The Religious Right wants you for a sunbeam

If you were raised in a Protestant home you may remember the children's ditty sung over and over ad nauseum in Sunday School called "Jesus Wants You For A Sunbeam." It was a call to go into the world and let God's light shine through what you said and did.

Today, the Religious Right wants you for their sunbeam. While that term, Religious Right (it really should be Christian Right), comprises a variety of motley groups they do agree on a couple of things: 1) The U.S. is a Christian nation (or should be), and 2) God's law (as they interpret it) should be the law of the land.

The Christian Right is working very hard to ensure their beliefs are reflected in the election decisions of 2010.

The Christian Right would have you believe that our so-called Founding Fathers walked hand-in-hand, and sang good old gospel tunes as they wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, all of which were based upon the Christian Bible. The Christian Right has re-visioned the emergence of our country as a singular Christian nation, blessed by the Christian God because the founders actively strove to ensure that Christianity defined the essence of the new nation.

That's all bullshit, of course. Most of the founders would not be considered "Christian" in any sense of the word by the Christian Right of today. Many, such as Jefferson, were quite antagonistic to the Christian Bible and Christian churches. By and large they paid religion little mind even though some of them used generic religious terminology on occasion in their public speeches.

But with the Christian Right, facts, evidence, truth mean very little. Lies permeate their discourse. Hatred is their forte and racism is often in evidence (cf. Glenn Beck). They continue to distort history as they try to make history in our day.


Rachel Tabachnick, in an article at Talk2Action titled, "Short Takes - Religious Right Pre-Election Rallies and Training," describes the Christian Right agenda for the time between now and the November elections.

The Christian Right is on the warpath and is looking for unsuspecting and ignorant people to be their sunbeams, spreading their message far and wide in order to ensure their ideologies and policies take center stage in the country's political life.

Here are some of the events planned by the Christian Right:

1. Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor, August 28, at the Lincoln Memorial. It features the quitter and numbskull, Sarah Palin; the faux-historian and liar, David Barton, and Alveda King (a right-wing favorite). I have read that it is being sponsored, in part, by the NRA! Bang, bang!

2. Lou Engle's The Call Sacramento, Sept. 3 and 4 at Raley Field and Capitol Mall. Lou Engle is perhaps one of the nastiest of the christianist fruitcakes, and this event is being pushed by Pat and Gordon Robertson as well as Tony Perkins, long-time soldiers in the christianist right's attempt to imposed their views on all Americans.

"The Call Sacramento is also doubling as a 'National Preparation" for Pray & A.C.T., an initiative of Religious Right leaders. Also promoting Pray & A.C.T. is Newt Gingrich's latest organization Renewing American Leadership ... [Engle] will be joined by Prophetess Cindy Jacobs who warns that God told her that if the nation does not vote for his chosen candidates, there will be a Great Depression from which our nation may never recover."

3. Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference and Strategy Briefing, Washington, D.C., Sept. 9-11. This involved "Networking and training workshops for the election featuring Sarah Palin, Bob McDonnell, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Karl Rove."

4. America's Awakening Alliance, Cry Out America, Sept. 11 at courthouses around the country.
"America's Awakening Alliance is a large umbrella coalition of Pentecostal and Charismatic leaders."

5. FDI/SIOA Freedom Defense Initiative/Stop Islamization of America, 911 Ground Zero Mosque Rally, Sept. 11 at Park Place between Church and West Broadway. This one will feature Newt Gingrich, John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Andrew Breitbart, Jordan Sekulow.


There are more events planned and you can read about them here.

Without exception the Christian Right and their rallies are about poisoning our political life with hatred (for gays, Muslims, liberals, Democrats, progressives, etc.) and racism (see Beck's tirades about Obama, ditto Limbaugh) and subverting rational discourse about the real challenges we face (a faltering economy; global warming; a dying and rotting infrastructure; universal health care; ignorant and stupid people in leadership positions; hunger in America and the world; illegal, insane and incredibly expensive wars; etc.).

You don't want to be a sunbeam for the Jesus these people preach!