Religious faith - points everywhere...and nowhere.

   

     Christian churches are not about the overarching message of the Protestant Bible, but rather about which interpretation of the book is correct. They all squabble with each other over the most inconsequential, ignorant, and petty things in their interpretations (Immersion vs. sprinkling, wine vs. grape juice, Saturday vs. Sunday...etc.) but they fail to address whether the bible is even worth basing an entire life-system on. (Full Disclosure: It's not.) Then, there's the matter of the Protestant Bible deriving from the Catholic Bible with its six extra books. Which one is the real "Christian" book? Does older mean truer and more reliable?

    Christianity's core is completely lacking in substance but has been protected, camouflaged, and embellished over the centuries spawning several offshoot industries and power centers all meant to conceal its main emptiness. They were designed to gloss over that emptiness and give it a veneer of authenticity, reliability, and truth. It is none of those things. It only pretends to be. 

    The Christians themselves sum it up with their vacuous "You just gotta have faith." What good does that do in proving the truth of something? If faith is all that is required, then Muslims are right about their faith. Mormons are right about theirs. Hindus are right about theirs... Who could ever be wrong if "you just gotta have faith?" 

It's time to grow up and realize gods were created by cavemen to explain thunder and lightning.

Pennsylvania Driver Proves Religion Poisoned Her

When the late Christopher Hitchens penned one of his best selling and most controversial books “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” he said the title was meant to sound as brutal as it did. Because religious poison is at the bottom of some of the most idiotic things humans do when they let Bronze Age stories written by semi-literate goat herders dictate how they should live their lives. And when they believe they are under 24-hour surveillance by a supernatural agent who they think they can manipulate, it gets even worse.

Here is just the latest example of why religion is dangerous.

On January 7, 2020, near Weatherly, PA, Nadejda Reilly decided just reading the bible, praying, and going to church was not enough. She needed to put God to a test. The end result was nearly catastrophic when she deliberately drove into oncoming traffic and rammed another car with three people in it. She injured two of them as “a test” of her faith in that God. And it convinced her God passed her test with flying colors. 
Law enforcement authorities revealed that she showed no empathy for the injured people and no regret for her actions. When interrogated, the 31-year-old woman told investigator Trooper Bruce Balliet that she drove around the area ‘for several hours’ so this was premeditated. She claimed she was waiting for a sign or a calling from God but when she received nothing she decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Reilly related that God took care of her by not having her injured," wrote the investigator in an arrest affidavit. "Reilly expressed no concerns or remorse for the victims and stated she did not care if the other people were injured because "God would have taken care of them."

The injured were taken to the hospital for treatment. Reilly was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses and her $50,000 bail was also revoked as it was deemed she would do it again if given an opportunity.

While a verdict on Reilly is yet to be announced, her actions have been strongly criticized and Church leaders opined that her actions were not faith-based, but were delusional.

That begs the question: how can anyone say her actions were not faith-based? Do they know her mind? Do they know the depth of her faith and how she believes God works in her life? They immediately go to a “she’s delusional” excuse. They are correct about that - but she is delusional because of her faith, not in spite of it. She honestly "believes" -  because she has been indoctrinated since the time she was a young child to accept some adult's insistence that there is a sky daddy somewhere up there who performs magic. That is delusional. She believed some supernatural power would take control of her vehicle and guide it safely through traffic if she just had enough faith. That thinking almost got four people killed (Reilly and the three people in the car she rammed). Notice the woman never has to provide any evidence that those who survived were protected by a God. She just asserts it. That should not fly in any court in this country.

This is how religion, particularly Christianity in the United States, infects people to the point of trying to kill others and not caring about the end result because some God will take care of the collateral damage. It’s another version of the old blood-thirsty “Kill ‘em all...let God sort ‘em out” slogan.

This woman injured two people and didn’t give a damn because she believed that God would protect those she almost killed - if God loved them enough - so it wasn’t her problem. God saw to it she wasn’t injured, thus proving to her that God exists - in her mind. Obviously, God kept the others from being killed so what's the problem? There's no harm done.

