Glenn Simpson, a Tennessee law professor who runs the conservative Instapundit blog, wrote recently: "The Republicans' weakness is that people worry that they're the party of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. They tried, successfully, to convince people otherwise in the last election, but they're now acting in ways that are giving those fears new life." (SeattleTimes.nwsource.com, 05/01/05.)
[Editor's comment: I think that the journalist is meaning Glenn Reynolds! ;)]
Have a look how the people in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are pushing the religious agenda:
- George W. Bush and the gospel of freedom and liberty by David Domke.
The certitude in the support for Bush by Falwell (and by many other religious-right leaders, including James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer) is emblematic of Christian conservatives' confidence that their vision of the world is the vision of the world — entirely true and without flaw. Such an outlook inevitably fosters a conception of their beliefs as providing what religion scholar Bruce Lawrence terms "mandated universalist norms" that cross cultural contexts and therefore, as the biblical command makes clear, are to be shared with all nations. (SeattleTimes.nwsource.com, 05/01/05.)
- Does one party speak for God? Republicans, conservative allies don't own religion in America. By Jim Wallis.
But religion must be disciplined by democracy. That means bringing our religious convictions about all moral issues to the public square -- the uplifting of the poor, the protection of the environment, the ethics of war, or the tragic number of abortions in America without attacking the sincerity of other's people's faith or demanding we should win because we are religious. Rather, we must make moral arguments and mobilize effective movements for social change that can powerfully persuade our fellow citizens, religious or not, about what is best for the common good. (Charlotte.com, 05/02/05.)
For more examples, read Andrew Sullivan's post, Fundamentalism Watch I-IV. [Editor's note: In a way, you could call me a "fundamentalist," due to the fact that I am interested in fundamental ideas.] Have you heard about the Constitution Party and Christian Reconstructionism? The Commisssar of the Politburo Diktat will attend this seminar arranged by the Open Center: Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right. James Joyner of Outside the Beltway is saying the following:
President Bush is, like it or not, much closer to the middle on values issues than Open Center or People for the American Way. Further, the idea that Christian religious forces are more powerful now than they were at earlier points in our history, especially our first century and a half, is absurd. Indeed, for years after the passage of the 1st Amendment, Virginia and Massachusetts had official state religions. (OutsideTheBeltway.com, 05/01/05.)
So, what do you think? Are the "theocrats coming," or not? Maybe they are already here?
Related: My post, HAS THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT TAKEN OVER THE GOP?
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