Sten Gazette

The “Pastor Dave” who wrote so intemperately about the secularization of Christmas (comments, Merry Christmas!, 12/5/04) has a close cousin in Denver, Colorado. Although he writes in the first person and doesn’t sign his work, this is another “pastor” who seemingly is confused about his own theology, but doesn’t let it stop him from political ranting. And, like Pastor Dave, if he actually went to college he must have slept through English class.

The “Pastor Dave” who wrote so intemperately about the secularization of Christmas (comments, Merry Christmas!, 12/5/04) has a close cousin in Denver, Colorado. Although he writes in the first person and doesn’t sign his work, this is another “pastor” who seemingly is confused about his own theology, but doesn’t let that stop him from political ranting. And like Pastor Dave, if he actually went to college he slept through English class

The ad appeared in “Mile High Tidbits,” a local giveaway advertising “newspaper” whose editorial content consists of “tidbits” of trivia and humor, often with a pronounced religious and politically conservative bias. Which isn’t all that surprising since “Tidbits” is a franchise operation based in Montgomery, Alabama, the state where marriages can be solemnized by “Any licensed minister of the gospel in regular communion with the Christian church, etc….” (Same Sex Marriage– Yes or No, 11/01/04)

If all goes according to plan you can read a scan of the ad for yourself. If you have trouble seeing it,
point your browser to www.StenGazette.org/justice.jpg

The image of “Seated Justice” and the bold, upper case words “VALUES, MORALITY, ETHICS ETC” really do get your attention. But you may have been confused as to how that relates to the text of the ad, which can easily be summarized as follows:

1. Sinners are going to get burned up.

2. Satan was narrowly defeated in the last election by those who voted for “righteousness.”

3. The defeat of “Satan’s… agenda” just bought us a little more time to “prepare for what is to come.”

Let’s see if we have this right God’s getting ready to destroy the world (again), but since the Christian Right got Bush re-elected, He (God) is going to suspend the sentence for a while.

The “instructive metaphors” are indeed, um… instructive.

But why, oh why did he begin his ad with a pagan image? Of a goddess, no less! The image shown is from the bas-relief on the lamp posts in the plaza of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, which is somewhat ironic since the Christian Right is usually at such odds with the Supremes. The image itself is a representation of Themis, the Greek “goddess of justice” who was one of the original Titans and mother of the fates and the seasons, re-dating Zeus and the other Olympian gods. Yep, a genuine, died-in-the-wool graven image! Just slightly aside, when her traditional blindfold first appeared in the 16th Century, it was a protest against the Law turning a “blind eye” to corruption. Previously, the administration of Justice was supposed to require the eagle-eye of a Zeus or Athena’s owl. So the blindfold now means exactly the opposite of its original meaning– perhaps some 16th century Karl Rove decided to “spin” it.

It is also ironic that the church that is supposedly advertising here is called “Lovingway.” Hey, Pastor Anonymous… where’s the Lovin’?

Let us end with an “instructive metaphor” of our own: We only “saw the tip of the (Born-again) iceberg.”

–SG

What do you think? Please enter a comment below.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 11th, 2004 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Church and State, Issues, Politics, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.