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Post by Mira on Sept 8, 2010 23:10:34 GMT -5
The Sandman is full of many wisdoms.
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Post by the sandman on Sept 9, 2010 7:57:17 GMT -5
I am, as most people here know, a Christian, albeit a liberal one. Because I am a Christian, I can not be a Republican. They have become incompatible philosophies, which is interesting to me since the Republican Party has, more and more, become the party insisting that they are the “moral” and “Christian” party.
Let’s look at it from a Biblical perspective. A “Christian” is a follower of Christ, one who strives to live by His teachings. But the modern evangelical movement insists on living in the Old Testament primarily, so we’ll start there. With the Big 10, the Ten Commandments. We know the Republicans love these things, they certainly spend enough time insisting on having them prominently displayed in public buildings. But let’s actually look at them.
“Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me.” The Big One. Numero Uno. What does it even mean? It means that in your life you should elevate nothing to a higher status than God. Nothing. But the Republican Party has as it’s number one priority money. There’s no getting around it. Everything the party does is primarily concerned with money. Who gets it. Who wants it. Taxes. It’s all about money. Money has always been a problem for people, so much so that it actually shows up in the Bible. (“ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 timothy 6:10)
The Republican Party has firmly and irrevocably planted their flag in the soil of almighty Mammon, and there is simply no turning back. I’m not saying that the Democrats are any better, but at least they are not claiming to “serve God” while in reality serving cash. When it comes to the First Commandment, the Republican Party simply fails to measure up.
”Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord They God In Vain.” What’s that mean? It means not cheapening God by dragging His name into all your personal, petty bullshit. Every time the Republican Party stands and invokes God’s name in the service of bigotry, racism, hate, and fear, they are violating this rule.
The Democrats are no better, but they aren’t the ones claiming God’s celestial high-five.
”Remember the Sabbath Day and Keep It Holy” No one follows this. Not even your average Priest or Pastor. Ever gone golfing on a Sunday afternoon? Watched some TV? By the strictest definition of this commandment, everyone falls short. No help here for the Republicans.
”Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.” By systematically and deliberately seeking to kill any hope of health care reform, by aggressively defending and protecting the current, hideous system of private insurance, by striving at every chance to weaken or eliminate Social Security and Medicare, the Republican Party has definitively shown they do not “honor” anyone’s mother or father, least of all their own.
”Thou Shalt Not Kill.” The Iraq/Afghan war might not be the bloodiest or the most devastating war in American history, but it certainly is the longest. Thousands of Americans dead. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis dead, many of them innocent. All for an unnecessary war of misplaced reprisal, power grabbing, and resource lust. All Republican initiatives and policies. Dissent against their war was crushed as “un-patriotic” and dissenters were demonized as “traitors” and “un-American.”
The Republican Party is a staunch supporter of the deeply flawed capital punishment system in the United States despite clear evidence that it has sent innocent men to horrible deaths. Even if you interpret the commandment to mean "murder" instead of "kill," their vigorous, continued support of a system of this system which has clearly placed some innocent men in the execution chair still has them in violation.
Not killing? The Republican Party has made killing a goddamn plank in their official platform.
”Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.” No party is perfect in this. Clinton made the Oval Office his personal rumpus room. Kennedy’s affairs were legendary. Gore was not just an adulterer, but kind of an asshole about it. No party is perfect. But the Republicans? They damn near specialize in adultery, the finest example of which is “hero” John McCain’s legendary screwing around on his crippled wife, the same crippled wife who worked tirelessly for years to get him freed from a Viet Namese prison camp.
No party is perfect on this, and “God’s Party” here fails right along with the rest.
”Thou Shalt Not Steal.” Do I even need to address this? Enron. Halliburton. When the Republicans steal, they do not fuck around. Millions. Billions. Trillions. And it’s not just criminal theft, either. They steal from the poor to provide tax breaks for the wealthy. They steal from the middle class to provide corporate loopholes for their donors and investors. Their official policies are essentially a form of national grand larceny, empowering the richest 2% to strip as much wealth out of the system as possible before the entire thing collapses.
No, the Republican Party does not measure up on this one; theft is in their charter.
”Thou Shalt Not Bear False Wittness Against Thy Neighbor.” At it’s essence, this is saying “don’t lie.” Where to even start? Do we start with the deliberate misrepresentation of science and history to promote their agenda? Do we start with the intentional revisionism of the founding fathers? Do we start with the aggressive campaigns to inject “doubt” into global climate change? Do we start with the shameless insistence that their policies would be good for the average American? Do we start with the brazen lies about “WMDs” in Iraq? The bald-faced fraud of stacking sham candidates against their opponents? The promotion of willful ignorance? The spreading, both actively and tacitly, of untruths against the president? The disingenuous quiet funding of “grass roots” movements? The publication of unbelievably insane propaganda (Pat Tillman’s “hero’s death,” anyone?).
