First up from the God Machine this week is a look at evangelical Christians who attended the Republican National Convention, some of whom believe they successfully moved a hurricane away from Tampa.
This clip originally ran on TV preacher Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, featuring Jesten Peters of Keys of Authority Ministries.
It's worth noting that Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and prominent Republican activist, also claims to have the ability to move hurricanes, a power he says he's used more than once.
Also from the God Machine this week:
* Hundreds of Muslims attended a Friday prayer yesterday in Charlotte, in advance of the Democratic National Convention, hoping to mobilize Muslim-American voters and get them engaged in political discourse. A Christian group called Operation Save America protested and the story has received attention from Fox News.
* The president of the Sikh Society of Central Florida was invited to speak at a Republican National Convention this week. Some in the religious right were not at all pleased.
* Father Benedict Groeschel, the director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, wrote an opinion piece for the National Catholic Register suggesting child victims of sexual abuse are partially to blame. As Groeschel sees it, the minor victims played the role of "the seducer" with convicted child predators like Jerry Sandusky. The National Catholic Register has since taken down Groeschel's piece.
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Just stumbled upon a Moody Bible radio show 'Up For Debate'. Interesting question as to weather evengelical Christians should withdraw from the political scene. My historical perspective is that the christian right became energized when school desegregation became law. They havn't looked back since. The debaters include The Family Research Center and a pastor/author of a new book promoting disengaging from politics. The good pastor's point was that politics just aren't civil enough for good christian discourse. Of course Family Research Center had a different point of view. Funny, the callers agreeing with the FRC were the most intolerant.
Do you mean the Family Research COUNCIL? Or is there another hate group by a similar name?
It's not surprising that the FRC callers seemed most intolerant. That's what you get from bigots who support certified hate groups like the FRC.
On christiannewswire.com they're running a story about "Bill Keller, the world's leading Internet Evangelist and the founder of LivePrayer.com, with over 2.4 million subscribers worldwide".
Billl Keller is saying that when the republicans at the RNC were led in prayer by the Mormon guy they weren't praying to God, they were praying to Satan.
He goes on to slam Joseph Smith, Romney and Beck and has advised his followers not to vote for "the anti-God President Obama and the satanic cult member Mitt Romney, by writing in the name of JESUS for President". He's even started a website called "Voting For Jesus" where he wants Christians to pledge to write in Jesus' name for President. He says voting for Romney as the lesser of two evils "is still EVIL".
Trouble for Mitt?
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/8390620512.html
I was turned on to the story at http://www.rightwingwatch.org/
Keller really slamming Mormons http://www.votingforjesus.com/
As of this morning, over 370,000 have made the pledge. That's up by about 2,000 from when I checked around 9:00 last night.
In less than 3 days!
Southern red state votes Romney has lost?
SWEEEET!!!
This just in from Jesus: "If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve!"
;-)
i yi yi.
I did not know that this blog existed until today.
Rachel Maddow supports a blog dedicated to hating God? Is this true?
You mean she is going to post the most extreme religious people and say that this is what the republicans are.
You mean she is saying we should hate God? Now that is going way too far. This is unappropriate. Somebody tell me this is not true.
This from NBC?
Bias in the media. wow.
What a load of utterly fact-free bullpucky! This little troll went to unusual extremes to engage in hyper-ventilating self-righteous self-pity.
no
no
no
no
yes
unappropriate? Is that like inamerican?
Ninz
You are correct. sorry for the misspelling. What is this blog "This week from God"? What is it about?
It looks like a blog that makes fun of God and/or religion. Can you explain?
It looks so offensive and bigoted. What is up with this?
Don - "Rachel Maddow supports a blog dedicated to hating God? Is this true?"
That statement, in the form of a question, is BS. However, so what if she did? Do you get outraged or incensed that there are hundreds of sites, blogs, radio shows, TV shows and other media dedicated to loving a mythical being and promoting a medieval, divisive superstition? I'm going to guess the answer is no.
Jean Meslier wrote in his book Testament that a parishioner told him in effect man would never be free until the last despot was strangled with entrails of the last priest. That was just before the beginning of the 18th century. We are making progress, but still have a long way to go.
