Salman Rushdie on Religion

I found this quote by Salman Rushdie on the Bill Maher Show website and thought it was awesome:

"That old-fashioned philosopher Karl Marx used to say that religion was the opiate of the masses. Now it's the crystal meth of the masses."

Worship As Higher Politics

This from Christianity Today Magazine, just to give credit where credit is due.

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.

The not-so-subtle equation of America's founding with biblical Christianity has been shown time and again to be historically inaccurate. The founding was a unique combination of biblical teaching and Enlightenment rationalism, and most of the founding fathers, as historian Edwin Gaustad, among many others, has noted, were not orthodox Christians, but instead were primarily products of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, we should recall, has never been much of a friend of biblical Christianity.

Related, though not a part of the Christianity Today article, is this list of Ten Myths About the Ten Commandments. And Toad explains Why the 10 Commandments are an Obsolete Document which Had Nothing to do with the Founding of the US.

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Quotes from the American Taliban:

Gary North(Institute for Christian Economics)-
"The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant–baptism and holy communion–must be denied citizenship."

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin -
“George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States, he was appointed by God.”

Pat Robertson (Christian Coalition) -
"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians."

Randall Terry (Operation Rescue) -
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."

Unfortunately there are more.