Edward Dolan said:blah blah...
The Christian Taliban
By Stephen Pizzo, AlterNet March 28, 2004
During the Taliban rule of Afghanistan the world got a good
look at what happens when religious zealots gain control of
a government. Television images of women being beaten forced
to wear burkas and banned from schools and the workplace
helped build strong public support for the President's
decision to invade Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.
But even as President George W. Bush denounced the brutal
Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul, he was quietly
laying the foundations for his own fundamentalist regime at
home. For the first time far right Christian fundamentalists
had one of their own in the White House and the opportunity
to begin rolling back decades of health and family planning
programs they saw as un-Christian, if not downright sinful.
Since 2001 dozens of far-right Christian fundamentalists
have been quietly installed in key positions within the
Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Drug
Administration and on commissions and advisory committees
where they have made serious progress. Three years
health agendas in the Western world.
It began immediately. One of George W. Bush's first acts as
president was to issue an executive memorandum reinstating
a global abortion "gag rule." The rule was first
implemented under Ronald Reagan but revoked during the two
Clinton administrations. The rule prohibited federally
funded family planning providers from even discussing
abortion with their clients.
Bush's order reflected the views of those at farthest
reaches of the Christian right, zealots who saw any means by
which women controlled reproduction as unbiblical:
"I would like to outlaw contraception...contraception is
disgusting - people using each other for pleasure." -Joseph
Scheidler, Pro-Life Action League
"I don't think Christians should use birth control. You
consummate your marriage as often as you like - and if
you have babies, you have babies." Randall Terry,
Operation Rescue
Over the next twelve months the administration moved quickly
to install similarly-minded Christian fundamentalists to
positions of authority and
Dr. Alma Golden: appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Population Affairs. A Texas pediatrician, she is a
longtime proponent of abstinence as the only acceptable
means of birth control. Dr. Golden declared that
henceforth the department would stress "abstinence-only"
as the solution to unwanted pregnancies, not just for
teens, but unmarried adults as well.
Tom Coburn: Former Republican congressman and anti-condom
crusader. Appointed co-chair of the Presidential Advisory
Council on HIV and AIDS. While in congress Coburn tried to
force condom manufacturers to label
infections. "I will challenge the national focus on condom
use to prevent the spread of HIV," Coburn said upon his
appointment.
Ds. Joseph McIlhaney, Jr.: Appointed to Coburn on the HIV
and AIDS advisory council. McIlhaney has a long and well-
documented history of disseminating misleading data on
condom failure rates. He was appointed in spite of the
fact that in 1995 Governor George W. Bush's own Texas
Commissioner of Health openly denounced McIhaney's anti-
condom propaganda and his professional credibility.
Dt. W. David Hager: Appointed to the FDA's Reproductive
Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Dr. Hager served as
spokesperson for the Christian Medical Association. He
authored the book, As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring
Women Then and Now, and co-authored a book that
recommended scripture readings and prayers to relieve
the symptoms of PMS. Dr. Hager opposes prescribing
contraceptives to unmarried women and spearheaded a
petition drive by the Christian Medical Association to
revoke the FDA's approval of mifepristone, the so-called
"morning after pill."
Du. Joseph B. Stanford: Also appointed to the Reproductive
Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Dr. Stanford is on
record for his belief that the only acceptable form of
contraception, besides abstinence, is the all-natural
"rhythm method." Dr. Stanford refuses to prescribe
contraceptives, stating that "(modern) medicine is
permeated with
Christian values of the sanctity of life, marriage, and
procreation, attitudes that both reflect and perpetuate the
recreational approach to
Susan A. Crockett: The third Christian fundamentalist
appointed to the same FDA committee. Crockett served as a
board member of the American Association of Pro-life
Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She co-authored, "Using
Hormone Contraceptives is a Decision Involving Science,
Scripture, and Conscience" in the book, The Reproductive
Technologies and the Family. The book was edited by
Dr. Hager.
When the hot issue of stem-cell research came up, President
Bush dismissed two members of his Council on Bioethics who
had each strongly supported the use of embryonic stem cells
in research. They were replaced by three new members who, as
the pro-life Family Research Council reported, "fall more in
line with the President's pro-life views."
Information became a prime target of the Christian Taliban.
President Bush says he respects "good science," when making
public policy. But, the crux of the matter apparently hinges
on the definition of "good," especially when it comes to family-
planning issues. When good science clashes with Biblical
fundamentalist beliefs in this administration, science loses
every time.
