And when the dumbest Christians collides with one of the smartest Christians I know, the contrast is dazzling. Here’s Gohmert grilling Barry Lynn on proper Christian beliefs. Apparently, he doesn’t want to judge — only God can do that, he piously declaims — but he does want Lynn to declare that all non-Christians are condemned to Hell right this minute. Don’t ask me how that simultaneously judgmental and non-judgmental thing is supposed to work, I think you have to have a gigantic hole in your brain to accommodate both views at once.
And it’s true that even when talking to a swarm of atheists, Lynn doesn’t hide the fact that he’s a Christian minister.
Louie Gohmert seems to have been interested only in establishing that you ain’t a True Christian(TM) unless you believe exactly as Louie Gohmert and his followers believe, so how dare Barry Lynn call himself a Christian minister.
This was a congressional hearing!? I am using one of my rare explanation marks to indicate that I am flabbergasted. And I already knew Louie Gohmert couldn’t think up to public-official standards (and that’s a low bar to set).
No True Christian ™ wouldn’t say that atheists won’t go to Hell.
Why is this question even being brought up in Congress? Why is a particular belief coming up?
I know, I know, the question is the answer.
Dammit, Bill, you beat me to it.
Plus, I should have said, “No True Christian ™ would say that atheists won’t go to Hell.”
Louie Gohmert
Robert O’Brien
Celebrity deathmatch!!!!!
Sure Gohmert isn’t judgmental. He just believes that people who don’t share his particular faith will be punished forever.
Sure Gohmert isn’t judgmental. He just believes that people who don’t share his particular faith will be punished forever.
See that’s not his judgement. That’s gawd’s. Gawd is the judgemental asshole not Gohmert. Gohmert’s just gawd’s loyal bootlicker.
It’s not exactly a secret that there are varieties of Christianity, despite the best efforts made by the creators of the Nicene Creed. Gohmert’s free to believe what he likes, and so is Lynn. Because “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
The worms‘ll just plump up on the jelly between their toes (and between their ears). That’s where everyone goes. Unless you’re planning on cremation. I prefer to have my body available to life in a more consumable life-perpetuating form. It’s bliss for the worms and all the various eukaryote and prokaryote that will feast upon our corpses at least.
There are some equally dumb candidates who are trying to get into the legislatures of conservative states, like Scott Esk of Oklahoma, a guy who thinks stoning homosexuals to death is a good idea:
Esk participates in the John Birch Society, and he is uncomfortable with Mexicans, especially large groups of them, or so he says on his Facebook page.
http://kfor.com/2014/06/10/oklahoma-political-candidate-expresses-extreme-views-on-homosexuality/
https://www.facebook.com/imscobol?fref=ts
Here are Esk’s thoughts on guns:
On abortion:
Scott Esk is a Tea Party candidate. Oh, and he’d like to make it nearly impossible for anyone to get divorced, including his wife.
The Very Late Republican Party has embarked on a collection safari of sorts, finding the worst humans possible to assist them in destroying the USA and, hopefully, the Earth (if it didn’t require even MORE science, they’d aim at Venus and Mars as well, at least!).
The managed to find two true nonpareils beyond even their wildest hopes in Steve King (R-asshole IA), who is, word for word and pound for pound, the worst human being in all of history, and Louis Gohmert, the dumbest human being ever, past, present AND future.
It’s been a wildly successful program in their unseeing eyes, given that Bachmann, Palin and Dubya seemed to press the boundaries of what anyone thought was possible in human awfulness before that. And now Eric Cantor – as horrible a human being as has ever been animated – has LOST to someone far dumber and yet MORE evilly incompetent and hate-mongering!
How DO they do it? Who is paying the enormous sums to assemble these monsters, cell by cell?
The eternal damnation for not believing in Jesus is the most immoral teaching in the Bible, and we’re talking about a book that condones genocide, slavery and capital offenses for non existent crimes like blasphemy and witchcraft. This belief historically has produced inquisitions, medieval torture devices, crusades, etc. etc. resulting in the deaths and maiming of probably millions of people. It makes sense that such a teaching would appeal to supreme morons and rethugs like Gohmert as primary concerns in protecting free speech.
