Can I Get An Amen?

There's a heavy dose of religion in the news today. Several bad boys are dragging religion into their misdeeds. Samuel Johnson famously said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." As others have observed, religion can be substituted for patriotism and the quote is just as meaningful. First up is one of my favorite whipping boys, Disgraced Pastor Ted Haggard. Disgraced Pastor Ted, as you may recall, loudly and frequently decried the ruination of America, being wrought by immorality of all sort. Disgraced Pastor Ted lead his megachurch in their war on sin, all the while consorting with a male prostitute and trying out meth. Disgraced Pastor Ted was 86'd pronto by the leadership board of his flock and has been incognito ever since. Apparently, the severance pay has run out. Disgraced Pastor Ted is back, surfacing in Phoenix, with his latest surefire moneymaking scheme. Disgraced Pastor Ted wants some of his former congregates to step up and support him in the manner that he has grown accustomed. Just while he and Mrs. Disgraced Pastor Ted get some sort of counseling degrees. Longterm, Disgraced Pastor Ted hopes to resume his passion for telling people what to do and making a handsome living doing it. Michael Vick stopped in court today, long enough to admit that he was guilty of arranging dogfighting and that he is a dog-killer. This in sharp contrast to his earlier denials. For those not up on the full story I will recap the evolution of Vick's version of the facts. Vick and his attorney denied everything and blamed "people using his house" for this unspeakable act of cruelty. When one of his buds turned on him, he suddenly remembered that he was present for some dogfighting but did not gamble or harm the dogs in any way. More buds turned on him and he suddenly remembered that he might have been involved in some dog killing, but he still insisted that he didn't profit from the enterprise. Today Vick appeared in court where he plead guilty to a conspiracy charge and is facing one to five years in the slammer. The good news is that according to Mr. Vick, he has found Jesus and is changing his ways. What a relief. Lastly, is the case of Allen Beckett, age 53, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Beckett, a University of Oklahoma sports booster, took umbrage at a Mr. Brian Thomas, for wearing a University of Texas tee-shirt into an Oklahoma City bar, where Mr. Beckett was playing darts. A fight ensued and Mr. Beckett grabbed Mr. Thomas by the scrotum, ripping said scrotum open and causing his...well you get it. Mr. Beckett is charged with aggravated assault. His attorney is seeking leniency for his client on the grounds that among other things, he is a church deacon. In fact, his attorney added that Mr. Beckett was only in the bar because he is a darts aficionado, not some belligerent drunk. This makes me wonder. If your scrotum is ripped open by a church deacon, does it hurt less than if it is ripped open by a belligerent drunk? Women readers should substitute an appropriate body part when pondering this question. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky