ERIC ZUESSE—But Republican Party news-media also show a religious focus, by their focusing on sex and other personal matters, and by what they won’t point out, regarding the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, Joe Biden, thus distracting even their own followers away from Biden’s bigger and more significant wrongs — wrongs that billionaires of both political Parties don’t want the public to focus upon (such as Biden’s neoconservatism, his consistent support for America to invade and conquer other countries).
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ED CURTIN—In 2007 the Catholic Church declared Jägerstätter a martyr and beatified him. The irony of making a saint out of a man whose spiritual witness was opposed by the institutional church authorities cannot be lost on a thinking person. Long dead, safely in his grave, a monument can be erected to his memory. [As, by official overpraise we also defanged the meaning and legacy of Martin Luther King.—Ed]
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JOHN FOLLIS—Evidently, the end of the Cold War and the passing of 60-years has not softened America’s attitude toward atheists. According to a 2016 University of Minnesota study, Americans have actually sharpened their negative views. It showed that atheists are still perceived as cultural outsiders who “have rejected cultural values and practices understood as essential to private morality, civic virtue, and national identity.” They were chosen “the most disliked religious minority” in the U.S. Clearly, Eisenhower and company embedded an anti-Atheist cultural bias that still remains strong today.
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DOUG BOLTON—n a trip to South America where he declared that the world should move to a more just ecological system where riches are shared by all, the Pope has received a crucifix mounted on a wooden hammer and sickle, from Bolivian President Evo Morales. He received the Communist crucifix while visiting La Paz in Bolivia, during his ongoing tour of South America. When he met the President, he was handed a wooden hammer and sickle, the symbol of Communism since the Russian Revolution. Morales explained to Pope Francis that the cross was created by Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980 by paramilitaries during the short-lived dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza. A Vatican spokesman confirmed that it is unlikely the Communist crucifix will be displayed in a church.
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P. GREANVILLE—WARNING: John Oliver, a comic firmly entrenched in the imperialist/liberal Democrat stable is not one of our favorites by a long shot. He and his ilk, which certainly includes folks like the treacherous Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, often use their enormous platforms to distort reality and advance the agendas of the American plutocracy, whom they naturally serve at every turn despite frequent proclamations of independence and populism. That said, not even evil can be absolute when enacted by humans, and so is the case with this guy who in this episode tackles a subject of import to society, a topic that most mainstream tv networks remain afraid to touch: the historical role of religion and religiosity in the US and the lurid abuses of trust by the Christian fundamentalists (although of late, with the Catholic pedophelia scandals, we can categorically say that few denominations are exempt from criticism). So, keeping that in mind, watch and take what you can from this presentation.
