“They are terrorists as far as I’m concerned,” said Mayor James Bellar, of Whiteville, Tennesee, about the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s complaint objecting to a large Christian Cross that residents erected on top of the town’s water tower.
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"If judges think that they are unchallengeable, they are…anti-American…profoundly wrong...inevitably corrupted, corrupted in a moral sense," Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said in his speech at the Values Voter Summit.
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"I think Mitt Romney's a good, moral man, but those of us who are born again followers of Christ should prefer a competent Christian," said Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, at the Values Voter Summit referring to Romney’s Mormonism as a “cult.”
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"Don't listen to these people, who every four years tell you we have to select a moderate from our party and we have to settle for the sake of winning," Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann admonished her socially conservative audience at the Values Voter Summit.
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What obvious characteristic do each of these statements share in common? They all reveal a smug undisguised religious bigotry on the part of America’s Christian evangelical right at its worst. These people despise the secular nature of American government as conceived by the founders. They won’t be satisfied until the United States of America is a born again evangelical Christian theocracy.
“It’s just a cross on the water tower.” “All we’re doing is exercising our right to practice our beliefs down here, but this organization is now going to stymie that,” says the Mayor, as if it’s a given that Christians everywhere in America can simply utilize government property any way they like to promote their sectarian religious beliefs, and no one has the right to do anything about it. To them, anyone who complains is a terrorist.
What do you suppose he would say, though, if some residents put up a big yellow star of David on the city water tower? No doubt he’d be the first in line to take his case to the Freedom From Religion Foundation or the ACLU to complain.
It’s all about their Christian majority rights and to hell with the rights of anyone else. “We don’t have people of that belief [atheists] here and if we do they’re not going to raise that kind of ruckus for the rest of the town,” the Mayor explains. Of course not. “People of that belief” would probably be lynched in Whiteville Tennessee if he and the majority of Christians had their way. After all, they’re terrorists.
Christians can have big crosses on top their churches; big crosses decorating the inside and outside of their houses; all over their cars; on their private property anywhere; they can even tattoo big crosses on their foreheads if the spirit moves them. Why must it always be the public schools, the courthouses, city hall, the public square, and the town water tower? Because they’re not satisfied with exercising their own rights. They want all the minorities, everyone, to know that their town is a Christian town, that’s why. That is bigotry.
Newt Gingrich thinks that the U.S. Supreme Court shouldn’t have the final say on the constitutionality of laws. Federal Judges, for example, shouldn’t have the power to find California's ban of gay marriage unconstitutional. He believes it should be up to the Christian majority in Congress. He thinks it should be up to a vote. Can you imagine that; no third branch of government; no checks and balances? That’s what Mr. Gingrich wants for America.
According to him, law schools teach students a "fundamentally, profoundly, ignorant, anti-American" judicial model that is out of touch with the people and has no understanding of the origins of the United States.
Frankly, as a lawyer myself, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Since the 1803 landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison, more than 200 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, established once and for all the power of the federal judiciary branch of government to rule on the constitutionality of all laws. That is a fundamental historical fact. Only an evangelical Christian bigot, who doesn’t want constitutional equal protection of the law for gays, would claim otherwise.
Don't vote for a Mormon, is the message of evangelical Christian pastor, Robert Jeffress, to fellow Republicans. Mormon’s are members of a cult. The Southern Baptist Convention, says Jefress, "has officially labeled Mormonism as a cult" under its "New Religions and Cults" section, which also includes Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Scientology.
Bryan Fischer, a director at the American Family Association, who spoke at the same Values Voter Summit, has claimed that Mormons and Muslims have "a completely different definition of who Christ is" than the founding fathers did, and do not deserve First Amendment protections as a consequence. How about that? This bigot doesn’t think the constitution applies to Mormons, Muslims, or anyone else except his own brand of Christians.
"We need a president who believes in the same creator as who the founders believed," says Fischer. That’s a very interesting statement when one considers the historical fact that Thomas Jefferson, who actually wrote the “creator” reference in the Declaration of Independence, was a Deist, not a practicing Christian. Never mind; bigot’s don’t care much for facts. Anyone who disagrees should forfeit their First Amendment rights.
Well, let’s see about that. The dictionary defines bigot as: a person who is intolerant of differing creeds, beliefs, or opinions other than his own, especially on religion, politics, or race. Yes, by that definition, pastor Jefress and Bryan Fischer are both dyed in the wool religious bigots.
Look at me; I’m an extremest! Don't settle for a moderate, Michele Bachmann urged Republican Party primary voters at the same Values Voter Summit. "I am here to tell you we are going to win. This year, we don't settle." I wouldn’t bet the farm on that if I were her. As bad a president as he is, Barack Obama would probably wipe the floor with the likes of Michele Bachmann, and all the other religious bigots, in the 2012 general election.
She boasted about introducing legislation in Congress recently that would require women considering an abortion to hear and see the heartbeat of the fetus before making a decision. "We believe that each person - man, woman, black white - no matter the economic circumstances, is made in the image and sacred likeness of the Holy God," she said.
"With a proven fighter in the White House, we will finally win on the issue of life, on marriage, on family," Bachmann declared. "It's time that we score some victories for our movement."
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