“You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.”
– Jessica Mitford

Did you hear that sound?  That loud, heavy ka-thud?  That was the sound of yet another right-wing Christian hate-mongering hypocrite hitting the ground like a big sack of bibles dropped from a plane at 14,000 feet.  That was the sound of George Rekers going down.  If you didn’t hear it, maybe you felt the shockwave underfoot.  These guys land hard, and they don’t bounce.  Not even the really gay ones.

Who is George Rekers, you ask?  You’ve probably never heard of him, and he seems to prefer it that way.  Rekers is one of the hidden puppetmaster of the hatemongering, hypocritical Christian wrong.  Er, um, sorry, I mean Christian right.

George Alan Rekers is a Baptist minister, an author and a professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science Emeritus at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.  He’s written a good deal on the subject of homosexuality and sexual identity.  His books include, Shaping Your Child’s Sexual Identity and Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality.  Homosexuality is Rekers’s favorite topic.  Along with his pal James Dobson, one of the Christian right’s most beloved and outspoken hate mongers, Rekers is cofounder of the Family Research Council, which has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  According to the Miami New Times, “Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there.”

Rekers is also an officer of NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.  NARTH is one of those groups that advocates “conversion therapy” to “cure” homosexuals of their homosexuality.  This involves such behavior modification tricks as drugs that induce nausea and electric shock while looking at homoerotic images, watching gay porn, or being shown old TV clips of Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly.  Oh, what’s that?  You didn’t know this sort of thing went on in this day and age?  O my brothers, I’m afraid so.  It seems that not only do these people spend a lot of time concerning themselves with what consenting adults do with their genitals and not only do they harbor a venomous hatred for homosexuals, they’re also really big fans of Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.  NARTH claims it is a secular organization but this claim is highly suspect.  For one thing, NARTH is bosom buddies – droogs, you might say – with Focus on the Family.  Also, there are the words of its cofounder, Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, taken from an article on NARTH at TruthWinsOut.org:

“We, as citizens, need to articulate God’s intent for human sexuality,” Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, President of NARTH, said in CNN’s 360 Degrees with Anderson Cooper, April 14, 2007. At the Feb. 10, 2007 Love Won Out conference in Phoenix, the “secular” therapist told the audience, “When we live our God-given integrity and our human dignity, there is no space for sex with a guy.”  Confronted with protesters at their 2006 national conference in Orlando, NARTH instructed its members to “sing a hymn or pray instead,” according to Mother Jones magazine, in its Sept.-Oct. 2007 issue.

Rekers is listed as a participating “expert on the sexual development of youth” on the website FactsAboutYouth.com.  The website is a project of the American College of Pediatricians, which sounds mighty important and legitimate, and suspiciously similar to the American College of Pediatrics, from which it broke away after the American College of Pediatrics expressed its support of same-sex parents.  The website receives support and assistance from – drum roll, please! – NARTH.

Rekers also has a couple of websites of his own.  One is TeenSexToday.com, where he offers teenagers advice about sex and assures them, “So no matter how common or ‘off the wall’ you might think your question is about teen sex, I’ve probably already studied the topic.”  His other website is ProfessorGeorge.com where you can learn everything there is to know about Dr. George Rekers.

Well, um … maybe not quite everything.

Do you sense something of a pattern in the above details about George Alan Rekers?  Homosexuality … teenagers … Christianity … homosexuality … teenagers … Christianity.  Did I mention homosexuality and teenagers?  If you have suspicions about Rekers … well, then, you win the gold cock ring.

In April of 2010, Professor/Dr./Reverend Rekers went on a ten-day trip to Europe.  Due to a recent surgery, Rekers claims his doctor told him not to lift any heavy objects.  With all the luggage he would be carting around, Rekers needed a travel assistant to help him out.  So naturally, he logged on to the website of travel assistant agency Rentboy.com to find one.

Wait a second, hold it, just hold it!  Rentboy.com, which describes itself as “The world’s largest gay escort and massage site”?  For a travel assistant?  Yes, that’s right.  And he found one!  He chose a young man named Geo who had all the necessary qualifications to be a top-notch travel assistant: 132 pounds, 5′ 9″ tall, a lean swimmer’s build, blue eyes, blond hair, versatility, a nice ass, and plenty of uncut foreskin on his large cock.  Even better, Geo’s profile claimed that he was available for “Massage, good times, travel, escort for days, nights and weekends. … For a sensual meet or companionship.  Will do anything you say as long as you ask.”  The perfect companion to haul Rekers’s luggage – and, of course, his ashes.  Praise Jesus!  Professor George’s prayers had been answered and the lord had led him to the travel assistant of his dreams.  And off they went together into the wild, wild, wild blue yonder for ten days of Euro-fabulousness.

But, as the bible tells us, “the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” and sometimes he walketh about in the form of a photographer from the Miami New Times.  That photographer was waiting for Rekers at Miami International Airport at the end of their ten-day luggage-hauling frolic and snapped a picture … of Rekers handling that luggage that was supposed to be too heavy for him.  According to the New Times:

Rekers said he learned (Geo) was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”  (Medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

Rekers did not deny that he contacted Geo through Rentboy.com, only that he knew Geo was a gay prostitute.  When the ugly details spread fast, though, Rekers changed his story.  In a Facebook message to blogger Joe Jervis, Rekers wrote the following:

I have spent much time as a mental health professional and as a Christian minister helping and lovingly caring for people identifying themselves as “gay.” My hero is Jesus Christ who loves even the culturally despised people, including sexual sinners and prostitutes. Like Jesus Christ, I deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them. … Like John the Baptist and Jesus, I have a loving Christian ministry to homosexuals and prostitutes in which I share the Good News of Jesus Christ with them.

So, to wiggle out of this whole gay rentboy thing, Rekers is comparing himself to Jesus Christ.  A fisher of … men.  A shepherd whose rod and staff … comfort.

Contrary to false gossip, innuendo, and slander about me, I do not in any way “hate” homosexuals –

Except maybe yourself, George?

– but I seek to lovingly share two types of messages to them, as I did with the young man (Geo) … [1] It is possible to cease homosexual practices to avoid the unacceptable health risks associated with that behavior –

But ceasing those practices isn’t nearly as much fun as continuing them, is it, George?  Even while you’re devoting your life to punishing others who engage in them.

– and [2] the most important decision one can make is to establish a relationship with God for all eternity by trusting in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, including homosexual sins. If you talk with my travel assistant … you will find I spent a great deal of time sharing scientific information on the desirability of abandoning homosexual intercourse, and I shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him in great detail.

First, Rekers pleaded ignorance, then he pleaded arrogance.  If we are to believe him, then Rekers went to Rentboy.com – “The world’s largest gay escort and massage site!” – searched until he found the “sexual sinner” with just the right stats (Cut or uncut? Paper, plastic, or latex?  Would you like thighs with that?) and dragged him off to Europe for ten days to get him to drop to his knees and devote his life to a man who never married and spent all his time with twelve other guys.

The Family Research Council released a statement from its president Tony Perkins (yes, that’s right, Tony Perkins – you movie fans will know why that’s so damned funny):

In the past 24 hours FRC has received calls regarding Dr. George Rekers and his connection with the Family Research Council. After reviewing the historical records we did verify that Dr. Rekers was a member of the original Family Research Council board prior to its merger with Focus on the Family in 1987.

