Rich doesn’t only cite Palin as an example, he also looks at the 2012 Republican presidential field and says, “you had all but two or three who are largely motivated by very strong, very conservative Christian beliefs.” And to those who say those pols are just pandering to the conservative base, he says nonsense.
“The biggest mistake that we can make is that we don’t believe that they believe what they say. And for many of them, they do mean exactly what they say. If you think that the rapture is going to come in your lifetime, if you believe as many of them do that hell is a physical place where you’re confined to for all eternity, these things motivate you.”
Obviously the Christian right isnÂ’t going to blatantly call for repealing the First Amendment or amending the Constitution to make Christianity the official state religion (although thatÂ’s a fantasy they clearly adhere to). But theyÂ’ll seek to erode the wall of separation between church as state nonetheless, a wall of separation mandated by the Framers.
The Christian right’s opposition to privacy rights is motivated by its belief that ‘personhood’ begins at conception, and the subjective and irrelevant position that abortion is a ‘sin.’
The Christian rightÂ’s opposition to equal protection rights for same-sex couples is predicated on irrelevant and un-Constitutional religious dogma that marriage is only between a man and a woman with the sole purpose of procreation.
And the Christian right’s advocacy of compelled prayer in public schools represents their desire to indoctrinate children as citizens of a ‘Christian Nation,’ and manifest a hostile environment for those who are not Christian, that they are outsiders and not legitimate members of society.
In essence the Christian right is motivated by ignorance, hate, and fear. In this very forum, for example, we’ve seen fundamentalist Christians post that America is ‘damned,’ and that the country is ‘sinking,’
Needless to say the Christian right will deny these motives, and make an inane, baseless argument that Christians are ‘under attack’ and being ‘persecuted,’ when in fact it is they who seek to deny others their rights and codify religious dogma into secular law, in violation of the Constitution.
