Several years ago, The Daily Show produced a three-part series on America’s gun culture, gun violence, and how Australia successfully regulated firearms. Given the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas and congressional inaction of meaningful gun control legislation, I thought it important to share these videos with readers.
Bruce Gerencser, 60, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 39 years. He and his wife have six grown children and eleven grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you are a first-time commenter, please read the commenting policy before wowing readers with your words. All first-time comments are moderated. If you would like to contact Bruce directly, please use the contact form to do so.
Donations are always appreciated. Donations on a monthly basis can be made through Patreon. One-time donations can be made through PayPal.
People are scrambling to find words to best describe the murderous actions of Stephen Paddock in Las Vegas last Sunday. What is known so far is that Paddock was a rich white guy who liked to gamble and was, at times, verbally abusive towards his girlfriend. At a loss to figure out why Paddock did what he did, the talking heads on Fox News have searched high and low for the answer, going so far as to blame his actions on his lack of religious faith. Other talking heads, missing the forest for the trees, wondered brainlessly out loud about whether it was time to increase security in hotels. How in the world did Paddock get so many guns into the hotel? they ask. Duh, geniuses, in his luggage and bags. Sean Hannity blamed the lack of firearms in the country concert crowd, not thinking about how having loaded handguns would have stopped Paddock from spraying the crowd with bullets shot from semi-automatic/automatic weapons hundreds of yards away. Blame. Blame everyone and everything except the one common denominator in EVERY mass shooting — handguns, assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines. Guns don’t kill people, people do. Or so goes the droning NRA mantra, anyway.
The latest person being blamed for the Las Vegas carnage is an entity called EVIL. Evil, much like Satan/Lucifer/Devil, is a religious construct meant to explain why people do bad things. Evangelicals believe all of us, from the moment our father’s sperm united with our mother’s egg, are sinners. We don’t become sinners, we are sinners. Thanks to Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God by eating fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil®, all of us, by nature, are sinners. But when it comes to really, really bad shit — gays getting married, women having abortion, Bill Clinton getting blow jobs in the White House, and Steven Paddock killing and maiming hundreds of people — many Evangelicals blame evil. It’s evil, not guns, that commits mass murder. Of course, Evangelicals — who are overwhelmingly Republicans — forget Mr. Evil when people fly planes into buildings. Then it is Muslims doing all the killing. They seem to have no problem determining who or what is behind such terrorism. However, when it comes to gun violence, many Evangelicals are deaf, dumb, and blind.
Tweet by right-wing Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin
Evil is not to blame for America’s problem with mass shootings — guns are. Jesse Berney, a writer for Rolling Stone, had this to say about blaming evil for what happened in Las Vegas:
It’s easy to call acts of horror “evil.” It’s comforting to ascribe an external, unknowable motive to events so terrible we can’t imagine a motivation.
The human mind is incapable of imagining what would drive a man to haul an arsenal of high-powered weapons into a hotel room, knock out a couple windows, murder dozens of people and injure hundreds more by spraying them with gunfire. So we call it evil. That settles that.
President Trump called the shooting in Las Vegas that left at least 59 dead and more than 500 injured “an act of pure evil,” and who’s to argue with him? If evil exists in this world, surely indiscriminately murdering faceless strangers from 300 yards away qualifies. Whatever drove Stephen Paddock to that hotel room that night would fall under any reasonable definition of evil.
But what if evil doesn’t exist in this world?
Of course people do terrible things. Examples are easy to find, from our own regrets to the most unimaginable cruelties. Paddock murdered dozens of people. The government of Myanmar, led by a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is engaged in a brutal genocide against an ethnic minority. Every day children are exploited and abused. The world is an abattoir of violence and cruelty if you choose to do nothing but focus on the terror we visit on each other.
But evil? Evil as an independent reality, a thing-in-itself that urges people to action? “Evil” not as judgment of Paddock’s actions but as an explanation of them? That’s a fantasy, and it absolutely will lead to more shootings like these, more deaths.
When elected officials like Trump rely on “evil” to explain away mass shootings, they are following a deliberate strategy. Republicans know wall-to-wall coverage of these events are the best opportunity gun control advocates have to draw attention to the issue and save lives. But the GOP – beholden to the overhyped power of the National Rifle Association – have just one goal: pass zero bills restricting gun sales in any way. (In fact, the Republican leadership in the House is currently considering a bill that would make it easier to purchase both silencers and armor-piercing bullets.) They follow a few strategies like clockwork.
