Domestic Terrorist Threats! Time to call out the National Guard and raid the churches in pre-emptive attacks!

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The Defenders (2009)

Cadged from Shakesville: Excellent satire about the hypocrites who believe that they are the arbiters of marital propriety

Anti-terror law requires God be acknowledged

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

Under state law, God is Kentucky's first line of defense against terrorism.

The 2006 law organizing the state Office of Homeland Security lists its initial duty as "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

Specifically, Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God's benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."

State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern Baptist minister, tucked the God provision into Homeland Security legislation as a floor amendment that lawmakers overwhelmingly approved two years ago.

As amended, Homeland Security's religious duties now come before all else, including its distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants and its analysis of possible threats.

The time and energy spent crediting God are appropriate, said Riner, D-Louisville, in an interview this week.

"This is recognition that government alone cannot guarantee the perfect safety of the people of Kentucky," Riner said. "Government itself, apart from God, cannot close the security gap. The job is too big for government."

Nonetheless, it is government that operates the Office of Homeland Security in Frankfort, with a budget this year of about $28 million, mostly federal funds. And some administrations are more religious than others.

Under previous Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a lay Baptist preacher, Homeland Security interpreted the law at face value, prominently crediting God in its annual reports to state leaders and posting the required plaque.

Under Gov. Steve Beshear, officials this week said they didn't know about the plaque until the Herald-Leader called to ask whether it's still there. (They checked; it is.) The 2008 Homeland Security report, issued a month ago, did not credit God, but it did complain about a decline in federal funding from Washington.

Thomas Preston, Beshear's Homeland Security chief, said he isn't interested in stepping into a religious debate, and he hasn't given this part of his duties much thought.

"I will not try to supplant almighty God," Preston said. "All I do is try to obey the dictates of the Kentucky General Assembly. I really don't know what their motivation was for this. They obviously felt strongly about it."

There is no reference to God in Homeland Security's current mission statement or on its Web site, which displeases Riner.

"We certainly expect it to be there, of course," Riner said.

But state Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, said Homeland Security should worry about public safety threats instead of preaching religious homilies.

"It's very sad to me that we do this sort of thing," said Stein, a frequent critic of efforts to mix religion and government. "It takes away from the seriousness of the public discussion over security, and it clearly hurts the credibility of this office if it's supposed to be depending on God, first and foremost."

Hate-filled christ-worshippers just being themselves...

Every time I get into a discussion on the topic of religious extremism - after acknowledging that my discussion partner naturally has some good points regarding fascist Muslims - I try to point out that just about all religions taken to their logical, legalistic, fundamentalist extremes are dangerous as hell (no pun intended). Yes, radical Islam is a threat to peace, harmony, liberty, true democracy, and co-existence on the only planet we have, but so is extremist Christianity. These fascists actually believe that they are so much better than us simply for their worship of a deity purported (by their preferred religious tome) to be the true son of god (that god being Yahweh, an ancient pre-judeo tribal god whose name is sometimes mispronounced Jehovah). So much better, in fact, that among themselves, those of us who don't subscribe to their superstitions are often referred to as "the unsaved".

In a cobbled-together myth known as "The Rapture", taken from bits and pieces of many books in their bible but mainly from a mushroom trip called Revelations, it is said that the "saved" will rise to Heaven on the final day of judgment while the rest of us have to tough it out here on Earth. Sweet, huh? This from their "loving" god. Many of these special souls also believe that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, a main character in this absurdity. So many, in fact, that Newsweek actually devoted a main article in their Belief Watch section to this insanity.

Anyway, here's some of 'em playing one of their favorite games, "Hate Those Who Aren't Just Like Me".