Early in 2001 Bush's Christian Taliban began scrubbing
federal information sources of offending materials. The
censorship campaign prompted Representative Henry Waxman (D-
CA) to send a letter to o HHS Secretary Thompson demanding
an explanation for the removal of information from HHS Web
of scientific findings by the National Cancer Institute
that, contrary to anti-choice propaganda, abortions do not
increase the risk of breast cancer. Thompson never responded
but the "cleansing" continued.
-Scientific data on condom use, long available on government
health Web sites, was removed and replaced by sermons on
abstinence and alarmist propaganda that exaggerated the
risks of condom use.
-The phrase "reproductive health" was expunged and replaced
with the vague terms "related clinical preventive health
services" and "related preventive health services."
-Links to non-governmental family planning resources
were deleted.
-Web sites at the Centers of Disease Control and National
Institute of Health were cleared of scientific studies and
materials relating to abortion and condom use.
-At the CDC results from a peer-reviewed study showing
that education
younger age, were deleted from the Web site.
-The NIH's Web site was cleaned of FAQ's on condom
effectiveness and a
Good science was disappearing from government publications
and Web sites at such a pace that the Union of Concerned
Scientists issued a report in early 2004 documenting and
condemning the Bush administration.
There is significant evidence that the scope and scale of
the manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of
science by the Bush administration is unprecedented... There
is a well-established pattern of suppression and distortion
of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush administration
political appointees across numerous federal agencies. These
actions have consequences for human health, public safety,
and community well-being." (Union of Concerned Scientists,
report, Scientific Integrity in Policymaking. 2004.)
So, even as the Bush administration denounced and battled
Islamic religious zealotry abroad it was and is nurturing a
fundamentalist Christian version here at home, much to the
delight of radical right-wing Christians.
"Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible is not neutral about
what kind of government we should have," states Dr. Mark
Allen Ludwig, author of True Christian Government.
"God gave governments responsibility only for infrastructure
and defense," according to an article by Rev. Bob Enyart,
pastor of Denver Bible Church. "If government limited itself
to its two just functions, thereby getting out of education,
health care, farming, etc., it could better defend America.
... Christians who carefully study the Bible are best
qualified to teach the world how it should be governed."
One of the oldest and best-established forces in the
Christian Taliban attack on secular government has been the
Christian Coalition. Recently the group threw its full
weight behind the President's push for a constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage. The Christian Coalition has
been conducting a "Let's Take America Back" national
petition drive over the last several months, which now also
includes support for the so-called Federal Marriage
Amendment. The Christian Coalition mission statement states:
We are driven by the belief that people of faith have a
right and a responsibility to be involved in the world
around them. That involvement includes community, social and
political action. Whether on a stump, in print, over the
airways the Christian Coalition is dedicated to equipping
and educating God's people with the resources and
information to battle against anti-family legislation.
What is remarkable is that this was accomplished without
significant public outcry. The reason is that America's
Christian Taliban are more public relations savvy than their
Islamic counterparts. No American women are being forced to
cover up, beaten for appearing in public wearing make up, or
barred from the workplace. The changes being made are more
subtle and less visibly shocking. They are incremental,
technical, administrative - but far-reaching.
They have also gotten away with it because we Americans like
to consider ourselves tolerant and respectful of religious
beliefs. Openly criticizing someone's religious beliefs
ranks right up there with racism and bigotry - a fact the
Christian Right has used to stifle opposition to its agenda.
Mainstream Christians share secularists' concern over
workings of Bush's Christian Taliban. Speaking at the
National Press Club last year, Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice President Rev. Carlton W. Veazey
condemned the "back-door attempts by the Bush Administration
to radically alter policies and practices concerning
abortion, family
So, it may be time admit that our tolerance of Christian
fundamentalists is turning us into a nation of chumps. By
claiming it is they who are being persecuted, the Christian
Taliban have cowed mainstream Christians and secularists
into silence, even as they impose their own faith-based
governance upon us.
We need to reconnect with a fundamental ingredient of
America's strength: the separation of church and state. That
wall of separation has for over two centuries spared
Americans ftom the kind of religious strife witnessed in
Bosnia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Afghanistan.
Mixing religious dogma and public policy always creates an
explosive compound - and it always blows
