The Re Collection

He proved again how clueless and heartless he is during his visit to Brazil, where he said (referring to the native peoples of the Americas, particularly Latin America where the Catholic Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors invaded):

Christ is the Saviour for whom they were silently longing.

and

[…] the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture.

Never mind that business about robbery, enslavement and genocide!

Love that papal infallibility, don’t you? (”Oh, and Limbo was just an idea we were batting around — for 700 years.”)

You know, I wasn’t a big fan of the last pope, but for all his misdeeds and sexist and homophobic statements, I think he was basically a kind-hearted man who was blinded by religion and the culture of the church. This current guy, um, he’s different.

Suffice to say, the tribes and their allies (many of them priests and church activists) are a bit put out by His Holiness’s comments. This should lead to some real awareness and organizing benefits for them. It’s already been on the news wires and is hitting the blogs. It won’t be so easy to snuff out the next wave of liberation theology in Latin America, with the advent of digital and satellite communications.

So, thanks Benny, for stepping in it.

Died today. Can I say “good riddance” without annulling my oath of nonviolence? I can’t think of too many people I never met who caused more pain and suffering for those I did than Jerry Falwell. It would be nice to think that there is less evil in the world with his passing, but unfortunately, he found a way to locate, organize and train hundreds of thousands of evil-doers during his life — he was good at that: credit where it’s due.

I guess I’ll just echo the statement from the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, speaking on behalf of the community towards which much of Falwell’s hate and sadism was directed, since they managed to find the right balance of rightousness and respect for the living.

“The death of a family member or friend is always a sad occasion and we express our condolences to all those who were close to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.”

A little while ago, I heard some guy gushing on Fox News about what a loving person Falwell was, how the students at his “Liberty University” (double oxymoron, there) would just come up to him on campus and give him hugs.

As I learned all too well this past year, it is pretty easy to have a “spiritual relationship” with someone who’s kissing your ass constantly. One’s lovingness needs to be figured by how one deals with those with whom you find difficult to understand, or even bear. On that rating scale, it’s clear just how loving a guy the late Jerry Falwell was.

Some highlights from a cruel life:

Supporter of Apartheid

In the 1980s Jerry Falwell was an outspoken supporter of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. When president PW Botha was elected President by the White South African minority, Reverend Falwell went to South Africa and made statements supporting the government there and urging American Christians to buy Krugerrands, a coin issued by the South African Government[17]. He drew the ire of many when he called Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu a phony. He later apologized for that remark and claimed that he had misspoken

The anti-Christ will be a Jew

Falwell has asserted that when The Antichrist (”The Beast”) comes, he “must be, of necessity, a Jewish male.”

Gays, prolifers and feminists caused September 11

After the September 11, 2001, attacks Falwell said on the 700 Club, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.’” (a sentiment with which Robertson concurred).

AIDS is the wrath of God

“AIDS is the wrath of a just God against homosexuals.”

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the National Organization of Witches.

God doesn’t listen to Jews

After Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith tells a Dallas Religious Right gathering that “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,” Falwell gives a similar view. “I do not believe,” he told reporters, “that God answers the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.”

And here are a few more from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State:

February 1993: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political action committee. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour’s tax-exempt status for 1986-87.

March 1993: Despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a “Christian nation,” Falwell gives a sermon saying, “We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”

1994-1995: Falwell is criticized for using his “Old Time Gospel Hour” to hawk a scurrilous video called “The Clinton Chronicles” that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton–among them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG). CHG’s Pat Matrisciana later admitted that Falwell and he staged an infomercial interview promoting the video in which a silhouetted reporter said his life was in danger for investigating Clinton. (Matrisciana himself posed as the reporter.) “That was Jerry’s idea to do that,” Matrisciana recalled. “He thought that would be dramatic.”

November 1997: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University’s financial woes. The donation, and several Falwell appearances at Moon conferences, raised eyebrows because Moon claims to be the messiah sent to complete the failed mission of Jesus Christ, a doctrine sharply at odds with Falwell’s fundamentalist Christian theology. (In 1978, before the Moon money started flowing, Falwell told Esquire magazine, “Reverend Sun Myung Moon is like the plague: he exploits boys and girls, and he should be exported.”)

Gays are “moral perverts.”

“God hates homosexuality” (I saw this video of Falwell myself.)

And who can forget our favorite Falwellism: Tinky Winky is gay.

[I looked for a statement from women’s and pro-choice groups, but they apparently aren’t as on it as GLTF and HRC. Sad, but I guess that’s another post.]

