Tag: Religious Right

What Happened To The Religious Right?

Remember the Moral Majority?

These guys put “God” back into politics.

I agree with a friend (name withheld to protect his identity) said that he stops listening when someone says they are a Christian and that attitude seems to be the sentiment of many Americans.

At one point the “Moral Majority” held all the political power…those days are waning….what happened to those “morally” perfect leaders?

Evangelicalism doesn’t have a brand problem; it has a product problem.

Ok, Evangelicals do have a brand problem—but they also have a major product problem.

Bible-believing born-again Christians, aka Evangelicals, have had a brand problem since Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority sold the Born-again movement to the Republican party in exchange for political power a generation ago, forging the Religious Right.

The Republican party has been using Christianity’s good name to cover bad deeds ever since, all the while tapping Evangelical media empires and churches as communications and organizing platforms to bring ordinary believers along with the merger. Having become true-believers themselves, Evangelical leaders have offered themselves up as trusted messengers for this New-and-Improved political gospel project.

And it has worked.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/heres-the-big-problem-that-is-rotting-at-the-core-of-the-evangelical-movement/

I cannot say that the movement is all but dead…..for it is still strong in the Deep South….the Alabama special election showed that when with all the allegations against Moore he still won the white vote overwhelmingly.

The rest of the nation has lost confidence in this movement but it will stay strong in the South until the older generation leaves us.

Closing Thought–22Mar17

Enter The Religious Police!

In countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran there is a group called the religious police….they make sure that everyone follows the religious laws of the land.

There is a growing concern by those with no brains about the establishment of sharia law here in the USA…..first only a moron would believe such bullshit and second…looks like a church in Alabama wants its own police force….

A bill designed to allow a church to have its own police force is moving forward. Alabama’s Senate judiciary panel has passed a measure that would let Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham create the force, reports NBC News. The force would coordinate with local police to protect the 4,100-member church, which has 2,000 students and teachers at two K-12 schools and a seminary on its sprawling campus, says the church’s administrator. He cited the recent attacks on churches and schools as the motivation for the move, while a concerned member tells the AP, “Anyone can wander in here unchallenged at any time.” The bill now moves on to the full Senate.

“Officer presence is the No. 1 line of defense,” says longtime Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, who introduced the bill and whose wife and daughter work at Briarwood Christian School. The ACLU of Alabama is among those opposing the bill on constitutional grounds, along with another that would allow churches in the state to appoint armed congregants to provide security with legal protections: “These bills unnecessarily carve out special programs for religious organizations and inextricably intertwine state authority and power with church operations.” The AP notes that the police-force bill passed the Legislature last year, but Gov. Robert Bentley did not sign it. Bentley has not said what he would do this year.

Why not hire security guards if security is truly their only concern?

Now if a church has its own police force does that not make them the religious police?

If this is successful where will it lead or where will it end?  If successful this needs to be challenged in court.

Maybe these mental midgets should worry about their own backyard and stop making shit up just to push their agenda of hate.

Just a thought.

That does it for me for the day….I shall return tomorrow with more stuff.

Who Is Weaponizing Religious Liberty?

Nothing I like better than a bunch of babbling buffoons that want religion to be part of politics……makes sure that real problems are ignored.

Back in the days, many years ago, it was a joy to be part of the political process….but then we got all these semi-literate d/bags on the Right….let me be more specific….the Religious Right…..that turn the whole process into some sort of religious litmus test and started chipping away at the very rights that we all say we love…..

Now it is just a menage of BS after BS…..if it is not abortion then it is prayer or the whole Christian nation thing…..I would love to punch holes in this bullsh*t but I do not feel the urge to bad mouth otherwise spiritual people……

In more recent years these “people” have turned our religious liberty into some sort of weapon….aimed at the very heart of this republic…..

It takes a right-wing village to turn a cherished American principle into a destructive culture-war weapon.

In 2016, for the second year in a row, more than 100 anti-equality bills targeting LGBT people were introduced in state legislatures, many of them described as measures to protect religious liberty. This flood of anti-LGBT and “religious liberty” legislation is not the result of isolated local efforts. It is part of a larger campaign by Religious Right groups to resist and reverse advances toward equality for LGBT Americans by portraying equality as inherently incompatible with religious freedom. That effort began well before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 marriage equality ruling, but it has kicked into overdrive since.

