After Buchanan suggests secularism leads to Nazism, Newsweek's Meacham agrees that there's a "great danger"

 

Conservative fundamentalism leads to terrorism.  There is no difference between the Taliban and Talibaptists.  

 

How about that.

A Nazi sympathizer, and a theocratic dork.

Tele-evangelist pat buchanan observes:

"I think the post-Christian America idea is correct. Take Roman Catholics in the 1950's America for example: 75% of them went to Mass every Sunday, versus just 25% today... Vocations [entry into the Priesthood] are way way down... schools are closing. And when men cease to believe in God, they will then believe in anything."

1. The time frame that pastor pat references when he refers to the 1950's, also just happens to be the life and birth of television in America. This is both true and not at all coincidental: the near universal influence of television in America, is not merely a collateral cultural infuence in America, with respect to what the Right Reverend buchanan is observing here. Television in America is more popular than Religion, even on Sundays (just ask the Nielson ratings people about Sundays, and they'll tell you about NFL football and "60 Minutes" and whatever else that television broadcasts on that day).  

2. Since television's inception in the 1950's (or at least the beginning of it's universal influence in America), a staple of boob tube programming has always been the tele-evangelist, or other televised preacher. There has been a long parade of that breed on television: they've gone from black & white to Living Color, and with the advent of cable television, there's more of them now on television than ever.

3. These televised religious rascals have never exactly been the high point of men who publicly Praise the LORD, or otherwise read Scripture in public, or (in the case of pat robertson of the "700 Club") hold hands with each other and bow their heads and shut their eyes very tightly as they speak aloud to the LORD... right there in a television studio, with all the lights and the cameras and the televisied action, complete with the stage directions of "we're live in 5, 4, 3, 2, and (points finger sharply at the on camera talent)".

Now, does monseigneur buchanan see the possibility of any relationship between those three things I described, namely the universal influence in America of television (the Prince of the Air), and television (and the televised NFL) on Sunday, and also those many rascals we see regularly, invoking the LORD's Name between their solicitations for donations to their ministries (excuse me, not donations, but "gifts" is what they call them)...

Father pat, do you think there's any relationship between those televised things, and the "post-Christian America idea" that you think is correct?

Also, where you say "when men cease to believe in God, they will then believe in anything", wouldn't you insert into the void you mention, the void in American men where God formally was found, wouldn't you place television there, as one of the things that people will then believe in?

Isn't television the new religion?

Doesn't the rise of television mirror the neglect the American masses make, when they neglect to attend Mass?

Aren't these many religious frauds we see regularly televised, aren't they as much the reason for an age of American disbelief, as anyone else?

And when I refer to religious frauds on television, I refer especially to the ones in the video clip above, Cardinal buchanan included.

 

Wow, religion and wiretapping, it seems Pres Obama has more in common wwith Pres Bush than we realized. http://www.alternet.org/rights/129920/is_obama_bringing_too_much_religion_into_the_white_house/

Fairliberal, you're really going to complain about Obama bringing religion into the White House, when during the Bush administration, some of the major policies formed in the White House were directly and completely influenced by folks like Focus on the Family? And what is especially funny is a highly partisan and conservative website pointing this out. He's bringing religious advisers to the executive branch, as in, the White House office for religious affairs. One would think you'd want, you know, religious advisers for such a thing.

Nobody cared that Rick Warren offered a prayer during inauguration, what we cared about was his views about homosexuality. The prayer, that was fine. It was the man delivering it that we disagreed with, not the religion part.

Bush could have done the same thing, and this article asserts that once again, the strawman argument that "if Bush had done it, the press would have gone crazy!" I doubt it. Saying prayers before events has nothing to do with the government enforcing a religion on folks.

So what is the problem here?

And where do you get this wiretapping business? It's not even part of the article you cited. So a conservative site is all of a sudden questioning Obama's faith based initiatives? It's a wacky world out there.