I found this hateful Christian video on YouTube. Good ol Frank the moron posted it too. It is full of hate and propaganda. I had a free day so I thought I would dedicate some time to tearing it apart. Enjoy!
Can’t find much on the Byzantines from 300AD to 1000AD but by the video’s own admission they were catholic and Catholics count as a religious group not Atheist.
The inquisition from 1000 AD to 2000 AD was also led by the Catholic Church.
The Video claims that in 1789 AD 5000 clergy were martyred by Atheist in France. A citation is given. A thorough reading through this link will show that not only is the arbitrary number of 5000 clergy murdered completely made up but also that this wasn’t an act of atheism exclusively. (Although the writings of some liberal atheist were used as justification.) As soon as the secularist took over they immediately began establishing a new religious order and went as far as forcing Catholic priest to take a vow to support them. “The Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This bill enabled the government to control all religious proceedings. Pastors and bishops were to be elected and paid by the government, and all clergymen were required to take an oath of fidelity to this new Constitution.” If these were atheist why did they immediately establish a religious order? Ultimately the revolution was a backlash against religious oppression. This is the part that apologist like to conveniently leave out when telling this story. So I will take the arbitrary number and add it to the Death toll since they are the one’s trying to claim it. Death toll (Unknown thousands)
1871 20,000 clergy and believers murdered at the hands of Atheist in Paris? Well according to the link given in the video these murders were also a back lash against religious oppression. There doesn’t seem to be anything pointing to Atheist as the cause. It looks like another case of religious induced violence. But let’s take a closer look. I would appear that the reason that the clergy were killed was not because of Atheistic ideals but rather because they were acting as a sanctuary for people fleeing battles between the French army and Prussian army. The Unfortunate Priest and Clergy men who were trying to protect innocent civilians were needlessly slaughtered. It had nothing to do with their belief in God though. The body count was estimated to be around 30,000 not 20,000 and were unfortunate casualties of war, not a product of Christian or Atheistic ideologies.
In 1917 AD 1,000,000 Russian Orthodox believers are martyred by Bolsheviks in the USSR? 1918 60,000 more by Bolsheviks in the Republic of Georgia? OK, first off the death toll was 1.5 million and secondly it had nothing to do with religion. Although the Marxist view has roots in atheism “it understands religion to have roots in oppression and alienation, Marxist political parties don't demand that their members or supporters are atheists too. So atheism was never included in the Bolsheviks' programme.” The real reason the massacre took place was because of the peasants refusal to sell their crops at 1/8th of the current market value, thus not allowing the Bolsheviks to support their communist agenda. In return the Bolsheviks starved the peasants to death in order to further their political aspirations.
There are a couple of frames now were the video claims the death of Catholics in Russia as aggression against Christians, even though the video started out by denouncing that Catholics are Christian. Anyways I don't feel it unnecessary to refute each one because I have already covered the ideology present and responsible for the atrocities in Russia during that time frame, and shown that they were not a product of Atheism.
In 1927 AD 600,000 all German origin Lutherans are killed by Stalin? Stalin of course was a known atheist but this particular instance was not a religious issue for him. It was a political one. What comes as more interesting though is that Stalin was working in tandem with the Jesuit’s also known as the” soldiers of Christ” who were actually the driving force behind convincing Stalin to use his army to “Liquidate their rival religion” of the Lutheran order!
1940 AD 150,000 people die in the Baltics? The Video doesn’t offer up who was responsible. It just leaves you to assume that it must be the Atheist! This was largely a result of German and Russian occupation during World War 2 though. It is common knowledge that the catalyst for World War 2 was Hitler who was a proclaimed, well I will let Hilter speak for himself. I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work. [Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936]
1944 5000 die as Christianity is attacked in Albania by Atheist? Christianity was actually attacked by the Balli Kombëtar who were aligned with the Nazis(Christian) and received their weapons from the Italians. (Catholic)
1948 AD 70 Baptist leaders are martyred by Chinese Atheist? No information available, no citations. Appears to be made up!
1948 AD 2500 killed in prison in Hungarian persecution by Atheist? Wrong!
1949 AD 1.2 Million Tibetans Massacred by Atheistic Chinese Communist? The author of the video is not only redundant but seems to be assuming that all communist nations are automatically Atheist. Actually China largely subscribed to religion ofConfuciounism at the time of these atrocities. Seems like someone needs to do their homework. The Confucians ideals were of course taken out of context to justify such atrocities but that doesn’t seem to be to far out of the norm now does it?
