Posted on 11/18/2008 7:24:10 PM PST by Wegotsarah.com
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.
I'm bathing in holy water as I type.
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.
But they need those votes!
So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
My amateur blog- www.wegotsarah.com
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
He didn't. But when you're a sleazy WaPo whore anyone more devout than a flaming atheist is a threat to your peace of mind and must be attacked at all costs.
In God we trust, not government, parties, politicians or pundits.
Exactly what I would expect from The Washington Compost.
I’m a guy, so maybe I’m not the one who should say this, but is this just sour grapes, or PMS?
I’m guessing she thinks those of us who believe in God should only talk to him on Sunday, and never, ever, try to do what we think he wants us to do.
Good thing she was not literally bathing in holy water, or she’d be ashes.
No point in smoking a last cigarette or putting on a blindfold, she’s not worth wasting a bullet on. Time wounds all heels.
Why is she still writing if she has nothing substantive to say? Any ideas? Just sad she’s not in any sort of spotlight, now?
People who pontificate for a living are pontificating a little too much about Obama’s victory being a part of changing demographics and values. That’s a factor, but O was a “perfect storm” candidate. Without the war in Iraq, O never happens. Without Bush, O never happens. Without BDS, O never happens. Without the “9/11 Truth” movement, O never happens. Without the Goracle/Climate Change stuff, O never happens. The last two parts weren’t as vital as the first three parts, but all five, and some more that I’m not mentioning (sorry for doing a quick and poor job on this subject) had to come together for the O phenomenon to achieve victory. None of them had much if anything to do with conservative Christian values one way or another.
Armband religion...now isn't that an interesting phrase. I wonder what she means by that "armband" thing. Isn't she bothered by Jeremiah Wright and his "armband"?
"The party intelligentsia".....yeah, let's listen to them, they've done such a good job of steering all us hayseeds in the right direction. LOL.
“We’ve already established what you are, Mrs. Parker. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”
It sounds like Parker thinks God is dead.
The reason McCain lost in 2000 was because he came out just before an important primary and downright insulted evanglicals.
I remember people in my church being outraged, and quite a few of them switching to Bush from McCain.
The press loves to say it was a rumor about a black child, because they love to think that conservatives are racists. We all know that isn’t true. I don’t know anyone that votes based on color, and if they did, I certainly wouldn’t consider them a conservative.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Funny, the first words that came to mind when I read this were "thank" and "God".
Every once in a while, ya gotta burn the forest to make it grow more lush.
“The party intelligentsia”.....yeah, let’s listen to them, they’ve done such a good job of steering all us hayseeds in the right direction. LOL.”
The party intelligentsia that gave us McCain.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The article said — “But they need those votes!”
You better believe it! And..., they better not forget it, either... :-)
Better get with the Christian Evangelicals, or the GOP better get ready to lose all future elections...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
‘Armband religion’ is quite simply..wearing it on your sleeve. In other words, living the life of faith, as opposed to keeping your faith to Church on Sunday, where of course all intelligent people contain it. *insert rolling eyes here*
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
We'll see who wins the debate at the Great White Throne...
In other words, feminism is going to the nursing home, and “Ma Parker” is mad.
Thanks for the tip. Are you sure that’s what Kathleen Parker meant by “armband”?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Bah, I’m done with Parker, Buckley, et al. The ‘Conservative’ intelligensia would be well served to heed the advice from flyover country. They can’t win without social conservatives...and this is what it’s all about, marginalizing the social conservatives. I can hear them now.. ‘Hell, I just wanna pay lower taxes!’
I’ll stick with God just the same.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Yes, remember when John Lennon gave God’s obit?
Look who’s pushing the daiseys though!
Eretz Yisrael, bli Torah, he k'mo Yehudi bli neshama" ("The Land of Israel, without the Torah, is like a Jew without a soul").
The same thing is true of America. A man without faith in God is like a man who has no true home in America.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
ah... Parker makes her final stab at conservatives before she officially joins the payroll at MSNBC.
Bee-yotch!
When Kathleen the Chameleon accuses Christians of "armband religion", that just rubbed me the wrong way.
Who are all these journalists that have no more principle than politicians?
(No need to answer; no need to answer; I know; I know)
The Jews were forced to wear the Star of David armband. The Nazis chose to wear their swastika armband.
Apparently Kathleen forgot that it was the secular left, not the religious right, that made social issues such as abortion & homosexuality into political issues. She also apparently forgot that it was her fellow “moderate” Republicans who assured us that we don’t need to worry about changing demographics since we’re a “proposition nation”, rather than a blood-ties nation.
In other words, Kathleen is projecting like crazy here. She’s also campaigning like crazy for the role of THE EXTABLISHMENT MEDIA’S FAVORITE REPUBLICAN, which became vacant when McCain won the nomination.
‘The fear of GOD is the beginning of wisdom’ is one of my favorites. I agree with you, FRiend. :-)
Amen! What conservatives need to do is win this insidious battle for the lexicon. When idiots talk about hate crimes when their homosexual lifestyle gets rejected for intance...
we should rightly point out that:
Embracing Jesus is not a hate crime!
