By: Space Eagle
It seems that everyone is trigger-happy these days. With the Christian Right arming itself to the teeth to “kill for Jesus,” even members of the Left are arming themselves in preparation for a battle. Those of us who are Centrists are walking the straight and narrow, and walking the razor’s edge, and finding the razor getting thinner and thinner. The Republicans and Republican supporters are arming themselves to fight everything from Muslims hiding on the street corner to aliens invading to take over the Earth in 2012. People are screaming that they’re going to take the country back, by force if necessary. Some, such as Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California, have prayed “intercessory prayer” for President Obama’s death just as they did with the abortion doctor Dr. George Tiller.
Because of the race to buy arms by the Right, the Left has issued statements like the following which I found on Democratic Underground.com:“be prepared to defend yourselves from the Reich wing.”
I’d like to say it’s only a matter of time before they shed blood, but they already have, just ask George Tiller. Much more of the tension between the left and the right can be seen on that site as well.
As a Christian myself, I do have weapons to defend my home in case of intruders, but I have no intention of attacking someone who does not attack me first. Unlike the masses who CALL themselves Christians, I try to live as Christ lived to the best of my ability. Extremists who profess to “know Christ,” though, are going as far as carrying their guns to church. Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church even had a church raffle to give away a handgun at the event as a further example of his support of impending violence. A group called Vision America which exists to mobilize God’s pastors throughout this land to stand together as His faithful spokesmen once again, makes this statement:
“Christian involvement in civil government is not optional. It is an essential part of our calling from God to be salt and light in a dying culture. God’s people in Christ must address the great moral issues now before the nation. The church has been entrusted by Almighty God with the tools necessary to reverse America’s moral decline and effect lasting change if only she will engage in this momentous struggle before it is too late!”
There was a time when Christian preachers spoke out against direct involvement in politics and spoke out against greed. They spoke against hatred and killing. Lately, however, people calling themselves Christian seem to be a part of the corporate mindset pushing hate, fear, and greed, and killing in the name of Jesus. The only thing the right-wing extremists seem to address about morality and integrity is illustrated by the following:
“We believe God established human sexuality for the physical expression of love and commitment between a man and a woman in holy marriage. Apart from that divine intent, sexual activity becomes nothing more or less than the selfish manipulation of another human being for personal satisfaction or financial gain.”
It seems as long as the greed doesn’t involve sex, this group considers it ok. Another group called Eagle Forum is pushing hatred of women and hatred of immigrants and other forms of bigotry under the guise of a pro-Constitutional group touting messages of God and a bible verse like the following:
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31.
The Eagle Forum wants to lock down the borders, keep the U.S. free of U.N. Agreements; fears foreigners as terrorists; supports private enterprise to reduce taxes; thinks that a tax break for families will fix health care and are loudly in favor of keeping and bearing arms. This group opposes feminists and feels that education has been “dumbed down” by courses in self-esteem, diversity, and multiculturalism. They oppose federal help for daycare, which they call “feminist.” They seem to be opposed to all so-called feminist ideas. Whey they say radical feminists, they really seem to be inferring all feminists are to be considered radicals. Consider the following from their website:
Eagle Forum exposes the radical feminists
We support constitutional amendments and federal and state legislation to protect the institution of marriage and the equally important roles of father and mother. We honor the fulltime homemaker and her rights in joint income tax returns.
We oppose the feminist goals of stereotyping men as a constant danger to women, while at the same time pushing women into military combat against foreign enemies.
Eagle Forum successfully led the ten-year battle to defeat the misnamed Equal Rights Amendment with its hidden agenda of tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriages. [Sic]
If you spent more time in discourse with members of this organization, you will learn that they long to have women back at home making babies and raising the children. While it would be good for the mothers to be able to stay at home to raise the children, it is not often possible in this day and age. What really seems to be the goal is a wife who speaks only when spoken to, takes care of the house cleaning, ironing, and cooking, believes everything their husband tells them, who waits on them hand and foot, and performs in the bedroom at their command. Some of us call this a sex slave situation. If you think of “All in the Family,” they want the women to be like Edith.
Eagle Forum pushes home schooling to “protect their children against immoral instruction and materials;” is against their children receiving psychological testing and mental-health screening without parental consent and make other fear based assumptions which has been pushed by the likes of FOX News. The feeling is that the government is brainwashing their children into becoming Communist or Socialist between which they seem to be able to make no distinction. They fear their children becoming mind-controlled robots for the “New World Order” in the public schools. Their list of their unrealistic fears is staggering.
