We’ve evolved a mutant faith called the Church of America. It’s a potent blend of Calvinism, end-times theology, machismo, and consumerist selfishness. The largest concentrations of believers can be found in Texas.

surely they’re all a bunch of hypocritical loons who just need to feel better about themselves than everyone around them so they latch ont a dogma without regard for reality.

Oops. I forgot xenophobia and jingoism. Silly silly me.

This snake-oil simpleton’s invocation reminds me of a scene in the film MASH, when Frank Burns (Robrt Duvall) kneels and begins praying aloud as the other surgeons look on incredulously.

“Father, our heart breaks for America,” he said, leading the crowd in a prayer. As a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.

Perry is referring to the sandy-haired, blue-eyed white Jesus of Archie and Edith Bunker.

We pray for our nation’s leaders, for parents, for pastors, for generals, for governors, that you would inspire them.

Reminds me of Catholic Church where the Priest always gives an honorable mention to “Our Military” – that they may do God’s inspired “work”.

If there were a God…If there were a Just God… Fakers, Charlatans, Murderers, Child Molesters, Warmongers for profit, Moneychangers would be smitten in an instant by a bolt of lightning.

“When Christian right-wingers say that America has “strayed,” I always wonder what era they believe we more closely hewed to Christian ideals.

The 1950s. Ask them. It’s their near-unanimous answer. For these folks, the new origin myth starts with WWII, and the new Founding Fathers are the Greatest Generation. When was “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance? When was the right to bear arms interpreted as an individual right? When did those who were not white know their place?

So what these bible thumping morons are saying is that we can pray to a unseem entity and them sit back and everything will be alright? Maybe if they put down their book, get off of their asses and do something positive, things might begin to change. I’m almost positive that reading out of their book while putting the screws to the people is not what their entity would have approved. Texas is burning, maybe the prayer thing ain’t working out for you.

Apparently, in the 930 days since Barack Obama became president, the United States has slipped into a dangerous agnosticism, if not outright atheism.

If only….

“As a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.”

What is it about this guy that he won’t perform unless he is worshipped? For an all-knowing, all-powerful god, he is awfully thin-skinned and emotionally needy.

It might more accurately be called the “Church of Fascism,” except that fascism is a naughty word.

“I always wonder what era they believe we more closely hewed to Christian ideals.” Same here. They’ve been crying about this forever, but I’ve never heard an answer to that question. I’d love to see people start pinning them down on this.

As conservatives, they are always lamenting the loss of the “good old days”™, facts and reality don’t matter. There is always a mythical time when things were perfect. A time that, not uncoincidentally, none of them lived during.

“We pray for our nation’s leaders, for parents, for pastors, for generals, for governors, that you would inspire them.”

Notice that the President of the United States is not included as one of the “nations leaders”.

That’s like trying to pin down helium.

Thanks for the answer to “when.” We should point out that that was when God gave us strong unions.

I dunno, quite a few of these assholes were alive during the 1950s–the problem isn’t lack of personal experience, it’s that they’re fucking delusional.

Oh, Lordy. And here I thought we only had to slash $4trillion in spending for the elderly, sick and weak to get back on the path of righteousness.

Governor Goodhair’s prayers for the end of drought in Texas haven’t worked out so well.

Must be because of that godless Kenyan usurper in D.C.
~

What they fail to realize is that if their prayers were actually answered they would all be taken out in an intense lightening storm. Best if they pray for intelligence.

Rick Perry’s Sick Prayer Circus

Is the budget fixed yet? Have women stopped having sex and unwanted pregnancies yet? Has the nation been washed over with god’s glorious bigotry, setting back the march of gay rights by centuries? Has ‘ObamaCare’ been repealed? What, with all the hateful woofing and howling erupting from Mount Perry in Texas—its ashen plume casting a shadow of ignorance over the whole DUMMY BELT—one would have expected some momentum by now.

