RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IS ALL ABOUT POLITICS

There's a mythology around politics, one that sees the ballot box and the floor of Congress as a battleground of ideas. In this star-spangled arena, progressives and conservatives square off in the competition to prove the worth of their opposing philosophies and the merit of their plans. Of course it's not all high-minded rhetoric and reasoned discourse, there are selfish motives and personal ambitions, angry outbursts and plain old mistakes, but in the end the best ideas win out in the great experiment that is America! Cue the brass section and wave the flag.

The Truth  it was never that way. It doesn't take much prompting for people to produce examples of nastiness in campaigns back in Jefferson and Adams's time, or to revisit instances of corruption from decades or centuries gone by. We all know that Mr. Smith is a fictional character.

However, just because it's possible to unearth grizzled examples of ugliness doesn't mean that the current season is not unique. Uniquely dangerous. And what makes it dangerous is the pretense that we're still in that fantasyland were ideas arm wrestle for history's approval. In fact, that time is long past. It's not even that what's now coming from the right consists of 100% emotional, fear-based appeals without a factual basis. In 2012, a campaign of suggestive fear-mongering seems almost quaint.

They Lie 24/7  Republicans have staked out a position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365. Not shade the facts their way. Not put their own spin on the situation. Lie. Big, sloppy, and constantly.

The lies go beyond instantly dismissible claims like President Obama being the "food stamp president" (why you have to go back one whole administration to discover that more people joined the food stamp ranks under Bush than Obama, but then the Republicans don't seem to remember Bush in any case).  The blatant lies extend through every aspect of the Republican platform, such as it is. The simple reason is that the Republicans have no ideas left, at least no ideas that have not been tested and proven to be failures again, and again, and again.

The economy didn't just crash under a Republican president, it crashed under Republican policies. It crashed with low taxes. It crashed with deregulated markets. It crashed with huge restrictions on union activity. It crashed with massive cuts in environmental regulations. It crashed with lowered trade barriers. It crashed with big fat Pentagon spending.

They Got What They Wanted. They got CEOs with no limits on their wealth. They got banks with no limits on their "creativity." They got trade agreements that guaranteed manufacturing could be moved to the dirtiest, cheapest, most desperate source available. They got massive cuts in capital gains taxes and equally large boosts in the wealth they could pass along in estates. They got everything they said would make us all wealthy. They got record oil and gas drilling. They got record giveaways of public land. They got everything they said would create jobs. They got the middle class to shoulder more, more, more of the burden so that those beautiful job creators would be free to work their magic.

Why They Must Lie.  They can't say the economy crashed because taxes went up, because they didn't. They can't say that the economy crashed because there was a raft of new regulation, because there wasn't. They can't blame it on "union thugs" or Saul Alinsky or the guy who writes Happy Holidays cards at Hallmark. They can't blame it on a president who was elected when the world was already in free fall. Only, of course they do. They say it because they have no choice.

For the same reason that they have to maintain that global warming is the creation of a conspiracy of scientists, and that evolution is a conspiracy of other scientists, and that gay marriage is a threat to "traditional" marriage. They have to lie about the threat of illegal immigrants. Lie about the state of the national debt. Lie about the effects of the President's health care plan. They have to lie, because lies are all they have left.

They Certainly Can't Admit the Truth About The Economy. They can't admit that they did it. Own it. That their policies directly caused the worst economic failure in American history. Strike that. Make it "the greatest failure in American history since the last time that these same policies were tried." But then, they've been lying about that bit of history for years.

The Truth Is That Republicans Have Nothing To Offer. Not even anything that looks like a governing philosophy. Conservatism has moved out of the ranks of political theories and simply become a cult; one that requires that certain phrases be mouthed, that certain hatreds be nourished, and that purity be maintained regardless of cost. That schism with reality is increasingly large and increasingly obvious. They try to paper over that gap by dismissing little things like science, reason, history. Real science fails to support their contentions, so they have to write it off. Reason doesn't work for them, so any question must be met with red-faced indignity — every question a gotcha question. Real history is full of warts, quirks, and unfortunate truths that don't fit their ritualized beliefs. So they have to try to rewrite history, giving us rewrite Reagan who never raised a tax or increased a debt, rewrite FDR who created the issues he actually solved, rewrite Lincoln who championed the Confederate cause, rewrite founding fathers who never owned slaves, never supported government regulation of the economy, never wavered in their ardent love for a form of religiosity that didn't yet exist. Tricorner hats are the new tinfoil.

