What is the point of GOP buttons on their shirts and faith on their sleeves: Republican convention draws religious conservatives in today’s Dallas News?
The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."
"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the 1First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.
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John Green, an expert on church-state issues at the University of Akron, said the GOP has defined itself against Democrats by making religion, particularly issues such as abortion and gay marriage, part of its politics.
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At Saturday morning’s prayer meeting, ministers delivered prayers, gospel singers sang, and the Rev. Dale Youngs, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Laredo, picked up the convention’s dominant theme of immigration.
"Lord, your words tell us there’s a sign that this nation is under a curse, when the alien who lives among us grows higher and higher and we grow lower and lower," he preached.
The invasion of politics by religion has baffled me, but I think I’ve just been naive. This isn’t religion. It doesn’t have anything to do with religion. This is simply racism and prejudice in new clothing being exploited as it has always been exploited.
I guess churches have always been "exploitable." We were recalling our own experiences in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement. One of the early issues in Memphis, Tennessee was barring blacks from entering churches – notably the Second Presbyterian Church in an affluent part of town. After the schools were integrated, segregation relied in part on the creation of private church-run schools in the suburban areas created by "White Flight." These are the same areas where the "mega-churches" and "gated communities" flourished – the areas where the Republican Party struck gold.
"Racism" isn’t completely fair – though it’s apparent in Pastor Young’s prayer. It’s more "classism." I recall encountering something that I found very confusing when I read the history of the Civil War. I grew up hearing about "the War of Northern Aggression" as some kind of regional showdown – an "us" versus "them" thing. I am amazed to admit that I was a college student before I knew that it was really about slavery. Thus arose my confusion. Slavery benefitted the slave-owners, the rich plantation owners. Yet, the people who fought the Civil War were the poor white southern men. The Ku Klux Klan flourished in the poor rural areas. That made no sense to me. Why were the "lower classes" fighting? I’ve had the same confusion with the rise of the Religious Right and Conservativism. It is infinitely apparent that the Republican Party is a party of the wealthy. As Bush puts it, Some call you elite. I call you my ‘base’." Why is it supported by the non-urban middle and lower classes? Why are their children fighting and dying in Iraq? Makes no sense at all. They’re voting against their own better interests.
Naivity again on my part – this is the group of people who needs a "class" below them – Democrats, Liberals, Communists, Atheists, Homosexuals, Mexicans, Arabs, Blacks, Hippies, Abortionists, etc. – to be better than. This is the potential trend in human thought that Mr. Rove and the Religious Right have learned to tap so skillfully. Like our southern plantation owners, they create a 2Xenophobia that incites people to become passionate about doing things that are not in their own best interests.
I thank Pastor Youngs for clarifying that point for me.
"Lord, your words tell us there’s a sign that this nation is under a curse, when the 3alien who lives among us grows higher and higher and we grow lower and lower."
The truth is that when the wealthy among us grow more and more influential [higher and higher], everyone else grows lower and lower [By the way, I read the book. 3Jesus never said what Pastor Youngs is preaching.].
1 Amendment I – Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
2 Xenophobia [noun]: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners, or of anything that is strange or foreign.
3 And "the alien who lives among us" refers to Mexicans [most of whom are devout Christians]. see Matthew 22:
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
[…] I wrote Reverend Dale Youngs [see below] about his invocation to the Texas Republican Party. He responded: When I prayed the prayer, I was not refering only to Mexican aliens. I specifically referred to Al Qaeda in my prayer and the threat of terrorism that is coming up through our southern border. It is well-documented that there are many "sleeper cells" in the U.S. just waiting to be activated – those aliens in our midst who have infiltrated our borders with the intent to do us harm. […]