Charles Barkley an Atheist?

Last night the San Antonio Spurs hosted the Denver Nuggets on their home court in the creatively named AT&T Center. Tim Duncan's mighty Spurs utterly and satisfyingly destroyed the Nuggets in a preview of the playoff potential of the winninest franchise in all major league sports.

More relevantly, was a comment by the announcer "Sir" Charles Barkley. During a clip of two players (in another game that night) fighting an announcer stated that one of the combatants was supposed to be a "good Christian boy."

Barkley then stated that didn't matter because Christianity and religion have killed more people than all the diseases in the history of the world.

Hyperbole perhaps, but nevertheless containing the essential truth that Christian's are not historically any less violent than their heathen brothers and sisters.

The shocking thing is that thus far there has been no right-wing uproar from the likes of Bill O'Reilly. Hopefully our religious leaders will not call for Sir Charles' execution (a la Hugo Chavez) in retribution for his blasphemy.

Christian Socialism

Christian socialism has long been a topic of interest to me. I am very active in my church and diocese and was batised as an adult. Nevertheless, my class conciousness and understanding of historical forces that comes with that often come in conflict with the doctrines of organized religion, specifically the Christian church.

I was contacted today by a comrade in Oregon who runs the blog Willamette Reds. A series of posts on Christian socialism caught my eye, an excerpt of which follows:

There exists among the oppressed the task of making God exist. By this I mean that we share a faithfulness to the Gospels and to Tradition as well as a consciousness and means to use the Gospels and tradition in order to provoke and struggle for justice. In that struggle the matter of God is revealed as both ever-present and distant, as intimate as Father and Comrade and as distant Unknowable Other.

The only certain path to Theosis, individually or socially, is through this struggle. Other paths lead there, but none are as certain as the path of the loving struggle for justice. The matter of God is both Beginning and End, both Path and Destination. Constructing that path from a capitalist society forward is the task of making God exist.

More...

Obviously this is not Marxist scientific socialism, but compelling nonetheless. I have to say "Amen brother! Throw the money changers out of the temple!"

I highly recommend visiting the Willamette Reds blog.

Onward, Christian soldiers!

I just found this old IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) song, made in response to World War I. I'm sure you will all understand why its irony is poetic even 100 years later (Note: I am a Christian, just not one who justifies murder with the Cross):

Christians at War (John F. Kendrick - 1916)

Onward, Christian soldiers! Duty's way is plain;
Slay your [Christian] neighbors, or by them be slain,
Pulpiteers are spouting effervescent swill,
God above is calling you to rob and rape and kill,
All your acts are sanctified by the Lamb on high;
If you love the Holy Ghost, go murder, pray and die.

Onward, Christian soldiers! Rip and tear and smite!
Let the gentle Jesus bless your dynamite.
Splinter skulls with shrapnel, fertilize the sod;
Folks who do not speak your tongue deserve the curse of God.
Smash the doors of every home, pretty maidens seize;
Use your might and sacred right to treat them as you please.

Onward, Christian soldiers! Eat and drink your fill;
Rob with bloody fingers, Christ okays the bill,
Steal the farmers' savings, take their grain and meat;
Even though the children starve, the Savior's bums must eat,
Burn the peasants' cottages, orphans leave bereft;
In Jehovah's holy name, wreak ruin right and left.

Onward, Christian soldiers! Drench the land with gore;
Mercy is a weakness all the gods abhor.
Bayonet the babies, jab the mothers, too;
Hoist the cross of Calvary to hallow all you do.
File your bullets' noses flat, poison every well;
God decrees your enemies must all go plumb to hell.

Onward, Christian soldiers! Blight all that you meet;
Trample human freedom under pious feet.
Praise the Lord whose dollar sign dupes his favored race!
Make the foreign trash respect your bullion brand of grace.
Trust in mock salvation, serve as tyrant's tools;
History will say of you: "That pack of Goddamn fools."