Progressives Discover Christians Want to Inherit the Earth

Translation: Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry believe *gasp* that Christianity will deliver the world from evil because the two are part of churches marginally associated with R. J. Rushdooney's theology.



Heh. Progressive recoil from the cross as much as vampires, no?

Atheists Sue to Keep The Cross at Ground Zero Out of the 9/11 Museum

A national atheist group has filed a lawsuit to keep the fused steel t-joint that resembled the Christian cross out of the 9/11 museum set to open on September 12th, 2011. Here is how David Silverman, the group's president, puts it:

"It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn't be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross. It's a truly ridiculous assertion."

This is the doofus they put in charge to be the face of the group. I wonder what kind of attitude their second choice has? Or if anyone realizes if insisting there is any religious meaning behind the cross is ridiculous, then so is their complaint about it? atheists cannot have it both ways.

I do not have to even bring in my Christian beliefs to argue how this lawsuit is wrong. That was discovered standing strong in the rubble of the World Trade Center. It brought hope and encouragement for rescuers to keep looking for survivors. The cross is an authentic, physical reminder of 9/11 that invokes the emotions of those rescuers who saw it as inspiration to keep going. It is a part of the history of 9/11 and its aftermath, therefore it belongs in the museum.

Kelly Divine - (Getting aHead in Hollywood) - BigWetButts

Kelly Divine - (Getting aHead in Hollywood) - BigWetButts




















Kelly Divine, Anthony Rosano

Innocent Kelly has just stepped off the bus in Hollywood, determined to make a splash on the big screen. She's soon picked up and introduced to a director who shows her what it takes to make it in Hollywood.










click image to enlarge










download:






BigWetButts_-_Kelly_Divine_(Getting_aHead_in_Hollywood).zip

Formspring Question #183--The Benevolence of Creation Edition

When asked if he believed in God, Neil Tyson replied that a god would have to be benevolent. Looking around, Tyson said he saw no benevolence within the universe. What do you think?

I think the general Christian response--the lack of benevolence Neil Tyson sees is the result of the corruption of creation by sin. Since armies of evangelicals have made it their mission in life to convert Tyson and that would be their explanation for his objection to god’s existence, he has heard that answer numerous times and rejected it without serious consideration.

His answer is the typical one for a secular humanist who has never bothered with Christianity. The underlying meaning for his answer is that he sees no value in seriously exploring the question of whether god exists while planting the seed that whoever asked the question should consider that any benevolence in creation must come from humans.

A more interesting question, one I am certain he has also been asked numerous times and still denied the possibility og god’s existence, is why he does not see the hand of a Designer even if he adamantly believes in evolution. Random chance is such a mathematically impossible occurrence, it is difficult to reject theistic evolution as it is Young Earth Creationism. Tyson certainly does so anyway, but I would like a serious answer as to why.

Formspring Question #179--Christianity and Free Speech Edition

How do you reconcile your Christian beliefs with your support of free speech in light of people like Marilyn Manson?

I am of the opinion that you take responsibility for your own actions, in this life and the next, si it is not my problem. If Marilyn Manson wants to covert about on stage screeching blasphemies about God in semi-literate songs, so be it. The same goes for his legion of thirteen year old fans. They will have to pay the physical and spiritual consequences for what they do. I do not believe it is up to me to curtail either Manson or his fans in any Christian sense, much less by the use of government power to stop them.

This is not to say I discourage condemnation. I would support that solely in the name of good taste. It is that I do not buy into the two main rationales that condemn performers like Manson. One, I am do not think I am god’s avenging angel put on Earth to combat spiritual evil. Two, I do not scape goat performers like Manson for deeper problems in society.

I spent years in christian schools hearing anecdotes true and false regarding kids going on rampages and killing themselves or their parents because some Judas Priest backmasking told them to do so. In my younger days, I believed it, too. These days I am a bit skeptical that a kid who takes a high powered rifle to school and slaughters his classmates does not have a deeper problem than a bad CD collection. While I am certainly not dismissing a sinful influence in the kid’s life, most reasonable Christian youth counselors I have known over the years acknowledge the deeper problem is a poor relationship with the parents. Manson or Iron maiden Cds are evidence of the problem--kids are buying said CDs to anger their parents or fit in with other kids in the same situation--but not the problem itself.

