Politics Plus

For people who claim to support the Constitution, Republicans surely have a way of ignoring it whenever it is inconvenient to do so.  The First Amendment to the Constitution of the the United States protects the free exercise of religion, but Republican Bryan Fischer of the AFA insists only the religions he chooses should be protected.

Unsurprisingly, Bryan Fischer is not happy that religious leaders won’t be addressing a ceremony marking the ten year anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York. A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that they wanted to keep the focus “on the families of the thousands who died on Sept. 11,” and the Wall Street Journal noted [Murdoch delinked] that previous events marking the anniversary similarly did not include religious speakers and that there “will be an interfaith event recognizing first responders on Sept. 6.”

But Fischer believes that Bloomberg is up to something more sinister. By failing to include religious speakers, Fischer insists that Bloomberg is “playing favorites, and his favoritism is heavily stacked toward Muslims.”

According to Fischer [Supply-side pseudo-Christian delinked], such public prayers should “be reserved for Christians and Jews,” (although he goes on to leave out the latter when he calls for prayer to be restricted to “the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.”) Fischer explains that the Founding Fathers would have wanted it that way because Muslims “pray to a different god.” Of course, as we pointed out on Friday, the AFA made clear that Christians and Jews “do not worship the same God” and that Christians should build friendships with their Jewish neighbors to convert them… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Fischer’s bigotry anti-American as well as anti-Christian.  Republican hatred toward Muslims directly opposes both Jesus’ teaching and his practice, as he honored people with faiths different from his own.  Fisher is just another Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian.  His views do not represent authentic Christianity.

Something ugly has risen its head in American Politics.  The New Apostolic Reformation Movement, sometimes called Dominionists, want to reinvent America as a theocracy in which they, as God’s appointed representatives, control the intimate details of daily life from the largest corporate board room to the tiniest private bedroom.  They have been around for a while, but nobody has given them heed, because they warranted none, until now.  Now they have an anointed holy prophet in the person of soon to be candidate, Rick Perry.

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer event “The Response last weekend raised plenty of eyebrows for coming on the heels of much presidential speculation, and for featuring a number of pastors with some controversial views. On her program tonight, Rachel Maddow tried to find the common thread among these pastors, and she argues it is not that they have all “just had a moment where they said something that sounded strange.” They are members of the New Apostolic Reformation, she argued: a small religious group plotting world domination.

Maddow noted that for Perry to have invited many of the characters that appeared at his event was enough of a threat to any potential campaign– not because of the prayer itself, but “the risk for his President campaign was… that the particular stadium prayer event he held was with these guys.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Mediaite>

Rachel Maddow has done the most superior job of documenting these Dominionists  that I have seen.  She did so last night in two segments.  In the first, Rachel explained in detail who they are and why Perry waited until next weekend to announce.

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They are a threat to our way of life, and Perry waited to avoid close MSM scrutiny of his fanatical handlers.  It’s easy to see why.

In the second, Rachel discussed New Apostolic political ambitions with staff writer Forrest Wilder.

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Perry succeeded.  As he moves toward his announcement, most of America remains ignorant of the extreme danger this man represent.  Worse yet, he is so off the deep end that he  is sure to attract the support of the InsaniTEA wing of the Republican Party.

In closing, please understand that these are not authentic Christians.  Among other qualities, authentic Christians have no need to shove their beliefs down the throats of others.  They respect the beliefs of others and desire to coexist in peace with them.  They have an abiding concern for the poor.  They recognize that church (render unto God) and state (render unto Caesar) are separate.  They have no Machiavellian plans.  Please do not blame authentic Christians for anti-gospel of hate, bigotry, and greed of Republican supply-side pseudo-Christians.

Many on the right are claiming that Breivik could not be a Christian terrorist, because what he did was not a Christian act.  In a way I agree with them, in spite of their complete hypocrisy, but it’s not that simple.

In the wake of mass murder in Norway by a young man who hearkened to the Christian crusades and calls himself a cultural Christian – many ordinary people of faith were horrified to find Anders Behring Breivik described as a “Christian terrorist.”

Whether that title applies to Mr. Breivik is a suddenly awkward issue – partly lembecause it raises the question about a fast and loose use of “Muslim” or “Islamic” to name those who commit violence in the name of their faith.

While European media seem disinterested in Breivik’s Christian self-definition or the terminology used to describe him, in the US and Muslim media worlds it is a sprawling debate. It was hyped by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News who found it an “outrage” to call Breivik a Christian terrorist; Mr. O’Reilly responded to some reports that early on took Breivik’s statements about his Christianity at face value.

But the Fox talk show host and some others have denied that Muslims who commit violence should be treated by the same rules… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Christian Science Monitor>

The problem here is not Christianity or Islam, as both religions condemn killing the innocent.  The problem is that right-wing extremists have abused both religions to further their political agendas.  Breivik is no more Christian than the Republican Supply-side pseudo Christians here.

Because of his racist beliefs, and his group’s connections to the Koch-funded AFP, perhaps he should be called the Teabagger Terrorist.

How would you like for the President of the United States to consider our nation to be an extreme right wing church, and himself, the pastor?  Perhaps he would change our nation’s name from the USA to the First Church of Talibangelical Teabuggery, considering that this would be Pastor President is none other than Texas’ infamous Rick Perry.  Now here’s the scary part.  Even though he has not even declared, there is a significant chance that he could be the Republican nominee.

Employing deeply religious language that national experts say affords both power and peril for his political career, Gov. Rick Perry in late May told a group of East Texas business leaders that he was "called to the ministry" at age 27, suggested that the governor’s office was his pulpit and that God put him "in this place at this time to do his will."

According to a transcript of the private meeting, organized to raise funds for Perry’s Aug. 6 "day of prayer and fasting" at Reliant Stadium, the governor stated that property rights, government regulation and a "legal system that’s run amok" were threatening the American way of life and "it’s time to just hand it over to God and say ‘God, you’re gonna have to fix this.’ "… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Houston Chronicle>

Of course, when Perry says “hand it over to God”, he means violating the establishment clause to make Republican supply-side pseudo-Christianity our state religion and make their false gospel of bigotry, hate, homophobia, intolerance and racism the law of the land.

Rachel Maddow explains how Perry may well be the candidate with Republican Party establishment backing and the perils his views would bring in the general election.

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Unless you share Perry’s vision for America, failing to vote or protest voting will help guarantee it.