Christianist Crazy Fest

I had done a post last month on a confab of Christianist lunacy that was to take place in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area over the last two days. Since the event titled "Rediscovering God in America" was closed to reporters, details are brief - such as did Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, the GOP candidate for governor sneak in even though he is pretending to be a moderate - but it definitely sounds like the wingnuts were in full force bleating their theocratic message. Among those speaking at the event which took place at Rock Church in Virginia Beach were the loon from Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, failed senatorial candidate Oliver North, David Barton (WallBuilders), Lou Engle (TheCall visionary), and Ron Luce (Teen Mania founder). The three hours of lunacy was broadcast live on God.TV, an evangelical Web site, and will replay Sunday evening. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Two leading voices of the Republican Party's evangelical wing visited Rock Church on Friday for a forum aimed at recapturing some of the movement's political momentum. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee urged Christians to get involved in politics to preserve the presence of religion in American life.

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They and other speakers warned about the continuing availability of abortion, the spread of gay rights, and attempts to remove religion from American public life and school history books. Gingrich and Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, argued the rights of Americans stem from God and to ignore that connection is perilous. The two were among several speakers, including former U.S. Senate candidate Oliver North, at the three-hour "Rediscovering God in America" event. The event was closed to reporters but was broadcast live on God.TV, an evangelical Web site.

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Huckabee told the audience he was disturbed to hear President Barack Obama say during his speech in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday that one nation shouldn't be exalted over another. "The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand." The same kind of miracle, he said, led California voters to approve Proposition 8, which overturned a state law legalizing same-sex marriages.

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"I am not a citizen of the world," said Gingrich, who was first elected to the U.S. House from Georgia in 1978 and served as speaker from 1995 to 1999. "I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator." Huckabee urged his listeners to get engaged in public life or their views won't matter.

Miss California Continues to Prove She's an Ignorant Ass

I have not said too much about the Miss USA Pageant and Kool-Aid drinker Carrie Prejean, but the more she talks, the more she shows her ignorance and the dishonesty that is the hallmark of her chosen form of Christian faith. Everyone is free to hold whatever religious beliefs that they want, but one would hope that they would at least check out the lies they are parroting before looking foolish on national television. Turns out that Ms. Prejean's church traffics in discredited lies and bogus research disseminated by Paul Cameron. Since Cameron and his alleged research work have been discredited for over THIRTY (30) YEARS, there is little excuse for reciting his lies unless one is acting from bigotry. The Christianists may want to hold up Ms. Prejean as a role model, but I think she's going to ultimately become a huge negative for the hate merchants. Here are some highlights from America Blog and Holly Bullies and Headless Monsters that exposes just how dishonest Ms. Prejean and her church are in this instance. First, here's America Blog's take:

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I think the religious right's newest bimbo mascot isn't going to be doing any more media for a while after this revelation. Alvin from Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters found the following (and lots more) on the Web site of Miss California's church:

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There are also moral repercussions stemming from homosexual behavior as evidenced by the fact that one third of all sexual crimes against children are committed by homosexuals even though they are representative of only one percent of the population. Pedophilia has even been called central to the gay lifestyle. The agenda of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is to lower the age of consent so that sex with children will be legal.

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For anyone living under a rock, the homosexuality-pedophilia canard was debunked three decades ago.

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As a supposed role model for young women - at least in the minds of some, although I don't support blonde bimbo's as role models - one would think that Prejean might have done a little research before opening her mouth, particularly since she apparently knew the questions asked might come up. But no. She just went with this kind of crap described by Holly Bullies and Headless Monsters put out by her church:

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Someone has alerted me to the fact that her church, The Rock Church of San Diego, uses junk science in order to villify the lgbt community.

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I looked at the church’s webpage and found there to be a lot of inaccurate information, particularly regarding gays and HIV:male homosexuals are 430 times more likely to contract HIV than a heterosexual, while heterosexuals have a 1-in-750,000 chance of contracting the virus responsible for HIV, a male homosexual has a 1-in-165 chance of getting HIV. A 20 year old gay male has a 30% chance of either dying or contracting AIDS before the age of 30. They are also 23 times more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases than a heterosexual.

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But it’s the next section that caught my eye like a blinking light:

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There are also moral repercussions stemming from homosexual behavior as evidenced by the fact that one third of all sexual crimes against children are committed by homosexuals even though they are representative of only one percent of the population. Pedophilia has even been called central to the gay lifestyle. The agenda of the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is to lower the age of consent so that sex with children will be legal.

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The idea that homosexuality and pedophilia are linked is a lie that has been refuted continuously. The American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America all say that the homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked.So where did that notion come from? The discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

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It looks to me as if the Rock Church is precisely the type of church that over time will drive thinking people from organized religion. Lies and deliberate ones at that do not exactly jive with the Gospel message of Christ. I hope that ultimately, Ms. Prejean will get her head out of her ass and perhaps do some independent study before she shoots her mouth off further.