Schmidt Wrote: One more soundbite:

What is it that drives a wealthy, deeply religious man like Mitt Romney to seek the Presidency? Is it his adherence to his theocracy or to his plutocracy?

Schmidt Wrote: Alias -- Muslims are not trying to take over our government and make it into a theocratic state as the religious right on their crusade is doing. I respect all religions equally, but if they cross the line and seek to impose their religious beliefs onto our government I will oppose and condemn them at every opportunity. There is no hypocrisy involved.

The real hypocrites are members of our Congress that pretend to be "Christian like" but then seek to take away benefits and rights from the poor, sick, elderly and women while supporting their rich benefactors.

Cantor, Ryan, Boehner, and all the Tea Partiers that wear the religion on their sleeves are all hypocrites.

Schmidt Wrote: Alias -- maybe you should reread more carefully what I wrote.

Schmidt Wrote: The Saudi Muslims that attacked us 9/11 had absolutely nothing to do with them wanting to take over our country.  That kind of fear is one of the products of the Islamophobia being spread by right wing media and politicians seeking to capitalize on a tragic situation.

Osama bin Laden released several tapes after the 9/11 bombing, and none of them pointed toward a take-over of the US government.  Rather he saw the attack as retribution for the US acts of aggression against Muslims and our support for Israel. A transcript of just one of those tapes is provided here. I won't paraphrase or repeat bin Laden's hate filled words. You can read them.

Fear mongering by the right is nothing new.  The John Birch Society thrived on their anti-communist crusade in the middle of the last century...and they're back at it working with the Tea Party on a hate campaign against Muslims.

But getting back to your point.  The exact words that I used were: "Muslims are not trying to take over our government and make it into a theocratic state as the religious right on their crusade is doing. I respect all religions equally, but if they cross the line and seek to impose their religious beliefs onto our government I will oppose and condemn them at every opportunity. There is no hypocrisy involved."

I think there is plenty of evidence of the religious right's plans to remake America into a Christian nation. But first for better understanding I have selected an article from 2005, by Frederick Clarkson writing for the Public Eye entitled, Remaking America as a Christian Nation. Clarkson quoted Political Research Associates Senior Analyst, Chip Berlet on his distinction between hard and soft dominionists, noting that the terms  are used by outside observers to understand a complex trend. In labelling a conservative politician, organization, or religious leader as "dominionist," he cited three characteristics that bridge both the hard and the soft kind:

Dominionists celebrate Christian nationalism, in that they believe that the United States once was, and should once again be, a Christian nation. In this way, they deny the Enlightenment roots of American democracy.

Dominionists promote religious supremacy, insofar as they generally do not respect the equality of other religions, or even other versions of Christianity.

Dominionists endorse theocratic visions, insofar as they believe that the Ten Commandments, or "biblical law," should be the foundation of American law, and that the U.S. Constitution should be seen as a vehicle for implementing Biblical principles.

Pieces of dominionism spill out in the day-to-day words and activities of our nation's leaders all the time. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) routinely hosts tours of the Capitol for constituents, Congress members and their staffs by Christian nationalist propagandist David Barton. President George W. Bush claimed during one of his presidential campaign debates with John Kerry that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has said the United States should be governed under Biblical law.

Okay, that article was written in 2005, and I chose it because of the three characteristics that are evident today in many of our Republican Congressional leaders. At the 2011 Rediscover God in America conference attended by most of the Republican Presidential candidates, David Barton was again center stage. From Chris Rodda of the Huffington Post:

"At the Rediscover God in America conference that we learned that all of our economic policies should be based on the Bible. And who did we learn this from? None other than Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, who kicked off the conference with a lengthy presentation of his usual historical hogwash. Then, one by one, as the potential Republican presidential candidates took the podium to let the audience full of pastors know just how Christian they are, each began by gushing about what a great historian and good friend David Barton is.

"But the most outrageous statement by far came from Mike Huckabee, who expressed his admiration for Barton by saying that he "almost wished" that "all Americans would be forced -- forced at gunpoint no less -- to listen to every David Barton message."

As Republicans seek to defund Planned Parenthood, oppose contraception, push "life begins at conception" amendments in states like Colorado, oppose a woman's right to chose, abuse women with ridiculous legislation like mandated ultrasounds, seek to deny the gay community their rights to civil unions and/or marriage, push for home schooling to promote their religious teachings, oppose immigration to maintain racial purity, and more...all of these are consistent with their vision of a "Christian nation"...a nation where Biblical law trumps the Constitution.

Mitt Romney has not engaged as much as the other candidates in this Christian talk, but his views are aligned with the other candidates on the issues above. In that respect there is little difference between the evangelicals and the Mormons. Mitt Romney will be preaching at Liberty University this week. Watch what he says.