Evil wears many masks in this world, but none so dangerous as the mask of righteousness. The American Family Association (AFA) is a group of Christian Fundamentalists who have come together in a common belief that the world we live in has been corrupted by immorality. They have decided to fight back against this corruption by trying to re-instate the "proper" religious morals given to us by the Bible. These moral views are narrow minded in the extreme and are often full of hate and prejudice. They often voice their beliefs that abortion is wrong, that homosexuality is a sin, that separation of church and state is a violation of their rights, that the media isn't biased enough in favour of Christianity and much more. The more I read articles from their website (www.afa.net) the more angry and horrified I become. So why do I keep going to their site? It's like a train wreck. I don't want to see, but I can't turn away. I was thinking of ranting about them in my Rant and Roar section, but there is just far too much that I have to say. That's why I have created this section. Every so often, I will chose an article from their website and analyze it. I don't know if they store their articles on their website or if they remove them after time, so you might encounter some broken links.
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Maybe I missed it, but when EXACTLY did America become the biblical holy land? This uber-arrogant ethnocentric American view makes me sick. Americans seem to think that any detail of the US, no matter how small or mundane, should be elevated above all other worldly concerns. This is no better illustrated than in Centner's article about the US election. Centner seems to think that what's going on with the election is some sort of message from God.
First and foremost,
I believe God still loves our country and cares deeply about what
happens to
it. After all, it was His Divine Providence that brought together
an assortment of men 224 years
ago whose intellect and love for God made it possible for our
country’s government to be
established on the premise “In God We Trust.”
As a result, the United States of America became the most
powerful and respected nation in the
world. The large majority of its people were God-fearing and God-honoring,
and God blessed it
abundantly.
I can picture the author saluting the American flag as a tear slowly runs down her face while saying this. I think it's an arrogant statement and clearly the belief of a religious nut-bar. Her claim that "It was His Divine Providence that brought together an assortment of men 224 years ago" is an obvious statement from a religious point of view. After all, EVERYTHING is the result of His Divine Providence from a religious point of view. That's like me saying 'I was asleep because I stopped being awake.' The fact is, her statement doesn't in any way mean that "God still loves [the US] and cares deeply about what happens to it." There is no reason to think that the US is viewed differently in God's eyes than any other country. EVERYTHING that exists exists because of "His Divine Providence." If you believe that God created the universe and everything in it, then of course you're going to believe that America was formed because of Him. But, by this token, so was Nazi Germany. You could just as easily say that "it was His Divine Providence that brought together an assortment of men some 65 years ago." Does that automatically mean that He "still loves [Nazi Germany] and cares deeply about what happens to it?" I guess the author thinks so. Then, Centner goes so far as to say that America became the most powerful and respected nation in the world because it was made up of God-fearing and God-honoring people. If this is true, then how come the founding fathers declared a separation of church and state? How come they gave people the right to believe in any God they wanted? Clearly freedom of the people was more important to them than being "God-fearing" and "God-honoring". Perhaps THAT is why the US prospered.
But during the past
40 years or so, our country has taken a nose dive into a pit of
moral and
spiritual degradation, and values that have been held dear for
many years have been tossed by
the wayside.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of Christians taking an opposing
stand, special interest groups and
people who don’t know God have made a mockery of prayer in
our schools, and innocent, unborn
babies are being mutilated and killed by the thousands. The
Internet has brought pornography
into our homes at the click of a mouse, and churches across the
nation are polarized on issues
ranging from homosexuality to whether or not women should be
pastors.
Americans have become so self-centered and have strayed so far
from God that I cannot help
believing when He looks down on us, He turns His head and weeps.
Well, the one think I CAN'T deny is that Americans have become self-centered. This part I agree with completely. The rest however, is a load of crap. First, this view that morality has been thrown out the window in the past few years shows how racist, sexist, homophobic, right-suppressing and censoring these people truly are. God's claim that you should "love thy neighbour" and that you should "do onto others as you would have them do onto you" seems to be conveniently forgotten by these people. The biggest moral problem in the US is that people like this are still viewed as normal and okay. Let's look at why these people are the root of hate in the United States. "special interest groups and people who don’t know God have made a mockery of prayer in our schools." By "special interest groups", Centner is clearly referring to everyone who isn't Christians. I guess the AFA doesn't have anything against racism. Not that the fact surprises me much. Also, the prayer issue is one which I've discussed before in this section of my webpage. As I've mentioned, prayer in school is only acceptable to these people if it's a CHRISTIAN prayer. This once again shows their pure intolerance of other religions and cultures.
But as He did for
the Israelites time and again in the Old Testament, I believe
that God, in His
loving kindness and mercy, is willing to give America another
chance.
And that’s what I think this election is -- a wake-up call
from God. I think He’s using these bizarre
and deeply troubling circumstances to tell His people to wake up,
to stop being apathetic, to
stop walking alongside those who, knowingly or not, are leading
our country down the path to
immorality and spiritual deadness.
Most of all, I believe He wants us to recognize the error of our
ways; to ask His forgiveness; to
reconcile ourselves to Him; and to actively participate in
whatever arenas we can to help our
nation, once again, become “one nation, under God.”
These paragraphs demonstrate better than anything else the pure arrogance that these people exude. The United States is torn between George W Bush and Al Gore and the author refers to the situation as "deeply troubling circumstances"?! Conveniently, the religious war going on in Israel isn't mentioned once. The tragic events in the ACTUAL biblical holy land are ignored. Clearly, these event aren't as important to Centner as some election on which people are having a hard time choosing between Republican and Democratic. Someone should remind the author that vanity is a sin, and she seems to be pretty vain about being an American.
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