Religious-right leaders and activists in Texas will converge October 20 on Lewisville near Dallas for the second annual “Reclaiming Texas for Christ” conference. It sure seems from the conference program that what’s really going on here is another cynical effort to use faith to advance a political agenda.
Still, the “Reclaiming Texas” website assures visitors:
“This is not a political event and is not supported by any one church or denomination. Our committee of volunteers are conservative patriots who want to see our great nation return to the heritage from which she was founded. We believe America is great because our Great God formed and blesses her.” [Emphasis in original.]
Hmmm… “Not a political event”? Don’t believe it. The conference program includes some of the most political and extreme voices on the religious right in Texas. Among the speakers:
- Timothy Barton is a speaker for WallBuilders, the Texas-based organization his father — former Texas GOP vice chairman David Barton — founded. WallBuilders, which argues that separation of church and state is a “myth,” acts increasingly like a propaganda ministry for the Republican Party.
- Robert Jeffress is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas. His incendiary attacks on Muslims include calling Islam a “religion that promotes pedophilia.” Jeffress has suggested that President Obama is a Muslim and has criticized Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his Mormon faith, calling Mormonism a “cult.”
- Erik Stanley (not a Texan) is senior legal counsel for the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund. The ADF wants to turn conservative evangelical pastors essentially into partisan political bosses who work to influence the votes of their congregants.
A session called “Exposing the Radical Islamic Agenda in the United States” will be led by a “special guest.” Ooh. The anticipation.
Texas Freedom Network 
September 26, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Reclaiming Texas for Christ? How can pseudo-Christians do that?
September 27, 2011 at 9:42 am
Who says that Christ wants Texas? Particularly under its current (mis)management. If Christ wants to reclaim Texas, I’m sure He can do it for himself, and not need to depend on the loony right-wing fundamentalists.
September 27, 2011 at 12:14 pm
What I get a kick out of is that those so-called “Christians” supposedly love Jesus while hating Jews. In case folks have forgotten it, Jesus was a Jew. I also am a Jew; does that I have to leave Texas because “Christ” is reclaiming it? The term “Christ” is not a last name; it comes from the Greek word Christos which is a translation of the Hebrew Moshiach, an anointed one. All of the kings of Israel were “Christs.”
Now turn to the book of Hezekiah…
It really is pathetic that so few Christian “theologians” do not read or understand their paper pope.
September 27, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Christ never attempted to legislate Christian virtues.
To force others to become Christians is antiChrist-like.
Jesus never presumed that society was perfect, never became outraged at others who lived differently nor took a critical approach of others.
Jesus did reach out and offer a hand up to those in need, was never judgemental.
Perhaps these Christian wannabees will one day become Christians themselves, but, in the meantime, the rest of us will bear the cross of enduring their judgement.
September 28, 2011 at 7:38 am
These fascists are actually ‘anti-Christians’ in the fact that they are acting in ways diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus.
September 28, 2011 at 8:18 am
My very most favorite quotation is appropriate here, I believe.
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.”
Sinclair Lewis
September 29, 2011 at 2:57 pm
While frequently attributed to Sinclair Lewis, it’s not quite. Variants have been floating around for ages. In “The many Americas shall be one”, Harrison Evans Salisbury attributed the sentiment to Lewis as summation of the theme of “It Can’t Happen Here”. (Sinclair Lewis aptly predicted in It Can’t Happen Here that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”) However, to my surprise I can’t find any instance of any “carrying a/the cross” variant in any book before 2006 (apparently crept in from UseNet circa 2005).
The earliest variant I’ve found so far (via Google Books) is actually semi-independent of Lewis; it comes via the February 5, 1936 issue of The Christian Century (Volume 53; page 245): James Waterman Wise, jr., in a recent address here before the liberal John Reed club said that Hearst and Coughlin are the two chief exponents of fascism in America. If fascism comes, he added, it will not be identified with any “shirt” movement, nor with an “insignia,” but it will probably be “wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.”
The contemporary Tea Party movement makes this oldest version of the quote seem even more prescient.
September 29, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Well, look on the bright side. If the evangelical pastors start influencing their flock on who to vote for, they could lose their tax-free status and have to start paying taxes like all the rest of the businesses here and I bet if these mega churches had to start paying taxes, we could cut out a big chunk of the debt.