The abuse of heavenly prayer for earth-bound politics
Last week, as the Texas Board of Education prepared to finalize controversial new textbook standards, board member Cynthia Dunbar was asked to offer the opening prayer.
Here’s what she said:
“Most gracious heavenly Father. We come before you today, and ask that you grant to us the ability not to be anxious for the future, wisdom and understanding for the day, and hearts of gratitude for our past. As we look to our past to guide us, let us reflect on the convictions of those who have gone before us. I believe that nobody can look to the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or the charter of New England or the Charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present: a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”
I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it. Freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people. I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country. All this I pray in the name of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
When I came to Georgia 20 years ago, I found the practice of opening almost every governmental meeting with prayer a little startling. I had worked as a journalist in every other section of the country, and had never seen it done so often. Even subcommittee meetings at the state Legislature are often begun with an invitation to pray.
Most of the time, the prayers amount to pleas for wisdom and guidance in decision-making, and only the eager-to-be-offended could find much to criticize. Occasionally, prayer leaders become much more specific and fervent, for example pledging all in attendance to obey the teachings of Jesus Christ in how they vote. That’s more troubling.
You are, after all, speaking to an audience of diverse beliefs, not to a congregation of the same-minded. A citizen should not be compelled to take part in religious activities contrary to his or her beliefs as a price for participating in government. All are supposed to stand on level ground in that setting.
And once in a while, you’ll get somebody who really abuses the privilege and uses the prayer to make explicitly political statements, as Dunbar did last week.
Let’s side aside the political and historical content of Dunbar’s prayer, which is of course highly debatable in its own right. What I find more outrageous is her decision to smuggle that content into the form of a prayer that others in attendance were required to listen to silently, heads bowed, as if in agreement, with no dissent allowed.
She was not using the prayer to talk to God, which ought to be its purpose; she was using it to tell others what God would say to them if He was there.
Personally, I find it highly offensive to watch people place their own political viewpoints into the mouth of God, in effect turning God into their personal sock puppet. Whatever your concept of a Supreme Being, you cheapen it by drafting Him as a megaphone for your own political views, and to do so in that kind of setting.
Government and religion are each very powerful in its own realm, and if allowed to join in mutual purpose they constitute an overpowering force that inevitably, always tries to sweep away all dissenting views. Dunbar speaks fervently about the lessons of the past; the lessons of the past in that regard are distressingly clear, as our Founding Fathers knew from direct and recent experience.
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832 comments Add your comment
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:02 pm
josef, welcome to the fray. We’ve had lots of fun here today, discussing such things as God being born via the Big Bang Theory. And Eve being born of Adam. Oh and how the Founding fathers were a bunch of Christian bashers. And how 5 missing commandments ain’t no big deal. And…
Dusty
May 24th, 2010
4:04 pm
OH Saul Good,
You are STILL jumping over your suggested bad behavior and trying to make something else out of it.
You asked: Would I be offended if some one suddenly got up and started shouting a Muslim prayer at a public meeting?
I’d say I’d be real SURPRISED. In fact, I’d be surprised if any one jumped up in a public meeting and started shouting “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep”. It is out of order. It is unnecessary And it interferes with the public security of a meeting and is indicative of an unhealthy mental condition.
So rest your mind, Saul. But don’t go shouting off-subject sentiments at a public meeting. We need you here to show how wrong some people can be.
stands for decibels
May 24th, 2010
4:05 pm
Following that logic though, the only conclusion would be that Jesus was either a compulsive liar or a complete basketcase…
well no. One could conclude that people with their own specific agendas wrote the Gospels (and many more than just the four we regard as holy texts), and you need to filter your own interpretation of what Jesus is/was all about, with that in mind.
Scout
May 24th, 2010
4:06 pm
AmVet: LOL !
Saul Good: Nope – I’m serious. That’s just what we need because it’s the type of candidate you fear.
Ooo Rah! Praise the Lord & pass the ammunition !
Scout
May 24th, 2010
4:07 pm
Saul:
You’re new on here. You need to show some respect to your elders …………….
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
May 24th, 2010
4:09 pm
(She brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from her aspect came,
That I the hope relinquished of the height.)
(And Redneck DO NOT go there!)
Well, dang it, some people take all the fun out of things!
Del
May 24th, 2010
4:09 pm
Scout,
He does like horses. I’m hoping Pete Pace will run.