Wait a second, hold it, just hold it!  Is this guy actually trying to tell us that the Family Research Council, cofounded by George Alan Rekers, the man in question, had to review “the historical records” because they didn’t know who this guy is?  Do they think we’re intellectually comatose?  Seriously, do they really think we just fell off the goddamned idiot truck this morning?

Reports have been circulating regarding Dr. Rekers relationship with a male prostitute. FRC has had no contact with Dr. Rekers or knowledge of his activities in over a decade so FRC can provide no further insight into these allegations.

So, at all of those anti-gay conferences held and participated in by the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family – conferences attended by people from NARTH and the American College of Pediatricians and by George Rekers – they were … what?  Preoccupied?  With what?  Hauling luggage around?  Is that why they didn’t notice Rekers?  Is that why they’ve had no “knowledge of his activities in over a decade”?

While we are extremely disappointed when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they ‘preach’ against, it is not surprising. The scriptures clearly teach the fallen nature of all people. We each have a choice to act upon that nature or accept the forgiveness offered by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and do our best to ensure our actions, both public and private, match our professed positions.

So the Family Research Council – the organization Rekers founded with his co-kneeler James Dobson – has denounced George Rekers … even though they don’t really know who he is and have no idea what he’s been up to in over a decade.  That’s it, Tony – make sure your ass is covered before you bend over for the soapbox.  In the end, of course, like all Christians, they blame “the fallen nature of all people.”  In other words – everybody’s doing it!

NARTH had a very peculiar response to all of this:

You have as much information as we do. Before this released we didn’t have this much information. All we had was a simple accusation that he was with a “rent boy” so that was all we were able to talk about with him. His answers (as well as his demeanor) showed that the story wasn’t exactly as it seamed [sic]. There are certain accusations that would and wouldn’t surprise certain people about others.

No shit, Sherlock.

This comes as a complete surprise as Dr. Rekers is not only very old –

Very old?  He’s 61!  Since when is 61 “very old?”  And even if it were “very old,” what the hell does that have to do with anything?  Old people can’t be gay?  Quentin Crisp lived to be 91 – and he was about as gay as you can get the whole time!  Of course, Quentin Crisp was man enough to be honest about it.

– and in very poor health –

Gay people can get sick, too, you moronic douchebag!  Hey, maybe he has AIDS!  Ever think of that?

– but also very nice and soft spoken –

Oh, well, that’s different.  “Nice and soft spoken”?  Why didn’t you say so in the first place?  In that case, he couldn’t possibly be gay!

– so until we have further information or proof of this incident it remains rumor and speculation.

What do they want, video of the two of them having sex?  So they could show it to some poor son of a bitch while they try to shock the gay out of him?

This is yet another rendition of a tune we’ve heard Christians sing before.  It goes like this:  “La la la la, we can’t hear you!”

What makes this story so significant is Rekers’s aggressively anti-gay work.  According to gay rights activist Wayne Besen, “While he keeps a low public profile, his fingerprints are on almost every anti-gay effort to demean and dehumanize LGBT people.  His work is ubiquitously cited by lobby groups that work to deny equality to LGBT Americans. Rekers has caused a great deal of harm to gay and lesbian individuals.”  Along with his tireless attempts to marginalize and demonize the gay community by keeping alive obsolete myths and hateful lies long proven wrong, Rekers has served “in advisory roles with Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services and testifying as a state’s witness in favor of Florida’s gay adoption ban.” (Miami New Times)

Please open your hymnals now to that beloved old hymn, “Swing Right, Sweet Hypocrite.”  You’ve heard the song before, I’m sure.  We can’t sing the whole hymn because it’s really, really, really, really long.  But some of the stanzas include people like Mark Sanford, Ted Haggard, John Allen Burt, Roy Ashburn, everyone’s favorite airport men’s room tapdancer, Senator Larry Craig, and many, many, many others.  I simply don’t have the space, time or energy to list even half of the scandals involving Christian conservatives.  But you get the idea.  This isn’t anything new – in fact, it’s getting pretty damned old.  But it doesn’t stop.

I’m not trying to say that conservative Christians are the only ones who get caught with their pants down.  There’s plenty of pants-dropping on both sides of the aisle.  Right now, one of my prime candidates for being strung up by his genitalia from the Washington Monument is that slug John Edwards, who’s firmly on the left side of the aisle.  But conservative or liberal – that’s not the point here.  The point is hypocrisy.  We’re all humans, we all make mistakes.  But some of us insist that they have risen above that.  Those are the people I’m talking about.

The one thread that runs through these scandals is Christianity.  These are Christian men who fly their religious beliefs like flags.  They talk about “traditional values” and “family values.”  They pass judgment on those who do not live according to their religious beliefs – whether they share them or not.  They work hard to legislate against the rights of gay people, to determine what women can and cannot do with their own bodies.  Meanwhile, they’re screwing around on their wives, engaging in gay sex and fucking children, and when they get caught, they invoke the name of their savior and brag about how forgiven they are and tell everybody how wrong it is to judge them.

Look, as long as everyone is of age and consenting, you can do whatever the hell you want as far as I’m concerned.  Unroll the rubber sheets, break out the jumbo vibrating dildos, put on the scuba gear and call in the naked Episcopalian dwarves – I don’t care!  In fact, I’m all for people doing things that make them happy because we only get one life and we should make the best of it.  As long as nobody’s getting hurt, I say have yourself a party!

But if you’re a Christian and you’re determined to make sure that everyone knows you’re a Christian — as if that somehow makes you better than everyone else — and if you like to spend your time sticking your nose into other people’s personal business so you can make it known far and wide that you don’t approve of their personal business, if you work to limit the rights of those people, and it turns out that you are engaging in the very behaviors you have condemned, then you, my friend, have made yourself a big fat target.  You can talk all you want about how much Jesus loves you and forgives you and thinks you’re just swell.  But keep in mind that Jesus isn’t here.  He’s not talking.  He’s not posting your bail and he’s not coming to your defense.  And his angry, bloodthirsty, vengeful father is not the one you should be worried about.  Worry about the people you’ve hurt, the people you’ve condemned, the people whose lives you’ve damaged.  And keep in mind that you’re on your own, pal.  As the saying goes, Jesus may love you, but everybody else thinks you’re an asshole.

When I was a little boy, my cousin Kenny and I used to love to pretend we were Batman and Robin.  First, we’d fight over who had to be Robin. Then we’d don our capes – blankets or towels or whatever our mothers had handy – and we’d hunt down Catwoman, take her back to the bat cave and make her undress.  We were very imaginative.  But I digress.  Do you know why we pretended we were Batman and Robin?  We had no choice – because we weren’t Batman and Robin.  We had to pretend.  But the reality was that we were just a couple of dumb kids running around in towels looking like idiots.

That’s what these moralizing Christians do.  Christianity is a game of “let’s pretend.”  It’s the towel they pin around their necks and call a cape.  Then they prance around and tell everyone how moral and righteous they are.  They use lots of catch phrases and buzz words.  They support the family and traditional marriage, they say.  They have core values that are Christ-centered and biblically based.  They live by the Christian principles upon which this nation was founded.  They have rules they must follow – they have to oppose and condemn homosexuality and abortion and anything on the left.  As long as they oppose those things loudly enough so that everyone can hear and everyone can know how moral and righteous they are … well, then, they can go about the business of being human beings who live on planet earth.  But you know what?  Sometimes human beings are gay.  Sometimes human beings find themselves in situations where an abortion is the best choice they can make.  Sometimes when people follow their conscience, they find themselves on the left side of the aisle.  And best of all, some of those people are actually honest about all those things.

