Tag: Evangelicals

Jul 20 2009

Pique the Geek 20090719. Drugs of Abuse. LSD: The Evangelicals

LSD is essentially unique in that there were a group of people who actively advocated its universal use.  There are several reasons for that in my knowledge, and probably others of which I am oblivious.

There were several folks who were instrumental in promoting LSD as a panacea for the troubles of the planet, or that it would make other positive changes.  In at least a couple of cases, their interaction just caused the authorities to react more harshly to the wide use of the drug.  We will explore some of them this evening.

Dec 21 2008

On Dialogue with Oogedy-Boogedy Bigots

President-elect Barack Obama’s invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation on January 20th deserves something other than just a visceral negative reaction. Warren’s pre-scientific, homophobic views and his church’s exclusion of gays and lesbians from membership have understandably created an uproar of criticism from the progressive community. But we need to reflect not merely on Obama’s tactic for his inaugural ceremony, but on his long-term political strategy.

First, the numbers: in the 2008 elections exit polls suggested that evangelicals made up 23 to 26 percent of all voters. Barack Obama was the choice of 25 to 26 percent of those evangelicals. Here is an interesting map of the evangelical voting breakdown state-by-state. Note the wide variation in Obama’s evangelical totals: in Iowa and MInnesota he even managed to garner 38 percent of the evangelical vote; in Mississippi, only 9 percent.

How can we expect Obama to deal with the evangelicals during the next four years? Let us ponder the question below the break.

(X-posted at Big Orange.)

Aug 18 2008

I’m Going To Hell

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Pardon me.  I’m not a Christian.  Never was, never will be.  I don’t believe that Jesus was the messiah, that he died for my sins.  I don’t have a personal relationship with him.  I haven’t been saved.  Or redeemed.  I haven’t been re-born.  I don’t believe the Bible is the literal word of God.  And I was simply and utterly infuriated that both the presumptive presidential nominees decided to attend Rev. Rick Warren’s forum so they could show him and his many co-religionists that they were, well, just like them.  That they were all good, moral Christians, and they all believed very much in a particular kind of Christianity, and that they were willing to prove it.  I was outraged that they decided to make a spectacle of their “faith.”  But I was even more outraged that they would seek to prove they had the right kind of faith to this particular audience.

That’s right, prove it.  They weren’t going to refuse the invitation.  They weren’t going to say, “I’m sorry, but what I believe is private.  It’s between me and my God.  I am not willing publicly to discuss theology.”  They weren’t going to say, “I’m sorry, I believe in the separation of church and state, and, therefore, I consider this mega church to be an inappropriate setting for a political discussion about secular, political matters.”  They weren’t going to say, “I’m sorry, I’m a very good person, but I don’t believe the same things you say I should believe.  I’m nevertheless scrupulously honest and moral.”  They weren’t going to say, “You’re free to think about these issues any way you wish, but I don’t want to discuss how my religious beliefs might be related to my policy positions.  My policy positions stand on their own merit.”  No.  No chance.  The candidates decided to show up, and they blatantly pandered to these right wing evangelicals.  To gain their approval, to gain their votes.

Join me below.

Jun 18 2008

Bait and Switch

Here’s a thought.

The Republican Party has used Evangelical Christians over the past 30 plus years to help them win power. The Republicans held out the promise of overturning Roe v Wade and outlawing abortion. The promised public school prayer legal, to remove evolution from textbooks, to prevent same-sex marriages, and champion other conservative Baptist values.

But success never quite has come for the Evangelical agenda. The Republicans were always a few Congressional seats short, a few judges short, even when they controlled all three branches of the government, they still were not enough Republicans to make good on the promises they made to the Evangelicals.

Now take the Democratic Party. The mantra coming from many of the people in the Democratic leadership is elect more Democrats in order to make possible the progressive agenda. A liberal progressive that includes providing universal healthcare, leaving Iraq, restoring civil liberties, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and securing energy independence, and protecting the environment all seem tantalizing within reach with more Democrats in Congress.

But, we had Democratic control of Congress when Clinton took office in 1993. But, universal healthcare was sabotaged, we stayed in Iraq, civil liberties were eroded, the infrastructure continued to crumble, and despite a Vice President Al Gore little was done to fight climate change and move to a renewable energy economy.

Are Progressives to Democrats, the same as Evangelicals are to Republicans? Just so many useful idiots to keep the wealthy and corporatists in power?