PC-USA Approves GLBT Ordination

Big news in the church world: the Presbyterian Church USA -- not to be confused with its more conservative cousin, the Presbyterian Church of America -- has finally approved allowing the ordination of GLBT ministers. It only took 33 years!

Well, no one can ever say that they needed more time to discuss the issue!

Pastor John Shuck has the details for those interested in the technicalities.

To me this is just another brick felled in the wall preventing full inclusion in our society for gays and lesbians. Try as some folks might, you can’t stop the culture from changing. They couldn’t stop blacks and whites from marrying, and you won’t be able to stop the gays, either.

Meanwhile, yesterday we read news that the U.S. Navy was preparing for the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” by writing guidelines for performing same sex marriages on Naval bases. This prompted the usual freak-out, and an immediate reversal:

Washington (CNN) -- The Navy did an abrupt about-face late Tuesday, suspending earlier guidance that could have allowed same-sex marriages on military bases once the Pentagon scraps its present Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

A memorandum from the Chief of Chaplains, Rear Admiral M.L. Tidd, suspended one he issued about a month ago.

"My memorandum of 13 April 2011 is hereby suspended until further notice pending additional legal and policy review and inter-Departmental coordination," Tidd wrote on Tuesday to all Navy chaplains and "religious program specialists."

The green light for gay marriage on military bases prompted a new round of Congressional opposition to ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Of course it did. But don’t worry, brothers and sisters. The bricks are falling. This one will, too.

Years ago I served on the session of a local Presbyterian church which had welcomed several openly gay families into our congregation. These people were talented and active in the church; we knew they had a lot to contribute to the life of our congregation, so we nominated two individuals to be part of the church’s Session, which is basically the church board. And then we all had to be reminded that in approving their inclusion on our church session we were running afoul of official PC-USA policy. While no one expected this to happen, it was possible our pastors could be removed from their positions.

This was a sobering thought, and it hardened our resolve. We approved their nomination and became what I believe to be Nashville’s first PC-USA church to have two openly gay elders serving the congregation. It sent a powerful message when these folks went to Presbytery meetings and other denominational functions. Several other congregations followed. And now the entire denomination has changed.

This is how change happens. The first step is always the hardest, but those steps have already been taken, long ago. Throughout our history, as our understanding of the human family has grown, we have opened the doors of our society wider to more people. Those fighting against full equality are marginalizing themselves by standing on the wrong side of history.

Religious Leaders Fast In Protest Of Congress' Immoral Budget

The irony of American religious leaders protesting a Republican budget with a hunger strike is tremendous. I mean gosh, our national news media keeps telling us that all Christians are conservative, small-government, free-market Republicans! This certainly puts a kink in that CW, does it not?

Earlier this morning, religious leaders and anti-poverty advocates announced that they will begin fasting to protest budget cuts that they argue "balance the budget on the backs of poor people." Progressive evangelical leader Jim Wallis and David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, joined former Democratic congressman Tony Hall in calling on others to join them in the fast and on Congress to restore funding for hunger programs and other anti-poverty initiatives.

[...]

Religious organizations from the National Association of Evangelicals to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have criticized proposed federal budgets to means-tested programs as immoral and unjust. And Wallis, Beckmann, and Hall are attracting support for their fast from an array of partners, including the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Islamic Relief USA, and Meals on Wheels. They haven't yet decided how long they'll continue the fast, but Wallis issued an additional challenge to members of Congress who support cuts in anti-poverty programs: be honest. "I want to hear just one of them say out loud that every line item of military spending is more important to the well-being of the country than child nutrition, than child health and vaccinations. They've crossed a line, but they want to keep pretending this is all about fiscal responsibility."

Good for them. You can read Tony Hall's powerful message "Why I Am Fasting (Again)" here.

I hate to be so cynical but I don’t look for the national news media to carry this story any further than a blog post. Jim Wallis and other social justice Christians have protested, been arrested over the Iraq War, and arrested over the 2006 budget, which raised nary an eyebrow from the national media. Who remembers this:

115 religious leaders were arrested in front of the Cannon House Office Building while kneeling in prayer to protest the immoral budget and tax agenda which slashes spending on the poor to finance tax breaks for the rich. Led by Jim Wallis of Call to Renewal, national faith leaders, clergy and faith-based providers of services to the poor held a press conference.

We never hear about this stuff, but some redneck with 10 followers in Bumfug, Tennessee wants to burn a Koran and it’s all the media can talk about.

Anyway, I’m posting this information for a couple of reasons. 1) Not all Christians are right-wing, intolerant assholes and 2) Budgets are moral documents which tell the world your priorities. Where your treasure is, so is your heart. And if your treasure is devoted to war, and torture, and bombs, instead of feeding poor children and funding schools and the rest, then you’re in deep trouble as a nation. You're failing your people. And when no one in power stands up and says "enough, this will not stand," then you no longer have the moral authority to tell anyone else in the world how to behave.

