Tcha, You know what... Uhh-Uhh

This clip is insane. INSANE! I can't even begin to describe what just happened. I believe I actually got dumber after listening to this clip. On the Dana Show, hosted by Dana Loesch a conservative radio talk show host, Kay called in to voice her concerns about Chik-Fil-A-gate. Kay barely got a sentence in the entire time as Dana bombarded her with a series of accusations, literally shouting her down.Literally.



(HUGE h/t to On Knees for Jesus)

Let's run down a list of the statements/points made by Dana:

• You don't sound like any Christian that I know
• Doesn't understand how Kay can practice Christianity while claiming another Christian's viewpoint as hate
• What is hateful about Cathy's statement (true, nothing innately hateful but is missing the real topic behind the controversy. The issue is about the group he funds which wants to criminalize gay marriage.)
• You only subscribe to certain aspects of Christianity
• That's not how the gospels are presented.
• You sound like anything but a Christian
• Doesn't understand how certain aspects of the Christian faith is hateful
• You think God is hateful then?
• You're essentially calling Christ hateful.
• Is astonished over the statement that Christ doesn't directly address the gay community.
• (My favorite line) Give me the verse. Give me the verse. Give me the verse. No, no, no, no. Kay, give me the verse.
• The burden of proof is on you, you called my show.
• I want you to show me in the Bible where Christ preached hate?
• Stated that false Christians like Kay ran Dana from church. 
• and another favorite, Kay is the type of person that embarrasses the faith.

There is so much here that I can not begin to compute what I just heard. I literally jumped up, darted across the room to share this clip. It just boggles me how people can be so relentlessly unyielding to simply sit down and listen. Just listen. All Kay wanted was to be heard, even for a brief 5 minutes. Yes it is Dana's show and I'm sure she loves her job, (I once worked at a college radio station and absolutely loved it) but it is a talk show. If you invite listeners to call in at least give them the chance to make their statement. This spiraled out of control quickly, which is why people can't talk properly about gay marriage and the Chik-fil-A incident. Listening doesn't equate to losing ground in a debate, it means you care enough about the subject to pay attention to both sides of the issue. That and you don't come across like a total a$$hole.

I don't know much about Dana but she reminds me of someone else who likes to plug their ears.



Give me the verse. Give me the verse. Give me the verse. No, no, no, no. Kay, give me the verse.

La la la la la,
 la la la la la. 
Thank you for playing.

Get Out!

"To the Atheist watching this telecast if our belief in God offends you, Move!... We don't want you and we won't miss you." John Hagee

I've been silent here for well over a month for personal reason I won't go into too much detail. Let's just say that I had to part ways with an unnamed major cellular company. I worked at their call center for the last year and a half before the stress got to me and I snapped. I am going back to school in the fall to get my M.S. in Computer Science so I'll have a bit more free time to post. One video posted yesterday by Vorjack at Unreasonable Faith (love these guys) caught my attention this morning.



Hagee and the rest of his Super Best Friends are in their death throes clawing and gnashing at everyone and everything that doesn't fit their version of Christianity. What can you do when the latest surveys and reports in the last few years state that churches across America are hemorrhaging young people? Shut the door, plug your ears, and yell. They feel that their existence is in peril, and it is unless they change. And since change is seen as a threat, as polluting the holy, it is out of the question. To them it is much easier to tell your neighbor to move than to shake their hand. It is easier to ignore their existence and even threaten them than to coexist with them. Why? Because they, Hagee and friends, are so stuck on the idea of exclusivity that reality becomes a cosmic battle of dominance. It is either us or them, only one side CAN win. Like the dwarfs sitting in a pitch black stable in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle some (not all) evangelicals would rather live in their version of reality than embrace the possibility that our neighbor may not be the boogie men some megaphone-mouthed pastors portray them as, but may even be *gasp!* human. What bothers me about this video is not Hagee and his comments, but the audience's overwhelming support. It's the everyday people and their support of these unloving comments in a "house of love". I'm sure at some point the congregation sang a hymn about how much God loves everyone. An ideal which unfortunately has been sacrificed for the temporary survival of the group.

