Civil Commotion

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach

Michael Hamar points toward a piece taking-up Congressman Randy Forbes’ belief that there is a dark conspiracy to eliminate religion from the world.

During his sermon, Forbes told the congregation that the government has grown increasingly hostile to religion in America in an effort to systematically expunge it from the “marketplace of ideas” and that this development has not come about by accident or naturally; rather, it has all been orchestrated by a vast, well-funded conspiracy.

“Let me just tell you one of the myths that’s out there,” he said. “It’s easy for us to somehow just think that all of this just evolved because people on the internet, they’re reading more and they’re getting more intellectual and somehow or the other, it’s like they’ve discovered the world isn’t flat anymore and therefore we don’t believe in God and we don’t believe in faith.”

“If I had the time, which I don’t have,” he continued, “I could put up on this screen or on this screen or on both of them the proof that would show you this isn’t some natural evolution, this is artificially driven. I can show you organization after organization after organization to a network that would frighten you because it would be vast that you couldn’t get it on that screen, of organizations that are funded and paid with a systematic approach to killing and destroying faith in America today.”

No, no conspiracy; Christianity is merely dying its long overdue death. That’s what happens to untrue nonsense.

Whether one approaches the question “Is Christianity true?” from the perspective of science, or Biblical scholarship, the answer is dispositive and not susceptible of educated, intellectually serious dispute: the traditional Christian narrative is false. There was no Adam and Eve, there is no such thing as Original Sin, and Jesus doesn’t save us from an eternity of deserved torture — case closed. You may believe that you’re worthless dung and deserve eternal torture (and I’m not here to tell you that you’re wrong), but that is merely your private psychological problem — and people like me have simply had enough of you and aren’t going to hold our noses and politely defer to your rat’s-nest of fantasies and psychoses any longer.

No conspiracy. Merely widespread disgust with the blatant evil of unreasoning belief.

Seriously? If you buy your children shoes their steps will be … CURSED!? Let’s agree that this is a correct reading of the Inerrant Bible. I don’t think that it is, but just for the sake of discussion let’s agree that it is, that The Creator of The Whole Big Universe, who surely wants for nothing, will visit His Wrath upon your children if buying them shoes means you can’t fork over 10% of your earnings to the neighborhood Holy Man.

Why would any decent adult worship, and hope to spend eternity with, a being so cruel? Honestly: I think that Ms. Lintner disgraces herself by worshiping that god.

Jeri Massi has all-but-ceased blogging, so I rarely link to her nowadays. I was pleased, however, to notice this announcement that she has a new book in the works: The Big Book of Bad Baptist Preachers.

A Catalog of Child Molesters and Pedophiles in Baptist Churches.

From the SBC minister who sexually tortured little boys and photographed them, to the smooth talking SBC Executive Committee that refuses to expel child molesters from the SBC.

Sometime around the beginning of the last century, there was an organization called The Truth Seekers headquartered in New York City, and they published an annual report entitled Crimes of Preachers; view a .PDF version of the 9^th-edition here.

The Brethren, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and many other Christian denominations, practice an explicit form of shunning (virtually all sharply circumscribe their association with those who have left the bubble). This should come as no surprise. After all, Christianity’s sacred texts were written during the time when it was just another goofy 1^st-century cult, and they are reverting back to their 1^st-century cult roots as Christianity declines.

Woe to those caught-up by the madness.

Leaving a group like the Brethren is an emotional nightmare. To be betrayed and abandoned by those you love causes psychological damage that can take years to reverse. You don’t trust people. Friendships are dangerous. Opening up means exposing yourself to the risk of further betrayal. It’s happened once, your subconscious warns, and it could happen again. You question people’s motives.

The older I get and the more I see of it, the more inclined I am to believe that religiosity in all its manifestations is a variety of sickness that fouls whatever it touches.

This is interesting: A writer at the odious Renew America explicitly acknowledges what I have said for years — the United States Constitution and the teachings of Christianity cannot coexist peacefully.

In these United States, the legitimate civil authority is strictly forbidden by law to officially recognize Christ the King and His Sovereign authority over “all things in Heaven and on earth” (cf Matthew 28:18), which includes the singular authority to define what is just, and what is moral, and what is not.

The government of this nation is likewise forbidden to proclaim the immutable truth that the Holy Catholic Church was established by Christ the King to speak in His name in such way that “He who hears the Church hears Christ, and he who rejects the Church rejects Christ and likewise rejects the ‘Creator God’ who sent Him” (cf Luke 10:16).

The Constitution requires, by contrast, that the legitimate civil authority treat the aforementioned false gods and false religions (Islam, Methodism, Deism), as well as others far too numerous to number, as if all are mere equals; with no one religion, its tenets, and its “god,” to be held above any other.

In other words, the duty to govern according to that which comes from God through His Holy Catholic Church is rejected.