Saturday: The Apocalypse. Sunday: Gays To Celebrate With A Street Fair And Beer Bust!

God's going gay for the Apocalypse
Taking a break from Trump Messiah sycophant-ism the "prophets" of the Christian Right are warning of Saturday's coming Apocalypse.

God's Ambulance Chasers are changing course
Far from following in the footsteps of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson* (the original Christofascist blame-the-gays theorists), today's Apocalyptic ministers have changed from merely raining bibles on disaster victims to connecting the Armageddon dots, forming a picture of a God totally pissed that anyone, any country would do something so abominable as accept gay marriage

And considering that disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Harvey have been blamed almost exclusively on the LGBT community, it's gonna be a very GAY Apocalypse.

There will be ...

Gay floods



Gay earthquakes




Gay tornadoes



And, of course, Gay volcanic eruptions!



The signs have already been in place:

- a rash of major hurricanes!

- Planet X/Nibiru has been seen hurtling toward us through space by millions thousands hundreds tens of people !

- San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair is the DAY AFTER!

- Fox News changes Sean Hannity's time slot to be opposite Rachel Maddow!

- Robert Mueller has Trump's tax returns!

It's Nibiru, stupid!
Theories abound in YouTube with dozens of "updates" (average number of views - an astounding 250) and signs ranging from homeless genocide to "sightings" are scattered like dandelion puffs across the internet.

The science behind Nibiru might seem a tad secular, but look deeper into the YouTube uploads and you'll see God lurking around. The comments are a testament to man's blessed skepticism:

- It's time for us to stop believing bullshit jus cos a mofucker tell u bullshit wiv a straight look on their face

- OLD SHIT FOR NEW MONEY

- i am glad to see that you dont have any subscribes... rlly. I am not negative perons who want worse for others, but this bullshit cant spread anymore

- For anyone who believes this stuff... WILL YOU PLEASE GIVE ME 1,000 dollars so I can go have fun with my wife for a few days before Nibiru gets here?

The date of September 23rd is also a magnate for armchair Armageddon freaks: the alignment of the moon, sun and planets have alarmed "rapture" believers and exorcists.

Of course,the Mexico City quake is fueling the bullshit fires. So far, God's ambulance chasers are ominously (but respectfully) silent. Just wait. 

Pope Francis, of course, is having none of it: several years ago, after a quake in Italy was attributed to civil unions by a local pastor on radio:

The radio station distanced itself from Cavalcoli’s views and the Vatican has issued a stinging rebuke, saying the idea of a vengeful God was “a pagan vision” dating from “the pre-Christian era”.
Archbishop Angelo Becciu, number two in the Vatican’s powerful secretariat of state, said Cavalcoli’s comments were “offensive to believers and disgraceful for non-believers”.

Alignment of the planets, Nibiru or an angry God, God's Ambulance Chasers have to blame someone, anyone else for the Apocalypse. Gays are the easy target.


Postcript:

Remember Harold Camping?

"God has given sooo much information in the Bible about this, and so many proofs, and so many signs, that we know it is absolutely going to happen without any question at all. - Harold Camping

It didn't.

See you at the Fair on the 24th.






*Robertson warned Orlando, FL of a meteor striking it in retribution for Disnesy World's Gay Day.

Sanctuary Cities Are Necessary - But For Whom?

Sanctuary. It means to be in the midst of a safe haven where no one can castigate you, criminalize you, harm you. In no other form of media has the word been so emotionally charged than in Charles Laughton's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (indeed, it was the first thing that came to my mind when thinking of the word). 

Please view this 4-minute clip before reading my puny thoughts on the matter of sanctuary cities.




It is ironic that an accused "witch" is given sanctuary, while today's Christian Right is asking to have "Sanctuary Cities" established so that they can practice as much bigotry as possible while excoriating cities that give succor to illegal aliens.

Likening the fight against Obergefell v. Hodges to that of the fight against Dred Scott v. Sandford, Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver wondered aloud on Christian radio last week why there aren’t any “sanctuary cities” that protect people from abortion and gay marriage like they do for “illegal aliens.”

And on the other side of the coin:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is calling on mayors of sanctuary cities to be arrested as accomplices to the crimes illegal aliens receiving special treatment in their cities commit.

From The Daily Beast:

In the immigration debate, sanctuary cities are unicorns, mermaids, and Bigfoot all wrapped into one. 

