i woke up on the complete wrong side of the bed this morning; i feel like i didn't even sleep in a bed - maybe on the splintery deck outside, with a roofing nail up my ass. but i'm crabby. i think i pretty much hate everything, but right now this is the biggest stick in my craw.
religion
the majority of religious people, i'm sure, are very true to their dogma and compassionate and don't follow the practices of the numerous extreme wingnuts. that part is great - kudos to them. BUT, if you (self-proclaimed church-goers) allow them to make racist statements, condemn gays to hell, call for the murder of abortion doctors, and try to convince people that 
god HATES in any way, then you're just as bad. they're doing it in your name, for their own benefit (financial or egotistical). recognize the hypocrisy in fellow christians, and more importantly recognize it in yourself, and if you don't like what jerry falwell ("9/11 happened because of gays and lesbians") and fred phelps ("god doesn't hate them because they're fags; they're fags because god hates them") and their ilk are preaching, then shout from the rooftops that they don't speak for all of you. they are dragging your faith and your religion through the mud, and silence is just passive acquiescence.
i can't imagine that any religious sect has the intention of being an "a la carte" faith. as in, just figure out which rules you want to follow and pretend the inconvenient ones don't matter. listen to demagogues blasting fags and liberals and sexual deviants and jews and sinners during the day, then go home and guiltlessly watch desperate housewives. no contradiction there right?
do you see any hypocrisy in the possessions, or "stuff", that you own? how much do you have that you don't need? instead of that giant plasma screen television, why couldn't you buy a regular crt and give the difference to charity? do you realize that you could save a child's life with hardly anything? probably not. such thoughts are unpleasant and inconvenient and would actually require SACRIFICE. you'd just rather keep believing that it's somebody else's responsibility, and that if someone is impoverished or sick it's their own fault. fuck medicaid, medicare, food stamps, social security, and all those other government programs for the unfortunate (you would call them moochers or slackers or deadbeats or irresponsibles). they're just looking for handouts.
there's a jesus saying that goes something like "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven". what do you think that means? what does he mean by "rich"? bill gates billion-dollar rich? or could "rich" just be owning something that you don't need while children in africa (oft called "darkies" or "godless niggers" by some children of god) are dying? amazing how easy it is to turn a blind eye to genocide and human rights atrocities when they occur on soil not covering oil.
christians love to quote the bible, when it suits their purposes. when you want to rationalize war or killing, or your hatred of homosexuals, or how slavery was okay (yes, slavery), there is always some passage from the bible that you can construe and/or take out of context to make these acts seem okay in the eyes of god. extremists become so empassioned with hatred and their own various personal agendas that they quote words from the bible that suit them, and completely disregard the overall message. do you honestly think jesus or god would HATE anyone? would god be offended when two men or two women want to share their love? can any type of love be wrong in the eyes of god?
and why the FUCK, if you are truly conservative and/or religious, would you align yourself with the party of george w. bush? what about him resonates with you? that he SAYS he has faith and that god talks to him? was god the one who told him to execute minors and retarded people in texas? did god tell him to cut programs meant to help the poor and sick? say yes, i'm sure there's a bible passage somewhere that syas helping the poor isn't that important (incidentally, the bible mentions poverty about 3000 times. how many times does it lambaste gays?).
what's aggravating about really hardcore modern-day republicans is that there is absolutely nothing you could say or do, or nothing that could happen, that would ever make them question their leaders and their own politics. they are republicans first, americans second (if at all), humans third (if at all). they readily submit to and repeat party talking points without independent thought and without conscience. my own theory is that most republicans, at one time or another, had an identity crisis, or were abused or experienced some other personal trauma, and just needed some axiom to follow, some identity. and the republican philosophy just reflected their bitterness and contempt for others, so they became right-wing robots.
church and state: what if instead of "god" in the pledge of allegiance or on money, was the word "allah"? what if i decide that my uncle's fecies somehow speaks to me and i start to worship it, how would you feel if the word "god" was replaced by "uncle tony's shit"? these types of questions allow you to EMPATHIZE with other views. it must be very convenient to support religion in government when it happens to be your religion.
i am a sinner and a heathen and will probably go to hell when i die, if it exists. but i do have a conscience, and i know what compassion, empathy, and charity are. i also know that it's difficult to find fault in yourself (except for me - i find nothing but). but when such blatant examples, like the aforementioned phelps and falwell and all the other neo-conservative republican monsters, exist in the world, and you not only decline to speak out against them but actually align yourself with them and their party, then you either have serious moral deficiencies or are too proud to scrutinize yourself.
check yourself before you wreck yourself fool. and stop pissing me off so much.
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