Some more claims are made now about the Chinese in their confucionist stage.
Some claims about N. Korea, also confucionist
1959 AD 25 Million die in Atheistic “Great Leap Forward” in China? Once again, Not Atheist!
1959 AD 15,000 Christians killed by Atheist Castro in Cuba? Although I could not find any Evidence of Castro killing 15,000 Christians, I did find a great quote from the professed (Yet excommunicated) Catholic regarding his upbeat views of Christianity! “There is a great concurrence between Christianity's objectives and the ones we communists seek, between the Christian teachings of humility, austerity, selflessness and loving thy neighbor and what we might call the content of a revolutionary's life and behavior.”
1975-1979 2 Million slaughtered by Atheistic Khmer Rouge in Cambodia? Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot was indeed Atheistic and very much anti religion. The movement was largely based on and “inspired in part by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, which he had witnessed, first-hand during a visit to Communist China,” which we all know by now to be founded in organized religion.
After all this mis-information and unwarranted rhetoric, the Video boldly proclaims “Why should we talk to you at all? Funny thing is we (Christians) are the majority. So why should we let you breathe another second?”
Every single point that was attempted to be made in this video regarding human atrocities is somehow rooted in religious belief and ideologies. This video promotes hate towards those that don’t conform to Christianity. Please open your eyes. No one has ever started a war over atheistic beliefs. Read your Bible (from any religion) and you will see justifications for killings, rapes, torture, and atrocities of all kind. Please, I urge you think with your mind. Demand evidence. Stop living on faith! Humanity is counting on you!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Calling all Homo's
Shocking new evidence has shown that being gay may be …………………………… wait for it …………………………………………………… biological. Actually this story doesn’t relate the direct evidence but rather the fact that popular public opinion is catching up to the evidence that being gay is not a choice. It’s good that more people are starting to realize that sexual orientation is not a choice. Before you know it we would have people trying to cure other “biological curses”
Of course not all Christians are complete scumbags, some are just seriously sad misguided souls.
Check out this Video
Alan Chambers an apparent former homosexual was cured of his homosexuality and for a small contribution can help you overcome this horrible lifestyle. His ministry Exodus International will help you change to the god appointed lifestyle of straight living. It would seem that killing all of the first born of a particular nation is no big deal but taking a dick in the back door is something we really need to focus on.
I was raised with the mentality that gay people are sick. It only took me finding out that my friend Casey was gay and already knowing that he was not sick, for me to begin to understand this heavily Christian influenced moral abstraction. Why is it ok for Christians to hate everyone but no one is allowed to hate Christians.
Of course not all Christians are complete scumbags, some are just seriously sad misguided souls.
Check out this Video
Alan Chambers an apparent former homosexual was cured of his homosexuality and for a small contribution can help you overcome this horrible lifestyle. His ministry Exodus International will help you change to the god appointed lifestyle of straight living. It would seem that killing all of the first born of a particular nation is no big deal but taking a dick in the back door is something we really need to focus on.
I was raised with the mentality that gay people are sick. It only took me finding out that my friend Casey was gay and already knowing that he was not sick, for me to begin to understand this heavily Christian influenced moral abstraction. Why is it ok for Christians to hate everyone but no one is allowed to hate Christians.
Sorry for letting my mind wander
I typically try to keep this page dedicated to religious fanatics but there is something that I need to share that is really important to me. Almost a year ago I nearly lost my life to a drunk driver. The saga has been an ongoing development that I have kept logs on at www.nomoredrunks.blogspot.com . The most recent development is so outrageous that I wanted everyone to get a chance to see it. Please help me make Mark Nigon the most famous drunk in the state of Colorado. Thanks
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
God Damned Taggers!
OK, I have been tagged by Atheist Hussy and Mister Jeb (Tina) so I figured I better get on this! Oh the pressure.
• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to
get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them each a comment telling them they're tagged,
and to read your blog.
1. I was raised a strict Christian and believed it for most of my life
2. I graduated from school in Southern California with a degree in Psychology but I feel that higher education is fairly useless in this day and age.
3. I supplement my income by playing poker
4. I love Marijuana but have not smoked in over 3 and a half years because I love my job more!
5. When I am around fundamentalist Christians I actually have a slight fear for my safety
6. I am the most loyal friend ever
7. I believe drunk drivers should be locked up as long as bank robbers. After all aren’t they stealing something more precious from us than money?