The Tea Party Movement has joined in with these pro-Republican groups and seems to think that Sarah Palin would be a great candidate for President of the United States. This group actually seems to believe that Sarah Palin is more qualified than President Obama to hold the highest office in the land in spite of the fact that she has displayed a poor knowledge of geography and a fear of the Russians in her “backyard,” which would do much damage to our diplomatic relations. The Tea Party opening speaker, Tom Tancredo, at a recent convention suggested a return to a literacy test (a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.) to protect America from presidents like Obama. All of the aforementioned groups are against things like health care, immigration, and public education. While they claim to be standing for the Constitution of the United States, they see any public program as Socialism or Communism while they see corporate control of elections as Capitalism. They’re playing right into the hands of the corporations who don’t want any of their profits to go toward any of those things. It is all to do with greed and has nothing to do with the good of “The People.”
With the Supreme Court ruling that corporations can donate as much as they want, being considered “people” (as in individual people) under the Constitution, there is no more “The People.” It’s all The Corporations. Live for the corporations, die for the corporations, and maybe soon be jailed for speaking out against corporations or corporate products. After all, corporations will be able to buy the politicians who make whatever laws they want passed. Perhaps they will have prayer in schools for the almighty dollar. “In Money We Trust” or, especially with the Tea Party movement, “In Gold We Trust” should be their logo.
In stark contrast to these self proclaimed Christian ideas are the words of someone you think they would listen to. Jesus Christ as quoted in the Bible:
Matthew 6:24 (New International Version)
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Luke 18:18-22 (New International Version)-The Parable of the Rich Ruler
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When it comes to how you treat foreigners, and the health care issue, Christians should consider the parable of the Good Samaritan found in:
Luke 10:25-37 (New International Version)
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
In these people purporting to be Christians, there is little to be found of Christ. They can’t really be considered brothers and sisters in Christ because they seem to go completely against all that Christ stood for. If forced to take up arms against such groups, those walking the razor’s edge might. It would be ideal if sticking a flower in the barrel of their guns would change their hearts; however, they’ve already shown evidence to the contrary.
People like Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh, and others who have spoken against a population of poor people who were devastated by an earthquake. People like Andre’ Bauer, a member of Union United Methodist Church, speaking out against the poor saying things likening the poor to animals and saying not to feed them because, “they’ll breed,” are leading people astray as Christian representatives. I have spoken with people locally and in areas across the southern United States who advocate taking arms to fight the “Muslim Commie Socialists.” One person in particular I’ve known for thirty years. These people aren’t right and they surely aren’t behaving like Christians. I would not entrust the safety of my family to them. One would be foolish to do so.
In a non-partisan Research 2000 survey, a majority believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Barack Obama and nearly two in three believe President Obama is a socialist. The survey found that 39 percent of Republicans believe the president should be impeached, that 42 percent believe that Obama was born in the United States, 36 percent say he was not and 22 percent are not sure. 1/5th of those surveyed say that ACORN stole the 2008 election. 23 percent say their state should secede from the United States. 31 percent of those surveyed believe that President Obama hates black people. Most of those surveyed oppose allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, marry, or teach in public schools. They oppose sex education, support religious education in public schools, believe abortion to be murder, and believe “the only way for an individual to go to heaven is though Jesus Christ.”
On the radical left, you have people screaming in fear over fire retardant chemicals possibly posing a danger to childbirth while ignoring the fact that dying in a fire is much more of a hazard to childbirth. There are some who seem to feel that President Obama IS God and if you question one of his decisions, you immediately become an object of attack from their side. Some on the left don’t understand that because you believe that gays should have the same legal rights as others, including the right to marry, that you are not homosexual yourself and don’t have to be excited about gay issues as they are.
Obama may not do everything right, but I certainly see him trying to do more good than anyone from the Republican side that I’ve seen in recent years. They are NOT the Republicans I used to admire in my youth. Modern day Republicans are greedy, hateful, bigoted, power hungry zealots who are trying to pass themselves off as Christians in order to gain support from those who relate to Christianity because of their affiliation with particular churches or who admire the preachers on TV, and spout that Jesus will make you rich. Zealots such as these are no better than the Muslim extremists who carry out bombings in the name of Allah. Extremists such as these have an agenda to wipe out whole peoples in the name of God using Jesus as an excuse. They’ve even gone as far as putting scripture verses on the weapons used to kill Muslims. They are trying to start a holy war that is anything BUT holy. If people don’t wake up soon, the razor’s edge is going to get much thinner and even the best of us might slip off. Sadly, for Christian Centrists, arming ourselves with the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit may soon not be enough to stop the flying bullets.
