Effect Measure

According to wingnut whacko James Pinkerton, nut case columnist for Newsday, at least one war is going well, these days: the war against The War on Christmas:

So Christmas has survived yet another year.

Yes, there has been a war on Christmas, fought by a few lefty lawyers who managed to buffalo some multiculturalist bureaucrats and politicians. But it’s been a losing war:

First, and most obviously, there’s the steadfast religiosity of the American people; polls routinely show that 90 percent of Americans believe in God. Secular progressives have done their best to knock the faith out of people, but it doesn’t seem to be working. (Newsday)

Mr. Pinkerton (Pinkerton? Hmmm. Sounds communist or maybe gay) is treading on very dangerous ground, however. He almost sounds like he might believe in evolution:

Part of the problem is that those who are most inclined to accept “modernity” are oftentimes the least inclined to have children. So “converts” to atheism have a way of disappearing without heirs, while those who stick with their faith, including the injunction to go forth and multiply, are more likely to have kids who inherit at least some degree of devotion.

Atheism is heritable. Who knew? The arguments that follow are even more cogent. Pinkerton points to a worldwide reacton to the “self-declared forces of enlightenment and progress” (with enemies like that, who needs friends?), a cause for celebration:

Around the world, conservative, even reactionary, religions are on the rise. In India, for example, Hindu fundamentalism is gaining strength, as Indians react to their neighboring Islamic countries and also to the increase in commercial interaction with the West. In China, millions are moving toward Christianity, while the government is pushing a neo-Confucianism. Africa is increasingly divided between the competing dynamisms of Christian and Muslim evangelism.

And the Middle East – well, Americans know about that. Islamic fundamentalism has been the guiding energy behind suicide bombers and al-Qaida, and we can bet there’s an even bigger religious revival occurring in Iraq, as both Shia and the Sunni look to heaven for inspiration.

If that’s the climate around the world, it makes sense that Christianity would grow in its homelands, too. If others clutch their holy books, Americans will respond by reaching for their own comfortable Bible.

It’s a little hard to parse this. Is he saying American Christians are reacting like other fundamentalist religions in a backlash to “enlightment and progress,” or American Christians are reacting to rival fundamentalists with their own fundamentalism? Probably the latter, because he follows it with his own version of what religious “tolerance” means in good old fashioned American Christianity:

So we might consider the reaction to the recent announcement of a Muslim African-American, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), that he would hold his hand on a Quran when he is sworn in as a member of the 110th Congress. Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) wrote a letter to his constituents in response, warning that if Americans “don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.”

Liberals and open-border advocates were outraged, of course, but you might ask yourself: Do you want more Muslims moving to America? Do you look forward to more Muslims in Congress – you know, with access to classified national security information, including counter-terrorism plans? If the answer is “no,” then it’s likely that you are moving closer to Goode’s immigration position – and that, in addition, the sturdy observance of Christmas looks like a better and better bulwark.

So now we know The War on the the War on Christmas is part of the Global War on Terrorism.

And just as real. Send in the troops. Pinkerton has already sent in the clowns.

Comments

#1 SCW Gilmore
December 31, 2006

Thankfully we have Ireland to prove that you don’t need Muslims to fight about religion. Christians call go it alone when they have too. . .
#2 M. Randolph Kruger
December 31, 2006

Even the Quran stands for something. So the war isnt over Xmas. Its over religion and nearly all those Bibles/Qurans say the same thing…. Now I draw the line a the repair manual on a 57 Chevy….
#3 Mike the Mad Biologist
December 31, 2006

Pinkerton says:

Liberals and open-border advocates were outraged, of course, but you might ask yourself: Do you want more Muslims moving to America? Do you look forward to more Muslims in Congress – you know, with access to classified national security information, including counter-terrorism plans?

Nobody seems to complain about the crazy Christian fundamentalists who have access to classified national security information.
#4 Countlurkula
December 31, 2006

> Pinkerton? Hmmm. Sounds communist or maybe gay

Communist? Hardly. Ever read about Pinkerton detectives…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_detective
#5 qetzal
December 31, 2006

Do you look forward to more Muslims in Congress…?

Absolutely. If Congress was more religiously diverse, maybe it would do a better job protecting everyone’s religious freedoms.
#6 revere
December 31, 2006

Count: Yes, I thought of that. But it interrupted the meme I was exploiting.

qetzal: Myself, I’d settle for a lot more admitted atheists in Congress (I’m sure there are plenty of atheists masquerading as believers for political expediency).
#7 caia
December 31, 2006

*raises hand* Atheist here, born and raised. My atheist parents had three children. Even if atheism were heritable (and not just partially environmental, like religious belief), from what orifice does he pull his claim that atheists don’t reproduce?