Bob Herbert penned his final column for the New York Times on Saturday, and it brought tears to my eyes. He wrote:

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Yes that was the “Bush boom,” which was a big, fat bust for most people. This is Republican America, where the haves feel they’re entitled to their looted wealth, and the rest of us are told to stop whining.

It’s enough to make some folks lose their appetite.

Do You Believe In Hell?

I don’t. Never have. Don’t know why.

Okay, I do know why. Hell never made sense to me: if God is so loving and wonderful then why subject people to some kind of eternal torture? Especially when we’re so good at doing that to ourselves, amiright?

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe evil doesn’t exist, or don’t believe in the concept of “sin” (a loaded word, I know ... more on that another time). But the concept of a Hieronymous Bosch-style afterlife of damnation and grotesque punishment just seems stupid.

Hell does not exist in the Old Testament, it seems to be a relatively recent concoction; the Hebrew world “shaol” referred to the Jersualem garbage dump, while “satan” is more accurately translated as “opposer” or “accuser.” That seems to fit my idea of the world. We have ying and yang, darkness and light, morning and evening ... everything has its opposite. This is not the same as Western Christianity’s ideas of “heaven” and “hell,” which seem to have their origin in Medieval art and literature (and that I believe was informed by the Black Plague). So, thank you Dante Alighieri for saddling us with these crackpot ideas.

It’s interesting that in modern America people have become so attached to these cultural notions of “heaven” and “hell” -- ideas which do not exist anywhere in the Bible -- that something like this can happen:

Pastor loses job after questioning hell

DURHAM, N.C. - When Chad Holtz lost his old belief in hell, he also lost his job.

The pastor of a rural United Methodist church in North Carolina wrote a note on his Facebook page supporting a new book by Rob Bell, a prominent young evangelical pastor and critic of the traditional view of hell as a place of eternal torment for billions of damned souls.

Two days later, Holtz was told complaints from church members prompted his dismissal from Marrow's Chapel in Henderson.

That’s almost funny except it’s not, it’s very sad. Congregations are supposed to listen to what their pastors have to say on theologoical matters, aren’t they? Isn’t that the point? If you've already made up your mind then why even bother with a pastor? Just go on in your comfortable little universe where you're never challenged to look at the world in a different way.

But of course we all know that has its limits: every pastor with a passion for social justice knows you can only challenge your congregation so much. Preaching “love the sinner, hate the sin” is fine; preaching homosexuality isn’t a sin at all but just how some people are born is asking for trouble. People don’t want to be pushed out of their comfort zones, which is why it’s the rare preacher who has the stomach to challenge the status quo. I mean c’mon, Jesus was that kind of preacher and look what happened to him.

Anyway, I’m getting off on a rabbit trail here but I thought I’d ask people their thoughts on this. What's your concept of hell? Is it like that old Twilight Zone episode, where the Hell's Angel is stuck for eternity with a group of senior citizens looking at pictures of their trip to the Grand Canyon? Is it the hell on earth we create for ourselves?

This Tennessee Thing Just Isn’t Working Out

Well, thanks to some of Tennessee’s more ludicrous legislators, the state is once again a national laughingstock. State Senator Bill Ketron and House Rep. Judd Matheny have a bill that would send anyone practicing Sharia Law to jail for up to 15 years:

It exempts peaceful practice of Islam but labels any adherence to Shariah law — which includes religious practices such as feet washing and prayers — as treasonous. It claims Shariah adherents want to replace the Constitution with their religious law.

Yes, the scourge that is the halal meat market is surely a threat to our way of life. House of Kabob, you are put on notice.

Dagnabbit but I am sick of you people making me ashamed of where I live. This nonsense is just the cherry on top a sundae of legislative foolishness: a bill forcing teachers to frame subjects like evolution and global warming as “controversial”, a bill that would ban discussion of homosexuality in schools, a bill that would exempt CCW holders from background checks. I mean Jesus Christ, people. Have you not noticed that our unemployment rate is still 9.4%? As of December 2010, Coffee and Warren Counties, Metheny’s district, have unemployment well over 10%. Ketron’s district fares even worse: Maury County unemployment was 13.5%, Marshall County was 15.6%.

Do you idiots really think banning Sharia law is going to help out the people in your districts? People need jobs, not fearmongering about religion! Are you really that out of touch? Are you really that stupid?

And to the people in your districts who keep voting these assclowns into office: don’t you think you deserve better? Is there no one in Marshall, Maury, Lincoln, or Rutherford counties who can do a better job at the legislature? Is there no one able to focus on real problems in these counties? Stuff that people really care about? Is this the best your districts have to offer?

I mean really, I’m almost at a place where I feel like it serves you right. You vote these jokers into office year after year after year -- Ketron and Metheny have been in office since, what, 2004? -- and what you get is 15% unemployment and stupid bills banning Sharia law instead of positive initiatives to bring economic development to rural counties. Maybe they're not the best folks the job, ya think?

You know what really pisses me off about this idiocy? We’re a national punchline -- again. This story got picked up at Gawker, for crying out loud. Once again Tennessee is the poster child for backasswards ignorance. Thanks a lot.

