So I have to admit.  Yesterday on Twitter I got kinda heated after reading what the Pope said about laws legalizing Gay Marriage as well as some regular folks complaining about it.  I’m really upset that this is even a topic for national discussion.  Having a national debate on gay marriage is like the argument over which end of the egg to crack between the sects in Gulliver’s Travels, just plain stupid.  It’s like normal functional and intelligent adults completely lose their minds when it comes to gay marriage talk. “I just don’t believe in gay marriage”  Huh?  What the hell do you mean you don’t “believe” in gay marriage.  Gay marriage isn’t some fictional children’s character like Santa or the Tooth Fairy.  It’s not really something to “believe” in.  And even then, since when is making laws to limit people from making personal, non-dangerous decisions okay?  I don’t believe fat people should wear spandex or that it should be illegal to hunt the stupid for sport.  But those are just my opinions…not something to make laws about (I don’t want to kill the stupid, just maybe a catch and release program).  Also, contrary to idiotic belief, homosexuality cannot infect straight people like the disease from Outbreak.  We aren’t facing a “Gay epidemic” where we’re running low on “straight antibodies”.

But nothing is more outlandish in the gay marriage debate then when religion is brought up.  Yes, you heard me right.  Religious arguments against gay marriage make less sense than the belief that gay zombies are roaming the countryside to turn straight people gay.  Listen, I’m not a preacher but not only have I stayed at Holiday Inn Express I’ve also had a childhood of Bible study and Bible camp. That means I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous (Televangelist dangerous not anti-Christ dangerous).  I know enough that using the Bible as an argument against gay marriage is like using a fork to eat soup.  It just doesn’t hold up.  First off, there’s the problem with claiming gay marriage is wrong because it is a sin.  Okay, let’s say being gay is a sin.  But aren’t all sins equal?  That means being gay is no more different than the sins each of us commit each day (Because the only guy without sin died on a cross).  So why single out gay people?  I’ll agree to take this argument more seriously if we also make infidelity and premarital sex illegal.  Until then, this is called HYPOCRISY folks and you look really stupid talking about it.

Now some will say all sins AREN’T equal.  Okay, fine.  Which ones are worse?  I say we use the Ten Commandments for this one because hell, if a burning bush is talking to me…I can only assume its some serious shit.  So let’s see what we have here:

I am the Lord your God
You shall have no other gods before me
(The way some of you all idolize sports figures and human sperm banks like Lil Wayne, I think we have a problem already)

You  shall not make for yourself an idol
(No but Simon Cowell and American idol can…)

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your god
(OMG doesn’t count….)

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
(I guess praying during the football game counts right?)

Honor your father and mother
(Only until we’re 18 right?)

You shall not kill
(Unless they’re a Muslim male between 18 – 28.  I mean, they’re going to Hell anyway…)

You shall not commit adultery
(Wait…this is a commandment?)

You shall not steal
(Ponzi schemes aren’t really stealing are they?  And it wasn’t really stealing from the Native Americans cause they were savages)

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
(Unless they’re a Muslim male between 18 – 28….)

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife
(Unless your neighbor lives in Argentina and then out of town rules count…according to Mark Sanford)

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor
(Again…this is a commandment?  When was anyone gonna tell us?)

Well son of a bitch.  Would you look at that.  “Thou Shall Not Suck Another Man’s Penis” isn’t on that list.  You would think with all those slaves fresh out of the Pharaoh’s jail, they’d be kinda horny and God would have to say something like “Son of a bitch…no you can’t sleep with a man, that’s not what I gave you that for.”  But guess what?  He didn’t even put it in his Top Ten.  But interestingly enough, a lot of sins heterosexuals commit on a daily basis are on there.  How many people violate 3 -4 of those commandments on a daily basis.  You would think people would be more interested in making sure they are living their lives correctly than limiting the rights of others.  Again I ask, why protest gay marriage but not adultery?  There is no legitimate reason other than ignorance.  Even if, and this is a big IF to me, God views gays as fast tracking themselves to Hell, God gave each of us free will.  Each of us have to make our own decision as to whether we will follow the path God has set for us.  Writing laws to force morality like this are pointless because at the end of the day, even if they don’t get married, gay people are STILL GAY.  So even if you ban gays from being married, its really a Pyrrhic victory because you come off looking ignorant AND the “wraith of God” will still come down on us (according to your dumb ass).

