Pastor Greg Locke and the Insanity of Evangelicalism

Pastor Greg Locke, of Mt. Juliet’s Global Vision Bible Church, near Nashville, previously told his congregation that he considered Democrats to be “baby butchers.”

Yes, baby butchers. This all for allowing a woman, perhaps a couple, her/their right to choose how to conduct their pregnancy. Of course this insane accusation conjures up visions of…well, you can imagine. “You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. I don’t care how mad that makes you. You can get as p***ed off as you want to. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. They are God-denying demons that butcher babies and hate this nation.” he said in one of his many off-the-rails sermons to his congregants. Even in and among the supernatural world religious minions, Greg Locke is a stand-out. Whether it’s witches in his congregation or demons speaking to him, he wants you to believe he’s all-in on Jesus!

Well I have a declaration for you, Mr. Locke: you can not be a Christian and belong to the Repugnantcan Party; sorry, can’t be done. Jesus simply would not have you. Beyond their inherent racism; their contempt for immigrants, African Americans, and, of course, women, is their policy of handing out guns; assault rifles, huge-capacity magazines for carry ridiculous amounts of ammunition, to any shit-kicking a-hole that wants one. They will not lift a finger – even in view of the unspeakable events we’ve watched unfold in Newtown and now in Uvalde, TX – in order to stave off future events of gun violence. They watch while children are murdered seemingly without a clue as to how to stop this insanity or even slow it down. ”We already have enough gun laws” they’ll tell you. ”None of the gun laws would have prevented this” they ”reason”. “We need less doors and more armed personnel in our schools.” And so it goes on and on while we get only the benefits of their ”thoughts and prayers” which, as you can see, have had absolutely no success. Besides, which American politician’s prayers is Jesus listening to anyway? I’m sure that’s a very short list.

The problem is that Christians like Mr Locke are perfectly ok with the unforgivable carnage their policies cause as long as it gets abortion off of the rolls of legal medical procedures and so they vote overwhelmingly for the ”More Guns” crowd. Unfortunately, the ”More Guns” crowd also comes with the ”More Death” crowd to our school children while they are ”safely” tucked away in their classrooms. Only I don’t remember doors being a problem when I went to grammar school or junior high school or high school and we had lots of doors leading into the schools and, yes, some of them were even unlocked or – heaven forbid – open! We even had windows so you can see inside the school! What I DO remember is that we didn’t have 300,000,000 guns in the hands of, in some cases, very scary people, people that should never be candidates for gun ownership.

The Republicans of today would have you believe that there simply isn’t anything we can do to circumvent the murder of our children in schools because there are too many doors and not enough armed guards! And we also know that Evangelicals vote overwhelmingly for Republicans. Meanwhile, back in the imaginary realm where the spirits and demons play, Pastor Greg is whipping his crowd into a frenzy over abortion rights and paying absolutely no mind to our BORN children being murdered in schools. That is one consistent thing about the GOP and the Religious Right; they care passionately about the unborn but they don’t give a hoot about them once they are born. The problem with this of course is ”What would Jesus do?” Do we mean to believe that he would be ok with voting for people that facilitate the arming of our population at the expense of public safety? At the expense of the lives of children?

What do you think? Should we put pressure on the Religious Right to help protect our BORN children by protesting the GOP’s addiction to gun money?

Christians, Religious Right: You must account for your votes to the GOP

You don’t get to ”wash your hands” of the blood of the murdered children killed due to their refusal to improve gun laws!

While the Christian right, fundamentalist Christians, the Bishop of San Francisco and all the rest of the ”Funny Hat Club” Catholics are high-fiving each other over their apparent victory (although, I wouldn’t count my embryos just yet) I’m sure they now have their heads under the covers hoping no one will notice their culpability in the slaughter of our children in schools. And so they should; if my elected politicians that I pulled the lever for enacted such a “wall” around the gun lobby, gun manufacturers, trade-show gun dealers and entities, and background checking, you’d better believe I be heading for Switzerland right now. But do you know what, Ken ”Four Planes” Copeland, or Joel ”Giorgio Armani” Osteen (btw: one of the world’s wealthiest evangelists in the whole world!! Jesus would besoooooo proud!), or Franklin ”Bang Bang” Graham, and the rest of the ”blessed ones” that simply can not wait for Jesus to get here, they’re so certain they’ll be leaving with him? You must answer for your support of the GOP and their steadfast unwillingness to do anything about the absurd amount of gun violence in our country. You “Holy Rollers” don’t get to help put these vile excuses for human beings into office and then walk away scott-free. You have blood on your hands that will not be washed off; will not be ”thoughts & prayer-ed” off, will no longer be forgotten. You have the blood of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, graders – 5 & 6 year-old children – mid-schoolers, high schoolers, and many, many more. Their blood be on you and on your children!

