Nina wrote:A few of years ago while I was living in England, they apparently gave me a signed copy of his book for Christmas. Thankfully, my mom intervened (as she had received one as well) and gave it to the Goodwill.

Back in about 1985, around the time I was way into hardcore punk, my "born again" aunt, uncle and cousins showed up at our house with presents on Christmas Day. Mine turned out to be an album by the band Stryper. I remember sitting there and staring at the album cover for several minutes in utter confusion. It had a painting of the planet Earth viewed from outer space, and there was a big blue hand (presumably the Hand of God) in the foreground, pointing to the globe and directing a salvo of black-and-yellow striped ICBMs toward it.

When I looked up from the album cover, my cousins were staring at me me with these hopeful grins on their faces, and one of them said, "That's a great record. You've got to check out this band." My aunt chimed in, "It's Christian rock music. They listen to that record all the time at our house."

Still perplexed by the picture on the album , I asked, "What is going on here? God is ordering the destruction of the Earth with nuclear missiles?" One of them said something about Armageddon and the other told me to just listen to the record and it will all make sense. I turned the record over and there was a picture of the band. They looked like a cross between Motley Crue and the Mexican Killer Bees from that old SNL skit. A bunch of dudes with Farrah Fawcett-style feathered hair, wearing black and yellow striped leotards. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.

Several months passed before I actually gave the record a spin, and it was the worst poser hair metal bullshit I had ever heard.

Johnny C wrote:This is bullshit, I worked for a Dairy Queen and all the double-dipping we ever did was under the table.

c'mon! i still go to the dq. shouldn't some things be never-spoken-of-again like family secrets?

Why do the news media and politicians feel they have to pander to Evangelical Christians? Are they still that powerful as a political force these days?

Yes they are.

Colonel Panic wrote:Back in about 1985, around the time I was way into hardcore punk, my "born again" aunt, uncle and cousins showed up at our house with presents on Christmas Day. Mine turned out to be an album by the band Stryper. I remember sitting there and staring at the album cover for several minutes in utter confusion. It had a painting of the planet Earth viewed from outer space, and there was a big blue hand (presumably the Hand of God) in the foreground, pointing to the globe and directing a salvo of black-and-yellow striped ICBMs toward it.

When I looked up from the album cover, my cousins were staring at me me with these hopeful grins on their faces, and one of them said, "That's a great record. You've got to check out this band." My aunt chimed in, "It's Christian rock music. They listen to that record all the time at our house."

Still perplexed by the picture on the album , I asked, "What is going on here? God is ordering the destruction of the Earth with nuclear missiles?" One of them said something about Armageddon and the other told me to just listen to the record and it will all make sense. I turned the record over and there was a picture of the band. They looked like a cross between Motley Crue and the Mexican Killer Bees from that old SNL skit. A bunch of dudes with Farrah Fawcett-style feathered hair, wearing black and yellow striped leotards. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.

Several months passed before I actually gave the record a spin, and it was the worst poser hair metal bullshit I had ever heard.

by george, you've nailed it! i don't feel like i have a democrat to vote for. i have voted for other democrats i took issue with, but basically they were weaklings. i have never watched a democrat run who is so socially conservative given how much "we" naturally progress and move away from our country's puritan-upbringin'.

somebody replaced my black sabbath record with bloodgood!

i have said there may be two inches of differences between the two, but those are the two inches that i live in. someone just shat in my two inches.

you can...

"Watch the forum live on FOX News starting at 8 p.m. ET Saturday."

fancyjamtime wrote:Why don't more people get this? We'll all talk about what a great candidate he was while his Republican opponent who won the election by cheating takes away what few civil rights we have left.

One of the things I have noticed from the last two elections is that people seem to be somewhat confused about how this 'Lesser of two evils' thing works.

When the soul stirs -- a refreshing cocktail.

Colonel Panic wrote:They looked like a cross between Motley Crue and the Mexican Killer Bees from that old SNL skit. A bunch of dudes with Farrah Fawcett-style feathered hair, wearing black and yellow striped leotards.

Just thought a picture was in order.

By the way, my best friend's grandma is utterly convinced obama is the antichrist. she is constantly sending her emails with scripture and stuff all about how obama is going to bring the armageddon.

(Disclaimer: Standard cliched attempts at political analysis and understanding occur here.)

When I read the article, at first I thought:

Why in hell do these people have so much political power?

Obviously, I don't have a problem with groups of people having political power: that's what democracy is based on. But one group possessing so much power seems unbalanced - my biases are completely coming into play here, too. Many evangelical Christians are so diametrically opposed in belief and personality to who I am and to what I believe in that I sometimes feel as if either they or I come from different galaxies.

I don't begrudge them their beliefs - they can believe in whatever the hell they want. I do begrudge them exerting disproportionate amounts of influence on national politics. Haven't these people ever heard of separation of church and state?

And anyone - anyone - who thinks Obama is the Antichrist is a racist, pure and simple, full stop. The man is just a politician. The only reason they are afraid of the man is because he is black and he has foreign-sounding names like Hussein. Oh dear! Call Bull Connor ASAP! Fucking worthless fools. Who says racism is out of style? You can oppose Obama for whatever political reason you want, I don't mind. Calling someone the Antichrist is all the motivation any wingnut needs for giving the man 9 grams in the skull.