Trump the Savior

I have been saying for too many years now that the freakazoids are a clear and present danger to this nation and the world.

In the Pumpkin Traitor, they finally have a vessel for their power-mad fantasies.

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

All of this is cultish and disturbing on many levels—not the least of which is the fact that our foreign policy is being managed by a man who thinks he’s playing out some kind of biblical prophecy. But the most dangerous part is that cults are inherently authoritarian, which takes me back to what Stewart wrote.

I have attended dozens of Christian nationalist conferences and events over the past two years. And while I have heard plenty of comments casting doubt on the more questionable aspects of Mr. Trump’s character, the gist of the proceedings almost always comes down to the belief that he is a miracle sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord. I have also learned that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.

This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

They want it all. And in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.

The fact that Christian nationalists have anointed the most amoral man to ever occupy the White House as their savior tells us that their allegiance to him isn’t grounded in principle, but in authoritarian power that puts them above the law. That’s the kind of political leadership they’ve been looking for.

Party of Rape

Down with Tyranny:

Personal Savior

ummagumma.co:

Time to Talk

ummagumma.co:

The Knock on the Door

ummagumma.co:

(Source: thedragoninmygarage)

Stop Sharing

Divine Irony:

The Delicious Tears of Freakazoid Evangelicals

From Divine Irony:

Faith Is A Cop-Out

Divine Irony:



It's the get-out-of-responsibility-free aspect of faith that enrages me.

"Why did you shave off the beard you've worn for 20 years?"  "God told me to do it."

"Why are you making us invade a country that hasn't attacked us?"  "God told me to do it."

No act is too big and horrific or too small and irrelevant to blame on an invisible sky wizard who can't be challenged or questioned.

So fucking convenient.

Keep Public Property Safe from Freakazoid Proselytizing

 They're so frantic about it, you have to wonder just how fragile their worldview is, that it requires constant evangelizing.

Wonkette:

State park officials initially said they would remove the Bibles, but this caused a certain amount of butthurt among Christians because lack of evangelizing = Oppression. And then Georgia Gov. Nathan whoop said, hey, No Big Deal, because even though the only religious materials in the cabins are completely sectarian, it’s totes legal because the State didn’t pay for the bibles; the Gideons donated them. Besides, said Gov. Deal,

“I do not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion,” he said. “In fact, any group is free to donate literature.”

Oh? said some sharp kids at American Atheists. Did you say any group? Hey, guys, as it happens, we are a group, and we would just love to donate some literature to be placed in bedside table drawers in Georgia state parks! And so they will be sending the Georgia Department of Natural Resources “enough popular atheist books to place one in every state park cabin in the state.”

In a press release, the group acknowledged that it would really prefer that state-owned facilities be oppressively neutral on matters of religion, but if Georgia wants to play this way, sure!

“American Atheists does not believe the State of Georgia should be placing Bibles or atheist books in state park cabins; however, if the state is going to allow such distribution, we will happily provide our materials,” said President David Silverman.

The books will include Ibn Warraq’s Why I Am Not A Muslim, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s Why I Am An Atheist, and Christopher Hitchens’ deliberately not-capitalized just to piss people off god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Sure, this is totally going to happen, and there will be no butthurt at all among Christians, because it’s not like the state would be forcing anyone to read those titles.

On the off chance that you can’t grab a copy from the bedside table of a cabin in a Georgia state park, we’ve included linkies to generate Big Kickback Bucks for Yr Wonkette.

Yeah, haha, cute. Made your point. And far be it from me to criticize American Atheists, who are usually far ahead of the ACLU in church-state separation cases.

But stunts that equate atheist literature with religious literature feed and promote the myth that atheism is a religion. Religion is the abomination atheism rejects.

State parks are public assets that must remain free of all material that promotes any non-secular worldview. Frantic freakazoid propaganda to the contrary, the U.S. Constitution establishes a secular state. Take your religion elsewhere.

Training Public School Teachers How to Abuse Children

Intellectually abuse them, that is, and unconstitutionally to boot. This is why I keep saying that evangelicals must be barred from all positions of public trust: they simply cannot resist forcibly proselytizing everyone.

Funny how they always pick on vulnerable people over whom they have control.

Joe Sonka at Leo Weekly:

A new group of Christian educators in Louisville conducted a unique training session for Jefferson County Public Schools teachers last Thursday inside the auditorium of The Gheens Academy for Curricular Excellence and Instructional Leadership. The group’s ultimate goal: spreading their faith to public school students.

The Louisville Area Christian Educator Support (LACES) organization is lead by current and former JCPS administrators and teachers who claim they must break through the godless, secular barriers of public schools to witness for Jesus Christ and evangelize to lost souls.

Last week’s kickoff meeting for LACES served as a strategy session for the 150 attendees, with organizers sharing ways to spread the good word at work without breaking the rules laid down by separation of church and state — and Kentucky law.

While the event wasn’t sanctioned by JCPS — LACES rented out the space — speakers included Kirk Lattimore, assistant superintendent for academic achievement, and Bryce Hibbard, Southern High School principal.

SNIP

The Kentucky law that LACES suggests allows the teaching of biblical creationism is KRS 158.177, passed in 1990. While the statute allows the instruction of “the theory of creation as presented in the Bible,” it also states that no teacher “may stress any particular denominational religious belief,” and “This section is not to be construed as being adverse to any decision which has been rendered by any court of competent jurisdiction.”

According to JCPS officials, this statute does not allow such material to be taught in the school district.
“JCPS educators are instructed to adhere to the Kentucky Core Academic Standards in order to ensure our students graduate college and are career ready,” says JCPS spokesman Ben Jackey. “Creationism/intelligent design are not a part of the core standards.”

