Christianity

Rick Santorum, Religion And The French Revolution: Reckless Fanaticism!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is acting irresponsibly when he compares Barack Obama and his stand on contraception and other women’s services being provided by religiously based hospitals and universities to their workers, many of whom are not of that religious group, as an attack on religion.

Claiming that Obama is warring on religion, which is totally preposterous, instead what Rick Santorum offers is promotion of theocracy, by his failure to accept what another fellow Catholic, President John F. Kennedy, advocated–separation of church and state.

When Santorum is calling what Obama is doing the first stage toward the French Revolution, emphasizing the secularism and attack on organized Christianity (Catholicism) in that famous decade of the 1790s, he is being reckless and also inaccurate historically about one of the key events of modern times, an event which moved Europe toward the goals of freedom and the basic rights of man.

Anyone who wishes to be honest about history knows that NO Christian group, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, or others came about with any less violence and persecution against non believers, than the terrible bloodshed of the French Revolution. The level of violence of the French Revolution was horrific, but no less in the entire history of Christianity. And no one can say that any traditional Christian group has ever promoted democracy and the rights of man, when instead they have promoted obedience and lack of tolerance toward non believers throughout their history. Instead, all of the groups have endorsed, at one point or another, racism, anti semitism, denial of women’s rights, and the endorsement of slaughtering native Americans to conquer the North American continent, as well as South America.

This does not mean that there have not been outspoken religious people who have fought to bring open mindedness and tolerance to their faith, but they have fought this fight with great stress, and much discrimination visited upon them, and often been expelled for their challenges to the religious establishment.

We do not want a religious fanatic in the White House; instead we want a person who, like John F. Kennedy, did not promote his faith, and believed in total religious tolerance. Rick Santorum is such a fanatic, and is dangerous in that he would promote government endorsement of religion, which is NOT its role in our history, and not promoted by the Founding Fathers.

Despite vicious attacks by critics, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, Barack Obama and his vision of Social Justice is the only kind of Christianity, or really any religious group, that makes any sense for a society in which there is too much worship of the almighty dollar, and not enough for human beings of all backgrounds who are being left in the dust as the nation moves inexorably toward a stratified society that bodes ill for the future stability of America!

Mitt Romney And His Mormon Church: Disturbing Realities

Ronald 4 Comments

With Mitt Romney seemingly the likely Republican Presidential nominee, focus turns to his religious beliefs, as he would be the first Mormon President if he won.

The Mormons, a much persecuted religion in its less than 200 year history, is seen by mainstream Christians of all denominations as a cult, rather than a Christian sect, even though Mormons claim to be Christian. There is discontent about its polygamous past, and the fact that a radical separatist sect still practices polygamy in areas of Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming. Its decision to get involved often in politics, rather than promote separation of church and state, also disturbs many.

But there are other more important issues.

The Mormon Church forbids any non Mormon from entering its temple in Salt Lake City, Utah.

When Mitt Romney was married to Ann, his wife, she needed to be converted, but her parents were not allowed in the Mormon Temple for her marriage, and had to stay outside.

When Ann Romney’s father died in more recent times, he was converted to the Mormon faith after death without his permission, and despite the fact that he was a religious skeptic, in actuality a declared atheist.

This tendency to convert dead people has included Jews who died in the Holocaust, who unknown to their families, have been converted.

The Mormons keep detailed genealogical records on many millions of people around the world, useful in studying ancestry and family connections, but disturbing to many as intrusion, and wonderment about why they are gathering so much personal information on non Mormons.

The Mormon Church never allowed blacks in the church until suddenly in 1978, from on high in church leadership, and under a federal lawsuit on civil rights, magically they were finally allowed into the church as equals.

The Mormons, like all other religious groups, treat women as second class citizens in the church, and promote the traditional family role as a norm for women, who are not allowed leadership in the church and are expected to obey their husbands, and spend their life pleasing them in all possible ways.

Mormon women are encouraged to have large families and avoid using birth control of any kind.

