Bradlee Dean of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc.

Right now, as you read this, there are elected government officials in the United States who are spreading the word that it is a moral and righteous act to kill homosexuals as instructed in the bible.  These same people warn us of the threat of Islamofascists, of Muslim terrorists, but at the same time, their message states that Muslim nations in the Middle East that execute known homosexuals are more righteous than American Christians.  They believe that President Obama and all Americans who hold liberal views are criminals.  They also claim that the constitutional separation of church and state is a myth, but despite that claim, they are working hard to subvert it and abolish the Constitution as it exists today.  They want their religion — their particular brand of Christianity — enforced by federal law and taught in public schools using tactics that can only be described — and have been by those who’ve seen them — as thought reform and mind control.  They also believe that things like depression and addiction are not actual ailments that plague millions of people but myths created by liberals who want to weaken this country.  One of those government officials is a member of the United States Congress.  Don’t believe me?  Let me tell you a story.

In 2003, Benton High School in Benton, Wisconson, arranged an assembly program for its students in grades 7 – 12 starring a band called Junkyard Prophet, which was to perform music and deliver a message about drug abuse and abstinence.  Bradlee Dean, the group’s founder and drummer, instead used that opportunity, according to the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, to condemn “homosexuality and the teaching of evolution in the schools.”  At a subsequent assembly, Benton Principal Gary Neis apologized to the students for allowing it and told them, “They talked about influencing and brainwashing people.  Be wise to the fact that is what they were doing. They were using the same tactics.”

In 2004, Dean and his group, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc., which includes the band Junkyard Prophet, appeared at Roane County High School and did the same thing.  According to local paper the Oak Ridger, “RCHS Principal Jody McLoud apologized for any controversy or heartache the assembly generated.  In addition to homosexuality, race and obesity, the materials reportedly also included such topics as suicide, drugs and premarital sex.”  The whole thing stirred a great deal of local controversy, forcing the school district to emphasize its policy that “forbids religious statements in schools.”  But the damage was done.  According to Laura Dailey, a parent of one of the students, “They encouraged bigotry and hate-mongering toward children that may not share their religious beliefs or who are struggling to find an identity or self-esteem.”

Describing a March 2005 performance of Dean and his group at a school in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, high school junior Amy Deitcher told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “It seemed like total propaganda.  It was like a cult.  They were trying to get kids who can’t think for themselves to think like them.”  Deitcher said boys and girls were separated during the program and girls were “presented with a ‘treasure chest’ theory in which they were told that any sort of physical contact with a man before marriage would result in a woman becoming ‘leftovers’ for her husband.”  Not surprisingly, this performance resulted in the cancellation of a program Dean and company were scheduled to give to an elementary school.  One might think that Dean’s reputation would quickly spread and public school officials would stop scheduling his programs.  But that wasn’t the case.

In November of 2005, YCRBNH was paid $2,500 to perform for three school districts in Collifax, Illinois.  Afterward, an appalled principal gathered students together to apologize to them for allowing the group to appear.

That was five years ago.  They’re still at it. Civil liberties groups point to this activity as a clear constitutional violation.  But it is the responsibility of the school to check out YCRBYCH before booking them to perform.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation said, “We’ve made complaints about them in the past.  And there are similar groups out there that use assembly subterfuges to gain access to a captive audience of school children.  It is hard to believe schools don’t know what they’re getting into; all they have to do is a cursory check of the websites.  School districts often pay exorbitant honoraria as well, so it adds economic injury to constitutional insult.”

She points out that these groups, of which YCRBYCH is only one, use deceptive tactics to get into the schools, and once there, they begin to recruit.  “This is a devious strategy used also by many ‘pizza evangelists,’” Gaylor said, referring to Christian groups that use pizza parties, sports, and contests to win big prizes like cars or motorcycles to get a foot into the door of public schools and gain access to the young minds inside.

Bradlee Dean was asked directly by the Minnesota Independent if religion was a part of the program he puts on in public schools.  “Morality is, which is the fruit of religion.  Our testimony of Christ is spoken of if someone asks us ‘what changed you?’”

But to book these programs, Dean is using extremely deceptive tactics.  Is that moral?  Dean has some interesting ideas about morality, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Although they are blatantly dishonest when dealing with the schools where they want to perform, the group makes no secret of its intentions if asked and does not evade questions about it.  During an April 2009 broadcast on Christian radio station KKMS, one of the group’s members said, “We are doing assemblies here, folks, just so you understand, we do public high school assemblies.  We are speaking to kids in our schools about the Constitution, suicide prevention and our own testimony of how Christ turned our lives around in public schools so we can get the light into kids hands in public schools.”  YCRBYCH obviously rejects the United States Constitution and wants it changed to blend religion with government, so what do you suppose the group is telling students about the Constitution in these programs?

As the ministry grows, Dean only becomes bolder.  He has called depression, alcoholism and drug addiction myths — which is interesting given the fact that Dean himself is a recovering drug addict.  He has called President Obama a “domestic enemy.” And on a May 15, 2010 broadcast on Minneapolis-St. Paul’s AM 1280 The Patriot, Bradlee Dean said the following:

Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America.  This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian god, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws.  They know homosexuality is an abomination.  If America won’t enforce the laws, god will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that.  That is what you are seeing in America. … They (homosexuals) play the victim when they are, in fact, the predator.  On average, they molest 117 people before they’re found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?

