Wasted Time, Energy and Oxygen

What a waste of time, energy and oxygen for Utah to impose their predominate religion on me via their Utah State Liquor Store. Let’s say 10% Utahans visit the liquor store weekly and conservatively only burn one extra gallon of fuel.  That’s 281,722 gallons wasted per week or a total of $56 Million per year that otherwise would go into the economy instead of gasoline, thus reducing gasoline prices and foreign dependency not to mention overall air quality could be greatly improved.

I realize “their” intent is to reduce my consumption from one bottle of wine per week to maybe none! (Where would Jesus be if he had to go to the state liquor store to turn water into wine?) Now they have gone too far. In buying a six pack of “BEER” the store clerk had to ring each bottle up separately agitating us both to the extreme. My only conclusion can be “they” want me to view a six pack not as “one” but six individual drinks!

Ironically, Utah’s population could differ greatly if the legislature could have forced Brigham Young to purchase his wives at the State Wife Store. Instead of buying 9-6packs of wives, he would have had to pick up 55 individual women, who knows, maybe Steve Young wouldn’t even exist!

 Women,  I know it all seems so insensitive, I agree, I must update my views on women, Brigham Young really had 9 “binders” of women and couple extra pages poking out!

Please God, Can I have one more Gun for Christmas

Growing up my father always had a multitude of guns around the home for hunting and self protection. All were rifles or shotguns that provided much needed nutrition from wild game as well as providing a means of protecting the 10 ton of wheat, rice and beans we kept in the basement.

Upon dad’s passing each of the 12 children inherited a gun or two with many rounds of ammunition. I inherited a 12 gauge double barreled shotgun. Over the years I have chosen to have a hit man slaughter my meat and short of fishing, have not taught my children to hunt as my father did his sons.

Times are changing. Just as our forefathers had the insight to protect the right of “men” to “bare” arms (how did they know men would be shaving their arms 236 years later), we now have the opportunity to look forward as a nation and protect the civil rights of our children and grandchildren.

A shotgun lies beneath my bed (with a trigger lock and the key attached to my nipple ring) next to my baseball bat. As I have progressed over the years, I find it far too impersonal to outright shoot an intruder or a sales person at your front door when you could personalize this action to a far greater level with the baseball bat! But, I must ask myself, “What would Jesus do?” Does Jesus understand the importance of personal protection and also the need to keep high power weapon’s in the event government needs to be overthrown if our leaders take away our individual freedoms? I find it interesting depending on who is “President” you are either a “patriot” or an “anarchist” if you have ambitions of overthrowing the government by force!

During the holidays I wonder what role religion plays in my life and am always hesitant to mix religion and government. But, I have come to the conclusion that government should require all baseball bats to have the seventh commandment engraved in it. Thou shalt not kill.

Yes, I am proud of my emotional maturity, evolution if you will, and hope to continue with my progression as it relates to violence. In honor of my new found belief system, I pledge to only use my baseball bat on our Jesus piñata!

Yes, I know it’s “bear”……

Dark Skin...God's Orange Jump Suit For Sinners??

Recently I encountered a door to door salesman that deceived his way into my home. He suggested he was promoting energy saving devices, as it turns out, his company only offered one small gadget that was overpriced and readily available to the public. In reality, he was truly selling security systems and cable television. Within his misleading presentation he mentioned he was a return missionary for the LDS Church. Normally I don't believe this would have been part of his presentation, but within plain view was my mother's copy of the Book of Mormon that she carried for many years before her passing. More than likely he thought he was going to score points with me as a "returned missionary", but as he was soon to find out, his read of the situation was anything but accurate!

Being rather annoyed that this man had entered my home under what I would call false pretenses and knowing he was audaciously bragging about being a return missionary within his sales pitch, I reached for what is now my Book of Mormon and opened it to a passage I had recently tabbed, 2Nephi 5: 21-25.  The condensed passage reads,  21. as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. 22. that they shall be loathsome unto thy people 23. and curse shall be there seed of him that mixeth with their seed 24. because of the cursing which was upon them, they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. 25. they shall be a scourge unto thy seed.