What major employer would want to move to Tennessee when everywhere you look we’re evidently a bunch of uneducated, unsophisticated rubes led by intolerant knuckle-dragging Neanderthals? What educated workforce would want to live here? Every year they ratchet up the idiocy and it’s very, very bad for the state of Tennessee.

Listen: Sen. Ketron and Rep. Metheny. We need jobs and economic development in this state. And ... well, you’re not helping! Just ... shhhh.

Jesus Save Me From These Morons

Another wingnut tries to claim Jesus was a conservative, in fact, “The Perfect Conservative.”

How does he know this? Because:

He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He feed the hungry without food stamps. And everywhere He went, it turned into a rally, attracting large crowds, and giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration.

For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check. Nevertheless, he completed all the work He needed to get done. He didn’t travel by private jet. He walked and sailed, and sometimes traveled on a donkey.

It goes on in this vein. I’ll spare you.

So, the moral of this story? You, too, can succeed in life without the government ... if you are the Messiah! The rest of us who are not the Messiah might need some government services at some point. Now fuck off.

This is almost as great as the news that Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips wishes to disband the Methodist Church (apparently the denomination’s support of the DREAM Act put him over the edge. Not that it wasn’t a short trip). Glenn Beck has been famously at war against social justice pastors for years. And there’s the hilarious Conservative Bible Project.

Hmm .. as I’ve said, oh, only a hundred thousand times already ... but it seems quite a few conservatives have noticed their politics is at odds with their religion ... and concluded that it’s their religion which is wrong.

Typical.

Jesus Is Coming, Look Busy

I Didn’t Even Know He Was On Tour

I spied this billboard in Nashville’s upscale Green Hills shopping area. Ironically, it’s half a block from this billboard which caused such an outrage last year.

There is a time-honored tradition of predicting Jesus' return. Since they’ve all been spectacular, embarrassing fails, most of these apocalyptic nutters have stepped away from endorsing a specific date in recent years. So I give the folks at Family Radio Inc. props for putting their butts on the line. That doesn’t mean I don’t also reserve the right to point fingers and laugh when the sun inevitably rises on May 22, however.

Mr. Beale loves to tell the story about the prank some Southern Baptist church staffers played on their church secretary the last time a notable Rapture date was in the news. When the poor woman was due back from lunch, everyone in the church office draped clothing and shoes at their workspace, then hid. I doubt she actually thought everyone in the church office had been raptured when she returned from lunch, but everyone did get a good laugh. See, even church people can have fun with this stuff.

The Rapture is just one of many things that are not in the Bible. It is a 19th century myth peddled by a bunch of hucksters and charlatans. Which is too bad, because sometimes I think the world would be better off if they’d go along their merry way, already.

Anyway, here’s a parting message:

A Neat Twist On Religious Hate

Hey, boys and girls! The burning of religious texts isn’t just for Korans anymore!

CANTON, N.C. (October 13, 2009)—The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles that aren’t the King James Version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence.

Among the authors whose books Grizzard plans to burn are well known ministers Rick Warren and Billy Graham because he says they have occasionally used Bibles other than the King James Version, which is the sole biblical source he considers infallible.

According to the church’s Web site, members will also burn “Satan's music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul (and) oldies.

Nooooo! Not soft and easy music? CCM? Amy Grant?!

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!

Here’s the best part:

During the book burning, according to the Web site, barbecued chicken, fried chicken and “all the sides” will be served.

Hey, this one's a real barbecue! So bring the kids! It’s gonna be a party!

Honestly, just when I think we’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel of religious intolerance someone crawls out from under a rock somewhere to prove me wrong. Amazing, yes. Grace? Not so much.

(h/t, Jesus’ General)

The New Spiritual Work

Pastor John Shuck has posted another of his amazing sermons. One of these days Mr. Beale and I will make the long trek to Elizabethton (perhaps in my new all-electric vehicle) to hear him preach.

Here’s a taste, but do go and read the whole thing:

As a globalized industrial society we are going to be letting go of a way of living that extracts and exploits and destroys our home. At some point we will let it go. It is happening now. We will be relating to Earth and to one another in a new way. We are needing to learn to live with Earth rather than against it. It will be better for us if we are pro-active and conscious about it, rather than just letting it happen.

[...]

Those of us with conscience, those of us who see the need for systemic change have our work cut out for us. All of us need to be involved in peace and sustainability movements at many different levels based on our own sense of what we want to do and can do.

Whether we are taking on mountain top removal mining, or supporting local food growers, finding ways to help ourselves and others reduce consumption, or learning and teaching about what life will be like post-peak oil, now is the time to see this work as spiritual work.

Growing a garden is a subversive, spiritual act.

Not everyone can do that.

Not everything is for everyone.

We find our own way.

I’ve said this before, like a thousand gazillion times, but this idea that we all have to live in tents and churn our own butter to save the world is not just unrealistic, it’s not accurate. On top of which, it’s intellectually dishonest, since it’s the favorite argument of right wingers whose true agenda is to make sure we don’t change anything at all! So no, you people who think it’s so cute to point fingers at Al Gore’s electric bill, your argument amounts to nothing.

