Christianity on The Huffington Post

Elayne Boosler: Gay Marriage, Chickens, and How to Win

2008-11-12T22:50:01Z

It's hard to be totally elated at the lifting up of one group (African Americans) when another group (gays) is stripped of the most fundamental of human rights. Prop 8 in California passed; a constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman (or however many men and women men and women want to marry, one at a time). The "sanctity" of marriage is now safe. Sanc⋅ti⋅ty [holiness, saintliness, or godliness]. (So now where is that separation of church and state we're so fond of imagining?) It should chill everyone's blood that anyone's choice of whom to marry can be left up to a vote by strangers. Does Barak Obama remember when it would have been illegal for his black/white parents to marry? Who's next? Prop 8 now faces lawsuits, petitions, and daily demonstrations. If you're gay you take it personally, but aside from the religious nuts who can never be reasoned with, the way to win is to understand that it isn't personal. It's life as usual; "what's in it for me?" Again, the banality of evil.

The chickens, and Obama, knew how to sell it, while opponents of Prop 8 made a cardinal mistake; they relied on the kindness of strangers. Tennessee Williams, a national treasure who saved us from a lifetime of Cats and Grease, and who would not be allowed to marry in California, showed us the folly of that. And in California, owners of multi- million dollar properties also defeated a proposition to fund after school programs for at-risk youth because it would add fifty six dollars a year to their property taxes. Yes, even to the thousands of homes that cost from three million to forty million dollars here, just fifty six dollars a year, (the cost of one Medeco key). All you need to know about Californians, you can learn here at a four way stop sign.

There is a noble earnestness in the hope that people will do the right thing, but that is not how Obama, or the chickens, won. They won because they made their cases that voting for them was going to be better for you. For every voter that wanted Obama to win because he was the best man AND African American, there was a voter who forced himself to ignore the fact that Obama was African American, because that voter's needs were going to be better served with Obama as president. Obama knew this, so he framed this election (as he said in his victory speech) as being about you. Not him. You. And what did McCain keep saying? "I'm a maverick. She's a maverick. We're mavericks." Hey, we're over here.

The chickens won (slightly) more room because the commercials made it clear this was better for your health. Do you think if the HSUS framed the argument as "The chickens are suffering, and so are the other sentient animals who deserve to live their short lives free of pain and panic", do you think Prop 2 would have passed? I don't. It passed because the commercials made passing it about your health, and showed pictures of things you would never want to eat or have your food come from.

There are lots of people who don't care about animals, or electing the first black president, or gay people also having the right to get married in their cars in Vegas if they're too drunk to walk, or kids who have nothing, getting to play ball after school. The chickens got it right. People saw those chickens wallowing in filth and thought "Shit!! I'm not putting anything from there in my mouth!" Done deal. If they had said instead, "Do the right thing", those chickens would be living like thirty clowns in a volkswagon.

To win this fight, and it's criminal that any American taxpayer has to fight for fundamental human rights in 2008, show the opponents the advantages to them.

RATIONAL ARGUMENTS:

All marriages strengthen a society. That's why the people who consider them sacred marry so many times.

It's not a "Lifestyle", it's a life.

Less teenage suicide, the message was "hope", right?

More great homes become available when two become one.

Millions of dollars will pour into the economy for weddings; hotels, travel, bands, musicians, photographers, videographers, florists, wedding planners, caterers, bakeries, bartenders, waiters, liquor industry, clothing, taxes, real estate, furnishings, painters, jewelers. etc. etc. All those business owners vote. Promise not to elope.

More loving homes to welcome the shameful number of unwanted children languishing in orphanages. Religious people, they'll take care of you til the day you're born.

ARGUMENTS FOR THE DUMB GUYS

Less bad marriages for Liza Minnelli.

For those who believe there is a "gay agenda", where gays actually want to turn your three hundred pound beer drinking husband gay, well, now he'll be safe.

Take a page from "A Day Without a Mexican" and do the same, exaggerate the stereotypes: "A Day Without a Homosexual." 80% of Americans' hair will look like shit. The Desperate Housewives will be without makeup and great clothes, aagghhh how old are they?? Ballet companies will be missing lots of dancers, women forced to lift themselves. Small numbers in audience for Bette, Kathy, Equity Waver Theater. Half the women in America will have no one to talk to about what they're going through. Bronzer sales plummet. No one buying cashmere throws. Choirs reduced by half, harmony suffers. No one to sell shoes at Barney's. Retail sales down; no one to show buyers the possibilities. "Fabulous" dropped from dictionary. America loses ability to bounce back with grace.

And as one commenter wrote last week, and I wish I could find his name again but I tried and couldn't, "If people are against gays having sex, let them get married. That will put a stop to it".

Robin Tyler: Why We Feel Betrayed

2008-11-12T19:31:14Z

With regard to African American voters, 70 per cent of your community sided with the same kind of bigots who supported slavery, who fought against interracial marriage, who vote to send your people who are addicted to prison instead of rehabilitation centers, and who vote to cut off aid to your families, saying that it is a 'moral' issue because 70 per cent of your children are born out of wedlock, and therefore, you should be responsible. These are the bigots with whom you sided! You got in bed with your enemies, the very people who have f----d African Americans again and again, in the name of 'morality' and their religious beliefs.

But I want to say that despite my overwhelming sense of betrayal, I am, as our community is, still firmly committed to continuing our fight against racism. Because, as Dr. King said, "injustice against one is injustice against all."

The California Supreme court struck down the ban on Inter-racial marriage in 1948, (Perez v Sharp), and thanks to the landmark Federal Supreme Court ruling in the case of 'Loving v Virginia', all state miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967.

And yet it wasn't until 1991, 24 years later, that interracial marriage was supported by a majority of Americans. Had the Caucasian people who supported "Yes" on Prop 8 been voting on your right to interracial marriage, until 1991, just 17 years ago, you would have lost. And as I sat in the California Supreme Court on March 4, 2008, the bigots used the same argument against us that they used against you. " It was 'tradition.'" And the justices answered, "so was slavery." And the bigots argued, "God doesn't want interracial marriage which is why he put the races on different continents." And in 2008, California Supreme Court justices ruled, "It is illegal to hide discrimination behind religious beliefs.

That is why we have a court system. That is why the United States constitution says that 'the rights of a Minority may not be denied by the Majority.' That is why Proposition 8 is Illegal. This is not just about marriage equality. This is about civil rights, which Dr. King said is for everyone. Bayard Rustin, the great African American leader who was gay, who called for and organized the 1963 March on Washington, D.C., turned over in his grave Nov. 4, 2008.

This is not an issue for only 'rich white gays.' Black male same-sex couples in the U.S. are almost twice as likely to be living with a child as a white same-sex couple. Black female same-sex couples in the U.S. are just as likely to be living with an adopted or foster child as a black married opposite-sex couple. Many of these African American couples want to get access to marriage so they can provide a more secure future for their children.

And Barack Obama, I voted for you -- even though you said your Christian religion would not allow you to support same-sex marriage. Well, I did not vote for you to be my Christian president. I voted for you to be my president.

You said you were going to be the president of all the people. You even mentioned the word "gay" in your election-night speech. Well, how can you be the president of all of us when LGBT Americans do not have one civil right on a Federal Level?

The gay community wants total and equal rights with the straight community, including marriage. Offering gays only domestic unions and civil partnerships are separate and not equal. When African Americans had to drink from separate water fountains, it was called segregation. It meant they were not good enough to drink from white water fountains, that somehow, they would 'taint' the water, because they were 'less.' To ask us to accept only domestic unions and civil partnerships are marriage segregation. It means that you consider our relationships to be less than yours, that somehow we will destroy the 'sanctity' of marriage. How has my marriage affected yours?

Fifty per cent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce. Eighty per cent of people ordered to pay child support, most of them men, do not pay it. Three out of every four children are sexually abused. And speaking of sexual abuse, the Mormons campaigned against us and for limiting marriage to one man and one woman. These are people, who, despite their denials, have not even begun to prosecute the polygamous marriages in which child sexual abuse is rampant. And they call us immoral.

We must not make this a fight with the African American community, or we will all slide to the bottom. That is what the right wing wants. We need to reach out and to keep educating minority communities. And we need to remember the numerous churches and religious Individuals and the 250 California rabbis who sided with us.

