Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
I've been taken to task previously for declaring the GOP the party of theocrats. Well, guess what? It's getting hard to see them in any other light, given stunts like this. First it was questioning their opponents' patriotism, now it's questioning their opponents' Christianity (though this really isn't a new game). Just when you think the national Republicans can't sink any lower, they bust right through the floor.
Now, having actually read and thought about the Bible, I'm aware that it is not my place to judge, but I have a suspicion that if these folks do get to meet their maker in the end, they're going to be very, very surprised at the way their God views this sort of antic.
TrackBack"But Lord! I tried to concentrate wealth in the top 1%, kick children off health insurance, allowed companies to spread toxins all over the planet, made fun of poor people, and engaged in 12 brazen hypocrisies before breakfast every morning! What the hell else do you WANT from me?"
Posted by: norbizness at April 15, 2005 12:40 PMI can't wait until the religious police get to accompany me to the voting booth. It's always so lonely in there. My hand cries out: hold me!
Posted by: Robust McManlyPants at April 15, 2005 12:46 PM"Vieira, a constitutional lawyer who wrote "How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary," escalated the charges, saying a Politburo of "five people on the Supreme Court" has a "revolutionary agenda" rooted in foreign law and situational ethics."
We are in need of a cultural revolution (but not a fundamental, Christian cultural revolution).
And I believe in situational ethics - in most situations. You got a problem with that?
Posted by: at April 15, 2005 03:06 PMNo, no, no. You got it all wrong. Hillary's behind the attacks on DeLay because she wants to secure a majority in the House and Senate before she gets inaugurated in 2009!
Posted by: John Johnson at April 15, 2005 05:25 PMI once heard a born-again Christian interpret that bible verse as meaning that born-agains were free to judge people because they've been born again in the Lord, and therefore cannot be judged and found wanting.
Seriously. If I wasn't so fucking infuriated by all this, I would be feeling a little scared (I don't believe in God).
Posted by: maurinsky at April 15, 2005 09:47 PMWell now, that's certainly a novel interpretation. The second birth there washes away your sins up to that point. You can still fuck it up all over again, fer cryin' out loud.
My gut tells me there isn't a god, but my head tells me I don't have anywhere near enough data to say one way or the other and almost certainly never will. All in all, my head has served me better than my gut when it has come to decisionmaking. When it comes right down to it, I suppose I don't really care whether a god exists and if it does, I doubt it much cares what my opinion on the matter is.
Posted by: apostropher at April 16, 2005 12:47 AMI think it really depends on which branch of Christianity you believe in as to whether being born again washes away sins up to that point or for the rest of your life. (I'm afraid all believe in God.) In fact, splits in the Baptist Church occurred in the 19th century over this very issue.
What I haven't heard discussed is whether being born again frees you from the admonition about judgement. Not sure what the churches think (it has been, oh, 17 or 18 years since I've regularly attended a Christian church), but an interpretation I've heard recently makes it impossible to escape: if you judge someone you are really making a judgement on your perception about that person. And, therefore, you are judging yourself. (Yeah, I've been judging myself a lot lately.)
Posted by: John Johnson at April 16, 2005 09:21 AMI think we really need to get the confrontations to right wing religious subversion out there on a vast scale. Make them have to deal with the inconsistancies of self righteous, ignorant, ethnocentric religiosity.
Bumper stickers, billboards like: "Republicans are the same kind of people who killed Jesus the first time." "Flag worshipping republicans hate everything Jesus stands for." "Don't be fooled by right wing religious bullshit. That is truly what it means to take God's name in vain." "Greedy Old Pharisees" is a great confrontation. "Flag worship is not a Christian tradition."