The Gaytheist Agenda

Most Americans have noticed that a presidential campaign is underway. All but one candidate is Christian, with the remaining candidate being a devout Mormon. We have been inundated with speeches and, dare I say, sermons from the candidates professing how deep and abiding their faith is. Particularly from the GOP side the candidates sound more like they’re running for preacher than president. Candidates visit churches frequently while on the campaign trail to stroke the egos of congregations and stump for votes.

Barack Obama, for example, has bent over backwards to woo Christian evangelicals to vote for him. Particularly in light of accusations that he is a Muslim owing to his middle name (Hussein) and Muslim lineage he has been hawking the fact that he is very much a Christian. The latest in his “Vote for me because I’m a really, really, really good Christian just like you are” campaign is this:

The brochure being handed out in South Carolina shows a picture of the candidate with his hands together and eyes closed. In large letters, it reads “ANSWERING THE CALL.”

Inside, voters learn of a candidate who was “CALLED TO CHRIST” and even larger letters is a “COMMITTED CHRISTIAN” and is quoted saying, “I believe in the power of prayer.”

Barack Obama’s campaign in South Carolina is targeting black voters, and one of the ways he’s doing it is appealing to a connection based on shared religious faith. Obama, a Christian who attends a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago, has talked about his faith in Iowa and other states, as well, but his campaign literature is particularly focused on his religion here, where he depicts himself, in one picture, before a pulpit, and, in another, praying with an African American man.

Whoa. He sounds really super Christiany. I guess I’ll just have to vote for him.

Hillary Clinton does her share as well. In November she proudly announced that she had the backing of 60 pastors. Apparently the endorsements of clergy are better than laypersons because clergy would never do or say anything unethical, you know. Clinton also felt it necessary to advertise her church attendance. See, going to church is important, but other people knowing you go is critical. How else will they know you’re a Good Christian?

John Edwards, too, wants you to know how central his faith is to his life, and therefore how it will guide his presidency. He went on CBN in November to attest to his faithiness:

Edwards: Well, my faith is hugely important to every aspect of my life and it has been for a long time. I’m not going to lie to people. I was born and raised in the Southern Baptist church, baptized when I was young. I went to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. It was the center of our lives. My father was the deacon in the Baptist church.

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I lost my son 1996 — and then of course more recently Elizabeth’s development of cancer and recurrence of her cancer. The truth is I don’t know how I could have ever gotten through these struggles plus the day-to-day stresses of being a candidate for president without my relationship with the Lord. It’s hugely important in every part of my life

The GOP candidates are not only trying to out-Christian one another (even Romney), they’re making infinite promises as to how they’ll impose RRRW Christian morality on all of Amurka–whether the rest of us like it or not. Says Mittens:

I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Marriage is fundamentally an institution about the development and nurturing of children. Every child deserves a mom and a dad. We must recognize the traditional union of a man and a woman as the bedrock of the family in our society. If our courts are determined to undermine this principle, then we have no choice but to defend it through a constitutional amendment.I support an amendment to prevent activist judges from misreading the Constitution to force same-sex marriage on any state.

I oppose civil unions between same sex partners. Government should encourage the formation of families and the nurturing of children, and I believe that this is best accomplished with a mom and a dad. Every child deserves a mother and a father.

Then there’s John McCain, who hits several of the right buttons–if you’re a RRRWer, that is.

Watching Beliefnet’s exclusive John McCain video, God-o-Meter finds it perplexing that the Arizona senator has long been a scourge of the Religious Right. After all, McCain told Beliefnet that the “Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation,” that he’s in talks with his pastor about undergoing a full-immersion baptism to become a full-blown evangelical, and that the prospect a Muslim presidential candidate makes him queasy because he wants someone who shares a “solid grounding in my faith.” That certainly checks some big boxes on the Christian Right’s presidential prerequisite list. (Not to mention that it offers a stark contrast to some of former Christian Right golden boy Fred Thompson’s recent stumbles on matters religious.)

Of course he’s small potatoes compared to Mike Huckabee, the Baptist Preacher turned Arkansas Governor turned presidential candidate.

“[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it’s a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that’s what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards,” Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Can you say Dominionist ? I knew you could!

