I notice, Sori, that you didn't start posting here on Mudcat until around the end of May, this year. That is, of course, assuming that you haven't changed your identity after having posted here for some time before that. To say what you have said about me in your post just above indicates that you know nothing about me or what I have been posting consistently for some time on these threads regarding the religious Right and their association with the political Right. I am hardly a "sympathizer" of the religious Right.

One of the things I have tried to point out on many of these threads is that until liberals and progressives, all too many of whom tend to be dedicated to one issue (environment or health care or peace or civil rights or maintenance of a strong social safety net—all causes which I enthusiastically endorse), as if their issue was the only one of importance, had damned well better get their act together, dismount from their particular hobby horses for a few moments, and start cooperating with each other if any of their causes are ever to succeed.

This is something the Right figured out decades ago, after Barry Goldwater lost his run for the presidency. They raised their "Big Tent" and invited others of their general persuasion to put aside their own personal interests at least temporarily and cooperate, so that the Right could gain political power and then bring all their wishes into fruition. A major faction that entered that Big Tent was a very powerful group indeed:   religious conservatives. Indeed they've been one of the most important and influential factions in putting the Right into power. It worked, as we now see.

Where you start verging on bigotry is when you lump all Christians together, as if Christians in this country are a monolithic force. They most emphatically are not.

One of the biggest splits on the Left lies between secular liberals and religious liberals. Secular liberals (of which you, apparently, are one) are all too often very hostile toward toward anyone religious, drawing no distictions between religious conservatives and religious liberals. If you have any interest at all in seeing a more progressive government in this country, you should be aware that there are large numbers of religious liberals who are sick and tired of the religious Right claiming to speak for all Christians, as if they, and only they, have a direct pipeline to the mind of God. Many are starting to speak out, and they can be a very powerful force. The Rev. Jim Wallis, retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, and a large number of other liberal religious leaders are writing books and articles, traveling the country giving speeches and lectures, and appearing on radio and television talk shows. They're speaking out, trying to inform people that religious conservatives, with their concentration on things like anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage don't have a lock on moral values. Christian moral values include most of the same things the secular liberals advocate, such as good stewardship of the environment, peace, and help for those who cannot help themselves.

If secular liberals are going to have any chance of regaining political power in this country and stop the current spread of theocracy (not to mention something that looks and awful lot like fascism), they'd better develop a brain cell or two, and join forces with religious liberals and make common cause. Religious liberals don't want this country to turn into a theocracy any more than you do, and it's going to take everything we've got to stop it.

The tack you're taking in this thread is not helping your cause. Or mine.

Don Firth