But, our passivity has ended. Tens of thousands of lesbians and gays will continue to Protest all over the USA, and we should not get off the streets. We must finally see ourselves as a civil rights movement, and act accordingly. Power is never given, it has to be taken.

What do we want? Equal Rights! When do we want them? Now!

Robin Tyler was the original plaintiff, along with Diane Olson, in Tyler vs. the County of Los Angeles, which gave lesbians and gays the right to marry in California when the state Supreme Court ruled in their favor. On June 16, 2008, they became the first and only gay couple to wed in Los Angeles County. Rallies are being organized all over the USA for Saturday, Nov. 15, in front of City Halls. robintyler@robintyler.com

Theresa Darklady Reed: Halloween "Hell Houses" Act Out Depraved Christian Wet Dreams

2008-10-31T16:47:01Z

Looking for something to really scare the pants off of your kids and other loved ones as the Halloween season draws to a close? Drop by your local fundamentalist Christian "Hell House" and find out what torments await you once you've died and gone to hell.

Typically orchestrated by church or parachurch organizations, Hell Houses luxuriate in the graphic depiction of all manner of sin -- for a good cause, of course.

The cause?

Saving the miserable souls of undeserving sinners who delight in wickedness -- like celebrating Halloween.

Although similar to more familiar secular live-action haunted house attractions, Christian Hell Houses pack their rented space with brief but gruesome mini-stories, accompanied by some degree of explanatory narration. But these vignettes aren't being recreated in order to share a fun bit of fright - they exist in the hopes of literally scaring the devil out of visitors.

Their message is spread throughout the year, but during the month of October their physical manifestation cashes in on the holiday spirit and the hope that attendees won't know what they're getting into until it's too late.

Featuring graphic, exaggerated, and clearly opinionated reenactments of abortions gone horribly bad, teen suicides, excessive intoxication, illegal drug use, adultery, homosexuality, Satanism, occult practices, and pre-marital sex, Hell Houses communicate a clear message to their guests: repent and accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior -- or die and burn for all eternity.

After enduring a cascade of sounds and images ranging from demons cackling over the misfortune of unwed mothers and unrepentant homosexuals to the casting of sexually active men and women into hellish flames, visitors are reassured by visions of salvation at the hands of Jesus - who then leads everyone to a land of punch and cookies.

According to Wikipedia, Jerry Falwell provided the world with the first Hell House experience during the late 1970s. Scaremare still exists today and has spawned a multitude of fundamentalists with something sexy and violent to do during October without officially being involved with a holiday that many insist is based in Satanic teachings.

Pastor Keenan Roberts, now of Colorado but originally from Roswell, NM, enthusiastically embraced the Hell House tradition, not only creating his own in Arvada, CO but providing instructions and kits for churches that wish to indulge in their own horror ministries.

Secular critics complain that Hell Houses not only unfairly prey upon the fears of young children and adolescents but often dupe prospective patrons into laying down cash for what they think will be a light-hearted scare by failing to mention that they have a decidedly evangelical spin.

That view is shared by Christians who take a dim view of high-pressure conversions, with many contending that the likelihood of long-term spiritual success is limited and their methodology manipulative. Further complicating acceptance of Hell Houses by even bible believers is the fact that many view their heavy-handed fear tactics to be a form of child abuse - and not all consider the "sins" depicted to necessarily be sinful.

Nonetheless, they are an increasingly common national occurrence.

According to ReligiousTolerance.org, a typical Hell House experience includes graphic and factually inaccurate re-enactments of such things as the murder of Columbine High School student Cassie Bernall's by a fellow student who allegedly killed her for her faith. Joining this scene are those depicting innocents being sacrificed by Wiccans during Satanic rituals, demon possession brought on by exploring the occult, witches forcing teens to commit murder, and drunk drivers slaughtering their passengers. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have provided modern Hell House organizers with new scenarios to present, as well.

Late-term abortions, complete with raw meat, considerable screaming, copious blood and callous medicos are perennial favorites, of course - although more sensitive churches have begun depicting the baby killing women as filled with guilt and remorse in order to promote the invention of something called "Post Abortion Syndrome." Also in the sex vein are examples of tragedy resulting from sex before marriage, spousal arguments that drive men to adultery and the supposed evils of same-sex relationships.

Audio effects are often provided by a Hell House specific CD featuring "the voice of suicide, the voice of God, and the bone-chilling demon declaration of 'HELL HOUSE' in the opening scene." According to Roberts, Hell House kits run a tidy $200+ and "show young people that they can go to hell for abortion, adultery, homosexuality, drinking and other things unless they repent and end the behavior."

Never one to let others appear more self-righteous than themselves, the fictional followers of Landover Baptist church have developed their own satirical, if non-existent, Hell House, which they claim is the only spot of church land where non-believers are welcome during the year.

Sounding all-too-authentic by insisting that Halloween is Hebrew for "Satan Ruleth," the fanciful church claims that the holiday celebrates the fall of humankind and the rise of Catholicism - and the LandoverBaptist.org website describes their unique interpretation of the Hell House phenomena as "a reality-based adventure that takes people on a 7-scene journey, each scene depicting the hell and destruction that Satan and His world bestow on those who choose to not accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Personal Savior, submit to God's authority, join a Bible-based church, and participate in and financially support the Baptist faith."

This year's fantasy-rich vaporware Landover Baptist Hell House is billed as featuring "an unparalleled experience of horror," according to commentary on the subject, which claims that "Real Corpses from Turkey's Earthquake that would have been wasted in mass graves, will (sic) frozen and delivered to Landover Baptist Church, to be used in the Godly purpose of winning souls! We intend to so traumatize people with images of death and Hell, that they will have no choice but to fall flat on their faces in the conversion tend and repent, get baptized and get their little Devil loving souls into church!"

The entire tour of Landover Baptist's fictive Hell House is billed as taking approximately a half hour to view its 10 scenes. One vignette has allegedly been shortened to a mere 30 seconds, "in an effort to cut down on all the vomit we had to clean up between groups last year."

Highlights of the fright fest include the funeral of a gay teen who died from AIDS contracted by touching ink from a "pedophile homosexual Secular-History teacher," the suicide of a drunken father responsible for the auto related death of his family, a graphic teen suicide autopsy, a pot smoking devil who introduces children to the drug before being begged to impregnate them, Satan both performing and devouring an abortion while disguised as a Jewish doctor, a gay man raping a live chicken that is then cooked and served to the audience, and unrepentant souls being whipped and beaten until converted.

A signed medical waiver is supposedly required before entering the Landover Baptist Hell House, which, among other things, hopes to bring salvation to "teenagers influenced by the poison of negro music."

Although Landover Baptist church is an unrepentant satire, in the real world much of what it promotes is not. While there is no official word about whether its development owes any direct thanks to Roberts' Hell House Outreach kits -- odds are strong that the lampoon is a more than fitting homage for a profoundly anti-sex, anti-equality message that belongs buried in the dark ages of antiquity.

John H. Tucker: War Waged by Christian President Results in Christian Massacre, Say Disaffected Iraqi-Americans

2008-10-31T12:07:27Z

Dave Nona is an Iraqi-American living the immigrant dream. After arriving from Baghdad in 1968, Nona, now 60, owns a house and two cars, sends his three kids to private school and runs a construction-development business with two of his six brothers in West Bloomfield, Mich. Like most Republicans, he worships once a week and staunchly opposes abortion and gay marriage.

But this year, Nona -- who like the majority of Iraqi-Americans is not Muslim, but Christian -- will vote for Sen. Barack Obama.

To understand why, one must look to Mosul, the longtime home of Iraq's Christian population, which lately has been a wellspring of violence. Over the last month, several there have been the victims of murderous extremism, and at least one church has been bombed. More than 2,000 Christian families have evacuated their homes, according to the Human Rights Ministry. No one has claimed responsibility for the violence.

President George W. Bush has been slow to acknowledge the exodus, infuriating many Iraqi-American Christians who were among the president's earliest and staunchest supporters.

"He's basically destroyed one of the most ancient Christian communities in world," said Ron Stockton, a professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and co-author of the Detroit Arab-American Study, which explored attitudes toward Arab-Americans in the months following Sept. 11. "This is his unintended legacy."

"Most Americans have no clue that the biggest victims of this war made by this Christian president have been the Christians of Iraq," said James Zogby, who runs the Arab-American Institute.

