Howie Luvzus

Steve asked some great questions in his reply to my last post that I want to address.

What is the difference between his ‘hate’ and yours?

Painting a broad swath of people with a broad brush stroke, based on what news channel they watch, is just as bigoted as anything that news channel may put out.

I could be wrong here, but here’s my justification.
1. A lot of prophets including Jesus engaged in name-calling, but they restricted it to the hypocrites and folks who were self-righteous. I don’t think I’m better than anyone and I’m open to criticism. I have never been described as self-righteous. Those who know me can testify to that. Pointing out errors within the “Christian” community is not hate.
2. Christians who cannot see how offensive and hate-filled the Fox News folks are are idiots. Sorry. That’s just how it is. Folks who call themselves Christians and are racists are idiots too since they don’t see how racism is inconsistent with the message of Jesus.
3. Idiots aren’t necessarily bad people. I was raised in a very racist context. When I was a kid, I told jokes about persons from various ethnic backgrounds and didn’t think anything of it. However, as I grew up and became more reflective about the message of Jesus, I realized that what I had done was sinful and I needed to change. I realized that I was a sinner and an idiot.
4. I think Christians who watch Fox News and are not offended by the hatred and bad behavior of the folks on the air are idiots. God still loves them and I do my best to love them too, but they’re still idiots.
5. When folks on the other stations start telling people to “Shut up!” and cut their microphones off, then I’ll find them offensive too. Why can’t Christians see this is wrong?
6. When CBS or NBC or any other “news” station refers to Michelle Obama a “baby momma,” I’ll find that offensive too. Why can’t Christians see this as racist?
7. Would real networks joke about a terrorist fist jab? Is this really Fair and Balanced? If you think it is, then you’re an idiot.
8. I could go on, but these ought to be enough. If it’s not, you might be an idiot too. I’m not saying that you’re a threat to America that needs to be stopped (But I probably should.) and I would never use violent terms such as “war against” or other terms that might be used to justify violence against idiots.

Bigoted moron and Terrebonne Parish School Board member, Rickie Pitre is leading a charge to make English the only spoken language at graduation ceremonies. Seems that Rickie took offense to Cindy Vo’s comments at Ellender High School’s Graduation. Cindy, the American-born daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, who was the valedictorian had the nerve to say, “Co len minh khong bang ai, co suon khong ai bang minh.” She then explained that the expression, roughly translated, was a command to always be your own person.

Rickie and the School Board are pissed! How dare that girl use anything but English in her speech! Come on cher!

A couple of things.
1. Hey Rickie–Why not change the name of your parish? Terrebonne means “good earth” in FRENCH! God knows we should hate the French! Remember “Freedom Fries”?

2. Hey Rickie–Didn’t your ancestors get flack over their use of French? Can’t you see how that might be a bad thing?

Rickie and his bigoted buddies can be contacted here.

Why didn’t anyone at the Texas Republican State Convention order the removal of this racist campaign button from the convention? Weren’t there any Christians there to speak out against this obviously racist button? I’m troubled that this was dealt with after the convention. Obviously we need to get more Christians involved in Republican politics in Texas so that we can make a difference there!

“The Republican Party of Texas will donate proceeds from a vendor who sold a racist campaign button at the state convention last weekend to Midwestern flood victims, a party spokesman said Wednesday.

A vendor called Republicanmarket.com sold a button that said “If Obama is president … will we still call it The White House?” The button was sold in a pavilion adjoining the convention hall in Houston.”

I’m personally sending a complaint letter to Binkley Toys for contracting to produce the SockObama monkey. It’s my Christian duty. I’m beginning to think Republicans might be racists.

Thank God there’s Rush Limbaugh. Oh wait…

Maybe we ought to follow Schroeder’s advice and send a few emails.

Are all Americans this stupid or is it just West Virginia?

If Americans can be this stupid…we deserve what we get.

Warning…this is a rant. I’m really ticked so there might be a few offensive phrases. See the picture on this post? It’s Jesus with the woman at the well. She was a Samaritan woman. Jews hated Samaritans. Jesus didn’t. He saw her as a human being. God’s kind of like that. You know, loving, not a racist, etc.

