As we noted in a report in 2006, it has become increasingly difficult to see much difference between the Republican Party of Texas and the religious right. As early as 1993, in fact, the resignation letter of the president of the Alamo City Republican Women’s Club in San Antonio lamented the transformation of the state GOP into an increasingly intolerant and overtly conservative evangelical Christian party:
“The so-called Christian activists have finally gained control. The Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.”
So we were fascinated by Austin American-Statesman reporter Ken Herman’s video report from the prayer rally at the Texas Republican Party’s convention on Saturday. Says Herman:
“It’s here in the convention hall at 7 a.m. on Saturday that you can see the faith that drives the politics. It’s a very specific brand of faith.”
Indeed. Listen to Cathie Adams (who was still the party’s chair at that point) at the rally:
“America and Americans, we were founded as a Judeo-Christian nation and we are proud of that.”
In fact, listening to certain Republican state officials over the last decade or so — not to mention their supporters in far-right pressure groups — makes clear that they value an exclusive brand of “Judeo-Christianity” (and one in which the “Judeo” part is clearly subordinate). Those who don’t share the same ideological perspective on a long list of issues — even fellow Republicans — don’t qualify for the club.
Check out Herman’s video report of the Texas GOP prayer rally here.
No wonder Speaker Joe Straus might feel a bit under the gun when he has all the Jesus Freaks shooting at him. If they keep it up, they might convert the Straus family to becoming Democrats……and maybe a few others who are not as socially conservative as the Governor and RPoT believe they should…..Jeff Wentworth comes to mind.
Praise Jesus! Allah al akhbar! Jihad!
Wait ….. did I get a bit carried away there? Forgot what country I was in for a second. Oh, hell, as long as its a theocracy, who cares?
(I do. Let’s not go there.)
Attention all people who pretend to be Christians: Jesus said, in Matthew 6, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray”, “”, “standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”, [NIV The Holy Bible]
So the question I have is do you enjoy being hypocrites? Do you enjoy spitting on what Jesus tells you to do? He also said, “”7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”, [NIV The Holy Bible]
I’ve attended churches at the invitation of Christian friends and all I hear is “father, god, our lord, Jesus god father” over and over and over and over again. Then there is the so “Lord’s prayer.” It was said as an EXAMPLE, not as something to be endlessly babble over and over again. Then you wonder why people laugh at you.
I’ve said this before and I’m saying it again, when I go to a SECULAR MEETING the last thing I expect is a prayer submitted in the name of someone I do not believe in. Now I make certain that if I show up at all, I show up late. If prayer is sprung on me without notice I get up and leave the room. That has angered some folks, but I DO NOT CARE. If you cannot restrain yourself and obey your lord, then you can expect more and more people walking out.
Isn’t there something in the Christian books that talk about worrying about an ash in someone’s eye while you have a log sticking out of yours? Either stop pretending to be what you’re not or have the courage to walk away.
Jews were sanctioned by Oliver Cromwell after Charles I lost his head, in order to exploit the network of Jews most recently ejected from Spain as an intelligence source. With commerce replacing theology thereafter, commercial skills of Jews who had formerly been banned from owning property became useful. This continued in the colonies and remained so after the Revolution.
Judeo-Christianity is a construct that does not exist in Judaism and a contradiction in terms in many Christian faiths.
A logical extension of the hyphenated agenda is Judeo-Christian-Islam. After all, Christ is the Sixth of Seven Prophets in Islam. Christianity achieved it’s rather amorphous shape as it moved through the Hellenicized and Roman worlds, and stapled together by the Emperor Constantine. The compromises of the Councils and the adaptation of pagan rites to the growing Christian aggregate invited attempts to simplify the doctrine. This is what happened in the publication of Islamic doctrine, and what happened in the Reformation. The latter specifically rejected the Roman adaptations including such pagan rites as Christmas.
That which the Pilgrims objected to in England was the observation of Christmas, which they felt was not only pagan but degerate.
Now in all fairness, not all upgrades are inherently improvements. After all, there was Windows MIllenium Edition.
Beverly:
Perhaps there is some reason these people on the Religious Right are unable to hear and do the things that Jesus taught. Any idea what that might be?
And that is how the Republicans keep winning. Jesus is a republican in Texas and the vast number of fundamentalists support jesus and therefore support the GOP. I’m not saying jesus really is cause I know the good, caring, helping the poor jesus parts of the bible but I’m just saying how the GOP gets voters.
If we continue this way, it won’t be long before we become the Republic of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Reading–that’s a wonderful thing to do. It educates you, opens up your mind, and makes you think. If only the religious conservatives did that. Then again, that would make them actually think, and there’s no room for thinking in their GOP. Bad idea! Bad idea!
I worked in the Congressional Campaign the alst go around for a friend who was running for the GOP seat. Some of his more ardent supporters denounced “critical thinking” as liberal machinations. Some of the others were convinced that it was the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, the UN, and the Fed that were at odds with the American Constitution.
What we are also confronting is of about what James Madison warned us in his “Memorial and Remomstrance”: “Strongly as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history,” W&MQ 3:555. Or, as he wrote in another source, [I]t was not with my approbation [approval], that the deviation from it took place in Congress, when they appointed Chaplains, to be paid from the National Treasury. [James Madison, July 10, 1822]. You may also want to review the commentary in the following TFN discussion:
http://tfn.org/2010/06/17/the-lie-that-wont-die/#comments
As a WASP-E (Episcopal WASP), it find it incorrect to equate the Southern mindset with the WASP. Southerners are better and more accuratly are WISP (Whitte Irish Scottish Protestants(.
The Confederate Battle Flag incorporated the Cross of St Andrew (Scotland) , and the Cross of St Patrick (Ireland) plus the thirteen stats. This flag did not include the Cross of St George (England) which along with the Croesses of St Andrew and St Patrick make up the Union Jack of the United Kingdom. No Angle Saxon paganry allowed here.