When fundamentalists take to calling out other fundamentalists ...

It was thanks to loon correspondents that the pond was reminded that we've been here before, and not that long ago, though long enough to forget.

Sadly the pond had completely forgotten about the John Howard inspired fridge magnet (head of the pics above), since it never actually made it to the fridge, and instead landed in the dust bin of history.

Or at least landed in the pond's dust bin, which is regularly put out in the shit carter's lane at the back of the house ...

It reminded the pond of that meme still doing the Facebook rounds:

Now there's no doubt terrible things have happened, and will happen in the future, but the strange thing is, voting for the Liberal party didn't, doesn't and won't stop terrible things happening. You only need two words for empirical proof: Tony Abbott.

There were some optimistic punters that voted for the NSW Liberals on the basis that it would stop the terrible corruption in NSW, which had reduced state Labor to the most nauseating spectacle imaginable, from council to state level - next thing you know ten Liberal state MPs have been sidelined by the inquiry into corruption in political party funding, and the tentacles stretch up to the top of the Federal Liberals.

Will either side move effectively to stop the sort of corruption engendered by people helping out with the costs of mounting an election - unions or big business - or paying to get privileged access to the decision makers ostensibly charged with the obligation to act in the best interests of all?

Did you come down in the last shower, or was it the shower before that?

It's a suitable subject for a Sunday meditation. Politics, terror, the whole damn thing.

The power of faith to overwhelm the evidence to hand, and the corrupting role that money plays in both politics and religion. And perhaps worst of all, the contending towers of fundamentalist babel, each shrieking voice contending that they alone have an exclusive franchise on the truth, and getting out and about shouting it at anyone within ear-shot, particularly if they can be tithed.

These aren't new thoughts. The pond stumbled on this golden oldie recently:

Christ took a view of the money lenders, but these days the Catholic church has a tidy sum tucked away in billion plus assets, and the Anglicans have always had an eye for real estate (not such a good one for the stock market, but hey, everyone has to play the capitalist game. Let's not have loose talk of giving it all away and following Christ). And the evangelicals - which ensnare the likes of Scott "speaking in tongues" Morrison - are particularly adept at combing power, tithed money and power. No doubt Christ is rolling in his grave ...

Remember?

Strength?  Is that Kraft durch Freude? The salutes look familiar ...

But wait, let's get to the point. What set all this brooding in motion?

Well it's not just the pollies doing their bit for terror.

The local angry Sydney Anglicans helping out too, soothing troubled waters, building bridges, promoting harmony, pouring oil on bridges over troubled waters ...

It is time to face the truth that Islam itself is in part to blame, and to help our fellow Australians, especially those from Islamic background, to understand that Islam is false. This can only come from an open and free explanation of the truth – something not allowed in Muslim countries – but available to us. 
Jesus, the prophet whom Muslims claim to accept, said “if you abide in my word… you will know the truth, and truth will set you free” (John 8:31f). (The Truth Behind ISIL)

Ya ya, ya dirty rats, Islam's wrong.

Yes, the Jensenists are at it again, helpfully explaining how the Islamics are fucked for believing in a particular brand of tooth fairy, when their own brand of tooth fairy is totally right on.

What's more, the angry Sydney Anglican's tooth fairy is a very kindly one, and always leaves a couple of dollars under the tooth fairy glass:

We must not try to conform Islam to Christian ideals of religion. Jesus and Mohammed were very different in their life as well as in their teaching. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey to be executed, a week later, for our sins. Mohammed arrived at Mecca in front of an army of 10,000 soldiers to take the city by force. In countries where Christianity has dominated, mosques can be built, the Qur’an can be read and studied and preached in the streets, and citizens can change religion without fear of persecution, let alone execution. None of these corresponding freedoms are available for Christians in countries where Islam holds sway.

Breathtaking stuff.

Never mind the Crusades:

And never mind the British Empire, which Anglicanism coat-tailed on to spread around the world like a virus. Or a plague:

Yep, at its peak, the British empire controlled some 10.2 million square miles of the world's surface and shipped pesky angry Anglicanism to all points, and in Sydney gays and complimentary women are still rueing the results (as for Africa, don't get the pond started ...)

Did the British accomplish all this by peaceful Christian means, as a way of pointing out the uselessness of violence to Islamics? In your dreams ...

