Demons Out!

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• Reader Comments (1)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  The notion of an anti-Christ juxtaposed with Christian fundamentalism deserves no comment from The Left, Joel. Focusing on it, however, does provide amusement for those of us who remain convinced that , while religion as the opiate of the masses may have been among Karl Marx’s most revolutionary of sentiments, that narcotic of today’s dumbing down of America is television content, secular and non-sectarian alike. Even last evening’s Frontline program “Decision 2008” deferred to the respect for religious belief without making clear which of the two presidential candidates poses the worst risk to those of us who believe that our constitution’s references to what we term separation of church and state is sacrosanct. As long as religious matters are permitted to be included in the civic debate, we are, as a people whose currency credits trust in a superbeing, like children in catechism class: dumbfounded and fearful that our doubt, while intellecturally graceful, is inherently out of sync with a majority view. While the Christian Right has yet to reveal itself as a Taliban-like fanaticism, there can be no doubt that the teachings pertaining to the story of Christ, like those pertaining to the stories of Abraham and Mohammed, lend themselves to devolutions of politically empirical thought. We on The Left are well aware, thanks to the efforts of writers like yourself, of the threat from The Right.  While the Democratic presidential candidate who enjoys our support appears ready to defer to faith as fundamentally purposeful and useful, with particular emphasis on “faith-based initiatives,” we eagerly anticipate that his victory can be expected to make platitudes for religious purveyance less numbing to civic sensibilities than do the outrageous and outlandish commentaries, policies and programs advanced by those who, with messianic zeal, make the mistake of presuming that intolerance is emblematic of democratic ideals. Thank you for this sidebar to necon machinations of coalition with The Religious Right. It adds to the abundance of evidence that good news for the religious is often of ill import to those of us who find such dalliances with faith as convoluting as the intrigues of the military-industrial complex. Those claiming to have their gods on their side may not be able, it appears, to distinguish a candidate from an icon, suggesting myopia, if not delusion, as the nature of their mindsets. Twenty-eight million free DVD’s of “Obsession” to newspaper subscribers is an interesting bit of news; but better yet would be a report that reveals how the subscribers’ mailing lists were placed in the hands of those who would distribute such mindlessness to unsolicited victims. Go get ‘em, Joel. They deserve it.

  Posted by Bud Wizer on Oct 15, 2008 at 6:18 PM

  Page 1 of 1 pages

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