Haha I sympathize with this meme. But it applies to the colonized as well as the colonizers. I do tend to fault impoverished people for shackling themselves to church dogma. Religion rationalizes and preserves inequity. Of course this ignores that African American congregations are community centers above everything else. To cast off religion would deprive believers of their whole social fabric. But isn’t that like arguing that slave plantations were more than places of involuntary employment? Obviously tobacco and cotton plantations were the centers of slave communities. To end slavery threatened a slave’s source of everything: sustenance, shelter, family and community. Small wonder most slaves resisted those agitating for abolition. Slave rebellions were always betrayed by fearful slaves. No churches advocated for abolition. Even the civil rights movement a century later, was resisted by African American churches, except for a tiny few associated with MLK. Everyone today pretends to have marched with MLK, even as they admonish their followers to stay in their pews! Ferguson ignited the Black Lives Matter movement despite local preachers incessantly calling for the protests to cease.
Tag: Religion
In God We Trust by Eduardo Galeano
Presidents of the United States tend to speak in God's name, although none of them has let on if He communicates by letter, fax, telephone or telepathy. With or without His approval, in 2006 God was proclaimed chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. 42845
Viewed from Interstate 70, Kansas is the selfie of American Idiocracy
TOPEKA, KANSAS- Who's not in Kansas anymore? Anyone with a lick of sense. I crossed the state recently to find the western half riddled with fracked well heads, billboards condemning abortion, tollbooths on the interstate, police cruisers extorting drivers, and privatized postal services! I told the tollbooth attendant I didn't think much of Kansas, I meant its dumbfuck Kansans.
The racist religion of the IDF soldiers
Copycatting the racist Christian soldiers of Nazi Germany in the past and the Far Right Christians in the US military of the present, the so-called Israeli Defense Forces sing and dance religious songs as they murder others of another race and culture. From the Israeli press comes this scene of Jewish racism and religious hatred in action... Video: Soldiers Keep Up the Spirit, Sing: We Rely on God
Jefferson, Diderot: Liberty is refreshed by the blood of tyrants, kings, priests
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." The disembowelment which prefaces Diderot's notorious admonition seems to escape modern spiritualists who presume to advise revolutionaries. Do they think mankind has transcended rationalism? We haven't even overcome feudalism.
God fails Tim Tebow
Today’s Tom Sawyer
It's 4am here and this occurred to me strongly enough just now to have me say it just now. For Vic, Ken and the rest of my Christian friends, as well as Michele, Kathryn, and others who get twitchy when I bring up the Bible. I had breakfast with my friend Vic a little while ago and we had some of this conversation--I mean this conversation. The one we've been having if you've read any of this stuff around here, or if you've been to see me at my Facebook, or on the sidewalk or whatever. Vic is a Christian, and about as solid a practitioner as I've ever met. He "works" as a prayer director for one of the internationally influential untaxed Christian pseudo-businesses one might easily enough find scattered around town here in Colorado Springs. Years ago I lived in Lindale, Texas and I used to say Lindale was the buckle of the Bible Belt. Now that some of the big organizations down in Lindale have disappeared due to fraud and embezzlement and the like and some of the people I knew down in East Texas have moved to this very town I sometimes say America's waistline has
Willie and Waylon and Some Other Dude: A story about weed, marriage, and Texas tall tales, Part 2
For you, Willie. God bless the Hell out of ya! Alright, so this is all the same thought and I'm just thinkering around with it some for y'all. And it's all bullshit. I bet some of y'all forgot this was in the offing. I didn't, and it really is all one thought. It's about more than lost weekends or divorce fodder, too. It's about God and country, life, liberty, and the pursuit of revolution in the fast lane. Let's hope no one gets hurt, because it's not me in the fast lane. And you thought I was going to tell you something torrid, din'cha!? Wait--maybe I am! 28659
If it weren’t for the nonviolence sneaks
In honor of Oct 2, the International Day of Nonviolence, which hardly any government of the world honors IN DEED, especially the league of NATO and USA's coalition of the killing. I thought I'd perseverate further on the role nonviolent dogma plays in squashing dissent. Here's my theme: If it weren't for the nonviolence sneaks the antiwar movement of the 60s might have deposed the military industrial complex before it became supersized, privatized and above the law. Or not, but NV claptrap certainly got us nowhere. 28051
Pseu Pseu Pseudo-Do-Dah-Day
For Rob. Thanks buddy! Say hi to yer Mom. We've been toying with some pretty weird bits of thinking here, and it's already getting hard to follow. Lemme try and tie a few things together. Also, if you're still with me, now's a good time to point out that this humble site is best read in conjunction with the discussions on my Facebook, (Steve Bass), and for this bit, especially within the PPCC Philosophy Club page linked from my Wall or wherever it is. 28663