Southern Comfort
May 24th, 2010
4:10 pm
Actually Scooter, we’re all African-Americans…(J/k, don’t get your panties in a wad Klanners.)
AmV
There’s a bit of biological proof to that. You can have two black people give birth to a child with pale skin and blue eyes. However, you can’t take two white people andhave them produce a melanin-enhanced child. It’s all about dominant and recessive genes.
Jay's blog
May 24th, 2010
4:10 pm
Amvet, that “Allah the Above” is genius. You are so creative!
I wonder where you get all your amazing ideas. You consistently have the best written and entertaining comments. Remember the time you told @@ to stop humping your leg? Funniest gag of the year! (Ask @@ if she has an older sister to hump your other leg. That would be so funny!)
You’re a genius blogger, Amvet. You should have your own blog,. really. That’s a natural fact. You could easily start one and just do your take on news stories just like Cynthia here does. I’d visit. Click! Click! CLICK!! I’m down.
WOW. I just talked to a techie who claimed that anyone who comments in a chatroom is vulnerable to hackers for all their data. I did not know that. Imagine. Clever hackers, a dime a dozen, can find out anything they want about who you are if you make even one comment on a blog like this. I wonder if that’s correct. People give out so much incorrect information, you know? Like BP on how to plug deep water oil leaks. Like Goldman Sachs about the need for financial reform. Everybody lies. Ouch. No wonder Facebook is getting so much flak. They’re giving out personal data without permission.
That’s a problem.
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:11 pm
sfd,
I dunno – I kind of like to think of Jesus as a little on the whacky side – I mean that cousin of his John was a full blown nut job.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:11 pm
You mean ELDERLY right? I’ve been around before…just took a LONG break… was “wasting” too much time (like I’m starting to do again on certain days)…
OMG Dusty!
Read my question AGAIN…not my FIRST post about it.
I’m talking about someone INVITED TO SPEAK at a meeting (or who is HEADING a meeting)…. if they gave thanks and praise to ALLAH….would YOU be offended…THAT is my question.
Once again….I’ll wait for your answer.
Pogo
May 24th, 2010
4:13 pm
Josef, it doesn’t look as if either Warren or Lowery’s appeal to the higher power for blessing on the Obama adminstration has done much good. Perhaps God knew a heck of lot more than the American voters did and decided to do something worth while like going to play golf in the cosmos instead. You know, drive around a few comets or asteroids for fun. Of course, I don’t blame him, no use in expending energy on a lost cause!
Southern Comfort
May 24th, 2010
4:13 pm
Jay’s probably working on a deadline for the dead tree copy. Give him a break because he does have another job other than appeasing the people here.
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:13 pm
Speaking of hell:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/05/20/funny-pictures-i-ordered/
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:14 pm
Scout….that’s basically Sarah Palin in drag. In fact I think I heard of give that speech when running for VP (she just said USA instead of Alabama).
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
4:14 pm
“It’s all about dominant and recessive genes.”
I’ve known that for a long time. And while a pale person can get significantly darker with exposure to the sun, a really dark person doesn’t get significantly lighter out of the sun.
It has LONG been my theory that the diminution of melanin production occurred as a response to mankind’s moving further and furthe away from the strong sun of equatorial Africa and out into the less sunny areas further north. And, roughly speaking the further north you go the lighter skinned the people tend to be.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:16 pm
AmVet
And you can bet your collection plate dollar Jaybird won’t have anything to say about my earlier post. All of what he has to say here sorta goes with the wind when you take into consideration what he had to say about having “no problem” with Fierce Advocate’s invitation to the hate monger preacher Warren…Oy, vey, Maria…
This was to stir up a stink and for little else and, in my opinion, a cheap shot…it’s okay if “my side” brings the theological into the secular forum, but if “your side” does it…well, now that’s just not right, etc. etc.
Dusty
May 24th, 2010
4:16 pm
fred smith @ 3:37
You made me smile wanting a “marsaydees benes”.
Yesterday, my youngest son came home with a Mini Cooper S . Now that is one cute car. I love it. Don’t plan to drive it with its six shift gears (as if he would let me)!! It is black with a little white, double sun roof, and loads of accessories. Absolutely made for fun. I think I better keep an eye on this son. But I do like his choices and he usually makes good ones. He likes the Braves!! Need I say more?
md
May 24th, 2010
4:19 pm
“This was to stir up a stink and for little else and, in my opinion, a cheap shot…it’s okay if “my side” brings the theological into the secular forum, but if “your side” does it…well, now that’s just not right, etc. etc.”