Why is it religion seems to inflict stupidity on its believers? People do dumb things all the time but this woman's belief in her religion convinced her that ramming another car and walking away means God loves her. So the material and physical costs don't factor into how much love she just experienced. Nor, apparently, can she figure out a less destructive or less harmful way to test her faith. We can expect her to do this every time she drives, to see if God still loves her. (I wonder...what if God doesn’t care about the people she rams into next time? Should it be her call that they die that day all because she wants to test her faith in God?) Is this how God expects his flock to perform, by testing whether he’s paying any attention to them each moment? A God that ignores people is indistinguishable from a god that is imaginary.

Trumpin' Syria - Here We Go Again

Why is Syria our problem? In other words, why does the U.S. need to punish Bashar al-Assad for his use (maybe) of chemical weapons...again?

Trump doesn’t mind Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines slaughtering Filipinos. Duterte openly boasts about killing his own people. Trump even praises him for it.

Trump doesn’t have any issues with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey who has killed hundreds of people opposed to his regime. 
          Trump also recently called and congratulated the re-election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt who has massacred thousands of Egyptians. 
          And Trump has literally praised Kim Jong-Un as a smart, “tough little cookie” who has overseen the deaths of close to a million of his countrymen and women. So why is Trump making a big deal about Assad killing other Syrians?

Trump tried out his warmonger stance last year on April 6^th when he authorized the U.S. Navy to launch 59 tomahawk missiles at airfields and infrastructure in Syria. Congress was not notified to approve military action, nor was any legal authority established for the US strike. Some people have a knack for war-making decisions. But not Trump and his administration. They display nothing but weakness, blundering, and cowardice. No one is impressed with Trump's ability, not even Death.

And this is telling, just like he did tonight, last year Trump said the strike was in the “vital national security interests of the  United States." But three days later on Sunday April 9^th, Trump conceded that it was just an “impulsive action” prompted by a video earlier in the week that upset Ivanka of seeing gassed Syrian children. There was no vital national security issue. Trump didn't give a damn about gassed Syrians, he just didn't want to see Ivanka's tears.

How effective was Trump’s attack last year? Reconnaissance photos taken after the strike found four destroyed aircraft with sixteen more damaged, and a few burned out buildings. Yet the runways were left completely intact. Syrian jets even use them later that morning for another bombing run on rebel-held territories in northern Syria. So, do you think this year's strike will be any more effective? What are the odds of getting entangled in a war with Russia and Iran...especially with someone as incompetent at military matters as Trump? There are now indications that, again, the Russians were warned of the missile strike ahead of time. Didn't Trump say he was not going to "telegraph?"
          Still trying to woo his evangelical base, Trump asked people to pray to god, for the troops involved, and for the Syrian people (who by and large believe in a very different version of god.) Why didn't Trump just pray to god to get rid of Assad and save risking any more lives? After all, thoughts and prayers work, Just ask Republican congressmen.

Just last week at a campaign pep rally in Ohio, Trump surprised everyone back at the White House and the Pentagon when he announced U.S. troops were going to be pulled out of Syria “very soon." One source even said Trump had initially planned to withdraw them within 48 hours. He had to be quickly dissuaded by General Mattis because it was an impossible time schedule. So Trump isn’t serious about Syria, nor is he about Assad killing his own people. It’s a distraction from all the legal, ethical, and criminal issues Trump is facing. The problem is, American, British, and French lives are going to be put at risk to protect Trump from his own stupidity.
And I have to wonder, what ever happened to THIS Trump?

Syria is not our problem and there never has been any "vital national security interest." Trump just wants everyone to think he's a big, tough, macho man, even with that painful bone spur in his foot. 
          Only an idiot plows ahead when he knows his decision will create more debt and cause a possible long term conflict. Did Trump get Congressional approval? - Big mistake if he did not.

Addendum - April 14, 2018: After claiming in his press briefing last night that this attack on Syria would be a sustained effort, this morning Trump proved to be as poor a commander-in-chief as George W. Bush when - indicating that that one attack would teach Assad a lesson and also scare the Russians - he tweeted about the early morning missile assault - "Mission Accomplished!"

On Your Knees for Trump



While watching CFN13 our local cable news outlet in early October 2016, a segment was aired about how leading conservatives, fearing a lower voter turnout in Florida on November 8^th, are launching an evangelical campaign called “Face Down 40”. It’s intended to reawaken the religious right by praying, fasting, and then voting for Donald Trump for president. Face Down 40 takes its name from people bowing their heads in supplication for the 40 days leading up to the general election.

