Tag: FirstBaptistChurchBlairsville

Calling for more Violence

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From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

In light of recent developments, the likelihood of an increase in politically motivated violence in the United States is becoming more and more realistic. The refusal of the predominantly Republican members of parliament to set up a commission of inquiry into the events of January 6 is clear evidence that large sections of them are prepared to at least approvingly accept violence even against state institutions and the security agencies that protect them. This is unprecedented in a constitutional democracy.

A bipartisan investigation could also have provided final clarity and evidence on the political background comprising the mob that invaded the Capitol on January 6. Reportedly, more than half of Republican supporters believe that Antifa was behind it as well as other radical left-wing groups, organized by Democrats to “make Trump look bad.” This statement is of course absurd, if only because there is no significant radical left group in the U.S. organizationally and logistically able to plan and implement an action of such magnitude as the capture of the parliamentary seat in Washington D.C. The assertion is one of the usual catchphrases coming from the right-wing political camp, whereby the senders know only too well how unlikely it is that any of the Trump supporters would be able to explain impromptu what Antifa actually means, not to mention the historical context.

The delaying tactics of officials who are responsible for their country and were elected to serve law and justice, sends a pernicious and dangerous signal to the American public because it de facto normalizes violence as a means to achieve political objectives.

What halfway sound person can seriously want that for his or her country? It should be readily apparent how little such an approach can serve the good of the United States.

This is the true consequence of the fact that someone like Donald J. Trump could become president in this country. And there are too many leaders in the Republican Party who will not stop the further courting of an insane man. The question is at which point on the priority list is the interest of their country.

The Grand Old Party, if it indeed remains on this path, will continue to cultivate the crazy, so they can get elected by the crazy. Are there really so many ideologically blinded, pretended patriots in this country who are unable to put one and one together?

“Far-Left, Radical Socialist Policies”

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From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

Under the influence of a primitive demagogue, the Republican Party leadership continues to feed its base with whopping lies.

After Trump’s presidency, many Americans believe that the current administration is destroying cherished American values and drives the U.S. toward socialism. In this context, Elise Stefanik, chair of the Republican House Conference, uttered a phrase that makes a person who had lived involuntarily in a socialism for almost thirty years cringe:

She called the agenda of the current US-Administration “far-left, radical socialist policies.”

At this point it should be noted: Whoever uses dull slogans exposes himself to the suspicion of wanting to take others for fools; he also reveals that he might be unable to contribute any conclusive arguments for the solution of real problems. By no means for the first time in its history is the GOP summoning the specter of socialism to scare Americans away from any acceptance of policies other than its own.

In contrast to Stefanik, this writer experienced socialism firsthand, opposed it in the GDR (“East Germany”) with modest means as much as possible, put up with personal disadvantages in the process, and experienced with millions of others the fall of the Berlin Wall as a result of a peaceful revolution.*

I can say with certainty: this woman has not the faintest idea what she is talking about when she mouths the word “socialism.”

I repeat here what should be easy for even the average person to understand: Socialism is when the means of production are not in private hands, but in the hands of the state. Period. There is not even a hint of a precondition in the USA that can bring the country toward socialism.

What the country lacks are accompanying governmental measures to curb social injustice, which cries out to heaven in the United States. Previous presidents have already denounced this and/or used government power to fight social injustice: from John Adams via Teddy Roosevelt (by the way: a Republican), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman to Lyndon B. Johnson.

None of them was a socialist because of it.

Whoever manages to compare a policy of social justice with socialism, and in doing so also falls on open ears among the population, is in my eyes an unscrupulous populist. A person who has a minimum knowledge of history and is still of sound mind, will not follow these pipers.

By the way – anyone who fobs off his own base (de facto: his own family) with cheap, propaganda-ridden phrases should not deserve to be elected to any responsibility whatsoever.

What has the Republican Party turned into?

Notes:

*I was born in 1961 at the junction of the Cold War, just 21 miles from the deadly border that once separated Germany. Bear in mind that I grew up behind barbed wire not because of a non-functioning socialism (which we did not want), but as a direct consequence of World War II sparked by Germany. In the further historical development, the inner-German border was built by communists in the midst of increasing tensions and the collision of interests between the U.S. and its erstwhile ally, the Communist-Bolshevik Soviet Union, which eventually morphed into hostility. – Without this illegal, impenetrable border, millions more people would have fled from the Soviet sector to the free West than had already done so before 1961.

The Shameful Failure of the Churches

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From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

Hardly any media in this country describes it in depth, because the subject is probably too hot a topic to bring forward to American society: The United States has a huge problem not only with guns, racism and polarization, but also with religious obstinacy, emanating in large parts from white evangelist institutions whose leaders have no interest in a God, but ostensibly in self-sufficiency on the local level and in political influence on the big national stage.