First, I want to address the most obvious piece of utter nonsense in Dean’s statement – the idea that gay people “molest 117 people before they’re found out.”  This has absolutely no basis in fact.  Although religious conservative groups regularly twist available facts and research in an effort to say otherwise, there is no scientific basis for the claim that gay or bisexual men molest or abuse children (or anyone else) any more than heterosexual men.

A week later, Dean said that arresting jailing people for being gay – I mean, actually putting them in prison for their sexuality – is “very moral.”  During their May 22, 2010 radio broadcast, Dean and co-leader Jake McMillian lauded the government of the African nation of Malawi for arresting a gay couple who’d gotten engaged.  McMillian said, “They are very conservative.  They sentence people for crimes against nature.”  It’s probably safe to assume that this is an example of the kind of thing YCRBYCH is being paid taxpayer’s dollars to teach in public schools.  Just as significant is where this broadcast originated from – more on that in a moment.

But let’s take a look at Dean’s other claim, which is enough to make any thinking person’s hair clench.  He says “Muslims are calling for the execution of homosexuals in America” and that makes them “more moral than even the American Christians.”  He says, “If Americans won’t enforce the law” – ostensibly the law of god – “god will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that.  That is what you are seeing in America.”  As best I can tell, the “foreign enemy” to which he refers is Muslim terrorists.  So … Muslims are the enemy sent by god, but … they’re more moral than American Christians?

I’m getting a headache.

Bradlee Dean claims to be a Christian.  Christianity is allegedly — and that’s a very important “allegedly” — based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, a character in the New Testament of the bible who told his followers to treat others the way they want to be treated, to love their enemies, to be humble and selfless, and he told them that simply getting angry at someone was no different than killing that person.  But Dean says that Muslims who call for the execution of homosexuals are more moral than Christians in America.  What can we possibly conclude from this except that, according to Dean, American Christians who want to be moral should be executing gay people?

You might be wondering why this is important.  After all, Dean is probably seen by most as a nutjob, right?  A recovering drug addict drummer with a rock band who says addiction is a myth and gays should be murdered is missing a few cans from his 12-pack of Crazy Cola, right?  You might think I’m just satisfying his need for more attention by writing about him and I should just ignore him, right?  He can’t possibly get far with his little dog and pony show when he’s so obviously a wingnut, right?

Not so fast.

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit ministry that continues to grow and flourish.  Based in Annendale, Minnesota, Bradlee Dean’s Christian ministry includes websites, radio, video, publishing, and appearances in churches, prisons and — yes, even still — public schools.  They are financed, in part, with taxpayer dollars. When they perform in those public schools, they are paid from state funds, which add up to some considerable sums that the government is taking directly out of the pockets of Americans like you and me — $3,000 to $5,000 for a three-hour assembly, according the group’s website. They receive government money in other ways, as well. From the Minnesota Independent:

Some of the members listed as ministers are employed in the ministry’s punk band that brings its Christian message to public schools, possibly in violation of the constitution’s principle of separation of church and state. Of the six ordained members, the documents reveal, five have been given a clergy housing allowance: tax-free payments by the ministry to support rent or mortgage payments. A church operating as a nonprofit must file IRS form 990, which must list any minister housing allowances as part of the employee’s compensation in order for the members to take the allowance as part of their income.

Jake MacAuley, also known as Jake McMillian, sidekick to ministry leader Bradlee Dean on the group’s radio show and a co-minister, was paid the allowance in the amount of $12,976 in 2008, the only year for which tax documents are available. According to another section of the 990 form, at least four other unnamed members of the ministry received a similar allowance totaling $54,532 in 2008.

YCRBYCH has an annual fund-raiser which is aided by some powerful friends in some high places.

One of the group’s biggest, most passionate and valuable supporters is Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.  Bachmann, a Republican, was elected in 2006 and sits on the Financial Services Committee.  She and her husband Marcus own a mental healthcare practice in Stillwater called Bachmann and Associates, Inc., and, according to her bio on her website, in addition to their five children, “the Bachmanns have opened their home to 23 foster children.”

In that entire bio, not one word is mentioned about Bachmann’s religious beliefs — which, frankly, is as it should be.  But personal religious beliefs are such a significant part of Bachmann’s politics that leaving them out of her bio is as deceptive a tactic as those used by Bradlee Dean, because in the last four years, Bachmann has proven herself a religious zealot who uses her office to advance a theocratic Christian agenda.  And that agenda includes getting Bradlee Dean and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, Inc. into public schools where it will have access to your children’s minds and can use its thought reform techniques to influence them.  According to Bachmann, this is a good thing — a very good thing.

Bachmann attends the group’s fundraisers and helps them raise money to do what they do.  At a YCRBYCH fundraiser at a Minneapolis hotel in October of 2006, she gave an impassioned prayer to her god on behalf of Bradlee Dean and his group.  It was a long prayer, but if you want to hear the whole thing, you can listen to it here.  Here are a few highlights:

Lord, I thank you for what you have done at this ministry … how you are going to advance them from 260 schools a year, Lord, to 2,600 schools a year. … Lord, we ask thy faith that you would expand this ministry beyond anything the originators of this ministry could begin to think or imagine.  Lord, the day is at hand!  We are in the last days!  The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will0 become nigh.  Pour a double blessing, Lord, a triple blessing on this ministry.

Remember, this is a United States Representative openly praising, through a prayer, a group that calls the execution of gay people “moral,” that deceptively weasels its way into public schools to engage in activities that violate the Constitution and feed outright lies to students.  Is there a chance that Bachmann is not aware of the group’s activities?  Surely she cannot support the idea of violating the Constitution by teaching Christianity in the public school system.

