Christianity

Organized Religion, Parenthood, and Gay Rights: Time To Do What A Jew Named Jesus Would Advocate!

Ronald 2 Comments

Today is Mother’s Day, and in five weeks, it is Father’s Day.

Today also is the first Sunday since President Barack Obama declared support of gay marriage, part of his continuing agenda to promote legal rights and human rights for people who are lesbian, gay, bi sexual and transgender.

And what do we already see occurring?

We see hate, discrimination, prejudice, bias, anger, fury and narrow mindedness emanating from many Catholic Mormon, and evangelical Christian pulpits as priests, pastors, and ministers declare “war” on gay Americans, and use the Bible to back up their campaign, rather than demonstrate humanity, open mindedness, understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of people who are different than they are.

Instead of promoting compassion and acceptance, we see the issue of gay rights being used as a political football by the haters, and this sadly includes many moms and dads who will refuse to accept their children who are gay, will throw them out of the house, will banish them from family gatherings, will declare them “dead” rather than understand that they have feelings and desires to love someone of the same sex, and wish to be understood and accepted for who they are.

The question anyone with an open mind has is how can men and women reject their own children, provoking depression and suicide in many cases?

And how can those who claim to be spokesmen for God advocate hate and violence against people who would certainly find it easier to deny their own sexuality if they could, but face constant repudiation by religious leaders who are true hypocrites that set out to divide people and deny that these people’s loves are based on their natural, innate selves?

The sad reality is that ANY clergyman or parent who rejects people of GLBT orientation is promoting the kind of hate which makes a mockery of parenthood and of organized religion!

These are not “good Christians” or any other faith, and should be denounced for what they are, peddlers of hypocrisy, who should be called to account and rejected by all decent people!

Just a reminder: Jesus, who these haters say they follow, was a Jew, and his people, the Jews, have faced prejudice and hate from Christian groups throughout history by those who profess to believe in Jesus. Time to stop the phoniness of what these people preach and follow the true, compassionate views of Jesus, which includes acceptance of LGBT orientation!

Ironic Turn Of Events: British Prime Minister David Cameron Endorses Gay Marriage Rights While Billy Graham Promotes A North Carolina Ban!

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It is extremely ironic that we find out that British Prime Minister David Cameron has endorsed gay marriage, although not requiring churches to administer them, while the revered Reverend Billy Graham, now 93 years old, did not have the courage and guts to defy many Christian haters of gays, including his own son, Franklin Graham, and endorsed a ban on gay marriage in the North Carolina Constitution in a vote coming this November.

Why is it that the British and other Europeans, and Israel as well, have no issue with gays,while America is so uptight and regressive on this human rights issue? And why does a Conservative Prime Minister endorse gay rights, while conservatives in America bitterly oppose them?

And one must keep in mind that Billy Graham, as revered as he is, has now come out as favoring discrimination against gays, but if one looks at his career, we know that he also has been very anti Semitic, including on the Richard Nixon Watergate tapes, and was not a leader in promoting African American civil rights in the 1960s.

So in a way, Billy Graham is just following his forgotten belief in prejudice, hate, and discrimination in his old age, instead of being a statesman, and helping to promote unity and tolerance in the future! What a disgrace!

The Anti Gay Republican Party And Its Religious Allies: A Disgrace To American Values!

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The Republican Party is making clear that it has an anti gay agenda, with very few Republicans willing to condemn the hate and prejudice that is being espoused by religious Right pastors, and by social conservatives who are doing everything they can to undermine any possibility of fair treatment of gays and lesbians.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council have succeeded in forcing Mitt Romney to fire a gay adviser, and it seems clear that Romney will not stand up to these religious bigots.

Instead, elements of the Catholic Church, and evangelical Christians are acting in a way that Jesus Christ would not approve. So we have Joel Osteen, who seemed inclusive when he first became noticed on the national scene from his mega church in Houston, who shows no open mindedness at all toward gays, disillusioning many who thought he had a more tolerant approach; and we have Pastor Sean Harris of The Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, who went on a rant against gays in a sermon last week, and advocated violence against any boy who showed a “limp wrist”, or any girl who acted “butch”. What was even more shocking is how his congregation laughed when he spoke of smacking children, and many seemed to agree with his hateful tirade. Harris apologized, but he lied about what he had said, which was taped. What kind of a religious leader can lie openly and be believed?

