Pilots run out of fuel, pray, land near Jesus sign

So it seems that god likes to help stupid pilots over say, the thousands and sometimes millions who are affected by natural disasters.

Here’s a thought, instead of praying for a safe flight and then having to pray when you run out of fuel, why don’t you try PLANNING your flight and filling your plane with the proper amount of fuel. Or you could maybe not plan flights that are going to go beyond your fuel capacity.

I really don’t wish human suffering or anything, but these two guys should have died. Since they are now alive, we all get to hear how miraculous it was that their ignorant asses got to land safely because of Jesus. I just know there are thousands of Christians who are going to read this story and praise god for his grace, mercy and miracle working power. Keep on praising stupidity!

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I Just thought I’d pass this along (mind you, I don’t really care about the McCain stuff, due to it being equivalent to the Obama/Wright controversy):

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Survey: 70 Percent of Americans Find Divorce ‘Morally Acceptable’

Take a look at the link above. At first, I just wanted to write about how silly it is that Christianity views “morally acceptable” divorce as alarming. I wanted to say how once again, Christianity feels like they should dictate morality for the masses. I could have written extensively on that, like I’ve done in the past, but this time I want to focus on something different.

The linked article gives us all an insight into a very disturbing fact about the United States’ most accepted religion. Christianity encourages its followers to endure emotional and mental stresses/suffering in order to uphold a very weak moral construct.

In the real world, many times, two people fall in love, get excited about their relationship, get married and then find that their choice to spend the rest of their lives together was made in haste. In the real world, people get married young and then find that they change into a different person a few years down the road and start to reconsider the choices they made earlier in life. In the real world, sometimes people get married after accidentally coming face-to-face with pregnancy and are pressured by dogmatic, unnecessary societal ideals to “do the right thing.” In the real world, people have the idea of marriage forced down their throats from childhood and then realize, after married, that it’s not the ideal state that they were convinced of. In the real world, children get to see the reoccurring mental anguish, through their parents, that married/family life can bring, when rushed into without proper consideration or even semi-adequate planning.

But you know what? Absolutely none of this should be accepted as valid reasoning for why divorce is morally acceptable. Do you know why? For many Christians, divorce is a sin.

Here are a few quotes pulled from the user comments on the page linked at the beginning of this post:

“Marriage is to be viewed in the light of Scripture. To make light of divorce is a great mistake. Thank God there is forgivness for divorce, But again, to make light of it is to fly in the face of God.”

“Remarriage is only allowed if your spouce died. If your spouce is alive, then you may divorce although it is not good, but you may never marry again if it was a valid Christian ceremony where you made your committment before God till death do you part.”

“Even if you divorce, you are only divorced civilly. How can man sepparate what God has brought together? If you get a divorce and your spouce did not pass away yet, then you are not free to remarry. it is adultery.”

“One more comment on marrying….I wonder how many marriages could’ve been saved if one of the parties humbled themselves before God and began to cry out to Him for help. Spouse committing adultery? get on your face before God and begin praying for conviction on that person and for their eyes to be opened. Been yelling a lot at each other? Get on your face before God. Cry out to Him and pray for a spirit of humility and peace. take authority over the enemy of your marriage and command him to loose your spouse from the chains that bind them.”

“Should we be surprised when the Lord allows the California Supreme Court to change God’s definition of marriage when we Americans have such disregard for this holy union?”

Now, this isn’t a representation of the total of opinions expressed in the user comments, but this does represent the majority. Some Christians allow for compassion towards those who have to endure the end of a committed relationship, but at the end of the day, if we truly, “view divorce in light of Scripture,” divorce is a sin that leads to adultery.

If we are to take just this small sampling of user comments as an identifier of the common train of Christian thought on this matter (which is arguable, yet in light of my personal experience has been common), then it is their position that two people who come to the conclusion that continuing their relationship is more stressful and harmful to them and their family than ending it, should stick it out and stay burdened mentally and emotionally, so that they don’t both sin against god.