I’m flippin’ sick and tired of so called Christians making negative comments about “those Mexicans.” Five words: shut up you flippin’ moron! Read your Bible. Think a bit. Would Jesus be pissed about them coming here to “our” country? I don’t think so. In fact I know he wouldn’t. He’d tell you alleged Christians that you must, Jeez I know this will be a shock, love your neighbor. OK, they’re taking our jobs and costing us lots of money for providing their children with healthcare and education (Why is it that I usually hear this from old retired farts who don’t work anyway?) Let’s just pretend that these “Mexicans” are costing us lots of money and are our enemies.

Guess what? Take a look at your dusty old Bible again! Jesus says we’re supposed to love our enemies. Holy Crap! What to do? Why don’t you shut the heck up, think for a freakin’ minute, turn off Fox News and read the Gospels. Out loud. It’s really not that complex. Do you honestly believe that Jesus would be pissed about providing heathcare for children? We’re one of the richest countries in the world. If we really are a Christian nation (which we’re not) we should be glad to help those in need and not just those who have oil under them and are in need.

Why can’t you ignorant racist bigots realize that your ancestors were probably immigrants too? Of course that really shouldn’t matter if you’re a Christian because you’re supposed to LOVE them anyway. They are children of God, whether you like it or not. Their children are human-freaking-beings created in the image of God! Love them too!

In case you forgot. The Christian’s primary citizenry is the KINGDOM OF GOD not the United States. I know that makes me sound unpatriotic, but if I’ve got to chose someone or something to be obedient to it’s going to be Jesus. Not George Bush, that Hussein Obama guy you like to trash and certainly not that foul mouthed old fart that called his wife the “c” word. If following Jesus hurts the American economy then so be it. If it means I might have to, God forbid, make sacrifices like spending more money on others and less on myself I’ll gladly do it. Jesus’ sacrifice makes anything I do seem a bit lame anyway.

Sorry to break the news to you. If you’re going to follow Jesus, you’re going to have to love those “Mexicans” just like he does. If you’d like the scripture references email me at howie (dot) luvzus (at) gmail (dot) com. I didn’t provide them here because I didn’t want to waste your time and they should be a given anyway.

I wrote this because I love those “Mexicans” and hate to hear you trash them. They’re my brothers and sisters. I also wrote this because I love you too and it pains me to see you miss out on the opportunity to demonstrate God’s love to someone in need.

Now shut up and follow Jesus, you maroons!

From Ethics Daily via Bruce Prescott:

The editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s in-house publication, “The Pathway,” has strongly defended the controversial Confederate battle flag and aggressively attacked those who challenge it.
In his book Embattled Banner: A Reasonable Defense of the Confederate Battle Flag, Don Hinkle called himself “an unReconstructed Confederate” and dismissed critics of the flag as “a small group of malcontents and bigots.”

MBC interim Executive Director David Tolliver, recently condemned the flag in a column in The Pathway because it “represents hate” and “depicts deep-rooted racial bigotry and hatred.” As a result, Tolliver argued that Christians should not fly the flag. Meanwhile, a Web site run by his organization is promoting Hinkle’s decade-old book defending that very symbol.

Hinkle argued in his book that the flag is actually a Christian symbol because it features St. Andrew’s Cross and because the Confederate Constitution acknowledged God while the U.S. Constitution does not. His book even included a photo of the flag flying next to the Christian flag.

Rather than seeing the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of hate, Hinkle asserted that it is the “anti-flag minority” who are trying to “bully” the South through “character assassination.” He also accused critics of using “petty politics based on distortion and bigotry.”

Hinkle claimed that many of critics of the Confederate flag are actually also opposed to the American flag. He suggested that this movement would result in “feeding the Constitution to a shredder” and remove American historical artifacts “like what the Communists did to rewrite Russian history after the fall of the Czar.”

Hinkle even compared the NAACP to the KKK and asserted that it was “closer to becoming just another hate group.” He claimed the NAACP’s opposition to the Confederate flag was an attempt to “whip blacks into an emotional tizzy.”

He argued that since many African-Americans fought for the Confederacy, “there is no reason why blacks shouldn’t view the Confederate battle flag with as much pride as anyone if they so choose.” He claimed that the slaves who fought for the Confederacy did so because most slave owners “took good care of them.” He insisted that critics of slavery “wrongfully apply today’s moral to a world that was vastly different.”

“Many white Southerners were trying to figure out a way to end the ‘peculiar institution’ when the intolerant abolitionists went nuts over the issue,” Hinkle wrote.

