The Unclad Soul

On a recent Moyers and Company broadcast journalist and host Bill Moyers showed a clip of Republican Congressman Paul Broun stating that because he is a Christian he has thrown aside all of his training as a physician and scientist and believes only what the Bible tells him about evolution, climate change and global warming. Here is the brief segment: BILL MOYERS: Right now, two powerful belief systems have converged to counter facts staring us right in the face. Just as the number of Americans who question the science of evolution has gone up, so too has the number who deny that global warming is happening, and that human activity is causing it. This, at a time when the global scientific community is more certain than ever that you and I, and everyone else, are helping to turn up the heat and seal our fate. And here’s the scary political reality: on both fronts, evolution and climate change, radical right Republicans have made denial a litmus test. You can see it embodied i...

There is a lurid kind of selfishness among us today. It struts itself in religious language and patriotic mumblings. It looks out on the world and our nation and sees only forces out to take away one’s security, one’s freedom, one’s money. This selfishness never sees the needs of people, the scarring hurts, the struggle to be human, the longing to have self respect and to be loved. It knows no empathy, only resentment bathed in bitterness. It convinces us that people on the fringes of survival are losers, void of ambition and initiative, wasters of resources we want for ourselves. This selfishness scorns the provisions of government agencies that exist to assist single moms stuck in the debris of betrayal and abandonment. It dismisses the limits of the disabled who are seen by this selfishness as cripples useless to us and to our economy, beggars looking for a handout. It disregards the elderly in their tiny homes with leaky roofs and thin walls that can’t hold back the cold o...

There are, it seems to me, five types of Christian groups these days. The first are those who are progressive, open-minded, grace oriented. This group is not bound to tiresome traditions that are irrelevant and exclusive. They long to grow emotionally, spiritually. These Christians welcome gays, actively care about the poor, and are not political except to work for justice in their communities, state, nation, and the world by supporting causes and agencies that reach out to hurting people in desperate circumstances. They are humble, human, and loving, but they are not afraid to break out of the mold, to ask hard questions, to challenge the status quo, and to embrace people of all faiths, races, and lifestyles. They are not into “getting people saved,” but are rather dedicated to discovering how to make the world a better place for everyone. Once a powerhouse for change and renewal this is a diminishing group within the Christian community.  A second group are those who are...

"If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on election day.  By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting.  In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some diehard's vote." ~ David Foster Wallace, Novelist

For years liberals owned the day.  The amazing leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II guided our country through one of the most difficult periods in our history.  People saw the Democratic Party as the party of the people—the poor, the middle class, immigrants, minorities, and the wealthy.  The succeeding Democratic presidents demonstrated a similar commitment to all Americans.  And more amazing advancements in freedom and opportunity were the result of their leadership. Importantly, Republicans cooperated with these Democratic presidents.  They voiced their opposition at times.  They fought against policies they disagreed with.  But when it came time to work together and get important legislation passed for all of the country, they were willing to do their part.  And many of them contributed their own intelligent and compassionate ideas to the process. Then, somewhere during the 1...

"The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized." ~ Tom Robbins, Screenwriter/Novelist Think long and carefully about this quote. Because this is where were are in America today. There are very conservative politicians and religious leaders today doing everything in their power to get us to be blind followers, hapless sheep, plodding along a path of mediocrity and sameness they have set out before us. They want our unwavering...

There is this very nasty business of questioning President Obama’s citizenship that continues to drive a lot of conservatives in this country. The force behind this disgraceful display of total nonsense is a woman named Orly Taitz, a self professed lawyer and dentist, who doesn’t seem to be actively practicing either of those professions. Her full time job appears to be to somehow convince the American people that Barack Obama does not deserve to be our president now or in the future. She apparently lives somewhere in California but she is now up in New Hampshire trying to get the President’s name taken off the ballot there for the upcoming primary elections. She still claims he is not an American citizen even though Mr. Obama’s birth certificate has been declared by all manner of officials as valid and trustworthy. I don’t like the way our country is behaving. We have lost so much of what has made us a place of welcome and inspiration to the world. I don’t think I’m being na...