What would Jesus do?

I was raised as a white middle class Christian boy. A Southern Baptist. I attended First Southern Baptist Church in Colorado Springs.
We had revivals and preachers preaching fire and brimstone.
I was in the choir. We sang twice on Sunday, we even sang for the prisoners in the Colorado State Penitentiary.
I believed.
I can't tell you when I became a doubter.
But ONE of the events on a road to atheism occurred in the normal Wednesday evening meetings at the church that were half sermon and half business meeting.
I went to those back then.
A black (that was the polite way to refer to African Americans back then) family had applied for membership in our congregation.
A BLACK FAMILY WANTED TO JOIN A CONGREGATION OF A CHURCH IN THE SOUTHERN BABPTIST CONVENTION.
What were they thinking?
It is a sad reality of life in these United States that our churches are the most segregated part of American society. Many, perhaps most, churches are monochrome or very close to it.
Blacks have their churches, whites have their, Hispanics have theirs. And never the twain shall meet.
A good Christian woman stood up in the Wednesday night business meeting of the First Southern Baptist Church of Colorado Springs Colorado and said:
"They have their own church."
This good Christian woman opposed the inclusion of a Black family in our congregation for no other reason than the color of their skin.
I cannot tell you that I rose in opposition to her naked racism. I was not that brave. But that moment has stuck with me for these many years. And it is a milepost in my journey from Baptist Church Choir Member to Atheist.
There was a survey back in May 2010 (http://pewforum.org/U-S-Religious-Knowledge-Survey-Who-Knows-What-About-Religion.aspx) that showed that Atheists (like me) understand Christianity better than your average Christian.
And maybe that’s what happened to me.
I didn’t lose my faith as much as find that faith and critical thinking are essentially two different things. If you have faith then you believe in talking serpents and virgin births and you never bother figuring out that Cain married his sister. But you do know to a certainty that god is responsible for all creation and so this how the theory called Evolution is just that, a theory that doesn’t really explain anything. How can it explain anything since we haven’t found the missing link? Yet you claim that creationism is some sort of science despite it being completely without scientific foundation.
For me, starting to read the bible critically was a bad idea. The bible, like most great religious texts, says many different things, many of them contradictory. And people of faith are quite selective in which passages they cling to.
I came to see the god of the bible as a god I could fear, but never love. A god who will condemn good observant faithful Jews and Muslims to hell because they, though they believe in god and venerate god in the manners required by their faith, they are doing it wrong. God, it seems, changes it’s mind. And it doesn’t make sure that everybody gets the message. God sends a messenger, but not everybody gets to meet this messenger personally. And this messenger looks human, not particularly god like. And this messenger gets killed. So his message didn’t seem to be that persuasive. Unless you are in that tiny group of chosen who saw this man-god after coming back to life.
Kind of an obscure way to send a message of such importance as god changing his mind about how to get to heaven.
But if you didn’t get the message, too bad. Maybe god will let you take some sunscreen to hell. I hear it’s hot down there.
And that doesn’t even address god’s condemnation of people who never even heard of the Jewish/Christian/Muslim god. They might live good lives or bad. Grow up to be a mass murderer or to cure cancer. Doesn’t matter. They didn’t get the message they didn’t even know they were supposed to be listening for. Sunscreen anyone?
Even among Christians each group claims to have their own revealed wisdom, the correct message. Catholics believe that unless you get absolution from a priest just before you die, then off to hell you go. All those people in the Twin Towers on September 11. Sorry!! Many, perhaps most of them died in a state of sin and never got the mandatory absolution so off to hell they go. And there is the Christian sect that believes that Heaven can only hold 40,000 people and so not even every member of their little sect is going to get into heaven.