Of course, it all started in San Francisco:

The rationale for the policy was that if an illegal immigrant was arrested on a non-immigration offense, and there was no federal warrant, local authorities could use their discretion to decide whether to alert their neighborhood office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

But, in the last 26 years, San Francisco’s sanctuary policy has been repeatedly modified and become less lenient. These days, local law enforcement will hand over to federal immigration agents undocumented immigrants who haven’t even gone before a judge.

So the Christian Right hates mythical sanctuary cities, but loves the idea of actual sanctuary cities for themselves.

Looking at the Hunchback clip again, something is very definitely wrong when it comes to today's idea of sanctuary ... and who should be given sanctuary.

Q: Why Can't Right-Wing Christians Police Their (Embarrassing) Own? A: Because They're Policing Everyone Else!

Idaho Lady Tries To Beat, Choke Jewish Woman Into Personal Relationship With Jesus

Yes, it's OK to distance yourself from the crazies, but sometimes distancing is not enough. So many Christians cry "we're not like that" while silently condoning the actions of the embarrassing few. Every day we see people who embarrass Christianity by using it to the extreme, like the case of the homeschoolers who tried to sell their daughter in marriage. 

International Cops For Christ 

You have the right at any time to stop this preaching to repent of your sins and to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Attorney – Romans 10:9-10. If you do not confess Christ, you will be convicted of sin before the Divine Court of Law and face an eternal sentence in Hell – Revelation 20:12-15. Do You Understand?

In a political landscape that has religious freedom as its mantra and "religious persecution" as its great social concern, the force of evangelism goes unnoticed: International Cops for Christ is just one of the organizations that promotes what some people might consider forced conversions.

Project ROSE is a Phoenix city program that arrests sex workers in the name of saving them. In five two-day stings, more than 100 police officers targeted alleged sex workers on the street and online. They brought them in handcuffs to the Bethany Bible Church. There, the sex workers were forced to meet with prosecutors, detectives, and representatives of Project ROSE, who offered a diversion program to those who qualified. Those who did not may face months or years in jail.
In the Bethany Bible Church, those arrested were not allowed to speak to lawyers. Despite the handcuffs, they were not officially “arrested” at all.

In Montgomery, Alabama, a similar program, called Operation Good Shepherd, is explicitly designed to bring young women under the power of local Christian leaders. “What we want to do is combine the religious community and the Mont­gomery Police Department, and we want to unite those as one,” explained police corporal David Hicks. No non-Christian religious groups are allowed to participate in the program.

Grass roots conversion conspiracy? Perhaps. But policing souls is what many evangelicals see as a calling, forgetting such things as separation of church and state and the individual's right not to be coerced into any form of religion. 

NALT

"Not All Like That" is a project that affirms the Christianity of gays and lesbians. That's fine, but does NALT have any actual power in policing the ones they are distancing themselves from? No. "Not All Like That" is a nice group - in other words, a group of nice people who are scorned by most Evangelicals. They are also exclusively associated with the gay community. So how about Jews? How about prostitutes? How about atheists? Do they have any Christian groups accepting of them? NALT may be a step in the right direction, but it is a baby step, not the kind of forceful leap needed to shake up the "Christians" embarrassing the rest of Christianity.

Would that a non-denominational Christian tribunal existed to strip embarrassing "Christians" of their Christianity, or at least their association with Christianity. An excommunication of sorts - one enforced through social media - might seem vengeful and drastic, but embarrassing people who are in themselves embarrassments would be fitting. Their websites, publications and rallies would be declared "no-go zones" for Christians. 

A Christian tribunal. We can dream, can't we?

Of course, a problem presents itself in the fact that anyone can declare themselves "Christian" and get away with most anything non-Christian. Such is a society with freedom of religion: people are free to use religion in any way they want. And according to Evangelicals, they are free to use people any way they want in the name of religion. 




The Embarrassing Criminals:

Everyday, we experience people who, in professing their love of Christianity, unmask themselves by being un-Christian.

Benny Hinn - The domino (Let the Bodies Hit The Floor) healing of Benny Hinn is certainly entertaining, but it's also embarrassing to serious, reasoning Christians. Hinn's lavish lifestyle is also a testament to greed resulting from the gullibility of desperate people. His shills are never ashamed to look as if they are wired together with high voltage cable. 

Cindy Jacobs - Jacobs cannot be cast as a charlatan simply because people are dumbfounded that anyone believes her. But some people do, since her "ministry" rakes in cash enough to keep her in ridiculous outfits. 

