Thursday, August 9, 2012

09 August 2012 The new American teavangelism mandatory attendance



Mitt Romney Ad: Obama Has Declared A War On Religion
The Huffington Post  |  By Luke Johnson Posted: 08/09/2012 8:41 am Updated: 08/09/2012 10:23 am
            “A new Mitt Romney ad released Thursday accuses President Barack Obama of waging a "war on religion." The ad, along with recent attacks on Obama's welfare policy, signals a move away from attacking the president's handling of the economy.
            "President Obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith," says a narrator in the ad. "Mitt Romney believes that’s wrong."
            “Romney is referring to an Obama administration decision to mandate that religiously-affiliated employers -- but not religious institutions themselves -- cover the cost of contraception in their health care plans at no charge to the employee. The administration tweaked the mandate to allow employers with moral or ethical objections to request that the insurer cover the extra costs of the coverage.
            “Romney's invocation of a "war on religion" recalls an infamous Rick Perry ad that attacked Obama for the same, though on different culture-war grounds.
            “The latest ad then cuts to Romney praising Pope John Paul II, who helped end officially atheist communism in Poland.”[I]n 1979, a son of Poland, Pope John Paul II, spoke words that would bring down an empire. 'Be not afraid,'" says Romney, speaking from a recent trip to Poland.
“Drawing a comparison between what it portrays as the repressive Polish communist regime and a preventative health care mandate, the narrator says, "When religious freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with?"
Cassi Creek:  Once again, the Romney campaign opts for lies, mis-information, and a direct return to those pre-enlightenment  values that preceded the American and French Revolutions. Those were thrilling days in the history of America, when women had no vote and no value other than as breeding stock.  Death during childbirth was common, public health was unknown.  Religious affiliation carried from Europe was often the source of physical conflict between Catholics and Protestants.  Both camps were willing to beat up any polygamous Mormons who happened along. 
            Romney’s campaign is dredging up the fictitious “war on Christianity, taking great pains to link it to the “atheistic communism.”  He finds cause to praise Poland as a beacon of religious freedom while entirely avoiding any mention of Poland’s willing and eager participation in the murder of 6 million Jews in the Polish death camps during the Holocaust.  Also overlooked, the membership of the current Pope in the Hitler Youth.
            It appears that his staff has yet to tell him that the “Solidarity” movement he praised is, in fact, a labor union and that it follows the European labor-socialist traditions.    Watch for guarded retractions.
            Romney seems eager to join the teavangelists in their willingness to push the nation back to the 1950s.  Somehow, the teavangelists seem to believe that mandatory recitation of a protestant prayer by all students will magically end illiteracy, restore order to the schools, and eliminate all crime.  If the current crop of fundamentalist evangelical demagogues have their way, birth control will become history.  Church attendance will become obligatory, and the American Taliban will become local leaders.  This nation has allowed churches to dictate and exercise power for far too long.  
            Romney’s political ad claiming that Obama is waging a war on religion is patently false.  However, it is time to draw the lines between science and non-revisionist history and mythology.  Like the old union song, “Which side are you on?”
           


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