This letter to the Editor appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal. It can be found at www.journalnow.com. I think it expresses perfectly the direction in which the Republican Party has moved.


Served Well
Winston-Salem Journal
Tuesday, August 2, 2005


The religious right have captured the soul of the Republican Party. And they want more. George Grant, a fundamentalist preacher in Tennessee, writes in The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action, "Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ - to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness." That belief smacks of theocracy. It presents a threat to our constitutional principle separating church and state.

Separation of church and state has served our great nation well. It has ensured philosophical and religious freedom for all Americans. Americans have the right to join or not join any church they desire. Fundamentalists even have the right to practice and preach their religious beliefs. But the fundamentalists want more. They want public policy to be based on their religious beliefs. That is dangerous to a democratic society. The religious right must be politically defeated in order to ensure liberty for all our citizens.