There are calls not to “politicize” these tragedies. They say it’s too soon, that it dishonors the victims and their families to bring politics into the discussion.
They claim specific gun laws wouldn’t have stopped this individual tragedy, because it’s not the right gun, or the perpetrator would have passed a background check – as though stopping some future mass shootings isn’t worthwhile if we can’t stop them all.
They claim criminals intent on breaking the law will just ignore gun laws anyway, as though that doesn’t apply to every law ever passed.
And they call these events “evil” to make them seem random and unpreventable. You can’t fight evil, after all. It’s invisible, incorporeal. It’s the perfect foil for politicians who don’t want to do anything. What are we going to do, pass a law to make evil illegal?
….
But the problem here isn’t evil. It’s not the devil. It’s us: human beings. We have motivations and justifications and rationalizations and reasons for everything we do. We don’t know why Stephen Paddock murdered those people. Maybe we never will. And maybe the sensible laws we could pass, like universal background checks and a ban on all assault weapons, wouldn’t have stopped someone so wealthy and motivated to commit horror. But it could stop someone else. It would save lives.
Blaming evil is an excuse to do nothing in the face of tens of thousands of gun deaths a year. Only a fraction of those deaths are the result of mass shootings like in Las Vegas. We can and should work to reduce all gun deaths, from suicides to accidents to crime-related deaths to massacres like Sunday’s. That means passing laws that keeps guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. The only other option is to do nothing.
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Almost 35 000 people a year are killed with firearms in the United States (and thousands more are wounded). Many of these deaths are suicides. Nineteen children a day are killed or maimed by gunfire. More people are killed by guns each year than are killed in automobile accidents. Government at every level has seen fit to regulate automobile use, hoping to reduce deaths and injuries from auto accidents. Remove automobiles from the equation and what happens? (Think real hard on that one, gun-lovers.) If guns are removed from the gun violence equation or restricted, guess what happens? Less gun violence, as Australia will attest.
What follows is a list of mass shootings I compiled from several recent news articles:
Fort Hood, November 5, 2009 — 13 dead, 30 wounded
Edmond, Oklahoma, August 20, 1986 — 14 dead, 6 wounded
San Bernardino,California December 2, 2015 — 14 dead, 22 wounded
San Ysidro, California, July 18, 1984 — 21 dead, 19 wounded
Killeen, Texas, October 16, 1991 — 23 dead, 27 wounded
What’s the common denominator is these stories? Evil? White guys? Buildings? No! Guns — handguns, long guns, assault rifles, high-capacity clips. And what has Congress done about these mass shootings? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Fearing being primaried by right-wing, NRA-moneyed, Jesus-loving, flag-waving challengers, Republicans refuse to even talk about passing meaningful gun law reform. And sadly, many Democrats are no better. Fearing losing their seats to Republican challengers, Democrats cower in shameful silence before the gun lobby.
The United States has been fighting the war on terror for sixteen years. Congress has seen fit to give the US military trillions of dollars to fund the war on terrorism, all because 3,000 people died on 9/11. Yet, during this same time period, almost 500,000 people have died through gun violence and over a 1,000,000 people have been wounded. And Congress has done what, exactly? Nothing. If Trump and congressional Republicans have their way, current gun laws will be loosened, making it easier for people who shouldn’t own firearms to have them Earlier this year, Congress made it easier for people with mental illness to purchase a gun. Even worse, Congress is contemplating abolishing the law that makes silencers illegal. Imagine how much damage Paddock could have done if his guns were equipped with shot-muffling silencers.
I am done listening to people who won’t or can’t see that we have a huge problem with gun violence in this country. I refuse to spend one more moment listening to people who think less regulation and more guns is the answer. Call me a pinko liberal or a Communist, I don’t care. I plan to do everything in my power to force government at every level to restrict gun sales and ownership. Some currently available firearms should be made illegal — assault rifles in particular. People shouldn’t be permitted to hoard firearms as Stephen Paddock did. LIBERALS ARE COMING FOR OUR GUNS! Gun rights activists scream, and my response is this: YES, WE ARE! It is high time we put an end to the gun culture in America with its attendant violence, carnage, and death. If Western nations such as Britain and Australia can strictly regulate firearms and drastically reduce gun violence, so can the United States. Whether we have the courage to do so, remains to be seen.
About Bruce Gerencser
Bruce Gerencser, 60, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 39 years. He and his wife have six grown children and eleven grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you are a first-time commenter, please read the commenting policy before wowing readers with your words. All first-time comments are moderated. If you would like to contact Bruce directly, please use the contact form to do so.
