Document text
Letters: Bush's fervor for religion follows the path of Hitler "The national government � will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality." "Today Christians � stand at the head of Germany � I pledge that I will never tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity � We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit � We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past � [few] years." (Would you agree with me that the word burn is prophetic?) - "The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1" (London Oxford University Press, 1942). Pg. 871-872. Could this very well have been issued by our present administration? Around this war-weary world in corners and places of new hope, there is a hunger for that which has made America great: democracy and the rule of law. Can you force it by bombing or guns and invasions of countries? Hardly. Look at the dictators America props up and installs to this very day. The reasoning is that at least they are friendly to us. How ironic that some of those basic tenets of American democracy, so valued in faraway places, are taken for granted, even undermined, here at home. Read the Patriot Act. Bush is the guy who said that the invasion of Iraq would be, "in the highest moral traditions of our country." The president is the political leader of the nation, not the religious leader. How distressing that so many American leaders such as Attorney General Ashcroft have so little respect, if any, for the Bill of Rights, without which this experiment in pluralism would have foundered long ago. Extremism is on the rise in religion and politics - Falwell, Robertson, D. James Kennedy, Hagee, Dobson and Graham Jr. on the religious right and most of America's media on the sympathetic political right. Their extremism would abandon the liberties and protections which have allowed this country to prosper in relative peace. Religious extremists are pressing to impose their particular religious views on the nation. Pat Robertson has called Jews "spiritually blind" and "spiritually deaf." That's pure unadulterated chutzpah. This guy is dangerous to our health. Some rabid anti-abortion groups tacitly encourage violent attacks on abortion providers. Falwell mocks Islam. Read it again: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The phrase is not exactly profound, but its practice is too precious to be taken lightly. So Bush is now pouring millions into religious fronts for right-wing politics - including Pat Robertson's organization. Hey, it's a payoff time for the support of the religious right. Bush told the Religious Broadcasters Convention that he feels he was called upon by God to be the nation's leader. (When does God talk to him? When he's flying around in his luxurious jet that we pay for?) Frankly, I feel that no self-respecting God would ally himself with such a miserable excuse for a leader. And the Supreme Court is doing all it can to dismantle the First Amendment - certainly the most corrupt court in the modern history of our nation. I suggest that we keep in mind that our Constitution and Bill of Rights grant the same freedoms to Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Episcopalians and Muslims, Christians, et al. Each individual is yet free to determine his/her faith, or whether to believe at all. Al Bodin, Ashland LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -