The Invisible Library

David Byrne has a blog. What’s more, he recently reviewed a documentary called Jesus Camp, about summer camps where the Am Taliban indoctrinates children:

There were some perfect sound bites — at one point Pastor Fischer instructs the little ones that they should be willing to die for Christ, and the little ones obediently agree. She may even use the word martyr, which has a shocking echo in the Middle East. I can see future suicide bombers for Jesus — the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings. Of course, the grownups would say, “Oh no, we’re not like them” — but they admit that the principal difference is simply that “We’re right.”

In another scene a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, with his trademark smirking smile, is brought out and the children are urged to identify — many of the little ones come forward and reverently touch his cardboard hands.

I kept saying to myself, “O.K., these are the Christian version of the Madrassas (those Islamic religious instructional schools in Pakistan and elsewhere, often financed by Saudi oil money)…so both sides are pretty much equally sick, there’s a balance.” (Although it must be said the Madrassas provide some regular education and literacy where no other option is available, they do community work that is non-religious…and they take in aimless troubled youth.)

They want to turn the U.S. into the “Christian” version of Iran or Saudi Arabia. A theocracy. The separation between church and state, already shaky with Bush in charge, is under full frontal assault by this bunch — and they are well organized, too. The megachurches tell their parishioners who to vote for, what judges to support, letters to write, and where they should stand on the issues. Well, we all do this to some extent — even in casual chats with friends we attempt to deduce and arrive at a consensus of opinion; a sloppy democratic give-and-take on any number of subjects often gives way to agreement. But this is top-down messaging — no discussion allowed. There’s a scene in the Colorado Springs megachurch run by the Preacher who talks with Bush once a week — same deal as with the kids, only most of the attendees are pliant adults.

People give me weird looks when the topic of conversation turns to American religion and I mention groups like the ones in this film. As if religion is somehow so different once you cross the border into America. we don’t have anti-fundamentalist radar, people and it can happen here and already is. That’s the scary part.

The good news is that there are people who are making these documentaries. People like the gang over at Science Blogs, PZ Myers and the lot, who make it their goal to spread scientific knowledge, to combat this virulent drivel. And, in no small part, that’s part of why I became a Librarian. If I can get someone, anyone to read a book and think a little bit more critically about some of these things, especially children, then maybe we can stop these Jesus freaks from turning the next generation into a bunch of Zombies for Jesus.

Charles Pierce says what iIm too pissed to say about President kill Again breaking the shrinkwrap n his Veto Power in order to put the Evil Eye on Stem Cell Research:

I have watched slow death from neurological disease once too often in my life to be anything but furious when Sam Brownback, a United States senator to the everlasting embarrassment of that body, pulls out a child’s drawing of an embryo with a smiley-face in order to argue his position. Or when Tony Snow, that towering public fake, starts getting glib about “murder,” as though there isn’t enough blood lapping at the ankles of everyone in this White House to float a barge. Or when Snow’s boss, that tough-talkin’, crumb-spittin’, neck-rubbin’ international buckaroo, uses the first veto of his presidential career and then hides behind children while maundering incoherently about a “moral line” as though he’d recognize one if he fell over it. Is there any doubt that, if this guy got Parkinson’s Disease, he’d eat those little buggers out of the petri dish with a spoon, probably dribbling some of them on Tony Blair in the process?

That Bush would make this issue his first Veto in five years is so telling about this administration. Fuck the environment, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any real issue out there. Vetos are for chumps. Unless you can stop scientific progress and pander to the Am Taliban.

A few readers have written in to let me know that I’m too hard on the Faihful, that religious people aren’t kooks, or idiots, that they are fine, upstanding and moral folk with a deep rooted sense of tradition and values. I direct those people to this piece in Harpers, which says otherwise:

I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what’s going on in the M.E.!! And Watcherboy, you were so right when saying it was quite a day yesterday, in the world news, and I add in local news here in the Boston area!! Tunnel ceiling collapsed on a car and killed a woman of faith, and we had the most terrifying storms I have ever seen here!! But, yes, oh happy day, like in your screen name , it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited, right there with ya!!

* * *

I am excited beyond words that the struggle of this life may be over soon and I can finally be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

* * *

This is so exciting….I’m having a hard time believing this is ‘real’!

True Believers are happy that a confluence of superstition and geopolitics has led to chaos, destruction and untold loss of life. Truely, these are the chosen people, the most holy and righteous.

To the Kind Reader who signed me up to the National Council of Churches Newsletter: I understand that not everyone who goes to church is a twitterpated bigot. I’ve known that for quite some time. And while Liberal Christians aren’t quite as mythical as Unicorns (or Jesus) you certainly aren’t going out of their way to get noticed. Oh but Al Sharpton was on the Daily Show a few years back! Yeah. And Pat Robertson has his own freakin channel.

