Allowing Republicans to run government is like allowing Atheists to teach Sunday school

[Phred42]

and oldie but goodie
-----------------------------------------------

"You Can't Govern if You Don't Believe in Government"
by Thom Hartmann

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0906-21.htm


In a May 25, 2001 interview, Grover Norquist told National Public Radio's Mara Liasson, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

Norquist got his wish. Democracy - and at least several thousand people, most of them Democrats, black, and poor - drowned last week in the basin of New Orleans. Our nation failed in its response, because for most of the past 25 years conservatives who don't believe in governance have run our government.

As incompetent as George W. Bush has been in his response to the disaster in New Orleans, he wasn't the one who began the process that inevitably led to that disaster spiraling out of control.

That would be Ronald Reagan.

It was Reagan who began the deliberate and intentional destruction of the United States of America when he famously cracked (and then incessantly repeated): "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

more......

[izquierdista]

1. An infectious meme

Which causes people who self-label as "conservatives" to shun government programs like Social Security Disability, AFDC, Medicare, etc., leaving more money for the hypocritical conservatives (AKA 'businessmen'), like Halliburton and Blackwater to loot for themselves.

[Fumesucker]

2. America would probably be a better place

If atheists were to teach Sunday School.

Most of us would concentrate on things like the Gospels and the Sermon on the Mount rather than Leviticus.

[NaturalHigh]

3. I was waiting for an ignorant comment like this.

I knew someone would have to trot it out.

[Fumesucker]

4. What's ignorant about it?

The majority of atheists in America grew up as theists..

The great majority of theists in America have never read the Bible.

[NaturalHigh]

6. What's ignorant is the idea that Christians should have to...

listen to atheists define their religion in their own churches. Most Sunday School teachers that I've known include their faith in their lessons.

[Fumesucker]

8. I didn't say they *had* to,..

Just that America would probably be a better place.

You might try arguing theology on an atheist website or two.. I suspect you would be surprised at the level of knowledge of a great many atheists.

[Warpy]

11. Funny, theists never shrink from trying to put us into some box

created by their own notions of what we "believe."

Perhaps practicing what you preach should come first.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Touché!

[The Straight Story]

20. I dunno, sounds like someone was putting christians in a box first

But, that is the norm here :)

[Phred42]

7. lol You're right!

[msongs]

5. sunday school would be more credible if it was taught by atheists nt

[Kajsa]

9. Oh yeah, Reagan was SUCH a hero!

He closed down many of the mental institutions in CA

AND

completely screwed over the air traffic controllers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29

On August 5, following their refusal, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order,<2><3> and permanently banned them from federal service. They were replaced initially with nonparticipating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some nonrated personnel, and in some cases by controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities. Some military controllers were also used until replacements could be trained. The union was decertified on October 22, 1981.<2>

AND

he attempted to bust the unions.

:(

Hey-" If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all"
- Ronald Reagan.

:(

[tanyev]

10. Good analogy, Phred.

I'll have to use that sometime.

[Phred42]

12. Tx - Help yourself.

[China_cat]

14. Excuse me?

An atheist would probably do a better job at teaching Sunday school. Most of us at least read the bible and know it better than the religionists who only thump it.

[Phred42]

16. Really? If that's true how do you excuse "christian's" voting Republican

[China_cat]

17. If they'd read the bible instead of thumping it

and see what it really says instead of believing what they're told it says, they wouldn't.

[Fumesucker]

18. The only knowledge a lot of "Christians" have of the Bible

Is what they've been told by others.

It's true that the majority of Christians have not read the Bible, there aren't even that many that have read an entire book.

http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/literacy.htm

For comedians, there are subjects that are almost too easy -- sure things that guarantee a laugh. For Jay Leno one late night, it was the Bible. During the taping of one of his television shows, Leno moved through his audience asking people what they knew about the Bible. "Name one of the Ten Commandments," he said.
"God helps those who help themselves?" someone ventured.
"Name one of the apostles," Leno told them. No one could.
Finally, he asked them to name the Beatles. Without hesitation, the answer came ringing from throughout the crowd: George, Paul, John and Ringo.
Leno wasn't spoofing the Bible that evening. He was spoofing our society, which claims a grounding in Judeo-Christian principles and yet -- according to a number of surveys -- is increasingly losing touch with the Scriptures of those faiths.
Only two of 10 people participating in a recent Gallup survey correctly identified who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, said David Eikenberry, youth pastor at Orchard View Congregational Church in Muskegon, Michigan. "Typically, people could name only three or four of the Ten Commandments," Eikenberry said. Even that, however, did place Gallup's respondents ahead of Leno's "Tonight Show" audience.

[gulliver]

15. They take power to prevent atheists from governing.

Most of Republican power consists of keeping others out of power. Dems have the same problem internally. Issues don't matter much. What matters is suspicion of hidden agendas, dissing identities, and fish-level emo-judgment.

[Lost-in-FL]

19. You have atheist teaching Theology and Religious studies in Universities...

and I haven't heard anything negative about it.

They know to be non biased unlike many theists who would not pass on the opportunity to use their position to force their ideas on students.

[Phred42]

21. deleted

[Phred42]

22. Way Over analyzing this - too clever by half

Now I know who put the anal in analyzing

Just think of the original statement from the perspective of a Reich-wingnut. It's a sound bite, an image they will hate, yet relate to.

KISS

[Perry Logan]

23. "Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class"

Someone posted this quote at Smirking Chimp a while back. I'm afraid the link is broken, so I don't know offhand who said it:
"Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon."