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Conservative Christians Claim They Should be Able to Spew Hate Without Consequence: There are still those citing Scripture in defense of slavery, subjugation of women, and anti-Semitism. Right here in the United States.

(Politicus USA) -

Oh Gods, I thought, not again. When Christians become a ‘hated minority’,  an article by CNN writer John Blake, is like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

In the first place, Christians are far from being a minority in this country; a 2012 Pew poll shows 73 percent of Americans self-identify as Christian. In the second, they are first and foremost the ones doing the hating here.

Rejecting the Christian message, particular that part of the Christian message which is exclusionary and intolerant (which is quite a bit of it, including the entirety of the Old Testament) is not hate. If some Christians insist the Bible gives them the right to view the constructed Other with revulsion, they have no right to object to others viewing them the same way when they jump on the hate bandwagon.

I realize they feel they have exclusive access to some capital-T truth but they have to understand by now that many of us don’t agree with that assumption, and that we feel just as strongly about our beliefs, whether our beliefs include many deities or none. They may say their God gives them this right or that right but if their god does not exist, or if he is not my god or your god, that argument becomes somewhat less compelling.

Don’t try to tell them that, however. Blake writes that,

Bryan Litfin, a theology professor at Moody Bible Institutein Illinois, says Christians should be able to publicly say that God designed sex to take place within a marriage between a man and a woman.

Christians are able to say this and they do it all the time, whenever and wherever they want, leaving me to wonder what universe Litfin inhabits that he isn’t aware of this. It’s on TV, the radio, newspapers. The Internet is full of such pronouncements.

But we have an equal right to an opinion, last time I checked the First Amendment.

Litfin, nonsensically, I think, goes on to complain, “That isn’t so outrageous. Nobody is expressing hate toward homosexuals by saying that. Since when is disagreement the same as hate?”

Nobody? And “disagreement”? Is Litfin paying any attention at all to public discourse on this subject? It would seem not.

Here’s the thing that people need to realize: it is perfectly fine for Christians or any other religionists to disapprove of lifestyles, choices, and even sexual positions and persuasions. Nobody is asking them to marry a person of the same sex, after all. But I understand that their religion leads them to believe that their position should be quite clear and unequivocal. I get it. I do.

The thing is, if they are going to go out of their way to announce their disapproval to the rest of us, we have a perfect right to respond and to let them know what we think about that disapproval. We have a right to let them know how we feel about these issues. It isn’t as though people are walking around hating on Christians simply for being Christians, not when 2 out of every 3 people you see are themselves Christians! Far from it. Even as a religion in decline (78 percent of people self-identified as Christians in 2007), Christianity dominates our society still.

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Folks need to learn that “religions freedom” and “freedom of speech” do not mean, “A special privilege that lets me say whatever I want without dissenting opinion, counterpoint, or social ramifications”.

In other words, if you go around saying stupid, hateful, bigoted shit, people can and will get pissed at you.

The thing about freedom of speech is that everyone else has just as much freedom as you do to tell you that you’re an asshole.

Study: Belief in biblical end-times stifling climate change action in U.S.

(Raw Story) - The United States has failed to take action to mitigate climate change thanks in part to the large number of religious Americans who believe the world has a set expiration date.

Research by David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado uncovered that belief in the biblical end-times was a motivating factor behind resistance to curbing climate change.

“[T]he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,” Barker and Bearce wrote in their study, which will be published in the June issue of Political Science Quarterly.

The study, based on data from the 2007 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, uncovered that belief in the “Second Coming” of Jesus reduced the probability of strongly supporting government action on climate change by 12 percent when controlling for a number of demographic and cultural factors. When the effects of party affiliation, political ideology, and media distrust were removed from the analysis, the belief in the “Second Coming” increased this effect by almost 20 percent.

“[I]t stands to reason that most nonbelievers would support preserving the Earth for future generations, but that end-times believers would rationally perceive such efforts to be ultimately futile, and hence ill-advised,” Barker and Bearce explained.

That very sentiment has been expressed by federal legislators. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) said in 2010 that he opposed action on climate change because “the Earth will end only when God declares it to be over.” He is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy.

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I bolded that last paragraph. Read it again and let that sink in a little.

North Carolina GOPers want an official state religion

(Salon) - Republican legislators in North Carolina want to declare an official state religion as a way of nullifying court rulings that prohibit prayer by public entities.