The brilliant comedian Lenny Bruce once said, “The ‘what should be’ never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no ‘what should be,’ there is only what is.”

Those who live in the world of what they think should be rather than what is do so at their own risk – especially when they hurt others while doing it.  Sooner or later, “what should be” falls apart and you’re left with “what is.”  If you’re a moralizing hypocritical Christian who imposes his beliefs on others, “what is” can be a very lonely and unpleasant place.

Religion has given itself such a bad name that even some believers don’t want to be associated with it.  “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual,” is something that’s usually said by people who believe in god but don’t want to be included in his army of uptight, church-going, dogmatic, judgmental, hypocritical, unreasonable, irrational, bullying followers bent on overthrowing the United States and turning it into a Christian theocracy.  If someone says this and you ask what it means, you most likely will find it’s shorthand for something like this:  “Well, I’m just not comfortable with the idea of a godless universe, so I believe in something, but I haven’t really worked out exactly what, and it’s not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, so I just try to keep a good moral center, but I’m not religious.”  Whatever their beliefs, that’s the one thing the “spiritual-but-not-religious” folks have in common – they don’t want to be mistaken for one of those people.  And who can blame them?

Now “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual” is in the news.  According to a study conducted by Lifeway Christian Resources, 72% of the 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed described themselves as “more spiritual than religious.”  In an article in USA Today, Lifeway president Thom Rainer says that if this trend continues, “the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships.”  This reflects the findings of other surveys by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) and the Pew Forum.

According to ARIS, despite the addition of 50 million adults to the population in the last 18 years, religion is steadily losing ground.  In fact, the “nones” – people who claim no religious affiliation or no belief at all – now outrank all other religious groups in the United States except for Catholics and Baptists, and its numbers are growing.

Across the board, more and more people are turning their backs on organized religion.  None of the surveys I’ve found have asked why they’re doing this – I wish someone would do that study.  I suspect high on the list of reasons would be rampant hypocrisy among the religious, as well as the elitist, judgmental and bigoted attitudes of American Christians and the bullying behavior that demands respect from everyone but shows no respect to others.  Another reason might be the overwhelming authority churches claim to have over their members (and even non-members) without any real support for it.  They dip their hands into people’s lives, telling them how they should and shouldn’t live.  This is typically done by the men in the pulpits – pastors and priests who have decided to devote their lives to telling others how to live theirs.  These are usually men who have no formal training in anything but being pastors and priests, and yet they have the arrogance to counsel others on serious life issues, including marriage and family problems, which is especially disturbing in the case of priests who are not allowed to marry and who remain celibate – well, in theory, anyway … as long as you don’t count sex with kids.  As their source of authority and wisdom, they point to that ancient book written in a time of astonishing ignorance and superstition, the bible.  But that seems to be carrying less weight these days, too.  People are steadily seeing the weakness of the bible as a source of divine authority, morality or even good sense.

According to a Gallup poll, one third of the American population believes the bible is the infallible word of god and should be taken literally – an average of 31% between 1991 and 2007, a number that has dropped from 38% in the period between 1976 and 1984.  The level of education one has seems to be a factor in how literally they take the bible – the more educated, the less seriously the bible is taken.  A third of the country might seem like a hefty percentage – until you realize just how little the believers themselves know about what’s in the bible.  In his book No Place for Truth, theologian David Wells wrote, “I have watched with growing disbelief as the evangelical church has cheerfully plunged into astounding theological illiteracy.”

According to an article titled “Crisis in America’s Churches: Bible Knowledge at All-Time Low” by Michael J. Vlach, Ph.D., the most widely known bible verse among adult and teen Christians is, “God helps those who help themselves” – which isn’t even in the bible.  Valch writes, “One-third could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost. … One-third could not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names … half did not know that the Christmas story was in Matthew, half did not know that the Passover story was in Exodus.”

According to Christian researcher George Barna, “Literally millions of Americans who declare themselves to be Christians contend that Jesus was just like the rest of us when it comes to temptation—fallen, guilty, impure, and Himself in need of a savior.”

If so many Christians are unfamiliar with the information in the bible that is relevant to their religious beliefs, then how many more have no familiarity at all with the ugly, hateful, immoral and downright horrifying material in the bible – the stuff their pastors and priests never cover in church, the stuff that doesn’t make it to buttons and bumper stickers and T-shirts?  A lot.  In fact, I’ll go so far as to say all of them (but I have no statistical study to support that – it’s just an opinion based on my experience with Christians).

Whenever I have any kind of discussion with a Christian about religion, sooner or later they fall on the old, “But the bible says so!” argument.  Oh, the bible?  You mean the old book that condones and advocates things like slavery, child abuse, torture, rape, incest, murder, genocide and communism?  That bible?  That, of course, is always met with indignant cries of, “It does not!” to which I calmly reply, “Yes, it does.”  Sooner or later, they say to me, “Prove it!”  That’s always fun.  Because I can.  And when I do, almost without exception, they are thrown into stammering, stuttering, slack-jawed speechlessness because they had no idea that the book they’d always believed to be the infallible word of god, the manifesto of god’s merciful love for his children, is actually the world’s oldest and bestselling horror novel in which the bloodthirsty monster is god.

My wife Dawn recently had a conversation with a friend who’s the daughter of a Christian minister.  The friend said something about the bible being “god’s word of love,” and Dawn laughed.  She suggested that a god who would command his people not to kill then tell them to wipe out an entire people by killing all the men, women, children, pets and livestock and take any surviving girls home for sex, was not too loving.  Her friend insisted the bible contained no such thing.  Dawn told her to ask her minister father about it, and the friend said she most definitely would.  She never brought the subject up again.  I assume Dad filled her in and she preferred not to talk about it anymore.

Throughout the Old Testament, god kills men, women and children, orders his people to kill their own children and loved ones, to burn nonbelievers, and to murder, rape and pillage entire civilizations.  He encourages slavery and even tells his people it’s okay to sell their own daughters into sexual slavery.  But the great majority of Christians are unaware of this because they don’t read the bible, they just listen to their pastors and priests tell them about it, and the pastors and priests tell their congregations only what they want them to know.  Those who are familiar with it have a number of standard defenses for its litany of obscenities.  My favorite is, “Things like that were cultural norms at that time.”  This, of course, makes no sense, because these same people will adamantly insist that god never ever changes and remains the same god he’s always been in every way.  But if what god deems acceptable behavior – slavery, rape, torture, child abuse, etc. – changes from one culture to the next, then obviously god does not remain the same and is heavily influenced by what humans deem acceptable behavior … which is awfully conveeeenient, as the Church Lady used to say.  But try pointing that out to them and see what happens.  The conversation will become uncomfortable at best, hostile at worst.  Usually hostile, by my experience.

Of those who say they believe the bible to be the word of god, how many know exactly what it is they’re claiming to believe in?  How seriously are we to take people who claim this book came from god when they don’t even know what’s in it?

Back to the Lifeway Christian Resources survey.  65% of those surveyed call themselves Christian, but Rainer says, “Many of them are mushy Christians or Christians in name only.  Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith.”

