just wrong on this one.
FEATURE
Mr. Wolf is at Your Door - And the Christian Coalition is the Knocker!
Frank Wolf isn't a bad guy --
just wrong on this one.
The right wing members of the House, led by the nose by the Christian right -- who represent about a hundred fanatics in each state, but pretend to speak for "millions" -- has launched an all-out effort to finger nations who don't agree with them and their precepts regarding religious freedom.
The bill they sponsored, and got through almost everyone in the almost-never-deliberative House, would "automatically" sanction nations that are guilty of a "pattern of religious persecution."
On its face, it sounds like a good idea. After all, freedom of religion is an important plank in America's constitutional platform.
But anyone who knows an ultra-right Christian zealot knows that freedom of religion means "freedom to be a bible-beating Christian -- or burn in Hell instead."
Not to mention the fact that interfering with other nation's rights to decide how they'll run their countries will make a mockery out of foreign relations and the State Department, who would be accused of trying to foist the New American Religious Fundamentalism on nations that might prefer Buddhist fundamentalism or even hedonism.
The fact is that many nations are actually grounded in religious belief and their entire body of law emerges from that belief.
A similar bill remains languishing in the Senate, where people seem to have higher IQs, and the Christian Coalition less power to influence.
The White House is threatening a veto, based on the obvious fact that such a bill would hinder the president's ability to conduct foreign policy. However, Bill Clinton is in a pickle: loath to be perceived as anti religious freedom. The nuts who crafted this bill thought ahead, and planned well -- for labeling it a "Freedom of Religion" bill puts any elected official who might oppose it in the position of being in "Satan's" corner and therefore unfit for office in the New America which now handily confuses family values with Christian values -- whatever they are.
So nearly everyone voting supported the bill.
The Christian Coalition went around harvesting hundreds of other supporters for its Crusade, and among them are some pretty impressive groups. But some on this list, provided by Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, have since drifted away. Here is a list of the backers, most of which no one has ever heard of, and some of which are best known for supporting Paula Jones and her ilk for the past few years.
Organizations in Support of H.R. 2431
President Clinton convinced 60 of these evangelical groups to bow out of support for the Wolf bill. Recognize any names?
Advocates International
Agape International
American Baptist Evangelicals
American Coptic Association
American Copts of California
American Family Association
Anti Defamation League
Assyrian Academic Alliance
Assyrian National Congress
Assyrian National Foundation
B'Nai B'rith Campus
Crusade for Christ
Cardinal Kung Foundation
Catholic Alliance
Christian Coalition
Christian Legal Society
Christian Reformed Church
Christian Solidarity International
Concerned Women for America
Empower America
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Evangelical Free Church of America
Evangelicals for Social Action
Family Research Council
Focus on the Family
Freedom House's Puebla Program
Institute on Religion and Democracy
International Campaign for Tibet
International Christian Concern
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
Iranian Christian International
National Association of Evangelicals
National Jewish Coalition
National Religious Broadcasters
Open Doors with Brother Andrew
Prison Fellowship Ministries
Religious Action Center for Reformed Judaism
The Salvation Army
Seventh Day Adventist Church
Southern Baptist Convention
U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
Voice of the Martyrs
World Evangelical Fellowship - Religious Liberty Commission
The Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights Under Islamization
American Coptic Union
Asian Christian Ministries
Assyrian International News Agency
Assyrian National Congress
Assyrian Political Review
Bangladesh Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Bet-Nahrain
Canadian Coptic Association
Christian Amnesty
Christian Copts of California
Christian Voice of Pakistan
Coptic American Friendship Association
Coalition Committee of Experts
Coming Home USA
CREED
Egyptian Relief Agency
Eritrean Academic Committee
Federation of Hindu Associations
Foundation for Faith in Search of Understanding
Freedom USA
Institute on Religion and Democracy
Indo-American Kashmir Forum
International AWAZ
International Christian Concern
Iranian Christians
International HIS
Jubilee Campaign
Law and Liberty Trust
Lebanese Organization of New York
MECHRIC
Middle East Research Center
National Interreligious Task Force
New Sudan Foundation Operation
Nehemiah for South Sudan
Open Doors-Netherlands
Pakistani-American Association
Pakistani Apostolate
Persecution Relief Research and Education Foundation
South Lebanese Christian Association
Southern Sudanese in America
Southern Sudan Resource Center
Society of St. Stephen
The Trinitarians Religious Freedom Program
Toronto Coptic Association
Wake-up Coalition
Word Evangelical Fellowship-Religious Liberty Commission
World Lebanese Organization
World Maronite Union
Zwemer Institute of Muslim Studies
The sponsors of this bill may be hard pressed to answer why things like torture, public maiming , government-sponsored genocide and other myriad nation sponsored travesties are not more, or at least, as important as "religious persecution" -- and ergo fodder for other "automatic sanctions," which we think is akin to "automatic writing" in this context.
