OK, if you’ve been around my rants in cyberspace much, you knew this was coming – kind of an “I told you so” moment.  And, yes, I’m talking about the “Christian terrorist” who MURDERED three people at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs the day after Thanksgiving.  He killed a police officer (who, ironically, was also an assistant pastor at a local church from what I’ve read), an Iraq war vet, and a mother of two who was there supporting a friend.  I’m not sure what we will hear from the right wing “crazies” regarding this Murderer, I’m guessing most of the “hate mongers” will be declaring their own innocence regarding the DISTINCT possibility that their hate rhetoric motivated this MURDERER to kill these people while thinking he was some kind of “pro life” hero.  Honestly, as a Christian myself, I TOTALLY fail to understand the thinking of people like this and the ones “ginning up” the hate.

However, I have to point out that just a few days before this happened I wrote about the right wing – I believe I referred to them as “fear mongers” – who’ve been out in force since the terrorist attacks in Paris a couple of weeks ago.  I pointed out the hypocrisy of people like (most of) the candidates for the republican presidential nomination who are “broad brushing” Muslims because of the extreme antics of ISIL and attempting to block THOUSANDS of Syrian refugees from entering the United States – presumably because there’s a slight chance ISIL will manage to smuggle a terrorist past our border despite the18 month to 2 year vetting process each refugee must endure prior to being admitted (legally) to the the U.S.  Keep in mind, these refugees are fleeing unrest that is, to a large extent, the result of the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq in 2003.  Republicans have found creative ways to avoid that part of the discussion and our “liberal media” is very accommodating for them.

Jeb Bush had the gall to say that “If they are Christians, we should let them in.”  I’m guessing (and, I guessed in that previous post) that Mr. Bush was suggesting that only Muslims could be considered “terrorists.”  I’m wondering, REALLY I am, how Jeb would categorize the man who shot up the Planned Parenthood facility, killing the aforementioned three INNOCENT people, while holding scores of people hostage.  From the accounts I heard, there was random gunfire repeatedly at different times during the day.  Witnesses reported the man shooting at just about anything that moved.  He was apparently shooting through walls, doors, windows, and who knows what else – at this point.  I’m guessing his motive was to create TERROR!

I haven’t been much for watching the republican “debates” but I do recall one of the earlier ones focusing on Planned Parenthood and referencing a video, that has since been proven to be a hoax, to support the claim that Planned Parenthood is somehow selling “baby parts” after abortions.  Now, I have to say here that I’m not “pro abortion.”  My heart goes out to anyone who’s in the position to feel they need one.  And, in my mind, there is no question that once an egg and a sperm unite and you have an embryo that requires only food and oxygen to grow, it is a human life.  To me that is not even debatable, it’s just reality.  However, that being said, I have to add that I’m thankful to never have been in the position to have to make that choice.  Personally, except in rare incidences I’d choose “life.”  The reality though, to me, is that it’s not my decision, it’s legal, and it’s not my place to “judge” either the patient or the doctor in the case of abortion.  I could write another long post about this subject, but I’ll leave it for another day.  My point here though, is that crazy people like the guy who committed these MURDERS are affected by the rhetoric of “leaders” who profess to be Christians and who are constantly attacking – usually with “doctored” evidence – abortion providers. (and, ironically – here’s that word again – most of the people in the “pro life” movement – at least that I’ve observed – oppose early child education, government funded children’s health care, Medicaid, food stamps, maternity and paternity leave, raising the minimum wage, etc. – all areas of “debate” that affect people in poverty – and, the number’s growing not receding – I’m guessing financial considerations would be a leading motivator for women seeking abortions)

I strayed from my point, but I wanted to be clear that I’m not “pro abortion.”  (honestly, I don’t think many people are – there are, in my view, a plethora of reasons why unwanted pregnancies would be significant in our nation)  My point is that the guy who MURDERED the three people at the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs has to be called a “home grown” Christian terrorist.  (And, none of the people he murdered were having abortions! – not that that would have made it OK, I’m just sayin….) Unfortunately, I see lots of similarities between the right wing Christians and the right wing Muslims.  The core beliefs might be different, but the “my way or the highway” philosophy seems to have a lot of similarities to me.  As a “liberal” Christian, that’s certainly not how I read the Bible.  One of the main things that drew me to believing in Jesus was “free will.”  The idea that we, as a nation (or government) can “legislate morality” to me is as absurd today as it was in my mind back in my formative years – the 60’s and 70’s.

As time rolls on while I’m often pondering why I’ve been motivated to read so many books and be, seemingly, constantly ranting in cyberspace, about the damage being done to the America I love by the republican party, it’s becoming more clear to me that what bugs me the most is that it’s the Christian community which is generally considered to be the “base” of that party.  Someone like Donald Trump, who is eerily reminding me of a certain person we’re not supposed to mention who arose to prominence back in the early thirties in Germany, says: “I’m religious.”  And, the republican brethren believe him and then cheer when he denigrates Mexicans and says he will locate millions of them and somehow deport them (and, believe it or NOT, Trump’s going to build a wall – I guess something along the lines of the Great Wall of China, between Mexico and the United States and Mexico will pay for it), or proposes rounding up Muslims and “registering them,” or, the last one I heard was when he suggested 80% of whites murdered in America are killed by Blacks!

Is it any wonder why America’s young people are fleeing from Christianity?  My understanding of the Gospels is that it’s a message of love.  That’s NOT what’s coming across from the right wing of the republican party – which is relying on Christians as their “base.”  Please people, wake up!  And, I’m not a big fan of the democrats – in fact, I heard today that a significant plurality of America’s voting public is now “independent.” (I’m in that category)  Makes me think Bernie Sanders actually does have a chance to succeed in the 2016 presidential election.

To me, there was great thought put forth by our founding fathers when they CLEARLY put forth a constitution calling for a SEPARATION of church and state.   However, since the days of Reagan (there’s that “bugaboo” again) republicans have “sucked in” Christians who are opposed to abortion (Read “Crazy For God” by Frank Schaeffer) as a way to push some very “Non-Christian” initiatives, with the end result being damage to both the government and to the church.  Now, more and more, we’re ending up with “Christians” committing murder and the people who “egg them on” in the media, after the fact, are nowhere to be found.  In Colorado we have THREE people, TOTALLY innocent people, DEAD – and, within a matter of days our “liberal media” was on to the next story.  In fact, the next story was another shooting, but this time it was perpetrated by Muslim MURDERERS – so it will likely be in the news for months and “we the people” will be encouraged by our media outlets along with the GOP candidates for president in 2016 to “be afraid.”  (And, the republicans will use it to blame President Obama for more of our ills!  Yikes!)

Note: I started this post a couple weeks ago and never got it finished or published.  In the meantime I met with a friend that I often have breakfast with on Saturday mornings.  After that meeting I started another post – kind of along the lines of this one – and, I thought I’d just add it here.  It’s pretty much self- explanatory. (and, for once, it’s short :o):

Often times, on Saturday mornings, I meet with a “conservative” friend of mine for breakfast and we do something our politicians seem to be immune from, we discuss issues that we see from almost completely different viewpoints in a way that encourages honesty and transparency.  I call it a dialogue.  We’re both Christians, I’m a “liberal” Christian and he comes from the “conservative” bent.  But we talk, and we respect each other’s viewpoint, and – in my view – we each grow a bit every time we meet.  Neither of us appreciates the level of division in our country and the FACT that we’ve stuck our children with politicians who can’t seem to perform even the basic functions of government.

Today, as I arrived, my friend was reading an article on his phone (we’re both old enough to be continually amazed that our phones are more powerful than the first computers we used) that referenced the president of Egypt making a pledge to rebuild structures of Christians in Egypt that have been destroyed by Muslim radicals in the previous couple of years.  We both thought, “That’s the kind of leadership we’d like to see from statesmen around the world.”  He suggested I post this article on this blog and I decided he was correct.  So, if you’d like to read a very interesting article that encourages peace and understanding (and tolerance), click HERE.