Remember what Dick Cavet said to Governor Lester Maddox, before he walked off of his television show? Cavet said: “Governor Maddox, if I have called any of your supporters “bigots,” who are, in fact, not bigots, I apologize.”

I re-read my post and I don’t believe that my words did: “… tar all evangelical Christians with the same brush.” If I made you feel that way, I apologize. That was not the thrust of my response to the abusive politics of James Dobson. As I believe I said most explicitly: “Your religion is none of my business” This is not a theological debate it is a political one. For many years I have directed a non-profit; I work with wonderful people in Christian charities, Catholic Charities and Jewish charities; in our work in West Africa I will be working with Muslim charities as well. This is not about the role of religion in society. My comment was explicitly and I thought clearly about the disproportionate and destructive role of right-wing Fundamentalist Christian religion in US politics. Christianity is not a political party. Such untoward influence from religious fanatics is always dangerous because it can so easily be manipulated to threaten the liberty and safety of minorities. That is simply the history of the world. From my previous career, as a photojournalist, I can show you photographs of such conflicts that would give you nightmares. I have no difficulty in distinguishing the difference between Christians who carry their own cross and those who crucify others. I call that the difference between a Gospel of Love and a Gospel of Power.

I have been pointing out the dangers of this conspiracy between right-wing political demagogues and right-wing religious demagogues, since Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, Richard Vigory and Paul Weyrik assembled that unholy alliance in the 80s. The one thing that has always disappointed me was the muted voice of committed Christians, who are not bigots. I have always assumed that decent Christians were a majority, but to listen to the resounding silence from these good Christians in the face of this three-decade-long right-wing jihad, has been very disheartening…. and yes I know of “Matthew 25, and I applaud their efforts and have noted the slander and other abuses to which they have been subjected, but let’s face it, Matthew 25 is a weak voice in the face of the strident choir of Liberty Media, the 700 Club (CBN); Focus on the Family; Traditional Values Coalition; Chalcedon Foundation; Institute on Religion & Democracy; Free Congress Foundation; Heritage Foundation; Alliance Defense Fund; Discovery Institute… need I go on…. Anyway, welcome to the fray

… and yes, i will continue to raise my voice against bigotry and hate-politics even when it comes cloaked in the sheep’s clothing of Christianity.

I have read every word of Mr. Dobson’s attack upon reason with his peculiar brand of religious conviction. There is not one loving or affirmative statement in it. It is filled with bigotry, unjustified conviction, paranoid projections and lies. If This is your spiritual leader I feel sorry for you but, frankly, your religion is none of my business. And you have made a major mistake thinking that your fringe religion has any right to dominate the public policies of a free people. We are no longer amused by your ugly/ignorant positions; your primitive superstitions or by your anti-democratic tactics.

As a citizen, I owe you the moral obligation to defend your right to practice your religion in your home, church and school, with my life. When you trot your religion into the public square as a pretense for bad public policy, I do not owe you the obligation to treat the preposterous nonsense that you call “Absolute Truth” with anything more than the contempt that it deserves.

You and your Mr. Dobson managed to get your president. George Bush. He turned out to be the most inarticulate, incompetent and corrupt president in US history (with all due apologies to Mr. Harding). President Bush has bankrupted America at home while he disgraced her abroad, and all with the enthusiastic cheerleading of Evangelical Christians, who are brain-dead. There is no longer any reason to be patient with your ignorance or your bigotry. If that is the best you can find in the Bible you should stop reading. Your toxic pseudo-Christian “values” have destroyed the Republican Party. No one wants to be in the party with you because your ignorance and bigotry are an embarrassment. Every true conservative I know voted for Senator Obama, (including many others – like myself -who had voted for Senator Goldwater) because Barack Obama represented an intelligent approach to America’s problems. I have a suggestion for you “PALIN / BACHMANN IN 2012″ that will make it clear that the Republican Party must flush this “base” of crypto-Christian bigots into some third party sewer if it is ever to rebuild on true conservative principles, about which you are clueless and for which there is not enough space here to explain.

Have any of you EVER listened to any Focus on the Family radio broadcasts (they’re available as podcasts) or read any of Dobson’s books on children or marriage?

In the last post on the south of France, I dashed off the line: “I live about 15 kilometers from Bezier in the seaport city of Sete…” That’s true, in fact the only home that I own in the world that’s paid for is in France. It is also true that part of each year I work in Silicon Valley directing a small non-profit. We have a sign on my door that says:
W.I.N. – What’s Important NOW? That’s is the question I want focused on. That is the question that our deeply damaged and troubled nation must focus on IF we are to make things better. The bitter and essentially trivial diversions that are important to these zealots only serve to divide us, drain our energy and impede our progress. They are only useful to conscienceless politicians like Pat Buchanan who find puerile “culture wars” useful for winning elections. America can’t afford this anymore.

