Blame the Atheists for Bush Being a Horrible President

Vera Ivie wins the award for worst letter-to-the-editor of 2007 with this one published in the Salt Lake Tribune just a couple days ago:

In his Dec. 27 letter, Steven Fehr says he believes President Bush is the worst president he has seen. Whenever I hear someone complain about the president, I ask them, “Do you pray for the president of the United States daily?” Is that too much trouble?

There used to be a custom of praying for our president. Perhaps too many people in the United States believe this would be mixing politics and religion. If the majority of the people are agnostic and atheistic, it may be that they are partly to blame for the problems we have. To think one man is responsible for the war and the problems we face in our nation is about as foolish as to not believe in the power of prayer.

We all share in the burden. We all need to live and teach the truths upon which our country was founded. The world is made up of two types of people: critics who are negative, fearful and have no plan, no vision, no faith, and authors who are positive, visionary builders. Which kind are you?

Vera B. Ivie
Ogden

There are too many idiotic things in there to pinpoint just a few…

The 100+ comments to her letter are well worth reading, though.

Vera B.
I pray for our enemies daily… Bush & Cheney. God will not speak to me because the communication line has been tapped.

…

Verla said:

“The world is made up of two types of people: critics who are negative, fearful and have no plan, no vision, no faith, and authors who are positive, visionary builders. Which kind are you?”

Well Verla, looking at President Bush he is definitely the former, with the exception that he has lots of faith. Blind faith, but faith nonetheless.

Negative – always complaining about others. Nothing is ever his fault. The decider. If only he would ever make a correct decision.

Fearful – The “terrorists are coming to get us”, and variations thereof. Never afraid the play the fear card, is he?

No plan – Can you say Iraq? And just where are all those WMD’s?

No vision – Can you say Iraq again? Just when will it end, anyway?

Lots of faith that he is right, though. And those with blind faith in him keep believing.

I do pray for the office though. I pray that the next President will be one who is not sure he is doing God’s bidding or that he is a cog in some divine plan, and can therefore do no wrong. Just look at what that mindset has gotten us.

…

how about instead of talking to yourself, you actually WORK for a better world!!

I guess that those who are praying are simply ineffectual, or maybe the flying spaghetti monster isn’t listening….

(via Aye!)

[tags]atheist, atheism, George Bush, worst president[/tags]

Stephen

The majority of Americans are agnostic/atheist? News to me. Actually, it’s not, because everyone here knows how profoundly untrue it is.

But I guess I can see the appeal of the whole “I stand alone on the word of God” attitude, so if reality doesn’t allow for the role they want to take, they’ll just believe in a different one. After all, they rejected reality a long time ago.
Sarah H.

I think one reason that so many Christians get caught up in a genuine victim-complex dates back all the way to the first few centuries Christianity existed. In those days the Jewish religion was protected and recognized by the Roman leadership (although that isn’t to say they were particularly nice to Jews) and the Jewish leaders saw Christians as a threat to their safety as a legal religion. They did everything possible to make distinctions between traditional Judaism and the new Christian sect, making a huge question of whether Christianity was legal in Rome.

Furthermore, Nero ran into the whole fiddling-while-Rome burned scandal around that time, and he decided that Christians – already hated, even by the Jews – would make a good scapegoat, and so the official party line was that Christians were responsible for the trouble. He went so far as to hang Christians from poles and set them on fire to light his gardens at night.

Now, this happened a long, long time ago (in a galaxy far away… okay, not so much) but the victim complex made its way into lots of Paul’s writings and into the Christian tradition. Much of the New Testament was written under circumstances in which Christians were a severely persecuted minority, and this mindset, IMO, still lives on through Christians reading the New Testament today. If you believe that the Bible is God’s word, then you take it seriously, and there are lots of examples in the Bible that refer to standing up to persecution as if it’s everywhere.

Sorry, I know I’m making this an essay… In short, this doesn’t excuse Christians for acting like victims despite being in a position of power and majority, but it does explain where some of that groupthink comes from, from a historical perspective. Unfortunately, there aren’t any of those early Christians around to remind today’s Christians what real persecution is like – being blamed for wrongs utterly unrelated to your group, being vilified simply for what you believe… maybe not burning alive though, lol.
Jen

I get so, so tired of people with martyr complexes. It makes sense that so many Christians seem to get that attitude, when their number one role model supposedly was one, but it is still damn annoying. Now, I won’t claim there aren’t some places in the world where Christians are, in fact, actually victims because of their religion, but America is not one of those places.
Greta Christina

So let me get this straight.