Don - "It looks so offensive and bigoted. What is up with this?"
There are a number of definitions of bigot, but they are all pretty close to; " person who is utterly intolerant of any differing belief, or opinion."
I hope you were trying for irony. Suggesting that people who disagree with or even mock the near total intolerance of most theists has to be an attempt at humor. In nearly every definition you can find for bigot, religion is offered as an example.
We need more open debates about "god" and the role of religion. I personally agree with H. L. Mencken; "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
Don - This blog's usual weekend topic isn't intended to make fun of God or religion. I think it can fairly be said that it posts articles about people who sometimes do or say thoughtless, hurtful things, while using their religion as a prop. Often these articles are written in a style which points out the absurdity of their behavior. If you are unable to discern the difference, perhaps this is not a discussion which you would like to frequent.
Ronin hahaha you are so true. I am guilty.
Irony irony everywhere. The people calling others racist and posting a web site that acts in such a disdainful way towards Christians. To me that is irony. I wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. would say.
And you are correct. I was not acting like a Christian. I am sorry.
I am a Christian, I do believe in God. I should realize that religion does not run this country and religion should not take away your freedom of speech. I hope that you accept my sincere apology. Absolutely no sarcasm intended.
Trying to influence others to be Christian-like is not always easy, but a Christian way of life is awfully good.
Now, I can say with sincerity, I was really offended by all the insensitive comments at this site. I do find them offensive. Really offensive. I hope all of you that made any offensive comments will think about them.
You face the same problem that I do because your behaviour affects your message.
Ninz - Well played sir. I respect you.
I agree that some Christian do say and act poorly in this reguard. I will try harder. I have a lot of respect for good Christians but sometimes they misapply religion. They give Christianity a bad name and there are so many people willing to jump at that opportunity.
To me there is nothing worse than bad religion and nothing greater than a fellowship of true believers.
I probubly won't visit this post too often. I don't think you will miss me.
No Don, I don't think we will miss you. But that is not because of you specifically. Another poster will play your role next week..and another the next. I don't think it is possible to miss something which is constantly present.
I wish you the best, Sir (which is something I am not).
"To me there is nothing worse than bad religion and nothing greater than a fellowship of true believers."
One problem with such statements is that they can be made in all sincerity* by people from Osama bin Laden to Desmond Tutu.
* IMNSHO, sincerity is vastly over-rated.
They are so overwhelmingly offensive because how dare someone not think exactly like me!!!!
I am curious here: noone asked Don to specify what posts made him so offended or why they were offensive. He says that he wants those who made the offensive comments to recant. Yet who are those people? What was offensive about their comments? What did they say? Don just said a bunch of nothing and now assumes that this is reason to judge others. Good to know.
For the record what is the emphasis with right wing people and choices that others make? I guess it seems mean to judge someone or hate someone if you have to understand their position first and that maybe they didn't have all that much of a choice? Does not this attitude in and of itself breed anti-Christian values?
But I am sure in asking this I am now going to be bigoted. Because, like I said, anyone who doesn't think the same way as Don is invariably a bad person. Right?
Apparently people who don't join in your belief are not as great as you. Good to know.
Pssst!!! Your ego is calling and it's telling you to chill the @!$%# out!!!
The "Christians" RM ridicules in this blog
1. Deserve ridicule
2. Are a significant portion, though still a minority, of Evangelicals
As an Evangelical, I have watched this "hijacking" for several years. It usually starts with getting a "patriotic" David Barton "history" lesson into a church. This sets people up to accept the ideas of Christian Nationalism then Dominionism then Reconstructionism. This unholy mix of religion and political action has been going on since the 1980's. One of the proponents is George Grant - search online for George Grant and The Changing of the Guard. Down load and start with pages 50-51. There is also a nice section on setting up Political Action Committees and getting out the vote.
So - no - RM does not appear to hate God - she does however appear to dislike hypocrites and heretics who want to make God a marketable product.
Amen and Amen.
Kerplossshup! The onomatopoeic for a digital door slamming on the backside of another troll (check his history of posts). I could be wrong - Kerplossshup might be Klingon for troll toot.
