Why Bush's jumbled logic that Christianity is by "Presidential proclamation" divine, and Islamic beliefs are by utter existence provocative and depraved, has fueled an incendiary front of hatred and racial intolerance under the banners of Christianity and patriotism in America.
As the government of the United States ostensibly wages an unbounded and ceaseless war with Islamic religious fundamentalists, our current President, George W. Bush, has proclaimed he senses a "third awakening of religious devotion" within America. This "third awakening" that Bush cloaks, but does not conceal, is the return of Christianity as a crusade. The sheer oddity of pronouncing a rebirth of a feverish religion, in a country founded on a secular government and not a spiritual one, is the tenable reality that we have become what we most fervently oppose, despise, and scorn -- a society ruled by theocracy and not democracy.
At the core of this deep disparagement is the jumbled logic that Christianity is by "Presidential proclamation" divine and Islamic beliefs are by utter existence provocative and depraved. Fueling this incendiary insidiousness is the radicalism of the neoconservative movement through the Bush Administration that drives a country now nearly drenched in hate and racial intolerance under the banners of Christianity and patriotism.
George W. Bush, a declared, "born-again Christian", after falling prey to drugs and alcohol for years, did not accurately find God, but George did find religion. What George found in religion was not greater guidance but compulsive coercion and mangling manipulation.
The true maliciousness of this is not religion, in and of itself, but what all religious fanaticism perpetrates. Religion divides; religion causes hatred, judgment of others, bigotry, wars, militant activists, extremists, death and destruction, and impedes progress, such as the recently vetoed bill for stem cell research. There have been more people killed, maimed, and murdered in the name of religion, than for any other reason or cause in man's history. These motives, above all others, are the core purpose for separation of church and state in our country.
The most overwhelming misnomer today is that supporters of Bush's faux-Christianity and "third awakening" are genuine Christians. They simply are not. The basic message of Christianity is one of peace and hope, faith and kindness, helping the meek, caring for the young, and securing the elderly. Christianity, as a principle, is fine. As a divisive and domineering creed, it becomes a distorted disaster that fails miserably to pay homage to the human side of Jesus.
The rationale here is not to debate faith or personal views on Christ; but that Jesus has a more tenable and historical value we can all live by. Whether or not Jesus was the son of God is immaterial. You, and only you, must decide and reflect on that notion. The issue that is so often missed and then distorted by the religious-right for preferential needs, pure greed, and self-pontification is this: Jesus preached a message of harmonious existence.
Jesus taught an inspirational message that was contemptible to the Jewish priests during his time that all people were worthy of hope, prosperity, fairness, kindness and equality. Whether Jesus was a great man or divine being is irrelevant. He spoke the most basic truths about acceptance of one's neighbor and common humility. That if you were graced by good fortune, health and prosperity, to share it with your fellow man.
Jesus was the first real liberal who stood up to the Jewish priests, over 2000 years ago, against their corrupt temples and pilfering of money from Jewish peasants. He exposed their contemptuous hate of the commoner. Christ proved these crooked clerics were stealing from the impoverished to subsidize their own intemperance for greed and power. What Jesus had uncovered was an incredibly deceptive plan and an abhorrently insatiable appetite for money and control under the facade of faith.
Jesus wisely advised, to all who would listen to his simple but matchless wisdom, that everyone has significance and worthiness. That every human being is inevitably unrestricted in access to liberty and happiness, not just those chosen by corrupt, mortal dictators based on the size of your tithing to their coffers. Jesus' ultimate death was, in fact, a direct result of his imminent threat to the rulers of the day and a cautionary tale for the rest of humanity to come.
Unfortunately for countless many, over the last two millennia a simple, powerful message of restraint and compassion has been distorted, filled with falsehoods, used as a weapon of fear, a reason to kill, maim and even torture by very depraved and egotistical men who exhibit no decency, no decorum, or the slightest glimmer of conscience.
Today, we have subjugators, such as George W. Bush, which have evolved into monstrous megalomaniacs that will stop at nothing to tyrannize every person that opposes his warped theocratic and imperialistic ideals of his perverse "awakening of religious devotion." Bush and his breed genuinely believe that people who dissent from their psychotic world vision should share the very same fate as Jesus.
That is the true irony of Bush's religious overtones and propagandized piety. The very man, Jesus, that Bush claims to have saved him from his wicked ways and set Bush on the path to righteousness, feels no pity or remorse for the unspeakable acts against humanity, crimes against this once great nation, and so many others suffering around the world that he has so willingly imparted on us all in Jesus' name.
After all, theocracy is the ultimate methodology to rule a nation by. Rationality and intellectualism are always persecuted while faith and ignorance meld into blind nationalism. This in turn produces a mass delusion of grand arrogance that erroneously justifies insidious acts of human brutality and conquests of world dominance under a forged veneer of consecration and devotion.