We can’t all do everything but we can each of us do something. It’s just as simple as that. If you want to ride around on a bicycle and live as a freegan in a zero-emmissions tent, that is great! Good for you. But the rest of the world is not going to join you in that endeavor. That is reality. And the thing is, they don’t need to. A tremendous impact could be had if everyone just did one thing. And it’s not going to be the same thing for everyone. Not everyone can plant a garden, but I bet everyone can close the blinds on their windows in the summer to keep the heat out. Or turn the thermostat down (or up, depending on the season). You get my drift here.

If you’re a legislator, you can start by initiating policies that encourage green technologies, such as this one. As Pastor Shuck says:

As Americans, we consume 18-20 million barrels of oil each day.

We extract 6-8 million barrels.

We need to import 10-14 million barrels.

Everyday.

We are five percent of the population and we consume 25% of the world's oil.

You don't keep up that level of disparity without massive bullying. I don’t say that to intentionally offend. I'm just calling it as I see it. That is why we spend more on our military than the next 20 or so nations combined.

We all have a part to play in changing that. The empire is going to be overturned, whether you take part in it or not -- some day the dead dinosaurs will have fueled their last generator and it will no longer be cost effective to devote our military to protecting the oil empire. My sense is that day is coming sooner than anyone expected.

On Sunday Tom Friedman wrote:

In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.

Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.

Friedman is right that our national priorities are supremely messed up. We’d prefer to fight wars and spend our grandchildren’s future on a massive military build-up in the Middle East to protect our access to oil. This is incredibly stupid, and the joke’s on us, since we financed all of this with the Chinese credit card. What fools we are. China has played a massive game of “gotcha” with America, letting us go off to sink our treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan and -- next up, Iran! -- while they are quietly getting off the oil tit.

But Friedman is wrong, because change is happening -- even (and most tellingly) in places where you’d think it doesn’t need to.

So we still have time to change our ways. And we are. Everyone can do something. One thing.

Whether you’re a suburban housewife deciding what to feed the family for dinner or city councilman or United States Senator or a book author, everyone can do one thing.

And that is all it’s going to take.

“Dude You HAVE No Koran!”

Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, and a skateboarder foil a plan to burn the Koran at Sam Houston Park in Amarillo, Texas:



(H/T, Talking Points Memo.)

What If They Burned A Koran And Nobody Was There To See It?

I guess we’ll find out as Springfield, TN’s Bob Old decided to go through with his copycat Koran burning after all:

But for all the controversy and hype, his Quran burning took place in front of just a handful of people, most of them from the media.

Old and the Rev. Danny Allen stood together in Old's backyard, answering what they say was a message from God.

Well isn’t that special. In fact, eight journalists showed up for Old and Danny Allen’s pathetic “demonstration,” which clearly was a sad attempt to get some attention since obviously his church wanted nothing to do with it.

Also:

Three protesters stood across the street from Old's home, holding signs that read "My husband fights terrorism and your actions perpetuate it" and "Proud of my country but ashamed of my neighbors."

Okay, Tennesseans. Hope everyone is proud of themselves. Now can we all move along?

[UPDATE]: Read John Shuck on our new imperial religion.

Tennessee Wackadoos REPRESENT!

[UPDATE]: Florida's Koran burning has been cancelled. Wonder if this idiot in Tennessee still plans to go forward.

-------------------

Not to be left out of all the fun, a Springfield, TN pastor wants to join in the Holy book barbecue planned for Saturday:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Springfield minister says he also plans to burn a Quran on Saturday to mark the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Rev. Bob Old told The Tennessean the Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Center Outreach in Gainesville, Fla., is doing the right thing by burning the Quran, and so he's going to do likewise.

Jones' plan to burn Qurans on Saturday has caused a furor of opposition, including an urging from President Barack Obama to call off his plan.

However, Old says not only does he plan to burn the Quran, but he intends to post a video of the burning book online.

Says Old of Muslims in America: "If they want to have their religion, they can have it somewhere else."

Wow that's just SO FUCKING AMERICAN, ain't it? Isn't that what the Puritans were told? "If you want your religion go somewhere else?"

I mean, we just knew that some asshole in Tennessee was going to join in the fun, didn't we?

*SIGH*

Look, I really didn't want to pay attention to this wacko down in Florida because clearly he's an attention-seeking media whore of the Fred Phelps variety. The media circus has already been whipped up, it was inevitable, but I just really hoped I could check out of Crazy Town and just not take part in the spectacle. But noooo, of course not, someone right up the highway from Nashville thinks this is a stellar idea! The nation has clearly gone off the rails and frankly I'm tired of having to say "you don't represent me!" over and over again.

People have a right to burn books in this country, it's part of the whole "free speech" thing, so enjoy yourselves. But I just have to wonder at what these folks are going to be thinking come Sunday morning when they show up at church for worship. As you arrive on church property and smell the acrid burned-ash-and-ink smell of your little holy flame fest, are you going to be proud of yourselves? Will you think that God is proud of you? Do you think Jesus looks down from heaven on you and smiles at setting flame to some ink and paper? Really?

