Tea Party Nation’s Judson Phillips defends endorsement of Torgerson over Ellison

“Criminality, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.” – Tacitus

This audacity is truly great. And Keith Ellison is a great American.

Letter to the Danbury Baptists

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Thomas Jefferson

Jan. 1. 1802.

Oh, and Judson Phillips is merely the latest in a seemingly endless line of stupid Tea Party hacks.

They continue to claim that this isn’t about being anti-Muslim and choosing the most anti-Muslim candidate, but rather adhering to the tea party’s values. If that’s truly the case, why did they choose to endorse the independent (not independence party) candidate whose campaign website is full of anti-Muslim rhetoric (nearly 2/3 of her issues page is dominated by discussion of radical Islam) over the GOP candidate who is a Christian pastor that advocates for limited government, lower taxes, and deficit reduction? What is their primary concern?

Judson writes:

“I learned everything I needed to know about tolerance on September 11th.”

Funny, I learned everything I needed to know about the danger of right wing Christian extremism on April 19, 1995.

What do they say about an ideology that says, “kill the Jews” and “kill the infidels?”

The same thing we say about an ideology that says: Kill the Doctors.

Neither has a place in America – and both represent extreme ideology, not mainstream Americans.

It would take a great deal of prejudice to believe that Keith Ellison shares the ideology Phillips associates him with.

Phillips is just trying to whitewash his own ugly beliefs.

Yeah, what’s the big deal. There are plenty of democrats saying publicly that people shouldn’t vote for Michele Bachmann because of her Christian beliefs.

Islam is far more than a relgion as we know religions. Set aside the Islamic legal system for now. And the foreign policy.

OK, lets compare ‘Christian extremism’ against ‘Islamic extremism’.
The KKK is one of the more powerful organizations along these lines in this country. How many others do we have? I am certain that a bunch exist, I just don’t know of them.

I can name some Islamic ones. (HEZBOLLAH, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, Al Quaeda). I have heard about many others, but let’s just compare these. I suppose the KKK have combat units, but they are amateurs. These Islamic groups can fight armies in the open. (They don’t match up all that well, but they can survive) I can name a number of Islamic leaders (Imams) who have formed and are leading their own combat units. I don’t know of any priests or bishops who have done so. I would expect a war if this happened. Strange how warfare is so common in places where Islamic leaders have formed their own armies.

Joe Six-Pack –

You’ve not seen the stories of the religious “combat units” in Michigan or Idaho?

Dennis,

Judson is tarring ALL Muslims on the basis of the actions of a small group within the religion. It shows that he is a shallow and stupid thinker, incapable of seeing nuance and understanding that Islam is a complex a religion as Christianity.

It’s not that Bachmann HAS Christian beliefs that she’s being opposed, it’s that she thinks that EVERYONE should subscribe to and follow her version, rather than their own.

Joe, are you saying one side’s violent religious extremism is is better than another’s because there’s less of it? Counting problems and over-generalizations aside, is that really the case you want to make? Remember that the separation of church and state was instituted in America not because it was he status quo in Europe, but because it was unknown in Europe, where theology and ideology were bound up with each other just like we criticize in much of the Islamic world. We separated them, Europe pretty much has too, and hopefully more of the Islamic world will make the separation at some point.

Maybe Phillips should have read Deuteronomy 13.

Contrary to common opinion, not every Muslim participated in the 9/11 massacre

How come this genius doesn’t give the chapter and verse in the Quran where he claims this infidel killing nonsense is? If it were true, why aren’t there daily reports of Muslims in America killing Christians and Jews, or ‘infidels’?
It’s a shame how it’s OK to be openly bigoted towards Muslims, and spread lies.

[...] sent a follow-up email to supporters this week reiterating his belief that Muslims deserve voters’ scrutiny but also suggesting that the [...]

The Judeo-Christian Bible does not advocate killing those who don’t adhere to the faith of the Judeo-Christian Bible? Guess he hasn’t read the Old Testament and the rampages of the prophets, prophets whom, Jesus largely honored. Or Jesus’ quote, “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the world, but a sword.” Jesus also refers to the children of Israel as the children sitting at the Father’s table, and Gentiles as the “dogs.” If you want to cherry-pick for advocacy of violence and intolerance you can find plenty in the Bible.

