The Religious Wrong

“The Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.” - President of the Alamo City Republican Women’s club, 1993

My decision to leave the Christian faith so many years ago is validated more and more with each passing year. Yes, indeed, the Christian Coalition in America, self-proclaimed beacon of morality and American values, shining example of religious extremism that it is, has once again affirmed my decision to leave the church. As long as there is one person left in this country who believes in the words of television evangelists like Pat Robertson (but by no means limited to him), is it any wonder that anti-US sentiment abroad continues to flourish?

If you took it upon yourself to click the preceding link, you would find that not only did the Christian Coalition’s founder seem to have no trouble with calling for the assassination of world leaders, but neither did former Bush White House Press Secretary, Ari Fleischer. It’s possible that Robertson was likely just operating out of BushCo’s playbook, while the White House attempts to distance itself from the negative publicity this is generating. There is also the possibility that this incident is just another diversionary tactic to keep the media from focusing on what else is happening in the news. The third possibility, that the founder of the Christian Coalition is just completely insane has also crossed my mind.

Robertson’s ties to the Republican Party, ties that various members of the Party are quickly trying to dismiss because of his latest remarks, are belied especially by his failed bid to be that Party’s candidate in the 1988 presidential election. “In September 1986, Robertson announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Robertson said he would only pursue the nomination if three million people signed up to volunteer for his campaign by September 1987. Three million responded, and by the time Robertson announced he’d be running in September 1987, he also had millions of dollars in his campaign fund, making him a serious threat to take the nomination.” - Wikipedia

Three million volunteered for his campaign. That’s nothing so easily dismissed, is it?

Outspoken in both his faith and his politics, Robertson has made plenty of headlines and enemies. He agreed with televangelist Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority, that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were caused by “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and the People for the American Way.” And then when people called him on that outrageous statement, he denied that he understood what Falwell was saying.

Robertson has also described feminism, in a fundraising letter in August 1992, as a “socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

I’d like to find an example of someone, a feminist lesbian witch with or without killed children, who has even attempted anything like that… so she could tell me how I can help her destroy capitalism and make Robertson a pauper. Heh. Worthy goal, that. For what it’s worth, he later claimed that he signed that fundraising letter, but he did not read it very carefully. Note the pattern?

And lest you think Pat Robertson alone represents the morality and values of the extreme Christian Right in America today, you might have to spend a little more time researching the rest of the Religious Right in the Republican Party and what “values” they talk about as compared to what those “values” actually are.

Robertson is just one of the more outspoken of the religious extremists, it’s the quieter ones that should worry you.