Congressional theocracy pushers still at it

This is a battle that may never end. The quasi-religious leaders in this country who are relentless in their efforts to deny historical truths by claiming that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, are using their right-wing friends in Congress to legitimize their false claims. These legislators, unmindful of the oaths they took to uphold and defend the Constitution, have been pushing a series of thinly-disguised resolutions to force our lawmakers on record to make it seem as if they are in agreement that we are a Christian nation.

For God only knows what reason, they have met with some success, and are seizing on those successes to redouble their efforts. They will not stop unless and until they are so soundly rebuked that they dare not continue. But until then......

Here is a post reprinted from Crooks and Liars (1/21/08) describing the latest attempt in their quest to establish a national religion, with links you should follow for more background.

Last December, Republicans in Congress introduced a resolution noting the significance of Christmas and the Christian faith, which eventually passed, blurring the lines between church and state — and they’re at it again, attempting to rewrite American history and further the lie that America is a Christian nation.

Via Secular Coalition for America:

Jan. 11 - Flush with last year’s success in passing H.Res. 847, “Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian Faith,” Christian nationalists — those who would have the United States be governed as a Christian theocracy — are pushing H.Res. 888, another resolution which promotes a false and distorted Christian nation reinterpretation of our history. Generally, we do not take action regarding resolutions because they are ceremonial in nature and express the non-binding opinion of one chamber. They do not have the force of law. Read on…

The resolution, which is supported by the likes of Reps Patrick McHenry, John Doolittle and Mean Jean Schmidt, calls for an “American Religious History Week” and rejects any attempt to remove religious messages or teachings from our public buildings and educational resources. There can be no doubt that during an election year, Reps voting against the resolution will be labeled anti-religion, but we can’t let them be bullied into signing this flawed resolution that goes against the very principles our country was founded on. Contact your Representatives and tell them to say no to H. Res. 888, (corrected) which further blurs the separation between church and state.

This simply cannot be permitted to continue. The danger to our democracy from these insidious attacks is simply too great.

Mike Gravel spoke out recently (the only presidential candidate to do so), generally on this topic, and spoke in a wonderfully blunt, candid and honest way about the dangers of "creationism" and correctly said that efforts to legislate morality indicated a failure of religion to teach morality . The following is from Wired.com (1/27/08) Video link to Gravel here.

While the rest of the raft of presidential candidates are busily proclaiming their firm belief in a Christian God, former Alaska senator Mike Gravel has recorded a delightfully frank denouncement of religion in politics.

The quirky Democratic presidential candidate says what's obvious to any student of history: That aligning specific religious views with politics is a dangerous exercise.

"I am deeply insulted that in some areas that not only is evolution is shunned but efforts are made to substitute it with creationism and all other kinds of teachings, which corrupt our youth," he says in a YouTube video recorded on Saturday. "There’s no foundation for this. I think it’s unfortunate. We’re regressing in these areas, and so I think we have responsibility to our children to provide them with the greatest scientific information available to all of us, and that begins with respect to evolution."

Gravel goes on to talk about morality, and how trying to legislate morality reflects a failure of the religious community.

Clearly pointing to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican who recently suggested that we ought to amend the constitution to be brought in line with "God's standards," Gravel said: "I ... really exhort as public policy that we concentrate on keeping religion out of politics, and keeping a very, very strong separation between church and state. Otherwise you will take the oppressive nature of the state and marry it with the oppressive nature of religion, and that is the ultimate oppression of human beings."

I have never heard a public figure make comments as straightforward as these on this subject. Mike Gravel should be applauded for speaking out so clearly.