Year: 2005

Religious Right Sites Mum on Tsunami Help

Jon Ponder

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog checked websites for leading religious organizations on the right and the left to see how they were handling appeals for aid for victims of the Christmas tsunami. Here’s what he found when he check rightwing sites:

A quick review of the home pages of the top sites of the religious right:

– American Family Association has one small news story up, not even something they themselves wrote, and no appeal for money. The only “action alert” is about the Ten Commandments. I guess AFA is only truly concerned about the American family: http://www.afa.net/

– The Family Research Council has nothing about the Tsunami. Their headline is about “activist judges.” http://www.frc.org/

– Traditional Values Coalition has a very small link or two from WorldNetDaily about the Tsunami, but the link is BURIED on their page. No apparent appeal for money for the victims. But lots of news about the homosexual agenda, which apparently is a bigger calamity than 150,000 dead in Asia. http://www.traditionalvalues.org/

– Concerned Women for America, not a thing. Though they do have an essay about how the media has lost is sense of morality. Apparently the CWFA is only concerned about American women. http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

– Pat Robertson’s Web site. Nothing. www.patrobertson.com

– Jerry Falwell’s Web site has nothing, even though he did post an updated letter from himself dated December 30, days after the Tsunami hit. http://www.falwell.com/?a=

– National Association of Evangelicals, nothing. http://www.nae.net/

– Focus on the Family to its credit does have a prominent link to give money. I wonder how long that’s been up. http://www.family.org/

Conversely, sites operated by politically liberal religious groups – The Interfaith Alliance, Soulforce, Metropolitan Community Church, United Church of Christ and the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism – had appeals for aid up front and center on their sites.

The Real Agenda

Trish

A long time ago, a former elected official explained to me Jeb Bush’s real purpose with his school voucher plan. The plan reduced funding to so-called “failing” schools and allowed parents to pull their children out and put them in private schools, at taxpayer expense. “He doesn’t want public schools to succeed,” my friend said. “He wants to dismantle the whole public school system.”

Little did we know that was just the beginning. Jeb has continued to pursue “privatization” of government services, but instead of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, they have consistently gone to friends and cronies. The only feeding at the public trough in Florida is being done by the well-placed.

This editorial in the St. Petersburg Times points out a basic question, if we are to believe the Jeb version of the privatization case: that services can be delivered more efficiently and cheaper by the private sector. But what about when they are both worse and more expensive? What’s up with that, Bushie Boy?

Wingnuts to Watch Out For

Jon Ponder

Fifty years ago, racist politicians like Strom Thurmond, Lester Maddox and George Wallace used their white constituency’s hatred of blacks to launch and sustain their politcal careers. Now a new class of bigots is coming out of the wordwork – but this time they’re using hompobia to grab the spotlight.

Rev. Keith Butler out of Detroit is one of these new Talibanis. The wrinkle is he’s black. Pam’s House Blend has background on the story:

I came across this article and couldn’t place this guy’s name for a moment. Then I recalled why it is familiar. Keith Butler was one of the black folks trotted out by the GOP at the NY convention in 2004 to add a dash of color.

He and fellow token, the infamous professional “ex-gay” Donnie McClurkin are also world-class homophobes that subscribe to the belief that being gay is a sin and that any comparison of any kindbetween the struggle for gay rights and the black civil rights movement is an insult. [The above McClurkin link goes to an excellent essay by Keith Boykin on McClurkin and the church’s ignorance on homosexuality.]

This “man of God” should be recognized as a fledgling member of the American Taliban, ready to impose his limited worldview on everyone.

There’s a footnote to the story about the three racist politicians mentioned at the top. Thurmond, Maddox and Wallace all recanted and apologized for their part in encouraging fear and hatred. And of course Strom kept secret for 60 years the fact that he’d fathered a child with a black woman.

No doubt we’ll hear recantations and apologies from the new Republican Talibanis one day – when it’s too late to undo the damage they are about to cause. And no doubt we’ll learn that among the newly prominent black gay-haters are a few who are playing around on the down low.