Tag Archives: Bible

Randomness: No Surprise Style


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah

…and This is a Surprise, How?

Paul Deen

Ride 'Em Cowgirl Click photo for more >>

Is That Really Necessary?

Robotomation

Capitalism Run Amok

Japan in Spaaaaace

For thine is My Entertainment, Forever and Forever, Amen!

Related articles

Don’t Do Unto Others As They May Decide to Do Unto You


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah
Guns and Bibles

GUNS AND BIBLES - Ameican Christians like to howl about their persecution, but it's hard to feel their pain. Having control over almost all political posts, have unlimited money and influence, and can demonize and run rough-shod over others, it's not persecution...it's the Tyranny of the Majority,

American Christians are quite vocal in the belief they’re oppressed, but it’s hard to feel their pain. They’re the overwhelming majority in this country. Virtually every member of every legislative body and every elected representative is Christian. Their lobbies are as potent as any on K St. The government funds them by not taxing them. They routinely work to defeat bills clear majorities want and that deprive citizens – sometimes other Christians – of their civil rights.

If that’s oppression, sign me up. It sounds like a sweet deal.

However, there are persecuted and oppressed Christians. For example, many countries have real zero tolerance for anything other than their God and prophet. They sometimes force Christians from their homes, turn them into refugees, or kill them.

Popester

NO MEA CULPA - If the Pope thinks Christians are the most oppressed instead of the oppressors, he should take his next vacation in Baghdad. BTW Your Holiness, don't forget the up-armored Popemoblie. The Natives are restless.

Meanwhile, American Christians busy themselves with important issues like the proper etymology of Christmas v. Holiday. Living in their secure homes and working in their secure jobs they feel it’s their God-given right to rewrite history books, let pedophiles escape unpunished, or denigrate science because it doesn’t completely jibe with their Bible.

There’s no doubt the intolerance against Christians in countries like Iraq is awful. It’s the tyranny of the majority directed against the few. But except for the degree of modern persecution (the Christians don’t exactly have a bloodless history either), how is that any different from the tyranny of the American majority against the minority here?

I’m not a Christian and I’m sure there are many Christians who’d argue I have no right to an opinion about their religion. However, I’d point out that by the same logic, Christians have no right to an opinion about Islam or me or Druids. But, they never seem shy about exercising the same freedoms they seem unwilling to share with anyone other than themselves.

It is the Christian Sabbath, the last one before the holiest of Christian holy days. Whether you call it Christmas, the holidays, or Festivus, it seems like a good time for Christians, indeed everyone, regardless of religion or the lack thereof, to borrow the concepts of peace and harmony espoused in the Bible, the Quran, and most other religious texts in the world.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Related articles

Enhanced by Zemanta

Outbreak of Wikis is a Homo Plot


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah
Don't Steal the Pic-i-nic Baskets

RUN YOGI! RUN BOO BOO! - You guys seem a little light in the pic-i-nic baskets, so run. Bryan Fischer wants you for a rug in the He-Man Homo-Haters Clubhouse.

Everyone knows The Gays are the root of all evil because the Bible tells us so. God compels Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals that have nothing to do with gayosity. In California, God commanded a DMV clerk to access private records to mail anti-gay literature to a transgendered citizen. And Bryan Fischer, the American Family Association’s head of issues analysis ties Bradley Manning – the soldier who may be responsible for the world’s largest leak of wikis – to smite-worthy gaydom.

Of course Fischer’s take is nothing unusual. In the past, he’s equated gay sex with domestic terrorism (apparently foreign terrorists are only heathen Muslims, but never gay ones), called for the euthanization of grizzly bears, and advocated criminalization of homo sex with mandatory reparative therapy and if that fails, execution.

Way to hate the sin, love the sinner there Bry.

It’s not that it’s scary this ass cake says such loathsome and offensive things, it’s that many people actually side with the nut. It’s not that conservative politicians sometimes support him, but that their Prop. 8 marriages of convenience tie them to the crackpot thereby forcing independents and more liberal Republicans to either desert the party or go along for the sake of the party and enable a swing farther toward the lunatic fringe and away from common sense conservative ideals.

It’s tempting to say Christians who think he’s a crapweasel denounce him, just as Christians think Muslims should denounce their crackpots too.  Just writing off the addle-brained ninny is tempting too. After all, he calls enough attention to his bigotry without any help, regularly reminding the rest of the public just what a  jughead he is. But, it is tempting to hunt the bastard and his ilk down and give them a taste of their own savage medicine.

However, the rest of us are sentient beings who’d never dream of doing unto others what Fischer does to them.

Related articles

Enhanced by Zemanta

Bryan Fischer: Backward Christian Soldier


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah
The Knights of Hate

BACKWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS - The American Family Association wants to ship Muslims back from whence they came because they're all evil killers. Perhaps they should read up on the Christian Crusades of the Middle Ages. Wasn't that supposed to have been the final solution for those pesky, blaspheming infidels?

The American Family Association’s Director of Issues Analysis, Bryan Fischer, has suggested that Muslims are such pariahs in his America we should “graciously assist” them right out of the country. There is so much wrong with his public statements it’s hard to tell where to start, but let me try by using his own words, with slight modifications in parentheses, to demonstrate the “logic” of his argument.

