The Right to Impose Christianity

Salon.com News | The right to impose Christianity

Salon has a short article about Frist and friends' "Justice Sunday" broadcast last night in which Democrats were attacked as being enemies of Christianity. The rhetoric employed in the broadcast was frightening.

Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, angrily recalled something that Judge Charles Pickering, one of the appellate court nominees that Democrats blocked, was asked during his hearings. "He was asked about something he said as president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. He said, of all things, that Christians ought to base their decision making on the Bible ... that is normative Christianity! There's what it means to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and to be a Christian incorporated into the body of Christ!"

Of course, the concern about Pickering's comment at the hearings had to do with the implication that when the law contradicts his reading of the Bible, he sets the law aside. In the rhetoric surrounding Justice Sunday, though, expecting judges to put the law before their personal theology constitutes discrimination that threatens all Christians. "If it's Judge Pickering now, it can be you tomorrow," Mohler warned.

The language on Sunday was consistently apocalyptic. Dobson, the avuncular culture warrior, declared, "I think this is one of the most significant issues we've ever faced as a nation, because the future of democracy and ordered liberty actually depends on the outcome of this struggle." After all, the Supreme Court is responsible for "the biggest holocaust in world history" -- the legalization of abortion. "For 44 years, the Supreme Court has been on a campaign to limit religious freedom," Dobson said. He continued, "We do have a right to participate in this great representative form of government." From the way the crowd cheered, you'd have thought someone had told them they didn't.

The extremist religious right is on the path towards learning about "self-fulfilling prophecies." If they feel the sting of imaginery persecution from the secular world as Christians now, imagine the pain they'll feel once their lunatic behavior creates a genuine backlash against them.

Is this what they want? Do they care so little about the rights, wants and needs of their non-extremist neighbors and so much about having judges like Pickering on federal benches that they are willing to abandon the very Christian ideals they claim to seek to uphold in order to get their way? Lying, cheating and discriminating was not the way of Christ.

I am also concerned about the heavy role these churches are playing in politics. This level of involvement in an entirely political state of affairs should cause these churches to lose their tax exempt status. I'm not talking about a preacher getting up on Sunday morning and asking the congregation to pray for our fighting men and women overseas and for the health of George Bush... I'm talking about the ones who hosted and participated in this "Democrats hate Jesus" rally with Senator Frist that was broadcast everywhere. This behavior is indefensible.

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