How much money do you pour into the coffers of the GOP in order for you to eventually achieve your long-desired theocracy and have Christianity become the founding basis of the country? How many sermons have been peppered with your lies and misrepresentations about the damage being done to our country by liberals, progressives, Democrats, and atheists? How many lies told by the various Ted Cruzs, Josh Hawleys, Greg Abbotts, and all the rest of the Republican ”Murderer’s Row” have you paved over in your sermons and speeches and radio shows in order to smooth over their culpability in Amerika’s mass shootings?

Remember that almost 10 years ago when the unthinkable happened in Newtown, CT resulting in the deaths of TWENTY schools children – babies, really, babies – the Republicans shot down ANY chance at all to even improve the background checking process so that mentally ill would be disqualified from gun ownership! Even that small step would not be allowed to pass. The smallest, almost gestural in nature, was unanimously shot down by the Republicans.

Now you need to step up and take responsibility for the seemingly unending carnage taking place in Amerika thanks to your votes and endless endorsements of Republican candidates.

I pledge not to let you forget it.

Use Your Power As A Consumer To Change Gun Laws

It’s all the power we have left to affect change

With “Moscow Mitch” at the helm in the United States Senate there is very little chance of any meaningful gun legislation getting passed of their own accord. Our representatives are going to need some motivation from “we the people” if anything is going to be done about the absurd level of gun violence in this country. For all his constant mumbling about “the American people” and making sure “our” voices are heard, as in the case of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland whom, you’ll remember, Moscow Mitch refused to take up a confirmation vote on until the “American people” had a chance to chime in – right after the election Comrade Trump. This, of course, resulted in the confirmation of ultra-conservative Neil Gorsuch to the court instead. Well I guess the people have spoken. Thanks, “Moscow”…..

However, “Moscow” hasn’t been waiting to hear from the American people regarding the issue of gun control or, if he has, he hasn’t been listening very well since we’ve been screaming it from the rafters for years. America wants gun control; America wants the gun laws tightened up; America wants meaningful, effective, background checks and gun licensing; America wants military-style assault weapons taken off the market, permanently. Seems like, suddenly Moscow Mitch is as deaf as a fence post. Go figure. An overwhelming majority of Americans – and by that I mean 89 – 91 % of Americans – are in agreement on this issue. Ninety-one percent of Americans couldn’t agree on the colors of the flag let alone meaningful gun reform but there it is. And still nothing from Moscow Mitch and the U.S Senate (queue the crickets, please.) So, help me refresh my memory; I’m having some difficulty: what do you call it when a majority of the people are demanding something and the government refuses to act? Oh, well. I’m sure it’ll come to me.

In my complete and utter frustration over the gall of one person (I wouldn’t describe him as a “man”) holding up the possibility of any progress being made on this heart wrenching issue and not a single member of his party raising their voice in any meaningful way, I thought it necessary to take another tack. We’re going to need to hit the GOP where it hurts and, in political circles, that means the pocketbook. And where does the money come from in their pocket books? From their wealthy donors and corporate masters, that’s where. (You’ll have to forgive the dangling adverbs, etc. Writing in the colloquial requires scrapping such grammatical rules.)

Recently Walmart decided to stop selling certain firearms and ammunition in their stores which reach into every nook and cranny of America. In an open letter to their employees, CEO Doug McMillon announced that the nation’s largest retailer would stop selling ammunition used for handguns and military-style weapons, and end the sale of handguns in their stores completely. They would also take the seemingly bizarre step of discouraging their customers from carrying weapons in their stores, even in the “open carry” states. (Yes, dear readers, there really are places where you can carry your Glock down the frozen foods aisle. I guess you just never know when a slightly-grazed antelope is going to spring out of the meat department!)

Now, there can only be one real reason for this abrupt but well-overdue announcement: business. The management – or possibly (most likely?) the shareholders – of Walmart have made a calculated decision: that it is in the best interests of the company to make this bold reversal of policy. After all, McMillon’s raison d’être is improving the financial prospects of the shareholders of the company. That means that this change in policy was seen as such a move and the executive management – including Walmart’s board of directors – agreed. The management of Walmart is betting that this new policy would be offset by any additional goodwill they would realize from their massive customer base. If this is truly the case, then what other companies are out there that might be convinced of this as well? Or more importantly, how many other companies are there that might put the necessary added pressure upon the “Moscow Mitch’s” of the United States Senate to act in kind before they, too, are targeted by their customer base to make a move like Walmart’s? It would seem better (to me at least) to make such changes in policy before the company would be “forced” to against their will.