This brings up the elitist and judgmental attitudes of Christians that I mentioned earlier.  Mr. Rainer has no qualms about letting us know that he is capable of deciding which people are real, sincere Christians and which ones are “mushy Christians or Christians in name only,” or “indifferent.”  The bible assures Christians that “whosoever believeth in him (Jesus Christ) should not perish but have everlasting life.”  (John 3:16)  In that particular part of the bible – the bible goes through wild mood swings throughout – all that’s required is belief.  But apparently Mr. Rainer knows better and has found many of those who claim to be Christians to be, in truth, severely lacking in some way.  I have no idea what he’s basing this on, and frankly, I don’t care, because along with being appallingly arrogant and judgmental, Mr. Rainer is full of hot air.  His dismissal of those whose brand of Christianity he disapproves of is actually a pretty good description of most of the Christians in this country.

Going by my experience with Christians – which is reflected in the experiences of most people I know – most use their religious belief rather than live it, and they use it only when it suits them.  Others – even nonbelievers – are expected to live by their religion’s rules while they do whatever they like and claim to be “not perfect, just forgiven.”  Little or no attention is given Jesus’s instructions.  He tells them to pray in private, but they want public prayer mandated.  He tells them to be humble and meek and not judgmental, and … well, we all know how that’s worked out, don’t we?  It has been my consistent and unwavering experience throughout my life that the most Christ-like people are those who do not believe in or worship Christ.  So when Mr. Rainer claims that only some of those who profess to be Christians are actually Christians, which suggests that others are fine, devout, loving, Christ-like Christians, I can’t help but laugh.

According to the Lifeway study, 65% of those surveyed “rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.  65% rarely or never attend worship services.  67% don’t read the Bible or sacred texts.”  Among those who still believed they would go to heaven “because they have accepted Jesus Christ as savior, 68% did not mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was ‘really important in life.’  50% do not attend church at least weekly.  36% rarely or never read the Bible.”

But who are these Christian young people between the ages of 18 and 29?  Chances are extremely good that they were born into the religion or targeted by evangelism at a very early age, and the statistics – gathered by Christian researchers – back that up.

According to studies by Nazarene Church Growth Research and the International Bible Society, 83% to 85% of all Christians “make their commitment to Jesus between the ages of 4 and 14, that is, when they are children or early youth.”

Between the ages of 4 and 14.  I know that’s when I made all of my significant life commitments with full knowledge of precisely what I was doing – how about you?

According to an article by Michael Rohling, Manager of Youth and Family Interventions at Southern Illinois Regional Social Services (SIRSS) in Carbondale, Illinois, “Teenagers do not look as complete in brain development as researchers previously thought.  According to Barbara Strauch, the medical science and health editor of the New York Times, in her recent book, The Primal Teen [First Anchor Books Edition, September 2004], the notion that the brain was complete at age 13 or 14 has been thrown away.  The latest neuroscience is finding that structural changes are not finished until age 25 or so.  And, although there are numerous hormones involved, brain development plays a larger part in teen impulses.”

In a San Francisco Examiner article, education professional and Lifeline Foundation Inc. co-chair Sharon Biggs wrote, “Prior to full brain development children exhibit the following behaviors more coincidentally vs. consistently:  Decision making, use of appropriate judgment; rational thinking; integration of emotion and critical thinking; ability to think clearly about long-term outcomes that stem from behaviors; global thinking vs. self-centered thinking.”

Howard Culbertson, professor of missions and world evangelism, writes on the Southern Nazarene University website, “This data illustrates the importance of influencing children to consider making a decision to follow Christ.  Because the 4 to 14 period slice of the pie is so large, many have started referring to the ‘4 to14 Window.’”

So the reasoning behind the “4 to 14 Window” goes something like this: We need to get them before they can think straight.  This makes sense, of course.  According to the Nazarene Church Growth Research study, only 4% of Christians converted to the faith after the age of 30.  Older people, especially those who’ve been educated – those who have fully-developed brains and have integrated their emotions with critical thought, those who are capable of consistently making rational, carefully thought out decisions – are a little harder to sell on the idea of the earth being poofed into existence in six days, talking animals, seas opening up so people can walk across them, a pregnant virgin, and people rising from the dead than are children between the ages of 4 and 14 whose gray matter, like a mold of unfinished Jell-O, has not yet set.  People at 30 and older are not as likely to be convinced that if they don’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior, his loving and merciful father will make them suffer and burn for all eternity in hell.

It’s not suprising that, according to Culbertson, “Many people serving as career cross-cultural missionaries have testified that they first felt god calling them to missionary service during that 4-14 age period.”  Was that really “god calling them,” or was it the high-pressure fear-mongering and guilt trips of adults who know that kids of that age are the easiest to convince, the easiest to dominate and indoctrinate, the targets most likely to yield successful results?

Let me repeat the words of Howard Culbertson: “This data illustrates the importance of influencing children to consider making a decision to follow Christ.”  Replace the word “influencing” with the word “indoctrinating.”  I would suggest using the word “brainwashing,” but that would imply that prelearned information is being erased and replaced with new information – we’re talking about children who don’t have any prelearned information to erase.  Their young, new minds are being shaped and sculpted at the earliest stages, particularly those who are born into religion and indoctrinated from infancy onward.

No one asked me if I wanted to be a Seventh-day Adventist.  That decision was made for me.  My earliest memories are of fear of the “last days,” of the “national Sunday law” that Adventism teaches its children will be passed, possibly at any moment, forcing everyone to worship on Sunday – Adventists observe the Old Testament Sabbath and worship on Saturday.  I was taught that when that happened, we would have to drop what we were doing, flee to the hills and hide in caves so the Catholics and other “Sunday-keepers” couldn’t find us, imprison us, torture us, and execute us for our beliefs.  I lived in such terror of this happening that every time a TV show I was watching was interrupted for a “special news bulletin,” I had a panic attack for fear that the announcement would be about the abrupt passage of the Sunday law.  Children born into religion are taught to see the devil around every corner, to prepare for the end of the world, to keep a watchful eye for the antichrist, and all kinds of scary things – all injected into a small child’s mind before it can reason or think clearly or choose.

How often have you heard this:  I think it’s important for children to go to church so they get some kind of moral, Christian training. I’ve heard my wife’s sister say this many times.  It’s not an uncommon thing for the parents of young children to say.  According to a friend of mine who used to be involved in Christian ministry, “Our experience in ministry was that the vast majority of the newcomers to our church – the previously unchurched – between the ages of 25 and 35 started attending solely because they wanted their children to grow up with some form of religious/Christian training.  They did not start the church thing for themselves.  They only chose our church because it was enjoyable.  It didn’t really matter to most of them what denomination just so long as it didn’t bore the hell out of them.  But their commitment was generally pretty flimsy.  They never ‘caught fire’ as we would say.”

It’s typical for people to think that religion and morality are the same thing.  Religion has spent thousands of years claiming that it virtually invented morality.  It has commandeered morality and claimed it for its own.  Christianity claims that its morality comes from the bible.  You remember the bible — that book that condones and advocates things like slavery, child abuse, torture, rape, incest, murder, genocide and communism?  Yeah, that bible.  That’s where they claim their morality comes from.

The fact is that morality – right and wrong, good and bad – exist independent of religion and always have.  But that’s another blog post.  Unfortunately, those who’ve bought into the lie that religion is the source of morality often decide they must turn their children over to what is in fact a system of indoctrination that is ready and waiting to seize control of the minds of those children.  Rather than being taught morality or the difference between right and wrong, they will be taught a false morality, taught to believe in myths and invisible, unprovable beings that have nothing to do with morality.  They will be taught that they are inherently bad, that they are filled with sin and are worthless unless they accept a non-existent being who will forgive their sins and give them worth.  They are told that this being died a horrible death for them and they are obligated to accept him and devote their lives to him, and if they don’t, they will burn forever in hell.  What does this have to do with morality?  What does this have to do with being a good person?  Nothing.  But these children will be told otherwise, and they will be told at a time when their minds are vulnerable and defenseless.

