Prayer being the last refuge of a scoundrel, it's no surprise that Donald Trump proclaimed today a National Day of Prayer for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, even though Memphis Minnie told us ninety years ago that 'crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good':
The people of Southeast Texas don't need prayers, as pious fraud Joel Osteen found out... and now Osteen is doubling down on the stupid. Getting back to Trump, the idea that a man who has only worshiped Mammon and his own loathsome self would call for a day of prayer is even more ludicrous.
My religious leanings are best characterized as apatheism- I had a pretty traditional religious upbringing, but the failings and hypocrisy of the self-proclaimed interpreters of the will of God turned me off completely to religion and, frankly, the universe just makes more sense when you stop trying to shoehorn it into a religious framework. Nevertheless, I am familiar with the Bible, and one of my personal favorite verses is Matthew 6:5. As if the useless piety of hypocrites wasn't enough, the absolute worst of the god-botherers are claiming that Harvey created a hellscape in Texas because Bruce and George went hunting for furniture for their apartment together. Yeah, I think I've had enough from these creeps.
Bring it on brother. Disasters and crises predictably bring out the worst of the religious grifters and ideologues. None of them have any actual empathy for the people suffering and none of them want to try to understand the actual causes of the disasters since that would distract attention from them. Trump is a classic example of this, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe Evangelicals have done a great job of spreading a Word--I look at Osteen's wishy washy charity, and the usual Clue game played by Pat Roberts and them over pin the disaster on the scapegrace of the moment, and I know I want no part of anything calling itself "religion". I want communion with the aggrieved, and the charity of doing. Not the wind whistling over the whited sepulchers.
ReplyDeletePat Robertson. I meant. Obvi.
ReplyDeleteWell, if it helps, there isn't a great distance between Pat Roberts and Pat Robertson; Roberts is one of my US Senators. He sends lots of prayers to people, but doesn't believe they need anything they aren't able to buy.
ReplyDeleteTrump is a classic example of this, of course.
ReplyDeleteหนังใหม่