I know I LOOK like a dictionary salesman, but I still don't know what the word cult means.
Robert Jeffress
In the fine Republican tradition of insert-foot-into-mouth, Robert Jeffress, the Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, managed to make himself sound even dumber than a typical fundamentalist Christian when he introduced Rick Perry at a rally a few days ago. After praising Rick as a “genuine follower of Jesus Christ,” this idiot went outside and said the following to reporters:
Rick Perry is a Christian. He’s an evangelical Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Mitt Romney’s a good moral person, but he’s not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. It has always been considered a cult by the mainstream of Christianity. So it’s the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.
A cult (according to dictionary.com) is:
noun
1. a particular system of religious worship, especially with reference to its rites and ceremonies.
2. an instance of great veneration of a person, ideal, or thing, especially as manifested by a body of admirers
3. the object of such devotion.
4. a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.
5. a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols.
If there was ever a religion that fit this bill as a cult, it would be Christianity. Of course, there is also the narrow and pejorative meaning of the word, which is meant as a insult to a set of beliefs different from another. Could it be that a Baptist preacher would be using the narrower, more pig-headed and close-minded meaning of the word cult?! Hmm….
If a candidate is a good, moral person, like Jeffress is saying Mitt Romney is, then it is disgusting to disqualify him from service because he isn’t a member of your particular cult. Any good, moral person would know that, which speaks volumes about the quality of character of Pastor Robert Jeffress.
5 Comments
Good article, TR.
What we have in these protesters are mainly try-hard, look-at-me, hipster types who will go home to mommy and daddy and their big trust funds and homes in the suburbs when they’re done pretending to be gritty, edgy, urban strugglers who give a shit. *Yawn.
You don’t have a clue as to who these protesters are, and neither does the real ‘Twit’, Theo, author of this garbage that fails in the attempt to be intellectual. These people are in the street cause there is NOWHERE else to be seen and heard. It is the place to start for those with NO economic or political punch. Wall Street, big banking, and big business were all bailed out on the backs of the people who are now protesting. It is really not so different than the Teaparty message, before that movement was highjacked by the far right of the Republican Party. No doubt that ‘corporations don’t care’–but if the OCCUPY protests gain some traction, and with it some political punch, the corporations will have to start paying attention.
Right you are Joefastjet, Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are actually flip sides of the same coin, justifiably pissed off Americans. Both are the middle-class who have been screwed.
The difference between the two is that Tea Party anger was coopted by the Koch Brothers front group that has convinced them that their problems are all due to the gubmint helping poor people. What a joke, blame it on the poor people. Meanwhile the rich, the 1%, skate free with middle-class jamokes fighting among themselves over who is at fault.
Occupy Wall Street has it exactly right. The fault for the collapse lies with Wall Street. They own the politicians and nothing will change until we change that. Get corporate money out of politics. Camp out on Wall Street until change is forced upon them.
While I am thinking about it, last year’s protesters in Madison, WI comprised (among other knuckleheads), a person hula hooping while standing on stilts, a hippy drum circle, and the pedophile member of Peter, Paul & Mary. How lucky for the public sector workers of Wisconsin!
We’re lucky to have the right to assemble however we choose in this country, but, man oh man, do we look bad when protest. Thoreau,Gandhi, and MLK have been doing a lot of spinning lately.
Look, Wall Street ruined the economy and the crash of 2008 was a direct result of the excess and abuse of Wall Street banking institutions. And, who got hit the hardest by this? The middle-class. If you own a home, it’s probably worth 1/3 less than it was worth three years ago. If you had money invested in stocks and mutual funds, chances are a lot of that wealth has also vanished. Jobs have moved overseas at an alarming rate. Kids coming out of college can’t find jobs and many borrowed money to go to college in the first place. The American Dream that you and I grew up with no longer exists.
Let’s look at mortgage lending. Thirty years ago when I bought my first home mortgage lenders were very strict that my monthly housing payment (loan payment plus escrow) could not exceed 1/3 of my monthly income. Those were the rules and there were very few mortgage defaults in those days and those rules also tended to keep home pricing inflation in check preventing a bubble.
At some point those rules went out the window and mortgage lenders were EAGER to loan money to anyone with a pulse. The income to home payment ratio became a thing of the past and “Liar Loans” were accepted without question. Every day my mailbox would be full of offers to refinance and borrow against the equity in my home for dream vacations, home improvements, etc. McMansions started popping up in neighborhoods with modest homes. The price of real estate went through the roof. Is it not clear that this bubble had to burst?
And where were the banks, why didn’t they do the normal due diligence that you would expect from sophisticated lending institutions? They had figured out a way to cover their ass with credit default swaps. What did they care of you could pay the money back? They rigged the system so that they couldn’t lose. And so far they haven’t. We in the middle-class are the big losers. And yet you wonder why people are out protesting in the middle of Wall Street. Maybe you just haven’t been paying attention.
I admire those people protesting. There’s an unholy alliance between big business and politics. We, the people have been rendered irrelevant. Protesting in the streets is the only thing that will change that. I proudly stand 100% behind the Occupy Wall Street protestors.