The gay/Vatican/Bush plot to get Tony Alamo.

In a conflict between religious fundamentalists and government it is difficult to know which side to take. Both are capable of awful things and neither is exactly what I’d call trustworthy. Both are quite capable of lying to justify their actions and both are prone to doing awful things. Fundamentalist religions only tend to be less dangerous due to their lack of ability, not due to a lack of will.

So the current state of affairs between Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and the Feds is a toss up. Either could be quite capable of being wrong here. Either side could lying. Here is a run down on the conflict.

For some time law enforcement claims they were receiving accusations of child sexual abuse with Alamo’s ministry. And they have raided the ministry on charges of child pornography supposedly dealing with at least three young girls. This took place after a purported two year investigation into the situation.

Now there is little doubt that Alamo and his sect are a particularly wacky bunch of religious fanatics. When Alamo’s former wife died he kept her body for six months promising people she would resurrect. Of course she didn’t. But false stories about resurrections are popular in religious circles.

At this point I’m not going to posit a guess as to which of these two combatants is in the wrong. Nor do I particularly care here. But what I do find extremely absurd is Tony Alamo’s defense and his claims about the reasons the government is out to get him.

If the Associated Press is to be trusted: “Mr. Alamo said Saturday that the investigation was part of a federal push to legalize same-sex marriage while outlawing polygamy.”

That is enough to judge Mr. Alamo as bonkers. Surely he has to be the only person in existence who thinks the federal government, under George Bush, is attempting to legalize gay marriage. Clearly Rev. Alamo thinks this sort of claim is beneficial to him.

What is it precisely that causes religious kooks to immediately scapegoat gay people for everything and anything that they are unhappy about. A quick look at Alamo’s own church site shows him to be a complete conspiracy kook. Not only will you discover that he’s a 9/11 Truther (surprise, surprise) but you will discover the real truth about the conspiracy that runs the U.S. government -- it’s that other major pro-gay organization, the Vatican which “is very close to replacing our U.S. Constitution with her one-world, satanic canon laws of death...”

According to Rev. Alamo the Vatican “now controls the United Nations (which she created), the White House, Congress, every state, federal, civic, and social government agency, including the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS, the FBI, the Supreme Court, judicial systems, the armed forces, state, federal, and other police, also the international banking and federal reserve systems (called the Illuminati and Agentur), labor unions, the Mafia, and most of the heavyweight news media.”

But according to Alamo the previous Pope was gay which “explains all the new Vatican federal government regulations regarding nondiscrimination against homosexuals.” I told you he was crazy. Apparently the whole world is conspiring against Alamo, whose church is “holiest” in the world. And everyone is plotting against him as part of the Bush Administration/Vatican conspiracy to promote same-sex marriage. Wow!

Tony Alamo is clearly a fanatic. He clearly is also crazy. And I suspect that there is more than just a little dirt under his rug. I have listened to sermons by Alamo and he clearly preaches polygamy and argues that God sanctions taking children as wives. There are claims that he has several child-brides himself. The Texas authorities botched badly their raid on the polygamist Mormons but there is enough material on Alamo that it wouldn't surprise me to see him arrested shortly and to see the government be able to present a strong legal case against him. Of course any such proof will be seen by his followers as evidence that they really are the true church and Alamo really is speaking on behalf of God. One thing I know about fundamentalists is that they can interpret both success and failure as an affirmation of what they believe. In fact, regardless of what happens to them, that seems to confirm their faith because nothing, no event, no amount of evidence, no compelling logic, can disprove their beliefs.