Around here we do things by the Book: Luke Skywalker & the Planet of the Lawgivers

Fundamentalist Biblical Literalism be damned. Our young'uns are smarter'n that.

Compared to my generation and those before me, our young at heart in America seem to have a much smaller span of mythical images with which to relate to contemporary society. Yet there are some images which, almost by contemporary definition, must be inseparably linked to the medium through which they are best absorbed.

One sample of 20th-century myth-making - received via dark, popcorn-&-pepsi theater settings - comes to us as famed entertainment.

One ponders that perhaps entertainment is the only venue from which can come any holistic view of human spirituality. It's is a holistic need that goes beyond the scientific and logical literalism that seems to focus our attention and learning span. This literalism permeates contemporary perception for all of us. Precisely through the logic and literal propaganda that modern spiritless corporate economics markets its products leads to dependence on outside sources to tell us what to think, how to belong, how/why to conform and thereby avoid any nuisance of personal independence and freedom.

"Trust the force, Luke!"

In the original Star Wars film the climactic scenes are defined only after that the spiritual prompting voice of Skywalker's mentor can be heard. Subsequent group salvation thru the hero's triumph is achieved only after the young prophet lets go of doing things by the Book.

I suspect that though perhaps not a conscious awareness, our youngest adult generation today has an internal grasp of that particular concept.

We need more of that and less spiritual literalism that looks mostly like the old Simian Prophet who asserts and flexes his authority based on long-term social programming in the film Planet of the Apes.

We have our own kind of old farts constantly quoting a historical lawgiver who no longer needs credibility proven because of long-term social programming. How heretical to question the validity of that lawgiver as told through contemporary old-fart-tales!

In knee-jerk fashion the lawgivers contemporary minions demand submission to the get-back-in-line social orthodoxy that authorizes those who are seemingly in charge to remain in the driver's seat.

"Luke, don't you ever turn off your scripture machine, you can't trust the force!" is the suggestion of those who worship the idol of inerrant scripture that was never the intent of Christ.

Jesus was never the "lawgiving" autocratic authoritarian described by those who historically and currently walk around dragging a leather-bound lawgiver's manual to justify one of those most fundamental, limited and useless letter-of-the law texts that plague us today. Such is not and was never Jesus' intended use of the Bible.

Why isn't that mythical image of letting go the biblical training wheels and trusting the spirit the integral part of raising children to become spiritual adults rather than future aged children afraid of deeper waters?

The Bible is not useful as a literalist construct of "shoulds, shouldn'ts" or rewards-&-punishments that gets dragged around in a knuckle-scratching manner by strutting simian/human demagogues who are afraid of deep waters.

"Stay here in the shallow end of the pool kids, where we're in charge and you can have fun splashing without ever having to risk deeper waters. Sure the shallow end of the pool doesn't have much room to explore, but you don't need to explore since your pulpit pounders will tell you - by the Book - all the important stuff you need to know.

Their Inerrant Biblical Life Jacket leaves them stuck in the shallow end of the pool.

When most literalist Christian evangelical preachers and politicos make their accusations and advocacies they do so based on a traditional assumption that is not traditional to the broad spectrum of American Christians:

This from the website of the American Family Association:

Philosophical Statement
The American Family Association believes that God has communicated absolute truth to man through the Bible, and that all men everywhere at all times are subject to the authority of God's Word. Therefore, a culture based on Biblical truth best serves the well-being of our country, in accordance with the vision of our founding fathers.

This is kindergarten religion at its most immature and adolescent.

This is also the shallow end of the pool, where splashing around without really getting wet is supposed to be the most fulfilling thing God desires for you.

This is the fear-based and limited view that remains terrified of any venture into deeper waters where the ultimate discovery is that the biblical water wings are absolutely unnecessary and in fact an encumbrance.

If a person bases their faith on an innerant Bible then let them be honest.
Let them stop calling themselves "Christians" as if all Christians were literalists and those of us who doubt innerancy are merely back-sliding literalists.

Let them admit that they are Biblicists and nothing more than Kindergarten Christians.
Let them admit that they have the Bible as their only basis of proof which is not the same faith in God. Literalists can only believe in canned answers - as if their life jackets automatically deflate if they venture out of shallow waters.

Concerning my own experience, I suppose one could use the word "deprogramming" in that my initial bout with innerancy had more to do with how scripture was quoted to motivate or coerce me into socially acceptable conformity within my church.

