Everybody's got their own firebrand

Pastors we associate with are either irrelevant to political campaigns or something we should examine closely. If the latter, then we should do so even-handedly.

Btw, have you met one of McCain's endorsers?



--the BB

Saturday Constitution Blogging

I usually post a few thoughts on the Constitution of the United States on Thursdays. It has become a regular feature, though I have never studied law and am only an ordinary citizen looking at our foundation document. This week was a bit too busy, being Holy Week. Additionally, this weekend is a time dedicated to blogging against theocracy. I am very happy to do so.

Mind you, I am anything but an anti-religious person. I am someone entrusted with preserving, teaching, and celebrating the Christian faith, first as a minister of the Gospel in a Baptist context and now as an Episcopal priest. I take my ordination vows very seriously. I take my faith very seriously. Those who read this blog know all this.

One very important part of my Baptist heritage is a belief in both separation of church and state and "soul freedom." No one may, should, or is allowed to tell anyone what to believe. Baptists were once persecuted and they were determined that no civil government should mess with anyone's belief, ever.

I cherish the right to understand my own beliefs in my own way, without interference. Even within my own faith community I "color outside the lines," but I do so knowing where the lines are supposed to be and why they are there and why they matter and why I sometimes go beyond them. I also know that I do not live in isolation and that all people and all creation is intimately interrelated, so my beliefs, my words, and my actions all affect others. I can be a bit of a rebel and very stubborn, but I am not an individualist or isolationist in the sense of deluding myself into thinking I can do whatever I want. Community matters to me and that, too, is one of the basic parts of my faith.

Just as I cherish the ability to believe and worship as I feel led, so I cherish and desire that for every other person. I do not want my government or any government dictating what religion I must join or practice, nor forbidding me to believe and practice freely. This means I stand by the right of those of any and all faiths and those of none (and those checking "undecided" as well) to believe or not as they feel led.

With the heritage or religious wars far more keenly on their mind than such matters are for us, some centuries later, the founders of the United States sought to avoid the horrors and injustice they had known where religions were established and enforced by law and sword.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Article VI

Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

From the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the Senate on June 7, 1797 (and therefore part of the supreme law of the land):

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

I am appalled at those who radically distort the history of the United States in order to claim that it was, at its founding or any point thereafter, a "Christian nation." This is arrant nonsense and a wicked lie. It is bruited about for the sack of misleading masses of well-meaning people into first asserting this untruth, then seeking to reinforce it, then to make it a reality. It is an attempt to enforce one set of beliefs on an entire nation and to privilege not merely one religion but, far worse, a narrow subset of that religion. It is a great evil.

We are currently threatened by dominionists and others whose explicit intent is to make the United States subject to their interpretation of God's alleged laws and values, to create a theocracy.

Such falsehoods and such plans are to be opposed at all times and in all places until they are exposed as the evil that they are and lose their appeal. Anything less is to yield our precious form of government and our soul freedom to power-hungry god-mongerers whose desire to impose their will on others is one of the most satanic things I can imagine.

May we keep this nation free, our government secular and grounded in the will of the People for the common good.

--The Rev. Paul E. Strid

On political alliances with pastors

From the writings of Rod Parsley, McCain ally in Ohio and pastor of a megachurch:

I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.

[Emphasis mine]

David Corn's article on Parsley and McCain in Mother Jones is the source of this (which I found via Truthout).
Huh. Who knew?

Article 11 of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary (ratified by the United States Senate on June 7, 1797):

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Just saying.

Ignorant sulfur-mouthed asshat.
--the BB

Blog Against Theocracy

I will be joining the BLOG AGAINST THEOCRACY event Easter weekend, standing up for separation of church and state.

Just read about it at Fran's, then zipped over to Tengrain's spot, Mock, Paper, Scissors, and Blue Gal who got this started. Thanks to all of them.

More to come.
--the BB

HR888 is a crock; Congress should NOT endorse lies

Chris Rodda gave background on this in January:

On December 18, 2007, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced H. Res. 888, a resolution "Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as 'American Religious History Week' for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith."

This resolution, which purports to promote "education on America's history of religious faith," is packed with the same American history lies found on the Christian nationalist websites, and in the books of pseudo-historians like David Barton. It lists a total of seventy-five "Whereas's," leading up to four resolves, the third of which is particularly disturbing -- that the U.S. House of Representatives "rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation's public buildings and educational resources," a travesty of the highest magnitude, considering that most of the "history" this resolve aims to promote in our public buildings and schools IS NOT REAL!

Thirty-one representatives have already embarrassed themselves, demonstrating their lack of knowledge of our country's history by becoming co-sponsors of this resolution. Let your representative know that if they do not oppose this resolution, they will either be demonstrating their own lack of knowledge of our country's history, or, worse yet, will be admitting that they are willing to be complicit in the perpetuation of lies in order to further the Christian nationalist agenda.

Troutfishing at Daily Kos notes this today:

House Resolution 888 has over a dozen new supporters since I last wrote here on the subject, and Chris Rodda calculates the resolution has the endorsement of 35% of House GOP members and also 5 House Democrats. [Emphasis in original]

I am all for recognizing the role of religion in society and for objective teaching of history that includes religious history, but interjecting all manner of distortions and falsehoods into our nation's laws is reprehensible. This is compounded by that fact that the vast majority of Americans are unaware that portrayals of the United States as a "Christian county" are based on outright falsehoods.

Troutfishing clarifies the danger of congressional endorsement of lies:

Even if H. Res 888 only gets passed in the US House of Representatives that would serve the goal of American history falsificationists such as Wallbuilders head David Barton ; if the Resolution gets passed in the House-- rather than rightfully rejected as the foetid mass of history falsification that it is, that House endorsement of H. Res. 888 would be entered into the Congressional Record. In that way, the history lies in H. Res 888-- proven to be lies through the diligent, hard work of Chris Rodda --would become "Congressionally certified".

Check out Troutfishing's post to learn more about this, or Chris Rodda's latest installment from this week. Bruce Wilson's appeal here is also good as it outlines the efforts to re-write American history to promote a "Christian" agenda.

Just because lies come out of the mouth of "good Christians" does not make them true.
--the BB