7 things @ 9 o’clock (11.6)

Last updated on: November 6, 2013 at 8:59 am by Fred Clark

7 things @ 9 o’clock (11.6) 2013-11-06T02:43:25-05:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

1. Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, has lost his patience with the hypocritical moralizers shredding the funding for nutrition assistance for the poor:

The Paul Ryans of the world can sugarcoat this and say faith-based agencies will fill in the gap, or SNAP is so bloated that they won’t notice. I would challenge him to tell that to the people losing the food. Is this really about deficit reduction? That’d be slightly more reasonable, but it’s really about demonizing someone else’s benefits. Ryan received SSI after his father died, and he didn’t consider that a hammock that lulled him into a life of dependency.

… I’d have a lot more respect for them if there was some degree of ideological consistency, but the only consistency is shafting poor people and rewarding campaign contributors.

… I’ve tried to find a number for the share eligible for Social Security who don’t get it. No one has such a number. It’s like 0.0001 percent. Everyone gets it, and at least a quarter of people eligible for food stamps don’t get it.

It’s because of the ideologies and the processes that flow from the ideologies. Social Security we think should be easy to get, since you earned it, you paid for it. Food stamps, the view is you don’t deserve it, and so we’ll make it a pain in the ass to get it.

2. Alexandra Petri is so good at writing reviews of bad books that editors are likely to reward her by asking her to review more bad books. That’s terribly unfair but, from the editors’ standpoint, perfectly understandable.

3. And speaking of well-written reviews of awful things, here’s David Moore’s take on Southern Baptist seminary’s new documentary on it’s president and grand inquisitor, Recovering a Vision: The Presidency of R. Albert Mohler Jr. “This is as tone-deaf a Christian production as I have seen in recent memory.”

4. David Barton surprisingly concedes the reality of climate change, but then attributes it not to carbon pollution, but to divine punishment for legal abortion. This seems to be another example of the widespread religious right belief in a vengeful God with really bad aim. Haiti, Bangladesh, the Philippines and the Maldives are among the countries expected to be hardest hit by the effects of climate change, and none of those countries has legal abortion. Warren Throckmorton further analyzes David Barton’s “theometeorology” — finding no correlation between severity of flooding or hurricanes and the abortion rate here in the U.S.

5. “This calls for wisdom,” the book of Revelation says. Wisdom does not involve making yourself miserable with superstitious BS masquerading as theology. Jessica Bluemke relays the pathetic story of a young athlete who dropped out of a high school regional cross country race because she’d been assigned 666 as her bib number. “I didn’t want to risk my relationship with God and try to take that number,” the poor kid said.

I feel sorry for this kid, who’s been lied to and bamboozled by her church and family. But I don’t have any sympathy for the grown-ups involved or for their twisted parody of Christianity. Seriously, think of the effort involved in turning “love God and love your neighbor” into “thou shalt never enter any contest with more than 665 entrants, lest thou shouldst risk thy relationship with God”? Perverse.

6. Here’s Dahlia Lithwick on what it was that voters in Virginia said no to yesterday:

Ken Cuccinelli was proudly and self-avowedly one of the most activist attorneys general the commonwealth had ever seen. From the very outset, his political ambition was to impose upon the state a social and religious code that may have made perfect sense to him, his supporters, and his conscience, but came across as extreme, hateful, and intrusive to most everyone else. … Cuccinelli was on the record opposing abortion for survivors of rape and incest;refusing to support the Violence Against Women Act; browbeating state entities into closing abortion clinics; denying equal protection for gay workers at state schools; and insisting that unconstitutional state sodomy laws need to stay on the books to protect children. He endorsed “personhood” laws that would have limited access to at least some forms of birth control. He urged people to go to jail to protest women’s access to contraception. He has pushed to keep state funding for sex education focused on “abstinence-only” programs and favored putting armed guards in schools after Sandy Hook. And women who may have balked at any of that eventually tended to balk at him.

7. I’m looking forward to seeing Bob Cargill, James McGrath, Candida Moss and other biblical scholars on the upcoming History Channel series Bible Secrets Revealed. But now Cargill tells us it’s airing Mondays at 10 p.m. — and that’s Spader time.

James McGrath shares a remarkable pre-emptive strike against the History Channel show — a YouTube video from “Biblebeliever2009” who thinks the program will be anti-Christian propaganda akin to what “Hitler did to the Jews” or, even worse, in his opinion, the kind of persecution of Christians exemplified by the pilot episode of The Greatest American Hero. (I’m not making that up. He said that.) He also explains how the Council on Foreign Relations is behind ENDA just as prophesied in Revelation 13. That video is on the “Christian Resistance” YouTube channel, which also features posts revealing that “Miley Cyrus Is an NWO puppet” and one labeled “Free Kevin Trudeau!”

So that settles it, then. I’ll watch The Blacklist on Hulu.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 6, 2013

6 years ago: The Stupid Brigade

Next Post

November 6, 2013 Marriage equality in Illinois, 15 ... 16 ... 17 ...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?

Select your answer to see how you score.

James John Judas Iscariot Simon Peter