I don’t even know where to begin with this. I know all politicians lie, and therefore all political parties lie, but the Republicans have elevated it to a goddamn art form.
The whole “Coveting” thing at the end.” Coveting. It means lustful desire of the property/belongings/relationships/etc. of others. In a nutshell? It means greed. The Republican Party not only embraces greed in the finest Gordon Gecko manner, they officially consider it to be a virtue. The more you acquire, the greater your value as a person in the Republican world-view. This is not surprising, the party has always been this way. They have always been the party of the wealthy. But to claim that this is somehow a “Christian” value? A “Christian” concept? Well, that’s just ludicrous.
The Republican Party not only is not in any way, shape, or form a “Christian” party, they aren’t even an Old Testament Biblical party. Their standards and practices routinely and officially violate every single one of the 10 Commandments on a daily basis. And even though we can go on and on about how "no man is perfect" and "all fall short of the glory of God," one of the most fundamental and basic tenets of the Christian faith is that when you fuck up, you aren't supposed to believe that you were right when you did it. You aren't supposed to take pride in how short you are falling. You aren't supposed to deliberately and purposefully violate the standards for your own personal gain. You are supposed to strive to uphold the ideals, even when you know you will inevitably fall short of them. You aren't supposed to simply say fuck it and do the opposite of what the Bible says. When you do that, you no longer get to call yourself "Christian."
Now, I’m not saying that the Democrats are any better, or the Greens or the Libertarians. But none of those parties are invoking God as being on their side, are they? None of those other parties are claiming some Christian moral high ground. The Republican Party is, and their claim is ludicrous.
Next Up: How the Republican Party Utterly Ignores the Actual Teachings of Jesus, While at the Same Time Claiming Jesus Was Pretty Much One Of Them.
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Post by impatiens on Sept 9, 2010 8:25:46 GMT -5
Beautiful! Now why doesn't someone like you have a talk show? Anyhow, you're right that Republicans don't worship the Jesus of the Bible at all. They worship Republican Jesus.
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rfp15
New Member
Posts: 44
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Post by rfp15 on Sept 9, 2010 9:13:02 GMT -5
The following seems to me like a great motto for the modern Republican party:
No shame, No solution, No remorse.
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Post by scienceisgreen on Sept 9, 2010 10:01:14 GMT -5
Part 2 should be awesome!
Also, if there's one half sane republican left it just might be McCain's kid, unlike ol' pappy McCain she hasn't sold her soul and become the xenophobe/homophobe/denialist that the rest of the part has become. I can actually stand her on the Rachel Maddow show.
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Post by the sandman on Sept 9, 2010 10:58:53 GMT -5
How the Republican Party Utterly Ignores the Actual Teachings of Jesus, While at the Same Time Claiming Jesus Was Pretty Much One Of Them.
Jesus was an interesting dude. He had a lot to say about a lot of things. And the Republican Party gets nearly every single one of them wrong.
We all know how the Republican Party, ever since Reagan courted the religious right to lock in the election back in ’80, has more and more been claiming to be the “Party of God,” the “Christian” party, the “moral” party. But let’s take a look and see if Jesus would agree with them.
It seems that the Republican claim for moral “Christian” superiority is based on four things: opposition to gay marriage, opposition to health care reform, opposition to abortion, and capitalist economic theory. While these things are most definitely aspects of a specific, and valid, moral and ethical code, are they “Christian?”
Let’s start with abortion. Let’s start with what Jesus said about abortion. ”……….” OK, now that we’ve heard what Jesus said about abortion, what about what the Republican Party says about abortion in Jesus’ name. ”NO. Under NO circumstances. Abortion Is Murder. End of discussion.” This is most definitively a moral stance on abortion, but it doesn’t agree with what Jesus taught, because Jesus taught nothing on the subject. It is entirely possible that Jesus would agree with the moral stance of the Republicans, but to claim He does without the slightest bit of evidence is disingenuous at best. Even by an Old Testament standard it’s not in agreement since the Old Testament makes a clear distinction between causing the death of an unborn fetus and murder. In the former case, the punishment is far less severe.
And the Republican Party can’t even stay true to it’s own stance, constantly hedging it’s bets with qualifiers like “it’s OK to save the life of the mother,” or “it’s OK in cases of rape or incest.” I would actually have more respect for their moral stand if they actually stood firm, but they insist on compromising it to avoid alienating voters. If a moral standard is willingly compromised for personal gain, it was likely a mere posture to begin with.