Upon his obvious re-reading of the passages above, I simply asked what was his interpretation of this scripture was? He replied, "its kinda like prisoners having to wear an orange jump suit to make sure everyone knows they have committed a crime," he went on to say, " God did the same to sinners, he marked them with a dark skin so the righteous would know they were sinners or descendants of sinners." Needless to say,  I was more than taken back. I have heard or read most claims from Mormon Apologists and the Mormon Church has even gone so far as to edit these very passages, but this was a new standard of racism that truly explained to me how many Mormons feel.

With this prime example of the Mormons take on dark skin, my next questions is to Mitt Romney and it simply is, " Will everyone be white in heaven?" The truth is, Mormons believe having a dark skin is a curse and if you've made it to "heaven" then you will preside in the most perfected form and no longer have a dark skin! The most concerning part of this is the Mormon Church is sending missionaries to all regions of the world and one of their target groups is Native Americans from both North and South America, of which these scriptures directly apply. Nothing outrages me more than a racist organization recruiting the very people they have bias towards! (Keep in mind Mormons also believe that Cain was marked with a black skin and that all blacks carry that very mark. They also believe that "blacks" were not as valiant in Heaven as "white" people.  In fact, they believe "blacks" were fence sitters in the great war in Heaven between Jesus and Satan and this is why the Mormon Church withheld the Priesthood from black men until the late 1970's! Unfortunately, very few question why most religions withhold their priesthood from all women!

Mormons will work tirelessly to persuade the world their views and scripture are not racist. If they would devote as much energy into understanding the different populations and peoples of this world and accept the widely held scientific view that isolation due to natural geographic barriers and natural selection were the very  forces that created the wonderful differences within the human race, they would improve on their archaic and anthropocentric religion drastically. Only problem is, they would have to throw the Book of Mormon on its head, Joesph Smith couldn't even predict the past let alone the future and his racist views bleed heavily into his poor work of fiction!

St.George Diary: The Reuplican Jesus

The Reuplican Jesus

It's sad that Republicans have lost their way! They claim to be religious, but within their ranks, adultery seems to be far more prevalent than among the Democrats. Just ask Newt Gingrich. I believe that religion is merely a cover for their absurdity and if they would really read the bible and take the examples of the so called teachings of Jesus to heart they would be much better off. I have taken the liberty to re-write some scriptures, through direct revelation of God, in order that Jesus line up better with the Republican philosophy's of today. (words in red are inspired through modern day revelation)

Luke 6:20  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciple and said, blessed be ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God, but as for this earth and this time, there shall be no entitlements for you lazy unproductive sloths!

Luke 7:25 But he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he, unless you're homeless, then get a job, pay some taxes (but only pay a high rate of tax if your poor), and you too can join those of us who look down upon you!

2 Corinthians: 6:10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things, these people are not truly poor, let them suffer within their joy of poverty, never shall government interfere, for they are rich in the eyes of the Lord.

Galatians 2: 9-10 They gave to me the hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was foward to do. But thou shalt not provide the entitlement of circumcision to those who are not willing to work for it and the poor men of gratuitous foreskin shall suffer alongside the poor small circumcised memebered men.

James 2:5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them, and let us not interfere with this promise, that the poor only need to believe in the lord for food, shelter and clothing be a luxury they need not afford.

James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgement seats, have you not watched Fox News where the rich of wall street are elevated within their crimes and those poor welfare moms are despised, where the slothful are relegated to the lowest levels of society and presumed to be uneducated and even fat, not regular fat, but welfare fat and let the judgements of the Repulican Congress rain down upon you so the lord may have mercy on your soul.

Wow, that really hurt my brain to have God speaking through me. One last comment that God made before I go. She said, "the Elected Republicans are nothing more than white elitists that have their simple minded creationist base convinced they are part of the club." I think God's kinda mean!

Rule of Law

Many, if not all, Republicans in Congress oppose the Dream Act (an acronym for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). This proposed piece of legislation is intended to provide a path of citizenship to individuals who were brought to the United States by their parents or other adults illegally.
To qualify for this act, one must prove they entered the U.S. before the age of sixteen, have proof of residence for at least five years, be between ages twelve and thirty-five at the time of the bill's enactment,  have graduated from a U.S. high school or earned the GED equivalent, and be of "good moral character."

