I'd Like To Say I'm Shocked, But...

Today, I just read a report that made me happy and furious at the same time. Tony Alamo (real name Bernie Hoffman) was arrested during a raid on his compound. Looking into this a little deeper, I found this interesting nugget of reading. This was really quite an interesting article, really delving into just how big of a scumbag this "man of god" truly is. However, for me, there's nothing better than watching some religious fundamental whack-job get caught in a scandal. Don't get me wrong, I feel horrible for the victims, and I wish they all get the proper help and resources that are available for them to get through their ordeals. But I'm just talking about these so-called "men of god" constantly getting caught in the worst possible positions (no pun intended) and scandals.

I'm still amazed that these people can have so many followers and such a long career of lying, abusing, and subjugating people to do their will. All this because they're a decent speaker? Claim that they're a prophet sent from god helps a lot too I guess. It's absolutely beyond comprehension to realize that this guy has been around since the mid-70s!!! And in quite a few recent cases, these are groups headed by just 1 man. I won't even mention the Catholic Church. But this man has had thousands upon thousands of followers during his tenure as "prophet" or whatever. Not to mention the fact that throughout his glorious career as a "prophet", he's had troubles dealing from polygamy, tax-evasion, etc. This guy even spent about 6 years in prison before for tax-evasion, and had his "wives" constantly visiting them. Well, the SPLC article sums it all up far better than I can, but I'm so pissed off that these people actually manage to become powerful. Fucking Bill Clinton even visited one of his so-called businesses.

But back to my original rant. I have a theory, that people who are constantly preaching, or protesting about certain social-ills, usually the so-called "reformers", "family-values", and other nut-jobs (usually on the far-right) are just as bad, and in many cases worse than those they're constantly pounding the pulpit about. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for reform and family values type things, but I don't preach about it, and I certainly don't base my life/career on it either. But still, it always seems for example, that the most vocal opponents of gay-rights are more often than not caught in some sort of gay-sex scandal. Remember Larry "I Have A Wide Stance" Craig? Or the other preacher man who admitted having sex with a male prostitute and smoking meth? That as well as the myriad of other people whom I don't have the time to mention about here. I'm sure it happens on the far-left side of the spectrum as well, but ironically, one doesn't (at least myself) hear about it too much. I've never heard of too many stories about some guy fighting for equal rights for women getting caught beating his spouse, or paying his secretary less than her male counterpart. I'm not naive enough to believe that it never happens, but at least in my experience I haven't heard about it all that often for it to really register.

Anyway, that's my theory about these people. Or maybe I just don't care about anything enough to truly take a stand on a subject. I always feel like I'm caught in the middle of many things. Not all things of course, as I obviously have my opinions. I typically just choose to share them for those who care or would like to see them, but I certainly don't enforce them upon other people. That being said, I truly hope this guy gets absolutely fucked. The article that I listed here made me hate him quite badly. I still can't believe some of the things that he's done and said. My favorite is when according to CNN, he compared himself to Christ, saying: "Why were they after Jesus?" he asked. "It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me." What a whack-job.

Religious fundamentalists are truly a blight upon the world. Sometimes I understand why L. Ron Hubbard created his own religion. You get tax exemption status from the government, and power to boot!!! I wonder if he ever thought about having multiple child-wives as well, or did that go against the aliens that created the world's view???

Religion truly bring out the worst in me, as it brings out the worst in everybody.