The Mormon Church will disown any member who is homosexual, and the norm in most Mormon families is to do so, and the names of such people are officially banned from the Mormon Church records as if they never existed. The church led the fight against gay marriage and Proposition 8 in California in 2008, financing the attack openly.

While the Mormon Church has tended to support immigrants and work to promote citizenship for illegal immigrants, it is seen primarily as a practical matter, due to the widespread missionary movement of the church in Latin America.

The Mormon Church has been strongly anti labor oriented, in regards to union organization and workers rights, even before the recent anti labor crusade by conservative Republicans.

The Mormon Church takes a very conservative view on most issues, and most of its political arm are Republicans. although there are major exceptions such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, and his cousin, Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico.

These realities stated above are not pointed out to promote bias or discrimination, but to make the general public aware of the growing influence of the church in American life, much of its practices and agenda highly disturbing!

What The Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate Revealed

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Last night’s Fox News Channel South Carolina Republican Presidential debate revealed a lot about the Republican Party and about South Carolina, none of it good!

It demonstrated that the Republican Party is willing to live the past–a past of racial discrimination, denial of the right to vote, talk of secession veiled in the term “states rights”, willingness to condemn the poor in the name of veiled code words, and to promote a radical right wing extremism that would promote prejudice, and a “them” versus “us” mentality.

It also demonstrated that the Republicans have no intention of trying to avoid war, when war is possible, by their tough stand against diplomacy, and their veiled threats against Iran, even with the knowledge that America was bankrupted by Iraq and Afghanistan, and the American people wish to avoid further foreign conflicts.

The audience was very outside the norms, by booing Ron Paul over foreign policy; cheering Newt Gingrich with his racial political appeal to a group of obvious Dixiecrat types who would have voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948; being supportive of Rick Perry in his claim that the national government is attacking the rights of the people of South Carolina and Texas; and the general disrespect to refuse to honor the memory of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr on the national holiday which they were against from the beginning.

Nothing has changed in South Carolina, which started the Civil War; was one of the most viciously racist states in the era of segregation; and has demonstrated no concern for its large poverty stricken population, a majority of it white, although the image is left that they are all African American.

South Carolina remains one of the most backward states in many different statistical areas, but after all, they have their beliefs in their Christian faith, totally distorting the message of Jesus Christ!

Mitt Romney’s Attack On The “Entitlement” Society Speech Of Barack Obama

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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, in trouble in the public opinion polls in the Republican Presidential race in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida, states in which former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich leads by growing margins, is obviously very desperate!

So he lashed into President Obama today for his Osawatomie, Kansas speech, in which Obama invoked the New Nationalism and Square Deal concepts of Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who made progressivism fashionable at the beginning of the 20th century.

Romney, who was born to wealth, and is estimated to be worth at least $250 million dollars, certainly feels “entitled” to use his wealth and privilege to run for President, even though he has never had to struggle for anything in his life!

Not everyone is so fortunate to be born into such good circumstances, and one would think that Romney would feel like many other wealthy people, that he needs to “give back” to those less fortunate, rather than take a hard hearted attitude toward those who don’t have the advantages that he and his wife and five sons have!

For a man of religion, who is proud of his Mormon faith, he seems unconcerned about the struggles of those on the lower end of the social scale, which is ironic, because Christianity broadly teaches that we must come to the aid of others, and Romney says he is a “good Christian”, even though many consider the Mormons to be a religious cult.

The point is that with his good fortune since birth, and his supposedly strong religious convictions, Romney should wish to help others get some of the “entitlement” that he was born to, but NO, instead, he appeals to the selfish, self centered nature of someone who is arrogant and looks down on the poor, all for political advantage in a party which has sold out completely to religious hypocrites and wealthy people and corporations!

What are all Americans entitled to?