Nona is one of about 300,000 Iraqi-Americans affiliated with the Chaldean Catholic Church. Theologically aligned with Rome, the church is made up almost entirely of Iraqis and Iraqi emigrants who trace their roots back 7,000 years ago to Mesopotamia. Because of their deep faith, family values and entrepreneurial spirit -- 65 percent of Chaldean-American heads of household own at least one business, according to a recent survey -- they tend to vote Republican.

This year, because of newly formed bitterness toward the Bush administration, that is likely to change.

Nona is no longer willing to call himself a Republican because of the president's perceived lack of interest in the Christian massacre. "I think it's the ultimate irony that the lasting legacy of this great country's fight against Islamic fundamentalism is the destruction of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world," he said.

Martin Manna, head of the Chaldean-American Chamber of Commerce, in Farmington Hills, Mich., said Bush's tepid response to the violence signals his embarrassment over a failed war policy. It also symbolizes a breach of loyalty to Chaldean-Americans, who have been quick to sign up as translators for U.S. military in Iraq, said Manna. "Our folks stepped up every time, and this is the thank-you we receive."

For many of the roughly 120,000 Iraqi Christians living in Detroit, the persecution in Northern Iraq is the most compelling factor in the election, said Manna. "There's not a Chaldean here without family back home," he said. Several of the group's leaders have been actively campaigning for Obama.

There are still several Iraqi-American Christians who support John McCain. Some of the support is attributable to social issues, but much of it stems from fear that troop withdrawal will make an already-violent situation in Iraq worse.

"If the Americans withdraw it will be a catastrophe," said Ban, 27, who moved to New York two years ago as a refugee. She declined to give her last name to protect her family in Baghdad. She likens the persecution in Mosul to that of the Jews 60 years ago. "If I had the right to vote, I'd vote for McCain," she said. "His policy is to keep the troops. I'm relying on them for the safety of my family."

Harith Sulaiman, 40, a Chaldean living in New Jersey, added: "When you break a glass, you must put it back together."

Chaldeans began arriving to the United States in the 1960s and '70s as immigrants in search of better economic opportunities, which they quickly found. They earned money through small business ventures, settled down into suburban communities near Detroit and San Diego and -- though no formal study has been done -- have always leaned Republican. They have not followed the voting patterns of Arab-Americans, who supported Democrats, Republicans and Independents nearly equally in the mid-1990s before drifting toward Democrats in 2002, according to Zogby.

Both Obama and Sen. John McCain have acknowledged the violence in Mosul. Obama recently wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for her support on behalf of vulnerable Christians, and McCain met with several of the group's leaders in Detroit.

Religious discrimination against Chaldeans is nothing new in Iraq. For years they could not rise above a certain military rank. But that changed when Saddam Hussein rose to power. Under his vision of a secular Iraq, they began to prosper.

"You've gotta give Saddam some credit here," said Stockton. "He wanted to build a national identity that did not have sectarian differences. The Chaldeans actually flirted with him."

Manna agreed. "Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, but at least our people could worship freely," he said. "They didn't have to worry about going to church and being kidnapped."

Chaldeans, Assyrians (who belong primarily to the Church of the East) and other small groups combine to total about 400,000 Iraqi Christians in the United States, though estimates vary. That number is compared to between 50,000 and 100,000 Iraqi Muslims. Most members of the latter group are Shiites who entered the country as refugees during the Gulf War and the present-day conflict.

Now, once-conservative Iraqi-American Christians are part of a growing community leaning more to the left with each passing day of the war.

"We are literally witnessing a very real extinction in Iraq, and no one seems to care about it," said Nona.

Martin added: "The minority Christian population is being decimated. History shows that once Christians leave Iraq, they don't come back."

Robbie Gennet: There is No Such Thing as a Christian Democracy

2008-10-28T17:21:43Z

There is no such thing as a Christian Democracy. There is no such thing as a Muslim Democracy or a Jewish Democracy either (or a solely Heterosexual one, for that matter). True Democracy means True Equality and no religion sees itself as equal to all the others (and they feel especially unequal to secularism and atheism). Of all the problems we face in unifying the "United" States of America, one of the largest and most damaging is those who believe that their religion should be the official religion of our Democracy. In this country, the vast majority of them feel that the USA was founded as a Christian nation and should be run like one, which is anathema to the true Democratic ideals of our founding fathers. They never once think how they would feel if they were a minority and another religion was trying to assert its dominance over them in society. Let's look at two quotes from our presidential candidates that expose their feelings about American Democracy:

"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all." --Sen. Barack Obama, 6/28/06

"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian Nation." - John McCain on video

And just for good measure, three quotes from some of our Founding Fathers as shown in Bill Maher's excellent film "Religulous":

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." -- Thomas Jefferson
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." -- John Adams
"Lighthouses are more useful than churches." -- Benjamin Franklin

There is a fast growing percentage of the US population who does not choose organized religion at all and in many cases, follow or even acknowledge a god. Add to that the millions of American non-Christian believers of every other faith and you wind up with a large swath of the population of our country. Regardless of how sure you are that Christ will herald the Rapture and all sinners will go to Hell, connecting those beliefs with government is massively disrespectful of all the non-Christian citizens you share the country with. The main problem has to do with faith itself. People of every religion must accept certain dictates and definitions about how and why things are in their belief system and they must believe that their religious laws are "right" and all other beliefs (and non-beliefs) are thereby wrong. You can see how this is incongruous with Democratic equality. I may not believe in Jesus Christ, but my non-theistic lifestyle doesn't require my feeling superior to people of religion. Nor does it require convincing or recruiting other people to believe with me. But how often we see the holier-than-thou finger-pointing and the smug air of blind faith lorded over those who are different. Religion divides. And nobody's right.

A billion Muslims think the other 5 billion people on the planet are wrong. A billion Christians think the other 5 billion people on the planet are wrong. To the casual observer, it would seem to be a losing battle, a giant hedging of bets on red or black, a certainty in the one you picked and a total ignorance towards the many other colors of the rainbow. A 50% chance of being right and yet, the believers all seem so sure of their beliefs. In many ways, life is 50/50- either things go your way or they don't. That's life and the chances we take while living it. Having expectations of outcomes sets up disappointments and let's face it, none of us can predict the future. The past is gone and the future is uncertain, leaving only the moment you exist in as the one sure thing. Eckhart Tolle's best-seller The Power of Now is about that very subject, and there is great power in accepting a reality where we aren't bound to past and future but to Right Now. And Right Now more than ever, we need the kind of Democracy that provides the Freedom and Equality that America truly stands for.

Beyond religion, beyond race, beyond class, there is a world that waits for us to come together as one people, one race, one love. All it takes is a decision by each of us to accept our fellow citizens as equals so we can be truly unified by our fundamental rights of Liberty, Justice and the Pursuit of Happiness, three unalienable rights as promised in the Declaration of Independence. And for the record, the American Heritage Dictionary defines 'unalienable' as "Not to be separated, given away, or taken away." Those who seek to take away or subjugate the rights of others are inherently un-American and don't respect true Liberty and Justice for All. Religious elitism goes against the very foundation of Democracy and the principles that this great country was built on. If America is to truly be a shining beacon on the hill, it's light must reach all people, not some chosen few.

John Seery: Proposition 8: "It Is Written, but I Say unto You."

2008-10-28T17:11:16Z

I just don't get California's Proposition 8, the initiative for a state constitutional ban against same-sex marriage. It's become the most expensive "social issue" ballot measure ever. The stakes are high.

In my neighborhood, there are yard signs for and against the measure. I must say, I'm simply baffled by the "Yes on Prop. 8" folks. I've listened carefully to their arguments, I've tried to heed their sentiments, I've tried to respect their "moral" concerns. But I just don't buy it. In fact, their campaign saddens me greatly.

My wife and I have been together for almost 25 years. We have two beautiful children. For the life of me, I simply cannot see any way that same-sex marriage threatens my marriage, not by any stretch of the imagination. Not in the least. I just don't get the claim about how the ban is necessary to "protect marriage."

The argument about procreation doesn't make any sense. If that were the crux of the matter, then marriage would be proscribed or discouraged for older hetero couples, or infertile couples. Such childless marriages are no less sacred or celebrated. And it's not as if the presence of same-sex married couples is going to inhibit the procreative tendencies of hetero couples. Why presume that these sexualities are competing or in active conflict with one another, as a zero-sum trade-off? Is the sheer idea of same-sex coupledom somehow a romantic turn-off for certain heteros? Are the "Yes on Prop. 8" folks implying that a sizeable number of otherwise hetero individuals will convert to homosexuality if same-sex marriage is permitted, and that's why the breeding foundations of society are allegedly imperiled today? Will hetero couples have less sex because they'll get depressed that same-sex couples will now be sharing the institution of marriage? The procreative argument just doesn't fly. Maybe someone out there can explain it to me.

