There have always been politicians who wear their religion on their sleeve in order to be more electable.  My father's father converted his family to Catholicism to be more favourable when he ran for mayor in a city overwhelmingly Catholic, a hypocrisy he was well aware of before and after he gave his victory speech.  It wasn't that he didn't believe in some sort of God necessarily, it's that he figured it was all Christianity so he couldn't be bothered with little differences as he saw it. 

President Obama has received unequalled scrutiny over his faith and religion since he declared himself a candidate for President of the United States back in 2007.  As late as last month the White House had to issue a statement to say that the President is indeed a Christian.  These attacks come from many prominent corners of the conservative world and have resonated with a large portion of the so called values voter. 

Amid the anger surrounding the worst economy seen in a generation is a new group of candidates who are rising with it and who happen to be overtly religious crossed with an entirely free market ideology.  It's a breed of person who is not interested in accurate data, logic, or reason.  They let their interpretation of Christianity and the bible guide their decisions and evidence be damned.

I can only hope that the anger over the poor condition of the economy has something to do with the rise of the fundamentalist class to the forefront today, but if it isn't, we're all in for even more hilariously insane quotes, or armageddon if they ever gain control of Congress and the White House.

Without further delay here are some quotes from prominent Tea Party figures:

 Rand Paul (Tea Party/G.O.P candidate for Senate in Kentucky): "I'm a Christian. We go to the Presbyterian Church. My wife's a deacon there and we've gone there ever since we came to town. I see that Christianity and values is the basis of our society. I think that -- in some ways it's funny, 'cause people talk about laws, and they say, "Well, we have a law against this." Laws really only work because most of us don't even need the laws. You know what I mean? Ninety-eight percent of us won't murder people, won't steal, won't break the law, and it helps a society to have that religious underpinning. You still need to have the laws, I mean, you have to have laws, but I think it helps to have a people who believe in law and order and who have a moral compass or a moral basis for their day-to-day life."



Joe Miller (Tea Party/G.O.P Candidate in Alaska for Senate):  "So far the Lord has always provided the money in this grass roots campaign, and this time God is going to use you to provide!"

Jim DeMint (The original Tea Party G.O.P Senator):

Senator Jim DeMint: I think as this thing (the Tea Party movement) continues to roll you're going to see a parallel spiritual revival that goes along with it.

David Brody: Just so I understand, when you say spiritual revival how are you terming that? What do you mean specifically as in "spiritual revival?

Senator Jim DeMint: Well, I think people are seeing this massive government growing and they're realizing that it's the government that's hurting us and I think they're turning back to God in effect is our salvation and government is not our salvation and in fact more and more people see government as the problem and so I think some have been drawn in over the years to a dependency relationship with government and as the Bible says you can't have two masters and I think as people pull back from that they look more to God. It's no coincidence that socialist Europe is post-Christian because the bigger the government gets the smaller God gets and vice-versa. The bigger God gets the smaller people want their government because they're yearning for freedom.

  Ron Paul (G.O.P. Representative from Texas):  "The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders' political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government's hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life."  

Sarah Palin (half term former G.O.P. Governor of Alaska): "Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant -- they're quite clear -- that we would create law based on the God of the bible and the ten commandments."

There are more, but I think the point has been made.  Even if you're a somewhat religious person, the views held by those above are inherently exclusive and not inclusive, but that's only part of the story.  The fact is that there is no real reconciliation between those who want to enforce morality and religious intolerance and those who want a free open society.  And while the anger out there is driving people to vote for anybody but an incumbent, or not vote at all, a well funded and energized group of religious nut cases are doing their best to say all the right things to get people even more fired up and dictate policy.

Beware the religious ideologue because their judgment is severely hampered.