Yea, hell will freeze over before we see the Pelosi column, but if there are folks here that don’t know there is an agenda……………..
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:21 pm
Pogo
G-d taking the day off to play a few rounds in the Cosmos…I like that myself. Did you see “Dogma?”
Dusty
May 24th, 2010
4:22 pm
Saul Good,
Take up knitting. You need a hobby. I’m not it. Crossword puzzles are also good for people like you. Try it. You’ll like it.
Scout
May 24th, 2010
4:22 pm
Saul Good:
Good !
Southern Comfort
May 24th, 2010
4:23 pm
Doggone
Yep, but you won’t get many to agree with that. Add that along with the DNA mixing that occurred in this country in the 1700-1800’s, and you could run up on many an example today.
josef
There you go pokin’ a stick at the Bruin!!!
ye of liberal faith
May 24th, 2010
4:23 pm
thou shalt blog during lightening storm with long metal staff
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:25 pm
SoCo, that might explain (Bruno’s and) my lifelong fascination with most things soulful!
Scout, I do miss those days in the country, when I could just take a box of shells and my Remington .30-30 out to the woods and just shoot away at cans, bottles, etc. Man that was good time…
Of course, I’d take a Winchester or Marlin just as quickly.
jnix, I missed your original post about Warren. What’s the deal?
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:25 pm
md
I wish I could agree that this springs from an agenda. I honestly think that he doesn’t see the conflict of expressed opinions.
SoCo–
You’re probably right on the Bruin and in all fairness he does deserve time off if that’s the why-for. I just have a problem myself with his choice of topic. Palin, abortion, or grits and greens would have served the same purpose.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:26 pm
Dusty,
I’ll take that as a “yes” you’d be offended. You’ve made that actually loud and clear.
Thanks!
It’ssaulgood
FrankLeeDarling
May 24th, 2010
4:26 pm
If jesus was to show up in TX or AZ today do you think they would deport him as soon as the realized that he wasn’t white and didn’t speak english? Would they demand to see his long form birth certificate?
Dusty
May 24th, 2010
4:27 pm
Josef,
You are right about this being a “cheap shot”. Absolutely!
I leave to finish a home project before dinner time. Getting late!!
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
4:28 pm
“Yep, but you won’t get many to agree with that.”
Yes, I know that…but I’m sort of the “resident expert” on color genetics in the breed of dog I have, and it was learning about those genetics that helped me realize that mankind had to have gone from dark to light. Which is, BTW, an adaptive change, not an evolutionary one.
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:28 pm
Dusty, while living in England I owned a snazzy *orange* mini. It had a huge 1250 cc engine! Most had 750’s. Four speed with a cassette deck! That little thing was a blast to drive around in…
(BTW, for the unawares, many motorcycles have engines that size…)
Scout
May 24th, 2010
4:29 pm
AmVet :
I hear you. Let’s not ever give that up. “From our cold dead hands!”
Scout
May 24th, 2010
4:29 pm
Out on patrol ………… back later.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:32 pm
AmVet
That hate monger already had one helluva rep for hating gays. Then, after Fierce Advocate’s horsesh*t with California’s Prop 8 to make sure he got the morally conservative Black and Latino votes, a slap in the face itself, here he came inviting that, I don’t have words at my disposal for what to call him, preacher in–a punch in the gut from my persepective. I posted one night when off on my own agenda concerning that and Jay came in with he had “no problem” with it. Fine, then stick to it and have no problem with a fellow traveller’s of Warren’s doing it in Texas…
As I said earlier this p.m. “yeah, sure, uh-hunh, whatever.”
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
4:32 pm
db @ 4:05,
I cannot concisely tell you (it would take too long), but the integrity of the four gospels is basically unparalleled among historic texts. I would humbly point to Lee Stroebel’s “The Case For Christ”, easily the most readable methodical examination of the evidence of the New Testament.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:33 pm
Frank… jesus IS in AZ and TX… actually lots and lots of jesus’ there…and yeah, to be honest, I’ve stated this often… where IS the ORIGINAL long form birth certificate for jesus? Who does it say his father is? Until I see that document…he’s not MY savior!
