there exist a class of people called "secular fundamentalists" and those people cause big problems because they are 'radical', they are like the religious fundamentalists only they are secular. The secular fundamentalists have for years, decades even, been busy working to drive god and faith, religion and values from the public square and they `have been so stunningly succesful at that nobody anymore is willing to even talk about religion or faith in "the public square" because those "secular fundamentalists" have chased religious faith and values right out of the American national discourse !.

say that over and over and over to yourself - or better yet, listen to it over and over and over again on TV and radio, from pundits, politicians, and preachers, and you might even start to believe it if you didn't stop for a moment to pause and wonder about the fact that the claims above are not supported by a shred of evidence

It's not even clear what a "secular fundamentalist" is in the first place. Is that sort of like a "jumbo shrimp" ? The very concept is an oxymoron

You've probably by now seen the notorious "Frank Zappa on Crossfire" uTube clip of a 1/2 hour Crossfire segment where Zappa, bless his memory, makes the "Crossfire" crew look like the fools they were being at the time, for their claims that "dirty music lyrics" were somehow attacking some abstract thing called "the American family" and that the banning of 7 dirty words would fix the problem. There is no factual basis for those claims, Zappa said.

Well, we're in the grip of a similar sort of lunacy today, analogous but far worse : worse because the concept Americans have been sold - literally over the course of decades - is that secularism, and support for secularism, is a bad thing that has bad effects, even disastrous effects, on society and the nation.

Just rolls off the tongue, eh ? - "Secular Fundamentalists Are Just As Bad as the Religious Fundamentalists and Both Are Harming America by their extreme positions".

Oh my.

Who are those "secular fundamentalists" ?

That sort of bunk - as above - has been repeated so ceaselessly that the line has become lodged in people's heads and the strategic intent of the line is to lead people to believe that there is something bad, and extreme, about supporting strong church/state separation. Buy the "attack of the secular fundamentalists !" bunkum and you'll be well along the road to feeling that theocracy, or theocracy lite, isn't such a bad thing after all

So to give you some actual proof of my claims, I'm going to provide you now with a portion of Frederick Clarkson's "Who Said This ?" Pop Quiz. Can you get a passing grade ?

Each question is multiple choice. You will have to keep track of your own score... but let us know how you did!

Here is a quickie run down of the 20 names you will have to navigate to find the identities behind the ten quotes:

Evan Bayh -- Democratic Senator from Indiana


George W. Bush -- whatever


Robert Byrd -- Democratic Senator from West Virginia


Wesley Clark -- retired General, U.S. Army


Hillary Clinton -- Democratic Senator from New York


John Danforth -- former GOP Senator from Missouri


Tom DeLay -- former GOP House Majority Leader


Jerry Falwell -- televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority


Al Gore -- former Democratic Senator from Tennessee


Tim LaHaye -- co-founder of the Moral Majority and co-author of the Left Behind series of novels


Richard Land -- head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention


Daniel Lapin -- conservative rabbi, head of Toward Tradition


Joe Lieberman -- Democratic Senator from Connecticut


Michael Lerner -- progressive rabbi, head of the Network of Spiritual Progressives


Barack Obama -- Democratic Senator from Illinois


Ralph Reed -- former exec. director of the Christian Coalition


Pat Robertson -- televangelist and founder of the Christian Coalition


Antonin Scalia -- Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court


Jim Wallis --  progressive evangelical head of the organization Call to Renewal


Rick Warren -- conservative evangelical, author of The Purpose Driven Life

1)

The greatest threat to religious freedom in America, are secular fundamentalists who want to ghetto-ize religious faith and make the wall of separation between church and state a prison wall keeping religious voices out of political discourse.

George W. Bush


Robert Byrd


Richard Land


Barack Obama


Pat Robertson

2)

The secular fundamentalism of the left is as much a problem as the religious fundamentalism of the right.

Evan Bayh


Hillary Clinton


John Danforth


Antonin Scalia


Jim Wallis  

3)  

The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this [9/11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad.I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays  and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU,  People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America-I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

George W. Bush


Robert Byrd


Jerry Falwell


Pat Robertson


Jim Wallis

4)

I have no question the devil is behind what the apostle Paul called 'the wisdom (philosophy) of this world' and controls many of our courts and other areas of influence... in the nineteenth century this anti-God secular man-centered philosophy conquered the universities of Europe, trained journalists, educators, and entertainers, and today controls the countries where the church is impotent...  Europe, once the center of evangelical Christianity, Bible translation and distribution, and even revival, has bought into the philosophy of secular humanism. That philosophy is based on atheism, evolution, autonomous self-centered man, and socialism."

Robert Byrd


Tom DeLay


Tim LaHaye


Pat Robertson


Rick Warren

5)

Today, there are new fundamentalists in the land.  These are the "secular fundamentalists," many of whom attack all political figures who dare to speak from their religious convictions. From the Anti-Defamation League, to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to the ACLU and some of the political Left's most religion fearing publications, a cry of alarm has gone up in response to anyone who has the audacity to be religious in public. These secular skeptics often display amazing lapse of historical memory when they suggest that religious language in politics is contrary to the "American Ideal."

George W. Bush


Robert Byrd


Jerry Falwell


Tim LaHaye


Jim Wallis

6)

Similarly, many Jewish organizations and even many individuals of Jewish ethnicity who possess the title "rabbi" are not guided by the principles Judaism found in the Torah. Instead, like the NAACP and NOW, they are guided chiefly by the principles of secular fundamentalism. Nothing else can explain their dogmatic and ideological commitment to causes such as homosexuality and abortion,

 

Jerry Falwell


Daniel Lapin


Michael Lerner


Joe Lieberman


Pat Robertson

7)

We contend today with both religious and secular fundamentalists, neither of whom must have their way. One group would impose the doctrines of a political theocracy on their fellow citizens.  The other would deprive the public square of needed moral and spiritual values often shaped by faith.

 

Wesley Clark


John Danforth


Al Gore


Michael Lerner


Jim Wallis  

8)

But what I am suggesting is this - secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square... To say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

George W. Bush


Wesley Clark


Al Gore


Barack Obama


Antonin Scalia

9)  

The most alarming thing about this pair of rulings is that the decision to accommodate a Ten Commandments display donated by a nongovernmental source only won 5-4, which shows the degree to which this court has embraced secular fundamentalism as its religion...  The Kentucky courthouse decision shows that, as Justice [Antonin] Scalia said in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas opinion [striking down state anti-sodomy laws], the majority of this court has 'taken sides in the culture war,' and it's the side of secular fundamentalists.

 

Robert Byrd


Richard Land


Joe Lieberman


Ralph Reed


Rick Warren

10)

But unfortunately, secular humanists very often act as though they have no tolerance - except that of a person on a higher plane looking down at the poor inferiors below them who happen to have a different religion than their religion. So the criticisms that I have... are for those who are "secular humanist fundamentalists." The fundamentalists are those who think they have all the truth, and that nobody else has any truth. Just as I'm very critical of Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, and Hindu fundamentalists, so I'm also very critical of secular humanist fundamentalists.

Hillary Clinton


John Danforth


Michael Lerner


Joe Lieberman


Rick Warren

So, who said what ? Do you think you know ? Well, here are the answers and if you got four wrong or more, please see Frederick Clarkson and I err.... me after class.