The Christian Taliban

[Quetzal]

The Christian Taliban

During the Taliban rule of Afghanistan the world got a good look at what happens when religious zealots gain control of a government. Television images of women being beaten forced to wear burkas and banned from schools and the workplace helped build strong public support for the President's decision to invade Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.

But even as President George W. Bush denounced the brutal Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul, he was quietly laying the foundations for his own fundamentalist regime at home. For the first time far right Christian fundamentalists had one of their own in the White House and the opportunity to begin rolling back decades of health and family planning programs they saw as un-Christian, if not downright sinful.

Since 2001 dozens of far-right Christian fundamentalists have been quietly installed in key positions within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Drug Administration and on commissions and advisory committees where they have made serious progress. Three years later this administration has established one of the most rigid sexual health agendas in the Western world.

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The Christian Taliban

[FireHeart]

1. I think "rigid" UNHEALTH agendas

would be more appropriate. I can't believe how low these freakazoids can go when it means putting people's lives in danger.

[DaveSZ]

2. Damn Fundies

need to die.

UGH, I can stand people who disagree with me on economic policy or foreign policy, but these people want to undermine our core freedoms as a nation.

I've studied them quite extensively.

[FireHeart]

3. I can't say they need to die, but...

they do need to seriously re-think their attitudes toward sexual health and reproduction safety. I can't understand them, and when I ask any for a clear, logical explanation of their stand, I get mindless tirades about "morality" and even bible quotes--which usually have nothing to do with the situation whatsoever.

:shrug:

[non sociopath skin]

4. Thanks: I'm glad people are beginning to make this connection...

The neocon fundies are more like a Christian Taliban all the time. I notice how, on right-wing sites, posters are being increasingly manoeuvered into saying that Christian terrorists are bad but not as bad as Islamic ones and that we should be using Al Quaeda type nastiness to "fight fire with fire".

Perhaps Shrub and the gang were being more accurate than they knew when they talked about a "Crusade." That really is how they see it!!

The Skin

[Finch]

5. Inacurate...

... while the Christian right has an unhealthy amount of influence within the GOP and especially within the Bush White House... likening the Taliban and the average conservative Christian is just ridiculas... there are crazies out in the west, hard core Mormons, militia men etc... who might aspire to a Taliban style state but to suggest most conservative Christians and the Bush administration want to do this is ridicules if they wanted such as form of government there would be no way they would be so supportive of big business, the Taliban where not capitalits!... look their are two popular critiques of Bush on this site(there are many more and mine is basically that he is incompetent (NOT EVIL) in both social, economic and foreign affairs but thats just me)... these popular critiques are based on 1.) Bush is a fundamentalist (which he is and a scary one at that) and he wants to turn American into a theocracy and then 2.) He's all for big business and their interests and all for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer... both cannot be true it has to be one or the other... the second one has more merit however the reality is more complicated than that IMHO...


It is an interesting point to remember that one of our party's most progressive (verging on socialist) presidential candidates William Bryan was a Christian fundamentalist and throughout his life argued against evolution... and yet he was a fundamentalist Christian by any standards... I expect many here who call themselves progressives would dismiss him to as a crazy wacko with no good in him... and as I remember he went up against the president the big business besotted Bush has the most in common with William McKinley... but you don’t want to hear that issues might be more complicated than Black and White just like many on the right don’t well ok, I’ll leave you to it…

[xchrom]

6. oh i can equate them

having had contact with the brutalizing effects pro-lifers have had on women seeking planned parenthood services, listened to services demonizing folk who divorce, seen the effects of christians who gay bash -- christian fundies have become a serious social problem.
and it's not them who are ''using'' the white house -- it's this unspoken agreement between corporate america and fundie land to use each other.

[Finch]

7. I did not say that...

I said that you cannot have a Fundamentalist Taliban State and also be a radical capitalist free marketer… its one or the other…

In reality you are basically right within the Republican party the Christian right (you should equate them with fundamentalists … witness the Bryan point I make above) is very pro-business generally however they are not in great cahoots… neither has any great love of the other, generally they are indifferent to one another and only drawn together by the Republicans’ social conservatism and the Republicans support for the interests of big business… the fact is however both these group are diverging from one another the business lobby is becoming more libertarian, while the Christian Right remains stridently socially conservative probably even more so than in the past… as it is a fact their congregations are growing at the same time as moderate and liberal congregations and secular communities remain static this is the worrying point…

[DaveSZ]

8. Finch makes an important point

Of course I was kidding that they need to "die."

:P

Jimmy Carter was also a Christian Fundamentalist, and he was/is one of our most kindhearted presidents.

[Finch]

9. Yeah your right...

.... we shouldn't equate fundamentalists with the Christian Right they are different if you are a fundamentalist you are not necessarily part of the Christian right however if you are part of the Christian right you are probably a fundamentalist... its a shame more very conservative Christians don't look at the examples of Bryan or Carter both of whom where very conservative Christians but solid and good progressives...

[Spentastic]

10. I don't agree

I think that Republicans are resisting the urge to diverge and instead are creating markets that they control.

Take the media for example. Republicans are not opposed to monopolies if they own them. They are not free market fundamentalists at all. They are base profiteers. They bastardise their theology to permit this. There is no conflict.

[JNelson6563]

11. Tali-born-agains

Brutal and uncompromising zealots.

God save me from your people!

Julie

[ithacan]

12. the "religious right" has hijacked the Republican Party

for details see: http://www.TheocracyWatch.org/

It's not just an "alliance", the "christian coalition" forces have actually taken control of the GOP at the national level.

Every one of the GOP leadership in Congress has a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition, for example.

Bush is seen as the leader of the Christian Coalition now.

Check out the website, all the details are there, how this happened, how the current GOP agenda is exactly the agenda of the religious right, etc.