Where is the Tea Party going to lead American Conservatism? Some faux Christian Theocracy? Many familiar with its tenets would say Libertarianism precludes alliance with religion. Yet, with Rand Paul winning the GOP Senate primary in Kentucky—heralded as the first true Tea Party victory—the whiff of civil religion veiled as Christianity is in the air.
The influence of R.J. Rushdoony’s “Christian Reconctructionism” within the Rand Paul wing of the Tea Party, home-schoolers, right-wing culture-warriors, and value-voter Republicans is nothing new. Reason documented this trend toward theocracy over 10 years ago. To see how complicated this is getting see Friday’s NY Times analysis by Sam Tanehaus, that points out inherent conflicts within Paul’s worldview, and Sarah Pozner’s parsing of Paul’s Brody File gaffe, where he explained that “We wouldn’t need laws if everyone were Christian.”
Rand Paul: “I’m a Christian. We go to the Presbyterian Church. My wife’s a Deacon there and we’ve gone there ever since we came to town. I see that Christianity and values is the basis of our society.”
Rand Paul: “98% of us won’t murder people, won’t steal, won’t break the law and it helps a society to have that religious underpinning. You still need to have the laws but I think it helps to have a people who believe in law and order and who have a moral compass or a moral basis for their day to day life.”
Bill Gram-Reefer is Editor & Publisher of Halfway To Concord, founded in 2004. Halfway To Concord is the leading online source for community-driven political news, events, and opinion for Contra Costa County and the San Francisco East Bay.
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See Rand Paul’s Gospel covered in Forbes by Dan Gerstein
The writer is far too observant and rational. People are gonna vote their hate and fear and frustration this mid-term. The consequences of getting Libertarians in office won’t be felt for awhile. The agenda of the fundy wing of business is for The New Deal and all its accouterments to be dismantled.
Rand Paul’s Gospel
The Senate candidate’s extreme views could turn the Tea Party into a house of cards.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/25/rand-paul-tea-party-democrats-opinions-columnists-dan-gerstein.html?partner=email
Rand Paul Was The Featured Speaker At Theocratic Constitution Party 2009 Rally – check out this blog for the article:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/5/20/175036/669
“Morality and civility” may not be “the exclusive province” of Christianity, but wisdom is:
“”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” – Psalms 111:10
and Christians who believe by faith the fundamentals of the Bible also know:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned.” – I Cor. 2:14
Christians do NOT have a “shared morality” with “other religious and philosophical groups.”
That’s an “ecumenical” view espoused by the Papacy….
Rand Paul makes the mistake of many fundamentalist Christians in thinking that morality and civility are the exclusive province of their own religion. This arrogant and parochial point of view ignores the Judaic underpinnings of Christianity and the shared morality of many other religious and philosophical groups.
The “golden rule” is a tenant in most major world religions, yet religious people throughout history the world over have failed to treat others in a “neighborly” fashion. The history of Christendom itself is as replete with hatred, violence, immorality, intolerance, bigotry and greed as that of any other religious group. The fact that people are inherently fallible is at the root of Christianity. It also dictates the need for laws, governance and tolerance in human societies.
One lesson that Jesus offered in response to the moral certainty of the Pharisees is found in Luke 6:41-42.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Paul and others who share his political views would be wise to consider this aspect of their faith as they enter the political arena.
Whenever Christians have historically called for a return to the true faith, it does not take long for them to start the Bonfires of the Heretics either in reality or verbally.
~ EDITOR ADDS — Actually, the first “heretic” executed by the state in England, a follower of Wycliffe (Lollards), was not until Henry V, (circa 1410) where the deeper issue was far more political, concerning the right of the state in the person of the King, than a matter of true religion. In fact, any honest survey of the period you so broadly paint, will find the persecution of Jews in Spain and elsewhere, Calvinists in France, and sundry wars and crusades were driven by states in competition for plunder, status, and control using the name of religion to cover a multitude of sins.
Hey, Rand, know why I don’t rape murder and steal, even though I’m an atheist?
Because I’M NOT A DICK.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that religion has nothing to do with real morality.
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