The Elites’ Anti-Religion Obsession (Laura Ingraham)

Lauraingrahan.com ^ | Laura Ingraham

[nickcarraway]

George W. Bush reads the Bible every morning! He mentions God in almost every speech! Jesus is his favorite philosopher! Now a judge has the audacity to oppose the removal of a statue of the Ten Commandments in front of his courtroom!

In other words, all hell is breaking loose. Oh, but that’s right, the anti-religion elites don’t believe in hell. But lately they have been working themselves into a frothy, frantic frenzy. A few days ago I had the unfortunate experience of catching Larry King Live’s rebroadcast of his interview with “comedian” Bill Maher. Pontificating on the state of American discourse, Maher teed off on George W. Bush (“a monumental liar”) and organized religion. “The Bible (sneer). It’s all about the Bible,” he lamented, when asked about the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Texas’s sodomy statute. “It’s all about that one book written so many years ago by God knows who, but it wasn’t God.”

And this guy calls President Bush stupid?

Bill Maher, who describes himself as part Jew, part Catholic, has been slamming religion for years, but his vitriol has reached new heights during the Bush presidency. Maher’s caboose of thought goes like this: Bush is a moron because Bush is a true believer. The entertainment elites like Maher feel threatened by people of faith. How can they believe in God when they think that they are the Masters of Universe?

Maher has a comrade in arms in writer Guy Lawson, who wrote a piece in the August issue of GQ titled “George W’s Personal Jesus,” with an accompanying sacrilegious photo of Bush depicted as a Jesus-like figure—with a flowing robe, long hair, beard and mustache and halo. (Of the photo, Lawson has said, “It was meant to provoke.”) Lawson’s beef with Bush seems to be that while we all know Bush is a devout Christian who married into the Methodist church, we don’t really know what he believes. He keeps his views “closely held,” but then speaks in a secret religious “code” to other Evangelical Christians! “A person steeped in the language of faith can recognize the voice of someone who shares his beliefs,” notes Lawson, ominously. Pass out the special decoder rings!

Liberal Lauer lapped it up.

LAUER: ….Are you suggesting that before a major speech the speechwriters gather in some room and they put these words in to deliberately communicate with Evangelical voters?

LAWSON: I'm not suggesting it, I'm saying it. Absolutely. I mean, he talked about the wonder-working power of the American people. Any Evangelical Christian knows that that's a reference to a Him, the wonder-working power of the blood of Jesus.

The horror!

Lawson is disturbed both by the fact that George W. Bush “is the most overtly and publicly religious leader of the United States in generations,” and also “the most privately religious leader of the United States in generations.” Wow. Powerful stuff.

Perhaps GQ should stick to publishing articles about subjects it understands—like pectoral implants, and the latest in male exfoliation products.

Of course the point of the piece was to lump George Bush into the Bible thumping stereotype that the anti-religion elites are obsessed with. If Bush is an evangelical, reading the Bible behind closed doors every morning, no wonder he believes in all this good and evil stuff! “The Bible is a story of the struggle between good and evil, God and the devil,” Lawson reveals. Someone alert the Pulitzer Committee.

People of faith feel like they are under siege in America these days. The Supreme Court and the lower federal courts seem to find an unconstitutional establishment of religion around every corner. Hollywood routinely portrays religion in the worst possible light. Meanwhile, Mel Gibson is crucified for making a movie about the crucifixion.

But this bitter elite posture is nothing new and people of faith—Christians, Jews and others—have long been not only ridiculed, but have actually been persecuted for their beliefs. Americans of faith in the last century resisted fascism, socialism, communism, Nazism, and racism. They are hardly going to have their faith shaken by the likes of Bill Maher, Guy Lawson and their cynical cronies in the media.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Laura Ingraham PING.




FYI--If you're a Laura fan, and you're going through withdrawals, you can catch her this week at wabcradio.com from 10:00 - 11:45 a.m. Eastern filling in for one of the wabc hosts.

Laura's new morning show begins in (hopefully) several markets next week!

And you can pre-order the book, "Shut Up and Sing" through Laura's website, www.lauraingraham.com

[And, no, I'm not on Laura's staff or anything. Just a fanatic.]

[reasonseeker]

"OK, what was it before "religionists" changed it to IN GOD WE TRUST?"

If you don't know, then I suppose you're no worse than a judge I experienced during jury duty a while back, who, despite his apparently being old enough to remember when the National Motto was changed, thought that "IN GOD WE TRUST" was the original motto, and I had to correct the judge. FYI, the original, beautiful, eloquent, uniting motto that the Founders chose was "E Pluribus Unum," not the divisive "In God We Trust."

