A word to the "Values Voter": The GOP has now demonstrated conclusively that all Americans, and especially evangelicals, should run from it as from Old Scratch himself. After all, you can't support prayer in the schools and prey-ers in the halls of Congress at the same time. To pretend otherwise is hypocrisy. The moral discrediting of America's preachy politicians and their political preachers is now complete.
Depravity, deviance, and old-fashioned Biblical wickedness have reached epidemic proportions among our Republican and conservative leaders. Their reaction to Foley's behavior (call it "e-molestation") tells us all we need to know - both about them, and their sin-promoting media lackeys.
Imagine for a second that it's true: Hastert & Co. truly didn't understand the gravity of the situation, Fox News really thought it was fine to conceal Foley's predations, and Rush and Drudge really believe what they've said about the case. That only proves that lack the moral values and simple decency common to good people everywhere.
If they did understand, and defended Foley anyway, they're even worse. So how can evangelical Christians ever support these characters again? And here's a party game for the rest of us: Which of the Seven Deadly Sins don't these rightwingers commit - over and over and over?
The lifestyle of the Rightwing Rich and Famous is decadent beyond worldly measure. Behind their calculated squeaky-clean image lies a bacchanal without end. It's Frank Capra meets Fellini, Pasolini meets Leave It To Beaver. Imagine casting the teenaged Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in a remake of Satyricon. Hey, kids, let's put on the orgy right here!
If we don't want the script to play out as it's been written by these guys - which is to say, America as the Last Days of the Roman Empire - it's time for a change. The GOP Senate is Sodom and their House of Representatives is Gomorrah. People of faith, it's your time to say enough is enough.
I have profound policy differences with the Republican and conservative leadership, but that aside - these people are creepy. Just look at them. Gaze upon DeLay, Trent Lott, and the rest and tell me that, in your heart of hearts, you don't see what I see: a lifetime of greed and depravity etched into their very faces.
Their false Up-With-People wholesomeness is actually the picture of Dorian Gray. Their cronyism is that of Damien, the Devil's own son, who buys himself a plum political apointment in Omen III. Three guesses, three rubs of the monkey's paw, to tell you which party 's contributions will let you do that.
Here's the Question of the Year: Knowing what you know now, Mr. and Mrs. Red State America, who would you rather have babysit your children - A Democrat, or a Republican? Let's get specific. The next time you go out to a movie, would you rather leave your little ones with Harry Reid - or Dick Cheney? Hillary Clinton - or Katherine Harris? John Murtha - or Bill Frist? (Quick - hide the cat!)
The Foley sins - and the even greater sin committed by the those at Fox and in the GOP who covered them up - is just Satan's latest escapade among his right-wing minions. Lest we forget, there was the GOP-appointed doctor at the FDA who repeatedly raped and sodomized his wife - and then, as she later stated, left money on her dresser as if she were a common hooker. Our "moral leaders" saw no need to criticize that behavior.
There was Randall Terry, who took time off from his moralizing to cheat on his wife. Other prominent adulterers on the Right include two of the leading GOP candidates for President. I never thought people's private lives were a public matter - but for the Right, who used to feel otherwise, what happened to those high moral values of the Clinton days?
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone - but if you're a rightwing preacher backing one of these Republican candidates, I say "let he who is without shame cast the first vote."
Adultery's just one of the deadly sins popular with these guys. There's also pride, greed (otherwise known as gluttony), wrath, and sloth. And for a little more on "pride," consider our war-dodging President's penchant for military costumes like that infamous flightsuit and this "Commander in Chief" bombardier jacket:
Let's face it. He and Rove may think he looks manly in them, but the effect is more Rhythm Nation-era Janet Jackson. (Which raises the question more Americans should be asking - what have you done for me lately?)
Republicans are the barbarians inside the gate.
One of the first politicians to speak in the inflammatory language of today's Radical Right was John Schmitz - who, as we later learned, was a longtime bigamist with a secret family. His daughter, Mary Kay LeTourneau, earned notoriety as the teacher who seduced her underaged male student and bore his children.
It almost makes you think it's genetic, doesn't it?
The financial misadventures of Republicans almost pale by comparison to their more lurid sins. Yet Abramoff cuts a wide swath across conservative and Republican politics. And we shouldn't forget the less well-known practitioners of corruption either. These include Kenneth Tomlinson, who abused his position of trust at public television; Thomas Scully, who set up the Medicare drug program to benefit the health industry while negotiating a job for himself as a health lobbyist; and Hastert himself, who enriched himself while holding his leadership position in Congress.
And of course, some extremists are trying to blame homosexuality for Foley's wicked acts, rather than sexual predation enabled by a self-serving and disinterested party elite. Listen up, chuckleheads: The research is in, and it's been proven that there's no relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. Gay or straight, child sexual abuse is about power and not orientation. Child molesting, like spousal rape, is deviant sexual behavior.