8. I would believe in God in a heartbeat if someone could prove that he/she is real
I am tagging my favorite blogs (Minus the ones that already tagged me)
Kill the Afterlife
Debunking Christianity
BitchPHD
Temple Whore
InfidelisMaximus
Atheism is Rational
General Jesus
Unbelief
• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight
things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to
get tagged and list their names.
• Don't forget to leave them each a comment telling them they're tagged,
and to read your blog.
1. I was raised a strict Christian and believed it for most of my life
2. I graduated from school in Southern California with a degree in Psychology but I feel that higher education is fairly useless in this day and age.
3. I supplement my income by playing poker
4. I love Marijuana but have not smoked in over 3 and a half years because I love my job more!
5. When I am around fundamentalist Christians I actually have a slight fear for my safety
6. I am the most loyal friend ever
7. I believe drunk drivers should be locked up as long as bank robbers. After all aren’t they stealing something more precious from us than money?
8. I would believe in God in a heartbeat if someone could prove that he/she is real
I am tagging my favorite blogs (Minus the ones that already tagged me)
Kill the Afterlife
Debunking Christianity
BitchPHD
Temple Whore
InfidelisMaximus
Atheism is Rational
General Jesus
Unbelief
Monday, June 25, 2007
Ha Ha!
This is really funny. You can submit the URL of your blogsite and get your Blog rating. It comes as no suprise what my blog was rated! I also tried to get onto my blog from a hotel computer and was Denied Access because my blog seems to contain explicit content. "Landlords and Powerwhores." Click on my rating if you want to try it out on your site!
Here are the words that set it off
kill (10x) abortion (7x) gay (4x) sex (3x) bitch (1x)
Mingle2 - Online Dating
Here are the words that set it off
kill (10x) abortion (7x) gay (4x) sex (3x) bitch (1x)
Monday, June 18, 2007
Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you!
A conversation that I had with my wife the other day got me thinking about those evil villains in American society that we refer to as Atheist. Being that the large overwhelming majority of Americans seem to claim some sort of Judeo Christian faith it comes as no surprise that the myth of the “Evil menacing Atheist” exist. After all if someone doesn’t believe in God, then how can their life have any meaning, and how could your life mean anything to them? By this line of reasoning we should be terrified of Atheist. After all they could snap and kill you at any moment and they wouldn’t feel the least bit bad about it.
The idea that one cannot have any sort of “moral behavior” without a God can be easily refuted through the theory of “memes. Regardless of any refutation though, the Savvy Christian has been trained to chime back the phrase “BUT THAT IS MORAL RELATIVISM.” The truth remains that you should be more terrified that a Christian is going to kill you than an atheist regardless of your beliefs about who is wrong and who is right about their individual belief systems.
If it is true that Atheist have no god to answer to for their behaviors then they would inherently know that they are themselves directly responsible for any actions that they take. If I kill you then I will go to prison and likely be killed myself. A Christian on the other hand has a few ways to view this. First and foremost the Christian has a free pass to break any rule they want. Jesus died for their sins and will forgive them no matter what they do. A Christian can kill you for any reason and as long as he asks for forgiveness before his execution, he will go to heaven. So this Christian could kill someone, before they accept Christ, and inadvertently send them to hell, while he himself gets to go to heaven! Sounds fair, doesn’t it?
A Christian could also believe that God has told them to kill someone. We see this in the news all of the time. People kill their kids, spouses, friends, all because they believe that God has commanded them to do so. I have yet to see a story of an Atheist who killed someone because he felt that some invisible force commanded it.
Typically what I see of atheist is that they care about the world, people, and the direct environment around them. They try hard to take care of things because they know that it is all that they have. They try to take care of themselves because they know that they only have one pass through life. I can’t tell you how many fat slobs you will see in any given church. (try going to the south a.k.a. the bible belt) On average Christians don’t take care of themselves as well as naturalist, humanist or atheist do, because their worldview tells them that this life is not all that important. It is but a flash in time compared to the eternity in paradise that they are going to spend in heaven!
Here is an interesting equation to top off this thought process. Out of the closet atheist only make up about 3% of the American population. If they are truly indulging in all of the evils in our world then they should also be making up a large portion of the prison population in our country as well. Suprisingly an astonishing 90%+ of prison inmates claim to be Christian while less than 1% claim to be of no religion. Take this information into account alongside the fact that all of these criminals are processed through our Christian prejudiced judicial system and you would expect the number of Atheist inmates to rise to at least 10%. It doesn’t though!
