Cal Thomas Calls Religion "Fifth Column": You Shall Have No God Before Bush-Cheney!

[McCamy Taylor]

Cal Thomas, right wing idiot panderer, writes about the Holy Land case today. He says the defendants were probably guilty, even though they were acquitted on most charges, before the judge changed the verdicts to mistrials. He says they were definitely guilty by association. And then he says they are guilty of being Fifth Columnists , "a group of people who are assumed to have loyalties to countries other than their own, or who support some other nation in war efforts against the country they live in."

http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/281100.html

Pay attention. Cal Thomas just called members of a religion "Fifth columnists" for practicing their religion. This is exactly what I was talking about when I wrote a recent journal, "Lessons from Burma, Why the Religious Right Wants to Replace Spiritualism with Patriotism"


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/66

The religious right would have everyone in America except a tiny number of corporate CEOs and their lackeys live in spiritual as well as material poverty. They have attempted to co-opt the Christian Church, turning it into a great big list of "Thou Shalt Nots", reminiscent of the cult in Aldous Huxley's futuristic book Ape and Essence . Why? Because they know that a religion based upon spirituality can motivate people to right injustices, defy tyrannical laws, protect those weaker than themselves and put moral values ahead of material self interest.

Thomas has the hypocrisy to complain about "a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society", as if his own right wing extremist brothers in arms have not suggested a Crusade with forced conversion of Middle Eastern Muslims. Republicans called for expelling the one Muslim US Congressman. He forgets that the Bush administration tried to revoke the tax exempt status of a Christian Church that asked for an end to the War in Iraq. And don't forget that Ann Coulter wants to "perfect" the Jews by converting them, too.

What Thomas and his breed want most of all is one big fat State religion in which members will pray to the president and God in the same breath. Then, we the people will march to wars of choice, knowing that God willed those wars. We will never question our political leaders. We will never, ever have moral qualms of conscience that lead us to march in protest in the streets, like the Buddhist monks in Burma, because us conscience will tell us "whatever the state tells you is what God tells you."

There is a reason the Founders separated Church and State. Thomas Paine from "The Rights of Man."

All religions are in their nature kind and benign, and united with principles of morality. They could not have made proselytes at first by professing anything that was vicious, cruel, persecuting, or immoral. Like everything else, they had their beginning; and they proceeded by persuasion, exhortation, and example. How then is it that they lose their native mildness, and become morose and intolerant?... By engendering the church with the state, a sort of mule-animal, capable only of destroying, and not of breeding up, is produced, called the Church established by Law. It is a stranger, even from its birth, to any parent mother, on whom it is begotten, and whom in time it kicks out and destroys.

The truth is that there is nothing wrong with Islam. The problem lies with the marriage of Islam with Saudi Arabia. If Muslims in the U.S. are allowed to practice their religion freely, as required by the Constitution, their religion will be a moral one, which will encourage them to be good citizens, the way that Christianity and Judaism encourages its followers to be good citizens.

Being a good citizen does not mean blindly following orders, however. Remember the words "the price of democracy is eternal vigilance." Every citizen needs a moral code, whether based upon religion or secular values. Every citizen needs to judge for him or herself whether or not elected officials are doing the right thing. If elected leaders step out of line, it is our obligation to object. Refusal to ignore one's moral values does not make one a "Fifth columnist." It makes us even better citizens.

[spanone]

1. my local paper carries mr thomas....he's out of his fucking mind