Paganism Is Surrounded by Newt Gingrich!

...And Mike Huckabee! And Dick Cheney! And Rush Limbaugh!

George Washington in a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island in 1790:

...for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support ... May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants -- while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."

Newt Gingrich thinks our country is being attacked by "paganism" (whatever that means to him), but it just may be that our country is being attacked by the likes of Newt Gingrich and his army of hardcore Christofascists.

From Think Progress:

On Friday, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Oliver North visited Rock Church in Hampton Roads, Virginia to give a three-hour long lecture on “Rediscovering God in America.” The speakers warned the audience about the “continuing availability of abortion, the spread of gay rights, and attempts to remove religion from American public life and school history books.” The Virginia-Pilot reported that Gingrich argued that, while Christianity is the foundation of American citizenship, Americans are experiencing a period where they are being “surrounded by paganism”:

GINGRICH:

I am not a citizen of the world. I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator. [...] I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.

Huckabee also equated America’s victory against the British in the Revolutionary War with the right-wing’s success in the Proposition 8 fight in California as being miracles “from God’s hand.”

How would Newt and his gang eradicate paganism? Remember that in its original usage, "paganism" meant everyone who wasn't Christian (the Jews being referred to under their own separate terminology: "kike"). Does the newly Catholicized Newt want to expel every Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist and Mormon (well, maybe the poor LDS's)? Does Huckabee think of himself as the new "Queen Isabella," ordering forced conversions in lieu of torture or exile?

Remember that Fox montage of self-aggrandizement ? It was pointedly anti-immigrant (legal or not). Will the Boss's "Bloviators" force immigrants out of the country? They're already having a fit about allowing gay partners of immigrants into the country.

So it looks like Gringrich intends for the "pagan wagon train" to be attacked by his group of thugs rather than the other way around.

We can only hope that the Obama Cavalry will come to rescue us in the nick of time. Until then...