For all the godification in our culture, you'd think there'd be more examples of folks in high places leading peace-loving, selfless, humble, pious lives; that those who so loudly profess to be god-fearing, decent, moral Americans, wear Old Glory lapel pins, who bow their heads and close their eyes in supplication during televised National Prayer Breakfasts, who cite Jesus Christ as their favorite philosopher and decry "atheism" and "socialism" as scourges upon an already embattled Judeo-Christian landscape would, you know, practice what they screech.
And maybe they kinda are. Take the environmentally conscious BP.
Fishermen (you know -- like those guys from Galilee) who live and work in the region, which has been severely impacted by the hemorrhaging of millions of gallons of oil, killing fish, ruining habitats, spoiling coastline, destroying livelihoods and lives, are being offered money to clean up the spill and sign wavers to absolve BP from any potential liability should any of said fisherman become ill or incapacitated from exposure to the toxic chemicals permeating their once pristine environs.
BP. Doing God's work.
Or take that diva of the devout, Sarah Palin.
When she's not attending churches which perform exorcisms or wagging her French manicured index finger at all the heathens who don't practice abstinence, she rushes around shoveling speaking fees into her Fendi, covering still mysterious tracks within her own less-than-abstinent charges, basically siding with the kinds of folks Jesus took to task that day he turned their tables over. Talk about a market crash.
And then there are those crusty crusaders, those puncturers of political perfidy, the Tea Baggers.
Coming together in the face of the apparent dismantling of the sacred American principles they hold so dearly, namely that white guys should be president, big companies should make the rules for the rest of us, no one should have to pay taxes for things like roads, police and fire protection, libraries, health care, care for our elderly, education, the military and other commie/socialist, fascist stuff like that, they have made it their mission to set the infidels straight, to reclaim their rightful, snug places as citizen/consumers, trusting the banks and insurers to do the right thing with their diminished earnings and dampened aspirations.
Examples abound in all parts of the world of pious people parading their faith while betraying banal brutality, from "healing" the desperately devoted to tithing congregations to starvation, to evicting the poor from "holy" land to embracing death in exchange for eternal life.
As they thump their Bibles and Korans and rail against immorality, they sin like sinning, rather than redemption, is their business.
Because the truth is that the depths of their compassion is far outstripped by the depths of their pockets. Every dollar they amass is a graven image of the all-powerful, immutable creator of their world, a novena passed from the hands of the reverent, terrorized masses straight into their church elders' coffers. God hears their prayers, alright.
Every time a cash register ka-chings.
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Sarah, the perfect example of not "practicing what she screeches"!
It also always amazes me that fundamentalist christians now expect their religious leaders to explain science to them, and reject the actual work of scientists outright. And what scientific writings do they obtain their "scientific" creationist alternative beliefs from? Why, the Bible of course. It's all right there, all six thousand years of the entire universe's history.
To the credit of the Catholic church, they now even accept evolution as the method by which god (assuming a god was involved) created life on this planet. That's a smart move if you want to maintain any credibility with an increasingly more scientifically astute membership.
I tried to warn a christian friend, who wished to convince me the Grand Canyon was carved by Noah's flood, that continuing to attempt shoehorning Biblical metaphors into scientific reality is going to cost them in the long run.
After all, if you're proven full of it on the age of the Earth, the Garden Of Eden, Noah's flood, Jonah and the Whale and so on, why should I believe anything else you say?
At least in this realm the Catholics finally got it right. As we have a separation of church and state so we should protect science from religious dogma. Not to say that science lacks moral implications, but there's a difference between dismissing geology in favor of the Great Flood and questioning the morality of paaying young women to collect their eggs for experimentation.
but not mine.†—P. Smith
Pssst. By the way, MLK preached that we arent perfect as well.
And by the way, read my full post. There's this in my post-----respected by all regardless of human failure.------------ I have respect for MLK.
My point was that if they're conservative with human failings, and are believers, they're hypocrites, and worse. And to McGuffin below, I don't cast stones. I've sinned, too.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner!
Thank you for another articulate and well thought piece of prose.
Organized religions are a curious collection of myopic, sad sack 'fraidy cats with ill will to others as a guiding mantra... curious, to me anyway.
Your post was spot on; too many see religious belief as either all evil or all good, whereas, most believers fall in the vast area in between and are mostly of good will. My argument would be that religion must be kept separated, and insulated, from government as, I believe, our founders intended. Otherwise, as history shows repeatedly, the extremists, of either side of the debate, gain power and influence where none should be had. We are not a religious nation, we are a nation where a free exercise of religion exists. Government must never dictate religion, and religion should never dictate government, period. This is the only example I can think of where a doctrine of 'separate but equal' does serve a common good.
BTW, a little hat tip to blogger Russel King who refers to Caribou Barbie as Bible Spice.
mmh
Largely, especially to the Holy Rollers who pray out loud loudly, prayer is actually the sound they make which is an analog of cattle mooing and lowing. It lets the other cattle know they are there.
More significant threat are the "true believers" who create influence public policy/ legislation.
1) Of course they discount global warning. For them the Earth is 6,000 yo. old and God is in charge of taking care of their planet anyway. Doing anything about the situation would be thwarting God's plan.
2)God somehow handpicked the stretch of 3,000 miles between 2 oceans (aka USA) as the land of imminent domain Of course it is OK to wage war against middle eastern countries. Christianity vs. Islam. God is on our side.
3) End of days is impending (yipee, I'm part of the saved) so any disaster must be an affirmation of the apocolypse.
Many with these beliefs hold positions of power and influence. Stealing money seems trivial compared to the damage that can be inflicted by the "true believers". Of course (and this is the best part) is you disagree with them then you are a heretic doomed to eternal damnation.