God could make George W. Bush less of an asshole.

God wants to make George W. Bush less of an asshole.

But because not enough people are praying to God to make George W. Bush less of an asshole, God won’t do it.

Wow. God is kind of an asshole, isn’t he?

I swear. This is the last New Year’s Day that I try to cure my hangover with stupid.

P.S. So who do we pray to to make God less of an asshole?
Epistaxis

Sarah H. said,
…he decided that Christians – already hated, even by the Jews – would make a good scapegoat, and so the official party line was that Christians were responsible for the trouble…

Early Christians weren’t just persecuted because they were suspected of epic arson. The Romans truly believed that their gods punished entire cities for harboring heretic minorities; to anyone who took the pantheon seriously, the mere presence of Christians did represent a clear and present danger.

Atheists can never make peace with those who believe they are at risk of divine retribution because of our skepticism. It’s not a matter of intolerance; it’s a matter of theology. We have no standing to challenge their interpretations of their scriptures, so the best we can do is hope this kind of thing doesn’t catch on. If it does, no amount of “friendly atheism,” as wonderful an approach as that is when dealing with moderates, will avert conflict with the extremists. Sorry, Hemant.
Felicia Gilljam

Someone should tell this lady about Sweden. Over here, the majority of the population actually ARE non-religious, and we STILL don’t get such epic fuck-ups as Bush as our president.
hoverFrog

A large proportion of England are atheist or agnostic (between 20% and 40% depending on the source) but we still had a Prime Minister who acted on the voices that George “Dubya” Bush heard in his head telling him that it was right to go to war. At least he has the decency to be embarrassed about it though.

To be fair though I can’t blame religion for the war in Iraq. Not when there’s all ~~that oil to steal~~ those poor people to bring democracy to.
mollishka

To think one man is responsible for the war and the problems we face in our nation is about as foolish as to not believe in the power of prayer.

No argument here.
Karen

In short, this doesn’t excuse Christians for acting like victims despite being in a position of power and majority, but it does explain where some of that groupthink comes from, from a historical perspective.

Exactly. And then you add onto that the idea that the end of the world is nigh, and that it will come with extreme persecution of Christians, and the result is utter paranoia.

I saw a quote from an Iowa pastor pushing Huckabee on his congregation. It said something like (paraphrasing): “This country is desperately, deeply in need of moral Christian leadership!”

And I thought, wait a sec, I thought we’ve had eight years of “moral Christian leadership” – that was one of Bushs’s biggest appeals to my Christian friends who voted for him. And so why exactly are we in such a *&^&*(%& mess!? Hasn’t god been guiding our Christian leader well?
Sarah H.

Karen:

I definitely agree that the “end of the world” frenzy adds to the problem, as does any attempt to wrest illegal violations of chuch/state from their hands. The 1950s were a huge, huge set-up for this kind of entitlement, as Eisenhower curried lots of favor with Christians in several ways, including establishing the National Day of Prayer and stamping “In God We Trust” on our currency.

The delusion that this is supposed to be a theocracy is so embedded that any secular attempts to challenge church/state problems is seen as a dangerous attack. Most Christians aren’t used to having things taken away from them, and they really, really resent it when it happens. Every religious display on government land that’s dismantled, every request that references to God be taken out of our Pledge of Allegiance or off our currency are seen by them as little less than treason.
Stephen

But because not enough people are praying to God to make George W. Bush less of an asshole, God won’t do it.

Wow. God is kind of an asshole, isn’t he?

My thoughts exactly. I always get a kick out of it when people claim that prayer cured their cancer or whatever. So are there people who die of cancer, get up to Heaven, and God tells them, “Well, I really wanted to cure your cancer, but not enough people were praying for it. Sorry”?

What’s the deal? Does God need prayers to recharge his miracle batteries (amusingly, this is the case in the PC game Black & White), or does he willingly place a person’s fate in the hands of others? In the former case, he’s not omnipotent; in the latter case, as said, he’s just a straight-up jackass.
Karen

Every religious display on government land that’s dismantled, every request that references to God be taken out of our Pledge of Allegiance or off our currency are seen by them as little less than treason.

Absolutely. And more “proof” that the end is near because – see! all this persecution! 😉