America vs. the Christian Taliban

Here’s yet another story of Christian Fanatics in America whining and complaining that if they can’t throw Jesus in the face of anyone they choose, wherever they choose, their religious liberties are being violated. What rubbish.
In this case, a public school graduation was sermonized by a preacher who insisted that the only way to paradise was through Jesus.

Which is, of course, utter superstitious hogwash, and no more valid than a suicide bomber believing that he gets seventy virgins in paradise when he blows somebody up.

Christian Fanatics need to stop trying to turn America into their version of the Taliban and accept that their exclusive “faith” is off-putting to many of their neighbors because it is intolerant, divisive, judgmental and arrogant.

America was never supposed to be a theocracy. It was supposed to be a tolerant, plural democracy. Too bad Christian fundamentalists care more about their narrow, literal interpretation of the Bible than they do about the true spirit of America.

Apocalyptic Idiocy

Which of the following is a myth, fable or fairy tale?

A) Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
B) The Odyssey
C) The New Testament
D) The Koran
E) The Torah
F) All of the above

The correct answer is F.

Yet millions of scared, ignorant people believe that their holy book is the perfect, infallible communication from their version of God.

And with the Middle East in flames, fundamentalist Christians in America are yet again buzzing about the End Times, the Apocalypse. Their twisted minds somehow believe that the Book of Revelations--which is a grotesquely bizarre fable full of winged lions and dragons and magic--is a prophesy that has yet to come true. (If Revelations is a perfect communication from the Creator of the Universe then we have to conclude that the Creator is itself a bizarre, dark, angry, spiteful, violent monster.)

Such believers are scary, and dangerous to the rest of us. Their faith in the magic fairy story of Revelations often pushes them to advocate war, in particular when it might further a World War starting in the Middle East. It also pushes them to ignore long-term catastrophes like Global Warming. And it seems to give them license to tyrannize citizens with alternative beliefs. The "Culture of Life" crowd is actually a "Cult of Death" crowd.

Their faith is rigid, intolerant, arrogant, divisive, delusional, illogical and dangerous. Identical, in fact, to fundamentalists in the Middle East.

As long as people put their trust in crazy old books and manipulative holy men instead of using their own brains to navigate the vagaries of life, the world will remain filled with violence, division, strife, polarization and death. And the idiots waiting for God's Apocalypse will only help to create a Man-made Apocalypse instead.

Reed and Greed

Few public figures are more arrogant, smug and self-righteous than Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, recent business partner of Jack Abramoff and Grover Nordquist, and current Republican candidate for leutenant Governor of Georgia.

Now, after years of pretending to be a Real Christian and freely denouncing others as immoral, Reed has revealed his true self: a greedy, sleazy manipulator.

Reed's escapades are beautifully detailed by Garrison Keillor in the Baltimore Sun.

How many more fat-cat, phony-faith Republicans will we have to endure before American voters wise up and kick them out of the henhouse? Reed and his pals are unethical hypocrites, pure and simple.