 

If prayer works, and social conservative and Face Down 40 organizer Pam Olsen claims it does, why has whoever they are praying to let come it to this, begging for his attention just 40 days before the vote? This seems to be a rather uncaring and capricious being on whom they are wasting their breath. What is He waiting for? Pam Olsen revealed how much she trusts prayer to work when she says "If we go back to sleep again (as she thinks Christians did in 2008 and 2012), just like we've done so many times, then we're in trouble and it's on us.” So what good is praying? If just two of you Christians pray for something, doesn’t Matthew 18: 19-20 where it says “Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them,” guarantee it will happen? I have read numerous Christian responses to this piece of scripture, all claiming that it is taken out of context. Read the paragraphs before and after it. What caveats does Jesus impose? “Anything you ask for, it will be done for you…” There is no “but only if you do this, this, and this first”, or "it only applies to the most holy among you.” Christians use those excuses to get themselves out of a hole they’ve dug themselves into.

 

            Over a year ago, when the Republican field was crowded with 17 candidates, no less than four of them; Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. all claimed divine inspiration to run and made it clear God favored them and wanted them to be president. What happened? The most unsavory character of them all, Donald Trump, is who Pam Olsen and her evangelical cohorts are now praying for to win. She is actually praying for a man who, in what he whimsically called locker-room banter, talks about grabbing women by the crotch, that he wanted to f*ck a woman he was not married to when he had only recently married third wife Melania, and "when you're a star, they let you do it”. As president, would Pam allow him to grope her crotch, or have sex with her while her husband was away - because he’s a star? If her answer is no, why would she support, and encourage others to support, such a person? Olsen claims Trump’s conversions on key social conservative issues is genuine and deserving of evangelical support, yet she offers not one shred of evidence that it is genuine or that he has converted. Sort of like her support for Christianity on not one shred of evidence that the bible is true.

 

        Pam simply wants to believe it, and she wants evangelicals on their knees for the next 40 days praying that this misogynistic, sexist, dishonest, shallow, and crass XY chromosome carrier attains the presidency. Why would this god they are praying to offer up a candidate who is so lacking in everything the evangelicals stand for? This man has been married three times, has claimed he didn’t need a god’s forgiveness, has called women dogs, pigs, fat slobs, bimbos, and disgusting animals, supported abortion right up until he became a Republican candidate (before then, he was a registered Democrat), claims he could shoot someone and not lose voters, and has unashamedly claimed “it doesn’t really matter what they write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” Any man of God would do the same, wouldn’t they, Pam? You would no doubt be flattered if Trump told everyone - in front of your church - that you are a “piece of ass”.

       At least his final word there accurately describes you, Pam.

Uh, um...praying and communion....that's what he means!

God Abandons Holy Land

God has abandoned the Holy Land!

On the front page of the July 20, 2016 edition of the Orlando Sentinel is an article entitled “Holy Land will sell off Items amid financial troubles”. I wonder, why don’t the employees and even TBN honchos who still own the park pray away the debt?  Christians always insist that God listens to, and answers, all prayers…then quickly add the caveat that maybe “God’s answer is no”. But why would the biblical God ignore any appeal to keep Holy Land financially lucrative, especially when the whole purpose of the park is to lend legitimacy to the claim that the Bible is the word of God, that He is the one true heavenly father of Jesus and the actual universe-creating deity? Either the Holy Land promotes the wrong god, or He doesn’t exist.

Begging for dollars

While it may be presumptive to claim God has forsaken his flock at the Disneyesque biblical theme park in Florida’s capital for slightly tacky, money-fleecing pseudo-entertainment venues, the Sentinel reports the Holy Land is drowning in a sea of red ink. And it’s getting worse year by year. 

Jesus and the Holy Land...both are bleeding to death.

One would think Christians, who get hard ons over watching a mock flogging and execution, would flock to the place by the millions and money would never be an issue…on the debit side, that is.

The wisdom of the Profits...uh, Prophets.

The park is being forced to sell off gaudy furniture, costumes, ornate statues, even a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. (I think in the Holy Land Experience version, Jesus arrives in Jerusalem on a bike, not an ass.) And TBN is also closing retail stores selling cheap Holy Land trinkets in Tennessee and California. In the coming months, I suspect they'll have to further auction off anything that's not nailed down. So don't worry, Jesus on the cross is safe for now.