Listen, if you don’t “believe” in gay marriage, fine…don’t.  But I’ll consider you an idiot.  I believe that’s a fair trade because obviously you lack the proper logic and reasoning necessary to be a productive member of society.

Its bad enough that the Westboro Baptist Church would protest outside of dead soldier’s funerals holding up signs saying “God Hates Fags” and “God Hates You” sings.  Their domain name for their website is already derogatory.  It was even repulsive that they would do so with their little children out there holding up signs and spewing the same rhetoric.  I mean, republicans want to talk about “indoctrination”, let’s talk about a “church” whose members have their little children holding up “You Will Burn in Hell” signs.  Forcing community service = “indoctrination”, Racist/Homophobic signs and hate mongering = “Freedom of Speech”.  God Bless America.  Anyway, the Westboro Baptist Church (I really hate calling them a church.  They’re more like a cult) has stooped to a new low with its new target:  Sasha and Malia while they are at their schools.

Sidwell Friends Middle School – STOP lying to those kids! 3825 Wisconsin Ave. NW Quakers?! Are you frigging kidding me? You pretend to be all non-violent, and you allow the most bloody, deceitful, evil, murderous bastard and his shemale sidekick to place their satanic spawn within your four walls? So, the Quakers are in favor of abortion, now? How is that nonviolent? Anything to keep the money rolling in, huh hypocrites? Antichrist Obama said for all the world to hear, “Look, I’ve got two daughters. Nine years old and six years old. I’m gonna teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. . .” So, you have this bloody, deceitful, lying Antichrist admitting that he will happily slaughter any grand child who is an inconvenience for him. And you are taking his money? This place is NOT of God: 1 John 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. 19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Praise God for showing these vermin for just what they are. AMEN! (Source – I had the link but took it down.  Fuck giving them traffic. Its easy enough to find)

SMH.  We have ‘Freedom of Speech’ in this country.  But that doesn’t give you the right to spew hatred that could incite violence.  Just like you can’t shout “Fire” in a crowded theater, you shouldn’t be allowed to put such hatred out…particularly around kids.  Kids are impressionable and when their parents are raging hate mongers, that transfers to them.  And just as an aside.  When the republicans voted against the Hate Crimes Extension…its because they were worried about sorry sacks of scum shit like these.  If anyone is burning in Hell, I’m certain these fools get to go through the furnace twice (As well as those trying to protect them).

So yesterday on Twitter, I started the hash tag #HypocrisyWatch.  Actually, I started two of them.  #HypocrisyWatch was when I listed out all the ridiculous things people complaining about the health care reform bills say that is really hypocritical.  I also started #IdiotWatch was where I just listed out some of the idiotic things these people also say (”I want the government out of my Medicare”).  Dylan suggested I write them all down and post them.  I decided to do one better.  I’m going to write a whole post on each one so people can understand just how foolish this shit is.  I have no problem with people having concerns.  What I have a problem with is uninformed individuals voicing their concerns when they are completely baseless.  It’s time people became educated.

For today’s “Hypocrisy Watch”, I’ll be addressing the concerns of the religious right who complain that the government had gotten involved in the school and have taken religion out of it.  They believe that has lead to the moral decline in this country.  I actually got tweets from one person who tried to tell me the government shouldn’t be involved in the school system.  They couldn’t be further from the truth.

CNN had a woman on yesterday from one of the town halls that claimed she was worried about the direction this country was going.  She was clearly reading talking points given to her during the town hall.  CNN listed her credentials as “Stay at home mom” (I’m not making that up).  She only just recently got interested in politics (2 years ago…which coincidentally is when the democrats took over congress).  My favorite line from her interview was “Free Health Care for everyone isn’t in the Constitution”.  So on Twitter, I replied “Neither is Free Public Education you dumb bitch”. These are some of the replies I got yesterday after I said that.

“Do U even know when the gov got in2 the education business? How old R U?prayer&pledge free then, not now w/o recourse.”

