How can social conservatives who yearn for an America where the Ten Commandments are posted on every stationary object across this great nation be so obtuse as to the meaning of those Commandments?

I’ve been asking myself that very question after reading the results of a study that found people with conservative ideologies are happier than their liberal counterparts. It’s not that I begrudge the conservatives their happiness. Heck, this country was founded on the right to pursue happiness.

No, I’m concerned about the reason conservatives are so happy. According to researchers Jaime Napier and John Jost of New York University, conservatives are happy because they are able to rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Tonight is a repeat of the Monday Vigil from March 31, in which we once again held a vigil of focused intention. Below the fold you will find the list of intentions we used that evening with minor edits and additions. Our regular start time is 5PM PDT, 6PM MDT, 7PM CDT and 8PM EDT, but if the time doesn't work for you, join in when you are able. Read through the list and depending on your own faith tradition you may either pray for the list of intentions, or hold them in a meditative focus. And of course if any of them are offensive to you, feel free to ignore them.

I usually like James Carville. But then, I rarely like anyone more than the Clintons, and Carville's usually a Clinton defender. None stauncher.

Which has put me in an awkward place these last months, as Carville defends, in increasingly shrill tones, "The Clintons." He's said some thing that, for the first time, have made me wince.

But yesterday?

Wow. Well over the top, even for him. It comes from this NYT's item.

Bill Richardson as Judas?

What else would that analogy mean?

Think that one through for about five seconds....then read on...

   

My fellow progressives:

I’m afraid the Republicans have caught on to us. Brett Winterble, a contributor to Human Events, uncovered the bare bones of our plot to take the reins of power from conservatives. Here’s what he’s uncovered so far:

What we have is the sick and twisted dreams of Pinch Sulzberger, Don  Imus, Maureen Dowd, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews come true: the GOP has been forced to choose a nominee designed to cause the base to retch, and thereby not vote. Guaranteeing 4 years of Clinton score settling or Obama socializing entire corporate sectors.

So first my apologies to all the Ron Paulians (and there were a lot of Muslims aboard that bandwagon)-- yes, I would have probably taken Dr. Ron Paul over any of the current candidates (with the exception of Musa Maguire :) ), but only IF he could be elected (though my feelings about his libertarian positions are changing as you will read later). And yes, you all can continue to be in a state of denial and believe that he will come out of nowhere and still win. And yes, I admit that the mainstream media has pretty much ignored Ron Paul, even the malicious NPR (sarcasm alert). And yes, we can insist that this lack of coverage has nothing to do with Paul not having any real impact on the primaries already occurred (sarcasm alert).

But here's the bottomline:

My faith is my life - it defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them. For example, when it comes to the environment, I believe in being a good steward of the earth. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives. ~ M. Huckabee

To my mind there appears to be some wishy-washy, slippery, semantical silliness rolling through some of the questions and debates regarding religion and the elections. This is probably why I've been ruminating on it for the past week or so, trying to put my finger on the point of disparity.

Josh over at talkingpointsmemo.com has stumbled across some strange use of the language by Huckabee and he thinks it's code-speak to evangelicals.  What do you think?  More below....

While satellites and cameras watch from the skies
An acid drop of rain recycled from the sea
It washed away my shadow burnt a hole in me
And all the king's men cannot put it back again
But the ghetto sun will nurture life
And mend my soul sometime again
~ Massive Attack

Huckabee's recent comments on the Bhutto assassination have stirred up all sorts of opinion in the media, which then cause a chain-reaction of comments on those opinions ad nauseam.  The only interesting comment I read was by CNN's (of all places) Bill Schneider who said that: "Mike Huckabee is a populist. His comments on Pakistan reflect a populist understanding of the crisis, which, is to say, not much. Sure, the political establishment is snickering, but I doubt that his misstatements bother his supporters much."  One of the more amusing statements I have yet to read regarding these silly candidates.

How much truth does a spirit endure, how much truth does it dare? More and more that became for me the real measure of value.  Error (faith in the ideal) is not blindness, error is cowardice.  Every attainment, every step forward in knowledge, follows from courage, from hardness against oneself, from cleanliness in relation to oneself.

The word ideal being used here seems to mean a Utopian/Platonic Form.  However it is a question of what idols are held up as such ideals that the complaint is raised against. So I decided to examine that for a minute.

Indeed, the perfect Christian state is not the so-called Christian state – which acknowledges Christianity as its basis, as the state religion, and, therefore, adopts an exclusive attitude towards other religions. On the contrary, the perfect Christian state is the atheistic state, the democratic state, the state which relegates religion to a place among the other elements of civil society.

It would seem that almost all of the issues that the media is putting forth to the public are, in some way, related to the presidential candidates' religious views. This may not seem apparent at first, but eventually, it must come down to this fact. Hence, the recent verbal sparring between Romney and Huckabee regarding the Mormon faith. In the coming months I expect similar events to occur.

Last week I traveled to Iowa as part of an interfaith coalition calling for more equitable and humane immigration policies that treat all people with dignity and respect. Our goal is to send a message to all presidential candidates that people of faith aren't buying the extreme, hateful, anti-immigrant rhetoric overrunning our radio frequencies and creeping into the presidential campaigns. (http://www.iowatia.org/ImmigrationPetition.htm)

It was my first trip to Iowa, and I didn't know what to expect. I feared that the people who filled pews across Iowa every Sunday morning might be the same people who watch Lou Dobbs every night. I was jaded from hearing Christian-labeled politicians reject Christ's loving example of extending perfect justice and perfect mercy by deporting innocent children, denying life-saving services to the elderly and chronically ill, and unforgivingly refusing to allow undocumented individuals to get their legal status in order by paying fines, learning English, and maintaining a clean record.

Yesterday, I participated in a conference call by the Edwards campaign for faith leaders. The call focused on Senator Edwards commitment to the poor, and other moral issues, from the war in Iraq, the environment, and yes, sexual justice issues, were never mentioned. There were only a few minutes on the call for questions, and it didn't seem the time to bring up anything new into the mix.

Religious leaders are being courted heavily by the campaigns for their endorsement. It's as if we are right up there with rock stars, hollywood celebrities, and people with deep pockets. Last week, Bishop Gene Robinson came out for Senator Obama to much press attention.