As the shift continues towards more non-traditional forms of spirituality (or even None at all) the fundamentalist theists will get louder and more violent in their rhetoric. The non-theist, agnostic, atheist and non-traditional spiritualist must hold our ground not in fighting fire with fire but to extinguish hateful words with love and understanding. Our goal should be to lessen the suffering of others not add to it. And for those still in a religious group like this one who feel uncomfortable I urge you to leave, not to convert you to my side but to urge you to find your own path, your own cosmic song to sing. Get out and follow that which inspires you to be a better you.

Fundies Say the Darndest Things!

It's videos like these that I thank Allah every day for Youtube.



 Fundies Say the Darndest Things is a website dedicated to archiving the most outrageous, irrational, and mind-numbing comments made by fundies from online forums. A quick perusal of the archives at first brought me to a light chuckle but after a few minutes these quotes quickly became depressing when reality began to sink in: these are quotes made by real people. You forget that sometimes while perusing through the internet.


Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"The only thing a kid will learn in an American public school is that homosexuality is good, and America is bad. There is no way, under any considerations, circumstances, or conditions, that my kid will attend one of our leftist public brain laundries." Wolseley

["The Hebrews crossed the 'sea of reeds'. Most Jews agree on this. After all, the first 5 books are theirs."] 
"The first five books are theirs? Um, no. Moses was a Christian. Sorry."  prosperousindividual

"That's the beauty of Heaven... we can leave our brains behind." Lainy68

"Are... are you now disputing the existance [sic] of DNA???"

Yes. DNA can never be proven. Evolutionists are obsessed with it because they always say ''chimps share 97% DNA with modern man'' etc. That's great, however you would then need to prove DNA is real. Asycthian

The Job Most People Don't Want

God bless these kids! They do the job that most people either are too afraid to do, or simply feel is wrong to do in the first place. H/T to Vorjack from Unreasonable Faith for posting this video of PinPoint Ministries (remember them) reminding us of the wickedness of Hooters and their "prostitutes". Vorjack's post is actually an announcement of the upcoming Rock Beyond Belief event which will be held at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina (where this lovely video was shot). I'm sure Pinpoint Ministries will be there to condemn the whole event straight to the fiery pits of Hell. You gotta love these kids for taking on the one job most people avoid: sharing God's love by screaming at random strangers to repent and become as righteous, loving, and Christ-like as they are.

The Sacredness of Ground Zero: Part 4- Not in My Backyard!

The Park 51 controversy has sparked a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric and has empowered local residents to march and protest against the growing radical Muslim horde. As a former resident of Murfreesboro I've been closely following the protests to halt the construction of the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro. Just over the weekend there's been a suspected arson attack on construction equipment as well as shots fired near the site (I've read one article stating 9 shots and another which stated only 5 were fired). No one in Murfreesboro has been hurt yet but fear has a powerful grip over the ill informed.

See if you can spot the "evidence" produced by Laurie Cardoza-Moore, spokesperson of the Murfreesboro Mosque Opposition, as she states the danger in building this house of worship.



The fear seems to be of radical Muslims taking over America by infiltrating the "capital of the Crusaders", Nashville. First of all, What?! How long has Nashville been the Crusader capital of the world? Pat Robertson also uses alarming words like mega and massive to scare his audience into believing that these growing communities constitutes a national security threat in this August 19 episode of the 700 Club (the same one mentioned on Anderson Cooper). Ms Moore gives two pieces of evidence why we should protest this site:

• Mosaad Rawash, a board member of the Islamic Community of Murfreesboro, had posted pro- Hamas material on his Myspace page. Yes, his Myspace page.
  
• The Imam, Sheikh Ossama Mohamed Bahloul, taught at a mosque in Irving, Texas under investigation for terrorist related activities.
  