Such a phenomenon is by far nothing new in the history of the Church over the past centuries, considering that oppression, exploitation, extermination, and conquest for self-interest have always been the true motives of Christianity behind a facade of pious faith. In the more modern perception of our time, especially the evangelical orientation seem to take on the most perverse forms, namely to an extent which one would not necessarily expect from a religion practiced in the Western world.

For those who never suspected that the Churches would ever decisively support a perverted wacko like Donald Trump and continue to do so, have long since been proven wrong. Facts speak for themselves: Without the active participation of evangelical Christians, without the influence of evangelical organizations, churches and pastors, an intellectually and morally degenerated figure like Donald Trump would have never made it to the presidency of the United States of America. The incontrovertible fact that the vast majority of evangelical Christians in this country – or those who fancy themselves as such – have been at the forefront of the Trump-mania, will cling to the Christian claim of this country in the history books for the next hundred years.

The heinous lackeys largely responsible for the disastrous development in their communities is the majority of profiting local pastors, ministers, and preachers, who not only perfectly know how to make money with the gullibility of the masses, but are also talented to push impudence and absurdity to the limit – Sunday after Sunday and also in between all possible occasions. The so-called pastor can blurt out whatever he likes, even what his preferences are in his spare time; be it shooting including the killing of animals or whatever else pleases him: he need not expect a reaction of disgust. As always with such constellations, the mass of alleged Christians trot docilely like a flock of sheep in the desired direction of the mindless propaganda, all taking place in the name of their Lord.

Seen in this light, it is not surprising at all that even many elderly, otherwise impeccable church persons casted their vote for someone who, long before his election, said that one could grab any woman between her legs if he only is famous enough and has money – an infamous statement dismissed by his own wife as “locker room talk.”

Against all common sense and with open eyes and ears, evangelical Christians continue to follow Trump’s lies, even though the coronavirus he downplayed has cost so many American lives. They still believe his rants about a rigged election, his laughable claims about the assault on the Capitol. They buy his presumed Christian attitude because he staged himself standing like a jerk in front of a church with a Bible in his hand. He could talk about injecting disinfectants into human bodies and blather about airports that George Washington’s army supposedly conquered in the 18th century. He could call himself the “most stable genius” on camera and stir up racially motivated sentiments against people of different origins and different skin color. He could pay hush money to prostitutes and deny scientific proof about the nature of the coronavirus and man induced climate change. What kind of Christians are those who voted for him anyway in 2020? What else does someone have to say and to do before he is met with refusal?

What alleged Christians think about putting such a person on the shield to the detriment of their own country would remain not only a question of the human brain, but primarily a matter of conscience and character. On the other hand, not a whole lot can obviously be expected from people who do not seem to notice how undignified and in principle unchristian their demeanor is – a support for a figure representing nothing more than what any halfway decent person would commonly consider offensive.

If churches have nothing better to offer in terms of moral leadership, then one can only say: it is disgusting.

Have the Churches send the Checks!

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Hypocrites get offended by the truth

From my Writing Room

Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

The churches should be taxed on the spot, so they have no longer to act as the good Samaritans to justify their sanctimonious existence by providing millions for charity while at the same time line their own pockets with billions. Finally, the church as the most ardent Trump-Fan Club and leading member of the Special Interest Group (SIG)* would serve a good purpose on the real side of this world.

The churches in the US own property worth 700 billion, and they do not pay a single dime property taxes for it. Lowbrow parishioners pay their tithes to the Holy Joes – and the churches pay zero taxes for it. The churches invest from the tithes on the stock market to gamble in the name of their Lord – and they pay no taxes for it. The churches, one of the largest profiteers in the country, last year made billions on interest alone, and they paid no taxes for it. Yet their stooges, scheming blatherer by trade, preach Christian generosity during each and any of their Sunday morning story time.

Have the churches – with “their” money that is grift anyway – pay the stimulus checks for millions of Americans in urgent need; to the ones not even able to afford the food for the next day. Have the greedy Pied Pipers provide for the American worker, who busts his chops to no avail, faltering under the burden of a deadly pandemic with no God within sight. If the churches, merely engaged in window-dressing, would pay their fair share into the state coffers, every stimulus check going out to the American workers would be probably “a little bit more” than just 1,400.00 dollars.

Have the holy grifters and charlatans pay for it instead of adding the costs to the national debt – to the detriment of your grandchildren, who will have to stand Sam sooner or later.

Have mercy, at least this one time.

Note: *Consisting of institutions and persons making a fortune through extensive use of legalized legerdemain while playing YOU THE PEOPLE for a sucker.