Wow, that was painful. It is embarrassing that such an exchange could happen in a committee. If this happened during a committee meeting here in Canada, I am pretty sure it would be lambasted in the mainstream media.
Christ what an arsehole.
And yet you can’t manage to mount a proper opposition from the Left.
Even if the video was just two minutes and some seconds, that was painful to watch.
If anything positive can be said, Mr. Lynn appears to be one of those Christians I have zero problems with. Disagree with on some issues, yes. But problems, no.
The same cannot be said about the other guy of course.
Sili #15:
I don’t believe there even is a “Left” in the USA. Or if there is, it is completely marginalised.
How is Louie Gohmert’s questioning even Constitutional? Doesn’t this whole thing violate the separation of church and state?
Olav @ 17:
The Left is completely marginalised.
——-
I am 32 years old. In this time I have witnessed the Overton Window moving in a constant Right-ward lurch. Considering developments such as The Great Bundy Ranch Fiasco and Gohmert’s Screech Theocratic, I wonder where we will be in 5 or 10 years. How will America resolve this deepening schism of its citizenry?
@15 Thanks Sili that was extremely helpful. I feel so much better now.
/snark
re @18:
The wording of the separation of church and state, is “…make no law…”. So as long as this committe doesn’t propose a law in Gohmert’s words, it is Constitutional. They are politicians, politics exploits technicalities; the “spirit” of the Law is too mystical for them to follow. Letter of the law is all they follow, and look for “loopholes” in those letters.
Re: Lynna @ #11…
I wonder if Esk would also support jury nullification of any law ever passed by the Oklahoma legislature…
Especially any Jim Crow Laws….
It’s embarrassing enough that this fuckwad is in my state. I have the added shame of his district being an hour’s drive from me and my family almost certainly voting for him.
If Rev. Barry Lynn were representative of most Christians, I’d have a very hard time getting too upset about what Christians believe. Sadly, it seems like Gohmert is what is representing Christianity these days, so there’s little choice but to be vocal in opposition to the toxic ideas and policies he advocates.
This was part of a subcommittee hearing on “religious freedom.” Based on the witness list, I suspect it was mostly about r-wing xtian privilege:
http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/hearings?ID=155C8980-8171-4A92-B528-A3E0387C0891
The left?
Hell, the CENTER is pretty much marginalized.
gerrymandering works. go figure.
And to think how dumb the average district member must be, if this is what they think is the best and the brightest. Could the water somehow be contaminated with chemicals from some sort of industrial mining operation or something.
(rant mode ahead)
re nyarlathotep #24: and to my shame I’m actually IN Gohmert’s district, where he won with 71% of the vote in 2012 and 90% in 2010. (source: Ballotpedia) A rock could get elected down here if the Republican party painted a cross on it.
re mikeyb #29: IMHO it’s not the water that’s contaminated (yet), it’s the airwaves. I’ve ranted before about how every waiting room, doctor’s office, and restaurant in town has televisions (often multiple) permanently tuned to Faux News. I can’t take my car for a 15-minute oil change without hearing about Benghazi. The local NPR stations sit between right-wing Christian talk radio stations that step on their signals over much of the area. Last time I checked there were six or seven of them. Any given news segment will be a mix of anti-gay, anti-education, anti-Obama right-wing talking points among good Christian fundraising spots and political endorsements. Feel free to pick a station and listen to their stream if y’all can stomach it. (Here’s a list of Tyler stations and here’s a stream page and main page for one I picked at random. Oy… they have Answers with Ken Ham five days a week and this guy Saturday and Sunday.)
Yep… I just got an anti-gay-marriage rant from Southern Baptist, as a “news” segment, in between the music. Oh, and now President Obama’s approval ratings have hit new lows because of prisoner-swapping with the Taliban! Donate now to witness for God’s love! *runs away screaming*
re Lynna quoting Esk in #11, which I just repeated to a friend:
friend says:
How does one objectively measure stupidity, particularly on the higher end.
I’m thinking dipstick.
You see, being a Christian is all about humility. Specifically, it’s about having the humility to admit that you know the mind of God, that you know who is and who is not saved. Being humble enough to define Christianity and decide who’s really a Christian and who’s not.
