Purple Prose
The extremity of its evil had passed
beyond all struggle into some state which bore
a horrible similarity to innocence
--C.S. Lewis
The eye sees only what the mind
is prepared to comprehend
--Henri Bergson
Americans seem to be as interested in
Super Tuesday as they are in the Super Bowl
--Katie Couric
__________
beyond all struggle into some state which bore
a horrible similarity to innocence
--C.S. Lewis
The eye sees only what the mind
is prepared to comprehend
--Henri Bergson
Americans seem to be as interested in
Super Tuesday as they are in the Super Bowl
--Katie Couric
__________
Ah, Ms. Couric -- always has her finger on the pulse, ready to offer a peppy cheerleader's perspective. What good news she brings.
On another topic, Ranger asked the other day if George Washington said, "Jesus Christ is our King." Pretty unlikely, and a little research backed up that feeling. He asked me to write something about the recent article in the January/February Purple Heart magazine in which that spurious attribute is given.
On another topic, Ranger asked the other day if George Washington said, "Jesus Christ is our King." Pretty unlikely, and a little research backed up that feeling. He asked me to write something about the recent article in the January/February Purple Heart magazine in which that spurious attribute is given.
Many of you have given up finding incisive commentary in your military fraternal magazines. It is unfortunate that these groups meant to represent all veterans toe such a biased conservative party line, a line which certainly does not represent the views of all fighting men. They would do their constituents a greater service by offering disinterested, factual material.
After reading The Constitution of the United States by member Gene Owens, one hardly knows where to begin in debunking his misundertandings. The point of the article is even unclear.
On the first page, Mr. Owen states the Benjamin Franklin requested an opening prayer at each meeting of the Constitutional Convention. From that opening misattribution, it was a hop, skip and a jump to prove God's existence:
"As you take in your next breath of oxygen, think, who created this process? How has this process happened? If you suddenly became unable to breathe for three to five minutes your life would be over. Did man create this process? Did man give you the right to breathe? The creation around us points to something beyond man."
At this point, I am breathless. How could such a nonsensical either-or fallacy (=either God or man created man) make it past the editors? Scopes in 1925 did expose us to the possibility of another way, namely evolution. Does no one vet the material which gets printed in this national magazine?
Mr. Owens mistakes the establishment clause as "plac(ing) a Creator where other nations place a dictator," and misunderstands that freedom of religion may also mean freedom from religion. The term "Creator" is not synonymous with "God".
He equates a "high standard of morality" with the belief in a Creator. Sadly, he need only look at some of those holding high office to see the fallacy of that belief. A rant ensues:
"Men, who wish to control your life and take your freedoms must replace a Creator with themselves. They need to destroy our morality so that we will lie, cheat, steal, and even kill each other. . ." Huh? People will kill each other just by virtue of signing on to be a soldier.
It is a scatter-shot article lacking any cohesion. A good place to start debunking the rants of our well-meaning conservative friends is snopes.com, the urban legends site. The page addressing some of Mr. Owens' misinformation is here.
Shame on Purple Heart Magazine for running such a non-sequitur bunch of clap-trap.
Labels: conservative blather, purple heart magazine clap-trap
posted by Lisa at 8:06 PM
9 Comments:
Just a quick comment.
Owens is dead wrong with this.
Benjamin Franklin requested an opening prayer at each meeting of the Constitutional Convention
From first hand knowledge Benny did no such thing. Although he did insist on mineral water Bury that dog.
from extensive reading of "the federalist papers" the writings of jefferson, adams, governeur morris, hamilton and the other founders i was struck by the realization that the only issue. the sole topic of conversation of complete, unanimous agreement that the leaders of our revolution and the crafters of our republic had was that there should be a decided and firm separation between our secular government and our personal spiritual lives.
adams had the experience of growning up in the hard core congregationalist colony of massachussetts. he saw first hand the corruption that is sure to follow when clergy assume annointed roles of political leadership.
jefferson's drafting of the virginia religious freedom resolution explains his views perfectly.
washington, as president, wrote to the first jewish congregation in rhode island and explained that the ideal of this republic was not tolerance, because that implies a minorty living at the by your leave of a majority. but liberty. freedom for the most personal choice one makes.