The Real Danger. Isn't that someone might listen to the Republicans—anyone who lies long enough and loud enough can always find an audience, especially when that someone has three quarters of the television media and ninety+ percent of radio. The danger is that we might forget that they're lying. Too often Democrats, including this president, have felt that the best way to handle Republican fantasies is to compromise with them. You can't compromise reality with fantasy no matter how loud they lie.

Republicans are the Enemy of America:

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."  John Kenneth Galbraith

On The Koch Brothers:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” -Fredrick Douglass

 

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5 Great Moments in History That Should Teach Christian Zealots Important Lessons - But Probably Won't!

These important moments helped establish and maintain the separation of church and state in America.

This article contains excerpts from an article on alternet.org on February 29, 2012 by Rob Boston who is senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum says John F. Kennedy’s strong defense of church-state separation makes him want to “throw up.” His rival on the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich, frequently knocks “secular elites” who supposedly yearn to tear down America’s great Christian heritage. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, a Mormon whose faith is not well understood by many Americans, would seem likely to benefit from an embrace of church-state separation, but fear of angering Religious Right voters keeps him from doing it.

It seems these days that a lot of public figures are wary of endorsing the separation of church and state. They shouldn’t be: The principle is as American as apple pie and has long roots in our nation.

Of course, church-state separation and the religious and philosophical freedom it gives us didn’t just happen in America. It was all part of a long process, an evolution of attitudes over many years. There were plenty of bumps along the way, and lots of people weren’t convinced that dividing religion and government was the way to go – and some still aren’t today.

There have been many crucial moments in America’s church-state history, some of which took place before we were officially a nation. Here are five of the most significant.

1. The Flushing Remonstrance (1657): Back in the day when New York was New Amsterdam, it was a good idea to belong to the state-established Dutch Reformed Church. In fact, other religions were banned in the colony, and failing to show the proper degree of government-approved piety could land you behind bars. Everyone had to pay church taxes, and the law mandated that all children be baptized in the Reformed Church.

New Amsterdam’s leaders had a special antipathy toward Quakers. Members of that faith were barred from even entering the colony, and anyone who came across a Quaker was expected to turn him over to the authorities. Steep fines were levied on those who harbored Quakers.

In light of these strict laws, what happened in 1657 is nothing short of remarkable. Thirty residents of the village of Flushing (now part of Queens) sent a letter to Peter Stuyvesant, director of the colony, telling him to let up on the Quakers.

The signers argued that religious persecution wasn’t in keeping with Christian theology, and they boldly closed their letter by vowing to protect Quakers. Wrote the signers, “Therefore if any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egresse and regresse unto our Town, and houses, as God shall persuade our consciences, for we are bounde by the law of God and man to doe good unto all men and evil to noe man.”

It should be noted that none of the signers were themselves Quakers. They were arguing for the rights of others. Not surprisingly, this didn’t go down too well. Some of the signers were thrown into jail and ordered to recant. Locked in filthy, vermin-ridden cells, they did so – at least on paper. Who knows what was really in their hearts?

The Remonstrance proved to be ahead of its time, but the signers were vindicated when religious liberty was ensured in the Bill of Rights in 1791.

2. James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785): Patrick Henry was a fiery patriot famous for uttering the line, “Give me liberty or give me death!” But there was one area where Henry could not break with the British: All of his life, he argued in favor of church-state union.

James Madison disagreed. And when Henry proposed a bill in 1785 to require all Virginians to pay a tax to support “teachers of the Christian religion,” Madison swung into action. The diminutive Virginian penned the “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” one of the greatest documents in American church-state history.

Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance is essentially a list of 15 reasons why no one should be forced to pay taxes to support religion. The broadside circulated throughout the state, and petitions flooded the Virginia legislature demanding the defeat of the Henry bill. It was rejected.

What’s amazing about Madison’s document is that its arguments remain so relevant today, in this age of “faith-based” initiatives and demands for vouchers to fund religious schools.

Consider Point 5:

“[T]he Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of Civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of Rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.”

