American Taliban
Updated January 25, 2007 and April 19, 2005 (originally published November
24, 2004)

The “War on Terror” has provided Americans with a helpful introduction to
theocracy. The fight against Al Qaeda, the war on the Taliban, and the
growing tensions with the regime in Iran has offered a quick primer on the
hallmarks of the religious state. First is the rule of religious
authorities, whether it be Bin Laden’s new Caliphate, Mullah Omar’s
Taliban regime, or the mullahs in Tehran. Second is the imposition of the
faith’s sacred texts as law, in these cases, some variant of sharia law of
the Koran. And last is the direct involvement of the state in the most
minute and deeply personal aspects of individual lives, enforced by
religious police, informed by spies, and punished severely (and often
publicly).

Now thanks to the Bush administration, a Republican Congress and the
conservative ascendancy, Americans need not travel to Kandahar to learn
about the perils of theocratic rule. Right here in the United States, a
network of politicians, religious leaders, “faith-based” organizations and
(literally) their amen corner are working overtime to make a particularly
onerous concept of Christianity the de facto law of the land. Armed with
the Bible in one hand and the Patriot Act in the other, George W. Bush and
his GOP jihadists threaten to fundamentally change the role of government
in monitoring Americans’ lives, liberties and even bodies.

Meet the American Taliban:
The American Taliban


George Bush

The President’s theocratic tendencies go back to his days as Governor of
Texas. There he proclaimed the celebration of “Jesus Day”, in recognition
of He who “changed my heart.” As President, his “Faith-Based Initiative”
seeks to put $8 billion of taxpayer money in the hands of religious
organizations to deliver social services without regard to potential
discriminatory practices. The President, who apparently has his own
"prayer team", consistently uses religious language and imagery in his
speeches. Regarding his foreign policy, Bush emphasizes that the
Declaration of Independence and Constitution not withstanding, “freedom is
a gift from the Almighty.” (They were called the Founding Fathers, and not
the Founding Deities, for a reason.)




Antonin Scalia

Supreme Court Justice Scalia has provided much of the intellectual heft
and rhetorical rage in the legal assault on the separation of church and
state. Scalia, a virulent opponent of gay and reproductive rights, has
dissented from virtually every ruling expanding the right to privacy,
including the Texas sodomy case (Lawrence v. Texas) and Colorado
constitutional referendum on gay rights (Romer v. Evans). The outspoken
Scalia had to recuse himself from the Newdow Pledge case after his public
criticism of the Ninth Circuit Court in comments at a "Religious Freedom
Day" celebration. As for the separation of church and state, Scalia
recently asked a Jewish audience, "did it turn out that, by reason of the
separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they
were in the United States of America? I don't think so." He added, "I am
an originalist, I am a textualist, but I am not a nut." History, Mr.
Justice, will be the judge of that.




Roy Moore

The former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court insisted on
displaying a massive granite monument bearing the Ten Commandments at his
courthouse and refused to obey a Federal judge’s ruling ordering its
removal. In defiance, he claimed that announcing it depicts the "moral
foundations of law" and reflects the "sovereignty of God over the affairs
of men." For his actions, he is now rightly the former Chief Justice. Now,
he seeks passage of the Alabama Senator Richard Shelby's "Constitution
Restoration Act" and its House companion, the "Ten Commandments Defense
Act" offered by Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt. Among other threats to the
separation of church and state, these bills would ban Federal courts from
curbing state court rulings allowing an "acknowledgment of God".




Sam Brownback

The Kansas Senator and 2008 GOP presidential hopeful aims to bring his
retrograde worldview to the White House. A one-time evangelical turned
born-again Catholic, the former Gingrich firebrand wants to bring his
personal jihad against abortion, stem cell research and gay-marriage to
the entire United States. A warrior for the supposed "culture of life,"
in 2006 Brownback displayed a child's drawing of embryos on the Senate
floor during the stem cell debate, relating the 7-year old girl's plea,
"are you going to kill me?" Announcing his candidacy, Brownback declared
that "every human life is a beautiful, sacred, unique child of a loving
God" and that "the family and the culture are under withering attack."
It's no wonder his American Taliban fellow traveler Tony Perkins of the
Family Research Council said of the Kansan, "Senator Brownback is
unrivaled as an advocate for the family and for life in Washington."




John Ashcroft

The Attorney General may be on his way out, but his longing for a return
to the Middle Ages is undiminished. The son of a Pentecostal minister, the
man who lost his Missouri Senate reelection to a dead man brought his own
version of sharia to the Justice Department, holding regular prayer
meetings, covering up bare-breasted statues, and barring meetings of gay
employees. Apparently, only Ashcroft's deep devotion to God exceeds his
anti-abortion ferocity and fidelity to neo-Confederate causes such as
blocking desegregation and African-American judges. Ashcroft neatly
summarized his own view of American government, "Unique among the nations,
America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal,
not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our
source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus."




Tom Delay

The one-time exterminator and ethically challenged House Majority Leader
is also one of Washington’s foremost Crusaders. The man who once compared
the EPA to the Gestapo (for banning his beloved DDT) sees his mission as
bringing “a Biblical worldview to government.” Among other things, that
worldview includes Delay's conclusion that "I don't believe there is a
separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear.
The only separation is that there will not be a government church." Delay
also pronounced that "our entire system is built on the Judeo-Christian
ethic, but it fell apart when we started denying God. If you stand up
today and acknowledge God, they will try to destroy you... My mission is
to bring us back to the Constitution and to Absolute Truth that has been
manipulated and destroyed by a liberal worldview."