DannyX
May 24th, 2010
4:34 pm
“That would mean that all Mozingos in America — including me, who grew up in Dana Point, the blue-eyed, surfing son of a dentist — had a Bantu last name.”
An LA Times writer traced his roots and wrote a great story on the subject last week. They were told Mozingo was Italian. Were they in for a surprise.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mozingo-first-20100516,0,4419674.story
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
4:35 pm
Bosch @ 4:11,
Most of the “wackiness” of John the Baptist can be attributed to him being a Nazirite…
md
May 24th, 2010
4:35 pm
“I wish I could agree that this springs from an agenda.”
By agenda, I mean left of center, hence most of his columns.
A CONSERVATIVE
May 24th, 2010
4:35 pm
“JUDGE NOT….YET YOU BE JUDGED”..Karl Mark..May U burn in hell-Mr. Mark
Scooter
May 24th, 2010
4:35 pm
FrankLeeDarling
May 24th, 2010
4:26 pm
You need to get your facts strait. Jesus was as white as the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus!
theyeshaveit
May 24th, 2010
4:36 pm
Frank, anyone speaking (and looking) like Jesus today would not likely be be deported, but rather committed to a mental asylum. Remember the Jesus Freaks of the 60’s and 70’s?
Scooter
May 24th, 2010
4:37 pm
And don’t come back until you have something important to add!
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:37 pm
“but the integrity of the four gospels is basically unparalleled among historic texts”
All depends on who you ask.
md
May 24th, 2010
4:37 pm
“Which is, BTW, an adaptive change, not an evolutionary one.”
“Adaptive” would work in both directions, would it not?
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
4:37 pm
“May U burn in hell-Mr. Mark”
Very Christian of you to hope for someone to have no chance of salvation.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:41 pm
eyeshaveit
Jesus and the insane asylum: Have you ever seen the Argentine film, “Man Facing Southeast?”
OTHERWISE
My little fifth graders graduated today…wish y’all could have seen them and their parents…happy, happy, happy, I am…and our test scores came back and twarn’t bad a’tall…them young’us done got real good at bubble-in and not erasing!
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
4:42 pm
“Adaptive” would work in both directions, would it not?”
I’m not sure what you mean by that?
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:42 pm
Josef, being the consummate heathen that I am, this is what I find a bit perplexing.
That being, Obama’s Christianity. (Unless of course, he REALLY is a Moozlim!)
This is supposed to make me feel better about him how?
And vis a vis prop 8 and BHO, I got it.
Seems like those who screamed their bloody lungs out that he was the *most liberal man in the history of the universe!!!* were……..ahem, wrong. As usual…
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
4:43 pm
AH YES!!!
Dahlonega…. up near here in my neck of the woods… home of the KKK. ONLY in GA my friends:
http://www.ajc.com/news/teacher-lets-students-wear-534319.html
I wonder if any kids showed up dressed up as Mohammad? jesus LOVES the KKK and so does his deadbeat dad!
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:43 pm
And more on the thread and my kids…Jesus, Mohammad and Christian all graduated with honors today…
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
4:45 pm
Bosch @ 4:37
That’s why I recommend Stroebel. He started out as an atheist, and it is obvious in the early chapters of the book, which narrate his quest to (initially) disprove Jesus as the Christ…it’s a good read, even if you don’t want to believe, to understand the evidence that we Christians point to.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:45 pm
AmVet
And the capper of it was that he cited his “religious faith” as his rationale when his own brand of the Christian faith, the United Church of Christ, was one of the first and has been one of the strongest proponents of equal civil rights for gays…ssssshhhh…
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:46 pm
Congrats on the edumcated rug rats, josef!
Woo Hoo!
Time for a little Alice! (Ironically released the exact month after graduated from high school.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qga5eONXU_4
N-GA
May 24th, 2010
4:46 pm
Joseph – How did Moshe do?
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:47 pm
Whacks,
“to understand the evidence that we Christians point to”
You do understand that not all Christians believe the same thing?
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
4:47 pm
Make that edumacated…
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:49 pm
AmVet,
Alice Cooper scares the sh*t out of me – even to this day. I think I saw him at a vulnerable age and it damaged me somehow.
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:50 pm
AmVet,
I think it has something to do with the whole “clown” thing – he reminds me of an evil clown. I think that’s it. As I’ve mentioned before – Bosch + Clowns = no.
