Is there anything worse than totalitarian political religion? You won't know unless you have experienced it, and that is exactly what the world experienced during the George H.W. Bush Presidency. The world witnessed a faction of the American Christian Church behaving at its worst.
Let's consider the American conservative Christian Church as an example of backwardness and an impediment to progress, given the manner in which it behaved during the (undulating and debacled George H.W. Bush 8-year reign of terror).
According to an article in the October 12, 2007, edition of The Week Magazine, "one out of three Republican voters is a Christian conservative". And as a result of what occurred over the past 8 years, when conservative Christians and politicians were in bed together, the whole world it would seem took a step backwards.
During the Bush years, conservative Christians joined forces with venal conservative politicians and businessmen, in order to pursue a dangerously flawed and self-serving political agenda. On the one hand, as The Week Magazine also pointed out, Christian conservatives pretended to support a moral agenda by fighting against gay marriage, abortion and school prayer.
On the other hand it was conservative Christians and politicians who were the most ardent supporters of the unprovoked war in Iraq, a war that cost many innocent religious people, men, women and children, their lives.
One had to wonder after watching the 8 year Bush-religious-political fiasco, how could the two walk together except for the fact they really were in agreement? I am not talking about God and Republicans? On the other hand I am referring to the fact that Christian professers of conservatism did not have any remorse over forming a coalition that mercilessly destroyed innocent lives.
Prior to the 2000 general election, conservative businessmen and politicians typically wanted nothing to do with the conservative Christian Church. However, when it was believed that such an that the alliance could benefit both partners in crime, saints and sinners joined together in hopes to defeat the Democratic Party agenda, which they described as being a liberal agenda.
Even last year's Republican presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain, changed his mind about getting into bed with religious conservatives. Prior to that time, he privately excoriated conservative Christians on the Right. However, once be was convinced that the only way for him to win the White House was with the overwhelming support of religious conservatives, he had a change of heart and just as suddenly switched his previously held position. Afterwards, John headed straight down to (KKK) Bob Jones University.
He subsequently met with other self-proclaimed conservative Right religious officials like the Reverend John Hagee, Dr. Dobson of New Life Live, Reverend Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington DC, as well as the infamous and always smiling, wavering and sardonic Reverend Pat Robertson.
This fractious and dangerous coalition of religious and political fascists and mostly liars included another 2 or 300,000 Christian clergymen in their ranks; fortunately, the whole group was repudiated and soundly defeated in the 2008 general election.
The American people unmistakably, had enough, having witnessed firsthand what happens when a dangerous admixture of intolerant neo-fascist conservative politicians and fascist religious leaders and religious organizations get into bed together. Thank God that the majority of America's citizens finally came to their individual and collective senses. This modern day group of opportunists put the Pharisees of scripture, Caiaphas, Ananias and Herod to shame!
Regrettably, it was not only the self-motivated and directed conservative politicians that lost the confidence of the American people, so did many of America's religious leaders and religious organizations (particularly the leaders of 'the American conservative fascist Christian Church)'! Even the son of one of the founders of the modern day conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr.'s son, switched sides and voted, along with other historical Republican stalwarts, for change.
And he was joined publicly by other former conservatives, including conservative Christians, who also wanted to see change. I could only wish that his father, and late Senator Barry Goldwater, one of the other principal founders of the conservative movement had been alive. And can you imagine what would have happened if they would have also voted for change? It would have meant the death of the religion of pseudo-conservatism.
William F. Buckley Jr., prior to his death, was also a vocal critic, along with other conservatives like George Will, of the principles of George H.W. Bush Jr. and his neo neo-conservative accomplices.
There is another excellent article in this month's (March 2009) edition of Newsweek Magazine. And, according to the Newsweek article: The Followers of Jesus, many Christians are identifying themselves as 'followers of Jesus'. They are no longer claiming an affiliation with any particular mainline Christian denomination.
I can certainly understand the reasons why reformed conservatives, both religious and political, decided that it was time to abandon pseudo-conservative religious denominationalism and political obsessionalism; they had enough! I have been encouraging other Christians for the past couple of decades to pursue truth, and to forget about religious denominationalism, political or otherwise.
I believe that is better to be non-affiliated, or on the other hand to join every religious organization that you can find. Perhaps, then the founders of all of these religious organizations will recognize that that we should be all apart of one body, and each one of us should be seeking after 'the truth not religion'. Frankly, in my opinion religion is often as messy as any other secular human enterprise!
To the credit of Democrats who have often been mischaracterized as 'liberals' by conservative republicans, many members of the so-called 'Republican party of God' consider Jesus to have been a liberal as well. That alone should tell you a lot about the nature of Republican politics - its duplicity as well as its hypocrisy - and what moreover Republican Christians and politicians really believe.
As far as Republicans are concerned, Jesus was neither a social nor fiscal conservative (which placed him in the liberal camp according to their narrow way of thinking). And despite their categorization of Jesus, given where he stood politically, it was not enough to stop them from invoking the name of Jesus, or to pimp Jesus in order to pursue their neo-fascist political agenda(s).
