The Boeskool

Tennessee Lawmakers Are Willing To Take Food From Poor Kids In Order To Keep LGBT People From Having Equal Rights

Posted on January 18, 2016 by theboeskool

I know, I know… That title is too long. Listen–I live in Tennessee. And as much as I have grown to love my new home, there are some times that I feel like legislators in this state are competing with a few other southern states for the title of “Most Backwards-Thinking Embarrassment To The Union.” Like the time they tried to vote the Bible as the Official State Book. Or the time they tried to pass the “Don’t Say Gay” bill making it illegal for school personnel to discuss homosexuality in any way. Or the time that they tried to make it legal for kids in schools to bully, as long they were bullying kids for being gay (as an expression of their “faith”). Well, they are at it again… Lawmakers in the Volunteer State are attempting to pass a bill called the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act. And, as you might have assumed from the name, this is basically a big Rocky Top Middle Finger to the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

“Be on the right side of history.” Seriously.

The summary of the bill reads that “It requires the state of Tennessee to defend natural marriage as between one man and one woman as recognized by the people of Tennessee, regardless of any court decision to the contrary.” It also basically forces the Attorney General to defend all the government officials (Kim Davis types) who could (and definitely would) get sued as a result of this action, and it forbids local agencies and officials from arresting people who refuse to follow federal law regarding marriage equality. You can read the summary HERE, but along with the summary of what the bill would practically change, there is always a Financial Summary as well… And this is where things get interesting.

If this bill passes, Tennessee could stand to lose over $8.5 billion in funding. But don’t worry… That money won’t come from something important, like our roads. It will be taken from programs designed to help poor kids–Over $6.5 billion from TennCare, and over $2 billion from SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Yes. You read that correctly. Tennessee legislators are so interested in enforcing their own interpretation of Biblical morality on the people of this state, that they are willing to lose over $8,510,520,500 in federal funding–funding that is designated for kids who don’t have enough food. Or need help keeping the heat on. Or need medicines that help them to be able to breathe.

Or anyone’s rights, really.

It’s like it’s not enough to let the LGBT community know we think they’re going to hell, and let them know they’re not welcome in our churches (not our Church), and make sure we can still fire them for being gay… We–as a state–must CODIFY THEIR DISCRIMINATION, all at the cost of $6.5 billion in healthcare for poor kids, and over $2 billion supplemental nutrition and temporary assistance for needy families. I honestly cannot wrap my head around this legislation. It’s just so shameful… Here we are, in the buckle of the Bible Belt, and people are (still) using their faith as a justification for discrimination. All at the expense of kids living in poverty who are sick and hungry. But these are the representatives the people of Tennessee have elected… The sort of people who would take food from kids living in poverty if it meant making sure the gays don’t have the same rights as the rest of us. <–This, by the way, is why it is SO IMPORTANT to educate yourself AND VOTE in local elections. These sorts of people can get elected with barely any votes… And their time spent in office has real world consequences.

Beavers & Pody sounds like a mildly cool name for a 70’s folk duo, but what they are doing is far from cool. Please give these confused lawmakers a call and tell them what you think.

So if you’re like me, you’re probably hearing about this and wondering, “What can I do to help?” Well, there are a few things. You can call your local representative and let her or him know that you find this legislation repulsive in every way, and contrary to everything worthwhile that makes us human. You can call Mark Pody (615-741-7086) and Mae Beavers (615-741-2421) and tell them that this legislation is the exact OPPOSITE of following Jesus and loving our enemies, and it grosses you right out. And one other thing you could do is you could SHOW UP. The Tennessee Equality Project is having people show up at the Legislative Plaza WEARING RED to show your support for Marriage Equality. It’s from 3-5 on Wednesday, January 20. I don’t do this kind of stuff enough… We rarely ever show up. We rarely ever march. We rarely ever take any sort of direct action. We rarely ever come out from behind our computers and stand side-by-side with people to stand for something we believe in. Here’s a chance: HERE’S A LINK to the Facebook event page.

We don’t call people idiots for standing up and saying, “God Hates You.” We simply proclaim, with our lives and our words and our actions, that GOD LOVES YOU.

People in this state–religious leaders, ordinary citizens, and lawmakers alike–are standing up on a daily basis, and basically saying to the LGBT community: “You’re not welcome here.” This proposed bill is a disgusting piece of legislation–One that somehow manages to give these backward-thinking legislators a “two birds, one stone” of hurting the gays and the poor at the same time. Maybe consider living up to this state’s nickname in a different way, and “volunteer” a couple hours of your time, wear something red, and stand together with people in solidarity against this garbage. The people writing these bills (that continue to make our state a national punchline) might not get the message, but maybe our LGBT brothers and sisters might get the message that there are many of us here in Tennessee who want them to know: You ARE welcome here. We are with you in this fight for equal rights.

Please share this. And let people know about the event at Legislative Plaza. Let us honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. by doing something WHEREVER we see injustice.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Discrimination, LGBT Rights, Mae Beavers, Mark Pody, Marriage Equality, Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act | 9 Comments

You Have Every Right To Say Racist Things

Posted on January 9, 2016 by theboeskool

“So you like Trump ’cause he’s honest, and you respect that… But he’s honest about being racist. That’s like saying you like rapists ’cause they’re real go-getters, and you respect tenacity.” ~ Keon Polee

There are a whole bunch of people around right now who are very against the concept of “Political Correctness.” These people count it as a great injustice when someone loses a job or is publicly shamed just because they may have expressed views that are offensive or repulsive to huge swaths of humanity. Likewise, they revel in the times when people say things that seem sexually or racially insensitive, while celebrating as Heroes of Free Speech those brave few who are willing to “tell it like it is.”

One of those “heroes” spoke up this week… The controversial Governor of Maine, Paul LePage, expressed some of his ideas about the folks who are trafficking heroin into Maine and are responsible for the state’s heroin epidemic. Here is the video of his remarks:

Just in case you don’t watch, here is the absolutely unbelievable quote:

“These are guys with the name “D-Money,” “Smoothie,” “Shifty” – these types of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here to sell their heroin, they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave… which is a real sad thing, because then we have another issue we have to deal with down the road.” ~ Paul LePage, Governor of Maine

If you DIDN’T watch the video, chances are you just read that quote and thought, “Nah… That can’t be right,” and you just went back and clicked on the video to see if he actually said that. I did the same thing. In the comments section of the post in which I read about this story, a person wrote that he liked Governor LePage because he “tells it like it is.” But the more I think about the phrase “tells it like it is,” really it starts to sound like a whole different way of obscuring language with Political Correctness. If you think about it, in cases like this, saying someone is just “telling it like it is” has become PC code for “I agree with the racist thing this person has just said.”

Another awesome cartoon but the amazing Tom Toles.

And this anti-political-correctness movement has its tentacles in EVERYTHING right now. It affects conversations about what’s happening in Oregon… It affects a perceived “War On Christmas” and results in people saying “Merry Christmas” like a middle finger… It affects how Christians speak about Muslims… It affects how people speak about refugees… I was writing about this stuff three years ago when I wrote about people letting go of using the word “Retarded.” It’s everywhere. People file all of their prejudices and bigotry under “Everyone Is Way Too Worried About Political Correctness These Days,” and that way it’s really easy to dismiss it when someone looks at them and says, “Hey. That’s not okay. You’re better than this… WE’RE better than this!”

That, or it’s a term for using language that attempts to treat people with respect… Either one.

Listen–You might have a very real concern and fear that all our white daughters are getting knocked up by black men. You might see this as just ONE MORE THING that deteriorates racial purity in this country… But if you decide to voice that concern (or, as in the case of Gov. LePage, it accidentally slips out), don’t blame “Political Correctness” for people calling you a racist. People are calling you a racist because you just said something that is from page one of the White Supremacists Manual that they keep beneath the Confederate Flag in the same drawer as the “Skinheading Clippers” in the church lobby of the monthly KKK meeting.

Incidentally, three days ago the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested three people and charged them with distributing heroin in three different Maine counties. Below are the mug shots of “D-Money,” “Smoothie,” and “Shifty” Governor LePage was referring to…

Screen Shot 2016-01-08 at 5.26.53 PM.png

There are literally hundreds of captions I could write here that are very funny, but not at all kind. You’ll just have to trust me on that. So… yeah. Here’s my caption.

I’m not completely sure which one is which, but I’m relatively sure that there is only one person in this line up who has any chance of “impregnating Maine’s young, white girls.” And that chance is… remote.

