last night, i sincerely hope and pray that i was not the only person in america appalled and sickened by the spectacle of the two presidential nominees baring their souls on national television in front of a crowd of evangelical christians.
pick me, pick me, was the undertone of both men, and it came across to me as a shameless pandering to the side that likes to believe it has a lock on Truth, Justice and the American Way.
they are, to my way of thinking, as potentially dangerous a group as any islamic terrorist organization.
the reason i think this is because they share the same fundamentalist outlook - evangelical christians, like the islamic fundamentalists, believe that the Bible is Right. about Everything. they, like the muslim extremists, believe that God wrote the Bible, and God couldn't have written anything Wrong. Therefore, every word in the Bible is TRUE, and the degree to which you are a good or bad person is the degree to which you also agree that the Bible is Right about Everything. it doesn't matter whether or not what is in the Bible leads to Wrong or Hurtful Actions - for example, the suppression of women or the burning of witches or even something so minor as the snubbing of a friend. people who do bad things based on what they claim is in the bible are labelled as misguided but the Truth of what is found in the bible is never, ever to be questioned.
there are parts of the bible that i would agree ARE indeed, the inspired Word of God - for example Paul's beautiful passage on the nature of Love. but there's also parts of the bible - like Paul's diatribes against women, jesus's exclusionary "iamthewaythetruthandthelight" passages (all very beautiful and poetic but words that have been used to justify more persecution in the last two thousand years than probably any others) - that should be excised, deleted, ignored, and yes, burned. and the reason i can say this with such absolute surety is because i believe there is very basic way to tell what passages are Divinely Inspired and which ones aren't.
but the evangelical christians, like the muslim fundamentalists, admit no such possiblity. and in the process, they don't much care who they hurt, or why, as long as they can justify it before their god.
and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.
6 comments:
AMEN to that Annie!
The words of the bible were written by MEN, and though some were amazing passages, and some divinely inspired, (but don't you and I also have divine inspiration in our work) they were written to suit a purpose and a civilization that was very different than today.
I can't stand any religion that states theirs is THE ONLY WAY and that the rest of us are going to hell. How manipulative and UNchristian. I have lost respect for the religion and for those who are like cattle, and believe anything that is fed to them.
I am disappointed in Obama, but he is our only hope right now.
patti
Wouldn't it be interesting if Jesus Christ (the human being as I imagine him to have been) showed up on YouTube one day and took us all to task -- about war, about poverty, about using up the resources of the earth (being cast out of Paradise ring a bell?)
I wonder what the real Jesus would have to say about street people, prostitutes, the mentally ill. The golden churches built in his name, the riches of the pope, and the priests who abuse.
Would he really hate abortion? Would he love guns? Would he hate gays? Would he vote for McCain?
I doubt it.
I'm not much of a blog reader but I stumbled upon this one and just wanted to say that I agree with you and with the other comments. Keep it up. Maybe I'll come back and visit again -- on purpose, even.
gayle - thanks for stopping by! i hope you do come back - even if only by accident again! patti and patrice -- sad and scary, isn't it?
I second that AMEN. I think it is even scarier how people latch onto these faulty ideas and proliferate their hates and fears in the name of GOD. So sad to have to see the future leaders of our country in the way you describe.
it just sickened me.. when i heard about it, i thought.. surely not. the founding fathers must be spinning in their graves....i dont know i agree with them, either... but i sure as hell know THIS was not what they intended...
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