Town Square Political Theory Daily Review

From The Nation, a debate of Labor's Future (including Sweeney, Stern, Wilhelm, McEntee, Cohen, and Hoffa). From In These Times, more on Wobblies!, and the religious right wants to include moral values in the debate over how our taxes are spent? Bring it on. Do Democrats need to get religion? Jim Wallis and Susan Jacoby go at it.

From WSWS, an article on secularism and the American Constitution. Christopher Caldwell on the sacred cow of religious rights. An article on Islam and the institutions of a free society. A review of Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism.

From LRB, a review of The Indian Mutiny and the British Imagination, and an article on secularism and the American Constitution. Christopher Caldwell on the sacred cow of religious rights. An article on Islam and the institutions of a free society. A review of Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism.

From LRB, a review of The Indian Mutiny and the British Imagination, and an article on.

From NYRB, Peter Galbraith on Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic. Brendan O'Neill on how a risk-averse West has inflamed the terrorism it fears. What turns a man into a terrorist, and what can be done about it? And from Foreign Affairs, an article on How to Help Poor Countries

THOSE CRAZY MUSLIMS      recovering liberal the London bombs.

From NYRB, Peter Galbraith on Iraq: Bush's Islamic Republic. Brendan O'Neill on how a risk-averse West has inflamed the terrorism it fears. What turns a man into a terrorist, and what can be done about it? And from Foreign Affairs, an article on How to Help Poor Countries

Whose Values?

Religion has been cited as a big factor in the recent presidential election. The exit polls found that 22 percent of voters cited "moral values" as the key to their vote. Of course, we welcome the "moral values" discussion in politics, but the question some Christians are raising is which values and whose values.

Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace has been receiving daily opportunities to shape the national debate and to make sure that social and economic justice is named as a "moral and religious value," and that war and peace are "life" issues too. The Reverend Jim Wallis is scheduled to speak about "moral values" this coming Sunday on "Meet the Press."

Only 51% of Americans have moral values?

Speak out about YOUR values....click here> My Moral Values

I meant to post this a few days ago. We have a winner. If anybody brings their faith into the public square, especially running for office---it's open for a vigorous discussion. If we disagree it's not because of religious intolerance, but rather because it becomes a debatable issue. For Romney to say:

"We need to have a person of faith lead the country."

I can argue vehemently that we don't. Both can lead equally well or horribly bad. Religion doesn't put one on a higher morality plain---although Roy Moore might think so. GWB was supposed to be the chosen one because of his religious beliefs. How has he done so far?

Respondents didn't get around to describing him as "President" until 18th place. "Irresponsible" and "unconfident" round out the list, with "liar," "hypocrite," and "selfish" sprinkled in as well. That's what a 33 percent approval rating will get you.

Jim Wallis is back with more stupidity.

In recent years, the Left and even the Democrats managed to appear hostile to faith and to people in faith communities...

What Democrats have been openly hostile? Whenever they talk about faith----they're labeled a phony. Duncan, Wallis will continually say this stuff so he has something to bitch about all the time----it doesn't matter if it's based on fiction. It gives him street cred for the cable news shows. Kos adds:

Here's the deal -- Republicans have claimed god as their own and perverted religious texts to justify some of the most divisive and hateful policies and discourse in our politics today...read on

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The Rev. Jim Wallis is now a brand, and part of his brand is representing the much-beloved Reasonable Religious Liberals. I guess that's why he's now attacking the writers who have identified the very real threat of the Dominionist religious movements to our democracy. Rob Boston writes:

Today, several writers who report on the Religious Right are issuing an open letter to Jim Wallis, a moderate evangelical leader who runs the group Sojourners. Wallis has criticized the Religious Right in the past, but for some reason suddenly has a problem with those of us who write about the openly theocratic wing of the Religious Right – the Christian Reconstructionists, the Dominionists, those involved in the New Apostolic Reformation.

Wallis and Mark Pinsky, a former religion writer at the Orlando Sentinel, have accused us of fomenting hysteria.

Our open letter sets the record straight. Those of us who write about the Religious Right are not overreacting. Nor do we, as Wallis and Pinsky seem to think, believe that all evangelicals are theocrats. Indeed, we know that the theocratic wing is a minority – but we also know that a minority can have influence far beyond its numbers.

Christian Reconstructionists like the late Rousas John Rushdoony laid the intellectual groundwork for today’s Religious Right. Did everyone who read Rushdoony believe, as he did, that the U.S. government must operate under the Old Testament’s legal code? No. But I’ve attended enough Religious Right meetings and have heard enough demands for “biblical law” in America to know that these people are not fans of our secular government.

A fringe movement did not bring tens of thousands of people to a football stadium for Gov. Rick Perry’s prayer rally in August. A fringe movement did not remove three justices from the Iowa Supreme Court in 2010 because they voted for marriage equality. A fringe movement did not mobilize and pass anti-gay amendments in more than half of the states. A fringe movement did not mobilize fundamentalist churches and their congregants to push the Republican Party far to the right on social issues. A fringe movement did not pass anti-abortion laws across the nation,  intimidate public school science teachers into watering down the teaching of evolution and derail the Equal Rights Amendment.

The Religious Right did these things. It is a nationwide movement consisting of several large organizations backed by powerful television and radio ministries. It collects more than $1 billion annually in tax-free donations. Not all of its supporters are theocrats who burn to base American law on a narrow understanding of the Bible. But some certainly are.

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