My real problem with this topic is that Christians love to claim the good and ignore the bad. When science finds a cure for a disease, when a relative is saved from a horrible incident, when crisis is averted, the Christians say “Praise god, He is good.” But when disaster strikes, when friends are taken from us needlessly, when HIV and malaria are spread like wildfire then suddenly events are the cause of man’s sinful nature. If God is the author of everything good, then he is also the author of everything bad. If this is true, then this makes God’s influence on the world no better than a chance roll of the dice. And we are back to square one!
The idea that one cannot have any sort of “moral behavior” without a God can be easily refuted through the theory of “memes. Regardless of any refutation though, the Savvy Christian has been trained to chime back the phrase “BUT THAT IS MORAL RELATIVISM.” The truth remains that you should be more terrified that a Christian is going to kill you than an atheist regardless of your beliefs about who is wrong and who is right about their individual belief systems.
If it is true that Atheist have no god to answer to for their behaviors then they would inherently know that they are themselves directly responsible for any actions that they take. If I kill you then I will go to prison and likely be killed myself. A Christian on the other hand has a few ways to view this. First and foremost the Christian has a free pass to break any rule they want. Jesus died for their sins and will forgive them no matter what they do. A Christian can kill you for any reason and as long as he asks for forgiveness before his execution, he will go to heaven. So this Christian could kill someone, before they accept Christ, and inadvertently send them to hell, while he himself gets to go to heaven! Sounds fair, doesn’t it?
A Christian could also believe that God has told them to kill someone. We see this in the news all of the time. People kill their kids, spouses, friends, all because they believe that God has commanded them to do so. I have yet to see a story of an Atheist who killed someone because he felt that some invisible force commanded it.
Typically what I see of atheist is that they care about the world, people, and the direct environment around them. They try hard to take care of things because they know that it is all that they have. They try to take care of themselves because they know that they only have one pass through life. I can’t tell you how many fat slobs you will see in any given church. (try going to the south a.k.a. the bible belt) On average Christians don’t take care of themselves as well as naturalist, humanist or atheist do, because their worldview tells them that this life is not all that important. It is but a flash in time compared to the eternity in paradise that they are going to spend in heaven!
Here is an interesting equation to top off this thought process. Out of the closet atheist only make up about 3% of the American population. If they are truly indulging in all of the evils in our world then they should also be making up a large portion of the prison population in our country as well. Suprisingly an astonishing 90%+ of prison inmates claim to be Christian while less than 1% claim to be of no religion. Take this information into account alongside the fact that all of these criminals are processed through our Christian prejudiced judicial system and you would expect the number of Atheist inmates to rise to at least 10%. It doesn’t though!
My real problem with this topic is that Christians love to claim the good and ignore the bad. When science finds a cure for a disease, when a relative is saved from a horrible incident, when crisis is averted, the Christians say “Praise god, He is good.” But when disaster strikes, when friends are taken from us needlessly, when HIV and malaria are spread like wildfire then suddenly events are the cause of man’s sinful nature. If God is the author of everything good, then he is also the author of everything bad. If this is true, then this makes God’s influence on the world no better than a chance roll of the dice. And we are back to square one!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Atheist Blogroll
The AngelsDepart Blogsite is now a member of the rapidly growing Atheist blogroll hosted by Mojoey. Thank you Mojoey for attempting to gather atheist into one spot, which some have likened to be a task more difficult than herding cats.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Paris Hilton Owns You
There is no need for this blog to be a long one. I can have nothing but utter disdain for Paris Hilton. She thinks that just because she has all of the money in the world that she should be above the law. I have to put my foot down though on everyone calling her stupid. She is clearly smarter than the 75% of the population that claim a Christian faith. The most beautiful part is that she is using it. Paris said, in an interview with Barbara Walters “Now, I would like to make a difference. ... God has given me this new chance." That is it! All is forgiven. Our great Christian nation has changed their mind about Paris because she appealed to the God concept. How about if she had killed a child while drunk driving? Do you know how many people “find God” when they go to prison? Do you think that it is a coincidence? Criminals are smart. They know what you need to hear. They will use it as long as it works and you are dumb enough to buy it. In the words of Peter Griffin “Do you know what really grinds my gears? You America, Fuck You!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
smart S.M.R.T. smart
The following article represents why I am having such a difficult time picking a specific candidate that I would like to see living in the white house in 2008. Religion seems to be so important to the American voters that even candidates who are obviously not religious are hiring strategist that will help them reach religious voters by exuding a belief in “a god.” As if this wasn’t disturbing enough now many candidates are finding themselves in a sticky situation when trying to answer questions pertaining to their belief in a god. Being that it is nearly impossible for a Presidential candidate to get elected without professing a belief in a god, it makes me exceptionally angry that Christians are still spouting that they are being persecuted. Read with caution!
