre rant to explain all of the reasoning God is likely using to make It’s feelings on the subject rather adamant.   http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/20/sarah-palin-claims-god-president-obama-impeached.html

Michele Bachmann seems to have an ongoing dialog with God.  Back in 2011 God told her to run for president.  http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/6119-michele-bachmann-qgod-calling-on-me-to-runq  I wonder if God got back to her latter to tell her he was only yanking her chain.   God had also told her to go to law school and run for congress.  I guess with all his conversations with Bachmann,  God just didn’t have time to give doctors the cure for the Ebola virus, that he created.

But she wasn’t the only person God goaded into unsuccessful bids for the country’s highest office.  Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, and Rick Perry were also specifically told by God to seek the presidency.   http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/modern-melting-pot/201202/who-did-god-tell-run-president-in-2012   One can only imagine that God was fuckin with their heads, since they didn’t even get a respectable showing in the primaries. That God…what a kidder!!

God also has or had regular conversations with Reverend John Hagee, the evangelical nutter from TexAss; Pat Robertson, the deceased Jerry Falwel, Tea Bagger congressman Tim Scott (SC), and assorted other clergy fakers and politicians.  I won’t delve into all of the references made by the likes of Glenn Beck and other whack jobs who readily declare with authority that such and such was a blessing from God, or that so and so was divinely chose to run for dog catcher, etc. 

It makes one wonder how their god chooses who he wants to communicate with.  How come they are invariably far right Conservative Republican Christians?  You’d think, if logic played any role in the choosing, that their god would talk specifically to Liberal Democrat non-believers.  I mean … wouldn’t that give their god thing a bigger bang for his verbal buck?  After all, just imagine Nancy Pelosi, or Obama, or Charles Schumer, or Barbara Boxer saying “God spoke to me last night and said I was all wrong - and that I should become an anti-abortion, pro-gun, obstructionist, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, war mongering, god fearing Conservative.”    Yikes!!!

But no.  It seems not to work that way… ever. God, in his “strange and mysterious way” is very specific about speaking only to far right extremist Conservative Republican deluded religious charlatans, twits, and buffoons with IQs that tend to border on below average, and possessing a penchant for obsessing about other peoples sex organs -what they do with them, and making sure people can carry their military style rifles into Target and Walmart unfettered.  

Funny how that works. Just as funny how anyone with a modicum of dignity and a fully functioning brain stem can buy into these peoples’ claims and/or what they stand for.

Monday, July 14, 2014

The Refugee / Immigration Crisis and the "Good Christian" Response.


The massive influx of children seeking refuge from Central American poverty, exploitation and violence is a crisis of massive proportion.  It's times like these that I thank Zeus I'm not president of the United States, because there is practically no resolution to this issue that will be humane while not encouraging  a further mass exodus across our borders and putting stress on our border control resources, immigration and social service finances.  I have no idea how this will ultimately be resolved.

But what I do know is that self styled "militia", dressed in combat fatigues or cowboy garb and armed to the teeth, paroling the border to ostensibly face down these refugee children, and at gun point block their path, is among the most grotesque and unconscionable acts of hate, fear, racism and lack of empathy I could imagine. What makes it all the more bizarre is that these "men" refer to themselves as "Christian patriots,"  who have empowered themselves to do what that "nigra Muslim Kenyan in the White House" is incapable or unwilling to do. 

I do not doubt their Christianity. Indeed, I'm quite sure they attend their church, pay their tithe, and admonish their children to love Jesus.  But how then do they reconcile their actions with this quote from Jesus?


Matthew 25:31-46  (NIV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
There may be other verses that endorse this kind of charity and empathy, but I doubt there are any more apropos to the refugee issue, nor more condemning of the hostility being demonstrated by the "good Christians" of the religious right toward the "least of these".

Alas, they typically don't read the bible; and if they did they'd cry "context"; and when they couldn't give the context which dismisses the admonishment of their man-god they'd say "Fuck you, you greaser-nigger lover" and happily attend church the very next Sunday while packing their shootin' iron and stroking the perfectly brushed hair of their well fed fair skinned children.