Perhaps this past week you have seen or heard about three strange stories related to preserving Iron Age dogmatism, which is the root of much mischief, if not evil.
First, we have Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, who is upset that Catholic employers might be required to follow the law and provide to their employees access to birth control. He metaphorically gave Jesus a divine dope-slap by uttering this rather ungodly threat:
If these mandates click in, we’re going to find ourselves faced with a terribly difficult decision as to whether or not we can continue to operate…As part of our religion, it’s part of our faith that we feed the hungry, that we educate the kids, that we take care of the sick…We’d have to give it up because we’re unable to fit the description and the definition of a church by, guess who? The federal government.
Ah, that evil federal government, from which the Cardinal and his Catholic Charities and its affiliates received nearly $3 billion dollars from taxpayers in 2010. But how weird is it that Dolan would hold “the hungry, ” the kids,” and “the sick” hostage in order to retain unsullied the Church’s rather creepy dogmatism on contraception?
Second, and speaking of creepy dogmatism, there is the story of yet another nutty North Carolina pastor, Charles Worley, who a few weeks ago in a well-received sermon (lots of amens and other affirmations) offered a Bible-supported Final Solution to nature’s tendency to produce non-heterosexual folks:
Build a great, big, large fence—150 or 100 mile long. Put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out, feed ’em, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce!
At least Pastor Worley offered to “feed ’em,” which is more than Cardinal Dolan offered to do for the hungry his Church is supposed to be serving.
Finally, since creepy dogmatism always comes in threes, there is the following story, courtesy of our Missouri legislature:
Disturbing a worship service could become a crime in Missouri under legislation headed to Gov. Jay Nixon.
The House gave final approval Friday to a bill making it a misdemeanor to intentionally disturb or interrupt a “house of worship” with profanity, rude or indecent behavior or noise that breaks the solemnity of the service. The Senate passed the bill in March…
Violators could face fines of up to $500 and six months in jail. Repeat offenders would face increasingly harsher penalties of up to five years in state prison.
Now, I don’t know whether this law would cover profane preaching, like Pastor Worley is guilty of, or rude or indecent preaching, like Cardinal Dolan is guilty of, but if it does, I’m all for it.
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
ansonburlingame
/ May 23, 2012What I really expected in this trip “over here” was a blog on Powell’s assualt on Romney’s foreign policy views and those of his advsors. Guess I’ll have to wait on that one but am sure it will be forthcoming.
So while “here” I will offer .some views on yet another attack on Iron Age religion.
Long ago in my small town we had one Catholic Church. It was viewed as a strange and forbidding place by all the “wasps” in town which my parents certainly were. Even the blacks kept their distance. Few really understood what went on in the strange place.
For example, I well remember some kids that could only eat fish on Friday. I never understood why that was the demand other than the “church” demanded it. As well I never understood why my Southern Baptist friends could not dance at a sox hop. I only knew that religion demanded such from both groups.
Well I ate all the hamburgers I wanted on Friday and danced like a fool at sox hops. I actually felt sorry for those that could not join me. I also hated fish as a youngster.
But I NEVER heard a “wasp” suggest there “outta be a law” to allow such kids to have the same fun in life that I did.
If my parents had restrained me from eating red meat on a given day or dancing I would have for sure asked WHY. If I was told that God did not want me to do so, well I suspect I would have been sneaking hamburgers and cuddling up on the sly as a teenager, at least.
But all of that would have been between me, my parents and God. The State would certainly never intervene, at least back then!
As for homosexuals, most people of strong (some call it crazy) faith believe that such acts are a matter of choice. I strongly disagree, to the extent that sex in an instinct that all humans experience. While the evangelical will rant against “queers” they will also rant against any sex other than strictly intended for procreation as well. Just look at what some religions do to adulterous females in Islam. Fot the men they only chop their heads off, at least long ago.
Yet that same religion tolerate(s)/(d) pedophiles. Now go figure that one out.
Anson
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helenofmarlowe
/ May 23, 2012This Pastor Worley church is almost in my neighborhood (an hour away). There are plans for a peaceful, quiet, demonstration against his message next Sunday morning. I wonder how your “third creep” might relate to this.
I learned yesterday that cars were getting flyers under their windshields with information about a Ku Klux Klan rally — inviting “whites only”. I haven’t seen these flyers, but I’m disturbed by reports of people who are quoted as saying they won’t go but “are not especially disturbed by it.”
Wow. NC is becoming a scary place.
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R. Duane Graham
/ May 24, 2012Helen,
Scary, indeed. I get the feeling that some folks feel this is their last chance to strike a blow in favor of a waning white culture, and they are pulling out all the stops.
By the way, the “third creep” is perhaps the most frightening one of them all, because, as you suggest, it might just make it impossible some day to protest pastors like Worley.
Duane
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helenofmarlowe
/ May 24, 2012AU is now asking IRS to take a look at their tax exempt status.
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Jane Reaction
/ May 24, 2012Randy: Disturbing is Right.
It does seem the GOP-led mob is out to neutralize ANY dissent or comment which pertains to anything above the level of seriousness as voting for your favorite dancing contestant.
When I was quite young, it was by no means ordinary, but occasionally it did occur in my Baptist church that folks would “shout” as they called it. Cheering, with actions and words, maybe pounding a hymnal in adulation.
Now, thanks to this- ” a misdemeanor to intentionally disturb or interrupt a “house of worship” with profanity, rude or indecent behavior or noise that breaks the solemnity of the service”- means that to praise the Lord loudly, or to add unscripted audio praise during a ‘production’, can land you in jail for six months.
This headline is ominous: PRAISE GOD. GO TO JAIL.
The irony is that “they” won’t get it. It is sad and dangerous to civil societies.
The lurch to the right didn’t just happen. Evil has many authors.
My Baptist church in Houston had 38,000 members. Then the pastor did what the Bible specifically forbade- he split his congregation in half to expand his Disney realm out to a new ‘campus’ in the fast-growing suburbs of Fort Bend county. He now has three more once-independent substantial churches merged into the 2nd Baptist Family.
I always thought that we would be mean or ignorant enough to blow ourselves up. While it is still an option, there is no reason for the chosen to blow up the real estate. It is simpler, and doesn’t ruin the parts they want to keep, to use the tried and true ‘divide and conquer” that makes the Republicans tick. Splinter them into even smaller propaganda targets. Give them no choices, no material support, and with little empathy and no support available from Congress, they will die, just as Cardinal Dolen announced.
This population has been sifted and channeled, homogenized and
classified, lied to and lied to again. The 2012 sideshow that got the news media through the winter again limited the “race” to two frat brothers.
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam
Jane
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