Tapu Misa's Herald rant in review (23 May 2011)

Origanl Article from the NZ Herald.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10727378

I pulled apart a Garth George article a few months back, now it's Tapu Misa's turn. Why do Christians think that just because they put it in print it must be true.

My Comments in Italics



Tapu Misa writes that the agnostic PM's support is at risk as the Budget makes Government priorities crystal clear.

Some Christians I know who voted for National in the last election because they liked the look of John Key and disliked Helen Clark and her godless gay-loving feminist anti-smacking family-unfriendly Labour Party have changed their minds.

Tapu has said Family Un-freindly with out explaining, she was correct on the other points, but then throws this in, this is standard tactic that if you use some true facts, you can sneak in a false one

A few were under the impression that Key was a believer. He isn't (unless he's undergone a recent conversion), but it was an easy mistake to make given that Key was said to attend church regularly, had been endorsed by a couple of popular Christians (Michael Jones and Va'aiga Tuigamala), and was hard to pin down on the subject.

For example, he'd told one journalist in 2006: "If you're asking me if I'm religious it depends how you define religion. I look at religion as doing the right thing ... I go to church a lot with the kids, but I wouldn't describe it as something that I ... I'm not a heavy believer; my mother was Jewish which technically makes me Jewish ... I probably see it in a slightly more relaxed way."

Which is a very roundabout way of saying Key is an agnostic.

But it's easy to see why he was the darling of conservative Christians. Unlike Don Brash, who'd left two broken families in his wake, and Helen Clark who, despite her own solid marriage, was seen to stand for a raft of supposedly anti-family social policies, including the legalisation of prostitution, civil unions and Sue Bradford's child discipline law, Key was seen as the embodiment of family values: he was a devoted husband and father who had voted against the civil union bill.

Sorry Tapu, prostitution, civil unions, and anti smacking is not anti-family. It may be in your Christian opinion, but really it is not.

And even if he wasn't a Christian, as National Party member and Catholic Terry Dunleavy told the Sunday Star-Times in 2007, "I believe John Key in his life and his values reflects much more openly and strongly the Christian values that I hold. He's still married to the same woman. There's no question about his morality or his dedication to family life."

I am not sure what having the same wife has to with anything, it is well known that non-believers have the lowest devorce rates in the US, and I am results would be similar here in NZ

But is the love affair over? Weeks after getting so much love at Christian music festival Parachute this year, Key was pictured at the Big Gay Out, arm in arm with a semi-naked (male) organiser, talking of the possible return of an annual gay and lesbian mardi gras many thought they'd seen the last of 10 years ago when the debt-ridden Hero parade was cancelled. It felt like betrayal for some.

He is a politician, he will grovel up to anyone.

The Christian family is a very broad church, and I've never understood the preoccupation with homosexuality.


A mark in your favour Tapu. Great Stuff, except in your Bible God calls Homosexuality and abomination, so that could explain the Christian preoccupation with homosexuality.

Last month, the Young Conservatives of America urged other conservatives to stop using the word "gay", which they described as "a left-wing socio-political construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based on] whimsical capricious desires". They favoured a return to words like "sodomy".

This was ironic, as Jay Michaelson pointed out in the Huffington Post, "because 'sodomy' in the Bible has nothing to do with homosexuality. It wasn't until the Medieval period that the word was even invented - as a legal classification for sins of Catholic priests - and in the Bible itself, the sin of Sodom has to do with inhospitality and greed, not sex".

He argued that homosexual rape was the means, not the essence of Sodom's wickedness, which as the prophet Ezekiel declared (16:49) was actually "pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness ... neither did [Sodom] strengthen the hand of the poor and needy".

That seems an apt commentary of our times. The real Sodomites are the increasingly distant and indifferent rich.

While I could agree, it's Bullshit none the less. You have identified a problem demographic, but to call them Sodomites is just plain stupid.

