Because Laughter is a Tool of the Devil, Dammit
So there’s this play called “The Bible: Complete Word of God, Abridged” and you could perform it at the Ladies Quilting Society in the basement of the Lutheran Church. It’s not sacrilegious. It’s funny.
One joke from the play – and it’s the dirtiest one.
For instance, it has Moses coming down from the mountain, saying, “Children of Israel, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I talked Him down to 10. The bad news is adultery is still one of them.”
But, we all know that the rightwing have all had a humorectomy – especially when it comes to laughing at themselves. So, there shall be no laughter.
Eliason: Knows Youth. Misses It.
A play that has been performed for 17 years, including at the Kennedy Center and hundreds of churches across the county is now banned in Wisconsin state parks. Some 76 year old damfool with a cheap toupee named Vic Eliason had a hissy fit. “Eliason is an evangelical clergyman in Milwaukee who runs the VCY (Voices of Christian Youth) America Radio Network.” Not for a million dollars would I trust this guy around my kids.
But Vic gets all his listeners to literally harass everybody on the board of the group who puts on this show.
Eliason also gave out the phone numbers of the DNR’s top two officials and told listeners to ask them why the state was allowing this play to go on, and why it was profiting from it. (The agreement with SummerStage and the Lapham Peak State Park is that 5 percent of ticket sales go to the park, Eliason said.)
Yes, harassment is a Christian value.
But, of course, this is the part of the story you’ve been expecting —
Eliason admits he never saw the play or read the script. “Sir, let me tell you this: I saw enough of the trailers alone to turn my stomach,” he said. The trailer he broadcast on August 9 ran the joke about Moses and the Ten Commandments. Eliason prefaced it by saying: “I almost hesitate to play these words on a Christian station.”
Dude, you are 76 years old with a bad toupee. Hang it up – you need to let go of this whole youth thing. Go sit on the porch and throw rocks at little children.
Thanks to Kathleen for the heads up.
Isn’t abridging the word of God apostacy?
1So, a play, some of the proceeds of which go to benefit state parks, which are literally “starving” for money…… not only in Wisconsin, but just about everywhere…. this idiot wants stopped.
He’s also probably against kids being able to go to the park and enjoy themselves.
A bad toupee is not all he has. He has a horrible attitude about real life.
2I’m familiar with that attitude. I ran into it several times during my years as a stage director.
3So sad to be so self-righteously sanctimonious … These old men who are so pompously self-grandizing themselves give Christianity a bad name. I am a Christian woman but I’d like to be able to come up behind some of these fool men and just bitch-slap the crap out of them!! Sorry Momma … my own Momma would not be happy with that either, but there’s just no other way to say it!!
4Right. Cynic that I am I know if the play was about another religion he’d be all for it. Anyone remember Tom Lehrer? The Vatican Rag?
5Excellent – next up, the entire @RNC will be denouncing this little play and write it in their Xtian Platform of Religiosity and Hate – Family Values.
6Of course he did not see the play, they never see the play, read the book, watch the movie, listen to the song….
We would not want to LEARN something or to acquire an EDUCATION now would we? Remember, ignorance is something you should never lose, because once it is gone, you can never get it back. I think this is rapidly becoming the new Republican motto.
7Norma thank you for the Tom Leher reminder!
8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YcGRNmkB00
Or with lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFIkeXQI8nI
Jesus spoke in Aramaic. The gospels were originally written in Greek, about 100 years after Jesus died. They were then translated into Latin. Then English. There’s a lot that gets lost in translation, and for all Vic Eliason knows, Jesus himself might have told a crowd or two that joke about Moses and the 10 Commandents. (As an example of what is, or is not in the Bible, only the Gospel of John records that Jesus turned water into wine. Seems important, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke don’t mention it.)
9Didn’t some bunch get al upset about Nunsense back in the day? Dimwit never saw it.
10Is there anything that these guys aren’t afraid of?
11Remember 40 years or so back in time. A preacher got Eugene Field confused with Eugene O’Neill and brought a Boy Scout troop to Waco to see A long Days Journey Into Night.
As I recall, that’s when Baylor lost the faculty of the whole department. These guys need to read the Sunday Times if they intend to be theater critics.
12There’s gonna be a lawsuit. The State will lose it. There is no defense that a nutbread priest got upset with content. We aren’t Pakistan unless these Christian Taliban can get a constitutional amendment passed.
13Deb–Thanks for the link!
1476 and he runs a youth radio station? When will these guys grow up?
15The republicans want to privatize the state parks and sell off the land to people rich enough to buy, let’s say, Lake Michigan beachfront property. Or, build a MacMansion in the Kettle Moraine. The right wing will do everything in its power to keep money from going to public land.
16Looks like Deb has her thinking cap on. They (thinking caps) don’t fit old men. Trust me. I am an old woman and have known old men for a long time. A few exceptions slip thru and we forget and apply their reasoning to all, but it is usually a mistake. Pure thought for most should apparently not exceed that exercised when one is 5 years old.
17If you want to get the divine word directly from Ceiling Cat, go here:
18http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Vic Eliason and Crosstalk should be investigated by the Southern Poverty Law Center and put on their list of hate-groups. This hateful old man has been spewing his venom for years against Muslims, abortion doctors, gays and lesbians, liberals, etc. Now he’s been able to shut down this play, at least in its intended location by giving out the private phone numbers of people involved in the production. It was being presented in a public park, and his bogus religious cult is tax exempt and doesn’t contribute to the support of that park. Hopefully others will call the Southern Poverty Law Center and asked that he be investigated. He’s gotten by with endangering others long enough.
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