Christianity in America is being poisoned and polluted by people who claim to be “good Christians”, but have no problem in advocating violence, hate, prejudice, discrimination, ostracism, and more!

The Republican Party should be ashamed for allowing itself to become captive of these hateful peddlers of a faith that some of them even wish to deny that Jesus was Jewish. Anti semitism, anti black, anti gay, anti immigrant,and anti women views have become common among many elements of Christianity, thankfully not all, but much more prevalent than many want to admit!

Mitt Romney, showing no guts or courage, needs to be walloped on Election Day, or else the dangers of militant, extremist Christianity spreading to national policy are increased, and his party needs to get the message of defeat as well in Congress, that the good people in America are not going to allow their despicable agenda to be advanced, and instead to be clearly repudiated!

Hatred, Resentment, Indifference Toward The Poor: The Sickness In America

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There is a sickness in America, which is growing by leaps and bounds.

That illness is hatred, resentment, and indifference towards the poor!

The ability of most Americans to have compassion and concern for those less fortunate is lacking.

We are a religious nation, with so many claiming to be believers in God, but yet we look down upon the poor, and blame them for their own plight.

It is as if people love to be poor, and are unwilling to do anything to get out of poverty, when it is clear that those born in poverty have an inability to pull themselves out of poverty without assistance from others, as the majority of people in poverty are children.

We have politicians who make a career condemning the poor, and we have radio and cable talk show hosts who live to denounce the poor, and we have religious leaders who claim to be following Jesus Christ, but are not doing so.

We have seen the Social Darwinist theory about poverty arise again in the 21st century, when it was supposed to have died a natural death at the end of the 19th century.

Until we are willing to accept that it is our responsibility as human beings to help lift the poor, we are nothing but religious hypocrites.

Until we stop denouncing the poor for their plight, we are not the shining nation on the hill, offering America as a model for the world.

Our heads should be held in shame until we accept our role to care about and help the poor!

We had wealthy Presidents before who showed concern about the poor, including Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Now we have Mitt Romney, who does not give a damn about the poor! This crisis for America cries out for a change of attitude society wide!

Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress, The Mormon Church, And Barack Obama

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Pastor Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas was very blunt a few months ago, that the Mormon Church was a cult, was not at all Christian, and that he was very uncomfortable with the concept of supporting Mitt Romney for President, since he is a Mormon.

Now, Jeffress has decided to openly endorse Romney, despite his being a Mormon, and despite his discomfort with Mormon beliefs, without convincing anyone of his sincerity.

Instead, it is clear to anyone who wants to be honest, that Pastor Jeffress is backing Romney, because Jeffress is a racist, who cannot imagine himself supporting a black man, Barack Obama, who has made it clear he is Christian.

Pastor Jeffress says it is because Obama has promoted abortion rights, and also has supported advancements in gay rights, which is not part of the Bible, according to Pastor Jeffress, even though many theologians argue that the Bible does not directly address these issues.

But, Jeffress can support a non Christian, as he describes Mormons, who years ago supported abortion rights and gay rights, a man named Mitt Romney, who has conveniently changed his views on every issue imaginable, and who one would think no one could truly believe or trust!

Realize Mitt Romney’s mother, Lenore, ran for the US Senate, in Michigan in support of abortion rights in 1970, so Mitt is even going against the memory and views of his own mother!

And this is a man for a “good, moral” Christian pastor to support? Give us all a break, and accept the fact that, under no circumstance, would Pastor Jeffress ever back a black man for anything, because of the color of his skin!

And Pastor Jeffress is supposed to be a model for tolerance and understanding since he is a pastor, right? What hypocrisy beyond belief!

The Problem Of Religion For Mitt Romney, And How He Deals With It: In A Demagogic Manner!

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has many problems on the road to the Republican Presidential nomination, and despite his wins tonight in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Wisconsin, his path to the Presidency is complicated, and it turns out, religion remains a major barrier.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, a faith regarded by many Christian groups as a religious cult.

Mitt Romney was testy when asked a question yesterday about the tenets of his faith, regarding interracial sexual relations. He said he did not wish to discuss religion, but that is not going to make that issue go away.

When one looks at Gallup polls about how people feel about different religions, we discover that 7 percent say they would not vote for a Baptist; an equal 7 percent would not vote for a Catholic; 9 percent would not vote for a Jew; while 22 percent would not vote for a Mormon!

Only two groups rate higher in voter reluctance to vote for a candidate of that religion: 46 percent would not vote for a Muslim; and 49 percent would not vote for an atheist.

