The Fat Lady Sings

Obituary

Jerry Falwell died yesterday. He was co-founder of the "Moral Majority," which was neither. He brought the religious right into Politics. And here is his real legacy: Three of the Republican Candidates for President do not believe in evolution. That's right. Candidates Huckabee, Brownback and Tancredo reject evolution. The others seem to feel it's okay to teach both evolution and "intelligent design." This is Falwell's true legacy: the embracing of ignorance. cross posted at Journeys with Jood

Where Even the Crazy are Given Credence

That's Phelps on the left and Kane on the right.....or is it the other way 'round?

There is a nut job named Fred W. Phelps.  Maybe you’ve heard of him. Mr. Phelps calls himself a reverend; though I think his only connection with Christ would be similar to that of the Kane character in Poltergeist 2.  The man, to put it succinctly, is a carbuncle on the ass of life.  He and his tiny crowd of dentally challenged, venom spewing ‘church’ members attack the families of fallen soldiers – haunting their graves like ghouls – feeding on misery.  I always thought the publicity he got was for the zoo value (what's that monkey doing, mommy?).  But seriously - is this guy a ‘fade away into obscurity’ wierdsmobile, or an – ‘oh no, it’s Waco’ type?  I’m afraid the latter - and I’ll tell you why.  It has to do with evolution; the evolution of violence and how that manifests itself within the confines of a twisted mind.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  First let me catch you up on what our Mr. Phelps has been doing of late.  Oh – you’re gonna love this.  It’s a real doozy. 

Soldiers of the Cross

When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul.

This is how Spiegel Online International begins its story of a Polish exchange student and the horrors he was forced to endure while living with an evangelical host family in North Carolina.  The met his plane literally wielding a bible; and proceeded to club him over the head with it every spare chance they got.  Sex was the primary topic of discussion; why they stopped having it to be closer to god, and how sex put the devil in poor Michael’s heart (and in that of his divorcing mother).  In the end – the family admitted the real reason for inviting him come live with them in the first place.  They wanted to use him as a translator in an evangelical based business venture they planned to start in Poland.  When he declined – they were flabbergasted.  They had expected the boy to fall in line like a good little soldier.  Instead they found him singularly unmoved.  It led to his asking for a transfer.

From that moment on, I counted the days.  The two months that followed my decision were hell.  My host parents detested me.  There were constant rows.  I could sense that they just wanted to get rid of me.  They didn't know what to do with me any more.

(Addendum at close)

Not preaching, really!

Hey all, oldwhitelady here.  TFLS also asked if I could help out guest posting while she's recuperating.  I was thrilled to have the chance!   I hope she's up and around in no time!  I was trying to think of something that would be worthy of this blog.  I have to admit, my brain is kind of useless.  I worked this weekend.  Usually, I have time to think, but the place was hopping.  There was very little time to sit back and ruminate. 

Since today was Sunday, I did think about religion.  It plays such a large part in society.  Luckily, the USA does allow many different religions to co-exist.  I often wonder why one religion thinks it's so different from another.  Why do they have those ideas that their religion is the only true religion?  Why is their GOD the only God there is?  Most people follow the normal ideas of the ten commandments.  We don't have to have religion shoved at us to realize that:

Don't murder
Don't steal
Honor father and mother
Don't commit adultery
Don't lie

are moral rules that are needed to live amongst the population.  However, the last three don't seem to be as important, anymore.  Even for the folks who claim to be deeply religious.

The five listed below seem to be a kind of "use as you see fit" for everyone (religious nuts included).

Don't worship any other Gods (money seems to be the main God of most Americans).

Don't make any idols (Actors seem to be idolized by many).

Don't misuse the name of God (Well, I've heard it misused by a great many folk, and I think I might have used it once or twice - not as a usual practice, though).

Keep the Sabbath holy (Uh, yeah, I've noticed many churchgoers heading off to the restaurants after church.  This makes others work for them.  Something I've heard should not be done on the Sabbath).

Don't covet (I wish I had a brand spanking new Durango, or a diamond bracelet, or that fantastic set of golf clubs) .

Well, now.  I guess only

Don't murder
Don't steal

are the important ones.  Except... as I understand it, stealing might just be okay, too.  Especially, if you're rich and you have rich friends.

Don't murder

I think I can follow that one.  Except... If I get drafted into war, I'll might have to...

I hope TFLS doesn't take away the blog keys after I post this.

Legacy

Hi Everyone. My name is TB and The Fat Lady Sings has asked me to guest post for her for a few days while she recovers from a back injury. I am honored to have been asked and hope I can maintain her usual standards of excellence.

If you get a chance, drop her a line. As we all know, there is nothing worse than being immobilized by back pain.

***************************************************************************************************

Legacy

If things had been different, I could have a sixteen year old child now.

