A couple of days ago Extremist Christian Cleric Pat Robertson first weaseled and later apologized for his fatwa on Hugo Chavez. (I realize that this is old news by now, but I have been on the road, gimme a break. But really I just loved the title that I thought of with the Lost In Space reference, and had to build a post around that.) Honestly, when I heard he apologized, I thought, “Well. OK.” Fine. We all make mistakes and say stupid things. Though most of our slip-ups don’t have world peace implications, and most of us don’t own our own Christian Broadcasting Networks. But, he apologized. He made a mistake. He is human. He just seems to make a lot of them.

I wish the idiotic Bush administration would take a cue from Pat Robertson and admit some mistakes. I think it would help to rebuild trust in them. When everything they say turns out to be wrong, or a lie, it is hard to have any faith in our government. Follow the lead of your Televangelist, Mr. Bush.

But the Pat Robertson flub brings up another point. Christianity isn’t very accepting and respectful to others beliefs. (I’m not talking about your average Christian. Most of them are good people without extremist or prejudiced beliefs. I’m talking about a few very public events.) I do, however, believe that most American Christians think that Islam is a dangerous, extremist religion in and of itself. Osama bin Laden isn’t the face of Islam, just like Pat Robertson isn’t the true face of Christianity.

The extreme religious right vilifies individuals who have beliefs different form their strict core beliefs. Conservative (umm, Doctor) Bill Frist is under attack from the religious zealots for endorsing stem cell research. This is something that could possibly cure millions of people of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s (et. al.), not some weird devil worshipping voodoo trick. Come the fuck on.

I’m going to leave out the Inquisition because it is too far in the past, and things were just fucking crazy back then.

But the prison guards who flushed the Qur’an down the toilet in front of (uncharged) detainees were just wrong. Keep in mind my position; I am a proud and happy atheist who thinks that all religion is nuts, and putting that much importance on a copy of a book, well, crazy. But this is the holiest item in Islam. I have to assume that these guards were Christian, though I have nothing to back this claim up with. It is probably safe to assume that they weren’t Muslim. Te desecrate their holiest item is just a little too much, and really fucks us up in the eyes of Islam, umm, the world’s largest religion. More of a mystery to me is how they got the Qur’an down the toilet. I have a copy of the Qur’an that my friend gave me and it is huge. It’s, like, longer than Infinite Jest, though easier to comprehend. Was it a huge toilet or a super small pocket edition of the Qur’an? I can just imagine the look of disgust on the Roto-rooter guys face, “Goddammit, not this again.” [I realize that this story is disputed. But when we have seen photos of Leash Girl Lyndie England balls deep in a naked Iraqi pyramid, the Qur'an story doesn't seem too far-fetched.]

The other one is almost more of a blatant fuck you to millions of Hindi. In Hindu, (for some reason) the cow is sacred and cannot be killed. A McDonald’s in India told millions of Hindi that their fries were not cooked in any bovine byproducts. They, umm, totally lied. They made that many people eat an animal that is their highest religious symbol. I can just see the McDonald’s CEO (or whatevs. I am also assuming that said CEO is a Christian.) saying “Aww, fuck ‘em. What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em. Beef juice is cheaper than vegetable oil.” Imagine his fate if Hindu happens to be the right religion.

What in the hell is a McDonald’s in India selling?

The only equivalent fucking (umm, literally) of Christian holy items that I can think of is this, which I am definitely assuming wasn’t designed by a Christian.