[fox0566]

We need more people like Laura Ingraham to speak out. Unfortunately, most of the reporters and anchors on tv (including those on Fox News Channel) have gone out of their way to ridicule Judge Moore and his stand on the Ten Commandments. I also have noticed most of the politicians (including President Bush) don't seem to have much of anything to say on this matter. There aren't many public figures with the courage and conviction to stand up for the judge. It is sad, but that's the way it is nowadays. Bill Maher is a sad individual. I have never liked him.

[Alouette]

I had to correct the judge.

What a pompous little snot you are.

[reasonseeker]

You don't know what a pompous little snot the judge was. He went on and on, trying to impress us with his knowledge of the history of voir dir (if I wanted a history lesson, I would have gone to a class or read a book -- it was inappropriate for him to do this during jury duty service), and if he was going to try to impress us with his knowledge, he shouldn't been so grossly ignorant about the motto hanging on the wall behind his head.

[MineralMan]

"Are churches being closed down? Preachers thrown off the airwaves by government edict? Where is the alleged "persecution?"

Bingo. There is no persecution. It's a straw man set up in an attempt to make Christianity (preferably of the southern protestant variety) the national religion.

[reasonseeker]

As I see it, it's a lack of faith in their own professed beliefs that compel religionists to want to use the force of government to promote their religion.

[Eva]

I have to admit that I caught that reference to "the power, the wonder working power" (of the blood of the lamb). I mentioned on Free Republic and no one else recognized the words to the old hymn in the speech, so I don't know if its such a good code.

I happened to grow up, the daughter of the choir director of a hymn singing fundamentalist church. I'm not sure that old hymn is even sung in churches today.

[zygoat]

I don't go to church, I rarely indulge in prayer, only when a loved one is seriously ill.(It never helped, the cancer killed them anyway.) I actually cursed God and challenged him when he let my fiancee die in '94 and my dad last month. If anyone has a problem with God, it's me. (At least in my mind.) Nevertheless, I can't find anything offensive about a monument in a courthouse, a phrase on a quarter, or a manger scene in someones' yard at Christmas. It seems that there are certian people whose main purpose in life is to be offended. Hell, they will go out of their way to be offended.I'm not religous, but christian sybols are far less offensive to me than the "Gay Pride- Rainbow Flag" down the road, inviting anyone unfortunate enough to recognize what it means to imagine the disease swapping going on inside.Maybe I should take em' to court. After all, I'm offended.

[=Intervention=]

*ROFL* That is the most hilarious post I have read in days, if not weeks. You made my day.

Beware secret Christian operatives trying to make Christianity the national religion! They're everywhere!

[Stone Mountain]

And SpellCheck claims another victim...

[hocndoc]

Good job by Ms. Ingraham.

Mr. Maher, Mr.Lawson are, indeed elitists. And, for some reason anyone who disagrees with them has to be proven wrong in order for them to be right.



If religion were the problem to them, why not attack the Buddhists or the Scientologists? I'm sure that Richard Gere or Tom Cruise would make a good religious-zealot target.

Why not just mock Islam instead of working so hard to prove that the terror of 9-11 in the US, and every day in the Middle East, Africa and much of Asia and Indonesia is just the actions of a few fanatics. For that matter, why can't they, if they are so smart, recognize the difference between the acts of violence that are carried out by people who call themselves Christians and the lives of the rest of us?

On Maher's Showtime show last weekend, Margaret Cho launched into a diatribe about the time and energy that the Christians are wasting in Montgomery Alabama. She said that they should get back to their "job" of having "abortion clinics to bomb."

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..are churches being closed down? Preachers thrown off the airwaves by government edict? Where is the alleged "persecution?"...

Christian beliefs are the very cornerstone of your republic, and they are under attack daily by the liberals. The cover arguments used against Judge Moore's monument could also be used to argue for erasing the Biblical inscription from the Liberty Bell. Those opposed to the war on Christian morality know that we are moving towards the events you mentioned exponentially and that Judge Moore's monument is merely the latest manifestation.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...as I see it, it's a lack of faith in their own professed beliefs that compel religionists to want to use the force of government to promote their religion...

...and as I see it, the pretentious intolerance of conservo-atheists is the best arrow in the liberals' quiver.

[Romulus]

Jesus is his favorite philosopher!

Proving that either he doesn't know who Jesus is, or doesn't care. And this Laura cites as an endorsement of Dubya? Words fail me.

[Choose Ye This Day]

[Choose Ye This Day]