Sunday, March 27, 2005

The Good 'Ol Days

Mel and I have been buying the X-files seasons on DVD. Mulder and Scully in the first three seasons have tacked corporate cover-ups by bad pharmaceudical companies, secret internal goverment agencies, ailens aided by the US military- I guess what I'm getting at is- What ever happened to the good 'ol days when it was our government that we all distrusted?

I'm not quite old enough to remember Watergate, but i do remember Iran-Contragate, or the Savings and loan scandal, or all the hubub surrounding the Clinton family's dealings. I remember that prior to 9-11 we all had a nice healthy amount of skepticism towards what the government was doing behind our backs.

Have you read the Patriot Act? do you know and understand how much power and freedom it gives to the very agencies we suspected, loathed, feared or even despised in the 90's?

Every ounce of power we give our government now is power they can use against us in the future. Lord Acton, a British historian of the late nineteenth anf twentieth century said that "power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely." If they can tap phone lines and read the emails of Arab-Americans and Muslims now, there's nothing to stop them from doing it to Christians, or Buddists, or the next religio-ethnic group to fall out of our government's good graces.

Yes, our country is great, but it is our Constitution, our liberties, and our freedoms that make our country great- not our militry, or our global strength, or our ability to piss-off and alienate half the world.

Maybe the ACLU should spend less time trying to get the Ten Commandments out of courtrooms and more time actually protecting the civil liberties of Americans. Maybe actually finding Osama Bin Laden should be a higher priority for our President.

Just remember, it is still just as important now as it was then that we take a little of Mulder's advice and trust no one.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Suddenly Americans care about Christian beliefs

In the most recent election, the media "discovered" just what can happen when members of the religious right find in themselves the ability to unite and vote accordingly.
"The vast right-wing conspiracy" turns out to be just a bunch of normal Americans who are generally tolerant of other people's privately held liberal ideas about sex, about God, and about life in general, but who at the same time react very strongly when these liberal ideas are going to be forced upon them.
The interesting thing to note, however is suddenly the media cares about what people believe. Liberals are finding reasons to crack open a Bible to find out what Jesus said about this, and what the Ten Commandments say about that.
Why is this interesting? It is interesting because for the last 100 years we have been told that Christianity is on the decline in America. Evolution is being taught in the schools, and God has no place there. The sexual revolution has removed God from that discussion. Other religions are supposedly on the rise and are increasing in popularity.
The Athiest agenda is supposedly winning the war on removing God from our classrooms, our courtrooms, and out state buildings.
Why is it now, after all these years the media is being forced to research just how Christian beliefs can drive election results. Richard Nixon first recognized it as the "silent majority" It wasn't until the 1980 election, and the advent of Washington for Jesus that brought about the election to office of Ronald Reagan and the rise to prominence of Christian leaders such as Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson et al.
The tide and influence of the religious right has ebbed and flowed over the last 25 years since then because Christian leaders have at times failed to be united over which way to vote. Are Christians Democrats? Are they Republicans? How do the teachings of the Bible line up with party platforms?
As the debates continue over the Ten Commandments, Gay marriage, Sex Education in the public schools, abortion rights-The religious right will continue to be united, and will continue to go to the polls with a clear mandate.
The United States of America might not be a Christian nation any more, but it is a Nation with a majority of Christians, and despite what the special interest groups would have us believe in a democratic society- Majority still rules.