Over at Daily Kos, they have an except from an op-ed by former Republican Senator John Danforth which might as well be the platform of the “religious center”:
Moderate Christians are less certain about when and how our beliefs can be translated into statutory form, not because of a lack of faith in God but because of a healthy acknowledgement of the limitations of human beings. Like conservative Christians, we attend church, read the Bible and say our prayers.
But for us, the only absolute standard of behavior is the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find that the Love Commandment takes precedence when it conflicts with laws. We struggle to follow that commandment as we face the realities of everyday living, and we do not agree that our responsibility to live as Christians can be codified by legislators.
When, on television, we see a person in a persistent vegetative state, one who will never recover, we believe that allowing the natural and merciful end to her ordeal is more loving than imposing government power to keep her hooked up to a feeding tube.
When we see an opportunity to save our neighbors’ lives through stem cell research, we believe that it is our duty to pursue that research, and to oppose legislation that would impede us from doing so.
We think that efforts to haul references of God into the public square, into schools and courthouses, are far more apt to divide Americans than to advance faith.
Following a Lord who reached out in compassion to all human beings, we oppose amending the Constitution in a way that would humiliate homosexuals.
For us, living the Love Commandment may be at odds with efforts to encapsulate Christianity in a political agenda. We strongly support the separation of church and state, both because that principle is essential to holding together a diverse country, and because the policies of the state always fall short of the demands of faith. Aware that even our most passionate ventures into politics are efforts to carry the treasure of religion in the earthen vessel of government, we proceed in a spirit of humility lacking in our conservative colleagues.
With the exception of stem cell research (I’m still uncertain about the morality of the procedure), Danforth speaks for me.
Journalist George Weller, whose accounts of the aftermath of the atomic bomb drop over Nagasaki in 1945 were censored by the military and then lost, finally can be heard.
What he reported about the aftermath is chilling. His accounts remind us of the urgency of eliminating the thousands of nuclear warheads which threaten future generations with even worse devastation.
Is it wrong for me to pray that Roy Moore be elected governor of Alabama simply so I can watch the hilarity which would ensue?
Moore “is poised to run against a vulnerable Republican governor. If he wins, some party strategists speculate, he could defy a federal court order again by erecting a religious monument outside the Alabama state Capitol building… President Bush would then face a no-win decision: either call out the National Guard to enforce a court order against a religious display on state grounds or allow a fellow born-again Christian to defy the courts.”
Probably. But it WOULD be fun to watch the Republican party come apart at the seams over this one.
A House Appropriations panel on Thursday approved a spending bill that would cut the budget for public television and radio nearly in half and eliminate a $23 million federal program that has provided some money for producing children’s shows that include “Sesame Street,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” “Between the Lions” and “Dragon Tales.”
The Republicans, of course, are claiming that this is needed for the sake of “belt tightening.” But considering the fact that they gave several trillion dollars in tax breaks to the very rich, the thought that $400 million a year is needed in order to balance the budget is laughable.
Commercial television is, quite simply, a wasteland. The same is true with commercial radio. For the most part, there are only two places to go for quality programming: public broadcasting, and subscription services such as cable and satellite. However, for the half of the country which does not have access to those subscription services, only public broadcasting is available. And the Republicans are gleefully trying to kill it.
I won’t go into the political and ideological reasons that the Republicans are likely doing this. But it is a shame that they are trying to kill off one of the few places where we can get programming that actually informs rather than dumbs us down.
UPDATE: Here is the information about who to contact to oppose this nonsense.
UPDATE 2: Of course, I had to go and misspell “intelligent” in the title. Duh!
