Where are we headed?

[MichaelHarris]

A while back I wrote an article entitled "The Rise and Church and State in America" for the editorial section.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=38146

In that article I attempted to show the dangers of a government bound by biblical law, "Using the Bible and its many “Laws”, the religious Conservative right wishes to dictate morality to the rest of the populace in the courts, from the pulpit, and in the Constitution." My intention was to show the hypocrisy of the right in "picking and choosing" which of God's laws to enforce, my opening paragraph details the arguments used by the conservative right as well as the facts debunking those arguments. I used a biblical quote to reinforce my argument, "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." (Exodus 12). The point of this post is to add more proof of this Church and State administration and its dangers. I wrote that article before I saw this headline, 'Texas Woman Who Stoned Sons Set for Trial'.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8299238.htm

"Laney, 39, a deeply religious woman who home-schooled her children in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, called 911 just after midnight on May 10 and told a dispatcher: "I've just killed my boys." She said God ordered her to do it."

"Deputies found 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke lying in the yard in their underwear, their skulls smashed and stones the size of dinner plates lying on their lifeless bodies. Their 14-month-old brother, Aaron, was found in his crib, alive but bleeding from a fractured skull, a pillow over his face. He is recovering."

This is an administration that is asking for an amendment to the constitution outlawing same-sex marriage based on biblical law, the same biblical law granting permission for a parent to put to death a disobedient child. Let me reiterate,

"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." Deuteronomy 21:18-21

Conservatives can't have it both ways, thats called hypocrisy. Is this the next amendment they will want to add? Stoning disobedient children?

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. They are indeed hypocritical

and oddly enough, thoguh they are Christian, they keep bringing old testament laws (hand-picked, of course, out of the plethora) with which to base their claims of morality.

So, homosexuality is right out (even though even the old testament is unclear on that), but wearing clothing of mixed fibers is A-OK.

Adultery is right out (unless you're Newt or Bush or Arnold or Rush or etc. etc. etc.) but it's okay to fire up a big old ham for Easter Sunday dinner.

Put the Ten Commandments in the schools and in the courtrooms, but not Jesus summation of all the law: "Love your God with all your heart, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."

The rightwing is SOOOOO concerned with "things other people shouldn't do" that they lose sight of "things we should do", like love one another, have mercy and compassion, and showing some grace once in a @(&$&@# while. Even the few times they mention new Testament texts, it's mostly of the "you shouldn't do it" type, and it's very rarely anything from Jesus, anyway.


Though I am a religious professional in the Christian Church, I don't want the religion, or the Bible, or the doctrine or dogma, in our government. I'm willing to let things happen because of religious beliefs - ending slavery, civil rights, and many other things exist because people of good conscience, based on their Christian faith, led them to cry out for it - but I don't want the government legislating religious attitude. The republican reichwing have the false supposition that only Christians are moral; whereas instead, their brand of Christianity is highly immoral. I know many athiests who are far more moral than the reichwing bible thumping fish-on-the-SUV types.

That last pargraph wasn't very clearly written, but hopefully iy's understandable.

[Nadienne]

3. I wasn't there, so I don't know

...but I think that at the time when Jesus was born, the people who had power and control (over laws and other people's lives) were either wealthy or high in the religious heirarchy. And Jesus came along saying things that threatened their authority. ("It is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter heaven...", etc)

So of course, he had to be silenced.

Conservative fundamentalists today, claiming to be Christians - claiming to be followers of Christ - have ideologies that maintain their own right to power, and these ideologies more closely resemble those of who Jesus came to correct than of Jesus himself.

They are the very people Jesus threatened. If Jesus would return today, they are the very ones who would crucify him.

One of my sisters is a sincerely good person. But, whenever some e-mail propaganda comes around, and she forwards it to me, and I reply that it's propaganda (the latest was some "Mary had a little lamb" poem about seperation of church and state - particularly public school) she inches closer and closer to thinking I'm a Catholic-hater. It's funny how some people can be so susceptible to sappy propaganda. And it's funny how a message of hate and discrimination against the non-conformists, those who are not "normal", can get passed along unwarily by people who are innocently and sincerely trying to make the world a better place.

[anti_shrub]

2. The more I think about how divided the nation grows...

The more I think of Theoden's speech in The Two Towers while he's armoring up for battle:

"How did it come to this?"

[LibertyorDeath]

4. To some sort of orwellian fascistic hell & as the worlds

resources deplete the pace we approach this Hell is accelerating.

It's the count down to extinction.

Hey you caught me on a good day don't make me get pessimistic on your ass.