Are We To Become A Christian Fundamentalist Nation?

His reasoning was based upon his convoluted religious beliefs.

It took them weeks to formulate a cock and bull story in an effort to make the policy look like he was actually allowing for the research. It was a fabrication of lies.

How do you propose that we (as a society) distinguish between political and religious beliefs? (I assume you have your own personal ways of distinguishing political from religious, but I am specifically asking a policy question.)

Are you proposing that we make a list of beliefs that a politician should not have?

What I am saying that they should not act upon them while in public office.

While this site is not about Republicans, it is about Republican strategists who target fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches as a way to expand the base of their party, and about a very specific group of religious leaders who are using the Republican Party as a way to gain "dominion" over society. The ultimate political goal of the Religious Right is to make the United States a Christian nation. The ultimate legal goal is to make the U.S. Constitution conform to Biblical Law. The bar graphs in Government make it clear that the Religious Right is in a strong position to hold the Republican Party hostage to its agenda.

To quote a highly respected, very conservative Republican, former presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater, "Our problem is with ... the religious extremists ... who want to destroy everybody who doesn't agree with them. I see them as betrayers of the fundamental principles of conservatism. A lot of so-called conservatives today don't know what the word means."

From Planned Parenthood's International Family Planning, Global Resource Center: "On January 22, 2001, newly inaugurated President George W. Bush issued an executive memorandum reinstating the global gag rule on international family planning assistance. This was a highly divisive attack on reproductive rights, coming barely two days into the Bush administration and on the 28th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

The New York Times editorial, January 12, 2003, "The War Against Women:" "In resurrecting the gag rule, the new president broadcast a disdain for freedom of speech to emerging democracies, while crippling the international family planning programs that work to prevent hundreds of thousands of infant and maternal deaths worldwide each year. Most Americans would be shocked at the lengths American representatives are going to in their international war against women's right to control their bodies.

On Jan. 30, 2001, Robert Scheer wrote in The Los Angeles Times: "Fully one-third of the world's workforce is effectively unemployed, and the United Nations estimates that 500 million new jobs must be created just to accommodate new arrivals in the job market over the next decade. Developing economies do not stand a chance of meeting that demand without aggressive population control. Yet Bush has chosen to cut funding for the very organizations, most notably Planned Parenthood, that work hardest to make birth control information available throughout the world."

GOOD NEWS -- on September 5, 2003, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to block the Bush Administration's efforts to expand the Global Gag Rule.

From NARAL: "The cumulative effect of enacted anti-choice legislation is staggering: 335 anti-choice measures have been enacted since 1995. Until pro-choice Americans regain control of Congress and their state legislatures, the onslaught of legislation aimed at restricting women's choices and curtailing women's reproductive health options will continue unabated." This NARAL fact sheet covers a wide range of legislation that Congress, dominated by the Religious Right, has targeted against women and girls. Click Here.

However, recent attendance at the Coalition's annual Road to Victory conferences has dropped dramatically, and its budget has reportedly halved from a high of about $25 million in the mid 1990s.11 In 1992 and 1996, GOP Presidential candidates invariably attended the conference, but in 2000 it took pressure from Pat Roberson on his 700 Club before George W. Bush sent Lynn Cheney, the wife of his vice presidential candidate, and a video of his personal greetings. Bush had already ducked a Republican candidate forum organized by the national Christian Coalition in New Hampshire in February 1999. Interestingly, the Coalition excluded Christian Right third party candidates Pat Buchanan and Howard Phillips from its 2000 Road to Victory conference.12 Part of the strategy of the Bush campaign appeared to be to keep the Christian Right at arms length in public, even though the movement was fairly uniformly supporting the GOP ticket. Apparently Bush campaign strategists calculated that the appearance of a close relationship between Bush and the Christian Right would be a liability for Bush's candidacy. Such an assumption is a measure of the shaky standing of the Christian Right in U.S. public opinion.

This drive for "dominion" is underestimated by the media and political analysts. Karl Rove estimates the number of people from the Religious Right who voted for Bush in 2000 to be about 15 million, and he talked about raising that number to 19 million. With the Religious Right's passion to gain control of the federal court system and its ability to send followers to the polls by the busload, Rove's estimate is probably modest, and its number as a voting bloc could exceed 20 million.

The Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, a bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 107th Congress, was intended to bypass campaign finance reform and allow houses of worship to collect money for political campaigns. It was drafted with help from Pat Robertson's law school. These contributions would have been both anonymous and tax exempt. This bill was lobbied for intensively by virtually all the key organizations of the Religious Right, and opposed by a strong coalition of mainline religious groups. It was defeated in the House of Representatives on October 3, 2002, thereby denying unrestricted campaign contributions to be made through the collection plate.

Because most groups except the Religious Right opposed the bill, it was a good measure of their numbers in the House. Roughly 43% of those who voted supported the bill (178 for, 239 against). Candidates backed by the Religious Right won 18 new seats in the House of Representatives. The bill was re-introduced in January, 2003. To read a fact sheet on the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act from the Interfaith Alliance Click Here

Another bill was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives that indicates the strength of the Religious Right. While media attention focused on the two-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court by its Chief Justice Roy Moore, little, if any attention was focused on a House measure that passed on July 23, by a vote of 260 - 161. The bill blocks the federal government from spending any tax funds to enforce the 11th U.S. circuit Court of Appeals order to have the monument removed. During floor debate, the author of the bill insisted that Congress has the power to curb the courts. This bill is an assault on an independent judiciary.

Highlights of the Texas GOP Platform, 2002

"The Republican Party of Texas reaffirms the United States of America is a Christian Nation ..."

1. GOVERNMENT

"We reclaim freedom of religious expression in public on government property, and freedom from government interference."

Support government display of Ten Commandments.

Dispel the "myth" of the separation of church and state.

"A strong and vibrant private sector [should be] unencumbered by excessive government regulation"

Oppose Campaign Finance Reform

Oppose any form of gun control

Abolish:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms;
position of Surgeon General;
EPA;
Department of Energy;
Department of Housing and Urban Development;
Department of Education;
Department of Commerce and Labor;
National Endowment for the Arts

2. ECONOMY

Abolish the dollar in favor of the gold standard.

Abolish the IRS

Eliminate income tax, inheritance tax, gift tax, capital gains, corporate income tax, payroll tax and property tax.

Repeal minimum wage law.

" ... gradually phase out Social Security tax" for a system of "private pensions"