Pondering the Christian Right

Guinness record of the day:
World’s fastest desk: 90 mph.

Short-lived Wikepedia quote of the week:
“He resides in Flat Butt, Nebraska, with his husband, Joe.”
--From the entry for New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean, Jr.

Follow-up to "Examples of Business Ethics":
“In one survey, more than seventy-five per cent of chief financial officers said that, given a choice, they would choose to improve short-term earnings at the expense of long-term cash flow.”
--James Surowiecki in the November 6, 2006 "New Yorker"

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, here is an item to reflect on:

“One of the most startling developments in the culture war is the apparent takeover of the Republican Party by conservative evangelicals who claim that the U.S. is a Christian nation, uniquely called and blessed by God.

“The 2004 Texas GOP platform affirmed ‘that the United States of America is a Christian nation,’ founded ‘on fundamental Judeo-Christian principles based on the Holy Bible.’ Texas Republicans...declared the doctrine of separation of church and state to be a ‘myth’ that must be rejected in order to restore the founders’ original intent.

“One of the architects of that platform was David Barton, vice chair of the Texas Republican Party and one of the chief advocates for a Christian America. Barton’s view of American history has energized millions of voters and forced lawmakers to take conservative Christian causes seriously.

“Barton is clearly more interested in current cultural squabbles than he is in history. Put simply, Barton is a bad historian--his B.A., from Oral Roberts University, is in math education. He retrieves only those aspects of history that, often taken out of context, match his emphasis on America’s Christian identity.

“The founders were, on the whole, less religiously orthodox than the average American. They pushed the new nation toward tolerance and less reliance upon historic Christianity.”
--Kurt Peterson, who teaches history at North Park University in Chicago. He was writing in the October 31, 2006 "Christian Century."