Sep 02 2011

Robert O’Brien Nominee: Dr. E. Calvin Beisner

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I’d never heard of Dr. E. Calvin Beisner until reading this article. He’s the founder of an anti-environmental Christian think tank. And he says the people protesting the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House are making the baby Jesus cry:

In addition, according to Beisner, the religious protestors are acting contrary to the religion they profess.

“They profess to believe the Bible,” he points out. “Well, the Bible tells them that they’re supposed to obey the governing authorities unless those governing authorities either require them to do what God forbids or forbids them to do what God requires — and that has not happened. So they are actually disobeying scripture by doing this.”

How convenient. God disapproves of protests against things he’s for. I bet he’s all for protests against reproductive rights, gay rights and anything else he disagrees with — though neither of those things requires anyone to do anything that their God allegedly forbids.

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17 comments

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1

Chiroptera

September 2, 2011 at 9:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Were the protests violent? Did they act against the lawful orders of the police? ‘Cause if not, then they weren’t disobeying the authorities.

I’m just sayin’, is all.
2

Chiroptera

September 2, 2011 at 9:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Heh. I just read the item linked. It seems as if some protesters were arrested.

So maybe Beisner really is talking about those few. I can’t imagine he would be against the greater number of protesters who happen to be against something he is in favor of. That would be unheard of!
3

GenghisFaun

September 2, 2011 at 9:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

… Christian think tank.

I don’t know whether to chuckle or vomit.

*head asplodes*
4

Mr Ed

September 2, 2011 at 10:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Seems the core principle of Christianity is obedience. A man must obey god, a wife obey her husband, children their parents and every one the government except when it conflicts other obedience.
5

Occam's Blunt Instrument

September 2, 2011 at 10:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Seems the core principle of Christianity is obedience. A man must obey god, a wife obey her husband, children their parents and every one the government except when it conflicts other obedience.

I never got any of that – if the idea is that there’s this “hell” place, then obviously god’s gonna sort everything out in the afterlife. So believers should just STFU and live their lives with, perhaps, the smug satisfaction of knowing that the people who annoy god are going to hell and it’ll all be sorted out in the great ass-kicking to come.

Of course, they don’t – because they don’t believe it any more than you or I do. Because, seriously, if anyone rational believed in such a cruel, crazed, and vindictive god, they’d simply cower in church, doing the bare minimum possible to survive without pissing god off, hoping to die soon so they could get their eternal reward.
6

ManOutOfTime

September 2, 2011 at 10:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

YHVH made sure that the Flood deposited hydrocarbons in various concentrations in the soil and lithic strata, so that we should find it and so on and so forth. So STFU, hippies.

Get this guy on TV during when the deficit silliness heats up again in the fall – I’m sure he will lecture rich people on how it’s tine to render unto Caesar, right? Right? Hello? He hung up. Anywho …
7

raven

September 2, 2011 at 10:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

God is just a sockpuppet.

Beisner’s sockpuppet god hates environmentalists, scientists, normal people and the vast majority of the human race. Just like Beisner.

The real god hates Beisner and his co-religionists, the fundie death cultists.

God is always sending tornadoes and hurricanes to xian fundiestan. He just sent one which slammed into North Carolina. Another storm is heading for Louisiana. A drought has dried up Texas and Oklahoma. They never catch on though. As it says somewhere in the magic book, “Who the gods would destroy, they first make stupid.”

Beisner got the second part down. He’s an idiot.
8

Tabby Lavalamp

September 2, 2011 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

bet he’s all for protests against reproductive rights, gay rights and anything else he disagrees with — though neither of those things requires anyone to do anything that their God allegedly forbids.

??? The Wholly Babble explicitly prescribes capital punishment for gay men (and rebellious sons, and women who aren’t virgins on their wedding night, and so much more). If that’s not against gay rights, I don’t know what is…
9

raven

September 2, 2011 at 10:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

There is a movement among the fundie cultists that claims environmentalists and anyone who believes in healthy ecosystems as demon ridden agents of satan.

They call such people minions of the Green Dragon.

