Minnesota has seen the best and worst of its society in the debate of a constitutional amendment to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. The best was Sen. John Kiesel, who was a profile of courage. The worst was the pastor invited to give the opening prayer, Bradlee Dean, a profile of perfidy (as in a deliberate breach of faith when you agree to give a nondenominational prayer and then give a sectarian diatribe). Dean’s record of hateful and bigoted statements was well-known before he was invited to the legislature to start off the day of debate on the rights of homosexual citizens to marry.
Bradlee Dean is a Minnesota radio host who believes that homosexuality should be a crime. He sports a tattoo of Abraham sacrificing Isaac on his forearm and spews extreme interpretations of the Bible. He seems to cultivate the image of a bible-thumping Axel Rose and plays in a Christian rock band. He is the founder of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International.
This historical sense seems as questionable as his biblical sense given his timeline running from World I to World II to “Korea and Iwo Jima and Vietnam.”
He then gives his view of
“It’s not about the Baptists, it’s not about the Catholics alone or the Lutherans or the Wesleyans or the Presbyterians, evangelicals or any other denomination, but rather the head of the denomination, and his name is Jesus, as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged.”
Of course, the reference to 2008 reference is to Barack Obama. Of course, nondenominational appears to exclude Jews, Muslims, and most of the world. He is able to tie in Obama as atheist or Muslim (he leaves this to the imagination of legislators). It is the type of speech that should have served to expose the intolerance and hatred that has become so prevalent in out society — even before the moving speech of Sen. Kiesel. Instead, members continued their push to deny marriage rights to gay couples.
Here is “Pastor” Dean at work on his radio show:
The person responsible for inviting Dean appears to be Rep. Ernie Leidiger, R-Mayer (left). Various members of both parties have denounced the prayer. Rep. Leidiger succeeded in introducing a uniquely intolerant voice in the legislature and uniting members of both two parties in their disgust for Dean and his message. It is hard, however, to blame Dean has been known as an unhinged extremist for years. The blame must fall on Leidiger who may need more time as a furniture salesman that selling religious bigot to the legislature. He previously ran on the pledge that his “conservative values” would bring “back to honesty and respect for constituents.” Well, it appears that would be respect for some constituents.
Kudos: Swarthmore Mom on passing along the Youtube video
Jonathan Turley
Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
(…)
What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.
~James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785
This should be carved above the threshold of the Minnesota House.
And what Voltaire said via mespo.
Blouise,
She was going beyond her usual theocratic idiocy – which usually I simply ridicule. To say that the God of the Abrahamic religions isn’t the same when all three major branches of the tradition specifically say that they are in agreement that He is is about the level of Fundamentalist stupidity I’ve grown to expect from her. However, words have meaning. On that issue, I can’t help myself.
To quote Frank Herbert’s Paul Muad’Dib Attredies, “To know a thing well, know its limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen.” Or to quote Marcus Aurelius, “Ask of each and every thing what is it in itself.” Tootles pushed the words beyond tolerance and thus gave the opportunity to shine light upon what is the thing in itself. She is her own worst enemy. You’d think she’d have learned this by now, but alas, some people never learn.
Like some people never learn where a track suit is appropriate clothing or that “God is Love” kind of precludes oppression as an operational methodology.
Blind Faithlessness:
“Dean knows, just like the rest of us, that it’s wrong to lie, but it’s totally ok to lie for jesus.”
*********************
You keep forgetting that “with God all things are possible.” Or as Voltaire devastatingly wrote: “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”
http://youcanruninternational.com/ Just guessing but I think he wears the track suit because the name of his ministry is “you can run international”.
Buddha,
Usually I ignore her but when she so blatantly misspeaks theology … I can’t help myself.
Back to the importance of track suits when praying.
It’s always funny when libertarians go ballistic about religion (which they usually profess not to care about) or something like abortion (usually they support it but don’t ever stick their necks out about it). Tootie seems like the kind of libertarian whose simply too embarrassed to be noticed as the garden variety winger he really is.
Dean giving his sectarian prayer after agreeing to give a legal, non-sectarian prayer is just another example of that good ol’ christian hypocrisy that I love so much.
Dean knows, just like the rest of us, that it’s wrong to lie, but it’s totally ok to lie for jesus.
Just in case anyone is really wondering why Dean wears the track suit, its because a pastor needs to wear athletic clothing to pull off the type of mental and ethical gymnastics that we’ve witnessed this good pastor attempting.