Although Anderson Cooper states in the video that the first allegation has been thoroughly investigated and Rawash has been cleared of all charges, and the second allegation was found to be complete bunk, Ms. Moore still believes this is enough evidence to keep the Islamic community of Murfreesboro from building a house of worship for their growing community. Using Myspace as evidence, really? Her evidence is no more than an exaggerated reach to tie a quiet moderate community which has been present in the area for 30 years with Muslim extremists. I doubt she, or anyone heavily opposing the construction of this mosque, has attempted to visit with the Muslim community in person. Moore tolerates the community staying at their present cramped location because this keeps them out of view. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

The issue is not that terrorist may be secretly planting training camps and education centers in the Nashville area, the issue is that many Americans don't know anything about Islam and this scares them to the point of denying their fellow citizens their freedom of worship. Vandalizing the Islamic center's sign with the words Not Welcome is one thing, arson and gunshots are on a whole other level (although the gunshots might be possibly unrelated the ATF and FBI are still investigating). There are thousands of churches throughout Tennessee and I highly doubt that a handful of new mosques and Islamic centers constitutes such a legitimate threat to the thriving Christian community as Ms. Moore argues. Of course it's much easier to love your neighbor as long as they're Christian (well unless you're not). So the moral of the story is if your neighbor is not Christian (in some circles read Un-American traitor) run them out of town. Toleration is so next century!

Damn the Facts, The Enemy is Nigh!

As an unofficial sequel to my post on the theme of fear underlying the patriotic celebration at Sunday's 4th of July service at our church, today's post is on a popular video which was shown at yesterday's service (July 11th) as a part of Soul-Winning Sunday. Although the guest pastor only showed the first 2 minutes of the video (where they mentioned Islamic Immigration) it rattled me to my core. I wasn't rattled because I had considered converting to Islam a few years ago but because I knew exactly where the film was going (In fact I had recognized the film 30 seconds into the presentation.).




This video has received over 12 million views since it's posting over a year ago. Since then there have been several sites, including good ole' Snopes.com, which have covered the erroneous and exaggerated statistics presented in the film. I'm not a statistician but a lot of those numbers seem abnormally high. BBC radio did a report on this video last year debunking some of the inflated statistics on their More or Less programme.



The guest pastor at our church stopped the film 2 minutes in and invited the congregation to view the rest of it during the evening service. Of course I highly doubt he would correct the misconceptions if someone were to bring it to his attention (which I plan to). Why? Because it reinforces their fear of the Other and makes for good propaganda (there was a massive crowd at the altar call). I have no problem with spreading the gospel but it should be done without fear tactics. The Good News is no longer good when it lacks love. When the Good News is used to distinguish Us vs. Them the gospel becomes a battle cry rather than a welcoming embrace.

God, Country, and Humanism

This post details my thoughts from last Sunday's 4th of July church service.

---

Sunday was the most militant Sunday service I've ever attended. Was it always like this on patriotic holidays? How long have I been out? I don't ever recall church and patriotism being blended as smoothly as I experienced it on Sunday. We were surrounded by dozens (if not hundreds) of flags and banners stating how much God wants to bless America. A short video was also shown saluting the military in almost a Messianic manner set to the poem It Is the Soldier by Charles Providence. Here is an excerpt.

It is the Soldier, not the minister
Who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the Soldier, not the reporter
Who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the Soldier, not the poet
Who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer
Who has given us freedom to protest.

The poem itself honors the freedoms protected by the blood of those who fought and died for this country, but place it in a religious context and it gives the subtle impression of honoring the soldier as a messianic figure, blood shed for our freedom (salvation). If my mother wasn't there I would have walked out. I have no beef with honoring veterans or worship service but to quote one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Frank Herbert, “When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows.” I fear the day when nationalism and patriotism in the U.S. becomes commonly equated and intertwined with the commoner's faith.

The pastor shifted gears and spoke on the public school system by pointing out the errors of humanism being taught in school. Humanism? I don't remember ever learning about humanism although I admit that I only went to a public school 2 years throughout my youth until college (I attended private SDA schools). The pastor noted the 5 major erroneous beliefs of humanism.

1. No God- If we don't have a God to hold us accountable for our sins then suffering will increase in the world.
   
2. Evolution-If we don't acknowledge the Creator as the author of creation then that means we come from animals and our existence becomes pointless.
   
3. Amorality- You choose what you think is right or wrong and if it feels good, do it.
   
4. Self-Sustaining Man- We don't need help from the divine, we can save ourselves.
   
5. One World Government-.... (The pastor just mentioned the phrase and didn't elaborate at all.)

Honestly, I found all of his descriptions and arguments against humanism incredibly weak. I admit I know very little of the actual definition and history of humanism but I think it has more to do with the benefit of mankind as a whole than a self-centered, hedonistic worldview. Of course the enemy is always painted in a negative light and their views are distorted in a manner to cause a "normal believer" to cringe. But this blatant attack on humanism not only distorts what humanist believe it increases the rift of fear alienating Us from Them. Christianity historically is more prone to covering up theologically difficult questions than actually wrestling with them. If the first four points, although crude, make up an understanding of humanism then I might consider myself a humanist, although I don't feel any more of a sinner than I did before I started questioning my beliefs 5 years ago. Here are my short responses to the pastor's view of humanism.