Or will there be a tiny bit of shame in your hearts? Maybe the smallest shard of embarrassment that the entire world has looked upon you and your congregation, not with awe at how much you love, but with horror at how much you hate?

Is this how you represent God to the world?

"Vide", inquiunt, "ut invicem se diligant" - ipsi enim invicem oderunt - "et ut pro alteruto mori sint parati"; ipsi enim ad occidendum alterutrum paratiores erunt.

Take THAT Laurie Cardoza-Moore

Saw this while running around doing errands today:

See! We're not all assholes!

All Tennesseans are not Islamophobes and all Christians are not right wing bigots!

My life is about to get very busy so blogging may be sporadic in the next few weeks (though you know what happens as soon as I say that ...)

Have a good weekend, folks.

Tennessee Laughingstocks

The Daily Show covers Tennessee's own mosque-troversy. I don't know who this crazy lady is who says you can find out all sorts of things on the internet but someone needs to tell her that just because it's on the internet, it doesn't mean it's true. If that were the case then I'd be freaking out about the Great George W. Bush Alien Coverups of 2007.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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The View From Ground Zero Today

Russell Simmons lives across the street from Ground Zero. Here's what he did to his apartment windows:



Meanwhile the media seems bent on taking its cue from a crazy lady whose last big claim to fame was announcing President Obama is Malcom X's love child. Well, that and her famous crush on John Bolton.

I remember a time when people like that were gently ushered away from the microphone and sent on a long cruise somewhere for their "nerves." Today's modern Republican Party hands them a Fox News microphone and the national news media decides there must be something to it because, well, they're on Fox News!

Crazy world we live in.

By the way, Leviticus 19:18 referenced in Simmons' window? It reads:

18 " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Gotta love how religious conservatives always overlook just those parts of Leviticus that are inconvenient to their politics.

Mosque Ado About Nothing

Much is being discussed on the internets about the Anti-Defamation League’s stance on the so-called "Ground Zero” mosque. I always thought of the ADL as a rather mainstream group; heck, I remember my Dad was a member, even though our family wasn’t Jewish and he was a DFH, Amnesty International/ACLU loving beatnik. So the ADL’s fence-sitting statement that the issue is

"not a question of rights, but a question of what is right"

strikes many of us as the kind of contorted rhetoric worthy of a Kundalini master. Sorry, ADL, but there’s no middle ground on this one. You’re either on the side of religious tolerance, or you’re not. There’s no way of still being the nice guys and siding with the bigots and it's kinda pathetic that you'd try.

I think the whole thing was best lampooned by a commenter over at Balloon Juice who noted:



Heh. That ought to get a few panties in a twist.

What I don’t understand is why nobody save a few foul-mouthed bloggers on the internets have noticed that there is already a mosque near Ground Zero, has been since before 9/11, and it’s a mere city block from the site of the proposed mosque. In fact, according to its website the group says they have operated in Manhattan’s financial district since 1970.

Religious intolerance always pisses me off but no one has really said much lately about how this is another example of the right-wing claiming its ownership of 9/11, just as they have tried to own everything else: the flag, patriotism, Christianity, and even American history. And I’m sorry folks but you don’t “own” 9/11. This has been going on since Darryl Worley first warbled “Have You Forgotten,” turning the tragedy of 9/11 into conservatives' personal crucifixion event; it continues today with the idiots in Glenn Beckistan and their "9/12 movement." You think the world was so great on Sept. 12? Holy crap, I remember being shell shocked, depressed, scared. You say we're the ones who have forgotten? What the hell is wrong with you people?

Here’s a news flash for you guys: 9/11 was probably the most multi-cultural tragedy in American history. 9/11 didn’t just happen to white Republican Christian Midwesterners. Citizens of more than 50 countries perished, of every religion and no religion. What part of World Trade Center don’t you people get?

Collectively the conservative movement is dominated by a striving, "greedy grabber" sensibility. Maybe it's because they've convinced themselves that they are oppressed and everything is so unfair and the world is really, really mean to them. I guess it must be really hard out there for a middle aged Christian white guy, yeah you have my sympathies. But 9/11 isn't your event; it didn't just happen to you in your strip malls in Iowa. It happened to everyone, all around the world. Get a fucking clue.

There's already a mosque near Ground Zero, folks. You're arguing against something that already exists. If anything shows conservatives as a bunch of clueless sheeple eager to get foamy-mouthed at whatever manufactured controversy the folks at FOX News pull out of their asses on any given day, this is it. You folks need to wake up and figure out who is pulling your strings and then ask why. Who benefits by keeping 20% of the voting public in a constant state of high dudgeon? This is a question I'd like to see addressed.

In Which I Tell Digby & Atrios That They Are Wrong

Good Lord but there’s nothing I hate more than having to defend someone like Sharron Angle or Sarah Palin. I find them both repugnant. I do not support them in any way. But dammit people, when you attack someone’s religion out of your own secular ignorance, I just have to say something.

