Didn't ya read John 6. . .uh. . .fifteen where he said "make an enemy and smite them" or something along those lines? Anyhoo, the reichwing Christian nutcases certainly loved the fact that a Jesus sign for peace was destroyed:
So much for leaving to Caesar's what is Caesar's, and leaving to God what is God's. Steve Benen posting at Crooks and Liars points out yet another chapter in Alabama's leadership on government intervention:
With the state’s weather forecasters not delivering much-needed rain, Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday turned to a higher power. The governor issued a proclamation calling for a week of prayer for rain, beginning Saturday.Riley encouraged Alabamians to pray “individually and in their houses of worship.�
“Throughout our history, Alabamians have turned in prayer to God to humbly ask for his blessings and to hold us steady during times of difficulty,� Riley said. “This drought is without question a time of great difficulty.�
So if the prayers don't work, do they forsake God or pray harder?
Brought to you exclusively by the late Jerry Fallwell:
LYNCHBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- A first-year Liberty University student was arrested in what police said was a plot to detonate explosive devices Tuesday, the day of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's funeral.Mark David Uhl's intended target is unknown, authorities said.
ABC News was reporting the youth told authorities he had made the bombs -- which were found in his car -- to stop protesters from disrupting Falwell's funeral.
The world is better off without him:
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the television minister whose 1979 founding of the Moral Majority galvanized American religious conservatives into a political force, died Tuesday at age 73.Falwell was found unconscious and without a pulse in his office at Liberty University, the college he founded in Lynchburg, Virginia, said Ron Godwin, the school's executive vice president.
Though paramedics tried to revive him at his office and en route to Lynchburg General Hospital, "Those very timely and very efficient and effective efforts were unsuccessful," Godwin said.
Wow. So catholic church doctrine is NOT set in stone. Pay close attention all ye absolutists, who are quick to defend the Church's stance on the all-male clergy, homosexuality, and abortion:
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church has effectively buried the concept of limbo, the place where centuries of tradition and teaching held that babies who die without baptism went.In a long-awaited document, the Church's International Theological Commission said limbo reflected an "unduly restrictive view of salvation," according to the U.S.-based Catholic News Service, which obtained a copy on Friday.
The thumbs-down verdict on limbo had been expected for years and the document, called "The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised," was seen as most likely to be final since limbo was never formally part of Church doctrine.
Pope Benedict authorized the publication of the document.
According to the CNS report, the 41-page document says the theologians advising the Pope concluded that since God is merciful he "wants all human beings to be saved."
It says grace has priority over sin, and the exclusion of innocent babies from heaven does not seem to reflect Christ's special love for children, CNS, which is owned by the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference, quoted the document as saying.
Limbo, which comes from the Latin word meaning "border" or "edge," was considered by medieval theologians to be a state or place reserved for the unbaptised dead, including good people who lived before the coming of Christ.
"Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered ... give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptised infants who die will be saved and enjoy the beatific vision (of God)," the document said, according to CNS which is part of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference.
The Washington Post has a long feature on Ayaan Hirsi Ali who fled from religious persecution from her native Somalia, became a Dutch minister until she came to this country under duress from her participation in a film that angered Muslim fanatics, one of whom famously murdered the director. Now she is aligning herself with those neocon reptiles at the American Enterprise Institute, the very architechs of the disastrous Eye-Rack war.
Look, I sympathize with her contention that there must be reforms in the Islamic world if it wants to be full participants in the civilized world, but she is not going to convinced reasonable people if she joins up with those imperialist nutcases. I'm sure there are other reputable organizations she can join that don't want to spread further misery throughout the world, but instead she sold herself off to those she perceive have to most power to change things. We've already suffered the consequences of listenting to the 1001 Tales told by Iraqi expats, I certainly do not want the same process repeated for another country. She should know better than to associate with these people, but she did it anyways. And that is too bad.
That Christ-hating muslim elected congressman from Minneapolis Keith Ellison is reportedly going to be swearing on the Koran instead of the Bible, and natually the reich-wingers are becoming apopolectic over it:
Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.
First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism -- my culture trumps America's culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book.
Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison's favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath.
And it goes on like that, with Dennis Prager comparing Ellison's action to that of a neo-nazi swearing on a copy of Mein Kampf, that even Jews use the Holy Bible when being sworn into Congress, and that Ellison's actions will embolden the Muslim terra-ists.
Well, one problem with that. It seems that freshmen Congresspeople don't even use a holy book at all when being officially sworn into Congress:
But Prager’s column is based on one other glaring error: the swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives never includes a religious book. The Office of the House Clerk confirmed to ThinkProgress that the swearing-in ceremony consists only of the Members raising their right hands and swearing to uphold the Constitution. The Clerk spokesperson said neither the Christian Bible, nor any other religious text, had ever been used in an official capacity during the ceremony. (Occassionally, Members pose for symbolic photo-ops with their hand on a Bible.)
This electioin brought out the worst in Republicans. Their defeat has brought us Trent Lott back into the Senate minority leadership and it's only going to get worse from here.