Religious Right organizations have long equated criticism with persecution, and portrayed legal and political defeats as attacks on Christianity and religious freedom. Efforts to frame opposition to reproductive choice and LGBT equality as religious liberty issues picked up steam with the issuing of the Manhattan Declaration in 2009. This manifesto, co-authored by right-wing Catholic intellectual Robert George, pledged that its signers would refuse to “bend” to “any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.” Since then, Religious Right groups, their allies at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and allied politicians have increasingly framed their opposition to marriage equality, nondiscrimination laws, reproductive choice, and the contraception coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act as questions of religious liberty.

Source: Who Is Weaponizing Religious Liberty? | People For the American Way

There are so many that are concerned about the appearance of Sharia law but do not see where there is little difference in Sharia and the extremism that they want us all to follow….

At what point do we return to the ideals of Jefferson, Adams and Paine?  The separation of church and state…..would be a good place to start.

I was betrayed by Republican religion: What my years as a Christian fundamentalist taught be about right-wing faith – Salon.com

I am not a particularly religious person….although I consider myself spiritual…..so I do not write much on religion….basically, religion is a private thing between you and your deity……I have tried to understand where the Christian fundamentalists are coming from…..cannot for the life of me get a grip on it…….to me they flying into the face of everything called Christian…..

I still cannot find where their involvement in politics has done anything good for the country or to help others see the light when it comes to Christianity……most are hypocrites in the highest order.

I read this piece by a fundamentalist and sort of understand the situation a little better…..if you have  problem with these religious types maybe this article will assist in your knowledge…..it is a GREAT piece!

 

I was betrayed by Republican religion: What my years as a Christian fundamentalist taught be about right-wing faith – Salon.com.

Thomas Jefferson vs. the Bible: – Salon.com

For decades the Religious Right has been trying to re-write history as it pertains to the founding of our republic……they attempt to teach that religion was a founding principle and that the Bible was the document that help write the Constitution…….

History teaches us that all that is so much wishful thinking on their part….Even Jefferson had a Bible that he edited out all references of miracles to leave the pure philosophy of the book…….

This is a good piece that touches on the Bible, Jefferson and the founding of the republic…….please read and comment…..

 

Thomas Jefferson vs. the Bible: What America’s founding father really thought about religion – Salon.com.

How Christian Is This?

I respect everyone’s religion until that religion becomes a horrendous bastardization of beliefs….this story just shows how bad some will go to press their beliefs…..

If you believe in God then this ass wad is on the “Go To Hell: list!

Gandhi said it best….:”Christianity is a wonderful concept…a shame it has never been tried”  (paraphrase)………..

 

Addicting Info – Pat Robertson Says Non-Religious Children Should Be Beaten Until They Respect Christian Beliefs (VIDEO).

A Win In Mississippi?

From time to time I will write about situations in my state, Mississippi…….it has always been a poor state and in my opinion it is poor for one reason and one reason only……conservative politics.

Awhile back Mississippians voted down the personhood BS of the GOP….that was a win and then the ultra-conservs set about making it impossible for any abortion clinics to remain open by using a tactic of “emitting privileges”……it worked along with some “standards” that are not required by any other medical clinic….again trying desperately to close the one remaining abortion clinic in the state……but with all this effort by the conservs someone crapped on their parade…….

(Newser) – A law that would have forced the only abortion clinic in Mississippi to close appears doomed after a federal court ruled against it once again. An appeals court panel decided 2-1 that State House Bill 1390, which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, would shift Mississippi’s constitutional obligations onto other states by forcing the Jackson clinic to close, CNN reports. “Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion,” but the law “effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi’s borders,” the judges wrote.

The court didn’t strike down the law itself, but “I think the way they ruled on those arguments essentially dooms the law,” a constitutional law expert tells Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger. He describes the ruling as a huge victory for the Jackson clinic, where doctors had been denied admitting privileges by all seven hospitals within a 30-minute drive. Gov. Phil Bryant—who said he wanted the state to be “abortion-free” when he signed the bill into law—says he’s disappointed by the ruling and wants the case to go in front of the entire court instead of a “divided panel of judges.” A similar law goes into effect in Louisiana on Sept. 1, and legal experts believe it won’t face the same issues as the Mississippi law because at least one of the state’s five abortion clinics will be able to remain open, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

But never fear…..the Right is NOT finished…..I am sure they will find yet another BS issue to use to try and close that one remaining clinic…..but for now…..it is a victory for choice.

