I’m still waiting to see a prayer stop a bullet.

‘But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ (Matthew 10:34)

‘Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’ (John 18:22-23)

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ (Matthew 5:9)

Yup… those sound just like a way to “summon the national will for victory.”

The first and most useful rule to use in considering official, governmental religiosity is to remember it has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with politics. Do you really, looking at the way they live, think that the pols in DC are sincere about this kind of thing.

I suspect this is part of the ongoing Republican attempt to play political chicken with the “faith” issue. They know that the Democrats will split and that it will be opposed by a good part of the Democratic base. Included in the separation of church and state faction will be a number of liberal religious people as well as non-religious people. A lot of us think that this kind of state religion is not only offensive civically but it’s revolting religiously. Sandra Day O’Connor’s “civic deism” was the very definition of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” but you didn’t hear any of the fundamentalists calling her on that. But I did.

Very very good points. I’m one of the liberal religious people you speak of. Thanks for acknowledging our existence. Many on the radical right would like to forget we exist. You may find this hard to believe, but besides talking to other liberal religious like me, it’s usually a lot easier for me to talk to an atheist about the separation of church and state thing (especially lately) than people who think like DeMint, b/c even though we disagree on the religion thing, we agree on religion and government matters, we can respect each other’s views, and also, an atheist won’t yell at me and threaten me (trust me, they do this to other believers who don’t agree with them too, though probably not as much as they do it to atheists). I found this out the hard way when I passed through “fundie country”. Never again. I’m glad I live in a big city! There are quite a few of us liberals here.

You are so right about it being about politics. Did anyone here see the movie Jesus Camp? In it the evangelicals get involved with global warming. They deny it it’s happening. That’s the neo-con view, but it is also a political view. What the hell does global warming have to do with their church? Nothing! It’s stupid. I think that if believers really do respect whatever they believe in, they need to treat the earth well. I had thought this was obvious, even to DeMints of this world, but I guess not. I think that they are probably doing this to stir up the evangelical base to get them to vote for a republican. I read in Newsweek that evangelicals in the radical right are having trouble figuring out who to vote for in the 2008 election, b/c they think all the candidates from the republican party so far are too “liberal”. Scary, isn’t it? LOL That part could be good though. Maybe they won’t vote as block this time like they did in the past 2 elections!

I suspect this is part of the ongoing Republican attempt to play political chicken with the “faith” issue. They know that the Democrats will split and that it will be opposed by a good part of the Democratic base. Included in the separation of church and state faction will be a number of liberal religious people as well as non-religious people. A lot of us think that this kind of state religion is not only offensive civically but it’s revolting religiously. Sandra Day O’Connor’s “civic deism” was the very definition of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” but you didn’t hear any of the fundamentalists calling her on that. But I did.