N-GA
May 24th, 2010
4:51 pm
Bosch – Alice Cooper didn’t scare me at all. I viewed him as a nutjob extremist. Little did I know then that he would be the role model for the likes of Limbaugh and Beck……
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:51 pm
N-GA,
“Little did I know then that he would be the role model for the likes of Limbaugh and Beck……”
That explains alot.
N-GA
May 24th, 2010
4:53 pm
Okay Bosch, How DID you do that? My post and your reply were both time stamped 4:51.
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
4:55 pm
Bosch @ 4:47
I did not say that they did, but not all who call themselves Christians truly are. I won’t go into who is and is not – it is a personal matter for each soul – but belief that He died for your sins on the cross is imperative, without it, the best you can be is just a fan of his…and many are. But they are missing out on something much bigger.
Matilda
May 24th, 2010
4:55 pm
SoCo: “….You can have two black people give birth to a child with pale skin and blue eyes. However, you can’t take two white people and have them produce a melanin-enhanced child….”
Um, actually, sometimes two blue-eyed pale people CAN produce a darker child. I had an issue years ago with a casting choice on my favorite soap opera and complained to ny genetic-scientist friends. It IS possible for a darker, usually-considered-dominant gene to be present but not expressed, resulting in the aforementioned scenario. It’s uncommon but it happens. “I wish they wouldn’t teach that in school; it causes a lot of problems,” one scientist told me.
John Birch
May 24th, 2010
4:56 pm
‘but the integrity of the four gospels is basically unparalleled among historic texts’ Huh? What an obviously preposterous statement. There is absolutely no way of knowing how sound or unimpaired they are, but there is some evidence the earliest gospel was written well after the alleged facts (implying based on memory and/or oral tradition), all the gospels were subject to edit by the Catholic church and there have been numerous translations. Not the usual ingredients for integrity.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
4:56 pm
SoCo
“There you go pokin’ a stick at the Bruin!!!”
no worry, he won’t respond to that one…!
N-Ga
Acturally, he was Moise and he wasn’t in the honor corps. But Abraham and Ibrahim both were! Ismael was there, too..
And, incidentally, I’m not kidding…we have kids with all these names…
md
May 24th, 2010
4:59 pm
“I’m not sure what you mean by that?”
Dark to light and light to dark.
Case in point – cave dwelling salamanders that are now albino and blind, while their outside counterparts are dark with vision.
Bosch
May 24th, 2010
4:59 pm
N-GA,
I never told you about my telepathy? I don’t like to brag.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
5:05 pm
Bosch
“I never told you about my telepathy? I don’t like to brag.”
Yeah, but Jay directed you to say that…
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
5:05 pm
John Birch,
“There is absolutely no way of knowing how sound or unimpaired they are”
There are actually Biblical scholars who have devoted their lives to studying these texts, it’s not just Wikipedia. Again I will recommend Strobel’s “The Case For Christ”. If you don’t follow his conclusions, he actually tells who and what he used for research, and you can examine it yourself.
“Not the usual ingredients for integrity”
The Bible is not a usual book…
Call me preposterous for saying and believing what I do. I really don’t care. Think what you want of me, I am just a guy. I tell you this because I care about you, everyone on here, even though I’ve not met any of you. Sure, it would be easy enough to keep it to myself. I know my destiny, and have nothing to fear. But I want others to share in this wonderful news, which is why I share my faith. Take it or leave it, but I do pray for you…
N-GA
May 24th, 2010
5:06 pm
Bosch – I’m humbled, but that happens to me all too frequently lately!
DannyX
May 24th, 2010
5:06 pm
One of the comments from the LAT Monzingo. I thought it was funny…..
deepthunk at 10:43 AM May 18, 2010
I am here visiting LA and was amazed to see this series on the Mozingos. I descend from Edward Mozingo through his son John, grandson Charles, g-granddaughter Frances, etc.
I have seen this same racial-identity saga play out on my Oxendine/Shumate side of the family. The patriarch, John Oxendine was also an indentured servent in the 1600’s. The Shumates had Cherokee thrown in the mix as well. There was a time when this was hidden, but now it is embraced by more and more as simply American.
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:07 pm
Whooaaaa, Nelly….this game has gone into overtime.
