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)

On Genesis 6:6-7 and Political Claims that God is “Pro-life”

Verse of the Day: Genesis 6:6-7:

Gen. 6:6 And the LORD regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

Gen. 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

The Hebrew word מחה translated as “blot out” above means “to wipe out, annihilate, destroy”. Thus, according to the passage above, God regretted that he had created humans, contemplated it, grieved about it, and then after considering the matter thoughtfully with his divine omniscience, came to the decision to annihilate humans (save, of course, for Noah and his family and some animals). He regretted that he had made them. He was sorry that he had created humans because they wouldn’t obey him.

THAT IS IN THE BIBLE! THAT IS SCRIPTURE!

According to Genesis 6:6-7, God admits that he deliberately drowned every human on earth. He INTENTIONALLY KILLED EVERY PERSON ON EARTH (except Noah and his family). He killed children, and babies, and even the unborn. According to his own claim, he killed them all – because he said they were ‘only evil every day’ (רק רע כל-היום). Unborn children and 6-month old babies DELIBERATELY DROWNED because they were ‘evil’ (according to the Bible).

So here’s my question – and let’s set aside the question of whether mass genocide is ever the answer to disobedience or not being praised enough. (Remember: it doesn’t get more “inhuman” than committing mass genocide and drowning all humans.)

But again, here’s my question:

I’m wondering whether God considered all of the unborn children being carried in their mothers’ wombs when he decided to murder all humans.

I’m wondering how some can claim that God is “pro life”, when God not only committed mass genocide – by his own admission AND after careful consideration of the matter – but when he also destroyed all of those unborn children that necessarily would have been carried around by their mothers as a natural part of daily life on earth.

Again, this is not what some atheist claims about God; this is what God claims about himself. He admits he did this.

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People of faith must put their faith – and the claims made about their faith – in a real, modern context. Rather than rushing to regurgitate some worn out apologetic claiming, “God cannot tolerate evil,” or “It’s not genocide if God does it,” people of faith must consider that the one they consider to be the “objective moral foundation” for all things ethical at one point in history killed everyone on earth because he regretted creating them! Imagine this same death sentence on the world’s population today. It is nothing less than genocide.

Likewise, people of faith must THINK about the political claims they are making when they attempt to invoke God for their political causes. How can one claim that God is “pro-life” when he admits that he is personally responsible for the destruction of untold thousands of unborn children…because he regretted he had made them (כי נחמתי כי עשׂיתם)! There is no airbrushing this. This is what he claims he did after thoughtful consideration. God regretted that he had conceived and created life, so he destroyed it! And yet some claim that God is “pro life”??

BY ALL MEANS, let’s have the debate about abortion. Let’s talk about how no one wants abortion, how we should be making every effort to reduce the number of abortions that take place each year, and let’s consider a number of different solutions that will place children in the homes of those who want them.

But for the love of all that is and will be – PLEASE STOP INVOKING THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IN THIS ARGUMENT.

God is NOT the one you want to hold up as an example of a “pro life” advocate when his documented solution to regretting the creation of human life was to destroy it – both the born and the unborn.

We can have a sensible discussion and debate about reducing the number of abortions in this country and around the world without making it a religious argument.

Let’s celebrate life. Let’s talk about health of both mother and child. Let’s talk about birth control and adoption. Let’s talk about sex education and the merits of promoting healthy relationships, rather than the continued sensationalization of sex and continued commercial sexual exploitation of both boys and girls in adolescent culture.

But let’s have this conversation without introducing religious claims into the mix. On both sides of this issue, religious claims only muddy the waters and get in the way of actual progress and real solutions.

pakistani government official murdered for opposing law that punished ‘thought crime’

The body of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer is loaded into an ambulance in Islamabad earlier today. Photo: Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty Images

A Pakistani government official was assassinated today by a member of his own security detail because he opposed Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy law. “Blasphemy” in Pakistan is considered any thought or spoken word that “insults Islam,” which is commonly interpreted as anything spoken against the Islamic faith, including converting to another religion or renouncing faith and becoming an atheist. The New York Daily News’ Sean Alfano writes:

Taseer’s outspoken stance against Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which calls for anyone insulting Islam to be executed, outraged his alleged killer, identified as Mumtaz Qadri, one of his guards, and intelligence official told The Associated Press.

Qadri allegedly bragged about gunning down Taseer, who was governor of Punjab province, the official said.

The blasphemy law has come under attack recently after a Christian woman received a death sentence for insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. No one convicted under the law has been executed, but more than 30 accused blasphemers have been killed by angry mobs, the BBC reported.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer was murdered because he opposed an ancient religious (in this case, Islamic) law that states anyone who thinks differently than what the Qur’an allows one to think should be executed. Taseer was not arrested for this crime and was not facing execution as is a Pakistani woman, Asia Bibi, for converting to Christianity. No, he simply questioned aloud whether Pakistan should be enforcing the law that calls for the execution of people who think differently like Bibi. He was killed for exercising his free speech – for opposing a law that punishes thought. He didn’t threaten anyone. He didn’t impersonate anyone. He didn’t defame anyone. He simply asked whether or not Pakistan should kill people for thinking, and he was murdered for it.

This is how religious fundamentalism and terror work. They threaten and pressure and scare politicians into conforming to an extreme religious position, and politicians can’t get elected (or survive) without pandering to the religious right, sending the country continually in the wrong direction. The sad thing is that this kind of religious fundamentalism and religious pressure is not limited to Islam or to Pakistan. There are those in this country who would argue that anyone who speaks against Jesus or Christianity or certain Christian doctrines should meet a similar fate, or at least not be allowed to serve in government.

This is what happens when religion and government combine in an effort to control thought.

absolutely unacceptable and condemnable – murder on christmas eve

Salvation Army Major Philip Wise was murdered on Christmas Eve.

this story is absolutely unacceptable and utterly condemnable. who robs a charity worker? who murders someone who gives their life to helping the poor? who murders in cold blood?

The 40-year-old father of three joined the Salvation Army along with his wife, Cindy, 16 years ago, and they had spent the past few years reaching out to those in the Baring Cross neighborhood. The North Little Rock center provides youth programs, weekly church services and Sunday School and a food pantry, among other services.

Wise was returning to that Salvation Army center at 1505 W. 18th St. with his children Thursday afternoon when two black men, both with handguns, approached him and demanded money. One shot was fired, and Wise was killed as his children stood by. His wife, who was in the center at the time, was the one to call 911.

when they catch these two, and they will, it will be death for both of them. i don’t say that often, but if ever it is justified, here it is. murder of a charity worker in front of his children for a bucket of salvation army change.

absolutely unacceptable.