Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1873

Sen. Chuck Grassley Spreads George Washington Quotation About “God and the Bible”… Even Though He Never Said It

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa tweeted this earlier today (and posted it on Facebook, too):

In English:

If you love America, you have to appreciate George Washington. He once averred that “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”

The problem is that Washington never said anything like that.

According to MountVernon.org, which chronicles these misattributions,

The quote is frequently misattributed to Washington, particularly in regards to his farewell address of 1796. The origin of the misquote is, perhaps, a mention of a similar statement in a biography of Washington first published in 1835. However, the quote that appeared in the biography has never been proven to have come from Washington.

I sent a message to Grassley’s folks asking if he plans to apologize or at least issue a correction for that mistake. So far, no response.

(Thanks to Justin for the link)

Hoaxed By Crickets: Yes, These Critters Make Interesting Sounds. No, They Don’t Sound Like a Choir of Angels

The sounds of these seemingly run-of-the-mill crickets, played back at a very low speed, are amazing proof of God’s creation; they sound like a choir of angels. Listen and maybe you’ll become a believer too:

This recording has been doing the rounds all over again after it drew a lot of interest on social media about a year ago.

I enjoy a great cricket medley as much as the next guy, but let’s establish for the record that the Jim Wilson recording above is too good to be true.

The choir sounds human because it is. Meaning, what you hear are the insects sounding off together, overlaid by a digitally processed ethereal vocal track sung by Sioux soprano Bonnie Jo Hunt, in a studio collaboration with Wilson and Robbie Robertson. More here.

Real crickets played back at low speeds sound plenty beguiling too. Like so:

It’s at 3:18 that something astonishing happens. The little musical bugs begin to sound for all the world like they’re performing Händel’s Messiah.

We’ve been Ric-rolled!

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P.S. I didn’t choose the photo accompanying the audio tracks. With the caveat that I’m no entomologist, that looks like a grasshopper to me, not a cricket.

Is It Fair Game To Criticize the Sainted Rev. Martin Luther King For Being a Hypocrite?

It would be folly to overlook or minimize the contributions of the Rev. Martin Luther King to racial equality in America. Forty-six years after he was assassinated, this country still owes the towering civil-rights leader an undiminished debt of gratitude.

So it’s not that I can’t stand the guy. Hell, I admire him (mostly).

It’s the saintifying and pussyfooting and whitewashing I’m allergic to.

King is in the news again after the unredacted version of a contemptible letter from the mid-sixties surfaced that was sent to him anonymously by men in the employ of infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The typed screed is full of over-the-top, God-infused condemnations of King’s outsized sexual appetites, and ends with a strong hint that the reverend should commit suicide to prevent evidence of his extramarital affairs and orgies from being made public. You can read the letter in its entirety here. The fact that a so-called law-enforcement agency sent it should shock the conscience of every American who places (too much) trust in the government.

So what about his exploits with women?

To be honest, I don’t care who Martin Luther King consensually bedded, and how, and how often, and who else participated. That was all between him, his partners, his wife Coretta, and their God.

But I will note that his bedroom behavior was wildly at odds with the Bible and what he claimed as God’s truth.

Martin Luther King flanked by Ralph Abernathy in 1964

As his friend and confidant Ralph Abernathy (himself a minister) recalled, King

“… understood and believed in the Biblical prohibition against sex outside marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation.”

Abernathy added that King spent his last night on Earth in a motel room with two consecutive lovers, followed by an aggressive encounter with a third woman whom King

“… knocked… across the bed… and for a moment they were in a full-blown fight, with Martin clearly winning.”

Not so non-violent after all, then.

Pulitzer Prize winnerDavid Garrow, one of his biographers, quoted King as saying:

“I’m away from home 25 to 27 days a month. Fucking’s a form of anxiety reduction.”

I sympathize in that regard, but with his string of (let’s say) peccadilloes, the reverend was nonetheless a sexual hypocrite. Granted, he didn’t fall on the same end of the scale as, for instance, the Christian child rapists we’ve featured so often on this blog. Not even close. But he was certainly a good distance short of living up to his professed beliefs.

