The Threat is from Christians, Not Muslims

The right wing keeps warning about the non-existent threat of Sharia law taking over this country.  The real theocratic threat is not from Islam, but from Christianity, specifically the doctrine of Dominionism/Reconstructionism, which calls for all of us to be ruled by biblical law.  These nutjobs are pursuing an alliance with the Libertarians to take over the GOP and the country.

From “Why the GOP’s civil war is only going to get uglier,” C. J. Werleman, Salon:

“The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP is more than social conservatives parrying with establishment Republicans.  It is a pantomime that has many actors performing on a number of stages, but with only one clown: libertarians.

“Libertarians are a funny bunch.  By funny I mean ignorant not only of basic economics but also the ride they’ve been taken on by the Christian Right and the neo-Confederates within the Republican Party.

“Nullification is the common cause that drives this anti-establishment triumvirate.  Nullification of the federal government is the weapon of choice for theocrats, libertarians and white supremacists.  Since 2010, state legislatures have put forward nearly 200 bills challenging federal laws its sponsors deem unconstitutional.

“Libertarianism and the nullification movement merge seamlessly with the Christian Right, because the ‘sacralized lost cause of the South is often undergirded by Christian Reconstructionism,’….  Reconstructionism, or Dominionism, is an ideology that calls on Christians to take over the federal government and then make the laws of the nation ‘biblical.’

“Reconstructionism merges Christianity with laissez-faire capitalism to arrive at a vision of government that endorses biblical law at the local level, alongside a limited federal government.  Essentially that makes it the perfect philosophy for wedding theocrats in an unholy marriage with libertarians and Old Dixie.

“Ultimately, the Republican Party’s civil war will be long and protracted, especially given the vast sums of money involved in determining a winner.  The Chamber of Commerce’s war chest and Karl Rove’s epic fundraising will only go so far in overcoming a triumvirate that not only has boots on the ground in the form of enthusiastic ballot box lever pullers, but also the financial backing of America’s most prominent libertarians:  Charles and David Koch.”

Quote of the Day

“It’s not so much what you eat; it’s what eats you.  It’s the stresses, the unreached goals, the broken heart and the grief.”

Pastor Rick Warren, author of The Daniel Plan diet book, quoted in the WSJ

North Carolina To Be Christian By Law?

A group of ten Republican legislators in North Carolina has submitted a bill that would establish an official religion in that state.

I’m guessing that religion won’t be Islam…

The post-Mittens re-branding of the GOP is going really well, don’t you think?

How Syria Looks From Moscow

From “Why Russia Is Backing Syria,” Ruslan Pukhov, NYT:

“Many Russians believe that the collapse of the Assad government would be tantamount to the loss of Russia’s last client and ally in the Middle East and the final elimination of traces of former Soviet prowess there — illusory as those traces may be.

“Such attitudes are further buttressed by widespread pessimism about the eventual outcome of the Arab Spring, and the Syrian revolution in particular.  Most Russian observers believe that Arab revolutions have completely destabilized the region and cleared the road to power for the Islamists.  In Moscow, secular authoritarian governments are seen as the sole realistic alternative to Islamic dominance.

“The continuing struggles in Arab countries are seen as a battle by those who wear neckties against those who do not wear them.  Russians have long suffered from terrorism and extremism at the hands of Islamists in the northern Caucasus, and they are therefore firmly on the side of those who wear neckties.

“To people in Moscow, Mr. Assad appears not so much as ‘a bad dictator’ but as a secular leader struggling with an uprising of Islamist barbarians.”

 

The Russians are backing Assad for the same reason we backed Mubarak for all those years.  We both fear the Arab Street.  The Russian have their bastards, and we have ours.

The Russians have never been fond of Islam.  Under the Czars, the Russians viewed the Muslims in their empire as a threat to Christianity.  Under the Communists, the Russians viewed the Muslims in their empire as a threat to atheism.

Quote of the Day

Today’s quote is dedicated to Lonesome George:

“We are the children and inheritors of a culture that has banished God to heaven.  Early Christianity persecuted and ultimately largely extinguished any earth-based spirituality, and the physical world became a place of darkness and sin.  Then after the age of Enlightenment, the prevailing world view that grew out of Newtonian physics framed the world as an inanimate mechanism we could easily master, indeed were meant to master; we simply needed to discover its laws to tame it to our own ends.  As a legacy of that view we have developed a materialistic culture that treats the earth as a commodity that exists to serve our own selfish purpose.  Our greed now walks with heavy boots across the world, with complete disregard for the sacred nature of creation.”

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Prayer of the Heart in Christian & Sufi Mysticism