Month: January 2009

People often ask me why I never have anything good to say about America, despite living here for six years.

My answer is, “I keep looking,” but with the exception of a relatively few human beings whom I’ve found to be charming, witty, intelligent, and caring of others who aren’t necessarily of their nationality, little arises that causes me to wax lyrical over this wondrous, “city on a hill,” destined, “to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.”

John Winthrop’s sermon, aboard the Arbella, before landing in Massachusetts in 1630, regaled the new colonists on how they and their descendants must behave to win over the rest of the world. He, at least, realized how important that was. One has only to read his words to comprehend how gloriously America has failed to live up to Winthrop’s vision:

We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”

Winthrop closed his sermon to the Puritans with a reference to Deuteronomy, Chapter 30:

…if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it.”

While accepting the prophecy may be somewhat dated, there is no doubt Americans, of whatever creed, have chosen to worship the “other gods of pleasure and profits” (and power).

It may seem strange to readers that a self-confessed skeptic of anything religious should quote a rebel English Puritan in order to make a point, but when over ninety percent of the country professes a belief in a worshipful God, and seventy-six percent accept Jesus of Nazareth as their divine savior, is it not reasonable to expect some semblance of the basic tenets of Christian teaching to shine through?

There is a woman in this country, called Ann Coulter. She has yet another book about to assault the bookstores. Who is this woman? Anywhere in the civilized world she would be, at best, a nobody; at worst, an object of ridicule. Her insane agenda, her distorted viewpoint and fractious manner, would be laughed off as immature and irrelevant.

Coulter has written six books (not including her latest, as yet unpublished, epic). All have made the New York Times Best Seller list.

What does that say about America and its citizens?

Coulter calls herself a Christian, but in one column (oh, yes, this person actually writes a column!)^[1] she described “being nice to people” as “one of the incidental tenets of Christianity.”

The Christian religion, she says, is based around a belief that Jesus’ message was:

People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I’m here to redeem you even though you don’t deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it.”

Roughly translated that means, “Hell, I’ve been redeemed. That means I can be as nasty as I like to anyone and everybody. I can kill, maim, torture, and generally behave like a cruel and insane bastard to the rest of the world, and I’ll still go to Heaven.”

It’s a message Americans want to hear. Or, at least, enough to put her new book up with the top sellers in the US.

There’s little of Winthrop’s “brotherly affection”, or, “meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality” about Coulter, which would be fine if a large percentage of this nation’s populace didn’t consider her malevolent utterances sufficiently important to make her one of the most widely read authors on the continent.

When Americans mature sufficiently to send Coulter and her ilk to the Unemployment Benefits Office, I may actually begin to like them, and their nation, a little more.

^{[1] “The passion of the liberal” TownHall.Com, March 4th 2004}

Filed under: Grow up, guys

Following the Sparrow Chat “Happy New Year” post, a lady complained it was too biased towards the male subscribers, and could I not have found a suitable image for Sparrow Chat’s female readers?

Sadly, while not wishing to appear in any way sexually biased, this proved difficult.

Not wishing to disappoint, I was left with no alternative but to publish an image of myself, though I have to admit it was taken a year or two back.

So here, especially for Gaye, is my New Year’s message to the ladies:

Filed under: Believe that, believe anything

“The party’s over…..it’s time to call it a day…..” warbled Judy Holliday in the 1956 musical comedy, “The Bells Are Ringing.”

I know just how she felt. Christmas merriment has come and gone, shuffled off into the void along with the rest of 2008. Suddenly the long, cold, dark days of winter loom into the distance, only eventually to be dispersed by Easter bunnies that aren’t yet so much as a twinkle in their daddy buck’s eyes, and chocolate eggs it’s way too early even for Wal-Mart to consider stocking.

“Ah, but wait,” I hear the cry, “this year is different. In a few weeks the dragon Bush will be vanquished by Saint Barack; winter will immediately be displaced by endless summer; life will revert to wondrous joy, and children will sing once more in the streets.”

Unfortunately, these cries only emanate from deep within psychiatric establishments, or from the lips of Democratic party workers so long on the campaign trail their brains were fried by overly-enthusiastic political promises, and lies intended to trick simple-minded religious fundamentalists into voting for the candidate who really believed in abortion, birth control, and Jesus being gay.

Let’s stare the grim reaper of reality in the face, here. Barack Obama may, or may not, be the one great American prodigy plucked from obscurity by a benevolent God to answer the call and right the wrongs of the evil Bush administration, but lacking the long, gray beard and magic wand of Gandalf, even if he proved to be the latest reincarnation of the bastard son of Mary and Joseph, his ability to produce drastic change in Washington, tame the financial gurus who own Wall Street, or convince the corporate drug barons and medical insurance mafia to lay down their check books for the good of the common people, is likely to be severely limited.

And let’s not forget what happened to the last one who tried that, with the money merchants in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Of course, no-one expects Barack Obama to be perfect. After all, the Bible tells us Jesus of Nazareth had his faults. Not least of all, his choice of Judas Iscariot as an apostle.

Well, come on! Would the all-knowing son of a god deliberately pick a follower he knew would betray him?

(At this point, Christian readers are nodding sagely and murmuring, “Oh, yes, yes, He would, because the Bible required He fulfill the ‘prophecy’.”) (Whatever THAT means.)

Jesus was flawed. Obviously, so is Obama. Otherwise, why would he have chosen Tom ‘Ethanol’ Vilsack as his Agriculture Secretary? On November 24th, Vilsack stated he wasn’t in the running for the post.^[1] Three weeks later, Obama named him as his twelfth apostle.

Vilsack, governor of the ethanol capital of the US, namely Iowa, has lauded the benefits of ethanol production, is heavily invested in the industry, strongly supports GM crops, founded and chaired the Governor’s Biotechnology Partnership, and was named “Governor of the Year” by an industrial lobbying group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Obama, himself, is heavily into the “benefits” of ethanol production. Benefits that include being more polluting of the environment than gasoline, and creating a hike in world food prices that has already forced millions to the brink of starvation.

However well-meaning, caring, or capable of working miracles Obama proves to be – and, let’s be honest, he may be none of those things – he’s still only one man against the Machine. The last man who took on the Machine ended up nailed to a wooden cross.

Can Barack Obama do better than Jesus of Nazareth?

“The party’s over……it’s time to call it a day…”

Those long, cold, dark days of winter still loom into the distance……

^{[1] “Vilsack Says He’s Not in the Running for Ag. Sec. Spot” Washington Post, November 24th 2008}

Filed under: Tidings of comfort and joy