I love my family. Unfortunately, the majority of my family members are very Conservative. Some of them are also very religious. I am neither, but I still love them with all my being.
Last night, I was going to post a funny story on one of my family member's Facebook pages when I noticed a post (with a Fox News link) about the alleged embattled Phoenix, Arizona pastor, Michael Salman.
You may have heard of him -- Salman's the man who has been battling the city of Phoenix for the past seven years about his supposed right to, as he claims, hold Bible study gatherings for his family and friends on his property. The City disagreed and claimed he created a church and that he must adhere to a number of city codes for businesses. He was convicted in 2010 for numerous violations, but was not actually sent to jail until last week.
Apparently, this has become the latest cause de celebre for the right-wing including Glenn Beck and Fox News.
On my family member's Facebook page, a few friends of my family member posted that America is doomed, Obama is a godless Commie, we need to take back our country. You know, the usual "Chicken Little" apocalypse nonsense so prevalent amongst those who are frightened by their own shadows.
I write books about murder, destruction, killers, and the law for a living so I decided to conduct a little research on Michael Salman. Luckily, I stumbled across a brilliant work of investigation on Michael Salman created by a self-described "fellow Christian Conservative" for the blog News 4 The Masses. The creator of the blog uses the Twitter handle @mijadedios. (S)he seems to focus on uncovering bogus practitioners of faith.
I am not even going to bother paraphrasing mijadedios' work. You simply need to go to her/his blog yourself. The amount of background information (s)he was able to uncover on Salman in regard to Salman's personal criminal history, as well as the specific issue in question, is astounding.
“Pastor” Michael Salman Not Going to Jail for Preaching but for Failing to Obey the Law
http://news4themasses.wordpress.com/...
The Salman case is quickly becoming a social network viral phenomenon. Why not have the ultimate counter argument at your fingertips?
This is the antidote.
I have no affiliation with mijadedios, whatsoever, nor do I even know who (s)he is. I simply admire the work (s)he has put into uncovering yet another potential fraud that the right-wing will attempt to deify and use against liberals and President Obama.
Nice work, mijadedios!