But blaming Manson and the like for tragedies like Columbine provides an easy answer to a problem that may seem difficult to fix, but probably could if parents would take five minutes out of their bust schedule to realize what a deranged psychopath their little darling is becoming without proper guidance. As a cynic, I am not terribly inclined to think spending more time with junior is going to fix that, either, but all I can do is chalk it up to the cost of living in a society in which people to incompetent to rear children are having them anyway. Just hope you are not living next door to the kid when he decides to go off.

While I cannot do anything but cross my fingers and hope for the best there, I do not care for it when a politician bangs the podium over sex and violence in entertainment as the root cause of cultural rot. It is actually the evidence of said rot, but you do not get reelected by shining a light on what people really are. You get elected by laying the blame on something unpopular and scary while convincing people you can save them from it. The belief the government can save you from anything is the catalyst for a lot of trouble.

The bottom line is these sorts of things are personal battles. I am not going to shut Manson up or keep you from listening to him just because I think you should not be engaged in that danse macabre. it would not do any good for me to fight that battle for you in a spiritual sense. Taking action in a political sense has some awful consequences down the road, too. So there really is no need to reconcile my Christian distaste for blasphemy with my support of free speech. Both boil down to taking personal responsibility for the things you do.

Formspring Question #168--Apocalypse Whenever Edition

What has made you skeptical of Biblical prophecy regarding the end of the world?

Overload, mostly. Crying wolf played a big part, too. It adds up to too many declarations with absolute certainty about identifying the End Times that never panned out, then were completely ignored so more declarations of the end times could be declared with absolute certainty.

Up until about the fourth grade, Emmanuel taught Bible much in the same way as Sunday school. It was bible stories with a moral lesson. Around about the time a student hits nine or ten years old, bible class got much deeper. You started hearing about the end Times and what will bring it about. All the man will behave as he did in the time of Noah, major natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars--that sort of thing. Teachers and school administrators could not help but comment on the likelihood the news of the day reflected biblical prophecy coming true.

My first exposure to End times theology occurred in 1986-87. This is when Quaddafi was doing his thing, Chernobyl was a huge disaster, Iraq and Iran were going at it, the soviet union was in Afghanistan, televangelists were involved in one financial or sex scandal right after another, no one knew quite what to make of AIDS, global warming was an issue, Ethiopia was still starving, etc. There was a new potential antichrist popping up every week destined to conquer a planet reeling under moral collapse and war, famine, and pestilence. What ten year old could argue, knowing what he knew up until that point?

What really blew things out of the water was the period from 1988-1991. The Armenian earthquake, the San Francisco earthquake, and then Hurricane Hugo all came in quick succession. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the end times adherents at Emanuel declared them precursors to a war with Babylon that was going to spell the beginning of the end. Rumors flew that Saddam Hussein considered himself the reincarnation of king Nebachadnezzar, the Babylonian king for whom the prophet Daniel had interpreted an apocalyptic dream of a statue made of descending quality of building materials which supposedly represent degenerating periods of time until the end of the world. In other words, they freaked. So did we students. It got worse when Iraq attacked Israel with Scuds. It got even worse when bush 41 declared a New World Order. Then…well, it all died off.

The war ended. Israel survived intact. The Soviet Union collapsed. The end times adherents starting looking for other boogey men. Maybe the united nations would gain more power in this New World Order. Perez de Cuellar did not strike me as the Antichrist type. Kurt Waldheim was a much nastier man, and he did have Antichrist written on him, either. Even the more conspiracy minded about bush 41’s role in the End times were relieved at his defeat in 1992. Unfortunately, he was defeated by bill Clinton, who was not the antichrist, either, but darn close as far as they were concerned.

