Republicans and Sinners: God and the GOP
Presented by Thom Houseman, Delegate of the Michigan Republican Convention, Member of the National Republican Caucus of NEA
About the Speaker
Mr. Houseman has been a Delegate of the Michigan Republican Convention since 1978 and is a member of the National Republican Caucus of NEA. Previous GOP positions that he has held include: Delegate – Republican National Convention (1980), Delegate – Republican National Convention (1984), Republican National Convention (1992), County Chairman – Allegan County Republicans. In addition, he served for 8 years on the Party Issues Committee for the Michigan Republican Party, as the District Secretary of the Michigan Republican Party, and as Co-chair for the Michigan Republicans for Clinton/Gore in 1992.
About the Event
Summary with Commentary for the 258th meeting of CFI- Michigan, held on August 13, 2008.
The topic for this meeting was Republicans and Sinners: God and the GOP. It was presented by Thom Houseman, Delegate of the Michigan Republican Convention since 1978, and a Member of the National Republican Caucus of NEA. Previous GOP positions that he has held include: Delegate- Republican National Convention in 1980, 1984, 1992, and County Chairman- Allegan County Republicans. In addition he has served for eight years on the Party Issues Committee for the Michigan Republican Party, as the District Secretary of the Michigan Republican Party, and as Co-chair for the Michigan Republicans for Clinton/Gore in 1992.
Evangelicals and Republicans have had a symbiotic relationship for many years. Conservative Christians help get Republican candidates elected, and in return the GOP favors legislation that is in line with a religious agenda. Thom brought us a unique and inside look at the role of religion in the Republican Party and a sense of what it may mean for this year’s national election.
Houseman began his presentation by taking us back to 1992, but with a scene he laid out that could have occurred almost a half century earlier. There was chanting and arms stretched out and angled up slightly toward the source of the adulation. It was like a Hitler rally, he said. But in reality it was the GOP convention in Houston, Texas and the figure who was the focus of attention was Pat Buchanan. In his rousing speech delivered there, he said memorably, that democracy is idolatry; a statement he has never recanted. He also, then and there, launched the incendiary idea that America was in a cultural and religious war. Rather than examining the state of the economy, or health care issues, or other concerns of the majority of Americans, he zeroed in on cultural issues, making clear demarcations between those on the Right/right side of them and those sinful others who were destroying our country through their sexual orientation, being liberal- leaning, supporting a woman’s right to choose, etc. This was not a cool and reasoned speech, but one designed to ignite the base of the Religious Right and it seemed to be calling on the righteous to take the country back from the sinful by any means necessary. After all, Christianity itself was at stake and we were in a war!
The themes he spoke on were ones familiar to, and used by, the Christian Reconstructionists; those who believe in ditching our secular Constitution in favor of a biblically- based system of governing rules. This includes stoning disobedient children to death; as well as adulterers, homosexuals and all others who would be seen as abominations by the ancient tribal deity, Yahweh. As Christopher Hitchens pointed out in his talk to those assembled to hear him debate his Christian sibling at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids this year: The Bible’s morality, philosophy, sense of justice and ethics/morality, represented a patch of one ancient group’s earliest stab at these things. As the first attempt, it was the worst one. Only as we have steered away from the barbarism and ignorance of those times have we gained enlightenment and a better way of treating people in a modern society and times. Yet the Reconstructionists find the intolerance, sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia, barbaric punishments and lack of interest in rational discourse, science, reason, and so on to be the best tack for America.
In 1952, our speaker was introduced to political involvement by handing out I Like Ike (Eisenhower) cards to any who would accept them. Like Reagan, who was divorced, didn’t have a good relationship with his children, came out of Hollywood, almost never attended church services and had other baggage that would have been viciously smeared by the Right if he had been a Democrat- Ike’s story too was bowdlerized to some extent. That the General was the son of Jehovah’s Witnesses and was never baptized was kept hidden from the public.
This association between religiosity and Republicans, and, conversely the irreligiousness of Democrats was hammered home so effectively that one never hears that James Earl Carter was our first and only practicing Born- again Christian evangelical to have become a U.S. President, while on the other hand, simply being a Republican cements one’s religious credentials no matter what one actually does or does not do.