At that same YCRBYCH fundraiser in 2006, Bachmann complained that public schools “are teaching children that there is separation of church and state, and I am here to tell you that is a myth.  That’s not true.  And they (YCRBYCH) explain to children in the public school system what a myth that is.  And that’s what I love about this ministry. … We want kids to come to the truth and that’s why this ministry is so absolutely vital. We need them in every public school classroom across the state to tell young people, ‘You Can Run But You Cannot Hide.’” (The emphasis is mine.)

Bachmann was unable to attend the group’s 2009 fundraiser, called “Appeal to Heaven,” because she was busy saving the country from healthcare reform, but she did send a videotaped message.  “It a tough job that you do, but someone has to do it,” she said in the prerecorded message.  “I thank god that he has given you the strength and the resolve to fight for our timeless values. … We can’t overlook the outright rejection of god in the public school classroom, and the outright scorn of Christianity in our public square.  Moral relativism is exalted and faith in Christ is derided.”

The program included a sermon by Dean in which he called his followers to war:

We are a Christian nation regardless if you like that or not.  The Bible says we are called as ministers of the flame, the fire.  We are called to war.  We are called to fight the good fight of faith.  In other words, what I’m trying to say is, I’m a trouble maker, okay?  It’s time to say, “We are done complaining, and it’s time to start fighting.”  But you say, “I don’t know what what I’m going to look like with a sword in my hand.”  You are going to look great! … We are not a land of liberals.  We hear this all the time.  Why don’t you just call them for what they are?  Criminals.  Why don’t you just call them for what they are?  Socialists.  They are contrary to our Constitution. … We are not a land of homosexuals.  God said “Adam and Eve” not “Adam and Steve.”

He ended by telling the attendees, “You guys, you got just a little bit of the message we give to youth all across the nation.”

And Bradlee Dean has the full support of Representative Michele Bachmann in all of this, in everything he’s saying and doing, in taking his message “to youth all across the nation,” and in being paid tax dollars to do it — even though it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

This is not too surprising when you consider the fact that Bachmann and Associates, Inc., the “counseling center” owned by Michele and her husband Dr. Marcus Bachmann, has received nearly $30,000 in state funds since 2007.  That’s troubling in light of how Dr. Bachmann himself describes the center and the work it does during a 2008 broadcast on KKMS radio (MP3):  “We are distinctly a Christian counseling agency here in the Twin Cities.  We have 27 Christian counselors, Christ-centered, very strong in our understanding of who the almighty counselor is, and as we rely on god’s word and the almighty counselor, we have the opportunity to change people’s lives.”

Alex Luchenitser, staff attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the Minnesota Independent, “Unless they are receiving money purely through vouchers, this is clearly unconstitutional.”  The state of Minnesota does not have a voucher system.  Luchenitser continues:  “It’s wrong for the government to buy clinical services that include submission to god or proselytization.  This appears to be a textbook case of taxpayers funds for religious purposes. … It sounds like employees have to be Christian to work in the clinic. That would be religious discrimination.”

Apparently, Michele Bachmann has no problem with the unconstitutional appropriation of tax dollars, so it’s not surprising that she supports it in the case of YCRBYCH.  But Bachmann is not alone in supporting the group.

That same 2009 “Appeal to Heaven” fundraiser for YCRBYCH was attended by Minnesota State Representative and 2010 Minnesota Republica-endorsed gubenatorial candidate Tom Emmer.  However, Emmer did not mention his attendance at the fundraiser in a list of appearances that week that was emailed to supporters.  To its article about Emmer’s appearance at the YCRBYCH fundraiser, the Minnesota Independent added this update:

Emmer’s campaign told the Minnesota Independent, “Rep. Tom Emmer stopped by the event for a social hour before the dinner and program.  The program is headquartered out of Wright County which is Rep. Emmer’s county and has many supporters in Tom’s legislative district.  It was not mentioned in the campaign update because it was not a campaign event.”

While it’s true that the YCRBYCH fundraiser was not a “campaign event,” that only underscores the fact that Emmer was there because he supports the work of Bradlee Dean and the group!  Emmer was there to throw his support behind a group that calls the president and everyone who supports him, along with all Americans who happen to hold liberal views, and all homosexuals criminals.  And that wasn’t the end of Emmer’s support of YCRBYCH.

From a May 25, 2010 article in the Minnesota Independent:

The Minnesota House campaign of Rep. Tom Emmer donated to the ministry of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Intl., Inc., according to the press secretary for Emmer’s gubernatorial campaign.  Emmer is one of several Republican leaders involved with the ministry of Bradlee Dean, who leads a hard rock band that brings its message of Jesus Christ into public schools and recently affirmed the practice of Muslim countries executing gays and lesbians.

Emmer’s campaign finance report (PDF) states that Emmer’s campaign donated $250 to YCRBYCH in late 2008.  Emmer’s press secretary, Chris Van Guilder, explains, “Tom’s house campaign committee did donate to the organization, but not Tom personally.”  A good follow-up question, which was not asked, would have been, “What the hell difference does that make?”

Emmer has gotten very chummy with Bradlee Dean and YCRBYCH.  He has been a guest on Dean’s radio show — the same radio show on which Dean stated that the practice of killing gay people was “moral.”  He’s posed for pictures with the leaders of YCRBYCH and spent time at the home of Bradlee Dean.  In fact, it seems Emmer has become a little too cozy with the group.  Remember that $250 donation?  It was $150 over the legal limit.

