Praise the Lord, build the nukes
By Frank Munger (Contact)Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Church and state weren’t very far separated last week at the grand opening for two new facilities — the New Hope Center and the Jack Case Center — at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
In fact, I can’t remember attending an event at a government site in Oak Ridge with so many religious connotations. People commented on it, during and after the affair.
Following a ribbon-cutting, the 300 or so attendees gathered in the auditorium of New Hope, where Dr. Bobby Mullins, senior pastor at Oak Ridge’s Central Baptist Church, gave a lengthy invocation.
After that, Tom D’Agostino, a top official from the National Nuclear Security Administration in Washington, drew upon a Bible passage in the Book of Romans during his remarks to praise the work of Y-12 employees.
“We rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope,” D’Agostino said.
[Read the full story here.]
The audio was garbled but we believe he also said, "...and I hope LANL produces pits, damnit!"
“We rejoice in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope,” (D’Agostino)
ReplyDeleteSuffering ==> Perseverance
Perseverance ==> Character
Character ==> Hope
Got that? Suffering is good for you. May we all suffer even more!
It's part of D'Agostino's grand plan for LANL's future, I suppose. This story is very bizarre and down right creepy.
LANL is destined to become a builder of "faith based" pits. That is, we're not sure of the science behind them anymore, as we've lost most of our best scientists, but we hope they'll work.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should have them certified with a mark of the cross, rather than the diamond mark which was utilized in the PR stunt with St. Pete. I'm sure Jesus would love that bit of PR.
D'Agostino is creepy. He reminds me of the religious right-wing nutcase Major Frank T. Burns -- the one played in the original "MASH" movie by Robert Duvall.
ReplyDeleteCheck it out
http://www.lanl.gov/news/albums/meetings/DAgostino_012407.jpg
http://flattland.com/images/mash_04.jpg
I guess D'Agostino was reading from the King James version.
ReplyDeleteThe same verse from Romans in my Contemporary Cynic's New Testament reads: "The floggings will continue until morale improves."
But 1:22 PM, the floggings are designed to give you "hope". Don't you understand?
ReplyDelete