You lovin’ it, jay?
The man in black with a sinister sneer.
Creepy!
What…e….ver makes you happy.
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
5:08 pm
“Dark to light and light to dark.”
An adaptive change is an adaptive change, it has nothing to do with the “direction” of the change…though I’m not sure if blind and colorless cave dwelling creatures are examples of adaptive change or evolutionary change. In a sense, all such changes are adaptive…at least, they start out that way, but they don’t become evolutionary change until there no going back.
When an adaptive change alters a “line” of organisms to the point where they can no longer successful breed in a natural setting, then they are considered to be a new species and that is an evolutionary change. That has not occurred with color related adaptive changes in humans – or actually, with ANY adaptive changes in humans. All humans are the same species.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:09 pm
I too know my destiny and have nothing to fear….yet it’s FEAR that drives the religious man… fear of their being TWO places they can end up… when they can prove neither exists. Just like before we were born… it was “blank”… and i can think of “nothing” more “peaceful”…
ALL religions (Cults) are based upon that…man’s fear of death that goes hand and hand with this urge to live forever and ever in some kind of panacea surrounded by ONLY those who belong to the same cult.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
5:09 pm
Danny
Many of the Oxendines are Lumbee. Are you enrolled? CDIB card?
Pogo
May 24th, 2010
5:10 pm
Josef, yes I did. It was a hoot. In my mind my God doesn’t take the crap we do down here very seriously. I mean what could he say? “I made it and it turned to crap because they are pretty much self-absorbed, greedy, arrogant and violent blowhards who think they know everything (but know nothing) and they are continuously looking for answers where there ain’t any”? And they have the audacity to think of themselves as sympathetic? That about sums up the human race.
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
5:13 pm
Bosch and N-GA, LOL about the clowns, nutjobs and Alice! I was older and even though some of Stephen King’s evil clown stuff tripped me out a tad, there was only one film and one only that ever got to me – The Excorcist.
Messed me up for days! I watched it again about 10 years later. It did it again!
As for Alice, back in the early 70s he was a gigantic musical and theatrical innovator. And had several killer (get it?) albums…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0YrXjeRSoE
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:13 pm
http://www.ajc.com/news/teacher-lets-students-wear-534319.html
How very “christian” of them.
KKK= just another extreme “sect” that is part of christianity (all in the name of god, country, along with their guns and that “burning of the cross”)… to be honest… it’s not that far off from the current tea party members… 99% of them being white and all”’
FTA:
A history teacher in Dahlonega was placed on administrative leave Monday after she let four students wear Ku Klux Klan outfits in a historical reenactment.
“We determined, obviously, that she used extremely poor judgment,” Lumpkin County Schools superintendent Dewey Moye told the AJC.
Catherine Ariemma, a 5-year veteran with the school system, teaches an advanced placement history class. Her students were filming reenactments of various historical periods, and four donned Klan outfits, Moye said.
Students from other classrooms saw them as they walked through a hallway Thursday while wearing the costumes to an outdoor shoot, he said. The parents of an African American child complained, Moye said.
Ariemma did not return a message left on her home phone. Her husband, John, was reached on his cellphone and declined to comment.
Ariemma could lose her job over the incident. Moye said she has never been reprimanded for missteps in the past and that she has always been an “outstanding” teacher. But he said he could not ignore what she did.
“In my opinion it was offensive,” Moye said. “The other part of it is some people have jumped on it and said ‘you’re racist.’”
Moye said he placed her on leave with pay pending the outcome of an investigation. The school system attorney will interview the children involved to determine what happened, he said.
Whacks Eloquent
May 24th, 2010
5:14 pm
DannyX,
Are you related to the guy running for Georgia governor? Not like Oxendine is a real common name. He does not have my vote, but he probably will be the next gov anyway. Oh well…
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
5:14 pm
Sorry…forgot about this: “cave dwelling salamanders that are now albino and blind, while their outside counterparts are dark with vision”
That doesn’t actually bolster you “dark to light and light to dark” Albino cave species are examples of the same thing that happened with people, dark to light. The cave dwellers have adapted from the darker species outside to the lighter ones inside.
Scout
May 24th, 2010
5:16 pm
Jesus was only one of three things:
Liar (He claimed to be God but knew He wasn’t – the world’s biggest liar)
Lunatic (He “thought” He was God but He wasn’t – the world’s biggest nut)
Lord (He was Who He said He was – the world’s biggest Saviour)
Always your choice …………..