In May of this year, Emmer’s gubenatorial campaign announced that it had notified the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board of the violation.  But don’t worry, it’s fine, because Emmer’s campaign managed to come up with a clever explanation for the whole thing that makes it okay.  They say it wasn’t a donation but was “used to purchase tickets for volunteers of Tom’s House Campaign to attend a dinner event.”  See?  All better now!

So, is Emmer fully aware of the activities and views of Bradlee Dean and YCRBYCH?  After Emmer stated on the radio that he thought it was the duty of Christians to kill gay people, Emmer’s campaign released this slippery statement:

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International is a ministry based in Annandale, a few miles north of Tom’s home town Delano.  As a representative of the Wright County area, Tom has met with many, perhaps most of the residents of the area, and has doorknocked across the county.  Tom did meet Bradlee Dean while campaigning, and may have doorknocked his house.  Tom has also appeared on AM1280 and KKMS, including on Bradlee Dean’s radio show.  Tom has appeared on many other radio stations and shows as well.  Tom is not a donor to the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide ministry, and has never appeared as a spokesman at one of their fundraising events.  He did attend a meet-and-greet before a fundraising event held by the ministry to mingle with the hundreds of attendees.  Tom’s position on social issues has been very clear and consistent.  He is a supporter of traditional marriage, and he strongly opposes any kind of violence or unfair discrimination against any group.

He “doorknocked” Dean’s house?  Okay, for the moment, let’s say that Emmer just accidentally showed up at Bradlee Dean’s home.  But he’s also appeared on Dean’s radio show — a show that is very specific in its tone and content, a show that exists primarily as a forum for Dean to spout his hateful bigotry and incitements to violence and murder.  Simply shrugging it off because Emmer “has appeared on many other radio stations and shows” is the equivalent of shouting, “So long, suckers!” and dancing away in tap shoes.  What exactly does “has never appeared as a spokesman at one of their fundraising events” mean?  A spokesman for what?  This is rank evasion, the sleaziest kind of smoke-and-mirrors bullshit.  What he appeared at the fundraiser as is irrelevant — what’s relevant is that he appeared at the fundraiser!  He was there, he attended.  Does Emmer’s campaign assume that everyone who does not work for it is a mental inebriate?  Or does it assume that only of the people in Minnesota whose votes it so desperately wants?

If Emmer “strongly opposes any kind of violence or unfair discrimination against any group,” then why is he so friendly with — and why has he given money to — a man who openly advocates the murder of gay people and calls the sitting president and anyone whose political views don’t agree with his “criminals?”

Has Emmer himself made any statements about YCRBYCH? Oh, yes.  Yes, he has.

“My understanding is that it’s a Christian-based ministry that’s about family, that is about respect for yourself,” he said, as if he’s only vaguely familiar with the group and isn’t quite sure what it stands for.  “I know that they’re a pro-marriage, pro-traditional marriage group.”  That’s the best you can do, Tom?  “These are nice people.”  Ha! “Are we going to agree on everything? No. … I really appreciate their passion, and you know what?  I respect their point of view.  I respect their right to have whatever view.  That’s what makes it a great country.  You don’t have to agree with it.”

The mind boggles.  This is a group that advocates the mass murder of gay people, but Minnesota State Representative and Republican-endorsed candidate for governor Tom Emmer respects their point of view.  What a guy, huh?

But back to Emmer’s visit to Dean’s house.  His campaign claims Emmer “may have doorknocked” Dean’s house.  Dean himself said on his radio show, “Congratulations, Tom Emmer.  By the way, he’s been out to my house and I told him, ‘You’ll to do fine as long as you do what you say you are going to do.’  And we are going to hold his feet to the fire on this.”  Does that sound like a reference to a “doorknock?”  (And does Tom Emmer understand that, given everything else this lunatic has said, he may very well mean that threat literally?)

Am I the only one smelling the foul odor of decaying sea life, here?

But Bachmann and Emmer are just two of the individuals who so strongly support YCRBYCH.  The group has garnered the enthusiastic support of the Republican party in and outside the state of Minnesota.  From the Minnesota Independent:

The ministry has become increasingly cozy with Minnesota Republicans.  During the past few months, (YCRBYCH) has attended two Republican Party of Minnesota events and garnered the support of top Republican officials:  The group participated in Bachmann’s campaign kickoff and fundraiser with Sarah Palin on April 7, where it set up a booth.  (YCRBYCH) also had a booth at the Republican Party of Minnesota State Convention in late April — using space donated by the party, Dean says — where it greeted the party’s endorsed candidate for governor, Rep. Tom Emmer.  Emmer attended the (YCRBYCH) fundraiser in late 2009.  Dean says Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton invited the ministry to attend.

During Bradlee Dean’s and Jake McMillian’s radio broadcast (MP3) the day after the convention, McMillian said, “We were at the GOP, the GOP saw what we do and they identified with it.  Even when I was sitting down with Tony Sutton and just going over what we do as a ministry, I said to him, ‘Do you know any other groups that are reaching the demographic we are reaching with the message that we are?’  And, of course, it was blink-blink, ‘No, I don’t, so I want you guys a part of this convention with us.’  And then they invited and they gave us a free table.  Amen.”

As well as heading up the Republican Party of Minnesota, Tony Sutton strongly supports controversial legislation SB1070, a copycat of the Arizona law that has received international criticism for its racial profiling.  From Twin Cities Indymedia:

In a series of protests at the Uptown restaurant, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 26 members and organizers rallied to call attention to a critical contradiction — Baja Sol is a fast food restaurant that sells Mexican food and employs Latino and Latina workers, yet owner Tony Sutton openly supports politically extreme anti-Mexican legislation.  As Local 26 highlights, this blatant hypocrisy means that enthusiasm for one popular facet of Mexican American culture is financing the politics of Mexican-American exclusion and criminalization.  Baja Sol did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.

