Rush
Limbaugh – A Hate Preacher and Idle Gossiper Un-Christian Like
Is
Rush Limbaugh Really a Christian? Part 1 of 3: Marriage
For many years Rush Limbaugh has implied that he is
a conservative Christian in order to maintain the devotion of his adoring
masses of right wing listeners. Even before his career took off it is
clear that Limbaugh knew support from the religious right was vital in
conservative talk radio. In this rare television
interview from 1988, Limbaugh says that the one of the few topics that
is off limits when it comes to jokes is "the Lord" (at 8:30 mark).
In the 25 years since, Limbaugh has consistently portrayed himself as the
talk radio defender of Christianity and what he has decided as
Christian values, even going so far as to defend
Ugandan terrorist/war criminal Joseph Kony
because he believed that a group calling itself the "Lord's Resistance
Army" must certainly be Christian. But is Limbaugh really qualified
to lead as head of the Christian right’s radio bureau? In a word, NO!!
attribution:
None Specified
Before going any further, I
need to acknowledge the difficulty in defining what makes a person a Christian.
Some feel that simply identifying oneself as a Christian makes it so.
But I think many would agree that someone can only justify calling
themselves Christian if they attempt to conduct themselves in a manner which is
consistent with Christian teachings.
Rush Limbaugh does not.
How is Rush Limbaugh Not a Christian? Let me
count the ways....
1) Marriage history (after the jump)
Rush Limbaugh loves traditional marriage so much
that he has done it four times at last count. He most recently
married Katherine Rogers, 25 years his junior, in 2010. What is the
evangelical Christian view of Limbaugh’s multiple
divorces? Here’s what the Bible has to say about the topic:
Matthew 19:6 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
Evangelist James Dobson’s non-profit organization Focus
on the Family states that marriage is intended to be a permanent
arrangement as well:
God, the Creator
of humanity and of marriage itself, has laid out His plan for marriage as a
lifelong union. God knows this design is the best. When we stray from His
plan…the results are damaging on many levels.
The Bible gives a couple of scenarios under which
divorce is justified for Christians. One is if the spouse has been
unfaithful, and another is when the spouse leaves. In Limbaugh’s case,
the cause of the divorces is not clear, although media
reports indicate that each of his first three wives left him and not
vice versa. At least one
of Limbaugh's wives is reported to have lived in a separate house on
his property while they were married. Why would all these women leave
such a rich, intelligent, charming man?
One theory is that Limbaugh is homosexual and that
his marriages have just been for show. Limbaugh has no children, despite
his assertion
that the “institution of marriage is about raising children,” and his first
wife Roxie Maxine McNeely filed
for divorce "on grounds of incompatibility."
Reports
have consistently circulated that Limbaugh, while working for KQV in Pittsburgh
in the 70s under the name Jeff Christie, was arrested for solicitation in an
area of the city known for gay pickups and was fired from his radio job the
same week. I was unable to locate a booking photo or arrest record
online.
As if his own miserable marriage history weren’t
enough evidence of his disregard for Biblical principles, Limbaugh also spoke
up in defense of fellow serial divorcer Newt Gingrich after Gingrich asked
his wife for permission to sleep with other women:
"So
Newt wanted an open marriage. BFD. At
least he asked his wife for permission instead of cheating on her. That's
a mark of character, in my book."
Limbaugh’s
personal history of marriage and his disdain for marital fidelity in general
are not consistent with Christian values. Along with his lack of regard
for the poor, this track record makes him unqualified to represent evangelical
Christians.
Is
Rush Limbaugh Really a Christian? Part 2 of 3: Drugs
(Ref: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/22/1180566/-Is-Rush-Limbaugh-Really-a-Christian-Part-3-of-4-Drugs)
How is Rush Limbaugh Not a
Christian? Let me count the ways....
2) Drugs (after the jump)
Another piece of evidence that Rush Limbaugh does
not live his life according to the Christian code are
his brushes with the law for drug use. Here’s what the Bible has to say
on the topic:
1 Corinthians 6:
19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you
were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
America’s foremost evangelist
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family identifies
some symptoms to help parents identify drug abuse in their children.
Many of them sound eerily familiar to those who have followed Limbaugh’s
career:
*Complete loss of control of adolescent's behavior,
escalation of conflict, possibly to the point of violence.
*Ongoing denial by user that drugs are a problem.
*Increasing
problems with the law and time spent with police, attorneys, hearings, court
officials, etc.
Rumors of Limbaugh's drug
problem had swirled for years, increasing after his mysterious hearing loss—one
side effect of
prescription opiate abuse --from 2001-2002.
When he could no longer keep
the news a secret, Limbaugh gave this
statement on his radio show:
I am addicted to prescription
pain medication. I first started taking prescription painkillers five, six
years ago, when my doctor described them to treat post-surgical pain following
spinal surgery…I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. And this
medication turned out to be highly addictive. Over the past several years, I've
tried to break my dependence on pain pills. And, in fact, I've twice checked
myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so…Immediately following
this broadcast, I will check myself into a treatment center for the next 30
days to once and for all break the hold that this highly addictive medication
has on me.