Is he admitting that some of the gays and lesbians raising children that make he and his co-religionists tweak might actually not be godless?
#8 Judy
December 31, 2006

Revere: Please, not all Christians think the same way or believe the crazies any more than all athiests think alike or believe the athiest crazies or all Muslims think alike and believe the Muslim crazies. Please don’t lump all Christians together with the fanatical ranting crazies. They do not think for me, believe for me, or speak for me; and because they can speak louder they make the rest of us look bad, not to mention stirring up fear and anger: the part about Muslims was a political statement, not Christian, and was not directed only to Christians but to all who might read it, a generalized shot that was sure to hit the mark. He gets paid to voice his opinion. With every column. He has to say something, anything, to earn his paycheck, and if he gets a strong reaction all the better. He said, “The self-declared forces of enlightenment and progress thought that they could demolish the structures of belief, and that after those structures had fallen, people would be free and liberated.” This could only be true in a situation where you allow others to tell you how to think and reason and make your decisions for you. I don’t. Do you? No, I know you do not. But Mr. Pinkerton got a lot of free publicity and who knows how many people read his column that didn’t even know he existed until today. That, not the promotion of Christmas or Christianity, was his intention.
#9 Judy
December 31, 2006

Sorry, I wrote the above before I read the man’s bio. He’s one of the political crazies, not one of the Christian crazies, lol. Christianity is not his arena.
#10 revere
December 31, 2006

Judy: Yes, he is a political crazy that uses religion (in this case Christianity; some use Judaism, some use Islam). Religion is, however, an extremely pliable and useful weapon. Guns don’t kill people, people do, the 2nd Amendment zealots say. True. But they use guns to do it. Or take suicide. If you try do it with a gun, you’ll succeed. Ifyou try with pills, most of the time you won’t. Guns are dangerous in the hands of people. You see where I’m going with this, I assume.
#11 Lea
December 31, 2006

Happy New Year to All

The mind is a poor master but a great servant. Changed my mind and decided to come back to the sacred ground of revere land.

This next paragraph applies to organized religion; most humans have been programmed to believe they need it, in other words the priestcraft has fine tuned the talent of manipulation and fear.

All that said, do I support organized religion, NO. Do I support believing in God? YES. Atheism too is an understandable belief considering the radical, over emotional world we find ourselves in.

Also, study your history, even slightly, and you will see that this type of behavior has gone on for-ever.

Do you want more Muslims moving to America? Oh revere, dont want the illegal immigrants here so why would more Muslims be acceptable?

qetzal: Oh my God … .
#12 MoM
December 31, 2006

Happy New Year’s Eve to all.
When Rep Goode made his statement (I believe it was in a fundraising letter to his “constituents”), I suggested in a number of forums (fora?) that, just perhaps, he should actually read the Constitution he had sworn to “support and defend… against all enemies, foreign and domestic”. (Whole text with interesting comments Here.) So far as I could tell, none of my comments (to various editors) got any airing. (Wonder why???)
Anyway, Pinkerton is just another wacko, just like most of the other wackos. Lea & Judy make a good points. He doesn’t speak for most members of organized religions, nor for the many more religious who aren’t organized. He does have a megaphone, just like many other wackos, and he (they) uses it to drown out the voices of reason. Damn little difference between them and Tony Snow or Karl Rove.
#13 MoM
December 31, 2006

Upscrewed the link to the Congressional Oath of Office (with comments). Try Here
#14 Davis
January 2, 2007

Revere: Please, not all Christians think the same way or believe the crazies any more than all athiests think alike or believe the athiest crazies or all Muslims think alike and believe the Muslim crazies. Please don’t lump all Christians together with the fanatical ranting crazies.

I really don’t get it. I swear someone says something along these lines in the comments of every Freethinker Sunday Sermonette, and it always seems like a complete non sequitur to me. I’ve read this one twice, and I see nothing in the post suggesting that all Christians think alike, let alone think like this whackjob.

Why do you feel an attack on this nutter is an attack on all Christians?
#15 David
January 2, 2007

Davis,

Because the “Freethinker Sunday Sermonette” is more often than not an assault on Christianity in general cleverly disguised as a rant about some poor atheist being attacked by viscious right-wingnut Christians. I guess Judy just wanted to point out that it is the idiots that Revere uses as examples. I reckon I could start my own blog about idiot atheists if it hurts my feelings so much!
#16 David
January 2, 2007

One of these days I am going to start using spell check before I post…

so, did I mean vicious – addicted to or characterized by vice, spiteful, malicious

or, did I mean viscous – resistance to flow.

lol

If you look at some of the hair gels some of the TV preachers use, either of the above may apply…
#17 Charles
January 4, 2007

Christmas is not important. The Church age is not forever. It ends in Ezekiel 37:10. There will be no real churches on Earth afterwards. Then the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and death and destruction follow for 7 years. When Jesus returns at the end of the seven years, at the end of the day, his clothes will be covered in blood from people he has killed up close and personal. One way or another, Jesus is God’s solution for sin.