I got an email announcement from the Rev. Wiley Drake, the infamous GOP baptist minister in Buena Park who has gotten in trouble in the past for mixing politics and religion. He is still doing that, of course, but he also wants us to know that he is quitting the Republican Party. Drake used to be an elected member of the OC GOP Central Committee.
Here is his press release:
I first joined the Republican Party in 1964 and went to work trying to get Barry Goldwater elected. I was not able to vote for Mr. Goldwater because my 21st birthday was not until November 23, and in those days you had to be 21 to vote.
I have served and worked hard for these 34 years but can no longer serve a Party that has lost it’s morality in order to win. I can no longer vote for the lesser of two evils. In fact I will no longer vote for any evil.
I will vote in November, I can no longer support leaders like John McCain or Democrats like Clinton and Obama. I will support and endorse a third party Godly leader for President of The United States.
I will also support and endorse other Godly people who are running for other offices. We will bring Politics back to JESUS from whence it came. America is and will remain a Christian Nation, so help me God.
Dr. Wiley S. Drake Sr.
Politics came from Jesus? Um, I don’t think so. America is a Christian nation? Well, I suppose, but this country was founded on freedom of religion, which also means freedom from religion. No one has a right to impose their religious beliefs on us. But Drake thinks otherwise so he is taking his Talibanesque show to the Constitution Party. I wonder who they are running for President? If enough of the hard right religious nuts leave the GOP, those lost votes might come back to haunt John McCain, particularly if he ends up running against Barack Obama.
UPDATE:
Drake has announced that he will be participating in an Anti-McCain Minutemen rally on Tuesday, March 25th. According to a press release, Drake and his Minutemen allies “will stage in front of the hotel and greet attendees with our peaceful sidewalk rally – to send the message to McCain and impact the event with issue of illegal immigration!”
The rally will take place on Tuesday, March 25, at 11:00 am. According to the press release, the Minutemen “will stage in front of the Island Hotel.” The address is 690 Newport Center Dr., Newport Beach.
There are a lot of the party faithful that just aren’t feeling McCain.
It’s disappointing that those with the real conservative values got forced out of the race.
This isn’t news. Wiley Drake already left the Party. Is he only going to re-register in a few months to again send out a press release, “I’ve left the Republican Party.”
Don’t give up. I may be mistaken, but the last I heard, McCain had not locked it up yet. Get down to they Island Hotel by 11:30 and give McCain a piece of your mind.
One talking point I would raise is is complete lack of understanding of blow back. I am amzazed that the Gallup Poll on Muslim views did not get front page coverage:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080227/lf_afp/usislamreligionethics;_ylt=ArwHtQradHOjZ3FRxn_HOqhg.3QA
Major survey challenges Western perceptions of Islam
by Karin ZeitvogelWed Feb 27, 12:21 PM ET
A huge survey of the world’s Muslims released Tuesday challenges Western notions that equate Islam with radicalism and violence.
The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism.
It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington.
“Samuel Harris said in the Washington Times (in 2004): ‘It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam’,” Dalia Mogadeh, co-author of the book “Who Speaks for Islam” which grew out of the study, told a news conference here.
“The argument Mr Harris makes is that religion in the primary driver” of radicalism and violence, she said.
“Religion is an important part of life for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and if it were indeed the driver for radicalisation, this would be a serious issue.”
But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world’s Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity “does not translate into widespread support for terrorism,” said Mogadeh, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.
About 93 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.
In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives — 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan.
But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed — the radicals — condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.
Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.
“Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran — for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity,” she said.
Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.
The survey shows radicals to be neither more religious than their moderate counterparts, nor products of abject poverty or refugee camps.
“The radicals are better educated, have better jobs, and are more hopeful with regard to the future than mainstream Muslims,” John Esposito, who co-authored “Who Speaks for Islam”, said.
“Ironically, they believe in democracy even more than many of the mainstream moderates do, but they’re more cynical about whether they’ll ever get it,” said Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University in Washington.
Gallup launched the study following 9/11, after which US President George W. Bush asked in a speech, which is quoted in the book: “Why do they hate us?”
“They hate… a democratically elected government,” Bush offered as a reason.
“They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.”
But the poll, which gives ordinary Muslims a voice in the global debate that they have been drawn into by 9/11, showed that most Muslims — including radicals — admire the West for its democracy, freedoms and technological prowess.
What they do not want is to have Western ways forced on them, it said.
“Muslims want self-determination, but not an American-imposed and -defined democracy. They don’t want secularism or theocracy. What the majority wants is democracy with religious values,” said Esposito.
The poll has given voice to Islam’s silent majority, said Mogahed.
“A billion Muslims should be the ones that we look to, to understand what they believe, rather than a vocal minority,” she told AFP.
Muslims in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East were interviewed for the survey, which is part of Gallup’s World Poll that aims to interview 95 percent of the world’s population.
“Politics came from Jesus?” That made me smile Art. Thanks. -j