Here’s an idea: take the words of Tea Party activists and right-wing commentators, and put them in the mouth of Jesus. That’s the idea behind a new website, Tea Party Jesus. Here are two:
Over at the site, click on the pictures to get the original quote. This one is from Glenn Beck.
And this is Bill O’Reilly:
God bless America.
How coincidental: I’m heading to New York in a couple of weeks, where I’ll be staying in the Upper West Side, near Harlem. Looking into places to eat, I decided I’d try Sylvia’s (which I’d never heard of before) for some decent soul food – and now I have O’Reilly’s curious endorsement of the place! BTW, I didn’t realise O’Reilly made comments THIS stupid.
I didn’t realize O’Reilly made anything but “…, stupider, stupidest” comments.
[Which of course correlates with reading blogs about the factual world. Nevertheless…]
Are you kidding? O’Reilly’s stated reason for opposing gay marriage is because he doesn’t want to explain to his grandkids why a man is wearing a dress if they should happen to pass a gay rights rally.
Reading blogs such as yours and PZ’s
from across the pond, I’m a bit
surprised that you spend so much time
worrying about religion in the U.S.
Having grown up there, I’m aware of the
problem, but doesn’t spending so much
time on it give it more attention than
it is worth?
In many cases, being ignored is much,
much worse than being debated.
Of course, even though much of this
sort of thing in the blogosphere is,
errm, preaching to the choir, there are
perhaps the few religious folks who
get convinced. But aren’t there
enough examples already for anyone
liable to change views?
“In many cases, being ignored is much,
much worse than being debated.”
It’s worse now than it was when I was growing up — now they’re passing legislation and rewriting history books, on a large scale. Ignoring it means we’re waiting patiently unil they have enough votes to scrap the Constitution (this was one of Huckabee’s major campaign planks in ’08, if you think I’m being alarmist) and we become a theocracy.
Holy shit, really? Scrap the constitution? Jesus christ you guys are in soooo much trouble.
I guess we Aussies will just have to keep sucking up to China, you lot are fucked. It makes me sad though, I can’t help remembering that you saved our bacon when the Japs came for us, even if it was in your own best interests, you still did it.
“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.”
— Mike Huckabee, January 14, 2008
Thankfully, the guy failed to get the nomination in ’08, even with Chuck “I Want to be President of Texas!” Norris backing him. But the extent to which religious pandering and downright Dominionism permeates both parties is enough to give one pause.
History has shown that ignoring religious lunacy is about as effective as ignoring cancer. We’re in an ideological war where the other side fights with lies, misinformation, and propaganda. Refusing to challenge them on it only means they’ll win faster.
And it’s not about convincing the religious they’re wrong, necessarily. It’s about moving the Overton Window. It’s about community outreach and education. It’s about making atheism visible, normal, acceptable. And it’s about exposing religious lies before they ensnare another unsuspecting mind.
I think it’s about taking away the moral high ground that religion has claimed for so long and making it clear that religious people are NOT better people, that religion is NOT a good thing and that in fact it is sad little psychological failing that some weak minded fools are prey to and which the rest of us can only shake our heads about.
Yes. It is getting worse year by year – even in the liberal parts of this country. And it is being supported by vast sums of money from various church groups.
I think the point in this case is not so much to take on religion, but to highlight how awful right wing/tea party rhetoric sounds when put in the mouth of Jesus who is seen as (inaccurately, I think) the alpha and omega of love and compassion.
oops, that was supposed to be a reply to Phillip
RE the second panel, with the racist comments:
If the point is that Jesus wouldn’t make racist comments, then the point does not square with the story of Jesus and the ‘Canaanite dogs’
Jesus never existed.
Indeed.
Darwin doesn’t seem happy in that upper picture 😉
Lol.
Um, hey. Totally off topic, but I think Pharyngula might have been hacked- I tried getting on there and got hit by one of those popup “virus scan” programs. Thought maybe someone here might be able to PWA to Dr Myers about that.
I know this is OT, and I apologize, but I just can’t get enough of the Biologos crew … I love how they are writing to “us” (via Dawkins and Coyne et al.) … this is just great stuff.
this post:
http://biologos.org/blog/the-danger-of-preaching-on-genesis/
Is so wonderful, you don’t get to see conservatives being so postmodern every day. It is all narrative and avoiding privileging one narrative over another.
Nothing is “wrong” it is just another viewpoint.
We see really clearly that the purpose of biologos is to protect the feelings of those who have an emotional connection with the literal words of the bible, while giving permission — to those who so desire, to more completely consider the “fullness” and the “great mystery” of God.
That is why they love you Jerry (love is evangelical code for hate) … because you don’t care about their feelings …
Sorry for the hijack. Dittos.