I never thought I would see the day that Baptists resorted to not just lying, but damnable lying. Photo shopping a picture to present a false story, complete with forged signatures of the Governor of Oklahoma & the Sec. of State, is not just lying but propaganda on par with Pravda.
Sally Kern is the OK state senator who has a habit of saying things that make Christians look really stupid. (See Big Daddy Weave's blog for some links.) Seems she has been trying to get a Christian Nation proclamation (under the guise of a "Morality" proclamation) passed in the OK Legislature. You know: more David Barton bull & Randy Forbes fibs.
Somehow the Baptist Messenger --- the official Oklahoma Baptist newspaper --- ran a picture of the governor signing the proclamation, complete with the Oklahoma state deal & signature of the Oklahoma Sec. of State. Problem is the proclamation was not passed; the governor did not sign it; the entire thing was a downright, out-&-out lie.
Thou shalt not bear false witness ... --- Exodus 20:16. KJV
Bruce Prescott at Mainstream Baptist has a piece on the story. The Lost Ogle.com has some details.
Don't say things, or make people think things, that ain't ... --- Exodus 20:16, TBAR version.
I understand that the Baptist Messenger has issued an apology. That is not enough. Apologies are for mistakes, errors, or accidents. This goes far beyond those.
Even if the people at the Baptist Messenger mistakenly ran the picture, why would they have such a thing in their possession anyway? A picture that is photo shopped? Why? It can't possibly be a joke --- there is nothing funny about the story, even if it were true. Did the people at the Baptist Messenger believe they were doing God's Will, like the Taliban does with Allah, & wanted faith running the state gov't? Are the Tali-Christians taking control of the Baptist Messenger & the gov't of the state of Oklahoma?
Where is the sanity in all this?
Don't say things that ain't true, no matter how bad you want it to be true. --- Exodus 20:16, my oldest son's version when he was 5 years old.
Maybe the people at the Baptist Messenger need to take a course in secular ethics since Biblical teachings seem to have no meaning to them
2 comments:
This kind of thing seems to be becoming the rule rather than the exception for the Christian right. Kind of "its ok, 'cause God is on our side." Sad.
His and Her Kern Revolutionary Regiment
by James Nimmo
(OKLAHOMA CITY) Not content with calling gay citizens terrorists and twice carrying a loaded handgun into the Oklahoma Capitol Building, GOPer Rep. Sally Kern has enlisted her husband, Steve Kern, into the family business of trying to maintain gays and lesbians as non-citizens.
Steve Kern is the pastor at Olivett Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, a position that gives him a culturally bully pulpit to read all the dirty parts of his bible and blame gay people for making him do it.
It's important to remember that when Steve Kern, standing in for his wife, speaks of liberty and freedom (Oklahoma Gazette, July 22, http://tinyurl.com/nptb8p ) he's not using these words looking for some lost American Garden of Eden. Those new to the Kern Kontroversy can read more here: http://tinyurl.com/yr63qo .
Kern and his bullying colleagues are feeling threatened by, and are desperate to forestall, the encroaching lose of their ability to dominate, terrorize, and otherwise impose apartheid on this country's gay and lesbian citizens. As this verbal lynch mob continues to get high on their hot air of bible bluster and goes off the edge with their flat earth rhetoric they are becoming more separated from the mainstream of Americans who know that gays and lesbians are integral threads in America's social and political fabric.
Gays and lesbians pay taxes, hold steady jobs, volunteer in the community, maintain families, get elected to public office, and serve in the Armed Forces. We bleed, live, and die just like everyone else. How is that a threat to anyone who takes the time to think about it?
How is diversity a threat to anyone unless they want to hide from what they don't understand?
It's remarkable how the most consciously self-righteous are blind to the facts right in front of their faces.
How revealing that the Kern Krowd uniform of choice is a black robe--setting themselves up to judge the rest of us?
You can read about the His and Her Kern Revolutionary Regiment here at the Oklahoma Gazette: http://tinyurl.com/nptb8p
Cartoon courtesy of Joe Quigley, Oklahoma City
http://img228.imageshack.us/i/joequigleykernposter320.jpg/
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