Eric Rudolph will get life in prison instead of the death penalty as the result of a plea bargain. After he pled guilty, his attorneys handed out an 11 page manifesto written by Rudolph justifying his bombing attacks and murders as legitimate responses to abortion and homosexuality.
Attorneys for accused terrorists from the Middle East have been indicted and convicted for disseminating such calls for violence.
While prominent anti-abortion groups denounce the violence they are well known to have direct and indirect contacts with groups that advocate violence and such violent groups are often splinters from the more "main stream" anti-abortion/homophobic groups. Such loose and indirect contacts are used by the Bush administration to seize property of Arab/Muslim Americans, detain them, summarily rescind their immigration status and deport them.
The double standard is disgusting. It is precisely because of the tendency to enforce laws in this uneven manner that the constitution is so important.
Yet more evidence that we are not dealing with the old fashioned, stuffed shirt, small government Republicans anymore. These are people with strong sympathy for ruthless theocrats and nationalists who are willing to kill to prove that their religion is the correct one.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Conservative Justice Update
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 10:44 PM
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LA Times reports today: 'As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as 'against people of faith' for blocking President Bush's nominees."
Where is the mainstream Christian response to this outrage? By preventing Bush from packing the judiciary with theocratic extremists--Democrats and liberals are, as they have always done, protecting people of faith everywhere.
You are assuming that the Christian Conservatives do not represent the "main stream" of religious people in the United States.
If you check the stats, the Religious Right represents a substantial majority within the religous population.
I can only hope you are wrong. I don't have the stats, but I'll bet 90% of Americans consider themselves Christian--surely most of them are not extremists? I don't know... but one can only hope :-)
I doubt its 90%. But in any case if you restrict it to "attends church regularly" its far lower than 90% (more like 70%). And of that group, the fundamentalists are a majority. This is all posted on pollingreport.com somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it all up right now.
Frankly, I think the problem lies with the unfalsifiable nature of religious belief. But the religious Thought Police have such a stranglehold on public discourse that it is political suicide to say so. (Whereas speaking critically of the foundations of almost any other aspect of modern life--science/technology, popular music/TV/culture, professional sports--can often win votes.) Despite this, some Christians still try to perpetuate the myth that they are a persecuted and powerless minority under attack in the US--nowadays by the "activist" courts.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States puts church attendance at 44%, a gradual increase from 40% in 1980. With only 65% reporting church membership, many other sources think the 40% figure is inflated, and that such self-reporting may nearly double the number of real churchgoers.
i'm not sure but if law & order (tv show) reflects life, then i can see why rudolf pleaed to life imprisonment. besides johnnie cochran is dead, so he wouldn't be able to get one of the best murder trial attorneys available.
on a different note, did you see the democratic underground published their list of "top 10 conservative idiots."
I agree with Dr. Strangelove regarding the unfalsifiable nature of religion. When mixed with politics it is inherently undemocratic in that it precludes compromise or even debate.
Policy debates get restricted to debates about the most accurate interpretation of the Bible and any attempt to argue the matter from another perspective is excluded.
On a similar note, have you seen this?
Radio Host Fired for Wondering if Pope went to Heaven
You can't even have a decent debate about Christianity anymore. Are the Protestants becoming as dogmatic as the Catholics?
Yes. The Catholics are changing too. Remember "Liberation Theology?" Well, John Paul II did his best to drive its advocates out of the Church. He regarded them as heritics.
The Catholic establishment and the Protestant fundamentalists have something in common...they are opposed to modernity itself (including science, reason and democracy).
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