The religious right is a fraud: Nothing Christian about Michele Bachmann’s values

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Last week, the nation’s capital was host to Value Voters 2013 Summit, a three-day political conference for predominantly religious conservatives. Among the smattering of social and economic issues at hand, the overall tenor of the Summit focused on eliminating Obamacare, expanding the tangible presence of Christianity through the public arena and military and preventing the proliferation of easily available birth control and abortion. In speeches, lunches and breakout sessions, American’s Christian Right worked out strategies to bring the values of the federal government in line with their preferred Christian ethical dictates, using democracy as their chief tool.

It isn’t unusual for Christians living in democracies to use the vote to express their ethics, and to shape government to do the same. That the moral and ethical preferences of a given society should inform government is a foundational principle of democracy, after all. And American values voters are far from the first Christians to undertake the project of bringing their government’s policies in line with Christian ethics: European Christian parties have aimed to do the same for decades. But between American Christian voters and their European counterparts, a curious departure opens up: while European Christians generally see the anti-poverty mission of Christianity as worthy of political action, the American Christian Right inexplicably cordons off economics from the realm of Christian influence.

By all means, the American Christian Right is willing to leverage government authority to carry out a variety of Christian ethical projects, especially within the arena of family life. Michele Bachmann would make abortion illegal, and Rick Santorum has stated on multiple occasions that he supports laws against homosexual intercourse. But Christian politicians in the United States curtail their interest in making the gospel actionable when it comes to welfare. While the government should see to the moral uprightness of marriage, sex and family, the Value Voters 2013 Summit was notably bereft of talks on living wages, labor rights or basic incomes.

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/15/the_religious_right_is_a_fraud_nothing_christian_about_michele_bachmanns_values/

[malaise]

1. The only thing the religious right value

is money - fuck all of them.

[NuclearDem]

2. Since the modern religious right was essentially founded by ultra rich televangelists

I'd say it's been a fraud since the beginning.

[MisterP]

4. yup--no less fake than BureauCrash or Ron "Better'n'Jeezus" Paul or the Tobacco Institute

or the Non-Ground Zero Non-Mosque protesters or the thousands of other flacks and shills that've been allied to take the heat off corporations and the CIA since the late 70s
http://www.sourcewatch.org/

[calimary]

3. Totally.

They're NO Christians. Not by a LONG shot.

Did Jesus Himself not say - "if you love Me, keep My commandments"? And what were those commandments? "Love God. And Love thy neighbor as thyself." And as He enlarged throughout the New Testament chronicles, we came to discover that "thy neighbor" referred to those He also referred to as "the least of these." Or "the least of My brethren" - as in: the poor, the destitute, the sick, the abandoned, the homeless, "I was hungry and you fed Me. I was sick and you comforted Me. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was in prison and you visited Me..."

He never said ANYTHING, EVER, about gays or abortion. He elevated women and hung out with them. He DID talk about paying taxes. Hell, He even CHOSE a tax collector as one of the members of His inner circle. He DID define the separation of church and state. He did hang around with a bunch of dudes - at least one of whom could likely have been gay, at least if you assume some of the demographic indicators are true - that, on average, one out of ten humans is gay. I can think of twelve of 'em in Christ's own immediate universe of friends and close associates.