Like clockwork, the Fox News religion police have struck a new note of outrage over President Obama's worshipping. You may recall that - in addition to being too cozy with Rev. Jeremiah Wright - some of the president's previous religious transgressions include not issuing an Easter proclamation one year, not attending church on Christmas another year, attending church services at the wrong church another Easter and now another wrong church at another Easter! Thank God Fox is on it.
A Fox Nation headline blares, at the top of the page right now: Another Obama Pastor Problem.
So what's the problem this time? The pastor "slammed the religious right." The post came from a CBS News article which says:
The sermon at the service, delivered by Dr. Luis Leon, an Episcopal pastor who delivered the benediction at Mr. Obama's second inauguration, took a turn for the political when the pastor decried those who wax nostalgic about the way things once were.
"I hear all the time the expression 'the good old days'," Leon said. "Well, the good old days, we forget they have been good for some, but they weren't good for everybody.
"You can't go back, you can't live in the past," he added. "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling people back...for Blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants to be on their side of the border."
Oh noes! What does this mean for our democracy - other than providing yet another excuse for Fox pundits to foam at the mouth with words like "socialist," "social justice" and "radically transform America?" For goodness sake, I hope Monica Crowley is available.
Meanwhile, Fox will almost certainly continue to ignore the controversial pastors of Sarah Palin and John McCain and continue to welcome as legitimate representatives of mainstream religion such extremists as Robert Jeffress.
Rather than let the Fox News Christian soldiers take a break from fighting the War on Easter, maybe they ought to get right in gear for the War on Christmas. You know how it comes earlier every year.
Hey Lakeview,thank you for adding the sexual orietation zinger…That really cleared things up….we need more of those!
Gay or straight,
Love is great!
Quote (n): A repeated passage from a speech or text, with attribution to the original author.
I quoted passages from two of Carson’s books, showing that he’s homophobic in his opposition to gay marriage. One of the quotes is also him saying that he believes people who don’t share his religion have the right to worship, but only privately in the home.
Carson’s in hot water for repeating that sickness on Fox News- He clearly believes in what he says when he talks about gays and other religions.
And Toure? Really? We’re going to call him a bigot for saying that the GOP is making Carson a Token, like they did with Herman Cain, Allen West, and last year at the RNC last year with Mia Love? Oh, wait… you tried to call me a racist for that.
You want to see racist, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQf9_oflU9s
At this year’s CPAC. The man doing all the speaking? His name is Scott Terry, he’s 2nd in command of a white supremacist group. He’s so overtly hateful in this video that the few black people in the room actually start backing away…
While the white Conservatives cheer.
And BTW… Since you’re so hot to play the race card? I’m an Asian woman who grew up in a very hard right area of Phoenix. Wanna compare experiences?
He is exactly the kind of person Leon was talking about when he condemned the right using religion as a shield to justify bigotry.
To use your meme, if you want to spin/deny it… But there is no context in which Carson and Leon’s controversies are equal. And in case your tunnel vision missed it, more than half the people on this site have openly said that they respect Carson outside of his “Christians have all the answers!” attitude. I’m not shy about adding the double standard him and his supporters have on this kinda talk to what problem I do have with him.
Or maybe you’d like to show me where people with a history of bigotry got made a rock star by MSNBC for being openly rude to Bush. Even Colbert throwing everything Bush ever did back in his face at the correspondents’ dinner got mixed reviews from the left- I personally know quite a few people who thought Bush needed to hear a lot of that, but still thought the delivery was a bit harsh, and the venue was kind of an inappropriate venue. And remember Fox News’ reaction to that?
While you’re at it, I’m still waiting for that list of this site’s “daily violent hate speech.” I sure ain’t seeing it.
“It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet, and for immigrants to be back on their side of the border.”
Ben Carson, in his book “America The Beautiful”:
“If we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”
“Marriage is a very sacred institution and should not be degraded by allowing every other type of relationship to be made equivalent to it.”
In the same two paragraphs, on page 182 (Kindle version). Coincidentally, in the same book, Carson periodically implies that he thinks non-Christians should only be allowed to worship privately at home, because he thinks them having houses of worships “enables them imposing themselves on us.” Here’s a passage from the same paragraphs I got these from:
“I have no problem with Muslims or other religious groups who want to practice their religion in their homes, which may be vastly different from traditional Judeo-Christian religion, as long as they don’t try to impose that on others or violate our laws.”
Oh, and in his 1999 book, “The Big Picture”? He actually said this:
“My response wasn’t nearly that politically correct. “Excuse me, but I beg to differ,” I said. “How I feel and what I think isn’t just my opinion. God in his Word says very clearly that he considers homosexual acts to be an ‘abomination.’” Whenever I point out that God calls homosexual behavior a sin, I am usually quick to add that the Bible just as clearly calls a lot of other things wrong — lying, cheating, adultery, murder, gluttony — and I am not going to try to justify any those things in order to be politically correct either.”
Yeah, he compared homosexuality to adultery and murder. He then tried to backtrack so he wouldn’t sound homophobic by saying:
“just because I believe homosexual behavior is wrong does not mean, therefore, that I think it is right to discriminate against gays. God loves gay people just as much as he loves any sinner.”
In the new reprint/Kindle version, he tried to add “-And we are all sinners.” to the end of that sentence, but that does about as much to help as correcting a typo spelling.
I know all about Carson, I went through his history of these comments. You know how I know someone’s lying with a new comment? When they say he was civil debating his views. Even before people realized Carson was a bigot, he had a reputation for being uncivil in debate to people who don’t share his political/religious views, as well as being vindictive to the point of petty when he knows they’re a match for him in one on one.
You’re trying to win on an apples/oranges argument here. Move on.
When does this Presidential Family ever do anything that pleases the Right Wing wackjobs.
So, either Fox News is lying… or they’re even worse hypocrites than usual. Is both an option here? I still don’t know enough about Leon to know if he’s anything that bad.
And the pastor was right. During the Civil Rights era, not all white Xtian churches, especially in the South, were on board with Civil Rights. And it’s the conservative churches who are fighting against gay marriage (some still using that old bible “sodomy” argument) which the Episcopal Church supports (They have openly gay married clergy.) And as far as women, once again, it’s the conservative churches who support draconian abortion laws such as what recently passed in North Dakota.
And re the church – virtually all American presidents have attended services there.
With all my love,
Aunty Em Ericann