Saturday, November 30, 2013

Author, and religious scholar, Reza Aslan says that "Self-styled 'defenders of Christianity,' like Palin and Limbaugh, peddle a profoundly unhistorical view of Jesus."

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin are starting to sour on the new pope. 

In response to Pope Francis’ first Apostolic Exhortation, in which the pontiff denounced “trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” these two paragons of the far right – both of whom regularly invoke the teachings of Jesus to bolster their own political views – have suddenly turned their backs on the man whose actual job description is to speak for Jesus. 

Sarah Palin complained that Pope Francis sounded “kind of liberal” in his statements decrying the growing global income equality between the rich and the poor (she has since apologized). 

Rush Limbaugh went one step further. “This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope,” he harrumphed into his giant microphone. 

Limbaugh, in his trademarked conspiratorial style, speculated that the pope’s tirade against “widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion” must have been forced upon him by somebody else. “Somebody has either written this for [the pope] or gotten to him,” he said. 

Limbaugh is right. Somebody did get to Pope Francis. It was Jesus. 

Self-styled “defenders of Christianity,” like Palin and Limbaugh, peddle a profoundly unhistorical view of Jesus. Indeed, if you listened to those on the far right you would think that all Jesus ever spoke about was guns and gays.

Aslan then goes onto point out just how different the Jesus of the Bible is from the conservative version that is bandied about by the Right Wing.

While modern Christianity has tried to spiritualize this message of Jesus, transforming his revolutionary social teachings into abstract ethical principles, it is impossible to overlook the unflinching condemnation of the wealthy and powerful that permeate Jesus’ teachings. 

“How hard it will be for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23). 

As one can imagine, such a radical vision of the world would have been both profoundly appealing for those at the bottom rungs of Jesus’ society, and incredibly threatening for those at the top. The fact is not much has changed in two thousand years, as Palin and Limbaugh have proven. 

Yet if these “culture warriors” who so often claim to speak for Jesus actually understood what Jesus stood for, they would not be so eager to claim his ideas for their own. In fact, they’d probably call him a Marxist.

I do not always agree with Reza Aslan, but on this topic he is quite correct. And the truly pitiful thing is how Christianity, on its face a religion of acceptance and social justice, was so easily hijacked by those who used it as an excuse to amass great wealth and power and then use it to subjugate those who they considered dangerous to their ambitions or unworthy of their charity.

And who does THAT remind you of?

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:07 AM

    Palin and Limbaugh are both anti-Catholic. There's a pathological hatred of Catholics and Catholicism from the more fringey, batshit Protestant groups, and I think that's all you're seeing from the Wasilla Wendigo and the drugged-up child molester. They'll pretend to agree with the Pope about abortion, but when they disagree on any particular issue, their true hatred shows.

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  2. Leland4:18 AM

    I have only two questions about this.

    First, This is news, WHY? I mean, let's face it, most of us here have been saying this for quite some time now - especially Gryphen!

    Second, does anyone really believe that this recognized assertion will make one iota of difference to the idiots, assholes and sycophants who espouse the ideas of Palin, Limpbutt and others such as Graham?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It's Limpdick. Otherwise, I agree with you 100%.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:45 AM

      Its important b/c many Catholics may be "Conservative" and now we have a "new" "libril" Pope and palin and Limballz don't like him...duh?
      As one person told me "if those two don't like him he must be doing something right". The pope basically "Called out the teabags"!
      http://bit.ly/15ZSuco
      If you don't see this as "important" information you're probably a Palin... Just sayin'!

      Delete
  3. Words matter, I get that. What I wonder to myself as a non-catholic is how the monies that are collected are distributed. Churches have to be maintained, priests and nuns maintained and what is left over goes where?

    Maybe I have watched too many Whoopi Goldberg movies but I think it takes many years to turn around thinking let alone management favoring the Pope's requested changes.
    The Pope will have to continue leading by example and having a hatchet man enforce........or be gone.

    Cool deal about closing/moving the US embassy in the Vatican.....! I hope Rush keeps up his bitching....look out GOP.

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    1. Anonymous5:52 AM

      The money is distributed upwards. It is collected at the bottom and goes to the top. Churches have to support themselves. They might get money from a diocese but it never comes from Rome. The groups of nuns that still exist must support themselves.

      Delete
  4. Both are lackeys of the big money people and both worship Mammon. I think most folks see that and consider them jokes, but those jokes can rile dangerous people.

    I just heard on the BBC that Catholic churches are starting to fill again, thanks to this pope. Not everyone sees that as a positive development, but the Catholic Church has done some good things, and it has certainly commissioned various forms of wonderful art.

