Guest Post by Morbo
The Carpetbagger often writes a post on Saturdays called “This Week in God.” I’m going to steal the idea today with my own collection of stories about religious weenies.
Please understand that I’m not knocking religion here, just religious weenies. I am sure that after reading these stories you’ll see the difference.
First up is an article from a group of community newspapers in Johnson County, Kan. Sheri Baker-Rickman’s story looks at discrimination against Wiccans, especially efforts by Wiccan groups to win approval for their symbol, the Pentacle. Wiccans would like the Pentacle to appear on the headstones and memorial markers of Wiccan soldiers who die in service to their country just as crosses, Stars of David and other religious symbols are used. For some reason, the Department of Veterans Affairs resists this.
Baker-Rickman quotes Jeremiah Johnston, executive pastor of First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan. He says:
“We live in an age where almost every cult wants to hijack the word ‘church’ and parlay themselves into an acceptable religion. The history of the pentacle has been connected with occultic ramifications. Obviously, some who embrace Paganism disassociate from that reference. The position of First Family Church is that religion apart from Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is devoid.”
OK. So, there goes Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Unitarianism, etc. They’re all “devoid.” Just once, I’d like to hear one of these fundamentalist numbskulls say, “Wicca is not my cup of tea — but I realize that we can’t let the government decide which religions are legitimate and which are not. Tomorrow it could be my faith that is deemed illegitimate. My religious freedom depends on the religious freedom of others.”
Is that too much to ask? I guess so.
Story two is a Washington Post feature on Jamie Ginn, a Delaware resident who competed in the Miss America pageant recently. The Post loved this story because Ginn is a chemical engineer with the DuPont company. She’s got beauty and brains!
Brains? Maybe not so much. Reflecting on her long career in pageants, Ginn had this to say: “[I]t was in my destiny to be Miss Delaware. I believe in God’s plan.”
God’ plan was for you to be Miss Delaware? It bothers me that some devoutly religious people are so smug that they have embraced a god who is really little more than an efficient executive assistant. He takes the time to obsess over every picayune detail of their pathetic lives. This god can’t be bothered to bring us world peace or end poverty because he’s busy picking the next Miss Delaware.
I do not claim to know the mind of God. Heck, I don’t even know if there is a God. But I do know this: Any God who spends his time deciding who gets to be Miss Delaware is not worthy of our worship. Get over yourself, Miss Ginn.
Next up is a story that did not get much attention but should have: Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago gave a speech at the Library of Congress recently and attacked a founding principle of American life — the idea of the secular state.
George is mad because under the secular state, his church must raise money from (gasp!) its own members as opposed to the taxpayers at large. He wants all of us to pay for his church’s schools.
“Great Britain and Australia, New Zealand and most of the Canadian provinces, France, Italy and most of the European democracies, the state of Israel and even Iraq under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, which was a secularist regime, have given financial aid to the parents of Catholic school children,” observed George.
Well, if Saddam Hussein did it, it must be a good idea.
I know there are lots of good progressive Catholics out there. It’s a shame they are so often stuck with loser clergy who pine for the Middle Ages. If nothing else, one would think these guys would realize this: The United States is not 17th-century Spain. Not everyone is Catholic. If we ditch the secular state, chances are good that in many parts of the country, some other religion is going to end up on top.
After all, if Mississippi is allowed to name an official religion, I doubt politicians there will turn to the Bishop of Biloxi for advice on which one.
Our fourth and final weenie is Pastor Rod Parsley of Ohio. Parsley is working hard to become the next Jerry Falwell. He has a new book out, “Culturally Incorrect: The Real War of the Worlds,” that has received rave reviews from Zell Miller and Tom DeLay, so you know it’s good.
But just in case the book flops, Parsley has other ways of keeping up his fancy lifestyle. A recent e-mail pitch plugged something Parsley calls the “Resurrection Seed.” He writes, “God has given us a prophecy that certain believers have been called and chosen to sow a significant Resurrection Seed — and to receive a three-fold blessing: A stress-free home and family! Divine health. Blessings of abundance.”
The cost for this blessing is a recommended donation of $85 (but whatever you can scrape up will be cheerfully accepted).
Is there any worse corruption of Christianity than the so-called “prosperity gospel”? Again, I’m no theologian, but I’m pretty confident that if God exists, his blessings are free. You don’t have to pay a charlatan for them. The only thing that will be “blessed” from this stunt seems to be Parsley’s bank account, which will grow fatter by non-miraculous means.