Look, I tried to hold my tongue last week when everyone chortled on the Twitters about how Palin said we need to pray for Divine Intervention to stop the oil spill. I was really hoping the Sharron Angle abortion-rape thing would blow over but then Digby did this post which got picked up all over the lefty blogosphere, from Atrios to Think Progress to the Huffington Post.

Sigh.

So here I go. Here’s the quote, pulled from a radio interview Angle gave back in January, in which she explains why she is against abortion even in the case of rape or incest:

MANDERS: So, in other words, rape and incest would not be something?

ANGLE: You know, 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.

This has caused Digby and other liberal bloggers, people whom I respect and admire greatly and agree with pretty much 99.9% of the time, to raise the red flag:

On the other hand, Angle seems to see conception by rape and incest as something God purposefully directed and so the results of which are something the birthing vessel must embrace. That's a very disturbing point of view no matter where you come out on the issue.

This prompted Atrios to write:

But having the view that raped and impregnated women are all part of God's plan, well, interesting God you've got there.

Oh for Chrissakes, people. That’s not what she’s saying, okay? That’s not what Christians mean when they say “God has a plan,” and “have a little faith,” alright? I swear, are you folks being intentionally obtuse for the sake of scoring a cheap political point or are you really just that out of touch with the faith community that you don’t know what Christians mean when they say “God has a plan”?

I'm going with the latter only because this reminds me of the liberal uproar when Sarah Palin said people should "pray that there is a plan and that this plan is God’s will" regarding the Iraq War. Somehow that got twisted into “the Iraq War is God’s plan," but Christians know that’s not what she meant.

Look, no one is saying it's God’s plan for war or for a woman to be raped, or for anyone to be sexually molested. What they are saying is that even though these horrible things may happen, God has a plan to pull us through. God will make it right. God will create a blessing where humans create tragedy. That is what it means to say “God has a plan” and “have a little faith.” Every Christian regardless of their political persuasion knows what that means. Twisting the words around to make them horrible does not help your cause, it just makes you look like asses. It makes you look intolerant. And ignorant.

Look, liberals, I love you. I’m one of you. But for crying out loud, just leave the Christianity stuff alone, OK? When someone explains the religious basis for their policy views, how about saying, “your religious views may inform your views about national policy but I do not share your religious views. Therefore, I do not want you imposing them on me in the form of laws.”

Let me put it another way. When Sharron Angle says that she’s a Christian and believes God has a plan and people just need to have faith when something awful like rape or incest happens, it’s perfectly acceptable to respond with, “that is an excellent reason why you personally would not choose to have an abortion if you were raped or sexually molested. However, that argument does not give you the right to tell me what to do when faced with the same situation. You cannot force me to share your faith.”

I'm a political progressive and liberal Christian, and I do feel there is some truth to the conservative Christian lament that liberals are intolerant of Christianity. Honestly, I don’t know what it is with liberals and evangelical Christianity, because everyone was perfectly able to defend the Liberation theology of the black church during the whole Rev. Wright kerfuffle, and everyone is perfectly able to defend Islam and every other religion out there. But as soon as evangelicals express a belief about their faith people seem to go off the rails.

This is something liberals need to examine carefully because there are a growing number of liberals who are also people of faith. The “Moral Majority” is dead, there’s a whole generation of evangelical Christian kids who care about things like climate change and poverty and ending war, and attacks on peoples’ religious views to score a political point does not build a dialogue with these folks. It builds a wall.

I suspect part of the issue is most secular folks aren’t fluent in “Christianese,” the language of evangelical Christians honed over years of Bible study and Vacation Bible School and Christian radio and twice weekly church services and whatnot. I spent years in Christian music so I know what Christainese is. Heck, Michael W. Smith wrote a song about it. And look, going on the radio and saying "I believe God has a plan, which is why I'm against abortion" is a perfectly normal thing for a Christian to do, and it's a perfectly normal thing for a politician pandering to Christian voters to do.

Twisting that into "A-Ha! You believe God wants women raped!" is just wrong. It's bullshit. And if it's pissing me off, then it's got to be pissing off other people of faith, people with whom progressives actually have a lot in common.

So cut it out.

Tennessee Puts The Hate On-AGAIN

The anti-Muslim haters crawled out from under their rocks to oppose the Rutherford County mosque at a county commission meeting last week. Some of the statements that were made are shocking in their ignorance and intolerance. For example:

"Everybody knows they are trying to kill us," Karen Harrell said. "People are really concerned about this. Somebody has to stand up and take this country back."

”Take this country back” being code for “I’m a tea bagging idiot who just parrots whatever words Glenn Beck spews.” Isn't it funny how people who don’t like government interference in anyone’s business are suddenly demanding the Rutherford County Commission stop a private group from building a house of worship on land they own?

Just as we saw when Lee Beaman donated his Antioch property to the homeless, these folks seem to live in a world of double standards. If a megachurch wanted to build on that land and people objected it would be “oh my God Christianity is under attack” all over again.

Even worse were the statements expressed by supposed people of faith. Here’s one:

"We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," Allen Jackson, pastor of World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, said during Thursday's meeting.

