BREAKING: SCOTUS Backs Marriage Equality. UPDATE: Right-Wing Fake MLK Heads Explode Over Possibility Of Civil Disobedience

Yeah, I know Hannity and Coulter didn't call for civil disobedience - talk about fun with Windows Moviemaker! What a joy to see their heads explode!



Yes, heads are exploding,there is great wailing and gnashing of teeth (dentists: be on the ready), and rending of Walmart garments. Pastors will be thrown into dungeons! Civil war will break out with huge casualties! Texas will secede from the Union (let's hope). Disasters aplenty will devastate the entire earth! Civilization will be ending fairly soon.

From Right Wing Watch:

In anticipation of the upcoming Supreme Court ruling, we’ve compiled a video of the Right’s most dire warnings about a potential decision striking down gay marriage bans, including self-proclaimed “prophet” Cindy Jacobs' fear that gay marriage will lead to natural disasters; preacher Scott Lively predicting a devastating “calamity”; Glenn Beck turning into the anti-gay version of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Tony Perkins calling for a revolution against gay marriage; and Pat Robertson, well, being Pat Robertson.

That's right - Glen Beck will be the next Martin Luther King, Jr! As will Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz ... all the people who absolutely detest the Supreme Court for being so dastardly as to "redefine" marriage. They will lead demonstrations, sit-downs and marches.

Just what city, they'll pick to define their Selma moment is yet to be determined. Charleston? Maybe. After all, same-sex marriage has been blamed for everything, why not use Charleston as a starting point? They could dare to be outrageous and pick San Francisco, but the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence might spoil it by turning it into a fundraiser for the AIDS Emergency Fund.





The Civil Disobedience Schtick
The Southern Baptist Convention closed out this week's annual meeting by issuing a formal call for civil disobedience against same-sex marriage. The statement was issued jointly by current SBC president Ronnie Floyd and 16 former SBC presidents.

However, the SBC has riled its base by trying to ban the Confederate flag instead of the rainbow flag. Not good timing. And a bit confusing for some of the good ole boys who still believe that Jesse Helms was really God.

It's The Stupid Martyrdom, Stupid!
E.W. Jackson:

I don’t know what’s going to happen to us for the stand that we’re taking, but I think I can say for every one of us, we will give our lives standing for the truth.

In the early days of Christianity, martyrdom was considered the fast track to heaven and some people actually sought it out for themselves. After people kept avidly feeding themselves to lions (rhetorically), Christian leaders put a stop to the practice. Legitimate martyrdom became while self-induced martyrdom became, well, stupid. The brouhaha over homosexuals getting married has resulted in a martyrdom of the Christian Right's own making, causing it to look very, very foolish.

Article headlines like the one below have shown how ridiculous CR politicians are willing to look:

President Santorum Will Protect Children From Gay Marriage

Pockets of Violence
Stupidity begets violence, however. And the rhetoric coming from the right comes dangerously close:

Garlow said that Staver, the Liberty Counsel attorney who has called for mass civil disobedience and a revolution to stop gay marriage, will be “speaking on a topic that most of us didn’t want to hear about, and that’s when biblical obedience translates into civil disobedience and we become an underground resistance movement.”

The phrase "underground resistance movements" smacks of violence. The wounded tiger of the Christian Right is still alive. The next media focus will be on the violence that ensues (eventually) in pockets of the country.

Let's hope that the stupidity doesn't last too long.

CHRISTIAN NATION? Studies Set Fire To The Christian Right's Pet Ideology And To Right Wing Candidates' Talking Points

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. [Jefferson, in letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814]

"America is definitely a Christian Nation." So says the Christian Right's Official Pseudo-Historian, David Barton. Many people believe it, and most of today's GOP Presidential hopefuls are depending on that belief. 

But what if that statement is based on a 50-year-old assumption and not today's reality? Candidates like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee might be counting on a force that really isn't there - with a meme that is not quite true.

The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an extensive new survey by the Pew Research Center.

So America is not as Christian as it used to be which, according to previous studies, was not as Christian as David Barton thought it was in the first place. The decline in Christian numbers is disturbing to many evangelicals such as Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and Tony Perkins, but it is disastrous to politicians like Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz.

Gallup:

Over time, the group of Americans who are dissatisfied and want religion to have less influence has consistently been larger than the group who are dissatisfied and want it to have more influence. The gap between these groups grew bigger as overall satisfaction with the influence of organized religion dropped in 2005.

In its State of the States report, Gallup also divulged that the highest level of people who attend church regularly is a rather meager 51% (Utah) and goes down to 17% (Vermont, which will burn in hellfire). This does not bode well for Presidential hopefuls like Huckabee and Jindal who are putting all their eggs into one Evangelical Christian basket.

Salon.com

It’s a narrative [America is fundamentally a Christian nation] that is fundamentally wrong. Yes, the majority of Americans identify technically as Christians, but a deeper look at how our people act, believe, and think shows that we’re not at all a “Christian nation,” but a largely secular nation that suffers a small but vocal minority of theocracy-minded conservatives. And not just that, but that the secular-minded majority is getting even bigger and more secular all the time.

The Theocratic Set

 

Today's Republicans still think that pandering to the Christian Right with "Christian Nation" banners and speeches will get them votes. And while it is a meme that comes disastrously close to reconstructionism and theocracy, they seem to think that America will not look past those speeches - and who organizes them. David Lane, the man behind theocracy's (Christofascism's) support of Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz, has squarely put Evangelicalism on the path to theocracy. While calling for 1000 pastors to seek public office, he has also curried favor with Ben Carson and Rick Perry. If ever there was an architect behind "America Is A Christian Nation," it is Lane, not David Barton who wields the real power. The reaction (or strategy) that Lane has had regarding the new studies is not yet known, but rest assured he is concerned.

Ted Cruz

Rick Unger (Forbes):

Cruz embarked on his march to the White House before a crowd of some 10,000 students at Liberty University— a number that would have been terribly impressive for such an event were it not for the fact that attendance was compulsory —where the Senator would spend the first part of his speech extolling the virtues of Jesus Christ and the importance the Christian faith played in keeping his family together.

Cruz does not seem to know (or care), that his "family" is on the wane: it may still be strong in Texas, but the CN (Christian Nation) talking point is weaker beyond its borders than he cares to admit.

Rick Santorum

Back in 2012, Rick Santorum's campaign was almost single-handedly derailed by one pastor.

Pastor Dennis Terry introduced Rick Santorum to Southern Baptist voters with the CN meme:

“This nation was founded as a Christian nation…there’s only one God and his name is Jesus. I’m tired of people telling me that I can’t say those words. […] If you don’t love America and you don’t like the way we do things, I’ve got one thing to say — Get out! We don’t worship Buddha. I said we don’t worship Buddha. We don’t worship Mohammed. We don’t worship Allah. We worship God. We worship God’s son Jesus Christ.”

We can bet, however, that Santorum ( who rarely learns from his mistakes) will keep CN alive during his campaign.

Mike Huckabee

Huckabee could rank as the most out-of-touch candidate with the collective mind of the American public (remember the Duggar support backlash). He would never, for example, believe a word of this WSJ survey:

A new SURVEY conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News has found that more Americans would be comfortable with a gay or lesbian president (about 61 percent of respondents) than they would with an evangelical Christian president (only 52 percent).
Furthermore, only 37 percent said they would be uncomfortable with a gay or lesbian person in the highest office in the country, while 44 percent said they would be hesitant about an evangelical Christian running for president.

Ignoring The Causes

Clinging to a Christian Nation ideology may be disastrous for today's Presidential hopefuls, but it is downright stupid for Christofascists to uphold it and even dumber for them to ignore the real causes.