A critic of Poole’s work noted that that “Hinkle insists on condemning Lincoln to hellfire.” Hinkle gleefully suggested that Lincoln is in Hell, which he sees as justified punishment for a man that waged war against the South.

I’m currently reviewing a manuscript for a publisher. It’s a text about German Baptists (something I know quite a bit about!). One stat that just jumped out at me is from a 1916 census of religious bodies in America. 132 of the 200 denominations in the US reported that part or all of their congregations used a language other than English. The Baptists had over 20 foreign-speaking conferences, Methodists 22, Roman Catholics 42.

That’s less than 100 years ago!

Check it out here.

HT: Man! I forgot.

I’ll have to admit, after the exchange between some racist knuckleheads from Texas on the second anniversary of Katrina, I was ashamed to be a Texan. But Bruce Prescott reminded me today about a fellow Baptist Texan that is concerned with racial issues (in a good way). His organization, Friends of Justice, is a criminal justice reform organization formed in response to the infamous Tulia drug sting of 1999, in which over half of Tulia’s black males were arrested, about 15% of the town’s black population.

Recently his organization that began as an alliance of Baptist ministers, farmers, school teachers, meat packing workers, fork lift drivers, defendants and their family members also turned their attention to the Jena 6. They’ve done a heck of a job organizing and getting the word out about the Jena 6.

Keep up the good work my brothers and sisters from Texas!

From Ethics Daily:

An American Baptist pastor in Arlington, Texas, is credited with bringing international attention to a civil-rights case in a small Louisiana town known worldwide as the Jena 6.

Thousands of activists were expected to descend on the rural community of 3,000 people–about 350 of whom are black–this Thursday to protest the racially charged sentencing of a black teenager convicted of a felony in the beating of a white student.

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The costs associated with living in a post-K New Orleans are hard to calculate. Sure there are the increases in property taxes, insurance, and utilities. Although they are terribly unfair, they are to be expected. The unexpected costs can also get to you. See my friend Michael’s latest shock.

But probably the biggest costs are ones that are not easily measured in dollars and cents. For instance, prior to Katrina, I only had one job interview that didn’t work out. Having lost my job, spent countless hours in Craigslist, and been to many unsuccessful interviews has done a lot to damage my ego. Being separated from my family for four months so I could bring home some bacon was also terribly damaging in a variety of ways I’m still trying to understand.

Along the way, I’ve picked up way too many pounds, type-two diabetes, a more “colorful” language, and thousands of dollars on my VISA account. I’ve lost some friends, a bit of my faith, and according to one of my colleagues—the hope I used to have.

As soon as my son graduates from High School I might bolt for greener pastures. The latest cost is also not really related to money. Well, it’s sort of related….

My daughter attends Lusher Middle School. To say we’ve had problems with buses this year is an understatement. We arranged for a paid bus to take my daughter to school and drop her off in the afternoons. It was only about $400, but it bothered me because there are many parents on the Westbank that can’t afford to pay for a bus. The alternative? Send their kids to crappy schools. You see, there’s a stereotype out there that all Westbankers are white and rich. It’s far from true, but it makes some people happy to write of whole groups of people that way. Easier to hate.

Now I’ve got a justice issue. I feel guilty because some of my neighbors won’t be able to afford to send their kids to a “good” school. Then great news! We get free buses! Of course the Principal of Lusher did not notify the parents of this great gift because “buses have not been a part of the culture here.” Hmmm. Sorry we’ve imposed upon your “culture” by importing kids from other areas of the city. Isn’t that one of the purposes of charter schools to allow students better access to better schools? Guess not if they’re from the wrong neighborhood. Further, Riedlinger defended not telling parents about the buses by stating, “As parents express interest, we give them information.” I wonder what other helpful information we should ask about? Are there other services?

Why the heck wouldn’t they want to tell parents about services? Why should we have to ask? Hmmm….Looks like they might be hiding something? Great way to run a school! The don’t ask, don’t get information rule is a heck of a management style. Especially if you want to show how much you care for your students!

Then we hear that the free buses have been cancelled again! Only, Lusher administration knew about this for quite some time. If we had known about this, we wouldn’t have cancelled our contract with the paid bus service and lost over a $100!

Fortunately, we have a new contract with a bus service. It’ll cost us another several hundred dollars or so, but we can afford it. Now I’m feeling guilty again. Wish the Lusher folks would feel guilty too.

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