Unless money, scriptural inconsistencies notwithstanding, is proof of God's approval, which would say something rather odd about God if true. Maybe he doesn't care if he, like Don Corleone, gets a 'taste.' At any rate, at my last reckoning Frank made about a million a year working for "charity" and whether or not he is tax exempt by virtue of holiness, that's a good deal of money. Having a barn with a large cross on his property might serve to make real estate taxes nugatory as well and cause God to let him off the eye of the needle thing, but I'm speculating and this isn't about money earned, but money that earns us all a good laugh at his expense.
Frank, you see, was terribly offended by a Wells Fargo commercial featuring a gay couple, so he moved his "ministry's" massive accounts to BB&T, No word about his private accounts of course, lest God notice how rich he is.
Can't fool God though, he knows and as with all good humor, the truth or the proof if you prefer is in the punch line. BB&T, you see, and unbeknownst to our Bad Samaritan is the sponsor of the Miami Beach Gay Pride Parade, along with the chief sponsor of Miami Beach Gay Pride’s “Legacy Couples” program, which celebrates same-sex couples in “committed relationships of 10 years or longer.
The company hopes to “support the individuals and organizations that broaden our perspectives and strengthen the diverse fabric of our communities. That’s why BB&T is proud to be a part of this day of pride and celebration of the 2015 Legacy Couples.”As MSNBC tells us. Is God having a laugh? I certainly am. Is God's word somehow in teh punch line? Camels, needles and rich men, but maybe self-righteousness, rage and the grease of slick piety can let him squeeze through, even though he hasn't shown inclination to sell his clothes and give the money to the poor. And besides God was really only joking about rich men. I mean it's really all about sex, isn't it?
Only you Captain could so effectively put things in perspective.
ReplyDeleteFranklin has his flock and they, along with his other holy pursuits will surely keep him flush with green and grease to slide through the eye.
Meanwhile in Sydney another good Christian, his wife, children are going to divorce if Australia should legalize same sex marriages. He's involved in the Lord's work too. A story for another day.
I read about that odd Ozzie couple and wondered that they didn't remember how divorce was the main bugaboo of Christianity for over a thousand years and for some, it still is, but then what is better at rewriting history than religion? I love the cafeteria approach to faith though, you can pick and choose and if anything at the buffet doesn't fit with your appetites, you can just ignore it. The Bible has a whole lot more to say about shaving and the kind of thread you use to sew on your buttons or putting cheese on your hamburger than it does about sex, but you'd hardly notice to listen to all these scholars of the divine word.
DeleteAnd of course it provides a way for the unknown and insignificant to get noticed in their righteousness and a wonderful way to hide your gay feelings behind a smokescreen of godbabble. Every argument against gay marriage is an echo of their lost crusade against interracial marriage which in turn echoes the tantrums of the prophets against marrying outside the tribe. Nothing ever goes away, it just evolves.
Give it another couple thousand years and maybe religions will evolve to the pursuit reason and truth.
DeleteOn second thought...
I saw this story a few days ago and had the same title in mind. Graham Cracker, indeed! Glad you got to it first; I am still preoccupied with the Pasquini matter. These manufactured arguments gall me on two counts – hypocrisy and the potential for inciting hate crimes -- as evidenced in these stories:
ReplyDeletePastor shot three times in possible hate crime
Rev. Augustus Sealy, 54, was placing flags in front of the Hartford First Church of the Nazarene to honor veterans for Memorial Day … According to a police incident report, a car slowed down as it approached Pastor Sealy, at which point a witness reported hearing five gunshots. “Some language used in the incident — and given where it was, in front of a church known to be accepting of our LGBT community — led us to have concern that this is a hate crime,” Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said in an interview.
Subtext – Here we have two clerics holding opposite views, the anti-gay rights Father Pasquini (and his Protestant Graham Cracker counterpart) versus the pro-gay rights Pastor Sealy. Which of these two clerics is the one who ends up shot? Which of these two clerics is the one being persecuted? And whose “Religious Freedom” is being violated? The cup of hypocrisy overfloweth! Here’s another story …
Minister arrested for trying to marry gay couple
In Alabama, a Minister was arrested for attempting to perform a same-sex marriage – minutes after the gay couple received a marriage license. Originally ordered to post bond of $1,000 and serve 30 days in prison, the minister received a reduced sentence of six months unsupervised probation plus a $250 fine.
Does “Religious Freedom?” hold the same meaning for Father Pasquini (or Graham Cracker) when a minister holding an opposite viewpoint is prosecuted as a common criminal?
A timeline of anti-gay hate crimes within a single month:
Eight hate crimes reported in New York City within a single month. In this report, New York City Police Commissioner Kelly states: “In spite of a 30% decrease in overall crime since last year, [anti-gay] hate crimes have increased by 70% within the same period.”
