 “I will rise into the air and you will see God embrace me…” |
When Rick Perry officially launches his presidential campaign this weekend, he will not be the only Republican candidate to carry the banner of Christian piety…Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty discovered his inner Honest Abe at the Faith and Freedom Conference in June. Heedless of the risks to his campaign, Honest Tim read from the Bible and thundered to the mostly evangelical audience, “We need to be a nation that turns toward God, not away from God!”
Another presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, refers to God so frequently in the context of her political ambitions that you would think He was her running mate. At the Faith and Freedom Conference, she treated the audience to a prayer of her own design: “Lord, we know there are things we have done in our nation that have not been pleasing in your sight,” she sorrowfully intoned, “Lord, we ask your forgiveness for that…”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may not be able to boast about Christian values in his personal life, but he has vowed to defend his grandchildren from the imminent threat of “a secular atheist country” or, somewhat inconsistently, political domination by radical Islamists. Gingrich has also promised to resist the fearsome “homosexual agenda” on the grounds that he supports “pro-classical Christianity,” a hitherto-undiscovered Christian sect that may be imaginary.
Donald Trump, whose campaign ended before it began, still found time to gallantly sputter, “I believe in God. I am Christian. I think the Bible is certainly, it is THE book.” In case people missed the point, he added, “I’m a Protestant. I’m a Presbyterian. And you know I’ve had a good relationship with the church over the years. I think religion is a wonderful thing. I think my religion is a wonderful religion.”
Even libertarian Ron Paul, who long resisted injecting faith into politics, has waxed Lincolnesque this season. “We have had the Constitution stolen right before our eyes,” he drawled urgently, “This is now about whether or not we have the right to worship freely.” He later explained, “Congress should never prohibit the expression of your Christian faith in a public place…”
On Saturday, August 13, Republican insiders in Iowa will vote in the Ames Straw Poll. Although the poll is non-binding, it hints at the candidates most likely to do well in the Iowa caucus…
Indeed, the political compensation for public displays of faith is so precious that it makes me wonder whether the candidates’ zealous efforts to to prove their piety as they race for the Republican nomination might be called calculating or opportunistic. Some might even suggest unchristian.
When will the members of this holy crusade change the name of their wholly-owned political party? The Republican Christian Party? Or – better yet – the American Christian Party since they claim to speak for all Christians, all Americans?
#34–Facts On/Facts Off==ha, ha. Jumping right in on it huh?
Re #33==the point of this post is that the Pukes are running a bunch of Hard RightWing Religious Nutballs who bring their religion up front to a degree you can’t tell if they are running for POLITICAL office, or merely on a crusade, or even if you prefer, a Jihad. You can’t tell the difference and want to opine on what “fearful hatred” is?
Ha, ha. Look in the mirror my pin headed bucko. What we see in others is most clearly seen in ourselves. And when I say we and our, I mean YOU.
Let’s see: anything I disagree with is hateful and fearful. Hmmmm. Did I leave anything out?………Oh yes: AND UnAmerican. That so much goes without saying and yet it should always be thrown in. So fitting for the dumbspeak that goes with bible thumping.
Yea veerly.
News for the Bible thumpers: Most of us in this country are much more interested in Congress working to get the economy back together than in thumping bibles. Bibles don’t get the economy together, except for those of us that sell bibles.
Mextli: Most of us really don’t care about whether people are gay or not. This is especially if those people are spending money that gets the economy rolling.
#31, bobo the moron,
I see it repeatedly on TV, mainly from political pundits on the Left, both professional and forum posters (the main stream media’s reaction to Sarah Palin’s open Christianity, for instance, when McCain tapped her as his VP). A bit hard to cut & paste. However, I could easily cut & paste from the top of this page by the original poster, who apparently took nothing of import away from the 90 minutes of “significance” beyond invoking God or Jesus.
A practice which, btw, just a few generations ago was SOP by both Dem and Repub politicians on the campaign trail in every level of government for every office except maybe dog catcher. Yet somehow that is now seen as objectionable by the Left.
If the Left genuinely didn’t feel threatened in some fashion by Christianity, then the Left would simply ignore it or only take occasional potshots at it because it had better things to do. The reality? Pervasive, repeated verbal attacks against Christianity whenever it comes up.
Let them,
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK…
Tax Dude… you are a very scary individual.
I feel I should come to the defense of my man Dr. Paul.
I notice you don’t have a quote from him saying how holy HE is.
He’s just saying that the state should not oppress believers.
You disagree?
#40 Alphie, I’m interested in your stuff but is there a non-Shakespeare version of this?
By the way, it’s 100 degrees in Dallas so I must be near the furnace. Does it get hotter than this?
