"We are not fighting against flesh and bone. We are
fighting the forces of spiritual darkness. It doesn't matter what
people's intent are. I will tell you: that was there for a reason."
Atheist Alert! Both the Pope and Obama want you to know that atheists are
actually normal - and moral - human beings!
It must be very cold in hell today. Freezing, actually. Because it's official:
atheists can be as good as Christians, meet the pope and possibly go to heaven!
There is, of course, much wailing, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments
among the echelons of the Christian Right who have been linking all atheists to
Stalin and Pol Pot for decades. And the enemies of Catholicism (like Cindy
Japan-is-shaped-like-a-dragon Jacobs) will be out in full force to tell the
world that the new pope is not a true (atheist-hating) Christian.
Atheists don't like our happiness. They don't want you to be
happy, they want you to be miserable. They're miserable so they want you to be
miserable. - Pat Robertson
Two
incidents: first off, the new pope, Francis I, gave a homily about the duty of
everyone to be good, not just Christians, because Christ died for everyone's
sins and that killing in the name of God may be the ultimate blasphemy:
"This "closing off' that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy " The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! "Father, the atheists?' Even the atheists. Everyone!
We all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone
to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our
own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go
slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we
need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. "But I don't believe,
Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: we will meet one another there," -- Pope
Francis I
Of course, that statement didn't exactly make some people (like me) forego
their suspicions. Doubts still remain; but the statement has substance: it
takes on the Christofascist world and lays it on its ear. The bedrock of its
righteously arrogant world is its belief that only "believers" will
go to heaven because only "believers" can be righteous. The feeling
that Christians have cornered the market on goodness is reflected in the
practices of hiring only
Christians and declaring
heretofore unknown "wars" (e.g. the "war on Christmas") to
perpetuate the image of persecuted martyrs.
The second incident occurred when Wolff Blitzer's interviewed a tornado victim:
when asked by Blitzer if she "thanked the Lord" for her family's
survival, she replied: "Actually, I'm an atheist...But we don't blame
anybody for thanking the Lord."
Whoa!
This prompted the King of Conspiracy Theorists, Glenn Beck, to immediately
smell something foul: "I tell you that was there for a reason." And
we don't need a convoluted blackboard pitch to know that he's telling us that
Obama is behind it all: the "forces of spiritual darkness" are
telling us that atheists are OK people - and they're doing it with a sweet
mother and her darling little boy! The effrontery!
The Great and Glorious Reaction
As Leader and First Conspiracy Theorist, Glenn Beck has now given his
imprimatur to those who need to react to Francis and the Blitzer incident:
"Well, it seems to me.." will emanate from a confused Pat Robertson,
Bryan Fischer will fume that Francis is not a real Christian and must be a
secret Muslim sympathizer as well, Southern Baptists everywhere will ask
"How can you go to heaven if you don't believe in it?" and the rest
of the Christian Right will scream "demon-inspired political propaganda!"
The last reaction may be the loudest, since more youth are becoming atheists,
causing church pews to go empty as congregations die off. The idea that
atheists could be as good as non-believers comes as a slap in the wallet,
especially to prosperity gospel preachers.
Poor Joel Osteen.
