And Then They'll Come for You

Good as You makes a good point:

Don't kid yourself into believing that the "pro-family" side's mission ends at banning same-sex unions. What they seek is an all-out revolution, in which they tell EVERYONE how they should live and love.

That's not paranoia. In a letter to Congress this week, Bigot Bishop Harry Jackson and a band of "national pastors and leaders," urged Congress to intervene in DC's legalization of marriage equality. They claimed standing to demand action, describing themselves as "moral and cultural watchmen."

They aren't simply demanding a stop to gay marriage. They could have said they are watchmen over traditional marriage but instead chose to assert themselves broadly as guardians over all morals and culture. They are demanding to become America's theocratic ruling class. They threaten:

Let us restate the fact that the demographic we purport to represent is not simply an appendage of the “religious right.” If our estimates are correct, people who think like us number between 60 and 75 million voters. This voting block is the foundation of a new kind of coalition that voted for Proposition 8 in California. They also voted for President Obama. A danger for both parties would be to write us off as being doctrinaire, impractical, or out of touch with their respective political bases.

In short: Do what we say, or else.

And this passage is also telling:

Our views are based on timeless values and clear principles that anchor both our faith and our politics [Emphasis added].

In Bishop Harry Jackson's America, there is only freedom for HIS religion. There is no room for other religious views here, it's tradition and culture viewed through only one faith-based lens. Theirs.

There's a scene in that horrible Star Trek movie (5, I think) where, having traveled to the center of the galaxy to find God, and the "God" they find attempts to steal the Enterprise. This prompts Kirk to ask, "Why does God need a starship?"

Why does God need a Congress? Or human government?

Garry Wills, author of "What Jesus Meant" argues that Jesus' didn't need or want his followers to impose Christianity through government:

Many would like to make the reign of Jesus belong to this political order. If they want the state to be politically Christian, they are not following Jesus, who says that his reign is not of that order...If people want to do battle for God, they cannot claim that Jesus has called them to this task, since he told Pilate that his ministers would not do that.

Harry Jackson and his ilk are not of that opinion. And at a time when an otherwise rational, thoughtful and highly educated man who is president of the United States himself shapes his views on marriage equality based on his religious biases, I worry that they may succeed.

Thomas Jefferson, please call your office.