“Am I crazy, or are they crazy? Could I be right, and Harvard and all these CDC guys be wrong? Yeah, because they’re all conventional. They don’t talk about how you can keep yourself from getting sick … Why don’t you just not get it [the coronavirus]? Why don’t you just stay healthy?”
– Dr. Steve Hotze, a religious-right activist offering the view of a “medical professional who also has a Christian worldview” about how best to respond to the current COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
Filed under News
April 19, 1995
The 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas segues tragically into the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building exactly two years later. Again, the matter has to do with religious extremism, unmitigated hate and White supremacists. May the Great Creator bless the 168 innocent souls who died in that bombing. No matter what happens, love always wins out over hate.
Filed under History
April 19, 1993
It’s difficult to believe it’s been 20 years since that awful day when a 51-day standoff with an extremist religious group culminated in a conflagration and the deaths of 80 people, including 20 children. I still feel sad for those babies and children, but I don’t have any remorse for the group’s perverted leader, David Koresh, and the other adults who allowed this to happen. That one event signaled a violent rebirth of the White supremacist movement in the United States and ridiculous questions about freedom of religion and gun rights.
But, this is for those children who had no choice in the matter.
“I am a free spirit like a wind
I bend with the breeze, carefree with the bliss.
I wander here and there,
And finally found a love to share.
Together we had laughter and tears,
For he is my sweet disaster.
With one heart we embraced with love,
The little angel sent by one up above.
Yet laid unto rest shortly,
before we even accept the reality.
On this earth life and love you gave,
But science had numbered your days.
Up above the joys and fears,
You tiptoed and leave.
Mommy is in anguish of losing you our dearest.
The sun was shiny and fluffy on your final day,
Rainbows and butterflies swept our pain away.
Lonely days and tearful nights were not yet over,
Yet mom and dad clasp their fingers together.
One day we will see you again our angel baby
When our time is over you will walk with us merrily.
Someday we will gaze you up high,
Up above the blue sapphire sky.
We will be proud to tell you with a smile,
That we are more stronger because of you…having you even just for a while.”
– Athena Ali, Tiptoed Moments
“Institutional religion in the United States – institutional Christianity in particular – is much, much weaker today than it was 40 years ago. But religion itself is as strong as ever. … But the eclipse of institutional faith, and the eclipse of what I would say was a kind of a Christian center that the country used to have, has created a landscape where religion divides us much more than it used to.”
– New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, discussing his new book in which he argues that religion in the United States has fallen into heresy.
Filed under News
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