Tag: Jesusland

Christians Vs. Republican Party’s Worship of Atheist Ayn Rand’s Philosophy of Selfishness

Jon Ponder

Left: Ad from Christian group attacking Republicans over Rand’s influence in the party; right: Democrats’ ad depicting Republicans tossing Granny off a cliff

Here’s a new and welcome twist. Christians are attacking Republicans on moral grounds, targeting the decidedly un-Christian influence over the party of Ayn Rand, a best-selling author of novels in which she advocated atheism and what she called the “virtue of selfishness.”

[Faith] is a sign of a psychological weakness. . . I regard it as evil to place your emotions, your desire, above the evidence of what your mind knows. That’s what you’re doing with the idea of God.
– Ayn Rand

These Christians are particularly critical of the GOP’s 2012 budget bill which was authored by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who is both a Catholic and an outspoken proponent of Ayn Rand’s cult of godless individualism. The Christians say Ryan based his “toss Granny off a cliff” kill-Medicare plan on Rand’s “every man (woman and child) for himself” philosophy.

Ryan’s bill passed in the House in April with 253 Republican votes. All the Democrats and three Republican members voted against it. It failed in the Senate last month with all Democrats and five Republicans voting against it and 40 Republicans voting for it. Despite the draconian cuts in Ryan’s bill, including its provision to kill Medicare for everyone 54 and younger, had it passed and been signed into law, it would have still added as much as $6 trillion to the debt over 10 years.

It’s about time that true Christians — that is, those who believe in Christ’s message of compassion and forgiveness and who follow his admonitions to care for the poor, homeless and sick — called out the Republican Party over its moral degeneracy on Christianity’s most fundamental values. The GOP and its tea party base make a practice of putting the interests of their corporate sponsors — for example, the health insurance industry — over the needs of their brothers and sisters — for example, the uninsured — all the while depending on the votes of right-wing evangelicals to cling to power.

On Friday, as Rep. Ryan left a right-wing religious conclave sponsored by Ralph Reed, the Christianist leader who was disgraced by his dealings with the Bush-era GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, he was caught on video being approached by a Catholic protester who tried to give him a Bible. Ryan refused to take it.

Amy Sullivan at Time Magazine:

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Memo to Readers Regarding the Rapture

Pensito Editors

art-raptureMEMORANDUM

TO: Our Readers
FROM: The Editors
RE: Rapture Planning

By now you no doubt have heard that a well-financed group of fundamentalist Christians has predicted that the Rapture will occur at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 21, 2011, heralding the end of the world as we know it.

While we find the prediction to be not credible, we nonetheless believe it is prudent to plan for possible contingencies that could affect Pensito Review operations in the unlikely event that Christ should return to earth tomorrow evening.

Given the fact that it is unlikely anyone on our staff, which is predominantly pagan, would be raptured, we do not anticipate any change to our publishing schedule in a post-Apocalyptic world. Likewise, because most of our readers are heathen liberals, it is unlikely that a large number of them will be taken up into heaven, so we anticipate that site traffic will remain steady.

For those few Bible-bangers who do darken our comment trail from time to time to rail about homosexuality and godless liberalism, we will miss your idiotic commentaries, but will take comfort in the knowledge that you will be sitting on the right hand of God singing hymns for eternity. (Gee, sounds like big fun!)

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Georgia Preacher Leads Prayer Vigil at Gas Pumps

Jon Ponder

I don’t understand how anyone can say God doesn’t have anything to do with the gas prices. God has everything to do with the country…I believe in my heart of hearts that faith should always be the answer.

-Pastor Marshall Mabry of the Beacon of Light Christian Center in Dublin, Ga., a small town 130 miles southeast of Atlanta, who is leading prayer vigils at gas pumps asking God to lower the price of gasoline. “We are praying that God…will first, stabilize the economy, two, bring peace to the Middle East, and three bring down gas prices,” he said.

H/t: DBM

The Right’s Target List

Trish

This list was started on Twitter, by Peter Daou:

As I’ve said, the right’s target list speaks volumes: unions, scientists, academics, public broadcasters, health providers, women.

We can think of a few more.

  • Gay people, especially those in long-term, loving relationships who want to marry and/or adopt children
  • Veterans, once they’ve been injured, maimed, or traumatized in defense of our country
  • Children, when they are out of the womb and require food, health care, or education
  • People who adhere strictly to religious faiths, unless it’s Christianity
  • Anyone who wasn’t born an American citizen but yearns to become one
  • Doctors who want to protect children from accidental shootings
  • Mass transit, renewable energy, and anything else that does not involve paving more land for more cars and SUVs

We’ll stop now but please keep this list going. What else do Republicans, tea partiers, and the right want to get rid of?

NV Sen: Sharron Angle’s Preacher Describes Glenn Beck’s Mormon Church As a Murderous, Weird, Kooky Cult

Jon Ponder

“His religion’s a cult … The Christian community — all the Christians, theologians and scholars, all recognize that, that Mormonism is a cult. I have books in my library on cults, and it lists Mormonism right there with all these bizarre cults. Well, there must be a reason. I mean, here a member of a cult is one of the most powerful people in the United States. Doesn’t that alarm you? And his allegiance is to Salt Lake City. Something is up with that. Something’s weird. But nobody touches that. [Glenn Beck’s*] allegiance is to Salt Lake City. The Mormon church is rich, powerful, they do illegal things. They do secretive things. They’ve got all this money. They own American businesses. There’s weirdness going on there. Churches are not multi-millionaire organizations like the Mormon church. You know, there’s some weirdness with that, but nobody questions it, nobody asks one question to [Glenn Beck] and says, ‘Tell us about your faith. What does a Mormon believe?’ Ask him about the holy garments that he wears that protect him from evil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about getting his body parts anointed by oil. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about when he goes to the temple and he gets baptized for dead people. Isn’t that kooky? Ask him about the hit squad of the Mormon church and why they need people to kill Mormons that go against them. Isn’t that controlling? Ask him how they shun people, then they get their family members to disown them and divorce them if they dare leave the Mormon church. Isn’t that cultish? I mean, I could go on and on. The Mormon church is a cult, and [Glenn Beck] is a powerful person in a cult, and nobody even questions it.”

– John Reed, the preacher at Sonrise Church in Reno, the home church of Nevada GOP-tea bagger Sharron Angle. *Note, however, that instead of Glenn Beck, the preacher actually referred to Angle’s opponent, Sen. Harry Reid.

Beck Lies about Slavery, Claims It Was Created by Court Orders, Government Regulation

Jon Ponder

There’s a complete transcript of the “Countdown” segment below, but here is Beck’s money quote about slavery:

BECK: It also took a long time to start slavery. It started small. And it started with seemingly innocent ideas. And then a little court order here and a court order there and a little more regulation here and a little more regulation there, and before we knew it, America had slavery. It didn’t come over in a ship to begin with, as an evil slave trade. The government began to regulate things because the people needed answers. They needed solutions. It started in a courtroom. And then it went to the legislatures. That’s how slavery began. And it took a long time to enslave an entire race of people, and convince another race of people that they were somehow or another less than them.

History? Get me rewrite! Forget the facts. If you thought slavery was caused by greed and a penchant among the powerful to oppress the powerless that predates recorded history, you’re wrong.

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