1. A decent educational opportunity to achieve all that one can in pursuit of a better life and job career.
2. A decent health care system which allows everyone to get appropriate, quality attention from doctors, nurses, and hospitals.
3. A decent housing situation, which promotes a sense of security and safety from harm.
4. A government which treats everyone on an equal basis, not victimizing those who are different in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation.
5. Respect for the elderly, and proper treatment of them in their twilight years.
6. Protection of the childhood of the younger generation, and encouragement of the accomplishment of their goals to grow up happy, secure, and pursue their dreams.
7. Respect for and protection of the disabled among us, giving them maximum opportunity for as normal a life as possible.
8. Protection of the environment, and promotion of consumer rights to avoid harm to the population.
9. Enforcement of the civil liberties of all Americans, preventing an oppressive government over our private lives and our public activities.
10. Protection of our nation from the abuse of corporations who are more concerned about profit than people.

These points above are “entitlements” that should come with being an American, not just based on how much money one has or inherits! Equality and justice are essential to keep the “American Dream” alive!

The “Science” Republicans Vs. The “Faith” Republicans

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Part of the struggle for the Republican Presidential nomination is between those who believe in the validity of science, relating to global warming, evolution, and stem cell research, and those who believe in the literal interpretation of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

On one side are Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney; on the other side are Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and sometimes, in an inconsistent way, Newt Gingrich, who is intelligent enough to know better!

Are we to have a possible future President who repudiates science and wishes to lead a holy crusade for Christianity in a world in which we must somehow coexist with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religious faiths that look at the world differently from us?

In a country founded on separation of church and state, to avoid religious conflict, we are now faced with the real possibility of a “Crusade” mentality which will undermine our national security!

The “Social” Issues In The Presidential Campaign Of 2012: Are They Really Gay Marriage, Abortion, Affirmative Action, Gun Rights, School Prayer, And Immigration?

Ronald 2 Comments

If you listen to Republican Presidential candidates and “social” conservatives, many of whom claim to be “good Christians”, one would conclude that the social issues for the nation in 2012 are:

1. Gay Marriage
2. Abortion
3. Affirmative Action
4. Gun Rights
5. School Prayer
6. Immigration

All of these issues are extremely controversial, but what are the REAL social issues in America?

1. Homelessness of so many Americans, including those once middle class citizens.
2. Hunger, where many Americans, millions of them children, have inadequate nutrition, which will affect them long term.
3. Unemployment long term of millions, many of them over 40 and through the 50s and early 60s in age, who will never be able to gain employment at all at any time, or at the most, never make anywhere near the same income they had been earning in good times.
4. The destruction of the retirement funds and plans of millions of senior citizens, who now have to work many more years than planned just to survive.
5. The lack of health insurance and coverage of many millions of people who cannot afford to go to a doctor or hospital, or afford extremely expensive medication that would prolong life.
6. The lack of educational opportunity for those who are in poverty stricken neighborhoods, and receive an inferior education due to local property taxes being the main source of educational funding.
7. The discrimination against the children of undocumented immigrants, who discover when becoming adults, that they cannot attend college or join the military, and are threatened with deportation, along with discrimination visited against them and their parents and family members in states, such as Alabama and Arizona, because of illegal immigration laws which are being challenged in the federal courts.
8. The continuing challenge for disabled Americans, whether from birth or as a result of accidents or health problems, who, despite the Americans With Disabilities Act passed under President George H. W. Bush in 1990, still face barriers to equality of treatment.

These eight problems listed above are the REAL social challenges, but the Republican Party and so called “religious” people totally ignore these issues, instead promoting a new version of the old Social Darwinism and Laizzez Faire Economics prevalent in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century!

In other words, they want to go back to the 19th century, wipe out the 20th century, and promote good old “Christian” and “Unbridled Capitalism” values, which made America a nation ripe for reform and change, including the Progressive Era, The New Deal, and The Great Society!

This attempt to return to the old conservatism is a great evil which must be defeated by all good, really “religious” people of all faiths, who believe in equality of opportunity and fairness and consideration of others less fortunate than those of us who are lucky and successful, and do not experience the hardships of others!

The past is the past, and we need to look to the future, and realize if one American is homeless, hungry, denied health care and education, or discriminated against, then we are all worse off because of those realities!

This must be a country of WE, rather than simply ME!

The Anti Science, Anti Knowledge Political Party: The Republicans!

Ronald 1 Comment

The Republican Party race for the Presidential nomination in 2012 is revealing just how ignorant, how dim witted, and how opportunistic all of the candidates are, with the one exception of former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman.