While blaming the declining numbers on the overall moral decay of the country, the candidates and Christian Right leaders will dodge the real reason: Millennials are leaving in droves simply because they can't stand thinking that some day they might actually be like the Evangelicals they've come to dread: the crackpots and charlatans and ranters, the bigots and zealots and hate-mongers who have ruined religion for so many. Think Cindy Jacobs, Pat Robertson, Bob Jones, Jerry Falwell, Benny Hinn and a host of others who have used the Bible as a weapon and refer to a jealous, vindictive God abandoning the nation for things like same-sex marriage. 

Or they might be leaving because they know too many Betty Bowers. 

Lost Huckabee And The LGBT Community: Did Huckabee's Pastoral Sermons Pack San Francisco With Disowned PWAs?

He was a Southern Baptist Preacher for God's sake!

10 years of Mike Huckabee's sermons have either been destroyed or have been spirited away to some unknown planet.

Mother Jones, December 10, 2007
Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.

In 1992, when Mike Huckabee was running for the U.S. Senate:

[CNN, 2007)] responding to an Associated Press questionnaire, Huckabee said steps should be taken to "isolate the carriers of this plague" during his failed run for a U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas 15 years ago.

"Now, would I say things a little differently in 2007? Probably so," Huckabee told Fox News. "But I'm not going to recant or retract from the statement that I did make because, again, the point was not saying we ought to lock people up who have HIV/AIDS."

Huckabee did not explain how individuals with HIV would have been isolated. 

Hmmm... Isolation IS a form of 'lock up" isn't it? The lepers of Molokai were not exactly "locked up." Neither was Father Damien, but he certainly could have told us about the problems of such "isolation". Where would PWAs go? A Manzanar-like reservation would need to be funded by the government, and Huckabee opposed federal funding of even the basic HIV medications. One can envision a HIV Trail of Tears leading to a patch in Death Valley, with hopes of gays dying out "because they can't reproduce" as one pastor put it. 

Since the CDC had long since declared that you couldn't get AIDS from a toilet seat, the determination with which Huckabee was willing to "isolate" other human beings may be a clue as to what was in those sermons that have yet to see light since 1992. 

Today, Huckabee goes into a "that-was-then-this-is-now" mode when addressing his stance on AIDS. He has even seemed to soften his attitude towards gays. Today, he asks for tolerance and forgiveness of the Christian Right's sins, even blaming the media for fanning the flames of discontent, as in the recent scandal involving the Duggar family. 

There will be more to come on this subject, since Presidential hopeful Huckabee cannot escape the investigation into his former policies, his coverup of sermons and his statement that the Duggar family were at the start transparent:

"He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities."

WTF?!?

In Touch Magazine:

Jim Bob Duggar waited more than a year after his son, Josh, confessed to sexually molesting several female minors before contacting police, In Touch Magazine is reporting exclusively, based on information contained in the official police report.

What’s more, Jim Bob informed the elders of his church about Joshua’s actions and they waited three months before contacting authorities. The explosive new information is contained in a Springdale, Ark., police report obtained by In Touch magazine.

 The Duggars hid the scandal from the media since 2006, even when the family knew they were going to be featured in a reality show.

Transparency. Huckabee. Right.

The Lost Weekend - Or The (Warped) Shape Of Things To Come

Reading about the Republican Clown Car is depressing, making one want to crawl back into bed on Monday morning, pretending that the weekend just didn't happen. Showing just how low American politics has sunk, presidential hopefuls packed Iowa with snipes at each other and two (almost) viable candidates not present: Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney.

Rick Perry wasn't there either, so he sniped at himself - by being himself.

Present:

There was the Theocrat Clown Mike Huckabee. The Senate Clown, Ted Cruz. The Former Senate Clown, and Theocrat Clown wannabe, Rick Santorum. The Koch Brothers Clown, Scott Walker. The (hopefully) Forgotten Clown, Newt Gingrich. The Bridge Scandal Clown, Chris Christie. The Uncle Tom Clown, Ben Carson. 