“In the 1920s and 30s, “progressive education” was the word of the day; esp; equality and conclusions http://bit.ly/BllKO”

http://www.free2pray.info/Schools.html wht specifically pops out at U from ths dateline me, 1620 1783 1787 1796 1844 1867 +

http://bit.ly/iFqfg Timeline Hist/Religion in schools,1925, a rlly gr8 year eh? began the moral brkdown of American society

If you read those links, you’ll think “Wow, he’s right.  Maybe religion should be in school.”  According to proponents of religion in school, they believe that it was the wish of the Founding Fathers because the United States is a “Christian Nation.”  Here’s the problem.  His own link proves his claims wrong:

After the Declaration of Independence, 14 states had their own constitutions by 1791, and out of the 14, 7 states had specific provisions for education. Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington.

Okay, where to begin?  First off, 3 founding fathers are listed as being proponents of public education.  Now in order for there to be public education, the government has to be involved.  So the answer to the question “Do I know when the government go into the education business?” is “When this country was founded”.  Now lets look at something else in that piece I pulled out:

Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society.

Well son of a bitch, Thomas Jefferson believed people regardless of their status in society should have access to education and that the government should control it (free of religious bias might I add).  I guess that makes Thomas Jefferson…one of the founding fathers…a socialist then doesn’t it?  Of course not.  What Thomas Jefferson understood, which seems to fall on deaf ears with the religious idiots in this country, is that the United States was founded to allow varying religious beliefs.  Yes, most people were Christian, but some weren’t.  The problem was, people weren’t going to schools because it was too expensive.  The article sent to me even says that: “Until the 1840s the education system was highly localized and available only to wealthy people.”  So only the wealthy could afford to go to school because those schools were private.  It was okay (and it’s still okay) to teach religion in private schools.  Thomas Jefferson was of the belief that a proper education wasn’t just the right of those that could afford it.  So he fought for public schools.  In order to keep with the spirit of the Constitution and what he wanted for the country though, he believed that religion should NOT be interjected into public schools.  The only reason religion ever ended up in public schools was because when the public schools system was started, they just took the curriculum from private schools.  Since private schools at the time were mainly Catholic or religious schools, guess what got added in?  But it was clearly unconstitutional which is why it was overturned in the 60’s.

Now this is what really pisses me off about this. People use the “government getting involved in education” as one of their many misguided examples of the government slowly taking control over your life and leading us down the road to socialism.  The problem with that is, you have a Founding Father, perhaps the most influential Founding Father, being an advocate for Public Schools and keeping religion OUT of them.  Not only that, but in a true socialist society, you don’t get a choice.  If this was socialism, we’d only have public schools and whatever they taught, you would have to deal with.  That’s not what we have.  First off, each State pretty much runs their own educational system.  I just did an entire post on the craziness going on in Texas right now.  The federal government isn’t involved in that.  Secondly, if you’re so worried about the moral fabric of this country and you believe religion and prayer should be in school, you have a simple solution:  Put your children in private school.  You have that option and that right.  Something, I might add, that you wouldn’t be able to do if this was “socialism”.  The problem is, the reason these people don’t put their kids in private schools is because its too expensive.  And that’s where the real hypocrisy comes in at.  People are so quick to complain about giving “welfare” to those struggling and saying things like “if you can’t afford it, you can’t have it”, yet one of the biggest examples of “welfare” in this country is the Public School system.  See, without it, most people couldn’t afford to send their children to school.  Most of these people bitching about socialism, you guessed it, went to public school.  See, that’s the thing.  You can’t pick and choose when you want to bitch about government intervention like this.  You can’t say you want this country to go back to what the Founding Fathers wanted when clearly the most influential founding father was a proponent of religion-free, public schools.  Educate yourself.

“Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.” –Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806. ME 3:423

Read more Thomas Jefferson quotes on Public Education here.

The irony of this commercial isn’t lost on me.  On the surface it seems to be a smart move for the Catholic Church which seems to be a little old and out of touch with current reality to try to change its image by using a YouTube parody commercial.  If there was anyone that was dying to be made into a parody it was the Shamwow guy, especially after his knock down, drag out fight with that hooker.  However, part of me thinks this  kind of cheapening the whole experience.  I already think some priests/preachers/pastors are snake oil salesman anyway, selling not true enlightenment but a way to finance their lifestyle through a tax-exempt 501c.  This isn’t going to help.  A Shamwow is used to clean up messes.  You spill some soda on your carpet and you can use a shamwow to clean the mess right up.  If you spill soda on your carpet again, you can use the same shamwow to clean that mess up too.  You can keep doing that over and over again.  That’s not how your relationship with God is supposed to work.  We joked about this on the last podcast, about how Catholics have confessions and Protestants have baptism or simply asking God for forgiveness to in essence, reset their slate. While that’s technically true, you cannot go 6 days out of the week being a full blown, over the top sinner, doing what you want to do, come in on Sunday and ask forgiveness…and go back to doing what you want to do.  It’s kinda like using an abortion for birth control. Anyone who thinks they can get away with that is not only going to be going to Hell but they’ll have the closest seat next to the furnace.

