Gary Bauer: The Quintessential Evangelical Warrior in the Culture War

Would You Say A Prayer For This Man?

Analysis of Gary Bauer, evangelical Christian

The following is from the Pew Research Center's Pew Forum's biannual Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life. D. Michael Lindsay, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice University discussing his research on evangelical power in the White House during the Reagan years when Gary Bauer was domestic policy adviser to Reagan.

I knew that that ( a division of attitudes between evangelicals) existed, but I did not realize that within the same White House you could actually have significant division. For example, one of the persons I interviewed for the project was C. Everett Koop (surgeon general under President Reagan). He told me about how in 1986 he became increasingly convinced that AIDS ought to be treated as a public health crisis.Now, when Koop was nominated in 1981, many evangelicals were very excited about this. He was a symbolic appointment; and although he didn't have experience in public health, he was a world-class surgeon at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He eventually got confirmed, even though the public health community was not very excited. But evangelicals were thrilled, and for five years he had a very good relationship with the evangelical community.

Then in 1986 he began to say the White House ought to treat AIDS as a real public-health concern. But remember, in 1986, most evangelicals saw AIDS as God's punishment against a homosexual lifestyle. One who held that position was Gary Bauer;⁵ he was serving as President Reagan's domestic policy advisor. In a matter of a few months, Bauer and Koop began to lock horns. Koop would try and get a meeting with the president; Gary Bauer's staff would get the meeting removed. And in fact, when I did the interview with Dr. Koop -- he has an institute up at Dartmouth now -- he didn't have very nice things to say about Gary Bauer. There are these tensions -- and they last.

They last.

Gary Bauer's profile is a classic description of a politically right-wing evangelical:

Pro-life
Repeal of Roe vs. Wade and abolishment of funding for Planned Parenthood
Against euthanasia, but supports the death penalty
Supports a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage
Prefers abstinence programs to comprehensive sex education programs
Against embryonic stem-cell research
Wants to "bring the message of freedom to the Arab world"
Supports the war in Iraq
Against illegal immigration and supports English-only policy
Supports tax cuts

Bauer is past-president of the Washington lobby Family Research Council and is on the Board of Christians United For Israel, headed by John Hagee. Chairman of Campaign for Working Families, President of American Values. On the home page of the American Values website:

American Values is a non-profit organization committed to uniting the American people around the vision of our Founding Fathers. We are deeply committed to defending life, traditional marriage, and equipping our children with the values necessary to stand against liberal education and cultural forces.

Liberal education and cultural forces. hmmm...

Here are some other ideas about American Values. I culled them from Flickr.

Just a thought.

In honor of the great Bob Hope who passed on this day in 2003:

"I do benefits for all religions - I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality."

"We Cannot Afford a San Francisco Military!"

Actually, We Can't Afford a Christofascist Military!

July 26, 1948 – Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9981,
integrating the Armed Forces

1948. Twenty years before the Civil Rights Act was passed! Would that today's administration had the guts and foresight to do the same with gays in the military. Of course, they won't if Christofascists have their say. They got their two cents into the Don't Ask Don't Tell debate on Capital Hill this week. A lot of their prejudices came out in the form of Ms. Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness.

A close look at this 501(c)3 shows that it's VERY judgmental and partisan in its views, not only on gays in the military, but feminism as well:

Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness says that although certain feminists would not admit it publicly, “they’re probably quite fond” of the photo showing the Iraqi prisoner being held on a leash by a female soldier. According to the right-wing CNSNews.com, Donnelly argues that’s “because it is demeaning to a man -- any man.” Expounding further, Donnelly says such feminists are “the ones who like to buy man-hating greeting cards and have this kind of attitude that all men abused all women.

It sounds like something Pat Robertson would love to preside over:

(July 13 - Concerning the upcoming battle with Washington)

Donnelly and Sgt. Maj. Jones will expose the extent of real damage that will be done to the culture of our military if these groups are allowed to win. We cannot stand by and allow the full force of mandatory social engineering to be imposed on our men and women in uniform.

CMR has the facts, sound principle and common sense on its side, but faces large, well-funded activist groups that are devoted to one radical goal: repeal of the 1993 law, which is constantly mislabeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

This piece is from their statement of support for military policies:

The armed forces should not be used for political purposes or social experiments that needlessly elevate risks, detract from readiness, or degrade American cultural values.

Here are some past articles. The titles alone give you an idea how right ring (excuse me, bi-partisan) they are:

Obama Disingenuous on Dissent - Flag Officers Could Risk Promotions if Opposed to Gays in the Military (April 22, 2008) SLDN Bashes Straw-Man on Capitol Hill - By Tommy Sears, CMR Executive Director (March 10, 2008)

Who Will Confront the “LGBT Left?” - Presidential Candidates Support Extreme Agenda (February 5, 2008)

Political Consequences of 1992 Push for Gays in the Military - Voters Rejected Bill Clinton’s “Cultural Liberalism” (January 29, 2008)

And here is Donnelly's Op-ed piece in the Right-Wing Washington Times (conceerning the repeal of DADT):

Add to this scenario public resistance that would hurt recruiting, potential abuse of subordinates living in close quarters, plus higher risks of HIV infection, which increase the numbers of non-deployable personnel. The result will be unprecedented disciplinary problems that detract from morale and readiness.

We cannot afford a San Francisco military.

In 1992, Republicans helped Mr. Clinton to win by not debating this issue — in the same way that some Republicans are avoiding the issue today. Will a presidential leader emerge who is prepared to defend the culture of the only military we have? The one who does so first could become president of the United States.

But Donnelly didn't fare so well in her debate with Congress:

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 23, 9:40 PM ET

Among the most arresting debates Wednesday came when Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., a first-term congressman and the only Iraq war veteran in Congress, accused a witness of implying that U.S. service members weren't professional enough to handle serving with homosexuals.

