[Image stolen from Bay of Fundie, the latest addition to the BG blogroll. Can't have too many smart funny athiests around here, 'specially those who highlight the laffs coming from the Creationist Museum.]
Driftglass:
...around a quarter of our fellow citizens are intractably Sieg-Heiliotropic** and as such are fundamentally and permanently unfit to be Americans.
**ah that Drifty with his Googlewhacks.
I’m not going to go all Anne Frank on you. I don’t think we humans are essentially good or evil. We’re human. We eat too much, buy stuff we don’t need, scream at our kids, run red lights, and send ten dollars to help a homeless kitten while walking by homeless people every day on the way to our urgent and meaningless morning-long meeting with sociopathic Powerpointers. [busted that googlewhack baby]And which of us are “fit” to be Americans? I would argue for disqualification of anyone who can identify Simon Cowell, and that makes me unfit, as well.
But Drifty's post got me thinking a lot about what makes us fit Americans and also what makes those of us who choose to do so, to be fit Christians. Being worthy of either name is a tough task. The self-proclaimed U.S. leadership (since I will never accept that W. was actually elected) corrupts the word patriot. And the church as embodied by Falwell, Dobson, and the majority of voters in the county where I currently live, really truly falls short of any rationally arrived-to definition of “follower of Jesus.”
Interestingly enough, the reason the so-called Christians make such lousy so-called Americans is because they have no understanding of God. The only compassion their god shows, if you believe the Christian Right’s agitprop, is for the unborn, and occasionally far-off orphans.
They don’t get it.
Their god is, again, with the exception of the unborn white baby, a god of privileged power and angry vengeance. He (yup) is a god of the death penalty. A god of No New Taxes. A god of Not in My Backyard. The god of white middle-class comfort trumps all other political goals or social rationales that would require us to be compassionate for those Jesus called upon us to love.
It’s like that fortune cookie game where you read the fortune and add “in bed”? To really understand the typical whitebread Christian, take a Bible verse, particularly a command from our Lord Jesus Christ, and add the words “ but at the mall” to the end:
Love your enemies… but at the mall.
Read this poem, or better yet let Garrison Keillor read it to you:
Harvey Wasserman said it best a couple years ago:
One major reason Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Ethan Allen and the vast majority of early Americans rejected the merger of church and state was the lingering stench of Puritan intolerance. The infamous theocratic murders of the Salem witch trials sickened the American soul, just as today's power grab by Karl Rove's new corporate fundamentalists creates an atmosphere of intolerance and fear, defined by the world's largest prison gulag.
It's a witch trial, people. We're the good Christians, and they are witches. Burn them, hang them, and praise YOURSELF that you so clearly serve the one true God.
See, as long as you don't have to take your faith into the private sphere of your youporn bookmark or airport bathroom stall, you can still vote for the candidate with the loudest "protect the unborn" blowhorn, step on the Bad Arabs [ooh let's use a big word like Islamofascist 'cause it makes us look, you know, intellectual], and feel you are a good Christian.
yeah I did link Pammy (first and probably last time ever) to the word "intellectual" 'cause I'm feeling a little silly/giddy today. My apologies to anyone who actually clicks the link. John! Bolton!
Rot in hell? Nah. My prayer, really, is that those bland blind proclaimers of Jesus yet deniers of Christ should rot in their own mindset. That is more punishment than I could ever wish on anyone, and I'm too sad and sorry and...
My favorite Bible verse? John 11:35, "Jesus wept." And he's weeping now over your fucking dumbass question, Tim.
I leave Saturday for a blogger meet-up sponsored by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State / First Freedom First. I'll be meeting with science bloggers, atheist bloggers, and a few Christian bloggers like myself. We all believe that the separation of church and state is critical to our national identity. And I believe that I cannot practice my faith in God or my patriotism as a citizen of the United States, without it.
We're citizens of the big wide world that God loves with all the love there is. Rock on folks:
Jesus wept ... at the mall.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful post, Blue Gal. I am so glad whenever Christians speak out against those who would hijack our religion. It is a difficult and brave thing to do in the current atmosphere of "patriotism" gone wild. But you have done so quite eloquently!
