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We are a corporate theocracy now: The Christian right seeks cultural and political domination
Salon ^ | July 3, 2014 | C.J. Werleman

Posted on 07/04/2014 12:31:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Christian right's plan is simple: Dominate courts, state legislatures, and push their twisted morality on all of us.

“If fascism comes to America, it will not be identified with any “shirt” movement, nor with an “insignia,” but it will probably be “wrapped up in the flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution,” wrote in a 1936 issue of The Christian Century. Nobel Laureate recipient Sinclair Lewis put it even more succinctly when he warned, “It [fascism] would come wrapped in the flag and whistling the Star Spangled Banner.”

No one who has followed the rise of the Christian Right in national politics over the course of the past three decades should be surprised by Monday’s Supreme Court decision to grant corporations religious personhood. It was as predictable as Pat Robertson saying something stupid about gay sex. The hyper religious conservatives on the bench of the nation’s high court, all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, see the federal government as being controlled by ‘secular humanists’ who wish to make war against the purity of the Christian belief system. Like the 89 million Americans who count themselves as evangelicals, they seek total cultural and political domination.

Not only is the Christian Right the most politically agitated and reliable voting bloc of the Republican Party, but it is also emboldened like no other time in their warped history. With recent efforts to legalize discrimination against gay Americans defeated, the Hobby Lobby case against the Affordable Care Act has reenergized the theocratic wing of the GOP base — the wing that is now the party’s fuselage. Throw red meat to their holier than thou rationalizations and they won’t care what big business does to this great nation. They care for one thing – turning America into a theocratic regime. Don’t be fooled by the flag-waving and the obnoxious hyper-masculine jingoistic platitudes; the Christian Right does not love America unconditionally. They love America on the condition that representatives they help get elected are carrying out their political agenda.

There is no conspiracy theory here. Their strategy is evidently clear and unashamedly boasted. Their strategy is to control state and federal legislatures, and the courts – in a way that says, “We don’t care what the American people want. We write the laws, and those laws will not reflect the wishes of the center majority, but instead will cater only for the theological cranks within our ranks.”

In state after state, the nation’s theocrats are fighting and defeating America’s secular sense of self. The Christian Right has not only moved from the fringes to become the main strain of the Republican Party; it is the Republican Party. “The results of this takeover are all around us: If the American people poll more like Iranians and Nigerians than Europeans or Canadians on questions of evolution, scriptural inerrancy, the presence of angels and demons, and so forth, it is due to the rise of the religious right, its insertion into the public square by the Republican Party, and the consequent normalizing of formerly reactionary beliefs,” observes Mike Lofgren, who spent 28 years in Congress as a Republican.

These radicals continually surprise America for the fact that the mainstream media and casual political observers mistakenly believe these theocrats represent the minority fringe. You cannot sugarcoat the fact that it was a majority of Republicans in Arizona’s Senate who voted for the anti-gay bill. Likewise it was a majority of Republicans in Kansas’ House who voted for a similar bill. They voted for these religiously motivated discrimination bills because the Christian Right wish to discriminate against individuals they claim the Bible deems abhorrent.

The American Taliban is on a roll, and the Republican National Committee is seeking to capitalize on the Christian Right’s renewed energy, which has been fueled by victory in the Supreme Court. Last week, the RNC launched its first web-based effort to rally social conservatives and evangelicals as a key cornerstone of the party’s efforts to retake the Senate in the coming November elections.

“This shouldn’t be outreach, this should be who we are — it is who we are,” said Chad Connelly, director of faith engagement for the Republican National Committee and the force behind this new initiative, GOPfaith.com. Evangelicals, Connelly said, “are our biggest, most reliable voting bloc.” The aim of the website is “to build an army of conservative pro-faith activists” — that is sympathetic conservative Christians.

The RNC believes a big reason for Mitt Romney’s heavy defeat in the 2012 election was that the party didn’t do enough to court the Christian Right, with less than a third of the 89 million evangelicals casting a ballot. “Let’s overcome that myth of the IRS saying you can’t talk about this from the pulpit,” Connelly said. “Look, if there’s no freedom of speech in the pulpit, there’s no freedom of speech.”

“Now is the time of righteous indignation,” he said, a time to be the “turn-the-tables-over Jesus” and not the “meek, turn-the-other-cheek Jesus.”

The immediate goal of this renewed effort to “maximize the faith vote” is to help the GOP win in key Senate races, especially in battleground states like Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina. With the GOP needing a net gain of seven seats to take unilateral control of the U.S. Congress, winning those seats is essential to the GOP’s 2014 prospects.

“Many Republican leaders are tired of losing, they see some real opportunities to win, and that means they have to fire on all cylinders, if you will. And this is a key constituency,” said John Green, head of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. “They don’t have to woo them to the party as much as they need to woo them to the polls,” Green said of conservative evangelicals.

Should the Christian Right help the GOP retake the Senate, the Piper will need to be repaid. This prospect should terrify every secular, liberal American to his bootstraps.

The Hobby Lobby case is yet another reminder that those who wish to transform America’s secular democracy into a tyrannical theocracy are on the march.

*******

CJ Werleman is the author of Crucifying America, and God Hates You. Hate Him Back.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; History; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: abortion; contraceptives; hobbylobby; scotus; supremecourt; theocracy; women
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To: melsec
as for me you are welcome to him!

