The Devil Masquerading As A Preacher Man

I have a habit of getting up far too early on Sunday mornings. At a time in the morning when it seems that almost every channel has some smarmy preacher in his sanctimonious preachy preacher voice conducting more of an anachronistic morality play than a contemporary discussion about good and evil and man’s search for spiritual uplift.

And unmistakably there comes a moment when the plate is passed, the pitch is made. Last Sunday there was even the opportunity to take a tropical vacation with the evangelist, where interspersed with some Bible readings the onboard congregation can delight in the wonders of God’s tropical paradise – and I’m sure give the pastor and his family a gratis cruise.

And here in Virginia we are seemingly blessed with the embarrassment of two of the extremes of this evangelical nonsense – Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. We have seen over the years the travails of the likes of many other evangelical scandals and it should surprise no thoughtful person that there is much more hypocrisy undiscovered in the evangelical movement.

How is it that such numbers of Americans can be so blindly led by authoritarian inerrant Bible reading far right evangelical fundamentalists?

Regardless of where the current news of Rev. Ted Haggard takes us – he has resigned as head of his 30 million-member evangelical association amid allegations he had monthly trysts with a gay prostitute over the past three years. And this is a man who claimed that he had weekly direct communications with President Bush. This is the man Tom Brokaw highlighted in last years special on faith in America. (I had been earlier acquainted with him from a youtube video)

I recently read of a politician who had the courage to say that when he took the oath of office he put his hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the constitution – not the other way around.

Another pundit told the story of a man who claimed he spoke to God through a hairdryer and God informed him as to how to wage the war against terrorists. That may seem insane – but does taking the hairdryer out of the equation make this any more acceptable?

Are we to be forever tricked by empty slogans of “compassionate conservatism” and “I’m a uniter, not a divider”?

We seem to have inerrant scripture reading religious fundamentalist zealots in American in a war against inerrant scripture reading religious fundamentalist zealots in the Middle East. It is a pissing war that has moderate Americans in the middle as well as on the front lines.

Somehow I imagine if there is a devil he is masquerading today as a preacher man.

Comments

Anonymous said…
And he was in the film "Jesus Camp" where he coached a young man on his preaching skills...hmmmmm. I had a funny feeling about that scene at the time, now I know why.
Friday, November 03, 2006 2:29:00 PM
Bill Garnett said…
terry m:

I came across Rev. Haggard when researching about Richard Dawkins and I came across this video.

The end of this short video caught my attention and suggested that something was suspicious about the minister. Check it out yourself.
Friday, November 03, 2006 4:23:00 PM
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