If there is anything we are certain of, its that every culture has more than its unfair share of religious zealots.

Marluddin Jalil, a Sharia judge who has ordered the punishment of women for not wearing headscarves, was uncompromising: “The tsunami was because of the sins of the people of Aceh.” Thundering into a microphone at a gathering of wives, he made clear where he felt the fault lay: “The Holy Koran says that if women are good, then a country is good.”

Read The Asia Times Report

Silja J.A. Talvi writes on how the “secular” Character Training Institute is working to build evangelist Bill Gothard’s vision of a First-Century Kingdom of God - one city, one state, one school board, one police force and one mind at a time.

Here’s a money shot line…

“God gives direction, protection, and provision through human authorities. If we rebel against them, we expose ourselves to the destruction of evil principalities…. This is why ‘rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.’ ”

Wow. Good thing Thomas Paine and the revolutionaries who founded our nation (on what were then and to these theocratic autobots apparently still are radical notions of a political embodiment of concepts of the Age of the Enlightenment and reason), weren’t paying much attention to these ‘Christians’.

Anyway, I thought the truly American principle was to have representatives, not leaders.

Read the full piece from In These Times

The so-called ‘Christian’ Right (or ‘Reich’?) Wing Sets Out To ‘Restore’ Ohio

This is really pretty messed up.

For so many, many reasons.

http://ohiorestorationproject.com/overview.php

This is loaded with blatantly bad history, too. Most telling is how they refer to the US being founded as a ‘Christian’ nation because of the Mayflower Compact. Of course, they neglect to mention that it was because of such laws that colonies such as Rhode Island were established expressly as a haven of religious freedom and tolerance to escape the theocracies of the early New England colonies.

Here is a little bit on Rhode Island history, just for one short example.

Maryland, of course, was established as a haven for Catholics, in large part because of the anti-catholic persecution of those whose descendents first drafted the aforementioned Mayflower Compact. Not to mention the fact that the Virginia colony (strictly intended as a source of income for English titled class investors) came before the Mayflower. Are we to take cues from its charter as well?

And then there is the ultimate absurdity of placing a cross on the orginal 13 star American flag, a flag created by the first non-theocratic, secular republic possibly ever, whose established Constitution in 1789 expressly forbid the use of religion as a vehicle for state power or a standard to measure one for any public office.

To conflate a religious sect (and these people are a cultish sect of Christianity, which becomes clear when you read their little manifesto), with America, the political embodiment of the principles of the enlightenment and the so-called Age of Reason, is almost too absurd for words.

But these loons have managed to do it.

Check out Theocracy Watch for more on these types of efforts, and the dangers they can pose.

From the father of modern conservatism….

“Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.”
- Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)

“However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D.’ Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism.’ ”
- Sen. Barry Goldwater (from the Congressional Record, 9/16/81(?)

“I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell’s ass.”
- Sen. Barry Goldwater

Letter to Pat Robertson
August 25th, 2005
http://www.cbn.com/700club/

Dear Mr. Robertson,

Exactly what part of “Thou Shalt Not Kill” do you not understand?

Sincerely,
Andy Valeri
Dayton, Ohio

P.S. How are things going with Freedom Gold these days? Are your investments doing okay, or have you been seeing diminishing returns since your business partner Charles Taylor had to back out of his commitments to your financial plans, what with being on the run from those pesky international socialist types at the UN and International Criminal Court. Fully unwarranted accusations, I’m sure, that bit about his being involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity and all. Just curious if those diamond mines you were operating with Mr. Taylor in Sierra Leone were still reaping the same profits, particularly since Mr. Taylor hasn’t been on the scene to keep things in line by chopping off the arms of children who wouldn’t fight for him or do the mining work. But at least they’ve been given the generous opportunity of finding the Lord through your missionary efforts via your investments in Freedom Gold.

And that’s a pretty nifty title for your company, too. Freedom Gold. Was that supposed to be your way of honoring the words of James, half brother of Jesus, or was it meant more as an homage to George Orwell?

“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you!
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in last days.
Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord.
You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.”
- James; 5, 1-6

Good luck on your day of reckoning, Mr. Robertson. You’re going to need it.

This is a good one. Ralph, poster boy for the Talibanker nexus, adds a whole new dimension to the idea of the ‘collection plate’.

