This is just wrong.

I mean, REALLY?!?!  Come on, people …

From the American Family Association (Hat tip: Right Wing Watch)

No more Muslims in the US Military

Some choice quotes …

It it is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels. Yesterday’s massacre is living proof.  And yesterday’s incident is not the first fragging incident involving a Muslim taking out his fellow U.S. soldiers.

{…}

This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.

{…}

The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They’re inside the fort, and it’s time for the insanity to stop.

First of all, I am resisting an urge to say “Pot, meet kettle” after reading that last statement.  May the Lord forgive me for even thinking that.

Secondly, if this were isolated, in and of itself, I would not be too incensed.  But when you find a major news organization strongly implying the same thing, even going so far as to suggest special screenings for Muslim members of our armed forces, and either implicitly or explicity saying that we have to watch out for the “scary Muslims” in our military, then this is too much.

Much more was said in the aftermath of this tragedy, but you’ll have to search the intertubes for yourself.

What happened at Fort Hood is a tragedy of senseless violence.  I grieve for the fallen and those who remain on this earth.   I pray they will all be reunited in the Resurrection.

To use that tragedy to point fingers at an entire segment of the population and imply that they’re loyalties to the nation are suspect is simply beyond the pale, even for these folks.

Go Read This Right Now!

I mean it!  Hie thee hence!

From JX, a self-described 20-something/male/progressive evangelical/seminary student/minister/musician/gay

Here’s a teaser … READ IT AND GO!

Yesterday I heard two people with whom I work very closely insist that folks “decide” to become gay because it’s a “cool” thing to do. Where the hell is this fairy-tale world that they’re living in??? Because I would love to be there! This is one I haven’t really heard before, but they were absolutely convinced that it happens. Of course, I had to sit there in silence rather than speak up for myself and the many others whose deep pain and frustration is trivialized and mocked by this safe attitude that homosexuality is some sort of “fad,” like crocks or Hannah Montana. I say this is a safe attitude to them, because it depersonalizes the issue and lowers it to a place where one thinks she or he can just tell the person dealing with it to “get over it” and “snap out of it.”  When will people realize how bad this hurts, how NOT cool we think it is, and how dehumanizing it is to speak of gays and lesbians in such terms. Loving our neighbor implies that we should not mock them or trivialize their gravest struggles.

Why is it that secular institutions must consistently lead the way in civil rights and equality? How embarassing, and how utterly impotent as a moral and ethical influence is the community who follows Jesus Christ.

The Root of All Evil

Hat-tip to Balloon-Juice, my new favorite non-religious blog ….

Page One Q reports:

In a September 25th blog post titled ‘The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex’, Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America’s sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of gay unions.

“Our crisis is a symptom, not the cause,” writes Michael Heath. “I am not saying I know whether this financial crisis is God’s judgment or not. It is not for me to know that definitively.”

So once again it’s The Geeeyyys (as Sistah Girl, herself a geeeyyy calls all of us LGBT folks) that are the root of all evil in this country.  I’m sorry I thought it was the love of money.  Where did I get that from?

Look up I Timothy 6:10

More and more more I am convinced that many fundamentalists and quite a few so-called evangelicals really don’t know too much about the Bible …

Frank Rich, NYTimes, gets it

There has been a lot of talk about the selection of Sarah Palin as running mate for Republican nominee John McCain.  Frank Rich, Op-Ed columnist for the NYTimes, gets what this is all about.

The main reason McCain knuckled under to the religious right by picking Palin is that he actually believes there is a large army of embittered Hillary loyalists who will vote for a hard-line conservative simply because she’s a woman.  That’s what happens when you listen to the TV news echo chamber.  Not only is the whole premise ludicrous, but it is every bit as sexist as the crude joke McCain notoriously told about Janet Reno, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

It is obvious this faithful lady and mother of five is being used by the Republican party to appeal to the religious right.  This choice has been called “irresponsible” by one particular prominent lady, whose husband I had the privilege of working for during the first six months of my tenure at the investment bank I work for.  I just hope Governor Palin is going into this campaign eyes-wide-open and realizing that her gender and her faith are being used to further the secular political ends of a womanizer.

Red State Culture of Fear

North Carolina, though rather progressive in terms of the South, is what they call a “Red State.” It has conservative leanings and also has a rather large Evangelical population like much of the South. It is a culture that is steeped in religion and spirituality, and in many ways, a totally different world that what we experience in large cities or in the North East USA or the West Coast.

One thing I think that is wonderful is how North Carolina has tried to publicly come to grips with its history of slavery. This I think it has done better than many if not most Southern States. For example, there are pictures in the State Capitol of the first black senators and representatives to the State Legislature, standing alongside their white counterparts. There are signposts all around Raleigh pointing to where this or that local Freedman’s bureau once stood, or where certain notable events happened. There is an exhibit in the Museum of History dedicated to the Civil Right’s movement and how life was under Jim Crow. I have to say that I found the parts talking about segregation neither condemning or nostalgic … it was simply saying “this is how it was.”

Interesting side note: In those areas where there was a sizeable Native American population, the Jim Crow laws called for three sets of facilities … “White,” “Colored,” and “Indian.”