I confess that as a child and up into my 40's, scriptural meaning as interpreted by my church had an absoluteness about it that brooked little dissent.

When I discovered Joseph Campbell and his book entitled "The Power Of Myth," I was advised not to read that book. But since I was in dissent and had become a non-literalist doubter, I swallowed my religious guilt, girded up my intellectual loins and read it anyway.

When I read in Campbell about myths older than Hebrew Scripture referring to floods, arks, babies in baskets rescued from rivers by princesses, African stories about God asking man why fruit was eaten and the man blaming the woman who blamed a snake ...

... I realized that as a literalist with no appreciation for the blessings of myth, I was on a dead-end path.

But to reject the Bible and scripture because you've found them not to be innerant - not to be the literal and absolute "Word of God" as preached from many Christian pulpits - is a mistake in my opinion.

Once able to remove the limitation of literal interpretation, I learned how to bring Scripture to life. I learned about my own natural mystical bent as something all humanity possesses but only a minority actually trust to awaken.

I learned how scripture is best appreciated as a "living" document that speaks through spirit.

"Luke, don't you ever turn off your scripture machine, you can't trust the force!"

Liars

Noticed at the theater last night that Nicholas Cage is the star of a remake of the Left Behind movie..

Among things encountered via Google was an article about Left Behind fans questioning Cage's faith and wondering if the Rapture might show up before the film debuts

Is Obama the Antichrist? The winning lottery number in Illinois was 666, which, as everyone knows, is the sign of the Beast.

So read the headline of a recent article by Lisa Miller in Newsweek.
Excerpt
a

According to a 2006 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, a third of white evangelicals believe the world will end in their lifetimes. These mostly conservative Christians believe a great battle is imminent. After years of tribulation natural disasters, other cataclysms (such as the collapse of financial markets) ,God's armies will vanquish armies led by the Antichrist himself.

Instead of fame, pretend theologian and San Antonio Christian Broadcast Celebrity John Hagee gained notoriety when he became an item with John McCain during the recent presidential campaign after Hagee and his political following of End-Times literalists endorsed the Republican candidate.
Hagee of course the famous pointer preacher with his picture of a hot mama riding a dragon based on what is written in the book of Revelation.
Nowadays the more popular speculation among these religious hysterics is the notion that the next American President who will be replacing the current Christian in the White House will be none other than ...

...a sweet-talking world leader who gathers governments and economies under his command to further his own evil agenda. In this world view, 'the spread of secular progressive ideas is a prelude to the enslavement of mankind,' explains Richard Landes, former director of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University.
No wonder, then, that Obama triggers such fear in the hearts of America's millennialist Christians.

The "Left Behind" series of fiction novels became the hottest obsession among those imaginative Christian literalists whose belief in an inerrant Bible is coupled with the private interpretation of scripture known as The Rapture.
The Rapture notion is based on another private interpretation or speculation known across the End Times market as "Prophecy."
Without the belief and acceptance of prophecy, wannabed be oracles like Pat Robertson would have to stop trying to step up to the prophecy pedestal and pretend that he is a new Jeremiah.
The Left Behind series is nothing more than The Rapture as prophecy-driven speculations of Christian writers Tim Lahaye and Larry Jenkins. Their own Da-Vinci-Code style of religious pretend vastly outsold Dan Brown's more plausible fiction and even outsold that other paragon of Biblical Jeremiah-ism, Hal Lindsey and his Late Great Planet Earth.
This from the TAPPED Archive at The American Prospect:

These people have been using the same kind of "evidence" to predict an imminent rapture for centuries, and always to great disappointment.
How exactly will gay people having the right to marry and women having the right to choose "threaten the freedom" of religious conservatives?