But alas, Homer-sexyals are still a-marryin’ in New York. ‘ObamaCares’ ain’t goin’ no-whares, and Dummy-Belt studs are still layin’ down with Dummy-Belt gals at record rates, mixin’ up their Dummy-Belt bodily fluids and plantin’ Dummy-Belt buns in the oven …

Article:
Rick Perry’s Sick Prayer Circus

Sure! If we’re talking about the 1950s or even 1940s but there are lotsa “good old days”™ and some of them go back centuries when life expectancy was in the thirties and many more infants died than reached their first birthdays. But even if we are talking about more recent times, never forget that these same people would never give up their cell phones or their cable tv or their air conditioning. They just want us to regress socially while benefiting from the evolution of technology, (while simultaneously badmouthing science).
On second thought … you said it best after all…..

Oh, don’t fool yourself. These folks want a return to a less-Catholic Middle Ages.

And, during the 1950s, Americans had bigger families that any point during the 20th century. The nation’s birth rate, which peaked in 1957, exceeded that of all but a handful of countries today. Christian fundies would love to see those days return.

Welcome to Duggarland, population: unsustainable!

They should be careful what they wish for. The Middle Ages weren’t known for long life expectancy.

I guess the Tower of Babel Theme Park was closed for repairs this weekend and Rick decided to entertain his fellow babble thumpers with his standup routine. *g*

At least Palin didn’t turn up to wow us all with her ability to speak in tongues (allegedly English)…

As well, otto, we supposedly have “free wil” but will be damned if we use it.

One wonders just who was “created” in whose “image”?

I remember how difficult it was to add the “under God” part to the Pledge, my class had to work on it for several weeks and we were constantly upbraided by a certain teacher for breaking into gales of laughter when, inevitably, one of us would screw up.

Then we were shown films of atomic explosions, told we would be safe under our desks, and had to practice that procedure until we were properly serious and “grown-up” about it.

That was when I began to wonder if some so-called adults were out of their minds?

I’m still wondering.

DW

True, but surely God would have mercy on His faithful, just like he did during the Black Death.

That picture is so phallic… look at that giant dick head and those tiny little fuzzy balls.

Hard to say it more succinctly than Chris Rock:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325537/quotes?qt=qt0186939

To go back to the 50s is what they would like. Women knew their “place”, no one could have a legal abortion, blacks had no rights at all, everything was segregated and old white men ruled. I lived through it. Even if it had been an ideal time – which goodness knows it wasn’t – why do these fundies think that you can go BACK? Time move forward whether you like it or not.
They are very ignorant.

Why Alice, One of these days, ONE OF THESE DAYS!

BAM! Straight the the Moon, Alice. Straight to the moon!

Exactly.

When Christian right-wingers say that America has “strayed,” I always wonder what era they believe we more closely hewed to Christian ideals.

You know, even though I’m short on Christian apologetics, I really wonder (in a Robin Williams moment) whether Perry and his ilk would really like Christianity upfront.

You know, the one advocated by Jesus, who forgave a woman of adultery and sexual sin, who didn’t apparently think that abortion or homosexuality were problems worth mentioning, but who chased moneychangers out of the Temple with a whip and who said some pretty un-encouraging things about the afterlife prospects of the Donald Trumps and Koch brothers of his world.

Yeah, that guy.

-stewartm

Cross-posted from Progressive Blue:

“(Rick) Perry: Turn to God for answers to nation’s woes” (0.00 / 0)

Yeah, Mr. Perry — and while you’re at it, please explain to God why you turned down the opportunity for part-time workers in Texas to rightfully receive the unemployment compensation benefits they’ve rightfully earned — benefits that might have kept me from sleeping in a gazebo while trying to finish school…

No wonder Pete Peterson’s private equity firm bought into the inventory company that was my only means of employment (due to advancing physical illness) — they knew a sweet deal when they saw it.

That’s my siphoned blood out there…

Oh well

http://youtu.be/knZltCtkedk

You see, Mr. Perry — you need to try to understand that you’re not the only one who talks to God out there…

and that, speaking only for myself, I remain an unapologetically progressive follower of christ, my savior, my redeemer, my friend.