"You're saying you don't trust our military professionals to serve openly with people who might be different," Murphy said angrily to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a nonprofit that says it promotes certain military personnel policies.

"I think that's an insult," Murphy said.

Donnelly contended that if the law were repealed the number of HIV-positive service members would probably increase.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., a Vietnam veteran and medical doctor, called that comment "so inappropriate" and suggested that Donnelly advocate for the military to recruit only lesbians, who he said have a low incidence of HIV.

Let's see... unleashed promiscuity, more HIV infection, "military culture," morals/morale, wicked feminists - what/who does Ms. Donnelly sound like to you? mmmm.... maybe Rod Parsley? Just a thought.

God's Warrior -The Archangel Michael

Right Wing Media: Obama's Prayers Are Fair Game!

Well, It Didn't Say, "Allah, Please Destroy Israel"

"Lord - Protect my family and me," reads the note published in the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."

The Jerusalem daily newspaper, Maariv, published a photograph of the note on its front page on Friday. It said the note was removed from the wall by a student at a Jewish seminary immediately after Obama left.

Evangelicals, of course, were praying for something a little more treasonous!

Like peace.

Don't Ask Don't Tell

Don't Ask Don't Tell
Originally uploaded by firechick

Of course, the Religious Right thinks that gays in the military is like SHOW AND TELL.

Incompetent Fool

Incompetent Fool
Originally uploaded by bobster1985

The picture to the right is an extremely accurate one, consisting of all the soldiers killed until the NYT piece on March 20. The accompanying editorial is worth a read in its entirety: log onto the archives of the New York Times.

The New York Times

March 20, 2008
Editorial
Mission Still Not Accomplished

It has been five years since the United States invaded Iraq and the world watched in horror as what seemed like a swift victory by modern soldiers and 21st-century weapons became a nightmare of spiraling violence, sectarian warfare, insurgency, roadside bombings and ghastly executions. Iraq’s economy was destroyed, and America’s reputation was shredded in the torture rooms of Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons.

These were hard and very costly lessons for a country that had emerged from the cold w ar as the world’s sole remaining superpower. Shockingly, President Bush seems to have learned none of them.

George W. Bush: A More Tortured Richard M. Nixon?

We Can Only Hope!

July 24, 1974 - Watergate scandal: the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.

"I am not a crook " "I did not have sex with that woman." "We do not torture."

Three lies: one from Richard M. Nixon , another from Bill Clinton, and the third from George W. Bush. Spanning thirty-four years. Lies with one very significant difference: in the end, it was Nixon who acted with honor.

Bush will not.

The irony, of course, is that Bush's lie is the most serious of the three. Nixon's concerned the Watergate break-in, questionable campaign contributions and conspiracy to keep them from the public. Clinton's was about sex. Bush's was about American honor ...and war crimes.

From today's The Washington Independent:

One of the most important building blocks in the Bush administration’s apparatus of torture became public today. An Aug. 1, 2002 memorandum from the Justice Dept.’s Office of Legal Counsel to the Central Intelligence Agency instructed the agency’s interrogators on specific interrogation techniques for use on Al Qaeda detainees in its custody. Most of the 17-page memo is blacked out and unreadable. But at least one of those techniques is waterboarding, the process of pouring water into the mouth and nostrils of a detainee under restraint until drowning occurs.

That’s certainly how it was viewed in the Nuremberg era. As the U.S. Supreme Court wrote in 1944: “There have been, and are now, certain foreign nations with governments … which convict individuals with testimony obtained by police organizations possessed of an unrestrained power to seize persons suspected of crimes against the state, hold them in secret custody, and wring from them confessions by physical or mental torture. So long as the Constitution remains the basic law of our Republic, America will not have that kind of government."

But America DOES have that kind of government now, doesn't it? We're holding people "suspected of crimes against the state", "hold them in secret custody" and "wring confessions by physical or mental torture."

Someone has to be accountable for all of those things and more, like "WMD lies" and extreme secrecy in foreign and national affairs. But don't look to Bush, because the buck will never stop with him. No accountability, no resignation. In their place we will encounter the obstinacy usually attributed to a petulant little boy. A boy who has very little conscience and who laughs at those who do.

So here's a CNN piece on torture. Please view it. It's ten minutes long, but it will stay with you for a long time.

Hagee Update: Lieberman Loves Him!!

god's quotable quotes
Originally uploaded by haywardART

From: Andy Sullivan
Reuters

Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who frequently campaigns with McCain, said pastor John Hagee's support for Israel outweighed the remarks that led McCain to reject his endorsement.

...Hagee has written that events in the Middle East point to an imminent apocalypse Christians should welcome, and in several books envisions a climactic battle in Israel leading to the second coming of Jesus. Christians United for Israel takes an uncompromising stance toward Israel's enemies and opposes giving land to the Palestinians.

Hagee said that it was up to Israelis to reach their own peace terms, and said the group was not trying to bring about a biblical apocalypse in the Middle East.

"We don't believe that we can speed up the End of Days one second because we believe that God has shown that he will set the time," Hagee said.

An organization supporting a negotiated peace in the Middle East, J Street, said it had delivered a 40,000-signature petition to Lieberman's office urging him not to speak to Hagee's group.

"We don't believe..." WHAT?!!

Hagee's been trying to speed up the End of Days his whole ministerial life! Give us a break! He's got "rapturists" and "End-Timers" salivating at the thought of telling God to hurry! He wants (like Rod Parsley, CUFI's regional manager) Israel to DESTROY the Palestinians and DESTROY Islam! He wants war even worse than George Bush!

Now we REALLY have to know what's going on with Lieberman in tow! Secret meetings, endorsements from senators... things are getting worse.

Heaven help us.