Look, liberal Christians, the scary truth you aren’t admitting to yourself— wait, scratch that— one of the scary truths you aren’t admitting to yourself, is that the rise to power of the Chowder-headed, drooling Fundy is your own God Damned fault. They’re your people. They go to your church, or the one on the next block. They sit at your Good Friday Pancake Suppers and Fourth of July cookouts and jabber on about how Bill O’Reilly makes some sense and you say nothing. You do nothing. You’ve sat there for the last six years, meekly pointing at Uncle Pat as he wipes his mouth on the tablecloth, insults my wife’s heritage and sugests an after dinner “Turkey Shoot” and quietly mouth, “I’m not with him!” Then you get in his car and let him drive you home.

Both Liberal Christians and the kill ‘em all Christians in the GOP are from the same family. You both believe in myths that aren’t even remotely true. Only they actually believe in them all the time while you only pretend to believe in them for an hour every Sunday and two hours on Christmas Eve. They spout off about the Rapture and End Of Days and them Dern Mexicans and you look at us Secular Humanists and expect us to correct their lunatic behavior and call them on their bad theology and antediluvian social habits. You want me to be the bad guy, so you won’t have to deal with the uncomfortable silences and awkward coffee socials.

Well, tough shit. That Racist Douche Bag with the Christian fish magnet on the back of his SUV is your Crazy Uncle, not mine. If you want Atheists to respect your beliefs, you should have taken care of your family shit at home, before it got messy in public.

Now, to the person who signed me up to the newsletter. You could have started a dialogue in comments. You could have sent me an email. But instead, you took the same passive-agressive route that’s caused this whole mess in the first place, which is cowardly and lame.

I was a little hard on Stephen Hawking last week but only because I except better form one of the most brilliant men on the planet. Better, like this:

HONG KONG (AP) - Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

The British author _ who wrote the best-seller “A Brief History of Time” _ said that the pope made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican.

Hawking, who didn’t say when the meeting was held, quoted the pope as saying, “It’s OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not enquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God.”

The scientist then joked during a lecture in Hong Kong, “I was glad he didn’t realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn’t fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo.”

We’ve come along way in a few short centuries. Today, a brilliant scientist can joke about being fed to the Inquisition by an obtuse man in a funny hat, rather than fear that the current Pope (formerly the head of the Inquisition) would actually tie him to the rack and break out the anal pear.

But some things never change. It’s the 21st century and we still have Pope for one thing. For another, people still listen to that gassy windbag as if his lunatic rantings about sky fairies and the moral implications of masturbating were anything but backward superstition. But three pips for Dr. Hawking for not backing down and going ahead with his fantastically important research, even if (and especially if) it honks off some dipshit in a fancy dress who believes the sky is falling.

In a nice change of pace, I recieved this piece of spam from a website of a Muslim Creationist from Turkey, declaring simply:

Primitive Man never existed, and there never was a Stone age

And providing a link to the website of Harun Yahya (http://www.harunyahya.com/index.php)*. If you haven’t heard of Harun Yahya, he’s the pen name for Adnan Oktar:

Adnan Oktar (a.k.a. Adnan Hoca) was born in Ankara in 1956 and lived there until he moved to Istanbul in 1979. He is one of the leading figures in Turkish creationism, and a fervent advocate of creationism in the creation vs. evolution debate. He is considered the leading Muslim advocate of creationism; unlike the majority of Christian creationists he subscribes to Old Earth creationism. He is an anti-zionist and anti-mason which he sees as very interrelated movements. Although he rejects allegations of anti-Semitism, claiming pagan and Darwinist roots for anti-Semitism [1] he is also credited as a Holocaust denier [2], with his book Soykırım Yalanı (The Holocaust Hoax).

[…] Oktar has written numerous books using the pen name Harun Yahya (Harun (Aron) and Yahya (John)), arguing against Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. He also argues that evolution is directly related to the claimed evils of materialism, nazism and communism. Most of his anti-evolution resources are identical to Christian creationist arguments and the scientific community have made identical critiques. [8]
He also has produced various works on Zionism and Freemasonry, accusing Zionists of racism and arguing that Zionism and Freemasonry have had significant negative effects on world history and politics. Finally, he has written more than a hundred books describing the morals of the Qur’an and faith related issues. Literally hundreds of books are credited to Oktar. Some claim therefore that others must have contributed to, or simply written, many of the books. This charge is adamantly denied on his web site; he claims sole authorship of all of the books.

