Canadian Christians Just as Discriminatory as Americans?

I've always thought of Canada as a bit more progressive than the United States. Their health care is way ahead of ours, and they don't go around blowing up other countries for no reason.

But apparently the Canadian Christians (in this case, it's mostly Catholics) take their cues straight from the same playbook as Americans. When it comes to religious discrimination, they're in the big leagues.

The city council of Saguenay, Quebec refused to take a crucifix down from the City Council's chambers. It took a lawsuit from a local atheist and a court order to settle the issue. But is it settled? No. The mayor still refuses to take the crucifix down! Not only that, he's vowed to fight the court order and has started privately gathering funds for the battle.

But what's even more amazing is that he's claiming discrimination!

"Why is it us Christians that always have to bend?" [Mayor] Tremblay told the Globe and Mail newspaper. "Our values have no importance. I am the first mayor in the history of the world to be punished for reciting a prayer."

Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but Christians have been killing each other for 2,000 years for

Dead Birds! God Hates Homos! ... oh wait, the US government killed the birds

Remember that old joke, "Psychic conference cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances"? Well, here's another one.

Over the last few weeks, thousands of birds have fallen from the sky for no apparent reason. But Cindy Jacobs over at the Generals International is a prophet, with not one, but two PhDs in theology! And Dr. Cindy figured it out: God is pissed about that gay marriage thing that Bill Clinton started back in Arkansas that's now now infected our military:

But the blackbirds fell to the ground in Beebe, Arkansas. Well the Governor of Arkansas' name is Beebe. And also, there was something put out of Arkansas called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by a former Governor, this was proposed, Bill Clinton. As so, could there be a connection between this passage [Hosea 4] and now that we've had the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell, where people now legally in the United States have broken restraints with the Scripture because the Scripture says in Romans 1 that homosexuality is not allowed.

Egads, we should have been more careful! Why, if we'd known God would be so angry, we'd could have kicked all those homosexuals out of our army (never mind that they're brave, dedicated patriots risking their lives for us) and saved ourselves from being hit on the heads by falling birds!

And ... what's that? You say the government poisoned those birds? On purpose? Oops.

It seems the real story is that

How Christian Were the Founders?

Were the Founders Christians or not? Was the United States supposed to be a Christian Nation, or not? Evangelical and conservative Christians say yes, Atheists say no, and historians say it's more complex than that. But in my opinion, they all miss the simple truth, which is that there are two different questions that they're trying to mix together.

The Family: Replace American Democracy with Christian Theocracy

The hubbub about President Obama's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast this week got me inspired to read about the shadowy group called "The Fellowship" that sponsors the meeting ... and I was stunned to learn who they really are.

"The Fellowship" (aka "The Family") is an actual Christian shadow government in America. I usually don't believe in conspiracy theories, but this group really exists, they're huge, they're secret, and they've been around since the 1930's. And the stories about them are not exaggerations.

Their goal? To replace democracy in America with a theocracy run by Christians. No joke. That was their founding purpose, and remains a real, if now distant, goal.

That's right, some of the very Senators and Congressmen who were democratically elected, the ones you voted for to represent you, don't believe you're good enough to vote. They believe democracy can't work, and that only a Christian government can save us. According to Harper's Magazine, "Declaring God's covenant with the Jews broken, the group's core members call themselves 'the new chosen.'"

And this isn't some fringe group. Its membership includes dozens of United States Senators and House members, even some Democrats, plus uncounted other government officials. They have their fingers in big business, banking, and even have lawmakers in a number of foreign countries. And of course, conservative Christian churches are part of their organization. Its leader, Doug Coe, is a charismatic but radical evangelical who regularly meets with government leaders around the world.

To give you a sense of their philosophy, consider this:

Jesus didn't come to take sides, He came to take over.

But wait, it gets worse. These guys believe that they are chosen by God. Seriously. They believe that God personally intervened here on Earth, altered our elections, specifically to help these men (they're mostly men) to get elected to high offices so that they could do His work.