Or something.
Rev. Lynn was patient and reasonable (-ish) in responding to Rep. Gomer’s blithering idiocy. What I don’t understand is why no one can challenge Gomer’s statements, even in a committe hearing, as being contrary to the First Amendment…and don’t tell me that free speech trumps the establishment clause every time. There must be some limits on stupidity.
My brain hurts.
there is no limit to stupidity for the truly gifted
they are able to deliver wast quantities a new at the drop of a hat
uncle frogy
I have this vision of Americans with cold dead eyes, marching backwards into the Dark Ages while chanting, “USA, USA, USA…”
“AND LO’ THE LORD SAID UNTO ABRAHAM, TAKE THY GLOCK AND BUST CAPS IN THEM B*TCHES MY SON”
Don’t forget the preamble to this ‘scripture’: First, take your dearly beloved child and rope him to a slab of rock and make the little prick weep with my truth while you raise a good sharp sacrificial blade over him. Only then shall your obedience make you worthy of my better weapons, my glocks and drones. Thus saith the Lord, amen.
(It is so easy to see how ignorant an authority figure is… but when you stand alone among the many who share this pretty hatred, especially as a youngster, a child of the church, it breaks your spirit. They beat you inside and out with a smile of love on their faces. Damaged human beings are easily sponged into ‘belief’ because humanity has proven so harmful. Gohmert is perhaps dumb but dumb has never scared me if it comes with a dose of curiosity. I fit the bill myself, dumb and curious in the face of almost everything scientific, the bark of tree or dog, the grass blade and those other ones It is Gohmert’s pretty hatred and rejection I feel right down in my bones. That scares me so much.)
How precious: two Christians debating about whose brand of Christianity is better. Well, that’s a perfectly legit topic of conversation, in a nation that protects everyone’s freedom of speech in its Bill of Rights, so I guess thatwait a fucking minute. This happened in a Congressional hearing? What kind of fuckwit thinks Congress has any business discussing which flavor of Christianity is The Original One and Only?
Erm, asked and answered, I guess.
Good thing Congress people understand the bill of rights that makes up the supreme law of the land, superseding than any law they might wish to pass…
Well, I for one LOVE it when the crissuns start arguing among themselves. They assume that when Amerika becomes the grate crissun nashun god intended, that it will be THEIR specific brand that is in control. Once the atheists and gentiles are eliminated, holy wars will break out, just like between the various sects in Iraq.
The unfortunate part to me is, that I’ll not be able to witness it, having been eliminated in the above purge.
@33 cactuswren
THIS. The source of the curious wall that either comes up out of nowhere in front of a person you may actually love and care for. The view over that wall appears to have options for either judgement or pity, and though the latter is less directly threatening and socially incapacitating, it’s ability to marginalize is profound. Sometimes you can observe the eact moment when this wall appears, when a person suddenly disappears behind the eyes.
But for people like Gohmert, that wall is atrophied in place. I’ve known folks for whom it is so solid and ready for battle that even those inside the circle of beloved never see it down. The “girded loins” types. Great preachers, they are.
… Recently, in another context, it was pointed out that we don’t need to be clinically insane to do horrible things, we must only believe deeply enough. It brought to mind Eric Hoffer’s True Believer.
He felt that converts to mass movements tend to be those who:
and may be (or may view themselves as)
and may also be
In his time, Hoffer felt that low numbers / mitigation of “mass movements” were
But here we have the Fox/Tea Party/Limbaugh/Beck discontent engine, the increasing “felt” fractures between segment of American society, the pre-installed Christian sense of “being in, but not of the world,” the alienation of modern science and society, separation from the glorious forbearers of constitutional mythology, shrunken scope of interests due to various prohibitions and blasphemies, and subjugation of personal worth behind sin and limitation before whatever bizarre diety. And, paradoxically, the effects of the limitation of opportunity due to concentration of wealth … which isn’t actually occurring, it’s just because guberment. Squirrel.
If Hoffer were here, now… I can’t help but wonder how immediately precious his “minutiae of an individual existence” would be as a