Who got the courtesy calls when Dubya nominated Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court:
White House officials began calling close conservative allies around 7 a.m., just as they did in the hour before Mr. Bush announced his two previous [Supreme Court] nominations. Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, reached Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, on his mobile phone in an airport… an aide to Mr. Rove, called the Rev. Jerry Falwell around the same time. [Link]
What the Southern Baptist Convention says about Hinduism — it’s a fevered, Victorian-era fantasy straight out of Temple of Doom. I hear they eat monkey brains… only the Shadow knows! *cackle*
The SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] released 30,000 copies of [a conversion guide for missionaries] just before the most important Hindu festival of 1999: the three-day celebration of Divali…
‘Hindus seek power and blessing through the worship of gods and goddesses and the demonic powers that lay behind them… Hindus lack a concept of sin or personal responsibility… the darkness in their Hindu hearts that no lamp can dispel… demonic powers lie behind Hindu gods…’ Hindus live under ‘the power of Satan…’‘Mumbai… is a city of spiritual darkness. Eight out of every 10 people are Hindu, slaves bound by fear and tradition to false gods… Satan has retained his hold on Calcutta through Kali and other gods and goddesses of Hinduism. It’s time for Christ’s salvation to come to Calcutta.
‘… more than 900 million people lost in the hopeless darkness of Hinduism… Walking through the streets of India during Divali is a sobering reminder of the power of darkness that lies over this land…’ [Link]
What Falwell says about Islam, and about 9/11 — ‘it was American women’s fault’:
[Falwell:] “I think Mohammed was a terrorist. I read enough of the history of his life, written by both Muslims and non-Muslims, that he was a violent man, a man of war.” [Link][Falwell on 9/11:] ‘The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say: “You helped this happen…” ’ [Link]
You know, politicians in developing nations are rightly criticized for courting their wingnut religious leaders. But what about when it happens in a country proud of its freedom of worship and separation of church and state?
It’s applauded as political genius.
