Lest We Forget: Remembering the 9-11 Religious Aftermath Too

As we pause to remember those who died in the September 11 tragedy, let us also never forget the theologically perverse religious drivel that spewed forth from the mouths of two of the most ridiculous religious leaders to have ever lived in the days immediately following the tragedy.

May we never forget how religion was misused and abused to promote the conservative cause in the wake of tragedy.

Remember, according to Robertson and Falwell, God hates liberals, so he caused thousands of innocent people to be murdered as punishment.

And you should blame the feminists, the gays, the lesbians, the abortionists, the federal courts, the pagans, the secularists, the ACLU, and People for the American Way, because it’s their fault God killed innocent people.

Damnable, damnable idiots.

(HT: Christian Nightmares)

Manti Te’o ought to date Clint Eastwood’s empty chair

Manti Te’o ought to date Clint Eastwood’s empty chair. It just makes sense.

Manti Te'o ought to date Clint Eastwood's empty chair. #MakesMoreSense

— Robert R. “Dr. Bob” Cargill (@xkv8r) January 17, 2013

and

Manti Te'o is the living embodiment of John Lovitz' SNL character, Tommy Flanagan. #MorganFairchildhttp://t.co/IfHf40jb

— Robert R. “Dr. Bob” Cargill (@xkv8r) January 17, 2013

Here’s Deadspin breaking the story.

Background here.

For a quick summary, watch here.

Don’t miss Seth Meyers’ line here: “These Te’o jokes are all very funny but let’s all try and remember that a person who never existed is dead.”

Even more here, with timeline and quotes from Te’o.

Backup Quarterback Patents Prayer: Tebow Trademarks ‘Tebowing’

Leave it to Evangelical hero, NY Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow, to trademark prayer and profit from it.

Tim Tebow has trademarked “Tebowing”: kneeling on one knee and praying on a football field. Yes, the moneychangers at the Temple have nothing on Tim Tebow: now you have to PAY to PRAY.

I’ve said this before: Tebow is a proven winner in a college football context. But for Tebow, it’s always – ALWAYS – been about him (not Him): his brand, his charity, and his marketing arm (XV Enterprises Limited). Tebow has repeatedly stated publicly that football is merely his stage upon which he gets to promote his real message.

Of course, athletes have been kneeling and praying with head bowed for as long as there has been sports. Leave it to Tim Tebow to patent it.

(And yes, I’ll take the author’s advice and make the joke: Tebow’s marketing arm is better than his actual arm.)

so, rick santorum, what you’re saying is “be conservative: don’t go to college”

Rick Santorum’s real beliefs on education are finally frothing up and boiling over. Unfortunately, he’s saying them aloud in public.

Kyle Munzenrieder wrote a brilliant response for the Miami New Times to Santorum’s most recent comments, as did The Hill‘s Daniel Strauss. Allow me to offer my own.

Rick Santorum finally said aloud what many fundamentalist Christians have felt for a long time: “be conservative: don’t go to college. And if you do go to college, make sure it’s a Republican party-approved private conservative Christian college. (I’m looking at you Liberty University, Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Regent University, BYU, and Pepperdine.)

Listen to what Santorum told a Florida audience:

“It’s no wonder President Obama wants every kid to go college..the indoctrination that occurs in American universities is one of the keys to the left holding and maintaining power in America. And it is indoctrination.”

Evangelicals would prefer that students either attend schools with the words “evangelical,” “theological,” and “seminary” in the title (preferably all three) or not at all. Because according to Santorum’s and other evangelicals’ line of thought, when the nation’s top colleges and state universities educate students, it’s liberal indoctrination. But, when private conservative evangelical schools educate students, it’s not indoctrination; it’s a simple dissemination of facts (and by facts, I mean faith claims that are often contrary to scientific facts).

It’s almost comical: Evangelicals don’t want kids to go to America’s top colleges because they might actually learn something besides a fundamentalist, conservative, literalist, theologically-laced worldview, which often leads to a biblically defended suppression of the civil rights of groups that don’t look and/or think like they do. So, from a very early age, they encourage like-minded people to isolate and insulate their kids from any point of view other than their own by placing kids in home schools, private (approved conservative) Christian schools, conservative Christian colleges, and if they do attend graduate school, they often receive some fantastic degree in education, physics, and applied scripture from Southern Evangelical Theological Seminary (I made this title up. If it does exist, my point has only been further underscored.)

So just to clarify:

Public school: Liberal indoctrination
Home school: NOT indoctrination

Public High School: Liberal indoctrination
Christian High School: NOT indoctrination

Public or Ivy League university: Liberal indoctrination
Christian College: NOT indoctrination

R1 Research Graduate School: Liberal indoctrination
Evangelical Theological Seminary: NOT indoctrination

I shake my head.

HT: Jim West

who needs reason when there’s personal revelation: god speaks to pat robertson?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a society and government that is based upon personal revelation (that is, the belief that God speaks directly to people, as opposed to, let’s say, a society and government that is based upon logic and reason that is repeatable, testable, and subject to peer-review and critical scrutiny to determine the veracity of claims) is doomed to be disproportionately influenced by religious charlatans and charismatic preachers with money like Pat Robertson.

For what is to stop a wealthy preacher with cable access to claim, for instance, that God has given him a direct, word-for-word revelation?

