The Left's nightmare.

The one thing that astounded me when talking to the protestors outside Justice Sunday II was the fact that they were convinced that the religious right wanted a theocracy. Surfing around the leftwing blogs I find similar ridiculous beliefs about religious conservatives. Things like the belief that we hate anyone who disagrees with us or that we want some sort of forced religion in the schools or that we would want women who had abortions to go to jail. Consider the reaction to "The Chronicles of Narnia" as pointed out in this article: h/t BigDog

The novelist Phillip Pullman has described CS Lewis' original book as 'one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read'. With the zeal of a veteran cultural crusader Polly Toynbee of the UK Guardian cut straight to the chase: 'Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion.'

The author continues:

The liberal elite's obsession with the insidious threat posed by faith-based films is paralleled by its paranoia about the religious right. Anti-religious crusaders, in particular in the US, continually exaggerate the influence of Christianity in culture and politics. Every time I visit America, this fear seems to have worsened. Raising the alarm about Christian fundamentalists has become a taken-for-granted affectation among those who define themselves as liberal or left-wing, who are forever telling horror stories about the power of the religious right.

Look at Theocracywatch.org, whose entire web page is one long scream "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! And the religious is making it fall!!" On it's front page it quotes D. James Kennedy, Pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries as saying "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

Pastor who? Quoting some unknown pastor as representing the religious right is like quoting your college Marxist professor and saying he represents the left in this country.

Then it has this "chilling" warning:

Today's hard right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.

It would be funny if I didn't hear pretty much the same thing from leftwing bloggers and even commenters here. It's delusional.

I have lived in 8 different cities. I have attended church in each one. I have never met any Christians that even begin to look anything like the ones the left have nightmares about. I haven't seen anything but compassion for those caught up in sin. My Church has 85 ministries that serve the poor, those in prison, the elderly, and those in crisis pregnancy. There are support groups for those with substance abuse problems, those divorced, widowed, and just about anything else that people have to deal with.

When I lived in Dallas I was a part of a prayer group where women reached out to each other with such love that there was hardly a time I didn't leave there shaken from crying. Crying for those who were suffering and crying for the outpouring of love that was given for the person suffering.

Think about it. If Churches really were like the left likes to paint them, then no one would join, would they? What makes people come to a Church? If there was nothing but hell and judgment being given out, then the church wouldn't last long.

The truth is the religious right is just like anyone else. We care about our children. We want a better society. We see too much that has gone wrong. We see a political agenda being forced on us that contradicts our values. Are we not free to fight for our values as well? Whether one is on the right or left, we both fight for what we want our society to be. The left may fight for abortion rights, gay marriage, and less defense spending. Just as the right will fight for unborn rights, against pornography, and a stronger military. But both sides have a right to fight.

Not believing in God doesn't make you unpatriotic, but believing that those who do believe in God don't have a right to have a say in our government does.