Bush: Better than Jesus
Before I went in the shower this morning, I turned on the radio. It sounded like classical music and I was a little drowsy, so I left it on. Well, it wasn't just classical, it was some sort of christian station. Well, lo and behold, on came an interesting segment of bible education. They had something on Jesus and Matthew 5:38-44. My bible knowledge is a little stale, but I've heard about this one before: Jesus says to not love thy friend and hate my enemy, but to love thy enemy as well.
Now, I'm sure that we're all familiar that who the guys in charge have referred to as "enemies" aren't necessarily our enemies (activists, the Vietnamese, Martin Luther King, Jr.), but nonetheless, they've had an unusually warm friendship with a whole rogues gallery of baddies. The American government has, at times, supported the apartheid governments of South Africa and Israel*, Noriega, Saddam Hussein, the Contra death squads (Reagan, that old devil, referred to them as "freedom fighters"). Not only that, but in various guises, the U.S. government has supported drug cartels and "official" state enemies (we remember the Iran-Contra crime). So, they seem to have the whole Love thy Enemy thing done down pretty pat. We are a Christian nation after all. We haven't even begun to mention all the enterprises that we'd cast as enemies that these guys seem to love (capitalists, wall street, the military industrial-complex, etc...)
But I think the rulers might have taken it a step further. Starting with "Love your neighbors, hate your enemies," they moved to "love your neighbors, love your "enemies"," and now have transcended to "Loath your neighbors, Love Your Enemies." Our evidence? Hate your neighbor legislation like their antifamily homophobic mistitled "defense of marriage," hate your neighbor's kid by sending them off to war for global hegemony and short-term profit, hating your neighbor by lying to them through capitalist media, killing your neighbor by polluting them to death for short-term profit, hate your women neighbors with anti-choice crusades and a promoting a culture of misogyny, hating your neighbors of color by demonizing them for election victories and to mobilize the majority with fear. Hate your neighbor. Hate hate hate.
So I figure that these guys, so much smarter than us non-experts, have one-upped Jesus after all these years and have added a slight edit in on the guy after two millennium. I just don't understand why that isn't Bush's tagline: Bush: Better than Jesus!
In case this is read as disrespectful to Christianity, we have no blanket beef with Christianity. There is a lot of Christianity that we support enthusiastically, e.g. the scriptures of Liberation Theology. We just believe that Bush is as Christian as any tent charlatan.
*History Is A Weapon is a proudly anti-zionist site. This bothers some people who confuse anti-zionism (against a Jewish state) with anti-semitism (against Jewish people). We love Jews (some of us even are Jews!), but we stand in total opposition to Israel and the apartheid policies directed at the Palestinian people.
History Is A Weapon is on MySpace! Be our friend because that Tom guy creeps us out!
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Now, I'm sure that we're all familiar that who the guys in charge have referred to as "enemies" aren't necessarily our enemies (activists, the Vietnamese, Martin Luther King, Jr.), but nonetheless, they've had an unusually warm friendship with a whole rogues gallery of baddies. The American government has, at times, supported the apartheid governments of South Africa and Israel*, Noriega, Saddam Hussein, the Contra death squads (Reagan, that old devil, referred to them as "freedom fighters"). Not only that, but in various guises, the U.S. government has supported drug cartels and "official" state enemies (we remember the Iran-Contra crime). So, they seem to have the whole Love thy Enemy thing done down pretty pat. We are a Christian nation after all. We haven't even begun to mention all the enterprises that we'd cast as enemies that these guys seem to love (capitalists, wall street, the military industrial-complex, etc...)
But I think the rulers might have taken it a step further. Starting with "Love your neighbors, hate your enemies," they moved to "love your neighbors, love your "enemies"," and now have transcended to "Loath your neighbors, Love Your Enemies." Our evidence? Hate your neighbor legislation like their antifamily homophobic mistitled "defense of marriage," hate your neighbor's kid by sending them off to war for global hegemony and short-term profit, hating your neighbor by lying to them through capitalist media, killing your neighbor by polluting them to death for short-term profit, hate your women neighbors with anti-choice crusades and a promoting a culture of misogyny, hating your neighbors of color by demonizing them for election victories and to mobilize the majority with fear. Hate your neighbor. Hate hate hate.
So I figure that these guys, so much smarter than us non-experts, have one-upped Jesus after all these years and have added a slight edit in on the guy after two millennium. I just don't understand why that isn't Bush's tagline: Bush: Better than Jesus!
In case this is read as disrespectful to Christianity, we have no blanket beef with Christianity. There is a lot of Christianity that we support enthusiastically, e.g. the scriptures of Liberation Theology. We just believe that Bush is as Christian as any tent charlatan.
*History Is A Weapon is a proudly anti-zionist site. This bothers some people who confuse anti-zionism (against a Jewish state) with anti-semitism (against Jewish people). We love Jews (some of us even are Jews!), but we stand in total opposition to Israel and the apartheid policies directed at the Palestinian people.
History Is A Weapon is on MySpace! Be our friend because that Tom guy creeps us out!
posted by History Is A Weapon at 7:27 AM
1 Comments:
I hate to break it to ya, but Christians already edited that "love your enemy" admonition a loooong time ago. [insert standard spiel on the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch burnings, etc. etc. etc.]
I'm not sure how big Jesus really was on it either. It's hard to think of a more hateful concept than an eternal Hell for everyone who doesn't worship you, which is one of Christianity's big contributions to theology.
Clearly, I have a blanket beef with Christianity.
Now, where's my goddamn Viagra?
Post a Comment
<< Home