Religion, Politics, and other matters of little consequence
In the normal course of events, I don't discuss religion much; but there's cause today to do so. Our house troll, Francis Holland, has made the remarkable discovery that the Progressive movement hates not merely Hillary Clinton (though that would be something of an overstatement), but God Himself. I must disagree with him on that – Francis arguments, such as they are, can be found here and here - and not merely because I think Francis' eschatalogy of Hillary is getting to be a bit grating, not to mention theologically unsound. I'm reasonably certain that God doesn't vote in our primaries, in part because God is English and isn't entitled to do so; meanwhile, those who think Hillary Clinton is the Messiah in a pantsuit, I mean, come on, people. No matter how much one may or may not support her: the election of any one individual is not going to make pretty pink ponies fly in the sky, or magically undo all that is bad in the world. Would that it were so, but it's not - and it's definitely not going to happen with Hillary.
But first, allow me to speak briefly about me. My religious background is in the liberal Catholicism of Western Europe. Catholicism, take it from me, is properly understood a wonderful thing (I'm just going to gloss over that Inquisition business for the sake of this argument). We've managed to weave, over the last two millennia, a gorgeous tapestry of rituals, architecture, folkways, music, literature, theology, figural and painted art, that is in sum and at the very least aesthetically pleasing. Western European Catholicism gave rise, among other notable refinements to the human condition, to the Social Gospel, which maintains that the measure of our love of God is our treatment of the outcast, the dispossessed, the despised, and whether we press our lawful governments to better their lot. Under Catholic theology, not paying your laborers a fair wage – not merely what you consider fair, but what is fair – is defined as a Sin that Cries Unto Heaven For Vengeance; as they say, people go to hell for that, maybe a doctrine that Catholic Bush appointees to the NLRB should take note of.
Whether one buys the entire gilt-encrusted kit and caboodle is of course another question entirely. For myself, personally, I've decided that I'm not equipped to know whether or not there actually is a God, and that to claim otherwise would be presumptuous. We are all small, simple – some more so, some less, eh Francis? – humans shuffling merrily about on this mortal coil, making clumsy stabs, in the dark, at the Unknowable. There has to be an element of uncertainty in any kind of transcendental belief, however, an uncertainty that doesn't lend itself to either full-fledged belief or its mirror parallel, atheism. Myself, I'm humble enough, and patient enough, to trust that if there is an answer to the question, I'll find out one day; and if not, no harm done, no fair, no foul. There's value in acceptance of uncertainty, and meanwhile, I can enjoy a good Requiem when the mood strikes me, not to mention ignore some of the ideas floating around in the Church that are a tad less appetizing.
So that's where I'm coming from. Now, to Francis. That's below the fold.
And here's where whatever gentility used in the paragraphs above goes flying out the stained-glass window. Francis is, simply put, a fucktard before the Lord. A screaming pathology beyond hope of redemption. An un-American, anti-American hack who pisses on everything that is good and right. A miserable, wretched, hate-fueled, and abysmally, staggeringly, cosmically ignorant, words-fail-me-utterly fucktard.
A fucktard, ladies and gentlemen. This is his argument, which you can read in full at the links quoted above, presented under the subhead: "When they “crash the gatesâ€, will they take our cross?" Yes, I fuck you not - according to Francis, someone is out to de-Christianize you. Guess who? Here goes:
There's more, including the laughably absurd contention that it is the un-American atheism of Daily Kos that is behind its rejection of the 'openly devout' Hillary Rodham Clinton, but the above represents the crux of the argument.
This seething, twitching mass of bile is certainly in need of analysis, not least because we really shouldn't be doing the work Ann Coulter excels at for her. But let's cut right to the chase.
First of all, I don't support Hillary Clinton for the Presidency. Period. I think she's an abysmal, hair-raisingly catastrophic choice from an electoral perspective – which is why it actually amuses me that someone in her camp makes electability arguments – and from a policy perspective. I don't give a flying fuck what the woman believes privately. I say this having voted for her a total of three times. But that's not the issue, because politics is about more than just electing another President. It's also about winning races up and down the ticket – Congress, say, that branch of government that withered out of our control back when a Clinton was in office, because of the political stupidity (married to self-centeredness) of that Clinton and his wife. Mind you, we never got that back until, guess what, Daily Kos came along, and a host of other blogs that helped us to victory, raising millions and helping to counter the right-wing smear machine. Show me one thing that Francis Holland, fucking around on the beach in Brazil, has contributed to that – just one thing, not the many, many things that Markos Moulitsas Zuniga has himself done, enabled, made happen. However, that - Progressive activism - is kind of what it's all about.
Which is just one reason why this fascist screed – Francis Holland wants Markos out of the picture, calling him a 'radical atheist activist' – is so profoundly disturbing to me. I'm all for diversity of opinion in the blogosphere. But that embrace specifically does not include arguments that run along the lines of 'we must silence the non-Christians', and that most especially if they are made as part of a cynical, depraved personal vendetta against someone Holland has likely never even met. These screeds remind me of only one thing: republican campaign literature, 2004 election, claiming that Democrats would outlaw the bible. I have to say, in my entire time of reading blogs, this is the first time, that I've seen a so-called Progressive make the Dominionist argument, and I find it literally sickening. That it's being made to discredit someone who doesn't prefer one's choice in a primary puts this so far beyond the pale, so beyond anything that is good and just and right, that anyone with a shred of decency should recoil in horror. But that description obviously doesn't include us Francis, far-off in Brazil, where the weather is warm, the booze cheap and the hookers love Yanqui dollars (and hate colonial-man-cock, but hey).
The worst part is, of course, that the practical implications of Schmuck Holland's analysis are not what he says they are. Kos has never had a religious litmus test, and supported candidates of every flavor (and fervor) of religious belief; Eric Massa, Kristen Gillibrand, Jim Webb, Brian Keeler, Brian Schweitzer, Jon Tester, Jerry McNerny, and God alone knows whom else. Not to mention that there is a dedicated religious Kos offshott - Street Prophets. The simple fact is that Daily Kos is a blog dedicated to electing Democrats – that's the agenda. No more, no less; and I suspect that if, if, the Kos community were more amendable to Senator Unelectable PanderBot, Francis would have not a bad word to say about it.
But as it is, he's trying to get Hillary elected, and so must smear, with whatever comes to hand, those who stand in the way. Which is, by the by, an entirely Clintonesque approach. There will be more where this comes from, because Francis Holland's pathology has not run its course yet. Me, I'm just hoping that he doesn't discover that Daily Kos contains Jews and Gays; there's ample material to feed those screeds, and Francis won't shrink from using it if he finds it useful. In fact, here's a prediction: one of the Presidential contenders will be discovered to have Jewish ancestry; it happens in every cycle. Francis will be sorely tempted to scream from the virtual rafters that Christian Americans won't vote for him. Cuz ya know, there's people who don't like the Jews. And Hillary's safely Methodist.
Agnosticism | Atheism | Dominionism | Right-wing extremism | Daily Kos | Francis Holland | Hillary Clinton | Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
