 |  | | Hitchens on Barack + my observation about reverends |
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 Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:55 pm |
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| Abdul Alhazred |
| "If I turn in a sicko will I get a reward?" |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 31718 |
| Location: Chicago |
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Blind Faith
Christopher Hitchens in Slate.
| Quote: | ...
Look at the accepted choice of words for the ravings of Jeremiah Wright: controversial, incendiary, inflammatory. These are adjectives that might have been—and were—applied to many eloquent speakers of the early civil rights movement. (In the Washington Post, for Good Friday last, the liberal Catholic apologist E.J. Dionne lamely attempted to stretch this very comparison.) But is it "inflammatory" to say that AIDS and drugs are wrecking the black community because the white power structure wishes it? No. Nor is it "controversial." It is wicked and stupid and false to say such a thing. And it not unimportantly negates everything that Obama says he stands for by way of advocating dignity and responsibility over the sick cults of paranoia and victimhood.
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Now, by way of which vent or orifice is this venom creeping back into our national bloodstream? Where is hatred and tribalism and ignorance most commonly incubated, and from which platform is it most commonly yelled? If you answered "the churches" and "the pulpits," you got both answers right. The Ku Klux Klan (originally a Protestant identity movement, as many people prefer to forget) and the Nation of Islam (a black sectarian mutation of Quranic teaching) may be weak these days, but bigotry of all sorts is freely available, and openly inculcated into children, by any otherwise unemployable dirtbag who can perform the easy feat of putting Reverend in front of his name. And this clerical vileness has now reached the point of disfiguring the campaigns of both leading candidates for our presidency. If you think Jeremiah Wright is gruesome, wait until you get a load of the next Chicago "Reverend," one James Meeks, another South Side horror show with a special sideline in the baiting of homosexuals. He, too, has been an Obama supporter, and his church has been an occasional recipient of Obama's patronage. And perhaps he, too, can hope to be called "controversial" for his use of the term house nigger to describe those he doesn't like and for his view that it was "the Hollywood Jews" who brought us Brokeback Mountain. Meanwhile, the Republican nominee adorns himself with two further reverends: one named John Hagee, who thinks that the pope is the Antichrist, and another named Rod Parsley, who has declared that the United States has a mission to obliterate Islam. Is it conceivable that such repellent dolts would be allowed into public life if they were not in tax-free clerical garb? How true it is that religion poisons everything.
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While we're at it, let's go over some Democratic Party presidents of the of the past, all considered great by today's Democratic Party.
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
Now consider some prominent Republicans of the same era.
Dwight Eisenhower
Adlai Stevenson
Nelson Rockefeller
Barry Goldwater
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
None of these men were anti-religious. They mentioned God in speeches and were sometimes pious. But no spiritual leaders that we know about.
And why are African American community leaders usually reverends? Sure it worked out OK with Dr Martin Luther King Jr, but that's one exceptional individual. How does that work in a general way?
Look at successful minorities in the USA, even religious ones. Is their success marked by prominent reverends leading the community? |
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| | | Re: Hitchens on Barack + my observation about reverends |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:23 pm |
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| Luke T. |
| Butcher Dancer |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 26099 |
| Location: Nowhere near Pakistan |
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| Abdul Alhazred wrote: |
While we're at it, let's go over some Democratic Party presidents of the of the past, all considered great by today's Democratic Party.
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
Now consider some prominent Republicans of the same era.
Dwight Eisenhower
Adlai Stevenson
Nelson Rockefeller
Barry Goldwater
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
None of these men were anti-religious. They mentioned God in speeches and were sometimes pious. But no spiritual leaders that we know about. |
Um. Abdul, come here for a second.
(whispers)
Eisenhower and Kennedy started the whole Billy Graham presidential tradition thing. |
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_________________
"it seems you don't believe how your enviroment of smells affects for a young ones.how many young girl are are in just involved in porn industry just because of lack of natural smells" - pillory (7/13/02)
I ♣69dodge
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| | | Re: Hitchens on Barack + my observation about reverends |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:27 pm |
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| jj |
| Annoyed Truthteller |
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| Joined: 12 Aug 2004 |
| Posts: 13867 |
| Location: Kirkland, Wa |
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| Luke T. wrote: | | Abdul Alhazred wrote: |
While we're at it, let's go over some Democratic Party presidents of the of the past, all considered great by today's Democratic Party.
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
Now consider some prominent Republicans of the same era.
Dwight Eisenhower
Adlai Stevenson
Nelson Rockefeller
Barry Goldwater
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
None of these men were anti-religious. They mentioned God in speeches and were sometimes pious. But no spiritual leaders that we know about. |
Um. Abdul, come here for a second.
(whispers)
Eisenhower and Kennedy started the whole Billy Graham presidential tradition thing. |
But they're republicans, so it's ok, Luke.
It's only a problem when Democrats do it.
Don't you get it? |
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_________________
I only LOOK like Jerry Garcia.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:29 pm |
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| Luke T. |
| Butcher Dancer |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 26099 |
| Location: Nowhere near Pakistan |
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| It is news to me that Kennedy was a Republican. |
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_________________
"it seems you don't believe how your enviroment of smells affects for a young ones.how many young girl are are in just involved in porn industry just because of lack of natural smells" - pillory (7/13/02)
I ♣69dodge
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:30 pm |
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| jj |
| Annoyed Truthteller |
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| Joined: 12 Aug 2004 |
| Posts: 13867 |
| Location: Kirkland, Wa |
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| Luke T. wrote: | | It is news to me that Kennedy was a Republican. |
ssshhh. I wanted to see if he'd bite!  |
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_________________
I only LOOK like Jerry Garcia.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:56 pm |
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| Abdul Alhazred |
| "If I turn in a sicko will I get a reward?" |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 31718 |
| Location: Chicago |
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Billy Graham played golf with them.
Neither president joined the Southern Baptists. |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:01 pm |
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| Abdul Alhazred |
| "If I turn in a sicko will I get a reward?" |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 31718 |
| Location: Chicago |
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Also, Billy Graham was non-political in the pulpit.
You can easily make the case that there was some political pandering going on, but spiritual leader in the sense folks mean it now?
Never.
Nixon played golf with Billy Graham, too. But when he lived in New York his pastor was Norman Vincent Peale.
They kept the God stuff innocuous. They did not have leaders. |
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| | | Re: Hitchens on Barack + my observation about reverends |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:45 pm |
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| Nyarlathotep |
| Elder God/Bounty Killer |
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| Joined: 04 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 25109 |
| Location: Agua Caliente |
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| Abdul Alhazred wrote: |
While we're at it, let's go over some Democratic Party presidents of the of the past, all considered great by today's Democratic Party.
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
John Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them? |
Beelzebub. All of them.
| Abdul Alhazred wrote: | Now consider some prominent Republicans of the same era.
Dwight Eisenhower
Adlai Stevenson
Nelson Rockefeller
Barry Goldwater
Can anyone name the spiritual leader of any one of them?
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Lucifer. All of them.
Easy peasy. |
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_________________
"Democracy means no taxation without representation and goodness knows, we've had the hell represented out of us " - Johnny Carson
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| | | Re: Hitchens on Barack + my observation about reverends |
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| Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:15 pm |
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| Abdul Alhazred |
| "If I turn in a sicko will I get a reward?" |
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| Joined: 07 Jun 2004 |
| Posts: 31718 |
| Location: Chicago |
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| Nyarlathotep wrote: |
Easy peasy. |
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