The Christian Right Are Now Officially the Party of Paranoia

If you're going to be that paranoid all the time, just get high.

That's Bill Maher from his HBO Real Time show this last weekend in his New Rules segment, in which he took on the subject of persecuted Christians (see this previous post on last week's War on Christians and the Values Voters conference). But all joking aside:

[T]he worst part about all this is the people bitching loudest about being persecuted for their Christianity aren't Christians at all. They're demagogues and con-men and scolds, and the only thing they worship is power. If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war or torture or tax cuts for the rich or raping the earth or refusing water to dying migrants, then you might as well believe that bunnies lay painted eggs. And Jesus never said a word about gay marriage. He was much too busy hanging out with 12 guys.

[...]

Thomas Jefferson called the type of Christian who trumpets his own belief in the divinity of Jesus rather than the morality of Jesus pseudo-Christians, and that's who's running our country today.

The video is hosted over at Crooks and Liars (which starts out with a bit about Andy Card's resignation from his post as White House chief of Staff).

You should also check out Kevin Phillips' op-ed piece from this Sunday's WaPo, which is a good primer for his new book, American Theocracy (which I'm very interested in reading). Here are a few highlights to whet your appetite:

The United States has organized much of its military posture since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks around the protection of oil fields, pipelines and sea lanes. But U.S. preoccupation with the Middle East has another dimension. In addition to its concerns with oil and terrorism, the White House is courting end-times theologians and electorates for whom the Holy Lands are a battleground of Christian destiny. Both pursuits -- oil and biblical expectations -- require a dissimulation in Washington that undercuts the U.S. tradition of commitment to the role of an informed electorate.

[...]

The potential interaction between the end-times electorate, inept pursuit of Persian Gulf oil, Washington's multiple deceptions and the financial crisis that could follow a substantial liquidation by foreign holders of U.S. bonds is the stuff of nightmares. To watch U.S. voters enable such policies -- the GOP coalition is unlikely to turn back -- is depressing to someone who spent many years researching, watching and cheering those grass roots.