"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Friday, February 23, 2007

The Christianist Left

I had reason to refer to Jim Wallis the other day in this blog, and found some problems with his comments. (Oops! Just checked -- I haven't posted that one yet -- it's in the post about my sincerity problems with the Dobson Gang. I think. Nevertheless, I did read a piece and did have some serious reservations about it. Nope -- checked again. Wallis is not in that post, which is now published here.) It was, in fact, the same opinion piece that Frederick Clarkson comments on here. Clarkson makes Wallis sound like a left-leaning Christianist, and from the little I know of Wallis writings, he's not far off the mark. My question is a little more fundamental:

Why can't we go along the way we have for something over two hundred years and just let people's religious beliefs be their own concern and govern the country according to the rules set down by the Founders?

What's so hard about that?

The answer, of course, is almost too obvious to state: too many people have too great an opportunity to get their hands on a bit of power. They are people who, by and large, are not content to leave others alone to live their lives with as little interference as possible. If they were, they wouldn't be after that kind of power to begin with.

And now they're on the rise on the left.

Bother!

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