Meditation 1118
Sh!t Christians Say
by: John Tyrrell
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The past week, for whatever reason, brought a flood of comments in the news by various Christians, each one of which falls under the classification "Sh!t [some] Christians Say", and each one of which I could have written a full Meditation on. The following is a sample of those comments - and in the interest of brevity. I've limited myself to politicians and preachers.
In Wisconsin, the Freedom From Religion Foundation criticized Governor Scott Walker for using his official Twitter account to tweet a bible reference, Philippians 4:13, which proclaims "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
I won't worry about the constitutional issue the FFRF raised, but about the specific verse.
As a state governor, Walker has to know that the job of a politician involves making choices. A politician truly cannot do all things. And it seems that Walker has made choices in his term - and in making those choices it looks like his guiding mantra has been "What do the Koch brothers want?" rather than "What would Jesus do?" But still, he boasts publicly that he can do all things through Christ.
Then why hasn't he? Why is there still poverty and unemployment in Wisconsin? Why do the working poor still not earn enough to live on? Why doesn't Wisconsin have outstanding health care for all its citizens? Why doesn't he increase state services, lower taxes, and balance the budget? Or is "I can do all things through Christ" just a lie.
Let's face it: "I can do all things through Christ" is just sh!t Christians say.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Legislature has before it a motion to condemn persecution of Christians. Not the persecution of any other religion or persecution of lack of religion. Just the persecution of Christians.
"Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the legislature condemn the acts of persecution against Christianity and encourage others to do the same."
Imagine if you will the rampaging mob in a Pakistani village, incited by the local imam on trumped up accusations of blasphemy, attacking a Christian neighbourhood. A too frequent occurrence in Pakistan - but even more frequently, the victims are members of minority Muslim sects, rather than Christians. But never mind - this time, for this example, it is Christians. Suddenly, one of the rioters comes to his senses, grabs the bullhorn and shouts "Stop, brothers! This is exactly what was condemned by the Wisconsin legislature." And the mob promptly quiets down and goes home. NOT!
More likely, if they became aware of the resolution and aware of what a wisconsin is, they would follow up their destruction of the Christian neighbourhood with seeking out some Western aid worker to murder thanks to the fresh "evidence" that the West is conducting a crusade against Islam.
Let's face it, the resolution is just meaningless pandering instead of making the decisions necessary to run a state. The resolution is just sh!t Christians say.
Turning away for a moment from politicians, we'll take a look at preachers.
Franklin Graham likes to wrap himself in the American flag. He ties patriotism inseparably to his form of Christianity. And yet... he has taken to praising President Putin of Russia. “He has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda... In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues,” Graham is praising the man who once pretended to be a godless communist, and now pretends to be a god-fearing follower of the Russian Orthodox Church.
By the standards Graham has set in the past for patriotism, in embracing Putin, particularly right now, he is a traitor to the USA. But what the heck, it's all just sh!t Christians say.
Graham has a sister who, like him is in the family evangelist business, but only gets attention because of their father. A couple of years ago, Anne Graham Lotz said a series of tornadoes were sent to give us a little taste of God's punishment come judgement day. Having made this brilliant analysis of the reason for extreme weather, she felt qualified to comment on the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The purpose of that is so that those of us who are left behind when she and those like her are raptured will understand that we are going to experience the same feelings as the families of those on the plane, wondering what happened to their loved ones.
Is the disappearance of Flight 370 really giving us a foretaste of the rapture? Or is it, like the rapture itself, just sh!t Christians say?
In New York City's Harlem, a Christian church led Pastor James David Manning, has a sign proclaiming: "Jesus would stone homos. Stoning is still the law."
What profound ignorance of Christianity's holy book! Not once in the bible did Jesus condemn homosexuality. He did, however, condemn adultery, but in response to a proposed stoning of an adulterous woman, he said "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone." And Jesus did not participate in a single stoning, to the extent we can believe the New Testament.
I suggest Pastor James David Manning should study the bible and determine the appropriate punishment for taking the Lord's name in vain, and the appropriate punishment for blasphemy. Put those punishments on the church sign along with a confession of guilt.
In the meantime, "Jesus would stone homos" is just hateful sh!t Christians say."
Enough of preachers - let's go back to politicians. At least you have to be reasonably sane in your public pronouncements to run for office, don't you?
In Illinois, a Susanne Atanus just won a Republican Party primary for a seat in the House of Representatives. Atanus has flatly stated that tornadoes, Alzheimer's disease, and autism are God's punishment for same-sex marriage and legalized abortion. Of course, we know that tornadoes, Alzheimer's and autism have been around far, far longer than same-sex marriage or legal abortion, even though it's fairly recently that we've named the medical conditions. So was God punishing people in advance for several millennia before abortion and same-sex marriage became an issue? Punishing people who weren't even involved in the supposed future sins? Or was he punishing us for something else? Really! It would seem that God is always p!ssed at something. There's no appeasing God, because he'll find something else to punish us for. He's best completely ignored.
As for Susanne Atanus linking tornadoes, Alzheimer's disease, and autism to same-sex marriage and legalized abortion - that's just more sh!t Christians say.
In Oklahoma, there's state representative Sally Kern, a fine upstanding Christian woman, who based on her faith has said some truly horrible things, some thoroughly dishonest things - about homosexuals - such as they are worse than terrorists, and that they want their homosexual agenda (whatever that is) taught in public schools so they can indoctrinate children as young as two. It's not surprising she received some criticism - perhaps even some very strongly worded criticism. Her response:
"As I sat reading the e-mails, each one hit me like a sharp stone, breaking my heart and filling my eyes with tears. I had never experienced such hate or seen such vulgarity in my life. The hurt seemed to cut right into my soul. It was not just that I was being hurt, but that the truth of God’s Word was being stoned and desecrated."
That's it - criticize her hate speech, and you are stoning God's word. This thoroughly ignorant bigoted Christian woman feels she can say whatever she wants, but respond to it and you are stoning her pitiful god, a god apparently not capable of standing up for himself. (Perhaps Sally doesn't know about god's tornadoes - but wait - she's in Oklahoma.)
Was the truth of God’s Word really being stoned? Or was it just more sh!t Christians say?
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