My Renditional Assessment of Religion

[Clark Santos]

Frances, Frances, Frances,
	Churches were founded by politicians or the creatures in the magic 
flying machines to control people. People needed to respect, fear, and 
revere, a deity who stood behind their leader, who achieved his lofty 
position by the grace of and with the approval of said deities. The 
Leader (Chief, King, Profit, priest, Pope) gave the people structure, 
order, and safety for a percent of their wealth, depending on their 
rank in the pecking order.
	Religion is a tool, better used by some than others. The Catholic 
countries probably used the tool better in colonization than did the 
non catholic colonizers. Just look at what the English did with a bunch 
of radical breakaway religious sects and what happened to our native 
tribes as compared to those colonized by the Spanish or French. Need I 
say more?

EL PATRON

On Mar 9, 2005, at 11:28 AM, Frances Morey wrote:

Clarkson,
No, not hardly, never even set foot in a Baptist church until I 
attended a shape note sing fest in TomBall, TX. But churches were 
invented so we would have someplace to go on Sunday, someplace to have 
weddings, to find solace and take respite with others when things 
become unimaginably oppressive. The idea of religion is to hold up 
ideals of human behavior and interraction and give us such goals 
and place to get the hang of it.
  Then the schools began to function, as relief for parents, 
in socializing the young, and maybe teach them a thing or two while at 
it. Even later the state stepped in taking on the social service 
function and the church was left with not much to do. We all know, 
idleness is the devil's workshop. So the churches today are an empty 
shell of the functions it used to fill.
  The muslim world is the opposite, where church, state, commerce and 
family are all one. When asked who sponsored her education here in 
America one Saudi woman replied, "Well, the company," as if, who else? 
Duh.
I came to find out this meant the government, which is ubiquitously in 
charge of everything. So what, over here in our putative democracy, 
things hardly go the way a clear majority of us say we want when 
polled. Perhaps a monarchy is a slicker way to affect social change for 
the better, if the dynasty hasn't interbred too much for too long.
Churches eventually became the last bastion of where the transmission 
of culture takes place: teaching music, the support of the arts, choral 
singing, and dancing. Whoa, yeah, I was born and raised Catholic and 
we learned to appreciate dancing as a great way to show off our human 
capabilities for movement and rhythm, instead of a sin.
  Where things went wrong for Baptists is when some proudly 
uneducated umbrella "convention" decided that higher learning was no 
longer a necessary perequisite for preaching to a flock. Too bad.
Frances
----- Original Message -----
  From: Clark Santos
To: Remembrances of Austin Ghetto ; survivors' reminiscences about 
Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: Another Rendition

Frances,
You sure weren't born in the Baptist church, where it was an outright 
sin to shop anywhere but HEBs. Do you really think Christianity and 
religions were founded to save souls and get people closer to God.
Think how much more your car registration would cost without free 
license plates.

EL PATRON

  On Mar 9, 2005, at 1:12 AM, Frances Morey wrote:

Ramsey,
I'm scared, too. Just when we can't believe anything worse can happen, 
it does. I feel that the Know-Nothings led by the Neocons, rather than 
the christians, are the real weapons of our national destruction. It 
isn't christian to withhold stem cell research depriving countless 
people who would benefit from it. It isn't christian to incarcerate 
more people than any nation on earth! It isn't christian to run a 
government for the protection of the rich to the detriment of the 
majority of the populace, rejecting a hike in the minimum wage, which 
60% of the voters favor, turning our nation into a mean spirited, 
angry, punitive and heartless place. That marijuana is cynically kept 
illegal because the war on drugs feeds the judicial-incarceration 
industry is another instance where 60% of the people favor 
decriminalization and the legislation does not reflect the opinion of 
the public, indeed, countermands it. Where's the democracy?
The poor are getting poorer, and can't support their churches, so the 
"faith based" funding props them up, in exchange for delivering the 
vote. That ain't christian, it's an insidious plot to control the 
population as it squeezes them from middle class into poverty, while 
the rich bask in greedy triumph with tax cuts.
Christianity hasn't sold out, the churches that cloak themselves in 
it have. There is a difference.
 From being on the road, Katfish reinforced what we tend to take for 
granted--that we live in a kind of rarified social hothouse here in 
Austin. Most of the country is the way he and Della found it and 
reported it to us. I don't feel so bad about not being able to travel. 
I'm just glad I can hang on here.
Frances
----- Original Message -----
From: Ramsey Wiggins
  To: GHETTO2 at LISTS.WHATHELPS.COM
  Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Rendition

Seems to me every time christians get a lot of power, people get burned 
at the stake -- to save their souls, of course. Power and rigid 
ideology produce ever more strenuous coercion every time they get 
together. If people dissent, more and more power is applied, ratcheting 
up the level of coercion to torture, mass imprisonments, and finally 
mass murder.

We could also compare the republican putsch to Stalin, whose rise to 
power had a similar arc: a reform movement -- the russian revolution -- 
based on a rigid ideology, co-opted by a powerful psychopath and 
propped up by platitudes about the general welfare and fear of enemies 
without and within. By the time the secret police are disappearing 
people, the Stockholm syndrome sets in and everybody loves big brother.

We need to start keeping track of one another. The way we carry on, it 
wouldn't surprise me if one of us woke up in an egyptian jail one day.

Seriously.

RW


On Tuesday, March 8, 2005, at 07:41 AM, Gerry wrote:


Gonzales, the American hero poor boy who made it to the top, is lying 
through his big white teeth. Will this be his role now, apologist for 
war crimes? In the New Yorker there is a long, in-depth article on 
rendition and how since 9/11 the US has sent hundreds of prisoners 
abroad to be tortured. This practice is, perhaps, the most dastardly of 
all the practices engaged in by the Bushies and Rummy, including firing 
on unidentified vehicles occupied by Italian journalists. I guarantee 
the NY article will make your flesh crawl. Now they are denying it in 
spite of a ton of evidence to the contrary. War criminals, torturers, 
christians run amok. They are tainting all of us and digging such a 
deep hole we may not be able to crawl out of it in our lifetimes.
G
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