From http://rjr10036.typepad.com/proceed_at_your_own_risk/2006/09/house_republica.html:
Do you ever hear or read something that seems so unlikely that you
think to yourself, "It must be my medication?" And then you realize
that you're not on medication? And then once you actually sort
through the data, you conclude that it's likely time to go on
medication?
House Republicans are quietly attempting to take a first legislative
step to make Evangelical Christianity our first state religion.
The critical $500 billion defense budget has stalled in the House
because the Republicans managed to slip in a "mischievous" little
amendment that they thought no one would notice.
In direct violation of the Constitution, House Republicans drafted
legislative language that would elevate Christian Evangelical
Preachers to the status of official government chaplains above all
other religions, including non-Evangelical Christians.
This obscure little amendment is intended to give Evangelical
chaplains the exclusive right to preside over all secular military
ceremonies.
The New York Times reports that the Pentagon and ecumenical chaplain
groups objected to this amendment, but the controlling Republicans
nonetheless wrote it into the budget and have been stubbornly
defending it. Their view is that our troops should be led by the one
true faith at the exclusion of all others.
Theocracy in action.
The Times says it is "unlikely" that the Senate would ever allow such
a travesty to go through, but the very fact that the
Republican-controlled House has attempted such a thing, and with very
little media attention, suggests that we are closer to a terrible
political crisis in this country than anyone of us has yet imagined.
Clearly, large numbers of elected officials in Congress are determined
to overturn our constitution.
Is the Republican party staging a silent and subtle coup that would
end democracy and create a Christian Taliban theocracy? While that
question seems extreme, what were they thinking? And how much longer
can we go on pretending that things aren't as dire as the evidence
clearly shows them to be?
Every elected official in this nation swears an oath to defend the
constitution. How could such language have been drafted? How could it
have made its way into such an important document? How could it even
be a subject for debate in the United States House of Representatives?
My prayer, if I were to pray to some deity, would be that each and
every one of these Republicans and George W. Bush himself end their
careers in shame and disgrace and go down in history as the insidious
and seditious villains that they have clearly shown themselves to be.
These people have betrayed this nation in no uncertain terms and how
so many of us can go on--including the media, or particularly the
media--pretending otherwise is mind-boggling.