Jesus focused on poverty and justice and helping "the least of these". Yet many Christians seem inclined to see morality in narrow terms. But what is more destructive to family values - the lack of a living wage, or the legalisation of same-sex marriages?

American religious leaders fasted in protest this year at proposed Budget cuts in the United States.

Pointing to the immorality of a Budget that would slash spending on programmes for the poor while increasing military spending and adding unnecessary billions to the deficit by extending Bush-era tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 per cent of Americans, they argued that budgets weren't just about numbers but moral statements reflecting a nation's values.


This is reason to avoid letting religion get to strong a hold in politics here.

Budgets "reveal our priorities, who and what is important, and who and what are not", said the Rev Jim Wallis, one of the fast's organisers.

It's not a question of whether we should reduce deficits, but how we reduce them that matters. "It's about choices."

Indeed - and thanks to the Budget the choices and priorities of our own Government are crystal clear. Borrowing so the top income earners in the country continue to get generous tax cuts they don't need. Chipping into Working for Families assistance for households earning as little as $35,000 a year. Tinkering with KiwiSaver, despite the need to encourage more saving.


Curing poverty with "Working for Families" is like trying to kill an ant with a shot gun, you waste a lot of lead where it is not needed.

Expecting a billion dollars worth of unspecified cuts in the public sector over the next four years. And flogging off parts of strategic assets, the money from which has already been "banked".

Is this what we want? Come November, the choice will be ours.

Completely unsure what any of this has to do with being Christian.

"USA, One Nation Under God"

I saw the news tonight with Barack Obama's speech re Osama bin Laden. While on one hand, yes, it's a good thing they have stopped this nut. But then to go and invoke the Christian God thing, has that not totally bought into Osama bin Laden's Jihad?

My stomach sank when I saw this, I am sure I could hear Matt Dillahunty swear from here in Auckland New Zealand. The McCarthy era nuts have a lot to answer for, but it is time for America to grow up and get rid of God from their nation, the way the founding fathers wanted it. Or is it the fact an election is coming up, and it's an easy voter winner for Barack?

I thought it was great the way he avoided the Christian thing when in Turkey a few years back, but to now do this, was a huge mistake. All I could say was "what a wanker".

While what I think means nothing, my opinion of Barack Obama has plummeted.

Garth Georges rant in review!!

Below is an article that featured in the NZ Herald last week.
I wanted to address some of the points, I would have liked to have addressed the author, but seemed little point. I will put my answers in Italics.

Original Article by Garth George.

"
On February 27, this email arrived in my inbox: "After the Christchurch earthquake last September you informed your readers in your column in the Herald that you had thanked God that no one had been killed. Please tell your readers in your next Herald column what you said to God after last week's earthquake, in which at least 150 people (including two babies under 1 year old) were killed."

Last Saturday came the follow-up: "You use your position of power as a columnist in New Zealand's largest newspaper to promote your personal views then - when they are challenged - you refuse to answer. Don't you think you have an ethical responsibility? Don't you even have the courage of your own convictions?"

Now, the author wasn't to know that my wife and I were on a 10-day holiday by the seaside in one of the best-sited motels in New Zealand, about 30m from the whispering sands of Gisborne's glorious Waikanae Beach - and that emails were the last thing on my mind.

I suppose this reader, being a professional man, has accepted the term "act of God", which is a legal term used to describe "those events which are outside of control of humans and for which no one can be held responsible and which cannot be prevented" - one of which is an earthquake.

Since God has nothing to do with the advent of earthquakes - or fires, floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis for that matter - I rather prefer the legal term "force majeure", which defines "an event that is a result of the elements of nature, as opposed to one caused by human behaviour".

Actually George, I can not believe you just said that about god? Have you not read the Bible, what god is it you follow? It must be a pretty weak one, the God I used to believe in controlled everything, and that is what I was taught.


So after the latest Christchurch upheaval, I thank God that in a city of nearly 400,000 people, in which an earthquake struck at its busiest time of the day, the death toll is likely to be only about 200 and many square kilometres of the city are still standing and largely unaffected.

