Let’s have a war on having a war on things
Notorious ex-lawmaker Tom DeLay sees a War on Christianity in our fair nation.
“But in a sense, there always has been and always will be,” he said. “Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world. We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition.”
I think Scalzi’s counterpoint to this nonsense is rather on point:
There is no war on Christianity, save, perhaps, the one being perpetrated by “Christians” who by their deeds show themselves to be either ignorant of or manifestly opposed to the ideals espoused by Jesus, against the Christians who are somehow under the impression that what Jesus was really about was charity, compassion, justice and love; you know, all that stuff you’ll find in that New Testament thingy you hear so much about. The idea that Tom DeLay, whose track record on the Hill is appallingly unChristly, is somehow a model spokesman for Christian values of any sort is one that is best met with a giggle and a remembrance of Matthew 7: 21-23. For Mr. DeLay in particular, remembrance of Matthew 6:19-24 is also fervently advised.
You’d think the fun would stop there, but not so much. Apparently DeLay was at a conference geared towards cramming his faith as far up government’s behind as humanly possible when he announced his little war.
The conference was convened by Vision America, a group founded by the Rev. Rick Scarborough to mobilize “patriot pastors” of all denominations to promote Christian involvement in government.
I don’t know about you, but this makes me more than a little uncomfortable. Religion and the state aren’t supposed to interfere with each other. I don’t have a problem with people trying to change government to do what they think is right, but going in with the expressed purpose of pushing one religions’ values is awfully close to simply pushing a religion, which is bad for obvious reasons. (See, for example, Afghanistan.)
Go in to government saying that you’re against killing and I won’t disagree with you. Say you’re against stealing or for charitable works and nobody will argue. These are all traditionally “Christian” values.
Say, on the other hand, that you’re in it to “promote Christian values” and I have no way of knowing if you’re in the pro-charity, justice / anti-killing, stealing, etc. crowd or if you’re one of those people who thinks the greatest evils in the world are Janet Jackson’s nipple, monogamous homosexuals and people who won’t let you post your religions artifacts in the courthouse. We’ve seen in other parts of the world that ruling by scripture doesn’t work out, and these folks seem to want to do it. It’s hard to get behind the potential for so much Taliban-flavored bad no matter how well-intentioned it is.
Now, I hate to pile on, but there’s more. DeLay is on a mission from God!
Scarborough, the former pastor of the First Baptist Church in Pearland, is a long-time DeLay ally.
“This is a man, I believe, God has appointed … to represent righteousness in government,” Scarborough told the audience, which included Eagle Forum Founder Phyllis Schlafly, former ambassador Alan Keyes, and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
Well, at least we know that these folks are on an even keel when they make these claims. They’re just the sort of people I want running my government. Yes sir, religion + government is just like Mr. Pibb + Red Vines.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:28 am
At the risk of being painted with your right-wing religious nut-job brush (watch where you point that thing!), I have to butt in here…
There is no such thing as separation of church and state. Find any reference to that in the Constitution. It’s not there! You’ll find it in someone’s (Jefferson’s??) personal letters. What you will find is the following “Congress shall pass no law regarding the establishment of religion” (sorry if it’s slightly off — that’s from memory).
Much of what makes America great is her loose association with Christianity. Many of her greatest leaders drew their moral and ethical power from their relationship with God. I will not argue with your point that the vast majority of “Christians” today are complete heretical hypocrites. That does not change the fact that what is occuring in the courts these days amounts to the imposition of atheism as a national religion.
Of this, I am not happy.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:32 am
You can’t have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. That differs signifigantly from the imposition of atheism as a national religion.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:46 am
Can you explain how having the 10 commandments, a fundamental building block of ANY modern system of laws, in a courthouse restricts anyone’s freedom of religion?
March 31st, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Don’t worry Tony. I am a right-wing religious nut-job too.
March 31st, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Commandments 1 and 2: 1. “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” 2. “You shall have no other gods besides Me… Do not make a sculpted image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above…”
Putting that in a courthouse (unless you also post the religious commandments of every other world religion) is very much akin to state establishment of religion. That religion requiring the worship of a Judeo-Christian God.
The 10 Commandments is a fundamental building block only of Western countries’ laws (and even that is questionable – were there really no laws against murder, adultery, and theft before the 10 Commandments?). It is not for Eastern countries. India’s equivalent, for example, is the Code of Manu. Putting that in a courthouse would be rather unwieldy since there are 2031 laws in it.
As to many of the US’s great leaders being Christian, very many were also not Christian, or would not be considered Christian by modern Christians. For example, Franklin, John Adams, and Jefferson all were Deists (they believed in God, but did not believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God). Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli as President which explicitly states the US is not a Christian nation. Jefferson went so far as to rewrite the Bible to remove all supernatural events from it. I think most right-wing Christians today would have as much respect for them were they still alive as they do for Bill Clinton (a Southern Baptist), Al Gore (also a Southern Baptist, who even attended seminary), or John Kerry (a Catholic).
March 31st, 2006 at 1:52 pm
I’ll go ahead and agree with Tej here. Posting one faith’s laws in a court house is akin to supporting that faith to the exclusion of others, which is something our government shouldn’t do.
For the record, by the way, I don’t think that most Christians are heretical or hypocrits or anything of that sort. I believe that most of them just try to do their best to lead good lives according to their faith, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
It’s the few noisy ones who hold or try to influence public office and try to cram their faiths down anybody else’s throat that I take issue with. Forcibly proselytizing is bad enough. Doing it from the bully pulpit of elected office is downright horrible.