Point 7 is also powerful:

“[E]xperience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”

After the defeat of the Henry bill, Madison used the momentum he gained to push Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom through the legislature in 1786. The bill disestablished the Anglican Church in Virginia and ensured that no resident “shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

Historians agree that the Virginia struggle reverberated nationally. Five years later, Madison helped draft the First Amendment, writing church-state separation into the federal constitution.

3. George Washington’s Letter to Touro Synagogue (1790): Jews were uncertain of their status in the new nation of the United States of America. Even after the revolution, many states retained established Christian churches, and some states even barred non-Christians from holding public office.

In 1790, one year before the Bill of Rights was adopted, members of Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, wrote to President George Washington to express their support for complete religious freedom.

Washington’s reply is a classic of religious liberty. He didn’t say that America was a “Christian nation.” He didn’t tell the Jews that they could expect toleration but little else. Instead, Washington assured the members of the synagogue that they need have no fears, and he assured them that they were valued members in the American experiment of freedom of conscience. Washington wrote:

“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

Religious Right activists who believe that Washington favored an officially Christian America must find this letter vexing. Their vision was of a nation that favored Christianity by law but that might deign to extend toleration to other faiths. The father of our country explicitly rejected this vision in his missive.

4. Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists (1802): Although the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791, it wasn’t made binding on the states until Congress passed the 14th Amendment after the Civil War. After the Revolution, Connecticut retained its established church, Congregationalism. Members of other religions were compelled to support the church through taxation and were harassed in other ways.

Members of the Danbury Baptist Association were aware that Thomas Jefferson was a champion of religious liberty; they also knew Jefferson wrote the law that ended Virginia’s state-established church. In 1801, the Baptists wrote to Jefferson to thank him and express their hope that his view of religious freedom would someday come to Connecticut.

Jefferson knew his reply would become public and decided to use it to make a pronouncement on his views about church-state relations. He consulted with two members of his cabinet before sending the letter, revising and editing as he went along.

Jefferson’s response, dated Jan. 1, 1802, is rightly famous for this passage:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”

Our third president’s “wall” metaphor has infuriated the Religious Right over the years, and they have labored in vain to dismiss the letter as a mere courtesy reply. The history of the document shows that the opposite was true: In a cover memo to Attorney General Levi Lincoln, Jefferson said he hoped his reply would assist in “sowing useful truths and principles among the people, which might germinate and become rooted among their political tenets.”

5. John F. Kennedy’s Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association (1960): This is the speech that makes Rick Santorum nauseous. It wouldn’t if he had a real appreciation for religious tolerance in America.

John F. Kennedy had to deal with a great deal of anti-Catholic prejudice during the 1960 presidential campaign. Rumors circulated that a Catholic president could not put loyalty to America above Rome, and some feared JFK would seek to impose Catholic doctrine on a nation that was still culturally Protestant.

With polls showing Kennedy running neck and neck with Richard M. Nixon, the Massachusetts senator decided to tackle the matter head on. He entered the lions’ den and arranged to deliver a major address on religion to a collection of Protestant ministers in Houston.

The Sept. 12, 1960 speech, strongly worded and deftly delivered, is today remembered as both a turning point in the 1960 campaign and a powerful affirmation of tolerance and church-state separation.

Asserted Kennedy, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the President, should he be Catholic, how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

He continued, “I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish – where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source – where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials – and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.”

During his presidency, Kennedy put those words into action. He rejected demands from the Catholic hierarchy to extend tax aid to Catholic schools, and when the Supreme Court struck down mandatory school prayer in 1962, Kennedy reminded people that they could pray at home. Kennedy’s full-throttle endorsement of church-state separation and his vow to put the interests of the people ahead of church dogma still infuriates today’s budding theocrats.

Separation of church and state isn’t always respected today. Plenty of Religious Right activists, TV preachers and even politicians blast it. They should know that when they assail a principle that has given our nation a greater degree of religious liberty than any other people, they’re at odds with our history.

The current flock of GOP candidates might understand that if they spent less time pandering to religious zealots on the campaign trail and more time reading documents like these.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENERAL INFORMATION

   Introduction

   Purpose

     President Obama and the American Jobs Act

   The Friends of Religious Freedom!

WIKILEAKS

EVERYONE THINKS WE SHOULD GET OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.  HERE IS AN ORGANIZATION WHICH HAS TAKEN ON THE JOB OF MAKING SURE WE, THE PUBLIC, ARE ABLE TO MAKE HARD DECISIONS ON WHO IS TELLING US LIES OR THE TRUTH, BE THEY DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN, MILITARY OR INDUSTRY. CLICK HERE TO VISIT.