Here’s what people need to realize.  Your spirituality is your personal relationship with God, Allah, or whoever the higher being you believe in (For simplicity I’ll be using ‘God’ to cover all the bases).  In order to be saved and sanctified according to God’s will, you have to freely make the decision to do so.  Each person is different and that is why one person’s relationship with God doesn’t equal another’s.  Another man can’t convince you to believe in God, you have to come to that realization on your own.  Religion, is the man-made institute that serves as the power base for those looking to control the weak minded, desperate or those simply trusting to find enlightenment from those who claim to be able to offer it.  Most wars and conflicts started in the name of God are actually done in the name of religion and not the Almighty.  Take Islamic Extremists.  What they have done is created their own religion that picks and chooses and misinterprets portions of the Qur’an in order to fit their needs.  They then target lost individuals, those with pent up anger or those destitute and desperate in order to build up a following not of Allah but of their religion.  The Taliban used their own interpretations to justify the mistreatment of women.  That wasn’t God’s will, just the will of greedy men willing to pray on other’s gullibility.  Same thing happens here in the States.  Ever wonder why there are so many churches in the hood?  Because the downtrodden and desperate are easy targets for those selling hope.  Again, if religion was really about saving souls and spreading the word of God, you wouldn’t need a church on every corner.  You would be able to go into any church and get the same Word.  Of course that doesn’t happen.

But its not just the clergymen of religion have have a perverted it.  No, it’s the congregation as well.  It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who agree with me when I say that religion has become complete monkey feces but then they say something to the affect of “It doesn’t matter, I’m not going because of that, I’m going to have my personal relationship with Jesus.”  What?  You’re going into a man-made institution that you know is broken…to have your personal relationship with Jesus?  That’s like finding Jesus in the club or God in the g-string of a stripper.  Jesus might have built the first Church but comparing that to the churches of today is like comparing Frank Sinatra or Ray Charles to Soulja Boy.  I also hate the “I’m going to hear the word of God” excuse.  If that’s the case, buy the Bible on audio tape.  Seriously.  As long as you are literate, you can read the Bible yourself.  This isn’t like a Shakespeare play where you need someone to translate to you exactly what the hell is going on.  I mean come on, there’s the Ten Commandments aka “Don’t do this shit”.  Its right there and doesn’t take deep analytical skills to figure out.   The truth is people go to church not for their personal relationship with God but because in order to continue on with their lives, they need to see people that are worse off than they are.  If you go to church with the town whore, you feel better about yourself knowing there is someone who is “sinning” more than you are.  It’s like going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting after being caught drinking underage in College.  Sure you passed out drunk last night but you didn’t run over a family or sleep with 10 guys while in a drunken stupor. You don’t feel that bad because you’re not a raging drunk like the others so you leave not learning a lesson and are back out binge drinking the next day.  That’s the same thing people are doing with religion these days.

Now I will say that I know this doesn’t apply to everyone and every Church.  There are some great pastors/priests out there (My Uncle is a good pastor) and there are individuals that truly understand that you have to live the Word in order to really believe it.  I applaud them.  However, 90% of the people that are sitting in the pews on Sundays are hypocrites and that somehow seems worse than the people that don’t go at all.  Its more than just putting a Youtube video up or setting your status message to say “I praise him”.  Words mean nothing without action.  Remember, “The Lord knows your heart”…and so do you.  You know you’re not doing right.  Stop pretending.

Once again, this show hits a new low.  It’s Kriss, Dylan and special guest “Monica” and the show is bananas.  First up, Kriss and Dylan celebrate the end of Lent by being able to drink.  Dylan claims he gave up sex for Lent one year but Kriss and Monica aren’t buying it.  Kriss explains why he has a problem with people overly religious on Easter. In the course of the discussion, Dylan sorta convinces Kriss to become Catholic.  Next up is a discussion about what consitutes a whore and relationships over all.  Kriss and Dylan decide to write a book.  If Steve Harvey can write a book about relationships, after failing 2 times, then they can.

There’s a problem with getting the show on iTunes for new subscribers. If you already get the show on iTunes you’re fine but if you’re looking to find us in the iTunes store it’ll probably be a couple of weeks until we’re back up and running. You can manually add us to iTunes by going to Advanced->Subscribe to Podcast and then add this url. We’re looking for writers for TheInsanityReport.com and guests for the Insanity Check Podcast. If you are interested, email us at InsanityCheck@theInsanityReport.com. Also hit us up if you’re good with graphic designs or music production (we’re looking for a new opening for the podcast). Join the Facebook Group for weekly updates on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

It’s Kriss, Ryce and Hollywood Kedi in the studio. A wide range of topics are covered. First up, promoting failures at work and Kriss’s belief that a College education isn’t for everyone. Then the AIG bonus outrage. Seriously, as President of the United States, how can you say your hands are tied. It can’t be that hard to find who these bastards getting our money are. The NBC chief Executive finally comes out and comments on Jon Stewart’s criticism of CNBC and Jim Cramer and of course…he doesn’t get the point. Then the topic changes to religion and the Pope’s comments about condom use increasing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Kriss explains his problem with the Pope and religion in general.

There’s a problem with getting the show on iTunes for new subscribers. If you already get the show on iTunes you’re fine but if you’re looking to find us in the iTunes store it’ll probably be a couple of weeks until we’re back up and running. You can manually add us to iTunes by going to Advanced->Subscribe to Podcast and then add this url. We’re looking for writers for TheInsanityReport.com and guests for the Insanity Check Podcast. If you are interested, email us at InsanityCheck@theInsanityReport.com. Also hit us up if you’re good with graphic designs or music production (we’re looking for a new opening for the podcast). Join the Facebook Group for weekly updates on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

This post is going to piss off some Catholics but quite frankly, this site is about speaking the truth and sometimes the truth hurts.  Fact is, I’ve always had problem with the idea of the Pope.  I don’t see what purpose he possibly serves.  Let me see if I have this straight:

1. God made all men equal (Meaning the Pope is no different than you or I)
2. We all have our own personal relationship with God (It’s a two way relationship, not a three-way, you-the Pope-God relationship)
3. We can speak to God personally and ask for forgiveness (I can cut out the middleman and got straight to the Lord myself).

So please, tell me…why is some old white guy who dresses up in his pajamas and makes asinine and outdated statements treated so sacredly?  Seriously folks.  You can get the same results by volunteering at your local old folks retirement home.  They have plenty of pasty old white guys that like to hear themselves talk.  Walking around behind the Pope and smelling his farts like he’s the second coming of Jesus is absurd. It would be something different if the Pope was hand picked by God/Jesus to be the defacto leader of us regular folk, but the truth is, this ass clown is picked behind closed doors by other high ranking, overrated Catholics.  I’m pretty sure they just sit around and randomly throw their feces at pictures on the wall and whoever’s picture is least soiled becomes the new Pope.  Look, I might not be a biblical scholar but I do seem to remember something in the Bible about worshiping other Gods and whenever I see footage of Catholics around the Pope it seems that if they aren’t crossing the line, they damn sure are flirting on the outskirts of it.

Anyway, back to what’s pissed me off this time about Pope Benedict XVI or whatever number this idiot is.  So this ass clown goes to Africa, you know, the place where 25 million people have died of AIDS over the last 20 years, and says the following:

“It (AIDS) cannot be overcome by the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem,” he said in response to a question about the Church’s widely contested position against the use of condoms. (source)

It’s 2009.  It’s 2009 and we have one of the most known public figures, speaking in a country devastated by AIDS and he’s suggesting that AIDS can’t be overcome by the one thing that stops the spread of the disease 99% of the times (That last 1% usually involves human stupidity errors like opening the condom package with a knife).  Unbelievable.  This is like someone telling you to stop wearing a coat during the winter time and just stay in the house to avoid getting a cold.  Now I know the argument is, “If we promote abstinence, then that will stop AIDS 100% of the time.”  Right, so while the Pope is trying to figure out how to reverse thousands of years of human sexual behavior and instinct, Africans and people in other places of AIDS epidemics (like the District of Columbia right here in the U.S.) will continue to spread the disease amongst themselves because the Pope says condoms are bad.   It’s ass backwards logic like this that makes me hate religious folks.  It’s almost as if they take pride in making outrageous, intellectually devoid statements.  Like when they suggest that the Earth is only 6,000 years old or that dinosaurs walked the Earth with people.  My brain literally hurts trying to comprehend this stupidity.

