Sneaky bastards! A video from ABC News explains the latest indirect fundie proselytizing tactics:
ABC News – Secret Jesus Bible Codes on U.S. Military Weapons

and this

Michigan defense contractor is putting Bible codes on their weapons which Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says, “could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.”

WASHINGTON – Combat rifle sights used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops.

Military officials said the citations don’t violate the ban and they won’t stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.

The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., said the U.S. military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.

Because not many know about it, you fucker!

“We don’t publicize this,” Tom Munson, Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’”

Because if you did “make a big deal out of” it, many tax-paying citizens and secular organizations DO have a problem with it. And soldiers who know about it and disagree are afraid to speak up:

Weinstein said he has received complaints about the Scripture citations from active-duty and retired members of the military. He said he couldn’t identify them because they fear retaliation.

Dobson Unretires: Religious Right Honcho Plans New Radio Show

James Dobson retired back in April, but that didn’t last very long. And though he is ending his radio show in February, he is simply starting up another one.

Now Dobson has announced that instead of puttering around the house and playing golf, he is teaming up with his son, Ryan, to do a daily radio show called “James Dobson on the Family.” Some retirement!

Dobson announced on Facebook that he will end the Focus on the Family broadcasts in February and will start broadcasting with Ryan the following month. The Associated Press reported, “He says his new show, which will air in March, will cover many of the same topics, including marriage, child-rearing and national issues.”

In other words, we’ll get the same extremism but on a different channel.

The reason? Rob Boston gives a possible answer:

My guess is that Dobson, who is really unhappy with the political situation right now, never intended to stop popping off about it. After all, gay people can get married in Iowa, abortion is still legal, some people continue to believe in evolution and not everyone is a right-wing, dogmatic fundamentalist Christian. There’s lots of work to do!

Which means that there is still a lot of watchdogging of these nutjobs for us to do. It never ends.

Here’s the trailer: [LINK]

What’s with California and all the religious nutters? Here is yet another story from today’s news:

A Tea Party Christmas

A Tea Party activist and substitute teacher, Merry Hyatt, is trying to get an initiative on next year’s California ballot to require schools to play Christmas music. “It’s our right to have freedom of worship,” Hyatt said. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said he had “two words” for Hyatt’s proposal: “blatantly unconstitutional.” Is it wrong to have kids sing Christmas songs in school?

Stupid question, of course it’s wrong to try to force kids to sing religious songs in public school. It is in blatant violation of separation of church and state.

Christians can’t force their beliefs on others: “It’s not the government’s job to provide you a place to worship,” says Ed Brayton in Science Blogs. That’s what churches are for. It’s mind boggling that Tea Partiers, who say they favor limited government, would want the government to “force non-Christians to take part” in their religious festivities.

That’s right, Christians have no right to force their beliefs on others. And it is not the government’s job to turn our public schools into extended religious facilities.

Many Bible literalists aren’t so keen on banning divorce as they are in favor of banning gay marriage. However, it appears that many devout Christians both Protestant and Catholic DO want divorce banned, so John Marcotte’s satirical efforts to make a statement about Proposition 8 and the gay marriage ban in California may backfire in a big way.

The effort is meant to be a satirical statement after California voters outlawed gay marriage in 2008, largely on the argument that a ban is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage.

However, it seems as if the movement has gone past the joke phase and many people are seriously supporting this proposal.

“Since California has decided to protect traditional marriage, I think it would be hypocritical of us not to sacrifice some of our own rights to protect traditional marriage even more,” the 38-year-old married father of two said.

Marcotte said he has collected dozens of signatures, including one from his wife of seven years. The initiative’s Facebook fans have swelled to more than 11,000. Volunteers that include gay activists and members of a local comedy troupe have signed on to help.

Marcotte is looking into whether he can gather signatures online, as proponents are doing for another proposed 2010 initiative to repeal the gay marriage ban. But the odds are stacked against a campaign funded primarily by the sale of $12 T-shirts featuring bride and groom stick figures chained at the wrists.

Marcotte needs 694,354 valid signatures by March 22, a high hurdle in a state where the typical petition drive costs millions of dollars. Even if his proposed constitutional amendment made next year’s ballot, it’s not clear how voters would react.

Nationwide, about half of all marriages end in divorce.

2010 California Marriage Protection Act: http://www.rescuemarriage.org

One commenter, Jenn has expressed my same thoughts about this movement:

I read about this site in a story that referred to it as SATIRE. A response to the prop 8 debacle last year. When i first read about it I thought it was hilarious and that i would have to back it just to go along with the joke. However, the more comments I read the more I believe it may have moved past the joke phase. Unless the vast majority of the comments and discussions on this site are osted as sarcasm, jokes, satire, or any other statement supposed to show the hypocrosy and blind sheep-like mentality of the supporters of prop 8, the joke has fizzled.

As another person has commented, strong Christians will not see this as funny and vote for it. The joke may backfire in a bad way for the citizens of California.

Damn, Hitchens is really dead-on is this clip (his part ends at around 5:10). Good form, Hitch.