I find the “Religious Freedom” construct especially galling in the way Medievalists paint themselves as victims, while the real victims are the ones being shot, imprisoned, and persecuted. Church authoritarians are still arguing the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War -- having learned nothing. What next? Burning witches at the stake? Forced conversions?
Incitement! Hypocrisy! Hate crimes! Mendacities galore! No laughing matter, these people are only worthy of contempt.
For these folks Religious Freedom means believing exactly as they believe and apparently they are willing to stop at nothing to make it happen. Even if it means silencing other viewpoints; by any ot all means at their disposal.
DeleteAnd Christian extremists like these have the audacity to criticize Islam for it's intolerance. I see little difference.
Tolerance would be an admission of doubt and doubt is forbidden.
DeleteThey say you can't run out of love by loving too much or too often, but I'm running out of anger and so to conserve it, I have to generalize it. I hate humans and it's easier to hate them in general and exempt a few individuals than it is to hate all the individuals that demand to be hated. The economics of contempt - it's a new discipline, I think.
ReplyDeleteOne of the appealing things about religion is that it lets us paint ourselves on the chapel ceiling and to justify anything we like and because we like our miserable, vicious, duplicitous and mean selves, we ennoble all that by attributing it to gods. I mean where would the creator and governor of the universe be without Pastor Pissandjelly to communicate for him? And where would any of these Dogs of God be if they had to work for a living and pay taxes and get along with their neighbors as equals?
Some afterthoughts …
ReplyDeleteRegarding the rank hypocrisy of these crank clerics, let’s consider these questions:
What gives Cracker and Company the right to dominate any public debate to the exclusion of other stakeholders? Or impose their dictates and taboos on the general public? Or rewrite the laws of the land? Or treat an entire group of people as second-class citizens and subject them to derision and discrimination in a manner contrary to our laws and traditions?
I reserve my harshest criticism for the MSM. Graham Cracker wins the headlines de jour contest; the shooting of Pastor Sealy receives less press. How can there be public outrage against violence when Graham Cracker gets a free pass?
Given these disparate accounts of violence and persecution, I don’t see any journalists giving equal weight to these reports, or weaving multiple threads into a complete and coherent story.
This is why I am still focused on the Pastor Meanie matter. There is no moral authority here. Just pure evil masquerading as self-righteousness.
So it has been, so it is, and so it will continue I fear. Evil masquerading as self-righteousness that is.
DeleteIn principio et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculorum, amen
DeleteAnd as if to give further closure to the argument that the circus train is bursting at the seams, we get Rick Santorum calling to Glenn Beck this morning telling us that if the Supreme Court refuses to ban Gay marriage, that offends the First Amendment by establishing a religion and when he's president he will not enforce it.
And they wonder why fewer people are willing to tell anyone they're Christian these days.
Kansas Governor Brownback will strip courts of funding:
ReplyDelete“The fight between Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas and the state’s judicial branch has escalated, with the governor last week signing into law a bill that could strip state courts of their funding.
The measure, at the end of a lengthy bill that allocated money for the judiciary this year, stipulates that if a state court strikes down a 2014 law that removed some powers from the State Supreme Court, the judiciary will lose its funding.”
So governor signs into a law a bill that gives him the power to bully the judiciary and alter the balance of power and separation of powers that have been a core principle of American government since the beginning of the republic. A bill in the Arizona legislature will require every citizen in the state to join a religious denomination. And SCOTUS justice Clarence Thomas believes states are not bound by the anti-discrimination clause -- that states have a legal right to establish a religious denomination.
The connection between these stories and Father Pasquini’s hate screed is this: The rest of us will lose our legal protections … leaving us less free and vulnerable to the whims and caprices of this radical lunatic fringe.
Revolution in the streets? You betcha!
A revolution against a revolution? Sounds like a feedback loop, and what will the resonant frequency be? 1 over 2Pi*square root of LC said Ham I am.
ReplyDeleteWhat the Brownbackodon and the rest of the Teabagosaurians are doing certainly is an attempt at revolution. Destroy the institutions of government and a new Utopia will arise from the ashes or from the shitpile if you prefer. At least that's how it appears. It might just be a power grab to allow a new Fascism to arise, an oligarchy of corporations and theocrats made free to feast on the corpse of America.
Best I hope for is that after their victory, they will tear each other to pieces and allow the meek to go about making the best of our inheritance, climb slowly toward democracy and liberty -- only to have it come crashing back down in the same way like an astable multivibrator or more accurately a relaxation oscillator. (If you'll pardon the techie simile)
Totalitarian communism (socialism) destroyed any chance of Marx's philosophy ever succeeding and excess government aligned with religious interests (thus scraping separation of church and state within individuals states) will destroy our democratic republic as founded.
ReplyDeleteAs I have said for years we are marching down the road to religious and governmental fascism.
Ah, Brave New World...