The main animus, as far as I can tell, against same-sex marriage is religious (I could proffer psychological explanations as well, but those seem derivatively intertwined with the religious reasons). The offended religiosity claims to be based on Scripture. It all boils down to a couple of passages in Leviticus, and maybe a few scattered comments in Paul's letters. To take those passages seriously, however, one today must read them selectively and tendentiously while ignoring their clearly antiquated aspects. I don't see any way around it. If a man lies with a male as with a woman (Lev. 21:13), then that "abomination" requires that they both be put to death--along with the death penalty for adultery and other offenses. If the "Yes on Prop. 8" folks are sincerely convinced that Leviticus requires them to oppose same-sex marriage today, then why aren't they following Scripture more rigorously and calling for the death penalty--not only for homosexuality but also for heterosexual adultery? I just don't get how one can be actively incensed by one line of Scripture but then be completely oblivious to the very next line. If you're a literalist and you believe every word in the Bible is God's revealed word, then you have no exegetical right to pick and choose which passages in Leviticus matter to you today and which don't.

Christians in particular surely ought to read the books of the Hebrew Bible, such as Leviticus, in the manner in which Jesus suggested they be read. Max Weber, the great sociologist of religion, insisted that Jesus' main charismatic appeal and divine-like authority could be traced to his personalist rejection of Scriptural literalism. For Weber, the key to the entire spirit of Christianity is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount, precisely when Jesus repeats time and again: "It is written, but I say unto you." [Often translated as, You have heard, but I say unto you."] With those words, Jesus reforms Scriptural law and prophesy, subsequently telling his followers that they must read past the strict letter of the law and, instead, inquire into its greater meaning, the "spirit" of the law.

That said, I simply do not see how any devout Christian today can read the Sermon on the Mount scrupulously and still support Proposition 8. Jesus' unconditional embrace of the disaffected and the marginalized in society--the poor, the meek, the persecuted--simply doesn't square, in the above Weberian sense of Christian spirituality, with the invidious, exclusionary, self-righteous, and judgmental tendencies that sanctimoniously inform the rationale behind Proposition 8. In his 1919 address, "Politics as a Vocation," Weber warned that the Sermon on the Mount is an absolute ethic; it is, he said, "no joking matter." The commandments therein are "not a cab, which one can have stopped at one's pleasure." Turning the other cheek, forgiving trespasses, loving your enemy, judging not: those are not pretty verses to be heard and then merely mouthed. Those words, rather, must be lived, and lived consistently, doing whatever one does for the least of one's brethren.

Christine Wicker: Evangelical Leaders Using God Like a Hired Gun

2008-10-28T07:42:18Z

They tried branding Obama the anti-Christ. They tried linking him with Islamic terrorists. They've implied that unknown powers bought his allegiance by financing his education at Ivy League universities. They've used their pulpits to endorse McCain, hoping to spur a fight with the I.R.S. that would rouse their troops.

None of these tactics has brought their errant minions under control.

So using God like a hired gun to terrorize the town's people, the evangelical Christian mullahs are declaring that Obamageddon is at hand, using that very word and asking as the Religious Right/Republican Townhall magazine did in a September headline, "Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?"

Evangelical publisher James Strang answers the survival question by warning his readers that people who hate Christianity will take over the country once Obama is elected.

In fact, "life as we know it will end," Strang writes.

Last week Focus on the Family's James Dobson added his own doomsday predictions with a 16-page rant about evils that will befall the United States by 2012 if Obama is elected. A British commentator dubbed Dobson's list of a parade of horrors.

As a warm up Dobson blames misguided young evangelicals for putting Obama in office. It's them he's hoping to scare most. But they and emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren, who endorsed Obama, have broken ranks and won't be coming back. He's truly delusional if he thinks they're listening to him.

A great mass of other evangelicals, who never followed the evangelical mullahs and never will, are also going for Obama. Maybe Dobson thinks they'll listen to him.

Not likely. They're using tried-and true-evangelical tactics on behalf of their own cause.

Seattle's Jim Henderson, a former Pentecostal preacher and head of Offthemap.com, is trying guilt.

He recently sent a mass email urging his friends to support Obama because he has the character and bearing to be president, and because his election gives Christians the opportunity to transform historical wrong.

The enslavement of Africans contributed greatly to our nation's wealth and has never been addressed directly and concretely by our leaders, Henderson wrote. Linking that lack of repentance to the country's $13 trillion of debt, he told his friends that our current troubles are a matter of reaping what we've sown. He then cited the chance to elect Obama as an example of "God's mercy - as a way through this historic dilemma and one that will do for our national character what reparations never could."

He and his ilk won't be convinced by Dobson's scare tactics. They're more likely to agree with a new bumper sticker popular in Colorado, where Focus on the Family is based.

It reads, "Focus on your own damn family."

So which evangelicals are left? Oh, I know. How could I have left them until last? The true faithful. The ones who always listen to Dobson.

He's going after evangelicals who may stay home on election day because they paid too much attention to his reasons for refusing to support McCain earlier in the year.

At that time, thinking that he was powerful enough to quash McCain's nomination, Dobson chastised fellow evangelical Gary Bauer for supporting the senator from Arizona.

"The Senator," Dobson said in a press release from Focus on the Family, "is being touted by the media as a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his first wife, and was implicated in the so-called Keating scandal with four other senators. He was eventually reprimanded by the Congress for the 'appearance of impropriety.' The Senator reportedly has a violent temper and can be extremely confrontational and profane when angry. These red flags about Senator McCain's character are reminiscent of the man who now occupies the White House."

The man who now occupies the White House? Oh yeah. That guy. Isn't he the last president the Religious Right elected?

But let's forget about that. Many of God's men have fallen. God's people move on.

Dobson's jeremiad against McCain also noted the senator's love of alcohol and gambling, as well as his acceptance of support from Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group.

Pretty strong stuff. All true. But let's forget about that.

The Republicans anointed McCain anyway.

When Dobson saw that threats to take his toys and go home didn't keep McCain from winning the nomination, he forgot his previous scruples. Now Dobson sees McCain as God's man. It's Obama who's the devil. And under God's direction, as he always is, Dobson is speaking out again. But this time he is no longer dealing in truth.

As he notes in the letter's preface, Dobson is now imagining things, things that could happen if Christians don't unite behind McCain and give that adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, bought-out-by-the-homsexuals drinker and gambler the most powerful elective office in the world.

In the letter Dobson imagines Boy Scouts disbanding rather than allowing gay scout leaders the complete license they will get if Obama is elected. He imagines the Pledge of Allegiance being banned in schools. He imagines Communism gaining new power. He imagines doctors killing children just minutes before birth. He imagines Americans forbidden to own guns. He imagines television and radio stations forbidden to preach the Bible. He imagines ministers, lawyers, doctors, social workers all being punished for following their consciences.

Dobson may have gotten his letter idea from Christian radio's Janet Porter who wrote an imaginary "Letter from a Future Prisoner" last year. She was fear mongering over the idea the Hillary might be elected. If that happened "thought crimes" would be instituted. Christian books would be banned. Christian speech would be called hate speech.

Porter, an even bigger drama queen than Dobson, imagined herself in prison doing hard labor merely for defending her faith. And who does she imagine in the cell next to her?

No, no. Not Jesus. Don't be ridiculous.

It's a home-schooling mother weeping inconsolably because her innocent children have been put in foster care.

All because they loved Jesus.

All because that adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, bought-out-by-the-homsexuals drinker and gambler didn't win the presidential election.

It's enough to make Mickey Rooney weep.