Update: Oh, boy, gayleftborg has an appropriately respectful series about Falwell going (after today, you’ll need to scroll to the vicinity of 5/15/07 posts). There’s even a eulogy from Tinky Winky, the gay Telly Tubby.

A taste of the queer fun to be had:

It’s A Miracle: Falwell Dead

Break out the champagne, invite your neigbors over for a barbecue, roll the biggest doob you can stand to smoke, crank up the secular music:

Jerry Falwell has finally boarded his 1-way ticket to hell. I hate to be the angel of death and inform Mr. Falwell and his followers that the delusional trip to heaven he thought he would be getting has been cancelled.
[…]

I declare today “HAPPY NO MORE JERRY FALWELL DAY!”

Truthdig - An Atheist Manifesto
Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.

The Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right

The United States is home to dozens of Religious Right groups. Many have small budgets and focus on state and local issues; the most powerful organizations conduct nationwide operations, command multi-million-dollar bank accounts and attract millions of followers. They have disproportionate clout in the halls of Congress, the White House and the courts, and they wield enormous influence within the political system.

What follows is a list of the nation’s Top Ten Religious Right groups, as determined by publicly available financial data and political prominence. Additional information describes the organizations’ leaders, funding and activities.

Glenn Greenwald on the latest effort to dismantle our democracy, the threat — stated by AG Gonzalex this weekend — of Imprisoning journalists for doing their job.

Things just got a lot darker in America, figuratively and literally.

Jean Rohe, the student who took down McCain at the New School graduation, tells why she did it.

… Senator Mc Cain will tell us that we, those of us who are Americans, “have nothing to fear from each other.” I agree strongly with this, but I take it one step further. We have nothing to fear from anyone on this living planet. Fear is the greatest impediment to the achievement of peace. We have nothing to fear from people who are different from us, from people who live in other countries, even from the people who run our government–and this we should have learned from our educations here. We can speak truth to power, we can allow our humanity always to come before our nationality, we can refuse to let fear invade our lives and to goad us on to destroy the lives of others. These words I speak do not reflect the arrogance of a young strong-headed woman, but belong to a line of great progressive thought, a history in which the founders of this institution play an important part. I speak today, even through my nervousness, out of a need to honor those voices that came before me, and I hope that we graduates can all strive to do the same.

It’s time for gay covenant marriage. By William Saletan

The pioneers of covenant marriage thought their followers would flock to it. They were wrong. In states conservative enough to promote it, fewer than one in 100 marrying couples has chosen this option—about 6,000 to 7,000 couples, judging from published data. Meanwhile, in states liberal enough to permit same-sex marriage or civil unions, thousands of gay couples have signed up—more than 7,300 in Massachusetts, 1,200 in Vermont (6,600 more if you count out-of-staters), and 700 in Connecticut. More than 3,700 gay couples have registered for domestic partnerships in New Jersey; another 30,000 or so have registered in California. Despite being absurdly outnumbered, more blue-state gay couples than red-state straight couples are signing up for as much commitment as the law allows. And that’s not counting gay couples agitating for marriage in other states.

Hattip to Common Sense.

Tena at First Draft takes issue with a preacher’s take on God and government:

Re: “Christians ask: Can you love thy neighbor but deport him too?” Friday news story.

I was amazed at the responses from religious organizations. Obedience to the laws of your government is, in fact, obedience to God. Matthew 22:21 states: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” We have laws that were enacted by our government; the Christian thing to do is to obey them. God gives us government and leaders, and all are within his will. Obedience is required regardless of how passionate we feel about the subject. We cannot under any circumstances condone civil disobedience because it is contrary to God’s law.

The Rev. J. Alvin Carter, Dallas

I thought she was quite restrained in her response. But some commenters attempt to address the good reverend within his own worldview.

My guess is that the Rev. J. Alvin Carter of Dallas, Texas really worships George W. Bush and the modern Republican Party, and if actually faced with making a choice, God would be dumped in a heartbeat.

Athenae’s usual astute take on how Republicans get elections despite how poorly they govern

God wasn’t on the ballot that November. God wasn’t anywhere near any of the issues that were in fact important. Just as “should the national anthem be English-only” isn’t anywhere near anything we need to worry about. But people will, and damn it if you ignore that, you ignore the political reality that for most people the thought process is: You ain’t got a job and you ain’t got no savings and your neighbor’s kid just got his ass shot off in Fallujah, but damn it, you can fix this national anthem thing right quick.