madison negotiated with the then, small and very new sect of baptists who were just beginning to settle the outskirts of georgia and the carolinas. he explained to them that they would be free to practice their religion on the frontier, just as the methodists, the presbyterians and many other new sects would be.
franklin had personal experience with religion organized and supported by the state when he moved to pennsylvania. his initial business and land ventures had to have quaker partners because of restrictions on commerce and propety which were there at the time. the result was that his quaker partners benefitted and were enriched by franklin's efforts in the same way that the mafia hoodlums take "no show" work slots from honest union workers. he worked hard and tirelessly to change that.
the folks who have a problem with our separation of church and state don't have a problem with me. they have a problem with the founders of this country. every. founder.
huckabee, in a republican debate, claimed that "most of the signers of the declaration of independance were clergymen." that was also blatantly untrue. seven of the nearly forty signers were at one time ordained. at the signing, two were still working as ministers. if two from forty is now considered most, i really need to get some new math working.
i have been rattling some cages for a long time because i refer to robertson, dobson and their ilk as "the radical cleric, james dobson" or "the mullah of jesus, robertson"
that, and calling alabama "talibama" keeps the conversation lively.
MB,
Thank you for a thorough overview of that most important for the constitutional framers.
I love this, by the way: "I refer to robertson, dobson and their ilk as "the radical cleric, james dobson" or "the mullah of jesus, robertson."
We have always wondered why the press parrots the title, "The radical Shiite cleric Sadr," when he is no more radical than many of our fundamentalist preacher men.
"Talibama" is also most apropos. Rattling the cage is good.
spiider,
Yeah, Ben was a Francophile, to boot, enjoying air baths on the veranda along with any number of other hedonistic romps. Since these old boys aren't here to defend themselves, they are used by the fundamentalists at will.
I guess they see his picture on a bill, so they figure he must be o.k.
My 86 year old mother just got a 2 page letter (robo)signed by Newt Gingrich from a group called Citizens United. It was asking for a $1000 (or $35) donation to help promote a film made by Newt called "Rediscovering God in America" which is a walking tour of Washington D.C. showing all the God references they can find.
It sounds like the Purple Heart article is part of what I believe is a coordinated right wing propaganda campaign intended to demonize liberals by linking Christianity, patriotism, free market capitalism and conservative politics into a seemless whole. It's especially rotten that these people are targeting old people like my mother ( who thankfully, knows this is crap) and trying to convince them that they need to send money in order to save America from the evil Godless liberals.
People are easy to fool when you appeal to their love of God, country and family.
Kevin,
"People are easy to fool when you appeal to their love of God, country and family"
-- I believe this is correct, in that people generally want to be seen as doing right, and seek identity in these grounding concepts. If they challenge the assertions of their erstwhile champions, they risk been termed infidels, or worse ("Clinton-lovers"?)
What may have been a typo ("seemless" for "seamless") works as homonym, too (="unseemly").
MB, the hucksters math is a formal requirement to be a new age conservative.It's the Enron approach to numbers that pervades the federal budget.
Kevin, I must wonder how much of this god oriented money ends up in The newts pocket. After all whats good for god is better for the newt. Also god can't spend the bucks so newt and co. will gladly assist.Its gods will. amen.
A good place to start is at 'Dispatches from the Culture Wars' (http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches
Ed has written on this; the short answer is that the Founders were rather non- or semi-religious; they were certainly not 'Christians' in the sense that the current religious right uses.
A starting link:
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/11/the_founding_fathers_and_unive_1.php
I get the feeling that George wasn't religious; he just used the minumal terminolgoy. He seemed to be very allergic to the words 'God' and 'Jesus'.
barryd,
Thanks for the link.
The Founders were deists, somewhat akin to agnostics. They could admit of an "unmoved mover" and a "Creator," but were in no way inclined to imposed any sort of religiosity upon the new republic. Quite the opposite.
The write of the Purple Heart piece falls prey to all the usual canards--godless commies, fascists and the lot. The idea that somehow Christianity keeps a people moral. We need only look back a little over half a century to find Christian monsters in the form of Nazis, as merely one example of god-fearing brutality visited upon one's fellows.
The unfortunate quote conflating "Jesus" and "King" may have been a battle cry among some of the hoi polloi in the Revolution, but in no way was it uttered from on high, by Gen. Washington.
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