{"id":8752,"date":"2016-08-13T09:54:33","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T13:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=8752"},"modified":"2016-08-13T11:04:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T15:04:11","slug":"political-insanity-and-religious-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=8752","title":{"rendered":"Political insanity and religious insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"copeland\"<\/a>
\nTelevangelist Kenneth Copeland<\/em><\/p>\n

While the 2016 presidential election puts on full display the political insanity of much of the American population — not to mention the insanity of the Republican Party — let’s not fail to point out another insanity that is just as prevalent: religious insanity. Let’s also note how closely the two are connected.<\/p>\n

The quote below is attributed to televangelist Kenneth Copeland<\/a>, in a recent appearance on the Trinity Broadcasting Network:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Christians don\u2019t support Trump, they are risking the wrath of God. Trump has been chosen by God, and by rejecting him, they are rejecting God. They could be punished with barrenness, poverty or even having a gay child.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And the quote below is attributed to Anne Graham Lotz<\/a>, on the air with right-wing radio host Steve Deace:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation seems to be shaking its fist in God\u2019s face and telling him to get out of our politics, get out of our schools, get out of our businesses, get out of our marketplace, get off the streets. It\u2019s just stunning to me the way we are basically abandoning God as a culture and as a nation. … I think that\u2019s why God allows bad things to happen. I think that\u2019s why he would allow 9\/11 to happen, or the dreadful attack in San Bernardino, or some of these other places, to show us that we need him. We\u2019re desperate without him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What a nice god! Though he must be incredibly busy running the universe, he also has time to punish earthlings for not voting Republican. That god also kills people — or at least allows people to be killed — to remind us how much we need such a violent, vindictive god.<\/p>\n

As the philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris<\/a> has pointed out, this kind of religious delusion and narcissism are prevalent among plenty of people who might see Kenneth Copeland and Anne Graham Lotz as a bit extreme. Harris has beautifully pointed out the narcissism of people who think that God is intimately involved in the details of their lives. Not only does God actually tell them what he’s thinking, it’s remarkable how much these people and their god are alike: pure nasty. While your God was finding you a parking space, Harris says, or answering your prayers for enough money to pay your credit card bill, how many children did that same God allow to die in Africa while their helpless parents watched and prayed? That’s narcissism on top of the nasty.<\/p>\n

I’m fully on board with freedom of religion and freedom of speech. But those freedoms also mean that the rest of us are free to tell these people that they’re vile and sickening, and that their god is even worse.<\/p>\n

\"graham\"<\/a>
\nAnne Graham Lotz<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Televangelist Kenneth Copeland While the 2016 presidential election puts on full display the political insanity of much of the American population — not to mention the insanity of the Republican Party — let’s not fail to point out another insanity that is just as prevalent: religious insanity. Let’s also note how closely the two are … Continue reading “Political insanity and religious insanity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-political-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8752"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8771,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8752\/revisions\/8771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}