Who knows, maybe we won't need a foreign policy based on non-internal interference with sovereign nations -- the basis for diplomacy for the past 5,000 years. Why not just base our foreign policy on the Christian Coalition's "Family Values?"
The lead House sponsor of this ridiculous, but just overwhelmingly passed, bill is none other than Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia who represents sort of the Virginia "outback" counties close-in, but not close enough to Washington to thought of as having a diverse citizenry. If they were, Wolf never would have been elected in the first place.
"Passing this bill will say to the world that the United States will no longer remain silent while people of faith are being tortured… enslaved, abducted and killed for their religious beliefs," said Wolf.
Wolf's bill would:
We can just see it now -- "A priest, a rabbi and a minister were sitting in the Secretary of State's office. The Rabbi said…"
Does this mean that Islamic fundamentalists who are persecuted in Israel or in Germany will be able to immigrate to the United States more easily?
The President does have one out: under the bill, the president could waive sanctions "for national security reasons" or by reporting to Congress that lifting the sanctions would result in the end to religious persecution. Sanctions would expire automatically when a country ended its support for or tolerance of religious oppression.
What's all this "automatic" stuff? How does placing or lifting sanctions happen automatically? Does this mean that nary a sole has to do anything once a nation begins to foster religious persecution, or once it ends? Someone has to take the action, or do they?
Of course, the biggest folly of the bill -- which left only 47 hearty intellects in the House able to vote against it -- is the impact it might have on the religious minorities themselves. Let's take the mythical desert nation of Zonga. Everyone in Zonga is Zongish, but a small group of Zongans are Wapoohs. Zongans continually harass Wapoohs although they too are citizens, and the Zongan government has done nothing to guarantee the rights of Wapoohs. Under the "Wolf Bill" Zonga would lose it's IMF loans -- essential to building their water and irrigation system. The denial of IMF loans occurs "automatically" and Zonga loses a billion dollar IMF -backed loan. All the Zongish Zongans blame the Wapooh Zongans and proceed to murder them.
Good bill, Mr. Wolf.
The bill, of course, is a top priority of conservative groups, such as the ever-weaker Christian Coalition. However, Republicans who still have not figured out that the Christian Right has no political power -- save in a few scattered backwater districts -- is pandering to the Randy Tates of the nation after visits from arch-conservative "family values" types on the Hill last week. These men and women threatened the GOP with abandonment should they not begin to toe the Christian line… immediately. The idiot Republicans who might gain one or two votes from the Christian Right fell for the ruse -- and the even-dumber Democrats -- all but about 50 -- went along, too frightened to stand up for traditional foreign policy aims.
So if you want to know why Newt and the Gang are screaming about the White House all of sudden and passing bills like these, look no further than:
What the B'Nai B'rith is doing supporting this bill is beyond us. Perhaps they're worried about the New Germany.
Well, they do have a point.
- The Editors
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