On the "American" Family (Dis?)Association or AFA

Where does one start on a post about the American Family Association or AFA? It has done so much and represents so much that it is difficult to know where to begin. Anybody who knows about the ongoing warfare between the conservatives and liberals will recognize immediately the AFA as a militant and powerful grassroots group that is a major force for conservative and right-wing policy. They have waged wars against the "homosexual agenda", the "liberal agenda", abortion, evolution and the many, many other hot-button, deeply personal issues that Americans waste their time on instead of focusing on health care, education, and the trade deficit. Its no wonder they never even get to World Affairs or Iraq or energy policy.

Anyway, I will choose to start my criticism of them with its most recent (as of this writing) Action Alert regarding a Hindu Chaplain slated to open the US Senate sessions with a prayer. You can also read this original article they posted on their mouthpiece, an excerpt of which
is pasted below:

"WallBuilders president David Barton is questioning why the U.S. government is seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god. Barton points out that since Hindus worship multiple gods, the prayer will be completely outside the American paradigm, flying in the face of the American motto 'One Nation Under God.' 'In Hindu, you have not one God, but many, many, many, many, many gods,' the Christian historian explains. 'And certainly that was never in the minds of those who did the Constitution, did the Declaration [of Independence] when they talked about Creator -- that's not one that fits here because we don't know which creator we're talking about within the Hindu religion.' Barton says given the fact that Hindus are a tiny constituency of the American public, he questions the motivation of Senate leaders. 'This is not a religion that has produced great things in the world,' he observes. 'You look at India, you look
at Nepal -- there's persecution going in both of those countries that is gendered by the religious belief that is present there, and Hindu dominates in both of those countries' "

"Wallbuilders" is probably the perfect name for an organization headed by Dr. Barton. We have seen the work of his kin in Germany, have we not? Anyways, there are so many logical holes and so much disinformation in this small paragraph, that I can only compare it to a genetic mutation between Swiss cheese (for the holes) and Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (for the disinformation). But his is a gruesome Chimera indeed. Well, to begin dissecting this hideous monster, let us start by coldly categorizing its infectious slander into the following groups:

1. Dr. Barton's credentials "In Hindu"
2. The "value" of Hinduism to the world
3. Monotheism, Hinduism and Christianity
4. "The American Paradigm" acc. to Dr. Barton, and the minds of those "who did the Constitution"
5. Praying in the Senate

1) Dr. Barton's credentials "In Hindu": This is probably the easiest picking in this festering mess that is his commentary. Simply put:

Dr. Barton is an idiot when it comes to the Hindu Religion or Hinduism.

Yes, I want to take names and I want to point fingers. This guy has a Ph. D. but obviously
does not even know that the name of the religion is "Hinduism" not "Hindu". And to those who don't know the related language is "Hindi". So when you say "In Hindu", you are really showing your ignorance of either the English language or Hinduism and its an easy guess what ails Dr. Barton given his background as a Christian historian and not an expert on Hinduism.

2) The "value" of Hinduism to the world: Dr. Barton observes off-handedly that, "This is not a religion that has produced great things in the world". Notwithstanding that it is ludicrous to classify the contributions of ANY major group of people as useless, let us learn a little about Hinduism. It is the oldest currently practised religion, its followers descend from one of the oldest known civilizations in the world and now represent 1/6th of humanity, its followers invented most of mathematics as the western world knows it, its varied and extensive culture permeates the world through contributions in sculpture, music, philosophy, astronomy etc. In the modern day, Hindu-majority India continues to improve in leaps and bounds and hold its place in the world after being raped and sacked by the "Christian" nation of Britain for 3 centuries. Oh I think, the English know how much India/the Hindus have to offer because
they took a lot of it!

Not convinced? Two words (that everyone knows): Yoga and Gandhi.

I wonder how many of Dr. Barton's friends and family practise Yoga? Health and well-being for billions of people, that modern science is consciously turning to, seems a decent-sized contribution to me. And how many of Dr. Barton's "All-American" friends look to Martin Luther King as a great, non-violent, civil rights leader? It was a practising, religious son of Hinduism that tried to teach the world one of its greatest lessons, one that we have still not learnt: Non-Violence.

Nevertheless, let us assume for a second that Hindus and Hinduism did not contribute much to the world. Yes, India is a 3rd world nation today. Yes, it has problems as does Nepal. Is that reason to brush off the world's largest democracy? How bigoted must a person be to make statements such as the reprehensible Dr. Barton has? 'nuff said.

3) Monotheism, Hinduism and Christianity: So Dr. Barton's major gripe, from his comments, seems to be that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion, else it would have been okay. Now how many of us believe that he would be okay with a Muslim, monotheistic preacher? Raise your hands. Thought so. We all know the numbers of deities has no part in his reservations against Hinduism. But let's talk about this top contender for the World's Flimsiest Argument. Hinduism has many gods, yes. But all Hindus believe that these gods are various representations of the selfsame creator. Does this seem familiar? It should. Would Dr. Barton and his posse like it if we decreed that Christinaity is polytheistic because they refer to "The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost"? I think not. So if we took Dr. Barton's reasoning seriously, only Islamic and Jewish prayers should be allowed in the Senate. How's that for a Black Hole of reasoning? Let's move on to more fun stuff...