People who say offensive things about minorities and women and immigrants and LGBT folks and NOT some sort of champions of “Free Speech.” Yesterday, an officer who patrols in the area Tamir Rice lived in (before the 12 year old was gunned-down and killed by police officers for carrying a toy gun in a park… All before their squad car even stopped rolling) made this comment to Tamir’s grieving mother (after accusing her of “just want[ing] money”): “Raise your kids not to play with fake guns stupid bitch.” It’s just not okay. And the guy in the video below ended up losing his job because his un-PC statements were caught on tape. I won’t be captioning this one…

Guess what? You don’t get to say racist crap free of consequence. Stop trying to hide your hatred behind bogus claims of “people being way too politically correct.” I mean, sure–You have every right to say racist things… And we have every right to call you a racist. You have a right to spew a bunch of bigoted garbage… And we have a right to call you out on the grossness of your bigotry. We have a right to get it on video. And we have every right to tell the people who sign your paycheck. And we have every right to expect the people around us to treat each other with respect. And we have every right to demand that people in positions of leadership are held to a higher standard on this… Whether those people are officers, Church leaders, governors, congressmen, or political candidates.

Or we don’t say Hillary Clinton “got schlonged.”

And as a side note (on a side show), this is why Donald Trump is so concerning for the GOP… I’m aware that there is plenty of racism within both major political parties in America, but this issue has become a real problem for republicans. Trump may draw some large crowds right now, but embracing this “Anti-Political Correctness” movement is a huge mistake. You might still be able to win a lot of local elections by being the party of Anti-Gay, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Refugee, Anti-Black Lives Matter, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Poor People, etc… But the country–as a whole (and the world as a whole)–is moving in a very different direction. It’s moving slowly, but it’s moving. Embracing that image with fear-mongering, politically incorrect candidates is a terrible decision. I suspect the leadership of the republican party is much more comfortable when their candidates keep their racism where it belongs… Off camera.

If you value this blog, maybe help support it. Become a Patron. Just like a really cool dude named Andrew Simons did. Just pretend you’re buying me a beer. Or a whisky. Or a bottle of wine. Or don’t… Either way, I’m going to keep on writing. And either way, I love you guys.

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged Maine Governor, Paul LePage, Political Correctness, Prejudice, Racisim, Tamir Rice, Tom Toles, Trump | 12 Comments

A Christian Perspective On The Shit Going Down In Oregon

Posted on January 7, 2016 by theboeskool

I have tried for a few days now to write about what’s been happening in Oregon… About the double standard there is when white people with guns demand justice. But really, that can pretty much be summed up with one awesome tweet:

Today I learned:
plural of armed black people is thugs
plural of armed brown people is terrorists
plural of armed white people is militia

— koush (@koush) January 3, 2016

I imagined what would happen if Black Lives Matter protesters–fed up with the injustice of government officers being able to kill unarmed black people with impunity–decided to abandon their non-violent stance, get some guns, and “occupy” a federal building. I imagined what would happen if a group of Muslims–fed up with being racially profiled, while this country’s political leaders demonize them and threaten to ban Muslims from entering the country–decided to take up arms, marched through the streets, set up in a wildlife refuge’s gift shop while saying they are “willing to kill and be killed” if anyone attempts to remove them by force. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where both of those groups would already be dead by now.

Interestingly enough, much of America’s reaction to Y’all Qaeda’s siege on federal property follows this exact same scale…

There’s just so much hypocrisy in this story. Like the irony of anti-federalists asking people to send them socks and snacks. And how are those supplies going to GET there… Through the MAIL? On ROADS?

“Thoughts and Prayers” will keep these guys about as warm as they keep homeless people…

It’s just dripping with irony… Take for example how this whole protest is over land rights, but the land they are on right now was taken by force 137 years ago (almost to the day) by a different group of armed white men… Taken away from the Native American Paiute Tribe. Though at the time that those indigenous people were marched off the land in shackles, instead of being known as the “Malheur National Wildlife Refuge,” it was just known as the “Malheur Reservation.” You can READ ABOUT IT HERE. Don’t worry, though, it all turned out okay for the Paiutes… 50 years later, they were given 10 acres of land that used to be a garbage dump.

Enter a captionOne thing’s for sure: These guys don’t like groups with the acronym BLM… Be it “Black Lives Matter” or the “Bureau of Land Management.”

But if you’re not seeing all the glaring double standards, you’re either not looking, or you’re one of the millions of people who are–for some reason–incapable of seeing hypocrisy and injustice when it is applied to groups other than the one with which you identify. For example, when protesters (the UNARMED variety) showed up up in Ferguson to protest the killing of Michael Brown and the refusal to indict the officer who killed him, not only was the National Guard was called out, but the police showed up looking like extras for The Matrix Trilogy. In case you forgot, here are a couple of pictures that might help jog your memory…

25-ferguson-cops.w750.h560.2x.jpg

This was the turnout for UNARMED protesters who were gathering in a public space. The people who are “protesting” in Oregon right now are a group of heavily-armed, anti-federalist radicals who are talking about being prepared to kill people and making tear-filled, Al Qaeda-esqe martyr videos for their families to watch after they are dead (This particular one made by an unhinged, anti-Muslim white supremacist).

Did I miss the call for the national guard in Oregon? I recall them in Ferguson and Baltimore. #OregonUnderAttack

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) January 3, 2016

But again–just like with so many issues–either the double standard is so clear to you that it’s difficult to imagine how a person could NOT see it, or none of this stuff seems even remotely hypocritical or unreasonable. It doesn’t do any good for either side to sit and write about how stupid the other side is. There is more than enough “I’m right, and you’re stupid” in the world to go around without adding to it… So today I’m trying to write about the thing that’s BEHIND the thing that’s behind the thing that separates us so well. And here’s the best I can figure: It’s God.

And so, if you know anything about me, you already know that I don’t believe God is the cause of the problems in the world (though, with all of the crap in the world that is credited to belief in God, it’s easy to see how more and more people could come to the conclusion that the world would be better off if we were all atheists). The problem is a specific BRAND of God… It’s the god who hates. The god who hates his enemies. The god who hates everyone except for your group. The god who hates all the same people that you hate. The god who damns to burn in hell everyone who doesn’t believe the same things that you believe. This “god who hates” is the common denominator.

But it’s more than that… There is a rigid and frightening Certainty to their beliefs that seems like the foundation that this counterfeit god is built on. It’s a startling lack of humility that breeds Fundamentalism. And please don’t hear me saying “conservatism” or “republicanism.” This is no more “republicanism taken to its logical end” than the Westboro Baptist Church is “Christianity taken to its logical end.” It is an Extremist ideology of fundamentalism that is deeply rooted in an “Us-Versus-Them” Tribalism and an inability to see shades of grey in what appears to be a very Black & White world. It is characterized by a suspicious Anti-Intellectualism and a mistrust of any institutions (The guys leading this standoff happen to be Mormons… Not that it matters much–A paranoid fundamentalist extremism transcends religious boundaries). Many of these people are convinced that they Hear From God in very specific fashion, and they treat the word “belief” and the word “certainty” as synonyms. In these sorts of groups, people who are unsure must not be a “true believers,” and they are pushed away from the group. And when Belief that something is “God’s will” transforms into Certainty that something is “God’s will,” things can get very Dangerous, very fast.

Best Twitter Hashtags for these Bozos: #YallQaeda, #VanillaISIS, #YeeHawd, and #ShaniaLaw. Twitter is awesome.

It isn’t surprising that the fundamentalism that pervades so many folks’ religious ideologies would lend itself to a fundamentalism in a nationalistic ideology. The inability to allow for different interpretations in scripture is the same deficiency that is brought to the reading of the Constitution. Next thing you know, you’ve got these “Oath Keepers” and “3 Percenters” who look at a different interpretation of the constitution the same way that they look at a different interpretation of the Bible… Heresy. Maybe even acts of war. Next thing you know, we have people who are looking at Timothy McVeigh as a hero. We have people pledging to protect the Constitution, but not understanding that that same Constitution allows for changes to and interpretation of that document. It not only allows for it… It REQUIRES interpretation. And without that basic understanding, something like a change to our gun laws, or granting the right to marry to same-sex couples… These things can feel like more than just a different interpretation–They feel like an attack on the Constitution, an attack on God, and (maybe most frighteningly for some) an attack of the feeling of safety that comes with being certain of everything.

Ahh, Ammon Bundy… Following in a long line of famous Bundy’s (Seen here with Al and Ted).

