MAGIC CITY MORNING STAR: Dean was actually far too mild in his comments

Howard Dean has received a great deal of unfair criticism for calling the Republicans a "pretty much white Christian party," Dean was actually far too mild in his comments and his description of the Republican Party in regards to their narrow demographic and ideological base.

Personally, this writer does disagree with Dean on only one aspect of his comment. The Republicans calling themselves Christian are promoting an essentially anti-Christian agenda. While these so-called "Christian Right" political leaders claim to speak for the Christians of America, I think they are actually speaking only for a small minority of Christians who are placing Bush Republicanism above the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Dean should not give the Republicans the benefit of exclusive use of the Christian label for an essentially anti-Christian political message. Real Christians love the poor and look down on anyone with a political agenda designed to benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy. The invasion of Iraq based on lying to the voters and deceiving our elected lawmakers is hardly the behavior of good Christians. A brief look at the Downing Street memo shows that Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had already started a war with Iraq while the UN's Weapons of Mass Destruction inspectors were still in Iraq and long before Congress voted to give Bush the legal power to launch his unwise military adventure. Are these the behaviors of good Christians? (EMPHASIS ADDED)

The politicization of the Christian church has benefited the Republican Party instead of the Christian church. It is an insult to many real Christians to call the attack on the Separation of Church and State a pro-Christian political agenda. Our Founding Fathers advocated this measure almost universally to protect both the government and our Churches. Politics and money are corrupting many churches especially those led by so-called "Christian Right" preachers.