I got pregnant months after my mother’s death, my high school graduation and my decision to leave home for good. I had an abortion in January, 1990. I have never regretted my decision.

I was raised in a strictly fanatical fundamentalist Christian sect from the time I was a small child. These are the people who think that Robertson and Falwell are liberals. After witnessing intolerance bordering on hatred, scare tactics, emotional and physical abuses, extreme patriarchal rule and rampant hypocrisy, by the time I was in fourth grade, I decided it wasn’t for me.

There were many knock-down, drag out fights with my parents, but they eventually realized I was serious and was not going to change my mind. I quit attending church at 12 and was finally allowed to go to public school a few years later. I went through almost a decade of soul searching and research, trying to decide if there was some religion I could subscribe to before settling on agnosticism.

At the time I became pregnant, I was in no way equipped to have a baby, emotionally or financially. I am so grateful to have had the freedom to make a life changing decision that so many women before me never had. 

Now, at 35, I am pregnant again, under completely different circumstances. I would be lying if I said that I haven’t thought differently about the choice I made 17 years ago now that there is welcome life growing inside me.

Yet I know without a doubt I did the right thing at the time. And I remain staunchly pro-choice because I believe it is imperative that every woman has the same right, and the same control over her body.

But here is the legacy. Here is the thing that shames me and makes me question myself lying awake in the quiet dark, my hand on my stomach. As much as I have left the craziness and fanaticism of my upbringing in the past, there is a small part of me who is frightened for the child I am carrying now, as if I deserve some sort of punishment, as if my child, by extension will suffer for the decision I made so long ago.

It’s difficult to admit that these irrational thoughts come to me, unbidden and I have needed to say this out loud for months, to exorcise these demons. When a child is taught that the currency of life is based on extremes, with no middle ground, it makes a lasting impression. It is why fanaticism of any kind is so frightening to me.

I believe that each of us makes our own heaven and hell and that there are many people living in their own personal hell here on earth. Because I don’t want to be one of them, I have put the past behind me. Yet these thoughts still linger. I am doing my best to make sense of them and move on.

I want to raise this child to be an informed and open minded citizen of the world. My wish for them is that they are never exposed to the things I saw, that they never have to wrestle with irrational guilt, anger and shame. The world is a difficult enough place to make sense of.

My job as a parent is to lay the groundwork and to make it easier for my child to navigate his or her life. It is up to me to provide a loving and safe environment in which he or she can figure things out, to educate so that they can someday make informed decisions of their own.

I must test and exceed my own limits of unconditional love, patience, humility, courage, generosity, faith and hope.

This time, I am prepared to do all of that and more.

Jesus Was Not a Republican

This wonderful article was written by Randall Balmer - a professor of American religious history at Barnard College.  It’s an excerpt from his book - Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament.  Yes – there are some Christians out there who don’t want to spend their spare time torturing Muslims when they’re bored.  I was especially moved by his call to arms, as it were.  Balmer believes religion should have a moral base – not a political one. He’s quite clear about this:

For America’s evangelicals, reclaiming the faith would produce a social and political ethic rather different from the one propagated by the religious right. Care for the earth and for God’s creation provides a good place to start, building on the growing evangelical discontent with the rapacious environmental policies of the Republican-religious-right coalition. Once thinking evangelicals challenge religious-right orthodoxy on environmental matters, further challenges are possible. A full-throated, unconditional denunciation of the use of torture, even on political enemies, would certainly follow. Evangelicals opposed to abortion would be well advised to follow some Catholic teaching a bit further on this issue. As early as 1984, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the late archbishop of Chicago, talked about opposition to abortion as part of a “seamless garment” that included other “life issues”: care for the poor and feeding the hungry, advocacy for human rights, and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment. Surely the adoption of what Bernardin called a “consistent ethic of life” carries with it greater moral authority than opposition to abortion alone.

As for politics – well, that’s a whole other kettle of fish.  He supports the separation of church and state – as outlined in the constitution.  He believes in ethics – not religious sectarianism.  I find that refreshing.

Finally, an evangelical social and political ethic would take into account the pluralistic context of American society and recognize the genius of the First Amendment. That requires respect for the canons of democracy and for the importance of public education to ensure its future. It acknowledges, for example, that the proper venue for the teaching of creationism or intelligent design is the home or the Sunday-school classroom, not the science curriculum. It means refusing to identify the symbols of the faith — the Bible, prayer, the Decalogue with the political order. In short, our best hope for the recovery of an evangelical social and political ethic lies with recognizing that the faith functions best independent of the political order.

Indeed, one of the hallmarks of this grand experiment of democracy in America has been its vigilance over the rights of minorities. Evangelicals should appreciate that, for they were once a minority themselves. Evangelicals need once again to learn to be a counterculture, much as they were before the rise of the religious right, before succumbing to the seductions of power. The early followers of Jesus were a counterculture because they stood apart from the prevailing order. A counterculture can provide a critique of the powerful because it is utterly disinterested — it has no investment in the power structure itself.