And where did the British perpetrate the most mayhem?

Why the middle east.

Which rather makes this lecture on Anglo-centrism by the Jensenists rather poignant:

The problems of South West Asia are indicated whenever we call it the Middle-East. For it is only ‘East’ of Europe and only ‘Middle’ when European Empires spread to the ‘Far East’ of China. The European carving up of the ‘Middle-East’ at the end of WWI lies as the background to the present conflicts.


European? Oh they'd dodge anything, these wretched Anglicans.

The pond, in a punishment only Satan could devise, had to suffer through all sorts of British history during its university years, and the Balfour declaration was just one instance of middle eastern infamy perpetrated by the British. And let's not forget that the troubles in Iraq can be directly attributed to the Kingdom of Iraq founded under British administration in August 1921 ...

The pond could spend all day on this - let's just skip over Gertrude of Arabia and the drawing up of Irq's  boundaries -   and let's just cut it short so we can note that, all the while, the meddlesome Anglican church was there, preaching and praying over the unfortunate victims of empire ...

Sure there were Europeans, but most of them were the pissed off Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese who saw their empires knocked over by the British, and the envious French and Germans who tried desperately to get a slice of the pie. But credit where credit is due, and the British can claim the Opium Wars as their very own far eastern adventure ...

So how's the empire holding up these days?

By golly, these Facebook memes are shocking.

It's typical that the Jensenists would berate the Europeans rather than 'fess up to the British role in all the miserable hotspots around the world - anyone for Pakistan? - while attempting the standard conflation and confusion when it comes to the role of religion in world affairs:

Unfortunately it is not true that “No religion condones the killing of innocents.” History is replete with religious sacrifice of innocents and religious wars have all too often ignored the plight of the innocents. (Atheists need not feel smug about this as their guilt, especially in the twentieth century, is as great, if not greater. And none of us can feel smug while tens of thousands of innocents are being aborted annually.)

Indeed. No one can feel smug, though it has to be said that a remarkable number of Christians fellow travelled with Hitler, Franco and Mussolini, while the great pity of the Communist dictators is that they worked out the personality cult nature of religion, and imitated its mind washing techniques (put Mao's little red book up against the Catholic church's catechism and see how you go).

As for abortions? Well that's the business of women, although complimentary women no doubt suffer more at the hands of the smug patriarchy ... especially the ones who like to conflate abortion with the Holocaust ...

But the Jensenists do get a few things right, no doubt on the principle that it takes a crazed fundamentalist to recognise a crazed fundamentalist ... and the dangers thereof ...

The trouble of course is that in these troubled times, anxious secularists are inclined to look only at the Islamic fundamentalists, yet in the United States, and in Sydney, there are other dangerous fundamentalisms that never rest. And they get government money and manage to infiltrate their way into the school system as chaplains and then are terribly sorry when their gay-hating biblezines are discovered (Uproar at 'Biblezine' sex tips for kids).

Yea, verily, it is a monster who will rise again after its head has been dealt a mortal blow (Revelation 13), and women and gays in particular will be discriminated against ...

Never mind, there's no point despairing. As a Jensenist might have put it:

It is time to face the truth that fundamentalism Anglicanism itself is in part to blame, and to help our fellow Australians, especially those from fundamentalist Anglican background, to understand that fundamentalist Anglicanism is false. This can only come from an open and free explanation of the truth – something not allowed by those speaking from angry Sydney Anglican pulpits  – but available to us....

And there you have it in a nutshell. The subjective, the personal and the bigoted, insisting, in a righteous way, that only they have the truth and the light ...

No wonder the world is in a mess of conflicting fundamentalisms, each contending that they're in possession of the truth, and that everything else, everybody else, is false ...

It sometimes boggles the pond's mind thinking of politicians sitting down to get their serve of pie in the sweet bye and bye, and then racing out of the church to conduct their jihads and crusades in the belief that they are the enlightened ones. It does much to explain who Scott "tongues" Morrison could consign innocents to outrageous living conditions ... (Manus Island whistleblower describes 'filthy' conditions inside detention centre).

Years later, all that's left are the excuses and the memories etched by cartoonists ...

Why that's as familiar as a terrorist fridge magnet ...