Posted on 09/21/2006 4:44:21 PM PDT by DeweyCA
It's not discomfort with religious values in public life that's behind his new drive, the senator insists, but concern that religion is being used to deliberately divide Americans. Politics practiced rightly is the glue that keeps a diverse nation together and the catalyst that moves it forward, he believes. Yet today the political arena is plagued by rancor and incapable of resolving the most crucial issues confronting America. He sees a link between that unhappy state and the power of Christian conservatives within his own party. He's stirring a ruckus, he hopes, so that others will speak up.
This week, as the US political campaign intensifies, he hopes to spur more discussion with the publication of "Faith and Politics." - Snip - Describing bipartisan achievements by centrists in the Senate, it asserts that the center is where action beneficial to the nation occurs. - Snip - What ultimately drove Danforth to action was the Terri Schiavo case. To him, Republican leaders "abandoned with ease" the party's principles against government intervention in individual lives and federal intervention in state matters when they sought to block the removal of her feeding tube - just to please the Christian right. - Snip - Then there are the stances on stem-cell research and the federal marriage amendment, which he says are attempts to legislate a particular religious view. Republicans in Missouri are trying to make stem-cell research a criminal offense, and Danforth, an abortion opponent, has done a TV ad opposing the legislation. - Snip -
Instead of a crusade of wedge issues, he proposes a Christian ministry of reconciliation to address unresolved problems: the budget deficit, a policy to make America energy-independent, the looming entitlement program shortfall, and "how we deal with a post-9/11 world."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
The windbag has aligned himself with Christie Whitman's PAC. Nuff said.
About 12 years ago, I sat in St. Jack's office on Capitol Hill with a friend of mine who was a congressional candidate. Danforth is as Machiavellian as they come. The religious act is just that...dupe the yokels.
Danforth is a liberal ECUSA priest. He is going down with his ship. Any cachet he derives from the epithet"Episcopal Priest" is tarnished by the realtiy of the decay in that denomination.
Tell that to the Founding Fathers.
They're worried that the base won't turn out for rinos. Trouble is, so many have been paying attention to these bullying tactics as applied by the left, that they have no power anymore.
Danforth has allowed his old job as a congressman to go to his head - he can't think straight any more.
These whole idea about conservative Christians being somehow dangerous or scary seems a lot less serious now that we see what REAL religious fanaticism can do, and the ugly mark it is leaving on the world.
Danforth sold his soul to give the Clintons cover on the Waco Massacre.
Danforth was a RINO before RINO's were uncool.
"The windbag has aligned himself with Christie Whitman's PAC."
Well, I see there are two members now.
Somebody oughta put that on his stupid tombstone!!!
She's determined to undermine the president, that backstabber.
John McCain was also on the board of her PAC, but he asked her to remove his name. After all, the main purpose of the PAC is to defeat conservative candidates and replace them with moderates.
John McCain would have us believe he is conservative........HAH!
Hey! It ain't righteous conservatives splittin up America! It's them leftist liberals and their MSM!!! I hope St. Peter whaps him up-side the head with this dumb book when he tries to lie his way into the pearly gates!!!
I'm a secularist conservative myself, and I WAS extremely upset with the religious right some twenty odd years ago. At that point -- while the "Moral Majority" org and movement was still active, and when Pat Robertson was running for president, and many fundamentalists and evangelicals were becoming newly politically active -- there was a period of time when conservative Christians thought, and acted like, they could take over the Republican party lock, stock and barrel and dictate it's policies. But, again, that was TWENTY YEARS AGO.
Rather quickly, and in the decades since, the "religious right" has demonstrated again and again their growth in political savvy and sophistication, and an understanding that they are part of a coalition and have to pick their issues, compromising here, agreeing to differ there, and so on, just like any other group with shared perspectives.
Danforth's claim that they are a key element in driving polarization is false and is an utterly gratuitous slap in the face to an important segment of the conservative coalition.
Danforth defines the term Christian In Name Only (CINO.)
I'm normally a pretty patient and forgiving soul. But my Clinton Grudges will go to the grave with me.
I'll be muttering about Alamo-girl's list when I'm wandering around the nursing home, telling the baby nurses cautionary tales! lol
I'm pickin up what yer layin down!!! (wide grin)
LOL :-)
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