[From the "I Have Too Much 'Time, Inc.' On My Hands, So This Must Be _Official_ News" Web site.] I couldn't help but notice that the supposed pillars of the religious community, as well as their oh-so-decent-and-righteous followers, tell such widespread, whoppingly big lies about the motivations behind their public actions, as well as about their future intentions, that the true source of corruption in the religious community must undoubtedly come from "higher up" in the chain of commandments. For example, those who are concerned about their children accessing obscene and satanic material on the InterNet might be expected to supervise their children, as well as acquiring the InterNet tools that are available for limiting their children's access to things which the parents find objectionable. You would also expect them to seek out information on sites that met standards that they found acceptable for their children to access. In short, if their interests truly lay in censoring the information their children access, you think they would do exactly that--control and censor their children's activities on, and access to, the InterNet. I couldn't help but notice that, instead, they want to control the activities and access of everyone who uses the InterNet. I find it hard to believe that these people can claim to have the intellect to form valid beliefs about religious and moral issues, yet not be intelligent enough to understand the options available to them. This leads me to suspect that they are, in reality, two-faced liars, particularly since impartial observers can predict the oppressive and censorous results which are usually the exact opposite of what they claim to be their intentions. Patient: "Doctor, it hurts when I do _this_." Doctor: "Then don't _do_ that." If those calling for control and censorship are truly worried about their children, you would expect then to teach their children not to "do that," and to not make available to them things which will allow them to "do that" if they have raised their children to be disobedient and/or irresponsible. Instead, they seem to be taking the moral "high ground," as if under the impression that they are moral "doctors" charged with diagnosing others as having diseased morals, even if the others don't hurt when they "do that." Problem: Little Johnny wants to visit Paul Bradley's "Jesus Loves the Little Children From Behind" web site. Solution: Don't let him do that. Problem: Little Johnny might visit the Duncan Frissel "Pictures of Jesus" site and find pictures of Jesus buggering the little children. Solution: Don't let Little Johnny access sites that you don't know to be acceptable according to your standards. Now, was the foregoing too hard for those reading this to understand? If not, then what could be the reason for those promoting contol and censoring of other people for suggesting the following option... Problem: Little Johnny might access something on the InterNet which does not meet standards that his parent's find acceptable. Solution: Require everyone on the InterNet to only engage in activities which meet the standards of Little Johnny's parents, starting by putting the onus on everyone on the InterNet to "voluntarily" rate their website according to the standards of Little Johnny's parents. Question:"When was the last time a doctor you didn't know made a 'house call' to check on your health, forced his way in when you objected, and gave you a prostrate exam against your wishes?" Answer:"When the government declared that prostrate cancer was a threat to 'national security' and that early detection would 'protect the children' from child molesters and drug dealers." Since spirituality is not inherently related to fascism, it seemed to me that the moral fascism being promoted by members of the Christian community must be the result, not of spiritual values, but rather, the result of the leader of the Christian religion being a moral fascist. It was also obvious that, given the vast amount of lies being told by Christians about their beliefs, motivations, and intentions, that Christianity must be founded on lies and disinformation. Since I do not like to speak ill of someone without taking pains to understand them from the standpoint of their own knowledge and beliefs, I decided that I should have a talk with Jesus Christ, the founder and espoused leader of the Christian religion, and give him a chance to respond to my view of himself and those who follow his example. Mr. Christ was kind enough to let me take notes during our long conversation, so I am providing a transcript of the highlites of the issues we discussed: ----------------------- TruthMonger: "Mr. Christ..." Jesus Christ: "Please, call me Jesus." TruthMonger: "OK. Jesus, what the fuck is going on with all these people claiming that they have the right to force everyone on the face of the earth to live only within the boundaries of moral judgements approved of by you?" Jesus Christ: "Well, TruthMonger, you have to understand that I am the _only_ Way, the _only_ Truth, and the _only_ Light. Accordingly, it is reasonable for my followers come to the conclusion that whatever I approve of is good and that everything else is bad." TruthMonger: "As in, 'Everything Not Permitted, Is Forbidden!'