Friday, July 18, 2008

This you won't believe
Some insane yabbo named Brent Rinehart is running for Oklahoma County Commissioner and has produced a comic book (in pdf) which, among other things, stresses his condemnation of "homosexual preferences." It's scary, but it's also hilarious. My favorite is the image of a toga-clad scout leader dragging poor little Timmy into the woods to molest him.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The comic book is hilarious, and I myself have had several hours of chortling over it.

But I am also from Oklahoma City - and I can tell you that this does NOT represent the worldview of the vast majority of Oklahomans - as evidenced by the many quotes from Oklahoma public officials (yes Virginia, including Republicans) and academics who rightly condemn Rinehart. The Oklahoman - OKC's main newspaper, and conservative in its outlook - called the comic "16 pages of tripe."

Rinehart is a mentally-disturbed narcissist with a penchant for pencil mustaches and corruption, and his (few) supporters are very unbalanced people.

Oklahoma City is a thriving metroplex of more than a million people (named by Forbes as among the top 10 recession proof cities, while a suburb, Norman, was named the 6th best small city in America by Money Magazine last week).

I also hope that those with an axe to grind against Christianity will not somehow take this comic book as indicative of a Christian worldview. Frankly, that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. This is a theologically-bankrupt work, if I may put it bluntly. Christians do not believe in a little midget-man Satan with a pitch fork, nor in malnourished angels with magic wands - any more than we believe heaven is filled with angels playing harps (see C.S. Lewis for a better explication of this). That’s a caricature of a caricature of a caricature.

If you’re an atheist, and wish to dispute Christianity, I would not use this comic book for the foundation of your arguments. It is not at all a representation of Christian beliefs - but is instead the product of a diseased mind.

One aspect of this "comic book" requires a little background: You should know that the state was controlled by a one-party corrupt Democratic machine for its first century (the state just celebrated the centennial). This only has recently changed, but Rinehart is playing on old superstitions about corrupt Democrats who ran the state for so long - and nearly ran the state into the ground because of THEIR "culture of corruption."

Decca said...

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Believe me, I do not believe that this man in any way represents the majority of Oklahomans. I agree with you that "mentally-disturbed" is a better description.

Nor am I anti-Christian or believe that he is a good representation of Christian theology. I think he's a one-off idiot with sadly insane ideas that show very little understanding of the real world or, at least, of "real" homosexuality.

My best friend is gay and over the years I've been fortunate enough to have many gay and lesbian friends. None of them are pedophiles, dress in togas, are anti-God, or are part of some huge Satanic plan to ruin this jerk's campaign.