The former half-term Alaska governor must make hearts flutter on the Texas State Board of Education:
“Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant, they’re quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments. . . . What in hell scares people about talking about America’s foundation of faith? . . . It is that world view that involves some people being afraid of being able to discuss our foundation, being able to discuss God in the public square, that’s the only thing I can attribute it to is some fear of some people.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4KSAW9RkzY]
“No religious test for office” must be similar to “thou shalt have no other gods before me” in Palinspeak.
Or is she thinking of the Real Ten with “thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk?”
Uh, good question.
Sarah Palin’s favorite dessert?
half-baked Alaska.
Yes, it’s a shame in some ways that documentation written all those years ago has not been updated to match the contemporary blend of beliefs in today’s society, but as stated we have evolved since then. The intended liberal laws that were based on the principle of freedom of expression were written using the words known to our founding fathers at the time, but defined the allowance of everyone and anyone to come live in a nation free from the predjudices they fought to keep outside our borders as we do still today. So, by lawfully protecting the freedoms of every man, woman and child; why is it so difficult for Ms Palin to understand that everyone’s faith must and should be respected. If our founding fathers were Marxist yet abandoned the conservative and restrictive environment of their nation, then our original documents would have read differently, but held the same meaning.
It just occurred to me that folks on the Right appear to not only know the minds of the founding fathers, buy more scarily have raised them to the level of dieties.
Does it ever occur to them that while they were intelligent and thoughtful men they were, after all, men of their time. With all the wrong thinking that was endemic of the culture at that time.
I think the citizenry of this nation should genuinely fear folks who claim to “know” the mind of our nations founders and who elevate such imperfect men to the status of gods.
There is a portion of this “trend” among “conservatives” ( depends on how you define conservative, W.F.Buckley wouldn’t recognize the movement today), that is to simply take the left’s critique of Bush and try to throw it back on Obama.
“Oh, yeah, let’s see how you like it.”
That’s the reason for the preposterous claims of concern for the “constitution”.
It’s why the GOP has become the Sore Loser party.
It’s come back to bite the GOP in the behind, they’ve criticized Kagan for extolling Justice Marshall concerning his remarks of “the defective” constitution. He was referring to slavery and the fact that women didn’t get the vote until 1920.
It would really be a good idea for progressives to create a venue in which to challenge Palin (as the stupidest conservative, she’s the easiest target for a teaching moment), about which 10 commandments she’s talking about, and
which Founding fathers and which articles of the constitution she’s talking about.
I’m getting tired of this slow, slow, drip, drip, energy crisis, national security crisis, economic crisis, oil spill crisis, etc., that keeps proving the so-called conservatives wrong. I’d just like to put them out of their (political) misery.
“Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant, they’re quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments. . . . What in hell scares people about talking about America’s foundation of faith? . . . It is that world view that involves some people being afraid of being able to discuss our foundation, being able to discuss God in the public square, that’s the only thing I can attribute it to is some fear of some people.”
Sarah Palin (Confused as Usual)
I can interpret that muddled thought for everyone. Sarah is vaguely (very vaguely) recalling a passage of scripture she remembers from the Bible. Basically, just to paraphrase, it says that “sinners” will avoid coming to the light (reading scripture, attending church services, not showing up at the National Day of Prayer, etc.) because they know deep down inside that they are evil and they fear coming to the light because it will remind them of the evil within themselves that they are in psychological denial about and constantly trying to flee or cover up. If they were to come to the light, they would feel nothing but guilt and shame—too painful to bare.
Sarah is saying (in her inimitable way) that the vast throng of sinful Americans who have not sold out to “Christian nation fruitcakeness” are unable to engage the supposed Christian, Biblical, and 10 Commandments basis of our laws and government BECAUSE they are always fearful and fleeing from the light emitted by religious subject matter and activity. If they were able to come to the light and just engage it, they would immediately realize that Sarah and all the fruitcakes like her are not really fruitcakes. In the shimmer of the light, sinners (defined as anyone not like her) would immediately recognize that Jefferson did not really mean those separation of church and state statements , Thomas Paine really was a Christian, and Roger Williams was a really good and accepted puritan who did not really mean to flee from religious persecution and establish Rhode island. And so forth…
What would you folks do without me and my interpretive abilities?
Damn Charles. Thank you for enlightening me (pun probably not intended 😉
Now that I understand how I’m just some pathetic, in the dark, fearful of the light, secular-humanist I had better run right out and start a-prayin’ for Sarah, Rush and Beck to save my mortal soul.
Things are so much clearer now…. I can see things now. Things are being revealed to me. I’m hearing a voice in my head…. it’s sayin’ “Repent sinner.”
Oh screw it. Cocktails anyone?
A dear friend of mine is a huge Sarah Palin fan. From what I can tell, she seems to have done fine as governor of Alaska, but ever since she hit the national stage she has been firmly in the pocket of the Religious Right. It makes me wonder how much of her persona is all an act.
And yeah, there’s fear; fear of some people trying to establishing a theocracy.
It seems that Palin has clearly asserted that only the front part of the Constitution plus the Bill of Rights are derived from the Ten Commandments and the Bible, which leaves a few questions as to the rest of the Constitution after the Tenth Amendment, and all actions of the Supreme Court after Madison v Marbury. 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803). The latter being obviously Satanic, in not outright Communist, or worse, Liberal.