Where the hell did all our money go?

But reading between the lines it’s apparent that, with the death of Jan Crouch last May, the big-haired, gasping gargoyle who was the theme park’s major financial backer, the Holy Land just can’t stay on its feet no matter what they do. There is only so much bullshit you can force on people before they reject it. Just ask the former Soviet Union.  

The rat hole near the mouse hole, south of Orlando.

Paul and Jan Crouch bought the theme park with TBN money in 2007 and propped it up with their cheesy and tasteless telethons until 2012. But even they had to finally admit the park was just a huge vacuum cleaner that sucked away all their money.

Paul Crouch signals his feelings on further financial backing for the Holy Land Experience

So they left it up to God and Jesus to keep it open. In Their infinite wisdom, They had this to say...

...To you too, Paul...and Jan.

Thank God we have these Moral Guardians

                   At least this time he diddled someone to whom he wasn't related 

As if molesting his sisters and another family friend wasn’t enough. As if getting an intervention in 2002 by mom and dad Michelle and Jim Bob, and a stern talking to by the law enforcement friend who’s now behind bars for child porn wouldn't calm his libido. While he was harping about the evils of abortion, homosexuality, and fornication of any sort, (except male and female, married one time only, to each other)…it turns out Josh Duggar has something in common with people like Bill Cosby…PUDDING! Pudding his dick where it didn’t belong. This time he can’t claim it was youthful indiscretion. He’s been recently cheating on his wife of nearly seven years and enjoying porno on the side as well. What a great daddy and husband. What an exemplar role model. What a surprise that calling on God and Jesus didn’t prevent his sexual indiscretion, especially since family members knew he was warped over 12 years ago.

        The Christian right is nothing but a constellation of hypocrites making a mockery of everything they claim to uphold biblically. A random sample: Ted Haggard’s constant screaming about the evils of drugs and homosexuality right up to the weekend before he got caught doing both…Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, pregnant out of wedlock again, this time after earning over $262,000 from The Candies Foundation, an abstinence only group, Pentecostal John Brock of Bell County, Kentucky who followed the words of Mark 16:18, “…will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all,” then died after being bitten by said snake…and mega-church pastor Zachery Tims, who preached the prosperity gospel and then abused his prosperity on a lethal dose of coke and heroin. But the newest star is super-Christian, GOP photo-favorite, and Family Research Council judge-jury-and executioner Josh Duggar admitting he had an Ashley Madison affair website account, and to porking someone other than his wife. Poor Anna won’t be allowed to divorce this scumbag regardless of where his willie has been. But I do hope she uses some of that 19 Kids and Counting money for an STD test.

                                 "Family"...a word to display on a shelf at home.

        And how does the religious right explain away these kinds of acts? Like this: “Satan knows that by instigating a scandal with an evangelical Christian leader, he can have a powerful impact. Just as King David’s adultery with Bathsheba and arranged murder of Uriah caused great damage to David’s family and the entire nation of Israel, so has many a church or ministry been damaged or destroyed by the moral failure of its leader. Many Christians have had their faith weakened as a result of seeing a leader fall. Non-Christians use the failure of “Christian” leaders as a reason to reject Christianity. Satan and his demons know this, and therefore direct more of their attacks against those in leadership roles. The Bible warns us all, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

                                      "You're f*cking gonna blame ME???"

As the old joke goes, what's worse than having an imaginary friend? Having an imaginary enemy. See, the devil made them do it…they aren’t responsible for their reprehensible behavior…it’s the influence of the supernatural. I’m going to use that excuse if I get pulled over for any reason by the cops, or am audited by the IRS. I’m sure it will work for me just like it does for evangelicals to explain their peccadilloes. 

        I don’t give a damn how many times Josh claims he is “the biggest hypocrite ever” in order to atone for cheating on his wife. We already know that! Repeating it doesn't change the outcome. He is guilty of far more than just your garden-variety hypocrisy. He built a career on being a morally superior blowhard. "God is righteous and is going to judge all of us unless we abandon sin and immorality" as defined by him, his sanctimonious parents, and the Family Research Council. He is the epitome of why Christianity, and all religions, should be treated like the Black Plague. It does not lead to a more virtuous life. It’s a license to sin. In Christianity, if you get caught, claim the blood of Jesus has cleansed you and go right back to sinning. Jesus paid the bill so enjoy the fact that you can get away with anything and everything.

