Guardian UK: Republicans v secular America

[marmar]

Republicans v secular America
With blatant disregard for the first amendment, Republicans' intolerance of US secularism means things are turning ugly

Dan Kennedy
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 February 2010


If you're part of secular America – that is, if you're an atheist, an agnostic, a religious liberal or even a mainstream believer who thinks religion should be kept out of politics and vice-versa – then you should be very afraid of what the Republican party has in store for you in 2012.

No news there, you might say. The Republicans, as we all know, have been in thrall to the Christian right since the Reagan era. But there's something new, something more intolerant, something truly ugly in the works. And if you don't believe me, let's start with Tim Pawlenty, unassuming governor of Minnesota in his day job, fire-breathing Christian warrior and aspiring presidential candidate in his spare time.

"I want to share with you four ideas that I think should carry us forward," Pawlenty said on Friday at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC. After invoking "basic constitutional principle and basic common sense," he continued:

"The first one is this: God's in charge. God is in charge ... In the Declaration of Independence it says we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. It doesn't say we're endowed by Washington, DC, or endowed by the bureaucrats or endowed by state government. It's by our creator that we are given these rights."

Never mind Pawlenty's fundamental and no doubt deliberate misreading of the founders' intent. (Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, is well-known for having cut up a Bible to remove all supernatural references to Jesus.) How, in practice, does Pawlenty envision "God's in charge" as a governing principle? .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/23/republicans-religion-secular-america

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. I am very afraid indeed. These people are unhinged - they are anti-religion

in truth, masquerading as religious. I hope hell is a big place, because it is going to be crowded with all of the religious hypocrites showing up these days.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. I've always know the republicans would come after our rights what I didn't know

is that the democrats would give them up so easily. I think the democratic party has been taken over by not only corporatists but also by Christian conservadems. I think that the democrats got tired of the republican party claiming to be the moral party. So the Christians in the democratic party have started giving in to the Christian conservative republicans. With Christians democrats joining the republicans in meshing religion and state politics I think those of us who are not Christian are screwed either way.

[Odin2005]

3. I amk SOOOO sick ofTimmy the Tool as my governor.

[anonymous171]

4. Good. We were always supposed to be a Catholic nation. Right?

:sarcasm: (as if needed.)

Seriously though, try this with the fundies and see what they do.

[chatnoir]

5. That Frank fool in the comments is an absolute freak...

Ugh.

[krabigirl]

6. They will lose badly if they nominate a religious nut..they'd do better with a social liberal or mod