Posted on 07/24/2006 7:21:53 AM PDT by Dumb_Ox
This is a paranoid moment in American politics. A host of conspiracies haunt our national imagination, and apparent incompetence is assumed to be the consequence of a dark design: President Bush knew about the attacks of 9/11 in advance, or else the Israelis did; the Straussians took us to war in Iraq, unless the oil companies did; the federal government let the levees break in New Orleans, unless it dynamited them itself.
Perhaps the strangest of these strange stories, though, is the notion that twenty-first-century America is slouching toward theocracy. This is an old paranoia: Back in 1952, the science-fiction libertarian Robert Heinlein’s Revolt in 2100 envisioned a religious tyranny toppled by a Freemason-led rebellion; in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale imagined America as a Christian-fascist “Republic of Gilead,” with its capital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its public executions staged in Harvard Yard. But the fear of theocracy has become a defining panic of the Bush era, reaching a fever pitch in the weeks after the 2004 election, when a host of commentators seized on polls suggesting that “moral values” had pushed the president over the top—and found in that data point a harbinger of Gilead.
Later, more cool-headed polling analysis suggested that the values explanation was something of a stretch: The movement of religious voters into the GOP played a role in Bush’s victory, but the uptick in his support between 2000 and 2004 seems mainly to have reflected national-security concerns. Still, these pesky facts didn’t stop Garry Wills from announcing the end of the Enlightenment and the arrival of jihad in America, or Jane Smiley from bemoaning the “ignorance and bloodlust” of Bush voters in thrall to a fire-and-brimstone God, or left-wing bloggers from chattering about “Jesusland” and “fundies” and plotting their escape to Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...
Rabbi Rudin's "The Baptizing of America" - quoted in the full article - is a classic of liberal paranoia. It sounds like an utterly foolish book, a complete embarrassment. NOBODY in the mainstream evangelical movement has proposed anything remotely resembling what Rubin predicts will happen. And - as usual when liberals accuse conservatives of horrible things - it is the liberals themselves are most likely doing those very things. Thus, when Rubin accuses Christians of planning "re-education" camps in which liberals will be forced to change their views on things such as homosexuality, we compare that to today's reality in which liberals attempt to punish conservatives for their stand against homosexuality, as when Christian pastors are charged with hate crimes for repeating Biblical injunctions against homosexuality.
Funny, when the Islamonazis in Iran and (formerly) Afghanistan topple brick walls on to crush to death suspected homosexuals, the response from the left is (you guessed it) ....
.... {crickets}.
Bookmarked! Thanks.
The anti Christian bigots thrive on their fevered nightmare scenario that America has been overrun by the Christian Taliban. It's pretty easy to slap that argument down. The bigots minds won't be changed but the fence sitter's minds may be.
I usually point to the fact that in America an "artist" gets taxpayer money to put a cross in a jar of urine and a taxpayer funded place to display it. Sure it makes Christians angry but that's all it does. It doesn't cause Christians to riot in the streets. It doesn't send Christians into a murderous rage. There's no army of Christians vowing to kill the "artist" in the name of God.
Finally I issue a challenge to the bigots. I challenge them to create a picture of mohammad out of pig crap and proudly display it. If they respond it's usually to explain that they don't want to insult islam. At this point I expose them as bullies and cowards because they have no problem insulting the Christians who won't kill them.
The only theocracy we have to fear is Islamic.
The whole liberal "diversity" movement - with mandatory seminars for public and corporate employees - coerces individuals to accept liberal views on homosexuality, sexual morality in general, and other aspects of the liberal worldview. Thus, the closest thing to the "re-education camps" feared by Rabbi Rubin are in fact the diversity seminars imposed on conservatives by liberals, often with the not-too-subtle hint that employees who resist the message run the risk of management's disapproval, with potential harm to their careers and future employment.
In defiance of constitutional limitations and public sentiment, judges are allowing homosexuals to "marry." The words "under God" are found offensive and stricken from our national pledge. Women routinely "choose" to kill their unborn children because having babies is such a chore. Racial shakedown artists steal profits from giant corporations, pocket the money, then speechify about the poor job the administration is doing to eliminate racism. A corrupt and inadequate administration in New Orleans lets hundreds of citizens die in a hurricane, then is re-elected by the survivors.
Instances of the secularization of our government abound. Yet the merest suggestion that government adhere to the principles of religion (the very principles that FOUNDED this country and served it well for 200 years) is found to be "a slouch toward theocracy."
You can shoot pool your whole life and nobody calls you a pool shooter. But give one ... well, you know how it goes.
Gosh, by reading this article, you realize that this country was established as a "Theocracy" and was founded and ruled by Christian tyrants! Oh, we mustn't allow that to happen again!
Which begs another contradiction: if this country was founded on Christian principles, then why the charade about separation of church and state? That was never present in any of the Founders' philosophy, nor was it embodied in our charter. In fact, quite the opposite, since much of the Declaration of Independence invokes supreme authority in its condemnation of King George as well as its defense of the Colonists' intentions.
And if the country was NOT founded on Christian principles, then why is there such an active effort on the Left to remove something that doesn't exist?
Imminentize the Eschaton! Heh. I should have had a clue when Iran complained the other day that Israel was not cooperating and following the game plan.
Theocracy by stealth? Could be, but I doubt it. There would be an unmasking in the final days which would lead to a final shoot-out at the OK Coral. Yes, that's easy to envision when you consider what the 'mullahs' on both sides of the fence are up to.
The last man standing could then rightly call himself the only person in the world to have life, liberty and the opportunity to pursue sadness, if that makes him happy.
I would rather envision a monarchy of many monarchies comprised of many monarchs who sit under their own fig tree. Every person a Sovereign and equal under the rule of common sense. Don't tread on me and I won't tread on you.
It's time for people to stop dying for the mullahs of the world. If I must die, I will die clinging to my own fig tree.
Well, one day the citizens of the world will be slaves to a global theocracy...the one world religion mandated by the one world government. In the last days there will be a one world religion which will be the only legal religion...all other religions will be illegal.
If there's ANY Taliban in the USA, it's a GLOBALIST Taliban.
BTTT!
Yep. A lot of people have said it on FR but it bears repeating - here is a group who has in Islamism a genuine religious fascism to oppose that really does intend to take over the world, and they're wasting their time with paranoid fantasies about Christians who do not. Maddening.
LOL...Robert Anton Williams is just soooooooooooo last century! And he should have been sued for using Masonic terms; especially for the titles of a few of his books.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pictures/20060724TyreLebanonTIME01.jpg
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