1. Atheism-The atheist and agnostic groups are growing in the American religious landscape yet I haven't heard of Atheism being the contributing factor behind crimes and violence. Christians, or should I say true Christians (whatever that may mean), are no less immune to committing sinful and atrocious acts against our fellow man than an Atheist. Atheists still believe life is precious, not believing in God does not turn someone into a mindless, amoral beast.
   
2. Evolution-What would it mean to mankind if evolution was found to be true? I believe it means that we first must create and find our own meaning to life and that we must cherish all life. If there is no afterlife maybe mankind might be less violent against their own neighbors. If scientists say that the evidence points towards evolution who am I to argue against their findings? I have no problem with science and the scientific method as long as we continue to question and reshape our theories in light of new evidence.
   
3. Amorality-Everyone already decides what is right or wrong regardless what the gods may proclaim. We choose how moral we want to be as easily as we choose which church to attend. I for one believe we have outgrown our previous images of the divine. I'm not saying that God and religion should be thrown out but that we should be more moral than the God of the Bible. Mankind's collective consciousness has evolved throughout history and continues to evolve as well as our notion of morality. We each have an internal moral drive which is tied to our yearning to survive and our desire to be accepted and loved.
   
4. Self Sustaining Man- Man is fallible, as well as our image of God. Our image, myth and story can not save us because they were penned by us. They might inspire and guide us but in the end we must save and redeem ourselves. How can we do this if we are fallible creatures? We already have the means, the symbols, and the teachings scattered throughout human history which all point to one thing: love. If we allow Love to dwell within us, and we dwell within Love, then redemption will find us.
   
5. One World Government- The pastor did not elaborate on this point as I believe he only stated it to further impress fear upon the congregation. The idea of a one world government is the penultimate fear among conspiracy theory junkies (I admit I was one of them for a brief period of my youth). But it's created from fear as it perpetuates fear, on and on it goes. I'm not discounting that history might take this direction I just refuse to fear the unknown future.
   

As the pastor concluded his rant on Hell and the unbelievers that will undoubtedly populate it, I can easily sum up Sunday's service in one word: Fear. Fear was the theme, it wasn't honoring life and freedom but the call to arms in defense of an invisible enemy created by their own fears. There are enough demons and hidden skeletons in closets without creating an unnecessary fear of our fellow man. There is no They, only the illusion of separation.

On a similar note, Peter Walker over at Emerging Christian recently wrote on the dangers of being too proud on Independence Day and reflects on what it means to be patriotic of a country with a dark past.

Hey, Hey We're the Monkeys

I read a confusing article on the RNS blog about a tea party leader, Mark Williams denouncing the construction of a mosque near the world trade center site and calling Allah the 'Monkey God'.

Monkey God? Did I miss something here? Here's a quote from his blog (which is password protected for some reason) taken from TPMMuckraker,

The animals of allah for whom any day is a great day for a massacre are drooling over the positive response that they are getting from New York City officials over a proposal to build a 13 story monument to the 9/11 Muslims who hijacked those 4 airliners.

The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god and a "cultural center" to propagandize for the extermination of all things not approved by their cult.

[Image of Hanuman taken from Passport of the Soul.]

---

Now to clarify, some within the Tea Party Express have come distanced themselves from Mark's comments calling it hate speech. But why monkey god? Why do some people feel the need to dehumanize the enemy? Does hate speech really help to disarm their opponents? Does dehumanizing the enemy help to justify the hatred? I'm assuming that Mark and his friends rationalize that they can love their fellow man as long as their human. For example Mark has apologized to Hindus for his remark (but not to Muslims) who actually worship a Monkey god, Hanuman, as a symbol of perseverance, strength and devotion. He goes on to say,

"Those are hardly the traits of whatever the Hell (literally) it is that terrorists worship and worthy of my respect and admiration not ridicule."

