Republican Hippies

Some failed humorists refer to me on occasion as a Right wing religious bigot. I am, I doth protest, none of those things. And yet... and yet... I am not any of the things below either because I object, for example, to the idea of a socialist Christianity as opposed to a religious Christianity. Not being a practicing or believing Christian, why would I care what Christians think? You, like I, might find yourself in a position of wondering why it is that our natural allies in the struggle for Human rights are those very same Right wing religious bigots we are not; and then we might find ourselves wondering who are these new age socialist Republican Christians who are to the left of old Leftists?

When we discuss the nature of our polities, what on Earth are we discussing anymore? I'm a liberal atheist. I have much in common with hellfire and brimstone Protestants and old school Latin chanting Catholic Christians. I agree with tax-cutting middle aged Republicans on the golf course. I hate abortion, socialist activism, ecology, and sentimentalist social engineering. I'm a liberal. God belongs in church, and the churches belong in communities, not in soccer stadia and television studios. "Schools without education, churches without God," as Neil Postman writes in Building a bridge to the 18th century. It's driving me nuts, and I don't like being nuts. I'm really keen or normal.

Below are the first few paragraphs of a story that confuses me. The rest of the story is totally confusing to me. I'm with Homer Simpson on this one: "What's the number for nine-one-one?"

January 22, 2006
This Isn't Your Father's Moral Majority

by Bob Kemper
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Would God cut taxes? What does the Bible say about food stamps? Is a Christian serving the Lord if he fails to protect the environment?

All across the country, conservative evangelicals are re-evaluating what it means to be a Christian and their soul searching, evangelical leaders and scholars say, has the potential to fundamentally reorder the federal government's priorities and trigger seismic shifts in the Republican and Democratic parties.

"Never before has God given American evangelicals such an awesome opportunity to shape public policy," the National Association of Evangelicals declared in a manifesto of sorts called "An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility." With evangelicals accounting for a quarter of the electorate, it says, "Disengagement is not an option."

But this isn't your father's Moral Majority.

The newly recognized wave of evangelical social activism remains committed to the sanctity of life, the preservation of marriage and protection of the family. But it is far more progressive socially than the Religious Right juggernaut that emerged as a conservative -- and wholly Republican -- political force a generation ago.

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=6186

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