The real "awakening" we are experiencing is the grimacing, grim truth that America is being pushed and bullied into a theocratic dictatorship, ruled by a narrow-band of hateful and dangerous men. A nation where the rule of law will no longer come from a constitution derived by the collective people, but from an apocryphal, ancient manuscript that forces faith to be fact and non-believers are consequently victimized, spurned, or eradicated.
It's an often-used adage and cliché, but perhaps we should all ask, not in the celestial sense, but in the pragmatic sense, "What would Jesus do?"
Frank J. Ranelli is an editorial writer, a research author and critic. He is also a senior editor for OpEdNews. His erudite and chic style of writing has been lauded and extensively published in a variety of news outlets and across the Internet. These include the Naples Daily News, The Online Journal, Information Clearing House, Alternet, The Smirking Chimp, and the former progressive journal of thought, Wicked Philosophy. Frank is currently working on his upcoming book, Rise of the Authoritarians, and has been invited to participate in prominent philosopher Russell Blackford's anthology project, Voices of Disbelief.
Since Islam knows nothing but theocracy, it casuses one to wonder what Mr. Ranelli feels about Islam. Since the Christian Crusades were in response to the Islamic Crusades which spread Mohammedism by the Sword all over the Mediterranean world throughout Spain and across Europe to Tours in France where they were stopped by Charles the Hammer, does Mr. Raneli hold the same hatred toward the Islamic Crusades as he does toward the Christian Crusades? One would wonder, also, what he thinks of all the people murdered by Islam for a cartoon or for an impolite word spoken by the Pope such as the murder of a RC Nun in the news today; and is it all right for Muslims to murder every one in sight without a word of condemnation or is condemnation only reserved for Christians? Indeed, it makes one wonder, does it not?
Phil
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pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Monday, September 18, 2006 at 5:24:52 PM
pr:
you fail to understand the article by which frank was trying to make he is only talking about what this president has done to christianity and how it has affected people in a negative way if it is done wrong. there is plenty of blame to go around. but since we live in the united states that has practice a religion that too has cause wars and violence and death. we cant just point the finger at someone else. when it is time to talk about how muslums has used their faith to wage war and violence then im sure frank will be as honest based on historical facts as he was with the history of those who used the christian faith to do the same thing. dont mix apples and oranges. this was a very good article that explains what direction this country is going and how scary it is going to be if we dont turn it around.
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chip90043 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 60 comments)
on Monday, September 18, 2006 at 8:47:35 PM
I was going to respond to the above post, but you read the article, and its intent, with precision.;-)
No one would dispute the dangers or the horrors of what some have done in the name of Islam, but the premise of the entire article is what ANY fundamental ideals can do; mainly warp religion, and therefore people, into doing horrific things in the name of God.
The bottom line, we as a nation are not exempt and Christianity does not get a free pass to committ crimes against humanity and its founder, Christ, would likely be appalled at what has been done in his name.
Indeed, "What would Jesus do?"
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Frank J. Ranelli (59 articles, 141 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 331 comments)
on Monday, September 18, 2006 at 9:13:07 PM
I should have started my comment with how much I agree with the article by F.J. Ranelli, "How Bush Failed Jesus and the Return of the Christian Crusade." It is an excellent article; however, we did not go to Iraq under the guise of Crusades. We went to Iraq because of the lies about nuclear weapons and WMDs. The article is very correct about Bush and many of the religious right, but still I am amazed that nothing is ever said about the atrocities committed by Islam. The Crusades were evil in every form, especially the "The Children's Crusades." But may I ask a question? How did Islam make it all the way through Hungry, Poland, Germany, Spain, and to France from Mecca? How did they get control of Jerusalem. Was it by peace or by war? What are the emblems of Islam? Are they not a crescent moon and a sword. Why is that?
If Charles "The Hammer" Martel had not stopped the Muslim conquerors at Tours, all Europe would be speaking Arabic. What happened to groups like the Burghers, the Byzantine Empire and so many other middle age indigenous people which came were conquered by Islam? Why is it we attack Christian for what happened to the American Indian, but never say a word as what happened to those ancient peoples? What happened to the greatest library in all history at Alexandria? Did Christians burn it or did Muslims? Why did they do that? Why do we never hear a word about it? It is always incessantly, "The Crusades, The Crusades!" What is happening in many African countries is not a murder and mayhem by a few Islamic fundamental crazies. If the Muslim clerics can put a Fatwah out on Solomon Rushdie for "The Satanic Verses," why cannot they issue a Fatwah for Osama ben Laden and 911? Look at what is happening in Africa, particularly in Darfur, and Nigeria. These atrocities are being done by Muslims to Christians and animists. No one has mentioned one word about the terrible things going on in Iran with Christians as of right now and the Laws about to be passed outlawing Christianity for all practical purposes. Why is that? Why is Christianity disrespected in ninety percent of the articles of opednews.com and Islam is glorified or ignored? Why are women behind Burkas in Islam and not Chritianity? Why is the Islamic Paradise filled with twelve year old virgin girls for the sexual disposal of a few saved men? I wonder how the twelve year old children feel about that. I doubt if it is a Paradise for them.
