The extreme Christian ring wing encroachment into our government has surged since President Bush, himself an evangelical, came into office. And by "government", it's in all departments. Check out this article from Reuters, on Lt. General William "Jerry" Boykin", the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. General Boykin is an evangelical Christian, who is only now being called to question about speeches he made, in uniform, describing the American war on terror as a Christian crusade against Satan:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news-religion-general.html?pagewanted=print&position
Do you think General Boykin consulted God about military interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib prison? After all, when you are battling Satan, God probably approves just about anything.
And Finn, yes, we can giggle about those crazy wacko fundamentalists. But it won't be so funny when they come knocking on our door. Here is a good article from Harpers about a secretive sanctuary across the Potomac river, in Arlington, Va., called Ivanwald, where prominent government and business figures go for religious sabbaticals. In fact, I believe it came out this summer that Senator Brownback of Kansas went there to re-connect with Jesus, and it's tax-payer funded.
http://www.harpers.org/JesusPlusNothing.html?pg=1.htm
Joefromchicago - can you direct me to Lola's posting's - I would like to take a look. It's always interesting to see this from a personal standpoint.