My love affair with America was founded not on being an American, but being exposed to America and its culture at an age where my identity was being formed and developed. A great deal of my primary school years took place in an American school, but not on American soil. I pledged my allegiance to the flag before I knew the words to “O Canada”.
I knew of Presidents before Prime Ministers, spelled color without a “U” and watched along with the rest of the world when man took first step on the moon’s surface. My America transcends borders and physical geography educing feelings synonymous with hope, promise and possibility. The political landscape, dialogue and ideology has now been hijacked Christian Nationalism which has taken America by storm. It offends at every level. I often wonder, how in such a short time, has once majestic America has become victim to what I am certain will lead to its demise. Not demise, in the sense fire and brimstone, but erosion or unraveling of the very fibre which spun the promise America held.
It seems that Governor Rick Perry has decided to cure all of Texas’s ills through good, old fashion prayer. According the Perry, the stand still economy, the high unemployment rate, the low paying jobs and financial debt are not resultant of global recession and bad governance, but a consequence of the moral decay of our society.
I firmly believe a man can be judged by the company he keeps. It is frightening enough to witness a political figure use government resources to promote Christian fundamentalism, but to discover that Perry has entered an unholy alliance with not only the likes of American Family Association but also their agent of intolerance, Bryan Fischer and every Religious Right nutbar out there is completely unsettling.
The America Family Association is the most extreme, right leaning religious faction seeped in vile, detestable rhetoric and religious superiority. It stands in opposition to what the principles the United States was founded upon citing their personal responsibility to wage a war against moral erosion and hyper-individualism. AFA mouthpiece, Fischer spews on about homosexual indoctrination, Islamic treason, and the denial of amendment rights to those who practice alternative religion which is not Christian based.
Another hate mongering participant in Perry’s “The Response” as it was called, was John Hagee. Hagee, some may recall, endorsed John McCain for the Presidency in 2008. His specialty seems to be Hitler. According to Hagee, Hitler was a hunter assigned by God to slaughter 6 million Jews to force them to return to Israel. McCain obviously upon hearing this retreated, but Perry obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer has included Hagee in his prayer-a-thon.
We then have Lou Engel, who claims “ If you knowingly vote for a governmental pro-choice leader you are actually participating in the killing of babies by governmental decree” or another favorite of his, the support for the killing off of the gay population in Uganda. Topping up the guest list, is Mike Bickle who claims “the Harlot Babylon is preparing the nations to receive the Antichrist. The Harlot Babylon will be a religion of affirmation, toleration, no absolutes, a counterfeit justice movement. They will feed the poor, have humanitarian projects, inspire acts of compassion for all the wrong reasons”.
How did we get to a time, where a Governor and Presidential hopeful could align himself with these ignorant self-prophesizing pseudo men of cloth with no concern of reaction the American Public would have? There was a time when Pat Robertson was viewed as an extremist, which he was, yet now he is considered the main stream conservative faction? This is the man who stated feminists were turning women into lesbians and not only did he make a run for the Presidency, but also is on many mainstream media outlets, like CNN and MSNBC as some kind of pseudo political analyst.
We hear of the moral decay of the nation, the Sodom and Gomorrah analogies. One does not have to look very closely to see where the moral decay is generating from. When is it immoral and non-Christian to care about those who are less fortunate? When is morality dependent on citizen’s sex lives rather than on tolerance and respect for all human kind?
All of the things which made me love America are all the things the Religious Right are trying to destroy. The things that made America great were the people. Its magnificence came from a people who demanded civil rights, demanded equality and demanded a better tomorrow. The one thing I remember most vividly, from the very first time I laid my eyes on it, was what was mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty inscribed with the immortal words of Emma Lazarus “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. This stuck with me my entire life; it defined the America I fell in love with which no longer exists. The huddled masses, the tired, the poor will now find themselves in the similar straits of the person who exemplifies Christianity, as there is no room at the inn.
