A Bloodthirsty Religion – The Battle Hymn of the Republic

I’m in the process of learning the alto part to The Battle Hymn of the Republic. One down side to singing in a choir is you sometimes have to sing words that you would never say. (When I sing on my own, that is a factor in the songs I choose to sing). For the Battle Hymn of the Republic, that line is:

“As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”

Well, it is named “Battle Hymn,” so I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s trying to make warfare an act of worship.

Before that, though, it strikes me as audacious in the first place to equate ourselves with Christ. On the one hand, Christians are supposed to emulate Christ (or so I’ve always interpreted the purpose of Christianity). But this seems to have crossed the line from emulating to putting ourselves on the same level. It even seems like we’re trying to do Christ one better:

“Let’s sacrifice ourselves like Christ, except take out a bunch of people as we’re doing it.”

And the reason this strikes me so strongly is that for 12 years I’ve been hearing Americans claim that Islam is an inherently violent religion and that Muslims all want to be martyrs, while implying that you wouldn’t catch Christians doing or saying that kind of thing.

Wikipedia: In the years since the Civil War, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has been used frequently as an American patriotic song.^[10] This song is usually heard at the national conventions of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party,^{[citation needed]} and is often sung at Presidential inaugurations.

Huckabee on Why Some Nut Shot Up an Elementary School Today

“When we ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools have become a place for carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability?” –Mike Huckabee, former Republican presidential candidate, 2012

Edited to add: Because Huckabee is a freaking insane lunatic jackass. And I’ve added this quote to my Fanaticism page. Some great company you’re keeping there, Huckabee.

Romney Glowers

Because this picture cracks me up

Unabashed Fear-Mongering by Presidential Candidate Santorum

So now we have campaign ads that seem to be trailers for horror movies. As a horror movie fan, I like it. As a responsible voter, I think it’s terrible. I like to think everyone who sees this will react appropriate, with incredulous laughter.

Since Santorum wants us to tremble in fear of Ahmadinejad, here’s a great post by Juan Cole: http://www.juancole.com/2012/03/khamenei-takes-control-forbids-nuclear-bomb.html

““The Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that the decision makers in the countries opposing us know well that Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive and dangerous.”

Guess the Benighted Wasteland VI – Birth Control Edition

So there’s this country where a council of elders is deciding on whether or not requiring insurers to cover birth control violates religious freedom of people who don’t believe in science. The committee is chaired by a male and consists of eight men. Invited to testify: five men. And no women.

Saudi Arabia? Iran? Ha! It’s the United States of America. Jezebel has the story here: http://jezebel.com/5885672/congressional-birth-control-hearing-involves-exactly-zero-people-who-have-a-uterus

Another “Isolated Incident” of Christian Violence

From WBBJtv.com:

A gay Gibson County couple said they were assaulted when they tried to attend church services at the Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland last Wednesday.

“I went over to take the keys out of the ignition and all the sudden I hear someone say ‘sick’em,'” said Gibson County resident, Jerry Pittman Jr.

Pittman said the attacked was prompted by the pastor of the church, Jerry Pittman, his father.

“My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back,” said Pittman. He said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs.

“If I was on the scene I would not have allowed that. The deputy should not have allowed it if he did,” said Gibson County Sheriff Chuck Arnold.

Pittman said neither he nor Lee were allowed to press charges while at the church.

“I haven’t talk to him but that would be out of character for my deputy to say unless they were causing a problem themselves,” said Sheriff Arnold.

Friday, the couple filed assault charges against Deacons Billy Sims and Eugene McCoy. Pittman pressed additional charges against his father and Deacon Patrick Flatt. Pastor Pittman’s attorney contacted ABC 7 Eyewitness News by phone and said she had no comment and demanded we not contact the pastor.

Let’s Please Not Make the US a Theocracy

A US Presidential candidate said earlier this year, “I think it’s time for us to just hand it over to God, and say, ‘God: You’re going to have to fix this’.”

The context: a speech in May, explaining how some of the nation’s most serious problems could be solved.

Found on this New York Times blog.

Also from the same blog post:

But Texas is special. By many measures, it is the nation’s most polluted state. Dirty air and water do not seem to bother Perry. He is, however, extremely perturbed by the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement of laws designed to clean the world around him. In a recent interview, he wished for the president to pray away the E.P.A.

To Jews, Muslims, non-believers and even many Christians, the Biblical bully that is Rick Perry must sound downright menacing, particularly when he gets into religious absolutism. “As a nation, we must call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles,” he said last week.

As a lone citizen, he’s free to advocate Jesus-driven public policy imperatives. But coming from someone who wants to govern this great mess of a country with all its beliefs, Perry’s language is an insult to the founding principles of the republic. Substitute Allah or a Hindu God for Jesus and see how that polls.

Guess the Benighted Wasteland V (subsection a)

The folks at Right Wing Watch put together this video introducing us to the folks partnering with Texas governor Rick Perry in his Christians-only, pray-for-competent-governance-because-I’m-a-waste-of-space rally.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/ is the url.

Because Jews Hate Dogs

BBC has an article about a dog being sentenced to death by a rabbi in Jerusalem. Please remember this story the next time “Muslims hate dogs” comes up. Thank you.

Naturally, this story makes me heartily glad that we do not live in a theocracy (yet) here in the United States and with any luck we will continue to honor the wall of separation between church and state, so that blowhards who think we should kill orcas for “murder” will never hold sway over our country.

A Jewish rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a stray dog it feared was the reincarnation of a lawyer who insulted its judges, reports say.

The dog entered the Jerusalem financial court several weeks ago and would not leave, reports Israeli website Ynet.

It reminded a judge of a curse passed on a now deceased secular lawyer about 20 years ago, when judges bid his spirit to enter the body of a dog.

The animal is said to have escaped before the sentence was carried out.

One of the judges at the court in the city’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood had reportedly asked local children to carry out the sentence.

An animal welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against a court official, who denied reports that judges had ordered the dog’s stoning, according to Ynet.

But a court manager told Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot the stoning had been ordered as “as an appropriate way to ‘get back at’ the spirit which entered the poor dog”, according to Ynet.

Dogs are considered impure animals in traditional Judaism.

Story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13819764

Also, please stop voting for the kind of moronic lawmakers in the US who think shariah law is a fundamental threat to our country but that Jewish law is just fine and dandy. And that Indian tribal law is no biggie because who cares anyway?

Lawyers’ spirits don’t enter dogs, whether or not a judge orders them to. Also, dogs don’t live twenty years. Dogs should be judged by the content of their character, not the woo-woo proclamations of people who believe in ghosts. And stoning to death is extremely cruel. Are you fucking kidding me, people?

Guess the Benighted Wasteland V

This is almost too ridiculous to believe. Today’s wasteland features a ruler so unequipped to deal with the problems facing his land that he is publicly calling on his countrymen to pray(!) for divine help.

From the website on which he is asking his coreligionists to pray for him:

we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters…

Haha! Notice how he fails to mention “my own incompetence” or “my failure to plan effectively, hire the educated, or play well with others.”

And by the way, this is no feel-good multi-denominational prayer he’s asking for. Nope, if you don’t believe in the right god the right way, you can keep your prayers to yourself.

we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy

May their prayers be answered with a competent, educated governor who deals with problems here on earth instead of imploring the gods.

Go here to laugh and jeer at his web site. http://theresponseusa.com/

Oh yeah, the benighted wasteland this time is Texas! Congrats to everyone who guessed Texas.