The passage of this legislation sounds like a no-brainier, giving these kids of "good moral character" a country they can call their own. However, many Republicans can't wrap their heads around a bill Jesus would surely support. Personally, I believe it's more about racism than anything. Simply put, its part of their racist agenda to preserve their psychotic delusion that America was somehow founded through the direction of a "white god" for the greater good of the American Christians of European descent. Their logic in opposition to this bill is a thinly veiled excuse they strategically call "the rule of law"; basically, it doesn't matter how much good this legislation may do, doesn't matter about the humanity involved; we are a nation of law and therefore, when it suits me and my racist colleagues, we must follow "the rule of law"!

I say, I couldn't agree more! In the early 1800s, the United States were actively uprooting Native American tribes and forcing them to move west of the Mississippi to what was then called "Indian Territory". President Andrew Jackson, the man on our $20 bill, entreated congress to pass the Indian Removal Act.

Unfortunately for President Jackson and Congress of all white males, the Cherokee Nation banded together and decided that education was the best way to defend their rights as a people. The Cherokees, residing in Georgia at the time, challenged this act through the American legal system, ultimately winning a Supreme Court decision backing their ownership rights to the lands they occupied in Georgia. President Jackson, however, refused to stand for the "rule of law", swiftly ordering troops to forcibly remove the Cherokees from the land the Supreme Court had only just ruled rightfully theirs.
By that, I say to any member of congress in opposition to the Dream Act, or, for that matter, providing an opportunity for all illegal immigrants of "good moral character" a path to citizenship based on the "rule of law", let's start by giving Georgia back to the living descendants of the Cherokee Nation. Either we partake in that, or we can move forward based on the "rule of logic" and do what's right for these exceptional future citizens.

Moroni 2:2

St. George is a beautiful town filled with endless resources, especially in the way of statements by St. George residents fueling my fire. Today's fuel is sponsored by a co-worker/part owner of the company I work for; we'll call him "Gary". We were touring homes for sale as a group of a few agents of the office. At our second stop, in a senior community, a couple took the time to have a conversation with the group I was riding with. When asked if they enjoyed living here in town, the lady mentioned that their community is strongly political and full of gossip and that she, for the most part, does not enjoy living in St. George.

When we returned to the vehicle, Gary asked us why we thought she didn't enjoy living here. I mentioned that it might be because they weren't "members". His reply to that was, "Only a non-member would say that!" What I should have said is, "Exactly," but instead, I proceeded to defend my statement by mentioning that some neighbors of mine, LDS church members, were all too happy to invite my children to their church functions where they are taught "Mormon Ideals." I went on to say, "In a gesture of reciprocation, I invited them to send their children to my house for two hours of atheist study as well. Let's just say not only was that an end all to conversation with the neighbors, but their kids no longer play with my kids."

With that, Gary said, "Well, if you don't like it here, move." Now I wonder why the couple from New England feels they're not exactly welcome here with their "outside views" and all. As I tried to reconcile this, I realized there must be some kind of religious precedence for this kind of thought and through many hours of research, I found what I think may be driving this sentiment in the Book of Mormon. Jesus clearly states in the book of Moroni 2:2 (I know these are Jesus' words because they're in red) "And it came to pass that Nephites, now the minority in the once great city of Zerahemala, rose up in opposition to Corahor, and demanded that their voices be heard. Jesus," ('cause if you read the Book of Mormon you would know that Jesus came over here too), "standing next to Corahor said, 'If you don't like it here, then leave.'"

As Glenn Beck says on his television show when feeding misinformation to the public, I don't know for sure if Jesus said this or if it even says this in the Book of Mormon, but I'm just saying that, based on this sentiment, it sounds like Jesus must have said this.

(Look for an upcoming post that will reveal the "Republican Jesus" and how many scriptures in the New Testament would need to be re-written if Jesus were in fact a Republican.)

This type of closed mindedness is exactly why I don't belong to any religious or atheist groups. It's too easy to convince yourself of your profound wisdom when there aren't any naysayers in your circle. I encourage outside thought and civil debate of all subjects, and want to remind anyone reading this that my views are based on the environmental situation at the moment. Twenty years ago, I voted for the first George Bush, so based on that vote, I may be stark raving mad!

Now, do I think that Gary is in any way really this arrogant? No; in fact, I'm sure he's somewhat embarrassed at his statement. Nonetheless, I do find it rather hypocritical of him, considering Mormons send out thousands of missionaries every month, (he "served" a Mormon mission) with the expectation that the world is going to open their doors to their message, when, in their very own back yards, they are more than happy to say, "If you don't like it, move!"