Posted on 12/18/2004 7:37:17 PM PST by ambrose
I Am A Conservative Christian, And The Religious Right Scares Me, Too
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By Chuck Baldwin
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The Covenant News ~ December 15, 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those readers who are unfamiliar with my biography, let me here provide a thumbnail sketch of my conservative bona fides:
I attended, graduated, or received degrees from fundamentalist Christian schools such as Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan, Thomas Road Bible Institute (now known as Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University) in Lynchburg, Virginia, Christian Bible College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida.
I am currently in my thirtieth year as the Senior Pastor of the Crossroad Baptist Church (Independent) in Pensacola, Florida. I was the Executive Director of the Florida Moral Majority in the early 1980's. I was an active member of the local Christian Coalition.
I have marched and protested against abortion clinics. I have led several pro-life rallies and even led our church to construct A Memorial To Aborted Babies. I have conducted small and large (some drawing crowds numbering in the thousands) pro-life, pro-family rallies and meetings in the Pensacola area and in many towns and cities across the state of Florida.
When Ronald Reagan was running for President, I helped Dr. Jerry Falwell register more than fifty thousand new conservative voters in my state. I have attended White House functions with former President Reagan and former Vice President George H.W. Bush.
I supported and defended Chief Justice Roy Moore and his fight to display a Ten Commandments monument at a pro-Ten Commandments rally in Montgomery, Alabama and even on national television.
I am an annual member of the National Rifle Association and a life member of Gun Owners of America. I have been the featured speaker at several pro-Second Amendment rallies.
No one can honestly question my commitment to pro-life, pro-family, conservative causes. That being said, the Religious Right, as it now exists, scares me.
For one reason, on the whole, the Religious Right has obviously and patently become little more than a propaganda machine for the Republican Party in general and for President G.W. Bush in particular. This is in spite of the fact that both Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have routinely ignored and even trampled the very principles which the Religious Right claims to represent.
Therefore, no longer does the Religious Right represent conservative, Christian values. Instead, they represent their own self-serving interests at the expense of those values.
It also appears painfully obvious to me that in order to sit at the king's table, the Religious Right is willing to compromise any principle, no matter how sacred. As such, it has become a hollow movement. Sadly, the Religious Right is now a movement without a cause, except the cause of advancing the Republican Party.
Beyond that, the Religious Right is actively assisting those who would destroy our freedoms. On the whole, the Religious Right comports with those within the Bush administration and within the Republican Party who, in the name of "fighting terrorism," are actually terrorizing constitutional protections of our liberties.
The Religious Right offered virtually no resistance to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the Patriot Act, or the recently created position of National Intelligence Director. Neither did the Religious Right offer even a whimper of protest as President Bush and Republicans in Congress created a first-ever national ID card in the new intelligence bill, which eerily has more in common with early Twentieth Century German and Russian intelligence institutions than anything envisioned by America's Founding Fathers.
Another disconcerting feature of today's Religious Right is its attempt to Christianize political entities which it supports and to demonize political entities which it opposes. This trend is especially scary.
When people are told that they are voting "Christian" by voting for Republican Party candidates, it is being intimated that they are voting non-Christian by voting for any other candidate. This is not only silly on its face, it is downright dangerous!
I don't remember anyone saying people voted "Christian" when they elected the outspoken Christian candidate, Jimmy Carter, President. Yet, Carter, in his personal life, demonstrated as much, if not more, Christianity than does George W. Bush. If you recall, Carter even taught Sunday School in a Southern Baptist Church while President.
However, in spite of the fact that President Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have repeatedly supported copious unchristian (not to mention unconstitutional) programs and policies, Christians act as if Bush and his fellow Republicans have ushered in the Millennial Kingdom.
More than that, the Religious Right appears to believe that G.W. Bush is the anointed vicar of Christ. But instead of wearing the garb of a religious leader, he wears the shroud of a politico and a military commander-in-chief.
As such, in the minds of the Religious Right, Bush's war in Iraq is a holy crusade. America is fast taking on the shape of the old Holy Roman Empire and President Bush is quickly morphing into a modern day Caesar.
The willingness of the Religious Right to give President Bush king-like subservience is easily seen in the way they demonize anyone who dares to oppose him. This is very unnerving.
Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the Catholic Church but by the Religious Right? Are we witnessing the type of marriage between Church and State that America's founders originally feared?
I used to believe that liberals were paranoid for being fearful of conservative Christians gaining political power. Now, I share their trepidation.
Of course, the sad truth is, neither George W. Bush nor the Republican Party in Washington, D.C. represents genuine Christian or even conservative principles. If they did, they would take their oaths to the Constitution seriously and then neither liberals nor conservatives would have anything to fear, for the U.S. Constitution protects the rights and freedoms of all men.
Unfortunately, when the seed of Bush's unconstitutional policies come to fruition, it will produce large scale fallout economically, socially, and politically. And sadder still will be that, instead of blaming Bush's infidelity to constitutional government and conservative principles, people will blame Christianity and conservatism itself. The result of this miscalculation will doubtless be a massive tide of support for more and greater unconstitutional government, but only under a different name.