This leads to an incredibly dangerous arrogance, a belief that you are right and that God has endorsed your political position. Is it any wonder that President Obama is having trouble with the conservatives? When you're appointed by God Himself, why should you negotiate? Jesus didn't come to take sides, He came to take over. They're right, everyone else is wrong, end of argument.

This is un-American, and bordering on traitorous. Their beliefs and actions violate the very core American values enshrined in the United States Constitution, in so many ways it's hard to count. We are a representative democracy, with a guarantee that the government will make no law respecting religion, or the free exercise thereof. We believe each person's vote is equal.

True patriots support the American Constitution, and the core beliefs it represents. Unpatriotic people don't. Traitors try to overthrow it and the values it represents. That was the original goal of The Fellowship. They are traitors to America, plain and simple.

If you'd like to learn more, read the transcript of Terry Gross' interview with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. There's also a decent, though obviously censored, article on Wikipedia.

(P.S. Happy Birthday, Mom!!)

Hilarious Quote from Unconstitutional Kentucky Law's Author

Sometimes you have to work to find blog topics, sometimes they just drop in your lap. When an unconstitutional Kentucky law was struck down yesterday, it's author had this to say:

They make the argument ... that it has to do with a religion, and promoting a religion. God is not a religion. God is God.

Got that?? God is not religion, he's just ... God! Wow, I never knew that! If God isn't religion, maybe I can believe in Him even though I'm an atheist!! I feel so much better now!

I haven't laughed out loud at something this idiotic for a few days. This quote is from Kentucky State Rep. Tom Riner, D-Louisville, a pastor of Christ is King Baptist Church in Louisville, and also the man who wrote the law that was struck down.

Riner is so deeply immersed in his Christianity he has utterly and completely accepted God's existence as fact, and can't even recognize the difference between fact and belief any more.

I've written about separation of church and state before (also here), but I'm sure I'll have to write about it again. One of the simple facts about religion is that it thrives if it can force itself on others. The forces of memetic evolution favor religions that survive, regardless of how or why. Churches and religions that meddled with government are the ones that survived and that are still with us today. Churches that stuck to teaching just religion were not so successful. So it's not surprising that many churches, and of course the leaders of these churches, like Tom Riner, have inherited a legacy of meddling with government, a belief system that tells them it's OK to violate the United States Constitution and to behave in an un-American way.

Sarah Palin and gay marriage: Hypocrisy at its worst

I find few things more disgusting that political hypocrisy. I'd sooner vote for an honest politician whose views were diametrically opposed to mine, than to vote for a hypocrite who agrees with me. Sarah Palin doesn't fit either case – she's a hypocrite whose views are diametrically opposed to mine.

What has raised my ire today? Palin thinks we need a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. This violates everything the Republican Party stands for.

The Republican Party has a long and consistent history of advocating small government, of keeping government out of our lives, of remembering that we are a federation of semi-sovereign states, each of which gets to largely control its own internal affairs.

Evangelicals like Sarah Palin go on and on about controlling government, keeping states rights alive, keeping government out of our lives, and keeping both the spirit and the letter of our Constitution. The Federal Government is only supposed to deal with national and international issues. Everything else is left to the states.

Yet, when it comes to injecting Christian morals into our lives, Sarah Palin is all too fast to abandon these principles. Instead of letting each state consider this issue, Palin wants to abandon her Republican principles (or perhaps she never had any principles to start with), and pass a Constitutional amendment that would make her conservative Evangelical views the law of the land.

Senator McCain, by contrast, is an honest Republican. Although I strongly disagree with his position on gay marriage (he's against it), I admire his principles: He believes this is a state issue, not a federal issue. Unlike Palin, he won't abandon his long-held principles about the role of the federal government, just to achieve some short-term goal.

And isn't it ironic that Palin, and not John McCain, is the one drawing everyone's attention, including mine. You don't see Senator Biden out there stealing all the attention from Senator Obama. I think that's a sad indication that McCain's campaign is in trouble.