Christian Leftist

The sad thing is that I’ve heard this argument before. I let my Jewish friend listening to something similar from my own youth pastor, thinking it was the right thing to do.

I cannot believe how stupid and ignorant and anti-Semitic that was. I cannot believe that I let myself be so blinded by the good intentions of my church at that time that I allowed myself to miss the negative effects of what I was doing in trying to proselytize my friend.

As with any -ism, it is the EFFECT, not the intent, that matters to the people who you hurt.

I wish Pat Hagee and John McCain could realize this, too.

The choice seems pretty obvious to me, but we all know what Bush does when a vast majority of Americans voice their opposition to his decisions: whatever the hell he wants. The Senate has enough votes to override his veto, but the House doesn’t, so the Democratic leadership has pushed back the deadline for an override for two weeks while they try to scrape together 15 more votes from Republicans. Good luck with that.

The only reason we have out of control spending is because the Bush administration spends it on ALL OF THE WRONG PROGRAMS. It is a sham and a travesty that we are the only developed country ON EARTH that doesn’t have government-funded national health care. Yes, Mr. Bush, these children are uninsured, even if they’re middle class citizens. Private health care is too expensive.

No, I don’t think that asking the nation to pay for everyone’s health care costs is a bad idea. We make taxpayers inhale the foul air of smokers, poison ourselves with pollution from selfish suburban families with inefficient SUVs, and pay for bombs and bullets in the Middle East. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect something back.

Reuters covers the Bush veto on health care

Thanks to the pillars of moral hypocrisy like Alan Keyes, a preacher and politician who disowned his own daughter after she came out as a lesbian, the public knows all about the horrible ordeals that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people endure when they choose to reveal their sexual identities to their parents. What may not be as obvious to the American people is that 86 percent of this country is Christian, and a great number of Atheist and Christian families have extremely emotional fights over the religious choices of children and parents. I myself fought bitterly for the right to go to a church that my parents thought was a cult because I went there so often. In truth, it was because people didn’t have as many catfights on holy ground.

Well, there’s this video going around the internet where someone — presumably a disillusioned sibling — covertly taped a fight between a mother and her son about his assertion of Atheism. It’s both hilarious and frightening: hilarious, because the mom is obviously an uptight, hypocritical tyrant who threatens to cancel Christmas (”because Christmas is about JESUS!”) and frightening because it show how common it is for weak-minded individuals to resort to verbal and/or physical threats when faced with the possibility of co-inhabiting a house with someone who disagrees with their beliefs. The video is a great example of how NOT to behave when discussing your religion with others.

This really isn’t the way to convert your kid back to Catholicism.

Larry Craig can’t seem to make up his mind about much of anything these days.

First, he didn’t solicit sex from a police officer. Then, he may have given the wrong impression and merely wanted to plead guilty and sweep the whole dirty affair under the rug. Then, it was in his best interest to shout “I AM NOT GAY!!!” from the rooftops with a 300-lb. bullhorn. A bit later, Craig decided, “I’m sick of this crap. I’ll just quit now while I’m behind. Now, he’s saying he’s not sure, that he wants to fight the accusation made against him but he had planned to not seek re-election BEFORE the scandal broke but he may not quit unless the Ethics Committe finds him guilty of wrongdoing and oh, by the way, his spokesperson says, “There will probably be a new Senator from Idaho come October.”

Guh?

I’m not going to even TRY to tackle this one. Read CNN’s story on the latest about the Larry Craig sex scandal instead, and then blame them for confusing you, not me.

By the way, I think I agree with Arlen Specter on one thing: airport police have far better things that they SHOULD be doing with their time other than waiting for gay men to nudge their boots in restroom stalls.

Everyone hates someone else they haven’t met because they never think they’ll walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you’re certain that all veterans are gun-loving warmongers until you go on a camping trip with one of them who happens to be an environmental pagan. Maybe you view all foreigners with suspicion until you find out that the wife of that grocer down the street teaches your children. It’s hard not to take cues from those around you who have already formed intractable opinions on people who they dislike.

Try.

