YES, SHE CAN GET EVEN CRAZIER…. Depending on one’s faith tradition, the wording of the First Commandment can vary a bit, but most folks believe it’s the Abrahamic God telling his followers, “I am the Lord your God,” and “thou shalt have no other gods besides Me.” It’s a pretty straightforward commandment, warning against worship of false gods and idolatry.
Sharron Angle (R), the extremist Senate candidate in Nevada, has her own “unique” take on the First Commandment, which may be the single craziest thing she’s ever said. Jon Ralston reports on recent comments the lunatic candidate made on a Christian radio talk-show.
“And these programs that you mentioned — that Obama has going with Reid and Pelosi pushing them forward — are all entitlement programs built to make government our God. And that’s really what’s happening in this country is a violation of the First Commandment. We have become a country entrenched in idolatry, and that idolatry is the dependency upon our government. We’re supposed to depend upon God for our protection and our provision and for our daily bread, not for our government.”
This mindset will further reinforce to some that religion infuses everything Angle believes but also might explain her hostility to government programs, believing essentially they are produced by a false God.
Referencing her Senate campaign, Angle added, “I need warriors to stand beside me. You know, this is a war of ideology, a war of thoughts and of faith. And we need people to really stand for faith and trust, not hope and change.”
Greg Sargent added, “Is it a stretch to conclude that Angle genuinely views the Nevada Senate race as a Holy War?”
It’s not a stretch at all. Angle’s argument, such as it is, constitutes pure madness.
Let’s say we, the people of the United States, decide to form a more perfect union. We conclude that it’s a good idea to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. In turn, we create laws and government institutions to establish a government, and craft a Constitution with governmental powers and limits (one of which, incidentally, guarantees religious liberty, allowing us all to worship as we please, or not to worship at all.)
To hear Sharron Angle put it, this is all a terrible mistake. Why turn to our democratically elected government and our chosen political representatives to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty when we should be turning to the deity Holy Warrior Angle believes in?
The Las Vegas Sun recently reported that Angle, who said she’s running because God told her to, embraces a radical church-state philosophy that “parallels that of a religious political movement — Christian Reconstructionism — seeking to return American civil society to biblical law.”
If you’re unfamiliar with Christian Reconstructionism, it’s quite literally analogous to the Taliban and radical proponents of Sharia law — just as they want to replace secular law with laws based on their interpretation of the Quran, Reconstructionists want to replace secular law in the U.S. with their interpretation of the Christian Bible. In this vision, a radical take on Scripture would take the place of our Constitution.
Reconstructionists represent some of the most extreme elements of the American fringe — and they seem to have an ally running for the United States Senate in 2010.