[…] These books attempt to display for non-Muslims what Oktar claims to be signs of the existence of God, and the excellence of his creation. A sub-group within this series are the series of “Books Demolishing the Lie of Evolution”. The main purpose of these books is to attack the ideas of Materialism, Evolution, Darwinism, and atheism.

He even blindly attacks Buddhism for being a false religion built upon idolatry and falsehood […]

The covers of all of Oktar’s books bear the seal of the Prophet Muhammad. This seal is used on the Qur’an as an indication that the Qur’an is the last book and the last word of God, and the Prophet Muhammad is the last of His messengers. By taking this attribute of the Qur’an and the Prophet, Oktar claims that his books are the “last word” which will put a definite end to the arguments of his adversaries.

He makes all the usual mistakes that the ill-informed and ignorant make about Evolution and atheism: guilt by association (linking Evolution to Nazis, Communists, and whatever else enters his addled little mind), fringe science, The usual Social Conservatism and racism and offering it up in a nice frothy stew of mysticism and nonsense. And here I was hopping he would have something unique to add to the culture war. But unfortunately, he just borrows the same Christian Creationist screeds and substitutes the Christian names for Muslim mythological proper nouns.

Wikipedia links to some of his videos, in case you feel like a good chuckle.

Tristero reminds us that the Creepy Evangelical Video Game (Where you either convert or kill everyone in New York City) is not a product of some fringe White Supremacist Malita or some publicly disavowed wacko like Fred Phelps but a genuine article from the most vociferous of the Faithful:

[…] There is nothing about the worldview of this videogame that cannot be found in the writings and speeches of political operatives like Dobson, LaHaye, Robertson, Falwell, Rushdoony, and others in their milieu (here’s a paean to intolerance co-authored by James Dobson’s son. ). The particular balance of extremist positions varies to some extent among all these people, but the overall thrust is clear: they advocate replacement of a democratic American republic with a theocracy (Christian Nation)and the conversion or elimination of all non-believers.* The craziest of them - eg Rushdoony - are not merely cynical dirtbags trying to snatch every last nickel they can from ignorant rubes. The worst of them actually believe this stuff. But here’s the rub: even the less worse are willing to listen to the worse, and prominent politicians today are are also listening.

Troutfishing has all the skin-crawling details for those just tuning in:

The “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” videogame that lets players simulate converting to Christianity or killing the citizens of New York City has become a dead cow in the living room to leaders of the Christian right. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, and The Southern Baptist Convention have not denounced the game and have refused to even comment on it

The best part though:

Tyndale House, which licenses “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” also publishes a book, by [infuriated Christian conservative attourney and activist, Jack ] Thompson, against videogame violence!

It’s easy to dismiss a Conservative Christian Publisher as being more about the Business of Publishing than the heartfelt lifestyle of a Conservative Christian, only out to make a fast buck exploiting the fear and loathing of the Evangelical market. But just keep in mind, that fear and loathing comes from a real source. And if there is one thing the faithful are good at, it’s inventing bogey men to exert control over their followers. If there’s two things they’re good at, it’s stirring the pot until it comes to a boil.

Today is the day the world ends. Or else, it’s Tuesday, depending on how you wear your goggles:

The Number of the Beast is mentioned in the Book of Revelation of the Christian New Testament and has long been accepted to be 666 (or, in some cases, 616) *. The meaning of the number is debated. In some interpretations of Christian eschatology the “Beast” is believed to refer to a being controlled by or equated with the Antichrist, whereas some scholars, such as Dr. Delbert Hillers and the editors of the Oxford & Harper Collins translations, contend that the number is a code for the Roman Emperor Nero[1], a view that is also supported by the Roman Catholic Church [2].

it’s fascinating how some people get so worked up over a coincidental arrangement of numbers on a calendar. Global warming? Just a myth. But three (count ‘em!) three sinister 6s in a row on your Garfield desk calendar and it’s time to break out the Cabala tables and start thinking critically. Remember Y2K? Yeah, that was fun, wasn’t it? Idiots buying upa ll the toilet paper within three counties for fear that the world will end because our computers aren’t smart enough to add correctly.

But this is even more retarded because it isn’t based solely on ignorance of science or banal superstition. it’s also got two millennia of traditional superstition and ignorance backing it up That’s quite a shadow. But it still amounts to nothing more than people being scared of the dark.

Of course, George W. Bush is still in Office, and it is still early yet.

Orac has more, including a story about a woman so bone headed, she wants to induce early labour so as not to give birth to Satan.

