March 05, 2007

DOMESTIC TALIBAN HOWLS AT MOON


Caption: You can almost hear them...


The latest stunt of the Taliban/jihad school of Christianity would be funny if not for the fact that it isn't funny.

But then again, it kind of is.

Here's the story:

Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming.

The conservative leaders say they are not convinced that global warming is human-induced or that human intervention can prevent it. And they accuse the director, the Rev. Richard Cizik, the association’s vice president for government affairs, of diverting the evangelical movement from what they deem more important issues, like abortion and homosexuality.

The letter underlines a struggle between established conservative Christian leaders, whose priority has long been sexual morality, and challengers who are pushing to expand the evangelical movement’s agenda to include issues like climate change and human rights.


The letter was signed by such religious right luminaries as James C. Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, Gary L. Bauer, onetime presidental candidate and current leader of Coalitions for America, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; and Paul Weyrich, chairman of American Values.

Allow me to try to fairly sum up the position of the letter writers: Poverty? Who cares? Injustice &#%* it! Oppression? Bring it on! Screwing up the planet? Big whoop!

Now that's some religion.

It is hard for me to fathom how some people think that following Jesus of Nazareth consists of obsessing about other people's sexuality while ignoring what Jesus called "the weightier matters of compassion and justice."

They ought to crack open a gospel every once in a while.

To NAE's credit, Cizik apparently continues to enjoy their support.

HEALTH CARE RANT: If you are really bored, here's an op-ed of mine on the U.S. health care crisis that ran in yesterdays' Charleston WV Sunday Gazette-Mail.

AND SPEAKING OF HEALTH CARE...This item from today's NY Times shows that being uninsured isn't just for poor people anymore.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: STYGIAN

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen...the American Taliban would be better off reading and following the Four Gospels and the New Testament.

One out of every sixteen verses in the New Testament and one in ten, in three of the Gospels, and one in seven in the Gospel of Luke refer to money and the poor.

Sad to say, if they did, they would discover Jesus spent an enormous amount of time preaching about freedom from oppression, feeding the poor and leading the blind to see.

Jesus spoke in parables and there is a LOT of blind people in the United States today.

In the year 2000 America’s surplus of $281 billion was projected to accumulate to $5.6 trillion in 10 years.

In the year 2007, our Deficit is $8.7 trillion.

If my memory serves me, those are ALL Bush years.

Jesus wouldn’t think much of this…

You’re right on target with this post!

El Cabrero said...

The Gospel of Thomas might not hurt them either. You're right, for some reason the parts about economic justice don't seem to get it with them.

I think tomorrow's will be about the Good Samaritan.

WWJD indeed...

Thanks!

Jspiker said...

Very true...

The Gospel of Thomas has much to say too and I'm sorry I forgot about him.

I was quoting Jimmy Carters book
"Our Endangered Values". I've been reading it for the last two weeks.

I often wonder how many books have been deliberatly destroyed and lost forever.

There is evidence many more existed.

El Cabrero said...

I think a lot of the ones that didn't make the cut had...issues. Thomas though deserves a better deal. I think some of it was later proto gnostic but some seems to go all the way back.