U.S. Christians await president's payback,Indian Impact?

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U.S. Christians await president's payback

Tue, 23 Nov 2004 00:35:44 -0500

U.S. Christians await president's payback

"Bible Belt" is a term used to identify the heavily Christian area of the

Southern US, running approximately from Texas to Virginia. In the four years

after his Electoral College victory in 2000, George Bush rewarded his

supporters on the religious right with a National Day of Prayer, the Office of

Faith-Based Initiatives in the White House, and the diversion of foreign aid

funds from overseas organizations that promote or perform abortions.

Republicans triumph in 2004 U.S. elections with Southern Strategy that added

God to the equation. Strategist ran a separate campaign to woo white south and

religious right. Now it is time for Bush to back to Christians, which may bring

disaster to Hindus also.

 

U.S. Christians await president's payback

(MICHAEL MCATEER) Republican strategist Karl Rove is being credited

with the Bush sweep, and rightly so, says analysts, because he ran two

campaigns side by side. Rove designed a different strategy, earmarked

specifically for socially conservative white southerners and the religious

right. Four million evangelical Christians, mainly the south, hadn’t bothered

to vote in 2000 election; Rove wanted them present and accounted for in 2004

election. Church leaders were enlisted to mobilize them and the lobbies of

their churches were duly lined with pamphlets and voting guides.

This is what analysts call a stroke of genius; Rove orchestrated the

placing of anti-gay marriage resolutions on 11 state ballots. “People came out

to vote against that, and stayed to vote for Bush,” said Mark Rozell. Professor

of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia and co-editor of The New

Politics of The Old South. In the final days of the campaign, Rove finally

allowed the “born – again” Bush to rail in public about his moral convictions

on everything from gay marriage to partial birth abortion to “activist” federal

judges. And, as per request, preachers spent the last few Sundays inveighing

from their pulpits on the importance of picking a morally correct leader.

Richard Land, President of the Tennessee – based Southern Baptist

Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, explained his approach thus: “I told

my congregation that I’d rather have a president who protects unborn babies

than cuts my taxes 50 percent.” Aiding and abetting it all was the conservative

media, notes Joan Hoff, a presidential historian at Montana State University.

“They’ve had 30 years to build up a media infrastructure and it paid off for

them big time in this election.

Rove’s campaign strategy was brilliant, says Rick Halpern, the

American – born head of the Center for the Studies of the United States at the

University of Toronto.

(Hindu priests and other Hindu religious preachers can also play big part in

Bharatiya elections as well.)

In the four years after his Electoral College victory in 2000, George Bush

rewarded his supporters on the religious right with a National Day of Prayer,

the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives in the White House, and the diversion of

foreign aid funds from overseas organizations that promote or perform

abortions.

There's no question, says Richard Land of the ultra-conservative 16.3

million-member Southern Baptist Convention, that it was the most receptive

White House to evangelical Christian concerns and perspectives of any White

House he had dealt with from Reagan on.

With a born-again Christian president back in the White House, the religious

right will expect an even more receptive ear from one of its own, given the key

role evangelical Christians played in the election and Bush's own brand of

political and religious fundamentalism.

Exit polls indicated almost a quarter of the 120 million voters who cast ballots

identified themselves as white, conservative "God, family, and country"

evangelical Christians. More than three-quarters of them voted for Bush, who

claims he speaks to God, believes in the power of prayer, and promotes

"cultural change" through faith-based initiatives. It's payback time. Having

helped send Bush back to the White House, evangelical leaders are warning they

will hold the president's feet to the fire until he delivers

Christian evangelicals are biblical literalists who believe they are divinely

called to convert the world to Christ. Not all are politically right wing. Some

are social justice activists and peacemakers. Not all to the extremist

views and tactics of the powerful and growing right-wing American religious

fundamentalist movement, but a sizable and frightening number do.

What these fundamentalist Christians want is nothing less than the

reconstruction of America into a Christian country rooted in the "moral values"

they espouse: a biblically inspired country where abortion is illegal,

homosexuality is a crime, sex education in the schools is restricted, prayer in

schools is encouraged, and creationism — the belief that the Earth was created

6,000 years ago — is taught in schools.

And having reconstructed America along their lines, they want to export their

narrow brand of Christianity around the world. They hope and pray that Bush

will help them do it. They may not get all they want, but at least, as Richard

Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals puts it, "we have a

president, who, as an evangelical Methodist, understands the way we think".

Bush has already indicated he is listening by promising to push for a

constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and by publicly indicating he

favours nominating conservative judges to the Supreme Court to overturn the

court's 1973 decision legalizing abortion. It's a start, and there may be much

more to come as fundamentalist Christians push their "moral values" agenda.

America remains a country deeply divided over moral issues, with a government

that's united on them, says Mark Rosell, professor of public policy at

Virginia's George Mason University, suggesting that Bush now has an almost

unstoppable ability to move his agenda forward.

The term "moral values" has become a rallying cry for conservative Christians.

Roughly translated, it means opposition to gay and abortion rights, to

tolerance of non-Christian beliefs, and to international cooperation.

It means an unfettered right to bear arms, unbridled free enterprise, and

military might to settle disputes. There's lots of talk of faith, flag and

country, but no talk of poverty, social justice, love of neighbour, peace on

earth, and the protection of a fragile planet from further degradation.

In the 1950s, during the Cold War, when godless Communism was the reigning evil,

Americans changed the slogan on their currency from E pluribus Unum (Out of

many, one) to In God We Trust. For fundamentalists, this is the vindictive God

of the Old Testament who smites his enemies with a mighty sword.

And who better to lead the Christian fundamentalist crusade into the promised

land than a born-again Christian who says he speaks for God and believes he has

the God-given right to wage an illegal, undeclared, obscene, bloody war in Iraq?

A Christian president who does not "nuance war," who does not count the

thousands of Iraqi civilians killed or wounded in the carnage.

"Either you are with us, or you are for the terrorists," says Bush. "Either you

are with us, or you are against God," say fundamentalist Christians. The two

terms have a chilling similarity.

 

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1100128211065

Michael McAteer can be reached at MRPMcAteer (AT) aol (DOT) com

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When Pres. Bush visits Bharat, will Govt. of India tell him to call off the

proselytizers from Bharat? Will a protest be lodged against US Embassy

interfering in the nation's internal affairs in the name of Religious Freedoms?

What gives the authority to Uncle Sam to behave as the guardian of worlds'

religious freedoms?

It is well known that evangelicals have been waiting for a god given opportunity

with the reentry of Bush. There was an attempted murder on one of the Hindu

activists close to the Kanchi Mutt by the evangelicals He was vigorous in

trying to stop the missionaries. (This has not been covered by the

Newspapers.) There were at least two Christian police officers, who were in the

arrest team. (Samson Deputy superintendent of Police and Premkumar DSP)

J.Jayalalitha. and many other pseudo-secular Hindu leaders had everything to

gain and nothing to lose by this arrest of His holiness Sri Sankaracharya. HH

has become the scapegoat. Hindus are soft targets. The arrest of their holy

head will not after all spark riots. It is for Hindus to react now. This arrest

ought to galvanize Hindus to unite against the aggressors and throw the

corrupt Political system. Even soft Hindus, are angry now. They look for

protection from the UPA government, which they are not likely to get due to

Videshi nari Sonia Gandhi. The whole Nehru Gandhis are fake Gandhi’s. Hindus

need the RSS, VHP and the BAJRANG DAL more than ever before. The Hindus must

speak in one voice - the VOICE OF DHARMA.

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