There's no way the Republicans can claim any high moral ground over us

It amazes me to this day how Bush's self righteous screed could dupe so many otherwise intelligent people into losing their minds.

Skinner had it so right when he pointed out the key to the gay marriage issue was that, ultimately it's a civil rights issue and our support for civil rights for all is the right stand to take.

Any so-called Democrat who feels otherwise needs pull their nose out of Jerry Falwell's corrupted Bible and get with the program.

Those Dems who even seriously considered Dim Son's call to vote for him because he makes the right moral choices should get a hard and cold reality check.

Civil rights for all regardless of whatever differentiating factor IS THE EPITOME OF MORALITY!

Dems falling into Shrubya's web of lies need to check their bank balance into order to figure out if they can buy a clue.

Professor 2

They played dirty, smash-mouth politics, they lied and lied and lied again and when they were caught lying, they'd repeat the lies yet again.

I have never seen such disgusting, loutish thug-cowards in my life.

they made up new lies because they didn't remember their old ones. Examples: Reasons for Iraq War, reasons why the missing explosives went missing in Iraq, etc.

and as a result won't have any money left to buy a clue!

If they did they wouldn't lie, cheat or steal.

"Gloat," apparently.

The American people turned out en masse to vote for Kerry. Can we please keep that straight?

http://www.halexandria.org/dward810.htm

....the real monster is Dominionism.

Dominionism can be defined as "the seizure of earthly (temporal) power by the church as the only means though which the world can be rescued; only after the world has been thus 'rescued' can Christ return to 'rule and reign'." <2> A more extreme version is Theonomy which seeks to reinstate the Old Testament civil code -- for example, putting to death -- by an electric chair vice stoning -- all homosexuals and gluttons.

This "Christian Reconstructionism" is an extremist view whose goal is to eliminate religious freedom by imposing a Bible-based political, religious, and social order. Any thing outside the interpretation of the very narrowly construed church would be suppressed, with nonconforming Evangelical, main line and liberal Christian churches no longer being allowed to hold services, organize, proselytize, and so forth. Even blasphemy -- however "they" want to define it -- would be criminalized. When found guilty, they would be executed -- thus raising the specter of religious genocide.

Katherine Yurica has written an excellent piece of Dominionism <3>, in which she notes that the movement now includes in its membership: President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Karl Rove (Bush's chief political advisor), Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, former Vice-President Dan Quayle, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Gary North (of Contra fame), Pat Robertson (700 Club), Billy Graham, and others.

To give you a sense of the potential horror of this movement, Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court has said that the Bible teaches and Christians believe "...that government ...derives its moral authority from God. Government is the 'minister of God' with powers to 'revenge', to 'execute wrath', including even wrath by the sword..."

We are talking here about a seriously deluded, dysfunctional, and demented viewpoint. To say that such advocacy and action to accomplish same is treason and anti-ethical to virtually all systems of moral legitimacy is to damn it with faint praise. The powers that be in Washington, DC represents an out-of-control return to all of the horrors and evils of the Spanish Inquisition. Whether or not the power-mad advocates of Dominionism truly believe in this theology -- as opposed to just using the movement for their own personal agendas -- is not clear. What is clear is that this narrowly focused Christian fundamentalism in America makes the extreme fundamentalists in the Middle East appear relatively tame.

Katherine Yurica's essay <3> is a long one, but essential reading for anyone who claims themselves as a member of any religion. The positive aspects of Christianity are being highjacked by some incredibly dysfunctional people. It is essential that the word be spread and the movement deflected into Christian tolerance, compassion, and love.

It is essential to recognize that "Faith without doubt leads to moral arrogance, the eternal pratfall of the religiously convinced. We are humble before the lord, Bush insists. We cannot possibly know His will. And yet, we 'know' He's on the side of justice -- and we define what justice is. Indeed, we can toss around words like justice and evil with impunity, send off mighty armies to 'serve the cause of justice' in other lands and be so sure of our righteousness that the merest act of penitence -- a apology for an atrocity -- becomes a presidential crisis." <5>

The fact is that most find Bush's moral pronouncements both duplicitous and fatuous. As Joe Klein said, "Democracy doesn't easily lend itself to evangelism; it requires more than faith." "Moral pomposity is almost always a camouflage for baser fears and desires." <5>

Bush is joined by such luminaries at Rush Limbaugh who attempted to deflect the horror of the atrocities commited by U. S. troops at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by suggesting that the soldiers were frustrated at being shot at the ungrateful Iraqi people, and thus just wanted to "blow some steam off," to "have a good time." As Nancy Gibbs has observed, "When we are reduced to insisting that our depravity isn't as bad as the other guy's, we have fallen deep into a pit of moral equivalence that reveals what we have lost." <6> Such are the failings of Dominionism.

Thanks for the referrences