I don’t get Christian themed entertainment. Every Christian rock group I’ve ever heard sucks, up to and including a fair amount of U2. Every Jesus centered movie or book I’ve ever read or seen is just an insulting bit of jingoism wrapped up with a light glaze of five-year-old pop culture to make it go down with the hip kids (you know the ones with the drool stains on their shirts who wear a helmet when they go the bathroom). How anyone can find this crap entertaining is beyond me and even more baffling is how the creators of such pabulum actually delude themselves into thinking someone is going to read Left Behind or listen to Creed and say,” Oh right, now I get Jesus! Count me among the saved!”

Having said that, I know it’s not just my blind spot to Jesus-flavored pop culture that makes this Evangelical Kill-em-all-and-let-God-sort-them-out video game just creepy as Hell. It’s like it comes from some alternate reality where Jesus was a shotgun wielding bad ass who didn’t take lip from no Roman (Just like Shaft but with a really pimped out yarmulke).

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission — to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is “to conduct physical and spiritual warfare”; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

That’s right— it’s a video game based on the premis that you go around shooting non-Christians (and though it’s not stated outright its strongly implied that you also shoot non-whites and homosexuals too). Which is just what Jesus would have done, had he been able to get his hands on a few automatic weapons.

I’ve never bought into the idea that violent video games (or TV shows or movies) inspire violent actions on the part of impressionable youngens but there’s definitely a moral dimension at work here and not one that in any way jives with anything I’ve ever read about Jesus or his teachings.

Pam Spaulding over at Pandagon is as baffled, sickened and wigged as I am about this. (several other bloggers have written at length about it as well). Jonathan Hutson, at Talk To Action, a liberal Christian blog tries to untie some of the knots:

[…] According to Mr. Warren [He of The Purpose Driven Life and the game’s developer], the worst of American culture is reflected in examples of violence, terrorism, shootings, and the coarsening of our society, that turn people away in disgust. And in addition, “some people are more materialistic than ever.”

If violence, coarseness, and materialism are serious social problems, then what purpose is served by exploiting a global pastoral network to mass market a game about mass killing, whether in the name of Christ or the AntiChrist?

On the one hand, this video game is anti-American, because it endorses roving death squads engaged in faith-based violence without any regard for Constitutional law. On the other hand, the video game is anti-Christian, because it argues that the Kingdom of God can be advanced by using the methods and tools of the kingdoms of this world, namely guns and bombs.

If I wrote a story in which the main characters went around murdering Evangelicals (while pontificating on the moral and spiritual goodness to be had by doing it) I’d be called a bigot and a nut and deservedly so. Someone please explain to me how this makes him a better person than little old Godless me, what with my pacifism and multicultural tendencies.

Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon found a chuckle-inducing exercise in conservative culture jamming, in the form of the top 50 Conservative Rock Songs.* She reviews the reviews and really zeroes in on the Conservative mindset and it’s blindspots, both political and cultural:

“1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who. The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naive idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye… Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.”

The fact that they fall for the “small government” line and continue to elect Republicans who drive up deficits and curtail civil liberties demonstrates that conservatives are in fact easy to fool over and over and over again. Anyone who still trusts Bush after he lied to get us in the Iraq war is demonstrating a depth of gullibility previous unmeasurable by any instruments known to man.

But the choice of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was inevitable. The critical mythology of neo-conservatives is that they were once idealistic leftists and totally cool and could so get laid and knew where to buy the best weed but the tawdry stupidity of liberal beliefs ran them off. The seedy reality is that the only known human being to actually make the legitimate case that this is his life story is P.J. O’Rourke. The rest of them were just Marxists who ran off to be right wingers when they realized the American left wasn’t ever going to embrace Stalinist authoritarianism. All attempts to claim the mantle of pseudo-cool rebellion must be viewed in this light.

This right here explains two very important things about the Neo-Conservative mindset. First, they have no grasp of the concept of irony what so ever. None. Second, it explains why they love, love, love The President so much; they’re disgruntled radicals looking for a Daddy figure to teach them how to do the lockstep line dance. Who better to do that then the Decider?

It also points to why the vilify liberals so much, because they see us as simply younger, less mature versions of themselves. Sort of the way College Sophomores look down their nose at High School Seniors. They are just so unhip, because they haven’t figured out that all the cool kids are lining up to conform and join the trustfund revolution, where the rich steel from the poor and call it charity.

Now that The Decider and his gang have dropped bellow the point of no return in the polls, some old- school Conservatives are trying to play them off as closet liberals. And even though clearly some of the Neo-Cons– Rumsfeld and Cheney, most notably– come from a Marxist background, they are clearly enamored with authoritarian ideologies of the Right (It’s all that Traditional Family Values crap. Anytime someone starts nattering about The Old Time Religion and the Way Things Never Were, what they mean is, they want their Pa).

But the truly frightening fact about American Politics today is that the only thing standing between us and and a full blown Dictattorship is The Democrats.