Robbie Gennet: The Problem with Education

2008-10-27T16:07:30Z

A government who educates its people serves to sharpen a blade that may ultimately do it in, while the government who under-educates their population seeks to create a docile flock that is easily misled and controlled. They want people smart, but not too smart. Ignorance breeds hate, which we're seeing plenty of at Palin rallies these days. But when we talk about educational reform, it is important to consider things from the government's point of view. In the eyes of John McCain and the Republicans, if they make the public school system as dysfunctional as possible, then they can push vouchers and "choice" so that parents can send their children to private schools on the governments dime. Most often, those are religious (read: Christian) schools and they don't have the accountability issues (or separation of Church and State issue) that the Public School System has. This is a backhanded way of bridging that church-state divide and having government (read: taxpayers) fund religious education. Barack Obama wants to actually reform the public school system so that every child in America can get a world class education becoming of the richest country in the world. By raising our standards of what we expect from our students and preparing them to be globally competitive, we make our best investment in America's future. Obama's concentration on science and math is especially important as we have fallen farther and farther behind the rest of the developing world in both of those categories. But here's the rub: science, more so than math, doesn't always jibe with what religion teaches.

The "War on Science," as Hillary Clinton called it, includes the Creationism/Intelligent Design movement and has cost us dearly in global competitiveness. There is no room for superstition when we are turning out a sub-par working class whose outsourced jobs are being filled by better qualified candidates in India and points elsewhere who understand and adhere to the empirical basis of scientific fact. It is unfortunate for those of blind faith that their beliefs keep butting heads with things like logic, reason and reality. Sarah Palin's views on dinosaurs are a symptom of the endemic irrationality that has gripped our nations discourse during the "Culture Wars." We must firmly grasp empirical truth to lift ourselves from this quagmire of stupidity. This is not meant to be a blanket generalization; there are some people who let their feelings of faith guide their moral behavior but still understand that the world is billions of years old and not the center of the universe. That dinosaur bones weren't hidden all over the earth by a God who just wants to test our faith in him. The idea of a big practical joker in the sky screwing with people's heads by planting false evidence of large reptilian beings is as absurd as imagining that he/she is listening to every individual prayer made by the faithful or intervening in football touchdowns and Alaskan gubernatorial races. And if, like George W. Bush indicated, God has had the ear of the most powerful man on earth and has given him all the advice that has led us down this dark 8 year path, that doesn't exactly give me faith in God's advice, let alone His teachings being used in private schools funded by school vouchers. If God's advice led George W. Bush to his decisions, perhaps we should subpoena God and see what he told our president to do in His name. We'll need some mighty big handcuffs for a deity perp walk...

This is really about who educates our children and ultimately, why. Blind faith must be left at the doorsteps (or trash bins) of our schools and our students must be taught by competent (and well-paid) teachers who understand that we as a nation and people have fallen behind and that our children are our future. To give one example, India is a very spiritual country but Hinduism hasn't stopped their growing economy, their emphasis on education or their ability to anticipate and adapt to coming trends in the world economy. Science isn't the enemy of their religion, but it is the enemy of illogical, unfounded dogmatic belief systems that cling to "facts" that can never be proved. Can American Fundevangelical Christianity ever accept that evolution is real? That the world and universe are billions of years old? That The Bible is not the "word of God" but a heavily edited book written by mortal men who had no concept of physics or science? Whether or not Christianity does or does not accept these things should have no more bearing on our Educational System than whether Aesop's Fables do. Sending our children to religious schools to avoid science is antithetical to giving them the proper tools to compete in the global economy. You can be assured that in the laboratories and factories of India, China, South Korea and Japan, they are no more concerned with being guided by the teachings of Jesus than they are by the phone book. And they are excelling in those areas most crucial to the new economy, while we stagnate and fall ever farther behind.

It is time to rescue our Educational System and give our children a better understanding of the world we live in and their place in it. If our public schools are competitive with other countries at every level, parents will have no need for vouchers to send them elsewhere. Leave the religious teachings to Sunday school and give our children the foundation for a better and brighter future by making our public schools second to none. There is no greater investment we can make in our country than in its people, especially the youngest among us. Let us truly leave no child behind so that America can move ahead!

Robert S. McElvaine: Merry Xmas! -- O Unholy Night when Christ was Reborn

2008-10-27T08:31:38Z

Merry Xmas, everyone!

Oh, I know that Christmas is still almost two months away. But today, October 27th, is Xmas.
Christmas is the day on which Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Today is the day on which Xians should celebrate the re-birth of Jesus as his opposite.

The Xians who should celebrate the rebirth of the one they worship on this date are the people I identify in my latest book, Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America, as Jesus Thieves. They have kidnapped Jesus, committed identity theft against him, and remade him into an advocate of the opposite of everything for which he stood.

Both an appropriate name for these pseudo-Christians and the idea that they should celebrate on this date came to me during a dinner conversation in Istanbul. The discussion was about the people who have hijacked the name of Christianity, those who call themselves "Christians" while disregarding everything Jesus taught, and about their counterparts in Islam.

While we were discussing Christian and Islamic "fundamentalists" during our dinner conversation in the city founded by Constantine, the most fitting name for those who shout the name "Jesus!" while standing Jesus on his head, those who have taken the holy name of "Christian" and turned into a vulgarity, came to me. In altering the message of Jesus, they follow a long tradition that dates back to some of the early Christians. But the most important hijacking of Jesus took place almost 1700 years ago and the person who had the greatest impact in overturning the teachings of Jesus was the Emperor Constantine, the man who renamed the city now called Istanbul Constantinople and who renamed what was actually Xianity Christianity.

"Born-again Christian" is a self-designation with which most of us have become familiar, but what many of those who so classify themselves actually worship is a born-again Christ. Many men might be called upon to provide DNA samples for a paternity suit involving the imposter presented as the re-born Jesus, but Constantine would be the one most likely to be determined to be the father.

Although the practitioners of ChristianityLite claim to celebrate the birth of Christ, they plainly do not like the first-born Jesus and prefer a born-again Jesus. They should, accordingly, stop commemorating his birth on December 25th and instead celebrate his rebirth, the most appropriate date for which is October 27th.

On the night of this date in AD 312, the eve of the pivotal Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine is said to have seen a vision of a cross with the Greek letters Chi and Rho, the first two letters of Christos, on it and to have seen or heard "In this sign you shall conquer." (That Chi looks like the letter X is fittingly symbolic of what Constantine was doing to Jesus.) The Chi-Rho symbol was put on the shields of Constantine's soldiers (most of whom were pagans), and they won the battle. The grateful conqueror first tolerated and then favored Christians, finally converting on his deathbed.

But Constantine's actual conversion was not of himself to Christianity but of Christianity to himself.

By the end of the fourth century, a century in which Christianity gained an empire and lost its soul, Christians had been transformed from the persecuted to the persecutors.

Constantine gave Jesus the fourth century equivalent of a shot of anabolic steroids and transformed the Prince of Peace into the Prince of War and ally of the rich and the ruler. Constantine's "Jesus" is the one that has been accepted by large numbers of people calling themselves Christians for the last seventeen centuries.

Constantine made no attempt to get on God's side; instead, like such twenty-first century national leaders as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and George W. Bush, he thought that God was on his side. He identified his own goals as those of God. So do millions of people who call themselves "Christians" today.

These thieves who have stolen Jesus should stop claiming to be Christians and call themselves what they really are: Constantinians. They should celebrate the origins of their faith on October 27th--a holiday that can properly be designated as Xmas for X-ing out Jesus--by singing:

O unholy night when Christ was reborn.

Rise from your knees. O hear the demons' voices.

O night malign. O night when Christ was reborn.

Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown). Among his other books is The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Random House).

Patrick Kampert: The Myth of the 'Liberal' Media: A Primer for my Fellow Christians

2008-10-26T16:52:02Z

At my son's basketball practice last week, one of the other dads told me he'd just retired from the police force after more than a quarter-century on the job.

For part of that time, "I was the one who put you into a body bag," he said.

Asked why he gave up the badge, one of his reasons was simply, "It gets to you after a while."

My brother-in-law is a cop too. He told us about a case he handled once where a policeman-gone-bad killed his girlfriend and tried to clean up all the blood in the bathtub. But during the investigation, the technicians sprayed the bathtub with Luminol, a chemical that reveals, for a short time, evidence like blood proteins.

"It lit up like a Christmas tree," my brother-in-law said.

I think about that line a lot - and not just around the holidays. Because, to a lesser extent, journalists deal with the same challenge of not becoming jaded by the garbage they are constantly exposed to.

Even those of us who are not crime reporters are vulnerable. We read most of what our colleagues write, not to mention 100 stories from the wire services and 50 more during our research when we're expected to become instant experts on a subject so we can explain it to the public the next day.

