... people like this ... Those people ...
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Just listen to yourself.
I do, I hope.
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... may very well become numerous enough to put one of their own in powerful governmental positions.
This IS a democratic republic, no? And majority rule is the foundation of it, no? Government of by and for the people, no?
Yes, of course.
Of course, fundamentalist Christians do not have a good track record regarding tolerance of difference and the protection of civil rights for all. In the not-so-distant past, I would have been stoned to death, jailed, or put in the pillory by
you people for everyday behaviors and ideas I exhibit and express on a regular basis.
I wonder if you would be saying this if Satanists or Pagans or radical Muslims were heavily represented in our population and government.
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You sound like Pharoah who was scared to death of the population growth of the Israelites among the Egyptians. Let's hear it for a decree to put all first-born Christian males to death!
Making up strawmen is fun, isn't it Faith?
Stop it.
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Better yet, just pass some more laws outlawing Christian beliefs in the public square.
Um, hon? You have a bit of froth dribbling from your chin, there.
IIRC, many of the "the end is near" folks over the centuries, including many business and governmental leaders, have used such religious beliefs to inform their environmental policies.
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Wow, they use their beliefs to inform their politics. Wow, what evil people they must be.
I never said they were evil. I said they were dangerous.
Someone in power can be as well-intentioned as can be but still be so misguided that he rains destruction down upon everyone.
Bush, I believe, is not evil. I do believe he is more or less well-intentioned, but utterly misguided, and not a little callous.
"Why bother", they have reasoned, "trying to protect the environment for the future when it is clear that the Rapture is very nearly upon us?"
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Prove this please. I haven't heard such a thing. Are you tarring the majority with the deviations of a few?
Well, James Watt, Reagan's Interiro Secretary, said at his confirmation hearing, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns." And, Watt's protege, Gale Norton, just resigned the same position in Bush's
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Forty-five senators and 186 representatives in 2003 earned 80- to 100-percent approval ratings from the nation's three most influential Christian right advocacy groups -- the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council. Many of those same lawmakers also got flunking grades -- less than 10 percent, on average -- from the League of Conservation Voters last year.
Many End-Timers believe that until Jesus' return, the Lord will provide. In America's Providential History, a popular reconstructionist high-school history textbook, authors Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell tell us that: "The secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie ... that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece." However, "the Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's Earth. The resources are waiting to be tapped." In another passage, the writers explain: "While many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people."
DeLay is also a self-declared member of the Christian Zionists, an End-Time faction numbering 20 million Americans. Christian Zionists believe that the 1948 creation of the state of Israel marked the first event in what author Hal Lindsey calls the "countdown to Armageddon" and they are committed to making that doomsday clock tick faster, speeding Christ's return.
In 2002, DeLay visited pastor John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. Hagee preached a fiery message as simple as it was horrifying: "The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse!" he said, urging his followers to support the war, perhaps in order to bring about the Second Coming. After Hagee finished, DeLay rose to second the motion. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "what has been spoken here tonight is the truth from God."
But the influence of theology, although less discussed, is no less significant. Inhofe, like DeLay, is a Christian Zionist. While the senator has not overtly expressed his religious views in his environmental committee, he has when speaking on other issues. In a Senate foreign-policy speech, Inhofe argued that the U.S. should ally itself unconditionally with Israel "because God said so." Quoting the Bible as the divine Word of God, Inhofe cited Genesis 13:14-17 -- "for all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed forever" -- as justification for permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and for escalating aggression against the Palestinians.
As committee chair, Inhofe has subtly chosen scripture over science. The origins of his 2003 Senate speech attacking the science behind global climate change, for example, reveal his two masters: the speech is traceable to fossil fuel industry think tanks and petrochemical dollars -- but also to the pseudo-science of Christian right websites.
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