Thanks. I am sure you really do want him to stay in America. No need to apologize. The guy is an idiot, no matter where he comes from. As you are well aware, we have more than enough idiots in America, to go around. I think a lot of us believe the evil scum bags in charge, are deliberately flooding the US with 3rd world immigrants, in order to destroy the country. Unfortunately, I think at this time, they are winning. I do not know yet, if we have reached a point, where voting will not get us out of the predicament we are in.

21 posted on 07/04/2014 2:33:40 AM PDT by Mark17 (Rats and RINOs, who are destroying America, may you be screwed by the fickle finger of fate)
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To: willywill

Except the internet and conservative talkradio!


22 posted on 07/04/2014 2:34:41 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Do they mean the homo embracing, abortion excuse making, statism government loving, invader supporting, multicultural dogma espousing ‘Christian right’?


23 posted on 07/04/2014 2:42:10 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

-——those who wish to transform America’s secular democracy into a tyrannical theocracy are on the march.-——

Before I was banned from DU and huffington post I used to see posting along this topic and always ask the moon bats WHO they were talking about....give me ONE name of ANYBODY who wants to turn America into a theocracy?

Crickets....


24 posted on 07/04/2014 2:54:27 AM PDT by Popman ("Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God" - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Mark17

From outside Mark it looks like you guys are done - but that does not take into account the rugged individualism that makes Americans and America great. I know a lot on FR still believe it can be turned around - that may take a generation and to do it you have to get more organized than the lefties. The trouble there is most conservatives are too busy making a living or running a company than to get involved with politics, while lefties will happily live off the government while undermining the system. The Tea Party may have changed the paradigm somewhat but how can they last with attacks from both sides of politics? I wish you guys all the best!


25 posted on 07/04/2014 2:58:09 AM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong.)
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To: melsec
I wish you guys all the best!

Thanks, we will need it.

26 posted on 07/04/2014 3:18:45 AM PDT by Mark17 (Rats and RINOs, who are destroying America, may you be screwed by the fickle finger of fate)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Leftists once again projecting their own intentions.


27 posted on 07/04/2014 3:22:42 AM PDT by ScottinVA (If it doesn't include border security, it isn't "reform." It's called "amnesty.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“The Hobby Lobby case is yet another reminder that those who wish to transform America’s secular democracy into a tyrannical theocracy are on the march.”

LMAO!!!! Oh please.. this drain-circling, secular, amoral mass of humanity called America is no closer to a Christian “tyranny” than Saudi Arabia is. Love Salon’s hyperbole, though... it makes for comical light reading.


28 posted on 07/04/2014 3:26:52 AM PDT by ScottinVA (If it doesn't include border security, it isn't "reform." It's called "amnesty.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“If fascism comes to America, it will not be identified with any “shirt” movement, nor with an “insignia,”

Sure it will:


29 posted on 07/04/2014 3:27:19 AM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is from a Marxist rag...What else does one expect?


30 posted on 07/04/2014 3:57:17 AM PDT by AlexW
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When someone opens up a tirade by quoting Sinclair Lewis or such with approval, you know where the argument is going. It will be opposite to the principles upon which this country was originally begotten, and which no longer hold sway, thanks to our schools, colleges, and major “Christian” denominations.


31 posted on 07/04/2014 4:15:37 AM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
And we won't stop until all your Muslim daughters are our sex slaves.
32 posted on 07/04/2014 4:16:08 AM PDT by Rodamala
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

These commiunists are rightly afraid of pushback. They have forced their ungodly abominations on us and expect us to take it quietly “Sit down and get to the back of the bus, cracker/Christian/rightist/tea-partier..”

Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

Unlike false predictions of global warming (used to be a global cooling scare 35 years ago), God’s wrath is real, inevitable.


33 posted on 07/04/2014 4:25:30 AM PDT by nonsporting
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

LOL! I didn’t read the entire article. Was the tyrannical muslim in he White House mentioned?


34 posted on 07/04/2014 4:26:12 AM PDT by abclily
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To: abclily

he = the


35 posted on 07/04/2014 4:26:46 AM PDT by abclily
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

>> CJ Werleman is the author of Crucifying America, and God Hates You. Hate Him Back.

Sucks to identify with (and be owned by) Satan.

But it does explain his hyperventilating nonsense.


36 posted on 07/04/2014 4:27:05 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is one of the Left’s favorite plays. Accuse the Right of something the Right does to a minimal degree, while the Left does it full force maximum. Because the Left knows the MLM won’t call them out on it.


37 posted on 07/04/2014 4:38:03 AM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Prov 3:5 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Naturally he starts off by attempting to quote Sinclair Lewis. And naturally he screws it up by using a misattributed quote by some other liberal paraphrasing Sinclair Lewis. His article will now be quoted by yet another liberal attempting to quote Sinclair Lewis. Liberals love that quote so much that they’ve created an infinite regression of quotes, misquotes, and misattributions linking back to it. They love it because they think it constitutes near scientific proof of a fascist tendency in middle America. Kinda funny that the quote doesn’t exist.


38 posted on 07/04/2014 4:38:58 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This guy would probably welcome sharia law with open arms...


39 posted on 07/04/2014 5:04:01 AM PDT by moovova
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A major, steaming crock of political and psychological projection.

What this guy is talking about is oppressive political correctness. PC is pretty much all MSM-abetted left these days.


40 posted on 07/04/2014 5:16:10 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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