"America will not rest until Obama says Jesus had blue eyes"

[mrreowwr_kittty]

Why the fuck do I know Obama’s minister’s name?! No, really. Why? I don’t know John McCain’s minister’s name. (But he does have a “spiritual guide”.) I don’t know Hillary Clinton’s minister’s name? I don’t know John Edwards’ minister’s name. I don’t know Mitt Romney’s minister’s name, and Romney was in a church that is actually out of the mainstream and “raised questions”. I don’t know George Bush’s minister’s name, but I know that whoever he is probably thinks I’m going to burn in hell for all eternity for the sin of being a feminist atheist.

Nothing that Rev. Jeremiah Wright said from the pulpit is, in an objective sense, any worse than damning the majority of the population to hell, which is a bare minimum requirement for the religious right assholes in this country that we’re supposed to show such great respect for because it’s their beliefs and they’re religious. Oh, he shot himself in the foot by giving some liberals a toehold to get all bunched up and judge-y, but the only reason we’re in this place is because Obama’s church is being monitored closely, and it’s being monitored because he’s black, and because his church is a black church, and because a whole lot of white people are looking for a way to define “Christian” in such a way that Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago doesn’t count.

Because, as I’ve said before, the religious tensions in this country are not about actual tenets of faith, dogma, or anything like that. It’s tribal warfare in Sunday clothes. Obama’s church is being monitored by the press, and I for one am outraged. Hell, Huckabee’s fire and brimstone bullshit didn’t get half the attention this nonsense is getting. If we’re going to treat “people of faith” with respect, by god, we better have the same standard for white and for black. I don’t give a shit if someone worships a teapot—it’s all the same to me—I vote for them by their policies. We atheists think it’s all bullshit.

The sad thing is that this tip-toeing respect of religion has been used as a cover for a larger set of cultural issues that, without the Bible-thumping as a distraction, would be much harder to defend. Basically, it’s a culturally conservative, patriarchal, Anglo-Saxon, moneied class trying to demand that they be recognized as the dominant culture in the U.S. that all other cultures are divergences from. When they say, “America is a Christian nation,” they mean, “America is a patriarchal, white-dominated nation with a strict hierarchy that puts our people on top. You may be permitted to have other cultural choices, within limits, so long as you recognize ours publicly as the valid ones.” But boy, if someone from another culture really tries to lay claim to real power, the fucking mask of respect for “people of faith” comes flying off, doesn’t it?




http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/15/america-will-not-rest-until-obama-says-jesus-had-blue-eyes/