Prophecy in most current Christian dialogue applies mainly to two separate but related ideas.
The first idea is that which might be entitled Prophecy: the Key to the Christian Future. Prophecy in this context refers to biblical verses that refer to future times and not biblical times. These include remarks by Jesus, Old Testament prophets and New Testament writers (although historical research has determined that the authorship of writing attributed to early apostles is highly questionable.)
Principal interest in End Times prophecies focuses on but is not limited to Jesus' and Paul's discourses on the last days. In other words, prophecies concerning the coming apocalyptic kingdom of God - with assistance from the Book of Revelation whose authorship traditionally is ascribed to the Apostle John.
End times as a religious speculation is usually referred to as eschatology.
The second idea of prophecy is one practiced within the more charismatic or Pentecostal churches which place greater emphasis on the Holy Spirit as a medium of both communion with God and communication between congregation members. The latter of course seems to be primarily communication from the pulpit or television platform issued to the congregation. Also known among TV evangelists as "throwing the book at them."
Spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues are more widely accepted and expected within these congregations and are regarded as signs of God's spirit forcing holy wordage from humans.
Speaking in tongues - also known as glossolalia - was something the occurred quite frequently during the early years of the Mormon church. Brigham Young was one of the most frequent and powerful practitioners. However, once established and with expanding influence, the LDS institutionalized their religion. Today speaking in tongues is frowned upon and normally considered a tool of Satan in the Mormon Church. The LDS of course have their own specific End Times theology that anticipates Jesus returning in the clouds but making his landing either in Salt Lake City or the LDS New Jerusalem just outside Kansas City.
Key to the idea of End Times prophecy and its popularity today is the understanding that Jesus for most Christians has promised to return to Earth a second time.
Awareness of Jesus' promise was prevalent and acute immediately after the time of his crucifixion and resurrection. Many contemporary scholars have adduced that the tone and meaning of many New Testament letters and epistles were written with an immediacy of the Second Coming in mind - Jesus' return was expected to happen shortly after his departure .
For example, some of the more radical views of Paul concerning celibacy have been equated with a belief that the End Time was so near, pro-creating children and raising them would not be possible and was therefore a waste of time.

There are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. (Mt.16:27,28)

and [Jesus to the high priest]

...hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Mt.26:64)

.
However, contemporary End Timer's of the Schofield Bible and John Darby persuasion are having none of that. End Times along with Pre-Millenial and Post-Millenial theologies is serious stuff - so serious that the Hagee crowd has formalized its support of Israel. These folks intend to help Jesus return by getting the Holy Land back into the its boundary extensions portrayed in Biblical prophecy so that the rest of the Revelation horror can commence.
Over the centuries, originally driven by the ascension of a singularly dominant form of the earliest Christian power base (Roman Catholicism), more emphasis was placed on a future rather than immediate return of Jesus. This then an act of cunning which made the Second Coming a more valuable tool for crowd control through manipulation, fear, shame and guilt.
These supposed future promises have remained unfulfilled now for over 2000 years. Despite a history of an assortment of sects who have unsuccessfully predicted and prepared in vain for a specific moment of Jesus' return, Literalist Christians in general have never wavered nor given up on their hopes and expectations of that triumphant and vengeful return that will justify and validate End Timers.
The penultimate novel of the Left Behind series was aptly entitled by LaHaye and Jenkins Glorious Appearing.
There are many well-written Internet articles defining, in support of and critical of the Rapture concept. One excellent article entitled "The Rapture Theory: its Surprising Origin".
It is in this End Times context that folks apparently are running around wild-eyed about whether or not Obama is Satan's Imp. Again from the TAPPED archive

In fact, a quick google search of "Bill Clinton Anti-Christ" turns up an old article on Worldnetdaily arguing that -- you guessed it, Bill Clinton is the anti-Christ. Given a topic of such importance, should Newsweek spend a little more time considering a few other candidates for anti-Christdom? After all, Todd Strindberg, the owner of "Raptureready" and the source mentioned in the lede, put Clinton on a list of candidates that included Barney the Dinosaur, John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II. Strindberg wrote solemnly:
"A number of folks have e-mailed me saying, "Clinton is Satan's pet." I came across information posted in newsgroups and websites that add up William Jefferson Clinton numerologically to total 666."

Christian fundamentalist and Christian liberal thinking do not so much collide over the issue of the End Times as much as differ in how and why the scriptural references and subsequent speculations have come to be.
Liberal Christians who believe in a literal Second Coming would differ in the imagined portrayals of what that might look like. Where the Left Behind literalists expect Jesus to forcefully set things straight, justify and take the righteous immediately to heaven before setting the dogs of war and tribulation loose upon the left-behind unrighteous, liberal Christians see a time when a return appearance by The Lord involves more of a conciliatory New Beginning activity consistent with the concept of a God of Compassion.
Yet other Liberal Christians have little or no belief or expectation of Jesus coming at the nadir of human crisis to intervene and make things right. Rather, these liberal Christians believe that an improved future lies in a reformation or revitalization of human values and attitudes.
Fundamentalist-literalist Christians have an emotional investment in the Rapture and associated Tribulations. These involve the ultimate intervention of Jesus in world affairs with its implied justification and validation of believers' attitude, outlook and supportive actions.
It has been said that a fundamentalist is someone angry about something which might explain the aggressive hostility to those who do not see the Bible, Christian doctrine and Prophecy in the same light. Seeing themselves as living among people who are wicked and deserving of hell-fire feeds a personal psychology of religious heroism, suffering and endurance which God must surely reward.
They are a frightened people who do not seem to understand that the lack of faith they perceive in others is in fact their own lack of faith. The End Times as sold in Christian bookstores has as its basis a lack of faith in the power of God and the implied irrational assumption that the King of Heaven - Mighty as He is - cannot accomplish anything without the mortal intervention of human foot soldiers.
If God does not come down, take names and kick butt and then leave doubters behind, fundamentalist theology itself would be defined as mere current superstition based on a more ancient set of superstitions whose validity has become - to a frightened number of literalists - irrelevant.