That’s what I want to say when I see these conservative ‘family values’ politicians and their ilk exposed for the liars and cowards they are. Sure, some of them are just misguided ignorant people, but most of them are willfully ignorant and intolerant, especially towards non-Judeo-Christians, leftists and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. How many times must we remind those who insist on dragging religion into the public square that Christ himself said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?” (John 8:8)

For those of you still hung up over Bill Clinton, let’s take a look at the recent role call (if I’m leaving anyone out, which I’m sure I am, please let me know):

∙ Ted Haggard, the minister of a mega-church in Colorado springs who had sex with a male prostitute and did drugs—meth, I think?
∙ Mark Foley, the Republican congressman from Florida who resigned after a teenage male congressional page turned over explicit instant message conversations between them
∙ Glenn Murphy Jr., the Clark County Republican Party (Utica, NY?) chairman who resigned both that position AND his appointment as president of the Young Republican National Federation after a colleague reported that Murphy, Jr. sodomized him while he was trying to sleep over at his house during a campaign event, also accused of sodomizing another minor several years earlier
∙ David Vitter, the Louisiana Senator? whose phone number appeared on the D.C. Madam’s call list for having sex with one of her call girls
∙ Bob Allen, the Republican elected official from Florida who blamed his solicitation of a police officer to let him blow the officer in return for paying the officer $20 on fear of racial violence from the police because the officer and his friends were large and black
∙ Larry Craig, the Louisiana Senator who pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover cop in the men’s bathroom at a Minnesota airport and then tried to publicly disavow his plea

The Young Turks, a liberal-leaning blog that does a segment on Air America, has reported on a GOP sex scandal every week for a while now and never run out of material. Now THAT’s sad.

I don’t have a problem with gays having sex. I don’t see why Craig was arrested. It’s the fact that Ol’ Larry has been campaigning to pass anti-gay rights legislation in Congress that really sticks in my craw.

I don’t know, maybe, just maybe we’re all human beings who make mistakes and we shouldn’t try to legislate flawed ideology and force-feed it down the throats of our fellow citizens? Just a thought.

This little gem of an article has been going around Digg.com for the past few days, and I think every single person who thinks post-Reagan conservatives aren’t evil should read it.

What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren’t Listening

[P.S. -- Sorry for the long absence. Family medical emergencies.]

Oh, will the trail of underqualified, overly righteous, neo-conservative appointees from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell’s colleges who commit political suicide never end?

As for Randall Tobias, the Boston Globe article that describes his past controversial positions on AIDS treatment programs really says it all in the first sentence:

“Randall L. Tobias , the Bush administration official responsible for foreign assistance who resigned late Friday because of his use of an escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, was ridiculed as a hypocrite yesterday because he supported US policies that forced overseas organizations not to help prostitutes.”

This is what happens when people try to play the moral police. Whatever happened to loving the least of one’s brethren? People are going to have sex whether you think it’s right for them to do so or not. Why did the Bush administration assume that they themselves were infallible pillars of morality?

I really couldn’t care less if Tobias received ‘massages’ in a house not his own from the fingers of a woman not his wife, or what specific types of therapy those massages entailed. That’s his problem and God’s. It probably throws his personal character into doubt, but the fact is that as long as he didn’t use government property to do it, it’s solicitation at worst, because morals aren’t the same as ethics.

At least, they’re not supposed to be. Now, because Tobias has injected his personal religious beliefs (and those of the Bush administration) into policy, he has made himself look like a dogmatic imbecile and a fraud. Deservedly so, in my opinion, but the point remains that no one can or should judge another’s private sex life. Abstinence education is an oxymoron because it presumes that using unfounded conclusions from biased think tanks to tell people to control their biological urges is more sensible than teachingthem how to use condoms.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are
back to make another buck off of their megahit Left Behind series, a collection of eleven (and counting) books that chronicle the events in “Revelations” from the Bible. Left Behind Games, a startup multimedia company devoted solely to the series, will soon releasse the first video game translation of the plot in the first book.

The game is an apocalyptic adventure with black and white portrayals of good and evil. Players must convert neutral groups of non-believers before the Antichrist’s followers do. The violence is supposed to be gore-free, and sexuality is minimal or non-existent. In other words, it’s Grand Theft Auto without the blood, prostitutes, and profanity, instead injected with more ambiguous morality.

Some fundamentalist groups think the game is too much of a compromise and that LaHaye’s company is conforming to the world rather than forcing the world to conform to its views. They want to advocate quitting video games entirely, I suspect. LaHaye’s associates believe they are providing a Christian alternative to the mindless bloodshed of popular entertainment.

Lock and load!

Speaking of games, basketball players from high schools like Lutheran Christian Academy were informed that the National Collegiate Athletic Association will no longer accept their transcripts for consideration towards the fourteen-course requirement necessary to win a scholarship.

I can just hear the religious right drawing in breath to scream! Hold on just a second! What’s that? All the schools offering up courses for credit have to pass a three-part requirement test? Who’da thunk it?