A lot of people seem to be taking an “Ignore-them-and-they’ll-go-away” stance for these people, but personally, I think it’s much more serious than that. Many of these people want another Ruby Ridge or another Waco. They WANT something to happen— Not only to validate their paranoia and prove the prophecy they are working so hard to fulfill, but to hopefully ignite a spark that will start a war. Incidentally, this was the same hope for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and injured over 600–the biggest act of domestic terrorism our country has ever seen. Hopefully, it won’t come to people losing their lives over fundamentalism, misplaced certainty, and a belief in the god who hates… But all over the world we see evidence to the contrary. There are people in this country with stockpiles of guns and “Go-Bags” ready to start fighting. People want to believe we’re “smarter than that,” but here’s the reality: We are no more rational than the parts of the world that have managed to produced the kind of terrifying certainty of ISIS… We just speak a different language, salute a different flag, and call our god who hates by a different name.

So that’s a pretty big problem… But what’s the solution? I continue to believe that only way to counter the ideology of the god who hates is to proclaim to the world the reality of The God Who Loves. The God who loves “them” every bit as much as God loves “us.” The God who loves us all, regardless of national borders. The God who loves us all, despite how “right” or “wrong” our theology is. The God who loves his enemies, and calls us to do the same. The God who calls us to be hopeful, even when hope seems foolish. The God who loves the whole world… even these misguided jackasses in Oregon (and, as a side note, Oregon has an incredibly racist past that you can READ ABOUT HERE. The picture below was taken at a 2008 political rally. In Portland. FOR OBAMA! You can imagine the white out conditions in rural parts of the state).

Like a blizzard… (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

The way out of this is to rid ourselves of the lines that divide us. Many of us are witnessing the dissolving of boundaries in our own lives, and where boundaries start to fade, things get less and less certain. But there remain many people in the world right now who crave that certainty, and every dissolving boundary is met with fear and anger. People feel like they NEED their religious boundaries, their geographical boundaries, their “Us-Versus-Them,” their tribes… So if our reaction to that fear and anger is to set up yet another boundary between “us” and “them,” it only works to reinforce an ideology of separation. That separation is a sickness, and the only remedy is to proclaim a different God… The God who binds us all together. The God who inspires us to love their kids every bit as much as our own kids. The God who dissolves boundaries. The God who stirs our hearts to declare to the world that we are all on the same team–That we are all one–That either we all win, or none of us win… Until “the god who hates” seems like a distant memory… and a logical impossibility.

Once again, my Patrons are the best. Today I’d like to say a special thank you to Beverly Cook. It’s no surprise to me that most of the people pledging at the “Get a picture of me mowing the lawn with my shirt off” level are women.

I’m so joking, obviously… My torso looks like a whistling gorilla. Thanks again for all of your support!

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Oregon Standoff | 13 Comments

Nativity Scenes, and How To Tell If You’re A Christian

Posted on December 21, 2015 by theboeskool

My house as a kid was about 2 miles away, but I can still remember lying in bed at night and hearing, clear as a bell, “I am the Grand Haven Musical Fountain.”

I grew up in a little tourist town called Grand Haven. It was a great place to be a kid… Especially in the summers. It was (and still is) the sort of place where everyone within driving distance would come to escape the heat during the day. It has this amazing boardwalk, and a pier with a lighthouse, and literally one of the best beaches in the country. At night–especially on the weekends–our little downtown would transform into an adolescent dream. And those summer nights downtown were punctuated by the Grand Haven Musical Fountain. It was basically a giant fountain, with water that was lit with colored lights and swayed in time to music. For a time, we got to say “Home of the world’s largest musical fountain…” As if anyone was keeping track. Every night in the summer, you can still watch the fountain (from across the channel where the Grand River flows into Lake Michigan) at its home near the middle of an old dune named Dewey Hill. And for as long as I had ever known, perched atop that piece of public land we all knew as Dewey Hill was a giant white cross looking over everything–the town, the Musical Fountain, the locals… even the hot out-of-town girls who were hopefully still wearing their swimsuits.

The cross had been there for a long time…

Outside of the summertime, things weren’t nearly as eventful in our sweet little tourist trap of a town. But whatever the season, that giant cross was still there. In the winter, Dewey Hill would get decorated with a giant nativity scene. All the major characters were there (in wooden cutout form)–Angels high on the hill, shepherds watching over their flock, wisemen on camels, and of course Mary, Joseph, & Jesus in the manger. In my youth, it never even occurred to me that there might be people in the world who didn’t appreciate their public lands being ornamented with Christian iconography. As far as I knew, EVERYONE was Christian… But I grew up pretty sheltered. I mean, I had heard rumors of “Catholics,” but never actually SEEN one. If I’m being honest, I was more than a little sheltered–There was only one “black” girl in our school that I knew of, and sometime around 6th grade, I figured out that she was actually Korean.

So wait… It took the wise men about two years to get there, but Mary and Joseph hadn’t moved Jesus out of the manger yet?!? This timeline is off.

Anyway, earlier this year–after threats of a lawsuit–the city council voted to remove that giant cross (and the nativity scene as well) from the hill. And, as you might imagine, a lot of people were very upset about this. I’m part of a Facebook group of people from Grand Haven, and it seems like angry posts about the removal of the cross (and–especially this time of year–nostalgia for the old nativity scene) are an almost daily occurrence. And this sort of controversy is not at all limited to my little home town… Scenes like this are playing out all over the country. Here is what the brouhaha usually looks like:

Small town has Christian decorations/nativity scene/iconography up on public land, in front of a courthouse, or in some sort of government building.
Minority group threatens to sue.
Majority of people find nothing offensive about the decorations, and want to keep the them up… based partly on “tradition.”
City officials are aware that they have no legal leg to stand on.
Given a choice between A) opening up the area to any number of non-Christian displays and B) taking down the religious decorations, the city usually decides to take the stuff down.
A large group of Fox”News”-watching conservatives throw an absolute fit, and start using phrases like “Founding Fathers” and “Religious Liberty” and “Christian Nation” and “War on Christmas,” and even the word “Persecution.” And they take to social media to voice their displeasure, usually blaming the atheists… Ironically the same atheists their warped view of God helped to create.

So I wanted to write about this–Not only because this kind of thing is really interesting to me, but because I really do think that I might be able to help explain this situation to the folks who don’t get it yet. Listen…

You’re probably not going to think this is as funny as I do…

First off–The majority of the people who are most upset about stuff like “nativity scenes being taken down from public property” are same people who claim to really love the Constitution. But this is weird, because the Constitution is the very thing that forces the nativity scenes to come down… The First Amendment of U.S. Constitution says two things about religion: 1) It wants to keep the government from doing things to establish one religion over another, and 2) it wants to insure that the government doesn’t impede the free exercise of religion. And in just about every case brought before U.S. courts, a city using a public space or a government building for one religion’s iconography (without giving equal space for other religions) has been interpreted as a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

If you allow Christian stuff to go up, you have to allow stuff like this as well.

You may be a Christian living in an area where 90% of the people are Christians, and the majority of the people may have no problem with a giant white cross or a nativity scene built on a hill that is publicly owned… But YOU’RE not really the ones the Constitution is designed to defend. If 90% of the people in a state are Christians, and they all want to insist that everyone has to “swear to Jesus” when testifying in court, the Constitution is there to protect the 10% who don’t. And do you know why this is important? Because someday YOU might be one of the people in the 10%. This is a fairly fundamental part of what America stands for, and it is one of the things that has made this country great. This SHOULD be something that is fairly common knowledge, but it turns out that there are a whole lot of people out there who don’t get it. It is a safeguard that SHOULD be embraced as something fundamentally American…

You can’t fight a war without a gun…

What has happened instead is that any sort of push back against Christianity as the dominant religion is being framed as “persecution.” Or, if you will, the more seasonally appropriate phrase: “The War on Christmas.” Incidentally, it’s very much like the accusations of “class warfare” when people living in poverty start asking why 1% of the population has 50% of the wealth. It’s a common tactic used by the majority when the minority starts asking for fairness. Or even demanding it (yikes!). People are energized by the feeling of fighting against oppression, so if you can convince the ones in a position of power that they are actually the ones being oppressed, they will fight even harder against the ones with the boots on their necks–the folks who are working toward something closer to equality. Grosser still, they will even attempt to make terms like “fairness” and “equality” sound like something that is “unAmerican.”