Joe Six Pack,

Here’s an excerpt from wisegeek.com:

“In most basic terms, the word “imam” is used in the Middle East much as the word “minister” is used in British English. In this sense, “minister” is a title that can be held by a religious leader, or a person holding an important office, such as the Prime Minister or the Minister of a government department. In the same manner, the word “imam” can be used to discuss the ruler of a country, or one who is an important member of a religious community. An imam is commonly a person who leads congregational prayers in Muslim places of worship. However, to be considered an imam, one does not have to be an official cleric. ”

Imam doesn’t equal “priest” or “bishop”. You’d have to present your evidence group by group to establish if any “army leaders” were fundamentally religious officials. And then what would you prove? That out of millions of religious officers, you found 8 that formed an army? So what?

As for saying that in the U.S. we have a certain situation and in other places they have a different situation, and therefore the reason is Islam is a logical fallacy. I could say that here in the U.S. we have more lakes than Saudi Arabia, therefore it is due to Islam. We have fewer infectious diseases than Somalia, therefore it is due to Islam. Here we have a National Football League but not in Kazakhstan, therefore football is incompatible with Islam. You can say these are ridiculous examples, yet they are as sophisticated as the examples which you cite.

When you look around the world, where you see violence is where a dominant group is threatening a minority. Tamil. Bosnia. Georgia (former Soviet Union). Palestine. Congo. Morocco. Rawanda. El Salvador. Northern Ireland until recently. Uighers in China. Kashmir. Watch BBC News sometime, and you’ll learn about all the many wars going on outside the Middle East and outside the context of Islam. Our media don’t cover this, they cover the “oil rich” and related territories. You hear about Venezuela all the time, but never about Ecuador. Why? We don’t give a crap about Ecuador unless they discover minerals or go “Communist”.

The reason for large armed militias is not Islam. It is civil war, threats against the minority by a majority, military occupation by a foreign power (U.S. in Iraq, Israel in Palestine, China in Mongolia and Tibet), and groups wanting independence (Georgia, Tamil, East Timor, Bosnia, Kurdistan).

By the way, when revolution begins again in South America and Southeast Asia, and it will in the near future, I imagine you’ll have to engineer a different simplistic conclusion, there being a dearth of Moslem people s in those regions.

“We are not bigots. We just don’t want you to vote for a guy because of his religion.”

This sort of logic says a lot about teabagger thinking.

I do not vote for or against anyone because of their religion. I rarely even know their religion.

I WILL vote against anyone who wants to force ME to live according to THEIR religious beliefs. Currently, this includes all republicans on my election ballot. I wish it were otherwise, but I doubt I will see that change in my lifetime.

[...] sent a follow-up email to supporters this week reiterating his belief that Muslims deserve voters’ scrutiny but also suggesting that the [...]

Judson Phillips doesn’t vote in the Mn 5th. Doubt he knows a thing about the district, other than there’s a bigoted woman running against Keith Ellison because she doesn’t accept the Constitution’s prohibition that there not be a religious test for public office. Her intolerance and candidacy should be rejected

6 “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 some of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him; 9 but you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Peter’s posting above is Deuteronomy 13:6-10 from the English Standard Version (©2001) of the Bible.

So much for Phillips’ cry and hue about the Islamic position on infidels …

Bah.

So, let’s summarise:
Judson Phillips says he’s not opposed to Ellison simply because he’s a Muslim.
No, it’s because Ellison has bad character.
We know he has bad character because he’s a Muslim, and Muslims are intolerant.
Then Phillips tacitly admits that he is intolerant, too, and uses that as evidence of his own good character.

Is that supposed to make sense? Because it doesn’t.

As for Bachmann, she wants to shove one particular brand of evangelical Christianity down the throats of all people, even Christians who disagree with her.

Anyway, the wingnuts have been screaming about Ellison’s religion for four years now, and he still gets elected by wide margins. People know he’s a Muslim; they just don’t care.

Republicans go nuts when they hear this stuff. They think we should simply hate and just be “intolerant”.

*ahem* “hue and cry” – not “cry and hue”

The bible is one of the most murderous and violent books ever written and worshipped. Spare me the hypocrisy.

Like Phillips all of you radical tea party goofs are misfits however on the up side America is finally witnessing how radical and goofey you really are! So it won’t be long if it isn’t already before the tea party name very much like the KKK becomes a noose aroud any politicians neck !

Good riddence to you and your republican bretheren ! Jerks!

[...] in 2010, but her floundering campaign received immense support from the Tea Party Nation and its vehemently anti-Muslim president Judson Phillips. That year, Torgerson said that Ellison “has no business being in our federal [...]