You should be unhappy, so that you might please the almighty deity. The Christian god cares more about the institution of marriage, over the individuals that have committed to this institution in error. It may not be obvious, or intentional, but sadly, this is a very clever trick that religion fools many into believing. You are to sacrifice daily your own happiness if it conflicts with the moral constructs of your faith. You are to endure a state of emotional and mental martyrdom, so that you can be found in favor of your god. What is the point of this? Glad you asked.

In the mind of the religious believer, it creates an infinite loop of sacrifice and suffering which ALWAYS leads back to dependence on the deity figure for guidance, comfort and “strength.” You eventually get to a point where you can completely “divorce” yourself from rational and reasonable consideration for the choices of your life, and give all of your hard decisions to god. This is an intolerable weakness that plagues the Christian mindset. Sacrifice yourself and depend on god. Sacrifice yourself and depend on god. SACRIFICE YOURSELF AND DEPEND ON GOD! Perhaps if you repeat this to yourself over and over again, you can find a way to numb your mind and actually believe that you find relief from time to time. Perhaps when you are praying you will think that you are relieving the burden of your mind that you have voluntarily placed on yourself. Perhaps when you are singing and praising at church, you will convince yourself that you should have no care for tomorrow, and that your god has everything in control. You will give up your ability to have the power to decide what is best for you, so that your god will make those decisions for you.

How does this work? Of course, a person who willfully takes on this mindset will seek advice from their minister and/or those they are close to in the church. More than likely a person like this will start to think about marriage counseling with their church or books that teach them how to maintain a healthy, Christian marriage. This person, who depends on their god to make their decisions for them, is really relying on the church structure to direct them to decisions based on false, unhealthy, group-think moral constructs. Sometimes this might work. Sometimes a marriage that goes through this may start to get better. The two people inside of this relationship might actually convince themselves that they have been deceived by Satan, or had their minds focused to far away from god. They may start to believe that their marriage is stronger for embracing dependence on god, but at the end of the day, it will be a game of pretend.

Now, do I think that every marriage that meets trouble should end in divorce? No, absolutely not. Many times two people decide to get married because they feel they love one another, and maybe they just need to remember that. There are plenty of times that relationships can be salvaged by communicating about mutual feelings of unrest and how to alleviate those feelings. At the end of the day, if the two parties involved can’t reconcile their differences, then it should be completely, morally acceptable for them to end their relationship. There is nothing truly taboo, corrupt or harmful about a decision like that, unless one or both of the individuals make it a point to cause harm either physically or emotionally during the breakup. Of course it should be expected that hurt feelings can and do emerge from divorces, but this is far from a reason to label it evil or immoral. This isn’t Christianity’s basis anyway. To Christianity, it is an offense against god. It is a sin.

This is something that has seemed very sad to me for quite some time now. It is sad in that the people who are willfully engaged in the acceptance and spreading of this type of idea don’t even know that they are hurting themselves and those around them. What is even more sad is that divorce isn’t the only area wherein Christianity distorts and perverts the rational and reasonable decision making processes of what would be potentially otherwise apt, normal people. Any doctrine of sin, that perceives normal people trying to make decisions in everyday life, good outcomes or bad, as evil is a distorted perception and when spread, is a perverse ideology for society to embrace.

In closing, I present the one rational comment from the article above:

“I find divorce acceptable because it is in the DIVORCEES’ and the CHILDRENS’ best interest if parents mutually separate rather than live unhappily, distraught, and sexually unhappy. “How many marriages could have been saved?” Is that a joke? I do not believe that people will stay in an unhappy marriage ‘for the sake of vows and marriage ethics’: they will follow their hearts, their prosperity, and will make adult, mature decisions in the eyes of the law, not religion.”

Thank you blue1018. Christians, if you’re going to proclaim that your religion is one of love, compassion and understanding you might take a lesson.

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Vatican:  It’s OK to believe in aliens.

Of course, the Vatican also approves of believing in:

1) Big, mad, power-hungry deities in the sky.
2) People formed from dirt, then ribs of dirt people.
3) Big boats that can hold two of each species of animal on Earth.
4) Talking, burning bushes (sounds like a girl I knew in college… zing!).
5) Jesus didn’t have sex with Mary Magdalene (COME ON! She was a successful prostitute!)
6) Lots of other ridiculous bullshit.

