They are by no means unique or exclusive. To begin, let's watch as Sharia Christian clerics are reminded by Chester the Molester's wife that they endorsed her husband just six weeks ago.
Two of the TaliBaptists did, to their credit, withdraw.
Be it the primary, runoff, or general election, these Cotton State churches have listed themselves as unsafe for children. The percentage of self-appointed disciples of Christ bailing out, mentioned above, is too low but still a good start. Like their shepherds, the flock is experiencing a wide degree of cognitive dissonance. Polling results in recent days have Chester down by four and up by ten.
Update: As HuffPo (hat tip Eschaton) notes, the concept of forgiveness for any and all sins is another one of the grand excuses made by Christians for Christians.
Meanwhile DC Republicans, more mindful of how this might influence their 2018 prospects, are keeping all options on the table, including the nuclear one.
Alabama has been right there alongside Mississippi as the worst of these United States for several generations now. The plague of ignorance has spread, however, and can no longer be contained.
Whatever happens -- whether Moore is elected or not, seated in the Senate or expelled in a vote by his peers -- is of little consequence at this point. Oh, Democrats may be able to make political hay of it in 2018, but they would fare better if they did not have their own Harvey Weinstein/Kevin Spacey/Hollywood, etc. problems to try to distract from.
The takeaway is that this scourge is not confined to the Heart of Dixie. It's a feature of Christian extremism, and we in Texas and much of the rest of the country have our own terrorist cells. They're stronger in the South, but no region of the country is immune.
Forget for just a moment about Roy Moore and Alabama and Dan Patrick and Texas and all the rest of the sanctimonious Christian hypocrites and places one could name, and ponder: Why did the majority of white women vote for Trump, when almost no black women or Latinas did so? (Clue: it wasn't the Russians, or Facebook, or even the damned liberal media.) The same question holds for Wendy Davis in 2014; how does the champion of women's reproductive rights, under assault like no other in this day, get 32% of the white women's vote running against Greg Abbott?
It is not nearly all the fault of these women, to be certain; most of them were simply voting the way their husbands told them to. Similarly, it would be too convenient to heap all the blame on the Jesus Freaks, or even the demise of the Fairness Doctrine that gave us Rush Limbaugh in 1988 and Fox News in 1996, which has poisoned the minds of people living in Alabama and rural Texas and elsewhere, convincing them that voting for a child-molesting Republican is better than voting for a Democrat. Even that is a bit of a cop-out.
I would submit that there is a longstanding culture of toxic masculinity in this country that only a majority electorate of people of color, and most specifically women of color, can deliver us from the evil thereof. Testosterone poisoning pervades the rationale for war, corporate competition (take note of the battlefield jargon in your memos and email) and in recreational activities, notably bloodsport like football and WWF. It's quite obviously behind the menace of rape culture and the unspoken, unreported sexual abuse contagion that's finally being outed all across the nation.
It's at the root of homophobia, bullying, and gun violence.
Cultures take a very long time to fix. Maybe we've taken a few halting steps down that road to recovery in recent days. There will be some bumps, and those who fear change will push back and fight back. It's always been that way.
Change we must, and there's no time to waste.
Update: "Methinks thou doth Brotest too much".
The wife of embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore sought Monday to draw attention to an August letter from 53 Alabama pastors supporting him in the GOP primary as allegations of sexual misconduct build ahead of next month's special election.
The letter, published on AL.com and highlighted on Kayla Moore's Facebook page, praises the candidate for his “immovable convictions for Biblical principles” and says he suffered “persecution” for his faith by opposing gay marriage as Alabama's chief justice.
“For decades, Roy Moore has been an immovable rock in the culture wars — a bold defender of the ‘little guy,’ a just judge to those who came before his court, a warrior for the unborn child, defender of the sanctity of marriage, and a champion for religious liberty,” the letter reads.
Two of the TaliBaptists did, to their credit, withdraw.
... Tijuanna Adetunji of the Fresh Anointing House of Worship in Montgomery, said she was not contacted about the letter and did not give permission for her name to be used.
"I was not asked about this story or allegations," Adetunji said.
[...]
Pastor Thad Endicott said he was not contacted about the most recent post from Kayla Moore.
"The list that has recently circulated was evidently copied and pasted from the August endorsements without checking to see if I still endorsed Moore." Endicott, pastor at Heritage Baptist Church, asked that his name be removed from the Moore endorsement.
Moore's campaign did not respond to questions related to the letter or why it was posted with the date and identifying information removed. At least one of the pastors listed as supporting Moore is no longer at the church listed on the letter.
Be it the primary, runoff, or general election, these Cotton State churches have listed themselves as unsafe for children. The percentage of self-appointed disciples of Christ bailing out, mentioned above, is too low but still a good start. Like their shepherds, the flock is experiencing a wide degree of cognitive dissonance. Polling results in recent days have Chester down by four and up by ten.