Click here for direct link to the story
Lately it seems all the leading presidential candidates are discussing their religious and moral beliefs -- even when they'd rather not.
Indeed, seven years after George W. Bush won the presidency in part with a direct appeal to conservative religious voters -- even saying during a debate that Jesus Christ was his favorite philosopher -- the personal faith of candidates has become a very public part of the presidential campaign.
If I remember right George’s favorite quote from his favorite “philosopher” went something like this. “Fool me once shame on, shame on, Ya fool me ya can’t get fooled again!” Seriously though, this man won an election based on professing Christianity, and then a re-election based on the same thing. Obviously his actions carried no weight.
Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have hired strategists to focus on reaching religious voters. Obama's campaign holds a weekly conference call with key supporters in early primary and caucus states whose role is to spread the candidate's message to religious leaders and opinion makers and report their concerns to the campaign.
OK, I really liked both Hillary and Obama up until now. I am not sure that they would have received my vote, but I am sure that they won’t now! How about if we stop worrying about these idiots, that are still worshipping a sky creature and start worrying about “ISSUES.” The only reason that Christians are getting catered to so heavily in this country is because there are so many of them. If everyone here believed in Thor then we would be studying his teachings and building a political campaign around them. Either way it is ridiculous. Why do we care what religious leaders think about the candidate’s message? Let them eat their kosher crackers and drink their grape juice while we let our intelligent political candidates make the decisions that will affect us here in the real world.
Democrats in general are targeting moderate Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and even evangelicals, hoping to enlist enough voters for whom religious and moral issues are a priority to put together a winning coalition.
This is setting Democrats up for disaster. As soon as the first Democrat gets caught with his/her dick in an interns mouth (little joke there for those of you that are a bit slow) the Republican party will masterfully frame and twist the event to tear the Democrats off of their so called moral platform.
Next week, Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are scheduled to address liberal evangelicals at a forum on "faith, values and poverty."
FAITH!!! FAITH!!! They are going to address liberal evangelicals on the issues of faith! “I believe in God, vote for me!” Jesus Fucking Christ, are we seriously contributing to these mental patients delusions?
Some top-tier Republican candidates, the natural heirs to conservative religious support, are finding the issue awkward to handle.
“Senator McCain, do you believe that the axis of evil is representative of the four horseman of the apocalypse from Revelation?”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been questioned so much about his Mormon faith -- 46 percent of those polled by Gallup in March had a negative opinion of the religion -- that he has taken to emphasizing that he is running for a secular office.
Wow, the Mormon, the only one that everyone is really really afraid of, is the only one that is making any sense!
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic who says he gave serious consideration as a young man to becoming a priest, is fending off critics who say he should be denied the sacrament of communion because he supports abortion rights.
Oh no! No more stale crackers and grape juice for poor Rudy!
Religion has become such a common element of presidential politics that during the first televised debate among the 2008 Republican candidates, a reporter asked if any did not believe in evolution -- three Republicans raised their hands: Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.
Now just throw in a phrase like “God has called me to lead this great nation” and you’re in!
"To many Americans, religion is a very important part of their life and they are interested in how religiosity influences candidates," said John Green, a University of Akron political science professor and senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
"Where this election cycle is different," he said, "is that more of the Democratic candidates are speaking out about their faith, and they've organized their campaigns to appeal to religious voters."
In past campaigns, Republicans nearly cornered the conservative religious vote. The 2004 Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, is a Catholic but lost the Catholic vote 47 percent to 52 percent to Bush, according to exit polling. Bush won white evangelicals 78 percent to 21 percent.
Have you ever wondered who the idiots voting for Bush were? Well, here is your answer!
Now, Democrats are speaking plainly about their beliefs. In March, Edwards told the multi-faith Web site Beliefnet.com that Jesus would be appalled at how the nation has ignored the plight of the suffering.
OK, pretty cool move. A statement like this appeals to the religious voters, sides yourself with the moral teachings of Jesus, but doesn’t submit yourself to the belief in religious dogma. Can we have respect for Edwards now?
"I think the majority of Americans, the people who largely decide elections, what they are looking for -- particularly in these times -- is a really good and decent human being to be president," Edwards said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If you are a person, a man or woman, of faith, that has an impact on how they view you as a human being, whatever your faith is."