Donations are always appreciated. Donations on a monthly basis can be made through Patreon. One-time donations can be made through PayPal.
The social worker who surrendered his license amid allegations he fondled a client is also a pastor at Methodist churches in Neptune and Neptune City.
Officials with the United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey confirmed that Cheong “Alec” Park of Neptune, whom Jersey City police arrested in August, is a pastor at Neptune City’s Memorial United Methodist Church and West Grove United Methodist Church in Neptune.
Park, 49, is facing a charge of criminal sexual contact after an incident with a female client in July, the Office of the Attorney General announced Friday. He surrendered his license to practice social work under a consent agreement with the state Board of Social Work Examiners.
“Allegations of this nature are serious. As United Methodists, we believe that disrespectful and abusive sexual expressions are not acceptable Christian behavior and are destructive to individuals and families,” Carolyn Conover, director of communication and development with the United Methodist Church of Greater New Jersey, wrote in a prepared statement.
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Park “had engaged in physical contact with the woman during prior sessions by hugging and massaging her face, neck and shoulders and upper chest, telling her it was ‘relaxation therapy,'” according to the Attorney General’s announcement. “During the session in question, after the victim had shared that she had difficulty setting boundaries, Park allegedly proceeded to massage her chest and breasts inside her bra.”
Under the terms of a consent order, Park is forbidden from doing social work, drug or alcohol counseling or mental health therapy or counseling, including “volunteer practice, life coaching, internet counseling” or any other form of practice, according to the Attorney General’s announcement.
Samuel Sutter, youth pastor at Openwater Church in Odessa, Florida was sentenced last week to ten years in prison for sexually abusing a church teenager.
The Tampa Bay Times reports:
Everything had been worked out.
The former pastor had already admitted to sexually abusing one of his teenage congregants. He had agreed to serve 10 years in prison. He said nothing as he waited Thursday for a judge to pronounce the sentence.
But the girl’s mother couldn’t stay silent.
“He used God as a weapon,” she told the judge. “Fear as a weapon. Her own beliefs as a weapon.”
When the sexual encounters started, Samuel Sutter was a 25-year-old married pastor at Openwater Church in Odessa.
The girl was 15.
Sutter’s responsibilities included ministering to the church members in middle school, high school and college, and that was how the two met.
They had chatted on the phone and on Twitter. Over time, they started getting together outside church, at coffee shops and malls. The sex began in the fall of 2015.
“He shoved her face into bare, sweaty mattresses, so the evidence wouldn’t be on the sheets when his wife came home,” the mother said in court. “He obsessively reviewed every social media account she had, every text on her phone, every email, every photo …”
The mother spoke of Sutter overpowering the girl, putting his hands on her neck. She spoke of him forcing her to take morning-after pills to prevent her from becoming pregnant. She spoke of him threatening to leave her, if she didn’t do what he wanted, to pursue one of her friends.
In the spring of 2016, the mother noticed her daughter was acting anxious, more stressed than usual. She managed to get into her daughter’s phone, where she found text messages which indicated the two were sexually involved.
Hillsborough sheriff’s detectives investigated and later arrested Sutter. They said most of the sex acts happened at Sutter’s home, but some occurred in the women’s bathroom at the church on Race Track Road in northwest Hillsborough County.
“He chipped away her self worth, her self-esteem, her sense of balance, her trust, her faith in her family, her God and her self,” the mother said. “He continued to take, until all that was left was a shell of a girl who was so fearful and anxious and full of self-loathing that she felt the only way out may be to take her own life.”
Since the abuse ended, the mother said her daughter can’t eat certain foods or listen to the Christian music she once enjoyed. She has nightmares and panic attacks. She fears becoming close to anyone.
“Her precious gift of first love should have nothing to do with an adult, married youth minister …” she said. “This man hurt a child. He’s a dangerous predator, and unforgivable.”
Sutter could have faced up to 35 years in prison.
He pleaded guilty to three charges: lewd and lascivious battery, unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and use of a computer or device to solicit illegal acts.
In addition to prison, Sutter was sentenced to 25 years of probation. He will have to register as a sex offender for life.