This weekend's required reading for those who are offended but who aren't afraid to look into the mirror.

Whether you sing in the choir, preach to the choir or cater to the choir ... there are many in the choir who are oblivious to the sour-sounding music the choir makes.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Excerpts:

 As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. 

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks. 

 1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time. 

 6. When I am told about our national heritage or about civilization, I am shown that people of my color made it what it is. 

 17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.  

For this reason, the word privilege now seems to me misleading. We usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work systematically to overempower certain groups. Such privilege simply confers dominance because of one's race or sex.  

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/19/study-reveals-republican-policies-pushed-millions-americans-hunger.html

McMorris-Rodgers and Friends ... be proud you are a Republican.

A ringing endorsement ... why, if you are ignorant and uninformed ... you should vote for McMorris-Rodgers

If the way of things is for you to take advice from any old Kindergarten Konservative, here's your chance to do a big belly flop into the shallow end of the pool where most of your political friends are splashing around.

Ann Coulter Urges: Just Vote For Any 'Crap-Ass' GOPer

Ann Coulter stuck up for the Republican Party in roundabout way on Tuesday when she told Sean Hannity that voters need to support any "crap-ass" GOPer over the Democrats.

“We can’t just abandon the field right now, you have to vote Republican even if it’s for a crap-ass Republican," Coulter told Hannity during a spot on his radio show. "And I would name them but I’m not going to,” she added with a laugh.

Hannity, on the other hand, was happy to name some names and began with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), declaring "he’s a horrible speaker.”

The Most Powerful Republican Woman in Congress and her faulty political, economic and social thinking

Cathy McMorris-Rodgers will tell you many things and give you many reasons why you should send her back to Washington so she can keep NOT DOING the things she was elected to do.

Take a look at the following summaries of how ignorant her party assumes us to be.

Why This MattersThese things really matter. We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse – just as laying off government workers in a recession makes unemployment worse.
If we get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama – tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want, when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place – then we will be in real trouble.

OK you guys ... tough-talking impeachers ... put up (I dare you) ... or shut up

Polls Show GOP Base Has Impeachment Fever, Even As Party Leaders Run From It


Come on you guys ... what's a matter Colonel Sanders ... chicken?

Polls conducted last month by CNN/ORC, Fox News and Rasmussen Reports all found close to 60 percent of Republicans in favor of impeaching and removing Obama from office.
Each poll found that wide majorities of the public at large — and virtually every other demographic group — oppose impeachment.

 After all, Kindergarten Konservatism is nothing if not reckless.

"Such a calculation — amnesty-by-fiat to deliberately court impeachment — is breathtakingly cynical. But clever. After all, there is no danger of impeachment succeeding," Krauthammerwrote. "There will never be 67 votes in the Senate to convict. But talking it up is a political bonanza for Democrats, stirring up an otherwise listless and dispirited base. Last Monday alone the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised more than $1 million from anti-impeachment direct mail."

Pick up NRA-backed weapon ... Ready .... aim at foot ..... FIRE.

I think you guys should go for it.

I wish you would.

 

Couldn't pass a civics test if their life depended on it

Next time you think you have the best say as to who comes in and who can't come in ... this speaker has the truest point to be made. Run and hide, or invest 90 seconds and watch it ... then be honest with yourself ... go home and look in the mirror.

WATCH: That Awkward Moment When Anti-Immigration Protesters Realize They're Immigrants Too
Note the size of the crowd at the beginning of the video as opposed to when the camera pans back about 30 seconds in.

Broadcast Betrayal

The Quality Politicians Marching In Step with McMorris-Rodgers ... can't get enough of them