I didn’t make it past the first couple of sentences of the link as it seemed to have the same tone as that which ignited the Albigensian Crusade in Languedoc.

Dear Lex: That’s very interesting history there in the Languedoc. It is a perfect metaphor for what is going on in America. The Kings of France (that’s what is northern france now) got together with a Pope and got permission to launch the only crusade ever fought against Christians in l’Occitane (which is the name of the region & the language of the land across the south of France with bits in Spain & Italy) Occitane is also the language of the troubadour poetry… The made it look like a holy war against a new more Gnostic Christian sect ” The Albigensians, and there was a new religion flourishing in the more tolerant south; Jews were also tolerated even in public office, in fact, the mayor of Bezier was a Jew. There are very long great stories, but the short of it is that it was the largest successful land-grab in medieval European history. These Parisian princes could care less about this religion, they wanted the land and with the Pope’s imprimatur the succeeded in stealing it.

The history is fascinating. Google “Cathars” – “Catharism” & “Albigensian Crusade” .

There is one story that’s worth telling. When the Parisian Princes were laying seige to the city of Bezier (pop. about 22,000), where a couple of dozen “heretics” lived, they ordered the citizens of Bezier to turn them out and they said “NO, these are good people they are our neighbors. They have done nothing wrong.” The princes went to the Bishop and asked what to do. That bishop, whose name I have conveniently forgotten gave the final word on “Christian” fanaticism, when he said: “Kill them all. God knows his own.” Months later when those who had escaped before the siege attempted to return they could not walk on the cobble stone streets because they were still slippery with blood and fat of the 22,000 slaughtered residents of Bezier, France… I live about 15 kilometers from Bezier in the seaport city of Sete…

Dear modchen: I would like to take that attitude myself. It is not unreasonable. Intellectually, philosophically, ethically, logically, morally… even theologically these people know NOTHING. it would seem that they could be dismissed by everyone with an IQ above room-temperature and they would just go away BUT that’s not the case.

It’s not the case first because the choose their victims carefully. They say things that are attractive to the frightened, the under-educated, the untraveled and in many cases the bigoted. They do things to make their prejudice seem respectable. Anyone can research the Biblical justifications that were delineated for slavery and against woman’s suffrage… this is not a new trick; it’s an old hustle with new suckers. The other factor is that the successful demagogues (the Pat Robertsons & James Dobsons for example) are subsidized by very rich right-wingers, who believe essentially in NOTHING other than the old fact that fools can be made useful if properly organized. That makes the politics of hate, fear, division, backwardness and ignorance very powerful. Jesse Helms & Ronnie Reagan figured that out long ago (it wasn’t a new trick then)) and it has paid off like a rigged slot machine for them ever since. Anyway that’s why these vicious folks and their cruel hoaxes won’t go away if we ignore them, although, I confess, it is a pleasant thought.

Dear Jacob Arminius: If you think your “Christianity” and this presidential election are about my wife’s abortion or my gay neighbor’s marriage – two things that are essentially none of your business despite the preposterous nonsense that you seem to believe – you are a very confused fellow. But that’s OK. America is still a free country – despite the best efforts of good “Christians” like yourself. There is a political party that needs your vote. It’s the same party that just demonstrated that – with your support – they could, send your job to China, steal your children’s inheritance and bury your grandchildren in debt and still have NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT. So, it abortion and gay marriage are of primary important to you, go vote for John McCain & Sarah Palin. The votes will be counted on Tuesday. We’ll see how much all the hate-speech & fear mongering by a mean-spirited and deceitful lunatic-fringe of “Christianity” adds up to on Tuesday.

i don’t understand why *anyone* takes these freaks seriously, i guess.

-AF

To correct your statement, no matter the laws enacted to protect the public, business favoring legislators will craft loopholes for their buddies.

The pro-corporate mentality of the right-wing is the single biggest reason I despise them. Money over life, profit over all else. It’s pathetic and destructive. We, the people, have the ability and RIGHT to dictate to businesses exactly what they will and won’t do, can and can’t do.

Saying businesses some how have a “power”, or ability external to human dictate is to give them way too much credit. Humans, often greedy and selfish and corrupt, allow their human friends to abuse other humans from behind the curtain of their companies. We don’t have to allow that. The Democratic party tends to get that.

I didn’t miss your point but merely wanted to illustrate the arbitrage of money, business, and jobs from high cost, high tax areas to those places with lower costs. No matter what protectionist laws are enacted, business will find a way around them. Production will always go from high cost areas to lower cost areas. As for Wal-Mart in China. Their agreement with China in order to locate stores there included the presence of a union. The unions in China are nothing like the Teamsters over here. For Wal Mart, the union is another cost of doing business in China, although those managers in Bentonville are choking on the thought. Still, the weekly wage of a union worker at Wal Mart in China is less than the daily wage of a similar full time employee in the USA, and they get to work longer shifts and 6 day weeks in China.

Jeff