From the Huffington Post:

The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state “is sovereign” and courts cannot block a state “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” The legislation was filed in response to a lawsuit to stop county commissioners in Rowan County from opening meetings with a Christian prayer, wral.com reported.

Pastor to rabbi, imam: U.S. is a ‘Christian nation’ but we ‘let’ you worship

(The Raw Story) - A Pentecostal bishop on Sunday told a rabbi and an imam that the U.S. was a “Christian nation” that was bridging religious divisions because Christians would “let” other faiths worship and “we’re not going to persecute you.”

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I stopped right there and put the link up to the rest because, RIGHT THERE is the problem with many American Christians.

They think they OWN this country. They can’t seem to grasp the concept that freedom of religion means freedom of ALL religions or lack there of.

Slick, Paranoid Tea Party Video Aims for Violent Insurrection

(AlterNet) - Attendees at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were reportedly thrilled by a short sci-fi video depicting a dictatorial near-future government and the underground “Movement on Fire” that springs up to resist it. The video, a thinly veiled advertisement for violent insurrection from the “Tea Party Patriots” group, boasts professional acting and Hollywood production values. But underneath its bright, professional sheen lurk dark overtones of End Times paranoia that will resonate with millions of American fundamentalists. Its apocalyptic imagery is as ancient as Revelations, its glossy look as modern as a Revlon ad, and its near-subliminal barrage of rapid-cut imagery rings with the terror-fueled sermons of 1,000 preachers.

Read more and watch the video

This was shown at CPAC. CPAC. THE conservative conference. 

This isn’t just the fringe element of the right, it IS the right. This kind of thing is becoming more and more mainstream with them and it’s quite frankly horrifying. 

Mike Huckabee: If GOP accepts gay marriage Evangelicals will form a third party.

(patheos.com) - It’s funny.  Only two years ago the GOP was continuing to use gay marriage as a wedge issue.  We were to believe that there was a pernicious homosexual agenda at work that would undermine and destroy straight marriage – and that the GOP were the ones to stop it.  Now that people are catching wise, some of the Republicans are embracing the evil of marriage equality in order to save their political lives.  Opportunism, it’s what’s for dinner.  I suspect more GOP people are about to turn a 180 in the exact same way (while pretending as though they’d always been disappointed in the GOP’s oppression of gay people).

But for the ideologically pure of the GOP base, the Tea Partiers, they’re not having it.  Perhaps they believe god will carry them through an election with a position opposed by most of the electorate.  That must be what Mike Huckabee is thinking when he says that if the GOP adopts marriage equality that the Evangelicals will form a third party.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Pandering to the religious right would end up being the GOP’s undoing.

They have now starting to wedge-issue themselves in half.

In regards to that last story I posted - 

I had an interesting interaction with a co-worker a while back. We had went to lunch together and I can’t remember how we got on the subject of religion, but we did. 

He knows I’m a non-believer and he was acting somewhat embarrassed, like he thought that I thought he was stupid or some such and began explaining himself. 

He starting talking about how he believes in god but he doesn’t think the world is only 6,000 years old and accepts ‘evolution and science’ as he put it.

I assured him I didn’t think any less of anyone simply for believing in god, and explained that the people who I didn’t like were the ones using their religion to push a political agenda or to be oppressive.

It just really struck me, a few years back, I feel like I probably would have been the one who was on the defensive when it came to discussions about religion.

It seems there has been quite a shift on the attitudes about it in just the past 10 or so years.

An America that is losing faith with religion: ‘One group has swelled: those with no religious affiliation, also known as “nones”. In the 1950s, this was about 2 percent of the population. In the 1970s, it was about 7 percent. Today, it is close to 20 percent’

(The Washington Post) - There is a close relationship between culture and cult — between the shared attitudes and values of a people and their religious views and practices. American culture is increasingly shaped by men and women who would rather sleep in or play golf on a Sunday morning.

The nation’s religious composition — as revealed in a recent presentation by Luis Lugo of the Pew Research Center — is changing. In 2012, America ceased to be a majority Protestant country — the result, mainly, of a decline in the numbers of mainline Protestants (though there have been smaller losses among white evangelicals as well). Catholicism is holding its own with a stable 22 percent of the public, but its ethnic composition has shifted dramatically — about half of all Catholics younger than 40 are Latino.

