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by Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
“Let’s vote on it.” To most people
that sounds like the ideal way to solve any issue. But it can also be
one of the most dangerous.
In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court struck
down laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Loving v. Virginia was a landmark civil rights decision. But a
1968 Gallup poll documented that 72 percent of Americans opposed interracial
marriage. Had America voted on the issue in 1968, civil rights would
undoubtedly have been defeated.
On November 7, 2006 Americans in several
states will vote on ballot initiatives concocted and promoted by the
leaders of the evangelical Christian Right and their Republican sycophants.
Increasingly, their incestuous relationship is being exposed at the same time their so-called
“values voters” are fading into history. The Christian Right
is slowly but surely dying, and for good reasons. But apparently they want to kill an independent
judiciary before they go.
Examples were provided in an October
17, 2006 article titled “Judicial Activism
Prompts Citizen Efforts to Restrain Judges”
by
Pete Winn, associate editor of Citizenlink.com, a propaganda organ for James Dobson’s Focus on the Family theo-political empire:
South Dakota’s Amendment
E is the most ambitious measure – it would allow residents to sue
judges over their decisions. Grand juries would be convened, and judges
would face removal from the bench if they were found guilty of an infraction.
Montana voters, meanwhile,
must decide if they want … the right to have recall elections if they
should become “dissatisfied” with a judge.
Suing judges? Isn’t the almost endless
appeals process enough to correct any errors made?
Recall elections? If a jurist is elected,
isn’t the normal election process good enough for those who become
“‘dissatisfied’ with a judge”?
Or are these and other measures just
the latest examples of efforts by the leaders of the Christian Right
to bring the courts under their control by using the “sheeple”
to do the dirty work for them: an all too common practice Cindy Rodriguez
exposed with courageous clarity in her Denver Post article: “
There’s a reason followers
of the reactionary James Dobson are called “sheeple.”
As chairman of the $145 million-a-year
propaganda organization Focus on the Family, Dobson is the ultimate
puppet master, giving conservative members of Congress marching orders
in exchange for votes from his flock. …
By manipulating religious
teachings, Dobson represses his followers with a reactionary societal
code: Get married, stay married, procreate and – most important –
donate your money to Focus on the Family.
The more his listeners believe,
the more easily they can be exploited. That explains why many of those
listeners – hardworking middle-class people who are struggling with
bills or caring for elderly loved ones – vote against their own interests.
Instead of voting for the
party that created the 40-hour work week, workers compensation, and
has been pushing for universal health care, they vote for the party
of James Dobson: members of Congress who for nine years have refused
to increase the minimum wage above $5.15 an hour, yet accept automatic
pay raises for themselves each year. …
There is no proof that Democrats
knew about Foley’s lurid instant messages, but two Republican congressmen, John Boehner of Ohio and Thomas Reynolds of New York, have publicly stated they told House Speaker Dennis
Hastert about it months ago.
So wouldn’t a person of
strong moral values at least chide Hastert for his inaction?
Nope. Not when you are a
puppet master of members of Congress who use the name of God to pass
laws that take away civil rights in exchange for campaign contributions
and the promise of votes from the flock. A man of real moral values
would urge Congress to increase college Pell grants, expand work training
programs, and offer struggling working-class families subsidized day
care.
Instead, he vilifies gay people as people who are destroying marriage. Dobson
talks about having a pro-life agenda, but never speaks out against the
deaths of more than 2,700 American troops in Iraq, or against capital
punishment, which is really a euphemism for state-sponsored murder.
The sad part is the sheeple
don’t see the hypocrisy and don’t realize they’re being used. [links added]
In his book Marriage Under Fire,
James Dobson told the sheeple that if gay Americans were allowed to
enter into the state-sanctioned social contract called “marriage,” the world would end:
“The culture war will be over, and the world may soon become ‘as
it was in the days of Noah.’”
Dobson was not alone in using scare tactics
to herd the sheeple. Following the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s 2003
decision that “equality” meant “equality” for all citizens
in relation to all civil institutions, even the one called “marriage,”
Steve Crampton, Chief Counsel of the Center for Law and Policy, the
legal arm of Don Wildmon’s American Family Association, bleated, “Unless the people of the State
of Massachusetts rise up with one voice in opposition to this lawless
and socially destructive behavior, it will destroy society as we know
it.” At last check, neither society nor Massachusetts has been destroyed.
Are these truthful, “moral” men?
Are these men with the best interests of all Americans in mind? Or are
these “shepherds” really demagogues using religion and sheeple for
their own self-interests and to build their own political power?
It’s quite clear in the Christian metaphors
used: “shepherds” and “flocks.” Shepherds herd and “tend to”
their flocks not because it’s in the best interest of the sheep, but
because they intend to use and profit from them when the sheep are sold
for slaughter.
Dobson, Crampton and Wildmon are not
alone in this practice. The founder and chairman of the Traditional
Values Coalition, Louis P. Sheldon, also defines “hypocrite” and
is a distinctly immoral sheeple-herder. While vociferously campaigning
against internet gambling, rabidly homophobic “Lucky Louie” and the TVC were accepting “contributions”
from Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his internet gambling promoters.
These days America is filled with egocentric,
self-proclaimed spokesmen for “God” who also have a dark political
agenda based on their theo-political dogma. Jim Weidmann is vice
chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Their latest campaign
is “Pray for Election Day”:
“In a Christian nation,
we have the biblical responsibility as well as the patriotic responsibility
to cast our vote for those who govern us,” he said. “We want people
to spend time praying that those who are elected will align themselves
with God’s laws. We also want them to get out and vote so the
Christian understanding is captured in the vote.” [italics added]
“A Christian nation”: should all
the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists, agnostics and
atheists just leave?
“Align themselves with God’s law”:
does that include all the draconian Levitical laws as well as those
in Deuteronomy?
“The Christian understanding”: does
that include St. Paul’s edict to “suffer not a woman to teach, nor
to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”
Or, like Dobson, Crampton, Wildmon and
Sheldon, are Mr. Weidmann and the National Day of Prayer Task Force
advocating only their version of “God’s law” and “Christian
understanding”?
Let’s hope that election day 2006 reaffirms
that the light of the Enlightenment has not gone out and that the sheeple are waking
up and starting to think for themselves instead of blindly obeying their
herders.
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