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Well, it’s about time that the whole “Einstein believed in god” argument was put to rest!

Belief in God ‘childish,’ Jews not chosen people: Einstein letter

Sadly, Einstein is dead, but we should all take a lesson from him and get the meme out into society that there is nothing special about the Jewish people.  They are human, just like all of us, and there is nothing divine, or supernatural about them.  There are too many fanatic preachers on television that promote the idea that Israel is protected by god, and there is a huge push by evangelicals to influence U.S. policies that support Israel.  This is craziness and Albert Einstein knew it as well.

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Recently, I was able to watch an episode of “Breakthrough” with Rod Parsley, entitled “An Evil Age.” You can watch this episode yourself by going to one of the following links:

http://www.rodparsley.com/mediaplayer/index.aspx?EpisodeID=983

or

http://www.rodparsley.com/TVSchedule.aspx
Look for: “An Evil Age.”

In his intro, Rod tells us that the 18-25 age group in America is under an all-out attack by the broader culture that involves the failing public educational system which incorporates “situational ethics” and a “secular humanistic worldview, rather than a thoroughly biblical worldview.” He gives a story of a high school student in Madison, WI, who had his art assignment failed, because he included an image of “Calvary’s cross” and a reference to John 3:16. Rod then asserts, based on this story, that the public school system as a whole and their secular humanist philosophy does not prohibit the expression of religious faith, except for when you express a Judeo-Christian ethic. And supposedly, to him and his audience, “That ain’t right.” His intro concludes with the following quote:

“The enemy of our soul never sleeps and never slumbers. He is busy day and night creating the abuse and murder that dominates the nightly news, even to the point of children dying at the hands of other children. With so much evil surrounding us, we’re going to take a good, long look at the root of evil.”

After an advertisement for Parsley’s “Reformation Generation,” youth-oriented conference, Rod and his guest on the show begin to detail the nature of our evil, secular culture. Mr. Parsley makes a statement saying that the ACLU wants to spend their time on Muslim students having rights, but when John 3:16 is included on an art project, that student receives a zero. Rod’s guest tells us that the world today is full of backwards thinking when the world needs to have forward thinking, looking forward to the return of Jesus. After the crowd gets good and hyped up, Parsley continues in saying that the “far liberal left” has painted Christianity as a fringe group within society and that our (Christianity’s) personal freedoms and security are hanging by a thread in America today.

Rod then leads into a video of his “good friend,” Gary Bower giving a speech about great conflicts that are facing America. In this video, Mr. Bower supports the idea that since 9/11 we have not had another attack on American soil, but it’s not because the “enemy” hasn’t tried. He tells us that Osama Bin Laden believes that America is decadent, fat, lazy and no longer capable of sacrifice. He encourages his audience to fight for family, fight for life and vote until we bring America back.

Once the video is finished, Parsley speaks of the increasing secularization of our culture, wherein many won’t stand up and fight against it. He reassures his audience that there is still a truth for our culture that resonates from the bible. He goes on to promote that America is currently engaged in two wars:

1) The War Abroad - The war abroad is against radical Islamic fascist ideologies. Rod tells us that he is not proud of a Christian history that includes the embracing of slavery, crusades and radical fundamentalism, but that Christianity had a reformation through Martin Luther that stood up and declared “this ain’t right!” Rod goes on to tell us that if we don’t think we are at war with radical lslam, that we “have our heads in the sand and listen only to the opinions of secular media.” After pushing the idea (not included on leftists blogs he says) that we are in a battle and a struggle against radical Islam, he proceeds to say that it is “against my religion to impose my religion.” He tells us that Christianity doesn’t work by oppression, but by invitation and says, “We don’t hack your hands off if you don’t show up to Sunday morning bible study.”

2) The War at Home - The second war is one that America is “having with herself.” Parsley says that Christians are fighting a cultural war of survival and of clashing worldviews and ask his audience, “will we fight?” He then encourages his audience to “man their battle stations,” and, “lock and load.” Rod then comforts his audience by telling them that he is not talking about a physical confrontation, but a warfare of prayer, service and sacrifice to god.