This same Republican Party's membership, both religious and non, will often invoke the name of Jesus and refer to him as Lord; however, they are the last ones 'to follow the path that Jesus prescribed for those who would 'follow him!
What were the motives behind the conservative coalition's leadership agenda? What was truly driving them, Satan? What held this unholy political-religious alliance together for as long as it did? I believe that the Party was motivated to return to business as usual, after the defeat of the Bill Clinton legacy (in the person of Al Gore) by doing the following:
1. Ensuring that America remained atop the world order by any means necessary.
2. Controlling both America's foreign and domestic policy agenda.
3. Unabashedly continuing the pursuit of worldwide political hegemony.
4. Taking steps to have more control over the worldwide economy.
5. Having the final say over America's, often misused, military might.
6. By stifling creativity and neutralizing scientific discovery.
7. Preventing peace from taking place in the Middle-East.
8. Controlling the political narrative in America, and disallowing any dissent.
9. Reinstituting the war against multiculturalism.
10. Bringing back the false elation of the Ronald Reagan let the crumbs fall from the rich man's table trickle down; voodoo economics; green mail leveraged buyouts favoritism for the wealthy; Reagan and Oliver North plausible deniability clandestine operations and contempt of Congress era.
11. To continue to stack the Supreme Court with ideologue conservative Supreme Court Justices.
Finally, it was their desire, as it has always been to usher in a permanent Republican Kingdom age (by doing away with a so-called liberal agenda and by killing Arabs for Jesus). They hoped to censor if not eliminate those individuals in particular who were as liberal as they claimed that Jesus had been.
To my way of thinking, these people were neither the 'friends of Jesus' social justice, progress or righteousness! The only technological interests that they had in mind were to create new weapons systems; to militarize space, to replace 75,000 nuclear weapons that have recently been destroyed and to replace them with more lethal nuclear weapons. And last but not least, their objective was to remain the number one weapons supplier in the world.
Republicans, tried to get rid of Democrats and the Democratic Party agenda, in the same manner that conservative Jews conspired in the common era with the Roman Government, in order to rid themselves of the troublesome threat to their power, Jesus Christ.
It would appear, 2000 years later, that history has repeated itself given the behavior of conjoined Republican religious and political party-members. Oftentimes, they invoked the name of Jesus, but their hearts were truly far from him. In fact the principles of Jesus Christ were their true enemies!
Instead, they attempted to place diabolic fascist and neofascist political control upon an unsuspecting world. Their Project for a New American Century (PNAC) nearly led the world to the brink of economic collapse, while at the same time, the economic status of many of their cohorts improved.
This group of Republicans were also chomping at the bit to 'call down fire from heaven in the form of UAVs...', either to defeat or drive unsuspecting nations, enemy combatants and other individuals and governments (who would not acquiesce to their variegated demands into the abyss)'.
The world (including some of America’s allies) was given an ultimatum, either submit to the will of American fascism, or risk invasion, imprisonment of their citizens, renditions, an extended stay for their citizens at GITMO or economic and political strangulation, if not annihilation.
What is even more outrageous is that these self-appointed pseudo-religious malcontents wanted the world to believe that their agenda was sent from on high by the Almighty itself and that somehow God was part and parcel of their mendacious plans. And in customary fashion, when inevitably the rug was pulled out from underneath them, they proceeded to do what they are masters at; they blamed their failed policies on the Democrats.
How could a group of praying clerics, churches and religious organizations get themselves entangled in such a mess that is if the church leaders were actually in touch with an almighty God themselves? Clearly, they were not in touch with the almighty, for in the same manner that conservatives labeled Middle-Easterners as radical fundamentalists and terrorists, they behaved in an identical manner.
Religious Muslims declared that Allah was with them, and conservative American Christians, masquerading as ambassadors of God, declared that God was with them. What is frightening is that both of these groups were either experiencing some form or religious ideation, in that they believed that God was talking to them, or the leaders of these groups were unabashed liars.
It does not appear to me that either of these two groups claims (and let's not leave out Judaism) that God was with them held water. Otherwise, they would have found a way to love their enemies and resolve their differences in the name of God instead! For whether it is Jihad, Fatwa or an American Holy War/crusade, all sides had something in common; each one had very little respect for human life and even less respect for the principles of God.
Certainly, their ways were not God's ways!
Forgive me for being cynical but somehow, I cannot conceive of God, Rush Limbaugh, Dominionists and Republican politicians and Church officials working together on the same team in order to pursue the common good for all people. Well that is, unless God is 'the god of war'!
The current state of this broken and weakened coalition reminds me a lot of what happened to Hitler's fascist NAZI regime (that also included as members of the Third Reich the German and Austrian Christian Churches within its ranks). Hitler would not have been as successful as he had been, if it had not been for the support of German and Austrian Christians.
Hitler and the German-Austrian Christian Church were soundly just as George Bush, the world's modern day Hitler, and the American conservative Christian Church was in the America's last general election.
Dr. Martin Luther King also said
"...the problem is that the church has sanctioned every evil in the world. Whether it's racism, or whether it's the evils of monopoly-capitalism, or whether it's the evils of militarism. And that is why these evils continue to exist in the world today".