Brava!
You are quite correct. You can see humanity through optimistic or pessimistic lenses, but ultimately both views are one-sided constructs.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that humans are selfish by nature. Lest you assign some pejorative definition to it, I'm not saying that's good or bad--I'm saying that it just is. We're short-sighted, stuck in our own heads, and consumed with the minutia of our own lives.
And that's WHY Christianity was created--to combat such behavior. The irony is that these so-called Christians have taken the idea and turned it upside down to serve their own SELFISH interests.
Your posts against theocracy always hold more weight for me due to the fact that you are a Christian. A rational, sane Christian that an atheist like myself can listen to and say, yeah, what she said. Great post.
ReplyDeletegreat post. i enjoyed this.
ReplyDelete'John! Bolton!'
ReplyDeleteRight here, baby
;>)
A most thoughtful and reasoned post, BG...Would that all the faithful of the world were as adroit at separating temporal pursuits and celestial desires as yourself.
Now...Off to the mall.
;>)
Thank you for this great, great post.
ReplyDeleteThis is a topic near and dear to my heart always, but particularly today for various reasons.
As someone who does take their faith seriously and the need to keep church and state apart withe equal seriousness, these are troubled times.
And this unseemly focus on unborn babies and sex must stop stop stop!
However, the one trick ponies of the controlling asshats of right who use Christianity as their tool of power carry on.
I grew up completely embarrassed by my family, so I guess I have some preparation for this whole being a Catholic in contemporary times thing.
Deep sigh.
BTW, wish I could be there!
thanks for such a terrific post
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Pooky. It's particularly meaningful for me to read a post such as this (fab, BTW) when it's written partially in self-examination.
ReplyDeleteAs a never believer I could not have this kind of introspection or self awareness about the Chrisitian label. Yes, I come from them. Yes, I love them. Yes, I live among them. But do I get the fundamental thing that ties them together?
No.
And as I think you've said before. This post? Bloggable.
See you soon.
i like this video blue gal and i can't research it myself.... can you send me the you tube address so i can due some viral advertising? excellent post by the way..... personally, i don't think it takes very much reflection to realize that the concept of liberal democracy and secular government is easily derivable from true Christian sensibilities.... perhaps derivable from the underlying sensibilities of other religions seeking God as well..... God transcends all human argument about him/her/it/what.... here's one of my favorites in return.....
ReplyDeleteyou only live once
Meanwhile, where is the "Christian" support for the high school students in Illinois who were expelled and face criminal charges for staging a peaceful war protest ... on All Saints Day?
ReplyDeleteSign the petition to the School Board here.
Hey...how did you know I have you porn bookmarked? Consequently, "Love your enemies… but at the mall," reminds me of my favorite Mallrats quote:
ReplyDeleteBrodie: Ladies and gentlemen, this tall drink of water headed my way is a pillar of the shopping community who informed me earlier today of a nefarious plan of his to screw my girlfriend in an extremely uncomfortable place.
Gil Hicks: What... like the back of a Volkswagen?
Well put. Great post. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid going to church, it always struck me as crazy how the same folks who didn't like hippies worshipped one. "Get a haircut" especially just seemed absurd.
Please don't hate on homeless kitten helpers.
ReplyDelete'Gal, you're really one of the Good Ones. Not perfect, I wouldn't hang that albatross around anyone's neck. But good enough to keep my smoldering faith from going cold and dark.
ReplyDeleteHope you don't mind if an old agnostic links to this.
Oh Kay..... I figured it Out.... Michael Franti and Spearhead : Hello Bonjour
ReplyDeletei took it and planted it where it wasn't growing before
everybitoflandistheholyland
Would that more of the religious had your sense of perspective, BG. For a lot of us of no faith, it isn't religion per se that gets our Richard Dawkins underoos in a twist, it's the religious right's insistence that their religion be publicly sanctioned, promoted, and foisted on everyone else.
ReplyDeleteMichael Franti is ... amazing. I haven't heard this song before, and I LOVE the video too.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are so right-on in this post. Thanks.