?" Jesus Christ: "Exactly. By the way, is that from '1984' or from 'Animal Farm'?" TruthMonger: "Don't try to change the subject. Jesus! Oh, I mean that as a swear word, by the way...but this is exactly what I object to in your followers--the fuckers never give a straight, truthful answer to the 'hard' questions. They always fall back on some inane quote of yours that has little to do with the issue being discussed." Jesus Christ: "Well, you can't hold me accountable for their actions..." TruthMonger: "Like _fuck_ I _can't_, shit for brains. You're in America, buddy, and we have conspiracy laws here. If the members of your cult go down, then you go down with them, and vice-versa. "You ever hear of Waco? David Koresh? Maharishi? John F. Kennedy?" Jesus Christ: "You're trying to twist things around here, by comparing me and my followers to small cults and Democrats. After all, America is largely a Christian nation with Republican family values." TruthMonger: "Bullshit! It's a democracy, with a legal seperation of Church and State. "America is a Christian nation" is just one more example of the lies your followers try to propogate every chance they get. It's clearly not true, but they refuse to face reality." Jesus Christ: "I said, 'largely'." TruthMonger: "Exactly. You use a word that infers that a 'majority' of Americans are Christian, in order to suggest that Christianity and Democracy are kissing cousins. This is the same goddamn thing that your followers do by constantly taking a smug, self-righteous stance that concepts like freedom, democracy, right and wrong, are all dependent on or connected to the Christian 'majority's' beliefs and morals. "You could just as well say, 'America is largely a "white" nation' but that pig doesn't fly anymore." Jesus Christ: "Now _you're_ trying to twist _my_ words." TruthMonger: "Christ! Oh, that's meant to be a swear word, too...BTW. "What I mean is that your words are being twisted a lot more by your Christian bum-buddies than I could ever hope to manage. "Which wouldn't concern me in the least if they weren't trying to force a potpourri of alleged 'superior' moral beliefs on the rest of us. This is the crux of the matter. As far as I am concerned. Christian fascism is the enemy of democracy and freedom." Jesus Christ: "Well, that's one way of looking at it. However, you might also say, 'It's not perfect, but it's the best system we've got.'" TruthMonger: "Please don't insult my intelligence. You could say the same thing about a bowl of 'shry back to take over until you're sure that your fascist lackeys have all the freedom lovers in chains." Jesus Christ: "Is that supposed to be some kind of threat?" TruthMonger: "Hey, pal. All I'm saying is that what is good for the gander is good for the goose. "As long as this country remains a democracy, then you'd better think twice about claiming to 'love all the little children' and you'd damn sure better make certain you have all the right permits before you go around turning water into wine." Jesus Christ: "I resent the implication that I love the children in anything but a purely 'spiritual' way." TruthMonger: "Well, pal, the circumstantial evidence is against you on this one. Wasn't your father involved in some kind of scandal where he made a man and woman naked and then told them to fuck and party down?" "If I remember right, he had some kind of fetish about telling the Jews to fuck a lot and was always talking about their 'cum'." Jesus Christ: "He used _decent_ words, like 'be fruitful and multiply', and 'seed', not 'cum'." "And you should have capitalized the word 'Father' when you made mention of him, BTW" TruthMonger: "Fuck you pal, I'm sending this to the CypherPunks mailing list. Are you the new list moderator? "Good fucking luck..." Jesus Christ: "I don't have to take this kind of abuse. I'm putting you on the 'flames' list." TruthMonger: "Big deal. I'm already in Tim C. May's 'killfile'." Jesus Christ: "If intolerance is such a Christian trait as you claim, then why is my 'flames' list smaller than Tim May's 'killfile'?" TruthMonger: "Now you're twisting _my_ words. Are you related to Kent Crispin? Say... Come to think of it, why has no one ever seen the two of you together?" Jesus Christ: "Let's just say that Kent and I agree on many issues that have to do with the sanctity of a higher authority. "No one has ever seen the evil Dr. Vulis and Satan together,l of eternity', then you'd better get to work on a way to stop the CypherPunks 'Eternity Server' from routing around fascist Christian moralism." Jesus Christ: "Adam Back... Isn't he a member of that weirdo "Circle of Eunuchs" cult?" TruthMonger: "That's for me to know, and for you to find out, pal. "Unless you can break PGP, of course." Jesus Christ: "Hey, I'm just Jesus. I'm not Phil Zimmerman, for _My_ sake." TruthMonger: "Hey, watch your language." Jesus Christ: "Sorry, I meant to say 'for _Dimitri's_ sake'." TruthMonger: "I'll tell him you capitalized his name. He'll get a kick out of that. "Any last words before I turn in for the night?" Jesus Christ: "Christianity recognizes privacy and freedom as damage, and steamrollers over them." TruthMonger: "No shit!" ----------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All references to Tim C. May's Vernacular Translation of the Bible are used without permission. What's he going to do, sue me? Then he'd have to admits he gets vicarious pleasure out of reading the posts in his killfile. {There's more than _one_ way to push a <Delete> key.} ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~