There has been a disturbing trend in Republican politics for the last 20 years and that is that it has become a party that thinks more in terms of religion than in what policies are good for all Americans. We have always thought that there was a wall of separation between church and state but the Christian right has been working for 20 years to elect representatives who do not believe that. They believe that this should be a Christian nation and that Christianity should be the religion of the land with full support of the government. Of course that flies in the face of freedom of religion because, let’s face it, not everyone in this country is a Christian or wants to be. Yet the political agenda that these representatives are pushing has only one group of people that it is trying to please and that is the fundamentalist Christian right.
This surge into the Republican party by the Christian right has been going on since about 1991 or so as the Christian Coalition began to move into the Republican party even more than what Republicans thought possible. This quote from the president of the Alamo City Republican Women’s club shows that what was happening was not agreeable to Republicans of that time either, “The so-called Christian activists have finally gained control,” she explained in her resignation letter, “and the Grand Old Party is more religious cult than political organization.” In a nutshell that is exactly what has happened to the entire party over the years since 1991 when most of this started. The Republican party is no longer answerable to itself for the course that it sets or the planks that will be in its platform but looks instead to the Christian right, Grover Norquist and the tea party to tell it whether the choices it is making is right or wrong.
I have no problem with people voting for the person who is the closest to the ideals of what you want to see happen in your government but this movement goes far beyond that. There is a concentrated effort to groom candidates who will do exactly what they want once they are elected and then run them against established Republicans and take their seats in congress. Once elected these Christian right representatives will no longer compromise and certainly not allow any legislation to pass that is contrary to their interpretation of the Bible. This sounds like it would make a good plot for a political mystery novel or a sci fi story where everyone is replaced by pod people who will live and work in harmony without conflict.
The trouble is that this is exactly what is happening. We saw the results of this when the tea party had a large influx of members into congress on the Republican side of things in 2010. Suddenly nothing could be decided and Capitol Hill was gridlocked as bad as New York traffic during an OWS protest. We even came very close to defaulting on our debts as a nation because they did not want to compromise their position. It was our way or the highway. The tea party is an outgrowth of what was started 20 years ago and many of the tea party representatives are in agreement about being answerable to God for what they do as politicians. This means that they will never compromise their biblical principles to work with other representatives to get things done that need to be done for the American people.
I don’t have a problem with any spiritual path that people want to follow regardless of what they believe as long as it does not injure others and secondly as long as they don’t try to impose their beliefs on others. And of course that is what is so disturbing about this takeover of the Republican party by the Christian right. If you don’t know already the Christian right believes that their beliefs are the only “true” beliefs about God and all others are just deceptions of Satan. Combine that with political power to impose their beliefs on Americans via the power of legislation and you can see the danger. You’ve seen the results of this kind of thinking in the endless assault on gays in America, time after time Roe vs. Wade is a target of a Republican politician somewhere in the United States trying to find a way around the law of the land and lately the all-out effort to stop same sex marriage in its tracks because it is a threat to traditional marriage. The Defense of Marriage Act was their legislative effort to stop these same sex marriages by wielding their power in congress to please the Christian right elements that hold their leashes.
So as you read the news stories where candidates are asked about their religious beliefs and judged worthy or not by them you should be worried as well. I would rather have an atheist elected who will fairly enact laws that are of benefit to their entire constituency than to see a candidate elected based on their fundamentalist beliefs and who will only pass laws if they stand up to biblical scrutiny. If a candidate can put their beliefs aside and allow themselves to see an issue from all sides with no preconceived ideas then I have no problem with them. I don’t see this happening though. As soon as representative breaks ranks with the Christian block that put him in office then they will be tried in the court of public opinion and next election the Christian right will put up another candidate that will do just what they tell them to do. Is that the kind of country you want to live in? Neither do I.