So we have the candidates jumping through hoops, speechifying, sermonizing, wearing their belief on their sleeves and doing everything in their power to prove to the faithful that they’re the right believer for the job. But the job is the presidency of the United States, not pastor, reverend, priest or pope. So why is there so much emphasis on religion? What ever happened to “There shall be no religious test for public office”? And why do candidates not only spend so much time visiting churches, but feel compelled to, lest they “lose” the religious vote? Are religious people that needy and fragile. Do they really need that much pandering and ego-stroking? What is this insane need they have for people to tell them their beliefs are right, true and good? And why do politicians–particularly the GOPers–always have to promise the nation will be run according to the RRRW Christians rules to make them happy? Never mind; I already know the answer to those questions.

I’ll make it easy for you, candidates. You don’t need to give me flowery speeches or monologues about your faith. I don’t want to hear about your fabulous gay friend or the one who is the most ethical person you know–and she’s even an atheist. I don’t need to be validated by you nor do you need to be validated by me . I don’t want any form of song and dance. Save the pandering for the believers.

All I want for myself is equal human and civil rights. ENDA, Marriage Equality, the Hate Crimes Act. Enforce Separation of Church and State, “no religious test for public office” and equal-access laws. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. You’ll also save a lot of time, effort and money on the campaign trail.

Now what I want for everyone else–that’s going to take a bit more time, effort and money.

Stephen Baldwin, the far-less talented brother of Alec Baldwin , is memorable for movies like Bio-Dome and Threesome. Or maybe not.

In recent years Baldwin became a Born-Again-Christian. He apparently was inspired to do so following the conversion of his wife, Kennya.
 

After Baldwin and his wife moved back to New York, Kennya started attending a charismatic church, praying and reading the Bible twice a day. He noticed a change in her that he found inspiring.

“She became more gentle, she became less judgmental, she just changed,” he said.

Now I’ve read about this before. People say they decide to follow in the path of others who have become Christians because they see how becoming Christian “changed” the other person by makng them calmer, happier, nicer, etc. So why is it that after they convert they are something akin to Jake Busey in Contact?

Needless to say, Stephen has become quite a different person. Where he once acted in movies that contained nudity and sex scenes, he has reportedly begun crusading against them. Most recently he announced his endorsement of Mike Huckabee for president and disapproval of same-sex marriage.

I don’t believe that gay marriage is in line with God’s Word, which is found in the Bible. So, what I think doesn’t matter; what I believe is what’s in the Bible and the Bible says that gay marriage is not acceptable.

Says Bill Browning of The Bilerico Project:

So again, it’s okay to show nudity in his own movies, but he has to protest movies with nudity that have more of a plot than “Bio-Dome”. (Remember that one? With Pauly Shore? You know it’s good if Pauly Shore is your co-star!) It’s okay to rub another man’s hand all over your naked ass as long as you don’t, you know, want to marry him.

Then again, he converted after 9/11. Seriously. I’m surprised he’s not backing Guilliani since that candidate’s stump speech consists of a noun, a verb, and “9/11.” So maybe it used to be okay to mess with guys and girls and let your ass hang out for all to see, but if you do it now, the terrorists win.

I’ve had it with these nitwits who sow their wild oats, find Jebus, then become the Morality Police for the rest of America (“Dr. Laura” Schlessinger, anybody?). Religion should be a guide for one’s personal path, not a weapon to wield over others. But the “Christian Nation” types can’t seem to distinguish the difference.

The results are official.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton powered to victory in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary Tuesday night in a startling upset, defeating Sen. Barack Obama and resurrecting her bid for the White House. Sen. John McCain defeated his Republican rivals to move back into contention for the GOP nomination.

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Her victory, after Obama won last week’s Iowa caucuses, raised the possibility of a prolonged battle for the party nomination between the most viable black candidate in history and the former first lady, seeking to become the first woman to occupy the Oval Office.

Exit polls results help explain some of the differences between the two states, and some speculation is offered:

Against predictions of a second straight defeat to Obama, Clinton won because:

• Women rallied to her side. She won the female vote by more than 10 percentage points, according to exit polls, after losing among women in Iowa.

• The youth vote did not lift Obama as it did in Iowa. He won 51 percent of votes cast by people under 30, compared with 57 percent in Iowa.

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First, New Hampshire has a history of putting the brakes on surging candidacies, and the Clintons spoke to that sense of prudence by suggesting that Obama was not ready for the White House.

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Second, the Clintons went negative on Obama’s record to say he has not been consistent on a host of issues, including the Iraq war. Obama constantly trumpets his early opposition to the war without informing voters that, like Clinton, he later voted to pay for it.

