I’m the Big, Bad, Wolf
Apparently, I couldn’t be scarier if I grew a set of horns and a tail. At least according to one shrill, Illinois politician.
Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, “What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!
“This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God,” Davis said. “Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”
Ah, the power I would have over this nutjob! Just my mere, godless presence, would send her into shrieking fits. I imagine the presence of my immediate family–husband, mother, mother-in-law–would make her god-fearing heart explode. (Father-in-law and sister-in-law are probably also godless; I just haven’t hear either admit it.)
Isn’t it interesting how easily frightened Christians are of, well, frankly, everything? We all know that teh Gay and abortion give ‘em the vapors, so their atheist phobia is no big surprise. You’d think having the Big Imaginary Daddy in the Sky on their side, and the comfort that the rest of us will someday be roasting in hell, would be enough to allay their fears.
Which calls to might an article in the Albuquerque Journal local Right Wing Rag. (I’d include a link, but the editors of that bird cage liner think their content is too important to make available free.) Front page, with enormous photos, was an article about Calvary Chapel’s (warehouse church) latest campaign to get butts in the pews. Essentially, the theme was “Be Afraid.” Besides pushing the usual predictable memes–gays, terrorists, and Internet porn will eat your chiiildren!–the campaign featured posters showing families in gas masks, and other no doubt, fascist-inspired, imagery. The pastor behind the campaign noted that “It’s okay to be afraid, if something is worth being afraid about.”
To which the pastor at the church where I work, took umbrage. In a polite, but mildly snarky letter to the editor, he noted that, “No, it isn’t okay to be afraid.” In fact, he explained, the Bible is filled with admonitions against fear. His point was that essentially (He put it more elegantly, but after all, I don’t actually believe in the fairy tale) “No Fear” is kind of the point of the Bible and Jesus. It’s about hope and all that fuzzy-wuzzy God stuff.
Doing a cursory Google for the topic easily yields a couple of No Fear kind of scriptures:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31:6
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear … “
1 John 4:18
So what exactly do these fearful Christians use their Bible for?
Doorstops? A place to press dried flowers?
Bwah. Who’s afraid of the big bad atheist?