Sexual abuse is widespread in Evangelical churches. For every case reported and prosecuted, numerous others go unreported. Recently, Theron McDaniel, a bus mechanic, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexually abusing a teen girl. He was sentenced to twenty-six years in prison. Astoundingly, the children’s pastor and a church volunteer from Open Door Church in Burleson, Texas — the church home of McDaniel and his family — asked the judge to give McDaniel probation. Why? They believed he was not at risk to abuse anyone again. Really? I mean REALLY? How can these spokesmen for God KNOW McDaniel is not at risk to re-offend? Jesus? McDaniel got saved or told God he was really, really, really sorry? Or perhaps he cried crocodile tears, asked God and the girl to forgive him, and promised that he would never, ever, cross-his-heart-hope-to-die do it again.
Let this story be yet another example of why parents should NEVER entrust the care of their children to Evangelical pastors, church leaders, teachers, or nursery attendants. The risk is too high — with Evangelical theology turning smart people into trusting, forgiving, blind sheep who always see the “good” in people. Unfortunately, as the Black Collar Crime Series reveals, parents put their children at risk if they believe that Pastor so-and-so and the loving people at First Evangelical Church of Anywhere would never harm their children. They can, they might, and sadly, they, at times, will.
A 48-year-old Weatherford man was sentenced to consecutive 13-year prison sentences for two cases of sexual assault of a child in a trial that concluded in Parker County district court Thursday.
Earlier this month, Theron Scott McDaniel pled guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl and elected to have 43rd District Court Judge Craig Towson assess his punishment.
During the trial, victim impact testimony showed that, as a result of the abuse, the victim suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, anxiety, depression and low self esteem, according to Assistant District Attorney Jeff Swain, who prosecuted the case. According to testimony, the abuse occurred better than a dozen times over the course of about a year-and-a-half.
“The abuse in this case has had a profound impact on our victim,” Swain said. “With all that Mr. McDaniel put her through, she and I were both grateful that Judge Towson assessed stacked sentences that will keep him in prison for a long time.”
McDaniel testified that he had sex with the victim 13 times and apologized to her from the witness stand. He told Towson that while he may deserve a prison sentence for what he did, he was asking for probation so that he might continue to work and support his wife and three daughters.
Several defense witnesses from Cowtown Bus Charters in Fort Worth testified that McDaniel worked for them as a bus mechanic, was an excellent employee who would be difficult to replace, and requested that the judge give him a probated sentence. The Children’s Pastor and a church volunteer from Open Door Church in Burleson testified that they did not feel that McDaniel was a risk to sexually re-offend and that they also requested that he receive probation.
“The earliest that Mr. McDaniel could be released on parole would be in 13 years,” Swain said.
Theron McDaniel was employed by Cowtown Bus Charters. They too, worried about who would replace McDaniel, asked the judge to grant him probation. Evidently, motor repairs come before protecting children from people who deign to harm them.
Here’s McDaniel’s Cowtown bio:
I have been with Cowtown since 2009 as a mechanic. I have 30 years [sic] experience as an auto/diesel mechanic, mostly in the transportation and heavy, off-road equipment fields. I am currently the Head Mechanic at Cowtown. I have 4 daughters. I am active in Life Group Ministries and like bass fishing. My favorite vacation spots are Monument Lake, Rockwall, & Colorado.
David Farren, former youth pastor at Anchor Church, Trinity Church, Heritage Baptist Church, and Faith Baptist Church — all located in Texarkana, Texas — was charged in 2016 with sexually assaulting two teen girls. At the time, the Texarkana Gazette reported:
A youth pastor at Anchor Church in Texarkana was arrested Wednesday on three counts of sexual assault involving a teen girl. David Farren, 41, allegedly assaulted the girl when she was 16 and 17, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell said. The girl was allegedly a member of the youth group Farren headed. Miller County jail records show Farren was booked at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday. He is expected to appear before a Miller County judge Thursday for an initial appearance, at which time bail will be set. First degree sexual assault is a class A felony in Arkansas. Each of the three counts Farren is charged with is punishable by six to thirty years in prison.
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When I publicized Farren’s crimes and arrest on Facebook, his supporters came out of the woodwork, defending him from all accusations of misconduct. Today, Farren was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his crimes. TXK Today reports:
A Texarkana pastor was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday morning for sexually abusing two teen girls who were members of youth ministry groups he led at several local churches.
David Wayne Farren, 42, appeared with Texarkana attorney Jason Horton for a plea and sentencing hearing before Miller County Circuit Judge Carlton Jones. Farren pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree sexual assault, one count of second-degree sexual abuse and a misdemeanor count of violating mandatory reporting requirements. Farren pleaded no-contest to one count of second-degree sexual assault as well.