TED KENNEDY

SENATOR TED KENNEDY,  A GREAT AMERICAN, PASSED AWAY.  THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE A TRIBUTE TO HIM, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE HIS OWN.

"I have come here to discuss my beliefs about faith and country, tolerance and truth in America.  “I know we begin with certain disagreements; I strongly suspect that at the end of the evening some of our disagreements will remain. But I also hope that tonight and in the months and years ahead, we will always respect the right of others to differ, that we will never lose sight of our own fallibility, that we will view ourselves with a sense of perspective and a sense of humor. After all, in the New Testament, even the Disciples had to be taught to look first to the beam in their own eyes, and only then to the mote in their neighbor’s eyes….

“I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it?"

"Unfortunately, there are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance. When people agree on public policy, they ought to be able to work together, even while they worship in diverse ways. For truly we are all yoked together as Americans, and the yoke is the happy one of individual freedom and mutual respect."  Sen. Edward Kennedy

EVEN THOUGH OBAMA WON THE ELECTION, THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO ARE LIKE POISONOUS SNAKES.  SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO HIT THEM SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE YOU GET RID OF THEM.  SOMETHING LIKE WHACK-A-MOLE!

       Who is Rick Perry

      Who is Herman Cain

       Who is Newt Gingrich?

    Who is Michelle Bachmann?

      Who is Ron Paul

      Who is Mitt Romney

      Who is Jon Huntsman

      Who is Rick Santorum

       Who Are the Koch Brothers?

       Who is Paul Ryan?

       Who is Joe Walsh

      Who is Rand Paul

    Who or What is the Family?

    Who are The Birthers?

       Who is Darrell Issa

     Who is Rudy Giuliani?

    Why are the Right Wing Extremists trying to Repeal Healthcare Reform?

    Who is Sarah Palin and why is she supporting Right Wing Terrorism?

    Who is Ex-Senator John Ensign - Does he really represent Family Values?

       Who is David Vitter - Does he really represent Family Values?

    Who is Ex-Governor Mark Sandford - Does he really represent Family Values?

    Who is State Senator Paul Stanley - Does he really represent Family Values?

    Who is Senator Chuck Grassley and Why is He Lying?

     Who is Doug Lamborn?

      Who is Mike Enzi?

      Who is Vito Fossella?

      Who is Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon?

      Who is Rep. Walter "Wally" Herger of California?

      Who is Mitch McConnell of Tennessee?

     Who Are The Wyly Brothers

      Who is Richard Viguerie?

       Who is Haley Barbour?

      What is Fox News?

       Who is Sean Hannity?

       Who is Rush Limbaugh?

     Who is Bill O'Reilly?

        Who is Ann Coulter?

       Who or Rather WHAT is Glenn Beck? (Gag!)

       Who is Scott Walker?

     Why Is The Republican Party Destroying Itself?

     10 Epic Failures of the Bush Tax Cuts

     Who is The Family?

   Who is trying to stop Health Care Reform In America I?

     Who is trying to stop Health Care Reform In America II? - See The Republican Health Care Plan Here

     Republicans Who Vote For Rape

   Who Are The Un-Americans?

   Facts About the Health Care Disaster in America.

   The Enemies of Religious Freedom who some say are Traitors to America!!

     Right Wing Terrorists and Those Who Support Them

     Death Threats Against Obama

  Are You Going To Hell?

     Why are All the Glaciers Melting?!!!

     What is the Truth About Climate Change?!!

    Than Shwe - The Worst Person in the World

    Ahmadinejad - Another Worst Person

     Muqtada al-Sadr - Another Worst Person

     Who Are The Wyly Brothers?

   Who is Harold Camping and Why Does He Matter?

     Climate Change and Why It Matters to Us as a Nation

     Republican Conservative Taliban

     Republican Bigotry

     Republican Scandals

     Republican Hypocrisy

     A Day in the Life of Joe Middle Class Republican

     Republican Sodom and Gomorrah

     Republican Criminals

     Is There a Right Wing Conspiracy?

     Republican Sex Scandals

     Who is Rupert and James Murdoch?

