The Week I Wish Wasn’t / the Article I Wish I Didn't Have to Write

Long time readers will know that as a rule I don’t dedicate this blog to news stories per se, religious or secular. I’ll sometimes draw on current events and and use them as a catalyst for my commentaries, but typically I steer clear of playing religious news blog as there are many hundreds of such atheist blogs. I prefer to share my stream of [un?] consciousness and observations on the human condition as driven by religiosity as personal observations and the mood moves me.

Fact is, I don’t want to write this article; I've been putting it off for days. But there is no turning my back on what has been for me one of the most grotesque weeks of American religious idiocy in memory. Camel's have very good memories.

You’d have to have been in a virtual coma not have heard about the inspiring fight waged by sixteen year old Jessica Ahlquist. A Rhode Island high school student who sued to have her school's Judeo-Christian prayer banner removed, she was victorious. The courts found it violated the school prayer prohibition. A reason to celebrate.

In the wake of that decision, Jessica has been threatened with physical harm and death, harassed, bullied and abused in school, in the press, on the radio, and in front of the family’s home by the good Christian folk of Cranston, RI. She has police protection. How dare she work within the legal system to call out a constitutional violation? Apparently lynching, burning, rioting and setting crosses on fire is the preferred Xtian method of letting one’s concerns be heard, not using her right to petition the courts.

Nothing surprising there, it’s the Christian thing to do. Even the florists of that town conspired to refuse deliveries to her from supporters. The Freedom from Religion Foundation is pursuing legal action against them under the Federal Civil Rights Act. The FfRF also awarded her $12,000 in scholarship money, $10,000 of which came from their new “Atheist in a Foxhole Fund” which awards those who put themselves on the line to oppose religious intrusion into government. Learn more contributing to that fund, and about Jessica’s story here: http://www.ffrf.org/

But here’s the worst part. Peter G. Palumbo (D-Xtian) a RI State representative went on local radio to discredit Jessica calling her “an evil little thing.” Needless to say to the sheeple of Cranston this was perceived as confirmation that making life miserable for Jessica and her family was sanctioned by their elected officials. Their comments on radio station pages and news blogs are hysteria filled hateful rants, religious gibberish, pseudo-patriotic outrage, and absurdly stupid misunderstandings of the law.

Rep. Palumbo has refused to apologize or retract his statement. Google him and you’ll find some half-million hits, mostly from outraged freethinking voices. You’ll also easily find his phone number and email address. I encourage you to use them.

If that was the only disgusting example of Christian inhumanity for the week it would be more than enough. But no, this was a banner week. The Kansas State Speaker of the House, Mike O’Neal (R-Xtian), emailed his endorsement of praying for Obama’s death, invoking Psalm 109. Part of the Psalm reads: ”Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.” O’Neal also defends his actions, and refuses to apologize or rescind his email.

How we doing so far, had enough? Wait ... not done yet.

Simultaneous with these events it came to my attention that some years ago Rick Santorum’s wife had a spontaneous abortion due to a massive infection of her uterus. The fetus would have died with or without the antibiotics she was given, and whether or not she had gone into spontaneous labor – which she did. The fetus died a couple of hours later. They brought it home for show and tell with their kids.

Santorum opposes abortion for any reason, even to save the life of the mother. Yet, when confronted with false reports of his wife submitting to induced labor to expel the fetus and save her life, he let this slip: “if that had to be the call, we would have induced labor if we had to,” under the understanding that the fetus was going to die anyway and intervening would save his wife’s life. http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/karen_santorum_did_not_have_an_abortion/

Of course Rick Santorum doesn’t in any way perceive that as an abortion. And in the classic use of the word, it isn’t. It would be, shall we say, agreed-upon-medical-intervention-to- provoke-early-termination-of- the-fetus-in-order-to-save-his-wife’s-life. Never mind that the intervention’s end result would be the same as the common method of abortion as far as that fetus would be concerned and if the fetus could think; to the Santorums this would have been a whole different thing. In fact, at a Catholic hospital in Arizona last year a nun administrator permitted doctors to do exactly what Santorum said they would have done under the virtually same circumstances. The nun was excommunicated for saving the life of the mother of three and not letting God and nature run its course. Santorum is a devout Catholic.

I wasn't my usual self this past week. This religiously induced stupidity, hatred, bigotry, distortion, and hypocrisy by good and true loving Christian politicians took its toll on me. I wanted it to just go away. I hasn't, it won’t. It weighs on me.

Tomorrow starts a new week in Idiot America and with it the promise of more uniquely American crazy religious shit. Maybe I need a drink to prepare myself. Maybe I need a vacation in freethinking and sane Scandinavia.

{Invitation to my loyal readership: while I love getting your emails of encouragement, or just to chat, if you have pertinent comments to share on my articles, things other readers would find interesting, or that adds to the story, I encourage you to read my articles on the actual blog site and posting your comments there. Just click on the subject title in the body of the email you receive and it will take you to the blog. I approve all comments before they are visible on-line. Thanks!- Hump}