Howard Dean doesn't make sense...again.

Howard Dean was the guest speaker at a breakfast for The Christian Science Monitor. Here are two of the excerpts that stood out to me:

On the Democrats' policy on Iraq:

"There is a consensus that we cannot continue to have a permanent commitment to a failed strategy.... One, we are going to support our troops and two, you are going to see a ... desire to resolve the situation ... by turning this over to the Iraqis and bringing our folks home. The only thing that is left up to some modest differences is what the timetable is."

Let's see. Support our troops. A desire to resolve the situation. Turning this over to the Iraqis and bringing our folks home.

Isn't that Bush's plan?

On religion and politics:

"The religious community has to decide whether they want to be tax exempt or involved in politics."

Gee, I remember growing up in the middle of the civil rights movement and I remember the churches being at the forefront of that movement. I remember meeting Reverend Jesse Jackson (when that was all he was referred to as) as he led hundreds of blacks to register to vote for the first time. They met first at a church where the Reverend Jackson spoke passionately about God and justice. Both religious beliefs and the African American church itself were essential in motivating blacks to confront those who wished to oppress them. Indeed the church was a base for many diverse participants in the civil rights movement. Allowing them to galvanize and bond when it was dangerous to meet elsewhere.

Busloads of Queen of Angels parishioners from New Jersey and their priests and sisters participated in the historic March on Washington in 1963. And when the black Protestant churches in Newark declined to serve as headquarters for the Poor People's Campaign in 1968, Queen of Angels served as the headquarters.

Make no mistake. The civil rights movement was, at it's heart, a religious protest.

Taken from Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech: (emphasis mine)

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

And let us never forget how King ended that famous speech:

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I suppose Howard Dean would look at Martin Luther King Jr. as a religious fanatic today. Should the church not have been involved in politics at the time? And what about now? How many times did we see Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and Al Gore speak at Churches during their campaigns? Does that not count somehow?

Does Dean think he can scare us away from our passionate beliefs by threatening to take away our tax exempt status? I don't think he really understands the motivation here.

I also don't think he understands history, politics, and the church very well either.