 

BOOKS WRITTEN BY LEADERS OF DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS

     SPECIAL!!! BOOKS BY MAJOR LEADERS OF BOTH PARTIES WITH REVIEWS!!

BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND THEIR ATTEMPT TO MAKE THIS A CHRISTIAN ONLY NATION WITH EVIL TALIBAN LIKE LAWS.

    Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternative Version of American History Vol. 1 by Chris Rodda. Go to: http://liarsforjesus.com/ and buy the book

If you want to purchase more books about the Religious Right and their attempt to become the American Taliban, following is a brief selection of books that will only increase your thirst for truth.

  Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce

  American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right by Markos Moulitas

  Over the Cliff: How Obama's Election Drove the American Right Insane by John Amato  and David Neiwert

  Fighting Words: A Toolkit for Combating the Religious Right by Robin Morgan

  C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy by Jeff Sharlet

    The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet

   How to Win a Fight with a Conservative by Daniel Kurtzman

   Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America by John Avlon

   Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State by Rob Boston

ALL ABOUT THE BUSH SCANDALS.   ALTHOUGH HE'S GONE BACK TO TEXAS, LETS REMEMBER HIM AND THE CORRUPTION HE LEFT OBAMA TO CLEAN UP:   NO ETHICS, NO HONESTY, NO WAY!!

     The Two Faces of George "Dubya" Bush Page

     How George "Dubya" Bush Destroyed Conservatism in America

    How George "Dubya" Bush Lost the Iraq "War".

    The Collapse of The Bush Foreign Policy

    George Bush Thinks History Will Vindicate Him? Good Luck!!!

   Rumors About George Dubya Bush!!!

   The Qualifications of George "Dubya" Bush.  Why Did We Elect Him?

   The Bush Christian Blood Cult!!

    Featured Bush Mistakes

   Architects of the Iraq "War": Where Are They Now?

Famous Quotes Regarding Freedom Of Religion:

1.  "The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine." George Washington

2.  "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion ..." from the Treaty of Tripoli, signed by John Adams, June 10, 1797.

3.  "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should `make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State." Thomas Jefferson, in his historic Danbury letter, January 1, 1802

4.  "Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?"   James Madison, in "Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785

5.  "The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of church and state."  James Madison, March 2, 1819

6.  "Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State."    The U.S. Supreme Court, 1947

7.  "I am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. ... We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."- retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- a Republican, conservative-leaning Reagan appointee who helped deliver the White House to the Bush Syndicate in 2000 -- seems to have developed a serious case of conspirator's remorse.

SOME OF THE MANY SCANDALS OF THOSE THAT FOLLOW A RIGHT WING RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY

      100+ General Scandals!!!

      272 Offenders 1998 - 2008

      Scandal Number 700 - Vito Fossella

      Republican Sex Scandals

AND NOW WE HEAR FROM THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT!!!!!

1.  "They have kept us in submission because they have talked about separation of church and state.  There is no such thing in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left, and we're not going to take it anymore." Pat Robertson, addressing the ACLJ, 1993  (I Believe Pat was under educated! He might have read his history a little better!!!)

2.  "The national government ... will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality."  Adolf Hitler, 1938  (Yep! That worked for him didn't it?!!)

SCANDALS INVOLVING THE STATE OF ALASKA

   Who is Sarah Palin

   What are the Alaska Scandals?

   Who is Senator Ted Stevens?   Aren't You Glad He's Gone Now?

   Who is Rep. Don Young?

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SCANDALS INVOLVING NATIONAL SECURITY

   Who is Sun Myung Moon?

   Who is Karl Rove? - Should He Be Tried For Treason?

   Who is Dick Cheney? - Should He Be Tried For Treason?

SCANDALS INVOLVING PUBLIC FIGURES AND SEX, FINANCIAL IMPROPRIETY, OR BLATANT LYING.

   The Dirtiest Politicians

  Political Corruption

  Political Bigotry

  Political Gomorrah

  Political Hypocrisy

  Political Catastrophes

   Senator Mitch McConnell and His Trip to Dante's Inferno!

   Senator Roger Wiker and Dante's Inferno

   Click Here For Information About Your Favorite Political Pundit

   Who or What is Ann Coulter? and What are Her Voting Problems?

   Who is Coy Privett?

   Who is Senator David Vitter?

   Who is Senator Larry Craig?

   Who is Congressman Doug Lamborn?

    Who is Haley Barbour?