So I suppose it is clear that getting these voters is important. I like Edward’s angle on this. Unfortunately it is just too easy to verbally assassinate a candidate with this on the fence stance by asking him a direct question regarding his faith. This of course is the type of attack that Republicans seem to excel in.
Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, which is holding next week's liberal evangelical forum, said in a statement that "faithful voters" are "hungry for a real conversation about the big moral issues of our time."
There are a couple of problems with Jim’s clearly uneducated statement. First let’s have a little grammar lesson. “Faithfull voters” would actually refer to people that always vote, not necessarily people that vote based on faith. I am assuming that good ol Jim meant the latter though. Second, Jim has fallen into a fallacy in this statement. Jim’s statement begs the question by assuming that having faith has something to do with having morals. Christians love to say that the verdict is in on this argument but it is clearly not. Morals are much better explained by “Memes,” than through religious doctrine that was most likely built through “Memes.” That is, of course, only one theory that explains moral behavior better than the Bible.
The forum is the latest in a series of events in which presidential candidates have addressed the issue of religion and politics.
Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, a Catholic, told an April forum at Boston College that Democrats have made "a huge mistake over the years" by not talking more openly about how their personal faith informs their public policy positions.
Hopefully this is because their personal faith is "NOT informing” their public policy positions!
Brownback, a former Methodist who converted to Catholicism in 2002, told the same forum that faith "doesn't make all your decisions, but you can't segregate it out -- it's part of the values basis you bring."
In one of the first joint appearances of the 2008 campaign, Brownback and Obama were guest speakers at the evangelical Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., where best-selling author Rick Warren is pastor.
Obama's close relationship with his own pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, whose theology emphasizes "black values" and strengthening the black community, has also been a campaign issue. Obama withdrew an invitation to the pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., to speak at his presidential announcement in February.
This was a smart move by Obama. It is wise to separate yourself from a racist no matter what color they are or who they are racist against. Of course it seems that Obama’s decision was based more on politics than on personal belief. Obama was recently quoted talking about how there is a "silent uprising" in the African American community that is coming about due to the government ignoring the displaced black citizens from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Well I hate to have to be the one to point this out but there were people of all races displaced by this disaster and ignored by the government. Pointing out a specific race is only necessary if they are being singled out (not the case here) or if you are trying to gain special privileges for the group. (possibly the case here) I would like to see someone like Obama make a call to action to help all of the displaced “people” from the Katrina disaster rather than all of the displaced “black people.” How will we ever move past our race issues if we keep separating all of our races? But I digress!
Last year, Obama chastised fellow Democrats for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoers.
"Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," he said.
Well, of course not, but allowing religious leaders to influence policy with their insane beliefs makes us no better than any other extremist of any other belief system!!!
Ironically, it is some of the top Republican candidates who are shying away from public discussions of their faith.
"I don't think that a person who's running for a secular position as I am should talk about or engage in discussions of what they in their personal faith or their personal beliefs think is immoral or not immoral," Romney said in an AP interview last week in response to a question about whether he believes homosexuality is immoral.
Giuliani didn't want to talk about his faith, either. "The mayor's personal relationship with God is private and between him and God," his campaign told AP.
Seriously, what a truly great way to approach it! Keep your faith to yourself, and make decisions based on logic. If you want to bathe in frankincense and say 1000 hail marys while flogging yourself with a Holy leather whip each night before you go to bed, then fine, but when you come into work in the morning it better be business as usual. Employers will tell you during initiation for a new job to leave your personal issue at home; this obviously includes your strange religious beliefs and rituals!
It may be difficult for Giuliani to keep a lid on discussions of his faith. Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI said he agreed with bishops who said Catholic politicians had excommunicated themselves by legalizing abortion in Mexico City.
Because God would rather have massive amounts of children growing up in poverty and spending their whole lives wallowing in feces, building homes out of trash and starving to death. Yea, that’s reasonable. Yeah God!
Seven of the 18 candidates for president -- four Democrats and three Republicans -- are Catholic. Besides Giuliani, the four Democrats also support abortion rights.
But support for abortion rights doesn't necessarily hurt candidates with Catholic voters, who support legalized abortion in all or most circumstances by 53 percent to 43 percent, according to 2004 exit polling.
Catholics are making sense? What is this world coming to?
"Catholics are in a middle position -- Republicans woo them on things like abortion and same sex marriage, but Democrats are closer to their core teachings on things like health care for the poor, the death penalty and social welfare policies," said Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University professor and author of several books on politics and religion.
"They're a swing bloc not fitting clearly in either party, which makes them a very valuable constituency in elections."
