Are We To Become A Christian Fundamentalist Nation?

This is a democracy. People elect officials who reflect their values and interests. Elected officials act according to their values. It doesn't matter if these people are religious or if the values are religious. This is how democracy works

Christianization of the Republican Party: In Their Own Words

"Christianization of the Republican Party," an article from the The Christian Statesman, claims, "Once dismissed as a small regional movement, Christian conservatives have become a staple of politics nearly everywhere." "Christian conservatives now hold a majority of seats in 36% of all Republican Party state committees (or 18 of 50 states), plus large minorities in 81% of the rest, doubled their strength from a decade before."

The article explains, "the twin surges of Christians into GOP ranks in the early 1980s and early 1990s have begun to bear fruit, as naïve, idealistic recruits have transformed into savvy operatives and leaders, building organizations, winning leadership positions, fighting onto platform committees, and electing many of their own to public office. "

The Christian Statesman is a publication of the National Reform Association. Who is the National Reform Association?

"The mission of the National Reform Association is to maintain and promote in our national life the Christian principles of civil government, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

"Jesus Christ is Lord in all aspects of life, including civil government.

"Jesus Christ is, therefore, the Ruler of Nations, and should be explicitly confessed as such in any constitutional documents. The civil ruler is to be a servant of God, he derives his authority from God and he is duty-bound to govern according to the expressed will of God.

"The civil government of our nation, its laws, institutions, and practices must therefore be conformed to the principles of Biblical law as revealed in the Old and New Testaments." Click Here.

How did this happen?

Voter apathy is the key to the phenomenal ascent of the Religious Right in the U.S. government. "With the apathy that exists today, a small, well-organized minority can influence the selection of candidates to an astonishing degree." Pat Robertson wrote these words in The Millennium, 1990, and it has been a key organizing principle of the Religious Right ever since.

Pat Robertson tells us who makes up that "well-organized minority." It includes only Christians who share his point of view. As he said on his television program, the 700 Club: "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists, and this and that and the other thing. Nonsense! I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." (Pat Robertson, the Most Dangerous Man in America? Rob Boston),

"The apathy of other Americans can become a blessing and advantage to Christians," wrote Mark Belisle and Stephen McDowell in 1989, in America's Providential History a popular textbook for Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movement. "If just 10% of all Christians in America today woke up and realized how easy it is, got involved consistently for the long haul, it would not take long to reform America completely."

For the authors, the term "Christian" refers to a very narrow group of people. The word "reform" is key. It means reforming the United Sates so that it becomes a "Christian" nation, or theocracy. The Texas Republican Party Platform, 2002, supports the same goal: "The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States is a Christian nation."

"How long?" continue Belisle and McDowell. "Believe it or not, it could be done within ten years…every godly representative in the state legislatures and the Congress could ... work with a godly president. New judicial appointments would begin radically changing ... the…courts ... One thing of great importance is for you to fulfill your Biblical duty to choose a godly representative by getting involved in local party politics for the rest of your life.

Ivanwald, which sits at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is known only to its residents and to the members and friends of the organization that sponsors it, a group of believers who refer to themselves as "the Family." The Family is, in its own words, an "invisible" association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as "members," as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.

Those who you are calling the "religious right" are Americans and they are acting as part of the process.

Anyway, What makes you so sure that your moral vision for the nation is the correct one

Speech by Ralph Neas

Ralph Neas, President of People for the American Way, spoke before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, October 10, 2002. He told the committee, "Mr. Chairman, the debate over the federal judiciary is part of an epic battle over the role of the federal government. The two-prong strategy of the right-wing of the Republican Party is simple but breathtakingly radical. First, enact a permanent tax cut which will eliminate $6 trillion in revenue over the next 20 years. That will in effect starve the federal government so it will be unable to fund many vital governmental functions performed since the New Deal.

"The second prong is to pack the federal judiciary with right-wing ideologues whose judicial philosophy would turn back the clock on civil rights, environmental protections, religious liberty, reproductive rights and privacy and so much more. Take away the money. And then take away legal rights that have been part of our constitutional framework for 65 years. We do indeed need a national debate. Before the American people wake up one morning and discover that their fundamental rights and liberties have vanished overnight."

A large part of society must support a candidate in order to be elected,

Did Life Really Originate From THIS?

The tenets of many religious faiths hold that life sprung from clay. Science has now backed that up. Researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have shown that materials in clay were key to some of the initial processes in forming life, reports Reuters.

The essential material is a clay mixture called montmorillonite that not only helps create little bags of fat and liquid, but also helps cells use genetic material called RNA--one of the key processes of life. Earlier research showed that clay could catalyze the chemical reactions needed to make RNA from building blocks called nucleotides. Reuters reports that scientists Jack Szostak, Martin Hanczyc, and Shelly Fujikawa have now figured out that clay speeds up the process by which fatty acids form vesicles, tiny bag-like structures. In addition, the clay carries RNA into the vesicles.

"Thus, we have demonstrated that not only can clay and other mineral surfaces accelerate vesicle assembly, but assuming that the clay ends up inside at least some of the time, this provides a pathway by which RNA could get into vesicles," Szostak said in a statement announcing the findings. "The formation, growth, and division of the earliest cells may have occurred in response to similar interactions with mineral particles and inputs of material and energy."

What does this mean? First, Szostak emphasizes the team is not saying this is how life started. "We are saying that we have demonstrated growth and division without any biochemical machinery. Ultimately, if we can demonstrate more natural ways this might have happened, it may begin to give us clues about how life could have actually gotten started on the primitive Earth."

But the faithful have long believed that life formed from clay and the dust of soil. In the Old Testament there are multiple references:

Book of Genesis 3:19
God speaks to Adam in the Garden of Eden and says: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Job 34:14-15
"If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath,
all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust."

Psalm 104:29
When thou hidest thy face, they are dismayed; when thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

The research findings were published in the journal Science.

It is all too easy for me to imagine a near future when research will have to be "biblically based" to be funded.

1) Outside of acting as part of the democratic system -- that is participating in elections, expression opinions, and instituting policy as an elected official. How are those you call the "religious right" imposing their will on you?

2) What are you proposing we do about it? A large part of society must support a candidate in order to be elected, This is the protection offered by a Democracy.