There is an expression called “The Tyranny of the Majority.” Sometimes democracy can be used to take away the rights of the ones with less votes. But luckily, we have a document that is supposed to prevent that from happening. The Constitution is not there to protect the people in positions of power (the ones with all the power don’t really need that much “protecting”)… The Constitution is there to protect the ones actually being oppressed. It was there to protect the rights of women to be part of the political process. It was there to protect the little girl with brown skin who just wants to go to the “good” school that all the white kids go to. It’s there to protect the same-sex couple who lives in a state where the majority of the people use words like “abomination” because of a misguided religious belief. And it’s there to protect religious minorities when those same misguided religious beliefs lead them to believe that America is supposed to be a “Christian Nation.”

I could literally cough up better art from a chest cold.

There is a guy here in Nashville who owns a strip of land next to the interstate. A while ago, he decided to build–on his own land–a statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Flanked by a bunch of Confederate flags, it is a grotesque monument to hatred, discrimination, white supremacy, and murder. He’s allowed to do this because he is protected by the “free expression” part of the 1st Amendment… But if a majority of people living here in Tennessee wanted to use STATE LANDS to erect that same statue at the capitol building, this is when the rights of the minority must be considered. And unfortunately, we are living in a time where any attempt to consider the rights or feelings of the minority is demonized as “political correctness.” This same neo-conservative ideology that pits “political correctness” as the enemy not only revels in offending as many people as possible, but seems to use offensiveness as some sort of litmus test for truthfulness.

And it’s easy for people to get there, because a lot of these people who lament any attempt at treating minority populations with respect (and dismiss it as PC) are the same folks who believe that–as Christians–if people aren’t getting offended at the stuff they’re saying, they’re probably not doing it right. All because a verse in the Bible says, “You will be hated by everyone because of me.” But I’m pretty sure that Jesus would have clarified that statement a bit if he knew how many “Christians” would end up using it as a justification for being an ass. Anyway, the people who hated Jesus were the religious folks and the ones in power–If you’re making THEM mad, chances are good you’re doing things more like Jesus.

Calling everything as “Political Correctness” is just a way to dismiss people for calling you a bigot when you say bigoted things.

But when you label “treating people with respect” as “Political Correctness,” and then frame “Political Correctness” as the enemy, you can get away with saying all kinds of hateful garbage… Just look at the frontrunners of the republican party. And then, if you call them on their hateful, offensive rhetoric, they call you a whiny baby who is too easily offended. But consider the following: So many people in this country bemoan the tragic state of how easily offended people are–they talk about “political correctness run amuck”–but when there is even THE SLIGHTEST movement away from total and complete Christian dominance in this country, these same folks throw their hands up and cry “PERSECUTION!”

It is a dictionary-level definition of hypocrisy. Imagine–JUST IMAGINE–how much conservative Christians would LOSE THEIR FREAKING MINDS if a local government put up decorations for a Muslim holiday on public lands. People would be wearing sackcloth and ashes, and marching in the streets at the clear injustice of the lack of separation between church and state.

People lost. Their. Minds.

But here’s the situation we have right now in America: Last week, a bunch of people threw a fit (even suggesting that an arrest should be made) because a judge in New York decided to be sworn in by placing her hand on a Qur’an instead of a Bible. We have a Presidential candidate (Ben Carson) who says that Islam is inconsistent with the constitution, and thinks that being a Muslim should disqualify someone from being president. We have another candidate (the one who’s leading in the polls. I’m thinking about Voldemorting his name, and just referring to him as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” just because now the word “Trump” sticks in my throat like some sort of acid reflux belch) who is advocating not only suspending immigration for Muslims, but also said he is open to the possibility of registering Muslims in some sort of database. It is within this climate that we have people upset about not being able to have explicitly Christian images and decorations in public spaces.

Everyone SHOULD be able to get this. You can do it… Just attempt to consider what it might be like if YOU were an atheist living in a town that had a giant crucifix or nativity scenes on state land. Or, if that’s too hard for you, imagine the imaginary feeling of persecution you got when Starbucks didn’t put enough Christmas decorations on their cups… And then multiply that times ACTUAL discrimination. People talk about “Freedom of Religion,”but what they really want is freedom for their religion to be dominant. If you are fighting against this, you are fighting against one of the main things that makes America great. People say things like, “If you don’t like it, you can move somewhere else…” but “If you don’t like it, you can move somewhere else” is not the way this country works. And just because the majority of the people in your town are Christians does not give you the right to decorate your courthouse with pictures of Jesus. When we stop looking out for the rights and the feelings of the oppressed, the vulnerable, and the minority, we have lost our way–This is true for us as a nation, but it is especially true for us as a Church.

Thing is, they didn’t really even get rid of the cross… They just transformed it into an anchor.

One last thing: A bunch of people celebrated when someone recently put up another big white cross on top of Dewey Hill. A similar situation happened in a town in Minnesota called Wadena that was forced to take down a nativity scene from their town square–and as a result, thousands of their citizens put up big nativity scenes in their yards… To send a message to all the non-Christians, I guess. That message? Well… it sure wasn’t “We love you, and we are happy you’re here.” It was the same message that people were sending when they lined up around the block at Chick-Fil-A’s. It was a giant middle finger. But here’s something true: A nativity scene is not a middle finger. If you are putting up Christmas decorations to establish some sort of demented religious dominance, you are doing it wrong.

I’ll leave you with a multiple choice quiz that you SHOULD be able to ace:

They will know we are Christians by our…
A. Life-sized nativity scenes.
B. Town’s giant white cross.
C. Eagerness to offend.
D. Hypocrisy when it comes to supporting the First Amendment.
E. Inhospitable attitude toward people who are not like us.
F. Greeting of “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.”
G. Love.

If you answered anything other than “G,” again… You are doing it wrong. Here is a really good verse from the Bible: “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” ~ Romans 12:17-18

Happy Holidays… And Peace on Earth!

Once again, I want to express my gratefulness to everyone who reads my stuff and shares it. You can follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page, or–if you really want to help–you can become a Patron. Patrons support this blog with a couple dollars a month, and they can get some cool stuff. Joshua Bochniak is one of those people. Fun fact: The Urban Dictionary defines “Bochniak” as “A person lacking effort.” Joshua defies this definition, because he took the effort to help support something he believes in. And that’s awesome. THANK YOU!

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics, 3) Bathroom Humor, 4) All Of The Above | Tagged Dewey Hill, Grand Haven Anchor, Grand Haven Cross, How to tell if you're a Christian, Musical Fountain, Nativity Scenes, Political Correctness, Religious Freedom, War of Christmas | 26 Comments

6 Ways We Will All Murder You If You Ruin The New Star Wars Movie For Us

Posted on December 15, 2015 by theboeskool

Listen–I love Jesus. I have written about nonviolence on this blog multiple times, and I feel very strongly that loving your enemies is one of the non-negotiable parts of what it means to be a Christian… But at the same time, “The Force Awakens” comes out this week, and I’ve loved Star wars for longer than I’ve loved Jesus. All of the great Christmas presents of my childhood involved Star Wars in one way or another. I was just out of college when the Phantom Menace came out, and–like most people–if left me feeling… underwhelmed.

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Nothing has ever made me feel less like an adult than the giddiness I feel in anticipation of this movie.

I saw “Return of the Jedi” when I was 8 years old, and I have been waiting over 30 years to find out what happens next. I’m aware that I have three kids, and it’s probably beneath me to be geeking out like this over this movie, but… Here we are. I’m also aware that there are hundreds of thousands of people who already have your tickets to see the new movie, but like a lot of people, I probably won’t be able to see it right away. There are lots of us who find ourselves in this situation. I want you to know that if you ruin any part of the plot for us–if you give away any plot twist, any spoiler, no matter how insignificant–we will find you. And we will kill you. It will be mob justice. And it will be swift.

