My Fellow bloggers,
To those of you who know me & the subjects on which I concentrate, politics & religion, you also know that I have been accused of "picking," on Christians, especially evangelicals, & being against religion in general. In one manner, that is true, in another, it's not. I don't pick. I do, however, point out salient facts that do, indeed, portray organized religion in a negative manner. But since the respective entities tend to provide me with my information, I consider them fair game.
So let me preface this by saying it has absolutely nothing to do with Christian evangelicals or fundamentalists. But it does have to do with one of the things most religions, as with political parties, have in common. Propaganda & mind control. As you may or may not know, I am a news junkie. In that vein, I also monitor the religion scene & sign up for the free newsletters/updates that religious organizations, like any others, send out. And this one, I just had to share with you, especially if you have children.
I've been following the propaganda campaign of the Catholic League against the movie, "The Golden Compass." I have not seen the movie, don't intend to & don't know any one who has. It's just not my taste in movies & I don't have children. But in a newsletter I received today dated, 12.10.07, Bill Donohue, president of the organization, went on to tell his followers that since the opening weekend profits did not live up to expectations, it was due to their campaign of telling people not to see it.
I just love the logic. Apparently, Mr. Donohue never once considered, or was afraid to admit, that possibly, just maybe, this just wasn't a very good movie. Or maybe that there was a movie that was better & that maybe more people were interested in rather than The Golden Compass. Who knows? Who cares? But that's not the kicker.
The kicker came in the last paragraph. Here, I'm going to quote for the sake of accuracy. Mr. Donohue said, "Let this be a lesson to militant atheists like Pullman: (The maker of the movie) KEEP YOUR HOLLOW BELIEFS TO YOURSELF. And ease up on demonizing Catholicism--NO OTHER RELIGION HAS DONE MORE TO PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS, SCIENCE AND GOODWILL. Why not make a movie about that? (The caps were mine)
Now I have a two part question. Who actually accepts the last claim? Personally, I think that Mr. Donohue has either not read much in the way of history or present news accounts, or he is in a delusional state & possibly in a staggering state of self denial.
The second question, what would you do if I, or any other person told the President, the candidates during the debates or any of you, to keep your beliefs to yourselves? I consider this a very important question, especially when posed against the backdrop of the unofficial religious litmus tests to which the candidates, especially Mitt Romney, have been subjected. We can, of course ignore it. But then there's to much at stake. I welcome your opinions.
RichK