Heretic

See??

This is what I was getting at when I point out the need for the separation of Church and State.

In Pakistan, extremist Muslims killed about 80 worshipers of a minority religious group known as the Ahmadis.

The Ahmadis are forbidden in the eyes of other Muslims to refer to themselves as members of Islam and may not refer to their places of worship as mosques.

The Ahmadis believe that the (so called) prophet Mohammad predicted a future messiah in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (whoever he might be).

Fundamentalist, extremist Muslims feel that this belief makes the Ahmadis non-Islamic-- not even worthy to be called a fringe group of Islam.

When the Ahmadis try to act like members of the Islamic faith, they committed a crime so horrible that extremists gunned down scores of worshipers today as two suicide bombers added to the carnage.

The Pakistani police tried to control the situation. But the police and the media made sure not to slip up and call the Ahmadis Muslims.

This sort of violence has been on the rise in Pakistan. The extremists claim that even Pakistani law forbids the Ahmadis from claiming to be true Muslims. So, that just further justifies their actions.

And Fundamentalists in the United States want a Christian nation?

The heretic is the one who isn't mainstream while the orthodox believer is the one with the majority and the muscle. Should the tables turn and you one day become a heretic through no fault of your own, will you still want Church and State to mix?

May I Borrow a Dollar?

A few months ago a psychic named Angela Donovan predicted that Obama would turn our country away from the U.S. dollar towards some other currency.

I looked in my wallet today to see if her prophesy had become true, but I don't seem to have any cash on me.

May I borrow a dollar from someone, just to see if the currency has changed yet?

;-)

I Have My Doubts About Mary

While participating in a group conversation, someone expressed to us how the virgin birth of Jesus never sounded quite right to her growing up.

During my religious days, I never gave the issue much thought. It was a miracle. That was that. The Holy Ghost planted the seed in Mary's womb. What's so hard to understand about that?

Then someone else brought up the point that teen-age pregnancies are highest among the most religious regions of the United States.

She then pointed out how odd it was for Fundamentalists to believe that abstinence only programs can work when Mary still got pregnant as a virgin.

Oops!

Then the originator of this topic quipped:

Well . . . I have my doubts about Mary.

Yup.

Me, too . . . me, too.

The Sovereign Lord over America

I ran across another one of those crazy e-mail messages that I sometimes get.

Here are some quotes from it:

Since assuming office, President Obama has consistently misrepresented this country's religious heritage and our commitment to Christianity.

On his first trip abroad, Barack Hussein Obama told the Turkish Parliament: "Although we have a large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Who is the "we," the president refers to? According to a 2009 survey, 62% of his fellow citizens believe America is a Christian nation.

Another quote:

Look at the currency in your wallet, Mr. President. Do the bills say "In God We Trust," or "In Allah We Trust," or "In the Ideals and Values That Bind Us As a Nation We Trust"?

Listen to our national Anthem, which contains the stirring words, "Then conquer we must when our cause it is just. And this be our motto, In God Is Our Trust." (Even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal in the land, just ruled "In God We Trust" is constitutional.)

President Obama can hardly leave the White House without tripping over monuments to our Judeo-Christian heritage.

And the quote that really caught my eye:

For the first time in our history, atheists recently met with White House officials. No one knows if the president popped in to greet the God denying atheists. It was just one more in a series of moves that are apparently designed to de-Christianize America. Frightening when you consider the list of blessings and cursing associated with whether or not our country honors God listed in Deuteronomy 28!

And the goal of the e-mail:

Please consider signing our online petition reminding our President that this IS a Christian nation and urging him to once again acknowledge that the God of the Bible is the Sovereign Lord over America.

The problems with this whole thing?

• Fundamentalist Christians don't realize the danger in making our country a theocracy. Should it become fully Christian, what sort of "Christian" will it be? Will being the wrong kind of Christian become a crime? Will non-Fundamentalist Christians lose rights because they don't deserve basic freedoms? Are non-Fundamentalists lower than other human life? But what happens when the government stops liking your kind of Christian? What happens when the face of Fundamentalism changes and leaves you behind?

• Fundamentalist Christians don't realize that this nation is not (and was not) meant to be a theocracy. Read a little bit of your Constitution sometime. Oh . . . I'm sorry . . . so you haven't read any of that document either, huh? (OK, OK, that's not fair-- but it's so fun to say . . .)

• Fundamentalist Christians don't realize that "In God We Trust" and "One Nation Under God" were *not* always on our money or in our pledge. Congress didn't add these mottoes until the mid 1950s. Why didn't the Founding Fathers establish this precedent if they were so pious and religious while supposedly meaning for this to be a Christian nation?

• Fundamentalist Christians don't realize that atheists can run for office, too. Though some states may still outlaw atheists from running for public office on paper, this can be corrected with a quick visit to an appeals court. This freedom for an American citizen to run for office holds true for Muslims, Jews, Mormons, as well as all other religious groups and ethnic races who are American Citizens*. And it's not necessary to swear on the Bible to take office, either. That's just a tradition.

Say it with me: ˈsi-tə-zən

• Fundamentalist don't realize that the curses in Deuteronomy 28 do not apply to us. If you're Christian, they don't apply because that was to the people of Israel back in the bronze age or something like that. The United States is not Israel. And if you're non-Christian, then Deuteronomy 28 never mattered to anyone.

This mindless drive to Christianize our nation bothers me deeply. The drive to make everyone adhere to "Christian" values . . . to force everyone to be as religious as you are by force of law . . . such a drive is reminiscent of despotism and hate.

This kind of Fundamentalism is hate hiding under a Christian blanket.

* As for "citizens" who commit acts of terrorism against the nation in which they live-- such people don't deserve the rights of citizenship in my opinion. I feel that statement should go without saying . . . but someone might think I support the citizenship of anyone who commits a terrorist act or is involved in some plot against the United States. Well, nope, I don't. Absolutely not.

The only thing that person deserves is jail.

"I Don't Hate God" or "Hay is for Horses"

Sometimes when fundamentalists openly criticize atheists, they claim that we hate god.

As though we are enemies or something-- like we're in league with satan to help oppose god's divine plan. As if to say that we want people to join us in hell.

If there is a hell, well . . . hell . . . I don't wanna go there. But I don't believe there is a hell. So, I'm not trying to make anyone else go there, either.

As with god, atheists tend to not believe that satan exists, either. So . . . it's hard to be purposefully aligned with an entity that you don't think exists.

Atheists are usually adaemonic, too. Unless, of course, you're an atheist that is into Unix or Linux. In that case, daemons are quite real!

Is adaemonic even a word?

Humor me for a moment and picture a barn that is closed and has no windows.

Is a horse in that barn?

If I don't believe a horse is actually in the barn, does that mean I hate horses?

Hey-- I'm just sayin' . . .