#41 I disagree. The Christian Taliban is currently infiltrating my government (which I pay for). It seems I should be worried about them at least in the short term.
I don’t get Mat’s bit about the angels. Seems like a grammatical error but maybe not. Who gets casted in the furnace and by whom? Seems very Auschwitz which is not very cool.
OTOH, Libertarianism is the Golden Rule applied to politics….
I bet Jesus really knows how to use that Winchester. Right this very minute He is taking aim at-
Everybody that uses religion as a cloak to hide an unrelated agenda.
Everybody that uses the Bible to justify their philosophy.
Everybody that has ever used His name to kill
Everybody that has ever scrawled “at First National Bank” (or some other business name)over a Jesus Saves message
#30 It’s because we are bombarded daily with Christianity in this country (USA). We are not bombarded with other religions. Politicians who are Jews or Buddhist or Taoist or anything except Christian don’t go around shoving their religion in our faces.
Heck even the Catholics who the “Christians” don’t consider “Christian” don’t proclaim it constantly.
Admittedly, you could never get elected to be president of the USA unless you at least stated that you were some form of Christian. Maybe, just maybe a Jew, but we still haven’t had on top of the ticket.
#39 Drive-by, regarding a “fearful hatred” of Christian-types:
Now that we see how the Christian-types act in positions of government power, those pols from a few generations ago seem to have been much wiser than today’s leaders.
What is really scary about all this is how closely it follows Robert A. Heinlein’s Future History.
Spooky…
#50, Olo Baggins of Bywater
I suspect the reality is that that in the past they were either much closer to begin with than now (quite possible – JFK would probably be a Repub these days) and/or that the passage of time has lost the details to casual knowledge of how ugly things were back then.
#46 Somebody:
Golden Rule?!?! That’s like a law or regulation! How dare “the man” tell me how I should live my life. That’s *my freedom*!!!
Thats also a terrible analogy. I don’t remember the golden rule being “do nothing unto anyone, lest they feel constrained or oppressed”
#51 Uncle Patso
Maybe The Circle of Oroboros is out there, trying to make things better. We’re sure not doing it here, on our own.
Drive By Poster==Hey!==you defend your moronic post quite well. Almost like two different people.
Adjectives.
And you couldn’t find anything to copy and paste readily available. Doesn’t THAT alone speak at all to you?
Argue the actual words used: DON’T create straw/boogie men of your own to shoot at.
I dislike everything there is about the religious: not because I hate and fear them, but because they are stupid and the most stupid of them want us to be just like them.
Religion: not a belief in god. Anyone can believe in god, the afterlife, spirits, gaia, or whatever you want. Religion: getting together with like minded people and coercing others to conform to your beliefs.
Religion is just fascism wrapped in false clothing. I “would be” hateful and fearful if/when they gain a political influence so as to undermine our Constitutional Freedoms a bit more than they have so far.
My complaint is about rhetoric and skill rather than substantive. As well as you argue, you should set a higher standard for your initiating premises.
Try it.
And a light will shine down, and it will tell you to vote for Barack!
He is The One, and we are all Blessed.
tcc3 said:
“Thats also a terrible analogy.”
Resistance is futile.
We both know that it is an almost perfect analogy.
That’s why it got to you.
Hey Mickey, good to see you haven’t lost your edge. More made up straw/boogie man issues. MAN!!==do you wingnuts ever argue the facts?
Ha, ha.
But to head some wag off at the pass, it’s the rest of the Republicans (and all of the Democrats) that follow the other golden rule.
I keep typing comments on this topic and then deleting them.
Point of order:
AFAIK Rick Perry never said that.
So putting that in quotes under his picture is questionable.
You should have used a comic-style speech balloon.
Seems like the liberals prefer using “Christian” as a dysphemism for morality.
Liberals feed more off promoting p3nis envy among the masses than answering questions concerning moral dilemmas.
#60–sargo==just let it fly.
#62–Guyver==uncharacteristic post for you. Sad? I understand your post about 5 different ways.
I’m a liberal. Here’s my morality: leave other people the fuck alone.
#57 Somebody
You want to put more words in my mouth an explain exactly what “got to me?”
You have replied with the equivalent of “Is so!”
Is that all you’ve got?
Perry will announce this weekend. His message: I’m not Mormon, but I am Aryan.
# 64 tcc3 said:
“You want to put more words in my mouth… ”
Imagine how intelligent you could sound if I did.
I’ll settle for (trying to) put thoughts in your head.
Dear GOP please oh please nominate Bachman, not because she can win. I just think it would be amusing to see how far the implosion of the GOP would go.
But if you feel up to it, tell me exactly why #46 fails.
Alfie is gayer than Michelle Bachmann. And that’s saying something.