Americans were stunned by Arizona’s punitive and highly controversial legislation, SB 1070, which requires law enforcement to institute racial profiling. Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer publically praised the Minnesota copycat bill calling it “a wonderful first step.”

“A wonderful first step,” Tom?  What’s the next step, executing them the way your “nice” pal Bradlee Dean thinks “moral” people should execute homosexuals?  No wonder you guys get along so well!  This is turning out to be quite a group.  When I’m done writing this, I think I’m going to need to take a long shower and scrub very hard.

So, to recap, Bradlee Dean and YCRBYCH have the full support of Republican Representative Michelle Bachman, Minnesota State Representative and Republican-endorsed candidate for governor Tom Emmer, and the entire Republican Party of Minnesota all the way up to the guy at the top, Tony Sutton.  But there’s another prominent group that lends its support to Dean and his crew:  The Heritage Foundation.

According to The Heritage Foundation’s website, “The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution — a think tank — whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”

Traditional American values like killing queers, maybe? Or traditional American values like arresting and jailing those who have political views that differ from yours?  I only ask because the Heritage Foundation has a relationship with Bradlee Dean and YCRBYCH.  Remember that radio broadcast in which Dean and McMillian praised the government of Malawi for arresting that gay couple?  That broadcast — which you can hear at this link (MP3) — originated from the Heritage Foundation.  Dean and McMillian were at the Heritage Foundation while they were saying that jailing people for their sexuality was “very moral.”

Remember, the Heritage Foundation’s “mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies.”  It was a primary architect of the Reagan Doctrine during the final years of the Cold War.  Since then, the foundation has been very active in shaping both foreign and domestic policy and was behind Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract with America.”  In 2009, it ranked fifth on the list of the most influential think tanks in America in Foreign Policy magazine.  And it hosts Bradlee Dean and Jake McMillian as they describe as “very moral” the arrest and imprisonment of people for their sexuality.  Wrap your head around that.  There’s nothing on the Heritage Foundation’s website about imprisoning gay people, but apparently it has no problem with the idea.

An interesting side note about Michele Bachmann.  In October of 2008, she appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews and said the following about Barack Obama:

If we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had in his life, it calls into question what Barack Obama’s true beliefs and values and thoughts are.  His attitudes, values, and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of the United States … is negative; Bill Ayers, his negative view of the United States.  We have seen one friend after another call into question his judgment — but also, what it is that Barack Obama really believes?

Interesting reasoning, Michele. Does that apply only to Barack Obama? Only to liberals? Or does it apply to you and your friends? In the same broadcast, she expressed concern about “anti-American” Americans, especially in Congress.  She said:

I would say, what I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look — I wish they would.  I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America?  I think the people would love to see an expose like that.

Obviously, Bachmann has a very specific idea of what is “anti-American” — like liberals (“criminals” according to the man she so actively supports and prays for, Bradlee Dean) and gay people (predatory molesters, according to Dean, whose group she helps fund).  But how American is it to deceptively subvert the Constitution of the United States?  Bachmann does this in two ways — that we know of.  She blatantly lies when she says there is no separation of church and state and then supports and helps fund a group that has to lie to get into public schools and violate the Constitution, which maintains a separation of church and state.  She and her husband own a business that they openly admit is a Christian counseling center — it even has clergy on the staff! — but they collect state funds, which also violates the Constitution.

On the other hand, the only crimes committed by the people Bachmann calls “un-American” are that they disagree with her politically, most likely religiously, and some of them are gay.  Does this add up?  Which part of this equation is truly un-American?

Maybe a “penetrating expose” would be a good idea.  Maybe a hard investigation into this is just what we need.  But who should be investigated?  Why don’t we start with Bradlee Dean?

We’ve seen again and again that conservative Christians who beat the anti-gay drum usually have some underlying problems.  Remember Senator Larry Craig?  He was rigidly anti-gay, worked hard to legislate against gay rights — and he got caught looking for blowjobs in an airport men’s room.  Remember Reverend Ted Haggard?  He oversaw a megachurch in Colorado and was a bigshot Republican, a personal friend of George W. Bush, and he was virulently anti-gay — and then we found out he’d been snorting meth off the back of the male prostitute he was boning and was trying to cover up a gay relationship with someone in his church.  More recently, Dr. George Rekers, one of the country’s leading homophobes, a man who believed homosexuality could be “cured,” practiced horrifying methods of ungaying people, fought the rights of gays to adopt children, and probably did more damage to gay people than any other individual in America, was caught taking a barely legal male prostitute he’d found on Rentboy.com to Europe with him and get naked and nasty for 10 days.  There seems to be a lot of Freudian projection going on among these guys — the act of projecting one’s own failings, traits and hang-ups on others.

So … what is Bradlee Dean up to?  He seems to be awfully hung up on homosexuality — and on the idea that gay people are predators who “molest 117 people before they’re found out.”  Who is he screwing?  And how old are they?  And then there’s his bad habit of lying to suck up taxpayer dollars for activities that violate the Constitution.  On top of all that, he’s sounding like he’s eager to see some blood spilled.  How about investigating him?