But Limbaugh wasn’t arrested for drug addiction, he was arrested for illegally visiting multiple
doctors in order to fraudently obtain prescriptions
to feed his habit. His housekeeper was more forthcoming
than Limbaugh about the details:
Limbaugh's
former housekeeper claims she helped him buy thousands of dollars of
prescription pain killers over a four-year period, including the
highly-addictive Oxycontin, a potent painkiller known
as "hillbilly heroin" because of its black-market popularity in some
rural areas.
By his former
housekeeper's account, Limbaugh took up to 30 Oxycontin
pills a day.
Following a lengthy investigation, Limbaugh was arrested
in April, 2006 for illegally obtaining massive quantities of
painkillers.
Just two months after his
arrest, Limbaugh was detained
for another drug offense upon returning from a vacation in Domincan
Republic. This time Limbaugh had a bottle of Viagra which was not
prescribed to him. No charges were filed, and Limbaugh later joked
about the incident on his radio show:
"I had a
great time in the Dominican Republic. Wish I could tell you about it."
Limbaugh was between marriages 3 and 4 at the time
of his detention with the erectile dysfunction medication in his possession
after what must have been an exhausting vacation. Incidentally, impotence
is a common
side effect of opiate abuse.
Limbaugh avoided jail time and any real
consequences—apart from public embarrassment--for his decidedly non-Christian
drug follies. This failure to be held accountable for breaking the law is
something that Limbaugh’s fellow conservative Rush Limbaugh spoke
out about on his mercifully brief television show in 1995 in an epic
demonstration of hypocritical foresight:
"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this
country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs,
importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs,
they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be
sent up."
Limbaugh’s
history of drug abuse and arrests, along with his multiple marriages which I
have documented earlier, make him a very poor poster boy for the religious
right.
Is
Rush Limbaugh Really a Christian? Part 3 of 3: Women
(Ref:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/26/1182283/-Is-Rush-Limbaugh-Really-a-Christian-Part-4-of-4-Women)
How is Rush
Limbaugh Not a Christian? Let me count the ways....
3) Attitude toward women (after the jump)
I wasn’t able to find many Bible verses which
specifically talked about the need to respect women. But I do think the
following verse speaks to how Limbaugh and any other who labels him or herself
a Christian should treat others:
Proverbs 11:17 A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel
man hurts himself.
Feminists
Limbaugh’s treatment of women over the years has
been anything but kind. One frequent target of Limbaugh’s attacks has
been feminists, referred to derisively on his program as “Feminazis.”
Limbaugh did offer his tongue-in-cheek
support for this movement, saying he especially likes the women’s
movement “when walking behind it.” Limbaugh ignores the importance of a
struggle for equality and turns women who simply want to be treated fairly into
cruel
caricatures:
"Feminism was established so as to allow
unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society."
Last year, Limbaugh leveled the
bizarre charge that feminism was causing men’s penises to shrink.
It’s possible the Viagra he was detained with while battling a boner-killing
opiate addiction has lost its effectiveness.
Limbaugh and fourth wife Kathryn Rogers
Sandra Fluke
Attacks
In late February and early March 2012 Rush Limbaugh
launched a 3 day attack on Georgetown student Sandra Fluke after Fluke
testified before a congressional committee about her health care rights.
Limbaugh responded with a 3 day slut-shaming
rampage that was vicious even by his standards:
What does it say
about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee
and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make
her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be
paid to have sex.
The strength that Sandra Fluke had to go before
Congress is amazing. She's having so much sex it's amazing she can still walk, but
she made it up there.
As if the slut-shaming weren’t enough, Limbaugh upped the ante with a request
for pornography:
So, Ms. Fluke
and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal:
If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to
have sex, we want something for it. And I'll tell you what it is. We want you
to post the videos online so we can all watch...
*
*
Limbaugh’s assault on Fluke ignited the StopRush movement, a movement which is
still costing Limbaugh sponsors every day after almost a year.
Abortion with a
Gun
Just this month Limbaugh appeared to call for
violence against women who exercise their legal right to choose when he
suggested that abortions
should be performed with a firearm:
"You know how to stop abortion? Require that
each one occur with a gun."
Limbaugh offered no apology or explanation for the comment.
Join the Fight to Flush Rush Limbaugh on Facebook
Rush
Limbaugh’s history of mocking and deriding women, requesting they send him
pornography of themselves, and calling for them to be shot all conflict with
the basic moral tenets of Christianity. When considered along with his
treatment of the poor, his marriage history, and his recreational drug use, all
signs point to Rush Limbaugh being an exceedingly bad spokesman for the
Christian right.
NOT
ONLY CHRISIAN RIGHT BUT FOR AMERICA TOO!