As part of a plea bargain, Jones sentenced Farren to 15 years for each of the nine felony counts of sexual abuse, to run concurrently, and to four days in the county jail with credit for four days served on the misdemeanor. At the end of the hearing, Farren was led from the courtroom to the jail.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell said Farren confessed to eight of the nine felonies during an interview with Texarkana, Ark., Police Dept. investigators last year. According to a probable cause affidavit, the victim listed in eight of the felony counts first met with TAPD detectives in July 2016 when she was 20. That victim told investigators she was motivated to come forward because she worried Farren was grooming another girl. At the time of his arrest, Farren was serving as lead pastor of Anchor Church in Texarkana.
The victim told investigators she first met Farren while in middle school at Trinity Christian School and while Farren was youth minister at Trinity Church and later youth minister at Heritage Baptist Church in Texarkana. The girl said she confided in Farren in 2013 that she had been sexually abused by someone else in her past. Members of the clergy, teachers and medical personnel are required by law to report allegations of child physical or sexual abuse to a national child abuse hotline, but Farren did not.
The girl said she was babysitting Farren’s children the first time he touched her sexually as she was lying on a couch under a blanket, and that he had intercourse with her on her 17th birthday in 2013. She said she and Farren had sex in his home in Texarkana, Ark., more than 20 times and that he would have sex with her in his garage if his wife was at home. She said Farren claimed he did not divorce his wife because it would be a sin. The victim reported that the abuse stopped in August 2013. The victim mentioned that when Farren began taking an intense interest in her, another girl with whom he had been “close” had left for college.
The other girl was interviewed by TAPD detectives in August 2016 after Farren’s first arrest. She told detectives Farren began touching her sexually after her father died when she was about 15 and Farren was her youth minister at Faith Baptist Church in Texarkana. The second victim to be interviewed by police is named in one of the second-degree sexual assault counts. She said she cut off contact with Farren after he made a phone call to her while she was in her college dorm room. The girl said Farren’s sexual conversation with her led her to “realize how he had control over her.”
Farren will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be required to pay a fee for the registration as well as a fee for having his DNA included in state and national databases. He must serve 70 percent of his sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.
Rushville Baptist Temple, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church in Rushville, Indiana (pastored by Garry Evans, according to the church’s sign), is under investigation in light of child sexual abuse allegations being levied against either the pastor or someone else in the church. No one has been named at this time.
Neighbors are responding after learning about allegations of child sexual abuse at a church in Rushville.
Police executed a search warrant last week at Rushville Baptist Temple Church at 1335 North Spencer Street as part of their investigation.
Police said they are looking into allegations of child molestation and began looking into the church several weeks ago after a woman told them her young daughter was a victim.
During the course of their investigation, police said another woman came forward and said the same thing happened to her as a young girl nearly 30 years ago.
The allegations are disturbing to hear for longtime residents who live in a Rushville neighborhood near North Spencer Street and West 16th Street.
“It’s sad. It’s very sad,” said one neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified on camera. “As a grandparent, it worries me.”
The neighbor described Rushville as a small town where everybody knows everybody.
“It’s mind-blowing to think that you should be able to send your children to church, and they should be safe,” she said.
Police executed a search warrant last Friday at the church. Police have not said what detectives were able to find but made it clear this is still an ongoing investigation.
As of Friday evening, no one had been arrested or charged in connection to the allegations.
“It’s scary, I mean it just gets more scary every day hearing these types of stories,” said Nichole Wooldridge, a neighbor.
Wooldridge lives down the street from the church and moved into the neighborhood about five years ago.
“I mean that’s just got to be devastating to anybody, you know, whether you’re related to the victim, you’re the victim, whatever. It is that’s just devastating,” she said.
The Rushville Police Department and the Rush County Prosecutor’s Office are urging anyone with information about this case to come forward and give them a call at 765-932-3907.
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The Rushville Republican reports:
According to RPD Chief of Police Craig Tucker, the warrant was the result of an investigation following allegations of a child molestation and sexual misconduct with a minor which occurred at the church. Tucker added that all parties named in this investigation are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
During the investigation, a second individual came forward and alleged she too had been victimized, nearly three decade ago in a similar manner.
According to a press release received by Rushville Republican, the RPD is diligently investigating the allegations and officers are actively seeking any information from the public related to the matter.