And The Sarah Palin Clown, Sarah Palin.

They talked and joked about Hillary Clinton and downgraded Obama. Ho hum. Oh, and Benghazi must have been in there somewhere. It HAD to be there! 

All-in-all it was really a lost weekend, lost to sub-standard politics and Palin "bizarro" (as the London Times put it). 

Back to bed.

Stupidity Has Its Loyalty: Cavuto Goes Rogue And Pays The Price

"Now some of you say you will never, ever watch me again for the way I treated a congresswoman who I otherwise very much respect. Well, then I respectfully bid you adieu because if you prefer only hearing the interviews that suit you than let me say good-bye to you now because the time's going to come again when I will probably offend you."  - Neil Cavuto of FOX News 

Michele Bachmann was, in part, created by FOX News and its supportive pundits. What FOX News anchor Neil Cavuto did last week was to remove his support for a creation he "respected" but still termed silly. What he found out almost instantly was that no one at FOX can question - let alone deride - someone like Bachmann, no matter how insipid a political stance she has.

TPM:

The negative feedback was swift and harsh. At the end of that day's broadcast, Cavuto said a "record number of emails" had arrived.
"They go pretty much like this," he said. "'Cavuto, you're a rude ass. If I were Michele Bachmann, I'd have a law against you.' Someone else said, 'Who do you think you are? [Bill] O'Reilly? You're an idiot. Quit blabbering, start thinking.'"

Bachmann Cavuto Overdrive

Even for FOX News, the exchange was testy, with Bachmann (as is always her want), repeating points endlessly, thinking that emphasis would pass for reason. But Cavuto hammered away at his original premise, that the "lawsuit" against Obama spurred on by the Republican party was totally frivolous and a needless waste of time, energy and taxpayer money. Cavuto was anchored in the here and now, while Bachmann was off in Anti-Obama Neverland. The Young Turks (see below) saw Bachmann as a robotic Frankenstein monster unleashed, with Cavuto trying desperately to restrain it, but in the end just saying "you're silly."

Now, calling a monster "silly" may seem silly in itself, especially when FOX viewers have a fondness for Bachmann's brand of "silly." It seemed to many that Cavuto was cutting off his FOX-paid nose to spite his face. But what Cavuto may have done was bring a breath of reality to FOX that was very, very unwelcome: FOX's coverage and support of Republicans on this issue was "silly." FOX's support of Republican agendas was not always right. OMG! FOX News, the ratings king, might be IN ERROR! Cavuto was being blasphemous and apostate!

In retrospect, it's amazing that the emails did not contain death threats.

Tipping Over The Tower Of Misinformation

It has long been understood that ideological news and straight news are two different species, and with FOX News the ideology of the Right is so paramount as to give its sub-banner "Fair and Balanced" a tongue-in-cheek aspect. Hosts like Glenn Beck (formerly at FOX), Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee who depend upon the "opinions" of Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter veer so much to the right, that even treatment of the national and international political scenes is non-existent: at times it just seems like an Obama bash-fest. But the ideological news of FOX also serves another purpose: it keeps the misinformed public misinformed. In a real sense, Neil Cavuto was also challenging FOX the Misinformer, telling viewers to get past the irrelevance of the Republican (FOX News) Party's actions and "move on" to fix things.

The Price Of Going Rogue

As The Young Turks put it after viewing the heated exchange: "Is this FOX News?" FOX has certainly flirted with conflict involving the Republican Party,* but Cavuto's handling of Tea Party icon Michele Bachmann as a near nitwit was certainly far from it's usual right-wing course. Will Cavuto pay the ultimate price? No. Irate emails must be constant and consistant to have any effect on viewership. Cavuto will only be sacked if it's proven that he's slipped in ratings. Or if he spars again, say, with FOX's other darling nitwit:






*Megyn Kelly once remarked to Karl Rove that his projection over the 2012 elections might just be "something you made up to make yourselves feel good."

