What would Jerry Falwell have made of this?

Lightning damages Jesus statue

Does this mean that God hates Jesus? God hates nuns? Pilgrims? People who climb stairs while praying?
(via Ricky, via Mike)

Jerry Falwell Dead

Jerry Falwell collapsed this morning and apparently never regained consciousness.

Once In a Lifetime

Salon.com published an interesting piece today by Gary Kamiya, titled How Bush helped the GOP commit suicide, which is largely based on the results of a long-term study by the Pew Research Center which shows Americans are turning away from the Republican party (and, though, not necessarily turning to the Democratic party instead).

The Iraq War, regressive taxation, Enron, Katrina, and scandal after scandal after scandal -- there are many reasons to blame Bush, Cheney and Rove for recent GOP tribulations, but there are also structural issues at work.

The Republican party as long relied on intolerant right-wing Christians to turn out their vote, without giving that crucial base much in return. It was easy for the GOP to put off this group by blaming the evil liberals for their own lack of action on abortion and "family values" issues back when the Democrats still had some power in DC, but once Bush and Republicans took over all three branches of government, they didn't have that excuse anymore. And what we saw was that the real problem was a lack of support for the Republican base's extreme positions on those issues. No one wants to live in a world of James Dobson's making -- probabaly not even James Dobson, if he was really being honest about it. Or Jerry Falwell, or Ted Haggard, or any of the rest of the flabby, white men who claim moral superiority over the rest of us. These are people who live in the shattered remains of glass houses with their third wives and secret lovers and offshore bank accounts while they preach conservative values to the rest of us.

In the meantime, the rest of us go about life. And the rest of us are, by and large, good people. We're Democrats and Republicans, Christians and non-Christians. And we're starting to figure some of this stuff out. Just because George Bush mumbles something about Jesus once in a while doesn't mean that he's a good Christian man, or that the Republican agenda is a Christian agenda. But we're not there yet, as demostrated by this disturbing tidbit in Kamiya's article:

The survey does not paint a uniformly flattering picture of America. A scary 43 percent of Americans think torture can often or sometimes be justified -- perhaps a tribute to the work of "24" creator and Rush Limbaugh pal Joel Surnow. In a singularly telling finding, 45 percent of those who identified themselves as liberal Democrats said torture was never justified, compared to 18 percent of conservative Republicans. These contrasting responses should be deeply troubling to traditional conservatives; they show how badly their movement has degenerated under Gingrich and Bush. When did being a conservative start meaning signing off on torture? Isn't there a ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" in the Eighth Amendment of some old document drawn up by some geezers in powdered wigs that conservatives are supposed to care passionately about? And what would Jesus think about torture? Apparently being a conservative no longer means believing in a transcendental morality.

Torture, people? Really? Have you seriously thought about this, read about it, prayed about it, discussed it with your mom and your preacher and your philosophy prof and your kids and decided, yeah, torture -- that's what we need? I don't think so. I think y'all have been letting Karl Rove get to you a little bit too much. I suspect if you really think about this, America, you'll realize that torture is not a place a Great Nation goes. We're better than that. We don't have to go there.

We might be stuck with this twisted, immoral administration for another 665 days (at most), but we don't have to sling ourselves down there in the gutter with them. Let's not go there, OK?

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god! ...what have I done?

Finally, an Evangelical Christian Sees the Light!

I don't know if any of my friends consider themselves to be evangelical, but I certainly have some friends who are hard-core Christians. And even though some of them agree that mixing politics and religion is not good for Christianity (in much the same way as it has been bad for Islam), none of them seem at all inclined to do anything about it.

I am alarmed by the activities of the Jerry Falwells and James Dobsons of the world, and people of their ilk not only make me less and less willing to identify myself as a Christian, but they also make me wonder how much damage they'll do to Christianity before they're done. However, since I no longer belong to a Christian community, all I can do is watch in horror.

But the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd is an evangelical who has seen past the next election, and he's preaching a message that is not what you'd necessarily expect to hear from the pulpit (the article is also available after the jump):

Sermons like Mr. Boyd's are hardly typical in today's evangelical churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal debates now going on in some evangelical colleges, magazines and churches. A common concern is that the Christian message is being compromised by the tendency to tie evangelical Christianity to the Republican Party and American nationalism, especially through the war in Iraq.

Brian D. McLaren elaborates:

More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right. You cannot say the word 'Jesus' in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can't say the word 'Christian,' and you certainly can't say the word 'evangelical' without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.

Or as John Aravosis puts it:

Christians are feeling oppressed because their own wacko evangelical fringe has so abused Christ as to make him a bad word. When I was a kid, it was a badge of honor to be a regular church-goer - it meant you came from a good family. Nowadays, if you say you're going to church on Sunday, my first thought is usually "is he going to hate me because I'm gay?"

If you're Christian, I suggest you really think about that, because it's not just gay people who feel increasingly alienated by the new politicized Christianity of Karl Rove, James Dobson and the Dittoheads. And as John points out, the result can be pretty much the opposite of what Evangelical Christians are supposed to try to accomplish:

America is less tolerant towards religion. And that's because the religious right has used religion as a sword against everyone it disagrees with. And that creates enemies. Not just for the religious right, but for the God on whose behalf they claim to speak.

Put another way, if God is the intolerant, bellicose bastard that George Bush says he is, why should I worship Him?

The Right Implodes

I've had a busy couple of days -- meetings, appointments, errands, more meetings... and I never did make it to the grocery store today, and I only finally make it home at around 10pm. I'm not complaining -- it's all good stuff -- but I sure did miss a lot news-wise!

Last I heard, we were still on the Delay collapse, and maybe there was a glimmer of a story about McCain speaking at Falwell's "university"... but when I took a quick look around tonight... wha???

John McCain? Maverick no more. Rather, he can't decide which wingnut to brown-nose next! And all that campaign finance reform silliness? Oh, no -- that wasn't what he meant at all!!

But that's nothing...

George Bush? Plame leaker. No kidding.

I'm speechless.