One group, however, has swelled: those with no religious affiliation, also known as “nones” (as in “none of the above”). In the 1950s, this was about 2 percent of the population. In the 1970s, it was about 7 percent. Today, it is close to 20 percent. These gains can be found in all regions of the country, including the South. The trend is particularly pronounced among whites, among the young and among men.

Not all the nones, it is worth pointing out, are secular. Only about 30 percent of this group — 6 percent of the public — are atheists or agnostics. The rest of the nones describe themselves as indifferent to religion or as “nothing in particular.” Sixty-four percent of the nones, however, say they believe in God or a universal spirit with “absolute certainty.” Even 9 percent of atheists and agnostics — defying both dogma and the dictionary— report themselves absolutely convinced of God’s existence. About equal proportions of the religiously unaffiliated (19 percent) and the affiliated (18 percent) report having “seen or been in the presence of a ghost.”

So the nones are united not by reading Richard Dawkins or by any particular set of theological beliefs but by a complete lack of attachment to institutional religion.

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What are the reasons for this? The author touches on one reason that I’ve come to think has a lot to do with it - the rise of the religious right.

It has left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. The hate and vitriol their public mouth-pieces spread. Their exclusionary attitude toward the LGBT community, their political views - their views on sex, and birth control.

Their co-opting by the right-wing of american politics has shined a light on a lot of the darker corners of religion and maybe the public at large is starting to get sick of it.

Fox News radio host: LGBT rights make Christians ‘second-class citizens’

(The Raw Story) - Fox News radio host Todd Starnes says that the push for equal rights for LGBT people is making Christians who believe in the “Biblical definition of marriage” into “second-class citizens.”

During a Monday interview with conservative radio host Sandy Rios, the often-outraged Starnes reacted to the possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court could rule in favor of marriage equality.

“What concerns me, though, Sandy, is the vitriol coming from those who support gay marriage,” Starnes declared. “You know, I’m the kind of person that is more than happy to sit down and talk and debate and listen to what people have to say. I may not agree with it, but at least, you know, it’s their right to have their opinion under our Constitution.”

“And yet, there seems to be this opinion on the other side that says, you know what, you and I don’t deserve the same rights,” he opined. “You know, it’s as if we’re second-class citizens now because we support the traditional, Biblical definition of marriage or perhaps we are pro-life, and that means we’re somehow second-class citizens who don’t deserve to be in the public marketplace of ideas.”

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WHAAAAAAAA!!!! Not allowing us to keep a group of people from having the same rights we do using our religion as an excuse makes us second class citizens.

Cry me a river.

Michele Bachmann: It’s my Christian ‘duty’ to repeal Obamacare before it ‘literally kills’ kids

(The Raw Story) - Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Thursday insisted that it was her “duty as a believer in Christ” repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law before “it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens.”

In a speech on the House floor, the Minnesota Republican thanked Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) for continuing the fight to undo Obamacare.

“The American people, especially vulnerable women, vulnerable children, vulnerable senior citizens, now get to pay more and get less,” Bachmann opined. “That’s why we’re here because we’re saying let’s repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens!”

“Let’s not do that!” she exclaimed. “Let’s love people, let’s care about people. Let’s repeal it now while we can.”

Bachmann explained that she was fighting Obamacare because she was a “born again believer in Jesus Christ.”

“And I believe, as part of my duty as a believer in Christ and what he has done for me, that we should do for the least of those who are in our midst,” she said. “That’s my personal belief and my personal conviction. And that’s why I want our government to create the space so that we can help people, because I’ll guarantee you one thing, Mr. Speaker, this doesn’t help people.”

read more and watch the video

So, basically, she believes it is her duty as a Christian to repeal something that would actually expand access to healthcare for millions of the poor, working poor, children and the elderly.

This is religious  grandstanding and it’s disgusting. She should have been laughed off of the floor, but instead her cohorts congratulate her ‘saying things in a way that none of the rest of us are capable of’.

I my honest opinion, this is sick.

How The Internet Is Erasing The Religious Right’s Political Power

(TechCrunch) - The religious right isn’t having a good year: the new Republican National Committee roadmapalmost entirely excludes religious issues, a majority of young conservatives support same-sex marriage, and hard-line libertarians are dominating the conservative agenda with small government policies. As the Internet becomes the hub of political dialogue, religious issues are being drowned out by the most powerful voices on the web, which overwhelming support marriage equality and a woman’s right to choose.

