The Progressive Puppy

Kirk Cameron, Rewriting History with Fake Scholar David Barton

Former child TV star turned evangelical fanatic Kirk Cameron, not content with presenting Creationist fairy tales as facts, blaming Darwin for the Holocaust, and trashing committed same-sex couples, is now busily spreading the revisionist history of David Barton and other opponents of church-state separation.  The vehicle for transporting already-deluded fundies even further into La La Land is an upcoming documentary propaganda film called "Monumental."

Julie Ingersoll reports for Religion Dispatches:  When Kirk Cameron appeared in the post-rapture Left Behind movies he depicted mainstream evangelicalism.  Viewed as a wholesome presence in the entertainment industry and profiled in Christianity Today in 2008, his stock rose even further among mainstream evangelicals with the popular Christian film Fireproof (which, not surprisingly, was panned by most critics but embraced by the Religious Right). ... With a new film Monumental about to be released, there is a new, more extreme Cameron who is increasingly connected to Christian Reconstruction and dominion theology. When evangelicals go to the theaters next week to see the star of the popular Christian films mentioned above, what they’ll get is the “providential history” of RJ Rushdoony and David Barton ...  Cameron recently returned from the Reconstructionist-inspired San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival hosted by Doug Phillips and Vision Forum where he and Phillips discussed the theological background to the version of American history presented in the film, showing the subtle influence of Christian Reconstructionism and R.J. Rushdoony’s Biblical Philosophy of History.  Cameron tapped into contemporary tea party memes about slavery, which are rooted in Rushdoony, and whether or not the president is a Christian...  “They (the puritans) had a king that had bankrupted the nation, tripled the debt enslaving the people - in essence, claiming to be God on earth as he sat in the church and rammed religion down the throats of the people, claiming to be a Christian,” he said.

It would make sense that ultraconservative Obama-haters like Cameron and Barton would want to recreate history to reflect the American Taliban's theocratic agenda.  It's also predictable that they would attack serious scholars and attempt to insert their whitewashed depiction of the past - and I do mean WHITE and WASHED - into the nation's schools. 

In the following video Talk2Action's Chris Rodda, Senior Research Director for MRFF, counters some of the absurd claims in Cameron's new movie.  Notice Kirk's awed expression when Barton is spinning his fables.  I wonder if the actor wears that same look of astonishment while watching reruns of his shopworn sitcom Growing Pains.

Behold the carnage of logic and fact-based information.  (Kool-Aid Christians may want to avert their eyes.)

RELATED POST:  David Barton Is Insane Update
RELATED POST:  The Gasping Fish

"Testimony" - an Original Anthem for Persecuted LGBT Youth

Legendary Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz collaborated with author/commentator Dan Savage to select words from the many testimonials which comprise the "It Gets Better Project," and weave them into a musical masterpiece.

This heartrending plea for tolerance and understanding is performed by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.

"Bravo" seems too mild a response for this stunning effort.

Hell, Santorum's Pastor Pal, and Fundie "Love" (videos)

1)  A Southern-fried fundie church puts on a "Hell show" - and it's not even Halloween!  (via On Knees for Jesus)

2)  Baptist preacher Dennis Terry introduces GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum with a fire and brimstone sermon attacking liberals, women's reproductive rights, and marriage equality.  Anybody who doesn't agree with the Christian conservative worldview should, according to Terry, "GET OUT" of America.  Santorum applauds at 3:27.  (via RW Watch)

.

Darrell satirizes the "love" of evangelical Christians with a letter on Stuff Fundies Like: 

Dear Lost Soul,

I love you. I love you so much that I’ll probably never…
…eat at your house or attend any social function where you will be present.
…watch your favorite movies, read your favorite books, or listen to your favorite music in an attempt to relate to you.
…let my children be friends with your kids or even let them be on the same sports teams
…dress like you do or make any concession to making you feel comfortable around me
…use your vocabulary instead of my own church words
…leave you a generous tip
…try to help you with your physical needs unless you start attending my church
…hug you, shake your hand, or really even touch you at all
…just be your friend regardless of how we differ on politics or religion
…give you a Bible you can easily understand
…appreciate you as God’s creation without conditions, presuppositions, or agendas
…let you know that I am human too

That’s how much I love you. That’s how much God loves you. Maybe someday you’ll deserve more.

Sincerely,  Your Local Independent Fundamental Baptist Representative Of Christ On Earth 

Darrell's words strike a chord with those of us who have left the cult of born-again Christianity.

Maggie Gallagher is Officially Revolting (against Starbucks)

Over at Real Clear Politics, Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Missionary Position (NOM) defends her group's international protest of Starbucks Coffee:  "I don't generally support boycotts, especially not the kind gay marriage advocates have launched that target whole business enterprises if any one major partner personally donates to a measure like California's Proposition 8."  (This is absolute horseshit.  Ms. Gallagher and her anti-LGBT cohorts have boycotted companies from J.C. Penney to Home Depot to Walt Disney World.)  "Starbucks has voluntarily decided -- as a corporation -- to associate its brand with a major political issue, the CEO just confirmed. I was in the room. I heard him. Customers across the world have a right to know that contrary to the promises made by the corporation in the Middle East and elsewhere, Starbucks does subsidize political causes.  Drinking a cup of Starbucks coffee, sadly, means supporting gay marriage.  Speak out, and stop being invisible to powerful men like Schultz.  The business of America may or may not be business, but the business of corporations is to make an honest profit by serving all their customers well, both those who favor and those who oppose gay marriage." 

(Hat Tip:  Joe.My.God.)

Slowly Awakening from America's Health Care Nightmare ...

... No Thanks to Tea Party "Patriots" and the GOP

Although most of the President's Affordable Healthcare Act won't go into effect until 2014 - and of course if voters turn the government over to Republican legislators this will all be repealed - just look at the following illustration (on left) via Think Progress and see what benefits Americans are already reaping from the efforts of Obama and the Democrats.

Meanwhile, conservative pastors and pols continue screaming "socialism" at the top of their lungs. 

Please, Obama haters, give it a rest.

Dame Edna Retiring from Show Business

After a stage career spanning almost six decades, the legendary drag performer Dame Edna Everage has announced that she will retire following her current farewell tour of "Eat! Pray! Laugh!"  Satirist Barry Humphries, who transforms himself into the self-styled superstar, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:  "She's a little weary of touring and strange hotels."  The award-winning Dame Edna may receive scant notice from non-Baby Boomers, but I've always had a soft spot for her shameless mugging and exuberant élan.

Rod McGuirk provides backstory on USA Today:  Dame Edna's career began as the more dour Mrs. Edna Everage when she first stepped onto the stage of a Melbourne University review in 1955 in Humphries' hometown of Melbourne.  She was "Auntie Edna" in the 1974 Australian comedy movie "Barry McKenzie Holds His Own," in which she was made a dame — a British title that is the female equivalent of a knighthood — as part of the plot during a cameo appearance by the then-Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.  Dame Edna was a staple of television and stage in Britain and Australia before Humphries won a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show "Dame Edna, The Royal Tour."  Its sequel, "Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance," was also nominated for a Tony, the leading U.S. theater award, in 2004.

Below are two videos of Dame Edna strutting her stuff.  In the first video, Dame Edna appears on an overseas version of America's "The Dating Game" called, perhaps unavoidably, "Blind Date."  In the second clip, Edna commands Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to turn sheet music for an unknown pianist while an odd little woman sings and dances.

.

We will miss your schtick, Dame Edna.