Willie and Waylon and Some Other Guy: A story about weed, marriage, and Texas tall tales. Part I
I like telling the story of the time we went to Telluride with my brother David to catch the Bluegrass Festival there. Dave is a pretty dang famous fiddler, and this happened 13 or 14 years ago when his Freight Hoppers were riding a crest, having two then current Billboard Top 20 Americana list releases on Rounder, (Rounder is pretty much a ripoff, but that’s for another time). The Freight Hoppers were hot in Colorado, and their set would draw some 30, 000 festival-goers, with a respectable bevy of hairy Deadheads looking for an outlet following Jerry’s departure bouncing , flouncing and working their little Tai Chi dance up at the stage. Lots of really notable musicians liked them, too, and still do, actually. 28693
More on the Anti-Muslim, Anti-Jewish, Anti-Christian 9/11 memorial hate-fest
One of the things that's being done in many places around the nation, even in churches and synagogues, is to have the children of the congregation, many as young as two, stand up and parrot the empty words of the Pledge of Allegiance and no, that isn't photoshopped, those are real American Kids chanting words they didn't understand to a graven image. Right after the "attack" which is avowed as The Official Story Being True, (But the officials who tell the story also said that there were WMDs in Iraq and the Wars are about "freedom"... so, where do the lies end?) children in schools across the land supposedly came up with the idea, with no coaching from their parents or teachers, to have a synchronized chanting of the Pledge. As a show of "patriotism". Kids who don't know what death is, or any of the myriad twists and turns of the lies needed to start and sustain wars... told by their teachers to do this, and to lie to the world and say it was their own idea. And if they didn't, they were "terrorists". Now, who could find any fault with that? How about maybe GOD? The
I dunno, maybe that was some kind of sign, you reckon?
It's difficult to inject logic into either politics or faith without being the subject of a lynching, but here goes. There was a statue, 62 feet tall, of Jesus on the side of a highway in Ohio. People would actually pull over and pray to it. So last year about this time it was struck by lightning, caught fire and burned down. Or burned up. Means the same thing. Now, there's long been a controversy in Christianity and Judaism and Islam over the making of graven images and with special notice given to a statue, picture or whatever of God. Much Christian blood has been spilt by other Christians with Iconoclasm being one of the issues. The Hundred Years War for instance. Somebody who was crawling up out of the Medieval Tradition and had learned to read, and noticed that there was a discrepancy of sorts between "Thou shalt not make any graven image" and the Church tradition of making lots and lots of graven images. So, that left no choice but to wage bloody, expensive and generally tragic War for a hundred years, hence the name. There were other issues, mostly having to do with which Christian king got to own which
“Psychic Tip” is enough to get a No-Knock Search Warrant…WTF?
So the AP headline was "Texas farmhouse searched on Psychic Tip, no bodies found". WHAT? I'm not in the least concerned that there wasn't any evidence found, I myself can "psycho-ly" predict that particular outcome. Not one single Scientifically Empirically Verified psychic prediction of ANY of the major news-generating Historic events has ever been brought forth. Not Pearl Harbor, not the death of any political leader, not any major natural disaster, not 9/11, the whereabouts of Usama bin Laden, two space shuttle disasters, the surprise launch of Sputnik, NOTHING. Psychic phenomena is about the most documented to be least accurate form of Evidence. So what comes next? Do the cops, prosecutors, judges and other Tools of the Police State actually get to maybe Convict somebody based on some jackass who claims a Direct Link To God saying that he's convinced the defendant is guilty? I mean, a Search Warrant supposedly has stringent rules of evidence just to obtain one, It's like an actual conversation I overheard between a police officer and somebody else, the cop complaining because he wasn't allowed to shake somebody down even though he "knew" the person was in possession of contraband. Asked HOW he "knew" he said "my gut tells
Nonviolence works, but Jesus saves
How is an antiwar message advocating a metaphysical ideal any different than saying that My God is better than Yours? My pacifist colleagues have distilled their protest slogan to "Nonviolence Works" which I believe is as provable as "Jesus Saves." Neither ideology can reduce beyond the afterlife. My god says love your neighbors. So what? Mine says kill my enemies. And what's more, God forgives me, particularly what I do in His name. To assail American Christian crusaders with with the logic of moral superiority is to argue that my god can lick your god. Believe me, God America is kicking Muslim ass on that front every day. Beside which, at best you're telling someone who wants to believe 2 plus 2 equals 3 that 3 & 1/2 is close enough.
