Also cited by Sadie Fields, chairman of the splinter Georgia group, as reason for the break with the national Coalition was the national Christian Coalition's "liberal drift." What does that mean? According to an article that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in September, Fields was upset that the national Christian Coalition had taken up "such issues as global warming, an increase in the minimum wage, and control of the internet." The solution to these unacceptable moral inroads of doing something about planetary destruction and battling poverty? Withdraw and rename the state organization, the "Georgia Christian Alliance." It is as brazen an admission as it gets. The great reformation of the Christian Coalition has nothing to do with religion, but it has everything to do with a Republican political machine that seeks to feed what they believe are precast evangelical votes into the system. The address and phone number of the newly created "Georgia Christian Alliance" is identical, by the way, to the Christian Coalition of Georgia.

This past Sunday, October 29th, one million or so "2006 Georgia General Election Voter Guides" from the "Georgia Christian Alliance" in association with the "Georgia Conservative Coalition Education Fund, Inc." began to infect churches across the state. I assume similar initiatives are under way in Alabama, Iowa, and Ohio. The flier lists the statewide races and the respective candidates under which are listed four or five issues presumably important to Christians. All Democratic candidates are listed as "no response," unless the authors of the guide have deemed it important to answer for them. All Republican candidates have stated responses in accordance with the particular wedge they are exploiting. Included is a judicial race for the Georgia Supreme Court in which Carol Hunstein is given an asterisk to her "no response" while Mike Wiggins heartily agrees with all their tailored views on Roe v. Wade, school vouchers, etc. Hunstein's asterisk is a response letter posted to their website in which she reserves her judicial responsibility of impartiality on issues that might come before her. But of course this is not what they want to hear -- that is, unless it suits their purposes for a favored Supreme Court nominee to use it in congressional hearings. Mike Wiggins is a handpicked Bush administration lawyer of five years with a questionable family history including a lawsuit against his sister who also accused him of threatening her life when she was eight months pregnant. He has no judicial experience and his sole known courtroom experience as a practicing attorney was as defense counsel for a meth dealer. This is the Georgia Christian Alliance's values choice for the Georgia Supreme Court.

It is the specific issues themselves, in their wording and in their very selection, that give away the pure political gamesmanship. Issues are excluded where the Democrat might agree with their view on a moral issue. Every Democratic position must read "No Response" or "Oppose." Other obvious straw issues are raised in races meaningless to the issue such as "Prohibit abortion except in cases where the life of the mother is endangered" as an issue for Labor Commissioner. It allows them to mark down the Republican as "Supporting" the statement while the Democrat is marked as "No Response." No issue appears regarding poverty, global warming, genocide in Darfur, anything that in any way might be misconstrued as a Christian wanting to help the unfortunate or downtrodden or to take seriously the role of Earth's caretaker, seemingly defining Christian issues.

But what is most telling about the Voter Guide is the unmitigated pandering to racial fear in the South. This is clearly an organization that understands the racial divide in evangelical churches and plays to it as a cynical wedge issue. They are courting white voters based on race over issues that have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with religion. "Affirmative action programs that provide preference to minorities in hiring and promotion" appears as an issue beneath six races, all (R) Oppose (D) No response.  GA's photo ID bill that would require a state issued photo ID in order to vote and has already been struck down in the courts as discriminatory towards minorities receives prominence in three races, all with Republicans supporting it and Democrats either marked as "No response" or "Oppose." The issue of in-state tuition and scholarships for the children of illegal aliens also apparently gets their moral goat. There is absolutely no reason for these and other similar issues to be pushed as moral issues to white churches except that the Republican lackeys know that they are white and are courting them based not on morality but on immoral prejudice.

Also of note are two (and only two) special guides directed at churches in specific districts, Georgia's 12th and 8th, the two districts recently given three royal visits by Bush to stump for Republican House candidates. Indeed, from the specifically targeted house races alone, it's laughable to read "The Voter Guide is provided for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as an endorsement of any candidate or political party." It is so explicitly an absolute propagandistic endorsement of and by a crafted cog in the Rovian machine that I'm certain when the next ruling is handed down against them, they'll simply perpetually rename themselves and continue their unholy alliance under a new "Christian" brand name. And it is here that their righteous racism receives its full airing for the "Christian" guide proudly notes that 8th District hopeful, Mac Collins, a former House Republican and trucking company owner is opposed to "increased penalties for crimes based on bias or prejudice." In the strangest mangling of Christian ethics, the easing of hate crimes is now deemed part of the Christian agenda.

Following "Hate Sunday," targeted mailings also went out across Georgia. This flier also updated some local races to include the disturbing and sadistic issue that would require an "ultrasound picture of the unborn child to be shown to the mother prior to receiving an abortion." The idea that a woman already in an emotionally painful predicament would be forced by the state to undergo an ultrasound procedure and have a grainy image of the fetus rubbed in her face by right-to-lifers seems to be both hideous and hyperbole until one considers that the same day as the mailers were received, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote that the Voter Guides were somewhat useful in getting an idea of what is next on the Republicans' legislative agenda. They have also proved extremely effective in the Rovian strategy of bringing in the sheaves with blinders upon their eyes.

The question is, where is the counter strategy? Why is there no progressive and fair Christian guide with an emphasis on poverty and caretaker to the Earth issues? When the Republican guides are received by evangelicals in their churches, they read the consistent columns of "No Response" under Democratic candidates to mean both "we don't care about you and your issues" and also that the Democrats are concealing something. It reinforces everything they are being fed by the theocratic Republican machine. The guides are pure propaganda, but they are also a Catch-22, a Catch-22 that can only be countered by exposing the Republicans real agenda through the same method. Take the ball out of the court of racism and homophobia and misogyny. I appeal to progressives of faith to expose the unholy alliance and bury the wedge once and for all.