And it’s not so much a party problem as it is one of utter debasement of the national conversation, until all you need in order to consider yourself politically knowledgable is this beauty-shop gossip grasp of Today Show-type issues. All you need to know you can get from The View. Bullshit media-driven chatter about nothing, about sweaters and God and now this, as if somebody somewhere singing Oh Say Can You See really matters. Of course it doesn’t.

A great speech by Moyers on religious values in politics.

AlterNet: A Time for Heresy
It was in the name of Jesus that a Methodist ship caulker named Edward Rogers crusaded across New England for an eight-hour work day. It was in the name of Jesus that Francis William rose up against the sweatshop. It was in the name of Jesus that Dorothy Day marched alongside auto workers in Michigan, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. It was in the name of Jesus that E.B. McKinney and Owen Whitfield stood against a Mississippi oligarchy that held sharecroppers in servitude. It was in the name of Jesus that the young priest John Ryan — ten years before the New Deal — crusaded for child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor. And it was in the name of Jesus that Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis to march with sanitation workers who were asking only for a living wage.

From USA Today, an editorial about the use of religion by politicians who are ever willing to play the ‘God’ card

Faith at its best, at its most powerful, stands outside of culture, Carter argues, where it can best maintain its integrity and prophetic moral force. As Carter sees it, “Religion has too often allowed itself to be seduced by the lure of temporal power, a dysfunctional and even immoral love affair that has led to much human misery and has been destructive as well of true faith.”

It’s not just secular Americans who have a strong interest in a more appropriate treatment of religion in our political tussles. Because in wielding faith like just another political tactic, opportunistic politicians don’t just discredit themselves — they give religion a bad name, too.

Hat tip to ReddHedd at FireDogLake.

Anne Lamott is one of those rare writers that tell all the truth all the time, even when talking to nice progressive Catholics about abortion.

Street Prophets: Too Inclusive?

I just discovered another Daily Kos spinoff (I think Kos now has more spinoffs than Happy Days and All in the Family combined): Street Prophets. It seems to have the mission of giving voice to a progressive Christ-based faith, which, despite my atheism (or perhaps because of it), I am always ready to promote.

One recent post has a really interesting take on an article in Christianity Today by a Tulsa writer, about a Tulsa church.

It would be equally appropriate to [tell] this story a different way. I once heard of a Baptist church in Tennessee that decided to integrate in the 1950’s, long before that was a widely acceptable choice. Their pastor led them from a congregation of 500 to one of 60, and from there they rebuilt, around a vision of racial equality and - wait for it - inclusion. By any kind of worldly measure, the congregation’s drive to integration had been a disaster. But the pastor stuck to it, proclaiming that the church was called to be faithful, not successful.

But of course to tell the story that way would trip up the narrative of conservative religious ascendancy. We are told, ad nauseum, that mainline denominations are losing membership because they are too politically or theologically liberal while conservative churches are packed to the rafters. Never mind that virtually no denominations have shown significant growth recently. Never mind that birth rates may have more to do with church growth than liberal vs. conservative dichotomies. No, Pearson has been too inclusive, and therefore his ministry has been a failure. [Empasis mine.]

Dan Savage uncovers a mountain of denial in the latest conservative dustups over gays and movies:

Sometimes I wonder if evangelicals really believe that gay men can go straight. If they don’t think Chad Allen can play straight convincingly for 108 minutes, do they honestly imagine that gay men who aren’t actors can play straight for a lifetime? And if anyone reading this believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, I have just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one?

I don’t have a thing to add to John’s latest rant about the sadistic religious right’s testosterone-terrorist control obsession money-grubbing bull shit.

Fossil research shows ears evolved as respiratory organs, proving, it seems, that God does make mistakes:

The Swedish researchers findings run counter to claims by proponents of creationism that sensory organs are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher power.

“All research revealing evolution is a slap in the face of creationism, but our results are especially interesting since evolution first is drawn in one direction … and then in another. It’s hard to believe that if God wanted to design an ear, this is the way He’d go about it,” Ahlberg said.

Accountability’s for heathens, sucka!

From Slacktivist, an addition to Profiles in Hypocricy

Hat tip to Susie

To what Shakespeare’s Sister says about Bush’s pseudo-faith.

Sarah Vowell is subbing for Maureen Dowd on the op-ed pages of the NY Times today, and addresses the recent Supreme Court ruling about the monuments of the 10 Commandments on government property in Texas. I say, dump Mo and hire this woman; she rocks (no pun intended).