Here are six different ways we will murder you if you spoil any part of the plot of Episode 7: The Force Awakens…

“Death By Lego.” You will be put in a room with wooden floors–hands tied behind your back, and bare-footed–and you will be forced (get it? “Forced?”) to live out the rest of your miserable existence walking on a floor covered with Star Wars Lego pieces. Until you beg for mercy… But none will be given.
“The Old School.” I will cut a bitch. Nothing fancy. Just me murdering you with some sort of makeshift prison shiv. Be it a filed-down toothbrush, a sharpened spoon, or just a paring knife that is usually used for cutting up apples for my kids’ lunches… Make no mistake: I will cut you.
Getting “Trumped.” We will dress you up like a Black Lives Matter protester, and we will throw you into the modern-day KKK meeting that is a Donald Trump rally. Those people are angry, they are well-armed, and they they are not right in the head… As evidenced by their attendance at a Donald Trump rally.
“Kissing the Wookiee.” In preparation for this occasion, some very smart people have genetically engineered the closest thing we can get to an actual Wookiee. It is basically the love child of J.J. Watt and a female Grizzly Bear… and it is every bit as disappointed in you as I am for spoiling “The Force Awakens.” This Wookiee hybrid will literally pull your arms off of your stupid body. And then it will beat the hell out of you with your own arms.
“The Dumpster Fire.” You will sit in front of a TV that is playing the dumpster fire known as “The Phantom Menace.” On repeat. And you will sit there and morn the bastardization of a once proud franchise, until the tears that flow from your eyes finally leave you dangerously dehydrated. At which point you will be force-fed (Ha! I did it again…) stale popcorn, with nothing to wash it down. Your life will end with your spoiler-revealing mouth clogged by crappy popcorn.
“The Light In Dark Places.” I have fashioned an actual, functioning light saber. It took a while to get the specs right, and the only optics I’ve been able to work out make things a little unpredictable. If you leave it on too long, the handle starts to get really hot… Which is frustrating. And I still can’t find a portable power source capable of sustaining the beam, so it’s got this annoying extension cord attached to it… Which makes some of the acrobatic moves a little more difficult. Still, it’s not as clumsy as a blaster, you know? Anyway–long story short–if you ruin this movie for us, we’re going to put a light saber in your butt, and then we’re going to flip the power switch on.

This is what your stupid face is going to look like. KEEP. YOUR MOUTH. SHUT!!!

No matter which of these punishments you receive, your death will not be quick, like Obi Wan Kenobi being struck down by Darth Vader… And you will certainly not become more powerful that you could possible imagine. It will be slow and agonizing… Like being taken to the Dune Sea and being cast into the Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc. In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over 1000 years. But I guess you should have considered that before you gave something away about the identity of Kylo Ren. You ass.

There are a small group of people who help support me and this blog by becoming Patrons. One of these people is named Gil Gonzalez. I have never met him, but he has been so encouraging to me over the past couple years. It is people like him who help give me the courage to believe that I can write for a living. If you like what I’m doing here, and you want to be a patron and throw a couple bucks a month my way, you can do that RIGHT HERE. Otherwise, feel free to follow me on Twitter, or you can like my Facebook page. May the force be with you.

Posted in 3) Bathroom Humor | Tagged BlackLivesMatter, Functioning Light Saber, Getting Trumped, Punishment for spoilers, Ruining the new Star Wars movie, Spoiler Alert, Spoilers, Star Wars, The Force Awakens, The identity of Kylo Ren | 2 Comments

The Reason To Stay Friends With Trump Fans

Posted on December 10, 2015 by theboeskool

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of the following: “If you support ________, please go ahead and unfriend me right now.” There are a lot of different issues/topics that I have seen inserted into that space over the past few years. For the purposes of this post, I will be speaking to the sort of people who might feel compelled to complete that statement with the word “Trump.” Conversely, if you are a person who might fill that space with the words “letting Muslims into this country,” you’re probably not going to like what I’m going to say. Or really, what I’ve ever had to say (Feel free to voice your angry opposition in the comments sections–Your patriotic rage mixed with misguided religious fervor is a vivid reminder to the rest of us why talking about this stuff is so very important).

If this picture makes you more likely to vote for Trump, chances are you’re not going to enjoy this article.

A couple years ago, right around this same time of year, the whole country lost its head–very similarly to what is happening with Donald Trump right now–except two years ago, the issue that divided us was the Duck Dynasty guy making comments about homosexuality. After writing about that issue, I wrote a post titled “Starting An Argument On Christmas For All The Right Reasons” (if you haven’t read it, you should. I think it has a lot to say about finding hope in a climate of division and anger–especially at Christmas. But then again, I’ve always been a fan of what The Boeskool writes). If you don’t read it, it basically talked about how, when faced with all this crazy, “staying out of it” seems like the reaction of sane people. But if the only ones involved in the conversation are the crazy people, it starts to look like everyone is crazy… And then people start to lose hope. And that is not okay.

Two days ago, I wrote about how Christianity is not in a battle with Islam, but instead there is an Ideological struggle (or jihad) happening WITHIN the Church about what we believe God is actually like. And I know that many people dismiss Facebook et al. as “meaningless,” but–like it or not–one of the main places the battles for the hearts and minds of the people is taking place is on social media. And dealing with people online who are at drastically different stages of consciousness can be a maddening experience. This is why you have probably seen someone invite all their friends who think [fill in the blank] to unfriend them… It’s a fairly common reaction to the frustration of dealing with people who seem incapable of seeing things your way.

The Trump Campaign is starting to look eerily similar to the plot of “Brewster’s Millions.” Only with way more racism.

Yesterday, I was even introduced to FriendsWhoLikeTrump.com as a way of finding out which of your friends actually like this guy (Though, don’t use the results as a definitive judgment of someone’s lack of moral character. Some of those people might just be keeping an eye out for the awful things he says… Like birdwatchers, only instead of watching birds, they are on the lookout for Crazy. Also, some of those people might just be old school Apprentice fans). Anyway, I think that there are a whole lot of better choices than simply severing social media relationships with people who are either ignorant, deceived, or just plain bonkers enough to be rooting for Human Internet Comments Section known as Donald Trump.

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Here we see Mr. Trump pointing at the most expensive part of his outfit.

Now, I just used the word “Crazy” (as well as the word “Bonkers,” which is quickly becoming one of my favorite words) in that last paragraph. And while there are certainly more than a few crazy people out there, not everyone who is a Trump Fan (TF, for short) is a TF because they are crazy. Sometimes we use words to describe people that work to dehumanize them… But make no mistake, these people are human beings–made in the image of God–and worthy of the same love and respect that every one of us is worthy of. What sometimes looks like “craziness” is just plain old fear. If you’re having trouble treating people like human beings, just view them through the lens of understanding that people who are afraid are often the worst versions of themselves.

And I’m aware that this is probably coming off as being condescending (especially if you are a TF and have made it this far into what I’m writing), but that’s just the way it is. Enlightenment is not a value thing. There are plenty of people who are way more enlightened than I am… That doesn’t make me worth any less than them. Every stage we go through is necessary to bring us to the next place of deeper understanding of how to truly love each other. Puberty is not the fullness of the human condition, but it has as much value as any other stage, because without going through it, we couldn’t be who we are meant to be.

So this is what I see happening right now… 1) Someone commits an act of violence. 2) That act of violence inspires fear. 3) That fear grows into anger. 4) From that mixture of fear and anger, prejudice and hatred are born. 5) That toxic cocktail of fear, anger, prejudice, and hatred inevitably result in another act of violence. And 6) The whole thing starts over again. A sentiment summarized so perfectly in this Tweet from CJ Werleman

And as hard as it is to believe, not everyone is capable of seeing this double standard… It takes a certain degree of enlightenment and empathy to even have a chance at getting to the truth in that tweet. But it is the responsibility of the ones with a greater degree on enlightenment to stop that cycle of violence. Because if we pull out–out of frustration or futility or even our own fear–the people drinking that toxic cocktail will find each other, and they will whip themselves into a frenzy. And that frenzy has very real consequences. Below is the face of a Muslim store owner in Queens named Sarker Haque.

“It doesn’t matter what color or nationality you are. We are in America. Everybody came from somewhere.” ~ Sarker Haque

He was beaten yesterday by a man who said he wanted to “kill Muslims.” If we–the ones who see this stuff for what it is–stay out of it, these sorts of events will get more and more frequent.

So listen–If you are one of those people who has left this fear-based theology behind, you have a responsibility to respond lovingly to those folks who are stuck in this cycle of fear, anger, prejudice, hatred, and violence. And “responding lovingly” does not mean severing relationships (though I realize that sometimes it is necessary for your own mental health and safety… Kind of a “put on your own oxygen mask before putting on your child’s” sort of situation). Responding lovingly also does not mean leaving people to wallow in online echo chambers where people fuel the fires of each others’ fear, anger, prejudice, and hatred… until violence is the inevitable byproduct.

Terrorism doesn’t belong to just one religion.

