Texas Begins Sand Blasting Sin, i.e., Rainbow Paint

 


In right-wing Christian Texas, a rainbow painted crosswalk is sin. That's why Republican Gov. Abbot has ordered crews to sandblast and remove any rainbow paint color from Dallas streets. Those  colors represent the gay community and its supporters who are sinners. What better use of public money than sandblasting sin.  

Texas is ground zero for U.S. politics. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, has said the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Texas, James Talarico, should be killed by God. Now, Hegseth's pastor said he agrees with this. Talarico is the Democratic Party's endorsed candidate for a Texas Senate seat. He is a theology student in his mid-thirties and says the Bible does not condemn abortion or homosexuality. Perhaps President Trump will declare the sin in Texas is a threat to national security and bring in his ICE forces to stamp it out.

It is worth remembering that the most important concern in the Christian right's mind is sin. Professor types in conservative Christianity try to claim the faith is about forgiveness of sin, not condemnation of sin. This unimportant distinction does not stop the preoccupation with sin. If the faith was about forgiveness, Gov. Abbot would not be sandblasting sinful rainbow paint

Speaking just for myself, Gov. /Abbot of Texas, Pete Hegseth and the cast of Republican characters now in the news are entertaining political theater. Like many others, I wish they were not the ones in charge but they are there for now. I watch them and have a chuckle. 

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ancient God, Bel (Baal), the Main Character in an Ancient Play

Image
In a British museum is a preserved stone tablet from Babylon. It dates to about 2,000 BCE. Someone labored patiently to inscribe an entire passion play featuring the god Bel. I reiterate this is a stone tablet, not a recopied papyrus. The play begins with the god Bel arrested by soldiers and taken off the stage. He reappears at a trial in the Hall of Judgement. Bel is innocent but is sentenced to death. In the next scene Bel is accosted by a mob. He is despised and rejected. The actor playing Bel is then taken by guard to a hilltop in a sacred grove. Two criminals are taken with him. One of these is released. The the audience then leaves the theater and follows the actor Bel and his guards to the top of a hill where the death scene is enacted by hanging from a tree. The audience returns to the theater for the dramatic final scenes. The dead Bel is stripped and prepared for burial. On a theatrical hill to the side of the stage is a tomb where the body is placed. A stone is rolle...
Read more

What Was the "Argument" in the Election

Image
I hate to add my blog to the piles of blogs and pundits analyzing and pondering the meaning of the just passed election. But that's what I feel like doing today. I've always like Senator Ted Cruz's summary of politics. He once said, "First, win the argument. Then, win the election." I think there is a way of applying that to anti abortion Catholics and Protestants. The link talks of Catholics who now feel they have no political home because Republicans let them down with Trump but they remain against abortion rights. Taking Cruz's win-the-argument thesis, I'd call the past election about an argument between two groups. One group's argument was, "Trump's a jerk." The other's argument was, "Abortion is wrong." The group, "Trump's a jerk," won the argument and then the election.  While one can argue the election, or any election, it about more complex issues, I believe in the end elections hinge on very simple ar...
Read more

Will We Ever Know How Accurate Current Bibles Are

Image
When I discuss the many times the Bible was copied and recopied by scribes over a couple of thousand years, the reply is often, "I have a book by this (or that) expert who says the Bible is 99% accurate to its original writers." The 99% claim appears in various places defending the Bible. There is one thing we know absolutely: There is no surviving original copy of the Bible. Even the oldest surviving material is a generation or two after the time some of the Bible was written. This means no one can claim he has, or ever will, compare the current Bible to the original Bible and find the two are 99% the same. We cannot claim either that it is not 99% accurate. For the sake of discussion, however, assume the current Bible is 99% accurate. That would mean the one word out of every 100 was inaccurate. It could still mean an important misreading of the original text. An example is the passage referring to punishment for a man who kills a fetus. In the oldest know materia...
Read more