Home » all category posts » Miscellany

Riding the Ecclesiastical Expediency Express


According to Time, "the Democrats are so fired up, you could call them the new Moral Majority."

Not I. I prefer "gladhanding opportunists coasting in the wake of the conservative/fundie, 'I'm OK, you're going to Hell' trip ship."

Take a peek:

In this campaign season, if Clinton and Barack Obama and John Edwards are any measure, there will be nothing unusual in Democrats' talking about the God who guides them and the beliefs that sustain them. Clinton has hired Burns Strider, a congressional staffer (and evangelical Baptist from Mississippi) who is assembling a faith steering group from major denominations and sends out a weekly wrap-up, Faith, Family and Values. Edwards has been organizing conference calls with progressive religious leaders and is about to embark on a 12-city poverty tour. In the past month alone, Obama's campaign has run six faith forums in New Hampshire, where local clergy and laypeople discuss religious engagement in politics. "We talk about ways people of faith have gone wrong in the past, what they have done right and where they see it going in the future," says his faith-outreach adviser, Joshua DuBois. Speeches on everything from the budget to immigration to stem-cell research are carefully marinated in Scripture. "Science is a gift of God to all of us," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a debate on increased embryo-research funding, "and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure."

Politics is all about doing what you have to do, but playing the god card as the Bushies haved been for so long, feels to me, for lack of a better word, icky.


Doug Richardson July 12, 2007 - 1:09pm
Doug Richardson's diary | printer friendly version | digg
( categories: Miscellany )

The new Moral Majority

Yuck.... or icky, if you prefer. Even the title - 'Leveling the Praying Field' is too much for me.

ecophem July 12, 2007 - 2:42pm
login to post comments
well until religion loses

well until religion loses its currently high place in the the us, then i think you can talk about playing the god card, but as it stands god is still big. you can sit there and let the neos and fundis use god to get people to support intolerance towards gays and minorities, big buissness, unethical military actions, unethical foreign policy, ect,ect,
or you could use god to get people to support what the wandering hippy was actually talking about.

religions track record hasent been good, ok its been horrible, but saying religion cant be used for the right reasons or for the right ideas is the same as acknowlaging the rightwing bullshit about healthcare and the poor

Warvigilent July 12, 2007 - 10:17pm
login to post comments
I know absolutely no one

who would argue that "religion can't be used for the right reasons or for the right ideas is the same as acknowlaging the rightwing bullshit about healthcare and the poor."

I'm just maintaining that using it to get elected is hypocrisy, disengenous and for lack of anolther better word, weaselly.

Doug Richardson July 12, 2007 - 10:54pm
login to post comments
true enough but could it be

i see how you mean it that way, but could it be compared to pandering to big money interests, getting anywhere in politics(especially elected) is impossible without trading your soul for cash already. the religious vote is needed just as financial backing, the difference, the religious vote can eventually change priorities and objectives for the better while corporate interests will always be the same if not more demanding.

im just saying courting the religious vote now is required anyway as a first step towards positive change, and avoiding it is basicly disarming yourself.
there has been a lot of talk about democrats lacking determination and courage. politics is a cuthroat arena(duh), you cant play fair and win or at least cheating and back ally rules work best. the republicans have proven that time and time again, hell dirty tricks and tactics alone carried bush to power.

we are all scared of what nietzsche said about the abyss and monsters, but is the goal not worth temptation?

really i guess im ranting here but mabye
im just tired of seeing the end of the greatest era of human achievement and civilization come about because our representitives weren't ready to fight hard and dirty to protect it.

that or i,m scared my grandfather will live to see my generation (and quite likely myself) fight in a third world war.

Warvigilent July 13, 2007 - 10:36am
login to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.