There are real consequences for hatred. There are real consequences for bigotry. There are real consequences for equating acts of terrorism with one specific religion instead of with a warped ideology that transcends religious boundaries. There are real consequences for giving people the impression that “there is no such thing as a good Muslim” (like a “pastor” named Maury Davis did here in Tennessee). There are real consequences for fanning the flames of fear and fanaticism. It hurts people. It makes the world worse. And that, in turn, makes the world even scarier. There are people in every religion who are stuck in that cycle of violence, and those people will certainly use Maury Davis’ words, and Sarker Haque’s face, and Donald Trump’s inflammatory remarks to fuel even more violence. And fear. And anger. And prejudice. And hatred. And on and on and on…

And when we stay silent in the face of overt bigotry and hatred, there are real consequences for that as well. So yeah… there are a lot of people out there stuck in a cycle of violence who can’t see any way out. There are tons of ignorant people who post stuff online that is 100% factually untrue. There are people, angry about corruption and injustice, who are actually stockpiling weapons for a military conflict with the government. And about 30% of the republican party right now thinks that a racist, sexist, bigoted, fascist megalomaniac is the best person for the White House. But here is something that is true: These people need as many sane people in their lives as possible. Especially when “sanity” starts looking like breaking the cycle of violence with calmness, rationality, and most importantly, LOVE.

So please–if you’re able to–don’t throw the TF’s out of your life. They NEED you in their lives. When our disgust at the things ignorant people say outweighs our compassion for the ignorant people saying them, we have failed. You’re not going to be able to be purely loving every time–sarcasm and annoyance and impatience will rear their ugly heads from time to time (Lord knows they do in my life). But hopefully, if enough of us start actually behaving like we are better than this, maybe some other folks will come to their senses… they will wake up… and they will think, “You know what? I’m starting to think that I’m better than this as well.”

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Brewster's Millions, Christianity, Cycle of violence, Donald Trump, Facebook, Facebook political fights, Maury Davis, Muslims, Sarker Haque, Timothy McVeigh, Trump, Unfriending | 8 Comments

Jerry Falwell, Jr. and the Christian Jihad

Posted on December 7, 2015 by theboeskool

By now, many of you have probably already seen the video of Jerry Falwell, Jr., the president of Liberty University (the largest Christian college in the world), inviting all the Liberty students to carry concealed handguns so that there will be more “good people” with guns in order to “end those Muslims” and “teach ’em a lesson if they ever show up here.” Now, if you HAVEN’T seen the video, right about now you’re probably thinking “No. Freaking. Way.” I know… Me too. Here’s the video, if you care to watch it. If not (or you’re in a place where you can’t watch a video), I’m posting the transcription below. If you don’t care about either, just skip ahead, because as noteworthy as it is, it’s not really what I’m writing about…

“Thank you Senator Demint… We are so honored to have you here this morning. Before we dismiss this morning, I wanted to mention–Last night, Becky and I were watching the Fox”News” reports on the shootings in California. And we were so touched by Mike Madden, the first responder. I don’t know… Did anybody see that last night? He was the police officer who was the first responder to the terrible murders at the community center there, and uh, he told a story about how no matter how well you’re prepared in your training to deal with something like that, that there’s just no way–when you walk in–and you see the carnage and you smell the smell of gunpowder… It’s just something you can never be prepared for. So we contacted his family, or his office–after that report–to see if he had any sons or daughters who were looking for a place to attend college. We offered to help with the scholarships. We also are trying to contact the victim who had six children, who was killed in that carnage…

And it just blows my mind when I see the President of the United States say that the answer to circumstances like that is more gun control… I mean if the people [applause] if some of those people in that community center had had what I’ve got in my back pocket right now [huge applause]. Is it… is it illegal to pull it out? I don’t know… Is that..? Anyway. I’ve always thought if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they, before they walk in and kill us, [applause] so I just want to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit–we offer a free course. And let’s… let’s… let’s teach ’em a lesson if they ever show up here [more applause]. So… Thank you, and you’re dismissed.” ~Jerry Falwell, Jr.

Maybe you remember Jerry Falwell, Sr., co-founder of the Moral Majority and vocal opponent of Tinky Winky, the gay Teletubby.

If you decided to skip ahead, that is totally fine. I didn’t really want to spend a whole lot of time pointing out yet another leader in the Church saying things that followers of Jesus SHOULD find repugnant and completely antithetical to anything that could remotely be described as “Christian.” If you are a person who hears rhetoric like Falwell’s remarks, and thinks, “Yes! Finally someone had the balls to say it,” then the chance of me writing anything here that is going to change your mind is very slim. And conversely, if you are as disgusted as I am by garbage like this, I don’t want to spend a whole blog post preaching to the choir.

What I do want to write about is this: Christianity is involved in a battle right now. But it’s not a battle like the one Jerry Falwell, Jr. is describing… One where the opposing sides arm themselves with hidden handguns to “teach ’em a lesson.” The battle I’m talking about is not a battle BETWEEN Christianity and Islam, but it is a battle that is being fought WITHIN Christianity, as well as WITHIN Islam. Within both of these faiths, there is a battle being fought, but the battle isn’t one that is fought with concealed killing devices… The battle is ideological. It’s between the idea of a God of Violence, Vengeance, and Killing our enemies before they can kill us, and the idea of a God of Peace, Mercy, and Loving our enemies… even to the point of laying down our lives for them.

And though I can’t speak about this struggle within Islam with the same level of understanding as I can speak about this struggle within Christianity, I can assure you that there are veins within Islam–just as there are veins within Christianity–that are liberal, conservative, progressive, fundamentalist, and even fanatical and deranged. But the real question at the heart of those different ideologies is how people answer this one very important question: What is God like? How we answer that question has some giant implications…

I personally like to picture the Family Guy, Flash Gordon spoof God…

Really, all religions are basically trying to answer the question “What is God like?” Is God angry? Is he violent? Is he a he? Does he demand our very best stuff in order to keep his wrath at bay? Does God hate all the same people that I hate? Is God the kind of Being who is going to have all the “bad” people (the ones who don’t believe the same thing I believe) get tortured? Forever? Or is The Story of Who God Is infinitely better than that? For some people, even SUGGESTING that God might be in a good mood sounds something close to heresy. Even ASKING the question, “What is God Like?” implies a certain degree of theological humility… Because for many people (namely the “God said it, I believe it, That settles it” crowd), there is not even a question–it was all settled a long time ago. Still, for people who call themselves Christians, the answer to the question “What is God like?” hinges on the question “What is Jesus like?”

Is he like this?

Luckily enough, we actually have an answer to this question–we have a pretty good description of this “Jesus” fellow in the Bible. And this is NOT like choosing between the conservative and liberal narrative of the news. This is NOT a case of “Well, some people think Jesus was all about social justice, loving your enemies, and letting the poor and vulnerable know that God is actually on their side. Then again, other people think Jesus was all about trying to get as many Christians into positions of power as possible, killing your enemies before they can kill you, and letting the rich and powerful know that their position was given to them because God favors them more. I guess we’ll never know…” NO! We have stories. We have scripture. The Bible actually means something. Sometimes is seems like the people who throw around Bible verses the most are the ones who take the Bible the least seriously.

You don’t get to turn Jesus into a rich and successful businessman just because you heard somewhere that the reason the guards divided up his cloak is because it was so expensive. You don’t get to disregard Jesus’ clear call to nonviolence and turn him into some sort of military-minded leader just because of one cryptic passage where Jesus tells his disciples to take a purse, sell their cloak, and buy a sword–especially when a few verses later, the story has Jesus healing the ear of one of the soldiers who was arresting him to have him killed. That same Jesus said, “No more of this!” in response to that act of violence and fear. “Taking the Bible seriously” is not disregarding the overwhelming trajectory of scripture in an attempt to legitimizing your own violent ideology. Because doing that is not only intellectually dishonest–It’s dangerous.

When Michele Fiore was asked about Syrian refugees, here is what she said: “What, are you kidding me? I’m about to fly to Paris and shoot ’em in the head myself… I’m not OK with Syrian refugees. I’m not OK with terrorists. I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out. Just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life. I’m good with that.”

Honestly. It is dangerous. Today Donald Trump actually called for barring all Muslims from entering the United States. AND THIS GUY IS LEADING THE PACK! I still don’t believe that there are enough ignorant, hate-filled people in this country to get this caricature elected, but even if he doesn’t, he is fanning the flames of fear and xenophobic anger to a whole bunch of people… And I’d be willing to bet that just about every one of them has guns. His candidacy is giving the illusion of legitimacy to their rage. And that kind of anger does not just disappear without consequence. Grossest of all, there are leaders within the Church who are fanning the flames of fear and anger and violence and war right along with him. People within the Church need to stand up and say something. We are better than this!

This is NOT what “Making America Great” looks like.

This is not a “to each their own” sort of situation. This is not simply a difference of opinion–This is a difference between starkly different understandings of the Almighty. They are not the same. They are not even CLOSE to being the same. I expect leaders within the government to beat their drums of violence, but if the Church ceases to be the voice of opposition to that drum beat, we are in some serious trouble. The warped ideology of violence that took the lives of 14 people in San Bernardino is the same ideology that brought down the twin towers–Acts of terror meant to inspire a fear and hatred that would spark some sort of “holy war.” And that exact same ideology is what many Christians are embracing as a response.

