The flyer for the event states Of all the claims Christianity makes, one of the most audacious is the claim to hope, considering the reality of our world. This series examines the possibility of hope in the face of seemingly hope-less realities.
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Normally Home Spun C-Span does not carry sermons. This is not a sermon. So no change there. Howerver I did decide to air this because of the confluence of several interesting trends in American culture lately. There have always been religious leaders that seek secular power under the guise of the cloth. One of the name for this class of parasites is "Pharisee" and I have long realized that for America to make progress on Global Warming, stopping the Empire Builders among us who cause so much conflict on Planet Earth's other nations that end up back on our land in the form of stagnant wages, immigration and terrorism - that to make progress on those issues, a wedge would have to form between the FLOCK and PHARISEE. That has begun. There are increasing numbers of religious people who see that its not Gays or Single Moms or Drug Addicts that are causing all the world's problems ... its US. Its our SUVs and perfect neon green lawns. Its the Sins of OUR Fathers in the form of Kermit Roosevelt who went with CIA help to overthrow moderate democratically elected Arab leaders in order to keep oil cheap and profitable for our empire builders that is now coming back upon us, the CIA calls it "BlowBack". The flock is now increasingly seeing that the Pharisee seek to distract them with abortion and gun control and the bogeyman of an alleged plot to turn all their children Gay is just that ... a distraction from the fact that the religious texts all say that Greed and Gluttony and Sloth and Avirice are causing the most damage and that a lot of so-called religious leaders are allying themselves with the forces of Greed, Gluttony, Sloth and Averice in order to gain secular power at the ballot box and the marketplace. Its The Mideval Warring Crusaders all over again!
Or is it?
Now we see more religious groups saying they want to work on poverty and Global Warming much to the consternation of the so-called Christian Coalition. We also have books like Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant" that is all about framing of issues and how the radical right have hijacked much of the religious framing ... and now the jig is up! There is a wedge forming between the Flock and The Pharisee.
So in light of these recent changes in America, I find fascinating the existence of a group called "Spiritual Shots" doing their discussions in a bar and whose title of their forum activates the nurturant and the hopeful framing of what is sometimes called "liberalism"
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