The pastor at my church informed me that not only did he get this e-mail, but last week he got a DVD from the same group. Called "Obsession" it supposedly links Barack Obama to terrorist groups.
E-mails are cheap and easy to send, but producing and mass-mailing a DVD to clergy all around the country takes a lot of money. I would LOVE to know who is financing these people.
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This morning I received a particularly hateful and sick piece from Rabbi Yehuda Levin and Dr. O’Neal Dozier of “the Judeo-Christian View.” I won’t link to their site, it’s that bad, but you can Google them if you’re interested. You might need to hop in the shower afterwards, though.
The e-mail is full of the usual paranoid, hysterical fear-porn that we’ve come to expect from the far-right fringe: Obama wants to expand taxpayer-funded partial birth abortion (not true), he will force states to recognize gay marriages (not true), and favors “full integration of flagrant, practicing homosexuals into the U.S. armed forces and military barracks” (OK, I have no idea about Obama's position on gays in the military but anyone who doesn’t think “practicing homosexuals” are already in the U.S. armed forces and military barracks has their head up their ass).
It’s the usual litany of right wing fundiegelical crap. But what’s interesting is that after every “do you know that Obama...” lie comes an admonishment to my pastor or religious leader! Is your pastor telling you this? Has your Rabbi said anything to your congregation? Why in heaven’s name would your priest be silent about these abominations? They even--I shit you not--imply that if one’s religious leader has not attacked Barack Obama from the pulpit, they are being reverse-racists:
Has your pastor or bishop tacitly rejected Martin Luther King's plea to judge by the content of a man's character, rather than by the color of his skin? Is "Reverse Racism" or "White Guilt" inspiring shameful pulpit silence on the Torah, Tanakh and New Testament issues of Same-Sex Unions and Child Sacrifice?
Child sacrifice??! Are they kidding?
This e-mail was apparently sent in response to a letter Americans United For Separation of Church & State sent to clergy last week reminding them of federal tax laws related to church politicking. I have no idea why I got it, or what bizarre fundie e-mail list my name is now attached to.
It's a new twist on the old divide-and-conquer meme: it not only spreads lies, but also attacks religious leaders “for remaining silent.” Used to be religious leaders were on the side of the wackadoodles. Something seems to have shifted this election season; these two wackjobs are trying to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the faithful if their clergy have not spread lies about a presidential candidate.
This e-mail is especially insidious because instead of contacting clergy themselves, Rabbi Yehuda Levin and Dr. Dozier are trying to get the faithful to pressure their religious leaders. The hidden message is: the big bad religion-hating government is trying to silence the "faithful majority." Here's a presidential candidate who will force child sacrifice and gay marriage on the faithful and my pastor isn't even allowed to talk to me about it!
It's a revolution in an e-mail. And it's pretty abominable.
