"Whereas conservative Christian...

...parents," wrote Ryan Sager¹, in his book The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party,

once thought it was inappropriate for public schools to teach their kids about sex, now they want the schools to preach abstinence to children. Whereas conservative Christians used to be unhappy with evolution being taught in public schools, now they want Intelligent Design taught instead (or at least in addition). Whereas conservative Christians used to want the federal government to leave them alone, now they demand more and more federal funds be directed to local churches and religious groups through Bush's faith-based initiative program.

I suppose that these same "conservative Christians" are more likely than other Christians to be familiar with the following passage from Deuteronomy—a book in the Bible, in case you're unfamiliar with "Deuteronomy"—which Sam Harris quotes in The End of Faith² to illustrate that "the God of Abraham [seems to have wanted] heresy expunged" as much as some passages of the Koran indicate Allah wanted it expunged:

If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries to secretly seduce you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," unknown to you or your ancestors before you, gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world, you must not consent, you must not listen to him [or her]; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt. No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from Yahweh your God... (Deuteronomy 13:7-11)

The "end of faith" may not come anytime real soon, but I hope that the end of the control of our government by people kowtowing to such "conservatives" will end soon (in November 2006 and November 2008).
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1. According to conservative columnist George F. Will, in his op-ed column, "What Goeth before the Fall," Thursday in the Washington Post. Will's column ridicules House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who may be even more of a nincompoop than George W. Bush, if that is possible. The occasion is Hastert's statement ("to Rush Limbaugh's 20 million receptive listeners"), relative to the Representative Mark Foley debacle: "We [referring to Republicans, as Will points out] have a story to tell, and the Democrats have—in my view have—put this thing forward to try to block us from telling the story. They're trying to put us on the defense." Will comments: "It is difficult to read that as other than an accusation: He seems to be not just confessing a cover-up, but also complaining that a cover-up was undone by bad manners. Were it not for Democrats' unsportsmanlike conduct in putting 'this thing' forward, it would not be known and would not be disrupting Republicans' storytelling."


2. I recommended Harris's book in yesterday's post.