If you read THE OP , you will find nothing there degrading christians , it is nothing but stories about what conservative christians are up to , if what they are doing is some how offensive , that is on THEM , not mr benen or the maddow blog
Good going, now you have made enemies of those that lost everything. I didn't think God worked like that. So glad I'm an atheist!
Did IrishPat7 get banned? Because this would be a perfect opportunity for him to show up and try to explain away how a Catholic priest was defending the fact that a bunch of his colleagues are pedophiles and pedarasts, not by denying that it happens as is ole Irish's line, but by saying "those young boys are just so hot, the priests can't be blamed for banging them!"
I could use a good laugh at his pathetic, sick flailing.
Shhhhh!!
But yea, that Father Groeschel was one of his heroes - he always kept posting about him!!
I think wondering if IrishPud got banned is too much to hope for. This site is ridiculously lenient where such trolls are concerned.
Hard to blog when you're getting hammered and playing Madden all the time. Isn't that what he said he was going to do last time?
Hey, It's Pat! may just be on vacation. He/she/it was around and posting on the MaddowBlog as recently as 8/30/2012. (eyeroll)
When I read this story earlier in the week it made me absolutely sick to my stomach. Any adult who describes a child molestation victim as a "seducer" like Groeschel did in his article obviously view these children the exact same way as pedophiles. And since thought often reveals itself in behavior, it makes me wonder if Father Benedict Groeschel is as much of a threat to children himself.
It says that the 'National Catholic Register' has removed Father Groeschel's inflammatory opinion editorial but nowhere have I read that this sick-minded and potentially dangerous man had been removed from the church or at least put in a position far away from children.
Removing Father Groeschel's op ed is just more of the same that we have seen from the Catholic church in the past... which is to cover up the damage by sweeping crimes of the church under the rug. Unfortunately for the church... word about this article got out before they could scrub it off the face of the earth.
Discovering pedophile priests amongst the flock was bad enough for the church (and for the victims). But what I almost find even more disturbing are the number of Cardinals, bishops and other priests who try to either cover up or justify the most despicable crime on the planet by blaming the victim for the sole reason of protecting the church's reputation.
Priests like Benedict Groeschel need to be removed from the church every bit as much as the priests who committed the acts of pedophilia. Until that happens, the church will continue to be a breeding ground for child rape.
Now I know why the Catholic church sees no need for women to use contraception..... because when their sick priests decide to have sex.... it's with children who aren't old enough to get pregnant.
Sick bastards.
This Father Groeschel affair is yet another reason why, at a minimum, all Roman Catholic clergy above the rank of priest should be required to register as agents of a foreign government.
All I have to say is , Thank God I can comment again on The Rachel Maddow blog. My computer was acting up. Thank you.
To all regular Maddow Blog posters!!
If you are having trouble posting to this blog when you can post to the Ed Show or other Newsvine blogs, CLEAR YOUR CACHE.
I thought I was "banned" but the problem went away after I cleared my cache. I think one of the trolls put something "funky" into one of their links.
Don't click on ANY link in any troll's comments.
Actually - better than not clicking on their links - set the trolls to "Ignore". I've been trying to promote "Trolless Tuesdays" where we set all trolls to "Ignore" for an entire day. Frees up a lot of screen space for actual discussion.
I wonder if this group who moved the hurricane would come over here and move the junk out of my basement? I'll make some nice sandwiches.
I consider christians to be both immoral and intellectually lazy. Is that really so offensive?
Christians pray for 9/10 of humanity's burning in hell for eternity for no other reason than those peoples guessed wrong at the shell game called faith-based religion,, you just can't get any more immoral than this!
The first? big lie in the bibble. Gad telling Adam and Eve they would surely die the death should the eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. They both lived on for another 900 years. Gad said they would then eat from the tree of immortality, they didn't. Gad said after eating from the tree of knowledge we would then be as smart as the gads (plural), we aren't. Gad then made an example of Eve, not Adam, and cursed her and womankind with difficult childbirths, and gad didn't predict this... And then you don't think it's offensive to say "God is love"...
This is on or very near the first page of the bibble. Why read further?
How many out and out lies are in the episode when jeesus tells his disciples "O ye of little faith"?