So the Republican moral stance on abortion, while a legitimate moral stance, is not really a distinctly Christian one. Jesus himself said nothing on the matter.
So what about gay marriage? Likewise Jesus held forth no opinion on the matter of homosexuality, despite the fact that it was very, very common in the world he lived in. Despite the fact that a man traveling and living communally with 12 other men would have eventually been accused of such activities. Jesus says nothing on the subject. He does say a whole lot about accepting people, about loving them, about caring for others, about compassion. Nothing about condemning gays. Opposition to same sex marriage is essentially promoting the systematic discrimination of an entire group of American citizens just because you don’t like their private, personal, consensual behavior. That’s all it is. To see an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Constitution would be the first time the Constitution was used to systematically deny Americans fundamental rights. (No one counts Prohibition, really. Anyway, they repealed it.)
That’s not only un-Christian, it downright un-American.
Health care reform? As a moral stance? I don’t know about that, at least not right out of the box. I need to know more about the motivation. republican opposition to health care is not a moral stand, it’s an economic one. The "moral" thing to do would be to provide care to all. Opposing that as "too expensive" is about money, not morality.
Look at the example Jesus set. How many people came to Him to be healed only to be turned away because they couldn’t pay or because their employer did not provide insurance benefits? None. Every single person who came to Jesus to be healed was healed. Without cost. Without condition. Without hesitation. Sometimes people were healed before they even had a chance to ask.
No, Jesus would not be against reforming our current health care system, he would be furious we hadn’t already done so ourselves. He would be incensed that we allowed it to get to the state it’s currently in. He wouldn’t oppose health care reform; He would demand it. Aggressively defending the current system is not a “Christian” value at all. It’s the exact opposite.
And finally, capitalism. Almighty capitalism. The Holy Grail of the Republican Party. The ultimate gold medal standard of Republican morals: the Free Market. They worship it as a God. They abase themselves before it. In their mind it will cure all ills, heal all wounds, solve all problems, and make rainbows shoot out of their assholes. In their version, Jesus is a capitalist. Jesus wants you to go out, work hard, and keep all of the wealth you accumulate. Jesus wants you to be rich rich rich and he wants you wallow in all the privilege and comfort and luxury your money can supply you. Jesus wants the Free Market to run the world.
Except, of course, he never said any of that. Or even implied it. In fact, quite the opposite. He lived his life as a communal ascetic, which, if you aren’t familiar with the term, is pretty much the exact opposite of a capitalist. He accumulated no wealth, no property, no luxury. The only time he was directly confronted with the “Free Market” at work he threw a fit and tossed them all out on their asses. He frequently told people to give away all they had to the poor and follow him, that wealth got in the way of your spiritual (and moral) identity, and that camels had an easier time squeezing through the eyes of needles than rich men had of getting into Paradise.
So no. The Republican Party is not, in fact, the party of “Christian morals.” They talk a good game. They give lip service to God and to Jesus and to the Bible, but their actions and policies don’t actually bear this claim out. As an actual Christian, one who strives to learn from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Republican claim to “Christian moral” champion offends me. I have no problem with them taking the “moral” stance they do, they have every right to do so. But to call this amalgamation of greed, xenophobia, and ignorance “Christian” is just taking things too far.
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Post by brandonl337 on Sept 9, 2010 12:32:00 GMT -5
*slow clap*
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Post by mechtaur on Sept 9, 2010 21:23:30 GMT -5
Sandman = winner at life.
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Post by stormwarden on Sept 9, 2010 22:08:13 GMT -5
Sandman, that was epic, man. Pure epic AWESOME.
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Post by priestling on Sept 9, 2010 22:57:31 GMT -5
Sandman, you should totally fire up Audacity or something and record these. I'd love to put them on my mp3 player!
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Post by Aqualung on Sept 9, 2010 22:58:54 GMT -5
hell, put it on YouTube!
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Post by priestling on Sept 9, 2010 23:05:13 GMT -5
Sandman: the new AronRa!
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Post by Armand Tanzarian on Sept 10, 2010 3:27:08 GMT -5
Sandman, you should totally fire up Audacity or something and record these. I'd love to put them on my mp3 player! One badass musique-concrete/progressive metal epic song coming up (if someone records that).
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Post by m52nickerson on Sept 10, 2010 6:22:08 GMT -5
Sandman, that was epic, man. Pure epic AWESOME. I think PURE EPIC AWSOME might be a understatment.
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Post by anti-nonsense on Sept 10, 2010 11:33:12 GMT -5
Sandman, if every Christian was as intelligent, and thoughtful, and as interested in following the teachings attributed to Jesus Christ as you are, as opposed to following the teachings of Paul, then I would have a lot fewer objections to Christianity.
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