American Taliban

BROWN: Do you think there's a right to privacy in the Constitution?

SANTORUM: No -- well, not the right to privacy as created under Roe v. Wade and all...

BROWN: Do you think there's a right to privacy in the Constitution?

SANTORUM: I think there's a right to unreasonable -- to unreasonable search and seizure...

BROWN: For example, if you'd been a Supreme Court judge in Griswold versus Connecticut, the famous birth control case came up, which centered around whether there was a right to privacy. Do you believe that was correctly decided?

SANTORUM: No, I don't. I write about it in the book. I don't.

BROWN: The state of Connecticut had the right to ban birth control for a married couple.

SANTORUM: I think they were wrong. It was a bad law.

BROWN: But they had the right.

SANTORUM: They had the right. They had the right...

BROWN: Why would a conservative argue that government should interfere with that most personal decision?

SANTORUM: I didn't. I said it was a bad law. And...

BROWN: But they had the right to make.

SANTORUM: They had the right to make it. Look, legislatures have the right to make mistakes and do really stupid things...

BROWN: OK.

SANTORUM: ... but we don't have to create constitutional rights because we have a stupid legislature. And that's the problem here, is the court feels like they have a responsibility to right every wrong. When they do that, unlike a Congress, that if we make a really stupid mistake and we do something wrong, we go back next year or next month and change it, and we've done that. Courts don't do that. They only get cases that come before them and they have to make broad, sweeping decisions that have huge impact down the road. That's what happened in Griswold. It was a bad law. The court felt, we can't let this bad law stand in place. It's wrong. It was. But they made a -- they created out of whole cloth a right that now has gone far, far from Griswold versus Connecticut.

I know I'm a week behind on this and you've probably already read the transcript on one of the fine blogs listed to my right.

But let me just say that for the record, this is truly frightening stuff. You should be alarmed.

No, it's not anything new, from our friends on the right.

Santorum, Dobson, Brownback and the rest will object vehemently that they are in any way like the Taliban. But you know if they had greater authority, if past Supreme Court decisions hadn't intruded on the right's right to intrude, they'd be arguing that American Constitutional jurisprudence should follow Biblically mandated statutes. The subordination of women, no right to privacy, no women's rights, and capital punishment for transgressing Biblical law.

What's that you say? You say they're already arguing that?

Christian Reconstruction is a call to the Church to awaken to its biblical responsibility to revival and the reformation of society. While holding to the priority of individual salvation, Christian Reconstruction also holds that cultural renewal is to be the necessary and expected outworking of the gospel as it progressively finds success in the lives and hearts of men. Christian Reconstruction therefore looks for and works for the rebuilding of the institutions of society according to a biblical blueprint.

Christian Reconstruction is also an attempt to answer the unprecedented threat facing the Church of Jesus Christ in the 20th century resurgence of secular humanism and parallel rise of statism.

(snip)

There are two fatal errors facing the Church as it is being called upon to respond to this threat.

Fatal Error #1: Retreat

Retreat is failing to apply the Word of God to society and culture. It seems as though many Christians are guided more by Plato in some aspects of their thinking than by Christ. They tend to deny the application of scripture to the secular. They fail to recognize that every sphere is spiritual and subject to the Word of God.

This shows up in a studied indifference to biblical teaching on civil law, economics, government and other cultural applications. It is pietism as opposed to true piety. There was, for example, little response to the abortion holocaust from the evangelical Church for over 10 years after the 1973 Supreme Court ruling.

And just what is it that the Bible teaches about civil law?

Book of Numbers

15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

15:33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.

15:34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.

15:35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

15:36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

(snip)


25:6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

25:7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

25:8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

25:9 And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

25:10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

25:11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

25:12 Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:

25:13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

(snip)

31:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

31:2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

31:3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.

31:4 Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.

31:5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

31:6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.

31:7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.

31:8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

31:9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. They took the women and children captives, and burnt all their cities.

31:10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

31:11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.

31:12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

31:13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.

31:14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

31:15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

Meanwhile, right-wing radio shock jock, Michael Graham, just back from Baghdad's Green Zone things only Islam is violent:

"The problem is not extremism," Graham said, according to both CAIR and the station. "The problem is Islam." He also said, "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam."

(snip)

"If the Boy Scouts of America had 1,000 Scout troops, and 10 of them practiced suicide bombings, then the BSA would be considered a terrorist organization. If the BSA refused to kick out those 10 troops, that would make the case even stronger. If people defending terror repeatedly turned to the Boy Scout handbook and found language that justified and defended murder --and the scoutmasters responded by saying 'Could be' -- the Boy Scouts would have been driven out of America long ago.

"Today, Islam has whole sects and huge mosques that preach terror. Its theology is openly used to give the murderers their motives. Millions of its members give these killers comfort. The question isn't how dare I call Islam a terrorist organization, but rather why more people do not."

But of course, the American Taliban want to be allowed to continue to preach hate against the undesirables they see as threatening them in here:

Canadian Christian leaders say the country is on the verge of "criminalizing" the Bible as "hate speech" after legislators recently added sexual orientation to Canada's genocide and hate crimes legislation. Last week, the House of Commons voted 143-110 in favor of the proposal by openly gay legislator Svend Robinson. If Canada's Senate adopts the bill, "gay-bashing" will be added to the hate crimes law. Canadian Christians are concerned that homosexual activists would use the law to go after pastors and ministry leaders who quote anti-gay passages from the Bible. "Canadians who are speaking out against the redefinition of marriage are already being accused of 'hate speech' by homosexual activists," Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of Canada Family Action Coalition, said. Canada has already targeted Christians for publishing ads in newspapers that quote what the Bible says about homosexuality, according to Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), headed by the Rev. Lou Sheldon.

"Canada's coming problems are a glimpse of what we [in the United States] will soon face if we do not aggressively fight the homosexual movement," TVC officials said.

Let the record show I support allowing church officials to say what they want inside and outside cathedral walls. But when they do, their intolerant statements should be seen for what they are--Islamic-like screeds against those it considers impure.

And when they and their elected servants come out against gay rights, the use of contraception, the right to privacy, and equal rights for women, compare their statements and statements from the Book they claim to revere, to the intolerant and abusive statements of certain leaders of Islam.

As the Rogue Progressive argues, we are not at war with Islam, we are at war with fundamentalism.

Fortunately, at least one Democratic member of the U.S. Senate, and potential 2008 presidential candidate, Joe Biden, seems to get this. I caught some remarks he made on C-Span earlier tonight in reference to Supreme Court nominations. Although his support for progressive economic causes stinks (i.e. bankruptcy "reform"), I believe Biden really does get it on these important civil liberties issues, and as a member of the Judicial Committee, he can speak on these issues with a good deal of stature and articulateness.

Let's hope that in upcoming elections, Democrats will take the time and exercise the courage to confront these issues and the choices we face.