Maybe it is because I was getting older or because I was becoming a big history buff with more perspective on how larger, far more disastrous conflicts had been viewed incorrectly as the beginning of the end by Christians since the days of Rome, but I lost interest in labeling current events as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. It was a pointless endeavor. Post Emanuel, I discovered a whole other theory the book of revelations was a coded message that did not prophecy the end of the world after all. I never consider that before. Consider Revelations has a curse of anyone who misinterprets it, I do not consider it now, either. As the dean of Regent University School of law advised us once, always avoid two things: the Federal Tax Code and the prophetic books of the Bible. I have taken his advise to heart.

I have often mentioned those old days of being inundated by End Times theology because they have left a lingering impression on me some twenty years later. I am still fascinated by stuff like Nostradamus, millennial anxiety, the Mayan calendar, Harold camping’s rapture predictions, and dystopian science fiction, among other related things. U do not take any of it serious as I did in my more impressionable youth. My philosophy now is whatever happens, happens.

The Man Who Saw Tomorrow

Harold Camping, Christian founder of Family Radio, falsely predicted the Rapture will occur on Saturday, what better way to celebrate the near-miss beginning of the end than watching one of my favorite documentaries from my youth/ I am talking about The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, a 1981 docudrama that chronicles the alleged predictions of French astrologer and physician Michele Nostradamas.

The film combines footage from obscure films, cheap new action scenes, and the occasional interview from “experts” like alleged psychic Jean Dixon to lay out a history of Nostradamus’ predictions, generally offering only wild interpretations of the famous quatrains to match them up with major historical events. But the docudrama is hosted with effective creepiness by the grave Orson Welles. The man can sell doomsday prophecies every bit as well as he can frozen peas. With nary a drop of alcohol present, I might add. He certainly had to be tanked when he agreed to star in this thing.

This is the fourth time I have sat through The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. The first time I watched it was in 1986 when it was one of those odd filler films Cinemax showed on two or three odd afternoons a month. At nine years old, I was already a budding history buff who was fascinated by the historical elements in the first half. But I was also a student at a fundamentalist Christian school which adhered to the bob Jones University favored pastime of constantly fretting over the Antichrist’s identity and his role as the harbinger of the end times. So the latter half of the film, which named events taking place in the far flung future of 1988 onward, were frighteningly mesmerizing. Ever notice how predictions of the future make the horrors of the past look like a dress rehearsal?

Fret not, boys and girls. Los Angeles was not destroyed by an earthquake in 1988. The antichrist did not arise out of the former Persia--Iran these days--to begin a 27 year war with the West beginning in 1994 that will be so devastating, much of the civilized world resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. One also must assume the united states and soviet union will not set aside their differences by 2021 to combine forces and defeat the Antichrist, either. We can only guess if the world will actually end in 3997 as predicted, but that is pretty close to when taylor sets off the nuke in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, so maybe.

Subsequent viewings by my older self have taken the youthful sting out of waiting for a bleak future in which iran is going to force me to eat my neighbor in order to survive a nuclear holocaust. These days, the latter half of the film has given way to a camp factor, particularly with Welles’ ominous delivery. The fan of dystopian science fiction still finds it amusing. While still incredulous over claims Nostradamus predicted the past any better than the future, I still find the historical bits every bit as interesting as the first time I watched the film.

One thing that strikes me is the heavy Christian overtones. It is not just my christian upbringing. Nostradamus allegedly refers to three Antichrists coming to power. They are said to be napoleon, Hitler, and this Persian, who will naturally be far worse than the previous. The final war will begin in the middle East as the Bible predicts, depending upon your prophetic leanings. Islam is predicted as a bitter enemy of Christianity. You cannot argue much with that these days. There will be a thousand years of peace, which mirrors the Pre-Millennialist concept of the Thousand Year Reign. All that to say I bet nothing like this film could be made today considering the Christian elements.

