LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

According to an article in The Carpetbagger Report, he just might:

One of Ron Paul’s selling points as a presidential candidate is his willingness to reject Republican orthodoxy. As the theory goes, the modern-day GOP has been taken over by neocons and religious extremists, and Paul’s libertarian-brand conservatism rejects both. Given that most liberals have a similar disdain for the Podhoretz and Dobson crowds, Paul has picked up a few fans on the left, too.

But what I did not realize is that when it comes to the religious right’s theocratic worldview, Paul is surprisingly in line with TV preachers like Pat Robertson. An alert reader emailed me this Ron Paul commentary from December 2003, in which the Texas Republican laments “the ongoing war against religion” in general, and Christianity in specific.

Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view. The justification is always that someone, somewhere, might possibly be offended or feel uncomfortable living in the midst of a largely Christian society, so all must yield to the fragile sensibilities of the few. The ultimate goal of the anti-religious elites is to transform America into a completely secular nation, a nation that is legally and culturally biased against Christianity.

What’s the difference between this analysis and the nonsense on The 700 Club? Slightly better writing, maybe, but the worldview is identical. Indeed, Paul is even on the same page as Bill O’Reilly when it comes to the absurd “war on Christmas.”

Christmas pageants and plays, including Handel’s Messiah, have been banned from schools and community halls. Nativity scenes have been ordered removed from town squares, and even criticized as offensive when placed on private church lawns. Office Christmas parties have become taboo, replaced by colorless seasonal parties to ensure no employees feel threatened by a “hostile environment.” … [T]he once commonplace refrain of “Merry Christmas” has been replaced by the vague, ubiquitous “Happy Holidays.” But what holiday? Is Christmas some kind of secret, a word that cannot be uttered in public? Why have we allowed the secularists to intimidate us into downplaying our most cherished and meaningful Christian celebration?

I can appreciate the fact that Paul supporters get annoyed when critics are dismissive of his ideas when it comes to eliminating most of the federal government, overhauling the modern foreign-policy apparatus, and eliminating the Federal Reserve. But are these same fans — most of whom ostensibly support church-state separation — equally willing to support Paul’s Falwell-like rhetoric on “protecting” Christianity from the nefarious “secularists”?

Uh, oh! Looks like Paul is a True Believer™ in disguise!

Here's the original 2003 column by Ron Paul:

Christmas In Secular America

Who the heck calls themselves a 'secularist'?