I ate my own kind today
I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (emphasis on the "o") freakin' tired of fighting the good fight! What exactly IS the good fight, pray tell? "I'm right and you're wrong... no YOU'RE wrong... NO, YOU are..." Aren't we all maybe just a little right and a little wrong? (Donny and Marie, anyone?)
So here's what I'm talking about - Christians. Can't live with 'em, can't not be one. Seriously. I love Jesus bigtime, but I can't STAND His fanclub! They make me look bad. I can't tell my friends at work, "I'll pray for you" because they will think I voted for GWB. What exactly does "faith" and "religion" have to do with each other anyhow? You're right... someone got my panties in a bunch. This dude, he writes this letter to the editor in my local paper... some sanctimonious babble revolving around a small town scandal. Short story long (darnit... cue the flashback.....):
So the local Baptist church wants to put out a Nativity. No harm in a few shepherds made of straw and a crepe baby Jesus, right? Well, sort of NOT right. See, they wanted to put it on the lawn of the county courthouse. Well, the courthouse says, "Um, sorry, no" so the Baptist church tucks their tale and just as any good man of God would do, they climbed a fence in the middle of the night and erected the thing on the courthouse lawn anyhow! And blah blah blah and battle battle battle and letters upon letters to the editor ensue...
Flash forward and the issue comes down NOT to separation of church and state, but whether or not there IS a separation of church and state. Did you know there are factions among us that consider themselves either "separationists" or "anti-separationists?" Seriously! So this jackball writes and says that NOWHERE in the Constitution do the words "separation of church and state appear." In fact, he adds, no one even used that phrase until 1946. He finished by pointing out that the Declaration of Independance states we are "a nation under God" and we'd better get used to it.
Where to start, where to start? Being the smartass that I am, I immediately fired off a response. I told him that he is correct: "separation of church and state" does NOT appear anywhere in the Constitution; nor will he find "Bill of Rights," "fair trial" or "religious liberty." Then I schooled him on a Mr. Thomas Jefferson (of the FOUNDING FRICKIN' FATHERS) who coined the metaphore "separation of church and state" as a way to illustrate the FIRST AMENDMENT in his Dansbury Letter in the early 1800's (note to self: send history professor flowers.) I finished by challenging him find the words "nation under God" in the Declaration of Independance, and if he finds it, to send me the copy of his own personal interpretated version of said document, wrapped around his own brand of DRUGS he must be smoking on a daily basis.
Wanna bet that one gets published? I don't THINK so.
So yeah... I ate my own kind again today. You know, I'm just so tired of all the infighting... it makes the baby Jesus cry!
And THEN (and theeeeeeeeeeeeeeen) I read my friend's blog today and find out he was sexually harrassed by some ignorant red-neck bigot in a public establishment. So my friend, he's minding his P's and Q's when all of a sudden Joe Dirt starts LOUDLY lecturing his preschooler charges on how BAD gays are, and how GAYS shouldn't be allowed to eat in public restaurants. My friend, self-proclaimed fairy, turned the other cheek (no pun intended) and chalked it up to small-town stupidity. But DAMNIT it makes me mad. Raise your children in the way they should go, Nascar Dad, and when they are old they will not only NOT stray from it, but they maybe won't have such horrific therapist bills and emotional deficits! Since when did God advocate hatred? I just can't recall anything about "teach thy children to hate and fear Mine." *raises eyes to ceiling, sees rainbow "PACE" (Italian for "peace") flag and sighs in despair*
Someone PLEASE tell me... are we going foward, moving backward, or just repeated the same mistakes of the past?
/jaded and frustrated
So here's what I'm talking about - Christians. Can't live with 'em, can't not be one. Seriously. I love Jesus bigtime, but I can't STAND His fanclub! They make me look bad. I can't tell my friends at work, "I'll pray for you" because they will think I voted for GWB. What exactly does "faith" and "religion" have to do with each other anyhow? You're right... someone got my panties in a bunch. This dude, he writes this letter to the editor in my local paper... some sanctimonious babble revolving around a small town scandal. Short story long (darnit... cue the flashback.....):
So the local Baptist church wants to put out a Nativity. No harm in a few shepherds made of straw and a crepe baby Jesus, right? Well, sort of NOT right. See, they wanted to put it on the lawn of the county courthouse. Well, the courthouse says, "Um, sorry, no" so the Baptist church tucks their tale and just as any good man of God would do, they climbed a fence in the middle of the night and erected the thing on the courthouse lawn anyhow! And blah blah blah and battle battle battle and letters upon letters to the editor ensue...
Flash forward and the issue comes down NOT to separation of church and state, but whether or not there IS a separation of church and state. Did you know there are factions among us that consider themselves either "separationists" or "anti-separationists?" Seriously! So this jackball writes and says that NOWHERE in the Constitution do the words "separation of church and state appear." In fact, he adds, no one even used that phrase until 1946. He finished by pointing out that the Declaration of Independance states we are "a nation under God" and we'd better get used to it.
Where to start, where to start? Being the smartass that I am, I immediately fired off a response. I told him that he is correct: "separation of church and state" does NOT appear anywhere in the Constitution; nor will he find "Bill of Rights," "fair trial" or "religious liberty." Then I schooled him on a Mr. Thomas Jefferson (of the FOUNDING FRICKIN' FATHERS) who coined the metaphore "separation of church and state" as a way to illustrate the FIRST AMENDMENT in his Dansbury Letter in the early 1800's (note to self: send history professor flowers.) I finished by challenging him find the words "nation under God" in the Declaration of Independance, and if he finds it, to send me the copy of his own personal interpretated version of said document, wrapped around his own brand of DRUGS he must be smoking on a daily basis.
Wanna bet that one gets published? I don't THINK so.
So yeah... I ate my own kind again today. You know, I'm just so tired of all the infighting... it makes the baby Jesus cry!
And THEN (and theeeeeeeeeeeeeeen) I read my friend's blog today and find out he was sexually harrassed by some ignorant red-neck bigot in a public establishment. So my friend, he's minding his P's and Q's when all of a sudden Joe Dirt starts LOUDLY lecturing his preschooler charges on how BAD gays are, and how GAYS shouldn't be allowed to eat in public restaurants. My friend, self-proclaimed fairy, turned the other cheek (no pun intended) and chalked it up to small-town stupidity. But DAMNIT it makes me mad. Raise your children in the way they should go, Nascar Dad, and when they are old they will not only NOT stray from it, but they maybe won't have such horrific therapist bills and emotional deficits! Since when did God advocate hatred? I just can't recall anything about "teach thy children to hate and fear Mine." *raises eyes to ceiling, sees rainbow "PACE" (Italian for "peace") flag and sighs in despair*
Someone PLEASE tell me... are we going foward, moving backward, or just repeated the same mistakes of the past?
/jaded and frustrated
posted by Robin at 7:59 PM
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