Thursday, April 28, 2005
Jon Stewart on Justice Sunday
The other night the Daily Show with Jon Stewart had a piece on the so-called "Justice Sunday" sponsored by right-wing conservative Christian groups this past weekend. If you haven't heard of this yet, basically the religious right is claiming oppression and persecution against people of faith by Democrats who are seeking to oppose a small handful of Bush's judicial nominees through a filibuster. One Christian leader actually called the filibuster "judicial tyranny to people of faith"! James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Prison Fellowship's Chuck Colson, and Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler hosted "Justice Sunday," a telecast this weekend from a mega-church in Louisville, Kentucky. Their message is that those who don't support President Bush's judicial nominees are hostile to "people of faith."
The Daily Show correspondent offered a particularly hilarious satirical quip about how conservative Christians are an "oppressed majority"... after all, they only currently control the White House, both branches of Congress, and most of the Supreme Court! :->
You can watch the clip here.
If you hadn't guessed already, this kind of behaviour by the religious right infuriates me. There's so much wrong with it, first of all, the coopting of a church as a platform for a partisan political agenda. Not that think Christians shouldn't be involved in politics, but this kind of activism implies that God necessarily favors one political party over another. It's essentially claiming that God is a Republican.
This then leads to the implication that it is a Christian obligation to support Bush's nominees. For them to say that an attack on the nominees is an attack on "people of faith", assumes that all "people of faith" must necessarily be in Bush's camp, and thus, if we're not, then we must not be truly "people of faith". This kind of syncretistic religious/political ideology is offensive both on a political and theological level. It ignores the fact that people of faith can and often do differ on many political issues. For Dobson and the rest to make the Judicial selection process a "faith" issue is a blatant attempt to co-opt the Christian religion for one narrow political agenda.
Finally, some are even calling for reforms to get rid of filibusters altogether. This just strikes me as hypocritical and short sighted. I remember back in the early 90's when the Republicans were in the minority in Congress, they touted their own filibusters as great strategic victories for the minority voices in this country... but of course now that the shoe is on the other foot, they want to change the rules. Neverminding the fact that filibusters are an essential component of a healthy democracy in order to limit the danger of a "tyranny of the majority".
And don't even get me started on the offensivenes of calling this event "Justice Sunday". Child labor is injustice, forced prostitution is injustice, farmers and factory workers not able to make a living wage because of unfair trading practices is injustice... conservative Christians & Republicans not being able to get their way in everything is NOT injustice.
The Daily Show correspondent offered a particularly hilarious satirical quip about how conservative Christians are an "oppressed majority"... after all, they only currently control the White House, both branches of Congress, and most of the Supreme Court! :->
You can watch the clip here.
If you hadn't guessed already, this kind of behaviour by the religious right infuriates me. There's so much wrong with it, first of all, the coopting of a church as a platform for a partisan political agenda. Not that think Christians shouldn't be involved in politics, but this kind of activism implies that God necessarily favors one political party over another. It's essentially claiming that God is a Republican.
This then leads to the implication that it is a Christian obligation to support Bush's nominees. For them to say that an attack on the nominees is an attack on "people of faith", assumes that all "people of faith" must necessarily be in Bush's camp, and thus, if we're not, then we must not be truly "people of faith". This kind of syncretistic religious/political ideology is offensive both on a political and theological level. It ignores the fact that people of faith can and often do differ on many political issues. For Dobson and the rest to make the Judicial selection process a "faith" issue is a blatant attempt to co-opt the Christian religion for one narrow political agenda.
Finally, some are even calling for reforms to get rid of filibusters altogether. This just strikes me as hypocritical and short sighted. I remember back in the early 90's when the Republicans were in the minority in Congress, they touted their own filibusters as great strategic victories for the minority voices in this country... but of course now that the shoe is on the other foot, they want to change the rules. Neverminding the fact that filibusters are an essential component of a healthy democracy in order to limit the danger of a "tyranny of the majority".
And don't even get me started on the offensivenes of calling this event "Justice Sunday". Child labor is injustice, forced prostitution is injustice, farmers and factory workers not able to make a living wage because of unfair trading practices is injustice... conservative Christians & Republicans not being able to get their way in everything is NOT injustice.
