nobody asked…

Rain has an excellent post questioning the Christian claims of GWBush and his Republican party. Indeed, she rightfully extends the questioning to both parties who seem to be bent on proving their moral superiority over the other.

Rain raises some very thought provoking questions, including this one:

No politician appears able to win if they don’t thump a Bible now and again but how many look to see what it is in that book?

Is this what our country and the traditional two party political system has devolved to? What can we do, individually or collectively, to stop this nonsense and reverse the trend? Can we really even call the United States of America a democracy any longer? And, please, don’t start with how it really never has been a true democracy. We all know that. But we still use the term to describe ourselves and our country, and in relativistic terms, it is probably closer to being accurate than any other than could be ascribed to it.

The demonstrated mutual affinity of Republican conservatives and the fabled Christian right, coupled with this administration’s willingness to ignore the basic principles of law, liberty, rights, and freedom as expressed by the founders, adopted and revered for over two centuries, is enough to make all thinking people, regardless of party affiliation or leaning, afraid … very afraid.

UPDATE May 18, 2006, 8:25 PM CDT

John B. of Blog Meridian left a comment that I thought important enough to drag out here to the front porch:

Andrew Sullivan–conservative, small-government Republican, practicing Catholic, and gay–has been blogging a lot these days on this very topic in advance of a book he has coming out later this year on the subject. A couple of weeks ago, he also had an essay in Time (here

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1191826,00.html

is the link) that has prompted lots of e-mails from readers, to which he responds on his blog, no matter the reader’s take. Here (http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/05/christianism_ag.html), in fact, are a couple of e-mails that speak directly to Rain’s concerns.