I have a little difficulty in finding where in the Constitution, truncated or not, where the Ten Commandments are written. Or, for that matter, which version of the Ten Commandments and/or Bible. In fact, I can’t find a single reference to any one of the Ten Commandments:
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” ( Exodus 20:3).
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” ( Exodus 20:4).
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” ( Exodus 20:7).
“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” ( Exodus 20:8).
“Honour thy father and thy mother” ( Exodus 20:12).
“Thou shalt not kill” ( Exodus 20:13).
“Thou shalt not commit adultery” ( Exodus 20:14).
“Thou shalt not steal” ( Exodus 20:15).
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” ( Exodus 20:16).
“Thou shalt not covet” ( Exodus 20:17).
The laws against killing, adultery, stealing, and lying are a matter of state law (except in a short list of Federal circumstances, as in the UCMJ). Coveting is the basis of the free enterprise system, or for that matter any economic system (from each according to ones ability to each according to one’s needs).
Honoring Father and Mother isn’t covered anywhere, graven images presumably exclude flags, and there is no list of authorized Gods anywhere since the colonies let the religious requirements slip away.
If the Constitution is Holy writ, please write where.
So where is the news in this? We’ve known all along that Palin believes America is a Christian Nation, vis-a-vis her association with Joel’s Army and Christian Dominionism.
Forkboy, you’re so right. The Founding Fathers have been deified in America. Sure, they were highly intelligent and trying to create a better nation but they were human beings. Most of them owned slaves while writing “all men are created equal.” Yes, I know they were men of their time and stuck in the thinking of their time as we are in ours. But c’mon! Why write “all men are created equal” if you don’t believe it? Because they didn’t believe slaves were humans, that’s why. Slaves were only 3/5 of a person or some weird fraction like that. And how they came up with that New Math is a mystery to me. So great men, yes, but Supreme Beings? I don’t think so.
Btw, everyone will hate me for pointing this out but the actual Hebrew word is “murder,” not “kill.” There is a difference between murder and killing.
Let’s take another example about how the Christian right is neither Christian nor right, and we will use one of the 10 commandments to do it:
“Honour thy father and thy mother” ( Exodus 20:12).
I have a right wing conservative acquaintance (who claims to be a conservative Christian). I am about to tell you what this person told me—not what I imagine that this person might be like. This person believes strongly that retirement for old people should be illegal and that there should be no incentives to retire like Social Security or Medicare. Basically, this person believes that old people should be made to work until they quite literally drop. If you are sick, so what. That’s just your tough luck. If they can still move just one muscle, they had danged well better be finding a way to use that one muscle to do some paying job. Why? This person does not feel that he should have to pay any of his tax money out to help a member of the older generation with a little comfort, peace, or healing in their waning years. Never mind that this young adult’s mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and a whole community of other now old people sacrificed enormously to raise, train, educate, nourish, and protect this person when he was young and helpless.
Let me give you another facet of this person. This person believes in the commandment written above. Here is how. This person believes that children should be the sole support for their parents–no government assistance allowed. For example, what happens if you are a single person and an only child, you make $40,000 a year, and you have two sick parents in a nursing home? The nursing home bill for each parent is $60,000 a year for a grand total of $120,000. Yes, that is three times more money than their son makes. This Christian person believes that the son should be required to meet ALL of his parents needs by himself. This person sees this as the “proper outworking” of honor thy father and mother, primarily because it gives this so-called young professional Christian the necessary tax relief that he believes is his right as an American and a Christian.
Honestly held beliefs like this are the kind of two-bit trash that is passing for Christianity out on the streets today, especially in right wing radical circles, and conservative Christian churches are supporting and propagating this nonsense. There is no love in it. There is no heart in it. There is no soul in it. There is no Jesus in it. For the people who are pushing this garbage, it is all about “ME” and the “MONEY.” They are like the seagulls in that Disney movie, “Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!”
Ten Commandments. Ha!! They might as well be toilet paper for all these so-called right-wing Christians care.
I’ve got a feeling that there will be a major changing of minds along the gulf coast and in Nashville this year.
They’ll be thanking God for a federal government.
Probably in Oklahoma City, too.
Ha, Charles, that’s great. The movie you’re thinking of is “Finding Nemo.” Great movie. “MINE, MINE, MINE…..” 🙂
David, isn’t that the ironic thing? Everyone hates the government. Get it off my back! Make it so small as to be nonexistent. Now everyone’s clamoring for more government. Regulate Big Oil shenanigans, regulate Wall Street shenanigans.
Oh but wait! Regulation would be Marxist Bull-poo, remember?
What we have now is “Marks-ism”.
See :The Flim Flam Man”,
Elmer Gantry,
Marjoe,
The Grifters,
oops forgot “The Sting”.
Charles,
Your friend is more than welcome to not accept any Social Security or Medicade benefits when he reaches retirement age. Or, he is more than welcome to mail those checks to me.
I’ll be waiting to provide my mailing address as I’m quite certain he will avail himself of my offer to cleanse his soul of this abomination known as “caring”.
Charles, what you wrote above is pure Marxist Bull-poo. I hope you realize that.
Interesting that I am singled-out as a Marxist for writing “Marxist Bull-poo” – but nobody else here gets the same praise. Fascinating that I am the Chosen One to receive such an accolade. Ha ha.