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Third, aides had urged her to show more passion and emotion, and, coincidentally or not, she did so by nearly breaking down during a restaurant appearance. Eyes welling up and voice quavering, she declared the campaign “is very personal for me. It’s not just political.”

There’s another potential factor that hasn’t been mentioned thus far. New Hampshire (and New England in general) simply doesn’t go for the Bible Banging in the same way that Iowa does. Hence the way Huckabee went down in flames, having won Iowa with 34.3% but receiving only 11% of the vote in NH.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister, rates a ten (out of a possible ten) on BeliefNet’s God-o-meter. Their observations:

When God-o-Meter went to the Parker’s Maple Barn in Mason, New Hampshire yesterday, it observed that everyone present was an evangelical or a frequent churchgoer, raising doubts that Huckabee is breaking out of his Christian Right base after winning Iowa last week almost solely on the backs of evangelicals. And tonight’s results and exit polls out of New Hampshire confirm those doubts. Even among those who attend church multiple times each week, Huckabee took just third of the vote, with Mitt Romney and John McCain doing almost as well. And among the much bigger chunk of weekly churchgoers–nearly a quarter of the vote in New Hampshire– Huckabee came in third, bested by McCain and Romney. …..

Granted, John McCain scores just one point below Huckabee on the God-o-Meter at eight. However evidence suggests his God-talk is more a facade than genuine. He was, remember, the person who denounced the Religious Right as agents of intolerance some seven years ago.

As to Barack Obama, who once promised his supporters a Kingdom right here on Earth, he rates a nine on the God-o-Meter.Obama has certainly done enough pandering to evangelicals and infused his campaign speeches with plenty of religious rhetoric. Then of course there’s the Embrace the Homophobia Change gospel concert tour. That was the grand finale to his 40-Days-of-Faith-and-Family , a massive effort to woo religious voters in SC away from Hillary Clinton . But when Obama lost to Huckabee in Iowa he decided to go for broke preaching–for Hope and Change.

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Stopping by a packed Barack Obama rally last night in Rochester, New Hampshire, God-o-Meter noticed that fans standing behind the candidate on stage waved homemade poster board signs proclaiming “In Obama We Trust” and “Believe.” The local activist who introduced Obama said, “What I really like is his ability to uplift people.” And Obama opened his stump speech this way: “Over the next 20 minutes or so, you’re going to see a light shine down the from the ceiling… you’re going to have an epiphany.”

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Indeed, God-o-Meter would go so far to say that Obama, peddling his message that hope matters more than experience, has become the Democrats’ secular preacher, his party’s rough equivalent to Huckabee, who’s been criticized for campaigning to be “pastor-in-chief.”

There are blatant religious overtones to Obama’s campaign. Jim Wallis calls him “virtually a public theologian… articulating the relationship between faith and politics.” During last night’s rally in Rochester, Obama opened his speech with an anecdote about his stint organizing churches in Chicago to respond to the closing of steel mills there.

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The Obama faithful don’t seem to mind. When God-o-Meter asked a dozen attendees at last night’s rally why they supported Obama, none mentioned a specific issue—or even a general one. At a Huckabee event earlier that morning, by contrast, supporters mentioned the former Arkansas governor’s pro-life views or his promise to help the middle class as secondary reasons for supporting him, even while acknowledging Huckabee’s “Christian values” as the prime reason.

On her way out of last night’s event, 41-year-old Sandy Becker said she backs Obama because “he gives us something to hope for.” Asked if there were any specific issues undergirding her support, the Montessori school owner said that “Obama can cut across all issues.”

Obama himself wouldn’t disagree. “Let me talk about hope,” he said near the end of last night’s speech. “I’ve been talking about hope so much I’ve been derided for it. Lately some folks have said Obama is so idealist, so naïve—he’s a hopemonger.”

Hopemonger. Isn’t that just another name for minister?

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Ironically that’s the same problem I’ve had when confronting Obama supporters elsewhere. Hope for what? What sort of change? Nobody has the answers. Essentially Obama is an empty suit hidden behind fluffy feel-good slogans–similar to many religions.

Hillary Clinton, by stark contrast, rates a six on the God-o-Meter (though she previously stood at seven). A recent campaign insisting that she is more Pro-choice than Obama is apparently the reason for the drop in score. She had scored six previously when she joined the War on Christmas by saying “Happy Holidays” in her holiday campaign advertisement.

It will be most interesting to see how the upcoming primaries in NV, MI, SC and FL shape the face of the election.