Monday, February 16, 2015

Radical right wing extremists are the last persons on earth who should preach about Christian values!


The President made a statement at the 2015 National Prayer Breakfast and historically illiterate (linked below) radical  right wing extremists lost their minds!

Let's take a few seconds to review the full context of the President’s comments before reading the statement that made the radical right wing go nuts.

Now over the last few months, we’ve seen a number of challenges – certainly over the last six years. But part of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we’ve seen professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also twisted and misused in the name of evil.

As we speak, around the world, we see faith inspiring people to lift up one another – to feed the hungry and care for the poor, and comfort the afflicted and make peace where there is strife.  We heard the good work that Sister has done in Philadelphia, and the incredible work that Dr. Brantley and his colleagues have done.  We see faith driving us to do what is right.

We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semetism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.

But we, also, see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge – or worse, sometimes used as a weapon. From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but in fact, are betraying it.  We see ISIL, a brutal vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism – terrorizing religious minorities like the Yezidis, subjecting women of war, and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions. 

After further discussion along those lines (full transcript linked below), the President made the following statement…

Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

Radical right wing extremists, jumped on their high horses and rode to FOX with historically illiterate, out of context commentaries on that statement!

 Jim Gilmore Republican Governor of Virginia stated:

The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime…This goes further to the point that Mr. Obama does not believe in America or the values we all (????) share.

Todd Starnes (a frequent Republican  FOX guest) wrote - the Crusades ended some 700 years ago! If what happened 700 years ago didn’t matter, how would Mr. Starnes explain the more recent slaughters, rapes and kidnappings engineered by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, which seeks to take over Uganda based on the Ten Commandments? (See salon article entitled Wingnuts’ latest meltdown: Conservatives go nuts over Obama’s remarks on Christianity and Islam linked below.)

Republican Catholic League extremist, Bill Donohue (pedophile priest apologist} couldn’t wait to get on FOX to criticize the President for daring to mention Christ and demanded that he apologize!?!?

Republican FOX guest commentator Erick Erickson expressed his wish that Obama would stop professing himself to be a Christian. This comes out of the mouth of a self professed Christian(????) who raises money for the radical right wing Alliance Defending Freedom to prescribe prison sentences for gay people!

Across the board, FOX show hosts who display their Christian (????) values with fake scandals, lies, misinformation, bigotry and hypocrisy (related links below) came up with their daily Obama-bashing take on the matter…

What Obama said was a slap in the face to Christians - Obama is anti-Catholic - Obama is anti-Semitic - Obama is anti-American - Why did he have to talk about the Crusades, that’s ancient history - Why did he have to bring up slavery, that’s done with!?!?!


If radical right wing extremists, actually practiced Christian values and lifted their heads from out of the Dark Ages, they would take heed from a quote by noted author, professor and Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, Douglass North, Ph.D. who once wrote…

History matters, it matters not just because we can learn from the past, but because the present and the future are connected to the past by the continuity of a society’s institutions.

Here’s a short quiz that proves Dr. North’s point related to the present being connected to the past:

                           Past or Present? Short Quiz
Guess the year in which each of the following news headlines was published: (Answers at the end of this post.)

  1. Outbreak!
  2. A Mideast Warning
  3. There is still a color line in American law
  4. More long winded speeches occupy morning in US Senate
  5. Refuges stream across border
  6. Bill to allow execution by firing squad advances in Utah

SOURCES:
The White House - 1 day ag

The Atlantic - 10 hours ago


Right Wing Melts Down Over Obama's Comments At ...crooksandliars.com/.../right-wing-melts-down-over-oba...


Wingnuts' latest meltdown: Conservatives go nuts over ...www.salon.com/.../wingnuts_latest_meltdown_conservatives_go_n...


Headlines History - News.com.auresources.news.com.au/files/2014/.../328822-tm-nn-file-160th-part1.pdf


Chronicling America « Library of Congresschroniclingamerica.loc.gov/


Historical Newspapers & Indexes On The Internet - USAwww.researchguides.net/newspapers.htm


Fact-Checking Site Finds Fox News Only Tells the Truth 18 ...www.forwardprogressives.com/fact-checking-site-finds-fox-news-tells-tr...


The Science Of Fox News: Why Its Viewers Are The Most ...www.dailykos.com/.../--The-Science-Of-Fox-News-Why-Its-Vi...

www.alternet.org/.../study_confirms_that_fox_news_makes_you...


Short Quiz Answers
  1. Geelong Advertiser – December, 1854
  2. New York Times – June, 1982
  3. The Guardian – March, 1890
  4. The Daily Capital Journal – February, 1915
  5. Los Angeles Times – March 1999
  6. NPR - February, 2015


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