        All that prayer and strengthening of faith Michelle and Jim Bob claimed they did for Josh after he admitted to molesting his sisters didn’t do shit for Josh. It just created a smarmier and sneakier shit.

                   Josh Duggar indicates how much respect he has for "family values"

          In my opinion though, Josh can redeem himself this way: he should return every dime he earned as the spokesman for the Family Research Council. He didn’t measure up to any of the crap he was espousing so he should not keep the rewards of promoting what he wasn’t willing to practice. He should be forced to wear a scarlet “A” on his forehead the rest of his life. Plus, he should submit to having an inch of his penis chopped off for every crack he’s slipped it into other than Anna’s. Fair enough, Josh?  

Satan Goes to School

         The stupidity factor climbs higher in Central Florida. Thanks to our ever-vigilant religious fundamentalists and their demands on area learning institutions, the administration for the Orange County Public Schools is entertaining the idea of distributing material promoting Satanism. The schools previously allowed bibles and books promoting Christianity to be passed around, and the chickens have now come home to roost. I think it’s ridiculous to counter one mythology with another but I understand why the Satanic Temple is doing it. If Christianity is allowed, then why not that religion’s nemesis, since he is a necessary part of that mythology. Showing an astounding degree of ignorance, the mother of one student huffed “This only proves why we need God back in our schools.” She means Jehovah, the Christian god…the only god allowed in schools.

          Ah, Christian outrage. Where would we be without it? All this fuss was generated when the Satanic Temple submitted a coloring book and two fact sheets regarding Satanism to the Orange County School Board to hand out to Elementary School students starting in January 2015. There is nothing spellbinding in it. The book looks like the kind of stuff that would appeal to any 5 to 8 year old. These are typical pages.

Nothing evil or revolting. Only the emblems give any hint regarding Satanism.

But fundamentalists think its influence will create this kind of child.

      It should never have come to this. Our schools are meant for learning, not proselytizing. If you want your kids to learn about religion, take them to church. But don't force the mystical and supernatural on the schools.
Christians don’t like it but this is a secular country, and as such, the kids are to be free of religious influence in public school teaching. But many faith-based organizations feel that’s just a small road bump that they are commanded to ignore, jump over, or break down. The head of the Florida Family Policy Council openly told the Orlando Sentinel that their Bible-distribution program in the school is intended "as a way to expose children to Christianity" in hopes that it will "lead to a fundamental change in the condition of a student's heart." God can’t do it by, say, answering a prayer, or just placing the desire in children’s minds. He is so inept and weak; he must call on imperfect and admittedly wicked humans to present his case and hope the kids will crack open His holy book. This is where the Satanists saw an opening. The Satanists are simply saying, if there's religious heart-changing allowed in public schools, all religious heart-changers should get an equal shot at the students: "If our materials are consistent with their standards, they can't simply deny our literature because of its religious viewpoint," said a Satanic Temple spokesman.

Guess which book contains more violence and divisiveness?     
     

                If the Satanists succeed, expect to see Islamic groups submitting the Koran and Muslim information next, followed by the Mormons, the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Zoroastrians, and eventually documents about Native American beliefs. They all have just as much right. It will take up the entire school day just to name all the different religions and the various factions of each.

     So that mother who was upset over the Satanic Temple handing out material better be prepared for a religious rush on the area schools. This is the end result of ignoring the Constitutional separation of church and state. 

     How about you? Do you want today’s school kids to waste any more time on religion and NOT learn science, math, history, reading, biology, spelling, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, social studies…etc.?  

     One particular response was so stunning, I quote it in full: “These monsters peddling their book full of murder, incest, human bondage and exploitation to school children must be stopped. It's a good thing that the Satanists are doing something about it.”

Public Spectacles

While watching the local news Labor Day weekend, there were two stories that make me wonder if people really understand our Constitution and why we separate church and state in this country.

