{"id":4850,"date":"2011-05-16T02:47:49","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T09:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=4850"},"modified":"2011-05-16T02:49:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-16T09:49:20","slug":"why-theocons-hate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/16\/why-theocons-hate-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Theocons Hate America"},"content":{"rendered":"

For people who claim to be patriots, religious-right Republicans, certainly seem to hate this country.  Many keep threatening secession.  Many raise bogus issues of states rights that have been dormant since the civil war.  Many threaten violent overthrow of our government unless their candidates win at the polls.  Most want to ignore major parts of the Constitution.  Rob Boston wrote an excellent piece listing ten things that give these Theocons fits.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"16theocons\"Religious Right groups and their frequent allies in the Tea Party talk a good line about respecting American values, but much would change if they had their way. They seek not to restore our country to some Golden Age (that never existed anyway) but to recreate it \u2013 in their own fundamentalist image.<\/p>\n

An America rebuilt along Religious Right lines would be a very different place. And to get there, the theocrats among us first have to tear down some features of American life \u2013 some of which are longstanding. Here are ten things about the United States that drive Religious Right groups crazy:<\/p>\n

1. Our history debunks Religious Right mythology<\/strong>: American history stands as a rebuke to the Religious Right. America\u2019s founders established a secular government with freedom of religion and its necessary corollary, separation of church and state, built into the First Amendment. A \u201cChristian nation\u201d was not what the founders sought. How do we know this? They said so. Think about it: If an officially Christian nation had been the intent of the founders, the Constitution would prominently include that concept. It doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And those Religious Right claims that separation of church and state is a myth? They\u2019re a crock. As James Madison put it, \u201cStrongly guarded\u2026is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States.\u201d Madison ought to know. He\u2019s considered the Father of the Constitution and was one of the primary drafters of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

2. We support science<\/strong>: While polls show some confusion over issues like evolution, most Americans are big fans of science and are quick to rally around the latest medical breakthroughs and cutting-edge technology. Many religious people in America long ago reconciled their faith with modern science. But the Religious Right remains stubbornly insistent that any science that conflicts with its literalist interpretation of the Bible must go.<\/p>\n

Religious Right activists hate science because it casts doubt on their narrow worldview \u2013 a worldview that teaches that all answers are found in a rigidly fundamentalist interpretation of an ancient religious text. To the Religious Right, evolution and the Bible can\u2019t co-exist. They refuse to read the scriptures in a metaphorical or symbolic context. Since, to the Religious Right, evolution undercuts the Bible, evolution should not be taught in public schools.<\/p>\n

3. America has a tradition of tolerance<\/strong>: Yes, we\u2019ve fallen short of complete tolerance from time to time, but at the end of the day, most Americans believe in treating their fellow citizens decently, even if they have different religious or philosophical beliefs. But to the Religious Right, tolerance is entrance ramp on the highway to hell.<\/p>\n

The idea that religions should strive to get along is dangerously close to the idea that all religions are on equal footing. This is bad, so says the Religious Right, because it leads people into \u201cerror\u201d \u2013 that is, an embrace of any religion that\u2019s not fundamentalist Christianity. Tolerance is ridiculed because it dares to suggest that a Unitarian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu, Pagan or atheist might have an equal claim on truth alongside a fundamentalist\u2026 [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

Please note that I only listed three of the ten items.  I encourage you to click through to the article.  The best is there.<\/font><\/p>\n

For those of you who do not know me well, I have no objection to Christianity, or for that matter, to any other faith.  I am a Christian myself.  I do object to those who pervert their beliefs through hatred and intolerance for others.  As such, today\u2019s theocons are the spiritual heirs of the Pharisees and Sadducees of the first century.  Jesus berated them often.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For people who claim to be patriots, religious-right Republicans, certainly seem to hate this country.  Many keep threatening secession.  Many raise bogus issues of states rights that have been dormant since the civil war.  Many threaten violent overthrow of our government unless their candidates win at the polls.  Most want to ignore major parts of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}