By the way, I agree with Abernathy when he wrote:

“Sexual sins are by no means the worst. Hatred and a cold disregard for others are the besetting sins of our time.”

Theft, for instance, would be worse than extramarital nookie, right?

It so happens that besides being a serial womanizer, King was also a lifelong plagiarist.

King’s doctoral dissertation at Boston University, titled A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman, included large sections from a dissertation written by another student (Jack Boozer) three years earlier. …

As Clayborne Carson, director of the King Papers Project at Stanford University, has written, “instances of textual appropriation can be seen in his earliest extant writings as well as his dissertation. The pattern is also noticeable in his speeches and sermons throughout his career.”

Evidently, Thou shalt not steal was not part of our man of God’s moral code.

Despite his ill-gotten Ph.D. in theology, and despite his being an ordained minister, Martin Luther King has become one of the closest things the secular world has to a saint. Perhaps that is at it should be, considering that his accomplishments in smashing the remnants of the Jim Crow era far outweigh his shortcomings. However, those shortcomings merit attention from anyone who is even mildly distrustful of ostensible saints and other holy cows.

America loves its binary good-or-evil narratives, but none of us over the age of 10 do ourselves any favors when we close our eyes to realities that don’t fit into such a charming if childlike view of the world.

Kassig Killing “Goes Against Muslim Values”: Some Muslims Upset That the Islamic State Beheaded a Convert to Islam

Just so you know:

Some Muslims who believe Kassig had converted are upset by the report of his beheading. Of course, plenty of Muslims are appalled by ISIS’s brutal tactics and don’t back the militant group in any way, shape or form. But even for some Muslims who might be inclined to support ISIS’ broader goal — establishing a caliphate in the Middle East — killing a person who has converted to Islam is a bridge too far. They believe Kassig’s beheading goes against Muslim values.

The debate started after the Islamic State released a video yesterday that showed the severed head of a young man believed to be Peter Kassig, a humanitarian aid worker from Indiana who had found his calling helping refugees and other victim groups in Syria. In captivity, Kassig changed his first name to Abdul Rahman, and his religion to Islam.

An anonymous “Fuck ISIS” thread on 4chan called contains a heated (and very 4chan-like) debate about how Muslims could possibly support ISIS after they killed a Muslim. The user who started the thread wrote Sunday:

“I want to ask my other Muslimbros, especially those that supported ISIS until now, how can you continue to support these degenerates now that they have openly killed a convert to Islam? Are there any ISIS apologists who are going to justify this as okay? The Prophet was strictly against doing this. We are not allowed to judge other Muslims, even converts, even converts-of-convenience.”

For what it’s worth, James Foley converted, too, to no avail.

Christian Groups Offer Dueling (and Sometimes Conflicting) “Naughty & Nice” Lists for the Holiday Season

Last week, the American Family Association released its annual “Naughty or Nice” list. It sorted out which national chains celebrate Christmas and which ones don’t deserve your business because they ruin everything by acknowledging the existence of other human beings.

Today, Liberty Counsel released its own version of that list, the “twelfth annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign.”

What’s interesting is that the two groups clearly didn’t coordinate because companies that are considered Nice to one group are considered Naughty to the other (and vice versa).

For example, the AFA says this about Best Buy:

Company refers to Christmas infrequently, or in a single advertising medium, but not in others.

But Liberty Counsel says Best Buy is wonderful:

Biblical products include various versions of electronic children’s to adult Bibles, DVDs and accessories. Advent supplies include the Advent musical group’s “Advent to Ephesus” and other Advent items such as “Jubilee Edition Musical Advent Calendar.” Seasonal merchandise also includes the Nativity and birth of Jesus DVDs and music. “Christmas” search populated 4,371 “Christmas” products in all categories including “Christmas” music, “Christmas” sheet music, “Christmas” movies and TV shows, “Christmas” video games and “Christmas” board games. In-store manager confirmed employees greet and respond with “Merry Christmas.” Consumers may contact Best Buy to express appreciation for their “Christmas” themes.

…

The AFA also puts Staples on its Naughty List:

Company may use “Christmas” sparingly in a single or unique product description, but as a company, does not recognize it.