And in a world based upon revelation (as opposed to reason and rationality) who are you to dispute him? Does God speak to you, and if so, why are you at your desk fuming while Pat Robertson is on TV prophesying?

The Founders had a good idea: separate religion completely from the secular administration of federal government. Anything shy of this is a quasi-theocracy at the mercy of the one whom a religious majority happens to believe is in personal communication with the divine.

steve anderson really likes peeing standing up ‘like a man’

I feel bad for the editors of the New King James and New International Version of the Bible, who according to Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe Arizona, are ‘males’ and not ‘men’ because they ‘pee sitting down’ rather than ‘pissing against a wall’ like real ‘men’ (like the KJV says to in 1 Sam. 25:22; 25:34; 1 Kings 14:10; 16:11; 21:21; and 2 Kings 9:8)!

Indeed, the church’s website is correct when it describes Pastor Anderson thusly:

“He holds no college degree but has well over 140 chapters of the Bible memorized word-for-word, including approximately half of the New Testament.”

(I’m guessing he took the easy way out and memorized them in English.)

There are so many things wrong with this fundy’s logic (or lack thereof) that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Obviously to this guy, the English KJV is the only ‘inspired’ version of the Bible (although it was written originally in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and an intimate knowledge of these three languages will always better inform the reader of the text than a translation).

Second, he obviously has male superiority complex, as he has completely bypassed the ‘male vs. female’ debate that confounds so many fundamentalists, and has skipped to arguing ‘man vs. male,’ where ‘male’ is apparently more effeminate than a real (English) ‘man.’ And God help the poor German men (see the 2:17 mark).

But perhaps the best example of this man’s skewed logic is this fact: according to him, R. Kelley (as spoofed by Dave Chappelle) would be the ultimate man.

I shake my head at fundamentalists of any religion.

HT: RL

how long until the ‘ancient aliens’ folks get a hold of this?

How long do you think it will take the Ancient Aliens folks to interpret the recent discovery on Google Earth of formations in the Gobi Desert as the work of aliens on earth?

Obviously, China is up to something, but what is it? Is it a military testing ground? Is it a street map for a major city for use in targeting practice? Is it the latest massive Christo artistic installation? Is it the future of UPC or QR codes?

I don’t know. What we do know is that within a week or so, someone is going to claim that it’s some sort of alien landing strip. Just watch.

(FTR – my guess is a satellite calibration system for part of it, and a explosives testing site for the other. Pure speculation, but with the burnt out vehicles in one of the images, I’m guessing testing site.)

the epitome of hypocrisy: westboro baptist to picket steve jobs’ funeral

Margie J. Phelps, daughter of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, tweets that Westboro Baptist will picket the funeral of Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs because of his opposition to California's Prop 8, which sought to ban same-sex marriage. Ironically, and some would say hypocritically, she informed the public via Twitter from her iPhone!

This is the epitome of hypocrisy.

I typically don’t report on the idiots at Westboro Baptist Church, but a recent tweet caught my eye.

Margie J. Phelps, one of the 13 children of hatemongering pastor of Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, recently tweeted that Westboro would be picketing the funeral of Steve Jobs because Apple contributed money to help defeat California’s Proposition 8, which sought to ban same sex marriage. She tweeted:

Westboro will picket his funeral.He had a huge platform; gave God no glory & taught sin. MT @AP: Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died at 56.

The fact that the douche bags at Westboro would picket Mr. Jobs’ funeral is not surprising. However, what makes the story brazenly hypocritical is that Phelps informed the public via Twitter from her iPhone!

And THAT made me smile.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. Thank you for your life, your work, and for helping me to work harder, play better, and dream bigger.

HT: Joel Watts FB via Steve Lowe FB

 

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UPDATE:

Gawker has the story.

Here’s a pic of the full context of her tweet:

Margie Phelps' Steve Jobs Tweet

even crime in iowa city challenges traditional gender stereotypes

Melissa Minarsich of Iowa City was arrested after she assaulted her boyfriend for not having sex with her.

Here in Iowa City, life is never dull. And by now, everyone knows Iowa City’s reputation as a socially progressive center where common stereotypes, such as traditional gender roles, can be nonexistent or even, on occasion, reversed. In fact, even the rare crime committed in Iowa City can exhibit characteristics that defy traditional stereotypes.

Take for instance a local Iowa City woman, Melissa B. Minarsich, 28, who assaulted her boyfriend because he refused to have sex with her. You read that correctly: She beat him for not having sex with her. It’s like Fresno’s Bizarro World.

At least her explanation to the police following her arrest was refreshingly honest and straightforward:

“All I want is a piece of ass, is that too much to ask for?

Apparently yes, a “piece of ass” is too much to ask for if you assault someone when it is refused.

nami is back, this time with a movie

NAMI is back, and this time they are armed with a movie (so you KNOW it’s real)!

(I and several others have reported on NAMI’s nonsense in the past.)

The movie is being screened at the Fire Church, part of the Fire School of Ministry. The Fire School of Ministry is the product of Dr. Michael Brown, who expounds upon difficult subjects like “Can You Be Gay and a Saved Christian?” (I kid you not: I am not making this up!)

Let me save you the trouble and tell you exactly what the movie will conclude (this is just my guess): “The evidence may be inconclusive (read: it’s NOT Noah’s Ark), but the journey and the expedition has brought many closer to faith in Jesus Christ, so the deception was worth it.” Or something to the effect.

Watch the preview. It really is bad.