Finding it tough to identify with either the tweedle dumb or tweedle-dumber sides of the double-headed coin of the one-party system, it's best to monitor politics as an outsider. But regarding the ultra-rightwing oriented " 'Christian' Coalition" (sic), it's even tougher to remain non-partisan when bombarded with extremist, hateful and paranoid ideology courtesy of Gary Bauer and his henchmen.
The C.C. is "Christianity's" most visible and heavily financed organization. Like the bigoted and overtly racist "Council for Conservative Citizens", the C.C. is one of the iron fists of the Republican Party. The touted goals of the C.C. are in complete opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is truly incredible that in these days of free dissemination and availablity of relevant information that the teachings of the spiritual leader with the largest number of adherents in America can be so wildly misrepresented...
!! Can anyone please inform as to which parts of Jesus' teachings endorse taking from the poor to give to the rich?
!! Just where in the Gospels does Jesus advocate the rampant intolerance and hatred of people with different skin colours, ethnic background, sexual preference, lifestyle or religious conviction?
!! Just when and where did Jesus promote the wholesale exclusion of less fortunate groups such as the homeless, the hungry, the destitute and the disabled?
!! Jesus made his position on one of the cornerstones of American society, namely cut-throat capitalism, abundantly clear (Matthew 21-12), yet the dubiously moral ability to manipulate money to make money is most heartily embraced by the big churches.
*Is it Christian to support the wholesale intrusion and interference by government agencies into the personal lives of Americans?
*Is it Christian to accept donations from tobacco companies whose products result in the needless deaths and suffering of 500,000 Americans each year?
*Is it Christian to simultaneously and arbitrarily incarcerate 500,000 Americans who elect to ingest a relatively harmless substance, and deny it's medical benefits to thousands suffering terminal illnesses such as cancer and AIDS?
*Is it Christian to put assault weapons into the hands of civilians?
*Is it Christian to support capital punishment, or more accurately state-sanctioned coldblooded premeditated murder, knowing that it is no deterrent but also that many innocent people have gone to their deaths because they cannot afford Johnny Cochran?
*Is it Christian to ignore gross human rights abuses when it is politically expedient?
*Is it Christian to export weapons of mass destruction to countries whose leaders practise mass killings?
*Is it Christian to trash our planet in the interest of short-term corporate bottom lines?
*Is it Christian to force women (i.e. those who cannot afford to fly to more tolerant countries) to go to a coathanger abortionist rather than a qualified doctor?
It is tempting to explain such widespead loathing, seething hatred and pathological bigotry as symptoms of some as yet unrecognized psychological disorder. However, it all becomes quite plain taking into account the fundamental foundation of rightwing philosophy, namely xenophobia (xenos [Gk]= stranger, phobos [Gk]= fear), quite literally the morbid or irrational fear by some people of others (individuals or cultures) who are in some way different. This, in tandem with that other bastion of rightwing thought, namely social Darwinism, leads to a powerful and extremely dangerous threat to civilized behavior and, specially when many on the far right and of the military/uniformed mindset are strangely but predictably tolerant of macho violence and Wild West modus operandi. Humanitarianism has little place within the the extreme right, with "survival of the meanest" assuming the prominent position, with the accompanying rollback of civil rights. Recent outrages, all symptomatic of xenophobia, include the murder by NYPD officers of an unarmed innocent man, the horrific beating and murder of a gay college student , the murder of a doctor by anti-abortion extremists, and the innocent Texas man who was dragged to his death tied to a pick-up truck.
When it comes to such flagrant upwellings of evil, it is hard not to notice the deafening silence of those on the right and even more blatantly, the demonstrations by "conservative Christians" at Mathew Shepard's funeral, waving banners bearing messages of hate.
In it's dubious representation of Christ, the C.C. has now promotes "faith of convenience". It has little or nothing to do with original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ. The only commonality is the Bible, from which pieces are carefully selected and others ignored in order to spread a distorted message of bile and intolerance. Sadly the CC's message has more in common with those of tinpot banana-republic military dictators, and if it's far-right leanings made their way onto the statute books, civil rights, free speech and any attempt at democracy would follow the dodo into extinction, to be replaced by the heavy manners of authoritarianism. Seldom since the Salem witch-hunts has there been such an effective promotion of medieval values and much of middle America is swallowing it hook line and sinker.
It is very hard to believe that so many lawmakers can go along with this type of thinking and still live with themselves. Much of this Neanderthal nonsense is generated by the worst primal excesses of uptight, bloodyminded and wholly disfunctional men, who are scared witless to show any compassion and humanity for fear of losing face and credibility with their peers.