Alternet- The Christian Taliban (very scary)

[Room101]

<snip>

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 later this administration has established one of the most rigid sexual health agendas in the Western world.

<snip>

Over the next twelve months the administration moved quickly to install similarly-minded Christian fundamentalists to positions of authority and influence over all matters relating to reproductive and sexual health.

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 condoms as "ineffective" against the spread of sexually transmitted infections. "I will challenge the national focus on condom use to prevent the spread of HIV," Coburn said upon his appointment.

<snip>

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."

The NIH's Web site was cleaned of FAQ's on condom effectiveness and a sexuality education curriculum called "Programs that Work."

http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18259 :scared:

[NMDemDist2]

1. lord help us sweep the moneychangers out of our national 'temples"

eom

[LeftofU]

2. I 've watched this slowly build since the....

eighties. As much as i hate neocons, war profiteers and global industrialist, I fear the christian right. I think they're well on there way to there theocracy. This is the next MAJOR war of civilization.

[2Design]

3. right wing are worse than terriorists

they seem to believe they are God. They seem to be hell bent on making their version of the bible come true by having a holy war. They are forcing one.

They seem worse than the nazi

It makes one stay away from all Christians. The behavior and judgement of Christians on other is tough but when you add the right wing nuts, it drives a person completely away from Christian religous institutions. Take the bad behavior of Christian leaders and authority figures.

Christ was a loving person. Second greatest commandment. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. These people must hate themselves. They don't seem to love anyone else.

[LeftofU]

5. I not sure I would say they're worse than the nazis just yet but ...

they sure have the potential.
As far as this religion thing goes...christ was nice uhhhh so was Frodo.....I donno...

[LoZoccolo]

6. The thing is...

...I don't really think the people that are way into mixing religion and politics are really all that numerous, but I think they're definitely well-organized so they have a much larger impact than their census.

[LeftofU]

7. and they listen to orders........surender, submit is their mantra. eom

[dawn]

8. I agree!

I am glad the major (and minor) news outlets are discussing this and it is out in the open. The Christian Right will ruin America as we know it.

[mike1963]

4. I know Tom Coburn very well, personally. I was the chief pilot of his

father's company for years when TAC was just out of high school and had him as a passenger hundreds of times before he became a wingnut. My analysis of how he got to be fucked up is this: His father, O.W. Coburn was a disgusting letch and womanizer...he even kept an apartment for one of his girl friends and didn't much try to hide it from his wife and family (of course he was a devout Republican...which was an ongoing conflict between us, but he knew enough to trust me with his family in the company plane.)

This behavior was embarrassing, obviously to his family (and even to me...as his "personal pilot", a position that's fairly unique in the workaday world and includes some personal interaction that goes beyond the usual boss/employee relationship)...and I believe Tom found it so beyond the pale that he gravitated to near-Puritanism. Rebellion taken to extremes, as I see it. (Before he died, in '84 I believe, O.W. gave Oral Roberts several million dollars in what appeared to me an attempt to buy his way into 'heaven.' I don't think it would have worked even if I believed in an afterlife.)

[LeftofU]

9. kick