Sure, they would like you to convert and join their church.  But what do they really want?  They want your children.  That’s where their future lies.

There’s just one problem.  It seems this system of indoctrination isn’t working as well as it used to.  Young people are walking away from religion more than ever before.  And people like Thom Rainer of Lifeway Christian Resources are worried that this trend could cause churches to close “as quickly as GM dealerships.”  Interesting he referenced car dealerships.  It probably would have been more accurate to specify used car dealerships.

But Christians are not surprised by this.  They say they’ve always known this would happen in the last days before Christ’s return – the great apostasy, the falling away of Christians as predicted in the bible.  When I was a boy living in fear of those last days, I was constantly being reminded of the many signs that we were living in them.  Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, horrible diseases.  Never mind that there have always been earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and horrible diseases – don’t confuse them with the facts, they hate that.  The one that always confused me, found in Daniel 12:4, was this:  “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”  This was always quoted to me as if an increase in knowledge were a bad thing (to say nothing of running to and fro).  This made no sense to me.  Wouldn’t an increase in knowledge be a good thing?  That’s what I always thought.  But everyone I knew seemed so afraid of that idea.

The young people who are now rejecting religion in greater numbers than ever before are living in a time of tremendous knowledge.  We now know more than we’ve ever known about our universe, our planet, our origins, and our bodies, and knowledge only continues to increase faster than ever.  The internet has made that knowledge instantly accessible.  A quick internet search can answer just about any question you might have about anything.  A lot of questions are being answered – questions about god, the bible, religion.  Before the internet, these questions were asked of pastors and other church leaders; they were given vague or evasive answers, and if the questioner continued asking, he or she was accused of the sin of doubt and was told to shut the hell up.  Now there are other places to get answers, and those answers are being pursued.  While it’s true that being spiritual but not religious, or rejecting religion but maintaining a belief in some kind of god, is a little like saying, “I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I believe in Santa Claus,” it’s a start.  Knowledge is increasing.

“And knowledge shall be increased” is scary to Christians.  But it’s not a sign of the end of the world.  It’s a sign of the end of their reign.

Evangelical archaeologists claim to have found the remains of Noah’s Ark in Turkey.

I will pause for a moment until you finish laughing your ass off at the combined use of the words “evangelical” and “archaeologists.”

According to an article in the UK Sun, Yeung Wing-Cheung from Noah’s Ark Ministries International says, “It’s not 100 per cent that it is Noah’s Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it.”

I had never heard of Noah’s Ark Ministries International before and wanted to learn more.  All I could find was this, and I can’t read it.

From the Sun:  “He said the structure contained several compartments, some with wooden beams, that they believe were used to house animals.”

No evidence is given to support the claim that these compartments “were used to house animals” – unless, of course, the fact that some of them had “wooden beams” is intended as evidence.  However, it’s pointed out that the “evangelical archaeologists” believe they were used to house animals.

Here is Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word “archaeology”:  “The scientific study of material remains (as fossil relics, artifacts, and monuments) of past human life and activities.”  I think the use of the word “scientific” in this definition is significant.  Where does “belief” come into “scientific study?”  Well … it doesn’t.

Here’s my favorite passage from the Sun article:  “The group of evangelical archaeologists ruled out an established human settlement on the grounds none have ever been found above 11,000ft in the vicinity, Yeung said.”

Where does the attitude, “Well, we’ve never encountered it before, so that can’t be it!” come into “scientific study?”  Well … it doesn’t.

So how is it that these “evangelical archaeologists” are so sure they’ve found the ark in which Noah saved two of every animal on the face of the earth from the flood sent by a loving, merciful god to destroy everyone on the planet?  Well, according to the Sun, “They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat.”

What?  Wait a second, hold it, just hold it!  Carbon dating?  Are we talking about the same carbon dating used by scientists to determine the age of things like bones and fossils and the earth?  Are we talking about the same carbon dating that Christians routinely REJECT?  That carbon dating?

The website ChristianAnswers.net has a few things to say about carbon dating from a Christian perspective:

“People wonder how millions of years could be squeezed into the biblical account of history.  Clearly, such huge time periods cannot be fitted into the Bible without compromising what the Bible says about the goodness of God and the origin of sin, death and suffering—the reason Jesus came into the world.  Christians, by definition, take the statements of Jesus Christ seriously. He said, ‘But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.’ (Mark 10:6).  This only makes sense with a time-line beginning with the creation week thousands of years ago. It makes no sense at all if man appeared at the end of billions of years.”

This is the real reason Christians reject carbon dating – it has nothing to do with accuracy or science or a search for the truth.  It can’t be “squeezed into the biblical account of history,” which they believe to be literally true and accurate.  If carbon dating works, then that biblical account is not true and accurate.  Therefore, it becomes necessary to discredit carbon dating – by any means necessary.  Here’s one attempt made on the website:

“The forms issued by radioisotope laboratories for submission with samples to be dated commonly ask how old the sample is expected to be. Why? If the techniques were absolutely objective and reliable, such information would not be necessary. Presumably, the laboratories know that anomalous dates are common, so they need some check on whether they have obtained a ‘good’ date.”

This is my favorite:

“Also, the Genesis flood would have greatly upset the carbon balance. The flood buried a huge amount of carbon, which became coal, oil, etc., lowering the total 12C in the biosphere (including the atmosphere—plants regrowing after the flood absorb CO2, which is not replaced by the decay of the buried vegetation). Total 14C is also proportionately lowered at this time, but whereas no terrestrial process generates any more 12C, 14C is continually being produced, and at a rate which does not depend on carbon levels (it comes from nitrogen). Therefore, the 14C/12C ratio in plants/animals/the atmosphere before the flood had to be lower than what it is now.  Unless this effect (which is additional to the magnetic field issue just discussed) were corrected for, carbon dating of fossils formed in the flood would give ages much older than the true ages.”

Are your sides aching yet?  Essentially, what Christians are saying is this: “Your scientific dating method doesn’t work unless you include and correct for one of the myths in our unscientific superstitious belief system!  So there!”

The conclusion reached by the website about carbon dating?

“There are many lines of evidence that the radiometric dates are not the objective evidence for an old Earth that many claim, and that the world is really only thousands of years old. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have the sure testimony of the Word of God to the true history of the world.”

I think the operative word in the above paragraph is “lines.”

Now we have some “evangelical archaeologists” who claim to have found what they believe may — or may not — be Noah’s ark.  What do they use to determine its age?  CARBON DATING.

They’re like an angry child who shouts at a disagreeing friend, “You don’t agree with what I think, so I don’t like your toys!  Your toys are no good!  They don’t work!  They’re broken!”  Then, the next day, the angry child comes back and begins to play with the very toys he was denouncing the day before.  “These toys only work right when I play with them!”

Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.  Fortunately, we have the Christians to make it up for us.

LOL. An update to the post “Slutty Women Rockin the world

“

It seems like this just begs for us to promote something this nice and wholesome. Boobquake is slated to sart on Monday April 26. I personally hope it becomes a tradition.

