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.

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…

“[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.

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said “Stop! don’t do it!”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he said.

I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!”

He said, “Like what?”

I said, “Well…are you religious or atheist?”

He said, “Religious.”

I said, “Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?”

He said, “Christian.”

I said, “Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?”

He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?”

He said, “Baptist!”

I said,”Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?”

He said, “Baptist church of god!”

I said, “Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?”

He said,”Reformed Baptist church of god!”

I said, “Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?”

He said, “Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!”

I said, “Die, heretic scum!”, and pushed him off.

— Emo Philips

A 24-year-old ski lift operator who fatally shot the general manager of the Eldora ski area was determined to kill co-workers who weren’t Christian, according to court records obtained Thursday.

…witnesses told authorities that Derik Bonestroo walked into a building at work, fired a gun into the ceiling and said: “If you’re not Christian, you’re going to die.”

KMGH Denver

…abortion rates are highest in places where religiosity is highest but lowest in more secular areas. This is not an incidental correlation: not only does it disprove the popular idea that secularism destroys the moral values which oppose abortion, but it points to how religion itself can make demand for abortion higher.

…apart from the former Soviet Union, [abortion rate per 1,000 women] is highest in conservative and religious societies. In largely secular western Europe, the average rate is 12 abortions per 1,000 women. In the more religious southern European countries, the average rate is 18. In the US, where church attendance is still higher, there are 23 abortions for every 1,000 women, the highest level in the rich world.

More analysis here: Abortions Highest Where Religion is Highest

“There’s probably no God” is an accurate summary of the atheist position. There’s no virtue to be found in iron-clad certainty, and it is no sign of weakness that a statement might allow for acceptance of evidence in contradiction. [Theists], however, think that certainty is a necessity. It is unassailable certainty in their positions that allowed good Christians to march people of another religion into ovens at bayonet point; that allowed good Christians to hang widowed old women for witchcraft; that led to wars and genocide over trivial matters of theology, like the degree of god-nature in Jesus’ existence; that allows racists and homophobes to declare a significant portion of our population to be second-class citizens; that encouraged priests to appease imaginary beings by burning babies; that led to monsters cutting the living hearts out of their neighbors so that the sun might rise. Let’s leave certainty to the oleaginous evangelists, the jingoistic war mongers, and the other con artists selling us bogus solutions to imaginary problems. A little uncertainty, a little willingness to accept that deeper knowledge might change our minds, is a good thing.

Pharyngula