Is Christianity Against Das Kapital?

Oh, BillDo! Will your histrionic antics never cease to amuse me? (Spoiler alert: no.)

Last week, Lawrence O’Donnell opined on Louie Giglio withdrawing from participating in Obama’s inauguration because of an outcry over a homophobic sermon he delivered in the 90s (and, to my knowledge, has so far failed to apologize for). That, and the irony of Barack Obama being sworn in on a book that contains so many horrific passages that he and every decent person on the planet disagree with. Watch it, because it’s quite good:

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/gJgNQsQDkqk

At 2:51, Giglio is quoted as saying,

if you look at the counsel of the word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, you come quickly to the conclusion that homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle. Homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is a sin. It is sin in the eyes of God, and it is a sin according to the word of God.

Predictably, Bill Donohue thought O’Donnell’s editorial wasn’t quite cricket (emphasis added):

Pastor Giglio’s crime? He’s a Christian. Practicing Christians, along with observant Jews, Mormons, Muslims and millions of others, accept the biblical teachings on the sinfulness of homosexuality. In the 1990s, Giglio addressed this subject, citing Christian teachings, and that was enough to set off the alarms in gay quarters.

Over the past few decades, many homosexuals and theologians have tried to argue that the Bible’s passages condemning homosexuality should not be read as condemning homosexuality. In their postmodern mind, they say that interpretation is wrong. O’Donnell, to his credit, knows these savants are delusional. While he readily admits that the Bible condemns homosexuality, his level of cognitive development does not allow him to discern the difference between behavior and status, which is why he falsely claims the Bible condemns “gay people.”

Now, given that he’s just spent two spittle-flecked paragraphs explaining how Christianity is anti-gay, I wasn’t expecting his very next post to be entitled Is Christianity anti-gay?. I guess he enjoys making me do spit-takes.

To say that Giglio backed out because of his “previous anti-gay comments” is tantamount to saying Christianity is anti-gay because it sees homosexual behavior as sinful. It also sees adultery as sinful. Does that mean Christianity is bigoted against heterosexuals?

Right. BillDo’s flavor of Christianity places some restrictions on heterosexual behavior, like mandating marital fidelity; and it also places some restrictions on homosexual behavior, like not being allowed to have the kind of sex you enjoy, or being allowed to marry the person you love, or have your union recognized as legally equivalent to Kim Kardashian’s umpteenth marriage, or being portrayed in a favorable light in sitcoms, and if gays have to have the unmitigated gall to exist in the first place, could they at least have the decency to emigrate to a leper colony somewhere? Because the children or something.

With regard to homosexuality, the teachings found in Christianity were taken from Judaism. Moreover, Islam also sees homosexuality as sinful. Are we to believe that the adherents of all these world religions are “anti-gay”?

Why, yes. To the extent that they agree with BillDo’s anti-gay interpretation of their holy scripture of choice, yes, they are. That was easy.

What, am I supposed to believe that if a bigoted belief stops being bigoted if enough people accept it?

(Update: Oh, poo. I just realized I posted this without explaining the title: it’s a mashup of the titles of BillDo’s two posts: “Should Obama swear on Das Kapital?” and “Is Christianity anti-gay?”. I could fix the title, but that would break the permalink. So oh well.)

Who Flubbed the Oath?

If you watched Obama
take the oath of office,
you probably noticed some hesitation and fumbled words. No doubt this
will become the next thing on which to attack Obama: that he flubbed
his oath.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=274_VdeckAU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0]

As far as I can make out, the transcript goes like this:

John Roberts: I, Barack Hussein Obama
Obama: I, Barack
Roberts [over]: do solemnly swear
Obama: I, Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear
Roberts: that I will… execute the office of President to the United States faithfully
Obama: and I will execute…
Roberts: the o— faithfully the pre— office of President of the United States
Obama: [over] the office of the President of the United States faithfully
Roberts: and will, to the best of my Ability
Obama: and will, to the best of my Ability
Roberts: preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States
Obama: preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States
Roberts: so help you God?
Obama: so help me God.

Article 2, Section 1
of the US Constitution gives the president’s oath of office as:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

So it looked as though they both deviated from the script (though
Greedo shot Roberts flubbed first), moving the word
“faithfully” out of its place, and adding “so help me God” at the end.

Slow News Day

CNN just gave a list of the coldest and hottest inauguration days.

I’m so glad to hear that the fighting in Gaza has ceased, that Europe has heating gas again, that no one is blowing anyone up in Iraq or Afghanistan, and generally that it’s such a slow news day that there’s nothing to do but fill air time with inauguration trivia.

PS: Dear Mr. Obama: please don’t fuck this up.