How many times did jeesus tell us that men and women are equals? 0. He could have told us a hundred times.
How many times did jeesus tell us "no man shall enslave another"? 0. How many lives would have been saved and how much suffering averted had he done so? More than 10 million lives?
In the real world Subaru is now love, and Exxon spends 50 million bragging about the 1 million dollars it gave to education...
numbers mentioned in this remark are subject to hyperbole..
As much as I fear the Republicans winning the presidency, the house and the senate, I fear the assassination of our President more. I think that that would set us back 50 years or so, and as divided as the country is, I pray on a daily basis that Obama will not be assassinated.
Here is a question. What are your thoughts re: every single person in the media colluding in the framing of our President as a black man? There has been virtually no push back from anyone insisting that he is biracial. It bothers me that across the media regardless of whether it's Fox or MSNBC that he is defined by the color of his skin. He is half white, but we never hear that expressed. I'm just saying....
I'm interested in others thoughts about this, so I hope that someone will respond.
As divided as the country is, I fear the President being assassinated even more than I fear the GOP.
I am interested in the thoughts of others about this next topic. No one in any of the media outlets has pushed back re: our President being described as a black man. He is biracial; half white and half black, but it seems to me that the members of the media across the board have colluded in describing him by the color of his skin. I'm just saying and wondering.
Interesting - If President Obama's mother had been Cherokee - would he still be described as the first "black" president or would he be the first "bi-racial" president? If so - what would that tell us about America?
Good one Jackie!
Sorry for posting twice. This is my first time and I was not sure that my first post made it onto this site.
Here's the dealeo as I kind of understand it. Humans are happiest in groups of 120-150, doesn't have anything to do with money. I don't know the name of the book that presents this but I'm buying "Bowling Alone" which sounds like the same contention.
Along those lines I would assert that the purpose of life is pleasant conversation,, short of becoming doctors or pushing school buses full of children out of the way of runaway trains, we are left with left with a day to day existence of personal contacts.
Our grandchildren's survival would seem self evident though contrary to our present poisening of their enviroment. The healthier you are, the healthier they will get to be..
So join some clubs, billiards leagues, drink beer, dance, support stuff, bicycle, garden, and purposefully outreach to 120 people.... Just like that.
When someone shoots a bunch of people,, I as positive that person is largely a loner. I read and agree that the best way to stop terrorists is a wife and two kids.
The 16-26 year old male is a fragile animal, very succeptable to PTSD, and whenever possible needs to be a mentor and be mentored.
Our schools need to be movie centered thereby bringing back the love of books.
Searching for some spiritual truth sounds like a good idea, but since probably no one has ever figured "it" out before you,, it is both doubtful you will or that you need too.
It is enormously fun to speculate. I really like reading about Near Death Experiences, and if I wasn't so lazy I guess a combination of fasting and meditateing would be enlightening...? Ancestor worship seems to me to be the self evident religion till you realize your ancestors think your a wuss.
It seems logical that you wouldn't leave your creator's presence without her "pushing you out the door" with the promise that you'll be back. The creator created us to be creative... boredom is our "gift"...
Maybe the horse has left the barn, and the cat the bag,, actually the cat may not be out of the bag on our not only poisening our atmosphere, but we are poisening our oceans mightily too. We are wipeing out what's left of our fisheries as fast as we can. The "plan" right now seems to be to leave our grandchildren a waste land,,,,, atmosphere,, oceans..
As near as I can tell jeesus, bhuddy, and ai yi yi are OK with that too.
But it's a shame to hurt one's own progeny over a value system and goals that are really very arbitrary. What if instead of just gold being valuable (and we dig it up and bury it in basements) we also collectively agree that a person's labor is valuable and the gov.s can print money in return for it.. We are already in a state of emergency enviromentally (and will be exponentialy more so in the very near future((and lo,, there's all kind of other @!$%# that can hit Earth's fan)),,, the smarter, the healthier, and the more we cooperate,, the better we will survive. Sooo lets put everybody to work saving biodiversity, getting smarter (socialize higher education), decentralizing, hanging out playing pool,,
See that little girl in my window?...
esprit de corp, a song in your heart, comraderie,, is us at our best and better yet is if empathy and egalitarian values are being attained. Make me king (of China) and I'll put everyone happily to work,,,.
