HiddenMysteries: Conservative Family Values, Beating the Crap Out of Defenseless People Edition

by Joshua Holland

Obviously, traditional Christian values inform our morality -- is there another source?

The Unspoken Christian Problem in the United States

Here are two stories that appeared just inches apart on John Cole's blog.

Item one:

In an incident in which the perpetrator should have considered that he would become a household name on Wonkette before going through with it, former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton is facing assault charges for allegedly beating the shit out of his mistress while having sex. His ladyfriend had not uttered the “safe word,” probably because Jetton was beating her unconscious.

Wonkette notes, "Rod Jetton is married with three children and attends Methodist church regularly. He is affiliated with the Republican Party. He is a Real American, the end."

Item two:

Former Congressman (and C Streeter) Chip Pickering is reportedly under police investigation for his involvement in a brawl with a rival youth league soccer coach.

Apparently, police were called to Liberty Park in Madison, Mississippi, after Pickering and coach Christopher Hester came to blows when Pickering confronted Hester over the treatment of Pickering’s son.

The kicker? Hester claims he was wearing a neck brace at the time of the incident.

The Associated Press notes that during his political career, Pickering "cast himself as a defender of decency, particularly on television and the Internet, and was among House members urging then-President George W. Bush to declare 2008 'the National Year of the Bible.'" He's been under some stress lately, however -- back in July, his wife kicked him to the curb for having an affair with a woman whose family owns the sleazy DC lobbying firm that employs him.

I'd almost submit all this without comment.

But I can't. I feel obliged to note that a lot of my gay friends are doing the family thing these days -- 2 marriages last year, one coming up and another couple who just popped out a rug-rat a few months back. All three couples have really stable, almost dull relationships. I can't imagine any of them getting caught bonking someone else in some motel somewhere, never mind beating the shit out of a person with whom they were cheating. Among this crowd, there are no disappearances to get a little "strange" in Argentina, no toe-tapping in airport bathrooms, no harassment of bright-eyed young interns.

Those are just some people I happen to count as friends, so all of this is of course entirely anecdotal.

But consider for a moment the bizarre reality a liberal-minded American like me faces these days. Those who we're told pose this dire threat to traditional marriage are June fucking Cleavers -- all they want is to make a good, loving home and have a life far too dull for me to even contemplate. And here we have these other folks who have anointed themselves the defenders of traditional marriage, and fought like Hell to keep June Cleaver from making that nice home for Ward and the boys (or Wanda and the boys, as the case may be), and they turn out to be a bunch of depraved bullies bent on nothing but their own, often perverse gratification. And year after year, scandal after scandal, they just seem to leave behind an almost endless string of broken homes and smoking wrecks of marriages.

The dissonance is so great that perhaps it's time to ask ourselves if we should keep calling these people "hypocrites." The charge is premised on the idea that religious conservatives are, in fact, "pro-family" in the first place. Given how frequently we hear of these tales of "hypocrisy," perhaps it's time to consider the possibility that being an amoral libertine is simply a facet of modern social conservatism -- a feature, if you will, rather than a bug.

PS: Excuse the gratuitous ad hominem, but, seriously, have you ever seen a human being who better fits the stereotype of a smarmy political careerist than Chip Pickering?

http://www.alternet.org

**************************************************
The Unspoken Christian Problem in the United States

by Dallas Dem

Why does the main stream media continue to ignore the Christian problem here in the United States?

According to the FBI, an estimated 1,382,012 violent crimes occurred nationwide in 2008, and the 99% of those crimes were committed by Christians . In fact, Christians in the United States murdered over 14,000 Americans last year. Christians also committed close to 10,000,000 property crimes against Americans last year.

One of Christianity's major sub-sects, Catholics, are responsible for the majority of illegal immigration from Mexico into this country. Christian bankers on Wall Street have wrecked the economy. Last spring, a Christian terrorist drove around Dallas randomly shooting people on the Freeways. Why is political correctness preventing the media from saying what we all know is true? That Christians in America pose a grave danger and that you and your family are likely to be victims of Christian criminals sometime in your life.

While many claim that Christianity is a religion of peace, hundreds of wars in the past 2,000 years have been started by Christians. And while gunpowder may have been discovered by the Chinese, just about every weapon of modern civilization has been developed by Christian scientists and engineers. There can be no doubt that Christians are responsible for just about everything that's wrong in America.

I say, send them all back where they came from.

http://www.dailykos.com

Christianity- the Burning Desire?

Conservative Family Values, Beating the Crap Out of Defenseless People Edition

Tuesday, December 08 2009 @ 04:01 PM CST