A pastor lying to the entire state gov’t just to get some podium time and also feeling that he’s done the “right thing” is on par with a double back-flip to hand-stand on a balance beam, I believe.
We should all have the guts and care enough to lie and alienate citizens like Dean has done. Thats what self-righteousness and faithiness are all about.
Jay,
I think you are correct on that call. Target uses far more professional designers for their products than Walmart does. Although the logo on it looks like it could be a small production run made for a gym or as some form of corporate SWAG.
Target must be selling the new formal line of tracksuits. Walmart does not carry stuff that fancy.
Tootles,
Once again displaying your ignorance of Abrahamic religions.
The Jews had as many as 72 names for God, including Yaweh, Adonai, Hashem and Eloah. Pay particular attention to Eloah as that name will be very important of proving how full of crap you are very shortly.
Given that the writers of the New Testament were Jews, that they accepted the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the attendant various names they had for God is a given . . . unless you’re a moron.
In Islam, there are as many as 99 names for God, including Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, but the most common is Allah. The reason I end with Allah is because of the etymological roots of the name Allah. In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. Now here comes the really funny part . . .
Allah is a cognate of Eloah.
Eloah, and it’s plural “elohim”, show an expanded form of the common Semitic noun “‘il” (ʾēl). It contains an added “heh” as third radical to the biconsonantal root.
Got that?
Elohim (Hb.) = Allah (Ar.)
By contrast, the Greek word “theos” (like the English word “God”) means the same thing, but it is not a cognate as it does not share the common linguistic root of “El” originating in the Semetic languages, of which both Hebrew and Arabic are Semetic languages (from the Northern and Central Semetic languages respectively). God is an accepted usage in English for the concept of Eloah/Allah by both Hebrew and Arabic speakers. So in summation . . .
Elohim (Hb.) = Allah (Ar.) = Theos (Gr.) = God (Eng.)
Allah is a name for God more closely related to Eloha/Elohim than the English word God is (English is a Germanic, not a Semetic language). So technically speaking, when someone says Allah, they have a greater linguistic claim to using the proper name of God than you do when you use the word God.
Now don’t you wish you’d kept your mouth shut?
Now . . . back to the track suit.
eniobob: ”Those who protest the loudest are the ones you have to watch the most”
—
You can never go wrong with that statement. I see headlines about things like this and I just mentally respond ‘guess who’s a self-loathing gay?’ It’s really embarrassing for me to watch them play out their self-suppression fantasies in pubic. I keep waiting for someone in their audience to just stand up and call them out on it. amazes me how something so obvious goes unmentioned.
czech80, Tootie is a master at derailing a thread.
Can we get the conversation back to the important points like a previous poster raised:
Specifically, the guy wearing a track suit to give a religious statement in front of legislature.
If your religious representative wears a track suit (e.g. this guy and old Reverend Al), maybe you need to find a new church.
It used to be you had to hear someone speak before you knew they were a jack-ass. I guess the plus side is now you know the second you see them.
Jay,
Or as they say in the Vodou (Voodoo) religion … there are few spirits but they have many names.
Tootie,
You mistake “Oh My God” as written in anger.
It wasn’t anger at all.
Have you ever seen someone slip on a banana peel and knock over the whole fruit stand? …
“i.e Muslims and Christians worship the same God. You cannot believe that and believe in Christ. They are mutually exclusive. Then there is his waging of unjust war. ”
It has always been my understanding that Jews, Christians, and Muslims all worshipped the same god and only disagreed on the prophets. I guess I learned something new today (or not)…
Religon, or at least the zealots that proport to speak for God seam to be the primary problem.
“This is because with Christ there was a new covenant. That covenant is Grace.” (Tootie)
No Tootie, what you write is heresy.
Grace is getting what we don’t deserve, or more formally “unmerited favor”. It is a gift pure and simple. One can’t “earn” Grace through actions or words. “Eph 2:8-9 (Phi) For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. This does not depend on anything you have achieved, it is the free gift of God; and because it is not earned no man can boast about it.”
A covenant: The Hebrew term for covenant is berit, meaning ‘to bond or fetter. … In the Bible a covenant is a relationship based upon mutual commitments.
Grace, as a gift of God that can’t be earned or merited, is not a covenant … new or old.
Keep digging Tootie. Racism based in pseudoscience is still racism.
I would offer to loan you a shovel, but you seem to doing a good job of digging a giant hole for yourself on your own.
It’s odd how leftists always tell me I’m a Luddite, but it is they who get outraged when you tell them scientific facts about racial groups.
LOL