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Jewish World Review Jan. 15, 2002 / 2 Shevat, 5762

Linda Bowles

Linda Bowles
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Quarantine people of faith?


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- ACCORDING to Newsweek's Howard Fineman, it is the intention of the Democrat Party to launch an all-out political attack on conservative Christians during the next election cycle. In a recent article, Fineman writes that "Democrats are planning a daring assault on the most critical turf in politics: the cultural mainstream."

Democrats will accuse the Republican Party of being out of the mainstream because it is under the control of the "religious right," a force within America that mirrors the bigotry of the Taliban and does not "honor the ideals of tolerance -- religious, sexual, racial, reproductive -- at home." The New York Times is cooperating by referring to Islamic radicals as "the religious right."

As vicious as this seems at first glance, it should come as no surprise. For more than 40 years, the heathen left have successfully executed a systematic, step by step dismantlement of a structure of morals and values carefully put in place to protect the history, heritage and cultural identity of America.

Our books, movies, art, television and music are a unified chorus of smut and anti-social messages. We curse in public places; the media make celebrities of serial murderers; our children are taught about condoms in the third grade; the Boy Scouts are under attack to embrace atheists and homosexuals; the family is being legally undermined; churches are pressured to rewrite scriptures to accommodate those who are proud of their transgressions; religious apartheid is officially sanctioned and practiced by the government; and bewildered taxpayers are told they have no choice but to pay for liberal propaganda, blasphemous art and pornography on public television.

In his new book "The Death of the West," Pat Buchanan describes what has happened with these chilling words: "In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs Americans have held for generations."

A few years ago, Dr. James C. Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, reminisced about the way America was in 1954 when he graduated from high school. In searching through the news archives, he came across a statement made by Earl Warren, chief justice of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Warren, remembered as a liberal jurist, was quoted in Time magazine on Feb. 15, 1954, as follows:

"I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses ... I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it: freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under law, and the reservation of powers to the people ... "

Less than 50 years later, if a nominee to the Supreme Court today said what Chief Justice Warren said, he would not have any chance at all of being confirmed by the Senate. He would be considered too extreme to interpret the Constitution.

He would come under immediate and heavy attack by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Education Association (NEA), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation League (GLAAD), Sen. Chuck Schumer (CS), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), The National Council of Churches (NCC), various organizations dedicated to the promotion of illegal immigration, and assorted other self-righteously outraged constituencies of the Democrat Party.

If a teacher in a public school in America today, in general assembly or in a history class, were to say what Supreme Court Justice Warren said, that teacher would be labeled a mean-spirited racist bigot, accused of spewing hate in the classroom, and sent to "sensitivity" training for the purpose of erasing the completely unacceptable idea that there might be something unique or superior in the way the United States of America came into being. In a larger sense, anything having to do with religion, particularly the symbols and ideas of the Christian religion, has been treated like an unhealthy contamination, and systematically exorcised out of what has come to be called the public (as opposed to the private) sector. Unfortunately, essentially everything in the country has been declared to be in the "public" sector and hence subject to unconstrained state control.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing America today is whether people of faith will allow themselves to be quarantined.



Comment on JWR contributor Linda Bowles' column by clicking here.

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© 2002, Creators Syndicate