There seems to be an historical trend whereby the children of an important generation venerate their parents to a mythical level. For example, the children of the original New England Puritan immigrants did this. The Baby Boomers did the same for the Greatest Generation.

Part of their problem with the facts, I’ve noticed, is a difficulty to get out of their own skin, to empathize, to consider other realities. Because I live in a semi-rural part of a red state and because of my hobbies (hunting, shooting and fishing), a good number of my friends and acquaintances are of the Tea Party, Christian Conservative, (fake) Libertarian part of the political spectrum. In talking with them over the years, I’ve noticed among them a serious inability to consider things from other perspectives.

Take guns and government funds, for example. Most of them simply can’t see how the right of someone else to want freedom from from gun violence is legitimate. They can’t see how the exercise of a right that is important to them might infringe on the rights of others. It just doesn’t register. Or, they are all in favor of government money for things they find important, but get red in the face when funds go to things or people they disagree with. Because it is so hard for them to empathize, the only conclusion that makes any sense to them is that those who are interested in things they oppose must be irredeemably evil “socialists” who are out to eradicate them, a response that only exacerbates their narrowness and defensiveness of their worldview.

Why? Because they feel scared and powerless. And when this is your constant psychological state, there is no room for empathy. Considering new data, different ideas, and putting yourself in another’s shoes requires a level of confidence and emotional and socioeconomic security that they simply don’t have. Fear literally keeps them from learning (see Carl Rogers’ 19 Propositions on this effect).

And this shit Perry orchestrated does nothing but play on those fears and insecurities. His was a thoroughly exploitive act.

Hey, Rick. Do something productive, like get a haircut and a comb out. Then, go fornicate yourself.

And he asked the top income bracket to pay around 90% taxes on anything over a quarter of a million dollars (if I remember this correctly). And he asked corporations to build factories in the US.

Keep praying for rain, buddy. Maybe God is telling YOU something.

Quite possibly. But since large families are no longer needed for farm and factory like they once were and therefore children are more of an economic drain than benefit, I suspect they would like to see these larger families subsidized. Money for me but not for thee, seems to be the refrain.

Yeah, that “free will” thing is a rigged game: do exactly as you are told or burn in Hell forever, and the “choice” is yours. So where does the free part come in? :)

As far as the who made whom or projection bit, it seems that the monotheistic god was a useful creation for human civilization. This type of god provides the central authority needed in such hierarchical and classed societies that depend on intensive agriculture. It sure helps keep folks in line (see above).

I caught the tail end of duck and cover in the ’70s. And I remember the drug equivalent of the atomic attack films: if you take any drug ever, you will throw yourself out of an open window. Have you read Bernard Brodie’s explanation for the real, psychological purpose of bomb shelters?

Amen!

Anybody else seeing Rick Perry as Cliff Robertson’s character (the President) in Escape from L. A.?

And what we see here is why Romney is in so much trouble. The Republican establishment/wall street support him strongly, but the evangelical wing of the GOP isn’t going to vote for him in the primaries. The christianistas will turn out in droves, just as they always do, and Mittens will be toast. It makes no difference that the MOTUs want him and that the media considers him a “viable option”, they cannot compete with the magic man in the sky who tells his followers that the LDS church is a cult and that a Mormon blasphemer cannot be in the White House.

Amen!

I grew up in the South, were I learned early on that folks like Rick Perry were about as religious as Elmer Gantry. They’re standard snake oil salesmen trying to hustle the gullible for votes and money. They’ve been around nearly forever …

… except that fascism is a naughty word.

Cuts a little too close to the bone, dontcha know. It’s what we might call and uncomfortable truth.

Wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.

We’re there!

These people are “old testament Christians”, as crazy as that sounds. They don’t really believe anything Christ is purported to have said–they believe things like an eye for an eye, and plucking out that remaining eye if it offends. You know, really inspiring stuff like that.

Or one where they were children under the age of 6. (Or possibly one where their parents were under the age of 6. The way you remember the world being when you were a child is not the way it actually was, and as an adult he should be aware of that.)

