New User

That is simply not true.

If you actually treat Christians and Evangelicals with respect and stop talking down to them like they are stupid, maybe take the time to clearly explain your views to them exactly as your values state and compare them to Christian values I find that they usually respond very well.

I had a talk with a long-time friends mother a few days actually, she is very religious and voted for Bush for that reason. I explained to her why I believed Bush's policies were not of Christian values and exactly the opposite, by the end of the conversation she admitted she felt tricked into making a very big mistake when she voted and believes Bush is the antichrist now. Of course I also had to put up with her trying to "save" me for the next two hours, but I figured I'd listen since she put up with my politics for a while.

I imagine if I told her she was a dumb ass religious nut who couldn't put two words together to make an intelligent statement if the bible didn't do it for her and tried to sell her on the idea that all people who are Christians are stupid mindless morons who dropped out of high school to marry their cousins, she would have left that conversation an even bigger, prouder Bush supporter than she already was. Now she is not.

Maybe the Christian Coalition figured out along time ago they could rally strong support by playing on the fact that so many "Liberals" talk down to and "threaten" religion in their favor? You should actually read their mailers, they do state that the Christians in this country are under attack and that only the Conservative Republicans can save them, some even go as far as to say all Democrats and Liberals are tools of Satan and all you have to do to prove it is to look around and see how they talk down to "us".

Then what do they see, a bunch of liberals telling them they are mindless idiots and saying you should not waste your time on them. Great way to prove their point for them, seems like we are our own biggest enemies in this battle.

Maybe if we wasted more time on them and treated them with the same respect we wish they treated us with they would see the right-wingers for what they really are. We all know Conservative politicians don't give two shits about God or Christians, they just use them for their strong activation/mobilization tactics.

Basically I am saying we need to practice what we preach, we (progressives/liberals) believe this country was founded in large part on the basis of religious and cultural tolerance, therefore maybe we should respect and tolerate the Christians and other religious folks the same way we ask to be respected and tolerated for our beliefs, or disbeliefs.

Religion has no place in politics and politics has no place in religion, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Locke, Jackson, Monroe, all of these men had very firm religious beliefs and were devout Christians, but they all believed religion (while it could be used as a moral guide) could never be incorporated into politics in a true Democracy where ALL religions are to be respected equally. So politics must focus on the needs of the people and the State, not the needs of the religions.

Remember majority rules is a perversion of Democracy (mob rule), true Democracy is a majority rule with strong respect for the significant minority.