Cutting Off Her Lying Nose: Palin's "Waterboarding Is How We Baptize Terrorists" Offends Everyone - Except the NRA

Will Mike Huckabee ever speak to Sarah Palin again? Colleagues at FOX certainly stick together (like Hannity and Coulter, who lives under Hannity's desk for sure), but after Sarah's faux pas at the NRA on Sunday, Rev. Huckabee will likely be distancing himself from her.

American Conservative
Palin and all those who cheered her sacrilegious jibe ought to be ashamed of themselves. For us Christians, baptism is the entry into new life. Palin invoked it to celebrate torture. Even if you don’t believe that waterboarding is torture, surely you agree that it should not be compared to baptism, and that such a comparison should be laughed at.

Andrew Sullivan
And then she manages to go one step further. She invokes torture in the context of a Christian sacrament. Not since the Nazis’ Deutsche Christen have we seen something so disgusting and blasphemous in the morphing of Christianity into its polar opposite. Mercifully, some Christians on the right have managed to say something.

Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition:
For anyone to confess Christ as their savior and to compare one of the means of God's grace to an act of torture is reprehensible.

Like backtracking on Cliven Bundy, Palin Tea Party/NRA supporters are struggling to put a brave face on a bad situation, but Palin, in her usual way, will no doubt shrug off the critics with an "aw shucks, this is what I meant, don't be so damned serious." Remember her defense of the gun site/get Gabriels Giffords campaign? She sloughed it off as a "surveyor's mark." Such implausible explanations have followed her "rogue" career without her batting an eye. But how can she get out of this one? Can she get a witch hunter like Rev. Muthee to pray over her? Can she rely on Franklin Graham or John Hagee for support? Pamela Geller, maybe, but not Pat Robertson.

Oh, she could write a book about it all, but her last literary effort, Good Tidings, Great Joy, Protecting The Heart Of Christmas, failed to stir even the mildest of Scrooges or the most clueless right wing Christian.

Palin's Deadly Sins

Perhaps the most egregious error in the NRA speech was made later:

"When a kid in school is cussing away like any character in any Tarantino movie, nobody bats an eye," Palin said. "Ooh, but a kid saying a prayer in school, those hypocrites lose their minds."

Palin was capitalizing on a non-event: the publisher of FOX News' Todd Starnes' book on "Traditional Values" suspiciously broadcast that his little girl was not allowed to pray in school. The school vehemently denied the charge.

Besides lying, Palin's violent rhetoric was so off the mark, that she seemed to be barely Christian in her attitude: Jake Tapper (below), notes that it may have been suitable for the NRA, but not suitable for the rest of America. The discussion, in fact, focused on Palin's viability in the political arena: it has shifted to "does anyone take Palin seriously anymore?" Palin's future career was pinned down to innocuous poseur. Poor Sarah.

Perhaps buffoonery in the light of a serious subject like gun control is also a sin: "And [the] Obama administration wants you ID'd for that? Well, then go ahead and carry a sign, too. A sign that says 'Yeah, I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.'"

Celebrating Torture

"What can one say but that this is a bona fide fascistic sentiment. It revels in violence against individuals tied down by their hands and feet and strapped to a terrifying board in order to be suffocated hundreds of times to near-death. It is the kind of statement you might expect from the Khmer Rouge ... [but] Palin – who wants to celebrate brutal torture as the American way." (Andrew Sullivan)

Equating a torture to a universal Christian sacrament, glorifying it, amidst a speech calculated to stir up people dedicated to a life with firearms is foolish in the the extreme unless you're running for president of the NRA.

Poor Sarah. Cutting off your nose hurts, doesn't it?

Boy Scouts May Accept Gays. Christian Right Heads Explode. News At 10.

Beware A Severe Outbreak of Pedophilia!

Shock waves are running through churches and pastors across the country are redrafting their Sunday Sermons.

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest private youth organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.