What Can I Say? It’s Mississippi!

I am a long time resident of Mississippi and I have written many articles about the state of the state and the state of the government……Mississippi is the most obese state, the most religious, the most conservative, and a whole list of other factors…….most of them have nothing to do with prosperity…..and the legislature is seldom concerned with the betterment of the citizens….most of it is all about keeping the people down and out…..an easy force to control……..

Now the 2014 legislature has ended its run for the roses……and here is what some think of the session……………..

As the state continues to prepare for a myriad of new laws and reforms, legislators are taking the time to reflect on the 2014 legislative session. Republican Representative Andy Gipson of Braxton says he believes Mississippi made great strides this session.
“We passed some phenomenal legislation.” said Gipson. The criminal justice reforms, the 20-week abortion ban, Religious Freedom Restoration Act– that’s not discriminatory. It does protect people’s religious freedom Mississippi. Plus, we refilled the rainy day fund.”
Landmark decisions huh?  Does any of the “monumental” laws say that the people will be better off?  A typical Mississippi law making session…..nothing to improve the quality of life within the state.
Although the majority of Americans errantly believe the United States Constitution is the unchallenged law of the land, a substantial number of Christian fundamentalists still adhere to, and are enforcing, their firm belief that their almighty god directed the Founding Fathers to create a Christian nation and wrote a set of laws they would call “The Constitution of the United States.” In the Christian version of god’s Constitution, equal rights are an abomination on par with biblical god’s abhorrence of homosexuality, and religious freedom is Christian’s biblical right to subjugate the population under a Christian theocracy. Over the past five years, Americans have learned that, along with Republicans and teabaggers, the religious right hates the U.S. Constitution as much as they despise America’s African American President, gays, women, and Americans rejecting the Christian bible as law of the land, and the proof is another Republican-controlled state passing and the Republican governor signing into law, a religious edict voiding the 14th and 1st Amendment to make the Christian bible the law of the land in Mississippi.
Last week while Americans deluded that the religious right anti-gay movement is in its death throes celebrated the country’s entrance into the 21st Century as an all-inclusive nation, Mississippi Republicans passed an anti-gay “religious freedom” law. Religious right activists celebrated Mississippi’s biblical law as empowering businesses to reject the Constitution and enforce biblical law discriminating against same-sex couples in the name of Christianity, and shortly after Governor Phil Bryant signed the scriptural edict into law, head of the Family Research Center, Tony Perkins, issued a statement saying as much. The leading prospect to head a Supreme Christian Council to rule theocratic America said, “Whether it’s someone like Pastor Telsa DeBerry who was hindered by the Holly Springs city government from building a new church in the downtown area, or a wedding vendor, whose orthodox Christian faith will not allow her to affirm same-sex marriage,” the religious edict will “prevent government from discriminating against religious exercise.”
Yeah, all that concern for religious freedom and Mississippians are still living in the 19th century…….as long as they keep letting these types run the state there s NO way forward for the state……we will forever be stuck in the 19th century.
And then there are the elections in Mississippi…..still the worst………

In 2012, life in Mississippi might have gotten better, but it’s still the worst state in the country for elections, according to a new survey from Pew Charitable Trusts.

Pew creates a composite “Elections Performance Index” based on 17 factors (some of which include voting-wait time, turnout, registration rate, the robustness of the state’s election data, availability of online voting information, and use of provisional ballots). Read the full list of criteria here. Taken together, they provide a ground to compare states, which have varying election laws and practices.

Check out Pew’s complete interactive comparing the states here.

 

We can pretend that Mississippi has changed but reality is….not much since the 1950’s…….it is still, in my mind, a cultural wasteland………

 

2014 Babbling Buffoons Of Babylon #5

Welcome to edition #5 of BBB….those mental midget that are allowed to talk before their brains are in gear………..I do not mind an innocent misstatement but most of these are anything but a misstatement……..so without further introduction   let us move onward shall we?

#1–This from a right wing pundit, Stan Solomon…………

“I don’t really give a damn if there are any Muslims here but if they are here and they don’t want to be Americans, then get the hell out, and the same for any other group,” Solomon said, before railing against the president. “Barack Obama is not an American, never has been, not in his actions, not in his speech, not in his politics and not in his birth.”