Is it just my imagination, or is there enough reason here to investigate Michele Bachmann?  She’s lending strong support to Bradlee’s group and its unconstitutional, hateful and violence-inciting activities.  She and her husband are also engaged in some unconstitutional activity themselves with Bachmann and Associates, Inc., using state funding to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the guise of psychological counseling.  Why doesn’t somebody investigate her? How about investigating Bachmann and Associates, Inc.?

How about investigating Tom Emmer, Tony Sutton, the Republican Party of Minnesota and the Heritage Foundation for having such a cozy relationship with the deceptive, hateful, Constitution-violating, murder-inciting, un-American group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc.?

Most of this information has come from the hard work of reporter Andy Birkey at the Minnesota Independent.  It seems he’s the only person reporting on this.  Where is the “liberal media” we hear so much about?  You know, the media that hates America and the military and Jesus and motherhood and only covers stories that make the country look bad and only praises depravity and immorality and the “gay agenda?”  It seems to me this story is right up the “liberal media’s” alley!  But there’s no coverage at all.  That might have something to do with the fact that the “liberal media” exists only in the minds of those who tell and believe that lie. If it weren’t a lie, the “liberal media” would be all over this story like lint on velvet.

Obviously, we can’t depend on the media to address this problem.  But somebody needs to.  Bradlee Dean and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc., with the considerable, formidable help of people like Representative Michele Bachmann, Minnesota State Representative Tom Emmer, the Republican Party of Minnesota and its chairman Tony Sutton, and the Heritage Foundation, will only continue to spread this message of hate, targeting young, impressionable minds.  The goal of all of these people is, as I’ve stated before, to abolish the United States Constitution, to implement a Christian theocracy, and then either arrest or kill everyone they don’t like.  Given all the information above, I really don’t think I’m being an alarmist.  These people are obviously determined to do this — they are doing it, and they are using our public schools and taxpayer money to do it.  Worse, they are getting away with it.  It’s not being reported or addressed, and it’s not being given any significant resistance — because so few people know about it!  That leaves it up to us.  You and me.

The first thing you have to do, as Howard Beale said in the 1976 movie Network, is get mad. You’ve gotta get mad as hell.  And if what you’ve read here doesn’t make you mad … well, then maybe there’s no hope.  But if, as I hope, it does anger you, then start talking about it.  Tell your friends.  Send people to this blog by posting and emailing links.  Send this blog to local like-minded radio talk show hosts and urge them to discuss this unseen, unspoken, and pretty scary threat.

Go to Michele Bachmann’s website or her Facebook page, go to Tom Emmer’s site or his Tom Emmer for Governor site or his Facebook page, go to the Minnesota GOP contact page for Tony Sutton’s contact info and email all of these people.  Let them know that you know — and that you don’t like it.  Tell them that unless they unambiguously denounce Bradlee Dean and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Inc., for it’s murder-condoning hatred, you will assume that their views are directly in line with Dean’s and his group’s.  If you don’t want to write letters, then just send them a link to this blog and a note telling them that you agree with it.  Then write to your own representatives.  Let them know about this and tell them how you feel about it.  Demand that someone look into it, that it be stopped.

These people are serious.  America is a secular nation, no matter how loudly or often the Bradlee Deans and Michele Bachmanns say otherwise. It has a secular government that recognizes and enforces no religion but welcomes people of all religions or no religion.  But these people are not happy with the freedom to believe and worship as they please.  They want to make America a Christian nation in the same way that Iran is a Muslim nation that enforces the laws of the Muslim religion.  They want to tear up the Constitution and replace it with a Christian theocracy that will enforce the laws of the Christian faith — and severely punish those who break them.  They are working hard toward this goal, and they’ve got a lot of money and people and other resources at their disposal.  If you want to stop them, then you’re going to have to speak up!

They will hide behind their bible and their Jesus.  They will deny saying and doing the things they’ve said and done because they lie with astonishing ease — for them, the “truth” is whatever they need it to be at any given time.  And then they will continue to say and do those things.  They are either true believers of their religion or they are using it the way a con artist uses his charms — either way, it doesn’t matter, because their goal remains the same.

Edmund Burke wrote, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”  Bad people are combining and they are adding to their numbers and their war chests.

Don’t fall.

Chris Hedges, via Alternet, via TruthDig

Religious Institutions are Ruled by the Morally Bankrupt — But Should We Be Cheering It’s Demise?

As we devolve into a commodity culture, in which celebrity, power and money reign, the older, dimming values of another era are being replaced.

It is hard to muster much sympathy over the implosion of the Catholic Church, traditional Protestant denominations or Jewish synagogues. These institutions were passive as the Christian right, which peddles magical thinking and a Jesus-as-warrior philosophy, hijacked the language and iconography of traditional Christianity. They have busied themselves with the boutique activism of the culture wars. They have failed to unequivocally denounce unfettered capitalism, globalization and pre-emptive war. The obsession with personal piety and “How-is-it-with-me?” spirituality that permeates most congregations in narcissism. And while the Protestant church and reformed Judaism have not replicated the perfidiousness of the Catholic bishops, who protect child-molesting priests, they have little to say in an age when we desperately need moral guidance.

[...]

But I cannot rejoice in the collapse of these institutions. We are not going to be saved by faith in reason, science and technology, which the dead zone of oil forming in the Gulf of Mexico and our production of costly and redundant weapons systems illustrate. Frederick Nietzsche’s Übermensch, or “Superman”—our secular religion—is as fantasy-driven as religious magical thinking.

[...]