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
5:18 pm
Pogo–
Unmentionable, who says “my Gr-at Sp-rit is Nicene Creed,” also says that it’s a bit arrogant of us to claim to “know” what G-d has in mind since our way to H-m is via the Western District Marketing Manager…
As for “Dogma,” I had to be “forced” into watching it by my own kids at home. They kept telling me that “my” view of G-d was there….I had to admit, the cartwheel turning G-d over on the side pretty much hit home…
DoggoneGA
May 24th, 2010
5:18 pm
md…I did think of a light to dark adaptation for you. There is a species of moth in the UK that adapted from light to darker as the urban world around them got darker (the buildings and such) from coal smoke pollution.
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
5:25 pm
Saul while watching the conclusion of the Civil War documentary on PBS the other night I learned that confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest founded the KKK, but left almost right away when they launched a “reign of terror” against blacks and became too hateful and violent even for him.
One Voice
May 24th, 2010
5:26 pm
It is well within the rights of every American if they choose to live in ignorance and believe in a fictitious magical man who supposedly wished the universe into being. However, to bring that into a public forum and attempt to use it to influence policy is unAmerican and immoral. To suggest that the founding fathers, who were deists and rationalists for the most part, intended to create a nation ruled by Christian law is patently false, and to act on that belief is to go against the constitution and freedom. Is our nation regressing into the dark ages in an attempt by the religious right to challenge the Taliban as world leaders in creating a nonsensical theocracy?
Brett
May 24th, 2010
5:28 pm
Ahh, such utter supersticious crap. Duh.
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:32 pm
One Voice:
However, to bring that into a public forum and attempt to use it to influence policy is unAmerican and immoral.
jay’s blog is a public forum. I get the impression he’s trying to influence policy.
Is he unAmerican? Immoral?
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
5:34 pm
AmVet
Nathan Bedford Forest is a most intriguing individual.
http://tennessee-scv.org/ForrestHistSociety/forrest_speech.html
larry
May 24th, 2010
5:35 pm
Nathan Bedford Forrest, who Forrest , Forrest Gump was named after. “Run, Forrest, Run”.
Normal
May 24th, 2010
5:35 pm
Oh, what the hell…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2iuqj_norman-greenbaum-spirit-in-the-sky_fun
larry
May 24th, 2010
5:37 pm
I wonder if Forrest’s mother said “life is like a box of chocalates “
larry
May 24th, 2010
5:38 pm
“Jennie, Jennie”
Curly and Moe
May 24th, 2010
5:38 pm
Shaddup, Larry…
One Voice
May 24th, 2010
5:40 pm
Doggone @ 5:18,
Those moths evolved back into a light color when the coal plants in the area closed down. That is a textbook example of evolution at work. But I guess the American Taliban doesn’t believe in the other Theories either- the Theory of Light, the Theory of Gravitation, Germ Theory, Atomic Theory, the Theory of Friction, all of which are seen by the scientific community as having a body of evidence equal to that of the Theory of Natural Selection.
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
5:40 pm
Scout , did you ever see the Monty Python film the Life of Brian?
That is a fourth option…(Like Brian Cohen, perhaps Jesus was just some shmoe mistaken for a savior!)
josef, I really enjoyed that PBS documentary! I must confess to not being all that knowledgeable about many aspects of the Civil War, including the many amazing personalities and horrific events. Certainly compared to those here who know it well. (And those who are still fighting it! /sarc!)
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:41 pm
Boy did they EVER “run” with what Forrest started… 180 degrees in the wrong direction!
Pogo
May 24th, 2010
5:41 pm
This whole thing about seperation of church and state is really stupid. Politicians are merely preachers preaching a different religion. And judging by Jay and the rest here, there are more than enough willing to follow their faith no matter what kind of garbage their preachers are spewing. It is just a matter of “faith”, isn’t it? Take a look at any politician speaking before any demographic and that is all the proof you need to see that what I am saying is true. Politics is religion. Religion is politics. So, if one is into believing in the unreal, then I say, go to it.
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
5:41 pm
larry…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBHJqtgo8RA
larry
May 24th, 2010
5:42 pm
800?!! Wow!!. Somebody nudge Jay and wake him up. This thread is getting long in the tooth.