Friends of God

“Friends of God” is the name of an HBO documentary about Evangelical Christianity in America. I knew if I watched it, that the show was going to upset me, I just didn’t realize by how much.

They had a sequence showing Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis pitching his garbage to a meeting room full of preschoolers. Ham used ever dirty pitch trick you could imagine from half truths to innuendo to outright lying. If that wasn’t infuriating enough, then the HBO interviewer talked to the kids asking them about their beliefs. What a demonstration of a well brain washed group.

Worse were the conversations with slightly older, and I would assume veterans of Ham’s presentation, seeing how well the message has stuck, and how nailed shut the minds have become. I loved the one kid who explained that people accept evolution because they haven’t been given all the evidence (!?) and how the universities are biased in favor of evolution! How about biased in favor of the evidence?

Allow me to provide an example of the crap spewed by one of Ham's presenters. The question being addressed was why dinosaurs weren't mentioned in the bible which, if they had been contemporary with ancient man, they should have been. To explain this omission the presenter asked the children rhetorically if "automobile" was in the bible or "computer?" Of course not he answered, because these are what he called "new words" just like dinosaur was a "new word." Of course he neglected to mention that the only reason dinosaur is a "new word" is folks back then didn't need a word to describe what they had no knowledge of. If there had been dinosaurs wandering around, they would have had a word to describe them, just like they had words to describe lions and tigers and bears. It would not have been the precise word "dinosaur," but it would have been some word. Perhaps "bigthingthatknocksdownhouses" or something like that.

And we let people who bring their own kids to be brainwashed vote? No wonder this goddamn country is going to the dogs. The show got me so furious I started yelling at my wife who disagrees with my position that all religions are cults.

Bottom line, people like this are dangerous. They’re not funny and amusing but harmless yokels; they are dangerous and need to be fought, with words if sufficient, and with bullets if necessary.

Over the last few months I had sort of mellowed in my attitude toward religion. Well that show ended that. Now I’m all stirred up all over again.