So that is what happened to my faith.
I thought about it too much. Asked too many questions for which there don’t seem to be answers that make sense. That god is just too scary and unstable to actually love.
And now one part of modern Christianity leans on their faith to advocate the most un-Christian of things.
Stephen Colbert, on the Colbert Report, was interviewing a man a few years ago who was advocating for the posting of the 10 Commandments in classrooms and courtrooms across this nation. Yet when asked to name the 10 Commandments he could only name 3 of them (http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/180282/september-05-2008/better-know-a-district---lynn-westmoreland-update). He missed the First Commandment "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no Other Gods before me. He missed "Make the Sabbath and Keep it Holy." This idiot, who was a United States Representative from the State of Georgia, wanted to post the 10 Commandments in courthouses across this nation, yet he could only name 3 of the Commandments. I know more of the 10 Commandments than he did.
The number of people who claim to be Christians, but advocate for policies that Christ would never support is amazing to me.
We were attacked by Al Queda in a massive way on September 11, 2001.
What would Jesus do?
Would Jesus have invaded and conquered Afghanistan, resulting in the death of 10's of thousands of Afghani's and 4 thousand of America's bravest?
Would Jesus have invaded Iraq, a country that had NOTHING TO DO WITH September 11, 2001? A country that posed nothing even vaguely resembling a threat to this country? An invasion that has resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Iraqi's and more than 6000 American service personnel and thousands more Americans who were not in the Department of Defense.
What would Jesus have done?
Jesus never talked about taking out your enemy, he never advocating deposing governments that he didn’t like. Jesus talked about Turn the Other Cheek. He talked about not returning evil for evil. (Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 1 Peter 3:8,9). He talked about love and forgiveness.
Would Jesus have joined all the Christian Conservatives who advocate shooting doctors working at family planning clinics that perform some abortions?
Would Jesus have advocated scrapping Medicare as we know if (for those currently under 55) in order to fund tax reductions for the wealthy and corporations?
Would Jesus, who barely mentioned sexuality and NEVER mentioned homosexuality support Christians protesting at the funerals of Soldiers who died fighting our wars. Would he make opposition to Gay Marriage a central tenet of his policies while ignoring the fact that Divorce (which Christ was very explicit in his opposition to) ends most marriages in this nation.
Somehow, I don’t think so.
Somehow modern Christianity has been twisted to become a justification of greed. A justification for a me first attitude that says we are not our brothers keeper. If our brother needs help, don’t ask me. I only take care of my own.
The social conservatives who dominate the Republican party now loudly proclaim their Christianity while advocating policies that ignore science, denigrate the needs of those who are less fortunate, demand that Commerce is most noble when completely unfettered by pesky things like regulations, and insist, despite all the evidence, that giving more money to people who are already wealthy will somehow, years later, enrich us all.
Really.
That’s what happens when you live a belief based life.
Facts no longer matter.
You believe that tax cuts pay for themselves and spur long term economic growth.
You either deny that the world is getting warmer or you deny that human activity is the cause despite all the evidence.
You believe that businesses can be trusted to make rational decisions that will be good for the greater good, despite all the times in history when businesses did things that were good for that business, and bad for everyone else. And never being able to point to one completely unregulated industry or country that didn’t end up in disaster.
You believe that We had to invade Iraq, but not Saudi Arabia and that it wasn’t really about revenge and oil.
Turns out, I am fond of facts.
Maybe that’s why I am not a Christian.
Or a Conservative.