That’s awful… unless you’re Liberty Counsel, which put Staples on its Nice List — even going so far as to call it a “success story”:

Bigger “Nice” success story than last year! More “Christ-related” items available this year on web site. Although Staples Holiday Center link on home page populates to Staples Holiday Center, there are “Advent” calendars, electronic “Bibles” in various versions, Spanish “Bible,” “Bible Learning Chart,” “Bible” memory cards, “Bible” bookmarks, “Bible” story books, “Bible” calendars, “Bible” DVDs and “Bible” crafts. “Nativity” board sets, “Nativity” stickers, “Nativity Manger Fabrics,” “Nativity” stamps and “Nativity” sets. “Christmas” Search produced 1,902 “Christmas-named” items such “Christmas” wreathes, “Christmas” trees, “Christmas” garland, “Christmas” cards, “Christmas” gift bags, “Christmas” stationery, “Christmas” candles, “Christmas” ribbon, “Christmas” holly, “Christmas” snow globes, “Christmas” stockings and “Star of Christmas.” Contact Staples to thank the company for adding “Christ” back into “Christmas.” Also, encourage management to more reverently honor the “Christmas Season” and replace the word holiday with “Christmas.”

…

Finally, the AFA says TJ Maxx is one of the good chains, putting the company on its Nice List:

Company uses the term “Christmas” on a regular basis, we consider that company Christmas-friendly.

But Liberty Counsel didn’t get the memo. Their people believe TJ Maxx is Naughty:

Web site: holiday link at top of home page with no mention of “Christmas.” “Christmas” is non-existent on TJ Maxx website. Consumer Report: “Seasonal TJ Maxx quality does not match their pricing.” Locating help to contact the company with feedback is difficult. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to express your displeasure with TJ Maxx and remind them that consumers buy gifts for the “Christmas Season” instead of secular holidays.

…

C’mon, Christians! I rely on you to tell me which companies are Naughty so I know where to do all my holiday shopping. Now, I’m just confused.

It’s almost like you can’t decide what the truth is, so you’re just coming up with your own sometimes-contradictory interpretations based on some shoddy evidence.

I guess it’s not the first time.

Apparently, Evangelicals Think They’re Pro-Science and Welcoming to the LGBT Community

Warren Cole Smith write an article for the site Faith Street about the 10 things he wished everyone knew about evangelical Christians.

While most of it is pretty basic information, two items really stood out:

6. Evangelicals love LGBTQIA people.

We are not homophobes. We are homophiles. Our churches welcome LGBTQIA people with the same message we present to all others: “Come as you are… but leave transformed.”

That last line seems unintentionally perfect since the message to LGBT people coming out of many evangelical churches tends to be: “You need to change.”

It’s not “homophilic” to tell people they have no right to marriage; or that their sexuality is fine as long as they never ever ever act on it; or that, even if they can get legally married, the ceremony sure as hell ain’t happening in the church.

There’s a reason people don’t know that “evangelicals love LGBTQIA people.” It’s because they rarely show it.

Then there’s this other item on the list:

8. Evangelicals are pro-science.

Evangelicals have endured the slanderous label of “anti-science” in recent years because of our skepticism about politically correct theories regarding the origins of man and climate change. In these arenas and many more, evangelicals joyfully go where the science takes us. But when ideology hijacks science — that is, when the pursuit of a point of view outruns logic, history, data, and reason — we rightfully object, and so should all who love pure science.

How’s that for a contradiction? Evangelicals love science!… Except when it comes to those conspiracy theories made up by godless atheist liberals and overwhelmingly accepted by the clueless “experts.” Silly scientists…

If evangelicals are really pro-science, prove it. Let’s see some of these pastors announce their acceptance of evolution on a Sunday morning.

Let us know how that goes.

…

You have to wonder what was left off Smith’s list. Maybe in a follow-up, he’ll explain how “Evangelicals love women” and “Evangelicals support comprehensive sex education” and “Evangelicals support the separation of church and state.”