Here’s the background: A Purdue University student is asking women around the world Monday to show a little cleavage, or some short shorts, as a humorous test to disprove an Iranian cleric’s theory that immodest dress has the power to make the Earth shake.

The article is here as well as other headlines and articles from around the world.

So be careful on monday everyone. Those immodest women are going to be out tempting us all and trying to shake the earth.

PSA over.

Imagine the dilemma:  A District Attorney is faced with the intransigence of parents who refuse to protect their children from harm.  What can he do?  He’s tried prosecution, and juries have found against the parents.  As a deterrent, punishment (ranging from fines to probation to prison) hasn’t improved the situation.  My guess is that the parents are subjected to a great deal of public shaming; and yet the parents show no remorse.

Children keep dying.  And it’s generational:  In February, a mother and father were found guilty and sentenced to 16 months in prison.  And in August, her daughter and husband were tried and found not guilty.  In the former case, their teenage son died of complications from an untreated urinary blockage.  The latter case involved a 15-month-old daughter who died of a blood infection; although they escaped a prison sentence, the father was convicted of :criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor, for failing to provide adequate medical care.”

The state medical examiner’s office reported that during the past 30 years more than 20 children of church members had died from preventable or curable illnesses. The mortality rate for Followers of Christ children during that period is 26 times greater than the general population.

Yes, Followers of Christ Church.  You had already guessed that, I’m sure.

But how DO we protect the children from their lunatic parents?  After all, they have First Amendment protections.  And the children have their own rights.  If one should trump the other, the child’s welfare must be paramount.  The child doesn’t have the knowledge and experience it would take to manage his/her health crises.  That duty belongs to the parent/s.  But how do we get around the faith-based ignorance of zealots?

In a “for what it’s worth” gesture, the DA sent a letter to all 415 families of the fundamentalist sect.

“As a starting point towards a possible dialogue between the church and law enforcement, let me ask the following question: Is there an opportunity for us to agree under what circumstances parents should take their children to a doctor or hospital for appropriate medical care?” District Attorney John Foote wrote.

“Our goal would be to try and find ways to make sure that children of the church are safe and receive appropriate medical care. We would work with you to make that happen,” the letter said.

What to do?  We can’t police these people.  Nor can we visit them daily.  Do we take their children away?  Do we force them to leave, knowing they’ll likely go underground?  If the reasonable letter from a reasonable public servant accomplishes nothing, what then?

As a last resort, should we disguise a NursePractioner as a “faith healer”?

***

For those of you curious as to why this is titled “…part four”, here are links to the earlier posts:

Suffer the little children…, 05.19.07 (which may or may not be about hyper-fundi-ism)

Suffer the little children (genetically), 05.21.07

Suffer the little children (this is getting monotonous!), 06.01.07

Thanks to ChuckA for sending us this link to Austin Cline’s article about a 12-year-old Yemeni child bride who died of internal bleeding days after being married to a man more than twice her age.

Like a couple of other Middle Eastern Muslim nations, Yemen has a problem with little girls being married off to older men — and it’s a problem that just keeps getting worse. The latest incident involves a 12-year-old girl married to a man at least twice as old as her. Just three days after the wedding, she died of internal bleeding caused by intercourse with her “husband” (that should probably read “legally and religiously sanctioned rapist”).

While we would like to think that most Muslims do not condone this practice, we have to consider the fact that the Muslims’ main prophet Muhammed married and had sex with a girl just as young.

Cline writes:

Muhammad is supposed to have lived an exemplarily life — a life that all Muslims should strive to emulate if they can. Well, the men of Yemen are doing just that by having multiple wives and at least one child bride.

Like the Christians’ Bible, the Koran can be used to justify the most horrific of acts from blowing up skyscrapers, to raping young children. It’s all a matter of interpretation and what a person chooses to believe in accordance with his or her own desires.

What do officials in Yemen have to say about this tragic incident?

It’s not clear to what degree Yemeni officials are truly outraged over this and to what degree they are only outraged because of the international attention they are getting. Even if they were genuinely outraged, though, how easy would it be for them to change the religious culture of the people in their nation? A third of all girls in Yemen are married before they are 18 and most of them are married off to men who already have multiple wives. The parents are no help because they are happy to be rid of girls in a religious culture where females just aren’t valued — except perhaps for child-bearing and sex.

As we see from our own radical Christian groups here in this country, to rid a culture of dangerous superstition is extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible. However, we have laws in this country which protect the innocent from these sorts of horrendous acts and the perpetrators brought to justice if they are found out (except for the Catholic church however, who have the ridiculous power to protect pedophile priests.)

While some may argue that this is a cultural thing and we should not interfere, Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa believes otherwise:

Her death is “a painful reminder of the risks girls face when they are married too soon,” Kaag said Thursday.

Amal Basha, chairwoman of the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, a Yemeni human rights group, identified the girl Friday as Elham Mahdi.

“Elham was married on March 29th and died three days later” and lived in Yemen’s Hajjah province, Basha said.

This isn’t the only story that has surfaced in Yemen the past couple of years:

In September, a 12-year-old Yemeni girl forced into marriage died during childbirth. Her baby also died, according to the Seyaj Organization for the Protection of Children.

Fawziya Ammodi was in labor for three days before she died of severe bleeding, said Ahmed al-Qureshi, president of the organization.

While these things can happen to a fully-developed woman, what makes this different with these young brides is that they were forced into these marriages and pregnancies. It’s not their choice and they are the victims of their parents’ religious beliefs.

Suffer the little children . . . too often.

On Friday, April 16, Sarah Palin spoke at the Women of Joy Conference in Louisville, Kentucky to a group of women who, like Palin, believe in a religion based on human sacrifice that regularly engages in symbolic cannibalism.  During her speech, Palin said, “Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers.  And George Washington, he saw faith in God as basic to life.”

As tempting as it may be, I will not discuss Palin’s abysmal syntax because that would be like complaining because a duck quacks instead of singing arias.  Nor will I go into a lengthy explanation of why these remarks are enough to make little jets of blood shoot out of the eyesockets of any informed American familiar with the Constitution of the United States.  There is an abundance of information readily available that proves Palin to be flat wrong.  Rather than dissect the mind-blowing inaccuracy of Palin’s statements, I want to address the attitude on display here.  It is an attitude Palin shares with her admirers.

According to these people, America is a nation of the Christians, by the Christians and for the Christians.  It was founded by the Jesus-loving faithful to be populated by Jesus-loving faithful and its laws and Constitution were based on the bible.  Some seem to believe that the Constitution was simply copied out of the bible word for word.  These people want prayer to be mandatory in public schools and civic functions – not just any prayer, but prayer to their specific god, the victim of their beloved gory human sacrifice (as depicted in Mel Gibson’s popular 2004 homoerotic BDSM porn film), their lord and savior Jesus Christ.  This reveals not only their unfamiliarity with the Constitution and the intent of the founding fathers, but also their unfamiliarity with the bible, which claims Jesus Christ himself told his followers not to pray in public, but to go to their closets where they wouldn’t be seen or heard and wouldn’t make arrogant spectacles of themselves (Matthew 6:5 – 8).  Of course, it’s much easier for one to believe the bible is the infallible revealed word of god if one doesn’t know what’s in it, just as it’s much easier to believe the Constitution says whatever you want it to say if you simply choose to ignore what it really says.