Update: As HuffPo (hat tip Eschaton) notes, the concept of forgiveness for any and all sins is another one of the grand excuses made by Christians for Christians.
Bruce Register, 87, a retiree from Dothan, Ala, said that spiritually, the whole controversy was moot.
“I really don’t think someone of his character would have done that. And if he had done it, it doesn’t matter in God’s eyes because he’d have been forgiven ...”
Meanwhile DC Republicans, more mindful of how this might influence their 2018 prospects, are keeping all options on the table, including the nuclear one.
Alabama has been right there alongside Mississippi as the worst of these United States for several generations now. The plague of ignorance has spread, however, and can no longer be contained.
Whatever happens -- whether Moore is elected or not, seated in the Senate or expelled in a vote by his peers -- is of little consequence at this point. Oh, Democrats may be able to make political hay of it in 2018, but they would fare better if they did not have their own Harvey Weinstein/Kevin Spacey/Hollywood, etc. problems to try to distract from.
The takeaway is that this scourge is not confined to the Heart of Dixie. It's a feature of Christian extremism, and we in Texas and much of the rest of the country have our own terrorist cells. They're stronger in the South, but no region of the country is immune.
Amidst shocking allegations that Roy Moore pursued relationships with girls ranging in age from 14-18 years old when he was in his 30s, a new poll shows that 37% of evangelicals are “more likely” to vote for Moore, while another 34% say that these allegations make “no difference.” Some of his supporters have upped the ante by saying that even if the allegations are proven true, they won’t think Moore did anything wrong because they didn’t actually have sex and “he was single” at the time.
[...]
Incredulous observers won’t be able to make sense of Moore’s supporters while seeing the allegations only in terms of inappropriate behavior, or even alleged statutory rape. They will miss the point that the problem is actually far more insidious; a feature, not a bug of this subculture.
The allegations are being read by Moore supporters through a lens shaped by the courtship-purity movement promoted by the Biblical Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements widely influential in Christian homeschooling circles. ...
As Kathryn Brightbill tweeted: “It’s not a southern problem, it’s a fundamentalist problem. Girls who are 14 are seen as potential relationship material.”
Forget for just a moment about Roy Moore and Alabama and Dan Patrick and Texas and all the rest of the sanctimonious Christian hypocrites and places one could name, and ponder: Why did the majority of white women vote for Trump, when almost no black women or Latinas did so? (Clue: it wasn't the Russians, or Facebook, or even the damned liberal media.) The same question holds for Wendy Davis in 2014; how does the champion of women's reproductive rights, under assault like no other in this day, get 32% of the white women's vote running against Greg Abbott?
It is not nearly all the fault of these women, to be certain; most of them were simply voting the way their husbands told them to. Similarly, it would be too convenient to heap all the blame on the Jesus Freaks, or even the demise of the Fairness Doctrine that gave us Rush Limbaugh in 1988 and Fox News in 1996, which has poisoned the minds of people living in Alabama and rural Texas and elsewhere, convincing them that voting for a child-molesting Republican is better than voting for a Democrat. Even that is a bit of a cop-out.
I would submit that there is a longstanding culture of toxic masculinity in this country that only a majority electorate of people of color, and most specifically women of color, can deliver us from the evil thereof. Testosterone poisoning pervades the rationale for war, corporate competition (take note of the battlefield jargon in your memos and email) and in recreational activities, notably bloodsport like football and WWF. It's quite obviously behind the menace of rape culture and the unspoken, unreported sexual abuse contagion that's finally being outed all across the nation.
It's at the root of homophobia, bullying, and gun violence.
This is an extremely complex issue with so many layers going back thousands and thousands of years through history and evolution. There is no right answer to solving it and I don't think there ever will be. Education is a powerful tool, teaching boys to be kind and not violent is the step in the right direction.
Too often we define masculine strength by who can blow away the most people, who can flex the most muscle, who can impose their will and inflict the most damage. But this cheapens the real definition of strength and toughness. We respect the toughness of firefighters who rush into burning buildings when others are rushing out.
Police officers and first responders who put their lives on the line, and the men and women of the armed services who show courage under fire, do so not because they're out to prove something but because they steel themselves in the face of danger and face down their fears in service to others. For the same reason, we should respect the toughness and strength of men who challenge the myth that being a real man requires putting up a false front, disrespecting others, and engaging in violent and self-destructing behavior.
Cultures take a very long time to fix. Maybe we've taken a few halting steps down that road to recovery in recent days. There will be some bumps, and those who fear change will push back and fight back. It's always been that way.
Change we must, and there's no time to waste.
Update: "Methinks thou doth Brotest too much".
3 comments:
Per even Christian pollsters like Barna the Religious Right's Southern homeland has divorce and adultery rates above the national average. It's a swamp of hypocrisy.
"Hypocrisy is a bug in the system of civilization." (Link in ending update)
Sounds like Al Franken gets to join the Brotest Brigade.
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