So what has Romney decided to do? Instead of arguing, as many demagogues of his party and in talk radio have done, that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, Romney goes one better.

Romney is now claiming that Obama is promoting “secularism”, in other words, “atheism”, that Obama does not really believe in God!

How despicable and demagogic Romney has become, trying to label Obama as an atheist, due to the fact that the percentage who would not vote for an atheist is double and more that of those who would not vote for a Mormon!

Romney is exploiting religious prejudice and hatred, at a time when he has a religious problem of his own!

What could be more unprincipled? And it is clear that it will not work, and Romney, by bringing it up, deserves a walloping repudiation in November!

Disturbing Social Trends: Anti Gay, Anti Labor, Anti Women, Anti Immigrant, Anti Black

Ronald 1 Comment

The news seems to be more disturbing by the day, as social trends are moving more and more in the direction of hate, prejudice, bias, and narrow mindedness.

Witness the following examples:

In New Jersey, an immature college student. Dharun Ravi, is convicted on all charges of a hate crime against a gay roommate who he streamed a liaison with another man on a webcam, causing that young man, Tyler Clementi, to commit suicide. What a stupid, and self destructive act by a young man who has now destroyed his life, after having done the same to the unfortunate Clementi, which will lead to Ravi’s prison sentence and likely deportation to India. So we have two promising young men at Rutgers University who have been tragically transformed by the prejudice and discrimination that is too widespread in this country, including by so called “religious good Christians”, which have led not just to this incident, but to the crisis of bullying that has caused many other suicides of gay youth, and this backed by right wing conservatives allied with the religious fanatics who do not promote the love of God, which they claim they believe, while practicing hypocrisy.

Then we have the example of a law firm in Deerfield Beach, Florida, which fired a whole group of workers who dressed in orange shirts for work, planning for “happy hour’ on Friday evening! Just for wearing an orange shirt, these people are summarily dismissed, and Florida state law, being that the Sunshine State is a “right to work” state, the employer can dismiss without any just cause or explanation, an outrage to all working people, who see conservatives and businessmen condemn labor unions which try to make work conditions better for all of us, even those not in labor unions. The average American has benefited from the labor movement over the past century, but yet labor unions are pilloried, and workers are abused, as with this example! And witness the anti labor actions in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere that have occurred in the past year!

The fight against women’s right to privacy and their dignity continues with restrictive legislation on contraception being pursued in yet more states, most recently in Arizona and Pennsylvania, on top of the outrageous vaginal probe law in Virginia and similar actions elsewhere.

Immigrants are facing widespread discrimination, whether legal or illegal, in Arizona, Alabama and elsewhere, and now we have the case of a basketball player, who is Puerto Rican and a citizen, facing chants of where his green card is, at a game at the University of Southern Mississippi. Immigrants are being abused, harassed, and victimized daily in the discriminatory, nativist mood that this nation has become obsessed with in recent years.

And African Americans, as always, face greater discrimination, so we have the case of a black teenager in Sanford, Florida, shot to death by a Neighborhood Patrol volunteer, who thought this young man was dangerous and suspicious, even though all he had on him was some Skittles and a soda, but leading to being shot in the chest and killed, and so far, no prosecution of what is obviously an unjustifiable action. It does not add to the image of Florida as to its handling of racial matters, reminding us of the days of segregation and lynching in the state’s past a half century and more ago!

The country is disintegrating from within socially, a very worrisome issue that must be addressed, with the one bright spot being media reporting and exposure, and the reality that liberals and progressives will not stay silent in the midst of these disturbing social trends!

Rick Santorum: Angry, Pessimistic, Intrusive Into Personal Lives, And No Ronald Reagan!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum represents angry, pessimistic Tea Party mentality; hating government; hating educated people; hating the world outside America; wishing to dominate women’s lives;wanting to promote hard line Christian theology on Americans; trying to enforce a Puritan standard on personal behavior; rejecting privacy rights on social matters; invoking Satan as no other Presidential candidate ever has.

All of the above is said to be continuing the heritage and tradition and example of Ronald Reagan, but that is a total lie, as Ronald Reagan was optimistic; had a sunny disposition; avoided social conservatism except in rhetoric; hardly ever attended church; understood the need for government and taxation despite his rhetoric; knew how to work with the opposition, as for instance, Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill on Social Security reform; and worked to promote the end of nuclear weapons despite an earlier hawkish viewpoint of foreign policy.

