“Being a Christian is no Excuse for Being Stupid”

[and-justice-for-all]

In recent days, two high-profile former Republican members of Congress have publicly stated that their party has become completely beholden to its right-wing base and are pointing to the Terri Schiavo debacle as the moment when they finally realized that “something has gone very wrong.”

From an interview with former Senator John Danforth, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Q: Religion and politics are two subjects themselves that are hard to reconcile. Have you been thinking about this your whole career?

A: For decades, I've been thinking about these two subjects, but not with the urgency of the past year and a half. This was triggered by the Terri Schiavo case; that was the specific tipping point in my own thinking. That was when I thought, "Something has gone very wrong here."

Q: But these signs have been around for at least a decade or so, haven't they?

A: Maybe I was obtuse. People like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been involved in Republican politics for a long time. Of course, abortion has been a political issue since 1973. But in my own mind, it didn't have the urgency until the Schiavo case. In the past year or so, what was maybe a general interest of Robertson and others in politics and one particular issue, namely abortion, has been transformed into something much more detailed and much more a full-fledged political agenda.

You have Terri Schiavo, the stem-cell issue, the gay marriage issue, the Ten Commandments in courthouses - all occurring about the same time.

But, I thought, particularly with Schiavo, something different had happened: Namely, basic Republican principles had been tossed overboard at the bidding of Christian conservatives.

More...http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/09/being_a_christian_is_no_excuse_for_being_stupid.html

[liberal N proud]

1. The Terri Schiavo incident happened two years ago, YET...

They have done nothing to distance themselves from the radical right wing fundies. Danforth has repeated several times the dangers of the relationship the republicans have developed with the fundies, yet they refused to listen.
If Terri Schiavo was the wake up call to some, they could have changed the course of history by exposing the wrongs and doing what was necessary to correct them.

[and-justice-for-all]

3. The Federal Government has no place....

...In such private matters as for example Terri Schiavo or Gay Marriage. The Govt is over stepping its bounds.

[GeorgeGist]

2. No it isn't...

but it does explain a lot of stupidity. Pastor Danforth's included.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Like I've been saying: if the "values voter" was so all-damn-powerful,

the Schiavo case wouldn't have bit the GOP on the ass. But it did.

What we need to do, rather than trying to split these few Xtian whackjobs off from the GOP, is to court the Socially Libertarian wing of the GOP, and socially libertarian voters in general. We do this by adopting a bold agenda that includes the following:

The absolute right of individuals to control their own medical care, pain management, and end-of-life decisions.

The absolute right of individuals to control their own bodies and reproductive systems.

The right of gays to marry.

The right of consenting adults to read or watch (or play on the video game console) whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes, free from censorship, provided everything involves consenting adults.

An end to the drug war.

Science, not religious propaganda, in public school science classrooms.

Fiscal Sanity in government, starting with the half trillion Military-Industrial Budget and audits for the $300 Billion spent so far in Iraq.