Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The Washington Post has a report on religious right poster boy Ralph Reed and his misuse of religion in the service of making himself right. This will surprise no one:
In August 1999, political organizer Ralph Reed's firm sent out a mailer to Alabama conservative Christians asking them to call then-Rep. Bob Riley (R-Ala.) and tell him to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to federal wage and worker safety laws..."The radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas Islands," the mailer from Reed's firm said. The Chinese workers, it added, "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ" while on the islands, and many "are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand."
Well, who could be against bringing those godless atheists to American territory and then to Christ? Trouble is, that's not what was really going on in the Marianas Islands at all:
A year earlier, the Department of the Interior -- which oversees federal policy toward the U.S. territory -- presented a very different picture of life for Chinese workers on the islands. An Interior report found that Chinese women were subject to forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.It also alleged that the garment industry and other businesses set up facilities on the Northern Marianas to produce products labeled "Made in the USA," while importing workers from China and other Asian countries and paying them less than U.S. minimum wage under conditions not subject to federal safety standards.
Who could forget the inspiring words of Jesus' sermon on the mount: "Blessed are they who take millions of dollars to help cover up the forced prostitution and shameful working conditions of women and children, for they shall have mansions in Georgia and be taken seriously by halfwits when they speak about the moral decline of the nation." Remember, abortion is bad - unless it's forced abortions for desperately poor women to insure that they remain productive workers and crank out a few thousand shoes every day. Then, God looks the other way.
Comments
This is of a piece with the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Seaettle Weekly on it. Reed bleeds Christians for bucks.
Posted by: RBH
| May 29, 2006 5:32 PM
I have been brought to tears (LOL) from your interpretation of the "sermon on the mount."
Posted by: VRB
| May 29, 2006 6:29 PM
Dear Ralph,
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot server both God and Money.
Bad choice Ralph.
Posted by: Jim Ramsey
| May 29, 2006 8:23 PM
Sorry Ed.
I should remember to read completely before posting. You had already used the Sermon on the Mount metaphor.
Still, I like my quote better than yours.
Posted by: Jim Ramsey
| May 29, 2006 8:26 PM
Ironic that Reed would in denouncing the "radical left" he would make a radical leftist sound right.
Posted by: Hume's Ghost
| May 29, 2006 8:51 PM
I find it hilarious and ironic that a fool and their money are so easily parted when it comes to religion.
Posted by: Soldats
| May 30, 2006 10:41 AM
the first sentence in the last paragraph actually made me laugh out loud and almost spit out my tequila. gracias.
Posted by: epitaphforacentaur
| May 31, 2006 1:48 AM