6/20/2002


An essay on NRO makes the case that American Jews owe loyalty to the GOP and shoudl renounce the Democratic party, out of gratitude towards the Christian Right's support of Israel. The author even unsubtly mentions the root word for friend, chaver, as having connotations of obligation. It's an amiable argument with steel at the end:


But could there be a limit to Christian patience? That is a question to which, for the sake of Israel, a nation dependent on American favor, let's hope we never have to find out the answer.


Of course, Christian conservatives are also in collusion with Islamic governments:


UNITED NATIONS -- Conservative U.S. Christian organizations have joined forces with Islamic governments to halt the expansion of sexual and political protections and rights for gays, women and children at United Nations conferences.
...
The alliance of conservative Islamic states and Christian organizations has placed the Bush administration in the awkward position of siding with some of its most reviled adversaries -- including Iraq and Iran -- in a cultural skirmish against its closest European allies, which broadly support expanding sexual and political rights.


as this WaPo article points out later though, this isn't hypocrisy, it's actually recognition that all (three) major monotheistic faiths do share a common cultural framework. There are plenty of ironies to go around of course :)

Still, the trend here as pursued by the Christian Right, is to conflate culture and religion as a matter of law. The operating pragmatic principle should be, morality has no value if it is legislated.

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