Perry, Bickle, Robertson, Hagee, Engle and their brainwashed disciples are not only now and forevermore douchebags, but an affront to the principles this nation was founded upon.
I knew of Presidents before Prime Ministers, spelled color without a “U” and watched along with the rest of the world when man took first step on the moon’s surface. My America transcends borders and physical geography educing feelings synonymous with hope, promise and possibility. The political landscape, dialogue and ideology has now been hijacked Christian Nationalism which has taken America by storm. It offends at every level. I often wonder, how in such a short time, has once majestic America has become victim to what I am certain will lead to its demise. Not demise, in the sense fire and brimstone, but erosion or unraveling of the very fibre which spun the promise America held.
It seems that Governor Rick Perry has decided to cure all of Texas’s ills through good, old fashion prayer. According the Perry, the stand still economy, the high unemployment rate, the low paying jobs and financial debt are not resultant of global recession and bad governance, but a consequence of the moral decay of our society.
I firmly believe a man can be judged by the company he keeps. It is frightening enough to witness a political figure use government resources to promote Christian fundamentalism, but to discover that Perry has entered an unholy alliance with not only the likes of American Family Association but also their agent of intolerance, Bryan Fischer and every Religious Right nutbar out there is completely unsettling.
The America Family Association is the most extreme, right leaning religious faction seeped in vile, detestable rhetoric and religious superiority. It stands in opposition to what the principles the United States was founded upon citing their personal responsibility to wage a war against moral erosion and hyper-individualism. AFA mouthpiece, Fischer spews on about homosexual indoctrination, Islamic treason, and the denial of amendment rights to those who practice alternative religion which is not Christian based.
Another hate mongering participant in Perry’s “The Response” as it was called, was John Hagee. Hagee, some may recall, endorsed John McCain for the Presidency in 2008. His specialty seems to be Hitler. According to Hagee, Hitler was a hunter assigned by God to slaughter 6 million Jews to force them to return to Israel. McCain obviously upon hearing this retreated, but Perry obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer has included Hagee in his prayer-a-thon.
We then have Lou Engel, who claims “ If you knowingly vote for a governmental pro-choice leader you are actually participating in the killing of babies by governmental decree” or another favorite of his, the support for the killing off of the gay population in Uganda. Topping up the guest list, is Mike Bickle who claims “the Harlot Babylon is preparing the nations to receive the Antichrist. The Harlot Babylon will be a religion of affirmation, toleration, no absolutes, a counterfeit justice movement. They will feed the poor, have humanitarian projects, inspire acts of compassion for all the wrong reasons”.
How did we get to a time, where a Governor and Presidential hopeful could align himself with these ignorant self-prophesizing pseudo men of cloth with no concern of reaction the American Public would have? There was a time when Pat Robertson was viewed as an extremist, which he was, yet now he is considered the main stream conservative faction? This is the man who stated feminists were turning women into lesbians and not only did he make a run for the Presidency, but also is on many mainstream media outlets, like CNN and MSNBC as some kind of pseudo political analyst.
We hear of the moral decay of the nation, the Sodom and Gomorrah analogies. One does not have to look very closely to see where the moral decay is generating from. When is it immoral and non-Christian to care about those who are less fortunate? When is morality dependent on citizen’s sex lives rather than on tolerance and respect for all human kind?
All of the things which made me love America are all the things the Religious Right are trying to destroy. The things that made America great were the people. Its magnificence came from a people who demanded civil rights, demanded equality and demanded a better tomorrow. The one thing I remember most vividly, from the very first time I laid my eyes on it, was what was mounted inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty inscribed with the immortal words of Emma Lazarus “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. This stuck with me my entire life; it defined the America I fell in love with which no longer exists. The huddled masses, the tired, the poor will now find themselves in the similar straits of the person who exemplifies Christianity, as there is no room at the inn.
Perry, Bickle, Robertson, Hagee, Engle and their brainwashed disciples are not only now and forevermore douchebags, but an affront to the principles this nation was founded upon.