Brighthouse Network’s Central Florida News 13, or CFN13, repeated the two stories every hour for about 12 hours. One involved Apopka football players being led in a Christian prayer before and after their games. The prayers made some of the players and fans, who were from different faith backgrounds, uncomfortable and they asked school officials to refrain from saying them. CFN13 covered the story from the outraged-Christian-point-of-view with interviews of people all but damning freethinkers and non-theists for interfering, and for what they perceived as “stopping kids from praying”. The people who objected to the prayers were only asking that school officials and coaches not instigate or give the prayers recognizing only one religion.

Can you imagine what would have happened if one of them began saying an Islamic prayer, started chanting a mantra to one of the Hindu gods, or conducted a Voodoo ritual? The same people who think there is too much fuss being made over simple prayers at school events would be livid, and would insist that only Christian prayers be allowed at these functions. In their view, prayers to Jehovah/Yahweh are acceptable but prayers to other gods are wrong. Yet Christians have the same evidence regarding their deity that other religions have of theirs. Zero!
        I’m looking forward to the day one of the cheerleaders does this at a football game: 

Several parents were quick to point out that atheists were in a minority in this country and insisted Christians had the right to pray anytime, anywhere, with the insinuation that atheists should keep quiet since they were outnumbered. A free society is one where it’s safe to hold an unpopular view, which makes me wonder if we're a free society anymore. Christians might want to consider that sometimes a majority only means all the mistaken are on the same side. Ignorance has become a point of view.

Winter Garden City Council opening the meeting with a Christian prayer

The second story involved a man named Joseph Richardson who attended a Winter Garden city council meeting. Winter Garden Mayor John Rees told Richardson that he “may rise or leave the room” as they gave the prayer and the Pledge.

“I don’t believe I have to do that, thank you,” was Richardson's response.

After the prayer in the name of Jesus was concluded, Richardson was again ordered to rise. “Now, sir, please stand while we do the Pledge… please stand. Children have to do it in school, too,” Rees said. "You don’t have to say it. Please stand.”
       Richardson stood his ground, responding “I don’t have to do that.”

Rees seemed to take this as a personal affront rather than a citizen exercising his rights.

Richardson was abruptly told, “You have one of two choices, sir. I'm asking you to either stand or be escorted out [as we do] the Pledge. It’s just not fair to our troops and people overseas, sir.”

When Richardson still didn’t stand, the Mayor turned to the Chief of Police and said, “Chief, ask him to either stand or please escort him out 'til we get through the pledge,” the mayor said.

The officer walked over and asked Richardson, “What do you want to do? Do you want to stand or leave?” The man was quickly escorted out of the room.
        As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in 1940, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."

Mayor Rees should know that citizens are within their rights to remain seated for the Pledge and that it does not reflect a lack of patriotism. The fact is, refusing to stand and repeat it is more patriotic and respectful of our secular constitution than rising and declaring us to be ‘one nation under god.’ That 'god' part was only inserted in 1954 when Congress wanted to demonstrate the nation's piety as compared to Communism's godlessness.

The pledge seemed fine up until 1954

The mayor and those city council members should spend a lot more time studying the Constitution and its meaning. Nowhere is there anything that states 'not standing' is considered disrespectful to military personnel. The flag does not equal the military, nor is it written they, or any American, needs to be respected just because they are posted on foreign soil.

The Mayor’s judgment really needs to be scrutinized when he insists American citizens should stand when he makes an appeal to the Christian god.

Some Americans think this should be our flag.

Anyone who doesn’t see a threat in religion had better take notice of these events. When Christianity and politics were previously blended together it was called the Dark Ages and Europe eventually suffered over 600 years of the Inquisition. In nations where politics and religion are one in the same today, you have places like Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. 
     People insisting that Christianity is harmless are deluding themselves. It is not harmless once someone in power decides to do exactly what the bible says, as the Crusades, the witch trials, the killing of heretics, the slavery issue, and even opposition to gay marriage shows. If the new Christian-politicos gain control of the government, the old Inquisition will pale in comparison to what they will do with that power. These 'religion trumps secularism' events are happening more and more frequently. Those who believe a wall should permanently separate church and state need to stand their ground. Our future depends on it.
       Don’t misunderstand; anyone has a right to their beliefs, but they don’t have a right to force it on anyone else or to have them respect it. We might acknowledge it, but we also then have the right to say “Are you kidding me? Your belief is stupid.”