It is all about power and justification for harsh policies. When one believes that God supports your efforts, anything is possible. When Bronze Age pre-scientific and pre-Enlightenment notions are held fast to, then no amount of backward and brutal ideas for how our country should be run is off limits. When this thinking goes beyond the churches and infuses the White House an unholy (so to say) merger of political power and religious zealotry is produced.
Reagan, Houseman noted, used certain code words to signal to the Religious Right that he approved of their ambitions and wished to garner their support. Amazingly, George Herbert Walker Bush was considered too liberal. Houseman showed several images of scenes that were carefully manufactured and photographed to show George W. Bush with a prominent Christian cross as a backdrop, or the popular image of Jesus just behind him. While Regan surely knew how to work the camera, having been a movie actor, George W. Bush is a master of pretending to be what he wants others to believe he is. He loves dressing up in costumes and uniforms and being in clean- up garb after Katrina struck, the famous jump suit shot when we supposedly won the war in Iraq, and his love opf being filmed with a chainsaw and clearing brush on his ranch (a ranch without horses because he is afraid of them—yes, Bush is a manly man, alright.), as just a few examples. Also, his background as an East coast elite who was a cheerleader in college was carefully trimmed away, while the new story of his aw shucks, swaggering Texas justice persona was created and packaged for mass consumption.
Houseman spoke of those who jumped the GOP ship due to what they saw their once- cherished party coming to represent. He also old the story of how the Reverend Billy Graham was sickened over how Nixon had lied to him after garnering Graham’s support (and considerable influence.)
Houseman talked about the idea of American exceptionalism, which was written about both at length and in depth in the book American Theocracy, that is a common theme in much Religious Right rhetoric. He spoke, too, of the powerful figures on the political Right who take every opportunity to depict any natural disaster as signifying God’s wrath over secularists, homosexuals, feminists or whatever group of people is being targeted with hate speech that day by those who claim to have Christian love in their hearts.
Pete Hoekstra, in a speech that Houseman heard, talked at the event he was speaking at about End Times and personal witnessing, when he was on the House Intelligence Committee. Houseman spoke of other influential politicians who used their biblical interpretation of what was to happen in the Holy Lands to generate policies regarding our dealing with the Middle East.
Pat Robertson attempted a coup in 1988, during his bid for the national GOP nomination. He hoped to thoroughly dissolve the separation of State and Church and push the Religious Right agenda. He was supported by what is called The Family, whose members read like a Who’s Who of neoconsevative Religious Right movers and shakers. The National Day of Prayer and National Prayer Breakfasts are two examples of this attempt to erode the barrier between the secular function of our government and the private and personal faith of the religious among our citizenry. When these two institutions are united, it is always about power, rather than piety.
Interestingly, it was Reagan who said that if students were taught about all religions, then they would likely be more tolerant.
Houseman spoke of how carefully constructed George W. Bush’s facade of being a Born- Again Christian was. He was a highly packaged and manufactured candidate, with video of him designed to make him look for all the world like an evangelical preacher, instead of someone serving on behalf of the Constitution and the entire country—people of the Christian faith, non-Christian faiths and the non-religious equally. Nearly everything he presented was artificial and for manipulative effect. Besides other get-ups he donned, even in a conventional suit he adopted a gait where his arms were out from his hips as if toting pistols in holsters at either side of him. He spoke not in the native accent of his East Coast upbringing but as if he had been pried out of Texas. He used cleverly produced words and phrases to signal to his Religious Right base that he was their man. He vowed to never be out Good Ol’ Boyed or out- Christianed again in a candid moment, and he kept to this manufactured image, that belied his Ivy League background.
Amusingly, Houseman told us that a photo in Bush’s autobiography: A Charge to Keep, that was supposed to depict a man mounting a steed to do God’s work, was actually a picture of a horse thief! A meme that is often used by those with political ambitions that resonates with the base effectively, is to claim that they, with their desire to remake America into a theocracy, are being thwarted NOT by our secular Constitution but because they are being persecuted because they speak out and act upon their true Christian faith.
Bush, who was a member of the pagan Skull and Bones society rarely attends church services, unless there is a chance for a disingenuous photo opportunity. Appearances are everything for him. But it worked well. Houseman mentioned the Alabama license plate he saw that read: Pray 4 W. Bush spoke of being directly steered in his decisions by God and the True Believers swallowed this assertion of Divine guidance.
