Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Paganism vs. the Pastor!

Courtesy of the group, Right Wing Watch comes this video of a loud-spoken Pastor, John Hagee:


The good pastor (and I use both those terms extremely loosely!) is infamous amid the Religious Right for his anti-Catholic (for which he later apologized for), anti-Gay, possibly anti-Semitic, and anti-Islamic views.  His views were so extreme, however, that Sen. John McCain had to figuratively "throw him under the bus" during his bid for President during the 2008 Campaign.  

In the above video clip Hagee rails against the United State's policy endorsing multiculturalism in terms of religious equality and expression (which many Theofascists, withholding more than a tinge of racist sentiment, regard as a threat to their so-called "religious liberties"!) in keeping with the promise of our Nation's First Amendment promise that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."  Surprisingly, this edict applied only to the Federal Government as many U.S. States boasted an official State Church which lingered until the nineteenth-century.  It was finally during the latter half of the 1940s until 1994 when the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment began to be interpreted by the SCOTUS as strictly prohibiting even individual states from promoting a state-religion!  Hagee characterizes religious liberties of the Pagan religions in threatening terms as potentially ruinous to the Nation's very survival!  He even manages to get in a dig at Environmentalism and environmentalists, insisting that Paganism is the driving force behind it, rather than a cherished desire for the continued survival of our planet.  However, it is well known that many so-called "Christians" are deeply opposed to Environmentalism on both moral and religious grounds, as if it amounts to worshiping the Earth above mankind's vein existence instead of caring for the very creation of their supposed Creator!  Personally, what I find so shocking, if one is careful enough to observe his rhetorical trope, is that he is clearly planting the seed (in hopes that it will take root and thrive in his fellow Christians' minds) that they are logically superiority to anyone who believes differently than they; moreover, that we are suffering from a mass delusion that must not be allowed to persist, and that cannot be allowed to perpetuate!  Such an ideology is dangerous to hold on to, and it is a threat to the everyone's civil freedoms and rights.  ...especially when he insists that the gods one worships deeply with love and adoration are nothing more than the insignificant "bugs" that crawl on the Earth.  He further characterizes our religious beliefs as a threat to his own when he states, "Jehova God is the god of all gods; He is a jealous god and He demands that He be the Lord of all or not at all!"

Showing the disdain for other religions that he is unfamiliar with (and, indeed, he may be fearful of us and our ways!) he conflates Paganism with Satanism (although, there are certainly Satanists, too, on our Military's bases), which he says is infiltrating our (allegedly Christian) military; it is this, he says, that is to blame for our army and it's inability to conquer "our enemies"!  (But, why must any Nation have any "enemies" to begun with?)  Paganism is also to blame for our poor economy and the rape and murder of America's military abroad because we have not legally and Federally adopted into our Government an evangelical Theocracy to atone for what he and his followers believe are the Nation's sins.  Hagee even demands that his followers - employing Theofascist religious tenets and their "God" as a mechanism of fear and dread - cease voting for "pagans", by which he means Democrats and social liberals.  Essentially, what he and his followers would like to see is a tyrannical dictatorship in which only one political party is pulling the strings within each branch of Government - the Republicans - without any care for the desires of the citizens!  What has been observed, lately, with the "Debt Ceiling" talks is that the GOP seems to be practicing "rule or ruin" politics - either give them full control of each branch of government, or they will bring this Nation crashing down around our ankles.  (Terrifying thought, isn't it?!)

Indeed, having seen the writing on the wall, Republicans have been attempting (and succeeding!) to secure a tyrannical dictatorship by making it more difficult for minorities and young people to vote in several states that may become ever more blue as new American citizens are born.  They are well aware of the fact that these voters are far more likely to vote liberally or Democratically!  Ultimately, the actions of the Republican party should terrify us all...

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