The Supreme Court’s ruling last month upholding the right of the Texas State Capitol to keep a Ten Commandments sculpture - sponsored by that great theologian Cecil B. DeMille to promote his Charlton Heston epic - on its grounds as an historical artifact is arguable from a legal perspective. But to the amateur historian and professional ironist, it’s a delight. Because I’ve been to the Texas State Capitol, and that granite Moses movie ad is one of the least offensive things there.

A new poll is out on public opinion on the origin of human life. See Science and Nature for June 17-21, 2004 (the link includes various polls on scienctific issues, in reverse chronological order).

I like how Mahablog put it, noting the obvious confusion that Americans express on the topic that seems (to them) to pit emphirical evidence against religion (hmm, wonder where they got that idea???):

Maybe this is telling us that many people sorta kinda believe that man evolved but are afraid they will be struck by lightning if they deny God, even to a pollster.

Amanda at Pandagan finds a real whopper at RedState.org:

These are a few of the starting points when discussing where throwing God out of the equation leaves man in the philosophical and political sense. I could go on by noting that if atheistic evolution is true, Marx was correct and Locke was wrong, there is no justification for condemning the Nazis, and so on and so on - but I hope that the point has been driven home adequately that one’s metaphysical view does have real life political, philosophical and actual consequences.

Kos won’t put this on his front page, but I will.

It’s always painful when places you thought might be one of the last few outposts of saniety’s [sic] owner and other readers decide they’re willing to trade your life away, and the lives of others away, and ultimately their own lives away, because for some reason, they genuinely don’t understand what’s at stake. Words are important, and so tonight, at daily Kos, I as one of the written off, am going to write a diary for the first time, raise my voice, and once AGAIN tell so called ‘friends’ how much they’re hurting the people next to them. To say nothing of how much they’re cutting their own throats in the process.

There is more that a week’s worth of background/context for this discussion, but it’s 2:30 am and I can’t track it all down right now. The comments on stormcoming’s diary pretty much encapsulate the debate, though.

Steve Gilliard sees the school voucher program for what it is: tax-subsidized segregation.

Voucher programs are sold to black parents as a solution, but in reality offer few alternatives but already existing, and increasing broke Catholic Schools, which desperately need the cash. Their ultimate goal is to subsidize white parents in racist white schools and help cover their costs. So they play on the desperation of black parents and hope enough of them swallow the bait and then they can hide behind them.

There were myriad unwise words said today in the Senate. These undoubtedly were the unwisest:

On the same day that a federal judge whose family was assassinated testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about courthouse safety, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) described Democratic efforts opposing some of President Bush’s judicial nominees as “leadership-led use of Cloture vote to kill, to defeat, to assassinate these nominees.”

Unbelievable! I just wrote Sen. Frist via his web form. I doubt anyone will ever read it, but I feel somewhat better for having raged at him.

You spoke the following words in the Senate today:

THE ISSUE IS NOT CLOTURE VOTES PER SE. IT’S THE PARTISAN LEADERSHIP-LED USE OF CLOTURE VOTE TO KILL, TO DEFEAT, TO ASSASSINATE THESE NOMINEES. AND THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE.

Senator Durbin seemed willing to give you the benefit of the doubt about your words; I’m not. An apology to all judges, regardless of political persuasion, and to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion, is in order, and sooner rather than later.

You need to take a deep breath, sir and collect yourself, because you have surely lost your grounding in rationality and perspective. Based on what I heard today,

I should have added:
“Have you no shame, sir?” echoing the words that finally ended the McCarthy madness in the 50s. But of course, they are long past shamelessness.

Meanwhile, Judge Urges End to Verbal Attacks. Judge Lefkow asked lawmakers to “publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary.”

To their credit, the AP story includes this:

In recent months, several Republican members of Congress have lashed out at judges involved in the
Terri Schiavocase and others. Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman, died after her feeding tube was removed, her parents’ legal challenges unsuccessful.

Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania said, “The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Courtare unconscionable.”

“This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change,” House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said. “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.”

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition and head of the Christian Broadcasting Network, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” this month and criticized the federal courts. Robertson said, “The gradual erosion of the consensus that’s held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.”

Lefkow said that kind of “harsh rhetoric is truly dangerous.”

Thankfully, many Democratic senators, such as Durbin, are speaking up. But power-hungry cretins like Frist are not about to. Wouldn’t want to upset those who will be bringing all those “”"religious”"” voters to the polls. That word needs about a million quote marks around it when referring to anyone who would give the time of day to Robertson, Dobson, et. al.