This from someone professing to lead a group with the words “world outreach” in its title? Cognitive dissonance much?

Here’s another one:

But Michael O'Bannon, senior minister at First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro, said questioning the new mosque is not religious intolerance.

"It is a genuine concern based on the fact that, while we believe and practice freedom of religion, experience has taught us that a segment of Muslims are very hostile toward anyone who is not a Muslim.

"Their Quran is very explicit about how they should treat infidels," he said.

I’m guessing this fellow hasn’t spent too much time reading his Bible, especially the Old Testament. And he certainly hasn’t spent much time reading his own United Methodist literature, since the United Methodists are one of the more tolerant denominations out there. I guess he missed the 2005 meeting between Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a group of UMC bishops. So to Michael O'Bannon who says “a segment of Muslims are very hostile toward anyone who is not a Muslim,” I suggest you remove the log from your own eye.

But the best comments came from a self-described “tea party Democrat” named George Erdel running for Bart Gordon’s seat. First of all, let me say there is no such thing as a “tea party Democrat.” There is not one thing about the tea party that represents the Democratic Party. This person is clearly delusional. He said:

"Islam is a system of government. Islam is a system of justice. We've got people here who remember Sept. 11, 2001. These people are scared.

"I'm afraid we'll have a training facility in Rutherford County."

Yes, please roll that tape of the guys in their pajamas on the monkey bars, we haven’t seen that one enough. What an idiot.

Fortunately, a real Democrat has spoken up. U.S. Marine and Iraq War veteran Ben Leming, also running for Bart Gordon’s seat, writes on his website:

 “I see a lot of people quoting our Constitution these days, but only when it suits their agenda. You can’t have it both ways. I believe in the United States Constitution.  I have fought and will continue to fight to uphold every single right guaranteed by it. This includes the right to worship freely. Just because we may not agree with someone’s religious views does not mean we get to decide whether they can have a place of worship in the community. This is simply un-American,” said Leming.

The Rutherford County Commission approved a proposed site for a new Islamic mosque planned for Murfreesboro in May. One local leader in the community, Pastor Allen Jackson, said “We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam.” He went on to mention American troops in his remarks.

“I completely repudiate those statements.  He does not get to speak for me or most other members of the military. I expect more from a man who should be teaching the message of tolerance, forgiveness, and love.” said Leming. "I support those leaders who voted to uphold our American values and rights. Doing the right thing, even if it is unpopular, takes courage."

I can’t tell you how embarassed I am by my fellow Tennesseans sometimes. I understand people are afraid and I get that scared people do stupid things, but haven’t we seen this movie like a thousand times before? Have we learned nothing from the way we treated Japanese and German Americans and immigrants during WWI and WWII? Come on people, cut the crap already.

I’m tired of living in Amygdala America. It’s time that we started drowning out the voices of hate once and for all. We need more Ben Lemings speaking out.

What Happens When We Die

Setting aside politics for the moment, I’ve been having some interesting discussions with a few folks about that eternal human question: what happens when we die?

It’s one of those things I’ve always wondered about, even as a kid, which might have made me a weird kid but I suppose everyone has thought about this at some point. When I was a little I used to think you entered into some kind of void, “like when you go to sleep at night but don’t have any dreams,” I remember explaining to a friend when I was around 10. “You just wake up the next day and time has passed. Like that.”

Yes, I was a weird kid.

The thing is, I have never believed in heaven or hell. To be more precise: I’ve never believed in hell. Hell makes no sense to me, because I can’t imagine the world works that way. I can’t imagine a hell any worse than the one we humans create for ourselves right here, right now. I don’t believe the universe punishes you for being bad. Frankly, my dear, I don’t think the universe gives a damn.

I think the whole punitive thing is an entirely human construct, and while I do believe in the concept of Karma, that is an entirely different thing from a system of retribution and reward. I believe what you give out comes back, that nothing is created or destroyed it simply changes form, that the cosmos operates as a universal balancing act. There is no room for punishment for violating some Western society’s rules, which tend to operate in black and white when there are so many different shades of gray.

What this all means is that if I don’t believe in hell, I can’t believe in heaven, either. Because you can’t have one without the other.

This is completely at odds with my chosen theology, but the Presbyterians, God love ‘em, are pretty tolerant of the oddballs in their midst. I’ve had many pastoral conversations where I’ve been assured that my esoteric musings are in keeping with centuries of theological discourse.

Not so my evangelical Christian friends. The thing about the evangelicals and the fundamentalists is they’re always trying to rebrand the absolute worst deal as some kind of awesome new thing. No sex until you’re married! No alcohol! No gays! Um, no thanks! Sex, booze and gays are what make a party, people!

My evangelical friends tell me with absolute assurance that after we die we all Bible-believing Christians (oops) go to some heaven kind of place and worship Jesus for eternity. That’s it. They are dead serious about this, and they will tell you this like it’s the most awesome deal you could ever get.

I ask you: does that not sound like the most gawd-awful, boring way to spend eternity? Don’t you think Jesus would get bored with that deal, too? Once again, you folks have the clunkiest junker on the lot, which you are trying to convince me is a Ferrari. I ain’t buying.

