There is a great deal to be thankful for, but that is not the focus here. There are also a lot of lunatics who are doing their very best to bring considerable harm to many and so they are the focus. Hint: wearing a mask is a public safety issue, not a political stance. For those that disagree, we have the anti-thanksgiving list. Those within that domain are the self-serving individuals whom we should reserve our mockery and ridicule for.
Who specifically am I referring to?
When you blend right-wing politics with extreme religious fundamentalism, then what you end up with is the utterly bizarre and absurd being promoted as “truth”.
It is not simply masks of course, rejection of that is just one manifestation of a deeper more fundamental problem that incarnates as anti-science and anti-reason.
What daft claims have popped up this past thanksgiving week?
Let’s take a look at some of the truly jaw dropping highlights that illustrates that the most common commodity that is available in abundance is stupidity.
Proclamations from the last 7 days
The Cult Of Trump
Here Are 12 Christian Preachers Who Wrongly Predicted Trump’s Re-Election (and for the record, the YouTube clip comes via a Christian, not a non-believer)…
For a bit of context, the bible (the book they claim to deeply embrace) advises … “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.” – Deut. 18:22
There is also another bible verse that suggests that false prophets should be put to death. … Deuteronomy 18:20 – But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die…. I suspect these self-appointed “prophets” will be quickly brushing over that verse in their weekly sermons.
The Election
- Pastor George Pearsons flips over a table as a demonstration of how Jesus is spiritually overturning the supposed election fraud. He also showed his audience a picture of ballot counters in different states, sitting at their tables, doing their jobs, and implied this was somehow sinister.
- In the bible the story is that Jesus got angry and overturned tables because people were doing something they should not have been. Pearsons got angry because people did their jobs, and he doesn’t like the outcome
- Christian News Site Charisma: “It’s Highly Possible” Trump Won the Election He Just Lost
- It really is not such a huge leap for folks who think that their imaginary friend is real to also think that their imaginary election result is real.
Law
- Supreme Court: NY Can’t Enforce Strict COVID Restrictions on Houses of Worship
- Packing the courts with right-wing judges has consequences. In this case, belief now trumps public safety. Net effect is that people will die who should not have died.
- The justices ruled 5-4
The argument was that if it was fine for bike shops and liquor stores to stay open, then churches should have the same right.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the more rational voices in the SCOTUS said the ruling would “only exacerbate the Nation’s suffering,” and tore that argument apart directly as follows…
… [Gorsuch] does not even try to square his examples with the conditions medical experts tell us facilitate the spread of COVID–19: large groups of people gathering, speaking, and singing in close proximity indoors for extended periods of time… Unlike religious services, which “have every one of th[ose] risk factors”… bike repair shops and liquor stores generally do not feature customers gathering inside to sing and speak together for an hour or more at a time… Justices of this Court play a deadly game in second guessing the expert judgment of health officials about the environments in which a contagious virus, now infecting a million Americans each week, spreads most easily.
… and yes, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the deciding vote.
COVID-19
- Virginia Pastor in Charge of Anti-Mask Christian Daycare Says Virus is a “Hoax” … The state forced him to close. He responded with a bizarre letter to parents with stuff like this in it … “The coming vaccine is like none before it. It literally changes your DNA to protect you from viruses… Clearly it meets all the criteria and requirements of the Mark of the Beast”
- The kids don’t just need protection from COVID-19, they also need protection from this delusional lunatic.
- They could of course open back up right now if they simply adhered to basic health precautions, but their persecution narrative that they are striving to maintain trumps even doing that.
- Fresno Bishop Cautions Catholics: COVID Vaccine May Be “Morally Unacceptable”
- His supposedly “pro-life.” stance means that you need to die.
- “Large” anti-mask Rally in Nashville run by pastor Greg Locke draws a “vast” crowd of ….
- COVID-Denying Pastor Jack Hibb: Sin is “100% Fatal” and Therefore Deadlier Than the Virus
- He is actively mocking people who have the good sense to take precautions during a pandemic. If this is what his variation of Christianity is teaching, then no decent person should want to be a part of his tribe.
- Christians Sue KY Governor for Closing Schools to Protect Everyone’s Health
- Closing a school for a few week to keep you safe is not an “attack”.
- Preacher Sean Feucht to Hold Another COVID-Spreading Concert on New Year’s Eve
- Yep, the guy who has been hosting COVID super-spreader concerts is planning another
Christmas Lunacy
- Liberty Counsel, the Religious Right hate group, has once again released its annual “Naughty and Nice” list
- They roll out the same list every year. The “naughty” on their list are those stores that used terms such as “Holiday” instead of “Christmas”.
- “Naughty” in their eyes are stores that recognise that there are other people who are not Christian such as jews, Muslims, the non-religious, etc…
Bonus Items
Below is a political ad and it is quite entertaining and very clever. Watch to the end for the slick verbal gloves-off punch at his opponent…
… and to finish we have a new clip from comedian Sarah Cooper (this clip made the news) …