Here’s something I learned from Smith’s article, though: Evangelicals love lying to themselves.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Former Porn Star Asia Carrera is the Latest Driver’s License Pastafarian

The former porn star known as Asia Carrera is the latest person to don a colander for her driver’s license picture.

The Pastafarian (whose license has her birth name Jessica Steinhauser but who goes by Asia Carrera-Lemmon online) said she did it in order to make a statement about religious freedom in a conservative state:

… Steinhauser, an atheist and member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, said she wanted to wear the colander, also known as a pasta strainer, on her head for the photo to make a statement.

…

“I’m a really proud, outspoken atheist,” she said. “I am proud of Utah for allowing freedom of all religions in what is considered by many to be a one-religion state.”

Even Flying Spaghetti Monster creator/Prophet Bobby Henderson applauded her actions:

“I think it’s nice, and I’m 100 percent sure Asia is doing this for good-natured reasons,” he said. “Hopefully, the state of Utah will have a sense of humor about it as well. We are fortunate to have her as a member of the church. She’s great.”

Carrera-Lemmon says she’s the first Pastafarian to take a license picture with a colander in the state, though it’s happened a few other times already.

Incidentally, she posted the license image on her Facebook page about a month ago, though it’s only getting some attention now. My favorite part of that conversation is where she discovers that Henderson approves of her actions:

Alright. You may now commence with all your jokes about Noodly Appendages.

(via Raw Story)

Christian Protester Says God Made Her Invisible So She Could Disrupt a DC Interfaith Service With Muslims

When Christine Weick found out that there was going to be an interfaith service in Washington DC’s National Cathedral, she knew she had to do something against the intolerable spectacle of Christians and Muslims getting prayerful together. How did she know? The usual: “This is what God has put in my bones to do,” she explained to a few confidants.

In an interview with World Net Daily, Christine Weick, 50, said she read about the event on Drudge and became enraged, saying, “My blood began to boil as I read the comments of how this is to be such a wonderful event and how religious tolerance can, for the first time, be shown in our nation’s capital.”

Coincidentally, we’ve featured Christine Weick on this blog before. In May of this year, she was on the receiving end of a Slushie when she protested against equal rights for gay people.

In any case,

Friday’s prayer service was just beginning when Weick stood up and began walking towards the front of the cathedral shouting. “Jesus Christ died on that cross. He is the reason we are to worship only Him. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior,” she said. “We have built … allowed you your mosques in this country. Why don’t you worship in your mosques and leave our churches alone? We are a country founded on Christian principles.”

Watch:

It wasn’t what she had intended to say.

“I did not plan on those exact words coming out. I was going to say it differently. I was planning to say, ‘I serve a risen Savior, and Muhammad is dead.’ But I saw the cross and it just popped out of my mouth. I was not going to say it that way. I rehearsed it the other way over and over in the bathroom, because my biggest fear was making a fool of myself.

Mission accomplished, right?

By the way, Weick knew in advance the interfaith service was only for invited guests, but that wasn’t a problem, because God made her temporarily invisible.

“It was a God thing how I got past all that security in the beginning. They never ID’d me, and I had brought my ID with me just in case, and I thought that would be my downfall, being from Michigan, that they would say, ‘What is she doing here?” Weick explained. …

After slipping into the cathedral, saying she felt like God had made her invisible, Weick said she was appalled by what she saw. … “Seeing these Muslims sitting on their rugs ready to bow to a god, causing such an abomination in the house of the Lord,” she said. That was when Weick spoke up and was subsequently ejected.

She was escorted out of the cathedral, but not arrested. Divine providence, I guess.

After being ejected, Weick said she got into her SUV and began the 400-mile trip back to Tennessee where she says she lives in her car after being disowned by her family because she took a stand against same-sex marriage and other “moral issues.” According to Weick, her husband divorced her last year “over a spiritual conflict.”

Sounds like Jesus is really looking out for her.

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P.S. Only twice in the World Net Daily article is the Almighty referred to as god with a lowercase g. The publication reverently used a capital G when the subject is the Christian creator. God is lowercase, however, when the reference is to the Muslim deity. Interesting.