I used to be in the Boy Scouts.  When they taught us about first aid, the first thing they told us to do if we were helping someone with a really bad cut was to stop the bleeding.  Why?  Because not only is it hard to stitch a wound up quickly when there’s blood pouring out all over the place but if you take too long to stop the bleeding, the person could end up bleeding to death.  That’s the point the Pope and all these other abstinence-only fucktards are missing.  With this AIDS epidemic the first thing you need to do is “Stop the bleeding”.  Yes, rampant sexual behavior is the underlying cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS.  However, while we’re trying to put programs in place and change social dynamics and ingrained human behavior, people are still having unprotected sex, which leads to further spread of the disease.  This means that by the time the Pope and his small minded minions get their game plans in motion, even more of the population will be infected.  Brilliant.

And can we stop this myth that somehow giving someone a condom all of the sudden turns them into some kind of sexual deviant, unable to control their primal sexual urges.  It’s an incredibly stupid argument.  To have the Pope tell it, giving someone a condom is like getting them hooked on a gateway drug to sexual orgies.  “Poor little Timmy.  He wouldn’t have slept with that disease ridden crack whore if we hadn’t given him that condom”  A logical and rational human being would view condoms like medicine.  Just because someone gives you a bottle of Tylenol doesn’t mean you start knocking back headache medicine every day.  You use it when you need it.  Same thing with condoms.  I’d much rather a person have a condom with them then having them get into a situation where they make a bad decision and end up having sex without one.  Sure, in a perfect world, not having a condom would stop a person from having sex.  But we don’t live in Perfect World.  We live in reality and since there’s an AIDS epidemic and AIDS isn’t transferred through osmosis, it’s pretty safe to assume that people are having sex even without condoms.  That’s just common sense.  Of course using the words “common sense” in the same sentence with “religion” these days is like putting “George W. Bush” and “Intelligence” in the same paragraph and not being sarcastic.

This isn’t the first time I’ve expressed me disgust with the Catholic Church or religion as a whole.  I identify as a Christian and I believe in God but I’m very anti-religion.  Religion is a man-made institution that throughout history has been a tool used to control and pacify the masses to keep them from questioning those in power.  It might be 2009 but things haven’t changed.  You don’t need a man in a funny looking white outfit to tell you how to live your life.  You already know what you need to do and if you don’t, then go directly to God.  It’s hilarious that so many people will put up Facebook statuses or Tweets about how they trust in God and not in man…but then they turn around and hang on the words of the Pope, pastor, rabi or reverend.  You’re being mind fucked people.   Take the red pill and wake up from the Matrix.

A rural Alabama church is stirring up Cullman County with a month-long focus on sex, including billboards that read: “Great sex: God’s Way.”

The Cullman Times quotes Jerry Lawson, pastor of Daystar Church, as saying a big reaction is exactly what he is looking for. “Absolutely, we wanted to shock people,” Lawson tells the newspaper. “Talking about the issue proactively is the key.”

The paper says Lawson’s campaign includes a series of videos on the church’s website, including a humorous discussion about sex with an actor portraying the devil.

The Associated Press quotes local evangelist Roland Belew, a former trucker who now preaches at a truck stop, as saying the whole idea goes against the teaching of New Testament apostles.

“Paul said preach the Gospel,” the AP quotes Belew as saying. “Talking about sex ain’t gonna get nobody to heaven.”

But Lawson says the church needs to be out front on the topic in a culture awash in sex.

“It comes down to God saying the most healthy place for sex and the only right place for sex is within a marriage – one man, one woman, and one marriage,” he says.

