A report...
From the comments...
I'm sorry but these values voter RWA evangelical lunatics are beyond the pale.
Here is some of what I found:
In the September 2012 issue of the AFA Journal in my swag bag, Ed Vitagliano, Director of Research for the American Family Association and a speaker at the VVS, argues that "Christians in the U.K. and U.S. are on the verge of seeing the triumph of a cultural totalitarianism that will drive believers to the fringes of a once free society." And unnamed "secularists" are to blame. AFA also says it has reissued a DVD "exposing the secular left's war against public expression of Christianity in America."
Vitagliano quotes Catholic priest George W. Rutler: "The national election in 2012 will either give Christians one last chance to rally, or it will be the last free election in our nation," he declared. "This can only sound like hyperbole to those who are unaware of what happened... to Western Europe in the 1930′s" as fascism rose to power. Rutler is however, not alone in his hyperbole or the views that underlie it.
The sample issue of Ministry Today (January/February 2012), another piece of swag, contained a hair-raising set of essays that focused considerably on political and cultural power and how to get it.
Longtime African American Christian Right activist Bishop Harry Jackson said that Christians with the right "worldview" must run for every office at all levels. "We can change the direction of the U.S. government in less than 20 years," he declared.
Writing in the same issue, Rev. Joseph Mattera of Resurrection Church in New York City argues against grassroots revival as the means to conservative Christian cultural transformation. His preference: "Top-down tactics."
"The truth is," he writes, "that culture is transformed by a small percentage of the population who make up the cultural elite in a society. Thus the only way to effect cultural change is to convert the elite who formulate culture in every sphere." He says he wants to "engage and shift the influencers toward biblical values at the highest levels."
Veteran Christian Right leader and televangelist James Robison says to elect "the best" and that "It is our duty -- actually our calling -- to do so." And the late Chuck Colson wrote that the Manhattan Declaration, the premier alliance of conservative Catholics and conservative evangelicals of which he was a prime mover, is "mobilizing silent-too-long-Christians to protect life, marriage and religious freedom."
The theme of becoming unsilent and aggressively taking on those who are allegedly "silencing" conservative Christians is a major theme of a number of the articles in the magazines, and for that matter, the VVS.
For his part, actor Kirk Cameron says in an interview with the AFA Journal that Christians can't push their worldview effectively "because we don't own the microphones. But I am hoping for that to change."
This is crossposted from the special PRA 2012 Values Voter Summit Blog , a project of my new employer, Political Research Associates, where I am now a Senior Fellow. More posts to come!
http://www.talk2action.org/story/20...ont_Page/Views_from_the_Values_Voter_Swag_Bag
From the comments...
A Common Theme (5.00 / 2)
Cameron cites a view that seems to run through the Values Voters Summit speakers -- we're not winning hearts and minds because those evil liberals they're spreading malicious lies about our views.
Denis Prager gave an astounding example of that this evening, when he claimed that Jews only vote Democratic because liberals have successfully painted all conservatives and Republicans as Nazis. As if the Jewish people don't have the experience to recognize fascist tendencies when they see them
And he brought up two examples to prove how misunderstood conservatives are, regarding racism:
1. He asked the audience tell him whether they would preferred an all-black conservative SCOTUS over an all white male liberal one. Not surprisingly, even the racists in the room passed that simple intelligence test. It's not hard to suppress those instincts when Prager's already planted the idea of nine Herman Cain clones in you're head.
Thus he denies that there are racist conservatives, when we know for a fact, both through sound research and personal experience, that there are... millions of them.
2. He pointed out that conservatives have recently elected the daughter of Sikhs and the son of Indian couple as governors.
Big deal -- they're both professing Christians. If either of them still adhered to the religion of their forefathers, neither would have come close to winning the Republican primary. Also, neither is African American.
Prager also mocked the idea that women are being denied equal pay for equal work, despite the fact that the evidence that they are is almost trivial to find. He asks why companies would even consider denying women people equal pay since it would be bad for their business. Maybe he should try asking some of the CEOs why they do it, if he doesn't understand. Of course, he has no interest in finding out, since he denies it's a problem.
Overall, it was a toxic mix of denial and victimhood. Denial of reality (and really, it's denial of stuff that's not that hard to dig up for yourself), and whines about the liberal press distorting their position. (Oliver North was especially childish in his abusing namecalling.)
At least Prager got to the root of one problem -- why neocon foreign policy is such a disaster. He summed it up in one sentence (supposed to be his coup de grace at the end of the speech):
"Evil is normal. America is an aberration"
It's simply breathtaking in its arrogance and cluelessness.
As for Mitt Romney. Apart from a tepid video from the man himself, you could have been forgiven if you though they had no idea who was running for President on their behalf.
by tacitus on Sat Sep 15, 2012 at 03:10:42 AM EST
I'm sorry but these values voter RWA evangelical lunatics are beyond the pale.