Abstract

The Party of God

As the 2004 election draws nearer and George W. Bush's poll numbers grow shakier, White House operatives are devoting themselves to coddling the religious right. Given that 40 percent of Bush's 2000 vote came from white evangelicals, if you add Orthodox Jews and conservative Catholics you've got a formidable religious bloc. These people demand legislative action, e.g., bans on late-term abortion and gay marriage. With the White House strongly behind their agenda and legislators fearful of retaliation if they don't climb aboard, the wall between church and state is taking a beating. Take the Boykin affair. It would appear his remarks clashed with Administration policy, as expressed in Bush's statements that America's war on terror "is not a war on Islam" or "a clash of civilizations." Accordingly, the general should have been fired forthwith. Meanwhile, moderate Muslims, once sympathetic to the US war on terror, accuse Bush of a pro-Christian, pro-Israel bias. The double standard applied to Boykin and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, publicly condemned by Bush for his anti-Semitic speech, fanned the flames. Back in the USA, Christian fundamentalists Claimed a great victory with the Senate's passage of the so-called partial-birth abortion bill, which the President is set to sign.