Your flag deal won’t get you into heaven anymore nowadays, we’ll have to wait for the Groupon.

Seriously, this is why funding for critical national infrastructure must include investment in medical research. We simply have to discover a cure for gibbering lunacy like this before the infection destroys our country.

I’d like to see the ‘paid avoidance areas’ of Shockwave Rider. These guys could live in the 1950s for as long as they want – but they’d lose their computers, their microwaves, their CD and DVD players and iPods and cellphones, their color TVs and any VCRs they might still have, their air-conditioned power-everything cars with the stereo sound systems and heated seats…. In short, they’d have to live as people actually lived in the 1950s, not as they think it was.

And their god still has not brought rain to Texas.

You’ve gotta admit at least one thing: the coloreds sure were better behaved back in the day. You didn’t have to hear all that awful rap music, and didn’t have to compete with them for jobs, either. Ah, the good old days…

They should also have to be black and live in Mississippi.

rick perry–really hate a judgmental Texan ass. rick perry seems to infer anyone without an ‘r’ after his or her name is a non-Christian. w bush said God wated him to run for pres. perhaps perry and bush have a different, inferior sense of God. My prayer, “my heart breaks for America because of all the republican traitors who signed an oath to others rather than keeping their one and only oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Uhm,Gov. Perry, seeing as you claim this personal contact with the Almighty, would you ask Her why She won’t rain on Texas?
Or, is She not returning your calls?

I bet that if you asked Rick Perry, and any of the people who attended the Response rally, if they believe that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, they’d all shout “Yes!!! Hallelujah!!!”

Which makes one wonder how one can possibly stray from an all-encompassing omnipresent God? And is this even really possible since they also believe that God is omnipotent?

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. An atheist believes nothing of this, but those at the Response rally do, as do most (if not all) people in any religion around the world, especially monotheistic ones. Ask them. Ask them if their God (or Allah, or whatever name given) is holy, all-powerful, all-knowing and all-everywhere. They’ll respond with “Yes.” None want to think their God is unholy. None want to think their God is weak. None want to think their God is clueless.

And yet, none of these religious folks have any problem with thinking that God is absent, that everyone except for righteous ones like themselves have strayed, that there is even a place for those who have strayed called hell, meaning that they believe that there is gap after gap after gap in the all-encompassing holiness of God, an all-encompassing holiness that knows no limits. Because, for what these religious folks believe to be actually true, there must be something with a will more powerful than God’s, something more powerful telling their omnipotent, omnipresent God “keep out, stay away, you’re not welcome here.”

When Jesus walked the earth, someone told him “you’re not welcome here,” and we all know what happened after that. The other day we saw some present-day righteous people, based on whom they invited to speak at a right-wing religious rally in Houston, telling everyone not invited “you’re not welcome here,” making me conclude that Jesus would have been unwelcome at their rally, either as a speaker or attendee. The Jesus, who taught not to judge, because in judging others we only judge ourselves, would have been judged as unworthy to grace the presence of all those righteous religious fundamentalists meeting in Houston the other day. And yet, the almighty God, being omnipresent (and Spirit, as Jesus stated and demonstrated), was there, although everyone present was unaware. Go figure.

Perry is more obnoxious and stupid than either Palin or Bachmann. What a bimbo!

If this doesn’t make you want to go out and work for Obama this coming year, remind me to thank you when this sleazy huckster Rick Perry becomes President.

You mean all the messes we’re in are because there is a black Muslim in the White House? It seems to me the previous occupant of the White House was a white Christian who prayed for guidance and claimed he got it. How did that all work out?

they are a bunch of old time “bible revivalist” who traded a tent for a stadium. Remind me of the 1700 Purists also

and carrying a gun also

Half of them are probably married to their cousins

Yeh we strayed from wearing “white sheets” and burning heritics at the stake.

Ricky should be praised for mastery of understated hate speech.

Don’t forget their fervent belief in the idol of American “exceptionalism”.
That’s another central tenet for them.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”–Jesus, Matthew 6:5-7