Democrats, WaPo wage war on Christian Right

The Washington Post uses Jack Danforth and Jimmy Carter as they try to demonize the Christian conservatives in an effort to weaken the Republican party. Danforth, being Episcopalian has an agenda of his own. Of course, Jimmy Carter is referenced as he too has taken shots at conservative Christianity. The article reinforces my belief that the left is unable to carry an issue with persuasive debate on the merits but must resort to smear, innuendo and defamation against its opponents in order to promote its agenda. Once in power, tools such as political correctness, multicultural diversity, hate-crimes legislation, etc. are used to stifle dissent.

'St. Jack' and the Bullies in the Pulpit
John Danforth Says It's Time the GOP Center Took On The Christian Right
By Peter SlevinWashington Post Staff Writer
Excerpts:

One morning last spring, as he walked with his wife, Sally, in Palm Springs, Calif., where they are building a house, his dismay with the Republican Party turned to dissent.

The trigger was the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead Florida woman whose husband wanted to disconnect her from life support. Schiavo's parents fought to keep her alive, backed by prominent Christian conservatives, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).

"If you turned on Fox News, you would hear relentless talking heads talking about, 'They're killing Terri!' and 'This is murder!' " Danforth says, recalling the campaign to remove the case from Florida courts that had ruled she should be allowed to die. "I thought, 'This is not what the Republican Party does. The only explanation for it was an effort to appease the Christian right.' "

Danforth saw the Schiavo case as meshing with the right's opposition to gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research.

"I think a marriage is between a man and a woman, but it's beyond me how the whole thing has become so politicized and people have become so energized by it. Because, what difference does it make? How does it constitute a defense of marriage to legislate in this area?"

In Missouri, where Danforth won five statewide elections, a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage passed overwhelmingly last year. Yet he believes most people would say no if asked, "Do you believe we should just be nasty and humiliate people and degrade them because of sexual orientation?"

"The Ten Commandments in the courthouse?" he says of another front in the culture wars. "Talk about much ado about nothing."

Danforth is a dependable Main line Episcopalian and to me, he certainly doesn't sound conservative. His views on these hot-button social issues are all liberal and shared by Jimmy Carter.

Obviously, the Washington Post is aiding and abetting the Democrat Party in their effort to reclaim their "spirituality" and to reestablish their religious credibility. Notice how WaPo paints Danforth as a David versus the Goliaths Karl Rove and Tom Delay. This article is propaganda, pure and simple, used in on-going war against traditional society and Western Civilization.

Fronting the Center
Does it matter what Jack Danforth thinks? He commands no political army and rules no territory beyond his writing desk and the occasional pulpit. He is up against the most polished political operation of modern times, facing the likes of Rove and House Republican disciplinarians such as Tom DeLay.
Jim Wallis, the left-leaning author of "God's Politics," declares hopefully that "the monologue of the religious right is finally over and the new dialogue has just begun. The answer to bad religion isn't secularism, it's better religion. Moderate and centrist evangelicals and Catholics are going to shape the future."
Boston College professor lan Wolfe thinks Danforth is a suitable messenger because "he just seems to embody an America that many Americans feel was lost and we ought to get back." Samuel T. Lloyd III, Episcopal dean of Washington National Cathedral, thinks Danforth's work "could not be more timely" for the church or the nation. Anger is running so high, he says, that even the cathedral leadership is accused of being a lackey of the Republicans or the Democrats, sometimes both in the same week.
"Through very careful calculation," Lloyd says, "people in politics have decided that tolerance doesn't mobilize a base for a campaign, and what does is making people angry. My hope and my guess is that there is a fair amount of revulsion and that the moment is right for one or more candidates who want to appeal to a more generous spirit in the American people."
That certainly dovetails with the argument of Baptist Sunday school teacher and certified Democrat Jimmy Carter, who pursues the theme in his hot-selling recent book, "Our Endangered Values," with 750,000 copies in print. He quotes Danforth and accuses the GOP of building an intolerant, uncivil agenda from "narrowly defined religious beliefs." Hardliners, he says, are deepening the social divide by "imposing their minority views on a more moderate majority."

On the surface, this seems to be a debate about politics; about the left versus the right, Democrats versus Republicans. But on a deeper level, its more than that. It's a struggle over the hearts and minds of America. It's not about political parties. It is about the eternal, existential struggle for souls.