(Granted, I’m not exactly a fan of the times when he’s drunk off his ass — but, to be fair, I’m guessing that daily death threats to one and one’s family might cause one to be slightly anxious.)

[LINK]

Chuck A sent me this link Spending Godless Money By Mitchell Kahle

How about we all carry a red ink pen with us and subtly start making our point that reference to religion is not acceptable on government money? I know it’s just a little thing, but this is something that all of us can take a second to do to make a big point.

Kahle writes:

“In God We Trust” was put on all paper currency by an Act of Congress in 1955; the phrase was declared the national motto by an Act of Congress in 1956 and first appeared on paper currency in 1957.

The mid-to-late 1950s were a time of overt racism, religious discrimination, and political oppression in the United States. McCarthyism was at its feverous peak. The “red scare” had Congress and President Eisenhower acting in paranoid fits of illegal and unconstitutional activity. The FBI, under the militant J. Edgar Hoover, engaged in illegal spying campaigns against Americans.

During this period, the federal government acted more like an authoritarian dictatorship than a constitutional democracy. The government violated civil rights with impunity.

Adding “In God We Trust” to the US currency was an act of religious and political propaganda, allegedly to counter the threat of “godless communism.”

*snip*

The word “God” is 100% religious and exclusively sectarian with respect to the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The word “We” implies a statement that is inclusive of all citizens, yet millions of Americans do not “Trust In God.” The word “God” is in fact nonsense to more than 30 million atheist citizens.

By refusing to remove “In God We Trust” from currency and repeal the religious motto, the government continues to act in paranoid fits as it did in the 1950s.

Kahle is right on the money (pardon the pun)! Endorsement of any religion does not belong on our Federal currency. He goes on to urge folks to FIGHT BACK BY SPENDING YOUR GODLESS MONEY

For more than 10 years, I have spent only Godless dollars. Using a red pen or stamp, I mark a circle and slash over the word “God” (as pictured above) on every bill that passes my way. When I make a withdrawal from the bank ATM, I immediately “de-God” each of the crisp new $20s. When I spend the $20s, and receive $1s, $5s, or $10s in change, I “de-God” each bill before passing it along. No merchant or business has ever refused to accept this “godless” money.

I probably spend at least fifty “godless” bills per week. That adds up to more than 2,500 “godless” bills per year.

Assuming that each dollar bill changes hands at least 20 times in the life of the bill, I estimate that my “godless” money passes through at least 50,000 people per year. In the past 10 years, I have thus circulated enough “”godless” money to reach a half-million people.

I’m not the only person to “de-God” money. I have many friends who have adopted this practice, thus we are reaching countless millions of people with “godless” money. In fact, thousands of atheist citizens de-God their money on a regular basis, potentially reaching every American with our “godless” money.

If you believe in “God”, you may be interested to know that “godless” money spends just as well as the “In God We Trust” variety. One would think, if there actually is an “Almighty God,” that “godless” money would “miraculously” drop in value. Or those godless bills would not work in vending machines. Guess what? They spend just as well.

Is it legal? YES! It is perfectly legal to “de-God” your money.

UNITED STATES CODE, TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 17 – COINS AND CURRENCY

“Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Simply marking a red circle and slash over the word “God” does not constitute “intent to render [the bill] unfit to be reissued.” As evidenced above, the “godless” bills spend just was well as the religious denominations (pun intended .

Now to go buy a red ink pen.

(Chuck, I hope you don’t mind me using the title of your email for my blog post.)

Chuck A emailed this to me this morning. The links he provides are about: “certain extreme wackos’ whose intentions are to work toward gaining enough power to rewrite the US Constitution.”

Chuck’s companion made the comment below at Austin Cline’s website in response to an article Cline has posted about this subject. And check out the link that she has provided in her comment.

Sojourner says: Here’s a group of fundies that have an opposite viewpoint. They think the constitution is a satanic document and want to rescind anything and everything in it that they have decided is not based in the commandments or the bible, period.

This group of nutcases is really frightening and truly deranged and delusional. They feel they are doing “God’s” work if they somehow manage to gain control.

Here’s an excerpt of one of my own comments that might be interesting to some here:

These people would stop at nothing if they could get away with it. They are seriously demented and frightening.

It’s very difficult to even read the page, but struggle through it, these people are the enemy within.

That is why we must prevail against those who want to destroy our country for their good and for their god.

These people are not some exotic citizens of a strange country. These are American Christians, whose very rights came from the same constitution they would destroy. I keep hoping this site is actually the rule of Poe’s law, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s all too real and disturbing. I suggest you read and make up your own mind.

This is the link:http://www.tencommandments.org/tysk.html

A quote taken from Society for the Practical Establishment and Perpetuation of the TEN COMMANDMENTS
(Robert T. Lee)

Better is a dictator who rules every aspect of the lives of the people with true justice and righteousness, than a democracy wherein the people indulge in the evil and idolatrous freedom they desire.

As Chuck’s friend suggests, struggle through this asshat’s page. I have experienced others like him on Facebook and several other sites on the internet and wonder just how many there are like Robert T.Lee. Are they a real threat?

Now I have to go take a shower after reading this fucktard’s wall of religious idiocy.