Dr. King's remarks bear repeating and should be etched in our memories, if not within our collective conscience.
Many Americans experienced firsthand the full frontal assault of the Bush/Republican/Christian blitzkrieg against Americans; either you were with them or you were against them. And if you did not go along with them you were labeled a non-patriot. Americans know what it is like now, to live under a repressive, undaunting and unforgiving political-religious military regime, also what it means to be categorized as a non-patriot.
Not since the McCarthy era, have so many Americans been mischaracterized as they were during the Bush presidential years. The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation of the American religious-political juggernaut, which has also been referred to as the American-Christian military complex which replaced the American military-industrial complex.
The rest of the world also experienced the vituperation and vindictiveness of the American religious-political/military enterprise system.
It is evident that the conservative Christian Church in America, abandoned divine principles in order to pursue a diabolical agenda. What spirit was actually operating during the former Bush/conservative Christian Church reign of terror? The lesson that was learned by all was how wise the founders were, particularly Thomas Jefferson, who insisted that the two entities, religion and government not be joined at the hip.
He recognized, along with many of his peers that it would not be good for religion and politics, or officials from the two camps to dominant American politics or the American politick. Thomas Jefferson will be pleased to know if he could, that in this context, God's justice did not sleep forever!
Even the frequently vacillating Reverend Pat Robertson had to apologize, during the Bush years, given his recommendation that certain heads of state, including President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, be assassinated! What spirit was he operating under when he made this pronouncement? That action would have been against both domestic and international law. However, clearly the good Reverend believed like the President, that he was above the law.
And keep in mind that Reverend Robinson, after his initial run for the presidency over a decade ago, publicly stated that God told him (as is also recorded in his book) to stay out of politics. Oops, he doesn't obey God either it would appear. So who gives him his marching orders?
I suspect that the same spirit of murder that inhabited the late cult leader of Jonestown Guyana, the Reverend Jim Jones, who was a murderer in his own right, took up residence in the blood-thirsty Reverend Pat Robertson. This same Reverend Pat fought against the proposed Roadmap for Peace in the Middle-East. On many occasions I listened to Pat talk, and it did not sound to me as if he knew very much about 'the Prince of Peace’ or the ways of God. On the other hand, Pat seems to know a lot about the 'god of war'!
Clearly, truth was on the scaffold and wrong was on the throne during the George Bush years. And regrettably, this combination of conservative politicians, religious organizations and clerics are already plotting a comeback.
Neither America nor the world needs to be controlled by fascists of any stripe, even groups of religious fascists, whose sole desire is to take civilization(s) backwards! Again, this was a perfect example of the Churches' penchant need to take the world backwards instead of forward.
The world is still reeling in the aftermath of their evil plans, and from the effects of this dangerous coalition's coalescing of two dangerous factions that would not accept anything other than categorical determinism (the latter being radical western religious-political fundamentalism).
Clearly, the world-wide religious geo-political communities, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and others, need to rid themselves of the tactics of fear, the strategy of intimidation and all of those in their ranks who support worldwide terrorism in addition to religious and political hegemony. Otherwise, it would appear that Karl Marx right about religion being an 'opiate of the masses'!
Peace & Grace
Rev. C. Solomon
...to be continued...,
What Should Have Happened By Now: Here are a few examples, can you think of any more?
The life cycle would have been extended even more than it has been, and we would likely be living what I refer to as time-independent eternal life reality.
The suppression of females would have ended, assuming that we continued to occupy gender-based bodies.
We would have done a better job of understanding and dealing with what we consider to be the more complex issues such as homosexuality (remember some humans have been born with 6 fingers and toes), stem cell research, the environment, infant mortality, autism, retardation...!
We would have dealt in an intelligent manner with those forces that encourage suppression, divisiveness, war and discrimination; the latter would likely have been eliminated.
We would also be able to communicate by now, in the language of what we refer to as God, instead of through the use of gibberish, nasal and guttural sounds.
The means and the methods that we would employ in order to relocate in space would be far more advanced.
Living on other planets (rocks), if we were to still exist in our current biological forms would have taken place by now, albeit we would have still been existing in a fairly primitive state of being inside of carbon-based bodies.
We would have had a direct encounter with, and likely have understood better, and co-existed alongside the entity, sovereignty or principle that we refer in today's nomenclature as God. Remember this entity has been referred to by many names and inscriptions including El, Adoni, Ywvh, Allah, the Great Spirit..., in the past!
Finally, if we don't get busy soon, future generations will consider us to have been nothing more than primitive failures. And those of us, who will do so, must carry the baton in order to benefit both our contemporaries and the ones who will follow us in future generations.
If our predecessors of thousands of years ago were to return today and ask, what are you folks doing and whether or not God returned by no, or whether or not we are living in heaven? Our answer would be that we are still reciting the stories that you left for us thousands of years ago. Furthermore, we would tell them that Jesus hasn't returned according to the stories that you passed on and finally that we are definitely not living in heaven, and the harvest has not come!
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