The Heretik on The Chosen People Reunion Tour

The Chosen People Reunion Tour is a new series that starts today at The Heretik.You cannot avoid the voices of discord who spreak for the Prince of Peace these days  Nor can you avoid those shameful ones who would shout the rest of us down tonight on Justice Sunday.  The Terrible Trinity of James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and Senator Medical Bill Frist join together tonight to tell you America's religion is under attack.  They speak not for us together, but for some separating voice that would divide neighbor from neighbor and father from son.

Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure.
Rheinhold Niebuhr

The heresies we should fear are those which can be confused with orthodoxy.
Borges
from  The Theologians

Faith and Doubt, Who Your God Is, and Whether You Have One at All Are the Most Private Thought a Man or Woman May Have.  But today we find forces working to make the "American" religion a public battle.

I made this comment over at Lance Mannion. What I consistently perceive in this sorry situation is just how much a burning cross is being used as a hammer. The nail that sticks out shall be sledge hammered down with a vengeance.  If the framework of our society and of our constitution are splintered and our house divided falls down in flames upon us, it will matter little to the leaders of this New Inquisition.

Our nation was founded on respect for many voices, with the idea that no one voice spoke the truth of god for all.  Ours has never been a nation of lords, nor a nation where  one group could so shamelessly endeavor to lord so overt an agenda over the rest of us.

The New Dominionists will not long have their way, before it is exposed for what is:  not the word of God, more the work of man, in service to a dark vision.

TONIGHT THE BATTLE IS JOINED.  Justice Sunday for Just Us types.  Today, however, all sincere people of faith and of doubt are invited to offer their comments on the role of religion in American life.

HERE'S WHAT FRANK RICH HAS TO SAY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: Tonight is the much-awaited "Justice Sunday," the judge-bashing rally being disseminated nationwide by cable, satellite and Internet from a megachurch in Louisville. It may not boast a plume of smoke emerging from above the Sistine Chapel, but it will feature its share of smoke and mirrors as well as traditions that, while not dating back a couple of millenniums, do at least recall the 1920's immortalized in "Elmer Gantry." These traditions have less to do with the earnest practice of religion by an actual church, as we witnessed from Rome, than with the exploitation of religion by political operatives and other cynics with worldly ends. While Sinclair Lewis wrote that Gantry, his hypocritical evangelical preacher, "was born to be a senator," we now have senators who are born to be Gantrys. One of them, the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, hatched plans to be beamed into tonight's festivities by videotape, a stunt that in itself imbues "Justice Sunday" with a touch of all-American spectacle worthy of "The Wizard of Oz."

THE HERETIK JOE IVORY MATTINGLY ASKS: What are the best things religion brings to this country and the worst?  What makes you proud?  What makes you cringe? The Heretik Joe Ivory Mattingly wants to know what you think!  Please comment and feel free to come back again if you think of something else.  Because one good thought is great, but a second thought is the American way.  Thanks.

Comments

[The Alchemist]

I'm sorry. I honestly tried, bit I could not think of a single possetive aspect of American religeon, either from my first hand experiance of such, or from the media filtered image.

T'be honest, I'm more disapointed in myself than in religeous Americans...

[mutant cat]

I can't speak for Americans, but at least in Europe religion has given us some beautiful churches, making the mostly atheist city of Prague one of the most attractive in the world anyway. The worst thing? Hard to say with so many options, minus first hand experience.

[v2marty]

Best part of religion? Now I have something to worry and complain about.

[Screwy Hoolie]

Heretik,

the best features of religion in America are (1) starchy foods; (2) those nice straight rows of chairs; (3) Bell Choirs; (4) volunteering to keep elderly folks company; (5) hypocrisy against which to compare all other hypocrisy.

I've gone and went off on the subject of the fringies at the edge of the margin of American Christianity. They're ridiculous and don't stand a chance.

[carla]

Religion brings hope and comfort to a lot of folks. It gives some people's lives direction and purpose.

Religion also brings tyranny and oppression. It brings a narrow minded focus. It yields pain and suffering for those who aren't accepted into the fold as well.

A double edged sword...like most of life.

[The Blaghdad Cafe]

Hey Heretik, Blaghdaddy saw your link on Talkleft and thought he'd drop in...he likes!! See you on the other side....

Blaghdaddy

[Fred Dawes]

God, has many friends, but Bush needs the ones who pay big money, we have many conspiracies some are real, bush loves his own people and loves something that you are not part of, he looks you in the face and tells you lies and states he talks to god? he needs you to think of nothing but the cost of Gas, and lies about all things that you should know about, but what is the point when most of you will be dead within one year.