I know quite a lot of people who believe in reincarnation and this makes a lot of sense. Recycling is built into every natural system, so it would be logical that our souls would recycle in addition to our corporal bodies. Ever the joker, Mr. Beale told me he thought he’d probably come back as a slug in a saucer of beer.

But I don’t like this idea at all. I see how we are destroying the planet and quite frankly I do not want to come back to this mess. Who wants to see the Gulf of Mexico in 50 years? Not me.

Talking about this with some folks I heard a story about a very unusual near death experience. This person had nearly drowned and was taken out of his body to a place in outer space. He was shown his next life there, where he’d have some kind of important role in establishing a space colony. However, he was told he needed to return to earth and continue to learn some things in his current lifetime that would help him in that future mission.

Now, that just really blows my mind. That indicates that all this stuff is already planned out, which begs the question: by whom? Also, outer space, people? Really? Could we be reincarnated as aliens? I guess if you think your dog could be reincarnated as a human, and a human could be reincarnated as a beetle, then surely we could be reincarnated as life forms elsewhere. It just never occurred to me to expand my questioning beyond Planet Earth.

Anyway, the more I think about this, the more I like the idea of an Endless Void.

I'm not planning on going anywhere any time soon. But I am curious what other folks think about this.

Godly Economics

[UPDATE]:

Pastor Bob has more to say on the subject here: "Economic Principles: Gleanings from Genesis"

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I know a lot of folks don’t think God belongs in any discussion of economics and that’s fine, but we live in a country where snake-oil salesmen (and women) peddle a bastardized version of Christianity in which we all worship Free Market Jesus, and they think this is appropriate public policy.

You know, people like crackpot Gary North (let’s hope he knows more about economics than he does theology). Or Ralph Reed and his “Faith & Freedom Coalition,” which touts free markets right along side limited government, lower taxes, aid to Israel and oh, yeah, helping the poor among its founding principles. Dude, that don’t ad up.

(And why are these groups always coalitions? Coalitions of what? Idiots?)

Indeed as some astute observers have noted, the GOP’s sole idea for pulling us out of the economic abyss they placed us in seems to be prayer for Divine intervention.

Excuse me for calling these phonies out by name, but it just seems to me that so few of these people have actually read the Bible--and I mean the whole thing, not just the parts that conveniently support their politics. So for this I turn to my friend the reverend, aka Pastor Bob, for a look at what a Biblical economic plan really looks like.

Do read the whole post for an education on what the Bible says about how nations should run their economies. And then look at our supposed "Christian nation," and the policies that right wing Christians have espoused for decades, and see if you don't notice a wee bit of an inconsistency. I do:

First of all, the entire land belonged to God: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” Pious, empty-sounding religious words? No, an economic principle: All land, and its produce, belong to God. No property is private. It was God who made sure each family had an inheritance on it. In acknowledgement of this, they were called upon to offer tithes. Not only that, they were forbidden to fence off their lands, and were not allowed to go over their fields a second time after harvesting, and the same was true of the grape vines: “you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: for you were aliens in Egypt.”

Wonder what Sarah Palin or Ralph Reed would say to a Washington economic policy which looked like that? They’d cry “wall of separation” so fast your head would spin.

Pastor Bob goes on:

Next came the matter of debt, and here the rule was very simple: All debts were to be forgiven every seven years. Period.

Many years and much watering down later, we now begrudgingly allow some debts to be released, maybe once in a person’s lifetime, with that event a blot on their economic record that lasts at least seven years. And I am willing to bet that a lot of “Bible-believing” Christians are pretty sure that anyone who takes advantage of this provision is a victim of his or her own moral failure, and ought to be ashamed.

Now, along with requiring all creditors to release the obligations of all debtors once every seven years, without exception, the biblical law also expressly prohibited the accumulation of extreme wealth:

“Woe to those who add house to house, and field to field!”

Christian America, are you listening? To implement this, there was a provision that once every fifty years (seven periods of seven) any family who had sold their own homestead to pay off debts would have that property returned to them, free and clear. This was expressly to prevent the accumulation of wealth by some at the cost of the permanent impoverishment of others.

Wow, we sure don’t hear that economic policy espoused by the so-called Christians in the Republican party.

Gee, I wonder why.

As Pastor Bob says, he’s just reading his Bible. Maybe some other folks who claim to espouse Biblical beliefs should do so as well.

I Wonder If WTVF Feels A Teensy Weensy Bit Responsible

If they don't, they should:

On February 10th, 2010, Al-farooq Masjid of Nashville, TN was vandalized with religiously motivated hate-speech spray painted on their outside walls. Whoever did this also left a hand written letter at the Al-farooq Youth Center that said ugly things about Muslims and Islam.

This event is particularly troubling as it comes on the heels of a sensationalist report by News Channel 5 this past weekend about a long-time Muslim community in Dover, TN, who they initially insinuated as having links to terrorists.

Well no one could have anticipated THAT.

Way to go, Nashville's ”yellow journalists.”

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