Because,,, the small farmer should be exalted/educated. Just reverse that one trend and you'll have done a lot for the earth.
Wouldn't you think that a caring Christian (which I consider myself to be) would pray for the storm to diminish rather than to divert it to wreak havoc on someone else?
One would think so, eh?
As a caring atheist who has ridden out many hurricanes; I cannot imagine what degree of selfishness it would take for one to pray for a storm to be directed at other people.
Can we PLEASE have some in depth coverage of Romney's Mormon beliefs? I don't think that voters are aware of the bizarre things that he may be implementing if elected based on his religion. People base their day to day decisions in life according to religious beliefs. These beliefs of Willard's should be presented to the people so that he may be allowed to clarify anything that may come across as troubling to voters. I don't care so much about the special underwear and such but other issues.
I think we can put Humans under Mammals... Dick knows no bounds! It's about POWER (most men feel that way) how absurd it is for that priest to blame the victims. This has been going on long enough, having the religious organizations defend their own with just an apology. The same with Obama oust Cheney on the torture issue, and many other issues in those eight years, every time the media would divulge into a story about the corruption, the Gov. would put into effect the High Alert for America just to distract what was really going on. I am sure this has been going on for many, many years and it from other parties. They know that we have a short attention span and can manipulate us.
Ever since the beginning of time Man has had the power on this earth, and has used that POWER for their own self-indulgence.
Obama has another plan. He is for every human being on this earth that he thinks deserves compassion and respect, unlike most religions that discriminate this. Here is something to think about… Why are we so hateful towards other human beings that are different? This needs to stop and the only way to do this is having the freedom of choice. The Constitution says we have that freedom. It does not say that religions have the right to force their beliefs onto someone else. . The men that wrote all religious materials have conjured up this immortal sin. Its men that invented slavery. Its men that invented war. Its men that have legalized prostitution... need i say more? We all have one thing in common, We are all human beings. We all deserve compassion. We all deserve respect. We all respect one another. We all deserve the right to be here on earth.
Yes indeed. Your last statement is right on. When we realize we are all connected then we can start eliminating the ills of the world, as many religions know. I am not so sure the Christian right knows this but their religion does.
check out http://www.iamthedoc.com/
It supports this
The Bill Moyers show was very interesting yesterday. It outlined the Republican strategy of using the extra money from citizen's United to saturate the evangelists and Christian Right to get out the vote contacting millions several times. I guess this explains all the abortion and anti-contraception stuff.
Oh God...Pat Roberson? What an egoic hypercritical fraud, cheating fearful people out of billions, selling nonsensical fantasies personifying Apollo...or "God" as he refers to him...as if God was a person with superpowers always getting angry at his creations for not acting the way he tells them to. Sending hurricaines and tornadoes at them as punishment but not having power enough to keep them from hurting the innocent who are also in the path. How self deluded does one have to be to say they have power over natural phenomena like hurricanes which occur naturally over water all the time. That must be 'practice' for God according to Roberson.
This guy would lead us all back into the Dark Ages once again. Burning "witches' like Maddow at the stake, killing all who disagree with him in the name of his God.
Jesus people...if you were God couldn't you come up with a better plan than that. Swallowing the big lie from birth does not make it any truer. God doesn't DO anything. He's already done it. There's nothing he forgot to do...nothing he 'needs'...it's all here for us to experience and know. God is so vast we can only get a sense of Him and that is why Roberson is such a liar to think or claim that he knows what God wants or does. God did not make him a billionaire...needy, fearful and ignorant followers did and still do. Roberson believes his own fantasy...why on earth would anybody else believe it?
Sometimes the truth is extremely satirical and ironic. Why does God have such a problem with money that his speakers always need more and more. Mealy mouth Roberson like other seekers of power...their greatest trick was convincing the world that there is such a thing as the devil, hell and punishment so they could gain power by making others fearful...full of fear...faith and subservience through fear of punishment...western guilt is for fools. Their God is not very 'godly' huh.
very good point... i wish i could have articulated this issue as well as you did. cheers to you bjobotts!!!