The Republican Crisis of Religion
05 April 2009 8:43 pm by Taylor Marsh
Palm Sunday segues into Easter week. So just on time Jon Meacham has an article about the “End of Christian America.”
… While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing—good for our political culture, which, as the American Founders saw, is complex and charged enough without attempting to compel or coerce religious belief or observance. It is good for Christianity, too, in that many Christians are rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state… [...]
Kathleen Parker has a column today on the Christian right. She asks: Is the Christian right finished with politics?
Add Meacham’s piece to Parker’s and you have the makings of a political serious shift most of us haven’t seen since Jerry Falwell helped sweep Reagan in to power.
What will Republicans do without the Christian right? Christen Sarah Palin? Or with the popularity of Glenn Beck, who at CPAC exceeded Sean Hannity, will they go toward Mitt Romney? Maybe they’ll choose Newt Gingrich, whose situational ethics makes the subject of religion hypocritical. Hey, but that never stopped them before. Reagan never went to church, and the whole while Bush was in Washington he never joined one.
I want to comment on my comment that is not showing up.
lOL GeoT, It says 5 responses but there is only yours.
Well, I guess I’ll say good night since everyone seems to have left.
Betsy says:
05 April 2009 at 10:32 pm
lOL GeoT, It says 5 responses but there is only yours.
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weird huh
oh well… I put one “in the news” earlier on this subject. Now I’m watching the “Who Was Jesus” marathon on the Discovery Channel. Very interesting series.
same here Betsy, take care.
I wish people were still up! I can’t sleep because I watched 60 minutes tonight. I recorded it while I was busy so I watched it late. The piece about cancer patients in Nevada who have NO CARE and have been interupted mid course during chemo treatments is so disturbing.
I just caught up with the last few threads. I only have one thing to say to POA – fuck you.
Secondly – I am tired of Christianity always being equated with the Christian right. I am a Christian, profanity aside, I was baptized Catholic in 2002 after being raised in a right wing, fundamentalist church all of my formative life. It was a journey for me and I have found my home. It do not agree with Rome on every issue, but who does agree with their faith on everything, however I agree with the tenants of the faith and the moral continum the Church brings. Christianity will never fade away. If it does this country, others and the world will change in a way that we will all regret.
POA – challenge me on that and I will be right back in your face.
Anybody up?
kris says:
06 April 2009 at 12:08 am
I just caught up with the last few threads. I only have one thing to say…
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Hi Kris, was wondering if you would check in over the weekend.
LL: I didn’t see 60 minutes but I know you, you have a good heart, rest easy.
Hi Audiegirl.
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now back to the Discovery Channel.
wow, I completely missed this:
At Least 20 Are Dead as Buildings Fall After Quake in Italy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/europe/07italy.html?ref=europe
ReagonZAP sold the “soul” if you will of the republican party to the UUUberchristofacist right way back when. That started the “exodis” of sane people from the republican party and “left behind” the repugnantklan party along with those sheep that had always been republican and maybe didn’t even realize they had morphed or evolved into repugnantklaners OR always were but were embarrassed to say those sorts of racist,homophobic,xenophobic,misogynistic things in public before and now felt liberated.
Now the repugnantklan party has as it’s “base” the most racist,homophobic(though oddly enough PLENTY of them or their children are gay) misogynistic(substitute female for gay in the last oddly enough) and xenophobic elements in the electorate.
They have masterfully exploited fear to win elections.
This last crew were so UNBELIEVABLY inept that at long last the publics eyes have opened and been filled with the true horror of the last eight years.And are repulsed by these Pharasies of the right more worried about accumulating money and power then being followers of the gentle sheperd.
To quote one of their talking heads “Boo-freakin-Hoo”
Obama just announced, in Turkey, that America is not a Christian nation.
marilyn538 says:
06 April 2009 at 8:07 am
Obama just announced, in Turkey, that America is not a Christian nation.
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IF he said it, he’s right. We’re a country founded on freedom for ALL religions.
I’m googling and can’t find that he said that. Anybody got a link?
A country founded on freedom of religion
It was said to his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, this morning. It was also brought up briefly on CNN.
djjl says:
06 April 2009 at 8:58 am
I’m googling and can’t find that he said that. Anybody got a link?
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morning djjl
IF he said it FOX News would be running a giant banner right now.
Do we have a link?
marilyn538 says:
06 April 2009 at 9:11 am
It was said to his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, this morning. It was also brought up briefly on CNN.
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please provide a link. my guess is you’re leaving something out.
Could this be it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/obama-meets-with-abdullah_n_183399.html
‘In talks with Gul, and Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Obama hoped to sell his strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He hoped to find welcoming ears given the new U.S. focus on melding troop increases with civilian efforts to better the lives of people in both countries.
