The Zealots Are Coming! The Zealots Are Coming!
To arms, to arms! Beware all believers and non-believers! Organized religion is rearing its ugly ethnocentric head again!
Mark it on your calendars! The Response — a national day of prayer - is scheduled for August 6! The day is being declared by Texas Governor Rick Perry, and co-sponsored by the American Family Association. What? Rev. Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church bigots aren’t showing up? What about Terry Jones? Surely he’ll be asked to burn some sort of religious icon from one of the heathen faiths!
How can something that gives so many people the strength to carry on with their lives in the face of adversity be used for such intolerant purposes?
It certainly seems like a sweet, innocent gathering of Jesus’ faithful followers until you examine the various groups past agendas. For example, The American Family Association, allegedly a Christian faction, preaches regularly against homosexuals, Muslims, and — oh what the hell, let’s call the kettle black — everyone else that doesn’t believe in Jesus!
This event is being promoted by Perry as “a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting”. As some critics have pointed out, and allow me to pile on as well, how can an event be non-denominational and Christian at the same time? It does make one wonder if the governor doesn’t have ulterior motives.
It’s almost if he is promoting himself (not Jesus) to a narrow segment of the population who are narrow-minded in their ideals on how to move the country forward. Oh yes, of course, the Iowa straw poll - a Republican Party event that is heavily influenced by conservative Christians - takes place a week after The Response! So much for apolitical!
I really feel sorry for Jesus. Once again, his followers are using his teachings to justify their own prejudices. Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men? No problem as long as you are a man who doesn’t want to marry another man. Turn the other cheek and forgive your enemies? Have no fear as long as you truly are a Christian, but other believers need not apply. I hate to see Jesus given a black eye by anyone, but especially by those who profess to love him.
Unfortunately, those who love him come across as hypocrites more times than not. This particular voting bloc that Perry is trying to woo is prone to standing up for a literal interpretation of the Bible and the US Constitution. Ah, but in this case they seem to have overlooked the notion of keeping church and state separate in our grand federal document. The Founding Fathers (not including John Quincy Adams) believed that the establishment of one religion as the nationwide preference over all others was wrong. This doesn’t matter to the conservative Christians who like to cherry pick which federal laws should apply to them and which should be eliminated.
Or perhaps I’m overreacting. Maybe it will just be truly a gathering of Christ’s followers who will come together in harmonious fellowship, pray, bear witness to God’s great glory, and become invigorated with a renewed sense of faith and spiritual purpose in their lives. Then they might tuck into a nice ham supper that night.
Or...perhaps a few radical elements will overpower the glorious positiveness of the event, set down a series of edicts which every Christian is expected to obey, and formulate a series of policies which will adversely affect all non-believers (i.e., Jews, Muslims, gays, short middle-aged bloggers living in southeastern Pennsylvania, etc.) with actions of shunning, excommunications, isolationism, and, finally, total and profound destruction of entire cultures.
Of course nothing like that has ever happened in societies with one organized religious sect expressing majority rule over other sects in the entire history of mankind!
Oh...wait a minute...
On second thought, to arms! To arms! The narrow-minded zealots are coming! The narrow-minded zealots are coming!
(Thank you for reading. Please remember to exercise your beliefs wisely!)
Mark it on your calendars! The Response — a national day of prayer - is scheduled for August 6! The day is being declared by Texas Governor Rick Perry, and co-sponsored by the American Family Association. What? Rev. Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church bigots aren’t showing up? What about Terry Jones? Surely he’ll be asked to burn some sort of religious icon from one of the heathen faiths!
How can something that gives so many people the strength to carry on with their lives in the face of adversity be used for such intolerant purposes?
It certainly seems like a sweet, innocent gathering of Jesus’ faithful followers until you examine the various groups past agendas. For example, The American Family Association, allegedly a Christian faction, preaches regularly against homosexuals, Muslims, and — oh what the hell, let’s call the kettle black — everyone else that doesn’t believe in Jesus!
This event is being promoted by Perry as “a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting”. As some critics have pointed out, and allow me to pile on as well, how can an event be non-denominational and Christian at the same time? It does make one wonder if the governor doesn’t have ulterior motives.
It’s almost if he is promoting himself (not Jesus) to a narrow segment of the population who are narrow-minded in their ideals on how to move the country forward. Oh yes, of course, the Iowa straw poll - a Republican Party event that is heavily influenced by conservative Christians - takes place a week after The Response! So much for apolitical!
I really feel sorry for Jesus. Once again, his followers are using his teachings to justify their own prejudices. Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men? No problem as long as you are a man who doesn’t want to marry another man. Turn the other cheek and forgive your enemies? Have no fear as long as you truly are a Christian, but other believers need not apply. I hate to see Jesus given a black eye by anyone, but especially by those who profess to love him.
Unfortunately, those who love him come across as hypocrites more times than not. This particular voting bloc that Perry is trying to woo is prone to standing up for a literal interpretation of the Bible and the US Constitution. Ah, but in this case they seem to have overlooked the notion of keeping church and state separate in our grand federal document. The Founding Fathers (not including John Quincy Adams) believed that the establishment of one religion as the nationwide preference over all others was wrong. This doesn’t matter to the conservative Christians who like to cherry pick which federal laws should apply to them and which should be eliminated.
Or perhaps I’m overreacting. Maybe it will just be truly a gathering of Christ’s followers who will come together in harmonious fellowship, pray, bear witness to God’s great glory, and become invigorated with a renewed sense of faith and spiritual purpose in their lives. Then they might tuck into a nice ham supper that night.
Or...perhaps a few radical elements will overpower the glorious positiveness of the event, set down a series of edicts which every Christian is expected to obey, and formulate a series of policies which will adversely affect all non-believers (i.e., Jews, Muslims, gays, short middle-aged bloggers living in southeastern Pennsylvania, etc.) with actions of shunning, excommunications, isolationism, and, finally, total and profound destruction of entire cultures.
Of course nothing like that has ever happened in societies with one organized religious sect expressing majority rule over other sects in the entire history of mankind!
Oh...wait a minute...
On second thought, to arms! To arms! The narrow-minded zealots are coming! The narrow-minded zealots are coming!
(Thank you for reading. Please remember to exercise your beliefs wisely!)
posted by todd gunther | 8:46 PM
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Nice
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