I think I’ve come full circle. I started this blog several years ago after I was offended with the apparent willingness of the conservative presidential primary candidates to scuttle any reasonable efforts at immigration reform, in exchange for votes.

I was offended with the constant negative stereotyping of Latinos, the constant fear-mongering, the equation of patriotism with thinly veiled racism.

The only difference between now and two years ago is that it has become politically correct to blame Latinos for the nation’s problems. Two years ago we had two presidential candidates who had advocated a path to residency for the millions of Hispanic laborers in this country. Both had acknowledged that we didn’t want another “trail of tears“, or “Mexican Repatriation“. There was even an acknowledgment that young Latino men and women who had been brought here when very young were an obvious valuable resource for the nation’s future.

In other words, a positive solution to a very complex problem had been on the horizon. It actually seemed as if “compassionate conservatism” could be a possibility.

After the election everything changed. The moderating influences of Bush and McCain were gone. The embarrassed Republican party suddenly retreated into extremism, openly encouraging the most radical voices, and then feigned surprise when it seemingly was taken over by neo-Goldwater politics.

Well established moderate candidates have been forced out, precisely because they were moderate. The new breed of Republicans are telling us collectively that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unconstitutional, that there is no church-state separation in the Second Amendment, that millions of US citizens should have their citizenship ripped away, and that an armed resistance to the US government is clearly constitutional.

All this is heralded by the Republican leadership as a marvelous fresh energy for the party. Angry, fearful, advocating violence, Constitutionally uninformed, often racially prejudiced.

And I fear, Christian.

I have nothing against Christians. I am one. Yet I am very uneasy when Christians attempt to use the political process to force a particular moral or world view upon others.

When Christians will vote for Christians just because they are Christians.

When Christians are unable or unwilling to stand in the place of someone not like themselves before they embark upon their particular partisan agenda.

Above all, I am afraid of Christians using their flavor of religious patriotism to enshrine attitudes and prejudices that they ought not to have in the first place.

Thus my blog.