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Sodom in South Carolina
Remember this story?
Led by Republican Governors Association chairman Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a group of conservative GOP governors has rejected or considered rejecting the unemployment money or other funding from the $787 billion stimulus package.
And now the appointed day has arrived...
Extended jobless benefits are coming to an end for about 7,000 out-of-work South Carolinians.
Who would have believed that those red-state bible-bangers were such a bunch of naughty... sodomites?
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.Ezekiel 16:49
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!17 Learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.Isaiah 1:10, 1:17
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was all about greed!
Buggery had nothing to do with it!
But try telling that to a typical red-state voter!
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Great, ruta. Could you please add some plausible captions for the third photo? I wanted to; I ain't got nuttin'.
I wish I had some money so I could send some to Pat Robertson's favorite charities in your name (accompanied by your avatar, of course.)
October 17, 2009 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think "typical red-state voter" says it all, but I'm open to suggestions.
October 17, 2009 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta be.... Hiking the Appalachian Tail.
October 17, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's pretty dang good, there, son; now how's about a Word Bubble comin' outta the dude's mouth?
October 17, 2009 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
"A Schlitz and a Sheep go fine together!"
October 17, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Beat me to it. I was going to say hiking UP the Appalachian Tail. The 3 B's - the Bible, Beer and Buggerey.
October 17, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm probably going to hell for laughing at this!
rec'd, blue vegetable...
October 17, 2009 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
New Rule: You go to Hell if you DON'T laugh at it!
October 17, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
But, but, but ---- how am I ever going to respect a sheep again?!?
October 17, 2009 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I know -- there I go again -- blaming the victim.
October 18, 2009 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
It really is fascinating how my Christian upbringing was all about "love thy neighbor," the Sermon on the Mount, and charity for the needy, while these people who wave their Christianity like a flag seem to think that it's all about subservience to wealth and privilege. Though I left all that behind a long time ago, I still think Jesus was perhaps the greatest moral philosopher in human history.
But contemporary Christians really don't seem to understand that, if Jesus appeared on the streets of America today, they would be the ones nailing him to the cross. The disconnect is just staggering.
October 17, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I double rec this comment. It is embarrassing, isn't it?
October 17, 2009 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fascinating indeed. Staggering indeed. I, too, recommend this comment.
October 17, 2009 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
One suspects the great moral philosophers were all addressing the primary sins of their particular societies, and so it's not particularly surprising that the later generations of those societies seem to be deliberately giving the finger to their particular "messiah."
Christians are commanded to love and be peaceful, but seriously, who on earth is better at hatred and war?
Islam is preeminently the religion of unity before God. Thus, they never stop quarreling among themselves and putting knives into each other's backs.
Buddhists preached, and preach, the immateriality of the world's glories to societies where the epitome of upper-class taste is to gold-plate everything.
Confucius judged ritual by its moral content and warned that blind obedience to rites and lavish display performing them were futile. Later Confucians blindly obeyed the rites and broke the bank to pay for what was "proper."
I'm sure you can think of others.....
October 17, 2009 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a very intelligent comment, sagesource. Why haven't I noticed you before?
Your observations about gold-plated Buddhism and potlatch Confucianism are right on the money, and obvious, now, although they never occurred to me before, and the whole idea of religions devolving into their antitheses has a lot more scope and accuracy than I anticipated.
Thanks for commenting. I hope to hear more from you.
October 17, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because it is his/her first comment, at least under this name?
October 17, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agree. Great comment, simultaneously if depressing and hilarious.
October 17, 2009 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, thanks for that. I love comments like this - never would have thought of it, but blindingly true when you read it.
October 17, 2009 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Curious...who did the first two illustrations?
October 17, 2009 3:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
John Martin painted the second image, and the first I don't know. It turned up in an image search for "Sodom."
But in compensation for the missing name of the first painter, here's a beautiful image of an apple of Sodom.
Don't eat it! Don't even touch it!
October 17, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sanford has a connection to C Street. C Street is composed of "Christians" who believe that someone in a powerful position cannot commit a sin because their power indicates that they have been specially selected by God.
Poverty is therefore a condition that has been ordained by God because the impoverished have not been chosen by God. It is a perversion of the message of Christianity.
We can condemn religion, but the problem lies with the human vessel. The Unite States could be founded on the concept of individual freedom, but legalize the enslavement of human beings in the founding documents. The documents supported separation of church and state.
The problem of greed and willingness to watch the suffering of other humans in the land is a distortion of the underlying messages of religious and secular value systems. The problem is the homo sapien.
George W Bush, a Christian, had no problem attacking heathen Muslims. Christopher Hitchens, who doesn't believe in a magic man in the sky, had no problem supporting GW's attack on a deluded group of people who believe in a sky God.
We can try to believe religion is the problem. that delusion allows to overlook the innate dark inner soul of the human being.
October 17, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Religion does not exist independently from human beings.
October 17, 2009 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
The legal system does not exist independently from human beings. The way we interpret our environment through science does not exist independently from human beings.
Laws change. Slavery and Jim Crow practices are outlawed. The current rulings against gay marriage will likely be considered evidence of a backwards judicial system by future judicial scholars.
Scientific knowledge changes. Brain plate measurements are rejected. Much of what is considered accepted medical practice, will be considered malpractice after future medical advances.
Religious thought changes from using the curse of Ham justifying slavery to the realization that the curse came from a drunk guy. God never cursed Blacks. Blacks, women and gays become the heads of certain religious denominations.
Legal, scientific and religious interpretations are all limited because of the human being.
October 17, 2009 10:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The real world which science studies exist independently from human beings. Both religions and legal systems are human constructions.
October 17, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know what we are arguing about. My only point would be that man's understanding of the world through science is limited by the measuring instruments and mathematics available at the time.
So yes reality of physics and mathematics exist in the natural world. Man's limitations create what is accepted as "science" at a given point in time.
The real point of my discussion was that both religious and secular thought processes can lead to some pretty toxic outcomes.
October 17, 2009 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough.
October 18, 2009 7:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama's SC CNN exit polling:
18-29 55/44
30-44 54/46
White voters:
J. Kerry 22/78
Obama 26/73
SC-1 & 2 dipped to single point races.
A rational state party would shift left and co-opt certain issues... like the unemployment extensions.
Not this bunch. The SC GOP is fully committed to political Seppuku.
October 17, 2009 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
The illustrations are first-rate. I loved them, as I might appreciate any art, especially that having a Biblical context. HOWEVER......the TEXT BETWEEN....SUCKS!!!!!! And tell Mr Sanford..."Don't cry for meeeeeee, Ar...gen....tin...aaaaaaaaa!!!!"
October 17, 2009 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
What? Especially the Exekiel quote? Bet you didn't know it!
October 18, 2009 8:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is this what it means to attempt to get one's goat?
I love the sodom pic, I have used it myself.
For SC to spit on these poor people out of sheer spite....
October 18, 2009 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
My wife asked me if I ever screwed a goat,
I replied; "NAAAAAAAAA"
October 18, 2009 9:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent Ruta, just excellent!
October 18, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink