US Baptists who kidnapped Haitian children have an excuse ...
"God is the one who called us to come here and we just really believed that this was his purpose," said Carla Thompson, another member of the group, which called itself the New Life Children's Refuge.
Look -- we (the US) guarantee people the right to believe any kind of crap they want - -and to NOT be subject to persecution or abuse because of it* ... but we do NOT guarantee them the right to force the rest of us to give a flying fuck about the instructions given them by their invisible friend (or the son of Sam, for that matter) ... if only -- among other reasons -- because of their rude assumption that none of us have thought about these matters and may have come to our own conclusions.
Certainly, the history of Americans in Haiti is integrally connected with the efforts of Protestants to tear the people forcibly away from their own religion** (an amalgam of their African religions and the Catholic Christianity they were taught when brought there as slaves).
Of course, preachers like Pat Robertson and other sociopathic bible-floggers are convinced that the Haitian religion is "SATANISM!" Not just the Voudon part, but also the part that is Roman Catholicism, which they consider a satanic cult. (Who do you think calls nuns "Satan's whores of Rome?" Not Jews or Buddhists.)
So -- the problem is this -- American law enforcement and political officials are terrified of making ANY criticism of ANY (American) crime done in the name of some god or other.
Again -- anyone can believe whatever, but even Jesus himself knew that it's important to slide the fantasy around Caesar's pre-eminence. That means no kidnapping of pagan children, no breast-beating about how horribly Christians are discriminated against in America (because of the Jews, who of course, know nothing about discrimination) --and -- oh you poor shoeless abused Christians -- doing it in your own newspapers and on your OWN television network.
(Didn't Jesus say: "If you have your own TV network, sell it and give the money to the poor?)
------------------
*Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, Ishmael on Queequeg's pagan practices: "I would not deign to criticize anyone's religion. I would not even mock a colony of ants worshipping a toadstool." But that doesn't mean you can't NOTICE it IS a colony of ants worshiping a toadstool.
---
** There is a vile criminal history of bible-beaters in the Americas killing Native Americans from Mayans and Aztecs (and destroying their art and literature), to kidnapping Native American children in the USA to force them into Christian beliefs and English language instead of their own. Even mass abductions of all children in a town or region, most egregiously in - -but not limited to -- Arizona and New Mexico.
Look -- we (the US) guarantee people the right to believe any kind of crap they want - -and to NOT be subject to persecution or abuse because of it* ... but we do NOT guarantee them the right to force the rest of us to give a flying fuck about the instructions given them by their invisible friend (or the son of Sam, for that matter) ... if only -- among other reasons -- because of their rude assumption that none of us have thought about these matters and may have come to our own conclusions.
Certainly, the history of Americans in Haiti is integrally connected with the efforts of Protestants to tear the people forcibly away from their own religion** (an amalgam of their African religions and the Catholic Christianity they were taught when brought there as slaves).
Of course, preachers like Pat Robertson and other sociopathic bible-floggers are convinced that the Haitian religion is "SATANISM!" Not just the Voudon part, but also the part that is Roman Catholicism, which they consider a satanic cult. (Who do you think calls nuns "Satan's whores of Rome?" Not Jews or Buddhists.)
So -- the problem is this -- American law enforcement and political officials are terrified of making ANY criticism of ANY (American) crime done in the name of some god or other.
Again -- anyone can believe whatever, but even Jesus himself knew that it's important to slide the fantasy around Caesar's pre-eminence. That means no kidnapping of pagan children, no breast-beating about how horribly Christians are discriminated against in America (because of the Jews, who of course, know nothing about discrimination) --and -- oh you poor shoeless abused Christians -- doing it in your own newspapers and on your OWN television network.
(Didn't Jesus say: "If you have your own TV network, sell it and give the money to the poor?)
------------------
*Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, Ishmael on Queequeg's pagan practices: "I would not deign to criticize anyone's religion. I would not even mock a colony of ants worshipping a toadstool." But that doesn't mean you can't NOTICE it IS a colony of ants worshiping a toadstool.
---
** There is a vile criminal history of bible-beaters in the Americas killing Native Americans from Mayans and Aztecs (and destroying their art and literature), to kidnapping Native American children in the USA to force them into Christian beliefs and English language instead of their own. Even mass abductions of all children in a town or region, most egregiously in - -but not limited to -- Arizona and New Mexico.
posted by Saintperle at
12:55 PM