The great religions set free the critical powers of humankind. They broke with the older Greek and Roman traditions that gods and Destiny ruled human fate—a belief that, when challenged by Socrates, saw him condemned to death. They challenged the power of the tribe, the closed society. They offered up the possibility that human beings, although limited by circumstance and human weakness, could shape and give direction to society and their own lives. These religious thinkers were our first ethicists. And it is perhaps not accidental that the current pope, as well as the last one, drove out of the Catholic Church thousands of clergy and religious leaders who embodied these qualities, elevating the dregs to positions of leadership and leaving the pedophiles to run the Sunday schools.

These religious institutions are in irreversible decline. They are ruled by moral and intellectual trolls. They have become arrogant and self-absorbed. Their sins are many. They protected criminals. They pandered to the lowest common denominator and illusions of personal fulfillment and surrendered their moral authority. They did not fight the corporate tyrants who have impoverished us. They refused to denounce a caste of Christian heretics embodied by the Christian right and have, for their cowardice, been usurped by bizarre proto-fascists clutching the Christian cross. They have nothing left to say. And their aging congregants, who are fleeing the church in droves, know it. But don’t think the world will be a better place for their demise.

As we devolve into a commodity culture, in which celebrity, power and money reign, the older, dimming values of another era are being replaced. We are becoming objects, consumer products and marketable commodities. We have no intrinsic value. We are obsessed with self-presentation. We must remain youthful. We must achieve notoriety and money or the illusion of it. And it does not matter what we do to get there. Success, as Goldman Sachs illustrates, is its own morality. Other people’s humiliation, pain and weakness become the fodder for popular entertainment. Education, building community, honesty, transparency and sharing see contestants disappeared from any reality television show or laughed out of any Wall Street firm.

[...]

The consumer culture, as Nietzsche feared, has turned us into what Chalmers Johnson calls a “consumerist Sparta.” The immigrants and the poor, all but invisible to us, work as serfs in this new temple of greed and imperialism. Curtis White in “The Middle Mind” argues that most Americans are aware of the brutality and injustice used to maintain the excesses of their consumer society and empire. He suspects they do not care. They don’t want to see what is done in their name. They do not want to look at the rows of flag-draped coffins or the horribly maimed bodies and faces of veterans or the human suffering in the blighted and deserted former manufacturing centers. It is too upsetting. Government and corporate censorship is welcomed and appreciated. It ensures that we remain Last Men. And the death of religious institutions will only cement into place the new secular religion of the Last Man, the one that worships military power, personal advancement, hedonism and greed, the one that justifies our callousness toward the weak and the poor.

My take is that the “Last Men” he refers to are the present-day fundamentalist, evangelicals, and under-educated lazy-thinkers of FuxNews.  Surely he couldn’t mean me!

A pessimist?  Or a clear-eyed realist?  Or both?

It’s a helluva read.  It gave me chills and will probably pop  into my mind, at inopportune times, for the next few weeks or months.  If he’s right, I’ll remember this whenever I see events that Hedges predicted.

But, by that time, it will be too late.  Armageddon’s tipping-point is probably nearer than I think.

There was one of those horrifying moments in the news – the report of eight children mercilessly slaughtered by off-duty policemen in Rio, also known as the Candelária massacre. It brought a horrifying knowledge to a sanguine world that, despite all vacuous homilies about children being ‘divinely’ protected, it is an unsafe and insane world even for infants and toddlers.

‘Street children’  is

a term used to refer to children who live on the streets of a city. They are basically deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 17 years old, and their population between different cities is varied.

Street children live in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, parks or on the street itself. A great deal has been written defining street children, but the primary difficulty is that there are no precise categories, but rather a continuum, ranging from children who spend some time in the streets and sleep in a house with ill-prepared adults, to those who live entirely in the streets and have no adult supervision or care.

A widely accepted set of definitions, commonly attributed to UNICEF, divides street children into two main categories:

1. Children on the street are those engaged in some kind of economic activity ranging from begging to vending. Most go home at the end of the day and contribute their earnings to their family. They may be attending school and retain a sense of belonging to a family. Because of the economic fragility of the family, these children may eventually opt for a permanent life on the streets.
2. Children of the street actually live on the street (or outside of a normal family environment). Family ties may exist but are tenuous and are maintained only casually or occasionally.

Street children exist in many major cities, especially in developing countries, and may be subject to abuse, neglect, exploitation, or even, in extreme cases, murder by "cleanup squads" hired by local businesses or police.^[2]

In Latin America, a common cause is abandonment by poor families unable to feed all their children. In Africa, an increasingly common cause is AIDS.

Let’s take a gander at some stats, shall we?

• India 11 million
• Egypt 1,5 million
• Pakistan 1,5 million
• U.S. 750,000 – 1 million
• Kenya 250,000 – 300,000
• Philippines 250,000
• Congo 250,000
• Morocco 30,000
• Brazil 25,000
• Germany 20,000
• Honduras 20 000
• Jamaica 6,500
• Uruguay 3000
• Switzerland 1,000

The top 8 offenders are in bold. And, surprise! The top offenders are also the most highly religious countries.

One can easily ascribe these numbers to superstitious bullshit. India is often touted as the most religious country in the world. Egypt and Pakistan? Guess what those numbers are? The US comes in at a staggering 3/4 of a million to a million stray ‘sewer rats’.

I lay these crimes of overpopulation at the stair of superstition – I hammer this thesis to the door – I rant and rage at the bullheaded stupidity of ensoulment, for it is from this unprovable, ridiculous romanticism that is laying the bed of millions of vagrant children in blood and shit and tears.

