Politics Plus

It could be that the ghosts of William Jennings Bryant and Clarence Darrow will be polishing their legal skills to so battle once again, if Tennessee Republicans have their way.  They are trying to evade the First Amendment prohibition of taxpayer support for religious doctrine to push creationism into the schools while discrediting evolution.  Although it is not creationism, there is one alternative to evolution that is credible.

Eighty six years after the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial opened Tennessee classrooms to the teaching of evolution, the state House is trying to slam the door shut again. Tennessee’s House Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday in the name of “academic freedom,” but in reality, it is a thinly veiled attempt to curtail the teaching of evolution. House Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh (D) has even taken to calling it “the monkey bill.” From the bill’s summary:

This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.

Should this bill pass, Tennessee teachers will have official sanction to teach about evolutionary “controversies” that simply do not exist. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to teach pseudo-scientific ideas — such as creationism or intelligent design — as legitimate scientific theories comparable to evolution… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

In the interest of full disclosure, as a deist, I believe that God had a hand in creation, but that his role was that of the author of the natural laws which produce what sometimes passes as intelligent life on this planet.  I have a right to my beliefs.  I do not have a right to insist that taxpayers fund the propagation of my beliefs, and neither do the pseudo-Christian followers of Republican Supply-side Jesus.

However, as I stated above, there is evidence for an alternate theory.

Supply-side Jesus is not the real Jesus.  He’s an invention of Republican theocons to justify their pseudo-Christian gospel of war, greed, injustice, and hate.  The followers of Supply-side Jesus give authentic Christians a bad name, by their hateful behavior such as the Republican demonstrations at an ICNA fundraiser for a women’s shelter and aid to the homeless.

Last month, the local chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a fundraiser in Orange County, CA to raise money for a womens’ shelter and for services for the homeless in Southern California.

While this isn’t a cause that most Americans would find objectionable, hundreds of far-right protesters descended on the event and jeered at and maligned the events’ attendees, who were mostly Muslim families who lived in the area. The local chapter of the civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations videotaped many of these demonstrators harassing the families as they entered the building, screaming, “Go back home!” and “You beat up your wife too? Are you a molester?” Watch it:

 

Perhaps even more disturbingly, a number of GOP elected officials spoke at the rally. Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) said to the raucous and hateful crowd, “I’m proud of you, I’m proud of what you’re doing.” Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said that the multiculturalism “has paralyzed too many of our citizens to make the critical judgement we need to make to prosper as a society.” Most horrifying of all, Republican Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly, who spoke alongside the congressmen, said that the fundraiser represented “pure, unadulterated evil.” She continued, “I don’t even care if you think I’m crazy anymore. I have a beautiful daughter, I have a beautiful 19 year old son who is a United States marines. As a matter of fact, I know quite a few marines who will be willing to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise,” referring to the attendees of the fundraiser…

…Watch it:

 

One has to wonder if, as elected officials in the United States Congress, Royce and Miller truly approve of such vile hate speech being used against Muslim Americans like those in Orange County… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

The real Jesus never condemned those whose religion was different, and even presented them heroically, as in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  In the same way, authentic Christians accept and respect people whose faith is different, whether that faith be Atheism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Native American, Wicca, or whatever.  Authentic Christians respond to others in love, not hatred.  The behavior of Republican Theocons is antichristian, not Christian.

Jesus knew this.  Because in the first century Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes played the Role that Republican Theocons do today.  They were the religious hypocrites that used people’s faith for power, insisting that everyone believe and behave as they said they did.  Jesus had zero tolerance for them.  Read Matthew 23.

So to those of you who are not Christian, please understand that the followers of Supply-side Jesus, have nothing to do with Christianity.

Native Americans have learned the hard way that such promises are not worth the paper on which the treaties were written, but you would think that the rest of us would show the respect to recognize that they are sovereign nations with their own cultures, customs and faith.  But Republican Theocon pseudo-Christians think otherwise.  This time it’s Bryan Fischer from the AFA.

One of the staples of Bryan Fischer’s daily radio program is the reading of, and expounding upon, the latest blog post he has written.  And today was no exception as he dedicated more than ten minutes to reading his latest post in which he claims that God used the Europeans to conquer North America because Native Americans were "morally disqualified" from exercising control and that they remain mired in poverty and alcoholism today because they refuse to give up their "superstition" and embrace Jesus…[emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Here’s the video:

As a Christian, I honor the faith of my Native American brothers.  Jesus sided with oppressed peoples, but he had no tolerance for the religious hypocrites of his day, who were no different than today’s Pharisees and Sadducees, the Republican religions right.

This morning I listen to Barack Obama speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast.  He was eloquent, as usual, but he should never have been there at all.  By his presence he gave credence to The Fellowship, an extremist pseudo-Christian group, also known as The Family, that operates C Street House, infamous for attempts to cover up Republican scandal, and that supports the attempts in Uganda to legislate the death penalty for being gay.

Obama was warned and asked not to attend.

For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has served as a prime networking event in Washington, bringing together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for scrambled eggs and supplication.

Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday. Religious and gay rights groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.

The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

CREW also asked him not to go.

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) called on President Obama and all members of Congress not to attend this year’s National Prayer Breakfast.  The event is scheduled for tomorrow. The breakfast, while designed to appear as a government-sanctioned event, in reality serves as a meeting and recruiting event for the shadowy Fellowship Foundation.

“The National Prayer Breakfast uses the attendance of elected leaders to give the Fellowship greater credibility and facilitate its networking and fundraising,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “President Obama and members of Congress should not legitimatize this shadowy group with ties to scandal-ridden politicians and hateful and discriminatory positions against gays.”  Sloan continued, “It is all the more important that American political leaders avoid this event in light of the murder of prominent Ugandan gay activist David Kato.”

The Fellowship, also known as “The Foundation” and “The Family,” is run by Doug Coe, a spiritual advisor to some government officials, who uses the organization to push his brand of Christianity. The Fellowship owns and operates the infamous C Street House, a congressional residence and meeting place on Capitol Hill that has been a frequent haunt of some ethically-challenged elected officials identified by CREW, including Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CREW>

Obama may have feared being perceived as anti-Christian, if he refused.  But the hatred of these Republicans against gays is truly anti-Christian, and by attending, Obama added to the confusion about Christianity in America.  Authentic Christians do not hate others, despite Republican claims to the contrary.