The Media and Real News

I just turned the TV off.
I had been watching the news on CNN but just couldn't stand it anymore.
We are fighting 2 wars in Arab Muslim nations, we are aiding NATO in its operations in support of the Libyan rebels. The economy is struggling. We reached our debt limit today and Republicans seem intent on holding the entire economy hostage to their nonsensical economic theories.
And the big new is that Action Movie Star and former Governor of California Arnold Slksjlskjdflker fathered an illegitimate child with a member of his house hold staff.
This guy is an actor only in the most forgiving sense of the word who was married to a beautiful woman who was a pretty good news reader before he ran for governor.
But really, what business is it of ours now that the Arnold couldn't keep it in his pants.
He is an actor for god's sake.
I guess that CNN thinks they have to give this story a lot of play because they will lose viewer share if they don't
But in a world where we have very real and dangerous problems, does it really matter who the Arnold is banging.
I continue to be disappointed in their unwillingness to give the real important issues of our day the coverage they deserve while obsessing over how this action movie star could keep a secret like this for so long. I don't care and I don't understand why so many others do care. The sex lives of celebrities are not important.
So I will leave the TV off for now.

Stupidest and Most Offensive Thing I Have Heard Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xf383_QhU&feature=player_embedded This is past amazing. In a debate in the Indiana House of Representatives about new restrictions on abortion we have a Indiana State Representative opposing an exemption for victims of Rape or Incest because SOME WOMEN MIGHT MIGHT UP SUCH A CHARGE TO BE ALLOWED AN ABORTION. Words fail me. Who are these people?

Why did we stop building things

I am confused by the Republican/Conservative world view.

It has become a mantra of Republicans/Conservatives that not only should government not do things, that government can't. This belief that government can't accomplish anything and probably shouldn't even try has become a core tenet of the Republican/Conservative meme.

I don't recognize their America.

My American government built the Panama Canal, built a railroad from the Omaha to the Pacific and in doing so American had more miles of track lain than the rest of the world combined. My America put men on the moon, build the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. My America built the Interstate Highway system. My America builds the most powerful and complex machines man has ever built.

My American government spends less than 5% administrative costs in administering Medicare, a single payer health insurance systems serving about 10's of millions of Americans.

Anytime there is a disaster anywhere in the world, my American government dispatches aid and logistic assistance to help people whether we like their government or not.

My American government paid the bills to send millions of our WWII veterans to college helping to create growth that lasts to this day.

Yet somehow the modern Conservative/Republican insists in believing in the incompetence of our own government.

Conservatives/Republicans ignore the benefits that the country as a whole has enjoyed because of these things that my American government did. My American government built the infrastructure that the greatest and strongest economy in the world runs on. My American government has sent or helped send millions of young adults to college which has always been a major factor in the success of our economy.

It is an easily provable fact that if kids are well fed they will do better in school. And if they do better in school they are far more likely to be law-abiding productive citizens. So it makes sense, to me at least, that my American government helps millions of kids from poor families get at least one or even two good meals a day. That kind of investment in our kids pays dividend in our future. So Conservatives/Republicans want to cut funding for school lunch programs.

What are they thinking?

Its amazing to me that Republicans/Conservatives seem so willfully ignorant of our history and the role my American government has played in making this country great.

And now Conservatives/Republicans are sooo opposed to the government doing the things that it has done so well for so long that our infrastructure is crumbling. Governor Christie of New Jersey shutdown a project shut down a project to build new transportation links into New York cause it might cost too much, ignoring both the immediate employment benefits of such a project and the long term economic benefits of that kind of infrastructure development. Two other governors have made similar choices shutting down high speed rail systems.

We used to build things

Great things

Things as big as our country itself

Thanks to Republicans/Conservatives it appears those days are behind us.

Thanks for nothing!

History

It is funny to hear some Conservatives/Republicans talk longingly about times past in this country like the 1950's were some sort of Golden Age in America. They do so forgetting that the economy of the 50's was feeling the effect of a huge public works program called the Interstate Highway system, and that one of the drivers behind our expansion was the millions of WWII veterans who went to college paid for by the Federal Government, and that the highest marginal tax rate was 90%, and Blacks were not allowed to vote in much of this country, especially the South, and that women were still largely relegated to Teaching, Nursing and Secretary.

George Santayana, wrote, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

It seems like Republicans/Conservatives are insisting on not remembering the past.

They try to claim that the Civil War was about anything OTHER than Slavery when the preservation of Slavery was the only reason for the secessionist movement in the Slave holding states.

They twist themselves into knots try to say that Hitler was a Liberal.

They lionize President Reagan while conveniently ignoring the number of times he raised taxes, ignoring his trading guns for our Hostages in Iran, ignoring the blatant illegality of Iran Contra, forgetting that he gave amnesty to 2 million illegal immigrants, forgetting that he, as Governor of California, advocated for and signed the most liberal abortion law in America at the time. They give Reagan and his tax cuts all the credit for the economic expansion of the 80's while blaming the Democrats for the deficits.