Religion has done a piss poor job of controlling our loins, because it is fostered in the weltering weird fear of the sex drive, and it takes away the tools of education, the implements of prevention, the logic of critical thought, and replaces it with hierarchal horseshit and infanticidal delusions.

Religion. It’s gotta go.

Till the next post, then.

This story, brought to my attention by my friend Andrea, is by far one of the most horrible stories I have heard in awhile.

Five Hours of Trying to Rape a Lesbian Straight

Millicent Gaika’s story is heart-breaking. As is Eudy Simelane’s, Anelisa Mfo’s and the countless others who have been swept up in South Africa’s culture of rape. The crimes committed against them are horrible. Let’s make sure that their pain and suffering didn’t happen in vain.

And check out the video in the story link above for even more information on the phenomenon of corrective rape.

Here is another video I found on YouTube.

While attitudes towards homosexuality in the U.S. stem from Christian beliefs and teachings, machoism is the cause of the attitudes against homosexuality in South Africa, which causes violent attacks most often against lesbians.

INTERVIEW-SAfrica rapes linked to macho culture-study author

“Fundamentally, rape is a problem that stems from ideas of manhood in South Africa,” said Jewkes.

“The position of men is superior to women in a patriarchal society and legitimates men’s behaviours towards women, predicated on ideas of sexual entitlement and behaviours that demonstrate men being in control over women.”

South African President Jacob Zuma has promised to end abuses against women. A polygamist who has angered women’s rights groups, Zuma was acquitted in a rape trial in 2006, when he justified having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman by saying he had taken a shower afterwards.

The study, of men in all racial groups and from different socio-economic backgrounds, showed half of those interviewed were under 25 years of age and 70 percent were under 30.

Nearly 10 percent said they had raped a woman or girl for the first time when they were under 10 years old. The HIV prevalence among those who raped was 19.6 percent.

Appalling.

Address South Africa’s Culture of Rape
Please sign the petition today.

The whole world is watching South Africa. Will it be a country that is viewed as a success story, and a country that values human rights? Or will it be a country that proudly boasts the reputation of the rape capital of the world?

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.

The madness that is Muhammad strikes, and strikes again. It induces a rabid frenzy in its followers, and rains horror upon believer and non-believer alike:

Thousands mourn Karachi bomb dead

Thousands of mourners have attended funerals for those killed in a double bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

The death toll from Friday’s bombings rose overnight to 33, with 165 injured.

A police official told AFP news agency more then 10,000 people had attended a funeral for 14 Muslim victims. Five Christians are to be buried later.

The attacks – the second at a hospital where victims of the first attack were being treated – targeted Shia pilgrims.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appealed for calm amid fears of growing tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Security was tightened in Karachi as the mourners gathered.

Security in a predominantly Muslim country where all sorts of crazies are running about ready to kill and die for their ridiculous beliefs must be a nightmare. And especially in Pakistan, a country primarily founded on Islam.

And by all accounts, Pakistan is among some of the worst offenders when it comes down to any kind of tolerance whatsoever:

An old blasphemy law, which was written in 1927 during during colonial days, banned insults directed against any religion. In 1986, dictator General Zia-Ul Haw modified the law to protect only Islam. The law require a life imprisonment or a life sentence for anyone who defiled the name of Muhammad or committed other blasphemy. In 1990, a religious court ruled that the penalty for crimes under the law (Section 295-C of the country’s Constitution) is execution. ₆ The law states: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by inputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the Holy prophet Mohammed…shall be punished with death and shall be liable to a fine." The law is being used in Pakistan to discriminate against religious minorities: largely Christians, and Ahmadis. Under the present law, a Muslim may blaspheme Christianity with impunity. But a Christian doing the same against Islam can theoretically be executed.

Small wonder that these uglinesses continue, considering that Pakistan was a country born in the blood of its people. The body count continues, and the texts of alleged ‘holy books’ continue to cut swathes through the populace to this day.

Religion – it brings out the best in people? When? Never. It’s gotta go.

Till the next post, then.

Other international aid organizations are rushing food, water and medicine to Haiti’s earthquake victims. A moronic United States religious group is sending Bibles — solar powered ones. Since many poor can’t read, now they are going to try to deliver the delusion electronically.

Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti

But these aren’t just any Bibles; they’re solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.

The Faith Comes By Hearing organisation says its Bible, called the Proclaimer, delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”.

Faith (delusion) comes by hearing delusional people give a fluffy puffy fantasy message that some invisible sky daddy is going to take care of things, especially when disaster strikes and the poor have nowhere to turn and are vulnerable to people taking advantage of the situation. This god never comes on his own, the god message only comes from sly idiots who want to get as many to board the Jesus train as they can.

It says 600 of the devices are already on their way to Haiti.

The Albuquerque-based organisation says it is responding to the Haitian crisis by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s word in audio”.

How about some real food, water, blankets and helping to build shelters, hospitals, clinics, etc?

The audio Bible can bring the “hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy,” a statement on its website says.

But this god does not bring them their homes back, does not bring back their dead parents, children, friends and family. This god does not bring the money they need to pay for what was lost. No god came to prevent this disaster in the first place. No god ever comes. When will people stop and realize there is no god to help and humans depend on the help of other humans alone.

“The Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”

Tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents are living outdoors

“The Proclaimer”???? So their god needs electronics made by humans now to make himself be known via audio of a human reading a book that was written by humans. And them living outdoors makes it easier for the fundies to force their message on people in their time of despair and need.

How utterly despicable! I have no words strong enough to illustrate how disgusting this is. This is taking advantage of people in the face of their loss. There should be laws against these kinds of con artists.