The Far Right's War on Christianity and Everyone Else Who Is Not Them

Maybe Thomas Jefferson was on to something when he said; "There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity; it has made one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites"



In case you didn't notice, the fools are at war with Christianity in America.

While between 80 and 90% of Americans consider themselves Christians of one sort or another, there is apparently a widespread belief that American Christians and Christianity are being persecuted - despite their control of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of national government and many state and local governments.

Apparently,some people still think that in addition to churches and private homes and private organizations, the religion of the majority must be allowed to decorate government institutions (such as public schools and libraries) and pray in public secular venues, so that people of all faiths can be included (like it or not) in the celebration of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If they are not allowed to put their religious symbols in public spaces shared by those who do not follow their religious beliefs, they are "being persecuted."

This bigotted attitude reaches the very heights of wishful martyrdom and shows a fundamental ignorance of the US Constitution. Advocating a separation of church and state - the founding principal establishing true religious freedom by keeping religion and government apart - has now become the "War against Christianity."

The theocratic Christian right seeks to establish dominion over American society. And I don't make this stuff up. Rev. D. James Kennedy, Pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries, calls on his followers to exercise dominion over every aspect of human society. At a "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference in February, 2005, Rev. Kennedy sent fans into deliriums when he stated,

"Our job is to reclaim America for Christ whatever the cost(italics added). As the vice-regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors - in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

Twenty-five years ago, Christian dominionists targeted the Republican Party as the vehicle by which they could politically empower their religious agenda. At the same time, a cabal of GOP strategists targeted Christian fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches to expand the Republican Party power base. It was an unholy and unwholesome alliance.

But this is not about traditional Republicans or even about conservative Christians. It is about the manipulation of people of faith for political power. It is about the rise of dominionists in the U.S. federal government. And today's hard-corps Christian right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts, changing the laws and rigging the rules. The target is not just the Democrats, but democracy itself. It doesn't get any more dominionist than this.

The fanatical Right is no longer satisfied with worldwide war on the Muslim world; it is now invading the world of the less fanatical American Christain.

As Barry Goldwater prophetically said,"Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives."

It is past time for decent Christians to "stand up".

What is it about folks on the Christian right who preach the Good Book but who are really, really bad? You know, guys like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert and Ted Haggart, who never flinched at taking their pious flocks’ money but always managed to set aside a little for some out-of-town sweet young tenderloins?

That got me thinking about other Christian conservative holier-than-thou folks. Their perversions have been routinely reported in various national news media, so I don't have to make anything up. Their commonality is that they are most often Republican Conservative Christian activists who have preached "Christian family values" while performing unspeakable acts of perversion - usually illegal - often with minors - frequently with their own family members. So much for family values from the Christian religious right.

Now, I am not saying that there aren’t perverts who call themselves Democrats. But somehow the conservative Republican Christo-fanatics are true and certain holy hypocrites - along with being perverts. When a political party presents itself as the Party of God ("Hezbollah," in Arabic) - whether it is Republicans in Georgetown or Shiites in Iran - one can be absolutely certain that something obsessive or kinky is being hidden by all of that religious puffery.

Consider the child rape scandals that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church over the past few years and you will realize that this is an alarming national problem. The fact that child rape is even more common among Protestant clergy than among Catholic priests is truly horrifying.

Then when one counts the number of members of the Christian Republican Anti-gay and anti-choice Police that have been arrested and sentenced for perverse acts with children, the observer realizes that Christian religion and conservative Republican politics are truly a dark, moist hiding place for perverts and scoundrels of all stripes - perhaps in larger numbers than anywhere else, a dark, moist place for growing vermin of indescrible evil.

The worst thing one can do with a dogma is provide it an empire - the empire of politics and religion in the Party of Fear.