Self-Righteous Pricks
30 September 2008 by BobA good story from Crooks and Liars — original story can be found here…
33 Pastors Say Screw You to the Law: Endorse McCain from the Pulpit
Defying a federal law that prohibits U.S. clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical Christian minister told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack Obama would be evidence of “severe moral schizophrenia.” The Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. told worshipers that the Democratic presidential nominee’s positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist “in direct opposition to God’s truth as He has revealed it in the Scriptures.” [...] Johnson and 32 other pastors across the country set out Sunday to break the rules, hoping to generate a legal battle that will prompt federal courts to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. The ministers contend they have a constitutional right to advise their worshipers how to vote. As Johnson put it during a break between sermons, “The point that the IRS says you can’t do it, I’m saying you’re wrong.”
I see this attitude all around in my (small, ignorant, pathetic) town, and people around here are going to vote pro-life, without any hesitation. They will base their vote on only that, and they will, of course, walk away with the confidence that they’ve done the right thing. As I’ve told others: McCain could have picked Bozo the Clown as his running mate, and most people around here would still vote red.
Onward xian soldiers…
30 September 2008, on 2:42 pm
I’m disgusted that in my Chicago suburb, upper middle class and supposedly educated community that we have churches popping up filled with people who are telling people who to vote for from the pulpit and getting away with it simply because they don’t name names. But it’s quite obvious, as I have illustrated in my recent posts here and here about one loonie pastor in our community Mondo Gonzales who encourages his parishoners to get their information from Answers in Genesis website and other bogus information sources and believes that humans co-existed with dinosaurs and who disregards true history and separation of church and state in lieu of willful ignorance.
30 September 2008, on 2:56 pm
“The ministers contend they have a constitutional right to advise their worshipers how to vote.”
Absolutely; if they pay taxes that is. Why can’t those dipshits grasp that simple concept? I was glad to read in the media that the IRS is taking an interest.
30 September 2008, on 4:18 pm
Think of all the taxes we could get from churches, especially the ones on some prime land. But oh, the cries of persecution! It would be sweet.
30 September 2008, on 4:28 pm
Here in New Lenox, the many new churches that have been built in the past several years sit on vast acreage of land. Our property taxes are outrageous. Maybe if the churches started paying their taxes like everyone else and like other businesses then maybe it would lighten the load on the rest of us.
30 September 2008, on 4:35 pm
I’ve always been in favor of taxing the churches, considering how most of them are just businesses anyway. And if they want to promote a certain political agenda or endorse a particular candidate, let them, as long as they pay their share. It’s not like anyone who attends Hagee’s church is going to vote for Obama, and I’ve never noticed liberal atheists yelling about separation of church and state when Democratic politicians use black churches as campaign rally stops. Why should atheists care either way? I want to empty the churches, not make them more “fair” or “balanced.”
30 September 2008, on 4:58 pm
I’ve always been in favor of taxing the churches, considering how most of them are just businesses anyway.
That would be fine with me. That’s all they are are businesses, like you say. There isn’t much difference between them and a country club. I look at these churches that are going up around us and their nice beautiful brick buildings, their professional landscaping that I don’t have, their paved parking lots, many of which are huge and are blacktopped regularly, the expensive lighting, the signs, the interiors are all carpeted and nice decor, beautiful windows and it burns me up that they aren’t paying anything in taxes. They can buy crap tax exempt, their pastors homes are tax exempt. They need to start paying their fair share. And churches are going to promote whatever candidate they want even if they don’t come right out and say the name, everyone knows. It would be much easier to just tax all churches, and then let them say whatever they want since that is what they do anyway.
30 September 2008, on 5:35 pm
You know, I bet we could get the money for the bailout from all the churches/mosques/synagogues/temples in this country.
30 September 2008, on 5:38 pm
You know, I bet we could get the money for the bailout from all the churches/mosques/synagogues/temples in this country.
Probably true, and with a large surplus left over.
30 September 2008, on 8:27 pm
Yes, go ahead and base your vote solely on the pro-life and gay marriage issues, suckers! And when the economy gets even worse than it is now, see if that pastor who urged you to vote that way is going to let you live in the church when they foreclose on your home.
Just don’t come crying to me or the government when it happens. Put your faith in doG then, like you did in the voting booth.
30 September 2008, on 9:50 pm
I don’t know which I became first, a pragmatist or an atheist. But I would have the federal budget balanced and taxes lowered in a flash.
Abandon the war in Iraq.
Abandon the war on drugs.
Tax the churches.
Mission accomplished.
30 September 2008, on 11:49 pm
Here’s a short clip at Huffington Post [today 9/30/08] of Bill Maher, appearing on the ‘View’, commenting with totally delusional Sherri Shepherd about “hearing Gob’s voice”!
Check some of the comments, as well. I think OUR ‘View’ is gaining in numbers.
In other woids…more atheist are coming out of their closets?
[I'd really love to hear what Joy Behar was thinking!]:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/sherri-shepherd-bill-mahe_n_130581.html
RE the tax on religion shtick…
Too bad we can’t ‘parachute’ some of our “GifSter” ideas into the Congressional mix.
Yeah…[ala Captain Kirk?]: “Beam them DOWN ‘Scotty’!”
Or…attached to some carrier pidgeons, perhaps…
trained, of course, in their descent, to crap on the heads of some of those spineless, do nothing fucks.
(ala a Peter Cook line from the original “Bedazzled”?):
“Release your do-do!”
1 October 2008, on 7:43 pm
I think all politicians should say they are pro life. Has anyone ever heard one say that they want babies aborted? What would the pro lifers say then?
The next best answer would be to say they are pro life from conception to grave, not just at conception.
What would be the answer then?
1 October 2008, on 8:52 pm
I personally just find it rather amusing that these churches think they’re going to get away with this. The IRS does not fool around.
Hogarm, as an addendum, I’ve got a couple of other budget balancing ideas.
Get rid of “faith-based” initiatives. Also, levy fines against every single church that cannot prove that their members are getting what they are promised when they sign that check. If you can’t prove that grandma is in heaven, you’re guilty of fraud.
2 October 2008, on 12:45 am
I don’t know which I became first, a pragmatist or an atheist. But I would have the federal budget balanced and taxes lowered in a flash.
Abandon the war in Iraq.
Abandon the war on drugs.
Tax the churches.
Mission accomplished.
And if the politicians did all three: iraq, drugs and church taxes…they’d still figure out a way to take increasing amounts of money from you without solving any of the problems that keep you scared or troubled enough to think you need them, just like they always have.