Compare that with the Lisbon (population 250,000) earthquake of 1755, in which 100,000 citizens died and six magnificent cathedrals were reduced to rubble, and the Kobe quake of 1995 in which 6700 people perished, and we surely have cause to be grateful. And to whom can we express gratitude, save to the creator and sustainer of the universe?

I am not sure of the point here? Lisbon was before building specs improved, as was Kobe to a point, you fail to mention that Kobe and surrounding area had a population of over 1.5 million. Why Lisbon's Pop, but not Kobe? Because it did not favour your case. You forgot to Mention Haiti, same reason I guess. But to answer you question, we have improved building standards to thanks.

That is not to diminish in the slightest the enormity of the loss of life and property and land damage wreaked on our second-largest city. Every single life lost is irreplaceable and priceless, and those who are left - families, friends, colleagues, neighbours - suffer the worst trauma known to mankind.

For myself, even after reading the millions of words in the newspapers and watching hours of outstanding reports on television, I am still unable to grasp the magnitude of this human calamity. Nor can I find the words to describe what I think and how I feel about it.

If you are having trouble with Christchruch, with a death toll of about 1 3rd New Zealand's yearly Road Toll, Japan must be really mucking with your head. Stop blowing it out of proportion, you are being condescending.

Nor can my cousin, who lives within a few kilometres of the destruction but whose home escaped (for the second time) all but a few breakages, and who is providing accommodation and transport for less fortunate folk. I asked her how she was and all she could say was that she found it impossible to comprehend. I know that the disaster cast a pall over our holiday, a vague feeling of disquiet (I'm not into guilt) (Your a Christian, of course your into guilt) at living and dining and lazing in luxury; every time I go to the toilet or have a hot shower or sit down to a home-cooked meal, I am aware of those who are living without those basic necessities.

A large percentage of the worlds population are living without those basic necessities, are you aware of them too?

So my wife and I found comfort at a special prayer service on the Sunday after the quake at St Mary Star of the Sea church in Gisborne, led by parish priest Pa Yvan Sergy and his assistant, Father Matt McAuslin.

Prayer, completely pointless, except for giving you the false belief you are somehow helping the people you are praying for.

We said to God: "Today so many people are afraid. They wait in fear of the next tremor. They hear the cries of the injured amid the rubble. They roam the streets in shock at what they see. And they fill the dusty air with wails of grief, and the names of the missing dead. Comfort them, Lord, in this disaster. Be their rock when the earth refuses to stand still, and shelter them under your wings when homes no longer exist.

And god answered by killing 10 thousand plus in Japan, hope you feel your prayers were answered.

"Embrace in your arms those who died so suddenly this day. Console the hearts of those who mourn, and ease the pain on bodies on the brink of death.

"Pierce our hearts with compassion, we who watch from afar, as the poorest on this side of the earth find only misery. Move us to act generously this day ... and to pray unceasingly for those without hope.

"For though the mountains leave their place and the hills be tossed to the ground, your love shall never leave us, and your promise of peace will never be shaken. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

That's where God is in all this.

Why does god allow 5 week old baby girls and their mothers to be crushed? take wives from their husbands? children from their parents? how can god stand back and watch while thousands die in Japan?

Because there is no God, simple really.

Quick Update

Hi All
Been a while, I know I have flooded with photo's a bit, I have now created a new blog for that at "The Thinking Kiwis" Blog, for Empire Ave.

I will remove some of the photos and try and get back to being mean about religous things. Blasphemy and all.

I want to talk about my Catholic upbringing and how it was actually ok. No one try to molest me, should I be like Bill Maher and take I was not attractive enough? Anyways, that for an upcoming post.

I also want to talk about fighting atheists on You Tube. Also I have another sequal to my Social Media series, as well as a prequal, how cool hah?

Anyways, that's all.