Theocrats or theofascists? The Religious Right's true colors
By Mel Seesholtz
Created Sep 11 2006 - 8:09am
The August 9 Focus on the Family CitizenLink article [1] by Wendy Cloyd was
titled "The 'Religious Right' is Under Attack and One Guy is Fed Up." The
opening paragraph set the agenda and asserted one of the Religious Right's
fundamental deceptions:

Patrick Hynes has worked as a political consultant for many years.
Immersed in the inner workings of the Republican Party, he has become
acutely aware of the constant barrage of left-leaning media in a determined
smear campaign against what they label the Religious Right -- conservatives
working to protect family values. [italics added]

Patrick Hynes [2] is senior "account executive with the Republican
consulting firm Marsh Copsey & Scott." That Mr. Hynes has a distinct
theo-political agenda is obvious. His book In Defense of the Religious
Right: Why conservative Christians are the lifeblood of the Republican Party
and why that terrifies the Democrats makes that abundantly clear. He's a
Republican apologist, and the Republican Party bows down to the Religious
Right. The title of Scott Shepard's September 25, 2004, Cox News Service
article [3] made that clear: "Falwell says evangelicals control GOP, Bush's
fate." Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) agreed, in disgust: "This Republican
Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."

Ms. Cloyd's definition of the Religious Right -- "conservatives working to
protect family values" -- is about as specious as a statement can get.
Committed life-partners loving and caring for each other and their children,
working to provide the best, most secure home for their family and
protecting it from forces that would do it and their children harm: are
these not "family values"? They are also what gay and lesbian partners and
parents do, yet the Religious Right has vehemently fought every -- every --
effort to protect these Americans and their families. They have, in fact,
been tireless in their efforts to devalue and hurt these families, beginning
with the campaign all organization in the Religious Right avidly support:
banning same-sex marriage and, thereby, denying parents and their children
the social, legal and economic benefits the state-sanctioned civil
institution of "marriage" confers.

Interesting how Focus on the Family and all the other so-called "pro-family"
organization of the Religious Right are so willing to hurt hundreds of
thousands of children and their families in order to advance their
self-serving theo-political agenda.

Ms. Cloyd's CitizenLink article reported an interview with Mr. Hynes:
leading questions, predictable replies, beginning with Hynes' unctuous tip
of the political hat to "kingmaker [4]" and Focus on the Family chairman
James Dobson [5] in relation to the Terri Schiavo fiasco: "but the only
people that were standing up were people like Dr. James Dobson."

Standing up for what? Using a family's personal tragedy for political gain?
The vast majority of the American public thought people like Dobson -- and
Sen. Rick Santorum -- should have stayed out of the Schiavo case. Recall
that it was a Dobson supporter who traveled from Michigan to Florida to
offer a hamburger and soda to a comatose, brain-dead woman who hadn't
swallowed -- much less chewed -- in years. How out of focus and pathetically
cruel is that?

"Theocracy" and "theocrat" came up in the interview:

Interviewer: Touch on this trend in the media of throwing around the word
'theocracy.' A lot of people hear it, but don't have an understanding of
exactly what it means and why it's a silly thing to say.

Hynes: The book really started because the word "theocrat" was just being
overused. Any real theocracy would put members of the clergy in a
decision-making role in the government, which is what we see in Iran and the
Middle East. Obviously there's nothing like that here. We have a democratic
process where people get to vote. . . .

Predictably, Mr. Hynes' response was honed sophistry. While the electorate
can indeed vote a member of the clergy or someone who embraces theocratic
goals into public office, there are plenty of "decision-making" positions in
government -- and especially in the current faith-based administration --
that are filled by appointment. There are a substantial number of Bush
appointees who are also ordained clergy. The federal Office of Faith-Based
and Community Initiatives attests to theo-political pandering. Moreover, one
does not have to be a card-carrying member of the clergy to embrace a
theocratic ideology: former attorney general John Ashcroft [6] and messianic
president George W. Bush [7] come immediately to mind.

Mr. Hynes highlighted and exposed the Religious Right's agenda in response
to the last question:

Interviewer: What do you hope readers take home from the book?

Hynes: What I hope is that it will cut through the rhetoric that we're
going to hear as we get closer to the 2006 election that poses that
Religious conservatives are trying to impose a theocracy on them or do
anything that is not consistent with our long, historical political
tradition. [italics added]

The Religious Right's "long, historical political tradition" has been to
make America a theocracy, "one nation under God," their "God" and impose
their theo-political dogma. Republican religious conservative and perennial
political candidate Alan Keyes makes that very clear in his "declarationist
[8]" principles:

Our duty to seek and follow the will of the Creator is prior to all
government. Accordingly, so is the liberty of religious conscience.

The authority of the Creator as prior to all civil society and human
authority must be respected for liberty to endure.

There is a natural right to life, prior to all positive law, including the
Constitution.

Again, "theocrats" do not need to be card-carrying members of the clergy.
They can be theologians or leaders of the Religious Right, such as those
sponsoring and participating in the "Stand for the Family [9]" events
scheduled for this fall, just prior to November elections. The names are
familiar from the three "Justice Sunday" events (JS I [10], JS II [10], JS
III [10]): James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family; Tony
Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary Bauer, president of
American Values; Dr. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church.

Another participant, Southern Baptist theologian and broadcaster Dr. Richard
Land, said his message to the flock at the Stand for the Family events will
be "to vote for the values that they understand are taught by the Lord in
Scripture." Don't vote for what's in the best interest of a secular nation
and its diverse population; vote militant religious dogma defined by who and
what it excludes. Sound like a theocratic message to you?