Only Huntsman is willing to speak up for science, for global warming, climate change, and evolution. All of the rest of the field, except Mitt Romney, prefers to point out that they are “good” Christians, and therefore allow theology to trump science, and put their heads in the sand!

What a model for America’s children, who are being encouraged to let religion dominate their brains, rather than science!

And Romney, who privately has the same views as Huntsman, is starting to hedge on it publicly, because he has no guts or courage, and wants the GOP Presidential nomination so badly he will sell his soul, and act as if he totally agrees with the rest of the ignorant crowd competing against him!

So we have six candidates out of eight who do not accept science, one (Romney) who has no willingness to stand up for what he knows is factually correct, and Huntsman, the only true, sincere, EDUCATED candidate, also with more foreign policy insight than all seven of his opponents combined, competing to run against a man (Barack Obama), who is highly educated, understands science, respects the scientific method, and speaks for knowledge and education!

One would think that the obvious battle for President should be between Huntsman and Obama, an intelligent competition!

Instead, it seems pretty certain that one of the others will be the nominee of the party for the leadership of our country, and responsibility for world affairs. This is due to polls (Public Policy Polling), which indicate that only 21 percent of Republican voters in Iowa believe in global warning, and only 35 percent believe in evolution!

The anti intellectualism of Republicans is absolutely mind boggling and troubling for the future of America in the 21st century!

Texas Governor Rick Perry: Savior Of The Republican Party And The Nation? NO!

Ronald 1 Comment

The author is shocked that Texas Governor Rick Perry is scheduled to announce his candidacy for President tomorrow, on the day of the Iowa Ames Straw Poll.

It seemed clear all along that all Rick Perry was trying to do was get attention, and build up his massive ego further. He had said he had no interest in the Presidency, but apparently he has been tempted and enticed to run because of all the attention he is getting, which he clearly craves! So this is an ego trip, nothing else!

Is Governor Rick Perry qualified to be President? Well, he IS the Governor of Texas, the second largest state in population and land area, and has been for the past eleven years, longer than any governor in the country.

However, one must realize that the Governor of Texas is more of an honorary position, as it is literally the WEAKEST Governorship constitutionally in the whole nation of 50 states! The Governor of Texas is a media star because of the tremendous size and population of Texas, but he has very little authority and power, and has loads of free time to pursue other ambitions, a fact that helped George W. Bush decide to seek the White House!

It is also said that Rick Perry has presided over a tremendous increase of employment, about 40 percent of the whole nation’s growth in employment in this recession, and Perry loves to brag about it!

But the fact that the vast majority of these jobs are MINIMUM WAGE is ignored, as if one can live and support a family on a minimum wage job! And the fact that the military and oil companies have a major role in Texas also distorts the reality of employment!

The fact is that Texas ranks very low on education funding, as well as educational curriculum in history and science being distorted and inaccurate to the extreme!

It is a fact that poverty in Texas is widespread, one of the worst levels of poverty in America! But Perry has no concern for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the elderly or anyone else, and instead prefers to promote states rights, as if that is the basic meaning of the US Constitution, which it clearly is exactly the opposite, federal supremacy!

It is the fact that health care is very inadequate for millions of Texans under Rick Perry, but Perry has no concern about that reality! Instead, he is refusing to cooperate on the establishment of the Obama Health Care plan, preferring to sue in federal court to deny health care to millions of Texans!

It is the fact that Rick Perry is described by many as a great campaigner, but a very lazy, shiftless governor who avoids work when he can, so it is obvious he loves the battle but not the challenge of leadership!

It is a fact that Rick Perry has no clue to an understanding of economics, and would be a disaster for us, having no clue as to how to promote an economic recovery!

It is a fact that Rick Perry is quite stupid in reality, and is best noted for his cockiness and swagger, reminding many of George W. Bush, with the only improvement from the image of Bush being that Rick Perry would be described as a more handsome man than Bush is, but are we to vote based on looks, or brains and character and intelligence, which in the long run matter more?

It is a fact that Rick Perry would love to make America a Christian nation, rather than what it is–a nation primarily of many different Christian sects, along with other religions! Perry does not believe in our basic principle of separation of church and state, and has no understanding of our history, being extremely ignorant! But then, Perry was a C and D student, much like George W. Bush, so what can one expect?

It is a fact that Rick Perry is a great fan of and is supported by the Tea Party Movement, the reckless, radical group which has helped to cause the downgrading of our credit by Standard and Poor’s, and will stop at nothing to make certain that there is NEVER any increase in taxes on the greedy, selfish top two percent of the population and the corporations, no matter how much it impoverishes the nation and makes a more stratified society with a disappearing middle class!

It is a fact that Rick Perry advocated secession of Texas from the Union,which is illegal and unconstitutional, and over which the Civil War was fought 150 years ago! Former Texas Governor, President, and Senator Sam Houston, were he alive today, would be ashamed of Rick Perry being the Governor of his beloved state, which he felt had gone wrong when it seceded from the Union in 1861 and joined the Confederacy, and courageously supported Abraham Lincoln and the Union during that Civil War!

It is a fact that the Bush family themselves oppose Perry, which says that establishment Republicans who want to remain in the mainstream, as at least father George H. W. Bush wishes, are terrified of the possibility that this unaccomplished, inferior man might be the leader of the free world, with his maniacal belief in his own superiority!

It is a fact that if Rick Perry somehow won the Presidency, the nation would suffer far worse under him than even the worst critics of Barack Obama might imagine!

If Rick Perry is the best we can gain for President in 2012, this nation is in far greater danger and trouble than we can possibly imagine in 2011!

50th Anniversary Of Berlin Wall: The Ultimate Symbol Of Oppression Remembered!

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Today, a half century ago, the East German government in lockstep with the Soviet Union, its master, started construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, which became the ultimate symbol of oppression, the true image of what Soviet Communism was all about!

For the next 28 years, until the evening of November 9 and day of November 10, 1989, the Berlin Wall became the center of the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, evoking the worst images of the Cold War.

Many people died trying to ram through the checkpoints with their cars; or attempting to climb over the wall with its barbed wire top, or jumping over the wall from nearby buildings at the location of the wall, or digging tunnels under the wall in a multitude of locations.

President John F. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan were remembered for their condemnations of the Berlin Wall and what it represented.

When the wall came down suddenly in November 1989 during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, it was a sign of the end of the Cold War, and the ultimate collapse of the Soviet system of government in 1991, after all of Eastern Europe was liberated from the yoke of communism in 1989.

It was a great moment of rejoicing, still in many ways hard to conceptualize, that the wall had actually come down, with East German border guards assisting in the destruction themselves.

It made many think that there would be peace in the world, and that the United States would be the only super power, with no realization that we were entering a new era, in many ways more dangerous, the era of Islamic Terrorism with those engaged in that terrorism having absolutely no limits, including suicide, in their fight against the Western world and Christianity and Judaism!

So today is a day to celebrate, but with great sense of the challenge that we still face in the future, and at a time when America has so many domestic complexities and lack of cooperation by the two major political parties, endangering, therefore, America’s future!

Extreme Poverty In America: 19 Million, According To Census Bureau Figures!

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Poverty is spreading, with 46 million Americans using food stamps, the highest number ever!

One out of four children go to bed hungry each night, and more than ever, they are homeless due to the inability of their parents to provide a roof over their head.

But even worse than that, according to the Census Bureau, there are 19 million Americans, many of them children, who are living in EXTREME poverty, about six percent of the population, while another 12 percent are also in poverty, but not as extreme.

How can a country which believes in opportunity and the “American Dream”, and has many claiming to have Christian values and are “good Christians” stand by and do nothing about it, and in many cases actually condemn the poor for being poor, blaming them for their own degradation.

If we as a country stand by and allow poverty worse than at the time of the War on Poverty under Lyndon B. Johnson, then we have failed as a country that has compassion and cares about the future of children in particular!

So while we must promote the survival of the middle class in tough times, we cannot ignore the most vulnerable among us, and stop blaming them for their sad state of affairs!