Rick Santorum could not ever be as presidential as Ronald Reagan, with all of his faults recognized. Ronald Reagan was a comparative giant, while Rick Santorum could not stand in his shoes.

Rick Santorum has no respect for the office of the Presidency, with his sharp attacks on a revered President, John F. Kennedy, who understood the sensitivity of being Catholic, and advocated separation of church and state, instead of promoting theocracy as Rick Santorum does.

What kind of President would condemn parents who would wish their children to attend college, when the unemployment rate for educated people is half of what it is for those who have not attended college or some kind of community college or training program? Should not President Barack Obama want to promote that? What is wrong with Rick Santorum?

Any sane person would have to wonder whether Rick Santorum is having a mental breakdown, as NEVER has there been any candidate for the Presidency so negative, so destructive in his assertions, in living memory. Rick Santorum is a good argument for psychological testing of all Presidential candidates, as we can ill afford to have a mentally deranged person in the White House!

Rick Santorum On Display Tonight At GOP Arizona Presidential Debate: What The Nation Will Likely Witness!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum will be focused on at tonight’s Republican Presidential debate in Arizona, as it is his opportunity to implode, if he conducts himself in a reckless manner.

One can expect that Rick, who has been acting as if his id is separating from his ego and superego, will likely come across as nuts, whacky, extremist, weird, a religious zealot, and more!

The problem is that there is a substantial percentage of the American people who share his passions for theocracy and moral absolutism, and will look at Rick as a “nice, pleasant, handsome” guy who they can relate to, without realizing that to put Rick Santorum in the White House, or anywhere near it, would be a total disaster for the country and the world, as Rick has no limits to his self righteousness and absolute belief in himself. Even his wife promotes that with her public “worship” of her husband, a manifestation never seen in public life before now.

We would be bringing back the time of the Puritans of the colonial period, and a view of the world that if one is not Christian, one is the enemy. This man is extremely dangerous, and the idea that anyone could take him seriously, when what is needed is for him to have a psychiatric exam as to his level of sanity, is totally unnerving!

There is plenty to dislike about Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul, but any and all of them are safer for America than a President Rick Santorum! Whatever the GOP has to do, and the establishment types in the party know this, Rick Santorum cannot be allowed to be the Republican nominee for President!

And if by some craziness, Santorum is the nominee, every decent, sane individual must be convinced that he or she cannot sit home, as the dangers to the nation are too great to sit on the sidelines! Barack Obama must gain the support of all who have any sense of the long term future and protection of America!

The Mormon Church And Baptism Of Holocaust Jews And Others MUST Be Stopped And Reversed!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Mormon Church has become involved in a major controversy over their decision to baptize Holocaust Jews and others who have died, without the permission of those people while they were alive, or the permission of their living relatives.

The theory behind this is that this way a person can be “saved” in the afterlife, and meet Jesus Christ, even if they were not believers in Jesus Christ in their lifetime.

This is insulting and disgraceful, as the concept that people must accept Jesus Christ in the after life is precisely what is wrong with organized religions that believe in proselytizing, including Christianity of all varieties and Islam.

It is not the business of anyone to take it upon themselves through their church or religious belief to convert anyone else against their will. There is enough of this pressure in life, but should not be in death.

The idea that Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor and Republican Presidential candidate, engaged in such conversion practices of the dead in the past, including his own atheist father in law, is obscene to the extreme. One could say what nerve he had to do this to anyone, and the fact that his converted wife Ann Romney expressed no problem with this treatment of her deceased father makes one wonder about whether Ann Romney is a “Stepford Wife”, with no mind of her own, and the sensitivity to say “No” to her husband once, having already agreed upon marriage to Mitt that her parents would be forced to stay outside of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the wedding ceremony, because they were not Mormons. That in itself is mind boggling!

The Mormon Church had earlier agreed in 1999 to stop the baptism of dead Jews and others, but have continued to violate their own word, not promoting any confidence that one can believe anything they say or do!

And the idea that they baptized evil people such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and the September 11 Hijackers alongside Anne Frank and Simon Wiesenthal and others is enough to make one vomit!

Mitt Romney is being called upon by Elie Wiesel to intervene on this matter, and he cannot pass it on to the Mormon Church and ignore it, and if he does, it will rightfully affect his Presidential candidacy! It is time for immediate and final action on this matter with no excuses and no delays!