Will there be a place for those who don’t agree completely with either side?
Sources:
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/a-clockwork-orange/rev-wiley-drake-prays-for-obam/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/us/26guns.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×6251824
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/02/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6167520.shtml
http://www.4to40.com/newsat4/index.asp?id=2757
http://www.visionamerica.us/about-us/who-we-are/
http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/descript.html
http://www.teapartynation.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpb4nwfiaPY&feature=player_embedded
Copyright © 2010 Cal Jennings
About the Author: Space Eagle is a disability retired employee of BP, formerly AMOCO Oil. He had gone to college to be a minister, but left to support his family. He has continued his coursework by taking online courses from Yale and Oxford where he is presently enrolled. He was on the Dean’s List and was in Phi Theta Kappa at College of the Mainland in Texas City. His main passion for writing is to express his feelings and to impart some of his experiences to others in hopes that it might help some, not only with political ideologies, but with personal experiences as well. Space Eagle is a subvesive from the womb siting a great desire to help inform and unify the masses. He also enjoys a good spicy-seeded cigar and can generally be found sucking on a Dominican variety while contemplating his next line. He reports his favorite swear word is “Fuck It.” which actually isn’t “A” word but rather a phrase, apparently he subverts linguistic definitions as well. You can find him at his website http://www.spaceeagleproductions.org
At his point it’s too late to stop the ball from rolling – there’s already far too much momentum caused by the polarization of our social consciousness. The best you can do right now for yourself is to stock up on weapons, ammunition and body armor to protect yourself and your own from what is coming. Whatever your political/religious/social affiliations are they can not save you from the chaos that’s coming: only you can act as your own savior when the shit hits the fan.
Quite a few months ago, while Subversify was quite young, i asked our fledling members to define their spirituality as opposed to their religious belief. It was a curious exercise and brought numerous results; nearly all of which reflected a religious or non-religious standpoint. The reason, however, for asking this wasn’t really to to understand particular religious perspectives, but to measure the depth of the individual belief system. We are all believers in one way or another; whether its in an ultimate deity, the force of an entity loosely called Nature,multiple divine entities, or no belief at all beyond existentialism.
At the core is simply this; are you a humanitarian, believing in the sanctity of life, or do your ethics waver and give way to the temptations of convenience? A person who is truly humane will not be an instrument for war, segregation, unequal status, poverty and religious intolerance. A person who is truly humane needs only the foundations of a humane religion for guidance. If the humanity is lacking, the spirit of who you are is twisted and subverted, seeking only immediate gratification and massage oil for that feel good rush. We have idolatry. We have the worship of clay gods, manifested as greed and corruption. Put humanity back into your spiritual values and it doesn’t matter what religion you profess. The goals will be the same as all who choose the humane over the convenient.
“Sadly, for Christian Centrists, arming ourselves with the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit may soon not be enough to stop the flying bullets.”
Cal, this is one of the saddest things I’ve read in a long time.
I’d like to believe, as the saying goes, that “there is still time, brother!” – but I fear more and more that you are right.
There’s a showdown coming – and regardless of who wins and who loses, the blood will be on the collective hands of the perpetrators for generations.
what a wonderfully written piece … hatred and bigotry have been with us forever, the Bible addresses it, of course, God didn’t foresee any idiot being able to buy an assault rifle at Walmart .. we are a dumb-downed nation, a third world thinking backward people anymore … I don’t understand where and when we started going over the edge towards oblivion .. to be honest, I have never had anyone talk about any war … and arming for it … maybe they don’t talk to me about such things because I will be the first to be taken out …. your article should be sent to every member of Congress and the Senate, asking if they have any opinion on what you’ve written ……
“Faith is refusal of knowledge” – Friedrisch Nietszche
“If God truly existed, it would be necessary to abolish him” – Mikhail Bakounin
“The more consummate the inanity of what is fobbed off as “spirit” – and in anything less spiritless the enlightened subject would at once recognize itself, – the more the meaning detected there, which in fact is not there at all, becomes an unconscious, compulsive projection of a subject decomposing historically if not clinically. It would like to make the world resemble its own decay: therefore it has dealings with requisites and evil wishes.” – Theodor Adorno
That Nietszche cracks me up…he must have written that after he was refused in marrige twice(put his “faith” in the women’s boyfriends to deliver the message both times)
I bet he was a lot of fun at a party anyway.