I have sometimes become uncomfortable with Christian friends who are burning with indignation about some social issue or current event. With more extensive background information, and the gut assessments of human behavior that years of observation bring, journalists sometimes have a different perspective. I used to say I saw things in shades of gray, but that's not quite right. I see many sides to life and many sides to people. I see life through a multifaceted prism and am not as dogmatic or knee-jerk in my reactions as some people I know.

Seeing the world in polarized, black-and-white images is an easy trap to fall into. Keeps life tidy. No wrestling with dilemmas that take a lot of time and evaluation in a culture where time is as scarce as compassion. But prisms are our friends. Let me give you another example.

When I covered the Terri Schiavo case for the Chicago Tribune, it would have been easy to automatically, even unconsciously, side with the parents. The Schindlers were very vocal, very warm and friendly. Their St. Petersburg walkup is unbelievably modest, almost dingy, with its green carpeting and kitchen appliances that saw better days 20 years ago. The condo was a shrine to their daughter and numerous Catholic saints they petitioned to help her.

By contrast, Michael Schiavo would never talk to anyone except CNN's Larry King on occasion. He was tall and menacing, had a short fuse and insisted the case was a private matter between Terri and him. He left most of the public statements to his lawyer, George Felos, a shrewd, right-to-die attorney who reminded me of Zen enthusiast and basketball coach Phil Jackson with his confidence and his embrace of Eastern religion. In talking with him, I couldn't help but notice that there was no love lost between Michael Schiavo and him.

Yet the court that so consistently ruled against the Schindlers was run, ironically, by a conservative Christian judge. He received more than his share of threats from people of his own faith. The legal aspect that doomed the Schindlers was a procedural mistake by one of their early lawyers who allowed Felos to get an independent guardian for Terri dumped from the case without replacing him.

And the court record made it clear that, in the early days of the case, Terri's parents visited her perhaps once a month -- the feud between Terri's father and husband is really at the crux of the case, and the most tragic figure in the saga was Terri's mom, caught in the middle. Terri's siblings didn't visit much at all in the early days. Maybe Michael scared them away, maybe not.

Years later, when the media hordes descended and the camera's red light went on, the guest register suddenly became much more active. But from the beginning, her husband was there almost every day, a nursing home's "nightmare" - yes, that's the word used in the court records -- because of his demands for superlative care for Terri.

And at the very end, it was nauseating to see the way controversial "Christian" activist Randall Terry used the case to drum up donations to his own cause while, not to be outdone, representatives for the Schindlers' priests trumpeted the clergy's availability to reporters for high-profile interviews and touted their forthcoming national speaking tour. But in our sound-bite world, a lot of people missed those nuances.

Now, please understand that I'm not interested in making a political statement. I merely point out these things to say that people of faith too often make snap judgments. And they were out in droves down in Tampa Bay. But too often, the truth is in the details. You can miss a lot if you're not careful.

Are the majority of journalists liberals in their private lives? In my experience, yes. Do their biases, conservative, liberal or somewhere in between, come out in their journalism? Usually, no. All of us strive not to let that happen and, by and large, we're successful.

Is there a left-wing or an anti-Christian bias in the media? Not at all. Forget for a moment the Fox News Channels and MSNBCs of the world. I'm talking about dyed-in-the-wool journalists who strive for a balanced, fair presentation of the facts, not loudmouths more concerned with ratings points than impartiality.

You really should check out our e-mail inboxes and the "comment" sections on media websites sometime. The letters with the most darts typically come from people who dare to call themselves Christians, the ones who are supposed to have the love of Christ coursing through their souls. Instead, too many of these people are self-righteous Pharisees who eagerly relish the job of attack dog, with or without the lipstick that Sarah Palin alluded to.

Yet the Bible clearly states that, if we want to judge somebody, we should start with ourselves and our fellow believers (1 Peter 4:17). And if you're truly a Christian, it should also make you quake with humility that "judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment" (James 2:13). Are we showing mercy to those we disagree with? Doesn't look like it.

Journalists see the hypocritical behavior and hatred of the bad apples of the Christian church. When we're not hearing from the poison pens of the self-righteous club, we're the ones who have to go to the police station to pick up the mug shot of the youth-group leader who sexually abused the 14-year-old girl under his care. We're the ones who have to circumvent the bureaucracy of the archdiocese for the truth about the priest who fondled an 8-year-old boy.

We see the worst that a sin-soaked human nature has to offer. When you see that every day over the course of a career, you start growing a shell like an enormous turtle. You get cynical. You lose a sense of wonder, and the possibility of human goodness disappears as quickly as the evidence technicians cart off the jailed pastor's computer that's caked in child pornography. Journalists don't need threats; we need people of faith to pray for us as we deal, like a cop or a lawyer or a therapist, with a fallen world's fallout.

Yet I see too many Christians not using the minds God gave them, content to march in lockstep with whatever their leaders are telling them. They seem more interested in politics than prayer, more keen on Republicanism than revival.

They view themselves as the new chosen people because they are Americans, conveniently ignoring the fact, as others have noted before me, that this country was born through the genocide of one race and built through the enslavement of another. The New Testament clearly admonishes us that we evangelicals are aliens and strangers on this planet. But too many of us are sinking roots in the wrong, weed-choked soil. If you want to call someone to repent, we should be first in line.

Robert S. McElvaine: Unbuckling the Bible Belt from the Legacy of Slavery

2008-10-25T09:38:32Z

What is going on in the Bible Belt in this presidential year may be historic. Much media attention during the presidential primaries was paid to Mike Huckabee's success in the "Christian" states. The Reverend Governor Huckabee, we heard over and over again, was winning the "Christian" vote. "In the Bible Belt," MSNBC's Chris Matthews said of Huckabee, "he practically owns the place." Such comments obscured the fact that there are two very different versions of Christianity in this region, both of which are legacies of antebellum slavery.

The existence of another form of southern Christianity was reflected in a detail that no one addressed in the primaries: the intriguing fact that Barack Obama out-polled Huckabee nearly two-to-one in the Bible-Belt South.

The only state of the Bible Belt in which Sen. Obama did not win vastly more votes than Huckabee was the governor's home state of Arkansas. Looking at the total votes cast for the two candidates across the Bible Belt (including Missouri, which is a Border State in both Civil War and Bible Belt terms) before the Republican nomination was decided, Obama's margin over Huckabee was 66% to 34%.

Yet when Sen. Obama's success in the South was discussed during the long primary season, the section that is called the Bible Belt in Gov. Huckabee's case was described instead as a region with a large African-American population. Hardly anyone mentions that the "the Bible Belt" and "the Black Belt" refer to essentially the same part of the country. That easily overlooked fact is of enormous significance.

Is it mere coincidence that the Bible Belt is also the Black Belt? Why has biblical literalism held sway so powerfully in the region of the nation that used to practice and suffer under slavery on a large scale?

Martin Marty of the University of Chicago recalls a fellow historian once noting that the white southern Protestant clergy prior to the Civil War "came across as moral, devout, pastoral, learned, caring, informed, and generous preachers. And also to a person they defended human slavery, claiming that it was a response to divine mandates and divine will, biblically authorized."

It is a most noteworthy -- yet largely unnoted -- fact that the embrace of biblical literalism by whites in the American South in the mid-19th Century sprang from the common (and expedient) belief that the Bible provided a justification for slavery, a practice which undeniably is sanctioned on many of its pages.

None of those pages, however, is one that quotes Jesus. Their Bible-based defense of slavery led antebellum whites to enslave Jesus by tying his name to practices and beliefs that were antithetical to his teachings.

The legacy of slavery continues to weigh down this part of the nation in many ways. The most obvious of those deleterious effects, racism, is in remission, insofar as it is no longer explicitly practiced by the South's institutions and is fading on the personal level. But other toxic residues of the peculiar institution, such as stubborn and harmful resistance to change and the section's persistent poverty, especially but not exclusively among blacks, continue to harm the region.

Perhaps the heaviest burden of slavery that still holds down the section, though, is the yoke of a distorted biblical literalism that selectively emphasizes certain passages of what Christians refer to as the Old Testament while ignoring almost all of the teachings of Jesus.

The Jesus Thieves of this brand of "Christianity" preach from a 'Holey' Bible that cuts out all of the central teachings of Jesus, those difficult injunctions to turn the other cheek, help the poor, and love enemies.