Obama recognized past tensions in the U.S.-Turkey relationship, but said things were on the right track now because both countries share common interests and are diverse nations. “We don’t consider ourselves Christian, Jewish, Muslim. We consider ourselves a nation bound by a set of ideals and values,” Obama said of the United States. “Turkey has similar principals.”
By George I think we’ve got it!
context is everything:
Obama said “one of the great strengths of the United States” is that it does not consider itself “a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/06/obama.turkey/
here’s the clip on Hannity tonight:
(edit) “Obama said (edit) the United States (edit) is not (edit) a Christian nation (edit)
how dare he…
Hope everyone had a great weekend. It was very busy for me.
My one comment for this morning is this – the so-called Christian right was anything but Christian. They used a marketing strategy and was a power based movement, trying to make us all members of Stepford as in Stepford Wives. They tried to force everyone to accept their world view and used a perverted version of Christianity to do so. When Christianity became so politicized by this group this is when many people began to believe that Christianity had lost its credibility. The so-called Christian right has taken Christianity and tried to mold it into the image that they wanted it inorder to coerce the American population into these perverted beliefs. What the Christian right offered was in no shape or form true Christianity.
Good morning Jane Austed and all.
GeoT – no link?
I had a wonderful weekend.
Thanks Taylor for posting the Meacham and Parker pieces. I almost always enjoy Jon Meacham. I’ve just gotten through the first page at this point. The thoughts that came to mind in reading that first page, is that the “Chrisitian” right of the last 20 years showed the inhabitants of this country that they were not all that Christian because their actions weren’t generally those that would indicate they were true followers of Christ AND they weren’t “right” either.
btw, he the President also said:
“Let me say this as clearly as I can,” Obama said. “The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical … in rolling back a fringe ideology (Al Qaeda) that people of all faiths reject.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/06/obama.turkey/
The next time a so-called Christian tries to tell you that this country was founded on the Bible quote this from Meacham’s article:
“The foundational documents are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, not the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (though there are undeniable connections between them). This way of life is far different from what many overtly conservative Christians would like.”
When someone tells me that the Founding Fathers were religious I have to laugh. They were religious only in the sense that they had to belong to a church if they expected to rise in society or have any credibility. Jefferson, a Deist, believed in a higher power, and wrote his own Bible. Most believed in a higher power but they believed more in freedom and liberty and were part of the “Enlightenment” period which included John Locke.
djjl says:
06 April 2009 at 9:30 am
GeoT – no link?
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for what? Hannity? I can’t link to my predictions, they’re embedded in my somewhat sick brain.
Ooops, misunderstood GeoT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eBCf1gIgc&feature=PlayList&p=53DED3E1DDA79C23&index=0
Here’s a link to one of my favorite hymns – I expect I may hear it sung at Easter Mass. It’s not my favorite version – they’ve made a couple of “twinks” that I ‘d preferred they not.
I hope you enjoy it.
djjl says:
06 April 2009 at 10:03 am
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Djjl – thanks for posting the link. Believe it or not my husband and I were talking about this yesterday on the way home from church and I was planning on doing a search for it. So timely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3LJgXcTayA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fzRZuGEr04&feature=related
Another two
I can’t tell you how many times I listened to various versions of this song this weekend – one thing never changed – it leaves me smiling and feeling good about my world.
Mornin’. Turkey thread, with Obama’s remarks now up…
djjl – of the three I think I prefer the Dubliners. That really makes me feel good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejeyoqH_Gg0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwdmqM3pc68
This last one is really good.
It’s hard to find without coming up with a jillion Flatley River Dance version. But, I must say, I came to appreciate Flatley much more after listening to bunches of versions with the lyrics. So now I never hear or see Flatley without hearing the lyrics.
OK, my “fix” for the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLGqavkDszU&NR=1
Last one, I promise. I found this one yesterday and just thought it was sweet.
I think that the mega-church guys are finding that politics isn’t the best direction right now. The entire spectacle of prop 8 in CA became national news, and that blew up. Actually, the very issues are blowing up.
One thing I enjoy about our country is that swings to the right inevitably lead to swings to the left.
Other then the weak minded, mental defectives and outright cult followers the megaChurch guys are finding the pickings kinda slim amongst the populace. Even those who feel the “need” for religion by and large recognize these hucksters for the conmen/women they are.
It is NO coincidence that the numbers of rightwingnut religowackjobs and morons who STILL think the torturer in chief did a great job are the same. Also that those who think President Obama is NOT doing a good job are the same as the other two.