The thing that is important about this article is that many many Christian Centrist are having to make decsisions about loyalty to their religion, their families and their communities. They are having to make gut wrenching decsisions about whether to keep their word to their God or to break promises made in their religion to uphold and listen to what their guts are telling them. (some of them call this conscience/the spirit/holy ghost/etc.)
To ridicule someone for their faith when they are at this crossroads may send them down a bitter and bad path, we are better to keep silent and let them follow thier guts.
[quote=grainnerhaud]To ridicule someone for their faith when they are at this crossroads may send them down a bitter and bad path, we are better to keep silent and let them follow thier guts.[/quote]
I notice that when people “go with thier gut” they nearly always go with the social institution that has had the greatest influence on thier lives – in the case of the religious fundamentalist that would be his faith; thus in most circumstances the fundamentalists “gut” will tell him to go with his religious conditioning over any other competing idea (no matter how compelling or how many questions the idea raises that his faith can’t answer without tying itself in knots).
The only way to have a truly rational society is to expunge this psychological device called “conscience” (the “gut”) entirely and replace it with a constant awareness of long-run self-interest (you know, that thought process all forms of organized religion go out of their way to repress – otherwise people might start asking questions like “what’s the priest doing to meet *my* needs other than taking my money and preforming some arcane ritual of questionable value?”).
Christopher I see what you are getting at and it is a valid point. I guess what I mean is when someone begins questioning let’s not turn them off of that questioning by telling them they have been sheep.
Ok, I see what you were trying to say…
Grainnerhuad, I didn’t intend to humiliate anyone, in fact I quoted others to try and soften the blow, as these three people I quoted are extremely important and respected intellectuals (whereas I’m just an author, and still living, which is even worse) whose lifeworks exceed mine and who have done their homework on the subject, instead of just, eh, speaking from the gut. Now, if I were to say what I personnaly think on Christianity, my words might seem less than amiable, and I agree with you that just bashing for the sake of it is not constructive, though mayhap highly therapeutic for us atheists, Faith of all religions is thus built with reactive mechanisms towards critical thought (ergo Nietszche’s quote).
Criticism might be negative, but negative isn’t ‘bad’ if what it seeks to dissolve is detrimental. In reversal, I
In an interview, Ingmar Bergman once said the absence of God was a great sense of security to him. Now, even if we go beyond God, some people still cling to an idea of ‘cosmic’ order, like deism, agnostic faith, linearity (anthropocentric, always), which lead Emil Cioran to write, and I quote / translate: “Life has no meaning, it can’t. If it had any, we’d have to kill ourselves instantly.”
Why? Because the weight would crush us in a moment. And when I see/hear all these deluded people and have to face, each and every day, the world ‘they’ have built, I feel that weight, and seek to make it lighter.
As for guts, well… I can’t help but dish out another quote, from Stephen Colbert. He’s talking to W. Bush, live.
“Guys like us, we’re not some brainiacs on the nerd patrol. We’re not members of the factinista. We go straight from the gut. Right, sir?
That’s where the truth lies, right down here in the gut. Do you know you have more nerve endings in your gut than you have in your head? You can look it up. Now, I know some of you are going to say, “I did look it up, and that’s not true.” That’s ’cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut. I did. My gut tells me that’s how our nervous system works.
Every night on my show, The Colbert Report, I speak straight from the gut, okay? I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the “No Fact Zone.”
Cheers!
p.s. what you mentionned about the consequences of losing one’s faith or even just being on the brink is adressed extensively in Nietszche’s books, especially the Will to Power (where he makes his coming out as a nihilist). There’s a hundred points I disagree on with him, but you gotta hand it to the man for being a one man anti-religion army, even dead. Bakounin just went one step further. And Adorno tackled the remaining ‘occult’ hocus-pocus New-Age scam. These are just a few, un-gutly reads.
Raven:
I believe Orwell put it best: “If you can say, ‘2 + 2 = 4’, the rest follows”, and “During times of universal deceit, speaking the truth is a revolutionary act.”
What Cal is saying is more about Christianity than my own post (it’s really about protecting the Constitution, but was badly misinterpreted by at least two respondents as ‘anti-“god”‘) – but the conclusion is the same – the truth, however told, is still the truth.
Truth sometimes comes from the gut, but also comes from exhaustive research. People are not in the business of believing each other – because this is, after all, a Time of Universal Deceit.
-W
Raven, that was well put, and yes everyone should read Nietszche his process is important to consider and helpful when one is looking at their own in my opinion as well.
As for Colbert’s Gut I’m pretty sure we all realize his tongue is so deep in his cheek he might not ever be able to get it out.
I don’t think you humiliated anyone, I was simply offering a different perspective.
All is Well.