The Inquisition at Messiah U.
In Brazil for a couple of weeks, a nation where religion does not infiltrate retail politics. I am watching CNN, where Hillary is getting the Torquemada treatment from a crew of media trained whitebread fundamentalist Christian cuthroats. An event billed as the Compassion Forum… While I am no fan of the former co-president Mrs. Clinton, there is something terribly un-American about political figures, or anyone for that matter, being forced to defend their faith in a public forum. Look around… not in France, or Italy, nor Russia or China, or Great Britain. It just does not happen. The last time the US hit hard times on the tail end of a Republican administration we had Franklin D. Roosevelt reminding folks that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That was how the American people got a New Deal. Not by offering scripted statements designed to palliate folks who dont believe in evolution and need the latest science-based military toys to help them cross the Jordan. Crack still costs less than a value meal. We botched the flu vaccine two years in a row. We cant even get a hamburger recall right. Republicans and Democrats have been nice to the religious right for over a decade to avoid more Oklahoma City-type events. We still cant find the anthrax perp… the one who set the stage for the Patriot Act… was supposed to be one of theirs, eh. Time for a reality check, not a Compassion Forum.
Posted: April 15th, 2008 under Hillary, Racism, Religion, The Primary Season, We Are the Enemy.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: April 15, 2008, 9:33 am
It is interesting to me that ONLY the Democrats are prostrating themselves in this manner. Republicans don’t do this and McBush choose not to attend.
I remember my Christian right parents saying they would not vote for same religion Baptish Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter because he was a Democrat. With agnostic McCain in the race, it will be interesting to see how much longer this hail-mary continues.
Comment from Max
Time: April 15, 2008, 5:56 pm
I think that deep down, all this religion business is really part of the “American Exceptionalism” phenomena. I am no Bible expert myself, but from what I have been studying, neither are most fundamentalist Christians.
What they do is claim God’s backing for some political or social position. This automatically position. Who will dare say God is wrong? And they scream loudly, the whole world must come over to their point of view. Everyone else is wrong.
And you don’t need real knowledge or expertise to belong to these groups, all you need to do is stand up and shout “Praise Jesus”. So yes, they do give comfort to the less successful in life.
But somewhere we have lost an ability to make things work. Just in Aviation, Japanese airlines are seriously upset because deliveries of Boeing’s new 787 will be delayed by a year. American airlines has to ground half of it’s fleet due to maintenance problems.
You what, Jesus is not going to fix those planes, we have to. I have read that something like half the US population can be considered fundamentalist Christian.
And yes, in Japan, religion is not a political issue at all. If somebody tried to grill a prospective politician about their religious beliefs on TV, the Japanese people would be shocked. It is considered private.
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