According to Chief Tucker, investigative efforts within the church and the congregation have stalled as they have elected not to actively participate in the investigation. Investigators and the Rush County Prosecutors Office are urging anyone with any knowledge of the allegations or similar incidents to please come forward. The RPD can be contacted at (765) 932-3907.
I want to make readers aware of a site called Freethought Music: A Website for Atheist and Humanist Musicians, Composers, and Leaders. If you are interested in freethought music — I know I am — you will find this website helpful.
Warning! Lyrics may contain offensive, vulgar language.
This is the one hundred and fifty-second installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
We’re standing here by the abyss
And the world is in flames
Two star crossed lovers reaching out
To the beast with many names
He is
He’s the shining and the light without whom I cannot see
And He is Insurrection
He is spite
He’s the force that made me be
He is
Nostro Dispater
Nostr’Alma Mater
He is
We are hiding here inside a dream
And all our doubts are now destroyed
The guidance of the morning star
Will lead the way into the void
He is
He’s the shining in the light without whom I cannot see
And He is Insurrection
He is spite
He’s the force that made me be
He is
Nostro Dispater
Nostr’Alma Mater
He is
He is
He’s the shining and the light without whom I cannot seeAnd He is Insurrection
And He is Insurrection
He is spite
He’s the force that made me be
He is
He’s the shining in the light without whom I cannot see
And He is
The disobedience that holds us together
He is
Nostro Dispater
Nostr’Alma Mater
And we are falling over the precipice
Warning! Lyrics may contain offensive, vulgar language.
This is the one hundred and fifty-first installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Reality Asylum by Crass.
I am no feeble Christ, not me.
He hangs in glib delight upon his cross. Upon his cross.
Above my body. Lowly me.
Christ forgive, forgive. Holy he, he holy, he holy.
Shit he forgives. Forgive, forgive. I, I, Me, I.
I vomit for you, Jesu. Christi-Christus.
Puke upon your papal throne.
Wrapped you are in the bloody shroud of churlish suicide.
Wrapped I am in the bloody cloud of hellish genocide.
Petulant child.
I have suffered for you, where you have never known me.
I too must die. Will you be shadowed in the arrogance of my death?
Your valley truth? What lights pass those pious heights?
What passing bells for these in their trucks?
For you Lord, you are the flag-bearer of these nations,
one against the other, that die in the mud.
No piety, no deity. Is that your forgiveness?
Saint, martyr, goat, billy. Forgive?
Shit he forgives.
He hangs upon his cross in self-righteous judgment,
hangs in crucified delight, nailed to the extent of his vision.
His cross, his manhood, his violence, guilt, sin.
He would nail my body upon his cross,
as if I might have waited for him in the garden,
as if I might have perfumed his body, washed those bloody feet?
This woman that he seeks, suicide visionary, death reveller,
rape, rapist, grave-digger, earth-mover, life-fucker. Jesu.
You scooped the pits of Auschwitz.
The soil of Treblinka is rich in your guilt,
the sorrow of your tradition,
your stupid humility is the crown of thorn we all must wear.
For you? Ha. Master? Master of gore.
Enigma.
Stigma.
Stigmata.
Errata.
Eraser.
The cross is the mast of our oppression.
You fly their vain flag. You carry it.
Wear it on your back Lord. Your back.
Enola is your gaiety.
Suffer little children, suffer in that horror.
Hiro-horror, horror-hiro, hiro-shima, shima-hiro,
hiro-shima, hiro-shima, Hiroshima, Hiroshima.
The bodies are your delight.
The incandescent flame is the spirit of it.
They come to you Jesu, to you.
The nails are the only trinity.
Hold them in your corpsey gracelessness.
The image that I have had to suffer.
These nails at my temple.
The cross is the virgin body of womanhood that you defile.
In your guilt, you turn your back, nailed to that body.
Lamearse Jesus calls me sister! There are no words for my contempt!
Every woman is a cross in his filthy theology!
He turns his back on me in his fear.
His vain delight is the pain I bear.
Alone he hangs, his choice, his choice.
Alone, alone, his voice, his voice.
He shares nothing, this Christ; sterile, impotent, fuck-love prophet of death.
He is the ultimate pornography. He! He!
Hear us, Jesus!
You sigh alone in your cock fear!
You lie alone in your cunt fear!
You cry alone in your woman fear!
You die alone in your man fear!
Alone Jesu, alone, in your cock fear, cunt fear, woman fear, man fear.
Alone in you fear, alone in your fear, alone in your fear.
Your fear, your fear, your fear, your fear, your fear, your fear, your fear,
Warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare, warfare!