(source)

I swear, if it’s not one extreme it’s the other with the Church.  While I’ll give pastor Jerry Lawson credit in the fact that the church is in fact scared to talk about sex, I’m not entirely sold on what he’s selling.  I didn’t search for any other videos from his church, but in the one above it seems that he’s trying to put the majority of the blame involving sexual images and fornication on the devil.  At our core, we human beings are still like just about every other creature on this planet.  Physical attraction and the desire to act on that isn’t some invention of the devil.  It’s natural.  Now, due to rules of society and other factors (STDs, Pregnancy, etc.), it’s not exactly looked upon to go out and sleep with every person you meet.  This is where the church has dropped the ball.  Trying to promote “Abstinence Only” instead of legitimate sexual education programs is only adding to the problem.  I understand that sex before marriage is taboo in the church, however, I’m not suggesting the promotion of rampant sexual acts.  I just think its smarter to explain sex to teenagers (and some adults) so its not a mystery.  They are going to sleep with each other anyway, you might as well make sure they do it responsibly.

And herein lies one of my biggest gripes with religion.  It’s become a way for people to scapegoat their irresponsibility on someone or something else.  When they don’t put forth the necessary effort to achieve their goal it’s “God didn’t want me to have it.”  If they do something stupid it’s “The devil made me do it.”  God gave us free will and therefore that means the choices and decisions we make are our own.  Blaming some invisible force for your actions is lame.  I’m pretty sure that when you get to the gates of Heaven God won’t appreciate you blaming your own decisions (or indecisions) and choices on the devil.    Man up and accept the consequences of your actions.

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So after some deliberation with Ryce and Dylan, I decided that I will be joining them in giving something up for Lent.  Of course, when I agreed, my heathen ass didn’t remember that Lent lasts from February 25th to April 11th.   Originally, I said I would give up chicken (in order to fight the stereotype) but then I thought “What a great way to try out the new poll feature on the site?”  So I’m openning it up to the people.  What should I give up for Lent?

To put it bluntly, they are either stupid or mindless drones. First off, I’m not an atheist. I believe in God. If you were going to throw me into one of the defined “religions”, it would have to be Christianity. However, I’m not a religious person. I can’t stand “religion”. Not only does religion seem to be the cause of about 90% of the conflicts in the world, but to me it seems to just be a tool used by those in power to maintain their power. If you have a problem with that statement I suggest you first, calm down, then I want you to go research some of the conflicts in the world and some of the most ruthless leaders in history and see what I mean. I’ll be fair. Part of my problem with religion is that I don’t trust human beings. We lie. It’s part of our nature. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing it because we have become so blinded by our position on something, that we really think what we are doing is right. This small fact leads to the basis of my conflict with the overly religious. I simply have a hard time believing anything anyone says. That issue is futher complicated with the fact that those that argue with religious people know that they always invoke two things when their backs are up against a wall in an argument: Faith and The Bible. Like a cornered wildcat, you count on them to start hurling quotes from the Bible when they are faced with facts and inconsistencies. It reminds me how when you were little and playing “Super Hero” with your friend how they would always make up powers to compete with yours. So if you were play fighting and you had the power of flight and they had super strength and you pretend to fly away, all of the sudden they would say they could do that too. I’m not saying that faith isn’t the answer sometimes, however, God also gave us common sense (well, most of us anyway) and I think God would like us to use it some times.

Now before I go into what caused me to write this article, I want to say that when I say I don’t take everything in the Bible literally, that is not an attack against God. Some people always get up in arms and feel a need to come up with some elaborate excuse as to why I am disgracing God when I say that. The problem is that people always say that the Bible is the word of God and therefore it cannot be wrong. That would be fine if the Bible was comprised of the actual words from God, word for word. However, the Bible has been transcribed and translated by man, and while God is perfect, man is far from it. I can barely type my own words in this article without misspellings, exaggerating, or just plain leaving things out. In elementary school we played this game. It was called ‘telephone’. The 15 students would sit down in a line and the teacher would whisper a phrase into the ear of one of the kids and tell them to pass it along. The objective would be to see if the message would get all the way to end exactly as it was given at first. By the time it got to the last person, the phrase “Jimmy, pass this message along” became “Jimmy farted in Timmy’s cereal.” If you’ve ever written a paper for a history class you know that you don’t rely on one reference source, but on many. Many religious zealots will completely ignore known facts and evidence and say “well the Bible says it” with nothing to back themselves up. When confronted with those facts, they’ll say the overused “Well, if you had faith, you would know it was true” which is a complete cop out. I’m not saying that the things written about in the Bible are false, I just think that due to different people translating and trying to recall it has had some things exaggerated a little. That’s no knock against God, it just means that his humble servants are, human…meaning, we make mistakes. Many people use their pastor or minister as their other source, and let me tell you, most pastors/ministers/priests are about as reliable as using a papier-mâché umbrella during a hurricane. Again, they are human too…therefore unlike God, they are not infallible.