P.P.S. Among the comments at World Net Daily:

That woman stood as we should all do. If we do not, our families will go to an eternal Hell.

If we wouldn’t have allowed our national landmarks and buildings to get over run by foreigners, NWO Illuminati, Lucifarian, Satanists, Marxists, Fascists,Stalinist, Socialist, Soviets, Eugenicist, the Feudalistic and political correctness including corrupt criminal banksters money rule instead of Yahweh Rule in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The citizens everywhere have to know how the muslims are taking over here. We have a muslim in the WH and somebody needs to let him know how wrong he is too. At this time he is going to try and court-martial Christians in the Military, he is also taking down crosses that have stood for years. It was O that told the FBI to declare the koran the true word of God, but they don’t worship God, it’s the devil they bow to.

And so on.

With Judge’s Ruling in Favor of “Traditional Healing,” a Child May Soon Fall Victim to Faith-Based Treatment

By now, you’re familiar with Makayla Sault (below), an 11-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The disease is treatable with two years of tough chemotherapy and has a nearly 90% survival rate… but Makayla no longer wanted to continue the chemo and her Ojibwe/First Nations parents were more than happy to oblige, seeking out useless faith-based treatments instead.

Makayla was allowed to quit the chemo, but we learned earlier this month that her condition had worsened.

There’s some depressing news coming out of Ontario this weekend:

Justice Gethin Edward of the Ontario Court of Justice has said that Makayla’s family has every right to decide her treatment and outsiders can’t override their wishes:

A judge rejected an application from a Hamilton hospital that would have seen the Children’s Aid Society intervene in the case of the girl whose family had stopped her chemotherapy at the hospital in favour of traditional medicine…

…

Edward, citing the testimony of two McMaster Children’s Hospital doctors, agreed the child wasn’t capable of making her own medical decisions. But he found it was the mother’s aboriginal rights — which he called “integral” to the family’s way of life — allow her to choose traditional medicine for her daughter.

This is effectively a death sentence for Makayla. She had a strong chance of survival with chemotherapy, but that option’s off the table now. When you see the reaction from her family, you get the impression they don’t see the inevitable:

[Six Nations Chief Ava] Hill said the mother is “overjoyed,” with the news.

…

The mother, Hill said, “has the right to do whatever she wants to try and save her child.”

… even if her methods will ultimately fail, I guess.

Remember: No one’s suggesting her parents don’t care about her, only that their cultural methods of dealing with disease are ineffective — and potentially lethal. The ruling sends the message that cultural traditions should take precedence over the health and safety of a child. That’s precisely why it’s the wrong move.

I fear the next time I mention Makayla on this site won’t be because she’s getting any better.

(Thanks to everyone for the link. Portions of this article were posted earlier)

You’re Not a Real Muslim. And That Guy Isn’t Either. Nor That One Over There. Why? Because I Say So

The New York Times article about the Yazidi girls used as sex slaves brought lots of people to the paper’s Facebook page, putting in the obligatory word in defense of Islam. More specifically, the action of the fighters of the Islamic State have nothing to do with Islam, they swore.

I thought I’d add some balance, so here‘s Taslima Nasrin offering a different take on the matter.

More food for thought here and here.

The later political Koran written in Medina frequently contradicts the early religious Koran written in Mecca. The Koran gives a rule for removing the contradiction by saying that the later Koran “abrogates” the early Koran. But the earlier Koran is still true; it was given by Allah. So in Islam both sides of a contradiction can be true. This gives Islam its dualistic logic. Our unitary logic says that if two things contradict, then one of them is false.

This dualism accounts for the two types of Muslims — the good Muslim at work and the Taliban Muslim. Both Muslims are “real” Muslims. Dualism gives the “good” Muslim plausible deniability when they say that jihadists are not “real” Islam. Dualism means the “good” Muslims and the jihadists are just two ends of the same stick.

They deserve to be treated completely differently for sure, based on their actions and opinions, not on their religion. But neither can lay a convincing claim to representing the Real Islam™.

As Jerry Coyne wrote recently, there is no such thing as “true” religion.

If ISIS is not Islamic, then the Inquisition was not Catholic.

Chew on that.