“The most compassionate thing we can do for Muslims (Christians) who have already immigrated here is to help repatriate them back to Muslim (Christian) countries, where they can live in a culture (theocracy) which shares their values, a place where they can once again be at home, surrounded by people who cherish their deeply held ideals. Why force them to chafe against the freedom, liberty, and civil rights (that our Constitution guarantees and which) we cherish in the West?”

“Muslims (Christians) continue to have as their objective the Islamization (Christianization) of the entire world, including the U.S., and are taught by their god to use force (force, hate, and discrimination) where necessary to accomplish the goal. The current objective of Muslim (Christian) activists is to create a brand new Islamic (Christian) state – meaning a state like New Jersey or Montana – out of existing jurisdictions and establish a virtual Islamic (Christian) homeland in our midst.”

“Many Muslims (Christians) are on our shores on student visas and as such have not yet become citizens. We must politely decline their request for naturalization becoming an American citizen is a privilege, not a right and use the money we would otherwise spend on their welfare, their education, their medical care, and their incarceration to graciously assist them in returning to their countries of origin.”

“Those who are willing to convert to Christianity (Islam, Judaism, Atheism, or any other belief system) and renounce Islam, Allah, Mohamed (Jesus and the apostles) and the Koran (Bible) may be welcomed, for they can become not just good Christians (citizens) but true Americans.”

There you have it Mr. Fischer, a good long look in the warped mirror you call Christianity in (almost) your own words. I can’t believe any Christian worth their salt would endorse your odious hatred, much less call to enact it – but sadly, I know some will.

I’m an Atheist today at least partially because of righteous, intolerant, asscakes like you. However, I was raised a Christian and believe that all religions, Islam included, have a right to exist in this country lest we become a stinking pit of sectarian servitude like Afghanistan, Iran, or any number of other equally intolerant, brutal, and religiously-motivated excuses for governance. Even though I’m an Atheist, I know this as a former Christian and friend of moderate Christians everywhere:

When you and your ilk show up at St. Peter’s gate, God is going to be one pissed off deity and I hear from the Bible he doesn’t suffer fools like you gladly.

Related articles by Zemanta

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

The Place Where Your Rights End is Where My Rights Begin


Posted by Omnipotent Poobah

I’m an atheist, or as I like to think – a “friendly” atheist. I know about religion’s dark side. The many, many wars over whose holy is holier than thou’s. The hypocrisy rampantly on display on C-Span, in St. Peter’s Square, and before various ethics groups and committees. Religion used as a bludgeon to pummel other beliefs into – if not in compliance – vapor. Yet, I still see a place for religion in the public square.

Life is a dark ride. Anything that helps people get through the night is a good thing. Heck, sometimes I even envy believers’ ability to say a few words and be instantly comforted. But, that isn’t how I’m wired. I don’t believe in God so any strength I need to summon comes from within. I view it as a nearly pure form of self-reliance and responsibility. It’s a stance that’s worked well for me and I see no reason to change.

I believe that someone else’s rights end at the place where they impinge upon mine. If religious groups insist on placing “In God We Trust” on money, I’m cool. The money spends the same as it always has. I’m not being deprived of anything.

However, I understand the argument that every display of religion be removed from the public square so the country doesn’t slide down the slippery slope to theocracy. But in exchange for this live and let live pragmatism, I expect a little respect in turn.

For example, formalized prayer in school impinges on the freedom to NOT practice a religion. Some schools endorse it in such a way as to cause kids embarrassment, something that isn’t good for the kid, me, or society. I’ll trade the “In God We Trusts” for praying to oneself any time they want – even in the classroom – as long as you do it privately.

The same is true for Christians’ seemingly unquenchable desire to nail the Ten Commandments to every flat surface on Earth. Don’t get me wrong. I think the 10 Commandments are as good any ethical checklist you’re likely to find anywhere. But, I don’t think it’s necessary to post it in so many places that you can’t swing a bottle of holy water without hitting one. If you must be reminded to be good every 10 minutes you aren’t paying enough attention to your religion anyway. And if you must be reminded, keep a copy in your wallet and pull it out each time you’re feeling compelled to worship no God before Him.

I’m always dismayed that we spend so much time on these relatively minor points. Simply-speaking, none of these things mean a hill of communion wafers in the end.

But there are important issues. For example, same-sex marriage or gays in the military. Treating homosexuals different from the majority-religion is wrong, constitutionally and morally. In my mind, that’s where a religion’s insistence on forcing gay people to be someone they aren’t is where religion’s rights should end.

I’ve yet to see an example of homosexuals having their rights denied based on any substantial evidence. Gay sex doesn’t affect a religion’s rights to practice what they preach. Same-sex marriage doesn’t devalue the sanctity of marriage any more than divorce does. It doesn’t cause anyone to turn gay. It doesn’t even force you to accept it. You can continue to hate gay people. It’s your right to associate or love anyone you wish, just as it is a gay person’s.

When I ask these questions of anti-gay religious groups I’ve gotten only one of two answers. The sound of crickets chirping and “because the Bible tells me so”.

If one chooses to not believe the Bible, it holds no more water than Creationism or Intelligent Design.

Any democracy worth its salt understands and respects different beliefs. Just because Christianity is the predominate religion doesn’t mean that all other expressions of faith (or no faith) be verboten. It doesn’t mean that Christians shouldn’t have the right to practice their faith either. But to get along, we all have to understand the rights and responsibilities of who we are.

And that’s no different than any other part of the human existence.

Related articles

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]