Heritic, or Harbinger of What Will Come of the Christian Conservative Movement.

Great read, or to put my spin on the whole of it, great trend, since I am totally against theocracy, or any thing that even remotely could be considered religious influence in or over my government:

Is the Christian right finished as a political entity? Or, more to the point, are principled Christians finished with politics? By Kathleen Parker.

In brief, there is an up and coming movement to get the actual devoted Christians to stop acting like partisan political pests, and actually go back to acting like actual Christians, actually.

Here are a couple key points from the piece, and yes they are arguments not facts:

"It's hard to admit defeat, but this one was self-inflicted," he wrote in an e-mail. "Yes, Dr. Dobson and the pro-family or Christian right political movement is a failure; it would have made me sad to say this in the past, but they have done it to themselves."

For Christians such as Moore -- and others better known, such as columnist Cal Thomas, a former vice president for the Moral Majority -- the heart of Christianity is in the home, not the halls of Congress or even the courts. And the route to a more moral America is through good works -- service, prayer and education -- not political lobbying.

. . . . .

"If people who call themselves Christians want to see any influence in the culture, then they ought to start following the commands of Jesus and people will be so amazed that they will be attracted to Him," Thomas told me. "The problem isn't political. The problem is moral and spiritual."

I repeat my biases, and I stand by the following as pillars of my own value system. I distrust religions basically because from my point of view here on planet earth, all of them seem to be under the control of humans, and not God. That makes them all suspect institutions. Beyond that, I particularly distrust any fundamentalist religion, and any attempt to universalize any religion's pov to society at large. I firmly believe in separation of church and state. I think people have every right to believe what ever religion they want, PROVIDED they accept the following limitation:

their religious rights stop at the nose of the next person, particularly if that next person does not want any thing to do with that shit.

Other than that, have at it. Enjoy.

So what do I say about this movement or the idea behind it? I have to love it. I am one of those people who cringe at the idea of people saying this is a Christian nation, and I actively fight against those who try to make it that way. Again, people want to believe in their faith? I have no problem with that. Just leave me alone. Say your prayers and live your own life by your code, and as long as you do not get in my way to reject your beliefs on the principle of the sanctity of my own conscience to be free of anyone else's theology or dogma, I have little to complain about.

So do I hope this movement catches on? Naturally. I am all for people quietly living their lives in contemplation of and under their faiths. It is only when they are so loud about it that I have to deal with their cacophony, or even worse, attempts to convert me to their way, that I get my nose bent out of joint.