Conservative Christians, Moral Equivalent of Hezbollah

Andrew Sullivan, Time blogger and man of nuance:

If you’re a Republican in Tennessee and you are in a tough race, what do you do? Hey, your party isn’t a political organization; it’s God’s Own Party:

A Christian prayer group is hoping to provide Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Bryson with some divine assistance during his campaign. The “Bryson Prayer Force” is inviting Christians to join its current 80 members in praying regularly for Bryson, his family and campaign staff. An e-mail sent out by the group included some suggested prayers. Weekly prayers are to be sent to those who have signed up to be part of the group.

“Pray for an open heaven over Jim and his team in each Tennessee county they visit, that the gates of each county would open to him and his team, and that the Lord’s divine favor will be granted to him everywhere he goes,” reads one example. Blair Morgan, an attorney and vice treasurer of the Davidson County Republican party, is serving as state coordinator of Bryson Prayer Force.

Another part of the message:

“Pray for patience, endurance, stamina and joy to be experienced by all those on and participating in any way in the Bus Tour. Pray for a warring, Angelic Guard to go before them, clearing the way and surrounding them, and being their rear guard as they move throughout the State.”

Do the Republicans know that the “Party of God” has already been trademarked? By Hezbollah.

Praying for an outcome you find favorable is, of course, not really all that close to firing Katyusha rockets into Democratic Party headquarters or eradicating homosexuals systematically without even the benefit of placing them in a nice warm oven first—but what the hell, Andrew can’t be expected to resist turning an arbitrary semantic similarity (just as a reminder, the overwhelming majority of devoutly religious “Christianists” and missionaries have not, of late, been given to calling for conversion by the sword, nor have they announced a desire to see, say, San Francisco pushed into the sea) into the suggestion of a tawdry and revolting equivalency.

Sullivan should be ashamed of himself. But like all true believers who are no longer bound by anything other than their own selfish pragmatism, Andrew is willing to lay rhetorical waste to any of those whose convictions stand in the way of his own political / social desires, and he is willing to do so in such a way that attempts to demonize entire groups of people with one giant stroke of his ever-expanding broad brush. That he does so behind a shield of Catholicism that is at odds with, well, the Catholic Church itself, just goes to show just how cynical, conniving, and self-centered he has become.

In fact, I daresay that among conservatives and classical liberals, Sullivan’s tactics over the last several years have done more to set back the cause of gay marriage—the genesis of his hyberbolic animus, and the driving force behind his attempts to demonize single-issue political opponents—than a hundred gay pride parades and a thousand episodes of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

(h/t Allah)

Cross-posted at Protein Wisdom.