In the bizarro Fox/right wing world, Christians are constantly under attack by the evil forces of the Obama administration. Meanwhile, in the real world, conservative Christian churches still enjoy their nice tax exemptions and the freedom to preach their gospel of exclusion without any interference from that nasty gay agenda loving government. But fear not, persecuted Christians. Former Jack Abramoff pal Ralph Reed has the answers for all those who are troubled by the state of America's "moral decay." And if you want to invest $17.50, on Amazon, for his new book "Awakening, How America Can Turn From Economic and Moral Destruction Back to Greatness," you can read Reed's advice on how to reclaim this country for Jesus and the GOP! This morning, on Fox & Friends he talked about his message to an adoring Elisabeth Hasselbeck
At the beginning of the "Fight for Faith" segment, Hasselbeck played video of Ralph Reed, at CPAC, talking about how "our freedom, as Americans, to practice our religious beliefs and to express our faith in God is under assault as never before." She reported that Ralph explains it all in his new book and introduced the smarmy Reed (not wearing green) who is head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Hasselbeck praised the book because it offers "action points" which Christians can use in order to reverse what Reed thinks is America's "moral decay." Hasselbeck asked Reed why he thinks that the president's policies are responsible for this decay. Reed said that the decay is "undeniable" and cited how one out of every two marriages ends in divorce. ROFLMAO - Not a problem for uber Catholic, Republican Newt Gingrich or several Fox News hosts. He cited the percentage of out of wedlock births and poor educational stats.
He added that his book is about hope because it offers a way to turn things around with "a moral and spiritual awakening." In what was a blatant attempt to elicit an answer geared to reinforcing a Christian right propaganda point Hasselbeck pulled this one straight out of the anal reaches of the Fox News playbook:
"Some critics may say, wait a minute, you say that the President's policies don't do enough to protect Christians globally, they're being persecuted every day and domestically the policies aren't helping here either - but isn't he a Christian?" (Oh, no, he's a Muslim, right?)
Reed said that he isn't "questioning" the President's faith (?!) because he's "not a judge of another man's heart." (?!) But, rather, you need to "look at the fruit" of the administration's policies which include the nasty slut pill pushing HHS mandate which is "forcing religious charities to adopt health care services that violate their religion, assault their faith, and do injustice to their conscience."
Fact Check - the Obama administration, in an effort at compromise, said that "women who work for nonprofit religious groups that object to birth control could receive separate coverage not paid for by the employers." Nobody mentioned that!
He brought up the Hosanna Tabor case, not relevant to the HHS birth control mandate, in which the evil Obama administration argued against the position taken by a LutheranChurch against one of their clergy employees. And then he referenced, OMG, how Obama, "on foreign soil," said that we're not a Christian nation which, of course, is true.
Reed, whose group sent out a survey with the question 'Is Obama a greater threat than the Nazis," preached that while he's not questioning Obama's faith, he's "questioning his policies" which are "insensitive to and, at times, openly hostile to Christians and their right to speak in public." Hasselbeck praised Reed's solutions to "get out of the decay." (More attempts to discriminate the LGBT community, more homophobic commentary from the religious right, more attempt to criminalize abortion and shut down Planned Parenthood?)
The propaganda chyrons stated Fox Fact: War on Christianity, Freedom of Religion Coming Under Assault and War on Religion, Christian Values Coming Under Attack.
Rather than whine about fatherless families, Reed should examine GOP policies that reward the rich whilst destroying the social safety net for the poor, many of them single parents. Maybe he should think about how not raising the minimum wage keeps people in poverty, many of them single parents. But in the world of the Fox News/religious right, religious freedom for the mythical hordes of persecuted Christians is more important - praise Jesus and Roger Ailes!