THEY can’t afford feudal serfdom any more than US
Meaning the Corporates. Like Bush and Walker. They've sunk their assets and their asses into the credit economy deep. They broke it and expect US to make all the concessions so they can salvage enough of the system to support their luxury lifestyle. It's gone, gone gone... They'll have real estate without tenants or maintenance, cars without gas or drivers, WideScreen MegaUltra-3D televisions without electricity or audiences. roads that nobody could drive on even if they DID have cars and gas, and no way to pay the Working Class people they've hired to guard their palaces. 23351
Death of a Chaplain.
First, it should be noted that Doctors, Psychiatrists and Chaplains are, like everybody else in the services, Combatants under the Geneva Conventions. Their orders are to keep the soldiers physically and mentally and "morally" able to follow their orders, which are to Kill Other Human Beings. That's the whole purpose of a Military Organization. Although sometimes, if the Other Human Beings grovel enough to them (like Karzhai and al Maliki do) they'll be allowed to live, just as slaves. So when a "Mountain Post" Chaplain, Baptist Minister, got blown away in VietRaqiStan early last month, and the local news kept up the steady patter about how he volunteered for "duty" after the 9/11 Bush-ordered Mass Murder, to spread the word of Jesus. Only, Jesus never told anybody to Kill anybody. So Chaplains have to make shit up in order to justify what they're ordered to do, keep the Soldiers and Airmen and Marines and Sailors from feelings of guilt and remorse over Killing Other Human Beings. 21252
John B. Spencer’s lost Christmas lyric for Will Your House Be Blessed?
Gathering songs for a Christmas compilation, I went looking through different versions of "Will This House be Blessed?" by John B. Spencer. While the forgiveness spirit is in keeping with the season, everyone else's cover lacked whatever it was I remembered tied the song literally to Christmas. I finally found Spencer's original recording and there it was, an Easter reference actually, but too much irreligious specificity apparently for subsequent renditions. 21142
Was Jesus a Muslim (tee-hee)?
Listening to Islamic studies scholar Robert Shedinger taunt the CC audience with whether Jesus may have been a Muslim reminds me of the not-so-old joke about returning the Statue of Liberty to the French, because we're not using her anymore. At his fundamental, Jesus espoused what we are accustomed to consider were basic Christian Values, but who are American Christians to lay claim to those anymore? 20120
Beck says that a flock of geese means he’s Gods Anointed One.
Kind of like the Miracle Inflamed Hemorrhoid that kept his buddy Rush from not only the draft, but enlisting as well. On our blog, one of Glenn's Peeps wrote the other day that if we don't join their Hate Speech Mob we must be cowards. What an amazing Epiphany that was! Here I'd always thought that people bunching together in a Mob was cowardice. What a wonderfully miraculous revelation that it's the other way round. 19629
Missionaries say they don’t proselytize
No, and that's not why the Christian International Aid Mission was banished from Afghanistan, and why the US invasion reinstated it. Ask its volunteers why they don't exert their humanitarian impulses for non-religious operations, then you'll be getting past these pleas of feigned victimization. Missionary-tourism brochures extol bringing your faith "through the witness of humanitarian aid." 19424
Mark Twain: Oh Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds
“O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! "With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. 19293
They shoot up churches, bomb mosques, and soon this…
Not the bombing of "Radical" Synagogues who oppose the non-genocide-but-enforced-enslavement-of-Arabs, through the use of many many instances of Murder, no, the IDF will take care of THAT part... 19227
12 credit cards, 12 different names, delivered to same address, same day
Which I witnessed, there’s this relative of mine who, for lack of a better word, is a Thief. To be fair to MasterCharge and whatever Visa’s old name was (I’ll look it up) they DID reject half the applications. He put in 25. He only stayed at our house for a week and a half and with that one scam got about $25,000 which he promptly took to Las Vegas. Gambling is a more expensive vice than any dope. But when I go to a local supermarket there’s a big push on for people to sign up for a 1-2-3 Rewards MasterCard. My usual joke for the past 6 damn years was that even MasterCard wouldn’t be dumb enough to give me a card. All the people there have heard me reject the offer of this credit card. Yet I’m still asked. I know the people, they’re not dumb in any way, Mass Senility seems to be out of the question. So why the Ask? 17978
And behold, a Star fell from the heavens onto the face of the seas.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. 17836