One of the issues Stand for the Family will address -- and rail against --
is same-sex marriage. After all, can't give "those" citizens and their
families civil equality in a theocracy. They must be excluded at any cost
and by any means necessary. Dobson illustrated that well when he once again
derided gay and lesbian Americans and their families in his August 2006
Focus on the Family Action missive [11] that, of course, included a promo --
"Need more ammunition in the battle against gay marriage?" -- for his
Marriage Under Fire book and CDs in which he claims allowing gays and
lesbians to enter into a civil marriage and thereby better provide for their
children and families would bring about the end of the world: "The culture
war will be over, and the world may soon become 'as it was in the days of
Noah.'" How's that for theocratic demagoguery?

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of public policy at Focus on the Family,
said about the Stand for the Family events, "It is our plan to fill large
arenas in each city with thousands of people, to alert them to the
tremendous issues facing them in the upcoming elections -- and to lay out
those issues in a nonpartisan fashion" [italics added].

"In a nonpartisan fashion"? Do you think he said that with a straight face?

Conservatives Put Faith in Church Voter Drives Evangelicals seek to sign
up a new flock of GOP supporters in states with crucial November races [12]
By Peter Wallsten, [Los Angeles] Times Staff Writer August 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- As discontent with the Republican Party threatens to dampen
the turnout of conservative voters in November, evangelical leaders are
launching a massive registration drive that could help counter the malaise
and mobilize new religious voters in battleground states.

The program, coordinated by the Colorado-based group Focus on the Family
and its influential founder, James C. Dobson, would use a variety of
methods -- including information inserted in church publications and booths
placed outside worship services -- to recruit millions of new voters in 2006
and beyond. . . . [italics added]

Aside from Focus on the Family's drive to sign up new Religious Right
Republican voters, if the Stand for the Family events are nonpartisan, why
were they specifically "designed to educate and motivate pro-family
conservative Christians in three states where there are important races on
November's ballot"? In those three states it's the Religious Right's
Republican gofers who are in danger of losing the election.

One of those theocratic gofers in trouble is Pennsylvania Republican Senator
Rick Santorum, the Golden Child of the "pro-family" Religious Right and avid
supporter of a constitutional amendment to make gay and lesbian Americans
and their families permanently second-class. Santorum has a 100 percent
rating from the Christian Coalition. He was the only member of the Senate to
go to Florida, uninvited, and intrude into the Schiavo family's personal
tragedy. He also threatened to oust all judges who didn't rule in the
Schiavo case as he and the Religious Right demanded. A devout Catholic
oblivious to the Church's ongoing corruption [13] and its "passive" reaction
to legislative efforts [14] to curtail sexual abuse by priests in the state
he supposedly represents, Mr. Santorum has endorsed the Vatican's idea of
outlawing birth control, even for married couples.

More recently, Santorum withdrew his name from a Diversity Statement [15]:

Less than a week after becoming the 170th member of Congress to affirm
that his office does not discriminate in its employment practices based on
an individual's "sexual orientation or gender identity and expression," U.S.
senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, on Wednesday [August 9,
2006] rescinded his signature on a diversity statement. . . .

The diversity statement is a joint project initiated in 2003 by GenderPAC
and the Human Rights Campaign that has received bipartisan support on
Capitol Hill from members of the House and Senate. Santorum's signature came
after a meeting during the week of July 24 between the senator and GenderPac
volunteers. After the meeting, Santorum posed for a picture with them. . . .

On Wednesday, Santorum faxed GenderPAC a new statement that read in part,
"To be clear, my office has not adopted the proposed 'diversity statement'
nor the agenda of your organization. . . . My name should no longer be
reported as having adopted the 'diversity statement.'"

Apparently Sen. Santorum had already heard the voice of his master:

Family Advocate Questions Representatives' Signatures on 'Diversity
Statement' [16] By Allie Martin August 16, 2006

(AgapePress) - The American Family Association of Pennsylvania is blasting
three U.S. congressmen who have signed a "diversity statement" from two
pro-homosexual groups.

A pro-family activist in Pennsylvania is bothered that three U.S. House
members from the Keystone State -- Republican Jim Gerlach and Democrats
Robert Brady and Mike Doyle -- have signed the statement from GenderPAC and
the Human Rights Campaign. That statement says the congressmen will not
discriminate in their hiring practices based on an employee's sexual
orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. . . .

Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of Pennsylvania, . . . has asked
Congressmen Gerlach, Brady, and Doyle to reconsider their signatures on the
pro-homosexual diversity statement.

"Diversity" is a dirty word for the Religious Right and their political
sycophants. They prefer a different "D" word: "Discrimination." They demand
everyone be and live as they dictate. Those who won't or can't do as they're
told must be excluded or re-educated via electric shock treatments,
exorcisms, and Gatoraide [17], or by other means: "Gay man beaten to be
'scared straight.' [18]" If one of the Religious Right's favorite
pseudo-scientists, discredited "psychologist" Paul Cameron [19] had his way,
they'd be exterminated:

At the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference, Cameron announced to
the attendees, "Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one
of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals."
According to an interview with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop,
Cameron was recommending the extermination option as early as 1983. --Mark
E. Pietrzyk [20], News-Telegraph, March 10,1995.

Mr. Hynes is right after all. That's not "theocratic." It's theofascist.

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson