LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

A January 13th editorial from BuzzFlash

Note: This January 13, 2005 BuzzFlash Editorial marks the thirteenth in 20 consecutive editorials BuzzFlash will be publishing through January 20th.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Antonin Scalia believes that America is officially a Christian nation.

John Ashcroft has declared that God is our King. George W. Bush believes that a Christian God chose him to become President and lead the nation in killing tens of thousands of people.

The Bush right wing religious base firmly believes, with few exceptions, that America was founded as a Christian country.

This is not hair splitting about "moral values." This gets to the heart of whether America was created, as Jefferson pronounced, with "a wall of separation between church and state" or whether we have an official state religion.

The Scalias, Ashcrofts, Bushes, Falwells and Robertsons are not just talking about a Christian nation; they are talking about THEIR vision of what a Christian nation should be. And a vengeful one it is.

There are many Christian denominations and interpretations of the Bible, and most of them are not radically extremist like the Bush hard core base. The Methodist Church, for example, to which Bush nominally belongs, opposed the War in Iraq, as did, it appeared, most of the major Christian groups in the United States. So the Bush religious contingent is a splinter group of fundamentalists.

Not only do the Bush religious zealots believe that there is no wall between church and state -- in contradiction to our Constitution and the intent of our founding fathers -- they believe in a radical interpretation of the Bible -- and that they are literally on a Crusade. ( Read more... )