And before anyone goes all "Sacrilege!" on my ass, I believe in my heart of hearts that Mary is the mother and sister and companion to every frightened girl who enters a Planned Parenthood clinic for HELP. And I know for a fact that not every pregnant woman who enters a PP clinic gets an abortion. Many of them go there so their babies will be born HEALTHY. And in many parts of the country, it's the only place many women CAN go for prenatal care. Think about that, fundie mofos.
skip it if it's not your thing; those who do watch, I hope you won't be distracted by the subtitles. It's about how we label ourselves: there's a religious message attached to this, but even if you label yourself "atheist" or "non-believer" or "ex-Catholic" or WHATEVER, you're welcome and loved for WHO YOU ARE here at this blog. You have your path, and it may not include religion. That is not for me to decide for you, ever. The message of this video is, "are you ready to be you?" That's all.
PS. I did a little research on this Rob Bell guy and there are a lot of Evangelicals who HATE him because he doesn't reserve Truth capital T for Jesus and the Bible to the exclusion of everything else. HONESTLY. His response: "When people say that the authority of Scripture or the centrality of Jesus is in question, actually it's their social, economic and political system that has been built in the name of Jesus that's being threatened."
I usually don't post plain ol' video from other sources, but gawd. I just had to share. Video originally found at Gawker.
I was sorely tempted this morning when I realized that the more I watch Sarah Palin, the less I identify myself as a "Christian." If "Christian" means you can completely ignore Truth, capital T, in exchange for ideology, count me out.
But then I had a quiet, prayerful moment with my Lord and Savior and I felt much better:
[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.]
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:
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:
I certainly don't believe in criticizing anyone's religion. But this got me laughing. There are so many Baptist Republican Wal-Mart shoppers down here....
Indeed, Democrats' best hopes for 2008 and beyond may not be in mobilizing a "religious left," which will inevitably be smaller than its conservative counterpart -- [David] Kuo calls it a "corner grocery" to the right's "Wal-Mart." Rather, the Democrats could make inroads by luring moderate evangelicals and Catholics who once voted Democratic but have drifted away.
Will this work? Think of it as the Democrats' own faith-based initiative.
Excuse me? Corner grocery? Honey, the religious leftitude is an organic farmer's market cooperative with free copies of Utne Reader and Yoga Journal left on the tables so you can get yerself enlightened while drinking your soy latte from the Gandhi mug you brought from home, 'cause you get a nickel off for not using a paper cup.
I mean, guys. I'm attending Quaker meeting these days. The coffee is amazing.
And none of the hippies I'm doing java with think of this "Democratic Presidential Candidates Pray Too" initiative as anything more than another of Rahm Emmanuel's Powerpoint slides.