Valuable? *Sigh*
Click here for direct link to the story
Lately it seems all the leading presidential candidates are discussing their religious and moral beliefs -- even when they'd rather not.
Indeed, seven years after George W. Bush won the presidency in part with a direct appeal to conservative religious voters -- even saying during a debate that Jesus Christ was his favorite philosopher -- the personal faith of candidates has become a very public part of the presidential campaign.
If I remember right George’s favorite quote from his favorite “philosopher” went something like this. “Fool me once shame on, shame on, Ya fool me ya can’t get fooled again!” Seriously though, this man won an election based on professing Christianity, and then a re-election based on the same thing. Obviously his actions carried no weight.
Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have hired strategists to focus on reaching religious voters. Obama's campaign holds a weekly conference call with key supporters in early primary and caucus states whose role is to spread the candidate's message to religious leaders and opinion makers and report their concerns to the campaign.
OK, I really liked both Hillary and Obama up until now. I am not sure that they would have received my vote, but I am sure that they won’t now! How about if we stop worrying about these idiots, that are still worshipping a sky creature and start worrying about “ISSUES.” The only reason that Christians are getting catered to so heavily in this country is because there are so many of them. If everyone here believed in Thor then we would be studying his teachings and building a political campaign around them. Either way it is ridiculous. Why do we care what religious leaders think about the candidate’s message? Let them eat their kosher crackers and drink their grape juice while we let our intelligent political candidates make the decisions that will affect us here in the real world.
Democrats in general are targeting moderate Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and even evangelicals, hoping to enlist enough voters for whom religious and moral issues are a priority to put together a winning coalition.
This is setting Democrats up for disaster. As soon as the first Democrat gets caught with his/her dick in an interns mouth (little joke there for those of you that are a bit slow) the Republican party will masterfully frame and twist the event to tear the Democrats off of their so called moral platform.
Next week, Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are scheduled to address liberal evangelicals at a forum on "faith, values and poverty."
FAITH!!! FAITH!!! They are going to address liberal evangelicals on the issues of faith! “I believe in God, vote for me!” Jesus Fucking Christ, are we seriously contributing to these mental patients delusions?
Some top-tier Republican candidates, the natural heirs to conservative religious support, are finding the issue awkward to handle.
“Senator McCain, do you believe that the axis of evil is representative of the four horseman of the apocalypse from Revelation?”
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been questioned so much about his Mormon faith -- 46 percent of those polled by Gallup in March had a negative opinion of the religion -- that he has taken to emphasizing that he is running for a secular office.
Wow, the Mormon, the only one that everyone is really really afraid of, is the only one that is making any sense!
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic who says he gave serious consideration as a young man to becoming a priest, is fending off critics who say he should be denied the sacrament of communion because he supports abortion rights.
Oh no! No more stale crackers and grape juice for poor Rudy!
Religion has become such a common element of presidential politics that during the first televised debate among the 2008 Republican candidates, a reporter asked if any did not believe in evolution -- three Republicans raised their hands: Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.
Now just throw in a phrase like “God has called me to lead this great nation” and you’re in!
"To many Americans, religion is a very important part of their life and they are interested in how religiosity influences candidates," said John Green, a University of Akron political science professor and senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
"Where this election cycle is different," he said, "is that more of the Democratic candidates are speaking out about their faith, and they've organized their campaigns to appeal to religious voters."
In past campaigns, Republicans nearly cornered the conservative religious vote. The 2004 Democratic nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, is a Catholic but lost the Catholic vote 47 percent to 52 percent to Bush, according to exit polling. Bush won white evangelicals 78 percent to 21 percent.
Have you ever wondered who the idiots voting for Bush were? Well, here is your answer!
Now, Democrats are speaking plainly about their beliefs. In March, Edwards told the multi-faith Web site Beliefnet.com that Jesus would be appalled at how the nation has ignored the plight of the suffering.
OK, pretty cool move. A statement like this appeals to the religious voters, sides yourself with the moral teachings of Jesus, but doesn’t submit yourself to the belief in religious dogma. Can we have respect for Edwards now?
"I think the majority of Americans, the people who largely decide elections, what they are looking for -- particularly in these times -- is a really good and decent human being to be president," Edwards said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If you are a person, a man or woman, of faith, that has an impact on how they view you as a human being, whatever your faith is."
So I suppose it is clear that getting these voters is important. I like Edward’s angle on this. Unfortunately it is just too easy to verbally assassinate a candidate with this on the fence stance by asking him a direct question regarding his faith. This of course is the type of attack that Republicans seem to excel in.
Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, which is holding next week's liberal evangelical forum, said in a statement that "faithful voters" are "hungry for a real conversation about the big moral issues of our time."
There are a couple of problems with Jim’s clearly uneducated statement. First let’s have a little grammar lesson. “Faithfull voters” would actually refer to people that always vote, not necessarily people that vote based on faith. I am assuming that good ol Jim meant the latter though. Second, Jim has fallen into a fallacy in this statement. Jim’s statement begs the question by assuming that having faith has something to do with having morals. Christians love to say that the verdict is in on this argument but it is clearly not. Morals are much better explained by “Memes,” than through religious doctrine that was most likely built through “Memes.” That is, of course, only one theory that explains moral behavior better than the Bible.
The forum is the latest in a series of events in which presidential candidates have addressed the issue of religion and politics.
Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, a Catholic, told an April forum at Boston College that Democrats have made "a huge mistake over the years" by not talking more openly about how their personal faith informs their public policy positions.
Hopefully this is because their personal faith is "NOT informing” their public policy positions!
Brownback, a former Methodist who converted to Catholicism in 2002, told the same forum that faith "doesn't make all your decisions, but you can't segregate it out -- it's part of the values basis you bring."
In one of the first joint appearances of the 2008 campaign, Brownback and Obama were guest speakers at the evangelical Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., where best-selling author Rick Warren is pastor.
Obama's close relationship with his own pastor at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, whose theology emphasizes "black values" and strengthening the black community, has also been a campaign issue. Obama withdrew an invitation to the pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., to speak at his presidential announcement in February.
This was a smart move by Obama. It is wise to separate yourself from a racist no matter what color they are or who they are racist against. Of course it seems that Obama’s decision was based more on politics than on personal belief. Obama was recently quoted talking about how there is a "silent uprising" in the African American community that is coming about due to the government ignoring the displaced black citizens from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Well I hate to have to be the one to point this out but there were people of all races displaced by this disaster and ignored by the government. Pointing out a specific race is only necessary if they are being singled out (not the case here) or if you are trying to gain special privileges for the group. (possibly the case here) I would like to see someone like Obama make a call to action to help all of the displaced “people” from the Katrina disaster rather than all of the displaced “black people.” How will we ever move past our race issues if we keep separating all of our races? But I digress!
Last year, Obama chastised fellow Democrats for failing to "acknowledge the power of faith in the lives of the American people," and said the party must compete for the support of evangelicals and other churchgoers.
"Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," he said.
Well, of course not, but allowing religious leaders to influence policy with their insane beliefs makes us no better than any other extremist of any other belief system!!!
Ironically, it is some of the top Republican candidates who are shying away from public discussions of their faith.
"I don't think that a person who's running for a secular position as I am should talk about or engage in discussions of what they in their personal faith or their personal beliefs think is immoral or not immoral," Romney said in an AP interview last week in response to a question about whether he believes homosexuality is immoral.
Giuliani didn't want to talk about his faith, either. "The mayor's personal relationship with God is private and between him and God," his campaign told AP.
Seriously, what a truly great way to approach it! Keep your faith to yourself, and make decisions based on logic. If you want to bathe in frankincense and say 1000 hail marys while flogging yourself with a Holy leather whip each night before you go to bed, then fine, but when you come into work in the morning it better be business as usual. Employers will tell you during initiation for a new job to leave your personal issue at home; this obviously includes your strange religious beliefs and rituals!
It may be difficult for Giuliani to keep a lid on discussions of his faith. Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI said he agreed with bishops who said Catholic politicians had excommunicated themselves by legalizing abortion in Mexico City.
Because God would rather have massive amounts of children growing up in poverty and spending their whole lives wallowing in feces, building homes out of trash and starving to death. Yea, that’s reasonable. Yeah God!
Seven of the 18 candidates for president -- four Democrats and three Republicans -- are Catholic. Besides Giuliani, the four Democrats also support abortion rights.
But support for abortion rights doesn't necessarily hurt candidates with Catholic voters, who support legalized abortion in all or most circumstances by 53 percent to 43 percent, according to 2004 exit polling.
Catholics are making sense? What is this world coming to?
"Catholics are in a middle position -- Republicans woo them on things like abortion and same sex marriage, but Democrats are closer to their core teachings on things like health care for the poor, the death penalty and social welfare policies," said Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University professor and author of several books on politics and religion.
"They're a swing bloc not fitting clearly in either party, which makes them a very valuable constituency in elections."
Valuable? *Sigh*