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    1. Anonymous7:31 AM

      If the pope want to bitch about inequality, he could start by divesting the church of it's commercial ventures. Real estate...munitions...etc....

      Both are lackeys of the big money people and both worship Mammon.

      All three are...



      Delete
  5. Sally in MI4:49 AM

    I read this elsewhere yesterday, and the comments were hilarious. The Cons, instead of arguing the points, argued that since Asian is NOT white and American, nor Catholic, he has no business writing about the Pope. So there! No matter that since Palin is not Christian,Catholic, without insurance, or poor, she has no right to express her foul opinion about the Pope, the economy, or the ACA. See how that works, cons?

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    1. Anonymous6:57 AM

      Preach it, Sally!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:53 AM

      @Sally in MI4:49 AM
      The flying monkey's always do that to divert!
      Problem is the message is OUT!
      Everyone has heard it from all over not just Aslan...
      The baggers are cooked and stick a fork in them! Done and exposed as the fakers and moneychangers they are!
      I don't follow the pope and only found out what he said b/c Stoopid was mad and called the new pope a "libril".
      As I see it he is calling out the fakers like her and the money changers!
      Aslen says in this article

      “Somebody has either written this for [the pope] or gotten to him,” he said.

      Limbaugh is right. Somebody did get to Pope Francis. It was Jesus. "

      He also says they would call him a "marxist" LOL.
      This is HUGE!!
      Now if he will just endorse Birthcontrol!!!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:51 AM

    I've been close to abandoning Christianity altogether because of my frustration with the way the message has been distorted into materialism and bigotry, but this pope might actually draw Christianity back to where it should be--taking care of the less fortunate. None of the mainline churches have been able to speak out effectively against the evangelical right--they really don't have any spokespeople who are as prominent as the Southern Baptists had in Richard Land. My church, The Episcopal Church, led the way on recognizing LGBTs by ordaining a gay bishop in 2003, but that never translated into moving the other churches except for the UCC and UUs. Maybe Pope Francis will bend the curve--at least in making materialism a sin, not a virtue.

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    1. Anonymous8:05 AM

      If you go to www.SBCtakeover.com you can get a copy of the book "The fundamentalist takeover in Southern Baptist Convention" it happened in 1977 or 78. This new POPE is a huge blow b/c the people like Palin, NAR, 7 mountains GREED took over the SBC...
      Now the pope is preaching against GREED and Ideologs! Pope Francis Condemns Christian Ideology Posing as Religion

      Delete
  7. Anonymous5:55 AM

    And these types are specifically the kind that Jesus warned about and said to AVOID at all costs. You hear that, Queen Heifer?

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  8. I don't always agree with him either, BUT the man sure can speak truth to power. He better start watching his back. The crazies might turn away from President Obama and come after him.

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  9. Randall6:25 AM

    Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou takest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven...

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  10. Boscoe7:19 AM

    "...so easily hijacked by those who used it as an excuse to amass great wealth and power and then use it to subjugate..."

    Yeah, but it's ALWAYS been that way. There was NEVER a time when Christianity was all peace and love and good happiness stuff. Investigate the early history of the popes! Man, those guys put the most decadent 70's rock stars to shame! Organized religion has always been a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

    The hilarious thing about this "controversy" will be watching conservatives attempt to rebut any of it, because you simply cannot do it using anything Jesus ever said. As we're already seeing, they'll be forced to go straight for attacking the messenger.

    To me, this just proves that the "Jesus" they pretend to follow is a self-serving one that exists only in their heads. Not the Jesus who warns them that their selfish focus on personal wealth and power will be their ruin, but one that agrees with them on every topic, shares their political views and grants them endless grace for their failings. Basically a "get out of having a conscience free" card.

    And when the apologists start coming out and contorting the words of Jesus into pretzels trying to defend the "prosperity gospel", just keep Proverbs 30:6 in mind:

    "Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

    Let the lying begin! Robertson, you're up next...

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    1. Anonymous8:10 AM

      @Boscoe7:19 AM
      I think the idiots will start "quoting" the old Testament to rebut this...
      JMO.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous8:46 AM

    The Washington Post had an article yesterday about the Vatican's outreach to the poor ,
    which is sending the Palin/ Limbaugh teabaggers into a predictable rage.
    They echo Limbaugh and Palin and say this really validates that the Pope is a liberal Marxist
    because he helps the poor.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/pope-ramps-up-charity-office-to-be-near-poor-sick/2013/11/29/ac9cd9a6-58d0-11e3-bdbf-097ab2a3dc2b_print.html

    VATICAN CITY — " Pope Francis has ramped up the Vatican’s charity work, sending his chief alms-giver and a contingent of Swiss guards onto the streets of Rome at night to do what he usually can’t do:
    comfort the poor and the homeless."

