America's fundamental sin of abuse - Rick Salutin, The Globe and Mail

http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040507/COSALU07/TPComment/Columnists


I thought of the Fox network's Bill O'Reilly when I heard about the recent prisoner abuses in Iraq. Not because of the normal abuse you get on his show. But I was on The Radio Factor With Bill O'Reilly last week and in the intro to our discussion he referred often to The Globe and Mail as left-wing. I said I had to defend it against that charge, since The Globe has always been a conservative, business paper here. Oh, come on, he scoffed, noting that the Globe is "secular." We sparred and it was only when he repeated the term that I realized that in the United States, the main political divide now runs between Christian fundamentalism and "secularists." I said I was grateful for this insight: that the U.S. may be the only nation that defines politics in such religious terms. Since the Taliban, anyway, muttered a friend.

I'd say this kind of religiosity is now the biggest difference between us. It's amazing how many Americans drop into conversation, references to their faith, or ask about yours. Forty-six per cent call themselves born-again. In Canada, an evangelical group claims 12 per cent, but even those are not self-described; they are extrapolated from a dubious poll. The U.S. is a country that has "creationist" theme parks to offset dinosaur theme parks. Seriously.

When George Bush met with families who lost members in Iraq, he proudly told them he was praying for them. But he's the President. He could do something, not just pray. George Monbiot, in The Guardian, says 15 per cent of Americans hold a fundamentalist view by which the state of Israel must expand to its biblical borders in order to set off a cosmic battle during which believers will be taken to Heaven naked (the Rapture). They may comprise 33 per cent of Republicans, including Attorney-General John Ashcroft and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Those voters are heavily courted by the Bush team and they demand conflagration rather than peace as policy goals in the Mideast.

and it's just as bizarre and disturbing to many of us in the northeast US as it is to you in Canada...

For the sorry story of how the religious right hijacked the Republican Party, check out this website: http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

responsiblities from their past sinning ways. It
gives them an excuse to not look at themselves nor
to confront the harms they have done to themselves,
families and others in their miserable lifetime. It
gives them "so called exoneration" which makes them
feel good. Church and Jesus Christ have nothing to
do with it, that is all in their head. However; when
brain washed by the church long enough one gets to
believe their "soul" is cleansed and their now
reborn again. It doesn't cover the baggage they
still carry, where do you think this hate, bigotry
come from all these people? Their still the same
person, only worse from the brainwashing. Their
a joke, especially when they have these "awakenings"
which mean the church made sure they did. Hell look
what Big Barb, said to jr. in church when the
minister, said you were called by God and she
agreed. What rot!
This born again nonsense is nothing but
one big sham! They remind me of dry drunks, who just
like them.