These same people are fond of saying, “America – love it or leave it!”  For decades now, this slogan has been emblazoned on bumper stickers and T-shirts and has been shouted at anyone who does not agree with those who shout it.  The shouters believe that anyone who has not pitched a tent in their particular political camp hates America and takes undue advantage of its freedoms.  You disagree with the government when a Jesus-loving, flesh-eating, blood-drinking Christian Republican is in office?  Then you hate America and should leave.  You agree with the government when a godless, Marxist, America-hating Democrat is in office?  Then you hate America and should leave.  You don’t support any and all wars in which America participates?  Then you hate America and should leave.  You don’t go to church?  Then you hate America and should leave.  You don’t believe in god?  Well, in that case, these people will pack your bags for you and, at their own expense, put you on the next bus to godless Europe.

I find this baffling.  Most of the people this group identifies as unpatriotic haters of America are simply trying to go about their business in a country that they, in reality, appreciate and love a great deal, a country which they feel not only free but duty-bound to criticize when they disagree with its actions or upkeep.  America is, after all, a country where dissent is not only allowed but needed.  It is a free society in which you don’t have to agree with anything anyone says, but you have to agree that they have just as much right to say it as you have to say whatever’s on your mind.  In fact, America was created by dissenters!  Of course, it helps if both sides of the disagreement are inhabiting the same reality.  As Daniel Patrick Moynihan so eloquently put it, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”  But the “love it or leave it” crowd seems to think that anyone who disagrees with or doesn’t like their America should get the hell out of it.

There’s just one problem.  Their America doesn’t exist and never has.

America is and always has been a secular nation.  Yes, it’s true that the population of this country is predominantly Christian, but that has nothing to do with the government, which recognizes no religion and allows and accepts all religions – and all who are not religious.  The freedom to believe or not to believe, to worship or not to worship is part of what makes America such a great country.  One of the keys to maintaining that greatness is to keep religion out of government and government out of religion.  The daring experiment known as the United States has not always succeeded in this, but it is a country that is constantly evolving.  More than 230 years after it opened for business, America is still growing into itself.  Church and state have not always been kept as separate as they should be and mistakes are still being made and corrected, made and corrected.

For example, in March of this year, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the phrase “one nation under god” in the Pledge of Allegiance is not a prayer or a recognition of religion, but instead invokes patriotism.  The court claimed that it is “a recognition of our founders’ political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights.”  This, of course, suggests that those of us who do not believe in god and do not think that any of our rights come from such a being are unpatriotic.  Sooner or later, this will be challenged again.  This is how America works – it feels it’s way along.  Don’t forget that once upon a time in this country, black people were bought and sold like property and women were not allowed to vote.  We’ve moved past that, we’ve grown, evolved.  We will continue to do so.

Unless the “love it or leave it” crowd has its way.

This group labors under the weight of the delusion that America was created only for people exactly like them.  They think this used to be a white Christian theocracy in which they got everything they wanted and there was no disagreement or dissent allowed, and somehow, bad people have come along and changed it into a country in which – gasp! – folks are allowed to have other opinions, other beliefs, or – even bigger gasp! – no beliefs.  Now they are angry, and they are determined to change the country back to the way it never was.  They are so committed to this delusion that they simply turn their noses up at the intent of the founding fathers, at the words of the men who shaped this nation, and at the Constitution – just as they turn their noses up at science when it disagrees with their superstitions and myths, and just as they turn their noses up at their own lord and savior Jesus Christ when he says they should go home and pray in private and leave everybody else the hell alone (apparently Jesus is good enough to eat, but not good enough to obey).  In the last couple of decades, their delusion has become so complete that, for them, it has taken on the appearance and texture of solid, tangible, three-dimensional reality.

In the beginning, there was Rush.  Then followed the flood of angry, mean-spirited, logic-defying, fact-trampling Christian right babble – Fox News (facts are not “fair and balanced,” they simply are – only opinions can be “fair and balanced,” but opinions are not “news,” and on Fox News, opinions are not “fair and balanced”), Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham and all the others.  Now add to that group Sarah Palin, who has become their patron saint.  These talking heads have made the delusion of the “love it or leave it” crowd a kind of reality, an alternate universe that exists side-by-side with this universe, the universe in which the Constitution of the United States exists, the universe in which our founding fathers lived.  For years now, these people have lived in a bubble in which everything they watch on TV and listen to on the radio has told them that they are right, that this country was founded on Christian principles, that there is no separation of church and state, that all of our founding fathers were devout, Jesus-loving, flesh-eating, blood-drinking Christians.  This bubble has allowed them to become utterly confident that this nation used to be what they think it used to be, but that some bad people have changed it into something else and must be stopped.  They place this template over reality so that no matter where they look, no matter what they see or hear, they are able to continue this delusion uninterrupted.  I live in an area of California in which I am surrounded by these people.  They know no other reality.  If you try to discuss with them the facts, no matter how gently, they react exactly like an addict in denial who’s been told he has a problem and needs to get help – they argue, then they get angry, then furious, then comes a storm of personal attacks, sometimes threats, and then they stomp away in a rage.  Like angry little children, they clap their hands over their ears and shout, “La la la la, I can’t hear you!”

Then something happened in 2008 that threw a wrench into their delusion generator.  A Democrat was made the President of the United States.  But not just any Democrat, no – a BLACK Democrat.  This has made it impossible for them to maintain their delusion.  Even when that fantasy template is placed over reality, there’s still one very big problem for these people – there’s a black man in the White House.  It’s right there, plain as day.  Even Fox News, the window into their alternate universe, cannot erase the fact that Barack Obama is black, so even when the deluded watch it with the expectation of having their delusion nourished, what they see instead disrupts their delusion:  A black man in the White House.  Somehow, right here in the United States of America, the country that Jesus built, the majority of the nation voted a black man into the White House!  Not only that, but a black man with the name Barack.  Hussein.  Obama.

Wait a second – what the hell kind of a name is that?  With a name like that, he couldn’t have been born in this country, could he?  Of course not!  No real ‘Mericans would name their kid that.  And what about Hussein?  That’s a Muslim name, ain’t it?  What decent Christian ‘Mericans would name their kid Hussein?

The bubble in which they’ve been living has popped and they are very, very angry.  Although they don’t seem to realize it, they are also very, very confused.  Now, all across the land on talk radio and at Tea Party rallies and at Sarah Palin’s poorly phrased speeches, you can hear their cry:  “WE’RE TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK!”

But from whom?  Who stole the country that never existed?  In order for bad people to take over the country, they would have to change or abolish the Constitution and make the country into something it wasn’t before.  The Constitution is still there, and it still says the same thing – that the government will neither enforce nor prohibit the practice of any religion.  Read it again if you haven’t recently and try to find something in that document – anything at all – that makes this a Christian nation.  It’s not there.  The “love it or leave it” crowd claims it is – but it’s not.  They also claim that this country was built on Christian principles, but plenty of documentation – most notably Article 11 of the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, which states, quite unambiguously, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion” – proves otherwise.  They claim that our founding fathers were Christians, but the words left behind by Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and others – some of which are quite acidic about religion in general and Christianity in particular – clearly state otherwise.  Although it has suffered some mighty blows over the years, the Constitution is still in place, none of the founding fathers have risen from the dead to declare their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their personal lord and savior, and America is still America.  So how can the “love it or leave it” crowd hope to take back their Christian nation built on Christian principles by Christians for Christians if it wasn’t that in the first place and no one has taken it away from anyone?  They can’t, of course.

They can’t take it back.  But they can take it.  If we let them.