There has, however, long been in the South an opposing concept of Christianity, one that emphasizes the Jesus of the Gospels along with the parts of the Hebrew Bible that speak not of slavery, but the escape from it. That was the Christianity of the slaves, of abolitionists of both races, and of African-American churches after emancipation. It was the Christianity that inspired both blacks and whites during the Civil Rights Movement. It was--and is--the Christianity that embraces what Jesus preached, instead of using him as a celebrity endorsement for such anti-Jesus positions as war, intolerance, and favoritism for the rich.

While Mike Huckabee alluded properly during his primary campaign to the teachings of Jesus on some economic issues, his appeal was principally to the sort of Christians who remain bound to the 'Holey' Bible they inherited from the Old South. It is those who still adhere to that hidebound version of the religion that were attracted by his fundamentalist talk.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, preaches from the texts of that other stream of southern Christianity, the one that follows what Jesus said. Adherents to that form of the religion seem to be going for Obama's talk of hope and change and reconciliation.

It won't be easy, but because Sen. Obama speaks a language that Christians of both brands in the South can understand, he has the potential -- beginning on Election Day but, if he is elected, particularly later as president -- to unbuckle the Bible Belt from those who have for so long been standing Jesus on his head. Maybe that Belt can at last be re-buckled to Jesus. Emancipation from a "Christianity" that was totally distorted by slaveholders would go a long way toward making the white South "free at last."

Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown). Among his other books is The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Random House).

Chris Rodda: Bachmann: Democrats Not "Normal American People" ... Hayes: Stability In Iraq Depends On Jesus

2008-10-24T16:30:16Z

Because the majority of my work has to do with fighting the religious right in one way or another, the first thing that pops into my head when seeing the names Michele Bachmann and Robin Hayes is the Congressional Prayer Caucus, the prayer group founded by Congressman Randy Forbes (R-the not real part of Virginia), whose members, which include Bachmann and Hayes, typically fill the lists of co-sponsors of any legislation designed to demolish the wall of separation between church and state.

As someone who's been fighting the Christian nationalist revisionism of American history for years, I keep a close eye on the "Christian heritage" legislation introduced by members of Forbes's Prayer Caucus -- legislation typically packed with lies about history. And, since starting to work for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), I've had another reason to watch this group. These are the folks who held up a defense authorization bill for weeks over language about chaplains praying in Jesus' name, and, for some reason, this group of forty-seven representatives has a disproportionate presence on the House Armed Services Committee -- roughly double their presence in the House as a whole. So, while Bachmann and Hayes might not have been familiar names to very many people before the revelation of their recent comments about which Americans are "real Americans" and which aren't, they were already quite familiar to me for these other reasons.

Robin Hayes's solution for Iraq -- "spreading the message of Jesus Christ"

Speaking at a Rotary Club meeting in his hometown of Concord, North Carolina in December 2006, Congressman Hayes pronounced that stability in Iraq ultimately depended on:

"spreading the message of Jesus Christ, the message of peace on earth, good will towards men. ...Everything depends on everyone learning about the birth of the Savior."

Hayes's outrageous remarks, published in the Concord Standard and Mount Pleasant Times, were immediately reported on the blog BlueNC, and the story quickly spread through the blogosphere. A few days later, a spokeswoman for Hayes, although telling the Charlotte Observer she had no reason to doubt the accuracy of the quotes, added, "It's interesting how these bloggers can distort the news." Then, Dale Cline, the editor and publisher of the Concord Standard, who had been at the Rotary Club meeting, appeared on MSNBC, saying that Hayes had told him he was "talking more about spreading Christian principles than spreading Christianity itself," but that Hayes wasn't backpedalling and was probably comfortable with his initial words.

Bachmann on Global "Warmism" -- Jesus already saved the planet

From an August 2008 interview with OneNewsNow, the "news" service of the American Family Association:

"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet -- we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."

From a speech before the Council for National Policy, delivered on the same night as Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver:

"Global warmism is not a scientific consensus; it is a belief system. And though it would dramatically impact 'every corner of the U.S. economy,' it was approached by the Democrat leadership as if it had been indisputably arrived at by a mathematical formula."

...

"The current Democrat leadership in Congress is serving the radical green religion."

Democratic Party not "normal American people"

Also from Bachmann's Council for National Policy speech:

"A Party that intentionally place Speaker Nancy Pelosi front and center before normal American people as its chairman with a nine percent approval rating is a party worthy of itself."

Obama an "anointed god?"

Naturally, because Bachmann's speech coincided with Obama's acceptance speech, she made plenty of references to the Greek column stage at Invesco Field, calling the event "a toga party at their recently erected Greek temple" and "Barack Obama's speech from Mount Olympus," culminating in this statement:

"Nor should we lay a laurel wreath on the head of an anointed god who can save us from the responsibility of paying for our own healthcare and retirement."

"Real" Americans don't like real American history

Michele Bachmann and Robin Hayes were two of the ninety-three co-sponsors of H. Res. 888, a resolution "Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as 'American Religious History Week' for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith," introduced by Randy Forbes in December 2007. This resolution, while purporting to promote "education on America's history of religious faith," was packed with the American history lies of Forbes's buddy, pseudo-historian David Barton. It listed a total of seventy-five "Whereases," leading up to four resolves, the third of which was that the U.S. House of Representatives "rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation's public buildings and educational resources," a complete travesty, considering that most of the "history" listed in the resolution is not real! I'm not going to get into the specifics of the resolution's many historical lies here, but for those who are interested, I debunked a few dozen of them in a series of nine posts on Talk2Action between January 4 and March 11. I still had a bunch more to go, but by the middle of March I had been informed that the battle against this resolution had succeeded, and it was never going to get to the floor, so I moved on to other things.

Like many members of Randy Forbes's Congressional Prayer Caucus, Michele Bachmann has strong ties to David Barton, and recently appeared on his WallBuilders LIVE! radio show. Barton, who, in addition to his work in creating an alternate Christian history of the United States, is a former co-chair of the Republican Party of Texas, and was named one of the 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America by Time Magazine, endorsed and campaigned for Bachmann in her 2006 House race. In his introduction of Bachmann on his radio show, Barton said that "she's really good for our side," and explained that his association with her goes back to her days in the Minnesota Senate.

"I have known this lady for a number of years. She was a state senator up there and matter of fact I worked with her on history standards up there in Minnesota and doing some history legislation and making sure that they could not censor religious references from history books, so, she's a great lady and just a real class act and just a solid, committed -- not just Christian -- but a biblical Christian..."

By his work with Bachmann on Minnesota's "history standards," Barton was referring to Bachmann's 2005 introduction of legislation to allow the use of historical documents containing religious references in the state's public schools -- legislation that was completely unnecessary given that Minnesota already had a law on the books stating that, "Districts may not censor or restrain instruction in American or Minnesota state history or heritage based on religious references in documents, writing, speeches, proclamations, or records." That law, passed in 2001, was also considered by many legislators to be unnecessary, because nothing prohibited the use of these documents at that time either. Barton had testified before Minnesota's House Education Policy Committee on the 2001 bill, and was brought in as "an historian and consultant" in 2005 when Bachmann introduced her bill.

Bachmann, defending the need for her clearly unnecessary legislation, actually cited a story spread by Fox News and religious right organizations and websites that the Declaration of Independence had been banned in a California school because it contained references to a creator, a story that, of course, was not true. The real story turned out to be that there had been a complaint against one teacher who was deliberately singling out only the religious references in historical documents in supplemental materials he was handing out to his students in order to promote religion and the notion that American was founded a Christian nation, so the school principal began reviewing his lesson plans. Needless to say, no school would ever ban the Declaration of Independence, and it's simply mind boggling how many people, apparently including Bachmann, actually believed this story.

Here's some of what Bachmann had to say during her September 1, 2008 WallBuilders LIVE! interview, conducted by Barton's co-host Rick Green.

"It's important for your listeners to know that there are strong, believing members of Congress who get it about our nations heritage and we love and appreciate David Barton. I've probably been on four of his Spiritual Heritage tours at the Capitol, and the staff knows, whenever David's going to be in town doing one, if I can get over there, I want to go because I learn something new every time I'm going through one of his tours. He's a treasure for our nation."

...

