The Rabid Religious Right

When it comes to the Rabid Religious Right in this country there is a very great danger (and it can still go either way) that this 30% slice of American citizenry can effectively dominate the U.S. (and, by extension, the international) political landscape. Through their hard-working zeal, fueled by their belief that they are doing God’s work in the biblical End Times, the nation is perilously close to losing its very valuable separation of church and state, and having it replaced by a de facto theocracy. And like the Muslim theocracies, one that believes itself to be the One True Religion and on a mission to impose that religion on the entire world. Very, very, very dangerous, not only for the 70% who will be forced to live by their precepts, but for the inevitable Christian/Muslim wars which would ensue.

Some of the changes which would be promulgated by this contingent would be wide-ranging censorship of books and mass media, textbook changes on evolution and other matters, the criminalization of all abortions, the outlawing of stem-cell research, a re-ascribing of women’s role as that of a glorified domestic servant and child-raiser, and a zero-tolerance policy aimed at homosexuals.

In fact, the hard-core engine of the religious right (e.g., the sponsors of these recent nationwide political events piped into the churches) has as some of its central beliefs a return to the Hebrew Mosaic Laws, which includes public stonings of homosexuals, blasphemers and adulterers, and wives forced to walk several paces behind their husbands. To point out what should be obvious about these extremists, there are distinct similarities across the board with groups like the Taliban, the Iranian mullahs and the Wahabi Islamists of Osama bin Laden.