If adopted by the organization’s board of directors, it would represent a profound change on an issue that has been highly controversial -- one that even went to the US Supreme Court. The new policy, now under discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national organization’s rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts.

It was a WTF moment with wailing, rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth never seen since Biblical times. For some, it has taken a full 24 hours for the shock to attach itself to reality, while others have been quick to respond:

American Family Association:

     "You're signing a death warrant when you say you're going to allow open homosexuals to participate in a program with young boys."

Southern Baptist Convention:

    "This decision will lead to a mass exodus of traditional, orthodox Christianity from Boy Scouts, including thousands of Catholic, Baptist and other traditional faith congregations."

Americans for Truth About Homosexuality ("Porno Pete" Peter Labarbera):

     "If you capitulate to the homosexual lobby, you're capitulating to immorality; and you're not being 'morally straight,' as the Boy Scout Creed says."

Family Research Council:

     "If the Board capitulates to the bullying of homosexual activists, the Boy Scouts' legacy of producing great leaders will become yet another casualty of moral compromise."

And while the above may represent the most homophobic of the lot on the side of the Christian Right, there are sure to be responses from the likes of:

Pat Robertson, "Bishop" Harry Jackson, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone (San Francisco), Cardinal Timothy Doyle (New York), Former Governor Mike Huckabee, Linda Harvey (Mission America), James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Cindy Japan-is-shaped-like-a-dragon Jacobs (Prophetess), Lou Engle (Prophet), Scott Lively (instigator, Kill-the-gays bill in Uganda), Rick Joyner (went to heaven and told everyone about it), Bradlee Dean (wants gays executed, like in Iran), Michele and (oh-so-masculine husband) Marcus Bachmann, "Bishop" Eddie Long, Janet Porter (Faith2Action), fake historian David Barton, World Net Daily,

... and ALL of FOX News (with the exception of Shep Smith). 

What Prompted The Shift?

      "The move also shows the growing influence of gay-rights groups and their backers. Throughout 2012, the Scouts were lobbied by organizations that collected more than one million signatures asking it to overturn the ban. Amid the tumult, several major corporate donors pulled their support from scouting organizations."

One million signatures on a petition. The pullout of corporate donors. 

And the need for transparency? 

OpEdNews reported the cover-up in child abuse last September, a factor that may have led to the proposed revision in policy: the BSA needs more transparency than ever to regain those corporate donors.



Gay Scout Troops?

"BSA spokesman Deron Smith said "the Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to units, members, or parents. ... BSA members and parents would be able to choose a local unit which best meets the needs of their families,” the BSA told Fox News Latino in a statement."

Reaction to the news of the policy shift has been surprisingly optimistic on the local levels:

OMAHA:

• "I think we are missing out on a lot of kids who are gay that just want to have the Boy Scout experience and I don't think that's fair. As far as leaders, there are a lot more problems coming out about straight leaders who are pedophiles than any problems with gay leaders." -- Mikki Nagel, a Lincoln parent of a Boy Scout nearing Eagle Scout

It certainly seems there is plenty of "wiggle room" in the policy change: Christian Right groups can put pressure on troops locally to their heart's content and create "no gay no way" troops. Certainly states like Tennessee will not likely be known for any gay-inclusive troops (nor Texas, nor North Carolina, etc). Ditto sponsors like the Catholic Knights of Columbus, a mainstay of Catholic scouts. But many local congregations see active discrimination as another necessary evil and a chore: a blanket "no gay" policy was easier to site.

Also easier to litigate: local lawsuits are quite the possibility.

Parodies of the "gayness" of scout troops have existed for a long while (see below), but totally gay BSA units are certainly far off in the future. And another problem: how would a totally gay unit fare in national conventions and events dominated by "family oriented" Christian Right units? The Christian Right has a lot of ferocity to distribute. It just can't do it nationally anymore.

Intolerance in the BSA will still exist. After all, the Christian Right will not be far behind.