Republicans and Religion

Posted by jrosenhouse on June 14, 2011
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Over at The American Prospect, Paul Waldman has a helpful rundown of the views of the Republican Presidential candidates on religion. Here’s a sample:

But if you’re a Republican voter looking for the most devout candidate, you’ve got yourself an embarrassment of riches. There’s Tim Pawlenty, who left the Catholic church for an evangelical megachurch in Minnesota. He and his wife were married by their pastor Leith Anderson, who is now the president of the American Association of Evangelicals. Pawlenty’s campaign book is peppered with dozens of quotes from the Bible. There’s Michele Bachman, a member of an evangelical Lutheran church who got her law degree at Oral Roberts University. “She comes from us, not to us” said an attendee at the recent Faith and Freedom Coalition conference about Bachmann, which is pretty much the highest compliment a Christian conservative voter can give. There’s Newt Gingrich, who built his post-Speakership career converting to Catholicism and reinventing himself as a proselytizer of American religiosity by writing books and making documentaries (if “Rediscovering God In America” left you yearning for more, there’s “Rediscovering God In America II”). For the more outward-looking, Herman Cain announced his intention to force Muslims who work for the government to take a special loyalty oath.

Pretty depressing stuff, but worth a look nonetheless.

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Comments

  1. #1 Rob Jase
    June 14, 2011

    This is why I stopped being a Republican when Reagan was nominated, the theocrats have long ago taken over the party.

  2. #2 Greatbear
    June 14, 2011

    Apparently, God has endorsed at least three of the GOP candidates, so even he is having trouble deciding who is the most devout.

  3. #3 feralboy12
    June 14, 2011

    And there’s Rick Santorum, who wants our laws to comport with God’s laws–and is ready, willing and able to tell us exactly what those laws are. And Romney, the Mormon…
    It’s not so much an embarrassment of riches as a bunch of embarrassing rich guys.

  4. #4 itchy
    June 14, 2011

    And of course that’s without Baptist minister Mike Huckabee in the field …

  5. #5 AL
    June 14, 2011

    Apparently, God has endorsed at least three of the GOP candidates, so even he is having trouble deciding who is the most devout.

    That’s to be expected. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost can’t always agree.

  6. #6 eric
    June 15, 2011

    Depressing if you believe they are being sincere and not just doing the nominate-me dance. So Bachmann, Cain, and Santorum are very depressing. Pawlenty is probably depressing – I don’t honestly know much about what he did in office. Romney and Gingrich, not that depressing. Their promotion of religion is on par with a politician supporting corn subsidies when speaking in Iowa.

  7. #7 Lenoxus
    June 15, 2011

    Among the religious right, Romney’s going to get into trouble for all those weird things Mormons believe, like that there was a worldwide flood thousands of years ago, and Jesus’s mother had been a virgin.

  8. #8 Greg
    June 16, 2011

    I think that Anderson is president of the National Association of Evangelicals, not the American Association of Evangelicals. Here’s an interesting piece on the NAE and sex.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/naes-gospel-of-sexuality_b_588523.html

  9. #9 Collin Brendemuehl
    June 20, 2011

    Jason,

    I hope you enjoy history and would really like to know the “why” behind this movement. There’s a classic book “History of Rationalism” by Hurst. It’s from 1865 — so it’s not “religious right” in any sense. Hurst does a very good job explaining the neo-Platonist issue that divides us.

  10. #10 klhsdfk
    July 12, 2011

    A Christian got angry at me when I tried to argue with them on their asssumption that Jesus loves everybody. This person got extremely mad at me when I said:” You wish”.

    Now, imagine the situtation when somebody does some unbelievably horrible irreparable damage to you. The kind of damage that you have to live with for the rest of your live. You obviously do not want to love this kind of person. However, Jesus loves them no matter what they do.

    That probably explains why he never interferes in human affairs even when people need his help.

    A great example is the Holocaust. Amazing, isn’t it? Jesus loves the Nazies. Also he loves anyone, who kills, steals, robs, rapes, exploits and does whatever they feel like doing.

    Wow, what are you supposed to feel about Jesus knowing that.

    Who needs this kind of love.

    If that’s the case, democrats can go ahead and exterminate Republicans and they will still be loved and forgiven.

  11. #11 Jesus's love
    July 25, 2011

    “A Christian got angry at me when I tried to argue with them on their asssumption that Jesus loves everybody.”

    Actually, arguing with people on the assumption that Jesus loves everybody is kind of silly because if Jesus exists and loves everybody, he loves atheists as well including the theory of evolution, muslims, buddists and everybody no matter what they do and what they think or believe in.

    Why can’t evolutionists and atheists take advantage of that!

  12. #12 Are we getting there?
    July 25, 2011

    How about some consistency?

  13. #13 Jesus' Love
    July 25, 2011

    How are you supposed to know if Jesus loves you? What if he thinks you’re sucking up to him a little too much? What if he thinks you’re ugly?