Christian conservatives, obviously lacking the courage of their convictions, are playing cute word games, making thinly veiled threats on the life of a United States President instead of coming right out and saying what they clearly mean. Wingnuts, self-styled patriots, Becktarded 9/12-ers and poor spellers of all stripes have been calling for Obama’s blood since long before November 2008.

The latest in passive-aggressive bible-thumping comes in the form of the stickers and t-shirts which read “Pray for Obama, Psalm 109:8.”

Now, Psalm 109:8 is innocuous enough, I suppose. It simply reads:

May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.

However, the problem with citing scripture in ANY situation is that one often ignores the passages before and after the one being cited, which usually add much needed context to the citation. In this case, Psalm 109:9-15 read:

9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.

10 May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven [d] from their ruined homes.

11 May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.

13 May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.

14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

15 May their sins always remain before the LORD,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Such lovely Christian sentiment.

As Frank Schaeffer so eloquently put it:

…this is trolling for assassins. This is serious business.

It’s un-American. It’s unpatriotic. And it goes to show that the religious right, the Republican far right, have coalesced into a group who truly want American revolution. If it turns out to be blood in the streets and death, so be it. It’s not funny stuff anymore. They cannot be dismissed as just crazies on the fringe. It only takes one.

Now, imagine for just a moment, someone wearing a shirt or sporting a bumper sticker that said “Pray for Bush, Psalm 109:8″ around, oh, say…March 2003. Imagine further that this person is dark skinned and/or of Middle-Eastern descent. I wonder what would have happened to such a person…

If you want a Bible verse that in my opinion is truly more applicable to President Obama, try Psalm 72:12-14.

It’s a good thing there isn’t a commandment in the Decalogue that simply says “Don’t Be an Asshole,” because a lot of American Christians would be in trouble right about now. And before you waste time sending me an email to say “I’m a Christian and we’re not all like that,” first write an email to a Christian you know who is like that.

Imam Akmal M. Muhammad of the Islamic Freedom Foundation: “Same sex marriages, if allowed, will lead to the extermination of the human race because there is no procreation.”

Video link

Of all the stupid arguments against gay marriage (and believe me, they are all stupid), this is the biggest forehead-slapper. I’M not getting gay married. YOU’RE not getting gay married. About 200 million Americans aren’t getting gay married. How exactly will this lead to the extermination of the human race?

Fucking moron.

The God of Abraham is one of the most twisted, hate filled, evil literary characters ever. He kills babies, promotes incest, rape, genocide and slavery, wipes out families to test individuals, demands sacrifices, needs constant praise, and periodically destroys the bulk of humanity. Yet we’re always told how loving and fatherly he is…

When I became convinced that the universe is natural-that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world-not even in infinite space.

I was free-free to think, to express my thoughts-free to live to my own ideal-free to use all my faculties, all my senses-free to spread imagination’s wings-free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope-free to judge and determine for myself-free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past-free from popes and priests-free from all the “called” and “set apart”-free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies-free from the fear of eternal pain-free from the winged monsters of the night-free from devils, ghosts, and gods.

For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought-no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings-no chains for my limbs-no lashes for my back-no fires for my flesh-no master’s frown or threat-no following another’s steps-no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain-for the freedom of labor and thought-to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs-to those whose flesh was scarred and torn-to those by fire consumed-to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.

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I do think that my profession, journalism, went off the tracks when it accepted as axiomatic the notion that “Perception is reality.” No. Perception is perception and reality is reality, and if the former doesn’t conform to the latter, then it’s the journalist’s job to hammer and hammer the reality until the perception conforms to it. That’s how “intelligent design” gets treated as “science” simply because a lot of people believe in it.

- Charles Pierce, author of Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

“[Creationism] puts the informed critic in the position of having to struggle with correcting point after point, each one requiring more time to address than the creationist spent asserting it.”

“There is no rational argument that can address the claims of a group of people who claim absolute authority from an invisible man whose voice is heard only in their heads…there is no rebuttal to the illusion of an omniscient authority.”

The Creation “Museum” : Pharyngula

Guess the speaker of the following quotes. Is it Adolf Hitler or Jerry Falwell? Answers after the jump.

1. My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter.

2. This ‘turn the other cheek’ business is all well and good but it’s not what Jesus fought and died for.

3. Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith…. We need believing people.

4. I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!

5. Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.

6. We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.

7. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit … We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press. . .we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess.

8. This the national government will regard its first and foremost duty to restore the unity of spirit and purpose of our people. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morality, and the family as the nucleus of our people and state, under its firm protection….May God Almighty take our work into his grace, give true form to our will, bless our insight, and endow us with the trust of our people.

9. Remain strong in your faith, as you were in former years. In this faith, in its close-knit unity our people to-day goes straight forward on its way and no power on earth will avail to stop it.

10. We’re fighting against humanism, we’re fighting against liberalism … we are fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying our nation today.

Read the rest…

Found somewhere on the web:

See, the Torah is the first one and the New Testament is the sequel. Then the Qu’ran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. Sure, there’s still Jesus, but he’s not a main character anymore. In fact, the messiah hasn’t shown up yet at all.

Jews like the first movie but ignored the sequels. Christians think you at least need to watch the first two, but the third movie doesn’t count. Muslims think the third one is the best. And Mormons liked the second one so much they started writing fan-fiction that doesn’t fit with ANY of the series canon.