"We didn't get and gain this prosperity that we have in this nation -- this level of freedom -- by our own hands. This has been God's gift, and only when we submit ourselves to him -- his will -- and act in accordance with his plans will we continue to be blessed as a nation. That's why I'm so honored to be able to be there and work hand in glove with you -- with WallBuilders ministry -- to make sure that we can maintain America's freedoms, because they will evaporate very, very quickly -- it will make our heads spin how quickly these freedoms will evaporate if we don't continue to be ever ready to make sure that we preserve them."

On June 17, 2008, in a last ditch effort to save Randy Forbes's H. Res. 888, or at least put on a good show for the "real" Americans, about twenty representatives, including Michele Bachmann and Robin Hayes, spent several hours on the House floor giving speeches on "Our Rich History of Faith."

Bachmann's contribution to this litany of Christian nationalism and fake American history was about the Declaration of Independence, which she stated "is a Declaration that we are first and foremost a religious country," ending her remarks, "Today, we recommit ourselves and our country to these all-important religious foundational principles. Today, we recommit ourselves to being free." Robin Hayes actually concocted a bogus George Washington quote worthy of David Barton, claiming that Washington's "most famous acclamation was his prayer at Valley Forge," and saying this prayer was, "Bless O Lord the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy son Jesus. Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.'" What Hayes did here to create this "prayer at Valley Forge" was to take a few lines from Washington's 1796 farewell address, and attach a sentence mentioning Jesus at the beginning, a sentence which is from a prayer journal claimed by the history revisionists to have been written by Washington in the 1750s, but long ago determined to be a fake.

Robin Hayes, in addition to co-sponsoring Randy Forbes's H. Res. 888, co-sponsored H. Res. 598, a resolution "Supporting the goals of the Ten Commandments Commission and congratulating such Commission and its supporters for their key role in promoting and ensuring recognition of the Ten Commandments as the cornerstone of Western law," introduced in August 2007 by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), another member of Forbes's Prayer Caucus. That resolution, which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had 32 co-sponsors, including Prayer Caucus member Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), who some may remember as the congressman who was unable to actually name the ten commandments when asked by Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report.

So what, exactly, are the goals of the Ten Commandments Commission (TCC) -- the goals that H. Res. 598 resolved to support? Well, one is to "restore the supremacy of the tenants [sic], precepts and principles contained in and established by the Ten Commandments." But, the goals of the TCC encompass quite a bit more than just promoting the ten commandments and making them the supreme law, as if that's not bad enough.

According to the organization's website:

"TCC will become Watchmen for curricula being disseminated throughout American public high schools and colleges, specifically regarding the history of the Middle East and the current conflict that is biased toward Islamic interest...."

...

"With secular humanists waging their attacks at home, and the looming threat from the international radical Islam - people of faith become the line of defense - this is the 'Wall of Jerusalem,' and we are the watchman God has placed there."

Among the TCC's "who's who" of Christian leaders are founding member John Hagee, advisory board members James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Rod Parsley, and ex-Judge Roy Moore. The TCC also includes in its ranks a number of prominent Jewish leaders, including its founder, Ron Wexler. In a video message, Wexler described the TCC as "a grassroots movement to make a stop to radical Islam and to bring back the word of God, the foundation to the wall of Jerusalem," and said that by getting five million people become TCC supporters they "can change that trend that is going to destroy America. You see," Wexler explained, "America is about to be destroyed by secular humanism and radical Islam."

Michele Bachmann would seem to agree:

http://theuptake.org/...

Jim Wallis: My Personal 'Faith Priorities' for this Election

2008-10-24T11:49:08Z

In 2004, several conservative Catholic Bishops and a few megachurch pastors like Rick Warren issued their list of "non-negotiables," which were intended to be a voter guide for their followers. All of them were relatively the same list of issues: abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, etc. None of them even included the word "poverty," only one example of the missing issues which are found quite clearly in the Bible. All of them were also relatively the same as official Republican Party Web sites of "non-negotiables." The political connections and commitments of the religious non-negotiable writers were quite clear.

I want to suggest a different approach this year and share my personal list of "faith priorities" that will guide me in making the imperfect choices that always confront us in any election year -- and suggest that each of you come up with your own list of "faith" or "moral" priorities for this election year and take them into the polling place with you.

After the last election, I wrote a book titled God's Politics. I was criticized by some for presuming to speak for God, but that wasn't the point. I was trying to explore what issues might be closest to the heart of God and how they may be quite different from what many strident religious voices were then saying. I was also saying that "God's Politics" will often turn our partisan politics upside down, transcend our ideological categories of Left and Right, and challenge the core values and priorities of our political culture. I was also trying to say that there is certainly no easy jump from God's politics to either the Republicans or Democrats. God is neither. In any election, we face imperfect choices, but our choices should reflect the things we believe God cares about if we are people of faith, and our own moral sensibilities if we are not people of faith. Therefore, people of faith, and all of us, should be "values voters" but vote all our values, not just a few that can be easily manipulated for the benefit of one party or another.

In 2008, the kingdom of God is not on the ballot in any of the 50 states as far as I can see. So we can't vote for that this year. But there are important choices in this year's election -- very important choices -- which will dramatically impact what many in the religious community and outside of it call "the common good," and the outcome could be very important, perhaps even more so than in many recent electoral contests.

I am in no position to tell anyone what is "non-negotiable," and neither is any Bishop or megachurch pastor, but let me tell you the "faith priorities" and values I will be voting on this year:

With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about how we treat the poor and oppressed, I will examine the record, plans, policies, and promises made by the candidates on what they will do to overcome the scandal of extreme global poverty and the shame of such unnecessary domestic poverty in the richest nation in the world. Such a central theme of the Bible simply cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. And any solution to the economic crisis that simply bails out the rich, and even the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom should simply be unacceptable to people of faith.

From the biblical prophets to Jesus, there is, at least, a biblical presumption against war and the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. So I will choose the candidates who will be least likely to lead us into more disastrous wars and find better ways to resolve the inevitable conflicts in the world and make us all safer. I will choose the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people's security (everyone having "their own vine and fig tree, so no one can make them afraid," as the prophets say) more than upon how high we can build walls or a stockpile of weapons. Christians should never expect a pacifist president, but we can insist on one who views military force only as a very last resort, when all other diplomatic and economic measures have failed, and never as a preferred or habitual response to conflict.

"Choosing life" is a constant biblical theme, so I will choose candidates who have the most consistent ethic of life, addressing all the threats to human life and dignity that we face -- not just one. 30,000 children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease is a life issue. The genocide in Darfur is a life issue. Health care is a life issue. War is a life issue. The death penalty is a life issue. And on abortion, I will choose candidates who have the best chance to pursue the practical and proven policies which could dramatically reduce the number of abortions in America and therefore save precious unborn lives, rather than those who simply repeat the polarized legal debates and "pro-choice" and "pro-life" mantras from either side.

God's fragile creation is clearly under assault, and I will choose the candidates who will likely be most faithful in our care of the environment. In particular, I will choose the candidates who will most clearly take on the growing threat of climate change, and who have the strongest commitment to the conversion of our economy and way of life to a cleaner, safer, and more renewable energy future. And that choice could accomplish other key moral priorities like the redemption of a dangerous foreign policy built on Middle East oil dependence, and the great prospects of job creation and economic renewal from a new "green" economy built on more spiritual values of conservation, stewardship, sustainability, respect, responsibility, co-dependence, modesty, and even humility.

Every human being is made in the image of God, so I will choose the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. Sexual and economic slavery is on the rise around the world, and an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. As many religious leaders have now said, torture is completely morally unacceptable, under any circumstances, and I will choose the candidates who are most committed to reversing American policy on the treatment of prisoners. And I will choose the candidates who understand that the immigration system is totally broken and needs comprehensive reform, but must be changed in ways that are compassionate, fair, just, and consistent with the biblical command to "welcome the stranger."

Healthy families are the foundation of our community life, and nothing is more important than how we are raising up the next generation. As the father of two young boys, I am deeply concerned about the values our leaders model in the midst of the cultural degeneracy assaulting our children. Which candidates will best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity, strong parenting, and putting family values over economic values? And I will choose the candidates who promise to really deal with the enormous economic and cultural pressures that have made parenting such a "countercultural activity" in America today, rather than those who merely scapegoat gay people for the serious problems of heterosexual family breakdown.

That is my list of personal "faith priorities" for the election year of 2008, but they are not "non-negotiables" for anyone else. It's time for each of us to make up our own list in these next 12 days. Make your list and send this on to your friends and family members, inviting them to do the same thing.