It’s been a long week. Seems like every time I turn around, some fool or another is getting into a new form of trouble, and dragging the good Lord’s name down into the mud with him.
First it’s the Nuclear Option. Then it’s Pat Robertson being his typical assy self by saying that federal judges are a bigger threat to America than al Qaeda. Then it’s Focus on the Family and the “ex-gay” movement. Then it’s ABC discriminating against my own United Church of Christ. Then it’s the Nuclear Option again. And Kansas. And North Carolina…
I’ve got so much religion & politics news on my brain I’m starting to get dizzy. What the fuck is going on in my country?
Well, for one, we’re drawing ever closer to the showdown on Capitol Hill over judicial nominations. Combine that with a pervasive sense on the Christian right that they won the election for W.–yet have little to show for it–and it begins to be clear that the leaders of the religious right feel a need to draw a line in the sand.
They got hosed by the executive and legislative branches on the Schiavo case, big time. They’re looking at an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court, a bit nervously. This is the time to cash in whatever chips they may have accumulated, and try to guarantee a good outcome for their number one priority: a neutralized judiciary.
So it’s crunch time. No wonder things are starting to run a little hot.
But you know what? We’re going to fight back. In fact, some of us have already started. Check that link out: it’s a project that about eight Kosmonkeys, including myself and Fredrick Clarkson, have taken on. It’s meant to serve as a clearinghouse for information on the continuing battle against theocracy in our nation. It’s going to be good stuff, especially when we get Scoop up and running.
So take a long, deep breath, and say TGIF. Pat Robertson’s an ass, a joke. Send a letter to the network, asking why they bother to interview him, what with the credibility problem and all.
The expulsion of Democratic members of a Baptist church in North Carolina? A blip, nothing more than a flash in the pan.
ABC shilling for Focus on the Family? It’s irritating, but somehow I think my church will live. And if I don’t have confidence that it will, if I think that Mickey Fucking Mouse is going to take down my faith, well then, it’s not a very deep faith, now is it?
The battles over evolution in Kansas? That’s a little more serious, but we’ve fought–and won–this battle before, and I have every confidence that we will again. That doesn’t mean we should let our guard down. Of course we shouldn’t. But sanity has prevailed once before, and I’m confident that it will again.
The meshegas with the judiciary? That’s more serious still. But you know what? We’re going to win that battle. Bush and Frist simply cannot take on war, tax cuts, Social Security strangling, John Bolton, and a divisive SCOTUS nomination in the same year. What the hell you think Karl Rove’s stomach is made out of, titanium? Besides which, after Schiavo, the public is on the alert. They’re in no mood for getting too far out on a judicial limb.
All of which is to say the rumble’s coming, but not tonight, and when it does, we’ll be ready for it. So trollrate me for being a Pollyanna. I don’t care.
And here’s the cookies (because I know you came for the cookies): even if none of what I’ve said so far is true, we’re still going to make it.
Why? Because a church that has to cast out members in the political minority is not growing stronger. It’s growing weaker. It’s a community that just set off a bomb inside itself, and the damage has just begun.
A political organization that has to go to the lengths the Republicans have to try to get their agenda passed–lying, distortion, manipulation, cheap charges of victimization–is not growing stronger. It’s growing weaker. It’s a party that’s significantly overreached again and again, and the damage has just begun.
A religious movement that has to resort to divisive rhetoric to attempt to influence the society around it is not growing stronger. It’s growing weaker, and more afraid. It’s a faith that has lost the Spirit, and the damage has just begun.
And even if all that weren’t true, I still have, erm, faith that we will still win these battles.
Why?
Because we have the power of love on our side. Here’s a classic example, from the Talk To Action site. We don’t need to call names to win our fights. We don’t need to call some people in and some people out. We don’t need to change the rules halfway through the game.
Where there is hatred, we can bring love;
where there is hurt, we can bring forgiveness;
where there is cynicism, we can bring confidence;
where there is despair, we can bring hope;
where theres is darkness, we can bring light.
Fred Clarkson asked me in this thread if it was possible to rumble with cookies. To which I respond: brbhchgh.
In other words: you bet it is.