This article idea all started with the “Dinosaur problem” when it comes to creationists explaining why a literal translation of the Bible is correct. See, if you say that the Earth was created in 7 days and that Adam had domain over all beasts, that means 2 things: 1. Dinosaurs are not as old as their fossils say they are and 2. Dinosaurs and humans lived amongst each other at the same time. I’ve had plenty of arguments where people tried to explain it to me and let me say that I have a better time believing those people that claim to be abducted by aliens. Then I read this article: T Rex Ate Coconuts. Actually, before reading that article, I flipped to Fox News in the morning (I like to see how the other side thinks sometimes). They were talking to this dude, Ken Ham (He looks like Abraham Lincoln reincarnated), who is opening a Creationist Museum in Kentucky. Now, I have no problem with people trying to express their views, even if they are different from me. However, to me, a museum is a place of fact, not fiction. After doing a search on the museum and reading the article above, it is obvious to me that someone has read one too many Dinotopia books. I started doing my research and realized that while the person that wrote the article wasn’t 100% accurate in describing the museum, Ken Ham (the creator of the museum) actually believes that all dinosaurs were plant eaters. Seriously, think about how absurd that sounds. A two story tall T. Rex, with menacing teeth and sleek predator body…eating bananas and apples, maybe munching on some tall grass. Even if they did use their teeth for eating coconuts, that’s a little bit of overkill…much like killing ants with a sledge hammer. Using the overly religious folk’s own argument, God doesn’t make mistakes…so why would he create a perfect killing machine if it was only going to eat coconuts? Ken Ham actually has a “rebuttal” of the article. I have the word “rebuttal” in quotes because when you read his responses, it’s not really a rebuttal at all. As a matter of fact, he pretty much confirms what the person that wrote the article said. The other article had minor mistakes in it. Like there aren’t any museum guides…just guest relations personnel. Yeah, big difference there buddy. My favorite though is how he says that the children aren’t playing amongst the T. Rex’s but just “near” them and that the dinosaurs are looking in the other direction. Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was to for some unknown reason have a display with children and T. Rex’s in close proximity to one another, regardless if the dinosaurs were looking in their direction or not, if the children and T. Rex’s were within eyesight of one another the children would be running away with the look of horror on their faces.

Now I know someone’s going to come in here and say that people like Mr. Ham (I can’t even take him serious with a name like that) are in the minority and are just extreme nut cases. Oh no, you’re not going to get away with that one. Dude got $25 million to open up this museum. There are plenty of people out there that support what he is doing. You read that correctly. There are plenty of people out there that not only think that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans but that the Earth is only is only around 6 to 10 thousand years old. Sadly, in recent years I’ve had to battle my mother over this issue. It is especially troubling because she’s a science teacher and she’s the one that taught me about evolution when I was little. As a side note, I always find it funny when people say they don’t believe in evolution because “I didn’t evolve from a monkey”, like the human race has always been the pinnacle of civilized society. A few centuries ago it was common place not to take a bath for weeks. We used to live in caves. Is it really that much of a stretch? Again, use the common sense God gave you. Remember, a few centuries ago people used to think that the Earth was the center of the universe and that the world was flat. Again, they used the Bible to back up their claims. See a pattern here?

Let me close by saying that people that argue that the Bible has to be taken as a literal translation are completely missing the point. Look, most people admit that time is a little different in the Bible. One day in the Bible doesn’t translate to one 24-hour day in our time. Come on, you know someone took some “creative liberty” with that. Creating the Earth in 7 days seems a lot more exciting and makes for a better story than creating it in 4.5 Billion years. However, arguing the intricate details is not only pointless but totally irrelevant. Does the fact that it took God 4.5 Billion years of our time to create the Earth make the feat any less amazing? When’s the last time you created a universe, planet, and ecosystem? It takes 9 months alone for a fetus to develop. If God didn’t create Adam and Eve until after the dinosaurs died off, does that turn our whole belief system upside down? Of course not. Its time people started reading between the lines and understanding the deeper meaning instead of just skimming the top and taking everything at face value. Wake up people. Wake up.