DAYS

JESUS FREAKS, OUT IN THE STREETS*
This is nothing new, but Bill O'Reilly pisses me off. When I was in Israel a few weeks ago, my girlfriend and I were in one of these 'Minerals-R-Us' type places near the Dead Sea and she said, "maybe I should get a new loofah," and I thought of that dick. That pissed me off big time. There's a little place in my 'hood called Mr. Falafel, and whenever I walk past it, I think of that douche. That also pisses me off. And when I see a pile of dog shit on the sidewalk, I think of him. And that pisses me off too.

His latest bit of douchebagery is his revival of the Right's "War On ______" series. A week ago, he let his viewers know that the 'War on Easter' was surging ahead full bore. But now Mr. Falafel says there is no 'War On Easter'. But I'm not gonna let him change his tune. Not gonna let him flip-flop on this thing. I want a war dammit. I need a war. You tossed the first egg my friend, it's time to throw down.

Soldiers in the War.

If O'Reilly thinks the War is off, he better let his field generals know. They've been up to some seriously batshit guerilla warfare in the name of Jesus lately. To wit:

• Rick Scarborough recently hosted his 'War on Christians' conference to spread word that white men who follow Jesus and who, by and large, hold the most money and power in this country, are under attack.
  
• Texan Ron Luce, a Bush appointee natch, wants to unleash a "blitz" of youth pastors to battle the "virtue terrorism" of popular culture. At a recent rally in San Francisco dubbed "Battle Cry for a Generation", Luce's teenaged followers gathered to decry such abominations as same-sex marriages as a clear "sign of the End Times". There was no mention of torture, the use of nuclear weapons or fooling a nation to war in their discussion.
  
• Georgia Tech student Ruth Malhotra, argued recently that the university's tolerance policy is infringing on her right to be Christian. She took the school to court on the premise that bashing gay people is part and parcel to her faith. Nice faith ya got there Ruth. Bigot much?
  
• The Rev. Flip Benham's 'Operation Save America', which, as The Revealer reports, recently bitch-slapped teen agents of the radical homosexual agenda in North Carolina. If it weren't for folks like Rev. Flip, the homos would already be running the country.

The Bush administration, and its reliance on playing the faith card, have brought these folks out of the closet. And yet, the actions of the Bush administration -- war, torture, disinterest in the poor, disregard for the environment -- are about as un-Christian as you can get. Despite that, they've managed to paint themselves as the preachers on the hilltop, here to save us all from the evils of the world. It's total bullshit, but it works.

That's why we see folks like Tom DeLay, whose photo is next to the word 'corruption' in the dictionary, cry that he's a victim of persecution because of his Christianity, not because of his arrogant, unethical, outwardly corrupt power-wielding. It's why DeLay's compatriot in corruption, Jack Ambramoff, surrounds himself with the hyperbolic frontmen of the Religious Right. These are not Men of God; these are men who've appropriated God for there own evil purposes. Most frighteningly, it's why Rove plays the "he's on a misson from God" card when he needs to go to war. Hell, it's happening now with Bush's messianic posturing on Iran.



God save us all. And Happy Easter.

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* hat tip to Sir Elton