Reply #11: See also: Will somebody tell Jim Wallis we have a secular government?

[Ian David]

Will somebody tell Jim Wallis we have a secular government?

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourner's Magazine, has been saying the most idiotic things for the past couple of years. Oh, I don't know. Perhaps he's always been an idiot, but I've only been paying attention for the past couple of years so I'll give him the benefit of a doubt and assume that he must have had a traumatic experience with an atheist or something to explain his inane public utterances that almost always include some dig at non-believers. But the short missive he posted today at Huffington Post and his Beliefnet.com blog has got to take the cake.

"A Defeat for the Religious Right and the Secular Left" argues that:

In this election, both the Religious Right and the secular Left were defeated, and the voice of the moral center was heard. A significant number of candidates elected are social conservatives on issues of life and family, economic populists, and committed to a new direction in Iraq. This is the way forward: a grand new alliance between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, one that can end partisan gridlock and involves working together for real solutions to pressing problems.
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2006/11/jim-wallis-defeat-for-religious-right.html


Excuse me, but could someone tell Wallis that we live in a society with a secular government? To use the term 'secular' like this, as a sort of pejorative, cheapens the very principles and values the country was founded on. Especially when, at least as I see it, Tuesday's vote was a broad ranging and raucous endorsement of secular government. But I suppose it's OK when secular government is replaced by a grand new alliance between liberals and conservatives. Apparently, as long as it's popular, and ecumenical, theocracy is OK.

It's just everybody else who's left out in the cold in Wallis' grand new alliance.

More:
http://www.neuralgourmet.com/2006/11/09/will_somebody_tell_jim_wallis_