Give me that old-time religion

So, bethje and I have now seen two episodes each of some wacky Christian children's programs that they show really early on Saturday mornings: Kids Like You and Circle Square. They both have kids interacting with puppets (which generally look like Sesame Street rejects), and teaching Christian values, like how Jesus should be your hero, because, unlike professional athletes who do drugs, he won't let you down. In both episodes of Circle Square, they used the black girl as the negative example (she talked just to hear herself, and was constantly in a bad mood). I'm assuming this was because she was a slightly better actor than the others, and not because of any covert racism, but it was still kind of suspicious.

Speaking of religion and television, we also caught Bill "Falafel" O'Reilly doing a piece on how the erosion of religion coincides with the rise of progressive values (because progress is apparently a bad thing). For his example, he cited how, as Canada grew collectively less religious, they started allowing gay marriage, legalizing drugs, and lowering the age of consent for sex to fourteen. (Is that last one even true? A quick web search revealed some pages confirming it, but it might not be as cut-and-dry as that. Does anyone know the facts of the matter?) Then he had Newt Gingrich (yes, that guy's still around) on to talk about it, and Newt said that he would use the word "radical," rather than "progressive." I guess he realized that progress is generally viewed in a positive light. I guess he's a little smarter than O'Reilly, but that's not saying much. Newt said something about how the United States was founded on religious values, and that's why it mentions a Creator in the Declaration of Independence. Never mind that the Constitution, which is obviously much more important in this day and age, has that pesky First Amendment. Aside from the obvious point that these radical ideas aren't necessarily bad, the obvious pandering to the Religious Right is annoying. I mean, do you REALLY think O'Reilly and Gingrich are good Christians? I tend to doubt most branches of Christianity would look favorably upon telling a woman that you want to rub falafel on her breasts, or divorcing your wife while she's in the hospital. People like that pretend to be down with the Jesus because they know it will get them support from actual conservative Christians. Not only that, but I think it was O'Reilly who also played the terrorism card, saying that Judeo-Christian values were important to defend the country, or some garbage like that. I'm reminded of how someone from my state (possibly Rick Santorum) said that "defending marriage" (i.e., letting the government tell people who they can and can't marry) should be part of Homeland Security. Are some people REALLY so stupid that they'll buy a connection between terrorism and ANYTHING? It might also be significant to remember that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center were probably very religious.