One graph, below, on the lopsided nature of Twitter, shows how opponents of a same-sex marriage ruling in California were virtually non-existent on social media, even though they held the lion’s share of public opinion.

Three Internet principles, in particular, will continue to erode the religious right’s political power: the Internet culture’s embrace of free expression, libertarian social media prowess, and the need to recruit young talent.

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I think this also has might have a lot to do with the fact that because of the internet, ‘The Church’ is likely finding it more and more difficult to control information and shield it’s members from the real world.

Hawaii Senate Passes Bill Requiring Hospitals To Offer Emergency Contraception To Rape Victims: ‘A Republican lawmaker tried to amend the bill to allow hospitals to deny rape victims contraception for religious reasons, but Democrats were quick to reject it…’

According to Hawaii Now News:

Republican Sen. Sam Slom tried and failed to amend the bill to allow hospitals to claim a religious exemption instead of distributing the morning-after pill. Slom told lawmakers the bill is an example of the state trampling on religious rights. Sen. Josh Green urged lawmakers to reject Slom’s amendment. The Democrat says the issue isn’t about religious freedom but rather about providing quality care. The state attorney general says there were 353 reported rapes in Hawaii in 2011. Slom’s amendment was easily defeated by the overwhelmingly Democratic state Senate.

Many states are doing the opposite of Hawaii. Conservatives in red states are waging a war on contraception, even emergency contraception that would prevent rape victims from getting pregnant. It’s almost as if conservatives want rapists to have the right to impregnate their victims.

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Again with the religious people claiming that their religious freedom means trampling the rights of others.

Shit like what our conservative pal in Hawaii here tried to pull is a slap in the face to rape victims. 

As the article states, it is almost as if conservatives/right wingers want rapists to have the “right” to impregnate their victims. As hyperbolic as it sounds, that is exactly what “religious exemptions” like this do. You can argue religious freedom all you want but the end result is exactly as stated.

It forces victims of rape to carry their rapist’s child, when you advocate these types of “exemptions” that is what you are advocating. 

Kentucky Bill Would Allow Discrimination Based on ‘Sincerely Held’ Religious Beliefs — it could allow someone to deny certain types of people access to public facilities, employment opportunities or housing if that denial is “based upon a sincerely held religious belief.”

(patheos.com) - Human rights groups in Kentucky are fighting a proposed bill that would allow people to sidestep anti-discrimination laws if they could justify their actions with “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

House Bill 279, sponsored by conservative Democrat Rep. Bob Damron and recently passed in the State Senate, would strengthen a person’s ability to “ignore state regulations or laws that contradict his or her ‘sincerely held’ religious beliefs.” Gay rights groups say this could legalize discrimination against LGBT people on the basis of certain religious beliefs that maintain homosexuality is wrong:

The Kentucky Equality Federation sent a letter to Beshear before the Senate vote, urging the two-term Democratic governor to veto the measure.

“House Bill 279 represents a clear and present danger to the gay and lesbian community and other minority groups around the commonwealth,” the letter said. “House Bill 279 does nothing more than give people permission to discriminate based on their religious beliefs, thereby taking it beyond ‘freedom of religion’ to ‘forced religion,’ because they have imposed their religious beliefs on others, with legal authority to do so.”

Only four Kentucky cities have enacted ordinances that protect LGBT people from discrimination; no such protections are in place at the statewide or nationwide level. This would make it even easier for conservative Christians to completely ignore what little protections do prevent LGBT people from discrimination.

Carolyn Miller-Cooper, executive director of the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission, said her agency “supports religious freedom but is concerned about the overly broad language of HB 279.”

The bill, she said, could allow someone to deny certain types of people access to public facilities, employment opportunities or housing if that denial is “based upon a sincerely held religious belief.”

What Gov. Steve Beshear will do with the bill (sign it, veto it, or ignore it) is still unknown. As of Friday, he had not yet made a decision. Apparently, 12 states have approved similar laws — in other words, there are 12 states I will try never to visit in my lifetime. Religious freedom will never justify taking away civil rights, and it’s abhorrent that elected officials don’t realize it.

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I get so sick of this idea that “religious freedom” means the freedom to oppress others in the name of your religion.