Sin is expensive. This is a common theme among evangelicals. Why should the godly pay for the care or treatment of those sinners who contract HIV/AIDS, for instance? Never mind that the one they claim to follow went to the outcasts and ill; those in need who were vilified by larger society. Why help the poor who have fallen short of God’s benevolent blessings? Instead, the tendency is to feel that when has accumulated great wealth, that it is God’s blessing on their behalf. Taxation is seen as robbing them of the Lord’s intentions for them. If one fails to achieve wealth it is deemed to be a result of having insufficient faith or some other moral failure. Houseman recalled the Prayer of Jabez that is used and interpreted to give a righteous imperative to imploring God to enlarge one’s estate, bank account and other personal assets.
Sin is the concept that unites the most zealous of the religious with the most zealous of the political Right. The poor are thought to be lazy by the financially successful among the political Right and their lot is, therefore, sanctioned by God as payback for their slothful ways. Religious ideology and the more ruthless economic ideologies of the Right find their home in such places as the Acton Institute (we had a speaker from there in a past meeting) and the Heritage Foundation, among others. Wedding themselves to the profound influence of religious institutions, the Right is able to use the power and the control exerted over the flock by religion for its own political means. The more fundamentalist and Protestant elements of the Right, who would normally excoriate Catholics as papists bowing to a foreign dictator, embrace them when their power can be deployed against a common enemy, such as abortion; again, the sin factor comes into play.
Houseman spoke of how the Religious Right leaders declared the awful attacks of September 11, 2001 to be caused by God lifting His protection for us due to the pagans, feminists, gays and any who would secularize American society. These despicable assertions have been noted numerous times over the years but what I find additionally interesting, is that it makes America into an expansion of the ancient tribal henotheistic belief system. In that set up, each tribe believed that they had their own personal deity that watched out for them alone. It delivered success in battle into their hands, or robust crops or more healthy babies being born or whatnot, when It was appeased sufficiently by the people’s piety and devotion to It. But when It was displeased, this would result in losses in battle, crop failure and disease running rampant throughout the tribe. In this scheme, there was not a god for the entirety of humankind, but one for each tribal group.
In the current brand of religious fundamentalism, linked to politics through neoconservatism, America is the tribe that has its own personal God; one that by turns rewards and punishes us according to our obedience or lack of enthusiasm for Its laws, as the case may be. They do not look to other 1st World nations that have an extremely low (relative to our own) religiosity, yet are prosperous, happy, have an excellent standard of living and so on—and think: Why isn’t God punishing THEM for their lack of piety? They do not think this way for the same reason the Yahwists didn’t; because we have our own God that blesses (and curses at times) America first and foremost. It simply isn’t concerned about those other populations. America is that ancient henotheistic tribe in the neoconservative mind.
As alluded to earlier (but glancingly) in this summary is how scary it is to have political will bent to ancient religious belief systems, such as- specifically- in how we deal with the Middle East. The so-called road map to peace of the Bush Administration is based on battles in the Holy Land that will usher in the Second Coming of Jesus. And just as the more fundamentalist elements of the Protestant Right do not especially like the Catholics, except when the Catholic Church is useful to help carry out its ideological dreams—they are, in general, a highly anti- Semitic lot as well, but are all for unilaterally supporting Israel because of the pivotal role (in their mindset) that that land will play as biblical prophesies are made manifest.
Another figure that the Religious Right should be opposed to- the Rev. Sun Myung Moon- for his desire to replace democracy with a theocracy— but one where he is the supreme head of that theocracy—is also appreciated by them for his common animosity toward liberals; his zeal against Clinton during his presidency, and various other individuals, groups and behaviors that they commonly deem loathsome. Those who are useful to the hard Right are embraced while those who are viewed as impediments to their ambitions get branded as sinful, godless, anti- Christian, and so on, as a way to pull the faithful in line with their political agendas and goals. Chavez could be targeted for assassination by Pat Robertson, who was speaking as a man of faith, because of how he gets in the way of the hard Right’s agenda. The uniting of religious fervor with political power is all a reciprocal mechanism—each adding to the power of the other; each helping the other to achieve more control over other people’s lives for what they believe to be a higher cause. When it is believed t that one has God on one’s side, anything is possible and permissible.