55267296 That is the real danger of the mixture of Christianity and nationalism–The Church SHOULD be the the moral voice of peace speaking to governmental powers, but when Pastors start “Huckabeeing” (that’s a word I made up) their way into government–or when megalomaniacs feign faith in an attempt at a power grab–the lines between Church and state get blurred. And when that happens, it becomes harder for people to be able to tell if they’re listening to a representative of Jesus, or a representative of Caesar. The separation of Church and State is at least as important for the preservation of the Church as it is for the preservation of the State.

Whoa–Don’t bring me into this…

Many people misunderstand the word “jihad” to mean “holy war.” Jihad actually means “a striving” or “a struggle.” In Islam there is an understanding of a “greater jihad” (an inner spiritual struggle) and a “lesser jihad” (an outward struggle against enemies). And there are certainly outward enemies to Christianity right now (and that can certainly be scary), but a GREATER struggle–a greater jihad–is within our own hearts. And right now the struggle is for the heart of Christianity. It is a struggle for our own identity. Who is this God we worship? Who is this Jesus we love? And as followers of Jesus, WHO ARE WE?

That ain’t no cross.

So yes–There is a holy war… but it isn’t with any one religion. It is a holy war with our own moral center. It is a struggle. A jihad. For those of you who love your military metaphors, Christianity is involved in a battle… But it is not a battle with Islam. It is a battle with a fundamental distortion of who Jesus is. You know what? Distortion is not a strong enough word… It’s a desecration. It is a blasphemous parody of Jesus. We are involved in an idealogical battle between a God of violence and a God of love. It is a battle between a Jesus who bids his followers to take up their crosses, and a Jesus who bids his followers to fight against that cross with what ever weapons of war they might have handy. It is a battle between a Jesus who calls us to love our enemies while he died loving his, and a Jesus who calls his followers to carry around concealable killing devices, “just in case.”

We follow a Jesus who loved his enemies. And he told his followers to love their enemies too. And he said to do it to “be perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” It sounds like Jesus believes that God is the sort of God who loves his enemies… That actually sounds like good news. The world functions in “An eye for an eye” economy, but we are called to break that cycle of violence. When you play by the world’s rules, nothing ever changes. Either God looks like Jesus, or we’re all screwed. And Jesus is the one who said, “You’ve heard that is was said ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

I know this one is longer than most, but I wanted to leave you with the words of a man who actually lived this out. He was beaten, jailed, threatened, his house was bombed, and he ended up being shot and killed by one of the enemies he felt called to love. He too had a “Jr.” at the end of his name, but his words couldn’t be more starkly different:

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

This post is one of the more important ones that I’ve written in a long time. I’d be super thankful if you’d share it. I’m also super thankful for the patrons who help support me and this blog. One of those people is named Colleen Klein. Though we’ve never met, my wife tells me she is awesome. If you believe in the mission of this blog, or if you value the stuff I write and want to help support it, you can do that RIGHT HERE.

Posted in 1) Jesus, 2) Politics | Tagged Christian Jihad, Donald Trump, Guns, Islam, Jerry Falwell Jr, Jerry Falwell Speech Transcription, Jesus and Guns, Jihad, Liberty University, Loving Your Enemies, Michele Fiore, Nonviolence, What is God like? | 30 Comments

Please Stop Acting Like You Care About All These Shootings

Posted on December 2, 2015 by theboeskool

You don’t.

Do the words “well-regulated” mean anything to anybody?!?

If you belong to the NRA, and you give your money to an organization that actively works to keep highly effective killing tools in as many (white) hands as possible, you don’t care at all about any of the people who lost their lives (at least 14 so far) today in San Bernardino. Or about the other mass shooting that happened today in Savannah, Georgia that you probably didn’t even hear about because the news has been covering a different mass shooting… Lord help us.

If you support an organization that lobbies (buys off) our representatives in order to pass legislation that makes it illegal for the government to keep statistics on gun violence, you are couldn’t give less of a f**k about the kids who were murdered at Sandy Hook.

Gun-Control_zpse13fc312 If you are one of the throngs of talking heads who accuse rational people of “trying to politicize a tragedy” every time there is another mass shooting in the hopes that your accusation will delay a right outrage just long enough to let apathy set in, you are part of the problem.

If you have ever said some awful phrase like, “If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns,” or “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” and you actually meant it, you are part of the engine of ignorance that pulls along the freight train of death and destruction that devastates so many families and communities.

If you look at a hoard of white guys with assault rifles walking through our streets as “patriots” who are demonstrating their 2nd Amendment rights, but you look at black folks with guns as a threat to public safety, you couldn’t care less about black lives… Let alone “blue” lives or “all” lives mattering. Also, you are totally racist.

If you can listen to Donald Trump talk for more than 30 seconds without wanting to either throw up or put your head through a window (or both), you are lacking something very important inside of you. I’m completely serious… You don’t get to fan the flames of hatred, and then act all sad when that fire ends up hurting real people.

If you have ever shared garbage like this, you don’t get to act like you care about gun violence.

The murders today in San Bernardino were America’s 352nd mass shooting so far in the 336 days of 2015… More than one per day. You can’t look at a statistic like this and believe that is ANYTHING CLOSE to what the writers of the 2nd Amendment were trying to protect. And if you’re one of the people working to turn the 2nd Amendment into something that legitimizes the reality of daily gun violence in America, you don’t get to post some BS status about how your “thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.” You just don’t. It is complete garbage. You are full of so much crap, and everyone other you and your gun nut friends can see it.

Just in case you can’t read it, the bottom says, “We won’t sell Kinder chocolate eggs in the interest of child safety. Why not assault weapons?”

And truthfully, I probably don’t care either. I waste my energy on anger at the idiocy and indifference that this country embodies when it come to gun violence… instead of… I don’t know… Marching??? So yeah, I have no idea what to do about it. The majority of the people we have elected are the sort of folks that stop any conversation about how to make these tragedies less frequent before those conversations even begin. They take two days to fearfully push through resolutions about Syrian refugees based on an act of violence on the other side of the world (that didn’t even involve Syrian refugees), but they can’t pass even the slightest bit of common sense gun regulations… All because a bunch of misinformed fear-addicts believe that our black president is coming for their guns. It’s so very frustrating. I know that human consciousness changes slowly, but it’s hard to be patient when this crap keeps happening on a daily basis… Especially when half the country thinks that the answer is MORE EFFING GUNS! GAH!!!

Yup… I don’t know what to do. It’s beyond baffling. I just want you all to know–and you know who you are–that I see you. When you feign concern for victims of these shootings… when you talk about “your heart breaking” for their families… when you use the phase “thoughts and prayers” each time the steady drumbeat of gun violence plays on in this country–I see you. A whole lot of people just like me see you. And we all see that you are completely full of shit.

Merry Christmas…

michael-scott-christmas

I’m not doing a Patron shout out. I’m sorry if this one too much of a downer… Sometimes I’m more hopeful than others. Thanks to everyone who supports what I do. Here are some other things I’ve written about this issue:
Some Thoughts On Guns In Church
Beware Of Toddlers With Guns!
More Guns Are Not The Answer
Guns For Christians Are Like Condoms For Nuns
A Common Sense (Non-Religious) Case Against Guns
Finding Hope In The Midst of Mass Shootings
Getting Rid of Windows

Posted in 2) Politics | Tagged 2nd Amendment, Donald Trump, Gun Control, Gun violence, Guns, Guns for Christians, Mass Shooting, NRA | 15 Comments

We Are Better Than Donald Trump

Posted on November 22, 2015 by theboeskool

That’s really all I wanted to say. I wanted to remind all of you that we are better than than this. We are better than fear. We are better than hatred. We are better than bigotry. We are better than Donald trump.

video.ynewskatiecouric.com@df3727ac-3227-3cc1-9d7b-f1fae7858acf_FULL.jpg

We are so much better than this. (Photo by Paul Morigi/WireImage)

That’s really all I wanted to say. This is my shortest blog ever. It’s already done. We are better than this America… We are better than this humanity. We are better than this. That’s good news! Even my daughter knows that… And she’s 11. Yesterday she said, “Donald Trump has some messed up ideas.” If an 11 year old can figure this out, the rest of us should be able to…

I have 30 Patrons now. If you want to see a list of some kick ass people, check this out. Dianne Moorefield is one of those kick ass people… She helps me buy groceries for my family while I continue to write this blog for you guys. Thanks again!!