Am I the only one who finds it odd that the very people most likely to shout, “America – love it or leave it!” are the same people who seem to be very unhappy with America as it is and want to change it into something it isn’t now and never has been?  These people don’t love America.  If you doubt me, just listen to them!  They have big problems with the Constitution of the United States, so big that they claim it states things it doesn’t.  It’s obvious that this Constitution doesn’t work for them and they want it to go away.  They have big problems with the secular government of the United States, so big that they want that government to adopt their religion and recognize it in an official capacity.  They say this is a Christian nation, but we do not have a Christian government, so clearly they want a Christian government.  That is their goal!  It’s obvious that this government doesn’t work for them and they want it to be replaced with one that does.

Do these people have any business shouting “America – love it or leave it!” to anyone who disagrees with them when it seems pretty clear that they do not love it?  They don’t even seem to like it!  America gives them the freedom to believe and worship as they please, but they abuse that right by demanding that their religion be king of the hill, that it be injected into government, that everyone be required to pray as they pray and recognize their god.  For them, the freedom of religion is not enough and they seem determined to get what they want.  When they say they want to take the country back, it seems that they, like Sarah Palin, are simply inarticulate and unable to express themselves clearly.  It would seem that what they really mean is this:  They want to overthrow the secular government of the United States, abolish the Constitution as it currently exists and turn this into a Christian theocracy.

That is un-American.  That is unpatriotic.  That is the attitude of people who live in a country they hate so much that they want to overthrow it, dominate it, remake it in their own image.  When it comes to the separation of church and state, they don’t care what the Constitution says, they don’t care what the founding fathers intended – just as, when it comes to public prayer, they don’t care what Jesus Christ, who they believe to be the son of god, said.  They want what they want and they just don’t care about anything else.

And goddammit, there’s a black man in the White House!

They have wrapped themselves in the American flag, commandeered words like “freedom” and “patriotic” and “traditional” and “values” and are using them against the very country that affords them the freedom to do all these things.  If they get their way, you can kiss freedom goodbye.  And all they need to get their way is our silence and inaction.  All they need to get their way is our continued fear of making waves, our fear of offending someone, making someone angry.  They certainly don’t care about making waves or offending or angering people.  They’re happy to do those things.  They are bullies – bullies for Jesus.  They own talk radio and the window into their alternate universe regularly kicks ass in the TV “news” ratings, and with those tools, they are confusing an increasingly uninformed electorate and capturing hearts and minds.  They are well on the way to overthrowing this nation, and all they need from us is a little more polite confrontation avoidance.

It’s time to start calling this what it is – an attempt to overthrow the United States of America and turn it into a fascist theocracy.  It’s time to start telling the truth and saying it to their faces.  You want to throw out the Constitution by which this country is governed?  You want the United States to be a Christian nation?  Then you are unpatriotic.  Then you hate this country.

America – love it or leave it!

S.E. Cupp’s commentaries on Tucker Carlson’s new conservative website The Daily Caller. You can read her in the online New York Daily News, and you can see her in her role as TV personality/commentator on Faux Fox and CNN.

Who is S.E. Cupp?

She is an American conservative political commentator and writer, and co-author of the book Why You’re Wrong About the Right with Brett Joshpe. She is also a strong “defender of the faith”. Her newest book is titled Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity. Just another fundie crying persecution about the evil liberal media and the evils of evolution? Guess again. S.E. Cupp claims to be an atheist who is defending Judeo-Christian values which she says is what this country was founded upon. In her just released book mentioned above, she also defends creationism. Confused yet?

From her book site:

From her galvanizing introduction, you know where S. E. Cupp stands: She’s an atheist. A non-believer. Which makes her the perfect impartial reporter from the trenches of a culture war dividing America and eroding the Judeo-Christian values on which this country was founded. Starting at the top, she exposes the unwitting courtship of President Obama and the liberal press, which consistently misreports or downplays Obama’s clear discomfort with, or blatant disregard for, religious America—from covering up religious imagery in the backdrop of his Georgetown University speech to his absence from events surrounding the National Day of Prayer, to identifying America in his inaugural address as, among other things, “a nation of non-believers.” She likens the calculated attacks of the liberal media to a class war, a revolution with a singular purpose: to overthrow God and silence Christian America for good. And she sends out an urgent call for all Americans to push back the leftist propaganda blitz striking on the Internet, radio, television, in films, publishing, and print journalism—or invite the tyrannies of a “mainstream” media set on mocking our beliefs, controlling our decisions, and extinguishing our freedoms.

She claims to be an atheist, but her commentary and the content of her books prove otherwise. Is she just using the Christian base in order to stir up support for her conservative bias? It’s either that or she is a liar when claiming to be an atheist.

Steve Levingston has written this commentary about S. E. Cupp at The Washington Post.

Cupp skips the facts in arguing against evolution

This is the article I read first before doing some background research on Cupp. When I read in Wiki that she is an atheist, I had to dig further because they could be wrong. I found that is indeed what she claims herself to be in her own biography at Simon and Schuster.

Here are some highlights from Levingston’s article:

Now she has a new book due out next week called “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity,” with a foreword by Mike Huckabee. The former presidential candidate vouches for Cupp’s devotion to facts in arguing her points: She “uses the sharp blade of careful research, thoughtful reasoning, and brilliant logic,” he writes, adding “she reaches a level of substance many writers twice and thrice her age only hope for.”

Huckabee, like other fundies compliments her “sharp blade of careful research, thoughtful reasoning and brilliant logic” because she is speaking out in support of his cherished Christian values and willful ignorance.

The thrust of Cupp’s argument is summed up in her introduction in which she says the American media, “with careful, covert nudges from the Obama administration,” are leading a revolution. “This revolution, already in full throttle around the country,” she writes, “is being waged against you and me and every other American, and its goal is simple: to overthrow God, and silence Christian America for good.”

She sounds just like a Christian fundie to me who feels threatened by the ever-increasing number of people giving up the mythology in lieu of Science and reason.

Levingston brings to our attention the chapter in her book titled “Thou Shalt Evolve”:

It is important to distinguish between rhetoric and fact and to hold authors accountable for the information they impart to the public. Statements of fact should have no trouble withstanding educated scrutiny. Mike Huckabee endorses Cupp’s methods. Her “substance,” as Huckabee terms it, is scattered throughout the book. So let’s single out one chapter to zero in on, as a measure of the entire work. I have chosen Chapter Four – Thou Shalt Evolve. In this chapter, Cupp sums up her take on evolution like this: “The debate over the legitimacy of evolution isn’t really about a battle between fact and fiction. It’s about Christianity, and the liberal media’s attempt to eradicate it from all corners of society.”

And here is what Joshua Rosenau has to say in response to Cupp’s chapter on evolution: (”Rosenau is public information project director at the National Center for Science Education, which is a not-for-profit organization devoted to the teaching of evolution in public schools. Among its 4,000 members are scientists, teachers, clergy, and people holding a variety of religious beliefs.”)

S.E. Cupp’s handling of science and religion misrepresents the nature of evolution, obscures the science of biology, and dismisses the deeply-held religious views of most Christians outside of the fundamentalist subculture. This is the sort of misrepresentation which leads her to concoct an anti-Christian conspiracy on the part of reporters, and – bizarrely – to say that Darwin is “quite literally the Anti Christ” for liberals.

Cupp presents creationism as “a counter-argument” to evolution, yet never provides a clear account of what evolution is, nor what she thinks creationism means.

I am deeply insulted when dumb shits claim to be one of us.