Southern Baptists Seek Laws Making 'Will Of Christ' Supreme

From AlterNet:

Land denies that Southern Baptists want a government that gets involved in religion, but his own words seem to belie that claim.

"When we preach that Gospel," he writes, "and God has blessed it and people's hearts and minds have been changed, then they have the right as citizens to come forth in the public arena and say, 'This is wrong, and we want it stopped.'"

"For example," he continued, "abortion is the murder of babies, and we want laws to change it. When we convince a majority of Americans that we are right, that's not called a theocracy, that's called the democratic process."

Land then insists that all he seeks is "a level playing field."

"Does that mean," asks Land, "that false religions have the same rights to express their opinions and their beliefs as we do? Sure. Let them come. I never saw Elijah backing away from a confrontation with the prophets of Baal. He just showed them the power of the One True God!"

Joseph L. Conn, director of communications for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, notes that Land's example might not be the best one.

"According to the scriptures, after Elijah won the contest over whose God was the true one, he had all the false priests of Baal slain. (I Kings 18:40)," wrote Conn. "Somehow, I'm not feeling the ecumenical love."

More here.

So the overall article from which the above bit is excerpted is about how the Southern Baptist Convention is bankrolling a massive lobbying firm in D.C. aimed at getting bills passed that would reshape the US in their vision, while at the same time trying to turn the 16 million strong denomination into an effective "political machine." I'd be worried, but I'm starting to believe that fundamentalist political power is beginning to wane, and such an over-the-top effort is likely to alienate the rank and file. That is, fundamentalists are slowly coming to the conclusion that all politicians ever do is use them, and it's best to simply stay out of the fray.

Really, all these divisive politics are doing is destroying Christianity.

Beyond that, I continue to not understand what these people think they're doing. The whole thrust of the fundy world view is saving souls, which they believe can only happen when an individual repents and "invites Jesus into his heart," whatever that means. The Bible says "do not boast of works, lest ye be judged." Apparently, good "works" come as a result of having Jesus in one's heart, rather than "works" creating a state of grace. That means following the rules, without Christian conversion, means nothing. No souls are "saved." It doesn't matter to the fundamentalists how virtuous an individual is; he goes to hell if he's not "saved." Why, then, are these people so obsessed with making people follow rules that only matter if you're one of them?

I'll tell you why: they want power over your life. I think it's finally safe to say that, even though these people call themselves Christians, they have absolutely nothing to do with Christ, or even their own distorted rhetoric about him. That is, they're not really Christians, and should be treated like the con-artist assholes they are.

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