Stigmatizing an already-hounded minority for political gain? That's yet another conservative sin. It's like I told Tucker Carlson when we debated "Cheney's Chappaquiddick": Conservatives were right about one thing - character matters.
Do I condemn rank-and-file Republicans and conservatives as sinners? Of course not. Just their leaders. There are many good and decent Republicans, some of whom serve in government. They aren't part of their leadership's depravity - but they are enabling it. It's time to draw the line. Starve the GOP Beast of Belial of its voter oxygen.
Would I prefer an America where all Americans - liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat - can work together for the common good of the country? Of course. Negotiation is the backbone of American politics. But corruption - whether financial or moral - is not negotiable. Neither is betraying the public trust.
So smite these sinners, Lord! (Well, don't smite them just on my say-so. That's pretty harsh. I'd be satisfied if you just tossed them out of power, with the odd jailing or two as appropriate.)
Everyone can redeem themselves - even the corrupt and decadent leadership of the GOP and the Right. All they need to do is to admit their wrongs, face their punishment, and make amends for their misdeeds. The best place to do that is somewhere peaceful and quiet ... far, far away from the pressures and temptations of political leadership.
Forgive them, Father - but not before you send them packing.
(PS - I made the church signs here, in case you want to create a few of your own.)
Hello RJ and all,
Very good article!
Keep their feet to the fire until the blind thralls that voted these scoundrels into power finally opens their eyes to the truth. Keep up the good works!
Christian Political Leadership, Hypocrisy, Duplicity, and Purposeful Evil
The current scandal involving Congressman Foley is merely the latest in an amazingly long list of blatant deception and duplicity by Republicans and the Christian Right in recent years. While bedeviling us all with their holier-than-thou pretenses, they consistently support and/or perform blatant greed and abominable evil. Never forget the extent of their arrogance over the last two decades and especially the last 6 years. It is beyond amazing that Christians continue to blindly support such obviously blatant scoundrels, even as they are repeatedly exposed going against the most basic of human values. The level of hypocrisy and duplicity boggles the mind. There is no longer any doubt, whatsoever, that Christianity is little more than a purposeful deception used by political and religious leaders to dupe, manipulate, and coerce entire populations into giving them wealth and power, which they always use for greed, injustice, and abominable evils.
The actions of Foley and those who covered up for him directly parallel the actions of scores of priests that have raped innocent children, preyed upon others for centuries, and had their actions hidden and abetted by the Vatican. Now, in eerie repetition of Vatican history, we have a power hungry Christian Emperor (GW) working closely with the Vatican and Judeo-Christian aristocrats to lead crusades in the so-called Holy Land. Furthermore, to leave little doubt about the reality of this assessment, the USA, as the new Holy Roman Empire, is about to legalize the torture it has perpetrated in recent years while steadily reversing many of the democratic and civil freedoms that people gained when the Vatican and royalty lost control of their European empire at the turn of the nineteenth century. Now we see them following the same old path of evil as they strive to cement the status of the USA as the latest proxy Vatican empire. Make no mistake about it, the new dark ages are looming on the horizon unless we do something proactive to prevent it.
Remember that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it!
These scum and their ilk have consistently proven that gaining and maintaining power, at any cost, is much more important to them than anything they publicly pronounce. They have so little true concern for the well-being of others that they will say or do anything to take advantage of millions upon millions just to line their own grubby pockets and maintain power. This proves, to anyone with eyes to see, that they couldn't care less about everyone else as long as they get their hands on wealth and power, even if it means pretending to serve the Creator. It is long past time that people stand up for truth and justice and give these scoundrels their due.
This is a direct challenge to Christians to open your eyes and finally understand that you have been duped about the true purpose and nature of Christianity and the deceptive leaders you have blindly followed. How much evil must be done in your names before it finally dawns on you that you have been fooled by the very scoundrels you thought you were and/or would be opposing?
Remember the saying that "the truth will set you (and others) free?" How does "opening one's eyes to the truth" relate to "making the blind see again" or "shining the light" or "illuminating a subject?" Notice the inherent symbolism associated with this supposed New Testament "miracle?"
I know that many have chosen to write me off as some sort of a quack over the last three years. Now that this country and world have sunk to new lows and many of the things I've warned about have occurred, perhaps fewer will be so quick to scoff at things they don't understand. Neither religious followers nor secularists have been 100% correct and most have been dead wrong about much. Perhaps now more will seek true wisdom and cooperate for the good of all before the Bush-Cheney-Vatican cabal revives the dark ages and puts you all in theological torture camps.
Remember:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing."
We are all trapped in a web of deception woven with money, religion, and politics. The great evils that bedevil us all will never cease until humanity finally awakens, shakes off these strong delusions, and forges a new path to the future.
Here is Wisdom !!
Peace...
Posted by: Seven Star Hand | October 05, 2006 at 08:46 AM