4) "The American Paradigm" acc. to Dr. Barton, and the minds of those "who did the Constitution": Boy, I am so full of puns on the "who did the Constitution" part of his quotes, that I have to reel myself back for lack for time and leave that to your imagination. Anyway, acc. to The Doubtable Doc Barton, what was against the American paradigm was that the polytheistic Hindu does not fit the bill of America being "One Nation Under God". Perhaps Dr. Barton does
not remember the rest of the phrase? It goes " With Liberty and Justice For All". Liberty for All, Dr. Barton. Sound familiar? The people "who did the Constitution" (I'm sorry I can't help myself) agree with this concept. Liberty including the Liberty to choose a religion. Which is what they signed in The Treaty of Tripoli. This treaty was ratified unanimously, and there is no record of any public outcry at the time. The President at the time being John Adams. Who basically "did the Constitution" or a major portion of it single-handedly. So much for the theory of a "Christian America". And where does the "dishonorable doc' get off talking about Hindus being a "tiny constituency"? So they are a tiny constituency. They don't have rights? Is he saying they are over-represented because a member of their community prayed for a few minutes at the Senate? Its only the first time since the birth of the Senate so I seriously doubt that's overkill in terms of representation. Geez.

Anyway, lets broaden the scope of this issue a little. Who defines what is American and un-American? Can any narrow-minded goofball usurp the word to push their own ideas without fear of reprisal? Shouldn't we have some kind of test that decides who is American? Turns out we do! And who better than the INS? Here are some of the questions they ask prospective citizens up for naturalization:

Q: Why did the Pilgrims come to America? A: For religious Freedom.

Q: Name 3 rights of freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. A: The right of freedom of speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and requesting change of government....

Q:Name the right guaranteed by the first amendment. A: Freedom of: speech, press, religion, peaceable assembly, and requesting change of the government...

Hmm, we all know who WON'T be getting naturalized if they had to take this test... The All-American Dr. Barton.

5) Praying in the Senate: You know the funny thing is: I am not a practising Hindu and I don't really believe in a god of any kind. So if it were up to me, all official prayer would be abolished from Government institutions. They would take out the "under god" part of the pledge, ten
commandments from the Supreme Court, the swearing-in ceremony, the full monty. People want to pray? Fine. Do it on your own time and your own dime. Don't use public property, government sanction and public funds for it. God knows (if he exists) that there are enough people willing to fund prayers the world over. But that's not Barton's view. He doesn't have a
problem with prayer. Just with non-Christian prayer. I'm sorry but I can't let that hypocrisy pass. Which is why I am coming out of a self-imposed blogging sabbatical to call that out.

And the other hypocritical things that the AFA does. Such as using arguments made by Flemming Rose, the editor of the Danish magazine that published the infamous Mohammed cartoon, to bolster their case against Islam. Really? So you have no problem with this guy who printed offensive cartoons that enraged an entire religion? Okay. But then don't come screaming about it when someone does that to Jesus.

And, you know, its not even like it is unprecedented for a non-Christian to make the inaugural prayer. In 1992, Wallace Mohammed became the first Muslim deliver a Senate invocation, so one would have thought radicals like Barton would have had time to get used to it. Guess not. Well, he and his bigot friends better get used to it now.

And finally, Ragerman’s Hypocrisy Meter©: This is Category 10, off-the-charts, hypocrisy. But surprisingly easily fixed. The only problem with the AFA, really, is its name. Change that and you take away all the hypocrisy from this otherwise quaint organization. The RH Meter therefore recommends that they change thier name from the "American Family Association" to "Virulent Christians Association of North America" so that they can be easily be associated with the "Right Wing, Christian Agenda" which is, obviously, to convert all humans to Christianity. And as with any such, megalomanic agenda, it means to do so irrespective of whether anybody actually practices any of the teachings of Christianity (such as Love thy neighbour, Forgive others thier tresspasses, Give to Ceasar that which is Ceasar's, the Rich-man-camel-eye-of-needle parable, Judge not that ye be not judged, and oh yeah: Hypocrite, take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye).

My apologies, once again, to true practising Christians that are wise enough to not be carried away by pseudo-political groups but share thier faith through love and example rather than rhetoric and hypocrisy. As always, I try to ensure that no non-hypocrites are harmed in the making of any of my blog entries.

Peace.

PS: Follow up on my post. The Senate proceedings were interrupted today (07/12/07) by 3 loud hecklers shouting Christian slogans during Mr. Rajan Zed's invocation. Three arrests were made but they made thier point, didn't they?