My comment to fferret's journal entry
Darn... the media machine got you. I would have thought you'd escape it, but I guess we all have vulnerable moments. Let me say first off I understand your feelings, and how frustrating it must be to feel beset on all sides by these angry hypocrites who want nothing more than to censor, oppress and demolish you, your family, your church and your dog Snuffles. But the problem is not one of exaggeration here. There are people like that out there. What is afflicting you though, is that you have been tricked into paying attention to them.
Media, entertainment, it's all about getting your attention. Getting your ticket sales. Selling their books. They want you to think there is a conspiracy out there because then you buy more books to learn about it, and go to see certain films depicting the sacking of Iraq. But even worse than that, they are controlling you by making up imaginary enemies, and situating them so when you attack, when you defend yourself, you end up charging right into these evil people's plans. They can show red-faced screaming liberals/conservatives, they can wave badly collected, misinterpreted statistics. They can conduct polls. But in the end you have to realize that this stuff would never have made it on air if they didn't think it was going to make them a lot of money. Because your media is profit driven. There's no conspiracy about it, just a simple conflict of interest. You are being given bad news, because that is what sells. And as Wizard's First Rule goes, people will believe a lie if they want it to be true, or if they are afraid it is true.
In that context, I hope you'll bear with me while I deconstruct some of the errors of judgement in your post here.
The outpouring of rage and anger against Christianity in the wake of the 2004 election sickened me to my core.
Ah Christianity. Poor downtrodden Christianity. Do you people ever stop being oppressed and hated? But vitriol aside, consider how many Americans would have changed their vote "because I hate Christianity." Not many, that's for sure. You are correct that there were a few misdirected frustrations but the reason is not because they hate Christianity and Christians voted for Bush. The reason is that they hate Bush, and Bush is an evangelical Christian. If you looked there you might feel the anger, the division beginning to rise, but oh those fickle liberals. You see, while the first diagram was meticulously crafted to make Christians feel oppressed and buy more news, and non-Christians feel outraged and buy more news, the second one shows a truer picture that addresses the true problems of the Presidential election: population density making some people's vote count more than others. It never had anything to do with Christianity. It's just that darned lying liar up on Capitol Hill, who became a Born Again Christian in the span of half an hour, and continues to draw hatred deliberately, so that good people like you will rally around him despite yourself, in the face of all this perceived attack. And ClearChannel is all too happy to provide the fuel for that, a fire of fear that keeps you from acting in your own best interests, because those hateful liberals/terrorists/feminists/communists might be at your door at any minute for this blog entry you dared to post.
"Man, those fucking faggots make my skin crawl. I mean, if someone's dumb enough to think that two men sucking dick can make a real relationship, fine, but stay out of my life."Well, you would have seen a firestorm unleashed. Whole threads would have been engulfed in flame as liberals everywhere would have leapt enthusiastically to the defense of gay rights, and the person would have been lambasted, and maybe a few friends would have been rallied around as people pointed to the offending thread in their journal as an example of someone who needed to be Taught a Lesson.
You paint a rather grim picture here. Why, there must be liberals lurking around every corner, fingers wiggling, just waiting to blaze the hate from their computers. Face it: Christianity is not being oppressed. It is the majority religion. It has overwhelming support throughout our nation, which is huge and bordered by oceans. Every President in history has been a believer in God, all but one Christian, and not because non-Christians don't make good leaders, not on your life. It's all a media extravaganza. First the media tells your parents and pastor that the bible is the Word of God, and that anyone accepting Jesus is a good person who should be trusted. Then your hapless guardians, themselves victims of the same trap, spread the knowledge to you, and counsel you that God is not to be questioned, tightening the ropes. Some tricks, like saying that every miracle is God's will, and not random chance, will leave you praying to God in a time of despair. And by golly, that time passes, so God must have taken it away! Now you have internalized what the media feeds you, and whenever you hear someone has rejected the warmongering Jesus, or ridiculed the filthy Paul, you can't help but think back to that moment when God stood up for you, and see these people as something other than honest, hard working, concerned citizens. Then you are beset with "vote for ___" in every front lawn and road divider, where ____ is a narrow set of choices from the rich elite. Then you find the news filled with nothing but debate over which of the two rich candidates who count will win. And then you notice a 3rd party, oh perhaps name of Cobb, has nothing but a little website out in nowhereland, and of all things is not a practicing Christian! You yourself might realize that this other candidate is more in your best interests, but I think you can understand the pressure that moves the masses, and turns our democracy into a media circus owned by the rich elite. Sorry to "attack" your religion, but the Holy Bible, like any other religious text, is propaganda. Advertising. Media. It tells you how to run your life, and the words in it are incredibly easy for the wealthy elite to exploit. It was deliberately written that way.
But if I do talk about it a lot, then suddenly I'm a Jesus freak - one of the worst epithets a liberal can utter.
Actually the worst epithet is 'fundie' ;) and liberals don't generally utter it: atheists do. I myself might agree that religious fundamentalism (aka media fascism) is one of the worst things to befall our cultures. But you have to do a lot more than talk a lot about your religion to be deemed a 'fundie.' Fundie deemers aren't stupid enough to waste their epithet on a perfectly sensible Christian, where it does not apply. Of course, the media will not admit this. There are blogs everywhere about how instant liberals are to attack godfearing Christians. I imagine some of them are paid to say it, others are believing the ones who are paid to say it. But the end result is you should step back and realize that there aren't hoards of liberals poised to picket your house for believing in God. Atheists aren't going to take away your bible, or eat your cat. Liberals are annoyingly slow to criticise any group, much to the corporates' dismay. So their reluctance is portrayed as weakness, and the corporate media puts a magnifying glass on the few who do label Jesus Freak as a kneejerk reaction.
And after all that? You just missed the train. :( You got hoodwinked. While you were complaining about how those Liberals are so anti-Jesus because John Kerry wouldn't prostletyze on his campaign trail, the very devoutly religious George Bush was slipping faith based initiatives under your nose. That is what Atheists are complaining about. They don't care how long GWB goes on about how God is Great, or how important his faith is to him, and while they might wrankle at how he prays to God before making any decision, generally they don't mind that much. Liberals, unlike Atheists, generally are loving and supportive of Bush's religious leanings. But the faith based initiative, amongst other things, is policy, plain and simple. Bush claimed his faith was personal, but he lied and now is making it policy. How are faithless organizations supposed to get on the faith based initiative? How are godless heathens supposed to congregate, when the faith based initiative is paying Christians to put up a Christians-only, cross-covered church in the empty lot where the godless heathen shack used to be?
And also consider, the President represents us. He is the voice of the entire nation, and the leader of the military. Doesn't that oblige him to be a little bit more representative? I certainly don't pray before every decision I sign. Nor do I attempt to sneak funds to my church from my job as Bush is doing. I certainly don't attempt to kill dirty Muslims arabic terrorists.
Well, this is getting too long. Just one more comment I wanted to put out before I go.
I believe that God had a son who died for our sins
Jesus died to fulfill a prophecy, not for anyone's sins.
Luke 18:31:
Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
and was reborn in a supreme act of love
Sorry... God loved his son? I can't find where it says that in the bible.
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