"I Am A Conservative Christian, and The Religious Right Scares Me, Too By
Chuck Baldwin The Covenant News ~ December 15, 2004
"For those readers who are unfamiliar with my biography, let me here provide a
thumbnail sketch of my conservative bona fides:
I attended, graduated, or received degrees from fundamentalist Christian
schools such as Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan, Thomas Road
Bible Institute (now known as Liberty Bible Institute at Liberty University) in
Lynchburg, Virginia, Christian Bible College in Rocky Mount, North Carolina,
and Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida.
I am currently in my thirtieth year as the Senior Pastor of the Crossroad
Baptist Church (Independent) in Pensacola, Florida. I was the Executive
Director of the Florida Moral Majority in the early 1980's. I was an active
member of the local Christian Coalition.
I have marched and protested against abortion clinics. I have led several
pro-life rallies and even led our church to construct A Memorial To Aborted
Babies. I have conducted small and large (some drawing crowds numbering in the
thousands) pro-life, pro-family rallies and meetings in the Pensacola area and
in many towns and cities across the state of Florida.
When Ronald Reagan was running for President, I helped Dr. Jerry Falwell
register more than fifty thousand new conservative voters in my state. I have
attended White House functions with former President Reagan and former Vice
President George H.W. Bush.
I supported and defended Chief Justice Roy Moore and his fight to display a Ten
Commandments monument at a pro-Ten Commandments rally in Montgomery, Alabama
and even on national television.
I am an annual member of the National Rifle Association and a life member of
Gun Owners of America. I have been the featured speaker at several pro-Second
Amendment rallies.
No one can honestly question my commitment to pro-life, pro-family,
conservative causes. That being said, the Religious Right, as it now exists,
scares me.
For one reason, on the whole, the Religious Right has obviously and patently
become little more than a propaganda machine for the Republican Party in
general and for President G.W. Bush in particular. This is in spite of the fact
that both Bush and the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., have routinely
ignored and even trampled the very principles which the Religious Right claims
to represent.
Therefore, no longer does the Religious Right represent conservative, Christian
values. Instead, they represent their own self-serving interests at the expense
of those values.
It also appears painfully obvious to me that in order to sit at the king's
table, the Religious Right is willing to compromise any principle, no matter
how sacred. As such, it has become a hollow movement. Sadly, the Religious
Right is now a movement without a cause, except the cause of advancing the
Republican Party.
Beyond that, the Religious Right is actively assisting those who would destroy
our freedoms. On the whole, the Religious Right comports with those within the
Bush administration and within the Republican Party who, in the name of
"fighting terrorism," are actually terrorizing constitutional protections of
our liberties.
The Religious Right offered virtually no resistance to the creation of the
Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the Patriot Act, or the
recently created position of National Intelligence Director. Neither did the
Religious Right offer even a whimper of protest as President Bush and
Republicans in Congress created a first-ever national ID card in the new
intelligence bill, which eerily has more in common with early Twentieth Century
German and Russian intelligence institutions than anything envisioned by
America's Founding Fathers.
Another disconcerting feature of today's Religious Right is its attempt to
Christianize political entities which it supports and to demonize political
entities which it opposes. This trend is especially scary.
When people are told that they are voting "Christian" by voting for Republican
Party candidates, it is being intimated that they are voting non-Christian by
voting for any other candidate. This is not only silly on its face, it is
downright dangerous!
I don't remember anyone saying people voted "Christian" when they elected the
outspoken Christian candidate, Jimmy Carter, President. Yet, Carter, in his
personal life, demonstrated as much, if not more, Christianity than does George
W. Bush. If you recall, Carter even taught Sunday School in a Southern Baptist
Church while President.
However, in spite of the fact that President Bush and the Republican Party in
Washington, D.C., have repeatedly supported copious unchristian (not to mention
unconstitutional) programs and policies, Christians act as if Bush and his
fellow Republicans have ushered in the Millennial Kingdom.
More than that, the Religious Right appears to believe that G.W. Bush is the
anointed vicar of Christ. But instead of wearing the garb of a religious
leader, he wears the shroud of a politico and a military commander-in-chief.
As such, in the minds of the Religious Right, Bush's war in Iraq is a holy
crusade. America is fast taking on the shape of the old Holy Roman Empire and
President Bush is quickly morphing into a modern day Caesar.
The willingness of the Religious Right to give President Bush king-like
subservience is easily seen in the way they demonize anyone who dares to oppose
him. This is very unnerving.
Are we heading for a modern day religious inquisition, this one led not by the
Catholic Church but by the Religious Right? Are we witnessing the type of
marriage between Church and State that America's founders originally feared?
I used to believe that liberals were paranoid for being fearful of conservative
Christians gaining political power. Now, I share their trepidation.
Of course, the sad truth is, neither George W. Bush nor the Republican Party in
Washington, D.C. represents genuine Christian or even conservative principles.
If they did, they would take their oaths to the Constitution seriously and then
neither liberals nor conservatives would have anything to fear, for the U.S.
Constitution protects the rights and freedoms of all men.
Unfortunately, when the seed of Bush's unconstitutional policies come to
fruition, it will produce large scale fallout economically, socially, and
politically. And sadder still will be that, instead of blaming Bush's
infidelity to constitutional government and conservative principles, people
will blame Christianity and conservatism itself. The result of this
miscalculation will doubtless be a massive tide of support for more and greater
unconstitutional government, but only under a different name.
Chuck Baldwin
chuck@chuckbaldwinlive.com
"Jack" - John H. Fisher -
Philadelphia, Pa - Atlantic City, NJ - West Wildwood, NJ
My Newsgroups & Boards at: http://members.aol.com/TaxService/index.html
Where Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise!=:)
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