Ceremonial Godliness, actual Godlessness. Conservatism in America

[warbustdotcom]

Ceremonial Godliness, actual Godlessness. Conservatism in America.


American conservatives exercise what I call a ceremonial Godliness, and actual Godlessness.

American conservates love God's name in things and on things! They like his commandments in government buildings. His name on money and in pledges. They like to use his name when they pray in public events. Conservatives just love to exercise God in all things ceremonial. They think by doing these things and by standing up for these things, they are in fact, exercising Godliness. But they are not! All that is merely ceremonial.

At the same time these Godly conservatives will cut spending on medical care for poor kids, and on social security for the elderly, just so millionaires can have tax cuts! I'm not talking about tax cuts for the middle class and upper middle class, I'm talking about for the millionaires!

At the same time these Godly conservatives will vote for a president who invites the leader of a oppressive regime (saudi arabia) to his ranch in Texas. A regime that limits women's rights and religious rights!

Conservative politics truly exercises a ceremonial Godliness, and actual unGodliness.

The Bible speaks of God's view about ceremonial Godliness in Isaiah 58. Needless to say, God isnt in favor of it.

Let God's words conclude what I have to say.

1 "Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

3 'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

[lolly]

1. Kind of like guys and sex

The more they talk about it, the less they're actually doing it.

You can pretty much take that to the bank--someone who talks about being Christian and berates others for NOT being Christian is generally utterly devoid of any virtues that one could actually find in Christ's life or teachings.

[warbustdotcom]

2. preach it

amen....you got a witness;)

[Bill McBlueState]

3. no, no, no

You don't get to lump the conservatives in with people who don't have gods. The conservatives worship their god fervently, and their extreme religiosity is part of their problem.

All of the godless people I know on DU are far more tolerant, thoughtful, and peace-loving than the religious whackos who run the Republican party.

[ComerPerro]

6. they simply don't have the guts to admit they are godless

but they don't worship their god. Not in a sincere manner

[Anarcho-Socialist]

8. They do worship their god in a sincere manner

Their god is the angry, vengeful authoritarian god that hates birth control, women's rights, liberalism and secularism. Although they are verbally obsessed with Jesus, they don't take notice on what he said regarding social issues, as the violent god in parts of the Old Testament is what they relate to. What Jesus is to them is the vessel into which to be "saved from damnation" by "accepting Christ as your savior", it is a means to be with the hateful god they relate to.

The inaction of many right-wing Christians towards to poor is due to the Calvinist idea that the rich are so due to "God's grace", and that the poor are poor because either they're "sinful" or "lazy."

I think the occasional opportunistic republican may well be agnostic but will take on board this version of a god as a matter of working the base. However a lot of republicans do see god in this way and really believe in it; and when this god is tied in with a version of violent nationalism, it becomes an even more dangerous combination.

[OregonDem]

4. You do know it is actually possible to be a conservative and an

atheist, after all conservatism is a philosophy not a religion. The religious right just happens to be most organized and outspoken group out of all those who call themselves conservative and so a lot of people's perception is that the fundies represent a larger percentage of the conservative movement than they actually are. It is common misperception that the religious right and conservatism are one and the same. However that being said I do believe that your remarks do apply to the religious right.

[Phredicles]

5. As Stephen Colbert said,

Quoting Jesus in your speech: Small government;
Actually doing what Jesus says: Big government.

[OzarkDem]

9. Very good point

That would make a great bumper sticker.

[trotsky]

7. WTF?

Just because they don't interpret the bible the same way you do, doesn't mean you get to lump them in with atheists.

[onager]

10. Liberals and conservatives both claim to speak for God.

But can't an omnipotent Thingamajig speak for itself? Oh, sorry, I forgot. Once upon a time...cough...It occasionally did "miracles" like nuking Sodom or committing mass genocide against helpless Egyptian infants. But It hasn't done any of those tricks for, oh, about 5000 years now.

Like a couple of the other responders, I am truly godless, being an atheist. I'm with them. Just because you and the Religious Right disagree on what some religious propagandist scribbled during the Bronze Age, you don't get to foist the RR off on us.

As for all the Buy-bull remarks about charity, H.L. Mencken said it best:

It is one of the Christian delusions that Christianity brought charity into the world. It did no such thing. There were plenty of agencies for taking care of the poor and helpless long before Christianity was heard of, and even before Judaism.

Both Christianity and Judaism have converted charity into a sort of pious racket. The alms-giver, in return for a trifling expenditure on this earth, will be rewarded with an infinity of bliss post-mortem. This purely selfish note...appears also in the other religions of the East.

Thus religion has not really promoted charity, but debased it.

[Evoman]

11. So being "godless" is synonymous with being evil?

"American conservatives exercise what I call a ceremonial Godliness, and actual Godlessness."

What is excercising Godlessness mean to you? Do you think that atheists walk around beating up gays, condemning abortion and stem cell research, and hating people who believe in a different invisible men? I'm sorry, my friend, but the "godless" people aren't the ones strapping bombs to themselves. The "godless" people aren't the one who hypocritically judge other peoples gods, while proclaiming themselves the one true religion. They godless people have no reason to hate gays, and no pulpits from which to scream that hatred.

Not only are conservatives christians (DEAL WITH IT), they are about as far from godless as possible. There is no difference between Conservatives calling Liberals godless, or Liberals implying conservatives are godless. Its nothing but a smear against atheists, whose minds, apparently, you are unable to comprehend. If you believe in god, you are no atheist. And atheist behaviour is not evil, no matter what your fucking church or bible say.

Evoman

[neebob]

12. Hmm.

Well, I suppose if you think godlessness and ungodliness are bad things. On the point of letting God speak or whatever you're trying to do with the Bible verses, I'll just let kitty speak for me:

"

[NMMNG]

13. They've got plenty of God

Albeit the vengeful, wrathy, hateful God.

What they don't have any of is Jesus, which makes it rather ironic that they call themselves Christians.

[Goblinmonger]

14. And people wonder

why atheists are so tired of dealing with people's shit. When people on a progressive web site use "godlessness" as a synonym for evil, shitty, and "me no likey," it gets pretty hard to just sit here and think that everyone loves me.

How about if you try some other line of attack than assert that only people with your brand of religion are good people.