Of course it is the usual made up stuff from the same people that claim Obama is the antichrist Moslem Kenyan, Darth Cheney has a conscience, and George Bush has a brain.

It’s also funded by the Koch brothers and Exxon among others. People who aren’t really known for their religous faith but are known for their love of large amounts of money.

I suppose where we see mindless but malevolent fundie sheep, they see mindless sheep that can be lead anywhere, even over a cliff, for a few bucks.
10

fifthdentist

September 2, 2011 at 10:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“Christian think tank …”

Does not compute. Danger, danger. Turn off mind immediately to avoid fatal system crash!
11

Aquaria

September 2, 2011 at 10:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Do I need to post what the SPLC told us about the way a certain Christian named Tony Perkins acted?

Yes, I think I do:

in 1992, while a reserve police officer in Baton Rouge, Perkins failed to report an illegal conspiracy by antiabortion activists to his superiors. That was Operation Rescue’s “Summer of Purpose,” when the group targeted the Delta Women’s Clinic in Baton Rouge. Perkins was dividing his time between his duties as a volunteer for the city’s police force and his job as a reporter for “Woody Vision,” a local right-wing television station owned by his mentor, Republican State Rep. Louis “Woody” Jenkins.

Perkins and his camera crew were a frequent presence outside the clinic, The Nation reported. According to Victor Sachse, a classical record shop owner in the city who volunteered as a patient escort for the clinic, Perkins’ reporting was so consistently slanted and inflammatory that the clinic demanded his removal from its grounds. In order to control an increasingly tense situation, the police chief had a chain link fence erected to separate anti-abortion activists from pro-choice protesters, and he called in sheriff’s deputies and prison guards as extra forces. Perkins publicly criticized the department and the chief and then, after learning about plans for violent tactics by antiabortion activists to break through police lines and send waves of protesters onto the clinic’s grounds, failed to inform his superiors on the force. As a result of his actions, Perkins was suspended from duty in 1992, and he subsequently quit the reserve force.

You were saying, Cal?
12

Michael Heath

September 2, 2011 at 10:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Calvin Beisner:

the Bible tells them that they’re supposed to obey the governing authorities unless those governing authorities either require them to do what God forbids or forbids them to do what God requires . . .

Anybody know what biblical passages obligate Christians in this regard? Perhaps a [convoluted?] interpretation of Romans 13:

1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. 8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; 12 the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If this is his justification the problem as I see it is that this chapter can then be interpreted to oppose whatever is currently convenient to oppose. For example, many of the initiatives President Obama has promoted; even when those initiatives are explicitly in sync with NT edicts attributed to Jesus and the conservative position being taken is in direct opposition. So just like Christian morals, whatever the position, it’s based on whatever is temporally convenient for conservatism rather than based on a set of documented principles consistently applied.
13

John Hinkle

September 2, 2011 at 11:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Oh man, this guy’s got Teh Woo Creds.

His “Dr.” title is for a Ph.D. in Scottish History:

A graduate of the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Religion and Philosophy (1978), magna cum laude, Beisner earned his M.A. in Society with a Specialization in Economic Ethics, magna cum laude (1983), from International College, then in Los Angeles, and his Ph.D. in Scottish History from The University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, in 2003.

And there’s this:

Dr. Beisner is a frequent radio talk show guest with such nationally syndicated programs as Janet Parshall’s In the Market (Moody Radio)…

That tells me all I need to know about this woo bozo.
14

Formerly known as Sadie Morrison

September 2, 2011 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

This douchenozzle certainly gets my vote for Ro’B of the month. People who are anti-environment (especially for allegedly religious reasons) are high on my shit list.
15

slc1

September 2, 2011 at 2:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Re Michael Heath @ 10:50 AM

What ever happened to render onto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to god the things that are gods?
16

Modusoperandi

September 2, 2011 at 6:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

slc1, that only applies under Republican administrations.
17

G.D.

September 2, 2011 at 10:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Just a nitpick. You claim that you’ve never heard about Dr. E. Calvin Beisner before.

In fact, you have even blogged about him before.