Fanatics at the ACLU, PAW and other radical leftist groups are holding "coalition- building" seminars to combat the Religious Right. Well, from their warped perspective that would be wise because they have kicked the sleeping tiger awake and we are ready for battle. (Hold it, you bullies at the F.B.I., B.A.T.F., I.R.S., etc., know I'm speaking metaphorically – not the bang, bang kind of war. Of course, all sane, sensible people knew that didn't they?)

We Christians are informed, indignant and involved in every arena. We are more than willing – even eager to take on the Cossacks in the press, on radio and television talk shows, or formal university debates on the many issues that require a national discussion: capital punishment, abortion, pornography, welfare, homosexuality, evolution/creation, taxes, environment, animal rights, public schools (Ignorance Factories), etc.

Maybe the Loonies on the Left would inform me why involvement of the Religious Right (by the way, if we are "right" doesn't that mean the others are wrong?) in these matters is a threat to the Constitution when the Religious Left has been meddling in politics for over thirty years. I'm not going to wait around very long for an answer since they refuse to answer.

Would it be tacky for me to remind everyone that Martin Luther King, Jr. and his passel of political parsons preached the civil rights "gospel" from their church pulpits and rallied and organized from their church basements? Why was that "good" but our involvement (not nearly as blatant) is bad?

Do you remember the bad, bold, Berrigan Brothers (Roman Catholic priests), Sloan Coffin and other reverends who pontificated against the Vietnam War from the churches? Why was that acceptable then but the Religious Right's activities are unacceptable now? During that time, a right-winger named Billy James Hargis lost his tax-exempt status for his political activities, but the lefties didn't lose theirs. Does the IRS have an answer for the special treatment of those who talk from the left side of their mouths? Far more conservative groups have lost their exempt status than have liberal groups. (Dare I suggest that the IRS is unfair, unreasonable, un-American and even unable to account for its own funds?)

How about Walter Mondale, a self-described "humanist" who, after entering the presidential race in 1984, decided he was a "Christian." He sought votes among the black churches and pandered to Jewish voters by promising to move the American Embassy in Israel from the secular capital in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also begged for money from the Jews. Legal?

Mondale's former boss, Jimmy Carter sure appealed to the churches in 1976 (as I did at the same time and was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives). Carter picked up votes in California from black churches, and even used black pastors to work their crowds on his behalf. Nobody on the left screamed about Carter and the ACLU – those Guardians of the Oppressed, those Paragons of Virtue, that Voice of the Little Man didn't even whimper. (Of course, radical feminists sure bellowed about me getting elected.) It's so difficult to be consistent, isn't it?

The National Council of Churches has been "speaking" for millions of Protestants since the early 1950s on various and sundry issues without losing their tax exempt status. They have been hip-deep in politics but that's all right since their positions always come from the left.

The Roman Catholic Bishops' Council has been promoting disarmament, boycott of table grapes and lettuce, etc., for years without the leftists demanding they "stay out of politics." Wonder why?

Of course, Jesse Jackson campaigned for president (don't laugh, he could be sitting in the Oval Office if he laid a little more guilt on white voters), raised workers, votes and money in the churches without stirring up the watchdogs at the ACLU and the PAW. Of course, those "watchdogs" become lapdogs when their friends, who walk leaning decidedly to the left, do their thing in churches.

Why aren't liberals consistent over religious people getting involved in politics? It is because they are hypocrites. They don't care about the First Amendment; they care about their agenda. Whatever promotes their agenda is good – whatever hinders it is bad. That's why the Religious Right is being savaged in the media.

Copyright 1997, Don Boys