Ann Coulter - "Christianity drives everything in my life." However, her eschatology ("love thy neighbor" is a minor, incidental tenet) and self-admitted mean-spiritedness undermines all her claims to Christianity. In fact, the only reason that the gold cross she wears hasn't burned a hole in her chest is because her righteous arrogance oozes out of every pore, forming a force-field through which Jesus Christ's teaching could never get through. 

Victoria Jackson - To associate with Victoria Jackson (who recently claimed that Obama is most certainly a Muslim) is to have your I.Q. syphoned out of you by a black hole of reason. The only guest on her show to make her look intelligent was E.W. Jackson and that's saying quite a lot. 

Bryan Fischer - Changing positions for Bryan Fischer at the American Family Association has done nothing to undo the hatred he continues to spew. The man seems to thrive on ostracism, since he wasn't a featured speaker at the Values Voter Summit last year. 

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone - In his latest skirmish with his unhappy parishioners, Cordileone was forced to "reconsider" wording in his now-infamous morals clause for teacher contracts. Considered the "anti-Francis" in his obsession with morals and opposition to gay rights, the archbishop was chastised by California lawmakers who threatened to probe schools for civil rights violations. 

His case brought up a significant point: must embarrassing clergy be policed by the state in order to draw attention to their un-Christian attitudes? 

Scott Lively - In yet another case of clergy being called to task for un-Christian activities, Lively has been hit with a "crimes against humanity" lawsuit concerning his involvement in Uganda. He continues to crow about his associations with Russia and Uganda and their acceptance of his rhetoric. 

Off Bounds

The crazies, the charlatans, the mean-spirited pundits should be exposed and declared off-bounds to a reasoning, loving Christian community. In affect, they have been time and time again, but people still contribute, still believe, still read and support them. They manage to survive scandals and congressional investigations. They manage to amass fortunes and (in the case of Cordileone) authority. 

Maybe their followers should be policed for being embarrassing to Christianity as well.  

Obama is the Anti-Christ, Gun Control Is Un-Biblical, Gay Marriage Will Destroy Civilization!! What Next, Paranoid America?

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear - Mark Twain

Today's main American paranoid rants: Obama will take away your guns and enslave you! Christians will be persecuted to extinction. Of course, they're without merit, but tell that to the ranters: those Rabid Religious Right First Amendment freaks out to kill everyone who isn't Christian.

OK, paranoia is contagious, no matter which side of the political aisle you're on. The liberal obsession with the Koch brothers certainly matched Glenn Beck's obsession with George Soros. And it's easy to develop a paranoia about paranoia. Yet it does seem that the Right has taken paranoia to its outer limits, depending on God to support it, and making sure that people are uneducated enough to embrace it. 

Headlines and quotes coming from the Right are more WTF? than OMG! For example, World Net Daily headlined: 

WILL OBAMA BUILD A DEATH STAR?

And get this:

"Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality." - James Rutz is chairman of Megashift Ministries

They're All Coming To Get You!

Does anyone remember the paranoid cold war spoof The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!? Transport some of the film's dimwitted characters to the present and it's reasonable to assume that they would fit right in to today's paranoid groups.

In the movie, however, the idiocy was shelved and the paranoia was removed once the villagers discovered the Russians to be ... humans just like them. Unfortunately, today's paranoids are not prone to discovery.

Or education. They enjoy their paranoia too much to ever realize that their paranoia might be groundless, or at least a lot less threatening than they thought.


Richard Hofstadter, in his seminal work, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, wrote( three years before The Russians Are Coming!) about a phenomenon that crept into the American political psyche: 

Although American political life has rarely been touched by the most acute varieties of class conflict, it has served again and again as an arena for uncommonly angry minds. Today this fact is most evident on the extreme right, which has shown, particularly in the Goldwater movement, how much political leverage can be got out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. Behind such movements there is a style of mind, not always right-wing in its affiliations, that has long and varied history. I call it the paranoid style simply because no other word adequately evokes the qualities of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind.
In a sense, that style is being utilized by the NRA, the Christian Right and the Tea Party. Notice how Salon's Alan Berlow, when writing about the Sandy Hook Massacre and the NRA (Held Hostage by NRA Paranoia), makes a statement akin to Hofstadter's about the acute paranoia of the NRA:

Whether or not the uniquely horrifying details of this latest massacre will be enough to break the National Rifle Association’s suffocating muzzle on any rational discussion about guns remains to be seen. And that, as much as the horror of Sandy Hook Elementary School, speaks volumes about the perverse state of our national debate about guns.