They ignore the impact that massive government spending has had on the economy with the building of the Interstate Highway System, the Space Program, the GI Bill and all the college graduates that it created, a trans-Continental railroad system, the Panama Canal, the Sacramento Delta water system that provides the water that irrigates California's Central Valley, which is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.

They ignore Rural Electrification and the Tennessee Valley Authority and Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge.

They live is a fantasy land where corporations will do great things by all of us if we just let them, ignoring all of American History with the Robber Barons and Henry Ford's goon squads beating on union organizers and all the damage that corporations have done to our environment in a monomaniacal quest for profit at any cost. They don't want to or are simply incapable of remembering that deregulation of the savings and loan industry led, almost inevitably, the the savings and loan bailout and the deregulation of the banking industry led, just as inevitably, to the Housing Bubble and our current economic doldrums.

They remember that President Kennedy cut the top marginal tax rate from 90% to 70% while forgetting that he also eliminated many many loopholes so that tax revenues actually increased.

They insist that the stimulus package didn't create even one job while ignoring every study of the topic that talks about the stimulus bill creating as many as 6 million jobs depending on which study you cite.

They forget that previous Republicans/Conservatives have a horrible track record when predicting the economic impact of taxes or regulations.

Conservatives/Republicans predicted that the Clinton Budget, especially its tax increases, would cripple the economy.

They predicted the the Environmental Protection Act would ruin the economy

They predicted the same sort of economic disaster for the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.

They predicted the Bush Tax cuts would spur years of robust economic growth.

And they were wrong every time.

Conservatives opposed the integration of the military and allowing women to vote.

Conservatives and Republicans have made dire predictions about the impact of gay marriage and allowing gays to serve openly in the military while no country that sanctions gay marriage has suffered as a result and the military's of Britain and Canada and Israel are all very respected and capable military's despite allowing gays to serve openly.

Conservatives/Republicans, as late as the 1970's, were still claiming the cigarettes were not addictive and didn't cause cancer and now they ignore the science again and deny that the earth is warming up or admit that its warming up but deny that human activity is the main cause or they accept that human activity is a driver of global warming but predict that addressing global warming will ruin our economy.

They need to actually study our history.
And learn from it

Any Rand and Medicare

Not that this is really a surprise, but Ayn Rand, the Patron Saint of Libertarianism, recieved both Social Security and Medicare under her married name Ayn O'Connor.

This from the woman who wrote in her book “The Virtue of Selfishness” that accepting any government controls is “delivering oneself into gradual enslavement.”

Not really a surprise, but I still find it funny as hell!!

Another Global Warming Data Point

According to the NOAA, 2010 was the warmest year on record.
Confirming one of the essential truths of Global Warming. The globe really is heating up.

And there is no theory that explains this warming better than a greenhouse effect resulting from increasing concentration of gases like Methane and Carbon Dioxide in the upper atmosphere resulting from human activity.

I know its cold outside today.
And its snowing in Atlanta.
None of which contradicts the science of Global Warming.

I understand why the petroleum and coal and natural gas industries don't want people to believe it. And I understand why Republicans and some Conservatives seen intent on doing the bidding of their corporate sponsors. What I don't understand is how they have convinced so many of America's citizens of the unbelievable.

But this all comes at a cost. There is no remaining doubt about what is happening. And while there is debate about how warm it will get and how fast it will warm up and how long it will take to bring temperatures down once we get green house gases under control, there is no scientific debate about the absolute necessity of doing so.

Why is it that people who so often love to wrap themselves in the flag are so willing to believe things that help to keep us dependent on foriegn oil, so willing to believe things that will make our world harder on our children. Quite rightly, our own Department of Defense sees Global Warming as a national security issue because the impacts of Global Warming on poor people around the globe will inevitably lead to instability in many nations, and that instability will likely result in increased threats to our security.

We need to act soon, act urgently, and act boldly. For our country, for our future, for our security.