“And not in his baseball throw either,” cohost and former congressional candidate Steve Davis interjected.

“He’s a homosexual, always has been, is now, always will be,” Solomon continued. “That’s his right to be but this nonsense that somehow homosexuality is something equal to or preferable to is just wrong.”

2–Going along with above statement was Eagle Forum Phyllis Schlafly…you may remember her from the days of the ERA…..but she still has not learned to be anything but a toad…..

Schlafly applauded his remarks: “Very well stated Stan, thank you for being a voice of truth and sanity on the air.”

3–There is an ex-FBI agent, John Gaundolo, who weighed in on the person chosen to run the CIA, John Brennan………

“Mr. Brennan did convert to Islam when he served in an official capacity on the behalf of the United States in Saudi Arabia,” Guandolo told interviewer and radio host Tom Trento.

“That fact alone is not what is most disturbing,” Guandolo continued. “His conversion to Islam was the culmination of a counterintelligence operation against him to recruit him. The fact that foreign intelligence service operatives recruited Mr. Brennan when he was in a very sensitive and senior U.S. government position in a foreign country means that he either a traitor … [or] he has the inability to discern and understand how to walk in those kinds of environments, which makes him completely unfit to the be the director of Central Intelligence.”

Guandolo is an ex-FBI agent because………while working on the corruption case against former Rep. William Jefferson, engaged in a sexual relationship with a key witness and resigned before he could be questioned about it.

4–And then there is the wealthy…..they are not exempt from being MORONS either…….

Bud Konheim, CEO of luxury fashion company Nicole Miller, didn’t want to let Gopner and Kessler have all the fun of hating on the poor. He told CNBC’s Squawk Box that North America’s lower class needed to stop whining — or, better yet, go find a poorer continent.

“We’ve got a country that the poverty level is wealth in 99 percent of the rest of the world,” Konheim said. “So we’re talking about woe is me, woe is us, woe is this. The guy that’s making, oh my God, he’s making $35,000 a year, why don’t we try that out in India or some countries we can’t even name. China, anyplace, the guy is wealthy.”

5–This one is from the Obama admin on Israel……

The U.S. House of Representatives approved, on Wednesday, a bill which changes Israel’s status into one of a “strategic partner” of the United States.

According to a report by Alternative Information Center (AIC), the new status will provide Israel with various security benefits, among them priority in receiving American weapons surpluses. Unlike the bill’s original draft, the final version does not include the automatic granting of U.S. tourist visas to Israeli citizens.

The bill, which passed the House with a great majority, will now go to the Senate for a final confirmation.

Israel gets an upgrade?  Israel gets whatever it wants with the exception of a blowjob in a Sear’s restroom and I am not so sure that a couple of congressional hawks  are not already providing that service…..this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard and a waste of time and resources…..

6–CPAC was in full swing and the people attending are attacking Norquist……as some sort of secret Muslim…….you remember him, right?  He is or use to be the taxation guru of the Right and now?

Gaffney was part of an event that immediately followed a panel featuring Norquist, where he delivered a presentation alleging that Norquist is “both enabling and empowering Muslim Brotherhood influence operations against our movement and our country.”

On his radio show last month, Gaffney said that Norquist is advancing the “civilization jihad of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

But Gaffney is not alone.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) denounced Norquist from the floor of the House for associating with “unsavory people and groups out of the mainstream.”

Glenn Beck and Jerry Boykin, the executive vice president of the Family Research Council, also dedicated an entire program to discussing Norquist’s supposed role as “a Muslim Brotherhood facilitator.”

Not holding back, anti-Muslim activist David Horowitz attacked Norquist as a “ practicing Muslim” who has “infiltrated” the GOP, and Robert Spencer said last year that Norquist’s presence at CPAC turned the gathering into a “Sharia-compliant conference.”

“They are enforcing the Sharia,” Pamela Geller said of CPAC after the summit rejected her panel last year, which she blamed on “the influence of what can only be described as Muslim Brotherhood facilitators or operatives like Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist.” She was still able to host a nonofficial event where one speaker said he was “proud” of attacks against mosques.

But my fave on the proof the Norquist is a Muslim…….Cathie Adams of Eagle Forum, who said that she knows Norquist is a secret Muslim because “he has a beard.”

Enough already!  So ends edition #5 of BBB….enjoy and please let your thoughts be known.