It is an inverse ratio in all of the Religions of the Book: The more that you hate, the more that you
condemn, the more that you despise others – the further away you are from
Yahweh, God, Allah. While we could have
this discussion based upon any of the 3 primary Religions of the Book; for this
discussion, we will focus on Christianity.
James 2:18 – But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I
will show you my faith by my deeds. Matthew
7:12 – So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for
this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (New International Version) It is by this authority that I condemn these 'Christians' who hate, who condemn, and who despise others as a political act – and
it is by this authority that I publicly question their faith; and openly
declare them to be false Christians.
Lately, I have been thinking of the Republican Candidate for President
in 1964, the late Senator Barry Goldwater, because Mr. Trump’s candidacy for the President last year, and his Presidency since his victory in November, seems to resemble the extremes of what a Republican victory in 1964 would have looked like.
Except, now, we have a Vice President who would represent a new American Taliban if he were to take over the Presidency.
Barry Goldwater was the ‘Gold Standard’ for being a conservative before
that word lost all meaning in the modern Republican Party; once the full poisonous fruit of the ‘Reagan
Revolution’ was harvested by our current radical Republican Party – including
the devastation caused by both the political Evangelical Christian movement
and, of course, the advent of the Tea Party.
I will leave the Tea Party to another day; as they don’t deserve the
space.
My Republican friends should be pleased that, now, they have President Trump –
who is the complete fulfillment of the hatred, racism, and bigotry that the Republican
Party has thrown at President Obama over these last 8 years. When I surveyed that sea of white faces at Tea
Party rallies, and the (mostly) white faces now at the Trump rallies, I encourage
my Republican friends to tell me again that their gratuitous abuse of President Obama over the last 8 years hasn’t been all about race. I love it when they lie to me – lying as if
they actually believe it – lying as if they actually cared that they're lying – lying about the fact that the Republican Party in the United States hasn't actually become the White Party. It's cute; in a sick and disgusting way.
Being a Recovering Republican myself; I recognize the situation for what it is. Of course, I began to leave the Republican Party when President Nixon instituted the racist 'Southern Strategy' and truly left it in 1980 when President Reagan was elected and began his brand of 'Voodoo Economics.' I returned to the Republican Party, briefly, during the Presidency of Bush (the smarter) and then left it permanently with the election of President Bush (the stupid).
When the mob with the torches came for the
monster, as the last of the Republican Party Primaries drew to a close in the fall of 2016, the mob was really coming
for the monster’s creator instead; as (what passes for) leadership within the
Republican Party these days have already discovered to their
discomfort. They can no longer control
their party now that Mr. Trump is President, the Quislings among them who once swore ‘Never Trump’ lined up
for cabinet positions, they hide in terror from that scary 'Trump Base', and they already know that the election last November was just a train
wreck. Yet – they just can’t help
themselves; like Lemmings jumping off a cliff.
Once the results of the multiple investigations have come in, and the reality of what has happened to our country is revealed for all to see, we may well be welcoming a President Pence, unless he too is implicated, and with President Pence we will indeed have our first American Taliban President. It you doubt what I say, or you think that I exaggerate, then go look at the public record of Governor Pence in Indiana.
Barry Goldwater saw this coming back in the 1960s. He rejected the political extremists who hid
behind Christianity while pandering to the worse instincts of our nature. While he supported business; he also
protected the environment. Indeed, he
would abhor the “core values’ of the last 6 Republican Party Platforms. Liberals of the day called him an ‘extremist’
while what passes for the ‘conservatives’ of today would call him a socialist –
or worse. He saw the views of the
Christian Right as a violation of both personal privacy and individual
liberties – and he was correct in doing so.
He also rejected the use of ‘God’ in our political discourse – just as
our Founding Fathers had done before him.
One of my favorite Goldwater quotes is: “The
religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their
religious clout with wisdom. They are
trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on
a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money
or votes or both. Frankly, these people
frighten me. Politics and governing
demand compromise. But these Christians
believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise.
I know, I’ve tried to deal with them. Religious factions will go on imposing their
will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that
religion has no place in public policy.”
Anyone who has been conscious and sentient these last 37
years can recognize how correct he was.
Goldwater’s many political sins, if viewed through the prism of the
current radical Republican Party, would include his support for homosexual
rights, his support for desegregation, and his support for a woman’s right to
choose (being in control of her own body) being rooted in the Constitutional protection of privacy. In fact, Goldwater was so upset about how the
radical Christian right has taken over the Republican Party that, in his later
years, he began referring to himself as a liberal. Indeed, 2 of Barry Goldwater’s granddaughters
voted for then Senator Obama in 2008; and there is a good chance that Barry
Goldwater would have also.
We need to all make a concerted effort to remove the Jerry Falwell and
Pat Robertson types from within our political process and reject Christian
right-wing fanatics – along with their thirst for combining their version of
God and ‘Christianity’ with our government.
We don’t need, and no true Christian should want, a Republican
Jesus. Indeed, in response to Moral
Majority founder Jerry Falwell’s opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day
O’Connor to the Supreme Court (of which Falwell had said, “Every good Christian
should be concerned”), Goldwater responded: “Every good Christian ought to kick
Falwell right in the ass.”
Amen Brother,
Amen!
The modern, and radical, Republican Party has moved so far to the
extreme political right that true conservatives like Barry Goldwater would be
considered hard-core liberals today. It
is well past time for the few remaining true conservatives in the Republican
Party to awake from this 37-year nightmare and finally realize what the
Christian right has done to both their party and to their country. The Christian right’s movement of hatred, naked racism, and
division has virtually destroyed the Republican Party and has certainly damaged
the United States – as the short term of our new President has clearly demonstrated. The attempts by the
Christian Right to brainwash, control, and dominate the political discourse, and the political process, within
our country has to be pulled up by the root and thrown into the dustbin of
history – no mercy, no quarter, no exception, and no compromise.
References:
Barry Goldwater’s War Against The Religious Right: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/13/barry-goldwaters-war-against-the-religious-right/
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