You may be recalling a remake of this film NBC did in 1991 right after the Gulf War. Hosted by Charlton Heston, it was otherwise a condensed version of the original with Welless taken out and new footage added to claim the 1988 Los angeles earthquake was meant to be the 1989 quake in san Francisco, and Saddam Hussein was the now toned down third Antichrist. The term Antichrist was dropped, as were references to Christianity and Islam so as not to offend anyone. The original is far more fun with its sincerity. Faked or not.

I recommend seeing The Man Who Saw Tomorrow for the total over the top cheese factor. It is made even funnier by Welles’ absolute sincerity. I am confident he was in it solely for the paycheck, but nevertheless, listen to him closely in the second half as he warns of terrible calamities far and wide. What you will not get is any serious scholarship on Nostradamus, so if that is what you are looking for, skip it. The Man Who Saw Tomorrow is pure Chariots of the Gods level comedy gold.

(Cross posted, with minor style changes, to Apocalypse Cinema)

Rapture

I assume that you are all aware that, according to Family Radio founder Harold Camping -predicts the Rapture will occur at 6:00 PM tomorrow evening. I am not certain about time zones. Jesus may raise the dead all at once, or on a three hour tape delay for the west coast. check your local listings.

The Rapture is a fairly new concept as far as Christian theology is concerned. The idea of the Second Coming was championed by evangelist Cotton Mather in the 18th century based on I Thessalonians 4:15-17:

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. "

There are at least three Pre-Millenialiat theories and where the rapture fits in with End time events and how many returns of Christ there will actually be. The Post-Milltnnialists Scoff. the Pan-Millennialists like myself are not interested because it will all pan out in the end regardless.

I have grown up around a small army of Pre-Millennialist, Bob Jones University types who favorite hobby, like Campings’, is to predict the day and time of the Rapture, usually using world events that appear to fit gloom and doom Biblical prophecy, but occasionally going on an epiphany due to anything from a tent revival to a flash of heartburn. God works in mysterious ways, does He not? This pastime is extremely popular in spite of Jesus’ own words in Matthew 24;36:

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

For Biblical literalists, these Christians do not take the word all that literally.

What I can virtually guarantee you is that right now, there are a huge amount of pre-Millennialist anxiety out there among rapture adherents because of barack Obama’s recent betrayal of Israel. Obama has shifted United states policy away from support of Israel to a Palestinian state, thereby making this administration the most anti-Israel in US history. Far more so than runner up Bush 41, who would have been more than happy to allow Iraqi Scuds to strike civilian areas as long as the Israeli Defense force stayed out of the Gulf War. He possessed a hint of conspiracy theory about the power of the jewish lobby, too, as I recall.

Obama may politely tone it down in public, but considering his general favorable attitude towards even the most thuggish of muslim states and rude treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu, I am confident the president is in accordance with Jeremiah Wright’s belief that jews are nothing more than a greedy, war-mongering pox on the Earth. While I do not commit to the Pre-Millennialist idea abandoning Israel is a prelude to the end times, it certainly is not the way to continue receiving god’s blessings.

Nice timing regardless, Obama. You manage to aggravate pretty much everything without even trying, much less what you do on purpose.

The Significance of the Resurrection

I wrote this two years ago. I re-posted it last Easter because I did not think I could write up a better entry. Re-posting might as well become an Easter tradition. here are five Scriptually based points regarding the significance of the Resurrection.

First, the Resurrection proved Jesus was the Messiah:

"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ [Messiah]" (Acts 2:36).

Second, the resurrection proves his sacrifice on our behalf was accepted:

"Delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4:25). "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" (I Corinthians 15:17).

Third, the Resurrection made being born again possible:

"We have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (I Peter 1:3)

Fourth, the Resurrection brought about continued intercession:

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).

Finally, the Resurrection makes our resurrection possible:

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead" (I Corinthians 15:20-21).

I spend a lot of time here recalling experiences with unsavory Christians in the past and not nearly enough exalting the good I have experienced in it. Sometimes it is hard to keep sight of one’s blessings. Easter Sunday is a time to count yours.