Speaking at places like the Christian and ultra- conservative Bob Jones University are deemed necessary for the achievement of political ambitions for high office, if one is a conservative. When the alliance between the hard Right and the more zealous religious individuals and institutions was being first cemented in a more symbiotic way, the leaders of right- wing conservative churches and other institutions complained that they were being used. They would get paid in lip service only while offering up the flock of the faithful to deliver votes and financial support, etc. for the ambitious conservative politicians. Now, however, the reciprocal mechanism is fully engaged and out more in the open. Both sides feel they truly need each other. Mc Cain, who once cast votes in the Senate that were oppositional to hard Right ideology and introduced bills co-written with more progressive Democratic Senators, and who called the Falwells of the world agents of intolerance, now is hand and glove with the Religious Right and neoconservatives in general.
Houseman lamented how little old ladies who are reduced to eating dog food, send money to Robertson and his ilk, even as he/they blame the poor who were caught up in the Katrina disaster for their misfortune and consider such disasters punishment for not being godly enough. Our speaker also took aim at Lieutenant General (retired) William Boykin, for how he framed his military operations in religious terms; believing he was leading an Army of God and that Bush’s agenda was a holy one. He felt justified in asserting that we, as a Christian nation, are the righteous force that goes up against other peoples who have not come to Jesus. Bush’s slip in calling our invasion and occupation of Iraq a crusade is very telling of the mindset of the neocons who marry Church and State.
Our speaker also brought to light the secretive organization for social conservative activists: the Council for National Policy. This little- known group of a few hundred of the most powerful and influential conservatives in the US was founded by Left Behind series co-author, Tim LaHaye, in 1981. Its mission was to strengthen the political right in America. Its membership includes Ed Meese, our own Richard DeVos, Paul Weyrich, Phyllis Schlafly, Pat Robertson, Bill Bright, members of the Coors family, Norquist, North, Wildmon, Abramoff, DeLay, D. James Kennedy, and Jay Sekulow; he of the ACLJ; the Religious Right’s answer to the ACLU (see the meeting summary featuring a presentation on the ACLU for more info on the ACLJ). The CNP organization is considered to be a leading force in the Dominionist movement to refashion America into a Christian theocracy and bring back the pre-Enlightenment ideas of barbaric biblical justice. Another member in good standing is Eric Prince, who has familial connections to the DeVos’ and who heads up Blackwater, which is answerable to no one yet is taxpayer funded as it runs its questionable (euphemistically speaking) operations in Iraq and elsewhere. Whether it is to deny Constitutional guarantees to segments of American society deemed godless or to have been in support of apartheid in South Africa, they feel they are following a scriptural mandate to establish God’s Rule.
Ralph Reed, in talking about the stealth mode approach to seizing power and control for the Religious Right, famously stated that they must stay below the radar—that way they won’t know we [the Christian Coalition and other righteous warriors] have been there until they see the body bags. When one’s opposition is labeled an enemy of God, it is an easy step to call for the most brutal treatment of such people. Houseman quoted frightening passages from speeches made by the likes of Ashcroft, Reed, Dobson and other Religious Right luminaries, which made cryptic references to what must be done in order to rid the world of those who don’t march in lockstep to their ideology.
The link between religious zealots and the political hard Right is so well established that foundations, institutions and think tanks that are only in place to support right- wing neoconservatives can look to retaining a tax exempt status and issue voter guides in conservative Christian churches to show how closely political candidates are to the ideal—that being those who are the most closely allied with the religious extremists on the Right.
Houseman provided a fire hose torrent of organizations and leading individuals to us, in addition to those already mentioned, that/who have been systematically striving to undercut American democracy and our Constitutional basis of national governance. It was a staggering account and all the more stunning for the many connections between the various corporations, leaders and organizations in America and for how extremely well- organized, well- funded and embedded they are in our society.
He advised those of us who oppose the Neo-conservative and Religious Right agenda—and this should include traditional, old- fashioned Conservatives whose political party has been hijacked, as well as the more moderate religious people who view their faith as something personal and positive—not as a weapon to destroy democracy and turn our nation into a theocracy—to organize, write letters, call into talk shows, use rational thought, support organizations that champion democratic freedoms, progressive thought and our true American ideals. There is a lot to be done. But, he added, there is a lot that CAN be done!
Summarized by Charles LaRue.