After all of this, he goes into a segment on the current suffering of peoples in Uganda and asks for donations of $44, $100, $500 and even $1000 for his ministry there, that provides medicine and food for those people. Rod says that the world has turned a blind eye to this humanitarian disaster, but that god sees and has called you and I to help, through our donations.

Rod closes this episode of breakthrough by reaching out to all of those people watching that may be struggling with depression and despair, encouraging them to call in for prayer, telling them that “joy is on the way.”

Now let’s turn a critical eye to Rod’s message. What is Mr. Parsley actually saying/doing with his sermon on our “evil age?”

1) Fear Mongering - Throughout this episode, Rod presents us with stories about the suppressed rights of students, oppressive treatment of Christian ideologies inside of modern culture, the delicate state of freedom and security in America and even uses a video that utilizes the events of 9/11 to encourage people to fight/vote for family values, the pro-life position and to stop the further degradation of America. Rod, in this role, is nothing more than a snake oil salesman. He is constructing a false representation of the current world as “evil” and persuading Christians that our evil world is a threat to their freedom and their children’s freedom. He builds his case for an evil “secular humanist” culture and then sells the crowd Christian morality (along with his many, many products that discuss and support this idea) as the only remedy. Create the disease and sell the remedy.

2) Creating Division - Rod is obviously drawing lines in the sand between a hallowed Christian, bible-based morality and an evil, humanity-damning, leftist, secular humanist worldview. One of the easiest ways to bolster support for your cause is to create an enemy, even if one doesn’t really exist. It’s also a good idea to promote the idea that your group is oppressed by the created enemy (even if your group makes up 80% of the nation’s population), so that you can rally your supporters to action through voting, protesting and generally spreading your false construct over and over again. Listen Rod, your tactics are obvious to anyone with even a hint of rational reasoning. You are creating an “us vs. them” mentality so that you can influence your audiences into believing that “leftist, secular humanists” are a threat to their way of life, so that in turn, people will read your books, come to your seminars and pay ridiculous amounts of money for your bullshit. You do understand you are spreading hate in the name of goodwill, right? Hypocrite. Do I need to remind you that the “moral” ideologies you embrace promote the idea that people who don’t believe like you do will suffer in the eternally burning flames of hellfire? I guess that’s not a hate-filled, humanity damning ideology since you support it, right? Do you want to tell me again how much your god loves me and how much I’ve been deceived by the cruel, secular world? Charlatan.

3) Supporting Political Agendas Through a Religious Outlet - Mr. Parsley would have you believe, and it is very obvious from this episode, that right-wing, Christian conservative political ideologies are morally correct and good for our country, while left-wing, secular-humanist, liberal, political ideologies are evil and will lead to the downfall of our nation. This is a good sign that Rod is running a cult. It’s all well and good to tell people that they need to have the peace and joy that comes from salvation through Christ, but when you start to influence a massive group of people into believing that they should act out, through voting and political coercion within society, to promote the indoctrination of Christian-based morality on the larger culture as a whole, and that any other version of morality within society is “evil,” you are crossing the line into religious fanaticism. Also, I’m not sure, but I don’t think that as a non-profit, tax-exempt ministry, you should be promoting any solid form of political agenda from your pulpit. Maybe that’s just me.

Aside from all of this, overall, Rod Parsley makes grandiose claims that appeal to base-level emotions ranging from fear of punishment and suffering to hope of blessing and prosperity. We all need to remember that at the end of the day, it’s Rod’s job to keep promoting all of these ideologies that have locked in a solid and growing base of Christian fundamentalists in this country. Honesty and consideration for other worldviews, and even cooperation, promoting unity with other worldviews would mean a decline in the stream of money that keeps him in fine suits, worldwide broadcasts and jumbo jets. If Mr. Parsley is capable of promoting this type of hatred, inequality and phobia within our society, while sleeping at night, he should be ashamed of himself. Being that he does what he does so fervently, it is obvious he isn’t.

I’m going to give Rod Parsley and his “evil age” message 1 halo, because the world will be a much better place when the general populous grows wise to the tactics and coercions of inflammatory sophists like Parsley, sending them and their ideas into antiquity, where they belong.

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