Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Armageddon Factor: Dennis Gruending Weighs In

Probably the best response to the charge that Marci MacDonald is "demonizing" Christians:

One might ask, and some of McDonald’s critics have, what is wrong in having a group of people motivated by conservative religious principles engaging in public life? The answer is that there is nothing wrong with it, but it is also completely legitimate for a journalist to cover that phenomenon, as McDonald has done. If religious faith were simply a matter of personal piety or private devotion, it would demand far less scrutiny. But faith is inherently social, and, yes, political. Ultimately, the question to be answered is where these people want to move our nation. I believe that they want a leaner and meaner state where individuals and religiously based organizations take back much of the responsibility for education, adoptions, social welfare and many other services, and do it on their own terms. On these and other policies, whether it is their response to global warming, to crime, or to our government’s policy toward Israel, the religious right can be judged both on what it says and what it does.

Dennis Gruending is, of course, this guy.

6 comments:

CK said...

There's everything wrong with allowing these religious fundies in public life.

We don't want Sharia law here, we condemn Islam extremism, hence the debate to allow facial coverings or not to allow facial coverings.

Hence why should we allow evangelism? That's extremism.

Whatever happened to separation of church and state?

These fundies are even more dangerous than the craziest of Islamic radicals.

I see the right leaning media is feverishly trying to convince Canadians that not only Christian Evangelical social conservatism is a good thing, but a necessity...another sign of cooking the frog.

penlan said...

ck wrote:
"Whatever happened to separation of church and state?"

Unfortunately we don't have that statute here in Canada - it's an American thing that many Canadians also believe we have here, which we don't.

RuralSandi said...

Christ believed in the separation of church and state - and, he did not believe in organized religion. Here's 2 passages of the Bible the McVety's of the world don't discuss:

Paying Taxes & Separation of Church & State: Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the
things that are God's. [Matthew 22:21]

Public Prayer & Displays of Faith: And when thou pray, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…
[Matthew 6:6 & 7]

Gerrard787 said...

Whatever happened to separation of church and state? -CK

How can you live your whole life in Canada and be unaware that is not a Canadian concept?

Even in the US, the concept is grossly misunderstood. It is seperation of church and state, not religion and state.

I'm all for keeping fundies out of public life. Let's get rid of the enviro fundies first (who are the true keepers of the flame of the apocalypse) to kick things off.

Gene Rayburn said...

"I'm all for keeping fundies out of public life. Let's get rid of the enviro fundies first (who are the true keepers of the flame of the apocalypse) to kick things off."

As long as the Conbot fundies are kicked off concurrently

Gerrard787 said...

You've got yourself a deal Gene.