The operative words here are "suffocating muzzle" - creating a state of suspicion where education about gun violence in this country is out of the question.

Of course, gun control is perhaps the most rabid of recent U.S. paranoias and serves to encapsulate just how far paranoia can go - and how much political clout it can obtain.

Wayne LaPierre:

“A heinous act of mass murder—either by terrorists or by some psychotic who should have been locked up long ago—will be the pretext to unleash a tsunami of gun control.”

"Responsible Americans realize that the world as we know it has changed," he wrote. "After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all."

“With four more years of Obama, your firearms freedoms are gone. And we’ll spend the rest of our lives mourning the freedoms we’ve lost… Every freedom we cherish as Americans is endangered by Obama. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

And while LaPierre has been roundly criticized for his stance that more guns should be on the streets and in the hands of Americans, the paranoia he feeds upon has escalated, not abated. In sense, it has been fed and continues to be fed by all forms of right-wing media and even pulpits: Pastor Gary Cass jumped into the fray with his statement, "You can't be a Christian and not own a gun." 

A Compilation Of The Paranoid Style

U.S. paranoia has reached its zenith with the Christian Right against so many things: from Obama being the Anti-Christ to Pokemon. Yes, Pokemon.

Christian Answers 

To gain the competitive edge, a trainer must use magic potions to heal and strengthen his Pokmon, and wear magic badges to control the stronger Pokmon. In addition, the really powerful Pokmon have psychic powers and can throw curses. This bears disturbing similarities to witchcraft.

Robert Jeffess:

“President Obama is not the Antichrist. But what I am saying is this: the course he is choosing to lead our nation is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.”

 Chuck Norris and Pat Robertson:

“...a legion of demons would be unleashed to wreak havoc on society and help enact his evil socialist agenda, destroying all that is good and free.”

Of course, no set of Christian Right paranoia would be complete without fear of other religions and persecution:

The war against yoga:

A small but vocal group of parents, spurred on by the head of a local conservative advocacy group, has likened these 30-minute yoga classes to religious indoctrination. They say the classes — part of a comprehensive program offered to all public school students in this affluent suburb north of San Diego — represent a violation of the First Amendment.
After the classes prompted discussion in local evangelical churches, parents said they were concerned that the exercises might nudge their children closer to ancient Hindu beliefs.

"Bishop" Harry Jackson

"I think we're being set up -- for people of living faith who believe in a born-again experience who follow the Bible -- to be seen as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who need to come into the 21st century," Jackson said.

Actually, this may not be far from the truth, for stupidity and lack of education are enablers of paranoia. Then again, since preachers like Jackson don't believe in evolution, they may not have bothered to evolve. The Gospel for Christians; Fear and Insecurity in Theology21 is a good treatise on the paranoia promulgated by today's right wing Christian leaders and it points out the blatant irrationality of most claims. It also pointed out that Pat Robertson's book, The New World Order was reviewed as a "catch all for conspiracy theories."

Islamophobia

Paranoia regarding Sharia law inculcated into the American landscape is field worthy of volumes, but perhaps the best example of Hofstadter's "paranoid style in American politics" lies with the witchhunt spawned by Michele Bachmann:

Salon:

“The events in Benghazi have proved that the United States remains under attack, both in the Middle East, and here in the United States,” she continued last night. When the moderator noted that there’s no proof that the Muslim Brotherhood was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. diplomats in the Libyan city, Bachmann replied that “we are only just beginning” to investigate and suggested that all radical Islamists groups are tied to the Brotherhood.

And, Of Course, Gays Will Eat Your Children

World Net Daily's list of 10 worst attacks on Christianity:

7. “The overt homosexual participation in Obama’s presidential inaugural events by ‘Bishop’ Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., and a homosexual marching band.”

Whither Paranoia?

Whether it involves indoctrination of children by homosexuals, Obama's "Islamification" of America, or the demons hiding in Halloween candy* the country seems to be getting more paranoid by the minute, the momentum greater than ever before. There are a multitude of panaceas and remedies for such a condition, but they may all boil down to: education. 

And there are people who are paranoid of education. Perhaps we should treat those first.



* Pat Robertson, of course.