     Who Are The Wyly Brothers

      Who Are the Koch Brothers

    Who is Herman Cain

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HOW TO SURVIVE WHAT NEO-CONSERVATIVES HAVE IN MIND FOR AMERICA.

   Surviving the Global Cataclysm.

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THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND THE MISTAKES THEY MADE AND CONTINUE TO MAKE.

  The Anatomy of the Religious Right

   Senator Gordon Smith

   Did "Christian" Fundamentalists lose their Spirituality?

   Do "Christian Fundamentals have Bad Policies?

   Elizabeth "Liddy" Dole Misrepresented North Carolina and Why She Lost.

   Fundamentalists and Witchhunts?

   Christian Fundamentalist?

  Is the United States a Christian Only Nation?

  Moslem Right Wing Extremists? 

 Who are the Real American Traitors?

  Find out about the Un-Christian Religious Right!!!

  Separation of Church and State!

  Biblical Consistency about Morality!

  Religious Right in their own Words!

  Right Wing Religious Extremists!

  Revealed Religion and Religious Right!

  Right Wing Conspiracies!

  Judgment and the Religious Right!!

  Change is Possible!!

  Nazi Bigots? 

  Who is Hijacking the Christian Church?!!!

  Articles on Religious Freedom!!!

  Monitoring the Religious Right!!!

  Religious Liberty On-Line Links!!!

  Other Recommended Sites!!!

  Books about Today's Bigots !!!

   Fundies's and "Filthy Practices?"

  Why the Christian Right Hates America

   What is Mormonism (What do John Huntsman, Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck have in Common - And What is Magick Underwear?!)

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What Happens When a School Board of Religious Zealots 'Lie for Jesus'?

In her book, The Devil in Dover: An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America, Lebo writes of her journey through a familiar town made alien by a handful of school board members willing to, as Lebo puts it, "lie for Jesus." Lebo closely follows the story of how a handful of fundamentalists, pushing to include the teaching of creationism in school biology courses change their tack when the conservative Christian Thomas More Law Center gets involved. School board members suddenly stop talking about Jesus and creationism, denying statements they made to local reporters, and saying instead they were advocating the teaching of the so-called science of intelligent design. The lies were outright enough to make the presiding judge flush with anger, who subsequently cited the school board's "breathtaking inanity," in his decision against them. Go HERE for the story.

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WHO OR WHAT IS THE RFCSE?

  Mission Statement of the RFCSE

  Membership in the RFCSE!!!

  Who visits the RFCSE Home Page?!!!

  Who is the RFCSE?!!!

  Director of the RFCSE.

  The Georgia Branch of The RFCSE.!!!

  So Much for 2008 by the original Die Hard  This is how our religious future declined under Bush.

TO MEET REAL CHRISTIANS WHO BELIEVE IN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, CLICK HERE!!!

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MOSLEM FAITH AND WHY IT MAY BREED MORE TERRORISTS THAN THE OTHERS, CLICK HERE!!!

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Every once in a while we come across a quotation that is so true, that chills go up and down our spine.  The following short statement says exactly what I wanted to say to someone yesterday, but couldn't find the words.

"Many in the Religious Right in this country believe that since homosexuals "can't pro-create," they thus need to "recruit" or else their "way of life" will dwindle and disappear as their numbers are depleted over time. This is, of course, an utterly ridiculous belief. Gay people are not rendered infertile due to their sexual preferences, and their sperm and ovum are as capable of producing children as is yours or mine. Indeed, there are a great many gay people who are also married with children. Ancient Greece - the cradle of Western Civilization - thrived despite widespread homosexuality. Men had sex with other men for pleasure, and yet these "gays" all had wives and lots of kids back home. Homosexuality and the ability to produce offspring are not mutually exclusive.

"Of course, the irony of the religious Right's paranoia about the "homosexual agenda" is the fact that they, themselves, are the biggest supporters of true brainwashing and indoctrination. And they've always known that the best time to "recruit" someone is when they're still kids, with highly malleable world-views (see: church, Boy Scouts, Sunday School, Junior Klan, Hitler Youth, etc).    Therefore, they extrapolate from their own twisted desire to control the hearts and minds of children (and thus the future voting population) and project an image of their shadow selves onto their (current) most feared and hated enemies: Homosexuals.

