Danforth Criticizes Christian Sway in GOP

Separation of Church and State...cough cough.

 

then they would be doing the same thing that Jesus preached against. His kingdom is not to be a physical kingdom, but a spiritual one that is not constrained by borders. The fanatics always ignore the inconvenient parts

 

Oh goody! The liberals Christian-hating thread du jour! Magnifique!

 

I dont consider myself to be any sort of liberal. I just don't agree with the aggressive push to make a Christian theocracy.

 

Texxx, like country music, is politically at odds with himself.

 

Danforth is a liberal?

 

aahhhh

you didnt get the memo?

IF you dare speak out against the GOP and/or Bush, that automatically makes you a liberal.

cause, well, ya know, thats the biggest insult that bigsexx can hurl at someone who doesnt march in lockstep with his views.

 

I missed that memo. Must have been too busy watching Farenheit 911 or writing my 3000 page attack on how Rove is the antichrist.

 

No. No. No.

This the liberal So-Called-Christians hating thread du jour.

 

Why does Danforth hate Jesus?

 

"Thank heaven....for little tex......"

 

Actually in this case we like the crazy Christian conservatives if they divide the party.

 

Since no one else has, I'll say it... kudos to Danforth. It took guts for him to speak out. He represents the Republican Party that used to exist. The Republican Party that allowed different voices to be heard. The Republican Party that held great men like Everett Dirksen, the Senate Minority Leader from the late '50's, into the years of the Johnson Administration. Here is a quote from him:

"I do not wish to save any pockets of prejudice for the future. I have an interest in what happens long after I have left this mundane sphere. I have a couple of grandchildren. I want them to grow up in a country of opportunity as completely free from hate and prejudice and bias as can be consummated by legislation, and a maximum amount of good will of the part of the lawmakers. . . . "

This is another one:

"On the night Victor Hugo died, he wrote in his diary: 'Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.'"

He was instrumental in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. Make no mistake about it... this man was a conservative. He gave the nominating speech for the '64 Presidential Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, a personal friend. He had misgivings about parts of the '64 civil rights legislation, but worked hard to get it passed. See the quotes above for the reasons why.


Where are these Republicans today? Where is the leadership the Republican Party used to have? How long are Republicans going to allow their party to be highjacked by a group of radical extremists, and fundamentalist Christians? Just how screwed up does your party have to be before the majority of Republicans take back control? Isn't it far past the time to do that?



Keep D&D Civil.

 

OK- I'll bite,


Let me give some perspective of mine-

During the late 70's- early 80's (esp. Reagan's first term) a group emerged that Jerry Farwell characterized as the Moral Majority. They were predominately evangelical Christian voters and office holders who were beginning to organize at grass root levels in different parts of the country. The prevailing issues that spawned this movement were-

1. Pro-Life- anti-abortion on demand.
2. Stop the removal of prayer in public schools (this is different from imposing prayer in school) this included recitation of prayers that had been common practice for years, commencement prayers etc.
3. Education issues which included private Christian education including home schooling, and the rights of Christian students to have Bible clubs etc. on public school grounds.
4. Family Values- which addressed children's exposure to p*rnography (primarily) for example the public display in grocery store checkouts of sexually explicit magazines.

In this early movement most Christians I knew who were involved were sincere, compassionate and civil. On a grass roots level they began to organize and they gravitated tothe republican party because there were many republican candidates that encouraged their support and held the same convictions.

As this sector grew TV evangelists like Jerry Farwell, Pat Robertson, and radio personalities like James Dobson saw the opportunity to leverage their media access to drive the agenda. With good intentions this new power placed these men and many others in positions of great influence in politics. And pretty soon many issues were Christianized and politicized.

THis is unfortunate because then there grew a political power and unity that caused many Christians to go along with whatever the next political agenda was and the movement was turning more and more poltical.

A sort of huge Christian political lobby was emerging and the sincere thoughtful average Christian was increasingly led to follow the agendas of the 'recognized leaders' of the Christian Right. By the late 1980's politicians in the republican party saw the power of this group and began to seduce and cater to it.

Now we have seen a melding of Christians who have good intentions with Christians who have political agendas into a agrressive political lobby that is labeled the religious right. It is not very Christian at times and even it's good objectives are politically driven and this brings a narrow dogmatic aggressive strategy that is turning people off. The religious right come across as trying to set of a Theocratic State, instead of just being sincere Christian citizens that have a valid voice in the political process. Radical Religous Right means we are going to take over. A moral majority developed as Christians returning to the political process to vote for issues that have significant meaning to faith.

God has been politicalized by the Religious Right and the original movement has been demonized (mostly for good reason) to be a fringe group of zealots bent on forcing their agenda down the throat of America.

What is tragic is that Christians should have every right for their moral and religious convictions to be represented by their votes, their ideas and free expression in America; but the stigma of the religious right has villanized ALL evangelical Christians as extremists.

I try to think independently on each issue, I form my opinions with respect to my Christian faith and I express my ideas from a basis of moral conviction not political correctness. I don't support Republicans because they are the party of Christians ( I don't think they are). And I don't reject Democrats because they are the party of humanists.

I have never believed that republicans were Christians and Democrats were not. That is terrible that the voices of the religious right leave that impression. The party platforms may be judged in that light but I am sure there are many fine Christians both evangelical and otherwise who politically vote democratic- Free country. I personally don't know how to vote anymore, I don't trust either party.

I look at the issue, the Bible and my conscience and come to my own conclusion how I should vote, what ideas I should support and how my voice can best be heard in our nation- whether participating in politics or posting on a message board I never feel a part of the religious right even if there are core issues shared. I prefer to be an American who happens to have Christian faith and live under the same good citizenship and character that all of us should embrace.

These were the original burning issues.