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For God's Sake - Stop Talking

Lately, there would seem to be a whole lot more people who have a direct channel to the Big Guy Upstairs than one could have humanly thought possible.

It is oft-said that "God works in mysterious ways". But when Michele Bachmann hears voices telling her to run for president, am I the only who thinks the most likely explanation is a batch of bad clams or one-too-many nights role playing The Book of Eli with her equally demented husband Marcus?

Perhaps, these are the very same voices that have shared with her the important role "Founding Father John Quincy Adams" played in ending slavery as he battled the oncoming scourge of puberty? I don't know, just a stab in the dark.

Regardless, whether it is gay marriage or spotting the Virgin Mary in your gordita, our re-embrace of culture-by-theology in the United States (not unlike much of the rest of the world) has led supposedly "serious people" to say things that not so long ago would have landed them a starring role in Girl, Interrupted.

In our current age, in fact, possessing a direct cerebral channel to Deus (or at least claiming you do) would seem to be a requirement for receiving an invitation to a GOP presidential debate.

It equally pervades the rest of right-wing political culture in the US, as twisted scripture both provides ready justification for those who hate everything about the this country post-1930, and renders more difficult the job of the media to effectively criticise any crackpot theory-lest they lose their "objectivity" for a moment and offend some True Believers.

For example, in light of the recent law passed by the New York state legislature providing full marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples, dingy-old-Hammerhead-Bat Pat Robertson offered his expert testimony that "there's never been a civilisation ever in history that has embraced homosexuality and turned away from traditional fidelity, traditional marriage, traditional child-rearing, and has survived."

He went on to compare the United States to Sodom and pleasantly predict we'd suffer the same fate - complete annihilation.

In case you're keeping score, Jesus is apparently cool with Rev Robertson's having befriended the al-Qaeda-harboring, genocidal thug Charles Taylor, in order to fatten his wallet from a steady diet of Liberian blood diamonds. When it comes to loving couples of the same sex tying the knot, however, not so much.

Thankfully, for the rest of us, Robertson's many past predictions of our collective demise were so inane they might as well have been announced on an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background.

So to pick up the slack, Missouri GOP Congressman and apparent Mary-Shelley-creation Todd Akin also jumped into the God interpretation game last week - likely as a strategy to forward his US Senate campaign. Akin, in an obvious moment of clarity, puked out that "at the heart of liberalism really is a hatred for God." Because, as we all know, nothing is closer to the teachings of the Bible than Akin's record of lying about his address for voting purposes and cutting taxes for 8-figure earning CEOs while gutting health care for impoverished children.

Sadly, however, our God Culture isn't limited to just the political game, but also allows some of those clever cats, professional athletes, to get in on the action.

I must admit to finding it rather amusing - as in completely ridiculous - whenever an overpaid ballplayer hits a three-point shot or bashes a fastball over the center field wall, only to respond by pointing up to the Heavens as if it were Divinely ordained. Because we all know any Higher Power has nothing better to do - like ending conflict in the Sudan or curing cancer - than taking in some sport and using his/her powers to ensure Arsenal wins the FA Cup.

Somewhere Jacob is trying to best that blood-sucker Edward and win the affections of Bella, and God is going to worry about the Stanley Cup? How arrogant.

It is this hubris that must explain why one of the heroes of the 2007 Super-Bowl-winning New York Giants, David Tyree, thought it his place to tell us what His God would think of gay marriage in New York - much like Brother Robertson. As you can imagine, according to Tyree, it just up and freaked God out.

I guess he missed the part where he's the guy we trust to catch the ball on the field, not make public policy according to his translation of the will of his Deity off of it.

For, in the end, it doesn't matter if you're a Believer or not. Most of us to the north of birdbrain can agree that no matter what Bachmann, Akin, Robertson or Tyree have to say on the matter, it is in fact societies ruled by faux-pious numbskulls that, to quote the elegant and articulate Robertson, have "never, ever survived."

Perhaps he and his Republican buddies can ponder--and share on Google+ with their circles of friends, family, and even acquaintances, for the rest of our sakes--the words of the founder of their party, Abraham Lincoln, who once counseled that it is "better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt."

Follow Me On Twitter: @Cliffschecter

A similar version of this column first appeared at Al Jazeera English

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21 Comments
luis stoole's picture

a child is born, of virgin birth

tomorrow

all civilization will tremble
under his all mighty power

he must be obeyed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVxZ5wO_GE

Kreskin's picture

Bachman , you are an idiot !


"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."

