Fr.Andrew

I'll try this again. I found the link.

Poor ol' Cal. He can't see that involvement in grass-roots politics with an eye toward influencing the electoral process in their favor, is exactly how his Bible-thumping brethren have come to wield such power as they have in such a short period of time.
In fact, if you read his hypocritical rant and substitute "fundamentalist Christian" for "Muslim"---and "secular America" for "Judeo-Christian America"--it will come very close to an articulation of the fears of (church/state) separationists.

Evangelicals came to the reality 15 or so years ago (I date it to Pat Robertson's run for the Republican nomination in '88) that if they wanted a theocratic America, they needed to get involved politically. They had to run for local school boards and planning boards. They needed to get elected as aldermen and state legislators. Above all, they had to turn out the vote in national elections so that the Congress would reflect their views.
In short, they had to learn to use the system to their benefit. They did...and it's working.
The Congress, the Judiciary and the President, for all practical purposes, are dancing to the tune struck by politically conservative fundamentalist Judeo-Christians.

Now the Muslims are talking about taking the same route...for the same reasons...and spittoons like Cal Thomas are crying foul.

"The mission of the Christian Coalition is simple, to mobilize Christians-- one precinct at a time, one community at a time--until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system....the Christian Coalition will be the most powerful political force in America by the end of this decade.. We have enough votes to run this country... and when the people say, 'We've had enough,' we're going to take over!"--Pat Robertson

"The Christian community has a golden opportunity to train an army of dedicated teachers who can invade the public school classrooms and use them to influence the nation for Christ."--D. James Kennedy, in Education; Public Problems and Private Solutions,

"I honesty believe that in my lifetime we will see a country once again governed by Christians...and Christian values. What Christians have got to do is take back this country, one precinct at a time, one neighborhood at a time, and one state at a time."

and

"I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night."--Ralph Reed, Executive Director of the Christian Coalition

Jayjay

Maybe christian and muslim fundamentalists will cancel each other out and inspire healthy skepticism of all religious agendas among the rest of the populace?

Majestyk

Cal Thomas' hypocrisy, aside. What is the difference between, those that follow the Muslim religion and those that follow the Jewish religion, developing the political capitol to influence U.S. foreign affairs.

It would seem that the Muslims have accurately identified the source of the U.S.' unwavering support for Israel to be the Jewish political base within the U.S. And now seek to exert their influence over U.S. policy from, within.

Cal's worry seems to stem from the apparent unwillingness of the Muslims to let the Christians retain their illusion of control over foreign policy in regards to the Middle East. But you have to give the Jewish constituency credit. A culture that has proliferated and maintained its integrity while existing solely within other host cultures has obviously learned to be patient and subtle.

Muslim's, on the other hand, have proliferated through conquest which, puts them head to head against the Christians.

One good thing that may come out of this is, the Christians may now recognize the need for separating Church and State. The bad thing would be their using the Muslim constituency's existence to establish Christianity as the official religion of the nation.

Toto

What part of this does not apply to the Puritans, whose descendants are the Christian coalition? Of course, their immigration happened a few centuries ago and they have other aims than middle east policy.