Pretty cool stuff.  Go read the whole thing.  This guy is what real religious moralism should be about.  And I'd also like to recommend The Chronicle Review.  It is often frankly and openly religious in theme and approach (though not exclusively) – but I have yet to read any article that bashes the reader over the head with opinionated indoctrination of any stripe.  I am not religious myself; preferring to keep my spirituality private – but that doesn’t mean I don’t read religiously oriented texts on occasion.  The Chronicle Review is quite ecumenical.  It doesn't come down on the side of anything save education.  So try it – you just might learn something new. 

Benedict the Medieval Strikes Again

Well this just takes the cake!  Evidently old Papa Ratzi the reluctant Nazi says he will excommunicate any Catholic scientists who carry out embryonic stem cell research as well as any politicians who pass laws permitting the practice.  I'm guessing this includes our three super-Catholic Supreme Court justices as well.  Anybody remember that the hit against electing Kennedy as President was that he'd take his orders from the Vatican?  Just when, exactly did that become OK in America?  It was Ratzi's right-hand hatchet man, Trujillo who dropped this particular bomb.  You know Trujillo - he's the Cardinal famous for his politically motivated support of Pinochet, along with coordinated attacks toward and dismantling of The Jesuit Order - Catholicism's sole intellectual and scientific center.  Opus Dei types rule the roost now.  Superiority of mind has been replaced by rigid superstition.  Thanks to Trujillo and Ratzi, the Catholic Church has reverted to an oxcart and mud hut mentality.  But to the point - certain countries were singled out for their support of everything from stem call research to homosexual rights.  Spain - a favorite whipping boy - was accused of 'throwing out the fundamental laws of nature'.  So were Belgium, Holland, the Scandinavian countries and France.  Oh those French!  Gotta watch out for them! Interestingly enough - America was spared the dogmatic beating - but then the American Catholic Church provides all that lovely money Ratzi uses to buy his Prada robes and slippers with.

And lest you think that's all that will get you booted - think again.  Along with scientists you can add doctors and nurses who perform abortions, along with both the woman and her partner.  Rape?  Incest?  Doesn't matter.  All of the above were classified as 'murderers', by the way.  Wow.  This is, like - so much more important than dealing with those priests who have spent their entire career within the church fucking little boys!  So - whom do you think is next on Ratzi's hit list?  People who believe in Global Warming?  Anyone possessing a college degree?   Look folks - I was raised Irish Catholic - so I have more than a passing knowledge of how all this hangs together.  Ratzinger is dismantling every positive change brought about by Vatican's One and Two.  It's as if none of those other Popes ever existed - it's all Ratzi all the time.  God made over in his image.  Hell - the bastard's even decided to re-write the Mass and all the prayers!  Well - it makes me no nevermind.  I walked away from that lunacy years ago.  But he is seriously affecting the world I live in.  What happens if some of those scientists, judges and politicians pull a Galileo?  The world will be affected by everything from uncured diseases to restrictive laws designed to appease Ratzinger's self-loathing homophobia.  Just because he can't admit his secret desire to become RuPaul - we shouldn't have to suffer.  It will be interesting to see how all this plays out - but I predict those of us who want to live in the the 21st rather than the 5th century will eventually have to seek out those countries that don't resemble old Monty Python movies!

Cause the Bible Tells Them So

The necessary lexicon betwixt viewpoints has all too recently been replaced by an illiterate and volatile climate of suspicion and mistrust.  Endlessly repeated meaningless phrases have replaced thoughtful dialogue; broadcast through a visually centric, right-tinged media, and egged on by dicey politicos.  It's the proverbial confederacy of dunces - and in the literal sense.  I am confronted with examples of this everyday - and it makes Cliff from Cheers seem like an editor from Webster.  Talk about blood from a stone!  Conversations with people like that can be enervating as well as depressing, especially when you realize their knowledge base borders on the comical.  And don't bother pointing out any inaccuracies - they don't want to hear it.

Pope Benedict the Medieval

Well, the Pope has come up with another of his patented ‘we don’t want ‘ya’s’.  I swear - there are times when I wonder if the man consults Pat Robertson!  This time it’s gay people.  Last week it was divorced Catholics being denied church sacraments, the week before it was the kibosh on any form of birth control (he advised all Catholic families to have as many children as possible), the week before that --- well, you get my drift.  What’s next, I wonder?  Pillories in the streets for thieves?  Witches (read: feminists) burned at the stake?  Denouncing the Jews as killers of Christ?  Oh yeah - tried that one before.  I remember learning that from a nun in 2nd grade.  I know!  Pope Benedict will declare his personal ascension into heaven, but only if we all put on white tennis shoes and purple hoods and --- oh, yeah – forgot; already been done.