Speaking of Banning Bibles

When the Republicans claim that Democrats will do anything to get elected, they are projecting, in the way a scumbag sees scumbags around every corner, like a thief, who refuses to trust anyone for fear of being robbed, like a liar who thinkds everyone traffics in falsehood. From the NYT via Steve Gilliard

he Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass mailings to residents of two states warning that "liberals" seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush.

The mailings include images of the Bible labeled "banned" and of a gay marriage proposal labeled "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.

A liberal religious group, the Interfaith Alliance, circulated a copy of the Arkansas mailing to reporters yesterday to publicize it. "What they are doing is despicable,'' said Don Parker, a spokesman for the alliance. "They are playing on people's fears and emotions."
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The mailing seeks to appeal to conservative evangelical Protestant pastors and political leaders who say they worry that legal rights for same-sex couples could lead to hate-crimes laws that could be applied against sermons of Bible passages criticizing homosexuality.

Conservative Christian political commentators often cite the case of Ake Green, a minister in Sweden who was jailed in June for a month for a sermon denouncing gays as sinful.

Mr. Parker, of the Interfaith Alliance, said, "I think it is laughable to think that someone could be arrested for reading out loud from the Bible.''

But Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, argued, "We have the First Amendment in this country which should protect churches, but there is no question that this is where some people want to go, that reading from the Bible could be hate speech."

Still, Mr. Land questioned the assertion that Democrats might ban the whole Bible. "I wouldn't say it," he said. "I would think that is probably stretching it a bit far."

I am always impressed by the selective use of concepts like Moral Relativism and the Slippery Slope, by right wing ideologues who decry the employment as an argument against the war, but embace it as soon as the photos from Abu Ghraib appear on the scene. "Stretching it a bit far"? Please, If I were to suggest that many of your types are hellbent on the establishment of a theocratic government, or that George Bush is intentially trying to bankrupt the government, I would not be guilty of "stretching it a bit far". If I called GWB the spawn of satan, you might have a point. Might.

In any event, this is a tactic designed to get the knuckle dragging vote mobilized, whether the tactic is successfull or not, it reeks of desparation.