So we have another source of wisdom and another voice to add to the panel of sages, prophets and certainty sellers we've been inflicted with late and soon. The latest party guest of the Mad Hatter, Christine O’Donnell, told Bill Maher some years ago when the Biblemongers began to suck the blood out of lurid school shooting reportage, that it was all because there wasn't enough Bible study and prayer in our schools. Same old, same old.
It's not that she's the first to link random occurrences with public sin for the purpose of profit. In fact it seems to be the world's oldest profession, but fools that some of us are, we've grown to expect that things like lightening and tornadoes are the inevitable and random results of natural processes and it isn't witches, homosexuals, believers in alternate mythologies and the tolerance of the same who cause them. It was the 90's and nearly every thing possessed of a name could be advanced with the banner "no wonder kids kill kids." It was America where we never make the connection between child molesting, whore humping clerics, Reverend Jones, the Waco whacko, David Koresh and Bible study.
Our world is full of forces enticing kids and adults to kill others as well as being full of tectonic events, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and falling bits of space rock. There simply is no correlation with religious devotion, adherence or piety. It's also worth noticing that holy books are so often cited as a reason and justification for unjust and irrational behavior. The Bible belt is more than roughly congruent with various other belts of things from ignorance and bigotry to bad dental hygiene and Churches are as likely if not more likely to be hit by lightning as houses of prostitution, opium dens, gambling casinos and Mosques.
But candidates Like Palin, O'Donnel and Robertson still win elections, don't they. They still thrive on telling us about witches and heretics and the dreaded libertine liberals as the country slides so far toward the holy right that even Bush and his high father begin to be called liberals. Same old.
Why is it that it is always the fault of someone and or something else?
ReplyDeleteIf you believe the bible is important then why not say, "there are not enough bible study in the homes.."
Why are schools the issue?
It seems that the more focussed the right becomes on "individuals" and "individualism" the more they make the individual a victim and they lay blame for all issues on "government" "schools" "society" "MSM" or whatever...
If you think bible study is important then quit expecting schools to do it and take some time off and do it yourself...
Of course, then the argument would be but I do study the bible its everyone else who needs the bible...
The arrogance of stupidity...
Captain - even Bush and his high father begin to be called liberals
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a day in November 1968 after Richard Nixon was declared winner of the election. I was in the college cafeteria the next morning, a pall of gloom and doom cast over the entire room when a friend broke the silence and finally spoke: "This will make Lyndon Johnson's presidency look like the Golden Age of America."
Before the Nixon regime ended, the Vietnam war death toll more than doubled, the VP resigned in disgrace, the president resigned in disgrace, and the first non-elected president came into office.
When former President Bush is being called a liberal, I have the same feeling of foreboding ... even worse than 42 years ago.
Hey, I found a new church and wrote about it on my blog...
ReplyDeleteThe Church of Body Modification....
Talk about old time religion...
Whew!
This post was holy and entirely righteous. My favorite line: "It's not that she's the first to link random occurrences with public sin for the purpose of profit."
ReplyDeleteI have spent a lifetime trying to understand what makes the religious tick, how religions evolve, what assumptions underly each tidbit of dogma. I conclude 1)that it's about power and money right here on earth and 2)it's about the fear of pain, suffering, and death that we all share. The former trades on the latter. All the rest is smoke and mirrors.
Sounds a lot like what remains of the American Dream. The Myth, if you buy into it: virtue creates wealth; piety leads to power; prayer will make the hurricane hit someone else less deserving; alms to the poor, who are always with us, whatever that means...so we don't actually have to factor them into our policies. And it's okay to exploit and dump on them, because they obviously are not the Chosen Ones.
George W. Bush said that God had led him to attack Iraq. Nothing makes me more angry or more fearful than the thought of another round of "born again" government.
Well, I still think most people will be born no more stupid or smart than they were the first time around but hey -- the times are changin' and even old Joe the Plumber don't seem so dumb any more. Sorry Sarah, you're still an idiot.
ReplyDeleteSeems our candidate believes "scientists" have bred mice with "fully functioning human brains" because we've allowed stem cell research. Or maybe she's just hopeful that the wizards can get her one?
Only in America!
Agreed. Sarah Palin is an idiot.
ReplyDeleteBut compared to Christine O'Donnell she's positively stateswomanly.
The shortest verse in the Bible says, "Jesus wept."
ReplyDeletePerhaps that should be expanded to include , "and he shook his head, pounded his fists on the ground and pulled out his hair."
To Capt. Fogg and all,
ReplyDeleteYes, while it gives us Dems a ray of hope to see wackaloons win GOP primaries, there's no certainty that The American People in their wisdom will decide a couple dozen flat-earthers are just what the doctor ordered. I doubt it, but we'll find out this November.
And as for Octo's remark about the perpetual lowering of our standards for presidential adequacy, yup, if things keep going downhill, one day we'll all most likely be uttering statements about 43's tenure such as, "Back in the good old days, when our leaders revered the Constitution, told us the unvarnished truth about all things great and small, and handled the English language with the care it deserves . . . ."
"and handled the English language with the care it deserves . . . ."
ReplyDeleteBack before it was refudiated?