While I do not consider myself a religious person, I believe if Gods are to be followed their message must be that of love, not persecution which all major religions seem to share, but also at times seem to be lacking in. I may not believe in a higher power for myself but I won’t necessarily knock you for believing in yours. I will not pretend to know beyond ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ what various Gods instruct their followers to do based on their writings or those books written in their honor.
In my sister’s mind, God has saved her from her bottom, so to speak, and continues to walk with her, guide and support her to this day. I support her, mainly because she is my sister and I’ve seen, at least in part, where she’s been. I appreciate that she has a supportive community around her today, instead of a destructive one and if her God is a part of it, so be it. I won’t be the one to tell her she is wrong because I don’t necessarily think she is. I don’t agree with all of her beliefs, in fact there are some things we absolutely disagree on. Regardless though, I know she loves me and I love her. In fact, our relationship has only improved over time in spite of our differences. Perhaps it is increased age, experience or something else entirely. I can’t really say.
Here, in a segment called “The Name of the Fodder” John Stewart discusses the victim card too many conservatives, or at least the über vocal ones seem to be pulling far too often and how there seems to be a stark contrast in the way that religious terrorism is discussed in American media. My favorite part of the clip is when Gretchen Carlson from FOXNEWS claims that “Christians feel lonely at Christmastime.” “Gretchen,” Stewart sympathetically explained, “if you ever feel alone at Christmastime, head over to a Chinese restaurant.” (from 27.07.2011) :
and the rest of the clip…
Ken Bussel pastor and blogger at Emerging Worshiper has a few good things to say about the Daily Show clips above as do some of his commentors. The whole point of the post on the Emerging Worshiper blog is that Bussel is thinking about his next sermon, as he says, is about “Acts 4 where Peter and John are called before the Sanhedrin for ‘teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.'” This passage, as far as I understood it was a passage about truth speakers who were persecuted by the rulers for speaking their truth as Christians following Jesus Christ. If I am in any way mistaken I mean no disrespect, but please let me know either privately or in the comments below. Bussel, at the time, was looking for other the opportunity to speak about religious persecution around the world, but seemed, in my opinion, to mainly find information about Christians being persecuted in America. Being experienced though, he does link to other historical persecutions later in the blog. You should check it out.
Here is another clip of Stewart on the Daily Show yet again debunking the idea that the religious right (conservative Republicans) are being persecuted by President Obama. These clips are initially in response to Rick Santorum who criticized the Obama administration for the pending requirement that Catholic (all religious institutions really) institutions provide equal access to reproductive justice (which, yes means even access to birth control because it means educated and informed family planning). Continuing on, Stewart mocked the Catholic church for wanting to not pay for birth control, theorizing that the money needs to go to alter boy settlements instead. Additionally, Stewart criticized the Republican party for attempting to pass a bill that would allow all employers the right to pick and choose how their employees use their health care benefits stating that to Republicans “liberty means liberty for employers, employees can go f*ck themselves.” (from 13.02.2012):
And here is the second half of that clip as well, of special note should be Stewart’s hilarious but true-to-point monologue that Christians are not being persecuted in America:
This can’t be real, right?! But it is, it was a major talking point only a few months ago and only seemed to die out for now because the political pundits and trolls in the mass media and the Republican party decided to move on and to no longer pay the idea lip service for the moment. Never mind that the two segments above were roughly a year apart.
Luckily for me, not being very religious, I found a lot of religious bloggers who disagree with the mainstream news outlets frequently running this muck, giving the idea of a “Christian persecution” airtime. Bloggers like the Undercover Nun, the Emerging Worshiper, and others, like the A Unicornist, who critically examine this idea. I know now that we are not alone and neither is John Stewart. Is it just me or has this type of attacking as a form of ‘news’ and punditry gone off the deep end in the last twenty years? Sometimes living so far from home and only getting an annotated view of the United States makes it seem like it is going to hell in a hand basket fast.
After seeing this clip from Rock Center with Brian Williams with Ted Koppel reporting, I would say “Yes!”
War of Words part I, MSNBC Rock Center with Brian Williams. 20.09.2012
And part two of the clip:
War of Words part II, MSNBC Rock Center with Brian Williams. 20.09.2012
My husband and I have been praised by our friends and family at how in-touch we have kept with national issues and events in spite of our distance. I’ve said before that the internet is amazing and we appreciate it ever day!
If we didn’t have the internet we would likely know German by now.
**Sorry the embedded video links from Comedy Central don’t work right, blame it on Comedy Central or WordPress, although I will admit I don’t entirely know what I am doing here – I think I embedded correctly, honest!
***Also, sorry for some reason my twitter isn’t working and I’ve tried countless times to rest the password and have not been lucky or tech savy enough or whatever enough for the reset to actually work. I don’t know why.
livingtheamericandreamineurope.com 