In an email to JCPS principals the day after the LACES meeting, Superintendent Donna Hargens noted that “Creationism and Intelligent Design are not part of the state science curriculum standards and are not taught.”
Amber Duke, spokeswoman for the ACLU of Kentucky, says that while social conservatives are becoming more aggressive in their attempts to spread creationism in science classes, this is a transparent attempt to break down the separation of church and state, and to promote Christianity as junk science.

“We refer to creation science as ‘creation science’ in quotes, because it and intelligent design are just religious doctrine,” Duke says. “Children’s religious education should be directed primarily by their parents, their family, and religious communities, and not by the public schools, and not teachers.”

Everyone who thinks secular laws are going to stop the freakazoids for a second, stand on your head.

Read the whole detailed, disgusting thing.

Why Evangelicals Must Be Barred from the Military and All Government

Because they literally cannot be stopped from forcible proselytizing.

Steve Benen at Maddowblog misses the point:

First up from the God Machine this week is a story about conservatives condemning the Defense Department for faith-based policies that don't actually exist at the Pentagon.

Fox News' Sean Hannity and Todd Starnes portrayed restraints on proselytization as proof of the Obama administration's purported "war on religious liberty in the military," despite the fact that military policy has long prohibited unwanted proselytization.

On the May 2 edition of his Fox News show, Hannity claimed that a Pentagon statement reiterating the military's longtime policy against proselytizing was proof of Obama's "war on religious liberty." Starnes added that Christians were "under significant attack" by the Obama administration, under which "we have seen a Christian cleansing of the United States military."

The more Fox News pushed this line, the more others on the right took it seriously. Breitbart.com, true to form, told readers, "Pentagon May Court Martial Soldiers Who Share Christian Faith." Then the religious right movement got involved -- AU's Simon Brown reported, soon after, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins expressed outrage that the Obama administration is involved in an "anti-Christian offensive."

His colleague, FRC Executive Vice President Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William "Jerry" Boykin, added, "If this policy goes forward, Christians within the military who speak of their faith could now be prosecuted as enemies of the state."

Seriously? Christians will be prosecuted as "enemies of the state" for talking about their faith? No, not in this reality.

The truth is far more mundane than the right would have us believe. The Defense Department, hoping to debunk some of the overheated nonsense from the right, clarified his week that aggressive proselytizing and faith-based harassment among servicemembers is not permitted -- when one soldier is constantly trying to convert another, against his or her will, it's not good for morale or unit cohesion -- but men and women in uniform are still free to discuss their religious beliefs.

"The U.S. Department of Defense has never and will never single out a particular religious group for persecution or prosecution," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen said in a statement. "The Department makes reasonable accommodations for all religions and celebrates the religious diversity of our service members."

Christensen added. "Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one's beliefs (proselytization)."

The Fox story, in other words, was baseless, despite the eagerness with which conservatives embraced and circulated it.

What Benen fails to understand is that for freakazoids, forcible proselytizing is xianity.  Evangelicals are incapable of discussing religion - or anything at all - without focibly proselytizing. Stopping an evangelical from forcing xianity down the throat of everyone he meets is exactly the same as banning xianity itself.  Forcible proselytizing is the whole essence and purpose of evangelism; xians who don't forcibly proselytize are condemned to burn in hell forever.

Evangelicals - freakazoids - are incompatible with military service or any kind of public service, because their religious obligation to force extremist xianity down the throat of every person they meet will always - always - come before any obligation of public service or work ethic.

Evangelicals are anti-democratic, anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-civil/human-rights, anti-freedom. They should be shunned, isolated and banned.

My usual motto is "no martyrs."  In the case of evangelicals, I make an exception.

More Good News for Atheists

The terrific PZ Myers at Pharyngula brings us good tidings of great joy:

Adding to my joy of late is a remarkable article predicting the demise of evangelical Christianity in our lifetimes.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

Do I believe it will happen? I confess that there's a good bit of wishful thinking on my part that clouds my judgment, but I have high hopes, and I think it entirely possible. This particular article is especially interesting because it is published in the Christian Science Monitor, and it's written by a Christian (well, more accurately, "a postevangelical reformation Christian in search of a Jesus-shaped spirituality," whatever that means), writing as an insider with intimate knowledge of the evangelical movement. He's not happy about it, either, which makes the article an interesting read just because every time he intones an article of woe in his litany of doom, I'm feeling like pumping a fist in the air and shouting "Yes!"

He places the blame on several factors. 1) Evangelicals hitched their wagon to conservative politics, and that cart is busted. 2) Christian media has been superficial and failed to teach them the basics of their belief (which I don't think is quite as damaging as he thinks—teaching the actual scripture is a great way to make atheists). 3) Megachurches. Enough said. 4) Christian education has failed. 5) Christianity has become a taint rather than a selling point in efforts to do good works. 6) Confidence in the bible and faith are waning. And probably most importantly, 7) "The money will dry up."

One caveat to his explanations, though, is that he is making specific predictions about a very narrow part of the Christian spectrum, evangelicalism. We still have to worry about the crazy Charismatics, the freaky Fundamentalists, the conservative Catholics, and all those weird little splinter sects all over the place. Christianity isn't going to simply vanish, it's simply going to submerge for a bit, be a little less flamboyant and openly money-hungry, and maybe be a little less politically influential. Those are good outcomes all around, in my opinion.

He also wants to predict that a new and vital Christianity can arise from the ruins. Let's hope not — I want to see a clearing away of the detritus of superstition to allow for a new Enlightenment to shine forth, instead.