This is the nature of the right today. They are holy men with no God but themselves. Their great ruse is to pass the buck to the assholes exactly like themselves except without the cynicism 2000 plus years ago. Make no mistake, however, this is a church of men, by men, for men alone.
Their repeated and wailing cry is to dare you to impale them and name them for what they are. "You wouldn't dare imply that I am a bad person, would you?" Do you hesitate? Do you back down?
At your own peril you will, because it is at that precise moment that you will find your throat cut.
I admit outright that I am a son of a bitch and that I have made most mistakes possible for a human being to make. Yet in each and every case, I sit here knowing full well how I deviated, and by what distance. The greatest betrayal of the truth I could make, however, would be to deny it, to pretend it didn't exist, to attempt to bend it towards my own devices. I may be a son of a bitch, but I know why, and I'll tell you (most of it). But the one thing I could never get far doing is try convince you that no, I'm not one. The right has gambled on what it can gain through piety, knowing that it has been used to advantage before.
And what we have, of course, found out, or rather, proven, is that they are the biggest son of a bitches of all. They are the liars, the schemers, the hypocrites, the cruel, the deceptive, the cunning, the selfish, the greedy, and happily ready to represent every other evil that has previously been categorized by humankind. While I sit and feel doubt over the hints of each quality that stake some minor claim in my heart, they gorge upon these crimes and then laugh at how they can get away with it, faced with such weak and sniveling opponents.
It is time for the tide to shift. We tried to shake hands in 2002 and 2004 while we were getting shivved, we tried to smile while our teeth were getting kicked in, but it's time to face down the bully. He will drop to the ground, cry foul at your assertiveness, beg for mercy, and attempt to slink away again. But they didn't kill us before, and it's time to stick them to the floor now.
We knew what they were doing the whole time since 9/11. And they knew it too. They, being godless priests, simply determined that they could get away with it, and so, lacking any shame or moral character whatsoever, they chose to do so. Short term benefits were siezed, and our nation has fallen to one knee bearing the burden of the spree.
The truth is that they are reeling with their own pain, tortured by what they don't know, skewered by their own desires. The loudest of them are the ones that suffer most, yet they shall deem us carriers of their pain.
It's time to say we carry every ounce of pain they do and more, we just have the decency to bear it with dignity and try to keep it from damaging others. There are two types of people in this world: those who seek to revisit their pain upon the world, and those who seek to end pain itself. Drastic simplifications aside, this is a duality I find more satisfying and meaningful than most others presented to us. Those who cry out that we are fools to pretend the revisiters will disappear are the dispensers themselves making noise to cover their tracks.
The truth is that such people are always cowards, and under pressure they always collapse. They torture, but they cannot take pain. They order death, but will not fight. They demand you revere God, but they only mean for you to revere them.
We have witnessed one of the great parlor games of history, carried out through a knowing mob. But our founding fathers gave us the tools to sever the ties that bind, and we have not lost them yet. Slash away, tear your bonds loose, and scream that you will not be subdued.
They have attempted to imitate truthtellers, to wear the skins of those they hunt. They will try to ape such rhetoric for their own use, but it is always a dance. Drive a stake through their feet and keep them in one place, and you will see who melts.
You will see who is a beast, and who is a human being. As long as you do not become one of them, the godless priests, who use everything sacred for bestial means.
Amen.