Last updated on April 8th, 2018 at 02:03 pm
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text that comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. There are two specific groups in America that are woefully deficient at reading comprehension, and it does not relate to academia or the nation’s education system. It is likely that the two groups, entirely made up of adults, are literate enough to read and understand simple text, but their dysfunctional ideology, inherent ignorance of American history, and twisted interpretation of their religion puts them in a class of human beings suffering “pathologic psychopathy.”
Psychopathy is defined as a mental disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, a diminished capacity for empathy or remorse, and poor behavioral controls or fearless dominance. It is safe to say extremists adhering to fundamentalism, at extreme levels, are inherently psychopathic, but particularly when their fundamentalism leads them to violent tendencies that threaten society. Christian fundamentalists and firearm fanatics are each a threat to society in their own right, but when combined into one group they pose a serious threat to America.
A week ago on the day seditionist Larry Klayman launched a treasonous plot to overthrow President Obama, declare independence from America, and demanded President Obama “get off his knees, put down the Quran, and come out with hands raised” to be taken to prison, a Christian teabagger summoned fellow “Christians” to kill President Obama. Klayman predicted his rally would garner millions of “like-minded Christian patriots” to demand the President surrender and leave Washington, but only about 100 Christian patriots attended. However, he did accomplish one of his seditious goals and incited the call to Christian teabaggers to kill the President.
The man representing The Christian America Patriots Militia justified murdering the legally elected President based on the only part of the Constitution conservatives recognize as valid; the 2nd Amendment. The Christian patriot’s interpretation of the 2nd Amendment and teachings of Jesus Christ demonstrate his reading comprehension is below the level of a 1st grader. Somehow, Everest Wilhelmsen determined that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” means patriotic Christians have “rights and a duty to bear arms against government having a design to reduce us under absolute Despotism,” and summoned them to “rise and fight vigorously to protect our nation and our posterity” by removing the President with deadly force.
According to another right-wing extremist threat against the President, Wilhelmsen claims teabagger Christians “now have the authority to shoot Obama, i.e., to kill him” and parroted a key complaint Klayman asserts that “the African American Muslim president is guilty of willful violations and alienation of our Constitution, constant disregard for [their] peaceful protests, and corruption of an illegitimate government revealing the dictator that he is.” Likely, the reference to the President’s “constant disregard” for the seditionists “peaceful protests” is because he did not surrender himself to be deposed and taken to prison after the rally to overthrow him last week.
Wilhelmsen’s screed claimed President Obama’s “rogues and thugs are in fact supplanting our Constitution with a communist Oligarchy of corrupt political and legal elites,” and that “authority to kill Obama comes from the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution because he is levying war on the United States and aiding and comforting our foreign enemies.” He ended his seditious rant claiming that he “would be very surprised if Obama does not leave Washington D.C. never to return if he is not dead within the month.” The Secret Service is aware of yet another direct threat against the President, but like Klayman and his treasonous acolytes, the enemies of state remain free to incite violence against the President, the U.S. government, and peace and tranquility of the American people.
It is really unclear how these seditious Christian teabaggers read and interpret any part of the Constitution as giving them “authority and duty” to assassinate the President, but it is their gross incomprehensible reading of their holy book, the Christian bible, that demonstrates their lack of reading comprehension. In the Old Testament’s 10 Commandments it is a sin punishable by death to kill, and their namesake Jesus Christ preached love for fellow man, turn the other cheek, and admonished his disciples that if they lived by the sword they would perish by the sword. There is nothing whatsoever in the bible advocating killing an American President or overthrowing the government.
In fact, in Romans chapter 13 verses 1-2, it commands that “everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” It is a simple to comprehend text, and yet most of the opposition to the government with an African American President and calls for violent revolution and assassination comes from so-called “Christian teabaggers” masquerading as patriots.
Further, teabagger Christians railing against paying the lowest tax rates in 50 years under President Obama are flaunting Jesus Christ’s answer to Pharisees when they attempted to confound him with a query about paying taxes to a government they detested. They said (Matthew Chapter 22 verses 17-21); “What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Any Sunday school youth reading those few verses understand it is a sin to rebel or oppose government authority or misinterpret Christ’s lesson about paying taxes, and yet it is beyond the comprehension of angry “teabagger Christians” looking a reason to justify rebelling against the government, oppose taxes, and now to murder the President. However, their problem is not really reading comprehension; it is enduring antisocial behavior, poor behavioral controls, and sense of entitlement borne of fearless dominance they believe they lost because they do not control the government. They are pathological psychopaths and they are a danger to society.
It is unlikely the people inciting violence against the President, or the government, will ever take up arms themselves or lead other “Christian American Patriots” into armed conflict to overthrow the government or assassinate President Obama. However, they know their perpetual calls for assassination and armed rebellion against the government will bear fruit by justifying sedition, no matter how incomprehensible, with claims of 2nd Amendment authority or Christian duty to start shooting. They do not even enjoy freedom of speech to incite sedition against the government or to murder the President according to several Supreme Court rulings, and at some point the Justice Department must take legal steps to quash their speech if for nothing else but tamp down the five year incitement to rebel against the government since the people elected an African American President.
Republicans are not blameless either. They have never called for civility, or made any attempt to rein in the teabaggers or politicians calling for 2nd Amendment remedies, armed opposition to federal laws, or threats against the President by their seditious supporters. Their desperate need to garner political support for their devious agenda in opposition to this President, the Constitution, or this government puts them in the same category as the psychopaths threating violence to achieve their means; they are not Christians and certainly not patriots and when some crazed group of rebels do start shooting, they will be just as culpable as the maniacs who use violent force against America’s democracy.
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Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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