It turns out that the male basketball players at Lutheran Christian, for example, didn’t attend classes at all. They received credit for them anyway, though. Maybe that’s why the College Board removed LCA as an ACT and SAT test site, and why LCA lacked accredation, state oversight, and membership from a state high school athletic association.
Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, NY is facing the same problems and its principal is considering shutting down the basketball program.

Why is Bush an apostate (and what the heck is an apostate, anyway)? I’ll attempt to answer that in 1000 words or less… 

An apostate, by definition, is one who has abandoned or renounced his/her religion, faith, moral principles, political party or cause. Juliana Apostata, the Roman Emperor Julian The Apostate, abandoned Christianity to follow Paganism. Some of the standard free online dictionaries have a bit more fun with it, adding the Medieval Latin and Greek roots of the modern word as apostates and aphistanai (to revolt). In some ways, this is conducive to the understanding of what Bush and other neo-cons have done, i.e. hijacked the Christian faith. More about that in a second.

The first time I heard the word apostate used in church was when my youth pastor mentioned “false prophets” in concurrence with the sections in Timothy that deal with a man called Alexander. I paid attention at the time because the name is the male version of my own–silly, I know–but the memory of 1 Tim. 1:20 and 2 Tim. 4:14 stuck in my head. They may or may not be the same Alexander, but they are both apostates. The second line says, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works.” In context, the chapter refers to a man who Paul told Timothy had betrayed him by pretending to serve God but who secretly worked evil instead.

Bush gives lip service to Christ, but he has himself admitted that his act of becoming a Christian was to stop drinking for his wife Laura. He’s not an evangelical; his family is Methodist, and he apparently felt no compunction to follow the five steps that evangelicals regard as critical to salvation: 1. Admittance of being a sinner, 2. Believing in the Holy Trinity, 3. Understanding that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for everyone’s sins, was buried and rose the third day, 4. Repentance, and 5. Combining all of these things into a prayer asking God to save him.

While evangelicals differ in their beliefs from Catholics in that they don’t think it’s necessary to prove one’s self through works (thus earning one’s way into Heaven) because the quantity and quality of works will always be in question, works are a good indicator of one’s character. There are numerous Biblical quotations on this subject, but I’ll just list a few here:

John 10:37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
John 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

Matthew 5: 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

It seems like James 2 contradicts this by saying that “faith without works is dead,” but in context, the lesson is reminding Christians that if they ARE truly saved/redeemed/faithful to God, they shouldn’t treat people differently based on their wealth or influence.

1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Juxtapose this with the tax cuts for the rich, the extravagant parties in Hawaii for the DHS administrators, the cutting of aid to Medicare and Medicaid, education programs, equity groups and veterans, the overwhelming economic disparity between those who are fighting and dying in Iraq versus those who do not have to serve in the military to pay for college, the oppostion to equal rights for women,minorities and the like, the defeat of a raise in the minimum wage, and all of the rich, billionaire contributors funding Bush’s election campaigns (the biggest of whom was Ken Lay, CEO of Enron, who robbed Californians of power, investors of millions and employees of their bread and butter) ad nauseam, and it’s really quite funny, in retrospect.

Of course, no one but Bush knows whether he’s actually said that prayer, but even if he has, he’s hardly done anything worthy of the tolerance and compassion that Christ emphasizes over and over again in the New Testament.

“As God As His Witness.” The American Prospect.
http://www.prospect.org/web/printfriendly-view.ww?id=8790
“Bush And The Seven Deadly Sins.” Dissident Voice.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles5/Hamilton_Bush-7Sins.htm
Capitol Hill Blue’s report on Bush’s erratic behavior in July 2004. Granted, I can’t confirm this article with backup sources, but Bush has been known for swearing and losing his temper when reporters ask him the “wrong questions.”
http://www.betterworld.com/getreallist/article.php?story=20040804174956161
One of my two favorites by far is an Analysis by a leftwing Christian, Jitske Hart, over at BartCop.com. The grammar isn’t as perfect as the New York Times, but it’s definitely worth a read.
http://www.bartcop.com/022504bushx.htm

The most telling evidence, in my opinion, of Bush’s apostasy is the utter hatred of everything remotely connected to Christianity that he has inspired at home and abroad. How can one teach about Christ’s love when the first example of Christianity they see is a selfish, arrogant, spiteful president who lies and manipulates anything and anyone he can to serve his own ends? He gives Christians a bad name, and so do his followers. I only hope they realize this before it’s too late to mend the wounds he’s inflicted on our world.

24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Take from this what you will.