Again, I REALLY wanted to stop posting other people's cartoons, but wow, this is something I feel really strongly about. Obama may want to play Ford to Bush/Cheney's Nixon and heal our polarized nation and all that, but come on. Right wingers are always going on about moral issues and absolute right and wrong. People need to be held accountable so that we don't fall so far from the ideas we claim to stand for again. Lower-level CIA or Administration officials, lawyers? Fine. I'm not looking for the former Vice President to be handed over to a tribunal in the Huague or anything, but we can't just let it slide and pretend that nother ever went wrong, either.

Some "non-profit" prophets could profit from reading their Bibles more closely

Somehow I have finagled an partial transcript from the hearings being held in Washington by Iowa’s senior senator, Charles Grassley. In case you haven’t been keeping up, “Mr. 99 Counties” is leading an inquiry into a number of obscenely wealthy televangelists and mega-church preachers.

In the interest of the separation of church and state churches are generally exempt from paying federal taxes as non-profit organizations. When ministers not only wear Rolex watches and custom tailored suits, but own their own Leer jets, Bentleys and multiple mansions, one has to wonder whether or not their churches are genuinely non-profit.

Here is a snippet of the transcripts that I have attained and present here in exclusive coverage. I believe that in this portion, Sen. Grassley is interviewing an expert in the origins and original intentions of the religion, which the “Grassley Six” pastors under investigation claim to represent:

Grassley: Uh, Mr. Heyzoos Uhfnazareth? Is it?

Christ: Yeshua, it’s Aramaic. Nazareth is the town my family was from. Many Greeks and Romans of my day used “Khristos” as a sort of surname for me. It’s really more of a title. I imagine you read an Anglicized version of first name and mistook it for Spanish. We Palestinians hare have a rather ruddy complexion so that westerners mistake us for being Hispanic. It happens a lot.

Grassley: Uh, yes, well, sorry, Mr. uh, “Khristamos,” Arab/Greek/Palestinian sumthinorother, yes, okay, alright then, Um, uh Mr. “Khirstamas,” and uh, am I to understand that you are a Doctor of Rabbinical er, uh Theological, Doctrinal studies or such?

Christ: You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Grassley: And um, is it the general position of this religion which these preachers claim to represent that its pastor require multiple homes? For instance, a villa in Florida, a penthouse in Manhattan and a getaway somewhere in the islands?

Christ: Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

Grassley: Really? That seems different that the way some of these preachers are living. Uh, and um, how about these pastors talking about God wanting their followers to be really blessed with lots of riches? Does your religion really teach that God’s gonna make people rich if they give all their money to one of these preachers?

Christ: I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, , it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

Grassley: So, if I understand you, Rev. Khristmas, uh, you’re saying actually, that your religion warns people against getting too wrapped-up in earthly wealth or material possessions. Is that it?

Christ: Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

Grassley: Well, hmmm, that certainly doesn’t square with what I’ve been hearing form these Gucci wearing clergy have been teaching.

Christ: There are false prophets among the people… They will secretly introduce destructive heresies…bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

Grassley: Why do you think they’re misrepresenting the true teachings of your faith anyway?
Christ: In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them.

Grassley: Well, I for one am pretty put out by how they’re duping folks into giving up their hard earned savings, just so these fat cats can live high on the hog. Why do you think people keep listening to them?

Christ: Men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. These false preachers seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!

Grassley: Well, I don’t know what to say sir. Should they be prosecuted? Should they lose their tax exemptions? If they do, it may reek havoc on our long established protections for religion under our laws.

Christ: Blackest darkness is reserved for them… By appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people… They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money.

---

References: Matt 8:20, Matt 19: 23-24, Luke 6:24, 2 Pet 2, 2 Tim 4:3-4, Matt 6:24
See also Des Moines Register story

Sorry right-wingers

If it walks like a duck...

I'm sorry. I've had someone call me a reactionary. I've offended dearly loved friends by being so frustrated with them for seeing the Bush administration in a favorable light. I'm sorry, sue me.
Right is right and wrong is wrong, or as they teach you when learning how to mount a horse, "left is right and right is wrong."

You'll know a tree by it's fruit. Jesus said that. So okay, look at Republican policies and this Administration, then look at all those "bleeding heart liberals" (including Jimmy Carter) that you think are such America-haters and unpatriotic, slimy socialist- Which group has the right kind of fruit? Check out Galatians chapter 5 (it's in the Bible).

Bad Apples;

• sexual immorality (Senator Craig, Senator Foley, Pastor Ted Haggard...)
  
• impurity and debauchery
• idolatry (Ronald Reagan, god of all that is 'Right') and
  
• witchcraft (Nancy Reagan's Astrologers)
  
• hatred (nooses in trees, torture at Abu Ghraib, xenophobia, racial profiling, gay bashing, alarm about illegal immigration, etc. etc....)
  
• discord (The religious right, the Big-business right, the internationalist right, the Neo-Con right, the gun-nut right, the nut-job in the woods in a militia and or white supremist group right....)
  
• jealousy (First Bill Clinton, now Hillary Clinton)
  
• fits of rage ( Vice President Cheney telling people to "F--- Off" all the time)
  
• selfish ambition (MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY, MONEY... big oil, Enron, stock portfolios, the Carlyle Group, Haliburton, did I mention big oil?
  
• dissensions
• factions and
  
• envy (did I mention the Clintons?)
  
• drunkenness (Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, and oh yeah, is 'W' a "dry-drunk?" How come no one cares that he usded to have a cocaine problem, but they freaked out when they heard that Bill Clinton once tried pot?)
  
• orgies, and the like (well, okay, who doesn't like a good orgy? Republican or Democrat)
  

Good Fruit:

• love (see also compassion, empathy, caring...)
  
• joy
  
• peace (blessed are the peacemakers, who said that? Hmmmm)
  
• patience (okay, not me)
  
• kindness
  
• goodness
• faithfulness
• gentleness and (you're right, not me again, or any other political humorist or cartoonist)
  
• self-control (yeah, I know- obviously I need to work on this one otherwise I wouldn't go off on rants like this or let my blood pressure go up every time someone compares George W. Bush to Abe Lincoln or Jesus or whoever. Breath, breath, find your happy place...)