Religious People Defy Logic... So What Else Is New?

Seriously -- who could believe even half the stuff in the bible as literal truth without some kind of suspension of reason?

I accept that people will say and think a lot of weird stuff as part of their faith... and hopefully they accept that they look a little crazy to the rest of us for it.

To me, for example, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell look nuttier than peanut brittle. They have routinely said crazy things about 9/11 being our fault for straying from God and AIDS as punishment from God for sinful sex. Yet somehow this dynamic duo of nutters manages to retain their conservative icon status within the GOP and association with them is not considered a political kiss of death (although I think most thinking conservatives calmly recognize their brand of crazy for what it is).

Meanwhile, conservative candidates like John McCain seek out crazy bible freaks like James Dobson -- he who sees pain of death as a useful way to keep women from having pre-marital sex-- for their endorsement in every election cycle.

Now we find out that Obama has his own relationship with crazy preachers. In a way we should find this racial commonality reassuring... black religious nuts are just as crazy as white religious nuts. But - unfortunately - it's going to be a distraction in this election until Obama rejects and denounces this man's crazy tirades. I hope he does so quickly and sincerely.

My point here is not to excuse Obama's crazy preacher... I think I've been very honest about my distrust and disdain of "religion" at least a dozen times on this blog. In my opinion, the entire world would be much better off without the constant perversion of religion in politics. Certainly guys like Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, and now Wright are not in the best interests of this country.

By the way... because it's worth reading in context of Obama's crazy preacher quotes all over the news, here's the text from the Falwell/Robertson riff on 9/11 (within days of the attack). Tell me they're not birds of a feather.

Then Falwell said, "What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve."

Robertson replied, "Well, Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror, we haven't begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell said, "The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I'll hear from them for this, but throwing God...successfully with the help of the federal court system...throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."

Robertson said, "I totally concur, and the problem is we've adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system."

Falwell added, "Pat, did you notice yesterday that the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, the People for the American Way, NOW, etc., were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress, as they went out on the steps and and called out to God in prayer and sang 'God bless America' and said, let the ACLU be hanged. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time, calling on God."