I doubt if Islam can ever really change because slavery, treatment of women, conquest by sword and death to any convert from Islam to another religion seems to be at the very heart of both Hadith and Koran. Read them for yourselves.
F. J. Ranelli is absolutely correct when he says that true Christianity is a non-violent religion which says, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself," "Love your enemies and do good unto them who despitefully use you," "Brothers, avenge not yourselves; as it is written, 'Vengence is mine. I will repay saith the Lord.'" Koran and Hadith know nothing about anything like this as far as I can find. There are some wonderful Muslim people. I am afraid they are wonderful people despite Koranic teaching and not because of it. If you wish chapter and verse on the teaching in Koran, I can give you a few. I have read the Koran, but am not and do not claim to be a scholar of Koran.
Most of you are absolutely right when you say Bush and Cheney should be impeached; however, if you are going to attack religion, please be fair. I am a conservative Christian. I believe Jesus the Christ died for my sins on the cross, that he was buried in a borrowed tomb, arose from the dead three days and three nights later, ascended to Heaven and is coming back to straighten out the mess we have made. I believe that enough to die for that belief as have many Christians in the past and are dying today. I would never force my faith on any of you. I would share it with you with all my heart. Christianity can never be forced. It must come from within the person.
I am a Democrat. In most things, I am a liberal Democrat. I have never voted for a Republican in my life because I believe the party controls the politician and not the politician the party. This is the reason I believe McCain will cave into the radical right of his party. He wants to be president and he cannot be elected as president without them. The Democrat Party stands closer to what I believe as a Christian just as F.J. Ranelli stated in his above article. I believe part of government business is to help take care of the poor, the widows, the helpless and the fatherless. Programs like public education, public health care, social security, Medicaid, and Medicare help do this. They are Democrat programs not Republican programs. I am Christian; I am an American; I am Democrat; IN THAT ORDER.
In Christ,
Phil.
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pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 7:57:52 PM
Telling is your passion, by the length of your reply, for your Christian beliefs. I applaud you for your convictions as I do for your democratic views, claimed voting record and thank you for complimenting my article.
However, I must confess, by reading your lengthy response, I see more than a shade of detestation towards Islam and its teachings. By and large, although true, most of the atrocities, dystopianism and lying by implication to achieve a larger, albeit clandestine objective – control – can be applied to all organized religions, not just Islam.
You asked why I failed to mention the brutality of Islam and its macabre history. As an author, one chooses a topic and focuses the article around that central thesis. My thesis was that George W. Bush, and all those that follow him, are heretics and do not practice what they preach or protest to believe. They are hypocrites. There is nothing Christian, nor humane in and about what Bush and his right-wing followers do in the name of Christ.
I do not practice religion, I study it. I do not follow any one religion -- I analyze them all. I chose not to differentiate Christianity and Islamic beliefs, or to dissect and catalog all of the malicious mayhem by radical Islamic followers, as Islam has been castigated copiously enough by the Bush administration. The deeds of the extremists of Islam has been well recorded and paraded about to the point we are a country drenched in hatred of an entire sect of people – well over one billion – by the shameless use of demagoguery.
I am neither a defender of Islam nor an antagonist of Christianity. Whether it is Islam, Christianity, Communism or imaginary alien invasions, human beings can always be brought to rally about a divisive cause with a the simple tools of a flag, a book of faith and one word, which as a man of God, you should know all to well, pride. Pride is by definition, "self-importance" and the antonym of "humility". Perhaps, in this time of immense blind nationalistic pride and hubris, we should all reach for a little dose of humility.
We operate and are bound by different covenants, but fundamentally, we agree on placing unreserved importance on the value of the human experience and the value of life. The divergent I make is where one religion is seen as superior, and therefore somehow more deserving of a following than another, as the true burden of all religions.
Religion in any form is based on faith and not true, empirical reality. Therefore, religion has the greatest propensity of all things to be used as weapon to divide us, rather than unite us. It also has a great penchant, when distorted among masses, the ability to bring about another tool of less than altruistic use, the exploitation of fear. Fear is, after all, this administration's favorite weapon of deception and methodology to subjugate and govern compliance.
Thank you for the comments, the support, and the readership. In my view, I believe that religion, in any form, should be left in the quietness of one's own mind. Faith, when transmitted to religion always turns more fateful than faithful. Moreover, without reservation, I submit that it should never be used in the governance of any group of people.
Finally, there is always the danger that when one protests so vehemently against which they do not believe, they run the discourse, and therefore danger, of adopting and transforming into the very thing they detest so wholly.
-Frank R.
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Frank J. Ranelli (59 articles, 141 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 331 comments)
on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 12:21:56 AM
