What have these last eight years taught us about institutional religions?

[wcepler]

Religion? Now let’s see, where have we heard that word before? Oh yeah, it's all that stuff about how we're supposed to support "the church" and make sure we give what little money the elite vampires haven't managed to suck our of our lives.

Hmmm. But why would we do this? Well, now that's a very, VERY hard question to answer. In most of the "high" Christian religions (e.g., Catholicism, Episcopalianism, Anglicanism, and a few others), the guys are really into very elaborate "gowns", so maybe it's partially a clothing thing, since some of these dresses or gowns must cost a bundle.

But it's unfair not to include Zionism, the "lower" Christian religions, the Muslim churchy institutions, and on and on. And we certainly don't want to leave out the "Armeggedonites" since they have this quaint doctrine that the world (solar system, local group?) is going to go boom any day now, which sounds a tad science fictiony, but a cult is a cult is a cult.

However, let's return to the question of how “religion in general” has affected our lives during these last eight years.

Hey, that's cake to answer. The answer is that it has been perhaps the number one albatross around the neck of the human race.

Have they "helped" us to deal with the fascist Bush Administration? Well, they have certainly played a helping role, but that role has been to help the moral filth they claim to denounce.

Look at the evangelicals for openers. Let's cut to the chase with this. The evangelicals are simply NUTS. They think they have a hot line to God that gives them the right (the duty!) to kill as many Muslims as they can. You know, a 21st Century "Crusade" so passionately supported by our pinhead president.

And the Catholics? Yeah, the Catholics, with an occasional "pontification" from the official pontificator (that's his job). You can stand on your head and cherry pick a handful of remarks from an encyclopedia of babble, but what has actually happened during the last eight years is that the Catholic Church has virtually NEVER put conscience and morality first. All we got was b.s, b.s, and more pontificating b.s.

The church has a useful notion of sins of "commission" and sins of "omission". Well, the Catholic hierarchy has set a high water mark for sins of omission. Yes, we're talking to you guys in the gowns. You haven't done squat to help the tortured human race during the insane Bush years. Jesus would have wept at these years of concentration camp like horror, but "The Church" was the archetypal coward who looked the other way and kept walking to ignore bleeding humanity in the ditch.

Of course the Israeli lunatic right wing Zionists (with exceptions that prove the rule -- true for all these examples) are similar to evangelicals who far from merely ignoring things are big time murder in the name of God folks.

Now the Muslims have their special thing too: the "holy warrior". If that isn't an ultimate contradiction in terms, what is? "Holy" warrior! Give us a break. It's "holy" to blow up innocent people, many of whom are actually working to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? But bombs don't discriminate, do they?

So what are we saying here? What HAVE we learned about religion during these Bush/fascist years?

Basically two things.

(1.) Institutional religions (always with small exceptions) are masters of talking the talk, but certainly haven't had the grit or courage to significantly walk the walk that WOULD HAVE BEEN WALKED by Jesus, the Hebrew Prophets, and the Prophet Mohamed. The point is simply that these Bush/Republican monsters should have been at least "verbally" confronted by the various religions, but all we heard was the squeaking of mice. Ironically EXACTLY the same thing happened with the gutless 2006 dem congress. So this mice congress and these mice religions have unforgivably betrayed the human race.

(2.) A thousand times worse, we learned that most religions always seem to have a VERY large contingent of murder in the name of God psychos. You don't have to look very deep into political/social dynamics to see the infinitely perverted "hand of God" psychology that justifies heartless murder.

Sometimes in life it takes a crisis to see another person for who they truly are. And often this is profoundly disillusioning and permanently life changing.

This writer, at least, wonders how many citizens of the Earth (thousands, millions?) have finally HAD IT with the dinosaurs of institutional religions. What good do they do? They certainly weren’t there when we "needed them"! And NOTHING is more the very face of Satan (if there is one) than a religious crazy who thinks his/her hot line to God gives them the Sarah Palin-like righteousness to massacre other human beings.

Perhaps these last eight years will hasten evolution to select out these self obsessed social institutions once and for all.

Just imagine how wonderful it would feel if the Earth wasn't crawling with murder in the name of God human cockroaches.
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W. Christopher Epler (Bill)

<http://theliberationofrealism.blogspot.com/>

[rwheeler31]

1. Church has done so little good. All they do is divide, and take $.

[melody]

2. That many of the religious need to be institutionalized

In addition to the editorial's points. :)

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Sadly, Murder in the name of "god" has been with us since time immemorial.

It is what has been used, starting with the primitive witch doctors, and going right down to today's televangelists, to manipulate people into doing what they would not otherwise be "inspired" to do. We can look back on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and even the Holocaust. It is happening in Africa, and it happened in Eastern Europe. It happened all thru antiquity and the Middle Ages. The
"witch hunts" were a form of murder in the name of god.

As long as there are people looking for power, they will use religion to gain it, and people will be killed in the name of whatever deity will inspire loyalty, fanaticism, and blind obedience.

[glinda]

4. That they need to have Tax-Status revoked and big fines for

first time offense of Political tampering and preaching and when that doesn't work, make it permanent that they pay taxes.

[wcepler]

7. tax the bloody churches!

Glinda,

Now THAT'S what I'm saying. Fantastic idea. Thank you, thank you, thank you. My God, just think of the billions (trillions?) of tax money we could be getting from these anachronistic institutions!

We are so hurting financially because we keep going "oh well" when the banks and churches tell us to bend over.

TAX THE BLOODY CHURCHES!!! We can't "afford" to give these hot houses of murder-in-the-name-of-God nut cases a free ride anymore. So what's the logic here? The evangelicals to too subhuman to tax?

Plus, we should stop treating corporations as "individuals". Duh.

Bill

[glinda]

10. To clarify my position: My parent's Catholic Church is

a very old and beautiful Church. They do not "do" politics there and struggle as is to bring in younger people let alone raise enough money to repair the roof. I feel that they should not be taxed and Churches such as this, that serve the communities needs, should be exempt from taxation. By setting an example, politically motivated Churches will face closures, freeing up the people to find Churches such as my parents go to. I think the transition period would produce taxes as well as funds to aid in other social services area. The land that many of these Churches sit on is quite valuable. I do not attend any Church but I say this as someone who can appreciate the role that Churches can play in one's life. I do not appreciate when the Church starts to merge with politics and becomes a power player thus alienating other people or beliefs.

[Joe Bacon]

9. Take these lazy slobs off of the Faith Based Gravy Train

Terminate all faith based aid!

[Grey]

5. I have just started to read

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.
He says much the same thing.

[roguevalley]

6. when the messianic movement was hijacked by Paul, it went from

a faith of WORKS to a work of FAITH. Just believing saved you instead of doing something to make the world better. that is when it all went south

[wcepler]

8. Saint (?) Paul. He was a sexist moron.

Yeah, "Saint" Paul. Ugh

[Azooz]

11. Islam in not an institutional religion

That is true for all the Sunni sects and many other sects to, making up well over %80 of all Muslims and the percentage is increasing each year. Among those 20+ sects, the sect of a Mosque or Imam is unimportant and interchangeable and a Muslim can go to any of them that they like at any moment, so no one sect can become a separate institute and no Muslim is bound to any of them anyway.

I do not think that institutional religions can survive the internet without drastic changes to the better - google and youtube have helped the process along greatly by exposing things that should be exposed, and have helped the %20 of Muslims get closer to the other %80.

I personally think the next 8 years will be a lot more "interesting" - but that is just my opinion.