Behold The Godly Love

For the sake of my writing I force myself once in a while to look at the wingnutosphere's latest fits of outrage. (Seriously, I don't recommend it: the amount of insane paranoia and unmitigated hatred is like looking into the ninth circle of hell. It's soul-depleting, it crushes hope like a tin can at the bottom of the sea.) To the extent the above video is mentioned there, it's not to bury the good parson, of course, but to praise him. America Fuck Yeah and all that...(Anyone else see, in the man of god's last words, a little Ted Haggard-like projection? Doth he protest too much? He wouldn't be the twelfth.)

As opposed to ignoring the above, the latest waste of ones and zeroes and photons, the frothing to be seen on, lo, virtually every one of the sources of insanity on the right, is the story of a N.C. teacher (the above preacher is from N.C. also) who argued with a student who criticized President Obama, and said he could be arrested for the criticism.

Which proves what, exactly, other than that the lady is sadly misinformed, and possibly ought not be teaching? But from the wingnut feeding frenzy, you'd think Obama had sent troops down there and sent the kid to Gitmo. (Note to President Obama: call the boy, congratulate him for saying what he believes, and don't tell anyone.) And how does this incident compare, numerically and legally, with the times public school teachers have preached the bible, or creationism, or told kids they were going to hell for being gay, or for not being Christian?

Truly, as a nation, we have moved far beyond hope, and it's at the hands of those who claim to love our country the most, who would have us believe their religion makes them the most righteous, the most deserving of respect, that our doom is sealed. For it's these people -- and they alone -- who are fomenting nothing but hatred, taking the most narrow view, refusing to see good in anyone but themselves, wrapping facts in the blanket of their fears and suffocating them. Like this video of our man of god, and those in his flock (looks like a real nice place with plenty of money, doesn't it, not some traveling tent in a parking lot) testifying with their amens and hallelujahs, the rightwing blogosphere has become a force for -- what other word is there for it? -- evil. A petrie dish for festering paranoia and fulminating hate. (Note to self: nothing you say will change anything. They need to rationalize their hate, and always will; so stop going there.) (Answer from self: okay, you're right. I will.)

And (I'd say "ironically" for the thousandth time but how often can it be used, even when it's appropriate?) it's the people they fear and hate the most who are trying against the odds to secure the future, to preserve education and health care and research and roads and bridges; to retain in this country some respect for the less fortunate, for those with whom they disagree, for the constitution which sprung from exactly the kind of compromise that the right wing has long-since abandoned.

Show me a reason for hope, and I'll paddle toward it like a man in a life raft. Because trying to reach those people is, and, I'm afraid, will always be, like this.

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[Addendum: as usual, I wrote this a few days before posting. Here's news of a church in N.C. which rejects the message of the other one. It's encouraging. But I see no evidence that, within the current Republican party, it represents anything but the minority. I hope I'm wrong.]