"The Religious Right have always created bogeymen for themselves. They did it in the thirties with immigrants and Jews (remember Father Coughlin?). They did it in the fifties with the Red Menace of communism. They did it in the sixties with hippies and those darned, "unconstitutional" civil rights. They did it in the seventies with bussing and desegregation (i.e. black folks). They did it in the eighties with commies, black folks, drug users and the poor, and they did it in the nineties with Latinos, anyone for separation of church and state, and any democratic congressman.

"In all these cases, the Religious Right was battling something about themselves that they hated, but were afraid to confront. Like an alcoholic ranting about the evils of pot and cocaine. Like a bunch of wealthy businessmen sitting in exclusive, private gentlemen's clubs, whispering gravely to each other about the "sinister conspiracy" of labor unions. Bogeymen creating bogeymen.

"And now, with the homosexuals, the far-right-wing lunatics want to stamp out any attempts to instill tolerance towards The Other in our children - they call it "brainwashing" - because they quite rightly sense that tolerance is the best inoculation for the kind of brainwashing in which they, themselves, are engaged.

"Simply put, the Religious Right, as they attempt to implement their own theocratic, freedom-crushing national agendas via a Byzantine collection of secrecy-obsessed organizations with poorly-hidden motives - and way too many politically powerful people among their members for comfort - see any attempt to counteract their own pro-active efforts as a "sinister plot." And seeing as these loons see the world in terms of Good vs. Evil, it is far easier for them to paint anyone who is against their ideals as being in league with SATAN than it is for the sane and the secular to vilify them. The demonization of their enemies is taken care of for them in advance, by their own perverted, hate-filled psyches.

"And before you try to tell me that I'm exaggerating the political power wielded by these freaks, just remember this: They make up five out of nine Supreme Court Justices, and they got their anointed boy installed as President, despite the fact that he lost the popular vote... and despite the fact that they probably would have burned Miami and Washington D.C. to the ground if the shoe had been on the other foot."   .....Jerky B.

Religion is a convenient tool with which those individuals and groups who control most of the wealth in our society, control those people with little or no money normally called the middle class or working class. In their minds, the poor do not count because they have no money and they are ignored.  In the case of fascist-types like Pat Robertson and (in the past) Jerry Falwell, they don't even try to hide their greed. They come up with all manner of convoluted Biblical defenses of their avarice and opportunism.

If one learns to detect the ECONOMIC and POLITICAL reasons that many powerful right-wingers want to Churchize American society, then American society in general starts to look a whole lot different. Can anyone really maintain that it's a COINCIDENCE that so many fundamentalists are Republicans? They'll give you a million reasons why this is so. But the real reason is simple enough: religion in the U.S. is a business of both profit and control.

Although Religious Right extremists are only a small portion of the U.S. population, they  wield political power far beyond their numbers.  They have their own TV stations and they control the Republican party, yet they claim to be victims of "religious persecution".   L.O.L. 

They manipulate public opinion through letter writing campaigns, to make their extremist views look mainstream.  They lie, but they lie so loud and so consistently and so pervasively that many people think they are speaking the truth.   It is the strategy of the "big lie".. to repeat a deliberate untruth as often as you can, and eventually, it will become a "fact" in the public consciousness.  They have many different organizations, but only one agenda. That agenda is to establish a Christian fundamentalist theocracy in the United States.

But you will not hear Pat Robertson or Pat Buchannon or any Republican Candidate for President admit to that on CNN.  When they are on national television, Religious Right leaders exercise moderation and restraint.  They pledge their "love" for the people they hate (everyone who doesn't share their views), and their deep concern for this nation, and, invariably, "our" children (as if liberals did not have children).  They monopolize the word "family", acting as if only extreme-right, fundamentalist Christians can be good parents.  They have the impudence to claim that they represent "Judeo-Christian" values, but they do not even represent mainstream Christianity.  They claim the exclusive monopoly on morality - their own very special brand of "morality".  They glorify the "golden 50's", a time when the US was supposedly a "moral" nation.

But the truth is that more right wing fundamentalist Christians are found to be immoral than other Christian groups.  The 1950's?   The 1950s were a deeply immoral time.   It included institutionalized racism, discrimination of women and gays, rampant abuse of wiretapping powers by the FBI and Witch hunts against political dissidents were only some of the hallmarks of that "moral" time.  Those social ills were finally addressed in the 1960s.  But for those who define morality not by "justice and equality for all", but by what is going on in our bedrooms, the 60's mark the beginning of the "moral decay" of our nation. According to Pat Robertson, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, inflation, the oil crisis, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, the attempted Reagan assassination, the national debt, drug use and the high divorce rates are directly related to the 60's decisions of the Supreme Court to end religious coercion in public schools.