Posted in 5) Not Quite Sure, Uncategorized | Tagged Bigotry, Donald Trump, Elections, We are better than Donald Trump | 6 Comments

16 Things Refugees Are Like…

Posted on November 18, 2015 by theboeskool

You guys–You are aware this stuff is being recorded, right? Seriously. Very few things on the internet ever actually disappear. And someday our kids or our grandkids are going to see the crazy, fear-filled, inaccurate shit you’ve been typing into your computers and cell phones… and they are going to be so ashamed. They are going to look at pictures of the things you wrote the same way we look at pictures like this…
And this…

A couple of days ago I wrote a post titled “I’ll Take Some Syrian Refugees At My House.” There were a whole lot of other Christian voices who expressed dismay at the fear-mongering that was going on with regards to the United States helping take in Syrian refugees. All this fear and exclusion and misinformation is just so clearly the exact opposite of everything that Jesus stands for… To me, at least. Turns out there are just TONS of Christians who are very offended that people would challenge support of the dozens of Governors who have said their states won’t be accepting any Syrian refugees. Vox made a really nice map right here…

See if you see any similarities with this map of republican governors…

Of course, none of this really matters, because they legally CAN’T refuse refugees. It was just a loud and symbolic “You aren’t welcome here.” It is frightening to see how near perfectly people are splitting down party lines around this issue. For a while now, Donald Trump has been at the top of the polls for republican presidential candidate–even among “evangelical Christians”–and that has been strange news to many Christians, because most of the people they know were not very vocal about their support… Well, if you’re wondering where all of those Donald Trump supporters were at, I think they all came out of hiding.

There are hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence and civil war in Syria and looking for a safe place to live, and one terrorist attack in Paris has got almost half the people in a country on the other side of the planet scared to death of a group of mostly women and children who are trying to escape war. And if you don’t think that racism is a part of this, you are nuts. If this was a group of people from Norway fleeing violence, we would welcome them with open arms, and credit our right actions to this myth that the USA is a “Christian Nation.” But it IS racism. It is xenophobia, it is Islamophobia, and it is disgusting. To me, at least… It’s disgusting TO ME. I should clarify, because many, MANY people don’t see this as disgusting… They see it as common sense. I guess they picture the process of bringing Syrian refugees to this country as us going to Europe, waving people onto a bus, putting them on a plane, and dropping them off in YOUR GATED COMMUNITY… Even though the actual process of vetting refugees takes anywhere from 18 months to three years, and is THE most intense and thorough vetting process for coming here.

And as they make a common sense case for their position, they are using many… interesting… analogies to make comparisons to taking in refugees. Here are a few on my favorites. The first one is from a comment on my most recent blog post.
Letting Refugees come here would be like…

1. Sending your daughter out to play with a dangerous Pitt Bull.

Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 10.36.24 PM.png

1) They are vetted. 2) No one is telling you that you have to invite them into your home. 3) You probably should follow up “I too am a Christian” with comparing people to dogs.

This got me thinking about finding other Refugee Comparisons, and I considered scouring the interwebs for examples, but instead I found a goldmine of analogies in the comments section of one of my writing heroes: Jen Hatmaker. She is–as far as I can tell–just a shining example of love and rationality and faith and action and honesty, and there are few people I feel “get it” with regards to this thing we call Christianity quite as well as she does. She has such a balanced way of approaching how following Jesus plays out in real life, that she really has deftly transcended a political, conservative/liberal divide that is very difficult to do. If you don’t follow her or read her stuff, you really should. It’s about 1000x better than any of the swill that I put out. Anyway, a couple of days ago, she posted on Facebook that she was “ashamed” of governor Greg Abbott’s call to keep Syrian refugees out of Texas. She wrote that his “position is supported by fear-mongering that doesn’t just fly in the face of Christianity but of basic humanity.” You can read her whole status HERE (as well as the 1000’s of responses, if you’d like).

Minutes later, she was what can only be described as “Dixie-Chicked.”

Her page was inundated with comments from people who felt betrayed by her heart-felt, emotional response to an action that–to her–felt very clearly antithetical to the very heart of what Jesus was about. The next day, she posted this amazing piece of honesty and hurt and struggle and life…

And this is where my list of Refugee Comparisons continues. These comparisons are all screen shots of comments of of Jen Hatmaker’s posts.
Letting Refugees come here would be like…

2. Welcoming a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I thought some of those kids sleeping on the cement road looked like they had some really big eyes… and Ears… And TEETH!!! Shit, it’s too late…

3. Letting your daughter play with poisonous snakes and child molesters.

“Stop trying to trick us with Jesus’ actual words, Jen!”

4. Playing Russian Roulette with poisonous grapes.

Playing Russian Roulette with poison grapes.png

Tell you what: I will give you everything I own if I can’t tell you who you DIDN’T vote for in the last presidential election…

5. Setting us all up to be put in cages, set on fire, and decapitated.

The more exclamation points, question marks, and CAPS LOCKS a person has, the more serious they are.

6. Having a nice dinner… WITH SATAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

No. Well, probably not… Did he bring wine?

7. Letting in the Trojan Horse.

They used to call me “The Trojan Horse” in college. No they didn’t…

Ahh, yes… Trojan horse. This has been their plan all along. Start a war, send a million refugees out into Europe, hope for liberal Christian bloggers to inflict their guilt on the masses, go through the two year vetting process, start a sleeper cell, connect with the head if ISIS in America (Obama)… All to blow up a Whole Foods.

And this one even comes with its own meme…

Dr. Brown is not a big fan of mine. 🙂

8. Taking in a horde of murderous homeless people.

Taking in a horde of Murderous homeless people.png

There were quite a few about the dangerous homeless.

9. Picking up homeless hitchhiker felons.

Mamby Pamby?

10. Taking in homeless pedophiles next to your children.

When I think “refugee,” I usually think “Homeless pedophile.”

11. Welcoming urine-throwing, syphilis-ridden food snobs into the neighborhood.

Literally the LAST thing we need…

12. Basically committing suicide.

He loved so I don’t have to.

13. Giving a Muslim you daughter’s hand… Or WORSE!

Not sure if she’s referring to her daughters head or her vagina. Or which one would be worse…

14. Giving room and board to hate crime rapists.

I literally can’t even.

15. Losing your blog, apparently because you can’t see it through your new mandatory hijab.

Losing your blog, aparently because you couldn't see it though your mandatory hijab.png

These 10,000 or so Syrian Refugees must be very powerful politically to have enforced Sharia Law. In Texas.

16. Laying down your life like a stupid martyr who was bitten by a snake while committing suicide by walking into traffic… Plus some stuff about stop signs, door locks, and child molesters.

Stupid martyr, snake, traffic, etc...png

Just trying to cover all the bases.

So there you have it. There were many more. Some folks posted some good old fashioned “Thanks Obama”s in comment form…

“Christian businessmen are persecuted.” Whiteout any sense of irony…

The flag Emoji was a nice touch.

Some folks had other ideas of ways to love them. Like an idea I like to call “The Bette Midler” (from a distance).

From a distance you look like my friend… But up close you look like a rapist.

Or whatever the sweet hell this was…

Not positive, but I think a crime was committed here…

Others took a very “Take care of our own” point of view.

But what do we do when EVERYONE starts feeling like “our own?”

A lot of people seemed suddenly concerned with the plight of homeless vets…

Again, this one came with its own meme:

Leading this guy to post this awesome tweet:

Welp, I figured out how to get republicans worried about homeless vets… Start talking about taking care of #SyrianRefugees

— Chris Boeskool (@TheBoeskool) November 18, 2015

An overwhelming number of comments referred to how God gave us brains for a reason, and we had to use “discernment.” Like this one:
All of a sudden, conservative Christians are interested in using their brains! I kid, I kid… But isn’t it interesting that when something in the Bible doesn’t line up with your worldview, all of the sudden scripture becomes a lot less “clear” and we have to start using “discernment.” It’s interesting to me too…

I should mention that there were a sea of positive, supportive, and encouraging comments as well. You didn’t even have to look hard for them. Even in these times, when it seems like there in no hope to bring people together with anything close to rational discussion, you can’t hide from the fact that there are awesome people everywhere. Here are a few:

Everyone gets scared.

Me too…

Amen.

And this beauty…

Perfection.

Anyway, I hope this wasn’t too offensive. I have to have fun with it… If I don’t, I will just cry all day long. Thanks today to my newest Patron, the lovely and effervescent and amazingly kind August James. I feel so blessed to have people like her in my life.