Alerta_Alerta's picture

That was the same thing God said but as she has so many voices in her head she could not hear him.


Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/

Cats r Flyfishn's picture

God spoke to me last night and told me that Bachmann, Palin, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Santorum are all fooking crazy. God would have hung around for a longer discussion but was called back to work. (sarc off)

Tomazulob's picture

Now the Right is trying to rewrite the Bible to take out all the liberal stuff about Jesus in order to make him more war-like. This is their view of it: http://www.conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bib.... They are trying to skew the argument in 2 ways: one is this nefarious rewrite, and the other is relying on the laziness and stupidity of their followers. They tell new converts to quit following the news and just attend to their family's needs, and the leaders of this movement will tell them what to think. Because most of these people's willingness to accept whatever word they are told, we will continue to see the comments and actions described in this article.

Ape-Man's picture

They hate America's deliberate, explicit, and wise separation of church and state.

They are the American Taliban, the Republicani, the enemy within.

They represent precisely what people emigrated to America to escape - Authoritarian Religious Government, religious intolerance, class distinctions, privileged elitism.

They are weeds and the garden of America and America has not been de-weeded in a very long time now.

Oh God. Eric Cantor is laughing and smirking and mocking the Democrats right now on TV. They can't shut him up. He just talks over everyone.

He wants what he wants when he wants it. It was in his high school year book.

Smirking, laughing, mocking child.


"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-

rphiladams's picture

that is the scariest website I think I've ever seen. be afraid, be very afraid.


Freedom Isn't Free, So Stop Whining And Pay Your Taxes.

luis stoole's picture

should the federal government be responsible for creating jobs,
or is it each state's responsibility
and more importantly, what do the teabaggers think about this stuff
thanks God

*my god wears bootstraps, and He pulls them up one at a time (possibly to stomp out unions)

Schrambo's picture

Well, first of being a pastafarian and an ordained minister to boot, my conversations with my god normally come from digesting a good bowl of penne pasta.

But a few years back when that woman in San Francisco threw her children into SB Bay and claimed that she was instructed by GOD to do so, I was completely surprised to see she was sent away to a mental hospital.

How could her instructions been any different than those given to Pat R, or any other of those so-called minsters.

So when I see Michelle being instructed by God to be married to flaming, as in absolutely flaming, Marcus; I know that GOD is on the right track.

Fat Belly Blues's picture

Maybe he was mentally ill after all.

Sorrell_Booke's picture

Tongue in the ass.

roddy1984's picture

You won't hear any argument from me whether hearing athletes thank god on tv is tedious.

But if not spoken out loud to the press, what could possibly be wrong or arrogant about seeking help from god or any other source of assistance to intervene in one's own concededly unimportant and parochial little goals and wishes and miseries? Some might consider the acknowledgement of needing help a form of healthy humility. And who the fuck knows what may interest god? And whether arrogant or wrong or whatever, why is it anyone else's business?

Careful, Cliff: Today's vocal atheists run the risk of oustripping the holy rollers in the race to see who can sound the smuggest.

Ape-Man's picture

I am finding the republican smirks very inappropriate. They all have that look of a naughty child that has been found out. What a disgrace they are.


"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-

Paul the Sax Guy's picture

More the look of a spoiled brat that's been found out and just doesn't care...


In the marketplace of ideas, too many people shop in the bargain basement.
-- Thunder BlueRose

Why, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU
http://saxman.bravepages.com

Powkat's picture

heard voices too. And look what happened to her. I always thought that people who hear voices in their head have an illness. Don't they get locked up if they are a danger to themselves or others? Michele seems to qualify.

Trantorian's picture

This is a job for the Police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Dk3hyRFYE


"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper

Fat Belly Blues's picture

...that people that believe in a god find it strange or outrageous that this god speaks to people these days. Like it only happened in the old days and biblical times. And these modern people who claim to hear their god speak to them are crazy and unstable.

Can one of you god-believing types explain this to me?

keefer55's picture

who minds his own business. OK, that was BS. I don't believe in god, and people who hear the "Word Of God" in their heads totally freak me out. They no longer are in touch with reality, and are way unpredictable.

TJ's picture

I have voices in my head, but I always just thought I was talking to myself. But if it's God speaking to me, it's certainly reassuring that He agrees with me on just about everything. OTOH, if God is speaking to me and to Crazy Shelley and to Rev Pat, then He is One Big Prankster.

And this just in: each of you needs to send me some money or some very bad things will happen. (h/t to Oral Roberts)

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