Chuck Baldwin chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com Chuck Baldwin Live http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com
Consider the choices:
Bush--feet of clay, probably up to the mid-thigh. I DETEST his failure to stand more strongly for US sovereignty (although he has refused to submit to the ICC) and failed to secure our borders. He has,however, taken decisive action on 911 (while the Patriot Act etc. is of mixed costs/benefits to Liberty/Safety), stood up for Israel and our religious freedoms and refused to meet with Arafat. And he acts in office like a gentleman and statesman, not a sex pervert. A mixed record.
John Kerry--the other choice--absolutely a traitor worthy of court-martial and execution--a mixture of not bronze and clay--but dung and clay--right up to the hairline.
Chuck Baldwin cry me a river...
Hehe... "When listening to a liberal..." comes to mind.
It isn't my fellow consevatives that scare me it's the radicals on both sides that do it.
Baldwin makes some dubious allegations that he supports with nothing:
Which sacred principles, Chuck? He doesn't say.
It also appears painfully obvious to me that in order to sit at the king's table, the Religious Right is willing to compromise any principle, no matter how sacred.
Excuse me, Chuck, but the new intelligence measures you are talking about have something to do with what happened on September 11, 2001. You DO know what happened that day, don't you? I only ask this because you made no mention of it in your rant. All those measures are designed with stopping another 9/11 in mind. You seem to be of the opinion that over three thousand dead Americans makes no difference, and everything is the same as it was when YOU were a big name in the Religious Right, when the threat (as it turned out, an unrealized threat) came from without, not from within.
The Religious Right offered virtually no resistance to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the Patriot Act, or the recently created position of National Intelligence Director. Neither did the Religious Right offer even a whimper of protest as President Bush and Republicans in Congress created a first-ever national ID card in the new intelligence bill, which eerily has more in common with early Twentieth Century German and Russian intelligence institutions than anything envisioned by America's Founding Fathers.
This from a guy who supported Roy Moore's defying of a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument after the Supreme Court said he had to? It is to laugh!
More than that, the Religious Right appears to believe that G.W. Bush is the anointed vicar of Christ...Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the Catholic Church but by the Religious Right? Are we witnessing the type of marriage between Church and State that America's founders originally feared?
Chuck Baldwin is sounding more and more like Alec Baldwin nowadays.
That's not the totality of what bothers conservatives about him. Read the responses, including mine above. You might learn something.
I agree with you that President Bush is the lesser of 2 evils; no doubt about it....but his feet are still made of CLAY, & therefore the composition of the rest of the statue makes little difference: it will still come crashing down.
Whether it be the construction of a building, or religious & political principles, the FOUNDATION is the most essential factor: it carries the weight of the rest of the object.
I am totally convinced that it is time for conservatives--or more importantly, those who insist that the Constitution be strictly adhered to--leave the GOP in droves & establish a foundation that is as solid as the one created by the Founding Fathers. History has proven that strict interpretation of the Constitution WORKS, & has made us the envy of the world.
The GOP Establishment is basically the same as the Dims in many aspects--take for instance President Bush's & Sen. Kerry's membership in that secret fraternity from Yale (the name escapes me now)...or how the Establishment of BOTH major political parties involve themselves in the Council on Foreign Relations (VP Cheney, Bob & John Kerry, Kissinger, Clinton, Gingrich, Lieberman, McCain, Carter, & Bush 41, just to name a few)...or the fact that neither Party will do ANYTHING to control our borders...or have, hand-in-hand, helped to create a national debt of $7.4 TRILLION (& rising!). I could continue, but you get the picture.
No, I'm sorry....Mr. Baldwin isn't one of those McCain RINOs. In fact, he would make it obvious that President Bush himself is a RINO (which he is, IMO)! Do a little research about Mr. Balwin, you'll see.
How can you say that????? Do you know something about Chuck Baldwin that the rest of us don't know? Please inform us, dear teacher.
Well, Chuck is almost ready to start working with McCain, or Pat Buchanan, and he for sure stopped taking his meds.
This is why, between 1977 and 1981, the full force of the Executive Branch of the United States Government was brought to bear in an effort to overturn Roe V Wade and place abortion in the category of Capital Murder...
(/sarcasm)
Actions speak louder than words.
And my state ID is recgnized world-wide (though most other coutries prefer the National ID Pamphlet).
And yet I don't feel oppressed...must be brainwashed or sumpin.
Gee another crazy 'Baldwin"
With the exception of your muddled position here, Rev. Baldwin, perhaps not. However, I shall question your sanity.
The Republican Party is not perfect, but the Religious Left, which forms the majority of the base of the Democratic Party, is anti-life, anti-family, and anti-American. The Republican Party is the single most effective force standing between the Religious Left and their godless agenda.
Leftist drool.
At first I thought this guy might be some type of misguided Libertarian. His invoking Jimmy Carter as a model of a good Christian points more to his being a Pro-Abortion democrat.
That's as far as I need to read. If your arguement is so weak you have to present your credentials to try to make your point, your point is invalid.
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