Saturday, June 20, 2009

Blaming the Godless Messenger


Recently a fundie accused me of continuously focusing on media reports of the hideous acts committed by Christians, both clergy and lay people. You know, the murder of the abortion doctor, the acts of Fred Phelps, the molestation of kids by pastors, the torture of children by devout parents, etc.

Evidently, the fact that clergy, men of God, vicars of Christ, and the deluded sheep they herd frequently commit atrocities and obscene acts of abuse and degradation on their fellow man in the name of God/Jesus or to fend off Satan, wasn’t his primary concern. It’s the reporting of it that irked him … as though I singlehandedly might give religion a bad name (religion does that all by itself with no help from me.)

Invariably the old canard pops up:
“ Any one who calls themselves a Christian who perpetrates those acts is “not a True Christian.”
But this is nonsense. We have been amused and disgusted by this tact for as long as these US Christian fundamentalist sects have been holding themselves up as the arbiters of who is / isn’t a Christian, in spite of what scripture and Jesus himself identifies as prerequisites for being “saved” / labeled Christian.

No, the condemnation, the complaint, this fundie has is with me, the messenger. Better these “fake” Christian’s acts not be held up to scrutiny and dragged into the light of public opinion. Better the self appointed inquisitors of who is / isn’t Christian be spared the embarrassment and indignity of having to explain away, apologize, deny how a doctrine that claims a monopoly on morality and goodness breeds such disgusting behavior.

The media is full of these reports of theist attrocity. It’s a weekly if not daily occurrence. A recent example is a forced exorcism on a child by his mother who handcuffed him and denied him food for three days in order to purge "the demon" from his body. Here’s the whole story: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=131511&catid=3

Ask a fundie: “Without religious superstitions, from where would such a delusion leading to such abuse have originated????” …their silence is deafening.

Whether it’s hyper-religiosity caused by mental disease, or simply a minister taking advantage of a child by using his shaman like authority to intimidate, these acts are there. They are real. They are commited by the devout, the followers of a mythic man-god, the readers of and adherents to scripture. They justify the act in the name of scripture.

When the day arrives that an atheist tortures or murders her own child in the name of “NO God” or “NO Satanic possession”; or a renowned atheist figure rapes a child and uses his atheism as leverage to get into that kid’s pants and intimidate him into silence, I promise to report it. Until then, don’t blame the godless messenger for the copious grotesque acts of the religiously deluded. It comes with theist territory.

8 comments:

  1. The link in this article references an exorcism that was reported on 6/17/09. Sorry... I should have used an theist abuse story that was more recent. Here's one from 6/18:

    "A minister who served Spanish-speaking congregations in Council Bluffs and Lincoln has been charged with sexually abusing a child parishioner and forcing an adult woman to have sex with him."

    The child was 11 years old.

    here's the link with the whole story of this fine Christian leader: http://www.omaha.com/article/20090618/NEWS01/706189831

    Likely by the time you read this, there will be another such example...or ten!!! Its hard to keep up with the God Fearing Felons of Christ.

    Hump

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.omaha.com/article/20090618/
    NEWS01/706189831

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm curious, where do you meet/find/engage/debate these fundies? Fundie blogs?

    Ever since MSN closed down their chat rooms (and the buzzen religion rooms are aways empty of people whenever I check), I've haven't seen much real time and frankly, I have very little incentive to go to a fundie blog (Closest I come is Joyce's liberal theological blog, and she's hasn't been all that active lately, either)

    - Fastthumbs

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  4. Hump - I appreciate the hard work and reporting you do. "You Godless Messenger You!" @:-D) It is funny how religious do not get it. Their ignorance, their religions push for ignorance breeds new generations of criminals in the name of the God of True Ignoranuses.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fast:
    Yes, Christian blogs are my primary spource of material.
    This particular fundie happens to be "Krutches". He gets very little activity, and thus gives me his full attention..along with an astounding number of bizarre and absurd religious platitudes.

    the internet abounds with these blogs. I find the least educated/least sophisticated xtians offer the best material


    No Guy,
    Thanks for your kind words.

    Hump

    ReplyDelete
  6. HH,
    Yikes... that's some list.

    and now for the list of atheist parents who have been identified as having abused or murdering their children in the name of no-god:

    1.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, people never seemed to be concerned about Christians committing atrocious acts. Just that people notice them. Something not right about that.

    ReplyDelete

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