Shame in Colorado

That religious fanatics managed to hijack and nearly destroy the once-esteemed Republican Party became evident after the strange events that led up to and culminated in the US presidential election of 2000. Kept out of public media was any discussion of the undemocratic role played by the US Supreme Court, dominated by staunch Catholics, which overrode the popular vote to install an unstable man (and two-time felon) as President. The nation was then rapidly plunged into an illegal war, attacks on Constitutional rights, priority given to special interests, siphoning tax money into "faith based" schemes, illegal surveillances, and the authorization of a torture policy that sneered at international agreement against such inhumane practices.

Such corruption of government can be laid on the shoulders of religious fanaticism that seeks to gratify material lust by indulging in hate-filled agendas. Such is the case of the Colorado "conservatives" (read religious fanatics), sentators Dave Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) and Scott Renfroe (R-Greeley) braying their ignorance and pompously displaying their lack of compassion for life.

Schultheis' dogmatic politics is underscored in his "Christian" (?) attitude: emergency rooms should allow victims of violence to die if they have not been to church in the past month: and he considers it a waste of money to run public service announcements in Spanish warning possible illegal immigrants to buckle their seatbelts. But most appalling of his self-righteous pronouncements has been his opposition to pregnant women being tested for HIV, a procedure that could catch the infection early enough to prevent it from spreading to the unborn child. Schulteis' judgment is that the mother should pass the deadly virus to the infants so that the suffering would remind society of the negative consequences of sexual promiscuity. Maybe then, he is quoted as saying, that unnecessary misery would show that "...they should adjust their behavior." Of course this shows that his own behavior is impeccable.

And Schultheis' dogmatic contemporary, Scott Renfroe, likes to quote Old Testament hate statements on the Senate floor. His personal obsession is gay life, and he has it from "revealed word" (as edited by 8th century BCE priests) that gays "have committed a detestable act and they shall surely be put to death." (Strange, isn't it, how often the rampaging religionists ignore the Commandment, Thou shalt not kill.) Renfroe then went on, after calling for death for consenting same-sex acts, to compare homosexuality with murder! Renfroe thus openly encourages attitudes of prejudice and supports violence upon life's diversity. But then again, that is what much of the OT is all about.