American Theocracy Revisited
By ROSS DOUTHAT
Published: August 28, 2011
“In this week’s New York Times Magazine, The Times’s outgoing executive editor, Bill Keller, argues that Perry and Bachmann should face tough questions about their religious beliefs. The Republican hopefuls’ associations, he writes, should force us to “confront our scruples about the privacy of faith in public life — and to get over them.”
“Keller is absolutely right. The separation of church and state in the United States has never separated religion from politics, and the “private” beliefs of politicians have often had very public consequences. When candidates wear their religion on their sleeve, especially, the press has every right to ask how that faith relates to their political agenda.”
Republicans Against Science
Published: August 28, 201
“Jon Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn’t a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And that’s too bad, because Mr. Huntsman has been willing to say the unsayable about the G.O.P. — namely, that it is becoming the “anti-science party.” This is an enormously important development. And it should terrify us…”
“…Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.”
Krugman warns us of a growing disdain for science leading to disbelief in science among GOP voters. Teavangelists are already in opposition to science.
Douthat admits that it is fair to question such politicians and elected officials about their religion if they insist in waving it like a flag and demanding that we all follow that flag. However, he draws an incorrect conclusion:
“This last point suggests the crucial error that the religious right’s liberal critics tend to make. They look at Christian conservatism and see a host of legitimately problematic tendencies: Manichaean rhetoric, grandiose ambitions, apocalyptic enthusiasms. But they don’t recognize these tendencies for what they often are: not signs of religious conservatism’s growing strength and looming triumph, but evidence of its persistent disappointments and defeats.”
When such groups have sufficient power to recall Congress for the Schiavo resolution, when they can cause Congress to pass the “defense of marriage act, when they can block access to abortion services and even birth control pills and information, they are not without power. When there is a voter base willing to overlook a Vice- residential candidate’s belief in witchcraft and a Presidential candidate’s belief that prayer can “cure homosexuality” our system of government is under attack by people who believe in fairy tales but not in gravity.
If we give up on gravity, the Inquisition isn’t far behind. From there it is but a short hop to the dark ages.
I return to class tomorrow, enrolled in Astronomy/astrophysics. How very timely and appropriate Keefe’s cartoon is.
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