What surprised me is that he probably took the time to Google "monkey god" and apologized to Hindus but didn't have the effort to Google "Allah" to find the similarities between Allah and the OT God of the Bible. I'm not defending terrorists only highlighting the dangers of throwing all practitioners of a faith into the frying pan for the actions of a few extremists. The very same can be done with Christianity by saying all Christians are white supremacists by looking to the KKK as the defining example of Christians. Of course Christians would be outraged and quick to argue that hate groups aren't "Christian" as much as Muslims would (or at least should) be outraged in being defined by the actions of the extremists in their faith. But hey, why bother apologizing to a monkey, right?

Try Jesus

During my free time if my nose is not buried in a book (currently reading The Truth by the Oracle Institute) then I'm busy scouring the net for religious documentaries. Yesterday I happen to stumble upon one from January 15,1998 (yeesh, I was 13) on Fundamentalist Christianity. Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends was a documentary series on BBC 2, which ran from 1998-2000, which presented the lives of groups and individuals the viewer wouldn't normally come in contact with on a daily basis. Fundamentalist Christianity may not be as prevalent in the U.K. (if existent) but if you live in the Bible Belt it's the norm. You can watch the entire program here.

There really isn't an easy way to interview a conservative or Fundamentalist Christian without either offending them or being put in an awkward situation. Louis, unlike other documentary filmmakers, not only respectfully tiptoed around potentially heated conversation but willingly put himself in dreadfully awkward situations for the experience. He interviewed Marcus and Joni Lamb of Daystar Television Network, witnessed with members of The Family (now known as Family International) in Deep Ellum entertainment district, and concluded by going to hear Marcus Lamb speak at a revival. All throughout the documentary you can tell Louis, who's a non-christian by the way, wanted to say more but held his tongue. His mission, in part, was to see if he could be converted, and not 4 minutes into the program and Louis was already asked if he wanted to be born again. He just didn't get IT, and you can see how badly the Christians wanted him to understand how easy it was to accept Christ.

Growing up as a Christian I never felt the anxiety Louis felt towards the end during the altar call because I had IT. Whatever IT was, I had IT. It came naturally and I didn't have to struggle to understand IT. I didn't have to make a choice to accept Jesus into my heart because he was already there. But as I came to learn more about the world, other religions, as well as the history of Christianity (which the version of Christian history I grew up with was extremely sugar coated) I had lost IT. Was I thinking too much? Did I choose not believe? Did I allow the evils of knowledge and science to overwhelm my faith in Christ? No, I never made any conscious effort to leave God nor do I believe that using the fullest potential of our minds is cause for loss of faith. I just didn't feel IT, and nor did Louis at the revival. He wanted to believe, to feel something, the intent was present but there was nothing. So what happens to Louis, or more importantly, what's going to happen to me? Did we fail because we chose not to believe, or did we fail because we didn't feel the Spirit? Does choosing to believe come before the entrance of the Spirit, and if our salvation is dependent on that initial choice what governs the process of making that initial choice? Our heart, our mind, or something else?

Reading through the comment section at Documentary Tube I came across an interesting comment. Here's a snippet.

"Yet, he had not the courage to even try an altar call…hmmm, must have scared him. Curious, if it has that power, then it has substance, no?"

I don't believe it was fear that kept Louis from "trying" the altar call but he wanted to be sincere about accepting Jesus. If he tried Jesus, tried the altar call, he would essentially be lying if he didn't feel anything. If you want to be cynical about it you could say his nervous appearance was merely theatrics, a show, and this is very possible. But for the everyday person seeking the Divine and struggling to find it within a particular belief system, this may be a dire realistic situation for the seeker. They may choose to seek and reach out but if they do not feel the connection the seeker is blamed.

It seems as if it all boils down to choice, but if given the choice to be with the Divine or become eternally separated from IT, who in their right mind would actually choose the latter? And if we do make the wrong choice, based on whatever reasoning, how can anyone label an eternity of suffering as divine justice for making a wrong choice as fallible creatures? This is why I can not accept that the Divine is accessible through only one avenue of revelation. What works for you may not work for me. This does not dilute the value of your connection because it STILL works for you as mine works for me. As long as the connection is there, it doesn't matter how you approach the Divine.