These are the kinds of message they have hammered into the minds of the people for two decades, and it is working.   An increasing segment of the population is buying into the "moral decay" lie and supports legislation and constitutional amendments that would forever take away the civil liberties that we take for granted.   Never mind that many of the social problems that fuel such sentiments, such as youth violence and crime, are exacerbated or even created by right-wing obstructionist policies, designed by Religious Right leaders and their political minions to make sure their own predictions of gloom and doom come true.  First block any meaningful reform in the legislature, than blame the resulting problems on "lack of moral values".   The Religious Right's campaign against public education is just one example of that destructive, cynical strategy.   In implementing that strategy, Christian extremists know no shame.   They aggressively blamed liberal values (= lack of values) for the Columbine massacre, as if Littleton, CO wasn't an affluent, conservative community with a disproportionately high number of evangelical Christians!   It happened right in James Dobson's back yard, but they have the impudence to blame liberals for it.

Religious Right leaders make no secret of their utter contempt for the constitution and the freedoms it represents.   When Phyllis Schlafly makes her hysterical pleas for "no more Clinton judges", what else is she but saying that the US constitution (which gives the president the right to appoint judges) has no meaning to her?  What else is Pat Robertson but an enemy of the constitution when he calls for the impeachment of every judge who disagree with his agenda?  What could be more unconstitutional than Gary Bauer's presidential campaign promise to permit state facilities to post the ten commandments?

Exposing these people as enemies of constitutional freedoms is easier than taking candy from a baby, but the "liberal" mass media - which are many things, but certainly not liberal - usually shy away from the task.  These "liberal" media never expose the hypocrisy of the Religious Right, and the highly selective reading of religious scripture that is behind most of its ideologies.   Not that that would be hard - ever wondered why Jerry Falwell was not wearing a beard (Lev. 19[27])?  Ever wondered why Pat Robertson has not given away his millions to the poor (Matt 19 [23-24])?

Many other Religious-Right myths just beg to be challenged: Premarital sex is against Christian values?  Not according to the bible, which condemns adultery, but not sex between two people who are both unmarried (see this  )  Abortion is murder? Not according to Exodus 21 [22], which considers killing a fetus only a minor misdemeanor (reference).

Homosexuality condemned by "millennia of moral teaching"?  Pure fiction. The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations considered homosexuality perfectly normal, so normal that in fact they did not even have a word for it.  Many native societies considered it normal and acceptable as well.    And even in the Christian world, there was never a universal agreement that homosexuality was wrong.  In the words of Ken Collins:

Some modern Christian teachers allege that the church has officially considered homosexuality to be morally wrong, but that long dogmatic tradition doesn't extend much farther back than the 1960s, and even then only in certain sects.  For example, the current edition of the United Methodist Book of Discipline has a lot to say about homosexuality, but the topic doesn't even appear in the 1965 edition or in any earlier edition of the same book.  If this is such an important historic dogma of the Christian Church, we might reasonably ask why it is not listed as such in historical documents.  We might ask, 'Why were the seven ecumenical councils silent on this topic?'  Historically, there has always been a debate among Christians on this topic, and the categorical judgments against gays are recent, not ancient.

Even if such universal and long-standing condemnation existed, it would be irrelevant, considering the many grave errors in moral judgment that Christians committed throughout the centuries, of which approval and defense of slavery is only one example.

"The first four commandments: no other gods, no graven images, not take name in vain, and remember the Sabbath are wholly religious in nature unrelated to any civil or criminal law.  That is 40 percent of the commandments.  Two other commandments: the fifth commandment to honor thy father and mother, and the tenth commandment not to covet are semi-religious social and psychological norms which would have to be enforced by thought police." (...) In Mark 10:19 Jesus said, "Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honor thy father and mother." Thus he omitted five of the original Ten Commandments--- most notably those dealing with God and the practice of religion---- and added a new one of his own.  Elsewhere, in Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus replied that the greatest commandments were the golden rules rather than any of the Ten Commandments. source