Huckabee/Bachmann -a study in venality and irrelevance.

Sometimes, public pronouncements show much more about the originator than the subject matter.  Mike Huckabee’s  statement  re: the recent DOMA decision was “Jesus wept.”  As a professed born again Christian, Huckabee  has apparently either  read precious little of the statements and sentiments  ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament  or has his own RSV (Redneck Standard Version) which he has translated  in his own way.  The general aspect of mind ascribed to Jesus is acceptance, tolerance, and above all,  as he is reputed to have said himself, “Love one another.”  Apparently Huckabee reads that as “Love one another except for  those against  whom you wish to discriminate.”  As some on the far right (Faux News -  “USSC  overrules God”) have exaggerated it,  this decision  threatens religious liberty. Again, Huckabee , the Catholic Bishops and their ilk have it diametrically backward.

 

In truth, no person or group who wishes to hold the view of marriage espoused by conservative Christians (incorrectly, in point of law, long before DOMA was even passed) that marriage is an exclusively religious sacrament, will ever be forced to marry a same sex partner or have such marriages performed in their church. The net impact on these folks - Nada, Zip, Zero, nothing. What is rally their issue is that they might no longer be able to dictate to others who don’t feel as they do, the terms under which they may love, marry, etc.  Once again it must be pointed out that there is a fundamental difference between freedom to practice your religion as you see fit, and freedom to force your religious beliefs on others.

What is particularly troubling to me is that these conservative “Christians” are the same group responsible for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the strongest resistance to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. They have a centuries old history of violence and opposition to those whose crimes  are  apparently  simply differences of opinion.  They are the witch burners in 17^th century Salem;  they are the Inquisitors of 15^th century Spain; they are the hooded nightriders of 19^th and 20^th century America; and they are the pontificating  Huckabees, Bachmanns, Santorums and , Robertsons of the current day.

Their issues are based on a book, the interpretation of  which even most Christians cannot agree upon.  Literalists, allegorialists, other translations, all are in the mix.  Hell, even Bill O’Reilly called them Bible  thumpers!  Few today except the mentally challenged would argue that the entire world was ever covered by water in light of what we now know to be true about continental drift,  since this would also argue that Noah either crossed the oceans and rounded up animals which existed in North America, or there was a second creation to populate the Americas with animals foreign to the middle east.  Even those who will acknowledge the allegorical nature of the Flood Story will insist that all of Jesus teachings regarding tolerance, love, acceptance are void because of a verse in Leviticus, and all the other prohibitions in the same chapter are irrelevant. To believe that to the point of being willing to discriminate,  socially disable and pass laws against persons of the same sex who profess their love for each other and desire to marry is not only non-Christian, it’s nonsensical.

Ms. Bachmann’s comment was “Marriage is ordained by the hand of God” If that were  held to be true, then every civil marriage in America would be void and atheists  or agnostics would, presumably be unable to marry. As usual, Bachmann says what she wishes to be true and displays her stupidity for the world to see.  The real terrorists we ought to be wary of are the ones we can’t easily detect. They want, as do Muslim extremists to punish the rest of us who disagree with their extremist viewpoint(s). There is little difference in mindset between Michelle Bachmann and her ilk and Islamists who want , as she does, to bend all of us to her (their) narrow belief system whether we like it or not. Thomas Jefferson would shoot Michelle Bachmann on sight.     

If, as Huckabee claims,  Jesus wept, it was tears of joy, because someone finally listened! It also might be tears of shame for the horrific things which have been  and are continuing to be  done in his name by the Mike Huckabees  and Antonin Scalias of this world.