Read The Report from The Carpetbagger

The unholy alliance between the corporatists and religious fundamentalists, the “Talibankers,” is beginning its final naked play for complete control of the mechanisms of government by pursuing the GOP strategy of imposing the “nuclear option” against minority voices in the Senate. This change would end the use of the filibuster in Senate debates on judicial nominees. Of course, a blitzkrieg of disinformation is being spread about what this means, but anyone devoted to intellectual honesty knows that this radical and unwarranted act is hypocrisy. It is pandering to power over principle (After all, the Senate has approved over 95% of the judgeship nominees made by Bush, a far greater percentage than Clinton nominees approved by the GOP in the 90’s. And these handful being rejected are not on religious grounds, but due to their extreme inclination to side with corporations against the interests of America’s working class).

Leading this propaganda assault is our homegrown Taliban with their “Justice Sunday” (Just Us Sunday?) event on April 24th, being used to declare their jihad against the Constitution. This event features Senate leader Bill Frist explaining how the filibuster is being used “against people of faith.” So, using centuries old tools of republican government is now somehow sinful? Against which faith? There are probably around a billion people who would claim that the “war on terror” is a crusade “against people of faith” as well.

In the ads for the Sunday pep rally for Sharia law, there is an image of a perplexed boy contemplating a gavel and the bible. Above it is a statement that reads “He should not have to choose”. That is right. No one should have to choose between serving America and serving their religion. That is one of the reasons our system was designed the way it was. So just who are the theocratic political forces at work in our nation forcing this choice? It’s certainly not anyone who believes in our Constitution (which contains a grand total of exactly zero references to God).

This entire effort by the GOP leadership and their theocratic cronies on the far right runs completely counter to the United States Constitution, which CLEARLY states in Article VI “that no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

To those ayatollah-wannabes and their followers who are trying to destroy the wall between church and state, I say “America, love it or leave it.” If you don’t like the fact that America was established by our Founders in 1789 upon Enlightenment principles as a secular democratic republic, then you should move to Iran or Saudi Arabia where you obviously belong.

Originally posted April 2005

Below is the text of The Mayflower Compact, the document that theocrats claim gives legitimacy to religious intrusion into our republic’s government. I for one do not see how a document that makes a point of twice swearing feudal fealty to a king on another continent can be construed as a basis for interpreting the intent of the founders of a republic here in America. Conservatives have been known to discount the more egalitarian elements of the Declaration of Independence as legally non-binding because they were never meant to be a foundation of law for the nation. The Mayflower Compact is a foundation of law, not of the USA, but of a religious colony (Cape Cod Virginia!) loyal to a foreign king. Now, if the people of Massachusetts want to codify the Mayflower Compact, more power to them, insofar as they do not violate the binding agreement they made to the USA, but I do not live in Massachusetts, nor did any of my ancestors, so please, theocratic fanatics, refrain from attempting to ensnare me into your anachronistic schemes. Oh, and I’ll eye your progress persuading the people of Massachusetts to give up the rights that the citizens of Lexington and Concord died for, and Elbridge Gerry, John Hancock, John Adams, Abigail Adams, Sam Adams and others lived for.

Ed Lacy
UnCommon Sense TV Media

The Mayflower Compact

“In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&.

Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620.”

Joe Conason helps unravel the unholy alliance of the modern American corporate pharisees and mammon with this piece in Salon.

Jack Abramoff and his deeply religious right-wing cronies express their “biblical worldview” by swindling Indian tribes and bribing legislators. Verily, mysterious are the ways of the Lord.

Rarely has the contrast between the rhetoric of the religious right and the behavior of its leaders been so starkly exposed as in the Abramoff scandal. The most obvious example was the manipulation of Christian activists in Louisiana and Texas by Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, who said he was helping them fight gambling when he was actually using them to promote Indian casinos (and to make a few million bucks for himself).

That episode alone should have alerted honest Christians to the moral rot within the Republican leadership that professed to represent their interests. But there is of course much more evidence of the religious cynicism of Abramoff and his cronies.

Read the article

An interesting interview with Rep. Ted Strickland from Ohio, who is also running for Ohio Governor in 2006.

http://www.streetprophets.com/storyonly/2006/1/24/131656/823