Henry Hyde

Author of the Hyde Amendment limiting the use of Federal funds for
abortions, Hyde is one of the fiercest voices of morality in the House.
This, despite the fact that the Illinois representative and Clinton
impeachment hound had an adulterous affair he deemed a "youthful
indiscretion.“ Hyde had experience in handling these matters publicly,
speaking out in defense of his similarly disgraced colleague Dan Crane in
1982, "he is embarrassed, he is humiliated, he is disgraced...The Judeo-
Christian tradition says hate the sin and love the sinner...I think it is
time to love the sinner." For Hyde, the Judeo-Christian tradition
apparently did not apply to Bill Clinton.




Rick Santorum

The staunchly Catholic Senator from Pennsylvania has been ardent foe of
abortion and reproductive rights since joining the Senate. A leading voice
in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment banning same-sex marriage,
Santorum has been outspoken about the perils to American society of “man
on dog” relationships. The junior Senator from Pennsylvania, who has also
stated that there is no constitutional right to privacy, sees gay
marriage, and not Al Qaeda, as the greatest threat facing the United
States. ""I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the
balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance. Isn't that
the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?"




Tom Coburn

Joining Bill Frist among the ranks of the physician Senators, the
Oklahoman alerted his fellow Sooners to the threat of lesbians run amok in
the their high schools. "Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools
in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom.
Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened
to us?" Coburn, an obstetrician, has said he favors the death penalty for
abortion providers and called state legislators "a bunch of crapheads."
The good doctor, who called his race against Brad Carson a choice between
"good and evil", also has been accused of Medicare fraud and sterilizing a
woman without her permission.




Jim DeMint

The new Senator from South Carolina has already distinguished himself on
both social and tax policy. During a campaign debate, DeMint stated that
"if a person is a practicing homosexual, they should not be teaching in
our schools." DeMint also has it ass-backwards (pun intended) on tax
reform, proposing the abolition of the income tax and its replacement with
a wildly regressive 23% consumption tax.




James Dobson

The head of Focus on the Family, Dobson has created a global empire in
Colorado Springs, Colorado. Heading a group whose radio programs reach 7
million Americans each week and are broadcast in 115 nations, Dobson may
now be the leading crossover politico-religious figure in the country. In
the immediate aftermath of Bush’s reelection and the GOP tidal wave in
Congress, Dobson threw his weight around, calling for Arlen Specter’s head
and labeling Vermont Senator Pat Leahy a “God's people hater.” (Dobson
might want to consult with Vice President Cheney on getting their message
– and language – straight visa vis Leahy.)




Jerry Falwell

The creator of the Moral Majority, Falwell continues to play a major
jihadist role in mobilizing the Christian Right. Still smarting from his
courtroom defeat at the hands of Larry Flynt, Falwell attributed 9/11 to
divine punishment of America, stating "I really believe that the pagans,
and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who
are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU,
People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize
America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this
happen.'" More recently, he called the NOW the “National Organization of
Witches” and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
“anti-Christ”.




Pat Robertson

The one-time presidential candidate and broadcasting giant with Ralph Reed
made the Christian Coalition into the power it is today. Robertson agreed
with Falwell's assessment that the United States, home of feminists,
homosexuals and abortionists, got its just desserts from the Lord on 9/11,
Robertson also turned election prognosticator in October, "I really
believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election
in 2004...It doesn't make any difference what he [Bush] does, good or bad,
God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."




Ralph Reed

The head of the Georgia GOP and Bush’s coordinator for the southeast U.S.,
Reed is the archetypal Crusader. The man who helped make the Christian
Coalition such a dominant force summarized his un-Christian tactics, “I
paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're
in a body bag. You don't know until election night.” Blessed are the meek
indeed.




Tony Perkins

Perkins has led the Family Research Council since 2003, after previously
founding the Louisiana Family Forum to fight the "increasing influence of
the homosexual community on public policy issues" and authoring that
state's covenant marriage legislation. Perkins likes to refer to the
"homosexual death-style" and labels civil unions "a serious threat to the
health of our culture." With Bill Frist, Perkins is at the center of the
judicial filibuster fight, proclaiming after the death of Terri Schiavo
that the courts "are suffering from a persistent state of arrogance" and
"no longer respect human life." Along with Dobson and other junior members
of the American Taliban, Perkins is hosting the April 24th "Justice
Sunday" event to protest the judicial filibuster as an attack "against
people of faith."




Gary Bauer

Bauer, president of American Values and former head of the Family Research
Council, shows that bearing a striking resemblance to Star Wars' Yoda is
no barrier to influence in American culture. The one-time presidential
candidate continues to play a major role in driving the supposed Christian
agenda. Telling his faithful that "our nation stands at the brink of a
cultural crisis", Bauer adds that "and so long as God gives me breath I
will do everything possible to defend faith, family and freedom. Once
again, I must ask for your prayers and your financial support."




Richard Land

Land, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention's "Ethics and Religious
Liberty" Commission, has been a steadfast and vocal supporter of President
Bush. He noted that "Republicans abort at lower rates than Democrats. I
read an estimate that by the 2000 election, five million potential Gore
voters had been lost to abortion." He also pointed out that "I don't think
there's any question that this president's heartbeat is close to the
heartbeat of Southern Baptists when it comes to very serious and important
public policy issues to Southern Baptists." Recently, Land's commission
has been debating a proposal encouraging Southern Baptists to home-school
their children, removing them from the "godless public schools."