    " A few times a week, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski takes a few off-duty guards with him in his modest white Fiat to make the rounds at Rome’s train stations,
    where charities offer makeshift soup kitchens that feed 400-500 people a night.
    Often they bring the leftovers from the Vatican mess halls to share."
    The article details the charity work the Vatican does to help the poor.

    Has anyone ever observed either Palin or Limbaugh working in a soup kitchen or volunteering in a shelter ?
    I didn't think so.
    Leno and Fallon have been urging viewers to donate to the Red Cross and other charities to help the victims of the typhoon and the recent US tornados.
    But, not Palin and Limbaugh.
    Too busy enriching themselves and ridiculing those who help the less fortunate.
    Limbaugh is so crass and selfish that he promises to donate a portion of the proceeds to a military charity- " only "
    if the suckers buy his ice tea.
    He could just quietly donate or urge his listeners to donate, Instead he ties a charity into the sale of his commercial product.
    The real reason the Palin/ Limbaugh teabaggers are enraged at the Pope is because
    he is not anti gay like they are.
    “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis told reporters, speaking in Italian but using the English word “gay.”
    He also said the Church has been too obsessed with gays, abortion and birth control which is the primary obsession of the Limbaugh / Palin teabaggers.
    In addition they hate all Hispanics and Muslims-heck, they hate pretty much everyone.

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    1. Anonymous3:58 PM

      "Has anyone ever observed either Palin or Limbaugh working in a soup kitchen or volunteering in a shelter ?"
      ****
      She had a photo-op at one ONCE! Was after PBO and FLOTUS had served up at a soup kitchen. IT WAS so transparent PHOTO-OP. Never seen or heard of her doing it again....

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:54 AM

    The rightwing argument for unfettered capitalism is an argument against free market capitalism and against democracy. It takes careful government regulation to ensure the 3 main players--owners, workers, and consumers--have the appropriate levels of power for a free market to exist.

    Someone who, after years of practice and multiple times watching an instruction video, uses a cheese knife to carve an upside-down turkey set on plastic isn't competent to give lectures on economics.

    Someone who doesn't understand that George Washington was a gentleman farmer (slave owner), not a hard-working, hands-in-the-dirt farmer, isn't one to lecture the nation on economics.

    Someone who thought she'd rescue the AK dairy industry by raising the retail price of milk should effing sit down and shut the feck up on matters of macro economic theory.



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  13. Anonymous11:01 AM

    Self-professed Christians like Palin have an easy way around the Jesus revealed in the bible. They have new apostles and new prophets who have declared a new age with a new Jesus and new rules.

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  14. Anonymous11:08 AM

    Limbaugh and Palin don't defend Christianity, they don't even practice it. All they do is exploit it. More power to them- as long as the fundamentalists are listening to phonies like Palin and Limbaugh they're going to stay stupid.

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  15. Anonymous11:19 AM

    "...decrying the growing global income equality...
    Shouldn't that be inequality

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  16. Anonymous1:11 PM

    Sarah Palin's so-called book of Christmas joy BOMBED during big Black Friday sales.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2013/11/30/war-christmas-rob-delaneys-book-outsells-sarah-palins-black-friday.html

    Now this is funny...Rob Delaney's humor book outsold Non-Joy of Christmas:

    "Then there are the loads of sarcastic 5 star reviews, which must be read in order to be appreciated.

    This is Palin’s first go with a book without the huge right wing backup machine pre-buying huge orders in order to prop up her sales. Or, as she would say, liberal media gotchas. Katie Couric probably works at Amazon now for the singular purpose of destroying Sarah Palin as she did when she asked Palin what she read to keep informed and Palin couldn’t answer.

    Sure, Rob Delaney “has been named the “Funniest Person on Twitter” by Comedy Central and one of the “50 Funniest People” by Rolling Stone, according to his website. But let’s face it – no one is funnier than Sarah Palin. She doesn’t even have to try. After all, they’re claiming she “wrote” this in “English” — punk’d, because we can tell by the bitterness that it came from the very angry person that is Sarah Palin."

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  17. Anita Winecooler6:16 PM

    The Pope "sounds sort of librul" to Sarah Palin. I suppose Rev Muthee "sounds sort of conservative" with his voo doo trickle down mojo maneuvers?

    Reza Aslan got it right. At least Pope Francis acknowledges one of the many many flaws of his brand. Sarah's "profession of faith" remains "What's in it for me?" Photo op in Haiti, Photo op in soup kitchen, Photo op with the "right type" of rwnj's. Franklin Graham, Greta Van Sustern, and Rush :Limbaugh.

    Love the graphic!

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