November 07, 2004

TaliBAD?

The Taliban is evil because they are a group of religious nuts who do mean things like kill people and bomb stuff. We like to think of them as nuts -- not evangelists or even zealots -- because they don't love Jesus. They took over a country/region and then condemned everyone who failed to conform to their wacked-out beliefs. They took away some people's rights just because of who they are. Okay. But it's perfectly fine for Americans to do it, so long as such facists (ah, the F-word!) like James Dobson are "good Christians" and are looking out for our kids and the "sanctity of marriage"? I dont' hold any degrees in linguistics or philology or etymology, but does "sanctity" mean "for some, and we get to choose who"? Why are we handing over control of our country to religious nuts, some of whom used to be drunks (i.e., Dubbya himself) and are thereby supposed to somehow understand Jesus more? I've heard the argument made that our country was "founded" on "Christian principles." I'm damned sick of getting emails (from people who know my religious tendencies) which argue that we should have prayer -- Christian prayer -- at everything from public schools in Massachusetts to NFL games, because "most" of us are Christian, and everyone else is as free to shut up their ears as some are to pray that their team wins over the public address system. Anyone who claims that our country was founded on explicitely Christian principles has simply never taken the time to read our nation's founding documents. The fact that some of the first crazies over here from Europe were fanatical Christians and that the Founding Fathers were Christians does not mean that our country was founded on Christian principles. Read the Constitution for crapsakes. Patrick Leahy hates God's people? And? What does that have to do with the US Senate? Who the hell are God's people? The Taliban thinks it's them. But no, we say, they don't even believe in Jesus! Jesus! It's up to James Dobson and that bastard leprechaun Pat Robertson to tell us how we manage to be right about being God's people and that everyone else is wrong and that a US Senator can hate God's people and manage to fool everyone and get elected by the God's people that he hates and that is why he is evil and that Bush is a hero for bombing people to death and destroying an entire nation but that Bin Laden is an evil terrorist sent by the Devil himself for doing a very similar thing. Geez, these guys have a lot of work to do? What are they doing on television and the internet? Osama says, "Terrorist? Bigot? Evil? Hold the fuck up. I know you are, but what am I?" I have nothing against Christians or Muslims or atheists or anyone else, just because of what they believe or don't believe. While people like the Family Guy and the Leprechaun give a lot of good Christians a bad name and while killers like Bin Laden give lovely muslims a bad name, I like to think I am capable of seeing that such haters and bigots are the exception and not the rule. I never said the contrary, nor did I imply it. So don't tell me that I hate God's people please. I love most of God's people, really, sucka.

8 comments:

Lorianne said...

Whenever people say "our country was formed on Christian principles," I gleefully point out that Thomas Jefferson & Thomas Paine were Deists, not Christians. Of course, this earns blank stares: "What's a Deist." I then explain that Deists believe an impersonal Intelligence created the world, but It has since "left the building." In other words, the Divine Intelligence thinks we should figure out some things for ourselves, thank you, and I personally think designing & running a government is one of them.

But then again, I'm a pagan, idol-worshipping Buddhist, so whatever could I as Satan-spawn know? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Umm... I'm neither religious nor particularly anti-religious, yet I'm pretty comfortable with leaving Osama Bin Laden on my s--t list just because of that whole mass murder/enemy of the state thing. It's nothing personal, really; he could be a fundamentalist Christian/Jew/Hindu/Sikh/etc., and he'd still end up on that list. I'm just a simple guy: I look at what he did, not what what he believed in (unless those beliefs are also literally threats, i.e., "I believe TPB should die").

TPB, Esq.

Pragmatik said...

All too true, TPB, Esq. I think Osama is worse than Bush, however slightly, just because he's a murderer. I don't mean to defend him so much as comment on how he is not that different than certain zealots in our own country. Truly, you're right: he's scum.

Anonymous said...

Im gonna go w/ they are both evil, which is basically the gist of your post. I'm gonna get in trouble, but i think many christains today have taken the fundamentalist approach just as far as some of the muslims and islamic and any fundementalist group. I think any time people take religious script and through some wild sence of imagination take that to mean that they should kill people, they are going to far. I'm nearly positive that 99% of religions promote peace for mankind, and well ethnic cleansing just isn't in the main messege. Sure there are examples of it in scripture, but thats not the messege of religion. So easy to hate, much harder to love.

All you need is love

http://cyoung.blogdrive.com

laterrr

Pragmatik said...

Amen:)

Anonymous said...

Sweet Pea Here... Amen Brotha.

http://sweetpeakate.typepad.com/thewords/

Anonymous said...

Hallelujah!! -- Nancy (Jumbo Barking)

Sal said...

(which means i can finally comment on THIS too)

spot on, mate. an action/a group doesn't suddenly become moral because it wears your preferred badge. humans LOVE to judge groups by their shibboleth, not their actions, don't they?