I think we need to come up with t-shirts, stickers and so forth.
I’ve got “bitter clinger” on my car now next to my Carolina Panthers and Air Force stickers. :)
But I think we need a more unified and accurate message! Short and to the point.
Thanks Jim, well put!! Just as Our Lord told us it should be!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Wait until God gives up on you, Ma Parker.
You won’t like that day. Nor afterwards...
As an agnostic, I have to agree with the writer.
Republicans needs to stop being the party of the conservative religious right, and start looking to include those who do not hold the same religious views. .. or for that matter, no religious views at all.
I don’t need to be a southern Baptist to believe in limited government. I don’t need a bible to tell me abortion is wrong. I don’t need Sunday school to know that a strong military is what we need to fight Islamic fascism. And I don’t need prayer groups to see that socialism is state sponsored slavery.
Armband atheists are creepier. I’m afraid that they’ve asked themselves an evil question with their “Just be good, for goodness sake” slogan. The answer being, “Or what?...nothing.”
While that seems trivial, that answer can be murderous, quite literally.
Already they embrace the idea that life is meaningless, at least other people’s lives. So life just becomes a race with the clock to do what you want to do before you die. And if that involves harming others, so what?, you’re all going to die anyway.
They miss a very important point. If life is meaningless, why try to proselytize others about atheism, or hate people because of their religious faith?
It is also easy to see why they are so terribly bitter about how “unfair” life has been to them so far. How it’s unfair that they weren’t born handsome, popular, loved, wealthy, smart, talented, and things like that, even though other people are like that It’s unfair.
But if your life is based on your own whims, and such people bother you, why not hate them and try to tear them down? Why not, indeed.
Or why not even kill them? Why not? Other people crowd their space, and most of them they hate, so why not hope they all die, so you can have more? They’re just billions of stupid religious nobodies.
Such armband atheists tend to be very miserable. They no longer have God in their mental equation, and they see that the hand of cards they were dealt in life is pretty meager indeed. They also must be dreadfully afraid of dying, so the one type of killing they object to is capital punishment.
For two reasons, I suppose. First of all they resent the idea that if they kill somebody on a whim, or for pure hatred, that people they despise, inferior people, religious people, would have their lives in their hands. Second, they also don’t want the idea of having their one-shot life curtailed. Even living in prison is better than nothingness.
Armband atheists have an awful lot of control issues, and that nagging fear that if they’re wrong, the misery they suffer after life is going to be a lot worse than the misery they suffer during life.
I suggest the Washington Compost stick with figuring out why it continues to lose readers.
http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/mediapolitics/capitalcomment/4400.html
I was under the impression that the armband reference was to Nazi’s wearing swaztika armbands; as throwing Nazi references liberally around is the mode du jour over on the left.
Well said. In a large sense, some atheists are merely unwilling satanists.
MG2008, you are what you are- I'm not asking. But, please, respectfully, explain to me what the GOP did this year that evinces it is the party of "the conservative religious right"?
I have a strong faith, but if the GOP was trying to appeal to me on that basis this year, I missed it. Honestly, please explain how that manifested itself. Thanks
I don’t need to be a southern Baptist to believe in limited government. I don’t need a bible to tell me abortion is wrong.
Who gets to define what is good, moral, charitable, evil, etc.? You? Me? MTV? A Saddam? A Stalin?
To ancient Aztecs - cutting out the still beating heart of a human sacrifices (including children) was the highest order of good.
To a large percent of Muslims - killing, raping and enslaving infidels is the highest order of good in Islam.
To Hindus - Attacking, ignoring, prejudicing against and letting die for people in lower order castes is perfectly alright.
To certain Pacific Tribes - eating your enemy was the highest form of good.
And I could go on for pages...
The actions you mentioned are good works from a Christian viewpoint:
Matthew 22:37-40 -- Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." And Jesus also said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Luke 6:31; Luke 10:27 (affirming of Moses) and Matthew 7:12)
But by no means has this "philosophy" been accepted the world over as "good or moral." Not by a long shot.
What makes murder inherently wrong (to Christians) is not that it feels wrong, but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: "Thou shalt not murder." What makes kindness to others inherently right (to Christians) is not that human reason says so, but that God does: "Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord."
What is "good or evil" without God? Without any footing for moral actions - anything can be rationalized as good or evil. You can just make it up as you go along. Good actions can be whatever society thinks it is with the popular culture at the time. If that be in Nazi Germany or Pol Pot's Cambodia or North Korea - that means doing "good" is slaughtering millions of people and sending millions more into misery. But, by their own human standards at the time in history, they were all doing good.
You and I grew up and live in a country founded in Judeo-Christian values, so it may seem obvious to you what is "good." But that is due to the Judeo-Christian influences on you (even if you don't believe in God or have never been in a Church). To others without that kind of influence, doing "good" can be radically different.
It would be hoped that more people would see those things; it’s sad that it can’t be so.
"Nietzsche is Dead!"- God
Well said.
Good insights, good post.
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