MacRaven - Dave Haxton's Weblog

Thu, 03 Jun 2004

Bush Campaign Seeks Help From Thousands of Congregations

This alone would be reason enough to vote against Bush this fall. The man is bound and determined to make sure we're a "Christian republic" - from his divisive stance on same-sex marriages to his faith-based charities program. The man is a religious nutcase - a "loony fundie". Even his Middle East policies are driven by his religious imperatives. This is dangerous, to say the least. And frankly, I wouldn't care if the Democrats were offering up Mickey Mouse and Bozo the Clown on their Presidential ticket - they'd still get my vote this year, for this reason alone.

The Bush campaign's effort is the latest indication of its heavy bet on churchgoers in its bid for re-election.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

/Politics | 2 writebacks | permanent link

On
Karl Donaldsson wrote

This Sounds Familiar

I had just commented on this elsewhere, so I can post my thoughts here, as well: A person claimed that Christianity saved the europeans because their tribal societies were collapsing. He's right -- tribal society was collapsing. However, the floundering power structure which was demolished was demolished _by_ Christianity, for the purpose of supplanting it with a Christian theocracy. In 1096, Pope Urban II stood on Mont-Ferrand and delivered a stirring address to encourage the central Europeans to stop fighting eachother and focus on the "infidels" -- the Turks. After taking them, they could then move to Jerusalem and take "back" the "holy" land, all in the name of the Christian god. Thus began the first Crusade in Europe, to take back the "holy" land, all a political ploy designed to do three things: 1. Unite the tribes against a common enemy 2. Have this united people swear fealty to The Church, which spanned borders and tribes 3. Take Jerusalem in the name of Christianity One can see the problems inherent here. First, uniting these tribes under a religious flag really only worked out well for the church -- the people suffered. Over the next 400 years, no less than 14 separate "crusades" to attempt to take the "holy" land, the last of which being called the Children's Crusade, were launched; this came at the price of more lives than any military effrot in history. Secondly, they were killing people in the name of their God, who, supposedly, today, is an emissary of peace, along with Jesus. Their Second Commandment, "Shalt thou not kill" apparently doesn't apply to killing non-European Christians, which is OK. The Spanish Inquisition formed the most twisted conversion tool -- torture -- to use on fellow Europeans, in an effort to weed out dissention, ensure the rule of Christianity, and forward their own effrots at the price of those who would disagree. Thirdly, Jerusalem has never been a Christian city, nor have its inhabitants ever followed Christianity. They were and are Jews. There is nothing to "take back" for Christianity, just because their lord was killed there doesn't suddenly make it something holy to the people there. Oh, BTW, Jesus was Jewish. It's kind of ironic the church sending people to Israel to kill Turks when there were Jews there, who shared the same ethnicity and religion as their lord, but apparently, that doesn't matter. Christianity "saved" the Europeans in the same way that Bush and the current Christian Church would like to "save" America -- unification through attack on a common enemy (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, whoever they wish to bomb this decade) who resides in the Middle East, controls their "holy" land, and would seek out and destroy those who oppose them. Christianity is so closely tied to the Republican party that I typically don't vote for Republicans, unless I beleive they'll do more good than harm. Bush has said that he chooses to not recognize non-Christian religions as religions. The power, each time, comes from the ignorance of the populace of the situation, and a people floundering for solid leadership across borders -- a socialist federation based on religious leanings. For as much as Reagan, Bush, and Bush defamed the socialist dictatorships, we seem to be turning into them, with some feeling that it's OK so long as Christianity is the basis. Faith-based Initiative funds are more than 95% allocated to Christian interest groups, meaning that the faith with probably only 40% representation nationwide is getting most of this type of funding. Which "faith" were they really talking about there? As for the Spanish Inquisition, or perhaps we should call it the Department of Homeland Security, it's a bad time to be a non-Christian in the US, 'cause you just might be a "terrorist." Attempting to unite a people through their religion as a tool, with the sole purpose of advancing the power of that people by destroying the ways and peoples of other cultures is the nature of the Crusade. I would tell the aforementioned fellow that Hitler (a Christian) did a fine job of unifying a people (Germany and Socialism, Naziism), "saving" them from collpasing, and launching a Crusade (attempting to destroy a religious ethnic group), complete with Spanish Inquisition (Gestapo / SS) to ferret out dissenters and annihalate them. The Christian Church "saved" Europe the same way Hitler "saved" Germany, the same way the Republican party in the US seeks to "save" America -- through piety, pugnacity, and greed for both wealth and power. Only those who seek to use power over others seek to have power at all. I am not attempting to insult anyone here, and the truth is that our government here is set up to prevent just this sort of dictator thing from happening here. I was putting the Christian-biased directives generated by the Republican party members in office on the same level as the sort of thinking that Pope Urban II and Hitler had in mind to make things better for their homeland. I don't beleive all, or perhaps even many of the supporters of the republican party subscribe to such sweeping dicta. I also don't beleive all or even most of the congress-persons subscribe to such ideas, either. I certainly wouldn't equate the leanings of madmen as representative of the party; but the fact remains that things like the Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Security, and Faith Based Initiative (which, by the way, was rejected by congress, so Bush made his own version of it anyway) are clear indicators of the things which can alter the face of a nation. I see little difference between this kind of debate to those which were held over the Alien and Sedition Acts. I am a stout anti-federalist, so this level of federal involvement in taking away power from the people, while these same people are so willing to give it up beleiveing that they are helping a cause is repugnant to me, thus my statement. So, I don't suppoort any political parties, only their ideas. I like about half of what republicans have to say, and half of what democrats have to say, and much of what libertarians have to say, but I vote per candidate, not per party. Voting on party lines is not a good idea, IMHO. With our current situation and the creating of these (Patriot Act, Department of Homeland Security, and Faith Based Initiative) being handled by a government currently with a majority in place of a the Republican party in all three branches, it points to a situation which, logically, could only be under the control of the party in question. I'm not saying that the Republican party or that republicans are bad people, because that's not correct; I have noticed, however, that the Republican party seems to either foster or allow to develop various things designed specifically to take away my freedoms, and hand them over to people who comply with their desires. Note also that the Republican party was formed from the original Federalist party here in the US, and I don't see that its changed its mind that it somehow believes it knows what's best for everyone, everywhere -- perhaps even all over the world. I know they don't have all the answers for the US citizens, and I don't see them having answers for the citizens of another country, or the rest of the world.

On
Dave H. wrote

Good points, Karl

but one minor inaccuracy: the Republicans were formed out of the Whigs - not the Federalists. The Federalists died a rapid death in the early 19th century without progeny (thankfully so). And it used to be reveresed: the Democrats were the original party of 'Jim Crow' and 'separate but equal' ... until the late 1940's and the advent of Hubert Humphery and the Kennedy clan. Politics is a strange business - especially when mixed with religion. Be well, Dave H.

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