Conservative Columnist: "Religion Is Killing The Republican Party"

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, who received piles of hate mail during the Presidential campaign for questioning Sarah Palin's credentials, has written a column for the Washington Post which also seems likely to court internecine criticism. The piece, entitled, "Giving Up on God," makes a sustained argument that the GOP's courting of the religious vote above all has led the party dangerously astray.

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

Keep reading.

Comments

[ObamAtomic]

Only religion? Palin,Rush,Hannity and all congressman ,senators who are stuck in the past.

[lvdragonlady]

"unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs" - This statement is really the bottomline in all of this.
This is America and it is OUR right to worship as we chose and the so called 'religious' right has forgotten this.
The pilgrims came here to get away from the religious persecution and the GOP should not be trying to push their religious ideals on others.

[TovSquirrel]

The Pilgrims were a religiously intolerant sect fleeing England because of the established religion's intolerance to set up a religiously intolerant New World Colony.

Catholics & Anglicans need not apply!

[hortonhearsawho]

Anglicans were a little more concerned with certain witches!

[jaglon]

Uh excuse me, the pilgrims were not relgiously intolerant. That came later with the Puritans. The pilgrims were escaping religous intolerance. The state recognized religion of England was and is the Anglican church. Some of those pilgrims were Unitarians, hardly a intolerant relgious sect.

[KayWrites]

Well, whaddya know. A conservative that gets it. Let's hope she's the lone voice in the wilderness. The Right Wing religious nut jobs can't wither away fast enough to suit me.

[RevSpaminator]

Could you imagine? If the GOP were to shake off the religious nutcakes and free market radicals, it might actually be safe to vote Republican.

[sonofsamphm1c]

No, because all that would be left are the simplistic idiots.

[SatinPanties]

Exactly... we might actually have choices!

[DrJohnS]

She has it backwards. It isn't that religion has ruined the republican party but that they have ruined religion, with their doctrine of hate and their never-ending "we must have an enemy even if we have to invent him" state of mind. Pre-republican "old time" religion was about faith, hope and charity and may be able to return to that once the republicans have sucked all they can out of the church.

[colleen2]

"with their doctrine of hate and their never-ending "we must have an enemy even if we have to invent him" state of mind."

Seems to me that hatred and greed are very attractive to the leadership of the religious right and have always been. And by 'religious right' I include all those who funded prop 8 or think it's a great idea to discriminate with impunity against women seeking to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and the rest of the so-called pro-life movement.

[Syco]

Republicans will never kick out the religious fantics.

[hortonhearsawho]

and vice versa.

[RobChattaTN]

for my entire adult lifetime, i have lived under the spell of the hookup of
conniving repubs
who have conned, deceived a very impressionable, ignorant too-large group of american fundamentalists.
we have wandered in the wilderness for far too long!
thank god it hasn't lasted for 40 years!!!
still, it will take half a generation to undo all the damage.
but those frightful, dismaying days are finally over.
...just a viewpoint here of a reverend...

[krm1255]

They are not true Christians. They're not any better than the terrorists who distort the Koran for their own gain. They distort Christianity to make it fit them and keep them in power and money.

I believe in a strong separation of church and state, which even Jesus (who I think is the "Christ" in Christianity) preached. Give those things to Caesar which are Caesar's..... and all of that.

[GerryS]

for the GOP to shuck themselves of the evangelicals and the Grover Norquists will be a huge task. the GOP is attached at the hip and many other places to these toxic entities. the surgery could very well be fatal!

one can only hope, as that will be one of the few ways to separate the evagelicals from the main tool on their quest for power-

G*d save our country from the zealots.

[edenjones]

AMEN! It seems that many don't want to admit that there are Christian fanatics, who are just as dangerous as fanatics of any other religion.

I would also add that the GOP claims to dislike BIG government, except when it comes to our personal lives. And the GOP isn't exactly the party of fiscal responsibility anymore, is it?

[imusintheevening]

Exactly right. The dichotomy of less government and more intrusive government on individual free rights is unsupportable.

Even arch conservative Ayn Rand wrote in the forewords of 'Atlas Shrugged' that, "the sole purpose of government is the protection of individual free rights.

[patrickgarret]

What's concerning for me is that the "Party of God" is also the party of corruption, trickle down, gay bathroom stalls, hookers, escorts in the white house, illegal war, Nixon, I don't have time to list them all. Christians huh? WOW.

[patrickgarret]

She is dead on. And I hope they continue to embrace it. I wouldn't mind the GOP to disappear for AT LEAST 16 years while we recover.

[cmp]

Can someone please explain to me, because I'm not real smart politically, how the republicans can say they are fiscally conservative given the last 30some years? If the statistics I am reading are accurate, then the republicans have out-spent the Democrats HORRIFICALLY and I have seen no benefits from that spending. They own $7.7 out of the $9.5 trillion debt incurred in the last 32 years. Am I misinterpreting the words 'fiscal responsibility', or does it mean something else? I really don't get it. Can someone shine the light in my eyes, please?

[shamaniceconomist]

Republicans don't count defense spending or corporate bailouts.

[spandautoseattle]

Great post. Why? Because you didn't even mention the homeschooling superstitious crowd. Problematic it gets when the deities get in the way of economical realism. Here the country HAS to use all means necessary to turn come back from this journey towards the middle ages.
If the US wants to survive and compete with other world economies, it needs a fully funded education reform that starts with the basic statement that the world is older than just 6000 years.

[JamesInDenver]

This Chart Says It All:

http://i456.photobucket.com/albums/qq286/js99955/IncreasesInTheNationalDebt_DemVsRep.gif

[blackspeak]

The religious right of the US, is no different from the Taliban of Afganistan.

[cmp]

My words EXACTLY !!

[lauriemann]

Well, they aren't murdering women for not staying home, but...yes, fundamentalists of any stripe, be they Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, are really more similar than they are different. We didn't used to call Rick Santorum "the American Ayahtollah" for nothing!

[thedirtman]

Monotheistic religion coincided with a dawn of an advanced civilization. This new idea of One God for all allowed the Hebrews and the Zoroastrians a strong sense of identity that reduced internal dissension. It was the Persians through Zoroastrianism that became the first dominant world strength. All civilizations looked upon Persia with envy as their unity gave them internal strength without oppression. Persia was reestablished with each new rule.

In a sense monotheistic beliefs are a part of evolution, and that God was created by evolution. There is no going back to being a less advanced civilization. Conservatives, like everyone else, now need to reestablish foundations that allow for One God for all without institutionalizing belief. Religion, that has served as a device for institutional belief and the division of peoples, needs to be tossed from government.

[cowtippor]

my one god is better than your one god.

establishment of a single god within a political party is by definition institutionalizing belief

[RobChattaTN]

and fear
and automatic, inherent favoritism.
who needs it???

[thedirtman]

Good point. They can be no my God. There is only "our God". That shows you how far we have already devolved.

[Dystopic]

My imaginary friend can kick your imaginary friend's a$$

[spartanmom]

"
Religion, that has served as a device for institutional belief and the division of peoples, needs to be tossed from government."

As our Founding Fathers intended.

[islandchris]

Not so fast - I think you're overlooking the longest lasting and most successful of civilisations in the last 3,000 years - China. Through most of it's history China has been pluralistic with respect to religion, freely combining folk religion, Buddhism, Taoism, ancestor and heaven worship.

While there have been historical tensions between Buddhists and other Chinese religions/philosophies, the general impression one gets is the absence of an enforced religious viewpoint (outside of submission to the Emperor). Similarly the high point of Greek and Roman civilisations was either during periods of near atheism, or religious plurality. Finally, the emergence of modern science in Western Europe from Newton onwards coincided with a decline in religion. Its no accident that America, a much more religious society, did not produce first rate Science to match what was happening in Britain, France and Germany until the late 20th Century.

[thedirtman]

True enough. There are other points to be made. Romans eventually adopted the belief in One God. I don't know Greeks that still believe in mythology. Ireland became Catholic by way of Patrick. Even Hindus profess belief in one God through multiple aspects. I do not know Eastern religion to speak for them, but I know Buddhists are very tolerant.

There is a combination of belief in One God for all with tolerant belief that I am expressing that is fundamental to civilization and part of evolution.

[BlueAsh]

Aaah, but Chinese emperors, when possible, tried to introduce religion to help them rule the country.